Chapter 17: building a fort err house

I was going to start working on making a proper house for myself with dedicated rooms instead of just a slightly more sturdy shack with a singular room and a bed to sleep on. To start off I developed a  barely 1^st level spell that could slightly meld rock. I created this spell both for an easier time with building my house and an easier time gathering rocks. Getting the rocks to my house would be quite simple, I knew of a nice spot where there were a lot of boulders of which I could take material. The boulders where reachable with my cart so I could use that to transport them. I went on my way towards the boulders, dragging my cart behind me. Once I got there I noticed the tracks again, whatever it was, it might not be territorial seeing as this is hours away from my home. The possibility was also that there were multiple which would be even worse but I’d need to prepare for it. Hope for the best but expect the worst and all that. The boulders themselves were far too big for me to just take with me so I used my new spell to slowly but surely shift the boulder until a small part fell off. I put it on the cart and repeated it a few times until my cart was filled. I then went home and deposited the various rocks at a place that I had cleared earlier. The trees I cut down would be used for both the house and palisades so they weren’t going to waste. As I deposited the rocks I thought I heard something but upon closer investigation I couldn’t find anything in the bushes I thought I heard it from. Moving on I went back to the boulders to get more rocks. This went on for a couple days until I decided that I had enough rocks. During this time I had heard occasional noises that suggested a larger predator which was highly concerning considering I still had not seen anything. Tracks, sounds, sure but not a single viewing of the animal or animals which would be the case since the animal seemed to be very close each time. This suggested a camouflage ability which would be troublesome. I did also run my magic sense on some days since I realised that I could sort of feel living beings with it since their Mana make up was different compared to the environment making them stand out like a sore thumb but this showed nothing either.

During the night after I had gathered my materials I was awoken by a loud sound against my wooden wall. It sounded big and strong but not strong enough to knock down the walls. While it was banging on the walls I was busy preparing some spell circles within my house which would simply blow up if I activated them. Not very refined nor very efficient but effective enough to hopefully scare away whatever it is. After a while the banging stopped so I assumed that whatever it was, it had left. Now the main issue was making sure it didn’t come back and if possible, killing it for materials although I doubted that it was going to be that easy. I prepared a couple extra potions including one that made my skin harder made from some of the organs of the baragdar combined with some simple dirt. While dirt didn’t seem like a good alchemical ingredient, it still contained Mana and in this case pure earth Mana which was something I needed for this particular potion. This should help me not be as vulnerable when fighting. I hadn’t tried the effectiveness out yet but it was more than likely going to be somewhere around the strength of hardened leather based on the toughness of the baragdar and the amount of Mana contained within the potion.

While I continued work on my house, I was a lot more alert since the events of the last night. I was not confident that I would be able to scare the creature off since it seemed to be strong, not fear much and it had to be camouflaged in some way to avoid detection by me. I forgot to activate Mana sight which was awfully stupid of me since it would’ve helped if I knew what to look for. My construction progressed smoothly albeit a bit slowly since I had to be constantly alert and had to take frequent breaks to stay in peak shape in case I was attacked. I first made a foundation out of stone which wasn’t too hard to do since while my meld stone spell wasn’t very fast, it was precise leading me to be able to make a sturdy foundation. Before I made stone walls I used thick wood to create a strong supporting skeleton of the house after which I created the walls out of stone. The roof would still be wood however since stones would be too heavy and only lead to the roof being unstable. Building the house only took me a month which was a lot faster than I expected since building a house wasn’t a quick process and I still had to be on guard at all times. I had discovered more traces of the beast but nothing past traces, there were no more appearances. I also created a big well so I would always have a good supply of clean water that I could use for both my potions, cleaning and drinking. All in all I made good progress on all fronts and I could start work on my palisades which would help me feel a lot more safe with the beast prowling about and all that.

I had to cut down some more trees both to create space and to make the palisades out of but that was the easiest part. Making a palisade wall was surprisingly difficult on your own but I pulled through and once I finished I could quite proudly look upon my work. The entire clearing had been made bigger by a lot with a well on the side. Around the clearing was a wall with palisades to prevent any attacker and allow me to retaliate more easily. There was also a place where I could test spells or other things and then there was the house. The house was a one story building made of mostly stone. The corners had wood support beams and the entire house was supported by a wooden frame. There were multiple rooms within the house with my bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, an alchemy room, a research room and a separate still empty room that I could fill later on.