Delving and Green Rocks

(A/N: The rest of the information Lilith got from the books will be implemented when necessary.)

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Sleeping on top of a rock outside of her still flooded home was not the best experience for Lilith.

"Stupid water. Stupid house. Stupid flooded house.' Lilith pouted as she walked into the forest. Too angry to enjoy the scenery, Lilith started walking towards the cave where the forest's new residents lived.

Lilith continued to pout as she continued her stride through the greenery around her, too annoyed to appreciate its beauty. 'I suppose I should go looking for those rats now... kobolds have tougher hide that I'm not prepared to deal with yet. Rats however... I should probably scout first.' Lilith thought to herself.

After a few minutes of walking towards some old caves she considered living in before, but due to her small size she passed. She guessed that was where the rats lived and would check there first.

Lilith used [Stealth] as her fur turned morphed into the same color of the grass around her with stripes and dots of her original snowy white, showing due to her inexperience. Crouching low just in case she arrived at the first cave.

Stalagmites hung from the mouth of the cave. Kobold skulls were mounted on crude wooden spikes. Various ominous noises echoed from deep inside the cave, ranging from squeaks to screams. A small moat built to catch rainwater was built in a half-circle surrounding the cave's entrance.

'Well.. this wasn't here before.' Lilith pointed out the obvious as she scanned the cave. 'So.. rats huh?'

Dipping her mouth into the rainwater moat she took a drink before heading inside.

Paws met cool stone as Lilith's fur adapted to the dark colors of the cave system due to [Stealth] still being activated. *Snap* The stalagmites hanging from the ceiling shifted just enough for Lilith to notice with her hearing.

Looking down, she saw a broken tripwire where she was standing. 'Oh rats,' Lilith thought as she stifled a laugh from her choice of words. Stepping back a little bit, a group of small but still sharpened stalagmites fell right on top of the broken tripwire. Once the stalagmites made contact with the ground they erupted in a plume of dust.

'I suppose I underestimated them...' Lilith begrudgingly admitted as she looked at the trap.

After the dust cleared the stalagmites were shattered against the hard cave floor. Lilith promptly stepped past the 'dead rocks' and continued to walk through the cave.

Lilith stopped as she the squeaks she heard earlier became louder. Sidestepping close to the wall, she crouched as low as she could go while ice nails appeared at the roof of the cavern. After a couple seconds that felt more like minutes, a three hunched over figures appeared.

Bare of any clothes other than a loincloth, they had a bony body with thin fur. Their head's bone structure was a mix of wolf and in the shape of a rat. They had a long naked tail hanging from their lower back that touched the ground. Their weapons consisted of sharpened pale bones as it took the shape of a sword and dagger.

'Well.. they look a lot.. uglier than I thought they would be,' Lilith thought to herself as they began to walk towards her direction.

As if hearing Lilith's remark to their looks, the rats began to hiss quietly. Mentally cursing herself, Lilith summoned a few ice needles above their patrol route. The rats didn't even know what was coming before ice needles attempted to imbed themselves in their neck.

Lilith however, was NOT expecting them to have tough enough hide to just shake them off. The rats looked around confused as they felt the ice needles shatter as the shrugged it off before continuing their patrol.

'Fuck,' Lilith thought simply. To ensure their doom, Lilith formed a few -18- sharpened ice spikes and launched it towards the back of their neck.

While Lilith wasn't particularly a fan of gore and blood, she did crack a foxy smile once she saw the two rats fall after two ice spikes. 'Phew, so no needles this time. Won't be too difficult.. just have to watch my reserves and make sure not to refill them more than 5 times.'

Instead of dispelling the 16 ice spikes still floating she commanded them to follow her as she treaded down the dark cave system.

Lilith continued her routine of hiding and then stealth-fully killing the rats and as a result, she had to refill her mana pool twice already.

Lilith pushed open a crude stone door with her muzzle as she saw something that will scar her for life. Slowly closing the door she began to search for the nearest bottle of bleach to cleanse her eyes.

Looking inside the room, Lilith saw the rats as they committed a very particular physical act.

...

They were.. enjoying arts and crafts. Dreamcatchers, bone wind chimes, the works. Honestly Lilith felt like leaving all of them alone to enjoy their passion, if it wasn't for the various torture devices decorated with human skulls sitting in the corner.

Lilith decided to try a new facet of how to use her ice magic. Forming above her forehead, a small condensed ball of ice, no bigger than a golf-ball, formed. The ice-ball flew into the arts and craft room before landing on the floor.

The thump caused a few rats to look at the disturbance before going back to their crafts. The ice-ball began to glow as it erupted into a glorious eruption of ice. Rats were coated in a brilliant layer of ice as their body crumpled to the ground.

'That.. was.. so.. COOL!' Lilith screamed mentally from seeing the ice-splosion. As Lilith kept fangirling over the ice-grenade, she remembered a part of the Magic for Dummies book she read a few weeks ago.

'Most magic, beyond basic spells, require a medium and/or focus to conjure. For example, if a spell is too complicated it helps to either chant words to help yourself visualize the effects, or to use a staff or wand as a medium. The only downside to using a staff or wand however is that it can only be attuned to one type of magic at a time, making the flexibility of your spellcraft a little strained. The only category of magic that would NOT require chanting at ALL would be racial magic, and using a staff/wand specified FOR the mentioned racial magic would make it many times more potent.'

Just remembering the chapter for a second caused a slight headache to reverberate through her mind but Lilith shrugged it off. 'So.. I suppose that's why my 'Fox-Ice' works without chanting?' Lilith thought.

'Cool!' She thought before she walked past the ice-ified room and continued walking down the cave system.

As she began to jog through the cave system she began to think about her stats in a more in-depth way. 'I know that the 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 stat increases my base magical power along with my reserves.. or at least that's what I think. The other stats are pretty obvious what they do, like 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 increasing my physical damage, 𝘈𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 increasing my speed, 𝘋𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 increasing my control of my motor skills, and 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 making my body tougher. I should probably work on my physical stats sometime in this cave.. they're pretty low in comparison to my 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤,' Lilith thought to herself as she continued her jog.

She passed by a few rat patrols before sneaking up behind them and killing them swiftly with her short, but sharp claws.

Continuing her walk she walked upon something that caused her to stop, a bright green glowing orb-ish rock was laying in a heavily reinforced crate. Curiously, Lilith walked up to the green rock before sending a slow ice needle towards it to test if it was safe to touch.

Upon contact, the ice needle immediately melted causing Lilith to yelp. 'W-what? I-I'm kind of glad I didn't touch it now,' Lilith thought to herself.

Walking away slowly she was preparing to start heading back down the cave before a notification appeared.

[Inventory function can hold any material for however long the host desires, no matter how toxic, destructive, or cataclysmic it is! (Black holes?) Putting an item into the Inventory menu will automatically scan it, stabilize it, and document it for the user's personal usage! Food will also not decay :)]

Lilith instantly walked up the to closest rock wall before repeatedly banging her head against it. 'I.. FORGOT!!!' She yelled mentally. 'I'M SO STUPID! I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE INVENTORY!" Lilith mentally screamed as she remembered coming home to a pile of rotted meat during the first few weeks of her forest life.

After a few more minutes of banging her head against the wall and deep breaths, Lilith walked over to the glowing green rock before coating her claws in a thick layer of ice and tapping it before immediately sending it to her inventory.

[Analyzing..]

[3..]

[2..]

[1..]

[Analyzed]

[(Heavily Diluted) Warpstone]

[Warpstone: Considered by some scholars as the ultimate purely physical manifestation of magical energy. It originated from when Chaos first entered the world through the two polar gates. Being a very concentrated source of magic, it is heavily coveted among groups of mages, sorcerers, and alchemists for its abilities and crafting capabilities.]

Lilith deadpanned at the description, 'I have no fucking clue what most of that meant, but it sounds cool.. so I'm gonna roll with it.'

Lilith continued to run down the cave system while grabbing a few stray pieces of warpstone on the way. As she ran, she ran into a large cavern door with runic markings etched into stone. Depictions of an insanely large portal made out of iron and steel with large creatures of flesh walking through.

'That.. doesn't look very friendly,' Lilith gulped as she slid through a crack in the door. Taking a look at her new surroundings, she was in awe.

A large cavern roof with massive blue stalagmites hung from the ceiling. Crates of warpstone was being hauled by packs of rats as they carried it to a large green swirling portal. The portal itself was created from a machine powered by 5 separate warpstones. The warpstones themselves were a brighter shade of green than the ones she has been collecting however, probably not 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘥 as her inventory stated hers was.

Standing near the portal was something that caused a small amount of fear to build in the young foxes chest. A large -compared to the other rats- rat with sickly green leather armor strapped all over its furry body. Metal was scarce in the design as plates of leather covered his most vulnerable weak spots. The thing that scared Lilith however, was the warpstone powered flail weapon it held in its hands. A long handle with a chained ball of pure warpstone hung in its dirty, clawed paws.

Green flames danced from the warpstone hanging from the obviously resistant metal chain from the inside on large rat's flail. 'That's a Plague Monk.' Lilith thought as she couldn't remember where she learned the name, it just felt correct.

As if planned, once she thought of its proper title it looked in her direction with its putrid eyes. A look of deep madness permanently etched into its charred furry face. Lilith instantly retreated behind a rock in order to hide. Before she was fully hidden however, she noticed the Plague Monk walking directly to her position.

'Oh no,'

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(A/N: Warhammer elements because why the hell not. It won't be particularly relevant once the plot begins however, but you'll see the details next chapter!)