After finding a comfortable spot where he could watch the dungeon entrance, and stay relatively hidden, it was time to plan. Ever since he had hit that piece of human filth on the head, Alan really didn't like people who took advantage of those who couldn't fight back, his previous scheme to gather insight into the village had been getting shredded.

Openly returning to the settlement was not an option at the moment. If he had to guess, Chrisly's party of adventurers was stronger than any of the recruit parties he had seen so far. They should have entered the tutorial with a quartz or possibly low opal set of classes. That was an advantage over the squeaky new inductees, for sure, but they didn't have access to the high quality dungeons that the recruits had. That should balance things out levelwise in the end.

What they did have, though, was access to resources. Tamee assured him there were restrictions on what they could bring in, but compared to the mostly low level gear that recruits typically had, it was no doubt vastly superior. Alan still felt he could take any of them on individually, you don't become an operator without a healthy dose of ego, but he didn't want to face a full party. Especially if they were already pissed at him and not likely to let him get the first blow in.

One of the contingency plans that he and Tamee had come up with was to join forces with another recruit party. Alan would need to be in the dominant position to get credit for the victory, but if he could get allies it would make his life much easier. Not really knowing anything about the other cultures he would run up against, they had put the chances of finding a willing group at slightly less than fifty percent.

The Nivex had demonstrated that they would never join forces with any other group, and certainly not in a subordinate role. The jury was still out on the Bodarians, but he was getting good vibes from the Corellians that had adopted him. They had offered help when they could have simply left without getting involved. Even after that they had continued to shelter him and had even seen to his supposed safety while they would be gone.

Sure, it wasn't for entirely altruistic reasons. The fact that there were only four of them instead of the allowed five was a sign that they hadn't escaped the beginning of the trial without difficulties, so they were probably feeling vulnerable. Also, in the tavern he had seen how eager they were to eat their meal, even though the stew was so-so at best. To be fair, it was better than what Alan could have done with similar ingredients, but the village was still short of many staples, including spices and meat.

The lessons with Cook, and from Parina, plus his own fumbling efforts had done wonders for his ability to prepare a meal. He could also cheat a little since he had some quality ingredients in his storage items, a far cry from the level zero or one squirrels and rabbits the hunters were providing. The breakfast he had made for the party wasn't something he had eaten back on Earth, but it was a popular morning meal in Elstree. He had seen Cook prepare it plenty. The addition of the meat strips was a luxury in the village, but easy for him to throw in.

'The key to a man's heart is through his stomach' was a popular saying for a reason. The look in their eyes when they saw him preparing their breakfast was almost heartbreaking. It made him wonder what the tutorial had been like for others. For Alan, he had been able to treat it as a vacation almost. It was more Swiss Family Robinson and less Survivor. To be sure, he was constantly tested and had to fight for his life, but that had been almost fun for him.

If he had needed to worry about others, whether protecting them, or guarding against them, would he have spent so much time building a house, or planting crops? He most likely would never have met Two Socks, or been able to watch him grow. Whatever their prior experience was, he could see that these guys were hooked. As long as he didn't give himself away, they would keep 'Pebble' close. At some point he would have to reveal himself if he was going to try and make them allies, but he wanted to learn more about them first.

As far as the village went, Alan thought he was in a good place. He had already demonstrated that he was capable to the mayor, and defending Jessica, the rabbit woman waitress that Roger had a crush on, could only help improve the esteem in which he held Alan. That wasn't why he'd done it, but why not use every tool available. Also, Alan and Tamee had planned out all the ways that he could offer assistance to the village already.

Food was a big thing. They had several fields set up with a small selection of crops, wheat and barley mostly, with some potatoes and onions as well. Alan, on the other hand, carried seeds for a ton more. Corn, soy, fruits of all types, carrots, and while not a crop it was probably more important, chicken eggs. The only meat he had seen was what was brought in by the hunters. They had no livestock of their own, no pigs or cows or whatever farm animals looked like under the Network. The addition of some chickens would be a great boon for the village. Hopefully the clutch of eggs would hatch into both hens and roosters and they would get not only eggs for eating, but be able to breed more so that they could add chicken to the menu.

Alan had also thought that his ability to enchant items might be useful, but Tamee had crushed that hope when she pointed out that none of the residents would have classes, and most likely there wouldn't be any real weapons, other than some bows or knives. Some of his mana-infused rocks could still help though. The ones that glowed would no doubt be a hit.

These were all of the things he could give to the village, but he would also be able to help them just with his presence. The quest board showed the many bounties that were available, most of which were beyond the villagers abilities to fulfill. Without an adventurer like Alan in the area, they could easily be overrun by beasts, and that wasn't even counting the town dungeon, and whatever this mystery second dungeon was. It was much farther away than anything else, and he hadn't made it out there to check it over yet.

After looking through the storage items of the Nivex, he had latched on to a new possibility. In tier one for each zone, there were potentially forty thousand common quartz class stones available. With only ten thousand recruits max, that meant there were way more common stones than could be used, and the same was true for the uncommon ones. For some reason, the leader of their group had been carrying a ton of these extra stones.

Tamee had made mention of them way back during the introduction, letting them know they should collect as many class stones as possible because they were valuable. Maybe this bug had brought them with the intent to sell them. For whatever reason, it meant that Alan now had over six thousand common stones and a similar number of uncommon class stones. A common quartz class stone would sell for hundreds or maybe even thousands of gold. An uncommon stone was worth at least double that.

This kind of wealth would be a huge bonus, but what Tamee hadn't mentioned in the briefing, but had filled him in on later, was that you couldn't sell them for their true value until the tutorial was over and you could find an actual merchant to work with. If he managed to make a deal with the village, he would have some access to the Network store, but the value he could get for selling things there would be drastically reduced.

That meant that he could either get silver on the gold he might be earning otherwise, or the money would be unavailable to him until it didn't really matter anymore. Sure there would be life after the tutorial, hopefully, but he needed to help humanity secure the win first. In the end, none of that really mattered because Alan had come up with a better idea and it didn't involve selling.

It wasn't something Tamee would have thought of. Life in the Network was mostly selfish. The idea of helping out your family, and maybe some very close friends, was still common, but to offer charity to strangers was almost unheard of. That's why she had initially been shocked by his idea, but she had also quickly come around when he explained some of the many benefits.

If the stones weren't useful for him now, then why not give them to some people who would benefit immediately. Pixel had explained to him that only one in five people would ever get a quartz class, and those numbers were skewed because if one person in a family had even a single class, it made it much more likely that others in their family did. An adventurer, and especially an Aristocrat, could help their whole family get a stone. This meant the odds of a serf getting a stone were dramatically worse, maybe one in a hundred.

The residents of Elstree had no classes of their own, and were unlikely to ever get one. Maybe a slightly higher percentage would manage it since they had taken the risk to join the tutorial and there were likely some special rewards. But there were fewer than a thousand people in the town, and here Alan was with a small mountain of classes. With the uncommon stones he could make sure the residents all had at least two classes. This was an opportunity that they would never dream of.

If Alan could somehow deal with the Bodarians and come to an arrangement with the Corellians, then he was sure he could win the mayor over to his side. Roger seemed like a good man, but even if he wasn't, what Alan could offer him should be enough to clinch a deal anyway.

He could no doubt make the approach to Roger now, but after making a deal, it would tie Alan down. He didn't want to do that until he had accounted for the other recruits. At the moment, he was an unknown variable, but if he revealed himself to the mayor that would change quickly. Then it would be him reacting to the other parties. Thinking about it, he should also do something about Chrisly's group if possible.

Overhearing many conversations in the tavern, Alan had managed to learn that his group was actually based in a nearby town. He didn't know the name of it, everyone just called it 'the town'. That meant that technically Alan could win the tier without dealing with them, but that was unlikely. The villagers had delighted in talking about how their mayor had pulled one over on the Aristocrat, but it had also let Alan know that the man was part of a larger group trying to take over the whole tutorial for themselves.

The rest of his party might not be as committed to the cause, but as long as Chrisly was still alive, there was little chance that he would allow any villages to fall to the recruits. If Alan didn't do something about that threat, it would most certainly come back to bite him. That was another reason why he needed to make a deal with the Corellians or Bodarians. He would need support when it was time to make a move against the spoiled brat.

It had only been a week since the tier had opened, and it would last for three months. He wanted to win as quickly as possible so that he could get back to check on his house and his friend, but he could afford to take some time to make sure he actually achieved victory, and didn't get taken out by his hubris. Time for a to-do list.

One, try and locate the Bodarians again and get a read on if they would make good allies. Two, and this made task one a challenge, stick close to the Corellians and secure their cooperation at the appropriate time. That one was a little up in the air depending on how the dungeon went. If they were killed, it was a moot point. If they did poorly and lost some of their party, then it should be easy to secure the remaining members. If, on the other hand, they were easily able to overcome the dungeon, then maybe he wasn't giving them enough credit and he would have to be more cautious in his approach.

Item three was dealing with Chrisly. That would most likely come after taking care of items one or two. Item four, upgrading his spells. If he was going to be stuck waiting around for these beastkin, then he could make use of the downtime to finally really get into his sorcerer class. That was something that probably came before anything else on his list. Item five was to check out some of the other quests. That last one was predicated on being able to get some time where he didn't have to worry about the Corellians noticing he was gone.

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That was a large part of why he was out here. He wanted to see how fast the party moved, and get an idea of how long it took them to run the dungeon. Based on that, he could estimate how long he would have when they went out on later missions. Without knowing how much time he could expect at the moment, he didn't want to get too into working on a new spell now. Instead he thought about what he would like to get out of his efforts.

Healing spells were still difficult, until he found a mentor for that he was probably better off hoping to get some scrolls. He had already made a spell for creating a stone wall, but the plan had been to try and use some different elements as well to make a variety of barriers. That was something to work on. Alan was happy with his meteor spell, it had good damage and even had an area of effect, but it had a longer casting time and it took a second to hit, possibly allowing his target to defend. Other than that, his options when attacking were limited. Improving some of his offensive spells was a must.

In the fight against Griff, his opponent had demonstrated that mage shields were a possibility. That was definitely worth exploring. He also had some utility spells, like conjure water and prismatic orb. The water had been useful for baths and a few other situations, but the orb had been great in combat. It wasn't super effective against higher level opponents, but even a brief moment of disorientation can make a difference. Perhaps there were other such spells he could come up with.

Before deciding how to upgrade his spells, or what new ones to make, it would be worth exploring what types of mana he had access to. As a quartz mage he had really only been able to work with the six basic elements. Towards the end he had been able to pick some of them apart a little into some of their components, but that was it. With his opal class he had already seen many more types that he could now detect.

While keeping his eyes on the dungeon, his aura senses were reading a strand of mana. There were the six basic types, and he could see several more that made up some of them. With fire, for example, he could see heat, combustion, and consumption. Each of those was not a pure mana type though, they were heavily influenced by the fire strand they were based in. Fire was the element he had explored the most, but he could see hints of similar things in the other five types.

With all the time in the world, he could study each of the basic mana types and tease out some of the elements that made them up. But at the moment Alan was more interested in mana that was completely new, like the holy and infernal mana he had experimented with. A quick scan of the mana strand showed him at least twenty new types with others that were a shadowy presence.

There was wood, wind, radiance, poison, stone, plant, wet, inertia, flesh, shadow, ignition, and many others. Some were closely related to one of the basic elements, like radiance and light or wet and water, but others seemed to have their own thing going. Flesh, poison, and inertia seemed pretty distinct from the original six. Alan knew that there were many more types of mana and he would be able to see and interact with them as his mage class and aura reading skill leveled. Taking the time to work with and study the ones he could access currently would also give him the ability to see still more.

Poison seemed like it would be good for infusing a weapon. Simply adding the mana to the aura of a blade should make it more deadly. He was hesitant to do so, however, since he wasn't sure what would happen if he happened to nick himself with it. Also, he wanted to focus on spells, not enchantments at the moment.

Combining stone spears and inertia should add some penetration power to the spell. Also, stone itself was a type of mana, perhaps using that instead of the more general earth one would make it better as well. Perhaps with stone he could create a projectile instead of a ground based attack. That was something to test out.

Adding ignition to his fire bolt also seemed like an upgrade to make. Things often caught on fire when they got hit by the spell, but anything he could do to increase that would be a worthwhile addition. It wouldn't make the spell more instantly lethal, probably, but it should increase the total damage it dealt.

He had seen how destructive a fire bolt cast from the inside of someone could be, maybe there was a way to make a projectile imbued with ignition that would activate once it penetrated the target. That seemed like a good idea, and he placed the idea high on his list of possibilities. Maybe something starting with wood, or possibly stone…

Alan's musing was interrupted by the appearance of the Corellian party. One moment the field was empty and the next all four members were standing around the entrance, or exit in this case. Two of them, Lyonel and Samson, were carrying what looked like deer over their shoulder. He appreciated their ingenuity. You couldn't place dungeon monsters in storage, but it appeared that you could carry them out. Hopefully they would bring him the carcasses.

There were plenty of dead bodies in his storage and he could provide meat for quite some time. However, he was supposed to be just a busboy, and why would he have so much food on him if the village didn't have enough. They would be much less suspicious if he was simply cooking what they brought him.

Breakfast that morning had been a test. The village citizens were used to the Network and would be suspicious of a serf with a spatial storage item. Alan figured that the Corellians wouldn't realise that, and so he pretended to use his storage pouch. The good food was in his nipple ring, but they couldn't tell exactly where he retrieved it from. When none of them had reacted to the sudden appearance of dishes and ingredients, he relaxed. If he was going to be their 'follower' for a while, he would need some kind of storage item and it was helpful that they seemed even more uneducated about the universe than he was. They probably had never spoken to their overseer like he had. These people all had been part of parties and didn't need a Tamee to keep them company. Poor guys.

"Hey, in case I haven't said it enough, thank you for all your help Tamee!"

"It is always nice to hear appreciation. What made you think of it now?"

He was about to respond when he noticed the ferret man jump. Had he heard Alan's message to Tamee. He did have to speak out loud to activate it, but he had barely whispered it. Whatever had caught the scout's attention, he was looking in the area where Alan was hiding. He whispered to Tamee that he would tell her later and then started to crawl away.

The Corellians were very agitated, but it seemed like they didn't know for a fact that someone was here. Alan kept moving away from them. Fade wasn't able to do much in the afternoon sun, but it was providing some help as long as he stayed low in the grass. His phantom class and sneak skill, combined with his stealth talent and all the training he had back on Earth, were also helping him leave no trace as he moved away.

Watching from a distance, he saw them search the area where he had been waiting for them. Hector had definitely seen something, but it didn't seem like they had a good idea of what that was. Alan's cover looked to be intact. He started moving away again and was able to get enough distance from them that he felt safe standing up a bit more, now with his head sticking out of the grass. Soon enough he was running freely back to camp. Along the way he worked on bounties as he grabbed some mushrooms, special tree bark, and killed one of the iron-tusk boars.

From his observations it was apparent that he was much faster than they were, at least as a group. This gave him the confidence to collect the materials on the way back. The boars were actually one of the better paying bounties, it worked out to almost a gold per boar. Their tusks were made of bone, not iron, but they were incredibly dense and had applications in smithing.

With all his side trips, he made it back with only about ten minutes to spare. Alan was also a little sweaty, he had needed to really push his speed to make sure he could gather everything and get back before the beastkin. To disguise the reason for his perspiration, he took out the club that Lyonel had given him. It honestly was a nice club, a clear upgrade from the one he had made from a tree branch way back when. It wasn't as good as his spewn of course.

As the party arrived, they were met with 'Pebble' practicing his club work. He put it away after making sure they saw it, and then grabbed the deer from the hamster and rabbit men. It wasn't until he saw the shock in their eyes that he realized his mistake. These were not standard deer, they were higher level creatures and weighed at least twice what a mundane one would. Their higher stats meant their bodies were denser than usual. Even if they had been regular animals, a serf being able to so casually lift one, let alone two, would be quite the feat. He mentally reproached himself for his carelessness, he was better than such amateur mistakes.

Alan had to remind himself that he had been out of the Army for a while before coming to the tutorial, and he had been getting cocky here after seeing the quality of his opponents. He needed to remember that one slip up could ruin his plans. Luckily the Corellians seemed to shrug it off. Their lack of knowledge of others was helping him out. He had a silent chuckle at that, considering he had repeatedly bemoaned the fact that he was ignorant of so many things under the Network.

Refocusing, he managed to convince the group to let him harvest the bodies. Not only would it improve his skill, but he had some plans for the skins and some of the meat. Lyonel wanted to sell a bunch of it in town, so he packed up most of the first deer into a bag they provided. He had surreptitiously tried to put a chunk in his storage, but it seemed you couldn't even store parts of dungeon monsters. That was good to know, and also explained why they hadn't harvested the deer by the dungeon and stored the pieces.

He didn't fancy the person who would have to clean that bag after they sold off the meat, but then he realized there was a good chance it would be him. Oh well, he didn't mind some hard work if there was a big enough payoff. After dinner, Lyonel had offered to take the dishes to wash them. The gesture was appreciated, but Alan had put a lot of effort into getting all of his stuff and didn't want to risk losing it due to someone else's carelessness. Instead he got the giraffe man to fill up a couple of barrels with water. He had taken them from Dracon's workshop back in the tower.

With two barrels he now had one for washing things and another to drink out of. If needed, he could have filled the barrels himself, but that would have been a giveaway that he was more than he seemed. Better to get their water mage to do it for him. After getting that all sorted out, the group was going to head back into town to turn in their quest. They offered for him to join them, but he wanted this opportunity to get some things done in the area.

Also, Alan planned on finishing up with his project in camp. Since the meat couldn't be stored, they needed a way to preserve it. The thick deer skins had given him the idea of creating a smoker. Unless he wanted to use a ton of salt, this would be the best way to keep it from going bad in just a few days. By 'cold' smoking it, he could save it for a couple of weeks at least. Trying to make jerky was an option too, but he was less sure on that process.

After the group left, he finished skinning the other deer and began to build his smoker. A quick trip out of the camp, and into the forest, netted him several freshly cut saplings. He used four of these to make posts for a teepee over the firepit. It was taller than he was and should be fairly fire resistant. Next he whittled holes in the posts to stuff smaller sticks into them as supports and then laid out more sticks on those to form a type of rack over the fire. This was well above the pit so that it wouldn't get too cooked from the coals. He wanted smoke, not heat.

To finish up the smoker, he wrapped the whole thing in the deer skins. This would keep the smoke and heat in, only allowing a little out of the top. The next part was tedious, slicing a bunch of the meat into small strips and hanging them on the wooden rack over the embers of the fire. That was the part that took the longest. Slicing up a bad guy was quick and easy, carefully butterflying all of this venison was slow delicate work.

Slow was of course a relative word. Because of the weirdness of the system and how it seemed to assist with crafting, what seemed like it should take several hours, was done in less than one. He knew that the beastkin party was going to be gone for at least four hours, just from walking to and from town. With most of the meat hung, some green wood smoking away on the fire, and the whole thing wrapped up tight with the skins, he had some time to himself.

This would have been an okay opportunity to work on his spell ideas, but since he knew how much time he had, it seemed like a better idea to clear a bounty. One of the nearby bounties was for killing a nest of salamanders. He had already scouted the area and knew that they were relatively low level, but capable of fire based attacks. He could make it to the general location of their nest in less than twenty minutes and that should give him a decent amount of time to clear them out.

Even if he wasn't able to eliminate the entire nest before it was time to get back, it should give him a head start for the next bit of free time he had. Checking over his smoker one last time, Alan slipped out of the camp walls and started out through the forest. On the way, he would also keep his eyes peeled for any other bounty items he could gather. Might as well kill as many birds with his time as possible.

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