Researching the nestman made it possible for something hostile to enter the realm, but that was a gamble Tanuki had to take. Waves and opponents would only grow stronger over time. He would easily fall behind others and become the underdog if he did not try his luck.

“That cannot be allowed,” he thought, picking the nestman to be researched. It would take the entire day, so he was in no rush to return to this tab, which left him with what he had been waiting for.

Tanuki navigated the Gaia Core menu to the notifications tab and opened the only message.

[ Dungeon Cleared ! ]

[ Name: Yoshimura Grotto ]

[ Difficulty: 2 ]

[ Size: Medium ]

[ Capacity: 1 ]

Next to the message was the usual redeemable gift. When he reached out to it, a pocket dimension much larger than usual opened. The present inside was much bigger than those before, he needed both hands to take it.

The green box plopped to his legs. It wore a dark brown ribbon and was about the size of a medium-sized dog. At first, Tanuki feared it might hide some kind of creature within. Thankfully that would have been counter-intuitive even for the novelty-obsessed system, so he relaxed and removed the lid.

The first rewards flew out. They were general rewards not related to Yoshimura.

[ Rewards ]

[ 3x Green Flora Token ]

[ 1x Green Fauna Token ]

Given the dungeon’s close ties with nature, it made sense part of the rewards would be related to plants and wildlife. Though most of the enemies he fought were monstrous creatures, the number of flora tokens outshined that of fauna, given that the King, the final boss of the dungeon was a plant-based lifeform.

The last time he used these kinds of tokens, he did not think much of them. He wanted to change that this time around.

Now that NPCs were present in his world, he needed to help them grow. One way of doing that was to ensure they had all the necessary materials to get to the next level. While fauna tokens seemed to be better, given monsters drop all kinds of important materials once slain, flora tokens were not to be underestimated.

Though his options were limited to flowers as of yet, he knew this game had more kinds than Earth. Roses were not all that useful back there, they were used mostly as decoration in average households. Despite that making them appear of little importance, he knew roses could have some hidden strength related to magic or alchemy, he just needed to study them.

Edgar had the special ability to enchant flora tokens and make it so they present choices related to agriculture. Vegetables, fruits, all kinds of things that could be eaten. Tanuki found that extremely helpful, as he knew the body needed a wide variety of nutrients to remain healthy, and what better way to get those than by consuming all kinds of edible plants?

He put aside one token for Edgar. The other two would be used in fields and plains. He planned to extend the road to the Gaia Core by spamming cheap grids and wished to use the space on the sides of the road to harvest wild plants. Besides that, he wanted a path branching off into a plains area separated from the mainland by a bridge. Here, he wanted to spawn monsters specifically so they could be slain for their loot.

Since he had two unused tokens from the last boss, he also considered giving the flora token to Edgar and using the remaining fauna token to add animals to the forest to be hunted.

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While running that line of thought, he realised something quite troublesome. Quickly opening the map interface through the Gaia Core, Tanuki considered an interesting question.

There were two kinds of empty lots, [Fields] and [Plains]. The first was a level zero grid that was practically worthless. The latter was a group of fields that transformed into a greater unit, gaining a modifier that made it easy to cultivate.

He needed to turn fields into massive plains to give Edgar a place to grow crops. However, his idea to build a separate island to spam monsters also required plains.

“If I use my token on plains, it will make it so monsters spawn on all of them. I don’t have a way to limit where those creatures show up, and they will likely start spawning on Edgar’s lot. The question is, is it worth endangering the villagers and crops for extra loot?”

He turned to the [Expansion] menu to see a top-down view of his world. He chose to observe Edgar’s area and a surprise greeted him.

Since Edgar began work on the soil, it transformed from a wild plain to a cultivated field. This appeared in the [Expansion] menu. The grids of the plains transformed back into fields without losing the modifier.

[ Field ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Modifiers: Rich Soil ]

[ Rich Soil increases the growth and size of Green-type plants. ]

The level of the grid had also remained the same. Though he did not know what it meant in practice, he welcomed it with open arms.

“After all, numbers going up must mean something good.”

It took care of the plains question but invited a small problem. When Tanuki used his first fauna token, he chose to spawn slimes in all field grids. He had yet to see one spawn, but he had a hunch of why that might be the case.

The red flowers from the flora token could appear easily as they were weak, small, and harmless beings. Slimes were also small, but their body and behaviour made them much more complex. Furthermore, they were monsters. Because they would act hostile toward Tanuki, the Gaia Core refused to let them spawn near him. And because the world was so small, they would have always been near, thus the crystal did not let them appear at all.

To make it so slimes would appear, Tanuki needed expansion points to grow his world. Thankfully, the next reward was exactly what he needed.

[ 5x Expansion Points ]

This was his first time actually seeing expansion points. Before, the system would give them to him immediately after achieving something, so he never knew what they looked like.

It was a fascinating marvel this universe. He could not believe something so awe-inspiring could exist outside of sci-fi.

Bubbles about the size of ping-pong balls surrounded a black-and-white mass, like protons and neutrons of an enlarged atom. They danced in the colours of the rainbow, hitting every note of the spectrum in mere seconds.

Tanuki was not brave enough to touch it. He feared the unforeseen consequences of meddling with a building block of the world, so instead, he took a step back and admired from a distance.

“Five is not enough to build all I want, but it’s enough to start building the bridge,” he thought while redeeming the gift.

Contrary to all other items, the expansion points did not float into his inventory, but to the Gaia Core. The crystal shone greatly as the colours entered its hue. A moment later, it fell dark once more.

With the tokens and points, the generic rewards were all done. Next came the dungeon-specific rewards, and the first one did not disappoint.

A beautiful deer hide emerged from a purple light. Brown and white was its fur, and soft to the touch. It would have made a perfect carpet, had it not been for the strange aura surrounding it as an invisible mist.

[ Hide of Cervus, the Pretender of Elegies ]

[ + 2 INT ]

[ Abilities ]

[ Speak with the Departed: Meditation allows the user to sense the essence of passed-on creatures nearby. Creatures of Level 2 and below are visible and can be talked to. Interactions are limited by the creature’s body, intelligence, and willingness to talk to the user. ]

[ Cooldown: 72 hours ]

By itself, the item seemed the most useful for information gathering. If he were to enter a dungeon, he could use the hide to see how other creatures died, gaining the advantage of knowing what to expect and what to prepare for. Furthermore, if he had to contact the ghost of someone, he could, so long they died below a certain level. This gave way to some interesting scenarios he could use to his advantage. All he needed was a bit of creativity and the right place to meditate.

Yet Tanuki was repulsed by the hide. There was something new to this item’s description that he had not yet seen before.

A curse.

[ Curse of the Moon: While this item is being used, the original owner of it returns to haunt the user. ]