Following her battle with the Ravenous Lizard-Man, Lyra continued down along the river. It was hard work as the forest was thick with vegetation, which was almost exclusively leaf-trees now. However along the river were the occasional forest paths, no doubt made by some of the many inhabitants of this forest, as they regularly came down to the river for a drink.
She figured by now she had perhaps traveled 20 kilometers from her home further up the river, and remarked at how slowly she was actually moving. Had it been a clear path without any obstructions, she thought she could travel perhaps 40 kilometers a day on a foot. But given how thick the forest was, and how often she had to duck and weave and sometimes climb and crawl, it really did slow her progress down.
And that was not all. She was encountering more local wildlife now. She had come across a majestic looking stag with an impressive crown that seemed to glow silver. It did however take off before she had a chance to use "Inspect" on it. Not long after, a black spider the size of a fully grown Golden Retriever suddenly fell down on the path straight ahead of her, and Lyra screamed louder than she has ever screamed in her entire life. Not even thinking, she launched "Fireball[1]" after "Fireball" until there was nothing left but a smoldering crater in her way. It gave her about 10,000 exp as well, but that wasn't something she was too concerned about at the given time.
After the spider incident, she sat down to have an afternoon snack near a fork in the river. Another river was joining the one she was following, making it far wider. In order to find her way, she carved a mark into a tree with her knife, to show her on the way back that she should keep left at the fork. It was at this time, however, she spotted something moving on the other side of the river. Something truly massive. She narrowed her eyes, studying the creature, and realized it was a massive snake. She couldn't even see all of its body, as part of it was submerged in the river waters. What looked like the head though was gently swaying on the other end of the shore. Silently, Lyra got a little bit closer, shuffling through the foliage. The snake was truly massive, well over a meter in thickness, and probably over twenty meters long! She used her "Inspection" on it, to see what she could glean from its status window.
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Name: NA
HP: 1100 MP: 300/340
Level: 71
Race: Titan-Boa
Age: 43
Stamina: 110
Strength: 83
Agility: 76
Spirit: 43
Intellect: 34
Description:The Titan-Boa is an ambush predator that likes to sit in running water with its tail out, luring its prey in closer before striking from the water. Its tail has markings that often leads its prey to confuse it for its head, thus lulling them into a fake sense of safety.
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Lyra furrowed her brows, level 71 was a lot, probably shouldn't mess with that. And what was this description? A fake head? Suddenly, she felt a chill run down her spine. In a moment of luck, or perhaps clarity of mind, she immediately cast "Mana-Barrier[2]" around herself, because she had a terrible gut feeling.
Not even a second later, a massive serpentine head burst up from the river just where she was sat, its large fangs quickly bearing down upon Lyra. Had she not had the barrier up, she would probably have died then and there, but now she was in the maws of the beast as it bit down against her with terrible force, trying to swallow her whole! And her mana was draining rapidly, already having lost a third of all her available mana from just this one attack alone!
Thinking quickly, she used her unique skill "Magic Creation[3]" to create a spell called "Wall of Ice[4]" and then quickly deployed it, creating a thick sheet of ice inside the serpent's mouth, blocking of its throat and thus stopping it from being able to swallow her whole. This sharp coldness was enough to make the serpent spit her out, and she fell down on the riverback from quite the distance, thus taking -50 HP in fall damage. Seems her "Mana-Barrier" doesn't stop fall damage. Had she not put her 35 attribute points into stamina just earlier today, this fall would have been enough to kill her. In a pang of irony, she felt thankful to the Ravenous Lizard-Man whose death had granted her seven levels.
But she did not have time to sit around and feel thankful, the Titan-Boa was still a massive threat, and it slammed its head down towards where she was sat on the riverbank. Only by a few inches to spare did she manage to roll out of the way. The serpent still had half of its body submerged in the water, so Lyra opted for a lightning-based attack. But a mere "Lightning Bolt[5]" likely wouldn't be enough, so she opted for a more advanced spell she had made earlier, called "Lightning Strike[6]".
At once, the clouds overhead seemed to darken, before a second later, lightning struck from the clouds, striking the serpents main-body with a massive boom of thunder that left the air electrified. The large serpent hissed loudly, its body twisting and coiling as the river waters churned. In its rage, it thrashed its body in every direction, and unfortunately for Lyra its head slammed into her, sending her flying down along the river bank. Her barrier held, but she was now running dangerously low on mana.
However, her "Lightning Strike" spell had done a number on the Titan Boa, and it even did double the damage due to the serpent being in the water. Thinking quickly, she raised her hand, gathered her mana, and chanted: "Spears of Ice[7], times3!" quickly forming 3 large spears of ice in the air, who then surged downwards, impaling the head of the Titan-Boa and nailing it to the river floor. Physical damage spells had a chance to cause a bleeding effect, and ice spells were great at slowing the enemy down. Not that it mattered much, as the three spears were enough on their own to drain the last remaining HP of the Titan-Boa.
Moments later, she got the notification she had expected.
"You have slain a lvl 71 Titan Boa, 41,657 experience points gained! An additional 63,213 experience points gained due to the massive level difference!"
"Congratulations, you have reached level 8! 5 attribute points gained."
"Congratulations, you have reached level 9! 5 attribute points gained."
"Congratulations, you have reached level 10! 5 attribute points gained."
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, as she laid down against the dirt and mud along the river bank, clutching her heart. That could have gone so, so much worse. If she hadn't erected her mana-barrier in time, she would have died. If she hadn't invested her previous attribute points into her stamina, she would have died. If she had not managed to block its throat and gotten out of its mouth, she probably would have died.
She had been a bit too over-confident, to say the least. Thankfully, due to her level up, she was back at full mana and HP, but that still didn't calm down her heart. She realized now, just how dangerous this forest was. She seriously could have died, just like that. And she was not ready to die, not by a long shot! She still had so much she wanted to do, besides she had already died once already, so this was definitely way too soon.
She breathed in, and breathed out. A minute she spent, calming down her breathing, forcing her pulse down, just laying there in the mud and earth. Then, she brought out her status window, and added another 12 points into Stamina, bringing her HP up to 500. The last 3 points she put in Intellect, making her status look like this:
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 500/500 MP: 3230/3230
Level: 10 (23,000/67,000)
Race: High Elf
Age: 24
Stamina: 50
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Spirit: 5
Intellect: 33
Job: Mage (Apprentice and Novice level spells costs 50% less mana to cast.)
Skill: Magic Creation (SSS) (The User may create spells with their own unique effects, the manacost is proportionate to the effect of the spell)
Available attribute points to spend: 0
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Then, she went to check on the body of the Titan-Boa. Because its head was impaled to the ground by the three spears, its body hadn't floated down the river. But she could see its full length now, and it must be over 20 meters at least. Its skin was also very thick, and its teeth were very sharp. A lot of useful things on this beast, not to mention the meat itself. She had never eaten snake, but it was meat, right? How bad could it be?
But, how could she possibly do anything with a creature of this size? Which is when she had her idea. In all the mangas and animes she had read in her past life, the protagonist always had their own inventory. Couldn't she just create her own? So, using her unique skill "Magic Creation" she tried to give it a shot. Spending 2000 mana, she successfully created a "Sub-space" that could take 2000 kilograms before being full. If she wanted to increase the space, she would have to spend more mana. And then, whenever she wanted to put something into this sub-space, or retrieve something from the sub-space, she also had to spend mana to do so. But that was okay, she had a lot of mana. All in all, this "Inventory" spell would be a game-changer.
That said, this snake weighed far more than 2000 kilos. So she lit some fires there on the riverbank, and got to work, working throughout the night with pulling the snake up from the water, skinning it, and putting as much of its meat into her subspace-inventory as she could. She hoped this Titan-Boa was some kind of apex predator, and so other predators would stay clear even if they smelled its blood. Whether that now was the case was unclear, but at the very least she was not beset by any other creature during the early hours of the night. Once she had filled her inventory with Titan-Boa meat, she climbed a tree just above the river and tried to get some sleep.
She must have passed out, because when she woke up, the sun had already risen quite far over the horizon, and beneath her, the body of the Titan-Boa was being devoured by a variety of creatures. The water clattered with massive crab-like creatures the size of a small car, while a set of black felines tore into the body of the snake from the river-bank. They looked like panthers of some kind, but far larger than any panther she had ever seen. Having rested through the night, her mana had fully recovered, so she figured if she had to she could fight them, but frankly she wasn't much in the mood for any more fighting.
She had planned to explore down the river for a week, but her run-in with the Titan-Boa had severely affected her confidence. She was simply too weak to continue safely. So, taking a gamble, she made her way down the tree. The crabs and panthers eyed her warily, but so long as she did not threaten them or tried to claim the corpse of the titan-boa for her own, they did not seem hostile, even though they growled and snapped their claws at her. So she backed off, and began following the river back up again. Hours later, she passed by the mark she had left a day earlier, and continued along the left fork in the river.
She was forced to spend 1 more night out in the dark forest, also hiding up in a tree, but didn't run into any more monsters or creatures. And so, four nights and five days spent out in the forest came to an end, when she passed by the border to her Spirit Sanctuary once again. Finally, she was back home!
[1] Fireball: Costs 50 mana and deals 100dmg + Spellpower in a fiery explosion upon impact.
[2] Mana-Barrier: A barrier of mana that will protect the caster using their own mana as a shield. Each point of dmg blocked will drain a single point of mana. 200 dmg blocked will drain 200 mana.
[3] Magic Creation (SSS): The caster may create spells with their own unique effects, the manacost is proportionate to the effect of the spell.
[4] Wall of Ice: The Caster creates a thick wall of ice at the target location. Mana cost proportionate to the size of the wall.
[5] Lightning bolt: Costs 80 mana, deals 150 dmg + Spellpower to the target in lightning dmg.
[6] Lightning Strike: Costs 300 mana and deals 400 dmg + spellpower in an area decided by the caster. The Damage is spread evenly across all targets if more than 1 target exists within the designated area.
[7] Spear of Ice: Costs 75 mana and creates a spear of Ice that is then launched at the target, dealing 100 + Spellpower in physical damage.