The mention of her mother, Vera, was a sombre reminder of the hardship she’d faced in the past ten years. Elaria had only just begun to get to know the hard working and diligent woman when the hardship of rural village life had claimed her. Unlike Jacob, who had a fierce drive and ambition, and powerful motivation for vengeance against the influential Baron Faust and his eldest son, Sir Faust, Elaria was simply looking to make her second life an adventure, and travel to the ends of the world to discover everything about her new home. That didn’t mean she didn’t also despise the Baron from the bottom of her heart for what he had done to her friends and family, but she had no desire to throw her own life away on a futile quest for justice. If she got the chance to, she would be the first to take his life, but she wasn’t planning to go out of her way to seek it, at least not while she was still this weak.
Her father didn’t relax the intense hug for quite a while, and Elaria didn’t complain. Darius had been in just as much pain and anguish as her, arguably more. Vera had been her mother for a few years, but they had been lovers for almost their entire lives. Despite losing her, he hadn’t let that get in the way of raising Elaria, and she loved him for it. All that made it much harder for her to do what she was about to do.
“Hey dad, there’s something I have to tell you,” she said, gently pulling out of the hug.
Darius let her go, but placed a strong hand on her shoulder, with a complicated expression on his face. He scratched his thick beard with his free hand, sighing while doing so. “Look, I know what you’re about to say, and I’ll be honest, I don’t want you to leave. But, I know you, my daughter, and I know you won’t change your mind no matter what I say. All I ask is that you don’t take any stupid risks, or piss off anyone you shouldn’t. If that reckless brat Jacob is still alive, and you end up finding him, try to keep him out of trouble too.”
His interjection had taken the wind from her sails. Of course he had known already, it was practically all she spoke about the last few years. At least he wasn’t going to try and stop her. That would’ve made it ten times harder to leave, and she didn’t want her last moments with him to be filled with arguments. She had already prepared a bag with some supplies the day before, and hid it out here so she would be ready to leave the moment her ceremony concluded. Taking it from a hole underneath one of the trees, she slung it over her shoulders, before preparing to say a final goodbye to her father.
“Is that all you’re taking with you?” He asked in shock, shaking his head. “Even after nearly dying to wolves you still didn’t think taking a bloody weapon along would be a good idea?”
Her cheeks went red, and she had a sheepish grin on her face in response to the question. In hindsight, bringing a weapon would have been a good idea, but she’d been so focused on the birthing ceremony and the journey ahead that she hadn’t considered some of the more obvious preparations. Luckily for her, Darius had predicted his daughter’s loveable idiocy, and pulled an object wrapped in cloth from behind his back. He delicately pulled the cloth away, revealing a beautifully crafted sword, around the length of her arm, and not too broad. The handle was black, with blue cloth patterns overlaid for grip. She took it in one hand, giving it a few swings to test the weight. The balance of the blade was perfect. He handed her a scabbard, the same black as the handle, and she sheathed the weapon, before attaching it to her waist.
“Thanks dad. I’ll try not to get myself killed before I reach Felspire. Maybe I can get revenge on those wolves with this sword. How did you manage to get this though, I don’t think any of the blacksmiths in Reissdown are capable of crafting on this level?”
Darius tapped his nose and winked, “That’s a secret for another time, my girl,” he said.
Huh. Perhaps there was more to this father of hers than meets the eye. She would have to pry into his secrets the next time they met, but for now she was content to simply accept his gift. They stared at each other in silence. Everything that needed to be said already had been, and they were content to just have the company of the other for a while longer. The sun had reached the peak of its arc across the sky, and Elaria had to leave if she wanted to make it to the first city on her journey before nightfall. Her father let her go with some final words of encouragement, and made her promise to come back and visit.
She was ecstatic to finally begin her adventure. The melancholy goodbye was still weighed on her heart, but it was a necessary part of the journey. Everyone had to leave home eventually. After meandering through the trees for almost thirty minutes, she reached the end of the forest, and stepped out into the wide, open plains that made up most of the land around this part of the world. The main road went straight to Felspire, but she wanted to test herself in the wilds. What good adventure started on a road? Quite a few to be fair, but not this one. The start of the journey was rather uneventful, and her time was spent counting blades of grass and the occasional horse.
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The first bit of action she encountered came when a snake, carefully camouflaged in the long grass, launched itself at her from the side, fangs bared, dripping with yellow venom. Thanks to her much improved reactions and speed, Elaria was able to jump backwards and dodge the assault, but that only enraged the creature. It coiled its tail, rearing up and attempting to intimidate the young girl, which it had assumed would be easy prey. Unfortunately for the poor snake, she was probably one of the most powerful ten year olds on Teron, thanks to her bloodline ability, and with movement so swift you could blink and miss it, attempted to draw her new sword from its scabbard and swing outwards in a circle, seeking to cut off the snake’s head before it could strike. Reality often didn’t live up to expectations however, and because she had never actually held a sword before, let alone used one in a fight, her swing was a little clumsy, and the snake managed to avoid a death blow by a thin margin.
Realising that its opponent was not going to be the easy kill it had hoped for, the snake put up its guard, and retreated to put some distance between them. Having messed up her first slash, Elaria was a little nervous, but adrenaline was pumping through her veins, and her first real battle against a monster was almost exactly as she’d imagined it, albeit slightly more frightening. She edged forward, testing its range, and as soon as she was close enough, slashed out once more, this time aiming for its body, giving it less room to dodge. Her blade sunk deep into its flesh, the sharp edge proving a reliable weapon, and warm blood spurted from the wound, staining the nearby grass a deep crimson and spraying her face and clothes.
She stumbled backwards, the visceral impact of her first kill affecting her more than she had expected. There was a stinging pain in her shoulder, and Elaria looked down to see the snake’s fangs buried deep inside her flesh, the area around the bite tinged yellow as the venom did its work. She pulled the decapitated head out of the wound, tossing it away with the rest of the corpse, and quickly pulled a bandage out of her pack, before cleaning and dressing the bite so it didn’t get infected. She wasn’t sure how to deal with the venom though. She hadn’t packed any antidotes for toxicity, and would just have to hope she could make it to Felspire and find a doctor or a pharmacy before it became a problem. Her thoughts were interrupted by two new boxes appearing, courtesy of the Chain.
You have been bitten by a Verdant Greenscale Adder
-3 health
-2 health per hour from venom toxicity
Level 3 Verdant Greenscale Adder has been slain!
+9 XP
Verdant Scale x1
Adder Fangs x1
While she had been reading the notifications, glad that the venom wouldn’t kill her for another nine hours, meaning she had plenty of time to make it to Felspire and search for an antidote, the snake’s body had vanished, and only a few specks of white light floating in the air remained. It seemed like once a monster died, it would be processed by the Chain and turned into drops. That was a neat trick. At least she wouldn’t have to cut up and loot everything she killed by hand. That would get messy very quickly, and the idea of it made her a little sick. She put her loot away in her backpack, wondering if there was a more efficient way to store all her stuff. The bag was already full of supplies, and would fill up rapidly if she kept getting drops at this rate.
Getting caught up in her emotions with her father earlier had made her forget that her new ability could be used quite regularly, but the battle with the Adder had reminded her of the fact that she had four different functions that were off cooldown, and ready to use. It was a good moment to take a break anyway, in order to recover her stamina after the battle. It had ended almost as quickly as it had begun, but it still took a lot out of her as she wasn’t used to fighting, at least not with her life on the line. After having half a loaf of bread as a late lunch, she prepared to use her personal ability for the first time.