Chapter Twenty Six

Recently nothing exciting had happened regarding invaders which allowed for some bold experimentation by the gem. The most exciting experimentation was the upgrade to its plants. There had been many failures while trying to give plants cores, but the experiments finally had a success. The vines that hung among the trees in its valley now had their own core. They still acted mainly like a plant responding to external stimuli like the sun and not much else. This made them not too useful as a defensive tool on their own, but they had gained other benefits.

The vines were better at following instructions now. Giving instructions to normal plants ranged from pointless to annoying, but the vines had their growth directed easily. The vines were also massively stronger than they were before. Anything that was hidden behind them would not be easy for invaders to access. The last benefit was now that the vines had a core it was difficult to truly kill them. Even if the vines were cut into a hundred pieces as long as the core remained safe the entire valley would be covered again before the next day.

The vine itself was not the only benefit gained from the recent experimentation. The gem now knew that only large plants could be given cores. Trying to give small plants cores made them die of mana exposure. This information would save it a lot of time when creating plant based defenders in the future.

As it was thinking about its newfound knowledge the gem directed the vines to create pathways among its treetops. When it saw the vines successfully follow this order the gem felt an emotion that it had previously only known through absorbing the memories of invaders; pride. It was proud that its creation was strong and heeded its orders. It marveled at this new emotion for a while, but then it pushed it to the side to deal with other things.

After seeing the invaders arrows sticking out of its newest defenders the priority of teaching the drybolds to use the weapon became even higher. To ensure that the drybolds were working hard a message was sent to Snud and soon all the new drybold archers were gathered. The gem told Snud to Begin the demonstration and Snud yelled

“Fire!”

Unfortunately Snud hadn’t given them any target to aim at. Arrows hit trees, flowers, and bushes. One of the drybolds even got lucky enough to hit a squirrel. Normally this needless destruction would be irritating, but the results were too good for the gem to be unhappy. The bow strings made using its newest vines and the techniques it learned from the invaders were perfect. It directed Snud to make the drybolds practice archery regularly and then moved on to the next item on its agenda.

That, of course, was its newest defenders. At first their large size made it difficult to find a place for them to stay. To fix this a specially made pool was placed on one of the floors with the fish. Since then they have been doing quite nicely. Their large tusks and massive size made them inherently intimidating. The only issue they had with their performance was their timid nature. They could be made to fight, but if given the option they would try and hide or run away first.

Changing their nature was not something that was easily done, so the gem set about making a suitable environment to encourage them to fight. On the floor they lived on the way upward was no longer just a hole in the ceiling. There was now an arena surrounding it. The arena was just a circle of condensed stone with an entrance small enough that invaders could enter but its tusked defenders weren’t able to run away. The defenders were able to enter the arena through a pool in the back. That pool could then be blocked off once the defender was in the arena. This insured that they wouldn’t flee until the gem allowed them to.

Another exciting improvement was the first usage of runes to improve the territory. Recently it has started to get cold enough to affect the plants in the valley and on the island. Some of the weaker ones were even dying overnight. This was obviously unacceptable, so the search for a solution began. None of the normal solutions like mana strengthening and covering the plants worked well enough to be a long term plan, so untested methods had to be used.

The gem used what it learned about fire runes to help the plants. The plants excess mana were used to create heat and light. This allowed the plants to continue growing even when the days were short and cold. This technique was not without its downsides though. Almost all of the mana that would have gone to fueling the growth of the gem and its creatures now went to maintaining the plants. They still offered a small amount of mana but it was nowhere close to what it was before. This meant that for the duration of winter the number of plants used to lure incompotent invaders into the dungeon would have to be lowered. With that in mind plants were relocated all across the territory to prepare for winter. Once it was done with that the gem set about giving as many of its defenders mana cores as it could while it still had the excess mana to do it.

It started with the plants it thought were big enough to hold cores, but small enough there was no need to rest afterwards. This included its man eating plants and a core for the vines inside the mountain. The man eating plant at least doubled in size and strength. On top of that its range of movement and speed increased drastically as well. The final benefit was that its core was in its roots. That meant that unless the invaders beat it in a fight and then dug it up it could always be regrown. That would cost a lot of mana, but it was much cheaper than growing a new plant and adding a core to it from scratch.

With all the smaller defenders already having their cores the gem shifted its focus back to its newest and largest defenders. It was time to give them a core even if it meant being unconscious for a few days. Mana from all over the territory converged and surged into the defender. More and more mana gathered until the largest core yet formed. The gem felt a wave of relief when it saw the successful formation and then it allowed itself to be swept away by peaceful darkness.

Snud

Snud was currently leading the cavalry division of the drybolds to chase off more of those greedy invaders. Since the holy tree hadn’t been warning them about the invaders' approach recently they have been relying on the speed of their new mounts. While on the way Snud enjoyed himself by looking down on the drybolds he led. His mount wasn’t even fully grown and he was still twice as tall as them while on its back! These idle thoughts distracted Snud enough that he nearly went flying off his moose when it jumped over a bush. He refocused and made sure he had a good grip on his spear before they burst into the valley the invaders were in.

The drybolds that were riding wolves jumped off their backs so that the wolves could contribute to the fight as well, but Snud stayed on his moose's back. Once the invaders were distracted by his fellow drybolds he urged his mount forward. The moose charged at max speed and Snud lowered his spear. Apparently he raised his spear too early because as he was getting close he got tired and accidentally let the spear point downwards. Luckily he was still rewarded with a meaty thwack as the spear struck an invaders leg.

He tried to hold onto the spear so that he could take another lap and finish the invader off, but the spear seemed to be stuck. Instead of bringing the spear to him he was pulled off of the moose’s back. He laid on the ground dazed for a second before remembering where he was. He got up, realized he had no weapons other than the one stuck in his opponents leg, and then started to run away from the invaders. Luckily, they were too busy fighting the other drybolds to focus on hitting him. Taking advantage of that Snud fled from the battlefield and observed it from farther away.

Two of the three invaders were injured, but the last one appeared to be in good condition. At the same time, more than half of the drybold warriors had injuries that made them unable to fight. Snud was sure that if the fight continued the drybolds would win at the cost of some of the drybold warriors dying. After realizing this Snud called for a retreat. The invaders were injured enough that they would flee and Snud would not lose any warriors. Snud’s reasoning for this was “If drybold warriors die then Snud have to fight more.”

When the drybolds retreated the invaders took that as a chance to flee and the fight ended entirely. Snud led the drybolds back to camp and began planning his victory speech. Maybe

“Great warrior Snud saves puny lesser warriors?” or “Intruders gone now women come to Snud’s tent”

Both had real potential so he was having trouble deciding. In fact, he was so focused on figuring out what speech to make that he didn’t even notice that they had already gotten back home and everyone had scattered. He was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to use the victory speech to attract ladies this time, but at least he had the start of two good speeches ready for next time.