*>Brookie: What?*

*>Castle: What happened??*

 

*>Coin Pouch:*

*>Copper: 4,817*

*>Bronzium: 53*

 

*>Fae Sol: Payday, that's what!*

Though her inventory was practically full, one thing that could never fill up was the Coin Pouch.

*Though from 12 players I expected a bit more...*

Even after spending a bunch during the auction, her balance had only roughly doubled.

*>Castle: Whaaaat? Give my my money back!*

*>Fae Sol: Calm down. Let's meet up. Where are you right now?*

*>Castle: Uh... At my Starter place called Erian...*

*>Fae Sol: You didn't set another respawn point?*

*>Castle: ...*

*>Brookie: I didn't either. Didn't know you could.*

*>Fae Sol: Brookie, where are you?*

*>Brookie: Same place. Supposedly we started together an' I had no idea.*

*>Fae Sol: ...*

This was a problem. Their Starter Hamlet was the farthest away from Covan Village of all of its feeder Hamlets.

*>Fae Sol: Alright. I'll leave some stuff for both of you at the Village warehouse. Talk to the NPC Sidio in there, and he'll get everything sorted out for you. Meanwhile, I want to get some business done on my own.*

*>Brookie: Alright.*

*>Castle: Wha- You're just gonna leave us? Where are you going?*

*>Fae Sol: Hm... Well, it's a secret for now, but I'm eventually going to end up at Orchid Town. I'll see you there?*

Orchid Town... the location she was set to meet with her best friend, and the gift she was supposed to give.

*>Name: Magical Oaken Dagger*

*>...*

It was the final prize of the auction. The faster she could sort through her inventory, the sooner she could leave for the town... and the instance dungeon that was en route.

*Hopefully no one's cleared it yet.*

The First Clear bonus for any dungeon was worthwhile. It was unlikely anyone else had cleared it, but there was always a possibility. Yes, that dungeon did appear in the beta, but its minimum level requirement was level 15.

 

*>System message: Level up!*

*>Name: Fae Sol*

*>Class: Slingshot*

*>Level: 11 -> 14 (+3)*

 

After collecting the XP from all the players that had just died, it put here just one level shy of the requirement. From here on out, it was simple. Hunting random mobs on the way would easily put her at 15.

*But right now...*

There were 12 items on the ground, and her inventory was full. To make matters worse, none of the items were particularly noteworthy. However, they could always be sold for cash.

*A bunch of busywork, but it's at least kind of worth it.*

It was possible she would be wasting more time transporting these items back to Covan Village, but she *had* promised Castle and Brookie she'd reimburse them somehow for the troubles...

*Haah, well... Let's get to it.*

 

---

 

*>Coin Pouch:*

*>Copper: 5,101*

*>Bronzium: 53*

 

*I wish someone from that fiasco survived...*

An extra set of hands or two would have expedited the process, but at the end of the day, it was a minor concern. She sold the least valuable items and stored the rest in the warehouse.

And for another trip into the Frontier, she made sure to stock up on ammo and even some potions in case the worst came to pass.

 

*>Inventory:*

*>Ranged+ Pellet: 278*

*>Golden Sling: 1*

*>Magical Oaken Dagger: 1*

*>Healthy Twine Juice: 3*

*>Appraisal Eyepatch: 1*

*>Large Local Map: 1*

 

*Everything's looking alright.*

Once again, no matter how experienced one was at the game, they had to make sure they were prepared for venturing in the Frontier. It was one of the, if not *the*, most fundamental rule of adventuring. Be prepared!

With a final lingering glance at the Village, Jisha propelled herself into the great outdoors once more.

*Let's take a look here... If I remember correctly...*

With her Nightwalker's passive, she breezed through the forest at breakneck speed. It was the perfect time to consult her map. From her Starter Hamlet, the further west she went, the closer to the center of the continent she would get, and the further the game would progress.

As a seasoned front runner would say, "don't stop discovering danger!"

Currently on the map, a green line slowly drew itself towards the left. With minor adjustments to her angle, she was now headed straight for the dungeon.

 

*>+13 Copper*

*>+16 Copper*

*>+28 Copper*

...

 

It was smooth sailing - her XP bar steadily pressed closer and closer towards level 15.

Normal people would have to slow down and progress carefully, but the ordinary mobs were no match for the Gun Swap Goddess' slingshot. To most players logging into Synergy for the first time, a sense of wonder and excitement struck their hearts. The new environment, the new creatures, the new people... the new world. However, for Jisha, it was another day at the office.

*But it's actually even more eventless...*

A "day at the office" in her previous life consisted of a far, far more chaotic environment. When was the last time she ran through such a peaceful area? She couldn't even remember.

It was truly a walk in the park.

But was that a bad thing?

At the end of her previous life, things were so crazy that she hardly had any moments to just wind down and relax. A walk in the park was exactly what she needed.

*...*

It was a meditative practice. The ability to focus. Tolerating boredom. It was a "walk in the park" for her physical body, but in her supernatural circumstance, invasive thoughts wouldn't back down.

Why was she sent back in time? In the current era, or rather, 11 years later, it was common knowledge that time travel to the past wasn't possible. After all, the simple act of traveling back in time could create paradoxes and impossible events. Even in the pre-Synergy era, it was a widely accepted theory.

The only way these paradoxes could be resolved was the worldline theory. It stated that traveling back in time and altering outcomes created a separate timeline that could not affect the original. In this way, paradoxes within the same world were prevented.

However, not long ago, or rather, around 10 years in the future, the worldline theory was debunked by top-level elemental explorers. Jisha didn't understand the details, but this was the nail in the coffin. It was hard proof that traveling to the past was not possible.

Yet she was here. Unless this was still an extremely vivid dream or afterlife scenario, she truly had been sent back to the past. This meant that one of the fundamentals she thought she knew about the world was either false or not completely explained.

However, it wasn't an afterlife because spirits couldn't interact with high-level technology.

It wasn't backwards time travel because that's simply not a possibility.

Or was it?

*Really... There's no point agonizing over it now.*

These thoughts had to settle down.

It was an experience she'd gone through countless times before in her cultivation and meditation practice, but not having practiced it for a while... her mind was definitely out of shape. The body of an ordinary, or rather even weaker than ordinary, 13-year-old girl didn't help either.

The secret was mindfulness. What's happening right now?

Breathing consciously (a/n- you are now breathing manually). Inhaling, exhaling.

Running. One foot in front of the other. The green grass beneath her feet.

A monster. It's a miniature humanoid tree, a treant-like figure.

Normally, her arms would move by themselves and the monster would be dead before anyone knew it. But this time, she paid close attention to her movements.

The smooth roundness of the pellet on her fingertips. The resistance of the band as she pulled it back.

The recoil upon firing.

 

*>+30 Copper*

 

And of course, the money that came as a reward.

An ordinary meditative practice is focus on one's breath. To Jisha, slaying low-level monsters was a similar task.

The most important thing was disengaging autopilot!

For her right now, it was of utmost importance that she understood her current body's capabilities.

Consolidating the scattered mind. Focusing on the world in and around her.

Serenity.

 

*>System message: Level up!*

*>Name: Fae Sol*

*>Class: Slingshot*

*>Level: 14 -> 15 (+1)*

*>...*

 

With a more grounded mindset, the joy of leveling up was magnified. It was an important feeling to relish, as the task would only grow more and more difficult with every passing day.

*And... I'm here.*

The destination arrived - the dungeon was at hand.

A rather inconspicuous-looking cave entrance sat behind a veil of vines. It was big enough for three players to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and it was outlined in dirt and grass. However, there was no doubt it was the entrance of an instance dungeon. The faint white particles floating around the air were a telltale sign.

Dungeons were special spaces, and sometimes even referred to as "subspaces". While in them, contact with the Synergy mainland was reduced, and you would not be able to physically interact with a player in Synergy's Frontier.

So, when she parted the vines and passed beyond the white particles, physical connection to the outside world was cut off. She was in her own space - her own "instance", if you will.

*Good, it's just as I remember.*

Sometimes the entrance would be misleading, but this dungeon unsurprisingly took place inside a cave.

The next move was obvious - it was time to descend.

With every step forwards, the cave unfurled into a widening maw. After about a minute, it started sloping downwards.

No monsters popped out. Everything was going as expected Nothing was wrong... until the cave entrance was out of view.

*Whoops, I don't have a light source.*

The light from outside the cave still illuminated the pathway thus far, but the further down the cave winded, the less light got through. Eventually, it would be completely dark.

How could she make such a rookie mistake? Basic spelunking gear in the real world always included a helmet and headlamp. However... in Synergy, for a cave this basic, a Tier 9 superhuman entity would be indifferent to the absence of mere photons.

Any entity above Tier 0 had an additional sense on their bodies - one of sensing mana. So, light was only one of various methods player would use to detect their environment. But now...

*This might actually be a problem.*

If she didn't have a light source, it didn't matter how good of a player she was. If an attack was silent and invisible, it would be impossible to react to it.

*The struggles of the early game...*

Once again, she was reminded of the shackles placed on her senses as a Tier 0 player...

Here hopes weren't dashed, though. This, too could be a type of training. The more adverse the conditions, the quicker she could adapt to her body. Sight wasn't the only thing able to detect the surroundings.

All she had to do was identify the sounds of the hostile entities. It was highly unlikely that any monsters in a level 10, or even 20 or 30, area would strike silently.

*My saving grace right now is that the cave floor is flat...*

Her experienced ears knew what sounds from the environment she needed to pick out, however this experience wasn't a magic tool. If the floor and ceiling of the cave were covered in stalactites and stalagmites, the difficulty of traversal would increase tenfold... much less reacting to and dodging attacks.

She was still Tier 0. She couldn't use anything crazy like echolocation. Even the most renowned scientists could only measure a sample with the precision of the instrument they were using.

At this point, the cave had turned completely dark - not a single ray of visible light penetrated this far down.

The depths of a cave - one of the darkest places one could ever visit.

It was a place where, regardless of whether your eyes were open or closed, your vision wouldn't change.

Even traditional night vision abilities were useless here. At night, there were still trace amounts of light on the surface. Those with night vision could detect even these faintest amounts of light and see as if it were normal.

However, if there was no light... you couldn't see your fingers in front of you no matter how close to your face they were.

The mindfulness practice she'd done earlier came in handy already.

Vigilance!

In this pitch black world where one of her senses was completely eliminated, the other four were amplified.

*Well, only two are important right now.*

The air still smelled normal. If Jisha died from a deadly gas pocket this early in the game, she wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry. And taste... well... unless there were some salt crystals lying around or something, it wouldn't help much.

Her hearing, though, was pushed to the limit.

Feel was important, too. How was the ground shaped underneath her feet? It was still sloping downwards without an ending in sight.

*Nothing's in sight right now, though... Gotta find the wall.*

Another use for feel - the cave wall. After reorienting herself, she found the wall on her right.

The wall - a purveyor of safety. There were no traps in this dungeon, and no enemies would pop out of the wall. It was also reliable for navigation, as staying aligned with a wall ensures you won't get lost. With the wall on her right, she could backtrack by following the same wall on her left.

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

These quiet footsteps were the only sounds reverberating through the emptiness. And the ground below her feet, along with the cave wall, were the only things she could feel.

Mindfulness! Sharpened focus. The only things in the world were her footsteps and the rough texture on her right fingertips.

Nothing else existed.

Until...

*...!*

A loud screech echoed through the cave.

From its high-pitched sound, one could assume its size was small.

*Some variation of a bat monster?*

There was no way to be certain, but, since they were some of the only animals in the real world that could use echolocation, it was an educated guess for the game's infancy.

Of course, bats used ultrasound to echolocate. This may as well be silent to humans as its frequency exceeded human hearing by an order of magnitude.

But, since low-level monsters would not attack silently, this screech was likely a warning.

*... I can't tell where it is. I really didn't expect something like this from the early game.*

The screeches continuously bounced off the walls. Though she could identify the general direction of the monster, the extreme reverberation was disorienting.

*... I have to take a hit.*

There was no other way to analyze its angle of attack. And for the first time today...

*-36*

Jisha took damage from a natural mob.

It was a lot more damage than she was expecting to take. As a level 15 player, she only had around 120 HP. Yet this mob shaved away over a quarter of it in one hit...

*Alright.*

But that hit gave her all the information she needed!

The monster screeched again. This time...

*Wait... 1... 2!*

It took two and a half seconds from the first screech for the monster to land a hit.

So, precisely two seconds after the second screech, Jisha fired her slingshot in its direction.

*-72*

It was a hit! But...

*... It didn't die?*

This was a bit surprising. The only mob that hadn't been one-shot by the Golden Slingshot thus far was the boss of the Corrupted Land. Any regular mobs in the area were easily killed with one pellet.

On top of that, the slingshot didn't do as much damage as it had been doing previously. This monster's defenses were higher than expected, too.

Fortunately, the Golden Slingshot was still a lethal weapon.

*-138*

*>+30 Copper*

After another screech, Jisha landed a critical hit. The coins that appeared in her Coin Pouch was confirmation of its death.

*Did it drop anything?*

Jisha briefly stepped away from the wall to discover, the monster had indeed dropped an item.

 

*>+1 Winged Cave Dweller's Larynx*

 

*>Name: Winged Cave Dweller's Larynx*

*>Type: Mutator*

*>Description: *High-pitched screeching**

*>Rating: Tier 0, Epic*

*>Ability:*

*>Echolocation (Toggle, No cooldown): While enabled, emits an ultrasound pulse every 5 seconds allowing the user to see with sound rather than light.*

 

*Oh?*

An Epic item. If this was a level 15 dungeon as expected, a Rare monster would drop 30 Copper.

A lucky drop. It wasn't often that a Rare monster would drop an Epic item, but it wasn't unheard of either.

The thing was, this item was of the "Mutator" type, which noticeably increased its rarity. Only about one in fifty items were of the Mutator type, and this was a conservative estimate. It was likely to be even rarer.

So the odds of receiving this item here and now were...

*A one-in-five-hundred drop?*

Plus, it was another extremely convenient item for her circumstances.

*Is the system suddenly rigged in my favor? Well, I'm not complaining!*

With gratitude, Jisha equipped the Mutator item.

Mutator items were a bit dangerous. They were not stored in the inventory or armor slots but rather on the body itself. They permanently changed the player's physique, and once applied, they could not be removed. Because of this, excess use of mutators risked complete destabilization of the player character.

The reason Jisha didn't hesitate to use this one, though, was because it was a Tier 0 item.

After every tier, a player's physique would receive something like a reset. After a tier evolution, all mutators would be reset along with a myriad of other changes.

The only mutators she truly had to worry about were the ones after Tier 9, but that was still years away.

*Time to try this thing out... Echolocation, on!*

A pulse radiated with Jisha at the center, and the reflection of this pulse loaded a wave of information in her brain. The information she received was akin to a snapshot of the cave with only the outlines of objects visible.

In other words, she was now seeing the game with no color at 0.2 frames per second...

Though annoying, it was better than being completely blind.

With this ability, she would have absolutely no trouble anymore dealing with small fry monsters nor would she have to keep sticking to the wall.

*Alright... Let's keep moving.*