Time: 6 seconds after Matthias and Bethesda were pulled through the Dungeon Instance Portal. 
Location: Home Office of Homie Josh, in the northeast corner of his house.

A shimmering ripple in the shape of a person appeared for a moment in the now wrecked home office with the large hole in the wall and debris scattered around the room. As it disappeared again just as quickly as it appeared, a person was left in it's place. The same one who'd been here a minute before, now changed and yet completely unaware of the change.

Josh blinked sitting in his home-office chair. 'What was that weird feeling? And that weird blue box a moment ago. What did it say? System Initialized? What's that even mean? And why am I leaning sideways?' he thought to himself. Then noticed that the desk in front of him wasn't what was moving, it was him being pulled to his left. He grabbed the desk in a panic as he glanced left and saw a new hole in his wall. 'WTF? When did that happen?' he thought to himself.

His body began to feel lighter than gravity, and he wobbled as he strained against the pulling sensation, it grew in strength. His grip began to slip on his desk as his legs left the ground to point towards the hole in the wall. His husband Arder and his wife Raiven made it to the doorway around this moment, screaming in alarm, "What's going on Josh? Why is there a hole in the wall?"

"Does it look like I know? I'm trying to not get sucked out of a hole in the wall, how the fuck does that make sense?" Josh rattled off sounding more panicky and pitch rising with each word he spoke. Arder grabbed a walking staff Josh kept by his office door to try and extend it towards him as the two of them braced themselves on the doorframe. Raiven yelled as the staff swung towards Josh, "Grab on and we'll pull you this way!"

Josh grabbed for the staff with one arm while the other remained gripped to the desk. This motion caused him to swing away from the staff though as the pull from the portal outside grew. "Fuck!" Josh yelled. Arder shifted his body partly into the room, extending the end of the staff towards Josh's reach. Josh gripped tightly with his free swinging hand, stabilizing against the pull. He focused himself for the task of pulling himself towards the door, shifted his desk gripping hand towards the staff right as the pull from the portal sharply increased. His grip faltered on the staff, slipping towards the tip. He heard nothing, even while he could see Arder and Raiven yelling towards him. His slipped free, and on instinct he reached for the desk again, grasping his phone as he flung back through the air through the hole in the wall and into that hungry red portal in the driveway. His anxiety grew exponentially as he flew, to the point he blacked out before hitting the portal itself.

Less than 3 seconds after being teleported back to his home, he was teleported away again.

---

Arder and Raiven clung to the doorframe watching in horror as Josh disappeared into the portal outside, then a big creature was drawn in a moment after he was. Another moment later the portal winked out of existence and the pull immediately stopped as well.

Raiven stalked forward towards the hole in the wall, staring outside. "What the fuck is that?" she said.

Arder sprung forward to get a better view, spying the titanic obelisk made of grey stone material now towering over their driveway just in front of the carport, narrowly missing the maroon hearse in it when it rose from the ground. "I don't know."

The sound of gunfire rang out from one of their neighbor's house. The two looked at each other and moved back towards the bedroom where Arder kept his gun safe. The gunfire continued outside, picking up from other directions as well. And then they heard the dogs barking at something as a loud sound shook the house.

---

Josh blinked his eyes. Seeing flat grey as he opened his eyes, he blinked again trying to clear the fuzz. He opened his eyes again and noticed a blinking blue box in the corner of his vision atop the grey, and as he shifted his attention towards it, it popped open into a notification box floating in front of his eyes.

"Ugh. What?" Josh said to the air, reaching a hand towards the floating blue box and causing it to disappear as his hand brushed through it. Leaving only the blue box in the corner of his vision. Sitting up he looked around the room, noting the two doors with labels, Dungeon Entrance and Dungeon Exit, as well as the stone basin set into one wall with a fountain flowing into it. Trying not to have another panic attack, he breathes in deeply and holds it a moment before slowly exhaling. 'Nope, still in a grey stone room.' He thought to himself, feeling his blood pressure rise as his breathing lost it's controlled rhythm.

"Where the actual fuck am I?" Josh said, standing up and stepping towards the door labeled Dungeon Exit.

He opened the door and tried to walk through, smacking his face into an invisible barrier and exclaiming, "OW!" followed by a groan of more guttural pain mixed with frustration as his hands reached out to the barrier and tried to push past it. He noticed the blue box in the corner of his vision was blinking again. As his attention shifted towards it, it grew open again.

He got angry at that as he read it. "Then Why am I in here in the first place you piece of shit?" he asked, swinging at the box and the barrier behind it, his hand passing through the notification dismissing it and crashing into the barrier painfully. He screamed in rage at the pain and said, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS THIS THING?"

He stepped back and began shaking his hand as it throbbed in pain. 'That felt like hitting solid steel, Fuck this hurts like hell,' he thought before saying aloud, "Why does everything hurt so much? And why did I grab my phone instead of my snacks as I went flying from my desk?" Then slid his phone into his pocket after seeing he had no signal and low battery.

He heard footsteps slamming into the ground behind him followed by a voice he recognized as he turned towards the other door, "Josh? Did you Respawn?"

Josh replied, "Bethesda, what the hell do you mean Respawn? I just got sucked out of my office into a portal and woke up here on the floor."

Matthias stepped into the doorway as Cleo said, "No, I changed it to Cleo."

"Cleo?" Josh said questioningly, then shrugged, that was the least of his concerns right now. "Where are we? Why do I feel like I'm not in Kansas anymore Toto?"

Matt laughed pretty heartily at that comment and responded, "Yeah we're definitely not home. We're in a safe room inside a dungeon at the moment. But we shouldn't hang out inside here. It buffs healing speed but grants a -50% debuff to experience gain equal to the time you spend in here times two."

Cleo and Josh look at Matt as he finishes speaking. Josh asks, "Did he just quote game rules? Who are you and what have you done with my friend Matthias?"

Cleo giggles at that and follows with, "No I swear it's him. We both got here at the same time, we've been here for hours. We got sucked into this place after we saw your house get hit by that tiny meteor and you got burned up."

"Jeez Cleo, ripping it right off with no sweet talk are you?" Matt said.

"What do you mean I got burned up? I'm fine? Mostly, a little freaked out I guess but otherwise okay," he said to the two of them.

"Well, I don't know how to put it gently after what she already said except to say she's right. Your whole body burned up in a second after that tiny meteor hit your head. Which we only saw because of the massive hole blown in the wall of your house as we were running to it for cover from the demon goats and then that portal opened up and we got sucked into it," Matt explained, "If you aren't hurt can we continue this outside in the dungeon itself, I really don't want to rack up the debuff while I'm working on gaining skills."

Cleo frowned, "Seriously? We can stand here a minute, you're just hungry." Her stomach growled loudly, "Well, maybe you have a point."

The three friends laughed, Donnie squeaked a noise like laughter from the doorway, Josh looked and saw him and screamed like a pre-pubescent girl as he leapt backwards away from the 3 and a half foot tall rabbit with a 13 inch unicorn horn on his forehead. He screamed, "Holy SHIT that thing can kill us all!"

A voice spoke into Matt's mind, 'He is right.'

Matt thought back, 'Hush now Donnie, not the time for that.'

Donnie didn't respond, just backed out of the doorway as Matthias felt a clear sense of indignation from his bonded companion.

Matthias turned his attention in time to see Cleo calming Josh down and explaining that Matt had made Donnie into a bonded companion. Matt waited for them to pause talking a moment before saying, "I'm going outside, I've got meat smoking I need to keep an eye on to prevent other creatures stealing it. Here's a spear I made earlier Josh, propped outside the door for you." And with that he ducked out the doorway of the safe room into the dungeon itself. A minute later Cleo and Josh followed.

Josh picked up the wooden spear Matt had left him, "That's cool, sharp stick will poke. Strong wood too, and not too thick to easily handle it." He looked around as he finished testing the feel of the spear in his hands until he spotted Donnie and Matt standing by the smoking trench pit with meat on racks above it that they were tending to. He turned his head to Cleo and said, "So we're trapped in a video game then? Did I really die in front of you guys like that?"

Her eyes looked amused at first then turned sour with pain as the second question registered in her mind, "Yeah, it was awful. I cried for a little while, but then realized we had to figure out what was going on so we went out and had a look around. We killed a giant turkey, well Matthias did, I missed my shot at it and almost fell from the tree."

Josh smiled at her, "You'll do better next time I'm sure of it. You're too awesome not to homie."

She smiled back, "That's why I tried to get you resurrected, you're too awesome to go out like you did homie. I'm glad you are back." As she finished speaking they reached Matthias next to the smoking rack he was rotating the meat on. He chimed in, "I'm so grateful you're not dead Josh. Seriously couldn't have asked for a better friend to have with us as we are sucked into a game world with magic."

Josh said, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me a big nerd or something. Because you're probably right if so. LoL!"

The three laughed at that. Then took a deep breathe and sighed, collectively.

Josh broke the silence, "I don't remember dying. I was just getting ready for game, I nodded off and woke up to a mess in the office and got sucked through the new hole in my wall towards that strange red portal."

"I'm not sure what to say except we saw what we said we saw, it was horrible," Cleo told him.

"Either way, we're all here now. We will have to work together to survive," Matthias said with a tense smile.

Josh's face relaxed as he took a breath and said "Accept what is offered."

His friends looked at him strangely, even knowing him well, this was a weird response. Cleo said, "Huh-Say What?"

Josh replied, "My teachers would say it's a waste of time and energy better spent elsewhere to argue with reality. One should instead accept what is offered. Only after you do that can your feet be on a sure foundation which can be used to build your dreams with. And I'm dreaming of letting Raiven and Arder know I didn't die when I got sucked into that portal and make sure they are okay. What about you two?" His face lit into a grin as his eyebrow arched at that last question.

Cleo's face looked worried as she responded, "I'm worried about Tanner and Bread and my pets. We saw alien ships in the skies and giant demonic goats before we saw you die and got sucked into this dungeon. I want to dream we grow strong enough to go help keep them safe."

Matthias looked serious as he listened, then his voice took on the tenor of a radio drama narrator, "I Have A DREAM, a Dream where all the humans of earth are too awesome to be wrecked by this Bullshit, a Dream where all our fears are faded away as our light grows stronger than the darkness threatening us."

Donnie looks at him intently, 'I have a dream you will finish this FOOD. I'm SO HUNGRY!'

Matthias sharply looked sideways over to Donnie as he continued aloud, "I have just had a dream that Donnie is going to gnaw my leg off if I don't feed him soon. Sorry guys," and with that he turned to the smoking meat rack and continued to rotate bits of meat. Finding fat bits on some of the meat chunks he could pull off and feed to Donnie.

Cleo and Josh laugh at that. Cleo moves over to where she'd left her Survivor's Backpack laying earlier and pulls the water canteen from it to take a drink.

Josh eyes the backpack and says, "Seriously? You had camping gear with you when you got pulled into the portal?"

"No, I bought this with a Perk I received as a reward for Achievements I got for getting pulled into this dungeon. You probably could get it too. It's bigger on the inside and has tools that repair themselves when stored back in the backpack for a while. And this canteen refills the same way. Super handy," Cleo says in a matter of fact tone.

"Sounds like it. I saw something about getting Achievements when I woke up in there," Josh said gesturing towards the safe room as he pulled a cigarette from the pack he'd extracted from his cargo pants pocket. He pulled his lighter from his pocket after sliding the pack back into the cargo pocket, and lit his cigarette. As he got it lit, the striking wheel of the lighter popped off it and the gas valve cracked open, causing a flare-up of the flame. He panicked and flung it away from him, nearly burning his face and hand before sending it flying into the bushes, "Oh Shit." He chased after the flame and started stomping around to keep the flame from setting a forest fire. Cleo walked over and poured some water from the canteen around the area to help and the problem was over quickly.

Cleo said, "Those things will kill you, you know." She smiled as she nodded at the cigarette in Josh's hand.

"I have heard that once or twice before, I'm pretty sure it will be another bad decision I make though," Josh responded flatly.

Matthias cut in, "That's the spirit!" And then laughed at his sarcasm.

Cleo groaned, "Whatever, just don't burn the forest down."

"I won't, but I do have some trees to burn when I finish this smoke," Josh replied, tapping his other cargo pants pocket.

"Really? You brought weed?" Cleo asked, her tone turning hopeful.

"Yeah, had my ounce and papers in my pocket when I got pulled through. It's a little seedy but that shouldn't be a problem," Josh told her.

"No fucking way, save the seeds, give them to me," she said.

"Okay?" Josh said before shifting his attention, "What's the deal with this meat you're cooking Matthias?"

Matthias looked up from feeding Donnie bits of gristle and meat from the racks he'd made and suspended over his fire pit. "We killed a giant fire-breathing turkey earlier. With luck really. But since we left the pizzas in the car when it got flipped by the demon goat, I figured we should try to cook and eat this. And if I smoke it slow enough it should preserve it for longer so it won't spoil before we can eat it all. I hope."

"Smart, really smart idea. That wood smoke smells really good with the meat too," Josh said.

"I'm getting pretty hungry too. How long till we can eat some of it too Matt?" Cleo asked.

"Everything on that first rack is probably fine to eat now. Still working on these other racks though. There was a lot of meat on that big ass bird." Matt was inspecting the coals in the fire pit trench, shifting some down to stoke the smoking chips under another rack in the 20 foot long line of racks he had going at this point.

Just then, a loud growl in the distance pierced the air followed quickly with the sound of turkey calls of distress and fury. The trio looked around the clearing they were standing in, seeing if they can spot movement nearby. Josh notices his friends scanning the surroundings instead of looking in the direction of the sounds and thinks, 'How long have they been in here?'

"Nothing coming our way I think." Matthias said in a low tone as he glanced between the others.

The trio remained vigilant after that for more than a short while, their focus only shaking at the sound of one of the meat racks falling into the fire and Matthias yelling, "Dammit Donnie! Bad Bunny!" With that he dove to the sizzling meat rack and lifted it off the fire pit and inspecting it.

"Did he ruin that one?" Cleo asked Matthias.

He groaned, "I mean the meat is dirty with ashes, but it's probably fine to eat it."

Donnie growled, 'Give it to me NOW'

Matthias looked at Donnie and scolded him, "I'm not going to reward bad behavior with good meat. You can wait now."

Donnie's anger rose, as did the volume of his growling, he hopped forward smacking Matt's arm with his horn and knocking his grip free of the rack where it and Donnie tumbled to the ground together. Donnie quickly biting into the meat on the rack laying on the ground. Matt yelled, "Dammit Donnie!"

He stepped away shaking his head. Looking at Cleo and Josh, he stepped over to another rack and inspected it, "This one looks ready to eat now. We should eat and figure out our plan for surviving this dungeon."

Cleo steps over and takes a piece of smoked giant turkey meat, takes a bite and chews it up. Looks at Josh and waves, "It tastes pretty good honestly. I think we should spend the rest of our perk points instead of saving them. I've been spending each path point I get as soon as I get them as long as we weren't fighting."

Josh piped up after grabbing a chunk of meat off the rack, "How many points have you gained so far? What did you call them, Path Points? How do you get those? What do you spend them on or for?"

Matt said, "I think you get Path Points for gaining Levels in Skills. I haven't been spending mine yet. Haven't spent all my perks yet either. One of them was a spirit companion, but he's gone now."

Cleo's face went slack as she heard that last bit, staring off into space. Josh not catching this shift in mood asks, "Really? What happened with that? What else did you get?"

"I picked Regenerative Core for my medium perk point. Really seems to help speed up my regen speed passively and I can focus on it to amp up the effect at a cost in Stamina and Mana to make it much higher healing speed for HP for short bursts," Matthias explained.

"Dude, that's sick! Like how fast is it? Are you wolverine levels now or less?" Josh asked like a true nerd would.

"Less," Matthias and Cleo said at the same time.

Josh laughed with them at that, then asked, "Okay, but like how did you get these perks? Do we need to see an NPC or something?"

The two looked at him blankly a moment, then Cleo said, "Just open your Status Screen?"

"Wait.. What? Really? Like a GameLit novel or manga? Are we in Solo Leveling or something?" Josh asked, "How do I open my Status Screen?" And as he said the words, the screen opened in front of him. He began reading it, taking it all in. Asking the others questions as they ate more smoked meat and talked about Perk Options.

---

Roughly thirty minutes later.

"So let me get this straight. We have to buy a Class from the perk list instead of one of the other benefits we could get, or beat the dungeon at level 0 by raising skill levels and buying paths to completion to get strong enough to do so. We had a Spirit Guide but it was sus so Cleo ate it's soul, and now we need to kill demons and giant predators. All with weapons made of wood. So basically, what you two are telling me is that we are Grade A Fucked!" Josh said.

"Basically," Matt confirmed.

"Got it in one," Cleo chimed in, "And bigger problem, I spent all my perk points after hearing Matt talk about that Regenerative Core one. Didn't even buy that one, found some others I think will better fit me."

"Yeah, I went through and bought my picks for all four points pretty quickly if I'm being honest. I see others I'd like to have. But I think I made good choices. Some of those classes seemed too good to be true, like where's the trap kind of alarms were going off in my head so I decided to wait. Maybe we can get more Achievements if we keep being awesome and surviving."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, what did you take?" Cleo asked before continuing on herself instead of waiting for a reply, "I took The Survivor's Backpack already, and just now I got one called Aether Core or something like that. Says it permanently reduces mana costs in half and increases spell power a little too. And I got another one that is called Mana Surge that lets me instantly restore a quarter of my total mana once per day. And another called Tactile Enhancement that helps me with crafting and traps and stuff."

"Damn, those sound sweet, well I got that Tactile Enhancement perk too. Alongside one called Celestial Architect that lets me make a special space where we get bonuses to crafting inside it and improved healing speeds. And another called Aether Sensitivity that lets me see energy and use it easier. And one called Prodigy: Crafting Skills that makes me learn crafting skills faster. I really considered some of the items I saw listed, but items feel like they aren't as permanent as these that I took. I see no way I can lose these, but items I could lose, right?" Josh asked the group. He waited a minute for a response, then looked over to see both and the rabbit were spaced out and still munching on meat from the racks. Everyone's faces and hands were glistening with animal fats from eating like primitives. He grinned, looking down at his own hands and beard. 'Might as well join them,' he thought, reaching for more meat.

"Those are all really cool, but I have a Donnie. He's awesome. I also took Overclocked Reflexes and Voidwalkers Path which let me move fast for a few seconds every minute or so and phase through stuff for a few seconds every minute or so. Sounded cool as fuck so I picked them without thinking or reading anything else." Matthias told his friends.

"Well at least we can say we're consistently impulsive," Josh said.

Cleo laughed, "SHUT Up you Dork!"

"Nerd," Josh corrected her.

"How are we going to survive this place? The quest log says we have to hunt beasts and bosses each level to get out." Cleo says.

"We're going to need somewhere safe to stay overnight, I think sunset can't be too far away given how long we've been here and the progress of the sun so far. I'd rather not use the safe room but I'd also like to be close enough to retreat into it if we need to do so. Maybe we can make a lean-to or something before sunset." Matt responded.

"Spears aren't a bad idea for primitive hunting. Traps might work too. We could make atlatls to improve the spears. I know the basics of making bow's and arrows. Maybe if we craft a few we can get something useable. Did you save the feathers from this turkey?" Josh asked as he got another piece of meat and began munching on it.

"Yeah, claws and beak too." Matt said, "I can make more of these spike traps to lay around to keep things from approaching us hopefully. The demon goat is the biggest thing we've seen so far, followed by the giant turkeys. Everything else has been smaller, closer to Donnie's size. I need more wood though. Branches roughly 3 feet straight sections. And vines and long grasses. Can you guys help gather that?"

Josh stood up finishing his latest chunk of meat, "I can do that I think." He moved away a short ways and found the rope they had left tied to the branch in the tree they had fought from the branches of earlier. "What's this about?" He called over towards them.

"That's where we climbed up to avoid being on the ground as the spooked turkeys ran by and we attacked that one we just ate." Cleo explained as she walked up to him.

Josh looked up the tree, noting the 5 strong and thick lower branches in an almost level ring around the same base level about 20 feet up. He stood there thinking a moment then grabbed a small stick from the ground nearby and started tracing lines in the dirt, then glancing at the tree again and adding or adjusting lines, and continued like that for a couple minutes as Cleo watched and Matt had gotten up to start collecting more of the long grass from the plains nearby.

After Josh finished sketching lines in the dirt, he looked at Cleo and said to her, "I think that should do the trick. This tree is perfect for our needs I think. How good are you with that hatchet?" Josh asked looking at the hatchet she had picked up before following him over to this tree.

She grinned, "You're not gonna believe this, check me out pick a small tree."

Josh smiled and looked around, it seemed the new growths were on the border of the grassy plains about 20 feet away from where this tree stood. Matt was heading that direction and Josh spotted a small on as he passed it, "That one Matthias just passed."

Cleo said, "Bet, watch this." And walked towards that little tree, only about 12 feet tall, clearly still young without any thick branches on it yet. The trunk was only about 8 inches wide at waist to head level. Josh followed her staying back a few feet. He watched as she gripped the hatchet, tested a swing in slow motion to aim for her spot, and took a deep breath as she reared back and sprung into motion, bringing that hatchet down like a hammer, cracking through a quarter of the trunk in one swing. She rared back and swung again, again, and again. That last time was followed by a sharp cracking sound that sent the tree falling over right there. She turned her head his way, "Pretty cool right? I'm a lot stronger now than I was this morning."

Josh exclaimed, "Holy Hell Cleo! That was badass! Wait what is your Strength Stat right now? I think mine went up too, my whole body feels stronger than it did this morning."

"I'm at an 8 in Strength stat right now. But I also have woodworker and gained the Heavy Blow skill from completing the Newbie Path." Cleo told him.

Josh looked at her, "I have no paths completed, I have the Newbie Path unlocked but no levels in it. I have a couple other paths options too. But No Skills yet. Well, one of my perks has a prompt to choose a skill but I've been waiting to pick that for something I need but don't know how to gain from just doing stuff. I guess I need to get active like you guys have been. I made a plan for how to build a treehouse with logs in that tree you have the rope in. With you being stronger than me now, we should be able to make it by nightfall I think. While Matt makes more of those traps for us from the branches of the small trees we need to chop down to do this. What do you say?"

"Did you just try to gloss over saying I'm stronger than you now? Like little ole less than ninety pounds is stronger than you? HA!" Cleo gloated happily.

"Laugh it up, I'll figure out how to catch up," Josh said with a grin, "But seriously, what do you say about more trees like this one? Can we do it? This will be fun I swear!"

She eyed his face, reading it slowly before responding, "I can do that. I'll just clear all of them around here near the edge like this and drag them over by the tree when I get them all cut down."

"Great, is there a tool in that backpack I can use?" Josh asks.

"There's a folding shovel and a survival knife, as well as a kitchen knife, a skinning knife, and a cast iron pot and a couple pans. Bronze ladle and spatula as well. Just put whatever you use back in the backpack after using it to keep it repaired." Cleo explained.

"Folding shovel? That might be perfect, I'm gonna go hunt vines and other good lashing materials. I'll take a look, thanks," Josh told her and moved back to the backpack near the cooking pit. He pulled out the canteen and took a drink of the water, marveling at the fact it felt full when he drank from it. 'Guess it does refill itself when in the backpack. Too cool.' He thought, then rummaged deeper in the backpack and pulled out the knife and the shovel. The knife reminded him of the one rambo carried in the movies, but sturdy and heavy feeling. The shovel however was like an old army folding shovel, made of steel colored black. It had a leather wrapped grip but was otherwise unassuming. The blade looked sharp, and the clamp held tightly when folded out for use, 'Seems solid enough for my needs.' He put the knife back in the backpack.

---

An hour of gathering later.

Josh stood among the strange vine cluster he'd been working his way through, chopping long sections of vine and coiling them for later. He swiped another notification away as he worked. Having decided to ignore them while he worked. He'd hunted the area for good vines to use and collected quite a few. He hadn't noticed how far away he'd gotten from the others as he worked. Nor did he realize quite how many of these vines he'd cut and set aside at this point. Nor had he noticed the almost four foot long honey badger like creature that had wandered up behind him and was now watching the activity in the vine bush with interest.

Josh coiled his latest cuttings of vine and tossed them over his shoulder for later collection as he went to start cutting again, then he felt something hit the back of his right leg hard. Pain lancing up from his calf, white hot with a tearing sensation following that first impact. His body naturally flung itself away from the pain, rolling on the ground into a crouch a few feet from the bush, scanning around him, shovel in hand. He reached down to his calf with his other hand and drew back a blood covered hand. He felt the warmth spreading down the back of his foot and beginning to soak his shoe. "Fuck, Fuck, FUCK," he said in a rhythm as he scanned his options. His spear was past the big furry thing coming out of the bush towards him. The thing charged, and he acted on instinct, slicing the blade of the shovel out like a club with an edge at the critter.

And he missed, because the bristling fur on the creature shimmered and rang out like metal on metal when the shovel hit. Then the beast's eyes glowed red as it's claws swiped at the shovel, knocking it away as it lunged towards Josh again. Josh shrieked in panic as he leapt over the coming bite attack, taking a claw swipe instead as he sailed past and rolled towards his spear, "Shit that hurt. Little fucker." He cursed as he scrambled towards his spear, grabbing it and whipping it around point towards the now chasing honey-badger. It lunged and Josh set the tip at an angle towards the beast, waiting until it was almost to him before savagely thrusting the spear forward into the body of the beast and impaling it.

The honey-badger bled, and snarled on the end of the spear. It struggled to back off the spear.

Josh jerked the spear back to remove it, only to thrust back towards the honey-badger beast quickly as it was charging again the moment it got free. He kept repeating that move, over and over until it finally stopped breathing. Then he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and began sucking air. His anxiety was pounding in his head, sweat growing cold as it rolled out of him in waves now that the fight was over.

He lamented losing his lighter earlier as he looked around while getting his breathing in order. Then decided he had enough for now and collected all his vine coils, and the dead beast body. With his spoils gathered, he made his way back towards the others, after finding his way back to the grasslands edge to get his bearings and find the area of cleared trees Cleo was creating. He was only about fifteen minutes walk down the treeline from them, but that was pretty far. He lamented letting himself get that far away, 'Nearly got myself killed not paying attention.'

He walked past Cleo and Matt working near the tree he wanted to build the treehouse in. He asked Matt, "Do you want to smoke this meat too?" As he held up the four foot long honey-badger to show him.

"Whoa dude, you killed that by yourself? How many skill levels did you get?" Matt asked him, "And yeah, put it down by the firepit if you would. I'll be right over."

Cleo said, "Very cool but also, how far away were you that we didn't hear you fighting that thing?"

Josh looked sheepish, "Too far away, I wasn't paying attention. I found these vines though, they seem good for using to help tie things together for the treehouse."

"Useless if you die gathering it though, be more careful. We're relying on each other to help each other get out of this alive. No unnecessary risks." Cleo reprimanded him.

"Agreed," Josh told her, "Now this treehouse won't be a luxury treehouse, we don't have lumber and better tools. But I think it can be pretty cool with what we have still. I looked through your backpack earlier, saw the canvas tent, we can use that to waterproof the roof of our treehouse."

"Nice, that sounds good to me. So you want me to drag these logs up that tree to make a floor, walls, and a roof frame?" Cleo asked.

"I mean, yeah. I'll help how I can. I can tie the rope to them and you can drag it up that way. Then we can use vines to start holding them in place as we add more to complete the floor first." Josh fills in.

Matthias shares, "I can help lift those logs. I have a 9 Strength Stat."

Josh shakes his head, "I'm the biggest guy in the group and like half the strength of both my friends. It's great though, you two can move these trees and we can get this thing built pretty quickly."

Matthias replies, "Yeah, that sounds good. Let me get that beast butchered real quick and meat on the fire pit."

Josh says, "Oh, yeah, good idea. That reminds me I want to smoke first and need some fire from the firepit to light it. Since my lighter died." And with that he follows Matthias as Cleo looks at them go and shakes her head before following too.

Time: 3 hours later 

Josh passed a bundle of crafting materials up to the treehouse via their basket elevator operated by Cleo. As she got it up, she emptied the basket and set it to be easily lowered back down, then climbed down herself saying to Josh as she reached the ground, "So what are we gathering now?"

Josh handed her backpack over to her and readied his spear, "This is a fantasy world with magic and monsters right? So there has to be some kind of special crafting materials that might be worth something to us somehow. We should make a habit of searching and gathering things and trying to keep crafting stuff since that works to let us gain skills more safely that fighting does." He stepped over towards the firepit and started trying to light a small stick on fire by laying it against a coal. As he waited he retrieved a joint he'd rolled in the treehouse after they finished building it.

Cleo laughs, "You don't need to use a stick, just go to take a hit and I'll light it."

Josh's eyebrow arches, "Why didn't you tell me you had a lighter? Here," he says as he brings the joint to his lips.

Cleo speaks a magical word as she moves her hand in a pattern and touches the end of the joint with her fingertip on her index finger as a small flame appears from it. The joint lights as Joshes eyes go wide, she shakes her fingertip and the flame winks out as she smiles at him, "Didn't say I had a lighter."

"YOU Have to teach me how you did that!" Josh says excitedly as he takes another hit of the joint and passes it to her.

"Deal, I know something else too. Got any of those seeds I mentioned?" Cleo asked.

Josh pulled his cigarette pack out and opened it, rotating it to roll seeds out onto his palm. "Only 5 so far, but they all look pretty healthy to me." He offered them as he said, "Here you go."

Cleo picked them up one at a time and smiled, "Thanks, now watch." She took one of the seeds and placed it into the dirt near the grassy plains edge. She pulled her canteen from her backpack, took a drink, and then spit it on the area she put the seed into. Then said another magical word and moved her hands in a strange pattern. Josh was startled since his Aether Sensitivity Perk was revealing the way that her spell was charging the ambient mana in the land around the area of the seed. He stared in wonder at the strange overlay of light patterns as he watched her focus her magic and work it into the seed for many minutes.

Cleo looked over at him as she finished, "Well, I thought the seed would grow really quickly. I guess I need to keep trying. But that's enough for right now I think. Don't want to get too low on Mana. I'll try again with these other seeds before we climb into the treehouse for the night I think."

"Cool, lets see if we can find something neat while Matt wraps up the traps around our treehouse. Looks like we have about an hour or so until sunset." Josh said reassuringly.

---

The duo wandered a little further along the tree-line the other direction from Josh's earlier adventure, trying to spy something interesting without getting lost traveling inside the trees. They walked for a half hour before finding something worth being out there to find. They saw a river far off in the distance, and found some flowers, berries, and mushrooms growing within visibility of the edge of the forest. They quickly collected as much as they could in a few minutes into Cleo's magic backpack. Then jogged back to make sure they didn't get stuck away from the treehouse after dark.

Matthias was hauling up branches into the treehouse as they made it back. The sunlight growing dimmer with each passing minute as they arrived. Matt looked over at them and said, "Glad you made it back. Find anything useful?"

"Maybe, not sure yet. Do we still need to collect all the meat racks upstairs?" Josh asked.

"No I did those first when I finished with the traps I had made," Matthias replied.

Cleo spoke up, "That's why you are awesome Matt!"

Josh chimed in, "Can Confirm This, you sir are Awesome."

Matt blushed and smiled, "Today has been super weird, we should get in the treehouse and get ready to make it through the night."

"Bet, and when we get up there, Cleo can tell us how magic works, since she can do magic now." Josh said as he climbed the rope up to the treehouse.

Matt sounded surprised as he said, "Wait, you can do magic now Cleo?"

"Yeah, it seems like Ari taught me magic. So now I can teach you guys." Cleo replied, sounding guilty as she looked at Matthias somewhat fearfully.

Matt smiled at her, "Oh, that's good. That will really help us Cleo. Good Job."

Donnie thought to Matthias, 'She's not going to eat me for my power is she? Will eat her first.'

Matt looked at him crossly, 'Leave her be, she feels bad enough already. She won't eat you buddy.'

Then he picked Donnie up and put him in the basket elevator, and Josh started lifting him up to the treehouse as Matthias followed Cleo up the rope ladder they had. He pulled it up behind him after reaching the top and they all stood on the deck to watch the sun set over the mountains to the west. They luckily had a small lantern in Cleo's Survivor's Backpack and enough oil in it to keep it going for half the night if they didn't keep it turned up too bright. When the sun went down, it got pretty dark pretty fast.

They ate more smoked meat for dinner and Cleo spent a while trying to explain magic as she understood it.

Neither of the guys picked it up that night.

---

They took turns sleeping through the night. Getting lucky nothing came searching for the smell of meat coming from what they hadn't eaten before going to sleep. Matthias had been sure he'd heard something sniffing around at one point last night, but it was too dark to tell at the time. He also noted both Cleo and Josh seemed to be having bad dreams throughout the night. Other than that, he noticed nothing odd, which he let each know as they woke in the morning.

They ate more smoked meat for breakfast as they waited for sunrise to clear the twilight shadows and fog. Matt asked, "Do you guys smell that skunky smell?"

"That's not Skunk, that's Weed I think," Josh said, sniffing the air and standing up to look outside. His voice rose, "OH Wow, Cleo you did it!"

She scrambled out to the deck to look where he was, only to find a massive flowering pot plant outside their treehouse, nearly 12 feet tall it had grown overnight and was now covered in fat buds all over it. Her excitement was completely unhidden in her tone, "Oh SNAP, gimme more seeds."

Josh chuckled, "I will, but first use the other four I gave you and I'll harvest this one when we get down there and we'll see if it's any good when it finishes curing."

She looked like she wanted to argue, "Well, that makes sense I guess."

Matt injects, "We should probably do more exploring today too, see if we can find more natural food sources and then you can try growing those too. I'm with Josh though, I definitely want to keep trying to learn how magic works. I got that Mana Bolt skill now, but haven't tried it yet. Saving it for a hunt or combat from range I think."

Cleo smiles, "Okay, gimme a few minutes to go behind a tree, and then go plant these other seeds."

The guys grumbled agreement about relieving themselves as well. Everyone climbed down the treehouse's rope ladder and slipped out of view to use the bathroom.

Within fifteen minutes, the guys were watching Cleo work as Josh finished hanging the harvested pot plant from the treehouse. Cleo planted the four seeds she'd gotten from Josh the night before near the tree. She looked at them as she stood up from pushing the last seed into the dirt and covering it. "Are you guys going to give this a try? I'll try to walk you through it. It's actually two different spells to make this work."

"Wow, that complex?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, one to find the seed, on my character sheet it calls the first one seek plant. Then the second one is called Plant Growth. Which does what you'd think it does. Just not instantly like I thought. Makes sense why there's a Fast Plant Growth spell too. I'll figure it out." Cleo rattled off in response, saying that last part more to herself than her friends.

The two guys stepped over to the area she planted the seeds in. Cleo blinked, looked at where they were standing and pointed to a spot for a single seed and assigned one to each of the guys. "That's yours, and that one is yours. You will focus there for this first spell, seeking the pot seed laying in the ground waiting to grow."

"Okay, I'm seeking the seed, seeking the seed, seeeeking the seed," Josh said in an affected tone with his finger pointing at his temple using one hand and the other pointing at the ground in a theatric pose.

Matt glanced at him and chuckled, copying his motions, "Me too, what's next?"

Cleo shook her head. "I don't think either of you understands the words as I mean them. Whatever, okay next we look within ourselves to our mana core, and draw a line of mana out and into the seed, feeding it mana as we say the phrase 'Auksa Creskia' with mana-filled intent. Do that and it should just work, as long as you can see or feel that mana link to the seed and channel mana into the spell invocation."

"Who the hell are you Cleo? Like since when do you talk like this or know all this?" Josh asked incredulously as he stared at his friend like she were a body-snatcher.

She frowned, her cheek quivering a moment like she were going to cry before she tightened her control, "Whatever happened with Ari, Matt's spirit companion from the System, seems to have left me with a bunch of memories, incomplete memories mostly, but a lot of them from Ari's life before being enslaved to the System and not even death allowing him out of his contract with it. The System is not our friend, it's not here to help us because it loves us and wants us to be stronger. It's a war machine, churning out ever escalating conflict in every world and dimension it invades." Her look was far away as she finished speaking.

There was a long silence as the three friends just looked at each other.

Then Josh broke the silence, "I heard we can get superpowers and help everyone we love if we work hard. Sounds good enough. Better than clocking in at some day job."

"Here here!" Matt said to that as he wrapped an arm around Cleo and gave her a side hug before releasing her.

"Thanks guys, these dreams I'm having are sometimes really cool. But a lot of Ari's life is kind of a nightmare. Well, was a nightmare. Now my nightmare." Cleo trailed off at the end.

Josh said, "Snap out of it you morose motherfucker! Being this emo is my job, or maybe Matt's depending on the week. You are a bright ball of bubbles and rainbows, no matter how bad things get. Remember?" He tapped her forehead with his finger, a touch of mana instinctively passing to her as he did.

Cleo blinked, pulled her head back and scrunched her face up at him, "Hey! Cut that out! Just because I'm short doesn't mean you can poke my forehead. I'll mess you up for that!"

Josh laughed, "Bring it small fries."

She smacked him in the balls so fast he didn't have time to blink, "OOOF," came from his lips before a retching sound followed it as his breakfast spewed onto the ground about the same time he did.

"Holy Shit Cleo!" Matt said. She glared his way, "Say something else about it."

Josh choked out from the ground, between spitting chunks out of his mouth, "No.. No.. It's my fault, clearly." He struggled to his feet as he said, "I totally asked for that, can't get mad for not being able to carry the load I requested."

"Okay, as long as we all remember we're friends," Matt said, looking a little worriedly between the other two.

"We're fine as long as he doesn't make any more short jokes. I'm not in the mood for it right now. Lets do this magic lesson and get out of here." Cleo said, as she went back to the seeds, and started narrating her actions as she did them. Neither of them got it at first. Josh finally got it right, but that was long after Cleo had done the first two, Matt gave up and let Cleo do his as well. And then Josh got his spells cast correctly and they started exploring the edge of the forest and grassy plains again.

---

A while later Josh and Cleo were looking at a set of bushes with berries in tiny clusters while Matt scouted around the area nearby. Cleo was showing Josh another spell, "Agnosce Naturam," she said and stared at the berries she was touching for a moment before continuing, "It's not safe to eat these berries. But the seed inside each one is edible and medicinal, if you get constipated. Their local name is Noxum Berries. The poison isn't effective unless ingested, and needs a decent amount to kill you. Less and you just get a bleeding gut and pass out for a while, wake up with a killer hangover."

"Wow, Cleo that spell told you all that information?" Josh asked her.

"No, it told me the name and that the berries are poisonous and seeds are potentially medicinal, the rest was Ari's memories filling in details. Super weird if I think about it too much though." Cleo told him.

"So I just say the magic password, after connecting my mana core to the plant and feeding it some mana to cast it?" Josh looked at her trying to read her reaction to his understanding of magic spells and how they work.

She smiled, "Basically yeah, at least for that spell. Then just be open to what it shows you. How long do you think it will take that new weed that grew to dry?"

"It's normally a couple days at least, I hope it works okay just hanging from the treehouse instead of inside somewhere. That's how the pot farms do it, they have indoor curing areas with humidity and temperature control," explained Josh.

Matt approached around this moment, "Hey, I found a river that direction a little ways. You guys want to check it out?"

Cleo looked at Josh, then back at Matt and shrugged, "Sure, these Noxum berries aren't edible anyways."

With that, Matt turned around and started leading the way. The other two had noticed already that he was moving a little faster than a comfortable walking speed for either one of them. He heard them both whisper curses for his long legs as they trekked back towards the river he'd spotted.

---

Josh finished emptying his pants pockets onto the bank of the river and kicked his shoes off. He turned and followed his friends into the river, having decided he wanted to get his clothes wet, to help cool him off when they got out of the water. They laughed and played a while in the river that morning. At least until near noon, when the sun was over head and there was no shade near the river left. That's the point they all decided that was enough fun in the sun and exited the water. Josh turned to the others, "We should carry our stuff over to the other side and explore over there for an hour or two before making our way back to camp."

"Sounds good to me, Cleo?" Matt looked her way.

"As good as anything else, at least we haven't been that direction yet," She mused.

Josh grabbed his stuff from the ground, lifted it all above his head, and ran back into the river and through it, calling out over his shoulder, "And they call me old while you two slow-pokes are still standing around. Lets Fucking GO kids!" He laughed as they called back their disagreements.

And in a couple minutes they were exploring the other side of the river. Daring to go deeper into the woods and somewhat loosely following the river as they explore the area. Josh called out excitedly as he ran towards a tree with a bright green colored large oblong fruit on it, "I found something I think." He came to a stop and reached for one of the fruits as he cast his awareness inside himself to feel for his mana core as Cleo called it, drawing a string of mana out of it and towards the fruit in his hand as he said the spell's words, "Agnosce Naturam." He waited as he felt the mana string vibrate and pull mana into the fruit, then gasped as the sensation of the information just appearing in his mind like he were remembering what it was.

Matt and Cleo stopped beside him, with Cleo speaking up first, "Is it edible?"

Josh smiled, "Says it's called a 'Yum Pum' and it's edible. Watch out for the big seed in the center" and tossed the one in his hand to Cleo as Matt reached out to the tree and picked one for himself. Josh grabbed one too as Matt cut into his and took a bite of the fruit inside. Josh asked, "What's it taste like?"

Matt grinned widely, "Oh man, it's wild—you've got to try one. It’s like… if a banana and mango had a baby, but then that baby went and married a super juicy pear. The texture’s creamy, almost custard-like, but the flavor hits you in waves. First it's sweet and tropical—like pawpaw with hints of melon—but then there's this floral, crisp pear finish that cuts through it, super refreshing. Honestly, it’s like nature made its own smoothie."

Cleo laughed, "Tell us how you really feel about it Matt."

Her and Josh took a bite of their own fruits now, and the three fell silent for a few minutes. Before Donnie whined beside Matthias and Matt grabbed him a fruit too, "Sorry buddy, I forgot all about that hole in your gut that keeps you hungry at all times."

Donnie looked at him, 'Hey! I'm smaller than you and move just as fast.'

Matt thought, 'That's fair, have another Yum Pum buddy,' and then started picking the rest of the ripe fruits from the tree and stashing them in Cleo's backpack.

Josh joined him with gathering the fruits after a moment and mentioned, "The seeds are edible too, fairly packed with nutrients. But it might not be good to eat a lot of them. Not sure exactly what all of the feedback information the spell gives means. Might be fine, might need to be cooked for all I know. I do know we can eat them raw without getting poisoned and dying. I just get a sense there's more information than what I'm understanding from the spell."

Cleo remarked, "Probably means you need to level up the spell more."

"Either way, good find Josh! These will be a good break from all smoked turkey meat meals," Matt said while he worked on gathering all the ripe fruits he could reach.