Zach continued practicing his new spear form throughout the evening. The mana had him make small corrections in his grip and his feet. Zach was concentrating on the feeling of how to correct his form that he didn't notice James leave. In fact, it wasn't till his spear head became hard to see in the light that Zach stopped and went back to his cabin. As he entered the cabin, Zach half expected to see Courtney sitting on his bed and a bowl of stew on the little table he had. Instead, there was a small hand-wrapped bundle on the table and a cold room. Grabbing the bundle, Zach unwrapped the homespun cloth towel and looked at the hard piece of bread. Zach had to laugh slightly has he felt the towel. He had always written in his web novels that homespun cloth was rough and scratchy. Now that he had in between his fingers it realized that it wasn't scratchy, just not tightly woven. It looked more like a cheesecloth instead of the modern tightly woven threads that he was used too. Breaking apart the bread Zach saw chunks of vegetables and meat. He had prayed from a different type of meal and even talked with Grim about it. However, now that it finally happened Zach felt like he would have rather had the stew with Courtney instead of this hard tack filled bread. It was a quiet meal that felt slightly depressing without company, finally Zach called upon Grim. "Feeling slightly depressed and alone?" Grim said. Zach sighed, he couldn't quite argue with Grim about what he was feeling. "Yes, I am." Zach responded taking a hard pull off his bread. "So how are you doing?" Grim sat down on the dirt floor as he looked at Zach. "Well, I must admit that it's nice to be asked the question. I am fine, in the general sense of the word. I suppose when I received my mystical upgrade, and started getting better information through mana, I was a bit overwhelmed." Zach grabbed a clay cup of water and took a long pull from it before he answered. "Sorry, I didn't know the Gods and Goddesses would upgrade you." Grim shrugged. "It's not your fault. Besides without three dozen children running around my mental processing power is at its max." Zach looked at Grim, and Grim sighed. "Zach, let me use an example from your world. Right now, I am a very sophisticated AI program. I am linked to your senses and to the realm of mana. Now that I am upgraded and can control mana, I can test the physical and magical realms to see how they interact allowing me greater information, or I now have a gigabyte internet connection. However, I am still only loaded on one Computer... you. In order for me to function at higher levels, you need to produce children so that I receive more processing power when they come of age." Zach snorted as he thought about the problems with Courtney, and here Grim was telling him to have a harem. Grim laughed. "No Zach, you wouldn't like a harem. First, your origin world didn't like the idea of slavery and the quickest way to gain a harem is to buy slaves. Second, you don't have the personality or resources to take care of that many individuals or meet some of their emotional needs. However, as we continue to cultivate mana, your aging will slow down and could even stop at a point. So eventually you will have a great deal of children, we just have to wait." Taking another bite from the hard tack Zach wondered what the extremely long age would do to his mind. Shallowing the dry mess, Zach spoke, "Should I be worried about losing my mind or humanity as I live longer?" Grim shrugged, "Truthfully, we are a long way away from that. Weaker minds that can't handle the grand span of time in front of them snap and usually kill themselves, or stop cultivating and eventually die. Minds that are twisted from their experiences, tend to be obsessed or chaotic destroying any gains they make. The few people who have reached Immortal status usually roam the world trying to gain different experiences and knowledge to pierce into the Divine Realm and eventually become Gods or Goddesses themselves. My guess is that we probably have a couple hundred years in front of us, and then you will die of old age." Zach coughed at Grim's last announcement. "What do you mean only have a couple hundred years! That sounds pretty good to me." Grim shook his head and watched Zach eat the last of his hard tack. "I need you to understand that the leaders of major cities have a couple thousand years before they die. By that time, they usually have had a few hundred children in which the majority of them have died from trying to gain power. Milly, is the closest we will ever come to seeing an Immortal, and she is likely to live a thousand years before dying. Understand, that as we cultivate our mana pool expands but to push the boundary more and more it requires even more mana, hence Dungeon Divers! People risk their lives again and again because fighting mana monsters are a much faster way to cultivate mana then mediation and hard work." Zach finished his meal in silent thought at the idea he would have couple hundred years of live in front of him if he didn't battle and push harder. It was this thought that gave him nightmares throughout the night of everyone around him growing old and dying as he stood silent watch over them. By the time the morning sun peaked itself over the horizon, Zach felt like he had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Grabbing his pack, Zach made his way to the center of the hamlet to meet Milly, Andy, and Alexa. The four of them stood with camping gear at the ready and weapons strapped to their sides except for Milly who had a long quarterstaff as her weapon. The first few hours of walking out of the village wasn't all that bad. Andy had turned on his powerful aura that made the Horned Rabbits flee from them, and even though the aura radiated power it couldn't overcome the warming of a sunrise coming through the trees. They walked in quiet as Andy had to concentrate on his aura and Milly needed to focus on the pull of mana to the quarry. A couple of days ago Milly had worked to attune herself to the closest Earth Node assuming that it was the quarry. It took Grim to explain that the feeling was just a general direction like a compass, and in order for it to work Milly needed to focus on that feeling. So Zach kept a watch on the surrounding area, while Alexa helped guide her mother. It was noon before they choose to sit down and rest in a small clearing. A silent sentential of the forest had fallen clearing a ten foot radius of trees as it crashed to the ground. Thankfully, the trunk looked relatively dry as they sat and ate their food. Zach checked his map as Alexa passed out a light lunch. They have traveled no more than four miles in the rough forest terrain, but on the bright side they were moving away from the lost city and expanding Zach's map. Eating a small cooked vegetable Zach saw the faint outline on his map not a hundred feet from him. Getting up, Zach showed Andy and Alexa the line that had caught his attention. Once everyone was done eating, they picked up their gear and scouted the area that Zach had seen on the map. Hard packed dirt and square stones made a trail through the forest as the party stepped through the bush. The trail couldn't have been more than a foot wide, as forest undergrowth tried to reclaim the last few remaining paver stones. Andy reached down and brushed aside some leaves that had fallen over a stone. Warding Glyphs appeared on the stone, but the feeling that Zach got was that the mana had been drained from the wards. It took Andy a few minutes of looking at the stone and pulling up a few more ferns to check others before he said anything. "Looks like an old forest highway that has been lost to the ages. The mana in the wards has escaped and fled back into the wild, but the animals still use some of this as a game trail. Looks like it generally goes where we are heading, might save us some time." Zach stared at Andy as he finished speaking. The forest seemed to go quiet as the group thought over the implication of the ancient highway. Getting up, Andy turned back on his aura, and the sound of birds and soft chittering fell away. The group made better time going down the game trail, as Alexa only needed to help Milly once and awhile. The game trail wove its way back and forth through the forest working its way upward until, Zach could see a break through the trees. Stepping off the trail the group broke through the ancient forest into a massive marble quarry. Zach stood at the edge of a long drop and looked out into the giant pit with cut square pillars into a quarry that was perhaps three miles long. Zach felt earth mana press down on him like he was being buried alive under great pressure. Taking a deep breathe, the earth mana slowly absorbed itself into Zach's mana pool and the crushing pressure ease up. Andy pointed out a long pathway that had been cut into the face of the quarry. It was apparent that pathway had once been part of the road, but now large blocks of marble had come crashing down in an avalanche of violence. Still pools of water fed the little vegetation in the quarry, as the group moved along the cliff face to the old road. Just as they were a few feet from the entrance to the road a great roar echoed throughout the quarry. Zach had never heard anything like it, a cross between a cannon going off and perhaps a jet engine. The ground briefly trembled as the roar came to a close. Zach looked off into the quarry and saw Longtooth. The bear was massive in scale, at least that's what Zach believed. Looking over the rock barren landscape a bear moved in. However, this bear was probably the size of a semi-truck and half its trailer. Where normally a bear would have fur, its flesh appeared to be like an small pebbles under the skin and was colored in pink with white and grey strips. Longtooth slowly moved his legs back and forth has if awakening from a deep sleep. A cloud of white dust began to billow off the mana monster. Once again, it roared and as it opened its mouth Zach could see the sparkle of metal coming off it's teeth. Zach could feel his mana ignite and a blue window popped up. Observe check has been successful! For more information increase your Observe Skill.True Name:LongtoothLevel:37HP:15670Mana:1223Skills Bite Lv. 75 (13%), Claws Lv. 82 (49%), ??? Spells Shape Stone (100% Mastery), Summoning Earth Elemental (54% Mastery)EnhancementOppresive Roar, ???