NOVEL NEXT [Vol-1] Ch.33 Change of Pace
It's only 3 days now until the goblin would be expected to show up. I've made quite the progress with my survey so far. I'm still only about a third of the way done, but I've already made note of a few points of interest. The whole process is actually taking longer than I'd like, mainly due to the fact that I still get a headache if I use tectonic sense repeatedly in short order for the 15 foot radius that I'm using. That's fine though, since it gives me some time between uses to be more methodical and make sure everything has been measured correctly. I even made myself a pseudo-protractor to get my angles right.
Even though the snow is still covering the entrance to the cavern, I'm going to hedge my bets and avoid spending the next few days in the cavern, just in case the goblins somehow show up. I mean, I know one has fire magic, so it wouldn't be impossible for them to clear a path here in theory. I still highly doubt they will though.
The first thing I'm going to work on is to begin categorically listing points of interest from the survey so far. Many of the points have basically nothing, but for completeness sake, I've marked them as empty on their respective tablets. Which has led to a lot of informational tablets being relatively empty, just listing off 'nothing of interest' for each point.
In the 18 days I've been working on this, I've covered 144 points. Of those, about 15% have anything of interest, and of those 22 interesting points, 18 are air bubbles. Of those 18 with air bubbles, 13 have crystals embedded in them. The 4 points of interest which aren't bubbles fall into two categories. One of the categories seems to be some form of layer change. These two spots are next to each other, and are closer to the entrance of the cavern than any other spots, and are against a wall. The second category are amorphous shapes generally forming long spindles. They're also clearly not rock or crystal, or at least don't give off the same sort of signal as either.
I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but I suspect it might be metal. Exactly what metal though is hard to say. On earth, it'd likely be native copper, but I'm not on earth right now, so I should be ready for anything. Each of those deposits aren't actually that large either. There might be a few cubic feet of material between the two of them. So whatever it is, it's not a massive deposit.
Regardless of what it is, once the survey is complete, that is my highest priority of excavation. My level continues to very slowly increase as well.
<MYTHIC IMP>
Level: 81
HP: 733/733
MP: 241/241
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Mighty Imp
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense
After I give the goblin a few days to potentially show up, I'll get back to the survey. In the meantime, I'll be refining some of the rubble from before.
Well, after the goblin failed to show I continued my survey... all the way to completion. It took me 37 days including the goblin waiting time, which by the end of the survey, I was very tired of using tectonic sense and writing. That said, I'm very satisfied by the completion. Although I say completion, this only covers the main cavern, and only goes into a handful of the side tunnels. Of the side tunnels I only actually did my storage area, my room, and the tunnel where I did my test to kill the giant lizard. There are plenty more tunnels here that I could survey and potentially find things.
One thing I've become aware of though, is that the snow has been melting rapidly. About 10 days ago, I made a routine check of the entryway and could see a small bit of sky near the top of the cave entrance. A few days later I went up to check again, and not only was the snow quite a bit shorter, but it was raining onto the snow, and when I came back two hours later to check, half the remaining snow was gone. I suspect in about 11 days, the goblin will arrive again. Which means I'll need to be ready.
As of right now, though, I'm almost at level cap, so by either tonight or tomorrow morning, I'll hit it again, and be faced with another choice. So, for today, I'm going to hold off on starting any excavation, and instead finish organizing all the remaining survey findings. I covered an additional 230 points in the survey since I organized before. The breakdown this time was a little different. A decent chunk of the new points were all wrapped up in the layer change I noticed before. That layer change now comprises a total of 21 points that I detected in my survey. There were an additional 30 bubbles spotted, of which 16 had embedded crystals that I detected. The largest of which actually overlapped three points. An additional 3 high interest points were marked as well. Two were similar to the previous two which I suspect are native metals. The remaining one seems to be a new layer change. Similar to the other, it presents itself as a semi-flat surface bisecting my tectonic sense ping. The difference between this one and the other is that this one is smaller, and it's signature is much less noisy, so I'm intrigued by its different presentation.
When all of the bookkeeping has been handled, I'm ready to go to sleep, so I lay down in bed to go to sleep, and feel the level cap sensation which I've started to become quite familiar with at this point.
<MYTHIC IMP>
Level: 100
HP: 861/861
MP: 281/281
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Mighty Imp
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense
Available Traits:
Available Species:
Hobgoblin, Lesser Earth Demon
Well, two interesting things this time. First, I seem to have lost some of my trait options that I had before. Which is just another mystery to tack on to the many mysteries I have piling up around me. The second one, is an interesting new option for species for evolution. A Lesser Earth Demon. I'm not even entirely sure what that is, but I get a gut feeling that it's at least humanoid in shape. As nice as Improved Dexterity would be, and I've said that a few times now, I think this time I'm going to actually evolve. After having the lizard invade my cavern, I've realized that just staying an imp over and over is probably really dangerous. Honestly, if I didn't have the option for Lesser Earth Demon, I'd have just picked Hobgoblin and been done with it, but instead, I got a nice extra option. As I make my choice, I feel way more tired than any of the previous times, and my consciousness rapidly fades.
When I come to, I've got a few problems. First, before I even open my eyes, I'm ravenously hungry. The second issue is that I feel my legs hanging off the end of the bed, and a tail now hanging off a side of the bed. It appears I've grown substantially... Which is a big problem. I get up and do a check over my new body. I'm much bigger than I used to be. If I stand tall, I'm probably a little more than double my previous height. My natural posture isn't to stand tall though, it's hunched forward, with my new tail forming a counterbalance.
Gone is the fur I used to have as well. Now I'm covered in hard plates on my back and outward parts of my arms, and the inside portion is covered in a bristly short fur. Jesus, what exactly am I now even? My posture is something closer to something like a dinosaur, with a wide tail dragging on the ground. I seem to have gained an extra digit on my hands, if you can call them that. The nails are similar to before, where I've got flattened long talons on the end, that I can press together to form a scoop, just with one extra finger now. My color has drastically changed as well. My underfur is now a muddy brown, and my plating is a dark gray, bordering on black. My face seems to have elongated a little as well. This is all very disturbing to me. I suppose though, it's about as disturbing as becoming an imp was. The only difference being that back then, I thought I was in a dream.
Just to leave the room, I have to hunch further than I already naturally do to fit out the door. Yeah, this will be a problem. I grab a bunch of the lizard meat, and gorge myself. I'm hoping the goblin comes back soon now. I've only got a few days worth of meat left at the new rate I eat at. After I'm satisfied from eating, I realize I haven't checked my stats.
<LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 0
HP: 861/861
MP: 281/281
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
Well, I was worried about that, but it looks like Mighty Imp is gone now. I also seem to have gained a new magic. I'm a little confused by this, and focus on it.
Earth Spike: Spell. Forcibly erupt a 3 foot long spike of earth or stone from the ground at some point within 5 feet of you. Costs 200 mana.
Jesus, that's a lot of mana, and obviously, is very useful for combat as well. I just assumed that when evolved I only got to keep my stats. I wonder if goblins get anything interesting? A sudden thought pops into my head. I know that prestiging basically happens overnight, but how long does evolution take? I squeeze down my tunnel to check on the cavern. Nothing. No dead imps or anything either. I'll have to be careful I suppose though. Who knows when the goblins might arrive now.