Janet purred reassuringly, holding the frightened bundle of dirty fur in her arms. "It's alright, I've gotcha. That's a good kitty, that's right..." She said, before waving at everyone as she walked into the clearing with the apartments. She made a beeline for Claire, over in the garden. "Heyyy! Look who I found!" She says, walking up to her and gesturing towards the cat in her arms.

"What? Oh! Kitty!" Claire exclaimed, standing up and coming to meet Janet. "Oh, poor thing! Looks scared... I don't think I see any blood though? Here, let me give him some healing..." She said, gently holding her hands out, and the cat meowed in surprise as the magic washed over it, before beginning to purr. "See? Much better."

Janet nodded. "You think you can convince chomper to leave him alone?" She asked.

Claire huffed. "Oh yeah, Chomper's a good boy. Mostly just snoozes in the sun if I don't make him get up and do stuff, anyway. I'll make sure he knows to leave the kitty alone." She catches the cats name tag and reads it. "Button, eh? Ooof. Well, here, lets get him cleaned off..." She said, and the two of them walked into the building.

---------------

Sarah stood before Maxim and Jack. "Alright, check this out!" She said, and her hands lit up with magic, the metal components Jack had prepared lifting into the air and slotting together, then lighting up white hot as they melted together and formed into a single piece. "What do you think, eh?"

Maxim reached out and took the new weapon, the short sword they'd been working on for Alice. "Hmmm... Yez, it is acceptable. I still think there is room for improvement, but this will suffice for making veapons." He said, passing the resulting item off to Jack.

"...Yeah, looks good to me. I'll get the hilt wrapped and finish it up for Alice, then. You said you have that forge almost done, Maxim?" He said, and the bear man nodded.

"Yez. It is complete. I just need good fuel. Ve are making charcoal now, I have a pit buried and cooling." He replied.

"Good, good. We should make lots of that, we can use the extra to keep the latrines from smelling. Good for the soil, too, though with Claire that's less important..." Jack said.

"Well, I have another spell for you." Zach said, walking up to Sarah. "Nothing crazy, but I bet you can do something neat with it?" He said, sharing the description with her.

Waterproof
- Cost: 1 MP
- Casting Time: 1 second
- Duration: 1 hour
- Range: Touch
- Target: No more than 10 lbs of contiguous matter.
- The target is protected against water and other fluids by a thin shell of force.

Sarah looked it over. "...You know, I bet I can." She said. "Show me a casting?" Zach did so, casting the spell on a sheet of paper and handing it to Sarah. She dripped some water from a water bottle on it, and it ran off cleanly. "Okay, neat. I'm supposed to be able to cast spells manipulating water, ice and air... Another thing to figure out, I guess." She sighed. "Well, I got the spell, I'll see what I can do with it."

Miria paused as she stalked through the forest, sweeping an arc around the apartments about 15 minutes out. There was a sense of something different in the air, sending tingles down the back of her neck. Gripping her spear, she surveyed the forest and smirked as she heard something approach. "Alright, come get some!" She shouted, readying herself, and with an angry scream the monster flung itself at her.

[Murder Squirrel, Level 3]

She took a deep breath and struck out with her spear, but the creature twisted aside and kicked off it, escaping with a glancing cut. It hissed and growled at her, slowly stalking a circle around her as she hissed back. "Yeah that's right. You think an extra level is gonna let you get me? I don't think so." She said, darting forwards and striking at it. But again, it twisted and rolls, slipping past her spear and leaping at her, screaming defiance. She caught it with one of her armored upper arms, smashing it aside and leaving it pulling itself to it's feet, growling and whining. She sighed, readying her spear. "...Yeah, I don't like this so much either. Well, come at me then..." She said, and this time, her spear struck true, pinning the creature to the ground as it died.

[Murder Squirrel, Level 3 Defeated! +23 Essence!]

Miria returns from the forest to find Jack waiting for her. "Hey, what's up?" She asked.

"Well, I managed to get my 'Melee Combat' skill up to level five and got a milestone. Take a look." He said, sharing some dialogs with her.

[Melee Combat has reached Level 5! Choose a milestone.]
- +1 FP per level.
- +1 Temp FP per combat per 3 levels.
- +1% improved speed in melee combat per level.

Miria tilted her head. "Huh. Okay, that's neat. So abilities get more powerful as you level... Well okay, we knew that, but it's exponential, then? No wonder there's diminishing returns." She looked the abilities over again. "Any idea what you're going to choose?"

Jack shrugged. "The first option beats the second unless I'm doing three or more combats a day - and that assuming I'm at a three level breakpoint, otherwise it's even worse. On the other hand, I could seek out more than three combats a day if I wanted to pretty easy... But, I have other stuff to do. The speed is nice, but again, only helps in combat, and I actually kinda want to focus on other stuff, now that I think about it." He sighs. "Probably should have thought about that before I leveled combat so much, but oh well, better late than never."

Miria nods. "So, the first ability then? Alright, fair enough. Well, I'll take a look at my own abilities and see what I want to try and level up first..." She says. "I guess I should look at things and decide what I really want to focus on, too. Thanks for the heads up, in that regards..." She pauses. "Oh, while I have you here, I should warn you - I just fought a level three monster. Decently tougher than a level two one, but nothing too drastic. Still, it seems the monsters are getting tougher, so, watch out. We might want to prioritize leveling up the people who are still level 1, before they get left behind, too."

Jack frowns. "...Yeah, that might be a good idea."

Sasha beamed as everyone gathered around the tables. "Welcome! Well uh, here's lunch. Nothing too fancy, I know, but we have carbs, fruits, veggies, even meat, if you're willing to eat murder squirrel." She said, shrugging and pointing to some kebabs. "It's a little gamey, but honestly not bad! So, I'll eat it if nobody else does." She said, smiling as people gathered round and helped themselves. They'd made one of the bottom floor apartments into a meal hall, moving in tables and chairs from several other apartments.

"This is good! Honestly, I'm impressed what you managed to pull off without electricity." Zach said, chowing down on a roasted tuber covered in spices.

"Well, we've got fire. Maxim and Jack helped me put together a firepit, and I've got a decent selection of cookware. And lots of spices. So, that all makes things pretty easy. Not doing too bad on cooking oil, either... We'll start to run low on these eventually, but it should be months I think? I'm writing up a list of stuff I need for Miria and Janet to salvage, so that should help. And hopefully we can figure out some local production of stuff? Herbs should be easy enough, at least. Claire's been putting in a garden, to make food production easier..."

Claire nodded. "Several gardens, really. I have an ornamental one I made for meditating, and now I'm putting in more for food production. We'll have to expand beyond the hedge wall eventually, I think? That should be a while though."

"So I hear you got yourself some magic?" Miria asked, looking over at Zach as they finished their meal.

"I sure did! Check it out." He said, his chitin lighting up with a reddish gold nimbus that quickly faded to a faint glitter before he shared the description for the spell and the skill that allowed him to cast it.

Miria raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Very nice! I'll admit, I didn't think it would be so easy. Maybe some of the rest of us should look into learning magic?" She said, looking over at Jack, who shrugged.

"Not sure I want to spread my build so thin... I already have 'Spirit of Endurance' to spend MP on. Though I suppose Zach's magic there would be very practical, if I did want to learn magic. I dunno, I'll think about. Might look for crafting magic, I don't want to be a full time fighter. Maybe see what Sarah can teach me?" He said, glancing at her.

She shrugged. "Sure! You're welcome to come visit anytime and I'll try and teach you. Though you might want to get Claire to teach you meditation first, that's what Zach did."

Jack nodded. "Fair enough. What about you, Miria? You want to pick up magic?"

Miria pursed her lips. "...Maybe. I literally get, like, 2 MP per level, and that's it... So, I dunno. Not sure I should be a pure warrior either... Still have to decide what I want to focus on leveling up. Maybe see if I can estimate what we need, overall. Mainly want us to focus on scouts, right now. And necessary sustainment and production, of course. Anyone else know what they want to work on?"

Sasha sighs. "Well, cooking is obvious for me. I hear you want to get the rest of us essence at some point? I've been gaining some passively, and was able to level my cooking skill once with it..."

"Yeah, you'll want more than that. Like, me and Zach have both leveled pretty much all our stats and skills several times, and the people we've been helping to grind aren't far behind." Miria says apologetically.

Sasha groans. "Oh, oof. Yeah I'm pretty far behind then. Okay. Well, I guess I can kill monsters if I have help...?"

Miria laughs. "Yeah I wouldn't expect you to do it alone, these monsters can be pretty dangerous."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I got a scouting skill." Janet chimes in. "I'll be leveling it, obviously, along with my other skills. You're right that we need more scouting, and I'm the most obvious choice. Though maybe Zach can get an Alarm spell or something?" She says. "If so, then that would be really useful, I'd definitely try and pick up his branch of magic then. Assuming I have the MP to cast it, of course."

"Well, the skill gives some MP... And it's spells don't cost too much, and have decent durations? " Zach says uncertainly. "I dunno. I'll try scouting, and using my magic while scouting, and see how well it works. If you have to scout in the rain, the waterproof spell might be pretty nice..." He says, and Janet perks up.

"Well damn, that does sound nice. Okay then, I'll definitely have to look at it." Janet replied.

"Hey Sasha. You need help again?" Sarah said, smiling as the holstaur walked into the workshop. Jack looked up behind her, to Sasha's embarrassment.

"What with?" He asked, and Sarah giggled, while Sasha covered her face.

"Girl stuff. Don't worry about it." She teased, walking over and putting an arm around Sasha, guiding her from the room. "To the kitchen?" She asks, and Sasha nods.

"Yeah. I-I have the jugs cleaned and prepped and e-everything." She says, face burning as her nipples perk up.

Sarah grins. "Good girl. Lets get to it, then" She says, guiding the flustered holstaur into place and closing the door behind them. "Here we are, take a seat." She says, prepping the arrangement they'd made - a cushion on the ground for Sasha to kneel on, and a low, padded, backless seat for her to lean over and put her arms on. Sasha sighed and got into position, removing her shirt, kneeling down, and leaning over, her tits hanging beneath her.

"I-I'm ready...!" She said breathlessly, skin already lighting up with goosebumps as her nipples throbbed. Sarah pulled up another low seat beside her and slid a jug into position beneath Sasha, before sitting down and leaning over her.
"There we are. Breathe for me." She said, reaching out to gently massage Sasha's tits, then picking one, lining it up with the jug, and giving it a firm, steady squeeze, from her base to her nipple. Sasha stiffened and gasped, trembling in pleasure as the milk jetted out of her, Sarah's deft aim delivering it all into the waiting jug just beneath her. "Good girl. That's it, just breathe..." Sarah said, her hands lightly caressing Sasha's breast as they returned to her base, before repeating the motion, wringing another stream of milk from the holstaur's full tit.

"H-Hnnn! A-ah, please, gentle...!" Sasha whined, twitching and gasping as Sarah milked her slow and steady.

Sarah laughed softly. "Sasha, I am being gentle. If I'm any gentler, we'll be here all day - and that would probably just make things worse for you, yeah?" She says, slowly squeezing another stream of milk out, leaving Sasha groaning and putting her face on her arms.

"B-but, if you keep up like that, I-I'm g-gonna...!" She moaned, squirming as Sarah switched to the other tit, swapping in another jug of milk.

"Shhh, it's alright. You can cum if you need to, yeah?" Sarah said, taking a moment to rub Sasha's back before she went back to milking her.

"I-I! I-it's, hnnn. I-I'm not that kind of giiirl!" Sasha moaned, gritting her teeth as she just barely held herself back while Sarah finished filling the second jug, and returned to Sasha's first tit, swapping in a third jug. "I-I! I, I, ohhhh...!" She moaned, finally giving in and cumming as Sarah wrung more milk from Sasha, her tit already sensitized from it's earlier milking. "...Fuuuck." She moaned, panting and twitching as Sarah kept milking her, taking her time to wring every last drop out.