It was two hours later when she finally managed to get close enough to the child nutrias to release one final Mana Blast. She had laid down and recovered for an hour and a half on a rock before getting up and going to look for them. If anything, it was the most spirited game of hide and seek she had ever played. Given, the stakes were very high for the nutrias.

The biggest reason she rested for so long after the first nutria fight was because her health had dipped below 10% and she knew she would need to rest for a day or two until it went above 90% again. Being able to run around despite this limitation only served to show her the benefits of an increased vitality. She certainly wouldn’t have been able to repeat that exercise even a week prior.

Her rest had also given her an opportunity to think through the fight, which only served to make her more confused. She was beginning to doubt that the nutrias were even truly alive. After all, wouldn’t they have shown up on her Mana Sense somehow if they were? Perhaps they were so consumed by the dungeon’s mana that they appeared the same.

Regardless, it was a moot point. This was a dungeon. She had a quest. And she completed it to the best of her abilities.

Dungeon Objective Quest [1]: Defeat the Lumina Nutria [8/7].

Extra experience is awarded for defeating the Quest Lord.

Extra experience is awarded for completing Quest by yourself.

Less experience is awarded for length of fight.

You have killed Lumina Nutria level 8! Experience is granted.

You have killed Lumina Nutria level 12! Experience is granted.

You have killed Lumina Nutria level 7! Experience is granted.

…

You have killed Lumina Nutria level 2! Experience is granted.

Your Skill Mana Blast increased to Level 3!

Your Class Pure Castor has reached Level 5! Stats allocated.

Your Class Pure Castor has reached Level 6! Stats allocated.

Your Race Human has reached Level 5! Stats allocated.

Your Race Human has reached Level 6! Stats allocated.

Quest Reward: 7500 Bytes, 1 inferior health potion, 1 small chest.

A vial full of purple liquid, a small bronze chest, and stairs leading downwards appeared on the grass in front of her. Ignoring the stairs for a second, James concentrated on the two rewards.

Their appearance inside her Mana Sense sphere wasn’t even noted, something she found extremely disappointing. Perhaps as her understanding of mana grew, she’d be able to observe more inside of her sphere. But though their appearance wasn’t even noticed by her sphere, the second they were there, she could see the way they interacted with the surrounding mana.

The purple vial, which she assumed was the health potion, was especially potent, its mana wafting out into the green which still permeated the whole dungeon. Figuring that its power was reducing as this happened, James hurriedly noted her current health (42) and poured it down her throat. The taste was horrible, but she didn’t let her reflex reaction to vomit it all out distract her from seeing how many health points she recovered. The second she put the empty glass vial back on the ground it disappeared, again without any fanfare in her sphere.

The idea of saving it for later didn’t cross her mind. Being in that low after dipping below 10% health was still miserable higher vitality or not, and she was hoping this could help her skip all of that. Besides, she was convinced its efficacy was getting reduced the longer it was exposed to the dungeon mana. Instantly, her health filled back up all the way to 450. Of course, this meant that she didn’t know how much an inferior health potion could recover, but, on the other hand, her health was full. So she really couldn’t bring herself to care all that much.

She could see as any scrapes and cuts on her stitched themselves back up, becoming a scab and then clear skin in seconds. It was magic. And a shame that Christian wasn’t aware of these potions, he could possibly try and replicate them. Shaking her head at her distraction, James moved on. Christian didn’t need her. None of them did. It would be better to get stronger. Maybe then she could actually be useful.

Moving on, she let herself observe the bronze chest. As opposed to the health potion, it wasn’t leaking any mana, but it did have at least one interesting property that she could observe. While most things without any inherent mana let it pass through them as if they weren’t there, the chest seemed to reflect it. So, while it was technically invisible to her Mana Sense, she could still clearly sense where it was since that area had none of the green mana. Deciding to use Identify on it, she was surprised to see that it worked on objects, identifying it as a Bronze Chest.

Your Skill Identify has increased to Level 3!

The new knowledge, which she really should have experimented with, proved itself with a new Skill level. Finally done observing the chest, she tentatively opened it. Inside lay a plain-looking, and yet still glowing, dagger. Identifying it, she was happy to see the Skill gave more information than she expected.

Radiant Dagger of Necessity [Uncommon]: A basic dagger, it is taken to greater heights with the strength and sharpness enchantments. As a side effect of the dungeon where it was earned, it also has a slight green glow.

Its green glow would probably be a hindrance later, but she was sure she’d be able to find a sheath for it if she really required it. In addition, despite its green fluorescence, the dagger didn’t register as having any inherent mana in her sphere.

Holding it up to her hair, she let it go through a strand and watched in delight as it didn’t even seem to register anything was there. It was certainly sharp.

Grinning wildly, James didn’t let herself consider if this was a bad idea as she cut her hair to shoulder length like she wanted to just that morning. Going to the river, she washed it off in there, patiently combing through the significantly shorter strands with her fingers. She was sure that it wasn’t the most flattering cut, after all she was doing it to herself, without a mirror, and with a dagger. But who was going to see her anyway? And if anybody did see her, how would that be a bad thing? She had just gotten a hair cut with a glowing dagger! A glowing dagger.

As for her third reward, she wasn’t really sure what Bytes were, but they couldn’t be bad if they were a reward. Hopefully, she would accumulate more as she continued going through the dungeon. So far, James thought she was doing rather well in this dungeon. She was even enjoying herself.

If she wasn’t counting her brushes with death. She could stand to leave that count for a different day.