Opening the book, I started reading the introduction. It starts off explaining the basics of using mana, circulating it through your body and how to adjust the input. One section however gave me a slight surprise, I had nearly forgotten about what the book wrote about.

Starting from Level 25, the System will show you the ranks of your magic, however, you can rank them up before Level 25. This process entirely depends on your proficiency, the energy available and if you’re in a place with the element of your magic. For example, Astral Ice requires you to be in an area with snow, ice and lunar energy.>

Looking at the last sentence, I wondered if Astral Ice magic had a relation to Lunar magic. Reading on, I learnt Astral Ice Magic did indeed use Lunar magic, but it mixed with Ice magic, with Ice magic being the dominant magic of the two. The book also mentioned other types of Astral magic, but most had either been lost to time or their element went missing.

Now the question in my mind is how to rank up magic. Recalling what Ash had told me, she’d mentioned I would know when it was time to rank up magic, which meant it would be based on a feeling. I had yet to feel anything different, so I knew it wasn’t quite time yet.

Finishing off the food we had received, I saw Alice fly over to the bed and snuggle into the pillow. Smiling at her actions, I keep reading the book. It explained quite a bit about magic that I hadn’t known, like how you could use magic tools. From what I’ve read, it’s possible to combine different elements to create new variations of spells, according to the book this is how Astral Ice magic came to be, from continuous experiments and practice.

The book also explained you can craft your own magic circles with mana, it didn’t require paper. Remembering the magic circle Elise had used during the process of crafting my adventurer's plate, I continued reading. There were multiple advantages to it, even more so when you’re used to it to the point where it became instinct.

Mana-crafted magic circles didn’t need you to know or understand magic circles. The tier of the magic circle depends on the tier of your magic, so for me, it would be tier 1. Mana circles allow more pin-pointed magic and can store a lot more mana than one can output normally. The downsides are that it takes time to create the magic circles and they can be disrupted during combat, thus falling out of favour when compared to just using magic normally.

After considering it for a while, I decided to learn how to craft magic circles on the go, as well as how to do it on paper. I wouldn’t do it right away, but at a later time since if it could help me fight, I’d use it to my advantage.

Reaching the first section on using Astral Ice magic, I found it did have some correlation with Lunar magic, in that it used the energy from the stars instead of both. I knew about Lunar Wind magic from Anita in Zalus, is that also like Astral Ice in that it uses energy from the moon or stars? Feeling the Lunar energy within me, I felt a mixture of both moon and star energy, at some point I had taken both as just the same type of energy, but what if it was separate?

Astral Ice wasn’t just as simple as using Ice magic with star energy though, it wasn’t even a combination of both, instead, it is using star energy and converting it to Astral Ice magic. I had yet to read how this is done, but the book said it came down to understanding how star energy felt. The best method it describes is using the energy of the stars during extreme colds, something I could test out tonight.

Planning to do so, I keep reading however the next few pages required me to have a basic understanding of Astral Ice magic, which I couldn’t obtain unless I could grasp it. Putting the book down, I look outside and see it’s just a bit past midday. Wondering what to do, I thought of visiting the Academy that Roland mentioned or getting a guide to show me around the city as Elise suggested.

Looking towards Alice, I considered if it were possible to head somewhere to gain her some levels. Getting up, I scope Alice up, still sleeping as I put her on my head and grab the coat from Roal. I knew I had to return it at some point, I’d forgotten to buy one at Northern Hawk’s store before. Putting the new gloves on to hide the bracelet, I head out of the room and down to see if Floof was around.

Spotting him rather quickly, I made my way through the crowd of people coming and going. Upon reaching him, he smiles and upon asking him if there was a safe place to gain experience for Alice, he told me what he knew.

“At the moment the best way to get levels would be through dungeons. You could go to Dungeon Alley.” Seeing my inquiring look, he says “Vale has a section that has 6 Dimensional Dungeons and a special type. The lowest level is a level 23 dungeon, with the next highest at 45. I’d recommend looking for a party if you plan to head into a Dimensional Dungeon. Other than the dungeons, due to the blizzard there aren’t really any places you could go, all the monsters are currently hiding away.”

“I can’t enter a dungeon for another four months…” Saying this while feeling a bit downcast, Floof looks over me.

“Oh? Is there a reason for that, little fox?”

Explaining about the time we cleared the Temple of the Blood God, Floof gave me a look of surprise.

“That’s a very rare and difficult achievement little fox, congratulations. That explains why you started off at Bronze Rank A. True Routes of Dimensional Dungeons do indeed lock you out of Dimensional Dungeons for six months, but if that’s the case you can go into that special dungeon I mentioned.

There is an External Deep Dungeon here in Vale, one of its main attractions for adventurers looking to make a name for themselves. No one knows how deep it is, so far one hundred and six floors have been explored in total. There is a boss every ten floors that somehow resurrect itself after some time, and the System is quite giving with providing quests in there. You will have no problems entering an External Dungeon, even if you have the lockout.”

Amazed by what he said, I considered if I should head there now or not. Considering I needed to be here tomorrow and wanted to try out Astral Ice tonight, I decided not to head there for the time being. Instead, I ask Floof about the Academy.

“There are six branches of the Academy throughout the city and the main Academy in the centre. Tuition costs about 5 silvers for an entire year of study, depending on what you want it could increase in cost too. If you’re looking for some basic knowledge, I’d recommend going to a library instead. There is one not far from here.”

After giving me directions, the library turned out to only be a ten-minute walk from the inn. Describing the library to me, it turned out to be a place with lots of books on different types of subjects, and upon asking Floof if I could find a location, he nodded. Deciding to take the time to walk there now since there wasn’t much else to do, I exit the inn and make my way there.

Walking along the streets, I really had to marvel at how busy a city really is. People were walking back and forth in a uniform manner, the streets were wide enough to allow a lot of people to walk down them. Moving with the people going in one direction, it wasn’t long before I reached the building described by Floof.

It looked similar to the Temple of the Blood God, but instead of being all obsidian coloured, it was a lovely mix of white and gold, and on the arch of the door was a sign that read “Local Vale Library Branch.”

Entering the building, I felt mana surging around me as a magic circle ignites under me. On reflex, I take up my stance and look around, about to jump away from the magic circle, but it invokes quickly. Feeling hot air surge around me, I looked down in fear of what was about to happen…but nothing happened. I noticed the snow covering me, even the small bits on my shoulders and head had disappeared.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Looking around, I see others looking at me strangely, but they too were walking through this magic circle just fine, and seeing what happened to them, I watch as the snow evaporated from their boots. Starting to understand that the magic circle is harmless and only worked to remove snow, I felt a bit embarrassed about reacting as I did. Quickly reminding myself of what has happened to me every time a magic circle has been below my feet, I stopped feeling embarrassed and decided to keep my guard up around them.

Looking around, I’d arrived in a rather large lobby, directly in front of me is a reception desk with a door on either side of it. Seeing people go to the reception desk before heading into the doors, I made my way over and waited until it was my turn.

Approaching the desk, one of the many attendants asked me what I was looking for. “I want to find a place and see how long it’ll take to reach it.”

Leading me through the doorway on the right, the attendant, a middle-aged man, led me to a wall that had a massive map on it. Turning to me, he asked me about the location I was looking for. Telling him about Crater Hell, he turns back to the map and places a hand in front of it. A magic circle appeared before his hand and to the far right a light flashed. Looking towards it, I saw the area lit up was quite small compared to the map.

Leaning to look closer, I saw the area was marked with the words “Crater Hell”. I didn’t know how large it was compared to the size of the map, turning to the attendant I asked where Vale was. Pointing at the opposite side of the map, a bad feeling crept up on me.

“Sir, how long would it take to go from Vale to Crater Hell?”

Seeing him step back, he looks at the distance and gives me an answer that makes my head spin.

“On foot, the shortest and safest route will be around thirteen years, and that would be to reach the city of Iodina. From there it would be two to three months on foot. An unsafe route would still take about ten years, while using teleport gates may lower the travel time down to two to three years, however, most cities won’t provide access to their teleport gates to anyone.

Since you’re an adventurer, if you can get yourself to Black grade, most cities will provide you access to their teleport gates…as long as they’re not at war. Plus those countries may charge a lot of money to gain…Miss, are you okay?”

My head was spinning, I felt sick at the thought of how long it would take to get back to see everyone. The attendant said I should just reach Black grade, but I knew how difficult that would even be from how Elise described how only two people had it in Vale from her knowledge.

Squeezing out a smile at the attendant, I thank him for his help and move back out of the library. My vision blurred as I made my way back to the inn. Arriving back at the inn, I rushed up the stairs and back to my room as the feeling of being sick grew too strong, causing me to throw up. Shaking and crying, I lay on my bed as Alice flew over to the table, crawl into a ball and cried.

***

I don’t know how long it's been, I just know it's nighttime. Still feeling my head spin from just the thought of how long it would be to reach Crater Hell, I wanted to think about what to do but couldn’t, I had no energy, no motivation…

I had thought I was only a few months away, maybe it would be a year and I could just take some time to level while travelling there. Now travelling there seemed impossible, even getting to Black grade could take way too long. Falling further into the thought of not being able to see everyone again, I heard a knock on my door. Ignoring it, I turn my body so it wasn’t facing the door and closed my eyes.

I couldn’t sleep, too many thoughts were flooding my mind. I felt a feeling of concern come from Alice, I should comfort her and let her know everything is fine but I can’t. Hearing the door open, I ignored the person who came in as I heard them speaking, but the words simply went through my ears, I didn’t take in anything they said as I just laid there.

Hearing various sounds behind me for a while, I finally heard the sound of a cart being dragged around before the door closed. From the smell, it seems like they had cleaned up the vomit and left food behind. Not feeling at all hungry, I close my eyes, trying to sleep. Part of me wanted to speak to someone, anyone, another part of me wanted to see those from Crater Hell again, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

Entering my mana realm, I looked at the small moon that Flannery would transform from. Not seeing a reaction from it, I knew she wasn’t coming…At that moment, I started feeling lonely as the realisation of my situation hit me. I was alone in a city that I didn’t know, with people who, while they were kind to me, I didn’t know and it would take me thirteen years of travelling before I could even see Sally or Gray, not to mention Elizabeth. I had no idea where Olivia was either.

I had to somehow grow stronger, and travel long distances in a world that I didn’t know or understand all the while surrounded by people I didn’t know or trust. I had been excited to travel outside of Crater Hell, but I had thought I would be with the others, not just teleported somewhere on the other side of the world. I started feeling very anxious about what is to come, I knew I needed to get a start but I couldn’t feel any motivation.

As I exit my mana realm and open my eyes, I knew it’s been a couple of hours since someone brought in the cart of food. Tightening up the ball I was sitting in, I glanced up and saw a figure sitting next to the bed. At first, I thought it was Sally, but after blinking once I saw that instead, it was Elise. Seeing her smiling down at me, I saw that she had Alice in her lap and was patting her, I looked away and closed my eyes again…I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Not even a day and you seem to have encountered a big problem!” Hearing Elise’s voice, I felt a bit irritated. She continues to sit there for a few more minutes before speaking up.

“Come with me, Alisha. I want to show you something.”

Feeling really unwilling, I open my eyes and look at Elise. She simply smiles at me, not moving or speaking again, as I wonder why she wants me to go somewhere. I didn’t want to get up and go anywhere, but I didn’t want to annoy Elise…slowly moving, I sit up before standing unsteadily. Offering me Alice, I take her with both hands, looking down at this palm-sized raven who was looking at me, concerned.

Elise walks around the bed as I slowly follow behind her. She puts my coat around my shoulders as I keep a hold of Alice. Seeing the door was already opened, I saw Jessica standing there without any expression as she watched us walk out and lock the door behind us.

Following Elise out of the inn, I noticed that there were still people around us, it wasn’t as busy as it was during the day. Elise must’ve seen me looking around because she speaks up. “It’s just a bit after dinner.” Hearing her speak, I tried to respond but I just didn’t want to, my motivation wasn’t there. Holding Alice closer to me, I followed Elise...rather, I followed her feet as we start walking down the streets.

After what felt like twenty minutes of walking, weaving between people and going down alleyways, Elise stopped, causing me to stop as well. “We’re here. Let's go in and vent, shall we?”

Looking up, we were in some sort of lobby of a building, directly ahead of us is a huge archway, leading into somewhere dark. To the right of the archway is a booth of sorts, people were going in and out, those coming out looked ruffled like they’d been fighting, while those who were going in looked fresh.

Elise leads me towards the booth, and it doesn’t take us long to reach it. A man sits there, about middle-aged with black hair. Looking at the adventurer’s plate around my neck, he nods and turns to Elise and nods as well, before waving us through. Still not sure where we were, the System very shortly let me know once we crossed the threshold of the archway.

Level ??? External Deep Dungeon, Tomb of Lilith, Floor 1

Blinking, I look around, but with the darkness of the place, I couldn’t make out much. Under my feet is dirt-covered ground, I could feel how solid it was.

“Right, level 20…Floor 3, come come.” Leading me once again, we walked in the darkness as I followed behind Elise. I knew I could provide light with Moon Glow but I just felt…unmotivated to do anything like that. Feeling the floor under me become slopped downwards, I saw the System update.

Tomb of Lilith, Floor 2

As we continue, we quickly reach Floor 3. Still leading me, we eventually stop. I hadn’t seen much of the surroundings because of the darkness, but judging from the smell we were in a cave of sorts. Looking at Elise, I hadn’t seen her face since we entered, but there is a sort of dull yellow glow to them. Figuring this is an ability for her to see in the dark, she turns to me and points towards somewhere in the darkness.

“I need some monster cores, consider it a small request of mine.” Looking towards where she pointed, I made out a figure in the distance. I wasn’t sure what it was, even though my vision in the darkness is usually good it felt like this darkness was…heavier.

Feeling unwilling, my mind still distracted by the thought of not being able to see everyone anytime soon, I walk towards the monster since Elise had helped me out a lot before. Putting Alice on my head carefully, I use Moon Glow while also starting up the wind around me…