After “joining” Soren’s party, Hazel and the others took their time to rest before they decided to leave the Tavern and continue their journey. According to Soren, the party planned to make their way over to where they believed a Sub-Boss was.
From what they discovered, there was a large gathering of Fractured humans situated in the northern area of the city island. Soren and the others believe that those Fractured are protecting whatever was within that area. Of course, they could be lying to Hazel about this, but she wouldn’t know until she saw it for herself.
But that wasn’t going to be with Soren or the rest of her party. Hazel planned to investigate this place with her real group; Astrid and Nycteris. But before she could do that, she needed to deal with these players first.
Thankfully, she already had a plan for that. But before she could execute it, she needed to make some preparations beforehand.
While Hazel was alone, she pulled up her status window to check her progress.
Status Window
Name: Hazel Thatcher
Race: Human
Level: 14
Class: Mage
Free Points: 0
Attributes:
Strength: 7
Agility: 16
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 32 (+33)
Wisdom: 30 (+18)
Willpower: 12 (+10)
She hadn’t reached Level fifteen yet, which made her two levels behind Soren. And while that didn’t seem like luck, something told Hazel that the blond warrior wasn’t going to be an easy target to take down.
Even more so if she still had her party. Which left Hazel with only one option; kill the other players and deal with Soren last. Hazel wanted Soren dealt with first, but she couldn’t risk her initial attack failing.
She needed to weaken this party, and the only way to do that was to eliminate them one by one until there was only one left.
While inspecting her status, Hazel noticed that Soren was approaching her. She did her best to maintain her composure while still playing her part as a Naive mage player.
“What are you doing?” Soren asked while sitting down next to Hazel.
“C-checking my status window. I-I sometimes do this to pass the time while also checking my progress...”
This wasn’t a lie. Hazel would occasionally pull up her status window to not only check her current development but to also keep herself occupied. She did this quite a bit when she was alone since dwelling on her thoughts would only cause problems for her. She needed to stay focused on her objectives and pulling up her status kept her from getting distracted.
“That makes sense,” Soren said casually. “There’s not much to do here other than slay monsters and just survive. Of course, it does get boring staring at your status all the time, right?”
“I-it does, but...I don’t think either of us has the luxury to relax or find anything else to entertain ourselves.”
There wasn’t much that players like Hazel, Soren, or Astrid could do while they were stuck in this dungeon. All you could do here was kill, level up, acquire items and equipment, and most importantly, try not to die.
She did find other things to keep herself occupied like testing her magic and such. Due to how versatile some of her spells were, like Telekinesis, there was a lot of legroom for her to test the limits of her abilities.
But it didn’t change the fact that being in this dungeon made her miserable.
Hazel would honestly kill just to go back to her college dorm and lay on her couch for an entire day. She missed her TV, her bed, her various tech like her laptop and phone, and much more. She missed the taste of cup ramen and microwave popcorn that she would make for a movie night with her dormmates.
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In conclusion, she missed Earth. A lot. And she wanted to go back home. But even if she did, that wouldn’t change the way that her world was changed due to the System. Her home was no longer the same.
Hazel abruptly shook her head, trying to get rid of the morbid thoughts that plagued her mind. Even if her world was not the Earth she used to know, it was still her home. And she wasn’t going to let that change anything.
“Anyway,” Soren spoke up. “Before we head out to the northern district, I’d like to know what kind of spells you have at your disposal. That way, I’ll know what you need to do in a certain situation.”
And there it was. Hazel anticipated when Soren would ask her about her spells. Thankfully, she was prepared for that.
“I-I have three spells,” She lied. “It’s Mana Shield, Mana Bolt, and Baneful Sickle.”
“Baneful Sickle?” Soren leaned her head to the side curiously.
“I-it’s a curse-type spell. I-it allows me to conjure a sickle of pure cursed energy and kill my enemies with it. Even if you only get grazed by the spell, you will be inflicted with the curse effect that will slowly consume you.”
While Hazel hated giving her enemy so much information regarding her spell, she knew that this was necessary in the long run. By giving Soren what she asked, the blond warrior wouldn’t suspect her to be hiding anything.
“Interesting...” Soren mused, placing a finger on her chin. “Could you show me so I can have a better understanding of the spell?”
And once again, Hazel was correct in assuming Soren’s intentions. By seeing Baneful Sickle, she would know how her spell worked, and how she could afford it when they became enemies. And now that Hazle had gotten this far, she couldn’t back out now.
“O-of course,” she said timidly while standing up.
She turned to the left and faced a wall. Taking a deep breath, Hazel raised her staff toward the wall while casting her spell. Just then, a menacing and ominous purple sickle materialized before the mage as she shot forward, making a beeline for the wall.
As soon as the sickle struck its intended target, a deep gouge was carved into the wall. Hazel took another breath as she turned to face Soren, who was wide-eyed after witnessing the power of her spell.
“W-will that do?” Hazel asked.
“Y-yeah,” Soren stuttered. “It will. Are you able to use it continuously or does it have a cooldown?”
“It does have a cooldown, unfortunately. It takes around fifteen seconds for me to use it again.”
“Fifteen seconds, huh? That’s quite a bit of time.”
It looked like Soren believed Hazel’s lie. While the mage was giving away information regarding her spells, she wasn’t stupid enough to confess to everything. She still had to keep one or two secrets to have an edge against these people.
“And do you have any other spells?”
Hazel shook her head. “N-no. When I chose the Mage class, I received the Mana Bolt and Mana Shield spell. As for Baneful Sickle, I obtained that spell when I reached my Threshold at level five.”
“Hmm...” Soren pondered. “So, you haven’t come across a Skill Page.”
Hazel tilted her head to the side. “A-a skill page?”
She was familiar with the Grimoire Page, but not a Skill page. She assumed that skill pages were for non-magic users like Warriors or Rogues.
“Oh, a skill page is an item that allows you to learn new abilities aside from reaching your class thresholds.”
“I-I see...”
This was quite a vital piece of information that Hazel managed to stumble across. Not just because there were Skill pages, but also the fact that Soren knew about them. Which meant she obtained a skill from said page.
Soren had an unknown skill that Hazel had no clue about. Then again, she didn’t know about her other skills like her Default ones when she selected Warrior or her Threshold skill. That put Hazel in quite a bind since she wasn’t sure how strong her opponent was.
The same went for the rest of the party, aside from maybe the Ranger, since she had Astrid as her partner. Still, using the dark elf as her reference could only get Hazel so far before this Ranger strays away from the path.
If Hazel wanted to know more about them to get a better understanding of their abilities, she needed to see them fight. Luckily, her plan involved just that.
After talking with Hazel, Soren called out to the rest of the party. “Alright, everyone. Time to move out! Our next destination is the northern district to investigate if there’s a Boss there.”
Hearing their leader, the other members stood up from where they were resting and made preparations for their departure.
And just like that, Hazel's plan was about to unfold. As soon as this group left the Tavern, their fates were about to be sealed.
But before she made assumptions...
[Hazel Thatcher: Is everything ready and set?]
[Astrid Skogr: They are. Does that mean the plan is starting?]
Hazel’s lips curled into a sly grin, away from Soren and the others so they didn’t notice.
[Hazel Thatcher: Yes, the plan is a go. It’s time we dealt with Soren and the rest of her party once and for all.]