[Level up 4-11] [Str: 4-11 Con: 5-12 Int: 5-12 Wis: 5-12 Agi: 2-5 Dex : 2-5] [7 Attribute Points Acquired] [x5 Additional summons available] [Mana Capacity: 40-110] [HP: 3-8] [Credits:10] [Radius Expansion: 10m – 27.5] [Ability Unlocked: Trapmaking] [Trap Unlocked: Absorption Field] [Trap Unlocked: Voiding Wire] [Trap Unlocked: Burning Pit] [Trap Unlocked: Alluring Light] [Trap Unlocked: Spikes]

The information scorched itself over the old knowledge and inserted itself into my tree of abilities. Again, I felt a headache, but I couldn’t to anything to stop it.

What I could do, however, was witness the 30-odd hellhounds surrounding my shelter in the ground, thanks to my drastically increased view, as well as Kohaku decked out in a full brigandine style armor holding off a group of 4 using what I would consider a glaive.

As I watched, she called out some form of ability, and cleaved one of them in half with a rather mechanically acted out slash.

Probably feels weird… I suppose it makes sense that the ability would move their body into the right motions, considering the whole ‘servant species’ and slavery thing the system has going on.

Sending encouraging feelings to Kohaku, I return my attention to the horde of other scouts running around above my crystal’s location. With a few thoughts, I cast down several of my newly acquired traps, mainly the absorption field and voiding wire, as those seemed to be identical to the methods I’d used on the earlier group.

Sure enough, small patches of air were turned into nets of thin absorbing shapes, while others were made into all consuming voids that surprisingly even seemed to make the light dim. A bright wisp of light danced around the entire area and over the burning pits and spike traps, luring several of the beasts to their demise.

All told, the carnage was impressive to a certain degree.

That didn’t stop me from metaphorically dry heaving, sadly.

Impaled, charred, dismembered, or otherwise mutilated, the few remaining hellhounds that survived were savagely snapping and clawing their way towards Kohaku’s position, who at this point was panting heavily.

I stopped them short with a casting of absorption.

At last, all the scouts had been dealt with for now. Kohaku made her way back to the bunker and collapsed into her bed, not bothering to remove the thoroughly gore soaked armor.

With the immediate threat officially dealt with, I returned my attention to the level up information that had just moments ago forced itself into overwriting the previous info. As soon as I got to the credits, I knew I had to buy the translation ability.

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[Universal Language: 4 Credits] [Literacy: 1 Credit] [Abilities Purchased. 5 Credits Remaining]

While the cost is hefty, being able to understand what my people were saying was incredibly important for becoming familiar with them. The literacy ability that popped up after it would help immensely too.

[Linguistics: Universal Language] [The user gains the ability to speak and in turn understand any language that is spoken to them by a living being. This ability forms the basis of much of the Linguistics chain of abilities that are popular among diplomats and warmongers alike. This is a Passive.] [Linguistics: Literacy] [While typically a learned ability, this allows the user to understand the basics of written language of the region they are within. When paired with Universal Language, it allows the user to learn and scribe other languages that possess written form. This is a Passive.]

Indeed, I could now understand the writing of the few military materials I have left in storage. Granted, most of it could have been understood from context just as quickly, but I could read labels such as ‘wilderness gear’ and ‘caution: fragile’ now.

Not exactly exciting, but I’d take the small victories.

Experimentally, I summoned some clay that I had left over into the shape of a tablet and began carving out random lines and shapes to see if anything might be from other languages. Not to surprisingly, the more claw-like of my carvings, would subconsciously register as Gnollic runes, while some of the more elegantly designed characters were picked up as vaguely human or elvish.

Scrubbing the clay board clean, I took a break from my carving to… do more carving, but in this case, I was going to expand the living space. With a bit less than 60 meters of radial space, I decided that I was probably ready to live up to the wall part of my core type.

To start, I knew what I ultimately wanted this to be, and that was a gate house. With that in mind, I carved two 10-meter-wide 25-meter-long rectangular pits 10 meters apart and parallel to the ramp into the current living area, which was lined up facing opposite the direction that the scouts came from.

The resulting formation will become the groundwork for my wall's gatehouse.

In each pit I formed a small ramp down, then dumped out whatever stone bricks I had left in storage but had to pause when I realized I couldn’t move them myself.

Sighing, I left the bricks and took a gander at the abilities once again. Sure enough, there was something that seemed like it’d fit the job.

[Phantom Workers: 2 Credits] [Ability Purchased. 3 Credits Remaining.]

[Summoning: Phantom Workers] [Phantom Workers, when cast, will mimic the actions performed by nearby laborers and apply them to a separate location of work. While the cost of the spell is fixed, the amount of phantoms is dependent on the number of laborers employed.]

This skill essentially meant I’d be able to mirror any work that my fox-kin would do onto the other side of the foundation. Unfortunately, I don’t have housing for the fox-kin yet, so this would need to wait for the moment.

Taking a moment to metaphorically stretch, I could feel Kohaku was still sound asleep and likely wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow. I decided to continue my linguistic pursuits for the rest of the day, especially since my mana seemed to be regenerated already even after the combat.

Settling in for a long evening of language learning, I set to work upon my clay.