XelofBloom
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🕑 Added 2021-01-01 23:00:03 +0000 UTCEve watched the paper she was using Levitate Paper I on as it effortlessly sliced carrots, celery, onions, and assorted other vegetables into minced pieces.
Gives a whole new meaning to the words paper cut. Eve thought, a smile ghosting across her face. The vegetables were scooped up effortlessly with the paper and tossed into a bubbling pot on the stove. While the city's electricity was dead for now, the gas still worked, which meant the small generator could still create electricity. The solar panels on the roof also could generate quite a bit, although since they were covered with snow, it was a bust at the moment. With the gas-powered propane generator, it was just enough to let her use the vacuum sealer her mother had bought last Christmas as a gift and run the stovetop.
“And I argued for hours against getting that three hundred gallon monstrosity and the panels last year too. It shows what I know. If I ever get back, I can’t let Matt ever know his paranoia saved me.” Eve muttered to herself as the last of the vegetables were slowly boiled into nutritious mush. Sealing the final packages of vegetable soup with the vacuum sealer. Eve threw them into the fridge, where an assortment of meat, vegetable, and nuts was carefully stockpiled in order. Currently, her electricity was devoted exclusively to the refrigerator and freezers.
“One month, maybe two for food. Three months for water.” Eve said her new mantra. “After that, only death awaits.”
Closing the fridge door, she moved to her next project by the living room fireplace. The fireplace in her living room happened to be placed in a corner, and while she had closed the flue to prevent anything from entering, she planned to remove it entirely when possible. The more important thing was the fireplace chimney was near where the solar panels started on the roof. For that reason, she had grabbed a tarp from the garage before moving it nearby. A ladder was also on standby, ready to allow her access to the roof.
Just one small ceiling in the way. Eve thought before casting Levitate Paper I almost by reflex as it ran out. I can’t cut anywhere else because I have no clue about how the lines are set up. I only vaguely remember that nothing runs near the fireplace from that cute contractor that did the job.
Steeling herself, Eve made angular cuts to prevent the ceiling from falling before she moved the ladder under the plug. Pushing up an upside-down slanted pyramid was pushed out onto the roof. Moving up, she pulled herself onto the roof, slowly looking around for any flying threats. When nothing immediately revealed itself, she quickly got to work. Several paper pieces flew with expert precision cleaning the snow off all of the solar panels before floating by her like loyal servants. Giving one last look around, Eve moved down and grabbed the tarp. Muscling the waterproof tarp, she carefully spread it out on the roof. Lifting the ceiling plug, a piece of paper slipped underneath it, levitating it. Scampering under the tarp, Eve let the ceiling plug drop onto the tarp by lowering it down and slipping the paper out from under it. Testing the setup, she was satisfied; it formed a tight seal. Opening the tarp and ceiling plug by levitating them both with a piece of paper, she retrieved the paper still outside before closing everything up again. This setup would allow her to access the solar panels without exiting her house from one of the visible entrances.
It isn’t paranoia if you are in another world with no clue what danger exists. Eve thought. While there is a chance that something that flies could find the new entrance, I have to take the risk.
Moving to the ever-present clipboard that she kept nearby at all times to help her remember things, Eve scribbled a note with Inkless Words I to make sure to remove one of the doors inside the house to cover the new entrance. Another note to get rocks to make sure the door stayed down once it was up on the roof, and a final note adding solar panel snow cleaning to her list of daily tasks.
The daily task list kept her sane, at least so far.
Status. Eve thought, her eyes checking the new information.
Name: Eve Smith
Race: Human
Class: Scholar
Level: 0
Health: 60/60 (.6 hps regen)
Mana: 120/120 (1.2 MPs regen)
Stats: Str 7, Dex 8, Con 6, Wis 11, Int 12
Skills: Scholar’s Sight I (3%)
Spells: Levitate Paper I (9%), Inkless Words I (2%), Summon Book I (1%)
As I feared. Eve thought, her eyes worried. Experience cannot be gained outside of combat unless I meet another criterion, probably having a Crafting Profession or something I have no way of doing at this time.
Attempts to raise her Stats through exercise were futile, and reading medical textbooks did nothing for wisdom or intelligence. In the best-case scenario, combat might improve Stats, although according to her brother Matt, it would probably be life-threatening stuff. Something about gains equaling risks, which to Eve was total bullshit, although she didn’t know either way at the moment.
Combat is going to be a squirrel. Or a gnat. Something nice, small, and easy to beat. Eve thought she moved to sweep up the dust from cutting the ceiling plug out and placed the ladder ready to use nearby. Dumping the dustpan into a small trashcan by the desk in her living room, Eve put the cleaning tools in the small closet reserved for them.
Sitting back down in the kitchen, a quick Summon Book I pulled her brother’s second Volume to her hand. The title was aptly named Transport to Another World Vol. 2 by Matt Smith, and this one dealt with one thing that had been worrying her since she read it.
Combat. Fighting. Killing. The ugly part of a magical world filled with magical stuff was magical things that needed to eat. Magical beasts, magical plants, and magic humanoid races were all part of the cycle of life. One of the passages in Volume 2 had been brutally honest, and she still read it almost daily.
If my sister is reading this and is in a magical world with Mana, you will be forced to kill stuff.
Please.
Please, for God’s sake, Eve, kill things.
I cannot emphasize it. I cannot state more; you need Power.
The people you meet there WILL NOT share the same values as Earth.
Killing will be the norm unless you cannot gain experience by killing other things for some bizarre reason.
If you kill something, and you get Experience for it, though, then, please, for the love of all things holy, compartmentalize Eve.
If you are reading this, I know you saw combat. It would be best if you went to that deep, dark, quiet place in your soul where you were able to pull the trigger and do it again.
I hope I’m wrong. I really hope you landed in paradise.
If I am not, though.
Please. Eve.
Please, kill things.
Please stay alive, and do not let mercy get you killed.
That page had rattled her deeply, and Eve had experimented with every method of gaining Experience she could find listed. As each failure occurred, though, the likelihood of combat being the sole path to gain power increased until she had finally lost hope.
It is still possible that he’s wrong. Eve thought as she stared out the blinds of her kitchen window. Looking through the metallic bars over every window in her house, she saw flickering movement in the trees as daylight slowly burned.
The kitchen clock that ran on batteries ticked behind her as she closed her eyes.
If he’s not wrong, he’s right. Eve thought as her eyes snapped open. They were no longer the hazy indecisive orbs of the past. I need Power. Power is everything. Power will make anything I do right, any question I ask answered, and any action excusable.
A memory of women huddled like cattle in a small house, their eyes terrified, flashed across her mind. If she had no Power here in this world, no way to keep herself safe, then there were things worse than death.
Rape, slavery, torture, to name a few. Perhaps she was wrong, and the world was a peaceful place filled with happy and content people. Perhaps her brother and Eve were looking at this through tinted glasses.
Do I want to risk being some nobles fuck toy if I’m wrong? Eve thought as her eyes turned from hazel to steel grey in the window’s reflection. No. I’d rather be Powerful and wrong than weak and right.
Nodding to herself as the decision crystallized in her mind, Eve glanced at the kitchen clock. Since it ran on batteries, it hadn’t been affected by the transition. Noting the time as merely an hour past noon, she fixed a quick lunch from one of the sealed packages in the fridge. After finishing the meal, she cleaned the dishes and plastic packaging with a tiny amount of boiled water before putting them away.
Answering the call of nature, she used the bathroom, thanking her paranoid brother once again. He had egged dad into creating a setup that ran without connection to the city sewage system. The house plumbing ran to a septic tank in the garden fed into a liquid fertilizer setup that created compost to distribute to the garden. The entire thing had been an expensive project her father created to avoid wasting waste. All she was concerned about was, for now, the toilet worked. When it stopped working, then she would have to figure something else out. Hopefully, she had a magic solution available by that time, or things would get pretty shitty.
Finishing her business in the bathroom, she exited her bedroom. Disrobing, she tucked herself comfortably in bed before starting the first major phase of her training.
Levitate Paper I had shown itself able to give paper cuts; however, she had no clue if it was actually dangerous. For all she knew, magical beasts had some energy shield around their body; their bones, skin, or fur were made of pure elements or something equally ridiculous. For that reason, she was training in two methods at the same time.
Method one focused on slashing attacks in a precise range around her body. By increasing the number of paper sheets she held up in the air, she could create a rotating blender defense. While it would not work on anything outside five meters, it was effective within that range. As long as the creature wasn’t somehow unable to be hurt, she could stack cuts until something vital was chopped off like a head, leg, or arm.
Method two focused on one of the stranger properties of paper. Folding. The folding paper actually increased the power a great deal. Levitate Paper I allowed her to fold the paper however she wanted, making her the envy of any origami master ever known. She had made a small blade folding a single sheet of paper into innumerable creases. The final product looked like a small short ribbon of paper. In practice, however, it dented one of the metal pipes when used to strike.
While she had originally not been so concerned with the idea of blunt damage, thinking slicing would be more effective, that had changed when she read the section in volume two on the undead. Specifically, the part dedicated to skeletons, which might have their bones reinforced with mana. If that was the case, it was doubtful the paper could cut through bones reinforced with mana. Even if she was wrong, Eve had no intention of gambling on it.
Two methods. Two damage. One hundred percent of fatal damage was the goal. Slashing and Blunt damage, as her brother called it, and eventually, when she could figure out how to make paper darts work, Piercing would join the list.
The three main damage types that those stupid Role Playing Games liked so much held up as the holy trinity. She had thought about damaging herself to test and then threw that thought out the window. There was no way she was testing injuring herself for the sake of science. That type of insanity could be left for those better able to heal themselves.
Watching the paper flutter about following her will, Eve let everything flutter to the ground before drifting off to sleep.
Tomorrow would be her first attempt to hunt in this strange new world.
