Chapter 2140: Defense and Departures

Garan, at this time, was indeed in deep shit.

After expending some effort, he took down the rock monster by controlling metal spikes he sent into its mouth. It took a while because it was not easy to control this way. He could only create metal coming from his own body, and it was more difficult to control if he could not see it.

The sensation was very much like putting a thread into the needle hole, a comparison his wife thought of, and he felt it was quite apt.

It was a challenging fight that required his full concentration. He did not even realize where he was being taken, tens of kilometers from where he met the monster.

He then used a large amount of mana to turn ice into steam. Turning ice to liquid water inside something’s stomach had minimal damage, but turning into steam expands it more than a thousand times in volume.

The attack created a rupture inside its stomach (or whatever it had) and caused massive internal burns, finally killing it.

The mana and energy consumption was also very beautiful. For a couple of moments, Garan could barely move after the attack. When he recovered some bearings, he immediately drank a bottle each of the best healing potions and mana potions he had in his space.

He took a deep breath as he felt himself recover a bit, looking around as he did so. When the monster was finally taken down, he found himself in the middle of a forest even denser and more eerie than the one before. It was a bit dark because of the density of the foliage. More than that, it felt eerie.

For defense, he took out one of his weapons from the space to save up on energy. He was about to run in the direction he came from when his instincts flared, and he rolled over to the side.

There was a sharp vine that shot from the side, sweeping sideways. He lifted himself up with his arms, though he had to lift his weapon to guard against another attack from elsewhere.

Soon, anywhere he stepped on was a moving vine or a moving branch aiming to attack him.

He realized he was being mobbed again.

...but it was a mob of plants.

Garan gaped, unsure of what he was looking at.

The density and the size of the plants were horrific, and the thinnest vine was as big as Garan’s arm, and they were all over. It was like there were dozens of monster snakes going after him.

If his energy hadn’t been so consumed, he might have attempted to go against them. However, he was weakened, and he was facing the unknown in a place he was not familiar with.

While he could still go berserk, it was too unstable, and he was too far away from home. Even if he destroyed hundreds of plants, if he fainted afterwards, then it was useless.

Garan had no choice but to go deeper into the forest to avoid them. He saw some beasts there, too, seemingly attracted by his scent. But as he ran away, many of them were captured by this animated vegetation. He watched as the plants wrapped around the beasts, wrapping around them until they suffocated.

He ran and ran, his goal towards the granite wall, because it was the best landmark there was. While he was heading away from it for now, he would slowly realign his direction to where he last estimated his wife was.

However, he quickly learned that it was not easy to do even this.

One moment there were bloody vines, the next it was a giant tree, and then it was a man-eating flower after that.

There were still plenty of beasts there, and he had seen plenty of monster versus plant fights, but the monsters were actually greatly overwhelmed. Garan took advantage of their fights to escape while recovering.

He tried to burn them, though there was a risk of forest fire using the firestarters in his space. However, just as how normal fire would still be challenged when dealing with wood from elementalists, his fire could not cause much damage to these animated plants.

So he used his remaining mana (added with a newly absorbed mana potion) to create a cage for himself as soon as he found a defendable nook.

Rather, he froze a meter or two of ground around him, found a rocky backing and created metallic spikes that pointed outwards.

Plants were not fond of the cold either, and elementalist ice was particularly harmful. However, if the plant was powerful, they could attempt to cross over anyway.

What could they do? Like beasts, their instinct was to consume!

Humans, especially elementalists, were beloved prey for these beasts and wild roots. Garan and Althea could be said to be ’top notch specimens’ among them. How could the plants not grow crazy in this case?

Garan remained guarded, swinging his sword whenever something crossed the line. The ice would slow down their approach (for weak ones, it might discourage them altogether) while the spikes would skewer them and send passive damage.

And because the immediate area was freezing, the plants getting ’injured’ would leak resin and fluids. The ice he created was ’contagious ’, so these openings and vulnerabilities would suffer extra damage just by contact.

It was the best he could do, for now.

...

Althea went out as soon as she finished the ’house’, which was more than a day since she began with half a dozen orcs’ assistance.

It was a dome around 10 or 11 square meters in floor area, and the tallest part of the ceiling was more than two meters tall, just a few inches shorter than Garan, so he didn’t have to lean down when walking inside.

She placed the entrance on the flat side of the dome. Since it would come out of her space, they simply had to enter before the door was closed and then let gravity make it fall, blocking the entrance with its own weight.

This way, at least above ground, there were no weak spots.

She also added the defense arrays that she knew of, which was frankly what took the longest time. The orcs had no idea what she was drawing, but if Terran science concepts were hard to explain to them, what more of arrays? She didn’t even try.

She just said ’I’m making magic’ and they nodded in awe without a hint of doubt on their faces.

The defense array she could draw was only as good as a level 3 wall. To others, this was already amazing, but for Althea, since she had been exposed to high-level walls, couldn’t be satisfied with it. But it would do for now. Level 3 walls were still quite sturdy and took a while before they were cracked with force.

Further, she specifically drew the arrays inside. While this meant that she’d have to frequently repair the outer shell after encountering strong enemies, this also meant that she could replenish and repair the arrays as needed without having to go outside.

Of course, when she finds the time, she would draw outside, too, creating a double layer like how it was with the system walls.

As for the fenestrations, she chose small circular windows placed at a calculated distance from each other. They were very small and shouldn’t allow anything bigger than a big man’s fist to go through.

As such, whoever was inside might feel a bit stuffy, but it should be comfortable enough even if there were five or so people inside the house.

It also had an anchorage system that would bury into the ground with a few levers to anchor it. Of course, if the enemy was very strong, this rushed-to-be-made anchor might not hold on and could get pulled up.

However, even if it did get pulled out, the shell of the house itself was very sturdy, so they’d just have to suffer getting rolled around like a ball until they recovered enough to fight back.

Further, those fenestrations could easily fit bows, arrows, and even small cannons. Also, hands and would give them decent sight. It wasn’t like they couldn’t attack while inside. On the contrary, they could be more wanton when attacking because the basic protection was impeccable.

The orcs went in and out during the finishing period, fascinated, and wanted to ask Althea to make some for them too. However, Althea was currently too busy to say yes, but she took note of this need.

They could only be sad as the new house and Althea were prepared to leave.

Althea had considered taking an orc team with her, but her [Woodland Camouflage] was a solo skill. It was just much more convenient for her to move alone.

They were happy to send her off, though, even those orcs she had not exchanged a word with.

"BYEEE ALTHEAAAA!!"

"SEE YOU AGAIN!!!"

"Can you leave Pappi Pug here?"

And so on.

Althea giggled. "I will take my husband with me next time."

Under the eyes of many orcs who wanted to go with her, Althea rushed out to find her husband.