[Your Insanity skill has reached Lv 6.]
Sera was falling.
A simple statement. Though the train of thought which led to this result was a bit more complicated and people who weren’t insane likely wouldn’t consider this conclusion in the first place.
So, how did she get here?
Going back in time for a bit, many questions plagued the mind of the girl.
Were their followers infected or not? Should they flee now, wait for a bit or try to engage the stalkers while they still thought their targets were unaware of them?
Questions Sera’s instincts would normally answer for her, but now those were occupied with other questions.
Was she really here? Shouldn’t she still be near the stairs? Shouldn’t she still be much lower to the ground?
The rifts between realms were disorienting because they didn’t contain anything. Dungeon were weird, with how some locations could overlap with others. But the environment there still behaved somewhat normal.
Not so much in this realm.
The longer she stood around and waited, the worse it got. Or it was maybe just her self picking up more and more issues with the realms. Things which were, but shouldn’t be. It was hard to explain. Hard to understand.
And the missing action, which could have otherwise distracted her, didn’t make it any better.
So, once there was a surprised shout from the lower floors, Sera acted.
Did the trap work or were the stalkers trying to lure them into a trap of their own? She didn’t care. Whoever followed them was likely not a tank, either specialized in stealthy physical or magical offensive tactics. Both were types of enemies she could defeat with a bit of luck and if she had the first strike, even if they were rather high leveled. So, with one of them hopefully disabled, she wanted to use the opportunity for some fun.
Should she inform her party members? Probably. So she did that. Though not in a questioning way, just as a statement while also placing her sister back on the floor.
And then she jumped out of the window, since it was the shortest way to her goal and would surprise her targets more.
Returning to the present time, did she get the level in her skill because she jumped down a tall building or because she was heading into a fight with people likely far outclassing her? She wasn’t sure, but also didn’t care.
The girl had much more important matters to figure out: how was she going to stop at the right floor?
The floors passed by her way faster than they should according to her instincts, which still screamed that this world was wrong. Though, while screaming they also informed her that she was nearing her target, if she ignored this weird world.
Being pressed to find ways to stop, Sera did the obvious and simply jammed her scythe into the steel or concrete or whatever the building was made out of to change her direction.
It even worked and she went through the nearby window back inside. However that maneuver had the unfortunate side effect of getting her scythe stuck in the side of the building.
Until it wasn’t.
The area of the aged artificial structure where her scythe had cut into simply broke away under the force of the falling girl. Not exactly what the warrior had in mind, but it worked. The debris falling onto her would have been problematic with her old body but her levels made them just an annoyance.
Turning her attention to the three surprised stalkers – well, two were surprised, one was literally frozen -, she quickly prepared herself to strike them with her scythe by activating her various skills.
Covering herself in her mana armor, a flaming aura, the girl used everything she could think of to give herself an advantage.
Unfortunately with herself and her instincts now focused on the two level 93 and 95 enemies, she forgot the weirdness of the realm. So when suddenly the distance to her targets vanished she could barely react to it. At least the same was true for the other two. But it still caused problems. Instead of cutting through the two, she just managed to impale the closest figure, hood and cloak hiding any defining features, before the additional weight and still very alive enemy on her weapon stopped her attack.
Though the resilience of high level beings in the realm was nothing new to her.
Acting quickly, she first threw a part of her flames into the other person’s face, hoping to blind and distract them with the pain. Then, before they could completely adapt to the situation, she quickly drew her dagger and started to stab every potential weak spot she could make out.
She still had to evade the panicked counter swings of the enemy. Attacks which still drew her blood even through her mana armor and even though the enemy was impaled, under pain and blinded. She didn’t want to think what would have happened, if she had faced the opponent under better conditions. Though the haphazard attacks of her enemy soon stopped as more stabs into the eyes, throat and wherever else she hit fully depleted their health-bar.
[You have killed a Human Lv 95.]
[Your Assassin class has reached Lv 22.]
[Your Maid class has reached Lv 20.]
…
Then finally the kill message and a lot of level ups appeared. Just in time, before the other stalker attacked. The level up messages were also nice, though unfortunately the realms didn’t use a turn-based combat system and she couldn’t just pause to look at all of her new gains.
So she reluctantly ignored them and returned her focus back to the remaining enemy.
The hooded figure was quickly closing in with a drawn sword and Sera didn’t have any delusions that a hit wouldn’t cut away huge chunks from her health. Though then, as she tried and actually succeeded in evading the incoming attack, she immediately noticed that her enemy was slow. Well, still fast, however too slow for someone with a physical class and level 93.
Were they hiding their magic proficiency?
No, the reason promptly revealed itself to her as frost started to form on the arms and legs of the figure. Did they get infected by their comrade or did it spread slower? A question for her sister. For the warrior it only mattered that she could use the opportunity!
With the opponent freezing, Sera distanced herself further and switched over to magic. Her spells would deal even less damage than her physical attacks, but she was just trying to waste time so the virus could finish its work. A part of her still wanted to engage in direct combat, but neither could she compete with the enemy nor was it wise to risk infecting herself with the virus during combat. She might be interested in experiencing her sister’s invention personally, but not so much while facing a much higher leveled opponent.
Dragging out the fight a bit longer was fortunately enough to freeze the figure completely. The possibility that they could be faking it did pass her mind, yet was then discarded. There had simply never been a reason.
The fight was over.
Though, with her armor storing mana, even disabled it needed a while to completely vanish and the flames of her aura were still needed to heal the wounds she had sustained from the battle with her first victim.
And in regard to her latest kill, she was interested in the potential loot!
Unfortunately, aside from the sword, daggers, a small compass and a rather light weight spatial bag, there wasn’t anything interesting. And as much as she wanted to rummage through the bag, she still didn’t like this realm and wanted to get away. The fight had distracted her instincts a bit, but EVERYTHING WAS STILL WRO-
Suddenly a sword appeared.
It was close.
Where did it come from?
Didn’t matter! She had to evade, so she tried to turn to the side, but could only notice that a dagger was nearing from that direction.
Were there more attacks?
She couldn’t tell. It was dark and the shadows hid everything.
Why were there even shadows?
Also irrelevant! She had to get away!
But where to?
A sword from the front, a dagger from the side, darkness all around her.
The weapons penetrated her aura and armor with little resistance.
Unable to find any outs in the split seconds she had since she had found the quickly nearing blade she left everything to her instincts.
She shouldn’t even be here!
The distances didn’t make sense!
The environment didn’t make sense!
But then why was she still here?
Nothing made sense!
THIS REALM WAS WRONG!
With metal cutting into her body, the girl freed her mana and denied the wrong world itself.
And for once the world listened to her demands.
[Your Aura skill has reached Lv 7.]
[Your Soul-binding Aura skill has reached Lv 4.]
[Your Mana Siphon skill has reached Lv 8.]
[Your Mana Armor skill has reached Lv 2.]
[Your Spell Casting skill has reached Lv 2.]
[You learned the Sacrifice skill.]
[Your Sacrifice skill has reached Lv 2.]
[Your Insanity skill has reached Lv 7.]
Reality shattered.
[Your ##### extra class has reached Lv 2.]
[The Rebellion skill has been awarded.]
[Your Rebellion skill has reached Lv 1.]
The darkness vanished.
Then she was left alone, finally at peace and with resources depleted. Well, aside from the still bleeding new wounds and some still remaining issues her instincts had with the realm, but much less so than before.
The debris of her fight was still lying around, yet neither the body nor the ice statues were anywhere in sight.
Checking on her sister also returned a hard to describe location, which could only be summarized as “not here”.
Walking over to the window through which she had entered the floor earlier, now weirdly without the space-illusion-madness which had previously shortened the distance, Sera could also see the plaza where Sarah had prepared the trap. But, even though there was the plaza, there were no signs of the rift and just a physical hole in the area’s center.
A hole absent in the reflection in the sky.
Having had enough of the weirdness of the realm for the moment, she didn’t jump at the opportunity to explore the weird cave-hole-thing, but instead checked the last place which might give her a clue about what had just happened: her status screen.
[Rebellion]
[A skill unique to the ##### extra class. You went against common sense, disregarded advice from others and broke multiple laws. Not because you had to, not because you were missing information, but just because you wanted to. For the fun of it. Embracing your instincts and insanity, you now chose to go against the realm itself and tried to twist the world around you. While that is an ability more commonly associated with higher leveled mages and gods, you still succeeded partially and changed how the realm affected you. Using mana you may now impose your instincts and will upon the world and change how the world interacts with you. All changes are limited by the used mana as well as affinities provided by you and the world.]
Did she just get a skill, so she could get lost with magic?
Was she lost again?
