A few days of trimming finally did the painful trick: I'm back to normal size. It really made me appreciate the effort it takes to mow lawns... if the lawn was also your body. Honestly, being a plant sometimes sucks. On the plus side, though, I've grabbed a title and new skill for the first time in a while.

Masochist

You get off on damage? Wait, no, you just benefit from it!

Passive Effect

N/A

Equipped Effect

Every time a non-allied enemy of sufficient threat damages you, there is a 1% chance of one random stat being increased.

After losing 70% of your total HP, gain +10% of your STR, CON, DEX, INT, and RES.

[Set Title] Rookie Cut Learned General-type An Attack skill; after wielding a bladed weapon or appendage long enough, one learns how to cut the correct way. This is the first step of many for those wanting to use bladed weapons.

Costs 2 SP.

Masochist was an instant pick when I unlocked it, as much as I dislike the implications of it if someone can see my title. As often as I get into fights, random stat boosts will become a godsend if I can get even one of them.

Rookie Cut, on the other hand, is a mixed reward; I think I can use it to great effect since it'll let me fight using my knife, but my stat line isn't very good for melee combat. Not to mention that while I'm used to my new body, the Creeper still isn't intended to be a physically attacking beast. Its stature makes it hard to attack anything the size of an adult or larger. Even if I jump, I can't exactly protect myself after making an attack.

All of this aside, I've decided to train both Bomber and Ivy on how to use their respective weaponry while sparring each other whenever they're not performing the morning ritual grass-eating to stave off their resource costs.

Ropert and I have taken on the guard duties for now. He's grown to about twenty or so feet long now and after hearing about the previous person Grey Man had, I've gone ahead and asked him to stop using Growth. I don't think he'd be at risk anytime soon, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Master, this appears to be all of the deceased ranbi for the day.

Our pile is four high. It's not as astounding as our old days, but given how the field is creeping around us and narrowing the killing opportunities, it makes sense.

Good job. We should also go check the field we put the grass and worms at.

Ropert wiggles confusedly but then realizes what I mean: the field. Ivy and I worked to try and transplant some of the grass from the valley — and the worms who burrow about — into Kave.

The truth is that I'm not too hopeful of the grass, surviving... but if the worms can survive here and we can locate them, then we'd have a new source of food even if they aren't mana-enriched.

The two of us split up for now so he can deliver the bodies while I check in at the pond.

Relationship with Amassed Creeper Thorn increased by 2.

New Relationship score: 25

So far it's going better than I thought. Feeding the Creeper Thorn larger amounts at once results in a larger growth, so our efforts prioritize at least four ranbi per feeding to get 2 points. My relationship score increasing this much has kept it rather complacent, too, since it isn't moving around anymore. It respects my dungeon's location with what intelligence it does have, so it's not growing anywhere that will keep hindering me for the time being.

But the true gem of the evening is that it works: the worms and grass I brought are growing around Roth's Pond. I'd say it's growing better than it did in the valley, too; all the water around the edge of the water, especially, is already taller than the majority of it at the forest. The lengthy daylight we receive must be doing droves to help it grow faster.

And weirdly enough, I have a new building in my listings for the Dungeon Town and my general building outside of the dungeon.

Name Summary & Effect Costs Worm Farm: Grass A low-level ominivorous farm; providing a staple of fast-growing Mana Grass and worms that feed and grow it, this small building is the basis of primitive monster society.

Increases both Herbivore and Carnivore Food Levels to 2.

Increases Dungeon Town Housing Level to 1.

Grants "Random Lure: Monster Traveller" event: random chance to occur once per week. 5 Stone

5 Metal

20 Lumber

50 Favor

It's expensive. Really expensive.

But the benefits alone are awesome! The echowings are definitely on my list of things to recruit, but if I get lucky I could have people finding me! This is exactly what anyone can dream of when they make a dungeon in the middle of nowhere!

Or so any newbie to Brogdar would think. The truth is that it'll probably pull from what's around me: that means I'll be visited by ranbi that may or may not be controlled or even a leader-type. The likelihood of them being controlled is high if they're a regular ranbi, but any of the Alpha or similar variants that can lead wouldn't be too big of a deal.

The benefit to getting some extra help is definitely big, though; we'll need all the hands we can get to help cut the Amassed Creeper down while also feeding it. The amount of ranbi my dungeon lures in isn't anything to scoff at, but the amount we grow can go up if I get more residents to keep an eye on it. A pen specifically for sacrifices and another for raising them is a pretty good plan as long as you can control them both, after all.

First, let's go ahead and make the worm farm. I'll put the first one out here since it's eligible for placing in Landmark locations.

Construct: Worm Farm: Grass.

I raise my staff, watching the earth shift and mound further; Favor and the converted resources in my dungeon appear from the Landmark crystal, floating over and quickly surrounding it. The metal required burrows into the ground and creates a box of dirt, quickly reinforced and decorated with stone. The Mana Grass takes up one-half of the box before the lumber rapidly sections it into halves; one side clearly bulges and houses the worms, whilst the other side becomes their farm.

I don't really get how these worms know how to farm grass... but their co-dependence means that we'll benefit. Chalk up another great asset from the Valley claimed!

[Notification]

Infrastructure improved.

Food Level (Herbivore) and Food Level (Carnivore) have improved to 2.

The increased level is now sufficient for defensive forces.

Infrastructure has increased Protection Level to 1.

Road Level has increased to 1.

Dungeon Town Housing Level is now 1.

Tons of improvements! Hell yes!

This might be the best part of being a dungeon master, I think: stat bars go brrrr. It's just therapeutic to know all my struggles pay off as long as I'm persistent and use my head. Bomber getting killed isn't gonna happen again as long as I keep my pace... and as long as I can avoid that, I-

Master, the dungeon town is different. Have you done something?

... Huh? Wait, did the Dungeon Town actually change from that? That's a bit unexpected, but I better go see. Besides, the dungeon should automatically harvest my Landmark's farm... so the worms can rest in peace.

Heck, maybe the dungeon town'll get one! It'll be a good idea to have food in town, too, right?

Ropert, what are these things?

I believe they're houses.

This must be a joke. The tiny hovels from before are the types of houses we have.

These new ones are thin, two-floored compressed homes; tight-packed stairs and simple floorplanning at the exact same size, these new homes are more like a modern-theorized home than a medieval one. The stairs are even adjusted to allow ranbi and non-walking creatures climb it! Bomber and Ivy already moved up into the second floor of their home, whilst Ropert lazily coils up and through one of his windows like it's just natural.

These new homes are common in the Plains. Or so I think. Why wouldn't one want to have a vantage point to see from?

It might be a good point but it's still a bit hard to swallow that easily in my case. I designed the homes and defensive circle of our base with singular floored homes in mind; now that they've been raised, the defenses aren't useful against ranbi-

Wait, this... might actually work better. I can just make it so that the ramparts are higher to the new buildings. Anything that tries to take the high path just fall and probably die.

Fuck me, this is actually good. The effectiveness of my Creeper Thorn lines is better for flatter terrain, so this means I can reinforce the lower sections with more of it and leave the upper ramparts alone. It might be problematic in the future, but that can be changed by simply blocking them off!

Whatever. If everyone likes it and it somehow makes it harder for us to get attacked, why not? Besides, I'll have to make more homes in the future; we got a new building that'll make it possible for us to get visitors.

Ropert turns his head-end toward me.

Is that wise with the large growth still acting as a problem? Not to mention that we hardly have any food in storage.

... Good point. I'm going to be creating one of our new farms on the outside of our defensive circle. It'll be useful for Bomber and Ivy so they can eat something besides the grass for whenever we don't want to expand, but we can also start harvesting the excess amount.

I step out of the Rost Pond end, setting up the usual area-blocking RNG manipulation before spawning the farm.

Thankfully it lands in the outer layer, at least; it doesn't end up on our southern end, but it does place along one of the three pathways leading out from my dungeon.

Speaking of which, the roads: all the paths we made before actually appear properly packed and even laid with wooden struts to keep the grass from reaching or growing within them again. It looks... a bit tacky, I guess, but it stands out more and helps give the vibe we're not entirely new to the area.

With our current status, we'd probably be able to support around ten residents if I really wanted. That number is based on how much the farm looks to be able to produce, assuming we make a few more as we grow. Water access is more than enough thanks to my dungeon's bath and our storage, but food will be the one thing we have to account for. Ranbi and their types all rely on herbivore meals, so in the worst case we could simply clear more grass for food.

The bigger question is if we attract more Creeper variants. Our species are omnivorous but nutrition does require ample food supplies based on my travel experience; the better move may be to not allow Creeper variants and instead either drive them away or harvest them in some manner.

The biggest question is carnivores. Or more picky omnivores that can't afford to eat only grass like we can due to our Digestion skill and simplistic nutrition mechanics. An echowing may not be able to live here happily, even with the occasional ranbi for food, much less a human or larger one.

Construct: Critter Pen.

Better get to work filling this other pen. Originally I planned to just butcher younger ones and have the older ones be recruited... but this way, I can still stick to the better plan: one section for breeding and recruiting them, and the others for food or overflow. If I put the pens close together, it also means we can easily transfer them as needed.

Feeding the Amassed Creeper Thorn and now the Dungeon Town... this really does feel like a different challenge than my previous ones. I don't know if the Farm bonuses stack but it may be dangerous to construct too many more of them if so. From now on, the best effort is going to be trying to rebalance all my resource gains given the new pen will push my mana upkeep to near-full. Once I have all 12, it'll add an extra 1.2 Mana to my upkeep; that means I'll be generating less than 1 mana per day.

Better idea: I need to also find a method to increase my mana regeneration. Theoretically I can one of my daily generated stone resources, but that's a temporary measure and not necessarily a good one given the rate of transfer. After all, a single stone can be broken down into 8 Mana... but I only have a storage of 20 Mana as far as dungeon resources go.

Increasing my Storage amounts and my Mana generation. Hell, getting Lumber wouldn't be bad either since I'll need that sooner than a larger supply of metal. Putting a Landmarker in Grey Valley could probably grant me Lumber, but I can't protect it adequately in my current state so that's out of the question.

So yeah. Let's focus on the mana first.

Ropert, what do you think would help magic generation?

Normally my vine companion has ideas, might as well ask.

Mm... well, you utilize crystals. My logic is that they may be key to it. Alternatively, bones: magical creatures leaving behind bones are no doubt a sufficient means to increase mana. The worms you spoke of are able to increase mana as well.

... Hm? The worms are the thing making the grass mana enriched?

Magic worms? Mage worms?

How can worms increase magic?

I do not know. But based on how your farm exists, I suspect it to be the case; the worms are providing mana so the grass will grow, but then consume the grasses at their root to replace their spent power and provide nutrition.

So that's how it works? It seems like they're co-dependent, but is it really more that the worms are truly farming it? I know it's called a worm farm, but the worms aren't intelligent. They haven't tried any form of communication or struggle, either.

Is magic something that can be used even without a greater form of intelligence, then? Bonebacks and Gemfawns use it but they use it defensively, so the worms would be an exception to my regular norm. Not to mention that it doesn't explain why they'd only use it for that. Are they just so simple-minded they only consider magic useful for tending grass to enrich their dirt and mana supply? It almost sounds like something created by someone without an understanding of basic food chains.

But it gives me a starting point to consider: worms are able to enrich grasses with mana, whilst my crystals can store it. Time to dig some up and do some experimenting, I guess, but it can wait.

I still need to finish feeding the Amassed Creeper Thorn and there are now tons of worms to do it with.