The dark forest was filled with its eternal silence, every animal tried to make the least amount of sound possible. To be completely undetectable for others, who might prey on them.

“Blop”

In this never ending silence, only the sound of liquid drops falling could be heard.

“Blop”

As each drop reached the ground, it tainted it crimson red.

“Crunch”

The sound of bones breaking, of flesh being ripped apart filled the air. On top of one of the towering trees of the forest, the monster devoured its prey.

“This monkeys’ taste is getting… boring…” The monster said, with a broken voice. “But at least they give good xp:” It said as the voice of the system echoed in its head.

Notice: You have levelled up to level 7.

“I guess I should return to the village already…” The monster said. “Its been a whole day after all.”

The monster finished eating its prey and began leaping through the trees. It used its sharp claws covered in mana to effortlessly climb through the trunks and avoid any sign of other creatures that It could detect with its magic.

Once the monster arrived at a particular tree with a hollowed hole inside, it carefully looked around, scanning its surroundings.

“Shape swap”

The monster’s body began to shrink rapidly, its long limbs became shorter, but its slender figure seem to gain a bit of weight. The skin, coloured dark grey, became pale white, almost shining with the little light that reached the forest.

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One of its eyes became blue, and its dirty grey hair become smooth white silver.

“I should hurry.” The little girl said as she dressed up with the white dress that was hidden in the hole.

A blue mana needle flew from the hole and hired a branch several metres ahead. Once it was nailed in it, the mana rapidly changed its shape, turning into a ring that tightly grabbed the branch.

“Here goes nothing…” Liz said before jumping from the tree swing forward with the help of the thread.

Once she was near the highest point of her swing, the mana from the needle let go of the branch, returning towards her and gathering at her wrist as she launched another needle forward, repeating the process.

As she continued swinging from branch to branch, she rapidly gained enough momentum to fly higher than the towering trees of the forest. She widely smiled as the last rays of light bathed her skin before sinking again in the eternal darkness of the forest.

“Fuck!” The mana on her wrist rapidly solidified into a small shield as a giant grey owl charged against her from the side.

Its sharp claws managed to pierce through the improvised shield and injure her forearm, but she ignored it and poured more mana out of her body, into the shield. Instantly, 5 sharp spikes bloomed from it, attempting to stab the owl’s chest.

Liz made a frown as she saw her spikes twisting, unable to penetrate the owl’s body. Surprised by the sudden attack, the giant bird let go of her and threw her bellow.

She rapidly launched two needles towards the higher branches of the trees. The moment the needles touched the branches, their form changed and took hold of the branch.

“Aaagh!!!” Liz’s scream echoed in the forest as her arms teared from the force of the threads that stopped her fall.

She did her best to ignore the pain and gathered her mana in her wrist as she resumed her journey towards the village.

“Weak…” A broken voice whispered.

This time, instead of recklessly swinging around with her treads, she carefully walked through the floor, focusing mostly on the mana that surrounded her, carefully avoiding any possible threat.

When she reached the edge of the forest, and the sand of the endless desert caressed her toes, the sun was already long gone. She walked towards the stone circle that limited the village, carefully avoiding any deep sand ponds in which she could easily drown.

She sat down just before the village entrance, watching as most of the houses were half sink in the sand. She finally allowed herself to calm down and take a deep breath, allowing her Feed skill to finally heal the wounds in her arms.

After several minutes, the pristine skin was completely healed. She felt how a black tar moved inside her body until it reached the holes in her forearms, and started pouring out of her body.

“Disgusting…” She said looking at the seven drops of black mana residue that tainted the sand beneath her.

Once she was sure that she had expelled all the mana residue from her body, she threw a nail towards the walls of one of the houses in the outer ring of the village.

Slowly, she walked on the thin thread that floated above the sand. Once she reached the house, she climbed to its roof and repeated the process, reaching the inn quickly.

She opened the window of their room and crawled inside. She took a moment to stare at Iso and Dere, who were peacefully sleeping in the only bed of the room.

“Looks like Dere is sleeping without a shirt again…” She muttered, before crawling between them and closing her eyes.