In preparation to sneak out Mia raided the kitchen, grabbing two sharp knives and some old, dried meat, enough to last her, at best, three days. She felt wrong doing this but reminded herself what Maria had said, she needed to not sweat the small stuff. One load back to the start and it will be like she never left, it didn’t mean she felt nothing when doing it, the consequences of her actions still existed in this current time, the image of her mother looking frantically for her young daughter flashing in Mia’s mind, but for now she’d have to bear it.

She then exited the house and went around back to the lumber pile, picking up the axe and giving it a few test swings “Heavy…” she mumbled, but it was a much better weapon then a couple of sharp knives and the heaviness would only last until she leveled up once. She briefly considered the idea of raiding the local blacksmith for some proper weaponry but figured it impossible in her current state.

Which lead her to decide on her current goal, getting stronger. Being as she was now her options were extremely limited, even without considering her age and size, but if she got stronger, if she got more starting skills and titles, then what she could do at the start would expand, with the end goal being crushing the church’s camp.

She tied the axe to her back, making sure it was firmly in place before bringing up her status, staring at slot 2 “…I’ll do my best…” She said to herself, then saving over the file. She sniffed, rubbing her blurry eyes before dashing off to the forest, heading west.

There were several reasons why she was heading west, going east was out of the question as that lead to Eldaha, the nation she spent a slave in for three years. She could try and change things there, get more information out of the hero, train with Rowan some more, but that involved spending three years as a slave only to get what was not even a weeks’ worth of training and only a week to convince *that* guy the church is going to blow everyone up for a chance to get more.

Mia ducked under some trees, cursing at her lack of foot ware but grit her teeth and bared with it. Going north was an option, but that risked running in with her father and sister on her way to any other beast tribe or Gaia if she wanted to risk it. No, from the why Maria talked about it, after she gained the strength to do so she needed to investigate Gaia.

As for going further north… she didn’t know any reason to even consider going to Kion… Same with going south towards the ocean. She didn’t have a reason to head that way, other than maybe some beast tribes? She berated her past self for not getting anymore information out of Maria while she could, but something told her Maria didn’t want to influence her too much… maybe it was a lingering regret from the memory manipulation.

Regardless, Going west was the safest option. It was beast territory and if she went far enough, she knew Eldaha wouldn’t get that deep into the territory before being pushed back, she could even warn any tribes she met along the way while she worked towards getting stronger. She clutched her chest, feeling a bit hypocritical she paused and looked back, the village already hidden by the trees.

“…Maria said it was best to move alone…” she looked down towards her muddy and bruised feet, the small sack of dried meat tied to her waist, the axe on her back, and laughed. She felt radicicolous, how could she think of saving others when she was just abandoning everyone she has ever known.

She loaded her save, returning to just outside her house. “So what.” So what if she could get more done alone? That means she had to just abandon everyone? Screw that. If her goal was to get stronger for this cycle, then there is no reason she had to rush it like this. Maria said if it doesn’t work out and they get captured, or worse, then it was just a waste of time, so she shouldn’t even try?

What is time to someone who has infinite.

Sure, everyone will be right back in the village, back in danger the moment she loads her first save but it didn’t sit right with her when she could barely navigate the damn forest, she could barely justify it in her mind, not without trying first. She just had to convince everyone to leave, preferably before the end of the day… simple…

She ran into her mother’s room “Mom!” she yelled from the entrance.

Her mother shot up in bed “Huh?! What is it?! Is the house burning?!” Lisa looked around the room, her eyes falling onto her daughter who was wearing an ill-fitting dress, decked out with two knives and an axe tied to her “Mia?! What are you doing with all that?!”

Mia took a deep breath, she had to be direct, knowing time was short “Mom, I know about status, skills, all of that. I know about Maria, my aunt. I know about what you guys were doing. I have a skill that lets me go back in time and we need to evacuate, fast. Eldaha invades in the morning, we cannot win, we have to leave as soon as possible.”

“I…you…skill? What, invaded?” Her mother blinked, taken aback as she wavered a bit, then fainted, falling back on her bed.

“…”

Maybe not that direct.