Hazel remained in the tavern for a little while, so she could fully recuperate. After her fight with the Fractured Rogue and Warrior, she strained her body a little too much. Her wound on her side from the first Fractured Warrior she fought started to ache a bit; pain flaring across it like hot iron. If it wasn't for her Endurance stat mitigating most of the pain, she would likely be in agony right now.

She wanted to continue hunting and gather more Experience, but she was close to her limit now thanks to all that running and fighting. So, she simply sat up against the wall and took a break. While doing that, Hazel pulled up her stats to check out her current progress.

Status Window

Name: Hazel Thatcher

Race: Human

Level: 6

Class: Mage

Free Points: 3

Attributes:

Strength: 7

Agility: 8

Endurance: 14

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 13

Willpower: 12

Hazel frowned. "My Endurance is almost the same as Intelligence. That's not good."

Because of her recklessly putting her free points into Endurance because of her pain, hunger, and thirst, she made little to no progress with her vital stats like Intelligence and Wisdom. To the point where Endurance had surpassed Wisdom and was catching up to Intelligence. As a Mage, this was extremely reckless and dangerous. She needed to increase her Intelligence and Wisdom stat, otherwise, she would encounter a similar problem from last time.

And this was all because she wanted to make herself more durable because she was on her own right now. This was possibly the biggest mistake ever. If she knew that Endurance was going to be vital for her survival while in this dungeon then she would've just chosen the Warrior class!

"I can't afford to stunt my growth as a mage. At least not after nearly passing out from that stupid migraine after defeating the Fractured Warrior and Rogue."

With her Intelligence and Wisdom as they were, Hazel's mana reserve was not big enough for her to spam her spells. Especially Baneful Sickle and Decay. Those spells took a huge chunk of her mana after a couple of uses. If she had enough time to recover some of her mana before the Rogue and Warrior appeared, then her situation would've been different.

But she couldn't make that mistake again. These points needed to go to Intelligence and Wisdom. She chose the mage class to use magic, and that was her strongest trait. So she needed to prioritize it.

As soon as she made her decision, the three free points she received from her level-up went directly into her Intelligence stat, making it twenty points total. Almost immediately, Hazel felt a flush of energy wash over her, filling her with renewed vigor and power. Her lips curled into a slight smile.

Aside from her stat issue, Hazel was also curious about her two spells that ranked up. Perhaps, unlike Mana Bolt, Baneful Sickle and Decay had added features after reaching Rank 2. She then mentally pulled up the spells to check for any changes.

Rank 2

Gives the caster the ability to fire a sickle-like blade at their enemies. The sickle is made of cursed energy that damages the enemy over time. Curse Dmg is increased by 5%. It’s a skill that is highly used by Witches. The cooldown lasts ten seconds.

Rank 2

A skill that allows the caster to deteriorate anything or anyone they wish. By being afflicted with decay, their vessels slowly decompose, withering away until they are nothing but ash and dust. Rot dmg is increased by 5% It is a common ability used by witches due to its fast-acting effects. The cooldown is thirty seconds.

Her brows rose in surprise as a smile formed on her face. “Increased dmg for curse and rot, huh? That’s definitely useful.”

Unlike Mana Bolt, both her cursed skills got upgraded after reaching Rank 2. Their increase in damage seemed pretty explanatory. Baneful Sickle was made of cursed energy, so it would stand to reason that its Curse Dmg would increase. The same thing applied to Decay. While it doesn't possess the Curse Dmg, it does have Rot, which made sense considering that the spell deteriorates anything living and non-living; Fractured monsters included.

There was an issue with the Cooldowns for both spells. If it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't spam them, her battles would've ended a lot sooner. Hell, if that was the case, she wouldn't have to have run away from the Fractured Warrior and Rogue since she could just decay and sickle both of them into oblivion. Then again, there was the issue with her lacking Mana Reserve by not investing more in Intelligence and Wisdom.

“No wonder mages were considered support-type players. These cooldowns hindered them quite a bit.”

If there were more people around her, she could’ve simply teamed up with them, so her battles were a little easier, but at the same time, in a situation like this, she couldn’t necessarily trust others to have her back. When it came to survival, people put their lives first before others.

If there’s a chance that one person could survive by abandoning the rest of their group, they’ll likely take it. Hazel was no exception to the rule. Still, it was clear that she wasn’t going to last long by being alone.

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A part of her wished that she could just summon a familiar to aid her in battle, but she didn’t know how to do something like that or knew if it was a skill or something else entirely. Because of these issues, Hazel was on her own for the time being.

She hadn’t even spotted another non-fractured person ever since she first got into this dungeon. Hopefully, there were others around, and the System didn’t drop her in this place alone. If that was the case, Hazel planned on filing a complaint against whoever manages the multiverse, or whatever.

Considering she was one of the floating landmasses in the dungeon, there were likely people on the other ones. Even if she couldn’t find someone here, she could get lucky with the rest. It’s not like Hazel planned on staying on this floating island for the whole month.

She wanted to explore this dungeon a little more, and that was her plan after defeating the Cyclops and getting some more points. Speaking of the Cyclops, there haven’t been any signs of it in the town or anywhere else.

The monster might have moved onto another landmass, but Hazel prayed that wasn’t the case since she didn’t want to go from island to island to locate and kill the monster. Which is why she needed to hurry up and reach level ten.

While scanning her status window, Hazel’s stomach started to rumble. She could feel it churn around in pain, demanding sustenance. She clutched her stomach while groaning, remembering a major problem.

“Crap…I need to eat something and fast.”

Because she was busy fighting monsters, it didn’t cross her mind to find something to eat. And that came with its own set of problems. Like for instance; Hazel was pretty certain that none of the food in this dungeon was…edible.

Considering that this world was destroyed for who knew how long, the possibility of finding food or anything that she could consume was very unlikely. Hell, Hazel doubted that there was fresh fruit growing from trees in this dungeon.

Nothing in the Dungeon, whether it was the fauna or flora, was capable of living there. Which begged the question; how was Hazel supposed to survive in this place without food?

Standing up, Hazel cautiously walked down the stairs, being careful not to fall in the hole where the Fractured Warrior dropped, and made her way to the kitchen on the second floor. Thanks to the warrior from before, all she needed to do was walk through the entrance it made when it barged out of the kitchen.

Going in, Hazel started looking around for anything that she could eat and fill her stomach with. She checked cabinets, pots, boxes, and more, all in hopes of finding some food and ceasing her grumbling stomach. Sadly, after searching for a little while, she came up with nothing, only adding to her frustration.

“Lovely,” She groaned, violently shutting a cabinet door and storming off. “There’s no food here or even water. You’d think they would have preserved food or something like that.”

Because this was a dungeon that was pretty much destroyed, Hazel knew that it was a waste of time searching for food. But there was no way that the system would just drop her here without something like that available, right?

“Maybe there’s a well or something nearby…” Hazel muttered, desperate to find something.

If food wasn’t available, then hopefully water was. And since this town gave off medieval vibes, there should be a well or some kind that contained water.

While moving, her side that got cut by the Fractured Warrior began to burn painfully. Even with it wrapped up thanks to her makeshift bandage, that didn’t stop her wound from feeling painful from time to time.

Even though she hadn’t fully recovered from her battle with the warrior, she had no choice in the matter to relax. Hazel then left the Tavern and started roaming the small town to find a source of water that she could quench her thirst.

Her feet lightly echoed throughout the abandoned settlement, along with the sound of the eerie space she was caught up in. She couldn’t get used to the haunted atmosphere of the town, even when she was perfectly capable of defending herself and also running away from trouble.

She felt like a main character in a horror movie, trying to survive while looking for a way to leave the place. And with what she had been up against so far, that comparison was more or less valid.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Cyclops was possibly here, then she would’ve already left the floating island and moved on to the other landmasses to expand her options. Maybe one of them had food that she could eat.

The possibility of that was rather frighteningly low, but Hazel held out hope that there was an island with a forest filled with plants and such that she could eat. Because this town was devoid of anything edible for her to consume.

It didn’t take long while roaming the city and avoiding any Fractured monsters that she finally found a well. It was situated somewhere in the middle of town, simply positioned there and waiting for someone to use it. And Hazel was up to the task.

“Finally,” she beamed, quickly marching her way to the well, praying that there was water inside.

Getting to the wellspring, Hazel leaned over and looked inside, only for her brows to crease in annoyance while gazing at the bottom of the water supply. To which, she realized, there was no water. To make sure, Hazel grabbed a rock and tossed it down the hole, hoping that she was wrong and that there was water.

Sadly, the rock went and fell to the very bottom, not with a loud yet satisfying splash, but a disappointing and heart-breaking thud.

“Dammit,” Hazel swore, smashing her fists against the stone foundation in anger.

Just when she thought she had a break, something had to go wrong. Not only was she extremely hungry, but also thirsty beyond belief. She could feel her mouth drying up from the lack of water with each passing minute.

Humans could go a couple of days without water, but it was enduring such a situation that was going to cause Hazel a lot of problems. Considering that she’s been moving her body around like she had, she was continuously dehydrating herself.

Forget a couple of days. If Hazel didn’t find water soon, she would drop dead in the next few hours, at most.

Though, that would be the least of her concerns…

Hazel then heard a loud and guttural roar as it reverberated throughout the town. Even the ground itself trembled from the base of its voice. She took a defensive position, whirling around while trying to locate the enemy.

She then caught a broken-down carriage fly in the air for a few moments before descending on her. Hazel let out a surprised yelp while jumping to the side. After rolling across the stone-paved ground, she peered over and witnessed the carriage that nearly hit her, crash into the ground before shattering to pieces, much like the Fractured monsters she killed.

Hazel heard another distant roar, turning to face whatever it was that threw that old vehicle at her. However, as soon as she did, her blood went cold as her eyes widened with fear, bearing witness to the monster that decided to attack her. And it was the very one she wished to not run into until all of her preparations were done.

It was the Cyclops from the before. She could recognize it thanks to the weapon it wielded. That and its unique physical appearance and the singular purple eye on its face. Slowly walking forward, the cyclops’ eye was directed right at Hazel, as if making her its next target.

Then, without a single ounce of hesitation, the Cyclops picked up another nearby broken-down carriage, then hurled it over at Hazel, hoping to hit its mark, unlike last time.