Elanore began the process of shaping the large rock using magic. She hollowed it out and formed it into a large bowl with lips, otherwise known as a cauldron.
"[Inspect]," she said towards the object.
[Uncommon Cauldron - This is a regular cauldron but made by a divine vampiric witch. ]
"Huh, the first time that an item presented is not super over powered. I guess this makes sense when I haven't enchanted it."
The vampire thought back to her time enchanting items in the game and remembered it with a fond grin. "I guess it's not so bad that I lost all of my items. I can just gather more! There are places to explore, people to meet, and things to enchant. And on top of that, I don't feel the least bit tired."
It was commonplace for Ella to get exhausted in her old life. Perhaps it was the fact that she consumed so many energy drinks? She must've messed up her circadian rhythm.
"Why is it called a circadian rhythm? Is it because it's circular like this cauldron?" A new thought emerged from her line of questions. Will I even have to sleep in this body?
Though, she shrugged that line of thinking away. Much like her other little thought trails, this one didn't go very far. It was more like a small path in the woods, and then it's stopped by a falling tree. Though, I do wonder if my house exists here.
In the game, it was commonplace for people to have their own houses to store items or invite guild members over. Elanore never had a proper guild. She believed that doing so would only hamper her path to become the strongest she possibly could.
Either way, she cast her pink mist of mana over the cauldron and filed it away into her inventory. Hopefully, I will reach a settlement before nightfall. Though, who would deny a pink lady entry into their garden?
"No, doing so would be an affront to such a pretty color. It would be like denying the pretty flower on the end of a rose bush." She giggled to herself and began to follow along the river for hopefully the last time.
And it didn't take her overly long to find the first semblances of people. There were no people-shaped flesh thingies, but there were objects that people-shaped flesh thingies used. There was a broken cart in the middle of the forest, and time had seemingly taken its toll on the object.
The wood was splintered from the wreckage, and the wheels were broken off. Bits of moss had started growing on the sides of it, and the inside was almost completely empty, save for a skeleton and a small bag affixed to his side. Would my spell work on a dead body?
"[Inspect]"
[Common Skeleton - Skeleton of a dead man.]
Huh, I kind of expected more from inspecting a dead body. What use is there in knowing it's a skeleton? I can fucking see it's a skeleton!
She focused her attention instead on the small brown bag. It was sealed with a little red rope and a small golden tag.
"Finder's keepers, losers weepers," Elanore said, taking the little bag into her hands. She undid the red rope, and the bag came open in her palm. A few small, rusted coins were inside, and along with it, a tiny folded note.
Safe Travels, dear Atohl.
Elanore couldn't help cringing. She stared down at the skeleton. "It looks like you didn't have very safe travels, buddy. Unless? Maybe you're not Atohl. Either way, I am sorry for your passing, but I need these coins." Ella put her hands together in prayer. "I wish you safe travels in the afterlife. Maybe you are as overpowered as me right now?"
For a brief moment, Ella wondered if her old body was turning into a skeleton somewhere.
She stored away the bag with coins in it and sighed once more. "I really am going to have to fly up, aren't I?"
Ella gripped her staff and started to soar into the sky above. She climbed over the enormous trees, until she was firmly over them. The wind danced against her skin, and the sun hovered high above her, warming her body. The ground below grew distant within a few seconds, but the feeling was enough to last her an eternity.
She imagined that flying would feel like how those dogs feel when they stick their head out of a driving car's window. It's like that but even better!
The vampire took a deep breath of fresh non constricting air. She gazed over the landscape beneath her, appreciating how truly vast this forest was. It was way more enormous than she'd initially given it credit. There were seemingly endlessly rolling mountains in all directions, and the river did continue down into a valley.
It was when she focused her eyes that she finally noticed it. Far off into the distance, she could see stacks of smoke rising into the sky. She was implanted at the outer rim of civilization, and stone structures rose in the distance against a hilltop in the valley.
"Finally!" She cheered. "I will actually be able to meet people for the first time!" She looked down at the ground beneath her. "I should probably get ready for my first time meeting them. Need to make a good impression and all that."
The vampire lowered herself onto the ground, and she started drawing a map into the mud from her recollection of where the fort was. As soon as she had something sufficient, she used a spell to lift up the piece of mud from the ground.
"[Rock Platform]," she said, invoking her sorceress abilities to pull the block from the ground. Now she had a small map written in mud, and she just needed to do one more thing. "[Harden]."
She essentially had a stone map in front of her that she would be able to follow all the way to their fort. She sucked the map into her inventory, and then she tried to picture the inside of her space.
A mental image formed—a pink abyss inside of her mind, and eventually she arrived at this map after filtering away the other inventory items. The map was plainly implanted at the corner of her vision like she was some kind of game character.
"Oh wait…Though, there is no point in getting into the nitty gritty of existence paradox! I will paradoxically be unparadoxical...or something."
She laughed at herself and resumed her journey. She didn't want to fly in case it raised alarms, but she was not opposed to the idea at the same time. If one blared an alarm for such a cute girl, she imagined that those people would be alarming themselves. It would be proof they are all poison dart frogs, and she didn't want to lick them.
Though, maybe I can lick them now after all…
Elanore put aside her thoughts of licking people or their frogs and walked up to a nearby tree instead. She found the lowest hanging branch that she could see, and she broke it away from the flora. "I will use this little happy fellow to make a ladle! Everyone knows that all witches have ladles to stir the pot!"
Isn't stirring the pot some kind of euphemism for causing trouble as well? I could use this ladle as a rite of passage to get into the place. Pretend to be an old hag or something…
She shook her head and slapped her cheeks. "That is way too much work! Think about it! Why would I even want to act like someone else when I am perfect the way I am? Screw you, delusional witch title. The only person delusional is the one who said I won't be a vampire witch."