Eager to make the most of the recovery buff, Ash headed out to do some more jogging, arms pumping each weight as she worked. She circuited her ruins several times, finding an occasional plant to harvest along the way. Her stamina ran low even faster than before, but she found a rhythm of letting it fall to just above half before walking, which seemed to let it recover a bit faster than if it was more expended. The training was helped by her food bonus, increasing the amount of time she could train overall by making those spots of downtime even shorter.

  By the time the light had faded, Ash was thoroughly exhausted, dishevelled and sweaty. She was out of it so much that she barely registered that it was the first night that she was spending sleeping in the village. Instead, she simply collapsed into a bundle near Hestia’s corner of the main hall, wrapped up in the bedroll she had fetched from her former shelter.

  Ash woke early, hopeful that her efforts had brought her some gains during her overnight recovery. She eagerly pulled up her stats, heart plummeting when she discovered the lack of progress.

  She blearily stumbled out of her bedroll, strapping her wrist-weights back on as she prepared to head out again.

  “You’re up early dear” A voice called to her. Ash turned to see Tyra, already working over the cookfire. “Didn’t sleep well?”

  “No,” Ash sighed, walking over to the young woman “It was fine… I’m a little… out of shape right now, and I’d hoped to have recovered already. I… I don’t like being this weak. Hestia and the others are going to go and fight for us and I’m still too frail to help.”

  “Oh, you poor thing.” Tyra said, patting her on the arm “Yes, you’re all skin and bone still, I can see that. Maybe you should eat more, hmm? How about I save a bit for you if you need a midday meal? For the extra recovery, you know.”

  “Really? Thanks Tyra!”

  “Oh, no problem. Just keep adding to my ingredient stockpile, okay? Anything new is a godsend. Anyway, I can see you’re eager to get on. I think I’ve got enough ready to put you together an early breakfast.”

  Ash gratefully accepted her meal, eating as quickly as she could without appearing disrespectful to the helpful cook.

  “It’s good as always!” Ash said before asking, “I was a little too tired to ask about it yesterday, but was there any news from Vidar’s scouting yet?”

  “Not that I’ve heard.” Tyra shrugged “Looks like you still have time yet. Good job on your specialty though, and extra good work for persuading Hestia to embrace hers!”

  “Oh, well you were the one that properly motivated me in the first place! Maybe you should thank yourself!” Ash joked, feeling a little brighter “Thanks again Tyra.”

  Ash waved farewell to the cook and set off in a jog. She circuited her ruins, thinking about what she could do to hasten her progress.

  Clearly just waiting around to recover isn’t the only thing I can do. Sure, I can spend the day jogging, but I’m not certain that would actually help. Mimicking the real world, it is possible that I could end up over-training, hampering my recovery. There must be some other way I can advance.

  Ash looked over her character sheet. Health was gained from raising constitution, then half as much from strength, and also from her level. So, she could work on strength training as well, or she could simply... Level up.

  Ash had nearly 400 experience banked up. If she could somehow take out four level 2 lizard-men or just 1 level 3, then that would put her to almost the next level.

  Or… lizard-man skeletons...

  Ash realised where her thoughts were taking her just as she was approaching the entrance to her former home.

  Am I seriously thinking of going back in there? She considered, fingering the new lesser deflection potion at her side. I want to get stronger, to help protect Hestia and the others. If I end up stuck, just waiting for them to come back... What would I do if they never did?

  “I can’t let that happen.” Ash resolved out loud before crawling her way back into the ruins.

  Click.

  The sound of the dart trap whispered beneath her foot. A flash of movement whipped past, barely missing her neck.

  “What the hell?” Ash muttered confusedly, “I thought I emptied you out.”

  It was only by chance the dart had missed her. She crouched down, pressing the trap again. No dart came free.

  Did it just have a last one stuck in there somewhere? She wondered, resolving to be even more cautious than she had planned.

  Stepping into the room, club glowing, she looked at the skeletons sprawled on the floor. Still dead? Or just pretending again?

  Ash decided not to take any chances. She swung her club down on the first skeletons head, infusing the blow with ice for extra measure.

  The skull shattered in a satisfying clatter of bone fragments. The kill notification resisted in her periphery, spurring her to turn. She quickly spotted the other, still headless, skeleton beginning to rise, bringing its spear up with it. She rushed it, slamming another ice infused strike into its side and sending it clattering into the wall is a spray of shattered bone. Dead.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She checked the notifications, registering the 36 extra experience as well as that the second skeleton had also be considered ‘damaged’ this time, likely from its missing head.

  Ash considered, then swung again at the lifeless bones, shattering bone after bone until each was a splintered mess, then she moved on to the other skeleton and did the same.

  “Try attacking me now!” she taunted, giving the bones a kick for good measure. Then she picked up the obsidian spear from the floor and brought it back to the entrance, pushing it into the crawlspace for her to retrieve later.

  Returning to the skeleton room, she gave the broken bones a quick tap, relieved to see there was no notification. The encounter had brought her up to 398 exp though, just over 100 to go.

  Ash paused, a realisation hitting her. If these skeletons revived, but still give exp, should I have just… let them? That could have been a fairly easy way to farm experience! She berated herself for not considering that sooner. She reassured herself with the notion that now she could continue deeper without worrying about these two sneaking up on her from behind. No, it is better to take it safe, for now.

  She decided to continue, carefully circuiting the stone altar a few times but noticing nothing obvious about the structure. Instead, Ash continued until she reached the stairs on the other side of the room, stalking up them with soft footsteps. Her caution bore fruit when she noticed a thin tripwire stretched across one of the middle stairs. She wasn’t sure what it connected to as, like with the dart trap, there were no obvious slots in the walls for a danger to emerge.

  She crept over it, heading up higher in the dark ruin, glowing club the only light in the shadowy passage. There was a sharp corner at the top of the stairs, which opened out into another square chamber. At the far side of the room, Ash immediately noted another lizardman skeleton, slumped against the wall. Then she saw that all across the low ceiling were laid sharp downward spikes, just below her head height, meaning that she would have to crouch to move across without scaping against them. She also noticed a series of large symbols carved all over the floor. There was also a small stone half-pillar just next to the entrance, that looked similar to the one in her former bedroom. Upon examination, it actually did have the same set of runes carved on it. The direction seemed to point to a section of the far wall.

  Curiously, Ash activated the rune on the pillar, then hurriedly retreated in case of any unexpected trap. Fortunately, it seemed to function exactly as the one had before, a section of wall grinding slowly downwards in response. A slight breeze swept in through the gap forming, followed by a faint hint of light. Peering down the passage, she detected it shining from an opening all the way at the other end. She was now standing in a single, long tunnel, with this room and another two evenly spaced along it. Ash estimated it must run most of the length of the entire structure, hopefully leading to a way out at the other end.

  Ash was tempted to hurry forward towards the light, maybe only pausing to give the skeleton a good bashing. Caution prevailed however, and she tested the floor before her, quickly discovering what she was nervous of. Each carved rune in the room seemed to be a pressure plate, giving slightly as she gently probed them with the tip of her club. There was a whole 6x4 grid of them, stretching before her, each around half a metre wide.

  Some kind of puzzle? Ash intuited, looking around for any further clues. There appeared to be four lines of runes, scrawled on the opposite wall, and she crept forwards, extending her club out in-front of her until she could just about make them out.

  They each consisted of 3 runes, the bottom rune being the same on all four. Most were unknown to her, but Ash thought she identified that one. It had been present in the runes next to the carved picture and Lance had identified it for her. The only other number that had been identified was the number 10, which appeared to be written upside down on one of the tiles closest to her. Looking at those now, she could see two more upside down number 2s, both second from the right in the first and 3rd rows. In fact, the whole pattern of runes seemed to repeat, another 10 appearing two rows in front of the first.

  Ash spent a few minutes studying the patterns before she discovered 2 things. Firstly, the 2 and 10 were both at the 2nd and 10th position in the sequence of 12 runes, if you were reading them from right to left from her, upside down, perspective. The second was that all the runes in the two rows closet to her weren’t quite the same, there was an additional feature on each, a small additional rune carved on the bottom right. The rune was the same shape as the first rune in the sequence too.

  What if these are all numbers? Ash considered. Then the grid would simply be counting up to 12, then maybe 13-24 with the additional small ’1’ rune meaning 12+ whatever rune is carved there.

  If that was true, then the top numbers on the wall would read 5 then 7 then 8 with a small 2 on the top left and then 11.

  You have reached Rune Lore level 9

  Damn, wasn’t I on 7 before? Ash thought excitedly. The sudden advancement seemed to confirm her theory, though the symbol between each top number and each 2 below was still a mystery.

  Wait, if these are all numbers, then is this… a maths puzzle? Ash rolled her eyes, wondering which dev had come up with this one. Then wondering if these sort of things were simply generated by the world’s AI at this point.

  So, if this is a maths puzzle, perhaps those middle symbols denote some kind of operation between the two numbers. In that case, what between 5 and two would make a number between 19 and 24. Ash started confusedly for ma moment before realising her mistake. I’m viewing this whole grid upside down! That means I need to use 11 and 2. Great! So 11x2 is 22, let’s try that.

  She pushed her club onto the pressure plate, leaning forward to provide enough pressure to set it all the way down. The tile clicked, but nothing further happened.

  Success! So, the next one is… 8? Ach looked at the next row, but it contained the numbers she’d identified as being between 13 and 18. No, it’s 8 with a small 2. Maybe 8 and 2 12s, so 32? 32/2 is then 16! That works.

  Ash tested, then stepped onto the 16 tile safely, quickly looking to the next.

  That leaves the last two, 7 and 5. If I’ve just used multiply and divide, then maybe these are add and subtract. 7-2 would be 5, which is not in the next row, so that one must be add. 7+2 is 9, which does work, leaving 5-2 for the 3 tile in the final row. Easy!

  You have reached Rune Lore level 10, as an apprentice you will have greater understanding of runes and their functions.

  You have unlocked Rune Lore as an auxiliary specialisation option.

  You have reached scribing level 5.

  The advancement was all the confirmation she needed, quickly hopping onto the next two plates and then clear of the tile trap, landing with a small whoop of excitement. She had solved the puzzle and raised her lore skill to 10.

  Perhaps it would be worth specialising in that after-

  Her thoughts were cut off as a sudden impact smashed into the side of her head.