As I was done checking everyone's status, I walked inside the Gnome Chief's house and found everyone there. Even Achlys and Titan were back, I guess they got here really quick. I am most surprised about Rita though! How did she got here so quickly?
I guess she really cooked something at the same pace as me, although she has never been that good. I mean, not that she's bad, she simply doesn't enjoy cooking at all, so she never puts any love to her cooking and it always seems rushed. She often just unfreezes frozen stuff and fries it with some side of either rice or noodles every single day…
Ah, I guess I shouldn't really talk about it as if it was a bad thing, every family has their own things. It is wrong to think this way about others, even less my best friend. Maybe I should just push her into learning cooking in the game and then maybe she'll just get the inspiration in the real world… Maybe? Just maybe I guess.
"Welcome back Lady Planta!" Said Acorn.
"We were waiting for you." Nieve said, she was looking at a strange map above the small table of the gnome chief.
"You're back quicker than I imagined." Said Achlys.
"El- Planta! Welcome back." Lily said.
"Did you had dinner already? That was quick." Said Titan.
"Yeah I'm back everyone… So what's up?"
"We were checking the map we have made of the underground caverns of the Forest of Beginnings. This map has been in the making for over eighty years now." Said the gnome. "But first of all, can you summon Lady Titania again?" The Gnome requested.
"Oh yes! I forgot about it, my bad." I said, quickly summoning Titania using Spirit Magic. Her Astral Projection appeared, glistening, and dazzling with sparkles of light. She really liked to be flashy every time she showed up.
"I'm back everyone." She said. "Now… Oh? Are you looking at a map?" She asked. Her eyes suddenly opened in surprise. "T-This map! It is the underground?!"
"Yeah, it is our finest work actually, we had been finely making it over a long time." Said the gnome.
"A map…" I said, looking at the map.
The game's automatic map function doesn't show the entire map of the world or the zone you are, only the surroundings of the player, usually being around half a kilometer around the player. But this map was incredibly detailed and filled with intricacies.
I stretched my hand unwillingly to the map, as it suddenly began to glow.
[The Map has been automatically updated!]
[The Underground Area of the Forest of Beginnings has become available within the Map]
When I touched the map it was suddenly copy pasted into my own Map function that any player has! Does this always happens when you touch Map Items?
"Guys, touch the map!" I asked my friends and those with the Player Title to quickly touch the map, as they did it without even asking why.
The same thing happened to them, as everyone got the map upgraded.
"So that's how Maps works in the game?"
"Eh? The map suddenly appeared in my head!"
"Amazing… Is this the power of a Player?"
Achlys, Titan, Lily, Acorn, and Nieve were all suddenly taken aback. Even the knowledgeable Titan didn't knew maps could be simply "absorbed" . I guess we should try to find Map-type items more in the future.
"What happened?" Asked Titania.
"You guys are okay?" The Chief wondered.
"Yeah, we just registered the map within our Map… The System's Map." I said.
"Such a thing is possible?" The Chief raised an eyebrow.
"Players have this power named "System"." Said Titania. "It allows me to do many incredible things, but also restricts them from doing other things. This System seems to also affect everyone else too, but we can't see it unlike them."
"I see…" The chief said. "Anyways, we were just discussing something important, Planta." He said. "This map here shows most of the structure of caverns within the Underground Area of the Forest of Beginnings. This damned Jeremias bastard probably is going through this route."
The gnome showed a thin and stretchy cavern passage leading to what resembled a beautiful cave with colorful crystals inside. The cave led to another passage filled with underground tree roots that formed some sort of underground forest, it looked beautiful.
"He'll go through the Elemental Crystal Caverns and go all the way through until the next place, the Underground Forest of Roots. He'll probably be about to reach this place. You all need to get moving right away before it is too late." Said the Gnome.
"Understood!" Said Acorn.
"Alright…" Titan said. "Is that it? Then let's get going."
"Yeah, I am starving for some EXP." Said Achlys with a smile.
"I am the weakest of the party so I hope you guys can protect me… I am past Level 10 so I don't think I can abuse the newbie boost from before." Said Lily.
Apparently, Lily had been dying and reviving and using some sort of new "Newbie Boost" that was added in the last update. It allowed newbies to constantly gain stat boosts the more they died as long as they were below Level 10. This way she was somehow able to hold back the Drakons for all this time alone at Level 1. Which is just amazing.
Nonetheless, that boost is now gone as she's Level 17 right now. However, she gained a lot of Stats Points and Skill Points she should relocate right away.
"You should be fairly strong if we add all my buffs." I said. "However, don't you have Stat Points and Skill Points? Try to relocate them around and Level Up Skills if you can."
"Oh right! What should I pick though…?" Lily sighed. "Ah, this is a bit complicated, there are so many options…"
"Go for something that can enhance your magical power. You might be one of our greatest assets below the ground with your ability to shape the caverns and summon stones, so try to focus on that. We can cover the rest easily." Said Titan.
"Yeah but don't specialize too much either, go for something more… all-rounder?" I wondered.
"I-I don't get what you guys are talking about…" Lily had little experience with these types of games…