Chapter 14 Part A

  I could only sleep very little the following night after sicking the giant hornets on that one goblin war party. It was a light sleep that night, twisted in worry and anxiety over when the goblins were coming back.

  I know that goblins would come back. I also didn’t have a lot of defenses yet. Sure I had a good foundation started, but I had nothing to prevent the goblins from climbing up that steep ravine choke point yet either.

  Of course they would come up here. And if at night I'd be vulnerable. But they are too angry to properly wait until dark.

  But when will their next raid happen? When was the question?

  Then I thought I'd have to think about what kinds of units and numbers they'd respond with.

  I didn't care too much for the giant hornet monsters, but I'd rather have them as neighbors than the goblins, as they hadn't pointed all their enmity at me. The giant hornets at least had some sense of co-existing with their environment. Goblins did not.

  But still when I woke up this morning I had found that there were 11 giant hornets caught in my traps. There was also several goblin stealthers. Its possible that the giant hornets followed the goblins.

  Let’s see… thinking about it clearly there hasn’t been many giant hornets coming up here in awhile. And certainly not in a big group like that. So yes the goblins must have been chased by them.

  But another possibility was that the other food sources for the giant hornets weren't doing well, and they'd had to come up here. Or if they were hungry then they’d be less likely to stop chasing the goblins here. Then my traps got them.

  You'd expect goblins to strip away all the nearby food sources also. So many possiabilities exist here as to why so many hornets.

  Yes... probably its both. They probably had their food stolen by goblins AND also followed them trying to sneak by.

  At first, I didn't realize the goblin stealthers were stealthers. But when I saw them I saw there was something off about them. Something didn't fit. Their gear was different than the others. And they seemed to have different weapon types also. I stopped to study them a bit to figure out why they were different.

  And that's when I realized it.

  !

  They were dressed for sneaking around; all black clothes! Night predator kind of builds. In other words... goblin stealth units. This is a signifigantly escalated danger point they've introduced. I would not see a stealther unit until they were right on top of me!

  Its not the same as their normal fighter raiders. They were obviously here for mischief and possibly assassination. It wasn't hard to spot them anymore because sometimes they'd try to use their stealth skills while in the traps and I'd see a flicker of magic, but then it'd fail. And also the goblin stealthers had a tendency to dress certain ways, favoring simpler thinner dark clothes and protective gear that wouldn't make noise. Some of their gear was even pretty good.

  The stealth skill is nullified when they are caught in my traps it seems. And my magic vine traps can still detect and snare the stealthers even if hiding; I'm very fortunate that they have their own way of sensing movement and living things. But some of them had almost gotten loose while I'd been asleep as they struggled against the many vines holding them into the hedge bushes.

  Its possible they came in here thinking they might be able to sneak by the traps and then dispatch me to hell in my sleep. But its not that easy.

  I hurriedly worked at dispatching them with 'execution' maneuvers, the goblin stealthers first. No doubt they'd come to spy on my defenses. And I couldn't take any chances on not dispatching them quickly. So for now my priority would be to dispatch stealthers first, then their archers, then the regulars, and then finally any leaders or high leveled goblins in my traps.

  Each time I finished them off I heard and felt the huge XP lump go into my status screen system.

  Ah! I like that sound! XP is great!

  But as I'm working to dispatch them, I'm amazed at how many health points they have! These things must be at least level 20! I got annoyed when it took several ax strikes to finish off the more powerful stealth goblin units.

  I was thankful that my trap held in holding them though...especially with their levels high that means they have good stats by that time.

  Uh oh...

  That's not good if they have really high level troops like that here, I thought.

  I'd need to up my game.

  This confirms that this situation is escalating also.

  I need to also escalate my own progress to match it.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Still it was interesting as a challenge to be a one man army mage holding back an army. It was even kind of cool to think about. With my skills, my options were basically to be a mountain in a sea of adversity punishing anything that came at me.

  By 7:29 AM, I'd finished off the goblin stealthers that were caught in my traps from last night. It was honestly amazing that I'd caught so many. Just having stealth skills doesn't make them immune to traps. And the plant vine traps could sense them being there, despite them having their 'stealth'; probably by sensing ground tremors or things brushing by their leaves. I then executed the giant hornets, and finished those by 7:37 AM.

  XP came dripping in fast...

  But now that I think of it, the skill for stealth and the skill to not accidentally set off traps would be different skills. 'Remove traps' maybe?

  My mana tank is full...

  Rather than jump right into breakfast, common sense tells me I can spend some mana, and then go eat while its regenerating.

  I began to put up several more improved traps, and a couple of wall panels. Even though I was a bit hungry and felt like my stomach was telling me to eat I had to hurry and get some work in, because I wasn’t really that safe yet that I could relax.

  I didn’t feel safe at all.

  Anything could happen up here.

  But already I'm planning for if the goblins decide to try to use fire here. (And that means I need to use the create water skill more to practice it.) In fact, its reasonable that one of the only strategies they could employ to try to fight back in sieging me would be to bring up first more troops, but also fire and try to burn me out.

  With -60 mana cost per trap set up and my current stats...

  Health; 139/226

  Mana; 786/786

  Stamina; 192/200

  Health regen; +12 per day

  Mana regen; +100 (hourly)

  I can now put down 2 improved traps per hour if I'm trying to keep my mana levels up. But to grow them into an actual hedge wall that can snag and snatch at things coming by it is a different story.

  I can practice 10 fire waves per hour. I can practice roughly close to 10 create water spells also. All of my skills improve by practice. So I don't have a choice in doing it this way.

  Or I could put up temporary traps...but that's a waste if nothing is here.

  I'm going to be extra careful to avoid the giant hornets for awhile. I don't want to stir them up after what happened with me baiting them against the goblins.

  First I used my minor heal to bring my health bar up... 4 casts of minor heal means...

  (-30 mana, +22 health)

  (-30 mana, +22 health)

  (-30 mana, +22 health)

  (-30 mana, +22 health)

  I'm now at 225/226 health, and 667 current mana.

  Good. This is a bit more prepared.

  I used item create to make a binoculars piece, with a telescopic lens sshape which I can use to look down the mountainside off the edge of one side of the meadow. But the down side is that I can't look down to watch what the goblin do on most of the meadow. In fact its actually only a small area of land on the edge near the cliff and near the trail where trail comes up to my meadow plateau area, that I can see.

  And some of that also is because with my huge thorny vine trap walls, I'm cutting down my visibility the more of them I put up.

  !!!

  AHHHHHCKKKK!!!

  Pain!

  I felt someone stab me in the back! Shit! Fuck! Pain!!!

  I reeled in agony, but then tried to get out of the way. I felt another attack whistle by my head. A back stab attack from a stealther! Somehoe he'd gotten through my traps and snuck up behind me!

  A goblin stealther snuck up on me! He'd been here watching me the whole time but couldn't attack during the night or earlier because I was surrounded by my traps! But when I'd left the enclosures to go check what's going on down the mountain, he had an opening!

  Of course he was out here. He had been watching for a chance when I’d leave my defenses and be caught out in the open.

  Really fast I'd taken (-42 damage)(-22 damage)(-19 damage) in a series of back stab combos including the initial damage! If I'd been anyone else I'd probably be dead by now.

  Damn it! I was angry but also alarmed in that I was really close to death now.

  I hurriedly blasted a root trap on him. He partially resisted, taking some damage. (-20 mana)(-7 health to goblin stealther). The damage was cheap, but this had push back which would keep him off me for a few seconds. He's literally ripped off his feet by the vine armada that's swallowed him up, and holding him fast. I rolled out of the way of his deadly black knives! Even while being grabbed he'd tried to use his remaining energy to slice me up.

  But this guy is good. He slashed enough vines quickly to get partially lose. Then he's moving towards me.

  He tries to stab forward still. I dodge, and then use my skill to put down another trap, and then another! I kept moving even as he tried to get me, not holding still.

  He's caught. In my trap. I got lucky and snagged him in it. And then the vines are grabbing him all over. The fact that my traps use dozens of vines to grab at prey makes it so they can’t get loose easily.

  But he's already cutting himself free! This guy is just so good with a knife!

  Shit, shit,...shit....

  I cut out with my katana slashing him and getting my shield up. (-19 damage to goblin)(I blocked one of his strikes also with the shield, which his attacks are clumbsier and encumbered because of his limbs being tangled up.)

  He's going to get free soon...already he's less tied down than before! I also can't let him get away and tell his friends, he found a way to beat me!

  I hit him with a flame wave, though that's also now ignited my trap lines!

  I was breathing hard though…

  Air…. Shit… I need to finish him off.

  Then I backed up and...

  Whoosh! I hurriedly got my shield up to block several thrown knives he'd released at me all in a row. (Wow, he's good!)

  I activated four more root traps to box in the ignited trap in the middle. With this he can't attack me. I used my make shift spears to stab at him several times. (I'd forgotten I had these, but I'd made them on one of the first days here.)

  (goblin stealther -11 damage)

  (goblin stealther -14 damage)

  (goblin stealther -12 damage)

  (goblin stealther -15 damage)

  I hit myself with a heal (+22 health, -30 mana)

  At this point he broke the spear, and is trying to cut himself free. I got out my own spear and began jabbing at him out of reach of his retaliation. He panics and then begans resisting and struggling more, he fails using his stealth skill (duh), because he's tangled up.

  I kept jabbing at him (I have 3 more spears to throw at him from a distance also, as I kept up the offensive. I tried to save the other spears for after he grabs this one, which I'm sure he'll do. And like this I keep moving his health bar down. Then he got in a jab against my side, stinging me.

  Things continued this way for awhile with him also incurring burn damage. But after awhile I used create water to keep the side traps from igniting in flames that are touching the edges of the burning trap.

  We kept fighting for awhile...

  Eventually I killed him. But its unnecessary waste of stats; my health bar specifically. And it'd been about 15 minutes fighting him, no joke.

  Shit. What a bad way to start the morning, especially with a goblin wave of invaders incoming. He really got my health.

  …

  Continued in Part B