Being alone in a strange forest was unnerving.
Every new sound, every shift of the wind, any change in smell set my nerves alight with fear -- I looked over my shoulder, looking for the threat. At any moment, I expected the Boar-hemoth or some other high powered monster to come charging through the trees and trample me to death.
I had no idea where I'd gone.
I couldn't deal with this anymore. What if this was just a game? Maybe Torcán was right and my memories were lying to me? I had to try. I had to get out of here. I had to go home, no matter how awful it was there, at least I was alive.
I opened the menu to log out. As before, there was still no button for it, but I refused to accept it wasn't there. This was just a bad dream. I pulled open menu after menu, clicked through any place that I could, but the only options I had were related to quests, tasks, skills, stats, and abilities. No Logout, Exit, Return To Menu, Return to Earth, nothing. I tried to think about it, and nothing happened.
"Come on. Exit!" I shouted. "Log out."
[ System Notice: Native's may not leave the world of Erendia. ]
I stared at the text that appeared in front of me. I read it again. What did it mean that we couldn't leave the world?
So much for Damien's guarantee of not getting isekai-ed.
[ Superfluous Memory Detected. Purging. ]
What was I thinking about? Oh right, escaping this forest, from the Boar-hemoth.
I hugged myself, my arms supporting my breasts to self-sooth.
I needed to think on the bright side. Sure, it was absolutely terrifying. But, at least I was a girl now? So, yay?
I needed to reconnect with the party, but I noticed another missing fundamental feature.
There was no mapping system. I had no way to tell which way I'd come from, which way was north, or where anything was in this forest.
I wondered if I had any spells I could use to help me through this. I looked back through my options, and found a spell in Divination.
[ Repository: Tier Two Divination
Prerequisite: One of the following Traits(Non-Combatant, ...)
Become your own Akashic Records. Records all information learned while this spell is channeled. Information may be accessed via the Neural Annex using Focus.
Concentration ]
It would let me get some degree of perfect recall. The NA already gave me information directly related to skills and spells, so why not other information? I perused my digital spell book to find some spells that would help me survive in the woods while searching for my companions.
Since I didn't have any combat capability, I needed tools to get out of danger. I might be able to use Manipulation spells to make a ladder up a tree. But what about getting out of a fight entirely? I recalled a spell in Amplification that could come in clutch.
[ Static Illusion: Tier One Amplification
Prerequisite: One of the following Traits(Non-Combatant, ...)
Now you don't, now you see it. Bring your imagination to life to create a static illusion. May be augmented further with meta-magic to allow for additional senses, increased range or area, or even add a dynamic nature to the illusion.
Range: Medium
Concentration ]
Finally, I need to find my allies without alerting any monsters in the forest, so I grabbed an alternative version of Sense, Sense Allies.
I meditated as I used Respecialist to change out Conjure Shovel, Conjure Knife, and Retract Earth for those three spells. I still wanted Conjure Axe as a last resort weapon -- I could fight through the blinding fear if it came to it.
Unfortunately, I ran into another problem. My concentration was only tier two, and I had three spells I wanted to run: Repository, so I could remember where I'd been, Sense Monsters, to avoid monsters, and Sense Allies, to find my friends.
I had to keep Repository up, so I could download what I saw into my NA. I started walking with Sense Monsters up, to make sure that I wouldn't run into any surprises. I hiked in an expanding spiral. Every time I got to either the west or east end of my spiral -- I could vaguely tell by whether I was walking with the mid-afternoon sun flickering through the canopy on my left, or on my right -- I stopped to recover some mana, and did a casting of Sense Allies. I knew it left a lot out of my search pattern, but it was better than nothing.
I could tell my spiral wasn't perfect, I revisited a few spots, and I think I fell way out of line on my second pass though -- it wasn't a map, just a perfect recollection of what I'd walked through. But, it kept me from retracing my path too badly, and kept me in a general spiraling arc.
On my fifth rotation, my Sense Monsters spell found a small pack of monsters about 200 meters away. They looked just beyond a ridge, so I crept around closer until I could look down the ridge. I wanted to identify them to know what kind of threats would be out here.
I couldn't see the monster in the thick vines and foliage, but the haze was thick around the foliage.
I whispered the spell as softly as I could not draw aggro. "[Identify.]"
[ Oddri: Tier Two Normal Wood Aligned Monster
A carnivorous plant that lures its prey close, then devours its blood. ]
I ran away from the little patch of death as fast as my tier one legs could take me.
I continued my expanding helix for another rotation. My feet started to get tired, and my stamina kept trickling down before my mana would. I couldn't even make it halfway around in a single use of my pool. Between my hunger debuff, and my tier one physical stats, I couldn't walk for extended periods of time. I felt pathetic.
The air turned cool as the sun approached the horizon. Dusk would come soon, and I'd bet anything that monsters would get more active at night.
I wondered if I should search for a place to spend the night instead of looking for my companions when another icon appeared on my screen. My throat felt dry as I got the thirsty debuff. My recovery rates plummeted even further.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl up into a ball, and let this all be over. Why was I pushing myself for this? For this sick twisted death game? I clenched my hands into fists. Maybe if I died I could be reborn again. Make some better choices for my character? Or maybe it would all end and I could rest?
But I knew going through that would hurt like the dickens.
I just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I could still find my companions. Or maybe I could find some water.... I wished Blánaid was here, she would know what plants I could eat.
Wait, I didn't need to find water. I could summon it. I conjured water and drank as it splashed to the ground. It tasted stale and awful, but after the third casting, my debuff went away. As my head cleared, I realized no one else in the party could do that, they would need to find water.
I looked at my spell options again. I could select the basic elements for my Sense spell. But that would mean time to re-meditate, not to mention I already didn't have enough mana to cast all the spells I wanted to. I sighed as I trudged forward, my head on a swivel waiting for another red haze to show up in my Sense Monsters spell.
It was slow going, but after an hour, as the sky turned completely orange, I heard my salvation -- the muted rushing of water in the distance. It was due north of me, perpendicular to my travel direction of the helix, but who cared about the pattern when water meant finding my allies.
I nearly let my blind panic run me into a trap, but I double checked my Sense Monsters spell right before I left the tree line. On the bank of the river, a large red haze wafted around.
But there was a whole river. I didn't need to fight whatever waited for me there, I could go further upstream.
I backed away slowly, but with my eyes continuously watching the red haze, I didn't notice where I was putting my feet.
Snap.
A branch below me broke. The red haze stopped shuffling around. They screeched in warning, and the haze charged towards me.