The notifications were distracting enough. Wichita was glad for that. The fact that they were more than a bit confusing did not help, however. What should she deal with first? The Heart of Ambition burnt in her chest as a familiar face appeared in her mind. But she pushed that thought away. Thinking of Veruna would not do her any good.

No, she had better things to focus on. The class. No, not the class. The Ages. Wichita was not sure what to make of the fact that she had apparently traveled three entire Ages ahead in time. Even if she had known it was possible, it still managed to surprise her.

The world had still been between the Second and Third Ages when she had been born. Now it was in the Fifth. Even nearing its end, considering it had already been named. The System only gave names to Ages when they were almost done, when enough Stories had been told that the rest were unlikely to make a difference.

Wichita wasn’t sure what to make of it. The names were foreign to her, even if she could deduce some things. The only thing clearly useful was the mention of Arcana having fallen. The rest was…for later. The burning of her Heart subsided a little as she moved on to the next thing.

The class. No, her surroundings. Wichita’s heart burnt in displeasure as she looked around, opening her eyes that felt very, very tired. A strange thing, considering she did not need to sleep.

Mana exhaustion.

Wichita had lost most of her mana in transit, though she likely could rebuild her reserves quite easily. There was plenty of mana around her. Just one problem. The mana was space mana. So much that it hovered over the place like a purple mist, clouding her vision.

This was an area of high spacial affinity. Of course, it made sense that she ended up in this place. Wichita looked at the space around her with suspicion, observing the movements of mana as she called on her status for the first time.

Name: Wichita Iridor

Class: Forgotten Queen

Bloodline: Royal Arcana (Tier 9)

Level: 1

Tier: 1

Stats:

Magic: 57/157

Skills: [Bloodthirsty Needling]

Royal Skill: [Magic of Worlds]

Looking over it quickly, she noted its contents as her thoughts halted on the Royal Skill. The only magic skill she had. A Skill she anticipated she would need. There might be much debate about whether the magical phenomenon appeared because of the abundance of mana, or the mana appeared because of the phenomenon, but it was true that both appeared together.

That meant that there were spatial cracks running throughout this space, ones she could not easily see. Wichita could sense them with her mana sense, but they were tiny. Like fragments of broken glass, unlike the large ones that had plagued the collapsing world. And that made them even more dangerous, in a manner of speaking.

A smaller crack could still absorb her as easily as a larger one, like air sucking out a vacuum. There might be difference in the amount of time it took, but it would kill her either way. The only way to resist them was with magic, magic she did not have. Or by cutting of that part of the body before the crack could swallow her.

Wichita hovered her senses on the Royal Skill, trying to get System to volunteer some information. The System was not kind enough to response. Of course. Just her luck to be saddled with a Skill the System refused to explain. What if it was something that didn’t work well with a crack? What if activating it attracted them?

There was too much risk in testing it. Perhaps a bit less than there was in waiting till she was caught in a crack. Wichita looked around her, noting the density of space mana that surrounded her in ring, slowly getting closer. Mana had a degrading effect on space, even if it was minor. The longer she stayed here, the more likely she would cause a crack herself.

Absorbing this mana to replenish her own would be even worse. Perhaps she could do it in some moderation, but she dared not try it out. Not with the sheer number of cracks she could sense floating around this place. No, better she found her way to somewhere a little more stable before she tried it.

But traveling through the area was easier said than done. Wichita could more or less sense where the cracks were and avoid them, but the bloody things expanded. Not only in space, but also in time. A crack that was in one place could be in another a second later.

There were a couple that seemed to be moving around like that already, appearing at different points at random. Not getting caught in them was a matter of luck. And she could do little to make it safer. Fae magic could help her, but it was not something she could wield. Perhaps there was enough power leftover from Veruna’s sacrifice to aid her.

Wichita started walking ahead, not daring to pay attention to anything else. The Heart of Ambition had stopped trying to suggest she focus on her class, and she was glad for it. That could come after she had passed this hurdle. A Class, especially one at level 1 was unlikely to offer benefits significant enough to aid her.

Taking advantage of the additional flexibility given by her mana body, even if she was restricted to a humanoid shape, she was able to avoid the cracks. At least the ones around her. Dissipating part of her hand so that she could allow a crack to pass through it was a difficult thing to do, even if she had prior experience with such things.

Veruna’s sacrifice seemed to have dropped her in a patch of more stable space, but she could see clusters of fragments at the edge of her senses. Like daggers ready to puncture her. There was no way she could make her body porous enough to pass something like that.

The issue was, she would have to pass near a few eventually. There were simply too many of them. But that was for later. For now, she was surviving. The amount of cracks increased, and the Heart seemed to grow more giddy. The bloody thing was more active now than it had been the rest of her life.

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Then again, she had not been under such danger before. If not for it, she might have been a panicking mess. Wichita yelped, almost making the mistake of jumping as some of her mana was sucked into a nearby crack. The thing grew larger, eagerly expanding towards her, and then growing more stable. Thankfully she’d had the presence of mind to cut off that part of her body and withdraw. Or else she would be dead.

Shaking her head to throw off the stinging pain from her act, she ‘looked’ at a nearby crack cluster with her mana sense. If some of her mana was sucked into one then it would cause a domino effect. And the clusters were increasing in number.

Growing more nervous with each passing moment, she simply stood there, wondering if she should turn back. This did not seem to be an area that turned more stable. The increasing clusters…were dangerous. And she was not prepared to deal with them. Yes, she should step away, try other directions. Select the one with the most spatial stability.

Turning around, she found herself walking into a crack. A wave of dizziness came over her as she stepped back, barely able to extract herself before it took her Heart. How she could even resist it was a mystery to her. The stinging pain that followed still nearly made her lose consciousness. An act she that would have probably been her last, given how the forest reacted to her presence/

Wichita looked up at the large crack that now stood above her. A height reduction. The crack had taken so much mana from her that she had reduced in height. How much was it? Calling on the System she gasped at the stat

Mana: 19/157

That was too much. Two-thirds of the mana she’d had, exactly. A coincidence? Wichita wasn’t sure. Perhaps it meant that some of Veruna’s magic had saved her. Fae magic could do stuff like that. But that just meant she had expanded a resource she might not have the next time she encountered something like this.

Turning ninety degrees, she headed in a direction she had not explored before. The Heart of Ambition burnt warmly in her chest, chasing her fear away. And any thoughts of Veru-

Wichita stopped a few meters short of a cluster, extending her senses to see where a stable path lay. There were none. The way ahead was blocked with clusters almost entirely, barely a meter between them. Wichita could have sworn they weren’t there moments before.

Turning around, she carefully did not move from her position. And was glad for it. The way back was blocked. Even the Heart could not prevent the grim realization that set into her now. Magic. There was Fae Magic at work here. The mana was moving on its own, trapping her.

The forest had a Story of its own, the same thing that granted her access to Fae magic, and even her class. Wichita had heard of such things, they were common enough. A forest gaining enough of it to form a trap like this? That was rare. The heat of her Heart spread throughout the body as she took a breath. The human activity was calming at times.

Ok, it was time to collect herself. Take stock of what she knew. The forest was not intelligent. If it were then it would have killed her by now. This was just Fae magic, the idiotic thing using the plentiful mana and people’s rumors to establish a Story.

If she figured out what Story was at work here, then she might be able to make it through. The forest had moved to block her from turning back. There was a purple mist hanging around that would have restricted most species’ vision, and mostly invisible cracks in space that swallowed people whole.

A horror themed Story then. Not uncommon. The addition of space mana and her own lack of strength made it worse. There were three ways she could deal with this. Wichita carefully moved backward, trying to sense where the cracks were as she moved.

The first was to use your own Story to crush it. Wichita’s was a Tier 1 that had barely started her Story. That one wasn’t an option.

The second was to overpower it with Skills or Iridorian magic. A skilled space mage would simply solidify space around him, heck even an unskilled one could maintain a basic spacial field. Wichita couldn’t. The System’s restrictions stopped her from accessing magic without its permission. And the System only gave those permissions through Skills. That she didn’t have.

So then came the third option. There was no third option. Not really. One out a hundred cracks might lead to somewhere not in the void. But that somewhere might be another cluster in this very forest that would land her in the void anyway. That somewhere could be the middle of the ocean. Wichita could not detect what was through them anyway. Leirpot might have been able to, with his extraordinary mana sense. But she couldn’t.

Wichita could not think of a way to outsmart the Story, not on her own. The Heart burnt hot, reminding of who she was. An Arcana did not give up without trying. The Heart would not let them. And even if it did, it would be a waste of Veruna’s sacrifice if she just gave up now.

So she would try. Wichita turned around, slowly and carefully as to not walk into the cracks as she turned. There was a slight chance that her Royal Skill could help her out of this situation.

Veruna’s sacrifice had carried her here, and it had safety as a main focus. But she also knew that there were limits to what a Teir 0 sacrifice could do. The magic might have just taken her through the easiest path.

Wichita ducked, crawling on all fours as she passed under a cluster. There were more of those on either side. The number had of course grown. The forest was trying to catch her in earnest now. As she walked, the cracks slowly grew closer, the forest’s Story acting on her.

The forest definitely had ‘deadly trap’ in the Story. Perhaps not deadly exactly, but its threats had been fatal. Sighing at it, she dropped onto the ground, sliding forward by moving as little as she could. The fact that she had ended up only three feet tall helped. At least it was giving her a chance to survive, testing her instead of killing her outright.

Wichita clutched the Skill in her mind as a crack appeared before her. Just about any second now she would have to use it. One.

Two. The cluster expanded downward, the cracks extending as she felt the weight of the space mana. There was a lot of it.

Three.

Wichita did not wait for the crack to actually reach her. Clicking on the skill with her mind she found her surroundings changing to a dark purple. So this was it then. The crack had consumed her. The purple rushed into her as she gave up, and for once the Heart was quiet.

And then it wasn’t. The Heart burnt in glee as she felt the purple, the magic flooding her, filling her up until she had recovered her lost mana, her body once again whole. And then more as it continued. Wichita felt at peace. The Heart’s burning was annoying, but the mana was good. Like she was sitting in a pool of magic. Like she was home. Like she was somewhere safe, somewhere she could relax and sip tea. The image of a table, a pair of teacups and a dish of cookie-

The calm disappeared as the Heart’s burn suddenly turned hot. Wichita soon realized why. The mana flood was not stopping. The rush was going on, and on and the Heart could not bear the amount of mana -

Wichita found her surroundings abruptly changing again. The forest was back. So was the fog. But not the cracks. Rushing forward with glee, she sensed ahead. The Skill had stabilized space somehow, for some strange reason. Not throughout the place, but enough for her to pass through the clusters.

A wave of power passed into her, similar to Veruna’s sacrifice. Fae magic. The magic counted this as her beating the forest out of her own Skill, and had strengthened her Story for it. A ghost of a smile flickered across her face as the Heart began to strongly suggest she push her thoughts away.

Veruna’s sacrifice had done exactly what it had said it would. The magic had saved her, and then carried her somewhere she would grow stronger…no. Wichita’s brain halted as she remembered something she had learned about Fae magic.

Like the Fae, it was fickle, and it detested easy challenges, and she doubted a mere sacrifice would make it change its rules. What was something else a creepy forest had except fog? The dread returned as she looked at the single needle she still had. The disobedient one.

How the fuck was she supposed to beat monsters with that thing?