Lilia began exploring the great hall.
rows of bookshelves lined the walls, their shelves packed with magical tomes of every size and thickness. Desks were scattered between them, cluttered with open books, loose parchment, and faintly glowing instruments whose purposes she could only guess at. she wonder why the books were open even though the tower was empty, it might imply that it was only recently deserted.
Tall windows rose between the shelves. She approached one and peered through the glass, hoping for some sign of the outside world. Instead, all she saw was fog—dense and endless, stretching as far as her eyes could see.
Unease settled in her chest.
She tried the door next. The moment she opened it, the same fog pressed against the threshold, swallowing everything beyond it. It blocked her vision completely.
Leaving didn't seem like the safest option right now.
Judging her chances, Lilia decided to stay inside and climbed the stairs leading to the second floor.
There, she found another set of stairs and three rooms branching off the corridor. After a moment of hesitation, she entered the middle one.
It appeared to be an armory or perhaps a magical weapon vault.
Weapons and armors lined the walls, neatly arranged despite their age. Blades, staffs, and shields hummed faintly with dormant enchantments. Crates of magic crystals were stacked in one corner, each pulsing softly with stored mana. At the center of the room lay a massive magic circle etched into the floor. but this one was massive it covered almost the whole room.
Unlike the one she had awakened in, this circle was complete.
The air around it felt heavy, charged with restrained power. A wary instinct stirred within her, urging caution. Whatever the circle was meant to do, she suspected it was not something she should activate without understanding it first.
She decided to leave it alone—for now.
Instead, she selected only what she judged necessary. A dagger infused with fire magic, small enough to conceal yet sturdy enough for self-defense. If nothing else, it might be useful for cooking, should she find anything edible. She also took a water mana crystal, reasoning that access to clean water could be vital.
The remaining two rooms turned out to be libraries, filled with tomes of every kind. Some of the books radiated enchantments so strong she could feel them without touching the covers. Tempting as they were, she decided not to linger.
For now, she would try her luck on the third floor.
Lilia followed the final ascent upward along a spiral staircase that wrapped tightly around the tower's inner wall. The steps curved endlessly, narrowing as they rose, stone worn smooth by centuries of passage. With every turn, the air grew quieter, heavier, as though the tower itself were watching her climb.
The staircase seemed longer than it should have been.
By the time she reached the top, her legs burned and her breath came shallow, the space opening into a circular landing carved directly into the tower's core.
At its center stood a door.
Tall and imposing, the door was forged from an unknown dark metal, polished to a mirror-like sheen. Faint lines of runic script spiraled across its surface, echoing the staircase below, converging toward a single sigil at its heart.
The sigil was the same immortal flame.
But here, it was restrained—compressed into a perfect shape, burning without heat or motion. Power radiated from it.
Lilia reached out.
The moment her fingers brushed the surface, the runes flared softly, then dimmed. There was a profound, unmistakable refusal.
she probably lacks whatever qualification required to open this door.
For now, the door would not answer her.
Lilia stepped back, Whatever lay beyond that threshold was not meant for her yet.
Perhaps, she should focus on something far more immediate.
Like finding something to eat.
Lilia descended the spiral staircase, the tower's stone walls guiding her back down to the second floor. The armory greeted her with the same quiet weight as before, the completed magic circle resting at its center.
She avoided it.
Instead, she moved toward the crates of crystals and selected a fire mana crystal, smaller than the water one she had taken earlier, its interior glowing with a steady crimson light. Fire would be dangerous but it was also light, it should help clear the fog a little.
She returned to the great hall and stood before one of the massive doors.
This time, she stepped through.
Fog swallowed her immediately.
It was thick enough to erase distance and direction alike. The tower vanished behind her after only a few steps, its outline reduced to a looming shadow. Lilia slowed her pace, forcing herself to breathe steadily, and kept one hand pressed against the tower's outer wall as she moved.
She would not wander far.
Holding the fire crystal close, she guided its mana carefully, deliberately. fire mana flowed from the crystal, the red glow intensifying until a small flame bloomed above her palm. It hovered there, obedient but volatile, casting trembling light through the fog.
The world beyond the tower was silent.
Too silent.
She followed the tower's perimeter, counting her steps, watching the ground for changes. That was when she saw movement.
A rabbit.
Small, gray-furred, its ears twitching as it nosed through the mist. Real. Living. Food.
Her stomach twisted painfully at the thought.
Lilia lowered herself slowly, every movement measured. She consumed more mana from the fire crystal , compressing it, shaping it as the book had described. Without elemental affinity of her own, the process felt indirect but it worked.
A small fireball formed.
She released it.
The flame struck true, and the rabbit collapsed instantly.
The smell hit her a heartbeat later.
Burnt fur. Charred flesh.
Her heart sank.
She approached cautiously, kneeling beside the remains. There was barely anything usable left blackened meat and ash where life had been moments ago. She swallowed hard, disappointment and guilt mixing uneasily.
That was when something touched her back.
Cold.
A sharp, hollow sensation ripped through her core as something pulled.
Lilia gasped, stumbling forward as her mana drained violently, torn from her like breath from drowning lungs. Panic surged through her as she spun around.
The creature was barely visible in the fog—a warped silhouette, its edges unstable, its form less physical than conceptual. It did not strike her body. It did not need to.
It fed on mana.
Fear took over.
Lilia turned and ran.
She didn't cast spells. She didn't think. She sprinted blindly along the tower's curve, clutching the wall, her legs burning as the drain weakened her further. The creature followed, the pressure on her core intensifying with every step.
The tower's door loomed out of the fog like salvation.
She threw herself through it.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the pressure vanished. The fog recoiled as if repelled, and the door slammed shut behind her with a deep, resonant thud.
Silence returned.
Lilia slid down against the stone, gasping, her body shaking as the last remnants of stolen mana slowly stabilized. Her chest ached—not from injury, but from the lingering terror of vulnerability.
Outside, something moved.
Inside, the tower stood firm.
She hugged her knees to her chest, staring at the closed door.
Exploring beyond the tower, she realized grimly, would not be simple.
She would need to be stronger.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the pressure vanished. The fog recoiled as if repelled, and the tower door slammed shut behind her with a deep, resonant thud.
Silence returned.
Lilia slid down against the stone wall, gasping, her body trembling. Something inside her felt wrong not injured, but thinned, as if part of her had been scraped away. Whatever had attacked her had not harmed her body.
It had taken something else.
She stayed there until her breathing steadied, then forced herself to stand. Whatever that thing was, going back outside without answers would be suicide.
Her stomach twisted painfully.
Hunger gnawed at her, sharp and relentless. The thought of the charred rabbit she had abandoned made her mouth water despite herself. charred or not, it would have been food.
Gritting her teeth, Lilia turned toward the spiral stairs and climbed back to the second floor.
One of the library rooms welcomed her with stale, dusty air. She moved slowly along the curved shelves, reading spines until a title caught her eye.
Catalogue of Lesser Spirits and Astral Remnants.
She pulled it free and carried it to a desk.
The pages were dense, filled with diagrams of warped, translucent figures and tightly packed text. She skimmed at first, then slowed as a passage made her pause.
Specter: An astral remnant formed from the lingering will of a deceased being. Lacking a soul and mana core, specters cannot generate mana therefore they absorb it instinctively from living entities to sustain their existence.
Her breath hitched.
So that was what it had done to her.
She read on.
The book explained the structure of a living being in careful detail: the physical body, which housed the mana organs that absorbed mana from the atmosphere through breathing and then refine it according to the mage rank; the astral body, which embodied will and consciousness; and the soul, which contained the mana core itself. Mana flowed from the body to the soul through mana veins, sustaining both spellcasting and life.
Specters possessed only the astral body.
Nothing else.
They did not attack flesh. They drained mana because they lacked a mana core to store it.
Lilia's fingers tightened on the page as she continued.
Weaknesses: Soul magic (direct astral disruption), light magic (purification), dark magic (mana consumption).Deterrents: Aggressive elemental presence, particularly fire-aligned mana.
Field Tactics: Use of mana stones as decoys is recommended.
She leaned back slowly, the pieces clicking into place.
She couldn't use soul magic. She couldn't use light or dark magic either.
But Fire crystals, a deterrent And mana stones a bait, not weapons.
It wasn't a solution.
But it would have to do for now.
Her stomach growled again, louder this time.
Lilia closed the book and stood, resolve hardening.
If she was going to eat, she would have to face the fog again.
This time, she knows what attacked her.
The second hunt began much the same as the first.
Before leaving the tower, Lilia returned to the armory and took another fire mana crystal.
At the door, she paused, steadying her breathing, then stepped back into the fog.
She carefully fed mana into the crystal, shaping it into a small, steady flame that hovered above her palm. It wasn't meant to burn—only to illuminate. The light pushed weakly against the fog, revealing only a few steps ahead, but it was better than blindness.
She kept one hand close to the tower wall, never straying far from it, circling slowly and deliberately. The fog distorted distance and sound; she couldn't be sure whether she was walking the same ground as before or somewhere entirely new.
The charred remains of the first rabbit were gone.
She swallowed. Maybe another animal had found them.
She continued onward.
After several tense minutes, movement flickered at the edge of her vision. Lilia froze, then slowly lowered herself into a crouch.
Another rabbit.
Her heart pounded as she gathered mana into the fire crystal again. This time, she was careful. She compressed the flame into a narrow, focused point and released it in a straight line.
The fire pierced cleanly through the rabbit's head.
The body fell limp, intact.
Relief washed over her so strongly her knees nearly buckled.
She strengthened the small flame in her hand, letting its presence flare just enough to serve as a deterrent, and approached the body cautiously. No fog-shrouded silhouette lunged at her. No cold pull tugged at her core.
For a moment, she allowed herself to believe she had succeeded.
Then she looked behind.
The specter stood directly in front of the tower door.
Its form wavered in the fog, indistinct but unmistakable. It hadn't attacked her it was afraid of the fire. but It simply waited, positioned perfectly between her and safety.
Her breath caught.
She approached slowly, raising the fireball, pushing more mana into it. The specter recoiled slightly, its shape rippling but it did not retreat. It held its ground, lingering near the door.
It was afraid.
But it was also thinking.
or most probably acting on instinct.
If it wanted to continue existing, it needed mana.
And the greatest source was standing right in front of it.
Lilia's fingers tightened around the mana stone at her belt.
She hurled it.
The crystal arced through the fog and landed far from the door, its stored mana pulsing brightly as it struck the ground. The specter hesitated just for a moment then drifted after it.
Lilia didn't wait.
She grabbed the rabbit and ran.
The tower loomed out of the fog just as the specter reached the stone. She stumbled through the doorway, nearly falling inside, and slammed it shut behind her.
The pressure vanished instantly.
Silence returned.
Lilia collapsed against the door, clutching the rabbit to her chest, laughing weakly between gasps of breath. Her hands trembled, but she was alive.
And she had food.
At last, she could cook.
And eat.
The rabbit was cooked simply.
Lilia used the fire mana crystal sparingly, shaping the flame into a controlled heat rather than an open burn. The meat sizzled softly, the smell filling the great hall and making her stomach ache with anticipation. It wasn't seasoned. It wasn't perfect. But it was still food.
She ate slowly, forcing herself not to rush despite how badly she wanted to. Each bite grounded her, warmth spreading through her body in a way that felt almost unreal after everything she had endured. By the time she finished, only bones remained.
She drank afterward, pressing a water mana stone to her palm and drawing just enough mana from it to form clear, cool water. Relief washed over her as she swallowed. For the first time since waking up, the sharp edge of desperation dulled.
Only then did she realize how tired she was.
She had no sense of time in this tower cover by fog, no way to tell how long she had been awake. It could have been hours. It could have been longer. All she knew was that exhaustion weighed on her limbs, heavy and inescapable.
Her body needed rest.
Lilia made her way back to the second-floor library. One of the rooms held desks arranged in quiet order, untouched and dustless, as though waiting for students who would never return. She dragged three chairs together and lined them up side by side.
It wasn't the most comfortable.
But it was better than the stone floor.
She lay down and stared up at the curved ceiling, letting her breathing slow.
She was surviving.
She had water, for now. Fire mana stones for hunting. A place to sleep. The library even had a functioning bathroom, tucked discreetly behind a carved wooden door.
The only real problem was supply. Her stock of water and fire mana stones while plentiful was not unlimited. Eventually, she would have to find a way to secure an endless source.
That was a problem for tomorrow.
Today, she was too tired to care.
Lilia closed her eyes.
And for the first time since waking in the tower, she slept.