The next two days went by in a haze.
In the mornings I would check up on the killbox progress, it was going splendidly fast. By day three the entire killbox area was dug and cleared out and by day four they had already tied up all the metal supports and are expecting to be pouring concrete by tommorow morning.
I believe normally construction projects of this scale take longer than just 3 days, so it's thanks too the 'boon of construction' that the progress is being made so rapidly.
During midday, while having my lunch, I would check up on all the supplies and made it a habit to keep buying more. More guns, more ammunition, more food , more everything. I want to be extremely prepared so that even if an unexpected 9th wave were to come like the last round, I can still defend against it.
In the evenings I would be at the plains learning about how a farmland is prepared. It's tedious work really. First you have to clear the existing fauna on the land, then loosen the soil, in the mean while you also need to study and test samples of the soil, if the tests comes out too acidic you need to add lime but not too much or the soil will become to basic and then-
Sigh, all that goes say that I have a lot to study and learn.
During these sometime during the evening of the second day, Marcus also awakened his ability, it caused a huge ruckus but it's fine, he was safe and sound.
In the nights Anna and I discussed our settlement's plans for the future and our work for tommorow. She really is great for bouncing around ideas and for seeing a situation from all perspectives. Perhaps it's because she was trained from childhood to not only assist me in my daily tasks but also to be the perfect business partner and advisor for the next heir of Chopperfeller commercial empire.
I really can't help but worry how helpless I'd feel without her.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Day 22.
It's 5 in the morning, the sun has yet to rise so only the floodlights placed yesterday illuminated my yard. I shielded my eyes from the light, it was awfully bright.
—Yawn—
Normally, you would be unreasonable to expect me to wake up before 10 but now, ever since the second round started I didn't get a wink of sleep beyond 5am .
During my school years, Anna had to wrestle me our of my bed just so I could make attendance. She never seemed to be too bothered by the conditions around her. Even now, even though Anna went to after I did and woke up before I did, she still is as lively and energetic as ever.
Mark is here too, with his aide. Their situation comedically mirrors ours. Mark hasn't been informed much about the hole and his newly acquired powers. I should have a talk with him sometime.
As the last few minutes ticked by, my eyes roamed around and carefully surveyed the progress of the new killbox.
It was marvellous, much stronger, bigger, spacious, prettier and more advanced than out rudimentary killbox from round 2. This new killbox would easily contain a hundred thousand rats without even being half way full!
And by the looks of it, the killbox was mostly finished. The concrete that was casted yesterday, while not cured throughout entirely was still more than hard enough to walk on. The concrete barricades were also progressing well, they should be lifted into place by wave 3.
**Check comments for the visualisation of the new killbox**
All this progress would likely have taken a month at the least, in a way, having any construction project finish on time, let alone before time is a superpower in its own right.
Anyways enough coping, the wave is starting soon, let's see what comes out of it this time.
A dark furless, humanesque hand reached above the hole, splatting slimy goo atop the concrete, then another hand reached above. Then the new monster peaked its head over the hole. It's eerie eyes, closely resembled a humans; white sceleras with dark, round pupils floating atop them. It's stubby head carried the heavy shell mounted on its skull, scales curved around its cheek and over its flat nose, stopping just shy of its drooling mouth.
The monster then pulled the rest of its body out and stood on both legs. Upon its humanoid torso was mounted a snug fitting shell, its weight caused the monster to have a hunched posture.
Sprouting from its lower back a thick tail, armoured with scaled flailed around. And towards the front— man if it looks so similar to ours, you'd thing they would also learn to cover it up like us too.
It looked much too similar to a human to kill without hesitating but much too dissimilar to feel any empathy towards it.
I looked at the system for answers.
[Round 3, Wave 1 has begun.]
[New Monster spotted, Monster Index is being updated.]
[Monster Type: Homo Testudo/ Turtle Men]
[Monster Traits: Hard Shell, Moisturising slime, Basic sentience,…]
[Monster Abilities: Basic Essense Manipulation]
I don't think this exists in nature, the hole really is bringing out monsters from another place huh. I did expect that to be the case after seeing the super beefed up rats from wave 9 of the last round.
Homo… so from the same family as us humans? I looked at the turtleman, then a little further down, yea it looks an awful lot like a human… I don't know how to feel about this.
Sigh, no point in feeling sorry for it, it would definitely kill us if it was in our situation.
By the way… what is this 'Essence Manipulation'?
Almost as if the turtle heard my question it took a stance, it reeked its stubby arms behind its back and started screaming some gibberish. After a few seconds something seemed to be pooling inside the space between its palms, a fluid, it glowed a brilliant white with a green undertone as it swirled between the turle's palms. A few second later the orb of liquid light grew to the size of its head.
My eyes widened. There is no way… surely it's not that.
With a loud scream the turtle's hand shot forward and within in palms the light did too, and like a beam it headed straight towards me.
In this unexpected situation, I couldn't react and just froze still. I didn't know how dangerous that beam of light is but my gut tells me I don't want to get hit by it. With just a few moments left, earth came to me and I crouched down.
—BLAST—