I reached the nearby grove today. I felt like I had to focus on growing my grove before then, so I did, and I entered a kind of trance where I let instinct take over. There was something in that grove, some kind of will, a threat. It lashed out at me, violent and vicious, as if not fearing for its own safety. On instinct I crushed this will, though I felt a bit drained for my effort.

After that, I went to investigate the new acquisition to my grove. When I stepped into my new territory I felt profoundly unwelcome, and the plants here resisted my attempts to control them. This made me angry, and so I fixed the issue, a show of force was enough. Now they jump at my command, as they should.

Tiddol’s gift is pretty much perfected now. But I feel like I should add more to it. It is designed to allow her to move without restriction while also boosting her ability to move around quickly at the cost of some functions that aren’t necessary in a life or death situation. The bulk of the actual armor is positioned to cover her vitals while her joints are left almost unarmored. On top of that, whenever she gets seriously injured it draws from her mana pool to fix it, though she can turn that off. It is designed a lot more for getting out of and away from danger than it is to tank danger.

I tried including portweed, but that just takes way too much mana to be feasible. Maybe I could get ahold of a gemstone and have the armor run on that first? It might speed up deployment and provide an extra pool to draw from for healing.

Yeah, I think I will do that. Maybe I can get a good gemstone in town? Doesn’t need to be anything too fancy.

I should really figure out a way to produce gemstones with plants, but the closest I’ve come is the mana berries, which are one-time use. And nothing I’ve seen even suggest something like that is possible, but if it is then I am probably the best person to figure it out. Either way, it isn’t a priority.

My dad has taken to training a group of young soldiers that he thinks has promise. His training methods seem, brutal, for lack of a better word. Most of the time when sparring I see dulled swords, here everything is real and injuries are common. He doesn’t let anyone heal the injured either, even if they are on the brink of death, which one unfortunate hobgoblin boy was. They have to recover through their own merit, or not at all. I didn’t watch for long.

My dad seems to have undergone a shift in perspective today, or something to that effect. Before he was more sad and angry, now he is driven and still angry. The anger makes sense, but what is driving him?

The stories he has told me recently are more violent and bloody than I remember.

Azrezel finally managed to figure out how to create a link between his undead. Well ‘figured out’ isn’t entirely correct, he learned enough about how Lace works that his own intention was enough to fill in the gaps. That plus pretty much all of the mana he has access to allows him to connect two undead together. It is a definite improvement, with a bit of work he could get it down to reasonable levels.

I wish I could help him out with this, but unfortunately healing and necromancy are fundamentally incompatible. I’m sure a true immortal could do both, but I am still far from that level.

Other than that nothing I noticed happened.

Anyway, Good Night Diary.