LILLI

  STATUS CHAPTER

  Some readers appreciate all the numbers and data related to character growth. Or, with this book, their favorite character. I made this a standalone chapter. You may skip this or read at your pleasure. Your reading enjoyment should remain unaffected, regardless of the choice.

  NAME: Lillianne Jhaeros

  AFFINITY: (BODY) (RARE) PHYSIQUE (EPIC)

  * PREFECT FOUNDATION (MAJOR).

  * TITIAN’S BODY (MAJOR).

  * SOUL SURVIVOR (UNIQUE).

  TIER: 1

  LEVEL: 26

  CLASS: (EPIC / ADVANCED) TITIAN OF THE SWORD; (+ 4 TO HIT POINTS, + 2 TO MANA POINTS, + 6 TO BODY, + 2 TO MIND, +2 FREE ATTRIBUTES PER LEVEL.)

  ATTRIBUTE POINTS

  HIT POINTS (HP): 1,062      FREE POINTS: 52

  MANA POINTS (MP): 1,010

  STRENGTH (ST): 210       AGILITY (AG): 210

  CONSTITUTION (CN): 210     INTELLIGENCE (IQ): 184

  WISDOM (WI): 158        PERCEPTION (PR): 184

  CHARISMA (CH): 33       FORTITUDE (FT): 32

  LUCK (LU): 32

  TALENTS:

  * GRACEFUL.

  SPELLS:

  * AURA OF FEAR.

  SKILLS:

  * DAZZLING FOOT WORK.

  * TITAN’S SLASH.

  * PHANTOM SWORD.

  * INTIMIDATING STARE.

  * KAWANKISTU.

  * MEDITATION.

  * STUDY.

  “My turn next.” Lilli gives the others a bright smile. While she loosens her sword for action. As she vanishes, the portal glows purple. Katie writes the aura color. “Everyone of you have had a purple aura when you entered so far. You are all going to see some excellent loot.”

  Lilli finds herself inside an old run-down shack. The smell of rotting vegetation and stagnate water permeates the air. She wrinkles her nose and steps from the doorway of the safe room. Large trees spread out across the water, a tangled maze of exposed roots bridge the small pockets of land together. The water, dark from the shadowed trees, blocking the sun. A soft, dark green glow spreads throughout the branches, muting details.

  Lilli draws her sword, then casts her Phantom Sword Spell, she walks in a ready stance. Carefully searching for opponents. As she moves on the roots over the dark waters, she notices ‘v’ shaped ripples moving toward her. She pauses for a moment. Carefully watching the water, she sees large lizard like creatures keeping pace with her travel. She spins backward as she hears the snick of a blade moving through flesh.

  Half of a gigantic snake falls into the water. The other half lands on the root behind her. The tail section curling and writhing until it too falls to the water below. The water lizards become agitated and swarm the snake, fighting each other for pieces of meat. ‘Look up dummy.’ She thinks to herself. ‘You forgot to look up.’ Lilli takes the time to observe her surroundings, this time looking in the tree's upper branches for dangerous creatures, not just the murky waters. She spots the large snakes hiding, waiting in ambush.

  ‘Stay out of the water. Watch the trees.’ Moving forward with more confidence, Lilli slices and dodges the waiting snakes as they fall on her. She cuts the heads off of the occasional snake waiting wrapped around the trees as she passes by. She comes to a dead end. The root system ends at an expanse of open water.

  Lilli doubles back, looking for another route. She spots an island, she missed going the other way. After she maps a route, she heads in that direction. Once at the small island, she finds the way blocked by one of the larger sized water lizards. Lilli sends her Phantom Blade to attack the monster. She casts her Analyze Spell and watches as the animated sword attacks. ‘Head and jaws too much bone so not a target. The back is not as terrible an option but still armored, so rule out that choice. The sides are weak but takes a lot of damage to be effective. There, just behind the skull about where the neck should be.’ She leaps from cover at the creature, sword pointed at the ‘sweet spot,’ the lizard curls and darts at her. Instead of her intended landing on the creature's neck, Lilli jumps into the creature’s mouth. She thrusts the sword point first through the monster’s lower jaw, pining it to the ground. She flips over the upper jaws, cutting her forearm on its teeth. Lilli continues her movement, rolling across the monster, drawing her dagger and thrusting into the lizard's neck. Lilli comes to a stop several feet away, drawing her backup weapon as she turns to face the monster. With the kill notice, she relaxes. Lilli walks over to pull her weapons from the monster's flesh. As she reaches to grab her sword. She hears water splashing. She snags the sword from the lizard's mouth and whirls to the water as several water monsters charge for the downed lizard. Lilli backs off from the fray as the hungry lizards tear into each other and the dead monster. She watches closely, she smiles and dances on and across the dangerous, writhing tangle of teeth and claws. With Calm steady strokes, she thrusts into the ‘sweet spot’ for kills. While she loots the kills, she keeps a wary eye on the shore. ‘More teeth, skin, and bone. A few copper. How do snakes and lizards carry money anyway? Focus Lilly, your as bad a Jester.’

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She walks further inland, with a smile for her silly thoughts. The small hill ends, and a swamp begins. With a sigh, she wades the swamp, killing smaller lizards and much larger snakes. Once at the westernmost point, she finds a gigantic snake waiting for her. After casting Analyze and Identify, ‘A sub-boss? Thought there wasn’t supposed to be sub-bosses?’ she shrugs and forms a battle plan.

  Lilli flows forward, sword glinting in the sun, the swamp smell surrounds the dry shore, the gentle breeze doing nothing to dispel the unpleasant odor of rotting vegetation and snake. Tongue flickering to taste the air. Lilli’s slash severs the appendage. With a shocked hiss, the snake rears back. While Lilli dances around the snake's neck, sword cleaving the tough skin holding the snake’s head in place. The dying snake curls in on its self as Lilly dances back, watching the monster’s final convolutions. When she gets the kill notice, Lilli steps forward and loots the sub-boss.

  Lilli squares her shoulders and steps toward the next sub-boss. On her march to the south, Lilli encounters more and larger water lizards. She kills her way to the southernmost point, then finds herself confronted by an enormous water lizard. ‘Swords are the best weapons ever. I think I need to take up the spear for some things though. Sorry my friend.’ Lilli shakes her head in disappointment at her sword, stroking it gently.

  She glides forward to confront the giant reptile, the creature whips its tail around faster than she can see. Only by reflex, she brings her sword to guard, clipping the tip of the large, whip-like tail. Blood slightly cooler than her skin flows across her face. Lilli rolls backward, wiping her face, only to hear the stomp of large clawed feet and the rustle of the monster's belly rushing at her. She flips into the air, coming down sword point first, stabbing through the monster's eye. The creature bellows loud enough to deafen, ears ringing and suddenly off balance, Lilli falls off the lizard's head. She rolls clear, staggering to her feet away from the monster's frantic thrashing. She pauses for a moment, regaining her bearings. Lilli watches the monster settle, before the creature can reset itself she jumps, once again thrusting with her sword, this time her target, the monster's other eye. Lilli rolls over the lizard's head and jams her sword into the ‘sweet spot’ found on the creature’s smaller cousins. The sword sinks to the hilt, not quite long enough to reach the spine. The monster loses control and writhes, curling up and around. Lilli clears the monster's back, rolling out of reach of the blind lizard. As Lilli is drawing her backup, weapon, she gains a kill notice. The now upside down lizard rests on its back. Her sword jammed into the monster's spine.

  After she loots the sub-boss, Lilli’s shoulders slump in defeat, her sword pinned under the monster's body. Several minutes go by the only sounds heard in the clearing. Lilli’s retching and the sound of sharp blades slicing skin and meat. She reached the sword's resting place and tugs it free, only to find the blade bent. ‘Oh baby, what did that evil monster do to you?’ Followed by, ‘Crap, daddy is going to kill me.’ With a heavy sigh, she cleans and places her unusable ‘baby’ in storage. Once again squaring her shoulders, Lilli marches off in search of the next challenge, mourning the loss of ‘Baby’.

  The landscape changes as she travels north east, becoming more solid with smaller patches of water. A strange gurgling sound accompanied by the soft thud of padded feet rushes closer to her. She spins sword in the guard position, her stance firmly balanced. A small humanoid amphibian rushes at her. She sweeps her sword up and around, cleaving the odd being's head from its shoulders. Lilli casts Identify ‘BOGJUMPER LEVEL 8’

  ‘Never heard of that before.’ she thinks. Small reed huts are visible to Lilli on the shore of the standing water ponds when she looks closely. When she steps closer to the huts, several of the creatures rush at her, holding crude spears, all making the same odd noise. Lilli drops to a combat stance, stepping to take the charging bogjumpers. She weaves through the charging monsters, inflecting killing blows until the last one falls. After looting and poking around the small village huts, she realizes the creatures are very primitive.

  Lilli wanders off, closing with the next sub-boss fighting the bogjumpers along the way. The sub-boss turns out to be a higher leveled Bogjumper warrior, slightly better armed and armored than the other lower leveled spear carriers she has faced up to this point. She spends a few brief moments feeling out the warrior’s skill level. She then steps forward and slashes the creature from left shoulder to right hip and loots the now dead sub-boss. ‘So far so good, I’ve out leveled everything by over ten levels, hope the others are doing as well.’ The rest of the dungeon finds her against a combination of the creatures she has encountered so far. The last boss turns out to be a bogjumper mage riding a large water lizard. After renewing her cast of Phantom Sword, Lilli leaps forward into Dazzling Foot Work. She casts Aura of Fear, followed by Titan’s Slash. The water lizard slams to a halt and begins turning away from her. The mage falls from its mount mid cast, slamming into the ground a few short steps from her. Lilli lunges at the prostrate creature, sword sinking effortlessly into the Mage’s back. As Lilli gains a kill notice for the mage, her eyes narrow, focused on the ‘sweet spot’, and she bounds forward, running up the giant water lizard’s back. Lilli hacks a chunk out of the creature's neck and rolls off the lizard while it rolls over to crush the nuisance on its back. As the creature regains its feet, Lilli casts Intimidating Stare and runs up the stunned water lizard’s fore leg. Thrusting her sword in the hole she made earlier, she severs the lizard's spine. After looting the bosses, she heads to the shining exit portal.