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Lauren awoke the following morning to her aunt and younger sister busying themselves in the kitchen. Normally, the sounds would’ve been enough to instantly wake her.

That’s not good. I could’ve died. Wait…

Yawning and shaking her head, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. A quick burst of healing magic helped clear away the mental fog, though the vague sick feeling from yesterday still lingered.

She hadn’t gotten a chance to look around the house last night. Despite its isolated location, it still had all the basic amenities one would expect of a modern home, and there was also a large safe for storing their gear and Dungeon acquisitions.

The home was cozy and inviting, and bore the signs of many years of occupancy; the occasional little scratch or dent on some surface, a side window that was clearly newer than the other windows, a sofa with indentations in its cushions… Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of a life lived without her.

“Good morning, Lauren,” Lucia said as she trudged her way into the kitchen.

“Y-Yeah… Good morning.” The three of them hugged again for a long time. When they separated, Lauren noticed they both had bags under their eyes.

She hungrily eyed the heap of pancakes they’d made using soy milk.

“What are your clothes made of?” Savannah asked, rubbing the fabric between her fingers.

“It’s a blend of plant fibers I turned into threads, and then eventually into cloth. I even built a loom to make it easier. I actually might make a new one now that I have access to the internet’s knowledge again because the one I have now is pretty jank.”

Savannah blinked. “Didn’t know you knew how to make a loom.”

Lauren scratched her head. “I had a lot of free time to experiment, once I had a permanent residence and a stable supply of resources.”

Lucia pointed at one of Lauren’s many scars. “Wouldn’t going out all the time be dangerous?”

“These are mostly from the early years. Figuring out healing magic made life so much easier, plus I could use other spells and was much stronger by then. Now if I need something, it’s generally not that difficult to obtain.”

Emma and Maeve soon made their way into the kitchen as well. They gave Lauren a long hug, looking more relaxed once they finally let go. Like the others, they also had bags under their eyes. They sat down for breakfast after finishing up in the kitchen, and Lauren slowly savored the flavors she hadn’t experienced in decades.

It’s so good! Feels like it filled a hole in my heart.

Maeve asked, “How would you feel about going to a research lab for some testing before going back to the Dungeon? They would test your physical and magical capabilities, and might be able to answer any questions you have.”

Lauren gave her mom a hesitant look. “How long would it take? And how invasive is it?”

“Given your chantless magic, they’d probably want to keep you there for a while, but it’s completely voluntary, so you could leave at anytime. And you wouldn’t be subjected to anything worse than a physical checkup.”

Emma added, “They’ll probably have you do all sorts of fitness tests to get data on how magic augments human capability, too.”

“Yeah, alright,” Lauren said. “It’s been a minute since my last doctor appointment.”

Lauren then stored her gear in the safe, but hesitated to let go of her spear.

“It will be safe in there,” Maeve said.

“Are you sure? It doesn’t look very sturdy…”

“Its durability has been tested before, and it held up,” Lucia said. “And the neighbors here are trustworthy.”

Reluctantly, she shut the safe’s door and locked it.

After a quick run and another train ride, they arrived in Chicago. Other than the wall around the perimeter, the skyline was the same as how she remembered it. Most of the buildings outside the wall had been abandoned, though some appeared to have been scrapped for materials.

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Inside the city walls, it was quite dense with people—mostly ordinary humans—and like Rockford, a rotten stench hung in the air, though it was a bit milder here. The whole family’s ears laid flat because of the volume from so many people around them, but it got better once they left the train station.

Seemingly every available space was being used. Instead of cars on the streets, there were greenhouses everywhere, numerous buildings had been shoddily converted to housing, and everything bore marks of repairing damage from animal attacks.

The plants inside those greenhouses don’t look so good…

“Does magic affect crops in any way?” Lauren asked. “The plants in the jungle generally became much bigger, and some gained additional properties, like how that fruit tree is now mildly poisonous. Seem trees even gained prehensile vines.”

Savannah grinned. “Oh, those trees sound cool! There’s nothing like that on the surface, though. Using magic on plants actually kills them.”

“What? I do it all the time, though?”

“Huh. Maybe plants that far down are special…? That would be good news. Agriculture is struggling.”

“The meat industry has also been hit pretty hard,” Emma added. “Any industry that uses animal products, actually. Kinda hard to maintain that when animals are stronger, can cast spells, and most are actively hostile against humanity. That hasn’t stopped people from trying to keep it going, though.” As an aside, she added, “Every industry that requires a lot of shipping or being outside of city walls has been struggling.”

At least people aren’t eating an excessive amount of meat, now?

Lauren sighed when they passed a skyscraper.

“Something wrong with the building?” Lucia asked. “Besides the damage from the occasional bird attacking it.”

Lauren shook her head. “I’m used to giant objects being trees, not buildings. I miss the forest.”

“You’ll be able to see it again soon,” her aunt comforted.

She nodded. “So why is nearly everyone here still human?”

As they’d been walking, most of the people they passed had been ordinary humans. Several of those people had done double takes upon seeing the Wolf Pack, but hadn’t said anything to them.

“Mana exposure,” Emma said. “People who’ve spent at least a few days inside of, or very near, a Dungeon start transforming.”

“Is there any kind of pattern to it? I mean, we’re all wolves, but why are we wolves?”

“It runs in the family, yeah. It’s mostly based on what existed in the place your ancestors are from. Some people have atavistic transformations, and people with mixed heritage usually end up as a species from just one place.

“In rare cases, they might inherit an additional trait from the the other parent, which I think is the case with you.” She gestured to Lauren’s silver hair. “And in even rarer cases, they actually become mixed species.”

Lauren pulled some of her hair in front of her face.

So the metallic look might be from my father? …Guess we’ll never know for sure.

“Anyway,” Emma continued, “we are wolf-kin—or more broadly, beast-kin—but there’s also some rare people who’ve become non-mammalian animals, like sea creatures, birds, or insects. And even rarer than that are elementals, which isn’t really an accurate name, but they might become rocky or kind of fluid in some way.

“But unlike what some people expected, and were apparently hoping for, there are no elves or dwarves or anything like that. The changes that occur in people are based on something that already existed on Earth, either now or in the past; though the further you get from mammals and modern day, the rarer it is.”

Another person they passed pointed at them before chattering excitedly to the person next to them.

“I hope that’s not too bothersome for you?” Maeve asked.

“It’s a bit strange… What’s it about? People keep looking at us like we’re either crazy or amazing.”

Maeve brushed a strand of gray hair out of her face. “Not to brag, but we’ve also been doing quite well in Dungeons. And like you, we avoid fighting when we don’t need to. We make a lot of videos where we teach people stuff, plus there aren’t many people on the lower Floors, so what we make stands out even more.”

“That sounds fun. I’m looking forward to doing that with you.”

Her mom chuckled. “We also have a habit of going out of our way to protect animals and ignoring government orders to stay out of the bottom Floors, which a lot of people don’t like.” She scowled. “And they’ve given their full backing to Abyssal Seekers, of course. Otherwise we would’ve found you first.”

Lauren had been just following her family so far, so she was surprised when they stopped in front of an arena.

Emma explained. “They converted it to a research lab for testing magic and Dungeon materials. They needed somewhere with a lot of space.”

The moment they stepped inside, an antlered deer-kin in his 50s ran up to them. “There you are! You must be Lauren Park and the rest of the Wolf Pack. Let’s get started right away!”

They followed the excited researcher into a much larger room, where plenty of people were setting up equipment. Most of them were also beast-kin.

The researcher led them to a table covered with small devices. “Sorry for the late introduction. I am Professor Richards, one of many people who’ve been researching mana since it first materialized.”

“How did that happen? Do we know?” Lauren asked.

The professor made a so-so motion. “Sort of. When comparing new data to the pre-Advent world, we realized that even back then, we were detecting mana. It was simply inert until it reached a certain threshold.

“Well, ‘inert’ isn’t quite accurate. Think of it as filling a bucket with water. It had slowly been filling up for many, many years, and then it eventually overflowed, which was the Advent.”

That doesn’t explain much.

Lauren took a breath. “So what do we do first?”

“First,” the deer-kin grinned and picked up a device, “we check your Level. Although I’m pretty sure it won’t be able to measure you. That’s common for high-level Explorers.”

“…Right.”She decided to just move on. “So what do I do?”

“I’ll have you create a candle-sized flame and maintain it for one minute. This device will scan your mana pool and determine how much you are using for the spell. Maintaining it for five seconds is considered Level One.”

He set his wedding ring on the table, then pressed a few buttons on the device, “And I must clarify that this is only a representation of how much mana you have, or the size of your mana pool. To this day, there are still people who think that ‘Level’ is some kind of strength or health stat.” He shook his head. “There’s plenty of terminology we would rather have used instead, but unfortunately, people were firmly latched onto video game concepts.”

Lauren nodded. Her family were idly looking at the devices still on the table while making sure not to touch anything or get in anyone’s way. “So do I just create a flame while you point the thing at me?”

“Actually,” Professor Richards started, “we want you to do it through the System first. We don’t yet know if your method will affect the results. The results may still be affected while doing it through the Band, but we have plenty of other things here that should help clarify what’s going on.”

He grabbed a System Band off the table and handed it to her. It was wide, but relatively thin, with a bronze-like matte finish. There were no discernible features on the top, but the bottom side that would be resting against her skin had various sensors. Her family’s attention went back to her as she put it on.

“Alright, to use it, you have to do two things,” the professor said. “You must imagine the result of the spell while speaking the activation phrase, or ‘chant’. Without either of those, nothing will happen.”

Lauren gave him an incredulous look. “That’s it? I just have to think about it and say a word and it happens?”

“It sounds easy, but some do find it tricky. I have an actual candle here for visual reference if you need it. The activation phrase is ‘Candle Flame’. Speak that while picturing it in your mind, and keep maintaining the spell after it starts. To stop, simply picture the flame going out, or cover it.”

She shrugged and held up her index finger before it. “Candle Flame,” she said curiously. “Ugh!”

She immediately canceled the spell and ripped off the System Band.

“What happened?! What’s wrong?!” Professor Richards exclaimed. Everyone within earshot turned to look at her.

“This thing is sickening!” Lauren yelled, glaring at the Band.