Chapter 17- Stronghold!

With his eyes glowing brighter than ever, Drake tells Jared his choice. "I think Petrification Wave is the best choice for our upcoming battle." He says, but almost immediately follows up, saying, "But, my siblings are immune to petrification, just like me. So instead, I will save my points, and go for "Stonebound Resonance", crushing all of my enemies!"

Respecting his choice, Jared nods, not commenting on his choice. 'Seems like he's going down the Earth Dragon route. Earth manipulation sounds eerily like something that a dragon could do.' Making his guess as to the reason behind that skill evolution being available, Jared was excited to see Drakes' future evolutions. 

"Alright guys, I think we're ready to set up our Stronghold!" Looking around the Mana Pool's cavern, Jared thinks hard about where to place the Stronghold Core. Thinking back to their first interaction with Drake, he quickly comes to a conclusion.

"Char, use your webs to make a floating platform over the pool. You should include some non-sticky webs so that I can use them to walk up there." Not waiting for her response, Jared looks at Drake.

"You are going to go through the area, using boulders to block the side paths. The fewer directions we have to defend, the better."

Having set up his comrades with a plan, Jared begins scaling the wall along the Mana Pool up to the overarching path. Making his way to the cavernous hole on one end of the path, Jared climbs to the ceiling.

'I hope this works.' Leaving a pheromone message saying "DANGER! BIG DANGER BEHIND HERE!" Jared begins his work of slowly digging into the ceiling. Little by little digging out a circular section.

"Oh shit!"

BOOM CRASH

After a few minutes, his work succeeded. In fact, it succeeded a little too well. Just barely jumping out of the way in time, Jared landed back onto the path. Turning around just in time to witness the carnage that was multiple tons of stone and rock clashing against itself. With one side's entrance filled up, Jared looked content, confident that nothing would break through that easily.

'Now, once I finish the other side, Drake finished his work, and Char sets up the platform under me, we should finally be ready to create our base.'

After a while had gone by, with constant crashing sounds resounding throughout the cavern, the trio had finished their work. Gathering themselves on the shoreline of the Mana Pool, they began to talk.

"Okay guys, let's go over the plan one more time." Jared started. "Drake will be taking point, he will be our main "tank", hopefully preventing any of our enemies from getting through. I will be constantly supporting him, firing my acid from behind. Occasionally I'll step forward, crushing whoever gets past him." Making sure that his friends understood so far, he continued. "Char, you will be both our first, and final line of defense. With your webs spread everywhere throughout the cave in front of us, they should serve to slow down our enemies, using their bodies to hold any others back. Finally, you will be staying by the core the entire time, ensuring that no one can get close. If some enemies start climbing your webs to get to the core, cut the webs. I doubt there's many that have strong enough bodies to withstand that acidic pool."

Taking a deep breath after his long explanation, Jared felt happy with the plan. He had to make sure that the plan wasn't too complex, otherwise, his friends would most likely forget it. After staring into the eerily blue Mana Pool for a few minutes, Jared started to climb Chars' web, making his way to the web platform that was made to hold the Stronghold Core.

Looking around to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, Jared prompted the System. 'Okay System, let's create a stronghold.'

[Stronghold Core creation cost: 25 Growth Points.]

[Please designate the location of the core.]

Suddenly, an intangible, faceted, translucent amber sphere appeared in Jareds' vision. Relatively small, the sphere was only about half a meter in diameter, and seemed to be made up of diamond-like crystal. Whenever Jared willed it, the sphere would slowly move, halting wherever he liked. Taking a few seconds to play around with the sphere only he could see, Jared eventually positioned it on the platform of webs in front of him. Making sure that it was settled, and would not roll off somehow, Jared confirmed his designation mentally. As he climbed down to the shoreline, Char destroyed the path he took to the core, the web dissolving immediately as it made contact with the Mana Pool.

[Would you like to designate a Core Manager? The Core Manager will have authority second only to your own, and will gain a bonus for successfully defending the Core during its creation.]

'Designate Char as the Core Manager.' Deciding that it would be best for Char to be the manager, Jared designated her. 'She's the only one of us that can actually reach the Core right now anyway.' Looking at Char, he notices a small strand of golden energy leaking out from the Core. Slowly, this strand floated over to Char before silently branding her back, creating a shiny golden hourglass. Although the process looked oddly painful, it seems like Char did not notice the change at all. Climbing atop a large boulder near the shore to gain a better view of the cave, Jared turned his attention back to the System.

[Would you like to spend 25 Growth Points to create a Stronghold Core?]

[Any creature may consume the Core to gain Growth Points.]

[Warning: You must remain in a 25-meter radius of the Core during the creation process.]

[Warning: During the creation process, a tantalizing scent will be continuously released, attracting any creature that detects it.]

[Warning: If the Core is consumed or destroyed, you and the manager will incur a Growth Point penalty of -50 points.]

Looking around one last time, Jared confirmed his decision with the System.

HREEEE-CHI

Immediately following his confirmation, a screeching noise came from the location of the core. Like nails on a chalkboard, followed by the sound of a glass pane shattering. As soon as the noise finished, Char yelled out in amazement. "Woah! A yellow circle just appeared in my web!" Looking back, Jared notices a small amber shard floating in the air above her web. This shard was nearly two-dimensional, circular, and impossibly flat. This circle was only an eighth of what the Cores' size should have been. Looking closer, he could see the crystal cracking and regrowing over and over again. Every time it would crack, a thin, translucent, yellow cloud would be released, slowly gathering in the cave above the Mana Pool.

Above the growing shard, there was also a System-like window floating in the air. This window displayed a timer that was slowly counting down.

[Creation Time Remaining: 23:58:42]

Although the Core was said to release a tantalizing smell, as the cloud finally filled up the immediate surroundings, Jared took a whiff. 'Hmm, I guess it makes sense that I wouldn't be attracted to the smell.' Making sure that his friends were equally unaffected, Jared settled down on the boulder, watching the cave in front of him for any movement.

"Okay guys, it's a waiting game now, if either of you notice anything odd, don't hesitate to say anything. Though I think we'll have some time to relax before that scent cloud can spread far enough out of this area to attract anything." Jared says.

"Ooh! Ooh! I see something weird!" Immediately after Jared spoke, Char called out urgently. Both Drake and Jared turned around quickly, looking at Char and waiting for her to point it out. "See! There's this weird-looking rock staring at me!" She says, using her front leg to point at Drake.

CHOMP CHOMP

Drake smashed his teeth together in anger, a loud chomping noise resounding throughout the cave as Jared just stared at Char blankly, too exasperated to even react.

"I- Char! Take this seriously!" He huffed, unable to rebuke her further.