Speed had been abandoned by the caravans. Even though this was the beginning of the spring, and the effects of winter could be seen in the pathway through the wild, they had tried to go as fast as the beasts would allow, but now the impending doom of Sadena and the migration of animals(all mana enriched beings) towards the dungeon forced the merchant to make a decision as to whether he wanted to continue.

If they continued, it was inevitable that they could meet a lot of animals and beasts, but a stop would deplete their supplies if they did not hunt.

When the sun rose in the morning, the merchant had made his decision. He had decided that they would find a location less populated, perhaps a ravine or a cave, and take shelter there for some time before making any more decisions. Food was not too big a concern since the constant line of animals moving towards the dungeon would provide more than enough game, and yet they would not be able to live on just meat, meaning they had to find a solution to their problems soon.

They wandered around with the rough map for hours on end, searching for a suitable location.

As nighttime approached, they were still unable to find a location to make camp and with the night still being cold, so they took shelter in the wagons.

It was not a comfortable night by any means of the word. In fact, no one was able to sleep the whole night, worried that some beast would notice their presence, but the merchant had been prepared for a long journey and had some men able to put up wards to deter all wild beings from noticing them.

The next day was more of the same wandering around to find a location to rest until the all clear from the guild.

Towards midday was when they finally found a small cave to take shelter in. Before anyone could step foot inside the cave, the Silver Builders did their due diligence by going inside to clear the area of all monsters that might still be inhabiting it.

By luck, or perhaps the effects of the dungeon break, the cave was unoccupied. It was a decently sized cave in the side of a very big hill, and the Silver Builders, living up to their name, were able to excavate the cave and expand it to a size required to fit the whole caravan, along with building doors for solo access.

It was nighttime by the time they finished and while there was not a lot of room in the cave it was better than sleeping out in the open.

El was not very involved in these processes since he had no levels. He was a spectator for all intents and purposes. This resulted in him being ignored by most of the individuals in the group. The merchant, who had been friendly, was now in a bad mood as the delay would cost him profits. The adventurers, and drivers were far too busy taking care of their own business to make small talk.

They spent the next few days in the makeshift cave. Waiting. And yet, the hordes of animals passing by did not seem to lessen. In fact, it seemed that the number of animas/monsters traversing towards the break had increased, an indication that it was a big dungeon break, not just a regular one.

El spent his days doing more physical exercises. He knew the necessary actions needed to level, so he continued to do it.

It was only two days after they had been sequestered in the cave that El got the message:

Level 3. Skill: [Prosper in Nature]

Usually, any level would be welcome; especially one that sounded like it would help you survive. However, now was not a convenient time for levels. El had little choice in the matter however, as he received the level. His body seemed to shut down completely as the mana within was used to increase his level.

When a person leveled up, all the mana in the body would go towards improving the body. If there was extra mana left over when a person leveled and they had put in effort towards using/depending on a skill, it was known that that skill might upgrade. For instance, with enough leftover mana, a [lesser athleticism] might upgrade to [athleticism] or a [lesser strength] might convert to [strength].

El was bed stricken the whole day, and his food consumption had increased in order for his body to recover enough mana. The merchant, already annoyed with his current conditions, seemed to be almost outright hostile when his stockpile of food kept dwindling.

A week passed with no further actions being taken, and the food stock diminishing. At one point, the Silver Builders attempted to go hunt, but the migration towards the dungeon had not yet stopped, and there were numerous strong beasts on the prowl.

The Merchant was now outright hostile towards El, since he was unaccounted for when taking food into consideration.

The teams responding to the guild had taken some food with them. That combined with the feeding of the merchant and his men, as well as the consumption of the Tuataras; food had become a scarce commodity.

After the end of the second week, when the migration seemed to slow down, the Silver Builders left the cave in an attempt to hunt.

The team did not return that evening.

It was in the air as to what happened to them, but everyone seemed to have reached the conclusion that they had perished. The merchant, who had at one point seemed a nice man, was seething in rage. He had lost his protectors and was on the verge of losing his beasts of burden due to hunger. He wasn’t even sure of his own survival.

That night the merchant did not give El any food. The merchant seemed to have dealt with his potential loss and was acting towards protecting himself from starvation for as long as he could by saving as much food as possible.

El slept hungry that day, prompting him to wonder what he could do to get back in favor with the merchant.

One obvious way seemed to be to give the merchant some way of making money, so he would want to keep El alive. In his hunger, El ignored any potential repercussion he may face because of his actions, and asking for a meeting with the merchant, gave him the recipe for maple syrup.

The forest they had been walking had plenty of maple trees, so as long as one knew how to use these trees, making maple syrup would be no problem.

The merchants greed was such that he did not hesitate to potentially doom one of his men by sending him out to drill and tap in a tree with one of his buckets. The merchant did not want to make a huge batch of syrup now, but he needed to do enough to confirm if El’s words were correct.

Thankfully for El, the timing had been good, as they had left in early spring from Sadena in order to arrive at Rine before winter, therefore making it the perfect time for maple sap to flow.

After tapping the trees and waiting hours for the sap to accumulate and hours of boiling later, it was evident that the first batch of maple syrup in this world had been made. The merchant was no longer worried about the small loss in profit from this layover, he was instead excited about the profits this would bring him. The worry for food was still in the back of his mind but it was not as all-consuming as it had been before.

That night, after consulting with his men, Renodet decided to kill one of the Tuataras, which would both lessen the mouths needed to feed and increase the food supply. It was a big decision to take; but it would go to ensure that their food needs were met. He was no longer concerned about making profit, for this new recipe would be more than enough. What he needed to do was make sure he was alive to utilize it.

Unfortunately, new profits beget new problems.

To Renodet, being nice was an act. A merchant needed to be approachable, of all things, and it was a decision he had made in order to relate to his customers. But acting nice and being nice were two completely different things.

He was a cunning man, beyond the understanding of most upstanding people, for his demeanor could change to be your best friend if you were beneficial to him and in the next, he could be your worst enemy.

He was an opportunist through and through.

And now, he had been presented with a problem. For you see, he had been presented a technique that could, in the long-term profit him thousands of platinums if sold correctly. It was unlikely for anyone to guess what it was, since skills usually did not uncover processes used to make things, only the ingredients.

And even if people knew what the ingredient was, which in this case was just tree sap, they would not know the process through which to make it.

His problem was El.

There was only one other person in possession of the knowledge of making this new recipe, and he needed to get rid him so he would have solo knowledge of the method.

Renodet was in deep thought. They were many things he could do to solve his problems. He could kill El. The problem with that would be the Academy. They took it seriously if you hurt one of theirs. So he needed other methods with which to dispose of El.