My spirits were brought down however as I reflected on the sight of the area beyond the barrier marking the Mana Zone. So, while everyone else laughed, I could only frown. We really do need to get stronger, and quick too.

The next day everyone had a fairly early start once again. Of course, I reassured Rachel that we would be going over some principles of magic later that day, but that for now, I'd be going with Alex and Kevin to visit the Dungeon we had found after our battle with the [Treant]. So, after I was up and scrounged myself some breakfast, I met Kevin and Alex outside the house. It looked like they had managed to get up a fair bit before I had, but that was fine.

Noting that they were all ready, I made a pitstop near where Jackson was working at his forge once again. The area he had built the forge had been flattened and clear of the surrounding grass, mostly to ensure that any of the flames and heat from the forge didn't spread to the surrounding areas. He was currently in the process of removing some scrap from the massive pile of rebar we had accumulated on his behalf and was working on turning a pole into a dozen more nails.

The way he worked the forge was quite remarkable to my amateur eyes. It looked as though he had been working at a forge for years as he moved without hesitation and efficiently worked the metal. Of course, our presence quickly interrupted his efforts, and he paused while turning towards us.

"Here for that thing you asked me to make, Thomas?" Jackson asked curtly, noticing that we looked ready to head into the forest.

I nodded, "Yep, as long as you managed to create something functional with it."

Alex looked slightly confused, but Kevin knew what we were referring to.

After we had defeated the [Treant] and dropped off the wood, we had also briefly mentioned the antlers we had obtained as well, tasking him with the job of making something useable.

"Honestly, it turned out much better than I thought it might, whatever monster you got those antlers from must've been something. I'd hate to have met that thing if the antlers really were anything to go by." Jackson stated.

He then turned around and unwrapped two objects from a bundle of cloth. I was immediately taken aback. "Hell... You were definitely understating that, weren't you?" I told Jackson, flabbergasted.

Jackson looked smug, "Didn't believe in me, eh?"

I shook my head, "more like didn't expect something so well in barely two days. Especially with all the other work you have going on," I said, motioning towards the accumulating pile of nails.

Jackson smirked and brushed me off, "anyways, it wasn't too difficult, and to be frank, the antlers were already designed to slash out at whatever predators that monster encountered. So, it worked out quite well and I didn't have to change the design all that much, and I only really needed to add a handle. Which, by the way, took a lot more effort than I thought it would. That thing was much hardier than I ever thought it would be. I still managed to get a few screw holes in to connect it with the handle. While it ain't pretty, it ought to work. I've yet to use the other two you gave me, but I doubt you need anything from those just yet."

I shook my head in agreement and then observed what Jackson had made. The two makeshift weapons looked more like some sort of machete-esque blades. However, their sharpness wasn't anything to scoff at. The antlers themselves looked a bit different from what you may normally see on a deer or elk. For one, the shape was mainly uniform and kept to the main offshoot without branching out too much, which gave it a sort of elongated 'S' shape. The look made it appear similar to a much curvier Dao sword. That's mostly where the comparisons ended though. The new 'blade' of the weapon seemed to be just as hard as any metal, and the sharpness of it was seriously nothing to laugh at.

The handle itself was just as Jackson had mentioned. It looked like a short wooden rod that had been screwed into the base of the antlers shaft. It appeared as though Jackson had found some other uses of the [Treant]'s remains other than fuel, as some of it had been recycled to form the handle. Overall, despite the short time frame and the simplistic design of the weapon, it wasn't bad at all, and would certainly be better than perhaps some hatchet that had been sitting in a shed for a few years and hadn't seen constant use until recently.

Casting [Appraisal] I immediately went over the stats of the two weapons, and to my surprise, the skill had once again leveled up as a result.

Name: Simple Elkinhorn Blade

Prerequisites:

Strength: 8

Values:

Attack: 15

Durability: 130/130

Info: A simple Elkinhorn blade. Despite its simplicity, the bladed edges of a low-level Elkinhorn's antlers are nothing to dismiss for a Tier 1 combatant. One will be hard-pressed to find a Tier 1 monster that the blade wouldn't do some degree of damage to. The handle itself was fashioned from the remains of a [Guardian Treant] and as such boasts a much higher durability than most similar weapons might.

Skill [Appraisal] has advanced to Level 4

40 experience points received.

226.36 / 381.65 experience points until Level 9

It was a pleasant surprise to be greeted with a level up of my [Appraisal] skill. It had been a fair bit since it had last been leveled up, and I had been sure to use it every now and again in the background. I felt however that using the skill on a new and more unique item helped boost the experience reward from the skill. So, I surely wasn't complaining about that.

Outside of that though, I took note of the fact the deer we had taken the antlers from had been named an Elkinhorn. Likely the deer was in the process of mutating into some sort of magical variant of an Earth deer before it had met its untimely demise. It still made me wonder whether it was the [Treant] which had performed that gory act to the deer, or some other beast that was wandering the forest. Granted, I doubted that the [Treant] would be in any rush to leave the Garden, so that left the option that something else was still lurking in the forest. I took a mental note to ask Priscilla about that once we returned from our small little expedition, as I was sure it was her arrow that had been pierced into the beasts neck when we found it.

With the additional weapons procured, Kevin and Alex both exchanged out their small hatchets in favor of the more wieldy blade. Even though it wasn't massive, more like the size of a machete, the new weapon should still be much more potent than anything else we had besides my sword.

So, with that in mind, we left the house and made our way into the forest, passing the others who had already begun construction on the palisade wall. Not much progress had been done yet, but the day had only just started. So, even considering that, the several segments they've already erected were impressive in and of itself.

Venturing into the forest was uneventful, and as it turned out, the entrance to it was about fifty or so feet from the area we had designated as the gateway into our little 'Community'. As such, the walk was short. However, we could immediately see signs of the increased undead activity. For one reason or another, after the first few days of seeing quite a few of the shambling corpses approaching the vicinity of our community, they had suddenly stopped approaching altogether. The reasons for that were left unknown to all of us, but paranoia was beginning to set in. Surely their apparent reluctance to come near us hinted at something not being quite right. I wouldn't have expected any real sort of coordinated thought from the undead, which only increased my suspicions.

It was a matter to address later though as it didn't seem to pose an immediate threat to the community as a whole. For us though? Well, there were a number of the dead roaming around the entrance to the forest. All five of them appeared to be inert, and as such we slowly crept up behind them.

Alex and Kevin's new weaponry immediately showed their new effectiveness. The low-level undead they were tasked with were dealt with quickly. Kevin took care of a second undead, while I took down the last two.

As long as we got the drop on the undead, it was becoming remarkably easy to take them out. So, even though they might pose quite the challenge for normal people, as soon as somebody began to level they really weren't much of an issue anymore. However, that was only when they were faced individually. Zombies and Skeletons tended to function at their best within a large horde, and that was when their danger really came to bear as they overwhelmed any foe that decided to face them.

Regardless, at the moment they didn't present much difficulty. I received a grand total of 35 Experience Points, indicating that I was now 261.36 / 381.65 of the way to level 9.

Despite that small interruption, the journey to the Garden of Remembrance was uneventful. As we drew closer to the Garden however, it was clear that the ever-present pressure from last time wasn't solely due to the [Treant]. It appeared that the Garden itself, and likely the dungeon was the main culprit of the event.

Despite this, we still made our way forward and entered the Garden. Oddly enough, the Garden had actually undergone quite a bit of a transformation since the last time Kevin and I had been there. The ash that had once been layered on the ground, now only occupied a superficial layer of it, the winds having apparently dispersed much of it since our last visit to the area. As such, we could see that the Garden floor was actually teeming with vegetation, and there even appeared to be a soft greenish glow emanating from the plants. I noted that the glow appeared to indicate the presence of a dense amount of natural mana permeating the clearing. I assumed the mana was originating from the dungeon, as I could practically see small tendrils of the stuff softly drifting through the air, originating from the area I had presumed the dungeon to be located.

It seemed all of the mana was having quite the effect on the growth of the local plant life, as even the wall that Kevin had been smashed into by the [Treant] appeared to have been overgrown with a varying amount of plants and mosses.

Making our way through the Garden, we came upon the edifice that indicated the namesake of the Garden. However, the building was now beginning to be overgrown with vines and other branching vegetation. The name etched onto the back archway of the building was still ever-present though, signifying the place as the "Sanctuary of the Garden of Remembrance", and beyond that was surely the "Dungeon of Sweet Remembrance" that was indicated at by the system's quest when we had faced off against the Garden's Guardian.

"Wow.." Alex voiced as we made our way to the entrance. "I've lived here for several years now and I never knew something like this existed literally right in front of my house." He just shook his head, "apparently I should've explored the forest more."

I just laughed, "I'm sure you weren't missing much. All of this vegetation," I said as I motioned around us, "wasn't here until after we had defeated the [Treant], so I doubt there was much to see."

On that note though, we went through the front pillars, and just beyond that was the inscribed archway that led to behind the pergola. It was only a small clearing, but at the very edge of it, directly in front of us was a truly massive tree. I was a little suspicious of the fact that it appeared absolutely saturated with mana and had likely grown to its current stature recently, indicating some relationship with the system.

That wasn't of direct interest though, as right underneath it looked to be a fairly large tunnel formed from the roots of the massive tree. I was also pretty certain that the tunnel hadn't been here before the system made its debut, and it was likely that the tunnel was formed from the tree itself. I didn't know what lay beyond, but at the very least the entrance appeared to be supported by the supermassive tree.

We all stood in front of the entrance, and we looked at each other.

"Are we ready guys?" I asked, feigning a sense of much greater confidence than what I felt.

They didn't seem to notice though. "Might as well get this over with," Alex said, and Kevin simply nodded.

"Well then, let's get this dungeon explored," I stated, and we began to walk forward.

Now Entering the Unique Dungeon of Sweet Remembrance