《An Above Average Girl In A Fantasy World》 Chapter 0 : "Duh, So Clich茅 !" ¡®¡¯I''m bored. God I''m sooo bored.¡± thought Natasha. These kind of thoughts were common occurrences to Natasha, called Nat by her family and friends. She was on the surface the average teenager that everyone expected her to be. In fact, average was quite the wrong word to describe Natasha Hemington. She was currently nineteen years old and was currently doing her third year of Biology in college. Her IQ was above average, and that was the reason she was one year younger than her college classmates. But that wasn''t her only characteristic of non-averageness. Nat was an loner, not in a bad and friendless way, no she was a loner because she liked loneliness and the peace and quiet who went with it. This trait of her was probably created by her intelligence, which made her difficult to approach as a kid. Indeed, she was bored after few minutes of the games the children came up with. This became an issue when she realised that she was actually hurting people around her, who were trying to be friendly and were then disappointed by her lack of interest. That was also why Nat wasn''t close with her big sister, her only sibling. Nat then began to pretend to be ¡°normal¡± and acted as what her entourage wanted her to be. Stopping her train of thoughts, Nat got up from the double-sided bed she was laying on. Hopping from a clotheless spot to another, she made her way to the window. Cringing of the sight of a spider on the extern side of the window, Nat sighed and renounced to open it. A short while later, Nat was in her bathroom brushing her short light brown hair and gulping her morning meds. They were her pill, a antidepressor and her iron (for her iron deficiency she got by not having a balanced diet while being vegetarian). She then processed to put on clothes which were constitued of a jeans, a simple blue t-shirt and a grey sweater. Picking a pair of socks in her drawer, she put them on while going downstairs in direction of the kitchen. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.After eating her meal, brushing her teeth and other miscellaneous activities; Nat shouted ¡®J''y vais¡¯ to her French-speaking mother while putting on her sneakers and her leather jacket. She didn''t took a bag and instead simply put her keys and her wallet in a pocket of her jacket. Walking at a quick pace in the deserted street of another neighbourhood, Nat cursed herself. ¡°Crap I should have taken the bus, I''m freaking gonna be late !¡± Now running at full speed, she ran to the bakery where her part time job was. Panting and cursing mentally, her lack of stamina made her stop a few streets after. She was currently five minutes away of the bakery but she only got two minutes before her doom. Finding her last sparks of energy within her body, Nat sprinted across the passageway. That''s when truck-san hit her. Natasha''s body jolted in the air before she got the time to realise what was happening. ~~~ Nat awoke on patches of grass and moss, her head bent uncomfortably on a stone. Wincing at the pain in her sore neck, Nat managed to sit against a nearby tree. Then, after a few minutes of silence only perturbed by some birds chirping, she panicked. ¡°What the fuck ! Where the hell am I ? Urgh, a centipede !¡± Shooing away the terryfing critter, Nat reprimed a sob and crawled away a few meters. Her phobia of insects, spiders and the like resurfaced again and was by no means welcomed in this forested area. ¡°Okay, take a deep breath and calm down.¡± thought Nat. ¡°First, let''s analyse the situation : I''m in a fucking forest. I''m not on the street and..urgh¡± Nat suddenly recalled what happened. ¡°Gosh, did I died ? No, it can''t be, I must be dreaming !¡± But Natasha knew deep down that it wasn''t a dream, but the scary reality. Understanding the current situation, she sighed. ¡°I got transported to another world ? Duh, so clich¨¦ !" Chapter 1 : The Thirst ¡®Well at least this is gonna be fun, right ?¡¯ said Nat out loud. Her croaked voice sounded weird, and she realised that she was thirsty. ¡°I''m in deep shit actually. I don''t have water with me, I''m in fact dressed with the same clothes than on Earth.¡± As mocking her, a gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and made her shiver. Wondering about the season, Nat observed her surroundings. Tall trees surrounded her (mostly deciduous trees mused Nat, recalling her Botanic course in college) and the soil was filled with grass, moss and lichen covered stones. Crouching near the soil, Nat looked at a dark green bush. She wondered for a bit, but finally decided that she had never seem such a specie. Getting back up, Nat jumped in the air to snatch a leaf of the nearest tree. The leaf was a light green and in a oval-shaped form. ¡°This is really another world huh. The trees are different, and we''re probably in spring here, contrary to fall on Earth.¡± Clearing her troat, Nat decided to search for water. She began to walk at a steady pace in a random direction. ~~~ Panting heavily, Nat was on the verge of panic by being still in the forest, when a Ding sound resonated. *You are in a state of extreme thirst. -10% of all stats* ¡°Uh ?! Seriously? I''m totally in a game-like world ! I should have thought about it sooner, it kinda makes sense with all those clich¨¦ events going on...¡± Looking at the blue screen in front of her, Nat grinned. ¡®Open Status¡¯ *Status : Name : Natasha Hemington Race : Human Gender : Female Age : 19 years old Level : 1 (0%) Class : ??? Titles : ??? Stats : Health : 60/60 Stamina: 30/50 Mana : 150/150 Attributes : Vitality : 6 Endurance : 5 Intelligence : 15 Agility: 5 Dexterity : 5 Strength: 7 Wisdom : 13 Charm : 5 Leadership : 0 Luck : 2 Attributes points : 5 Status Effects: State of extreme thirst -10% to all stats* ¡°It really shows all of me in number uh¡­ Dang, I''m quite vexed to have such pitiful physical stats, I''m really not the sporty type. The stats are quite self-explanatory, and I think I can conclude that : Health is lied to Vitality, Mana to Intelligence and Stamina to Endurance. Agility mean my speed and my body flexibility, Dexterity is my accuracy in my hits, Strength is my attack damage and maybe my inventory space¡­(speaking of which I should look in my Inventory, but let''s do that later). Wisdom is probably my regeneration of Mana and my spell-casting time, the rest is logical but I''m a bit weirded out to see that things like Luck et Charm can be quantified¡­¡± Remembering the unallocated points, she allocated 3 of them to Agility, and the rest to Vitality. Her maximum health got up to 80. Nat finally mentally dismissed the blue screen and said : ¡®Open Inventory ¡¯ Another blue window appeared in her vision field. *Inventory 1/20 spaces filled - Starter pack* ¡®Inspect Starter Pack¡¯ said Nat, and a new window appeared on the screen.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. *A basic starter pack gifted to new players in the world of Kealm* ¡°I least I know the name of this new world. Let''s open this thing, I''m quite excited...¡± As she said ¡®Open Starter Pack¡¯, her Inventory changed. *Inventory 3/20 places filled Coins : 0 gold 5 silver 0 copper - Barley bread x 10 - Canteen of water (10/10) - Iron dagger* ¡®Equip Iron dagger¡¯ Nothing happened. ¡°I need to equip it manually then¡­¡± Nat took out the dagger of her Inventory. The dagger was a crude rusted weapon and the blade length was 20cm. To ease the grip on the handle, a band of leather poorly covered it. Strapping the weapon to her leather belt, Nat took out her canteen of water. After gulping down the welcomed liquid and stowing it away, she checked her Inventory. Like she thought, the water was down to 8/10. ¡°Let''s search my skills now, well if I have any.. ¡± ¡®Open Skills¡¯ *Skills : -Inspect Beginner 1 (0%)* ¡°Lucky me ! I was afraid of having none. Inspect is super useful !¡± Watching the dagger at her side, Nat inspected it. *Iron dagger A poorly crafted iron dagger offered to beginners players. Durability : 16/20 Damage : 5-7 No requirements* After inspecting her clothes (they didn''t have any Defense), her Inspect skill got up to Beginner 1 (24,6%). ¡°Now, what should I do ?¡± Seeing that the sun got a lot more higher in the sky, Nat decided to find a shelter for the night. She was really lucky to not have encountered any monsters, as even a rabbit would probably be dangerous at the moment. ¡°I will be a lot more secure if I climb a tree. I also need to have sight of all my surroundings, to detect any possible threat. A tree near wall of stone would be perfect, I would have to only watch for monsters to 180¡ã around me. But finding a cliff in a forest isn''t easy, and I''m feeling like I used all my luck for the day¡­¡± Nat began to walk in the same direction as she began. ~~~ Few hours later, the sun was low in the sky, and no cliff was in sight. The landscape of the forest had however changed, and she was following a slope down. The trees were more sparse, contrary to the more numbered shrubs and bushes. ¡°I should stop walking here, the less trees are, the less likely there is a potential shelter.¡± After looking for the best tree around her, Nat finally opted for some kind of willow tree, which had big enough branches to support her sleeping weight. After climbing and being installed between thick branches the best as she could, Nat sighed. ¡°The night is gonna be soo boring¡­ What should I do ?¡± Remembering her Inspect skill, and cursing under her breath for not having used it on the way, she said ¡®Inspect ¡¯ while looking at the the tree she was on. *Elbir Tree A common tree in the forests of the North-west of the Azylean Continent. His bark is rumored to have medical properties.* ¡°Nice ! ¡± Nat cut the nearest branch with her dagger and inspected it. *Small branch of Elbir Tree A flexible branch of Elbir Tree. The bark is rumored to have medical properties.* Then removing the bark of the branch with the help of her dagger, Nat inspected the piece of bark. *Medium piece of bark of Elbir Tree Grinding it into a thin powder will gave it cicatrisation properties while boiling it in water will gave it disinfecting properties.* ¡°Oh that will be useful in time. I should collect some more and already prepare some powder if I ever need it quickly¡­¡± After having collected some bark and putting it in her Inventory, she looked at the branches she cut and were bark-less. *Small branch of Elbir Tree x 4 A flexible branch of Elbir Tree. The bark has been removed* ¡°What should I do with this ? Some kind of little spears ? Arrows ? I don''t have an bow¡­ making one won''t be easy¡­ ¡± Shrugging her shoulders, Nat decided to sharpen the ends. This way, they could be used in traps or could be upgraded to arrows by adding some feathers. Few minutes later her second sharpened branch, the familiar ding sound resonated. *You''ve learned Crafting* Opening her skills window, Nat read : *Skills : -Inspect Beginner 1 (64,7%) -Crafting Beginner 1 (0%)* She then inspected both skills. *Inspect Beginner 1 (64,7%) Skill that describe the target. Leveling it will give access to better informations.* *Crafting Beginner 1 (0%) Skill that enable the user to make better crafted objects. Give more understanding of the art of creating objects.* ¡°Well I suppose that''s good¡­¡± Crafting her last two spears was now easier, and she finished them not too long after. Watching the now dark sky, Nat waited for the sleep to take her, hoping to not see any monsters during the night. Chapter 2 : First Fight Jolting awake, Nat opened frantically her eyes. Some kind of sound awoke her, but she didn''t register if it was a threatening one or not. Looking at her surroundings and finding no monsters in sight, her heart calmed a bit. She however chose to eat her breakfast in the tree, not completely reassured. Few minutes later, Nat was drinking a last sip of water when she saw something move on the ground, ten or fifteen meters away. She used Inspect immediately and saw : *Horned-rabbit Level 1 Hp : 30/30* ¡°Oh my, so cute !¡± Hurriedly climbing down the tree, Nat finally stood on the ground. She slowly walked toward the cute bunny to see it better. The rabbit stopped munching on the grass and looked her way. His ears were twitching like he looked apprehensive of the human before him. At this sight, Nat slowly flexed her knees and showed her hand. The rodent hopped toward her hand to¡­and bit her viciously. *-6hp* Nat cried in pain at the sudden bite. She tried to crawl away but the damn critter followed her. In distress, she searched for her dagger with her uninjured left hand. Finally having a grasp on it, her knuckles clenched on the handle, and she tried to block another incoming attack. *-6hp* Having missed ridiculously, Nat rolled on the ground to make the rabbit lose his grip on her left forearm. She was now at a more reasonable distance of him, and the critter didn''t seem to want to run away. The horned rabbit charged head down, his horn menacingly pointing toward her. As the rodent jumped at her, Nat slashed the dagger towards his exposed belly. !-8hp! Weirdly snarling in pain, the little attacker crashed on the ground. Inhibited by the fear and the adrenaline, Nat attacked again, but her attack was blocked by the rabbit''s horn. The horn broke with a creaking sound and fell on the grass. *-1 durability of Iron dagger* The attack didn''t took any of the enemy''s hp, but at least deprived him of one of his weapons. Nat reaffirmed her grip on the slippery handle, and approached reluctantly towards her victim. The rabbit exposed his protruding teeth and jumped at her throat. Having predicted the attack, Nat sidestepped clumsily and striked again. The blade transperced the rabbit between the ribs with a disgusting sound. !Critical attack -13hp! *You''ve learned Dagger Mastery* ¡°I need to attack again, he is down at 9/30hp¡± Nat tried to remove the dagger from the dying rabbit but without success. Remembering the horn, she walked a few steps and picked it. Nat looked at the bloody rabbit and reprimed a sob. His corpse was impaled on the ground, his breathing agitated. Blood was oozing out of his wounds as Nat came back besides him. Tears striking now her face, she pierced her heart to stop his suffering. *Critical attack -13hp!* *Congratulations, you''ve killed your first monster ! +50 exp * Nat looked at her bloodied hands, sobbing uncontrollably. ~~~ After regaining control of her emotions, Nat looked at the corpse. She removed the horn of the still hot body, and clutched the dagger. The blade was still embedded to the hilt in the abdomen''s rabbit. With a grunt of effort, she dislodged it. ¡°Gosh I cannot waste the meat, but my vegetarian self is disgusted at the idea of eating flesh¡­ Well at least he lived a free life into the woods.. Now, how the hell am I gonna do this crap ?!¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Before doing anything, she washed her wounds and looked at her health points. She was down to 68/80 after her fight, so nothing really life-threatening¡­ She didn''t have anything to bandage it, so she hoped it would cure by itself. Finally ready, Nat began to cut the skin around the four paws. After cutting a line linking the back paws, Nat tried to peel of the skin. After few minutes of bloody effort, she managed to peel the skin up to the head. She now had to cut the head off. Wincing at the idea, Nat began to saw the head. One hour later, Nat put the horn and the meat of the rabbit in her Inventory. She also had kept few bones, in case she needed some to make needles. She thanked herself for reading a lot of books about Prehistory and the like. Knowing that the skin of the rabbit needed to dry, she attached it on her waist with her belt. On the ground, rested the remnants of the head and the offals she didn''t want to eat. She had removed the brain from the skull (yep totally gross), because she would need it to prepare the skin. She had gained the unwelcomed skill Butchering while working, and feeled like a murderer. She drank a bit of water and tried to wipe of her hands on the grass, as cleaning her now dirtied soul. Walking away of her slaughtering spot, the young girl tried to find stones to grind the bark in powder. After walking for a quarter of an hour, she was in possession of a large flat stone and a big rock who would be used as a pestle. Sitting on the ground, she began to make the cicatrising powder. She obtained the skill Alchemy by using two of her five pieces of Medium bark of Elbir Tree. The result was two big portions of Cicatrising powder of Elbir Tree. *Cicatrising powder of Elbir Tree x 2 A grinded powder of bark. Has cicatrising properties which hasten the cicatrisation. Regeneration of hp loss because of open wounds ¡Á 2* ¡°Duh I don''t even know my own regeneration in normal case. Let''s do some experimentation¡­¡± Nat opened her Status and counted time between every hp regenerated. The result was simple. One hp was recovered every half an hour. So she would regain her now nine missing hp in four hours and an half. According to the description of the powder, it would reduce this time to only two hours and a few minutes. Nat happily sprinkled one tenth of one powder on her bloody hand and forearm. She now needed some container for the rest of the powder. She tried to make a little bag using leaves, but it wasn''t containing the powder properly so she discarded the idea. She then thought of the unused skin of the rabbit. She took the mildly dried skin from her waist, and began to scrape the leftover flesh on the skin with her weapon. She knew her work was awfully done, but that was the best she could do with her current time and resources. She should have dried it way longer, and washed it with a lot of water. She would have then moistened it with the brain, and softened it with the help of a frame. For further luxury, rubbing it with fat would make it waterproof and more resistant. But now that was all she could have done, and she even learned Leatherworking despite her bad work. She managed to cut the skin who wasn''t damaged in two circles and perforated the edges of them with a sharpened little bone. She now only needed laces to close the two small pouches. She made makeshift laces with the remnants of the hide, and assembled them with the containers. With that done, Nat got the Tailoring skill which meant that bags were counted as clothes in the system. She put the powder in the pouches, and put everything besides her dagger in her Inventory. *Inventory 13/20 places filled Coins : 0 gold 5 silver 0 copper - Barley bread x 8 - Canteen of water (5/10) - Medium piece of bark of Elbir Tree x 3 - Cicatrising powder (Small leather pouch)(18/20) - Cicatrising powder (Small leather pouch)(20/20) - Small spear x 4 - Little horn - Meat of Horned-rabbit - Brain of Horned-rabbit - Little bone x 5 - Sharpened little bone - Flat stone - Pestle of stone* She had inspected the new objects and realised that the meat wasn''t perishable while in the Inventory, same as the leather pouches who wouldn''t rot. Her dagger had lost one point of durability during the combat, and she saw it again while inspecting it. Her Status showed now her experience : *Status : Name : Natasha Hemington Race : Human Gender : Female Age : 19 years old Level : 1 (60/100) Class : ??? Titles : ??? Stats : Health : 80/80 Regeneration : 1/ 30 min Stamina: 50/50 Regeneration : ? Mana : 150/150 Regeneration: ? Attributes : Vitality : 8 Endurance : 5 Intelligence : 15 Agility: 8 Dexterity : 5 Strength: 7 Wisdom : 13 Charm : 5 Leadership : 0 Luck : 2 Attributes points : 0 * Judging by the experience she had, she killed her first monster for 50xp, and the rabbit in itself gave her 10xp. Curious about her skills, she said the corresponding command. *Skills : -Inspect Beginner 3 (50,4%) -Crafting Beginner 2 (47,1%) -Dagger Mastery Beginner 1 (16,2%) -Butchering Beginner 1 (46,8%) -Alchemy Beginner 1 (14,3%) -Leatherworking Beginner 1 (73,4%) -Tailoring Beginner 1 (0%) With all those twirling informations in her head, Nat began walking away, continuing her travel. Chapter 3 : Moving on Nat had walked quite a bit in the forest, who now had became more of a mountain than a wood. Along the way she used her Inspect skill, and leveled it up to Beginner 6 (42,7%).The only useful informations she got were : *Mava bush A blue-leafed bush who grows in the West Mountains of the Azylean Continent. His colored leaves are sometimes used in dyes.* *Bism grass A grey colored grass, majorly eaten by Kelsans and rodents.* *Agarik stone A grey stone with a hue of red in the center. Found in the West Mountains and the Bura Kingdom. Mined essentially for building.* *Anantir Tree A strong scent emanates from this rather commonly found tree. His sap is used in insect repellents.* *Palsch lichen A common specie of lichen, essentially growing on trees. Poisonous to most parasites of trees. Live in symbiose with trees as he needs to be the higher possible to receive sun rays.* *Jaber moss A typical kind of moss in forests. Used as combustible when starting a fire.* *Bezir mushroom A highly flammable combustible, found growing on trees.* Nat put some Jaber moss and Bezir mushroom in her Inventory, as the rest seemed unusable at the current point. She was now in a totally mountainous landscape, rocks hazardly laying on light green grass. Nat spotted movement further ahead and quickly used Inspect. *Monun Level 1 Hp : 25/25* The beast looked like a fluffy and plump marmot. It was cute as hell. As Nat approached, it scurried away in his lair. She was mildly relieved to see it gone, as she didn''t want a repeat of her fight with the innocent-looking rabbit, but needed every exp she could gain. Shrugging, Nat continued to ascend the hill she was on. On the way up, she inspected a bird who was flying high in the sky. *Grey falcon Level 2 Hp : 60/60* Uneased at the higher levelled beast, Nat tried to walk away stealthily. After a few minutes of her weird crab-walking from boulder to boulder, Nat gained the new skill Stealth. Finally reaching the top of the hill without being attacked, Nat let out a relieved sigh. She looked upon the valley below and reprimed an excited squeal. A fast flowing stream was watering a beautiful and lush valley. It was filled with high trees, and what looked like deers were peacefully eating grass. High mountains were cutting the line of horizon in such a way that Natasha was left several minutes gazing at the magestic view before her. Nat shrugged of her awe at the nature surrounding her, and began to undertake the descend of the hill, in direction of the stream. ¡°I''m nearly down, just a bit more..¡± thought the girl, looking at the river ahead.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. CRACK ! *-48hp* ¡®Oww my leg, what the fuck ?!¡¯ Wincing in pain while looking down, Nat saw the cause of her sudden loss of hp. She had walked on a hole probably made by a Monun, and her leg was embedded in the muddy ground till the ankle. *You''ve broken a bone Hp regeneration of the bone divided by twenty until complete recovery* ¡°Damn it hurts like hell, and will heal in soo much time...¡± Nat removed her right foot from the hole and sat down with a sigh. She made a quick calculation, and discovered that she would recover in twenty days, as the cicatrising powder would be of no use. Natasha pondered whether or not she should remove her sneakers, in case her ankle would inflate. She chose not to, as she would need to walk. She knew that the spears in her Inventory could be used for a makeshift support, but didn''t have anything to attach them. Having found the solution by looking at her pants, Nat took her dagger in hand and cut her jeans on her right leg until the knee. She cut the removed part in strips and made some crappy kind of support with two of the spears, she decided it would do for now. Nat''s stomach growled loudly, and she realised that she didn''t eat and that without a way of telling the time, she forgot about it. It was probably around four o''clock in the afternoon, way over lunch time. Natasha ate voraciously some bread and water. With her right leg now in a ridiculous bermuda-style, but her stomach filled, Nat walked slowly to the stream. ~~~ To her disappointment her Inspect skill needed a close range, and the deer-like animals runned away before she could use it. After Nat had replenished her canteen of water and cleaned herself for a bit, she walked painfully toward the range of mountains, and more precisely towards the cavern in a cliff she spotted earlier. Two hours of walk later, Nat attained the cavern which was few meters high up in the stone-wall. Nat considered the height of the entrance of the cavern as a double-edged blade. The difficulty of reach would repel a lot of monsters that could be inerested in coming inside, and help her defend herself against invaders if she could make ranged attacks. Of course flying monsters were still a danger, likewise for monsters capable of climbing or jumping high enough, but the total number of threats was drastically lower than living on the ground in a makeshift house. The big counterpart of those strategic advantages was that she herself would struggle to attain the entrance, as she would either need to climb each time, or create a easier way up. It also meant that having a serious injury would prevent her to reach quickly the safety of the cavern, and that transporting big objects inside would be a total hassle. Nonetheless, the cavern in front of her was a major finding in the hostile environment she was in. Now looking at the cave entrance, Nat hoped that it wasn''t a dungeon or a lair of some sort, as all hope she had gained at the idea of having a home would crumple to pieces in a instant. Nat decided that the event of the cave being a dungeon was unlikely, as the entrances of dungeons would rather be more evident, or more attainable. She didn''t even know if dungeons existed in this world. In stories and games on Earth, a dungeon would either be created by a higher being, or a dungeon in itself was a kind of monster. But unless it was a undiscovered one, or no big enough civilisation existed, a dungeon town would likely be constructed. Stopping her daydreaming, Nat looked more intensely at the stone-wall, in search of the easier way to climb up. Nat was bad at sports, and feared heights, but that didn''t stop her to do a bit of climbing as an extracurricular activity in her childhood. So she had the "basics of the basics" she thought. Luckily for her, the stone was not smooth and filled with little crevices and protuberances. And despite her injury, Nat began to climb up, her dagger between her teeth. She tried to put her weight on her injured leg as less as possible, and rather used her arms to support herself when she needed to move her feet. The climb was roughly three meters but it seemed like hours had passed as Nat sat on the entrance floor, breathing heavily. She had gained two skills with her ascension : Pain resistance and Climbing. Turning towards the dark cavern warily with the dagger now in her hand...