‘Well, that was a successful run!’ Doyle brightens, ‘I know we sort of talked about how the people coming through from the tutorial being different but I was still worried. While the party dynamics there left something to be desired, the group was competent. We might not get many deaths at first while it is just the locals but I think in the long run even the first floor can get a couple people.’

Ally rubs the back of her head, ‘yeah I didn’t go into who would be sent through from the tutorial did I? Well better late than never. Anyone that was given the option to test us out will have been the cream of the crop. Compared to other worlds they would match the children of merchants in power. Good skills that are well leveled before they start leveling. Not quite the best but not what you would find regularly.’

Doyle nods, ‘good to know. Anyway, I don’t think I need to change up much right now. The goats can be a threat, especially that last room of them.’

He is about to say something else but he can detect something going through his portal. They both look over and notice a small grocery bag of stuff laying on the ground of the empty entrance room.

That empty bit kicks Doyle in the head, ‘oh right, need to refill the dungeon. Those guys gave me a bit of energy overflow so I better use it before I lose it. Besides that they mentioned a plan to leave some goods so I guess that would be it.’ Doyle spawns some goats and an assassin vine before he deconstructs the bag. ‘Now lets see what the logs says.’

{Minimal experience gained

Blackberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated blackberries

Blueberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated blueberries

Strawberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated strawberries

Raspberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated raspberries

Blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry patterns merged into shrubbery pattern

Shrubbery pattern goes from lv2 to lv4

Shrubbery gains ability to grow berries

Bread pattern lv1 acquired

Wheat pattern lv0 derived from bread pattern

Waste plastic pattern analyzed and discarded

Sugar pattern lv0 derived from candied lemon

Lemon pattern lv0 derived from candied lemon

Pepper pattern lv1 acquired

Mint pattern lv0 derived from dried mint

Sage pattern lv0 derived from dried sage

Rosemary pattern lv0 derived from dried rosemary

Tea pattern lv0 derived from tea leaves

Lavender pattern lv0 derived from dried lavender

Peppermint pattern lv0 derived from peppermint essential oil

Aloe vera pattern lv0 derived from Aloe beverage

Pepper, mint, sage, rosemary, tea, lavender, peppermint, and aloe patterns merged into herb pattern lv3

Olive pattern lv0 derived from olive oil

Bread, wheat, sugar, salt, olive, strawberry, and herb patterns merged into food patterns lv3

Deconstruction goes from lv7 to lv8}

Ally whistles, ‘Well that’s a few herbs there. Sad that we had to derive the patterns from most of it. Then again, not much fresh stuff sticks around after the restructuring that happens. Either it gets destroyed or animals end up eating it. Still it was enough to up your deconstruction which is nice.’

Doyle nods, ‘yep. Kind of them to provide me with all of this foodstuff. Of course it was for a selfish reason but that doesn’t change what it does for me. Most important though at the moment is those berries as they will let me finish my rectangular room. I always meant for it to be a berry garden. A little sad that they are level zero but that’s life.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘while that is nice it is by far the most important part. While a few mushrooms would be excellent we can wait on that. For now, those herbs will be an amazing help for us. Remember what I told you about the horn on our rabbits picking up effects from mystical herbs? Well, the first step towards mystical herbs are regular herbs. I advise you don’t plant all of them though. Rather pick a couple so they can be leveled up quicker. Do any of them feel important to you?’

‘Hmm’, Doyle’s core dims as he thinks on it. ‘Sage is obviously first on the list. I like it as a herb and I know it has some decent mystical meaning behind it. Aloe might not be something I was hot on eating but I love the plant. Plus even without magic it does wonders for a burn. Saved me a lot of pain that one summer. I had got my hair shaved really short and my head sunburned something fierce. Finally, I think I will plant an olive tree in the kobold room. I love olive oil when cooking and it has heavy connections to protection and the gods.’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘well that is an eclectic collection of herbs. I was expecting tea and mint to be honest. But yeah, the olive tree is good. That was going to be a suggestion of mine no matter what you chose. After all, gods will be a bit more active now that magic is a thing. While we are sort of beyond that stuff given our unique circumstances the people out there will probably get into it hardcore. That and a magic circle drawn in olive oil will provide a weak defense against outside influences even without the olives being magical. But yeah, you have a good spread there.’

Doyle takes a glance around his dungeon. ‘Okay, like I said, an olive tree in the kobold room. Back left corner will do. Sage likes drier soil so can I, hmm. [Dungeon Rule, keep three sage bushes on the first floor, replacing harvested bushes with regular shrubbery and changing a new random shrub to be sage].’

He glances around the floor and notices one bush ended up in the vine room. ‘Well, that isn’t quite what I wanted. Also, now that I look at it there should always be one in the big goat room. [Dungeon Rule, don’t place sage in the vine room, the entrance room, or a room that already contains sage except in the big goat room]. [Dungeon Rule, always keep at least one sage bush in the big goat room].’ Doyle checks again and the vine room bush is now in the large goat room like he wanted.

‘Good, that will let people gather some earlier but to get it all will have to go through some risk. Though if I ever get a mystical variant, I should probably keep it to the last few rooms of the dungeon. Now where to put the aloe? It is another plant that isn’t too fond of wetter soil. In fact, they like a similar environment but I don’t want the vine room empty of tempting prizes. Hey Ally, do I have to care too much about the actual requirements for my plants to grow? I want to stick the aloe in my vine room but it is a bit too moist for them.’

Ally glances up from a book she had pulled out at some point. ‘Oh, uh… Hey tutorial screen, how convenient of you to show up. Let’s see what it says. I know that you can plant things in the wrong places for them but I don’t know what that does. Hmm, okay it looks like the closer the plant is to its preferred habitat the better the harvesting results will be. Your sage bushes should allow anyone to just pick a few sprigs and a person with a harvesting skill might even get fifty percent of it before it wilts away.’

‘Placing your aloe in a damp room will mean most people without the skill for it won’t get anything. They will pick a leaf and it will wilt in their hands before disappearing. With a skill someone should be able to pick a few leaves. Even then though the unfavorable placement will mean you are likely to only see them grow to houseplant sized. Not the forearm sized leaves you can get from a properly raised plant.’

Doyle nods, ‘that actually works out perfectly for me. The sage can be my more general herb, the olives are my fancy harvest, and the aloe a specialty harvest. [Dungeon Rules, randomly keep three aloe plants in the vine room with at least one before all the assassin vines and one after them].’ He checks on their placement and nods. ‘This should be decent enough. Now what else to do while I wait?’

While Doyle ponders other changes to make Jim is exploring deep into the forest. Until now he had kept to the outer regions. Out there he was only finding some horned rabbits, fanged deer, the occasional slime, and even normal critters.

Jim wasn’t in a rush to level up, preferring to work on his skills but his tracking skill had plateaued. Combined with his herb skill not having raised at all since he raided the grocery store meant he needed more fertile territory. That and a dash of danger to add a bonus to skill growth was just what the deeper forest would provide him.

He had just seen what the system called an ironside boar and he was now backtracking its path. While he had faith in his archery skill, his stone-tipped arrows did not fill him with confidence. Instead, his plan was to see what it had been doing.

Jim didn’t have a trap skill but his herb skill contained the knowledge that magical beasts tend to hang out around them. He hoped that this boar had just visited some sort of mystical herb so he could train the skill. As he creeps through the trees, he can see other animals. A deer with crystal antlers, some rats that seem to sink into the shadows, and a couple of ducks with horns for some reason.

Those are all ignored. To change his target now would just be throwing away his work. Sure he knows this might just be the sunk cost fallacy rearing its ugly head, but the current tracks aren’t heading deeper into the forest so he would keep to it.

Jim’s perseverance was soon rewarded as he finds an area at the base of an oak tree that the boar had torn up. Most of what had been there was gone but with a little rummaging around he was able to find some shredded mushroom pieces. With great care he picks out each shred. Whatever had been here before had to have been giant as far as mushrooms go.

With the pieces secured in his pack Jim retreats to the outer forest and heads toward his closest campsite, a small nook on top of a broad tree. On the way he picks up a rabbit for dinner and a couple of sprigs of various edible plants, always careful to leave enough to let them regrow.

On top of his tree Jim pulls out one of the mushroom pieces. With some concentration he can tell it had been torn apart long enough ago any world energy it once contained had been lost. He expected this outcome though it made identifying it harder. From the placement he assumed it was an armillaria mushroom. Edible, though it was a sign that that oak was dying from root rot.

What was more important to him was how mystical it was when alive and the skill gains. Jim takes the smallest piece and rubs it on the back of his hand then waits. After time passes and his skin doesn’t react, he moves on. Jim takes another piece and touches it to his tongue. The sweet and nutty flavor points towards his guess of the species being correct. A few test chews of the piece show it to be slightly crunchy.

Along with that though there was the slightest hint of green. Not the color but that is the closest he can get to describing it. The power is gone but scars of its presence remain. While he hasn’t personally experienced it yet the information given by his skill tells him all he needs to know. The mushroom had contained more world energy than others but it had only been directed at growth. Only useful as a generic energy source and not a good one at that. It was however just what he needed to push his herb skill to the next level.