Chapter 4: Exploration

Waking up, Ilea was happy. For the first time in months she was truly and utterly happy. Coming to this world, she had been scared and confused. Nearly died three times and now after months of training she had something resembling confidence. “At least I’ll survive. I’m pretty tough at this point and I can heal myself. Blink is perfect for fleeing too, if there’s something too strong for me. Just don’t eat any weird berries...”

Blinking upstairs and on to the roof of the building, the suns nearly blinded her. After months in the chamber of clarity and last night’s quick romp, she totally forgot that the suns were this bright. Her eyes hurt but a smile was on her lips. After a couple minutes of adjusting, she removed the arm in front of her face and took in the true view of the forest.

Activating her Aura, her tattoos faintly glowed blue, barely noticeable in the sun, she scratched a simple compass rose into the roof of the temple with one of her nails. Enhanced and with her stats, she could with effort do this on rock. Obviously she didn’t know where North was. Or even if a compass was a thing in this magical land. It helped her orient though, so she did it.

Northwards was forest until a chain of mountains came into view. They were far away. Too far to casually walk there in a couple of days. Eastwards was forest, until barely noticeable, grassland started. “Plains...if I want to find humans I’d probably have to search there. Another question is if they’re friendly towards me.” Looking southwards Ilea could see a couple mountains, behind them was a full chain like in the north. There seemed to be plains in between and she could even see a river. “Definitely the most reasonable thing to reach for now.” It was much closer than the plains in the east or the mountains in the north.

Westward was only forest as far as the eye could see.. Only some rivers cutting the grand forest apart. “So the closest way out is southeast or directly south.” Looking at the distance it would be at least a three day trip, maybe longer. “I don’t have any supplies, no backpack...I don’t even have a knife or water bottle...well water skin or whatever they use here. For whatever I know they could be using guns and cloaked airplanes...”

Ilea then blinked back into the main hall of the temple and looked around “I do have a feeling though that this is a rather medieval world. I mean come on...Drakes?” walking up to one of the closed doors she felt the wall, and blinked inside.

A scream sounded through the temple and a couple birds took flight as Ilea stared at the skeleton in front of her. “Holy shitballs skelly, you scared the shit out of me.” After smacking the skeleton on the head like an old friend she looked around the room.

There were some books but they all turned to dust as soon as she touched them. No runes prevented their decay. Removing the skeleton from the rotting chair, she saw that he still wore boots. “Well look at that...” carefully removing them from the skeleton she appraised them. “They’re still in alright shape...not bad. Identify!”

‘ding’ [Old sturdy boots]

“Hmm...no +15 walking speed or anything like that? Well that’s disappointing. Oh well.” Ilea shook the boots to remove all the dust inside then blinked back out of the room. “I’ll just pile the stuff here.” leaving the boots on the ground in the main hall, she continued to investigate the rooms. There were eight in total. One was the one she broke the door to get out and one the skeleton room.

The next three rooms only held dust and stone. Whatever may have been stored in there a long time ago, has long since turned to dust. Blinking into the next room Ilea looked around in surprise “A kitchen. Very nice, maybe there’s a water flask or a knife for me to use somewhere.” checking around she realized that most things inside were rusted beyond use.

Trying to use Reconstruction on the items didn’t help. Destruction seemed to be able to affect inanimate objects whereas Reconstruction didn’t “Figures...would be way too convenient a spell. No more visits to any tailor or blacksmith.” searching through the kitchen she found a not too rusty canteen. Although identifying it told her it was in fact rusty.

“Better than nothing.” Ilea grumbled to herself, the knives were sadly completely unusable. The thin layers of metal were too worn by time to be used for anything other than making more rust. The next room was empty again. “Why do they have so many empty rooms? Hmm what if...” she tried to use blink to get downstairs. The third spot she tried worked and she found herself in a chamber that at first glance looked very similar to her own. “How many of those do they have….well let’s finish up upstairs first.” The last room held some barrels without any contents. Well there was dust inside. “Beer or wine maybe? Maybe cinderberry wine….hahaaha” laughing at her own joke, she was back in the main hall.

Walking through the broken down entryway she’d used when she fled the wolves she checked the room again. It looked exactly the same. Activating her Magic Perception she saw runes all around the ground where she had fought against her adversaries months ago. “Interesting...” she went back and checked all the other rooms again, this time with Magic Perception activated.

She made no further discoveries though. “I guess downstairs it is then.” warping back into the unexplored chamber she soon found it had the exact same layout as hers. The Grass was growing on the walls and the bed was just as old as hers. The library however held more books than her own had at the start. And even better many were still intact, the shelves brightly glowing with numerous runes

It took a couple hours to sort through all of them. A significant portion of them being even more diaries. She took them all with her upstairs. Two books were actually useful to her. “Azarinth Fighting – Advanced Stances I”, “Azarinth Fighting – Advanced Stances II”. “Seems like the stock is rather similar though. More history ones..” she wasn’t too fond of the Order’s history books. They depicted themselves as some sort of savior mages without any flaws. “Guess that happens when you write your own history down. Bunch of arrogant pricks.”

Blinking back to the main hall she tried to blink downstairs from all of the eight rooms. Ilea found only one more chamber. It was much like the other two, except that only one shelf of books remained, none of which new to her. Having an idea, she tried to warp further down. To her surprise she succeeded.

She found herself in a rather large hall. After the warp she fell for a couple meters before hitting the ground. ‘There’s no dust here...’ she immediately noticed. The room was illuminated yet not by moss on the walls. There was some sort of artificial light source on the top of the room and some of the walls. ‘Magic lamps...fancy...at least they do have some sort of technology. I’ll try to dismantle one of those after I’m sure it’s safe h..’ her thought was interrupted by an arrow nearly striking her head. Ilea’s tattoos flared to life and she dodged in the last fraction of a second.

“Did I just...” another three arrows flew in her direction. Dodging to the right Ilea avoided all of them “...dodge arrows? Fuck I’m awesome.” looking at the source of the assault a corner of the room started to shift and a humanoid form slowly unfolded itself to a height of three and a half meters. “Oh shit.”

[Guardian Golem – lvl ??]

Using identify she jumped back a couple meters to get some distance to the Golem. Activating Magic Perception her enemy glowed a dark red. “Well that answers the question if all magic is blue...” On the golem’s left arm was a seemingly automatic crossbow and on his right was a mace as big as Ilea. Around 1.75m in height. “I REALLY don’t want to get hit by that. Well let’s see what I’ve learned...I can just blink out with two blinks to get away if I can’t handle it.”

Getting into an advanced Azarinth stance Ilea prepared herself as the Golem slowly walked towards her. In a sudden burst she moved, leaving her position in a rush faster than any Earth human could possibly manage she reached the Golem’s right side and simply waited there. The Golem turned slowly and tried to hit her with the mace. “Hahaha you’re slow mate...” she easily dodged it and moved again.

Punching the Golem without Destruction left dents in its metal shell. Still trying to turn and attack her with its mace Ilea skillfully danced around the Golem. “These skills are seriously no joke...I’ve never fought against anything with them and it feels so natural...” after another series of punches to one of the Golem’s legs, she decided to use Destruction.

Her punch landed on the Golem’s left leg and half of it exploded backwards as her fist collided with it. The metal was badly dented and the Golem had difficulties standing upright. Another punch disabled its right leg too. Now falling to the ground Ilea jumped backwards. “Well seems like your question marks aren’t really that scary after all, Guardian.”

Doing a small mock curtsy in front of the downed Golem’s head, its eyes suddenly flared a bright red. Caught in an awkward position Ilea could only look at the Golem as it raised its mace and smashed it right into her. Flying backwards into the wall fifteen meters behind her, it knocked all the air out of her lungs.

Blood dripped down her mouth as she smiled “Oh man I have to say I am rather stupid sometimes. Why am I smiling by the way?” checking her stats she saw that she had lost over a third of her HP from that hit. Quickly using Reconstruction she healed back a part of her lost health “Why am I having so much fun?? Nice move though mister metal.” Blinking above the Golem she did a front flip, landing with a powerful kick on top of the Golem’s back. The Guardian exploded downwards, its eyes immediately losing their light.

‘bing’ ‘You have defeated the [Guardian Golem], access to the treasure room is now possible.’

‘bing’ ‘You have defeated an enemy ten levels or more above your own. Additional Experience is granted.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 13. 5 Stat points awarded.’

“Nice...” sitting down on the defeated Golem she breathed out “This is way too much fun...I nearly died there...” her heart still pounding in her chest she lied down completely on the Golem. “I feel amazing...is this what being an adventurer in a dangerous world feels like?” lying there for a while Ilea simply enjoyed the moment “Wait...treasure room?”

Jumping up from the downed enemy she looked around the room. It was a huge hall, she could see a door at the end of it, right behind where the Golem sat before. Walking towards it she noticed that the body of the Golem hasn’t disappeared yet. ‘Seems like it’s not like a game after all...’ turning back to the door she continued. A long corridor opened up before her, a huge double door at the end of it. With Magic perception she could see bright runes written on the door.

“Let’s first check the rooms around here.” walking to the first room she found only dust again. A skeleton greeted her in the second room. Other than that it was empty. ‘Two more to go...’ The rooms only held dust. ‘That is kinda weird...but I mean it’s been...long I guess.’ Ending up on the double doors, she looked on as the runes on the door faded. A crack could be heard and the doors opened.

Cough cough, ‘How can the the air in here be even worse than out in the corridor? It’s just as old...’ waiting for the stale air to at least disperse a little, Ilea entered the supposed treasure room. “Not a lot left here eh?” looking around there were a lot of shelves and a couple chests. Two were open and empty, the shelves held nothing but more dust. “Well let’s see if there’s anything in the chest...” opening it, her eyes sparkled “Oh boi, at least it’s not empty...what’s that? Coins?” taking the five silver coins and one gold coin from the chest she held them in her hand “Wow these are heavy...a pouch would be nice actually...now for the main prize...” taking out the last item in the chest she marveled at the quality.

[Cloak of the night – High Quality ‘You are harder to detect in the dark’]

She hugged the cloak immediately “Oh my, it’s so soft I love it!” getting it on, the cloak nearly covered all of her. She looked a bit like a wraith, were it not for the pajamas underneath. “I’m the pajama death!” tattoos flaring to light she teleported to the wall and punched it, cracks forming all over it and some chunks of stone falling to the ground after she removed her fist. The blue light didn’t penetrate the cloak from within. “I like it.”

Ilea tried to use blink from every room in the cellar, sadly there was no other destination she could find. Going back upstairs she tried to use blink twice. While still in the air it didn’t work “Hmm...let’s see...” blinking into the air of the hall but this time right next to the wall, she touched it and used another blink. This time it worked and she found herself back in the third chamber. Going back up she looked at the collected things. “Is there?...” checking her cloak thoroughly she was happy to find two small pockets. Putting the coins inside she noted they would be clinking around all the time. Getting to the kitchen she removed some metal wire from one of the pots and bent it around the coins.

Getting the shoes she ran outside and headed for the stream she’d found before. Once there she cleaned the boots thoroughly before putting them on. “Nearly clothed now. I hope they don’t break when I kick something...” the boots fit quite snugly, so she at least wouldn’t lose them from a bit of fighting. Getting some more of the Cinderberries she returned to the temple.

Sitting on top of it she planned her next steps. ‘I think I’ll first definitely check for any possible hidden rooms in the temple. Afterwards I’ll go towards the mountains in the south.’ looking at the distant target she sighed ‘That’s gonna take a while...I kinda wanted to wait with this until I met someone but if I die on the way it’s not really worth it anyway, now is it?’

Checking her stats she used 50 of the remaining 60 stat points from her level ups. ‘Let’s see...Vitality up to 40, never wrong to be more tough….that’s 11 points, then 15 into Endurance, up to 40 too. Definitely Wisdom up to 50, that’s 8. That’s 34 points. Means 16 remaining. Guess I’ll go 6 into Intelligence to get 40 there too and 5 each into Strength and Dexterity.’ she finished her distribution with a thought, leaving 10 points unspent, just in case there was something fundamental she didn’t understand about stats and distributing points. Checking her status she felt ready...at least somewhat.

Name: Ilea Spears

Class 1: Azarinth Healer – lvl 13

Unspent statpoints: 10

- Active: Destruction – lvl 14

- Active: Reconstruction – lvl 2

- Active: State of Azarinth – lvl 10

- Active: Blink – lvl 7

- Active: Free Slot

- Passive: Body of Azarinth – lvl 4

- Passive: Azarinth Fighting – lvl 12

- Passive: Magic Perception – lvl 3

- Passive: Free Slot

- Passive: Free Slot

Class 2: None

General Skills:

- Elos Standard language - lvl 5

- Identify - lvl 1

- Meditation – lvl 8

- Poison Resistance – lvl 1

Status:

Vitality: 40

Endurance: 40

Strength 23

Dexterity 26

Intelligence 40

Wisdom 50

Health: 400/400

Stamina: 389/400

Mana: 487/500

“I need to find some clothes...and food...like...with spices!” looking into the distance she once more thought of her past. Ilea enjoyed the freedom she had here, all the time spent improving her fighting skills but she did miss her other hobbies, her bed and most of all good food. ‘I’m not sure if this is better or worse in the end. Training in itself is fun but fighting against that Golem...I can see myself getting into that. And I have no responsibilities really, no annoying fast-food work...plus I could heal people...if there are any that is...’

‘Guess I’ll find out tomorrow.’ going back downstairs she removed some of the Grass and stored it in her cloak. It would help her keep the faster training up for a while whilst she traveled. ‘I can check how fast my skill progress is without the Bluemoon Grass...there isn’t really any indication of it even improving anything. I do hope the Order actually tested the effectiveness beyond the body change.’ Sleeping early, she dreamed of a warm and soft bed.