The following days all fell into a pattern for Victoria. Every morning, she'd head straight to her exercise courtyard to workout and gain points, after which she immediately assigned five points each to problem solving and comprehension, before taking her daily bath. Then she'd return to her room, where Beatrice would bring her a light meal, after which she'd switch between meditating on the Design Rune and working on the projects that flooded her mind every time she did so. After a few hours of this, she'd take a break for her lessons with Maurice and dinner, before returning to her room and continuing until it was time to sleep.

Victoria didn't initially plan for her schedule to be so punishing, but with no TV, no video games, and no internet, she couldn't find any other way to keep herself from going insane from boredom. The fact that she still couldn't talk to anyone, plus the fact that she was a bit of a social recluse to begin with, meant her only options were working on her projects, or staring at a wall. Thankfully though, with her increasingly ridiculous comprehension and problem solving abilities, she was quickly getting the hang of this new language. Already she could mostly understand what people were saying, as long as they kept it to small talk, and she could even begin asking simple questions like 'what does that mean?' or 'what do you call this?' Her taskbar already had her progress at about forty percent. It wouldn't be long until she was fluent.

Maurice was surprised by her progress at first, but quickly came to the conclusion that since she supposedly knew the language before, she already had a familiarity with it, letting her relearn it faster than normal. Victoria was beginning to like this old man. No matter what she did, he'd come up with some explanation that would make everyone nod along as if it made perfect sense. Victoria was even beginning to suspect that she could straight up transform back into Thomas right in front of him, and he'd simply explain it away as if such things were a normal occurrence around here.

As far as her projects went, Victoria was already enjoying some limited success. Her first project, which she considered of the utmost importance, was the creation of a pair of pants that wouldn't give every male in sight itchy hands. They were baggy, with large pockets, made with a slightly stretchy, but sturdy, fabric, just the style Victoria preferred. While she was at it, she made herself a few simple shirts as well. She'd struggled with the sewing at first, since her Rune focused more on ideas than implementation, but with her increased agility from her growing number of points, she quickly got the hang of it. She'd also drawn up a few schematics for the toilet and a water distribution system, but she needed to make a few prototypes to make sure they worked before she continued.

The fabric had actually been a slight surprise for her, and as she looked into it, she realized this society's material research was actually quite advanced. Despite being centuries behind Earth's technology, they'd already created aluminum, rubber, plastic, and more, they just didn't have the mass production capabilities that Earth did, so they weren't as widespread.

Along with this, Victoria was also shocked to find that while kingdoms were powerful, the true overlords of this world were the Sects! Sects were groups dedicated solely to the pursuit of higher and higher realms of cultivation. Naturally, they outstripped the might of the kingdoms by a large degree. Kingdoms would naturally offer their support to these powerful forces, in exchange for protection and the opportunity to send a few of their young talents to train in the sect. Of course, there were also cases where sects directly took control of kingdoms, merging the governmental system with their own, and these kingdoms were called empires, dominators of their regions.

This led her to her third shocking discovery: This world was HUGE! She didn't even have access to a complete map and the area was already ten times the size of Earth! It was insane! The kingdom she was living in, which was called Farova, was one of the smaller kingdoms, and it was at least half the size of the US! She also realized there were large swaths of undeveloped land within each kingdom as well, for seemingly no reason.

*Maurice, why is there no one in this area of the kingdom? It's a huge area, right in the middle of the kingdom, but there isn't even a road through it! Why would we ignore such a large area of our kingdom?* Victoria asked with a frown, pointing to one of the undeveloped areas she'd noticed.

Maurice chuckled. *Because of the beasts, of course.*

*Beasts? Like animals? Why would they be an issue?* Victoria asked, confused.

*You don't know? Interesting…* Maurice gave her a thoughtful look, before answering her question. *Well, you see, much like people, beasts can also cultivate, reaching high levels of power and becoming Rune Beasts. Once a significantly large number of these Rune Beasts gather together, they create a territory which rebuffs any but the most overpowering forces. Since our kingdom lacks the power to exterminate these Rune Beasts or the funds to hire a sect to do so, all we can do is avoid the area.*

Victoria's eyebrows raised. *Seriously? How in the world are animals able to comprehend Runes?!?*

Maurice chuckled slightly again. *They don't, at least, not the way we do. When a beast acquires a Rune, it is immediately assimilated, but unlike with us, that isn't the end, but the beginning. As the beast uses the Rune, the Rune will evolve, becoming more complex and powerful. Even the weakest Initial Rune can become a terrifying force in the hands of a Rune Beast!*

Victoria's eyes widened in shock. *That seems a little unfair, doesn't it?*

*Fair, unfair, does the world care?* Maurice replied with a shrug. *It's the way things are, so we just have to get used to it.* Victoria sighed in understanding, and they returned to her lessons.

A few days later, Victoria finally graduated from needing Beatrice to lead her around everywhere. While she still wasn't an expert in the language, she could get her point across in any conversation, so she no longer needed someone to accompany her to ask questions. As her progress was going well with the Design Rune, and her language lessons had finally shown results, Victoria decided to take the afternoon off to explore the town outside the walls of the castle.

"Lady Victoria, may I help you?" A guard asked as she approached the gate leading out into the town.

Victoria shook her head. "I heading out for bit. That should not be problem, yes?"

"Er-" The guard's expression twisted slightly, not entirely sure how to handle the situation. "L-let me ask my captain."

Victoria frowned. "Am I prisoner? Why would I no go?"

"I-it's a matter o-of safety." The guard stammered.

"Safety." Victoria grimaced, tone dripping with disdain. "Who is safe? No one. You worried? Come with me. Then, no problem, yes?" The guard looked at his partner, who simply shrugged, not knowing how to handle this any better than he did. Victoria rolled her eyes, before walking past them and out the gate. "Follow if you want. If not, I no care." She said without looking back, striding into the town. The guards exchanged a look, before rushing in two different directions, one after Victoria, and the other to find their commander to report what just happened.

"L-Lady Victoria, y-you really shouldn't go out without a full complement of guards, with at least a third stage core strengthening expert." The guard stammered after he caught up.

"What you say? My father's town not safe?" Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"N-no! B-but there are precautions one must observe when-" The guard began to explain before Victoria cut him off.

"Enough! Either it safe or it not. Yes or no. Which is it?" Victoria questioned him, giving him a flat stare.

"S-safe?" The guard answered hesitantly with a gulp.

"Good, then no problem, yes? No more complaining." Victoria announced with a smile, before continuing her journey, the guard following helplessly. Victoria knew from studying the maps that her father's land was at the edge of the kingdom, near a few of the undeveloped areas that housed powerful Rune Beasts. As such, they lacked large tracts of farmland, barely producing enough to sustain their own population. However, they made up for this with a sizable population of Hunters, cultivators who would venture into the Rune Beasts territory to hunt them down and bring their materials back. Simply by collecting a small tax from the sales, the Marquis became one of the wealthier nobles in the kingdom.

For this reason, many of the people walking the streets of the town carried weapons in one form or another. Just by looking at their weapons, it was easy to tell which kind of cultivator they were. Essence cultivators all carried large weapons, which reminded Victoria of the Monster Hunter game series, while Qi cultivators carried weapons more in line with human proportions. Victoria didn't see any Spirit cultivators, but she figured they may blend in with the Qi cultivators, carrying normal weapons, or not carrying any weapons at all, like normal civilians.

By the time she hit main street, it was obvious that the town focused on catering to its Hunter clientele. Multiple blacksmiths lined the street, as well as a few potion shops and tailors. Smack dab in the middle was a large building with Hunters streaming in and out, the signboard reading 'Hunters Guild' across the top. The Hunters entered with large packages of materials, and exited with purses full of money, before heading to the various shops lining the street.

"Lady Victoria, we should really be getting back to the castle." The guard whispered nervously, looking around at all the threatening individuals crowding the street.

"We just left!" Victoria scoffed, ignoring him as she strode towards a nearby shop, which seemed to be selling accessories. A few Hunters wandered the small shop, examining the wares. Victoria looked at one of the placards introducing a pair of earrings and her eyes widened.

[Earings of Energy Gathering: increases the energy density around the wearer, increasing the speed of cultivation.]

*This… am I in a video game?!?* Victoria's mind whirled in confusion after she saw the description. She could somewhat wrap her mind around the whole cultivation thing, but accessories with special effects? That was crazy! How did they even do that?!?

Victoria rushed to the front of the store, carrying the earrings, grabbing the attention of a clerk. "How were these made?!?" She asked excitedly.

"Excuse me? I don't… I'm just selling, I don't know how to make these." The clerk stammered in confusion. Making these accessories required special skills and a high cultivation. Why would someone like that waste their time manning a shop counter?

"Who does?" Victoria asked, losing a lot of her excitement.

"W-we buy our wares from the guild… I don't know who makes them." The clerk explained.

Victoria deflated with a sigh, returning the earrings to their spot. Seeing a video game concept in real life, Victoria had been overcome with the urge to figure out how it was actually possible, but it looked like she'd have to wait for any answers. Maybe Maurice would know?

Leaving the accessory shop, Victoria visited a few other shops and found more strange features. She saw weapons with special attacks and armor that increased defense or speed. The more Victoria saw, the more she felt a strange sense of disassociation, as if the world around her wasn't real. She paced the streets in a daze, until she wandered into the Hunters Guild.

"Can I help you?" A receptionist asked her as she walked up to the counter.

"Do you issue *quests*?" Victoria asked dumbly, forgetting she didn't know the word for quests in this new language and defaulting to English.

"Er, *quests*? I-I don't know… are you looking for a bounty?" The receptionist responded awkwardly.

"Bounty… for what?" Victoria asked, tilting her head slightly.

The guard behind her blanched. *This is why she left the castle!?! To pick up guild bounties?!?*

"Well, there are a few requests out there. The most expensive one at the moment is someone offering ten gold for the claws of a Rune Beast with an Advanced Attack Rune. They'll pay extra if the Rune is related to a piercing attack. We also have someone offering seven gold for the hide of a Rune Beast with an Advanced Defense Rune. Those might be a little out of your range though… uh, the guild buys all sorts of Rune Beast materials as well, even from Initial Rune Beasts… especially if you can find a core… oh, but you'd need a guild license first. D-do you have a guild license?" The receptionist asked hesitantly after realizing how young the girl she was rambling at actually was. The odds of her even being Awakened were rather slim, let alone being a cultivator. How could she have a guild license?

"No guild license." Victoria shook her head, and the receptionist let out a relieved sigh. Any Hunter who looked this young would probably be a terrifying individual of an extremely high realm. The receptionist didn't have the confidence to deal with such an individual. "How do I get one?" Victoria continued, causing both the receptionist and the guard to freeze.

"Well, you'd first need to be Awakened." The receptionist explained, going pale as Victoria simply nodded along. "T-then you need to have Assimilated your first Rune and condensed your core." Victoria frowned and shook her head with a sigh, causing the receptionist to let out a sigh of relief. *She's just an early bloomer, not some old monster!* She thought to herself with a smile. "Well, then, once you've Assimilated your first Rune and condensed your core, you can return and we'll test your abilities, before issuing you a guild rank, which will determine what level bounties you can take, okay?" The receptionist explained calmly, causing the guard to let out a sigh of relief.

*Thankfully the guild isn't that reckless.* He grinned to himself, shaking his head. He leaned in to tap Victoria on the shoulder. "Lady Victoria, isn't it about time we returned to the castle?"

"Hm? Probably." Victoria agreed, before turning back to the wide-eyed receptionist. "Thank you for the help." She thanked her, before heading out.

*L-Lady Victoria?!? Why would she come here?!? Why would she be interested in bounties!?!* The receptionist's mind whirled in confusion. A noble would never need to risk their life being a Hunter!