Homestead Survival

<26 September 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER, A+>
[Theo and Julia]
Theo and Julia woke and ate with the others. When they had finished, Kreldar indicated that he had placed a slab of stone next to Hestia's plinth that should work for the Mana Condensers. They went and found four beautiful slabs of stone.

Theo looked the slab over, pulling out his Master Tool and the Blueprint. "Well, let's get to it, shall we?"

Julia nodded, and they began working. For the first four hours, all they did was carefully cut the holes through the slabs that would eventually have the Aetheric Glass set into them. When that was complete, they laid out the materials for each Mana Condenser on the slab.

They now had four slabs of Hearthstone Granite that were roughly two feet by four feet, and four inches thick. Kreldar had assured them that this would be the best size for the slabs as the doorways he intended to make were four feet wide and eight feet tall. The logic was that then you could stack all four into one doorway of any room. Each slab now had a twelve-inch by twelve-inch hole in the center of it.

On top of each of the slabs lay a pane of aetheric glass that was one square foot, a Mana-Bound disc of metal, a small cluster of fibers in a quickly made origami paper envelope, five pieces of Crystalized Mana, and five Stone Fragments that Theo had taken from the broken Runestone bricks at the ruins of the cabin.

They walked over to where the others were sitting down for lunch and joined them. Kreldar spoke while they ate. "I decided that a small contained sleepin' hall should be the first order o' business if we need to use the Mana Condensers."

"Above ground?" Theo asked.

Kreldar shook his head, "I can't do that quickly enough."

"What if we just did doors for the entire basement?" Julia asked. "Wait, how does that work? Do we need some kind of air-lock? A Mana-lock?"

Ordus spoke up. "From what I saw the few times that Mana Condensers were in use around me, the opening and closing of doors and containment wards did little to affect the lowered mana density. I would imagine that the natural mana resistance of everyone would allow for that as well."

"That is good to know," Fred said.

"As to yer' question," Kreldar said, "I could do that. It would mean puttin' up a temporary wall at the bottom o' the ramp, but it would leave more room for everyone."

Theo nodded. "Let's do that. If everyone is going to have to spend a majority of the time in the area, let's make sure that they have as much space as they can."

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Kreldar nodded, finishing his meal and rising to his feet. "Then I'll get to workin' on it."

Julia looked around, "Just to make sure, did anyone gain any Personal Mana Density from the levels that they got?"

Joshua spoke first. "I am still at C minus."

"C plus still." Fred agreed.

Velna also concurred. "C minus still."

"Mine went up," Renno said, "twice actually. I am at B rank."

Ordus nodded at Renno, "That is good. You should be able to go most of the day without protection then. I would recommend sleeping with it on and leaving it off to facilitate further growth."

Theo nodded. "That is pretty in line with what we learned as well. Though Ur-Gin did say that high mana density foods were the best help you could get."

Renno nodded and looked a little sheepishly at Theo, "The increase might be because of all the summer berries I have been sneaking."

Theo smiled. "Good, food is meant to be eaten as long as you don't hurt the plant, then eat all you want. Matter of fact, let's make sure that everyone is eating a couple of the summer berries with every meal."

Everyone agreed watching Renno take off the protective arm-band and not suffer from the immense weight of mana crushing your lungs like they all did after just a few moments.

With that, everyone departed back to what they had been doing, and Theo and Julia got back to work on the Mana Condensers. By the time that dinner rolled around and everyone had crawled into their beds, one of the Mana Condensers was complete.

<27 September 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER, A+>
The following day was much the same. Wake up, eat breakfast, and get to work. By lunch, another of the Mana Condensers was complete, and by dinner, a third. After dinner that night, they all had to pass through the two doorways that Kreldar had installed into the opening at the foot of the ramp.

<28 September 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER, A+>
Much the same took place the following morning. Theo and Julia rose, ate, and continued work on the final Mana Condenser. About halfway through, Kreldar came up to them.

"Alright, the basement is ready," Kreldar said, "at least as ready as I can make it. I had Ordus go over it all with his skills and patch any holes, but it should work. I also hung up a couple of the minin' lanterns we brought back from the clan."

"Excellent," Julia said, assisting Theo with layering the fibers into the runes and along the routes that the Blueprint indicated, "we should be done here soon."

Kreldar left them to their work. Around lunch time, the final Mana Condenser was completed. Theo and Julia went and ate with everyone else. After finishing their meal, Theo, Ordus, Kreldar, and Renno worked together to set the four Mana Condensers into the leftmost door-frame that Kreldar had not sealed. After locking them in place with a clever bit of stonework from Kreldar, they all went inside. And Julia triggered the Mana Condensers.

>Local Message: Mana Condenser x4 Activated
>Local Message: Local Mana Level A+

A few minutes later, they got an update.

>Local Message: Local Mana Level A

After around an hour, they finally got the message that they had been hoping for after some discussion.

>Local Message: Local Mana Level B

They all celebrated for a moment, and they nodded. "Right, we now know that we can make sure that you all are safe. Let's take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow we are going to go investigate the dungeon on the mesa below."

With that, they all nodded and began to relax while mentally preparing for the next day.