Spring came around on her 8th year since transmigrating and being reborn in this world. For the first time since her arrival, she was going to leave her 7km diameter Spirit Sanctuary, and explore the forests surrounding her. She had packed a bag, filled with enough rations of dried fish and dried fruits and nuts, to last her about two weeks. The plan was to set out and travel downriver for a week, and then travel back up the river again for a week.
Lyra took a look at her status window again.
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 30/30 MP: 3200/3200
Level: 1
Race: High Elf
Age: 24
Stamina: 3
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Spirit: 5
Intellect: 30
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)
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She felt confident, with this high mana, that she could manage just fine. She had practiced her spells for months, and was ready to erect a mana-barrier in under a second. Being an elf, she naturally had very keen senses and fast reflexes, and she had trained those too.
So, on a spring morning, she bid farewell to her cottage. She watered the vegetable garden, and then began trekking down along the banks of the river. After two hours, she reached the end of her sanctuary. At once, the forest got thicker, with far less light coming down through the canopy. The warm, fuzzy and safe feeling also seemed to immediately fade. But she took a step forward, and then another, daring herself to be brave and set out into the world. She followed the river for another few hours, without running into any wildlife what so ever.
She took a breather in a small glade which the river passed through, and snacked on a dried fish fillet. The air here was more humid, and her skin was already glistening with sweat. The humidity likely came from how thick with trees and plants this area was, and how it was a bit lower in elevation from her home. All around her though, the forest was full of life. Birds singing, insects chirping. But she still had not come across any beast or the like, and she didn't know if she ought to be thankful for that or not.
After her break, she pushed on, and followed the river down for another four hours. At one point, she believe she saw some shadow move in the waters of the river, large enough to be a person, but she could never spot it again after that. As the sun began to fade, she opted against making a fire, and instead climbed a nearby tree, electing to spend the night up off the ground, just to be safe.
This proved to be a wise decision, because as soon as darkness came, the forest truly came alive. She could hear large creatures of unknown origin shuffle about in the thick overgrowth, with accompanying grunts and growls. Had she been human, she would have seen nothing, but thanks to her elven eyes, just the small starlight that seeped down through the canopy was enough for her. She got no rest that night, but instead was awake the entire time, looking down at the forest floor. She saw three different beasts during a seven hour time-period, and thankfully none of them seemed to notice her as she laid flat some twenty meters up on a branch on a tree. Using her "Magic Creation" skill, she had made a spell she called "Inspect" which let her spend mana to look at the stat window of another creature. The mana cost was twice the targets level, which she felt was rather generous seeing the amount of information she could glean from such a spell.
The first beast she used this spell on, looked to be some kind of water lizard or crocodile. However, it walked upright on two legs. It was probably the owner of the shadow she had seen in the water that one time during the day.
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Name: NA
HP: 460/460 MP: 20/20
Level: 38
Race: Ravenous Lizard-Man
Age: 13
Stamina: 46
Strength: 42
Agility: 39
Spirit: 15
Intellect: 2
Description:Ravenous Lizard-Men live in primitive tribes along rivers and floodplains. When the males reach adulthood, they often set out alone to hunt prey by themselves.
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It was "Only" level 38, and was certainly leaning more towards the physical area. The second beast she spotted, a few hours later, was a massive bear. Thick brown and silvery fur, almost 4 meters tall when walking on all fours. Thankfully, it did not smell the food in her bag as she hid up in the tree. Its stats were like these:
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Name: NA
HP: 840/840 MP: 100/100
Level: 46
Race: Ironfur-Bear
Age: 20
Stamina: 84
Strength: 73
Agility: 58
Spirit: 40
Intellect: 10
Description:Ironfur-Bears are solitary creatures who only meet with others of its kind once a year for mating. Its thick hide is like armor, very difficult to penetrate.
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It was far stronger than the Lizard-Man thing she had seen earlier. She also couldn't see any skills these beasts possessed currently, so that was also something to watch out for. The final creature she saw in the forest came much later, when a thick fog had rolled in from the river, spreading up against the forest floor.
Lyra had dosed off a bit, but woke up to the sound of something giggling below. As she opened her eyes to look, she watched almost mesmerized as a humanoid-shaped creature danced and swayed in a beam of moonlight that a hole in the canopy cast down below. The creature had two legs and two arms, but seemed to be made of wood and plants. It looked distinctly female, with a thick collection of vines and flowers as hair. When Lyra checked its stats, she learned it was a Dryad.
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Name: NA
HP: 650/650 MP: 430/430
Level: 54
Race: Darkwood Dryad
Age: 115
Stamina: 65
Strength: 42
Agility: 53
Spirit: 40
Intellect: 43
Description:Darkwood Dryad's are forests spirits who have become trapped in wood and thus given form. They are capable of mimicry and illusion magic, and likes to lure unsuspecting men deep into the forests only to consume them.
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However, oddly enough, at one point, the creature below stopped and seemed to look up directly at the spot on the tree where Lyra was hiding. However rather than attacking, it just giggle and waved, before it vanished deeper into the woods. The entire encounter left Lyra with an odd feeling, since the Goddess had once listed Dryads under her example of hostile creatures.
Then again, she was a High Elf now, a creature closely linked to the spirits. And if Dryads were classified as a nature spirit of sorts, perhaps that explained why it wasn't outright hostile to her. Regardless, she did not move from her spot until daylight came, and only then did she climb on down from her tree branch. She was tired, from having barely slept during the night, but with a bit of dried fruits and nuts to snack on she felt some energy return to her.
She set out and continued further down along the river, only to distinctly feel as if she was being followed. However, when she looked around, she couldn't see anything. But, she had magic at her disposal, and used her spell "Search" to look for hostiles nearby. Wouldn't you know it, there was a level 38 hostile stalking her from the murky waters of the river. Likely the Lizard-Man from last night. And it only got closer and closer to her, so Lyra figured it would likely attack her soon, when next she took a break. So, as she stopped to rest, she elected to raise her "Mana Barrier" as a precaution around her.
Not long after, as she had sat down to eat another dried fish fillet, the river erupted as the Ravenous Lizard-Man lept out of the waters, coming straight for her, jaw open wide. Thankfully the Mana-barrier sprung to life, protecting her from his vicious bite, and she was notified it had blocked 430 points of damage, meaning she was now 430 mana short. She couldn't take many such attacks, so she decided to go on the offensive right away.
Since he lived in the water, she figured he'd perhaps be weak to lightning based attacks, so she used her custom spell "Lightning Bolt" right away and unleashed it towards the Lizard-Man! The Lightning boomed loudly as it was unleashed, striking the Lizard-Man straight in the chest and sent him flying into a nearby tree.
Using her "Inspection" spell she could tell he had only 160/460HP remaining, so her attack must have done 300 dmg, which wasn't bad at all! But, realizing he was now in danger, the Lizard-Man rushed back towards the river, scales sizzling with smoke after the lightning spell. However, not wanting risk having to fight the creature again later down the line, Lyra had to try and kill him now. She spent another 200 mana on a spell called "Magic Missile" which locked onto the target and then fired three Arcane Missiles at it. Once the spell was locked on, the missiles themselves would never miss, so it was perfect in a clutch situation like this.
The first missile struck the Lizard-Man in the back, bringing it down to 50 HP, and the last two sealed the deal, killing the Lizard-Man just two meters before the river. Immediately, Lyra felt a surge of power and received multiple sudden notifications in front of her.
"You have slain a lvl 38 Ravenous Lizard-Man, 11,378 experience points gained! An additional 17,965 experience points gained due to the massive level difference!"
"Congratulations, you have reached level 2! 5 attribute points gained."
"Congratulations, you have reached level 3! 5 attribute points gained."
And so on, and so on. She checked her status:
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 30/30 MP: 3200/3200
Level: 7 (1343/33,000)
Race: High Elf
Age: 24
Stamina: 3
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Spirit: 5
Intellect: 30
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: 35
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As it turns out, leveling up also immediately seems to reset your HP and MP, because she was back at full. Now, she had 35 points to spend, which was exciting. But before she got around to that, she did a quick "Search" to scan the area, to ensure no other hostiles were around. Once she was sure she was safe, she approached the body of the Lizard-Man and studied it. It had been fried badly by her lightning attack, and the magic missiles had broken its back. It's scaley hide could be useful, but she had not brought any tools with her to make use of it.
So, in the end, she left the body of the monster without doing anything with it. In other isekai she had read while back on earth, monsters often dropped some sort of mana crystal, but that did not seem to be the case here. The only thing of value you could get from the monsters here appeared to be what you could actually salvage from their bodies.
Now then, back to her attribute points. She did feel a little bit weak HP-wise. Had she not had her mana-barrier, this thing would have one-shotted her. That did make her rather nervous, so she decided to invest all 35 points into her Stamina. She jumped from a stamina of 3 up to 38, and went from 30 HP to 380 HP. She also felt like her body got a bit stronger. She could walk and run for longer now, without getting tired. The backpack she carried with her also felt a lot lighter all of a sudden, which was a welcome change.
With this incredible victory, she made the decision to continue down along the river, now more confident than ever in her skills! Surely nothing would go wrong... surely.