A fox that reaches my knees in height, with brown fur with a green hue to it and a thick, fluffy tail hops in front of the bush I was preparing to approach. It's kind of cute, to be honest. I remember seeing some foxes at Grandma's house, back when I was staying there for a few months after she found and rescued me. They were nice to play with and pretty friendly, though much smaller than this one. And colored differently. And probably not monsters that will attack because we're in a Dungeon.

The creature sniffs the berries on it, then picks one of them off with its mouth, eating the berry. It chews for a few moments, then turns and looks at me. For a few moments, we just watch each other, and I start to think we're good and it will let me move on.

Then it bares its teeth at me and I realize I was a bit too hopeful with that.

"Nice little fox," I murmur. "I'm not wanting to fight you."

I will if it attacks, though.

The fox takes a threatening step forward, then flicks its tail forward from the side. Something shoots out of its tail, and I barely managed to move in time to avoid having the object embed itself in my chest. Instead, the projectile slices my arm before continuing on its way.

I start casting my newest spell, avoiding two more of those attacks, which I determine to be thorns it's either stored in its tail and is using magic to throw or which it's creating on its own through magic

The bolt spell forms, the normal white-blue of a magic bolt laced with light grey. Four seconds and 4.8 Mana to cast. That's too long and too much, but the former will go down with practice and the latter with training and adjustments that will take time to figure out.

The [Sleep Bolt] shoots forward and the fox dances to the side, flicking its tail and sending more thorns my way. I begin summoning another [Sleep Bolt] even before the first one impacts the ground, dissipating into nothing upon contact. One of the thorns catches me in the left leg, and I send the [Sleep Bolt] at the fox from closer, the spell grazing its fur.

Snarling, the fox charges towards me, thorns sprouting all over itself. This thing intends on using its body as an attack, tearing me up with those. I move to the side as I start casting another [Sleep Bolt]. If I can actually hit this thing with them, then I can see if this works against something much weaker than the bear.

At least, I'm hoping this is weaker than the bear. I could be wrong.

The fox chases me around several trees, only my sudden changes of direction keeping me from being slashed by this thing, and I manage to summon a third [Sleep Bolt]. This time, the spell strikes the fox in the side, and the beast stumbles a few steps before collapsing, unconscious.

Not entirely sure how long it will stay that way, I summon up a [Magic Needle] and stab it into the fox's right eye.

Experience Acquired: +7% (Held) Loot Dropped: Thorntail Fox Pelt

The moment the message appears in my vision, the pelt of the fox appears beside it, the thorns missing. Cautiously, I pick up the pelt. No thorns pop out, which relieves me.

The pelt seems to already be treated, ready for someone to work it into something rather than needing tanned for however long that process takes. Holding up the pelt, I examine it for a few minutes, turning it this way and that.

With some work, I could probably wear it as a cover for my crotch and ass. Or a loincloth. How would Lucas react to me returning to the cave wearing that? He likes to check me out just as much as I like to check him out, so I'm sure there would be some sort of extremely noticeable reaction in him.

I'm not going to, though.

I am, however, going to take this pelt back with me. Before I do that, though, I decide to give it an Inspection, since we can use it on dead animals, even if not living ones.

Thorntail Fox Pelt Quality: Medium Attribute Acquired: Inspection +1

Finally. I can now tell if I'm just grabbing some random item or if it's a reagent, food, poison, mix of those, or something else entirely. I decide to use Inspection on the pelt again.

Thorntail Fox Pelt Quality: Medium Properties: Soft, Resource

It's right that the fur is soft. That's part of why I'm definitely taking this. As long as I don't have to cast it aside at some point, it's coming out of the Dungeon with us and probably being made into something. The pelt's large enough for that, and it's extremely soft. Or if I can find something safe to stuff it with, I'll turn it into a makeshift pillow.

Lucas's stomach is nice as a pillow. I want to use that again.

Focus, Carter. Focus.

The 'Resource' property, according to Lucas, probably means that an item can be used to make a tool or item or something, rather than as food or a reagent.

Deciding to Inspect the thorntail fox's body just to see what pops up, I examine it first as a whole, then focus on various parts of it. Lucas said that's part of how he got his Inspection up so high so fast – checking not just the whole, but individual parts. Apparently, we can get different results for doing that.

Thorntail Fox Corpse Quality: Medium Properties: Resources

I suppose the 'resources' as a property would make that obvious, but Lucas figured it out on his own. To me, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. 'Resources' is different from 'Resource' in that it means there are several resources in it, rather than it being a single resource itself.

I go through some of the corpse's parts.

Thorntail Fox Meat Quality: Medium Properties: Food Thorntail Fox Bones Quality: Medium Properties: Resource Thorntail Fox Nose Quality: Medium Properties: Resource; Reagent Thorntail Fox Eyes Quality: Medium Properties: Reagent; Food Thorntail Fox Blood Quality: Medium Properties: Reagent

Its eyes, nose, and blood are reagents. I should probably bring this back to camp, though it's going to be heavy and cumbersome to do so.

Before I get started on that, I first do my best to gut the animal, then use a little bit of water magic to wash the blood off my hands. The trip back to camp is going to take awhile, so it's best to get rid of all of that. Though I should probably burn the guts, I'll just leave them. If there are carnivores around, something will come and eat them.

Not to be deterred, though, I begin using [Earth Manipulation] to surround the corpse in a box, then I set the pelt on top of it before smoothing the bottom of the box with my magic. Using water magic, I fill the empty spaces in the box with ice, then top the box with a layer of stone to seal it up. Now, it should be fine to bring back to camp regardless of how long it will take.

With some rope tied around it, the box begins to slide a little easily as I pull it, the weight much more bearable like this. Instead of immediately heading back to camp, though, I walk over to the bush and examine the berries on the bush.

Each one is dark blue and shaped like a teardrop, the 'drop' part of it roughly the size of a blueberry.

Magetear Berry Quality: Medium Properties: Reagent

It's called a magetear berry? That suggests it has something to do with magic. Could this be an ingredient for making mana potions? Or to temporarily boost magical power?

Summoning up a box out of stone, I pluck many of the bush's berries and dump them into it, then seal the box shut. I set it on top of the box containing the fox, placing it under the pelt. I've nearly picked clean the bush, so I'll leave the rest for now.

Grabbing the ropes I tied around the bigger box, I begin pulling. The trip back to camp takes a long time, my arms growing tired and the bottom of the box occasionally needing to be magically-smoothed once more.

What took me half an hour to reach takes me nearly an hour and a half to come back from, though part of that is because I do stop from time to time to collect anything that looks like it might be useful for Lucas and his attempts at alchemy.

When I finally do return, he's sitting against a boulder. Lucas is butt-naked and jacking off, and he doesn't seem to have noticed me. We've both been taking care of ourselves away from the other, so I should have expected him to do this while I was gone. Or maybe I shouldn't have?

Either way, it's irrelevant. Seeing him with it out, jerking it off, brings me back to what happened, to the trauma I've been trying to get past. My heart's pounding hard, my body's trembling, and it feels like something is squeezing my lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

It's okay, Carter. It's not them. That's over. He hasn't noticed you here, he's not going to hurt you. Calm down. Grandma made sure you're safe.

Remembering Grandma's rescue of me helps. She gave me advice. What did she say to do to calm down? I need to hurry and remember it, or I might pass out again. She said it's good when I can think like this, even as I need to sit down.

That's right, sit down. I sit down, then focus on trying to control my breathing. What else did she say? When the memories come back up, don't try to push them down. Focus on something else. Focus on what? The trees?

I can't do that. He's still jacking off. I don't want to interrupt him, though. What if he beats me? Forces himself on me? Maybe he's been tricking me all this time and he wants me to walk in on him doing that, so that he can use it against me and break me more?

"Carter!" Grandma's voice echoes in my head, startling me. "When it's a cute guy who's sending you into an attack, focus on just a few things! First, has he given you any reason to worry before now? Has he done anything that would hint at him actually wanting to harm you?"

That's right. Grandma said to look at it rationally. In those early days of the attacks, she'd walk me through each of these as it happened. It helped me a lot more than I told her. I hope she's still alive when I leave here so that I can properly thank her.

The first step. Has Lucas done anything to make me worry? He's jacking off in the camp, probably to… no. I went out to explore a bit and test stuff out. Lucas probably thinks he's got a few more hours before I return. So far, he's given me my space, accepted my early suspicions of him, and has had no issue doing all the cooking. I can't think of anything that would warrant suspicion, it all comes from my paranoia after what I was rescued from.

"If not," Grandma's voice continues. "Then move on to the next thing. What about him is nice? His looks? His personality? His humor or smile? His talents? Is there anything you like doing with him? Think about the good in him, Carter."

His looks? I like the way his brown hair feels, and the friendliness and curiosity in his green eyes. His skin's pale, but not unnaturally so, and the lighting of this cave makes it look pretty nice. It's soft too. I really liked using his stomach as a pillow and want to do it again, if I'm completely honest. Then there's his cooking. Even with our limited resources, he's managing to make whatever I give him into actual meals, which I find amazing. Just how much did he focus on improving his skills?

"Third," Grandma says. "As you focus on that, as you calm down, Carter, remember that he's not one of those two bastards who stole you away from us when you were born. He's his own person, and he's damn cute, too."

Yeah, he is damn cute.

"Fourth and finally," her voice turns kind. "Remember that your real family loves you, Carter, and they're waiting for you to be ready to be around them."

"I know, Grandma," I mumble.

Walking through Grandma's steps helps me, and by the time I get to the last one, my body's no longer trembling, the memories of my… of those two people out of mind once more. Now I've got the picture of Lucas's smooth stomach and chest in my mind. I've calmed down from the attack, though there's still a light undercurrent of anxiety from it in my mind.

Another, unofficial piece of advice Grandma gave me for these situations is to own it once I've calmed down, and I decide to do just that.

Grabbing the ropes, I approach the camp, pulling the box as quietly as I can and from the side, so that Lucas doesn't notice me. By the time I'm at the camp, I'm surprised Lucas hasn't noticed me. He seems to be pretty focused on what he's doing.

Holding out a hand, I summon an orb of water directly above his head. The biggest I can manage is about the size of a basketball.

Releasing my hold over the spell, I let it drop down on him, soaking him.

"EEEK!" Lucas exclaims, jumping away from the boulder and stumbling in his haste, before finally looking at me. That ass looks nice. Turn back around. "Carter! That's not funny!"

It's definitely funny, which is why I'm smiling.

"I brought some stuff back," I tell him as I pull the pelt off the box and start rolling it up. "The big box has a fox in it, though the System skinned it and treated the pelt for us. The pelt's mine, so don't use it. As for the smaller boxes, I'll open them up. They've got reagents in them."

"Cool," he says. "Why'd you soak me?"

He doesn't seem angry, just curious.

"To let you know you were caught with your pants off," I answer, and he rolls his eyes. "Can you turn around for a second?"

"Sure," he turns around.

With how quickly he did that and the fact that he did so without question, it's another sign that I can probably trust him a bit more. Maybe I'll ask him if I can use his stomach again after I get back?

Related to that, that's one nice ass.

"Okay," I use my magic to start removing the lids. "I'm opening these up for you, Lucas, then I'm heading back out. I only returned this early because of the fox."

"Got it," he joins me at the box. "Can I feel the pelt?"

"After you wash your hands."