Adam stood watching the entrance to the cave. He had brought his exploration of Forest, coast up to 98% already and found nothing to warrant his cautious nature so far. This meant he knew that whatever made the area level 3-5 was in the cave that he had found to the East of the area near the river.

He had not been foolish enough to rush straight in but after an hour of standing and waiting he had not seen any activity to show what awaited him inside. At level 3 he still needed 3sp to activate stealth. With a regen of 1sp/hr, in addition to his exploring time, he had regained enough SP to risk entering the cave. He activated stealth and crept round to one side of the entrance rather than approach directly. The dank warm air of the cave hit Adam alongside a pungent smell that he couldn't quite place. It grew stronger as he stepped out of the light; peering into the darkness and waiting for his eyes to adjust. As he waited he tried to place the smell which was by far the most distinguishing feature of the cave.

His eyes slowly picked out the mounds of guano on the floor which explained the smell that was confronting him. Looking up rather than back it was hard to pick out individual shadows on the ceiling until he used Discern to verify his suspicion. Bat - level 4. Nocturnal creature, live in caves. Hunt by sound. Now the skill was locked on to one of the creatures he could pick out the whole colony. There were over fifty bats in the cave all suspended from the ceiling and sleeping presently. Adam had no desire to wake them but seeing that his exploration quest was only at 99% he set his apprehension to one side and crept deeper into the cave.

Each rustle from above caused Adam to freeze for a moment and wait before continuing. It was only mid-afternoon so he felt the bats were unlikely to rouse but didn't want to take a risk as he delved deeper into the cave. Rather than getting darker the deeper he went there was instead a beautiful and eerie glow that emanated from the walls of the cave itself. Looking closer Inspect revealed a bioluminescent fungus that was growing. Blue fungus - A mushroom that draws in water mana and uses it to give off a gentle glow. Adam picked one up and focused on the mana inside, finding when he pulled the water mana out from the mushroom it faded back to darkness. Not wanting to waste the opportunity he put a handful in his pack and continued on.

Using the light he managed to finish exploring the cave that held nothing else of interest. Once back out in the cooler air of forest Adam double checked his quest and had 100% completion of the area.

Quests: Quests Complete? Exp Explore Mountain, slope 1% 100 Explore Mine, upper 0% 100 Explore Forest, coast 100% 80 Explore underwater cliff 23% 100 Gain basic control of all five elemental manas 48% 400 Kill eighteen bats in the forest cave 0% 180 Collect exp Y/N

He frowned slightly at the random quest to kill eighteen bats and collected the 80exp for completing his exploration. A part of him wanted to race back in to the cave and see if he could swat down the bats from their roosts with his staff to get it over and done with. A vision of all fifty swooping at him from different directions; scratching and biting put him off and instead he decided to head back along the coast to where Sharky had left him the cauldron.

Lugging a cast iron cauldron across the foothills back to camp had seemed easy for the first third of the journey and turned into a sweat inducing; stamina draining ordeal by the end. He had taken to dragging it a few hundred yards at a time, his new jerkin and pack sitting inside the cauldron. Thinking of the stew he could make once he got back to camp kept him going until he realised that without a nearby source of water he would have to trek back and forth to the stream with his bottles to make his meal.

Remembering the carrots and turnips that were dotted around the Orchard area Adam had instead headed to the river for his water. Combining this with a quick wash he was feeling quite good about his day by the time he was sat in front of the fire watching his meal cook. He knew he could have just used Creation to provide the ingredients for him; but it felt much more satisfying having collected them and as a bonus he had had a wash.

With some free time Adam turned back to Elemental manipulation and his water mana. He had a breakthrough when he started playing with the mushrooms he had collected from earlier; the concentrated water mana helped him visualise what he was pulling at. Similar to the metal mana once he turned his focus away from his core he could sense the channels used to concentrate and move the mana interacting with the environment. As he pulled the water mana down towards his hand actual water followed it. The tiny amounts drawn in from the air and surfaces around him.

It took some timing and concentration but he eventually worked out how to direct the water away from him rather than just end up with a wet hand. If he pulled the water from behind him it could generate sufficient momentum that releasing his control caused it to continue forward rather than stop at his hand. Alternatively pulling from in front and then switching to a pull from behind at the right time created a small barrier of water around his hand. Adam was excited with the dual function he had managed to find and wondered if this was linked to his higher level in Elemental manipulation. Either way by the time he was out of mana he had received the notification:

Elemental manipulation: basic water manipulation complete

Once the stew was ready he tried to work out how best to transfer the boiling hot meal from the cauldron to the boar skull bowl he had acquired with byproducts earlier. Since he had just been stirring the stew with a stick and had carved a small spoon for eating he hadn't thought about how to get the meal into his bowl. With no other option he stirred vigorously to get the meat and veg from the bottom and then scooped his meal out with the bowl. By the time he had put down the bowl and shaken his hand to cool off his fingers his meal was ready to eat.

Adam finished his meal as the vermite were waking for the night. The newcomers were less wary than the night before but still positioned themselves as far away from Adam round the fire as possible. The anticipation of their meal was made even better by the fact there were only two bowls. Ma decided to dish the meal out but could only reach into the cauldron by standing on a stool and gave the first two servings to Wu and herself. Adam watched a comedic brawl ensue as some of the others tried to find a suitable object to eat from; some crowded Ma and Wu to get their empty bowls and some jumped up on the stool to simply try and grab the food straight from the cauldron with their hands.

After a few minutes of watching this Ma had given up on her meal and had instead gone to the storeroom to get some of the already cooked pork that she rationed out along with fruit. The rest would have stew later in the night she had decided. Aside from some grumbles the rest seemed to take her decree in their stride and quickly settled back down to eat. It was this point that Adam checked his watch and made a decision to do something different than most evenings. He was going to venture back out from camp.