The bear stood still, staring at me. I could feel its bloodlust. I swallowed hard and started taking slow steps backward. 'I need to get out of here as quickly as possible. I have to distract it with something.'
Unfortunately, I don't have any physical strength.
I opened my status and noticed that my mana had recovered a bit more. I was still about 100 meters from the tree.
'Here it comes.'
The bear leaped toward me. It jumped over the small table in the center of the room. I turned and ran into another room. I heard the wooden table shatter behind me. Breathing heavily, I locked myself inside the kitchen.
I looked at the window and noticed it was locked. But since it was made of glass, I could break it if I had to.
Then, the bear slammed into the kitchen door, breaking both the door and part of the wall.
'There's no time.'
I glanced to the side and saw some knives. Before the bear could reach me, I used magic to make all the knives float in the air and then sent them flying at high speed toward the bear's other eye.
The bear couldn't react in time, and two knives lodged deep into its eye.
While the bear roared in pain, I grabbed a pan and hurled it at the window. The glass shattered, but there were still some wooden planks blocking the way. I climbed onto the counter and did everything I could to break through the wood.
Fortunately, I managed it.
While I was doing that, the bear began to recover. Even without its sight, its sense of smell and hearing were incredibly sharp.
It knew exactly where I was.
So, I used every bit of my mana to create a single attack.
I felt an adrenaline rush like never before.
"Zoltraak!"
The spell formed in a single second and drained all my mana. A powerful attack shot straight at the bear's head, hitting it directly.
When the magic hit, there was a small explosion. I felt the shockwave in my body. The bear was blasted backward and slammed into the kitchen wall.
I finally broke through the window planks and jumped out of Serie's house.
The adrenaline was so intense that I had no idea where I even was.
I looked back and kept moving away.
I kept my eyes on the window as I retreated. A few meters away, I waited, expecting the bear to appear again—but it didn't. Breathing heavily, I collapsed onto the ground.
I didn't feel this exhausted even when I gave all my mana to the tree.
But thankfully, my mana was already starting to recover.
I looked back and saw the tree, glowing with a beautiful silver light.
Its leaves had started to recover.
'Did it die?' I lay on the ground, staying there for long minutes. The bear showed no signs of life.
Since I don't have some cliché RPG anime system, I didn't get any bonus for killing that bear.
After a few more minutes, I finally stood up.
I went over to the kitchen window and peeked inside. That's when I saw the bear's body. I thought it hadn't died, but surviving something like that was impossible. My spell had nearly "eaten" away the bear's entire head.
Not only that, it had blasted a hole right through Serie's house wall.
A lot of things got destroyed.
"But I used so little mana…" I gave a bitter smile.
I went around and entered through the front door. I headed to the kitchen to take a closer look at the bear's body. The wound was ugly, but I didn't feel disgusted by it. This body of mine had seen far worse.
The memories I can access… are something else.
"What do I do now? Should I wait for Serie to come back?"
That's when I heard footsteps.
Someone running.
"I heard something and came running—what's going on here?"
It was Serie, her clothes stained with blood and her face filled with pure concern.
"A little monster showed up out of nowhere," I said, trying to sound calm. But honestly, I had been terrified of dying.
Serie was speechless for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
####
I left the problem to Serie and left her house to explore the area a bit more. The village was actually quite large. In my memories, it felt smaller than this. Unfortunately, there's no life in this place.
And this place... is it even possible to bring it back?
Even if I bring the elves back, could they still use these houses?
After walking around for a bit longer, I returned to Serie's house. She had already started dismantling the monster to collect the meat.
"Serie, do you have paper and a pen around here?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I need to do something."
"Upstairs, in my room."
I climbed the stairs and went into Serie's room. A small and simple room.
I found some paper and a pen there. I sat on the bed and placed the paper on the floor. It felt cozy. 'Such a soft bed. Way softer than those leaves,' I thought as I started sketching on the paper.
And what was I doing? A map, based on my memories.
In the past, Frieren had traveled almost the entire world, and I had access to all those memories. But what helped the most was the fact that she had studied so many maps before.
"If the world hasn't changed much while she was asleep, it should still look like this…"
I finished the entire map in just a few minutes. Of course, it wasn't too detailed.
"Orario is here. The Empire... Altena, Agris... And the nearby mountains are called the Beol Mountains."
I remembered those mountains being mentioned when I was still "Isaac", but there was no elf village or world tree near the mountain back then.
That mountain was where the elven village once stood before it was destroyed.
I wonder what that place looks like now.
"Alright."
I folded the map and took it with me downstairs.
"Serie, I'm hungry."
"I'll start preparing the food in a bit. You can sit and read something while you wait."
"What do you have to read here?"
"Take a look. There are some good books on magic."
"Oh…"
"Yes, you wrote them. Don't you remember?"
"Now that you mention it…"
I remembered writing several books. Though I wasn't sure about the contents of all of them.
I recalled starting to write books about magic, and they eventually spread, especially in Altena. They became quite popular. I had taught many spells from Frieren's world.
'How interesting.'
I sat down and picked up one of the books. A kind of grimoire.
Keeping a neutral expression, I opened the book.