Alice woke up feeling numb. She could barely feel anything in her body. She tried opening her eyes only to be assaulted by the worst pins and needles she had ever felt, it was so bad she would rather amputate her limbs than go through it. Eventually the ants crawling over every millimetre of her body calmed down and Alice decided that trying to do anything right now was a bad idea. As her panic dulled, she felt a soft silk cradling her. Her mind drifted to the last memory she had. The feeling of liquid ice flowing through her veins and the numbing paralysis that followed came back in full force. She started hyperventilating at the thought and flinched, causing the razor sharp ants to once more crawl through her bloodstream. This led her to writhe in pain which made the itching worse. The torture continued until she felt her consciousness fade.
When Alice woke up again with a start, she tensed for the incoming pain and was happily surprised to find that the pins and needles were at a more reasonable level. She could also move now! Though only in jerky twitches and stuts. Once the needles were done with their fun, Alice noticed the pain she was in. Her whole body ached, her gut was burning, and her eyesight was blurry with dark spots in it.She twisted her neck slightly to get a better view of where she was only to immediately pass out.
The next time Alice woke up, she could feel a thin broth filling her mouth. She thankfully had the presence of mind to swallow a few mouthfuls of the tasteless dish before she fell back asleep.
Alice woke up again feeling… oddly good. Relatively of course. She still ached like anything, but she could see again and her stomach wasn’t burning any more. She wiggled into a more upright position, grimacing slightly at the pain. Looking around, she saw she was alone in the hut she was living in. She also realized just how tired she was; it felt like she had already been sleeping for years, so the thought that she needed even more sleep was baffling and, to be entirely honest, somewhat frightening.
What if I don’t wake up.
The thought started as a whisper that she forced to the back of her mind, but surely progressed into the start of panic. She tried comforting herself with the thought that if her injuries were that bad she wouldn’t be alive to have this thought. Just in case though, she prepared to heal herself. She began gathering the mana for the spell, subconsciously bracing herself for the pain that came anytime she did anything, only to find that she felt better than ever! But only in regards to mana of course. She finished the spell and cast it.
Everything felt immediately better, but she couldn’t help but worry that something had gone wrong. Even though her aches and pains were better, almost gone, they weren’t gone. Which was quite concerning when she realized that her magic had previously healed scars that would have been with her for a lifetime, but the very same magic failed to heal a few aches. Unfortunately, she was too tired to think further on the topic.
It had been a few days and Alice was finally able to walk without discomfort. She was still baffled as to why it had taken this long but there was nothing to be done there.
On the bright side, she had levelled up! A full five levels. She’d managed to regain all of the stat points used on language proficiency and [Eyes of Fate], plus a whole lot more. It actually felt kind of unfair that she got any levels when all she did was run about and get hurt. She wasn’t going to complain when the unfairness benefited her though.
It also dawned on her that she had severely underestimated just what double meant in the level description. She obviously understood that if level one had one stat point, level two would have two, and that level three would then have four points instead of three. That intuition fell apart since by that logic, if level ten had 512 points, level 13 would have way more. And in reality, it did have more. At about 4 thousand that was more than she’d ever imagined she would have. She was tempted to immediately put them all into elevating and upgrading all her skills, but that felt like a decision she should plan more.
If she remembered correctly, [Basic Identification] said the spider was between level 15 and 20. Which she now understood was a ludicrous range, but the spider was probably somewhere on the higher end of that, since just stalling for time netted 3 levels. That meant that whatever she would face in future would have many, many, many more stats than her. She didn’t even think she could do the maths to find out!
That also meant that there was no way for her to actually win those fights. At least not as she was now. After all she was at the point where all of her strength was system based and so a single level above her decided the entire fight. She needed to learn how to actually survive. Just running away while knowing her death was imminent was so scary she started shaking from the memory . She managed to hold back her tears though, she could cry when she got to safety.
If she was actually serious about her goals she would need to do whatever it took to improve. Once she got up. But for now, she stayed in the warmth.
Alice wriggled out of the web sack she had been left in. It seems that instead of moving her out of her prison, they had simply cut it open to allow her to exit as she pleased. To be entirely honest, Alice would have preferred it over her sleeping bag despite the memories it brought, it was just that much more comfortable than her sleeping bag.
Once she was out she felt undecided as to what to do. She knew her long term goals and even longer term goals, but her next move? Anyone’s guess. She could go back to her prior plan of just wandering around while getting steadily deeper into the forest, but that could just as easily kill her as it would let her get stronger. She would need to improve her survivability first.
She also didn’t want to say goodbye to Nadi. She was the first person ‘her age’ she had seen for a long while. She could just stay, but that… wasn’t an option. The goblins were just too different for her to be fully comfortable with.
That made her choice a bit easier. She would definitely be leaving for Caldreath, but only after she was confident in her abilities, and to be entirely honest she had absolutely no idea where to start. She would have to think about that later.
As she was preparing to leave, there was a knock on the door. It didn’t escape her notice that the door had already started swinging inwards from the knock, having no way to lock or close it.
She pulled open the door and behind it saw Karandi.
”Is there anything I can help you with?”
”I am here to give you the apology you’re due, and an explanation.”
Alice wasn’t sure at all what to say, and after a moment of waiting he resumed.
”I’ve been… hesitant to let you leave, because I didn’t think you were ready to. I did not want to help you either since with people who have garnered as much attention as you have, it’s hard to know what will be tolerated. Hence I simply did nothing, and caused more harm than good.
”I still stand by my decision that you shouldn’t leave yet, as recent events have shown. But I also want you gone before my head yellows from stress. And so, while I truly do apologise for what I’ve done, either you must leave within the week, or you accept my help. “
Looking at him again, Karandi simply looked, drained. Like he didn’t want to force the choice on her, but he had no options.
Alice was sure there was a correct answer, but she also felt as though choosing well didn’t matter. Either way she had to make a choice.
