"With the rapid increase in mana density brought about by The System, natural resources such as magical plants and even dungeons appeared in much greater numbers for months if not years as the planet adjusted, making it much easier for all life to progress even without the years of research and knowledge that those born long after the advent of The System had access to."

-Excerpt from 'Forefathers, A History on The Advent', by Joris Kloxin

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Over the course of our weeklong hunt, needing to go back to town on the fourth day to empty the box and getting another 700 points each before returning to the forest, having abandoned the den after doing so as we explored the area for any more points of interest, less focused on actually hunting things as we had already sold a large amount and still had a decent amount of meat stored at our houses just in case. Thankfully the wildlife didn't rapidly increase in levels as we went deeper like we feared, the only reason it happened in the first place likely due to the System interfering to ensure the safety of our settlement by stopping anything with a high level from living nearby, so we were able to explore pretty deep into the forest, only fighting the occasional territorial creature if we thought it was guarding something, but other than a few berry bushes, all of them having the same reddish purple berry the size of a quarter in diameter that seemed to not exist before the system, though it was safe to eat and tasted like a cross between blueberries and raspberries that we marked the location of, there wasn't anything of interest. Thankfully the canopy didn't get any thicker as we went, so we were still able to see clearly, and while we did come across a tree gouged by claws to mark it as somethings territory, we just avoided it as there was no reason to risk a fight against something that was possibly as strong as the coyotes without the safety net of an ambush.

We explored in a concentric manner, so even at our furthest we were still only a days travel from the town, assuming we either jogged or ran the whole way. Despite our lack of results, we still decided to spend our next trip with a focus on exploration, as even the few berry bushes we found would significantly help the food situation, as they apparently grew berries far faster than any pre-System plant and with the skills of a few people with plant related skills thrown in the mix, they were able to be harvested every two to three days, and while the actual volume of berries was far less than the crate of meat that we could bring back, they were renewable and allowed those with farming or plant related classes to gain EXP, so they were much better in the long term, plus it was much better morale-wise for people to actually see berry bushes as opposed to wooden crates being brought by the various hunting groups every few days. After we got back into town and sold the few animals we had hunted plus the locations of the berry bushes, Roxy and Arnold offering to escort people to them for an extra payment, I walked away with another thousand points, not to mention the 1,800 EXP I managed to gain over the course of the week, the level up to 12 reducing the amount of EXP I got from the level 10's by half, and putting me at 1,640 out of 7,200 for level 13. I wasn't the only one to hit level twelve, though I was the first, as everyone in the group managed to get to that level over the week, Arnold being the last due to his stint at the hospital and only getting the last of the needed EXP a day before we went back.

Once we finished selling our stuff, we decided to meet up again three days from now for another weeklong expedition, this time more heavily focused on exploration, before we all split up and went home. On my way back, I once again considered whether to wait until I got the SP needed for [Construct Elementalization], or just get the two passives that made my constructs stronger, as my current rate of levelling meant that it would take quite a while to reach level 20, but it was no more than a passing thought borne of impatience since I knew how much more useful the more expensive skill would be, especially with how much better I was getting at controlling my elements, my extensive practice with Crystal bleeding over to Lightning, even if only a little. As with the previous hunt, I spent the rest of the day after getting back decompressing, this time hanging out with Jackson as he worked, lending him one of my crystal blades, which I had been diligently making copies of before bed whenever I could, after he grumbled about how he was running out of gems and making him facepalm when he realized he had forgotten that I could make permanent ones now, and a bit of testing revealed that his skills worked just as well with the gems I created as they did with the ones from the dungeon, and I promised to make him more gems to practice with whenever I could, as I had already made ten of the crystal blades and didn't think I needed any more. After spending the rest of the day talking with him while doing some menial tasks, mostly changing the shape of some of his gems ever so slightly by adding more using my energy, causing me to run out of mana after only a few hours due to how mana intensive permanent creation was, we both went to eat with the group, spending a few minutes to tell them how my hunt went and talking about anything interesting that happened while I was gone, though it seemed that nothing had happened other than everyone trying to hoard food and causing prices to jump even more, the newly replanted berry bushes dotted along the clearing doing little to reassure people about the impending food crisis, and I did notice that I had received a far larger than usual amount of jealous looks when my hunting group had come to sell the corpses, as I had always received a few from those that weren't lucky enough to get a good class in the tutorial, so I had become accustomed to ignoring them after my first hunt. Thankfully things were still not that dire, as there had yet to be anyone incapable of buying at least enough food to function, but even with the berry bushes there were simply not enough hunters to feed everyone, as even if every currently registered hunting group managed to fill the crate we took every four days, which was unlikely since most other groups didn't have someone with a tracking skill like Amy, we still wouldn't be able to feed everyone, as apparently the only reason the town had lasted until now was because most people brought their own food from the tutorial plus the abundance of low leveled giant animals, and now that those animals were gone and the food from the tutorial eaten, not to mention the appearance of amlost sixty extra mouths, meant that the already strained food supply seemed on the brink of collapse, only the fact that most people weren't involved enough in either the hunting or city affairs enough to know how bad it really was stopping a mass panic.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Without any real way to help, as even if I went charging into the forest and hunted like a madman I wouldn't be able to get enough food to make a real difference, and was far more likely to get injured or die if I hunted every day without any time to destress and rest, the forest far more stressful than the tutorial due to the animals actually moving freely making it so there were no true safe spaces, I instead focused on training, making a point to keep my [Elemental Sight] active for as long as possible to help me overcome the strange feeling it brought, as it could be helpful in finding points of interest in the forest. Other than that, I spent the other two days practicing my connection and control while aiding Jason in testing his new class, mostly about how it worked in conjunction with his first one, learning that while bouncy mana wasn't particularly useful, as cards made from it were barely different than those made with regular mana, the explosion having around the same force but somehow bouncing, cards made with sticky mana would actually explode into an adhesive that would last for a minute or two before dissipating, which was strong enough that when I blocked with my staff and some got on my hand I was completely unable to get it off until it dissipated, meaning I couldn't adjust my grip to effectively use my weapon for that whole time. While the explosion wasn't too large, he was capable of throwing them quickly, and since they could be made in advance, the usefulness was obvious, especially in combination with the skill that let him duplicate cards after they were thrown. Over the course of training with him, we talked about his plans now that he had two classes, mostly about how he intended to find a group to hunt with, since I already had one and Leo was working for the mayor, but thankfully it seemed he had already been invited to one of the existing ones, as one of their members had apparently quit when their kids arrived, since his wife wasn't here and they were too young to be left alone for days at a time.

With nothing else of importance happening while I was training, other than the niggling feeling that I was on the verge of something in regards to my control, I met up with the others of my group and we all set off into the forest once more, this time ignoring the animals that warily eyed us from a distance as we passed, instead rushing past our previously made markers to get to unseen areas of the forest, going in a straight line for the first two days before moving in more of an arc, still somewhat hesitant to go too far away from town just in case. As we were not actively focused on hunting, even four days in to the expedition our box was barely half full, and while we had managed to find more berry bushes and even a fruit tree, we hadn't found anything overtly magical, my [Elemental Sight] unable to see any elemental energy in the area. It wasn't until the fifth day that Amy noticed something strange, a series of tracks from different animals that went in the same direction, but didn't seem to come back, making us all excited as there was a certain thing that could cause such an event, a thing that we were all hoping to find even more than food, so we all gathered up and followed the tracks, leading us to a tree that was large even when compared to the others, easily being six feet around and tall enough to pierce the thick canopy overhead, but its prodigious size was far from the most notable thing about this tree, the black vortex resting within an indented arch causing a large smile to break out on all of our faces as we felt a system ping when we looked at it.

Dungeon - The Verdant Forest Level 10-25

After a moment to let our new discovery sink in, we all huddled to discuss what to do.

"I mean obviously we are gonna go in right?"(Roxy)

"Ya, but it might be a good idea to wait for a bit, if we can get to the miniboss on the first run when the rewards are so much greater that would be good."(Mason)

"I think we shouldn't wait, we still aren't all that far from town, so if we wait too long we might lose the discovery bonus altogether, assuming we are actually the first ones to discover this."(Arnold)

"I'd bet we are, none of the nearby trees we've seen in the past few days have been marked, so unless someone has a skill specifically for finding dungeons or navigating back to town we should be good."(Jordan)

"Speaking of, what are we going to do when it comes to telling people? Considering the things inside will be at minimum level 10, and I'd be willing to bet that that means level 10 with two classes/races, it's really only the other hunting groups and some of the mayors people that would be interested, but even then considering only one group can enter at a time, not to mention whatever its refresh rate is, we might find ourselves unable to make use of the discovery bonus if it becomes too popular."(Mason)

"Hmm, I think we should run it now, at least get to where the monsters start matching our levels, and then decide, since we don't even know what kind of loot it has or it's refresh rate, since I agree that we should enter now rather than risk losing the discovery bonus."(Roxy)

Speaking of the kinds of monsters, I realized that even though I had [Elemental Sight] active, the dungeon portal still looked normal, lacking any kind of leakage like the Crystal Caverns dungeon portal had.

"I think it may be non-elemental, since the one I found in the tutorial leaked energy like a faucet, but it could just not leak any for whatever reason."(Mason)

With a bit more discussion, mostly us trying to figure out what may be inside from its name and going over a few extra strategies, we waited for about an hour to let everyone's resources regenerate before Roxy stepped towards the black vortex, reaching a hand out to it with a slight hesitance that betrayed her lack of dungeon experience, having failed to find a dungeon in her tutorial, and once the tip of her finger brushed against the portal, I felt the familiar tug pull at me, to which I offered no resistance as I appeared in a new place.