Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

When I return to my sub-cave that I once called home, I'm greeted by a putrid smell.  It seems that one of the toilet pots I sealed broke.  I'm not sure if it was pressure buildup or something else, but it reeks in here now.  Well, I was planning on moving up to the surface house I was building soon anyway.  There was also some leftover food that has been rotting.  I suppose I should use some new buckets to clean up before I leave again, and dispose of all this waste outside the cave.

After a short while cleaning up, and then washing myself with the water that was left over in the room from before, I haul the first of the buckets of waste out of the sub-cave and towards the surface.  The goblins seem interested initially, but when I have Zeb explain what I'm doing, they all quickly lose interest.  I make a few more trips, and finish cleaning just before the sun sets.  With that taken care of, I go back to get the bucket of lightstone before I join the goblins in the camp just outside the entrance for the night.

The next morning, I was expecting that I'd go down with the goblins to help with the imp summoning, but Zaka turns me away.  Apparently, its a bit of a delicate process to get the imps to somewhat trust him when they first turn into goblins, and the fact that I not only look different, but look more powerful than him might cause some misunderstandings.  I mean, I guess I get it, and I don't really want to be seen as a chief of any kind, so I let them go in to do their thing.  I guess I'll use the free time I have to go check on the spud field that I had fertilized last year.

It takes a little while to get to, but when I do, there are lots of plants growing in the area.  Not all of them are spuds sadly.  Lots of other plants that don't seem particularly useful or dangerous are growing wildly in the area.  I guess I did fertilize the whole area, so I shouldn't be surprised that when I neglected any gardening duties, the area became completely overgrown.  Despite this, there are new spud plants in the area.

For today, I'll just harvest a few spuds to make food for the goblins and myself.  Honestly, as I think about it, I could actually cut some of the trees down near the cave and define out a garden area.  That could be pretty useful.  There are honestly lots of little improvements I could make all over the place now that I'm not worried about getting spotted by the goblins.

One thing that would be pretty useful would be making a small room where I charge crystals, so I can actually just keep the trays in a charged location, rather than making a whole deal out of moving them.  Another thing I'll need is a use for excess stone, since I'll have a lot of it.  If I can shape it in a good way, I could probably have Zeb build a pathway/stairs from the cave at least some of the way down the mountain.

I continue pondering improvements and constructions until I've finished harvesting the spuds and return to the cave entrance.  I know the goblins still won't be done for a little while, so I decide to look around the area for some new sticks for tools, since I could use a new axe if I'm going to be cutting trees in the area.

Before I know it, evening has arrived, and the goblins come out of the cave.  I've already got some water boiling from the pots that I had nearby which are all filled to the brim with water from my absence.  When they return, I start cooking the spuds for them.  Apparently, they normally just do without food for the few days they're up here, so I suppose this will be a bit of a different experience for them, especially since it seems like they are only used to eating meat.  I feel a little bad, because its likely they'll have an unfortunate time digesting plants if they aren't used to them, but it's better than nothing.

Well, the boiled spuds went over ok, but not great.  They weren't seasoned, so it was basically just very bland mush, although the goblins at least seemed to appreciate having some food at least.  Everyone, myself included seemed pretty tired, so after double checking the wall to the cave was sealed, we go to sleep.

The next day, I wake up early with the goblins, and they get ready to go deal with the remaining imps, and collect new goblins.  I guess I'll try to stay around the entrance to the cave then, since they'll likely set off shortly after collecting the goblins, and that usually doesn't take long.  While they head in, I fashion myself a woodworking knife and start the process of making a new stone axe.  I think I'll make this one out of lightstone for myself.

As I finish making the axe, I hear noise coming from behind the wall at the cave entrance, so I turn to face the door in the wall.  As I do, Zaka and the goblins he brought with him exit, along with three new goblins.  Seems like everything was successful.  When the new goblins notice me, they cower nervously behind the other goblins, but after Zaka and the other goblins calmly greet me, the new goblins seem less afraid.  After a short while of cleaning up the area somewhat, Zaka and all the goblins except Zeb begin their trek down the mountain.

Well, unfortunately, I forgot about the fact that I have to clean up all the dead imps.  I'll have to ask Zaka next time he comes up to please help with the disposal of the dead imps when they're done.  On the bright side, I guess it helps with my food a little if I can butcher them while they're fresh.  The bad news is my old butchery area still smells very bad, so I'll have to work somewhere else.  The upside is that I basically have the whole cave available to work in instead, and I have Zeb to help with things.  I fashion myself a few new knives for butchery, and go retrieve my old drying racks.  I'll have to clean the drying racks with some water before I use them, but that's still faster than making new ones.

The work does end up going a little quicker with Zeb's help, and soon we have plenty of meat on the drying racks.  After that was done, I started a fire in my old fireplace.  Everything in there still smells, but hopefully the fire will help burn off some of the scent, and then I can go in and properly clean at some point.  I'll probably end up letting Zeb use the room when I finish my place up by the cave entrance.  I suppose for the next while, that is what I'll be working on.  While I work on my house, I'll have Zeb haul all the dead imps into a pile so that I can burn them.  I show him what needs done, and leave him to get to work while I work on the cave entrance house, and start the process of cutting trees near the entrance.

Its only been a day, but Zeb's piled up all the corpses, so its time to start the massive bonfire.  I can't fit down into my storage area anymore, so I send Zeb down to start retrieving the wood from down there to pile on the corpses.  Honestly, I was planning on expanding the way down so I could use it, but maybe I'll just slowly let Zeb get everything out as we need it, and abandon it at that point.

As the bonfire in the cave roars, and the smoke heads up to the entrance of the cave, we make our way outside to go to sleep.  As I fall asleep, I feel a sensation that I haven't felt in quite a long time now.  I've hit the level cap again.

<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 100
HP: 1861/1861
MP: 721/721
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike

Available Traits:
Improved Dexterity: Increases dexterity and manipulation beyond what your form would normally allow.
Carnivory: Specialize in eating meat.
Improved Stone Shaping: Spell. Manipulate one cubic foot of stone per second. Costs 10 mana per second.  Replaces Stone Shaping.

I notice that I don't have any available species to turn into.  Another mystery that I imagine will be hard to unravel.  I have a few choices for traits though at least.  The first one is one that I've seen so many times, but I keep passing over, improved dexterity.  The next one is new, Carnivory.  I think its fairly self explanatory, but I'm actually a little surprised I didn't get offered it before.  Another mystery to look into potentially in the future.  For now, I think I can easily pass on Carnivory.  Up here in the mountains, my diet frequently consists of non-meat meals, so its a no go.

The last option sounds kind of nice though.  Its just a straight upgrade on stone shaping.  Four times the amount of stone with the same mana cost.  How it can cost the same mana to achieve a greater result is something else that I'm interested in looking into at some point.  What drives the mana cost of something?  More and more questions all the time, and I'm stuck in the stone age, just trying to eke a living out for myself.  I suppose, if building things faster would give me more time to actually research things, then the choice is obvious.

I pick Improved Stone Shaping, and quickly succumb to the darkness.