During her couple of days of recuperating, Hazel managed to get a lot of things done. For one thing, she finally managed to pick out which books she wanted to take with her on her journey through the dungeon.

These books were called “The History of Totem”, “Magic Theory for Novice Mages”, The Great War of Totem”, and “The Age of Magic Revolution.” Two books involved the history of Totem, and the other two were about magic; something she desperately needed to learn about.

In fact, she actually did some reading with “Magic Theory for Novice Mages” and managed to learn a lot regarding magic. According to the book, Magic Staves were created to assist mages with casting their spells better. That and creating certain types of staves could increase either magic power, mana regeneration, or other types to help make mages stronger.

But that wasn’t all. From what Hazel read in the book, you technically didn’t need a staff to cast a spell. They were simply created to help novice mages understand how to use magic. This meant that Hazel’s staff, the Novice’s Mage staff was likely created in this world before it was fractured. Or at least the concept of it.

Using this information, Hazel learned that she could cast magic without her staff. It just made things easier for her by assisting in channeling the mana. The staves were designed to detect and suck in the mana from a mage casting a spell, thus shooting the spell at whatever you were aiming at.

Then she learned something interesting regarding how to learn magic.

So, according to the texts, there were a couple of methods of acquiring magic spells which were learning them through grimoires or reaching your marker, which Hazel had done for both.

As for how mages were able to conjure their spells, they stated that it required a firm imagination and focus. You couldn’t just cast a spell by shouting its name but also imagine what the spell looks like to activate it. This is why Hazel’s first attempt at casting Mana Bolt failed because all she did was shout the spell and nothing else.

This kind of information would’ve been nice to know before she had to figure all of this out on her own. Still, she was glad that she knew it now instead of never.

Aside from these, Hazel didn’t find anything else useful from the books. They mostly just talked about more theories behind the origin of magic and whatnot and how it was before the existence of the system. Although she found these types of information interesting, they weren’t all that useful at the moment.

Hazel has been in this town island for quite a while, and she finally felt that it was time for her to leave.

As for her level, during the times she explored the town, she killed any monster that she came across and managed to reach level eight. Only two more levels until level ten. However, Hazel didn’t plan on staying on this island until she reached that threshold.

For one thing, all of the Fractured Humans were too weak and had very little experience to give her. That and Hazel hadn’t found a single Fractured Class monster since the previous two. And as for monsters like the Cyclops, those were even more scarce.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Because of those reasons, Hazel felt that she wasn’t making a lot of progress. At least enough that she was satisfied with. So, she figured that it was time for her to leave this island and move on to the next.

Making this decision, she quickly packed up her things while in the tavern. During her time here, Hazel found a sturdy backpack that she could use to haul her belongings like the books, her food, and water bottles. It was one of her biggest finds since it would allow her to carry multiple things at once.

A part of Hazel wished that she found a magic pouch with a sub-space like the ones from Dungeons and Dragons. Or maybe even a storage ring to put all of her stuff inside. That would save her a lot of trouble in the long run.

Since Hazel didn’t have a lot of things at the moment, it didn’t take that long for her to pack up. So, once that was done, she grabbed her bag and staff and walked out the door of the tavern, most likely never to return.

While walking out, Hazel gave the tavern building one last look then turned her back to it and moved on. She also took one more look around the town while walking back toward the church from her first day in the dungeon.

Walking beside the cathedral, Hazel passed by it without a second though, making her way over to the edge of her floating island. While at the edge, she couldn’t help but look down again, gazing into the vast void below her.

Sweat beaded down Hazel’s face as she pulled her eyes away from the void, a hint of fear swelling up within her. If she made a mistake, her fate would be falling into that endless space for who knows how long. With this frightful thought swarming her mind, Hazel hesitated to leave her little island. Maybe waiting here for a month wouldn’t be so bad. A couple of days had already passed, so she didn’t need to do this.

But…she did. Hazel needed to explore this dungeon so she could gain more levels and get stronger. This place was her chance to obtain enough power to protect herself and her loved ones when she returned home. After taking a deep breath and steeling her resolve, she managed to calm down and proceed with her departure.

A couple of inches across the edge of her island was another landmass, around the same size as it. Instead of having buildings and a church like hers, this floating island presented a vast forest with trees that were several meters tall. Hazel could tell that this place was probably a beautiful forest before this world became fractured.

Wasting no time, Hazel took a deep breath and backed up a couple of steps to give herself a running start. Her agility stat was only eleven, but she felt that was enough to get her to the other island.

Then, her feet kicked off the ground, sprinting toward the edge. Getting there, her knees bent a little as Hazel propelled herself over the gap between the two islands. She was in the air for maybe a couple of seconds before landing on the new floating island with the forest.

She quickly patted down her body, and a wave of relief washed over her after realizing she wasn’t floating into space like she feared. It seemed that Gravity still affected her unlike the landmasses floating around the void. Maybe they had their own gravitational pull or something.

Hazel stood on her new island for a few moments, taking the time to adjust to her new surroundings with the large forest ahead of her. Before she walked over to the mass of tall trees, Hazel took one last look at her previous landmass. From where she was standing, both the church and town were in full view.

“Goodbye, old island,” Hazel waved at her previous location. “It’s time for me to move on.”

Declaring this, Hazel turned her back to her first island and marched forward to the forest in front of her. Determination and excitement filled her being, realizing that she was beginning a new adventure, an adventure that would lead her to an expected encounter.