[Dark Avenger]

  Velmira stared at the words for a long moment, baffled. It did not sound good. Maybe this was why she was supposed to be sacrificed? Was she evil?

  No, no, I haven’t killed anyone, I can’t be evil, she told herself, though she wasn’t confident that this didn’t mean she was destined to be evil or something. What if she didn’t bless the land, but rather cursed it if she stayed alive?

  “Nope, I refuse. Not evil,” she said, groaning and pushing herself up as more words crossed her vision.

  [Boons unlocked]

  [Boon of Vengeance]

  [Boon of Renewal]

  [Boon of Safety]

  [Quest Acquired: Reforge Godbreaker]

  “Great, what in Holy Retribution’s name does all that mean?” Velmira huffed, and pushed herself up on shaky legs, if only to move away from the river and find a place to hide within the trees. Though, the purple words seemed happy to respond to her question.

  [Boon of Vengeance: Whenever wronged, gain 1 skill used from the act of the wrongdoing]

  Well, now that was a nice little perk. Maybe . . . maybe saving Edard was possible after all. She stumbled onward, further from the water, actively searching for a place to rest. There was no way she could continue in her current state.

  [Boon of Renewal: Life preservation━cannot be killed until age threshold is reached. After the age threshold is reached, gain 1 Renew for every level gained. May be stacked. For every 5 levels reached, gain 1 Rebirth. Upon total demise, Reincarnation takes effect]

  Velmira froze, reading that. Edard was right. She’d been reincarnated and sacrificed over and over again. If she died again, she’d be reborn, but then the church could more easily find her, and . . . I wouldn’t remember a thing, she thought, a realization hitting her.

  Every time she was sacrificed at midnight on her eighteenth birthday, she would have seen this class change. How many lifetimes had she been caused to suffer this lie? Vel shivered, though she was already doing that━clothes yet to dry━but this was a bone rattling shiver. It shot straight up her spine, pushing the fact even further that she could not risk going down now. This was a cycle that needed to be ended.

  [Boon of Safety: Shielded by the Dark Veil━Godly Sight cannot pierce the veil. Allies added will gain Allied Boon of Safety]

  Wait, add allies, Vel thought, deciding it would be best to do that right now as she sunk to the ground against a tree. It was as decent a spot as she would get, shielded by thick bushes.

  [Who would you like to add?]

  Edard, Velmira thought.

  [You have met 1 Edard Emlyn (Dark Seer and Tracker) in your life. Add to allies?]

  Yes. Wait . . .

  [Edard Emlyn has received Allied Boon of Safety]

  [Dark Seer]? Vel furrowed her brow. Was that how Edard had known she was a reincarnation? Did he intentionally seek her out because of this class? It doesn’t matter. Just finding him is more important.

  Vel didn’t know if a dead man could receive a boon, so she hoped that this meant he was still alive, out there, waiting for her.

  Add Amalia to allies.

  [You have met 1 Amalia Cros (Silver Singer) in your life. Add to allies?]

  Velmira let out a sigh of relief when the priestess was also added, then leaned her head back. Now, what was this about a quest?

  [Quest: Reforge Godbreaker]

  That was it? Oh, she was so not doing that without further information. Edard first, then mystical quests, she thought, closing her eyes.

  It wasn’t so hard to sleep through the night, but when morning came, Velmira yelped when a chicken landed on her head. She jumped straight up to her feet, leaping away from the squawking animal.

  [Skill gained: Feather Fall]

  [0.5 Dexterity added]

  The chicken stared her down with beady eyes, and Velmira furrowed her brow. This was not a normal chicken, its hide scaly in some places, and leathery in others. It spread its wings, launching at her with metal claws.

  Velmira jumped away, narrowly dodging the speedy animal. That left its back to her, and it took its sweet time to turn around, almost looking confused that she’d even moved.

  Option 1, she thought, backing away, run. The chicken flew at her again, and Vel leaped away. Despite the half dexterity point added, she was not feeling anymore spry.

  [For every 1 point in a stat, gain a 1% increase to the applicable stat]

  Well, that explained it. Okay, so running was probably not an option. Vel went with option 2━fight. She picked up a sturdy stick, and waited for the chicken to turn and fly at her once more. It did, and she dodged again, then slammed the stick into the chicken’s neck, getting a satisfying SQUAWK from it. It was good that this thing was dumber than it looked.

  She bashed it twice more before it got turned around, then it decided to just run straight in a circle rather than slowly rotate. This time, when Vel dodged, it circled around and came in for a much quicker attack. Its claws scraped across her shoulder, Vel hissing and looking at the spot that now oozed blood.

  Blood.

  She could bleed now. Oh, this was bad, very bad. She looked at the chicken, that was already coming in for another attack, stumbling out of the way when more words notified her:

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  [Skill gained: Metal Claw]

  [0.5 Constitution added]

  Constitution? Why did that go to━

  “Ack!” Velmira winced, pain surging through her fingertips. She dropped her makeshift club and looked down, seeing a set of metallic fingernails rapidly growing, pushing out her original fingernails. The chicken squealed, Vel looking up at it just in time to scramble away, its claw tearing through the right leg of her bloomer.

  “Okay, that. Is. It!” Velmira scowled at the beast. She could not afford to lose anymore clothing!

  She rushed the freaky little monster, swiping her club up off the ground, and leveraging her weight and momentum, swiped at it. The stupid animal hopped away, Vel stumbling into her overswing. Flapping its wings, it flew up at her again, its claw sinking into her exposed right shoulder.

  Oh, no, no, no, more blood. Her blood. “Holy retribution!” she hissed, a hand flying up and locking around the beast’s leg. It flapped, frantic to be free━Over my dead body. Velmira dug her fingernails into the soft flesh on its leg, its squeal another success in her mind.

  Its head came down on her quicker than Vel could react, flinching away as its beak stabbed at her forehead. Fortunately, the beak hardly did a thing. Bruise, maybe. Knowing that gave her an opening to bring her other hand up to grab at its leg. She winced at its retaliation, the rotten chicken scratching at her arm.

  She didn’t care! This thing had signed up to be breakfast at this point. Grasping at the thin leg tightly with both hands, Vel growled, snapping the thing in half. The claw in her shoulder retracted, and she hissed as she threw the chicken away.

  Holding the wound tightly, she bent over, picking up her makeshift club, glaring at the beast that struggled to move away, frantically flapping its wings and moving its good leg. Disallowing its escape, Velmira slammed the club down on its head once, twice, then three times. It squawked with each, twitching, yet still not dead.

  “Fine, we’ll do this the hard way,” she said, and wrapped a hand around its neck. Using her new claws, she raked them across the leather skin there, quivering in disgust as her fingernails dug deep into its flesh. “Ew, ew, ew,” she said, recoiling after ample amounts of blood spilled from the struggling beast.

  The struggle didn’t last much longer, the thing, after limping about a foot, collapsed, dead.

  [Metal Claw level 2]

  Sitting on her knees, Vel breathed out, and using her cleaner hand, wiped sweat from her brow. My reward, she thought, looking at the skill level. And a meal. Then it occurred to her that she had no idea how to skin this thing, nor the tools. She couldn’t even start a fire!

  “Argh!” she clenched her fists, stood up, then kicked the chicken with a slippered foot. Ow. “Retribute that, you useless animal!”

  Grabbing at her hair, uncaring about the blood on her hand, she pulled at the lavender locks. Turning away from the ugly thing, she looked at the three claw wounds in her right shoulder, cringing. The blood was bad, well, at least she thought it was. In all honesty, she didn’t know if the wound itself was that bad, but it hurt.

  Despite watching priestesses tend to and heal many injuries, she hadn’t exactly learned much about them, maybe except to stop the bleeding━the few cases she helped with wounds. Hers, however, already looked to be stopping on its own, drying quicker than she expected, though it left a nasty streak of blood down her shoulder. Ick.

  Get used to it, she told herself, stomaching the wound by pressing onward, wherever onward was. She briefly considered returning to the river to wash up, but filed that into the “bad ideas” category. They’d be searching for her down river, so she needed to distance herself from it.

  I need to find Edard, she thought, shaking her head. There was no way, passing tree after tree, that she was going to find him in a forest this big. Sure that he’d be thinking the same for her had he been searching, she looked up towards the sky, the rising sun informing her which way was east, and which was west.

  Moving west went into the “good ideas” category. After all, it moved her further from Evamyn, her hometown. However, food and water were going to grow more pressing as time passed, which moved to the top of the list. She’d be no use in saving Edard if she died from starvation.

  “I need civilization,” she said, basically useless out in the woods. Right, find a town that wasn’t Evamyn.

  Eyes wandered to a tree with low hanging branches. Could she use [feather fall] to safely climb a tree for a better vantage point?

  “This is stupid,” she said, ranking the idea into that category, and yet, she grabbed onto the lowest branch. It took a few tries to jump up and pull herself onto it. She pulled one leg up, then the next, and holding arms out for balance, slowly stood up.

  Looking down, she already felt nervous, and let out a high hum. It wasn’t high at all. In fact, it was lower than the wall she’d escaped over twice. Apparently adrenaline made a person care less about the potential of fall damage.

  Here goes nothing, she thought, and jumped down. Fall. Like a feather. At least, that was what she hoped for. She was more like a really big feather with weights attached, scraping her knees as she fell to them. There was something, however, a new sense, like she had a semblance of control in the air moving beneath her feet and around her arms.

  After a second attempt, this time not falling on her landing, Velmira felt a sort of cushion of air wedge itself between her feet and the ground.

  [Feather Fall level 2]

  “Okay,” she said, staring at the level increase. She wasn’t sure what it did, but━

  [Skill level increases provide +1% skill effectiveness. Skills max out at rank 5. 100 levels are required to rank up.]

  That was insane! Everyone else had been working with skill advantages this entire time, possibly having a 500% skill effectiveness increase!

  [Max skill effectiveness: 400%. Rank 5 has 0 levels]

  Oh.

  But still.

  “Hey, uh, purple fairy thing, can I see my skills and stats?”

  [Name: Velmira]

  [Class: Dark Avenger]

  [Level: 0]

  [Age: 18]

  [Stats ]

  [Strength: 0]

  [Dexterity: 0.5]

  [Constitution: 0.5]

  [Acuity: 0]

  [Magic: 0]

  [Skills ]

  [Feather Fall Rank 1 Level 2]

  [Metal Claw Rank 1 Level 2]

  “Thank you, Fairy,” Velmira said, scanning the page presented. Nice that Fairy actually recognized her given name.

  Okay, time to do something stupider, Vel looked back up the tree. She sighed, and began the climb, listing all the reasons why this was a terrible idea. First and foremost, she would tire out quickly. Secondly, heights━that one made her shiver, though she hoped she could continuously practice feather fall on the way down, all for the 2% effectiveness she had with it. But at least she was grasping the idea on how it worked.

  The arduous climb grew dumber by the time she was midway up the tree, hours having gone by, sweat soaking her clothes, and the need to rest for the dozenth time. This had better be worth it, she thought, knowing that the energy and time spent could have been used traveling westward, hoping to come across a helpful little town or something.

  Still, she pressed on, a few small branches cracking under her weight. It wasn’t until, with a yelp and a good use of feather fall that she realized that she could already see over the treetops, her particular tree being much taller. Or rather, that the land declined westward.

  Don’t look down, she told herself for the thousandth time, taking quick breaths as she surveyed the land. She could see a gap in the trees that wound for the length of many, many miles. It was south of her, so Vel assumed that must have been the river. Far, far downstream, the trees opened up, several plumes of smoke rising from that area.

  “I am certifiably dumb,” she said breathlessly. Of course there would be a settlement along the river! It was an easy source of water!

  That did present a dangerous problem, however. The church was probably already there, searching for her. No, she couldn’t risk going there, not until she was better geared up. Scanning further northward, Velmira caught sight of an even wider gap in the trees and a large lake beyond. There were plumes of smoke there as well, though not as many. Still, it was better than moving down the river.

  “Okay, maybe not that dumb,” she thought, looking up to the sun to use it as a reference point. Though she was likely to end up off, the northwestern direction was as decent a direction as she was going to get.

  Now, to get down from this tree . . .