The buzzing of insects and the chirping of birds accompany me as my bare feet traverse the unmaintained dirt pathway, which is currently leading me through the forest towards the hill I spotted the night before. The relaxing atmosphere from the stroll is even more enjoyable than the moonlit walk I took, deepening my appreciation of just being outside and experiencing nature. The whole experience helps to calm down the stress I've been feeling since arrival, and I start to ponder my plans for the future.

I mean, I can't just wing it forever, I have to figure out what to do with myself eventually. The only problem is how I don't know what I want from life. I have freedom to choose what I want to do, but not a single clue on how to use that freedom. The only thing I'm absolutely certain of is that I refuse to become an object used for the pleasure of others ever again, but that just tells me what I don't want. I've never really put any thought into what I want to do, having given up on any hope of escape years ago. One thing I somewhat enjoyed was the cooking I got to do every once in a while, but that was mainly because it was the only thing I could do in my free time that was distracting enough that I didn't have to think about anything other than preparing a meal. Thinking about it though, I really enjoyed it when the other girls would compliment my food that I would make for them, so maybe I could become a cook or something? But I don't think I enjoy cooking enough to spend my life doing it, however. It's more of a hobby or necessary ability that I acquired along the way than something I want to devote the rest of this life to.

Hitting a dead end on that train of thought, I try to think of anything else I might enjoy doing now. Honestly, while it was scary to me a lot of the time, I kinda enjoyed the thrill that came from overcoming my enemies in battle. It also seems like the Dhartic System is mainly geared towards that as well, or at least mine is. I could try to get a job related to that, like becoming a guard, Adventurer, or whatever else there is in this world. The only problem with that is how I've already almost died twice since arriving on Dharta, and pursuing a career in monster hunting wouldn't improve that statistic.

Do I even want to find a city to work at in the first place? I mean, some random girl who is barely an adult, with absolutely no knowledge about practically anything, is a perfect target for lowlifes with immoral intentions to take advantage of. Yes, not everyone is scum like that, but I don't really feel comfortable risking it yet. I've got the perfect thing to make it so no one can make me feel helpless ever again, the ability to Level up and get Skills, so I shouldn't squander that by just waltzing into town when I haven't even hit the second Tier yet, which is probably not even that high of a Level relative to residents of this world that grew up with this available to them. My only comparison point when it comes to if my Level is high or not is that I've just gotten a Level higher than Thumper, who was an undead stuck in one spot for their un-life, most likely not having many opportunities to increase in Level in the first place. I mean, half of my Skills aren’t even Level 5 yet, and I expect to be taken seriously? Yeah right.

In fact, I should stop worrying so much about long term goals for the moment, and just work towards what I can do right now. Other than Skill Leveling, or just Leveling in general, I should think of short-term goals to work towards. Firstly, I definitely want to take down the Rusalka, partially because she is most likely the culprit behind Littlecreek’s demise, and partially because I just want to smite her ass for trying to kill me. Multiple times. After that, I guess I can clean up Littlecreek a bit so I can use it as a place to live in the meantime, especially since the River’s Side Inn is in much better shape than the cabin I slept in.

Now having something to work towards, I think of what I need to do to make taking down the Rusalka easier as I continue to walk down the dirt path. The obvious answer is to just keep Leveling, but I should try to come up with ways to be more efficient at doing so. For example, I already know that using [Restful Touch] on myself can increase both it and [Enchantment Affinity]’s Levels, so I could be doing that more to boost their Levels more often. Also, I could probably use [Break Enchantment] simultaneously as well since it should reduce the effect of [Restful Touch] to the point I won't be falling asleep every half a minute or so, and give me practice with the Skill at the same time. Linking my fingers together, I do just that, activating [Restful Touch] in one hand and [Break Enchantment] in the other. It seems to be working, as I can feel both Skills being active at the same time, but since [Restful Touch] is much higher in Level, I have to start and stop whilst using the Skill to make sure I don't get too relaxed and sleepy as I don't want to fall asleep right here in the dirt.

For [Eyes Of Aspirations], it should theoretically improve as I keep using it, so I might as well just use it on everything I see, even if all I get is (Tree) or (Rock), it will still progress the Skill little by little. I would practice [Tail Whip] and [Power Slash] like I did in the past, just using it over and over again on nothing in particular, but I'm worried that the loud noise from using the Skills will attract too much attention. The two Skills Level up much faster in actual combat anyways, so there isn't much incentive for me to do so anyways since I'm pretty sure there is something in this forest that will be more than happy to attack me that I can use my Skills on.

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Other than that, my Passive Skills are going to be much more difficult to rapidly improve, since well, they are not able to be actively used, and are passively on at all times like their description implies. On top of that, a lot of them need specific circumstances to be able to be used, such as how [Unholy Resistance] is still Level 1, even though it was one of the Skills I've had since arriving on Dharta, all because nothing I've encountered has used the (Unholy) Category. The only ones that I can think of being able to practice with are [Versatile Tail], [Axe Handling], and [Brawling]. I could probably increase [Holy Affinity] and [Light Affinity] by keeping [Light Of Justice] on, but the continuous burning pain would not be worth the minimal returns that come from using the Skill out of combat, maybe once [Holy Affinity] get high enough that I stop burning myself so badly from my own (Holy) Skill, I’ll go for it. Yes, my Endurance and [Holy Affinity] have raised, which in theory should reduce the amount of damage I deal to myself with [Light Of Justice], but that same skill is also my highest, so the damage dealt has grown faster than I can reduce it, at least so far.

Besides that, [Brawling] is in a similar situation that it’s at a high enough Level that practicing outside of combat gives little increase, whilst requiring me to actively practice my punching, kicking, and tail…ing. But, I have thought of a way that I can Level up my [Versatile Tail] and [Axe Handling] at the same time! I raise my partially regrown tail up towards my waist, and I use it to unsheathe my axe. I wrap the end of the tail around the axe’s handle, and then start practicing axe swings with my tail. This genius idea of mine should allow me to improve both these Skills whilst having my hands occupied with their own Skill Leveling. Though, I'm glad no one is here to watch me walk through the forest with my hands clasped together as my tail flails about in front of me with an iron axe in its grip, as it must make quite the odd sight.

I use this odd method of practicing for the whole journey down the dirt path, taking breaks from my Skill usage for a couple of minutes any time I would start to get out of breath from all the strain of using so many Skills at once. Thankfully, I didn't have to take that many breaks, either due to my increased Endurance letting me last longer, my Recovery somewhat keeping up with the fatigue, or both. The journey finally comes to an end though, as the path leads out into another small clearing after I have walked at a leisurely pace for a bit over an hour or so.

The main feature of importance for this clearing, is the large hole leading into the large hill at its base, which must be the cave that Douglas’ guards found by exploring along the river. There are still wooden beams at the entrance and at intervals further in to support the cave, so they must have used it for mining as Douglas said they would in his logbook. I'm not sure if it'll be useful for me, but I might as well check it out before dismissing it as useless, but I should check out all my gains from practice before I go in since I just let all the notifications pile on without checking them so I could look at all of them at once.

[Skill [Break Enchantment] Has Reached Level 2!]

…

[Skill [Break Enchantment] Has Reached Level 6!]

[Skill [Eyes Of Aspirations] Has Reached Level 13!]

[Skill [Eyes Of Aspirations] Has Reached Level 14!]

[Skill [Restful Touch] Has Reached Level 14!]

[Skill [Restful Touch] Has Reached Level 15!]

[Skill [Enchantment Affinity] Has Reached Level 13!]

…

[Skill [Enchantment Affinity] Has Reached Level 15!]

[Skill [Versatile Tail] Has Reached Level 2!]

…

[Skill [Versatile Tail] Has Reached Level 4!]

[Skill [Axe Handling] Has Reached Level 2!]

[Skill [Axe Handling] Has Reached Level 3!]

[Skill [From The Brink] Has Reached Level 9!]

[Skill [Rest] Has Reached Level 4!]

Overall, I'm happy with the gains I received for an hour of practice. I'm surprised about the last two Skills that Leveled up though. [From The Brink] surprised me in a pleasantly unexpected way, rather than how it takes me a bit to figure out why [Rest] Leveled up at all. The only explanation I can come up with for why it does, is how [Restful Touch] makes me more relaxed, so that state of relaxation must mean that it allows for [Rest] to kick in. This is good to know, as while putting people to sleep with the Skill or reducing their concentration by making them sleepy can be useful in battle, others could have the [Rest] Skill, or something like it, that would benefit from the effect as well. It's not too big of an issue though, as I can do a lot more damage to a sleeping or distracted enemy than they would recover from [Rest] in the first place.

Now that I'm done with that though, I can go ahead and start heading into the mineshaft. I might be able to improve [Nightvision] while in there as well, since the skill improves my sight in all lowlight conditions, not just moonlit areas. There might also be some more monsters for me to fight hiding out in the cave, like some more Moss Wolves or something, which I am more than willing to take on. This assumption is confirmed to me as soon as I step fully into the cave’s mouth, as I'm greeted by a message that I've never seen before, but of which I can guess means more trouble.

[Now Entering Tier 1 Dungeon: Nature’s Reclaimed Mineshaft]