Teresa felt like she did an alright job with the negotiations, if anything it seemed like they went heavily in her favor. Teleportation from The Mall to Blue Waters only required citizenship. Meanwhile, teleportation for a citizen of Blue Waters to The Mall required filling out an application to receive a permit, which could in turn be created by an official of The Mall granting teleportation rights for a period of time. At the moment there was no tax on teleportation, as almost nobody had the money to teleport anyways. It seemed a little too early to start taxing people for using public services considering it was the frigging apocalypse and all that.

Additionally, the restrictions in place were primarily for the safety of The Mall. Blue Waters, the settlement of the Scilians, was far more vulnerable than the human settlement. Teresa wouldn't be surprised if that also meant they were far more prone to spies, which had led her to asking Arbor to see his status screen.

His affiliation was to a planet called "Fin" which didn't really provide her with much information. How was she supposed to know if Fin was in the same universe as hers? Thankfully, the answer to this was relatively simple. She just asked a few more Scilians to show her their status screens, and all of them revealed Fin as their homeworld.

Teleportation between the settlements was surprisingly cheap. The System had shown a high order differential equation for calculating the cost of teleportation, but to go from Blue Waters to The Mall for Teresa was only $188. She wasn't going to waste money on that, but she was incredibly tempted just to try it out. Fortunately, living in the American economy had taught her some financial responsibility so she had the discipline not to do that. She couldn't think of the last time she spent money to go out for fun, when she had wanted to splurge a bit she just bought something tasty that wasn't available at Costco. That, or she just got some ice cream with her $1.50 hotdog.

Damn, she wanted ice cream. Cows better exist still or she was gonna be pissed.

"Well, I think that covers it." Teresa said, finishing up the teleportation agreement. Just like that, the first settlement had been added to the Portal Network. It probably wasn't going to be used anytime soon-

"Oh hey Teresa." William said as he appeared from thin air next to the monolith. What the fuck?

"How did you just do that?" Teresa asked, genuinely flabbergasted. "Like yeah, I get you teleported, but how did you afford that? You don't have any money!"

"Turns out you can sell monster parts at the monolith. Monster Cores, Mana Crystals, anything actually. They go for real cheap, it takes several parts to even add up to a dollar. I'm still level 0 since I've never seen combat, so teleporting me was also extremely cheap. Getting here costs me just under $2." William explained. "We saw it got added to the Portal Network so I teleported here to tell you about that as soon as possible. We sold all of the parts you gave us since we don't really have a use for them, I got all the money on me if you want it."

"Don't worry about it, keep it." Teresa replied. "I don't really have that much use for money right now anyways, and I'm sure I'll get plenty of loot while we're out. You guys need it more than I do."

"Great, we're actually able to buy some upgrades for The Mall then." William told her. "We can only really buy System Plots and land expansions right now, but we're saving up for a System Tool Shop. We should be able to buy hammers, nails, saws, you name it. Gotta buy the store first, which is kind of weird but we're figuring it out."

"That's actually awesome, I'm glad to hear it. Maybe there will be more than just tents and huts when I get back." Teresa said. "If money is that easy to make, maybe you guys should look into teleportation taxes. Maybe make waivers for certain circumstances, I don't know. Right now there aren't any, but you guys can probably do a better job at it than I can."

"Sounds good, in that case I'll leave you be." William said. "Before I go, one last thing. You can send messages to anyone through the Portal Network. They have to touch a monolith to see them, and the monolith has to be connected, but it's possible. Cheaper than teleportation, and I don't think there's a way to snoop on someone else's messages."

"There is an espionage option for me when I look at another monolith, so I'm not positive that's the case but thanks for the heads up. You mind showing me how to sell stuff real quick?"

"Oh it's really easy, just hold something against the monolith. It requires some intent, sort of like opening your status screen. It'll open up a screen for you, though we aren't sure about all of the details yet. You can't sell something that isn't yours, at least not right away. Give it some time and it'll let you, I'm honestly not entirely sure how it works." William replied.

Teresa took her guitar out of her <Inventory> and did as William instructed. She didn't plan on actually selling it, but she just wanted to see what screen would pop up.

Would You Like To Sell <Bard's Guitar Of Strength (F+): lv 0> For $580?

Yes

No

Teresa selected "No," after seeing the screen appear, unsure if $580 was a lot or not. They had confirmed the numbers were the exact same for everyone, so it's not like she could just compare it to USD. $580 was a decent chunk of change, enough to pay for a bill or two, but at the same time someone from Zimbabwe would also see 580 ZWL, which in their currency would be pretty much nothing. Using pre-System comparisons wouldn't work out all too well.

"Alright, I think I figured it out. Thank you." Teresa said.

"Glad to help." With that, William pressed his hand against the Blue Waters monolith and vanished, teleporting back to The Mall. She had spent about an hour talking things over with Arbor, and it was already kind of late in the afternoon. They would stop by the gorillas and likely get ready to make camp for the night.

She took a quick look around to spot where her party was. It wasn't hard to find a few humans in a crowd of aliens, so it wasn't long before she was heading straight towards them. They were all watching as Mathew loaded a crossbow while Sarah stood next to him. With some difficulty he managed to pull back the bowstring towards the latch, one end of the weapon by his feet while he tugged the string with both hands. He pulled it back over a latch, then grabbed an arrow.

"Careful with your fingers, we're not sure Teresa can heal those back." Sarah said as Mathew carefully loaded the weapon. A crossbow sure was a lot slower than a bow, but it's not like they had a wide variety of spare weapons.

"Are you sure you don't want to use a bow? I'm sure we could trade for one with the Scilians." Thomas offered.

"Don't worry, I won't be careless. I wanna use the crossbow, it's awesome." Mathew said as he loaded the weapon. Once it was ready, he took aim at a tree a short distance away.

"I'm not sure how well my experience carries over to crossbows, but don't fire when you're exhaling. Do it while you're inhaling, it's a trick my dad taught me." Sarah instructed. "You'll feel a little more secure that way. If you don't like it, we can try it another way."

"It's okay, I think you're right. I feel more steady when I'm breathing in." Mathew said. He lined up the weapon and after a few seconds, fired. The arrow shot through the air and sunk into the thick tree near the edge. "I hit it!"

"Good job, that's actually pretty impressive. Shooting is a lot harder than it looks." Sarah told him, smiling.

"I don't mean to interrupt but I'm ready to head out if you guys are." Teresa said as Mathew went to grab his arrow.

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"We're all good to go." Sarah replied, glancing over at Preston and Jake. Preston was standing still with his sword in his hand. It had a white edge to it, and Teresa could sense Mana flowing through his legs. Meanwhile Jake had <Golden Anchor> activated on a plant while he moved around within the confines of the skill, constantly repositioning his shield.

"Yeah, I'm good too." Preston said, canceling <Dash> and <Air Slash>. Jake canceled his skill as well, restoring his stats back to normal.

"Just trying to get used to the stat reduction, but I should be good. I didn't use too much Stamina." Jake said, blinking a few times as he got used to normal vision.

"Great, I'll put the crossbow in my <Inventory> and we'll get going." Teresa said as she walked over to Thomas. Mathew gave her the weapon and she stored it away, then picked up the teenager's dad like a backpack. Once everyone was ready, they took off southeast towards the territory of the Albino Gorillas.

"How long until we get there?" Mathew asked already.

"Probably an hour and a half, maybe less actually." Preston replied. He smirked over at Jake. "It would help if we didn't have some slowpokes in our party."

"If you don't like it, why don't you carry me too then?" Jake asked with a laugh.

"I mean, I probably could. You'll have to put that shield in Teresa's <Inventory> though." Sarah interjected. "I have 29 Strength, I probably could."

"That's like, three times as strong as a very athletic person. You probably could, wanna just do that?" Jake asked.

"Sure, why not." The party paused for a moment, and soon the group consisted of three people giving piggyback rides through the woods. Teresa smiled, thinking it was ridiculous that this party was likely the strongest in the entire region.

They carried on through the woods, and they reached the Albino Gorilla's territory in only half an hour. They saw a few monsters along the way, but they were all incredibly low level and ran away as soon as they spotted the party. They would make some good experience for those who needed to get started on their leveling. If not for Thomas' reluctance to fight, they probably would have had the two low levels in their party take on a monster.

Branches rustled overhead as several gorillas made themselves known. The party came to a halt, and soon a gorilla came down to meet them. Teresa racked her brain to try and remember the gorilla's name, but she wasn't sure it was even the same gorilla. She didn't have great gorilla facial recognition, but honestly it was at least easier than differentiating Scilians.

What are you doing in our territory Teresa? The gorilla asked, signing with its hands.

"We're mostly passing through, but I did want to talk to you about something Gary." Teresa said, finding the gorilla's name in her memories.

There have been no incidents between your people and our own, what is there to talk about?

"You have been moving closer and closer to our settlement, and we have reports that some gorillas seemed incredibly sick. I want to know what's going on here, we can't have you spreading a pandemic to the humans." Teresa replied. Gary paused for a moment, turned his back and began conversing with some of the other gorillas just out of her line of sight. <Translate> still required her to see their hands when they signed, and her Perception didn't exactly let her see through the gorilla.

After some discussion with the other gorillas, Gary turned around and began speaking to Teresa once more.

We do not know what is going on. Those who venture in the opposite direction of your settlement come back violently ill. Initially, we decided to avoid that general area. Something about the land was affecting us, so we believed as long as we stayed away we would be fine. That was until more of us began to get sick. The disease does not seem to spread from gorilla to gorilla, but purely by staying within the dangerous land. Whatever is causing the land to become harmful has been spreading, and if we do not keep running from it we will all succumb. Gary explained. Teresa frowned, trying to piece together what that might be.

They were gorillas, so they probably didn't have germ theory. It would make sense that they would blame their illness on the land if they didn't have centuries of medical science developed. Gary did claim it didn't spread from gorilla to gorilla, but that might just be due to an incubation period of the virus. Still, she shouldn't jump to conclusions already.

"Tell you what, I have a healing skill called <Purify>. Let me see one of your sick, maybe I can figure something out." Teresa offered. Gary stayed still for a few moments, seemingly thinking about the situation. Eventually, he nodded and made some gestures to the other gorillas. Teresa turned to her party. "You guys stay back a bit, I don't want you all getting sick too if it's contagious. I haven't tried curing an illness with <Purify> yet."

They each took a few steps back, putting space between themselves and Teresa. Soon a gorilla was brought to her, and it didn't look like it was in great condition. Patches of fur were falling out, and there were disgusting black patches of flesh along with red sores along its skin. Shit, was it a magical virus? She was already unsure about curing diseases, she couldn't even cure diabetes. This better not be on that level.

Teresa activated <Facilitated Restoration> and cast it on the gorilla, only to find it had minimal effect. Some injuries healed up, but the sores and black spots were still there. It looked like she was definitely going to need to use <Purify> after all. It was a shame that it was a touch based skill, since she wasn't confident she wanted to get close.

Her Fortitude could handle it, couldn't it? Just in case, she refreshed <Facilitated Restoration> and <Magic Wellspring> on herself to give herself the best odds of success. Teresa activated <Purify> in both hands, then gently placed them against the sick creature. Restoration Mana flowed through the gorilla, assisted by the buffs cast by Teresa. Previously when she used <Purify>, it had always been on poison or venom. It would track down the toxins and cancel them out, replacing it with a harmless goop that the body was able to break apart on its own.

Rather than seeking poison, her <Purify> began to target the sores and black spots along the gorilla's body, along with multiple areas within the gorilla. At first, the Mana didn't seem to know what to do. Scratch that, it was more like Teresa didn't know what the Mana should do. The Restoration Mana was targeting the cells within the gorilla's body, and her intuition screamed that the issue was within the cells of the gorilla's body rather than some virus or bacteria.

Teresa tried to think of what it could be. Did its cells have some sort of damage to them? What could cause that, and what specifically was damaged? The Restoration Mana from <Facilitated Restoration> wasn't doing the trick, but neither was the Restoration Mana from <Purify>. Was it because she just didn't understand it well enough, or was it because her skills were too weak?

The first thing that came to mind would be if there was something wrong with the gorilla's DNA. If some mutation had occurred, would her magic recognize that as damage or just a poor evolutionary trait? She tried to imagine repairing the DNA within the gorilla's cells. She didn't remember exactly what it was made of, but she remembered the four bases of DNA started with A, T, C, and G. A matched with T, and C matched with G in the double helix.

Some of the Restoration Mana from <Facilitated Restoration> began to put in work on something, but it wasn't enough. She was pretty sure she just repaired a few missing segments within its DNA in various locations throughout its body, but it wasn't enough. It was like parts of the gorilla's DNA had been extended, adding in an extra base pair in various locations. Other parts of its body also consumed way more Restoration Mana than others. It was like healing someone with a high Fortitude or Vitality.

Teresa's understanding of the two stats were that they could increase the amount of cells in a set volume of flesh without causing side effects. It would either make them healthier or more durable, but the specifics were still unknown to her. Why would some parts of the gorilla have a higher cell density than other parts? Wasn't that how cancer worked?

From her biology classes, she remembered tumors were formed when cells stopped performing apoptosis, where the cell would eventually kill itself after some time. She didn't remember the specifics, just the general gist of it all. Cells would continue to reproduce unregulated, creating a dense clump of cells called a tumor. The gorillas weren't sick in the traditional sense, something was giving them tumors.

Teresa didn't know anyone with cancer personally, but she was pretty sure the treatments typically involved trying to kill off all the cancer cells. Chemotherapy typically killed off a bunch of cells, cancerous and healthy alike. If the patient was lucky, it would kill the cancer before it killed the patient. If Teresa wanted to save this gorilla, she needed to figure out how to do that.

She had wondered about things exactly like this while she had been in the Tutorial. Now, it was time to find out if she could actually do it.

Teresa couldn't even cure diabetes. Now, she needed to cure cancer.

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