If the mert es back this winter, which I would expect to be the case, we'll o have fields for the new crops and livestobsp; Those areas should be a good pce to cut trees to gain more levels again. Thinking about it, I'm starting to get a little worried about the avaible leveling resources on the isnd. It's holy something I should put more time into studying given the growing popution. Oher source of levels that I've noticed is the sea life that we've been harvesting. All of the regur fishergoblins have prestiged multiple times, and holy, I'm surprised that none of them have yet to bee hobgoblins. Most of the sea creatures must not be worth very many levels is the only clusion I draw based on the limited evidence I have for that.
After my mana recharged, I tried out Thermal Hands to heat some wood from a stockpile. I wasly sure what to expect, but the wood that was in tact with my hand started sm pretty early on, and caught fire not long after that. I didn't evehat much mana, only a quarter of my total mana pool.
, I went out into the forest to find some damp wood. That wood didn't catch fire despite using the remainder of my mana pool. The wood started to release a lot of steam by the time my mana ran out. It's only a hypothesis, but it really does seem like I'm adjusting the temperature of whatever is in direct tact with my hands, not the whole object I'm holding. Dry wood doesn't duct heat very well, making it possible to ignite just the surface I'm toug with retive ease, where as the water in the damp wood distributed the heat across the whole k of wood while simultaneously abs more of the heat energy ier that had inuhe wood.
I decided to test this theory with one of the ingots of metal that I had smelted. Not just ahough, I decided t it with me to the bathhouse, a directly there where I offload more mana into the ingot.
After I waited for my mana to reach full capacity, I started to heat the ingot. Since I was submerged ih, I didn't notiy ge in my mana for almost a minute, before it started to slowly tick downwards. At that point, the ingot was noticeably hot. It hadn't yet reached a glow, but it was radiati waves in the air. As I allowed the temperature to climb more, my mana started to deplete even more while I was submerged ih, and I started to feel warm internally, despite my heat resistanbsp; As the ingot reached a moderate glow, my mana pool fully depleted. If it hadn't, I'm not sure that I could have sustai much longer anyway. I felt like I was running a fever, and had lost 87 HP.
As my mana ran out, I instantly felt the heat from the ingot on my hand, and dropped it ier of the bath, which then begaing steam at a rapid rate due to the ingot's heat. I lost another 10 HP as the ingot burned me. This is anuess, but the heat I was feeling during the heating process felt a lot like when I would touch a moderate sized mana crystal, or when I slept on the crystal pile, which might mean I was basically roasting my insides with mana dug it directly towards my hands through my body. Probably something to keep in mind as a potential danger moving forward.
These experiments were simply qualitative experiments. Iure, I'd like to run some quantitative experiments to really nail down the fiails of Thermal Hands. Si seems like I'm basically adding a stant amount of heat energy when I'm using it, I could in theory calcute the heat energy I produce per sed by attempting to boil water. I could also attempt to calcute exactly the rate ge of mana cost based on the object's temperature. With that information, I could potentially calcute the exact heat energy o perform various tasks. However, that would require a whole new b, and rigorous testing of other materials to actually produce usable results. Evehose results have barely any use on this isnd. I'll just have to shelf the study for now, like a lot of other studies I have pnned, until we've reached a point where the value outweighs the time spent doing the study.
I started clear cutting the new field areas, and spent twenty nine days cutting down trees. I did a little bit of experimenting while I was chopping trees. Once I got through the bark, I tried using thermal hands on the wood iree to heat it. I found that I could soften the local area of wood as it started to steam, and could chop into it a few more times. Of course, that used my entire mana pool, so it wasn't that useful, but if I ever o cut down just one particur tree, it could speed up the process siderably.
I had mentiohat none of the fishergoblins had evolved, and we retly had ourn into a hobgoblin. Namely, the fishergoblin who was doing the bulk resale was the first to evolve, which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise sidering he was killing more fish than any of the others.
As for myself, it always gets harder to gain levels every time I prestige or evolve, so I shouldn't be surprised that I've barely gained anythie felling a little over two acres worth of trees.
I hired a lot of goblins to hahe felled trees. They sorted the good o the instru of the carpenter, who then had to buy the wood from me. I didn't want to seem like I was showing favoritism, so I had him pay for the wood, but I did sell it at a very cheap rate. The rest of the wood I paid to have made into charcoal, while some of the bark was saved to be used at the bathhouse.
There is still more wood to be cut down for the pnned expansions of the vilge, but I'm going to leave that to the goblins who've been w in the reservoir cutting stone. Hopefully, they'll get stone shaping when they prestige. As for me, I'm going to up the reservoir area with stone shaping, sihey've been breaking stoh pickaxes. After that, I'm thinking about going to see the inn that has been built along the new road, and then helping the road stru crew for a little while.
ing up the reservoir took six days, and on the final day, snow fell on the mountaintop again. I'm holy quite surprised that the eagle doesn't mind the snow up there. It's not a trivial amount. I still pn on going to help the road stru crew, but I'll probably only assist for a short while, because I want to be ba the vilge wherader or anyone else arrives. The likelihood of them following the unfinished road isn't very high, sihe path ends up being somewhat difficult through the craggy terrain if you aren't along the coast. Ohe road is fihough, it should make travel signifitly faster than it would be following the coast, so I think the trade off is worth it.
The inn retty much a duplicate of the one I built in the vilge, but it was clearly more lived in. On most days, it seems like arou goblins are sleeping here as part of their hauling jobs t food and supplies to the road stru crew. I myself hauled a wagon of food and stoo assist in stru, and am pretty impressed with the road so far. They're doing a really good job. Uhe road we had going up the mountain, which sisted of stairs and a rail alongside them, this road is ft. It still has slope, but that slope has bee shallow.
The road going through the craggy terrain is impressive. It cuts along the ridges and valleys, and Zeb has done some engineering of his own it seems. Where they cut into the ridges to keep the road straight and ft, they've reinforced the cut walls with stone. When I asked Zeb about it, he said they implemehat after the mudslides, as those were the locations that colpsed. I gave him a little tip for buildiaining walls moving forward. Rather than buildiical walls alongside, like they have been, they should build them slightly sloped towards the cut dire. It should be both easier to build and make it stronger. They don't o go redo the previous ones uhey fail, as a straight retaining wall is still pretty good.
As I worked with them fht days, I got a pretty good feeling for how much lohis project will take. I'd estimate another six months until the road reaches the natural harbor on the far side of the isnd at the current pabsp; With that taken care of, I made my way back to the vilge.