*Thud*
Clara let out a heavy sigh as she dropped another wood snake corpse onto the ground. Ever since she ventured deeper into the forest these guys have started to pop up like crazy. Thanks to that, Clara managed to get an entire series for the branch snakes. Even if she threw up while trying to butcher them and forcing herself to look at the process.
Slithering Branch Scale Pan
abilities locked equip bonus: +3 defense
Slithering Branch Bone Boning Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: +4 attack
Slithering Branch Meat Skewer
abilities locked equip bonus: +2 agility
Slithering Branch Fang Bread Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: +4 attack
special effect: poison fang (weak), snake venom (anesthetic)
The bonuses are pretty decent. It's not as good as the lunar series, but it will be good to master after I get the Crescent Wolf forms.
A notification popped up so Clara looked at the cleaver in her hand.
Slithering Branch Cleaver
abilities unlocked equip bonus: poison resistance (small)
mastery level: 0
With the bonus mastered, Clara swapped to the fur pot and smiled.
Alright, now I got an extra resistant element. I need to get as many of those as I can later, since I only got fire and poison right now. Guess I can focus on the crescent series again.
With that in mind, Clara continued to venture through the forest. She spent the whole day decimating monsters and it was already very dark again. A few more Drevo's and Branch Slitherers popped up, trying to kill Clara, but she launched knives at them and dodged or blocked all of their attacks. But that wasn't the best part.
"Phew, I got three extra levels for all that. At this rate I should be able to get level 70 before the wave," Clara smiled, looking at her status. She tossed a portal knife at the ground, saving the location in case she needed to return. She did this around every hour in order to teleport around the forest in case she met a monster she couldn't beat, or just any location she thought could be useful, like a small cave she found.
With the waypoint saved, Clara continued to venture through the forest. Suddenly, she felt her world begin to spin and the ground under her disappear. She tried to create an Erst Lid under her, but before she could finish calling the skill, her back and head smacked into a rock floor.
A burning pain ripped through her head, causing Clara to scream out in pain. She grabbed her head and grit her teeth as she tried to stand up. Her ears were ringing and everything was spinning, forcing Clara back to the ground.
"Se…cond… lid," Clara groaned, covering herself with the skill. "Ow."
Clara waited a few seconds as the waves of pain slowly passed, leaving behind only a splitting headache. Once she slowly stood up, she noticed that her skill wasn't as bright as she remembered it to be.
Suddenly, Clara heard a loud hissing noise above her head. She looked up and saw a black sludge covering and dissolving her skill.
Clara jumped to the side with her pot and shield raised, but the skill shattered, spraying goo in all directions. Clara screamed out in pain as some of it hit her arms and legs, burning her skin.
She peered into the darkness while trying to rub off the weird substance, however the cave in front of her seemed empty. It was then that she saw a few drops of the black substance drop from the ceiling.
Clara looked up to see several dozen glowing pairs of eyes looking down at her. A shiver ran down her spine when she saw the hole she dropped down to be way out of reach for her.
The glowing eyes started to move closer to Clara, some traveling down the walls all around her.
"Erst Lid, Knife Rain, Crescent Slash!" Clara called out, throwing her skills at the slimes. However, despite taking out several of the monsters, more began to pour out of the cracks in the walls. Clara looked around, trying her hardest not to panic, but there was nothing that could help her get out of the cave, and the hole was too far for her to grapple to.
The eyes were almost within reach, pulling Clara out of her thoughts. With no other choice, she began to run deeper into the cave, further away from her escape route. She could hear what sounded like slimes jumping up and down behind her. She remembered what Ellis told her about black slimes during her first level grinding session.
"But there are also black slime which rest in caves and stick to ceilings. Apparently they are acidic enough to melt through armor if they gang up on someone, but the weapon form I got from it gives pretty high acid resistance."
Well, that's good to know! Now I know how they're gonna kill me quickly. Also, how deep is this cave?
As she was running from the wave of eyes and slimy goo, Clara noticed a small broken pickaxe stuck in a piece of the wall.
Is this an old mine?
Clara tried to peer into the darkness and saw some kind of manmade structure up ahead. With slimes behind her, and stone walls around her, she headed for the structure in hopes of finding something that could be helpful.
As Clara got closer, she saw that the structure was a small door with wooden pillars surrounding it, keeping the cave from collapsing. She bolted for the door and pulled on the handle with all her might, but the door didn't open. It was stopped by a heavy chain with a lock wrapped around the handle. Clara glanced behind her, seeing the bright red eyes quickly approaching her.
"Hope no one is using this. Erst Slash!"
Clara shifted to her knife and hit the chain as hard as she could, shattering the links holding it together. She ran inside and shut the door as hard as she could, summoning 'Second Lid' behind it to keep it closed. Letting out a sigh of relief, Clara began to look around her for anything to help, which is when she noticed that her night vision didn't disappear despite her pot not being equipped. She looked down and saw that the pot she had equipped for this long had already been mastered a while ago, already gaining a bit of mastery.
Dang it! I wasted some time I could have been using to get more stats! Well, I would have used this when I ran out of forms to master, so I guess it isn't a complete was-
A loud hissing noise erupted from the closed door, and she could see the eyes peeking through the cracks. However, to her horror, the cracks began to get bigger right before her eyes.
OH GOD, THEY ARE DISSOLVING THE WALL. HOW STRONG ARE THESE SLIMES?!
Clara backed up and began frantically searching the room for anything useful. However, all she saw was some lanterns, a hand drawn map, a few pickaxes and boxes laying all around. Panicking, Clara started to absorb everything she saw, trying to find any effect that could help her.
The door began to creak and one of the hinges got completely dissolved.
"Heated Grounds!" Clara screamed, covering the front wall with burning red energy. However, this was quickly depleting her SP, so she continued to absorb everything. When nothing useful came up, she grabbed one of the boxes and ripped its lid off with her bare hands.
Inside were a few bags of powder and red cylinders with a bit of string sticking out of the top.
Alright, I can work with this!
Clara absorbed a stick of dynamite and a bag of powder and smiled as a special effect popped up. She grabbed the box of explosives and threw it to the front of the room. Soon, a few more followed, breaking on impact and dropping a bunch more dynamite. Finally, she walked as far away from the front of the room and swapped to her newest form.
Dynamite Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: "Second Throw"
special effect: explosive knife (medium)
Clara muttered a prayer before raising the knife above her head.
"Erst Lid, Second Throw!"
Clara threw her knife at the boxes of explosives from behind her lid, just as the wall finally gave way, releasing a wave of slime into the room.
But before they could reach Clara, the knife made contact with the target.
And then everything around Clara turned white.
"AAAAAAGH!" Clara screamed out in anguish. Her ears were ringing and her entire body hurt like hell. The packets exploded like expected, but Clara was, unfortunately, within the blast radius. She couldn't remember what happened after the explosion, but when she opened her eyes she was lying on the ground, paralyzed with agony.
Clara could only grit her teeth and cry as any other movement hurt way too much. She opened her status and summoned an HP potion from her inventory. The vial of glass popped out of her gem and dropped onto the ground. Clara tried to reach out for the potion, but regretted it almost instantly.
She could only scream as the slight movement made her feel like her arm was being torn to shreds. She stopped and took a few deep breaths before moving her arm a bit more. She felt her fingertips touch the glass of the vial and she paused again.
Just get it over with. Grab the vial, lift it, push out the cork. Just breathe and then get it over with. One swift motion.
Sobbing, Clara took a few deep breaths and grit her teeth so hard that her teeth began to hurt.
Now!
Clara wrapped her fingers around the potion and quickly lifted it to her mouth, pushing out the cork.
Her arm collapsed onto her chest as the blinding searing wave of agony crashed onto Clara's body. Her vision seemed to disappear. All Clara could think about was how much everything hurt, screaming mentally and physically.
Finally, she managed to gasp as the pain began to fade away. The cold liquid poured out of the vial onto her chest, healing her body. She couldn't move too quickly yet, but at least she was able to breathe a lot easier, without her entire body howling in agony.
Clara summoned a couple more potions and began to pour them onto her body, one after another. Her left arm seemed to be the most damaged and sat at a weird angle. Clara pulled out a cloak from her monster drops and bit down on it as she pulled out some bandages and began to wrap her arm tightly, trying to adjust it back into position before pouring healing potions over it and chugging a few more.
Slowly but surely the stabbing pain in her body began to fade, being replaced by a dull ache and soreness. Clara began to scramble to her feet, pouring one last potion over her head, when the ringing in her ear was replaced by another sound behind her.
The loud thud echoed through the cave as light began to appear behind Clara. She turned around and paled.
A large stone golem was looking right at her and slowly making his way forward. Its bright glowing eyes stared at her. Crystals that were sticking out from its body were giving off an ominous red glow, like a demon slowly approaching her from a sea of fire. One of its arms had red gems sticking out of its arm, forming a sort of crystal mace.
The golem let out a low growl and raised its mace hand as it approached her, ready to attack. Clara trembled in place as she looked at the behemoth in front of her, despite it continuously approaching her. However, a burning sensation from her leg pulled her out of her trance,
"AGH! P-P-Portal Knife!" Clara stammered, teleporting out of the cave. She gasped as the chilly night wind slammed into her body, making her shiver from the cold, and her wet clothes drenched in health potions didn't help.
Clara looked around and limped her way to the hole she fell down before. But before she approached, she activated Burning Grounds and surrounded the edges of the hole. Almost instantly, several green slimes popped up and tried to jump on her, but she showered them in knives and sighed. When she went to absorb them, she noticed that instead of being sticky, some of the slime goo actually felt slippery in her hands.
Huh… watch out for edges, green slime can try to make you slip off of them and die. Good to know.
Clara sneezed and shivered as the cold continued to assault her body. She wrapped herself up with the vulture coat and stumbled her way to a tree. There, she pulled out a few more potions and looked at her leg, which still felt like it was on fire.
The pants she was wearing, as well as most of her clothes, had several holes in them from the slime dissolving them. Some of the skin was already healed, leaving behind scar tissue, but the one on her leg was dissolved so much she thought she saw meat sticking out. Not wanting to lose her leg, Clara pulled out every healing potion she had and began to apply it onto the wound.
After dumping the rest of the potions to heal her leg, reducing the scorching pain to a dull ache, Clara looked down at her torn clothes and sighed.
Laura is going to be so angry with me for this.
While she didn't want to do this, the wet clothes didn't clash well with the wind, making her tremble from the cold. Even the coat didn't help much. Reluctantly, and keeping an eye out for anyone, Clara took off her armor and clothes and set them on the ground in front of her. She took an SP recovery potion and activated Heated Grounds right below the clothes, before wrapping the coat even tighter around her body and shifting through the inventory.
Well, I got boots, this coat. A scarf too. Oh, the crescent wolf gave me a bunch of stuff too. I can work with this.
After picking through her inventory for a few more minutes, Clara was now dressed in leggings and a shirt made of wolf fur, a pair of boots decorated in bright red feathers, a similarly colored scarf, and topped off with a feather jacket.
Wow, this set has great stats and is so warm! Plus, it isn't itchy like I thought it would be. This is actually pretty comfortable!
Clara looked back at her torn up clothes and armor.
Yeah, this armor is basically useless. Its stats are barely reaching 10% of what it was before and its exterior is destroyed. Oh well.
Clara absorbed the remains of her clothes and drank an SP recovery potion. Her body still felt a bit sore, but she had the magic shield on her and new clothes. With all this in mind, Clara set a few more potions to auto craft with whatever herbs she had left, and looked down at the pit below her. She picked up a rock and dropped it into the pit. After about a second, a loud crash was heard as the rock shattered at the bottom of the pit. Clara thought about it for a moment and sighed.
Yeah, I have no idea how to turn time into distance with this. Welp, plan b.
Rope Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: +3 agility
special effect: rope
Pickaxe Pot
abilities locked equip bonus: mining skill 1
Lantern Pot
abilities locked equip bonus: night vision (medium)
special effect: glow pot (weak)
Gunpowder Knife
equip bonus: explosive attack power up (small)
I won't need the mining skill for a while, but these other three are gonna be useful. Guess rope is just a better bandage knife, and the explosive knife will buff
Clara equipped the Lantern Pot and activated the glowing effect. Her SP barely drained and she quickly recovered all the lost SP. With this in mind, Clara raised her pot over her head and chucked it into the cave as hard as she could with Throw Knife. However, nothing happened.
Right, I can't throw pots. Well, I guess I won't need to.
Clara peered into the cave, with the night vision effect taking place. It was like the one the Crescent Wolf pot gave her, except a bit better. The cave seemed brighter and Clara was able to see the bottom with ease.
There didn't appear to be any slimes waiting for her, so she turned her weapon to the rope knife, wrapped it around a nearby tree, right after making sure it was actually a tree and not a Drevo, and slowly climbed down into the pit. Once her rope ran out, she summoned the Erst and Second Lids and jumped down, using them as a really tall staircase.
Once she reached the bottom, she equipped her new pot and lit up the area around her. No monsters ran at her, so she continued to walk down the cave. Soon, she came to the place where the abandoned miners outpost used to be, now covered in black goo and ash. Clara carefully walked up to the nearest pile of goo and absorbed it into her gem.
Black Slime Knife
abilities locked equip bonus: acid resistance (small)
special effect: acidic coating (medium)
Well, I didn't get a lot of acid resistance, but the special effect seems pretty good. I wonder how strong it is.
Clara equipped the knife and used Erst Throw to launch it into the wall. It dug into the stone and stood still for a few seconds until it began to dissolve the stone and slide down the wall.
This is pretty good. Gonna try this out on that golem. Speaking of which.
Clara walked through the now destroyed and half collapsed hallway, and walked to where she saw the golem before. However, the area was empty.
I guess he went deeper into the cave.
Clara noticed that the ceiling above the exploded corridor was blasted open, allowing for a bit of moonlight to stream into the cave. Clara took one final look at the moon, gripped her knife tighter and began to walk down the cave.
"Hmm… when is Miss Clara coming back," Reiya asked worriedly. Reiya waited for the whole day but Clara didn't show up even once. Reiya long finished the leftover macaroni and was getting hungry and worried. She noticed Laura walking from behind a corner with a concerned expression on her face.
"Reiya? Do you know where Clara is? I've been looking for her all day" Laura asked the little ghost girl.
"No… I was hoping you or the mean chef guy knew, but he doesn't know either," Reiya responded, looking at her feet. Laura grumbled and pulled out her tablet.
"She hasn't replied to my messages either. I'm gonna call a couple of people, I think something might have happened. If she doesn't reply by tomorrow, I'm gonna consider her missing and look for her then," she said, tapping away at the glowing rectangle. Just as she was about to leave, she saw that Reiya was still looking at her, expectantly. "What is it?"
"Um… so I know you trained Clara, but I was wondering if you could teach me how to cast magic? I wanna be more helpful in a fight," Reiya mumbled, rubbing her hands together.
"Magic? Well, I'm not that good at magic myself, but I guess I can at least teach the basics," Laura muttered. "Alright, follow me. Let's go. I'll teach you as much as I can!"
"Yay! Thank you, Needle Lady!" Reiya exclaimed, walking after Laura.
"Pft, my name is Laura," Laura replied, leading them to her room.