As the cart rolled along, the three were already practicing using the new methods that they had learnt. Jinyang was balancing two coins on his hand while GimmePower had laid out two decks of cards on the cart bed and GimmeGirls was hanging off the edge of the cart.

Each of them gave furtive glances at the others. It would not be acceptable to their egos for them to lose to the others. By the second hour, the exercises had changed. Jinyang was balancing and flipping two coins on each hand. GimmePower's spread of cards had doubled in size as he added two more decks. GimmeGirls was now carrying a barrel of water on his back while hanging off the cart's edge.

The escalation was of course noted by the others and each continued to strive to outdo the others and as the third hour rolled around at sunset, the macho posturing became more and more ridiculous.

Jinyang was holding to the wagon's starboard edge with one hand and flipping four coins on the other. His left foot was on the ground and hopping alongside the wagon using the tip of his toes while his right foot was balancing a crowbar. As his hopping speed lagged a lot behind the cart's, his arm which was holding the cart's edge, had to sustain the difference in velocities.

GimmePower was doing presses while upside down in the posture of a hand stand and using his tongue to select five matching cards from a heap. On his fingernails were balanced three coins that he would flip by pushing off from the cart bed using his upper body strength. His feet were busy balancing a wooden tray on his toes

GimmeGirls was holding to the port edge of the wagon with two fingers while balancing a potato on his head. Since he was the one who explained the coin flipping trick, in his mind, he could be not shown up by the others at the technique and thus on his toes were balanced eight coins. His other hand was busy throwing copper coins at the slot he had cut out of a barrel. The barrel slot would perform the same function as a scarecrow at an obviously higher difficulty.

By the sixth hour, night had fallen fully and the mule stopped by itself as it was the regular bedtime for it. As three sets of eyes met, a silent decision was made and the three stopped their training, climbing down from the cart. Each had been pushed nearly to the system limit where they could be forcibly expelled and were exhausted, though for Jinyang's case, it was less severe, thanks to Thorny. None of them would admit to it of course as to show weakness to their peers was something they would not allow.

"Hyung, we should cook something."

GimmePower looked meaningfully at GimmeGirls. It was common for Koreans that the youngest to do the menial chores. GimmePower would have volunteered as he could raise some stats by improving his Cooking skill but his muscles were aching everywhere and refusing to do more work. It took great will to keep standing and looking relaxed while every muscle of his body was screaming.

"Power-san, I would help but unfortunately I do not have the cooking skill."

Which was a lucky occurrence as GimmeGirls felt like someone had tied hundred kilogram weights to each of his limbs. Of course, externally he casually lounged next to the cart and looked on with disinterest but an observant watcher would notice that he had failed to add his normal 'nyaa' at the end of the sentence.

"My brothers, are we not men? Why do we need to cook or even eat? Let us quietly meditate away from each other on the lessons that we have learnt today."

Thanks to Thorny, Jinyang was in the best condition of the three but even he could feel the tiredness though the neural dampeners that were regulating how much he felt of his physical body's exhaustion. That meant he was near exhaustion in the real world. For someone who disliked hard work, being this tired was unacceptable. He had also guessed (rightly) that the other two were in no better shape. The statement that he had spoken was basically a couched suggestion that each of them find some place away from the sight of the others and rest. This was of course exactly what the other two wanted badly as well but they still had to put up an impression of strength.

"Hyung, you are right. As real men, we should not need something as trifling as food."

"Money-san is wise. Food is nothing but a passing temptation and we should not allow it to take hold of us."

Without further words, each headed off in a different direction to 'meditate'.

After about 10 seconds, two system messages popped up.

GimmePower has lost consciousness and has been logged out.

GimmeGirls has lost consciousness and has been logged out.

As they were all in the same party, the other members would be informed on any particular status changes. Jinyang was loathe to log out as well, as that would leave the cart and Thorny unprotected but it was doubtful that he could hold on to wakefulness for much longer. He staggered to his feet and tied the mule to a nearby tree as well as stacking hay and grain near the mule. He finished by putting Thorny in the barrel that GimmeGirls had been using for target practice and allowed sleep to claim him.

Back at the capsule room, Jinyang didn't move from the position on the ground where he had been lowered on to by the system. Instead he slept at the exact spot where he was placed without even removing the visor. As soon as he was awake, he called out.

"System, log me in."

After he had logged in, he was relieved to find that everything was still in the same condition as he had left them other than dawn having arrived. The mule was munching on some hay and Thorny was still in the barrel.

"Whew... System log off."

After he had logged off, Jinyang quickly grabbed bread and milk, mixing and drinking the entire concoction as fast as he could before he logged back in game.

Back in game, he was still the first one around and he quickly put Thorny back on. He moved back into the spot he was supposed to be 'meditating' in and waited. After half an hour, he heard two voices call out.

"Hyung, sorry about leaving the party but I was too focused on meditating and the system misinterpreted it as something else and logged me out."

"Yes, sorry Money-san my capsule dropped the connection to the server and I only managed to fix it just now."

"No problem. In fact I should apologize as I was not even aware that you two were having problems due to concentrating on maintaining a meditative state."

After all the excuses required by their pride were thrown around, the three of them got back into the cart and continued westward.

"Hyung, I have a suggestion. We were too focused on training last night and if there were any enemies or ambushes, we might have been surprised and killed. So I was thinking we should only do one or two forms of stat raising training at any one time."

Of course GimmePower was not really suggesting this to avoid surprise attacks. Dying was not a concern for any of them except maybe Jinyang since he could lose the cart. What was more important was that the suggestion was basically a treaty to halt the arms race they were engaging in. It was in no way a declaration of surrender or an admission of inferiority.

"Money-san, what Power-san is saying is prudent. Not that we could not fight off any attackers but merely that we might take a few points of health damage just because we were ambushed."

GimmeGirls' agreement was equivalent to him signing the treaty. Now it was only lacking Jinyang's signature. Though he could mitigate some of the effects through Thorny, Jinyang really disliked being tired in game but if the arms race continued, he could see no other option then being exhausted every day as both of his team members were as stubborn and as prideful as he was. His signature on the treaty was assured.

"Yes, Ah Pow is very perceptive. We should not let our enemies gain any sort of advantage though our own carelessness. I agree as well."

With the treaty signed by all three, each gave an inward sigh of relief. As a celebration masked as an early lunch, GimmePower took out several small jars. Each jar was either a completed pot of kimchi or vegetables that were still fermenting. Given that regularly eating the stuff would boost their Vitality, both Jinyang and GimmeGirls were happy to eat it even though they found it not particularly suited to their tastes. After a quick meal, they continued onwards. Jinyang focused on running on tiptoe while hanging off the side of the cart while GimmeGirls was on the other side flipping coins with one hand holding onto the cart. GimmePower concentrated on matching cards and flipping coins.

No one was actually driving the cart and they left it to fate (and the mule) as the cart simply moved forward. When night fell, each would take turns logging off while leaving one to watch the cart. None of those on watch actually bothered to really look out for monsters but rather continued their stat training. This freed the other two for eighty minutes every six hours where they could do less important work like sleeping, eating, drinking and handling personal matters. None of them questioned each other on how they had so much free time to play the game.

It was on the ninth game day into their trip when they fell into a crisis. It was all due to GimmePower cutting his finger while making lunch. Instantly two voices were heard at the same time.

“Healing Hand.”

“Healing Hand, nyaa”

However nothing happened though Jinyang saw a system message pop up.

You cannot cast the spell as you have not learnt it.

Dumbfounded, he looked at GimmeGirls who had the same look he did. GimmePower just looked confused for a moment then impatience took over.

“Aish! I’ll do it myself. Healing Hand!”

After he received the same system message, he joined the other two looking dumbly at each other.

“Er, hyung, didn't you learn the spell? I didn't read up on the rules for spells.”

“No Ah Pow, I thought it came free with the skill. I skipped spell basics since it was a waste of time.”

“Money-san, that would not make sense. Why would it give a free spell nyaa.”

“Ah Girls, why didn't you say something back when we were tricking the priest? It would have been much more useful if you raised that question then.”

"Money-san, I had not yet read the spell rules as I was not going to do magic for some time. I had thought the both of you being older would have a better grasp of the mechanics nyaa."

Since magic had not been a major focus for any of them other than a method of raising the Wisdom stat, they had at best glanced over the basic rules for spellcasting though each of them had memorized the actual spell names and their effects in case they encountered an enemy using it.

It was a case of having bad assumptions similar to what Jinyang has done with the mining skill. Since with sword mastery, a player could use daggers, two handed swords, rapiers, scimitars and any other bladed weapon without having to learn each weapon separately, all three had assumed that magic would operate similarly. Unfortunately magic had its own distinctive rules where the power and effect of the spell was based off the skill but the spell itself was separate from the skill.

“Aish, 'what if' and 'what could be' doesn't matter now. We have the skill but no healing spells, so what do we do now?”

“Power-san, maybe we can go back and learn it?”

“It’s going to take more than two real world days to go back and another two to come back to where we are now Ah Girls. I say we press on and try to learn it as the opportunity presents itself.”

“I agree with hyung, it’s useless to start looking after your cows after you lost them.”

“…Yeah it would be too much time wasted nyaa but without healing spells, we will need to be more careful.”

On the twelfth day, they reached the mountain range that encompassed the western border of the continent. It was where they once again faced a great challenge.

“You have *no* map of the route Money-san?”

“No, of course not. We will have to search around for the route.”

“Hyung, that’s a lot of ground to cover…”

“Ah Pow, it can be done. As the proverb goes, the ship will reach the end of the bridge in due course. Anyway I have a plan. I suggest we spread out to search a wider area and meet up back here in three hours.”

"Hyung what are we looking for?"

"Ah Pow, the previous party of adventurers I mentioned was made up of NPCs. As far as I know, they were not being chased or needed to hide and we are in the mountains."

"...Campsites nyaa, Money-san?"

"Campsites, inedible rubbish and anything that does not look natural. Look out for any reflected light as that would probably be metal."

With already so much time invested into the quest, the other two had little choice but to forge ahead. It was all according to plan though. Jinyang had already known that there would be an issue of finding the route since the storekeeper had not mentioned anything about it and searching for it alone would take up too much time. With three times the manpower, the chances of finding the route to the new content in an acceptable time frame had increased significantly. It was one of the reasons he had been supportive of creating the party.

It did not take long before GimmeGirls found the scattered remains of a camp fire while GimmePower found a burst water skin thrown aside behind a rock several hundred meters away from the camp site. Using the 2 as signposts, it was clear to the three of them which direction the previous NPC party had taken. It was then a simple matter of moving in the same direction. Without a word, the three of them cleared the remains of the camp site and picked up the worthless water skin and placed the trash into a sack. They were not doing this to save the environment obviously, but to prevent others from discovering what they had found. In addition to continuing their stat improvement exercises, they also kept an eye out for more signs of the previous party's passage which were placed into the same sack as the rest.

It was only two game hours later that they found themselves in front of a cave entrance.

"Hyung, the cart might not fit."

"I'm not leaving the cart, it might get stolen."

"Money-san has a point. At worst the cart gets destroyed by monsters. That's still better than having it stolen nyaa."

"That's true Girls-ssi, the cart and the mule could take a few attacks that would have hit us instead. It would be a good distraction."

Since the cart didn't belong to either of them, it was an expendable resource as far as they were concerned. Jinyang did not feel the same way mainly because the cart had a superb ability. You could sit and still move around without having to use real effort. Additionally you could even lie down and still continue moving. If only it could drive itself automatically and gave you stats while you were relaxing… Now that would be the ultimate treasure. Though Thorny could have fulfilled the same function, it still took effort by his real body as Thorny was basically manipulating his virtual flesh. Because of that, he was rather protective of his cart.

"In the worst case, we can do portaging the same way how canoes are carried on land. Ah Girls can carry the mule while me and Ah Pow carry the cart."

"..."

"..."

After lighting the lantern that Jinyang had in the wagon, GimmePower and GimmeGirls walked in seemingly without a care in the world. Jinyang was much more circumspect and started steering the mule carefully. The road was not particularly rocky but as with any cave, the surface was still uneven. Even while travelling in a confined and unexplored place such as the cave, they were still focused on increasing stats though to their credit, they were working only on a single type of exercise. GimmePower was walking using his hands. GimmeGirls was hanging off the walls, moving along the cave wall using only his hands. After a tense 3 minutes where Jinyang was prepared for a monster to jump out of any shadowed area, he joined in, flipping coins on his fingers while keeping one eye on the mule. They were an hour in before the first danger reared its head.

"Hyung, we are almost out of food. I think we have enough for refreshing the satiety to full at lunch and that's it."

"What?!? How can that be? We were stocked for travelling."

"Er Money-san, I believe you stocked enough for one person? There are three people eating now nyaa."

"You mean none of you bought anything?"

"Well hyung, we did leave town without stopping for any shopping, not that I could get much with the three copper I had at that time"

"Power-san is unfortunately correct. I was on my way to purchase rye bread when the incident with the swordsman happened. However on the bright side, I still have three rye bread left nyaa."

"... Ok, we need to make as much noise as possible, draw out some monsters then eat them."

"Money-san. I suggest adding the condition that we can eat it as long as they don't walk on two legs."

"Yeah hyung, got to have some minimum standard."

"Ok agreed. Four legs we loot then eat, two legs we just loot. I'll make some noise, you guys keep a look out for lunch."

As they travelled, Jinyang stood on the card, hammering away at the tunnel walls. The sound was thunderous. What he was doing was exploiting a loophole in the mining skill that required the miner to not move more than one meter away from the spot where he or she first started mining. Since Jinyang was standing still on the cart, he was not violating the rule. The logic was that since the planet was spinning anyway, you would only be within one meter of where you actually started mining for a microsecond every day so the rule had to mean being relative to the surface you were standing on. There was a possibility that the system might use the point where you first hit the wall as the measuring point but that would screw over players that were tall or play using large sized races.

It didn't take long before he confirmed the success of the trick as common and uncommon ores tumbled out. Seeing the result, Jinyang muttered softly under his breath.

"Good work Thorny, let’s keep going"

"No, you're doing great!"

Ignoring the sarcastic tone from Thorny and giving out empty encouragement, Jinyang was not willing to do too intensive a training for stats as it might reignite the arms race. Despite the large amount of sound, there was no attacks forthcoming even after an hour of travelling.

"Hyung, how much longer do you think we need to travel?"

"Power-san, I would be more concerned about the lack of enemies and the lack of intersections nyaa."

"Girls-ssi, why are you worried about that?"

"Because it points to the tunnel being man made, Power-san. And the lack of enemies means either the traps or other defences left behind by whoever made this tunnel are substantial or the boss of the tunnels is strong enough to frighten off all challengers, nyaa."

"Hmm you have a good point Ah Girls. We will need a tanky person to walk ahead so any traps could be tripped before the entire team gets hit by it."

Both Jinyang and GimmeGirls stared at GimmePower. He had the largest pool of health and since none of them had any defences or resistances worth mentioning, that would have to be the main criteria for determining who would be taking all the damage.

"Hyung, I would volunteer but I’m the only one who knows the Bandage skill..."

"Power-san, do not be worried on that account. I still have empty skill slots of which one I am willing to sacrifice to learn the skill nyaa."

"Ah Pow, I know it is hard on you but I’m the only one with the Teamster skill and Ah Girls has half your health."

"Hyung, I don't think the Teamster skill is really needed right now. I can guide the mule by walking next to it."

"Power-san, though you are correct in saying that now, in times of combat, we may need to retreat quickly which is when the Teamster skill will be critical nyaa."

With two mouths in support of each other versus one, GimmePower could only resign himself to being the trap 'disarmer' and danger alarm.

"Power-san, please shout loudly if you get injured."

"Ah Pow, we may also need you to delay any enemies to buy the time needed to turn the cart around. It will be a good chance for you to get the Endurance or Fighting Spirit stat"

"..."

--