《Arcane Enhanced》
Chapter 1
Liz was woken by a drop of water landing on her neck. Not quite awake she wiped the drop away. ''I really can''t afford a plumber right now.'' With that realization, she startled awake and was greeted by a surprise. Instead of her small and cozy bed, she was lying on some hard and damp stone. ''Where the hell am I?''
Trying to orient herself she sat up and took in her surroundings. She was on sitting on the stone floor of a small room with a single high sitting and barred window. On the opposite side of the room was a door frame with a rusted cell door. ''Ok, so I am in some kind of dungeon. But how the hell did I get here? The last thing I remember is drinking with Dana. Did I just drink too much or did someone drug me? Is this a prank? But where are the cameras?''
"Ok, I get it. Very funny. You can come out now!" Liz shouted into the empty room and hallway.
"I haven''t had anything to eat in the last day. Now is not the time to play games with me" she added.
The only reaction she got was the sound of startled bats taking off somewhere to the right of her room. ''God no, I. HATE. bats!'' Frozen in fear she remained on the ground. After the sound didn''t get any louder in the ensuing minute and eventually settled down Liz''s racing heartbeat slowed down as well and she unfroze. Her focus shifted back to her immediate surroundings. Since sitting on damp cold stone definitely wasn''t the best for her health, Liz decided to stand up. This was also when she realized that she was wearing her pajamas, which were way too thin for the cold air, her pale skin already covered with goose bumps. ''So getting drugged is unlikely! And I usually don''t drink to the point of going blank! Then how the hell did I get here?''
Sore from the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements she staggered the first few steps towards the door. ''Seriously, where am I? The nearest castle is Oakdale Castle. But the last time I was there the dungeon was still buried and under excavation. And even then it should be bustling with tourists on a Saturday. So either I am going insane or someone went to great lengths to get me an early Halloween scare. But nobody, except Dana, knows about my chiroptophobia and Dana wouldn''t do such a thing! Or the bats are just a coincidence. Let''s hope there is a way out without meeting the bats''
On the other side of the door was a hallway which on the bat-side ended in darkness but in the opposite direction curved upwards and was illuminated by the sunlight coming in from the different cells lining both walls.
"Hello, is anybody there?" Liz called as she strained to hear any more of the bats and carefully made her way over the sharp rubble in the illuminated direction. After a slow upwards curve in the cell-lined hallway she ended up in front of a pile of rubble completely blocking the hallway. Decidedly unhappy about this circumstance Liz returned to her starting place, on her trip inspecting every cell on the way in hopes of finding a way out, that didn''t involve murderous bats. ''Would have been too good to be true for one of the windows to be below 3 meters and unblocked'' she thought after arriving back at her cell. The only find along the way was a long forged rod of unknown origin. All the while her stomach had reported that it was high time for breakfast and something to quench her thirst was also more than necessary. Not to mention clothes that weren''t as flimsy as her pajamas and isolated against the chilling air around her. ''Seems like I need to enter bat territory if I want to get out of here. Ughh, I hate those bugs. Whoever is behind this will wish they never met me, when I get my hands on them! At least they had the decency to kidnap me on my day off. Wait that reminds me of something! Why do I feel so angry about this? Did something happen at work that my subconsciousness doesn''t like? Is that even a thing?''
After removing most of the dirt caked onto the iron rod she slowly tiptoed into the darkness. Deliberately keeping on the wall and feeling her way along she didn''t encounter any lifeforms, which was a relief to Liz. After moving about twenty meters into the darkness she reached what felt like an intersection. Deciding to take the new hallway on her right, she realized that she just found a wooden door and no corridor. Fumbling for a means to open it, she found a handle and tried to open the door only to end up with a still closed door and a definitely rusty handle in her hand.
''Just my luck. At least I didn''t cut myself'' she sighed and tried to open the door anyway. Of course, the door was still latched firmly. Frustration and anger at whoever orchestrated this, caused Liz to hammer against the door with her palms. The hinges fortunately were rusty enough to present results to her fit of anger.
The door crashed to the floor on the other side. The following boom again startled the bats in the hallway to her back and caused Liz to abandon all caution and sprint across the door and crash into the stairs that lay beyond. Falling face-first into the upwards spiral staircase elicited a sharp pain in her right arm which had still held onto the end of the iron rod. ''Shouldn''t have said that about not cutting myself''
After inspecting the small wound on her hand, where the iron rod had pierced her skin, as best as one is able to in near-complete darkness, Liz concluded that it wasn''t life-threatening but was everything but sanitary and should be washed as soon as possible.
With the risk of contracting an infection, Liz inspected the now dimly lit stairway curving upwards. From above, dim light was visible and illuminated stone stairs which were carved into the stone, visibly worn from decades of use. Liz made her way up the stairs with a little more speed than before.
After about 4 rotations, each ever so slightly more illuminated than before, the stairs ended in a circular room with a diameter of about 10 m. The constructed stone wall was lined with multiple doors. The light which she had seen before was coming from the ceiling which used to be a wooden roof that was now mostly littered across the floor in rotting pieces.
Beyond, a nearly cloudless sky with the faint outlines of two moons was visible.. ''Wait a moment. Two moons?'' Moving slightly to confirm that this wasn''t just an image she continued ''''This definitely isn''t Oakdale. Or Earth for that matter...''
"Where the hell am I? And how did I get here?" Liz inspected the room further, hoping to find a window to see her surroundings. Aside from the doorway to the dungeon, there were two doorways, one open and one closed off with a door. The openings were spaced out evenly. Before she could go any further, her stomach notified her of its needs by cramping. ''Oh shit, before I go investigate wherever I am and how to get back home, I need to find food and water urgently!''
The open doorway to her left led into a small rectangular room filled with amphora and what used to be barrels and a small window not unlike the cells below.
Hoping to hydrate her parched mouth, she inspected the still sealed containers. The first one she opened had an easily recognizable scent of fermented juice. The following two proved to contain something similar. Only the fourth had no strong smell. Liz concluded that this must be water. Only after lifting the small amphora and tilting it to drink did she question her action. ''Wait. I am stupid. I can''t reasonably just drink the first thing I come across in some ruin. A real stroke of genius, Liz''
''I should rather try to find some fresh source of water. I''m not desperate enough yet to drink some stale bacteria-riddled water. Foodwise however I will take anything. Why am I so starved? I have eaten just yesterday. Or was it even yesterday? I am definitely still missing some memories'' With the hope of finding non-stale water, she returned to the circular room and went to the remaining door to her left. This time the handle proved sturdy enough and since the door wasn''t locked she continued into the hallway beyond. This time there was also a bright light at the other end which turned out to be the hallway opening up into a small courtyard.
The area was framed by high castle walls on two sides, a natural stone wall to one side and ground-level battlements to the opposite side. Her hallway exited the wall right next to the battlements and on the opposite side, another passage was in the wall next to the battlements. In the center of the courtyard was a quietly gurgling fountain. The rest was covered in high wild grass and vines. Over the surprisingly well-preserved battlements, Liz was able to see a view that took her breath away.
Behind the small railing of battlements, was a steep drop to rocky ground, and beyond it she was able to see a sprawling valley filled with a dense green forest only broken up by the occasional blue lake. The valley was lined to all sides visible with high-reaching mountains that were covered in snow at the tops. ''Seriously, where am I? Am I alone here? Besides the fucking bats? Or is there even edible food?'' At that moment a roar came from the forest, causing a flock of birds to take to the skies. The roar was deafening even from far and Liz panicked and ran back to cover. ''Of course, there has to be some dreadful predator''
After she calmed her racing heart a little, she slowly peeked out again. ''Liz, you are stupid. Whatever that was, was nowhere near you. Why did you cower like an idiot?'' She returned to the inspection of her surroundings, finding that she really seemed to be in some castle. Above the high walls of her courtyard, ruins of two towers and one surprisingly intact tower could be seen. Beyond the towers another mountain loomed in the sky. The fountain was still quietly gurgling, and after a closer investigation was decorated with text, that seemed to burn when looking at it. ''What the hell is this? Why do my eyes tear just looking at text? Am I so dehydrated?''
"Now. Can I drink water from this or is it dirty? I mean unlike the amphora it is much clearer."
''Fuck it, I need to drink!'' Liz scooped a handful of water from the fountain and immediately dropped it back since her still aching wound from the rod began warming. ''Oh fuck, of course, it''s poisoned. Fuck. Fuck.''
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.''Wait a moment? Wasn''t the wound bigger?''
While Liz watched, her wound got smaller by the second and after half a minute closed completely. ''Of course, there is healing water on this fucked up planet. Or is it another dimension? Realm? Whatever. I need to drink.''
With that thought she began drinking from the fountain with eagerness, completely ignoring the bits of dirt from her hands she swallowed, arguing that if the water is capable of healing a wound it can deal with a bit of dirt.
The water caused a warm feeling in her whole body and seemed to even lessen the hunger that had been gnawing at her. ''This is amazing! Bottled this could sell for millions''
Eager to get more of this incredible feeling, she gulped down more and more mouthfuls of water.
Until suddenly the warm feeling turned burning, her entire body heating up. The burning intensified in her throat and stomach to the point that Liz simply screamed in agony, further irritating her throat. Unable to give the pain fraying her sanity a fitting voice, she simply whimpered while her small body trashed on the ground.
After what felt like ages, but was closer to a few minutes, the pain lessened, causing Liz to gulp in a breath of air. Only for the pain to come back tenfold. Liz tasted blood in her mouth and felt it running from her nose and ears before passing out with a whimper.
Liz screamed, having awoken from a nightmare of dungeons with bats and burning from the inside. It took her only a moment to realize that she was still in said dream, the fact eliciting another scream.
''What the hell is wrong with me? Can''t I just wake up already? And shouldn''t I not feel pain in a dream?''
Pinching herself, Liz found that, despite the little bits she knew about brains and pain perception, she was feeling pain and still she was currently sitting in a foreign courtyard, two moons visible in the sky, dried blood crusted on her skin and her dark blonde hair stained with dirt, grass and blood.
''Or is this reality? Am I really on another planet? But how did I get here?''
While she questioned her sanity, she felt a presence at the edge of her consciousness. Trying to find out what it was, she mentally poked the presence, causing text to appear in her consciousness.
-- Congratulations, your mana density has reached the breakthrough point and a mana soul tether has been created! You now have access to your status and may select a class should you meet the requirements --
''Fuck... No''
''Classes? Status? That sounds like the RPGs Dana liked to play! Am I in a simulation? An unwilling test subject for some high-tech VR thing? Then maybe I can leave?''
''MENU!!''
''EXIT!! I want out!'' Liz screamed at the presence in her consciousness, only for it to fade to an almost non-perceivable amount.
"Okay, you win. Show me my status, oh great simulation" Liz relented. Only for nothing to happen.
''Status?¡'' This caused a new presence along the fading one to enter her mind.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: None
Titles: Wanderer
Status:
Health: 96/96
Stamina: 77/77
Mana: 208/208
Vitality: 8
Endurance: 7
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 9
Perception: 11
Wisdom: 13
Intelligence: 12
General skills:
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
English - lvl 7
Pain Tolerance - lvl 4
''Really?''
The former presence congratulating her was now even more faded. ''So they are a kind of log?''
Recalling her status, she now inspected the elements. ''Okay, this sounds like a normal RPG, except I can only guess regarding the meaning of some attributes. I think they are split into 4 physical and 3 mental ones. If I assume that 10 is average for starting, I''m not sure whether I should feel insulted by the physical attributes. The general skills are nice to have too, though I have no idea what they do. But I especially wonder what the wanderer title means. I am not exactly a person for long meaningless walks. Alright let''s see what classes are available''
''Class selection!''
''Classes..?''
-- You currently do not meet the requirements for any class --
''I mean it would have been too good. Why should a meager human like myself get a class after just a few hours? Do I have to be a certain level? Do I even get to level? Or do the classes have levels? No matter what I do, new questions pop up everywhere! Maybe if this is some simulation there is a guide''
''GUIDE''
''Help!'' Nothing happened.
''Or maybe not, but that begs the question: Am I really in a simulation? Technically there are messages in my head, but if I were to design such an extreme VR game I wouldn''t let the players go through to hell just to unlock my fancy-pants RPG system... Yeah, the current working theory is an alternate realm, no matter how irrational that sounds.''
''And yet none of those questions will get me any food. I need to search for some or else I won''t get answers to anything''
Standing up on shaky legs, Liz continued exploring the ruins. She was especially interested in getting to the intact tower as it seemed like the only place for anyone to still be living, hopefully with a stocked fridge if there was such a thing in a medieval-looking castle and for that matter this world. She already missed having her phone, even acknowledging that she would have no signal, just checking the time would be nice.
Continuing on the walkway along the battlements she ended on the bottom floor of what seemed like one of the defensive towers. The wall of the circular room was lined with vertical loopholes. Whatever used to be the furniture in the room had since rotten into indistinguishable shapes. Liz continued through the doorway opposite her entry. She moved through the fortifications, passing through multiple similar rooms, some with additional staircases which were filled with rubble to the point that they weren''t passable. Eventually, she found a staircase with minimal rubble and left for the floor above.
She ended up in a hallway illuminated by windows overlooking the castle ruins. In front of her was a sprawling fortress built on the side of a mountain, sporting dozens of small buildings and courtyards in between. From her vantage point, she was able to see a gate opening up to a road snaking down into the valley. ''But where are the former inhabitants? Why was this small city of a fortress abandoned?'' Pondering these questions Liz took a closer look at the ruins ''Not all rubble seems like it''s coming from erosion. Some buildings look like something bombarded and scorched them. So the fortress was attacked and abandoned? But why am I here now? And is whoever or whatever destroyed it still here? Was it whatever roared earlier?''
Liz continued to investigate the different rooms along the hallway. Most of them were sleeping quarters, at least the rotten pieces inside looked like bed frames. But at the end of the hallway, she found a kitchen. And in the wall of the kitchen, she found a jackpot: A pantry with walls lined with runes similar to the fountain and filled with fresh food. From bread to vegetables, everything was there and looking as if freshly baked or harvested. ''So these magic runes can preserve food as well and not just cause pain? At least it seems I will live...'' She once again abandoned all caution and her feast began.
After devouring two loaves of bread and multiple whole cabbage-like vegetables Liz finally stopped, regretting her action. ''How did I eat so much? Was my stomach flushed empty? And do these runes also poison the food?'' After two minutes devoid of any soul-deep pain, she sighed. Combined with the exhaustion from the traitorous healing water, her full stomach caused her eyelids to drift shut, only to blink open again. ''No, I can''t seriously sleep here. I am underdressed in some dead fortress in some strange world with predators nearby. Who says there isn''t one inside the walls?''
And so Liz continued through the castle, in search of thicker clothes and a place safe from anything preying on humans in this game-like world.
She wandered through multiple halls while her thoughts strayed to the enchanted fountain and pantry. ''If this magic text can preserve the food, maybe that is also the reason why the one tower is still standing. Maybe it contains a dresser and the enchantments also keep out any monsters.'' With this hope, Liz oriented herself in the general direction of the tower. Along the way, she passed a blacksmith, multiple quarters, a kennel, and a training hall judging by the racks of weapons along the wall. That is also where she decided to trade her rusty iron rod with two rusty daggers after failing to lift a sword. ''That sword must weigh at least fifty kilos, how can any human lift this? Or is magic the answer?''
Finally, she found a door that unlike all others she saw so far, was in pristine condition. Additionally, the whole door frame was inscribed with the runes she found so far but unlike before they weren''t painful to look at and seemed to just be plain carvings in the stone.
Deciding that these must be inactive defensive enchantments Liz decided to try the door. Fortunately, the door was neither locked nor was she suddenly struck by lightning. Behind the door was another spiral staircase. But this time there was an intact wooden railing.
Cautiously climbing up the stairs, Liz fully focused on the walls and floor in hopes of spotting any more runic text that might actually smite her. After multiple minutes of tense stair climbing the staircase opened in a big circular room filled with worktables and bookshelves. Liz took in the messy workspace of what seemed like some kind of scholar until she heard something clicking and spotted a skeleton lying on a table along the wall. Liz ducked back into the staircase in fear of an undead skeleton rising or some other trap. After nothing happened for a few minutes she cautiously returned to the room.
This time she slowly neared the skeleton, frantically looked around looking for traps, and awkwardly held the daggers in front of her. Once close enough she was able to see silver runes etched into the pristine-looking bones. ''Are they animating the skeleton? Or just preserving it? But for what purpose?''
She now stood next to the table and nothing had happened so far, so she began inspecting the bones in more detail. The runes snaked along the surface of all limbs and ribs. None of the text was painful to look at. What stood out was the skull which was completely clear of any runes. Besides the bones, multiple implements were strewn across the table.
One of which suddenly clicked once again. Liz recoiled and thrust her daggers towards the object emitting the sound. After a few seconds in which Liz stayed rigid in the stiff pose, she relaxed and inspected the object. It seemed to be a pendant with a clasp to open it. It was approximately hand-sized, gold in color, and all-around adorned with runes more sophisticated than any she had seen so far. She reached for the locket and inspected it further. The weight spoke for pure massive gold. Careful of any surprises she slowly opened it. Inside were more runes and a portrait of an older man with disheveled white hair and beard.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?"
Chapter 2
"Who are you and how did you get here?"
Liz dropped the pendant and sprung back. "WHAT the FUCK?"
"Be careful, you might damage the runes!"
"Who is speaking? Where are you?" Liz frantically looked in every direction, trying to spot the speaker. Until her gaze landed on the still open locket.
"You are looking at me, and I am Garuna the Elder, so show some respect!" came from the jewelry on the dusty floor.
"Dungeons, Healing water, a status and talking objects. Now only a dragon is missing. Seriously where have I landed?" Liz held and shook her head, the long overdue panic attack having finally arrived.
"The dragon has returned for him? We must evacuate immediately. Go lass, inform the captain. Nobody is safe."
With closed eyes, Liz continued trying to get her breath under control while the locket continued babbling about evacuation, switching to an unintelligible language midway through a sentence. It was completely oblivious to Liz hyperventilating next to it.
After 10 minutes she was finally able to form coherent thoughts again. ''Oh god, that hasn''t happened for years. Fuck you universe for this.''
The pendant had also finally stopped rambling. Taking a deep breath, Liz opened her reddened green eyes and looked at the finally mute locket.
''So the locket is sentient. Maybe it can tell me what is happening right now. I really need some answers!''
"Ok, Pendant. Where am I?" Liz asked while picking up the golden object.
"You are currently trespassing in the chambers of the mage Wulfram. I ask you what you seek and who your master is, thief!"
"I am no thief. Neither am I employed by anyone. At least not here. I mean where is this fort located!"
"The youngest generation really lacks intellect. You are in the Silver Pine Fort, so you are in the Lainartor Valley. If you are no thief, what is it then that you seek?"
"That is a good question. I just woke up in the dungeon of this place and have no idea how I got here. Yesterday I was on Earth, and today I''m in some other realm and get insulted by a piece of jewelry"
"This isn''t your home realm? A realm traveler, how wonderful. That I would meet one of you elusive bunch... Truly a wonder. But how you were able to breach the shields of the fort? Hmm... Wulfram must have failed to maintain them properly..." said jewelry replied, completely ignoring the insult.
"I don''t think anyone here is alive enough to maintain any shield. Sorry to disappoint you, but this fort is a ruin. And what is a realm traveler?" Liz said, eager to finally have something providing her the much-needed answers. ''The locket is just rambling a bit too much. Let''s just play along for now, every bit of new information is valuable''
"...that is unfortunate... Say do you know what year it is? Wait, a realm traveler that doesn''t know its abilities? How peculiar! I don''t think I can exactly say what the capabilities of a realm traveler are. Your people were always a secretive bunch."
"I don''t think its any good but in my realm it was the year 2022. And I''m still not sure what you mean by my abilities" Liz replied to the surly pendant.
"No, that doesn''t give me any idea what year it is. My last interaction with Wulfram was on the first moon of 2317. But you could use the time-keeping coin. It should be on the first table next to the door."
Already on the way towards the described table, Liz started looking for a ''time-keeping coin''. She quickly found a coin marked with runes and minted with an hourglass on both sides.
"And how am I supposed to use a coin?" Liz asked.
"You push a small bit of mana inside and it should answer with the time passed since its minting" the jewelry sounded as if the question couldn''t have been more silly.
"Ehmm, I not quite sure that I''m able to push anything into this coin. It seems pretty solid to me" Liz held the coin into the light looking for clues.
"You don''t know how to manipulate mana? How did you even get here then? As far as I am aware realm travel has a huge need of mana!"
"Then I seem to not be a realm traveler! While I sometimes wished to not be stuck in my home realm I never actively tried to travel the realms as you put it" Liz replied concerned that she might have been responsible for being transported from her cozy apartment into a bat infested dungeon.
''Except if this is a simulation!''
The pendant started mumbling; "Ah I see. But your aura already has hints of...I wonder... Yeah... that should work... but why does it have hints of the fountain... Say lass, have you by chance seen a fountain in a courtyard near the dungeon?"
"Yes I have. Drinking from that was the worst and most painful experience I''ve had in my life! Do you want me drink from that again? I won''t do it!" Liz panicked again.
"Hey slow down, lass! You say it was painful? It shouldn''t damage anything, since it is supposed to be a healing fountain.... unless ... if you are right that a lot of time has passed...but your aura does have hints of it...yes, that must be it!"
"What is it?" Liz was annoyed by the mumbling locket.
''Another point against the VR theory, if this is a guide, it is the worst guide possible''
"Ah, sorry! Let me apologize on behalf of my student. The fountain was an experimental pet project of his. It must have overcharged on the ambient mana, causing you to have severe mana burn. But that is currently a good thing, since this seems to have aligned your inner mana with the ambient mana signature of this realm. So you should only need to pick up the coin and press it between your fingers but don''t change anything in your aura. By the way, please work on holding in your aura, this botched attempt is most unsightly"
''I have no idea what he means by my aura. Yet another question to add to the list'' Liz sighed internally.
"I will gladly give you the time, but in exchange I would like answers to some of my questions" Liz answered the insulting locket.
"Alright, I will answer three of your questions for telling me the time" the pendant sighed, which with its ethereal voice sounded ominous enough for Liz to shiver.
Despite this, Liz proceeded to pinch the coin between her fingers, causing a new presence to enter her mind, this time she could pinpoint its origin to the coin. ''But then where are the others coming from?''
''It has been 1330 years, 4 moons and 7 days since minting''
Liz relayed the dates.
"Ah, if I remember correctly, which I should, this coin was minted on the first night of the year 2000. This means it has been roughly 1013 years since I was last opened. That would indeed mean that Wulfram should be dead. So after your questions I would like to propose a deal to you. So ask away!"
''Year 2000 after what? I don''t think this is based on Christianity, or else I''m a millennium in the future! Another question to ask. I''ll have to pay close attention to how I phrase the questions or he''ll just answer with half answers again. Three questions really isn''t a lot to work with. First and foremost I want to know how to get back to Earth and how I even got here! Then it would be nice to know what he has to say about the notifications or how the magic here works. Oh, and probably interesting would be what he has to say about this being a simulation.''
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
After spending a few moments ordering her thoughts and finalizing her questions, Liz started with the first:
"So if am no realm traveler how would I get back to my home realm?"
"Oh that is an... intriguing question. But I must say that I know of no other way than to be part of the Order of the Travelers. And last I heard they were extinct. But I am no expert on this field and my knowledge of this world is a millennium old. You would be better off to ask an expert."
''Oh another half-answer! And of course, they are extinct! Where can I even find an expert? It isn''t like the whole valley is devoid of human life. Seems like I now have my second question. I guess any kind of expert is more helpful than this piece of jewelry!''
"How exactly would I get to such experts?"
"You would need to find a human city with a branch of one of the scholar guilds and orders. As you asked for an exact way to get there, I can''t fully answer you that. If the Wildlands are as far-reaching as they were a millennium ago and the settlements are still there, then you are about two weeks by horse from the frontier settlements. However, I suspect that the Wildlands have expanded making this a three-week journey if the roads and paths along the way are cleared. However, I doubt that this will be the case. Not to mention interference by monsters. Additionally, it should be fall, so the mountain pass is impassable until late spring."
''That was at least partially helpful. If I understand him correctly I''m either in the Wildlands or beyond them, which are filled with monsters and I will be unable to reach civilization until in about 8 months. Do they even have months? Is a moon a month? Another good question. And since he said human city, I guess there should also be other civilizations? Elves? Dwarves? And what does he consider monsters?''
''So now my question options are: Asking about other civilizations, the notifications and status, classes, where exactly I am, my aura, dragons, monsters, how their calendar works, runes and magic. And that are decidedly more than one question. And there is still his proposed deal!''
After a minute of thinking about it, Liz phrased her last question:
"Where exactly am I and why is there a fort so far from civilization?"
"I already said that you are in Silver Pine Fort, in the hills of Lainartor Valley. Lainator Valley is one of the areas in the Wildlands that was considered partially habitable. Of all the habitable places in the Wildlands from a millennium ago, Lainator is the only with good access to various rare resources. Additionally, the valley is place to the crossing of two leylines causing a unnaturally high arcane mana concentration. Therefore, various kingdoms of the lowlands cooperated to staff a fort at the source of these valuable resources. Various orders and guilds also took part in establishing this place. As this was your last question, I would like to propose a deal. I''m sure that you want to return home and need an expert and therefore access to civilization for that. I would also like to return to civilization and not spend another millennium lying in a ruin. If I had to guess I would say that you are below level 16?"
"Ehmm, I have no level. How do I even get a level?" Liz replied.
"Oh, you don''t have a class? How is that possible at your age?"
"So I need a class? It''s the class that levels?" Liz interrupted.
"Yes of course, how do you not know such basics? "
"In my home realm there are no classes. Or levels for that matter." Liz replied.
"How is that possible? Is your mana concentration low as well?" the locket asked, suddenly sounding curious instead of annoyed.
''Seems like this class system is normal. So the notification should be as well''
"No, I don''t think there was mana at all. When I woke up after passing out at the fountain I got a notification informing me my mana concentration has reached a critical point"
"You had your coming of age at your high age? Your world must truly be low in mana concentration. How can such a world be stable and habitable?..."
"Hey, I''m 24. I''m not old. Also, we were talking about getting to civilization?" Liz tried to steer the discussion back on topic.
"Oh, yes yes. Where was I? I want to return to civilization. I would assist you in surviving and getting a mage class and in return you would help me get back and become mobile again. The bones on the table shall be my new body"
"New body? How? Am I supposed to complete it? So the runes are animating it?"
"Yes, basically they are animating it. I formerly had a deal with Wulfram to do the same but since he has either abandoned me or the dragon finally got him, I need a new subject to do the job. So I am offering you to be my student. I will make an acceptable magic user out of you, no matter how low your affinity is."
"Wait a moment! Why would a dragon have a problem with your former student?"
"Well, because of me. He stole me from the hoard of the dragon Kahnur. And dragons don''t take well to thieves. His whole adventuring group was destroyed by Kahnur by the time he got the position at this fort. Will you accept my deal?"
"Wouldn''t that also put me at the ire of the dragon?" Liz asked.
"I don''t think Kahnur has any idea what the group stole from him. He probably only ever got their scents in his lair."
''His deal sounds good, since I don''t know anything about this environment, classes or simply anything pertaining to this world. Or simulation. But I''m more and more sure that this is no simulation. I mean why would any developer dump me in the middle of nowhere? To conserve computing power? But the more I see, the more I am sure that no computer can simulate something like this. So I really seem to be in an alternate realm. And getting back home might be possible. And to be honest, learning and performing magic along the way sounds fun''
"Yes, I think I will accept your deal. You will help me survive, and I will complete your body if I am able to."
"Very well. I will teach you as my student and expect you to train on your own. I hope we will be able to train you enough to depart here as soon as the mountain pass clears in approximately 9 moons time. You should try to not delay this date, as most monsters only become active in the summer."
"I just have one question: How much time is a moon? Or better yet, how does your time-keeping work in general?" Liz asked.
"A moon consists is 28 days. A year consists of 13 moons. In most human kingdoms the day was subdivided into 24 parts. Which in turn were subdivided in 60 parts. Sometimes further subdivisions were also used. But remember this has always been a political toy and my information is from a millennium ago."
''That sounds like back on Earth. Even a year has nearly the same amount of days. I wonder why they are equal? And his 9 moons match up with my predicted 8 months. So I''m still at the same time in the year as on Earth. Interesting!''
"I don''t think the contents of the pantry will last for 9 moons. I would say I have one moon before I run out of food!"
"Have you included the private pantry in upstairs living quarters or in the other towers?" the locket replied.
''Of course there is a minibar in the mage tower''
Intent on taking stock of what Garuna described as the private pantry, Liz ascended the stairs further before suddenly the locket urged her to stop.
"You must disable to defensive enchantments or else you will not survive taking another step! Put your hand on the right corner of this step" the locket explained.
Afraid of moving from her position, Liz awkwardly bend down and did as instructed. Weirdly she felt a pressure lift off her that she hadn''t even perceived until this point.
''Huh, I didn''t even see any active runes!''
She continued upwards before emerging in a medieval equivalent of a one-room apartment, except it was fives times the size of her last apartment. There was a huge four-poster bed and bookshelves taking up a quarter of the room. Another was filled with a fireplace and two divans. A third was a walled off bathroom, improved by enchantments. In the fourth quarter were the stairs and another small walled-off room which was proved to be a storage room and pantry. This one was mostly filled with fruit and meat, looking as if just recently hunted. To Liz''s surprise the enchantments on the wall didn''t burn when looking at them and still the food was fresh.
After questioning the pendant about this, she got an explanation.
"Only malfunctioning runes overcharged on mana can be painful to look at, even without a means of perceiving the magic itself. The pantry in the kitchen is most likely unregulated. This tower however uses and directs the ambient mana in perfectly controlled amounts. It took the whole Lower Council of the Mage''s Society 5 days to construct it."
''Oh shit, I could have potentially stepped in all numbers of ''deactivated'' traps! One more reason why the deal with the pendant - I seriously need to ask for his name again - was a good idea''
Liz quickly took stock of the whole suite and pantry. In the end she surmised, that with both pantries combined she would survive for about 8 weeks, so 2 moons. With the amount of fruit a vitamin deficiency was also unlikely. Is that even a thing or does the magic simply heal deficiencies?
The pendant - or rather Garuna after asking - had no answers as he didn''t understand what she meant with vitamins and deficiencies.
Eventually she returned to the workshop and took part in another session of questions and half-answers with the locket. It lasted until the light waned. In this time she learned, that most humans and other races, so far Garuna spoke of gnomes, elves and dwarves, lived in the southeast and the nearest ''civilization'' was either a dwarven city deep underground in the mountains that stretched to the east or some tribal cultures of beastkin and monsters that had a semblance of sentience. According to Garuna neither was a safe escape. Finding a dwarven city took serious dedication, and it was a gamble with any tribal cultures in the mountains whether one was welcomed or attacked on sight. Therefore, her best bet was going to the human kingdoms through the Wildlands.
With a lot of new information and after agreeing upon a schedule for the next day, Liz went and got the bed in the upper floor ready to retire after helping herself to a serving of fruit from the pantry. And so, an hour after the sun had set, her first day in a new realm ended. In the night she dreamed of murderous bats, vengeful dragons and annoying lockets.
Chapter 3
The next day started shortly after sunrise. Liz took some time orienting herself, still unsure and overwhelmed by her new environment. Standing up, she missed her deodorant already, instead having to take a bath, just to get rid of her stench from the day prior.
''At least I could sleep in and not get up at the crack of dawn just to sell coffee to leering idiots''
The next hour was spent dusting and roughly cleaning both the suite and most of the workspace. Since the night before was quite cold, even under the covers of the bed, she continued by getting some firewood from several destroyed doors and desks.
This way she also learned that, once opened, Garuna was able see the world around him in every direction. Since the enchantments around the tower kept the mana concentration quite low, he only had this omni-directional sight. Outside he could also perceive and even smell in a sphere of of 7 meters, completely ignoring walls or floors. According to Garuna his current form and also his new body were unable to channel mana in any meaningful way since the ''bodies'' and soul weren''t adapted to one another like living matter was able to.
Additionally, Liz filled multiple containers with water from the fountain, elated to hear that the healing effect held for a long time, but the mana burn slowly faded once removed from the source. After getting the chores done, she settled down in a cleared section of the workspace, eagerly awaiting her first magic lesson from the locket.
As it turned out, Garuna had more of a theoretical lesson in mind. After going over everything he had explained the day before he asked Liz to identify his locket and relaying what she saw.
"It seems to made out of gold with fine silver runes set into it. The runes are more complex and smaller than any other I''ve seen so far, besides the skeleton" Liz replied, eager to finally do something beside reiterating.
"No, I mean use [Identify] as in the skill!" Garuna sounded exasperated.
After seeing Liz''s puzzled expression he continued "Ah.. you don''t have it!... Hmm... then please to do the following: Take the time coin and focus on it. Will it to show itself to you"
''I don''t quite understand what he means, but I guess trying can''t hurt''
After a few minutes of staring at the coin with a constipated expression and mentally shouting at the coin to reveal itself, Liz got a reaction. Just like her status she ''knew'' that the coin was called
[Time Coin - Rare]
At the same time she also got another notification
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Identify] --
"YES, I got it." Liz jumped with joy.
"Very well, now try it on me"
[Locket of Garuna - Soulbound - lvl ??]
"It names you ''Locket of Garuna'' and something about Soulbound, but your level is just two question marks" Liz relayed.
"Correct, [Identify] works on almost all living and nonliving objects. In case of any being with levels, it requires your level to be close or higher to correctly display it this way. Try it again."
[Locket of Garuna - Soulbound - lvl 129]
"Now your level is 129" Liz answered, confused.
''I would have pegged him higher. This somehow doesn''t feel right!''
"Yes, the other way to see the level is if a being wishes to reveal itself to you. However certain skills can still obfuscate the level. Otherwise, you will only get a general idea of the level difference to you. Identify can also be used on skills to get the details"
''So he''s using such a skill?''
Liz immediately went and identified everything in her range, most were quite obvious like
[Worktable]
[Stool]
Books simply relayed their title
[On the mystery of arcane healing]
[The 7 best Herbs and Spices of the Northern Wildlands]
But even objects which she couldn''t ordinarily identify, the skill gave a response to
[Myrtakraut]
[Iron Ingot]
The last one she could have guessed, but confirmation was good to have.
''But didn''t he say it also works on other skills? How should I go about this then?''
After testing for a few minutes she found that calling her status to her consciousness and then concentrating on the skills was the key.
English - lvl 7
You are able to converse in the foreign language English
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
You understand the written and spoken word of the common language of the Eastern Plains. The language of humans and gnomes
Pain Tolerance - lvl 4
You are less responsive to pain. Pain reception is dulled. Effect increases with skill level
Identify - lvl 1
Identify anything in your surroundings. Gain information about objects and beings. Levels may not be grasped unless close to ones own or lower. Margin increases with level. Current: 10
And most importantly:
Wanderer - title
You have successfully crossed the void of realms and entered the realm of Gaior. To make it easier for you to adapt to your new environment this title gives the following benefits: You gain the knowledge to converse in the predominant language of your species and food and water needs are cut in half until a first class is gained. Additionally: +1 Intelligence and +1 Endurance
''So no realm traveler, only a "wanderer". Just a result of travelling the realms. Also, did I instinctively talk in Eastern Plains Common? It seems like it. I doubt anybody here speaks English. So that is definitely good to have.''
With her experimentation done she returned to the lesson. Apparently certain artifacts have different rarities and levels of quality. The most important and common were common and uncommon, rare for the more expensive artifacts and legendary for unique masterpieces. Garuna confirmed there were more but none that were relevant at the moment.
Garuna then let her identify some more artifacts in her vicinity. A whole shelf of vials filled with brown liquid identified as
[Replenishment tonic - Uncommon]
The vials with the water from the fountain identified as
[Arcane-infused Healing potion - Rare]
However, after putting them in a shelf, that according to Garuna absorbed excess mana, they identified as
[Healing potion - Uncommon]
The rest of the afternoon progressed similarly, with Garuna explaining multiple basics of mana manipulation and the different magic forms as he called them.
Of the types of mana manipulation, he described the most prevalent ones.
One was through runes, which worked apart from the original caster. According to Garuna there were several runic alphabets but the one he was taught and now teaching her was the oldest and most powerful. Liz came to the conclusion that probably all runic magic users considered their own system in the same way.
Another type of magic users were the intuitive users. They were heavily aligned with a certain magic form and could cast a wide range of spells at a thought. Some were even able to create matter from mana itself. Garuna sounded like he neither liked nor really disliked these magic users.
This however was not the case when Garuna spoke of wizards. There was clear contempt in Garuna''s ethereal voice as he explained how they were using spoken spells and were, like some runic casters, a highly secretive bunch. They themselves had a clear disdain for all other magic users. In the days of Garuna''s flesh body days, some wizard orders even systematically hunted other magic users. Garuna told Liz that he himself was hunted across the plains by two wizards when he was still a novice. The fact that Garuna shared this, surprised Liz twofold. For one the gruesome methods of ''hunting'' he described and that this was the only detail about Garuna''s life he had shared.
''I wondered whether he ever had a real body. Now I really want to know how he ended up as a locket. But I''ve already learned that he reacts allergic to direct questioning. Best to just wait for him to reveal it himself''
Afterward, he also concluded on types of magic users and instead focused on the types of magic. He described arcane magic as the purest form and the type to naturally occur when mana became concentrated enough. As such it was most often highly unstable and often decayed into other magic forms. Besides arcane magic there were other forms, most associated with an element. Said elemental and sometimes spiritual magic often times had multiple subtypes as well. He also mentioned some special cases, like necromancy and healers.
In the evening Garuna ordered Liz to read a tome with the title ''Basic Mana Manipulation: Techniques and Tips'' and dismissed her, wishing to remain in the workspace and not be disturbed further.
Liz made herself a minimal dinner out of a few fruit and started a fire in the fireplace before settling into the bed, spent from the mental exhaustion of 6 hours of learning magic theory.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.''While it is interesting to learn this theory I don''t feel like this helps in learning to actually practice magic.''
Despite having located the tome in the extensive library in the suite Liz simply went to sleep, too spent to even look at the preface.
The next morning started similar to the day before, however this time Liz spent her morning further exploring the fort together with Garuna after taking her bath. Thanks to his directions she was able to locate most of the workshops in the fort. Most were only filled with rotten wood and dust. The blacksmith was the only place where the tools and materials all looked in close to usable condition. The forge and several other workstations were powered by an enchantment which needed a mana crystal as an energy source. Liz considered cleaning the smithy and trying herself at repairing some daggers. But Garuna quickly discouraged her from the idea, since she was still unable to manipulate mana and the few crystals left were too expensive to waste.
Eventually she looted some pans from the kitchen, a dozen daggers from the armory and moved all the food to her suite''s pantry.
After snacking some as her lunch, she went back to her lesson and voiced her concern from the night before but was quickly dismissed by Garuna
"This is the best way to give you the selection of a mage class. An initial class selection or evolution is based on your actions, knowledge and to some extent your wants. Therefore, I am doing my best to give you the theoretical knowledge of magic users. But you are right that not only knowledge is involved in forcing such a selection. Therefore, we will spend today inspecting the fortifications and learning some of their inner workings. If you were so friendly and would take me to the wall by the dining hall"
''Finally more questions answered. The whole class system sounds interesting. Especially how this simply exists in this world.''
And so they went along the insides of the fortress''s outer walls and Garuna explained how thanks to the ley line node nearby and the subsequent high ambient mana concentration the enchantments were self-sufficient. Especially the outer walls were designed to repel monsters under all circumstances. The shields for teleportation, which only few monsters in the valley possessed, and even against weather however could be compromised by certain phenomena which impacted the mana density, requiring regular maintenance. Garuna led Liz to a certain section of stone and instructed her to simply study how the different distinct runes interconnected, stopping when a headache started forming.
It turned out that, while working runes weren''t painful to look at, they still could cause magic induced headaches when trying to understand them without sufficient previous knowledge.
Liz spent half of the afternoon doing exactly as instructed, having to stop regularly and heal her headache using the processed healing potions from the fountain which turned out to be the
[Fountain of Youth]
Garuna denied the water having any significant anti-aging effects, simply being a renewable source of healing potions. He also explained that the construct was highly impractical as it only worked here in the high ambient mana concentration.
Eventually, after having used up all her healing potions, Liz returned to the tower and started to read the recommended book, while cooking a piece of meat and some vegetables over the fireplace.
The tome itself was quite interesting. It advised to first read the first chapters before trying anything. Liz, of course, ignored the advice and spend some time without any success. She was probably much slower than if she had heeded the advice. The tome spoke of learning a magic related class by finding her core, according to the book the link between her soul and body, connecting with it and directing the energy within. To do so required meditation which seemed to be a skill as well. Garuna of course failed to mention this and shortly after sunset Liz found herself a guide on meditation and tried the techniques described. To her surprise she quickly picked up on it and after what felt like just half an hour she got a notification.
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Meditation] --
Identifying it brought
Meditation - lvl 1
When meditating your consciousness releases from the shackles of your physical body, boosting your natural health, stamina and mana regeneration by 5%
But it seems the shackles of a physical body also included a sense of time as a quick look through the window revealed the moons high in the sky, putting her close to midnight. Liz quickly went to bed, fortunately already slightly refreshed from her meditation.
The next morning was once again spent doing the typical chores one has when single-handedly maintaining a magically enforced fortress. By noon, Liz had gathered usable pieces of wood, weapons and other raw materials in a corner of the workspace.
She had also gained a basic understanding of the layout of the fort. She had learned that there were two gates, one towards the valley and the other towards the snowy mountain path. Most of the smaller buildings outside the main building housed storage, a stable and even a small barn and the workshops of all kinds of trades.
The main building housed the dining hall, kitchen, sleeping quarters and armory. It also bordered the mages tower. The other two tower ruins used to house the quarters for any nobility delegated here and the guard station together with the vault in the other one. This was good to know as Garuna had advised her to make some time perusing the ruins, since they most likely contained a few valuable artifacts.
Liz had also concluded that whatever had attacked had not caused many casualties if any at all and instead the fortress was evacuated in a haste. Garuna had supported this theory especially after seeing multiple stacks of rotten and rusted merchandise piled near the mountain pass gate, most likely left behind to not overburden the horses.
After a quick lunch, which once again consisted of fruits, all similar to their Earthen equivalents, yet different, Garuna started the lesson on auras. According to him, every living being had an aura. It was linked to their magical affinity. Before gaining a class most are at the edge of being perceivable and a class was necessary to control it. That Liz still had a perceivable one spoke of a high magical affinity and had led Garuna to believe that she had a class and was simply bad at suppressing her aura. Another way this magical affinity expressed itself was through the multiplier with which points in Wisdom impacted the maximum mana pool. Upon hearing that Liz''s multiplier was 16, the locket was ecstatic.
"An affinity of 16!! Do you understand how rare that is? There are only a few hundreds of beings above 14! I''ve never heard of anybody having an affinity of 16. It was theorized to be possible but never observed. How incredible! You are definitely worthy of being a mage."
''But why? Why do I have this high affinity? Or was that the reason I was transported here?''
After several minutes, Garuna had calmed down, and managed to continue the lesson. He finally explained the meaning of the different stats in her status.
"They are divided in four physical and three mental attributes. Vitality increases your health, Endurance your stamina. Strength translates to physical strength. Dexterity determines how nimble and balanced you are able to move your body. Perception helps with perceiving and processing your environment. Some would say it is your mental speed. Wisdom increases your mana pool and Intelligence determines your mental power, which translates to the power and damage caused by your spells. All also have auxiliary effects, but none that are important right now"
With that Garuna concluded that he had taught her as much as he was able to before she gained a class, advising her to take the tome from the day before and alternate between studying the wall enchantments and trying to connect to the mana pool in her soul. The second assignment took far shorter than Liz had expected. After just an hour she had found a small ball of energy inside herself, roughly at the place of her heart. A force that was constantly changing and roiling inside her without actually making contact with any physical part of herself. After familiarizing herself with this feeling, she started trying to grasp the force. It still eluded her, constantly shifting away from any metaphysical grasp she tried to gain. After a while a notification entered her consciousness, surprising her and throwing her out of her trance. After reading the message she was quickly disappointed, having hoped to gain a class
-- [Meditation] has reached level 2 --
"Have you got it?" asked the locket, having meditated simultaneous to decrease mana consumption and recharge his inner stores.
"No, only a level in meditation. I don''t know if this is good for anything" Liz replied dejectedly.
"Identify the skill again"
Doing so revealed
Meditation - lvl 2
When meditating your consciousness release from the shackles of your physical body, boosting your natural health, stamina and mana regeneration by 6%
"So it increases the regeneration bonus by one percent each level?" Liz asked.
"That is correct. Up to a maximum of 20% at lvl 16. Afterwards depending on the skill evolution it may differ." Garuna explained.
''So not only classes evolve but also skills? That is good to know''
Liz resumed her training by studying the enchantments. After focusing on one part in particular she had a small d¨¦j¨¤ vu, somehow reminded of the roiling force inside herself. Before she could focus on this detail, a headache caused her to stop her investigation.
After curing it she tried the meditation again, failing to reproduce her near success from the first session. Dejected she stopped after another hour and went back inside.
Leaving the necklace in his favorite spot in the work space, she made herself dinner. By now she was sick of the monotonous food selection.
''It''s only ever fruit and vegetables or meat. And I have no equipment to make it any more interesting. Not that I am good at cooking, but my supermarket had at least some nice ready made meals. A pizza right now would be nice. Or at least some films, or YouTube videos...''
Looking for a way to spend her time, Liz went to sorting through her loot of the day and identified every piece.
[Rusty Dagger]
[Broken Dagger]
?
[Lead ingot]
[Rotten Log]
[Pebble]
After moving on to identifying every item of furniture in the suite she finally got what she wanted
-- [Identify] has gained level 2 --
Identify - lvl 2
Identify anything in your surroundings. Gain information about objects and beings. Levels may not be grasped unless close to ones own or lower. Margin increases with level. Current: 12
''Interesting, if this continues linear, I should get information up to level 40 at skill level 16 before the evolution. But only with my level 0, with more levels I should be able to go higher. Hopefully that happens before Identify reaches lvl 16''
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Mathematics] --
''Seriously? Now? After some basic arithmetic? I guess I''ll take it. Maybe poor poetry is also a skill?''
Mathematics - lvl 1
You have a basic understanding of mathematics. You are able to apply your knowledge in all manner of situations
''No real gains? I can''t suddenly calculate 2 equations simultaneously? Or 5% more efficient? Would have been too nice...''
The fifth day started different from the previous. Leaving her chores be for the morning, Liz focused on practicing, feeling close to a breakthrough. Said breakthrough presented itself after just an hour of meditation, when she finally managed to take hold of the power inside herself. Although it almost instantly dissipated again, she could still feel a notification invade her consciousness.
-- Congratulations! You meet the requirements for one or more classes --
By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Mage]:
You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced magic user.
Wielder of magic. The mage is the most versatile of all the classes, wielding magic like a farmer would a hoe. The mage is able to progress to immeasurable power with patience and practice.
Would you like to adopt [Mage] as your class?
By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Mage Scholar]:
You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have the skill [Mathematics]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced and wise magical scholar.
Scholar of magic. The mage scholar is dutiful in documenting all she can find about the understandings of magic. The mage scholar uses patience, attention and experimentation to further the knowledge and understanding of magic and how it is wielded. She is aware of the importance and duty her profession is to the coming generations.
Would you like to adopt [Mage Scholar] as your class?
By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Arcane Mage]:
You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced magic user. Your soul has adapted to the arcane under the stressful influence of a highly concentrated source of arcane mana.
Wielder of the Arcane. The arcane mage is the most versatile of the mages, wielding the only mana form without opposition aside from the reality itself. The arcane mage is able to wield this immeasurable power with an understanding of the responsibilities and dangers of the purest form of mana.
Would you like to adopt [Arcane Mage] as your class?
Chapter 4
"Yes!" Liz jumped up with joy flinging the locket high in the air.
''Oops''
"So am I right in the assumption that you got something?" the locket grumbled after being caught by Liz.
Liz relayed the information.
"That is very intriguing indeed. Three classes and even a mage with a focus! Normally it would take until an evolution to bring a focus to emerge. I guess the high affinity had a part in that..." the locket observed, continuing to mumble to himself about being considered an experienced and wise mage scholar.
"Are there any downside to taking [Arcane Mage] compared to [Mage]?" Liz asked, having easily dismissed the [Mage Scholar].
"Not really. You will simply have a more direct connection to the arcane. All other magic forms still respond to you like if you have the mage class. But since you mostly only had dealt with arcane magic until you triggered your coming-of-age I would surmise that your type affinities for anything aside arcane is practically non-existent. So specializing early and selecting [Arcane Mage] only has benefits for you"
"Ok, then I will take the arcane mage"
-- You have adopted the class [Arcane Mage] : --
+5 Vitality; +4 Endurance; +2 Strength; +4 Dexterity
+5 Perception; +10 Wisdom; +10 Intelligence
Arcane magic uses less mana
Your understanding of magic deepens and your mana pool becomes accessible while fully conscious
+4 class skill slots
-- You have learned the active class skill [Arcane Blast]--
-- You have learned the passive class skill [Runic Intuition]--
Her status now looked like
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 1
Title: Wanderer
Status:
Health: 156/156
Stamina: 121/121
Mana: 368/368
Vitality: 13
Endurance: 11
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13
Perception: 16
Wisdom: 23
Intelligence: 22
General skills:
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
English - lvl 7
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Tolerance - lvl 4
Class skills:
Arcane Blast - lvl 1
Runic Intuition - lvl 1
-empty slot-
-empty slot-
Identifying her new skills brought her
Arcane Blast - lvl 1
Quickly expend mana in a directed blast of pure arcane energy. Damage scales with Intelligence. Resistance penetration and control increases with skill level
Runic Intuition - lvl 1
Your instincts guide you in reading, understanding and creating runic frameworks.
''Well that isn''t helping a lot. Where is the manual? Runic Intuition sounds quite ominous. Does that mean I suddenly understand runes or will I just get a headache more quickly?''
After relaying the new details together with her question to Garuna, he in turn described what he knew about the skills.
"A Blast is a very common skill among mages. It can be most effectively used as an offensive maneuver. Though one using arcane magic is quite often more powerful and less likely to encounter a natural resistance, except in this region this might not hold true. Skills similar to Runic Intuition are normally only found in first evolution and therefore more specialized classes. I would attribute this early emergence to either your wanderer status or your high affinity, or both. Regarding the Runic Intuition I would suspect that you will still need to learn the basic runes themselves but the connections between them should come to you by instinct. I encourage you to experiment with it"
Eager to try her new skills Liz distanced herself from the wall she had studied, pointed her right arm towards a wall without enchantments and stopped.
"Ehmm, how do I do this now?" Liz asked sheepishly.
"You should be able to feel your mana pool now, even when not meditating. For a blast simply draw mana from there and think about directing it into your arm and out your hand!"
When Liz started feeling inwards, she indeed found the already familiar feeling of power. Drawing from it was also easier than she thought, causing her to draw an immense amount of mana into her arm. One second there was nothing and the next a purple ball erupted from her hand. Except that wasn''t all.
Immediately, her entire arm erupted in excruciating pain. Along the inside of her arm the skin blistered and cracked, shining with purple light. This path of destruction extended over her shoulder, ending somewhere under her clothing.
Liz, in shock, just stared at her arm. Then the pain reached her brain and she doubled over.
"QUICKLY. Drink a healing potion!" Garuna urged, for once not his calm self.
Unable to consider anything else, Liz just followed the instruction and managed to use her left arm to pull herself towards her supplies. After a time that felt like ages to her, she reached the chaotic stack of loot and potions. Unable to really care for any of it, just wishing for relieve from the pain, she flung away anything blocking the potions. After another eternity of pain, she found one of the clear liquid vials and with great exertion managed to open the cork and gulp it down.
After half a minute the pain had lessened to a degree that allowed her to regain her senses.
''Holy hell, that was as painful as the fountain itself.''
"What. Was. That?" she rasped out, coughing up blood and healing potion.
"That is a problem" Garuna surprised Liz again by sounding truly desolate.
He kept silent afterwards. Liz used the ensuing peace to regain her composure. She inspected her surroundings and arm. The wall had a small crater where she had aimed. Her arm on the other hand had lightning like patterns of fresh scabs down the entire length, concentrated on her wrist and hand. Testing both she found that no permanent damage seemed to have occurred, despite the same wounds on Earth most likely requiring skin grafts if not amputation.
''Magic, especially healing magic is truly wonderful! Or destructive, in the case of whatever that was!''
After a few minutes in which Liz''s heartbeat returned to normal and a few scoops of healing potion to her skin let the scabs vanish without a trace, she spoke up.
"But what exactly happened? I mean that probably shouldn''t happen, right?" Liz finally asked, done waiting for the wordless locket.
"That is a good question! However, my theory is that your magic affinity has become a disadvantage. Your soul has access to incredible amounts of mana and is able to near instantly release the power. Your body on the other hand seems unwilling to bend to these forces. I would guess that you either only have very limited mana conduits if any at all, causing you to have no real control and damaging your body when forcing mana through it."
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
''What the hell are mana conduits? He never mentioned them before!''
"But isn''t that to be expected? I mean you said I''m not the only one who has a high affinity" Liz responded, keeping her other question to herself, not willing to risk derailing the conversation.
"But you''re the only one whose body has grown up in a completely mana-free environment." the pendant responded.
"So I am doomed to not be able to ever use magic, else I cripple myself, just because I grew up on Earth? So all our work in the last days was for nothing? What other classes might help me survive? Is a class change even possible?" Liz began to chatter in panic.
"Slow down, lass. A class change is possible, but I wouldn''t go that far just yet. An affinity of 16 is too rare to just throw away." the locket tried to calm her.
"An affinity isn''t going to do me any good, if I don''t survive whatever monster surge happens here in the Summer or starve to death before" Liz shouted back.
"You don''t need to worry. Your body should adapt to it over time. Mana conduits are usually fully developed by the age of adulthood. In your case however I would rather expect 7 years..."
"But I don''t have 7 years. If you remember, my food runs out in less than 2 moons" Liz interrupted, still shouting.
"If you would let me finish... This isn''t even truly necessary. The control for a simple Blast should even be possible after just a year. You are however correct, that we won''t be able to wait the full 7 years nor the one year. So you should just force your body. If you simply cycle mana through your body parts, it should accelerate the development of mana conduits. It would however be painful to use these immature conduits. But the levels of Pain Tolerance from the training should make it acceptable. Maybe you even evolve the skill to ignore pain altogether!"
''That sounds just awful. I don''t want any more of that pain, especially not constantly. Even the fountain was enough. This is a magical world. There should be something to help me!''
"Is there no artifact that can help me? Maybe develop the conduits painlessly?" Liz asked the locket, hope tinging her voice.
"An artifact wouldn''t be able to interact properly with your body... however... yes, that could work...there may be an experimental solution!"
"Yes! What is it?" Liz shouted again, this time not in despair.
"You could infuse your body with a runic framework that could potentially do exactly that. However, it is highly experimental and Wulfram only ever tested it on Storm-mice. It would not be without pain either, placing the enchantment will certainly hurt."
"So you are suggesting a tattoo?" Liz asked, slumped from what Garuna had said.
"To some extent, yes. Should this not work, you should still be able to go the other route. Or change your class. Then however I won''t be able to help you, as you wouldn''t be able to fulfill your side of the bargain"
"So either I abandon magic to get out of here and lose your support in the process, inflict immeasurable pain repeatedly and cripple myself or get an enchantment and endure pain once?" Liz asked.
"Mostly, yes!"
''The only real choice is the enchantment. I won''t subject myself to more of this pain willingly. If it is only just once, maybe, but constantly? No, definitely not. And losing the locket, as difficult to deal with as he may be, would be devastating. I don''t know jack shit about this world...Ahh, there goes my promise to never get a tattoo...''
"Then I will go with the experimental enchantment, and if it doesn''t work out we will discuss this again" Liz said, sitting up from her slumped crouch on the ground.
"How are we doing this then? Must I ink myself? Is there even a needle and ink here?" Liz asked.
"We will not need any needle. The enchantment should be done with Quicksilver and will be drawn on the skin."
"You want me to smear mercury on myself? Are you out of your mind?" Liz shouted.
"No, not mercury. Quicksilver. Quicksilver is one of the best mana conductors. Some kingdoms can''t afford to possess more than a few grams of it. So you see, what I''m suggesting is ''smearing'' one of the most valuable materials known to man on yourself! One could indeed say I''m out of my mind for wasting material like this" the locket practically spat out.
"Ok, I get it. I''m stupid. But if Quicksilver is so expensive, where would I even get it?" Liz placated the locket.
"This fort was used to annually collect the abandoned shells of snails in the valley. These shells contained minuscule amounts of the metal and still they are the best source of the material and the biggest reason this fort was so profitable. Since they were processed here and my new body was made using Quicksilver, there should be some in the workshop. But it is possible that you will need to go out and find some more shells"
"Into the monster filled valley without a means to defend myself? That is suicide!" Liz exclaimed.
"I would recommend trying yourself at repairing a few weapons first. There should be some enchanted arrows in the workshop, so if you''re able to acquire a bow, you would have a formidable ranged weapon. But before you do any of this, you should see how much Quicksilver is left!"
"I will see what is possible" Liz replied.
Having decided on a course of action, Liz started looking for the Quicksilver in the workshop. What she found was a small vial near the unfinished bone-golem. The vial was only half-full. Garuna concluded that they would need at least three times the present amount. And so Liz spent until the early evening looking for more Quicksilver. She looked in the suite, the workshop, multiple ruins on the forts grounds and even crawled through sections of the other towers rubble. In the end she found no more, making a trip into the valley necessary.
Spent from her earlier failed try at using magic and crawling through rubble, Liz went to bed early. Lying in bed, she was undecided how to judge the day. For one she was happy that she got a supposedly rare class but also crestfallen when thinking about her failure and the upcoming trip into the valley.
That night her dreams were a nightmare of purple lightning, silver snails and unimaginable pain.
Drivas opened the tent flap and stepped down from the carriage. Despite the hunger and sleep deprivation gnawing at him, he had patrol duty this night. But right now, he still had some time until his shift in the makeshift guard squadron began, so he breathed in the fresh air and took in the bustling of the refugee caravan setting up camp.
They were a truly sorry bunch. Despite all their priests trying to keep the monsters at bay, they still had lost three more of their number this morning. How much were lost when he was asleep, Drivas didn''t know and also didn''t want to know, but his wants were no good in this situation.
And now when night came and the priests were all exhausted, some probably already passed out from overexertion, it would only get more dire.
He moved through the dense arrangement of tents and carriages and greeted all the familiar faces along the way. Just by seeing who looked especially somber, he could already guess where the newest losses had occurred.
He stopped in front of one of the biggest and outermost carriages. Out here nearly all had reinforced wooden sides, not that it really helped against the serpent-like beasts that inhabited the underbrush in their current location.
Drivas knocked on the door, the voices he heard from inside stopping when he did. A small hatch in the door opened and a voice demanded "Blood!"
Drivas reached inside the hatch and felt and saw a small needle poking in his finger. After three drops of his blood fell in a bowl he withdrew his hand. After several seconds in which a mana crystal was placed in his blood and nothing happened, the door opened fully and before he could enter, a big burly man stepped through the door. While the big figure struggled to get his wide antlers through the small doorframe, the voices behind him resumed.
"Hey, Drivas! Good to see you! Good luck tonight, I won''t be coming along. I have priest duty" the giant rumbled, while clapping the much smaller Drivas on the back, causing him to stumble.
"Good to see you too, Alindris! Be careful to not anger any of them with your heresy!" Drivas replied while stepping through the door. Behind the door was the voice that had demanded his blood earlier, it was a small hunched-over man with a crooked nose and eyes which despite his old age still scrutinized Drivas with a clear focus.
"Is this really still necessary? We haven''t encountered a Doppelg?nger since our third day!" Drivas spoke to the figure while pointing at the bowl filled with blood and mana crystals.
"It doesn''t matter when we encounter them! The last one cost us thirty of our own! So let those older and wiser than you do their job and you do yours!" the elder replied while baring his tusks.
With a shrug Drivas continued his way into the wagon of the guards.
"....the scouts reported even more amounts of monster to the west. And with the Empire''s troops closing in on us, we have no other way than to go into the mountains, else we will only lose more of our own! Good to see you, Drivas!" a hoarse voice, Elder Indras, spoke while Drivas entered.
After all present mumbled their respective greetings, another voice spoke up. "But haven''t our seers sensed a great mana surge in this direction? We can''t seriously enter the mountains during a monster surge!" it exclaimed.
"Neither can we stay here with the serpents. In the south and west only sure death or slavery await our own. In the east the kin of old will certainly drive us away, not without losses for sure! So the mountains in the north are the only ones still holding hope for our clans!" the elder retorted.
"And me and the other elders have already decided on this. So this isn''t a discussion, I was simply informing you early before we announce it tomorrow!" he continued, while rubbing his cracked horns.
His statement caused the assembled kin to erupt in murmured discussion.
"We will change our course in the morning! With that I will take my leave! Good luck and may Dunas be with you tonight" the elder stood up and left the carriage.
The murmuring continued until the another voice spoke up and assembled them in teams of three to patrol around the camp and regularly set distractions, away from the caravan. A direct fight with the monsters or directing them to the camp was to be avoided at any cost.
Drivas was assigned to scout from the roof of one of the carriages. His keen eyesight helped him identify intruders nearing their camp. He only had to send out the two boar-kin assigned to him twice that night. By the sounds he heard, other sections of the camp weren''t so lucky.
He saw the healers already up and rushing through between the tents and wagons, when the sun had barely crested the horizon. The gatherers were also starting their foraging when his shift finally ended and he was able to get some of the stew from the day before. While eating he heard the reports of the other groups. They surprisingly had no losses that night and even fought off two of the serpents, despite all of them having only makeshift weapons and no true combat oriented classes in their whole camp.
In the early hours of noon, Drivas went to sleep. While he slept, the elders proclaimed their new course and the caravan set out for the nearest mountain pass.
Chapter 5
Liz woke up to the sunlight as was the case all the days prior, despite her wishing to start her day before sunrise.
''I wanted to wake up early. In such cases a phone would have really helped. It''s a wonder I didn''t miss it every other minute. I guess that''s what being in a constant state of distress gives you''
Liz spent the morning cooking some meat, even trying herself at smoking it to preserve it. Yet, she was unwilling to waste too much of her precious food, so she only got a day''s worth of it. And it wasn''t good quality either.
''I guess you need a cook class for that''
Nonetheless, after filling her stomach with a meaty breakfast, Liz set out to get herself some weapons.
A short argument with the locket about whether she should use a mana crystal ensued. Liz emerged rather victorious, having persuaded the locket to show her where the crystals were stored. She got his ''permission'' to take the smallest shard in the tiny collection. And so she gathered a dozen of her looted daggers, the [Enriched mana shard - Rare] from a small cabinet in the suite and set out for the blacksmiths workshop.
Nestled into the corner of the workshop was Liz''s target, a grindstone. She used the mana shard to supply the enchantments powering the workshop.
''This is almost like the electrical grid back on Earth. Too bad there are no mana computers. This way my only real education in computer engineering is completely wasted here''
Liz went to sharpening the rusted blades. After half a dozen crooked blades, Liz only having one visit to a medieval market and a documentary on Blacksmithing to draw knowledge from, she gave up, instead going back to the tower, in hopes of finding a ''Blacksmithing 101'' book in the extensive private library of the former owner.
Fortunately she was lucky and found a compendium on different trades, a book giving knowledge and practical exercises, aimed at triggering an appropriate class selection.
It was intended for settlements wishing to establish a functioning economy without having to attract a master of the different trades. Yet, the notes added, most likely by Wulfram, questioned the success rate without a proper master-apprentice relationship.
''So I essentially would have little success in anything besides being a mage, if I don''t have anyone to train me properly. Even books about combat are hard to find here''
Nevertheless, the book contained an exercise for using the grindstone. While the instructions were very crude, it still gave Liz an idea what went wrong in her attempts and what to look out for.
Liz returned to the grindstone and after a hour was proudly inspecting a rust-free and sharpened dagger. The handle still needed work as the former leather had reduced itself to a few tatters and getting a firm grip was hard.
With renewed energy Liz spent the next hour sharpening the other blades, even managing to rescue two of her earlier attempts. Satisfied with her first creations that were clearly identifiable as weapons, she returned to the tower to get herself armor and start the process of designing her upcoming enchantment.
[Iron dagger - Primitive]
Garuna had promptly explained that primitive was a quality mostly attributed to objects made by persons outside of their specific profession. He concluded that most things made by Liz that weren''t created for or with magic would get this quality.
When it came to the enchantment, Garuna had the idea to go even further than just forming artificial mana conduits. He proposed, she should also include further additions. He mentioned things such as an external mana storage, a defensive shield and many more things being theoretically possible, some of which however required materials they had no access to. A lot of the enchantments he also deemed too complex for Liz to do at her current stage. However, he pointed out that if she wanted, she could probably add them later, with restrictions of course.
''If I am to endure more pain, then I will definitely get everything I can out of it! Whether I want any additions afterwards, I''m really not sure.''
As these different enhanced enchantments would need different amounts of Quicksilver, Garuna delayed making any concrete design plans before seeing the yield from her gathering trip. Instead he instructed Liz on controlling her aura, as to not attract any more attention to herself in the valley than necessary.
It turned out that controlling one''s aura was rather easy, at least to Liz. She could feel dozens of small wisps of energy escaping from her core every second, and the trick was to force these wisps to simply go back to her core. The less distance these wisps traveled before returning to her core, the less noticeable an aura she has. Her still severely lacking control and her high affinity had her practically hit a nail with a metaphysical sledgehammer when holding back the wisps. Still with a little practice she was able to do it almost subconsciously, not even using any mana, as all mana exuded by her sledgehammer approach was made up by the returning mana. The best part however was that it didn''t even hurt her body as the mana never used her body to become physical.
Beside practicing her aura control, Garuna had her select a mana crystal that ''spoke to her'' and gave her the exercise to drain the crystal and afterwards fill it with her inner reserves to slowly attune it to her mana as it was needed for the enchantment.
Unwilling to endure the pain this exercise would bring, Liz instead focused on getting herself an armor.
Up until that point she had worn the robes from Wolfram''s closet that were extremely oversized on her small frame. She had long realized that this world almost exactly reflected the preconceptions about mage clothes from fantasy books. Even the colors of the flowing robes were fitting: flashy, colorful and with motifs of stars or moons.
''Or it is just this Wulfram guy. But none of those robes are really practical aside from keeping me warm.''
Therefore, Liz was now raiding the much smaller selection of armor. There were 5 sets of leather armor and a collection of chain mail pieces, none truly matching. Unable to properly modify the chain mail, she was forced to wear the much lighter but less protective leather.
She had a bit of a shock at seeing how many holes and mismatched patches there were in and on the armor pieces. She had expected far less physical damage to a mage who in her opinion was in no position for a melee fight, but Garuna had explained that these assumptions were far from the truth when it came to most adventurer and mercenary teams, the magic users were almost always in the middle of any fight the groups took on. Only healers were generally staying back from active combat.
Garuna also explained that unfortunately Wulfram''s best sets made out of special leathers, hides and other magical enchanted pieces were missing and so Liz was left with old scraps.
Liz opted for the set with the least holes and rips, which was also the easiest to modify. She spent until mid-afternoon undoing the seams and resewing them, not without cursing the primitive bone needles, brittle and blunt at one moment and skin-piercing in the next. Fortunately she only needed to widen it around the hips, her rather flat chest fitting in the armor without an issue. The rest of it however needed to be made smaller to fit her.
When the sun started to set she had a fitting suit of leather armor, mostly focused on protecting her torso and neck. The leather stopped at her shoulder, having no sleeves for more mobility. The lack of protection was compensated by underarm bracers with metal plates sewn into them. Her legs were covered by a small leather skirt, that acted as an extension of the body piece and additional greaves. All of it focused on mobility instead of heavy armor. Garuna and Liz both concluded that fleeing was most certainly her best choice instead of engaging in any fights.
She also had found a backpack, which she had filled with multiple healing potions and a few replenishment tonics. Additionally, the backpack held multiple meals worth of her dried meat and fruit. Otherwise, it was empty, leaving space for her target loot. Her daggers were stored in a belt strapped across her chest and a waterskin fastened to the backpack.
She had also spent a good portion of her afternoon training with throwing her daggers. The results were considerably worse than she expected. But Liz wasn''t thrown off by this, throwing away her only true weapons was only ever to be a desperate move to gain time to flee.
She had also had her nerves grated raw when Garuna had finally given her the lesson about what to expect, Garuna having delayed it until the evening to stop her from backing out of the plan in fear.
''Of course I constantly question what I am doing here. But without the Quicksilver I won''t get to use and level my class, without leveling my class I don''t have a chance to get more food or escape from here and without food I will starve. So I have no real choice here.''
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
But instead of spending the precious time to give her as much knowledge about the dangers as possible, he regularly strayed from the topic to discuss the mating behaviors, nest construction methods and suspected evolution histories. The most useful information Liz was able to extract from these discussions was that in the past the wildlife in the valley had mostly stayed consistent and not shifted like in most parts of the Wildlands, making Garuna''s knowledge hopefully still applicable.
In the end Liz had concluded, that the biggest threat she would most likely face, in the small side valley she had chosen for her expedition, would be a serpent creature that burrowed through the muddy ground at the valley floor, preying on anything roaming around their holes. They could get as big as 40 cm in diameter and up to 2 and a half meters in length. The problem however weren''t the individual creatures but the hunting parties of up to a dozen that they tended to form. However, they should be easily avoided by sticking close to trees, where hiding by burrowing became harder for the creatures.
But sticking to trees would also bring Liz closer to various monster versions of common critters found in Earthen forests. There were several she was likely to encounter as they preyed upon the coveted snails. There were frog-like creatures, a type of poisonous millipede and creature that, by Garuna''s description, was a mixture of crab and a beetle only scaled to the size of a cat.
The biggest threat among the critters however was a type of spiders that reached the size of her hand. Their venom was highly paralyzing once injected and could disorient when put on their webs and touched. But as they were a recognized threat even back when the fort was still an active hub of innovation, an antidote had been developed. Since Wulfram was essential in creating it, there still was some in the workshop. It would however only work once every day for roughly 2 hours.
In general the side-valley was rather safe and back in the day was used to train newcomers and was jokingly called ''rookie playground'' among the stationed guards. Garuna added that these rookies however were already trained soldiers and not a crippled mage lvl 1.
With her mind definitely not reassured by his last statement, Liz went to sleep.
For once waking up before the sun rose, Liz started her first trip further than 200 m from the cell in the dungeon early in the morning. Leather armor, backpack and dagger belt all fastened on her body and an additional wooden staff in hand she bypassed the main gate through a small door in the guard house next to it. Since here the enchantments were still powered, she briefly worried she won''t get back in but Garuna, affixed to her staff, reassured her that this would be no problem.
Using her map she set out for the small side valley, keeping to a small path on the rocky hillside.
She spent the next hours just travelling and training her aura control along the way, stopping occasionally to eat from wayside berry bushes that Garuna deemed safe to eat.
Two hours into her trip she heard the roar she had heard the first morning. It caused the same instinctual flight in Liz. After settling her heartbeat again, she asked the locket about it. Garuna didn''t know of any such monsters in the valley, making Liz fear whatever it was only more.
After the fourth hour she came across a sharp corner in the hillside and path. Rounding the corner she saw her destination in front of her.
In the side valley there was no lake like in the main valley, instead a river flowed through it into the lakes of the main valley. It was supposedly fed by a lake high in the mountains. Thanks to the season, the river was reduced to a small and manageable stream instead of the maelstrom that Garuna had described it to look like in the spring, when it flooded parts of the lush forest near the riverbed. Said forest got more dense as soon as one left the vicinity of the riverbed, thinning out again near the rocky hillside. In the wider parts of the valley additional meadows marked the border between rocky mountains and river-fed valley forest. The valley itself was roughly 10 km in length and framed by the high mountains to both sides. Liz was currently standing near the lower end of the valley, her current altitude still higher than the highest part of the distant end of the valley.
"If it is still as it was a millennium ago you should search near the riverbed. I would suggest moving along the river treeline." The pendant had stayed silent for the past hours, only making an occasional comment about interesting rocks in his perception or showing her edible berries.
''Then let''s get acquire some more PTSD to make the next therapist appointment worthwhile and maybe also pick up some snail shells''
After moving some more into the valley itself, Liz stumbled her way down the inclined hillside, sweating profusely by the time she stepped on a surprisingly humid moss covered meadow.
It was as if a switch was flipped, one moment to the next the surrounding air suddenly became oppressive, a feeling akin to being deep underwater, a pressure on her entire being. She stumbled forward and fell to her knees, feeling unable to breath in fear of suffocating and being crushed simply by inhaling. Liz started to panic. ''No, I can''t go down like this! What is this even? Some dense air? Or is it some kind of liquid? No, I need to focus and get out of here!''
Liz managed to turn before she fell flat on her front. Still unwilling to breath she crawled and pulled herself back the way she came. Just going the few meters she had stumbled on the moss took all out of her. Before she was fully off the moss, instinct forced her to open her mouth and inhale through the dense moss.
It stung and burned. What''s worse, Liz knew this feeling. It was mana burn.
''This is the same bullshit why I''m even here in the first place!''
Finally, she was clear of the feeling of pressure. She gulped down a breath of air, making the pain from her lungs flare up. Unable to even breath, she fumbled with a small vial, unable to find purchase to remove the cork. Using her last reserves she finally managed, instantly downing the clear liquid. The pain continued, ever so slightly abated. But Liz managed to breath without flaring heat through her whole body. After downing a second healing potion her lungs finally stopped burning, a general pain still all across her body. That was also when she noticed the notification butting into her consciousness:
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 5 --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 6 --
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Arcane Magic Resistance] --
-- [Arcane Magic Resistance] has reached level 2 --
-- [Arcane Magic Resistance] has reached level 3 --
-- You have been afflicted by [Mana Burn] --
Liz quickly checked her status
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 1
Title: Wanderer
Status:
Health: 16/156
Stamina: 10/121
Mana: 368/368 (+156)
Afflictions: Mana Burn
Vitality: 13
Endurance: 11
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13
Perception: 16
Wisdom: 23
Intelligence: 22
General skills:
Arcane Magic Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
English - lvl 7
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Tolerance - lvl 6
Class skills:
Arcane Blast - lvl 1
Runic Intuition - lvl 1
-empty slot-
-empty slot-
Mana Burn (arcane) - Affliction
Your body has absorbed too potent mana and is unable to handle it. Health and stamina regeneration is reduced. Reduction affected by respective resistance
''Oh fuck, that is close. Only 16 health. No wonder I feel like shit. I don''t think I should just drink a replenishment tonic. Especially since they only add a multiplier to my natural regeneration.''
"Garuna, I have mana burn again! What should I do?" When no answer came Liz realized that her staff was still lying on the moss in the poisonous area and fastened to it was the grumpy locket.
''I can''t go back in there, I need to figure something out myself...''
''I think the best option is to use the mana? So just blast it away? Ugh, this is gonna hurt''
In anticipation of the coming damage, Liz put an opened healing potion in her mouth, to be swallowed. Aiming at a rock near her, she activated her skill. And instantly her skin blistered and cracked with bright light shining through, but Liz activated her only spell time and time again, up to the point that the blasts became a continuous stream, the healing of the potion battling the damage by the mana for the first few seconds. She held on until her affliction was finally gone, her arm covered in cracked and blackened skin and the target rock was no more. One look at her arm combined with her pain and she retched and threw up her meager meal before she was able to down another healing potion.
Ten minutes and a healing potion later, her arm no longer felt on fire. Only now did she realize the distinct feeling of new notifications in her mind.
-- Affliction [Mana Burn] has been cleared --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 7 --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 2 --
-- You have learned the passive class skill [Spell Channeling]--
Status:
Health: 56/156
Stamina: 84/121
Mana: 345/368
''Fuck, that was way too close. And I didn''t even encounter any monsters. That was just.. the air? But why was there such a sudden increase? Is it the moss?''
Trying to find the cause she identified the moss.
[Absorbing Carpet of Moss - lvl ???]
''That is a monster? What the fuck?'' Liz scrambled back, getting as much distance to the border of the moss as possible.
''Do the three question marks mean, it is even stronger than most? Is that what Garuna meant with a general idea of the level difference? And what does a carpet of moss even absorb? Is Garuna lost to me? And why does it cause mana burn?'' Liz again started to panic. But even the adrenaline couldn''t prevent the sudden piercing pain in her arm. Looking down she saw a spike of bone sticking through her right arm. She whirled around.
10 meters behind her a giant scorpion had sneaked up on her. It had a bone-white carapace and a stinger with even more of the bone spikes aimed at her.
[Bonestinger - lvl ??]
Chapter 6
[Bonestinger - lvl ??]
In the time she was distracted by Identify, the Bonestinger fired again, Liz barely able to dodge the shot aimed at her heart. It struck her right arm instead. Gritting through the pain and with her fight or flight instinct distinctly skewed to flight, Liz turned her back to the advancing six-legged monster and took to her heels.
Despite its enormous size, it was able to keep up with the running human and even seemed to catch up with her. With her still not fully recovered stamina diminishing quickly, Liz ran towards the forest. But even there the monster followed and simply ran the trees down. The denser the forest and the thicker the trees got the further the monster finally fell behind. Liz also slowed down, her stamina nearing its limit, her arm bleeding continuously. After 10 minutes of running, Liz finally stopped and flung herself in between the roots of a massive tree.
Panting from exertion she grabbed a healing potion and replenishment tonic from the backpack, downing both simultaneously. Her breathing slowly subsided.
''It shouldn''t be able to follow me through this thick foliage. I''m not even hearing it anymore. It probably got attracted to my aura. I am an idiot for not keeping better control over it. What kind of monster was that anyway? Garuna never mentioned anything like that. That doesn''t bode well for whatever else inhabits this forest. In the end, the snails are extinct!''
Feeling as safe as she was going to get, Liz spent the next two minutes taking stock of her meager supplies. Her backpack was still there, but she was down to one replenishment tonic, eight healing potions, one dose of antidote, around 4 meals worth of food and the various other supplies. But food wasn''t her problem. She had felt thirsty since the chase, but her water skin had been lost somewhere along the way.
Since she couldn''t do anything useful at the moment, she had her meager resources recover through meditation. When her health and stamina reached their maximum after about 10 minutes of sitting defenseless, Liz took a look at the only gains she had made so far: her new skills.
Spell Channeling - passive - lvl 1
All your spells can be channeled for continuous use at an increasing cost. Skill level reduces effect
Arcane Magic Resistance - lvl 3
Your body is better protected against foreign arcane magic. Damage by offensive arcane attacks is reduced. Effect increases with skill level
''Sounds fun, if it weren''t for not being able to cast magic. I need to somehow retrieve Garuna, if he isn''t already ''absorbed''. Without him this whole trip is useless. I don''t have an inkling -hah- of an idea how the enchantments need to look. With my aura also under wraps, the Bonestinger shouldn''t be alerted to my presence if I return''
With the beginning of a plan made up and the sunlight dwindling, Liz needed to find her way back. Her only orientation in the dense forest was the faint sound of moving water. Considering the stream her best option for the approaching night she decided to move in the direction of the sound. Breaking off a branch and designating it as her new staff for dealing blunt damage, Liz started moving.
After a few minutes of walking she stood in front of a cave entrance, the sound of water coming from the darkness within.
''So I am lost. That is definitely not the river. And I have no idea in which direction it could be. Garuna spoke of extensive cave systems in this valley. Either I risk getting lost in the caves or I try to find water and shelter for the night on the surface. On the one hand so far there hasn''t been anything here that wanted to harm me in this part of the forest besides the Bonestinger, the cave would be an unknown. On the other hand, there might be lots of nocturnal monsters and Garuna also said that the other source of Quicksilver was in the carapaces of beetles in the caves and with these massive fauna changes on the surface, the subsurface could possibly be more stable...''
With her greed eventually winning out, Liz took out a glowing mana-powered orb and entered the dark unknown.
The downward sloped tunnel, at first at least a dozen meters wide, narrowed down considerable over the first fifty meters. Liz was barely able to fit with all her gear. The tunnel continued, the roaring of water getting louder and Liz getting more unsure about her choice with every dozen of meters going deeper in the mountain.
After about five minutes the narrow crevice opened up into a massive shaft of a cavern, Liz standing on a platform almost at the top. The roaring sound of water was coming from an enormous waterfall, the source even higher than Liz, that was falling down in the middle of the vertical cavern feeding the massive lake at the bottom. The walls of the shaft, that had to be hundreds of meters across and thrice that in height, were covered in glowing crystals and moss. The air was humid and heavy with mana, not the poisonous level of the moss but considerably above Liz''s previous experiences. Several smaller caves and crevices were visible all around the walls, together with platforms in front of some. What stood out to Liz were natural cliffs and some man-made bridges, forming a network of paths between various caves and crevices. Along some paths, stairs were carved into the stone to reach higher levels.
''There was civilization here? But judging by the moss growing on the paths, in a time long past''
Liz entered the cavern fully, still to enraptured by the sight in front of her to watch where she was going. On a particularly wet stone she slipped, falling down the wet and steep wall below her. Desperate to stop her descent, she tried to hold on anything in her path, but slipped on any protrusion she reached. After about fifty meters of interrupted falling she stopped on a platform, roughly crashing into a boulder, eliciting a yelp from her. She groaned when she stood up, her legs sprained and bruised but thankfully not broken. The unprotected portions of her skin were all bruised or bleeding from scratches. She looked back up, realizing that the way back would be hard when her consciousness was alerted to a notification.
-- Welcome to the caverns of Nuurtor --
-- You have entered a dungeon. Experience gain is increased. --
''Oh no, Garuna spoke of dungeons as generally being full of monsters more powerful than anything around them. And he also mentioned dungeons in places of fallen civilizations were mostly filled with even more durable undead. Do the stairs mean this is a former civilization center with burial grounds nearby? Fuck''
After applying some healing potion on the worst of her wounds, Liz moved around her current platform, trying to find a way up. ''In any case I should better get out of here. Neither powerful monsters nor undead sound like a fun idea''
Unable to find any purchase on the wall and unwilling to exhaust herself further by trying to climb anyway, she instead started to search her immediate surroundings for anything useful, especially fresh water. Near her was a small and empty crevice. In front of it was a small pool of stale spray water.
''I definitely need to rest, no way around that. Now I can either drink this likely contaminated water or I can hope for another source in the future. The problem is whether I want to risk getting sick by this water in order to not be weakened by dehydration should I encounter any monster on the way out... I could of course boil this water, I know the rune for fire, have the empty vials and my staff should be dry enough to burn. But then I only have my daggers left, and the smoke might alert some monsters.''
Unwilling to let herself be weakened, Liz decided to take the risk and gathered some water, to boil it at a safe distance to the crevice.
By breaking her staff into a pile of smaller bits and putting the filled vials of water inside she made herself a crude campfire. Using a dagger she carved the rune for fire into a bigger piece of wood, imbuing it with mana while doing so. Holding one of the mana crystals from the wall to the rune she started her trial of directing the mana from the crystal into the rune, to avoid injuring herself further.
To do so she needed to maintain a small thread of mana to the crystal. However, with her undeveloped mana system, it was less of a small thread and more of a rope. To say this was an enjoyable experience would be a lie. After ten minutes of blistering her skin, thankfully without any permanent damage due to healing potions, she finally succeeded and the piece started to burn.
After making sure the whole pile burned, Liz made some distance to the fire and smoke and hid in her shelter crevice.
She tried to maintain an eye on the fire but after 2 hours of nothing happening and the fire turning into embers, her eyelids grew heavy, and she dozed off.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Liz woke with a start, reprimanding herself for falling asleep in such a dangerous environment.
After a quick inspection, she was fine if sore, no body parts gnawed off by monsters. When she looked into the cavern, she however realized that it was bustling with activity.
In the distance, especially further down, she could see entire swats of the darkness moving in the dim light. Even close some things moved about on the stone.
''How did I miss this yesterday? When did all these monsters come here? How long did I even sleep?''
Having no answers to her questions, she redirected her gaze to her campfire, where she saw a monster directly in front of it. It looked like a scaled lizard but was the size of a cat, with two spikes surrounding a big single eye on its head and only a short stubby tail. Its head was regularly darting from side to side, nothing escaping its gaze.
[Nuur Lizard - lvl 5]
With it sitting right in front of her campfire Liz needed to get rid of it and with its seemingly low level she might actually succeed. With the risk of losing the element of surprise with each passing second, Liz drew two daggers and as silently as possible extracted herself from the crevice when the lizard was looking at some commotion in the opposite direction.
Without a sound Liz neared it, sprang forward and aimed her daggers at the lizards scaled body, her attack promptly deflected by the scales without doing any visible damage. The lizard uttered a mix of a hiss and a squeak as it darted around, its eye focusing on Liz who had sprung back after her failed attack.
The lizard darted forward, Liz reacting on instinct to dive to the side. Only to be met by a glob of liquid hitting the unprotected part of left arm.
Instantly her left arm starts sizzling, causing pain to jolt through it and her to drop the dagger.
''This overgrown salamander can spit acid?''
Liz swatted at her arm with her right arm bracer while dodging another glob of acid spit.
As the lizard prepared its next strike, Liz darted forward and swiped her remaining dagger along the inside of its front leg. Her inexperience with knifes caused her to miss the lizards smaller scales and the dagger tip scraped along the hard scales of its back without leaving a mark.
''How can I damage this monster if my dagger simply deflects on these scales?...''
Liz dodged another glob of acid, the lizard now seemingly agitated that its prey didn''t want to die, its eye slit in hatred.
''... Oh, of course...''
When the lizard again darted forward and the next acid went flying in her direction, Liz dodged but instead of recovering the distance, ran towards the lizard.
It froze, not sure how to react to the unexpected move from its prey. In the second the lizard needed to recover and while its throat visibly transported the next attack upwards, Liz thrust her dagger in its eye, putting the weight of her whole body behind the stab. The dagger penetrated the eyeball, and continued, the momentum of a human body easily shattering the weak bone structure behind.
The lizard uttered a last bubbling squeak before dropping, never having gotten to throw its last acid.
Liz went back to the backpack and quickly downed a healing potion, her arm in a pathetic state, the skin fully gone, the muscles underneath visible. ''Oh fuck, that stuff is potent''
Only now did she realize that her skirmish might have attracted attention. She quickly scanned the surroundings, finding nothing moving. ''Of course nothing can hear over the roaring water. I must have really been tired if I was able to sleep with this volume''
Still afraid of other predators spotting the carcass, she dragged the dead lizard out of view. Liz finally took her time to properly inspect the body.
Green blood was oozing from the eye, the dagger still embedded up to the handle. With a squelching sound that made Liz retch, the dagger released from the head. Otherwise, the body was lean and fully covered in small brown-yellow scales.
''It didn''t drop anything. Maybe this isn''t as much of an RPG as I thought''
Realizing that there was nothing to be gained from the body, Liz dumped it over the side of the platform, letting it tumble down dozens of meters before being stopped on another flat protrusion.
Wiping her bloody hands on her leather skirt, Liz finally took to the notifications from the fight.
-- You have killed [Nuur Lizard - lvl 5] --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 8 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 2. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 3. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
''A level up! Finally! And this lizard was only level 5? That was only four levels above my one! I guess if I had used magic it would have been easier. I am definitely way too weak without it, maybe even with it. But before looking into this stat business, I need something to drink''
Perusing through the ash of her campfire, she found the now charred vials. Only hesitating for a second, Liz opened the first and swallowed it in three quick gulps.
Having drunk two of the 8 vials without finding anything wrong with the taste, Liz returned to her crevice and recalled her status.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 3
Title: Wanderer
Status:
Health: 156/156
Stamina: 121/121
Mana: 368/368
Vitality: 13
Endurance: 11
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13
Perception: 16 (+2)
Wisdom: 23 (+1)
Intelligence: 22 (+1)
Unassigned stat points: 6
General skills:
Arcane Magic Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
English - lvl 7
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Tolerance - lvl 8
Class skills:
Arcane Blast - lvl 2
Runic Intuition - lvl 1
Spell Channeling - lvl 1
-empty slot-
''So the automatically assigned points went all into the mental attributes. But it seems like I need to apply them. Should I ever get back to Garuna I need to ask him if this is normal. Now how to spend the other six points... It is clear that I am way too weak. My class is focused on magic and I currently can''t perform any magic. Offensively I am near completely useless. So dumping it into any mental stat or strength doesn''t make sense. The most sensible option would be to split it between Vitality, Endurance and Dexterity. Meaning better odds fleeing and hopefully being able to take a few hits.''
With that she brought Vitality and Dexterity to 15 each and Endurance to 13. After a short moment of confusion she realized, that simply wishing the changes to take hold, applied them. And apply they did. From one moment to the next, Liz felt her heartbeat falter, sweat break out across her skin, her muscles cramped, and an enormous headache together with dizziness flared up. It only held for the blink of an eye, afterwards she felt more energetic and refreshed than ever before. This feeling also abated after a second. ''Holy hell, that is both incredible uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. I seriously want to feel that again. Can one get addicted to this?''
With her stats increased Liz''s focus went back to the cavern. The occasional movements in the distance were still visible.
''The best idea would probably be to scout the caves accessible by the stairs and bridges, assuming whoever built them had a way to the surface''
With her being on the same height as one of the caves of the path network, Liz scrambled along a small cliff edge to reach it.
Shortly after entering the first cave that contained no more glowing crystals, she realized that she had lost her first lighting orb when she had her accident the earlier day.
''Assuming there are monsters in these dark tunnels, I really don''t want to alert them to my presence with light. But at the same time I rather see any attacker than wander into an ambush''
Deciding to rather face an enemy head on, Liz held the second and last lighting ball as she moved deeper into the fortunately steeply upwards sloping tunnel, constantly on the lookout for anything trying to attack her right hand equipped with a dagger.
Despite her hopes the tunnel soon ended in a cave-in, without any way through. Liz took the time to wedge the orb under her armor and stashed her daggers to make climbing down the steep sections easier. As she was backtracking she startled when she came upon an equally surprised lizard.
The lizard had emerged from small side tunnel near a flat portion of the tunnel Liz hadn''t noticed before. Upon seeing her, it froze, but soon overcame its shock and started to attack in the same fashion as the first one.
Liz, now aware of its species fighting style, instinctively dodged the first glob while reaching for her daggers, deciding on fighting instead of fleeing. After the second acid spit passed, she ran at the lizard. But unlike its kin it didn''t try to retreat and instead sprinted forward as well, leaping at her midsection in the last second.
Caught off guard by its strange behavior, Liz had no time to adjust her course and soon realized that the two bony spikes on its head weren''t just for decoration when they struck and pierced her armor and stomach, causing Liz to cry out in pain.
Blinded by the pain, Liz lashed out and struck the retreating lizard multiple times. Only ever causing blunt damage.
The lizard, now out of her reach, restarted its effort of spitting acid at the weakened human. It was completely unharmed, unlike Liz who was losing more blood through her stomach wound with each passing second.
However, a blow to its hind leg seemed to have had a slight effect, as the creature visibly favored its right side. By now, the adrenaline and shock blocked the pain emanating from her stomach and Liz again had to dodge multiple acid spits. One however landed on her bracer, causing it to sizzle slightly.
''At least it can''t penetrate the leather''
Holding her arms in front of her, with the bracers protecting most of her exposed skin, Liz charged the still spitting lizard, only bringing the dagger in front of her at the last moment.
Unable to gain enough momentum and with the current lizard most likely stronger, her blow only pierced the eye and stopped there, causing the now blind lizard to shriek in rage. The lizard tried to retreat, but unable to properly perceive her position, Liz had an easy time catching up to it and in a fit of rage stabbed it repeatedly. Only when the head was a messy pulp and the notification registered, did she stop.
-- You have killed [Nuur Lizard - lvl 8] --
Chapter 7
-- You have killed a [Nuur Lizard - lvl 8] --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 4. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 5. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
This was also the time when the pain from her heavily bleeding stomach fully registered, Liz uttering a pained wail. At a hunch she spent her new points like the first 6, and after the high and low of feelings the pain subsided slightly and the wounds closed a bit. After applying a few drops of healing potion, they vanished completely.
''So it''s possible to save some health potions. But always pain. And no pain tolerance level? What could be even more painful than an involuntary navel piercing? And why didn''t I simply flee? When did I suddenly decide that killing anything in my way is viable?''
She scanned her surroundings for any monsters attracted by the noise or the smell of blood, no longer hindered by the roaring water. But also because Liz knew that her control over her aura had slipped when her stomach had been pierced.
Liz was lucky and after two minutes no attack had come. She relaxed from her battle ready stance and released a breath she hadn''t realized she had held.
Instead of returning to the main cavern, Liz decided to go down the side tunnel, her dagger at the ready. After about fifty meters the tunnel went in a curve before ending in a wall made out of rough stone bricks.
''So there definitely is some kind of structure down here. Hopefully with an surface exit and other entrances from the cavern''
In front of the wall were several heaps of bones, all small in size.
''And that would be why the lizard was here. I probably disturbed it while it ate'' Liz thought while inspecting the half-eaten carcass of another lizard.
''So they are even cannibalistic. At least they seem to eat all of it, only leaving the bones''
Hopeful to find a way out through these structures, Liz returned to the main cavern and directly entered the next tunnel. After just a few meters the tunnel opened up into another cave. Distracted Liz took in the wonderfully glistering arrangement of star-like crystals in the high ceiling. Until she heard clicking noises from the shadows next to her.
Frightened she quickly scrambled away from the darkness. The shadow however seemed to reach out to her, until a massive spider, at least as high as Liz''s shoulder, emerged from the lengthened shadow, it''s eight eyes staring at her, unblinking, while its fangs dripped black liquid.
[Shadowweaver - ?]
''Fuck, nope. I hate these caves!''
Swiftly turning and running back the way she came, Liz felt something brush her side. Following the projectile with her gaze, she saw, nothing. Just darkness. The ball of black shadows impacted the ground to her right.
''Shadow magic? If it is called Shadowweaver...''
She increased her speed even further, the clicking of the spider''s legs suddenly stopping as soon as she reached the main cavern.
''So it doesn''t like the waterfall? Or is there something even more dangerous in here? Hopefully not!''
She sprinted to a small crevice nearby, fortunately empty, and caught her breath. Her stamina had dipped quite considerably during her quick sprint. When her resources had recovered, she relaxed for a bit longer. Eventually she went back to searching for an exit, now much more wary of the shadows around her.
The tunnel was picked accordingly, only big enough for her to enter and too small for a massive spider. Unfortunately it quickly expanded into a small cave again, but this time uninhabited. Instead on one side was another stone-brick wall. This time with a small doorway. At least Liz assumed it was a doorway, as the opening ended just above her hip.
''So no human structure. Maybe dwarven? But Garuna mentioned them to be bigger and supposedly they only build deep underground. And I''m currently only a few hundred meters from the valley floor''
Crawling through the doorway and twisting to fit her hips through, Liz entered a hallway, where she was at least able to crouch. Every few meters were more doorways, leading into rooms where bunks where carved into the walls. Unlike the fort the rooms were cleared except for the occasional lizard bones. The bones became more prominent, the further Liz went into the structure. Too late did she realize that this probably meant that she was invading the lair of some monster.
In the moment she realized this fact, she heard a growl from a side room, shortly before a large cat-like creature, barely fitting through the doorway, emerged. The cat reminded Liz of a leopard from Earth in size and proportions, except for the fur pattern and color being bigger and much darker, perfectly blending in the surrounding caverns. What was more worrying was the way the light seemed to avoid the body of the cat. Instead, despite the light from Liz''s orb illuminating the surrounding walls, the cat was covered in shadows.
[Shadownyx - lvl ??]
In the time Liz took to study the predator, it didn''t attack, seemingly unwilling to engage this unknown opponent in such an enclosed space, instead its growling intensified and rumbled through Liz''s bones. Realizing that the cat was most likely looking for an opening, she slowly drew her dagger and crawled backwards, constantly accompanied by deep rumble from the cats throat.
She had hoped that the cat would stop following her, but when she hit the entrance to the structure the cat was still just three meters in front of her. In panic she drew another dagger and threw her current one at the cat while extracting herself from the structure. This however brought no reprieve, instead causing the cat to become more aggressive in its behavior.
The cat started to circle her in the open cave, Liz rotating with its movement, the dagger, as ineffective as it was against the claws and fangs of a feline predator, held in front of her. After circling her for a few moments the cat suddenly pounced. Liz first instinct was to cower or flee, but unwilling to turn her back to the ambush predator, Liz awkwardly tried to intercept its course with her dagger arm, dropping the light orb in the process and dragging the dagger along the side of the cats fur, eliciting a hiss.
But it didn''t aim for her at all. Instead it went for the shadows beside her. At least that was what Liz perceived in the now dim light of the wall crystals, the cats shadow pelt preventing her from seeing much of it.
But even after focusing on the shadow where the cat went, Liz was unable to spot it. Until a impact on her back alerted her to the cats position. The sudden weight caused Liz to stumble forward. The cat''s raking claws were prevented from harming her by her leather armor and backpack.
Blindly stabbing back caused the cat to jump away from her and back into the shadow it came from. Now able to focus on it, Liz saw the cat simply vanish and promptly reappear pouncing on her back again. ''It can teleport in the shadows? How am I supposed to fight that?''
Once again removing the cat from herself by trying to stab it, Liz tried to find a way out of the fight. Leaving through the dark crevice would only make her prime target. Before she was able to find anything else, the cat came from the opposite direction it went. This time it found purchase on her side and sank its fangs into her unprotected left upper arm before her right arm with its bracer could intercept it. However, the bracer could dislodge it''s jaws from her arm, taking a good chunk of her arm with it.
When it vanished in the shadows again, Liz anticipated its move and whirled around. Only to be outsmarted by the cat, when it attacked from behind her again. This time her scalp received a heavy raking of claws before the cat vanished again. Her blonde hair formerly tied up in a bun at her back, was falling down around her, most of it colored deep red.
With her back pressed against the wall of the structure, Liz finally found some reprieve when the cat turned to stalking in the open in front of her, seemingly growling in annoyance at its resilient prey. ''At least the cat recognizes my daggers as threat otherwise it wouldn''t try to wear me down. But with the shadows I can''t find any purchase before it vanishes.''
Remembering the hesitation of the cat in the illuminated hallway and its first move outside of it, Liz realized that her best weapon was the light orb. ''With light there are is no darkness to escape to!'' Liz managed to form a pained grimace, when a plan started to form in her mind.
When the cat''s stalking, seemingly waiting for its cornered prey to bleed out, distanced it enough from the light orb, Liz darted forward. The cat, realizing her intent, intercepted her. It threw itself at her side, causing her to veer off course and fall down, needing to defend her already heavily bleeding side from further bites and claw rakes. Her armor could intercept most of the strikes and when her dagger neared the vulnerable body of her opponent, the cat vanished into the shadows, allowing Liz to grab hold of the orb, instantly illuminating it.
Liz quickly realized her error when the cat materialized even faster than before in her own shadow, raking across her back, now having worn down the armor enough to reach skin, causing Liz to scream and curl up. ''Of course, when there is more light there is more shadow.''
In a last ditch effort Liz used her mana to power the orb, forcing more and more mana into the intricate runes embedded in the glass structure. Her left arm holding the orb blistered and cracked, while the light from the orb increased to incredible levels. The already blinding light, even reflected by the crystals in the ceiling, revealed a yowling cat trying to duck back into cover, unable to find a dark place in the small cave.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
When her mana reached its limit, Liz tried to draw in any mana around her, like her aura but in reverse. To her surprise it worked, and some kind of foreign mana went through her into the orb. At first it was only a trickle, but it quickly got more dense. And the crystals in the walls around her started to dim.
With the orb light getting even brighter, the shadows around the cats fur started to sizzle and smoked off. The steps of the now whining cat got more sluggish until it collapsed and after a few more seconds in which Liz managed to sit up and crawl away from the seemingly incapacitated cat, a notification entered her mind.
-- You have killed a [Shadownyx - lvl 56] --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 9 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 2 --
-- You have learned the active class skill [Mana Draw]--
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 6. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
....
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 9. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
When the notifications came, Liz fell back onto the ground, dropping the light orb in the process. ''Huh, guess light is still a weakness of a shadow creature...''
Status:
Health: 10/204
Stamina: 34/165
Mana: 14/400
Looking at herself and her status, Liz realized how close the fight was. In the now slightly brighter light of the crystals, she inspected herself. Her arm had fortunately stopped bleeding after being cauterized by the mana flow, the rest of her body however was marred in scratches and bleeding and even severe burns from the light orb supernova adorned her skin. The adrenaline in her blood was still blocking the pain, but quickly wearing off.
''Guess that was really bright!''
As the pain returned, Liz dumped 3 points into Vitality. After a skipped beat of her heart and an incredible headache, the wounds began to close and her health refilled at an increased pace. But quickly stopped. Now at least able to move, she crawled to her bag, which was the first victim of the cat. In between the tatters that used to be a leather backpack, she found a healing potion and more water. Drinking the water to get rid of the taste of blood in her mouth, Liz used the healing potion to close her deepest remaining wounds and her scarred arm. Drinking the rest of the healing potion for the smaller cuts and possible inner injuries, Liz approached the body of the cat.
Besides a few nicks and cuts the body was mostly unmarred by any injuries.
''Oh, light seems to not only be a weakness but deadly. Let''s hope I never run into any more of them, but if I do I now know what to do, as painful as it is''
Dragging the body into the walled structure to not attract any more predators, Liz collected her meager belongings and made camp in one of the foremost sleeping rooms.
She spent the remaining 9 points on Endurance, Strength and Dexterity, investing 3 in each. Applying the changes, the headache and intermittent heartbeat were missing and the rest of feelings were also more subtle than the first time around.
Using the sewing supplies for repairing her leather armor, she spent some time repairing her armor where possible and even managed to transform the tatters into another primitive bag. One of the carry straps was no longer salvageable, making the new bag a sling bag.
While she was eating another meal while further studying the room, her eyes caught something familiar from one of the skeletons. Trying to find out what she had seen she approached the skeleton. She realized that the tips of the spikes on the head glittered ever so slightly in a metallic fashion in the orbs light. ''Wait, is that Quicksilver?''. Breaking off one spike she identified it
[Quicksilver-infused horn]
''Yes finally something going right! And this place is full of these skeletons! Thank you, Shadownyx!''
And so, Liz spent her time going from room to room and salvaging the skeletons littering the floor. She quickly realized, that only the bigger of the lizard bones contained the metal. The bigger the more they seemed to contain. After an hour she was back at the place where she had first encountered the Shadownyx. The room the cat had emerged from proved to be the biggest one so far, filled to the brim with skeletons and carcasses.
But after rounding one of the piles of lizard remains, Liz found a big surprise. In between the piles was a nest made of moss and inside were four little sleeping Shadownyx cubs. Liz gasped at the sight.
''Oh no, the adult one wasn''t attacking me as prey, it was just defending its litter. And I, the idiot engaged it in combat. Completely unnecessarily. I am a murderer! Senselessly killing anything in my way just because it gives nice levels! And they are so cute, I could never ever harm them! And still I murdered their mother without reason!''
Her earlier sound seemed too have woken the kittens, as one stirred awake, its movement waking the others. In seconds Liz had 4 adorable kittens looking at her and meowing softly. Tears welled in her eyes, a product of the constant turmoil of the past days and the cubs in front of her.
Almost on instinct Liz''s hand reached out, with the goal of petting the bundles of cuteness. To her surprise the foremost cub only briefly sniffed at her hand before allowing it to reach behind its ears. After a few scratches, the cub even started to purr, causing the other three to investigate what caused the visible satisfaction.
Ten minutes later Liz had calmed down and was covered in cubs, all wanting to get more scratches and belly rubs, one trying to groom her bloody hair. She also realized what would now most likely happen to them now.
''I''ve killed their mother, without her they are either gonna starve or get eaten by other predators. I am a monster. I really fit in with this whole cavern. Can I do anything to make it up to them? Can I take them with me?''
''No, they probably won''t come with me and four more mouths to feed is too hard. At least they look old enough to be weaned. And judging by the carcasses next to their nest, they were already eating the lizards. Wait a moment, I''ve killed one of these lizards in the tunnel, the body should still be there. I can at least bring them this meal and get myself more Quicksilver''
And so, after carefully removing the cubs from herself and placing them back in their nest, she went back out. The body was fortunately undisturbed and in just twenty minutes Liz reentered the walled-structure, lizard dragging behind her. Unfortunately it didn''t contain any Quicksilver.
Panting from exertion she dragged the body over the threshold to the room with the cubs, only to be assaulted by four purring cubs landing on her.
"Seems like you guys have missed me. Look, I brought some food" Liz carefully pried one of them out of her hair and placed it in front of the to be meal.
This started the others to also abandon her and lunge at the feast. While the cubs were eating the lizard, she went to the nearest pile and filled her bag with as dense Quicksilver horns as possible.
When her bag was full she left the cubs to eat and went back to her camp. Unable to look at the body of the mother without feeling deep regret and self-hatred, she dragged it into another room before settling down.
Her body was still exhausted from the fights and after the fight with the mother and the encounter with the cubs she was emotionally exhausted as well. As the structure was most likely clear of any predators thanks to the mother, she barricaded the small doorway, by pilling bones and her bag in it, and went to sleep.
Still drowsy after waking up, she was reluctant to let go of the warm fur blanket on her arms. With a start she realized that she wasn''t in the tower suite with a fur blanket, only to relax after seeing the four cubs nestled around her.
"Oh, you couldn''t let go of me? You do realize that I am not your mom?" Liz cooed to the stirring cubs.
Extracting herself from the four sleepy cubs she went to her backpack and took out one of her last meals, wondering how the cubs entered the barricaded room.
''Probably with the same shadow teleport as their mother used''
While eating she looked around the room and realized that the cubs left a piece of raw lizard right in front of her sleeping spot.
''Did they try to share the lizard with me? Or is it just a snack they brought for themselves?''
The cubs were awake and lounged around her, waiting for her to finish her meal.
Giving each of the cubs a scratch, eliciting content purrs, she prepared her departure.
Soon she was on her way to explore the rest of the structure, in hopes of finding a secondary exit, followed by a procession of four Shadownyx cubs.
"Guess you really adopted me? Can you even go out in the sun? Because if you want to come with me, you will see the sun" Liz asked the cubs, only getting a purr in response.
"Not very helpful if one doesn''t speak purr" With a shrug, she continued. The deeper in she got the more diverse the rooms got. A lot of them reminded her of downsized variants of similar ones in the fort. There was a kitchen with pantry, multiple dining halls, a training hall and after climbing some small stairs, an empty library.
But sadly no exit to the surface.
And so Liz returned to the main cavern, the four feline predators still in tow.
She went to another tunnel, eventually ending in another dead end. Along the way she encountered another lizard. Thanks to her increase in level and familiarity with the lizards, as insignificant as both may be, she was able to defeat the lizard without injuring herself. The cats just watched the fight from the sidelines.
-- You have killed a [Nuur Lizard - lvl 9] --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 10. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
After catching her breath, she dragged the body without its horns, also without Quicksilver, to the side in front of the mewling felines.
While they ate, she assigned her new stat points. Two of the points went into Strength, the other one into Endurance. The muscle cramping was now the most pronounced of the effects.
''I definitely like the effects of increasing strength best. The headache from the mental attributes is the worst. Worse than studying runes. Oh how I wish, I were simply studying runes right now. Except, I am weirdly comfortable with this wild cavern. I would have expected at least a full panic attack. I guess even I can still surprise myself! I just would have never guessed how cold-blooded I seem to have become! On the other hand this is the most dangerous environment I was ever in. Definitely not comparable to anything in my life back on Earth. And still I am still totally calm with this fact? What is wrong with me?''
While she was questioning her sanity, the cubs had finished the meal. Again they left a piece and dragged it to Liz.
"So you want me eat that? Sorry, but I will likely get sick from that!" Liz spoke, while getting herself a meal from her backpack to demonstrate to the cats that she was taken care of.
When they still just lounged around her, Liz shrugged and ate some of her fruit and berry mix. The smoked meat was all gone, the fruit would also only last her for about another 2 meals.
Unwilling to starve in this cave, Liz rationed her current meal and only ate a part of the pre-packed meal.
When she was finished, the raw lizard meat was still on the floor in front of her. Now slightly rested and with at least something in her stomach, Liz continued searching the tunnels.
When she encountered the next lizard, the cats surprisingly took charge, leaving Liz on the sidelines of the fight.
She was enraptured by the cats. While the same size as the lizard, they darted around the reptile with grace, only one or two attacking while the others distracted their prey. They regularly switched positions, wearing down their opponent, all the while making their movements look effortless.
Unfortunately Liz was too enraptured by the fighting cats that she didn''t notice the shadows deepening until a sudden piercing pain erupted in her shoulder.
She whirled around, only to see 8 eyes staring back at her, before everything went dark.
Chapter 8
Liz woke up to darkness. Her shoulder was throbbing with pain. When she tried to reach it, she realized that she was unable to move her arms. No part of her was able to move.
''Oh fuck. The spider! It cocooned me in! I am going to end up as spider food!''
Although it was hopeless, Liz panicked and struggled in the cocoon, trying to get her hands to her daggers. Over time her struggles got more subdued, as her endurance neared its limit.
When she finally calmed down while trying to catch her breath, she realized that she could breathe.
''What is this material? Spider silk shouldn''t be so free to breath''
Liz remembered her encounter with one of the spiders before ''meeting'' the mother cat.
''Is this some sort of shadow magic? That would explain why I can''t even see the dim crystal light, assuming I''m still in the cavern. But how does it make shadows physical? But then again, I have seen stranger things since coming to this world''
Now able to think clearly she thought through her options. She soon realized that she really only had one option: try to destroy the shadow material using her magic.
''Ughh, THIS is really going to hurt!''
Liz went and tried to use a minimal amount of mana in a blast from her left hand. As expected her skin blistered and cracked, though the light, normally quite bright, was missing.
Gritting through the pain and holding in a scream, not wanting to alert anything to her attempt to escape, if her blast didn''t already, Liz tried to move her fingers. Though it caused even greater pain to flare through her arm, she could move them ever so slightly, a movement previously impossible.
Channeling Arcane Blast in her left arm, careful not to damage her hand too much, Liz managed to free her arm.
Blindly grabbing the material around her body, Liz tried to yank on it. Yet, her burned and blistered arm and hand were unable to exert enough force to damage whatever bound her.
''Fuck, so I need to use more blasts!''
Desperate, Liz tried something she had no idea, whether it would succeed; she attacked the shadows on her chest, right in front of one of her daggers by moving the mana through her chest instead of her hand. It felt weird to imagine it, and she struggled a bit to envision an attack through her chest. Yet, it worked. And the pain was considerably less than she expected.
''Huh, I guess the mana leaving my body closer to my center destroys less.''
Grabbing her dagger, Liz began cutting into the material surrounding her right arm. Luckily, the dagger was able to damage the cocoon. When her arm was free, she moved the knife to her uninjured right arm, excluding the still throbbing shoulder, and began sawing more of the material from her body.
During the whole procedure Liz wasn''t interrupted by any spiders, much to her relief. When she finally removed the material from her head, she was greeted and shortly blinded by the dim light of the crystals along the walls and ceilings of a cave the size of a house. No spider was present, however the telltale clicking sound of the legs could be heard from outside the entrance to the food storage cave. But it sounded like more than one was moving outside the cave.
Judging her to not be in immediate danger, Liz relaxed slightly and went for the vial of healing potion that she had stashed on her belt, having learned from her mistake after the Shadownyx fight. Applying it to her arm and drinking the rest, healed most of the injuries. She also inspected the material that had bound her. To her surprise it was actually made out of a silk-like mesh, but between the dark silk strands, patches of shadow filled the gaps. It reminded her of the coat of the Shadownyx.
''Speaking of Shadownyx! What happened to the cubs? Did they get away?''
A quick look around brought her the answer. Close to her were four wriggling bundles of shadow silk. There were dozens more of the cocoons in the cave, all of them however were closer to the proportions of the lizards than the young cats.
''Can''t they just teleport themselves free?''
Unwilling to let the four felines become spider food, she went and cut all of them free. She was greeted by growling before they each recognized her, which turned the growl into a purr and the cats to groom every exposed piece of skin on her.
As soon as all of them were free, Liz started looking for her bag, finding no trace of it.
''Oh shit, hopefully it still is where we fought. But first let''s get out of the spider''s den alive''
Silently tiptoeing through the bundles of silk and shadows, Liz made her way to the entrance, all her senses on high alert. After watching her, the kittens followed her example and stacked up on her when she peeked around the corner of the entrance.
Outside was another massive crystal-lit cavern spanning multiple hundreds of meters in every direction. But unlike the traversable caves she had visited before, the ground was extremely rough and uneven, regular fissures and cracks marring the stone. All over the cavern pillars of stone stretched between the ceiling and floor, many with entrances in them. All along the walls and on raised paths Shadowweavers were bustling about. Some without carrying anything, others carrying cocooned prey from and to caves all along the walls. Liz''s current cave itself seemed to be on one of the outer walls. Fortunately the roaring of the waterfall was perceivable, although heavily muted.
''Shit, of course I need to be in the middle of a village sized spider den! At least the exit sounds like it''s near and not across the cavern and whatever monstrosity lives in the pit in the middle. I definitely don''t want to meet the boss of this cave! I rather get out of here before even one of these monsters notices me or checks in on us''
Liz took stock of her available weaponry. She still had 6 of her daggers, one vial of water and antidote, although she questioned it to be effective against this species of spider. Skill-wise she held no real weaponry, still her new skill sounded promising.
Mana Draw - active - lvl 1
Draw in and use mana from nearby non-living containers without physical contact but at an increased mana expenditure. Skill level reduces cost
''Only problem is that I have no good way to use it, now that I no longer have my healing potion! My tactic should simply be avoiding the spiders''
Committing the general pattern of crevices to her memory, she left her cave. Careful to not alert any of the spiders, she silently climbed down the rough cave wall heavily favoring her uninjured right arm, and dropping into one of crevices, the cubs following her through the shadows.
At the bottom of the crevice she waited a moment to see if her movement and sound was noticed, but it seemed the clicking of the spiders moving droned out her sounds. Still careful not to make too much, if any, noise, she slowly crept towards the sounds of roaring water.
She had to switch crevices twice to reach the exit she desired. Both times her heart skipped whenever she even heard a clicking near her, even though she always made sure to be as far away from any spider as possible.
Finally, after half an hour of heavy cardio for her heart, Liz reached a small tunnel, likely too small for the spiders, but still the sound of roaring water could be heard from the other side.
''Guess it''s not the only entrance! Only for my benefit''
Still careful of any spiders nearby, Liz climbed from her crevice and entered the tunnel. Once the cubs were inside as well, she released a breath.
At a slightly faster pace Liz made her way through the upwards sloping tunnel, that quickly devolved into an even smaller crevice. Her pace was still quite slow as the crevice held no crystals illuminating it, and she needed to feel her way forward.
Eventually light became visible in front of her and the tunnel widened considerably. Accelerating towards the light, Liz missed the cats behind her recoiling. Only when they started to growl at a shadow, did she turn around.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Accompanied by clicking and hissing noises, a spider triple the size of the small felines emerged from the shadow.
[Adolescent Shadowweaver - lvl 34]
Without hesitation, the cats immediately started attacking the spider in their dance of attrition. Only this wasn''t a small lizard. No, it was a spider having double the legs and eight-times the eyesight. Additional tendrils of shadow exuded from its body, doubling its limbs further.
Still the cubs continued their assault at an incredible speed. Liz was unable to provide any help, afraid of hitting the cubs with a thrown dagger.
This didn''t mean that the cubs gained any ground, any attack on the vulnerable-looking torso of the spider was intercepted either by a leg or a shadow tendril. The cubs quickly adjusted, simply ignoring the shadows by teleporting through them.
The spider was adjusting as well, shaping its tendrils thinner and thinner, leaving no space to teleport from.
Eventually one of the cats managed to bite down on one of the back legs of the massive spider. It barely held on, the spider waving its leg around in an effort to dislodge the small feline.
While this struggle continued, the other cubs were able to claw and bite three more legs, causing the spider to stumble while at the same time finally dislodging the first kitten. The cubs regrouped in the moment the spider needed to get its bearings again.
While the attack had visibly injured the spider''s physical legs, it also seemed to have angered it further. The shadow tendrils now moved in even faster fashion, easily keeping up with the cats weaving around the legs of the spider. Liz was still unsure what to do.
''They are so fast. I can neither attack myself nor can I flee with them blocking my way out!''
So she was just able to watch as the felines wore down the spider. At least that was what Liz thought was happening, as the spider was still constantly blocking any assault of the cats. Until it caught one of them, pinning the yelping cub to the floor with its shadows while moving its fangs in reach for the kill.
''OH NO. YOU DON''T!!''
On a possibly misplaced motherly instinct, Liz intervened. Before she could even realize what she did, she aimed her hand at the monster and pushed her mana out.
A ball of purple lightning hit the spider square in the middle of its eyes, causing it to recoil and release the cat as its control over the shadows wavered. It recovered quickly, its eight eyes focusing on Liz, who stood still, looking dumbstruck at her charred left arm.
''Oh fuck, why am I so stupid?''
The menacingly-looking spider advanced towards her, now ignoring the cats still attacking it. Afraid, Liz backed away, while keeping her eyes focused on the spider''s shadows. When one tendril struck out towards her, she retaliated with another Arcane Blast.
The purple lightning met the solid shadows and simply melted them away, much to Liz''s surprise.
''Yes''
Yet, her arm was now in even worse shape than before. And so, when the next attack from the spider quickly followed, Liz only used a part of the power of the former blast. Still, her Arcane magic annihilated the tendril anyway, albeit a lot slower.
Luckily for her, her short distraction had given the cubs enough time to advance on the spider''s side and injure it enough for it to tether to the side and fall over. Ignoring the pain in her charred left hand, adrenaline, shock and pain tolerance doing their work, Liz drew a dagger and ran at the flailing arachnid. Arriving at its head simultaneously with two of the cats, the three of them started to attack the spider''s eyes. The cubs using their claws, while Liz plunged the dagger into them.
The more of its eyesight it lost, the more erratic its movements became, to the point that the already reforming shadows simply dissolved into nothingness.
No longer having to fear the tendrils, Liz took her dagger and thrust it into the spiders head repeatedly only stopping when a new notification entered her head.
-- You group has killed a [Adolescent Shadowweaver - lvl 34] --
-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 10 --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 3 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 11. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
....
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 15. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
As the adrenaline quickly wore off, Liz dumped 3 of her new stat points into Vitality, causing her skin to heal and her dwindling health to recover. As it didn''t heal all the way, Liz spent another 3 points, without any visible effect.
''At least I''m no longer in excruciating pain''
Liz looked up, searching for the cubs. All four of them were sitting next to her, licking their own small wounds.
Afraid of having attracted more spiders and with none of their own fatally wounded, Liz moved out of the small cave with haste, emerging in the main waterfall cavern, the cubs directly behind her.
Quickly orienting herself, she found that she wasn''t too far away from her previous position. Just slightly higher than before. Scaling down the wall just like in the spiders'' den, Liz made her way to the tunnel that hopefully contained a bag filled with healing potions. The cubs followed through the shadows.
Luckily for her, the bag was where she had dropped it and no spiders were nearby. Downing her second to last healing potion and securing the last in her armor, she was also able to find the dropped lighting ball.
''I seriously need to leave soon. I have no more healing potions. And in here are more than enough monsters able to kill me many times without them''
Without dawdling for long, Liz left for the waterfall cavern, which seemed to frighten away the spiders.
''Maybe it''s just a natural reaction to water? Or is there some other monster here? I seriously don''t want to meet whatever frightens the spiders, not after having seen what force they could muster''
Fortunately for her, the next tunnel she inspected, now even more cautious than before, constantly staring into any shadows suspicious to her, held another small entrance.
Unlike before it didn''t lead to a small corridor. Instead, it opened up to a small cave, illuminated by crystals and moss. In the walls near her were the remains of forges. The whole cavern held remains of what she assumed had once been a smithy.
''And where there is smoke there needs to be ventilation! Also known as a way out!''
After a few moments of scanning the room she found it: roughly two and a half meters above the floor was a hatch blocked off with a rusted metal grid. Jumping up and holding on the grid, brought it crashing down with her.
With the blockade gone, Liz threw her bag in the hole, put the lighting ball in her mouth and scaled the wall, barely managing to hold on to the rough stone.
She finally managed to heft herself into the hole to look back down on four mewling cubs. The felines quickly went into the shadows around the cavern before reappearing behind Liz in the soot-covered shaft leading steeply towards the surface.
"Guess we will find out how you react to sunlight!" Liz said to the cubs before scaling the steep walls. This time it was easier, with the orb held between her teeth she braced her legs against the walls in the narrow shaft while using her left arm to drag her bag with her and her right to pull herself along.
''Guess that''s how Santa Claus feels. I can understand why he only works one day and needs a year vacation in between''
"An yu are myf reindeerfs!" Liz laughed around the glass ball in her mouth to the cubs still following her, elated by the prospect of soon being free again.
Unlike her the cubs were in their element, the inclined walls easily conquered by the slender felines.
After about 50 more meters upwards, the shaft narrowed down considerable, Liz barely able to fit through. Because the bag got stuck, Liz needed to get rid of 10 spikes which then tumbled back down into the smithy, passing four cubs trying to get hold of them in midair.
Finally, light was visible from up above. After moving through the last narrow meters, Liz emerged from a small crevice in a rocky hillside into the morning sun. After a quick scan of her surroundings she surmised that based on certain landmarks, she was still in the side-valley and even on the same side she had originally come from. The path she had taken should be slightly to the east.
After she was clear of the entrance, the first of the four cubs emerged. It shortly flinched back from sunlight on its fur, but seemingly seeing its new surrogate mother basking in it, it got the courage to reemerge and take its first steps in the sun.
The process repeated for all three remaining cubs, causing Liz to laugh only to be squished by four cubs wanting belly rubs and scratches.
Liz however, unwilling to encounter any more Bonestingers, slung the bag over her shoulder and began walking east at a fast pace.
After half an hour of walking the group of one human and four Shadownyx found themselves on the path towards the fort. 10 minutes later Liz found the spot where she had diverged from the path and went towards the meadow.
Arriving Liz saw that the staff and pendant were still lying in the moss. Standing on the border Liz now wondered how to retrieve the pendant lying 5 meters from her. As she was going through possible solutions, one of the cubs neared the moss, sniffed and instantly recoiled, angrily hissing at the moss.
"I guess you are smarter than me! Even my meager identify could have seen that, but I am too stupid to use such a thing" Liz laughed towards the now huffing cub.
Eventually Liz settled on enduring the mana concentration again, finding no better solutions. She spent a few minutes experimenting. The ''pressure'' only appeared when she was in contact with the moss. The air above the moss was also breathable, only if one was stupid enough to breath through the moss would it hurt.
She also realized that the ''Absorbing'' part of the moss''s name was referring to the moss draining and possibly absorbing her health and stamina. She had realized this after 10 minutes of experimentation when she was interrupted by the notifications of
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Stamina Drain Resistance] --
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Health Drain Resistance] --
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Your stamina is yours to keep. Effectiveness of stamina draining is reduced. Effect increases with skill level
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
You hold onto what making you stay alive. Effectiveness of health draining is reduced. Effect increases with skill level
Feeling safe to proceed, her observations showing it was possible, Liz waited for her health and stamina to fill up.
After her stamina reached its maximum, she sprinted onto the meadow, making a U-turn once she reached and grabbed the staff and pendant, and leaving as quickly as she entered. In the end she had 120 health and 80 stamina left.
"Finally, I thought you would never come back. At least I could spend the time recharging my mana" the locket complained.
"You have no idea how happy I''m to hear your whining" Liz exclaimed, having expected nothing else from the grumpy piece of jewelry.
Unwilling to dawdle any longer she quickly took the staff in hand, gathered her bag and nearly sprinted back to the fort.
Chapter 9
On the way back to the fort she briefly explained to Garuna what had happened to her. Garuna in turn discussed some of the subjects.
He explained that he hadn''t heard of most monsters she described. He was only acquainted with the Bonestinger, as they had regularly taken prey fallen to the health draining moss while he had observed them. Furthermore, he also added that he had also seen the sun set three times while lying in the moss, confirming Liz estimate of the passed time.
Besides that he couldn''t give much constructive input on any other subjects, still he demanded information about every minute detail from Liz. Especially about the abandoned structures. However, Liz was neither willing to describe the masonry techniques she had seen nor was she interested in documenting as much of the structure and cavern layout as she could remember. And so they stayed silent for most of the trip back. Luckily, the trip took only 3 hours, Liz attributing her speed increase to fewer stops and her level increase.
She had also finally taken to spending her remaining 9 points during the travel. Garuna had mentioned in passing that the auto-assigned points went into class specific attributes, which answered Liz''s question regarding the fact. She had spent her points in Endurance, Strength and Dexterity. This brought Endurance to 21, Strength to a round 20 and Dexterity to 22. The application effects were even more subdued this time around.
Arriving back at the fort at around noon, she went straight for a bath while grabbing some of the few remaining fruit from the pantry. Her ruined clothing practically fell away from her body to reveal dried blood and soot on every bit of skin. Her hair was a complete mess as well, several strands cut short by claws, the rest caked and crusted in soot and blood despite the grooming efforts of the cubs. Even opening the tight bun proved a challenge.
Desperately missing the excessive hair products from Earth for once, Liz was finally able to relax in the bathtub while snacking the strawberry-like fruit. She had turned the heating runes to maximum power and savored in the steaming water. The four cubs had taken an interest in the bathtub at first, but after the first drops of water had entered it, had decided to spend their stay in the bathroom in the corner furthest from the bathtub.
After soaking in the water for an hour, Liz recognized that her stomach also had needs. Dried off, she made herself the first cooked meal in days, leaving 4 pieces of raw meat to the cubs. They lunged at the meat, purring throughout their meal.
Her own cooked steak was tasting like heaven compared to the stale water and fruit mix of her trip. During cooking, she also had realized that she wouldn''t be able to support the four additional mouths to feed for long. If the cubs needed as much as they ate in the caverns, the meat remaining in the pantry would hold for about two weeks for the four of them, not even considering Liz''s needs. While she could sustain herself on the herbivorous part of the food stock, a piece of meat every now and then would be a nice boon.
Garuna had been surprisingly silent in regard to the cubs during their travel. Only when Liz had given them the pieces of meat, had he seemingly realized that she didn''t see them as a food source and complained about the increased consumption by the ''monsters''. Liz ignored him.
''I think I will take them with me on future hunting trips. Not only will I be able to hunt faster, but also possibly survive more powerful monsters than if I am alone. And I don''t think anyone can call the these bundles of cuteness monsters.''
While Garuna complained about distilling the Quicksilver as fast as possible, Liz simply ate her meal and, when it became too much for her, shut the locket. She then had to put him in the workshop, open again, as the constant clicking in his shut state annoyed her even more than his demands.
Instead of attending any of the serious and pressing issues, Liz spent her time cuddling with the adorable cubs, elated to be rather safe and clean. She also finally checked out the four cubs in detail and went about naming them.
[Shadownyx - lvl 17]
The biggest of the males she named Logan. He was the one that she had always seen at the front of their little group. He also seemed to never be standing still. She identified him by his black fur with an even spread of lots of gray blotches.
[Shadownyx - lvl 16]
All of the others were one level lower. There was another male she named Nick. On their travels he had stayed back and observed rather than rush forward. He was identifiable by a pattern of gray blotches on his black fur, that abruptly ended just above his shoulders, leaving his head fully black. The remaining two females she named Charly and Dana, after her best friend and her little sister, as they were as inseparable as their namesakes were in their childhood. Both were very playful, having regularly engaged in mock fights during the trip back to the fort. They were practically indistinguishable with their completely black fur, only based on one faint blotch on the front leg of Dana could Liz differentiate them.
She spent the rest of the day switching between meditating, cycling the crystal for the enchantment and reading more about runes. So far she had only learned the runes for most basic elements, like fire, air, water or rock. Alone they were limited in their uses. At best, she could summon fire, move some air or accumulate the moisture of the air. For more she needed to understand how to interconnect them with other runes and that was where she was struggling to go further, despite a skill helping her.
While meditating she had also discovered that mana now trickled and cycled through some unseen ducts from her center to her arms and back. However, the flow was far from smooth, and she was unable to detect it if she didn''t fully focus on it.
''Seems like the struggles of the past days have started to form mana conduits. If this is what would be necessary to form just the beginning of them, I''m even happier about choosing the enchantment option''
When the sun set behind the mountains, she made herself a quick fruit dinner while giving each of her cubs another piece of raw meat.
"How lucky you are, that your stomach can digest the meat raw. I have to cook or boil nearly everything I want to eat! And you don''t even have to clean your cutlery afterwards!" Liz spoke while watching the felines eat.
When she was lying in her bed, she went over her status and reviewed her gains of the past days.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 15
Title: Wanderer
Status:
Health: 312/312
Stamina: 230/231
Mana: 496/496
Vitality: 26
Endurance: 21
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 22
Perception: 28
Wisdom: 31
Intelligence: 30
General skills:
Arcane Magic Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Tolerance - lvl 10
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane Blast - lvl 3
Runic Intuition - lvl 1
Spell Channeling - lvl 2
Mana Draw - lvl 1
''I made some real progress in this short time. I feel fitter than I''ve ever felt in the last few years. All it needed was constant danger and crippling pain. Yayy. But seriously, being this unprepared for the last days of near-deaths definitely isn''t my thing. Without the potions and tonic I would have died several times. Still, I absolutely had some fun with the cubs and really hope they stay with me, even if food will become scarce. I need something living and not an obnoxious piece of jewelry as company. Even if it costs me as much as they do in food. At least I don''t have to worry about having the money to buy the next meal. I wonder what is happening back on Earth? Dana will probably freak out about me missing. My mom likely hasn''t heard about it. Maybe when my Christmas card doesn''t arrive will she maybe wonder. If she even received the cards I sent before and they weren''t withheld for some made-up reason by these cult jerks. And Andy will probably mourn the free tech-support he lost for a moment and promptly hire the next college dropout. But why do I still feel like some memory is missing regarding my job? Was I fired? But without me Andy wouldn''t even be able to open his laptop. Or did I insult the wrong jerk for once?... Anyway, the here and now is more important: I really hope this enchantment works. I seriously want to do magic. Not that I have many alternatives, without a proper teacher and Garuna refusing helping me in any other case. Regarding his help; he also spoke of self-healing skills. They would be good to have in this environment. Hopefully my constant healing potion consumption prompts an appropriate skill to emerge soon!''
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
With this thought Liz went to sleep, snuggling into the soft and warm fur all around her. Surprisingly, the nightmares, that had left her alone for the trip, visited her again this night.
Liz judged waking up to four small noses nudging you and mewling for food as a nice change for the better to the first week of isolation she had experienced in this world.
After the predator feeding was done, Liz portioned off some of the remaining into new daily rations. The remaining meat was earmarked to feed the cubs while she herself would eat from the remaining fruit and bread. She would definitely need to go out to hunt for more food in the next 2 weeks. Especially with winter fast approaching she would need a stockpile beforehand if she wanted to see anything other than this fort ever again. But for now the trees in the valley still held all of their leaves, although the air was certainly more frigid than it had been on her first morning in this realm.
But first she would become a mage able to use magic without crippling herself. To do so she went downstairs to the workspace, her bag slung over her shoulder. Walking down the stairs she had an idea ''Why was I never on the first floor of the tower? I should visit it!''
Entering the workspace she realized how stupid her idea was. ''Isn''t that just the space for all the power-routing runes? What would I want there?''
Liz stopped in her tracks, confused by her strange thoughts, only to be brought back to reality by a surprisingly eager sounding locket
"Finally! Did you bring the crystal? Oh I see, you even attuned it to you even further. If you continue at this speed, it should be ready in 2 days. Now for the Quicksilver extraction. I am not sure how to best approach it since you didn''t leave me with a sample to study last night. We will have to experiment with some things!"
After placing the bag on the table, Liz spent the next ten minutes fetching various implements and ingredients on the directions of the locket. Every new object collected was inspected by the four cats lounging around her designated work table.
Dragging a particularly heavy tub to said table, Liz finally voiced her opinion. "The supplies are all quite nice to have but would you be so kind to finally tell me what exactly ''we'' are doing now?"
"We will first try to extract the metal using an elixir. If this fails we will have to resort to the way the Quicksilver was extracted from the snails, using an extractor rune framework. But this will take up to three days"
"If you only want to experiment at first, why did let me fetch tubs of all sizes? What use does this have if it fails?" Liz replied, annoyed at the taciturn pendant.
"For once, you make a good point. Then you should follow the instructions for about a vial of the bone-marring elixir in ''Exotic brews for the aspiring alchemist''."
After looking at the recipe, Liz was only more annoyed.
''I fetched the materials to fill all the containers here twice with this bone-marring elixir. This locket seriously needs to start thinking before acting, nay ordering. And still he calls himself a scholar!''
Gritting her teeth, Liz went to making the elixir. After mixing dozens of strange liquids, herbs and powders, all only identified using the respective skill, Liz held a vial of reddish-brown translucent liquid. Submerging one of the bonespikes in it, caused a heavy sizzling and made the lounging cubs to perk up briefly.
Shortly afterwards the reaction died down, and the cats went back to their state of half-sleep. The liquid had turned opaque but there also wasn''t anything solid left in it.
"So I guess this was a failure. Only good that I didn''t haul all the other equipment here" Liz spoke.
"Oh no, this was a huge success. The snail shells would not be affected by the elixir. This however dissolved perfectly. We can now place it in the fireplace. We can repeat this with the rest of the material"
''This almost feels like chemistry class from school.''
Liz made a small fire and boiled the elixir over it. After some time, in which she started to make more of the elixir, only a small metallic drop remained.
[Drop of Quicksilver - legendary]
''Finally! Now I only need a hundred times the amount.''
"Oh good, it worked. Now we need to repeat it on the larger scale"
By the time the sun was at its zenith, Liz had processed all the spikes and had 5 vials of mercury on the table in front of her.
''That should include almost all possible modifications and then some. Oh, but I still need some for Garuna''s skull''
After her success, Garuna started designing the enchantment with her. Or rather dictated it to her and let her draw runes on a piece of paper while constantly criticizing her strokes, technique, handwriting, and overall posture.
''What the hell is wrong with this piece of jewelry? Lying in a ruin for decades definitely did him a disservice. I can''t believe it. "ThAt CiRcLe iS NoT supPoSeD tO bE sO bOtChEd". This is a test drawing for hells¡¯ sake''
Despite all this, Liz continued the drawing. The runes would be painted on her stomach and chest. Supposedly this was enough, even if she wanted to use her hands for casting magic. As this arrangement offered limited space, the runes were rather intricate.
When she was finished, Liz understood why the pendant was so strict. Garuna ordered her to take the finished papers and memorize the enchantments, possibly even understand the basic portions. The parts where Garuna had the most to criticize were the hardest to read and caused a headache just looking at them. They just felt wrong. The parts she had aced were easily readable and felt easier to understand, not that she understood them.
''So this is Runic Intuition''
The pendant encouraged her to rewrite the crooked enchantments multiple times until they felt right to her. With this new task, Liz gathered half a dozen healing potions to heal any headache and started to read, study and correct the enchantments.
The whole process took her the next two days until she could reproduce all the runes on the papers. Her understanding was still very limited, only reaching the outer parts of the framework. Together with Garuna''s input she understood that the runes wouldn''t be visible from the outside at all. Instead, they would enter her body and settle on her ribs and surrounding tissues. Liz saw none of it in the runes, just thinking about them and their connections caused massive headaches. Drawing the respective runes and connections seen on the papers was already barely possible. She didn''t even know most of the runes, just how to draw them. She had even tried to find some of them in the encyclopedias but found no mention of them. The only parts she understood were at the edges and were only responsible for crystallizing the metal when infused in her bones.
''I don''t even understand what most parts are supposed to do, and replicating or creating this is so far beyond my knowledge and ability that it is laughable. All the more incredible that Garuna simply dictated them to me!''
Besides her task, she had also spent a lot of her time with the mana crystal and playing with the kittens. She had begun training together with them. Garuna had told her; that no matter how much the stats assisted, one still had to train how to move the improved body effectively. Getting the cats to include her in their mock fights took surprisingly long, but now she would regularly fight with her fists against their claws and fangs, unwilling to injure the young with her daggers. Not that there wasn''t blood, Liz body simply wasn''t as resilient as the young predators, making most mock fights end in a still smiling Liz applying healing potion while petting the concerned cats.
She had also realized the purpose of the mana crystal. Garuna had chosen it as a mana input for activating the enchantment. With the mana crystal attuned to her personal mana signature it would complete the initial fill of the runes and direct them to bond with her. This way she wasn''t needed in any capacity beyond drawing and placing the crystal on her stomach. It was a truly foolproof system, if not for the high preparation costs and the need to draw the runes absolutely perfectly.
Although she didn''t understand even a third of it, studying the rune framework even brought her two levels in Runic Intuition, bringing it up to lvl 3.
She had also taken the time to remove the ''find-me clicking''-enchantment from Garuna, finally silencing the obnoxious clicking when closed. She had accomplished this feat by scratching the responsible runes, to the dismay of the locket.
On the evening of the second day, she prepared for the enchantment. As a small part of the runes needed to be scratched into her skin, she meticulously cleaned and boiled a small hollow knife for that purpose. The rest of Quicksilver was to be applied using a special fountain pen.
Early the next morning she had one of her now few meaty meals and also let the kittens have a small extra share for the occasion. Afterwards she bathed once more to make her skin as clean as possible, despite Garuna urging her multiple times that this wasn''t necessary.
When she had scrubbed her skin red, she left for the workspace. And promptly had to spend 5 minutes getting the cats to not snuggle up to her and instead wait on the table across the aisle.
And then the drawing began. Garuna corrected her on every mistake, always a second before she realized them herself. For once she was thankful for it, since she didn''t feel like wasting too much of the valuable material. When it came to scratching the parts just above her sternum, Liz had to grit her teeth to stop herself from screaming. Metal under the skin was a truly horrific experience.
Shortly before sunset, Liz was done. The whole process had been incredibly mentally exhausting and even painful when she needed to enforce the drawn runes with mana or when it came to the scratched parts. Therefore, she spent another hour inspecting the whole work and looking for and correcting any errors. Despite being careful for the whole 8 hours, she still found multiple spots where it wasn''t as precise as she or Garuna wished and swiftly corrected them.
Sitting at the edge of the table, the locket in her hand so it could observe the process better, she strapped a belt around her stomach. The mana crystal was to be held in place by it and was already attached to it. The mana practically exploded outwards into the lines of Quicksilver.
For a short moment nothing happened. The runes were still filling up.
And then all the lines across her whole body started to warm. Some pressed into her skin, the ones cut into it already moving through her tissue, healing the flesh behind them.
But the heating didn''t stop. It continued. Going beyond what was comfortable. Suddenly, the lines nearing her bones slowed down, some even halting their progress fully.
Her skin around some of exterior runes blistered and sizzled. Her heart stopped beating before resuming at thrice its normal speed, her muscles relaxed before cramping, in her cramped hand the fingernails dug deep into the skin. Liz registered none of it.
Her whole mind was filled with the fiery pain, emitting from across her whole upper body. Any rational thought impossible, she simply screamed.
But even that quickly ceased as another flare of pain caused Liz to pass out completely.
Chapter 10
Liz woke to a numb world. Her eyes wouldn''t open. She tasted blood. Her other senses simply weren''t there. Only her slow heartbeat let her know that time was actually passing.
''Am I dead?''
After what felt like an eternity, something brushed against her face. Gathering all her energy she was able to open her eyes.
In front of her was black. A familiar black. The black fur of one of the cubs.
''So I am still alive. What happened? It should have only hurt a bit. NOT. THAT. MUCH!''
She had to spend some time in this position. The cat in front of her face was only occasionally shifting, obviously asleep.
Finally, she felt strong enough to shift her head to the side. On her other side there were the legs of a worktable.
''So I fell of the table. But why can''t I feel anything?'' Did I injure my spine?''
With a struggle Liz lifted her head only to drop again. She had only had a glimpse at her chest, but that was enough. Her entire front was covered in crusted blood, even more around her.
''What. The. FUCK? How am I alive? And why do I feel none of it?''
That was the first time she remembered the intricacies of her new world and thought to check her status
Status:
Health: 1/12
Stamina: 1/231
Mana: 0/496
''1 health? 12 max health? I am definitely missing something here''
At this point Liz realized that there was a whole flood of notifications bumping into her consciousness, numbed down as well.
-- ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? i????????n???????i????????t???????i?????????a?????t?????e?????????d????????? --
-- ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? c?????o?????n?????f?????l??????i?????c????t???????s????? ??????w?????i?????t?????h??????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? --
-- You have been afflicted by [Soul Trauma] --
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 11 --
...
-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 15 --
-- Congratulations! [Pain Tolerance] reached level 16 and evolved to [Pain Suppression]--
-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 17--
-- You died. --
-- ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? --
-- Congratulations, you gained the trait [Persevering] --
-- 25 Vitality traded for restoring body''s integrity --
-- You have been afflicted by [Death''s Touch] --
-- Enhancement gained --
-- Congratulations, you gained the trait [Arcane Enhanced] --
-- Congratulations, you gained the title [Deviant] --
-- You have been afflicted by [Starvation] --
-- You have been afflicted by [Dehydration] --
-- Affliction [Soul Trauma] has been cleared --
''WHAT. THE. FUCK?''
''I DIED? How? And how am I still alive? I can''t even understand half of the log! What the hell are traits? What is Death''s Touch? What is Soul Trauma?''
Death''s Touch - affliction
You have recently had reached a state of death. Until all health is restored, all natural regeneration is nullified. Health can only be reduced to 1, except if further lethal damage is received.
Starvation - affliction
You are starving. Strength severely reduced. Health slowly declines.
Dehydration - affliction
You are dehydrated. Dexterity and Perception severely reduced. Health slowly declines.
Persevering - trait
You persevere no matter what. If your health is reduced to 0 and your vitality is above 1, vitality above 1 will be traded to restore the integrity of your body. Success is dependent on the damage induced and the amount of sacrificed vitality. Administers the Affliction [Death''s Touch]
Arcane Enhanced - trait
Your body was strengthened with the Arcane. Arcane magic comes naturally to you. You are immune to Arcane magic attacks. Enforces the adoption of the Arcane Focus
Deviant - title
You have threaded paths none of your species has before. You deviated from the masses. Sentient beings wary of your species are more welcoming to you. Members of your species are more wary of you. Additional permanent 10 stat points awarded. Grants the ability to hold a focus foreign to one''s class.
''Oh hell! Seriously, what the fuck happened?''
Liz went and applied all ten of the stat points to Vitality. After a stutter of her heart, she felt the energizing and replenishing effects of the allocation, and the feeling to her body returned. She instantly felt her stomach cramp, only a small spike of pain before going numb again.
-- Affliction [Death''s Touch] has been cleared --
Health: 87/132
Stamina: 1/220
Mana: 0/496
''Oh fuck, of course that only affects my health. And starvation and dehydration are already eating it away again. Fuck''
With her last reserves of energy, Liz rolled on her stomach and lifted her head. She was looking for anything to drink or eat.
Fortunately the cubs seemed to have raided the pantry and had placed a piece of raw meat for her to eat in front of her. Without worrying about possible hygienic issues, Liz began to savagely rip into the meat with her teeth, her hunger too consuming to care about civilized behavior.
The blood left in the meat also helped with her dehydration. With every bite she felt her strength returning. When the meat was gone, she felt the notifications in her mind, but she still felt ravenous and parched.
-- Affliction [Starvation] has been cleared --
-- Affliction [Dehydration] has been cleared --
By this point Liz felt strong enough to move her legs again. Drinking two healing potions from the table next to her, just for the water they contained, she finally took notice of her surroundings.
She was sitting on the floor next to her table. The implements from the table were strewn across it next to her, including a broken vial of Quicksilver. Two sleeping cubs were arranged around the spot she was lying on just minutes ago. After a moment she realized that the two males were missing. Garuna was nowhere in sight as well.
''Where the hell is that annoying locket? Whatever, I need food.''
Devouring the fruits on the table that were supposed to be her dinner, Liz let out a small moan, the sweet taste just too much for her starving taste buds.
The fruits were mushy, as if they had laid there for some time. After she had gobbled them down, she went upstairs to get more food.
''How have I never noticed that this whole tower is so cold?''
Instead of pondering these questions, Liz looked into the pantry. It had been completely cleared of any trace of meat, the vegetables and fruit, formerly stored between the hunks of meat, were strewn across the floor of the suite, the pantry door wide open. Some fruit remained in the pantry, which Liz took to replenish herself.
Eating all that she could fit, something she retained little memory about doing, and drinking directly from the continuous stream of the water rune tap in the bathroom, Liz was finally sated, and after realizing how cold she felt, put on a robe to fight the frigid air chilling her exposed skin, despite the blood still crusted on her skin. In the meantime, Dana and Charly had come up to the suite, both now sitting in front of her and mewling some unknown demands.
"Where are your brothers?" Liz asked while looking out the window, only to startle by the sight.
Outside was white. The courtyards, the tower ruins and the walls were all covered in snow. Even the window was covered in patterns of ice. Beyond the castle, the sky was obscured by a dense fog shrouding the sides of the whole valley. Yet, the trees down in the valley were completely free of snow. The whole view could have been a calendar shot for the winter months.
"What? How long was I passed out?" Liz cried out.
''Or did it snow suddenly? It can''t already be winter, that is only in around a moon! Wait, I have a time-coin''
Sprinting back down into the workshop to get to the coin, Liz passed a heap of bones on a blood covered rug.
''Guess I know where the cats ate!''
Panicked, Liz looked for the coin. She dug through the stacks of paper in the workspace with no regard for their order. After disturbing most of her notes and drawings, she found the coin buried under a heavy tome.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
''It has been 1330 years, 6 moons and 3 days since minting''
"I was out for more than a month? Moon? Whatever" Liz uttered faintly, sitting down on the edge of the table.
''How did I even survive this? How did the cats survive this?''
Liz finally noticed that Dana and Charly, both having followed her back downstairs, had doubled in size.
[Shadownyx - lvl 23]
''And how did they even manage to level up? They are higher than me now! Why did they stay with me? Where are the two boys?''
The answer came when a dull impact could be heard from downstairs. Armed with a heavy paperweight Liz went down the stairs. She was greeted by the door to the tower opening in front of her, one of the male cubs hanging on the outside, door handle in his mouth. The other one, Logan, promptly dragged the body of a deer-like creature through the door, the two females coming to his aid.
Liz, dumbstruck by the actions playing out in front of her, only watched as four cats dragged a carcass up 3 stories of spiral stairs before placing it in front of the bone pile in the suite. The two females quickly started tearing into the remains, gulping down whole chunks of flesh before tearing away a chunk, promptly presented to Liz, who could only gawk at the piece of raw meat.
''Ok, now I know how they did it. But how did I survive? I should be either dead or a living skeleton, with me having had no sustenance in coma! Or did Death''s Touch also prevent the degradation of my body? And where the hell is Garuna? He should have answers. After all, it was his runes that started this.''
Starting a fire in the fireplace and placing her piece of meat above the flames, Liz went back downstairs to look for the locket.
Eventually, when her steak was already burnt on the outside, Liz returned to the suite. She had no luck finding the locket in her corner of the workshop.
''And of course I, the idiot, removed his find-me clicking''
While chewing her dry piece of charred meat and giving the four cubs scratches, all now at lvl 23, Liz pondered her observations.
''So, something went wrong during the enchantment and that killed me? And now I''m back alive? But I have no clue what happened, with the log being all glitchy. And now do I have two ''traits'' whatever that means? Is that normal? And I was in a sort of coma and I have to thank my two new traits that I''m even alive? If only I could ask Garuna about any of this! He was definitely still next to me when it started. Did one of the cats drag him away? He could be anywhere then!''
''In any case, I only have minimal amounts of food left, I think most of the food on the floor is done for. At least the cats got their own meat. They must have found a way out of the fort and hunted in the valley. But I''m no cat and considering winter is already here, and I originally wanted to stock up on food well before, I have a severe problem. Maybe I can follow them to wherever they find their prey. I could possibly kill something myself and survive for more than a few days. This whole coma definitely threw a wrench in all my plans.''
Done with her meal, Liz moved to her training courtyard to test her new magical prowess, hopefully improved by the invisible array of intricate runes. She took multiple flasks of healing potion with her, just in case. After all the glitchy stuff in the log, she didn''t fully believe that it worked.
And so, Liz found herself facing the wall she had faced when she had done her first spell. Aiming with her left hand towards the wall, she drew mana from her core into her arm, envisioning it to leave her hand like she had done dozens of times before.
Unlike before she could distinctly feel how much mana she gathered, and even had a rough instinctive idea how powerful the resulting spell would be. It also didn''t put up as much of a resistance to being moved into her arm, an obstruction she hadn''t even realized was there before until it was gone now. Instead, the mana easily moved through her body into her arm and lit it up.
Liz instinctively flinched and closed her eyes, awaiting the coming pain. Except nothing hurt. Opening her eyes, Liz saw the impact area of the blast, but her skin was completely burn free. She repeated the process, this time keeping her eyes open, and saw intricate swirling patterns of runes light up in a purple-whitish light before the mana exited her hand. Afterwards the purple light vanished, but the patterns stayed in a soft and faint white light on her skin before fading after a second or two.
''YES!!! I CAN DO MAGIC AND IT DOESN''T HURT! Although the weird pattern definitely wasn''t part of the enchantment. And they are even in spots where there should be no enchantment...''
''Maybe this is what [Arcane Enhanced] means. I don''t know how I feel about being a living neon lightbulb. Does this mean I''m overpowered now? Let''s test it!''
Elated by the prospect of performing any magic at all, Liz shot at the wall repeatedly until her mana ran dry, which happened rather quickly. Despite it, the wall was damaged, several of the stones knocked loose by the blasts that acted like a sledgehammer on the fortification.
Liz was happy beyond any measure. She even grabbed one of the cubs, squeezed it to her chest and just spun in circles with joy. Logan wasn''t as amused, instead hissing at Liz once she set him down before fleeing to the other side of the courtyard, securely out of her reach.
After regenerating her mana by meditating, Liz renewed her testing efforts. This time combining Spell Channeling and Arcane Blast. It worked flawlessly.
''If only I could test this on some lizards. It would be the perfect comparison. Even the spiders should be easy...''
''No, I can''t get cocky suddenly. I am still pathetically weak. Compared to the solid shadow projectiles of the Shadowweavers this is just child''s play. I still should find Garuna, this is a huge success! For once, I want him here and he is missing! Wow, that sounds like I am his unloved child!''
Giggling to herself and giving the remaining 3 cubs more scratches, Liz continued experimenting by holding the mana inside herself for longer, a feat unimaginable before, and charging up the Blast a bit. This caused the patterns of runes to dimly light up until she let go.
''Yupp, I am officially a lightbulb now. At least it''s only very dim. But I guess I can''t change the fact since I don''t even know how this came to be. It''s a far cry from what Garuna described. Come to think of it, he never really mentioned what exactly was going to happen. And I just blindly followed his orders. Maybe I was just some test subject to him! But he sounded sincere when he described his desire to return to civilization. And yet I never questioned why exactly he is bound to a locket and his missing past! When I find him, these will be my first questions!''
She also finally looked at her status in full.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 15
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 132/132
Stamina: 203/220
Mana: 79/496
Vitality: 11
Endurance: 20
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 22
Perception: 28
Wisdom: 31
Intelligence: 29
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Suppression - lvl 17
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane Blast - lvl 3
Runic Intuition - lvl 3
Spell Channeling - lvl 2
Mana Draw - lvl 1
''So my title changed, I suddenly have two traits, I have Arcane Magic Immunity, I light up like a sad christmas tree and I have no idea how any of it happened...''
''And what the hell is wrong with Eastern Plains Common? Wait! Wasn''t that part of the Wanderer title? So only if I have that title do I have the skill? Why is it even still in my status? Do I need to change the title back?''
Doing a similar mental movement as selecting a class, brought her a new selection
-- Available titles: --
- Wanderer -
- Deviant -
-- Be warned, you can only change your title once every day --
''So I can change it. But it doesn''t sound too good that my only and most essential way of communicating is bound to some title''
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0
[Skill has prior progress, acquisition accelerated]
You understand the written and spoken word of the common language of the Eastern Plains. The language of humans and gnomes
''So learning it anew is possible. Guess I would rather learn it instead of relying on some unseen title to do such an essential job. Another point on the never-ending to-do list''
While she was at it, Liz also took a look at the new Pain Suppression skill
Pain Suppression - lvl 17
You are all fed up with pain. When you pain, you simply shut it down, numbing the pesky nerves emitting it. Who needs them anyway?
''So this is why I didn''t feel any part of my body! But just numbing the nerves? What about important body feedback? With the pain gone, I could - possibly need to - experiment a little. I wouldn''t want to be surprised in a fight by the intricacies of some skill meddling with my perception''
Her introspection was cut short at this point as Liz had to return to more pressing issues. Namely getting rid of the massive amounts of liquid she had ingested earlier that day.
After relieving herself, she turned to taking care of the mess in the suite. She took stock of all her remaining still-edible food, started removing the rotten food from the floor and the foul-smelling heap of lizard remains from the carpet - the carpet was also a loss -, cleaned the floor in the workspace and took a long and refreshing bath afterwards.
''So I have just about 4 days of fruit and vegetables left, if I ration it. But no meat. I definitely need to go hunting soon, preferably tomorrow. And I should find Garuna. And maybe stock up on soap. There is close to none left here. I need to see if there is more of it in the fort. Or can I make it myself? Dana only ever used her self-made soaps, I still have some in my bathroom back on Earth. And she only got her instructions from social media, so it should be easy! Right now, I need to focus on getting food, but maybe in the future I can try myself at it''
Sufficiently refreshed and thinking about the possible creation of magic endless soap, Liz went back to searching for the locket.
She spent the rest of the day searching the fort for any sign of it. She even tried clearing her training courtyard to look beneath the snow but quickly stopped, as it was only tiring work and the chance of finding him was rather low unless she cleared all the snow inside the fort''s walls, a task too monumental to even consider. She found no sign of it. In the end she decided to take care of her food shortage first, before spending more time looking for the locket. It would probably be fine for a few more days, if it survived a millennium in the ruins.
In the evening Liz was lying in the bed, the four cubs, now double the size of a normal house-cat, were arranged around her. Their new size made Liz question whether the label cub still applied and additionally made it a challenge to fit all of them on the suddenly rather small duvet. She had gathered some more wood from the frigid castle ruins and had a incredibly hot fire burning in the fireplace. For once, it was cozy. The two moons, one a full moon, illuminated her current literature, the title indecipherable to her. Liz tried to learn the language just by trying to decipher the words. She had never noticed how strange the script was before. By now she had identified twenty different characters and half a dozen diacritics. Yet, when before it had felt totally natural to her to read, now she even struggled to decipher the index.
After about two hours without any success, and with the whole process being rather tiring, Liz fell asleep, book still in her lap. For the first time, to a nightmare-free sleep.
The next morning Liz woke up to a shock. A wet bulk was thrown onto her sleeping face, causing her to shoot upright in the bed. She quickly relaxed when she realized that she was just hit by a piece of meat, another generous donation by the cats. They were already up and, judging by the mauled carcass on the now bare stone floor, already had time to hunt for more of the deer-like creatures.
"Thanks, but I would appreciate it if you didn''t wake me with bloody meat in the bed" Liz spoke to the meat-suspect, Nick.
She only received a meow in return. With a shrug she went to get dressed. Like the day before, she cooked the gifted meat above the fireplace. This was also when she realized, that the book from the day before was now wrinkled and covered in blood from the meat. The bedsheets were also in desperate need of cleaning from the blood, not to mention the countless black hairs adorning it.
After eating some fruit and her grilled mini-steak, way too small to be sufficient as a meal on its own and lacking any seasoning, Liz went to cleaning the sheets and all the discarded clothes from the weeks prior in the bathtub. The whole process was tedious, especially so since most of the dirt and grime had months to settle into the fabric. The dirt was particularly sticky on her pajamas, which she hadn''t worn since day one and was still clinging to, if only to have a connection to Earth in her possession.
It took Liz a few hours to wash all the laundry. It hadn''t helped, that she had spent several long breaks playing with the felines, who just like house-cats still hated the water. When she had hung the clothing over the roof beams in the suite, she went to her training courtyard with the cats in tow, to freshen up her training before going out on a hunting trip.
Surprisingly her coma hadn''t impacted her agility and strength in any conceivable way. Even the movements she had copied from a book still felt natural to her, but then again she still remembered the last training as being just two days ago. But unlike her the cats hadn''t stayed at their proficiency. Where before three of them at the same time were rather easy to avoid, just two of the cubs were enough to succeed in subduing her by now.
Still, even when their claws were pinning her into the muddy snow, was she was smiling. A moment later a short purple light pulse lit up the courtyard. The felines recoiled, more from shock than injury, as Liz had aimed at the space between them.
Yet it gave Liz the time to tackle them in turn, pinning one to floor with her hands while wrapping her legs around the other one.
"What do the judges say?" she asked the two males watching from the side.
While she was distracted, the mass under her torso suddenly vanished, before a weight appeared on her back a second later.
''Of course there are shadows underneath me!''
"Eyy, we said no teleport!" Liz let go of the second one with her legs and threw herself around, quickly grappling the assailant, squeezing him to her chest.
"Got you!" as the second one threw itself at her back again. And a third one was suddenly at her side. All attacking her now.
During the training, she still got injured, but never felt it before it turned numb. But no injury was anywhere near a severe wound, meaning Liz had no idea how her new skill behaved in a true fight.
Liz continued mock-fighting with the cubs for some time before she stopped at around noon. Sweaty and exhausted but still happy she went to take a quick bath to clean herself up before getting a quick snack and tackling the problem of hunting for more food.
Chapter 11
Due to her time constraints she had to forego repairing the armor properly and instead made due with the botched set from her last trip into underground structures. Even though she had just spent months in a coma, the armor still fit snugly.
With some wiggling she was able to squeeze into the armor and equipped her daggers afterwards. Only to step outside, realize that it was way too frigid for the thin armor, and add a wide cloak. In her new backpack, that had two straps again, she placed another few healing potions, a few vials of clean water and a light orb, just in case.
Afterwards Liz had to spend a considerable amount of time getting the lazy cats to move. They seemed content to just relax in the warming rays of the winter sun creeping into the suite through the wide windows of the tower. With lots of prodding, eliciting more than a few growls and hisses, Liz was finally able to force them out of the tower. Of course, the piece of meat she had saved from the morning''s bedside-steak probably helped as a motivator.
As she had no idea how the cats left the fort''s grounds, Liz headed for the valley gate, assuming the cats hunted in the valley and not the mountains. She was eager to test her new strength, although she hoped she would not encounter any more Bonestingers or monsters of similar caliber. Therefore, she double-checked that aura suppression was airtight.
''If only I had a mana perception skill to properly sense it!''
The felines were still following her, although seemingly begrudgingly, but even when she went through the small gatehouse they did not stop, which Liz saw as a sign that she was on the right course.
Outside, the small layer of snow was undisturbed, giving no indication as to how the cats had hunted their game before now, so Liz just assumed that her best bet to find game herself would be at the end of the first path leading down into the valley. The path was snaking its way down the mountainside in zigzags, taking its time before reaching the valley floor at long last.
It took Liz an hour of going downhill, before she finally reached the edge of the forest. At this altitude the ground was clear of any snow, but the air was still as frigid as on the mountain paths.
It was just above freezing, the temperature still perfect for hunting prey. Bears, if there were any, were probably already forced into hibernation. Now there needed to only be bear-like monsters inhabiting this forest and Liz would be in the clear. As she was entering the forest, the cats also finally rediscovered their inner predator and started stalking through the underbrush instead of their constant play fights they had committed to along their travel into the valley.
Liz herself moved through the forest considerably slower and louder than the feline predators. Where the soon-to-be big cats drifted through the trees near silently, every other step Liz made was accompanied by sticks cracking and leaves crunching. She clearly wasn''t going to have success in stalking prey. Instead, she would have to ambush the wildlife, best at a drinking place, making this her destination. Liz considered it an achievement that the cats seemed to have realized her intention for this trip, as none of them strayed from her.
Eventually Liz stumbled upon a clearing. In the middle a small brook gurgled its way through it.
''Finally! I can ambush whatever game uses this as drinking place! I should probably lie low in one of the trees. I should be able to see the whole clearing''
Deciding on a tree along the edge near the middle of the elongated clearing, Liz started climbing the low-hanging branches. The felines followed her with grace, making Liz envious of the ease with which they conquered the branches.
When they all had arranged themselves on the branches, Liz having a good view of the widest part of the brook, the waiting game started.
More than an hour in, movement along the edge of the clearing was visible. Liz, already half-asleep at this point, straightened up.
Out of the darkness of the forest, a whole herd of nearly a dozen of the deer creatures appeared in the clearing.
[Deer - lvl 17]
''They are just deer like on Earth?''
The herd moved cautiously to the brook, several of them focused on keeping every direction of their surroundings in view. In the cover of the leaves, Liz started lowering herself from the branch. When her feet touched the ground, a mighty roar could be heard, causing instinctive thoughts of fleeing to emerge.
''Oh shit, of course this predator is still active in the forest! At least it doesn''t sound like it''s near me!''
Liz had to fight her instinctual urge to run away, as to not reveal her position. The deer did not fight their urge, instead opting to run in the opposite direction of the sound.
''NO! I waited hours to get you. You stay here!''
Charging Arcane Blast in her hand, Liz ran in the direction of the herd. As the last of them left the clearing, she released her shot blindly in desperation. To her surprise, she hit one of the deer. Before she could fire another Blast, one of the cubs was already on her target. They had converged on the herd the moment they had entered the clearing and now had an easier time catching up to them. Not to mention the forest giving enough shadow to teleport through.
The other three felines had converged on another doe, leaving Liz and the single cub to get their mark. And it worked flawlessly. Liz shot had hit the doe in the hindquarter, severely limiting its movement. By the time Liz caught up to it, the cub had bitten into the flank and was hanging on the limping deer. This gave Liz the opening to aim her Arcane Blast in the other hindquarter, causing the deer to fall and not get up again. By this point the main herd was already gone, only the two targets and their attackers still around in the dense forest.
With her prey disabled, Liz made quick work of it by slitting its throat. Still she felt bad for the unneccesary pain she caused the innocent animal, as she wasn''t able to cut in one swift motion. But when her deed was done, the deer quickly perished, a necessary evil to Liz to guarantee her continued survival.
-- You group has killed a [Deer - lvl 17] --
-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --
''Huh, no level? Guess it wasn''t high enough in level!''
The three predatory cats had also gone for the throat, once their quarry had ceased running. Still, their handiwork was more messy than Liz''s rather clean cut. After checking the severely mauled body for any signs of life Liz left it to the cats, and started dragging her own kill back to the brook.
The felines dragged their body along. When she arrived she started prepping the body for transport. As she had never done this before, she had only a general idea what she had to do. All the while the cats began devouring the second doe.
After gutting and rinsing the carcass, Liz tried to bind its legs together with rope she had brought. While she was doing so, the cats started to growl. At first Liz ignored it, but when all four also started to hiss, did she look up.
At the edge of the clearing a huge dark gray wolf, twice the size of one of the cats, had emerged from the trees. It itself had started snarling, lips curled up and hackles bristled. Its gaze was fixed on Liz''s kill.
[Young Lian Wolf - lvl 27]
Thinking to placate the wolf by offering some of her kill, as she was decidedly uneasy to engage such a huge predator, Liz gathered some innards from her deer with slow deliberate movements and, lacking any better alternative, decided to throw them near the wolf.
The wolf however seemed to miss the intention of her peacekeeping effort and saw the hurled meat as an attack and in turn sprang forward. Two of the cats also pounced immediately, throwing the wolf off it''s Liz-collision-course mid-jump.
The bundle of one canine and two felines rolled a few times through the muddy grass, voiced with snarls, yips and hisses.
With the cubs engaged so closely, Liz was unable to make a shot at the wolf. But that wasn''t a real concern of hers, as two more wolves had emerged from the forest by now, acting equally aggressive as the first.
[Young Lian Wolf - lvl 25]
[Young Lian Wolf Alpha - lvl ?]
The two remaining cubs immediately went after the regular wolf sprinting at them. The Alpha had designated Liz as its prey and was approaching her, fast.
Liz could only roll to the side to avoid the rushing wolf. The wolf barely missed her. Twisting herself to both get up and face the wolf again, Liz charged an Arcane Blast. When the Alpha came to a halt before charging her again, Liz let go of the accumulated mana. Her blast connected at the same time she had to dodge again. She had hit the canine in the head, eliciting a pained yelp.
Yet it seemed to have done little damage, only angered the wolf further. The alpha somehow sped up its movements even further and so, after a feinted charge, was able to get to Liz who was constantly discharging her Arcane Blasts at it.
While the first bite went through the cloak and was stopped by the leather bracers, the second one dug deep into her upper right arm, eliciting a scream from Liz before her new skill blocked all sensation from it.
Still her experience with fighting and her familiarity with her own body, made it possible to ignore the lacking feedback from her arm and continue moving it, although it felt alien and the movements were rather clunky. Even so she was able to retaliate with the dagger in her left hand, repeatedly stabbing the wolf still attached to her arm.
Liz was able to get a few hits in, even channeling one Arcane Blast through the dagger, before the wolf released her with another yelp. She had hit it right in the soft flank, now profusely bleeding, just like her arm.
For now the wolf retired to circling her, Liz moving in the same notion. She used the short moment of reprieve to down the healing potion adorning her belt.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
After just a few seconds the deep wound on her arm was closed and the arm no longer felt asleep. By now her mana had been reduced to a third, but Liz had observed how effective the Blast through the dagger into the innards seemed to be and decided to use her remaining reserves to repeat this deed as often as possible.
But for this to work, she needed to get in close quarters with the wolf. Therefore, she used a small Blast to stop the wolf from circling. Just as predicted it changed direction and charged at her directly, slower than before.
Still fast though, so Liz had trouble moving out of the way of the sharp teeth in time. But she succeeded, although just barely, and even grazed the hide with her dagger, but didn''t penetrate it.
The wolf quickly changed directions and charged at her again, already correcting for her dodge. As Liz had anticipated such a move, she ducked in place instead, but also got no hit on the wolf in return.
This dance continued for a few minutes, none getting the upper hand, only wearing down their stamina until Liz not only managed to graze the skin but also stab the dagger into the undamaged flank of the canine. She instantly discharged her pent-up mana into the handle, causing the wolf to jerk back and utter a whine for the first time.
She had accumulated a good amount of mana throughout her dodges and by the end had trouble controlling these massive amounts of magical energy in her arm while moving simultaneously. Still, she had held on, and it now paid off, as the wolf was suddenly reluctant to attack her further and instead tried to keep its distance to her, possibly even retreating.
But Liz was having none of it, for once charging the monster herself. She aimed her dagger for its throat, but when in a surprisingly quick reaction from the wounded wolf, her hand ended up inside the monster''s maw, Liz thrust the hand and dagger deeper into the throat, discharging Arcane Blasts into the wounded esophagus in a continuous stream.
Just short of her mana reaching its absolute limit, the Alpha reached its limit, dropping onto the ground, exhausted and immobile, save for its heavy breathing around her fist.
Extracting her bleeding arm from the maw, Liz made quick work of the wolf and slashed its throat. A whole flood of notifications entered her mind immediately after.
But she gave herself no time to recover or look at them, instead running for the backpack to get more of the healing and replenishment potions. While she downed one of each of them, Liz looked for the remaining two wolves.
Both were still engaged in fights against two cats each, the formerly gray and black predators all colored red.
As Liz was watching and deciding which fight to engage in, one of the pairings disengaged and started circling each other. Doing so, the wolf of the pairing saw the downed Alpha and uttered a pained wail.
Instead of attacking the cats again, it retreated to the forest edge and started to howl, a howl which even to Liz conveyed deep mourning. It somehow caused her to feel sadder than she ever felt before, without a real reason.
The second wolf disengaged from its fighting partners as well and retreated to the forest, just as the howl was answered by another from deeper in the valley. And another. And another. Liz felt the meaning shift from mourning to promising great revenge. She shivered when dozens of howling wolves in the valley answered in unison.
With their threat voiced, the wolves left the clearing, one heavily limping as it looked back at Liz before her sight was blocked by the foliage. The cats did not pursue, as their own wounds seemed severe, one uttering a pained mewl before dropping to the ground just as the last wolf left.
''Oh no, you will not leave me!''
Liz ran over and generously applied healing potion in an effort to stop the bleeding all over the cat''s body. Fortunately it worked, even though she had never tested it on the cats before.
When Dana, the downed one, had recovered enough in her eyes, Liz applied healing potions to each of the cats, earning purrs and grooming in return.
''Time to get going. I really don''t want to meet whatever revenge the wolves promised''
Finishing her binding of the doe, Liz started dragging the body to the forest edge, the cats in tow. When she entered the trees, the cats fortunately took charge and directed her back to the path, a feat she wouldn''t have been able to accomplish herself. She had been completely lost in the woods.
Until they left the forest, Liz was constantly on the look-out for any ambush attacks from the wolves or other predators. Her aura suppression, while having slipped a few times during the fight, was now iron-tight again.
Only when they entered the path up the mountain and eventually reached the fork in the road leading to the fort, did she stash her daggers, strengthening her grip on the constantly slipping and cold rope. Her hands were feeling beyond frozen by this point.
With a lot less effort than before, Liz was able to drag the body the rest of the way back to the fort. By late afternoon she was back inside the castle walls. Fortunately, there was no attack during the travel.
Instead of relaxing or getting to the whole armada of notifications bumping into her consciousness, Liz went to dissect the game.
Her first step was to skin the deer. After more than half an hour she was left with hole-riddled and tattered hide and a more or less skinned body. The hide was too torn to be made into leather.
She continued to cut the body into smaller pieces, some usable but the need for food for the cats let her be generous in cutting away unwanted tissue leaving many pieces to be mostly bones and little muscle, perfect for the Shadownyx. Besides the bigger pieces there were also a lot of smaller scraps, all meant for the cats as well. The usable meat amounted to around four days worth for Liz. The blood she had to discard as she had no way of using it, at the moment.
When she was done, her hands and whole armor were covered in a good amount of it. Nothing a good bath couldn''t remove. Said bath was quickly done, hot and steaming to combat the cold still permeating her bones.
While Liz had processed the deer, the cats had done their own clean-up, grooming themselves and each other to the point that their coats were perfect again. Liz had to get rid of them multiple times, when they tried to do the same to her, as she preferred the hot water of the bath over the rough cat tongue.
When she was done and the leather armor had also received a rough cleaning with the remaining soapy bath water, Liz cooked herself the first of the new meat over the fireplace and looked into the new notifications.
-- You have killed a [Young Lian Wolf Alpha - lvl 32] --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 4 --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 5 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 3 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 16. 2 stat points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- Congratulations! You reached level 16. You may choose a class evolution or select a class focus --
By meeting the following requirements you are able to evolve your class to [Primal Huntress]:
You have reached lvl 16. You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Pain Tolerance] or an evolution of it. You have used a primitive implement to hunt and kill for survival. You have been living in the wilderness for more than two moons. You have fought the predominant predators of a region and triumphed over them.
A Survivalist. The Primal Huntress exists on her own. She only needs herself and has an immeasurable awareness of the dangers of the wild. Given any perils of the Wilds, she triumphs over them. She is undefeated, as she knows when retreat is the better choice.
WARNING: Certain class skills are incompatible with this evolution! Progress will be lost!
By meeting the following requirements you are able to evolve your class to [Wild Berserker]:
You have reached lvl 16. You have an evolution of the skill [Pain Tolerance]. You have fought even when near fatally injured. You have lived for more than two moons in the Wild. You have fought the predominant predators of a region and triumphed over them.
The battle-born Fighter. The Wild Berserker is the bane of the wilderness. No monster is safe from her rage. Always ready for the battle, she fights alone uncaring for the injuries inflicted on her. Her rage knows no bounds.
WARNING: Certain class skills are incompatible with this evolution! Progress will be lost!
''Huh, nothing related to Arcane Mage? Probably because I didn''t really use the magic until recently. Primal Huntress sounds good, especially the awareness part. But it doesn''t sound like it''s a class with magic. How is that even an evolution? It rather feels like a downgrade''
''I guess I should rather select a focus? What even is a focus? Is it just another thing like Arcane currently is?''
Focusing on her intention of selecting a focus, Liz got another ''menu''.
Class compatible foci:
Arcane
Scholar
Runemaster
Shadow
Life
Soul
Necromancy
Astral
''Not a very helpful list! And shouldn''t [Deviant] grant the ability to select a class-foreign focus?''
Available foreign foci:
Alchemist
Berserker
Cook
Diplomat
Explorer
Healer
Noble
Scout
Tamer
Tailor
Weaponsmith
Be warned, any foreign foci are severely weakened
''That is some list. And quite wide-reaching. Why would I qualify for being a Cook? Or Tailor? I am as bad as one can get at both professions. Is this about prior experience just like a class? So I acted noble in the past or what?''
Liz got her answers when she focused on single selections with the intent to Identify
Noble - focus
You control a castle and the surrounding lands without any foreign claims to it
This focus helps in managing the challenges a noble lady faces in her everyday life
Tailor - focus
You have had experience in repairing clothing
This focus strengthens the user in the craft of Tailoring
Out of the foreign foci only two sounded attractive
Healer - focus
You have had contact with vast amounts of healing Life magic
This focus lets the user in on the secrets of healing through magic
Tamer - focus
You have convinced wild beasts to follow you
This focus strengthens the users abilities to tame the wildlife of the world
Liz felt the details were a bit too vague. Especially so in the class compatible foci
Arcane - focus
You have had contact with a powerful source of Arcane Magic.
This focus strengthens the user in wielding Arcane Magic
Scholar - focus
You have received training from a scholar.
This focus lets the user manage the responsibilities of a scholar easier
Runemaster - focus
You have studied the intricacies of the runic languages
This focus strengthens the user''s understanding of the runic languages
Shadow - focus
You have fought an expert wielder of shadows.
This focus strengthens the user''s connection with the shadows
Life - focus
You have ingested a great amount of liquid enriched with Life magic.
This focus strengthens the user''s connection with Life magic
Necromancy - focus
You have had first-hand contact with death
This focus lets the user wield the power of necromancy
Astral - focus You have had contact with the Astral Void
This focus strengthens the user in wielding the elusive Astral Magic
''Everything sounds rather vague. But shouldn''t Arcane Enhanced prevent anything other than Arcane? If not, some sound rather intriguing. Astral sounds like a possible way back to Earth. But I would probably need to spend years to level up to the right point. If I want to survive, Healer or Life sound like a good idea. Necromancy is definitely out, I don''t want anything to do with zombies. Runemaster feels redundant with my Runic Intuition skill and runes aren''t the best tools to guarantee survival. Scholar falls in the same category. But Tamer sounds like a good idea regarding the cats. Having the additional fighters really saved my butt in the battle with the wolves. Then again, Shadow could include their teleport skill, which would be a nice boon to have. Besides Tamer and Healer all foreign foci are out, they all just don''t sound useful, especially when they are supposedly weakened''
''Ughh, I hate making such a far-reaching decision based solely on guesswork! If it even works and Arcane Enhanced doesn''t prevent another decision. Then again, nowhere does it state, that I lose the current focus. If I were to add something I would go with either Healer or Tamer. Or do I possibly need Runemaster for my work for Garuna? Does his deal even still stand? No, I need to make a decision for myself, otherwise he should be here, helping me''
Chapter 12
''Ok, so I am just going to wager that this is an addition. Otherwise, Arcane Enhanced should simply correct me. Now: Astral, Life, Healer or Tamer?''
Liz spent a lot of time mulling it over in the hope that it wouldn''t let her make the wrong decision in the end. Whatever way that might present itself.
''I would eliminate Astral and Life, just because the other two should bring more immediate effects. And possibly because they sound rare compared to a standard mage focus. There probably are only few mages, that are also Healers and Tamers, if only Deviant grants the possibility. But then both sound equally useful. Healer would eliminate my dependency on potions. I don''t want to imagine the fountain breaking. With Tamer, I can gain allies to defend myself, before I get injured. None really trumps the other. Fuck it, the last two will be decided by coin!''
Flipping the time-coin from downstairs presented her with Healer as the answer. Liz however felt unsatisfied with the selection. And so, despite her initial decision to honor the coin-flip, selected Tamer, in the hope of not making a catastrophic mistake. Her decision, of course, wasn''t influenced in any way by the adorable way the cats had seen it as their duty to escort Liz downstairs when she fetched the coin and were now lounging on the two divans, looking at her with the unspoken demand of more scratches.
-- You have selected the focus [Tamer] --
-- WARNING: Trait [Arcane Enhanced] enforces retention of primary focus [Arcane] --
-- Enabling locked secondary focus slot --
-- [Tamer] selected as secondary focus --
-- WARNING: Focus foreign to class; skills incompatible --
-- +2 [Tamer] skill slots --
-- Class stat point distribution adjusted --
-- You have learned the passive class skill [Bond] --
''It worked. I am a genius. Now, what exactly did I get?''
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 16
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 132/132
Stamina: 218/220
Mana: 496/496
Vitality: 11
Endurance: 20
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 22
Perception: 28 (+1)
Wisdom: 31
Intelligence: 29 (+1)
Unassigned stat points: 3
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 2
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 2
Pain Suppression - lvl 17
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane
Arcane Blast - lvl 5
Runic Intuition - lvl 3
Spell Channeling - lvl 3
Mana Draw - lvl 1
Tamer
Bond - lvl 1
- empty slot -
Bond - lvl 1
You may bond with beasts at the cost of mana. Several factors influence mana cost. Bonds are sustained through a small mana expenditure and may enable you to understand the beasts on an instinctive level.
"So I can possibly understand what your mewling means? Or will I get bombarded with request for scratches?" Liz spoke to the cats.
She only received another of the cryptic purrs in response.
"Now, who wants to volunteer for a bond? I need your full consent!" Liz approached the lounging cats.
With no cats suddenly jumping for the first spot, Liz surmised that she had enough consent just by their previous behavior, and activated her new skill on the nearest one, Charly.
She somehow knew that she had to touch the cats while drawing some mana into the hand touching their fur. Instead of staying their as she had expected, it moved into the cat but with no intent of harm. Instead, some foreign mana reached her just a second later. The foreign presence pulled on her core, drawing more and more mana from it.
Liz just let it happen, deducing that this massive expenditure was the real cost mentioned in the skill description. The draw finished with around a quarter of her mana gone. Once it was done, the presence didn''t retreat from her body, instead it settled near her core, where it continued pulling a small barely noticeable amount of mana from it. Liz felt a presence in her consciousness emanating from it, like a notification.
But unlike a notification she got no discrete message, only a rough idea of how Charly currently felt. There was a mix of curiosity, boredom and expectation. Expectation of what, Liz didn''t know but guessed it to be belly rubs. She also felt how, despite them being in a safe place, Charly was still attentive of her surroundings.
After gaining some distance to her, Liz tried to communicate to Charly to come over to her. She tried to imagine sending the intention to Charly''s mind. It didn''t work. After a few more tries, utilizing different techniques, she succeeded by addressing the presence near her core with the message. But Charly still didn''t move, instead Liz only felt a short spike of curiosity and the idea of being comfortable where Charly was, through the link. After adding the idea of giving a scrap of meat in return, Charly finally moved.
Rewarding her accordingly, Liz tried some more commands. Only the most simple worked, all others only got her a feeling of confusion in return. She could communicate intentions like attack, stay back, come here or help me. More sophisticated tactics were impossible to communicate or failed at the cat''s understanding.
Still, Liz was happy. This gave her so many possibilities and should make her life so much easier. She wasn''t dependent on the cats'' instinctive understanding of her actions and instead could give them order according to her plans.
Elated Liz started bonding Dana as well, just because she was the nearest. When the draw began, Liz felt an ever greater strain on her mana reserves, her mind also felt incredibly exhausted afterwards. It took a bit more than a third of her whole mana to bond.
''So there is a mental fatigue cost as well?''
The passive mana draw of both bonds also increased slightly. The third, Logan, took nearly two thirds of her mana. The mana draw increased accordingly. The strain on her mind was comparable to the worst migraine Liz had ever had.
Afterwards she just felt fatigued beyond anything she felt before. Yet, Liz wanted to finish the fourth and last bond, unwilling to discriminate the last male. But beforehand she rested for some bit. Liz refreshed herself with some water as her mana recovered, now at a slightly lower rate, due to the passive draw of the bonds.
When she felt ready, she started bonding with Nick. Just the first slurp of mana removed a quarter of her reserves and let her fall forward onto the cat from the sudden dizziness. The draw continued, taking half her mana without slowing down. Two thirds, still going. Three quarters, without losing any momentum. It reached her maximum and still sucked more out of her. The dizziness left the world spinning around her.
However, her regeneration was limited in supplying the demand, any excess demand seemingly getting transformed into more fatigue on her consciousness. By now she felt like she hadn''t slept for weeks, to the point that she could no longer resist her body''s urges and just passed out, for once without any pain being the reason.
There were flashing lights everywhere. Dana had decided on this club. She had dragged her from the quiet and nice atmosphere of the small pub and threw her into this mess.
And now she was gone. Lost. Somewhere in the dancing crowd.
At least the bartender was still there.
And at least he still had drinks.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The drinks. The drinks were better than at the pub.
He even served the strong stuff. It tasted like hand sanitizer.
But it did its job.
The evening didn''t get any better.
There were still leering idiots. At least they weren''t multiple decades her senior.
How desolate must she look, that every god-damn idiot in here thinks its his job to cheer her up? No, thank you.
She didn''t even know why she was still here. Dana was still MIA.
Food!
Of course there was a line for the toilet. At least the douche-bags maintained their distance here.
Food!!
''I should just go home.''
FOOD!!
''Yes, I''m going home...''
FOOD!!!
Liz felt ravenous hunger. But not from herself. No, the feeling emanated from somewhere foreign. Remembering where she was, she realized it was one of the cats. Opening her eyes, she saw that all four of them were arranged around her, staring and mewling their demands at her.
Their demands had even seeped into her dream, which she remembered less by the second. She only had a vague idea of going out with Dana. Something about cheering her up. From what she didn''t know. Only that she essentially spent the evening without her in the end.
Contemplating the fragments of the dream she remembered, Liz went to get some food from the pantry, equipped with a cat-safe latch by now, and distributed it between the cats. She felt their gratitude as well as heard it through their purrs.
But she also felt a new notification.
-- You have successfully gained the skill [Compulsion Resistance] --
Compulsion Resistance - lvl 1
Your mind is less open to forced suggestions. Effect increases with skill level
''What the fuck? Who compelled me? The cats?''
Liz frantically looked around, looking for whatever perpetrator meddled with her mind. Her turmoil even reached the cats through the link, causing them to abandon their meal and take defensive positions around her, looking for whatever upset Liz.
There was nothing and no one near, at least not visible.
''Is this ruin haunted? I get some serious strange vibes from this, even in this world''
As she perceived no immediate threat around her, she slowly relaxed from her state of agitation.
''Can I even trust my senses? Or am I compelled to ignore something? No, then I would simply ''have'' to ignore the skill notification.... Maybe it really was just the cats...''
By now, the cats had resumed their meal. Liz took a quick count of the presences available to her. She counted 4 of them.
''So the bond with Nick established sometime while I was passed out. There will definitely be no fifth bond. Kinda a bummer, that I can''t have more than the four of them right now. But I guess I have no other candidates, at least at the moment.''
Liz finally made herself a meal as well. Thanks to her hunting from the day before, she was now the lucky recipient of a steak for breakfast. The side-dish this time was a lettuce-like plant, one of the ones subject to ripening on the floor. It was therefore quite mushy, but at least the venison was quite tasty.
Liz desperately missed salt, questioning whether she might find some in the workshop. But for now she was resigned to the current situation as she had more pressing issues and tasks.
For one, she needed to take down the laundry from the day before. Secondly she needed to get more food into her storage. Winter wasn''t waiting for her need for seasonings.
Still a bit spooked by the Compulsion Resistance, Liz hurried to get out of the fort and into the valley.
Equipping the armor she had used before, together with the coat from the day before, Liz used her new ability to command the cats to convey her intention to hunt, gaining a delighted feeling in response.
The cats got up from their lounging positions on the two divans near immediately, even beating Liz to the door to the stairs.
''At least they are eager now. Personally I don''t want another wolf-encounter''
Overnight it had snowed again, causing Liz to now move through ankle-high snow. A few more centimeters of snow and the boots wouldn''t be able to hold back the snow anymore.
''So new winter-proof boots need to be added to the to-do list as well!''
Liz decided against using the path she took the day before, as she had no intention to meet the wolves again. Instead, she continued along the high mountain path. It was barely visible before, but in the snow it was practically invisible now.
Still Liz somehow managed to stay on course and take the next path down into the valley. The valley floor was still free of snow, a phenomena Liz simply couldn''t explain.
''Probably some kind of magic''
But it was only to her advantage, as she and the cats had a far easier time traversing the forest. She also had further luck as she found another clearing, close to the forest edge, rather quickly.
There even was another brook, but this one flowed through a small pond taking up most of the space of the clearing.
Liz decided to employ the same hunting technique as the day before, finding a fitting low-hanging tree and scaling it.
This time the waiting took considerably longer. After about an hour another roar could be heard from deeper in the valley. It still caused the same fright in Liz. By now, she was curious what monster caused the sound and why it happened every day.
''It always sounds agitated! What kind of monster can agitate whatever utters that sound? I don''t want to meet either!''
After two more hours a herd of deer finally entered the clearing. This time Liz commanded three of the cats to circle behind the herd just making camp at the water edge. With one direction blocked by water, Liz judged her chances of getting at least 3 of the deer high enough to actually succeed. Dana and Charly, still inseperable, advanced on the herd from the right side of the water, Logan from the side opposite of the water, and Liz and Nick were lying in ambush in the fourth direction.
Directing the three cats to show themselves left the herd running around in circles, as single animals only ever saw one of the cats. The females advanced and finally made the whole herd to converge towards Liz''s position, just like she had hoped.
She had charged up a considerable amount of mana, which she released into the middle of the herd, dispersing them and causing further chaos.
Her shot hit true and one doe immediately dropped onto the ground, although already getting up again.
The two females and Logan had successfully separated two of the deer, keeping them from fleeing for now. Nick had taken to the doe downed by Liz. He was now firmly attached to the does hindquarters.
The rest of the herd was gone by now. As the three cats had the two does firmly in check, Liz went for the single deer-cat pairing, daggers in hand.
Making quick work of the injured animal, Liz was already on the move again.
Nick quickly released the body, following Liz to the other cats trapping the deer at the waters edge. While he joined the others in circling the frightened game, Liz charged another Blast. Aiming it at the head of one of the does, incapacitated it giving Logan the opening to bite down on its hindquarters before it recovered.
Liz meanwhile converged on the second one. While Dana and Charly pounced on its hind as well, Liz had free rein at the front with her knives.
Both were dead quickly. Liz directed the felines to the first single kill while she prepared the other two for transport.
-- You group has killed a [Deer - lvl 18] --
-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --
-- You group has killed a [Deer - lvl 17] --
-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --
-- You group has killed a [Deer - lvl 19] --
-- Experience awarded respective of contribution --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 6 --
''Ughh, this is not gonna be fun to drag back through the snow! I need some kind of carriage''
After she had removed the intestines from the bodies, reducing the weight slightly, Liz refastened her rope construct from the day before.
As the clearing was practically at the edge of the forest, she only had a short distance to traverse before she was back on the path to the fort.
And this was definitely handy as just a few minutes after she left the forest, she heard a howl from the direction of the pond. She was unable to identify any meaning in it, but it was still chilling to think how close the wolves still were.
''Maybe the roaring monster isn''t the most dangerous to me. A whole valley filled with wolves intent on getting revenge on me is a stark contender for this spot.''
The additional weight of a second body and the higher snow let her be even slower than the day before, but her slower speed let her examine her surroundings in more detail. A fact that brought to her attention a whole section of bushes still carrying berries. Berries that Garuna had deemed safe back on her first trip and that were quite tasty by her experience.
With her backpack filled to the brim with berries, further adding weight, Liz continued towards the fortifications.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent with processing the new meat, yielding more usable meat for Liz, thanks to her experience with the first one, training with the cats, by now indoors thanks to the snow, and relearning the language, still at a snails pace.
Her food reserves should now last her for another 10 days, should the cats continue at their current meat-eat-speed their supply would last for a similar time. Still not enough for the winter but a beginning. Her training progressed similarly, she still tried to master the moves from a martial arts book she had found, currently only able to learn by studying the pictures, however scarce they may be. This left the cats being the victors in most mock-battles.
Her study of the language also progressed only marginally. But when she fell asleep, exhausted but content, she could at least guess at the content of the preface.
The club was a bust.
The whole night sucked.
"The whole world sucks!"
It started to suck, when Dana had to gift her some bullshit snow-globe.
''Marking a new beginning. You are as free as this stag in the globe!''
For fucks sake, she only got fired. No big drama. She just had to drown her frustration for a night. Then she would just look for a new job.
No need for some bullshit freedom. She still needed the money. And the figurine wasn''t free. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be in this bullshit glass.
"DO YOU HEAR ME? You. Are. Bullshit!" she threw the snow-globe at the wall.
It shattered.
The stag figurine stumbled out of the shards.
''HELP!''
It ran into the closet.
"Hey, get back here! Get back in the glass! You are not supposed to be free!"
She stumbled after him.
"Why is my closet so da..."
Liz woke with a start.
''Is this how I travelled here? Through my fucking closet? Did I imagine this figurine or is there really one that requires my help? Or was it an alcohol-induced delusion?''
-- [Compulsion Resistance] has reached level 2 --
The cats were still all asleep.
''Nope, there is definitely something here trying to interact with me! But where? And why? What does a figurine need my help for? And why compel me? In the dream - memory? - it could talk.''
By now the cats were also awake and radiated confusion at the weird antics of Liz, who was pacing around the room, looking for a figurine.
After checking every shelf in the suite, Liz stopped her frantic movement. Instead, she decided to get some distance to her current problem. By taking a bath. And eating.
Munching on the wayside-berries, Liz contemplated the situation.
''So somehow something - a figurine? - tries to compel me. But from where I have no idea. Supposedly it is the reason I am here in the first place. Wait, first place. I didn''t wake up in the tower! My first place in this world was the dungeon! But does this Compulsion even reach from there? And I didn''t see a thing down there. But then I wasn''t down there ever since day one!''
''But the bats! No! I won''t go down there on some hunch! Maybe whatever is here is somewhere else in the ruins! Yes, that must be it! I will just find it and will never have to enter this paradise for monsters for nothing!''
Completely ignoring her initial plans for the morning, Liz tackled another search of the fort. Now looking for both a small animated figurine and an annoying piece of jewelry. She really wanted to find the figurine. The other tasks were unimportant in the face of this objective. At least that was what Liz''s mind told her.
She went through all the places she had searched for the locket before, crawled through the rubble of the two fallen towers, looked in every corner that wasn''t buried. She even tried to utilize the cats to search the piles of rubble, failing at communicating her description of the items of interest.
Nowhere did she find a sign of the - living - objects.
''Fuck, the dungeon really is the last place left that isn''t buried under tons of stone!''
Chapter 13
Liz felt conflicted. There was still the need to find the figurine. By now she wasn''t really sure why. But then there were the bats.
''Ughh, whatever I am looking for has something to do with how I got here! And I really want to find out in what manner.''
After long drawn out inner battle, her need for answers eventually managed to subdue her deep fear of the flying rats.
''I am only doing this to find out why I was brought here! Maybe I find a way back! I want it on the record that there is no way I would go down there otherwise!''
Equipped with a light orb, and two more in her backpack, Liz descended into the darkness she dreaded so much.
At the bottom of the stairs she didn''t turn left, which would have led to her start in this world. Instead, she turned to the right. The unknown. But not for much longer.
Thanks to her light, she could now see that the underground hallway wasn''t in the same building style of the fort above. There were no small stone bricks, instead the space was hewn into the bedrock. Loose stones from the ceiling littered the floor, made up of massive stone blocks from a whole other stone than any she had seen so far. Where the fort above looked old, these stones looked ancient.
''What the hell is this? A whole other structure beneath the fort?''
Fortunately there was no sound of bat wings, a relief to Liz. Still her skin exuded faint light patterns, ready for anything, as she didn''t let herself be lured into a false sense of security. In a world of monsters there was a distinct chance that these were bloodsucking vampires only laying in wait behind the next corner. And there would prove to be a lot of corners.
But for now the hallway snaked its way deeper into the stone. Although the walls were quickly broken up by several intersections and after just a few turns, Liz ran the risk of getting lost. To ensure she didn''t she started to mark her path with arrows made out of the rubble on the floor.
The walls were occasionally dotted with the lone doorway, leading to storage rooms filled with rotten wood, dust and rust of different shapes and sizes. Numerous tunnels or doorways were completely impassable due to cave-ins.
There was no sign of a figurine or Garuna in any of the rooms or even any sapient being having visited this place in the last centuries. Still, Liz continued exploring the labyrinth of damp tunnels.
Liz constantly found new tunnels and rooms she hadn''t seen before, only to end up at a known intersection at the end of them.
After about an hour of circling back on herself and getting frustrated with the layout, Liz found a particular new tunnel she hadn''t seen before. Here the walls changed structure again, returning to the construction style of the fort, the moisture present in the rest of the cellar labyrinth was missing, and a big iron door marked the end of the perfectly straight tunnel.
The door was set into a masonry wall, a network of runes carved into the surface of both door and door frame. Liz recognized some runes from afar, none were the happy-go-lucky kind. She saw runes associated with lightning, fire and a few referencing blood.
''What the fuck? That is definitely not normal!''
Liz approached the door, careful of any runes on the floor, walls and ceilings. When she neared the door to a few dozen meters, she felt a sudden pressure on herself. Ducking back, she was barely able to miss getting hit by a phalanx of fire erupting from the wall to her left. Frightened by the display, the cats retreated around the corner.
''What the hell! What is behind that door that needs such security?''
Looking at the walls revealed near invisible runes, none painful to look at, even a millennium after their probable creation, hinting at a master''s work.
''So this is part of either Wulfram''s or his predecessor''s work. But what did he secure behind this door? Has it anything to do with the figurine?''
Liz decided to study the enchantment present. For this to work she needed resources. Liz went back to the surface, marking her way thoroughly. A few minutes later she stood in front of the bookshelf in the suite without a clue as to which book to take.
''Oh fuck it!''
Changing her title back to Wanderer was a weird experience. One moment she was unable to read the spine of the books, the next she could understand the text perfectly fine.
''Having skills meddle with your perception is both confusing and incredible!''
Equipped with the most comprehensive, and therefore heavy, book on defensive runes, Liz went back into the darkness. She directed the cats to wait in the suite and relax, as she had no interest in them triggering any traps by accident. Until now, she hadn''t encountered any bats on her exploration and, distracted by her new task, paid little mind to the existence of the buggers on her way back down.
Comparing the runes in the hallway to the book brought only limited insight. There was something about key, fire, position and detect written in the framework. But it was too complex to grasp. While still nothing compared to her failed enchantment or the enchantments on the locket, as little as she was able to study them, just this one defense made the preservation frameworks in the suite look like a child drew them. Liz had no interest spending valuable time studying the framework in detail. Instead, she looked for a quick way to disable the trap. She quickly abandoned looking for said way in the runes themselves.
Having found no way to disable the runes by conventional means, Liz went back to the workshop and searched for other solutions. While brainstorming, her gaze was caught by ''Exotic brews for the aspiring alchemist''.
Just flipping through the book, brought her a solution unconventional enough to possibly work. The book described the ''Rock Eating Soup'' as an acid burrowing itself through nearly any stone.
Thankfully the workshop held all the ingredients, but one. Liz was lacking the ''Feather of a golden goose''. Researching the ingredient she found that the feather was commonly used in alchemy for its good mana conductance. Liz concluded that substituting the feather with an equal amount of Quicksilver as another mana conductor was equally viable. And so she brewed the questionable soup.
Testing the finished product on a stone quickly revealed her error in judgement as the brew didn''t simply eat away the stone. No, just a few small drops came into contact with the stone and exploded immediately, annihilating the stone and everything in vicinity.
''Fuck! Garuna wasn''t kidding with Quicksilver being the best conductor!''
Doing another run with a sliver of the Quicksilver, yielded better results. The stone sizzled and blubbered as the ''soup'' ate away at it at a reasonable pace.
Down in the tunnel, it worked equally well when applied by flinging it in the general vicinity of the defensive rune framework. A small flame came into existence before going up in smoke a second later.
Carefully approaching the former trigger point, always ready to jump back, caused no flame to conjure. But just behind the destroyed defense, another was lying in wait.
This time, Liz was too slow to miss getting hit by the lightning. It definitely was no fun experience to get electrocuted, even if just by a small stray bolt and with Pain Suppression. After about a minute marked by random spams, Liz managed to heal the damage. Fortunately she didn''t suffer any damage not manageable by a healing potion.
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Lightning Resilience] --
Lightning Resilience - lvl 1
Your body is less conductive to current. Lightning has a harder time breaching your insulating skin. Effect increases with skill level
''Seriously? What is valuable enough to warrant such a path of escalating traps?''
Fortunately for her, the architect didn''t plan for any acid defenses, as this trap could also be deactivated just as quickly and effectively. The same was true for all following traps on the way to the door. Some were destroyed so quickly that Liz had no idea what their attacks had been. Judging by the repetition of the firetrap three traps in, but at double the power, it must have always been an escalated way of torture.
After half a dozen traps, Liz was standing just a few steps from of the door. She was unwilling to near it anymore. The runes around and on the door also proved more resilient. The stone simply wouldn''t budge to the acid. It would sizzle for a bit before simply running down the surface. On the door, this was expected, on the surrounding frame, it was an unwelcome surprise.
''If these traps can escalate, I can as well. Time to step up my game!''
Liz fetched her botched batch of exploding acid. Placing it on a pedestal of rubble, piled just a few steps from the door, Liz distanced herself from the tunnel end.
Peeking out from the first corner down the hallway, she charged an Arcane Blast, faintly lighting up her skin, and aimed for the vial containing nearly a liter of the liquid, potent enough that a drop could eviscerate a volume fifty fold its own.
Releasing her Blast, Liz ducked for cover. She put her head in between her legs and hugged her knees. Just as she was in position, a massive boom erupted from around the corner.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
The massive walls around Liz shook from the shock wave. Her own eardrums, as protected as they were, ruptured, tortured by the immense pressure. She tasted the coppery tang of blood in her mouth. Her ears and chest felt numb, indicating damage.
Dust got knocked loose from all around the walls and ceiling, further disturbed by the reflections of the shock wave. But the failing defensive enchantments also decided to contribute to the chaotic destruction. Just a moment after the initial blast, several smaller ones could be heard, or in case of Liz''s ruptured eardrums, felt. Additionally, the pervading stench of sulfur waved around the corner, and patterns of lightning lit up the stone walls and dust clouds to blinding levels.
In just a few moments it all died down again and only Liz coughing up blood and bats being startled could be heard in the dust filled tunnel.
Thankfully Liz was still deaf and missed the additional distress of hearing bat wings. But her hearing quickly returned when she drank another of her healing potions, now a permanent fixture on her belt.
''Ok, that escalated a bit too far!''
When the dust had settled and Liz''s coughing had subsided, she dared to peek around the corner.
Surrounding the door was a massive crater, at least half a meter of material missing in every direction around the end of the tunnel. Except for the door, which was still standing, although heavily marred by the destruction.
On guard against more still-active enchantments, Liz neared the resilient door. A closer inspection revealed that at least the runes around and on the door were done for, and the latch had been ripped out of its anchoring, leaving the door slightly ajar.
''At least it is effective though a bit too much as far as I am concerned!''
Using another Blast, Liz moved the door open, still standing around twenty meters from the tunnel end. No further traps were activated by her doings.
At this moment the cats suddenly showed up, the distance having muted all feeling through the bonds until now, but Liz quickly realized that the cats were in heavy distress. Fortunately a few minutes of petting them reduced the feeling of distress through the four bonds.
''The explosion must have given them quite the scare''
Only when the felines had been sufficiently calmed, did Liz continue her exploration. The cats were practically glued to her heels from then on. Since they stayed behind her consistently, Liz let them do their thing.
''If this doesn''t yield anything, I''m gonna be pissed. I will have wasted close to a whole day that I could have spent gathering resources for the winter...''
Behind the door was a new staircase, leading upwards. For once, there were no more runes visible. Still Liz was wary of any hidden safety measures while she ascended the stairs at a snails pace.
Eventually she reached the end of the stairs. It opened into a large round room, completely empty, save for the center. The walls and floor were inscribed with a massive intricate patterns of runes, probably supporting the huge dome of patterned blue flames in the middle of the room.
Inside an indistinguishable mass was stirring slightly, reminiscent of a heavy breathing being.
''What the fuck? What is this? How is this still standing?''
After Liz had some time to take in the sight before her, the blue flames freaky even by ''new world'' standards, she started circling the dome.
Half a rotation later, she saw the front of the mass in the dome. It was a massive stag. Passed out. And without antlers.
''Fuck! That is no figurine! But I found it! And it definitely needs help!''
Liz inspected the runes, that were supposedly upholding the dome. Once again, she could only guess at their inner workings.
''Fuck it!''
Using the last vial of non-explosive acid, Liz started destroying the runes. After melting away just a few runes, as close to the flames as Liz dared to go, the blue fire lost most of its height.
And just two drops of acid later, the dome failed completely, letting Liz rush towards the formerly caged animal.
It was still unresponsive, not even pushing it woke it. It was wholly emaciated, barely any mass left on the massive bones. Concluding that it needed water and food, Liz ran towards the stairs. On the way she found a curiosity; the cats were all crouched down on the ground, tails lowered and ears flattened and whining at the stag.
''Huh? Are you lot mourning the stag?''
Thrown out of the loop by the weird antics, Liz remembered her skill to identify. Looking back at the massive animal, Liz identified it
[?????????????? - Primordial - lvl ?.?.?]
-- [Identify] has reached level 3 --
''WHAT. THE. FUCK? It is sentient? And how high is its level? How did that just live under my feet without me noticing! Can I even feed it? Only one way to find out''
Leaving the cats to their submissive behavior, Liz sprinted down the stairs and through the damp hallways.
Just a few minutes later she returned with several jugs of water, healing potion and an assortment of berries, as much as she dared to lose.
She was surprised to find the massive animal standing on shaky legs at the edge of the room.
Still, Liz approached and put some water into a bowl and presented it to the majestic animal.
The stag accepted the offered water immediately. What followed could only be described as miraculous. Even though he only consumed the water, the body of the ungulate replenished itself at an incredible speed. In no time at all it regained mass, the knotted fur straightened and began to shine and two massive crystal antlers shining with a bright golden light emerged from its head.
Liz could just stare at the astounding patterns of light reflecting and emitting from the crystal structures, mouth agape. It was beautiful beyond comprehension. Even as the antlers were still growing, she heard a voice in her head.
?You have my gratitude!?
While it startled her, she was still too awestruck by the light reflecting in the crystal antlers to show any signs of it. When the antlers stopped growing, the voice returned.
?You may speak and voice your questions!? it thundered in her head, causing Liz to wince. Additionally, the light from the antlers intensified with the words, accompanied by a sudden influx of mana concentration.
A constantly changing mana pressure, at its peak reaching the levels of the carpet of moss, suddenly assaulted Liz''s body, causing her drop to her knees.
"I... I... What? How? Who¡ Who are you? Why?" Liz stammered, finally able to close her mouth, if only out of the misplaced instinctive fear of drowning.
?Is this what interests you? I remember your desire and questions to be something else, but I will answer nonetheless. But my name is nothing I will part with anymore. No man shall have it again. ''What'' I and what I call my kin is is a question no being has found a comprehensive answer to. As to ''how'', you should have questioned your ''mentor'' about his and his former ''students'' deeds? the pressure increased with the agitation in the voice of the powerful being.
"Wul...Wulfram?"
?Yes, that was his name. A name befitting an honorable being, not this excuse of a sapient. Filthy Soul Mages, a stain on the very foundation of these lands! And still a saint compared to the Strayed, his cursed ''mentor''!? the being roared in her mind. While no sound was associated with it, it still caused Liz a massive headache. It sounded terrifying.
"You... You mean... Garuna?" Liz held her head, the migraine and pressure just too much. The cats whined in response to her distress. Pain Suppression was overwhelmed by the power of the being, and simply couldn''t suppress the tens of thousands of distressed nerves.
?Yes, the one I had to free from his prison. As the product of your erroneous actions!?
"How¡ How did... I cause this?" Liz wasn''t fully engaged in the discussion, not even sure what ''this'' was. Instead, she fumbled for a healing potion, hoping for relief from the headache claiming most of her attention.
?I had to use all my reserves to keep him from claiming your whole body! Willingly performing a soul-transfer ritual. How foolish can one be! Had I not intervened, you would have been lost. Lunatic humans and their greed! You should feel ashamed for your foolishness! Now another one of his kind is free and roaming these lands again. With your flesh as a seed for a body. True stupidity!....?
While the being rambled on, Liz had managed to drink the healing potion, reducing her headache by a bit. Constantly sipping small amounts at least let her concentrate on the words of the stag, and healed damage to her nervous system.
?...call yourself lucky that his kind doesn''t dabble in necromancy. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have deemed your dead body unusable! I hope you feel accomplished for what you did!? the stag concluded.
"I...I had no idea! Ho... How should I know?" Liz asked abashed, her voice barely a whisper.
?Of course, child! I have myself to blame for being foolish enough to seek help from across the Void. I should have never sent that call. I was stupid in my perceived distress.? the pressure abated, as the being seemingly calmed down.
''So it was not just involved, it is the reason for my travel here!''
"Why¡ Why did you come for me?" Liz spoke up, backed by anger at the stag for ripping her out of her life, despite barely able to converse with it.
?I wasn''t looking for you. A millennium ago I sent hundreds of calls in the Void. Only two were answered. You somehow managed after more than a thousand years. At last, you succeeded. But not without almost falling prey as well. This world is truly too dangerous for your kind. I am sorry for exposing you to this.? the being sounded truly remorseful and condescending at the same time.
''I wasn''t alone?''
"And the other one?" Liz managed to utter her first full sentence.
?You have seen him! Lying on the table in the workshop. The prideful dragon cleaned out the fort before they could do what you succeeded in. I am ashamed to say that I could only release the poor soul from his torture! I was truly foolish to ask your kind for help. Not even these prideful simpletons that call themselves dragons can be trusted to help! Mistaking the poor soul traversing the Void for some humans mastering a magic they should have no access to. Idiotic!?
"But why am I still here and ''he'' isn''t?" Liz asked, horrified.
?You had the luck to have wild beasts around you! Without them, I wouldn''t have had the strength. Had they not torn him and your hand from your body, I wouldn''t have been able to preserve the rest of your flesh.?
Liz managed to tear her gaze away from the antlers and look back at the cats, who were watching the exchange attentively.
''So you saved my life even more times? Wait...you ripped off my hand?''
Before Liz could continue, the being steered her attention back to itself.
?Do you have any other questions??
"Yes, I have!! Why didn''t the dragon come for me? And where is Garuna now?"
?Who says he isn''t? Nobody can predict the actions of one of the First Kin. And the coward fled my domain before I recovered and could hold him and his weak body. Probably roams somewhere in the Wild by now. He may not surface for another century, hopefully ever. Not that he can do much with his weak body. One can only hope he has learned his lesson. Tracking him would certainly be a foolish task. And none of my concern. Should he return to the civilized world, the powers that be will have to deal with it. Just like their ancestors did. With your questions answered I see my debt repaid. I will stay no longer. Expect no more help. As much as it pains me to have put another one of your fragile kind in this dangerous world. Stay where you are!?
''But I have about a million more questions!!''
Before Liz could voice any of them, the now healthy-looking stag moved to the wall and touched its antlers to the dusty stone. Their glow intensified once more before the wall started to shimmer and a lush forest replaced the dusty stone bricks. The mana influx accompanying it let Liz drop back down again, rational thought abandoning her once more in the face of the overwhelming and terrifying magical power exuding the being.
The stag stepped into the former wall without an issue.
"Wait! Can''t you send me back to Earth?" Liz came to from her stupor and shouted after the already running stag, unwilling to follow it.
It looked back at her.
?My call was a foolish measure in distress. Although I feel sorry for having brought you here, I will not meddle with the Void no more. Lest I attract calamities bigger than the forces of this realm can handle. But I will give you this advice: From what I saw of your memories, you shouldn''t follow your past and hollow dreams and instead forge your own path?
"And what about taking me to civili..."
Before Liz could finish the sentence the portal closed in the blink of an eye, taking the overwhelming mana with it and leaving an exhausted Liz on her knees in the dark room. And a stray notification.
-- [Compulsion Resistance] has reached level 3 --
Chapter 14
''what the hell was that? why did it compel me? i wouldn''t have dared to cross it either way. it felt so overwhelming in every sense of the word. a god? and how is it still sane if it was trapped here for more than a millennium? how does one even trap such a being? and wulfram managed? and is it true what it said about garuna? i mean i didn''t want to release some massive evil on this world. seriously, how the hell did I just trust the first piece of jewelry I came across? if the being is right, i definitely fucked up. Big time. how did I miss the signs? were there any? i mean, he refused to tell me his history. and then there was his demanding behavior. but both can simply hint at an asshole. then again, it was weird how he simply shrugged off that his own apprentice was dead and instantly recruited me. but i can see a lot of things in hindsight. it doesn''t matter if i was blind at the moment it happened. how can he even upset such a powerful being? because he trapped it? hopefully. and now i need to fear getting visited by a dragon. are they more powerful than this being? at least i didn''t choose astral magic as my focus. what was even this advice from the being? forge my own path? in this realm? where i have limited food, am stuck in a valley that is supposedly swarmed by monsters in a few months and only go from crisis to crisis. yeah. own path. i just can''t deal with this right now. i need sleep!''
Liz slowly trudged back to the stairs, totally spent from the simple conversation with the being. With slow steps she returned to the suite. The cats were closely following her, less affected by the mana that had assaulted them moments ago.
''How powerful must this being be that a simple conversation exhausts me so much?''
Liz''s mind was still reeling from the encounter, causing her to perform her evening chores on autopilot. Even when she was lying in bed, did her mind not stray from the overwhelming experience.
Yet, within seconds of her head hitting the pillow was she out. It was a dreamless sleep, neither nightmares nor memories emerging.
The next day left little time to further contemplation. Overnight it had snowed again, covering the landscape in an even deeper layer of white dust. Liz had to spend every waking minute gathering resources if she wanted to have any chance of surviving the winter, which had almost fully arrived. While the fort was completely covered in snow, the valley was still clear of it, however this was possible.
Liz spent her day hunting more of the deer and gathering still hanging berries and wood. As a first course of action she felled two lone trees on the mountainside, which were quickly transformed into a primitive sled, allowing her to move up to half a dozen bodies or logs in one go. More if the cats were willing to use the rope harnesses she manufactured during the evening. She even went out into the valley twice that day.
The next days were spent similarly. With little noteworthy happenings.
Yet, one rather annoying affair was that she had to regularly change her hunting spots as the wolves found her trail after often only a few forays and ambushed her. She had learned this the hard way, when she had lost four kills to them and had to flee nearly a dozen of them on her way back. Even her flight was a near-miss, the cats with their shadow-teleport the only reason the wolves even fell behind in the ensuing chase.
The little time she had during the evenings was filled with dissecting the game of the day. At night, she would typically fall asleep instantly. It was a demanding workload. And her body just wasn''t made out for it. But it also required little sleep to use the day fully, leaving Liz struggling to cope with the mental fatigue. Her only true way was meditating every free moment, normally while sitting high up in a tree.
This routine continued for just over a week, earning her quite the considerable food store. A whole hallway near the mage tower was also filled to the brim with logs of wood, to be used or turned into firewood. Unfortunately she hadn''t found any more berries after the second day.
Camping in a tree continuously for more than five hours also brought her to the point of gaining
-- You have successfully learned the skill [Cold Tolerance] --
Cold Tolerance - lvl 1
Frostbite is no more. Your body feels comfortable at lower temperatures. Skill level decreases tolerable temperature
She even managed to level the skill twice more. It was only through this that she realized how dangerous her behavior must be. Afterwards Liz made a special effort to cloth herself warmly enough. It slightly decreased her mobility but after her trips it made her not feel like needing a few hours in front of the flames just to thaw.
She achieved several other gains as well, including another class level. This was also when she realized that she had unspent points from her previous level-up. She had promptly invested 5 points in Vitality, withholding one in case of an emergency. The automatically assigned points had been assigned to Dexterity, Perception, Wisdom and Intelligence, proving that Tamer really impacted the distribution.
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 7 --
-- [Meditation] has reached level 3 --
-- [Cold Tolerance] has reached level 2 --
-- [Cold Tolerance] has reached level 3 --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 8 --
-- [Bond] has reached level 2 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 4 --
-- [Meditation] has reached level 4 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 17. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- Endurance has reached 21 --
On the eighth morning Liz was taking things a lot slower, as even after half a night of sleep, more than the days before, she still had to struggle to get out of bed. She felt sore all over and her head was pounding as if she had the best night-out of her life the day before, both sensation somehow not blocked by Pain Suppression.
Liz would have preferred to do another two trips to the valley, but had to relent to the warning signs her body was throwing her way. After all, if she overexerted herself to the point of breaking, she probably wouldn''t be able to go out at all.
So she stayed until early afternoon, doing a recount of all in her storage and sharpening some of her dull blades. By her calculations, her food would now last for about three moons in rationed amounts, more if portioned even smaller. The cats would likely have no issue, as there was plenty of scraps. If the last days brought Liz to any realization, it was that she would be highly unlikely to find her calling as a butcher.
When she felt rested enough and with still some time before dusk, Liz set out to another trip into the valley. Her objective would be more meat, as there was enough wood, and it would be easier to log a few trees in the winter than hunting more game in even denser snow.
The snow had become a real trouble. Down in the valley it was still completely absent but on the mountainsides, just a few hundred meters away from clear meadows, it almost reached Liz''s knees. Soggy boots had become a given to her by now. It didn''t exactly help her travel speed either.
Already back in her routine, Liz made her way to one of the nearest hunting grounds in the valley. Like all the others it was a rather small clearing in the dense forest. A small brook crossed one end of the elongated clearing. Her look-out tree was located at the very end of it, opposite the water. The deer somehow tended to keep a closer look on their drinking water than on their rear. Most likely due to some horrible monsters living in the bigger lakes deeper into the valley.
Once Liz had realized their tactics and behaviors, it had become much easier to ambush them. Her tested method was to spread out the fast cats to direct the herds towards her position, before encircling up to four of the deer and taking them out one by one.
It was the same strategy she employed now, leaving the four cats in trees around the clearing while she climbed the tree with the best view of the forest edge.
To spend the time, Liz watched the various snowflakes tumble through the air. Only after half an hour did she realize that it was the first time she saw any snow in the valley.
''Shit, I guess it was really only a matter of time before the magically snow-free valley failed. So I probably only have a few days left to hunt. The more pressing it is that something shows up soon''
It took nearly three hours until prey finally showed up. It was another herd, about 15 animals strong. A typical size for their kind. There were almost always two particularly big ones, Liz never managed to catch them, and 10 to 14 smaller and possibly younger ones. The lead animals ranged in levels into the high twenties, while the rest were between level 16 to 20.
The cats had already taken to their positions. Liz jumped down to the ground in the cover of the tree and sneaked towards the water edge.
Before she could get into reach of the herd, she was thrown to the ground violently by something barreling into her side. Her shoulder hit a root hard, the throbbing pain quickly muted by her respective skill.
The jaw that afterwards enclosed her leg, revealed her assailant to be another wolf, shaking her leg, and growling around the blockage in its maw.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
[Young Lian Wolf - lvl 28]
Too stunned to react accordingly, Liz just trashed on the ground in an effort to dislodge the jaw from her numb leg.
Not long after, she caught her senses and charged mana in her hand. The wolf was still determined to pull her leg. While it couldn''t dislodge the limb from her body, its razor-sharp fangs were still dragged through her flesh, leaving deep gashes from which the blood flowed freely.
Liz felt her health quickly declining. It wouldn''t take long and she would weaken. Fortunately, her Blast managed to hit the canine directly on its snout. Just as predicted it seemed to be a sensitive area, as the wolf released some pressure from her leg, leaving Liz to move her leg free, with a lot of skin ripped open by the sharp teeth. Her trousers were already completely trenched in her blood.
Before she could do anything else, another jaw enclosed her left arm, alerting her to another growling wolf.
With her arm arrested, Liz was unable to twist away, and the first wolf regained its grip on her leg, leaving Liz''s actions for naught.
''Fuck. WHERE ARE THE CATS!?''
Both beasts started to shake her in their jaws, exerting a considerable amount of force on her limb joints. Liz was starting to panic, her blood loss through the torn artery in her leg too much to bear for much longer. She already felt the fog invading her mind.
Desperate, she used her remaining stat point to increase her still lacking Vitality. The small trickle of healing closed the artery torn open in her leg. Still the deep gashes in both arm and leg remained.
The wolves didn''t stop dragging her across the floor and tearing into her flesh either. While even two of them weren''t enough to whip her around, like they intended, their movements still dragged her across the hard floor and let their jaws dig deeper into her body. Luckily she felt none of it, letting her focus on defending herself.
Liz released a good amount of pent-up mana in the direction of the wounds. While it didn''t really hit the wolves, leaving them near completely unharmed, it still loosened their grip and stopped their jerking for a moment. Before they could regain their senses, Liz scrambled to reach for a dagger with her right hand. Gaining a grip on one, she drew it and plunged it towards the wolf on her left arm.
Her awkward position on the ground, sandwiched between the two predators, let her miss. Most of her muscles lacking feedback, didn''t help either. Stabbing again and again, she finally nicked the snout of her assailant.
With a yelp and growl it released her arm. Liz immediately spun away from the powerful maw, leaving her backpack between the teeth and her back. The wolf in her leg was not perturbed by her actions.
It still stood strong, trying to tear away parts of her flesh. Before it could succeed, Liz plunged her blade in the direction of its flesh. Her positioning caused her thrusts to only graze the hide of the beast, leaving gashes as deep as on her body.
Liz constantly channeled mana through the dagger into the exposed flesh of the monster. Her left arm simultaneously fumbled for a healing potion.
The second wolf regained its composure and tried to gain purchase on Liz''s limbs again. To keep it from succeeding, Liz twisted her upper body every which way, her lower body still locked in position by the growling wolf. Her health was back down to a third, and Liz started to feel the effects again.
The wolf seemingly had no such problem, as despite the wounds adorning its body, it defiantly stared her in the eyes, growled, and never let go of her leg.
Although the second wolf made it harder, Liz succeeded in moving a vial of healing potion to her mouth. Spilling half of it, Liz gulped down the clear liquid while still cutting the wolf''s hide into strips.
She never gained the same purchase she had on the Alpha in her first wolf battle. But her actions still showed results, the wolf''s grip on her legs loosening slightly over the duration of her assault.
To her horror, however, Liz saw the first wounds on the wolf already beginning to heal.
''Oh shit, they can regenerate without potions!''
Redoubling her mana expenditure into the wounds, stopped the visible progress of the regenerating tissue. The second wolf seemed to have a similar skill, as the wound on its snout was missing when it emerged in Liz view again. She needed to move herself again to stop it from biting down on her arm.
By now the fight had sapped nearly all of Liz''s stamina and additionally to the blood loss she felt the exhaustion creeping in. She needed to quickly end this or this would be her end. There was only one high-risk option left.
Exposing herself to the currently free wolf, Liz went directly for the wolf on her leg. While the second beast used the opening to regain its grip on her arm, Liz was able to plunge the dagger deep into the soft flesh of the flanks of her first opponent.
Ignoring the jaw clamping down on her arm, Liz channeled more and more mana into the monsters body. In just a fraction of the time it took to overwhelm the Alpha, the wolf went down with a whimper and finally released her leg.
While it wasn''t completely out, it didn''t immediately attack again. Liz left the dagger in the injured predator and drew another to confront the second one.
While she had finally defeated the first beast, it had secured its grip on her arm. Liz still felt none of it, but estimated the damage to be quite severe. She was already running on fumes in regard to mana, leaving the need to make calculated and devastating blows if she was to defeat the beast.
Still she was focused and didn''t panic like she had done times before. This was life or death for both of them. And Liz intended to win.
With calculated strikes, she was able to slowly draw an amount of blood equal to her own from the beast. Yet, it acted just like the first, defiantly clamped down on her limb, ignoring all damage to its own body. The only indication it perceived the damage was the slight hitch in its continuous growling, whenever Liz struck.
When Liz was near completely exhausted, the blade finally managed to slip between the ribs. Immediately, Liz delivered the small amount of mana she still held directly into its flesh, near its heart. Afterwards Liz would have no more offensive power.
But fortunately the Blast finally did it for the monster. With a whimper it released her arm before dropping without moving another muscle.
Liz immediately went for the killing blow. With one precise strike, the first of wolves was no more. The second soon followed.
-- You have killed a [Young Lian Wolf - lvl 28] --
-- You have killed a [Young Lian Wolf - lvl 29] --
Panting from exertion, Liz dropped to the ground before draining both healing and replenishment potions from her backpack. A bit recovered, Liz searched the surroundings for the cats, having expected them to come to her aid.
The four of them were fighting three wolves twice their size. Already getting up again, Liz quickly scanned the surrounding trees for more of the canines. Fortunately there were no more.
Still the situation wasn''t in the favor of Liz and the cats. The felines were already struggling with three of the beasts and advanced little in subduing the three of them. Not to mention that any moment more of beasts could emerge from the dark forest.
One quick look at the fight left Liz calling for retreat. She promptly grabbed her backpack and ran back towards the fort. She felt the cats heed her directions and disengage from the wolves. The following pursuit reminded Liz of just days ago. While she ran in a nearly straight line, the cats would regularly diverge, leading the wolves astray before returning through the shadows. But unlike the first chase, Liz had already started with weakened stamina.
Wheezing she reached the path to the fort, using her last reserves. The wolves had fallen back a hundred meters at this point. Unsure whether they would pursue her in the open, Liz left her sled in the meadow where she had stashed it before and ran up the mountain without stopping.
She soon entered the snow territory, ceasing her momentum near completely. Stumbling through the knee-high powder, Liz still tried to gain her distance.
Looking back, Liz realized that no wolves had followed past the forest edge. She immediately dropped into the snow once the fact became obvious, heavily breathing and her heart beating a mile a minute. It took nearly ten minutes for her heartbeat and breathing to slow down to normal levels.
''Holy hell. That came totally unexpected! And could have gone so wrong so easily!''
Before the cold could permeate her to the point of lethargy, Liz struggled to get up again and started inspecting the cats for injuries. There were a lot. Nothing immediately life-threatening but Liz still took care of all of them with the healing potions.
''I am way too dependent on them. I wouldn''t survive a day without these potions. But I have no Arcane skill slot to accommodate a healing skill''
Not interested in dawdling for too long, Liz returned to her sled and started the trek back to the fortifications, without achieving what she had set out for, hunting more game. At least she gained some levels.
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 9 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 5 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 6 --
-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 18 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 18. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
?
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 20. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
When she reached the warmth of the fort again, Liz really felt the exhaustion drag her down again.
''I should have really paced myself better over the last week. Today was really unfortunate. I would have probably been more attentive to wolves if I had enough sleep. And no new food today. Fuck. And soon the valley will be snowed in, reducing the still-active deer even further. Maybe two or three more trips over the next days and this will be it.''
Without new deer to dissect, Liz made herself comfortable in front of the flames, the cats arranged around and above her on the couches. It was time to apply her new stat points. Her chosen distribution was
Vitality: 17 (+4)
Endurance: 21 (+2)
Strength: 20 (+2)
Dexterity: 23 (+3)
Perception: 29 (+1)
Wisdom: 32 (+1)
Intelligence: 30 (+1)
She still held back one in case of another emergency, although the healing effect seemed to scale down with more Vitality. It would probably not do much good in the future.
''So I''m becoming even more dependent on the healing potions''
Actually spending the points brought back the rush of dopamine she had felt when leveling in the caverns.
''God, these stat points and their euphoric effects. It really feels like a drug. Seems like I simply need to spend more than one levels worth at the same time.''
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 20
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 252/252
Stamina: 250/253
Mana: 528/528
Vitality: 21
Endurance: 23
Strength: 22
Dexterity: 26
Perception: 30
Wisdom: 33
Intelligence: 31
Unassigned stat points: 1
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3
Cold Tolerance - lvl 3
Compulsion Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 3
Lightning Resilience - lvl 1
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 4
Pain Suppression - lvl 18
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane
Arcane Blast - lvl 9
Runic Intuition - lvl 3
Spell Channeling - lvl 6
Mana Draw - lvl 1
Tamer
Bond - lvl 2
- empty slot -
Her Vitality was closing in on pre-coma levels. What worried Liz was how disproportional her skills leveled. While Arcane Blast would soon reach double digits, Mana Draw was still stuck at lvl 1. She vowed to train the skills lacking behind, except potentially the Resistances and Tolerances. Only someone insane would voluntarily expose themselves to the dangers necessary to level these skills. Liz however expected some of them to level anyway, Cold and Pain in particular.
Chapter 15
Her predictions came true. Liz could only squeeze in two more days of hunting without any more wolf-incidents before, on the third morning, she woke to the sound of wind battering the tower walls.
The view from her window reached as far as the first outbuilding. Beyond and between a blizzard raged through the fort. The powerful gusts of wind moved mountains of snow through the courtyards and narrow passages between. The air even snaked its way through the window gaps, chilling the room and Liz with it.
Liz watched as the clouds of snow settled on the roofs before rising and settling somewhere else again.
''Guess hunting season is over. There is no way this hasn''t reached the valley as well. Whew. I wouldn''t want to be out there either way. Even in here it''s way too cold''
After a quick breakfast, consisting of a small amount of berries and mostly meat, Liz started her efforts to keep the tower heated. She needed more firewood. And only had full logs in the fort below, where she was now headed.
Along the way she realized her mistake in storage, as most of the windows in the lower ruins were missing panes, leaving the wind and snow free to enter. When Liz reached the log pile, the timber and the stone floor were covered in a dense dusting of white powder. It was no place to work in.
Splitting the logs into smaller parts and dragging these into the heated workshop did the trick. In the workshop Liz started using a war-axe to split the logs into usable firewood.
Using an axe quickly became boring and strenuous to Liz, so she started experimenting with Arcane Blast on the logs. While capable of exerting a force on the wood, Liz was unable to direct the mana in a way to accommodate splitting it.
If charged for long enough, her attack would only ever splinter the wood in the area it hit.
''How the hell did I kill three wolves and dozens of deer with this when it isn''t even able to split wood?''
In the end, Liz resorted to a mix of driving the axe by hand and pushing it in further with Arcane Blast. She surmised that this way, she would probably be able to level her skill while still doing something rather productive with the spent mana.
Yet, the Arcane attacks seemed to mostly speed up the dulling of the blade as Liz had to already switch to a new axe before noon came around.
By late afternoon she had produced a waist-high pile of wood, and had used all four sharpened war-axes available to her. With her tools no longer usable - damn the weak metal not able to handle a few blows of offensive magic - and the grindstone blocked by a blizzard, Liz retired to the suite to finally learn the language anew.
She used a selection of books dedicated to runes for this. Before having switched back to Deviant, Liz had tried to familiarize and memorize certain pages which she was now pouring over.
It still felt like little progress was made, as she only understood certain words and phrases but never full sentences, not even through context.
Still without a breakthrough, Liz eventually went to bed after a short meal together with the cats. They had spent most of their day on the couches, occasionally patrolling the tower before dozing again.
When she fell asleep, the blizzard was still raging outside.
The next morning, the weather had calmed down. Liz could now overlook a wholly white valley, only small dots of blue ice breaking up the white-green scenery.
The fort was covered in a similar thick layer of snow. But the sky had cleared and no more snow was moving through the chilling winter air. Yet, it still took Liz some effort to move through the less snow-covered hallways to sharpen the axe-blades in the smithy.
Afterwards she spent her time training with the cats. She even felt the increase from the last level-ups, making her more agile and enduring, although the effect was rather subdued in comparison to massive leaps from the cavern trip.
For the rest of the day she alternated between bouts with the cats and improving her dagger-throwing, as she was severely lacking in it. It progressed as expected, with most of the knives either hitting the wall next to her target or hitting the target handle-first.
Her evening was spent on learning the language. By nightfall, she finally reached the breaking-point.
-- [Eastern Plains Common] has reached level 1 --
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 1
You understand the written and spoken word of the common language of the Eastern Plains. The language of humans and gnomes
''Yes! I knew I could do it!''
While the skill was the same, Liz immediately felt the difference. While she could suddenly read the words, it still took longer than before and some words were still foreign to her. She seemed to lack the broad vocabulary she had before.
''Huh? I guess there had to be differences between lvl 1 and lvl 8''
Still, with her new self-taught understanding of the language, Liz spent until midnight immersed in the rather dry book about herb diversity in the Wildlands.
The next morning started different from the rest, as Liz had gotten some inspiration for better meals from the book on herbs. Former close friends of her would probably tell anybody who asked, that whenever Liz, ''inspiration'' and cooking were involved, maintaining a certain minimal distance was critical. But right now, none of her critics were present, leaving Liz, a millennium old store of herbs, and meat to make in(cr)edible.
The end product of two hours of ''cooking'' could be best described as ''edible if necessary''. If one had to put the construction into more elaborate words, one might describe it as a rough-cut fricassee in a thin soup of various herbs. Only tasting of garlic. This seemed to be a general theme in all the herbs available to her; every single one of them at least partially tasted like garlic. Liz had even wondered whether her taste buds were broken.
''Or I am in the realm of bad breath''
But Liz wasn''t about to let any of her valuable food go to waste. Reluctantly at first, she ate all of it. Well, pinching the nose helped massively towards being able to swallow it.
Filling the rest of the day with more reading while the cats lounged on the divans, only getting up for their patrols and meals, left her with another language skill level in the evening.
-- [Eastern Plains Common] has reached level 2 --
The following week progressed similarly. Liz either reading, ''cooking'', training or cleaning.
By the sixth day, Liz had made the suite and workshop squeaky clean and had moved the skeleton she had expertly avoided previously to a chest, now a coffin, to be properly buried when the ground unfroze. Her cooking had also improved. She had managed to only use the low-garlic herbs, leaving the other taste notes to emerge. It still tasted like one imagines the sand-cake of 5-year-old filled with garlic to taste like, but to Liz the simple fact of variety compared to bland meat was enough. She had also gained some more levels through practice and training. Even the elusive Mana Draw finally leveled after Liz spent hours moving mana from one crystal to another.
-- [Eastern Plains Common] has reached level 3 --
-- [Runic Intuition] has reached level 4 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 7 --
-- [Mana Draw] has reached level 2 --
-- [Bond] has reached level 3 --
But Liz still felt unsatisfied. The action of the previous weeks had become a given to her, which was now somehow missing. Just lounging inside left her bored and wanting for more. She was never one to sit still for too long. So the winter was even more of a hell for her. Not to mention the lack of entertainment from phone or computer. Not even the training with the cats could fill the hole. And only having one magic spell wasn''t what she had expected when she decided to become a mage.
Still she was reluctant to simply go out fighting a Bonestinger or similar, as her crave wasn''t a fight itself, just rather the distraction from her sad reality it provided. Or better yet any kind of distraction.
Either way she was currently bound to the fort grounds, or rather the parts accessible through the hallways and battlements. As much as she was hoping for action akin to the cavern lizards, there was no such thing nearby as the fort''s defenses supposedly kept out any and all monsters.
And so, without anything better to satisfy her craving, Liz spent hours on end training with the cats, the focus the fights required keeping her distracted. When she wasn''t in the training hall, Liz found herself sewing herself new armor from the various leather pieces left in the closet. Making leather herself still eluded her. While she had successfully skinned some deer and left the bundled hides in the storage chamber, getting her hands on some tanning compound was beyond her.
There were also no books on making leather in the library. Instead, Liz remembered from Earth that one could somehow use bark to tan a hide. But how exactly was unknown to her. Currently, an experimental tub filled with a cleaned hide and some bark from the firewood was sitting in the workspace, the success to be determined in a week or two.
After two days, her armor was in the most pristine condition it would get. It was now cut to properly support her chest and thick fabric covered the distance between bracers and shoulder piece. Liz also finally had fitting leather pants to call her own, generously provided by another set of leather armor. To fit the pants, a good part of the leather ''skirt'' had to go. In the closet were also two sets of thicker leather armor but Liz had no way to properly adjust it to her size, leaving her with the thin but flexible leather. It probably wouldn''t deflect a sword but fangs, claws and acid would have to first put in some effort before they would reach her skin. And since Liz didn''t plan on facing anyone wielding a sword, as that would mean there were other people, her armor was enough for her.
Soon after finishing her work, another bout with the cats became the maiden fight of her new armor. It was a lot better than the old iteration. While still far from good or even what the armor was before being retrofitted to her, she was more comfortable. Before, some seams were poorly done and wouldn''t bend, in the new iteration Liz had taken the time to do the seams properly, making them more flexible when moving.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
But now, with the armor such a ''masterpiece'' of hers, Liz became reluctant to use it, else it might get damaged in training.
"No, this is only to be used when actually needed. You lot don''t get to destroy this armor! No, you don''t!"
Leaving the cats to lounge again, Liz got accustomed to the weight of the armor when moving before putting it back in the closet shortly after.
But then she again had to face the dilemma of boring evenings. The few hours of daylight left plenty of those. The longer she spent on her own, the more she realized how depressing her reality had become. Her otherwise optimistic approach to reality had evaporated in the face of the gloomy atmosphere.
Her only option was distraction. Without electronics, and the cats reluctant to fight for more than a few hours on end, Liz now turned to getting herself a bow, a task that hopefully filled time enough to pad the evenings.
The swords were still too heavy for her, not to mention flails or battle-axes, leaving her with the trusted dagger as a physical weapon. Now she wanted to add something long-ranged to it. While the cats could traverse a long distance quickly through their teleport ability, she was still limited in speed by her short legs, so she was happy to stay as far from her quarry as possible.
The only problem was that bows tended to be made out of wood and wood had the pesky tendency to rot over time. Previously this had been a issue because there was no material to make a bow from. But now, with about half a dozen of logs still in the hallway, Liz had the resource necessary. Garuna''s information also proved true, as in a corner of the workshop a quiver and a heap of arrows were stashed. Some arrows were carved with runes, someone seemingly having experimented with adding incredible complex runes to the simple objects. The only piece missing was bowstring. There was none in the workshop and the rope present probably wouldn''t do much good. Distrusting of any materials she would find or make herself, Liz made the ultimate sacrifice for her survival and desecrated her pajama pants by removing the drawstring from it. It was made of threaded nylon, making it incredibly sturdy in comparison to anything she would find in her vicinity.
As the arrows were rather heavy, Liz decided to carve a fitting large bow from a log. Thankfully the book lying next to the arrows, a text about arrow material selection, contained a few drawings of longbows on which Liz could orientate herself. Unfortunately it was also the only book about archery in the library.
Over the course of three weeks, Liz carved the wood with her daggers until her fingers were raw. To combat this she even added leather grips on most of her dozen or so daggers, provided by another destroyed piece of armor. There were dozens of rejects, all quickly ending their short lifespan in the fireplace.
It didn''t help that Liz perfectionist strain made many promising attempts end up as firewood. She focused on the most mundane details, but leaving out important design aspects, like the right thickness profile. It also didn''t help that the material was near impossible to work.
The cats could only watch her as she threw piece after piece in the flames each evening. But they often quickly got bored with the show and found a quieter corner. Only Nick would often times still provide her company until deep in the night.
Eventually she was fed up with the task and decided to simply use one of the better samples, a piece one could possibly identify as a bow. It was originally never intended as a real attempt, which was the reason why it had even survived Liz''s harsh selection. Instead, it was one of the few made out of broken off branch as every piece of fresh wood ended up impossible to work with and misshapen.
It was a bit smaller than Liz intended but at long last she had something, so she wasn''t complaining, for once. The eventual size even made it possible to only use half of the drawstring. Stringing the bow was another adventure. The cats had fled the workshop while Liz did so as Liz''s cursing of the bruising and stubborn bow and string became too colorful for the sensitive feline ears.
[Crude Bow - Primitive]
Now the only thing left was to test it, hope it didn''t crack and bruise her even more, and train with it. Fortunately the test went rather well, if one excluded Liz''s error in judgement when choosing an exploding arrow from the quiver.
While her shot missed her target log, the explosion managed to reach it. And the whole rack of rusted weapons in the training hall next to it.
''Oops''
At least the string stayed attached to the wood and successfully accelerated the arrow towards the vicinity of the target. Liz attributed her miss to the fact that she had no experience in handling archery equipment and to some degree the primitive condition of the weapon.
For three more days, the training with the cats was paused and Liz spent from dawn till dusk training with the bow. One thing it definitely accomplished was exhausting Liz up to the last bit she felt comfortable with. But even her archery showed progress. While the primitive construction of the bow was certainly hindering, Liz now managed to tame the equipment to the point that she felt confident to hit small prey if standing still and possibly something the size of deer if moving around a dozen meters from her.
She paused her training with the bow on her hundredth day in the realm. Liz wasn''t sure whether this occasion was to be celebrated. Not that she had anything to celebrate with. Instead, she spent the day cooking an extra elaborate meal. Her cooking started to close in on acceptable levels at this point.
With the bow made, Liz was once again left without an activity to distract. Even social interaction would be nice. The lack of other people nearby really put her in a bad mood. Fortunately a new distraction presented itself in one of her bouts with the cats when her mind was alerted to a new notification in the middle of the fight.
-- You have learned the active class skill [Call of the Hunt] --
Call of the Hunt - lvl 1
Proclaim the Hunt. Cast an aura boosting you and your bonds. Healing, speed and agility are increased.
''The hell?''
Quickly ending the mock-fight, Liz tried to cast the skill. It came as instinctual to her as all other class skills. From one moment to the next, Liz felt more energized and hyped up. Additionally, under her watch the claw marks on her arms vanished without a healing potion necessary.
''YES! A healing skill!''
Running laps around the room, a bit faster than normal, Liz tested the new skill. While it provided what it advertised, it also quickly sapped her mana, leaving her with around five minutes of boost before her mana ran dry.
''Shit, I need that mana for attacks''
Still the skill was incredibly helpful. The cats were had an equal boost, visible by their mock-fighting, now at an even insaner speed.
''So far Tamer didn''t disappoint, but the mana consumption might pose a problem. I need to experiment with the skill in a fight to say for sure.''
And experiment she did. For four days. The energizing effect was just too perfect to battle the downtrodden atmosphere of the winter days. Training with the bow was completely forgotten in the face of the amazing new skill. Several things happened or were discovered by her during the experimentation. For one, she leveled even further.
-- [Mana Draw] has reached level 3 --
-- [Mana Draw] has reached level 4 --
-- [Bond] has reached level 4 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 2 --
?
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 5 --
The quick level speed of Mana Draw had to do with fact number two. Liz had started to experiment with drawing mana from crystals to constantly supplement her own reserves. It worked with some quirks. While drawing from mana sources without direct contact was possible, it always felt sluggish to move the mana into herself; it was much easier to draw from crystals held in her hands. Surprisingly her skill also assisted her in this.
The third finding was that the passive mana draw from the bonds had reduced quite considerably. It was now close to half its original strength. Liz had discovered this while paying close attention to her general mana balance, investigating how to predict the remaining time on the aura. Yet it was weird that the bond with Nick used even less mana than the others, despite the cats all at the same level of 25. While the cats had leveled through the training, she sadly had gained no class levels so far.
But the mana crystals also quickly depleted through her endeavors. Hence, why she stopped after the fourth day, she had no more crystals to spare. Only a few select crystals identified as stabilized, while the rest cracked and vanished when depleted.
And so Liz finally went back to the books, trying to understand how mana crystals worked and how to get more of them.
Unfortunately the selection of books on the topic was either very limited or she was looking in the wrong place, as only three books were about the crystals.
The limited information she could gather was fortunately focused on her current region in a book about the region-specific occurrence patterns of the crystals.
From it, she learned, that mana crystals would grow on a special stone variety, commonly found a few hundred meters under the surface around the valley, if the mana concentration was high enough. Liz presumed that this stone was the one she had seen in the Nuurtor Caverns dungeon, as it had been filled to the brim with mana crystals. Additionally, the crystals wouldn''t grow in sunlight, so the caves were necessary. Neither could one move the stone nor modify it, else no crystals would grow. Crystals would also destabilize over time after being harvested. The smaller, the longer they held. One could prolong their lifespan with magic but only to a certain point.
''Ok, so if I want to get more crystals I need to look in some cave. But I can''t do that until the snow has thawed. But I kinda need them to effectively use and level all my skills. And without my skills leveling I am probably not growing strong enough to face whatever lives either in the cave or in between it and me''
Frustrated, Liz took a bath, an activity typical for the last moon. Only the soap had to be rationed considerably to support this habit.
''Unless there are some growing in the cellar tunnels. I mean I saw none but I also didn''t look for them neither did I see all the tunnels. But the same can be said about the bats. Ughh.'' Liz shuddered at the mere thought of the buggers.
''But then I heard none of them throughout my exploration. Maybe they moved out before the winter. But I may seriously have to go down there if the mana crystal situation becomes more dire''
The situation became more dire. After just two more days of training, Liz was left with exactly 5 crystals and a few more shards. Against all her inner alarm bells ringing, Liz reluctantly prepared for another trip into the cellars. Her crave for doing magic just barely outperformed the deep-rooted fear of flying rats. She also convinced herself that the cellars were probably free of bats, letting her fear calm down a bit.
Her gear consisted of her new armor, her dozen of improved daggers, vials of her ''venison broth'', the remaining mana crystals and a few potions, just in case.
As soon as she had started preparing, the cats had shed their disinterested mantle and were now scurrying around her restlessly. Whether they deciphered her intention or simply felt her agitation, Liz didn''t know.
As best equipped and armed as she had ever been, Liz set out to... search a cellar.
To be honest, it was a cellar in a monster-infested valley, untouched by humans for centuries. So there was always a possibility for disaster as shown by her past actions.
But she was better prepared than before, not only with the equipment but also with the cats and her skills.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 20
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 252/252
Stamina: 250/253
Mana: 528/528
Vitality: 21
Endurance: 23
Strength: 22
Dexterity: 26
Perception: 30
Wisdom: 33
Intelligence: 31
Unassigned stat points: 1
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3
Cold Tolerance - lvl 3
Compulsion Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 3
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 3
Lightning Resilience - lvl 1
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 4
Pain Suppression - lvl 18
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane
Arcane Blast - lvl 10
Runic Intuition - lvl 4
Spell Channeling - lvl 7
Mana Draw - lvl 5
Tamer
Bond - lvl 5
Call of the Hunt - lvl 5
For once, she felt a slight confidence, that whatever she might face in the cellar, she should have a chance to at least flee, and not have to totally rely on luck. Except in case of bloodsucking vampire bats.
But at first there was nothing in the tunnels she hadn''t already seen. Just the same intersections and stone walls and rubble-littered floor. Nowhere were there any bats. Or crystals.
Marking every tunnel she had inspected, Liz slowly made her way through the labyrinth. The longer it went on, the longer the time between finding new tunnels.
Either Liz was truly incompetent in navigating the nondescript tunnels, or the corridors changed after her passage. The probability for the second option was there but far too low to be true.
Eventually Liz reached a whole new section of the labyrinth. She knew this because the tunnels were all unmarked again. While elsewhere the erosion had closed passageways, here it had opened a new one as she found a gap in the wall, the stones, formerly making up the wall, lying in a heap on the floor. Beyond a wide ramp lead further down in a slow spiral.
''Huh? Another entirely new section? How extensive is this cellar?''
She decided to explore wherever the ramp led, as the cellar had proved to be pretty crystal-free. Maybe a second and deeper layer could yield better result. The Nuurtor Cavern hadn''t been this close to the surface either.
The cats acted pretty bored as well, having hoped for some action and only having gotten damp tunnels until now.
But that would change pretty quickly, as at the bottom of the ramp a new notification entered Liz''s mind.
-- Welcome to Argentuvalur''s Tomb --
-- You have entered a dungeon. Experience gain is increased. --
Chapter 16
-- Welcome to Argentuvalur''s Tomb --
-- You have entered a dungeon. Experience gain is increased. --
Liz had just crossed an archway, beyond which the sloped corridor opened into a large brick rotunda topped by a massive dome. Dozens of small passageways left the room in every direction. Between each of the archways, dozens of alcoves were filled with stone sarcophagi. Some broken and empty, others still intact. Liz couldn''t see the ceiling in detail in the dim light of her orb, but she could make out that at some point a massive mural must have adorned the ceiling as occasional patches of dulled paint still stuck to it.
''What the hell? Another dungeon? Directly under the fort? And in a tomb?''
Liz quickly backed out of the room, out of fear of suddenly appearing opponents. The cats never had time to enter the domed structure.
''So there are Undead? Zombies? Yuck! Of course the only place I can reach where the mana is high enough to make crystal growth possible, has to be an some dungeon tomb, probably filled with massive amounts of monsters. But I really want - nay need - those crystals! How hard can one dungeon be? I survived the spider cavern. And now I have more training and experience under my belt. And I rather know what lives -or not lives - under my feet than have something come up the tunnel some night in the future. Not sure if the fort''s defenses also cover the underground. Yes, I just need to find out what inhabits the cellar below my ''home''. And it would definitely also constitute a change from the monotonous training with the cats, so win-win. I am just gonna test how well I am going to do in a real-life situation. I need to cross the mountains somehow. And I need to know how to fight. But that can''t be my main objective. No, I am going in for reconnaissance and crystals first and, should it be easy enough, training with some monsters second. Yes, that''s it.''
Having justified the possibly foolish adventure to her own conscience, Liz moved back into the structure. Her gaze was again caught by the impressive dome. While some stones had fallen down, the majority of the dome was surprisingly still standing. Even millennia after the tombs likely creation.
While Liz had admired the architecture, the cats had spread out around her, already in a battle-ready stance. Seeing this, Liz also nocked an arrow and charged a bit of mana, leaving the aura be for the time being. Her daggers were still there as backup, but Liz wanted to try herself with the bow first. Should anything cross her path that didn''t want to go down easily with an arrow, her daggers were still there, or her feet depending on the threat and feasibility of flight. So far it had only worked sometimes.
Liz truly hoped that someday she would be able to chose her battles and not get them chosen for her. Another reason to test the waters here in the dungeon.
But right now she needed to focus on her surroundings. Something had the cats on edge and Liz just couldn''t decipher what. But when it came to sensing danger she trusted the cats senses fully, leaving her to move carefully through the room, on guard against all.
Or not all, as with a horrendous screech a small figure clad in dark armor emerged from behind an alcove she had just checked and charged at her, taking Liz completely by surprise.
Liz and the cats both managed to whirl around and Liz could even let go of the nocked arrow towards the assailant. While for once it flew true, it simply passed through the small vaguely humanoid figure. The next moment the still-screeching figure reached her. And simply ran through her. Liz shivered at the sensation of cold sweat breaking out where the being touched her. And felt the flesh go numb in its wake as well as her health dwindle.
The being still screeched its high-pitched war cry as it charged again.
[Revenant - lvl 32]
There was no time for Liz to nock another arrow, instead she rolled out of the way, and drew a dagger just as she was getting up again. Her aura was activated as well, already healing the damage she had sustained in a slow pace. The cats tried to reach the screaming enemy but when they should make contact with it, they simply went through it as well, emerging on the other side shivering.
''A ghost?''
Seeing no way to harm the apparition with physical weapons, Liz discarded her dagger and tried her only mana-based weapon.
It seemed to be the right choice as the Revenant instantly vanished once the Blast entered its form. In the blink of an eye and without a trace it was gone, taking the remnants of Liz''s spell with it. But no notification appeared.
''Where did it go?''
Expecting the ghost to reappear just behind her, Liz spun around and around. It took nearly two minutes before she stopped her frantic spinning.
''Is it dead? Why is there no kill notification? I mean I guess it was already dead... but still... Or did it teleport away? No, I have definitely hit it''
The fact that the Revenant simply disappeared didn''t sit right with Liz. So far every creature or monster she had killed had been registered by the ''system''. But now she had encountered something not obeying the laws of reality in this realm as she knew them.
She was uneasy. Not really afraid of the power of the Revenant itself, but rather of what caused this weird behavior. And whether it extended to the whole tomb. Having an anomalous dungeon just a few dozen of meters below one''s bed, wasn''t comforting in any way.
''Oh shit, reconnaissance just became so much more critical. Either I have some kind of immortal monsters beneath the fort, or I am missing something crucial here''
Hoping to gain some insight, Liz inspected the spot the apparition had first appeared in and retrieved her arrow on the way. There was nothing special about it, at least to her eyes that is. It was just another dark alcove. The only remarkable thing was the still intact sarcophagus. Most of the others were open. Liz also realized that the stone hollows were way too small for a human, maybe a child would fit, but an entire tomb with dead children was too much for her to imagine, so Liz rather saw herself affirmed in the knowledge that the small ghost, probably one of the buried, was normal-size for its species. The size would even fit the structure in the Nuurtor Cavern. It was just a bit weird that all the coffins bore the same inscription, a runic script Liz couldn''t decipher. And the odd star-like pattern of different colored stone in the ground, reaching each of the alcoves was weird as well.
What worried Liz was the way the empty coffins were opened. They seemed smashed in. By something massive. And brutish as some coffins were only present in small bits.
''Graverobbers? But where are the skeletons? Are they running around now?''
Liz shuddered at the thought. It just reminded her too much of the one she had stashed in a chest upstairs, its story and how close she came to the same fate.
She wandered through the domed room for a bit longer without gaining any more insights as to what happened there. Eventually she questioned whether to enter the dungeon further.
''So far there has only been the Revenant, but that can''t be all that inhabits this tomb. Either I fear the unknown or I search for a bit further and know my opponents''
It was really a rhetorical question. Liz had no idea how many exits the inhabitants could crawl up into the fort and knowing what might come to get her was invaluable if she wanted to defend against it. While she had no qualms about possibly clearing the dungeon, she also had no delusions of achieving it.
Having learned from her chaotic exploration in the cellar, Liz decided to follow the wall to the right of the entrance, instead of just picking a way at random.
Stolen novel; please report.
The wall left the room in a tunnel with a vaulted ceiling around twice the height of Liz. If this tomb was made by those now buried in it, it would have been truly enormous in comparison to their size.
The tunnel was lined with further sarcophagi, all neatly placed in their own alcoves in the brick wall. At least every second one was broken. None held any organic remains. After a few dozen meters, Liz became irritated by the complete lack of remains. Against her better judgement she went to the next intact sarcophagus and with some effort managed to lift the stone slab covering it.
Only to drop it back down as a half-rotten hand reached for her hers out of the dark interior. Liz shrieked and sprung back, activating the aura and charging mana on instinct.
''WHAT. THE. HELL! Nope. Nope. Nope!''
She sprinted back the way she came. Her heart racing a mile a minute. The cats were equally flustered. Liz''s distress agitating them.
Liz only came to a stop when she reached the hole in the wall leading to the ramp. While her sprint had barely affected her breathing, her heart was beating like crazy. The sudden appearance of the hand had impacted her more than most in the past weeks.
''WHY IS EVERYTHING IN THIS REALM SO FUCKING HORRENDOUS!!!''
It took her just shy of ten minutes to calm down. Just sitting in front of the hole in the wall, focusing on her breathing and nothing more. The cats did their best to calm her.
''Why couldn''t the body fully decompose before rising? God, that stench! And that texture!''
Liz had to gag at the memory.
''So there aren''t just ghosts, there are also animated corpses? All in a tomb just underneath the fort? There are so many sarcophagi. Are all of them filled? Would the defensive enchantments hold all of them? Because if not....''
So far Liz had wholly relied on the defensive frameworks. Sometimes intentionally, other times by circumstance. It had provided her with a - rather - safe haven in the chaos of her new reality. But now she felt her safe haven threatened.
''I need to find out what the corpses are capable of. If they are strong individually, I am fucked.''
Reluctantly reentering the dungeon, Liz made her way to one of the intact coffins in the antechamber. In her eyes, the stone plates sealing in what was inside were way too light to keep anything wanting out in.
One reasonably sized Arcane Blast could probably move the cover. With her bow drawn, this was exactly what Liz tried.
Her estimates were slightly off. It took her two shots before the plate was moved enough that it fell off the side of the stone on its own. It was way too easy, really as if the coffins were designed to let their contents out.
Two hands, most of the fingers missing their flesh, were immediately clasped around the stone edge. Liz watched from behind her bow as a small figure hoisted itself out of the stone hollow.
It wore rotten rags, its body faring not much better. The barely waist-high humanoid was missing close to all its facial features. Only one eye was still there, the other socket empty. Few spots still held flesh. The few bits made up for it by a stench, that was barely bearable even twenty meters away.
[Lost Warrior - lvl 32]
For a moment it was completely still. The next it turned towards Liz, its eye focused on the light-orb in her hand and charged at her. Just like the Revenant. Only at a tenth the speed. And stumbling two steps in. It really looked just like a trash zombie movie. Well, the rotten look was perfect down to the last detail. So not quite trash film level.
The cats had started to advance at the zombie from the flanks, but Liz directed them to stay back. This was to be her fight, for now.
When the warrior was just getting up again, Liz released her arrow. She had chosen one labelled as ''lesser explosive''. She had aimed for the center of its torso, but hit the creature''s shoulder instead.
The arrow exploded on impact, taking away a good portion of the torso and the whole left arm, and spraying foul smelling flesh in every direction. Including Liz''s. Where before the stench had been barely bearable, now it was insufferable. Liz had to gag and emptied her stomach on the stone floor. In the midst of a fight. But it was no issue as the warrior had been thrown to the side by the explosion. And while it was still moving, it was now missing close to its entire left side, making its movements even more shaky.
When Liz had finished, even going as far as cleaning her mouth with a vial of water, the undead had barely moved five meters towards her. It seemed to repeat a simple pattern when it walked and failed to compensate for the missing arm, throwing its complete movement off balance.
Unwilling to close in on the stench, Liz readied another explosive arrow from afar, aiming for the head, and hitting the torso front and center instead. After another spray of rotten flesh, the creature toppling over and not getting up again, Liz felt a notification enter her mind.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
''So YOU can get killed! But that was way too easy. But the system seems to agree, as it got literally no gains from this. But I easily bested an enemy 12 levels above my own! Why did I even fear them? Dana would have probably said something along the lines of ''Humans always fear the unknown''. Gah, this thing just reminds me of trash-film-night in college. Now I am in the trash film! How the tables have turned!''
Despite being underground in a gloomy dungeon, Liz felt cheerful. At least she felt it, when she had brought enough distance between herself and the foul-smelling heap of bones and flesh.
The cats had one sniff at the pile before leaving it to its own devices as well.
''Hey, if that is all these corpses have to offer, I could possibly level my skills faster than ever before. And possibly even the class! But the stench...''
The stench was a big nuance. But Liz had a whole workshop to find a solution. After a quick trip back to the surface. That is to say close to half an hour later, she had fix for the problem. The fix she concocted was truly ingenious; two small pieces of wax in her nose.
Equipped with her innovative wax plugs, Liz released a second undead.
[Lost Warrior - lvl 32]
It looked just as rotten as the last, and it also started to hoist itself out of its confinement shortly after it was opened. Just as it crested the edge, Liz, now much closer, tried Arcane Blast on the animated corpse. It felt not very effective. The energy seemed to just seep into the body without an effect. But subsequent shots started to show effects, just not what Liz expected. Instead of damaging the corpse, it seemed to energize it.
While still shuffling over the stone floor, it became faster with every Blast.
''Shit! Is it absorbing the mana?''
Liz was forced to resort to the bow, but replacing the explosive arrows with health draining ones. The notes added to their batch marked them as experimental. And it seemed they would remain experimental, as they had no effect on the shuffling corpse.
For the first time, Liz was forced to move backwards to evade it as she was nocking another explosive arrow. Releasing it on her opponent provided similar results to the last warrior, removing the remaining flesh in a violent spray of gore and the occasional piece of bone. Still it took her three arrows to finish this one. It seemed irrelevant where she hit it as the first arrow to the chest did not kill but the last to the leg did.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
''Are they all lvl 32? Why do they become faster the more mana I give them? And seemingly more resilient... Wait... Sooo... I can adjust how fast and resilient they are?''
''If it weren''t for the disgusting remains, this is a wonderful training system if it really works!''
Liz contemplated it for a moment. Also taking into account the morality of her actions. As far as she knew, these were the remains of sapient beings, animated by the dungeon. So far she hadn''t really sympathized with the beings, but if she imagined them to be humans, there was a part of her that would want them to rest in peace and not be disturbed for some levels.
But she questioned whether an undead existence, locked in a stone coffin for possibly millennia, was considered rest. She wasn''t sure how much these creatures felt and whether anything of their former selves remained. Technically her actions had put two of them to a hopefully final rest. Then again, her mangling of the corpses wasn''t really respecting of the dead either.
Her stomach took this moment to complain about its emptiness, making Liz move away from the antechamber and halfway up the ramp before slowly sipping her venison broth from a vial. The wax plugs really helped with this experience as well. Still one should only ever take small sips, as to not upset ones taste buds too much.
''Ughh, this batch didn''t really work out. The recipe definitely still needs some work!''
Taking small and careful sips, Liz dove back into her internal ethics discussion.
Despite her reservations about the mangling, Liz knew that she also had to take her survival into account. One of the few bits of pieces of information from Garuna she trusted was that this valley and its side-valleys were easy in comparison to the rest of the Wildlands. If there were things as powerful as the stag or the moss out there, there also had to be others of their caliber. Liz was truly lucky that she hadn''t encountered any of them so far. Though she possibly knew about two more such creatures. For one there was the roaring creature deep in the valley. And whatever agitated it was likely also a powerful being.
So if she wanted to ever leave the valley and the Wildlands and not die along the way she would probably have to level quite considerably. Currently, she was just too fragile. Just like the stag had said. And to level she seemed to require opponents just slightly above her own level. And level 32 almost immobile zombies were perfect for that position.
Eventually Liz decided to go on with her extermination efforts, the benefits to herself just to great to ignore them in respect of long dead warriors. Still, she decided to keep from using the explosive arrows for now.
Even just for keeping her new armor from smelling even more like rotten flesh.
And so Liz went back into the fort to gather supplies for her endeavor. Her initial goal of gathering crystals had become an afterthought at this point.
Chapter 17
Liz returned to the dungeon a day later. Equipped with a backpack filled to the brim with broth, now with even less garlic, various other implements and the entire set of arrows. She wanted to test each of the types, especially the experimental ones, against a moving enemy.
Liz stopped in the antechamber. She placed the heavy backpack near the ramp. The cats did a short patrol of the rotunda before making themselves comfortable around the backpack, without direction from Liz. They seemed to understand Liz and her intentions more with every passing day.
And so Liz started the ''training''. It was to be limited to one part of the round room, exactly opposite the entrance. When Liz wanted to drag the remains of the previous two undead to said part, she found one of them missing.
''What the fuck? Did it reanimate again? But where is it?''
After a quick search of the whole room yielded no results, how could it if the cats had done the same just minutes before, Liz just shrugged it off and continued with her plan.
''I will probably encounter it again at a later stage. I don''t think this tomb is so big that I will not cross paths with it.''
She started by freeing the first undead. She didn''t charge it with any mana. Keeping things slow at first. For now, she tried to defeat them with normal, hopefully retrievable, arrows. Liz just wasn''t sure what made the animation perish and wanted to find out. Although she saw little chance of success with the normal arrows, with them only piercing and not actually taking out chunks of flesh.
Surprisingly the mundane arrows worked. The emphasis had to be on arrow''S'', as it took an entire quiver of forty arrows to make the undead drop down. To be fair, only 18 even hit the warrior. Still, nearly all of them went through the mushy flesh like butter, now buried deep in the rib cage, neck and even eye. Nothing a living human would survive for as long as the zombie.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
Liz retrieved the arrows, and tried again with another.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
And another.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
And a lot more afterwards.
Until she felt a second notification after another kill.
-- You have killed a [Lost Warrior - lvl 32] --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 21. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
''YES! So it works for leveling the class. I guess it''s time to spice things up a bit!''
The two new points were automatically distributed in Dexterity and Perception. The other three, Liz spent on Vitality, bringing her health even closer to its former glory.
By now, about a dozen kills in, Liz had steadily improved her handling of the bow and anticipating the slow movements of the zombies. It still took around 17-20 arrows to fell each, but Liz now only missed around 10-15 arrows and hit her desired target area more often.
The next few dozen of undead she started to imbue with more and more mana stopping once she started to struggle with hitting them. While it didn''t yield any more level gains at first, Liz still continued improving her use of the bow.
Sometime in between she retreated to the ramp and ''ate'' another one of her meals.
When she started to feel tired, she stopped. She had accumulated quite a pile of bodies. It was true carnage. While Liz herself had little of the black blood or flesh on herself, it still covered most of the ground. That was something she had discovered with the mana imbued undead: they would bleed black blood when struck. At first Liz had considered it a fluke, but after ten bodies in row had released the black liquid, she had realized the correlation with the mana. Why it happened, she had no idea. Just that it was disgusting.
She decided to call it a day and return to the fort to meet her need for rest and cleansing agent.
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 11 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 8 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 6 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 22. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
Looking through the notifications and missing a level-up from Mana Draw, Liz was reminded of her initial goal of gathering crystals.
''Maybe deeper in the walls give way to natural stone with crystals growing on it! I hope. Only one way to find out!''
Her somber mood of the previous weeks had finally gone. Instead, she anticipated the next day, hopefully just as fruitful as this one. The previous weeks, she had never gained so many levels in just one day. And without a single injury.
Happy about her achievements, Liz went to sleep after washing the stench out of the armor.
The next morning she was up early, getting ready for another day in the dungeon.
After a quick bath and meal, she descended into the dungeon once again. The cats didn''t even bother to accompany her.
As she reached the round room, Liz realized that this might be a mistake, as she heard noises from deeper in the tunnels. Cracking and crunching sounded from the darkness. Additionally, the heap of her carnage from the day before had reduced severely. Dozens of dead undead were missing.
''Oh shit! Did they also resurrect? Why did I have produce so many unsealed bodies yesterday? Now they are all let loose! I am an idiot! Or is it some other monster?''
Before Liz took another step into the room, she drew her bow and nocked the most powerful explosion arrow she had. Additionally, she started charging Arcane Blast, to be let loose on whatever hid in the darkness.
Tense, she started advancing on one of the corridors emitting the strange sounds. She entered it while covering the light-orb in her sleeve, dampening the light to a minimal intensity.
The corridor went in a slight curve and as Liz rounded the sharpest part of it, on her toes without making a sound, she saw the source of the noise.
Occupying the middle of the corridor was massive monster who reached just shy of Liz''s shoulder. It was with its back towards her. Around it, undead bodies were strewn, most missing most of their limbs, an injury not caused by Liz''s attacks.
[Grave Mole - lvl ?]
In the same moment, Liz''s hold on the light-orb lapsed, letting it slip free of its cover. The mole instantly turned its head towards her. As soon as it saw Liz, purplish white runes dimly covering her arms, it stopped munching on the severed arm in its mouse-like snout, dropped it and uttered a squeaking sound, displaying a maw filled with rows of terrifying teeth.
But instead of attacking her like all other creatures in this realm so far, it turned and ran into the darkness, propelled by two incredibly bulky hind-legs and shovel-like hands, with a speed Liz just couldn''t match.
''Huh, a carrion eating mole? Yuck! At least it doesn''t seem to be inclined to attack the living, those teeth may be good to grind bone, but they don''t look like fun to living tissue either''
Liz returned to the round chamber and moved towards the remaining corridors emitting the crunching sounds. This time she didn''t hide her light. Even before she entered most tunnels the crunching stopped and Liz only ever found heaps of half-eaten undead.
''Guess they don''t reanimate. They were all just eaten.''
Again, Liz wasn''t inclined enough towards the deceased to carry the remains back or stop the mole from treating them as their food. If her observations were right, the moles had done this long before she came around. Their legs were just the right size to destroy the stone sarcophagi. And Liz had no delusions, that they would stop when she was eventually gone. And she didn''t plan on uncovering all undead, just enough to get to level 32 as she concluded that afterwards their efficiency for leveling would wane considerably. Right now she likely had just provided the moles with an easy-to-access feast.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
And so she continued with the undead in the round room. Around a quarter of the former amount still remained, sealed in.
Today, Liz decided to test the different arrow types, as she now possessed enough accuracy to hopefully not miss with the rare arrows. She wanted to stay as far away from them as possible, the labels on many arrows sounded very gory.
And they were gory. The worst offenders were: Flesh-eating, ''Blood boiling'' and the worst yet ''Flames of Annihilation''. As it turns out undead burn very well.
Luckily the undead going up in flames had distanced itself from the carnage corner. And so only it burned up in an instant.
Liz immediately stowed all fire arrows as far from her reach as possible. She wasn''t going to risk setting fire to the dungeon.
Now equipped with the knowledge of the different ''modifications'' by Wulfram, Liz continued with normal arrows and mana-charged undead. To do so she needed to leave the antechamber and enter the corridors.
Until she reached a second room. This one was square and held rows upon rows of sealed undead. It had a vaulted ceiling similar to the corridors.
In the room she started ''fighting'' two and eventually up to 4 at the same time. Until she became tired again and rested in the tower on the surface.
This continued for another three days until Liz became tired of it and instead decided to explore the dungeon without killing everything in her way first. During the three days she had encountered the moles several times. They would always run away before Liz neared any of them. They all also had similar levels of forty to forty-four. A number she was now able to see, as Arcane Mage had leveled to level 29.
-- You have learned the skill [Archery] --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 12 --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 13 --
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 9 --
?
-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 10 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 7 --
-- [Archery] has reached level 2 --
?
-- [Archery] has reached level 5 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 23. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
?
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 29. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
Her stat progress was astounding as well.
Vitality: 24 (+7)
Endurance: 23 (+8)
Strength: 22 (+9)
Dexterity: 27 (+4)
Perception: 31 (+4)
Wisdom: 33 (+4)
Intelligence: 31 (+4)
Now there was no single stat below 31. Yet the effects of more points in each had diminished accordingly. It really felt like Liz neared some unknown ceiling. Whether she would reach it or if the power increments would lock in on some lower value in the future, she had no idea.
But the biggest wonder had been the acquisition of [Archery]. It had presented itself shortly after starting to ''fight'' with three undead at the same time. It acted just like all other skills, suddenly giving a slight boost to her capabilities. In its case, it had slightly improved Liz''s aim, an instinctive subconscious nudging towards correctly handling the bow.
It caused her failed shots to decrease even further. But what was most interesting was how Liz understood her equipment a bit better. At lvl 3 of the skill she had realized that the string could be tensioned a bit more. Adjusting the bow according to her hunch, made the shots so much easier to control.
The Shadownyx, especially Nick, had occasionally visited, sometimes watching the shows, other times only to remind Liz of feeding time. When they were present they could detect the arrival of a Revenant early.
Revenants were a true nuisance. Every now and again one would simply materialize and attack Liz. While they were all dispersed with a single Arcane shot, their random arrivals often came at the most unwanted moments.
But now, bow in her hand, Liz casually strolled through the dungeon, no felines by her side. On the second morning she had started making a map on a bit of paper. She was now adding the bits and pieces still unknown to her.
Her early assumption of this being a small structure had been proven untrue. It was massive. There was a extensive ring of rooms connected to each other in a circle. There had to be at least a dozen rooms. Liz couldn''t say for sure as only seven rooms were accessible to her. The rest was obstructed by cave-ins in the tunnels. But there were still dozens of smaller rooms connected to the circle. Not to mention the corridors every three rooms towards the center of the circle, also buried in rubble.
Right now, Liz was looking for an unobstructed way into the center of the structure.
''That''s where the loot always is''
She was promptly distracted when she heard another of the moles and went to investigate the small side-room the sound came from.
The way was obstructed with immense amounts of rubble, the likely reason why Liz hadn''t searched the room before. After climbing through the corridor, Liz was presented with a surprise.
In the corner of the room a small nest was made out of fine rubble. In it three small, barely knee-height moles looked up at Liz. But that wasn''t what left Liz mouth-wide open. The floor and walls of half of them room were missing, giving way to a massive ravine. Covered with clusters of crystals.
Liz had long ago made the decision to ignore the moles. No matter how funny or cute they looked, they were still carrion eaters and just stunk to hell. Nothing Liz wanted anything to do with. Although she could afford more bonds by now. But not with these skittish grave robbers. Therefore, she left the three pups to their own devices and instead neared the steep drop in the floor.
This was a mistake. It turns out that, while grave moles ran from Liz in the open tomb, they defended their litter ferociously. Before she realized what happened, Liz was tumbling down into the ravine while a mix of a growl and squeak came from behind her.
''Oh fuck!''
On instinct, her hands reached out and managed to grip a ledge just underneath the floor. Her body weight caused her arms to stretch taut. Yet her increased strength let her manage to barely hold on. From just above her the parent mole was still madly squeaking at her.
She was dangling just out of reach of the angry beast. But also out of reach of any other way up besides the floor ledge occupied by the massive maw filled with grindstone-like teeth.
Her only way was further down, as she couldn''t hold on for much longer. Below her the ravine continued for about fifty meters before reaching a deadly jagged floor, littered with stalagmites ready to impale any body coming from above.
The best option was another small ledge a few meters beneath her and on the opposite side of the ravine. With as much force as she could muster, Liz pushed herself of the wall and reached for the opposite ledge.
She barely managed to get hold of it, before her body weight again slammed into her arms. She lost some grip and slipped to the point, that only her fingers were still clinging to the ledge desperately.
The angry squeaks still echoed through the ravine as Liz slowly moved her grip further up the ledge, careful not to slip again. Thankfully the ravine was not damp like the cellars.
Pushing herself up with the elbows, Liz finally managed to crest the ledge. As much as her strength and condition had magically improved with her levels, the unexpected climb left her lying on the ledge exhausted.
With her upwards facing view, she could perfectly see her assailant still stare down at her, moving from one side to the other finding no way to reach her.
But this also meant that Liz had no way to reach it in turn. Her movement was limited to her side of the ravine.
''Fuck! And of course the bond doesn''t reach the cats right now''
Under the angry gaze of the mole, she started to take in her situation. The climbing in the corridor had luckily forced her to strap the bow to her back. The backpack was also still there. The only casualty was another light-orb, now adorning the ravine-floor.
The ravine was mostly covered in crystals, only near the open room no crystals grew. Liz surmised that the structure had disturbed its surroundings too much. Thankfully this also meant, that she could see another crystal-free spot just a few meters to her left. On her side of the ravine. Unfortunately the jagged walls and subsequent shadows made viewing whatever caused the bald spot impossible from her position.
Carefully inspecting the wall left Liz in the impression that the wall should hold her, should she decide to shimmy over. The mole still squeaked at her.
"I get it! I disturbed your nest! You made your point!" Liz shouted at the beast grating on her nerves. To be fair she was rather annoyed with her own stupidity leaving her in her current situation. She had been careless in a dangerous dungeon and was now paying the price.
As no other way presented itself to her in the ensuing moment of rest, Liz eventually decided to shimmy her way over to the suspected structure of the dungeon.
It thankfully was part of the dungeon as Liz wouldn''t have made it back had it proven otherwise. The only problem was that it was walled off. And the wall looked pristine. Liz estimated her best option to be to blast at it from the small ledge she was standing on. Fortunately there were dozens of mana crystals to draw power from. Plucking the few she could reach, Liz started to wear down the wall of massive stone blocks.
It felt like forever until Liz finally managed to breach the thirty centimeter thick wall. It took at least half an hour more until she had widened the hole enough to allow her to crawl through. The mole had thankfully stopped its agitated show and left Liz to her own devices after about half an hour.
With the hole finally wide enough, Liz crawled through into the unknown. She had learned from her previous mistake and held a dagger in her hand. For good reason, as she was surprised to find the room she was now in to be completely different from the ones she had been in before.
There were still the sarcophagi, but none were destroyed, neither were the walls. New were also the dim lines of light connecting to each of the stone pedestals and bundling in the middle before leaving the room together.
The lines that additionally hurt to look at.
''What the fuck? What is this?''
Careful of anything getting the jump on her, Liz inspected the lines on the floor. They felt like an overcharged runic framework, but she could see no rune anywhere.
''Is this the other kind of enchantment Garuna spoke of? Manipulation by will? But for what?''
Whatever it was, it must have preserved the structure as it was in a truly pristine condition in comparison to the rest of the dungeon. Hesitant to touch the enchantment, Liz moved through the room and towards the exit. There was only one, letting Liz recognize her current location as one of the small side rooms. The exit however was in the direction that led towards the center of the circular dungeon, not the outer circle like the rooms before. So no real exit. Rather an entrance deeper into the dungeon.
''Let''s hope there is a secondary entrance to the inner dungeon, else I really have to go back through the ravine''
Liz entered the corridor. Every few meters more lines from the pedestals in the alcoves combined with the bundle. All moving through the corridor towards an unknown destination.
''It connects all sarcophagi? But to what? And for what purpose?''
Liz eventually entered another round room. Just like the outer ring it connected to about a dozen more rooms. Unlike the outer rooms, it was heavily decorated, even marble adorned the walls. The dome topping the room was in pristine condition, displaying a massive mural. It showed an army charging an army of monsters of similar size. In front of the first army, made up of the beings entombed around Liz, a small figure rode atop a two headed horse, a crown cresting its head.
Before Liz could inspect the impressive artwork further, heavy footsteps came from one of the dark tunnels.
Chapter 18
From the darkness a massive figure emerged. It was bulky and humanoid in proportions but at a size that barely fit into the corridor. Additionally, it was completely made out of stone. There was no head either. It was a terrifying display.
[Tomb Golem - lvl ??]
Fearful, Liz stood completely still as the golem moved into the room. She was still barely in the room. Still directly next to the path the golem was taking. Just as it was about to pass her by, it turned its whole body towards Liz. Before Liz could react, the arm of the golem shot in her direction.
It hit her square in the stomach, pushing all air out of her lungs and throwing her back three meters. Gasping, Liz struggled for breath as the heavy footsteps neared her.
Before the golem could get another punch in, Liz rolled out of the way. The stone fist hit the spot she had been in just a moment before, cracking the floor beneath it.
With shaky movements, Liz was able to get up, only to duck away from the next punch. It hit her left arm, still hard enough to dislocate it. Her entire arm went numb.
Liz attempted to get some distance to the golem lashing out again. Her bow was lying behind the animated construct, out of her reach. Only her spell and daggers remained.
Running to the other side of the room, illuminated by the faint light of the crystals spilled out of her backpack, Liz tried to reposition her shoulder joint.
She had already activated her aura and charged mana shortly after the first punch. Yet, she struggled to aim at the fast-moving stone construct. No matter how fast she ran, the golem kept close to her heel.
At least it didn''t get any more hits in. With a short sprint, Liz managed to get enough distance to turn and release the accumulated mana onto the headless golem.
Before she could see her damage dealt, she had to turn again and run from the damaging stone fists. One lap of the room later, let her turn again to shoot another Blast at her pursuer. The stone chest was completely unblemished. Just like the Undead the golem seemed to absorb her Arcane magic.
Still Liz tried to damage it using the Blast. Three more laps and two more shots left the golem as spry as ever. Liz however started to feel the exhaustion of her fast sprint creeping in. Her arm was still dislocated, her stomach had fortunately healed at this point. Her mana was nearing its limits as well. She could of course tap into the crystals spilled near the center of the room. But they were the only light-source she had.
She was also lucky that the golem seemed to be pretty dumb, as it didn''t try to catch her by cutting through the middle of the room. For minutes the only sounds in the room were the dull stomping of the golem and Liz''s heavy breathing.
Desperate for a new idea, Liz focused on repositioning her arm. Another two laps and even closer to overexertion, the arm finally popped back in its proper joint.
While her regeneration took care of the damaged and numb tissue surrounding the joint, Liz tried to reach for her bow. It was still on the ground in the middle of the room.
Two attempts nearly cost her another punch to the side. But on the third, Liz was able to take hold of the wood. Careless of what she took, Liz grabbed an arrow from the heap next to the bow.
Half a lap later, Liz managed to nock the arrow and release it. She had been unable to see what kind of arrow it was. Until now.
It was one of the eccentric variants. Labelled as ''Wrath of the Stars'', it caused dozens of extremely hot ''stars'' to spring from the impact point. Half of the stars fell off the golem and sizzled on the floor, but the other half managed to stick to the stone construct, melting the stone for a few centimeters before extinguishing.
It caused no visible reaction from the golem. Without a head Liz couldn''t read any facial expression and as far as movement was concerned the construct still followed her relentlessly.
Liz was elated to have finally damaged her opponent. But when she turned back as she was grabbing another arrow, she was horrified to see the damaged holes already closing.
''Oh shit! Why does everything have to regenerate!''
A barrage of back on back arrows at least managed to slow down the regeneration, but not without Liz getting hit in the hip by the barreling fists. It slowed her down considerably, her only consolation the fact that the golem also finally slowed down and was even missing a whole arm from an explosive arrow.
She also realized that the golem could only perceive his surroundings in a radius of around 5 m. Liz leaving the perception and making a quick turn left the golem barreling in the original direction until it reached the wall. It then somehow managed to hone in on her pretty quickly again.
All arrows that were easy to grab in passing were gone by now. The rest were contained in her backpack, lying in the center of the room. Thankfully with the golem slowed down considerably, Liz could possibly succeed in grabbing it.
Grabbing the heavy backpack still took multiple tries. Not to mention the hit to her shoulder blade, nearly leaving her toppling over her backpack before she was able to catch herself. At least the hit held considerably less punch than the ones before.
Liz was already up and running again before the golem had withdrawn its fist enough to lash out again.
Running and simultaneously pouring through a bag on the search for a particular object was no easy feat and Liz left a trail of objects behind her, most immediately trampled by the golem.
Eventually though, she found what she was looking for.
Throwing the bag to the side, Liz turned around and threw the vial of acid at her pursuer. It exploded front and center on its chest. The liquid spray hit the whole torso. It immediately started to sizzle and bubble. Liz still needed to run away, but after a minute she turned around again to see the golem drop to the ground, stopping most of its movement. A few moments later it stopped moving completely, just as a new notification entered Liz''s mind. Liz dropped to the ground, gasping for breath.
-- You have killed a [Tomb Golem - lvl 64] --
-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 14 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 8 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 9 --
-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 19 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 30. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
?
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 32. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- Congratulations! You reached level 32. Additional skill slots unlocked. Level rewards adjusted --
-- WARNING: Differing foci detected; skill slots incompatible; adjusting slot distribution --
-- +3 [Arcane] skill slots --
-- +1 [Tamer] skill slot --
-- New skills available --
-- WARNING: Differing foci detected; skill selection limited to focus-exclusive --
''Ahh! That wasn''t too bad! lvl 64! A new high! And definitely not twice as hard as a lvl 32 Undead! But I didn''t need to use the stat point. And so many levels... Wait...I can select skills now? And what the hell are focus-exclusive skills?''
Arcane Bolt - Arcane
[Skill available to selection]
Form a bolt of pure Arcane magic, severely damaging to all it hits
Arcane Eye - Arcane
[Skill available to selection]
See what has been hidden before. Perceive mana at will
Arcane Shield - Arcane
[Skill available to selection]
Form a shield of dense Arcane magic around yourself, weakening any incoming magic-based attacks and blocking weak physical attacks
Transfer - Arcane
[Skill available to selection]
Transfer yourself to a destination near you
Pack Healing - Tamer
[Skill available to selection]
Give your health to your bonds. At a cost
Pack Life - Tamer
[Skill available to selection]
When in vicinity of your bonded, your needs are reduced
''Hell yeah! That all sounds great! But I can only pick 4? That is just unfair. Transfer is certainly on the list. Arcane Bolt sounds like a concentrated form of Arcane Blast. Arcane Eye would undoubtedly help, if just to understand how some magic works. Arcane Shield is probably the most helpful. I lack severely in defense. In comparison, I need the perception more than Arcane Bolt. Just to round out my skills. Now, the Tamer skills. They both sound good. Though, to be honest, the healing is rather useless. The cats get far less injury than me. If it were in the other direction, I might have considered it. But this way, I think I will go with [Arcane Eye], [Arcane Shield], [Transfer] and [Pack Life]''
Some more mental acrobatics later, Liz managed to select her choices.
-- You have learned the passive class skill [Arcane Eye] --
-- You have learned the active class skill [Arcane Shield] --
-- You have learned the active class skill [Transfer] --
-- You have learned the passive class skill [Pack Life] --
Her stat points were also quickly distributed. Liz relished in the euphoric feeling of the level-up after the exhausting fight.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 32
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 407/408
Stamina: 254/374
Mana: 510/624
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Vitality: 34
Endurance: 34
Strength: 34
Dexterity: 32
Perception: 37
Wisdom: 39
Intelligence: 37
Unassigned stat points: 1
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3
Archery - lvl 5
Cold Tolerance - lvl 3
Compulsion Resistance - lvl 3
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 3
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 3
Lightning Resilience - lvl 1
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 4
Pain Suppression - lvl 18
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane
Arcane Blast - lvl 14
Runic Intuition - lvl 4
Spell Channeling - lvl 10
Mana Draw - lvl 4
Arcane Eye - lvl 1
Arcane Shield - lvl 1
Transfer - lvl 1
Tamer
Bond - lvl 4
Call of the Hunt - lvl 9
Pack Life - lvl 1
Liz immediately tested each of her new skills. Arcane Eye was just a conscious nudge to see magic and left Liz stunned. Surrounding her was a mist. Yet she could perfectly see through the mist. And get blinded by the lines on the floor. They were a maelstrom of light. Fearing damage, Liz deactivated the skill. Only to see as much as before. No blinding but neither any reduction of her night-vision in the dim light of the crystals. This reminded Liz to pick up the light-orb again, lighting the room up once more.
Reactivating the skill, Liz inspected the lines again. Rune-like patterns of mana flowed through the floor around the main mana flow. What surprised Liz as well was that the mana flow happened towards the sarcophagi and not the other way around as she had thought before. And it was so much more mana-intense than the crystals lying atop the stone floor.
Still keeping Arcane Eye active, Liz tested her new shield. She saw mana leave her chest and spread over her body, settling just a few centimeters above her armor or skin, where some of it very slowly dissipated into the mist of mana surrounding her.
Using one of her daggers Liz tried to cut herself. Her Pain Suppression had truly changed her manners. She felt a distinct resistance where she met the mana. It was like pushing through very viscous jelly before she managed to reach her skin. Where she actually managed a small cut with enough pressure. While her blade was inside the mana-bubble the expenditure had risen. At her current level she would likely be able to sustain it for a bit more than five minutes.
The same could not be said about Transfer. Using the instinctual understanding of the skill, Liz imagined herself to be on the other side of the room. She saw a small tendril of magic explode out into the direction near instantly. The next moment she lost 300 mana and was standing on the other side of the room, thirty meters from her previous position.
''Bummer! I can''t sustain that for long. But TELEPORTATION! I can fucking teleport myself! Just like that!''
Drawing more mana from the crystals, Liz spent a few minutes just teleporting through the room. Constantly laughing during it. Until she remembered her location and how her last act of carelessness had left her clinging to a ledge in the ravine. Liz immediately stopped, and her laughter ceased, not wanting to attract even more attention. Because where there is one [Tomb Golem] there is the high chance of another.
And she still had to find another exit, though getting back through the ravine might prove easier with the Transfer skill. For that to work she had to see where she wanted to go. Although, it also worked if she had a good memory of what the room looked like when she closed her eyes.
Despite her chance to exit through the ravine, Liz was interested in finding out where the lines led. It was just too strange. Hundreds of undead somehow linked to something and getting mana from it.
Following the flow of mana through the lines led Liz through more of the rooms, some with more murals, all depicting scenes out of a war of what she would call demons and the beings the Undead were made out of. She even encountered more golems, at least six different ones. But unwilling to engage, Liz always kept her distance in the hopes of not getting detected by the golems. Fortunately it worked. The golems would simply exit the room through another corridor. They seemed to patrol through the dungeon, but always on top of the mana lines.
Liz even saw several of the caved-in corridors to her previous position from the other side. She could identify them pretty quickly as the mana conduits snaking through every other corridor were missing at the entrance of the caved-in tunnels.
Before she could find any exit or even the source of the mana, she began to feel tired. It must have been late evening. Liz became worried about the cats. They would have normally gotten their meal by now.
''For once I hope they manage to get through the latch on the pantry''
Liz''s own supply would hold only for another meal. She needed to leave this massive dungeon soon. But first she needed rest. There was no way around it. Without rest, she wouldn''t be able to face whatever she might find in her way to freedom.
''Just my luck. This is the second time I am stuck in a dungeon, looking for a way out and needing to rest. At least here I have a good idea what I am about to face''
The next caved-in tunnel Liz decided to use as a way station and made herself comfortable on the rubble.
Liz woke to a sword-tip pressing on her neck-guard.
In front of her lying form, three small figure were arranged. All three were heavily armed and had their swords aimed at her body.
[Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl ??]
"What the fuck!"
Recovering from the initial shock, Liz tried to scramble away from the sharp blades aimed at her head. The visibly undead easily kept up with her movement. They were way faster than any she had encountered before. The undead in the middle opened its mouth.
"Ur tri ret?" a guttural voice emitted from the being.
"What?" Liz uttered, dumbfounded by the intellect of the undead.
"Ull! Ur zir h?h zong?" the undead replied.
"I can''t understand you!"
Liz suddenly felt a connection similar to the stag''s telepathy establish.
?What moot thine purpose be? Doth the liege want its power once moe??
Liz was surprised to suddenly hear a voice in her head. And one speaking what sounded like an ancient variant of Commons at that. With her low skill level it was hard to decipher all it said.
She had no idea who the voice belonged to, but she got the distinct impression that it wasn''t one of the undead still holding their swords at her throat.
"Ehhm... I don''t think so? Who are you? And could the swords maybe leave my throat?"
?Are thou no servant of his gentle lord??
The swords remained where they were. Liz became worried that the interaction might soon turn ugly. It was kinda how all her adventures ended in the past. She therefore began preparing to transfer into the clear behind the undead before she answered.
"I don''t know what king you answer to, but outside the nearest royalty is hundreds of kilometers away! And I am definitely no servant of anybody! I am my own lady!"
?How dare thou to assume thouself above thy station! I, Argentuvalur of Arthwys, shall be the only king to rule these lands! Mine power shall thwart thy uprising!? the voice roared in her head.
Deciding that now was the time to make a move, Liz activated her new teleportation skill. In the blink of an eye she was standing behind the undead. Just at the right time, as the space formerly occupied by her throat was filled with sharp steel in the next moment.
?Ynough! Thou shall pay for thy nyce endeavour! Thou shall feel the wrath of Argentuvalar of Arthwys! Rise my loyal! Take up the arms once moe?
The three undead whirled and charged her.
''Oh shit!''
Liz barely managed to transfer to her backpack before she would have got skewered by the sharp blades of the knights.
?Halt! Thou shall not resist thy judgment!?
Liz felt the compulsion accompanying the words. Fortunately it was laughable in comparison to the stag''s suggestions. While it still caused her to still for a moment, her resistance quickly broke through the magic and Liz could move once more. Just as the undead closed in on her again.
Liz sprinted down the hallway, away from the three knights at her heels. All her skills were active at this point. While she ran, she fumbled to equip the bow strapped to her back.
She finally managed just as she reached the first room. In it she was shocked to find all the sarcophagi open and the dozens of undead formerly confined to them moving in her direction in a purposeful stride. Totally unlike all the lost Warriors from before. They were all also in way better condition than the ones she had met before.
[Eternal Warrior - lvl 32]
Fortunately the warriors acting as if heavily charged with mana were not equipped with any weapon, unlike the knights who had easily kept up with her up until this point.
Liz had to transfer behind the first line of warriors blocking her way. The second line was barely formed as she barreled through the gaps of it. Dead and cold hands reached out to her from all sides, but Liz continued on.
She had no idea where she was and where to, but knew that she had to get away from the hordes of undead already forming organized fighting setups.
Picking an exit close to her at random, Liz left the room filled with undead soldiers behind her. The hordes of small creatures had at least slowed down the similar sized knights. The short reprieve allowed Liz to properly put on the backpack and nock an arrow.
Just as the knights reached her again, she fired the arrow at them. It was one of the basic fire ones. She hit the middle knight and the arrow immediately did its job flawlessly. It erupted in flames just as it hit. The dead flesh quickly caught fire as well, flames practically exploding into existence. The fires eating away the reanimated muscles let the undead fall behind its running companions, but not before also setting fire to their arms and subsequently bodies.
After just a few moments all three ceased running. Liz kept running, even as three kill notifications entered her mind.
-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --
?
-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --
-- [Transfer] has reached level 2 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 33. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 34. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
Liz paid little mind to the notifications. Instead, her focus was on the path in front of her. She was just a few dozen meters from the next room, and she could already make out humanoid figures moving through the dimly lit darkness in front of her.
Looking down she also realized that she was moving opposite the mana flow, distancing herself further from her known exit. But she couldn''t form any plan to correct her mistake as her full focus was now needed to evade the Warriors trying to intercept her.
She needed to never stop moving, else dozens of cold hands would take hold of her. To her horror she also had to realize that when one of the undead got hold of her, teleporting became a hundredfold more mana-intensive to the point that she sucked a whole mana crystal empty before she cancelled her attempt to transfer just a few meters to the front.
She was barely able to loosen the unyielding grip of the warrior before another knight suddenly appeared out of the masses around her and a blade slashed towards her head.
Liz moved out of the way at the last moment, leaving the blade to glance off her shoulder instead. Her armor in addition to her new Arcane Shield were barely able to stop the steel from digging into her flesh.
The incursion in her shield sapped massive amounts of mana, Mana Draw was barely able to supply it. At least she wasn''t foolish enough to possibly power the undead with her Arcane Blasts.
Her already small crystal stash in the backpack was diminishing quickly. Not to mention her stamina, that just couldn''t compare to the dozens of warriors uncaring for their physical condition.
Liz managed to breach the lines of undead and get enough distance to them to release another arrow into their midst. This time, it was of the ''Flames of Annihilation'' variant. The phalanx of flames springing into existence made a perfect barrier between Liz and her pursuers. But also blocked her from reaching the only tunnel she definitely knew led back to the surface.
''Fuck!''
Without another option and with some undead moving through the flames despite barely making it two meters beyond, Liz moved further into the corridor and away from the advancing front of scorching flames. Not to mention the smoke quickly spreading into the tomb.
''Double fuck! Toxic smoke was the last thing I needed!''
For the first meters Liz held her breath, unwilling to breath in any toxic compounds, much to the protest of her lungs aching for more oxygen.
Running as fast as she could, Liz fled from the expanding cloud of smoke and ash, ever deeper into the dungeon until she finally felt free to breath again. Weirdly she didn''t reach another room after the normal distance. Instead the tunnel went on for some time before the walls gave way to the biggest dome yet.
Liz could only see the ceiling because an immensely bright silver-white orb was hovering in the middle of the space. Liz accidentally had Arcane Eye still active, to which the orb was truly blinding. Dozens of strands of mana were entering the sphere from around it and leaving it in a river of magical power below.
The floor was just as impressive. Right below the sphere 8 pillars were arranged in a circle. On each, except for two, more bright magical objects sat, their exact shape hidden by the bright radiance of power emitting from them. But the impressive magical infrastructure wasn''t what held Liz focus. No, her gaze was caught by the pedestal exactly below the orb. It was brimming with just as much magic as the pillars surrounding, yet on it another undead was resting. Its elaborate armor was adorned by a golden crown atop its small head.
[Argentuvalur - lvl ??]
It wasn''t moving, unlike the dozen of knights surrounding it. They were evenly spaced between the pillars, facing outwards. Just as Liz realized that they were shielding the body from her, the voice resounded through the still open link again.
?Thou hast durst to challenge me? I shall squash thine meager flesh!?
As the last word echoed through Liz''s head, the orb suddenly began shrinking from its basketball size down to an orange and began lowering itself towards the prone body. The mana flow from the pillars increased exponentially as it closed in on the body. Liz, with her gaze on the dozen deadly blades, slowly retreated towards exit again. Just as she suddenly bumped into an invisible barrier, she felt another notification enter her mind.
-- You have breached the inner sanctum of Argentuvalur''s tomb --
-- You woke the Eternal Guardian of his people, Argentuvalur the Vengeful --
-- May you find glory or perish --
''Triple fuck!''
Chapter 19
-- You have breached the inner sanctum of Argentuvalur''s tomb --
-- You woke the Eternal Guardian of his people, Argentuvalur the Vengeful --
-- May you find glory or perish --
''Triple fuck!''
Liz whirled around, only to be confronted by a milky white barrier blocking her much-needed exit. She tried to transfer through it, but it wasn''t just hard, it was practically impossible. Had she not supplemented the spell with Mana Draw, her attempt would have left her empty of mana in an instant.
With her teleportation blocked, Liz tried to blast her away through the barrier. Her spells simply sizzled out of existence at the barrier. In her frantic attempt of flight, she had completely ignored the happenings in the middle of the cavern. Fearing a sudden attack from her back, Liz abandoned her attack and turned back to the center.
The now marble sized orb had increased in radiance hundredfold and was just fingers away from the open mouth of the heavily armed body on the pedestal. None of the knights had moved.
Liz saw no hope in flight. Instead, she went for the best defense, offensive. Another still nocked fire arrow flew towards the body. It never reached even the knights. Just as it passed the pillars, a blue radiant barrier came into existence, obliterating her projectile.
The bright orb entered the mouth. It closed around it. The undead king swallowed as the cave was cast into the dim light of the pillars and her light orb again.
"Feel the wrath of mine power!" a now physical voice boomed through the vault.
The knights rushed out towards Liz position. She barely had time to nock another arrow. Liz dropped the light as three sharp blades of steel sailed towards her undefended body.
Transfer barely activated in time to move her away from the deadly swords. But the next knight was already there to intercept her. She didn''t see the sword coming.
One moment her back was fine, the next she felt her left shoulder go numb. Her shield had completely failed her. Her blood drooping from the blade, Liz found another knight just behind her, already reaching for another blow. This time Liz was prepared as she ducked out of the way.
But there was already another one at her back again. Before she could react, it gave the deep gash in her left shoulder blade a symmetrical twin. This time her Pain Suppression let a short burst of burning pain through. Arcane Shield only slightly slowed down the assault.
More blows soon followed from all sides and Liz could only react to each. Barely missing getting hit by the deadly steel. Before she could move away from her compromising position in the middle of the powerful undead, another blow would come at her, needing her to dodge back into the middle of it.
Her back was still bleeding, her healing struggling to contain the blood gushing out of her open skin. The barrage of the undead knights and their fast twirling blades was unending. In the middle of the rhythmic cadence of blades it was impossible to nock or shoot another arrow.
Liz never used her daggers against the undead but was now forced to drop her bow and reach for them. Both hands equipped with a knife, Liz continued dodging the swords barreling through the air, looking for an opening. It took her whole focus, Liz constantly moving, ducking, twisting out of the way of the sharp-edged steel. Her backpack also had to go to allow enough freedom of movement.
The knights had truly earned their title, Liz seeing little options for offensive. Still, eventually one of the small humanoids overextended, Liz immediately lashing out with her daggers. She hit the flesh of its arm. And its bone. And severed one hand. The hand together with the sword dropped on the floor.
The knight uttered no sound. Instead, it fell back, another immediately taking its place. But Liz attack had also cost her. The short distraction had given one of the beings the opening to reopen the wound on her back. Pain again flashed through her mind.
Liz ignored it. She barely managed to push the assailant back without another getting an opening. One of her ensuing ducks brought her close to the severed hand. On a hunch, Liz abandoned one of her blades and gripped the severed limb and the sword with it.
It was made for much smaller hands and after removing the finger clinging to its hilt, it was light enough for Liz to twirl it around just as fast as her smaller opponents.
It finally gave her the edge she needed. With her longer reach, her opponents became more conservative in their attacks. Liz however increased her attacks with fervor. Even overextending, she went for the limbs of the beings.
Her second strike already hit true and severed the weak tendons in the arm of one of the knights. It dropped back. The second she decapitated, ending its undead existence in an instant. The third faced the same fate.
Liz had finally found a weakness. Their small forms allowed for little cover from the top. And so she felled four more of her assailants, two of which the already injured. But suddenly there were no more to kill.
Liz remembered the existence of the undead king. A quick glance around the room revealed its position in the midst of the remaining knights. They congregated around the pillars. Three more of the pillars were missing their radiant objects. Liz however could feel the power emitting from the center of the center to be even higher than before.
"Thou truly see thou self capable of defeating my trusted knights? You shall feel their vengeance forever more!" the king thundered as he threw 5 orbs at the ground and 10 Revenants materialized themselves around him.
With a gesture of his hand, the Revenants charged at Liz.
Liz answered in return. Not with words but with ten small blasts of her coveted mana. It was an already precious resource. Liz didn''t dare to move from her backpack three meters behind her, holding her only remaining sources of magical power she could draw from. But now she could only giggle. The situation was just too strange. All her Blast hit simultaneously before the apparitions even came halfway towards her. The Revenants all vanished in an instant.
"No! Thou shouldn''t have access to this power! It belongs with the Ancients! A heretic! Thou may have stolen the power of the Ancients, but thou shall not survive to blaspheme them any further!"
Instead of sending the knights, the king charged at Liz himself. The knights stood inside the ring of pillars.
But that was none of Liz concern at the moment as the king easily tripled the speed of the knights. In the blink of an eye he was next to her and in the same fraction of a second, his gem-encrusted blade was stuck in Liz''s arm.
Just as the steel left her arm again, her Transfer went through, which she had activated just as she had registered the first of his movement. Just about an eternity too late. It was as if the king teleported as well. And his blade, leaving Liz with a paining wound quickly coloring her sleeve with crimson liquid.
Her health just sped towards zero. Not a single wound had hurt so much since her skill evolution. Neither had one left her losing health so fast. Not even a torn artery. It was a case for her unspent stat points. Dumping all her available points into Vitality gave little reprieve. Her health shortly spiked up before returning to its downfall.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
The undead king just stood in her previous position, watching her struggle to survive just one of his hits. His completely black eyes bore into her as he caressed his blade.
"Not so strong after all? Should have desecrated another pantheon. Maybe of Thiranaz"
Liz paid little mind to the jabs. Her most pressing issue was getting the vial of healing potion open with shaking hands and apply it to the wound spraying her life-giving liquid out of her body.
The clear liquid hit the wound and sizzled. It burned. Pain. Like acid entering her bloodstream. None of it was suppressed. And Liz screamed. But the blood flow slowed down. And stopped.
The undead king had simultaneously stopped his gloating behavior. Instead, he gawked at her closing wounds.
"What kind of ungodly concoction is this! Nothing should stand the Curse of the knighthood! Thou and thine concoctions shall not exist!"
It turned its broadsword in his hands, scrutinizing the blade. Even as Liz was still struggling with the pain from the battle of healing magic against an ancient curse infecting her wound.
Liz regained her bearings before the king did. While he was still inspecting his sword for a reason for failure, Liz finally reclaimed her bow.
Just as she got hold of the handle, the king noticed her movement. It tried again to compel her.
"Halt! Face your judgement!"
The compulsion was even weaker now than before. Liz barely stilled before moving once again. The king hadn''t moved from his position, even in her completely vulnerable second of forced stillness. But Liz wasn''t hoping he did either. She wouldn''t be able to bear another injury by his cursed blade. As it was her arm was barely able to hold up the bow.
Instead, the knights surged forward once more. In seconds Liz was surrounded by heavily armored beings again. She had dropped the sword when the king had hit her and could only wave her bow around to keep them from reaching her weak side.
The knights had changed their behavior severely. Her expectation of their tactics became her weakness. Where before they had approached her carefully, they now charged at her with abandon, completely careless of the three undead she felled with her bow, wielded like a club, before a sharp sword turned her bow into shreds.
But she could only block one direction with the wood and without it even less, a deep flaw as she found out when two undead latched on to her legs, making her practically immobile.
The undead immediately capitalized on this fact, when even the ones she had clubbed returned to attacking her, crowding her in an instant. It wasn''t a fight anymore, rather a brawl of undead, swords, and Liz. Thankfully their chaos became a downside, as only one or two would ever be able to actually hit Liz. And then their hits were severely weakened by the obstructions in the way and Liz''s shield, sapping most of their remaining strength.
Only every third attack actually pierced her skin. But every hit was one too many. Liz struggled to keep up with the swords twirling through the surrounding air, all the while grabbing another dagger and brandishing it towards the two stuck on her legs, like child throwing a tantrum.
Unlike handling a child, Liz didn''t proceed with care, instead her sharp blade easily severed the arms of her assailants. Dead flesh could do little against her sharp blade and no matter how well the magic preserved them, the animated bones were made brittle by their age.
Her two captors were quickly left without limbs to hold onto anything, Liz immediately transferring away from the swords slicing into her heavily bleeding hip and abdomen.
Gasping for breath, Liz stood on the other side of the wide room and watched as the knights rushed towards her new position. Before the first reached her, she teleported away again. Close to her backpack. Her fast dwindling mana supply.
Status:
Health: 78/492
Stamina: 56/374
Mana: 143/624
None of her resources looked good to face an undead king wielding a cursed blade and his squad of fast zombie knights. Liz was sure she still had a replenishment tonic in her backpack. And so she perused through it, in search for it. And transferred away from the knights whenever they were about to reach her. The king only watched from the pillar circle, no emotion, neither anger nor happiness, visible on his face of sunken-in face.
In other circumstances, Liz might have laughed at the scene. A powerful undead king standing unmoving, all the while his minions, some missing both arms, ran after a mage teleporting in a circle around the king.
Liz search also revealed how dire her mana situation was. Of the two dozen incredibly bright mana crystal she had harvested, only four remained, dimmed down already. But she finally found the replenishment tonic.
And she instantly felt more energized again. But not exactly to the point she expected.
Status:
Health: 200/492
Stamina: 200/374
Mana: 200/624
''Fuck! Of course, it had some quirk I hadn''t known about!''
Liz couldn''t spend any time at all to sulking, instead she was forced to flee once more.
''I can''t keep this up for long! The knights have to go!''
Her bow was gone, her magic useless against the undead, and her daggers to short to best the long swords of the undead. She needed another one of their blades.
Thankfully there were still some from the fallen near the center of the room. But they were also in reach of the king still watching her moving around.
Still Liz set her next transfer to the heap of flesh and steel. Before any of the still-undead knights could reach her, she extracted one of the swords from the unyielding grip of the completely passed. The king didn''t even twitch. He just watched her grab a weapon mere meters from him.
''What the hell is wrong with him? What does it mean that he doesn''t attack? He could overwhelm me so easily!''
Liz had the fear she was just being toyed with. This battle made no sense. Yet no matter how nonsensical it might be, and even if the king would just smite her soon, Liz definitely wasn''t going to survive if she didn''t survive the current threat, the fast approaching knights. If she was to be a toy, she would show this maniacal king what it means to have a choking hazardous toy.
Once again armed, she took to dismembering more of the undead. With a sword it became easier. Not easy but easier. The undead still attacked her without a care in the world to their own life, or rather un-life. While it left some of them more exposed, the rest made up for their weaknesses, as Liz simply didn''t have the health to not have to defend herself simultaneously.
Liz practically stopped using Transfer altogether instead using her remaining mana reserves for keeping up the shield and aura. But this also meant no last-minute transfer dodges, instead she had to act ahead of time. But the knights were simply too fast. Everywhere their swords could reach, her armor was in tatters at this point. Only her shield actually kept their blades from actually reaching too deep into her skin.
But over time, if slowly, Liz was also able to cull their numbers. The first two were decapitated, and the third had his arms removed, making him near useless against her. With only three still able attackers to contend with, Liz slowly gained the upper hand.
Just a minute later, the last four were dead.
Status:
Health: 165/492
Stamina: 63/374
Mana: 121/624
She was completely worn down but the biggest threat still remained. The last two kills had been easy enough for Liz to observe the reaction of the king. While he stood still, Liz could see no more magically-radiant objects on the pillars. Still the power emitting from the center of the room had increased even further. Her magic sight showed her that it was all congregated around the king. A bubble of pure blinding mana surrounded the undead king.
Liz was unsure what to do. The king still stared at her. But Liz wasn''t sure why, and it wasn''t reassuring at all. But the milky white transfer-resistant barrier still blocked the only exit, so retreat wasn''t an option. Arcane Eye even revealed a thin thread connecting the mana-saturated king with the barrier. Her panicked glancing between the exit and the king finally elicited a reaction from him.
"Finally realized the futility of thine fate? Thine flesh shall burn for thine heresy!"
Unwilling to stop her heavy breathing to deign the taunt with an answer, Liz stayed mute. Her study of the thread connecting the barrier finally revealed the reason for the king''s behavior; the surrounding mana was slowly forming into some subtle structure. The king was stalling to release some horrible spell. All of the mana surrounding him was woven into a spell. Liz only chance was now.
She immediately charged the king even teleporting to get closer, immediately building momentum afterwards. Before smacking into an invisible barrier between the pillars. She hit the wall hard, luckily it gave and bounced her back onto the floor half a dozen meters back. Liz tried to transfer through the barrier, only to get her mana drained away just like with the exit. But it was too late, anyway.
With Arcane Eye still active, Liz watched as the bubble of mana surrounding the king exploded outwards, in a wall of purple flame. Her eyelids descend in the face of the blazing flames. Her arms instinctively move to block her face from the inferno.
She watched as the purple fire reached the pillars.
She watched as the pillars were obliterated.
She watched as the heap of bones, flesh and steel was cleansed by the flame.
Her eyes fully closed.
She felt as the wave washed over her body.
She felt it break down her armor.
She felt it attack her skin.
She felt it break down all her body hair.
She felt her skin go numb.
She felt mana burning in her every vein.
She felt the burn reach her heart.
She felt it stop.
Her eyes opened.
She saw dark.
She felt a notification.
-- [Arcane Magic Immunity] has reached level 4 --
?
-- [Arcane Magic Immunity] has reached level 11 --
Chapter 20
-- [Arcane Magic Immunity] has reached level 4 --
?
-- [Arcane Magic Immunity] has reached level 11 --
Liz still saw nothing.
Was she still in the cavern? For all she knew, she could be floating in space. She didn''t feel any pressure from any skin contacting the ground.
Still she didn''t move. Something was wrong. Else she would feel the ground. Frankly any feeling. Was she even conscious?
Status:
Health: 45/492
Stamina: 23/374
Mana: 624/624
Her health stayed consistent. Her stamina didn''t change either. Her mana reminded her that she could light herself up.
She just had to blindly infuse mana into her body. Fortunately she had done it enough times before.
Charging mana into her arm, made the runes and glyph pattern light up. Liz saw it brightly, right in front of her eyes.
She could still see. She was conscious. But where?
She had to move her arm. Could she move her numb arm? She had done it dozens of times in training.
It worked. Her arm awkwardly crashed to the side. It left a pervading darkness.
Her arm was visible at the edge of her view. Liz rotated her head in the direction.
Her arm was on a stone. The stone floor. She was still in the tomb. Lying on the floor.
Her arm looked perfectly fine. Why didn''t she have any feeling? Had she injured her spine? No, else she wouldn''t be able to move the arm.
What was wrong with her?
Liz tested her other arm. It worked as well. On either side of her head no speck of dust covered the floor.
She lifted her head. The darkness extended all around her. Nowhere was there anything but the stone floor.
No, that wasn''t right. There was small speck of light beyond her feet.
Liz struggled. She managed to put her arms beneath her. Supporting her to sit up.
Yes, there was a light in front of her. Flipping to her front, Liz crawled towards it.
Or rather flailed on the ground towards it.
The light was coming from a body. The body of the undead king.
''Wait, I didn''t get a kill notification!''
As she neared the body, it stirred. Ever so slightly its mouth moved. The source of the light.
Liz reached the corpse. It was completely mangled. Only the head was still holding flesh.
Liz could make out the source of the light: It was the orb that had floated in the air.
[Argentuvalur''s Heart - Mystic]
The body stirred once more. The bones clacked.
''Oh no! You don''t get to try another time!''
Her formerly repressed hate of the taunts and behavior of the king fueled her as she went for its throat. Or what was left of it. Rather awkwardly clambering for it.
With all the strength she could muster, Liz started digging into the dead flesh without no feedback from her hands whatsoever. She only saw as her fingers bend, in the wrong direction. But there was no pain, and so she continued beheading the undead with her bare hands.
Finally, she succeeded.
-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --
?
-- You have killed a [Knight of Argentuvalur - lvl 64] --
-- You have killed [Argentuvalur - lvl 128] --
-- You have successfully defeated Argentuvalur the Vengeful --
-- [Mana Draw] has reached level 5 --
?
-- [Mana Draw] has reached level 9 --
-- [Arcane Eye] has reached level 2 --
-- [Arcane Eye] has reached level 3 --
-- [Arcane Shield] has reached level 2 --
?
-- [Arcane Shield] has reached level 6 --
-- [Transfer] has reached level 2 --
?
-- [Transfer] has reached level 6 --
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 9 --
?
-- [Call of the Hunt] has reached level 11 --
-- [Archery] has reached level 6 --
-- [Compulsion Resistance] has reached level 4 --
-- [Compulsion Resistance] has reached level 5 --
-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 19 --
-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 20 --
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 35. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
?
-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 52. 1 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --
Liz immediately spent three points on Vitality. With it she finally regained her sense of touch and every other information normally travelling along her nerves. Only now did she realize that she was dripping blood from her ears and nose. She also tasted the coppery tang of her blood in her mouth. She could neither smell nor hear anything through the partially clotted blood-blockages.
It was quickly rectified. Yet aside from her breathing there was no sound at all. Smell there was plenty, from the corpse below her. It still held the orb, though it was much dimmer now. Liz was still unsure what it was and tried to identify it again
[Soul Orb - Legendary] (empty)
''Huh? It changed?''
Removing the grape-sized orb from the mouth revealed no further insights into what it was and what role it played in the chaos from before.
''Guess I''ll take it. Doesn''t seem like it will suddenly spawn undead. But why was it so much larger before? And why was all that mana flowing through it? Where did the mana even come from? Guess I''ll never find out with the pillars gone. What the hell was even that spell? Judging by Arcane Immunity, it must have been Arcane Fire. I didn''t even know that was possible. And with such devastating effects. Without [Arcane Enhanced] I would be dust. Not even the kings body could survive this! And he was a level 128! Holy hell! No wonder one hit nearly did it for me. But why not use that blade and instead use this suicide spell?''
In the typical pattern, her contemplation was cut short by her stomach reminding her of her need for food.
As her backpack had been turned to dust, she needed to return to the fort. Aside from the orb and body, the room had been magically-deep cleaned by the fire. Besides the walls nothing remained. And even the walls were damaged in some spots.
Thankfully though, the barrier to the exit was gone. The chilly air really did her no good, with her clothes completely gone. Liz was worried about finding undead and being unable to defend herself without armor or weapons. Clutching the orb to her chest, she carefully moved through the tunnels. Her only light was provided by the orb and the faint runes on her skin.
When she reached the first room, she carefully peeked around the corner, ready to run at the first indication of danger. There was none. This was the room, she had set alight and not much remained. At least no organic remains. This also reminded her, that she had gotten no kill notifications for the masses that had found their end in the inferno, forever documented by the soot and scorch marks all over the room.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The next room however should have held undead still moving about. While there were undead, they weren''t moving. Hundreds of bodies were strewn across the floor. All seemingly having lost whatever magic let them move from one second to the next. None of the bodies identified as (un-)living.
''Weird! While there is no more mana connecting them, that seemed to not have been a problem in the outer ring. Then again they were ''lost''''
Before the surrounding bodies could decide to do the same, Liz decided to leave.
Wherever she went, she saw the same picture. All undead dead. Eventually, after searching for a bit, her map lost in the fire, Liz found the room she had entered the inner dungeon through.
Climbing through the hole, she was still astonished by the dozens of mana crystals illuminating the ravine. To think that just two dozen as much mana as she had needed for the absolutely insane fight in the tomb.
Unable to keep hold of the orb if she went climbing, Liz transferred in a zigzag pattern across the ravine, slowly gaining height. When she was slightly higher than the nest of moles, she could see most of the room. She had prepared to fight or run from the moles. But it looked like that wasn''t going to happen.
It was empty. No mole was in sight, the nest abandoned. Liz quickly transferred into the room and after a quick search, deemed the room truly abandoned. Another short hop back into the ravine later, and she left the room for the exit, orb and 5 mana crystals in hand.
The tomb was empty. Well except for the undead still trapped. And the distant sounds of crunching bones. Liz hastily sprinted through the chilly structure and towards warmth.
On the ramp however she was surprised to find one of the cats, Nick. Liz could feel the bond earlier than the others but hadn''t expected him to be just beyond the tomb. She could feel his excitement through the bond. And through the rough tongue trying to clean the bit of dirt on her skin since the cleansing fire. Not to mention the mass of an almost fully-grown purring big cat barreling into her frame.
After the reunion was done, involving a lot of purrs and belly scratches, Liz and Nick went back up into the fort. In the cellar she could already feel that the winter was still as ever-present as before.
With a purposeful stride, Liz conquered the freezing hallways to the tower. To avoid most snow, she teleported almost half of the total distance. Even at the door to the mage tower none of the other cats showed up.
Worse yet, Liz couldn''t feel their bonds. Until now, she had attributed this to distance and distraction by the dungeon, but now she feared the worst.
Thankfully though there were no starved cat bodies in the tower. Instead, it was empty. Yes, the latch on the food storage was open. But no sign of the other three cats. Weirder yet, the pantry was missing food for maybe two cats at most. Not four.
''Did they leave? But why are you still here? Will they survive out there? In the cold? Without much game to hunt? God, why did they just leave? Because I was gone for two days? Did they think I abandoned them?''
Liz shortly entertained the idea that the cats were simply in the tomb or cellar. But she quickly remembered that she had traversed nearly all of it and nowhere had she felt the bonds. This still left the option that they were alive down there but severed the bond. She somehow knew, that they were still alive. But this would mean that they were truly unhappy with their arrangement with Liz. Liz felt sad that that may be the case. Then again, Nick was still satisfied and by the emotion through the bond quite happy as well. Her next emotion was grief. Grief about losing those three bundles of cuteness. Grief about losing three companions who would have never used her like Garuna did. She decided that she wasn''t going to go after them. She would force none of them to remain with her.
With her emotions in turmoil, Nick was quick to pick up on it and consoled her, as much as he could manage to do. Still it helped. The rest was done by a hot and steaming bath. During which Liz snacked on some more berries. A massive amount of berries. She just hadn''t the energy to cook another meal. Instead, the bath had drained nearly all of her remaining adrenaline, leaving her a limp mess stumbling over to the bed. It was barely evening.
She slept until noon the next day. And even then she didn''t leave the bed. Instead, cuddled into the warm blankets, she reviewed the happenings of the past days. Especially the tomb. Not that there was a lot else she did.
She was reminded of her initial goals.
Reconnaissance.
She had successfully identified the reason for the undead. A maniacal king sealing himself and a whole army in, to be called when the interim-leader needed firepower. Her discovery was not really done the way she would have hoped, but technically she achieved her goal. Next time, as there will almost certainly be a next time, she would have to be cautious, even of the most skittish monsters in a dungeon and not get thrown into a ravine.
Mana Crystal.
She had definitely found a massive source of mana crystals. So far she had seen no crystals big enough to be stabilized, but she would see whether that was true for all the ravine. Just like with reconnaissance she would have preferred to discover it another way. The same rule about skittish monster applied here.
Training.
Liz realized that she went a bit overboard on that one. It should have only been a side-goal but somehow had taken up almost all of her time in the dungeon. She had to admit that even the boss-fight could be considered training. One just had to look at the level gains from these 13 kills and one spell. Oh boy, was the dungeon effective. In just 6 days, she had leveled 32 levels. It was insane. Then again, she had barely survived. And only thanks to [Arcane Enhanced]. And there she didn''t know where it even came from. Liz suspected it was from the Primordial meddling, as Garuna probably hadn''t tried to enhance her additionally to taking over her body. So it wasn''t really her deeds in the dungeon and rather her luck that she was still alive and well enough to ponder these questions.
Additionally, to her initial goals, new discoveries had presented itself as well.
Loot.
Besides the mana crystals, she now had a [Soul Orb] in her possession. Too bad she had no idea how it was used. Or what it was used for. But a legendary item was likely to have some potentially powerful use. And if not it was a great thing to sell to get money when she got to civilization. Provided it wasn''t illegal, given that it was a magical item and referenced soul. But even then there would likely be buyers, but Liz was unsure whether she wanted to sell it in that case. If there were restrictions on certain magic, it was probably for a good reason.
New skills.
In Liz''s opinion the best yet. Hell, she could teleport. Not even needing to snap her fingers, she could appear on the other side of the room. But there still were a lot of unanswered questions in that regard. Could she transfer through walls? What were the limitations for transporting objects and armor with her? What were the limitations of her Shield? How useful was Pack Life truly? Would it even work with only one bond? Could she replicate that terrifying Arcane fire somehow? How much will Arcane Eye improve her rune mastery? All good questions to answer by experimentation. And experimentation was a great way to fill the time. Additionally, there was Archery. But she would first need to make a new bow to make any further progress. But even now she realized that Archery would nudge her to make a better weapon than before.
Bonds.
She was now down to one bonded. It was sad to think that rest didn''t want to stay with her. But it was good to know, that they managed to cut their bonds with her. And that it was possible at all. And not just from her side. The was even something positive about the loss. One immediate effect was that she now had absolutely no need to worry about food for the winter. If she used some scraps for broth. The recipe would surely soon come to a point where it was edible without plugging the nose.
In the end, Liz had to relent that it was probably for the best that she was down to one extra mouth to feed. For her, the safety that the food would hold for the whole winter, was just such a massive relief. She had a great time with the others but if they wanted to leave, then so be it. She had probably kept them for longer than their original mother would have, and it still was the reason she had even adopted them in the beginning. So they would likely have no problem surviving, especially with all the training they had done.
But Liz still had one thing to do: spend her new stat points. It was concerning that she now only got four per level. So her expected power ceiling was distancing itself from her further and further. She suspected that in the future it would decrease even further. If this was true, how she spent these easy to obtain stat points was critical for the future.
Her current distribution was
Vitality: 41
Endurance: 34
Strength: 34
Dexterity: 33 (+4)
Perception: 37 (+4)
Wisdom: 39 (+6)
Intelligence: 38 (+6)
First, Vitality would get another four point to bring it to a round 45. Six further points were spent on Endurance and Strength each to get them to 40. Dexterity was also brought to 40. This left her with 41 points to spend. She was of course lacking in effective Strength. This stat seemed to have the least effect on her. Her strengths were clearly in Wisdom. Her needs were however in the physical. The strength she had was enough for her bow, so she saw no need to spend any more on it, if there were others with more immediate effects. Health was always necessary, though if her healing skill improved at the rate it did, less so than before. Her only health potion use had been for the cursed blade. With her mana crystals boosting her Mana, Stamina had been her biggest problem. And agility had been her greatest strength against the undead. So the two should get at least 10 more points. 5 more were spent on Vitality. Wisdom would also get the Boost to 50. Perception and Intelligence would go to 48 with the rest.
Vitality: 41 (+9)
Endurance: 34 (+16)
Strength: 34 (+6)
Dexterity: 33 (+17)
Perception: 37 (+11)
Wisdom: 39 (+11)
Intelligence: 38 (+10)
The effect of the points was exhilarating. A nice conclusion to the troubles Liz had to obtain them.
Name: Elisabeth Larson
Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 52
Title: Deviant
Status:
Health: 407/600
Stamina: 254/550
Mana: 510/800
Vitality: 50
Endurance: 50
Strength: 40
Dexterity: 50
Perception: 48
Wisdom: 50
Intelligence: 48
Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced
General skills:
Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 11
Archery - lvl 6
Cold Tolerance - lvl 3
Compulsion Resistance - lvl 5
Eastern Plains Common - lvl 3
English - lvl 7
Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Identify - lvl 3
Lightning Resilience - lvl 1
Mathematics - lvl 1
Meditation - lvl 4
Pain Suppression - lvl 20
Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1
Class skills:
Arcane
Arcane Blast - lvl 14
Runic Intuition - lvl 4
Spell Channeling - lvl 10
Mana Draw - lvl 9
Arcane Eye - lvl 3
Arcane Shield - lvl 6
Transfer - lvl 6
Tamer
Bond - lvl 4
Call of the Hunt - lvl 11
Pack Life - lvl 1