Liz woke to a numb world. Her eyes wouldn't open. She tasted blood. Her other senses simply weren't there. Only her slow heartbeat let her know that time was actually passing.

'Am I dead?'

After what felt like an eternity, something brushed against her face. Gathering all her energy she was able to open her eyes.

In front of her was black. A familiar black. The black fur of one of the cubs.

'So I am still alive. What happened? It should have only hurt a bit. NOT. THAT. MUCH!'

She had to spend some time in this position. The cat in front of her face was only occasionally shifting, obviously asleep.

Finally, she felt strong enough to shift her head to the side. On her other side there were the legs of a worktable.

'So I fell of the table. But why can't I feel anything?' Did I injure my spine?'

With a struggle Liz lifted her head only to drop again. She had only had a glimpse at her chest, but that was enough. Her entire front was covered in crusted blood, even more around her.

'What. The. FUCK? How am I alive? And why do I feel none of it?'

That was the first time she remembered the intricacies of her new world and thought to check her status

Status:

Health: 1/12

Stamina: 1/231

Mana: 0/496

'1 health? 12 max health? I am definitely missing something here'

At this point Liz realized that there was a whole flood of notifications bumping into her consciousness, numbed down as well.

-- ᚢ̵̱͕̈́͋͝ᛒ̵̐̊͜ᛖ̶̲͉̾͊ᚱ̴̹̊ᚾ̷̝̘̒͗ᚨ̷̙͎͍̃ᚻ̴̜́̈̑ᛗ̷̨̾̚ᛖ̷͙͉̫͘ i̷̢̜̩͕̠̇͠ǹ̷͎̝̅̀͝ḭ̵̞͕͎̉̏ͅt̷̗̦̼̪͌ͅi̶̢̻̜̇̄̉̽̄ȃ̴͎̮͜t̶̽͝͝ͅḙ̸̘̺̎͒́̿͘d̸̞̟̬̟͒̓̊͝ --

-- ᚢ̵̱͕̈́͋͝ᛒ̵̐̊͜ᛖ̶̲͉̾͊ᚱ̴̹̊ᚾ̷̝̘̒͗ᚨ̷̙͎͍̃ᚻ̴̜́̈̑ᛗ̷̨̾̚ᛖ̷͙͉̫͘ c̵̤̽͂͘o̸̹̔̎̈́n̴̰̻̮̆f̵̗̰̈̓ḷ̵̞̂̑͘ĩ̵̮̞̇c̶͙̹͠ṫ̸̛̝̰̥̋s̸̬̭͆͂ ̶̣͉͉̅͆w̶͔͛̄͝ȋ̴͎̜̆t̵̯͖͖̋h̴̨̺͉̾͊͝ ᛒ̷̜̇ᛖ̵̹̤͕͇̔̿ᚱ̵̩̘̜͋ᚢ̷͍̻͙͕͒̿͠ᚻ̷͖̂͠͠ᚱ̴͇̇̌̿̊̔ᚢ̵̺̣͗̾̈́ᚾ̵̞̑ᚷ̸̯̀͝ --

-- You have been afflicted by [Soul Trauma] --

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 11 --

...

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 15 --

-- Congratulations! [Pain Tolerance] reached level 16 and evolved to [Pain Suppression]--

-- [Pain Suppression] has reached level 17--

-- You died. --

-- ᚢ̷̨͇͎̤̺͔͔̜̯̞̬̌̊̂̕͝͠ᛒ̸̛̛̼̰̏̽̓̀̈́͒̊̈́ᛖ̶̛͂̂̅͗́͐́̅̅̾̔͜ᚱ̷̡͎͓͖̰͙͖̬̌̀̒̈́͑͜͜͜ᛊ̸̢̧̪̰͚̪̺͚̼̝͍͚̀̆̾̌̒̍̈́̑̀̉͂͂̚͝͠ͅᚲ̶̰͖̫̖̱̺͈̿̐̌͝ᚻ̵͚̾̅̈͐͛͠ᚱ̷̧̨̢̼̭͍̦̯̖̟̜̝̮͚̘̍̂̈́̀̈̔̀̽͋̋͐́͋̄̑͗̾ͅᛁ̵̛̙̯̝̼͉̮͕̂͊̅̽̈̂͒͌̚͜͝ᛖ̷̢̛̰̟̬̙̪̄́̍͆̂̚͝ᛒ̶̛̘͚̙͕̫̜̝̗͔̫̝̩̼̪̖̑̐̔̆̏͜ᛖ̷̨͚̫̟͙̄̀̌̀̃̎̉̓͠ᚾ̴͈̥̟̣͈̙̖͈̼̮̦͈̣͖̘̋͆̋̈̌̉̔̂̃͌̏̉͝͠ ᛗ̶̨̟̺̬̟̺̲̤̜̲͇͂̂̀̀̐̍͜͝ᛁ̸̢̩̼̲̞̺̻̘̣̞̙̍̔̔͒̓̋́͋̀͝ᛏ̷̟̪̘̺̩̉̍ ᛗ̸̺̤̺̬̼͙̗̲̖̮̙̼̯̗̥̗̠̿͋̎̂͘ᚨ̴̗͈̟̲̲̇͠ᚲ̴̛͉̯̑̓̋́͂̆̈̔͘ᚻ̸̧̭̻̯̰̻͚͎͓́͌̇̔̈ᛏ̶̬̠͙̳̟̦̀̑͋̾̀̇̋̍̂̀̋́͌͘̚͠͝ --

-- Congratulations, you gained the trait [Persevering] --

-- 25 Vitality traded for restoring body's integrity --

-- You have been afflicted by [Death's Touch] --

-- Enhancement gained --

-- Congratulations, you gained the trait [Arcane Enhanced] --

-- Congratulations, you gained the title [Deviant] --

-- You have been afflicted by [Starvation] --

-- You have been afflicted by [Dehydration] --

-- Affliction [Soul Trauma] has been cleared --

'WHAT. THE. FUCK?'

'I DIED? How? And how am I still alive? I can't even understand half of the log! What the hell are traits? What is Death's Touch? What is Soul Trauma?'

Death's Touch - affliction

You have recently had reached a state of death. Until all health is restored, all natural regeneration is nullified. Health can only be reduced to 1, except if further lethal damage is received.

Starvation - affliction

You are starving. Strength severely reduced. Health slowly declines.

Dehydration - affliction

You are dehydrated. Dexterity and Perception severely reduced. Health slowly declines.

Persevering - trait

You persevere no matter what. If your health is reduced to 0 and your vitality is above 1, vitality above 1 will be traded to restore the integrity of your body. Success is dependent on the damage induced and the amount of sacrificed vitality. Administers the Affliction [Death's Touch]

Arcane Enhanced - trait

Your body was strengthened with the Arcane. Arcane magic comes naturally to you. You are immune to Arcane magic attacks. Enforces the adoption of the Arcane Focus

Deviant - title

You have threaded paths none of your species has before. You deviated from the masses. Sentient beings wary of your species are more welcoming to you. Members of your species are more wary of you. Additional permanent 10 stat points awarded. Grants the ability to hold a focus foreign to one's class.

'Oh hell! Seriously, what the fuck happened?'

Liz went and applied all ten of the stat points to Vitality. After a stutter of her heart, she felt the energizing and replenishing effects of the allocation, and the feeling to her body returned. She instantly felt her stomach cramp, only a small spike of pain before going numb again.

-- Affliction [Death's Touch] has been cleared --

Health: 87/132

Stamina: 1/220

Mana: 0/496

'Oh fuck, of course that only affects my health. And starvation and dehydration are already eating it away again. Fuck'

With her last reserves of energy, Liz rolled on her stomach and lifted her head. She was looking for anything to drink or eat.

Fortunately the cubs seemed to have raided the pantry and had placed a piece of raw meat for her to eat in front of her. Without worrying about possible hygienic issues, Liz began to savagely rip into the meat with her teeth, her hunger too consuming to care about civilized behavior.

The blood left in the meat also helped with her dehydration. With every bite she felt her strength returning. When the meat was gone, she felt the notifications in her mind, but she still felt ravenous and parched.

-- Affliction [Starvation] has been cleared --

-- Affliction [Dehydration] has been cleared --

By this point Liz felt strong enough to move her legs again. Drinking two healing potions from the table next to her, just for the water they contained, she finally took notice of her surroundings.

She was sitting on the floor next to her table. The implements from the table were strewn across it next to her, including a broken vial of Quicksilver. Two sleeping cubs were arranged around the spot she was lying on just minutes ago. After a moment she realized that the two males were missing. Garuna was nowhere in sight as well.

'Where the hell is that annoying locket? Whatever, I need food.'

Devouring the fruits on the table that were supposed to be her dinner, Liz let out a small moan, the sweet taste just too much for her starving taste buds.

The fruits were mushy, as if they had laid there for some time. After she had gobbled them down, she went upstairs to get more food.

'How have I never noticed that this whole tower is so cold?'

Instead of pondering these questions, Liz looked into the pantry. It had been completely cleared of any trace of meat, the vegetables and fruit, formerly stored between the hunks of meat, were strewn across the floor of the suite, the pantry door wide open. Some fruit remained in the pantry, which Liz took to replenish herself.

Eating all that she could fit, something she retained little memory about doing, and drinking directly from the continuous stream of the water rune tap in the bathroom, Liz was finally sated, and after realizing how cold she felt, put on a robe to fight the frigid air chilling her exposed skin, despite the blood still crusted on her skin. In the meantime, Dana and Charly had come up to the suite, both now sitting in front of her and mewling some unknown demands.

"Where are your brothers?" Liz asked while looking out the window, only to startle by the sight.

Outside was white. The courtyards, the tower ruins and the walls were all covered in snow. Even the window was covered in patterns of ice. Beyond the castle, the sky was obscured by a dense fog shrouding the sides of the whole valley. Yet, the trees down in the valley were completely free of snow. The whole view could have been a calendar shot for the winter months.

"What? How long was I passed out?" Liz cried out.

'Or did it snow suddenly? It can't already be winter, that is only in around a moon! Wait, I have a time-coin'

Sprinting back down into the workshop to get to the coin, Liz passed a heap of bones on a blood covered rug.

'Guess I know where the cats ate!'

Panicked, Liz looked for the coin. She dug through the stacks of paper in the workspace with no regard for their order. After disturbing most of her notes and drawings, she found the coin buried under a heavy tome.

'It has been 1330 years, 6 moons and 3 days since minting'

"I was out for more than a month? Moon? Whatever" Liz uttered faintly, sitting down on the edge of the table.

'How did I even survive this? How did the cats survive this?'

Liz finally noticed that Dana and Charly, both having followed her back downstairs, had doubled in size.

[Shadownyx - lvl 23]

'And how did they even manage to level up? They are higher than me now! Why did they stay with me? Where are the two boys?'

The answer came when a dull impact could be heard from downstairs. Armed with a heavy paperweight Liz went down the stairs. She was greeted by the door to the tower opening in front of her, one of the male cubs hanging on the outside, door handle in his mouth. The other one, Logan, promptly dragged the body of a deer-like creature through the door, the two females coming to his aid.

Liz, dumbstruck by the actions playing out in front of her, only watched as four cats dragged a carcass up 3 stories of spiral stairs before placing it in front of the bone pile in the suite. The two females quickly started tearing into the remains, gulping down whole chunks of flesh before tearing away a chunk, promptly presented to Liz, who could only gawk at the piece of raw meat.

'Ok, now I know how they did it. But how did I survive? I should be either dead or a living skeleton, with me having had no sustenance in coma! Or did Death's Touch also prevent the degradation of my body? And where the hell is Garuna? He should have answers. After all, it was his runes that started this.'

Starting a fire in the fireplace and placing her piece of meat above the flames, Liz went back downstairs to look for the locket.

Eventually, when her steak was already burnt on the outside, Liz returned to the suite. She had no luck finding the locket in her corner of the workshop.

'And of course I, the idiot, removed his find-me clicking'

While chewing her dry piece of charred meat and giving the four cubs scratches, all now at lvl 23, Liz pondered her observations.

'So, something went wrong during the enchantment and that killed me? And now I'm back alive? But I have no clue what happened, with the log being all glitchy. And now do I have two 'traits' whatever that means? Is that normal? And I was in a sort of coma and I have to thank my two new traits that I'm even alive? If only I could ask Garuna about any of this! He was definitely still next to me when it started. Did one of the cats drag him away? He could be anywhere then!'

'In any case, I only have minimal amounts of food left, I think most of the food on the floor is done for. At least the cats got their own meat. They must have found a way out of the fort and hunted in the valley. But I'm no cat and considering winter is already here, and I originally wanted to stock up on food well before, I have a severe problem. Maybe I can follow them to wherever they find their prey. I could possibly kill something myself and survive for more than a few days. This whole coma definitely threw a wrench in all my plans.'

Done with her meal, Liz moved to her training courtyard to test her new magical prowess, hopefully improved by the invisible array of intricate runes. She took multiple flasks of healing potion with her, just in case. After all the glitchy stuff in the log, she didn't fully believe that it worked.

And so, Liz found herself facing the wall she had faced when she had done her first spell. Aiming with her left hand towards the wall, she drew mana from her core into her arm, envisioning it to leave her hand like she had done dozens of times before.

Unlike before she could distinctly feel how much mana she gathered, and even had a rough instinctive idea how powerful the resulting spell would be. It also didn't put up as much of a resistance to being moved into her arm, an obstruction she hadn't even realized was there before until it was gone now. Instead, the mana easily moved through her body into her arm and lit it up.

Liz instinctively flinched and closed her eyes, awaiting the coming pain. Except nothing hurt. Opening her eyes, Liz saw the impact area of the blast, but her skin was completely burn free. She repeated the process, this time keeping her eyes open, and saw intricate swirling patterns of runes light up in a purple-whitish light before the mana exited her hand. Afterwards the purple light vanished, but the patterns stayed in a soft and faint white light on her skin before fading after a second or two.

'YES!!! I CAN DO MAGIC AND IT DOESN'T HURT! Although the weird pattern definitely wasn't part of the enchantment. And they are even in spots where there should be no enchantment...'

'Maybe this is what [Arcane Enhanced] means. I don't know how I feel about being a living neon lightbulb. Does this mean I'm overpowered now? Let's test it!'

Elated by the prospect of performing any magic at all, Liz shot at the wall repeatedly until her mana ran dry, which happened rather quickly. Despite it, the wall was damaged, several of the stones knocked loose by the blasts that acted like a sledgehammer on the fortification.

Liz was happy beyond any measure. She even grabbed one of the cubs, squeezed it to her chest and just spun in circles with joy. Logan wasn't as amused, instead hissing at Liz once she set him down before fleeing to the other side of the courtyard, securely out of her reach.

After regenerating her mana by meditating, Liz renewed her testing efforts. This time combining Spell Channeling and Arcane Blast. It worked flawlessly.

'If only I could test this on some lizards. It would be the perfect comparison. Even the spiders should be easy...'

'No, I can't get cocky suddenly. I am still pathetically weak. Compared to the solid shadow projectiles of the Shadowweavers this is just child's play. I still should find Garuna, this is a huge success! For once, I want him here and he is missing! Wow, that sounds like I am his unloved child!'

Giggling to herself and giving the remaining 3 cubs more scratches, Liz continued experimenting by holding the mana inside herself for longer, a feat unimaginable before, and charging up the Blast a bit. This caused the patterns of runes to dimly light up until she let go.

'Yupp, I am officially a lightbulb now. At least it's only very dim. But I guess I can't change the fact since I don't even know how this came to be. It's a far cry from what Garuna described. Come to think of it, he never really mentioned what exactly was going to happen. And I just blindly followed his orders. Maybe I was just some test subject to him! But he sounded sincere when he described his desire to return to civilization. And yet I never questioned why exactly he is bound to a locket and his missing past! When I find him, these will be my first questions!'

She also finally looked at her status in full.

Name: Elisabeth Larson

Class: Arcane Mage - lvl 15

Title: Deviant

Status:

Health: 132/132

Stamina: 203/220

Mana: 79/496

Vitality: 11

Endurance: 20

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 22

Perception: 28

Wisdom: 31

Intelligence: 29

Traits: Persevering, Arcane Enhanced

General skills:

Arcane Magic Immunity - lvl 3

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0

English - lvl 7

Health Drain Resistance - lvl 1

Identify - lvl 2

Mathematics - lvl 1

Meditation - lvl 2

Pain Suppression - lvl 17

Stamina Drain Resistance - lvl 1

Class skills:

Arcane Blast - lvl 3

Runic Intuition - lvl 3

Spell Channeling - lvl 2

Mana Draw - lvl 1

'So my title changed, I suddenly have two traits, I have Arcane Magic Immunity, I light up like a sad christmas tree and I have no idea how any of it happened...'

'And what the hell is wrong with Eastern Plains Common? Wait! Wasn't that part of the Wanderer title? So only if I have that title do I have the skill? Why is it even still in my status? Do I need to change the title back?'

Doing a similar mental movement as selecting a class, brought her a new selection

-- Available titles: --

- Wanderer -

- Deviant -

-- Be warned, you can only change your title once every day --

'So I can change it. But it doesn't sound too good that my only and most essential way of communicating is bound to some title'

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 0

[Skill has prior progress, acquisition accelerated]

You understand the written and spoken word of the common language of the Eastern Plains. The language of humans and gnomes

'So learning it anew is possible. Guess I would rather learn it instead of relying on some unseen title to do such an essential job. Another point on the never-ending to-do list'

While she was at it, Liz also took a look at the new Pain Suppression skill

Pain Suppression - lvl 17

You are all fed up with pain. When you pain, you simply shut it down, numbing the pesky nerves emitting it. Who needs them anyway?

'So this is why I didn't feel any part of my body! But just numbing the nerves? What about important body feedback? With the pain gone, I could - possibly need to - experiment a little. I wouldn't want to be surprised in a fight by the intricacies of some skill meddling with my perception'

Her introspection was cut short at this point as Liz had to return to more pressing issues. Namely getting rid of the massive amounts of liquid she had ingested earlier that day.

After relieving herself, she turned to taking care of the mess in the suite. She took stock of all her remaining still-edible food, started removing the rotten food from the floor and the foul-smelling heap of lizard remains from the carpet - the carpet was also a loss -, cleaned the floor in the workspace and took a long and refreshing bath afterwards.

'So I have just about 4 days of fruit and vegetables left, if I ration it. But no meat. I definitely need to go hunting soon, preferably tomorrow. And I should find Garuna. And maybe stock up on soap. There is close to none left here. I need to see if there is more of it in the fort. Or can I make it myself? Dana only ever used her self-made soaps, I still have some in my bathroom back on Earth. And she only got her instructions from social media, so it should be easy! Right now, I need to focus on getting food, but maybe in the future I can try myself at it'

Sufficiently refreshed and thinking about the possible creation of magic endless soap, Liz went back to searching for the locket.

She spent the rest of the day searching the fort for any sign of it. She even tried clearing her training courtyard to look beneath the snow but quickly stopped, as it was only tiring work and the chance of finding him was rather low unless she cleared all the snow inside the fort's walls, a task too monumental to even consider. She found no sign of it. In the end she decided to take care of her food shortage first, before spending more time looking for the locket. It would probably be fine for a few more days, if it survived a millennium in the ruins.

In the evening Liz was lying in the bed, the four cubs, now double the size of a normal house-cat, were arranged around her. Their new size made Liz question whether the label cub still applied and additionally made it a challenge to fit all of them on the suddenly rather small duvet. She had gathered some more wood from the frigid castle ruins and had a incredibly hot fire burning in the fireplace. For once, it was cozy. The two moons, one a full moon, illuminated her current literature, the title indecipherable to her. Liz tried to learn the language just by trying to decipher the words. She had never noticed how strange the script was before. By now she had identified twenty different characters and half a dozen diacritics. Yet, when before it had felt totally natural to her to read, now she even struggled to decipher the index.

After about two hours without any success, and with the whole process being rather tiring, Liz fell asleep, book still in her lap. For the first time, to a nightmare-free sleep.

The next morning Liz woke up to a shock. A wet bulk was thrown onto her sleeping face, causing her to shoot upright in the bed. She quickly relaxed when she realized that she was just hit by a piece of meat, another generous donation by the cats. They were already up and, judging by the mauled carcass on the now bare stone floor, already had time to hunt for more of the deer-like creatures.

"Thanks, but I would appreciate it if you didn't wake me with bloody meat in the bed" Liz spoke to the meat-suspect, Nick.

She only received a meow in return. With a shrug she went to get dressed. Like the day before, she cooked the gifted meat above the fireplace. This was also when she realized, that the book from the day before was now wrinkled and covered in blood from the meat. The bedsheets were also in desperate need of cleaning from the blood, not to mention the countless black hairs adorning it.

After eating some fruit and her grilled mini-steak, way too small to be sufficient as a meal on its own and lacking any seasoning, Liz went to cleaning the sheets and all the discarded clothes from the weeks prior in the bathtub. The whole process was tedious, especially so since most of the dirt and grime had months to settle into the fabric. The dirt was particularly sticky on her pajamas, which she hadn't worn since day one and was still clinging to, if only to have a connection to Earth in her possession.

It took Liz a few hours to wash all the laundry. It hadn't helped, that she had spent several long breaks playing with the felines, who just like house-cats still hated the water. When she had hung the clothing over the roof beams in the suite, she went to her training courtyard with the cats in tow, to freshen up her training before going out on a hunting trip.

Surprisingly her coma hadn't impacted her agility and strength in any conceivable way. Even the movements she had copied from a book still felt natural to her, but then again she still remembered the last training as being just two days ago. But unlike her the cats hadn't stayed at their proficiency. Where before three of them at the same time were rather easy to avoid, just two of the cubs were enough to succeed in subduing her by now.

Still, even when their claws were pinning her into the muddy snow, was she was smiling. A moment later a short purple light pulse lit up the courtyard. The felines recoiled, more from shock than injury, as Liz had aimed at the space between them.

Yet it gave Liz the time to tackle them in turn, pinning one to floor with her hands while wrapping her legs around the other one.

"What do the judges say?" she asked the two males watching from the side.

While she was distracted, the mass under her torso suddenly vanished, before a weight appeared on her back a second later.

'Of course there are shadows underneath me!'

"Eyy, we said no teleport!" Liz let go of the second one with her legs and threw herself around, quickly grappling the assailant, squeezing him to her chest.

"Got you!" as the second one threw itself at her back again. And a third one was suddenly at her side. All attacking her now.

During the training, she still got injured, but never felt it before it turned numb. But no injury was anywhere near a severe wound, meaning Liz had no idea how her new skill behaved in a true fight.

Liz continued mock-fighting with the cubs for some time before she stopped at around noon. Sweaty and exhausted but still happy she went to take a quick bath to clean herself up before getting a quick snack and tackling the problem of hunting for more food.