Who knew the apocalypse would involve digging so many holes? Simon, apparently, but Teresa definitely didn't see it coming. Somewhere to keep a prisoner? Hole. Storing water without any real infrastructure? Hole. Building some cabins out of strange possibly magical wood? Those foundations need holes. It was ridiculous.

After several hours of tireless work, the storage for the water was complete. It definitely could be bigger, but Simon said he had "plans," without elaborating further. He went out to hunt monsters with a few parties once it was complete, which was still incredibly useful. The water storage was effectively just a swimming pool with tents and packed clay being used as the internal barrier to keep water from just leaking out into the ground.

Teresa opened her Bottle Of Holding to unleash the Niagara Falls of Scilian filtered swamp water. The magical bottle behaved in an interesting manner opposite of what Teresa would expect. If someone opened it, it would either absorb liquids or expel them at max speed. Only after channeling Mana into the item would it slow down, though considering the number of people in the camp it was likely they were going to need to set up some sort of water caravan to frequently refill the pool.

"So how exactly does a Scilian filter water?" Theo asked, an eyebrow raised. "I'm not drinking their pee for the record. I agreed to try swamp water, not piss."

"I think it's more like alien sweat." Teresa told him, though that only seemed to alleviate his concerns a little bit. "Think of it like drinking platypus milk."

"What?"

"You know, platypus milk. They sweat milk, don't they?"

"Who the hell have you met that has been drinking platypus milk?"

"Literally no one, but if it's good enough for a platypus surely it's good enough for us."

"I am not following your line of reasoning at all." Theo said, still very suspicious of the Definitely Not Alien Piss. "I swear if I get some sort of disease from this you better be able to healing magic it away."

"Hurry up, I want to go out and get some more levels." Teresa told him, though admittedly she wasn't particularly willing to try it herself either. There was no harm in boiling already filtered water, right? "Besides, I'm pretty sure they also drink it. Don't ask me how they drink their own sweat, I don't know how that works either."

"Damnit, why did I agree to this?" Theo muttered as he filled up a regular water bottle with the liquid. He eyed it nervously, swirling it around and watching for any inconsistencies in the water. "Is water supposed to be that blue?"

"I don't know, I'm not a water scientist."

"That's gotta mean there's something in it, what if it's arsenic?"

"Or maybe they naturally produce blue food coloring? You ever think of that?"

"You are a terrible influence." Theo said, lifting the bottle to his mouth. He took a sip and frowned. "You know, it's actually not that bad."

"Even knowing that it comes from a swamp full of alien squid Pomeranians?" Teresa asked.

"Well I've eaten hotdogs before and I know those can come from some pretty questionable parts of an animal. If I think of it like milk then it really isn't that bad."

"Platypus milk."

"Hey, it was your idea."

Now that was all done and tested, the settlement had a water supply. Thankfully, this was enough contribution from Teresa and she could finally begin hunting monsters. She needed to see Saylee and Michael, who were in charge of mapping. Saylee only spoke Thai, while Michael spoke just enough English for <Translate> to work alright if you avoided too much slang and spoke formally. Teresa's <Translate> was level 4, so honestly Saylee would probably be able to partially understand Teresa directly.

In many situations kids would help out with translating, but some conversations probably were best to be kept out of earshot from the young. This was going to be Teresa's first time actually interacting with Saylee, at least that's what she thought until she actually met her. Oh shit, she's definitely seen her from somewhere before, but Teresa wasn't exactly sure where from. She started going through her memories when thankfully Saylee answered that train of thought for her.

"Teresa, I want to tell you thank you for saving our lives from that boar. Without you, we would have certainly died." The Chinese woman said in Thai. Teresa was surprised that she understood Saylee perfectly, her words automatically being translated to English.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Teresa replied. "I thought you needed Michael to help with translating?"

"I used to work with drones surveying the coast in Thailand for research, as a result I am the closest person to a cartographer here. I have spent a lot of time talking with various people and coordinating logistics for Portal hunting, my <Translate> skill has already surpassed all of my others by quite a lot." She answered proudly. "Now, I assume you are looking for high level Portals?"

"Yes, I want to know wherever the strongest Monster Spawners are. I also plan on heading south again to tell the Albino Gorillas about the bandits we ran into the other day." Teresa told her. The bandit attack had become common knowledge, although the details were only known by a select few.

"Monster Spawners?"

"Portals." Teresa clarified. At some point she had started calling them Monster Spawners because, well, that's what they basically are. Saylee nodded and started looking through her notes. Teresa wasn't sure where she got the paper from, but she sure had a lot of it. There was no harm in asking. "Where did you get all of that paper if you don't mind me asking?"

"I had been in a meeting when the Tutorial started, and I had just started passing out briefings to my colleagues. I am writing on the back of several documents." Saylee clarified, showing the other side of her paper. Indeed, there were a lot of printed words on there that were written in Thai. "I lost most of it early on, but there were a couple kids in school with paper as well. So, what level Portals can you take on?"

"Mid thirties if possible, I would like to try a stronger one if available." Teresa told her. She had a new skill that needed leveling and testing. She wasn't sure how durable it was in its current state, but she knew it was pretty weak. Nothing would give it as much experience as throwing herself against high level monsters. Saylee snorted, however.

"Very funny, but I don't think there are enough people to take out any of those. We've only seen a level 40 and a level 36 that fit your description, but they're to the east and northwest respectively. We couldn't put together a party that could come with you for that."

"It's fine, I'm planning on going by myself anyways. East and northwest you said? I could probably hit both and still have time for the gorillas, how far are they?"

"Are you sure?"

"Okay, I might not be able to get both today but I can at least get one."

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"By yourself?"

"I wouldn't mind company if they could keep up, but honestly unless there are multiple level 25's or a level 30 somewhere they would probably just get in my way." Teresa explained. Saylee shrugged.

"Okay ma'am, let me copy the Portals on another map and you'll be good to go." Saylee said, writing on the back of a document. Did Teresa just get called ma'am? Kind of weird, but she'd go with it. She assumed it was a translation thing, and it was meant to be nice.

"So how do you know so much about the surrounding area? I get that you're basically a cartographer, but have you actually gone out and seen this for yourself?" Teresa asked, curious.

"No, I used photos from people's phones. There was a girl who had a solar powered phone charger with her, apparently it was a gift from her dad. There's only one charger though, and we don't have multiple charging cords. If your phone doesn't have the right port, then you can't use it." Saylee said. That was cool, and it was fine that Teresa wouldn't be able to charge her phone. She didn't have it on her anyways, she had set it down right before she had jumped off…

Teresa suddenly got the sensation that her body was being compressed, like her sense of feeling had retreated from the exterior of her skin to just beneath it. She wasn't panicking, it was just a shitty reminder that made her feel just as shitty. There wasn't exactly a therapist Teresa could go visit, she was doing better by a long shot but it wasn't like her mental health could magically fix itself all the time. Unless there was a magical therapist, that would be sick.

"So phones actually still work?" Teresa asked.

"Yes, but there is no internet." Saylee answered. She finished drawing up a very basic map of their surroundings, and pulled out her own phone. After pressing a few buttons, she showed Teresa a picture of some trees with a slightly redder texture to them. "This is the area to the east with the level 40 Portal. To the northwest, once it starts snowing you'll know you're close."

"It's snowing nearby?" Teresa asked, surprised. "I guess we must be pretty far north then, huh?"

"No, we are close to the equator based on the sun's position in the sky. We do not know why it is snowing there, it is very abnormal and only a small area is experiencing the weather phenomenon."

"Magic." Teresa said, as she was shown another photo where the trees looked far more Earth-like. It kind of reminded her of what she imagined Norway was like in the winter. The map she had been given was actually pretty useful. It was extremely simple, but there were dimensions and distances written in multiple places to provide a general scale of where things were.

"The distances are definitely all wrong by several kilometers, but that's using the best information we have access to. Parties have been avoiding those areas due to the high level monsters coming from the Portals, so the data is limited." Saylee told her. That was understandable, Teresa had already seen more than what she had been expecting.

"Thank you Saylee, I appreciate it." With that, Teresa had a decision to make. What should she do first? The responsible choice was to visit the gorillas and get that out of the way, it would suck if there was a war because some bandits acted on the behalf of all humans. Then again, she really wanted to get stronger. The fight against the bandits had been replayed in her mind over and over again, as she tried to figure out what she could have done better.

There were definitely improvements to be made, if she had broken free of the adhesive ground faster and speed blitzed them she probably could have been able to win, even if it meant taking a few extra magical crossbow bolts. It would have still been a hard fought victory, but there was more to a fight between humans than just having bigger numbers.

Teresa decided she would go talk to the gorillas, then hit the level 40 Monster Spawner. She had to be responsible, but within a week that responsibility would hopefully fall on someone else. A lot of the settlement acted as if she was guaranteed to be the leader, which really annoyed her. How many times did she have to say it, she did not want to lead shit.

Wind whistled past her ears as she headed south, preferring speed over skill practice as she activated exclusively <Dash>. She had multiple skills stuck at 99%, as many skills seemed to require use in combat to actually level up. It was kind of upsetting that she couldn't just sit at the camp using four skills at once forever to power level her skills, but it is what it is.

It didn't take long for her to encounter the gorillas. They had gradually moved closer to the human settlement over the last day, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe that was something she could ask about, if things didn't get too heated.

Unfortunately, things got heated.

It has been one day, and there are already humans that might break the deal? One of the lead gorillas asked, very upset. We agreed, we do not kill each other.

"There are only some humans who behave that way, I assure you the settlement is all in favor of an alliance. There is no shortage of enemies, nobody wants more of them." Teresa said. It was true, and it had actually been kind of surprising. Teresa was totally expecting people to get extremely upset about the idea of treating animals as equals, but so many of those who survived had already seen enough weird shit to not even flinch at the idea. Many had actually been very happy that the Giant Four Armed Murder Gorillas were not going to murder them, and were actually on the same side.

How will we know who is who then? The gorilla in charge of communication asked. How can we befriend a species that might turn around and kill us at any moment?

There were multiple Albino Gorillas spectating the conversation from above, and many began yelling out in agreement. They didn't actually speak or anything, but their voices definitely gave off the vibe that they agreed with what the lead gorilla was saying. Teresa almost got distracted by the fact that the gorillas knew the word "species," but she squashed that thought before it could derail the conversation.

"That is a good question, and I will answer with another question in turn. How do we know which Albino Gorillas are friendly and which ones are not?" Teresa asked, using their own logic against them.

No Albino Gorilla will ever attack a human, too much is at stake. The communicator gorilla replied.

"But can you guarantee that? Will it stay that way forever, or will there come a day when your species becomes strong enough to conquer us and one gorilla decides to take a shot at it?"

What are you trying to say about our people?

"I'm saying that they are people. We can't always control how others act, even if most would disagree with them. I want there to be an understanding between us. Sometimes, a human will act out of line and we will punish them accordingly. If there are ever any that attack you, we will come to your aid. If any gorillas attack us, we ask that you do the same." Teresa answered, feeling like that was reasonable. This was exhausting, Teresa had to watch every word she said. Her words almost had the opposite effect of what was intended at one point, all it took was a single misunderstanding for war to break out.

Teresa did not want to wipe out the Albino Gorillas, and she wasn't entirely sure if she could. If they could use skills, then Teresa already understood what could happen when getting overrun by more skills than she could counter. She had learned to push forward and speed blitz her enemy if she was put into a situation like that again, but she wasn't positive she could even move if just five gorillas hit the ground underneath her with <Adhesion>. Did they have that skill? No idea. Did they have skills at all? Also no idea.

There were a million things Teresa didn't know yet, including why they didn't have their own monolith or settlement. How were there so many of them together if locations were randomized after the Tutorial? Did they even have a Tutorial? Maxwell the dog was still just a totally normal dog, why were these guys augmented?

Fine. The gorilla responded after some deliberation. We do not like it, but we do not want war.

"Oh yeah, before I forget my name is Teresa by the way." Teresa said. She wasn't sure she ever introduced herself to them, and had only told the Scilians her actual name earlier.

I am Gary. The gorilla said. Teresa had to put all of her willpower into not laughing, the gorilla's name was fucking Gary? There was nothing wrong with the name, she just really was not expecting it to be the name of a gorilla.

"Pleasure to meet you properly." Teresa replied, as the gorillas began to disperse into the surroundings. It seemed the meeting was over, and thankfully that was another crisis averted.

Teresa activated <Inventory> and pulled out her map, looking at where she needed to go. She probably could have just left the map with Saylee due to her enhanced memory, but the super memory wasn't entirely perfect. Multiple things were still blurry if she tried to recall them, even if she still technically could.

The level 40 Portal was east of the settlement. It produced some sort of snake creature, and aside from their level they would be incredibly dangerous if they were venomous.

Teresa sure hoped that was the case, it was about damn time she leveled up her <Purify>.

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