Chapter 17 A Magic Box Power

After a few more broken bones, exposed to so much pain, she passed out. Almost twenty hours have passed in total, she absorbed a full amount of magic power from the box. The darkness which was engulfed Suzuka's body started to fade and formed back into a sphere, her half-dead, and broken body started to heal, side effects disappeared and her mana slowly recovered. The weather outside the box went bad, a strong wind started to blow, bright flashes of thunder could be seen and showering rain started to fall down.

As the rain intensified, the bloody wolves sought shelter nearby before the downpour became heavy. After a few more hours, Suzuka awoke to the sound of the rain. She opened her eyes and saw the showering rain. It felt like she was watching the rain from underwater, observing how the raindrops fell on the water's surface while viewing it from within. This was the first time she felt at peace since her kidnapping.

Suzuka's body was almost completely healed, and she was looking at raindrops hitting the top of the box while listening to the pleasant sound of rain. The sight of falling raindrops, creating ripples on the see-through ceiling, was a shiver-sending view. She took a deep breath and released a deep sigh.

"Ahh... I'm alive. Finally... the pain is gone... I feel light again... So, it was gravity... this magic box power is gravity, all that knowledge, these images, formulas... it was the information of what it was. I wonder how long was I in here, how long was I out?"

But she didn't care, she was only interested in the sound of the rain. 

"Ahh... such a pleasant sound of rain... now that I think about it, I always loved rainy days. That calming noise it makes when raindrops hit the roof, ahh... I could listen to it forever."

Suzuka felt safe inside the magic box, as no monster could enter unless they knew how to infuse mana into it - an unheard-of ability. She closed her eyes and listened to the soothing sound of rain and fell asleep after a few minutes. A couple of hours passed and the rain continued to grow stronger. But by morning, the heavy rain had turned into a light sprinkle. As it was early in the morning, Suzuka woke up.

"What! It's morning already... how long did I sleep? Okay, it's still raining... I hope I didn't sleep for a few days. So, what to do now?... Hmm... So hungry, it's like my stomach is about to eat itself."

While thinking, she puts her finger in her mouth and checks how many teeth are left, from thirty-two teeth she only got ten left.

"Oh no! These aren't baby teeth, why are they falling out?!"

While rubbing her gums with her finger she felt something pointy in the holes where her old teeth were.

"What is this? Are those broken teeth? Come on, I can't even eat like this."

She pushed aside her problems and looked outside, but there was no one in sight. All she could see were some big old trees lying on the ground not too far away and a bunch of rocks. Her body had fully recovered from injuries while she was sleeping. When she looked outside, she saw three large slugs stuck on the box walls where she had left her blood trail, but they didn't appear dangerous.

"Where did those slugs come from?... Well, at least from the looks of it they aren't acid ones... Shouldn't be a problem... right?"

She looks at herself and notices that her body is all sticky, and covered in blood and her clothes look even worse now.

"First, I need to do my morning exercise, my body feels stiff and I need to do some light stretching. Then, I'll use this rain as a shower and wash off this filth. I hope standing in the rain would help."

After twenty minutes of stretching her body, she felt ready to go out. Although nothing had changed much outside during those twenty minutes, she noticed that slugs had moved to the top of the box. She looked outside to locate her backpack and saw it lying on the ground near some rotted old trees.

"Oh! There it is, I hope the water bottle isn't broken. I'm so thirsty."

She stepped outside and the sprinkling rain began to cover her almost naked body with water as she walked closer to her backpack. The dry blood on her body got wet and started to come off. The backpack was no longer useful as one side had a hole ripped in it, but the food and water inside were still okay to eat. Upon inspecting the backpack, she discovered that the map had been soaked through the night's rain and was now unreadable and ripped when she attempted to unfold it.

"Oh no! No! My map! What am I gonna do now... Aaah! I'm gonna wander around these woods without a map. If I could remember the way, where the werewolf on the spikes is, maybe I could return home on the same forest road we come here."

Suzuka quickly turned around and returned to the magic box. She positioned her back against the wall and began to consider her next move. However, it didn't take long for a pack of bloody wolves to appear. 

They both came rushing towards her from behind the old trees. Suzuka spotted them immediately and in response, she jumped, grabbed the top edge of the magic box, and with a backflip, lifted herself onto the top of the box.

 The slugs paid no attention to her as they licked the surface where her blood had been before it was washed away by the rain.

"These guys! They sure are persistent... all that pain!... my suffering!... It's all your fault!"

She picked up two slugs and threw them at the wolf, they eat slugs like candy but it was enough time for her to test her magic power while they were busy.

"So, if you're not leaving me alone!... I'll just gonna test my powers on you then!"

Suzuka placed her arm in front of her with her palm open, targeted wolfs, and said, "Gravity crush!"

While she slowly curled her fingers into a fist, beasts got pulled down to the ground with a crushing force. The harder she squeezed her fist, the stronger gravity was. Their leg bones broke first, bodies got squashed, and even the ground around them sunk in a few inches deep. In a few seconds, their bodies got flattened to the ground in a pool of blood.

"There! A bloody wolf indeed, a fitting name for these beasts..."

The third slug stung Suzuka in the leg while she wasn't looking.

"Oh, you little... sneaking up on me like that! Ohh... sorry I used your friends as bait..."

She kicked the slug off the magic box and sit down because her leg started to get numb.

"Hmm... doesn't feel too bad, I hope it's gonna get better soon. But still, what do I do now?"

As she was thinking about what to do, the rain turned from sprinkling to showering but it didn't bother her at all, she just sits there and looked into the distance with a deep thought on her face, all soaked in water.

"So, my power is the manipulation of gravity... I can multiply normal gravity many times... hmm, what else? I can invert gravity and make objects float or send them flying into the sky, that's cool I guess? Blackhole? Gravity well? That's some funny names for my spells."

The light noise of thunder could be heard in the distance, the rain was washing her body, and raindrops rolled down her skin. Suzuka didn't feel cold even if she was sitting in the rain, half-naked.

"But still, it's hard to control my power... I need to practice a little first before I can go wandering around the forest."

Loud splashing footsteps echoed near the waterfall, Suzuka jumped down and hid behind the box. The noise made by footsteps got closer and it was at least five of them. Suzuka took a peek and saw two Ogres, three Goblins, and two Orcs. They were standing at the waterfall and arguing about something.

"Oh! That's just great! Ahh... what now? Should I flatten them to the ground or wait and see what they do? I'm not too confident with my power yet if they scatter I may get in trouble even if I get one or two of them. Maybe I'll just wait and see what happens and if they get really close then I use it."

After observing them for a few minutes Suzuka noticed that they are injured, and covered in mud and blood. One of the Ogres had only half of his arm, it looked like it was ripped off. goblins seemed fine but Orcs had almost melted ice crystals stuck in their backs.

"Okay, looks like they had a fight with someone... maybe they fought, who launched those ice pillars? Ahh! Maybe... it was... a mage? Maybe something like, he was clearing a Goblin camp or something? I need to go there, maybe I find some clues about what happened."

While Suzuka was observing what Orcs and Goblins doing, the same slug got close and stung her a few times. Her arm and another leg started to get numb before the slug could sting her again she threw him behind a rotten tree that was nearby.

"Stupid slug, come back for some revenge? Sorry, I kicked you, ok. Now leave me be."

Monsters dropped their weapons and armor on the ground and jumped into the plunge pool, one Orc stood guard while others bath.

"Okay, looks like they just needed to wash, I probably should sneak my way out of here. I just need to follow down the stream where it connects with the river. The numbness from the sting isn't strong, I can still walk."

Suzuka slowly sneaked away from the box down the stream while showering rain covering the sound of her footsteps. After twenty minutes she reached the river, with no signs of any threats. Now she needed to cross the river to the other side, it wasn't wide, about twenty meters.

"Well, this doesn't look too far... maybe I could jump? With my enhanced strength, I should make it at least halfway easy."

She secured her utility belt to prevent it from falling off, took a few steps for a running start, and then jumped with all her might. However, she slipped at the very last step due to slug stings and landed in the river halfway to the other side. The current wasn't very strong and she easily made it to the land.

 Now all she needed to do was head straight into the forest until she found a place with ice pillars. After a few hours of wandering inside the forest, she finally reached her destination. It was a large Orc camp, everything was in ruins. Many Orcs, Goblins, and Trolls were mutilated and a few Behemoths were frozen solid in ice that was almost melted.

"This is some serious mess... I wonder what went wrong? Well, actually I should say something went right.. haha because a lot of monsters are dead. Oh... it's not funny when there is no one to hear the joke."

After taking a closer look, she finds a few dead bodies of adventurers, three men, and one woman. Men were in heavy plate armor and had multiple stab wounds. Missing arm or leg, armor plates all busted.

"What... these guys got worn out and then killed... probably a pack of goblins came at them in numbers, they try to take them out but it was probably too many."

The woman was in leather west, coated with steel plates and leather pants as well coated with plates, she had an arrow stuck in her chest. It didn't seem like she died instantly, it was probably a long and painful death.

"This woman got her lung pierced by an arrow... it was a slow and painful death as she slowly drowned in her own blood. Hmm... I could use her armors, it looks like they're in pretty good shape."

Suzuka takes off her shredded clothes and puts leather vest, pants, and leather boots coated with steel plates. The size didn't fit perfectly but it was better than walking half-naked.

"Okay! That should do it, now I have some protection, all I need is a weapon."

She took the dead woman's name tag and went to the other three men to take theirs as well. The other three-man had fancy-looking plate armors but they were too damaged and too big also soaked in way too much blood for her to wear any.

"They sure have some nice armor, it probably was some rich adventurer's party. Well, I might as well take their name tags, since they are still on bodies that means no one is coming for them..."

After being done collecting name tags, she looked for a weapon and since this was the place where the fight took place, there were a lot of weapons laying on the ground.

"Whoa! There are a lot of weapons here but not so many of any use."

She picked up a club that Orcs use but it wasn't very comfortable, there were lots of broken swords, daggers, spears, bows, arrows, and shields. A few minutes later, she finally finds a nice double-edged short sword.

"I like this one best, it's not too long, easy to grip, and very light for its size. Both of its edges have some damage but it's still fine to use."

After getting herself a sword, she looked for food but there wasn't much laying around all she find was some dry meat from adventurers and a few cuts of bread with a couple of flasks of alcohol. She went to check what was left of tents and small shacks for more food and useful stuff. It didn't take long for her, all she found was a few utility crystals, a bag of apples, and some throwing knives also she took one of the adventurer's Monsterpedia.

"I should probably eat now while I still can, no telling what might happen. Not much loot from tents. Also, I lost Jacob Monsterpedia, I think this one will do. So it was a party to clear this camp... no mage body here only adventurers. He might be long gone or killed off somewhere else. I think I better backtrack where I come from before I got lost even more."

After finishing her meal, she decided that her work was done here and turned to head back from where she came. Suddenly, she heard a faint shout in the distance - a man's voice. Without hesitation, she ran toward the source of the noise. As she got closer, the shouting grew louder, and it appeared as though the man was being attacked by something or someone. After a few minutes of sprinting at full speed, she saw an orc holding down a man and chewing on an arm.