It would be a tight fit, but from what little he could see before visibility dropped down to nothing, the tunnel had a slight curve to it leading off in the direction of the tower. He was understandably curious to find out where it led, and if nothing else, it would give him something to do later. He was tempted to search it now. There was a chance that this tunnel led into some underground chamber that he could use to access the depths of the tower.

With mental communication blocked, the last thing he wanted to do was get himself stuck in a hole full of water without at the very least letting Su'ong know where he was going, and how to find him should he fail to return. He had become quite good at holding his breath, but of all the crazy ways to die in this fucked up new world, drowning would be especially depressing.

Chuckling at the irony of fighting off the Earth Wyrm only to die such a normal death, Alan focused on the slimy rocks just between himself and the lake, took a slow breath, and then activated {Mirage Step}. Faster than he could blink, Alan stood in the center of a circular checkerboard gridwork of small green boxes that covered the floor for fifteen feet in all directions before ending abruptly.

Any individual box he focused on shone with a faint silvery light that created a strange pulling sensation in the pit of his stomach. It almost felt as if the light were trying to draw him in. Alan turned his head from side to side, switching freely between them while doing his best to not linger on any single square for longer than a second.

Alan quickly discovered that he was only able to highlight one square at a time, and there was no need to make direct eye contact in order to do so. It made sense when considering he only had one body. While he wasn't one hundred percent sure how exactly this Technique functioned, teleporting himself to several locations at once seemed like it would be a difficult situation to walk away from.

Without even looking Alan knew that selecting a location behind him was also a viable option. He wasn't really confident putting the how of it all into words because he couldn't exactly see the gridwork without first making eye contact with it. It was more like he was able to sense each individual box as if they were linked directly to his mind.

Eyes locked on a box forward and to his right, just across the small pool, Alan ceased his restraint and allowed the pulling sensation to do with him as it saw fit. Going into this, he had several ideas about how the Technique would play out, but never once did he expect the floor to fall out from under him.

“What the fuuuuu,” Alan screamed like a little bitch, certain that he was plunging through a layer of silver clouds and that at any moment he would break free only to bear witness to the ground rushing forward in a bid to reduce him to little more than a puddle of slime.

The actual outcome was much less dramatic. When the silver haze fell away, Alan grimaced, realizing that he had overreacted. The Technique worked perfectly, he was standing exactly where he had hoped to wind up, and the energy drain wasn't more than he could handle. While he already knew what to expect, the afterimage of a hooded reptilian standing where he stood not moments before was so life-like that he felt the need to touch himself to ensure that he wasn't the fake.

It only took about three seconds for his doppelganger to fade away. By then, Alan had already re-activated {Mirage Step} and used it to cross what remained of the island. It was an amazing feeling once he'd grown accustomed to the sinking feeling that the rapid relocation elicited in his guts. All in all, when taking into account the swiftness of activation, and the meager energy cost of perhaps three percent of his total supply of Celestial Energy, Alan found the Technique to be everything that he hoped, and more.

Three more activations saw Alan arrive on the islands western edge. He was feeling slightly drained, but with no Cooldown time to mention, {Mirage Step} had yet to reveal any kind of downside. The quality of the Technique left him with many unanswered questions. Just who was that Azala woman? Had she created this Technique? And if so, how had it come to be in a Technique Scroll?

Does the System make secret copies of a Technique when they are created, or is it something else entirely? As he saw it, there weren't many options. The System could technically be copying people's abilities to Scrolls, and doling them out as rewards, but the more he thought about it, the more holes were revealed in his logic.

“I might be thinking about this the wrong way…” Alan mumbled, his face all scrunched up in thought, “but how did I see that crazy fight play out in real time of it's just a stolen copy of a Technique?“ Copy pasting created Spells onto scrolls would likely work, but that didn't explain the highly detailed vision-like trance that the Technique Scroll had place him under. If Azala and the Wolf Man Bleeding Axe were real, and that battle had truly taken place, then where had the System gotten the visual data?

“Surely the System isn't recording everything that happens everywhere, in real time… right?“ Alan tossed an anxious look over his shoulder, suddenly feeling as if he were being watched. The coast was obviously clear, as he knew it would be, but that didn't mean that there weren't invisible cameras floating around that he simply couldn't see.

“Fuck this, I've already got enough to deal with without having to worry about imaginary spycams…” Fearing that he was willingly jumping down a rabbit hole from which escape might just prove more than he could muster, Alan quieted his overactive mind, ensured that his Storage Case was tied to a fastener on his chest, and started the long and boring swim back to shore.

The western bank of the lake looked the exact same as the eastern side where he had set up camp. Two more Golden Plantain trees stood just on the inside of the shimmering barrier to the Plains Zone, sagging under the weight of an abundance of annoying fruit. Knowing that time was growing short, and unsure whether or not he would be passing by this way on the way back, Alan stripped their gangly branches bare and loaded up his inventory with an astounding total of three hundred eighty-six Mystic Fruits.

Better yet, when he realized that [Appraise] listed each one at an estimated seven hundred (Copper) Lotus Coins, Alan walked away with an ear to ear smile and a small fortune of Plantains worth over a quarter million (Copper) Lotus Coins.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Needing some clarification, Alan recalled his Tutorial Dagger, and activated [Appraise].

(Basic) Tutorial Dagger- An unremarkable Dagger provided at Tutorial introduction. (Value: 45 (Copper Grade) Lotus Coins)

Taking into account that his Tutorial Dagger was valued at forty five (Copper) Lotus Coins, Alan was beginning to understand that perhaps he was better off in the financial department than he had previously allowed himself to believe.

Alan stored his weapon, and took another look at his Mini-map to ensure he was still headed in the correct direction. “I swear if she already left, I'm going to go back to camp and sleep off the rest of the…” Alan's words got caught up in his throat when he saw a bunch of red dots swarming the area around Su'ong. They were trailing her from a distance, and she was completely surrounded.

“GODDAMMIT!“ Alan roared and tore off towards her location. More and more red dots were appearing by the second, to the point that Su'ong was entirely surrounded by a solid red ring. Pushing headlong through the barrier, hardly even registering it's icy touch, Alan dismissed a sudden intrusive notification and sprinted forward into a field of grass that reached up to his neck

Caution! You have departed the Lakeside Safe Zone. All Special Protections have been deactivated. Proceed with caution!

Alan could make out a clearing just ahead, and the lone Roc flying circles above it was all Alan needed to know that he wasn't too late. What he didn't understand, however, was why had he not seen any sign of beasts? According to his PSA, Alan was already well passed the perimeter of red dots, so there was no reason that he hadn't seen anything yet. Unless...

Unless of course, those beasts happened to be hiding under his very feet. Suddenly wary, Alan pushed aside a wall of grass that towered overhead and broke free into the small clearing. Alan breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted Su'ong sitting casually on the dilapidated trunk of a fallen tree, kicking her legs, and watching the Roc lazily circling above her. She was fully decked out from head to toe in the Wasteland Tortoise armor, and although it was still a little too large, it seemed to have resized a substantial amount, so it didn't look nearly as ridiculous as he had imagined.

Alan mentally projected, unwilling to draw the attention of whatever manner of creatures were hiding down below. Alan searched the skies, fearing that perhaps he was mistaken, but the only creature between himself and the cloudless blue false sky was his future Rune Beast. If Alan wasn't mistaken, the Roc looked slightly agitated. The beast had already lowered its altitude and was now keeping an especially close eye on the grass behind Su'ong.

Su'ong's head shot up, and she gave Alan a puzzled look. Her gaze seeming to lose focus for a moment as she stared at a spot just out in front of her. She replied in a panicked tone, tossing her head from side to side in a failed attempt to locate their unseen stalkers.

Alan approached Su'ong whilst maintaining a wary eye on his surroundings. he said, making eye contact and gesturing over his shoulder.

Su'ong's eyebrows rose and she looked at Alan like he was crazy. She replied, Summoned from inventory, a furry brown carcass materialized in her hand which she tossed in a heap at Alan's feet.

At what had to be pushing close to fifteen pounds, it was far larger than any he had seen before, but Alan knew a rabbit when he saw one. Nudging it with his foot, he flipped it over and got his first real look at its face. It was a rabbit, but at the same time… Not. It had the big round black eyes, long ears and teeth that one would expect to find on a typical rabbit, but it's face was eerily long and pointed. Not to mention the damned thing had what amounted to a bright blue, eight inch long unicorn horn jutting out of the middle of its oversized and bulged-out forehead.

And while they were just as long as he would've expected, never before had Alan seen a rabbit with sharpened fangs. “What the fuck is this thing?“ Alan pondered aloud, realizing his blunder right as Su'ong's shrill voice cut through his thoughts.

Su'ong practically screamed into his mind. It was too late. Alan's voice might as well have been the high pitched ringing of a dinner bell. All around them, the grass began to thrash from side to side as countless bodies gathered above ground, just out of view behind a thick curtain of green. It was making far more noise than he would've imagined possible, and he was beginning to wish whatever was out there would just attack already. If only to get it over with.

His anxiety doubled when a Quest notification appeared.

Warning! (Optional Dungeon Quest) has been issued!

It then doubled again when he dismissed the notice and pulled up the full details in his Quests tab.

***DYNAMIC QUEST***

1/15 Survive Your first day in the Tutorial. Completion Reward: Varies depending on completion total and mettle demonstrated in the face of adversity.

***HIDDEN QUESTS***

✓ 1/4- Defeat every Dungeon born monster located on the dungeons first floor. (100/100) Completion Reward: 250 (Iron Grade) Lotus coins, 5 (F-Stage) Mana Crystals.

2/4- Survive the trials of the second floor and locate the entrance to the heart of the Labyrinth. (0/5) Completion Reward: 500 (Iron Grade) Lotus coins and 1 randomly generated (F-Stage) Growth-type weapon.

0/?? Ascend the Heavenly Ladder.

0/?? Stabilize your Celestial Tributaries.

0/?? Unclog your Celestial Deltas.

***OPTIONAL DUNGEON QUEST***

1/2- Cull the Velvet Almiraj hoard and draw out the Almiraj Matriarch. Completion Reward: Varies depending on number of Almiraj culled, and mettle demonstrated in the face of adversity.

“Oops… well, so much for falling back…” Resigning himself to a fight, Alan tossed up his arms and sighed.