After finding the map, Lucy and Matt decided to go through every item in the gift shop. They tried to cash in every yoyo, every ball, every sticker and every single solitary flying disc. There was nothing else. It was just this map.

　　"This is interesting, Matt."

　　"I dunno. I just tried to steal 50 non-existent yo-yo`s in a row. I`d say it`s pretty boring."

　　"Not that. Well, sort of that, I guess. Why can we take the map and not the yo-yo`s? It`s not like it`s smaller or cheaper to make."

　　"It`s a bit less complex."

　　"Maybe, depends on what you mean by complex. But then there are the seeds. Those are way more complex. There are dozens of seeds in each pack. A variety of species. Just one of those packs should be harder to make than all the other gift store junk in this place combined, and we`ve taken dozens of them."

　　"Okay? I`m a bit lost."

　　"You said before that you thought they stashed the seeds, that those were real seeds. I think I agree. And maybe they stashed this map too. And then there`s this whole place. There`s nothing like this museum in the whole estate system, Matt. I`ve checked. It`s not something you can buy."

　　"And that means&" Matt racked his brain for where Lucy was going with all of this. He came up blank. "That means what?"

　　"It means they probably built this place, Matt. Barry can`t see inside it. He could if it was a dungeon system thing. The system instance can`t, either, so it`s not his. That means the Gaians somehow, don`t ask me how, copied system tech. Not perfectly, but good enough that this place nearly survived the scourge. Almost nothing else did, mostly just the dungeons themselves."

　　"My shovel did."

　　"Your shovel is another part of this. I don`t know exactly how it works, but it seems more and more like what the system calls mana and the energy that the system uses to work are the same thing, or at least come from the same source. When this planet ran out of one, it ran out of the other. And your shovel rejects that energy. It just says no to it, flat out. You can bounce spells. If you had a suit of armor made from it, you`d be immune to magic. There`s no way the system would allow that."

　　"I agree that all this is interesting, but why does it matter?"

　　"It matters because the Gaians weren`t just fighting the scourge. They were fighting the system, too. And they got& weirdly far with it?" Lucy tapped at the map. "Whatever this is, it`s not just a map. That hologram knew you were coming eventually. That means someone programmed it to give you instructions. And the very first thing it pointed you at was this map."

　　Lucy started moving towards the exit, and Matt followed.

　　"I`m just saying, Matt, that between this Gaian authority and this map, we`ve been given a key to everything the Gaians were working on. We need to go to everything we can on this map. Now."

　　"You think it`s that important?"

　　Lucy turned and nodded. "I do. We`ve been doing this all alone, Matt. Just the two of us, and Barry. Now, we have a team."

　　—

　　Matt and Lucy had decided to read the map back at base, if for no other reason than to keep an eye out for Leel, who was still presumably hiding in the wasteland and looking for a chance to strike back. They couldn`t be around all the time, but the more time they had eyes on the estate, the better.

　　"I am surprised that we can`t read the map. I figured my translation would help with that."

　　Lucy shrugged. "I guess not. It could be the Sarthians screwed with the ink somehow, made it so the system couldn`t interact with it, the same as your shovel."

　　As they walked back, Matt picked some vegetables. With Palate of The Conqueror in play, he could now eat food from the farm again without becoming mana deficient. His hope was that some interaction between the Gaian victory plants, the ape-bees, and the local environment would make those real plants soon enough, but for now, it wasn`t a major concern. As long as his eating skill held up, that is.

　　Back at the estate, they unrolled the map on their newly acquired kitchenette table from the estate system. Lucy climbed up on a stool so she could stoop over it with Matt, who snacked on vegetables as they talked.

　　"Okay, Matt. The first problem I see is that this is a pre-apocalypse map. Most of this stuff isn`t here anymore."

　　"I don`t think that`s a big deal. Look." Matt pointed down at the map. "That`s the Sarthian capitol. So that`s our `you are here` sign, the center of the map for us. And&" he traced his finger over to a nearby mountain range. "I`m guessing this is where we met."

　　"I don`t know, Matt. This planet is awfully flat now. It could be there were some other mountains that got flattened. Maybe some mountains were formed late, for all I know. There`s no way to even tell what the scale of this map is."

　　"Well, no, there is." Matt did some quick mental math. "If we are here, and the mountains are here and I`m not wrong, then& ha! Look here."

　　Lucy bent down to see where Matt was pointing. "Oh, that`s genius. Yup, that`s it."The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

　　It was the bunker. If this was a war effort map, it was going to show war resources. And between the mountains and the capitol, they were able to triangulate to the only significant cache of goods they knew about. Matt`s finger was now pointing at the bunker.

　　"Good job, Matt. We`ve got our key."

　　"Let`s get to planning."

　　—

　　Most of the things on the map were probably normal landmarks that Gaians would have recognized, but were now dust. They were mostly parks, cities, and roads that the scourge had presumably wiped out. But the war resources were different, both because Matt and Lucy knew at least some of them had survived, and they were indicated on the map in a special ink and script, one that he could read, as if they had been added to a pre-existing map after the fact.

　　The scale of the map was pretty huge, apparently comprising a significant part of the Sarthian continent. There were interesting locations on it that were a month`s walk away or more. But some locations were fairly close, and looked important, with names like "weapons depot" that marked them as clear points of interest. Some were less clear.

　　"What do you think Lab GM-435 is?"

　　"I don`t know. But it`s close. Want to put it on the route?"

　　"We`d have to drop a dungeon."

　　"I think that`s probably okay."

　　This was going to be their biggest trip yet. It would take weeks at the shortest. Where they could, they intended to visit a variety of types of sites, some of which promised Gaian military might in no uncertain terms, and some with names like "recording station" that they had only vague guesses about.

　　In addition to that, they were running dungeons. As big as the map was, Matt also wanted to improve himself beyond whatever resources the Gaians had laid out, and that meant eating. Not just eating random things, but eating the weirdest, toughest stuff he could find to get an idea of what the limits and capabilities of his new skill even were. So along the way they had a smattering of dungeons planned, including a bunch of old favorites along with just a smattering of yet-unchallenged dungeons for testing whatever strength Matt acquired.

　　Overall, they only had a general idea of how things would turn out. But if one thing was for sure, it was that Matt would come out the other end changed. Things were about to get weird.

　　—

　　Most animals aren`t that great at relaying their emotions. Dogs and cats could easily communicate that they were happy, but turtles couldn`t save for a butt wiggle. Matt had seen videos of elephants showing distress, or chimpanzees acting shocked. But for the most part, a bird would have a hard time telling you it was confused, and even the most domesticated animals had a hard time communicating the full suite of what they were feeling.

　　If there was one almost universally communicable emotion, though, it was anger. Even some bugs could show that they were about to wreak havoc on your life regardless of the consequences. The Bonecat was particularly bad at showing most emotions, but Matt found that it was pissed, and there was no question about it.

　　"Matt, are you sure we shouldn`t be running about now?"

　　The Bonecat waved its sword-arms threateningly, making roughly the same point. But Matt felt oddly calm, despite that. Survivor`s Reflexes and he both had the same vibe. Despite this thing being a car-sized bundle of death, Matt himself had changed a lot since the first time they had met.

　　I can take this thing.

　　The question of whether or not Matt should flee was suddenly rendered moot as the Bonecat ran out of patience, hissed, and charged directly at Matt. It closed the distance fast, much faster than any natural human could have coped with. Just as quickly, it brought up one of its blades and swiped directly at Matt`s neck.

　　And then stood in shock as its target just disappeared, from its perspective at least. From Matt`s, the thing was impossibly slow. It wasn`t just slower than Spring Fighter, which he had just used. It was also slower than Matt`s base DEX, he was just fast enough to dodge those kinds of strikes now.

　　It wasn`t just the speed gap that had closed. Where before, the joints on this thing`s armor had seemed impossibly small, they now seemed like something he could hit. Part of the misconception came from the fact that Matt had mostly watched the Bonecat charge straight at him, where the joints were just a blur. Now, with enhanced combat abilities and the promise of sure death off the table, Matt thrust his spear.

　　His spear dug into the joint at just the right angle, penetrating until it found meat to stab. Matt quickly pulled out his spear as the Bonecat shot past him, and blood chased the point of the weapon as it spurted out of the gap.

　　"Did you see that? It can`t touch me! This is great!"

　　"Watch out, you idiot!"

　　The Bonecat had wheeled around surprisingly quickly and was ready for another swipe at Matt. He was less prepared for it this time. He got out of the way of the blade, but not entirely out of the way of the charge itself, getting thrown several feet away as the superior mass of the Bonecat bashed and scraped across his body.

　　Matt sprang to his feet in time to dodge the Bonecat`s next charge, finding that he was somehow mostly okay. He had a pretty nasty bruise and hit to his HP pool from the impact itself, but somehow the bone plates hadn`t done much damage when they scraped him.

　　"Matt! Are you alright?"

　　"I`m fine," Matt said, dodging another swipe and retaliating with another spear-thrust. "I think worm skin took away the brunt of it. Abrasive damage resistance."

　　"Oh, that`s awesome."

　　"I know, right?" Matt got in a scraping blow to one of the Bonecat`s eyes as it shot past again, then a stab to a joint that disabled one of its weapons. "I`m not sure how far this skill will let me take things, but even just what it`s let me do already is a game changer."

　　From that point on in the fight, the Bonecat never posed a serious threat. For a while, Matt used it as practice, zeroing in his use of Spring Fighter to even more precise levels, and even willing off his combat skill for a while to practice his still-abysmal vanilla fighting skills. But eventually, he felt bad for the Bonecat, ending things with a deep strike to one of the brighter weak points Survivor`s Reflexes had uncovered during the fight.

　　"Ha! Take that, you bastard."

　　"Is it true, Matt? That revenge is best served cold?"

　　Matt regarded the animal that not that long ago had provided him with literal days of terror.

　　"Yeah, I guess so. But just to be clear, I`m cooking the actual meat."