The Blue Ring of Regret

Dori stood by the side of the road, hesitant. She had no reason to go back to her home, yet her feet were rooted in a dilemma. Wilderness vs the shelter of her family. Trees and monsters vs the bond she unwillingly tied.

The moment she made her decision and turned toward the shop, a notification alerted her.

♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬

✌ New Achievement ✌

✯ Unbound ✯

🎉 Unlocked Feature: Items (access)

🎉 Unlocked Feature: Analysis (items)

She was bewildered. She thought the only a large amount of points could unlock features but apparently, there were other ways too. The notifications didn't stop there.

♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬

✌ New Achievement ✌

✯ Blue-Heart ✯

🎉 Unlocked Item: 🛠️Kran's Regret🛠️ [Unique]

🎉 Unlocked Perk: ??? (insufficient access)

♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬

✌ Milestone Achieved ✌

✯ Adventurer 101 ✯

🎉 Unlocked Potion: 🍾Rejuvenation🍾 (20%)

🎉 Unlocked Item: 🛠️Long Knife of Penetration🛠️ [Novice]

♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♬

✌ Milestone Achieved ✌

✯✯✯ Rebellious 301 ✯✯✯

🎉 Unlocked Potion: 🍾Blazing-Blood🍾 (50%)

🎉 Unlocked Item: 🛠️Fiery Bomb🛠️ [Novice]

🎉 Unlocked Perk: ??? (insufficient access)

🎉 Unlocked Skill: ??? (insufficient access)

Ecstatic, she checked her 🛠️Items🛠️ tab

🛠️Fiery Bomb🛠️ [1]

[Cost: 20 RP]

[Class: Novice, Low]

[Overuse Restriction: 30 seconds]

[Upon activation and breakage, draws in Fire Essence and creates a violent dome of fire.]

🛠️Long Knife of Penetration🛠️ [50]

[Cost: 100 RP]

[Class: Novice, Low]

[If imbued with Spirit Energy, increases sharpness]

🛠️Red Socks of Damper🛠️ [100]

[Cost: 250 RP]

[Class: Novice, Mid]

[Upon impact, absorbs and stores a portion of the Energy.]

🛠️Black Cowl of Sagehood🛠️ [100]

[Cost: 200 RP]

[Class: Novice, Mid]

[Cancels out a portion of invading Energy.]

🛠️Blue Necklace of Osmosis (Blessed)🛠️ [20]

[Class: Apprentice, Low]

[Cost: 300 RP]

[Draws in Spirit Energy.]

[Increases Spirit Energy Flow.]

🛠️Angee's Mistress🛠️ [1]

[Cost: 50 RP]

[Class: Unique, Low]

[Overuse Restriction: 5 minutes]

[Upon activation and breakage, draws in Spirit Energy and creates a chaotic dome of 'Disruption.']

🛠️Kran's Regret🛠️ [1]

[Cost: 1000 RP]

[Class: Unique, Mid]

[Overuse Restriction: 7 days]

[Upon user's death, turns back time up to ten seconds.]

Reading the last entry, Dori couldn't hide her glee. She immediately bought a 'Kran's Regret. It was a blue ring that fit perfectly in her left index.

She walked back into the guild stores to retrieve her belongings.

"I'll be taking back my stuff," she said to the store attendant.

Although packed, the bag wasn't too heavy for her. She headed toward the dock, unwilling to stay too long. The guilt of leaving her cousins, her aunt and her maid without telling them was rebounding, and she wanted to be far away before it stopped her.

It took her half an hour to reach near the river dock. The night was dying. People were getting scarcer on the road, and she saw guards patrolling, taking glances at her more often. The theater still had lights on, and she could hear occasional cheers.

No boatman would probably be willing to cross the river at night with a stranger, and she wasn't willing to try her luck with those who would. Instead, she went to a nearby tavern.

There was a young man in his twenties sitting behind the counter, half asleep. Hearing her greeting, the guy snapped into consciousness and then glared at her.

"I need a room for the night," Dori said.

"No rooms available." The guy waved his hand in refusal.

Sighing, Dori pulled out an Emblem from her bag. "Make one available, or you'll regret it later."

It was satisfying to see the guy wiggling out of his seat and then rummaging through the key hangers. The Emblem was issued by the city council, given to her by the guild master as a token of appreciation. It had a fair bit of influence, at least in Gurjua and all the villages under it. It wasn't very uncommon to have one for people with means, so she didn't fear much using it.

The room she was led to was on the second floor. Small, one windowed, with a damp smell lingering on the air. The bed was clean enough, and there was a toilet attached, so she didn't mind. "Don't bother me whatsoever." She tossed a coin at the guy.

Nodding to her, the guy left in a hurry.

Her clothes were still stinky from the sweat but she suddenly felt too tired to care. She closed the room and slumped into the bed.

Sleep came instantly.

It was almost noon when Dori woke up. Her body was aching from overexertion but it was a feeling she was used to by now.

Effect of Persona had worn off and her male clothing was too flappy for her small stature. She shed her real clothes and once the effect took hold, she replaced the fake ones with the real ones. The clothes that came with Persona were fake ones and those clothes wouldn't let her blend into the crowd.

There were lots of people downstairs. It was the tavern's restaurant and bar combined, and people occupied almost all the tables and chairs. She managed to get a table after a few minutes and then waited for the server.

She kept her attention to the people around her, hoping to hear anything about a Noble girl running away from home, but nothing caught her notice.

Even with her 'regular clothing', she felt like an attraction in a freak show. People would stare at her randomly and then look away once marked. Dori figured out why soon enough. The people around her were mostly haggard, with stained clothes, unshaven faces, rumpled hair. Compared to them, her Persona was way too eye-catching.

She took a mental note of experimenting with other, more down to earth, Personas for future convenience.

Eating her fill, she walked back into her room and checked her stuff. She still needed to stock up water and dry food, a few medicines, antidotes, repellents, and possibly maps with good accuracy. She had copied charts from the books but those were basically overviewed with vague descriptions meant to teach kids.

For a while, she was tempted to go to the Alchemist's Guild and meet Reima before leaving, but it seemed an unnecessary and bad idea.

The guy from last night was substituted by an older man. Dori returned her key and then headed toward the nearest market.

The market near the dock had everything she needed and more. She analyzed a few of their potions. Buying them for gold caused her less of a heartache then spending her points. Many of the potions were remarkably diluted and full of impurities, so she meticulously inspected before buying. The shopkeeper seemed annoyed but a few extra Denas shut him up.

She didn't buy more items from the system because those were too costly and she was hoping to lessen the burden until she was out of the border. But she still checked the smithies, hoping to analyze a few items and see if she could add them to the 🛠️Items🛠️ tab.

Turned out she could if the items passed some sort of threshold. She tried a few regular knives and swords but only one registered.

🛠️Short Knife🛠️ [20]

[Cost: 1 RP]

[Tempered. Sharpened.]

By then, she knew the numbers behind the titles implied a vague idea of sturdiness and reusability, though she didn't know if the numbers were on the same scale as all the other items. 'Analysis' didn't let her compare two items or two potions so she could only test those out slowly. She went from store to store, and by the end of the hour, she gained two more entries.

🛠️Short Sword🛠️ [20]

[Cost: 1 RP]

[Tempered. Sharpened]

🛠️Firestone🛠️ [10]

[Cost: 5 RP]

[Class: Novice, Low]

[Can be used to store tiny amounts of Heat Essence.]

She was happy to find something that finally exceeded the 1 RP mark in this world, still unsure what the 'Heat Essence' was supposed to do.

[Heat Essence can be used in some Potion-brewing, Item-crafting, ???]

Dori was suddenly tempted to buy all the Firestones and then sell them to the system for points, but there was no selling feature. The stones were at the size of her fist, so she only bought one for fifty Denas to play with.

Her potions' tab, however, had turned into a mess after her exciting venture. Until then, there weren't too many entries for her to worry about, but it was getting harder to scroll through the dozens of bars for the things she needed. Good thing was that the rewarded potions had a bluish hue to their titles while the regular ones had white titles, but she needed better ways to navigate.

She tested a few ways before finally getting a solution. She could organize those after creating custom groups for items and potions. She put all of her rewarded potions into one group and the dozens of other potions to another one, planning to organize them more thoughtfully once she had time. The items were less cluttering but she still created the same two groups as before.

Everyone in the market was busy with their own things, except for a girl who was looking at the 'handsome guy' covertly gesturing 'his' fingers in the air.

Dori didn't notice the girl when she closed her tabs. She didn't notice her when she headed toward the smelly part of the market, to buy some dried meat and cooking gears. But she did notice her once a spiky sting assaulted her head. Suddenly alert, Dori looked around and spotted the girl.

Caught, the girl's eyes shot up for a moment, and then she walked away.

Dori was intimidated somewhat. The stingy pain was sharper than the ones she felt in the arena, and she knew it was a probe, rather a strong one. Not sure if she was already caught, she hurried to the dock instead. Food, she could manage, but if her persona got exposed, that'd be the real trouble.

The dock was divided into two parts. One side was reserved for the traders. Compared to that, the passenger side wasn't that crowded.

She considered the boats floating nearby, big and small. Most of them would ride upstream to the City of Mesha, after passing through a few villages. But her goal wasn't to travel toward the nearby cities. She wanted to cross the river and enter the wilderness.

She asked around, but none was willing to cross the river. Then she met the guy taking a snack on his boat who gestured her close.

"How much to cross the river?" she asked once she came nearer.

The guy looked at her once and probably judged her wealth. "10 Aures."

Dori crescented her eyebrows. For a single trip across the river, even one Aures was a generous deal. "Trying to rip off newbies?" She asked.

The guy didn't fret with her angry tone and instead shook his head. "A few leagues 'been warded off by the soldiers. That's too much of a detour for the small guys."

"I'll give you five," Dori offered.

The guy shook his head. "I've already got passengers. If you want a seat, fork up."

Dori was extremely annoyed. The boat would probably be able to hold five or six people and ten Aures per seat was really expensive for a short trip to the other side. As she turned to leave, the guy called back. "You won't find anyone willing to cross the river. They'd need a special permit for that. One of my passengers have a pass and half the money is for her."

Dori didn't lack the money if it was a justifiable expanse. "I need to leave soon. Where're your passengers?"

"Who knows? Probably buying stuff. They paid in advance, so I don't care if it takes a whole day. You can try your luck with others if you are in a hurry."

Dori walked away, then asked around. What the boatman had said was true. Feeling helpless and humiliated, she walked back and gave him a note. "I'll be at that tavern." She pointed at the one she stayed at night. "Find me once your passengers arrive."

"You don't have to worry about me swindling you. Rowing here for six years. Everyone knows me."

Dori didn't bother replying. She was worried about staying in an open place. She went back into the tavern, took a table and ordered more food to satisfy the guy at the counter. Even then, the man was getting irritated when she spent two hours occupying a table. Luckily, before the man called her out, the boatman entered the tavern, looking for her.

When she followed the guy to his boat, Dori halted. The girl she caught probing was sitting on the boat along with two boys. One she didn't know but his mere presence made her shudder for some reason. Long, raven hair was waving in the wind, caressing his face. A face hardened by the sun, a few faded scars on the forehead and cheeks. The wasn't very buff but had an ominous aura surrounding him, and when he looked at her, she almost fainted from the pain that assaulted her.

The other guy was the one she defeated at the arena the first day. Pedo healer's miniature copy.

Trying her best to keep calm, she stopped herself from running away. The taller, scary looking guy wasn't paying much attention but she noticed the hardened jaw of the other. Using the same Persona that beat up a few strong people wasn't probably the best choice, she realized.

The girl avoided her gaze while talking to the scary guy. Dori wondered if the entourage was from the Megor family.

These were her boat buddies? She climbed onto the boat, and to her surprise, the tiny boat never rocked the slightest. After greeting and apologizing for the interruption, she sat, keeping a few feet of distance from the group.

All of them looked strong. Dori wondered why they were taking a boat instead of Hover-Planks. Probably they were just as poor as her, she thought.

It was an awkward journey at first.

"What's your name, Sir?" suddenly the girl asked.

Before Dori could replay, the younger boy butt in. "His name is Zain."

The girl raised her eyebrows at the boy, "You two know each other?"

"Yes. We fought at the arena a few weeks back."

Dori wanted to pat the boy for not being petty. "Sorry for my rude behavior that day. I was carried away by the crowd."

The boy looked at her curiously while the scary guy laughed. "Stronger people have the right to humiliate weaker people. It was a good lesson for him. You don't have to apologize."

Dori didn't know what to reply to that remark. So she changed the topic. "Are you three going to the outpost?"

"No." The girl shook her head. "Brother Kaish is taking us to the forest to train. Where are you heading?"

Dori suddenly felt jealous of the girl. Here she was running away from home while there was the girl, allowed to go out to dangerous places for training with boys. "I'm just a wandering Herb Picker. I got a contract from the Alchemy Guild."

The boy looked at her with squinted eyes. "How come they didn't give you a pass? Does Herb Picking pay enough to cross the river."

Dori snickered. "It pays if you are good at what you do."

The girl laughed while the frown on the boy's face deepened. It didn't take Dori long to figure out the boy was probably enamored by the girl. Dori wasn't willing to add on more troubles to her shoulders than needed, so she avoided the girl's attention as much as politely possible. But then the girl brought up something that really interested her. "Do you plan on attending any set recruitment?" the girl asked.

This was the second time she heard the phrase 'sect recruitment.' Joining a sect was her eventual goal, after tasting the wilderness for a while. "I'm not sure if any sect would allow me. My roots are weak."

Suddenly the atmosphere got heavier. Dori saw her companions exchanging glances with one another, unsure what she might have said that earned the silence.

The silence didn't persist but Dori could feel somehow the guys were paying less attention to her while the girl was still being somewhat polite.

Dori instead focused on the forest that was getting closer.

Unlike the Dinkly forest that bordered Gurjua from the east, Forest of Mercy didn't end after a hundred miles. It spanned across a huge part of the continent, the bane of all the cities that it bordered. Cities that didn't have natural barriers like River Gatri had to spend a considerable amount of resource to fend off the overly enthusiastic monsters that had the minds to have a taste of human flesh once in a while. If not for the sects acting as a deterrent force, there were rumors of monsters strong enough to level cities with a single breath.

Even Gurjua had invested most of it's military to guard the bank lines for miles, making three outposts as an early shield. Dori's eldest brother was an officer in one of those outposts, which was why she wanted to land far away from the warded zones.

The boat had indeed drifted away downstream so much that Dori could no longer see the Dock. A thought brushed past her. Her companions were probably also planning on avoiding the military for some reason, even though they had a pass. Had it something to do with the shock-wave?

Two hours into the journey, the boat finally arrived near the other side. The current wasn't really strong near the bank but there weren't many flat zones to land. Once the boat came close enough to a low, rocky cliff, they disembarked one by one with a long jump while the boatman struggled to keep the boat straight.

Dori bode them farewell without once asking their name. Names didn't matter.

She started following the river farther downstream. She needed to stock up food before entering the forest, she wasn't ways to hunt and until then, bought food would have to suffice. There should be a Fishermen's village a few dozen miles away.

The weather was damp and warm, foreboding a storm. Even the outskirts of the forest were thick with trees and bushes, giving off heat and steam, making the atmosphere somewhat foggy, suffocating. Dori suddenly had a premonition. She wasn't ready for the forest. The bag on her back suddenly seemed laughably inadequate to fend off the might of the forest.

Ignoring the shiver that ran through her spine, she kept walking.

An hour later, the heavy air was starting to get to her nerves. She was sweating profusely and the humid air made it impossible to dry up.

An hour more, she suddenly felt like she was lost, even though she could see the river. The scenes that passed by her never changed, and the same monotonous views were drowsing. She couldn't feel the time passing as she walked. Sometimes she stared at the river, expecting to see a boat that wasn't there. Her bag was getting heavier by the minutes.

She walked like a zombie, step by step, unfocused. Only when she heard the growling noise did her daze broke. She looked around and saw nothing but darkness.

When the sun had set and the night had engulfed her, she was unaware. The trees that stood tall in judgment were covering the sky. The silver moon was up but the light barely penetrated the layers of leaves, making the foggy veil eerier. She couldn't even hear the sound of water.

She had veered into the forest. She heard the noise again. Something alive, not very far away and the noise didn't sound very welcoming.

Dori opened her bag and then scoured through it. Once her fingers found the Firestone, she pulled it out, dropping it in the process. She heard the growling again, closer, a little to the left.

She grabbed the Firestone from the ground and injected some Spirit Energy into it. In an instant, the stone became so hot that it threatened to burn her hand. She threw it again on the damp soil. The dim light it was emitting was barely enough to extend her vision by a few feet. A few feet wasn't enough to see the growl-maker.

But it was enough to see the silvery glimmer of two eyes that were focused on her.

An involuntary scream escaped her. Her body was refusing to heed to the frantic thoughts of her mind, making her freeze on the spot. Then a shadow charged toward her.

The fright overwhelmed her other senses. She didn't see to what those teeth were attached to before those sunk into her risen arms. She heard her bones breaking before she felt it. The unbearable pain made her arms paralyzed. The monster literally disarmed her before going for her neck and then her suffering ended abruptly.

In her next blink, she was looking at the dark forest. The dim, orange light from the Firestone was gone. The bag was still on her back. She felt shorter, and her clothes baggy. Her Persona was cut off.

The fear of death still lingered, and the pain was still there, molesting her like a phantom. She heard the familiar growling again.

She called in her potions tab and with a haste, gulped down all of her rewarded potions.

The bliss.

She felt her wariness fading, her fear suppressed. Her fatigue had washed away. A burning sensation spread across her body, a pleasurable sensation. She felt lighter than a feather.

Dropping her bag, she focused. Even without the help of any Firestone, she could vaguely make out the silhouette of something large. It was taller than her, quadrupedal. Its eyes were big and glowing.

A large cat.

Dori hissed at it, hoping to scare it away, but it merely paused for a moment before continuing to circle her, slowly closing in on the distance.

She had shown more confidence and the kitty hadn't attacked, Dori thought. She recalled an incident that her friend told her once, how he had rushed toward a dog that was barking at him and how it had run away, scared.

She did exactly that. And then regretted.

The kitty didn't fear her, she realized the moment she rushed toward it with a snarl. It responded with a lunge, claws out, sweeping at her face. It was fast, way faster than she could react to. She saw it coming. Her mind was faster than her body and all she could do was wait helplessly.

The impact took her breath away. Her body flew backward and didn't stop before hitting a tree with the back of her head. She blanked out.

She had regained her consciousness pretty quickly or she wouldn't wake up to see the kitty sniffing her. The beast was so close, she could smell its stinky, warm breath.

Dori yelled in fear and that made the kitty jump backward, hissing in annoyance.

Dori tried to stand and the world around her started spinning. The collision had left her rattled and even with the effect of all her potions, she couldn't focus. Her neck was hurting and she felt an itchy, warm sensation on her face. She raised her hand to the spot and to her horror, her fingers touched three long gushes, stretching from her left ear to her chin. Even with her arms guarding her face, the claws had found their mark.

The large cat was stalking her from a distance. Dori felt an urge to curse at the abomination. The fucker was playing with her, she knew. She regretted ever buying the life-saving item, it merely prolonged her suffering.

The items. She no longer had only a single tab, she had unlocked a new tab yesterday.

Dori felt like laughing at her miserable state, she deserved to be dead for such a mistake.

But the moment she opened her item tab and clicked at the first entry, she heard the unmistakable noise of the cat lunging again. And this time the tab was obstructing her vision. She barely had the time to close the tabs before the kitty was almost upon her.

This time, the claws were hidden, but the force behind that paw was enough to hurl her through an overgrown bush and slid her over the muddy ground. Her body stopped after her back collided with an extended root of a tree.

Dori saw stars before her eyes and the pain that came was sharper than before. The root had hit her spin and the lower half of her body disagreed to listen to her commands. The paw had hit her right hand, dislocating it from the shoulder and probably cracking a few ribs along with it. She tried to push back her hand on the socket and only managed it after the third attempt. Even with the magnitude of her pain suppression, it was enough to warrant a loud groan.

'I'm going to die here. I'm going to die here, and people won't even find my body.' Dori thought.

She sat there, leaning back on the root that stopped her, covered in mud, unable to stand and too battered to try. She looked at the ball a few feet away from her. She was holding before the kitty interrupted her, the 'fiery bomb'. Must have fallen before activation when she was sent flying. What a waste of points.

She bought the 'Long Knife of Penetration' and held it with her left hand. The knife had a foot-long blade, straight and sharp. The handle was jagged, making it a good fit for her fingers.

The kitty was standing near the spot Dori was a moment ago, staring at her. When she waved the knife at the kitty, it growled deeply. "Come and taste it," Dori said, brandishing it around with one hand. She didn't have a tinge of Spirit Energy left on her after the time reversal, but the knife seemed sharp enough on its own.

Dori saw cautiousness drawing on the kitty's attitude and a hint of hesitation. She laughed painfully. This one fight was such an eye-opener that she suddenly remembered what the scary guy had said.

Too bad that crying 'Mother' wouldn't end the fight.

The feeling on her legs was returning but that also made it worse. She couldn't yet use her legs but had to endure the added pain. Her ankles had probably strained.

The kitty was coming closer and closer, circling her in an arc. Dori waited, knowing there was only one way the cat could attack and it was head on, and she didn't plan on being easier killed that easily.

She saw the incoming paw and the extended claws in the moonlight. She put all her weight on her back, ready to use 'Dodge' to best of her ability to inflict harm than avoiding it.

One hand wasn't nearly enough to fend off the attack, but it was enough to guide her knife to an appropriate position.

The paw directly slapped onto the point of the blade and the blade slid in without much effort. The paw still carried the momentum to her already injured shoulder. Like a ragdoll, she skidded and bumped over the ground, bracing for an impact she knew was coming. But to her surprise, her body didn't hit anything other than getting brushed by a few bushes and eventually stopped.

The snarly hisses were coming from not so far away but Dori couldn't see. She immediately bought another knife and lied there, vigilant. But the hissing sound grew louder and more irritated. Dori laughed, knowing the blade was probably still impaled and the kitty was trying to unlodge it. Wouldn't be too hard had it tried the right way. The knife was straight with no jagged edges. But the kitty was probably trying to scratch it out on the soil.

She heard the noise moving away from her. She couldn't dare believe it ended just like that. She waited to be disappointed at her luck, yet the noises only drifted farther.

"You won't be telling this story to your kids, would you?" Dori yelled at the distance, and her voice came out like a whimper. It had been really long since she used the language of her previous life.

She looked at her still movable left arm. The ring she spent a thousand points on, the ring that saved her life, had disappeared.