“Sophie, do you know why the Messenger said we should have 5,000 points?” Zane asked. It should be how much a room cost, right?”

“Wrong,” Sophie responded. “A room cost double that amount. The 5,000 points is enough for a spot on the floor in the basement.”

Sophie’s word surprised everyone. They recently finished recovering from a battle and Zane was bringing up random topics to talk about. Zane felt bored watching everyone else fight. Zane only saw the group face mana creatures at level fourteen or lower. Basic teamwork and a basic understanding of the mana creatures they encountered was enough to ensure victory.

“Did the Inns allow people to sleep in the basement because they thought nobody would be able to afford a room?”

“Who would pay 10,000 points for a room?” Sophie scoffed at Zane’s question. “The rooms only had a little bit more mana inside them. Other than that, the rooms had nothing. There was no bed, no candle and no place to freshen up. The Inn didn’t even allow you to request a room with a window.”

Zane could only shake his head. “I don’t know why they would offer rooms like that. I would rather save my money and spend a night outside instead.”

Night time begins in one hour. Anyone not in a Inn or registered place of residence will be removed from the village until day time.

“Damn looks like words really do have power,” Zane said.

“Yeah, and you used your words to lock us out of the village,” Jason said

“Hmph, I suggest you watch the way you speak to me. If I’m unhappy I might use my words to make certain types of hats disappear.”

Jason grabbed the brim of his hat and gasped in mock horror. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Alright, enough nonsense,” Sophie interjected. “We need to think of what our next steps will be. Should we head back or stay out for the entire night?”

Shane shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t mind staying in the forest the entire night.”

“When we selected the quest, I thought we were planning to stay in the forest all night,” Lana added. “The message shouldn’t affect our initial plan.”

“We should look for shelter,” Zane said. “If were going to be out here all night we want to find a place that’s a little bit safer than the rest of the forest. I think we should use the place by the pond we passed.”

“Everything needs water,” Sophie said “Isn’t it dangerous to create a shelter right next to a water source?”

“Normally you would be right but, we haven’t seen any magical beast and mana creatures don’t survive on food or water. They survive on mana. That pond is one of places with the lowest levels of mana in the forest. That means mana creatures are less likely to appear near it. Other places we have visited in the forest have higher density of mana or they are unsuitable for shelters. We could look for a better area but were not guaranteed to find one in the next hour.”

“I thought you were relaxing and soaking up experience while we did all the hard work,” Jason said. “Turns out you were planning ahead. I didn’t even think to look for a suitable shelter.”

“All of you were getting used to fighting new types of mana creatures. We don’t have some of these mana creatures in the forest near Green Valley town and we don’t have anyone to assist us when we encounter danger in this forest. It’s natural for everyone to have all of their focus on the enemies before them and searching for potential enemies that might appear.”

“Okay,” Sophie clasped her hands in front of her. “Now that we have a plan let’s start moving.”

Luna and Lana both had the map skill and used it to direct them to the pond they passed. Everyone had great memories but they stopped keeping track of their surroundings and the distance they traveled after finding out Luna and Lana had the map skill. The map skill could easily do that for them so why would they waste the energy.

After walking for a few minutes, they reached the pond. There was some grass and a few flowers growing on the side of the bond. Sophie, Jason, and Shawn checked the mana in the area. The plants, the trees, and the pond didn’t emit any mana. They had mana in them but it was not a noticeable or desirable amount. Luna and Lana also checked again to make sure there was nothing in the pond.

“Everything looks good,” Sophie said. “So, what do we do next?”

“Well, that tree looks like a good choice,” Zane said. “I was hoping that you guys could work some magic on it.”

The tree Zane pointed to was wide enough that three people with their arms stretched out could hide behind it. It was very tall and stood several feet away from the pond.

“Work some magic on it?” Jason questioned. “You brought us here with no better plan than to work some magic on a tree.”

Zane gave Jason a calm smile “If you can’t do it, I’ll understand.”

“Of course, I can do it. Plus, with Shawn and Sophie here it will be easy.”

“I asked the trees to help me make a home many times when I stayed in the forest, Shawn added. “Making a home here won’t be a problem.”

“Where should we start?” Sophie asked “I think it might be safer if we built something on the branches.”

“Maybe we should hollow out the trunk,” Jason suggested.

“I agree with Sophie,” Shawn said. “I don’t think we should disturb the tree anymore than we need to.”

While Sophie, Shawn and Jason discussed building a shelter everyone else discussed climbing the tree. After a short conversation they decide to let Lana tie rope to an arrow and use that to climb up. It only took five tries before the arrow sunk into the top of the tree trunk and it only took two pulls for it to fall down. Before another discussion could take place, Luna took out two daggers, ran up the tree and sunk the blades into the trunk. After a quick climb, Luna was looking down proudly from the top of the tree trunk.

Luna threw down a rope and the others used it to climb up after her. After reaching the top everyone relaxed while Sophie, Jason, and Shawn got to work. They divided the building into three jobs. Shawn would use mana to ask the tree to grow branches, Sophie shaped the branches that grew and Jason strengthened the branches.

The trio expended most of their mana before taking a break and used the Meditation skill. Everyone in the group had learned the meditation skill while they were practicing their skills in the training ground. Jason wanted to recover using a mana potion but Sophie suggested that they save them for emergencies.

Zane and the others talked amongst themselves while they waited. They wanted to go down to spar but they were afraid they would draw unwanted attention. With nothing left to do they talked until the trio finished recovering and began working on the shelter.

After using a lot of mana on the second attempt they stopped and used the Meditation skill again. The shelter began to look like a small house. Although it was small it looked like it could comfortably fit all of them. While the trio were meditating the system sent a message.

Night time has begun. Those that do not have a proper residence will be removed in 10 second…9 seconds…

The countdown ended and the system was silent. The forest became silent as well. While walking Zane could hear the wind blowing the leaves in the trees. Bird mana creatures or bird magical beasts could be heard chirping. Now he heard nothing but that quickly changed.

The forest exploded with noise as predators awakened. He could hear the roar of tigers, the screech of monkeys, the howl of wolves and the screams of humans. Zane looked and saw that the other had solemn expressions on there faces. The amount of danger they would face had increased by multiple levels.

“Everyone, please make sure that you communicate mentally,” Zane said. “We can’t afford to attract attention by speaking out loud.”

Everyone nodded and mentally agreed. A few minutes later the trio exited meditation and heard the noise. Zane and the other mentally contacted the others to calm them down. They quickly decided to finish the house before making their next move. They used a significant amount of mana as they tried to speed up the process of building the house. It took them less than ten minutes to finish but they looked completely drained by the end.

“Do you guys want to take a break first?” Zane asked.

“Don’t worry,” Sophie said. “We can rest while we talk.”

Zane nodded. “What quest are we going to do first?”

“I accepted several group quests that end with destroying a den.”

“There are dens here!” Jason shouted. Everyone glared at him and he waved his hands in embarrassment. “Sorry, sorry, my bad.”

“I wont bother talking about all the different group quests instead I will focus on the three quests concerning tier one creatures.” Sophie took a deep breath and continued after making sure she had everyone’s attention. “The three quests are to destroy a wolf den, a spider den, and a bear den. The quest doesn’t require us to kill the tier one creature in each nest for completion but we will receive a lot more experience if we do. I think we should do the bear quest first. Does anyone think we should do something else?” Everyone shook their heads and looked around to see if anyone thought differently. “Since there are no complaints, I’ll share the quest with everyone.”

Sophie invited you to join the Bear Den Destruction quest.

Quest: Bear Den Destruction

Description: A dire bear which is a Tier Ⅰ mana creature has taken control of a local den. If left undisturbed the dire bear and the bears created by the den will grow stronger. You are allowed a maximum of nine people to team up with. Kill the dire bear or destroy the den.

WARNING: A Tier Ⅰ mana creature is several times stronger than a mana creature at the same level. Please use CAUTION.

WARNING: This is group quest and it should not be completed alone. It is RECOMMENDED to take the maximum of nine people with you. Please use CAUTION.

Quest objectives:

Kill 5 bears

Kill 5 beta bears

Kill 5 alpha bears

Destroy den

Kill dire bear

Quest Rewards:

Kill 5 bears 10,000 village points

Kill 5 beta bears 25,000 village points

Kill 5 alpha bears 50,000 village points

Destroy den 100,000 village points

Kill dire bear 500,000 village points.

Complete all objectives 20,000 exp.

Quest Failure: Failure to destroy the den.

Quest Failure Penalty: None

Do you wish to accept the invitation for this quest? Yes or No

Zane accepted the quest. He wasn’t afraid that they didn’t have the maximum amount of team members. They wouldn’t be able to completely trust anyone they asked to join. Other than trust they had no way of knowing the level of skill and experience a person had. They might end up with three useless people that harmed them instead of helping them.

“Let’s rest up in the house,” Zane suggested. “Once everyone is recovered and prepared, we can leave. I suggest everyone assigns all of their stat points. We don’t need to save any for emergencies because we will definitely level up a lot.”

The house had a window on each wall. Zane also saw a fire place with a chimney on the wall opposite of the door. Zane bounced a few times and didn’t feel the house move at all. He was surprised by the sturdiness of the house. Zane began his preparation by checking over all of his equipment. Once completed he assigned his stat points and took a look at his status window.

Status

Level 7 Exp: 24,450/28,000

Name: Zane

Age:16

Race: Human Ⅱ

Class: Warrior CP: 103

Health (HP):870 Health Regen (HR): 4.3/min

Stamina (SP):1044/1160 Stamina Regen (SR): 58/min

Mana (MP):810/900 Mana Regen (MR): 8.4/min

Stats

Strength:100

Dexterity:94

Endurance:116

Vitality:87

Intelligence:82

Wisdom:76

Perception:85

Willpower:87

Free Stat Points: 0

Talents:

Identify

Skills:

Mana Manipulation Lvl 15, Mana Control Lvl 15, Meditation Lvl 12, Basic Shield Mastery Lvl 18, Basic Sword Mastery Lvl 12, Basic Axe Mastery Lvl 11, Basic Mace Mastery Lvl 9 Basic Spear Mastery Lvl 15, Basic Knife Mastery Lvl 13, Basic Whip Mastery Lvl 9, Basic Archery Mastery Lvl 13, Block Lvl 15, Slash Lvl 18, Charge Lvl 8, Cleave Lvl 10, Smash Lvl 8, Pierce Lvl 11, Stab Lvl 12, Lash Lvl 8, Focused Release Lvl 7, Rapid Release Lvl 12, Warrior Steps Lvl 6, Skill Combo Lvl 1, Final Barrier Lvl 1

Titles

The Chosen Adventurer, Classless Title, Blood-Stained Murderers, Well Trained

Zane looked over his status window with satisfaction. He managed to get two great skills from the list he saw before the mana surge. Skill combo gave him a small damage boost when he used one skill after another in a short period of time. Final barrier created a barrier using ten percent of his mana and stamina.

Other than those two skills he learned and leveled up every other skill during the short sparring session with Shane. Well, Warrior Steps was a skill randomly rewarded by the system. Other than that Zane learned everything else. After looking at his status window Zane felt confident about facing the mana creatures roaring in the dark.