Grinding

The next day he woke up cold and stiff, his heat stones entirely drained.

With no wood left he couldn't make another fire up so he had very little to do inside the shack but drink and air his scant sleeping pelts.

As soon as he left the shack he regretted it, a cold mist had descended in the night and the sun had not been up long enough.

"Well this is grim"

First thing he did was check his MP stat and upon seeing it full created a gentle fireball in his palm cupping his hands around it to warm them through, warming himself in this manner he watched his MP drop to 8/10 and released the magic, the fireball dissipating into nothingness.

"Now we'll see the regen rate as we go"

Equipping himself with his remaining weapons, string, chisel, water skin and berries after enjoying a breakfast of them he immediately set out, he had woken up with new resolve to level up at least once today so he could get back home as soon as possible.

"System, does my Dimensional transfer energy build at the same pace on Earth as inside the dome? Assuming no external factors such as food"

[Assuming no external factors, yes]

"Ok, IF I can level this damn skill up and IF it doubles the energy build up I might be able to get home within a week and before anyone starts to worry about me; that's assuming I can get some firewood without being eaten by a leprechaun of course"

His steps faltered for a second as he realised leprechauns were probably real here and his throw away thought could actually happen.

Continuing on he headed through the dome and started his work "hunting" the slimes around the edge of his camp, the little jellies seemed to do well in the morning mist and eagerly bounded towards him to be dispatched quickly by the now practised hand he had for slime hunting.

He had his cloth pouch and was keeping it empty for just this reason, one by one collecting 1 exp and 1 gem, he planned to harvest about 200 of the helpless little creatures as he moved towards the hills he'd seen on the opposite side of his dome to the goblin wood, hopefully in this time the fog would clear enough to allow him to explore and maybe find a safer source of firewood.

"I could really do with getting that rope back though"

He only had what was left over from his first bundle and the string which he'd already used a fair amount of.

After a couple of hours Daniel had harvested over 100 slimes and made it most of the way to the foothills he was aiming for, already there were clear little mounds and bushes appearing as the slimes became less frequent.

When he'd first started his hunt he'd kept a sharp eye on his MP stat and figured out it was regenerating about 1 point every ten minutes, relying on this he had started warming his hands in the same way as this morning while he walked.

He was doing this now as he walked, the fog had been getting steadily thicker in spite of the passage of time and the air also seemed to be getting colder, his clothes were getting damp from the air and he was regretting leaving the shack at all.

As he walked he thought he heard a scuffling sound to his left, immediately dropping his Flame skill and preparing his spear he advanced in that direction, there weren't many bushes but the fog was thick enough he couldn't be sure.

Expecting to meet another rat he advanced at a crouch until he saw a confusing outline in the fog.

"Someone's here? HEY! Hey, who are you?"

As he shouted the figure continued to approach at a steady walk, though their gait was clearly off and a sick feeling overcame Daniel even before he could clearly see the person in the mist.

"How can there be if there are no people?!? This doesn't make sense!"

A half rotten Zombie was shambling forward with glazed eyes followed by the same scuffling noise as it dragged a limp leg behind it.

"Oh shit, I can deal with goblins but come on, why make this?"

Having already been tensed to attack, the idea of running didn't cross Daniels mind as he stabbed out with his spear, stabbing the abomination directly in the chest. The spear sunk into the half rotted flesh with little resistance but clearly had no more effect than to act as a prod to keep the thing back.

Disgust and desperation took hold as Daniel raised one hand and used flame unreservedly, the intense spray of fire immolating the monster and burning the spear still holding it back, this few seconds of intensity ended as Daniels MP ran dry and he immediately felt the weight on the end of the spear disappear sending him stumbling forward.

The spear, now charred beyond use, was dropped as he watched the light particles dissipate and the familiar notification appear in the corner of his eye.

[12 exp]

Panting he looked around wildly imagining more of the monsters closing in around him, there was too much childhood horror tied up with these things for them to be taken as just another challenge, adding to this the fog muffling both his sight and hearing he was not at all comfortable.

As his head spun wildly and he prepared to head back to the safety of the Slime fields he noticed something on the floor by his discarded spear. A shiny copper tablespoon lay on the ground where the zombie had disappeared.

"Loot drop? It did say there would be some but this is not what I expected"

Immediately transferring it to his Storage space he prepared another spear and his wooden sword.

He knew it would be a while before he'd have enough MP to be able to rely on his flame skill again and wanted to figure out which way it was to get back home again as soon as possible.

If he hadn't had the compass display his panic and disorientation might have had him stumbling blindly deeper into the hilly area when he heard more shambling noises close by but luckily he was able to head in the right direction as he attempted to avoid any more encounters.

Perhaps attracted to the light of his fire magic or the sound of fighting there were more of the shambling horrors heading towards where he had been and he realised how lucky he had been not to run into any before now.

He wasn't always able to avoid the incoming zombies as their pace was deceptive and he couldn't simply run blindly in the fog, attempting to beat his way past them when he could he began to rely on his wooden sword more like a club; after beating another zombie to particles he put his spear away all together.

Each time he had to fight one the others nearby would start moving towards him and before he had reached the edge of the fog he heard the familiar notification.

[Congratulations Hermes, you are now level 3]

"Well that's something"

Now he was expecting it his body did feel lighter and his movements felt more powerful and precise as he moved but he couldn't be sure this wasn't wishful thinking on his part rather than the result of levelling up.

"Either way at least my MP should be restored"

After putting that to the test on another unlucky zombie pushing into his path he was finally able to reach the noticeably flatter area and hear the familiar and strangely reassuring sound of slimes ahead.