Exiting the building, Shion shut the two church doors behind her, standing outside within the protective barrier that surrounded her and the chapel. Her smile on her face was the result of another moment of her passive skill, [Pokerface]. It didn't matter how the effect was done as a straight face wasn't always required to accomplish the feat. The point of the passive skill was that it would have made it difficult for others to discern her motivations and thoughts, and so that was why that smile was plastered on there. However there was no more need for that smile for negotiations, and so Shion unveiled her true face and squatted down in sheer shock and befuddlement. All the while gripping both her legs and mentally screaming at the events that unfolded before her.

AHHHHHHHH!

What on earth was all that!?

Why the hell did I do all that?!

A flood of embarrassment reveled inside her as her face blushed with a reddish hue. Both of her ears naturally flattened down to emphasize her feelings in the truest sense, and her tails furling in discontempt.

Why did I tease her like that?

That wasn't me! What the hell happened?!

Of course the source of her discord was because of her actions discerning the negotiations with the cyromancer. Originally she planned a normal and formal confrontation to interview her and request her help. It was supposed to be smooth sailing from there as she would ask the price to her service and elaborate on the details of such mutual agreement in a serviceable suffice payment to commend her for it. However, once she had settled her inside the church, she had a small urge to tease her as she would inevitably awoke. That urge then soon manifested into an uncontrollable desire to make her only source of information squeal in fear and in an array of other entertaining reactions.

Is... is it because of this body? Does having a new body somehow affect the mind somewhat? Did this body belong to someone else and I just happened to usurp some control of it? Did I kill her by replacing her conciousness? No wait that can't be right, I made this character. Did this character even have a soul in the first place? Unless... the reason why I acted like that is because my actions was determined by my character bio I created back in Yggdrasil?! No wait, personal bois weren't possible back in the game. This is making less and less sense the futher I think about it.. Ahhh!

Thoughts like these popped up into Shion's mind left to right, yet she couldn't prove or test any of these theories. All Shion could do was to panick mentally when in truth, it was due to the passive skill [Yako's Desire]. Shion however, had no way of knowing that due to the lack of knowledge of such things, leaving yet another glaring sense of helplessness for not having a console she relied so much on before. Exhaling a sigh of defeat, Shion gave up worrying about things she couldn't do anything about.

Well.. I at least managed to salvage the situation. I found out what the cyromancer desires the most, and that happened to be Tier Magic. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't think she would consider even agreeing with my demands in the first place.

From the moment both parties accepted the deal, the cyromancer barraged the kitsune queen with a stream of questions. She started on a tangent about the discoveries of Magic Theory and whatnot, then foundations of Tier Magic, and the such. Eventually she continued on to spout out questions in which, naturally Shion had no idea how to answer that. So she decided the best course of action was to dump the responsibility to someone who's more qualified, leaving the cyromancer and fox maid behind to flesh out the details and answer questions she didn't particularly didn't particularly feel like answering herself.

I'm sorry Yon-san.

Although in retrospect, having a maid explain magic to her wasn't exactly the best course of action either. I'll deal with it later.

The next few moments led her to leave the chapel and decide what's the best thing to do. Before the initial deal she had created, the kitsune queen had used [All Appraisal Magic Item] on Lucia's staff before she woke up. As this spell did not only identify the target item, it would even identify the item’s creator and manufacturer as well. Based on this information, Shion determined that the item was absolutely worthless. The magic staff, [Frost Spewer], was ultimately an item that allows it's user to expend limited uses of 2nd Tier Frost spells. While the item itself looked aesthetically pleasing, she didn't want to bother keeping such a pointless item in her inventory. What she truly wanted was the other important details gained from it.

[A magic artifact owned and manufactured by a Cyromancer by the name of Lucia Cromwell, belonging to the Draconic Kingdom. Crafted with the skull of a Forst Serpent and the branch of a Tundra Treant, it allows the user to cast Tier 2 Frost Spells twice a day and an immunity to the negative status Chill.]

Shion's first reaction to this was "Eh? Who would make that kind of trash?" Of course, she determined afterwards that the manufacturer probably didn't have enough good quality materials to make a good enough weapon. Trashy materials made trashy items after all.

The title "Draconic Kingdom" interested Shion the most. While she did not know what or where that was, it allowed her to establish that there was a nation of some sort, and that Lucia belonged to it. A passing thought also later came to mind and instead triggered a blowing revelation to her as she realized this. Tier Magic existed in this world, proven by the magic staff she first dismissed. This outcome had both merits and demerits as the kitsune queen assessed this.

One merit of this discovery was that it allowed Shion to have a bargaining chip against Lucia to come into in terms with her demand to acquire more mana potions. However, the demerits were she would have to be more wary of the world around her as hidden dangers could very well present itself. In the worse case scenario, a player would try to PK her. Shion knew first hand how easily it was to kill a person, so she didn't doubt that the other beings like her wouldn't hesitate to the humanity they once had.

The fox queen stood up from her contemplative state and instead returned her attention to more important matters by taking a step to cross the barrier. Once outside she sent a [Message] to one of her fox girls.

[Ni-san.]

God that's still too awkward. Like calling her my sister.

[Yes? Hitomu-sama..]

[Report.]

[Yes.. we have completed our assignment, Hitomu-sama..]

[Good, now come to where I am now. I'm in front of the church. Make it quick if you can.]

[Immediately Hitomu-sama..]

Shion ended the spell to await for her girls to come. Soon enough, a number of identical looking Ni's emerged from the forest around her, all lining up to meet with their mistress. One separated from the rest of the group to stand infront of her mistress. She kneeled with her head lowered upon seeing her mistress, still clothed in the same black attire she wore yesterday. Shion gave rise to her hand, allowing Ni to stand up to report her findings.

"Well done Ni-san. Have you or your clones encountered anything to note?"

"None so far mistress.. this one reports that tere's tens of thousands of forest around us, and only mountains around that.. I'm afraid that's all this one can manage."

"That's fine. It seems we've arrived in a rather secluded spot haven't we? Although I have no idea what a church and a mineshaft is doing in the middle of nowhere."

Ni-san stared at the kitsune queen for a moment before recalling something. "Ah.. There was also a blighted village near the mineshaft you mentioned earlier."

Shion could only stare back as she just mentioned something glaringly important. "Eh? Did you just happened to remember that now or something?"

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Ni-san paused momentarily, before formulating a proper response to her mistress. "..No, this one just didn't think it was worth mentioning it to mistress.." She lowered her head as she spoke.

"Ehh...?" The fox queen rose an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes at the response. "And why did you think that?"

Ni-san simply stood there as she struggled to provide her reasons for doing so. "B-because.. the undead there aren't enough of a threat compared to you Hitomu-sama. All of them were around level 8 and below."

Ah.. I see.. She didn't see them as a threat worth mentioning is what she meant. But still..

"Just because they were low level, does not mean that they should be ignored. I know that I said to perform reconnaissance on the area, but taking note of the terrain and where we are should not be looked over. Especially now that we are in unfamiliar territory." Shion lectured the fluffy assassin.

The queen managed to glance a look on her subordinate as she could see her shrinking in disappointment. "This.. this one is ashamed my it's actions. Apologies.."

Ah.. was I too hard on her?

"Ah, but it's good that you checked their level at least. We can't miss any details, no matter how small they may be." She finished, attempting to allow her to learn from her mistakes. "You will learn from this right?"

"Ah.. but.." Ni shifted in her place, quite uncomfortably from her position. Clearly she wasn't used to being put on the spot like this. "This one is a tool for mistress. A blade isn't supposed to think, only used." Ni responded firmly.

"Fool. The mind is mightier than the sword. If one doesn't think without it's owner, then it will inevitably become useless when it does." Shion curtly instilled into her subordinate.

"Useless...without mistress?" Ni repeated with full weariness in her voice. The idea of being without of use could only strike her within her very being.

"Exactly, now do your best to learn from this, so you can better serve without my guidance." Shion concluded as she crossed her arms.

Of course, I'm just making this shit up as I go. However I needed to do something about that lack of thinking. This so happens to work in my favor. Wait, wasn't that quote from a book or something?

"Ah.. this one will try her best Hitomu-sama. This one does not.. wish to be useless to mistress." Ni responded with a confirming nod. She accepted Shions words endearingly, searing it into her mind with complete faith in her master's advice.

Well that's good.

Shion nodded and pulled a ring from her inventory. This ring was a cash shop item called the [Ring of Proposal]. It's initial purpose was to announce your wedding proposal to another player and show off your wealth at the same time with a notification popping up towards every player on the server region. One usually costed thousands of dollars to buy, so not many would actually purchase such a useless and expensive item.

However, there was a time where Shion remembered where the item first came out. The item itself was able to have it's name changed, and it allowed itself to be subjectified to jokes across the server, such as "Japan has just accepted Neo Nazism from Crippling Debt." It was a very expensive joke at the time sure, but it would notoriously notify thousands of players if executed at the right time, with endless of possibilities and dirty jokes to come by. The item was infamous before the devs had made it's name unchangeable, leading to the decline of it's use.

Shion was one of those people who managed to get the item through Gachapon, a gambling feature in Yggdrasil. It was through this that she found out the infamous item also had an additional feature that no one mentioned before -It allowed 2 players to share a separate small amount of additional inventory space. She proceeded to hand this item to Ni with a completely different set of intentions than it's initial purpose. "Here, can you hold on to this?"

"T-that's!"

"Yes, it's the [Ring of Proposal]. I need you to hold on to it, it's very crucial to what I'm about to do."

"A-about to do?!"

"Yes, and it's also very expensive. Please take care of it."

"Yes, mistresses! I'll protect this item with my life!" Ni bowed gratefully as she held onto the item in dear life.

Well, that goes without saying.

"I also have something else for you."

"Another item?!"

She really likes repeating what I say, doesn't she?

Shion pulled out an identical ring and placed it on one of her fingers. It's phosphoric glow illuminated momentarily before it faded into it's original shine. Then she pulled out one of her recent items, the [Seer's All-Seeing Eye].

This item also had an additional feature, other than being a quest-only reward. The glass orb only revealed players of what 'they' explored and them only, meaning that no one else could use their map to take advantage of their explorations. If a skilled player happened to steal one, they would only have a fresh empty map to complete rather than have a partially completed map from the previous owner. Because of this, it ensured that no player would desire to steal said item from each other. The only maps that were valuable enough to steal were the custom maps all players had to make when traversing the many worlds of Yggdrasil at the start of the game.

It just so happens that Shion managed to find a way to bypass this restriction, with the help of the [Engagement Ring]. Within her mind, allowing the assassin Kitsune to share ownership of [Seer's All-Seeing Eye] and having the Ni-san use [Shadow Reflection] would allow her to produce a number of clones with the same inventory as the ring. With all these pieces in place, it allowed Shion to easily complete a large area of the map in meer moments. It was an exploit she had used back in Yggdrasil, and it payed off immensely in the past in the search of Ultra-Rare items she wanted, and now this tactic was being reused for the sake of reconnaissance.

"Take this as well, and re-explore the areas you have looked over. Also make sure to put that ring on as well and have the [Seer's All-Seeing Eye] active inside of it."

Ni immediately acknowledged my order with a "Right away!" before timidly equipping said item nervously around her ring finger. All her clones soon became equipped with it as well upon this change. "We'll be back mistress!" She uncharistically, replied energetically before eagerly leaving to complete her assignment.

The Kitsune Queen smiled satisfactorily as the orb inside her ring projected a hologram of the area around them, with much of it completed under a small span of time. [Seer's All-Seeing Eye] revealed that the terrain around them was a large forest, surrounded by a large mountain range with nothing else in sight.

"So it's just as she said. Hmm.. although this still isn't very helpful in the grand scheme of things." Shion admitted. She regretted not having any scrying spells as her disposal. Or perhaps she maybe did, but was unable to remember the names of such spells. It's been so long since she bothered to expand her map to the far reaches of the unknown, and as a result she neglected to memorize any of the names she so desperately needed.

"Hah... this is really much more trouble than it's worth.." Shion complained, more so to demise her current situation rather than having second thoughts about her actions thus far. "I guess I will need to rely on her for the time being.." she muttered. Of course she was referring to the cyromancer. "But first.."

Shion mentally activated the map to lock onto the coordinates Ni mentioned. The projection revealed an abondoded isolated village, as she said there was. Enhancing it, she adjusted the projection just above ground, taking a good look around the area. Completely desolate. Houses were worn down and rotten. The ground was deprived of any life whatsoever. The only thing that stirred was the occasional red glint inside the buildings. The fox queen recognized those burning red eyes from the day before.

It was undead.

This only managed to puzzle her somewhat. Sure the mines were infested by them, but the nearby towns as well? Shion could only conclude that a higher tier undead spawned that could cause such a thing to happen. Although, based on Ni's reports they were nothing to be afraid of. The Fox Queen then recalled the events that unfolded right after the mine's collapse. The reason as to why she closed the mines was because it held no value whatsoever. All it's minerals were at adamantium or below, which was at trash-tier at best. Plugging the hole of annoying low-tier undead seemed like the most obvious of choices.

After the events of retrieving the cyromancer, she summoned Yon-san and Ni-san individually to escort her. While summoning the whole crew of kitsunes would be the best next course of action, the Kitsune Queen REALLY didn't feel like dealing with all of them at the same time. This, and the New World allowed Shion to do things differently when it came to initiating spells, as she discovered. She announced [Summon: Yon-san] by name on a whim and it worked, much to her surprise. The same was done for Ni-san and it worked as well, for both spells summoned both of them respectively. It saved her a considerable amount of magic points than what she would have used if she summoned all 9 of them.

One interesting outcome was that the fox girls already knew what to do before Shion even gave orders to them. She inquired as to why, and they explained that summoned creatures were granted a portion of their summoners’ thoughts and knowledge, so they could immediately take action according to their master’s will right after being summoned. They could tell friend from foe, of course. This was terribly convenient for Shion, yet also quite awkward to think about at the same time. This kinda explained why summons automatically performed their tasks without actually needing to be explained to back in Yggdrasil, but Shion never knew that was the case. Perhaps it was a new thing in this New World. She wouldn't know for sure.

Bringing her thoughts back to the current time, she pondered what to do with that undead village. It wasn't of any threat for sure, but having something like that so close to her base is kinda.. Shion couldn't quite explain it. If one had to put it into words, they would say that what the Fox Queen was feeling territorial over her area, even if she didn't quite own it. This led her to the notion of eliminating said trash, just like the mines. She quickly forwarded a [Message] Yon-san to state her intentions.

[Yon-san?]

[Ah! Hitomu-sama! Could you please come here to take care of her? Lucia-san keeps asking about Arcane-based knowledge and I know almost nothing about it! I'm a Faith-based caster, not an Elementalist. Hitomu-sama!]

[Ah.. sorry, but I'm a Spiritual-based caster. I can't help you there.]

[But you know how to do elemental spells!]

[W-well that's only for fire and earth! I'll have Nana-san to help you with that later, but I have to go visit an undead town near the cave in. Relay this message to Ni-san will you?]

[But wait, Hitomu-sama! Don't leave me here with her. I can't hand-]

I'm so sorry Yon-san.