"Are you done bashing your head in self-loathing kid?" Dr.Vale asked, as she had been watching Soren bashing his head for nearly five whole minutes and grew tired of watching him repeating the motions.

*bam* "Not yet... I need to bash the stupidity out of me first..." Soren stated frustratingly, as he continued bashing his head even harder, despite barely feeling any pain whatsoever.

"That's good and all, but we're running on a schedule and we'd all rather do some work, than to see you trying to crack your head open."

"Alright... It certainly beats having another session of self-loathing. *slap* So, do I only need to kill whatever critters are around the area or do you need me to kill something bigger as well?" Soren asked, as he rubbed his forehead and gave himself a quick slap with his two hands to remove the negative thoughts that were plaguing him.

"Nothing specific, although it's preferable to hunt anything you've previously hunted before." Dr.Vale stated calmly, as she signaled her two employees to stop bickering with each other. While doing so, Soren went quickly to the guild to turn in his quest and obtain his free potion and 18 copper coins, before accepting his usual two quests and going to the forest once more. This time however, he was also focused more on obtaining as many alchemy materials he could, rather than going on the usual hunting spree as before, although if a Cutter appeared, he would like to try his luck and see if his kill was a fluke or not.

With the plan in mind, Soren went into the forest and quickly came across multiple collection spots and although was tempted to ask how to collect them, he chose to examine them himself and spare any further embarrassment for himself. Unsurprisingly, the moment his hand touched the collection spot, a panel appeared in front of him and the light from the spot disappeared completely.

You have obtained: 1x [Acorn], 2x [Bent Twig]

'Wait, you can get other stuff, than just alchemy materials?' Soren thought to himself, as he stared at the panel and checked the new items at appeared on his inventory. Unfortunately for him, the items didn't have any text, aside from their type, which was "Trash". Seeing how the game didn't have any use for them, Soren did consider throwing them away, but instead opted to keep them, since it was possible someone could have a use or two for them and even if there were completely useless. It's not as if he had any problems with his inventory being filled with them, since from what he knew up until now, his inventory had no capacity limits or any weight penalties, despite carrying dozens of carcasses and even the Cutter's carcass.

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With that in mind, Soren slowly engaged in a simple loop of hunting rabbits or dolls and collecting from collection points, but it didn't even take him ten minutes to find his first alchemy material, that being a Minor Life Tree Leaf, one of the three materials for a Trainee's Health Potion. Seeing as the potion materials were obtainable through collection spots, Soren felt a bit of relief, as he'd be able to get into a bit of alchemy training eventually. With that in mind once more, Soren was fully engaged in a simple loop of hunting critters and collecting items from the collection spots.

After a couple of hours of continuous repetition, Soren came across another Cutter, but didn't even consider engaging it, since it was bigger than the one he killed before and was fully immersed in the process of destroying trees and eating their trunks, while occasionally staring around vigilantly. Seeing this and knowing that his previous victory was more of a fluke, Soren silently left towards the opposite direction of the Cutter's vicinity and continued the usual grind.

"Soren, why didn't go after the Cutter? Weren't you able to kill one before?" Nora asked curiously, as Soren managed to obtain a Mana Herb from a collection point.

"Yes, but that's because I literally had every possible advantage and was only barely able to kill it. Not only did I sneak attack a smaller Cutter, but I did so in one of its eyes, killing half its vision, while also constantly running away from flying trees coming towards my general direction. Hell, the only time I actually attacked was when we were completelyT out of breath and the only thing I did was to smack my already stuck sword even deeper into its eye, hoping to pierce its brain and have it die of actual brain damage. Clearly, not a proper fight with the Cutter." Soren explained honestly, as he knew he wouldn't be able to replicate this feat, unless the same circumstances happened once more.

"Oh... That's... significantly less exciting that I expected."

"I'll probably be able to kill them in the future with the proper preparation and skillset, but until then, getting a kill on them is more about getting a good opportunity, than actual skill." With that last statement, Soren continued grinding monsters and materials, while Nora stood on standby and stared into the screen showing Soren from a bird's eye view, while thinking about his words for a bit. Slowly, time passed and he continued amassing rabbit and doll carcasses and alchemy materials and it wasn't until 1 PM that Dr,Vale signaled him to take a break. Seeing as he had been grinding for four hours, he did a quick check on his inventory and aside from the 39 rabbits and 9 squires, he also managed to obtain 22 Minor Life Tree Leaves, 5 Life-Infused Stalks, 12 Mana Herbs, dozens of Trash type items and a couple new alchemy materials, those being 7 Dawndew Drops and 5 Rejuvenating Seeds.

After logging off on a nearby clearing, Soren was half-expecting that he'd be in the city once more, but opening his eyes properly showed him the white ceiling of the current floor. Seeing the white ceiling, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Once he took off his helmet and got off the bed though, he only found Dr.Vale typing away on the computer, with Nicolas and Nora being completely absent.

"Umm... Dr.Vale, where are Nora and Nicolas?" Soren asked curiously, as he turned his head around to try and find them.

"On floor B1, probably having lunch. I suggest you do the same, as well as getting a bit of exercising as well. Remember to back here by 1:30 PM." With that last sentence, Dr.Vale closed the computer and left as well, leaving Soren alone. Seeing as he had a break, he quickly made his towards the floor B1 and decided to eat something light, while spending a bit of time browsing the internet for any particular information about AionTech or Birth of Cosmos Online. He also tried looking for either Nora or Nicolas, hoping to engage on some small talk or trying to pry out some information about the company, but to no avail, since they weren't at the cafeteria when he arrived. Time slowly passed uneventfully and before long, it was almost 1:30 PM, so Soren quickly made his way towards floor B8, to continue his shift and grind.