It took Zoe about an hour to find the wreck. During that time, she had done her best to avoid any and all of the many monsters in her way.

Not because she thought any of them looked particularly dangerous — no, she just didn’t want them to slow her down. None of them seemed worth it.

Of course, she did have to kill a few. There were some more packs of sloths, thought she managed to avoid those easily enough. There were the large, colorful birds that had swooped down upon her from the canopy above, as well as the carnivorous vines that had attempted to snatch her and reel her in.

Fortunately, those were easy enough to deal with. After all, Zoe was now strong enough that they barely put up any resistance as she smashed straight through them.

No — the worst were the squirrels. The carnivorous critters descended in a swarm, leaping from branch to branch along with her, scratching and biting and trying their absolute best to chew their way into whatever slight vulnerabilities her natural armor had. Finally, Zoe had resorted to setting herself ablaze with {Corrupted Soulfire}. Once she had done that, the few surviving squirrels left her alone.

Somewhat disappointingly, Zoe hadn’t gained any levels, even in any of her abilities. She remembered that at level thirty-three, she would be able to break through to stage one of the awakened realm. Also, Captain Hart had said that she might gain a new path.

She was just one level away at level thirty-two. Zoe had no idea how this ‘breaking through’ actually happened — no one had really explained it to her. Supposedly it could be difficult for some — but why? And how did you attempt it? From what Zoe remembered, it sounded like you didn’t necessarily automatically do it immediately once you hit the right level.

She would much rather find out while she was alone and safe in the wilderness with nothing but weak monsters around her than during some challenging, life-or-death fight.

In any case, as Zoe came to the edge of the clearing, she took in the site of the wreckage. The clearing wasn’t a natural one — rather, all of the bushy vegetation and even the trees had been blasted into ash. There was still a fair amount of smoke still rising from the whole area, and Zoe could even feel a warm gust of air washing outwards over her.

As for the actual ship, it was little more than a burned out husk. The majority of it was completely gone. Only the bottom section remained, and most of the ‘interior’ was now completely exposed. The fuselage was mangled and warped, and it’s once polished surface was now a mottled black.

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Dropping down to the ground, Zoe approached cautiously. Relying a bit on {Stealth}, she made her way around the perimeter of the clearing. Once she had gotten halfway around, she decided that it seemed safe enough to enter. There was no sign of any life or activity.

As she made her way into the clearing, Zoe realized that it really was hot. Sure, there were no flames, nor even glowing embers — but still, if she didn’t have her scaled talons protecting her, she probably wouldn’t have been able to go in barefoot.

Making it to the husk of the former airship, Zoe peered inside. She couldn’t honestly tell what was what — she wasn’t even sure where one room ended and another began. It was a smoking, mangled up mess.

Entering it, she began to poke around. There really wasn’t much to uncover, though. Zoe went at it for a few minutes, looking for signs of life, or even any useful equipment, or even just anything that was at all recognizable. Unfortunately, she didn’t find any of those.

Well, she did find a few lumpy bits of material that she suspected might have been corpses. They weren’t much different from the surroundings, but something about them tickled her subconscious instincts. But even then, she couldn’t be sure, and they were clearly so ruined that there was nothing to be gained.

Now resigned to the fact that there was no useful equipment or information to be gleaned here, Zoe climbed out of the wreck and looked around again. I wonder where they were taking me — perhaps I should go in the same direction the ship was traveling. I mean, I don’t really have any other way to decide which way to go.

Looking up, Zoe scrutinized the overgrown, rocky slope of the mountain looming above her. Well, might as well start climbing.

Even if she didn’t end up deciding to look for these people’s base, getting higher up out of the valley and the trees might give her a good sense of where else she could try to go. It’s a good thing I don’t actually need to eat anymore, or else I’d probably starve out here.

Her mood souring by the minute, Zoe dashed upwards to grab onto the nearest handhold of the rocky overhang jutting up over the clearing. The ship had crashed just below it, and it seemed like a good vantage point to look back the way she had come — and also a good starting place to figure out the best way to climb the rest of the mountain.

While Zoe’s new strength should have been more than enough for her to climb all the way up under her own mundane power, she was feeling pretty emotionally drained and lazy. So she activated {Kinetic Enhancement} to ease her way up.

What’s the point of having magic abilities if you don’t use them?

That excuse seemed sound enough for her, so Zoe continued on. It was only about another six meters to the top, so it didn’t even take her a minute before she was hanging onto the ledge.

Hoisting herself up, Zoe climbed hand after hand after hand after hand onto the top and then rolled herself over. Panting for a moment, she rested for just a couple seconds before leaping up to her feet. After taking a moment to survey the wreckage below her from a new position of increased altitude, she turned around just in time to catch a scorching blast of annihilation in the chest.