Lia awoke to find herself in a bright room. Or rather, with the structure of the walls, rocks, and the brightly glowing gemstones that sprouted in random areas, a bright cave. Glancing around cautiously, she tried to identify the white rock that seemed to surround this place.

“As I thought, marble…” Lia muttered as she felt the smoothness of the marble, “Now then… why am I the one who has to be dropped off into some random cave somewhere and not be found and not that dumbass Aezan?” she asked no one in particular as she narrowed her eyes in a glare.

It wasn’t even a second into Dresden taking control of this body and he somehow couldn’t help but really get into her role now. He was starting to get really worried for his mental health, but that was just a very tiny thought in the back of his metaphorical head.

Back to Lia, however, she opened up her stat window and map.

Lia Saejan / F / LV. 10] {HP: 620/620 MP: 1350/1350 SP: 56/56}

[EXP UNTIL LV. UP: 134900]

[PHYS. POWER: 6]

[MAGI. POWER: 14(+5+2)=21]

[SPEED: 8(+2)=10]

[ENDURANCE: 5]

[PERCEPTION: 12(+3)=15]

[UNUSED POINTS: 25]

{Titles}

<Graceful Mage | +5 M. POW., +2 SPD>

<Slaughterer of Orcs (Giant) | Additional 20% damage to Giant Orcs, Additional 10% damage to all other Orc types>

{Skills}

[UNIQUE SKILLS: Parallelization System {Co-Op Sync<Inactive: Out of Range>} (Partner: Aezan Diaz), Tranquil Consciousness, Elemental Skill Enhancement, Transcendent Staff Affinity]

[PASSIVE SKILLS: NONE]

[ACTIVE SKILLS: Mana Bolt Lv.7, Legendary Mana Barrier Lv.1]

{Equipment}

Mage Set Equipment [Beginner] <+2 M. POW., +3 PRP>

Void Tempest Starscream Staff {Unique Evolving Staff | Bound to Lia Saejan | Can be Summoned}

{Inventory Items}

[Portable Camping Site <Small> {Gold Rank - Can be Upgraded}]

[Scroll of Teleportation] {Infinite Uses | Cannot Teleport: Please Bind a Location | Bound to User: Lia Saejan}

[Current Location: Fennel Kingdom]

[Distance from Partner (Aezan Diaz) : 4,750km]

“Yeah, sure, Fennel Kingdom my ass.” Lia muttered, rolling her eyes at the accuracy of the map.

Well, at the very least it did show her position in the map, the Current Location data just wasn’t incredibly accurate, but there were other things for her to worry about. Like, how to get out of this cave for instance. Failing that, how she’d even survive here in the first place.

She couldn’t help but cringe at her pitifully low HP pool. At this point she wouldn’t be surprised if one attack from a Goblin could kill her… not that she was going to let that happen, especially with her speed.

While Aezan was on the other side of the world talking with a bunch of important characters to get started on some sort of Heroic Questline, Lia was here doing some spelunking in a weird cave (that, if what happened to Aezan was any indication, is most likely a dungeon) worst part was that she was doing this solo… as a Mage. She decided not to get too annoyed by that (she was pissed off by a lot of things today already, she didn’t need any more) and just focus on two things.

One: Surviving. Two: Getting the fuck out of here.

Sounds simple, right? Surprisingly, it might actually be that simple, considering all the bullshit bonuses her staff is getting, alongside with her steadily growing magic power, and the overpowered unique passive she got [Tranquil Consciousness], it shouldn’t be too difficult to get out of here.

She just had to allocate her stat points right now to give herself the best shot to get out of here safely and also protect herself. At the very least she had [Legendary Mana Barrier] to keep herself safe, only unfortunate thing is the duration the barrier stays active and the cooldown it has.

Even then, she didn’t feel too worried.

Why?

Because [Mana Bolt] was really powerful now.

[Mana Bolt Lv.7(5%EXP)]

10MP Base Cost, stacks an additional 5MP to the cost per consecutive cast, and boosts damage by an additional 50% (resets 8 seconds after the last cast)

Can stack 20 times before activating the 15 second cooldown.

Damage is multiplied by 250% per concurrent Mana Bolt on the same target.

Stacking Damage Boost caps at 600%.

5% Chance of Instantly Shattering any Mana Barrier lower than Gold Rank.

50 Base Magical Damage

It was now a ridiculously powerful spell that basically relied on spamming the crap out of it if you wanted to be efficient with your mana usage. There was a reason why they were able to clear out nearly the whole forest back then, after a certain point they were basically able to kill one Giant Orc in less than ten seconds. And now with the ridiculous damage boost that using their specialized weapons gave them… well, they might just be able to one-shot those Giant Orcs now, even if they don’t touch the 25 unallocated stat points they have.

Still, though she might not need much of any damage boost now, there was still the problem of her low HP and SP. Now that she was alone (an odd thing to think about for sure since she and Aezan are the same person) she can’t really rely on anyone to tank for her. So she might as well use up some of those stat points to give herself a better chance at safety.

Oh, and also to get some MP regeneration, which just really meant she’d have to put a few more points into the perception stat.

The names of the stats in this game is certainly different, but at the very least it was straightforward.

“Right then… let’s allocate those points.” Lia sighed, feeling rather lonely now that Aezan wasn’t with her… not that she missed him or anything. No, of course not. Why would she miss herself? That’s just weird. Speaking of which, Aezan was currently at the Vortien Theocracy Cathedral currently speaking with the Cardinal and the Drakon Empire’s Prince.

He’s certainly having fun, that’s for sure.

Lia focused her own body’s brain power on herself right now though, she didn’t have much leeway and couldn’t afford to be distracted with whatever’s happening on Aezan’s side.

They can just go over that later.

Dresden’s mind was split into two in some way then, while at the same time being able to control Aezan and Lia’s bodies using most of their own body’s brain power.

In a way, Dresden almost felt like he was a commander. Just sending orders and commands to the respective bodies and then letting them do it as best as possible.

This one, however, would be his hardest challenge yet. Having to pay attention to not only Lia who’s in some cave dungeon thing in the Fennel Kingdom, but also Aezan, on the other side of Vaera, at the Vortien Theocracy. Dresden’s mental processing would be tested to its limits for real then.

Allocating 3 points to Physical Power just in case she needed to move something particularly heavy, 4 to Speed so she had a fair enough leeway to flee if she ever needed to do so, 10 to Endurance to increase her health substantially, and then finally 6 to Perception and 2 to Magic Power.

Lia Saejan / F / LV. 10] {HP: 1680/1680 MP: 1570/1570 SP: 159/159}

(Regen: 75HP/5s 63MP/5s 7.5SP/5s)

[EXP UNTIL LV. UP: 134900]

[PHYS. POWER: 9]

[MAGI. POWER: 16(+5+2)=23]

[SPEED: 12(+2)=14]

[ENDURANCE: 15]

[PERCEPTION: 18(+3)=21]

[UNUSED POINTS: 0]

Right then, that should take care of that. Lia smiled and took another good look at her surroundings.

… well that’s boring, there’s only one way to go. Shaking her head in disappointment she placed a mana barrier around herself… and ran.

The surroundings passed her by rather quickly as she started running, and she finally realized just how fast they really were able to run around in the forest they started in.

From what she could estimate… she was basically running at just barely 30km/h, which was amazing considering just how much control she had over herself even at this speed. Was this the effects of magic? Or just the oddity of the RPG system thing they have? Probably the latter, she had a feeling that Perception had a hand in this too.

It’s not like they have a dexterity stat here after all, so it had to be that, or the Physical Power stat, but that one doesn’t make much sense because of how few points she had on that one.

As Lia continued to speculate on the possible rules that the point system operated on, she steadily explored the cave/dungeon, while absently killing the monster she passed along the way.

All the while running at a fairly respectable speed of 10km/h, something she settled on so as to not utterly exhaust her stamina (SP) and to take breaks in the middle.

[+1240XP from killing Magic Bat Lv.14!]

Shooting out one last mana bolt to clear out the flock of bats that had been following her for the past while, she sighed and shook her head slightly, checking her stats for a moment as she sat down by a corner, leaning back against the wall.

{Lia Lv.10 | HP: 1595/1680 | MP: 765/1570 | SP: 56/159 | XP TIL LVL UP: 84790}

Well, at the very least she was getting some experience while exploring these caves, making it so that this wasn’t a complete waste of time… Checking over the time on where Aezan was, it’s been about 4 hours already since she woke up.

And yet… she hardly felt like she was making any progress here.

Lia couldn’t help but look down at the weirdly clean marble floor in defeat. “Aezan… things are hard when you’re alone, huh?” she muttered to herself, communicating with him. Well, they were the same people but…

“Somehow, it feels different.” She mumbled, looking at her palms, ones which Dresden were never familiar with, but as Lia… “I feel… distinct. Distinct from you, Aezan. Distinct from… Dresden.”

Reaching her hand outwards, just staring at it and… clamping down slightly as though she was holding someone’s hand.

As though she held his hand.

Drip.

She was suddenly startled as she, heard the resounding drip, but as she looked down, finding her reflection, she saw that there were tears falling from her eyes.

“Oh.” Lia said, not really sure of what was happening.

No, Dresden didn’t know what was happening.

He tried to pull himself back together—to have a sense of self again…

But he started to realize something. He wasn’t losing his sense of self.

These bodies… that were now a part of him… were becoming their own person.

So, instead of pulling and tightly grasping for control over himself—rather, over Lia’s body he relaxed.

He allowed her to do as she wished.

Allowed himself to have some release.

So she cried. Lia, who was a part of him, one that he didn’t realize truly was a vital part of him until now, let her emotions out.

And he, in turn, also cried, pouring out the emotions that he’d been repressing for the last while.

Only now, was he truly realizing that he was no longer ‘home’.

This was not Earth.

This was Vaera.

And the great escape he was looking for? Here he got it.

… They do say that you only truly find the importance of something when you’ve lost it.

They couldn’t be any more right.

ddrhckrzz

If you're confused by anything, please do tell me in the comments, I'll try to answer it as best as I could (without spoiling anything of course). I hope you liked this chapter, much of a change of pace as it is.