Following the shadowy figure from some distance, it didn’t seem to notice Sera. Though She wasn’t quite sure whether the distance was simply enough, the being didn’t care or her level 2…
[Your Stealth skill has reached Lv 3.]
…her level 3 stealth skill was high enough to hide her.
Stalking the shadow, the girl soon noticed that it visited some houses. She couldn’t make out any details, as she tried to keep her distance, but it wasn’t hard to conclude that the being was some kind of courier. Sera would have liked to take a closer look at some of the locations once it jumped off to the next one, however she could see people far past level 50 in and around a lot of them and the few where she couldn’t detect people gave her a bad feeling in another way. The being most likely wouldn’t visit a location with none around.
Soon they reached an area with a lot of bigger mansions. Probably the area where the larger guilds resided. The amount of high level people near and in those buildings increased too. Even more surprising was it therefore for the girl as she stumbled upon another seemingly abandoned house. Whether it was truly without an owner was as usually questionable. However with tall walls prevented people from spying onto the property, not that the girl on the rooftops was hindered by them, and as the shadow hadn’t bothered to visit the house, chances were good that none was there. The theory was also supported by the fact that all other houses in the area had people quite frequently entering and leaving those properties.
And even if she was wrong, it looked interesting and abandoned enough to offer her some entertainment. At least more entertaining than following the shadowy figure. She just would have to be a bit careful.
Passing over the mansion first and then scouting out the area around it from the ground, Sera made sure that there wouldn’t be any unexpected surprises. Though as the houses around her target were still in use, she had to be wary of people simply passing by.
Having done whatever she could without attracting too much attention, she quickly scaled the wall in a location with basically no windows around, once any other pedestrians were absent. On top of the wall the girl noticed some small engravings on the structure, though as nothing happened she ignored them. They were most likely some inactive defense system.
Furthermore a few meters of grass covered the area between the wall and house. The absence of any other plants made it a bit suspicious, yet she also hadn’t seen much of a garden around the other houses. Unfortunately the fact didn’t help with her decision, whether to try to avoid the ground and break through a window, if possible, or carefully enter from the ground floor while dodging possible traps in the garden. However her time was limited, as she was still kneeling on the wall, so the girl chose the latter, hoping it would be less noticeable.
Slowly getting down from the wall and sneaking through the grass, traps seemed to be absent. Her intuition was also silent, so Sera quickly got closer to a window. She wasn’t quite sure about the material it was made of, though the frame was cast from stone. Sera concluded that the windows weren’t intended to be opened or someone had to change its structure with earth magic.
Other windows she examined also shared the same traits. The thought of breaking one of them passed through her mind for a moment, however in the end she pushed the idea back and decided to search for an alternative way to enter the building. A search which had regrettably little result aside from the two winged door used as the normal entrance. Apparently made from some metal, it was missing a key hole or any other option to easily exploit its existence to gain entrance. A short push also confirmed that the door wings were actually able to keep people out. It was most likely locked or they weighted enough to not move even with Sera’s strength. The latter a notion she would have liked to dismiss, but she couldn’t be sure in this world.
Ending her assessment of her target, her options had been reduced to either trying to smash a window or to work on the door with her flames. As the former would only take a fraction of the time of the other, the choice was quickly made.
Any idea of someone still living in the house and just currently absent was long forgotten.
Choosing a window on a different side than the door, since she wanted to make sure that people hearing any sounds created now wouldn’t be attracted by her actions later, in case she failed and had to take the door, the girl got to work. Taking out her newest and heaviest weapon, the scythe, she swung it against the window, though a barrier flashed into existence, making her weapon bounce off uselessly. Even a second swing had the same response and a punch from her fist was countered with a similar response. At least it didn’t result in any damage to her weapon or body.
Clicking her tongue, she returned to the door and tried to use her flames, though again a softly glowing barrier blocked her fireball. Pausing for a moment, Sera listened for anyone inside or outside of the property to respond to her actions, however she couldn’t detect any changes.
“Why can’t Sarah be here when i need her?” She muttered to herself. Sarah could have probably broken quite easily, though Sera herself also wasn’t ready to give up yet. Her sister had channeled water to carve runes, so couldn’t she try to channel a flame and somehow break through the barrier?
Maybe it was a bit of a logical leap, but running out of ideas, she decided to just try it out. Carefully she touched the door and tried to summon her flames to her hand, somewhat like a stationary fireball. Unfortunately the barrier again appeared and pushed her hand and fireball away. A reaction which forced her to dispel her magic to prevent herself from getting burned.
Suppressing a curse, she again summoned a flame, though this time with a bit more distance from the door, before slowly bringing it closer. Again the light prevented her flame to actually harm the door, but Sera had prepared herself for a fight of attrition.
It was rare for her to devote herself to such a monotonous task, however once she truly focused on something it was hard to change her mind. Fueled by her determination and mana the flame continued to attack the door and barrier.
The occasional system message offered just enough distraction and motivation that the girl continued with her seemingly useless task.
Not showing any signs of vanishing, the barrier withstood the test of her flame even after some minutes had passed, yet her efforts did still affect her surroundings. For one her health started to drop due to the heat. Her hand seemed so far alright, but if she had still her old body, it would probably be well done or worse by now. Sera even got the overheated status condition.
She would have liked to drink some icy water or juice, but the door wouldn’t open itself and the door had slowly started to glow in the area which her flame attacked.
While the barrier did block her flame, the same couldn’t be said for the heat. She had no idea how exactly it worked – could the heat just pass through it? Was the barrier too small? – but she was thankful for that oversight in its construction nonetheless.
Minutes later, once the metal had started to become slightly viscous, she moved over to a nearby already preheated spot. She would have liked to burst the door open with a giant fireball by now, but with the barrier still active, her missing mastery over magic, her shallow mana pool and the people in the mansions nearby she couldn’t attempt such a solution. Annoyed she had to continue her less flashy method.
Burning a hole in the door, through which she could enter was another idea, similar to some movies she had seen, but with the time she needed to just melt a small section, that would take forever. So she settled for the most reasonable solution in trying to destroy the enchantments. It was still not a fast one, though it was the most promising.
Continuing her work on the door and having already created a viscous line through a quarter of the door, the barrier blocking her flame suddenly vanished. Surprised by the sudden change, she dispelled her flame and wiped over her forehead out of habit, not that she was sweaty in any way, probably an advantage of her new body.
Hoping that the disappearance of the barrier also meant that the door was open, she pressed her hand against the metal. Though in the next moment she had to quickly pull it back again. The heat from her attempt to crack the enchantment had apparently spread through the construct.
Shaking her hand in pain, the girl had to again suppress a curse to not attract any unwanted attention. It seemed like the first real injury in the new world wouldn’t come from an enemy but from her own overeagerness. Fortunately her health pool was rather large, otherwise she could have gotten some issues, especially as the head of her flame earlier had already caused some damage to her though the resulting status condition.
In hopes of forgetting about her still aching hand, she opened her status to summarize her gains.
[Sera Goldschmidt
Age: 3
Species: Human Lv 11
Classes:
Bodyguard Lv 11
Swordsman Lv 11
Warrior Lv 11
Gladiator Lv 9
Assassin Lv 2
Maid Lv 2
Artisan Lv 0
Idol Lv 0
Tailor Lv 0
##### Lv 0 Ex
Affinity:
Fire Lv 10 -> 12
#####
Condition: Good -> Overheated
Titles:
Genius of Body
Unpredictable
Walking Disaster
Idol
Sword Master
Monster
World Invader
Attributes:
Hlth 208/510
Stmn 349/540
Snty 180/180
Mana 76/210
Vit 51
End 54
Str 52
Agi 60
Dex 60
Wil 18
Sol 21
Int 14
Prc 16
Mnd 14
Skills:
Aura 2
Body Enhancement 5
Perfect Intuition –
Mana Efficiency 2 -> 4
Mana Siphon 5 -> 6
Stealth 2 -> 3
Soulbond 3
]
[Overheated]
[The result of great heat. Will slowly drain health over time until it vanishes and causes dizziness. The duration and extent depends on the level of heat and length one experienced it.]
If it had taken longer she would have probably run out of health or mana. And the dizziness she now noticed as she was moving around more would be pretty problematic in combat. Though fortunately still none seemed to be around.
Shifting her focus back to the door and not wasting any thoughts on whether she had actually managed to destroy the enchantments or the barrier and door simply run out of mana, she took out one of her daggers and tried to use the handle to push open the door. At first it still didn’t move, but then the entrance slowly opened.
