Kali could honestly say that she was enjoying herself, even though she had caught nothing since she started sneaking through the endless maze of branches a few hours ago.

She'd observed one of those mangy brown feline predators as it stalked its prey, which turned out to be a snow-white owl that was taking a nap inside a small crevice on a trunk.

The feline blended in perfectly with the dark bark of the trees and its claws gave it a steady hold on them even if they were wet and slippery but aside from that she couldn't see any other capability that stood out. The animal didn't look capable of magic, but many magical animals didn't. Even plants could use magic sometimes, but those were passive uses of it most of the time.

There was supposed to be a flower that threw lightning at anything with a pulse that dared come close to it, but thankfully those didn't live on this mountain range.

After she watched the cat get its daily intake of meat, she observed a few other animals while telling herself that it was so she could prepare herself.

Yes, I'm gathering information about my enemy, most certainly.

Owls, cats, squirrels, rats, hares and she even spied a few large predators stalking below her on the ground. She would have scoffed at them as the ground-walking peasants they were, were they not also either three times her size or on the 'Don't fight it and Run!' list of the Monster Manual's tips for new adventurers.

Though she didn't need it to tell her when a lynx, which was shining a bright golden color, strode through the sparse undergrowth. Its fur was also golden-colored, making it utterly incapable of hiding or camouflaging its presence.

Even her shut-in self knew that brightly colored animals were dangerous and ones that glowed had so much mana that they wasted it on visual effect instinctually. The lynx dared everybody in the forest to attack it and probably had done so for a long time, yet it was still there, strutting like a pompous nobleman.

Kali entered her semi-hibernation instead of attempting to sneak away. She wasn't that confident in her stealth capabilities and if she could hear her own steps, if just barely, this glowing cat might as well. She would not risk it.

When she came out of her muddled state, the feline was gone and she still had all of her insides well inside, so she counted that as a win.

That state calmed her core and held it in a sort of stasis that made detecting her through it impossible. It would be imperceptible in that state and, according to Zadkiel, it did more than that, but he just smiled mysteriously when she asked what. Annoying old man.

It seemed to work and combined with the illusion; it was a nice stealth toolkit she had already. She might just survive this forest.

After that encounter, she was much more attentive to her hearing, which was her best tool in this situation.

At this moment, she had been stalking her chosen prey for the last half an hour and she was getting bored with the wait, so it'd soon be the time she first fought.

She hoped the knee-height flightless bird wouldn't be too much of a fight though; she didn't want to alert any of the dangerous predators so she would have to make it quick and silent. The bird looked like one of those large flightless birds that lived in savannahs where they could run around, but this one somehow evolved its legs for tree-climbing and shrank down to the size of a turkey.

It was peeking its dumb-looking head into the small hole, probably leading to the lair of some small bird or a squirrel, so it had no chance of dodging her attack.

She couldn't use her knife, which was a bit too small to kill the animal fast enough. It probably wouldn't even reach its head if she wasn't perfect in the stab, so she opted for magic instead. Totally not because she could finally make use of it after only sitting on it for fifteen years since she learned her first spell.

Now, she only had to decide which one she would use. That should be simple, right? She didn't know too many spells after all, so it should be quick and easy, right?

Water Blade could work but that's annoying to cast as it collects the water from the surroundings, Kinetic Strike could work if I manage to snap its neck with it but if I don't, then I'm just blasting it away, fire spells are too loud and I still want to have meat to eat afterward not charred bones, Air isn't too good at attacking either and that wraps up all my current attack spells.

It was said that every mage starts as an Elementalist and Kali was no different, using the base runes of the five elements as the foundations of the Spells made casting them much easier and put less of a burden on the caster. No need to bother with using versatile Runes to transform mana into a different energy. Just give a bunch to the Fire Rune and you had a bunch of fire now to do with as you wished.

In the end, she decided to use Water Blade. Even if it was slow to cast, it was a great fit for her situation. She held out her palm, facing directly toward the dumb bird with its head still inside the tree.

Water Gathering, Condense, Blade, Hold, Launch, Overcharge.

She crafted the Runes well on her first try, but she had to fix them up a bit to ensure she wouldn't have any problems. Zadkiel had given her more backlash horror stories than she ever wanted to hear.

Once she was sure they were good, she filled them up with mana in a gentle trickle, giving too much to a Rune other than the Overcharge was asking for backlash.

Once she was done and felt each rune vibrate with power in her mind, she ran a last check before flexing her will and activating them. The runes condensed into a familiar Spell Matrix that was still at her beck and call. She guided it towards her palm and checked her aim; it was a bit off to the left so she fixed that and with a deep breath; she pushed the matrix through her skin just in the center of her palm.

The slightly glowing blue orb rapidly started draining water from its surroundings, pulling on the snow and drying up the nearby branches in a two-meter radius. Next, it condensed into a firm orb that could go for a rock based on its toughness, after which it lengthened into a crescent shape with a sharp edge. Most of the remaining mana bled into it and reinforced it, making sure it held its shape until it served its purpose. Finally, the sequence got to the last two Runes.

The Launch Rune provided the blade with its momentum and the Overcharge used all the freely given mana to enhance said momentum safely, enabling her to shoot the blade much faster than with the original spell. This was one of her personal additions and she was quite proud of it, even if she knew it was an obvious addition to the spell.

The blue crescent shot off without a sound and the only thing she heard was it slicing cleanly through the neck of the bird before impacting a trunk some twenty meters behind it with a splash. Seems like the Hold rune could only hold it together for maybe a dozen meters after it cut through her prey.

Satisfied with the result, Kali leaped to another branch and caught her meal before it fell.

With it clenched in her arm, she opted to leave the place quickly in case it attracted some animal with either its sound or the blood. The blood could be a pain. She didn't know any wards and ones that could keep scents in or out should be higher levels, even among those.

She'd just have to be quick about it and hope for the best.

The blood dripping from the dead bird made her uncomfortable, but after the fight she had seen a few days ago, it was only that, discomfort. She didn't have a close relationship with any of her guards, so losing them didn't shake her too much. However, that all those people died for her or just because she was there, left behind a sour feeling.

The only one whose name she even knew was Mythral, and even he was only the replacement for her original guard. Kali smiled a bit at the memory of her gullible companion. That was probably why he wasn't the one accompanying her. Plus, they'd gotten rather close over the years.

She didn't know where that guy ended up by now, but she hoped he was well.

She made her way back to her previous shelter with little trouble, unlike her sister, who could somehow get lost in the Winter Castle after living there for more than a century. She wasn't directionally challenged. The endless lookalike trees would probably be a nightmare for her sister, but she memorized the distinct sounds some trees made and a few notable landmarks on her way, so she managed just fine.

Her thoughts drifted from there and arrived at the source of all of her troubles: her father and the remains of her family.

He was uncompromising and ruthless even with his own family. Her mother's exile and her siblings' pleas for reconsidering her 'marriage' falling on deaf ears were evidence of it. Elves were supposed to be a family-centric people, relying on their tight-knit communities to survive this savage world, but you couldn't guess that while looking at her family.

An absent mother, a cold and distant father, a constantly annoyed and irritable elder brother and a loving but demure elder sister. At times, the Princess found herself hating all of them. Her brother Rhy'Lanor always looked like he ate something sour when he looked at her and her sister Ly'Riel who, while tried to help her wherever she could, never disobeyed their father.

Despite knowing they both loved her, she couldn't resist. They weren't the ones headed to a cursed desert to marry a human ruler. She sometimes wished she stayed five years old forever when her mother was still there and her father still seemed like a father rather than the cruel king he acted like since then.

Damn it all, she was barely 30 years old.

Elves her age wouldn't count as adults for another 20 years and yet she would have arrived in barely a month at the doorstep of her fiance, whom she never even laid eyes on before.

No...., just no...

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When she got back, she decided to set up the illusion on the small opening after making it larger with her knife, despite it being small the thing was so sharp that it cut through the bark like it was butter so she enlarged it with little trouble. Now she could slip through the illusion quickly while it would still keep out beasts larger than her.

She would have to cook the bird outside so the smoke wouldn't gather inside her shelter.

She followed the descriptions about how to dress slaughtered birds from the 'Beginner Adventurer's Guide'. First, she plucked out the feathers meticulously. It was gross, but not as much as what came after. Next, she had to remove the internal organs carefully. Hopefully, she wouldn't mess up and give herself some sort of food poisoning. Finally, after that, she thoroughly cleaned it with water collected with a Water Gathering rune. It also dried out a bunch of small twigs and branches lying on the ground so those would make good firewood.

After cutting off the unneeded parts like its clawed feet and such, next would be the spicing but unfortunately, she didn't put those into her ring. It was always just her secret little storage where she hid her personal stuff and snacks. It didn't stop time as some of the better ones, but it was rather large, so she only stored cookies and stuff like that.

She sharpened a few sticks and pulled small parts of meat onto them. Next, she would need to light the fire.

Oh, wasn't there, like a specific way to build the fire?

Unfortunately, that part was rather foggy in her memory, so she just put the smaller twigs below the larger branches that she snapped so they were the right size. Next, she made a simple sign with her right hand, which caused a candle flame to burst into existence at the tip of her index finger.

Somatic gestures were more convenient for small things like this. The Runes they made were in her palm, not in her head or throat like mental images or chanting, making them faster to cast.

Once the fire got going, she held one spike in each hand over it, turning them around so every piece of meat got nice and crispy. With the small pieces she cut them into, she thought they were done in a dozen minutes, but when she bit into one; the center was still bloody, so she went back to cooking them.

After a few more minutes, she retried them and even though the outside got too crusty; the rest was fine. She devoured the meat and continued cooking the rest. Other than these two spikes, she had another four more to cook.

She spent the next two hours next to the fire and eating every piece of eatable meat the bird had on it. The lack of spices was a bit jarring, but she was ravenous, so she enjoyed it more than some meals she got back in the castle.

She doused the fireplace in water after she was done and sent most of the smell far away from her hopefully with a few Gust spells. She also cleaned herself thoroughly with the enchantment in her clothes so she hoped nothing would be lured here.

Now that she thought about it, she should get going from here. The further she got from the place of the fight, the better. The snowstorm and treacherous terrain should throw her pursuers off.

That made her effort in shoving the smell away meaningless, but ah whatever. She still had most of her reserves, so she didn't need to take the time to replenish them. One Water Blade spell took maybe 6% of her mana and that was one of the more mana-intensive spells.

She didn't use earth spells for that reason too; they were so damn costly and slow. If she wanted heavy impact spells, she also had kinetic spells, so earth spells were useless in her opinion, but any architect or miner would probably strangle her for that opinion.

She canceled the illusion and headed for the stream she noticed yesterday. She would follow that downriver to help her navigate through the forest. If she couldn't have gotten too far away on her mad dash so she should arrive at the base of the mountain range in a few days, maybe a week of travel if she kept her speed up.

She wasn't sure how far they'd gotten with the convoy, so she wasn't sure where she would end up, but away was her goal for now. The stream turned out to be a small creek that traveled through the forest, uncaring about the many roots it had unearthed in its wake, only going around larger rocks or massive roots.

Kali opted for climbing a nearby tree and following along the water on the lower branches, keeping her away from the ground and the water source that many animals would visit for a drink. She was keeping track of each small noise around her in a few hundred-meter radius so she wouldn't get jumped on and kept herself silent as she skulked along, keeping close to the creek.

Her clothing's color wasn't ideal for blending in with the dark brown bark and green bushes, but she couldn't do anything about it. Minor Illusion was a spell with limitations, mainly useful for concealing openings or doors. There was no way to change it once placed. Such things would require complex spell structures that interfaced with the Mage's mind directly and took their mental imagery from there.

Though since it was a gift from the old man, she wouldn't put it past him to downplay its potency just so he could revel in her surprise when she finds out about its kinks later. The ring still sat on her finger. She liked its aesthetics and Silverite went well with her choice of clothing; it looked like two serpents intertwining with each other, but without the heads or tails.

She knew there was another spell imbued into it, but Zadkiel only told her it was called Alter Ego, that she thought it was some sort of illusion that would make her look different, but she couldn't make it to work. Something was missing, and she wasn't sure what, so she couldn't use that despite it probably being able to solve her problem.

The curiosity driving her to discover the ring's secrets and annoyance at the eccentric old man who didn't even teach her how to use his gift was giving her conflicted feelings. However, he also knew she would enjoy the puzzle. It was infuriating. Both how well he knew her and that he was right.

She followed along the gently running water for the next couple of hours; she wasn't as fast as she could have been down on the ground as the wet branches had her making each jump carefully and she slipped a few times even like that. Thankfully, she could grab hold of another branch or steady herself before she fell, but she slowed her speed even further afterward.

She could probably survive a 10-meter fall, elves were built like that but it would hurt and that's not talking about the near heart attacks she got each time she slipped. Her heartbeat thundered in her throat for a good few minutes afterward.

Despite feeling weird about it, she couldn't help but enjoy the adrenaline-induced thrill. If only she could use magic to make it even better.

I need to learn how to fly or glide, at least in the future.

Just like that, she set her first long-term goal for herself, hopefully, the first among many.