Aurelia began to follow one of the black lines of mana. After touching a specific strand, she could instinctively tell which way the bear had come from and which direction it was going. Aurelia wanted to complete this dungeon as fast as she possibly could, so it was important that she started hunting the bears now. When she touched the black strand, it became more distinct to her while the others seemed to fade from view. That way she wouldn’t be confused or constantly distracted by all of the other swirling colors around her. She could then take her hand away and as she continued to focus she could keep track of that individual strand.
Aurelia felt excited as she traveled through the forest. She had her two daggers strapped to a belt around her waist, her wand in one hand, and her blue cape flowing behind her. Aurelia followed the first black strand for less than ten minutes before she spotted a black bear laying down on a rock, seemingly asleep.
Not wanting to waste a perfect shot, she teleported directly by the bear’s head and shot a lightning chain directly in the bear’s face. With a jolt of electricity, the bear was startled awake, only to be met by a barrage of spells, still aimed at its head. It didn’t even get a chance to charge or swipe a claw at her before it died. It was the quickest fight Aurelia had had with a bear so far.
She accepted the kill and loot notifications and after not seeing anything of note, she decided to move on. This time, Aurelia looked over the nearby strands and decided to go follow a red strand. Five minutes later, she was facing a roaring red claw bear, dodging away from a flaming swipe. The red bears seemed to be a bit more difficult than the black bears, but still manageable for Aurelia. At one point during the fight, the red bear grabbed a large piece of dead wood, catching it on fire, and hurled it at Aurelia. The flaming projectile hit her before she even had the chance to dodge or teleport away. Her mana shield saved the day again, further cementing the skill as one of the best skills she had chosen thus far.
When black scorch marks were all that was left of the red claw bear, she accepted the loot notification. Hoping to get another cool item, she was disappointed to find that she didn’t receive another dagger like she had with the last.
Over the next hour, Aurelia followed strand after strand defeating black and the occasional red claw bears. As she faced her seventh bear of the hour, a smaller black bear, she made an unfortunate mistake. She had put all of her attention on killing the bear in front of her and therefore missed the two brown bears coming up behind her. By the time she heard the noise of bears crashing through the forest, it was too late. One of the large brown bears crashed into Aurelia, giving her the chance to find out what it is like to fly through the air.
Aurelia screamed as she flew through the air, her arms flailing helplessly through empty space. The three bears stared at the young woman, hoping that they would soon have a snack.
The impact of the bear hitting her and the impact of Aurelia hitting the ground put some serious damage into the mana shield. Aurelia got to her feet to see two, 15 foot tall brown bears and one injured black bear coming towards her. Unfortunately, Aurelia’s lighting chain was still on cooldown, so that wouldn’t help her. She decided to continue focusing on the smaller black bear and teleported right behind it. Aurelia let loose a couple attacks at the retreating form of the black bear as it continued to rush towards the spot she had just vacated. A spatial slash to one of its hind legs caused it to fall to the ground, and another mana bolt to the head finished it off.
As Aurelia was focusing on that one target, she failed to keep track of the brown bears, again. This time, she missed the large, tire sized boulder as it hurtled through the air in her direction. She cried out as the boulder smashed against her mana shield, finally destroying it. Rock fell around her as the shield failed, one sharp piece cutting a line into Aurelia’s cheek. Aurelia panicked, knowing that with another hit like that without her shield and she would be smashed into paste.
Aurelia teleported a couple feet away, not even looking up, and missed another large boulder that smashed into the ground where she had just teleported away from. When she finally looked in the direction of the two brown bears, she saw one of them dig its two forepaws into the ground and haul out a large piece of earth. The sphere of earth seemed to glow with a dark green light, then it compressed down into another boulder. The brown bear then looked in her direction and brought its forepaw back, poised to hurl this one at her, too. Aurelia couldn’t help but let out a shriek as she teleported even further away.
Not wanting to continue to fight them without the protection of her mana shield, she teleported twice away from them before stopping to reaply to the spell. Now feeling a bit more confident, she turned back towards the two brown bears. She saw the bears look around in confusion before spotting her and turning in her direction. Taking the chance for another spell, Aurelia used the identify skill on the larger of the two brown bears.
[Brown Claw Bear] Level 14
Health: 910/910
Mana: 200/200
Stamina: 300/300
The [Brown Claw Bear] is a monster found in forest and mountain regions of Eldria. The [Brown Claw Bear] has high vitality and strength, using its long claws to decimate their foes. Uses mana and strength to control earth, commonly creates compressed dirt to hurl at prey.
Aurelia scanned through the prompt as fast as she could, before turning her attention at the two brown bears. They had moved closer to her and were now creating new boulders to throw at her. She gritted her teeth in annoyance and then began to teleport around the two brown bears until she was right behind them. They were both standing up on their hind legs, boulders in hand, looking around the forest for her. Aurelia took the chance to let loose a couple of spatial slashes at the legs of the two bears, hoping to bring them down.
The first slash hit the one on the right at the left knee, causing the bear to roar and stumble forwards. Another slash hit the brown bear to the left near the ankle of its right knee. Both bears growled, dropping their boulders and returning to all fours. The bears turned around to face her and were met with mana bolts to the face, which now seemed to be a staple move for Aurelia.
While snakes and moles would die from a mana bolt to the face, the bears had a lot more vitality and could withstand more damage without dying. Even if they didn’t die, it was still extremely painful to get an explosive to the face. The brown bears stumbled back in pain and anger, giving Aurelia another opening to continue her attack.
She decided to try going for one at a time, attacking the one on the right with a spatial slash. The brown bear reached up with a paw attempting to block the approaching attack. Unfortunately for it, the skill merely sliced through its paw, causing the long sharp claws to fall to the ground. Aurelia grimaced at the sight, but had to move out of the way as the second brown bear started coming towards her. She teleported back around the bears again, and continued attacking the bear with the now missing paw. Three more mana bolts hit the bear, finally killing it.
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The second bear roared at Aurelia after seeing the first bear fall. She could feel her whole body vibrate at the sound and reflexively covered her ears. All of a sudden, she couldn’t move her body and was frozen in place with her hands at her ears. Her eyes were still open and she could just stare in horror as the still alive brown bear rushed at her. The brown bear reached her position and sent a swipe at her with its massive paw. The attack sent her flying to the side and she ended up slamming into a tree. She didn’t get injured at all because of the shield, but she could now move again.
Aurelia looked up to see a large boulder flying through the air at her face. For the second time in just a couple of minutes, Aurelia’s mana shield broke as shards of rocks fell around her. One piece slammed into her forehead, cutting her head and causing it to bleed.
Aurelia started to army crawl forwards, blood dripping down her face and onto the ground, as she tried to get away from the approaching bear. She clumsily got to her feet and successfully teleported away, just in time for the brown bear to crash into the tree she had been in front of. Aurelia watched as the tree trunk seemed to groan from the impact and then cracked. Then, the brown bear got up on its hind legs, one paw leaning against the tree. Aurelia then watched as the tree fully split apart and crashed down to the forest floor.
Aurel realized she had yet to act and sent a mana bolt at the brown bear. She then realized her lightning chain was available to use again, and teleported near the bear. The bear swung a claw at her head after she arrived, making her shriek and jump to the side, the brown boots on her feet allowing her to jump clear of the swiping claw. Aurelia pointed her wand at the bear and used the lightning chain spell. The bolt of blue and white lightning struck the bear in its chest and Aurelia watched as it twitched for a second and then became still.
“It’s stunned!” Aurelia shouted in surprise.
The bear was still standing tall, facing her direction, but unmoving. Aurelia took the chance to make three spatial slashes in a row, aimed at the bear’s neck. All three spells impacted, roughly in the same spot and Aurelia watched as the skills ripped through the bear and the large furry head fell to the ground. The large body fell right after, just as the tree had fallen less than a minute before.
“Well that was fun…” she let out an anxious laugh. Aurelia swiped the back of her hand on her face, preventing blood from going into her eyes.
From Aurelia’s basic first aid skill, she knew the cut on her forehead would need to be sealed in some way. She didn’t actually have any first aid supplies, though, so she decided to just use some of a healing potion. She only had three left, but decided she could spare some of the potion now. Aurelia took out the potion and took one sip and sighed as the pain of the cut went away and the blood stopped flowing.
Aurelia then looked at the waiting notifications from killing the three bears.
[Black Claw Bear] Level 11 defeated.
[Brown Claw Bear] Level 14 defeated.
[Brown Claw Bear] Level 15 defeated.
14,890 experience earned!
You have reached level 9!
Stat points allocated!
You have 18 free stat points remaining.
Would you like to loot [Black Claw Bear] and [Brown Claw Bear]?
Aurelia sighed at the feeling of energy coursing through her from the level up. The increases had been subtle at first, but Aurelia could sense now just how much the stat points affected her. The stats in wisdom and intelligence increased her mana pool and the amount of magic she could hold in her body. The effect on her mind was more subtle than what she imagined increasing intelligence might be, but her mind and memory seemed to be clearer and sharper than before. Her body was healthier and her movements more agile. Before Aurelia accepted the loot notification, she decided to allocate the 18 free stat points she had accumulated. She split them putting nine into strength and nine into endurance. Her other stats were much higher now than those and she could sense an imbalance in her body. Too much agility without the strength and endurance to properly use it was not optimal.
Aurelia glanced at her stat sheet surprised by all the changes she saw.
Name: Aurelia
Age: 22
Race: Human
Rank: Princess
Class: 1/4
Main Class: Spatial Mage
Level: 9
Health: 470/470
Mana: 120/924
Stamina: 120/160
Strength: 24
Vitality: 47
Agility: 47
Endurance: 25
Wisdom: 53
Intelligence: 77
Luck: 15
Perception: 34
Charisma: 16
Unspent Stat Points: 18
Skills:
Running: Level 5
Cooking: Level 5
Basic Non-Magical Healing: Level 2
Student: Level 4
Language Learning: Level 4
Basic Magic Bolt: Level 1
Spatial Slash: Level 1
Basic Mana Shield: Level 1
Identify: Level 1
Spatial Teleportation: Level 1
Spatial Storage: Level 1
Lightning Chain: Level 1
Spatial Tracking: Level 1
Her health, mana, and stamina had all increased, with mana obviously the highest. Her highest stat was intelligence allowing her to have the high mana pool. She did wonder why none of her new skills had leveled up at all, but maybe she needed to do something specific before the skills could level up. Aurelia figured that was a later problem.
Aurelia moved on to accept the loot notification, looking through all of the loot she had received. The brown bears gave similar loot like the black and red bears, like meat, pelt, and claws. The new type of bear did not give her a new item like the flame claw dagger, which was disappointing. Aurelia looked back at her mana levels and saw that it was still pretty low. She hadn’t allowed her mana to fill back up all the way before she went on to the next fight, so it had been depleted almost completely after the last fight with the three bears. Aurelia decided to sit down under a tree to rest for a couple of minutes, then got back up after it was almost full again.
Aurelia looked around at the glowing strands around her. She saw that there were only a couple strands of black not dimmed by death left. Aurelia didn’t spot the golden strand from earlier, but she did see one of the white strands in the air. Not wanting to meet a new type of bear just yet, she decided to follow a strand of brown leading off further into the forest.
Five minutes later, Aurelia was dodging another boulder, not needing her newly applied mana shield this time. Now that she knew what to expect from the brown bears, she could properly dodge the intimidating meteors of death. A couple minutes later, she was off again, this time chasing another black bear. She only needed to kill four more monsters before she could finally leave the forest of bears. Then, she would be in the final part of the dungeon.