The sun was high in the sky when Lyra eventually came out of her stupor. Being low on mana generally brought fatigue, just as if you had been working hard physically. In Lyra's case, both things were true, which is why she needed a few hours of rest. Her spirit sanctuary however was eerily quiet. She expected the gentle tunes of birds singing in the trees, and insects humming as they drank the nectar from the many flowers of the meadow, but all she got a deafening silence.
Slowly she got up, pushing herself off the fallen body of the dead red dragon. With the sun now shining, it became easier to assess the damages to her sanctuary. Thankfully, it seemed only the meadow had been burnt, with much of the nearby forest still looking healthy. Her cottage though, was entirely gone. Only pieces of charred and burnt wood remain, and a flat surface that used to be her foundation.
Tomorrow, after she had rested, she would work on restoring the meadow, her cottage, and also her vegetable patch. But right now, she was more curious about the body of the dragon. From almost any game she had played, dragons were the epitome, the most powerful enemies, but also the ones with the best "Loot" and materials. Dragonscale armor, dragonbone staff, dragonfang dagger, you name it. Thus, when Lyra looked at the body of the dragon, she did not see just a corpse. It was potential.
She spent four full hours, just ripping the body apart using her hands, which was very difficult. If she did not have over 1000 strength, it would have been impossible. But after a lot of blood and sweat and a few tears, she had managed. All the dragon meat was put in her sub-space inventory. Dragonbones in a massive pile, with the dragon's fangs and claws in another, and finally all the scales in another pile. Intestines and such she just discarded. She knew it was a bit wasteful, but she did not have the mental capacity to deal with any of that messy stuff today.
Still, she had no idea about how to actually turn any of this into weapons or armor, nor did she have the mana for many fancy spells. She could use some mana-gems to restore her mana instantly, but she rather save those for actual emergencies. This was just a minor inconvenience of having to wait one additional day. She would live for thousands of years, so waiting a day was hardly anything. Still, her house was gone, so she would have to sleep under the stars, just like she had on the first day. It was a bit nostalgic as she made her way over towards the tree-line, where the meadow seamlessly blended into the forest. She found a nice tree, and patted down a nice, soft patch of grass, which would be her home for the night.
Before she knew it, she was laying in the grass, roasting a bit of dragon meat over an open fire she had just made. It was a bit ironic, cooking a red fire dragon over open fire, but here she was, doing just that. The meat was also incredible. The tastiest meat she had ever come across, to be sure! Sizzling with fatty juices, she did not even need any salt or pepper to make the meat taste better. She laughed and giggled as she ate, using only her hands, before she settled down, watching the fire as darkness slowly fell over her land.
It was a fascinating thing, how fire could give her such comfort and warmth here, while it was also the agent of destruction for the meadow and her cottage. But the fire itself was neither good nor bad, it just was. It itself had no concept of what was good, and what was bad. It just did and acted according to its nature, always, and the results could either be good or bad depending on the subjective morality of the observer. But fire was free, unapologetic, and no one blamed the fire itself for their misfortunes, but rather that which had caused the fire in the beginning.
In a way, that was an existence she too wanted to embrace. To live life entirely by her own terms, doing that which she wanted to do, a force of nature in all but form. But as she stared into the fire, she knew that was impossible. Like it or not, she was a person, and she had a sense of right and wrong. Even if she wanted to, she could not just abandon morality and sense of self, just to live perfectly freely. If she always did just what she wanted on a whim, without care for how it might affect someone else, then she would be no better than a demon-lord, or some great villain in any storybook.
That's not what she wanted, she thought quietly to herself as she laid on her side, poking at the fire with a stick. She had been out, experiencing people and the world for a few months now, so it was about time to actually think real and hard, about her role in this world. If possible, she wanted to be happy, but she also wanted other people to be happy. At the same time, she did not want to be some pushover who tried to please everyone.
As she gazed into the flames, she made a decision. In this life, she would aspire to be just, yet never to shy away from violence either. She would be like a force of nature, much like the ocean. The ocean could be calm and beautiful, radiant and glistening. And yet every sailor also knew the ocean could shift at a moments notice, becoming violent deadly. As such, the people who worked out on the ocean never underestimated it. They always respected the waters, even if everything looked calm and beautiful on the surface, because they knew the power that bubbled underneath. Lunarsong Forest, and this spirit sanctuary, it was her lands. Hers, and hers alone. She could forgive a lot of things, but anyone trying to mess with that which was hers, she would punish harshly. That way, her existence would be known, and she would come to be respected in turn. That way, just like the sailors out at sea, people would know to behave around her, and that way, more suffering could be avoided.
She would never go back on her morality, never hesitate to act when she believed it to be right. With her mind now settled, she soon drifted to sleep in the grass, under the gentle, dancing light of the fire...
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The following morning, she had regained her mana. First thing she did was to restore life to the meadow, using a new spell called "Regrowth" which would essentially gift vitality to the lands and speed up the process of life, ensuring that flowers and grass that may have regrown by themselves in 6 months, now did so in a matter of minutes instead. One might expect a spell of such caliber to cost a lot of mana, but it was actually only 2,000 mana, but that was because the spirit sanctuary was already blessed by the spirits and abundantly fertile. Had it been an ordinary field, it would have likely cost her 10,000 mana instead.
Once she was done, the meadow looked more or less just as it had, before the dragon and the fire. The cottage was another problem entirely however. When she had built it, all those years ago, her mana had been much less than it was now. It had been very rustic and simple, but it had been hers, and it had been functional. However, she saw this as a sign that maybe change was needed. There were some public amenities she had grown quite accustomed to in the capital, which she would like to have access to even here.
It took her about an hour, using her "Create: Shelter" spell and a few other "Create" spells, but eventually she was all done. Bigger than the old cottage, but still not too large. Just big enough for her to live comfortably alone.
The new house was 2 stories tall, and made out of a mixture of cobblestone and cement for the ground floor, and then wooden planks and limestone mixture for the upper floor. The roof was made of first wooden planks, then thatch for insulation, then impregnated wood sheets to make it water-proof, then a few more wooden planks, and finally brick tiles. This way, the roof was insulated, water-proof and still breathed. On the ground floor, she had her entrance hall which led directly into the kitchen, with a large wood-burning stove and fireplace in the middle. There was also a living room and a bathroom on the ground floor, with an "Eternal Flame" buried underground, near a large water cistern, capable of providing the entire house with actual modern amenities, like hot water taps, a shower, and even a toilet.
On the upstairs, she had her bedroom, her study, and also a large closet for storing items, equipment and clothing. Her bedroom also had a fireplace, connected to the same chimney as the stove and fireplace below. Joining the two floors together was a nice and lovely little wooden staircase. Glass windows with wooden shutters were spread out evenly around the house, with curtains she could use to adjust the light-level inside.
Outside the cottage, she then re-did her vegetable garden, and now also added a work-bench, made a few tools, and eventually also a furnace. Now she wasn't a master craftsman, but she could use magic to make up the lack of skill, or so she thought. Gradually she brought the material from the dragon over, but just the dragon materials were not enough. You needed some metals too, and the rarer the better. But, this was her spirit sanctuary, close to the mountains, in the middle of lands untouched for thousands of years. If any place was going to have rare metals, surely it would be this place!
She used her search function, and expanded it down beneath the ground instead. Some 80 meters down, and 40 meters to the side, there was something. Honestly, she found a lot of rare metals with difficult names. "Orchallium" "Mithril" "Elementium" "Adamantium". The one closest to her though was "Elementium", which also was the rare metal chosen to represent S-rank adventurers. Once she had walked over to the location so she was standing right on top of it, she considered digging straight down to it. But she recalled having watched a few Minecraft tutorials back in the hospital-bed in her past life, and knew the one thing you should never do is dig straight down. So she considered just going down diagonally, but then had a better idea. Why would she need to go down at all? Couldn't she just bring the entire mineral vein to the surface? It wasn't that large, only a few meters in size.
So, she sent her magic down, down into the earth, seeing the mineral vein of "Elementium" before her inner vision. Then, using telekinesis, she began pulling on it. Up, up through the stone and soil, the ground rumbling and shaking as it went. The entire process was tedious, but after another half-hour, she had successfully brought the rare metal up to the surface. The ore shone with a strange metallic sheen, yet also seemed to shine in different colors under the sunlight, shimmering in the same way a soap-bubble does in the air. She used a high-pressure water-cutter spell to separate the actual metal ores from the stone, and then she had to melt and temper the ore into metal. But before that, she had to decide on what to actually craft for herself.
After thinking for a bit, she decided she wanted four things. A ring, a necklace, a cloak, and a dagger. She knew mages were supposed to use a staff, but she didn't want to carry around such a big thing. But a dagger could be a fashionable addition to her outfit! Besides, a cloak would be nice, could use it as shelter or something to sleep on. The ring and necklace she wanted mostly for enchanting purposes.
With a plan in mind, she fired up the furnace, however, in order to melt the elementium ores into actual metal ingots, the furnace had to get extremely hot. The first one she had made could not handle the heat from her fire-magic, and just cracked and broke down before the elementium had melted yet. So she had to use her creation magic to make a new one, far bigger and more durable. Even so, it took nearly an hour to melt enough elementium down into liquid form, and then to pour it into the forms where it could cool down. By then, night was falling, so she left the crafting for the next day.
She had a quick dinner in her new dining room, then took a bath in her new tub, and finally went to sleep in her new bed. All in all, she was happy and fulfilled!
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Next morning, after a quick breakfast, she got back to crafting. Final thing she needed, was a bit of wood. So she quickly went to the forest to cut down a tree, and was surprised to find that the trees in her spirit sanctuary were not just regular wood, but "Blessed Wood". Though in truth, it made a lot of sense.
Now that she had blessed wood, dragon material, and a rare metal, it was time to put all of it together and use the spells to craft some unique items, just for her. First, using the blessed wood, an elementium ingot, and a dragon fang, she used her creation magic to fashion for herself a "Blessed Dragon-Fang Dagger[1]". It had a wooden handle reinforced by slick bits of elementium, as well as an elementium handle-guard. The blade itself was fashioned from the dragon's fang, and looked extremely sharp.
After that, she made an elementium ring and elementium necklace, using some of the gold coins she had to add golden details and a golden chain to the necklace. Finally, from a bit of leather she had from one of the monsters she had subjugated before leaving the forest, she added the red dragon scales and made a "Red Dragon-Scale Cloak[2]".
Now there was only one thing left to do, which was enchanting the ring and necklace. The goal behind enchanting is to permanently bind magic into an item, to have a permanent buff rather than having a magic you must re-apply constantly. Normally, you have to study for many years to be able to make enchantments strong enough to be worth even considering, but Lyra was, after all, quite the cheat. She could use her recently created spell "Imbue Magic[3]" to weave magic effects permanently into an item.
Using said magic, she created the "Amulet of Minds[4]" for 8,000 mana and then "Ring of Absorption[5]" for 24,000 mana. She had to use a few mana-gems to not run out of mana too. But now, she would not constantly have to cast "Protected Mind" or "Absorption Aura". Frankly, she should have made something for "Aura Translate" as well, but it is what it is. She was out of Elementium now, and out of mana.
Night was fast approaching after hours of work with crafting and enchanting, so she had a quick dinner outside, red dragon meat and potatoes, and then went to bed, happy with her day. However, come early morning, she was woken up by the sound of wings beating in the air...
[1] Blessed Dragon-Fang Dagger: An epic-grade piece of weaponry. The dagger is indestructible.
[2] Red Dragon-Scale Cloak. An Epic-Grade piece of equipment. Offers the wearer 200 armor and 200 fire resistance.
[3] Imbue Magic: Costs 500 mana. Mana cost will increase based on the power of the effect being imbued.
[4] Amulet of Minds. Epic-grade piece of equipment. The wearer will always retain full control of their faculties, and is immune to all magics which would affect the mind of the caster.
[5] Ring of Absorption. Legendary-grade piece of equipment. The wearer will absorb 10% of all stats from any fallen foe slain by their hand.