green eggs and ham [private]

[Oli]

The unique thing about hunting low-level monsters was that they tended to be a lot more terrifying when not behind a computer screen. Even a juvenile boar could be a tantamount adversary if given the right mindset, especially when the speed it could reach from a standstill was a speed that Oli couldn't even manage to sprint at, to forget about the speed it reached when given a proper amount of distance and time to stampede forward. Oli had once farmed these fledgling boars, using them as a resource farm or EXP when in lower levels, but she had never quite understood the intensity of battle when everything was rendered in polygonal shapes, nor had she ever understood how much it hurt to get rammed by a boar the size of her torso.

With each consecutive throb of her heart, waves of prickling aches washed over Oli's leg, spreading out from the ankle to the knee; a distinctly sharp pain, a pain she might have once registered as a broken leg, if not for the fact she could still barely stand on it. The gnarled oak staff, once used as a conduit for magic, now worked to be the anchor and distinct balancing point for Oli's person, her weight pressed against it so to keep herself somewhat upright, her eyes clamped shut as she waited for the undulations of pain to cease. Her skeleton had long been dismissed, killed by the boar that she had just managed to flee from; the memory of the boar's head bursting through the back end of the skeleton vaguely reminiscent of one of her favorite movies, "Alien". In the moment, however, she wished it hadn't been a movie she had ever seen, as the distraction of seeing her summon vanish into polygonal dust and the humor of the boar that had just been stuck in the torso of her summon had left just enough time for the enraged little beast to thoroughly bruise her calf.

Pharmacist was a nice job title-, it just didn't do anything in the moment. She had no mats, that had been seen to by her low-level, and her ability to actually heal herself sat somewhere between unlikely and impossible. She hadn't bothered to try, in any event, thinking that even if she did managed to concoct something it would be a painkiller at best, and much more likely turning out to be poisonous. A frown twisted Oli's lips, her expression hardening as the idea of death crossed her mind, a faint recollection of what she had been told some time ago leaving her throat dry. She had never died before-, she had purposely avoided going out, actually, she had hid in an inn and scrounged on low-cost utilities to survive, eating the sludge that went for vendor food in this world. It was easier, being inside, it let her pretend none of this was real, and that she was back at home, with her parents-, her dad comforting her while her mother helped wrap her up in blankets when she got too paranoid or anxious.

There was nobody like that in this world. She was without support, alone-, afraid and anxious at all times.

A welt formed in the back of her throat, egged on by the pain in her leg and the homesickness she still very much felt. Oli tried to swallow it back, but little could be done, the dusting of boiling tears curling at the tips of her vision, turning the surrounding forestry blurry and warped. She had gone out to be productive-, out of the inn, out of her impromptu comfort zone, she had done all of this to finally come to terms with this reality, but the more she tried the less she felt could be done to help her. She couldn't very well die, but the prospect of dying until the memories of her past life vanished with each death came to mind; if rejected for the fear and pain that was often associated with death in this game. She hated pain, anyone would hate pain, but she really hated it, it brought back memories, painful memories, as well as a reminder that this was all real. It wasn't some insane fever dream or the result of Oli going nuts-, she was really here, in this nonsensical world of magic and monsters.

Just as she was about to start crying, about to really let herself go-, a rustle tore her out of her memories.

The lousy, reddened snout of a damaged juvenile boar appeared, pushed out and through the thistle just a dozen feet to her left. Blood touched the fringes of each nostril, pulling Oli quickly back to when the summon had previously dealt damage, and when the thing pushed through the entirety of the bush-, parting the thorns and flowers-, it was clear that the boar had come back for more. It snorted, each of its eyes small, ugly dots; the posture it held giving off an incredibly violent feeling. Whispers came again, pushing against her head as Tongue of Nature translated the huffing and snorting of the boar, a mix of nonsensical verbs and sounds that were separated by a single, terrifying word that continued to repeat itself, growing louder as the boar kicked at the grassy dirt underneath it.

Eat.

She was prey, a suitable snack for the boar to gorge itself on. Boars weren't naturally carnivores-, she didn't think so anyway, but the damage she had done and the damage she had taken had perhaps incited the boar's situational carnivorism, something that most herbivores could attest to having. Even a deer would eat a mouse if it just laid there, nature wasn't as nice as the movies would have you believe; animals had to eat to live, and if something just let them eat it, then they would do so. No matter if something ate more leafs or if it ate more animals, the line between them was blurred and hard to give definition to, at the best of times.

Panic surged through Oli, prompting her to quickly defend herself.

"Summon Follower, Skeleton!" The words were uncomplicated, pushed out through her lips on instinct rather than any actual thought. Energy fled her fingers, pulsating through the grounded staff and groping through the earth, drawing a spirit up within the few seconds it took to connect. The boar made no moves, continuing to kick and huff against the ground, growing more angry as the visage of a skeleton took full shape, armed with a crude cudgel and a shield that was clearly just a bunch of planks tied and nailed together. The skeleton clattered, bones shifting against one-another without any muscle between them, the sound making Oli's temples ache and her teeth itch, a bad sound that she regretted ever having to listen to, feeling rather miffed that she hadn't taken up the chance to have a slime summons instead of a skeleton.

The boar reared, finally charging with a sharp increase in speed. The skeleton moved in intercept it, raising up the crude shield and bending down somewhat, the skeleton's posture flinching as the boar made first contact. Half of the shield shattered, one of the planks sent into the earthy floor below with a distinct clatter, turning to dust within seconds afterwards. The skeleton raised his cudgel, slamming it back down and on to the boar's already wounded snout, a satisfying thud echoing out and sending the boar reeling, the pain clearly audible through the tightly-strung scream it let out. However, the battle was not in Oli's favor, not at all, for the boar had only lost something like a fifth of its health while the skeleton had already lost a little over a quarter and had lost its shield. If the fight continued as is, simply trading blows between them, it would be hard for Oli's summon to win, or even bring it down low enough to be finished off with the butt of her staff.

With her line of sight blocked by her skeleton, and her movement impaired by the pain in her leg that didn't seem to want to leave, Oli's mind slackened. She couldn't throw a fireball, and she had no clue what else to do, a distinct worry settling into the fringes of her focus. She was already wounded, and this time if her summon's died it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say she might end up killed by the angry boar, and in the case of what she had been hearing she might end up its food. Drawing out the obnoxious ability panel, Oli looked over the basic spells that she had been granted as a summoner. A lot of it cluttered her mind-, leaving her confused and hard-pressed for time, her skeleton already half dead and growing worse at the second, an icon appearing in her vision that rather abruptly made up for her current situation.

"Guardian Fist!" The words leaped past her teeth before she could properly give it thought, impulsively shot out in a spat-like tone. The skeleton obliged eagerly, the boar having just left it without any ribs and with a quarter of its health remaining, the cudgel rising up and glinting with a metallic light before crashing down almost seconds after, cratering the boar with a sudden impact that was accompanied by a symphony of cracking sounds. The boar's health collapsed, vanishing into the five-or-six-percent range, but that last amount was quickly reduced with another blow to the boar's skull.

The corpse refused to move, its stillness letting the girl finally release all that pent up tension. Letting her mind still to some extent, she let her summon go; causing it to vanish into yet more dust, emptying out the courtyard to all but the mangled boar's corpse and her own trembling person. It was a surprising thing, but she felt very little in the aftermath of it all, what pent up aggression now seemed to have been crushed with the boar's skull, leaving her more winded than much else, the empty feeling a rough but pleasant one, if nothing else.

"Maybe I should take up a sword-and-board skill next time I get the chance," Oli mumbled, more to herself than anyone who could possibly be in earshot.

...

It took a week to recover from the shock. After returning to the inn, the weighted feeling of surviving what might have been her death left her panicked, and while the nice old lady who often ran the counter asked if she needed help, she had quickly declined it and sought out the sheets in her bed as a unhealthy alternative.


The swaying of branches greeted Oli as she toed the edge of the forest, her vision focused to the distant village off on the horizon, the reclaimed mossy castle sticking out the most against the pale-blues that defined early morning. It was a good day, without rain or much wind,
a prime day to hunt for most; but for Oli, this wasn't in the interest of getting pork meat. She needed to get used to how the world work, lest she end up being an immortal good-for-nothing who bummed around in inns all day. The world and the places in it were shaped by the actions of people just like her-, people with more conviction, and with more confidence. If she didn't have those qualities now, she needed to make them, before she grew entirely unsatisfied with herself. 

"Summon Follower, Skeleton." The words coaxed themselves through Oli's pinched lips, mana leaking out of her person and into the staff that she clung tightly to with her right hand. As before, the ground swiveled; parting to allow the amalgamation of bone to creep up from between the cracks in the earth, spilling out like liquid before solidifying into the rigid structure of bones. The skeleton was back in its prime, not missing any parts of its skeleton like it had when it had been dismissed, and it now had a new shield, albeit still a shield made out of driftwood tied together. Nevertheless, it would work for now, but she'd have to look into getting the thing a metal shield 'lest the plank shield became her downfall.

The skeleton arched its head at her, as if posturing to ask if she was okay. Without meeting its eyes - or, rather, lack thereof - she beckoned it forward, her stride carrying her down the forested pathway in front of her. Trees of varying species as well as an abundance of thistle brush stood like walls between her and the dense innards of the forest, leaving her without much vision on the particular creatures fumbling underneath the shade of high branches. The only sound Oli could hear was her and her skeleton, her brisk pace followed rather aptly by the summon behind her. Each step the skeleton took was accompanied by an almost comedic ting sound that you could probably make with an xylophone, lending what was once a really serious situation the background music of an elementary school music recital. 

After several minutes of travel the grassy road devolved into unmarked forestry, roots and brush becoming less scarce the further she went in. A canopy of trees quickly worked to blot the sun out, leaving Oli in a lukewarm shade that hindered her sight some, but not enough that she was pressed to turn around. Pausing for a moment, Oli glanced into the far depths of the forest, finding that it seemed to go on indefinitely and without any clearings, the stretch of landscape being flat and while obstructed by trees, still easily surveyed from her current position. The sight worried her some, leaving her tense and anxious in the wake of recent aggressive boars, but what else could she do but walk? Even if the path had long devolved into grasslands and trees she would eventually find a clearing or a monster, right?

It actually didn't take that long to come across her first monster of the day. A lazy dull-green slime clung to the torso of a tall oak, displaying little interest in Oli as she neared it, seemingly really interested in either the sap of the tree or just the tree itself. A perturbed idea of the slime trying to mate with the tree crossed her mind, but it was quickly waved off as a bizarre and totally unnecessary image that Oli really wanted to forget. Still, a slime was several times easier than a boar, or it should be if Maplestory was any indication of monster strength levels, and thus Oli decided to initiate combat.

But how would she engage?

The idea of throwing a ball of fire at it was quickly discarded, seeing as she wanted to kill a monster, not the entire forest, but she was also anxious about engaging without much firepower. Slimes were goo, after all, what could that say about physical attacks? Did it have any relation? Oli wasn't sure, but she also wasn't interested in finding out they were immune to physical damage altogether and end up hucking fireballs at it as it corrodes her shins off. Either way, the only way to find out was to try, and while she did not want to run the risk of the thing being immune to physical damage, she was less interested in burning the entire forest down while she was still in it.

"Guardian Fist!" Mana surged at her command, her skeleton going rigid as the command registered in its mind. Taking the required energy for it to complete the attack, the skeleton surged forward with an almost sadistic glee, closing the distance between it and the slime within a breath's time. With cudgel raised once more,  the skeleton's outline took on a metallic glow, a short pause of two seconds being not enough time for the slime to move-, not that it actually tried to. The tree capsized, the slime crushed into an hourglass shape as the cudgel burst into its mass, the tree that it had since been clinging to bending as though intending to crush it. However, now engaged, the slime passed through the broken torso of the tree, the damage it had taken no small thing, but still somehow managing to avoid being crushed by the toppling tree. 

Bang, the tree finally hit soil after a few seconds of loud snapping, the bulk of the tree ending up flattening a number of bushes off to Oli's left. Birds screeched unhappily, dodging out and into the skies as their nests were mercilessly crushed, while the loud noise roused the interest of the skulking forest beasts, a few boars appearing on the fringes of Oli's vision, as well as a few dull-green slimes to boot. She didn't have time to focus on them, though, as the battle quickly resumed between her skeleton and the slime, the dull-green globule launching itself like a handful of mud towards her skeleton only to be repelled by the wooden shield, the slime taking the topmost layer off of it with an acidic hiss. Another blow met the slime, the cudgel never quite managing to pierce through it but clearly managing to bruise it a new color, the slime flung backwards after making impact with the cudgel; the distance growing to about two or three feet between the two warring monsters.

Her skeleton was surprisingly healthy, while the slime was less so. If she just let them war it out now there'd be little chance her skeleton would lose, but that would also mean her summon taking unneeded damage when she could easily interfere with the outcome. Hobbling forward cautiously, Oli toed the fringes of her skeleton's local fighting space, only after the slime chose to fling itself again - and get repulsed, once more - did Oli step in, quickly sprinting up and firmly ramming the slime with the end of her staff like a jousting spear. With a surprising amount of impact, the slime once again rolled off to the right, but her skeleton quickly flanked, the poor thing meeting its end as a final cudgel strike rendered it paste against the forest floor, a smattering of green touching just about everything within ten feet of it, bar Oli herself. 

The rush of adrenaline petered off, a distinct rumbling of excitement replacing what Oli would've certainly thought was apprehension. Sure, she just killed something, and sure, she was directly apart of the combat, but damn did it feel good to let out her emotions. Maybe it was an unhealthy trait, and Oli could see that, but the aftermath of the event was not anxiety, fear, or really even fatigue; it was excitement, bordering on euphoria. Her skeleton seemed to share her feelings in some ways, the clatter of its feet grinding the pulpy dull-green paste on the forest floor echoing out into the empty space around them, drawing Oli's gaze towards it as it defaced the-, uh, remains? Of the slime. 

Drawing her vision along the forest's edge, Oli saw what her use of mana had prompted to lure. Several dull-green slimes - thankfully none of bright or luminescent colors - crawled curiously towards her and the skeleton, a skeleton which stopped to stare at the encroaching handful of what it saw as meat going into a meat-grinder. However, with mana that had yet to regenerate in the time after combat was lost, and the fact that her skeleton was still regenerating its HP, Oli decided against letting her skeleton charge off and stepped in front of it, grounding herself with her gnarled wooden staff so as to completely refuse it any forward movement. The skeleton sulked somehow, its posture going defensive as it impatiently stared at its summoner, imploring her to commit more acts of mindless - well, not exactly mindless - violence. 

The slimes formed a rough circle, never growing bold enough to get within a dozen feet of Oli but nevertheless looking incredibly interested in her. They wiggled and bubbled, frothing as though boiling water, but still looking harmless in a manner of speaking, letting Oli relax as the last portion of her mana and her summon's HP came back, leaving them both primed and ready to initiate combat once more. 

"Fireball Pitch," the spell that she probably should never use within ten feet of a tree quickly escaped her lips, prompting a sudden explosion of heat to curl up from her left hand, crossing over her fingertips before coiling together; binding itself into the rough shape of a ball. Much to the name of the spell, Fireball Pitch required accurate aim, but in this case-, especially when slimes were so close and so easily engaged upon-, Oli didn't need that so-called "hand-eye coordination" that she lacked so very thoroughly.

Uprooting her staff, Oli moved to the side and immediately prompted her skeleton to engage, following close behind it as it charged into one of the slimes on the fringes, a dull-green slime that had been more separated than the others. Following to the rhythm of the skeleton's charge, Oli paced around to the side, quickly charging forward once she could no longer see her skeleton's back, the distance between her and the ongoing battle dropping in a near instant. With the ball still somewhat warm in her hand, Oli released the spell and dropped it uncaringly, the orb of condensed flame quickly becoming unstable and volatile; exploding once it came into contact with the gelatinous form of the slime. A scream spat itself out as the slime's body burned, an effect of the liquid inside of the slime's membrane heating to a point where it could not be contained properly. The scream deterred the other slimes, the barbarism in her acts probably enough to make them wary of her, but the additional boiling of one of their own kin far more than enough to make them turn and flee into the woodsy undergrowth. 

"Guardian Fist," Oli commanded, more mana finding itself emptied out from her being; flowing into her follower just as it had before. The slime, still on fire and still taking additional dot damage, had little time to react as the cudgel came down with an empowered force, the impact enough to nearly kill the slime off and turn it into the rough shape of a pancake, the viscous green liquid sent up and into the grass nearby, some of it still on fire. The slime tried to take back its original shape, but the damaged coupled by an additional swat of the cudgel kept the poor thing from retaliating, the last portions of its life emptying out rather quickly, eventually reducing the globule to yet another smear of green paste against the earthy floor.

With her skeleton only taken down to 60%-or-so, Oli was almost tempted to quickly turn and chase a nearby fleeing slime, but her distinct lack of mana quickly caught her eye. She could almost feel it, oddly enough, an emptiness not unlike that of fatigue, but one that quickly abated as her mana regenerated, although being a prolonged stint of time where she barely had enough to keep her skeleton active, let alone use another spell. Deciding it would be best to rest for now, Oli dismissed her skeleton with a wave of her staff, the summon reduced to a white liquid that slipped back into the earth as though it had never been there in the first place. A stump freshly made from the recent tree incident quickly became Oli's seat of choice, the way it had broken off making it almost a conventional place to sit, with a backrest and everything; although thankfully her robe stopped any fringe splinters from winding their way into her skin. 

The pale blue skin had since turned a hazy grey, a forthcoming notion of rain becoming more apparent as a thin fog rolled in from the east. It was a nice change, the heat of summer being abated by the onset of humidity and clouds that now straddled the sun and the horizon it rose from, each one a thick, gray blotch like a smear of charcoal over an artist's easel. Loosening her clothes, Oli tugged at the short tuft of hair on her head, running her thin fingers through it and pushing out the knots that had formed from the sudden exercise she had undertaken, each of her topaz-tinted eyes focused skyward as the last touches of sunlight vanished behind ever-growing bloat of clouds. 

Rain came quietly at first, a soft rustling and the patter of small drops of water cascading over the gritty floor as well as the trees, but the intensity grew much like a crescendo. The shower poured from the sky, quickly going beyond a small squall or sun-shower, bordering more on a typhoon-level gale, Oli finding herself soaked down through her clothing but otherwise unaffected by the notion. The cloth clung to her thin frame, draped against the lack of curves and small bust, but it was almost welcomed; the feeling of wet, of cleanliness after all of that was almost ritualistic, something she let herself bask in until the rain petered off just as quickly as it had come. Sunspots burst through the thinning clouds, tearing them apart and quickly basking the soaked landscape in the warm glow of a summer sun, replacing the gray tones of the sky with blues, the dispersing smattering of rainclouds curling off into the distance, their colors fading back into that of pillowy whites, a sign that rain would likely not come again today. 

Drawing herself up from the impromptu seat, Oli weighed herself down, pushing her boots into the grimy slop that was what the soil had since become. With a jerk of her arm, the gnarled wood staff that she so relied on parted through the muddy earth, standing tall like a tower as she fed it mana. "Summon Follower, Skeleton," the words coaxed themselves past her lips, a pulse of electricity running up her spine and into her right arm, connecting with the staff that acted as the catalyst it so visibly was. The ground burst, mud turning white as bones took shape once more, the skeleton taking full form after only a few short seconds, soon standing beside her with cudgel-and-all.

"I think I'll call you Jangles."

...

Six months had turned Oli's outings into a mandated ritual. Every second day she would head out and hunt slimes, but never quite to the extent that she would grind them. She did it as a way to get out there, to experience and feel things, to scratch that morbid itch that wondered if slimes felt pain - she had no concrete evidence, but burning them with fire tended to give the impression that they did - all the while staying away from boars. She never took quests, nor did it with any type of professionalism, but the time spent repeatedly going out had honed her focus while in battle. She had decided upon mid-range for her place in the battle, an odd thing to do when summoners could take hits about as well as wet toilet paper, but being up there let her feel the impact-, and let her impact others. She had poor coordination with Fireball Pitch, and while she had yet to burn the forest down, there was always a chance she might end up missing if she was too far away, so Oli had since started to use it as an impromptu close-range attack.

"Guardian Fist!" The call came clear and loud, her skeleton twisting merrily and carrying its cudgel firmly into a docile dull-green slime. The impact was dense, a rumble coaxing itself throughout the entirety of the small grasslands, the sensation even present in the pit of Oli's stomach. The slime reeled, but had little time to respond, Oli having already converged on the other side of the slime, her staff bringing itself down in a violent overhead swing, crashing into the slime and keeping it in one place without the ability to flee. A blow of the cudgel came again, less powerful as the one before it, but still enough to open the slime's membrane, a spray of green gunk staining a nearby tree-trunk before the membrane could close itself off, the flow of liquid stopped if only for the next few seconds.

"Fireball Pitch," the words passed through her lips, Oli's hand hovering over the sack-shaped green monster, the ball of fire quickly taking shape and dropping the moment it finished, the bundle of highly-compressed flame piercing through the outer shell of the slime and quickly lighting it entirely on fire, the liquid inside steaming and frothing as the fire burned it alive. The slime's HP dipped violently, just barely alive, but before the skeleton could hit the last blow it was stopped, Oli's staff tapping on "Jangles"'s head, prompting it to step back for a moment.

Pursing her lips, Oli crouched down into a squat, her eyes focused down on the frothing monster below her. Before it could strike out again-, being acidic and all-, Oli jammed the tip of her staff into the bulk of the slime, the already weakened outer membrane easily parting for the wooden weapon to go through, skewering the disgusting little thing with a final sound that was reminiscent of scooping out a cantaloupe. "It sucks that they don't have expressions," Oli explained plainly, dragging her staff out from the already-festering corpse of the slime, the outer membrane eroding and letting the inner gel spill out into the nearby grass, turning it slick and slippery if devoid of the previous acidic nature. The skeleton didn't seem to respond, but it did clack its jaws some, the hollow empty skull not capable of expressions, but if it was, it might probably have one of boredom; the scene that had just transpired a rather common one, among other things.

Oli's cruelty had, well, blossomed in some ways. She felt no interest in hurting people, that was a big no-no, but when it came to monsters it was free reign. A slippery slope was what Oli was on, and she knew it very well, but the sadistic pleasure involved with exercising brutal force onto another living being without possible recourse and with the additional possibility of even helping others was nearly impossible to give up, especially in the case of dull-green slimes that she was almost sure felt pain, but she had no way of telling. Slimes don't speak, they don't have faces, all they are is sacks of gel contained in a thick membrane that takes a sword - she really wished that Jangles had been initially summoned with a sword - to puncture through it, or numerous beatings with a cudgel to wear it down far enough to pierce. It was a pain in the ass to research, she almost wished she had taken Scholar or something else in hopes that it might help her study, but the way that slimes moved and reacted had become more clear to Oli with each additional kill.

Slimes didn't feel fear, she knew that. They were wary, driven by instincts that dictated whether or not it was okay to come near something, and while most slimes lived free of ever being wary, especially due to their almost inedible nature and their ability to absorb anything that is stupid enough to try and eat them, Oli had been an exception to the rule. She had seen them flee when she killed slimes in unorthodox ways, or in ways that went beyond what was normally done, and they knew her skeleton had a hair-trigger as well, often times staying far away from the skeleton while remaining closer to her. As well, Oli was pretty sure they didn't feel many conventional emotions-, anger, sadness, those types of things. They probably didn't have the genes for it, if their makeup could be any indication, but she knew they had nerves, and she knew they had instincts.

But it was still bothersome that she could never confirm it.

Oli was almost tempted to move on to boars, however they were a different beast altogether. Not only were they capable of emotion - petty grudges most commonly - they also hit harder and were less viable to fight with the mid-range playstyle she had been utilizing. If she got that close to a cornered boar, it might end up attacking her for looking weaker than her skeleton does and she didn't want that, not with her low-hp and distinct avoidance of pain. At best, she'd have to track a boar out into a open field and pelt it with a fireball pitch before following up with a guardian fist to guarantee that it didn't have the energy to attack her, but boars that were proud enough to not hide themselves carefully tended to either be fully grown or accompanied by one-or-two other boars, making the scenarios incredibly unfavorable. Not only that, but each time Oli killed a boar she ran the risk of enraging the parent boar, and the parent boar had more than enough power to thoroughly end Oli's life before she could flee, especially with how far she had been trekking into the forest and away from the town's closely guarded borders.

Oli had also recently come across several garden snakes, who had ambushed her mid-slime-killing. She had been cautious about going too far in, but she had also grown confident in the layout of the forest and had pushed too far in one or two times, suddenly putting her in a two-versus-two combat scenario which she only barely managed to scrape through each time it came around. Thankfully, the garden snakes she had met were adolescents and had also been relatively easy to kill once she finished off the slime, if that meant running away from it and spamming guardian fist until the thing died by the way of her skeleton, which couldn't be poisoned due to being a hunk of bones instead of anything fleshy. She had come close to death in the recent months, but none of it had really worked to keep her away from the situation, it had only egged her on. If she got stronger, not even garden snakes could prove to be ample combatants, hell, they might even be downright weak if she got enough EXP eventually.

Rather abruptly, the skeleton which had since been to her right, charged off at a speed that Oli knew was associated with attacking. Before she could even manage to stop it, the skeleton summons had barreled into not one, but two young boars, slamming one in the snout with its cudgel and thoroughly enraging both of them. Perhaps her summon had issues with boars like she did, but when she herself took out her pent-up aggression on weak slimes, it seemed that Jangles was entirely enticed by the idea of repaying them back; ribcage for ribcage, as it might seem.

"Of all the things," Oli spat out, accompanying it with a string of swearing that was neither elegant nor PG-13, her gaze growing focused as her skeleton took a blow from one of the boars and then another from its pal, the damage barely mitigated enough to call it mitigation.

"Guardian Fist!" Before the situation could get any worse, Oli quickly fed her mana out and into Jangles, commanding it to do as it always did: crush things. The brief time was luckily placed between a moment of hesitation between the boars, perhaps by her shout if nothing else, allowing for Jangles to embed his cudgel into the skull of the larger boar, sending it crumpling into the ground with an adequate crater accompanying it.

Due to the change in posture on behalf of her skeleton, Oli quickly dredged up what was left of her mana, calling out with wild abandon that could be considered borderline suicidal; "Fireball Pitch!" As soon as the casting had ended, Oli spaced herself and threw it underhand, the ball coasting up into the sky and crossing over in what was a rather good arc, plummeting into the smaller boar that had just reared up to hit the unguarded skeleton, the fireball making contact with a burst of flame and a hellish squeal that sounded, well, like a pig was on fire. Even with the exhaustion and potential chance of being gored, Oli charged forward with staff in hand, closing in from her mid-range space into that of a melee range, using the prolonged length of her staff to keep a distance as she jabbed the top end into the smaller of two boars, beating it down into the floor as it tried to get up and attack Jangles once more.

Due to the high-damage of Guardian Fist, the larger of the two boars was in rather dire straits. While it tried as it willed, barely conscious after the blow to its skull, the next three swings of the cudgel reaped what remained of its HP, leaving it to bleed out on the forest floor without ever getting help from its companion. Speaking of its companion, Oli was in no way a weapon fighter and now more than even it showed. With either hand clenched around her staff, Oli did as best she could to either smack or push the boar away, however she had taken two sizeable hits on the same leg, a leg that was now swelling up and turning purple, as well as feeling like she was tearing her muscle each second she stood on it. Still, if she wanted to live, she had to wait for her skeleton to turn around and help kill this off, as she had no mana to give it another Guardian Fist nor enough mana to huck a fireball at it, leaving her with the option of probing the thing with a staff in hopes that it might keep her alive just a little longer.

After what seemed like an eternity and some change, the skeleton turned and brought its wrath down on the smaller of the two. Due to both the prodding of her staff as well as the fireball, the smaller one was in no good shape either, making it easy pickings for a skeleton that literally mounted the back of the torso-sized boar, handling its cudgel in both hands and going entirely berserk on its skull until it ceased moving. With nary 5% of its HP left, the summon was missing most of its ribs, part of its hand, and one of its feet, but it was still alive-, for whatever that might be. Oli was in slightly better shape at a sour 24% and rising, but instead of keeping the summon active and risk another tragic event, Oli dismissed it back to the underworld for a lengthy timeout.

That'll teach it not to charge boars, hopefully.

The trudge back to the inn was long and filled with the occasional burst of tears, the ache in her leg profound enough to leave her weak in the knees. Thank whatever god was still remaining that she had a staff though, 'less Oli would be sleeping in the forest, as with her staff she barely managed to hobble back into town borders by the time the sun was falling below the horizon, having left to trek towards the village a hefty three hours earlier. It usually took thirty minutes, but her leg was in so much pain that walking was prone to leaving her nauseated, so she had to wait each time the urge to puke managed to overwhelm the desire to get underneath the blankets in an inn.

After settling herself back into the dusky room she had booked almost exclusively for the past two years, Oli reminisced somewhat, her leg propped up on a pillow and her mouth full of vendor-food gruel that had become so routine she barely noticed it. The water was stale, the food tasted like nothing, but she had lived here for-, well, two years, a long two years of prolonged discomfort and eventual blossoming into a borderline necromancer. Not that she minded, she actually quite liked the necromancer schtick, especially when she could see people's expressions when she summoned Jangles out from the cracks inbetween the cobblestone.

Four nights of sleep plus some well-deserved vacation time left Oli in a good headspace, most of her time spent rather oddly outside of the forest, and instead at the various vendors. Most people barely knew her, as she was a notable recluse and bad with conversations, but having overcome something so tantamount and come even a little bit further to her goal-, it made her a little more sociable. Little, however, being the keyword, seeing as after thirty minutes of talking among the vendors she grew frustrated enough to blow them off and head back to the inn, deciding to smother her head in a pillow and scream about how goshdarned weird people were here. So what if she could reincarnate? Did that make her a monster?

Well, in hindsight, she did summon skeletons and was effectively immortal. Maybe she was a monster?

The thought was not something she chose to dwell on in the aftermath of argumentative behaviors.

After a full week, Oli decided it was about time to leave the town. While it was a good town, and for all intents and purposes, was a good place to farm and level-up, she felt a certain calling for the outside world. There were few adventurers who were commonplace in the town such as she was, and perhaps after so many months of self-isolation and self-hate she had finally found even a small interest, a barest curiosity, in talking to other people from her old world, a world that she had, at some point, stopped missing surprisingly enough. Homesickness had faded with time, and her parents were fond, but distant memories; replaced by confused and conflicted emotions that instead wanted to look towards others who might perhaps be people she could rely on.

Oli, on that of a summer day in the year 2020, finally set out, accompanied by the jingle-and-jangle of Jangles the Skeleton.