I decided that I would go further from town than nearer. While the town was a source of food and safety, I didn't want my magic to be found out. This wasn't for any selfish reason, It was because the echos were known to adapt. What would happen if a person suddenly showed up that had a power close to that of the echoes?

 

I also wanted to build a base in a secluded area, so that I could practice in peace. To do that I would need to be deeper in the forest. I began to walk deeper in.

 

It was kind of peaceful, there wasn't any sound other than the wind and occasional bird. I had heard a while back that there was an abandoned town further into the woods, that was completely unlooted. Unfortunately, there was a mutant creature there. So no one had gone to loot it because of fear. I however was confident that I could take whatever it was. 

 

I came upon a hill that seemed to slope down, cresting the hill I was able to see a town. It had been reclaimed by the land, and vines and trees grew in the streets. Most of the windows had been shattered and some of the walls had even collapsed.

 

That being said I could tell that many places seemed to be undamaged. I was drooling a little in anticipation of all that loot. Before making my way into town. I had refreshed my Cloaks cool down. And had cast Shield. 

 

I walked along the broken streets looking for anything of value. I could tell that something big walked the streets of the town. The ground seemed to slope and some of the light pulls were bent as if moved.

 

I had just gotten to a garage that looked unbroken when I felt the ground faintly shake, slowly the shaking started to grow. By the time I could hear the beast the ground practically rumbled when it walked. It seemed to be following me in some unknown way.

I prepared myself a distance from the garage as I didn't want it to be damaged. I crouched down, pulling my staff and pee Shooter out of my storage. I readied my mind for the battle to come. A lizard the size of the houses around me slowly dragged itself towards me. I could tell it didn't know where I was exactly just that I was around. I felt Scrap, who was on my shoulder, shiver a little. “It's ok buddy,” I said. 

 

The lizard drew near,  leveling my Pee shooter at the lizard. I began to Pour my mana into it. “Bang! Bang! Bang!,” the bullets slammed into the beast. It hissed in pain. Unfortunately, the damage seemed to be minimal. The scales seemed to have gained supernatural durability as they barely chipped. “Damn” Pointing my staff at the lizard I Poured mana into it shooting out a stream of flame. 

 

This time I knew it had done damage. The sides of the animal were completely black and burned it hissed again. This time I felt something change. The mana in the void shifted I felt it being pulled towards the lizard. That couldn't be good. Quickly stuffing my Shooter in my pocket. I Gripped my staff pouring as much mana as I could into the Sheild formation. A torrent of air shot out of my staff coalescing into a wall of air. 

 

I didn't know what I expected. But the flame that spewed from its mouth was not it. “Damn things a dragon,” I thought. The flame slammed into my Sheild.  The flame bent around the wall of air. Because of the nature of the spell, I could see the flame curling and coiling on the other side. It was a close call but the wall had survived.

 

At this point, I was running a little low on mana and I didn't think I could take another shot of that flame. I decided that it was time to end the fight before it was too late. I ran at the lizard, I think it was a bit startled that I would dare attack it directly. Because I was able to get right up to the burnt and blackened scales of its side.

 

I jammed my pee shooter into the gap between two particularly burnt scales. I poured most of what was left into the shooter only leaving enough to stay awake if needed. The squelching that followed after the bang of the bullets was disgusting. The lizard barely had time to react before it was too late and it succumbed to the bullets.

 

I pulled the shooter out of its side before walking to a nearby wall and collapsing against it. That was a tough one. Not as bad as the leopard but for how prepared I thought I was. It took a few minutes but eventually, I got up and headed to the garage.

 

The garage was a large building with a sliding garage door. The door had a lock on it. This was the simplest thing id done all day. Looking over at scrap he jumped onto the chain and cut it off. Opening the door I found a wide space that was full of tools and even a few CNC machines. In the corner was even a 3D printer. They looked to be 20-30 years out of date but they would work until I could get better ones.

 

For now, I was hungry and exhausted. I pulled some leftover jerky out and started to munch down on it. At the back of the space was a room that looked to be an office. Walking in I found a desk and an actual chair not only that but there was a couch in the corner. The couch was a little dusty, but it was easy enough to dust it off. Laying down on it I couldn't help but let out a sigh of happiness.

 

I woke up the next morning feeling ready to build this place into an actual base. The first thing I did was dust everything off. Thankfully I wasn't alone and had some support in the form of five golems. With four golems and I dusting and Bomb sweeping ‘which was just bomb with a brush taped to him’ we cleaned up relatively quickly.

 

The second thing was trying to get some power in here, we needed it for the CNCs and the 3D printer as well as the lights. I checked to see if there was already any form of generator or solar panel. There was a generator but we didn't have any fuel to use. I could probably make it run on mana but I didn't think it would put out enough power anyway.

 

I went out in search of solar panels. Climbing to the top of the garage through the latter that was on the side of the building. I looked out over the roofs of the town. There were plenty of collapsed roofs that could potentially have fallen in because of solar panels. But thankfully I didn't have to check. Because next door behind the garage there was a house covered in solar panels.

 

I climbed down and jogged over. The house was in good condition, there was a little bit of wear and tear but nothing important. Opening the door I found the solar panels connected to a power grid. The grid connected to a battery bank at the back of the house. I checked to see if everything was still working, luckily it was and I just needed to attach an extension cord to the battery bank and run it across into the garage.

 

Once that was done I attached an extension block that was hanging on the wall next to the printer. Powering all the machines and lights, I checked each to make sure they were all working and powered. 

 

Once I was sure it was all working I decided that I would have the GGs guard from the roofs. But for them to be good guards they would need weapons. I made each of them a Smaller version of the Pee shooter. It was easy enough because of the simplicity of the formation.

 

With the GGs guarding and bomb sweeping. I could work on reinforcing the solar house and the garage. I wanted to build a fence that would be reinforced with steel plates. I had quite a few steel plates with me already. And Id seen a steel mill at the other end of the town. Planting the steel poles would be easy what would be difficult was digging the holes.

 

I wanted to add a new formation to my staff called Earth mold. It would allow me the ability to mold earth as I wanted. It could be useful in a battle to as I could use it like I had the shield on the leopard. But for now, I would use it to dig a hole and then fill it in tightly. It worked almost the same as Sheild, the difference being that Air was replaced with earth, and the harden rune was not needed.

 

Me and Scrap engraved the formation onto my staff and tested it out on the spot I wanted to build the fence. I Imagined the ground beneath me like a flat plane, I imagined the spots I wanted the poles to be placed. The ground in those spots started to crawl out leaving holes 3 feet deep. I went to each hole and pulled out a steel pole from storage and placed it into the ground before moving to the next hole.

 

Once all the poles were in the ground, I repeated the spell this time filling the holes and compacting itself into the hole. In this way, I had successfully laid out the foundation for my fence what I needed to do now was put on the steel plates.

 

I had about twenty 5f tall by 12f long steel plates. Each of them weighed 2450 pounds. Which I don't think I could lift myself. Thankfully ‘I’ didn't have to, the ground did. I could already tell that Earth mold would be one of the most utility-based spells.

 

I dropped each plate flat onto the ground. I did this by pulling them out of my storage rune. Once they were all laid flat, I began the Earth mold spell once more. This time I had the earth act as a conveyor belt. The earth started to roll like a wave, Taking the plates with them it was like the earth had become water. As soon as the plates were moved over to the steel poles I had the earth create a wall that sandwiched the plates against the poles. Once all the plates were sandwiched, me and Scrap went into the compound and began to weld them together.

 

It took an hour or two but at last, all the plates were welded on. Casting the earth mold spell again I had the wall go back to being ground before canceling it once more. Me and Scrap’s wall surrounded are compound completely. There was a little overlapping area in the back but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. 

 

I was now out of steel plates, I still had some more poles and blocks but no plates. It was ok though because I was pretty sure there were more to be found at the steel mill. The steel poles of the wall extended a foot or two higher than the wall, this was intentional, as I was going to add some wire fencing Using the chicken wire That I had found at a local hardware store. 

 

It didn't take long for the chicken wire to be up and done. The compound was officially complete. The reason I wanted such defenses up was that the Flood was due any day now and I had to be ready. “Tomorrow I want to add some turrets” I mumbled to scrap before going inside and collapsing on the couch.

 

Unbeknownst to Alex, Scrap and the GGs faithfully watched the compound from above. “We will Prevail” Scrap thought.