Phoenix continued traveling after making sure nothing was near her hollowed tree. She was grateful for the decrease in monsters that appeared to occur with the arrival of the dawn, though she wasn’t sure where they had all gone at first. It wasn’t until she came across the evil tree monster again that she realized the monsters hadn’t despawned like in a video game but had gone dormant, seeming to sleep during the day.

  Not wanting to potentially wake it up, she skirted around it and continued on her way. She only got a few meters away from the tree when she almost got her head bitten off as a ball of white fur flew towards her neck with sharp white teeth. She was barely able to dodge the demon bunny and remembered her new power, conjuring the onyx dagger.

  The Wayfarer watched the tiny monster carefully, attempting to time her strike with its own. As it pounced through the air once more, she swung… and missed. Swiping at the air cost her, though she managed to keep her head as teeth sunk into the arm that had moved too soon. She reacted in a panic, falling to her knees and smming the rabbit on her arm against the ground to force it to release her.

  When the monster finally let go, she plunged her stiletto directly into its exposed chest. Blood sprayed everywhere as she continued to stab it. She didn’t halt until it stopped making noise, and her dagger fell into a pile of fine grey dust. The disturbed monster ash puffed up into the air around her, causing her to cough before dry-heaving her non-existent breakfast.

  Thankfully, she didn’t remain covered in bunny blood as even that disintegrated into dust, drifting to the ground around her. It took a few minutes for her to calm down as she babbled to try and reassure herself that she wasn’t murdering innocent little woodnd creatures, “Like a video game. Just a monster needing to get dusted. Like Buffy or every other censored monster-fighting show ever.”

  It was the pain in her arm that helped her move again. She tore off some of the hem of her dress to wrap the cloth around her forearm and hopefully halt the bleeding that the bunny bite had caused. She really hoped it wouldn’t get infected. After a few moments of rest, she pushed herself to keep moving through the forested mountain range again. She needed to find a town or something to help bandage her numerous wounds,

  The Wayfarer had to take down a few more deranged rabbits and squirrels as she meandered without a destination. The area felt like a completely untouched wilderness, based on what she had seen in movies, with towering trees and high underbrush. The game trails were her only chance at making progress, and she was positive they weren’t going in a straight or efficient route.

  As she walked the trails, she tried out her new Aura effects and quickly discovered a problem with the two yers that seemed to conflict with each other. Her [Embrace of Shadows] would try to blur her form and worked better in darkness to make her even more difficult to detect, but her little [Starlight Companion] from her [Guiding Stars] Aura was a little ball of light directly countering the effects.

  After a bit of trial and error, she realized that she actually had quite a bit of control over those particur effects, being able to turn either one on or off at will. Luckily, reconjuring the little companion seemed to cost a bit of mana only if it got destroyed and not simply dismissed. This also made her rex about people not being able to see her constantly blurred out form if she ever did manage to make it to a town.

  She wished she had figured out how to dismiss her tiny nightlight sooner, having been terrified of its light attracting more monsters in the dark. Now, she hoped that the next night wouldn’t be as fear-inducing. She would just need to make sure the nightlight was off and the cloak of shadows on and find a quiet little nook to hole up in again.

  Phoenix continued to use her portal whenever she could as she traveled, marveling at the magic and hoping it would get her to civilization faster. She eventually got the brilliant idea of climbing a rge tree that seemed to tower even more over the others to get a better view. She ended up cheating a bit by portaling up to one of the sturdier-looking branches before waiting for her cooldown on it to finish and then beginning to climb higher. A fall from this height would be a sure way to die, and she hoped the portal might be a life-saving solution to that.

  It turned out to be a smart move as she slipped towards the top, unused to climbing, well, anything before. She got scraped up by a few branches before creating the portal midair and falling through it to stumble forward near the trunk, slightly disoriented by being pced vertically from the horizontal entry.

  Phoenix tried again after a brief rest while waiting on the cooldown twice more. Once she managed to reach the top, there was nothing but a sea of trees and mountains surrounding her. However, from the new vantage point, she was able to see the peak of the nearest mountain and attempt to portal herself to that next.

  She was surprised when nothing happened and asked aloud, “Why can’t I portal over there?”

  Note: Portaling to an area requires an aural imprint of the area. Your aura must have touched the area previously, and the destination must not have changed significantly enough to disturb the imprint.

  “Well, that’s inconvenient,” she muttered before opening a portal back on the ground out as far as her aura currently stretched to. Making her way towards the mountain peak she had originally been aiming for.

  It kept getting colder the higher she portaled up the mountainside, and as she opened her final portal at its peak, the wind threatened to fling her from the ledge she walked out onto. The chill cut down to her bones as she shivered uncontrolbly. Her torn-up dress had been better than nothing, but it wasn’t exactly meant for the high altitude she now found herself at.

  As she gazed across the mountains, she was disheartened to realize just how vast it was with the plethora of peaks and ocean of green trees she had no name for surrounding her in every direction. Despite the cold, she decided to huddle against the mountainside to watch the sun move, trying to at least determine a direction to head in. With noon now past, she decided to travel away from the sun, which she believed was the direction that wouldn’t nd her back at the point of arrival.

  After a few more portals trailing a path across the mountain range, she decided to seek shelter for the encroaching night, but what she found instead was much worse. As she gnced into a cave she had portaled towards after spotting it from her st vantage point, she was met with a growl she recognized, followed by the set of teeth and shadowy bck fur she expected to go with it.

  Phoenix barely reacted in time as the Shanther pounced at her. She turned to flee, trying not to slip and tumble down the sloped mountainside while also trying not to get slowed by climbing up said slope. The rge cat was much faster than her, but its powerful lunges made it harder for it to pivot as quickly as she was trying to dodge.

  Her luck ran out extremely quickly when her frantic sprint across the mountain brought her to a sheer drop where it seemed like part of the mountain had broken away. She knew the fall would kill her, if not instantly, then by having so many broken bones that a monster would be sure to finish the job.

  She gnced back as the Shanther seemed to understand her predicament as well, and it gave a low stuttering growl. If Phoenix hadn’t known better, she would have sworn the creature was ughing at her.

  The Wayfarer looked back at the drop and conjured her dagger to face the monster she actually had a slim chance of fighting. She just needed to st a few more minutes for her cooldown to be over, and she could portal away to safety.

  The Shanther didn’t give her that chance.

  It hissed at the small dagger and seemed to turn into a dark mist that began to rush towards her, causing her to reflexively step back in a panic. Only there was no back to step onto. As her foot met only air, she tumbled backward and away from the rocky cliff.

  Unable to reach out and grasp at the stone wall as she fell, Phoenix realized she had been wrong about the fall killing her. It was never the fall but the sudden and inevitable stop that did her in. There was only a moment of brief pain as her entire body crumpled against the stony mountainside, and she sensed nothing more.

  Phoenix awoke to her glowing book floating in front of her face, and it took her a moment to focus on it enough to make out the script scrawled across it.

  You have died.

  All equipment has been returned to your collection.

  [Waypoint] has guided your soul back to your designated location.

  You have been reconstituted to a state of full integrity.

  Twenty-four hours remain until this effect can be triggered again.

  Her mind reeled.

  She died? How was she alive? Where was she now?

  It took her another few moments to realize she was lying down and naked again as she slowly sat up and looked around.

  She was back at her initial arrival point, vaguely recognizing the intricate swirls etched into the ground around her, though it didn’t seem to be smoldering anymore. Then her gaze nded on a man who was staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at her.

  Their eyes briefly met before his began to rove downwards, taking in her nudity. She quickly reacted to cover herself with her limbs and thought about the green dress that she had been wearing when she died.

  To her slight surprise and immense relief, it reappeared from her collection directly onto her body, and she was grateful for the ability to quickly change like that. She made a mental note to practice that more in the future.

  The stranger had short, slightly wavy brown hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to glow with a magical light. He quickly moved towards her once he got over his initial shock, and there were no longer any… distractions for him to ogle at.

  Instead, he started to ask questions like she might vanish on him again, “You! Are you the Wayfarer? How did you get here? Where did you come from? What powers do you have? Can I get a sample? Were you always bald? Wait, no, I bet that happened in transit. What world do you come from?”

  Phoenix felt her heart begin to pound wildly, and her mind spun at the flood of questions. She wasn’t used to… people. Not like this and definitely not strangers whom she had never been introduced to first.

  Introductions! Right. That was what normal people did first, right?

  “I, um… I’m Phoenix,” she managed to get out when the enthusiastic man took a breath between questions. Perhaps he could help give her some information since she doubted she could run away from someone more used to the activity than she was.

  “You were a phoenix, or is that your name? You can speak our nguage. Transtion ability? Most Wayfarers are reported to have one.”

  “Y–yes. A talent transtes,” she managed to respond before adding, “And it’s my name. Um, what’s yours?”

  The young man grinned at her and replied, “Call me Miles.” He gnced over his shoulder with a thoughtful expression before turning back to her, “Now, Phoenix, if you would come with me, I can help you out. I’m sure you have almost as many questions as I do. I can take you to the nearest city, and we can talk while we walk. How does that sound?”

  He held out a hand for her to take to help her stand, and she gnced from the hand to the direction he had looked towards. She could vaguely make out voices that seemed like a raucous group ughing and making their way closer. Phoenix looked back at the hand and up into his slightly glowing blue eyes and asked, “What about your… others?”

  Miles winced slightly and said, “I don’t think they would appreciate your arrival as much as I would. Some of them are Hunters and Mercenaries that don’t care about the real value you hold. They may not be as gentle and considerate of your ignorance as I am.

  “If we go quickly, then it can be just the two of us having a nice informative stroll through the forest, yes? No interruptions or… well, I’m sure the other Magi will want to do a lot more tests that are invasive in nature,” he added as an afterthought.

  That helped make up her mind for her as she took the proffered hand and stood to be led in the opposite direction of the voices, away from her point of resurrection. She contempted portaling away, but she wanted more answers. Not to mention, she was still a bit shaken from her death, which she was still trying to process. What good would portaling away do if she would just get eaten by monsters? As much as she hated to admit it, she needed help –at least to get to a safer pce.

  “What’s that?” Miles’ voice came as he briefly halted after they entered the denser treeline, “One of your abilities?”

  She gnced back to see what he was talking about and saw her book still trailing after her dutifully with the message still on dispy. Nodding, she hesitantly expined, “It’s my [Guide Book]. It gives me information.”

  He leaned closer to read before she realized what he was doing. His eyes went wide in shock as they gnced from the words to her, “You died?! That’s why you reappeared there so suddenly?”

  Phoenix fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze and simply nodded, which caused him to grab her hand and pull her along once more. Miles began muttering to himself, “I need to get you somewhere much safer and private. If anyone else finds out about you, they’re sure to take you away. There’s no way they’d let a Crystal like me hold onto you.”

  After a few more minutes of walking, the man slowed and gnced over his shoulder at her, “Alright, I think we won’t be overheard at all if you want to start answering my questions.”

  She hesitated and asked, “Can we take turns?”

  He grinned and nodded, “That sounds fair. Even your questions will be valuable information for me to record,” he said, then pulled a notebook and quill pen out of a small satchel at his side.

  “Is that a Bag of Holding?” she couldn’t help asking as there was no way that size of book would have fit normally.

  Miles quirked an eyebrow, “It is a bag that holds things, yes. My turn now. What world did you come from?”

  She scrunched her face in annoyance, “Earth. A Bag of Holding is what we call a bag with a pocket dimension inside them so they can hold more things than would normally be possible,” she replied and pointed at the satchel, “That was what my original question was.”

  “Ah, well, the answer is the same. It’s a dimensional storage like you described. This one’s not that impressive, though. Mainly just holds my books and notes.”

  She nodded and then asked, “What world is this?”

  “Oh, this world is called Makera by the more… let’s say cosmically inclined community. Now, what Natural Talents did you arrive with? Wayfarers are usually a bit of a random assortment with extremely overpowered talents, but many themes recur within their species.”

  “Overpowered?” she reiterated curiously.

  He shook a finger at her in a scolding manner, “Ah ah, I asked a question first and expect an answer before I offer one to you.”

  Phoenix scrunched her nose again in frustration. Resigned to py his game in exchange for information and being led to safety, she pulled her book closer to her and willed the previous information to show itself. As she read off the information aloud, she included the one she had completely forgotten about earlier this time. Apparently, it was the only reason she was still standing here.

  Natural Talent: Waypoint

  When suffering lethal damage, instead of crossing the Veil, your soul will be transported to the st pce you designated as your Waypoint. Your body will be reconstituted there, regaining a state of full integrity. This effect can only be triggered once every twenty-four hours.

  “That’s incredible,” Miles muttered as he wrote down the information almost frantically and then asked, “And how did you die just now?”

  It was her turn to grin as she shook a finger in the same way he had, “Ah ah, it’s my turn to ask now.”

  A fsh of anger seemed to contort the man’s face and cause her to flinch back slightly, but it was gone the next moment when he shook his head. “Right, I forgot in my excitement. Go ahead.”

  “I, um…” she hesitated, then pulled her glowing book close to her chest as though it might act as a shield and probed cautiously, “Where are you taking me?”

  He seemed to bnk for a moment before giving a cheerful smile and answered, “My home in Blomstra. Where you’ll be safe and protected from those who might try to steal you.”

  Suddenly, Phoenix realized that there were other things now that she feared more than death as the young mage took her hand and led her deeper into the forest.