Clarity entered town and headed directly to the guild bright and early the next day, having walked through the night to get here. She now wore some hardy leather armor Esmeralda had helped her pick out earlier, looking much like any other adventurer, if not for the fact that most adventurers weren't blue and you couldn't see through them.

She briefly explained Rob's circumstances to the receptionist on duty and her quest was marked as complete in a big book that was kept underneath the desk. “The guild can change the quest results later if we discover evidence of fraud, but since the client has already paid you themselves, there's no problem with taking your word for the quest's completion” the receptionist explained.

Now came the matter of spending the gold coin currently burning a hole in her pockets. Sure, she could use it to start repaying Esmeralda for the ring, but then she would be broke again and still wouldn't have paid even half of it off. No, what she was more interested in was something she had seen mentioned in one of the introductory books to the Pathways.

Pulling out the gold coin Rob had given her, she addressed the receptionist “This is enough to buy a Pathways Compass, right? One attuned for our exit?”

“Uhh, well...” the receptionist stammered “You're still technically an F-rank adventurer. The Pathways are graded for D-ranks at minimum. The guild has specifically warned me not to sell them to new adventurers...”

The receptionist then launched into a well-practiced speech about how dangerous the Pathways could be. “All new worlds restrict the purchase of Pathways Compasses because D-rank monsters and even some C-rank monsters commonly roam the Pathways. Combined with the treacherous terrain that seems to change from benign to extremely inhospitable at random, and the risk of bumbling into immediate danger due to the swirling mists that don't allow you to see anything further than five meters away, it's simply too dangerous to allow new adventurers to explore.”

Clarity frowned at the unbending refusal, but luckily Amy happened to walk up in time to catch the tail end of the conversation.

“Hey Clarity, looking to explore the Pathways?” she called. Facing the receptionist she said “The only C-ranks in the Pathways are trolls. The big, stupid lugs are harmless as long as you can run faster than them. I don't think some hobgoblins, orcs, or wargs are going to be much trouble for Clarity.”

“Even so, the guild master...” the receptionist tried to refuse before being cut off by Amy's scoff “The guild master? He wouldn't even care if something did happen to Clarity, since she wouldn't count in the statistics against him as she's not a native adventurer.”

That argument turned out to be enough to convince the receptionist. After a moment of thought, she stated simply “Very well, it will be 90 silver for a compass” and walked into another room marked for staff only.

“That being said” Amy turned back to Clarity “be careful out there, because I don't want to see something happen to you. Remember, the wargs are the fastest and most threatening thing you're likely to run into out there, but fire spooks them something crazy. Just wave a fireball in the air and they'll all scatter. And make sure to keep your compass safe! It's hell to try and escape from the Pathways without one, and you never know where you'll end up!”

“Of course, I'll be careful” Clarity agreed. 'A compass isn't any harder to read than a GPS, right? You just follow the little pointer!'

“Here you go, one Pathways Compass” the receptionist announced, returning with a small silver compass with a dark blue needle that she traded for Clarity's gold coin, returning 10 silver as change. “Remember, this compass will always point to the closest Pathways exit to this world. It won't help you find exits to other worlds, and it can't differentiate between multiple exits to the same world, although that shouldn't be a problem unless you go an incredibly far distance away from this one.”

Before leaving, Clarity stopped by Esmeralda's shop to explain her plans and got caught up in several more experiments Esmeralda set up, most involving rare or unusual materials that Clarity was supposed to try and separate from useless or less important materials.

Esmeralda stopped the experiments around lunch time so Clarity could be on her way. This time, she found a huge influx of adventurers passing through the gates, unlike any of her previous visits. 'Oh yeah, I visited on days the adventurers were all gathered together at the guild for training, didn't I?'

The adventurers leaving looked fresh and excited, carrying their weapons high, while the ones entering were dirty and tired, many slumped over from exhaustion or limping, but almost all of them carried back spoils from their trip.

Boars, goblins, and sacks filled with cores could be seen in abundance. Those carrying goblin corpses were noticeably avoided by the other adventurers, and one particularly rowdy adventurer on his way out of town even called out to one of the lone goblin carriers “Learn to gut your own kills you noobs! Nobody wants goblin parts stinking up the town!”

The adventurers merely flashed their adventurer cards at the guards as they passed, the guards waving them along to make way for the next. Clarity mirrored the process, smiling as she pulled her card out of the palm of her hand and waved it at the guards, though her appearance drew a good amount of attention from the surroundings as some people began to stop and stare instead of moving forward. The guards were forced to push people along as they began to clog up the entrance to get a better look at the walking slime creature.

Clarity followed the road curving away into the forest, focusing on the slight increase of mana in her surroundings as she went deeper. When she reached the end of the road, she found the same hole in reality that the guards from Eden tried to take her group through all those years ago.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mana freely spilled out of the hole into the surroundings, along with the mist that filled the Pathways. Beside it stood a small sign with a skull and crossbones on it warning “Beware: Hostile Environment ahead. Recommended D-rank and above.”

The adventurers guild used ranks to categorize strength, where D-ranks were expected to be capable of slaughtering small to medium sized groups of ordinary people without any contest. C-ranks were a step up and could even slaughter a village by themselves. Above that, the power of individuals began increasing exponentially as no amount of ordinary humans could threaten or be compared to them.

According to the books Clarity had pored over before, the Pathways were both extremely well studied, and completely unknown, at the same time. The mana density always remained stable, the monsters that roamed around inside were sparse but ever-present, and the land seemed to extend endlessly in every direction.

With visibility only reaching up to five meters away, very few and exceedingly difficult methods of navigation outside of Pathways Compasses, variable terrain that could see someone walk for weeks without finding food or water, and roaming C-rank monsters inside, it wouldn't be odd for an unprepared C-rank adventurer to become trapped inside and lose their life.

However, with proper rations, a compass, a careful attitude, and preparation to run should one encounter a troll, even D-ranks could enter with relative safety. From what Clarity had read, you could even say they were the most common adventurers to delve the Pathways and forage for natural treasures or hunt monsters for their materials, as C-ranks usually had better options to make money or acquire resources in established magical worlds.

'I don't need rations, I don't need a party to watch my back while I sleep, and Terra doesn't have the same opportunities an established world would. The Pathways are the perfect spot for me to train and profit!'

Clarity walked inside with a smile on her face as the mana washed over her body. The mana outside of the hole in reality had been higher than anywhere else she had ever seen inside the forest, and yet after walking inside the mana density skyrocketed at least three times over.

She greedily absorbed the mana as she walked on, lamenting the fate of the average adventurers who had to stop and meditate to grow their cores. Where a normal adventurer would treat the Pathways like a dangerous war zone to run inside and collect treasures and cores with which to abscond, Clarity felt like she had just walked into a soothing pool in paradise.

'The only problem is the mist.'

While the books said that visibility was cut off at five meters within the Pathways, she had thought she would be able to get around that restriction with the use of her mana perception. Instead, even her omniscient mana perception quickly grew fuzzy and cut off as she tried to sense anything beyond five meters away from her.

'Still, the fact that I can see in a 360 degree field of view means that I can see anything that wanders into me as soon as it sees me, which is one more danger I don't have to worry about.'

Clarity wandered through the mist at random, finding a few decent materials that she added to her storage ring, as well as an orc, two hobgoblins, and a pack of wargs, none of which managed to put up much of a fight, which was about what Clarity had expected from her reading in the library. Her newly integrated core allowed her to abuse her magic much more liberally than her fights back in the forest, using water to suffocate the orc, rock spikes to skewer the hobgoblins, and fireballs to torch the wargs. None of them managed to so much as scratch her, not that she expected any of them to be able to truly harm her even if she allowed them to freely attack her.

It wasn't until about ten hours in that she met the Pathways' apex predator. Walking through a heavily forested area with twisting vines covering the nearby trees, the mists ahead of her swirled as an incredibly large shape suddenly appeared. A large troll, at least three meters tall and two meters across stood up in surprise as Clarity appeared in front of it. Roaring, it ripped the tree it had been leaning against out of the ground and immediately swung out in a wide slash, the wind whistling from the strength of the blow. Clarity ducked underneath the trunk as she fled back into the mists. 'Wow, I'd really rather not test the strength of my core shell against that if I don't have to.'

As she backed away, the troll tried to follow but moved far too slowly on its short, stubby legs. The roar abruptly cut off into an eerie silence as Clarity distanced herself from the creature and it faded into the mists. This glaring weakness was why D-ranks could confidently explore the Pathways, and a normal adventurer would continue running straight for a few minutes before veering off to the side to ensure the troll would not be able to stumble on them again without an extreme stroke of luck.

Instead, Clarity cut off to the side immediately and looped around the area she expected the troll to be. Running after it, she caught up to the enormous troll as it continued waddling forward, roaring and waving the tree trunk through the air as though it thought she might still be there.

She snuck up behind the monster with more care than she probably needed, considering the roaring that still hadn't stopped, and jumped onto the back of the troll near the base of its neck, preparing to finish it off. Even after jumping on top of it, the creature still didn't notice her presence, so she formed a sharp sword shaped weapon out of rock, which she reinforced with mana and then thrust into the side of the troll's neck.

Finally, the troll took notice of her existence, roaring even louder as it clawed at the uninvited guest on its back. The stubby arms came nowhere close to reaching her, so instead the troll grabbed his tree trunk with both hands and wound up a great swing, bringing the trunk down on the top of its own head in an attempt to hit Clarity.

Clarity watched in amazement as the troll merely grunted, the trunk splintering over his head, with several shards spraying out to hit Clarity incidentally and poking through her gooey body, but doing no real damage. 'I can't believe it, that move would have actually worked on a flesh and blood adventurer!'

Even more amazing, the shard of rock she'd wedged into his neck began working itself out as the flesh visibly healed, leaving not even a drop of blood as the wound closed up. 'And their regeneration definitely wasn't exaggerated!'

With both of their opening moves thwarted, the troll resorted to barreling through the forest with a slow lumbering pace, smashing through every tree it saw and roaring all the while, and Clarity was forced to rely on suffocating her prey just like the good old days. 'Heh, and here I thought those days were behind me now that I'd learned magic.'

The troll continued lumbering forward for over 20 minutes before it finally came to a stop. By the end, it was barely moving at all, and the only way Clarity could confirm that it was actually dead was from the fact that the mana within its corpse was suddenly freed and allowed her to begin absorbing it.

'Maybe I should save the skin? I read that it's a good material... but I don't know how to skin it properly. Can I just absorb everything else?'

As she stood there contemplating, a large, jet black panther suddenly leapt from the forest behind her. She turned around as it pawed around her warily, keeping a healthy distance between them as it seemed to examine both her and the troll corpse behind her.

“Huh?” Clarity muttered to herself “Didn't the books say that beasts don't like the Pathways?”

The panther's ears twitched, and it scrunched its nose in annoyance. “Hey! Who do you think you're calling a beast?” it shouted.

“... You can talk?”

“Wait, that's my line. You can talk?” the panther responded. “Aren't you a monster?”

Suddenly, the panther arched its back, beginning to stretch as it shifted into a mostly human form. A young woman appeared in front of her, with long black hair, sleek leather armor, a pair of cat ears on the top of her head, and a long black tail waving behind her.

“Woah... a cat girl.”

“Who the hell are you calling a cat girl?” she yelled angrily “I'm a shifter!”