Liz woke up to the sunlight as was the case all the days prior, despite her wishing to start her day before sunrise.

'I wanted to wake up early. In such cases a phone would have really helped. It's a wonder I didn't miss it every other minute. I guess that's what being in a constant state of distress gives you'

Liz spent the morning cooking some meat, even trying herself at smoking it to preserve it. Yet, she was unwilling to waste too much of her precious food, so she only got a day's worth of it. And it wasn't good quality either.

'I guess you need a cook class for that'

Nonetheless, after filling her stomach with a meaty breakfast, Liz set out to get herself some weapons.

A short argument with the locket about whether she should use a mana crystal ensued. Liz emerged rather victorious, having persuaded the locket to show her where the crystals were stored. She got his 'permission' to take the smallest shard in the tiny collection. And so she gathered a dozen of her looted daggers, the [Enriched mana shard - Rare] from a small cabinet in the suite and set out for the blacksmiths workshop.

Nestled into the corner of the workshop was Liz's target, a grindstone. She used the mana shard to supply the enchantments powering the workshop.

'This is almost like the electrical grid back on Earth. Too bad there are no mana computers. This way my only real education in computer engineering is completely wasted here'

Liz went to sharpening the rusted blades. After half a dozen crooked blades, Liz only having one visit to a medieval market and a documentary on Blacksmithing to draw knowledge from, she gave up, instead going back to the tower, in hopes of finding a 'Blacksmithing 101' book in the extensive private library of the former owner.

Fortunately she was lucky and found a compendium on different trades, a book giving knowledge and practical exercises, aimed at triggering an appropriate class selection.

It was intended for settlements wishing to establish a functioning economy without having to attract a master of the different trades. Yet, the notes added, most likely by Wulfram, questioned the success rate without a proper master-apprentice relationship.

'So I essentially would have little success in anything besides being a mage, if I don't have anyone to train me properly. Even books about combat are hard to find here'

Nevertheless, the book contained an exercise for using the grindstone. While the instructions were very crude, it still gave Liz an idea what went wrong in her attempts and what to look out for.

Liz returned to the grindstone and after a hour was proudly inspecting a rust-free and sharpened dagger. The handle still needed work as the former leather had reduced itself to a few tatters and getting a firm grip was hard.

With renewed energy Liz spent the next hour sharpening the other blades, even managing to rescue two of her earlier attempts. Satisfied with her first creations that were clearly identifiable as weapons, she returned to the tower to get herself armor and start the process of designing her upcoming enchantment.

[Iron dagger - Primitive]

Garuna had promptly explained that primitive was a quality mostly attributed to objects made by persons outside of their specific profession. He concluded that most things made by Liz that weren't created for or with magic would get this quality.

When it came to the enchantment, Garuna had the idea to go even further than just forming artificial mana conduits. He proposed, she should also include further additions. He mentioned things such as an external mana storage, a defensive shield and many more things being theoretically possible, some of which however required materials they had no access to. A lot of the enchantments he also deemed too complex for Liz to do at her current stage. However, he pointed out that if she wanted, she could probably add them later, with restrictions of course.

'If I am to endure more pain, then I will definitely get everything I can out of it! Whether I want any additions afterwards, I'm really not sure.'

As these different enhanced enchantments would need different amounts of Quicksilver, Garuna delayed making any concrete design plans before seeing the yield from her gathering trip. Instead he instructed Liz on controlling her aura, as to not attract any more attention to herself in the valley than necessary.

It turned out that controlling one's aura was rather easy, at least to Liz. She could feel dozens of small wisps of energy escaping from her core every second, and the trick was to force these wisps to simply go back to her core. The less distance these wisps traveled before returning to her core, the less noticeable an aura she has. Her still severely lacking control and her high affinity had her practically hit a nail with a metaphysical sledgehammer when holding back the wisps. Still with a little practice she was able to do it almost subconsciously, not even using any mana, as all mana exuded by her sledgehammer approach was made up by the returning mana. The best part however was that it didn't even hurt her body as the mana never used her body to become physical.

Beside practicing her aura control, Garuna had her select a mana crystal that 'spoke to her' and gave her the exercise to drain the crystal and afterwards fill it with her inner reserves to slowly attune it to her mana as it was needed for the enchantment.

Unwilling to endure the pain this exercise would bring, Liz instead focused on getting herself an armor.

Up until that point she had worn the robes from Wolfram's closet that were extremely oversized on her small frame. She had long realized that this world almost exactly reflected the preconceptions about mage clothes from fantasy books. Even the colors of the flowing robes were fitting: flashy, colorful and with motifs of stars or moons.

'Or it is just this Wulfram guy. But none of those robes are really practical aside from keeping me warm.'

Therefore, Liz was now raiding the much smaller selection of armor. There were 5 sets of leather armor and a collection of chain mail pieces, none truly matching. Unable to properly modify the chain mail, she was forced to wear the much lighter but less protective leather.

She had a bit of a shock at seeing how many holes and mismatched patches there were in and on the armor pieces. She had expected far less physical damage to a mage who in her opinion was in no position for a melee fight, but Garuna had explained that these assumptions were far from the truth when it came to most adventurer and mercenary teams, the magic users were almost always in the middle of any fight the groups took on. Only healers were generally staying back from active combat.

Garuna also explained that unfortunately Wulfram's best sets made out of special leathers, hides and other magical enchanted pieces were missing and so Liz was left with old scraps.

Liz opted for the set with the least holes and rips, which was also the easiest to modify. She spent until mid-afternoon undoing the seams and resewing them, not without cursing the primitive bone needles, brittle and blunt at one moment and skin-piercing in the next. Fortunately she only needed to widen it around the hips, her rather flat chest fitting in the armor without an issue. The rest of it however needed to be made smaller to fit her.

When the sun started to set she had a fitting suit of leather armor, mostly focused on protecting her torso and neck. The leather stopped at her shoulder, having no sleeves for more mobility. The lack of protection was compensated by underarm bracers with metal plates sewn into them. Her legs were covered by a small leather skirt, that acted as an extension of the body piece and additional greaves. All of it focused on mobility instead of heavy armor. Garuna and Liz both concluded that fleeing was most certainly her best choice instead of engaging in any fights.

She also had found a backpack, which she had filled with multiple healing potions and a few replenishment tonics. Additionally, the backpack held multiple meals worth of her dried meat and fruit. Otherwise, it was empty, leaving space for her target loot. Her daggers were stored in a belt strapped across her chest and a waterskin fastened to the backpack.

She had also spent a good portion of her afternoon training with throwing her daggers. The results were considerably worse than she expected. But Liz wasn't thrown off by this, throwing away her only true weapons was only ever to be a desperate move to gain time to flee.

She had also had her nerves grated raw when Garuna had finally given her the lesson about what to expect, Garuna having delayed it until the evening to stop her from backing out of the plan in fear.

'Of course I constantly question what I am doing here. But without the Quicksilver I won't get to use and level my class, without leveling my class I don't have a chance to get more food or escape from here and without food I will starve. So I have no real choice here.'

But instead of spending the precious time to give her as much knowledge about the dangers as possible, he regularly strayed from the topic to discuss the mating behaviors, nest construction methods and suspected evolution histories. The most useful information Liz was able to extract from these discussions was that in the past the wildlife in the valley had mostly stayed consistent and not shifted like in most parts of the Wildlands, making Garuna's knowledge hopefully still applicable.

In the end Liz had concluded, that the biggest threat she would most likely face, in the small side valley she had chosen for her expedition, would be a serpent creature that burrowed through the muddy ground at the valley floor, preying on anything roaming around their holes. They could get as big as 40 cm in diameter and up to 2 and a half meters in length. The problem however weren't the individual creatures but the hunting parties of up to a dozen that they tended to form. However, they should be easily avoided by sticking close to trees, where hiding by burrowing became harder for the creatures.

But sticking to trees would also bring Liz closer to various monster versions of common critters found in Earthen forests. There were several she was likely to encounter as they preyed upon the coveted snails. There were frog-like creatures, a type of poisonous millipede and creature that, by Garuna's description, was a mixture of crab and a beetle only scaled to the size of a cat.

The biggest threat among the critters however was a type of spiders that reached the size of her hand. Their venom was highly paralyzing once injected and could disorient when put on their webs and touched. But as they were a recognized threat even back when the fort was still an active hub of innovation, an antidote had been developed. Since Wulfram was essential in creating it, there still was some in the workshop. It would however only work once every day for roughly 2 hours.

In general the side-valley was rather safe and back in the day was used to train newcomers and was jokingly called 'rookie playground' among the stationed guards. Garuna added that these rookies however were already trained soldiers and not a crippled mage lvl 1.

With her mind definitely not reassured by his last statement, Liz went to sleep.

For once waking up before the sun rose, Liz started her first trip further than 200 m from the cell in the dungeon early in the morning. Leather armor, backpack and dagger belt all fastened on her body and an additional wooden staff in hand she bypassed the main gate through a small door in the guard house next to it. Since here the enchantments were still powered, she briefly worried she won't get back in but Garuna, affixed to her staff, reassured her that this would be no problem.

Using her map she set out for the small side valley, keeping to a small path on the rocky hillside.

She spent the next hours just travelling and training her aura control along the way, stopping occasionally to eat from wayside berry bushes that Garuna deemed safe to eat.

Two hours into her trip she heard the roar she had heard the first morning. It caused the same instinctual flight in Liz. After settling her heartbeat again, she asked the locket about it. Garuna didn't know of any such monsters in the valley, making Liz fear whatever it was only more.

After the fourth hour she came across a sharp corner in the hillside and path. Rounding the corner she saw her destination in front of her.

In the side valley there was no lake like in the main valley, instead a river flowed through it into the lakes of the main valley. It was supposedly fed by a lake high in the mountains. Thanks to the season, the river was reduced to a small and manageable stream instead of the maelstrom that Garuna had described it to look like in the spring, when it flooded parts of the lush forest near the riverbed. Said forest got more dense as soon as one left the vicinity of the riverbed, thinning out again near the rocky hillside. In the wider parts of the valley additional meadows marked the border between rocky mountains and river-fed valley forest. The valley itself was roughly 10 km in length and framed by the high mountains to both sides. Liz was currently standing near the lower end of the valley, her current altitude still higher than the highest part of the distant end of the valley.

"If it is still as it was a millennium ago you should search near the riverbed. I would suggest moving along the river treeline." The pendant had stayed silent for the past hours, only making an occasional comment about interesting rocks in his perception or showing her edible berries.

'Then let's get acquire some more PTSD to make the next therapist appointment worthwhile and maybe also pick up some snail shells'

After moving some more into the valley itself, Liz stumbled her way down the inclined hillside, sweating profusely by the time she stepped on a surprisingly humid moss covered meadow.

It was as if a switch was flipped, one moment to the next the surrounding air suddenly became oppressive, a feeling akin to being deep underwater, a pressure on her entire being. She stumbled forward and fell to her knees, feeling unable to breath in fear of suffocating and being crushed simply by inhaling. Liz started to panic. 'No, I can't go down like this! What is this even? Some dense air? Or is it some kind of liquid? No, I need to focus and get out of here!'

Liz managed to turn before she fell flat on her front. Still unwilling to breath she crawled and pulled herself back the way she came. Just going the few meters she had stumbled on the moss took all out of her. Before she was fully off the moss, instinct forced her to open her mouth and inhale through the dense moss.

It stung and burned. What's worse, Liz knew this feeling. It was mana burn.

'This is the same bullshit why I'm even here in the first place!'

Finally, she was clear of the feeling of pressure. She gulped down a breath of air, making the pain from her lungs flare up. Unable to even breath, she fumbled with a small vial, unable to find purchase to remove the cork. Using her last reserves she finally managed, instantly downing the clear liquid. The pain continued, ever so slightly abated. But Liz managed to breath without flaring heat through her whole body. After downing a second healing potion her lungs finally stopped burning, a general pain still all across her body. That was also when she noticed the notification butting into her consciousness:

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 5 --

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 6 --

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Arcane Magic Resistance] --

-- [Arcane Magic Resistance] has reached level 2 --

-- [Arcane Magic Resistance] has reached level 3 --

-- You have been afflicted by [Mana Burn] --

Liz quickly checked her status

Name: Elisabeth Larson

Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 1

Title: Wanderer

Status:

Health: 16/156

Stamina: 10/121

Mana: 368/368 (+156)

Afflictions: Mana Burn

Vitality: 13

Endurance: 11

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Perception: 16

Wisdom: 23

Intelligence: 22

General skills:

Arcane Magic Resistance - lvl 3

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8

English - lvl 7

Identify - lvl 2

Mathematics - lvl 1

Meditation - lvl 2

Pain Tolerance - lvl 6

Class skills:

Arcane Blast - lvl 1

Runic Intuition - lvl 1

-empty slot-

-empty slot-

Mana Burn (arcane) - Affliction

Your body has absorbed too potent mana and is unable to handle it. Health and stamina regeneration is reduced. Reduction affected by respective resistance

'Oh fuck, that is close. Only 16 health. No wonder I feel like shit. I don't think I should just drink a replenishment tonic. Especially since they only add a multiplier to my natural regeneration.'

"Garuna, I have mana burn again! What should I do?" When no answer came Liz realized that her staff was still lying on the moss in the poisonous area and fastened to it was the grumpy locket.

'I can't go back in there, I need to figure something out myself...'

'I think the best option is to use the mana? So just blast it away? Ugh, this is gonna hurt'

In anticipation of the coming damage, Liz put an opened healing potion in her mouth, to be swallowed. Aiming at a rock near her, she activated her skill. And instantly her skin blistered and cracked with bright light shining through, but Liz activated her only spell time and time again, up to the point that the blasts became a continuous stream, the healing of the potion battling the damage by the mana for the first few seconds. She held on until her affliction was finally gone, her arm covered in cracked and blackened skin and the target rock was no more. One look at her arm combined with her pain and she retched and threw up her meager meal before she was able to down another healing potion.

Ten minutes and a healing potion later, her arm no longer felt on fire. Only now did she realize the distinct feeling of new notifications in her mind.

-- Affliction [Mana Burn] has been cleared --

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 7 --

-- [Arcane Blast] has reached level 2 --

-- You have learned the passive class skill [Spell Channeling]--

Status:

Health: 56/156

Stamina: 84/121

Mana: 345/368

'Fuck, that was way too close. And I didn't even encounter any monsters. That was just.. the air? But why was there such a sudden increase? Is it the moss?'

Trying to find the cause she identified the moss.

[Absorbing Carpet of Moss - lvl ???]

'That is a monster? What the fuck?' Liz scrambled back, getting as much distance to the border of the moss as possible.

'Do the three question marks mean, it is even stronger than most? Is that what Garuna meant with a general idea of the level difference? And what does a carpet of moss even absorb? Is Garuna lost to me? And why does it cause mana burn?' Liz again started to panic. But even the adrenaline couldn't prevent the sudden piercing pain in her arm. Looking down she saw a spike of bone sticking through her right arm. She whirled around.

10 meters behind her a giant scorpion had sneaked up on her. It had a bone-white carapace and a stinger with even more of the bone spikes aimed at her.

[Bonestinger - lvl ??]