Chapter 22: A Friendly Fox

“That’s [Reset]… 47? 48? Hey, Zero, were you keeping count?”

“Huh? I thought you were supposed to be keeping count.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When did you tell me to keep count, huh?”

“Uh…”

“It’s 48.”

Prota stared blankly as John and Zero bickered mindlessly in the reset space. Usually, their pointless arguing made her feel a little better, but right now, she felt incredibly hollow, like a black hole was in her chest, slowly sucking her in. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Disappointed in herself, that is.

She'd accomplished quite a lot over the course of 48 [Resets]. Mana recovery, mana reinforcement, precision over her spells, and learning how to read attacks and plan were all fundamental skills that would eventually blossom into something greater. But none of those even compared to her greatest accomplishment.

Casting two kinds of magic at once.

Something like that was usually something that needed to be learned, and yet here she was, doing something others took months to study and learn. At the very least, it was a massive improvement from when she’d started. Still, from her perspective, it wasn’t much. She wasn’t measuring her level of success by how much she’d improved. She was comparing herself to how close she was to reaching her goal, a goal she’d initially thought impossible.

During the first ten deaths, Prota had thought of the quest as practice. It was unreasonable for her to take care of all thirty goblins alone, so she would keep trying, getting stronger as she went along.

However, sometime around the fifteenth death, she’d started to feel hopeful. She could kill seven goblins alone, which was incredible for a single person. Around the thirtieth death, she could kill ten. It was then that she’d learned to utilize two kinds of magic simultaneously. This gave her a massive boost of confidence that was, in hindsight, detrimental to her mental health. It made her forget that the point of this exercise was to improve, leading her to believe that she was expected to defeat all the goblins on her own.

So it was around the fortieth death that reality hit her. Was she incapable of doing it on her own? It felt like she was running into a wall, a sort of limit that she couldn’t overcome alone. She was reaching the point where she wouldn’t be able to do it on her own, and that scared her. Was she not good enough? What if…

What if she failed? Her brain was feeling fuzzy. Since [Reset] reset the physical world, her body was never tired, but her head was slowing down. Her thoughts weren’t as clear. She could no longer keep a line of thought. At this point, she was more machine than human, acting without thinking, performing actions purely off of pre-programmed instinct.

“Hey, cheer up,” John said, putting his hand on her head. “You can take out ten on your own. That’s more than enough.”

“But-”

“No buts. Come on, Prota, you don’t have to try this hard.”

Prota’s work ethic baffled John. He just didn’t get why she felt the need to try so hard.

[Reset] made it so he couldn’t die. He could rest in the [Reset Room] as long as he wanted, but he would eventually have to come back, and so if he was stuck in a battle he couldn’t win, he would have to keep fighting until he won. And its monotony could drive anybody crazy after hundreds, thousands, even millions of hours of fighting the same battle over and over again.

It was something that took a heavy toll on the mind. People weren’t made to die and come back to life. Even now, John still felt a faint sense of discomfort. It was so small that he couldn’t notice it, but his body still didn’t appreciate it. But even if he didn’t feel it, he knew. [Reset] wasn’t good for anyone, even him. So if he had a way out, he’d take it. There was no need to abuse the ability more than necessary.

If done too many times in a row, it would eventually wear down the mind, eroding it to the point of nothingness. But somehow, Prota was holding up. She was holding out through a task she didn’t even need to achieve. A part of her had to know that she could give up at any moment, but it refused to. Her mental strength was incredibly strong as long as she had something to achieve, but it wasn’t the healthiest thing to do.

“Come on. Only two more tries.”

It was just a shame that she probably wouldn’t achieve her goal.

John got up from his sitting position and started walking towards the reset button, even though he could summon it wherever he wanted to, but his actions didn’t always have thought behind them. On his way there, he was stopped by Zero.

“Hey. John. Come over here.”

“Huh? What do you want from me?”

“Just do it, goddammit! I’m trying to help here!”

“...keep going.”

John walked over to Zero, outside of Prota’s hearing range. She could see them talking, but it was impossible to tell what they were saying. Once they were done, John looked annoyed. It seemed he didn’t like the result of whatever had transpired. She didn’t have much time to think about it, though. The glowing reset button appeared in front of him, and the room was enveloped in a white light.

~~~

“Kh-!” Prota gasped as the tip of a rusty dagger caught her skin, drawing blood.

She grabbed her arm and ran, but the goblins followed. She drew a bit of mana from the staff and formed another fireball in her hand.

She had to think. What was her advantage here? She was stronger than each one on their own, that was for sure, but why couldn’t she overpower them? She’d learned that their speed was their greatest advantage. She couldn’t keep up with it. She would waste a few spells on a goblin before hitting it, and it would be impossible to keep that up so many more.

But what? What could she do to stop it?

As she ran, she wracked her brain for an answer, but nothing came. How had John won against all those mercenaries back then? Actually, that didn’t help. Images of John smashing the ground with overwhelming power ran through her head. That didn’t help here. She thought back to the bandits. No use there, either. She didn’t have his kind of skill. She’d have to reach that level eventually, but that was too far out of reach. His movement weren’t something he could replicate no matter how hard she tried, and she’d spent a few [Resets] trying. So what-

“Gah-!”

John’s cry of pain rang out through the forest as he was pelted by rocks. There was an audible crack as a particularly large rock hit his leg, breaking the bone. He collapsed to the ground, bleeding and semi-conscious.

“J-John?” Prota stammered, losing focus for a bit.

This moment allowed a goblin to attack her, but without thinking, she reached out and summoned a pillar of ice, impaling her enemy.

“John!” Prota cried out, running towards him.

How had he gotten hurt? Was it carelessness? No, there was no way the goblins should’ve attacked him. He was staying behind so that she could focus on her task. All the goblins were supposed to be focused on her. So how?

How did this happen?

A burning sensation started spreading through her chest. Her breathing started getting faster. In, out, in, out, over and over, running as hard as she could. Reason left her brain. The fact that they could just come back to life was lost to her mind, filled with only one thought.

She couldn’t lose him.

With a burst of magic, the sky was filled with dozens of very small ice crystals, raining down indiscriminately, a deadly hail sure to do at least damage. It was the same amount of ice as a few spears, so it used the same amount of mana, but the area of effect was much wider. They tried to dodge, but every time an icicle hit the ground, it would splinter into pieces, making the ground spiky, thus limiting their movement. The speed issue had been resolved without her meaning to solve it.

That bought her just enough time to get to John’s side.

“Kuh- hey, Prota,” he grinned weakly. He wasn’t too injured other than his leg, but it still hurt like hell.

“John…” Prota muttered, looking at his leg.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” John gasped. “There’s still goblins alive. Are you gonna take care of them or not?”

She took one last look at John before turning to face the goblins. A new fire burned in her eyes.

“There… you go,” John gasped.

He hated that this was the price he had to pay to implement the plan, but honestly, the result was worth it.

“People thrive under pressure.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think. Every time a main character gets a power-up. What are the circumstances? It’s a training arc, or…”

“A rush of emotion. An irrational boost of power that furthers a character’s growth. But how am I going to-”

“Easy. She wants to protect someone, right? All you have to do is set up the right conditions. What happens when a [Character] desperately wants to save someone?”

“...that usually happens during the climax, you know. Nothing’s happening right now. This is like, the start of an arc. Probably.”

“That’s the beauty of it, though. You’re not entirely a [Character]. You’re part [Writer], John. So write.”

John didn’t like pain. He wasn’t used to it the way Prota was, and it wasn’t like he was a tough, seasoned warrior. [Determination] usually blocked whatever pain came his way. Just this once, though, the pain was ignorable without extraordinary abilities. The reward overcame the path it took to get there.

Eventually, Prota’s cries stopped, and John looked up to see only ten goblins left.

“Twenty? All on her own?” John closed his eyes and smiled. “That’s pretty good.”

He closed his eyes and was released from his pain.

~~~

John sat up to see Prota fuming in what he could only assume was a corner. There weren’t any walls, but she sat facing away from him, which reminded him of a child in time out. Despite the lack of emotion on her face, he could tell that she was upset.

“Come on, Prota. What do you think you are, some magical superhero that can solve everyone’s problems in the snap of the fingers? That would make you the protagonist. Probably.”

John sat back and sighed, staring up, but everywhere looked the same. There was nothing new to see. Now that he thought about it, he should’ve gone crazy from the lack of light or noise in this space from all those [Resets], but, well, it was fiction. Realism wasn’t always present.

“That’s unrealistic. Plus, it’s really boring. I’m already an issue. The readers aren’t gonna like you if you’re just another overpowered protagonist.”

Prota looked back at John with a slight frown on her face.

“Ah, ignore me. I’ve got a few things on my mind,” John sighed.

Prota turned back, deep in thought. She’d reached a form of enlightenment during her last fight. A singular word had popped into her mind when she’d seen John die; something formed out of panic and necessity.

Energy. Her issue was that she didn’t have enough energy. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough mana; her staff had a pretty deep reservoir of that, and it was also possible for her to take mana from the goblins as well. Prota thought back to what Jinae had told her a long time ago. Mana was the energy that provided life to the world. Energy. Mana. Something had to connect.

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Prota thought of every skill she had. Fire and ice magic, and a bit of wind magic, too, although her proficiency in that wasn’t very good. Mana reinforcement and mana recovery…

Mana recovery.

Mana recovery was a skill that replenished a person’s energy and healed their wounds faster than usual, the downside being that it used up most of the person’s mana. However, unlike spells and mana reinforcement, it didn’t consume set amounts of mana. It just used up all the mana in a person’s body. It was like a one-use recovery skill meant to be used after a fight. Most mages took time to replenish that mana, taking it in from the ambient mana around them.

Prota didn’t need time to replenish mana.

While she could control the flow of mana coming in when using [Soul Siphon], she could also absorb a large chunk of mana at once. Jinae had taught her that the main benefit of [Soul Siphon] was that she could replenish mana as quickly as needed, while the average mage took time to replenish their mana.

It was like the difference between taking in a deep breath and having oxygen pumped directly into your lungs. If she could immediately recover her mana…

She could use mana recovery multiple times during a fight.

It wasn’t a cure all; mana recovery took time to take effect fully, so it wasn’t like she could fight as long as there were mana sources nearby, but it would keep her going longer than usual. Coupled with her pain tolerance, she could likely keep going in any fight for way longer than the average mage.

She couldn’t try it out in the reset space, so she’d have to risk it all on this last try.

One more time.

“John,” Prota called out without turning back.

She was ready. If it failed… well, she hadn’t even considered that. Still. Something felt different this time around. She didn’t know why, but there was an unmistakeable feeling of success in the air.

“Hey, Zero. Aren’t we rushing things a little?”

“What do you mean?”

“The growth feels… a little fast. I don’t know the form of media this [Story] is being written in, but doesn’t it feel early for her to grow so much? The pacing’s all over the place, the writing is terrible…”

Zero smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, she has to play a little bit of catch up, doesn’t she?”

John sighed in defeat. “Fine. Don’t complain if things get ridiculous later on, though. I don’t wanna hear any of your whining about the story going to shit cause of me.”

“The only reason this story could go to shit is because of you.”

“Sounds like something a dogshit [Author] would say. Nice try, buddy. I don’t know why you keep defending their poor decisions,” John grimaced, reaching out.

[Reset]

~~~

Prota took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had to resolve herself before going in. This might fail, but she could afford to fail if it meant growing stronger. She was beginning to understand the point of [Resets].

The point wasn’t to throw yourself at the window until it broke. The window was far too strong for that. The point was to go over it with a nail, tapping on every inch of the thing until you found the one point that made it crack. You just had to persevere and understand where that one point would be, and with enough practice, you’d start to see the impurities in the glass and find the point without wasting hours and hours on it.

No wonder John seemed so strong.

The fight started off a bit differently this time. Prota immediately summoned not one, but three fire columns, taking out seven goblins all in one go. The energy required for this forced her to her knees as a wave of fatigue washed over her, but there was a solution for that now. She drew some mana out from her staff and immediately used mana recovery. As soon as she cast the spell, she felt energy return to her. Her legs were still shaking, but she knew how to push through. Slowly but surely, her body was regaining energy, far faster than usual. Her mana reserves were depleted, but there was a solution for that too, right?

The goblins, now furious, rushed forwards with their crude weapons, but Prota was ready. A hail of icicles appeared in the air, as many as Prota could summon, and they rained down upon her opponents. Once again, the large spell made her weak, but she quickly pulled mana out of her staff once more, cast mana recovery again, then replenished her reserves.

Here, she received a pleasant surprise.

While the recovery was slightly slower than expected, casting mana recovery twice in such a short period of time had actually stacked the two spells, causing her recovery speed to double. Dodging an attack, she used mana recovery again and found that her stamina was coming back even faster.

No mage ever used mana recovery multiple times in a row. While it was possible by using mana potions, they were expensive. Why waste mana potions on something like recovery when you could just drink a health potion instead? Perhaps some curious mage had tried it, but it was so complicated and pointless that no one knew of it.

Prota might’ve been the first person to ever come up with this strategy.

Encouraged, she continued this cycle, drawing mana from her staff and casting mana recovery, firing off spells whenever she felt strong enough, and using the rest of her mana for mana reinforcement to get away and stall for time. She was only limited by the mana in her staff, and given how little she was using, it would last for a while.

It was a shame that the goblins had no mana, but should she face against multiple opponents with mana cores… it would turn into a battle of attrition in Prota’s favour.

Unfortunately for Prota, while mana recovery was healing her wounds and recovering her stamina, her body was slowly starting to give out on its own. She didn’t feel the pain, but mana recovery was meant to be used in off time, not during battle, and it could only do so much. She was breaking her body down faster than it could recover.

“Five… five more,” Prota panted, but her eyes were failing her, her vision swimming into unconsciousness.

She felt disappointed, but in reality, she’d just done the job of a team of C rank adventurers. While she probably couldn’t beat a singular C rank adventurer on her own, her technique enabled her to fight large hordes of monsters all on her own. Mana hadn’t been a problem, and now with this technique, neither was stamina.

Well, not entirely. Prota felt herself falling asleep, and there were still five goblins chasing her. She tried to form a fireball, but she could barely summon the mana needed for the spell…

“Hey!” she heard a voice cry out, but it wasn’t John’s. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Huh? What?” That voice belonged to her brother.

The sound of a sword being unsheathed was heard, and then the cries of the goblins as they died one by one. She stiffened as she felt someone pick her up and struggled to get out, but found that she didn’t have the strength to do it.

She’d failed to kill all the goblins, but she’d also failed to die… so had she succeeded?

“What are you doing? Why are you just watching her fight?”

Prota opened her eyes to see… Fate? What was the mysterious boy doing here?

“I, uh… don’t worry about it?”

“That’s a child! This quest is meant for a team of C and B-rank adventurers, and you’re letting an E-rank adventurer attempt it alone? Do you understand what that means? E-rank adventurers aren’t even supposed to be going into combat!”

John just stared at Fate helplessly. How did one explain this situation? What was he supposed to say? That they couldn’t die?

Prota heard the unsheathing of a blade, and instinct kicked in, but she had no strength left. The thought that John was in danger was the last thought in her mind before she fell unconscious.

~~~

John was amused, sure, but the situation was also very annoying. It was impossible for him to explain the existence of [Resets] and the whole training thing, and honestly, dealing with a situation like this was just a pain in the ass in general.

“Hey. Is she your sister? Look, I had it handled. It’s fine, alright? I would’ve handled it.”

“What were you going to do? Die?” Fate’s golden eyes shone fiercely behind his mask. “Last I checked, you weren’t any stronger than her.”

“I mean… yeah,” John said. “I would’ve died, I guess. Look, can you leave or something?”

The problem was that John completely understood where Fate was coming from. To anyone else, it would just look like he was abusing his sister and making her do cruel and unreasonable things. Were the story being told from Fate’s perspective, he would appear to be a minor villain. In fact, if he weren’t someone special, the plot would’ve been something like: hero saves special child from abusive older family. Child becomes hero’s companion.

But John wasn’t going to let that happen.

“What? I’m just doing my job,” Fate said, crossing his arms.

“Your job?”

“The command- Mr. Alimbert sent me here to make sure you guys didn’t die.”

“Oh, so the old man does care.”

John let a yawn slip through as he stretched. He immediately regretted it, though. A lecture was surely incoming.

“Were you not concerned about your partner?” Fate burst out, visibly upset.

“Ok, first, she’s my sister. Second, no.”

“She could’ve died!”

“And?”

John said this with a completely straight face, and Fate was starting to understand that he wasn’t dealing with a normal person. He grit his teeth and put his hand on his sword.

“You’re crazy. You’re a psychopath.”

“Thanks.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I know.” John’s annoyed face was slowly growing into one of amusement.

“Don’t you care about her? What would you have done if she died?”

John shrugged casually. “But she wouldn’t have?”

“Don’t say that. You never know when someone you love will disappear.”

There was bitterness in that sentence. An emotion a child shouldn’t have. It was enough to cause John to back off.

“Anyways, why’re you here? Just to make sure we don’t get our asses handed to us?”

“Albert wanted to know whether your skills were up to par.”

“...shit.”

John was in a sticky situation now. While he had initially wanted Prota to train off of this, he also needed them both to become B-rank adventurers. With what Fate had observed, there was no way he was meeting that requirement. He considered a [Reset], but something like that might break Prota to a point of no return.

“Fight me,” John said impulsively.

“What?”

“You said you needed to see if I’m good enough. So fight me. If I do well enough, we both pass your little test, ok?”

“...you’re gonna fight me?” Fate’s voice was full of doubt.

“Is there anyone else around? And besides, it looks like you want to let off a little steam anyway.”

Fate looked at John. His mouth couldn’t be seen, but John saw Fate’s clenched fist.

“Actually, there is.”

Fate’s pink fox slid off his shoulders and jumped to the ground, facing John.

“You want me to fight the fox?”

“What, are you scared?”

“This is animal abuse, by the way. You can’t just go around making animals fight other people. Not in this world, at least. You sure you’re not the crazy one?”

“Animal- what? No!”

“There’s a video game like that…”

“What are you muttering about?” Fate yelled. “Just do it! The fox is my partner!”

John’s eyes lit up. Fate had hesitated when he’d said “video game.” Was it possible to get out of this without fighting?

The fox fired a volley of fireballs at John, leaving him no time to think. He reached into his hoodie, withdrawing his gun as he leapt back to avoid taking a hit.

“Man, I can’t fight without killing! That’s kind of how my weapon works. Can we just-”

He was cut off as he rolled to the side, a column of fire rising from where he’d just been standing. From then on, it was just a blitz of attacks that he had to dodge. Every time he got close to the fox, it ran away, leaving him frustrated.

“Can I fight something else? I don’t want to shoot-” John tried again.

He let out a yelp as a fireball flew over his head, singing his hair.

“Fine! Fuck you!” John yelled, taking aim.

He fired just over the fox’s head, missing, but the noise from the gun was enough to make everyone stop.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” John panted. “This is a lethal weapon! What the fuck do you want me to do?”

“You wanted to fight me!” Fate protested, although he was keenly staring at John’s revolver.

“Well, yeah! I meant, like, rock paper scissors or something like that!”

Fate shook his head, overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of what he was hearing and seeing.

“Rock paper- you know what? It’s fine. You can hold your own; that’s enough. I’ll go tell Albert you guys are good.”

Fate turned around, bending slightly to allow his fox to climb back onto his shoulders. John could guess the reason for his sudden change in attitude. He was fully aware of the effect he had on people, and he relished it.

Unexpectedly, however, it was his turn to be stunned.

“Did that fox… just wink at me?”