[Young Ogre - Defeated!]
[Lilly (18 > 19) - Level Up!)
[Arkonion Combat (8 > 9) - Level Up!]
Lilly watched the ogre's large body fall to the ground with her dagger still stuck in the back of its head. For a level 35 monster, it wasn't actually that hard to kill, slow lumbering creature that it was. Lots of heavy swings but not a lot of speed; a very bad matchup against a teleporting assassin like herself.
Stretching like a cat, she grabbed the dagger, pocketed her spoils, and started heading back to her home. She hopped from treetop to treetop, leaning into the winds flowing through her clothes, and occasionally glancing towards the setting sun. The interesting thing was, this sun was smaller than the one on Earth, and a deep shade of azure blue. It was something she hadn't noticed until she left her cave the second day; the differently colored sun left her completely bewildered.
Lilly had actually lost track of how many days it's been since she woke up in these woodlands. Despite the somewhat monotonous routine she found herself following, she is quite satisfied with her gains from the past month. She arrived at her destination, teleporting through the hidden cave entrance while she pulled up her status screen.
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Name: Lilly Nightingale – Level 19
Race: Human
Mana: 135/390
Class: Arkonion Legacy
Active Skills:
Meditation (Uncommon) - 7
Identify (Common) - 5
Inventory (Special) - 1
Afterimage (Class) - 12
Arkonion Cloak (Class) - 7
Perception (Class) - 5
Passive Skills:
Arkonion Combat (Class) - 9
Eye of Arkon (Class) - 10
Stealth (Common) - 5
Cooking (Common) - 2
Brewing (Rare) - 3
Forgery (Rare) - 2
Leatherworking (Uncommon) - 1
Stats (5 points remaining):
Vitality – 28 (+)
Strength – 56 (+)
Intellect – 13 (+)
Wisdom – 26 (+)
Dexterity – 40 (+)
Perception – 25 (+)
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She looked at her Intellect, which was increasingly falling behind her other stats. She couldn't help it, none of her abilities were affected by it. Once again, she mentally chided herself about how it'll probably be important in the coming future.
Not today though. She thought tiredly. She put two points into Vitality and the rest into Strength as she descended the stairs and appeared on the other side of the stone slab. Heading for the kitchen, Lilly brainstormed on what to do tonight.
For the most part, she has been spending her days reading books to gain Wisdom and learn various trades useful to an assassin, and training and leveling her combat abilities in the forest against beasts like orcs, kobolds, or even the occasional young drake if she was lucky enough to find one by its lonesome. The rest of the time was spent cooking the sheer quantity of meat that she was obtaining from her training. The cooking skill certainly helped in regards to that.
Despite the constant fighting, the past month could almost be called blissful, maybe even idyllically idle despite her clear progress in stats and levels. It seemed like it was right about the time that she considered leaving her nest, at least temporarily and seeing what this world has to offer.
Humming quietly, she finished cooking her meal of ogre stew (which started tasting much better after she discovered seasoning) and brought it to her desk in the study. Lilly spent the majority of her time in the study reading about various topics, ranging from potion brewing to leatherworking and even the occasional magic theory. Unfortunately, the knowledge on the practical usage of magic was strictly regulated and monopolized by the world's prestigious magic academies. Nonetheless, she found the books fascinating to read and hoped to visit an academy one day in the future to learn the arts of the arcane. The image of herself creating a huge fireball above her head sounded wonderful, albeit a little too flashy for her tastes.
Once she was all done eating, Lilly cleaned up her meal and put everything back where it belongs in the kitchen. After the month of training and learning, she had decided that today was the day that she would head out for civilization. Moving around the hideout busily, she packed everything she wanted to take, namely books and food, into her storage. There actually wasn't much she needed to bring, anything she didn't have, she could buy at any cities she visited. Satisfied with her preparations, or lack thereof, she headed out to the forest. She planned to head north until she hit a road and then she'd follow it eastwards, in the direction of Trestia.
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Outside, she turned and looked at the cave entrance pensively. Early on, she had covered it up. Since she could teleport through walls and she didn't really have a need for an entrance. Not to mention, every assassin needs a secret base of operations. So she filled in the entrance with rocks and sticks and layered it all with gravel. Not her best work, but it would do for the time being.
Even though she had spent barely a month inhabiting the place, it had been her first month in this world, so there was a lot of emotional attachment to it. She would come back with her treasures at one point or another, but this was farewell for awhile.
"Alright, Lilly, stop daydreaming and get on with it." She chided herself, heading off in the direction of what she hoped to be north.
Lilly had been hopping through the treetops for the past hour and a half, sometimes taking a break to drink some water or eat some dried meat she had prepared beforehand. Despite the sun setting quite some time ago, her vision had not been impeded at all with her [Eye of Arkon] skill aiding her with the dark. It was a peaceful night, a nice breeze fluttered through her cloak, the stars formed bright and clear constellations in the sky.
Up ahead, she could see a clearing, a road leading to one of the kingdoms. Interestingly, there was also a carriage stopped in the middle of the road with a few people moving around it. She landed in a nearby tree and looked at what was happening. Maybe she could ask for a ride of some sort, though it'd probably be hard to trust someone who looked quite literally like a shadow emerging from the forest.
Closer now, she could see that some of the people, presumably the owners, were tied up and sitting in a group on the far side of the carriage. There were two heavily armed men watching over the group and a third entering the carriage. She used [Identify] to see what she was up against.
[Warrior - 27]
[Warrior - 35]
[Warrior - 23]
Standard bandit hostage situation? This is almost like a fantasy novel. If she was going to do anything, it would have to be fast and quiet. They were all higher level than her, so she couldn't reasonably fight them all in a straightforward fight.
The highest level bandit entered the carriage, so it was a good enough situation to take the advantage. Silently, she blinked once onto the ground and pressed against the dirt to avoid being seen. She blinked again to the side of the carriage, then activated [Perception] to look inside. The bandit was rummaging through the belongings, grabbing valuables where he could. She teleported behind him, crouched on top of a crate. Smoothly reaching one hand around to cover his mouth, she swiftly stabbed her dagger into the side of his neck at the same moment. The bandit struggled for a few seconds, before going limp. She caught the body and slowly laid it to the ground.
[Warrior - Defeated!]
[Lilly (19 > 20) - Level Up!]
Using [Perception] again, she saw one of the bandits approaching the carriage.
"Hey boss, how's it lookin' in there?" The bandit called out, reaching the back of the cart. Pulling open the flaps, he saw an ominous figure standing over his boss' body.
"Hey! Who da fuck are ya?! John! We've got an intruder!" He whipped out his sword and backed away from the carriage. No one answered his call for help. Confused by the lack of response, he looked over at his partner. His eyes widened, the same dark figure stood over John, who was on the ground choking on his own blood. Panic lit his eyes; the last thing he saw was the figure slowly fading away before a dagger entered the side of his throat.
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[Warrior - Defeated!]
[Warrior - Defeated!]
[Lilly (20 > 21) - Level Up!]
[Stealth (5 > 6) - Level Up!]
[Perception (5 > 6) - Level Up!]
Lilly wiped the blood off of her dagger using the clothes of the last bandit. Looking at the eyes of the dead bandit, she had to suppress the urge to puke, barely containing herself and maintaining her composure.
That'd be pretty pathetic for an assassin, to puke because of a few measly kills. She thought, before looking over at the owners of the carriage. A portly old man and two children, both teenagers, one girl, and one boy stared at her with wide eyes filled with fear and apprehension. The girl had bright green eyes and long blond hair that ended in ringlets. The boy had dark brown eyes with dark blond hair, closer to brown than anything. The man was bald, had bright green eyes like the girl, and looked to be in his late thirties.
She went over and undid their gags quickly and efficiently before going to work on their bindings. Once they were free, they rubbed their hands together before the man spoke up, watching her warily.
"I don't know how to thank you properly for saving us from that inopportune situation. At the very least, we would've been lost on these roads with no food, at the worst, we may have been killed or enslaved. Is there anything we could do to compensate you, young miss?" He asked her slowly as if scared he would offend her in some manner.
These poor people are fucking frightened, by me no less. She looked down at herself and realized that she looked like a shadow dripping in blood. She sighed, realizing that dread was a perfectly rational reaction. Storing the dagger away, she used her [Inventory] to change to a set of clean clothes and get a spare rag to clean up the rest of the blood as best as she could. She deactivated her cloak and showed them a bright smile.
"Sorry about the delay. I happened to be passing by when I saw your situation. I was actually hoping for a ride to one of the cities and possibly a bath, any way you help me with that? I can pay if that suits you better." She kept her hands where he could see them and tried to have a neutral stance.
The man relaxed visibly, along with the teenagers, and they worked out the details of transport. Turns out, they were headed for the city of Fressia, a city of merchants that lay on the shore of the lake between the human and demihuman kingdoms.
She stored everything of worth the bandits had on them and they were on their way to Fressia. Apparently, it would take about a day by carriage according to the girl, so she would be spending some time with her and her family. She learned that the man's name was Vincent Lenner and his two children were Jennifer and Terrance Lenner.
Vincent drove the carriage, leaving the three of them to talk for the most part. They both seemingly had a lot of questions, but Terry, the boy’s nickname, was a bit bashful.
"So what were you doing in the woods?" Jennifer asked, wide-eyed and practically glowing.
Lilly considered for a moment, before explaining how she had lived in a remote village with her father, who had been a former adventurer, and she journeyed out on her own to try and find independence.
"I was actually lost for a little bit before I found you guys. So I guess we were both fortunate." Lilly answered.
"Honestly, I think how you just appeared out of nowhere and took out all those guys so effortlessly was awe-inspiring. It looked like you were in two places at once; this scary reaper coming to reap their souls." Jennifer said rapidly, all in one breath. She looked as if she'd been deprived of the outside world, seeing everything with a shine of innocence that wasn't very common.
"I- I thought you were cool too..." Terry whispered. He couldn't seem to meet her eyes, always finding a reason to look elsewhere.
Lilly smiled inwardly, glad that she had managed to come along in time to save this family. She looked out of the back of the wagon and watched as the sun peeked out over the edge of the horizon. She thought back to the fight. It had been her first fight against other human beings and it had gone smoothly despite the disparate levels, but they weren't all going to go that well for her. Moving forward, she had to become stronger and smarter.
Tired from the fight and lack of sleep, she closed her eyes and took a nap.