Lance stood over the bat corpses. As he activated his ability various parts of the beast began to hue different colors. Most of the main torso tinted red whilst some things like the eyes and wings shaded blue. Its nails and wings even tinged faint purple. Lance had no way to understand what he saw but he knew which parts were likely to be edible. " The red seems to be the meaty or fat bits." He began to cut into the beast and remove strips of meat.

  After a quick hack job he ended up with a decent chuck of meat approximately totaling to around 8 pounds per bat, much of what was left were other bits and organs. He had seen a few different organs with a red hue like the liver kidneys and heart but decided against gathering those due to his inexperience in cooking them. He did however find a nice surprise inside the bats. Near their heart lay a small gem the size of a fingernail. It had a wonderful shimmer to it even in the faint torchlight. After wiping off his hands on the bats fur, to little result, he walked back to the group.

  " So I got a bunch of meat off those guys. I avoided the yucky stuff like eyes and guts. But with this and a little bit of time I'm sure I can whip us up some stuff. Can we get a fire going?"

  Dorian, Jack, and Sadura all looked at him in disgust. He looked very comfortable cleaning the bats, like a butcher who played in the flesh of his shop. Suffice to say they all at least respected that he went into his role as a chef without any qualms or nausea. Jack responded to him first.

  " We only have the torches right now and unfortunately I don't think we can spare them, unless you want to go blindly in the darkness. I think if we can get to the checkpoint, maybe along the way we can find something, we should just take what we can and be ready to cook it soon."

  " What do you want me to do? Walk with this pan of meat? You have a second torch that's not even lit yet. Let's just use that I can try to cook some thin strips over the torch fire. Sadura can you spare a couple arrows?"

  Sadura by this time had removed all of the guts off of herself to her best ability. She responded rather shallowly. " I only had 10 arrows. I was only able to retrieve a few of them. I'm down to 7. If we do this I won't be of much help in the future."

  This time Dorian spoke out and surprisingly in support of Lance. " You won't have a future if you don't get healed up, besides aren't you curious?"

  Sadura sighed with contempt. " I guess you're right. And I am."

  Lance was missing something here in the conversation so he asked. " Curious about what?"

  Dorian smiled and shook his head. " Wow I didn't expect to have to tell you of all people. Remember those wild fruits? The flavors were out of the world different from what we can eat outside. I mean who's to say bat tastes like bat? Normally I'd be totally against it.. But well why not?"

  Lance's mind was blown. " Damnit I totally didn't think about that. You're probably right! I will say though I don't have any seasoning or anything it's just going to be plain. Unfortunately."

  Sadura gave up two arrows. Lance cut the strips of bat into thinner pieces in his pan. After he skewered them onto the arrows Jack lit the other torch with the current lit one and they combined the flames for Lance to cook with. Lance stood there slowly turning the meat like hotdogs on a stick by a campfire for a few minutes.

  "Cook" activated his cooking ability, causing the meat to shimmer in his eyes alone with a quick grey flash. The smell that came off of the bat meat was rather familiar. It smelled like venison. A game filled odor of the wild had been nurtured within the strands of meat and they overflowed with popping grease like that of a duck. After removing them from the fire and allowing it to cool down for just a moment the team passed around the arrows. To their surprise, even plain the meat was rather tasty even in the novice level of cooking. Cooking plain meat was something they all could accomplish but it was the first time they could really begin to see the benefit of Lance's chef class.

  " Wow even though it's just a bat, it really wasn't that bad at all, and I gained 4 points of health. Thanks Lance." Sadura gave him a light punch in the shoulder.

  Dorian nodded his head in agreement as he continued to eat off an arrow. Out of everyone he seemed to enjoy it the most. At that moment Reilly even woke up. She looked around at everyone.

  " Holy cow, that smells good! Also I'm sorry Dorian!" Reilly jumped into him with a big hug. " I couldn't do anything to those darn bats. Thanks so much for protecting me. I couldn't get my skills to work."

  Jack responded sharply. " You have to activate skills by calling them out. Be careful I'm sure you have a mana bar, don't waste them. Also what skills do you have? Any healing spells?"

  " Oh yeah I have one! It's called Bliss, it says if I use one point of mana I can heal everyone 2 health as long as they are close to me. And I also have Spark and Bounce. One is a shock of electricity and the other is if I fall I can bounce instead of landing improperly. I only have 10 mana though. And Bounce and Spark cost 2 each."

  Jack smiled. " Awesome, I think we could all use a Bliss. Those all sound very useful though what kind of class is that?"

  " I'm a Novice Mage.. What about you guys?"

  " I'm a Squire." Jack responded

  " Sentry" Dorian said.

  " Archer "

  Everyone seemed to be a little more open and chatted for a little while about where they lived IRL. To everyone's surprise they were all relatively in the same age group the oldest was Dorian who was only 23. Sadura was the youngest at 18, but you had to be at least 18 to play Wish Legacy anyway. As they talked Lance kept cooking the bat meat. He decided that since everyone was a bit more friendly he would show them what he found.

  " Hey so do you guys know what these are? " He said as he brought out the two little gems from the bats.

  Jack of course seemingly was the only one to make a guess. Reading the manual would have really helped." Oh yeah those should be experience gems! Where did you find them? I thought the bats dropped them but I couldn't find any on the ground."

  Lance told them bluntly. " Well it was next to their hearts. So do you know what to do with them?"

  Jack shook his head no in response. " To be honest the manual only said you can gain experience gems by killing monsters, beasts, or random activities, it didn't say anything about how or what to do with them. How do we even divide them ? We only have two and there are five of us."

  Dorian piped up. " Well if we are to be fair about it perhaps we just divvy one per person around in a loop. The role you play shouldn't matter because unlike you two who have obvious means of killing, and Reilly who uses magic, the opportunity we get to kill is based on our teamwork. " Dorian spoke rather sound logic causing all of them to agree. Lance went and dug through the other bat but couldn't find the other gem; it was the one that had been cleaved in half.

  " Well we have two. I'll give Jack and Sadura one first and we'll get the next ones." Lance gave them theirs first since they inflicted the killing blows. He'd rather not come to that as an overall decision but decided it was for the best considering Dorian and Reilly hadn't done anything but defend. He would have kept one for himself but he knew he would get more opportunities. Everyone agreed.

  Before they went back to exploration, Reilly used her first spell. As she cast bliss a bright light coalesced at the tip of her staff and shot out above everyone's heads then burst like a firework, the remnants that fell onto everyone healed them. Even at a low level her spell was dazzling.

  .....

  After another couple hours of traversing the cave they came to a small pond. It carried a faint shimmer in the torch light and tiny luminous fish swam in its gentle ripples. A crack in the far wall across the pond was what fed the pond through a steady stream of water. Above the crack was a hole in the ceiling that let out a faint glow as if there was light many meters out. The pond was surrounded by stalagmites like a natural barrier but without stalactites on its roof. Dorian nearly stepped into the pond before Jack stopped him.

  " Hold on, something isn't right. A pond before the exit? We've been going awhile and haven't encountered anything but a couple more bats. If we think about it by time alone, shouldn't we be near a checkpoint?"

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  Dorian shrugged his shoulders. " Yea, don't you think that's it? Finally we can get out of this pitch black."

  " No, that's not what I'm saying. That's it ahead yeah. But all we've done is kill some bats, the difficulty has increased because of our game mode and we even have a fifth person. Don't you think there should be something before the checkpoint, maybe a little more challenging?"

  " Dude come on it's level one you think they would throw the book at us? Let's just get over there and get a moment of relief." Dorian spoke as he stepped into the water walking backwards as it got to his waist.

  No one moved as he brazenly walked across the pond. Lance knelt down and inspected the fish. "Discern Ingredients"

  The fish in their luster turned purple in his eyes. And as he looked out into the pond he began to see more of them even more clearly. It was full of tiny minnow fish. Dorian seemed to be making a clear path separating them. In their darting madness they began to cluster. It was at that moment that Lance realized something.

  "Dorian get out of the water now !!"

  As the parting minnow began to group their forms shifted and in their liquidity they began to ball. Large luminous beach ball sized clusters began to form in the water. After dispersing as minnow they clustered and transformed into large balls, their hue tinted blue. Quickly Dorian began to swim through, he had almost made it to the other side so he quickly got out and onto the shore. Everyone backed up from the waters edge as they began to see small waves begin to come to their position. Lance pulled up his pan and knife and Jack held up his sword in front of the ladies. Dorian on the other side alone left them defenseless. He stood across the water as the slimes stopped chasing him and began to rush the other direction. This was the first time Dorian used a skill.

  " Adversary!" As Dorian yelled his ability out he began to glow crimson, and the slime that had turned away from him came rushing back. The water's edges began to splash in the rapid movements of all the slimes.

  Slimes began to bounce out of the water towards Jack and Lance. Jack stepped forward and slashed at a slime only for his blade to split the slime in two which were then absorbed by another couple slimes in the rear as they bounced forward. " Shit my sword does nothing!"

  Sadura then released an arrow at another one. It pierced it through to its rear sticking in the dirt behind it. It simply bounced forward off the arrow. " Damnit me either!" Quickly everyone turned to Reilly in the back. She stood there timidly gripping her staff.

  Everyone stared down Reilly, she had been at the back and neither Jack or Sadura's attack worked. The quickest thought that came to them was " We need magic." Though none of them voiced it. They simply gave a glance at Reilly and looked at her timid posture, she reeked of fear.

  Lance had yet to encounter the slime, however he could see across the water the battle Dorian faced was grave. As the slimes bounced towards him one finally pounced. With a slam of his shield he sent the slime flying back into the water. Lance smiled and an idea went off in his head. The few slimes that had pressed them backwards kept on coming. Lance put away his knife, dumped the meat in his pan and held his pan with both hands in a firm grip. He looked at Jack " Get her to use spark once they get back in the water. "

  Lance charged forward. With a few steps in front of the slimes he widened his stance and raised his elbows. " Batter up!" PUNG! He sent a slime clear into the middle of the pond. The others kept bouncing forward. Their dimly glowing clear form gave hardly any clear idea of where their senses came from. Nevertheless they bounced right towards Lance. With a few swings he sent them back into the lake. Dorian on the other side adopted the same strategy seeing how easy Lance made it look. They began to notice the slimes that re-entered the pond hadn't come back; only those by the shores continued their assault. " Discern Ingredients"

  Lance's ability helped him notice that the slimes in the water were amalgamating upon themselves. In the center of the pond a form began to rise. A huge slime was being formed. Lance held off those on the shore he looked back to Reilly and yelled to her " Reilly Spark NOW!"

  Reilly stepped forward behind him. She looked toward the large slime that became a mound of gel in the center of the pond. It may have gotten big but it became extremely slow. She took a deep breath,

  " Spark!" Her staff drew upon the earth from the bottom to the top of her staff an arc of electricity shot into its tip. It stopped there and Reilly simply waved her staff towards the slime. A concentrated beam of white and yellow light shot out at the pond, random arcing offshoots swiped out and coiled around the beam. Once the beam touched the water the entire pond sizzled and steamed.

  Reilly was sent flying backwards onto her buttocks, she hadn't prepared for the recoil. Jack and Sadura's mouths were left wide open. Reilly stood up and looked on to the slime that seemed to be slowly sinking into the water. She jumped for joy, Jack and Sadura ran over and joined in and began to ring around the rosey with their hops. Dorian across the pond finally stopped holding his guard, he dropped to a knee in the puddle of sweat he made.

  " Damn these shields are heavy." He wiped the sweat from his brow. " How are you guys!" he yelled from across the lake.

  The three dancing teammates all stopped and ran towards the edge of the water. Running past Lance who had been standing there ever since Reilly used her magic. Jack stopped and look back at him. His hair was on end and he seemed to shiver his eyes locked on the water. Reilly inadvertently hit him with her attack. When the beam was sent out she was blown backwards and as the trajectory changed to her left Lance reflexively put his pan in front of his chest to protect himself, a majority of the attack ricocheted into the pond but his entire body jolted at the current running through him. If he had not had a firm plant on the sand that was on the pond's shore he would have taken more damage.

  Jack stood in front of Lance with a wide mouth inhaling through his teeth. " hssss Shit! You good man?" Sadura and Reilly turned around to notice the situation. Reilly immediately became flushed with rosy cheeks. She then quickly used her Bless spell to make amends, even though Lance wasn’t seriously hurt. Sadura just put her hands on her hips and muttered under her breath.

  Lance had been awake the whole time but his muscles and joints ached, he heard his party members but his eyes stayed locked into the water. Slowly his mouth began to grin. In the water as the slime melted he noticed that a golden hue began to form in the water and then sink. It seemed to be in the shape of a cube. Lance stuttered through the shock. " Cc cccc cccccc..... Q.. Cube" He raised a finger and pointed to the water. Jack and Sadura became alert and turned around brandishing their weapons. Lance jerkily began to walk, eventually into the water and then down into it. Everyone grew puzzled expressions. Lance dove down near its center. He couldn't see well but the cube shimmered in the depths of the pond. He popped back up out of the water holding a small box. He then walked to the other shore where Dorian sat holding himself up by a shield.

  " Guys come take a look at this!" Dorian yelled he seemed to notice Lance's current affliction as he tried to stutter something to him. Lance held a small chest in his hands and sat down next to Dorian. Everyone else made their way across the water.

  Lance held the box in his hands and began to pry it open in front of everyone. Everyone huddled in front to see its insides. It was full to the brim. On the underside of the lid was a parchment, inside the box was a handful of experience gems. There were also 5 grey colored Gacha capsules. The inside of the box also had a string attached to its sides turning the parcel sized box into a sling. Everyone became giddy in excitement! After handing out the gems to everyone, now each of them having three, Jack opened the parchment.

  " It's a map! It's a map of this cave! It shows the entire floor! We have to go up and there's a checkpoint, there's two more before where it shows a level 2 door!"

  Everyone was super excited. Jack's eyes then blinked quickly and he rubbed them. As he held the torch something began to take form on the page. He then stood up and walked over to the crack in the wall where the stream of water flowed into the pond. He reached his hand into the mouth of the crack and pulled something out. Before he turned around he looked at it.

  " Holy shit.. "

  Everyone stood up. Jack walked back to them with another item in his hands. He held in front of his another Gacha capsule that was blue. Everyone then waited for him to open it. As Jack opened the capsule a flash of light popped up out of the capsule with the number 32! The capsule then turned to smoke in his hands until it disappeared and he held a pair of gloves.

  " Whoa awesome haha." He then put them on. Everyone else looked at their capsules and then did the same, Jack also opened his other grey one. After a few seconds everyone held a surprised look. Dorian's capsule spat out a mask, it looked like a plain white phantom of the opera half mask. Sadura received a backpack. Reilly opened a necklace. Jack got a pair of boots. Lance opened a hand axe.

  Novice Axe - Shame tier

  + 4 Attack

  Has a fifty percent chance to duplicate a section of chopped wood. Applicable to one piece of wood per day.

  Everyone shared the details of their items. Dorian's mask gave him dark vision in one eye. Sadura just got a regular backpack. Reilly's necklace gave her an additional 2 points of mana! Jack gained 2 points of defense from his boots and the gloves allowed him to never lose grip of his weapon. Lance was a bit saddened by his reward in comparison, but due to him never using the knife as a weapon he seemed to be fine with the trade off. The group also told him to keep the sling-like wooden box so he can gather ingredients.

  That became immediately effective because whilst he had his ability activated he noticed quite a few different shades popping up around. While his D.I ability was on again he began to search one more time before they headed up. He began to grow more accustomed to keeping this activated, he could toggle it off as he wished but the shades of color that could be seen gave him sometimes a hard time defining depth.

  Lance saw most things in some shade of colored hue beside regular rock or dirt. Even inorganic material gave off shades of color, he began to notice that only the specific density of the shade gave forth a sense of type. As he came across a bit of moss he noticed some were a pale green whilst a more grown thicker patch of the same moss was much deeper a dark green. He had also found some small mushrooms next to a few larger ones which had a likewise darkening of color, yet again green. The hue they gave off was most visible at the edges of the things that shined like a sort of Aura and only really tinted a shade over its entirety. Lance harvested a few mushrooms and a small handful of the moss and then threw them in his box. Unfortunately he had to toss the meat in his pan when he faced off against the slimes, currently the party didn't really have anything to eat. It was fine outside of the fact that he was low on Health at 5 points from his earlier shocking, his gambit paid off the water increased the damage output, but the splash from the bouncing slimes and being on wet sand didn’t help him much, his boots obviously didn't ground him out on the damp shore. No one else required any real healing. Lance himself wasn't all that hungry so he decided to test something.