Teresa woke up surprisingly refreshed, she hadn't taken a turn keeping watch last night. What time was it? They didn't exactly have clocks or anything, but she had the feeling that more time had passed than 8 hours last night. She got out of her tent and saw it was bright out, had she slept in?

"I know we're in a rush, but yesterday was rough so taking an extra hour or two for some rest after all of that didn't seem like a bad idea." Jake said, seeing Teresa look around confused. "Making decisions while sleep deprived will only harm us in the long run."

"You didn't wake me up."

"Figured you could use some sleep." Jake responded. "Sarah's training Mathew, Thomas is still practicing his magic, Preston's working his magic as well, and I'm making breakfast since Preston can't cook."

"Hey, I can totally cook, I just choose not to!" Preston called out.

"Microwaving everything isn't cooking."

"I don't microwave everything."

"I came over to your house once and you gave me microwaveable bacon."

"Okay microwaveable bacon is badass, it tastes surprisingly mediocre."

"I don't think I've ever seen you make something on a stove."

"I make quesadillas on the stove, you can't microwave those. Well, you can, but it's disgusting and sacrilege. I also like to put sugar in them, it makes them so damn good." Preston countered.

"You put sugar in quesadillas?" Teresa asked.

"Don't knock it till you try it."

"You're the reason Americans have terrible stereotypes." Jake said with a smile.

"Listen man, if it's just gonna be cheese and tortilla then adding sugar makes it so damn good, you've gotta try it." Preston replied.

"I'm never doing that."

"Your loss."

"Shit, I just realized!" Teresa activated <Facilitated Restoration> and refreshed it on everyone present, casting green fireball after green fireball until she was certain everyone was safe.

"I'm pretty sure it was still active." Preston said, not too worried. "Whatever you're doing to slow it down is working, what level is it at?"

"Level 16 now, it's my strongest skill." Teresa answered. It really lasted that long? She hadn't even thought about it when she had woken up last night, she had refreshed it before bed but that had to have been around 9 or 10 hours ago.

"Well I guess if we're not in combat it'll last for quite some time, are you sure you should have refreshed it on all of us? We could have tested it." Preston offered.

"I didn't think of that, Sarah probably has hers from last night still active." Teresa replied. She glanced over at what Jake was doing, smelling something good. He had several kabobs rotating slowly over a fire, making Teresa hungry. The meat was awkwardly cut, which made Teresa question some things. Where did he get that? She had all the food in her <Inventory>. "What is that? It smells good."

"Preston found some monsters that resembled rabbits. You might want to cast <Purify> on them just in case though. Now that I think about it, were they monsters? I wouldn't consider the Albino Gorillas monsters, they didn't have a Portal, but they didn't have a City Monolith either." Jake said.

"Maybe some animals just evolved somehow like the gorillas and others stayed the same, like Mijo." Teresa guessed. "Now that I think about it, some things don't have Monster Cores in them, just Mana Crystals. Maybe those are the animals?"

"That would make sense, I buy it." Jake responded as he continued monitoring the food. Seeing the cut up meat reminded Teresa of her second class. It still hadn't gained a level, but she hadn't really done much with it yet. The class was all about looting the leftovers of a battle, presumably one that Teresa herself was too weak to participate in. If you ignored the insulting nature of that then it was kind of amusing, Teresa didn't really find herself in that position all too often. Well, actually…

"Do you guys think that Spinosaurus survived?" Teresa asked. "I get it was level 75 and all, it might even be able to survive prolonged exposure to radiation, but the dinosaur probably didn't have healing magic. I only survived because of my magic, getting hit by that much radiation would probably kill it don't you think? Maybe not immediately, but eventually."

"Huh, maybe." Preston said. "I feel like we don't know enough about how Vitality works, could that counter radiation? What about Fortitude?"

"I've been doing just fine and I've got a lot of both, but then again I've been constantly under the effects of <Facilitated Restoration> so I don't know." Jake added.

"What are you at now?" Teresa asked.

"Level 28, I've got 77 Fortitude and 33 Vitality." He answered.

"I'm at level 43 with 52 Fortitude and Vitality and I still felt the radiation from the slimes, but I haven't tested tanking the radiation from just the Contaminated Zone without my buffs." Teresa said, curious. "But what I was trying to get at is there might be some loot at the slime Portal."

"Eh, there will be plenty of Mana Crystals and Monster Cores in the Contaminated Zone, I don't think it's worth the risk." Jake countered.

"I'm not talking about that, I mean actual loot. We have a System quest to take out Radioactive Portals, maybe that means it'll give us loot at the Portals themselves. I got loot from taking out the Monster Strongholds in the Tutorial, it's not that far fetched." Teresa said.

"That does make sense." Preston affirmed. "Hey, did you get anything from the quest to be Ruler or President or whatever? I'm still kinda lost on that I won't lie."

"I think being the Ruler was supposed to be the reward for the quest, but otherwise I didn't get anything." Teresa replied. "We also didn't get anything after each wave in the Tutorial, so it'd be really hit or miss. I'm still kind of curious though, if there is loot it's gotta be good if it's from a level 50 Portal. That's the equivalent of taking out a ridiculously strong Monster Stronghold."

"Are you sure it's worth the risks? Last time we went there we almost died." Preston said.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"The slimes are probably all dead, and I doubt the Spinosaurus would stick around in extreme radioactive waste for no good reason. There might be a few slimes left, but so long as it's not sixty of them we should be fine. I could definitely take them on in smaller numbers, though you might want to stay back. One hit and you'd definitely be dead."

"You don't need to convince me to stay back, I'm more than happy to never see another slime again. Rimuru's got hands."

"What?"

"Ugh, nothing. We've got to find someone else who likes isekai." Preston said with faux exasperation.

"It wasn't even that great of a reference." Sarah said, making herself known as she and Mathew returned from crossbow training. "What, is the joke that he's a slime?"

"You know what I'm talking about?" Preston asked incredulously.

"I knew that one, but that doesn't mean I'm super huge on the genre. There's some good ones here and there." Sarah replied as Mathew sat down, exhausted.

"Do you really need to be going out into the woods to practice? It's not safe." Thomas questioned, worried. Mathew rolled his eyes and sighed.

"It's fine, I just don't like having people watch me when I'm trying to figure out something new. It's not that big of a deal, we're just around the corner." Mathew responded.

"Is that rabbit going to be safe to eat?" Sarah asked, looking at what Jake was making.

"I can try to <Purify> it, but my Restoration Magic doesn't work on dead things so we'll see how it goes. Worst case scenario we can just eat it as is and <Facilitated Restoration> will take care of it. That reminds me, how is <Facilitated Restoration> doing for you two? I wasn't expecting it to last as long as it has." Teresa said.

"Uh, well, I think we could do with a recharge. We are running pretty low now that you mention it." Sarah said.

"We are? How do you know?" Mathew asked.

"I've got <Mana Control>, I can kind of sense it. Not very well, especially since it's Restoration Mana, but I can tell if I focus." Sarah answered. Teresa got close to inspect how her healing spell was doing, and was surprised at just how low it was.

"Huh, Preston, didn't you say you were still doing totally fine? Sarah's right, theirs is pretty low." Teresa questioned.

"I mean I think it was doing alright, I didn't really check that closely. Maybe I was wrong, I only recently found my Soul. It's red by the way, thanks for asking." He said sarcastically. Teresa refreshed <Facilitated Restoration> on Sarah then examined the buff on Mathew, and found his was also really low. Maybe her increased duration skill still needed some tweaking.

"Well, we've got some decisions we have to make today." Teresa said. "I don't think we'll be able to pass straight through the center of the Contaminated Zone, but we can probably get away with cutting into it a bit. If the zone is a circle, then reducing the curve of our path would save us a lot of time. I'm not saying we should cut corners too much, but we're already behind schedule in regards to where we expected to be."

"That sounds risky." Thomas said.

"A little, but taking our time comes with its own risks as well. If going around the Contaminated Zone slows us down by a week, that's a week longer that our families have to fend for themselves."

"Alright, point taken."

"Also, I want to go check out the remnants of the Portal to see if there's any loot." Teresa continued. "Obviously you guys don't have to come with, but I can make it quick."

"I'll come along, I've got better Perception so nothing will sneak up on you this time." Sarah offered.

"You're just willing to go? No convincing needed?"

"I heard y'all talking about it while we were walking back, I'm already on board." She said. "We leave after breakfast?"

"Sounds good to me." With that, the party relaxed for a few minutes until breakfast was ready. Teresa was indeed able to use <Purify> on the meat despite the fact it was dead, which was a major relief. It tasted… not that great. Still, she appreciated that Jake took the effort to make something on his own while she was asleep.

Once they were done, Teresa and Sarah took off. This would be quick, for real this time. As soon as they checked out what was left, the party would continue on their journey. This was information that might come into use later, and if they were lucky it might even provide them with tools or weapons. It didn't take long to arrive at the location, after which they both paused for a moment. Teresa looked over at Sarah, who shook her head.

"I hear nothing." Sarah said. "Seems all good to me."

They advanced slowly, seeing massive pools of green liquid spread out along the ground. Now that the slimes were dead, Teresa could see Monster Cores in each of them, loot that was likely worth a decent amount if sold at a City Monolith. Besides, looting would give her secondary class some experience, it might even be enough to get her second class' first level.

"I think that's where the Portal was." Teresa said, pointing at a large, orange object. There were Mana Crystals scattered along the ground, and where the Portal had once existed there was now a massive orange structure made of some strange meat. It had a foul yet sweet odor to it, and it made Teresa think of a regular orange if it had been made of flesh instead of fruit. Whatever it was, a lot of it had been eaten by something much bigger than them, likely the Spinosaurus. Teresa used <Appraise> on the object, seeing something new for the first time.

<Spinosaurus Evolution Feed (F+): lv 99 (MAX)>

Materials: ???

Status: Consumed (0% Remaining)

A large consumable capable of increasing a Spinosaurus' race to F+, a necessary step for achieving a Rank Up. Provides a drastic improvement to lifespan with minor debuff resistances.

"Holy shit, we need to be destroying Monster Portals." Teresa said, sharing the screen <Appraise> had generated with Sarah. This wasn't something they could use themselves, but it certainly answered a lot of questions. They had seen people with F+ rankings before, although it was extremely rare. Those people must have found some sort of consumable that improved their race, likely from their own Tutorials.

"Teresa, if the dinosaur ate that then it might still be alive. We should get the fuck out of here." Sarah said.

"I couldn't agree more, let's go." It was tempting to grab the Monster Cores from the dead slimes, but Sarah was right. The Spinosaurus could definitely still be alive, and if it was Teresa did not want to fight it. They would not stand a chance against a level 75, she would have plenty of opportunities to loot stuff later. Staying around was just asking for trouble, and she knew better than to tempt the universe.

Sarah and Teresa both started running, getting the hell out of there. Teresa was pretty sure she saw what looked like a large footprint, which only confirmed just how dangerous this area was. Without a word, she scooped up Sarah and activated <Dash>. Technically Sarah had a little more Agility than her, but her movement skill was enough to compensate for that and then some. They cruised back to where they had set up camp to find the party had already packed everything up and got it ready for Teresa to put the tents in her <Inventory>.

"Awesome, let's go." She said, putting the items into her Soul without hesitation.

"What did you find?" Preston asked.

"The Spinosaur is probably still alive, let's get moving and I'll tell yah."

"It's alive? Well, shit, you're right let's go."

"I told you guys the dinosaur was gonna be a problem." Jake said as they got moving. Teresa set Sarah down to give Thomas a piggyback ride while Preston grabbed Mathew and Sarah grabbed Jake. It was the fastest method of transportation, at least for now. It made them look stupid, but aesthetics couldn't argue with results at the moment. They ran in the opposite direction of the slime encampment, going counter clockwise along the edge of the Contaminated Zone. They didn't necessarily follow the edge perfectly, but rather began to dip deeper into the radioactive lands to save some time.

Teresa didn't get the chance to loot anything yet today, but there would be plenty of opportunities. Seeing that the Portals could actually provide loot that was likely customized to whoever destroyed it made her want to find some Radioactive Portals and take them out herself. Even if they had Thomas and Mathew with them, they would need to find an excuse to get some levels on their journey. Regardless of Thomas' wishes, Teresa and her party still needed to get stronger.

When Teresa completed a quest stage in the Tutorial, she got to choose between three incredibly valuable skills. Now that she was presented with a quest that actually promised rewards, she definitely wanted to participate.

She was going to take out some of those Portals as soon as she got the chance.

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