NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol.2] Ch.40 Finally, An Answer
Three days to build the bridge, which might seem like a lot, but I really wanted to make sure it'd be fine through floods, so I ended up building a bit of path on either side as well for good measure. We had a small bit of rain earlier today, so I imagine the snow will start melting any day, and we'll start getting a much larger amount of rain. I've decided to only open the bottom valve on the reservoir for while I'm here, just to see how it handles the water during the melt. I think we'll probably stay through the first month of spring, just like the last few years, for both food, and safety reasons.
For the last fifteen days, we've been steadily working on the road, but between the more frequent rain, and the further distance that the rocks have to go, the pace is a bit slower. I've been over cutting rock, and ended up spending a little bit of extra time making a stockpile next to the landing where cut stone bricks are slowly piling up. Even with the carts, the goblins and Zaka can't quite keep up with my pace for cutting stone out now, and what we're planning to do is get a whole bunch stockpiled, then convince Kaga to move them all in a day by himself, which I have no doubt in his ability to do.
As for the new stretch of path, it's only gone a little over 300 feet. These sections are exceptionally slow, and a large reason for that is the terrain. Down here in the valley that the village is in, I'm having to construct the entire path up, which is similar to the first stretch up on the mountain. However, for most of the middle of the path, we'll actually be cutting away at mountain in order to make the path, which means no stone hauling to the worksite. I'm fairly confident that those stretches will be much faster for both me and Zeb to make.
It's been five days, and today, we didn't work because of the heavy rain. It was fairly warm as well, so I decided to go and watch the reservoir during the rain. I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure it helped prevent a flash flood. Over the course of a few hours, the water level in the reservoir climbed to almost 3/4 capacity after starting at 1/4 before the stream finally calmed down somewhat, and the water level stopped rising. There was enough water that large branches have been floating into the reservoir, which I've been pulling out if they get close to the edge. I'll have to make sure that Zaka knows that it needs to be cleared out once the rains slow down, and also make sure he knows how to open the other valves. I don't want any jams to suddenly cause a catastrophe.
Also, yesterday, I traded Kaga some new tools in exchange for him helping haul a bunch of stone up to the next landing on the path. I said it once before, but he truly seems like a monster, pushing two carts full of stone up the path, and then returning and repeating it until he'd moved the whole stockpile. He easily moved another 200 feet of path's worth of stone up the mountain in one day, by himself. Well, I doubt we'll make it to the next landing before Zeb and I return up the mountain even with that help.
It's been ten more days, and we've only made it another 400 feet on that stretch, for a total of 700. Normally, Zeb and I would return up the mountain tomorrow, but I'm thinking it might be worth spending the twenty or so days to finish this stretch of path, since it needs another 400 feet or so. We'd basically be losing a month on the mountain, but I think I'd rather have this section finished in one construction cycle.
My estimate was pretty much spot on for needing twenty days to finish that stretch of the path. We also got a small added benefit that I wasn't expecting. Once the rain started to become less constant, those plants that Zeb had gathered all flowered, and seeded. Their seeds ended up being decently large nuts that float on water. Zeb sectioned off a part of the field and let the seeds float there, and we'll see what results it yields next year when we return. More exciting than that though, will be seeing how the goblins make use of their new workshops and if they come up with any new ideas while we're gone.
We made it back up the mountain easy enough in one day, but I'm a little upset, because I realized that I made a mistake in estimating how long the road up the mountain would be. While the path we laid out is about 30,000 feet, the path is going to be considerably longer than that. Probably at least 50% longer in fact. The reason for the miscalculation falls on me not properly estimating the zig-zags we're going to have to do in the middle section of the path given the slope. We decided on about 7.5 degrees for the slope, but when we made the path, we didn't do that, and instead just picked areas that it would be easy to make zig-zags in when the slope was steep. So all those areas are going to take quite a bit longer. The walking path will still be about 30,000 feet though, since we'll be able to put stairs between those zig zags for a more direct path.
Zeb should be prestiging any day now, as he hit 99 two days ago. I thought he'd be prestiging while we were in the village, but since he ended up working on other tasks for most of the time, he ended up gaining much fewer levels than I expected. I'm looking forward to him prestiging almost as much as when I myself prestige.
<EPIC GOBLIN>
Level: 99
HP: 1027/1027
MP: 201/201
Traits: Mimicry
Magic: Stone Shaping
Well, until then, he's at the highest mana capacity he'll be at for a while, so it's a good idea to have him work on as much stone shaping related tasks as he can until then.
Three days was all it took for Zeb to prestige. He added eight feet of path in those three days, which is pretty impressive considering he was working alone on it. I was spending that time getting everything opened back up, checked over, and set up for crystal work to resume. The water collection pool I made up here is full, which means we'll have plenty of water to work with for the foreseeable future.
Going back to Zeb, he didn't evolve, which I somewhat expected, but would have been gladly surprised if he did evolve. Instead, he gained the mana affinity trait, which I've been eagerly awaiting. First, it's just useful to have larger mana capacity. Second, I've had an intellectual itch to know exactly how it works, and I think I can finally start gathering a second set of data to really help me try to solve it.
<EPIC GOBLIN>
Level: 100
HP: 1033/1033
MP: 202/202
Traits: Mimicry
Magic: Stone Shaping
<LEGENDARY GOBLIN>
Level: 0
HP: 416/416
MP: 74/74
Traits: Mimicry, Mana Affinity
Magic: Stone Shaping
Although I can't say for certain just yet, but based on my previous data of both Zeb and my prestiges, I think Mana Affinity is granting us an extra 5% of carry over from when we prestige, and an additional 10% capacity overall. Further information as Zeb gains levels will either support or deny this theory though. If it's accurate, he should gain about 2.2 mana per level from here on out.
Also, given Zeb's weaker state right now, I'm going to have him just cut trees down in the nearby area for a few levels, and build up our charcoal supplies. Instead of clear cutting though, I'm going to have him only cut down the trees that make travel difficult, so it'll probably end up being around half the trees. That way we aren't clear cutting the nearby area, but he'll still be close enough he can run back to the cave if he needs to for safety.
I myself am going to continue with the crystal growing process. The goal this time is a six foot crystal, although I'm not certain that I'll get to that point before winter this year. If the pace I worked at last year is anything to go off of, then it'll be three months before I'm to the 4 foot crystal, and I can only guess how many months after that to get to a six foot crystal. In the downtime in the evenings, I'm going to start excavating those extra crystal bubbles that I found while I was digging the exploratory tunnel last year. Given the scale of the crystals I'm trying to grow, having the extra material sooner rather than later sounds like a good idea.