It was daylight, which meant we could travel, right? I sent Frampton to explore even more of this Forbidden Forest. It seemed like he was largely ignored by all the monsters, which was lucky because I required all the information I could get. If I lost Frampton, things could go horribly for me. Still, this area was huge! Or perhaps, a nine year old girl is small. When do these humans grow to their full height? Not like I can do anything about that just yet, I thought.
The weather was sunny, gently blowing a strand of my hair out of place. The dangerous monsters tended to use the cover of the night to hunt in this Realm. When it was bright outside, I could probably handle my own while exploring the Forbidden Forest. Due to Attor’s complaining, we were not going to travel to the Spider den! I changed my mind, okay? If they were stronger than goblins, then I was not ready for another night of getting killed over and over again. I stood in my room, letting Clothing Identifier do the work and eventually setting on suitable outdoor clothing.
— Clothes Identifier: Commoner’s Traveler Set [Common]. Offers little protection against the outside elements.
It’ll do, I sighed. I was level 1, so starting small was all I could do, right? There were further experiments that I wanted to try. When I exited my humble throne room, I bumped into the cauldron Attor conveniently left out for me. As I recalled my Skill List, Brewing was the act of mixing and crafting potions. Specifically, because the skill was ranked F, I could only craft the lowest level potions which were hidden. If I were to fight, I would need to learn more about these Tier 0 potions and touch the grass outside to find their ingredients. I stared at the blue Noble Dress and scoffed. It probably should not be left strewn across the floor like this, I picked it up and tossed it in the dresser.
It was time to do some exploring!
The Forbidden Forest was not as dangerous as I thought it would be. I stood inside the Tower’s ward contemplating something. It was time to summon him, wasn’t it? He can help me find ingredients! I activated the Summon Familiar Skill.
“Come to me, O Familiar!” I called. That familiar warmth moved through my chest as the ghostly form of Attor faded, replaced by magic expelled from my body. He was still small!
“If you hug me, I will bite you,” his cute dragon face scowled at me. I pouted. It’s not fair!
“You’re no fair!” I sighed. “I can just come back to life and hug you anyways!”
A ferocious growl shut me up quickly, so I decided to skip on that.
“We’re out here to find ingredients!” I scanned the Brewing Skill List, Attor floated right up to the menu in front of me. “You can see this too?”
Tier 0 Potions
Ingredients
Agility
Discoverable
Minor Healing
Discoverable
Minor Energy
Discoverable
Elemental Resistance
Discoverable
“I can guess what each of these potions do,” I mused, but I noticed Attor’s eyes were focused on another menu I did not summon. “Whoa! You have a Status now, too Attor?”
“D-Don’t look!” He tried to cover it up, but I heard a chime in my head along with Wisdom’s voice.
— Wisdom’s Intervention activated. Familiar “Attor” now can recieve experience points and upgrade their Stats based off of his and the Summoner’s actions.
— Attor, level 1
— Class: Dragon Baby [Legendary] [Familiar Linked]
HP: 320/320
Mana Pool: N/A
Stamina: 100%
— Attack: C (360/500)
— Magic: C (360/500)
— Defense: D (300/360)
— Magic: D (300/360)
“Why were you hiding this from me?” I groaned. “You’re tougher than I am! I want a Legendary class! This is double not fair!”
The Dragon looked at his Skills, which contained several useful ones according to him.
Skills
— Venom Claw [Rare]: Strikes enemy with a venomous claw.
— Poison Breath [Rare]: Attack from a distance with a Poisonous breath weapon.
I had a similar spell to his own Skill, but I could not use it unless I had a wand. How peculiar! He chuckled at his own power, but stopped when I looked at him. He closed it before I could peep at more of the Skill list.
“What, are you embarrassed? You have a good evil laugh!” I told him. I placed my hands on my hips triumphantly. “Sometimes, you have to let it out! Like this! Hah!”
I let out my evilest laugh and soon he joined me. The Forest was ours for the taking, with our debut being our chorus of malevolent laughter! You just wait! I laughed so hard a cough choked me up. Attor floated around me with concern, as I leaned on his small but tough frame for support while I sputtered.
“Anyways,” I coughed in one final heave. “Where might we find such ingredients? Any idea?”
“We should start with the river,” Attor pointed in the direction where I fought the goblins the first time. “We will need water and bottles for potions anyways.”
“Water, huh?” I hated water. The only kinds humans brought to my Realm was Holy infused water, which burned through my people’s skin. Attor shook his head. Not a clue where we would get bottles. Perhaps, the Brewing Skill could spare me some? Without that painful water, of course.
“This isn’t the kind that will kill you,” he sighed. “Probably.”
“Probably? Hey, wait up!”
The rushing river was shallow enough for me to find what Attor pointed to. Bitter herbs that grew commonly amongst the riverbeds. I yanked some out, but realized I did not have a lot of carry space. The Brewing Skill did identify them as green Tier 0 ingredients, however, and the river was cluttered with them. How convenient! I would have to make a bag soon to shove all this stuff in, I guessed.
“Are there any Skills that can hold stuff?” I complained, tossing the herbs back into the river. I held onto a bundle of six of them, since the Brewing Skill required that many along with a lot of water. “I hope I can acquire a Water spell, too, that way we won’t have to stop here.”
“Humans are able to cast Spacial magic, opening portals to other dimensions,” he held a certain flower in his mouth. “I’m sure you’re well aware of their portals by now.”
“I am,” I sighed. The Brewing Skill identified the flower he had.
—Skill: Brewing: Identified Tier 0 Ingredient: Energy Flower.
That’s probably for the Agility Potion! I exclaimed in my mind. Attor gave me an exasperated look. Kidding! It’s clearly for a health potion!
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Something rustled the bushes near the rest of those flowers. I got ready to fight. Attor sniffed and also seemed eager to fight in his adorable form. A screech emitted from whatever was in the bushes as two prominent ears and a massive horn launched itself at me.
“First Martial Art! Punch!” I fired back a powerful punch in return, but Attor let loose a breath attack to intercept the monster’s jab. The creature flopped around wildly, but went still as it succumbed to his poison. It was fuzzy, but its face was twisted and gnarled like a tree’s roots. The rest of its body was fat and plump, rounded off with two powerful hind legs to let it perform its leap attacks.
— Blood Horned Hare, level 6
HP: 0%
— Charlotte has gained 120 experience points! Charlotte has leveled up to level 2! 10 Stat Points awarded!
— Attor has gained 120 experience points! Attor has leveled up to level 2! 10 Stats points awarded!
— Wisdom’s Intervention activated. Blood Horned Hare’s Horns and Bones can be used to create Agility Potions.
“Hmm, these menus are good and all, but how does it taste?” I wondered. We both stared at the corpse in the middle of the poison gas. Well, perhaps I can also skin it and make a bag out of it. “Stat Points, huh? I guess we’ll be able to add those to upgrade our ranks. I wonder how many experience points we need each time for leveling up. You know anything about that, Attor?”
“We shall have to procure more of these Hares,” the dragon eyed my Cooking Skill’s menu. Gah! He was only thinking about the food! My stomach growled, and soon both of us were looking at the Tier 2 Blood Horned Hare Feast. It required three more of the beasts to craft a meal for us.
— Wisdom’s Intervention activated. Skill: Basic Crafting [Uncommon] unlocked at Level 2. Crafting a Leather Bag [Uncommon] requires 3 Tier 0 Monster Hides.
“So that got unlocked too,” I eyed the bushes for more of the Blood Horned Hares lying in wait to ambush us. Attor flew up high. A smart move, but hopefully there was nothing flying above that hunted small dragons.
“Skill! Familiar’s Eye!” He called above. Suddenly, a new window appeared at the corner of my vision. I could see myself standing on the ground from above! I can see through Attor’s eyes! Now that’s convenient! I sensed movement in the bushes ahead and picked up a rock. With the Martial Arts Skill, I wondered if it could enhance my throw.
Only one way to find out, I winded up my attack and hurled the stone at it. The projectile glowed a bright yellow as it pierced the beast’s head, causing it to bloom into a headless scarlet and brown puddle.
— Charlotte has gained 120 experience points!
— Attor has gained 120 experience points!
I let Attor carry the two dead monsters we had so far. He was surprisingly strong! For monsters, these Hares’s health pools were weak but if they stabbed us it could mean death. I was not willing to find out what would happen if Attor died, but we were able to ambush the second and third one was ours with no issues. All that remained was this final Bloody Horned Hare. I winded my attack and grinned. I’m going to turn all of you into a Tier 2 meal! I launched my final attack, but the rock destroyed its horn.
— Bloody Horn Hare’s HP has fallen to 60%!
“Tsk!” I scrambled to chase after it, but it was too late.
I sat down, preparing my new Crafting Skill. I had Attor use his sharp fangs to skin the three Hares, and after that it was time to get to work! Go! Crafting Skill! The bloody hides glowed in that same aura the Goblin corpses did when I used my Cooking Skill. Humans had it easy with these Skills, I sighed. By the time the aura faded, a nice leather bag rested on the ground in place of the skin. Huh, I looked at it. It was smaller than the skins I used to make it.
— Skill: Crafting: Leather Bag of Minor Holding created successfully.
— Leather Bag of Minor Holding can carry 5 types of items in sets of 5.
Spacial magic? I opened the bag and dropped several herbs and flowers inside of it. A faint white portal opened up and swallowed both of them, while Attor and I stared down at the bag. It had nothing in it, but the portal reappeared when I reached inside of it. This was super luxurious to have, wasn’t it? I tried to hold more flowers, but it appeared to only be able to carry five of each item. So I stacked the monster meat, bones, herbs, and flowers before I turned to Attor.
“It’s getting darker,” I told him. “Shall we go home?”
Attor nodded, but as soon as I got up the Hare from earlier was wandering around the riverside at the corner of my eye! We both looked at the creature with vengeance in our minds. Get him! The Hare’s beady eyes caught us chasing, but my stamina was bursting from leveling up awhile ago! The creature hopped further into the woods and vanished beyond a fallen log. We contemplated quietly for a moment, before a familiar chime rang in our heads.
— Charlotte has gained 120 experience points. Charlotte has leveled up to level 4! 10 Stat Points awarded!
— Attor has gained 120 experience points. Attor has leveled up to level 4! 10 Stat Points awarded.
“But we didn’t kill it?” I stared at the level up screen. “Did he bleed out?”
Night has fallen, but I hopped over the log much to Attor’s protests. He threatened to return into my core as a Spirit instead of remaining outside.
Rude! I’ll get the body and we can head home, how about that! I countered. The dragon grumbled, but could not resist the temptation I have offered him. Take that, O Familiar! There was a peculiar light coming from behind a tree, with glowing objects littering the ground. Fungi? I scooped one up, but a freezing sensation shocked my grip. It was cold to the touch! I released the mushroom. They were beautiful, like blue gems glowing a cobalt like aura. The Brewing Skill labled them as Frostshrooms, a Tier 0 ingredient, but I only had one space left for the Bloody Horned Hare’s corpse.
Rounding the corner revealed the reason why it died. It was impaled on an even larger Frostshroom, puffing out a shimmering freezing gas of its own. The Hare’s body was frozen on the ground next to it, succumbing to its cruel yet enchanting aura. The Frostshroom itself was almost as tall as I was and its status showed a Skull above its window. I didn’t even know plants could have a Status!
— Giant Frostshroom, level ???
HP: ???
— Danger. Do not engage.
If I timed it right in between its freezing spell, I could scoop the beast up and make a run for it. Attor scoffed then returned to my core anyways. Jerk! I yelled at him in my mind, but he remained silent. This mushroom, however, was still bad news. I could end up like the Hare if I was careless. What happens if I die with a Familiar with me? Wisdom’s voice played in my head.
— Wisdom’s Intervention activated. You both lose your experience points. If the Familiar dies, they are sent to their Spiritual Form for an entire day and cannot be summoned back for that duration.
Thank goodness, I thought. The warmth in my chest was comforting. At least I did not lose you if either of us died. Therefore! It was now time to get my meal! Hah! I swiped the beast up expertly, and tossed it into my bag’s portal before the Giant Frostshroom released its deadly gas. Gah! My arm was turning blue anyways!
— Wisdom’s Intervention activated. You have been Deep Frostbitten. Exposure to Frost ticks until Ice Elemental Nullification: 80/1000
It’s just like how I acquired Poison Immunity! Still, my arm was numb now. What do I do about that?! I wandered back to the riverside and noticed orange glowing plants dotted the opposite. Could they be Fireshrooms? It was too late. Night was here and I had to get near their heat before I lost this arm entirely and all my experience points. I crossed over the shallow parts of the river and grabbed one of the Fireshrooms. My arm healed quickly, but my combat senses raised. Several monsters were near me! Were they enjoying the Fireshrooms? I followed the trail to a small cave embedded into a rocky hill. A large flaming aura emanated from the cave’s maw. I stayed low, while I listened for any indication of what these monsters were. That slick, pockmarked and bumpy green skin glistening in the fire could only mean one thing. Goblins!
I stepped on a twig, alerting them of my presence. Instantly, a hobgoblin emerged from the cave with six of his smaller goblin friends. Curses, I was ready to fight, even with a slightly cracked arm and lowered HP. Instead of cackling or preparing to attack me, the goblins scattered. Oh, that’s right! My Title, Goblin Destroyer, made them flee in terror!
“Clear off!” I yelled at the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin almost resisted, but his legs quaked and he took off running. I peered inside the small hideout, and a Giant Fireshroom sat idly inside. I sighed. Exposure to this thing would certainly kill me, but at least I knew there were two Elements I could gain immunity after some “forceful” testing with them.
I stopped by the river, eager to head home, but there was a slight problem! How am I supposed to get this water over to the Tower? A chime alerted in my head. It was Wisdom reminding me of the Transmutation Skill I had! Hmm? I peered at it. I could transform sand into glass and Craft a bucket! The Witch class has it all, doesn’t it, Wisdom?
“Skill: Martial Arts! First Form: Punch!” I used my fists to pound the bones into dust. The process took awhile to get water, but as a former Demon Lord I am ready to work hard all night for my goals! The horns also counted as bones, so I was luckily able to keep those for a weapon or something. I scooped the dust and dumped it in the waters. “Hah! Skill: Brewing!”
The cauldron before me rumbled as a murmuring crowd of bubbles reached up to me. Praise me! Your new Witch-in-Training! I stood triumphantly. This Tier 0 Agility Potion shall be mine! The Skill activated and the cauldron began to glow and heat up. The bubbles burst suddenly into a magical eruption as the backsplash knocked me over. I was knocked over as the Skill resolved, and soaked to the bone.
— Skill: Brewing: Potion of Minor Agility has been crafted.
“Ach!” I rubbed my soaking hair. A singular glass bottle containing a mysterious liquid rolled by me as the cauldron fell back into its slumber once again. I crawled over it and held it in the light casted from a very judgmental dragon spirit above me. “Attor! Look! I have created my first potion!”
“You’re soaking wet, and this room is dirty now,” he commented.
“Bah!” I tucked the potion in my bag. “You’re just grumpy since we haven’t eaten yet—“
I inspected the soaking wet floorboards as I stood up.
“Ah,” I sighed. “Maybe I should get a hat. To protect myself from the rain I will be creating.”