Chương 47: Level 3

Alexandra bent down and used her sickle to sever a stalk of Aetherveil. It wasn't much, but every iron counted, and she had time to kill before her daily reset. After a long afternoon spent hunting and gathering plants, she found herself too far from Esmera to return. Out in the plains, her skills were showing better growth, so she decided to spend the night outside. She stood up and her journal appeared in her hand.

Sickle Mastery 7 -> 8 Combat Sense 1 -> 3 Sure Footing 1 -> 4 Louis hadn't been all that excited about her movement skill. According to him, it was fine, but nothing spectacular. Alexandra disagreed. Sure Footing - 4: Improve stability when using your feet. Each level increases stability. The effect was straightforward, always useful, and the quest had been a breeze. All she had to do was run twenty-five kilometers without stumbling. Even better, Sure Footing was leveling at an unprecedented pace.

She wasn't too surprised, seeing as she spent the whole day on her feet. She felt stable, and it showed in her fighting style. Combined with Combat Sense, the skill made it so much easier to dodge and position herself that she barely got a scratch despite the number of verdant beasts she killed. There were even a few bronze ranks among them, and she only had to resort to Dark Bolt once. The curse of blindness had been a pain to endure, but as long as it wasn't a sickness, she was fine with a bit of discomfort.

She licked her lips as an invisible quill wrote the content of today's daily. Level 3 today.

"Come on, write faster." But the quill didn't listen, and for what seemed to take an eternity, etched the words onto the first page of her journal. Quest Journal Daily Reset: 06: 00 | Streak: 14 Days | 1% All Stats Next Milestone: 25 Days Daily Quests: Leave the Balerian plains (0/1) She blinked.

"What?" She tapped her fingers on the paper. She'd seen a map on Louis' desk, and remembered some details from the game version of Baleria. The latter wasn't accurate, nor to scale, while the former lacked precision. Nonetheless, she knew that there were two options before her. One, she could run north toward the Limian steppes. It was far, though she didn't know the exact distance. She wasn't sure if she could make it in a day. Two, she could try her luck hitching a ride on a ship in Esmera.

That too, wasn't a guarantee. Who knew if a ship would leave today, and if they would let her board.

"And I'll need to come back for my event quests…" She was at least twenty-five kilometers north of the city. Reaching the steppes wasn't going to be easy, but it depended on her, and her only. She dispelled her journal, straightened her clothes, and started running a light jog. Relying on Sure Footing for balance, her eyes scanned the landscape before her. She had to avoid verdant beasts and goblins. With no idea how far the steppes were, she couldn't afford stopping for a fight.

The plains stretched flat in every direction. Over the two weeks she'd spent in Laika, she'd gotten better at reading the sun's position and inferring cardinal directions. Still, she was by no means an expert. Her target was to the north, and she was confident that she was more or less going in that direction. It was only ten kilometers in that she remembered her Running skill quest. Two weeks in and I'm already overwhelmed. With how things were going, she would soon need a skill to keep track of her progress.

Well, that was pretty much what her class art was for. Without stopping, she summoned her journal again, and flipped it open on the third page. Running: Run 100 kilometers without stopping. (10/100) She sent the book away. Okay. Ninety kilometers to go. That sounded possible. Her constitution was up to 15. Considering she started at 7… Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! She grimaced. Even if she was twice as good as before, a hundred kilometers was a lot.

At least, it sounded like a lot. She had no idea how it actually felt. Ten kilometers became twenty, then thirty. The sun had risen halfway to noon by the time she passed a cluster of Silvershard. The plants caught the light along their blades. She recognized them by the color and gave them a wide berth. Her thoughts drifted back to Lanterne, and her heart tightened a little. She missed them. Maybe she could have acted differently. She shook her head, and kept running.

At forty kilometers, her body started protesting. Truth be told, it had already been protesting for a while, but it was only now that it caught up to her. Her breath was short, her heart was beating too fast and too strong, she was burning inside and sweat poured from all her pores. Her mind was blank. She ran. Her legs were shaking. Sure Footing helped. The next part was a blur. She could only see the next step, and the one after that. Until her feet touched the water.

She almost stopped, but her instinct forced her to turn and run along the water as her brain caught up to what was happening. A river. Since when was there a river in the plains? Stupid question, Alex. It's always been there you just didn't know about it. She pursed her lips. The river wasn't too wide, but she couldn't see the bottom, which meant that it was deep enough to stop her from running. Her skill quest was clear: she wasn't supposed to stop. But she did need to cross that damned river.

It was running perpendicular to her route, and flowing east. Neither upstream nor downstream brought her closer to the steppes. She continued running upstream along the river, opening her journal to check her progress. Almost halfway. It would be a shame to give up now. Yet, the streak was more important than a skill quest. She gritted her teeth. The river wasn't growing any shallower. She stopped. It was about noon. Alexandra removed her shoes and dipped her feet in the water. Cold. It felt good.

She sat on the bank and closed her eyes. This daily quest sucked.

"Anyway, now that I've stopped, I might as well make it a real break." She could run past reason, but there would be a point where her body would give in. So she rested for a while. She drank from the river and refilled her gourd, ate a piece of bread she'd bought before leaving Esmera. It was stale. After too short of a time, she stood up and crossed the river. She'd been right about the depth. There was a good three meter stretch in the middle where she couldn't touch the bottom.

Still, she reached the other shore, and put her soaked shoes back on.

"This is going to suck." Running with wet shoes and clothes was as bad as she imagined. Everything itched and scratched. The open plains left the way open for wind and sun to dry her, but even then the discomfort didn't fade. She ran. As much because she didn't know how far her destination was as with the hope to complete her skill quest. Starting from zero again was but a delay. She would get that skill, sooner or later. Along the way, she dodged too many goblins and verdant beasts to count.

Some she hadn't seen before. Some too close of a call. Their number seemed to be increasing as she moved further from the city. Around seventy-five kilometers away from the river, she spotted a village in the distance. Smoke was rising from the chimneys because the sun would soon set. Maybe she could stop there on the way back. She wouldn't reject a warm meal and a bed. The temperature contrast between day and night was harsh. Too hot soon turned into too cold as the moon took its turn as her light source.

Alexandra was running on fumes, but she was running. Each step was a torture. Each breath came out ragged and weak. But she was running. Until it got better. Without warning, her legs recovered some vitality. Her breathing evened out. Even her joints felt smoother. It was like waking up from a dream: the confusion, the haze. Then she checked her journal. It was Running. She was done. She stopped and collapsed to the ground. Running: Run 100 kilometers without stopping.

(100/100) Sure Footing 4 -> 5 A weak, slow laugh came out of her throat.

"I fucking did it." Then she remembered her daily quest.

"Ah. Fuck." She stood up, and kept running. She ran without light, without seeing where her feet landed, relying on Running and Sure Footing to pave the way for her. Without the sun, she wasn't sure she was going in the right direction. The night sky was covered in so many stars. She didn't know the images she'd seen online were real. She didn't recognize any constellation from Earth. But she ran. She ran. She ran. She ran. Without stopping. Without complaining. Without a shred of a doubt that she would succeed.

For her streak. Until the last flower gave way to tall grass, and until that grass grew sparser. Until she couldn't move her legs anymore. She fell. Even her skills couldn't push her further. Alexandra moved herself to a sitting position. It wasn't comfortable, but it was better than lying face first into the dirt. Then she took a deep breath, and she summoned her journal. Leave the Balerian plains (1/1) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 CON. Daily Quest Streak: 14 -> 15 Running 1 -> 3 Sure Footing 5 -> 6 Level up!

2 -> 3 Class perk selection available. Alexandra quickly flipped the pages—status, skill quests, event quests, then she landed on the page she was dying to read. Choose your level 3 class perk: Adventuring Party – Share your quests with up to two other people. Daily and skill quests excluded. Party members must be of the same rank, or have a maximum difference of 15 levels. Paper Map – Turns a section of your journal into a collection of maps. Places you visit are automatically drawn onto the maps.

One More – Unlock a second daily quest per day. Rewards are doubled, but both quests need to be completed for the streak to be valid.