The shop is closed and locked up, inventory for the day has been completed, and dinner has been eaten. It's time for me to do my Daily Dungeon, but I want to check on the grass in the Mythic Forest first to see the progress, so I access the gate to there.

When I arrive, I find the grass completely gone, the soil dry and dead once more. The grass must have sucked up all of the nutrients as it grew, then eventually died off because there wasn't any left. Though it decomposed, I guess there weren't enough nutrients left for more to grow at that point, and Mrow must not have done too much to help.

Or…

I look up at the sky, which is covered in thick grey clouds just as it was when I first arrived here. Every time I've been here, it's been filled with clouds.

Yet the ground itself is extremely dry. There's no rainfall, which means those clouds are probably magic, not the result of condensation, and may not even contain water at all. The fog walls technically don't, either. At least, not any water which can escape them.

"Mrow?" I ask, then wait.

There's no response from the lifeseed worm even after a few minutes. He must not be here right now, likely somewhere beyond the fog walls. I'm fairly certain he's able to go past them and that the Mythic Forest is larger than this smaller space I have access to.

If there's no natural rain, then the water in the area must have dried up. That will reduce the ability for plants to grow and thrive here even if the mana in the soil will provide the nutrients they need. I'm not quire sure why there's a difference here that makes them need water when [Grow Plant] and [Boost Plant Growth] doesn't, but maybe the spell structure adds something extra that mana alone doesn't?

That would make the most sense.

"Hey, System?" I say. "Was there a purpose behind granting me access to this place? I'm not sure I can do much with this if there's no water."

There's no response to that, though I'm sure the System has a reason for giving me a gate to here.

An idea comes to me, so I leave the Mythic Forest and move some mana potion into my bracelet before returning to the field. When I arrive, Mrow has its head poking up out of the center of the hill, and it lifts up more and gives a small wiggle, then sags its head.

My [Animal Communication] Skill is only Level one, but it's enough that I'm able to understand what the lifeseed worm is trying to say.

"You tried your best, huh?" I pat it on the head. "I realized that. There's enough mana in the soil that it shouldn't have been a problem for things to keep growing once they started. I'm going to try something, though."

Mrow gives me a nod, then I close my eyes and focus. The Mythic Forest I have access to can't be this small, the stories of them say that even the smallest of them is several miles across. So far, the gate's only taken me to the same spot I exited from, but that might not be its limit.

It might just be the default.

One source of water for an area is springs, and I think that's the best source for me to look for right now. As I access the gate again, I try to focus on traveling to a spring. I can't travel through the fog wall, but this might work… and it does.

Sort of, and only when I push through some sort of block which tries to stop me.

I reappear in another field of dirt, though it's not just flat/slightly sloped like the field I arrive in by default is. Fog permeates the air here, restricting my vision down to about fifteen feet in all directions. There's magic in the fog, similar to the fog walls that prevent people from entering areas they aren't meant to be in.

This must not be an area I'm supposed to be able to reach, but my gate allows me to access it.

There's a pit in the ground that's about ten feet at its widest and seven at its narrowest, which is what I actually appeared in. A series of rocks rest against about a fifth of its northern end, and there's a small channel in the southeastern edge of it. The pit itself is about three feet deep, while the channel is maybe one foot in depth and around two and a half in width.

Around the pit, the ground slopes down a little, so the northern edge is about eight inches taller than the southern edge, where the channel out of it is located.

This was a spring, and the dip in the ground leading out of it must have been a stream which flowed out, probably to meet up with others and form a river. Water probably once poured out of the northern part and into the pit, filling it up until it reached the stream, then flowed out. It might have even come out of the ground quickly enough that the stream could have filled to the top despite how much water would be leaving the pond at all times.

In addition to being dry and empty of water, the dead spring has another change from what it likely once was: monsters.

There weren't any visible when I appeared, but one comes into view as I examine the dry spring. It's similar to the others I've fought, except it wields a club instead of nothing at all.

I raise my hand and shoot a [Magic Missile] at the goblin, which raises its club to slap the spell to the side. Its eyes quickly widens when it sees the follow-up [Magic Missile] and though it tries its best to stop the attack, it's not able to get its club back up in time.

My spell slams into the goblin's head, sending it stumbling back. As that happens, a pair of notifications appear in my vision.

Special Quest Initiated! Slay all of the goblins within the limited zone. Slay: 0/53 goblins Time Limit: None

Special Quest Initiated! Clear the blockage preventing the spring from producing water.

I dismiss both of those messages as I shoot the goblin with another [Magic Missile]. Tougher than the ones I faced in the field, this one takes three shots to the same spot before it runs out of HP and dies, and each shot does more damage than the last due to the attacks entering it more than before. Even damaging the brain isn't a guarantee to kill thanks to HP.

Due to this being part of a Special Quest, I receive no EXP for the kill. No other goblins are visible, either, which gives me a little bit of time. Their vision is probably as limited by the fog as mine is so I can either wait for them to find me or I can try to navigate through the fog to find them all.

Or I can make use of another Skill I received upon Awakening.

[Runic Script] Level: 1 The art of creating magics through the runic scripts.

This is a mixture of knowledge I already held and magic I couldn't access until I Awakened, allowing me to draw runes with my mana to create different effects. Runes are used in ordinary spellcasting – what spell Skills are. Spells have set formulas and the System grants us a shortcut. Following a spell's formula is rigid, and [Runic Script] is the art of using the non-rigid form of spellcasting.

It's slower than proper spellcasting, but I can tailor things to some degree.

I raise my right hand and begin drawing on the air, lilac light following my finger. The runes used outline parameters such as magical effects, range, duration, and more. As I draw, I drink some of my mana potion as this particular spell is taking a lot of MP.

When it completes, I thrust a hand forward, and a barrier of white-blue light forms around me, encasing me in a dome seven feet in radius. Violet and pink markings flow across the dome and yellowish ones dance across it light sparks.

Some of the effects of the barrier become evident quickly, goblins drawing into view as they charge at me. Drawn here by the mind aspect of the spell, the goblins have lost their reason and see only food before them.

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Even if they're a little bit stronger than the ones at the field, goblins have a naturally low Mind stat unless they're a special type. The spell is limited by my own 14 Mind, but these ones probably only have around half of that. They can't resist it at all.

The lightning-like markings are the result of another effect I added into the barrier, which is an actual lightning aspect to the spell. When the goblins slam into the barrier in an attempt to eat the food they're being drawn to, the barrier zaps them with enough electricity to fry them extra-crispy after a few hits. Despite the pain, they keep trying to get at me until they die, unable to resist the mind aspect of the barrier.

Eventually, the swarm of goblins stops and the last of them falls.

Special Quest completed! +5,000 EXP

The barrier still has a few more minutes left on it, but I draw some runic script to cancel out the spell.

Using [Runic Script] to deal with monsters might seem effective, but it probably took me more MP to do this than it would have had I just fought them normally. By a lot. Three hits per goblin, 5 MP per hit, that's around 800 MP just for the strikes, maybe 1,200 when factoring in blocked and deflected attacks. I spent around 6,000 MP on the barrier and another 200 on canceling it.

The trade-off for using so much mana and needing to spend a lot of time on writing out the runes is that I don't have to do anything else, just cast the spell and hope nothing is able to resist its effects or break the barrier.

Now I have a bunch of goblin corpses in the pit, though I climb out of it and sit on the edge as I wait. About ten minutes pass before Mrow pokes its head up out of the bottom of the spring's pit, its maw open right at a goblin's corpse.

I was right. It seems he can tell when there are bodies to process and will show up shortly after they stop dropping.

"Hello, Mrow," I say, and the lifeseed worm looks over at me. "Mind dumping the soil you make from them on the ground around outside of the pit?"

Mrow gives me a small nod, then gets to consuming all of the goblins. Once it finishes, it burrows back into the ground, the soil where it passes looking undisturbed, as if it had never been there. I hop back into the pit as Mrow emerges outside of the pond pit.

An expectation I had was that there was something preventing water from flowing, either from having dried up completely or being blocked. The second Special Quest I received confirms that it's the latter, at least for this spring. However, the Quest makes it sound as if the spring produces the water directly rather than simply releases it from within the ground.

Some of the rocks on the northern side might be what's causing the block, so I focus on the spell formula for [Telekinesis]. The runes form in my mind and at the moment of activation, a notification appears in my vision.

You've unlocked the [Telekinesis] Skill!

While I could move all of the rocks with my hands, I don't want to have to constantly move from where I'm standing as I do so and that's a lot of physical activity, anyway. The System wasn't wrong to focus on magic over physical things for my Classes and Skills, and [Telekinesis] only helps me with that.

[Telekinesis] Level: 1 Move objects using your magic. Cost: 1 MP per second Casting Time: 1 second Range: 7'

To avoid a rock slide, and because it would make the most sense for the spring water to come out near the top, I begin by moving the rocks at the very top. Some of them are placed in the pit, others are placed on the ground at the top of the spring.

As I move a rock the size of my fist from about four inches down, water begins to pour out as if coming out of a hose. The back wall of the spring is solid stone and there's a hole roughly 1" in size behind where the rock had been. No notification pops up and the water flow isn't massive, so there are probably more feeds for the spring.

I set the rock down outside of the pit, then begin moving more. Another of the rocks at around the same level as the first one frees up another hole. Just as I remove it, the water reaches my sneakers and I look down for a moment.

Maybe standing in the pit wasn't the best of ideas, so I climb out of it to continue removing rocks. As I work, I realize that the fog is starting to thin out as well. I can see about almost fifty feet in all directions now rather than roughly fifteen.

A third hole is revealed as I continue, about eight inches lower than the first two. It's angled slightly to the right, its stream meeting the stream from the one to its right as they flow into the pit.

I continue removing rocks until the entire wall is cleared, the stones either in the bed of the spring or on the ground outside of it now, but no other holes are revealed as I work. The task becomes a little bit trickier as the pit fills due to needing to reach into the nearly crystal-clear water with [Telekinesis], but I manage to do so.

Just as I move one of the last six rocks still in their original spots, notifications appear in my vision.

Special Quest completed! +5,000 EXP

You have reached the EXP threshold to reach Level 2! Your Level 2 Awakening Quest is now available! Would you like to participate? Yes No

I hit "No" for now as doing so won't prevent me from taking it, it just gets the message out of my vision.

The fog has lightened up to about a fifty-foot visibility and Mrow has finished using his magics to convert the goblins and their loincloths and clubs into fertile soil, then dumping it on the ground around the spring.

I continue watching the spring water as it fills up, only now realizing that I didn't collect the goblins' essence crystals. I don't really need to, either, as I've obtained quite a few and still need to sell the ones from the last three Daily Dungeons I did.

"Thanks for the help, Mrow," I tell the lifeseed worm, which comes over to me and raises its head. "Mind if I take a picture?"

Mrow tilts its head to the side, so I show him my phone and explain what it and pictures are. [Animal Communication] isn't enough for the mythical beast to fully understand me, but it's enough that it understands that it's a form of making an image such as a painting or a sketch. The creature apparently knows what those are.

I pose next to him and smile at the camera, then snap a selfie of us. Some of my friends will probably be a bit curious about Mrow, but it's not unheard of for someone to encounter friendly creatures in some Dungeons.

After uploading the image to my gallery of friends-only access (it won't be available to them until after I leave here), I look at the spring. It's taking a little bit of time to fill up, of course, but it has four holes feeding it. The completion notice probably popped up because I uncovered the final one that was blocked up, not from the waters reaching a certain level.

I want to see if the spring water will flow into the stream, and how far the waters will go from there. The spring produces healing waters, so while they're nearly crystal clear, there's a faint golden tint to them. This will be useful for potions.

Mrow leaves as I wait, and just as the water is high enough to enter the stream's bed, a new notice appears in my vision.

A new area within the Mythic Forest is available to access via your gate: the Whispering Life Springs!

A vision enters my mind as that notification appears, of a wounded deer with golden antlers and a gold-and-green pelt drinking from the waters of the spring. Surrounding the spring and stream is a forest and lush undergrowth. It's calm and peaceful in the vision, and the deer's injuries heal as it drinks. On the northern edge of the pond is a cluster of large boulders that I'm going to assume eventually became the rocks that blocked up the spring's outlets.

Just as quickly as it came, the vision fades away.

Now that there's water here, I'm sure at least this part can become filled with plant life again, so long as monsters don't begin destroying things once more.

Kneeling down, I use [Grow Plant], and a small blade of grass pokes up through the fertile soil Mrow created. I don't stop with that, though, and use the Skill in several spots, and several different plants begin to sprout. Bushes, flowers, and even some tree saplings form. None of them are magical, but it's at least a start. Using some of my mana potion is necessary in order to get a good variety going, and I exclusively use [Grow Plant] this time so that I can get as much going as possible.

I don't really know how this whole "growing plants" thing works when magic itself isn't involved, but I'm hoping the waters here are enough to support everything.

"There we go," I stand when I finally finish trying to get plants to grow. "Welcome back to life, Whispering Life Springs."

I turn and begin walking down the stream. At this point, the waters are about seven inches deep and they flow several hundred feet until it's thinned enough to stop. Both of the upper spring outlets were visible in the vision I received, the waters starting about six inches below them. In it, their flows were much greater than they currently are.

Considering the spring apparently produces its water rather than simply being water drawn up from the ground, it may take time for the magics to fully restart and flow at their normal rate. Once they do, the waters will probably travel quite far.

While the fog visibility is still lighter around the stream that's formed, it seems that there's a wall of fog about seventy feet away from the pond and the stream itself, and when the stream ends, the dense wall of fog appears there as well. It'll probably keep shifting as the stream begins traveling further and further down.

I return to the pond and examine it. For a moment, I contemplate going for a dip in it, then decide against it for now. My Level 2 Awakening Quest awaits, and once I complete it, I should be able to do and handle more thanks to increased stats.

First, though, I should return to my shop. It's not a bad idea to find out if there's anything important to know before taking on the Level 2 Awakening Quest.