Chapter 12: Chapter 11: A Battle and an Encounter

With a slash to the side, Lillian swerved her body, aiming the blade upwards in a continuation of her attack. The phantom split its body into two parts, escaping her grasp.

She continued to swing, the dark glint of her blade making trails in the air. With every broad swing, the phantom dodged, and her attacks grew slower. She tried to jab the sword forward, noticing that when she did, her body leaned forward alongside it.

Way too heavy. Lillian could feel her arms getting tired from just briefly swinging the sword, its hefty weight putting a toll on her underdeveloped arms. Though her manoeuvring was acceptable, at this point she regretted not just using the daggers she had thrown earlier.

She knew that her mana was running low, a few more uses of her skills, and it would be gone. Annoying, but something she would have to work around, as she needed just one more burst to carry out her plan.

Her swings continued, the blade whirring through the air, and the phantom dodging each attack with ease. If she was a magician, this might have been easier, but alas.

Unlike in-game, the attack patterns of the phantom weren’t pre-determined. As Lillian continued to attack, the more it learned, and the better it could avoid them.

Being non-corporeal meant that the phantom could do a lot more than just dodge to avoid Lillian’s attacks. If its purpose wasn’t to defend the laboratory, she suspected that it would have just fled by now.

The phantom’s body split once more, opening like a book. Then out of its crevice came a white, hazy mist. While in the air it just floated, but like a giggling jester, the phantom let out another puff of mist, this time an ominous foggy black.

BOOM!

When the two mists mixed, a large, ear-piecing explosion rang out in front of Lillian as she hurriedly jumped back to dodge. The phantom’s body closed again, regaining its cubical shape, before floating around.

It was toying with her right now. Waiting for Lillian to get tired so it could end the battle in one fell swoop. It wanted her to know that at any moment, it could kill her.

Tch. Lillian clicked her tongue, cursing not at the phantom, but at herself for her carelessness. She ran forward again, this time, aiming not for the druid, but toward the back of the room.

Her eyes went toward the daggers she threw earlier, simply lying on the floor. She leaned her body down, grabbing them from off the floor without stopping her movement.

Whoosh.

She threw one toward the phantom, making it stop to dodge her attack. Those few seconds were all Lillian needed to carry out her plan.

Her body moved toward the direction of a field of root plants, small leaves sticking out of the soil. She aimed toward a section of plants with specifically two muddy green leaves sticking out of the soil.

Mana flowed through her legs. The field was quite far from where she was, and if she was a second too late to reach it, the phantom would have her head first.

Lillian kicked off the ground at an astonishing speed, all for a split second.

Upon reaching the field, Lillian made her way to the plant that she was eyeing, grabbing on to its stem and pulling it out of the ground.

What she dug out was a brown, bell-shaped plant, with a grotesque-looking face, along with a pair of small arms and legs. The Mandrake; a rare plant that only a few alchemists had access to.

Shriek!

The mandrake started screaming, its shrill voice hitting Lillian’s ears. It was annoying, especially since she was right next to it, but her slightly pained face couldn't compare to the phantom’s reaction to the plant.

Almost immediately, its body started writhing, struggling in pain. It stopped moving and its form started shifting violently, going from shape to shape in rapid succession. The screams on a mandrake, one of the few weaknesses of incorporeal monsters.

This was one of the few times in the last 2 months where her game knowledge had actually been useful. The mandrake being an addition developers added to the laboratory, to assist weaker players with defeating the druid phantom.

At that moment, she began to move even faster than before, having only a few seconds of time to finish the battle.

It was impossible for her to defeat the phantom. That was obvious before she even entered the laboratory. It’s current form, which she was currently struggling with, wasn’t even the strongest it got, far from it.

Lillian placed her hand on the tinted vial at her waist, popping open its cork to reveal its empty interior. Now it was just a matter of time.

If incorporeal were weak to the shrieks of a mandrake, what was the solution to that problem? Well, for the creature to turn corporeal. This was a key concept Lillian was relying on for this entire battle, hoping that her hunch was correct.

Crck. Crck.

Upon hearing a few crackles come from the phantom, Lillian wanted to jump for joy.

The druid phantom’s body began to morph, its misty body condensing into a block of matter. It now looked like a stump of wood lying there on the ground. A few moments later, that stump of wood also began to shift.

Arms grew out of its sides, a head from its top, and two legs from its bottom. The stump of wood shifted to a humanoid body, spiked and gnarly.

A mouth emerged on its head, the same floating eyes as earlier, hovering just above it.

The druid phantom’s second form, and the key to Lillian’s victory.

With one swift movement, Lillian stabbed her knife into the mandrake, as its face warped, and disappeared.

She then tossed the mandrake’s now non-sentient body toward the phantom and began to run toward it.

A very basic rule when it came to spiritual transitioning. It’s a bad idea to do it around mandrakes.

As the mandrake hit the phantom’s still developing physical body, it began to shake. Parts of it were now transforming back into mist, some parts still made of wood. Its existence was now unstable, and more importantly, ripe for harvesting.

With a wide smile, Lillian thrust her sword forward with a single hand, impaling it into the phantom’s body. Then she held out the empty tinted vial, and something odd began to occur.

The mist that made up the phantom’s body began to condense into a liquid, flowing into the vial via tiny droplets. It was slowly fading out of existence; the phantom reverting from mist to wood, and finally to its original state as a potion.

Lillian opened her pouch and tossed in the vial containing the guardian, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. Slumping down on the ground, she lied back and basked in her glory for just a moment. Mission clear.

Standing right back up, she looked at the wide garden full of unharvested plants. While the mandrake was useful for combatting the phantom, there were other uses for it.

I have some time.

Lillian pulled another mandrake out of the one out of the ground, immediately stabbing it with her dagger. Stuffing it into her pouch, she looked out at the vast field, letting out an audible sigh.

“One down,”

“Just a million or so more to go…” Resigning to her fate, Lillian’s face made a wry grin, placing the mandrake inside her pouch and walking down the row.

Shrei-

She continued harvesting the mandrakes until all of them were gone from the ground, every single one tossed into her pouch.

“Time to get the rest, I guess.” She muttered.

Standing back up, Lillian walked over to the other plants, this time without her knife. It would be a shame if she left here with only the mandrakes. So, crouching down, she pulled out more plants of various colours and sizes out of the ground.

“Can’t forget this.” She said, walking up to the large tree at the back of the garden. She skimmed through it for a moment until she found the unique coloured leaf she was looking for.

Upon finishing, she returned to the main area of the lab.

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“I don’t think I can carry the rest of this.” Lillian spoke, looking out at the oodles of lab equipment and materials.

Although she had access to a dimensional bag, she could only carry a certain number of items at a time, and the weapons and hundreds of plants really didn’t help with that.

While she was disappointed, Lillian knew she could always come back the next day if she wanted the rest of the items. She already got what she was here for after all. Deciding to come back the next day, Lillian left the lab and trudged through the slums, heading back to the festival grounds.

---

Upon reaching the festival grounds, with her clothes changed of course, she was met with a frantic Dahlia who had been searching for her.

“My lady, where have you been? Sir Simon has been calling for you.” Dahlia hurriedly said.

“My bad, I will head to the stage immediately.” She replied as she hurried toward the stage.

A few members of personnel came up to her and led her to the cleric in charge of the amplification field.

Hooked up to the amplification field, she made her opening speech, the crowd cheering as she finished up.

Immediately heading to the cleric to get the amplification field detached from her, Lillian rushed out from the stage back to her carriage. I’ll come back tomorrow anyway. A summons from mother and father takes priority.

Climbing aboard her carriage, Lillian was led back to the royal palace.

---

“We’ve arrived at the palace, princess.” A voice woke Lillian up, getting out of her seat and sitting up straight. She looked next to her and saw Dahlia standing outside of the carriage door, waiting for her.

“Thank you, Dahlia.” Lillian replied, rubbing her eyes.

She got out of the carriage, heading straight toward her room. For whatever reason, her mother and father had summoned her today, and she didn’t know the reason why. She believed that she didn’t have to attend the kingdom anniversary until the day after, but maybe she was wrong. She dropped her pouch off at her room and was forcibly dragged by Dahlia to change her clothes.

I’m just meeting with mother and father. Why does Dahlia have to dress me? Lillian had a frown on her face as Dahlia dressed her up like a doll, every single makeup product in the tower, placed on the table in front of her.

“You look beautiful, your highness.” Dahlia spoke with a beaming smile.

Lillian looked at herself in the mirror. Still weird.

She was wearing a gorgeous charcoal-black dress, a white sash tied on the centre of her waist. Beautiful was an understatement for how she looked, if Dahlia’s proud smile was anything to go off.

“Thank you, Dahlia, but isn’t formal clothing good enough?” Lillian asked.

“Don’t worry about it, your highness, just head to the royal chamber. Your parents are waiting for you.” Dahlia replied, twirling Lillian around one last time.

Her maid had a faint smile on her face, giggling as she looked at her. Lillian wasn’t too clear to why Dahlia was behaving that way, but didn’t really ponder it as she had to get to the royal chambers very soon.

Dahlia let her go and Lillian headed towards the chambers.

Upon reaching those grand doors, she knocked.

-Knock, knock-

“Greetings mother, father, it’s me.” She spoke, asking for permission to enter. From inside the room, she heard a loud voice coming from Therian, his voice deep and booming.

“You may enter.”

Slowly, she opened the doors and walked into the royal chambers. She found Therian and Adelaide waiting for her, sitting on a small round table in the centre of the room.

Slowly approaching them, Lillian spoke up.

“What is it, mother, father?”

“Sit down, Lillian.” Therian beckoned her over, inviting Lillian to take a seat in front of him and Adelaide.

“So, why we called you here.” He began to speak.

“There is someone important we want you to meet, and this just happens to be the day he’s at the palace.” He continued. “We want you to talk with him for a while and tell us your impressions of him.”

“I understand.” Lillian replied. It was a simple enough request. She had done so many times over the past few years. How hard could this one be?

“Thank you, Lillian.” Therian spoke.

“I’m sorry but we must be going now.” Turning to the clock on the wall, He and Adelaide stood up.

“Best of luck, Mother, Father.” Lillian said.

“You too, my daughter.” Therian replied with a smile, before leaving the royal chambers, leaving Lillian all alone sitting in front of a teapot.

“…”

Time passed with not much happening, Lillian staring out into space. I’m bored. She couldn’t leave though, as that would sully the name of the royal family.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, salvation came in the form of two knocks on the door.

Knock, knock

Creak

The door opened, and out came a beautiful-looking boy. Blonde hair and mysterious golden eyes. His gaze was sharp, but all the while aloof.

She noticed him staring at her from a distance. Feeling a bit awkward, she coughed to grab his attention.

“Ahem.”

Snapped out of his daze, the boy shook his head and began walking toward her, taking a seat opposite to her on the tea table. Lillian prepared herself for conversation as usual, putting on a respectful smile.

She looked up and locked eyes with him, and suddenly, felt a jolt of pain, like a current of electricity running through her head. She recognised this sensation. It was familiar, almost identical to the one she had when she first gained her memories.

As this happened, her brain flared into overdrive, a slew of information travelling into her consciousness. She was dazed, but one thought went through her mind at that very moment.

Boredservant?

Running on pure instinct, an unsettled tone of her voice, Lillian blurted out.

““YOU!””

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