The main factor in my decision to become a monster hunter was the new Eidolon I could summon. Getting my own Origami Böggda Bögvar to dig for mineral veins was such a time-saver. The paper worm would swallow the vein in its entirety, filling its hollow belly with rocks and ores. Then, I would sort through the on the other end, collecting the raw gemstones and separating the ore from the worthless rock. Everything went into my infinite storage, anyway, leaving a clear tunnel behind. My Origami Eidolon could secrete adhesive to fill the tunnel behind it but that would cut my way back.

On the monster hunting side, not much was going on. The original Böggda Bögvar had terrorized Myrkheim for so long that the monsters learned to recognize its digging pattern and make themselves scarce. With the realm's stone between them and my paper copy, the monsters had no way to know the hungering bear-worm wasn't coming to feast on them. Thus, the encounters with monsters were exceedingly rare, ending quickly. Strong creatures, those used to the spot of apex predator had long migrated away from the territory claimed by the Böggda Bögvar.

Regardless, the mining expedition was a blast.

Myrkheim had several types of magical ores exclusive to the realm, worth enough money to beggar most kings. Magic acted as a bonding force in atomic nuclei, stabilizing heavy isotopes that would otherwise never exist for more than a fraction of a second. The massive Carbonium, a carbon isotope with an atomic mass bigger than forty (compared to the normal twelve) was one such isotope. Carbonium was indispensable in the manufacturing of my Adamantite alloy. Truesilver was another.

*

*

One day, a week and a month after I set out to explore Myrkheim's tunnels, I had a premonition. My Fate-affinity tail had its fuzzy gray fur on its ends, like a scared cat. I dismissed the Light spells and let the tunnel become pitch-dark. I once lived a whole life as a blind sorceress. Like Matt Murdock, I had a radar-ish sixth sense that allowed me to navigate perfectly in such tunnels.

On my mental command, my Origami Eidolon stopped moving. Figuring out it was animated would require a very observant person. The magic-seeing kind of observant. Then, I engaged Apricot's honed stealth skills to erase my presence, along with the Fade Unto Darkness Perk. Then I extended pseudopods in a mesh reaching eight meters around me.

Through these microscopic tendrils, vibrations on the ground told me a group of people was coming my way. They moved with haste, planting heavy footsteps on the rock ground though they made no sound. I assumed it was some sort of sound-suppressing magic that only took care of the vibrations in the air. My fox-kin ears were among the most sensitive of the beast-folk, enhanced by a few sensory skills and perks. If I couldn't hear them, it was because they were both skilled at stealth and didn't want to be heard.

Soon, I noticed them. Though the tunnel was pitch-dark and they were stealthy, the group of humanoids still displaced the air around them. In the otherwise still tunnel, these bursts of subtle wind were obvious to my pseudopods.

The group of tall creatures stopped to check on my eidolon. They touched the paper, talking in low voices among themselves. I didn't understand what they were saying but the language reminded me of grunted elvish.

I sensed their auras and counted heads. They numbered fifteen. The magic woven around them was subtle and almost felt like a natural effect. Almost, because some of the ones in the back didn't sustain the effect as smoothly as the ones in front. That allowed me to see their auras and learn what they were.

Dark elves.

They argued among themselves. It was all Tuisto needed to start translating the language to me.

"I told you already," a Dokkálfar that was sending pulses of mana through the rock snapped. "The tunnel ends here. The beast that was digging should be none other than the paper worm we see there."

"We should destroy it," another growled.

"This is someone's creation," a third retorted. "We need to find the trespasser first."

"There's nobody in this tunnel. Whoever they were, they fled."

"Preposterous. How could they sense our approach?"

The angry Dokkálfar from before roared, drew a curved sword, and slashed my Eidolon, cutting a gash three meters long. The paper started to mend itself, mimicking the Böggda Bögvar's regeneration.

"It's alive!" Some unscientific Dokkálfar gasped.

The others drew their weapons and started hacking at the Origami Eidolon. I dismissed the summons, letting all the rock inside its body to roll over the Dokkálfar. The landslide was only a minor inconvenience to them. I saw the stronger ones heaving the boulders away. The consequence of that outburst was that they broke their stealth. I could sense them perfectly now, even in this lightless tunnel.

The elusive and mysterious Dokkálfar. While the Dvergar were dark in tones of coal and obsidian, the Dokkálfar were midnight vantablack. Even their auras had this dark quality. They were in average seven feet tall, slender but very muscular and powerful. I could sense their bodies underneath their armor and clothes. Their wiry muscles seemed ready to burst into action and reminded me of Bruce Lee. I had no doubt each of these Dokkálfar could rival one of Meinar's Vikings in physical strength.

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"Search the adjacent tunnels. The summoner must be somewhere," one who seemed to be the leader barked the orders.

The Dokkálfar spread around, searching. I withdrew my pseudopods as one came closer to my hiding spot. His senses swept over me but failed to notice my location. I was itching to just kill them and move on with my day but I had no idea about the diplomatic consequences. The Origami Eidolon wasn't really a secret, with how loose-lipped and bragging-prone the Vikings were.

An hour passed. Their meticulous search didn't reveal me. But the Dokkálfar leader was raving mad. He came short of striking his subordinates several times. The subordinate Dokkálfar didn't even flinch. My guess was that their society was a cruel and unforgiving one, ruled by strength.

"Burn the tunnels," the leader finally decided. "The summoner has escaped. Send word to the other patrols, I want every inch of these tunnels guarded. If they dare invade our land again, they will pay."

So. It seems my mining expedition took me somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. The Dokkálfar departed but I didn't move. This tunnel only had one exit and I couldn't phase through the stone. just as Myrkheim's stone extended to the Ethereal plane, it also didn't allow me to move through it even though I had the Stone Swim Perk. Maybe if I had unlocked the Earth Elemental form but I could only become Ice or Lightning elementals.

But wait. While I couldn't move through the stone in the Ethereal, nothing stopped me from moving inside the tunnels. And I doubted the Dokkálfar could sense into the Ethereal.

Relief washed over me as I flew away from the Dokkálfar territory.

*

*

Now that I knew they were around, it was easy to keep my Detection Perk focused on them. They counted as elves as far as my powers were concerned. I made camp in a dead end far away from them and watched as the Dokkálfar crawled and even ran up and down the tunnels like a swarm of angry ants.

I should go back to Nidavellir, sell or process my ore, craft something, and wait for Ragnar to finish reading the Encyclopedia. That or Loki could show up and guide me back to Yznarian. Each day I spent out here were three years there.

I was about to take a quick nap when my Detection blared like a fire siren. Dozens of Dokkálfar appeared in the tunnel around me, teleported or... As I focused, I sensed a spatial distortion. They've opened a portal.

A mind spell contacted me. I sensed no danger from it so I let it connect.

"Who are you, intruder?" They asked.

"One should introduce themselves before—"

The arrogant Dokkálfar caster who rudely interrupted me sent an offensive spell down the link. I clamped it shut before the attack could reach me. The dark elves started to run in my direction, effectively cornering me in this dead end. As they approached, large scale magic spread to block dimensional travel.

Resigned, I stood up and drew my Adamantite Thinblade. Eight spell circles flared to life around me as I primed them with mana.

The first Dokkálfar appeared from a bend in the tunnel and I let loose. Hundreds of Force javelins flew toward them, breaking down and multiplying into a hail of flechette. They fell dead with thousands of holes in their bodies.

"It's a mage!" One of them shouted.

A vial with a piece of cloth in its mouth it flew from behind the bend. I wrapped it in a Force sphere but the contents reacted badly to my spell and the vial blew up inside the sphere shedding a pink mist that quickly eroded the Force spell. I was impressed. Few things could get through such magic this fast. Force spells were meant to outlast damage and were nigh-indestructible if the caster kept feeding it mana. The sphere degraded faster than I could do it, though.

But the pink mist spread around, falling down, and splashing like liquid Nitrogen, sending billowing clouds around. Then it filled the tunnel and came my way. It seemed to feed on the sphere's magic. Could it be one of those things that grew stronger the more you flung magic at it?

It was dangerous. So dangerous the Dokkálfar didn't bother climbing the tunnel and going across the mist. I took a special metallic vial from my storage and tied a length of twine around it. The top had a spring-loaded cork that could close in one second after impact. I threw the vial at the mist, waited for the stopper to slam in place with the spring's tension, and reeled it back. With the sample closer to me, I could analyze its chemical and metaphysical composition. The mist drained ambient Mana and disrupted magical constructs. To put it in simple terms, the mist had negative mana or neutralized it. Then I noticed the similarity. It was the same property as the Adamantite but in gaseous form.

A quick peek in the Ethereal revealed it didn't extend to that dimension. I slipped out of the real world and crossed the mist, repositioning myself behind the Dokkálfar. I made my mind. No more Ms. Nice Kitsune for them.

I was a Goddess, and it was time for them to learn what it meant to anger the unknown.

*

*

Activating all my combat buffs, I appeared behind two of the Dokkálfar spellcasters and Assassinated them with a horizontal slash of my Adamantite Thinblade. Their torsos slid off of the abdomen, viscera, and blood spilling out like a filled and wet paper cup collapsing. Kicking the ground, I dashed at the next Dokkálfar, a diagonal slice that split their armor, ribs, and shoulder blades, along with the spine. Though not fatal, it was crippling.

Pointing my left hand at a couple of vanguards, A Force spell shoved them toward the pink mist. They tumbled ass over teakettle, slamming into each other and vanishing in the thick mana-devouring mist.

"Who dares—"

One of them turned around and stumbled backward as I slashed at their neck. A metal golem appeared in the path of the Thinblade, absorbing the impact of the extremely sharp weapon and then crumpling into a mess of scrap metal around my weapon. I felt the golem's animating force leave the metal as the golem "died."

The remaining Dokkálfar mobbed me, weapons and spells crowding the tunnel. I parried and blocked what I could but it was just too much. My new armor kept most of the attacks from touching my skin but a few found gaps and openings. I reeled as the poison on the weapons burned. Though I was supposed to be immune to poisons, it only applied in the sandbox that was Yznarian back in the day.

"Impossible!" A Dokkálfar gasped.

I assumed they were amazed that I was still standing after all that. Some of my fears and the feeling of inadequacy boiled away in the heat of combat. Titan Body was still effective, granting me amazing damage reduction and toughness.

I took a deep breath and shouted, channeling princess Jelanda. "You dare spill divine blood? Such impudence! You face certain death!"