The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

A severe flood might be worse than even the threat of the dryad invasion - because there was at least something that could be done about the dryad invasion from a Liberomancer's perspective.

A flood however, was more difficult to deal with even with magic. I hadn't seen a spell that was the reverse of [Create Water], and as for changing the weather, such spells did exist but even at Rank Three their effects were very limited, often only affecting a small area. Many Liberomancers didn't even bother with such spells for that reason.

At higher Ranks, it was possible to do something that might actually make a difference when it came to the weather - the Ruler of the Astral Winds, for example, had been said to have once completely buried an enemy army of forty thousand soldiers under a massive sandstorm all by himself.

But there was little that people like us could do with just Rank Three magic when it came to a flood. Maybe better engineering and city design could've alleviated the problem somewhat - but it wasn't like places didn't flood back on Earth either. And there was little use bemoaning any issues with infrastructure when there was an enemy army at the gates.

Turns out that many of these worries were for nothing as the rain soon cleared up to give way to fresh blue skies and even a tiny rainbow.

Two days afterwards, a large group of the dryads separated from their group - at first there were cheers of joy at the thought that some of them were splitting up or retreating, but it turned out that they were not heading away from the city. Instead they followed the Arconia a few miles further down the shore, but didn't seem to be going that way in order to circle around and get to the city from the other direction.

Instead… they were building something. Or at least, it looked like they were digging up something, but no one could really tell what it was. People were just glad that they weren't pointing their weapons or claws at us for now.

It was only when it rained again a few days later that it seemed to click with me what they were doing, as they kept going at it even in the rain.

"They're trying to flood the city," I told Drake, almost certain of my conclusion.

"What?"

"Branches of the Arconia go through the city and around it as well, so if they block one of the larger branches out there with a dam or something like that, it will cause it to back flow through the other branches into the city. And it's already raining," I said.

Drake, for better or worse, seemed to have trust in my judgment after all this time swapping ideas with each other but still looked somewhat unconvinced.

"Here, let me draw it out," I said. I picked out a piece of paper and drew a circle. "This is the city." I then drew the major branch of the Arconia which winded along part of the city before draining into the ocean. "This is where the Arconia goes into the ocean. If they block it off here somehow…" I traced the branch back to its source and then drew a few lines into the city. "Where does the water go?" With the city already somewhat prone to flooding, and it raining every few days, I had to admit that it was a pretty decent plan.

I also had to admit, upon looking at my drawing, that it was pretty bad. It kind of looked more like a ray diagram you would see while studying optics in physics than any kind of map.

Thank god Liberomancy did not involve drawing, otherwise I would be much worse off than I was now.

"I see what you're saying…" Drake said. "And it could work… but are the dryads smart enough to pull this off? They don't seem to have much more organizational skills than wild animals, and this seems far too complex an idea for them to come up with."

"Ah… I don't know," I admitted.

The technological attainment of the dryads weren't great - I had heard of some of them making small mud huts, and their siege weapons were limited to very rudimentary ladders. They had nothing like catapults or the like, and their sorry excuse for a battering ram had fallen apart rather quickly earlier.

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Did they even have the capability to make something like a dam and block the river?

I didn't know the level of technology that was required for such a feat, but it did make me wonder if there were giant beavers in this world that built proportionately huge dams to block out river. 'Eh, it wouldn't surprise me if that turned out to be true.' With giant spiders and frogs, giant beavers didn't seem like anything too far-fetched.

"It looks like they are trying though," I said. "And doesn't it make sense to stop them then?"

Drake smacked his tail across the floor. "Tell you what, let's send a scouting party and see if what you're saying is right, and then we'll see what to do about it."

Their scouting party was a tiny rowboat that they sent out into the shallows along the shoreline, which was able to sail out into the waters far from the city to avoid falling victim to the clutches of the dryads, but did not venture too far into the deep water for it to be dangerous.

When they returned their report seemed to confirm what I had said - that they dryads were attempting to make a large mud wall to block off the river.

The issue was whether or not they would be successful. Creating a dam the size of the main branch of the river was something that even the Arconians would have some difficulty with if they didn't use magic to assist with the project, could the dryads really achieve the same?

Great Claw oversaw the construction of the dam. It had taken some time, but he had convinced the other dryad lords to see the wisdom of his plan. Truly, their call to the spirits had not gone unanswered! They had bestowed upon him the inspiration for this plan right when he had cursed them for abandoning them.

Raindrops fell from the sky, meaning it was more than likely that when they were finished, their enemies would drown, the great river consuming them and allowing them to fish out the survivors before gorging upon them.

They preferred fresh blood, but even blood from two or three day-old corpses was acceptable.

Yes, his plan was going along swimmingly. If they continued to make great strides like this, his name would echo in the new tales that his kind would tell their children and grandchildren. They had no writing system, but that didn't mean that the deeds of great dryads who had made themselves known for their wit or valor were not passed down through the generations verbally.

And his name would soon join theirs - the tale of how he, Great Claw, had harnessed the force of a river to drown his enemies would resonate for generations.

Once this was successful, he might even be elevated beyond the mere title of dryad lord - a dryad king!

There had been a few such individuals throughout their history - dryad lords who had been exceptional even by the standards of dryad lords. These individuals were no different from the other dryad lords in terms of their anatomy or physiology, they were not true magical beast kings, but they could wield authority over great armies of dryads like this one. Right now, Great Claw was not their leader, just an influential commander, but that would all change with the success of his plan…

However, his daydreams of glory and fame were broken as he noticed something was wrong. He got up to see what the fuss was about - a small leak had appeared in a section of the base they were constructing. They were about three-fourths done with the base of the dam already, which stood up about two feet in height. They had attempted to patch up this flaw in its design using fallen logs and sap, but nothing they did truly fixed the problem.

The increase in rainfall was what had given him the idea in the first place for constructing the dam, as it was what made the city so vulnerable to flooding during this time in the first place. However, the rainfall had also caused this branch of the river to swell as it overstepped its banks, making their construction of the dam difficult as well. Still, they had persevered, the wet soil functioning as excellent muddy building blocks for the foundation of the structure they were making.

For all his intelligence, Great Claw had not been able to find a solution for this sudden break in the dam. Even as he contemplated another way to patch things over, he was interrupted as there was shouting at another part of the base. There was another hole somewhere else - the immense pressure from the river putting great strain upon what they were constructing.

And then, before he could do anything, and so swiftly that it was nearly instantaneous, the rudimentary construction they had been working on broke. The small holes that had popped up suddenly expanded to cover the entire base of the structure as cracks spread like cobwebs all throughout the base. The water, now freed from its confines, angrily swept away the dryads in its path into the sea as if they were no more than leaves in the autumn wind.

The entire dam had collapsed, with only the faintest trace of its base remaining. The dryads who had been swept out too far into the sea were now lost, left to the mercy of the tides and whatever creatures slept below the ocean's surface. The ones who were scattered closer to the shore would eventually manage to find their way back to camp, but one thing became clear - the idea for the dam would not work.

Great Claw's ambitions, dreams, and hopes were swept away with the rain just like everything else.