Today is still far from over but I'm starting to think it should be. Ropert is going along with my idea but I can't help feel bad given he's going to be helping me out no matter which way this goes.

[Warning] Are you sure you want to harm your Summon?

The system didn't do this before when I was willing to sacrifice Ropert to kill the Omega. This message has been popping up the entire time I've been waiting for the Creeper Thorn's Growth casting. It's probably because harming my summon at the time wasn't actually recognized; instead, the system saw the warning as unnecessary.

But right now I can't help feeling bad. Cutter Thorn should be for carving wood and assholes attacking my dungeon, not cutting up Ropert for the sake of determining alternatives to exploring.

Ever since I arrived here, I've been limited by height of the grass blocking my vision. In my original form, Growth didn't make much of a difference since I moved like a snake.

Now that I had evolved into a Creeper, Growth made me wider and taller. If I wanted to become taller than the grass, it'd also make me almost as wide as my dungeon's stairs. Getting too big to even enter my dungeon isn't an option I can afford in any capacity.

Unlike me, though, Ropert is a Creeper Thorn and able to handle getting long with ease.

All the more reason that being able to cut him into smaller pieces is important.

[Warning] Are you sure you want to harm your Summon?

Master, there is no need to worry about me. My life is forfeit if you ever fell, so it is only natural that my life belongs to you.

Urgh. Ropert doesn't need to keep reassuring me. Maybe this is the result of summoning something and immediately exposing it to death, its own or otherwise.

I don't want you dead, Ropert. I'm going to be watching your HP when I make the cut. If anything goes wrong-

Do not worry, Master; I shall immediately cast Growth.

Yeah, don't worry. People who say that always regret it. Ropert may not be a person and this may not be my old world but I'd seen enough death flags to regret coming this far. This isn't like the violence that had become commonplace in my new life.

I lower the Cutter Thorn toward Ropert, settling it so a third of his current body's length lays on one end and the remainder of his body on the other side.

[Warning] Are you sure you want to harm your Summon?

Deep breaths, Kaden. Deep breaths.

... Okay, let's do it.

The mana-formed blade cleaves through Ropert effortlessly and sinks into the sandy ground beneath it. His original body whips away and the third I cut off remains motionless on the ground. Sap spews from the cut wound for a few seconds and splatters over the ground and Ropert.

Ropert is juicier than the Amassed Creeper Thorn. Comparing to the big guy who barely had any, Ropert had a lot.

Summon Ropert has sustained 6 HP damage.

Ropert's body hues white seconds later, casting Growth so the wound heals shut and buds anew.

I spend the time wiping myself off. Luckily for both of us, Growth's healing is different from Ivy's licks; where Ivy needs to keep licking a wound to fully heal it, using growth is effectively a means to stimulate full-growth. The differences means that we can mend most fatal injuries with Growth.

The downsides only exist for plants like me, really. Ropert's body-type is perfect when healed, whereas a Creeper sustaining damage and using Growth produces lop-sided appearances.

In the future, I'd prefer to explore beyond Kave without looking like a misshapen shrub.

So, Ropert... you good? How did it feel?

That's a dumb question and I know it. It obviously hurt.

It hurt... but I believe not unbearable, Master. If necessary, I can undergo this pain multiple times.

I see. Thank you Ropert. From now on, try to reach a total length of ten meters. Go ahead and rest.

The summoned Creeper Thorn doesn't mentally respond but his slithering back toward his familiar spot tells me that he at least heard me.

Going forward, it should be possible to make Ropert so long that he can easily climb into the air and act as a living pillar. That was the whole purpose of this experiment, after all, and it confirms that he can endure severing portions off if we ever need to trim him. Overall, everything about this very uncomfortable experience is something that is repeatable in controlled environments.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Not that I'm going to do it. Sap or not, there's something that doesn't feel right about cutting Ropert up. Even if he allows it, I'll need to tackle my issue with the fields differently.

Now that the Toolroom lets me withdraw the actual resources from my storage, I think that the best solution is to manually build something. Just stacking stones on top of each other will be difficult but should be doable.

Plus, who knows? This is back in-line with constructing more objects and rooms, yet it being outside of the system could grant new titles or Dungeon Edges. For now, though, I'm going to try and get the image of Ropert splitting into pieces out of my head. All I think about when seeing that is my body coming apart, either as a human or as a bushman.

...

Withdraw all stone resources. Place nearby.

The Toolroom's access menu hums and forms a spinning wheel in the corner of my vision, whilst the wall opens up and feeds out stone piece-by-piece. Each stone is roughly five feet in length, three feet thick, and two feet tall. Each one is nearly perfect for stacking and erecting monuments or simplistic buildings if we utilize old-world and some pre-modern human building ideas.

Of course, I'm not a contractor or anything so I'm genuinely not expecting to make anything fancy.

But I do have some ideas of what to make, based solely on my luck so far. The most apparent construction would be a tower; easy to make and formidable, a tower is often the most basic of defensive structures. I could kill two problems with one big stone building: protecting my dungeon's entrance and making a monument that can be seen from farther away.

The only issue is that even with large stones like this, it'll take some time to make something respectable. So, rather than rushing my tower out now, I have a better idea that can at least be useful in an entirely different way. But before we get to relocating the stones topside, there's something I want to try out and hopefully discover while I'm down here.

Cutter Thorn.

My mana hums and solidifies into a blade. I angle the blade down against a corner of the block, taking a deep breath while the edge settles against it.

I push the blade downward and cleave through an inch of the stone effortlessly.

It wasn't my imagination; though the lumber did catch the blade, it looks like my mana-formed replacement for knives carries enough cutting power that a short or well-executed cut can do a ton of damage. This explains why the cut was so instantaneous with Ropert, too, given I focused and made a very short cut through a vine.

This test is a clear success regardless.

Relocate resources: Inventory.

The Toolroom's surface opens and the blocks descend back into the dungeon's walls, slipping out of view whilst the familiar ding of a notification rings in my head.

[Notification] Resources placed in Inventory.

Don't worry, I can explain: this feature isn't one I discovered and didn't mention. Last time I dealt with the lumber, I was able to relocate it and form it from mana. By basic deduction, it seems obvious that I can do more than just merely move it in and out of the dungeon.

All I have to do is withdraw resources, set it into my inventory, and then I can easily relocate it. Easy transportation of goods, one of the best cheats in an isekai, is at least one that I can get in a roundabout manner.

The only issue is that withdrawing resources from my Dungeon and putting them in my Inventory results in them filling up my rooms. The single room I have for storage is just barely big enough to support these large stones being stored.

But with the Cutter Thorn able to cut them, it means I can reshape and cut the blocks down to better and more manageable sizes for various projects in the future.

For now, though, it's time to take my Inventory rocks to the surface.

...

Night time is here and all of my summons have turned in for the night.

Hopefully, I don't disturb them too much, though; placing these stones out of my inventory won't be entirely silent since they'll drop a few inches to the ground-based on how the Creeper Thorn remains and bones work.

Anyway, the stones.

Inventory: Place Stone.

The massive rock shimmers into view, but not into reality. Unlike the other things in my inventory so far that can be adequately carried in my hand, this massive rock is big and heavy enough so that I can't carry it. As a result, the system lets me place it rather than simply drop it.

I angle the ghost image to be standing up, sliding it over until it's positioned beside the taller, simpler house of my ranbli pair.

Confirm placement.

Mana flows from my hand, circling through the air and surrounding the ghost image. The massive stone appears instantly, dropping into the sand and sinking a few inches before the mana flickers away. But rather than let my branches lower, I look at the base of the stone and summon even more of my mana forward. Merely letting it stand upright isn't enough.

Earthy Grasp.

The sand around the stone darkens and rises, circling around the stone as best it can. The nearby wall of the house acts as a natural end for the ring, pulling the stone through the sand and wedging it into place.

End spell.

The darker sand returns to its normal coloration but the sand remains in place.

Inventory: Place Stone.

Just like the first one, I set this one carefully and position it in close enough proximity to the first stone so that the gap between the standing stones is little more than inch.

Confirm placement. Earthy Grasp.

One-by-one I place and ring the stones in sand, putting the ring of grass at its back and lining the clearing of my dungeon with stones. All ten of my stones don't cover more the western end of the clearing's walls from Ivy and Bomber's house to the northern pathway. Thankfully these massive stones can naturally stand in place since their weight alone is so great, each one far too heavy to get knocked over by a mere ranbi. I'd argue even the Omega Ranbi would need to strain itself to push even one over.

Neither of them would be able to break these, though.

And that's before what I'm doing next. It's time to finally use the massive bones from the Omega Ranbi. Ropert harvested sixteen of these massive bones, but given the width being around thirty feet, I plan to use six. Each rib settles up cleanly against the back of the stones, too, which only helps reinforce my idea.

It's time to build a wall. A ranbi-funneling wall.

[Notification] New Construction Type detected in Dungeon Town.

Tracking progress...