Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

Given that I have no clue when the goblin will show up, I decide that I should focus on getting prepared again.  First thing I need to do is expand my tunnel to the cavern somewhat.  It is currently a little small, and I'd like it to be wider.  Then, I need to update my spear and shield for my new size.  Although given my size, I probably don't need to be as worried as before in fights.

I've been working for almost a day now, when a sensation I haven't felt since I came to this world overtakes me.  I have to use the restroom.  When I was an imp, I never had to use the restroom, so I'm a little surprised when I feel the urge.  I hastily make my way deep into the main cavern to relieve myself before returning to work. I covered it using stone shaping of course.  Not long after, I feel a slight thirst as well.  This is somewhat awkward.  If I knew that evolving came with all these new problems, I might have hesitated to evolve.  Instead, I'm stuck with it.  I go over to a bucket of water that I brought down before for boiling vegetables and drink some.  It doesn't take all that much to satiate my thirst, thankfully.  Given I've been working all day too, I hope this means I don't need much water.

It's been three days since I started expanding my tunnel to the cavern, and I've just finished up with it.  It's not perfect, but it's enough that I don't have anywhere that I need to squeeze through, and I can easily turn around at any point.  I'm also pretty sure that how long I'm awake for has changed.  I seem to be able to work for longer without getting sleepy.  I still have no clue how long I sleep for though.

With the tunnel finished up, I'll start work on my buckler before sleep today.  I have plenty of material to work with, so I should be good to go.  The only unfortunate thing I've noticed is that I've yet to gain a single level in the past few days.

I finished up my buckler shortly after waking up, and then finished the spear shortly after.  Before long though, I felt the urge to go to the restroom building up again.  I should probably make a place to do that rather than continuing to go in the cavern.  For now, I fashion a toilet that I can use with a bucket under it.  When I finish using it, I seal the bucket, to be disposed of at a later time.  I haven't checked the cavern yet today, so I make my way out, and open a hole to peek through.

I wasn't expecting it quite yet, but there are already a few imps about and the goblin seems to be busy summoning more.  Thankfully,  it doesn't seem like they noticed anything amiss with the cavern.  I stand and watch for a while before getting bored and return to my butchery room.  I look about, and decide I could use a few extra buckets.  I know that I need more food now, so I should be prepared with extra buckets on hand to handle any excess imps.  It'll also give me something to do while I wait for the goblins to finish up.

A bunch of new buckets later, and the goblins have left, and the melee of imps has begun.  I open my cave up to the cavern and try to get an imps attention.  When it spots me, it stares for a moment before turning and running away.  I attempt to get a new imp to notice me, and it too flees.  Damn.  Well, I guess there is only one thing to do.

I leave my cave, spear and buckler in hand, and run towards the nearest imp.  When it spots me, it lets out a cry and tries to run, but I quickly catch and kill it.  This is followed shortly by two more nearby imps.  This is almost a little too easy.  I carry the three imps easily back to my cave and string them up in the butchery room to bleed out, and return to the cavern.  This time though, the imps seem to all be avoiding the area around my cave.  No problem though, I'm much faster than them, and they aren't really fighting back.  I have to spend some extra time, but I quickly deal with another three imps.  I notice by the time I kill three, all the remaining imps are again avoiding both me and my cave entrance by a considerable distance.

Oh well, just means more work for me.  I repeat this hunt and drain process an additional 3 times, totaling up 15 imps that I'll need to butcher in the morning.  I had to spend some extra time jury-rigging some to the ceiling of the slaughterhouse to be able to fit them all, but I managed it.

The next morning, I peek out into the cavern.  There is only one goblin that I can spot.  He's seated quite far from my entrance, and the remaining imps are also all staying far away from my area as well.  I watch for a bit, and after a little bit, the fireball goblin returns, killing the handful of imps that were left with magic.  After a brief exchange with the new goblin, and some hand gestures, the new goblin points towards my sealed entrance, and by extension me.  As I watch, the goblins all start moving towards me.  The new goblin cowers behind the others as they approach.  I decide to seal the small hole I was peeping through, and just listen.

After a few moments, I hear a few repeated thumps on the rock.  Whether it was something hitting it, or a fireball, I don't know, but after a few thumps, it stops, and I wait for a few minutes.  Without any further noise, I once again peek out.  The cavern is empty now.

I'll need to think over what just happened.  In the meantime though, I get to work butchering the imps that I have in the slaughterhouse.  They take a while, but I get through all fifteen with a little of the day ahead of me still.  Fifteen imps seems like a lot of meat to me, but honestly, I'll probably need more.  I suppose I can go out and check if any of the fireball killed imp's meat is still good.

I peek out before I leave, and don't spot anything, so I head out and inspect the remaining imps.  A handful seem recoverable, so I begin moving them into my slaughterhouse.  Overall I found 8 that were recoverable, which means I'll need to make multiple trips.

On the third trip, as I turn to return to my cave with the last two imps, out of the corner of my eye I spot movement.  I turn towards the cavern entrance, and I spot a goblin running up and away.

Crap.  Seems like I've been spotted.

I hurry back into my cave, and seal it shut, adding some extra thickness to it for good measure.  Once I feel like the stone is thick enough that I'm safe, I bring the remaining two imps into the slaughterhouse, and begin processing all of them.  By the time I'm done, I feel tired.  I carefully peek out into the cavern, and after seeing nothing, seal the entrance again before going to sleep.

<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 1
HP: 871/871
MP: 285/285
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike

Well, as a consolation, at least I've gained one level.

For the past three days, I haven't gone into the cavern once.  Instead, I sit right by the entrance to my cave, doing stone separations while looking through a hole that I made to watch the cavern entrance.  I haven't seen anything in all that time, so I'm starting to feel emboldened to maybe venture out, and possibly even go check outside.  I think if I still don't spot anything by tomorrow, I'll make the trip up to the surface, obviously bringing my weapons when I do.  With my plan set, I continue working on stone separation until tired, close up the hole for the day, and go to sleep.