Swordsmaster Fox-girl

“My Lord.”

A man made entirely of swords and blood woke up from his slumber. He stretched on his skeletal throne and yawned.

“Make it quick. I just wanna rest my eyes for a bit.”

His servant still kept that kneeling position and spoke. “The girl has progressed half-way through the second Level without being harmed. There are still eight Levels left, but things aren’t looking good.”

“Hm? You mean her?”

“Yes. And I’m afraid she’s going to come out of this even stronger.”

“That is indeed a problem.” The man slouched back on his chair and yawned again. “Make sure she dies in this level. Don’t worry about interference, I’ll send Spica to deal with that meddlesome dove.”

“As you wish, my Lord.”

***

Esther watched as Felicia opened her eyes with a groan. She glanced at the half-melted cheese on the stick above the bonfire and threw it toward the rat-girl.

Felicia instinctively sniffed the air and caught the delicious cheese with her teeth. After finishing her consumption, she looked around confusedly.

“H-Huh? What happened?”

“A beast pounced on you and knocked you out. Luckily, I saved you on time and brought you to the sewers. Right, Freya?”

Freya, who was just about to doze off, sat straight up stammered, “U-Uh, yes?”

“Mhm, then I’ll have to thank you. Despite being an abomination, you’re actually a good person deep down.”

Hiding the veins of anger bulging on her forehead, Esther gave her a strained smile. “Haha, never judge a book by its cover, right?”

“Indeed. By the way, do you have any more of that… cheese?”

“Yes.” She took out a block of cheese from her pouch. “But only one more for now. We have to keep moving.” 

While Freya was blocking the exit of the sewers and Felicia was delightfully eating the cheese, Esther stepped forward and looked down the seemingly bottomless pit a few steps away from her camp.

…Shit. That rest wasn’t nearly enough. I only recovered one-fourth of my Mana.

She kicked a nearby rock down. It took five whole seconds for the splashing of water to be heard. Esther then gave the rusty ladder leading down a good smack. Seeing that it didn’t budge a bit, she heaved a sigh of relief.

But how will Felicia get down? By her estimate, Felicia’s mouse face would definitely poke through the gaps between the steps. Either climbing down would be outright impossible or it would take a painfully long amount of time for her to manually keep her face between the gaps with each descend.

Her question would soon be answered, as it was time to go. 

Freya went first. She began climbing down the ladder without any trouble.

Felicia was next. 

And, from above, Esther could see her face… phasing through the ladder, as if the concept of collision was removed entirely.

Ahh, so it’s fake after all, just like the Bazaar.

Lying about Erik’s death felt a lot less bad now. 

Esther soon followed them down the ladder. Thirty minutes had passed, and still, no end was in sight. But just as her arms were feeling heavy, she heard Freya’s excited voice.

“A thing!”

“What thing?” 

“I don’t know!”

Esther looked down and sent her wispy Flames down to illuminate what Freya was talking about.

“You mean a respite?”

“Whatever that means!”

In truth, Esther didn’t know what to call it either. It was a ledge built around the ladder that, in her guess, served as a respite.

I don’t know who designed this ladder, but I’m glad they were sensible enough to build something like this.

Freya hugged the wooden floor of the ledge as soon as she got down. Felicia jumped down a second later, careful not to hit Freya.

Esther deliberately landed on Freya’s hand, making her jump up in pain. 

“Oww! What was that for!?”

“You’re taking up too much space.”

“You could’ve just told me!”

“I could.”

Elaborating no further, Esther snapped her fingers and conjured a fire. 

[13:22:49.10]

“We rest for twenty minutes. After that, we continue.”

After giving her decree, Esther leaned her back against the suspiciously clean wall of the sewers and dozed off. At least, she tried to. Her teammates’ chatters basically made her listen whether she wanted to or not.

“-hah, so what did he say next?”

“‘You’re the only light in my life.’ I fell in love instantly with him!”

“How romantic!”

It was the (cheesy) love story between Felicia and Erik, who was apparently the guard commander of this city. Just imagining a man saying that to a mouse made Esther subconsciously shiver.

“Huh? Are you cold, Fox Spirit?”

Esther opened one eye to look at Freya before shaking her head. “No, I—”

[Special Event in progress]

[You are given 2 choices]

“Uhhh, are you seeing this?” 

It seemed that the messages also appeared for Freya. But Esther didn’t answer and continued staring at the blue screens.

[Continue the Level normally and beat 8 more to leave

Or,

Kill Priest Felicia and attempt to finish the tutorial now]

Without any hesitation, Esther unsheathed her sword.

“Fox Spirit! No!”