[Level 2 - Eternal City of Night]

[Target - Royal Rat’s Madness

A mysterious affliction that affects the residents of this city]

[Please escort the Priest to safety or eliminate the source of the affliction

Time limit: 1 day

Failure: Removal from this world]

Buildings made of dark bricks, tinted windows of orange, and a sky that seemed to be eternally black. It was the moody Eternal City of Night.

Esther ignored her teammate for the moment and looked around. It was dark. Everything was dark. Even with lanterns, she was sure that she’d trip and fall over if she wasn’t being careful.

“—so soupnoodle, okay? Now where is the Sister?”

Hearing the conversation behind her ending, Esther turned around and narrowed her eyes. Her other two teammates were talking to Freya, presumably telling her to stick to them and yell if she encountered any danger.

Everyone was talking in different languages. The only reason they could understand each other was the Translation skill that the Cube recommended two days ago.

But whatever the Skill was, a few translation errors were unavoidable.

Esther wordlessly approached Freya and the others. Her hand on the handle of Requiem, which was strapped to her waist. She’d learned from the previous Level. Now, even sealing her Mana and Aura wouldn’t prevent her from using a sword.

Before the man and the woman could greet Esther, a chilling gust of wind blew and snuffed out everyone’s lantern.

Freya panicked. She quickly turned on the lantern again and shone it. She could see Esther standing still with her sword unsheathed; her body covered in blood. Beneath Esther’s feet were the man and women—dead.

Widening her eyes, Freya dashed toward Esther to make sure that she was okay. “W-What happened!? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Esther replied with a bit of frustration. She removed her helmet and ring and sighed. “Something struck in the dark. I got rid of it, though.”

Freya slowly nodded and moved away from the corpse. Then, she stared blankly at the top of Esther’s head.

“Umm…. Why is your Title red?”

[Red Titles mean—]

Before the Cube could finish, Esther struck it with her hand. It glowed red in warning but soon returned to its neutral color.

“Likely nothing. Just stick close to me and you’ll be fine.”

Freya shook her head. “I wanna help too.”

“We’re in a city. How?”

In response, Freya pointed her finger at a patch of moss and made it grow in size. “Plants are tougher than you think.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“...Fine. But stay behind me and keep a lookout.” Esther stepped over the two corpses to get to one that wasn’t caused by that “mysterious attacker.” It was of a man in armor. Likely a guard. His hands were clutching a letter tightly even in his death.

Esther took the letter and read it. She skimmed through all the useless stuff until something useful actually showed up.

[-meet with my daughter at the base of the Clocktower. She’ll be waiting. Eternally. I trust her in the hands of you, Erik.]

It was written in a strange language. It was unrecognizable, even to Esther, who had spent countless hours confusedly looking at scrolls in ancient tongue in Ihwa’s study.

The translation the Cube gives might be wrong. But it’s my only clue. “Let’s g—”

But she didn’t finish her sentence and swiftly turned around. Inches away from Freya’s feet was a rat half the size of her. It moved stealthily despite its size; its eye a burning yellow of madness.

“[Star Steps]”

She arrived before Freya in a heartbeat. Her sheathed sword was enough to bash the rat’s head in.

Just as she was about to heave a sigh of relief, Freya pushed her aside and braced herself.

A rat whooshed through the air where Esther once was and bit Freya’s hand, making her squeal in pain. Before it could dig its teeth deeper into her flesh, it was burned away by Esther’s fire.

With her heart beating wildly, Esther conjured four walls of Ice around her and her teammate and immediately got down to healing.

Only when Freya’s wound closed did she lean against the wall with a sigh of relief.

“Fuck….”

“That’s a bad word.”

Esther narrowed her eyes. “That’s what you care about?”

“Hehe, as long as you’re not hurt, right?”

The Nogitsune felt her face heating up. However, she melted a narrow hole in the Ice to scout around and distract herself.

“W-Well, it seems like we’re surrounded.”

Giant rats were closing in on the walls. Luckily, they weren’t strong enough to break the walls apart.

“...What do we do?”

The solution was simple. Esther just needed to spread her Flames as far as possible. Though it would definitely drain her dry, it was better than dy—

Before she could finish her thought, Ryk slithered up to Esther’s neck from her tail. She ignored Freya’s concerned face and asked, “Do you have something in mind?”

The snake hissed and crawled out of the walls. It then swallowed the rats whole.

A small snake, swallowing rats ten times its size. The weirdest part was that its belly didn’t grow at all.

Still shocked, Esther pulled Freya closer to her once the last rat was consumed and melted the walls.

“Uhhh…. Good job.”

Ryk hissed in happiness and crawled into a nearby drainage.

Esther dashed toward the drainage, put her hand in, and grasped wildly, screaming, “Wait! Where are you going!? Come back!” Over and over again.

Eventually, it became apparent that her grasping was futile. She wanted to destroy the ground to gain access to the sewer, but the Cube glowed red, effectively telling her “no.”

No no no no no no no! Not another one!

Her pets all left her one way or another. Maybe she shouldn’t get her expectations high the next time she comes across a cute animal….

As Esther was contemplating her fate, she felt Freya’s hand on her shoulder. “Maybe it’ll come back?”

“...Maybe.”

…

It didn’t. Even after an hour, it didn’t.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Esther stood up and dusted her clothes. “We’ll get going.” She gazed at the gigantic Clocktower in the distance and lamented at what to come.

“A-Are you sure, Fox Spirit? Shouldn’t we wait for your pet?”

Esther also wanted to do that. Aside from being her new pet, it had just proved itself incredibly invaluable in disposing of those damn rats. However, she’d rather not waste any more time on this risky gamble.

“No, let’s go. And here—” She put her helmet on Freya’s head. “It’ll protect you, somewhat.”