When she woke up, it was almost midday. The birds sang outside her window, and a gentle breeze pushed against her windows and doors. She sat up slowly, the memories of last night still clinging heavily to her. She felt different, probably because she had suddenly increased her stats so much in one go. Stronger, faster, her senses a lot keener. It felt as if she could count each individual blade of grass outside just by listening to the sound of them swaying in the wind. How she could see the individual fluttering of the wings of a nearby bumblebee. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but she soon got a grip. She didn't have to be "Tapped in" constantly, but could let the noise fade to the back of her mind.
Before she did anything else, she decided to spend all her attribute points. All her stats were really strong now, so she just placed all of them into Intellect, raising it from 394 to 504, making her status window look like this:
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 4110 MP: 9680
Level: 32 (23,000/67,000)
Race: High Elf
Age: 26
Stamina: 411
Strength: 337
Agility: 358
Spirit: 293
Intellect: 504
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: 0
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She felt pretty confident about her stats now. She should be more powerful than a max-leveled summoned hero now. But there were probably still creatures and beings out there that could threaten her still. She did not want that. For her to be able to live comfortably... she had to be untouchable. Only then could she properly relax and enjoy this life without the looming threat of death. She had lived under Death's boot all of her previous life, and it was something she had vowed to never surrender herself to ever again. This life she would live entirely on her own terms, and no one else's.
So, over the last two months, she repeated her monster trap an additional four times, evenly spread out in different directions out from her Spirit Sanctuary. On the fifth and final trap, she got far fewer monsters to come and die at her hands than her previous four, so she felt rather confident she had actually now cleared out nearly all monsters who lived within a few kilometers from her Sanctuary. She was now level 65 and had all her stats at over 1000, with her status window looking like this:
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Name: Lyra Lunarsong
HP: 12550 MP: 20430
Level: 65 (113,000 / 850,000)
Race: High Elf
Age: 26
Stamina: 1255
Strength: 1185
Agility: 1130
Spirit: 1068
Intellect: 1674
Job: Mage (Apprentice and Novice level spells costs 50% less mana to cast.) (Upgrade available!)
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: 165
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It was when she passed level 40 that she had gotten the "Upgrade" choice for her job, but she had not touched that yet. And once she passed level 60, she saw a new "Upgrade" option too. The option she got at level 40 seemed to be upgrading from a Mage to a Wizard. It was a job focused mostly around Arcane-based spells, like various buffs and utility spell. However, the level 60 option was far more interesting. She'd upgrade from a Mage into a Spirit-Mage. According to the description, the "Spirit-Mage" was a job upgrade only available to Elves and High-Elves who had over 3000 mana, and who had communicated with spirits before. A spirit-mage apparently specialized in contracting with spirits and using the spirits to assist their spellcasting.
Wasting little time, Lyra hit the upgrade button, and now she was a Spirit-Mage! Though she didn't feel any different. Still, with her newfound power and new job, she now felt fully confident exploring the dark forest that surrounded her Sanctuary properly. She found that the many monsters within could now sense her aura and thus stayed clear of her. Now she could swim and bathe and go on walks even in the dark forest, as if it were her Spirit Sanctuary, since all monsters avoided her like the plague.
This newfound freedom was something she enjoyed, as she had been holed up in her Spirit Sanctuary for the past 9 years. She found new rivers, lakes, massive caverns filled with crystal and stalagmites, as well as beautiful forest glades where faeries and dryads danced and played at night. It was also around this time she began making attempts at mapping out the area. First she tried doing it by hand on parchment, but her skill for drawing was still quite lacking. Instead, she opted to using her "Magic Creation" to just generate a map for her, and that did wonders.
However, she still had never seen another person. All in all, this wasn't all that surprising seeing how dangerous and high level all the monsters in this forest were. Though they were no longer any threat to her of course. She spent about a week in one of the glades in the deep forest, trying to connect with the Dryads and Faeries she had seen before. At first, the Dryads and Faeries stayed clear of her, but eventually, gradually, they came about. At the end of the week, in the bright moonlight, they even let her dance together with them, and for the first time in a very long while, Lyra had genuine fun.
She had never once gone to a ball or school-dance in her past life, so she had a bit to make up for in this life. The Dryads were creatures that resembled wooden women with vines and flowers for hair; they were spirits of nature that would use mimicry to lure in unsuspecting men into the woods, only to then consume them. However, Lyra being a High-Elf, and now a Spirit-Mage, she had a special connection to all the spirit creatures of the world it would seem, and thus none of the Dryads or Faeries she had come across ever showed any signs of hostility.
The Faeries were small creatures, like tiny little people with glowing butterfly wings. They too were spirits of nature that often resided in glades or flower patches like these. The dust that fell from their wings were a highly sought-after commodity that had drug-like qualities, making the imbiber feel happy. Extremely happy. But here in the deep forests, they had found their own home far from mortal society. They weren't hurting anybody. And now, Lyra considered them friends. She danced with them for a few nights, laughing and having fun. Of course, they could not communicate with one another using words, but Lyra assessed they possessed intelligence, but similar to that of a small child.
Still, they were the first friends she had made in this world. Over the coming month, she would go to visit them twice, and brought along gifts of berries from her Spirit Sanctuary, which both parties really seemed to enjoy. Anything that came from her Spirit Sanctuary they would go crazy over, so she had to ensure she brought enough berries for everyone else there would be infighting. She figured it was likely because the things growing in her Sanctuary were laden with spirit energies, so to spirit creatures like the Dryads and Faeries, those food items were very precious. She did wonder why they couldn't enter her Spirit Sanctuary, but later figured it was probably because she had not invited them inside. The Sanctuary was hers, as it had been created when she was reborn as a High Elf, and thus it was in many ways linked to her. No "Monster" type creature could enter typically, at least not without her permission. And while she liked her new friends, she didn't really want to share her home with them. She liked the peace and quiet which seclusion brought her, after all. To have a place which was all hers, that was a nice feeling, and one she had never had in her old life.
And like that, year 9 came and went, with Lyra going further and further into the forest surrounding her home each time. Then, at the start of her 10th year in this world, it finally happened. She had traveled three weeks distance away from her home, when she heard it. Voices. People talking. She had finally come across what she assumed to be people! How this fateful meeting would come to change her life, she could not even begin to fathom yet...