Chapter 45: Practice makes perfect
*Time remaining: 288 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, 57 seconds.
I stare out at the twenty metres of wall in front of me with a displeased smile glued to my face. Creating proper defences that can withstand Cave crawlers is difficult. Making something that can stand firm against pesky humans and whatever else the event might throw at us is even worse.
The displeased smile deepens into a scowl as I continue staring at the wall, counting the weak points on my fingers. Small holes that mandibles can pass through and weak vines that can easily be snapped are the least of my worries. I push my hands into the wall and close my eyes, sensing the bindweed in my mind and grit my while I push more energy into the damned plants. Mistakes are fixed, holes are patched up…and new problems are created. With each vine I move into place, patching up a mistake, another tree problems pop up.
Conjuring new bindweed won’t just work either. It would be like threading a thread through a finished piece of clothing; there simply isn’t the space for it, and even if that somehow wouldn’t be a problem it would form another weak point instead of fixing it.
I clench my claws into fists, spending the needed Stamina to make them humanoid again. I probably won’t be seeing any action before I can keep up the entirety of our defences. If I didn’t get skill levels out of this, I would’ve given up already. I don’t know if the System is having sympathy for me or if I’m actually getting somewhere, but I feel stuck.
I stomp back to Sairl’s tree and let the leaves on my crown spread out, refilling my Stamina that tiny bit faster. Sitting against the trunk of his tree, creating more vials of toxic spores while tending to the mushroom guardians around him who are too weak to help Cobalt, he turns to me. “Is something wrong?”
My eyes narrow and I give him a glare strong enough that I might unlock Death Glare. “Yes,” I hiss, “I’m getting nowhere. The Stamina to keep those twenty metres of useless greenery alive is a painful drain on my resources, withholding me from practice. Cobalt is almost done with building the temporary fortifications and here I am barely started.”
The dryad puts away his tools and joins me in the sun, staring out at the tentacle monster that writhes beneath the surface of the lake, searching for any remaining creatures in its domain. “You received skill levels, right?”
“Of course I did. Isn’t it natural when you continue to practice with every spare point of Stamina?” I reply, already knowing where this is going.
He pats my shoulder, “Then you are on the right path. Not everything has to come easy.”
I swallow a gulp of air and clench my fists more, fingers digging into the bindweed. “I’m made of this stuff. Shouldn’t I be able to fully control it?”
“Yes, and you can. The problem lies in creating a stable structure. Maybe you should take a step back, try out some new techniques on a smaller scale and find what fits and what doesn’t?”
I look towards the Zulissian camp again. There, a human army several hundred thousand strong, prepares to wage war. My foot scuffs against the ground, imagining the Cave crawlers rising to the surface below our feet. “We don’t have the time for that,” I growl, growing even more frustrated.
Sairal winces, “It is true that their encampments have been growing at an alarming rate, however, there aren’t any (E) grades around. Trust me, I checked before destroying them.”
A deep steady breath later, I unclench my fists and pull up the logs from the past day or so.
*Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 11/20 -> Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 12/20.
*Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 10/20 -> Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 13/20.
*Breathe (B) lvl 2/20 -> Breathe (B) lvl 4/20.
“I guess you’re right. It just feels like everyone is breathing down my neck; as if everything will end when a single thing goes wrong,” I say, beginning to fidget with my fingers.
Sairal nods, “I’m to blame for that. If I gained that last level, we wouldn’t have these problems. If-”
“Don’t blame yourself,” I cut him off.
He gives me a look, “Fine. But shouldn’t you stop doing that too then?”
“I’m gonna practice again,” I say, ignoring his remark.
***
Back at the wall, I ask myself what went wrong with my prior attempts. I gently lay my hand on one of the vines, tracing it with my mind until I’m back at the foundation. Clearly, something is wrong since it lacks stability but what do you do with that? I try to picture the foundation of a house in my mind, thinking how I need to copy concrete and rebar with my vines. Or perhaps the bindweed needs to have vines deeper into the ground for more stability?
Following Sairal’s advice, I create a smaller model of the wall, this one only a metre high and fifty centimetres long. The vines dig deeper into the ground, encountering small rocks that are difficult to dig past.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I push through and half an hour later I’m rewarded with a wall that’s a bit stronger but costs far more Stamina to create. This isn’t the way.
Defeated, I lean against it and sag to the ground. Out of frustration, I pull the grass around me out of the ground with root and all, clumps of dirt still sticking between the fine roots. Noticing something, I pause and bring the grass closer to my eyes.
“Damn, I’m really stupid, aren’t I?” I ask myself
I head over to Cobalt who’s still commanding groups of mushroom guardians to do her bidding. Most of the fortifications have already been built, though, in her opinion it’s never enough. Now that the manpower, or in this case mushroom power, isn’t needed elsewhere, she continues to hold full reign over them, spending time building more defences around the fortress now that we still can.
Climbing over the wall, I meet her outside where she’s felling a tree with a few dozen mushroom guardians. Several ropes are tied around the tree’s trunk and on each seven to eight mushroom guardians pull on the ropes with all their strength in a rhythmic pattern.
The tree sways along with it, doing the best it can to resist to force, though, after several minutes it gives way. Roots snap and the ground around the colossal giant of wood upturns as it meets the earth in a violent embrace.
“Mandrake Green,” Cobalt greets, “I apologize. I was…subsumed by my current objective. What brings you here?”
I wave her off, “Nothing much. Just searching for some inspiration to strengthen the bindweed walls.” I hop into the crater of loose dirt and a close peek at the roots and how they spread out underground. Contradictory to what most people think, a tree’s roots don’t reach deep into the earth, mostly remaining in the first few metres of the ground and spreading out to absorb nutrients in the topsoil. I make some polite conversation with Cobalt and head off again, eager to test out something new.
With my Stamina pool capped, I reach into the ground again. However, unlike last time, the bindweed spreads out under the ground in each direction. At first, they are thick strands the size of a man’s arm. With a pulse of Stamina, smaller vines branch out and spread out further. I repeat the tactic until I’m down to the width of a thumb. Beyond that, the skill begins to strain and I feel my brain beginning to press against my skull.
I know you can push skills to do something they weren’t meant to originally do. I’ve done it while fighting that Cave crawler with gravity magic, and against that earth mage. A small headache won’t deter me. Besides, this makes them level faster right? Feel the burn of improving skills!
I grin, letting Stamina flow down a bindweed vine and push against the skill’s limits. The bindweed splits, branching out, waving through the dirt in response. The skill gets pushed further and my mind groans in protest. My vision blurs, and yet I continue, feeling like I’m close to something.
All too soon I’m down to the width of a tictac and am forced to stop. For now. With a pulse of Stamina, I sense the bindweed beneath the ground and realise that the roots spread out a dozen metres around me.
*Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 12/20 -> Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 16/20.
*Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 13/20 -> Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 15/20.
Woah that’s a lot for some practice. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of it.
The muscles in my body protest when I stand up. Sairal told me that when you use a lot of Stamina in a short time period, your muscles can snap, gain internal bleeding and even blackout in bad cases. Luckily, with enough practice, it won’t be as severe.
I continue to work on the model and connect it to the network of bindweed in the ground. For extra stability, I add thicker roots that reach as deep into the ground as I can manage. With a proper base, I continue testing by manipulating the bindweed with stamina, making the vines thicker, shaping them in specific patterns and so on.
When the sun begins to set, I stare at my work in satisfaction. It isn’t much yet, though, It’s already far stronger than my previous attempts.
“You did it,” Sairal says, almost appearing from thin air next to me.
I let out a startled yelp and lunge for him with my claws…that I morphed back into hands. He simply steps out of the way and I topple over, still a bit unused to my new weight distribution now that I have normal hands again.
“At least you are sharp,” he remarks.
I stand up and dust myself off, “Well, yeah? I’m a mandrake, a very desired monster.”
Sairal nods and moves closer to the wall. He pushes against it, slowly increasing his strength until he stops, “This is well done. How did you come up with it?”
I explain it to him and pause halfway, “Uh, you have some chitin in your hair.”
“I do?” he frowns, “Those Cave crawlers get everywhere, even when they are dead.”
***
The dark forest is aglow as endless columns of soldiers trail deeper into the forest, their footfalls quiet as can be. If it weren’t for the torches each one carries, I doubt we would’ve seen them pass.
I keep my eyes on the flickering torches counting them. They reach further than the eye can see, stretching in an endless trail.
“Should we attack?” Cobalt asks, glaring at the humans several hundred paces away from the walls.
“No. However, be ready. We do not know if they will lash out,” Sairal replies.
The temporary barricade squeaks and groans under the weight of the mushroom guardians that climb on them, their beady eyes glaring at the invaders.
“So, will we be safe from them?”
The dryad shakes his head, “Not by a long shot. Those columns are the main armies that will wage war in the inner forest. We will still be under assault by the smaller groups sponsored by the commanders.”
I jump off the haphazardly stacked barricade and head to my space where countless miniature walls are spread out on the ground, each a different model, and continue practising.
When the Cave crawlers breach the surface, that wall made of bindweed will be the only thing between us and them. I need to be strong enough to keep up. Strong enough to create a structure that spans around the entire lake, and have a pool or skills efficient enough to keep the entire thing saturated with my Stamina.
Another model later, I ram into the wall with my shoulder, causing it to bend with the force. However, this time, the ground doesn’t shift, the vines don’t tear apart and it’s finally stable. Now I just need to figure out how I make it resist Cave crawler mandibles.
They can easily snap through the vines bit by bit, literally chewing holes in the defences. I don’t see how I could possibly prevent that outside of thickening the vines with my Stamina pool five times over. Maybe structuring the roots in a different way might at the very least delay the inevitable.
More models are tested. Absentmindedly I turn the System announcements off since they pull me out of my focus. Soon enough the sun rises above the horizon and I find myself yawning, my eyes droopy and tired. Trudging back to my temporary home under Sairal’s tree I plop down for a small nap.