The next two days rush by in mad preparation. I presented the first armor to Greg as it was made to his exacting body size and it fit better than any other armor in our village including Blackwood’s occasional custom jobs, which is not a knock on his capabilities, just another system limitation.

Even as Jack, Li Wei and I worked tirelessly improving and learning a lot, the nearly magical state we entered that first time while making Greg’s armor was never the same afterward. No other armor reached that same cohesion, even the one I made using Abyssal steel for Alex. The quality of the metal helped push it to a +6 defense rating, but it is a much lighter armor intended for an agile fighter and something was missing. Still, given that it is much larger than a spear, I manage to add something Alex was crying for.

A simple enchantment that could apply eighter a +2% speed buff on himself, or +1% for people up to 2 meters from him. It was mana expensive and any such fields interfered with each other, so it is not like we could stack hundreds of these on top of each other even in fixed placements. The runes are so restrictive that even different kinds of buffs don’t stack.

If we could somehow bypass just this second restriction, I can just imagine. Twenty different effects covering the walls during the attacks each adding +3% to something. That would be nearly as good as doubling our complement of people.

Blackwood grunts as we discussed it were not very encouraging, but I wouldn’t give up so easily. This is exactly the type of stuff I’m suited to ‘cheat’ on. There was something on the edge of my mind, a path may be hard but is possible. But even after a couple of amazing nights of sleep, I still fail to bring it into the world. So I stop proding and let the answer come naturally to me like it is a skittish animal. One step in their direction sends them two steps back, I just have to wait for it to come to me on its own.

Even with more space to work and a larger mass budget on armor compared to a spear, the best I could do was this. Nearly a hundred mana a second and it took between two and three seconds to fully power up.

We make our best work together even if we fail to enter that nigh magical state. But each time we get closer and with practice, we may be able to repeat it in the future. My Creation skill was fast becoming a part of my every action, every movement in the smithy as I learn how to use it and how to filter other’s people access to my knowledge or just the opposite: letting everything out that could be useful. The real challenge is the balance where I don’t overwhelm anyone, nor do they get less than they need. A limit that is both individual and contextual depending on the nature of the knowledge even for the same person.

The first time I didn’t play with the skill much, but even if I didn't pay attention to that, but walking my memory palace it is clear the subtle nudges of the system in my first real use of the skill that perfuses much of our actions in the instance. Once In a while, it did something nice like this, but I should never forget… Cold… Unfeeling… Machine.

After every use, I grew to realize the differences not only in powering the skill with Qi instead of Mana and how much broader the skill was now.

Qi was coming to affect just about every single one of my skills and capabilities.

Life and Vigor had their place and in time I would deeply explore them, but Qi had an appeal all of its own and it was a superior version to mana in just about every single way imaginable.

Even connecting with Aspen using Qi is a far deeper experience compared to using Mana.

I look out of my hut and return the bed the innkeeper was so unwilling to part with to the inner world.

This time however I don’t put it inside the central protection building instead of letting it sit near Aster’s colony. Barely five seconds later, dozens of rabbits nearby rush in climbing their legs and occupying every square inch of it so they can take a nap or just feel the amazing softness.

Too bad the cost was prohibitive. If it had only been measured in gold, I would gladly pay the price, but his request is just stupid. I’m not gonna spend days of my time working there.

I climb atop my speeder and fly back to the village an hour or so before our departure time.

Two fighters are already in place waiting in meditation while the dozens of others are still elsewhere, probably preparing. I join them and go over my preparations.

Everyone got upgraded armor and at least +8 weapons, and these people already have +10 spears. I’m rested and in my best condition while everyone is already familiar with the plan.

Plans for the future are all in place with scouts already moving around the HLZ with small cannons and shooting thousands 5 inch long seeds to help the expansion.

It can’t quite reach as far as the forearm or watermelon sized seeds, but the finger wide seeds can reach some 3 kilometers with their long profile and aerodynamic shape. That should make a lot of difference in my expansion.

As the minutes pass, I continue expanding my inner world, this time downward, but growing the runes and instantly filling them with soil stored on the surface for just that purpose.

Most of it is not the pure high-quality soil that the Herb shrubs grew on, but with an ever-larger inner world, even keeping a good top layer is going to be harder and harder. If I insist on filling even the depths with the best, I would need to dedicate a lot more time than I was prepared to the endeavor.

A few minutes before leaving I give one last look at the mines that were stolen from us to find the same people that were there yesterday still trying to get access to the silver and I finish convincing myself.

They take a minute from me every day just to check and stop their progress.

Before we were struggling to just keep our efforts hidden, but with the enormous expansion of the hundred plus mines they don’t know about, I can probably simply ignore their efforts.

Yes, they did steal from us, but to continue pouring in resources just to spite them will lead nowhere, they have shown their stubbornness. And if after I stop harassing their efforts, they continue trying to get in the way… I can always escalate as well.

So instead of collapsing the building tunnels, I reinforce what is already built with the roots nearby and let their golem move back and forth digging inch by inch.

When they have access to the Silver, we will be swimming in so much that it won’t even be funny.

I open my eyes just as Alex gets to the central square to see his smile plastered on his boyish face.

“Ready?”

“Yes, guardian of the world tree.”

I just shake my head at his reference and pull the original flying bus out of the inner world.

The gang enters the familiar craft, though a few people are different as the original members moved to leadership positions in the B squad. The last five people squeeze into the corridor and find their seats at the back. Every one of them is a trusted miner hand-picked and given the chance that will we find an opportunity, or at least to help plan with their experience in the area. They know how mining duties were handled and how they could be adapted with a closer look at the conditions on site instead of working with second-hand information.

It was risky business heading inside the HLZ, but everyone knew what they were singing for and soon we are taking flight.

The hours of travel pass with nary a word except what we need to communicate back to the village and the occasional remark or question that someone missed about our entry in the HLZ.

Everyone’s eyes are deep set and there is no doubt in their mind, that we are not only entering the HLZ, but we are also claiming a piece of it, even if only for a few minutes.

As we are about to arrive I call out to the inner world and warn Aster about what is to come, though even as I do that, she sends back:

“Call the silly wolf, he likes battling.”

“Ohhh, too late,” I say regretfully. Though even if I had, he would only be able to show up at night. Still, this first outing shouldn’t be about gaining levels or anything of the sort, it is about learning what is on the other side and how much we need to grow so we can start earnestly taking territory and how much force and construction we will have to dedicate to the endeavor.

With the sun high in the sky, though that mattered not at all inside the HLZ as far as we were concerned, we take a step forward.

Our group forms a diamond shape with Greg, in his gleaming reddish abyssal steel armor at the very tip, with the Spear Wielder everyone else waiting and ready to poke holes in anything that he ‘tanked’.

“Almost there,” Greg says a good hundred meters inside the HLZ before we get to a larger clear spot where we have enough maneuvering room.

“Hold.”

I extend my Qi along with Merlin, though he doesn't focus on the roots underground, in one of the densest underground networks in the entire HLZ. Instead, he starts with his Meta magic shinanigans powered by much greater intellect and mana pool than the last time I saw him in actual battle.

Aspen just floods the area in mana and makes a wonderful job of not only activating but nearly actively driving all the roots to slightly thicken up and grow more tendrils, an impressive feat without the help all system users seem to get while wielding magic.

I use a thread of my attention on that, but focus mostly on other aspects, like my muscles nearly shivering from all the energy pent up.

Clad in a wooden armor twisted with HLZ beast leather strips. Armor that is covered in runes and directly connected to specialized batteries in the inner world, a powerful mana shield fully envelops me, similarly to every single one of the other warriors around me.

Even the miners hidden inside the inner world are clad in adapted full plate +4 armor sets, just in case I kick the bucket or something goes wrong.

We wait for the single beast from this territory, as Pando and I begin preparing the territory and pulling pylons and walls of roots from the inner world to help shield us before the Black Panther and its friends show up. Throughout, everyone else can’t actually do anything and their trepidation just increases.

A minute, two, three minutes pass without even a cricket chirping, not that there are any in the instance.

I don’t even notice the beast anywhere, as they somehow never pass in the vicinity of my roots. I could probably find them with the perception field if I could extend it in multiple places simultaneously, but they always sense my roots underground and avoid them whenever possible. Suddenly, on the edge of my vision, nearly a kilometer out, I feel movement through my connection to the roots. A few seconds later, my perception field heading in their direction.

“Five Beasts, the perfect number for our squad. They are heading straight for us nearly at a full sprint. Bearing… 310 degrees.”

Just a single beast more and we had agreed we would be turning back, but either the plan was always to bring five or the system was pushing us as hard as it could without driving us away.

Everyone is already familiar with this notation and turns precisely in their direction with not a further word.

Though we shouldn’t assume this will be the only group. I try to split my mind, keeping a small field around the beasts, only a dozen meters wide with the help of the network, while trying to extend my perception around my physical body.

This is an exercise that in one form or another had consumed a few minutes of my time here and there these last few weeks, but each try is like the time spend doing maximum deadlifts. The exercise may last a couple of seconds, but the result from each brief session has lasting consequences for both good or ill.

Consequences that I feel in full as the adrenaline and cost of failure drive in my mind and I finally manage to tear my consciousness in half. Though like I’m wearing a 3d glass with different streams going to each eye, the beginnings of a massive headache develop even as I have trouble understanding what is going on.

I keep my eye on the prize, through the pain and confusion, the simple exercise… keeping an eye on the flat-out sprint, and checking for movement of someone sneaking by.

I face their direction so the higher range portion of the perception field is turned in their direction and even before the aprchign bubble merges back into my perception field, I drop the second part of my effort. No longer splitting my brain in half, I gather my wits after unlocking this skill in a fairly inopportune way.

One last breath and my gaze trains in on the beasts matching everyone else’s.

With everything that took me the last couple of days prepared, I step out from the middle of the path by flooding my body with mana and Qi levitating for just long enough to come to the side of the main formation.

A loud crashing sound hits my ears, as the beasts break the pillars powering the large shield surrounding us, with their characteristic mana disruption skills simply passing through the shields.

With a large hole and a lot of momentum, they close the 10 meters to the outer line without even circling us once.

My feet dig into the ground and I explode forward, pulling both Vigor and Qi to reach speeds that even hundreds of points of mana would have failed to deliver me, and I rush straight to the action.

With a pure abyssal steel staff in my hands, wooden and leather armor, my new resources, and high stats in EVERYTHING, this is the closest I have ever come to even ground with these beasts.

Now, I can only pray that it is enough.