Rayne felt like she’d barely fallen asleep when she was abruptly woken to depart. A small bag of coins was thrust into her small hands by a grumpy [Baron] who told her to put the money in her travel bag and give it to those who came to collect her.

Though his comment could be taken to imply someone would be waiting at the capital for her, Rayne was becoming more and more certain that there was something else going on. Between his demeanor, the odd comments, and his instruction to only provide her with two days worth of supplies, she had no confidence she would arrive at the capital safely.

With that in mind, Rayne carefully observed those around her during the first day, watching for anything that might stand out from within the packed carriage. Though the carriage was made to seat six comfortably, one of the travelers was unusually obese in a way that went beyond mere indulgence.

Consequently, she was relegated to sitting between the large man and another passenger due to her small size. She would have had much more room flying coach with a discount airline! She could barely breathe in without touching someone.

After the first stop, Rayne climbed atop the carriage and stayed there. Since nobody complained, she opted to stay there and work on improving her mana control. The books she’d read described various ways that mana could be used to improve senses temporarily without the need of specific spells.

She’d practiced augmenting her senses with mana before, but figured the journey would provide her with an opportunity to improve her control. Besides, there was much more to see and hear now that she was traveling.

Rayne spent the rest of the day doing just that, listening to the various travelers talk about random things, trying to identify any animal sounds around, looking into the landscape surrounding the caravan for anything interesting that she would normally overlook…

The only real limitation she found was that she could only focus on one sense at a time. Even then, too much stimuli would overwhelm her easily.

When they set up camp, the carriage driver claimed most of the roof but did not force her to leave. Thankfully, he ignored her presence at the back of the carriage and allowed her to place her bedroll against the stacked luggage.

Nobody spoke to her, though she was handed a bowl of stew for the evening meal. Settling under her blanket, Rayne looked up into the night sky and examined the stars. None of the constellations were familiar.

As the rest of the travelers settled down and fell asleep, the sounds slowly decreased until only whispers remained. She decided to take advantage of the quiet darkness to attempt to augment both her hearing and vision, hoping that the limited input would allow her to grow more accustomed to the effects.

The stars became brighter and the sounds louder. She could hear the rustle of animals in the forest nearby, the flapping of wings as a bird flew by, and the quiet conversations of the small groups around the various campfires.

“… get a couple more levels and join the Adventurer’s Guild in Arlinton …”

“… shouldn’t be any high-level beasts between here and the river …”

“… haven’t had any issues with bandits since the [Baron] sent his [Guard] …”

“… don’t care what he said, I’m not marrying …”

“… going to be a problem with the luggage blocking the back …”

“… not sleep there tomorrow night. That way it’ll be easier grabbing her …”

The last comment caught her attention as she was dozing off. She homed in on the speaker, channeling a touch more mana into her ears so the conversation was clearer.

“I don’t know why the [Baron] is so bothered by the girl anyway. Whatever she did can’t be bad enough to get Brandell involved.”

“It’s not my business. The boss said to make sure she’s collared and sold. So long as the payment is in the bag like he promised, I don’t care what they do with the brat.”

The blood drained from her face and a knot formed in her gut. Her nerves had increased since she caught the first part of the conversation, but now something was screaming inside of her to run. She needed to run away fast. There was no way she could let herself be captured by people like that.

If she understood them correctly, she was meant to be sold as a slave. But why??? It didn’t make any sense.

Her mind ran through several scenarios. She could leave that night, or try to sneak away during the day, or even wait until the next night and escape while the others wait for her to go to sleep. But what if that was too late?

And how exactly was she supposed to survive alone if she did manage to escape the slavers?

She was hardly able to sleep at all that night, constantly jumping at every noise. Consequently, she was exhausted the next day when they set out just after dawn.

After grabbing a bite to eat from the caravan’s cook, she quickly fell asleep with the rocking of the conveyance. A few hours later, she woke up, but stayed laying down. She listened, searching for the voices she’d heard the night before.

Eventually, she picked them out. They were riding behind her, which made things a bit more difficult. Making the decisions she’d agonized over the night before, Rayne carefully rolled up her bedroll and stuffed it in her bag before covertly placing the entire thing into her hidden ring instead of tucking it in with the rest of the baggage.

At the same time, Rayne casually looked around, hoping to identify who the two voices belonged to. She noted the face of the lone rider directly behind the carriage, but she couldn’t be sure he was one of the two who planned to kidnap her.

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After a few minutes of riding silently, Rayne climbed down and entered the carriage, hoping that her observers would just assume she was going to remain within for the remainder of the day. They should be stopping for the mid-day break soon to allow the people within the caravan to relieve themselves and stretch their legs.

As the carriage made its way along the surprisingly smooth path, Rayne considered the possibility of seeking the protection of others against her pursuers. Would it be worth it?

Sure, she might have some measure of safety, but what if her actions led to those individuals being hurt by the slavers? Would she be able to live with herself?

Even if she made it all the way to the capital, it wasn’t like the promise of a school slot was real. Her showing up would do little more than alert the [Baron] that she was alive and well, possibly prompting some backlash against her family.

No. It would be better for her to sneak away like she planned.

She’d camped before on Earth and had plenty of experience with traps and cooking. Even with her small size, it should be fine as long as she found shelter. At least this way she would be the only one impacted by her actions.

When the carriage came to a stop, Rayne followed two women from the carriage ahead of hers as they headed into the lightly wooded area beside the road to relieve themselves.

She hung back to draw less attention to herself and made a wide arc around the others in search of a place to hide. Luckily, she’d spent a lot of time playing hiding games with her siblings in the woods next to their farm.

So much so, in fact, that she’d earned skills like [stealth] and [camouflage]. They were low-leveled, but should be enough to facilitate her escape. Activating both, Rayne carefully hid beneath some underbrush and waited for the caravan to depart.

When she heard movement nearby, Rayne trickled a bit of mana into both skills, willing them to become more effective. She’d read about using mana to empower skills, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when she saw a notification that she’d improved both skills. The surprise came with the notification that followed.

You have reached Level 5!

New class options are available!

Rayne knew she would be offered a choice of classes when she reached level 5, but was still surprised to get the notification. Since she was well hidden and had nothing else to do, it made sense for her to at least review the options available.

Based on what she’d been told by her parents and [Teachers], she should have between three and five options available based on her actions and skills thus far. Feeling more excitement than she expected, Rayne examined her options for her first class.

Trapper – Uses a variety of traps to defeat opponents. You do not have to be stronger to defeat your opponents, just smarter. Provides 10% extra experience when opponent is defeated through the utilization of traps. Grants additional +2 Mind, +1 Agility per level.

Scholar – Focuses on growth through learning. As your knowledge increases, so does your experience. Provides 25% added experience from all skills. Grants additional +2 Mind, +1 Resolve per level.

Teacher – Shares knowledge with others. Your students’ growth is your growth. You gain class experience through teaching others. Improves the rate of learning for those being taught by 15%. Grants additional +1 Mind, +1 Spirit, +1 Resolve per level.

Mage – A generalist of mana. You use a variety of magic types to defeat your opponents. Grants additional +2 Mind, +1 Spirit, +1 Resolve per level.

Rogue – Seek your path or your prey. You often work alone and hidden. 10% bonus experience to experience gained while undetected. Grants additional +1 Body, +2 Agility per level.

The last one was a bit of a surprise, and Rayne wasn’t sure exactly why it was offered to her. Was it because she had escaped from the slavers? Maybe her improved [stealth] skill? Regardless, Rayne didn’t see [Rogue] as being a good fit for her.

Both [Scholar] and [Teacher] fit her well, but neither would be beneficial to her current situation. While she’d rather plan for the long-term, survival came first. If she couldn’t survive, the future was moot.

That left [Trapper] and [Mage]. She couldn’t deny that [Mage] was the more appealing of the two. Who didn’t want to be a [Mage]? Magic was awesome! She’d always fantasized about magic and being able to control the elements, and now she was being given the opportunity!

But she had to consider the possibility that taking the [Trapper] class might be more helpful for her short-term survival. If she was going to be alone in the wilderness for a while, it would be good to gain a class that allowed her to obtain food more easily.

Yet, it wasn’t like she was going to lose her ability to make traps just because she didn’t accept the class. She could always take the [Mage] class and gain new skills while still using those she had to survive. It might be better if she was granted the ability to make water or fire through magic.

Both water and fire would be important to her continued well-being. And the class would also likely give her much more offensive options.

Besides, it was the class that offered the most bonus attributes on top of the three free points she already got per level. However, she did note the other options gave bonus experience – something the [Mage] class did not provide.

Ultimately, she had to go with her gut, and her gut was screaming at her to follow her dream. Was it immature? Probably. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t the best choice for her.

Making her decision, Rayne selected [Mage] as her new class, immediately gaining a better understanding of mana and how it could be used. She also gained two new spells.

The first was [Fireball], which allowed her to make a small ball of flames that could be directed at an opponent. Both the strength of the flame and the distance it could travel were impacted by the amount of mana spent and her Resolve, which functioned like willpower and directly influenced how easily spells could be cast and controlled.

Her second new spell was [Minor Heal], which pleased her more than she wanted to admit. Most of what she’d learned indicated healing spells weren’t provided until later unless they were taught to a young [Mage] by someone else.

Maybe whatever system controlled the world was more observant than she thought.

Unfortunately, the cost of the spell was pretty high at 75 mana per cast. She would need to increase her mana if she had any hope of being able to use her spells effectively.

She heard the sounds of the caravan pulling away, so she still had some time left before she could move. Rayne still hadn’t assigned any of her free attribute points or skill points yet, but now that she had a class it made sense to start considering where they should be applied.

With 15 attribute points available to assign, she added six to Mind, bringing it up to 15 and granting her 150 mana. That would allow her to cast the healing spell twice. She also added two points to Resolve since it seemed to be critical for spell creation and control.

With seven points left, Rayne considered her stats and decided to shore up her physical weaknesses for now in order to improve her survivability. While she’d like to just dump everything into her mental stats to make her attacks more effective, being a total glass cannon was not something she was comfortable with.

Hopefully adding to the stats now wouldn’t keep them from naturally increasing as she grew.

After adding five to Vitality and two to Body, Rayne gasped as the changes began taking effect. The pain was overwhelming and she quickly found her vision fading as her consciousness retreated.