It was hard to say when the exact moment I woke up was, if only because my waking state wasn’t all that far off from being asleep. Much as I’d feared, the utter cessation of stimulus was enough to send me nearly back to square one, leaving me lying there on the cold cave floor. It was only by virtue of my next notification that I managed to fully rouse myself.
Soul Resistance has reached level 6!
The overwhelming pressure, already greatly lessened from my time alone, peeled itself away from my mind as the additional resistance came into play. Remembering myself, I summoned my hammer, its bonuses the final needed piece to return myself to some semblance of normalcy.
When all was said and done, I pulled myself from the ground with a heaving sigh.
Lesson learned. I need to keep myself busy, but I’m also going to burn out if I’m busy all the time. It felt like a losing proposition either way, but hopefully I’d manage to work out some sort of balance. A few days to myself here and there, maybe?
On second scan, I realized the cave I’d haphazardly rushed into was actually kind of quaint. It had just enough room to really stretch my legs without feeling uncomfortably cavernous. It wasn’t as if I’d get much privacy anywhere near the cabin. Maybe here, though?
It was a thought, at least. On exiting, I spent some time marking the slab I’d used to seal the entrance, leaving the cave closed. It wouldn’t do to have some gryphon take up residence if I wanted to come back.
And speaking of gryphons, it had been over five days since last I’d fought them.
By now, Verin and Cal were probably starting to get worried, and I wanted to hurry back.
Still, I had time for a little detour, right?
A good few hours later, I arrived back at the cabin, this time having recalled to clear the blood from my equipment. As was often the case, it was Verin who first greeted me, the clearing filled with frost as she practiced her various spells.
“Lady Tess. It is good to see you unharmed and to have you back. While not the foremost reason to be grateful for your return, our meals have been… lacking in your absence. I trust whatever skill training you wished to do proved fruitful?”
I did my best to don a smile that reached my eyes. It still felt like a partial failure, but nonetheless, I found the act far easier than I had a few days prior. “Yup. Had a busy and productive time. Nothing to worry about!”
Deception has reached level 7!
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Now that I better knew my limits, I realized my lifestyle had to change. More than that, I didn’t trust myself to just wing it, letting myself work until my instincts told me to stop. That would take far too much introspection and judgment. If I had to spend effort, I would do it now and then never again.
Lacking any real form of “weeks” here, I decided to base my new schedule on the five days it took the gryphons to respawn. Naturally, I would want to fight them whenever possible, especially as I wasn’t doing the same intense skill training that the others were to gain their experience. Given that the fighting wouldn’t take all day, I decided I would swing over to the forest afterwards. The panthers were far less enjoyable to fight, but with how often we made fire, we always needed more wood, and I was also on the hunt for any edible plant life to spice our diets up.
On day two, I’d continue with my various home improvement projects. I’d knocked out a lot of the simpler options, but there would always be more. With my most recent level in Soul Resistance helping counteract some of the general apathy, I decided I’d try to devote day three to simple training.
It was possible the day would fall apart much like my past training attempts had, but I figured if I stuck to only the simplest and most important skills, I’d have a better chance. For me, those were Mental Magic and Spatial Magic, the first to help my mind recover faster, the second to enlarge my spatial closet and eventually get us out of here if we didn’t manage to free the grand magus.
If I got bored, I’d just try something else.
Day four was my rest day. If I had the energy, perhaps I’d figure out a few personal projects to work on, but mostly I planned to pass out in my new cave, away from any expectations or concerned gazes.
Funny. It almost feels like I’m back in Sylum. Not quite what I’d imagined at the offset, but it looked like I’d finally figured out my schedule for the next semester.
Just like that, weeks passed by, and my classes moved into full swing.
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Treasure. After moving far deeper into the forest than I would ever admit to Verin (who thought I was keeping to the outskirts of the wooded area), I’d at last found my first real score in the entire dungeon. Though similar in shade to a ruby, it was far more valuable than any gem, and while it shone in the omnipresent light, it was worth more than its weight in gold. Ultimately, it was God’s Eye that tipped me off to my life-changing discovery.
Gnome’s Cap
A rich and flavorful mushroom useful in culinary endeavors. While the umami taste and the softer-than-average texture make this fungus ideal for both broths and frying, limited alchemical uses also exist. Gnome’s Cap grows quickly under ideal conditions.
Herbalism has reached level 9!
The prospect of something new to eat made me envision the joy that Cal and Verin would feel later that day, already marking the day as a success in my book. Better yet, rather than finding a single shroom, I’d found an entire clearing practically covered with the things, sprouting out from decaying logs and forest detritus. If I was careful I was fairly certain I could remember the way back here, too.
I went through each stalk, plucking it and sending it into my storage space for later use. As I did so, I identified it over and over again, partially in an effort to level up God’s Eye and Herbalism, partially just to reiterate my good fortune over and over again.
Gnome’s Cap
Gnome’s Cap
Gnome’s Cap
Gnome-
Gnome-
Gnome-
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Twenty Deadly Hells Mush-
Gnome’s Cap
Pause. What exactly had I just read?
I pulled the aberrant fungus from my spatial storage, identifying it once more.
Twenty Deadly Hells Mushroom
Commonly mistaken for the more common Gnome’s Cap, this mushroom forms a symbiotic relationship with its look-alike, taking nutrients from the surrounding mycelium. In return, it protects the mushroom patches from over-predation, killing off whatever eats it and providing the remaining mushrooms with a new source of nutrients.
When ingested, paralyzes the target and deals 800 damage over 60 seconds. May cause internal burns and respiratory issues when eaten cooked.
Mildly horrifying, especially given that I’d been thinking of serving it to the others. I still grabbed as many as I could find, but I made sure my spatial storage could differentiate between the two, sequestering the edible variety away from the poisonous. After leaving enough to let them regrow, I began the long walk back to the cabin.
With every step though, a nagging thought assaulted me.
The description never actually said what the poisonous ones taste like, did it?
I grabbed one from my inventory and spun it around between my fingers a few times.
If I just have a tiny nibble, it won’t be the full 800 damage, right?
…
Huh. Nice and spicy, actually.
You have been paralyzed!
You have been poisoned!
Poison resistance has increased to level 15!
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“Ow.” Blip. “Ow.” Blip. “Ow.”
Spatial Magic has reached level 4!
Blip proved to be an interesting spell. Like most cantrips, its actual utility was fairly limited, but teleportation was impressive, even if I was limited to small objects and short distances.
Nonetheless, training it was a struggle. Even back when I’d been training my other spell classes in the forest outside of Sylum, I’d had to invent little games or tasks to keep myself focused. Considering I’d been mostly sound of mind and had a strong deadline back then, one could understand why similar training would be harder to pull off now.
As such, I’d had a few false starts, but eventually I’d figured out a way to incentivize my training. Presently, I was sprawled out in the middle of the grassland clearing, carrying out one such method.
Courtesy of Flameploof and Summon Pebble, a burning hot stone fell through the air once more before landing on my exposed stomach.
“Ow.”
Blip.
With only a small dash of mana, I removed the offending pebble and sent it back into the air.
It probably wasn’t the most efficient way to train. I had to take constant breaks to reheat the pebble, especially given how hot it had to be to break through both Heat Resistance and Pain Resistance. Past that, if I really wanted to level my advanced magics, I would have to wrap up my class trials so I could use them on my weapons, armor, eyes, and gloves. Still, all things considered, it wasn’t too shabby.
Periodically, I’d catch sight of one of the others as I went through my training, occasionally making eye contact. Having learned the gesture from me, Cal shot me two thumbs up, cheering me on.
Verin, for whatever reason, seemed less thrilled. I considered myself an expert at this point when it came to deciphering her expressions, and that tiny, fractional curl of her lip seemed to say that she found what I was doing… distasteful, maybe?
Maybe because I’m using fire instead of ice? That would make sense, wouldn’t it? I’d have to see about getting some ice cubes from her later. If I constantly cast Chill, there was a chance I could keep them from melting, too.
Well, no matter. That could be for another time.
“Ow.”
Blip.
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My next improvement project was long overdue, with the only reason I’d put it off being that it involved one of the most difficult activities for me: digging.
Just as we had for the cabin’s foundation, though, Verin and I slowly made do, using her frost magic to form a shovelhead atop my spear. In a convenient twist, it also looked like my Arcane Storage could be used to store any dirt once I removed it from the earth. Admittedly, it would have been nicer if the skill had let me store it directly without using the shovel to begin with, but that was probably too much to ask for.
The goal this time around was an underground room. Originally, I’d planned to burrow straight down far enough, and then tunnel under the earth. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really sure how to keep a tunnel like that from caving in on me. I could fake it, using tree trunks as support beams, but being buried alive was one of the few things that could kill me. In the end, I decided it was probably worth figuring something else out rather than possibly dying.
Instead, I first created a room without a roof, digging down over the course of weeks until the space was almost as large as the cabin. From there, I dug a small ramp to act as an exit, along with a stone slab to seal the ramp off when necessary. Finally, I built a roof of my own. It was primitive, in a way, using branches and mud rather than industrial wooden beams with nails or joists, but that was by design. Mud, after all, was a much better insulator than standard wood.
When at last everything was finished, I called over the star of the show.
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“I will confess, I continue to be impressed by your handiness, Lady Tess. I do not believe I would have been capable of such a feat.” Verin surveyed the space, her words filled with praise despite the humble dirt walls surrounding her. She shuddered to even think of the strain all of that digging would have put on her body. More than that, the amount of dirt and mud she’d watched Tess wade through had been ungodly.
Of course, Verin hadn’t been called here to get her hands dirty. Her part to play was much simpler.
“Shall I begin, then?”
The moment Tess gave her the go-ahead, the temperature began to plummet.
Verin threw her mana into her workings, and her magic answered, frost rapidly spreading out from her feet until it began to creep up the walls. At the same time, she materialized as much ice as she could, forming it into giant blocks which she stacked atop one another. Colder and colder and colder the room grew, until-
Ah. I suppose I was perhaps slightly overeager, yes?
Verin’s magic sputtered out as her mana pool emptied itself, a raging headache left in its wake.
Hardly the climactic finish she’d been envisioning, but after four trips, she’d at last completed her task. Ice blocks lined the walls, and the chamber’s interior was downright hostile in its frigidness.
It was beautiful, in a way.
Or, at least it was until Tess unceremoniously dumped five bloody gryphon corpses onto the floor.
“Thanks Verin. Those were taking up a lot of space.”
For once, though, Verin didn’t mind the grisly display. Nor did she mind that her strongest magic had been relegated to creating something as mundane as a freezer. After all, of course she didn’t. She had something far more important to hold her attention.
Frost Magic has reached level 40!
Congratulations! You have reached the Adept rank in Frost Magic!
Class Quest completed: Raise Frost Magic to level 40.
Her eyes skipped over her new augment and her quest rewards, honing in on the only notification that truly mattered.
Congratulations! You have reached level 17!
Finally. Finally! It was somewhat amusing, in fact. Months spent training as hard as she could, and what had ultimately pushed her over the edge was a simple freezer.
In the end, though, not even the influx of class points could hold a candle to what was truly making her happy right now. Fixing her companion with a rare grin, Verin said the words she’d been waiting to say for a while now.
“Lady Tess. Should you be amenable, I believe it may be time for the three of us to go on a hunt.”
And with that, we shall take our first step to rid ourselves of this godforsaken place.