“Pipipii!”

Vivi voiced some complaints upon reuniting with Erika. It must have been something along the lines of:

“Like, how long you gonna make me wait, you brainless idiot?”

But, Erika couldn’t decrypt it without [Communication]. She opened【Status】and planned to active her rune.

“Hey, Titan!”

Mina shouted into Erika’s brain.

“Why the heck ya keep using the dumb menu? Them runes can be used without all that shit.”

“I see, you’re right.”

According to in-game tips, it was possible to activate runes with the power of thoughts. Erika hasn’t tried that yet. Last time, she activated the rune in a hurry, for she was afraid of missing important dialogue.

As an MMORPG player, Erika was used to activate skills with mouse clicks or with keyboard shortcuts. Most modern games also incorporated voice commands. However, activating abilities with her “mind” was a novel and bizarre idea.

“Say, Mini. How do you go about activating the runes? Do you imagine anything specific?”

“Me? I just give ‘em cool names. Like ‘Overdrive’ for [Power] and ‘Flash Step’ for [Speed].”

“Hm, I see...”

Erika collected her thoughts and focused on the rune in her forehead. Making up “cool” names was too childish for her. Instead, she chanted a voice command in her head.

Communication: ON.

The muscles on her forehand tightened for a moment. A blue sigil appeared on her forehead. All these signs confirmed that the activation was successful.

“Sorry for making you wait, Vivi~”

“You better be! Like, my beautiful wings gathered a lot of dust, thanks to you being such a slowpoke idiot.”

Vivi moved her tiny palm along her glittering wings, as if dusting them off. Erika and Vivi, accompanied by the invisible Mina, left the temple.

In order to avoid another case of dizziness, Erika made sure to turn off [Communication] when Vivi wasn’t speaking. Erika intended to make efficient use of the rune, and only boot it up when it was necessary.

Communication: OFF.

The pressure in her forehead obediently dispersed. Erika didn’t use the rune for long this time around, but she nevertheless felt a sense of relief when the rune shut down. It was as if an external force stopped sapping her energy.

After she walked down the temple’s stairs, Erika noticed a big stone. The stone emitted a purple aura and looked important. Erika examined the stone and a tip appeared to satisfy her curiosity.

【TIP】【Warp Stones allow God Vessels to instantly teleport from one Warp Stone to another. This only applies to Warp Stones which the God Vessel previously activated.】

【TIP】【You may set a Warp Stone as a respawn spot for the next time you revive, or for your next login into the game. When you arrive in a new area, make sure to seek the Warp Stone and to touch it.】

Erika pressed her palm against the stone and a menu screen popped up. Currently, she only had【Water Temple】registered as an available destination for teleportation. Erika didn’t have any use for the Warp Stone right now, but it was an important detail to keep in mind.

After all, much to her disdain, she'd probably return to the Water Temple sometime in the distant future, to complete Minerva’s dragon-taming quest. Erika turned her back to the Warp Stone, and approached the unpaved road which extended from the temple.

The mysterious and ambient background music of the temple slowly faded away. Now that Erika was in the open field, a catchy and energetic melody accompanied her for the adventure.

A clear lake stretched across the road’s left flank. The lake accompanied the road side-by-side as far as Erika’s sight could reach. The other side of the lake resembled Erika’s current area: there was a parallel road and a big temple.

Mina mentioned that she started the game in a “different temple”. Therefore, the temple on the other side of the lake must have served as another newbie spawning spot.

A thick forest stretched on the right side of the road. It wrapped the road all the way around the temple and it didn’t seem like a good place for a newbie to venture into.

The game only provided Erika with an empty map, which filled up whenever new areas were explored. She could examine the names of the areas which surrounded her current location, but she couldn’t use the map to navigate to a distant city.

Sandwiched between Murph Lake and The Great Forest of Velver, Erika’s only route was the unpaved road in front of her. She pointed at the road and asked Vivi for confirmation.

“Say, Vivi. Is this the road to Zelin?”

“Like, you don’t even know something so basic? Of course it’s the one! Like, how brainless can you actually be?”

Vivi sighed with dropped shoulders. Erika walked along the road and checked the fields around. There was a lot of greenery, stretching from the road toward the lake and the forest.

Erika’s goal was to find the “Windflora flowers” for her quest. She poked some stray flowers by the roadside, but they all looked like lifeless textures.

Then, she saw it. Thick, green stem which was nearly as high as Erika’s petite avatar. Big, green petals which were almost the size of her arms.

【Windflora】

A tag appeared above the big flower and confirmed Erika’s suspicion. This tall flower was the target for her quest. Erika wasn’t sure how to extract the seeds, but for starters she approached the flower.

The flower suddenly twitched when Erika approached. The Windflora’s head moved suspiciously, as if taking an aim at Erika.

“Wha!?”

A gust of wind struck Erika’s body and blasted her to the ground. Green petals landed on top of her head, like mocking confetti.

It’s a monster!?

Erika pushed herself from the ground and jumped on her feet.

“W-whoa!”

Another fierce gust. Erika tried to block the invisible attack with her arms, but a strong blast slammed her face before she could even react. She was pushed back and nearly lost her balance.

“W-wait!”

The vicious flower already prepared for another devilish attack. Erika didn’t have any confidence in dodging or blocking.

T-tactical retreat!

Erika turned her back to the enemy and started running.

“W-wah!!”

A gust of wind pushed her back. Her upper body flew forward, ahead of her running legs.

“Gah!”

Her face crashed into the ground.

“Ahahaha! Like, are you for real?”

“Pwahahaha! Titan ya so bad!”

Mocking laughter stabbed the floored Erika, almost dealing her the finishing blow. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth while getting up.

This is horrible... how could they place such a powerful raid boss in the first area?!

Of course, the RPG veteran in her knew the truth. The Windflora was a “Lv.1 fodder mob” for newbie quests. A Lv.1 player should have defeated it in a strike or two.

Yet, Erika was forced to retreat. She was overpowered by such a lowly and weak enemy. The RPG veteran in her wanted to crawl under a rock from embarrassment.

Erika took a deep breath to calm herself. Like any reasonable attack, the Windflora’s wind blasts had a limited range. As a flower, the Windflora was immobile and couldn’t pursue Erika

Therefore, she could safely strategize from a distance. Still, the very fact she had to come up with a tactic against a Lv.1 mob - was an insult to her pride as an RPG veteran.