While roaming the village and helping around, Hazel also went through her stats just to double-check her progress.

Status Window Name: Hazel Thatcher Race: Human Level: 36 Class: Witch Free Points: 0

Attributes: Strength: 7 Agility: 16 Endurance: 20 Intelligence: 100 (+53) Wisdom: 97 (+38) Willpower: 22 (+10)

Combining her equipment effects, she had over one-fifty intelligence and one-thirty wisdom. She could only imagine just how strong she would become once she reached level fifty. Just the thought made her eager to get there.

With her current capabilities, she was most likely the strongest mage within the guild. The second strongest was obviously Anais since her level was in the thirties as well. Hazel didn't know what kind of equipment and effects she possessed, but to avoid having her ego getting crushed, she would believe that both of them were equally strong.

Of course, Hazel still had an edge in terms of her spell arsenal. Not only did she possess the Telekinesis spell, which was by far the most versatile spell, but she also had two Entropy spells, which could easily destroy her enemies in an instant. Speaking of spells, after defeating the spider queen, she leveled up to where she reached the third marker, allowing her to choose another spell.

Her choices were [Cursed Binding], [Baneful Presence], [Cursed Terrain], and [Cursed Lacerations]. And Hazel chose the [Cursed Terrain] spell.

<Cursed Terrain> Rank 1 Users can curse the land around them within fifteen feet. The longer the target stays within the range of the curse, the more affected they are by the curse. The spell will last for thirty seconds, and the cooldown is one minute.

While it wasn't much at the moment, Hazel believed that this spell held the most potential, and that was because of one factor it possessed: Its range. Right now, the spell only expanded about fifteen feet around Hazel, but as she increased its rank, so would its range. Once she raised her rank enough, she would be able to infect the area with the curse effect that went up to twenty or even thirty feet. Maybe even more.

Aside from this spell, her second option would've been cursed lacerations. According to its description, when she was deciding which one to pick, this spell would allow her to fire cursed blade-type attacks that would tear through the enemy's defenses and severely wound them while also cursing them in the process. Considering her proficiency with curse magic was an exception thanks to her class, this spell would've been a wonderful addition to her arsenal.

The last two spells weren't as appealing. For one thing, she didn't need [Curse Binding] since she could already restrict her enemy's movements with Telekinesis. Plus, just because it had a curse effect while binding the enemy didn't make it any more appealing. She was better off just restraining an opponent with Telekinesis and simply hurling either curse spears or curse bombs at them instead. It would be a lot better and more efficient since the curse damage was stronger.

As for [Baneful Presence], this spell was apparently just a weaker version of [Cursed Terrain]. The spell essentially shrouds the user in an aura of curse energy, emitting a very menacing aura and curse damage when people get close to it. Compared to the two, her [Cursed Terrain] spell was a much better option because of its Area of Effect.

She tested the spell after selecting it, and the effect was certainly something. By just activating the spell, the ground around her suddenly blackened and withered, as if they were deprived of life. Another thing she noticed when the spell was active was that she saw purple particles materializing within the area of effect. Hazel figured that these purple particles were the curse energy being emitted around her.

Stolen story; please report.

Not only that, but there was a bug that entered the cursed circle, and when it did, its body started convulsing before it suddenly died. She didn't get a kill notification, but she knew that it was dead. Considering that the bug was extremely weak, Hazel figured that the spell could kill her enemies once it was strong enough. She probably wouldn't have to do anything and simply watch anyone who gets close to her suddenly drop dead.

While thinking about this, Hazel soon stumbled upon Astrid and also Chegyaeyi. When she came across them, she noticed that they were helping other players cut and shave the wooden logs that would be used for building homes within the village.

"Hey, you two," Hazel approached them. "Are you busy at the moment, Astrid?"

Astrid looked over at Hazel and shrugged. "Not at the moment. Why?"

"I wanted to talk to you about our current plans. You know, now that the spider queen is defeated."

Hearing this, Astrid immediately stood up with a serious expression on her face. "Yeah, you're right. We should talk about it now." He turned to Chegyaeyi. "You have this covered until I come back, right?"

The lizardfolk warrior firmly nodded. "Of course. Take your time and discuss your plans with your partner."

Astrid returned a nod before going to Hazel. The pair then walked away and strolled through the village so they could talk.

"So, now that the queen is dead, we can probably make preparations to begin our journey to get you back home."

Hazel and Astrid originally only stayed in Portland for two reasons, and those were the spider queen's curse and Dolk. With the queen dead and no word regarding Dolk's presence within Portland, it was probably best to leave for the Greyvolk village while they could before they somehow got caught up in another problematic situation and had to stay here a little longer.

While Hazel didn't mind since her mom was in Portland, she also had to fulfill her promise to Astrid, so she felt that it was time to do just that.

"When should we leave, then?" Astrid asked.

"Although it may sound hasty, I would say tonight," Hazel declared. "I can only Nycteris at night because he can't go out during the day, and he's our best chance at getting to the Great Forest of Meir as quickly as possible."

"You're certainly right about that. But couldn't you just fly us there with your Telekinesis?"

Hazel shook her head. "I could only do that for a little while before I would have to stop and replenish my mana. And I'd rather not run out of energy and get stranded somewhere with a lot of monsters and possibly get killed in the process."

There was also the fact that it would take way too long if they chose this option. While Hazel was capable of flying them to the Great Forest of Meir, she also knew that they would be taking way too many breaks, which would prolong their journey even more so than they wanted. So, their best mode of transportation was Nycteris. While he would likely take a break from time to time, the intervals between them would be far longer.

To make a crude comparison, if Hazel had to take a break every ten minutes or so, Nycteris would likely only take a break every hour or half hour. Because of this, Nycteris had the most potential to reach their destination within the shortest time.

And once she fulfilled her promise to Astrid, Hazel would then move on to finding her brother, Damien, wherever he was. She knew her little brother had to be somewhere. There was no way he could've died during the Tutorial Dungeons. Out of the three Thatchers, Damien had the best chance of surviving due to his knowledge of RPG, considering that the system possessed the same elements as it.

And Damien was obsessed with games like RPGs. The only reason why Hazel survived for so long was because she was obsessed with magic and her very little but important nuggets of knowledge when it came to RPG. Since Hazel was able to survive through just that, her brother was certain to have survived as well. If anything, between the two siblings, Damien likely would be thriving in this kind of scenario.

He was basically a player like in his video games, so he should still be alive. Hell, maybe he somehow managed to become a Guild Master somewhere in the world and was managing it now. Despite being reckless and impulsive at times, Hazel noticed that he was quite attentive and responsible when managing a guild in his games. It was quite a surprise for her to see.

Yeah, Damien was still alive. He had to be.

While thinking this over, Hazel and Astrid continued to stroll through the village. That was until Anais suddenly appeared in front of them. As soon as the mage showed herself to them, the pair stopped in her tracks.

"Is something wrong, Anais?" Hazel asked.

"Zoe would like to speak with you two if possible."

Hazel and Astrid looked at the sorcerer for a moment before turning their gaze on one another. Now, what exactly did the Knight need them for?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.