To his surprise, White's appraisal skill ｢Status Window｣ had gone beyond the ability to only check for monsters and himself. He realized that there were a few things in the fanny pack that the 'status system' could also recognize.

Mana Compass A compass that has the ability to manipulate mana for navigation

The compass which appeared to have a light silver trimming around its circular frame, had an actual name and description! This was the first time the ｢Status Window｣ had done something like this. Perhaps this skill had truly levelled up? There was a string attached to it, thus White hung it over his neck along with the pendant he was already wearing. And as expected, mana did exist in this world. But how much did mana affect this world, he had yet to find out.

The ziplock bag with a bunch of green berries were able to be appraised as well.

Ferretfruit Bunch A bunch of Ferretfruit. Edible to humans when ingested with ｢Vegetables｣.

Something that seemed as if the hunter had taken his chances with its edibility. That man was probably looking for food alternatives. Since there were various things here and there that did not exist on Earth, White reminded himself that he would appraise things around him more frequently than before.

Blue Pill

And the only other thing that could be appraised, but did not have its description box.

Still, its appearance was very similar to a "Mana Pill", and it seemed to make sense considering that the ｢Mana Compass｣ made use of it too. In the end, he was right. As he took a pill out of its ziplock bag, the compass around his neck responded, turning the pill into blue glittery dust which it immediately sapped inside it.

White waited in anticipation. After a few seconds, the ｢Mana Compass｣ began to glow blue and its light dimmed and flickered like waves. And then at the corner of his eyes, he could see a translucent blue string. It had one end connected to the center of the compass, and the other led to another direction. White realized what the mana had been used for, and it felt rather convenient for him who had limited vision at night. He kept the rest of the items in the bag and began to follow the line which he had started to call: "Mana Strings".

Arriving at what seemed to be city ruins, White began to slow down his pace and moved the flashlight around even more than ever. The rocky grounds had paved way for destroyed roads, overgrown with red and orange weed. There were a few skyscrapers left standing, with windows mostly broken. The entrances were covered by red vines and various flora of a similar color.

There were many familiar structures he saw: A hospital, a desert shop where he could work out the name "Salisbury", a shopping mall with an area that looked like an arcade. Still, he did not go beyond 'window shopping'. They did not seem to be stable structures anyway. Some of the buildings creaked and had the ominous sounds of metal bending. There was a few skyscrapers in particular on the way here which had already leaned to one side like a failed jenga structure.

Nothing much could be appraised, and even if they did give a hit, there was no descriptions about them.

Mutated Hydrangea

Greenlark

Manastone

The moment he had appraised a certain shrub of plants as a ｢Mutated｣ one, White immediately set a good distance away from it. He did not want to aggravate any kind of monsters currently. The city ruins were currently silent, and while he did not know why it was here or what had happened to it, he did not want to break that passiveness.

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The second one was a small bunch of round-shaped fruits and had a little more tamer in its name, but White did not want to risk taking something without a description. He had food right now and now was not the time to introduce any kinds of risk. Still he decided to mentally mark the spot where he had seen the Greenlark plant.

As for the ｢Manastone｣, White had appraised it when touching a black lamp-post. It no longer worked but his appraisal skill went through and registered it as such.

"...A light source."

He noticed that there were indeed a tiny dark blue pebble inside of the unbroken glass. He steadied his aim with the knife he had pocketed earlier and threw it at the glass.

The glass shattered violently into many pieces, like a raindrop coming into contact with concrete. It gave way without any resistance, and the knife fell down to the ground. The ghost town seemed to create fluctuating reverberations into the surroundings, and White took the ｢Manastone｣ and returned the knife back to its sheath at his back before moving away from that area quickly.

There were only so many lamp-posts, and most of them already had their ｢Manastone｣ removed. It looked like White was rather lucky with this one as the city ruins already had signs of being pillaged once.

White continued following the mana strings without going off course too much and eventually was led to a construction site. It did not seem too conspicuous like the neighbouring structures, but the mana strings clearly led to the inside of this place.

"...It can't be helped then."

Calmly considering the pros and cons, White went even further inside the half-built concrete structure. Looks like it was meant to be for a shopping mall, but there were not much to see here besides rocks and white painted walls, so White did not pick anything up by touching them in hopes of triggering his appraisal.

Since he had finally entered a 'building', White began to take a more cautious stance. He moved his torchlight left and right, lighting up roughly 20% of the place and his field of vision grew narrower as he went in further.

He walked on for roughly 30 more minutes, and took a few breaks in between. The unfinished mall did not seem to be this big when he had seen it from the outside. Was he possibly going underground right now? If so, then the slope was very hard to notice. White stopped and took out a ｢Blue pill｣, then he balanced it like a coin on the ground. Sure enough, it tilted towards the direction he was going. Using his hands at the ready, he collected it again and returned the pill back into its ziplock bag. Incidentally, the ｢Mana Compass｣ had not absorbed the pill like before. Thus White could conclude that the Mana Compass needed to run out of mana first, before another can be used.

Still, the added knowledge had satisfied his doubts. The hideout seemed to have been located at a good place, but White was still careful just in case a monster appeared in front of him, or the ｢Mutated Lilac｣ came attracted to the darkness. His right hand which wasn't holding the torchlight was always at his back, ready to draw his knife.

Now he had already gone in quite deep, and he had to resort to shining the light near his feet to make sure that he did not trip. He now purely relied on the mana strings to get him there, and as he went in deeper, the strings became even more condensed in blue. To think of reaching the hideout single-mindedly like this, not many people would have dared to even venture this deep. What was going on in that mind of his, only White himself knew.

The blue light of the mana strings looked like a lightshow in the darkness.

Finally, White had arrived. He had his doubts, but still he had reached his destination in one piece. The walls and ceiling and caved inwardly to the height of a plain white door in front of him.

"...If this is a trap..."

White muttered to himself. Gripping the knife behind him tightly, he twisted the brass door knob with his left hand which was still holding the torchlight.