SWNOVELXO Chapter 17: // A beautiful land of death
It was a new day.
With the calming bath taken yesterday, Cho Jae-Hwa had woken up at the new usual hour of six in the morning (6:00AM) with a lot more willingness and comfort than usual, starting her running routine without a worry in her mind.
"Let's do the western side today." She mutters to herself, already with a ponytail done and outside the inn. Just before going to sleep, she had visited a clothing shop and bought some new clothing.
In her shopping list and now wearing in her body, Jae-Hwa bought a dark red sports bra and workout leggings, a black shirt and a dark gray jacket with red details.
It wasn't exactly perfect for the cold, but it is what she is most comfortable in, considering that in some minutes after running she will get warm enough to not need any more layers.
CREDITS: 8
"I... Have to make some more money..."
After deciding what her next step would be, her run starts, jogging at a steady pace, progressively increasing her speed as time passes. The lights are still mostly out and only the dark of dawn and some occasional early birds like her accompanied her running.
After forty-four minutes, she had returned to the plaza and was finally resting on a metallic bench.
—ACTIVITY TRACKING————————
TIME RAN: 0h44m04s
DISTANCE RAN: 12.4km
STEPS & CALORIES BURNED: 13151 steps & 728 calories
"My legs can't take it... But if I run any slower, it will only take longer to improve..."
Gasping for air like her lungs were about to explode, Jae-Hwa attempted to control her running heartbeat. Although her routine became something similar to a spartan training, Eirdan's words made enough of an impact on her for this to happen.
Deep down, she knew that forcing her body to improve could cause more problems than benefits on the long term, but even then she hoped. She hoped that the system that changed her psychological to be more receptive to battling, the system that she hates but is still forced to use is able to intervene and avoid any future mistakes her routine might provoke on her.
It was not guaranteed and frankly, even to her, quite the stupid plan, but above all else, she didn't want to be humiliated like that ever again.
When she had given her all, using everything in her arsenal, it was still not enough to kill the enemy in front of her. Not only that, but she commited a mistake by forgetting her energy was lower now because of the blessing and didn't economize it properly, not to mention that Eirdan needed to point out how low her health was — another mistake.
"Never again... I will not be humiliated again..."
It was something that weighed on her mind hopelessly, but instead of mopping around in bed with depression because of it, she simply decided to confront the matter and improve herself.
After about fifteen minutes of resting, she finally got up from her bench and headed to the bath.
After greeting the cheeky dwarf Christine and paying her five credits, Jae-Hwa took her warm bath, almost falling asleep as the calming water submerged most of her pristine body.
Today there was no one, only her and the flowing water, accompanied by her echoed grunts and moans of satisfaction.
When leaving, she dressed her new armor, noticing how the chestplate was almost a tight fit, having just enough space to not be uncomfortable or suffocating. The plates in her arms and torso also didn't seem to bother her, it was as if they didn't even exist.
Her weapon was kept hidden in the inventory, as she wanted to feel it properly on the combat field. After everything is in order, she walks to the place she originally used to come to Carsenia.
Upon arriving to the center plaza, she directed herself to the portal that was right in the middle of the whole city, being stopped by a guard whose face was covered by a helmet. The only characteristics she could see were the violent-looking magenta eyes and his scruffy black beard.
"Halt! Please state your intent!" His voice was loud and authoritative, showing his difference in power.
"I want to go to the next domain, the second domain..."
I want to at least get some money and see how harder it will be compared to the first domain...
"Ha! Is that so?" Although still too loud for her ears, the guard's tone has changed, becoming slightly gentler and caring with a drop of cheerfulness. "Then you may go through."
"Was there any reason I would not be able to?"
"Well, there have been a lot of Forgotten Ones trying to return to the Voltaic Sludge, but for some reason that even we don't understand, the portal is blocked. We tried telling them, but it's gotten so bad that we're needing to resort to violence..."
From his mannerisms and the way he worded his phrases so sadly, nearing sobs in his voice, it was clear that this guard was on edge, being forced to do something he didn't want to.
Although there wasn't much to do, Jae-Hwa at least tried to comfort the guard and gave him a pat on the back for the good job he has been doing.
A few comforting words later, she stood on a circular stone with a pentacle engraved in its top. The guard quickly fiddled with a pedestal near the portal and the engraving start to shine.
"Well then, please be safe and may the deities protect you. If you ever wish to return, just stand on the portal area and think about coming here. Now, please close your eyes."
"Understood... Until then."
As her eyes closed, the rustic sounds of a city disappeared after a few seconds along with the feeling of footing below her feet. She was floating, as if completely submerged by water but incapable of moving.
Although curiosity kept bugging her mind, the fear of something going wrong if she opened her eyes kept her from doing so, making the young lady mentally curl into a ball as she waited, holding her breath.
A few seconds pass and she could finally feel the hard rock of the teleport stone below her. The rustling of leaves and a gust of wind surprised her, along with a strange chirping that seemed to echo.
Please, tell me that I'm not in some kind of labyrinth again..!
Few more seconds and a jingle is sounded in her mind, to which she reacts by slowly opening her eyelids and breathing out in relief.
She was no longer encased, in fact, it was as free as she could possibly wish, seeing the sun up high in the light blue sky accompanied with clouds.
She could finally inhale the fresh air of nature as she was in a grassland with grass as green as perpetual spring, flowers of multiple colors and flowing rivers that can be seen far away.
In front of her vision, the system panel welcomed her.
—NEW DOMAIN——————————
WELCOME TO THE SECOND DOMAIN
"Herbal Graveyard...? It's strange how there's no graves, but it surely is herbal."
Jae-Hwa took out her transformed halberd and studied her surroundings.
To the north was more grasslands until the field reached what looked like an abandoned village where the grass started to lose color.
In the other directions were simply forests, as if to say that whatever was inside that dense woodland, was strong enough to make the forest visually reject outsiders.
As she wandered around enjoying the scenery, what seemed to be enemies wandered around. Although there were many different kinds, there was one characteristic that all of them shared: they were either skeletons or ghosts.
The echo that she had heard before was from birds with a body of red or blue ghostly fire that flew around in groups as if they were still alive.
Otherwise, on the ground, several skeletons that looked like giant ants the size of a toddler roamed around, threatening predators with their large skulls with sturdy-looking teeth and stingers on the antennas, hard bone shells on top of their torso and pointy abdomens that looked ready to pierce anything.
Even then, although they moved fast, their legs were extremely small, making them almost crawl on the dirt.
Holding her halberd in her right hand, Jae-Hwa ran across the land, directed towards the ants.
As she approaches one of them, it buries itself deep in the dirt while leaving only it's shell outside.
Just before she attacked, Jae-Hwa analyzed her enemy.
—ENEMY———————————————
ENEMY NAME: Skeleton Worker
HEALTH: 80/80
SKILLS:
"For something with quite some health, you sure are a coward." Her smile widened nervously, now dawning on her that the enemies will only keep on becoming stronger.
Just as Marni had said before, the dungeon was truly like a tower. The deeper you go, the harder it becomes to breathe... The stronger the enemies become.
With a somewhat slow downwards strike, she slams the ant's shell with the halberd's axe head, only pushing it further down to the ground and not even creaking a crack.
"No damage!?"
As she attempts to lift her weapon away from it, still not used to its new weight, the foe launches its shell upwards like a spring, causing her to lose balance. To add to the trouble of her body being thrown back, the ant quickly emerges from the ground creating a hole that sinks her feet.
This halberd is too heavy to be used like when it was a spear, so if I don't have my weight balanced correctly, this is going to repeat again and again!
As Jae-Hwa was slipping into the hole, her weapon called out to her as if it had come to life, telling her to swing it as wildly as she could. Following her instincts, she immediately tightened her hold to the halberd's shaft and slashed horizontally with her eyes still closed from the surprise.
A loud thud occurs as the ground trembles and both chunks of stone, grass and dirt as well as the enemy's body flies away due to her attack.
To her surprise, although the shell on top of the skeleton worker's body was tough, the underside was unprotected and quite fragile, damaging it with ease thanks to her crescent swing.
As soon as she managed to find some stable footing, Jae-Hwa ran after the enemy, hoping to strike it down at once as no system notification had appeared yet.
"There it is! How convenient!"
The skeleton worker ant was upside down after having hit a boulder, impossible to return to a proper position to run away or attack due to its little legs and weight distribution.
As soon as the halberd user's shadow covered the monster, it started griding the teeth of its skull violently against each other, as if it was filled with fear, pleading for mercy.
ENEMY HEALTH: 13/80
"Not so cunning now, are we?"
Cho Jae-Hwa held her weapon high up, pointing the spear tip towards the vertebrae that was most vulnerable, striking it as strong as she could with a smirk on her face.
Moments later, a crack surges on the bony structure of the ant, exploding into particles of dust.
—CONGRATULATIONS————————
+ 15 EXP
CREDITS: + 6
DROPPED ITEM(S): Bone x2, Bone Shell x1, Raw Nanite Ore x1
"Quite the loot... but that's—" Materializing it to her hand, it was a chunk of silver ore stuck to a gray arid stone. Small, enough for her whole hand to cover it, but it was still nanite, the same material her new weapon is mostly made of.
It was strange for a monster of that sort to just have something like that drop after being defeated.
"Where did it store this..? Maybe with the mouth since it was larger than the rest, but how? ...Interesting."
She touched the lower lip, pensative as her eyes moved around, searching for her next victims that had an exquisite reward hidden in them.
Further into the grasslands, another Skeleton Worker roamed around, promptly digging down and burying its bony head to hopefully find some more nanite ore.
Shortly after, the monster popped it's head out as a chunk of mineral flew to the sky and fell inside the creepy mouth, locked away for storage.
"I was right! So they can find minerals, huh... They must have something in their bodies that allows them to ease the search."
Jae-Hwa tiptoed her path to the enemy, hoping to not be noticed as it dug for some more resources. The closer she got, the more the ground seemed to tremble, until a sinkhole opened up beneath her feet and several skulls with their stingers out got uncovered by the falling dirt.
"It was a trap!? But how did they know— No, if there are workers, there has to be a boss commanding them, it only makes sense... The only problem is that I can't find it!"
As she kept falling, some of the Skeleton Workers jumped forward with their pointy abdomens turned to her while others launched their stingers.
Even with the advantage of her position becoming lower by the second, some hits were taken and the foe's skill did it's job correctly.
I'm stunned... It takes eight seconds for this to pass, but I still have to find a wait to retaliate.
The dirt and stone had essentially been turned into gravel by the monsters, impossible to grab a hold of it without drowing her limbs into them, which gave her just the idea she needed.
As the status ailment subsided, the small halberdier forcefully moved her left foot to the side of the sinkhole, pushing it further in as her legs opened like scissors and the other foot sank into the remains of destroyed stone and dirt, continuing this process until she finally stopped falling.
"Straighten my back... And keep my weight balanced overall... Check the distance..."
Jae-Hwa stretched her hand, arranging her posture and hand placement on the weapon until it finally reached the skulls of her enemies with the spear point.
To her that was used to something lighter, she needed more time to get used to and properly do her swings, causing her to be attacked and paralyzed more than she wished.
However, now that she had found a somewhat stable condition to use it properly, she closes her eyes and sighs to calm her nerves and movements. The damage isn't much, the stun ailment is also shorter than what Terazus caused — there was no need to rush things.
"I will show you that I won't always be the same weak and distracted woman."
After a sigh of hatred towards Eirdan's words that keep being stuck in her mind, her eyes finally open. Her body obtains an orange light as
DAMAGE: 46 (+33)
As soon as she makes sure that the ant is not letting go, Jae-Hwa puts her whole strength in her arms and legs to start wildly swinging her halberd sideways, knocking down those that were buried in front of her just before starting to do full circles around her and making every enemy sink into the pit they had made.
It caused quite the strain in her body due to the force and wide movements her arms made, but it soon proved to be effective as there weren't any more enemies around her, only a mound of bones at the bottom.
With a smile on her lips, her gaze moved to her feet with superiority, knowing she had overcome a challenge alone against so many enemies.
"Night, night, little treasures."
Creating a cross in the air with her halberd pointing downwards, she thrusts it down at full strength like a meteor as an explosion of white light erupts below her with an aftermath of dust and natural debris caused by her
While her feet were still stuck in the sinkhole, several system panels appeared in front of Jae-Hwa.
—CONGRATULATIONS————————
+ 105 EXP <7 enemies total>
CREDITS: + 36
DROPPED ITEM(S): Bone x9, Bone Shell x5, Raw Nanite Ore x6, Raw Metal Ore x5
—LEVEL UP—————————————
"Finally, level five..."
Even if the enemies were one of the weakest in the domain, even if there was some way she could have done it better, the accomplishments she had achieved today was enough to make her overjoyed and laugh happily at the sight of her level up.
Jae-Hwa stored her weapon in the inventory and quickly climbed to the top, although with some failed attempts. For a day where she would only explore and see the strength of the enemies, she went above and beyond and got a haul of drop items and resources along with one more level.
Due to all that, the halberdier's new objective was to simply return to Carsenia and have a rest.
—CURRENT STATS——————————
PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 5 <0/170 EXP>
BLESSING: Phantasmagoria
TITLE: Giant Slayer
HEALTH: 127/150
DAMAGE: 43 (+28) // DEFENSE: 35 (+15) // ENERGY: 23/40
WEAPON: Ceremonial Nanite Halberd
ARMOR: Reinforced Hunter's Garb
ACTIVE SKILLS:
PASSIVE SKILLS:
CREDITS: 50