Lyra’s steps were silent as she went through the underbrush of an overgrown forest. Each foot placement was deliberate as any noise she made might be heard by a predator. Not knowing where she was or what she could run into being careful is all she can do in this situation. Taking deep breaths she enjoyed the fresh air around her. The well practiced form of Lyra hidden under a minor illusion of her surroundings.
‘Nothing is out here.’ she thought, ‘I need to find something to progress my level.’ Lyra’s thoughts got interrupted by a loud crash, and a roar heard in the distance making all the leaves shake. Her head whipped to the direction of the clear as day fight. Trees flew in the air after being uprooted and a constant blast of flames and ice visible from her position in the forest got her moving much faster. A few seconds of running and sounds of the forest clearing out from the range of the conflict. She was under a truly massive tree watching as the other forest dwellers ran further away from where she was.
‘How many fights have I missed by sneaking around?’ Lyra thought while sliding down the tree, her adrenaline kept pumping through her veins. The fight in the background is just as loud as earlier. Her erratic breathing calmed as she felt slightly safer. Her fingers brushed against the rough wood that her back leaned against. Tracing the grain of the wood she grabbed a piece of bark and pulled herself up. Lyra’s gaze solidified as she saw a target finally in view. It looked like a snake around 3 meters long, but with the stinger on its tail the length of which would not be a fun experience if it struck.
Lyra moved like she had always done in the past. It was like her body was on autopilot, and the practiced motion of crouching down to move behind her target, and the phantom-like movement of her body as she got right on top of the snake that was also fleeing. Dagger in hand Lyra swung down severing the tail in just a single cut right between the vertebrates. Not letting a new tool go to waste she gripped the removed tail in her other hand right as the snake felt the pain of losing a part of itself. Its reaction and movement didn’t catch Lyra off guard as she used the snake's own tail to block the bite from the snake as her dagger slid up and removed the head of the snake. A little chuckle came from her throat as she looked at the snake head biting its own tail.
[Level 4 Dagger Tail slain]
Small motes of refined mana floated out of the dismembered body of the snake, and with a small pull from her core Lyra dragged the mana into her core. It floated toward her center and entered the patterns as the runes covering her core glowed a dark purple. The small rush of energy that flowed through her body got her moving quickly. Lyra could no longer hear the fight in the distance anymore as an idea came to her as a new screen appeared.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
[You have reached Novice level 2]
[You have gained +1 all stats]
[You have gained 10 free stat points ]
With a smile, and a careful push at the top of the snake's mouth released the tail from its bite and she carefully placed it on the ground as she grabbed the body over. Looking around Lyra threw up a new illusion around her and the dead Dagger Tail, with the tail in hand she took her knife to the base of the flesh connecting it to the bladed tail. Her hands moved as quickly as she could to remove the skin and lay it down next to her crouched form. Once the snake skin was free, she trimmed the flesh off the tail leaving only the spinal cord. Using her knife Lyra freed a piece of bark and she placed the good meat that she could get from its tail on top of the makeshift plate. Her blade swiped up at the tree carving a grove for sap to drip down from the opening she had made.
Mana flowed as a Spirit Flame formed on the meat and cooked it slowly. Lyra grabbed and moved the snake skin to the sap coating it liberally. The sap coated skin in hand Lyra formed another flame and held it close to the flame careful not to burn herself. The skin blacken as the sap turned dark and more fluid over the next few minutes. Her flame over the meat that got cooked moved as she reached over to eat it then fell even further down to burn the bark and turn it into char. Releasing the flame on what used to be bark, Lyra placed the char into the melted sap and stirred with a nearby stick. Once she felt like it was ready she took the tail and coated it in the tar, and wrapped the spinal cord like a handle before placing it to sit next to her.
‘I need to get moving as soon as my new dagger finishes cooling off.’ standing Lyra pulled the corpse up, cleaning it, and dressed the meat. Once she felt it was clean enough, she hung it using her dagger edge down to bleed it out. Lyra crouched down and looked around to see if anything was watching her even with her illusions up. Her watch ended after just a few minutes as a creature that looked like a wolf infected by mange but twice the size came sniffing at the ground.
The milky white eyes of the beast stared down the tree that Lyra was sitting under, her body shuddering at its gaze that she hoped couldn’t pierce her illusions. The way its body moved screamed at her to avoid being hit. The strength and ease it moved with betraying its rotted appearance. Her mind raced as each part of her surroundings came to her. Thoughts of running came as she steeled herself. 'I won't die. I can't die.' She felt for the mana coursing in her body and focused.