Yo yo yo!
So, I read this novel called "New Life As A Max Level Archmage" by ArcaneCadence recently, and it has filled my head with thoughts.
Truth be told, the whole 'isekai into video game character in the future of the game world' trope (is there a shorthand for that?) might just be my single most favourite trope. I love the genre, but there are like 3 that are even halfway decent.
So here is my attempt at it. I decide to just post all the chaps I've written so far at once, and you'll probably see a good few similarities with Arcane's work, but from that won't last past this beginning bit.
Hope you enjoy! (〜￣▽￣)〜*
///
She awakes to a familiar view.
A large room, almost to the size of a football stadium. The walls are made of crystal and in various shades of black. Not by design, but as a result of being singed by fire and coated in soot since time immemorial.
Giant, towering pillars hold the ceiling up so high that a normal person wouldn't even be able to touch it with a thrown rock. There are no lights, no chandeliers, yet the room is not dark. Bright veins of angry red light crawl down the walls like a nervous system while waterfalls of lava constantly stream down from each pillar by their cardinal directions.
She's struck by an odd sense of... Not déjà vu, but the sense that what she is looking at is wrong. Like the Mandela Effect. She thinks. She isn't entirely certain that she knows what the Mandela Effect is though.
Whatever you want to call it, when she looks down at the expansive floor beneath her, she can't help but feel that something about the sight is just ever so slightly off.
The floor in question is a long path that looks as if it is made of ash. It is lined by two rivers of flowing magma and then again by the previously mentioned towering pillars and their waterfalls of yet more lava.
It is unmistakably the throne room and Boss Arena of The Burning Apostle, Vielduine—the Ninth Cataclysm and final Boss of the hit game Free World Online.
Actually, what the heck is happening right now?
The thought strikes her like lighting, snapping out of a sleep-like daze and making her realise that she is awake right now and existing in a moment.
She just has no idea how she got here and certainly doesn't remember going to sleep.
With confusion in her heart, she tries to recall what she was doing last.
The most recent memory she can recall is of playing Free World Online, which in itself does not really tell her much since she's a no life loser who literally spends roughly seventeen hours a day playing it. She has the stats to prove it, very recently surpassing the 50,000 hour mark of playtime.
The only person with more playtime than her is one of her friends, and even then, he's only ahead by six hours because his brother was visiting one day and pressured him into doing cocaine.
She might be happy no-lifeing this game, but she isn't going to go so far as to do drugs just for the cocaine induced 40 hour play session.
Besides, she's already number one. She doesn't need to take stimulants, because she's already the best.
Regardless, she pushes the thought aside to focus on the present.
The last thing she remembers is fighting Vielduine. She was trying for the first solo clear of Vielduine on Divine difficulty.
On paper, one could look at the challenge and say it's impossible. The final Boss on the hardest difficulty outclassed her so badly it isn't even funny, and she's the number one player in the game. Imagine what it's like for everyone else?
Even the Tank of her Party could probably only survive three or four hits from him. She could survive one hit by virtue of a life-saving Passive Skill, but it'd still be doing her entire health bar.
However. Free World Online is a game where skill actually matters. Like, significantly. Especially at the higher levels.
PvP at her level is insanely competitive. With the level of technology these days, being a top player isn't just about having slightly better reactions with a mouse or whatever ancient crap they used to use.
No. The modern VR gear connects directly to the nervous system. For most games, that doesn't necessarily mean much. You still have cooldowns and cast delays and stuff after all. But in the higher levels of Free World Online, the longest cast times would be one single second. Maybe.
Most Spells and Skills at her level are either instant cast or some decimal. The result is that high level fights happen quite literally at the speed of thought. Then you go even further and reach her level of play where you have to start thinking in parallel.
One part of your mind fighting at the speed of thought while the other part is doing the same but at a delay. This way, instead of only being able to cast the Spells you're fighting with one at a time, you can also set thirty Spells to go off at the same time over the course of a few seconds.
To cut a ranting explanation incredibly short, Free World Online is a game where skill takes precedent. What this means is that anybody at any level can theoretically beat anyone. Even an insanely powerful Boss that one-shots you and has a gazillion health and armour and six phases and constant regeneration and an AoE aura of constant DoT.
...Okay maybe not anyone. There isn't much a level 12 can do against the aura damage or the regen. Levels and Skills and Equipment do play a big role. Skill can just be used to bridge gaps between a few hundred levels, nothing too exaggerated.
It is because of this though, that it was theoretically possible to solo a Mythic Vielduine. Which is exactly what she was just doing.
In fact, she even won, which is amazing~!
Wait a minute.
She's just realised why the sight before her seems so off.
The perspective is wrong. She's looking at the throne room backwards. As if she was...
Her eyes turn down, and somehow it is only then that she realises that she is sitting on the Ember Throne.
With that realisation, clarity of thought floods her as if a fog over her mind had been cleared and she lifts a pale, crystal-smooth hand in front of her eyes and begins studying it intently.
She feels real.
Her sight is so detailed, like her pixel count has quadrupled and then quadrupled again, even though in-game visuals have long since reached the level of human eyes.
The air tingles against her skin, warm and fresh. A deep breath fills her nose with the scent of charcoal and molten rock.
Her hand falls back down to the arm of the Throne, and she feels the material. Crystal-like in texture but covered in ash that does not stick to her skin or move from her touch. It simply remains, feeling comfortable like moss.
"Hah?"
"Hah?" Her expression of confusion is repeated, higher in pitch, when she hears the sound leave her lips.
"What?" She repeats her confusion, only now connecting the voice she heard with the words she spoke. "Lalalala."
She pauses, brows furrowing in thought. "Why does my voice sound like this?"
The voice coming from her mouth sounds nothing like what it should. It's soft, almost delicate. Pleasing to the ear. But every word sounds oh so bored.
She doesn't mislike it.
If anything, she finds it rather fitting.
"This voice feels more true to me than my last," she muses to herself.
After all, one doesn't sink 50,000 hours into a video game if they're a normal, functioning member of society.
She was always bored by life. That only changed when she signed up for the closed alpha of the—then named, 'World Exploration Online'.
She was already someone who spent all her free time inside of full-dive games. Just one among many who had become disillusioned by the real world. The only time she spent in reality was during school and then her first job.
But World Exploration Online captivated her. According to the developers, they didn't want to make a game in the typical sense of the word, but a world. The game didn't treat players any different from NPCs in any way except for the ability to respawn.
You were simply given a world and left to do what you can, or what you want, if you can. That alone isn't necessarily an original idea. There are plenty of sandbox games out there. Some people even still play Minecraft, and that's like, she doesn't even know how old.
What made World Exploration Online different, was the Magic. Well, Skills in general, but she only ever cared about the Magic. It was so intricate. So free. If you understood the theory well enough, you could make your own spells or modify existing ones. The Players were capable of rewriting the very code of the game with their own actions. Even being added to the in-game Lore wasn't impossible. It was actually pretty easy for small things, little mentions or official documents.
As the oldest Player in the game—by playtime not real life age obviously—she was naturally in the Lore too. Probably more than anyone else. She didn't originally even care too much about the Lore too much. She obviously still read through every bit of Lore she could find, but her true interest was only ever with exploring the Magic. She only even read the Lore to look for more hints or inspiration for Magic.
She can admit that she might have a bias view of it all though. She kinda went a little bit obsessive. Okay maybe a lot obsessive.
She followed the game from the closed alpha to the open one, then the closed and open beta and then pre-ordered the initial release. When the game came out in full, now calling itself Free World Online, she soon quit her job so she could dedicate every waking hour to it.
Eventually, when she started rising through various leaderboards, she took cue from her friends and started making videos to post online. That eventually became her source of income.
She was incredibly proud of her accomplishment of becoming one of those content creators that can inconsistently post only one video every couple of months while still raking in more profit than most daily uploaders.
Plus, with all the extra income, she could buy stuff from the in game shop too. That was where about 90% of her money went honestly. Her apartment was really cheap. It was mostly cosmetics and situationally useful items though. The game wasn't very pay-to-win.
A soft sigh leaves what should be her avatar. Her player character.
One of her hands rises into the air once more, and she spends another moment studying her palm in silence.
"Seems real," she mutters.
Pushing herself to her feet, she rises from the obsidian Throne without a word and sedately strolls around to its tall back.
Covered in ash though it may be, the tall back of the Throne is still reflective enough from the obsidian material below. Enough to reflect her sight clearly enough.
What she sees is a small child. Maybe 13 or so, though without the baby fat.
Standing at an intimidating 4'6, her avatar stares back at her exactly as she remembers it. Red eyes that almost glow the colour of fresh blood sit surrounded by ink black markings. Thick lines that draw out from the top of her eye curved to the corner and again from the corner inward under the eyes.
Her hair is a dull grey, falling only down to her upper back. Two long bangs of hair frame her face, dipping down to her collar where they are held together by a pair of golden bands.
She is wearing her Lord of Blood robes. One of the best equips in the game. Not as good as her main set of course, but only barely. These robes however, provide the highest cooldown and cast delay reductions in the game. Something she desperately needed in order to avoid getting one-shot, even if the rest of the stats aren't as good as her main set.
It is an incredibly beautiful piece of black cloth embroidered in gold at the bottom. It also comes with a cape, similarly black with gold embroidery along its edges. The cape comes with a collar of fluffy dark fur and is held together by a large golden clasp with two long strips of red cloth hanging down from her shoulders to her hips.
Lastly, on her head is a truly oversized witch's hat, pointy top and all, that is in fact so large that it droops under its own weight, forcing her to lift it slightly to be able to look herself in the eye.
Though she cannot see them right now, she also knows that under the hat there is a pair of large dark horns growing from the back of her head and curling all the way around to the front, where they end in a point to the sky. Each horn is as oversized as her hat, being about the size of her head.
If not for her horns—she knows—her hat would have fallen enough to consume her head entirely.
"It seems," she speaks, watching the mouth of her avatar move in turn, "That I really have been isekai'd."
This all feels far too real to still be the game. She doesn't need to pinch herself to be able to tell that there is blood currently flowing through her veins.
"Well," she rubs her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose I should check regardless. [Menu]. Nothing huh? [GM Call]. [Report]. Hm. One last test and I will definitely know for sure if this is still a game or not. Ahem. To whoever is listening! If you don't come out right now then I will sue you!"
...Nothing happens.
That confirms it then. Companies hate being sued these days, and while she might not be super rich, she is the number one Player. She could very easily make a very public lawsuit against them, and since the majority of her following are Free World Online Players, that'd be pretty problematic for them.
Now that she is fairly confident that this is real, she only has one thing left to do.
She has to decide how she feels about this.
"It's not like I was some friendless, family-less, penniless orphan or something. Sure, I barely spoke to my family, but barely isn't never. If I'm here, and assuming that I am the only one, then I won't be able to speak with any of my friends again. That'd suck. I like them. So should I be upset?"
She lets her words hang in the air for a moment. Studying her own face as she thinks.
"The lack of consent in the matter is a little bit upsetting," she soon decides. "But at the same time.. If someone deposited a cool million into my bank account without giving me a choice about it, would I really be upset? Free World Online was basically already my life. This all turning real is quite literally a dream come true. A dream I've had many times."
That's part of why she is confident that this isn't a dream. Because she knows what that would feel like.
"So just consider it a sacrifice then? If I was asked if I would give up everything in my life for the chance of truly living in the world of Free World Online.. I probably would have taken it. Hm. Doesn't that make this even better? Since it wasn't my choice, I don't have to feel guilty about choosing a video game over my actual family and friends. Neat."
Dilemma thus resolved, she walks back around the Throne and retakes her seat, reclining comfortably with her cheek rested on one fist.
"It's a little bit upsetting to be, or at least look like a child though." With her words, she looks down at herself while bringing her hands up to feel her budding chest. "I hope I won't have to go through all the crap of puberty again."
Her thought process for character creation has always been rather simple.
Girls are better to look at than boys, so she chooses female. Demons are cool because they have horns, so she chose the Demon Race. Lastly, the idea of the uber-powerful, super scary and ancient Mage being a small child is hilarious, so she made her avatar look around 13.
She's starting to regret that last part a little bit now, but whatever, she'll grow.... Maybe.
God she hopes she will grow. Considering her Race, it's entirely possible that she won't.
Dang.
Speaking of, she should probably check her Stats. It would suck if she had to start over at Level 1. Free World Online utilises a Mastery system after all. So while it wouldn't be too hard to grind her level back to proper standards, her Mastery levels were completely different. They are the result of literally tens of thousands of hours of grinding.
The system was really simple. If you did something, anything from casting a specific Spell to Magic in general or planting a flower or throwing a rock. Every action gave Mastery, and there was no limit to how high a Mastery level could get.
Most Mages generally only had around six Spells that they even has a single Mastery level in. It did not level quickly.
She however, had exactly 1,014 Spells with at least one level of Mastery. Her most used Spell was Mastery level 19, giving it the fourth highest Mastery level out of everything in the game.
If she recalls, none of the three above her stood at her level as a Player. Two were lifestyle Players that had spent an inordinate amount of time on their specific skills. The last was this rather famous weirdo that started playing in the open beta. He was one of the opening batch of Players that had been playing the game since it was released in full, and in all of those 9 years, he only ever used two Skills. [Quickstep] and [Cut].
Shaking her head, she clears her mind of pointless thoughts about online weirdos. Never mind the fact that she was one of those weirdos.
"Right. Let's see if I need to cry or not. [Status]."
She is gratified to see the screen actually pop up. Part of her was afraid it would be like the [Menu] and not show itself.
[Status; ]
[Name: Kierra Kalashnikova ]
[Title: Usurper of the Burning Throne ]
[Level: 2097 ]
[Race: Demonic Archlich ]
[Class: The Mage ]
[STR: 216,434]
[AGI: 130,873]
[CON: 3,188,232]
[INT: 49,923,239]
[WIS: 17,693,326]
[CHA: 862,112]
"...Hm. The numbers have gone up a bit. And what do you mean 'Usurper of the Burning Throne'? Just because I killed the guy? Give me back my Living Grimoire Title!"
Despite her outcry, her new body doesn't express her feelings at all. Her face remains its impassive, bored gaze and her tone remains entirely calm. Bored and maybe slightly mocking.
But seriously though! It took her ages to get the Living Grimoire Title! Literally six years of her life! Give it back!
Ignoring the other changes for the moment, she focuses on the Title section and expands it.
Titles don't really have any effect on anything, they're pure flavour, so you can change them whenever you want.
[Title: Usurper of the Burning Throne]
[—You have proven yourself by slaying the Burning Apostle in fair combat, thus usurping from him the Burning Throne. The Fire that Burns all of Creation bows before you.]
Meh. It's pretty cool, she won't deny that. But it only took like... 120 hours and a few thousand attempts or something to win that fight. Compared to the some 30,000 hours she put into the other one, this just doesn't match up, so she doesn't hesitate to expand the list.
[Titles ↓ ]
[Living Grimoire] [Ruler of Magic] [Archmage+] [Queen of Ruin] [Architect of the Future] [Living Death] [Mother of Monstrosity] [World Saviour] [Master of Time and Space] [Master of Undeath] [Witch of Catastrophe] [Ancient One] [The First Mage] [Origin of Magic] [Student of The Lich] [Queen of Malakiga] [Immortal Witch] [Purveyor of Eternity] [Hero++] [Dragon Slayer] [Godkiller] [Rule Breaker] [Second Cataclysm] ...
Yup. She still has as many Titles as she remembers.
She takes a moment to glare at the [Godkiller] Title before moving on and mentally tapping on the only one she truly cares about.
[Title: Living Grimoire]
[—By learning every Spell known to Humanity, you have truly become a Living Grimoire.
The flavour text makes it seem a bit grander than it is. The world of Free World Online was incredibly expansive. It has continents the size of Earth. There are bound to be a bunch of homemade Spells out in the boonies of random villages that she doesn't know.
Still, she got the Title after learning 10,000 individual Spells, so it's not like it isn't impressive. She was the only one in the game to have even done so, something one of her friends in the developer team confirmed to her.
Equipping the Title without any more thought, she moves on to consider the rest of the changes she noticed.
"[Status]."
[Name: Kierra Kalashnikova]
It would be weird if that wasn't the same. Kierra is a nice name, hence why she chose it, so she's obviously fine with living with it. She doesn't care too much either way really. She's just glad that she didn't name her character something dumb like Kitchen Sink. That'd be embarrassing.
It's already a little bit embarrassing that she named herself after the AK-47.
[Title: Living Grimoire]
Hm. As it should be.
[Level: 2097]
It's gone up a bit, but that's not surprising considering the fight she won. An extra three levels does seem about right. Seeing that 97 does leave her practically salivating with desire though.
Free World Online had an interesting levelling quirk. Every 300 levels your Class would go through a transformative upgrade and every 500 levels the same would happen for the Race. In practice, what that meant was that every 300 levels you'd get more and better Skills, while the Race upgrade was more focused on stats.
[Race: Demonic Archlich]
Same as it should be. Passing level 2000 is what put the Arch in her Race. She doesn't look like an Undead though. According to most of the Lore, she is only a Demon. Only her friends and the Devs know otherwise.
The various Kingdoms of this world would not take very kindly to learning that Kierra Kalashnikova was a Lich after all. Liches are incredibly unpopular in this world. Some might say that that is her fault, but she would tell them that it is a long story.
[Class: The Mage]
This she is especially proud of. It is a completely unique Class, given to her and her alone. She won't even pretend to be humble by saying that she doesn't deserve it. Since she was in the closed alpha, even if it was a different character, according the the in-game Lore, she is quite literally the first real Mage.
So she is not a Mage. She is The Mage.
She cannot wait to see what will happen on her next Class upgrade, only 3 levels away. She doesn't even know how she can go up from where she already is. She'll be pretty mad if she just gets a plus next to the class.
[STR: 216,434]
[AGI: 130,873]
[CON: 3,188,232]
[INT: 49,923,239]
[WIS: 17,693,326]
[CHA: 862,112]
Her stats have all gone up, though not too much for most of them. Her WIS has gone up a few hundred thousand, but her INT seems to have gone up by over a million.
It's a little excessive at this point, but she certainly won't complain. A bigger mana pool will always be welcome.
Technically she kind of has infinite mana in the first place. She figured out a way to recycle her mana endlessly, so she can cast all day long without having to worry about running out, but there is still a limit to the size of her total pool.
Then again, she doesn't exactly have any Spells that can drain her entire mana pool. That would probably be an end-of-the-world kind of Spell.
...Now she kinda wants to do it.
The thought of Magic brings a smile to her lips and she doesn't hesitate to hold a hand out and cast a simple Tier 1 Spell.
"[Candlelight]."
Unlike in the game, what she then experiences is not a simple input-output.
She actually feels it. The mana thrumming through her veins, full of chaos and destructive potential. She feels knowledge flitting through her brain. Knowledge of Spells. Of how to craft them, to read them, to draw them. Knowledge gained from an unfathomably long life spent in the singular study of Magic.
This knowledge is not her own—she knows. It is Kierra Kalashnikova's knowledge. The understanding and experience of a Legendary Mage from the Mythical Era, all crammed into her head like it was never absent.
Light fills the room as her Spell is realised, but beyond the joyous, jubilant feeling in her stomach, she ignores it. Instead, she closes her eyes and remembers.
A hundred trains of thought fly through Kierra's brain like a horde of wasps buzzing this way and that.
Magical formulae and script fill her mind. Theory and practice and certain understanding in equal measure. In that long moment, she traces the memories of Spell formulae from the 1st Tier all the way up to the 21st. Each exponentially more complex than the last and yet she can picture every Spell circle and read their script as if they were written in plain English.
Sitting there, on the Burning Throne of a dead God, Kierra falls in love a second time as she remembers Magic.
She doesn't know how long she spent sitting there. Hours, maybe days. She doesn't know if she needs to eat or drink or sleep, not with her newfound nature, so she can't use those feelings as a measure.
She doesn't really have much of any memories of Kierra's long life. Her mind is certainly still her own, just with far more knowledge than yesterday. She does have some vague memories from Kierra. They are only faint things that stood out, such as the memory of Kierra casting her first Spell. She thinks she will need some stimulation to recall much of anything more than that.
Glancing down at her body once again now that she is no longer distracted and has had enough time to gather herself, Kierra feels a bout of curiosity towards her new Undead nature.
There's a lot of Lore that goes into Liches in this game—or world, she supposes. She should probably start thinking like that.
But yeah, Liches. The whole process of Lichdom is super important in this world. Kind of like becoming an Immortal in those old Chinese novels. Or like becoming a Demon King in those other novels.
The core thesis of it all is that a Mage, usually a Necromancer but that isn't actually a requirement, would separate their soul from their body, thus achieving immortality. Well, unless they put their soul in a container that ages, but that would be incredibly counter-intuitive.
Beyond just immortality, the Mage in question would get a bunch of benefits. One of them being a significant boost to their Magic. Lore-wise, the reason is that normally a Mage's mana pool would be limited by what the soul can gather through the body. But by disconnecting the two, the soul becomes able to reach for mana by itself, while still being able to use the body to generate even more.
So it basically doubles your mana pool and regeneration at a minimum, among other bonuses.
However, the cost for all these benefits is naturally some mental degradation and a little bit of insanity. At the end of the day, the soul isn't supposed to live outside of the body.
What makes her different from other Liches is her choice of phylactery.
Instead of a great weapon or artifact or crystal or whatever, Kierra stored her soul inside of the still beating heart of a Dragon. Then she implanted that heart inside of her own chest.
So she is only a Lich in the technical sense of the word. She gets all of the benefits and none of the downsides. In fact, she actually gets even more benefits because having a Dragon heart in her chest, in addition to her three Demon hearts, gave her Magic power even more bonuses.
The only benefit she is really missing out on is that she can be killed.
A part of what makes a Lich immortal is that they could totally just chuck their Phylactery into the deepest part of the ocean, or just bury it under a random mountain. Then, so long as the Phylactery remains, it does not matter how many times the Lich is killed.
Since her Phylactery is inside of her body, anybody who can kill her probably won't have to worry about her coming back.
"Mmm, that's a worrying thought. Is there even anyone who can kill me in this world?" A wistful sigh leaves her. "I sure hope so. I want to see more Magic that I have never seen before. It will be depressing if there aren't any strong Mages I can fight. Hm. I wonder if Archmage Aerion will fight me again? It's been a while, but he was the best Human Mage among the NPCs. I'd love to feel his Magic in the flesh."
That thought tugs another memory from her mind.
"Are my NPCs alive and real now too? If so, then at least one of them should be fun to figh- Oh crap!"
Her thoughts immediately screech to a halt as that thought makes her realise something horrible, and she moves as fast as lightning to all but rip open her [Inventory]. When she sees what lies inside, a small, pitiful moan leaves her.
She's been running Mythic Vielduine for the past few days, and since you drop items and money from your [Inventory] when you die, she naturally stored everything away in her house. All she has on her is her equipment and a bunch of highest level potions and consumables. Things she would need for the fight.
She only remembered because the NPC she was thinking about was the one that she designed to guard her home. Her home that has all of her stuff in it. Her home that is very much not here.
Without hesitating in the slightest, Kierra attempts to [Warp] to her home, only to watch as her Spell circle fizzes out right in front of her eyes, leaving her mana to run rampant.
Mana in its base state is inherently chaotic. Left to its own devices it will go around destroying or changing everything it can reach with a reckless abandon. So it is half on instinct that Kierra's hand snaps out to suck all of the wasted mana back through her palm.
The sensation of returning her expended mana to her body should be painful, at least according to the Lore. The only reason it isn't is probably because of her infinite mana trick. Normally, a Mage would use something like [Dispel] to get rid of a failed Spell.
Focusing back on the matter at hand, Kierra considers what she felt while casting the Spell.
In short, she felt nothing at all.
This is suboptimal.
[Warp] is a Spell that connects with the [Set Warp Point] Spell. It's basically customisable fast travel. Which means that when she uses [Warp], she should be able to feel all of her [Warp Points].
But, closing her eyes and focusing outwards, Kierra can only accept with resignation that she cannot feel any of them. They've all been reset.
"Annoying," she mutters to herself. But her bad mood passes almost as soon as it came.
It is hard to stay upset when she has an entire world to explore. She might already know the map like the back of her hand, but there is a difference between experiencing them through a game and in real life.
She wants to see all of the wonderous sights of this beautiful world with her own flesh and blood eyes. Conveniently, her current need to return to her home near the capital is the perfect excuse to go on an adventure!
It's not like there's a real need to rush. Probably. If there is a need to rush, then she can cross that bridge when it smacks her in the face.
She has always been more of a live in the moment kind of person. As far as she is concerned, thinking about the future is as useless as thinking about the past. After all, you only exist in the present. Future Kierra and Past Kierra are purely theoretical. It's like Schrodinger's cat, she can only assume.
Shaking her head, Kierra briefly opens her Skill list. It is very long.
If she were to be fully honest, she does not even remember half of her Spells. There are too many, and she very rarely uses any Spells below the 15th Tier, so it's easy to forget them.
Shrugging, she closes the screen and pushes herself to her feet once more.
Without any [Warp Points], she can only go the steady way. It's still kind of weird that she got all her stats and equipment, but not her [Warp Points]. Though maybe they were connected to the rest of the system somehow? Their disappearance could be related to the disappearance of her [Menu].
Pushing that thought aside for now, Kierra decides on her next course of action. It's fairly simple really. She will just use the [Gate to Nearest city] and hope that this arena is still where she remembers it being.
If so, the nearest city should be Laptilla, the Northern border fortress of the Kingdom of Laptalia. As a general rule, the main continent gets more dangerous the farther North you go, to the point that the far North where she currently is is basically uninhabitable.
Well, for anyone else that is.
Still, she didn't reach her level without learning to balance her whimsical nature with some caution. So takes some reasonable precautions first and starts layering some buffs over herself.
As she does, she wonders at how easy it is. The mana flows like water, as if her Magic is an excitable puppy ready and eager to do her bidding. Almost as if manipulating her mana is a skill she had spent centuries honing. Thank you Lore. Blessed be the Devs that decided that alpha players like her got to keep their test characters' Lore through their accounts.
"[Instant Death Negation]."
"[Protection from Arrows]."
"[Protection from Force]."
"[Protection from Elements]."
"[Mental Fortress]."
"[Freedom of Movement]."
"[Sense Danger]."
"[All-Sight]."
"[Greater Magic Vision]."
"[Mantle of Chaos]."
"[Magic Boost]."
"[Infinity Wall]."
"[Greater Resistance]."
Twenty minutes and a few dozen more Spells later and she can confidently say she is as prepared as she can be. In fact, she is quite literally in the best shape of her life. She has technically been stronger with her main equipment, but this set is designed to fight enemies more powerful than herself anyway.
With the extra 3 levels and unexpected boon of stats she's had, she would still get her butt handed to her by Mythic Vielduine, but at least it wouldn't take so long to drain his health this time.
Shaking the thought away, Kierra casts two final Spells.
"[Perfect Unknowable]."
That Spell, like its name implies, is basically a combination of every concealment Spell. Only, instead of being Tier 7 like [Invisibility] is, this one is Tier 19.
"And now, finally, [Gate to Nearest City]."
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
What do you think? Share your thoughts!
I think 6k words is a bit much for an introduction, but eh, I can't help myself lol.
I have no plans for plot, so if you're interested in this chap and have any ideas, then feel free to share them.
For now, it is half 4 in the morning and I should have gone to bed hours ago lol.