Several uneventful days flowed on by like the gentle winds of an evening summer breeze…

While a violent thunderstorm just so happened to billow overhead the entire time.

Kaltyr’s body completely healed from the damage she’d sustained under the fire and assaults of the two different Life Level 5 beasts by the eighth day of her life in Manic. She’d spent most of that day training her Spear Arts while using the rest to practice her two new skills until she ran out of mana, then repeated the process. Fire Skin in particular required a lot of practice because accidentally casting it in the midst of a deadly crisis didn’t mean she memorized how it worked… The girl burned her hand a few times trying to reproduce it. As it turned out, the casting process was remarkably similar to that of Dirt Coating, but with one key difference—it wasn’t a spell at all!

She clarified it with Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth—skills, which were also often called techniques, were everything on her list of skills, while spells were just skills cast externally. Thus, Fire Skin, which required none of her mana outside her body while casting, was an internal skill—her first warrior’s skill! Yes, she had Body Mana Reinforcement, but that didn’t really count toward the total number of warrior skills, to her. Neither did she include Crude Mana Bolt in her number of spells.

What happened that 7th night was that when Kaltyr mistakenly attempted to cast Dirt Coating, she formed the linked vortexes of mana beneath her skin through her meridians rather than externally, which absorbed the surrounding fire, coincidentally performing a new, similar technique. And though she was ecstatic about learning something new completely on her own…after practicing it, she couldn’t help but get cynical and think, “When am I going to use this at any time outside of when there’s a natural fire that just happened to be near?”

As far as Kaltyr could tell, Fire Skin would never be useful outside of coincidences and circumstances she could plan. Yes, she could potentially escape unscathed from a burning forest or building with the skill, but not if the fire was magical. If all spells acted anything like what she’d experienced on that seventh night when she learned Fire Skin, then that skill was useless against a pyromancer. She was completely unable to take control of the mud the land octopus used to pin her, since its mana still held onto those pillars with a tight grip. It wasn’t as though the act was impossible, but just that she definitely did not meet the requirements to try to take a wizard’s elemental spells from them, because it seemed to be the case that such a task was only possible for an even stronger mage. Just like how a mage couldn’t yank the sword out of a warrior’s hand without them purposefully loosening their grip, a warrior couldn’t steal the flames of their mage counterpart.

Besides not being useful in the midst of combat unless a normal fire just happened to be blazing nearby…why would Kaltyr light a normal fire in any circumstance outside of when she was aware of an imminent threat, and how often would that happen? Such circumstances were extremely unlikely, and setting up the fire without being detected was probably too difficult in the first place. Moreover, that was all under the condition that she wasn’t in a place where a fire gone rogue could cause disaster, like the middle of a fucking forest!

The girl, desperately wanting to carry around fireballs because she walked the path of Internal Mana Manipulation rather than External, even considered simply stocking up on fire mana and keeping it ready for long periods of time until she had to use it. Regrettably, that, too, was not an option. The flame energy she stored within her mana slowly leaked into the air around her through radiation and convection, lasting her mere minutes before it was all gone.

Such a disappointment, Fire Skin was. Cool as fuck to use, though.

Luckily for Kaltyr, the tenth day on Manic arrived and reversed the disappointment that Fire Skin produced. She awoke to the clashes of beasts in combat with each other—her form being ever unnoticeable under her lean-to during her sleep thanks to Stealth Mode. The praying mantis and land octopus were going at it, flinging spells at each other at such a rate that the girl gulped upon watching them. The sparkling, glass-like wind-affinity mantis phantasm swiftly darted around the clearing with impunity, taking advantage of its nigh instacast arcs of wind blades and infinite magical essence. That alone was quite frightening, and Kaltyr imagined that she’d have endless trouble against the giant insect even while at full strength…but the octopus held its ground without issue! It, too, with its translucent body of ethereal-looking glass, took advantage of its unending supply of magical essence to the fullest extent. The octopus dug seven of its tentacles into the ground, continuously raising countless sturdy walls of infused dirt around itself to block the wind blades, and chucking cannonballs of dirt with its eighth arm. Thankfully, neither phantasms fought in the center of her clearing, but mostly at one side of it. Had they acted without consideration for their surroundings, Kaltyr’s lean-tos would have been destroyed and she would have coughed up blood in frustration.

After awakening to the sound of combat and observing the battle long enough to predict the praying mantis’ speedy movements, Kaltyr grabbed her Fish Scales spear and got into position. Upon being walked in front of by the big bug, she lashed out with the pointy stick, flooding her body, clothes, and weapon with mana, activating their enchantments with the help of the rain that still fiercely pelted the earth. Her body surged with the power that came from multiple bonuses, but mostly speed—which didn’t really help in an ambush. Stealth Mode deactivating, the insect phantasm didn’t even have time to turn around and see her with its starry eyes before the girl’s spearhead pierced its midsection and came out the other side, causing a web of cracks to form along its body before it shattered entirely, becoming nothing more than a shower of fading sparkles.

Immediately, a projectile a few sizes larger than Kaltyr’s fist collided with her torso, sending her tumbling backwards. Her Body Mana Reinforcement and Fish Scales immensely softened the blow, preventing it from doing any damage, but the momentum was not so easily dissipated, and she slammed into the ground. The girl was only slightly disoriented and rolled aside quickly enough to dodge another ball of mud. With the wind-blade-spamming mantis out of the game, the octopus had smartly repurposed the arms that were used to continuously build walls, instead lobbing more big bricks of soggy dirt held together by magic. Kaltyr kicked aside the green phantasmal goo that had appeared after the praying mantis’ slaying, not wanting it to be destroyed, before swinging her spear to intersect the next projectile’s course. She shattered the mudball, but at the cost of her stance, allowing another one to pass through her defenses. The girl ate dirt again before rolling aside to dodge yet another mass of earth. Phantasms past level 2 were nothing to scoff at.

The cycle of Kaltyr blocking, parrying, dodging, and being pummeled by rocks continued for an entire minute before she closed the gap between herself and the enemy. The octopus had been chucking its projectiles through holes in the walls it had magically built, allowing a convenient target for Kaltyr to stab at. When she did so, however, dirt surrounded and grabbed onto the end of her weapon, nearly taking it out of her hands. She ultimately won the tug of war and retreated with her spear in hand, but if she hadn’t been so careful when she struck…

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The girl sighed after hiding behind a tree. Even when she’d moved in to stab the damned octopus, it still landed two strikes on her with its mudslinging. She may have wounded it some, but as a phantasm with infinite magical essence, it might actually outlast her if the current pace persisted because she was already down 20% of her energy stores! It really was the best choice to take out the praying mantis as soon as she could; its flurry of wind blades that drained mana was more terrifying than the physically powerful mud cannonballs.

Kaltyr considered using a minute to enter Stealth Mode from behind the tree and sneak attack the land octopus phantasm like she did the mantis, but that plan soon flew out the window when the beast began to move instead of staying holed up in its fortress of dirt. Peeking out from behind the tree, she saw that it was bringing down the walls between it and the center of her clearing while bringing up more walls between it and her. It was heading straight for the level 5 phantasmal goo!

Roaring in frustration, the girl abandoned all her strategies and opted for a brute-force method, making use of her physical superiority in a head-on assault. The phantasm instantly noticed her approach but didn’t halt its movements, attempting to reach the phantasmal goo while slinging mud backwards. Kaltyr weaved between the projectiles and soon came up behind the octopus, but a wall blocked her way. She only hesitated for a second before leaping over and landing on top of it. She moved to climb down, but the mud came to life and latched onto her feet, nearly causing her to fall onto her face—exactly why she hadn’t tried that earlier. The girl broke through the improvised restraints after a few seconds of struggling, but not before a tentacle wrapped itself around the mantis’ phantasmal goo. Unwilling to let her resources be wasted, she threw her spear from atop the mud wall—which caused her magical scales to disappear—before leaping toward the phantasm, quickly equipping the knife she always had in her pocket.

The octopus nearly brought the jelly to its mouth—which Kaltyr assumed was underneath its body in the form of a beak—but was prevented from doing so when the spear struck its body and the girl landed on the arm carrying the jelly. Her knife swung downwards as soon as she landed, cutting off the limb before then slicing toward the cephalopod’s body and cutting into it. Several limbs tried attaching themselves to Kaltyr, but they did little to restrain her due to the phantasms seeming lack of ability to strengthen itself with magical essence. It was the mud that gave her the most trouble, as even while being repeatedly stabbed, the phantasm manipulated the ground into rising and climbing onto the girl.

However, soon enough, the mud collapsed—its controller and source of magical essence finally meeting its end. With the dirt crumbling and phantasmal tentacles dissipating, Kaltyr fell to the ground, two Good-quality level 5 jellies in her hands.

The spoils of Kaltyr’s tenth morning elevated her mood quite a bit after it was made negative by Fire Skin’s lack of utility… Though the disappearance of her speed upon killing the second phantasm negated those happy feelings. She was now Life Level 6, and the enchantments on her admittedly worn-out clothing were forevermore useless to her.

……

“Aaaand, here’s the last of the trail I set, where I killed the mantis for the first time.”

Kaltyr’s fingers traced the arrow she’d carved into a tree days prior. Specifically, the last arrow she carved before being sneak attacked and nearly losing her arm. The symbol etched into bark was a gentle reminder of how if she wasn’t careful, she could lose her life in an instant.

The girl pushed through some bushes, following the river upstream, marking trees with arrows pointing toward other marked trees. The sky had shifted to orange not too long ago—a good pace that was now ruined by her need to mark her path from then on. Bored, she contemplated shouldering the deerskin bag full of spears and charging full-speed through the forest, but she held herself back and kept herself occupied by arguing with herself about it.

“I should just run. The river is right there. It’s impossible to get lost! I just need to follow it downstream until I find the spot I fish at.”

“True, but the river could diverge ahead, and if I don’t notice it, I could end up following the wrong stream.”

“But what are the odds of that happening?”

“Not large, I admit, but remember that patch of flowers that made me drowsy? There could be other magical shit around here that kills my sense of direction or makes me see hallucinations. What if I lose the river because I wandered too far from it in those conditions?”

“Now I’m just being paranoid. That sounds even more unlikely than following the wrong river.”

“True, true, but getting ambushed would be a lot easier if I’m charging right on through rather than cautiously walking…”

……

Kaltyr didn’t end up running, and the sky shifted to its yellow phase—which was kind of difficult to see through the dark clouds—by the time things became interesting.

“Whooooaa… I shouldn’t have bothered marking the trees.”

She stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the landscape before her—all the trees near the river gone, their stumps jaggedly cut just a few centimeters above the ground. A shiver of excitement wiggled its way up and down the girl, her body trembling slightly.

This was it. She was almost there. Meeting other people wasn’t just a pipe dream…

Then her survival instincts kicked in, and she backtracked into the depths of the forest. Yes, she was there to come into contact with the residents of Manic, but doing so without a plan or precautions was foolhardy. For all she knew, she could be approaching a bandit camp full of Life Level 50 evil criminals that would do unspeakable things to her.

With her mood sufficiently soured, Kaltyr made sure that she was not visible from the barren land around the river and entered Stealth Mode. However, she proceeded with extreme caution even while stealthed, because she didn’t know all of the Stealth skill’s limitations. While hers might have been higher than those of the beasts she’d encounter so far, and the rain assisted in obscuring her sounds, who knew how powerful another’s Stealth might be? It could very well have been possible that, with a difference of enough levels, anyone could see right through Kaltyr’s Stealth Mode even at a distance. If she had opponents with such capabilities, she wouldn’t even catch a glimpse of their shadows if they chose to end her.

It was with that mentality that the girl proceeded onwards, slowly tiptoeing through the forest, careful not to rustle any leaves or slam the spears in her bag together, thankful that the howls of the wind and constant drumming of the downpour covered up her mistakes. She didn’t even skirt the forest’s edge, making sure to keep far away from it while only sometimes peeking through the trees to look at the river—which seemed to be flooding a little.

Many minutes passed, no buildings were in sight, and it became clear that there was a lot of land cleared of trees. Kaltyr began growing impatient, but mentally chastised herself, trying to keep herself in line. She desperately wanted to integrate herself into society to the extent that she shook with excitement, but it was of utmost importance that she remained calm. A single slip up could potentially reveal her position to a hidden enemy or predator, and that could be disastrous…

Kaltyr gasped slightly, then instantly covered her mouth, eyes wide in paranoia. The inhalation wasn’t too loud, so she didn’t have to worry about being heard. More importantly...what seemed to be the top of a wooden structure peeked out over the crest of a hill that sat on the other side of the river. The opposite riverbank—which was a few hundred meters away because Kaltyr wasn’t near the water—was also completely devoid of trees, giving rise to the idea that whoever cut down this huge section of the woods was settled on the other side.

The girl’s breaths came faster and she gulped. Even tears began forming at the edges of her eyes. Kaltyr was starved of human contact and would do anything to obtain it. The girl could practically taste the countless dishes prepared by people who knew what they were doing, could practically feel the soft texture of a real bed...

She was so close…

Then the sight of a furry beast rising out of the river dashed her hopes.