19 Behind the Ward

After walking through the ward, Jayde was surprised to see that she had stepped in a carved out tunnel. The carved out path wasn't very big, it was about one meter wide and two meters tall. More than enough space for her to walk comfortably.

Looking behind her, she could see that her cave had 'disappeared', with the oil lamp in her left hand, and her right hand near the dagger on her hip, Jayde followed the tunnel that had been carved into the mountain.

Jayde wondered if the old man who had lived in her cave before had carved out this tunnel or if it was something he had found — either way it was impressive that someone had spent so much time carving out this tunnel.

After walking for about 45 minutes, Jayde finally saw a small light flickering in the distance, Jayde sped up, impatient to see what was at the end of this passage.

Within minutes the half moon of brightness at the end of the tunnel had widened and she walked out into the daylight.

Surprised Jayde had entered what looked like a forest. The forest was ancient. The trees thick and very old, the ground was covered with roots that were gnarled and twisted, but Jayde could make out a small path. Above the forest canopy was so dense that Jayde could only see the occasional streak of sunlight that rarely touched the forest floor.

Leaves from the tall trees lay scattered on the forest floor. The drone of insects humming and buzzing filled the air which was rich with the fragrance of leaves and loam. Occasionally the scream of some beast pieced the air.

This must be the Dark Forest, Jayde thought. The scene in front of her matched the descriptions that were in her inherited memories.

Wary that some beast would attack her, Jayde only explored the area close to the entrance of the tunnel, from what she could see the Dark Forest was abundant with life.

Jayde was able to put down the one thing that she had been worrying about, which was that she would lose her safe haven when she entered the Dark Forest, but now she had a direct route to it and best of all she would be able to replenish her supplies easily.

With this direct route to the Dark Forest, Jayde changed her plans, she was now prepared to stay a couple of years in her cave, while she was impatient to get revenge for the previous Jayde, she knew that she had to be patient, that she needed time to build up her strength.

She also realized that she would need to hide until she was strong enough, with what Isha had told her, she had come to understand that when Isha partially contracted with this body, that the Divine Tome had disappeared, and with its disappearance the Freehold clan would hunt her down if they found out that she was still alive.

She needed to be much stronger before she could take them on, anyway ten years is not too late for a gentleman's revenge, she thought. She also had another reason to return to the Freehold clan, she had to find out who had placed the seven elemental weave seal on her body.

It was dangerous enough that she had a powerful enemy out there, who had gone to the trouble to switch her soul, but she had to find out if she had another enemy, one who was related to her by blood, were they two separate camps, or were they working together.

At least for now, she had solved the earlier dilemma of her target practice dummy.

For the rest of the day, Jayde lugged wood, straw, and dead leaves into her cave. She also cut vines and young branches to make some traps.

As the sun was setting, Jayde returned to her cave. Looking at her haul she was satisfied with her efforts. Starved she ate her meal and had a bath.

While she was tired it was still a bit early to go to sleep. Remembering the books that she couldn't read, Jayde asked Isha if he could read them.Isha was really surprised that the previous host was so badly educated, but was happy to spend the evening teaching Jayde to read.

The next day Jayde setup two practice dummies, one for archery and the other for sword work. She then diligently trained every day.

For the next five days, Jayde's days fell into a comfortable routine, she would do strength and endurance training in the early morning, later on, she would practice with the bow and after lunch was another two hours training with her dagger and sword.

With Isha pointing out faults and helping her with her training, Jayde skills improved drastically. Her skills with the bow were especially impressive, Jayde was able to integrate her sharpshooter skills with the bow, and she could now shoot with 100% accuracy. Isha was really impressed with how dedicated Jayde was to her training.

In the afternoons she would enter the Dark Forest to collect some firewood and explore the area around her. She never ventured far as she was still cautious running into a spirit beast, with her current strength she had no way to defeat even a level one spirit beast.

After sunset, she would eat and have a bath, and then Isha would spend hours teaching her to read. With her intelligence and photographic memory, Jayde quickly picked up the Doha language and by the fourth day, would only occasionally need Isha help.

The old man's library was impressive, his collection included books on alchemy, medicine, poisons, potion making, blacksmithing, weaponsmithing as well as books on plants, herbs and spirit beasts. Jayde was really curious about the history of the old man, she was truly grateful to him, and in her heart, she took him as her sensei.

While Jayde was really curious to learn skills like alchemy, potion making, and weaponsmithing without magic it would be useless so she spent most of her time learning about the plants, herbs and spirit beasts in Doha.