Some distance away from the village, Diana sat down with her legs crossed, her eyes staring blankly as she contemplated her life choices. A single tear formed in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks, smiling wryly towards the sky.

Previously, she decided to head to the village, and she did! But instantly, she noticed the one big flaw in her plan. One very, very, big flaw.

She couldn’t understand anyone!!

Seriously, what were they speaking about?! German?! Moon runes?! Kappa language?! How the hell was she supposed to understand any of this?! She isn’t some insane hero with an all-language translation skill!!

Lucky bastards…

The one way left to understand was…*Gasp*…To Learn. Dun, dun, duuuunnn!!!

She had to learn the language. The daunting wall before her made her feel even smaller than she already is. She wasn’t even good in English, how was she supposed to learn another language entirely…?

But! There might still be someone who could grant her a translation skill…right? Right?! Faeries do exist in this world, right?! They should have that sort of skill, right?!

Who was she kidding, she’s just a holed up NEET trying to survive in a fantasy land without any special magic skill or stat that would boost her up beyond her peers. She was just some useless girl in the middle of a deadly wasteland!

If she was in the Walking Dead, she would be first to die, definitely.

*Grruuu*

And now she’s hungry again?! Didn’t she just eat those berries a couple hours ago?! How was she going to get any food now?! She didn’t have any money to buy food! Heck, she can’t even speak the damn language!

But! But. She still had hope. Hope, for the future! She didn’t like to learn? Fine! Save it for later! She didn’t have any money? Then just make some! She was hungry? Then just go kill something and cook it!

The sun was already pretty high up in the sky. If she didn’t act now, she would probably starve and get eaten by a goblin or something! Time to move!

Standing up, she picked up her backpack and her knives, and walked past the small village. She wasn’t going to enter any human civilisations any time soon if she couldn’t even speak the damn language!

*Grruuu*

An hour swiftly passed by, and nothing. No apple trees, no libido increasing berries, nothing. Not even a small insect she had encountered! Nothing she says, nothing! And her stomach was getting hungrier as time passed by, growling louder and louder.

Two hours passed since her leaving, and still nothing. No signs of life existed around her, besides the grass she was stepping over. Could she eat the grass perhaps? Would they taste good? No! No, snap out of it! She’s not a cow!

Four hours, and something actually happened! She tripped and fell down! That’s it. She later stood up, cried for a bit, shouted out to the world about her misfortune, and continued on. Her hunger growing as she walked on.

Six hours, and finally, finally, she actually saw something! A wild boar sleeping under the shade of a tree! Yes! Source of needed calories detected! Time to hunt for fooooddd!!!!!

Silently dropping her leather backpack, she took out her trusty silver knife and slowly inched towards the sleeping boar, its loud snores escaped into the air. Her eyes shined red as she eyed her prey, her drool almost escaping from her lips. Licking her lips, she raised the knife, and stabbed it into the boar’s head!

*Puchi!*

[Enemy has been slain. Gained 13 Experience]

“Food~”

After so long, she finally found some food. Did she know how to cook? No! Why would a NEET like her worry about learning how to cook? But did she care? Nope!

She quickly ran back to her backpack and dragged it closer to her killed prey. Resting the backpack against the tree, she began her preparations! Using her knife, she chipped off three pieces of wood. She plucked off the leaves she could reach, and placed all she gathered next to the boar.

Placing one of the pieces on the ground, she held another in her hand, placed it above the piece, and spun! Spin it! SPPIIIINN!!! Let it rip!!

Using as much power and speed she had ever used in her life, she spun the piece of wood against the other. Her arms were beginning to hurt, but who cares! This was for her food! Keep on spinning!!!

And after about 10 minutes of constant Beyblade tier spinnage, a spark lit off, and a small flame rose from the wood!! Finally!! Immediately, she picked up the leaves she gathered and laid it atop the flame, blowing air to keep the flame growing.

And so, a flame was lit! Hell Yeeaaaahhh!!! Was this how those cavemen felt when they discovered fire? It felt amazing!

But she was hungry, and she couldn’t waste any more time or she would shrivel up from the hunger and die. And she didn’t want that. Using her knife, she sliced off a piece of the boar’s meat and poked the last remaining piece of wood through. With her spare hand, she hanged the meat above the fire, and waited.

Wait, what does the meat look fully cooked? She didn’t know when to stop! How much time did she need to do this?! She didn’t want to end up with burnt meat! That would suck!

So, she hanged the meat above the fire and slowly spun the meat around, making sure every nook of this damn meat was cooked. It might taste like sh*t, but it’ll do! Her stomach needed something!!

After about 10 minutes of constant muscle pain, she brought the meat away from the fire, and took a taste. Just like she guessed, it tasted like sh*t, but still slightly better than sh*t. Hey, she’s a newbie, alright?

But to her surprise, a shocking message appeared as she took another bite.

[[Cooking] has been acquired. 1 Skill Point gained]

The food in her mouth almost fell as she stared at the message, her mouth dangling wide open as she eyed the message in absolute shock.

She gained a skill like that, from doing this? Seriously?! Cooking was way harder than that! What kind of cooking tastes like this piece of sh*t?! Why is she even getting angry at this?! She should be happy!

Sighing, she ate the last piece of meat on the stick and lied down. Her eyes stared at the night sky above, the two giant moons, one blue and one white, floated up within the far reaches of space, granted if there was even space in this world. The stars sparkled around the light of the twin moons.

Smiling softly, she closed her eyes, and fell asleep around the dancing flame.

………….

Hours passed by, and she awoke to a horrible smell to her right. Rubbing her eyes, she stared at the dead corpse of the boar, now clearly rotten as the blood inside dried. If the meat tasted like sh*t yesterday, the smell today definitely smelled like it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Pinching her nose, she picked up her items and walked away, leaving the boar behind to decompose. That was a good loss of food there, but she could just spend several more hours writhing in pain as she tried to find more food so…yeah.

And so, she walked across the plains, the silence surrounded her. She felt quite lonely actually, even after her many years spent holed up in her garbage bin not really communicating with anyone. But she did have online friends, so that’s cheating.

Her mind flew over to her newly gained familiar, Slimey. Over these past days, it hadn’t even woken up for even a second. It was fine, she could tell, but it wouldn’t wake up.

A morbid possibility flashed in her mind, but she ignored such thoughts and continued walking.

The journey was peaceful, too peaceful in fact. It creeped her out just how silent this whole area was. Shouldn’t there be more monsters waiting around? Where did they all go to?

Quickly, she grew bored, and started playing with her staff. She would play against herself to see just how long she could maintain the slime, or how far she could move the slime. While it was just for staving off her growing boredom, she did learn that her maximum radius of control was around 1 metre around her.

Of course, she quickly grew bored of that too, and put her staff back into her backpack, the staff clearly too long to fit within. Pulling out her magic tome, she decided to give it another read, to try and perhaps understand what magic this was.

Of course, just like everything in this world, it was in another language!! She couldn’t read anything! But there were pictures, and quite detailed ones too, so her complains were quickly dismissed.

And that was how it went for several more days, spent reading her tome, practicing her magic, or trying to once more control her mana. Once the sun begins to set, she would quickly run around to search for any food sources. Sometimes she would get lucky, sometimes, not so much.

But! Once again! These several days were not spent in mere boredom! Her stats had gone up once again! Take a look!

Name: Diana

Race: Human

Age: 17

Class: Peasant Lv: 3/5 | Exp: 51/100

HP: 16/16

MP: 11/16

SP: 07/16

[Strength]: 5

[Tenacity]: 4

[Agility]: 5

[Intelligence]: 4

[Dexterity]: 6

[Mentality]: 5

[Endurance]: 5

[Wisdom]: 5

[Longevity]: 2

[Skill Points]: 6

{Skills}: [Slime Valley: Lv 2/10], [Knife Mastery Lv 2/10], [Slime Magic Lv 2/10], [Assassination Lv 2/10], [Alleviation Lv 1/5], [Cooking Lv 2/10]

{Magic}: -

{Titles}: [Slime Queen]

As you can very much see, her Level rose again! She’s a level 3 now! Her [Assassination], and her newly acquired [Cooking] skill had risen to level 2 as well! As for [Assassination], her steps seemed to grow even quieter, and her damage increase had risen. For [Cooking], her general skill in cooking and handling the food seemed to have increased.

Over all, these days were spent well!

And this night, something interesting will finally occur! Something she had been looking up to since the first time she learned magic!

Sitting with her legs crossed, she closed her eyes and entered her trance. Just like she always would, she reached out towards her mana and tried to direct it elsewhere. Her mana jolted violently, trying to reject the will of its owner. Tiny spikes of pain shot through her body, but her focus remained unbroken.

Until, finally,

[[Internal Mana Manipulation] has been acquired. 5 Skill Points gained]

“F*ck yeeaahhh!!!”

She jumped up and shouted happily, only to crash back down. She groaned as she held her aching knee for a moment, before jumping back up and crying out, both in happiness and in pain. Her knee still hurts alright?!

Never in her life had she been so happy to see a message pop up. Sure, it might be a skill and she might be a NEET, but she had never reacted this way before…Not that she cared!! This is f*cking awesome man! Look at it! After sooo long!! Well, more like a couple weeks or so, but I digress.

[Internal Mana Manipulation]

Lv 1/10

You are now able to consciously control the flow of your own mana.

Well, that description was short, but who cares?! This was what she had been looking forward to for so long! And it’s finally here!

Besides the obvious addition of being able to control her own mana, she was now able to clearly feel her own flowing mana. Before this, she had only been able to feel her mana when she was in that trance, so this was great!

Ah! But onto the next problem, magic! Would she be able to control and use her magic without the aid of her staff now?

Yes, yes actually. And quite easily too. All she did was recall what it felt like when she held the staff, pictured it in her mind, and let her mana do the rest. Obviously, the control and the size of the slime ball she made was reduced, but still reliable nonetheless. And with her staff, it just became even better!

Things were looking up!

And with a wide smile, she closed her eyes and slept under the blanket of stars.

……………………

The next morning came, and Diana awoke. Rubbing her eyes, she yawned cutely and looked around, the scenery around her staying as peaceful as it had been. The large golden sun above shined upon the beautiful world under.

Rising up, she stretched her arms and yawned once more. The day before had left her quite exhausted, especially after all the shouting and crying she did over her newly gained [Internal Mana Manipulation] skill, and she still wanted to brag about it today.

Today, she decided to chill for a bit. Over the last week or so, she had been walking, constantly, through this empty grassy plain. The lack of monsters still creeped her, but after a while, she got somewhat used to the silence.

Taking out the magic tome she ‘Traded’ with that goblin merchant, she sat down and opened the book. Now that she had [Internal Mana Manipulation], she could finally try and learn this magic spell!

From what he saw from the pictures, the steps seemed to be easy enough. First, concentrate your mana on a single point, then use it to form this bubble thingy, and then maintain it. It was quite similar to her [Slime Magic], but she learned that by ‘Accident’, so yeah.

Following what the pictures illustrated, she directed her mana towards her right index finger. Next, she tried forming it into a bubble…And how do you do that exactly?! How does this even work?! How can mana just turn into a bubble?!

So, by the end of her training session, she was left with as much knowledge as when she started. It didn’t seem like learning this magic would be an easy task, so let’s leave that for later. Packing the book back into her backpack, she wore the bag on her back and picked her staff up. Facing towards the rising sun, she smiled confidently and walked on.

An hour quickly flew by, and Diana was suffering a severe case of utter boredom. It would get seriously dangerous if it wasn’t treated, so her mind flew elsewhere as she took out her staff. Holding the staff in both hands, she activated [Slime Magic] once more, a slime ball, roughly the size of a basketball, formed above the staff.

She didn’t know why, but having the skill [Internal Mana manipulation] increased the control and the power she had over her magic. Was it simple because she could willingly insert mana into her staff, or because of something else? Either ways, it was great!

And amidst her play, her [Slime Magic] levelled up once again!

[Congratulations! [Slime Magic] is now Level 3!]

Her control over her slime increased once again, and the size she could create increased as well, but something else took her attention.

[Slime Magic]

Lv 3/10

Allows you to create and manipulate slime in expense of MP

The nature of the slime you create is neutral

Allows you to control the density of the created slimes

A new line had been added!! Hell yeah! Skills are levelling up left, right, and centre! That aside, this new level up now allowed her to control the density of the slimes…eh? What does that mean? What does density have to do with anything?

Experimentation time!

“Hup.”

This time, she created another slime ball with ‘extra’ density. Woah, the slime feels…heavier? What? And why is it so sticky suddenly? Her slime was more like a jelly, not glue. Whatever the case…this was awesome!!

She could just picture the new tactics she could pull off in the middle of a battle, screaming the names of her attacks like they would in an anime. Real talk though, why do they need to do that?

And so, with a bright smile, she walked on, the skies above painted a clear blue. The fluffy white clouds above floated along. The grass softly danced as the wind passed by, the cold wind brushing against her skin.

She slowly closed her eyes and hummed, enjoying the cold breeze that passed her by. Her long black hair flowed slowly in the wind. The soft howls of the wind echoed in her ears. A soft purr escaped her lips as another breeze brushed by.

Time slowly passed by, the scenery around her staying ever unchanging. The soft flowing grass under her brushed against her skin as she lied down, the sun above staring back at her. The warmth of the sunlight shone above her.

After about 3 hours of constant walking, someone was bound to get tired. So, lying her head atop the grassy bed, she slowly closed her eyes, and fell asleep once more.

……………

Waking up, she stood up and yawned, stretching her arms into the air. Her loose shirt softly waved in the passing wind. Looking up, she stared at the sun, now beginning to set. The blue sky above slowly changing.

Packing her things up, she faced away from the setting sun and walked on, staying on the same path she had walked through the hopefully find something of interest. She wasn’t counting on it though. Have you seen this plain?!

But to her pleasant surprise, before her, she could see a large circle of flowers, with a large white flower blooming in the centre. The mix of colours blended together under the setting sun.

A soft smell of honey seemed to linger in the air, the sweet taste of the honey luring her to enter the circle, and it seemed to work wonderfully. She stepped into the circle of flowers, casually walking towards the large white flower in the centre.

As she walked closer, the pollen in the air seemed to multiply, causing her to sneeze several times. The pollen danced within the air.

And then, a figure emerged from within the white flower, her long green hair flowed. Her eyes sparkled, her mind entranced by the beauty that had just emerged. The figure looked at her and smiled, slowly closing in on her, until finally,

Their lips met.