Katherine Pov

After swimming with the murderous dolphins, she decided to go back and find that bear they had seen when they first wandered around the third floor. It took a little bit of searching before they found the bear trail but she didn't mind, with their group being so big now she would rather move slowly throughout the mangroves.

When they found the bear den, she had the group stay at a safe distance while she got close enough to use her skill on them. She wouldn't go in blindly after the dolphin ordeal. She was still a little shook up, she almost attacked them because they were so friendly and not aggressive.

She made sure to watch her feet so she didn't step on anything as she moved toward the bear den. Thankfully it was still relatively early and the bears were warming up in the sun in the opening of their den. She used her skill on them and backed away to formulate a plan with the group.

[Black earth bear. One of the smallest of the bear species. They use earth mana to create dens and earth shields to protect themselves. They are aggressive when threatened and won't back down from a fight.]

An earth shield sounds much more manageable than a mental attack. Between her and the group of six she's more than sure they can take down a single bear. Now how do they separate one from the group? Would it be best to just wait for one of them to walk off by itself?

The choice was made for them when one of the bears walked off by itself unaware it was already being treated as prey. She made sure to arrange the group to the best of their abilities before running off to try to cut off the bears path of retreat.

She was going to get the bears attention and fight it head on while the group would come in and attack it while all it's focus was on her. Hopefully it would go down before any more bears came to help it.

She ran up behind the bear as quickly as she could with her scepter in hand. It heard her coming and turned to growl at her in an effort to scare her off. She ignored the growling and swung her scepter at it's face. It hit but didn't cause much damage to her chagrin. It stood up on it's hind legs and roared at her furious that she would dare to hit it.

She took a deep breath as she prepared to strike again. She just had to stall for a little bit longer before the group would arrive. This time she aimed for the bear's paw that was aiming for her head. She heard a crunch and was gratified to hear the bear whimper as it's paw was destroyed by her scepter.

At that moment the bear realized it wouldn't be worth it to fight her so it turned to leave only to find the group of teenagers ready to attack. She whacked the bear in the head one last time before the group of kids launched themselves at it.

The newest addition to the group Heros ran front and center with his sword and swung down his sword as hard as he could cutting off the bear's broken paw. It hit the ground with a satisfying thump and the whole group paused momentarily before they all struck in an effort to kill the beast and level up.

Heros had been fortunate to awaken a sword skill after activating his system. It just goes to show that what you do before the system activates counts a lot. His skill helped him reached passed his limits in exchange for twice the endurance. As long as he took a break after the fact he would recover just fine.

She noticed that the bear's paw hadn't started dissolving yet so she stuffed it into her storage ring to see if it would stay there when the bear died. It didn't take long for the bear to die and become a figurine. The figurine was much cuter than the bear actually was, but she was grateful for that.

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She pulled up her status panel and opened her ring tab to see what items she had. She was a little surprised to find the bear's paw was still there. That changed everything. She made sure everyone was ok before hurrying them off to a new location further away from the bear den.

Once she was sure they were in a relatively safe location she explained her discovery to the group. If they removed limbs from the monsters before killing them and stored them in a storage ring they wouldn't disappear with the monster. She pulled out the bear's paw to show the group and watched their faces light up.

They had never eaten bear but they were excited to try it. She asked the group if they were ready to fight another bear for some meat and they all became extremely noisey with excitement so she quieted them down and moved to another spot so they could come up with another plan of attack.

They fought with four more bears before calling it a day, the first one dropped the figurine but the other four dropped large chunks of dark red meat. It did not get easier the more they fought with the bears. They turned out to be very intelligent monsters and faster than they initially assumed.

They had to be healed by Garm on multiple occasions and he had gone extremely pale from the effort. Leto and Harmin helped him back to the cabin so he could eat and recover his strength. Thankfully no one had been seriously injured. They had worked together long enough to know how to cover each others weaknesses.

They did manage to get one more paw from the last bear. She was beginning to think that the first time it had happened used up all the luck they had. It was obviously something that couldn't be replicated every time. They trudged back to the cabin tired from the day long fight against the bears.

She made a simple dinner with the bear meat, it had a very gamey flavour but quite fulfilling after all the fish they had eaten. She did her best to peel the skin off of the bear paws and covered them in honey before placing them in her casserole dish over indirect heat over night. She was excited to taste them in the morning.

She dreamed of killer dolphins and tossed and turned all night. When the sun came up she did her usual morning routine in the washroom and started on tea before grabbing one of the small furs from her storage ring to lift the lid off of the casserole dish. The honey had helped break down the bear paw and caramelized into something beautiful.

She drooled slightly at the thought of eating it all by herself but she quickly came to her senses when she heard the pitter patter of feet starting to wander around the cabin behind her. She put the lid back on the dish and put it back on the coals that were dying. She made the usual tea with honey and settled down at the table to wait for the boys to join them so they could eat.

She had told them not to dilly dally this morning if they wanted to eat with them, so it wasn't long before she heard the boys splashing through the water outside the cabin. At this point they didn't even bother knocking before they stormed in demanding food. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

She had everyone make space and they all squeezed in to fit at the table to eat together like they had so many time in the past. Looking over the children she had become attached to over the years she realized that it wouldn't be much longer before Rose and Lyra turned twelve and started leveling up with them.

Time had just flown by. After demolishing all of the sweet bear meat in the dish everyone rubbed their round bellies in satisfaction before complimenting her on a job well done on the food. She made sure Rose and Lyra were taken care of before rounding up the group and exiting the cabin to start the day.

It wasn't long before they started coming across small trees that didn't have the same leaf pattern as the mangroves around them. She used her skill on every single one they came across, shocked at what the dungeon had created.

[Hybrid lemon tree. The dungeon created a lemon tree that can grow in brackish water by mixing the lemon tree with the mangrove tree. They are slightly sour but not so much that it's inedible.]

[Hybrid pineapple tree. The dungeon created a pineapple tree that can grow in brackish water by mixing the pineapple with the mangrove tree. They are slightly bitter but not so much that it's inedible.]

[Hybrid banana tree. The dungeon created a banana tree that can grow in brackish water by mixing the banana tree with the mangrove tree. They are slightly salty but not so much that it's inedible.]

[Hybrid apple tree. The dungeon created a apple tree that can grow in brackish water by mixing the apple tree with the mangrove tree. They are slightly bitter but not so much that it's inedible.]

How on earth did the dungeon manage to splice two trees together so easily? Was it easy? Her mind is so confused right now. She marks their locations on her mental map and continues hunting for prey in the mangrove forest.