Beyond the adamantium wall, a wide swath of traps were being constructed using materials acquired from several new buildings within our walls. We’d gained a warehouse full of various crafting materials, a smithy, a tinkerer workshop, an apothecary, and several workbenches set up for others to help with building parts. This, naturally, drained our wave coin stocks.

  Eight hours was not a long time to get things in place, but we at least had the groundwork in place, and the primary crafters now had outlets for improving their professions. I sat in the courtyard, applying sharpening enchantments to long metal spikes we’d begun burying into deep pit traps. My turret stood idly to my right, but it had a consistent slight bob that gave it the semblance of life. It suddenly started doing a little spidery dance number, and my current enchantment attempt failed as Jenny’s laughter erupted nearby.

  “Ernest, don’t you have shit to do?” I said with exasperation.

  “Why, nothing but entertain my beautiful lady here, you cretinous yahoo!” Jenny slapped his shoulder as he adjusted his fedora. A series of silent expressions were exchanged, and he spoke again, “I’m sorry.” My turret settled back down to its gentle bobbing.

  That… maybe shocked me more than anything in a long time, and I almost fell over.

  “Why don’t you go see if the cooking pits have finished up?” Jenny shooed him away before she sat next to me with a sigh. “Isn’t he just adorable?”

  “I’m going to abstain from answering that.”

  “Did you tell him you two were going to be rivals?”

  I laughed, “Well, kinda. I wanted the control spheres he had and didn’t want to kill him if I could help it because honestly his class and skills seemed pretty damned handy to have.”

  Jenny grew contemplative, “It sure has. He’s saved our butts more than once out there on the battlefield.”

  “Then I’m glad I didn’t eat him.”

  “Me too,” she said, leaning her head onto my shoulder. “What the hell has happened to us, Dan? Our lives have gotten so strange.”

  “Maybe we can find you a nice shire for you to chill at when we get back,” I patted her flowy paper skirt.

  “That would be lovely, but the System isn’t keen on peace.”

  “Fair enough. We just need to be strong enough that no one will bring war to our doorstep.” She smiled wanly and strode away as I returned to my enchanting. I felt a stirring from Tree and slipped into the Soul Chamber.

  “Your mark’s chamber is regenerated.”

  “Excellent! But, what did you ping me for?”

  “I have been recovering here for some time, and I think I’m ready to come out.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “There’s another hour or so before the next wave, so I think that’s a great idea! You can help with setting up the traps and such.”

  “There are some things we can do with runes that one cannot purchase from the system,” Tree acknowledged.

  “Hell yes! Let’s break the System some more!” I excitedly exited the Soul Chamber and sent a quick message for any people familiar with runes to meet me at the northern wall immediately. A short time later, a group of around 50 people gathered up, including Cari and Stan the crystal swordsman. After some brief hellos, I motioned for everyone to focus on me.

  “I know a master of runes who is going to help us establish some unique runic traps for the upcoming waves,” I said.

  “How’s that?” Stan asked.

  “When I ate the legendary Mysterious Cube, it held an entity that I eventually named Tree. They are… uh… sort of a set of sentient runes.” The crowd had several responses, primarily surprise.

  “You didn’t tell us about Tree,” Cari said, eyebrows raised. “Keeping secrets now?”

  “Of course! Tree was pretty heavily damaged by some things we worked on together, and needed to recover. Ready to meet them? Doesn’t matter!”

  Hesitant noises pelted me, but I ignored them and opened the mouth wide on my chest. Multihued flickering appeared as rune after rune flooded out from my mouth. Swirling power unleashed as Tree’s natural aura washed over everyone before me.

  “Greetings, survivors. I am the Traversal Runic Elder Entity. You, as Dan, may call me Tree. i have less than an hour to-”

  “You had a level 95 monster inside of you?” Stan nearly screamed with fear in his eyes.

  “Oh? Tree, you gain some levels in there! Nice!”

  “Indeed I have, Dan. Stan, I am no monster. I was not spawned by the System, but created by complex magic set up by humanoids some time ago. I have less than an hour to teach you some rune arrays that will help you to kill the enemy. Perhaps we can speak later when we have more time. Now, to the business of Empowering Arrays.”

  I watched for a few minutes as weaving metals, vines, crystals, and several other materials began to form intricate runic patterns along the wall’s upper walkway and leading down into the pavilion to several wide circles made by Tree itself. Knowing I needed to get back to my own enchanting, I walked back and knelt before the spikes. I was given enough of them that it only left me a few minutes before wave 11 started. As I handed them all over to the trapmaster, who promptly scampered off to set them up, I marvelled at Tree’s arrays. Twenty circles surrounded by runes dotted the pavilion, all leading back to the space atop the wall.

  “You did this in an hour?!” I said, genuinely impressed.

  “Fifty runeweavers can achieve much in a short time if they are worthwhile. And we’ve been forged in the tutorial,” Selka breathed heavily as she was putting the finishing touches on her section of runes, the heat from the cooling lava distorting the air around her.

  “What does this do, exactly?”

  “The Empowering Arrays help to bolster the abilities of an individual by allowing others to supply a portion of their power to the individual. I was thinking that this would allow you to brute force your way through the early rounds, and those who empower you will gain experience as though they participated in the fight.”

  “That’s amazing,” I said aloud so the others around us could hear. “You want to come back in or stay outside for a while?”

  “I’d like to stay to watch your work, if you don’t mind. I get only the bare minimum of data from within your Soul Chamber.”

  “Works for me!” I heard the rumbling of the System summoning the next waves. “Get them ready!”

  Spheres of black and crimson expanded like bubbles as I stepped through the void to appear upon the wall circle. The spheres all popped, revealing a hoard of Bloodthirsty Crows. A caw echoed out across the field, shaking the very walls. They all took to the skies as I activated my luring mark. Three clouds rose up from the north where I faced and from the east and west.

  And they all arced right at me.

  WAVE 11 BEGIN!