Chapter 13

  Its almost dark,...darkness...

  The goblin that got away is eating at my mind. I can't believe I let that happen. It means he'll give information to the others of what they saw going on. I'd worked so hard to try to not let any escape in previous raids. But it happened. I should have realized that it would happen at some point. There's only so far you can do to stop them. It'd taken a lot of cunning to prevent that from happening before hand.

  That means the other goblins will now have information about me. Tactical information.

  Not good at all.

  I'm down to 139 current mana, which some might think is amazing. But when you consider my pool is about five times that amount its not a good thing at all. I'm lucky I got through all that. The previous combat and magic casting had used up most my mana.

  During the goblin fight a few minutes ago, I also kept hearing that feminine ethereal voice calling for help. The same one I'd heard before. But every time I try to go find it or figure out what it is, I can't find her. I have no clues about how to find the voice asking for help. I can only trust that there really is someone that's asking for help. But it might not be something human, though the need is real.

  Its really eating at me inside. I can't for the life of me figure it out. And I've lost a lot of time trying to find the source of the voice.

  Hm...

  I can't find where the voice is coming from. Its eating me up inside because I can't leave someone alone if they are in trouble. But nothing worked in figuring it out.

  So I went back to crafting and upgrading my defenses.

  I figured out how to make arrows using magic. But there's no way to learn that skill quickly. So I ditched that.

  Maybe I'll later learn the crossbow? Who knows...

  Range weapons like bows take too much time. Time I don't have. And if I had that kind of time it'd be better put to use with magic.

  The question I have right now...that I have to figure out more than anything is to try to figure out if the goblins will come back tonight or tomorrow night. And be ready for them. That means... I can't relax and have to keep upgrading my base's defenses. My worry is if they come when I'm asleep that I wouldn't get up in time to defend myself also. And with so many of them and only 1 of me that's a problem.

  Hm... it really is a base now isn't it. Its starting to become one anyway.

  But they are sneaky and cunning.

  Why would they wait when they think there's an opening?

  Damn...

  In fact, they might have more insentive to come now than later. They might believe they would rescue their comrades now. Or they might believe they could hurry and rush me while I'm still recovering, while also knowing they did manage to get a few hits in.

  Maybe I should leave a few goblins alive stuck in the maze thorn walls as bait? Let them call for help to their friends as bait. With my trap ready. Because goblins are monsters and not people this doesn't feel morally wrong to try.

  This seems devious and makes me smile a bit. They wouldn't be able to help themselves! So that lends more possibility to that scenario.

  I rigged up a few trip wires around the entrance to my base. Actually I'll have to make sure I don't trip over those either. Trip lines are nasty. I didn't yet have a plan of what I can tie in with the trip wires to make them nastier except rigging up tin cans on a string with the wire so that when they trip it makes noise. That's something simple that didn't take much time to make.

  But I've got to get better traps than that.

  Like a log fall trap would be great but its not that easy to work out how make it. So I have to hold off on that.

  I really should use item create to get a set of binoculars or a telescope soon also. But I'd need a watch tower platform for that first probably. Yes... a watch tower platform high up that they can't get to would be good.

  Quickly I gathered up the loot that the goblins dropped. Most of its trash, but there was about 137 ris. (What a weird currency; it has square coins.)

  Ris... haha. I earned this money.

  I hurriedly accessed my status screen. I leveled up too.

  Name; Javen

  Race; Administrator class (Censored)

  Job class; Life/Creation Wizard

  Level; 10 --> 11

  Age; NA

  Health; 128/221 --> 133/226

  Mana; 183/761 --> 188/786

  Stamina; 22/200 --> 22/200

  Health regen; +12 --> +12 per day

  Mana regen; +95 --> +100 (hourly)

  Str 37

  Agi 39

  Con 75

  Int 125 --> 130

  Wis 125 --> 130

  App 105

  Skills; Survival, Mana Sensing, [Censored], Summoned Danger Sense Turret(human shaped), Smash, Defend, Create Item , First Aid, Meditate, Axe Mastery

  Minor Flame Wave, Create Water, Minor Heal, Root Trap, Improved Root Trap, Rejuvenate, Create Life

  Traits; Memories have been censored, Blessing of the Heavens, Mana Genes, censored skills & traits, Life Affinity, Intermediate Life Affinity, Mana Efficiency, Advanced Life Affinity, Creation Affinity, Intermediate Creation Affinity, Intermediate Creation Affinity!

  Equipment; Leather Gloves, Wizard Robes, (Kevlar) Shield, Splitting Maul 34" Axe, Katana, Backpack, Coat, Throwing Dagger (3), Hunting Knife, Flashlight, Combat boots, Goggles, Soldier Helmet, Leather Armor

  Ris; 362

  Unused stat points; 10 --> 0

  [Life skill awarded due to level requirements being met; Time space inventory slots (10).]!!!

  Its exciting to have the time space inventory slots. I can use that to my advantage. And its exciting. It makes everything tons easier, especially with the quick swap feature of the status screen magic. I think it was meant to grow out actually, and was unlocked by my level and magic getting to a certain strength.

  Time space inventory slots meant I could harness and start saving tons of material and items now! That meant I'd be able to build more later and be ready to build. I'd have inventory of lumber and other materials like stone. And that could let me move such material to my base easy.

  But I had hoped that there would be more inventory slots than there currently were.

  And how does it work?

  But does that mean I could end up growing more slots later also? And for the slots to get bigger?

  I hurriedly put my extra stuff and tools in the slots. I also put the axe in the slots because right now I'm using the shield and katana.

  And for my stats (now that I'm more organized and ready)...

  I had been tempted to put a few points into (Body) Constitution, but now that I actually have magitek skills that would be a waste.

  Instead I'm going for more mana pool and more mana regeneration.

  But one more thing to take care of before the night closes in too deep.

  I started walking down the meadow towards the east spot where all my enemies are coming from. To the east directly is the giant hornets nests and the goblins.

  Sure enough there's already a goblin horde forming to come at me.

  Shit...

  There's a ton of them.

  That's what, maybe forty of them?

  Oh jeez, that's a lot. And I'm not ready. I feel sick to my stomach. There's 40 of them, and 1 of me.

  But then I had an idea.

  I have one chance at this...

  I used item create to cast create item to make a crossbow and a few bolts. (This costed me all my remaining mana.)

  Hurriedly I began loading it but it took awhile to figure it out. The bolt case that carries the bolts came with about 12 bolts. I practiced shooting two of them.

  I suck at shooting. But I don't need to be good because the target I'll be going after is quite large.

  I hope I can wing it.

  I have an idea to stop them from advancing tonight...but who knows what will happen in the morning.

  The goblin war party began marching up the mountain veil path way, and its steep slopes. A steep slope like that slows them down enough for me to pick them off. If I can hit them. The one part about this thing that makes it hard to manage is that steep narrow trail that comes up from the valley. And that spot channels everything to have to go through the giant hornets nest spot.

  The giant hornets are very territorial also. And they will notice if I shoot at them. But they will be so riled up with the goblins there, that they'll go after ANYTHING! If the goblins are crossing them right at the point I shoot their nest...

  Perfect trap.

  And it just so happens that the giant hornets nest is a huge target about the size of one of my traps, with roughly a 10 by 20 foot by 20 foot high huge nest! (This is partly why I haven't approached it. Something that big must be full of dozens, no maybe hundreds of them!) This means I'm not likely to miss a target the size of a small barn.

  I hit it just right with the crossbow bolt just as the goblins were trying to sneak past, at the farthest range I dared to use. But instead of hitting the goblins, I hit the giant hornet nest that they were trying to sneak past by stealth!

  All hell broke lose on them! The giant hornets en masse swarmed the goblins, believing that it was them, that had attacked the nest with their queen while I was running away. Quite literally the hornets thought their queens and nestlings were under attack and ALL of them came out at once!

  Something about giant hornets... it seems if you disturb the queens they get especially nasty.

  My gosh that's a lot of them! I had no idea they had that many giant monster hornets! I'd been lucky that they hadn't taken me as a big threat. Those goblins are in pure hell right now. Several of them are so swollen up from giant hornet venom that they can hardly see straight with puffed up faces.

  Note to self; don't go anywhere near that nest.

  And there's at least another nest of them not far from that one further down the mountainside trail!

  The goblins retreat for now...with 4 less goblins that have been stung to death rotting under the wasp nest and being eaten. There's another 7 that are severely wounded, who probably won't live through the night due to the poison, and many with light wounds also. I doubt any of them got out of their without a scratch on them.

  My plan worked! I bought maybe half a day? or a full day?

  I wonder how much time I just bought?