Jubilation, glee, elation. Warm, fuzzy feelings of exultation bubbled up within Kaltyr as the mana bubbles she created gathered in front of her lips, melding together to form an even bigger bubble!
Then it popped, and a similar burning agony from before raged within the meridians of her neck and head. Though unlike when she stupidly took the fish’s bubble attack face-on thinking she could tank the damage without repercussion, this pain was different, as it wasn’t produced from the bubble spell she almost cast. No, the mana forming the bubble spell just dissipated into the atmosphere. Instead, it was the mana she’d been using to cast the spell that went out of control, rampaging around through her magical channels after failing to cast it.
Time dragged on as Kaltyr fell onto her back and wordlessly squirmed, writhing in pain, her hands gripping her neck. However, this time, she spent less time panicking before she flooded her body with mana in an attempt to expunge the rampaging energy.
“That…” Kaltyr got onto her hands and knees, panting, unsure of whether she’d throw up. “…was horrible.”
She used an arm to wipe her mouth as though she’d puked, still confused over what she felt. Pain was, unfortunately, never so simple as, “It hurts”. This time, she couldn’t tell if she was nauseated, being crushed, or if fire burned up her insides.
Great time to take a break, she thought to herself, rising to her feet and looking around to figure out what she was doing before she attempted to copy the fish’s spell.
“Oh, yeah…”
Kaltyr dryly laughed when she saw the pile of sharpened antler pieces lying on the grass nearby, waiting for her to use them.
“Right. Crafting.”
She’d temporarily put aside that little project on an impulse, but she was glad to have done it. The impulse was correct. Kaltyr had definitively confirmed that learning such things as spells from observing others was not only possible…
But I might be really good at it, or something’s helping me.
The girl swore that before she began the process of attempting to recreate the ghost fish’s bubble spell, she hadn’t noticed the fact that the beast separated the magical essence into the three streams like it did. It could really have been a coincidence that she only noticed it after the fact…or she was implanted with some kind of enlightenment by The System to assist her. Either way, it was possible to learn spells through observation.
And it was probably all me when I remembered the thing about gills and how fish breathe.
Kaltyr lifted her chin and smiled with pride for a moment before sitting herself down next to the pile of sharpened antler pieces, remembering that she threw one at the fish, getting up to retrieve it, then sitting back down. She spent a few minutes examining every piece of bone until she determined that they were as sharp as she needed them to be before she began the second step in readying them for crafting. The lass put her Whittling skill to good use once more with her pocketknife by cutting away at the bones’ thicknesses. The antler that the bone pieces came from had a width of a couple centimeters in places and Kaltyr needed the bones to be thinner. Thus, she began cutting all the antler pieces in half.
At this point, she figured that cutting them in half should have been the step before sharpening them, but she really didn’t care. She’d probably have to reshape the bones again so that their points were centered, but it was all a learning experience and she shrugged the mistake off.
The sky shifted from yellow to green while Kaltyr carefully thinned the ends of the bones that she hadn’t sharpened, making it so the sharp ends were thicker and heavier than the rest of the bone. Satisfied with her handiwork, it was time for the next step—the hafts.
What Kaltyr envisioned crafting was a spear. Well, multiple spears in case she failed too many times or they broke easily. Even before Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth ragged on her primary weapon—saying that a sword made of bone wasn’t the best idea and that she needed something with more reach—Kaltyr considered the idea of making her life easier with a powerful weapon. However, she couldn’t make an informed decision on what kind of weapon. She thought she was set for a while after obtaining the deer antlers, but the dirt entity advised against the idea of using them as swords. What did that leave? The “classic” survivalist weapon, as far as Kaltyr remembered, was the bow, but that came with its own issues. Yes, a ranged weapon was ideal, as such a thing would allow Kaltyr to obtain kills from a safe distance and even down enemies in the sky, but…could she make an effective bow and effectual arrows?
The girl recalled something about how bows used tension to send projectiles flying, which meant making a flexible, likely wooden, body, and somehow finding a bowstring. Kaltyr considered her metal wire a bowstring candidate, but…didn’t bowstrings need to be flexible as well? The metal wire was definitely not flexible, and trying to nock an arrow with THAT would hurt. Besides all of that, she knew for a fact that arrows needed to be skillfully made so that they flew straight. Such skills Kaltyr obviously lacked, and didn’t want to spend super long learning.
All of that left Kaltyr searching for another primary weapon candidate, leading to her figuring out why Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth broke apart her antler. At first, she thought it was a hint for her to make arrowheads out of the pieces, but after considering all the effort that was required to make a bow and arrows that worked, her thoughts led to her just wielding a long stick to hit things with. From there, she remembered that long sticks could be sharpened so that they could stab things, and from there, she remembered that those were called spears. And what were spears often tipped with? Spearheads!
With sixteen prototype spearheads, all that was left were the hafts.
“And I saw a lot of thin saplings around…here!”
Kaltyr exited her territory in the search of young trees suitable for spear handles. She considered using branches from some of the bigger trees in the area, but soon discovered that they weren’t nearly straight enough to be used in the crafting of a weapon. Well, she could have carved out spear shafts from branches that were too big to use otherwise, but that was waaay too much effort, even with Body Mana Reinforcement to give her a significant strength boost. Instead, she sought the saplings that grew straight, tall, and thin… Something in the back of Kaltyr’s mind said she had the perfect setup for a joke about boys somewhere in there.
The lass empowered her body with mana, dispelling her stealth, and equipped her pocketknife. She’d arrived at the same outcropping of rock where she uncovered and killed the stealthed frog.
“Hmmm… I’ll start with this one.”
Kaltyr approached a young tree of the perfect width for a spear, looking it up and down. It suited her every need! Not only was the sapling a fitting match for the weapon she envisioned, but it was tall enough that she’d be able to cut three hafts out of it! Gleefully, she bent down at the base of the tree and infused her knife with mana. Then, her arm bent backwards before snapping back, slashing the tree with her blade.
“Uhhh, what the hell?”
Kaltyr’s arm quaked and quivered, hurting slightly. Her blade did cut into the wood, but not nearly as much as she expected.
I could lift those deer when I was level 1, and I’m stronger now! I should be able to fell this thing in a single hit!
With one eyebrow raised, Kaltyr began the process over again, arching her arm backwards to build tension before sending it hurtling forward with all the strength she could muster in that crouching position—which she assumed wasn’t much less than what she was capable of when standing.
Again, her pocketknife dug into the wood, but didn’t pass completely through, and her arm hurt. Frustrated, Kaltyr stood up, thinking she already cut deep enough into the wood for it to break when bent. Thus, she kicked the tree with her reinforced foot…and the tree pushed back almost as hard.
“WHAT?!”
The girl’s vexation neared its boiling point as she attempted to calm herself, feeling like she was being cheated. Somehow, the tree was a lot more difficult to cut down and break than she first assumed. Her gut instincts told her that the tree shouldn’t be THIS tough, that even the larger trees would shake if kicked. Additionally, if it were winter and the branches were covered in snow, it was a fun prank to kick the tree while someone stood beneath it…
Kaltyr pressed her fingers to her forehead, surprised by the sudden headache. More memories she wasn’t allowed to have.
Now annoyed, she endured the pain without a word, simply getting on with her mission. She resigned herself to spending a few minutes carefully hacking away at the sapling’s base until she cut entirely through. When the young tree toppled, she moved onto the next one, using her experience gained from felling the first one to more efficiently take down the second… Then the third… Then the fourth… And so on, until she had enough, at which point she went on to chop off the top branches.
In approximately an hour Kaltyr cut down, de-branched, and dragged back seven bare sapling trunks to her territory. With a crash, she dropped them all at one side of the clearing. Some of the saplings stuck out of the barrier, but she was unconcerned. Not like any beast would be stealing trees from her.
Kaltyr spent a few more minutes chopping up the trunks so that they were all separated into equally-sized spear hafts, each a little longer than she was tall. She had a feeling that a shorter spear would be easier to handle…but if she tripped, she could potentially end up impaling herself. Something told her that such an end would haunt her even in the afterlife.
The first sapling produced three hafts, the second two, the third three, the fourth one, the fifth four, the sixth two, and the seventh one. In total, sixteen handles, each roughly the same length as the others.
“Now…these next few steps are the last.” The girl wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. “Phew! Boy am I glad to have remembered how simple spears can be made. It feels like crafting these sixteen spears, in the end, will have been a lot easier than making a single bow with some arrows.”
Excited at nearing the end of Project Prototype Weaponry, Kaltyr began to whistle—she didn’t know she could until then—as she put her pocketknife’s blade to the end of the first spear haft. With Body Mana Reinforcement giving her several times her normal strength, she first stripped the bark off the end for ten centimeters down the stick.
“Oh. I didn’t need mana to accomplish this.”
Halfway through stripping the bark, it became apparent to the girl that she felt barely any resistance, even when accounting for her super strength. After dispelling the reinforcement, she discovered that, despite being incredibly difficult to chop down its trunk, the sapling’s bark easily gave way, and Kaltyr could just pull it off with her bare hands.
“Meh. I need to level my skills up anyway.”
But since she gained skill levels for utilizing mana and the knife in her endeavors—for Body Mana Reinforcement and Whittling respectively—she figured that overkill was just fine. After only a couple minutes, all the sapling trunks had one end stripped of their bark.
“Now I just have to cut right down middle.”
Kaltyr grabbed the end of one haft that had its bark stripped, centered the blade, and applied pressure so that the knife cleanly bisected the spear end. After cutting down to the point where she finished stripping the bark, she stopped, and grabbed one of the antler bones. From there, she forced the thin end of the antler bone between the halves of wood.
Had Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth not hinted toward using bone spearheads, and Kaltyr still decided on fighting with a spear, she probably would have just sharpened the sapling’s end to stab things with. But since she was given the hint about the spearheads, the lass realized she could wedge a sharp object between the two halves of the wood, where it would be kept in place mostly by the pressure of the wood trying to stay in one piece. Having the bone was important because bone was capable of holding a sharper edge than wood, allowing the spear to penetrate flesh further.
Kaltyr held up the bone-tipped spear to the green sky, a sparkle of pride in her eye.
“Before I get to the next fifteen…”
The lass got to her feet, spear in hand, and struck a pose. She experimentally stabbed empty air a few times, then attempted a sweeping strike to either side. For a minute or two, she blocked attacks from, stabbed, and slashed an invisible opponent, doing her best to stimulate any hidden memories that could assist her. She’d long since noticed that she obtained some skills with far more levels in them from the start than others, and assumed that it was the result of her past self having learned those skills. For example, she’d acquired Small Blade Arts at level 2 a while ago and Sword Arts at level 0 when she stabbed the Life Level 2 deer with its own antler. Earning the Sword Arts skill with such a level left her disappointed, so she didn’t pay it much attention.
“Ugggh, it might be the same case with the spear.”
After the few minutes of solo sparring, Kaltyr stopped, frowning. No instincts guided her arms and feet, producing practiced motions. No notification of gaining a skill appeared. It seemed that she didn’t have prior combat experience with spears.
“Or maybe nothing like that will happen until I fight something for real?”
Kaltyr turned, glancing at the trees around the clearing. She hadn’t left any fish outside of the barrier to lure in beasts after what happened with the ghost because she didn’t want any of her corpses to be eaten before they could also transform. Not only were they sources of XP, but they dropped strange new loot and offered the possibility of new spells…
Without warning, the lass felt a familiar event transpiring through her Magic Sense behind her, and a devious smile immediately formed.
“YEEEEES!”
Shouting into the sky with the fervor of a bloodthirsty warrior, Kaltyr whipped around to see that another whirlpool of magical essence began to form around her storage lean-to.
“Fantastic timing!”
The girl immediately stomped her way over to the lean-to and reached into it with her hand, digging around for the fish that was transforming. She knew it was a fish because she only kept the fish corpses beneath the lean-to. The rest of the bodies she didn’t turn into skins—the Life Level 2 deer and boar—were still just sitting in a pile at one corner of the clearing, waiting to be used or transformed into ghosts.
“Ow!”
Hissing in pain, Kaltyr pulled her arm back and cradled it in her chest. This was the first time she attempted to interfere with a magical essence whirlpool, and they turned out to be dangerous to meddle with.
“Yeah, no. I do what I want.”
Kaltyr reinforced her body with mana before repeating the same process, retrieving the fish that the essence swirled around. It seemed to be the case that such magical whirlpools could be overpowered. After grabbing the fish, she moved away from the lean-to and into a more spacious corner of the clearing before laying down the corpse—the whirlpool following it.
“Easier to fight here.”
The girl stood just outside of the magical vortex, hand on her hip, her back ramrod straight, the butt of her spear planted into the ground. She would observe the fish carefully in order to steal any new spells it might use, then smite it into oblivion.
“Ah, wait.”
She looked up at the tip of her spear, an inkling feeling that something was wrong pestering her.
“Oh, yeah. Forgot to tighten the spearhead to keep it in place.”
With an exasperated sigh, Kaltyr pulled out the spool of wire from one of her cargo pants pockets, sat down, and laid the spear across her legs. She remembered that using a string of some kind to generously wrap around the spearhead would increase its durability, keeping it sturdy and in place for longer. Coarse strings would do best, as knots tied by those provided plenty of friction to keep them tight, but the metal wire was all she had unless she wanted to figure out how to make something else. She cut a segment of wire a few meters long out of the spool, tied a few knots around the spearhead, then generously wrapped the rest of the wire around the spearhead where it connected to the haft.
“Voila!” She exclaimed, unsure of what the word meant but sure that it fit the situation.
The fish completed its ghostification and had been shooting its weak-ass beams at Kaltyr while she worked on her spear, but she shrugged them off solely with her Body Mana Reinforcement.
“Now then!”
She stood back up and pointed her first complete spear prototype at the fish ghost.
“Show me what you got!”
……
A few minutes of boredom transpired as Kaltyr just stood still, allowing the sparkling, glass-like ghost of a fish to shoot beams at her. She even yawned.
“Fine. Be like that!”
Her time had been wasted by the fish because it refused to do anything new. She readied her spear, entering what she thought was a combative stance, then stabbed forward with all her might…passing directly through the fish.
“F***! That’s embarrassing.”
She infused the spear with the bare minimum amount of mana for the entire thing to glow, then stabbed again with all her might…and grazed the fish.
“AAGGHHH THIS IS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT!”
The fish released another pathetic beam while Kaltyr pulled at her hair—carefully, so as to not stab herself with the spear she was still holding. Her past life really didn’t seem to have included the art of the spear, because merely stabbing the stationary fish floating in front of her was difficult. Well, not completely. She could easily jab at it, but her aim was thrown off when she put too much force into the motion. The girl would have to practice a lot.
“Oh, a notification. Guess I got th—”
Kaltyr froze mid-sentence as she noticed a difference in the way the ghost fish gathered magical essence.
It’s casting the bubble spell.
The lass’s eyes squinted slightly, her brows furrowed, and she threw aside all playfulness. With a stern expression, Kaltyr intently watched the entire casting process of the spell, confirming that she’d done everything correctly when mimicking it earlier. Then, when the fish released the bubble…
Kaltyr casually stepped to the side, dodging the bubble and watching as it flew by somewhat slowly before exploding against the ground, scattering the magical essence within.
“Hmm. Probably all the fish I killed are limited to those two spells.”
Having seen all she needed to, the girl ran the fish through with her spear, causing it to shatter beautifully into a million sparkles of glass. Then, its loot fell to the grass below, just as what happened with the first ghost fish. Unlike with regular corpses, it seemed that ghosts automatically dropped stuff and disappeared without leaving bodies. It made sense. Kaltyr picked up the strange loot and looked it over.
“Exactly like the first ghost’s loot, but cubic.”
She held a little blue cube of translucent jelly between her pointer finger and thumb, squishing it. It had an interesting texture that could probably make it a fun toy, but besides that, Kaltyr had few ideas of what it could be used for. Was it edible? Did ghosts drop magical food? That was certainly her leading hypothesis. If she were required to bet money, she’d say it would give her a magical effect upon consumption for a limited amount of time, like a potion.
“Well, my Status Profile does have the Effect category…”
Kaltyr brought the squishy cube of jelly to her lips, contemplating her next action, tempted to bite into it…
[I would not do that, if I were you. You would merely destroy it.]
Kaltyr jumped, eyes wide, swinging her spear around before her mind caught up. Behind her, what seemed to be green rays from the heavens descended, colliding at a single point in the air, constructing a transparent, miniature humanoid form.
The girls’ nerves untensed as she began to smile, happy to socialize.
“Sir Qui—”
Then, the smile faded, leaving her with a blank expression as she remembered the scene of the dirt entity destroying her antler sword—the first weapon she ever acquired with her own strength. Sure, she’d turned its remains into the crafting materials for her next sixteen weapons, but…how should she feel about the entity? It made her feel bad, but it was for her own good. If it weren’t for that strange person, would she have so quickly obtained decent weapons?
The emotions swirled within her chest, colliding and conflicting, confusing her. She settled for a neutral attitude.
“Hello, Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth.”
[Greetings to you, too, Kaltyr. I am very pleased to see that you refused to let anger overcome you and took my advice to heart.]
It wasn’t pulling its punches.
“It’s all thanks to you.” Kaltyr felt strange thanking someone while using a deadpan expression and monotone voice.
[Also, congratulations on slaying your first two phantasms. They do not form on regular schedules, you see, thus I was not sure of whether any of your spoils of war would transform.]
Kaltyr’s ears perked up. The thing was answering her questions without her even asking. She pressed on, taking the risk.
“So…it is a natural thing? Corpses just turn into phant…ghosts after a while?”
[Phantasms. Yes.]
Jitters of excitement arose after finally having a question answered.
“Then, these jellies that the phantas…phantasms dropped are their loot? What ar…” She gulped her saliva and cleared her throat, a droplet of sweat dripping down the side of her face. “May I ask what they can be used for?”
A moment of silence transpired as Kaltyr nervously eyed the…green light entity.
[Good question. I, too, wonder.]
An angry pit formed in Kaltyr’s gut as her lips began forming a frown.
[I kid, I kid!]
She released the frown, but it was difficult to suddenly stop feeling agitated.
[Though I still will not tell you outright.]
The anger flared and Kaltyr began baring her teeth.
“Will you stop playing games?!” She shouted, tempted to point her spear at the light entity. “I case you haven’t noticed, Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth, I’m out here, stranded in unknown wildness fighting for my life!”
Along with her frustration, regret surfaced, as she didn’t want the light entity to forsake her, but… Regardless of the sheer happiness and joy Kaltyr felt from her successes, every other moment was full of restlessness, impatience, and worst of all: uncertainty. There were no guarantees that she’d continue to do well, that her perseverance would carry her through the Life Levels until she could protect herself in any situation, that there’d ever be a time when she didn’t have to fear for her life…
Kaltyr admitted to enjoying the thrill, at times, but every other moment was painful. She’d simply been bottling it in.
There was real danger. She could clench her teeth and wordlessly suffer through some hardships, like when she was physically injured, but she knew not of whether worse could or would befall her. It was terrifying.
“I know nothing of Manic. No memories, no power, no support… Please, just help me a little.”
The girl pleaded with the light entity, her eyes full of both fear and anxiety. The instant of silence that followed felt like a burden on her shoulders…until it answered.
[Girl, I said, “outright”.]Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth slowly floated toward Kaltyr, softly bobbing as though it were carried by a water current, and stopped in place within its arms reach of her. Then, it lifted an arm. The girl flinched at the movement, but held still.
[I am present in order to assist you.]Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth gently rested its stubby green arm of light atop Kaltyr’s head, rustling her hair slightly.
The girl’s eyes widened as a gentle energy was transmitted to her through the light entity’s arm, soothing her agitated nerves. All the negative emotions from before were so easily and quickly cleansed…like magic. It was actually a little scary.
“Ah, uh…thank you.”
Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth retracted its arm, and Kaltyr bowed her head in gratitude.
[No problem. Now, are you ready to learn how to use the phantasmal goo?]
