In the morning, or at least when Dan woke up, he went out to a predetermined meeting spot and read his book while waiting for Sam to show up. The book was more like a giant tome. It was really heavy. The book had a red cover with silver patterns forming a frame around the edge of the book with two fingers width of space between the edge of the cover and where the border of the pattern ended. In the middle of the front cover there is an outline of a cauldron made with silver as well as a title on top of the cauldron "Alchemy, Theory and how to begin, an alchemy book for progenitors." Dan had already read the introduction and table of content the night before. The table of content was very very long. As in it took up 5 pages. The table of contents included many things such as: "Basic magic theory", "The theory behind transmutation" and "How resources differ." and that was all in the "The theory behind alchemy" section. There were also things such as: "How to improvise in alchemy and make something superior" and a whole section dedicated to mushroom slander. That part concluded by deciding that mushrooms are great fro alchemy but anyone who uses them otherwise is a horrible person. A lot of the things in the book were either very foundational and gave a wider understanding of how their new reality functioned such as explaining what each stat and resource represented ro did. Other parts of the book gave practical advice on how to approach different parts of alchemy and how to learn from a failure and move on. there weren't many recipes in the book, but Dan believed it wasn't due to lacking quality but rather that whoever wrote the book believed strongly that any good alchemist must learn their recipes trough trial and error. Dan could appreciate that approach especially since it would give him an excuse to let loose and experiment. a voice broke him out of his thoughts
"Dan!" Sam said. "it took you a while to wake up so I took a look around the place, there is a really nice food place down the street!"
"how long were you waiting?" Dan asked
"oh nothing much, an hour or two." Sam answered
"Well, either way, are you ready to go gobling hunting?" Sam asked in turn
"sure!" Dan answered and so they did
As the brothers sneaked trough the mushroom forest they didn't encounter any gobling scouting groups. When Dan thought about it he supposed it made sense. They were only scouts after all, and if enough of them disappeared without a trace they were bound to either stop sending scouts or at least arm their scouts more heavily. If Dan had to guess the armored gobling scout was some kind of mini boss. hopefully that was one of those bosses that come with the weekly waves so I won't have to worry about that any longer.Dan thought. Tho if he were some kind of wave boss wouldn't Dan and Sam have gotten some notification or at least more TP than the average 2 they got per gobling scout? Dan was pulled from his thoughts by Sam's sudden stop. Sam gestured ahead with his free hand. Dan followed where Sam was pointing and saw a group of 16 goblings making a camp. 10 of them were the regular loincloth wearing gobling scouts they had been killing not long ago, while 5 of them were armored with Mongolian looking leather armor and armed with curved blades. The last one tho was the most interesting. While most goblings were up to Dan's armpits in their full height this one was massive, at least a head taller than Sam who was already much taller than Dan. The Big Boy Gobbo or BBG was huge, fat and had no visible armor. Instead it went with the classic loincloth method but instead of wielding a flimsy stick for a weapon they had a Giant mushroom cap that looked tougher than hardwood. In Short they had to deal with a BBG who wielded the power of big stick energy. While Dan was confident he and Sam could take on the 10 scouts, they would still give them some trouble. Dan had no dream of fighting 10 scouts 5 warriors and the BBG. While Dan wasn't about to be bound by fear he would most certainly be bound by stupidity if he thought he had even a chance against that group. Dan gestured for Sam to follow him as he began to sneak further away. Sam seemed reluctant but followed never the less. After getting a good distance away from the gobling camp Dan began to talk with a low voice "I know you don't want to back down from this due to your bloodline but hear me out: If you were to charge in purely due to the feeling of fear binding you down, the thing that would be binding you the most wouldn't be your fear of death. It would be your bloodline." Sam looked at Dan for a while with his face going trough a lot of different expressions: Frustration, surprise, defeat and determination. He nodded and spoke "I understand. Thank you. We should make a plan of action and work ourselves up to a level where we can face them." Dan agreed and they decided to head back out of the mushroom forest after looking around for other types of monsters for a while. On their way towards the village they headed past a group of two other active people. One of them looked to be a European man with some kind of one handed short sword. The other one was a lady wearing a spear on her back and glad in some very though looking leather armor. each group nodded respectfully at the other when they passed each other. "I'm glad to see others out and about grinding TP to prepare for the wave." Dan said
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"yeah, Had thought they were all spineless but it seems I had just jumped to conclusions." Sam agreed.
Once the brothers had got to town they headed for the weapon merchant to ask a few questions about the nearby monster population.
"I'm afraid i can't answer such questions. You will have to pay fro the information at another merchants stall." After getting directions to the nearest recommended stall that sold information they got what they came for a sum of 10 TP from Sam. "There are a few populations of monsters nearby that have groups of patrolling weak monsters in their territory. First there are the goblings who roam in the nearest mushroom forest. they are armed with poorly made spears and have groups rangin in size from 3 to 10. they also have some semi permanent campsites around the forest circling their central encampment. Then there are lesser cave ants to the north east of the village, they have greater numbers than the goblings but lack strength. Then there are is an area directly south of the village filled with a variety of different beasts. their strength varies greatly." The merchant divulged.
"Thank you" Sam responded before heading towards the ant hill with Dan following not far behind.