Struggling to Survive in Hell Difficulty

Chapter 84.

"...huh? This is not Proteus..."

As I found myself standing in a field of nothing but green grasses, it didn't take long for me to realize that this was not the town where I last died or the area around it. This was also not the place I remembered when I [Teleport]ed and fought an Orc when trying to learn more about MG's mechanics and system.

Not only that, I also could not find a single creature anywhere around me. Not a single monster or animal in sight, and obviously no other Players or NPCs anywhere around me.

"...did I get respawned in a random location because I failed the Quest?"

With absolutely no idea as to what was going on, I reflexively opened the game interface and pulled out the in-game map of the area.

But instead of displaying the green plains or anything around me, all I could see was a familiar red dot indicating my current position. There was nothing else around me aside from jet black darkness... and a single line of sentence right beneath it.

[Area Exploration Progress: 0%]

"...why does this feel familiar?"

{I believe this is a much better alternative than getting jumped by a bunch of monsters when you arrived}

"If you say it like that, then..."

I could only shrug my shoulders at my current less-than-ideal location as I heaved a sigh.

{So? What are you going to do now?}

"I dunno... maybe look for the second town or something?"

Given that I had quite a lot of items to sell and a bunch of items to buy to either expand my skill repertoire or to better my equipment, having a base of operations would be ideal for my situation. But without Quests or anything similar to hold my hand, it would prove challenging to even navigate through this empty expanse of green and nothingness.

...though, it was not like there was truly nothing around me.

"...just in case, I want to ask you this, TIZ."

{What is it?}

"Is there, like, a spell that can reveal the location or at least the general direction of a town?"

{...such convenient spell does not exist}

...I could only hang my dejected head at her response.

{To be more accurate, there is a spell that can possibly achieve what you wanted using a different approach, but I highly doubted that you can do it}

"Huh? Why?"

{Because you won't be able to properly cast it with your current condition}

"...is it my lack of Mana? Or is my status not high enough? If needed, I can just invest my status-"

{No, it's a matter of proficiency. You have no experience in this field of magic}

{Think of it like this. You are asking to participate in International Motorcycle Olympic Competitions when you can't even ride a bike}

{You do not have the prerequisite abilities or the necessary skillset to even balance yourself on two wheels}

...hearing (reading) her answer, I was starting to think that TIZ had gotten exposed to the internet a little bit too well. But I quickly put that thought aside for now.

"...still, using that analogy, that means I can still ride a bike before the point where I crash and hurt myself, right? If I just try to use the spell you are talking about, maybe I will be able to get a grasp on my current location at least, right?"

There was a long silence from TIZ's lack of reply. But after a few minutes, her thorny window came up.

{As long as you don't force yourself after you emptied your Mana}

{First, try to concentrate, focus on your senses as if trying to discover your immediate surroundings}

With TIZ basically giving me the okay, I began to follow her suggestions. I sat down on the ground as I closed my eyes, trying to feel the grass that was beneath my legs.

After slowly controlling my breathing as if I was meditating, I then slowly opened my eyes and turned to look at the new thorny window.

{Next, try to imagine your senses expanding outwards. Like a droplet that fell on a lake, causing ripples that spread all over the place}

Though I had no idea what to imagine, I focused on the image of the second sentence. Envisioning myself as a drop of water, falling into another body of water and spreading all over the flat surface... just like a sonar detection system.

As I focused on this mental imagery, I began to experience a somewhat surreal sensation of my eyes leaving my body as everything including my surroundings were getting smaller and smaller. It was as if I was looking at a camera, tied to a rapidly ascending drone.

And just when I saw blue lines at the top left corner of my expanding viewpoint, a bizarre pain suddenly erupted in my head, forcing me to feel overwhelmed as I collapsed to the ground.

[Warning. Your MP has dropped below 5%]

[You have been affected by Mana Exhaustion]

{...I told you}

Unable to make any reply with the throbbing pain on my head, I tried to relax my body as I tried to open the map interface again.

"...whoa..."

However, what I saw was shocking enough that the pain in my head disappeared for a moment.

Even though I seemed to have failed in casting the spell itself, the exploration progress had jumped from 0 to 48%. The area around me was also getting revealed instead of just a black space with nothing on it... though it was nothing but green areas in my immediate vicinity.

As I tried to look around the map, I noticed that I was situated somewhere in the southwest, with some uncharted territory still remaining.

[You are no longer affected by Mana Exhaustion]

"...oh, good."

With the pain now subsiding, I pushed myself up and began to stretch myself. There was a bit of lethargy that remained in my body, but it should not be much of a problem to just move around the area.

{...so? Where are you going to now?}

"...to the southwest. I'm going to uncover everything as much as possible."

{Why are you not exploring more to the center part?}

"There are usually hidden secrets in the corner." I said with a smile. "Or at least, that's how it is in games that I played."

TIZ did not say anything else, merely staying silent as I watched the arrow of my character in the mini map turning to the southwest as I walked down the green plains.

After walking for a while, a certain question crossed my mind for a moment.

"...come to think of it, where is Muriel?"

Name: Regias Vitoru

Class: Mage

Level: 16

[XP to Level Up: 850]

[HP: 258/258]

[MP: 16/244]

[Attack: 102+50]

[Defense: 25+5]

?? Map's Exploration Progress: 48%