It had officially been a week since he had gotten to this strange cavern and he noticed that the longer he stayed the lighter his body got and the less thick the mana in the air became. Also for some reason he was unable to access his status for that duration, but now he understood why.
[Status updated, physique evolved]
[John Ross]
Level: 1
Physique: mana infused body
Class: Newbie Gardener (rank h)
Affinities: Initial tier Earth magic (novice)
Strength: 25
Endurance: 25
Mana: 25
Speed: 25
Skills:
Farmer's Blessing [unique] (rank f)
Running [common] (rank f)
Novice stealth (rank g)
Farmer senses [rare] (rank h)
- Farm scan
Planting [common] (rank h)
Seed storage [uncommon] (rank h)
He quickly went around doing the rounds, making sure to water the crops and took notes on their progress. It seemed that the man's rich soil and atmosphere resulted in highly expedited growth. The first three days showed not progress but he realized that it was most likely like his own status, it took time for normal seeds to adapt to the dungeon. Though it seemed like it only took a little less than two days to fully adapt, showing that the size and complexity of the organism played into its adaptation period.
By that day he actually had some decent progress, the corn and wheat were 2/3 the way through their growth cycle and he could soon bring his hand pollination of them. The carrots and potatoes had just barely started developing below the soil and the trees were each about 1 foot tall so far. The cherry tomatoes were the first to be developed enough to grow flowers and after his hand pollination yesterday surprised him with some freshly growing tomatoes. They were still green and would likely require the rest of the day to ripen, but he would finally be able to add something new to his plain and slightly unbalanced diet very soon.
While he was thinking on that, he put on his leather armor and threw his utility knife on his belt (in its sheath). He dumped out all the essentials from his bag other than a few meals and his purifying flask. After he was fully prepared, he began scouting around the cave entrance making sure there was no monsters. Thankfully it seemed like a less travelled route so he left to go grab what he had seen while running for his life the other day.
His stealth skill had been steadily gaining proficiency and he stuck to the shadows and walked steadily but light to best utilize the hidding bonus. Doing this he quickly made it to a lushful and spacious cavern, it was at least quadruple the size of his from the initial scan he had done and thick with plants and beasts. Ensuring he was swift but remain hidden he snuck through the vast expanse of forest before him, slowing to grab sticks and small chunks of wood.
After 30 minute of stealthfully hiking he had finally arrived at the site he was looking for. It was what appeared to be a collapsed forward camp, potentially of the military or an adventuring guild. The whole area was overgrown which made it blend in excellently, the only reason he saw it when he first arrived was because he was trying to find a hiding spot. He didn't manage to stay long but he did mark its location in his mind, finally he would be able to grab a few quality of life upgrades.
Pilfering through the site he found a couple of convenient artifacts, mainly being a cooking set of non rust and non stain pans + pots, an axe and hatchet enhanced with durability, non rust, and sharpness, and a wood hauling sled. While looking around more he discovered a book case with a sliding glass door on it. Looking closer at it, it also had an enhancement which blocked exterior contact and preservation for the books. There was a couple of these shelf's, but he loaded all the books into one and carefully loaded it into the sizable sled. With his evolved physique he had little issue doing so, he threw everything else into the backpack and began his trek back to his encampment. While steadily walking and carefully avoiding the monsters he heard the infamous ding in his ear as a notification appeared in the system once more.
[Rank of Novice stealth advanced to rank f. Movement technique now available for training in combat training module]
He did his best to limit his reaction to a simple smirk as he continued his trek back to his encampment. His expedition resulting in large gains brightened his mood ever bit more, that was until he reached the cave and had to carefully carry the large shelf into the cave. The whole process of gently navigating it through the narrow crack took 20 minutes, but he was able to unconsciously mold the sharper edges out of the tunnel due to his newly enhanced earth affinity and larger mana pool.
Finally depositing the shelf just outside his tent, he decided to begin his next project of building his little cabin. But for now all he would do was return out and snag a couple decent sized trees to chop down into logs.
After spending a few hours chopping down trees he had made five trips back and forth with his sled and carefully moved mid size logs one at a time through the opening (holding the trunks vertical to fit the same way he does). He had to chop the trees, let them fall and hide till the monsters had cleared out of the area, before going in with the axe and chopping them into ~6-7 foot chunks. Doing so he had felled 15 trees which were plenty for his cabin needs, next he found an area near the wall of the cave and began excavating the plot into the size he needed. He went about 12 foot wide and 18 foot long plus the thickness of the logs, and made the hole four feet deep. Using the hatchet he made notches at the ends of the logs on the length so that they would properly fit, then alternated on each of the ends which was the full length for added stability.
Deciding to take the last bit of the day to rest and investigate the new trove of knowledge he left the cabin as it was for the night. After reading through a decent chunk of the books he had discovered a bit more about the region he was in. Though the exact floor wasn't described, he discovered that an ancient civilization of human also were subject to the trials of the gods and that the once impressive fortress was the forward camp for raiding the lower floors of the tower.
He also discovered that as time passed new floors formed from the top and moved the assembly downward. Almost as if the dungeon was a living creature which burrowed deeper into the world as time passed. This is supported by the relative depth of the dungeon being extremely shallow, due to some type of advanced spatial compression. Little more is known about this though...
He also learned more about magic and found a book with a jade fastened on the cover which after mana is poured in will result in lights projected in order of the strength of compatiblity to each element. The element he had highest compatibility with was earth, followed by nature, wind, water, and lastly fire. Though it briefly shined white at the end showing a slight compatibility with holy magic.
After quickly heating up his ration and digging in he rinsed off in the pond again before falling to bed peacefully on his cot. Once again awoken by the blaring alarm of his watch he quickly sprung up and threw on his clothes. Grabbing the watering can he did his rounds, scanning the soil as he went to determine the amount of water each plant needed. He finished after only 15 minutes due to needing to refill a few times, but as he expected the tomato's had ripened quickly using the utility knife he began harvesting the tomatoes that look ripe, while he threw the over-ripe into a pile and left the still developing green tomatoes on the stem. After the 40th plant he received yet another of the now infamous dings and a message from the system.
[Skill {Harvest [uncommon]} acquired due to repeated actions]
Harvest [uncommon] (rank h)
• Grants user extra proficiency with harvesting and allows slight leeway for underripe and overripe crops, small chance to upgrade crop rank by one. Initial level determined by users skill rank, chance increase with rank or level.
"Sweet, that'll make my day just a bit easier". Continuing where he left off, he quickly harvested the remaining plants (~30-40 more, due to germination rates/ ability to adapt to the mana) he cleaned out all the old ration containers and used them to pack away his haul into the backpack.
"Inspect". He quickly muttered to see how the tomatoes had been altered by the mana in the tower. The result blew him away and showcased the power of evolution and rank had on the tomatoes.
Blessed cherry tomato (rank g)
- Cherry tomato infused with mana from deep in the dungeon, resulting in its evolution. Aids in digestion, filled with minerals, and melts 0.1 gram of fat per tomato (cumulative not compounding).
He left about half out (out of 200) and registered them in the shop for purchase, using the auto setting for the crop and the suggested price per tomato and a 10% discount for certain bundles of them. Once he finalized the page all the tomatoes in front of him were sucked up into a purple whirlpool that appeared below them and the accurate number of them were registered under the post.
Finally finished with the harvest he returned to his tent and set up his stove, utilizing his knife to dice up cherry tomatoes and whipped up a meal using the different caned foods and a bit of broth to whip up a stew before boiling his rice and chowing down.
"What a great lunch, I'm glad I finally have something to spice up these meals. Though I'm over a third of the way through the total rations I brought, so I'm going to have to start finding new food soon. I guess it's time to hunt some fish to dry for dinner".
Bracing his knife in both hands, he waded into the pond with his leather armor on. With one hand he held a small fishing line with a tomato on a hook as bait, he waited patiently for a fish to bite down on it. Staying completely still and watching the fish around him, he finally saw one bite down on the hook. He quickly yanked on the line, getting the hook stuck in the fish and yanking it into the air. While he quickly stabbed the large fish in the head to prevent the skill it was charging up.
[2 exp gained]
"One down, let's see how many I can get". After thirty more minutes he got out of the water with eight 13-18 pound fish a piece.
[You have gained more exp due to combat action, hunting. Current exp is 16/25]
Using the hatchet and his utility knife he split up some wood and put it in the make shift fire place he'd been working on in the small cabin. He made it with rocks he'd managed to get while digging the hole and while farming plus a few he found lying around. Then filled the cracks with clay he had found near the pond, he had let this set for the majority of the day and finally set a fire in it, using two small logs and abunch of thin sticks he crafted a small grate which hung over the fire. Placing the numerous fish on it, he was able to grill the sides before raising the grate higher and using more bark to log for better smoke, he then place two large stone over the front and closed his rudimentary chimney to let it smoke.
'Ding'
[New mission available, due to users actions. The goddes x?!$/&x of earth and the harvest, using her authority has borrowed a fraction of the god of combat and weapons g(7!/"!?$ to grant a trading mission to her appostle]
{Knife training}
• Due to your use of your utility knife, you have unlocked a new training method in the combat training module.
- Swing knife 1000 times
- Spend 1 hour practicing against training dummy.
Reward: knife will be blessed and turned into an artifact.