After half an hour spent experimenting, Devon and Trey had more or less established everything they needed to know about the tile.

First, the thing was utterly impervious to any form of damage, at least according to the system. This didn't mean it could serve as a shield though, as any attacks the system registered as being targeted toward a user would phase through the slate plaque.

Second, it served as the primary way of looting somebody upon their death. A person's status and inventory were all kept on the tile, which materialized on its own after death. Any items they had could be freely pilfered by whoever killed them or happened upon their corpse, and the tile would remain for an infinite amount of time until its contents were claimed.

Apparently, the flow of time within the inventory was dependent on the level of the function, and some levels could preserve their items forever while some degraded over time. Naturally, every function within the tutorial terminal was the lowest possible level.

Third, it could be summoned at a thought and give a visual display of system info to other people. It was also essential for utilizing the inventory function.

Devon was extremely thankful the command to summon it was simple, otherwise he was afraid he'd have been unable to even use the inventory function at all. He didn't experiment too much with his own, content to leave experimentation for when he had a specific use for it in mind.

Once they finished getting everything they thought they could out of Trey's system they moved on to deciding what to do next. They no longer needed to go to the forest for a height advantage to spot water, the terminal sold water for almost nothing.

"Why don't we just hunt more stuff for now? The terminal seems to have most of what we'll need to camp out, so it'd probably be best to rack up some talons and set up a base camp," Devon suggested.

"Alright, sounds like as good a game plan as any," Trey said, nodding.

They set off, Trey leading the way while cutting a path through the prairie grass, more to mark their passage than anything else. Soon enough they found another mawbird and readied themselves for another fight.

Trey stepped out of the brush first, shield at the ready. As soon as the mawbird spotted Trey it rushed him with wild abandon. The bird struck out its wolf-like jaw as soon as it got close, trying to bite down on any exposed flesh.

Trey was ready for the attack, and swung his shield out as the mawbird's head shot forward, knocking the bird's head to the side with a resounding thunk. He tried to swing at the bird with his sword, but the shield bash wasn't enough to stun it, and it leaped out of the way.

At that moment Devon leaped out from the brush as well, piercing the side of the bird as it was distracted. The mawbird went into a wild frenzy, flapping its wings and trying to free itself of the spear shaft in its side, but Devon just stepped forward and drove it deeper. However, as he stepped closer the mawbird lunged at him with its trademark maw, forcing Devon to leap backwards to avoid another encounter with those sharp fangs.

The bird tried to charge Devon, but the long length of the spear sticking out of its side made it almost impossible for the bird to pick up any speed as it dragged the spear shaft through layers of prairie grass.

Trey didn't let it get very far before he pounced on it from behind, delivering a clean chop to its neck as it tried to chase Devon. Unlike before, Trey's sword went straight through the neck of the beast, cleaving it in two with one slice. The monster's corpse flopped to the ground without any more movements as Devon got the kill notification.

"I'm starting to regret not asking for a sword," Devon said, envious that Trey's weapon was able to decapitate the enemy when his spear hadn't seemed to do more than hinder it.

"I think it's probably just lucky we found an enemy with such an obvious weakness to slashes. I highly doubt everything we encounter will be so uniform. I also put all my free points into strength so I can hopefully finish these fights faster. It feels so weird suddenly being stronger than I was half a minute ago."

Devon frowned. His free points were only going to be a bigger issue the further they went, but he still hadn't found the command to distribute them. He once again started going over potential commands in his head as he retrieved his spear, but once again none of them worked.

They moved on, searching for yet more prey. Two more mawbirds were slain in much the same way before they stumbled upon something new.

As they moved further into the prairie they suddenly noticed the land turning muddy, and a smell started to permeate the air.

"Ah, you gotta be kidding," Trey complained, "I knew it was too good to be true that this grassland would continue to be a nice and pleasant prairie. Of course the tall grass hid a freaking swamp."

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Devon looked over the rather sparse foliage ahead of them and said, "I think this may just be a muddy area. See how we've walked into a bit of a basin? I can see the grass thicken again on the other side."

"So do you want to go around? I really don't feel like getting stuck knee deep in mud."

"Let's go around the edge. Where there's water there's life, so there will probably be stuff to hunt along the way."

They started making their way along the edge of the wetland, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. Soon Devon spotted something moving in a puddle and signaled for Trey to stop.

"What do you think it is?" Trey asked.

"No clue."

"Well, time for your spear to shine," Trey said, patting Devon on the back.

Devon frowned, but it was true his spear was much better suited to poking around in the water as opposed to Trey's sword. Sighing in resignation, mostly annoyed at himself for having suggested the idea of hunting in the marsh, he crept forward.

He didn't have to advance very far before something leapt out of the mud at him. On instinct he batted it aside with his spear, then retreated several steps, trying to lure it out of the muddy terrain so they could better fight it.

The creature seemed to be some cross between a crocodile and a salamander, with the massive head looking quite strange to Devon without a crocodile's many scales.

[Crocomander? - Level 4]

[Discovery Bonus]

This damn system. It's mocking me by showing whatever name it wants.

Devon didn't know what a discovery bonus was supposed to be, but he didn't have time to think about it.

The creature barreled after Devon with a frenzy that he hadn't expected. He'd thought he would have to slowly bait the creature out before it dared leave its comfy mud pit, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Devon crouched down with his spear held out before him, ready for the beast. He held his spear aimed straight at the creature, wanting to test its intelligence by seeing if it would impale itself in its fervor.

The creature heedlessly ran straight for him, until at the last second recognition seemed to flash within its eyes and it threw itself to the side before its own momentum impaled it. However, Devon was ready for that. He shifted the angle of his spear before viciously stabbing forward, capitalizing on the crocomander's blunder.

Devon's spear pierced straight through the creature's neck, and it let out a strangled cry as it started to thrash about in pain. Devon quickly yanked his spear out and took a few steps back while the crocomander turned around to try and flee.

Not so fast!

The crocomander tried to avoid the next thrust as it fled, but Devon locked it in place by stepping forward quickly and slamming his foot down on its exposed back, momentarily stopping it from moving. He shot his spear forward and pierced a soft spot in the back of its head that the skull didn't quite cover, driving his spear in as deep as he could.

"Dev! Watch out!" Devon barely registered the warning before he instinctively threw himself to the side, barely avoiding a maw of sharp teeth.

Devon looked at the mawbird, starting to feel a sense of rage toward the things that wouldn't stop harassing him. But despite that feeling, he could only dodge again, as his spear had been left in the carcass of the crocomander when he'd rolled out of the mawbird's way.

Devon once again tried to dodge out of the bird's way, but he found his foot sunk in muck, rendering him unable to move. He hadn't been careful enough in his dodges and had rolled right into the wet soil.

The mawbird pounced on him. With no way to move out of the way and no spear to block or retaliate with, he did the only thing he could think to do. He punched the bird straight in the face.

Devon winced at the pain of punching a maw full of razor sharp teeth, but the attack did throw it off balance for a second. However, it only took a moment for the monster to recover, and it viciously sank its teeth into Devon's arm.

Trey arrived next to him in that instant, slicing through the bird's neck in one clean go. Devon threw the head off into the wetland, where something immediately popped out of the mud and ate it whole. It was a grim reminder that the danger hadn't truly passed, even with both of the threats at hand dead.

Kill - [Crocomander - Level 4] - 42 Talons

Assisted kill - [Mawbird - Level 3] - 3 Talons

[Level up. Level 3 obtained.]

"Sorry about that, I was standing ready to jump in on the lizard and let my guard down. That was my bad," Trey said, a troubled look on his face.

"It's fine. I'd have been in a lot more trouble if you hadn't been there," Devon said as he looked over his arm. The wound wasn't nearly as bad as the first time a mawbird had gotten ahold of him because of Trey's quick action.

"Here," Trey said, holding out one of the healing pills.

"I think I'll be fine. We need to conserve those. We can't just use them at any given opportunity or we'll run out."

"But…" A conflicted look crossed Trey's face. Devon sighed, already knowing what his next statement would be.

"I insist," Trey said, pushing the pill into Devon's hand, "You only got hurt because I messed up, and that's on me. It's only right I give back something to repay you."

"You and your stupid system of honor," Devon muttered, taking the pill. He knew it would be useless to argue any further. This was just how Trey was, after all. He popped the healing item into his mouth, already looking to retrieve his spear from the crocomander's corpse.

Devon immediately felt that something was wrong. Instead of giving the pain relieving effect the item had given the last time he'd used it, it felt like a blazing heat was spreading from his stomach to the rest of his body.

He grasped his chest in pain and took rasping gasps of air. He vaguely heard Trey say something, but he couldn't hear anything beyond the ringing in his ears as he collapsed and lost consciousness.