Teresa's class level ups both required 150% experience in order to achieve an actual level up. Scavenger had been at 94% last time she checked, meaning it must have gained 56% while looting the Portal. That was a pretty big jump, but she felt like it made sense even if she wasn't used to it. The secondary class had been level 0, and perhaps being nitpicky about what she actually looted provided experience as well. Regardless, she had a new skill selection available.

<Extract Core: lv 0>

Type: Looting Magic

Remove a Monster Core from a viable corpse.

<Skittish Looter: lv 0>

Type: Passive

Regenerate Stamina or Mana slightly faster while looting.

That's… it? She wasn't sure what she was expecting from an F- common class, but only two skills that didn't do a whole lot? Well, <Skittish Looter> was kind of nice, but how often was she actually going to get any value out of that? Okay, maybe they weren't as bad as she was making them out to be, they were great for quality of life. Teresa had probably just gotten used to her fancy skills that Jack Of All Trades often offered…

Right?

"I didn't get great options." Teresa said, sharing her screen with Preston. He shrugged.

"I mean, <Extract Core> might be a time saver depending on how it works. <Skittish Looter> is alright, it's hard to go wrong with passive buffs. Then again, what counts as looting? Cutting Monster Cores and Mana Crystals out of monsters are the first things that come to mind, but what about skinning a dead animal? If that counts as looting, would a leatherworker constantly have the skill active while working with hide? What about a butcher, would that count as looting?" Preston asked.

"I don't know, though some of those sound like a bit of a stretch. Still a good question though." Teresa replied, thinking about it too.

"Ugh, I hate mushrooms." A voice said from the woods. Jake was scowling at the dead monsters as he and the rest of the party approached. "Is it safe to come over now? We saw another Portal got destroyed in the quest screen, that was you right?"

"Yep, did you guys get any points from it?" Teresa asked.

"Nope." Jake said, and Sarah shook her head.

"I did." Preston said, smiling. "Sucks to suck."

"How does that work? We killed some monsters on patrol earlier, even if it wasn't very many?" Sarah asked.

"I'm realizing we ask that question a lot." Teresa said, considering just how much thought they had collectively put into various random mechanics of the System. "The area might still be radioactive, I don't really know how fast radiation goes away but even if I did there's magic now. I'm not sure if that affects it or not."

"It's definitely still pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as it was." Preston clarified. "I don't exactly have many points of reference for radiation, but standing around here would probably shorten a normal person's lifespan a few decades I'm willing to bet."

"Or it might do nothing, does anyone here know how radiation works?" Jake asked.

"I know uranium has a lot of calories." Teresa offered. "I wonder if that's it, imagine if there was just a whole bunch of magical uranium at the center of the Contaminated Zone causing all of this?"

"Does uranium count as a protein, carb, or fat?" Jake asked jokingly.

"I want to say either none of the above or all of the above." Preston answered.

"Oh yeah, my second class got a level." Teresa said, sharing her skill selection screen and catching the rest of the party up to speed with the loot.

"I think you should take <Extract Core>." Sarah said. "I mean the other option is pretty nice, it might scale well over time, but if you thought <Purify> was situational then <Skittish Looter> falls into that category even more. Plus taking the cores out of the monsters kind of sucks, you have to admit it would be nice to just have a spell for it."

"Plus the spell would probably give you more class experience, letting you get another skill sooner." Jake added. "On top of that if the skill is quick it'll save so much time. You got some pretty solid choices."

"Really? I kind of thought they sucked a bit." Teresa replied. "Maybe I'm just too used to combat oriented skills."

"If you had <Extract Core> when we checked out the destroyed slime Portal maybe you could have grabbed a Monster Core on the way out even while rushing." Preston said. "Not that they're very useful, the only purpose we've actually found is just selling them."

"Yeah, I think that's the move then. I'll take <Extract Core> for now, though I do like the idea of getting a few passive skills. I'm not normally in a rush to regenerate Mana or Stamina while looting, but if nothing else seems all that great I'll take it next time. If it scales really well that also might be a huge bonus, but for now <Extract Core> will do." Teresa explained as she picked her skill. The knowledge on how to use <Extract Core> entered her mind in a familiar way as she added yet another skill to her arsenal.

If she wasn't so low on Mana she could use the skill immediately, but unfortunately she had to recharge for a few minutes before she would be ready to use it. Teresa ignored the irony of how <Skittish Looter> would have helped with that, noting that next time she leveled up her secondary class she would consider taking the skill if nothing better was available.

Well… she could probably use <Extract Core> once. 30 Mana remaining may not sound like a lot, but back when she was level 0 Teresa only had a maximum capacity of 45 Mana yet she had still been able to use <Healing Touch> on minor injuries. She could use a level 0 skill just fine, what was she thinking? Teresa really was getting a little too used to fancy skills that were incredibly costly.

She held her hand over a dead level 45 Paralytic Fungi and activated <Extract Core>, and Mana began to trickle out of her palm. What looked like green glitter slowly floated down over the corpse of the Paralytic Fungi and seeped inside, searching for the Monster Core. It spread out within the body, then once it located the core it encompassed the object and began to pull.

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Unfortunately, using the level 0 spell with such a small amount of Mana was not enough to tear the core from the level 45 corpse, and it barely budged before Teresa ran out of Mana. Well that was fucking lame.

"Damn, I don't have enough Mana to use it properly." Teresa said, incredibly annoyed. She also didn't have the Mana to use <Appraise> on any of the bodies, shit. Teresa wasn't used to using all of her Mana, though if she was going to keep practicing drawn out battles then it might be something she needed to get used to.

"Really? That's surprising, haven't you taken on Portals by yourself before?" Jake asked.

"She did it in one go this time." Preston told him.

"Oh okay that makes sense then, at least it gives us time to figure out what to do with the token."

"I think you should use it on your robes." Sarah said. All of their starter items from the Tutorial had been capped at level 15. "Can it get rid of radiation? I know it can handle poison just fine, does it act like <Purify>?"

"I'm pretty sure the robes kind of help with the radiation but they're too low level to make a major impact." Teresa answered. "It didn't even affect the spores from the mushrooms at all, at least not noticeably. If I level it up a bunch that might make a difference, but are you sure we don't want to use it on someone else's equipment? Upgrading your bow or Preston's sword might be better."

"I'm sure we'll take out more Portals as we move, upgrading your robes would probably help with conserving resources." Sarah replied. "If your robes can take care of some of the radiation then maybe <Facilitated Restoration> won't have to do so much heavy lifting."

"That and my <Sturdy Outer Shell> too, that took up a lot of Stamina. Still, just because it would be useful to me doesn't mean it's the best use case. We should think of what's best for the party."

"I think you using the token on your robes would be best for the party." Preston said. "Don't forget you're our lifeline, if you go down we're all kind of screwed without <Facilitated Restoration>."

"I agree, plus it will probably level up pretty fast." Jake added. "If it's constantly cleansing radiation, then maybe it'll be constantly gaining experience. The robes may not be great for physical protection but maybe level 100 robes could block bullets or something."

"By the time that happens I'll already be bulletproof, but I get your point." Teresa replied. "I'll give it a shot, but it's not like I know how to use it. What, do I just press it against my robes?"

Teresa tried exactly that, and nothing happened. Did it take Mana? Well, she didn't have any available right now, so that was kind of shitty timing. Her lack of Mana was almost enough to make her wish she just took <Skittish Looter>, but honestly the irony of the situation could go fuck itself.

"Let's just take a 20 minute break or something, recharge your Mana and we'll get going again." Sarah said. "We're making good progress, at this rate we'll make it to Gabriel pretty damn fast. How far do we have to go Thomas?"

Thomas focused for a few moments, his eyes locked in on something only he could see.

"Anywhere from 2,500 kilometers to 5,000." Thomas answered.

"Hey, that range is a lot smaller than it was last time. What was it you said last time? 3 to 10,000 kilometers?" Teresa asked.

"I don't know how far that is, I'm not gonna lie." Preston admitted.

"We have somewhere between one and a half and 3,000 miles to go." Teresa translated into American, doing quick math in her head.

"Okay, so assuming we're going 300 miles a day that's 10 days max, right? That's not too bad."

"That's assuming we travel in a straight line." Thomas said. "We're traveling in a circle around the Contaminated Zone, so it's unlikely it'll only be 10 days."

"Sure, but we could totally go more than 300 miles a day. That was our conservative estimate, assuming we're running 30 miles an hour for 10 hours. I'm pretty sure we can spend more than 10 hours a day travelling, and as we level up we can probably go faster than 30 miles an hour." Preston replied.

"We also have to consider the possibility of delays and emergencies. There's no way we're lucky enough to get through this trip without incident, who knows what might slow us down?" Teresa added. "We should make a schedule. 9 hours a day for sleep, 2 hours for two meals, 10 hours for traveling, 3 hours for monster hunting and training. We should make it a habit to still take out Portals when possible, it'll help us with the quest, with loot, and it'll give us experience that can let us travel even faster."

"Only two meals a day?" Preston asked.

"It'll be fine, what kind of person eats three meals a day anyways? I used to eat only one, and I turned out fine." Teresa replied. "We can't exactly time it, but we can guesstimate."

"You shouldn't eat just once a day, it's better for your body to spread it out." Sarah said. "But two should cut it, since not all of us are going to be taking part in every fight we can probably combine monster hunting time and cooking time to be more efficient. I still want to try that salamander you got if it's any good, I'm kind of curious."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll charge my Mana back up and get to it." Teresa said, focusing on absorbing the environmental Mana. Everyone went to train on whatever they were working on in the meantime, and soon Teresa felt like she had enough Mana to actually use <Extract Core> properly.

She held her hand over a corpse, letting the green glitter from her spell seep into the body and grab the Monster Core. This time, she pumped a lot more Mana into the spell, which pushed the core through the mushroom until it burst out of the cap. The spell made a complete mess of the dead body, sending bits of mushroom flying everywhere. Really it would have been cleaner to just use a knife, but at least it looked cool when the core flew up to her hand.

It took a lot of Mana, likely because the spell was level 0 and it was being used on high level corpses. It was really inefficient, but if Teresa gave it enough time and practice she was sure it would be a nice improvement to her quality of life. She wondered if she could use the skill on anything else, and she tried to get the skill to pick up a leaf off the ground. Unfortunately, nothing happened, it seemed that <Extract Core> only worked on Monster Cores. What a shame, telekinesis via Mana would have been sick.

Using the skill multiple times on high level bodies was actually enough to get it to level 1 pretty quickly, after about 25 total uses it was already halfway to level 2 and got Scavenger up to 38% already. All in all, she was doing pretty good.

Now that she had Mana, she could try and figure out how to use the token on her robes to increase their max level. She pressed it against her sleeves and injected a bit of Mana, but nothing happened. Okay… maybe she needed to do something fancy. She tried putting intent into it, as if she was trying to get the token to activate on the robes the same way she could summon her status screen mentally. That didn't work either.

Mana and intent maybe? Nope. Maybe Restoration Mana since her robes were for healers? Also nope. She filled the token with her Mana and tried to sense inside of it for any clues, and eventually she got one. When she filled it with Mana, tiny one-way holes appeared to be present along the inside that could let Mana leak out. Was that something she had to take advantage of?

Teresa pressed the token against her sleeve and tried to push Mana into the token then guide it out of the invisible holes into her robes. The Mana formed some sort of connection with the fabric, but nothing was happening yet. There was still something she was missing, aside from a user manual. She tried pushing Mana directly through her robes as well, similar to when she used its self repairing function. The Mana from the token connected with the Mana flowing through the fabric, and a huge surge of energy began gushing out of the token into her robes.

It was like her Mana had formed a bridge for the energy to cross, and it only took a few seconds for the token to become completely hollow and void of energy. Using <Appraise> showed that it had been used up and had nothing left in the tank. Teresa used the same skill on her robes to see if anything changed.

<Tutorial Healer Robes (F+): lv 15>

Materials: Cloth

Enchantments: Self Repair, Purification.

It was now ranked F+ instead of just F, and it was no longer at its max level. Teresa smiled to herself, happy to see progress. It was about time for them to get moving again, but all Teresa could think about was how she couldn't wait until they ran into another Portal.

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