Homestead Survival

As they approached the Portal, Theo looked at the timer in his lower field of view. "What the hell?"

"What is it?" Julia asked, looking around for some creature.

"It's nothing, just that we have been here for longer than I thought," Theo said. Julia responded by opening her own Dungeon Status.

"So we have been here for one day and about an hour and a half." Julia said, "I do not feel tired."

"I don't either, which makes me wonder if this time dilation is affecting us strangely," Theo said. "I also noticed that it has updated to not have a recommended floor."

"Okay, so hear me out," Julia said, sounding like she had a plan. "I think we should take a break, 'cause even though I don't feel tired, I am hungry. So let's take a bit of a break and just hang out here, see if there is anything we can do to prepare, and then I think we should push as hard as we can."

"I like that Idea," Theo said. "Let's make this area safe, I guess. Well, you make it safe with Ward, and I will... I don't know, stand here and look pretty?"

Julia laughed at that. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

Julia spent several minutes walking back and forth across the hallway roughly fifty feet from the Portal. As she walked across the hallway, she layered one-foot-tall runes from her Ward skill. When she finished, four feet of floor had been filled all the way across.

"Okay, welp, now what?" Julia said as she finished.

Theo relaxed a little. "Why don't we eat, and then we can just hang out?"

Julia shrugged, walked over to the wall, and sat down, leaning against the wall. Theo walked over as well, pulling two meals from his pouch and handing her one. "So, how are you?"

Julia chuckled. "I'm great, how are you. Since the last five minutes, we have not been together."

Theo smiled at her slightly snarky response. "No, I mean it. How are you?"

Julia paused in her eating and locked eyes with Theo. Then she took a breath and seemed to deflate a little bit. "I guess I am okay. This is all a lot. I am having fun, but it's really a lot."

"I know," Theo said, leaning back against the wall as he ate the last bite of his meal. "I think that I will finally be able to take it seriously."

"What does that mean?" Julia said, almost offended.

"I mean that I have been taking it seriously, but only as seriously as a camping trip, where it might be hard to get help. But this is not like that. This is our reality. This is so much more serious." Theo rubbed his head awkwardly. "Getting slammed in the chest with that hammer really made me think."

"I mean, whatever it takes, I guess." Julia sounded distant.

"Well, I'll leave you be. Let me know if you need anything." Theo said, standing up and moving to the other side of the hallway so that they could each have some space and relative privacy.

[Julia]
Julia watched Theo cross the hallway. His words echoed in her mind. "Getting slammed in the chest with that hammer really made me think."

She sighed when he was finally out of earshot on the other side of the massive hallway. "Stupid man! Why did you jump in front of me then? Why not let me take the hit?"

She knew the answer, though, and whatever steam had been building in her dissipated instantly. "Because that is not who you are. If being forced to spend time with you has shown me anything, it's that you are a gentleman through and through."

She sighed again, then decided to go over what she had in her pouch and do some inventory management.

"Okay, what do I have here, Cured Meat sticks, The Rod of Lesser Healing, System Rations, a Waterskin, some Scale Rat Hides, Scale Rat Fangs, a Vial of Drake-Type Mucus, my Basic Adventuring Armor, some basic Clothing, my Glimmer Branch, and of course my Runesewn Pouch" Julia laid everything out on the floor of the Dungeon, "Well that's not bad. I think Theo has much more, but this is plenty for me.

On a whim, she decided to identify the Scale Rat parts, touching each in turn and seeing what came up.

That didn't surprise her; she was interested to see that it was recommended for use in making bags. She moved to the next item.

"Okay, a potion Reagent. That could be useful. I wish that it told me what potions it was used in." Julia moved to the final item she wanted to identify.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Why the hell does it tell me more about this one?" Julia muttered to herself in mild annoyance. She tried to come up with a good answer, but nothing that held water crossed her mind.

She repacked her pouch, Cured Meat sticks, System Rations, Scale Rat Hides, Scale Rat Fangs, and the Vial of Drake-Type Mucus, going into her General Storage Spaces. The Glimmer Branch, Waterskin, and the Rod of Lesser Healing went into the quick access slots.

She patted the pouch and then decided she would try to take a nap. "Hey, Theo."

"Yeah?" He responded, seemingly daydreaming.

"I think that I will try to take a nap. Is that all right with you?" Julia asked.

"Sounds good to me!" Theo said, settling back against the wall, "I will keep watch then. When you get up, I can try to get some sleep if I need to."

Julia nodded and then lay down on the stone floor, her tunic keeping her warm. She rested her head on her arm and soon found herself drifting off to sleep.

[Theo]
Theo watched as Julia quickly fell asleep. He had watched her pull out the things in her pouch, identify some things, and then replace each item with care.

"I guess inventory management is not a bad idea," Theo muttered to himself, quickly pulling out everything in his pouch.

"Okay, what do we have here?" He thought to himself, running down the list of items as he placed them on the ground.

"Some leather cord, cured meat sticks," Theo grabbed a meat stick to munch on while he worked, "my Master Tool, System Rations, my Waterskin, a bunch of Mana Leech Corpses, my Dagger, a couple of Runestone Golem Corpses, a Flesh-Warped Core, and lastly a Dungeon Invader Tag."

Theo quickly placed most of the things back into his pouch. The Master Tool, Dagger, and Waterskin went into his quick access slots. The rest went back to where they had been, either in raw materials storage or general storage. The only exceptions were one of the Mana Leech corpses and a single Runestone Golem corpse.

Theo identified the Mana Leech Corpse First, or he was about to when he felt a tug from his Processing skill.

He looked at the strange winged worm and shrugged. Taking out his master tool, he began to channel Process, and his hands began to work on their own. The first thing that happened was the Master tool was formed into a strange clawed implement that was used to hook the wings of the Mana Leech at the base and pull them out with all the muscles attached. The Same implement was slid under the jaws of the Leech, and then they were pulled free and almost instantly dissolved into nothing.

What he was left with was a wormlike cluster of meat and two very frail wings that had little globules of flesh and muscle at the base. He attempted to continue processing the Mana Leech and felt his skill start, but then it looked for something and failed.

"Huh?" Theo said, looking from his Master Tool to the partially processed Mana Leech. He Identified the Wings.

"What the hell?" Theo said in confusion, "Processing Requirements not met? What the fuck does that mean?"

He tried to identify the identification screen, and nothing happened. He tried to force the process skill through, and nothing happened. Finally, he gave up on the wings and identified the part of the Mana Leech that was left.

"Processing Requirements not met." He muttered under his breath; he decided that it was not worth messing with right then and tried to put the two newly processed chunks of Mana Leech into his pouches' general storage and found that they would not go in. After a moment of experimentation, he found that they would go into his Raw Materials storage.

"Interesting," Theo said quietly to himself. "So they are simply items when they are unprocessed, but now they are materials. Then why does the Runestone Golem only go into the Raw Materials storage?"

Theo looked down at the Runestone Golem that he had left out to try and Process, then looked across at Julia napping. He shook his head and then put the Runestone Golem into his pouch once more.

"Guess it's alright to just rest," Theo said, settling back to keep an eye on the hallway while Julia slept.

[Julia]
Julia woke up, looked across the hall, and saw Theo watching the hallway. She smiled at him and stood, walking to where he sat.

"Good morning, sleepy head." He said playfully, making a wiping motion at the corner of his mouth.

She blushed and wiped her face, feeling the remains of drool. "Well, guess I slept good. How long has it been?"

Theo checked the Dungeon Status. "About six hours. That's a good nap. So I think I will nap now, and then we should push as hard as we can. What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me," Julia said, moving to go back to her side of the hallway. She sat down and watched Theo lay down on his back, one arm under his head. The other draped across his eyes. Almost instantly, the rise and fall of his chest slowed.

She thought about trying to do some training or something but decided to just wait as she had already done her inventory management. So she sat down and watched.

[Theo and Julia]
After roughly four hours, Theo took one deep breath and then sat up, rolling his shoulders.

Julia rose to her feet from where she had been keeping watch and went over to Theo. "Good Nap?"

Theo stood, stretching to his full height and raising his arms above his head, groaning as he stretched. "Good enough."

Julia nodded, and they both started walking down the hall away from the Portal. "Let's get going then."