“Next stop: Viridian Basin,” Ambrosia said.

“Not yet.”

She stopped. “Not yet?”

“We have two slime buns and a pair of laboratory knives.”

“They’re very nice laboratory knives.”

“Have you actually visited the tutorial grounds?”

Ambrosia looked away.

“I was busy reading.”

“I knew it.”

“It was important reading.”

“I’m sure it was, but before we enter a forest that the locals are forbidden from visiting, we’re buying supplies.”

“What kind of supplies?”

“Basic shields, first-aid kits, torches, food, water—anything that might keep us from dropping our inventories in the middle of the woods.”

Ambrosia adjusted the toolbox in her arms. “That does sound useful.”

We left the fountain behind and returned to the general store. It was still crowded, but this time I knew what we needed.

Twenty minutes later, we emerged carrying two cheap wooden shields, several first-aid kits, torches, water flasks, crackers, and enough miscellaneous equipment to consume almost all the money we had left.

I checked my balance on the portable UI device.

“I’m broke.”

Ambrosia checked hers. “So am I.”

Her stomach made a quiet noise.

“And hungry, apparently.”

I handed her a packet of crackers.

She examined it with immediate suspicion. “These don’t look particularly good.”

“They aren’t. They keep the hunger meter from reaching zero.”

Ambrosia took a cautious bite. Her expression changed the moment she started chewing.

“It tastes like stacked paper.”

“That sounds about right.”

I passed her a water bottle. “Drink something too. I don’t want you choking before we reach the slimes.”

She drank and checked her status.

“My hunger is fine now, but emotionally, I still want the slime bun.”

“The buns provide regeneration. We’re saving them for emergencies.”

“Eating those crackers felt like an emergency.”

“Speaking of emergencies, you know what happens when you die, right?”

“You respawn.”

“Technically.”

Ambrosia narrowed her eyes. “That pause was concerning.”

“You respawn without whatever you were carrying or wearing.”

She stopped walking. “What?”

“Everything drops at the place where you died. Your inventory, equipment, money—probably the toolbox too.”

“And what do I respawn in?”

“I’ve only seen it happen to male players. They came back wearing white boxers.”

Ambrosia slowly looked down at herself, then at the toolbox in her arms.

“I feel considerably less adventurous now.”

“Good. Your survival instincts are functioning.”

“Perhaps you should collect the samples for me.”

“What exactly are we collecting?”

“Mushrooms.”

“Mushrooms?”

“Sulfurblast mushrooms. They grow inside Viridian Basin after sunset and release acid when disturbed.”

“That sounds less like a mushroom and more like a land mine.”

“They’re valuable research material.”

“Of course they are.”

Ambrosia opened the portable UI device and showed me an illustration from one of her books.

The mushroom was squat and yellow, with a swollen cap covered in tiny orange pores. Its stem appeared soft and wet, while the grass surrounding it had turned pale, as though something caustic had spilled across the ground.

“That thing absolutely explodes.”

“It releases acid when handled improperly.”

“That’s researcher language for exploding.”

Ambrosia hugged the toolbox closer. “Which is why I should probably come with you.”

“I’m definitely going to need expert assistance with the dangerous acid mushrooms.”

Her expression brightened. “Then we’re going?”

“After you learn how not to die to a tutorial slime.”

“I can also show you how to use the analysis toolkit.”

“We’ll kill a few slimes, practice moving and blocking, and learn how to collect samples with those very nice laboratory knives. Then we’ll head toward the forest before sunset.”

Ambrosia lifted her chin with exaggerated determination.

“I’m counting on you, Cloud-sensei.”

“Never say that again.”

“No promises.”

A few minutes later, we reached the tutorial grounds outside the city.

We each took a wooden shield in one hand, while the laboratory knives remained in their cases. No notifications appeared.

That made sense. Holding a tool did not mean we knew how to use it.

I pointed toward an isolated green slime bouncing through the grass.

“Let’s see what you can do.”

Instead of reaching for the knife, Ambrosia opened the toolbox.

“What are you—”

The slime noticed her.

Its round body compressed against the ground before launching forward like a wet cannonball.

“Ambrosia!”

“Don’t worry. I got this.”

She removed a small glass bottle, pointed its nozzle toward the incoming slime, and sprayed a cloud of clear liquid into the air.

The slime struck the mist.

Its surface began to bubble. The translucent membrane sagged inward, and the creature collapsed into a sizzling green puddle before it ever reached her.

A small brown core rolled free and stopped beside Ambrosia’s shoe.

“What was that?”

“Alcohol.”

“Alcohol?”

“It came with the laboratory kit. The anatomy book said slime membranes break down when exposed to certain solvents. Alcohol was one of the examples.”

“You brought slime poison.”

“I brought research supplies.”

“The slime would probably disagree.”

Ambrosia looked down at the dissolving puddle.

“I defeated it, didn’t I?”

She sounded far too pleased with herself.

“Can I try?”

Ambrosia pointed toward my toolbox. “You should have a bottle too.”

I opened the case and found one wedged between the sample jars.

Merely holding it produced no notification.

I approached another slime and waited for it to attack. When it bounced within range, I sprayed the solvent across its path.

The slime recoiled as the liquid touched it. Its body shuddered, collapsed, and dissolved into green sludge.

A notification appeared.

[Battle Scientist XP +1]

So the system had recognized what I had actually done: used biological knowledge and laboratory equipment during combat.

That was much more interesting than unlocking something by equipping a bottle.

“You enjoyed that,” Ambrosia said.

“A little.”

The remaining slime from the pair bounced toward me before I could inspect the result. I lifted the wooden shield and caught the creature against its surface.

The impact pushed my arm backward, but the shield held.

[Shield XP +1]

The slime dropped into the grass and began exposing its core. I stepped forward, drove the laboratory knife through the brown sphere, and twisted the blade.

The core cracked.

[Dagger XP +1]

The slime collapsed around the knife.

That settled it. Babel did not care what an item was called or where it came from. A laboratory knife became a dagger the moment I used it like one.

Ambrosia crouched beside the remains and showed me how to extract an intact core from the next slime.

When I had farmed alone, the creatures usually dissolved before I recovered anything useful. Ambrosia knew exactly where to make the incision.

She placed the blade near the center mass, cut through the weakened membrane, and rotated the knife until the core slipped free without cracking.

[Slime Core obtained]

[Slime Anatomy XP +1]

That was the difference.

I had been killing slimes. Ambrosia was harvesting them.

Once I understood the technique, our training session became less like combat and more like efficient pest control. Ambrosia weakened the slimes with solvent, while I blocked anything that reached us and removed the cores before the bodies dissolved. Any slime that attempted to divide was sprayed before it finished.

Within twenty minutes, dozens of green puddles marked our path across the field.

After another successful extraction, several notifications appeared.

[Slime Anatomy XP +1]

[Slime Anatomy Lv. 5]

[Basic combat information unlocked]

The next time I focused on a slime, its name tag became clearer.

[Lv1. Forest Slime]

[HP: 5/5]

“That’s new.”

Ambrosia looked over. “What is?”

“I can see its level and exact HP.”

Her eyes lit up. “Your Slime Anatomy skill must be giving you more information because you understand the creature better.”

The slime bounced toward us.

Ambrosia sprayed it, and its health dropped from five to zero immediately. As the name tag faded, another line appeared.

[Cause of Death: Alcohol Exposure]

“I’m starting to like this system.”

A few nearby players had stopped fighting to watch us.

One of them pointed his beginner sword toward the puddles. “Bro, are you two killing slimes with chemistry?”

Ambrosia brightened.

“It’s battle science!”

By the time we finished, the sun had begun sinking behind the city walls.

Ambrosia opened the illustration of the Sulfurblast mushroom again.

“They only emerge after sunset.”

“Of course they do.”

“The pores open in low light.”

“That sounds like book language for telling us to enter the forest when it’s at its creepiest.”

She smiled and closed the image.

We left the tutorial grounds and headed toward the northern tree line of Viridian Basin.

From the outside, the forest appeared calm rather than dangerous. Tall trees grew close together beyond the grass, their branches woven so densely that little of the sunset reached the ground. The air smelled of wet bark, old leaves, and damp soil. Somewhere beneath the canopy, water dripped steadily from one leaf to another.

Behind us, the tutorial field remained crowded with players shouting, slimes bouncing, and people laughing whenever someone was knocked into the grass.

Within ten steps of entering the trees, all of it disappeared.

[Cartography XP +10]

I opened the map on my portable UI device.

The detailed streets of the city and the open tutorial grounds ended at the forest boundary. Everything beyond it was buried beneath gray fog, except for a small cleared area around our position and the narrow trail we had already traveled.

“So the map only fills in when someone explores the area,” I said.

Ambrosia leaned closer to inspect the screen. “It wouldn’t be much of an expedition otherwise.”

We lit our torches and continued deeper.

Although the sun had not completely set, the forest was already dark. The flames painted the exposed roots orange and sent twitching shadows across the trunks. When I looked back, overlapping trees had hidden the opening through which we entered.

Ambrosia moved closer to me. “This place is terrifying.”

A branch snapped somewhere ahead.

I raised one hand. “Shield.”

Ambrosia stopped and lifted hers with both hands.

A dry, cicada-like buzzing pulsed through the trees. It rose, faded, and began again from farther inside the forest.

Several large shapes moved between the trunks ahead of us.

I focused on them, but the Assessment skill could not resolve anything at that distance.

“If something goes wrong, do you know which way to run?” I whispered.

Ambrosia touched the portable UI device inside her pocket. “Back along the mapped trail.”

“Good.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Get close enough to identify them.”

“Alone?”

“It’ll be quieter. Stay here. If anything comes toward you, return to the entrance. Don’t wait for me.”

Ambrosia hesitated before nodding. “Be careful.”

I pushed the end of my torch into the damp soil until the flame went out.

Darkness settled around me.

I remained still while my eyes adjusted. The darkness gradually thinned, bringing the nearby trunks, roots, and low branches into view. I could make out movement and larger shapes deeper in the forest, though distance still swallowed the finer details.

Two notifications appeared.

[Night Vision XP +5]

[Stealth XP +5]

I crouched and moved toward the buzzing alone.

Each step required care. Dry leaves shifted beneath my shoes, and thin branches lay scattered across the ground like traps. I kept the laboratory knife ready while using my free hand to steady myself against the larger roots.

The buzzing grew louder.

Then I found the tombstones.

Gray markers stood crooked between the trees, surrounded by dropped travel packs, broken wooden shields, extinguished torches, and scattered equipment. Some bags had already been opened, while others still glowed faintly, waiting for their owners to return.

A lot of players had died here, and none of them had recovered their belongings.

One of the shadows beside a tree moved.

Its body separated from the bark so gradually that my eyes struggled to recognize it as a creature. Green-brown plates covered a thin torso shaped like a broken branch, and long legs unfolded one at a time, each joint bending at a sharp angle.

Then its head turned.

A narrow triangular face tilted toward one of the tombstones. Two black eyes remained fixed on the marker, while jagged forearms rested folded beneath its chest like curved pruning blades.

The creature was taller than a player, yet until it moved, it had looked like part of the tree.

A name tag appeared.

[Lv6. Twigstalker Mantis]

[HP: ???/???]

There were at least six of them among the tombstones.

One lowered its triangular head and bit into a grave marker. The stone cracked beneath its mandibles, and it tore away another piece before chewing through it like hard candy.

A second mantis shoved a travel pack aside without showing any interest in the loot, then began eating the tombstone beside it.

A faint light pulsed beneath its bark-colored plates. For a moment, its body shimmered with the same glow players displayed when gaining a level.

“Are they leveling up?” Ambrosia whispered beside me.

I nearly jumped.

She was crouched at my side, breathing quietly and looking far too pleased with herself for having sneaked up on me.

“Yeah, I think—wait, how did you...”

I glanced at her, then gave up.

“Never mind. This is too much for us.”

Past the mantises, small yellow shapes dotted the dark forest floor. Their swollen caps were covered in orange pores.

The Sulfurblast mushrooms.

Ambrosia pointed toward them.

I shook my head. “We’re not going through those things.”

“But the mushrooms are right there.”

“Forget the mushrooms. If we walk into that group, we’ll probably create two more tombstones for them to eat.”

I counted the mantises again.

“We might handle one. Maybe two if everything goes perfectly. Unless you brought another secret science weapon?”

Ambrosia immediately shook her head. “I didn’t study arthropods. They make me uncomfortable.”

“You wanted to enter a forest full of unknown monsters without studying insects?”

“I like plants better.”

The buzzing stopped.

Every Twigstalker froze at once.

They abandoned the tombstones and withdrew into the trees, flattening their bodies against the bark until they almost disappeared.

Predators did not abandon food without a reason.

That was not a good sign.

When everything goes quiet, something worse is coming.

Something moved behind me.

Pure reflex took over. I twisted and threw my shield up just in time.

THUNK.

The impact jolted through my arm, but the shield held.

My vision flashed gold.

[Survival Instinct XP +10]

[Shield XP +20]

[Perfect Block Bonus ×2]

A heavy shape rebounded from the shield and landed several steps away among the leaves.

A spider the size of a small car crouched in front of us.

Pale, coarse hair bristled over its dark armored body, and eight thick legs spread across the forest floor. Its fangs scraped together as it lowered itself for another attack.

A name tag with a small silver crown icon appeared above it.

[Lv.8 Wolffang Spider]

[HP: ???/???]