The answer never came, at least not today.

After giving Nowa the letter, Esther put on her Armor of Fear, grabbed Requiem, and traveled into the thick forest.

Not even five minutes in and she found two Wolves munching on a dead deer, blissfully unaware of their impending doom.

…Even though the Fox-girl was sneaking around in her heavy metal armor.

I’m not going to complain about it. Esther placed her hand on the sword handle and took a deep breath. Today, she was going to use a sword again after so long. But… should she?

I can only unsheath Requiem for 15 seconds per two days…. I shouldn’t waste it on these.

Nodding to herself, Esther jumped out of the bush and slashed the wolves with Requiem, which was still fully in its sheath.

The Wolves reacted fast. They jumped out of the way, so all she hit was the dead deer.

“Fuck! Come here!”

As if responding to her provocation, one of the Wolves stood its ground and bared its teeth threateningly while the other moved behind her. Soon, they simultaneously attacked.

Esther took a deep breath. She raised Requiem up and brought it down on a Wolf’s head. Hearing its skull crack, she quickly turned around, just in time to find the other’s sharp teeth mere inches away from her face.

So this is their plan, huh?

To sacrifice one so that the other could live. Decent plan. Decent. But unfortunately, they ignored the fact that Esther was fully armored.

With a loud clang, the Wolf’s teeth broke. It quickly distanced itself from Esther and tried to run away.

“Now you’re running. You had your chance, like hell will I let you!”

She coursed her Mana and Aura through the armor, making it emanate a gloomy dark hue. But instead of rooting the Wolf to the spot by fear, it instead made it run away faster.

Esther clicked her tongue. “Well, guess you’re getting away this time.” Grumbling some more, she approached the dead Wolf and gouged its heart out. “No core….”

Sighing, she opened her Status instead.

[STR, DEX, AUR, and ARC have increased by 0.01]

.

.

.

.

.

.

Nine months had passed since then, and the Wolves’ population hadn’t been decreasing. In fact, it was increasing! And it was all because of a certain Fox-girl….

“Ooh, Fox spirit, you going again?”

Esther looked back at Freya. She wasn’t hearing her armor right now, so she couldn’t hide the fluster on her face. “W-What? Why are you awake?” It was two hours past midnight. What absurd shit—!

“It’s hard not to notice when you’ve been doing this for months, Fox spirit. And I’m curious. Why do you come home smelling like dog food and… aphrodisiac?”

Dammit, Freya and her unusually sharp nose! Esther really, really didn’t want to explain herself. What was she going to say, that she was increasing the Wolves’ population so that she could obtain more stats?

So, she decided to lie again. Placing grasping Freya’s hands, she blushed. “Hey, please go back to sleep. What I’m doing is important to me. Please….”

Freya’s face went red in embarrassment. Not really knowing how to respond, she merely gave her a meek nod and returned to her room.

Only after Freya’s figure disappeared behind the stairwell did Esther leave the house. Her face was still flushed, and her cheeks heated. And she wasn’t dense enough to not notice it.

What’s wrong with me? Did I accidentally spill some aphrodisiac on myself?

But she quickly rejected such a notion. She didn’t; and this “heat” had been going on for a couple of months now. Even when she went hunting, her body sometimes felt like it was lit on fire. A pleasant one, for sure, but still somehow a frustrating one.

She briefly considered [Seven Dawn] as the culprit, but it’d been turned into a blessing, not a curse anymore.

Creating an Ice shard to cool herself down, Esther traveled through the dark road toward the town. There was nothing in her way. No Monster, no people, nothing. Only her, the trees, and the starry night sky. She liked this kind of thing. It gave her respite before dealing with her daily trouble again.

Regretfully, the walk didn’t last long. She soon arrived before the town’s wall. Esther hid in a bush, watching as the light from the guard’s torches travel along the wall.

Once an opportunity arose, she dashed out of the bush and scaled the wall with her Ice magic.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

She was now inside the town, but it was just half the battle.

The real challenge was not getting assaulted.

She traveled to the shadiest part of town, where derelict buildings, drug addicts, and criminals lie. She’d lost count of how many times these criminals tried to kidnap her despite the fact that it would obviously anger the only 6-star in the region.

Not that it’d get to that. She could deal with them just fight. But cleaning up after the one-sided slaughter was definitely annoying.

Thankfully, today was a slow day. No one tried to kidnap, or even approach her this time. So, there she was, standing before a certain building.

It looked more well-maintained than the rest, but that wasn’t saying much.

Esther entered the building. The scent of blood, cigarettes, and alcohol assaulted her nose. It was the tavern that housed all kinds of criminal activities.

She deliberately ignored the prostitutes and drug dealers, and approached the bartender. “One more bottle.”

With Esther being a regular for the past couple of months, the bartender nodded and reached under the counter to take out two bottles. They weren’t transparent, so no one could see the fluids inside.

“...Which one is the milk?”

“Guess.” He grinned.

Esther frowned. Again? Does he ever accept defeat? She’d always buy milk and aphrodisiac, so the bartender liked to do this to mess with her.

Unfortunately for him, he’d have to return to work again today without seeing the Fox-girl drink aphrodisiac.

With confidence, she grabbed the bottle on the right. She uncorked it and sniffed. Smells like milk, and it’s white. She frowned and grabbed the other bottle. The liquid there was pink and smelled like potent stimulant, but she knew something most didn’t.

So, she chugged down the second bottle.

“Tch, right again. How did you know?”

“Heh, secret.”

Esther chuckled. She wasn’t going to tell him that she could tell them apart by feeling the rising “heat” in her body.

“Anyways, are you going to serve me like normal now?”

“Fine.” Although shady, the bartender had enough brain to know not to mess too much with Esther. He poured a glass of milk and handed it to her.

The Fox-girl received the drink with glee. Her two tails swished around as she gulped the drink down.

But as she was enjoying the drink, someone took the seat next to her and crossed his legs. “A Nogitsune Otherworlder? How rare.”

Esther eyed the hooded figure carefully as she finished her drink and put the glass on the table. “What do you want?”

“Just a traveling merchant tryin’ to make a profit. Speaking of which, I believe I have something that you’ll want.”

Saying that, he reached into his robe and took out an old tome—a Skill Book, as Esther’s Status identified. Then, he threw Esther an Identification Scroll. “The Scroll is a complimentary service. See for yourself.”

Esther nodded and ripped the Scroll apart. She carefully scrutinized the blue screen that appeared before her.

[{C} Bloodletting

Let thy blood nourish thy evil and strength. Face the good—you’re the chosen, child of Freezing Flames]

“What the—what’s with the cryptic shit?”

“Ou, cursing isn’t fitting for someone like you.” The merchant chuckled. Tapping his finger on the time, he continued. “Temporary flat stats increase by eight. Lasts what, two minutes? And you can choose which stats to increase.”

“...And the drawbacks?”

“Makin’ you eviler or something. I don’t know.” His eyes then widened. “Oh, and don’t use this in front of any Priest or fuckin’ religious zealots. They’ll burn you alive.”

Well, I could’ve figured that out myself. “I’ll take it. How much?”

The merchant held up five fingers.

“Five… Silvers?”

“Gold.”

Esther bit her lips. That was basically her entire saving! B-But it’s so good! Hissing, she handed the merchant her money before she could change her mind.

“Glad to do business with ya!”

.

.

.

.

[C-ranked Skill: {Bloodletting} learned]

Esther left the tavern and made her way back home.

But on the way, the wave of “heat” attacked her again; this time worse than the last.

She heaved for breath. Clutching her chest, she fell down to her knees. “S-Shit, d-did the merchant do something?”

Not to her memories, he didn’t.

“T-The bartender then?”

Convinced that it was the case, she opened the bottle to see if it was really the aphrodisiac.

It was, but she found out in the worst way possible. It was as if her brain went crazed at the slightest whiff of the substance. W-What’s happening? It was fine an hour ago!

Not being able to control herself, she gulped the entire bottle down.

O-Oh no….

Esther gained back control. She quickly ran toward her house. Come on! So close! She knew that it’d take a few minutes for the substance to take full effect, and she’d rather be under the effect of something strange with her trusted ones around.

Just as she arrived back home, she fell to her knees again, gasping.

Fred and Freya were passing by. They dropped what they were doing and rushed toward Esther.

“What’s wrong?” Fred asked.

But Esther couldn’t answer. Her eyes were getting muddied, and her consciousness slipping. Yet, her body was more invigorated than ever.

Seeing the red flush on Esther’s face and her ragged breathing, Freya quickly picked her up. “Come on! Dad told us this would happen!”

“You mean the Heat?”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

With a nod, Fred followed his sister to the Heat shelter. Whereupon, Freya threw Esther into it; reluctant to step in herself.

But she was also hesitating to close the door.

“What are you waiting for, close it!”

“B-But brother… what if….”

Freya bit her lower lip as she gazed at Esther. But when the Fox-girl’s eyes went mad and she pounced for the exit, Freya let out a short squeal and reflexively slammed the door shut.

As she was processing everything, she felt a hand on her shoulder—the Guildmaster’s hand.

“Good job,” he praised. His attention solely on the banging and clanking noise coming from inside the Heat Shelter.

He felt someone tugged on his sleeve. Looking back, he saw Nowa, still half-asleep, hugging some kind of stuffed toy animal with her leg arm.

“Why is nee-chan there again?”

The Guildmaster scratched his head. He really didn’t want to have the talk with his own biological children, let alone Nowa. So, he deliberately kept it vague.

“She’s not herself right now.”

Surprisingly, Nowa accepted it rather easily. “When will she come out?”

The Guildmaster crossed his arms and stared at the Shelter again.

“... Exactly three days.”