VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 43: Bloody Aftermath

’Ugh... What the hell happened?’

Belladonna groaned as she forced her heavy eyelids open, her head was throbbing even worse than the mana vision headache so she started her temple treatment as she remained laying on the fluffy, warm grass. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

It took her a few seconds to regain her full mental capacity, which was why it took her so long to realise that she was using both hands to rub her temples.

Her eyes snapped to the hand that shouldn’t be there, turning it over and inspecting it like it was completely alien. The sleeve of her armour was still torn, leaving her arm completely bare with her pale skin on display.

That was how she knew she wasn’t losing her mind, nor that she had died and respawned. If that was the case, she would have spawned in the basic gear again instead of her ruined armour.

She quickly searched through her memories, trying to recall anything useful. She could remember losing the arm, teleporting on the bears back and then biting it but then... Nothing. After that everything was completely black, she didn’t even know what to the bear. Oh god the bear!

Springing to her feet, she immediately assumed a fighting stance, only for her eyes to trail down and realise that the very warm and extra fluffy grass she had been laying in was the bear itself, or what was left of it.

Its head had been torn clean off and was sitting a few feet away, whilst so much of its skin had been ripped to shreds by vicious claws.

While she was inspecting the absolutely ruined corpse, Belladonna noticed the crystal on her hand was pulsating rhythmically and activated it. A slew of notifications assaulted her senses, filling her aching head with constant dinging.

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[You have leveled up! You are now Level 12]

[You have leveled up! You are now Level 13]

[You have leveled up!...]

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Just the level up notifications alone were an extra headache until finally they stopped when they reached her current level, a number she couldn’t believe.

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[You have leveled up! You are now Level 22]

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[Sanguine Essence Absorbed. Stats have been temporarily increased based on blood purity.

VIT + 30, STR + 40

Consuming new Sanguine Essence will replace the current effect.]

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11 levels from just a single monster. Sure, it was powerful but even still that was quite a lot. Her level had literally doubled, leaving her with a whole heap of attribute points to distribute.

But that would have to wait until she was back in town and could think on it safely.

It was just a miracle that whatever killed the bear had found her unworthy of its attention. Unfortunately, her knife was gone.

Whether it had been dropped or eaten, she had no idea. But after some searching, all she found was her bag and no knife.

So, with the Barghest chain, she wrapped the severed head up and tied it to its body, then heaved the body onto her back.

It was lighter than she expected, considering its size, but that was undoubtedly her massive new strength bonus at work. But even still, it was a heaping weight on her shoulders as she slowly trudged back to the Wizards tower.

It took her over an hour of mindless trudging to get back, although strange nothing attacked her in that time. She could only assume the bears scent was scaring them off, which was an added bonus.

However when she did return to the Wizards tower, she didn’t even notice because... there was nothing there.

She had simply been following the directions in her mind, until she stumbled across a completely empty clearing.

Belladonna tripled checked the directions, but there was no mistake. It said to come here, yet there was no Wizard, no Demon Butler, nor the tower they lived in together like an old married couple.

Somehow, even the damned lake had been completely stolen, leaving an empty basin. Well, almost empty.

Dumping the bears corpse, which he had found out from the notifications was called an Ardent Behemoth, Belladonna clambered down into the empty dirt basin to inspect the object sitting in the exact centre.

It was a bag, square in shape with a flap over the top. It was smaller than the one she currently carried and made of black leather instead of cloth.

It also lacked a shoulder strap and was most likely to be hooked onto a belt.

Some purple thread had been used around the edging, giving it some nice extra colour and few loops of the same black leather had been added to the sides, two on each side. Perfect size for slender potion tubes, which were already sitting in there, empty and waiting to be filled.

It looked like the type of thing some kind of plague doctor or old medieval apothecary worker would wear.

Even if it was smaller than her current bag, it was much much bigger than it’s humble size suggested. When she reached inside, it could swallow her entire arm and she still couldn’t touch the bottom.

Attached to the front was a note written in fanciful cursive text in the common language of this world. The translation floated above the note was as follows,

"To my eager student. You asked for a gift, and so I present you with your gift. May it serve you well.

Inside you will find a tome of knowledge that will guide you on the path of a magus, even if you will be the most uncouth magus I have ever seen.

Regardless, I expect big things of you. Simply by reading this have you proven you are worthy of this knowledge.

You will also find an object that your other Graceless friends will have gained upon their entry to this world.

Until we meet again.

Hint, Just think of the words ’skull’ and ’book’."

Following the books instructions, Belladonna thought of the word "tome" and immediately she felt a weight in the hand still buried in the bag.

When she removed it, a large leatherbound tome with worn pages.

As soon as she laid eyes on it, a system prompt blinked into existence before her eyes.

[Quest Complete!

You have recieved a Grimoire for the Unique Class: Glyphborne

Would you like to bind the Grimoire and set your class? Yes/No]