When I look back to check on Lucas and Wyatt, I find that they're both fast asleep. We reached the System Shop without any issue, and they said they were going to sit down for a minute to rest when we entered. After traveling in the Dungeon all day and then chopping down and cutting to size the trees, it's understandable that they'd be a bit tired.

I wasn't expecting them to fall asleep as soon as they sat down, though. It's a pretty cute sight, however, with Lucas having leaned into Wyatt and Wyatt having leaned his head onto Lucas's, a hand on the latter's lap.

"Alright," I look back to the golem. "Sorry about that. I'd like to turn in some Quests. First, the normal Quests for Dungeons that I qualify for the rewards from."

Quests for Dungeons don't have to be accepted – in fact, they can't be accepted. They're simply there and if someone does the action required, they can claim the reward for it. In that respect, they're like the Quests issued by the gods.

Since I cleared the first Stage of a Dungeon and cleared a Dungeon, I have the rewards for doing so. Then there's also the Quests for doing those, but for specifically doing them with the [Ezrelnim Island Grove] Dungeon.

The rewards for the same layer of Quest are the same regardless of if it's a specific Dungeon Quest or the generic one, so I receive the same reward for clearing the first Stage of a Dungeon and for clearing the first stage of the [Ezrelnim Island Grove] Dungeon, and the same reward for clearing a Dungeon and for clearing the [Ezrelnim Island Grove] Dungeon.

For the Stage-clearing reward, I receive 5,000 syscre, a [Healing Basics Kit], and five mana crystals that have 50 Mana contained within them, each. The money comes in the form of two silver 25-syscre coins for each, the potions kit comes in token form in a box, and the mana crystals come individually, each one about a quarter of an inch in size.

The Dungeon-clearing reward contains all of that, but also a meal crate of my choice for each. Those are picked quickly enough, though I'm starting to think the gods overestimate my ability to eat this much food in a month, even with two others here with me. The crates are meant for a group of four and we have quite a few of them, now.

"You have other rewards awaiting you," the golem informs me once I finish accepting the rewards for the normal Quest.

"Yeah," I say. "For the Quest from the gods and the incentive for clearing the Dungeon within six days. I'd like to accept those now, starting with the incentive."

The 25,000 syscre for the incentive comes as two golden 1-syscre coins, two silver 25-syscre coins, a box with ten tokens for [Basic Healing Potion]s and ten tokens for [Basic Mana Potion]s, and five boxes of maginiite crystals. Each token for a potion is for five potions each. The boxes each contain a half-inch maginiite crystal in each of fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness, lightning, ice, and metal.

To my surprise, the reward for the Quest from the gods includes a box with nine holy maginiite, a box with four tokens that are each for a five-gallon jar of holy slime, a [Mystery Seed], and a [Monster Egg].

The egg is something I already know about as we found some of them in treasure chests in the Dungeon. They're eggs one and a half inches in size with a marbled blue-and-gold appearance to them. When used the first time, they become an egg for a random monster regardless of whether or not it normally comes from an egg. Using them again after that hatches the egg and causes a baby version of that monster to appear.

I'm going to assume that it's intended more for tamers or breeders than anything. This makes a fifth one for me as well thanks to the ones I looted in chests in the Dungeon.

What is new to me from the loot types in the reward is the [Mystery Seed]. It's not slime goo, an egg, potions, or crystals.

I examine the seed once I receive it. The seed is tiny, maybe one-eighth of an inch in size. It has a pale, yellowish-tan look to it and its item description is… not very helpful.

[Mystery Seed] Plant this seed in a suitable location and it will grow into a random plant based on that location's features.

With how early into things we are and how much we have yet to learn, I'm not entirely sure what the possibilities for that seed are.

"Thank you," I tell the golem as I realize I don't really know what to do with all of my rewards.

The storage ring can't hold them since it's too full of items at the moment. There's not enough room in both backpacks to hold everything, either.

This might be a problem.

"Carter!" A voice calls out.

I turn around in time to see a pair of guys rushing toward me, both of them slamming into me in a hug. It unbalances me just a little but I manage to regain my footing and wrap arms around them.

The tacklers are identical twins with the same slightly-curly brown hair and ivy green eyes as me . My younger brothers, who are here instead of traveling with Grandma and the others for some reason.

"Dudes," I say once we end the hug. "Why aren't you with Grandma?"

They're wearing identical outfits: brown sweatpants, dark green hoodies, and brown leather boots. They're both wearing brown backpacks as well, though their packs don't look too full.Extra space, maybe?

Despite my brothers being identical twins, I can tell them apart easily enough. Collin is on my left and Chance is on my right.

I'm kind of curious about which one tamed the coyote with golden fur that's sitting behind them. It gives me a tilt of its head and a slight wag of its tail when I look at it. Though maybe it's actually a wolf? We don't have wolves in the area, just coyotes, but this guy is pretty big.

"We got tired of crying children and arguing with Mom and Dad," Collin tells me and I look at the twins again.

"So we told Grandma we were going to come here," Chance says. "Besides, if you're going off on adventures, you'll need someone to watch your home."

"Which one's Lucas?" Collin's looked over to the pair of sleeping guys.

"The blond one," I tell him. "The other's Wyatt, a friend of mine. How much did Grandma tell you?"

"Is he who the god was nudging you to save?" Collin asks.

"Wyatt was, yeah," I answer. "I don't exactly have a home at the moment, by the way. Just thought I should mention that. I demolished it yesterday and then the god was like 'yeah, go into the Dungeon before building a new one'."

Which I now know to be both to save Wyatt and to get the ingredients to make the air-blocking seal for the house.

"Gods are weird," Collin tells me. "We both got Quests from them, too, though we were asking Grandma about them after she got hers. Did you know that her dad apparently talked with a god before coming to Earth?"

"She mentioned something about that in a letter," I say. "It's hard thinking of them as not like people. What were your Quests?"

"I'm a tamer," Collin says. "Prefer it over other stuff and that's actually how we got here safely. Sort of. Coyon is the only of the three I tamed left, but he's gotten pretty tough from the trip. I actually gain Levels to the [Tamer] Class for his kills if they're qualifying ones. The Quest? Tame a monster with at least 500 Mana as its base capacity. I'm pretty sure the breezestep deer are the only ones I've come across that have that much and… they're a bit dangerous to take on."

"Do you need to beat them into submission or something?" I ask.

"Nah," he answers. "But they have to be in one spot for the taming spell and monsters that strong like to move around. Coyon isn't going to be able to hold one in place for awhile, so I'll need to build up more strength and tame a few more things."

"I can probably help a bit," I tell him. "How long does the spell take to cast?"

"Thirty seconds right now," he answers. "It'll go down by three each Level but I'm only at Level 1 for it right now. Used my Skill Points on something a little bit more important – [Force Barrier]. That was my Skill from the [Starter Pack]. Grandma taught me the taming spell."

"Ah," I say. "What did she say about the Quest? Or have you not told her?"

Coyon nudges between the twins and looks up at me.

"I think he wants you to scratch his head," Collin tells me. "Though I'm not completely certain that's it. I can't understand him as well as Grandma can. She can apparently straight-up talk with animals and I'm not that good…"

"Okay," I kneel down. "Is he a coyote or a wolf?"

"Well… he started as a coyote," Collin answers as Coyon sniffs my hand, then lowers his head to let me know it's okay to scratch it. "But the rush of Mana mutated him into something called a sunhound, so he's not actually a coyote anymore.

"As for the Quest," he continues. "I got it after separating from her so haven't let her know yet. Traveling by ourselves let us move a lot faster – we only left after the group stopped for lunch today."

"She did tell us, though," Chance rubs Coyon's back. "That if we get a Quest from a god, try to complete it. They're apparently meant to nudge us into things that will benefit us and make us happy and that's the sole reason."

"So I don't know why a god wants me to tame something with that much Mana," Collin tells me. "But it will apparently make me happy and have some sort of benefit for me."

"What about you?" I look at Chance.

"I'd rather be a craftsman," Chance shrugs. "Picked [Enchanting] for my [Skill Scroll] from the [Starter Pack]. And almost immediately after I used the scroll, received a Quest to make an item that gives someone a shield against ambient Mana."

"Huh," I say. "Thoughts on why?"

"Yup," he answers. "I'd like to make stuff that benefits my friends and family. With the changes to this world in the wake of the rush of Mana, I want to make sure the ones going off on adventures or dealing with threats have the tools they need to survive."

That makes sense when I think about Chance as a person. He's a much more noble person than I am and has always liked making sure his friends and family were okay.

"So the protective item is something you'd be happy making for someone else," I say.

"Yeah," he confirms. "I don't know how to make one but now that I know something like that is possible, I'll definitely go for it. Will definitely help out those of us staying in this area."

"For sure," I say. "I have a Perk that bolsters my resistance to it and I'm still taking quite a lot of damage per second. I'm just glad that despite the high amount of Aura it's burning, our bodies are able to handle the damage."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Which confuses me a little considering how much Aura I lose to attacks, but I'm not questioning it too much. There's a possibility that it's because the damage is coming from all over my body rather than just one specific spot.

"Grandma told us about the Perk you told her about," Collin says as I stand. "We'll both go for it while we're here. If you don't mind us hanging out."

"Not a problem," I say. "Should probably wake Lucas and Wyatt. The Dungeon run was pretty exhausting but we can only stay here for a limited time and should head home."

I wake my friends and just as I do, Fea arrives with a decent amount of letters. He comes to me and gives me a happy chirp, then lets me pull out the letters. The magihawk doesn't have them tied to his leg this time but instead, he's wearing a leather harness with a capped tube for holding them. That's new and has me a little bit curious, but I opt not to ask the twins and instead, hand out the letters.

"These are for you," I give three to Lucas. "This is for Collin, this one's for Chance, and huh, I get two this time."

"Two?" Lucas sleepily asks. "Your parents?"

"Nah," I say. "It's Koda's handwriting."

I give Fea a light scratch on the head before sitting down and opening up the letter from Grandma.

Carter,

This letter is for if you are done with the Dungeon already; if not, know that it's not the same as the last one I sent for you and contains current updates.

We've reached our next destination. We pushed hard yesterday and reached a college campus, and today, we've arrived at a winery. It's only been a few days but as expected, children are starting to complain more and some conflict has arisen between some of the adults here… not those of us who knew of magic already or with stronger bloodlines but others. I've convinced them to shut up, though we'll see how long that lasts.

Dakota wanted to write a letter for you this time so there's one from him with this batch as well.

If you've completed the Dungeon and it was as part of a Quest from a god, you probably received a [Mystery Seed]. Things like what's fertilizing the soil, what other plants are near the seed, the ambient Mana in the area, and so on affect what grows from it. It takes aspects from all of that so if you want something with certain attributes, make sure it's planted with soil fertilized heavily with those aspects and near things with them.

You probably found [Monster Egg]s in a Dungeon. Their descriptions aren't too helpful but I do know some about those (the System Shops won't say anything; I've asked). Using some gaming terms, according to my father, [Monster Egg]s pull from a loot table based on the Dungeon they were found in and the area they're used in. Ones from a Rank 0 Dungeon will hatch monsters equal to the strength of one in there and will be of a type that could potentially be found in there or in the area where it's used. A spot where a specific type of monster congregates increases the odds of a monster of that type or traits being the resulting egg.

If you're not planning on being a tamer or breeder, you can give them to Collin. He's got a way with animals and can definitely make use of them. If you do want to be one, ask him for the spell circle.

Congratulations on beating the Dungeon, by the way! Mind sharing what the thing that would make you happy with it was? I know you'd said it was a rescue mission so I'm curious what their talents are.

Lots of love,

Grandma

I write up my response to her before reading the letter from Dakota. Better to write a response while the letter is more fresh and not muddled by another than to write it after the other.

Grandma,

We just left he Dungeon a little bit ago. The "benefit" for going into there in a rush was two-part. When excluding the actual rewards from the gods and the System Quests, that is.

First was that it contained slime monsters, giving me resources with which I can make a better house. It also had plenty of trees and other materials and yes, [Monster Egg]s with a [Mystery Seed] as a reward from the god-given Quest.

Second was that it was only one person to rescue and it wasn't for their talents. Whichever god was giving me the incentive wanted me to have another friend here – the person chased in was Wyatt. I'm sure you remember him.

We're at the System Shop right now – the twins just arrived here a few minutes ago. Once we're done here, we'll head home and deal with some stuff (like dinner and getting shelter for the night).

Good luck with the group. I'm glad I'm not in there, I'd not be able to handle the complaining and other problems.

Lots of love,

Carter

There's no reason for me to clarify who Wyatt is since we became friends a little after I moved in with Grandma, so she's met him more than a few times. She's definitely going to comment about how I've ended up rescuing two people I'm into but that's fine. It's not like there's anything wrong with that.

I open up the letter from Dakota and start reading.

Carter,

What's up? Gramndma said you're propbably out of the Dungeon by now so I wanted to say 'hey' and see how it went. I was worried about it but Grandma said you'll be fine.

If you don't mind, can I come out and stay with you once we get everyone somewhere safer? I'm not fond of the kids' complaining and they're their parents' arguing and stuff. Plus, I'd rather be with someone cool, attractive, and my type than with a massive group of people.

Tessa says 'hi'.

Also, your grandma apparently knows a silencing spell. Used it on some arguing adults and told them to shut up. It's going to be hard to forget how terrifying she can be…

Stay safe

Dakota

Grandma and Dakota very much have different views of what's important about how Grandma got the others to stop arguing. All Grandma said was that she got them to stop, while Dakota's giving me the information on how and honestly? I'm more amused by Grandma doing that than anything.

I start writing a response to him.

Koda,

Come on out if you want. You're a good friend and I won't mind you staying with us. Wyatt was the rescue mission so it's the two of us and Lucas, plus the twins (they just got here). I do plan on keeping things as fwb and I don't think Lucas minds so much. I know Wyatt doesn't, of course.

Besides, you're a fighter. Could always use more of those for safety reasons more than anything.

The Dungeon was boring but we're out now. I'll tell you more when you come out here.

Tell Tessa 'hi'. She's welcome to join us out here if she wants to, she's a friend. Just make sure she and you don't travel alone for safety reasons (together is fine but not solo, not unless you're each at least Status Level 1-2).

Grandma is awesome.

Be safe,

Carter

Everyone writes responses back to their senders, then I gather up all of the letters and put them into Fea's carry-tube. After I close and secure the tube, I give the magihawk a light pat on the head and he takes off flying.

"Alright," I say. "Let's head to the house and get settled down for the night. Lucas, Wyatt, might be best to hold off on your Quest rewards until we come back with a wagon or something. My own already takes up a lot of space and we won't have carry space if we get yours."

As it is, I received so much stuff that Wyatt, Lucas, and Chance carry some of it as we walk, leaving my hands free for casting spells and Collin's free just in case. We do get attacked on the way back, though my spells and Collin's familiar take care of everything.

"It's so weird being attacked again," Wyatt says after the third attack by a magihawk. "How come nothing attacked us in the Dungeon unless we attacked first? And it's only the magihawks right now, too."

"The stuff toward the end attacked first," I say. "They would just with us approaching them."

"Oh, right!" Collin exclaims. "Grandma told us about that – monsters can instinctively tell if they have zero chance of taking down a person. If they can sense that they have no chance against you and that you'll wipe the floor with them without any hope of them hurting you, they'll leave you alone unless you attack. If they can sense that they can hurt you, they'll attack."

"Without Aura," I say. "We're all extra-vulnerable. That explains it. The squirrels can sense that I can take their hits without a problem so they're avoiding attacking. The magihawks can probably still hurt me if they claw or peck, and that's why they're going straight for attacks instead of using [Stunning Sound]. They can tell it won't do shit against me."

Toward the end of the Dungeon, the monsters were strong enough to still hurt me even through my Aura, so they felt they had a chance. I guess the fact that I could one-shot them wasn't enough to keep them from attacking.

"What happened to your house?" Collin asks, as we've neared it enough by this point for him to see that it's gone.

"Tore it apart yesterday," I tell him. "I did mention that. I'm going to use earth magics to build a new one. A proper one will have to wait until tomorrow, but I'll get a temporary one set up. Lucas, do you want to make dinner or are you too sore and exhausted? If so, someone else can handle it or we can do pouches."

"A bit sore, but I can make it," Lucas stifles a yawn. "Can I use ingredients we have here?"

"Sure," I pull a box out of my ring. "You can also use one of the meal crates I got from the incentive if you want. Unless someone has a crate you're wanting to make. Though with five of us, might need to use two."

"Okay," Lucas examines the box.

"I'll open up the storage," I tell him.

Lucas nods and I go over to the storage building and use [Earth Mastery] to remove the section meant to be a door, setting the stone slab on the ground. After that, I go to the shower building and set up fires in it, thawing out the ice in the bottom (after sealing in the holes in the ceiling).

"What's this?" Collin asks as I work on the shower house.

"Shower," I turn to face my brother before grabbing more wood to put into the lower tank's heating box. "Figured people might want to clean up. I'll make an improved version once I can figure it out but for now, this is what we've got. I'll have to move the water up to the top tank once it finishes thawing out. There are candles inside for lighting."

"Cool," he says. "Could definitely use one for sure. There were, like, two hundred people in Grandma's group when we left this morning, from what we gathered up here and during the trip so far. While stations could be set up for cleaning…"

"Not exactly the best for getting clean," I say. "Especially in this cold."

"Yeah," he says as Chance walks over. "That's one of the things causing problems. Privacy tents were set up for it but some of the normies were having problems following the rules regarding how much water or time to use. In less than three days, there were conflicts from some wanting to clean more often than allowed or use up a ton more water, not keeping the actual spaces created organized, and so on. It was… awful."

"Normies?" I ask.

"People not from magical lines," Chance clarifies. "Not like us. Seems magic-blooded folk like us are just built different."

"How was washing up handled there?" I ask.

"Six stations were made," Chance answers. "With canvas from System Shops fixed onto wooden rods for privacy. Inside would be a shallow tub with a water tank underneath it and a larger tank filled with water that was heated to the side. Three for males, three for females. One each for adults, one each for youth, and one each for the extremely young who would need help."

"The hot water baths were filled using magic," Collin tells me. "And the water heated up. They could handle five or six people at a time, but only enough water to take care of about twenty or thirty depending on how much each person used."

"So the rule was two buckets of water per person," Chance says. "No washing two days in a row, no bathing. Scoop the water out of the tub and go into the shallower one to clean so the water is drained properly. Don't spend more than fifteen minutes taking up cleaning space. No cleaning your clothes in there."

"Simple enough," Collin says. "Makes sure everyone can wash at least once every two days and there's clean water for everyone."

"Except when factoring in people who refuse to follow rules," I say.

"Yup," the twins say.

"So what's the rule here?" Collin asks.

"Need shower?" I ask. "Take shower. If you know earth and water magics, you can move the water back up to the upper basin. If you don't know one or both of those, I'll have to handle some of that. There's no easy access without earth magics and you need it to open and close the shower holes for the upper tank. I'm going to take on some enchanting stuff so I have a guidebook for its basics. Going to use that to learn a bit and maybe find a way to properly make a plumbing system."

"I'll help," Chance offers. "Do you have the Skill for it?"

"I have a Skill Scroll for it," I inform him. "But I haven't used it yet."

I told my brothers about the Quests and incentives on our way here from the System Shop, so they already know about my extra [Starter Pack]s. I didn't tell them my selections from them, so they wouldn't have known what I picked for the scrolls.

"Though if you want to take over all enchanting-related stuff," I tell Chance. "I can hold off on using the scroll. I picked it mostly for the added ability to handle things here and it'll just add extra Class Levels that could go to magic."

"That's fine," Chance tells me. "Might take some time and experimenting."

"No worries," I tell him. "This setup will work for now. If you guys want a shower, I can move the water up as soon as it's thawed out. Might take a few more minutes before it's heated up enough, though."

"That's fine," Collin says. "We can wait. I did want to ask something about the living arrangements, though."

"I'll make separate houses for anyone who wants them," I say.

"Not that," Collin says. "Well, sort of. We were going to say, we can wait until the rest of you have your own homes, if you guys don't mind sharing with us at first."

"That way," Chance says. "More effort can be put into them rather than rush jobs."

"Oh," I say. "Yeah, no, I don't mind that. The temporary thing for tonight would have to house all five of us, anyway, and I don't think Lucas and Wyatt would mind sharing."

"Alright," he says. "That's cool. Are you doing that after getting this taken care of?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Shouldn't take me too long so I can at least get the temp. shelter up before Lucas finishes making dinner. Speaking of that," I stand. "I'm done here, so let's go see what he's making."