Luriel devised a plan. It wasn’t very complicated or a very good plan, but it was better than no plan or betting on luck. While creating it, the pack of rats has grown by one member. She couldn’t delay anymore.

Luriel dropped on one knee and pointed her wand. In the last five minutes, she watched the overgrown rodents move around in simple patterns. They never went too far from the center of the group. Luriel has chosen her place outside their aggro range at an angle at which all paths lined up. She just hoped she timed it right.

Thirteen seconds went by surprisingly quickly and a fully grown blue ball of mana shot from her wand. She watched with held breath as it overcame the distance and hit the first rat in the neck. It didn’t stop there, but more Luriel didn’t see. She turned around and started sprinting away. A moment later, System informed her about her success.

You have killed Rat level 1 x3

Your contribution is 100%

You have earned Mild experience points

She got lucky. With the current strength of her Manashot, it killed the maximum number of those rats. Now if she can aim, she might not even need to use Meditation to replenish mana. Well, maybe she shouldn’t say “hop” before actually jumping to safety. She could hear their claws on the stone and occasional squealing. Five angry rats were chasing her. They had better stats, so it was only a matter of time before they caught her.

Luriel readied her hands in defense position as boxers do and then, with full force, she slammed into the corner of the giant animal skin. It slowed her down considerably while hurting her hands, but she passed without a big delay.

She briefly looked around before choosing one of the closer cages, not remembering which one was her own. It didn’t really matter. Now came the moment of true, whether or not she could jump up. If she couldn’t, she probably won’t have enough time to try again, not talking about strength to climb it. This was her only chance. Luriel sped up. Her legs were tired and she could barely get enough oxygen from breathing through her mouth. Her hands were slick from sweat. She counted the steps and readied herself. Once she hit the last one, she bent her knees and, using the momentum from her run, she jumped. Her hands were stretched above her, the wand in her teeth. She flew a small distance until her palms touched the lowest metal bar of the opened door. Her fingers immediately slammed down and caught the cold metal.

I did it!

But it was far from over. Her hands were strained, barely holding her weight. The sweat on her palms made it even harder. She was no athlete to pull her legs on the bar beside her hands. Luriel felt her energy draining. She had to go up and fast. She bite into her wand even harder.

I can do this!

She tensed her muscles and pushed herself up. Hot pain was tearing her arms. She screamed, but didn’t let go. No, she pushed herself even harder until she could reach the higher bar.

Good. Good. You did it.

She allowed herself a moment of rest. Just a few breaths. But she needed to do it one more time. She was still not high enough. Luriel got mentally ready.

Just one more time. You can do this. One more time.

It took her a little longer than she would like to gather enough resolve. The second time was pain even worse. Tears streamed from her eyes. She pushed herself up until she thought she could reach the bar. But she was mistaken. She was a few centimeters short from grabbing it. At that moment, all of her weight rested solely on one hand. She could feel her muscles tearing apart. The pain drained her resolve, but before Luriel gave up, she tried one last time. She pushed her hand beyond its limit and finally she reached the bar. Her left hand lost all strength, but Luriel quickly supported herself with her legs. She put her knees on to the lowest bar and hugged the metal. Although her robe wasn’t suitable for climbing, it didn’t hinder her as it was loose enough. She panted, but smiled.

Rats didn’t celebrate with her. All of them reached her position, but there was nothing they could do. Their angry squeals made Luriel’s smile wider. She at last climbed inside the cage. There she almost fell to the ground but managed to control herself enough to not get bruises. She felt so tired. Metal ground was nicely cooling her back. Her left arm was painfully throbbing, and she realized she wasn’t able to clench her fist. Her right hand was in way better condition, but was shaking and weak. Luriel knew that in her current condition she won’t be able to do anything. Fortunately, she had a solution.

It gave her a bit of work, but she managed to pull a healing potion from a special bag hung on her belt. She removed the plug with her teeth and took a small sip. There was no need to use more. She had only one bottle, but a full healing potion could heal serious injuries. The liquid tasted like earth mixed with herbs. As it touched her stomach, she a wave of relief spread through her body. Pain as well as throbbing and shaking stopped. Her hands completely healed. The only thing that stayed was her tiredness. After all, it was a healing, not stamina potion.

She picked up her wand that fell from her mouth when she got inside the cage. Teeth mark was visible on its surface. In the future, she had to be careful to not accidentally snap it in half with such low durability.

Now she just had to finish the work and kill all rats before the new group grows in their previous place. The overgrown rodents were patiently waiting for her. They didn’t even move from the spot. Luriel had an easy time shooting. She killed two out of five before others wised up enough to hide under her cage.

That was a little tricky, but she could still manage. Luriel lied on the floor near the entrance. She tightly hugged the nearest cage bar and leaned over the edge. The rats were almost on the other side. The blood started throbbing in her ears. Casting while upside down was a new and unpleasant experience. She felt that her aim was off, but rats decided to make things easier for her by coming closer. One even run at her. Luriel was fairly confident that neither of them would be able to reach her. They weren’t rabbits to jump that high or had that much agility.

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The running rat didn’t know about author’s beliefs and still tried that jump. It flew surprisingly high, but not enough to reach her head or stretched hand. Luriel focused on one of the farther rats when suddenly some new weight abruptly pulled her down. She barely held with one hand but could feel her hair tearing from the skin on her head. She immediately changed the target. A moment later, the additional weight dropped down. Luriel closed a system message and thought of how lucky she was that the ability was ready or it would fail because of the surprise.

Luriel pulled herself up. She felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. The top of her head was painfully stinging. When she touched it, her fingers returned with a bit of blood. It was too small of an injury to waste a potion. It had to heal on its own.

Her next concern was the two remaining rats. She didn’t have any sort of hair band. The best thing she could do was stick her hair behind the collar of her robe, but when she leaned over the edge, most of them still fell down.

There is also the option to tie my hair into a knot, maybe two? Wait, then why don’t I just braid them?

The ending still needed something to tie it up, but most should hold either way. Luriel started working immediately. Her hair was softer than she remembered. System must have had washed, healed and even combed them. Her work was easy if she didn’t count the pain and in less than a minute, she was finished.

Now let’s test it.

As she leaned over the edge of the cage, her braided braid fell over her head. Some parts of the end untangled, but most held together. In the meantime both rats run at her. Luriel didn’t start casting until both of them jumped. Neither had reached her. She smiled.

Rats didn’t give up that plan, what caused Luriel to miss a few shots. She had to meditate to replenish mana, but after that, she killed them both. The victory was hers.

She would love to just lie down for a bit, but that would mean that all her hard work would go to waste and, even worse, she would miss Ziri’s scenes. Just that concern gave her the energy to move. She jumped down with the same result as before, but hurriedly got to her feet and rushed back.

From afar, she could see three new rats waiting at the entrance to their tunnels. Luriel didn’t have time to play the climbing game, nor would it have a different result. The two groups she saw fighting before already finished and went around the corner. Instead, she could see a large pack of at least thirty running in her direction. She had to wait until they passed. Meanwhile, she meditated just to get a little more mana. Her eyes regularly wandered to the tunnel. Her constant anxiety more than once fucked up her breathing. But she couldn’t help it. Three rats were a lot, but four too much.

In the end, no new rat crawled out of the hole and Luriel quickly found the best position. Her timing was perfect as before, what gave her confidence when last rat rushed at her. When she went to school on Earth, they often played dodgeball. She was never good at catching the ball, but she learned how to avoid it. Tho, having a monster jumping at her, pushed the stakes to the new level. Luriel forcefully loosened her stiff body.

I did it once, so I can do it again.

She continued casting while preparing herself. When the rat jumped with its mouth wide opened Luriel twirled out of its way. Her casting was a little slower than before, so she backed away. Rat turned sharply around until its claws screech on the stone floor. It jumped again, but this time Luriel didn’t dodge. She couldn’t. The ability was ready. Manashot flew straight through the beast’s open mouth.

It wasn’t instantly dead, but it wasn’t in fighting condition either. Its body continued flying forward until it hit her and both fell to the ground. Luriel’s neck was drenched in its blood, so she hurriedly pushed it aside. Its starved body weighed a lot more than she expected. The rat twitched a bit before finally succumbing to the injury, and Luriel got her message. She sighed in relief.

She couldn’t wait until she hit level 2. She will pick new ability and increase her mana pool. If she remembered correctly, one needed to kill 15 rats with a 100% contribution. It was part of the conversation Zirilion had with his group. He had tons of questions, but to not look too much out of place, he asked only a few most important.

Luriel cleaned as much blood from herself into the critter’s fur as she could before it became sticky. Otherwise, she wasn’t concerned with her looks. People fighting in close combat regularly got a lot of blood sprayed on them. Especially noobs. So she won’t stand out.

After that, Luriel went to the entrance. It looked like a fat half circle. Its height should be 1.1 meters and width 1.5. Good for one rat to move around. The tunnels didn’t contain any treasures, well, except one, but that didn’t spawn rats and was completely disconnected from others. Regular tunnels could become good hunting ground. Well, at least if one wasn’t incredibly unlucky with spawning. The only problem now was its darkness. There were no crystals growing inside. Rats oriented mainly through smell and whiskers. And they weren’t deaf, either.

But Luriel had a solution. She shot her ability at the ceiling. The Manashot has broken a few crystals that rained down on her as a light shower. She caught a few small shining pieces. They were too small to light her path properly, so she cast another. This time, however, she had to change her target because finally a rat came out of the hole. Her third shot failed because of the shortage of mana. She realized that not feeling it had one very nice perk. She didn’t suffer any consequences. In her story, she described low levels of mana as a different kind of tiredness. She compared it to feelings of dryness inside the body and strong, urgent thirst. The bigger one’s mana pool was, the more severe consequences he felt. It could even result in dizziness comparable to ten straight minutes of spinning in place.

Luriel spend next quarter of an hour meditating, taking brake only to kill new rats and get more crystals from ceiling. She was hoping she regenerated enough. It would be too dangerous to do it in the tunnels. Shame she didn’t have a knife or something. However, the best thing happened right as she killed her last rat. New system message appeared. Unfortunately, it wasn’t accompanied by the sound of fanfare, but she could at least imagine it.

Congratulations, you have reached level 2

Luriel laughed. She forgot to count. But when she looked back, it was truly 15. It took her less time than she thought. If she could keep the speed up, she might even reach level 3 today. But not now. She still wanted to follow her protagonist. Someone might call her stalker, but she didn’t care. It was her story.

Technically, all readers are stalkers. They look at private moments of characters without their consent. But, well, they technically got consent from authors, someone like their parents? No, no, no, let’s not develop this. I’m no philosopher to ponder about rights of characters.

It’s fine if I follow Ziri around on this stage. There aren’t many places to go to anyway. And it’s not like I could join his group or really get very close to them. I don’t want to risk even a small change of story.

Anyway lets focus on my current situation.

She laughed again. The time has come to choose a new ability, and she felt like it won’t be an easy choice.