[That thing in the distance?]

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth’s latest puppet took shape from solid lightning, which was bright white and continuously released a high-pitch whine.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Kaltyr sat in the lotus position next to her personal lean-to back in what was once her safe zone, her new level 8 spear—enchanted with the Boss beaver’s goo—lying horizontally across her lap, her clothing roughly patched up with animal skins, and an ugly hat made from a raccoon’s fur sitting on her head.

“The thing that looks like a mushroom. I assume it’s my next destination.”

[I am afraid I do not know what you speak of.]

The girl rolled her eyes in playful exasperation.

“No need to bullshit me, Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth. I’m fully aware that you know everything I know.” She looked up from the lightning puppet to the sky. “And you can literally fly. If you really don’t know, rise above the canopy.”

The puppet gave a monotone chuckle just like any it had released before that somehow manage to sound…dry.

[You got me. Of course I am aware.]

It turned its head to face the direction Kaltyr presumed the giant structure in the distance stood.

“So? Next destination, right? People? Civilization? I need new clothes—something with frills—and I kinda wanna fight a few people to the death to see how I fair against Manic’s normal citizens.”

The mysterious entity remained silent as it returned its attention to Kaltyr. The girl wondered whether her joke about frilly clothing and murder had landed so poorly that her guardian was dumbstruck.

Then, when it spoke again, Kaltyr could feel a shift in the atmosphere. Though the sunlight still warmed her skin, and the gentle winds loving caressed her face…neither seemed as pleasant as they were just a few seconds before.

[Your spear; is it to your liking?]

Understanding where Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth was going, Kaltyr sullenly nodded.

“Yeah. It’s pretty much the same as my last one in shape and size, and I already used all my high-level goo. Even if I wanted to, I don’t have the opportunity to roll for another enchantment. Plus, I only need this one. The rest didn’t get any good properties.”

Her teacher continued its questioning without break.

[Your food rations; you have plenty?]

Again, Kaltyr nodded.

“As much as I could gather. It’s too bad I have no way to cure meat.”

[Your main combative skills are close enough in level to your Life Level?]

She glanced at her Skills List.

-General Skills-

-Class Specific Skills-

???

Magic Sense Lvl: 10

Small Projectile Throwing Arts Lvl: 5

Fishing Lvl: 12

Body Mana Reinforcement Lvl: 11

Item Mana Infusion Lvl: 10

Small Blade Arts Lvl: 4

Stealth Lvl: 10

Stealth Strike Lvl: 6

Grappling Lvl: 4

Sword Arts Lvl: 0

Improvisation Lvl: 6

Whittling Lvl: 5

Spear Arts Lvl: 9

Enchanting Lvl: 7

Large Projectile Throwing Arts Lvl: 7

Cooking Lvl: 4

Bubble Pain Splash Lvl: 7

Alchemy Lvl: 8

Dirt Coating Lvl: 6

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Fire Skin Lvl: 7

Swimming Lvl: 11

Weaponsmithing Lvl: 7

“Well, I practiced them as much as I could.”

[Elixirs?]

She patted her bulging cargo pants pockets.

“Yeah. Used all my goo making medicinal, mana-replenishing, and the other kinds of pills you taught me about. It’s great that the beavers collected so many land and aquatic herbs from the river and its surroundings.”

[You have achieved all of your goals here in the wilderness?]

Kaltyr paused for a moment, pursing her lips as she recalled how far she’d come within only two weeks of first awakening. She couldn’t imagine what the future would hold for her back then, and since then, she only saw herself finding more humans. It was the only objective she knew how to complete that really tugged at her heart. Yeah, she’d told herself a few times that she wanted to get stronger to find answers, to learn about her circumstances, but…with all she’d come to know, she considered forgetting that ambition altogether. How would she achieve it? There was no way to plan for it, and she doubted that she’d be so lucky in her journey as to come across some clues as though she were the protagonist of a movie.

For now, she stored that aspiration away in the back of her mind in favor of looking forward to the nearer future, of accomplishing goals she knew were possible to attain in the first place.

“Mhm. There’s nothing left for me here.”

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth solemnly nodded its puppet’s little head.

[Then this is goodbye, because from here on, you will not meet anyone aware of your circumstances. Your life is completely within your own hands, now.]

Kaltyr opened her mouth to ask “Why?”, but soon after realized that it was probably not allowed to tell her anything, just like with so many other things.

[Either travel toward that large structure in the distance, or in the exact opposite direction of it.]

“Really? There’s something in the opposite direction?” The girl hadn’t seen any structures in that direction, but had no reason to disbelieve her guardian spirit’s words. “I can visit both, right?”

[Negative. One or the other. When you make your choice and arrive at either destination, you will come to understand why.]

“Damn…alright. You’re making me curious, but I’ll head in the giant mushroom’s direction. I wanna know if it’s really a mushroom.”

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth had no issue ruining her curiosity.

[It is not.]

“Well, jeez! No need to spoil the fun of a good mystery…” Although Kaltyr tried to deliver a joking response, she really wasn’t up for it. “Yeah I figured.” She tapped her fingers against the haft of her new spear and adjusted the raccoon cap on her head. “Any recommendation for which path to take?”

[On this matter I may not say a word.]

Kaltyr shrugged, expecting something like that.

“So, goodbye, Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth. It’s been a pleasure knowing you. Good luck with your life.”

She really didn’t want to have to part for what seemed to be ‘forever’, but neither her nor her friend appeared to have options in the matter. Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth was always going to leave after teaching her what it could in order to give her a fair shot at survival. Nothing more...

“Oh, shit! Wait!”

Kaltyr’s teacher’s lightning puppet had already begun unraveling by the time she remembered a crucial question—one that might leave her feeling really guilty if she forgot to ask it.

[Yes?]

The puppet’s unraveling slowed, but didn’t stop, making it clear that Kaltyr couldn’t keep it around long for a chat.

“Uh, I’m sorry!” Kaltyr gulped after her apology, realizing that it wasn’t exactly what she meant to say and that time was ticking away. “I mean, uh, sorry that I almost forgot to ask your name! You told me to call you whatever I wanted to the first time, but won’t you tell me it now?”

It only felt right to the girl to remember her friend by its given name rather than the joke name she’d slapped onto it.

[Oh, if that is all… I do not have a name quite like you do.]

The puppet’s unraveling reached the base of its neck, and Kaltyr feared her friend would disappear before completely getting its answer out.

[I am most commonly known as…]

Kaltyr’s world froze over, and while she was struggling to stabilize her emotions enough to string together another question, the lightning puppet fully unraveled, causing Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth as she knew it to forevermore cease existing.

……

Day sixteen.

Kaltyr stoically marched forward in a straight line, makeshift beaver-skin bags in tow strapped to her back and spear in hand, her expression placid but emotions in turmoil beneath the surface. Even after traveling farther from her territory than she’d ever gone before and killing many beasts around the same Life Level as the beaver Boss, she could not help but to ponder over…its words.

[I am most commonly known as The System. I hope you enjoyed the comedy I attempted to write in your guidebook. Manic can be an especially cruel place, sometimes. Laughter should be cherished.] It had told her.

The System?

THE SYSTEM?!

“That’s impossible.” Kaltyr found herself arguing against herself again. “It was limited in its abilities to help me, saying that those above it didn’t allow it to do certain things…but it could have lied.”

A bush sat directly in the girl’s path. Rather than walk around it, she reinforced her body and unflinchingly advanced through it, snapping branches and disturbing small critters.

“But why would it lie about not being able to do certain things?! I mean…it might just have wanted me to not pester it to do things, or it didn’t want me to swear at it for placing me in such a situation…”

A fierce aura exploded from somewhere in front of Kaltyr as a scarlet lion emerged from the vegetation. It heard Kaltyr approach and moved to strike the creature that dared enter its territory. The lion, with its majestic mane swaying in the wind, opened its maw and released a plume of flames at the girl.

Without even looking up, Kaltyr flooded her body with mana and swept her spear out vertically, striking the Life Level 8 big cat’s chin, bisecting its skull, and causing blood to spray into the air. The magical flames that struck her had no impact.

“And then there’s how it said some things that just don’t make sense if it’s really…The System. How could I be the first human it’s met? Are there no other humans in Manic? What were the civilizations built by?!”

Kaltyr huffed, feeling restless.

“Though…again, it could have lied, or maybe The System doesn’t have as much power as I imagined. Maybe it had no choice in anything that’s happened, including my transportation to Manic.”

The girl’s chest felt tight every time she pondered over the subject. She was unsure of what to think…how to feel…what to believe.

……

Day twenty.

The giant structure in the distance was much closer, and it was clear to Kaltyr what it was… But more importantly, all of the girl’s doubts regarding why anyone would choose to become an Externalizer vanished; beasts were now using Crude Mana Bolt, and she could no longer march forward so brazenly.

The average Life Level of the beasts in the area was only around 5, but even having a level twice of that wasn’t enough for Kaltyr to be assured of her safety. Before leaving the zone that beasts weren’t capable of shooting mana bolts within, she’d naturally underestimated—even if only slightly—the power of Externalizers. Not having experienced their capabilities led to her wrongly assuming that because they wouldn’t be able to move or hit as hard as she could, that they wouldn’t stand a chance in a direct and open confrontation against her.

Boy was she wrong, and the first beasts capable of using Crude Mana Bolts she ran across made that clear.

Despite being much stronger than when she fought the beaver horde that had an average level of around 5, she had more trouble against fewer beasts at that same Life Level range when they could rapidly shoot magical projectiles at her from a distance.

It was a “dray” of squirrels, as Kaltyr remembered they were called when in a group.

She’d wandered into a section of land that resembled a small meadow. She was curious about the stretch of land that housed no trees and only tall grasses. The forest was a swell place by its own right, smelling fresh and earthy, with the towering trees whose leaves melodically rustled in the wind and provided cool shade from the sometimes heartless sunlight—which Kaltyr considered renaming skylight. All in all, the forest had the pleasant ability to soothe her soul.

Yet the small meadow that probably spanned only a couple hundred meters in diameter held its own allure. Its scent was not so much earthy as much as sweet from all the flowers scattered across it, which also splashed the area with vibrant colors here and there. Kaltyr ventured into it, only slightly wary of attacks from beasts, intent on searching for and collecting spirit herbs…only to be met with a familiar pain shooting through her left leg, followed by a high-pitched screech. Thankfully, the girl had learned to always keep her body reinforced lest suffer greatly to sneak attacks, so the pain and damage were negligible. What wasn’t negligible was the fact that the screech was soon accompanied by many more similar animal calls from nearby. All at once, the auras of small beasts between the Life Levels of 3 and 6 flared from all around the meadow.

Initially, Kaltyr was unshaken by the event. She’d faced off against larger groups of stronger beasts when she was weaker, and had still come out on top. There was nothing to worry about against whatever she was facing…until the mana bolts came surging in. She was immediately overwhelmed and unsure of how to react, dropping her beaver-skin bags full of goods and raising her arms in an “x” in front of her face. All the mana bolts landed, both draining her mana pool of around 10% of its total stores and slightly disrupting her circulation. The girl’s eyes opened wide as she instantly realized what was going on, and that fighting defensively was not an option. She swiftly kicked off the ground toward where the nearest aura emanated from and ran her spear through a small beast. Still under the assault of countless bolts, Kaltyr lifted her spear with the corpse hanging from its head to see that it belonged to a dark-orange squirrel. Drat.

She briefly considered picking up her stuff and retreating, but that just wouldn’t feel right because her circumstances were the perfect opportunity to gain experience in combating against capable Externalizers—even if they were beasts weaker than her. Thus, she clenched her jaw and darted off toward the next nearest squirrel hidden within the tall grass…only to immediately face plant into the ground after one of her new enemies cast a spell to trip her with dirt.

The battle was now on.

Kaltyr quickly discovered that dashing toward her rodent foes was an easy way to be tripped by any one of their earth manipulation spells, in addition to the fact that they were intelligent and coordinated enough to scatter when she neared. She’d dart toward an aura, only to be tripped by a single squirrel who stayed still long enough to cast the spell, and for the others to scurry in all directions. Unlike a lot of other spell skills, Crude Mana Bolt was incredibly simple to cast and did not require the caster to remain still. Thus, even when the squirrels were dispersing, they were capable of wildly shooting bolts at her.

Furthermore, the most effective way to prevent herself from being drained of energy too quickly—besides dodging, but moving quickly left her open to being tripped—was to shatter the incoming Crude Mana Bolts with her spear. It still cost mana to do so because not infusing her weapon would cause its durability to decrease under the strain of the constant barrage of spells, but the act ultimately cost less energy and her mana circulation was no longer being disturbed…for the most part. She was under assault by too many beasts at once, and her spear could only move so quickly. Half of the bolts sent her way still land when she just defended.

In the end, Kaltyr found herself tanking the mana bolts while she took aim with her spear before launching it, skewering her target from a distance. The squirrels didn’t have nearly enough time to dodge her speedy projectile.

Even so, the girl still had to retrieve her spear after throwing it, and her mana stores plummeted all the way to 30% before the tables were turned by the fact that she was a higher level. The earth squirrels lacking mana pools as deep as hers combined with the fact that her mana was denser led to the beasts running out of ammunition before she did. Unfortunately, the little bastards still held onto enough mana to flee, but Kaltyr had ultimately won the battle.

Though she didn’t feel quite so victorious as she picked up her beaver-skin bags and made herself scarce without having harvested any magical resources. Maybe it was the squirrels who won because they successfully repelled the invader?