Hazel moved her head to the side as a jagged dagger in the hands of a purple cracked goblin, glided past her. With her staff, the novice mage slammed it on top of its head. The monster collapsed on the ground, letting out an angry screech.

Before the little gremlin could get back up and attack Hazel, she directed her staff at her opponent and fired a Mana Bolt spell. The rod of pure mana pierced through the monster’s skull and struck the ground right after.

As the goblin collapsed from the attack, the cracks on its body began to spread and fester like a disease, completely consuming the creature. Moments later, its vessel could no longer keep itself together from the cracks and burst into purple fragments.

[Level 2 Goblin has been defeated!]

Seeing the kill notification, Hazel let out a heavy sigh as she continued to stare at the floating purple lights disbursing in the air.

“So, instead of zombie-like humans, I’m fighting fantasy monsters now,” Her eyes trailed down to her staff that was gripped in her hands before she shrugged. “Not sure if this is a nice change, but whatever.”

Ever since Hazel first entered the Forest Island, she had encountered a couple of non-human species like Dire Wolves and Goblins. Granted, these were the first creatures she came across back on her first island as well, but not as frequently.

Considering that Hazel was in a new environment, it seemed that she was bound to stumble across different monsters compared to her last location. And that certainly was the case in her current situation.

“Aside from the goblins and other monsters, this forest is pretty nice, though…” Hazel muttered while staring at the vast forest before her.

She was surrounded by numerous trees and greenery from the bushes to the tree stumps protruding from the ground. And despite there being no light due to the lack of a sun, the purple and pink space with its countless stars provided enough illumination for her to see through the woods.

Hazel continued to walk through the forest. Her shoes were softly planted on the dirt ground. Taking a couple of steps, she stumbled after nearly tripping over the unforeseen stump.

She managed to catch herself but lightly groaned in response.

“Stupid uneven ground…” She grumbled. “If I knew I had to traverse through such a place, I would’ve chosen a better island to go to.”

Hazel was completely out of her element in this forest. She could hardly walk around the area without nearly tripping and falling on the ground every now and then. And that posed a problem to her.

When Hazel was in the town, she was more or less aware of her surroundings. Mainly because she was familiar with the architecture and structure of the location since it was no different than the town from her world. Well, aside from its medieval aesthetic, that is.

But this forest was different. She was completely unfamiliar with this environment, in more ways than one.

Hazel wasn’t much of a forest pioneer. She mostly stayed in her bustling town of civilization rather than the peaceful and calming ecosystem of nature. It wasn’t that she hated the woods or nature itself. She just simply felt more comfortable in her hometown.

And now Hazel was regretting this. If she had done the occasional hiking or something similar in the forest, this journey wouldn’t have been as difficult. Thankfully, she had plenty of stamina to spare due to her Endurance stat being at twenty.

And it wasn’t just her endurance that experienced an improvement. Her speed and reaction time felt heightened as well, likely because Hazel invested some points into her Agility stat.

During her battle with the goblin before, she could tell that her reflexes had improved significantly as she dodged and weaved the monster’s attacks. It was almost like she was seeing its movements in slow motion as she moved accordingly to avoid its strikes.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a Mage, I would’ve invested more points in these physical attributes,” Hazel grinned.

Despite how elated she was regarding her augmented physical abilities, Hazel reminded herself that she was a mage. And as a mage, she couldn’t neglect her Intelligence and Wisdom. There was also the Willpower attribute, but that stat wasn’t useful to her. At least not yet.

Stopping near a tree, Hazel pulled her pack off and placed it on the ground. Once free from the weight of her personal possessions, she took a minute to do some stretches, trying to loosen her muscles after walking for so long.

While stretching, she pulled up her status window to check her current progress and which of her stats required improvements at the moment.

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Status Window

Name: Hazel Thatcher

Race: Human

Level: 11

Class: Mage

Free Points: 0

Attributes:

Strength: 7

Agility: 13

Endurance: 20

Intelligence: 30 (+8)

Wisdom: 21 (+3)

Willpower: 12

At the moment, her Endurance stat was the third highest behind Intelligence and Wisdom. For now, Hazel planned to leave it at twenty until she felt the need to put more points in it. As for Agility, she planned to get this stat to twenty as well due to the improvements in her speed.

Hazel’s eyes then glanced at her Strength stat, which was one of her lowest stats at the moment. And would likely stay that way for a while. She wasn’t trying to become a buff mage any time soon.

Finishing her stretches, the novice mage reached for her staff which was placed against the tree near her bag. Gripping the weapon, she moved away from the tree that was used as a resting place and set her sights on another.

Pointing the staff at the tree, Hazel cast her Decay spell. Wispy purple tendrils seeped out of the gnarled wood while slithering over to the tree. Making its way to the target, the ethereal light then phased through the bark like a ghost before disbursing altogether.

A moment later, a large portion of the tree began to lose color, transitioning from a dark brown to an ashen white. The piece that turned white then disintegrated, turning into dust while being blown away by a draft.

However, only that portion of the tree was turned to dust. Everything else remained the same. Hazel meticulously eyed the tree with a slight frown on her face.

“Hmm…it looks like the Rot Dmg doesn’t fully affect some targets,” She mused, tapping her chin with her finger. “Could it be because of the size? This tree is pretty big, so that could definitely be the case.”

Back in the Town Island, Decay was able to completely deteriorate a Fractured Human, turning them into dust and purple fragments. However, her decay spell didn’t seem as effective when cast on one of the Fractured Classes like the Rogue.

In fact, it appeared that the Rogue was resisting the Rot Dmg. However, Hazel could be mistaken about that and was simply reaching.

Still, there was one thing that Hazel noted regarding the use of Decay. The Rot Dmg had different effects on certain things, living, unliving, or non-living. She was able to completely deteriorate a Fractured Human and a piece of log with ease, but when dealing with a stronger or bigger enemy, the Deterioration rate was considerably slower.

This meant that certain factors could slow down the Rot Damage, which could be both the Size and Level of a creature. In terms of size, the bigger something was while under the effects of Decay, the slower the decomposition became.

Hazel took note of this piece of information not only from the tree she tried to use Decay on but also from a building back in the Town island. When she was hunting Fractured humans to complete her Dungeon Challenge, she used the spell on a building to try and get it to collapse on some of the horde but failed. The spell only worked on a small spot on the wall and nothing else.

Needless to say, Hazel was a bit angry about this since she had to wait less than thirty seconds to cast it again.

Despite this issue, Decay was still a strong spell in her arsenal. And she knew that increasing its rank would make it even stronger.

As Hazel continued to stare at the tree that was afflicted with the Decay spell, her eyes spotted a lone figure behind it, lurking in the darkness. Its glowing purple eyes poked through the shadows and glowered at the novice mage.

Seeing the creature, Hazel readied herself for another fight. Moving her staff away from the tree, she directed it at the monster that was prowling in the shadows.

The beast snarled in response like a vicious animal. And when Hazel heard it, she quickly realized what monster she was facing. The creature then stalked closer to the mage, emerging from the darkness and allowing her to see its full appearance.

“Another Dire wolf, huh?” Hazel muttered with a stern expression. “Just my luck…”

The purple fur-coated monster growled at Hazel. Its lips peeled back, revealing sharp canines that could easily tear her flesh apart with ease. But the novice mage wasn’t scared, since she knew how to deal with this monster.

The corner of her lip perked up into a sly grin as she stared at her opponent.

“Come at me, furball,” Hazel taunted, using her staff to gesture to the monster to attack first.

The Dire wolf responded with a vicious snarl as its eyes narrowed menacingly. Then, its paws kicked off the ground and lunged toward Hazel.

Instead of dodging, she simply stood there. Waiting for the right moment to make her move. As the beast drew closer to her, the mage instantly activated Mana Shield, casting a large transparent dome around herself.

Seeing this, the monster’s eyes widened in shock before it collided with the shield. It was then pushed back from the force emanating from the shield and crashed into the ground with a loud thud.

While on the ground, Hazel readied her staff and whipped it over in its direction. As soon as her shield’s duration was done and slowly disappeared, she cast a Mana Bolt spell. She watched as the bright blue rod of mana tore through the air and pierced the Dire wolf’s torso, killing it instantly.

[Level 4 Dire Wolf has been killed!]

[Mana Shield is now Rank 3!]

“Nice,” Hazel grinned, noticing one of her spells ranked up. “Looks like casting Mana Shield was the right call.”

Due to the properties of the Mana Shield, Hazel realized back then that if she cast the spell at the right time, this shield could be used to knock back her enemies, leaving them disoriented. Then, while trying to collect themselves, she simply needed to cast another spell and kill it while its guard was down.

Of course, this tactic would only work if she was facing a lone enemy. That and if the monster’s other allies weren’t keen on protecting one of their own.

Regardless, her strategy was still effective and that was all that mattered to her. And the fact that she was able to rank up her spell in the process was just a bonus.

With the enemy dead, Hazel turned around to walk back to her resting spot. However, not even taking five steps, she heard a chorus of snarls around her. The mage immediately stopped in her tracks and whirled around, trying to locate the other monsters.

And she did, though a part of Hazel wished that wasn’t the case. Lurking in the darkness of the forest, multiple purple eyes glowered at the mage as the forest was filled with a symphony of growls and snarls.

Hearing the synchronized call of the wolf pack, Hazel got cold sweats while goosebumps marbled across her skin.

“Well, this isn’t good…” The novice mage muttered nervously, a bead of sweat trailing her face.