Octavia moved across the clearing, back to where she could see those strange flowers growing. While she had very little botanical knowledge, she could still try to collect them for her team. Once she found the cluster of flowers, she bounded over to them, ignoring the Gloomy Dayshade.

She reached and touched the slick petal of the Jovial Nightshade and closed her eyes. The familiar warm pulse of energy entered through her skin, chasing away the morning chill and the aches that still wracked her body. As she studied the flower, her mind raced on how to properly harvest it. Pulling it out of the ground didn’t feel right, nor did cutting it from its stem.

As Octavia thought it over, she realized that she couldn’t bring the flower, but she could bring the petals. A grin crossed the rogue’s face as reached up towards where the petals connected to the flower. In that case, she would just take the petals with her instead.

The dark purple petals parted easily from the flower, and even more energy coursed through the woman’s body. It felt like the warmth from a campfire or a warm cup of hot chocolate.. A smile blossomed across her face, embracing the warmth that coursed through her veins. Grinning, she reached out and pulled a few more petals of the plants away, before heading back towards the camp.

As she neared the communal rock, she saw Derrick was awake, smoking a cigarette as he sat over the rock’s edge. His usually stoic eyes were more sunken than usual, and the familiar scent of cigarette smoke filled the air. “Good morning. How are you feeling?” She asked as she pulled close and scaled the rock.

“I’m tired, nervous, and a fair bit stressed. But I’ll be alright.” The man sucked in another lungful of smokey death before blowing it away. The grey smoke caught the wind and was quickly dispersed along with it's harsh smell.

“Yeah, Jules and I had a heart to heart this morning about it. Do you need one as well?” Octavia huffed slightly as she clambered onto the top of the rock. Her hands felt a little rough, and exhaustion hung in the far corners of her mind. It wasn’t enough to impede her, but it was enough to be noticeable.

“Not really. I’ll work through it.” He shrugged as he drew in the last bit of his cigarette before crushing it against the stone. “Anyway, did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah, it’s called Jovial Nightshade. It’s this strange plant over on the treeline. Whenever I touched it, it made me feel better, so I figured I’d bring it over and see if it helped us out any.” The rogue wandered over next to Derrick and sat down, pulling out the neatly folded flower petals.

“Huh, I thought Nightshade was supposed to be dangerous. Do you mind?” He extended his calloused hand.

She nodded and dropped the neatly folded bundle down. “The tutorial screen said that since we chose the path of combat, that we needed to take care of ourselves, so I figured that this would be the first step.”

He brought the petals close to his face, marveling at them. “This is really interesting. Back when I was a chef, I worked with a lot of ingredients, some were pretty exotic. But this takes the cake.” He pulled a single one from the stack before passing it back to Octavia.

“I’m not sure what to do with it. But it seems safe enough, so I might take a bite and see what happens.” She took the stack back, taking one, before folding them back together.

“That seems a little dangerous, even if they do feel benign.” Derrick eyed her warily as he stood up and brushed down his blue robe.

“Eh, we only live once. Besides, I doubt it will do anything. I’ll take a small bite, though, just in case.” Octavia gently tucked the petals back into her pocket.

“Are you insane? Like, did the system come to scramble your brain?” His voice rose an octave as he reached out to bat the purple petal from her fingertips.

“Derrick, I get it. But we are on our own, surrounded by beasts. The only way out for us is down. But I’ll be okay. At least I’m doing it here, and not out there. So if something happens, take one of those shiny red health potions and shove it down my throat, okay?” The woman shifted her hand, narrowly avoiding her friend’s hand.

A glare crossed his handsome features as he stared at the purple petal that seemed to ripple in the air. “You’re an idiot. But fine.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is for the greater good. But I’ll be okay.” She flashed him a wink before she brought it to her lips, biting off a small chunk of it.

Congratulations! You have unlocked:

Botany (Inferior): Using the crudest of methods, you have started to explore the world of plants. Once you have consumed or experienced a plant, a brief description will be displayed upon inspection.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

A notification appeared in Octavia’s vision as warmth spread from her mouth and into her body, forcing away the exhaustion that slowly crept in. All the pain that had built up melted away. Even the aches that had come with age faded as energy coursed through her veins.

You have been invigorated! +3 to health regeneration +3 to stamina regeneration for the next ten minutes.

“Derrick, you need to try this.” She spoke as the flavour of chocolate spread across her tongue. As she rushed to pull the petal out of her pocket, she quickly cast Identify on the folded bundle.

Jovial Nightshade: A member of the nightshade family that has absorbed the energy emitted by the moon. It invigorates those that consume it. It can be consumed independently or be used as an alchemical ingredient.

"Apparently, once I ate it, it gave me a new skill line called Botany. This nightshade invigorates and gives increased health and stamina regeneration.” She explained as she passed over the stack of petals, and, finishing the last bit of nightshade, left. That was exciting! It meant that they had other avenues to heal from wounds outside of using potions. While that was all fine and dandy, Octavia knew she didn’t want to pursue alchemy. Sitting around all day with a mortar and pestle mashing together stuff just didn’t seem all that appealing.

“Oh, that is solid. It makes me curious about using this in cooking. I may have to check that out next time we make camp.” He took a few petals out of the stack and nodded his head. “I’m glad you didn’t die, though.”

“Oh, speaking of water!” Octavia nearly forgot that she spent a large part of the knife haphazardly carving wooden bowls of a log. She glanced around until at last she found them stacked on top of each other a little way away. “I was working on these last nights. While they look like shit, they can capture water for the time being.”

“Oh wow, those really look like shit. Did you hire a toddler to make that?’ His eyebrows upturned slightly, followed by a smirk that grew on the corners of his lips.

“Huh, suddenly, I feel like I need to get rid of these.” She knew he was fucking around with her, but a point had to be made in this situation.

“No, no, this is fine, unless you want to be drinking off of leaves.” A nervous chuckle escaped from his lips as he pulled the bowls away from her grasping fingers. “I’ll set them up and cast my spell and see how well they fill up. While I do that, do you want to go hunting? Might do us some good to get some food.”

At the mention of food, the woman’s stomach rumbled loud enough to be heard. “Ah, yeah, I was so caught up in this happening I forgot about that. I’ll go find some poor killer bunnies to collect.” She pulled the chakram from her shoulder, flourishing it. Its blade glimmered in the morning light as if it were freshly polished.

“Heard that. Jules and I can stay here and get a small base camp set up. Though I don’t want to stay here another night if possible. Either we got really lucky, or the system took pity on us and gave us a break.” Derrick fumbled with the wooden bowls, placing them to his side, and gazing out into the tree line.

He was on edge, that much Octavia knew. Shelter needed to be found, and soon. At least for this floor, considering that this was a deep dungeon, the only way forward was down.

"Yeah, I’ll go find us something to eat. When I get back, we can sit down and discuss the future, and how we want to tackle this floor.” The rogue grinned as she gripped the twine handle of her chakram and jumped off the rock.

She landed with a thud and glanced around. If there really was a beast surge, then finding prey wouldn’t take too long.

“Stay safe out there. Please don’t take on anything too out of your level, please.” The mage peaked over the rock, and for the first time since she’s ever known him, there was genuine fear in her eyes. It warmed her heart a little. He tried to act all big and stoic, but he really was a softy deep down.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” She flashed him a peace sign with her free hand before spinning around and dashing into the forest.

Time trickled by Octavia as she plunged into the forest. The wind picked up speed, carrying the scent of copper. A scent that she recognized as blood. Her eyes narrowed as she came to a stop. With a quick flick of her wrist, her ring sang as it cut a score into the tree bark. Getting lost in this forest was not on her to do list today. The rogue strained her ears as she listened to the sounds of the forest. There were no birds, nor were there insects. It was quiet, and that was frightening.

Her head whipped around as she took in her surroundings. In some areas, the trees were so closely packed together there was no way forward. In others, there were bushes that looked to be freshly trampled. The light that had guided her had faded to a few rays that cut through the canopy, barely able to guide her forward.

The complete lack of monsters really had Octavia doubting if there was a beast surge occurring. Other than the attack of rabbits yesterday, everything has been calm. Way too calm for her liking. If anything, she felt a little let down.

The rogue suppressed a sigh as she reeled her mind back from wandering too far. No, she was hunting and needed to focus. Steading her breath and heartbeat, she took a step forward, only to step onto a branch, causing it to crack. It was a soft sound, but it heralded a flurry of activity that forced the rogue to step back in horror. The underbrush rustled, and a vermin tide rushed out. Giant dotted brown squirrels that came up to her shins broke free, squealing as they flowed through the forest. There were easily dozens that flowed across the ground, running away from something that lurked from deep within the forest.

Octavia hated those damn tree rats. They were ugly, smelly, and not in the slightest cute. So she was going to take great pleasure in helping cull their numbers. But before she got to her pre ordained duty, first she had to fight whatever was chasing them.