"I don't see anything." Thomas said as Teresa kept her hand on his shoulder. She had <Monster Hunt> activated, and was trying something different out. During the tournament, Mijo had used <Familial Duty> while making physical contact with Teresa, accidentally showing her that her father was still alive. Teresa was trying to do the same thing with her skill on Thomas, but it wasn't exactly easy.

"Maybe I have to pull a thread, let's see if that does anything." Teresa told him.

"Is that safe? I thought <Monster Hunt> could attract danger." Thomas asked.

"I'll pick a weak monster, don't worry. If it does notice us, I'll just kill it when it gets here." Teresa reassured him. It was just her, Thomas, and Mathew sitting back today while the rest of the party was taking out a Portal during their allotted timeslot. Teresa wasn't the only one who had to get stronger, but she was happy to see she still got a bunch of kill notifications thanks to <Facilitated Restoration>. The monsters her party were fighting were too low level to give her much experience. The Portal was level 29, making it perfect for her friends to take on.

Teresa chose a low density thread and tugged on it, hoping to somehow share that information with Thomas. The monster was roughly 10 miles away, but that was all Teresa could gather.

"You get anything from that?" Teresa asked.

"I didn't realize you did anything." Thomas answered. Shit, well it was worth a shot. A number changed on a screen Teresa was keeping open, and she saw that another Radioactive Portal had been destroyed.

Radioactive Portals defeated (city): 7 [281 points]

Radioactive Portals defeated (individual): 6 [257 points]

Teresa got the individual points despite not actually fighting, likely thanks to her buffing magic. She had even used <Magic Wellspring> on all of them. When the rest of her party had been grinding to get their new classes she had been reluctant to help unless absolutely necessary. That was because there was reason to believe your individual performance could impact what classes you got, and if she carried them to level 15 they likely would have gotten pretty shitty classes.

Thankfully they were past that hurdle now, so it probably didn't matter that much anymore. Teresa was now level 47, two days had passed since taking out the Paralytic Fungi. They had encountered a few Portals since then, but oftentimes they had to avoid them. There were situations where the Portals were simply too high level, and then there were cases where they found a Portal but had already used up their 3 hours per day on training.

The city had only taken one Radioactive Portal out apart from Teresa's party, but to be fair The Mall had been an entire day's journey away from the Contaminated Zone. At least, that had been the case when Teresa left. Hopefully destroying Radioactive Portals over a thousand miles away would still be beneficial, but honestly Teresa doubted it had much benefit outside of the quest screen. Maybe keeping the Contaminated Zone contained on multiple sides would prove useful somehow. Whatever, Teresa was getting loot and she was happy.

So far the Portals had all been very heavily biased towards awarding consumables. She had found another item upgrade which she used on her Mana recharging staff, a small bottle of 30 vitamins that could supply a full day's worth of nutrition per gummy, and then yet another item upgrade token that was ultimately used on Sarah's bow. Improving items was cool and all, but Teresa wouldn't mind just getting better items. Another staff would be great, maybe even equipment she could wear with some fancy ability.

"We're back!" Sarah called out from far away, only really alerting Teresa.

"What'd you guys find?" Teresa asked, confusing Thomas and Mathew.

"Who are you talking to?" Thomas asked, but Mathew seemed to have figured it out on his own based on his facial expressions.

"This thingy." Sarah replied, bursting out from deep in the woods. She tossed a metal ball to Teresa, who immediately used <Appraise> on the item.

<Monster Lure (F+): lv 29 (MAX)>

Materials: Metal, ???

Status: Ready (100% Remaining)

Enchantments: Upon remote activation, releases a Mana pulse that attracts monsters in a 4.935 mile radius.

"It lures monsters when activated." Teresa said, sharing her screen with the rest of her party that had arrived.

"Huh, it's like a fancy <Taunt>." Jake guessed. "Why 4.935 miles? That's kind of a specific number."

"Any number is specific if you think about it." Mathew spoke up. "Why would the System use human measurements exactly?"

"It's done it before plenty of times, but I dunno." Teresa replied, thinking about it. "The tournament was exactly one week after the end of the Tutorial, that's a human measurement. Maybe my <Appraise> is giving more details about items now that it's slowly leveling up while previously it might have rounded to the nearest whole number."

"Still wouldn't explain the time thing, if the Scilians are from another planet I doubt their days were 24 hours long yet here we are." Jake said. "Some things are heavily based on human scales, other things aren't. Seems kind of arbitrary to me."

"Either way I think that thing could be great for getting experience." Preston added. "Not now but maybe after we find Gabriel we can use it as a party and get shitloads of experience."

"I don't really think there are that many monsters within 5 miles. We don't run into them too often while traveling." Teresa said.

"Yeah but low level monsters seem to avoid you like the plague so I'm sure that's a big part of it." Preston told her.

"Really? I didn't really think it was that big of a deal. Don't low level monsters always run from high level people?"

"Sometimes, it's really inconsistent. I think it depends on if the monster has a way to know you're stronger than it, but when traveling with you the really weak ones are never a problem. When's the last time you saw a level 5?" Preston asked.

"I don't know."

"Exactly, we ran into a level 5 squirrel creature that tried to attack Jake on the way back. It got smashed to pieces almost instantly considering he's wearing a suit of metal armor traveling over 30 miles an hour, but it's the thought that counts."

"We all have <Slayer 1> now." Jake said, changing the subject. "It's nice getting a point in everything, I see why you like your class Teresa."

"Did you get the title from the squirrel?" Teresa teased.

"No, I got it from the Portal."

"He definitely got the title from the squirrel." Preston confirmed.

"It's true, I was there." Sarah agreed.

"I did not get the title from the squirrel, don't tell her that or she'll believe you." Jake said.

"It's alright man, at least the squirrel gave you stats." Teresa continued. "I didn't know there was a <Roadkill> title."

"You know what, I think it's time we got going, we've got a long ways to travel still." Jake said, getting ready to move.

"Make sure you don't run any squirrels over this time." Preston joked.

"It's not my fault the squirrel tried to bite my foot while running."

"Maybe if your mental stats were leveled higher you could have reacted in time."

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"Keep it up and next time I'm taking the item upgrade token for myself."

"Why? So you could use it on your armor and hit more squirrels?"

"I hate you sometimes."

"Love you too!" With that, the party got on the move again. They had only spent two hours today hunting monsters, leaving one hour in their schedule for more training. Either they would find a Portal that Teresa could speedrun or they would likely just reallocate that time to travelling. They also didn't need to spend too much time for meals since the vitamin gummies took care of that, so it wouldn't really be that big of a deal if they spent a little longer hunting monsters.

Hours passed as they ran, covering more and more ground. The Contaminated Zone definitely made the journey longer, needing to stay along the edge of what was effectively a large circle. Travelling was mindnumbingly dull, and Teresa noted that the rest of her party was right. Attacks from weak monsters really were rare. It would be disappointing if not for the fact low level monsters wouldn't have much to provide in terms of experience.

The party conversed a bit while on the move, but they didn't really discuss anything too important. Sarah was talking about how she once got to round 72 on Kino der Toten before she got bored and let herself die, while Preston talked about how he and Jake used to be pretty good at getting the bows on Der Eisendrache. Teresa was not nearly as familiar with the subject as everyone else, and instead she was wondering why <Translate> wasn't kicking in for some of those words.

She periodically used <Facilitated Restoration> on everyone present, but she didn't really need to. Teresa just didn't like the idea of letting the spell run below three quarters of its expected lifespan while she was awake. It lasted for about 10 hours now when used with extended duration in mind, though it heavily reduced efficacy. It was good enough though, Teresa was happy with it.

Something caught Teresa's attention as the floor suddenly changed. It became harder, and she could clearly see the end of the forest up ahead. The party slowed down, approaching the new terrain with caution. The ground had changed from moss covered dirt to a hard clay-like substance. It was a dull orange color, and the ground seemed incredibly porous with tiny holes littering the surface.

Past the edge of the forest was open land, with hills and crevices all made of similar rocky material. The environment had suddenly increased in temperature, making Teresa a little worried for Mathew and Thomas. It wasn't too bad, but for long term exposure it would definitely suck to a normal human. <Facilitated Restoration> would take care of sunburn and any issues that came from heat. The night is what worried Teresa, they would have to keep a fire going to ensure nobody froze. Thomas and Mathew wouldn't die from the varying temperatures, but it would still suck. That is, if it actually got cold at night here. The environment felt similar to a desert, and Teresa knew damn well that deserts got cold at night.

"It's probably going to be uncomfortable for you guys since I can't really do anything about the weather aside from keeping you healed, but things should be fine." Teresa told her two low level companions.

"We can deal with it, don't worry." Mathew said, looking around at the new sights. "Honestly I'm just glad for a change of scenery. There's only so much forest I can look at before I get sick of it."

"We can probably travel a lot faster here too, we don't have to be so careful with our footing anymore." Preston acknowledged as he took in a deep breath.

"We'll be out in the open though, we should be careful." Jake said. "We can see monsters coming, but they can see us too."

"Yeah, a monster with a high enough Perception could probably spot us from pretty far away." Sarah agreed.

"Huh, you know in the Tutorial there was some sort of magic preventing me and the other monsters from seeing too far, I'm curious if the same thing will apply here." Teresa wondered.

"I almost forgot that you had a render distance in the Tutorial, maybe you should have just gone into settings and changed that." Preston said.

"Next time we get thrown into a Tutorial you can do it, how about that?"

"Sure thing, you can count on me next time."

"I think we should get a good vantage point." Sarah said, pointing to a hill nearby. "If we get the high ground we can probably get a better idea of what our game plan should be."

The party stepped out of the forest and made their way into the arid landscape, running towards the hill Sarah had chosen. Traveling would definitely be much faster, it was so much easier to run in such an open environment where the ground was much more flat. There were no roots, random clumps of dirt, or batches of sketchy plants to avoid. Overall Teresa thought this was a step in the right direction.

After a few minutes they reached the top of the hill and looked out at their surroundings. The terrain was pretty similar all around, with tall hills and sudden crevices for miles. There were a lot of caves and paths that led underground, making Teresa think Simon would love this place.

"I kind of want to explore one of those caves, but I feel like that's just asking to be killed." Preston said, curiously looking at one of the many massive cave entrances.

"Yeah, I don't think we would do well underground. It's dark and probably full of monsters with skills meant to assist them in caves." Jake agreed.

"Hang on, I see broken Portals." Sarah said, pointing at something in the distance. Teresa followed her finger and saw what she was referencing. There was a cluster of what looked like Mana Crystals around a large pool of blood. Now that Teresa was looking for it, there were a few broken Portals and their remains scattered about. The area was still radioactive and due to how open everything was Teresa could spot a few Portals that were still functional across several miles, but there was definitely something taking out Portals here.

"You guys think there might be another settlement nearby taking out Portals? I see a bunch of them destroyed, maybe more humans or even aliens." Teresa wondered.

"If there is a settlement they can't be doing all too great." Jake said. "They might be taking out Portals, but this place is still radioactive. Living in these conditions without a great healer would eventually result in death, wouldn't it?"

"What makes you think they wouldn't have a good healer?" Teresa asked. Jake snorted.

"I doubt it. Honestly they might, we haven't found any doctors yet. Still, to be a good healer you have to actually be willing to fight monsters. I don't think there's much overlap between combat enthusiasts and healers, you're the exception." Jake explained. "Even if they did have a Teresa, you know what? Scratch that. Let's say a settlement had two Teresas, they would be responsible for healing everybody. I know you got pretty damn fast at healing radiation, but it still takes you a while. I don't know much about radiation, but even this much would probably result in everybody getting sick. The healers would be taking care of 10,000 people every single day, assuming their settlement is the same size as ours. Not to mention the kids, toddlers, elderly, you name it."

"Yeah, even a little bit of radiation might screw a settlement over." Preston agreed. "It's a good thing The Mall is at least starting to take out Radioactive Portals, but I'm worried for who had to do it. I know that you kind of already showed them what <Purify> can do firsthand, so maybe we've got multiple healers back home on radiation duty. Doesn't change the fact I don't think they would have the same <Facilitated Restoration> protecting them from the intense exposure to radiation near the Portals."

"People in The Mall are competent, I wouldn't worry too much." Sarah said. "Nikolas and Theo's parties are both sticking around, they're in good hands. We already stalled the radiation a good bit by taking out a few Portals, and they've demonstrated they could take out a Radioactive Portal on their own. Now that I think about it, they actually might have gone out of their way to destroy a Portal just to let us know they could take care of business in the quest screen."

"Maybe, but that's being optimistic. Regardless, we need to decide what we're going to do here." Teresa said. "We can either push on and keep heading straight to Gabriel, or we can take a look around to see if we can find a settlement nearby. If there are people, we might be able to help them out if they're in a bad situation."

"We also have to consider the risks involved with that." Sarah replied. "If we do find a settlement, who's to say they will be friendly? They're surrounded by radiation, the people might be panicking. The citizens of The Mall took everything in stride pretty damn well, I think so much was happening all at once that we just considered everything to be a part of the same ordeal. People elsewhere might be rioting, they might be angry, or they might be under the control of some multiversal faction."

"Or, like Teresa said, they might just need our help." Jake countered. "I think being prepared for the worst is a good idea, but we shouldn't rule out helping someone else based purely on negative speculation."

"I say we spend a day here on the hill." Preston said. "Portals are being destroyed, right? Let's just stick around and see if anyone comes to destroy another. Then we don't even have to look, they'll be showing themselves to us."

"Not a bad idea, I think I'm on board with that." Teresa replied. "This way we can get an idea of how capable they are from a distance. If they're fighting in large groups that seem to get along, that's a good sign. If they send out a bunch of unarmed slaves as a meatshield, huge red flag and we intervene."

"What made you think of slavery, that's kind of dark." Jake asked.

"That just felt like the generic super duper evil thing to do, I dunno." Teresa answered.

"I wouldn't be too surprised if we encountered slaves at some point, they always do slavery in isekai." Preston said. "It's so damn annoying, I swear every time they just casually have slaves and never really address it."

"Okay but we weren't isekai'd so everything should be fine." Jake responded.

"Yeah, we're obviously in a horror movie." Sarah agreed.

"Nah, definitely not. We have magic, how is that horror movie material?" Teresa asked.

"We're also in an apocalypse being hunted by monsters, this is totally horror movie stuff."

"Eh, I don't see it, I think you just like horror movies too much."

"Yeah and Preston likes isekai too much, we all have our problems."

"Hey at least horror isn't as bad as isekai." Jake interjected.

"Horror is totally just as bad as isekai!" Preston exclaimed as the group got into a very unserious argument about genres. Mathew looked up at Thomas as his dad let out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Mathew asked. Thomas just shook his head.

"Nothing really. It's just weird thinking that these are the same people capable of punching my head clean off."

"We should get used to it." Mathew said. "Until we start leveling ourselves, I'm sure there are plenty of people capable of punching our heads off."

"I hate that you're right."

"Well we could start hunting mon-"

"Not happening."

"It was worth a shot."

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