Back at It Again

The cavern was round with a single path leading from the starting zone. Three more routes were on the opposite side and would plunge them deeper into the dungeon.

Virtually every human had relocated to this area, so the location was appropriately named "The Hub."

Crush and Sprite had found a nicely rounded, mossy boulder near the leftmost star-branded archway and dubbed it their lair. The magic clown unknowingly roused Sprite into exploring his capabilities, so he took stabs and flogged a wall with his Rapier.

Crush had never seen the boy swing a baseball bat, yet he was adjusting to a sword stance they'd never been taught. While Sprite went bonkers, he had much to assess regarding his so-called "privileges."

[ New Tutorial Quest: Mastery ]

Description: A user's proficiency with their wielded weapon, tool, or magic increases with usage. After 100% mastery, the player will be eligible for Advancement.

Directions: Increase the Mastery of an ability, weapon, or tool by (1) point.

[ Rewards: ]

MP Potion - Small (3)

Skill Point (5)

Beginning Crafting Book

Vial of Potent Venom

_

Crush had already done so when he used Link for the first time, so he just wanted to repeat that step. His gem spat out a dagger from all the weapons his Class supported. Nothing spectacular; it was slightly smaller than a kitchen knife and had a slightly curved blade.

He withdrew it from his inventory, tossed it away, then used "Link" to return the blade to his hand like a magnet.

[ Link Mastery = 6/100 ]

[ The Quest: "Mastery" is now complete! ]

[ Rewards: ]

MP Potion - Small (3)

Skill Point (5)

Beginning Crafting Book

Bottle of Flammable liquid

Vial of Serpent Venom (1)

[ Congratulations, you have finished all tutorial quests! ]

[ Starting Main Quest Line ]

[ New Main Quest: Preparing to Crawl ]

Directions: Recruit (3) members to your party.

[ Rewards: ]

Skill Points (5)

Potion of Drowsiness (1)

Adventurer Boots

Wood Ink Pen

Leather Journal

_

"Hmm?" Crush sounded. Out of everything he'd obtained, one particular item caught his immediate attention. He pulled a leather cover book from his storage, kicked the window out of the way, then eyed the words on its exterior.

It was titled in English "Beginning Crafting Book." On the inside, as implied, were blueprints for dozens of items. The glowing overhead plant made seeing manageable so he could read the various writings, including the plans for fishing rods, panels, rope, fire starters, and even a few weapons.

The fascinating thing was that he had some sense of understanding of the items he read. It was just a hunch, but if he had the ingredients, he reckoned, he could throw them together. At the very least, Crush figured he could construct a table for a new pop-up shop.

Thanks to the thugs that tried to steal their glow stone, Crush had the fantastic idea of auctioning off all the random stuff he'd received from quest. It'd be a perfect start to constructing their empire in another world.

Control people's wants and needs, control their pockets. Well, there was no cash yet, but he had no doubt there would be some form of wealth he could acquire in that world.

"Let's see, where should we start," he questioned, flipping through the crafting book. Each page had a different recipe displaying the steps and difficulty as a number value between 1-100.

He quickly made the association with the "Mastery" system. His guess was that the difficulty would need to be equal to or less than his current stats to craft the item. As the book's title suggested, everything was novice level and didn't require over ten Mastery.

Crush narrowed down the potential crafts based on what was available to him at the time, mumbling aloud. "So... We have moss, a green cotton-like entity that is falling from the upside tree-like plant thing, and-"

"Annoying," he declared. Everything in the Dungeon was soo bizarre, and he despised using names that ended in "like." There was a tree-like thing, a cotton-like thing, moss-like, stone-like. It was too much.

"Inventory," he summoned.

[ Inventory 6/10 ]

1) Class Crystal

2) Glow Stone - Medium (5)

3)Adventurer Gloves

4) Utility Belt

5) MP Potion - Small (3)

6) Vial of Serpent Venom

7)

8)

9)

10)

He could tap any slot with the window open, and a provided description would display. He deduced that the same would work with entities found in nature, so he quickly gathered some undefined items around the area.

He temporarily withdrew his Class Crystal to make space and then placed items in the dimensional storage door. Immediately after, the entities had an icon generated in his inventory.

6) Vial of Serpent Venom

7) Illuminous Jade Cotton

8) Illuminous Jade Cotton Tree Branch

9) Moss

10)

Crush's entire body fired forward when he punched a hole into the window. He immediately thought Sprite would laugh at his idiocy if he was present.

"Cotton, Tree branch, Moss," he grumbled. "Here, I thought there'd be some fantasy terminology for everything."

Even more aggravating, he had picked up various colored rocks to insert next. A wild guess would suffice for the system's given name of them.

"This a new hobby?" Asked Sprite, returning from his training. Crush twisted the truth a little and told his companion that he'd collected materials to craft with. When the boy dug further into what he was producing, Crush utilized every scalding brain cell to quickly settle on an item.

(( "Cotton, Branches, rocks, moss. Pretty much useless on its own. If I look at everything available, maybe we could craft fishing rods, but there are no lakes here. We need something useful in a cave..." ))

"Obviously," Crush said, revisiting his inventory. Sprite watched as he withdrew an unlabeled amber glass bottle, then scoured for more fallen branches and moss. Once he had everything, he placed it on the ground, then opened his crafting book to the recipe labeled " Woodworkers Basic Torch."

The instructions called for dry elastic bark, leaves, moss, and tree resin/sap, but he improvised since he was short some ingredients. That was a blessing and a curse. The good part was that no one else would compete against them in sales; the bad was that he'd also eventually run out of materials. Nonetheless, he just needed something to kickstart their business.

Sprite continued to watch, more curious about where Crush obtained a leather book inside a fantasy dungeon than what he was conjuring up.

While lengthy, the fallen branches were thin. To remedy this, Crush held two sticks tightly, then used his "Link " ability to combine them without a rope or adhesive. Next, he soaked Seth's torn shirt in flammable liquid. When done, he wrapped a mush mash of broken twigs, leaves, moss, and cotton to the coupled sticks.

When he finished, Crush tossed the innovative torch to Sprite and sought their approval.

While he sought clearance, a notification popped.

[ New Side Quest: Path of a Carpenter ]

Directions: Craft (5) items from the "Beginning Crafting Book."

[ Rewards: ]

Inventory Increase + 5

Carpenter Crafting Book - Vol 1

Copper Axe

Copper Saw

Copper Hammer

Copper Nails (500)

_

"Another one?" Questioned Crush. He'd already put one quest on the back burner, then a second as added to his checklist. He shared the details with Sprite, who believed it fortuitous that the quest lined up with their current objective.

They'd be pumping out torches anyways, so no effort would need to be made to meet the quest condition. Sprite helped by gathering the raw materials while Crush sat and linked everything together. He minded that the "MP" stat, short for Mana Points, dropped when he used his skill and was careful not to overdo it.

The quest was completed within the half-hour, and his inventory was crammed with more items.

[ The Quest "Path of a Carpenter" is now Complete! ]

[ Rewards: ]

Inventory Increase + 5

Carpenter Crafting Book - Vol 1

Copper Axe

Copper Saw

Copper Hammer

Copper Nails (500)

[ Carpenter Mastery: ] (+10 Race Bonus) = (15)/100

-

The increase in storage helped; he had five free spaces since he'd been withdrawing old items like the flammable liquid, his Class Gem, and the Beginning Craft Book.

As much as he wanted to explore the new rewards, time to prepare their shop was running out. He knew this by the rallying of armed individuals. Not many, out of the thousands, less than fifty rose from despair and nurtured their rage for action.

Crush piled ten of the torches before running out of flammable liquid. He had to short the last four, but whatever, they'd still sell. They were hurrying, so both boys hightailed it to the center archway where the first group was disembarking and blocked their path.

"Hello!" Crush shouted. He presented a cheery hand wave while he and Sprite sat everything down except for the product.

"My name is Crush. May we have a moment to speak with you, brave adventurers?"

"Shit, it's a real NPC," stated one of the strangers. A dry laugh followed. However, the mood was steep. Sprite followed up by striking a rough rock against his sword, which created a red spark. "No sir, just salesmen," he smiled.

Crush held a torch up with one arm, then used the other to rub the wooden frame. "What we have here is the FIRST ever torch, designed by C&S Crafts."

The audible curiosity and low murmurs were solid signs of progress. He took it as the cue to initiate "Phase Two," which was overselling the item.

"Expel the darkness of caves while you safely explore! Our product is proven reliable, giving you hours of dependable light."

"And! As a gift, we include a sharp stone that our research identified as an excellent fire starter!" Spoke Crush. He motioned the audience toward Sprite, who struck a random rock they picked up against his sword. It did spark, but aside from that, nothing else had been proven or tested. There wasn't even a guarantee the torch would light, let alone stay warm for over a minute.

Nevertheless, the crowd was sold. The cattle were back. Their only worry was that August would SkyDrive from the ceiling like a vigilante and disclose their past deeds. But, no gate guard, not even a word of doubt from the crowd. They naturally wanted to see it work, but that wasn't concerning; Crush had faith it'd operate for at least the time it took for the group to vacate.

Before handing over the goods, they had to negotiate payment. Since money wasn't an option, what was left was to answer the constant voices stemming from their stomachs.

The terms were one torch for a portion of the goods they found while exploring, especially if anything proved edible. Both sides shook on it, and the stick was ignited. Handsome jade-green flames engulfed the tinder, and it discharged even brighter than a battery-powered flashlight.

Success.

It was just one sale, but Crush and Sprite began a ripple within that dungeon. That single deal was the first reminder of mankind's resourcefulness. They were all descendants of thousands of years of evolution; their ancestors likely established nations, invented miracles, and won wars on Earth. Sitting around and doing nothing wouldn't resolve their crisis, and if two teenage boys could input, why couldn't they all.

Because of their shortened oration, humans did not understand magic and how it provided life and the power to do the unthinkable.

In this world of fiction, their presence and spirit exuded their body in the form of mana. It happened on a separate filter that the human eye could not see. Still, a steady flow of magic entered and exited their bodies like Oxygen, revamping their physical structure.

Because of his ignorance, Crush never considered what linking two once-living entities with his magic meant. But, being honest, even if he did, it'd be such an inconsequential fact that he'd likely disregard the knowledge all together. Nevertheless, that one decision would soon shape the future of the cave-dwelling humans.