Cora stopped at Mark’s camp and looked around. No one was there; that had to be a first. She turned around and talked to the group behind her. “This is where Mark built his camp. He has a few free A-frame houses; if you can’t find somewhere better to sleep tonight, I am sure you can sleep here as well. No one else is here.”
The group behind her consisted of four men and two women. They were from the zone east of here, and all were eager to see the cave that Cora had told them about, as it was the first thing they had found in this world that reset and changed. Before she left, she explained how to open and close the gate to make sure that no one set off the traps or let other animals into the camp.
When they arrived at the cave, she explained to them the few variations that she had seen. Previous runs had creatures ranging from Levels 3–5, and there were no creatures on the one run. They were all much higher level than anything so far found in the cave, but she wanted them to be informed of what she knew.
The group included Cora at Level 7; Jarek, a Level 9 Trail Runner; Bren, a Level 8 Stonebreaker; Silas, a Level 10 Scavenger; Tomas, a Level 8 Guard; Elira, a Level 9 Herbalist; and Mira, a Level 8 Forager.
When they were finally ready, they walked forward toward the cave and ran into an invisible wall.
[Entry Denied]
Participant count exceeded instance limits.
Active Instances: 0 / 2Maximum Expedition Size: 5 participantsCompanion creatures count toward participant limits
New expedition instances may only be formed once every 10 hours.
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Cora said, “Well, that has never happened before.”
Bren said, “Okay, let’s split into two groups.”
When they had stopped shuffling around, they ended up with two groups. Group 1: Mira, Tomas, Silas, and Cora. Group 2: Jarek, Bren, and Elira.
With that figured out, Group 1 stepped back a few feet, and they watched Group 2 vanish into the cave. They waited only a few seconds before they then followed. Cora found it strange watching the group vanish but just shrugged it off and went in with her group.
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Group 1 was the first group to finish. When they stepped out of the cave, no one was around. So they all walked over to the stream and got a drink of water. Going back to the cave, they stood there and waited for about ten minutes. Cora, not wanting to just sit there, walked forward toward the cave and ran into the barrier again.
[Instance Creation Denied]
Maximum cave activity reached.New expedition instances may only be formed once every 10 hours.
Remaining Time: 9 Hours 36 Minutes
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Cora said, “That is helpful; it gives you the remaining time so you can tell when a new instance can be created. We have 9 hours and 36 minutes until we can create a new instance.”
It took another thirty minutes for the other group to leave the cave. When the second group finished, they talked about the runs they had. Both groups had creatures whose levels were in the 4–6 range. This made them all happy to know that it was scaling up; at some point they hoped that it would get to their range.
Comparing notes, Group 1 described a flooded marsh with mire toads, marsh eels, mossback turtles, and reed stalkers. They found moss pads, nutrient fungus, peat chunks, algae clumps, bog salt, clay deposits, and fish oil sacs.
Group 2 found a crystal-and-mineral cave with stone crawlers, crystal skinks, burrow crabs, and dust mites. Their finds included quartz shards, stone chunks, mineral sediment, salt crystals, iron-stained fragments, crystal dust, ore fragments, and clear mineral water.
The newcomers were thrilled with this, and they were looking forward to going back. Ten hours gave them plenty of time to figure out where to sleep and get some food before the next run. As a group they talked. They decided that they would build a camp here eventually by the cave, but since Mark’s camp was currently vacant and had a cooking area with plates and utensils, which they did not have most of the time on the trail, they headed there.
On the walk back, Cora explained the camp, how she traded unneeded supplies for tools and food, and the kinds of crafting the group had been doing.
The thing that most of them looked forward to was the possibility of having real food. When they got to the camp, they found Lena, Tom, and Dale sitting and talking over the dinner he had just finished.
Cora introduced the group, and she let them know that their plan was to stay the night and go back in the morning to run the cave again. The group invited anyone else who wanted to join to come with. Tom and Dale bowed out, saying they had crafting and food work to do. But Lena told them she would love to go.
Dale then went back to work preparing food. As he was preparing it, Cora came over and unloaded some food products onto his bench; this caused four of the others in the group to add items in thanks for his willingness to cook dinner and breakfast.
The group sat around and chatted around camp until well after dark, and then they all doubled up in the A-frames so that everyone had a spot to sleep. The cave group let the others know that tomorrow they would make some shelters and a camp over by the cave.
Just before they all went to bed, Dale said, “If you guys provide the food items, I can come by once a day and make meals if you can help make a cooking area in your new camp and you can compensate me by giving materials that we can use here in camp.”
In unison, the group said they would really love that.
Cora took them going to bed as her time to leave and headed east out the gate of the camp.