Items in one inventory slot could stack up to 99, and any more would take up a new slot.
Faye Yardley had originally thought that Gifts had no item limit, but it turned out the total quantity of all items inside couldn't exceed 99 either.
'It looks like we'll have to wait for the trading system to come online for any major trades.'
Faye Yardley was surprised by how much they had once they pooled their items. She hadn't realized it before, but after clearing two waves of monsters in the Dungeon, it almost felt like they'd struck it rich.
[Wood x345, stones x155, Oil x46, iron block x68, copper x23, Crystal x7, 5m rope x6, charcoal x21, coal x33, sand x2, 4m² wood flooring x1, shells x11, patterned cloth x3, cloth x1, Dungeon 2 Fragment x1.]
This was all they'd gotten, and that was without even looting every corpse and with Zachary Pierce's mediocre luck.
Faye Yardley sent three stacks of wood and one stack of stones to Zachary Pierce. In return, Zachary Pierce packed some miscellaneous items into two Gifts and sent them to Faye.
Now, aside from her weapon and a wooden box, Faye's inventory held: wood x48, stones x56, Oil x46, and iron block x68.
"Should we explore the island's interior now, or go back to the beach and kill another wave?"
Zachary Pierce felt he could keep killing monsters indefinitely if possible. Not only did it give points, but also a ton of resources.
Faye Yardley blinked and pointed at the empty beach. "No new monsters have spawned. Why don't you stand over there for a couple of minutes and see if any show up? If they do, we'll kill them. If not, we'll explore the island."
It turned out that if you were strong enough to beat them, the system wouldn't give you any more chances to farm points.
One person scouted ahead with a greatsword on their shoulder, while the other followed close behind, fish spear in hand.
"There are a lot of different trees here. I wonder if we can chop them down?" As Faye spoke, the fish spear in her hand transformed into an Iron Axe.
She faced an unusual-looking tree, raised her axe, and swung it at the trunk.
"Let me."
Faye looked at the shallow gash on the trunk and, hearing his voice, obediently stepped back.
The greatsword slashed down viciously, but the damage it dealt was surprisingly no different from Faye's casual swing with the Iron Axe.
The two fell silent for a moment.
Faye handed him the Iron Axe. "Mr. Pierce, try this. Maybe an axe is better for chopping trees."
"Mm."
After three solid strikes—THUD, THUD, THUD—the tree crashed to the ground.
The two of them crouched by the fallen tree and both received a system notification at the same time: [Acquired High Level Redwood x1].
"High Level Redwood? I got one. You?"
"Same here."
Zachary Pierce didn't know what it was for, but anything prefixed with "High Level" had to be good. "I'll chop the trees," he said.
"Alright. I'll look around for anything else to gather, or maybe a treasure chest." Just as she said, Faye began searching for any herbs or fruit trees she might recognize.
She crouched and plucked a random plant. There was no system notification, so it was obviously useless. She tossed it aside and pulled up another.
'It's okay if I don't recognize them. I can just keep trying.'
And sure enough, she managed to find several different medicinal herbs.
[Three-leaf Clear x3, dandelion x2, Peucedanum root x1, White Atractylodes x1, Golden Flower x2]
'This trial Dungeon really is a great place.' There was so much stuff to find, useful or not. And as she gathered the herbs, she also heard a series of notifications as her points increased: +1, +1, +1...
'But could it really be this easy, just pure rewards?'
Faye felt a faint sense of unease. But not far off, Zachary Pierce was still chopping down trees, and everything seemed fine.
She stood up and scanned her surroundings. Maybe it was because they had cleared so many trees, but her line of sight had improved.
To her left, she could just make out the glint of a silver corner.
"Mr. Pierce, look over there to the left. Do you see something silver glinting?"
After another tree fell with a CRASH, Zachary Pierce looked where Faye was pointing. He saw it too.
"You collect the wood. We'll go check it out together."
He had already discovered that whenever he collected wood, he only ever got a quantity of one. But if he let Faye collect it, the quantity could be two, or even three.
After quickly gathering the wood, Faye took her fish spear out of her inventory and hurried to catch up with Zachary Pierce.
The two of them stopped about ten feet from the Silver Treasure Box.
They'd never seen a Silver Treasure Box before. Could it really be this easy to find one? The two of them carefully scanned their surroundings; there didn't seem to be a Guardian Beast anywhere.
They exchanged a look. Finally, Zachary Pierce said, "You stay here. I'll go check it out."
"Mr. Pierce, take another step forward and try poking the box with that two-meter-long greatsword of yours."
"Right."
The moment his greatsword touched the box, a huge, brownish-green snake head shot out, its forked tongue as thick as a child's arm.
Zachary Pierce lunged forward, using the flat of his blade to knock the treasure box away. He then spun, bringing the sharp edge of his greatsword around to strike at the massive snake.
The great snake ignored the damage completely. It opened its cavernous, stinking maw and lunged at Zachary Pierce, while its tail whipped toward the treasure box.
Faye was terrified of snakes, and her legs felt weak. But she bit down hard on her lower lip, forcing herself not to scream.
Seeing the treasure box not far to her right, Faye knew she couldn't give up. They'd already provoked the great snake; it would be an absolute waste not to get the box now.
Fighting to overcome her fear, Faye scrambled awkwardly toward the box. The instant her fingers made contact, it vanished into her inventory. At the same time, the snake's tail slammed into her, sending her flying sideways. She crashed into a tree and was brought to a jarring halt, coughing so hard she nearly spat blood.
When she turned back to look at Zachary Pierce and the great snake, she saw the greatsword wedged in the snake's mouth, forcing it open. The snake was clearly enraged, its massive head thrashing wildly from side to side.
Zachary Pierce now held the Iron Axe, dodging and hacking at the beast. He left a series of marks, some deep, some shallow, on its scales, but none of them seemed to do any real damage.
'This can't go on!'
Pushing herself up with one hand, Faye struggled to her feet. She swayed for a moment before steadying herself, coughed twice, and drew her fish spear. She hurled it with all her might at the snake's massive, bell-like eye.
CRACK! Faye and Zachary Pierce both heard the sound of something shattering, and the fish spear fell to the ground.
The great snake began to convulse even more frantically, its tail sweeping through the air and destroying everything in its path.
'Wait, the snake's eye has a protective layer?!'
As the frenzied snake charged toward her, Faye pulled out her remaining fish spear. Without a second thought, she hurled it straight at the snake's left eye.
This time, the spear sank deep into the great snake's left eye. Blood sprayed out...