A rock the size of my head smashes into a tree behind me to the right, breaking apart and kicking up a cloud of dust. At least, I'm going to assume that's what happened, considering eight others have done the same in my view and the three others I've seen the remnants of during this attempt at escaping the beast.

As it turns out, there are threats other than the squirrels in this part of the forest. I knew things seemed too easy for us, but had assumed that it was because this was the first stage of the Dungeon. With only the squirrels attacking, it had seemed that was basically the only threat for this zone.

Another threat, I've now learned, is a bear that stands about four feet taller than me when it's on its hind legs. The beast iscapable of creating rocks the size of my head and throwing them using its magic. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than if it threw them itself, but they're definitely trouble and I'm lucky to have managed to avoid being struck by them so far.

I do know one thing for sure, though: my knives and magic are useless against the bear. The pair of knives I threw it at bounced off and my spells didn't appear to do any damage to it in the slightest. In other words, its Constitution is far superior to that of the squirrels, and it's far superior to my strength at the moment, too.

This Dungeon might be significantly higher-Leveled than I am, and I'm starting to think coming here this soon was a mistake.

Fortunately, the bear is keeping a decent distance from me. I'm in its range, and it's not in my range, but it's still following me. For a reason unknown to me, it's keeping around thirty feet back, though it falls behind if it stops running to summon a stone. Once it throws it, however it continues on its charge, returning back to the distance it likes to keep before slowing again.

Hopefully, my plan works. If not, I might not survive.

Slipping out of my backpack, I toss it to the side, then keep running. The damn thing was interfering with my running just a little, and constantly banging my arms on it as I ran was irritating. Hopefully, I can get to my destination. Hopefully, this works.

Not hearing the heavy impacts of the bear's paws against the floor of the cave, I count to three under my breath, then dodge to the left, the four dead squirrels hanging from my belt spreading out for a moment before smacking back against my legs. I'm so glad I sewed up their stomachs after removing their guts, or I'd probably have lost part of them from all of this. As it is, I might have to ditch them like I did the backpack. Even if I can retrieve them after this, I don't want to risk something else getting to them first. I don't want to hunt and gut more today. I might just have to, though.

The rock the bear summoned flies to my right, far enough over that it would have hit me, had I dodged to the right.

Just like I had the last few times. Showing intelligence, the bear's learned my pattern. I'm glad I decided to move the other way this time. Since the bear's clearly more intelligent than just some dumb beast, that probably won't work anymore.

Fortunately, I'm almost to my destination. If this works, then I'm safe. If it fails, then I'm screwed for sure.

Continuing my run, I realize that I can't hear the bear chasing once more. I know it hasn't given up, which can only mean one thing: it's manifesting another boulder. It takes it around two seconds to create them, and another second for the rock to be thrown and to reach me.

How did I end up getting chased by this bear? I was inspecting some grey berries growing on a bush when it showed up and started attacking. After my attacks failed, I realized there was no way I was going to win this fight, so I took off running. Then the bear chased after me, and all I've done is run and avoid its attacks, yet it's continued to chase.

Maybe running was a bad idea? Could my running have encouraged it to chase after me? Well, it was already attacking me, so it might not have mattered, the bear would probably have continued its assault even had I played dead or whatever the hell I'm supposed to do when faced with a killer magic bear.

Glancing back when the bear continues to not chase after me, I see it forming another boulder, just as I expected. I move behind a tree to avoid this one, continuing on my path after I hear the impact. Almost there. Another hundred feet at most.

The bear chases me the rest of the way, not stopping to throw another stone at me. Why is it so persistent? Because this is a Dungeon? Or did I perform some unwitting insult to it without realizing it? The beast attacked first, after all.

Reaching the shallow stream, I continue on my way, stumbling as the rocks making up its bed shift under my feet. Slowing down to avoid injury, I continue crossing the stream. It reaches a few inches up my calves, soaking my feet even through my sneakers. This will be uncomfortable until I return to camp and can dry them off, but I'll manage for now.

As long as this works. If it fails, I'm probably going to die.

The stream is about forty feet across, and I make it to the other side and step out of it, then turn and wait for the bear. Just as I do, it reaches the stream and begins to cross, walking on all four legs. Once it's back to the range it likes to throw stones from, I'll-

A screeching from behind me interrupts my thoughts, and I turn and find one of the glowing fruits… looking in my direction. It has a head. With eyes. And a beak. And now it's unfolding its wings. That one isn't a fruit, its feathers ceasing their glow, revealing themselves to be pale blue.

The bird's hanging from a branch, as if it were a fruit, and it releases the branch, dropping down for a moment before spreading its wings and taking flight. I start to summon a [Magic Missile], but the bird soars past me. Following its path with my eyes, I watch as the bear hastily begins using its magic to throw the stones of the stream at the bird.

I'm forced to move to the side to avoid being struck by errant stones, the bird itself weaving between the stones, none of which are larger than my fist, on its flight. Turning, the bird glides around the bear, then the glow begins to return.

Realizing what's about to happen, I cover my eyes and look away. Judging by the brightness against my eyelids a moment later, it's just in time, too.

When I turn my attention back to the stream, there are now four birds, and they're flying low, then rising up. Water draws up with them, forming four streams flowing through the air, each around three inches thick. Four more birds join in as the bear attempts to stop them, throwing rocks at the birds and their streams, but none of its attacks hit.

Once there are eight streams of water, the birds begin weaving them across the bear, nimbly avoiding stones and swipes, even working with the bear moving around, attempting to flee. It doesn't make it back to the edge of the stream before the birds' water freezes, then the birds group up, soaring back over the water as the bear attempts to break free.

Water draws up once more, then as the birds fly straight up, twisting in a sort of spiral, the water turns into a lance of ice, which the birds then launch at the bear as the beast attempts to free itself. The lance shoots through the air, piercing through the bear's skull, impaling it to the ground.

For a moment, I'm terrified that the birds are going to come after me next, but they return to the trees, blending in as fruits once more.

What the hell just happened?

I'm going to be grateful the birds decided I wasn't worth their attention and not dwell on this too much.

Trekking back across the stream, I locate my backpack, then begin the long walk back to the bushes, to retrieve the pair of knives and to gather up some of those berries for Lucas. Then I'm going to head back, since I'm done hunting for the day.

The walk to the bushes takes me almost an hour. Running really does wonders for travel time.

My knives are easily retrieved and returned to their spots, then I kneel back in front of one of the bushes. The berries resemble blueberries to me, though a dark grey color rather than the blue of the berries I know. Inspecting them didn't yield me anything useful earlier, especially since I'm still at only 2 Inspection. They're called "terra berries", though, which hints that they have some earth-based property.

Since I've already examined the berries, I slip off my backpack. Maybe I would have been a little bit faster in my escape from the bear, had I already removed it. Or if I'd removed it from the start. It doesn't really matter at this point, and I'm going to continue to not try to figure out what went on between the birds and the bear.

Opening up my backpack, I pull out the empty can that used to hold peaches in it. We ate them yesterday, and the can makes for a perfect container to carry stuff in. I begin picking berries, filling the can with them, then I close it. It's not full enough to squish them down, and as long as nothing else happens, the berries should be fine in transit.

With my loot for today gathered, I begin the walk back to the cave we're camping out in, finding an exasperated Lucas in our camp.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Oh, you really did catch four squirrels," he says. "Did you gut them?"

"I remember hearing you need to do that as soon as you kill them," I say. "I don't remember why."

"Ah," he says.

"So what's wrong?"

"I haven't actually succeeded in making a potion," he admits. "I need to figure out the ingredients better. Did you get some new stuff?"

"A few things," I pull off my backpack, then open it up and begin laying out what I brought.

There are the berries, a couple of fruits, some herbs, some roots, and some vegetables. Lucas looks at everything in silence, and I can tell that he's inspecting them.

"All of them say they're food, with some saying they're reagents," he tells me, then indicates some herbs I found. "Did you get a rash touching those?"

"No, should I have?"

"It has them flagged as poisonous," he tells me. "Even though it also calls them food and a reagent. They might need to be boiled to be safe."

"Oh," I say. "No, I didn't get a rash."

I'll wash my hands, though, just to be safe.

"Alright," he says. "So it might be on consumption. I'll need to up my Inspection and see if it yields more useful information."

"Okay," I say. "Are you cooking, or am I?"

"Me, definitely me," he hastily answers. "No offense intended, Carter, but you're much too amateurish. I'll be happy to teach you as I cook, but you are not cooking by yourself. Since we have new ingredients, I'd rather I do all of it since I have the experience to figure out if things are going south or not and the experience to figure out how to put the stuff together, and it'll be easier if it's just me."

His honesty makes me glad. I know he prefers to do the cooking because I am rather bad at it and he has to constantly watch me when I'm cooking, correcting me so that I don't screw things up. He didn't mean it maliciously, and I'm sure that once he knows how to put the ingredients together in a way that works, he'd be willing to help me make the same dish.

"Okay," I untie the squirrels from my belt and set them on the boulder, to the side of everything else. "They may be a little battered, I had an encounter with a stone-throwing bear and they kept spreading out, then slamming back into my legs. I think they hit trees a few times, too."

"A stone-throwing bear?"

"Yeah," I confirm as I start removing my shoes and socks so that I can dry them by the fire. "And judging by how well it took my attacks, I'm starting to think we may need a lot of training to be able to clear this Dungeon."

"How much training?" He asks.

"Enough," I sit down in front of the fire. "That I probably should have waited until I had a decent Level before entering. The only thing I could think of to possibly get me an escape – not a victory – would have left me completely out of Mana. And if it failed? Then the bear probably would have killed me."

Because it was a Dungeon I had a Quest for, I'd assumed it was something someone starting out could handle, even though it was Rank 2. I'd figured the Rank was because it was a Dungeon. All of the Rank 1 Quests I've seen and looked at have been relatively easy, so I'd thought a Rank 2 one wouldn't be too much more difficult.

The fight between the bear and those birds, however, made me realize how wrong I was. This isn't something someone starting out should be doing. It's possible I'd have to be at least Level 20 – maybe higher – before being able to tackle a Dungeon like this.

I am definitely completing [Magical Might II] and [Bountiful Mana II] before taking on the big daddy of squirrels, and before I do that, I'm going to test my might against some of the stronger beasts in this area. If I can handle them relatively easily, then I can take on the boss. If I struggle to beat them, then I need to get stronger.

The ability to kill the grunt monsters with ease is a must-have before taking on the boss in a party this small, especially if I'm the only combatant. As I'm unable to even scratch that bear, I'd probably be killed in moments against the boss.

"How did you get away?" Lucas asks. "If it was that much more powerful than you?"

"Killer glow birds with power over water."

"Uh…"

"I decided not to think about it too much, but they didn't seem interested in me, only the bear. Maybe it likes to steal their eggs?"

"Uh…"

"Also, always Inspect the glow fruits before touching them, they might be a killer glow bird with power over water and a penchant for freezing their foes, then spearing them with a lance made of ice."

"…I'll keep that in mind."

"Good," I nod. "Not trying to sound impatient or rude or anything, Lucas, but could you please make dinner now? Running around like that has made me even hungrier."

That probably still came out sounding impatient, but he'd said he was going to cook and I have been out for hours, hunting and running and trekking through a forest. Doing that's pretty exhausting and really has made me hungry. I hope he understand that, and that I'd be fine waiting a little bit if he's not ready to cook yet.

Since when do I people enough to try to make that clear?

"Sure," Lucas laughs in response. "With what we have, I'll try to do something a bit better than a stew. Give me maybe half an hour to forty-five minutes. Can you peel potatoes?"

"How much of the caltato do you want left?"

"Never mind."