"*Inhale* *Exhale* Haaaaa. The air is so refreshing here."
We finally left the Cockroach Cave. In front of me was a lush green forest with trees that were more than a hundred meters tall. Looking up, it was hard to see the sky with all the leaves and branches in the way. But I could tell that the sky was blue just like on Earth.
"Wow… I've never seen trees this big before."
"We're not anywhere near our high school. That's for sure."
My classmates started to comment on the scenery. I'm definitely excited to explore this new world. It beats studying in school any day.
I looked back at the entrance to the cave and saw that a signboard was placed there. I couldn't read it though. I took out my fully recharged smartphone and took some pictures. The crack on the screen still pissed me off. As a person who grew up poor, I took very good care of any expensive item I own. I didn't even spend money on make-up so that I could focus more on clothes and essentials. I kept my hair short to save on shampoo.
Anyways, we walked along the small trail that leads to the main road from the dungeon. There was an open area just before the main road. We decided to rest there for a while.
"I'm going to go look for some food near the stream I saw over there." I told everyone. They knew I could handle myself so they left me alone. Ever since we left the dungeon, I started feeling hungry and tired. It must be due to the mana density and my mud body. Inside the dungeon, there was a rich amount of mana in the surroundings which kept me feeling energized. But out here, mana was less dense.
When I tried dissolving some of the rocks and plants I saw. I used more mana to dissolve than what I got back. I have to constantly use mana to keep my mud body and my [Shapeshift] up. I'll also get migraines when I'm low on MP so if I don't have a stable source of mana like in the dungeon, I might become useless later on. Thankfully, I got the [Mana Absorption] skill. The mana I can get while using the skill isn't much, but it's enough to keep me topped off. I can't say the same if a battle occurs though.
I reached the stream not long after. I took a look around to see if I could find any fish or something edible in the stream while refilling the canteen. My Dad had once taken me camping at a lake near where we lived. He showed me how to fish and how to cook them survival style. The main reason though was because he didn't bring enough food for the trip.
Remembering such times, I used my experience to scavenge for food. But since the stream was quite small there was nothing I could find. What I did find was a few tracks along the stream. I followed them like a hunter and found two moving figures with [Sensing]. A hairy pig-like creature was chasing a rabbit with a horn.
Name: Wild Boar Lv. 4
Race: Mammal Demon
Class: Tank
Name: Horned Rabbit Lv. 2
Race: Mammal Demon
Class: Common
A Wild Boar and a Horned Rabbit huh. How RPG-like. Although I wanted to dissolve and use [Assimilate] on them, my stomach was running on empty. Which is weird considering I no longer have a stomach.
I created a mud spike underneath both of them and impaled them at the same time. I am level 13 which made these guys easy pickings for me. They didn't evaporate just like William said. I let the blood drain from them while heading back to the others.
When I got to camp, I saw that David was sitting alone next to a fire he got going.
"Yo, welcome back. Everyone else went around to look for food and firewood. Did you bring back anything?"
I showed him the two corpses and canteen full of water.
"Nice. I'll boil the water over the fire in my metal lunch box while you prepare the meat." David brought out his lunch box and put the water I brought back into it.
"… Um how am I supposed to prepare this?" I asked.
"You don't know how? Aren't you some sort of survival expert?" He asked back.
"What the hell made you think that? I was just a normal high school girl before this whole thing started!"
David looked at me in shock. I admit that I adapted quickly to the current situation we found ourselves in. But that's just because I read plenty of novels with this type of story. Reality was a far cry from what I read. In those novels, the protagonists didn't have to worry about losing half their body or getting hunted down by a high level army at the beginning of the story.
I clumsily worked with David to skin and cook the rabbit and boar with the knife from William. Thankfully, the others soon came back. Jeff had some experience with dissecting and chopping up meat from his part time work so he took over for us. Danae was relatively good at cooking so she helped him. Us remaining three had nothing to do while we left them to work on the food together by the fire.
*Snap*
David secretly took a picture of them and we watched on while gossiping about them. Fran was doing something else to side but I didn't care about her.
We ended our very bland tasting lunch and rested a bit. Jeff handed me the magic crystals that were inside the rabbit and boar. I sensed a few creatures coming towards us lured by the smell of the food. I easily caught them and dissolved them. I didn't get any skills but I did get back quite a bit of mana. Looks like hunting down living beings is the best way for me to recover mana outside of a dungeon.
We resumed our journey to Lam City. After walking for a while on the main road, we saw a few people who looked around our age heading towards us.
"Hello! Are you all coming from Lam City?" I asked when we got close to each other.
There were four people in their group, two boys and two girls. They were dressed for battle with armor and weapons on hand. I was pretty sure that these were adventurers. They had their guards raised at first but then lowered it when we got close enough to see each other.
"Yes we are. My name's Blake and we're on our way to complete our Adventurer Trainee graduation exam."
We introduced ourselves and chatted for a bit. I secretly looked at their statuses.
Name: Blake
Job: Swordsman Lv. 1
Name: Niko
Job: Archer Lv. 1
Name: Sherry
Job: Scout Lv. 1
Name: Mio
Job: Healer Lv. 2
They were all level 1 except for their healer. They didn't have a tank or a mage, but I think their party was quite balanced.
"So you are all from a mountain village and are going to Lam City to register as Adventurers? I guess that will make us your seniors then hahaha."
Blake was friendly and talkative which was why he was chosen as the leader for the group. The girls were hitting it off talking and asking about the clothes we were wearing and how they had never seen anything like it before. David was talking with Blake and Niko. Their exams required them to defeat the dungeon boss of the Cockroach Cave and bring back its magic crystal. Since we came from there, I decided to tell them all about the Cockroach Queen and the dungeon. In exchange, they told us about some rules and other general information about Lam City. We made a plan to meet again in the city once they were done with their exam.
"Bye!"
"Good luck on your exam!"
"Thanks! See you!"
"Be careful of treasure chest mimics! Don't be rash and always stay on guard!"
That last one was me. As the first friendly people we met on this world, I didn't want them to die right off the bat. I might have been underestimating them a little.
We went our separate ways and resumed our journey. Blake had said that Lam City should be around an hour walk from here.
"Was it just me or did it seem like they were trying to avoid you?" Danae came up to me and asked.
"Makes sense. They probably can't see my status since I'm higher leveled than them." I made an excuse that was partially true.
"But we can't see your status either." Fran said.
"That's because you guys still don't know the [Appraisal] skill. Don't worry. Those guys said that you can learn it during the Adventurer training course."
I was happy that the Adventurer's Guild didn't just blindly let people register and go off on dangerous missions. In a world full of dungeons and monsters that could easily kill a person, humans had to band together in order to survive and thrive.
After almost an hour, we finally caught sight of a large wall in the distance. We had reached Lam City.
CHAPTER END.
Name: Ruby Sen Lv. 13
Age: 17
Race: Half-Human?
Class: Half-Magical Creature
Job: - Lv. 13
HP: 10 [32%]
MP: 15 [100%]
STR: 10 (+5)
DEF: 10 (+25)
INT: 17
WILL: 15
SPD: 10
<
Assimilate
Mana Manipulation
Physical Resistance
Weaponized Limbs
Foresight
Shapeshift
Mana Absorption
<
Dissolve
Body Enhancement
Mind Enhancement
Mana Release
Sensing
Camouflage
Sculpting
Detonate
Spawn
Appraisal Analysis
Lesser Heal
Mana Coating
<
Tongue Enhancement