With the last few moments before her light faded, Jen checked her status screen to get an idea of her current situation. While she had 22 MP available, a reasonable amount, her new maximum was now 160. With her current regen rate of 10.5 per hour, it would take her almost 13 hours of regeneration until she was at her max capacity again.

After weighing her options, Jen decided to go to sleep. Even though she had only been awake for eight hours or so, the near dark removed any visual cues of daytime or nighttime, and the mental strain was enough to wear her out quickly. It wouldn’t be immediate somnolence, but Jen felt that it wouldn’t take long either.

Making a promise to go exploring once she had all her resources available again, Jen made her way back over to her sleep area. Her Meditation was put to use, allowing her to achieve a relaxed state of mind before awareness quickly left her.

Waking up was easy, the simple feeling that having her mana pools full provided enough to motivate her into action. Her empty stomach was her first priority, and Jen grabbed her magically grown mushroom, its size making it the first item she came across.

Taking a bite, Jen began to sink into a yoga stance. It was a skill she had been neglecting, and she hoped to gain some easy skill points from leveling it. Having to hold the various forms while her body was racked with pains wouldn’t be easy, but the System seemed to reward difficulty.

Once her stomach was full and she had run through what she decided to call her standard routine, Jen carefully picked her way over to the pool. A good long drink took care of her thirst, after which Jen scooted back a few feet and prepared to expel her mana once more.

She wanted to explore, eager to see more of this cave system that she found herself trapped in, and her new Plant Growth spell multiplied the amount of supplies she could bring with her.

Those plans were discarded as she called up her Status Screen and the notifications that came with it. She could see their outlines through the illuminated window, but ignored them for the moment to make sure she had slept long enough to be full.

The first thing that Jen noticed was that all of her pools were higher than she had expected. Only by a single point for health and mana and ten for stamina, but still. She supposed that Self Improvement was the culprit, but something still felt a little off.

On the bright side, she was at full health again, and the residual soreness in her abdomen had completely faded. Her mana was full as well, and it felt like Jen was thrumming with power.

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Closing her screen, Jen turned her attention to the notifications that demanded her focus.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Farming Lvl 1.

Yoga is now Lvl 2.

By sleeping for more than 30 hours in one session, the Hibernation Path is now open to you.

Deliberately not thinking about that last message, Jen pondered the first two. Levelling up Yoga was nice, but more valuable was gaining a new skill. She blanked for a moment as to what could have earned her that skill, before remembering her attempts to spread the mushrooms. Either enough had grown for it to now award her the skill, or perhaps using Plant Growth had fulfilled another requirement to gain it.

Farming was still another skill that could earn her those essential skill points so necessary to complete paths and enhance her capability. And speaking of paths…

Jen allowed herself a minute to freak out. While she had a steady supply of food and water, she was still on a clock, be it driven by her sanity or by potential nutritional deficiencies or by monsters still lurking in the dark. Whatever the cause, there was a pressure, a feeling that time was running out. To find out that the ten to twelve hours of sleep you thought you just finished was instead greater than 30 was terrifying.

Meditation helped Jen gain a small amount of emotional distance. As worried as she was about losing extra hours in her sleep, there really wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment. Perhaps she could find a way to leverage her Chronos’ Heart, but it seemed unlikely. All she could do would be to focus on using the time she did have as efficiently as possible.

A bit calmer, Jen opened up her Path screen to find out what information she could on her new paths.

Plot Paths - 5 Plot Points

Available

Completed

Underdark Dweller (0/15)

Hibernation (0/20)

Novice Spellcaster (0/40)

Introductory Path (5/5)

Fungal Arts (18/18)

Magic Mastery (20/20)

Path of Patience (60/60)

Underdark Dweller was still available, and would likely continue to be ignored for the moment. Novice Spellcaster seemed the most valuable, even though it was also the most expensive of the paths available. Hibernation brought to mind an image of restorative sleep, and while Jen wanted a greater regeneration rate, she wanted spells to use with her mana more.

Even without enough points to finish it, Jen decided to begin investing her plot points into the Novice Spellcaster Path. Any mental stats would be valuable on their own, immediately, even if it would be a while before Jen would unlock the final rewards.

To her slight disappointment, Jen received nothing at all for the five points she spent.