Walking out of the den after she had retrieved the bottle of wine, she once again viewed her ‘handy work’ as she was once again reminded of the carnage she caused.

She couldn’t help but feel a tad bit nauseated despite having already ended the lives of dozens of Giant Rats, though she had acclimatised since the start, she wondered if she would ever get used to such a feeling, to the point where she would be completely unfeeling to the mutilated bodies before her.

Talia had already noticed that her mindset had been gradually changing already.

This was a world which literally existed for the purpose of killing, and it was vividly real.

Even the painfulness and soreness of her muscles, which had been offset somewhat by the experience of levelling.

Talia was still unsure what the concept of experiencing death in this realistic game world would feel like, she was not sure if she would even respawn similar to the game, but she didn’t even have the thought of daring to try. After all, there was just too much at stake.

Since dealing with the Giant Rats, she had realised that her knowledge about the original game wasn’t completely applicable in this world, the experience with the bandits who meddled in her affairs was just one of them. Which straight away realised that she cannot rely too much on following her memories on how the game worked.

It also made her a tad more cautious to the upcoming quest of the Priestess, so when she began travelling to the den of the dire wolves, she began mapping out a route of escape if she needed.

Upon, arriving at the cave which fitted the description of the den belonging to the dire wolves, she instantly realised the strangeness of the situation.

She knew that her sense of smell cannot be playing tricks on her at the moment, as she could scent the stench of blood, indicating that a battle had occurred here recently.

Talia did not know much about this quest, as in her previous life it was one with limited availability, as it is a hidden quest which aids someone in having earlier contact with the ‘Order of Templars’, all she knew was the description of the quest and that it involved a den of dire wolves, but other than that there wasn’t too much known about it.

As the quest involved discovering the origins behind Anita, the secretive owner of ‘Thornrock Inn’ was found by a player who had discovered her identify through unknown means, causing a great deal of envy once he shared the rewards of the quest. Luckily, Talia used this information to directly bypass into the quest straight away, accessing the quest immediately.

Anita was also a well-known character in the Village, as she handed out plenty of quests early on which involved creatures which were known then as the ’Tainted’, which was why she felt she knew what the quest was going to involve, but Talia figured the main advantage of the quest was that it allowed you to develop an early favourable relationship with Anita, an important character.

However, Talia felt that this quest may have been more important than she previously thought, as she just realised that after the completion of this quest, was when quests involving ‘tainted’ creatures were then released by Anita to the players.

Could this be the origin of when the ‘Order of Templar’ started paying attention to these ‘tainted’ creatures?

Taking a step into the cave, the stench of blood became even more pronounced as she continued to enter the cave, she found the first body of a large dire wolf which was mutilated beyond recognition.

‘Whatever did this is strong’ assessed Talia, as she saw that the bodies of dire wolves she began to find as she continued were ripped in half by something large.

Eventually, she came to a stop as a large creature stood at the centre of the well-spaced cave before her, a creature she instantly recognised.

Dire Bear. Shit.

The Dire Bear noticing her turned its colossal body in her direction, blood-covered its body, as numerous wounds decorated its hide, upon its large head she could see that it was half-blinded as one of its eyes as been torn out, but that did not reduce its imposing figure might at all.

The remaining eye glared at her in madness as it roared in fury, ignoring its wounded body it immediately charged at her.

‘Yes! I am definitely running, no way in hell I am fighting that thing!’ She thought as she turned around instantly fleeing in panic.

Yet, despite her early lead, the Dire Bear was gaining on her, if one would believe these creatures were slow, that was a misconception, at the same time it was noticeable at a higher level than the current life, as it was at the very least above Lvl 10.

Realising her current predicament, inwardly she began thinking, ‘I’m so screwed, I’m so screwed, damn why would I think attempting an unknown quest was a good idea, this is no longer a game, Talia!’

She felt the breath of the massive beast down her neck as found herself forcing her instincts to stop herself from shivering in fright, at the moment all put everything into getting away from this thing, and as if her prayers were answered the view of light pouring into the cave indicating that the cave entrance was near felt like a godsend.

However, just as she was about to reach the entrance, a large claw grazed her from behind causing her to stumble, Talia’s survival instinct seemingly flared at that moment as she quickly dodged away from her current location which ended up being a move saving her life as the large-bodied bear pounced on the location she was in a second ago, this respite gave her valuable her the time needed to rush out of the cave.

Upon, exiting the first thing which came to mind was an attempt to climb a tree, but the Dire Bear behind her shown her instantly how a foolish a notion would be as a tree she squeezed past to slow down the bear directly chasing her by using her smaller size to manoeuvre past the trees torn a large chunk out of it as it attacks targeted at her narrowly missed.

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‘Yep, that’s not a good long idea at all. I need to think of a solution fast, or sooner or later this thing will catch me’. She thought seriously.

Talia found her mind working at light speed, to find a solution in how to escape this calamity, she felt a sense of relief that she took the time to map the area beforehand, as she thought of an area which might work to ensure her safety.

Sprinting in that direction, the Dire Bear followed in pursuit, clearly intent on not letting her off at all, its crazed and maniacal appearance showed clear it would not let up until it tore her into shreds.

Hurriedly, she found that she was finally there, stood just in front of her was a tree of ginormous size, a root formation has formed at the bottom of the tree, with a hole just big enough for her to fit to hide under.

‘I hope this works, that thing is way too big to fit under there.’ She thought, rushing into the hole.

She found that it was a tight fit, which felt a tad painful to squeeze herself into, but the fearsome bear behind her served as perfect motivation, finally, she managed herself to get in.

Believing that she may be finally safe she heaved a sigh of relief.

However, this sense of peace was quickly interrupted as the Bear began tearing into the throats frantically, the thickness and strength of the tree made this a difficult task even for the Bear and it had only managed to widen the hole slightly so far, but if it kept up it may only be a matter of time before it forced itself in.

Once the hole widened a bit more, the Dire Bear shoved its big maw inside the hole in an attempt to drag her out, hearing the crunching and snapping sound of the Dire Bears jaws as it tried to get to her, Talia felt a sense of terror.

‘No I can’t continue to do anything’ she mentally slapped herself at her foolish behaviour, knowing that there was one thing she could do to cause damage to the Dire Bear, she began preparing to fire a familiar spell she had previously used on the Giant Rats.

‘In a normal scenario this would not even be able to dent a Dire Bears hide, but it’s both injuries, at the same time I get to target one of the most vulnerable parts of its body.’ Analysed Talia.

Waiting until the Bear once again opened its mouth to chomp at her, she instantly fired off the spell sending it directly into the Dire Bears opened maw.

*Boom!*

The spell set off an explosion as the Bear screamed in agony, as it stumbled out of the hole.

Talia knew this was the best opportunity she was going to get, so she rushed out once again preparing another spell.

Upon seeing the Bear she saw that half to its face has been torn off by the spell, and even apart of its brain was showing, but the astonishing vitality of a Dire Bear shown its might as it was somehow still standing, if barely.

Setting another spell off it once again landed on it heads, digging even deeper into the Bears skull, causing it to finally fall to the ground.

However, Talia found herself unable to stop, as she began unloading the same spell again and again, even after the bear long stopped responding, she kept battering the body of the Dire Bear until eventually, she found herself completely drained of energy as she collapsed onto the ground panting.

Reverting back to her human state, a burst of maniacal laughter suddenly left her lips as she had found herself escaping the jaws of death.

The feelings she felt at the moment in time of Edward casting that spell at her, was nothing compared to the feeling of being chased by such a creature.

Looking at the body of the Dire Bear itself, she finally had a look of its appearance, she knew the thing was big, but seeing it up close made her realise how huge it actually was, for a size comparison the two largest Bears on Earth, the Kodiak and Polar bear would appear small in comparison to the monster before her.

The Beast must have been at least fifteen feet tall if it would stand on its hind legs and must have outweighed even a Kodiak bear by over a thousand pounds.

Calming down for a moment, she realised that she had a few notifications on her interface after the death of the bear which she failed to notice after the bear's death due to her erratic actions afterwards.

Looking at the interface, she found that she had actually increased by two levels by the death of the bear showing just how formidable it was in life, at the same time she found that unknowingly one of her skills actually improved and it was ‘Essence Bolt’ which had increased to the next level.

The effects of the increase in level are as described, ‘Essence Bolt Lvl 2: Your understanding of the skill has increased, you have gauged how to use the spell more efficiently slightly increasing the power and reducing the energy usage.’

Talia found the effect to be decent, and she could already imagine the effect it would have if she further increased the level of the skill, after all, if she could fire dozens of such spell, wouldn’t she be able to crush her enemies?

Even such a large beast with a thick hide as the Dire Bear would have to be wary in even a direct confrontation if they were bombarded with dozens of such a spell.

But, she knew to the current her it was a pipe dream, as even if she levelled the skill further her capacity was still too small to support such actions, even if the energy reduction is reduced.

Ah! Anyways, she should get back to the Priestess now, after all, she had finally completed the quest, and it was time to reap the rewards.

Dragging herself back to the cave, she picked up the quest item, which was, in fact, a strange black crystal, she knew that this is what the Priestess wanted, as it was the cause of not only the Dire Wolves strange behaviour, but the Dire Bear who came in after as a result of being influenced by the strange-looking crystal.

She knew this as such crystals would become more common later, as they become responsible for many catastrophes as a result of the sway they have on creatures.

The walk back was uneventful in comparison to the previous events, she met the Guard Captain who rewarded her generously for the removal and retrieval of his bottle of wine.

He remained expressionless even as she returned, but by the look of surprise which briefly flickered through his eyes, she knew that he likely didn’t expect her to be able to accomplish the quest.

But, he still rewarded her generously as promised, he handed up a few silver coins and additionally a set of spare armour worn by the guards of the town, which coincidentally were her size.

Big surprise! Not, guess some things from the game did not change.

The armour was nothing special, but was of decent quality and definitely a step above what she was currently wearing, so she instantly put on the new set of gear. She also received a bit of experience for the quest, but it was not enough to push her up to the next level.

After, that she finally returned to the Priestess, upon handing over the black crystal a grave look appeared on her face, as she said, “It looks like you completed my mission, and it seems I’m going to require further assistance in the future. But, that will wait until next time you return.”

Suddenly the mechanical voice once again returned.

*You have completed Priestess Anita’s quest, receiving award.*

This time even more experience was given to her, enabling her to just about level up once again to reach level six, she also received a good quality sword and some magic tome, which likely contained a spell of some sort.

But, that was not the only surprise, as after she received her reward, the mechanical voice once again sounded.

*Warning! You have now reached the limit of your maximum game time, exiting World, in 3…. 2…. 1….*

And then she found that the World went black once more.