First Instance (4)

*>+31 Copper*

*>+31 Copper*

...

Like a machine, money and worthless items continuously piled into Jisha's inventory and Coin Pouch.

*>System message: Level up!*

*>Level: 9 -> 10 (+1)*

*>...*

And unsurprisingly, these monsters allowed her to break through to level 10.

Before long, the monotony finally came to an end.

*Is that... light?*

The sense that had been useless until now finally picked something up.

Obviously, it wasn't sunlight. That couldn't reach this far down. Nor was it blue.

When she approached it, the identity of the light source became obvious.

*Mana crystals?*

In a smaller tunnel that branched off from the main path, mana was gathered here in one of its purest forms. And these particular crystals were radiating so much energy that they were glowing.

These were valuable items and were likely the source of the mana anomaly in the forest. Unfortunately, Jisha currently didn't have any way to harvest them.

She once again cursed her Tier 0 physique.

*I'll just have to come back here later.*

As she made a mental note to herself about these valuable items, she headed farther and farther down the dimly lit tunnel. And as she progressed, the light gradually grew less and less dim.

*...*

Jisha now *really* wished she had a higher-leveled character. The mana crystals now lit up the cave as if there were fluorescent lighting throughout.

*I wonder what's going on here...*

Eventually she came across a room that was clearly artificial.

Its shape was that of an ordinary rectangular prism. The previously jagged walls and floors were smoothed and finished, giving it a sleek shine.

In one corner there were stone urns, in another was a hefty oak desk, and one of the walls had a something that looked like an elevator door.

*Why is this here?*

Usually, the technological level of places in Synergy corresponded to their level. For example, in the game's infancy when everyone was below level 10, there was no modern technology. In fact, even things of the historic Industrial Age were not present.

Wooden and/or mud huts and wells of water were commonplace... and these dated back to maybe even before the Ancient Middle Ages.

Of course, there were outlier scenarios like this one. This elevator door screamed "Industrial Age" at a glance.

When Jisha approached it, she realized it was locked and had to be opened with a code via keypad.

She immediately knew what to do. Just like with any classic video game with a locked doorway, a key would be hidden somewhere nearby.

Sometimes this key was just an ordinary physical object. Other times, it was a code. And often times, one had to complete a puzzle to access it.

This was something most people with video game experience instinctively knew.

And so, she checked the wooden desk that was not far away from her.

On top of the desk was a small stack of paper. As this could have some hints for the code, Jisha naturally read it.

*The Search For Purer Energy Sources... huh?*

It almost read like a scientific paper. Most people's eyes would glaze over in boredom, but Jisha skimmed through it as if it were a history recap.

Though there was scientific terminology used in the paper, it wasn't the result of research or an experiment or anything of the like. It was simply an article that held hope for the future.

*"At first it was simply human effort alongside tame natural phenomena. Then, as we tamed them, horses, oxen, and other large animals did the heavy lifting for us. Then, the introduction of simple machines. And later, steam power. Then, the generation of electricity which allowed us to store power. Then, nuclear fission. And now, the application of fusion.*

*"As society makes technological advancements, the amount of energy they need increases exponentially. The further and further we go, the more efficient we need to be at harvesting energy.*

...

*"Is the chase of antimatter worth it, or is there some unknown, untapped, energy source humanity has yet to discover?*"

There were no clues for a code, but reading this made Jisha a bit nostalgic.

She was reminded she now lived in the pre-Synergy era.

One without the existence of "mana".

Yes, in the future, this "unknown, untapped" energy source would be discovered. And people would go crazy over it.

She stared at the mana crystals around her again and sighed.

*How something so simple can plunge the world into chaos...*

After reminiscing briefly, she moved on to the desk drawers. Maybe there was something in there.

Unsurprisingly, there were many other sheets of paper in these drawers. But all of them read the same thing.

"*REDACTED*"

"*XX*"

It didn't seem helpful at first glance, but Jisha kept it in mind regardless. You never knew when some seemingly useless information could end up being a necessity for clearing the dungeon.

Now, the only other thing left in the room was the stone urns.

These urns were fairly tall. They were almost as tall as Jisha's current avatar. This, along with the fact that they were made of solid stone, meant that they were impossible to lift. It also meant that she couldn't reach inside and take out whatever was in them.

She then tried pushing them over. Just because you couldn't lift something didn't mean you couldn't tip it over! But...

*No luck.*

It was as if they were bolted to the ground; they wouldn't budge.

She then took out her Golden Slingshot and fired a pellet at the urns. By shattering them, whatever was inside would naturally come out.

However, even that did nothing. These urns were too solid.

*I only have one more option, then.*

If a physical attack didn't work, then a magical attack might. Some materials were ridiculously resistant against physical damage but were weak against magic. Perhaps this stone was of a similar nature.

But... Fae Sol was of the Slingshotter class. She didn't have any magical abilities at her disposal.

However, she did possess an item that could deal magical attacks.

*>Name: Magical Oaken Dagger*

*...*

Though damage dealt with this item would be halved as it didn't match her class, it still dealt a bit of magic damage.

And using it, Jisha sliced at the urns.

On the surface, this seemed ridiculous. How could wood slice through stone?

However, mana made the impossible possible.

With one clean slice, the top halves of all four urns cleanly slid off revealing the inside.

Each urn held a massive 6-sided die. Each die only had one number written on all sides.

Two of them read "1", and two of them read "0".

This was all the information she needed.

Jisha walked up to the keypad and entered a four digit code.

These numbers, along with "XX" that was written on the sheets of paper, meant that the code was most likely...

*One, zero, one, zero.*

The door slowly slid open. It was a success.

Past the doorway was a staircase that led down into the darkness.

There was only one thing to do.

*Well... let's see what's down there.*