Emi, Emily, and Matthew arrive in the Forest of Frost a bit before sunset, setting up camp by the river in the east side of the forest. There is a long river that runs all the way through the Forest of Frost, continuing and stretching far across the top side of the continent. By the time the three of them, or rather, by the time Emi and Emily finally agreed on a flat area near the water where they wished to camp, Emily had already started to erase the remaining serenity that had still been left upon making a serious discovery.
“Hey! Why do I have to share with her!?” She huffed and hawed and stomped in the snowy grass.
“Shut up. I didn’t complain like a child when I found out.” Emi replied from the spot she kneeled by the ground as she finished setting the tent up.
“…Even though I’m the one who should be complaining most, since I have to share with you.” She added.
“We’ll be sharing for a week! I could maybe accept sharing it with you for a day at most, but not a week!” Emily screamed in protest.
What a child.
“Hm… It will be okay, stop crying…”
“Grrr…! I am not crying.”
This type of bickering is most of what was heard during the journey here. In fact, Matthew had gotten so sick of hearing the two of them, he set his own tent far away from theirs. Of course, Matthew had his own tent while Emi and Emily shared theirs; there was no way he would choose to share a tent with the two of them, bickering or not.
“…Are you going to help then?” Emi asked with a voice that sounded only slightly mocking, looking up into Emily’s eyes after smacking the last peg for the tent into the ground and standing up.
“Stop looking down on me!” Emily demanded, despite the fact she actually stood taller than Emi.
Ever since the two of them laid eyes on each other in Matthew’s office, it had been like this—though, thankfully it wasn’t always loud.
The three of them left together in the midday to enter the haunt. Even though both Emi and Emily were beastmen, they had no reason to sneak past the city walls like Emi had previous; Emi was now an adventurer and Emily was accompanying Matthew acting as his slave, which meant that the three of them could exit through the south gate like people would normally.
Even so, there was no stopping the spiteful stares that most of the guards gave Emi when they found out what her adventurer card had written on it, nonetheless, they had no choice but to allow her through the gate.
“If you want me to stop, go help with something.”
Matthew had decided to take a trip to the Forest of Frost for mainly two reasons. The goal was to improve the two girls abilities in fighting and combat since there was a chance they would need to fight given the situations they may face. The other reason was because they needed to be able to work together.
“…Like what?”
“Go smell out some wood we can use for a fire. I’ll come help.”
“…Fine.” Emily glanced at the slowly darkening forest with an unusual expression before finally conceding to Emi’s suggestion.
Emi and Emily left the area that they and Matthew set their respective tents ups in to try and find firewood that they could use for the night. They went off on their own while Matthew—who looked to be rather worn out—seemed to be ignoring them. The two girls walked away from camp with Emi leading the way into the surrounding nearby trees with Emily following closely behind. With barely any light from the afternoon sun seeping through the many leaves from the trees that stretched far and high, they proceed through and into the forest.
“We’ll be training together tomorrow so let’s try to get along.” Emi says as they walk through the densely-packed trees, trying to stop the bickering from a future she is sure will come.
“I’ll try…”
Hmm…
“Why do you not like me? I have far more reason to dislike you, you know.”
“What do you mean?! The first thing you did when you saw me was call me disgusting…!” Emily poutingly says.
“I already told you, I wasn’t talking about you; and you told everyone I was a cat-girl. I had to run away.”
“I don’t care.” She immediately answered.
“Why not?”
“…Cats are the worst anyway, so I won’t forgive you.”
“I am not the worst…” Emi said with a frown.
“…”
“…”
Emi and Emily started collecting firewood from fallen trees and branches together in silence, walking amongst the big and tall trees on top of a thin layer of snow while the light from the setting sun was being blocked by the trees that blanketed above. Barely able to see without using Night Vision, the two of them continue collecting until the sky seen behind the trees darkens considerably, and at that point, they both decide to head back to camp.
Craaaack…!
A misshapen and frail-looking tree walked around further ahead of Emi and Emily.
It had legs, arms, and a scary face—the tree was a monster. It was lanky and about twice the size as Emily, had pointed arms and legs, and vines with green leaves grew all around the limbs of the monster branching from the centre of its chest. The brown with green wooden monster had a snarky looking grin resting on its face—it was pretty freaky.
It stood quite tall on two legs and blended in well. Emi froze suddenly in surprise upon seeing it and Emily walked square into the back of the still cat-girl she had been following.
“What are you doing!?” She complains after bumping her nose into the back of her head.
“There’s a monster.” Emi answered.
Emily peered through the gap between Emi’s dark blue cat ears and saw a tree monster slowly walk around in a spot on the trail they needed to get through in order to reach camp.
The tree monster’s lifeless black eyes on its snarling face turned, whether by chance or because it heard Emily yell, and it saw the two girls carrying a heap of wood. The tree monster went mad, growing its two arms in a root-like fashion and shooting them out towards both Emi and Emily in a sweeping swipe. Seeing it coming, Emi jumped up to dodge the attack as a matter of course, but the arms managed to find Emily, who stood behind Emi, striking her shoulder with a swipe before she could react in time.
“Eeh…!?” A weird sound escaped from her mouth as she shot over to the side with a thud and spilled the wood she had been hanging onto every which way.
Emi landed back down onto the snowy ground she leapt from and dropped the wood she had been carrying to pull out her dagger, holding it with her left hand, and she stared at the woodland monster that was slowly creeping forwards.
“Are you okay, Emily?” She asked, but there was no reply.
Wondering why Emily hadn’t said anything, Emi glared at the monster in front of her as it retracted its long arms and she prepared to fight it.
Hmm… Wouldn’t it be weak against fire?
She decided to test her theory with a Fire Magic Mastery, Level 10: Flame Spear, aiming it right toward the centre of the woodland monster where it’s leafy vines grew from. Holding her free right hand out in front of her, she near-instantly materialised a spear of flame from thin air right in front of herself and shot it towards the woodland monster. With a big explosion of violent flame surrounding it as the magic spear perfectly hit its mark and the wooden monster let out an ugly squeal.
The monster got damaged and was burnt quite badly, but surprisingly it was still managing to stand.
“Hm.”
Making full use of her newly acquired Lightning Mage class that tripled her agility stat, Emi used a Lightning Dash to close the distance far quicker than she could before. The tree monster was unable to move its body in time to react and Emi performed a piercing stab right into it’s almost destroyed chest—assuming that was where its core would be. Using the momentum from the Lightning Dash, her dagger pierced deep into the chest of the monster.
Her guess had been right; after a moment, the tree disappeared and was replaced by a dark-brown coloured manastone—the same dark wood colour of the tree monster.
Progression: Level 6 to Level 7.
“Phew…”
Kneeling down to pick up the manastone left by the scary monster, she grabbed the slightly glowing crystal and put it into her pocket. Emi stood back up and turned around to walk over to her dropped wood before remembering that she hadn’t heard Emily in a while at the exact same time she saw her sprawled out and unconscious on the ground.
Surprised by her own lack of awareness, Emi rushed over to Emily to check if she was okay. She shook her shoulders, poked her cheek, called out to her; but she wouldn’t wake.
“…”
Emi decided to pick her up and carry her back to camp. She put her arm underneath Emily’s legs with her hand on her outermost thigh, while her other arm supported her back and gripped onto her shoulder. In her princess carry, Emily and Emi walk back towards the direction of their camp, leaving the wood they had collected behind.
Gently walking through what was now a pitch black forest as the sun had completely set, Emi’s attention was on their surroundings using Night Vision. Emi felt a movement in her arms that betrayed the usual bounce from her each step—indicating that the dog-girl she carried had moved slightly in her arms.
“…”
Is she…awake now?
Nevertheless, Emi continued walking forwards with the Emily in her arms as they neared their campsite, and as if disregarding the silent brooding going on in her head, the large thing in Emi’s arms speaks up.
“I’m sorry for saying you were the worst…” The dog-girl in her arms timidly says.
“I was too afraid to move after I was smacked to the ground in the dark so I played dead… I don’t…have Night Vision like you. So…thank you for protecting me.”
“…It’s okay.”
I won’t say anything.
“Then, how come you didn’t get up once you knew it was over?” Emi asked as a way to steer the conversation elsewhere.
“…I don’t know.”
“…”
“…”
As if on queue, the two of them emerge out of the densely-packed trees and onto the flat snowy grass next to the ice-cold river. Emi walked out of the tree line still cradling Emily in her arms intending to reach the two distant tents, when she realised she also forgot about someone else as they came running over.
“Where were you two!? What happened to Emily?!?” Equal parts annoyed and worried, Matthew quickly shouted off questions directed at Emi once he saw the two girls.
“We went to get wood and on our way back a tree monster attacked us and Emily didn’t see it coming, it hit her and that is why I am carrying her. She’s fine.”
“So, she’s okay? Good…” He said with an exhale.
“A ‘tree monster’? That was probably an Evil Tree then…”
Emi ignored Matthew’s comments and went to set Emily down on a cushion in their tent. There was still the problem of the missing firewood, so Emi had to leave the camp and re-enter the woodland to find the wood the two of them dropped when they encountered the Evil Tree.
It took two trips; it was only Emi this time around so it ended up taking longer than she would have hoped. After her trips back and forth between the two places was over, Matthew cooked dinner for the three of them and they all ate together.
Emi and Emily shared their tent with less bickering than anticipated and the two fell fast asleep.
Their week of high-intensity training included one-on-one matches, two-verse-one matches, magic training, martial arts training, weapon mastery training, and monster hunting…on repeat. Essentially, it was hell.
After sleeping unexpectedly peacefully in the same tent together without issue, the two had woken up and slowly opened their sleepy eyes at coincidentally the same time. More than simply sharing a tent without bickering, in an even more unexpected fashion, Emi must have moved to the other bedding that lay on the ground sometime last night and was therefore laying next to Emily in her bed.
The two turned and locked eyes.
“Why are you in my bed!?” Emily yelped.
“…”
While she was rather tired and surprisingly unfazed to the whole situation in front of her, Emi just could not find what to say, so she simply got up and walked out of the tent.
“Hello!?”
It wasn’t like there was no reason for Emi’s forceful entry under the covers to Emily’s bed; it was cold, so at some point she decided to warm up next to Emily. But, she couldn’t find the words to justify it to Emily of all people.
“Yawn… Good morning, Master Mattie.” Emi found a chance to ignore Emily’s questions entirely by greeting Matthew who sat on the middle of a long log and watched over a large boiling pot.
“Grrr…!”
“Good morning, Emi, Emily. Come here, breakfast is ready.”
Emi started walking over to him while Emily trailed just behind her footsteps, and they arrive next to Matthew, who sat on a long log that had snow draped over the top of it like a blanket.
Matthew must have woken up quite early judging from the fact he had already cooked a stew of some kind for breakfast, that the sun wasn’t anywhere in the still barely warmed up sky, and how the air was cold and prickly. There wasn’t much keeping the girls wearing only simple cotton clothes warm, so the fire that Matthew sat near looked pretty enticing.
Sitting on the log either side of Matthew, they all ate a mushroom stew breakfast together and warmed up next to the small glowing fire that he used to cook with.
…Why didn’t he just use magic?
The three sat there for a while after finishing breakfast until the sky brightened and the cold morning got slightly warmer.
The one-on-one matches they were starting their training with were as expected, with Emi versing Emily. On one side of the coin was Emily who had never practiced any skills or fought in her life, and on the other side was Emi, who had only learnt some skills very recently. Either way, the two of them were both still very new to combat.
Regardless, as Emily had never fought, she had to pick what weapon she would train with and use right before hers and Emi’s first match. It turns out, Matthew brought a bunch of weapons the two could use. He brought out many different weapons from a really small bag he said used magic, which was called an item bag, and the inside of it could store far more than it’s outside showed.
Emily took her time looking through all the weapons from the pile on the snowy ground until she came across a curved long-sword that had a sizeable hilt and a single-edged blade; it was called a katana and Katana Mastery could be learnt from it, which was supposedly different from Long-sword Mastery. The hilt and sheath of the weapon was a dark colour like black and the blade of it was a metallic silver colour. Emily seemed to be pretty happy with her choice as she started playing with and waving around her new dangerous weapon.
Meanwhile, Emi swiftly decided that she would use two short-swords that were tied together with a thick blue string—as to not separate the pair. The two short-swords Emi had chosen from Matthew’s weapon pile happened to look like smaller versions of Emily’s katana, having the same black and silver colour scheme; the only difference being that their blades weren’t curved.
Emi chose to dual wield the two short-swords since she thought two blades was probably better than one. Matthew also told her she would be able to dual wield since you don’t actually need hands to use magic—the opposite of what she had been doing when she outstretched her free hand in front of herself.
“First, you two will verse each other using your new weapons without using any magic. Then you’ll verse again, this time only using magic. Then once again, using both your weapons and magic. This is so you can get used to both your weapons and magic faster.”
This is going to be a long week… Emi thought.
The two girls stare each other down; Emily holding a large silver katana with a black hilt, and Emi with her humble silver short-swords of the same colour, held down by her sides.
When Matthew called out to signal the start of the match, the two leapt towards each other and their blades connected with a high pitch clang; Emily swung her blade downwards on Emi and she deflected it by holding her two short-swords above her head, both facing the same way as a way to parry her attack. Her katana slid off Emi’s short-swords falling down past her right side. After her own katana carried Emily down with momentum, Emi delivered a roundhouse kick straight to the right side of Emily’s face.
The fight was basically over when it started—Emi had a huge advantage due to her higher level and incredible agility. But even though the kick connected, Emily shook off Emi’s attack. And using the momentum from her initial swing she does a wide and reckless sweeping arc with her katana, looking to catch Emi off guard. Emi held her two short-swords in front of herself and took the brunt of Emily’s heavy attack; it may not have been the smartest decision, but Emily did catch her off guard. Emi gets pushed back and stumbles as she tries to stay on her feet.
My small hands are not strong enough to take attacks head-on.
With the two girls each standing a short distance away, they glare down one another in annoyance for a moment; Emi noticed a mark on Emily’s cheek and a small amount of blood dribbling from the side of her mouth from where she had kicked her.
Emi didn’t want to lose.
She used her Lightning Dash skill to close the distance before Emily had any time to think and she delivered a blow to her sternum using the hilt of one of her short-swords. Emily curled over on the ground in pain—signifying Emi’s victory.
“Nn… That’s not fair!” She complained afterwards.
Heh… All is well in love and war…or something.
The two girls continued their three one-on-one matches together.
In the end, Emi learnt Dual Wielding Mastery Level 2/10 and Short-sword Mastery Level 5/10. At the same time, Emily learnt Katana Mastery Level 2/10, Magical Proficiency Level 1 and Fire Magic Mastery Level 1/10. While Emi had technically not yet increased her proficiency—the both of them improved their confidence with using magic, with help from the pointers Matthew gave them.
After viewing Emi and Emily’s matches, Matthew told Emi that she should try and focus on Wind Magic as that should give her more benefits with her agility-based skills and Dark Magic because it would help with her stealth. While he recommended Water Magic and Fire Magic for Emily, since she will most likely become a frontline fighter due to her health bonus as a Brown Dog.
By the way, I won all three matches.
After their one-on-one matches they had a two-verse-one match against Matthew, Emily and Emi were able to collect wood together last night, so surely working together like this was possible.
They stand next to each other facing their formidable Master on the open and flat snowy grass by the large flowing river.
“Hey.” Emi interrupts the tense atmosphere.
“What?”
“I’ll keep him occupied, so you try and get him while he’s busy. I have high agility so I should be able to keep up.” She suggests, which sounded more like a demand.
“…Fine.” Emily reluctantly agreed.
Emi leapt of the snowy grass with force and ran. With her intentions being to keep Matthew occupied and distracted, she ran as fast as she could and sliced her short-swords diagonally across his chest and stomach.
Her attack was easily dodged by her Master, with a simple soft jump backwards at that; and he unsheathed his own short-sword to block Emi’s coming attack before she even threw it. After her double slash missed its mark, she threw another slash his way with only one of her short-swords this time. Emi knew her blade wouldn’t touch him even before she swung it, but her body wasn’t confident enough to stop and she got repelled immediately.
She knew keeping him occupied would be a difficult task, though she also knew he’d probably go easy on the two of them.
Matthew and Emi lock swords for only a moment before Emily announced her delayed arrival with a horizontal slash of her katana aiming for Matthew’s back. What should have been an attack to Matthew’s blind spot ended up getting blocked just like Emi’s own by his second short-sword.
“When you have a large difference in skill you can simply brute force your way out of things, you’ll do well to remember there’s only so much you can do unless you make up that difference with training.” He explains before swinging his short-swords in polar opposite directions, completely repelling both the girl’s swords in unison.
With her own sword repelled, Emi quickly released three Fire Magic Mastery, Level 1: Ball of Fire on instinct to occupy him while she readied for her next attack; whereas Emily tried to simply brute-force her way through his defence by swiping her katana once more in his direction. He parried her attack with a calm elegance without batting an eye before using his other short-sword to cut through Emi’s Balls of Fire with ease using Mana Cutting.
I guess that was expected.
Emi used the remainder of her mana to activate her Heat Area skill for the first time that she got from reaching Fire Magic Ascendency. The Heat Area created a wide blanket of flames that was about 10 metres in diameter and rose high with a violent bright orange and yellow glow—fully encasing Matthew in it. She was able to control the Fire Magic Ascendency, Level 1: Heat Area enough so as to not target Emily. After a short moment of panic, but realising the flames and heat weren’t actually affecting her, Emily used the opportunity it created to once again attack Matthew. Emily held the katana up high and behind herself before swinging down with as much strength that she could force through the silhouette that stood just in front of her.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The human-shaped silhouette that stood in the glow of fire was slashed clean in half by Emily’s katana and dropped with a couple thuds
“…”
“…”
Both Emi and Emily, despite being opposites, stood still in the exact same shocked demeanour after witnessing their master get cut vertically through the middle.
They both felt hand each plop down on their heads.
“You lost. Never let your guard down.” The person behind them spoke with the same exact voice as Matthew—well, it just was Matthew.
“Even if you think you killed an opponent, always make sure they’re actually dead and never lose sight of your surroundings. And Emi, when you’re dual wielding always make sure you leave a sword free, don’t swing both at the same time without a reason.”
With their two-verse-one match ending in an anticlimactic fashion, they then began magic training. Since Matthew told the two earlier to become proficient in specific magics, Emi and Emily each focused on improving those. Magic training was quite boring to them because all they were doing was standing still and using their mana to create spells, though it was even more boring for Emily because she had barely any mana since she was still level 1.
After their magic training concluded, the results were that Emi had learnt Wind Magic Mastery Level 2/10 and Dark Magic Mastery Level 1/10; meanwhile, Emily progressed her Magical Proficiency and Fire Magic Mastery both to level 2, and she also learnt Water Magic Mastery Level 1/10.
To Emi’s dismay, learning magic was actually quite simple. To learn new magic types, like for instance, Dark Magic or Wind Magic, the only thing required was an imagination and some time to think about the concept of that magic, and then it was learnt. Well, there may be other factors that affect it, but to Emi it seemed far too easy. It still didn’t stop her from finding it boring.
Why did my parents never teach me if it’s so easy?
Once the girls’ training in magic had reached a good enough point and time, they were then forced to train their martial arts skills.
Emi already had Martial Arts Mastery Level 1/10 from when she fought Ballard to become an adventurer; however this, including everything else, was all new to Emily. For martial arts training, Matthew forced Emi and Emily to stand next to each other just like when they were practicing magic, only the difference was that they fought the air with punches and kicks instead of magic. It was also boring.
Is Master Mattie not a good teacher or is this just how it is…?
Martial arts training was then followed by weapon mastery training. To Emi, that meant improving at using two short-swords and increasing both her Dual Wielding Mastery and Short-sword Mastery proficiencies, and for Emily, meant improving her ability to use the katana by increasing her proficiency in Katana Mastery. The two girls stood there once again. They swung their swords and practiced over and over and over until—
“I’m bored!” Emily yelled and growled.
“Shut up.” Emi said, despite completely agreeing with her.
“You!”
After hours of what the two would certainly consider boring purgatory, they were finally able to do something that wasn’t just repetition—monster hunting.
Emi had lived in the Forest of Frost her whole life without ever interacting with monsters and has only recently had her first when that Lightning Bull attacked her. Other than when she had her near-death experience with the first monster she ever saw, she had also killed weaker monsters like those few Frost Rabbits and even that Evil Tree; so she was pretty hopeful her and Emily would be fine.
“Master Mattie told us to go do what we want.”
“…Are all monsters as freaky as that Evil Tree from last night?” Emily repressed her honour and wearily asked.
“I doubt it.” Emi had no way of knowing of course, but she decided to say it anyway.
Matthew left the two to their own devices so they could hunt monsters together, which quite frankly, Emi was completely fine with since she thought he’d find a way to make it boring.
At this point it was about midday, so it was like killing two birds with one stone as they went searching for monsters they would hopefully be able to eat.
“You’re level 1 right?” Emi asked Emily as they walked through the vibrant, but cold forest.
“Yeah.”
“Hm… That makes me your senior doesn’t it? I am level 7.” Emi says with a slight smirk.
“Grrr…! I’ll find the monsters before you can and become a way higher level than you! Besides, I’m older than you, so that makes me your senior!”
“…How old are you?”
“12.”
“Hm. When were you born.” She asks, upset about this revelation.
“Setsaria 25th.”
“…I was born Mearia 17th.”
“Hmph! That means I’m better than you.”
“No it doesn’t…”
She’s more than a year older than me…
“…We should do that party up thing Master Mattie mentioned.” Emi suggests to a smug Emily.
“It’s a bit embarrassing though…” Emily uncomfortably says with an awkward blush.
“…Maybe. But we still should do it.”
Matthew told them about something you were able to do with someone else to become party members, which allowed them to both get EXP from the same monsters they killed. They just wouldn’t get as much, since it splits it; the only real downside was that the way to form party with someone is a bit…well…
“Fine…just make it quick.”
“Okay… Stay still.”
Emi sidled up towards Emily while she stood still like requested. Once she was close enough, Emi gradually inched her face closer to Emily’s until their foreheads were touching; with an awkward blush forming on both of their faces, they pushed their foreheads together for five seconds until—
Question: Would you like to form a party with Emily? Yes or No.
““Yes.”” They said together.
“…”
“…”
They moved away from each other after the party was successfully formed and continued walking along through the forest. A silence lay over the two diametrically opposing girls as they traveled together without saying a single word, still walking side-by-side, there was a palpably awkward air.
All that went away like dust in the wind once they heard a loud sound from further up ahead—it was a growling sound very much similar to the noise Emily made when she was annoyed. The two girls turn to look at each other before sprinting off towards the direction it came from. Even though they had heard the growl, it was still much further away than expected—testament to whatever had done it—and they ran for a time before reaching a small clearing in the forest, where they saw three beastmen and a pack of Frost Wolves.
On the beastman side were two adults—a male and a female—and behind them was a small boy who looked to be about seven years old. They are Yellow Dogs, except for the father who was a Brown Dog very much like Emily. Opposite the beastman family in a semi-circle-like formation are a pack of large wolves who stood quite tall even on four legs, being about Emi’s height. They were mostly a bright white but were decorated with light grey fur and darkened claws; they predatorily stared down the huddled family using their keen and sharp yellow eyes before running at once to the beastmen in a vicious charge.
Emi and Emily ran fast but Emi had gotten out and into the clearing faster purely because of her agility; she got there in time to see what was unfolding.
Emi unleashes a Fire Magic Mastery, Level 10: Fire Spear—using more than two-thirds of her mana at 20MP—and it went straight for the wolf at the head of the pack as they all ran towards the family, piercing the monster clean through with flame. The other wolves stop moving in what was probably surprise.
Taking Matthew’s advice from earlier to heart, Emi ran up to the wolf she hit with magic and sliced its throat in quick succession to make sure it was actually dead. The monster was stood still either because it was in shock or because it had already perished from her initial attack; but when she sliced the neck of the monster, it crumpled and toppled over, landing on the grass as the blood from its neck poured out onto the snow covering it.
Emi stood guard in front of the Dog family with her two short-swords down at her sides as she waited for Emily to arrive.
“Are you okay?” She asks the beastmen behind her.
“Yes… Thank you for saving us.” The man says, clearly ignoring Emi’s appearance and shortness.
It was just when the man finished his sentence that Emily caught up spouting something about how she reached level 2 along the way. I guess the party thing works… Emi said in her head as Emily came up next to her and they both watched over the wolves in front of them.
“Emily, you stay with the beastmen here, and I’ll fight the Frost Wolves. If we both go then they might attack them.”
“Why do you get to order me?! No!” She says, shouting down Emi’s suggestion.
“What? Why?” Emi tilted her head in puzzlement.
“I’m fighting them!”
“But…you—”
“I need to catch up to you! Don’t baby me.” She loudly stated as she tightly knit her eyebrows together.
“…Okay.”
With Emi agreeing to stand guard in front of the family behind her, Emily charges off to fight the Frost Wolves all by herself.
Wait… Is this not kind of dangerous…or like…very dangerous?
Emi thought that she would be able to manage because of her agility bonuses and skills, but Emily on the other hand had only just saw a monster for the first time and she panicked and played dead when she had; she was quite worried for Emily.
Even though they didn’t seem like a huge threat in Emi’s eyes, at least not as powerful as that Lightning Bull she had beat in a fluke, Frost Wolves still looked quite agile and strong. Against someone as inexperienced and with low stats like Emily right now, it’s obvious what side has the advantage.
“She’s only level 2, right?” Emi asked under her breath.
Emily was holding her katana with two hands and was ready to face off against the eight Frost Wolves messily spread about in front of her, leaving Emi behind to guard the beastmen. By the time Emily had put a small amount of distance between her and the others, the wolves had already singled her out as a target and one of them subsequently charged headlong for a fast attack.
Emily saw the wolf coming and forced her body into a stance with her katana angled out in front of her and the monster charged forwards in a straight line in a daring attack, almost as if it wanted to show off to its counterparts. Once the wolf had got in range, Emily swung her katana in a downwards slash as hard as she could, striking the wolf on the head—but the blade didn’t go all the way through. In pain, but with momentum, the wolf continues and rams into Emily like a wall.
There she goes…
Even after having done some damage to the single wolf before her, she still wasn’t able to do much; and as a result, she came tumbling back in Emi’s direction.
“Hm…”
By the time Emily stops rolling, the wolf charges once more, even faster this time due to the anger of getting struck by her blade. Thinking that she would most likely die if she didn’t do anything, Emi jumped in front of Emily while she struggled and pushed herself to get back up.
Emi wanted to have Emily give up and let her take care of the wolves, but it seems she had other ideas…
“What are you doing!” She says in a flurry of rage.
“…!? Helping?”
“I don’t need your help! I told you not to pity me!!!” She screams.
“I’m not going to give up just because you want me to! I’ll do this myself!”
“…Sorry.” Emi walked back towards the beastmen and continued doing her job as a loitering guard.
I guess I should let her do what she wants.
By this point, the wounded wolf was basically on top of Emily with its maw wide open, but Emi chose to ignore the worry in her chest, and as she did that, Emily dodged out of the way with a small leap. Upon missing its target, the wolf stopped and hastily turned to chase after Emily, but she swings her katana as it turns and slices a big gash across its neck, spraying blood everywhere.
“Huff… Huff…”
Huffing and puffing after she felled her opponent, Emily, after a moment of looking down at the slayed beast, looked back at the other Frost Wolves while she caught her breath.
“Bring it on!” She yells out and the seven Frost Wolves that remain accept her words and rush to attack her all at once.
Am I still meant to trust her?
As Emi broods over whether she should wait back or help Emily, the decision she was debating in her head gets made for her.
“Go help your friend, we will be fine.”
Well…they are all focused on Emily.
Knowing the beastmen behind her will most likely be just fine, she rushed to assist Emily.
“I know you don’t want me to baby you or whatever, but like…there are seven of them.”
“We can split it.”
“Okay. And the person who kills their three wolves first gets the fourth.”
“Heh…! Good idea.” Emily says while licking her lips.
…Are you okay?
With their plan agreed on, Emily and Emi face off against the pack of monsters—the Frost Wolves—in front of them. Emi ran with her two short-swords by her side, charging alongside Emily to their opponents ahead. Emi reached the wolf closest and swiped down with her left hand as it went away from the others to fight Emi. Unlike Emily’s attack, her hit does far more damage, slicing far deeper through the skull of the wolf—but still not fully through.
Emi yanked her short-sword out from deep in its skull and the monster fell with a thud.
Progression: Short-sword Mastery Level 6/10.
“Emily, are you sure you’ll be okay?” Emi asks out of concern.
“I levelled up again after you killed that one, so I’m doing just fine.”
Is it me, or did she sound kind of ticked off as she said that?
Choosing to ignore that, Emi focused on the remaining two wolves that were in front of her.
“Are they the boss?” She asks herself.
Emi didn’t really get it, but the fourth wolf her and Emily were fighting for was choosing to watch the fight instead of joining in.
The two wolves charge at Emi in tandem, both swiping a paw each in her direction. She dodged underneath the first wolf’s paw attack and jumped to the side of the second one as it leapt for her and swung her short-sword to try and make contact with its leg, but her blade had gotten deflected by the large claws that it used to quickly block; with her attack failed, she jumped back to put a some distance between her and her opponents to better read them.
“Hm…”
Frost Wolves are blessed with quick speed and a large strong body; despite only having one head-on confrontation with them, Emi knew it would be hard fight the two of them working together with her current stats. Though in Emi’s eyes, there was an easy solution to her problem.
In an attempt to be faster that the wolves in front of her, Emi quickly leaps forwards with a Lightning Dash towards the one on the right and cut one of its front legs off with her sharp blade. With blood spraying out from where its leg should be, the wolf howled in pain and Emi observed as the monster tried and struggled to balance itself on three legs.
“Heh..”
That could work. Their legs are long and the bones are thin, which makes them the perfect targets.
With her rather genius strategy in mind, Emi observed as the two wolves quickly followed after her, so she decided to put some more distance between her and them. The one with a missing leg was clearly agitated and lagging behind its counterpart as it tried to stay balanced and keep up.
In the back of her head, Emi thought about how she wanted to learn a way she could use her short-swords as efficiently as possible—Matthew was the example she had in mind; to her, this was a good opportunity to become more versatile in combat, and therefore better able to protect herself. She sheathed the short-sword she held using her right hand so she could focus on the sword she held with her dominant left hand. She hasn’t even needed to use the two swords together yet and because of that fact, they got in the way.
Emi ran towards the wolf that was closest and dodged, passing by its obvious paw swipe with a spin. Before she finished the spin—now side-by-side with the Frost Wolf—Emi extended her left arm and therefore the sword she gripped onto, ripping clean into the unprotected side of the wolf with a heavy splatter of blood. Hastily following her devastating attack, she Lightning Dashed towards the already injured and slower one, cruelly slicing off its other front leg before it could even process what happened to the other wolf; now having no front legs, the beast topples over in a face plant, desperately moving its back legs to get up, but to no avail.
An incapacitated wolf and another with a large gash in its stomach area; Emi jammed her short-sword far into the head of the wolf squirming on the ground next to her.
Progression: Level 7 to Level 8.
Emi yanked her short-sword out from the head of the felled wolf and walked towards the one still standing as it growled. A pitifully hopeless attack comes in her direction.
Hopping away from the slowly approaching open jaw that clearly had no hope of biting down on its target, Emi pierced her short-sword into the side of the snowy white wolf’s head with a thrust and it drops to the ground.
“Looks like I got to the last one first…” Emi says aloud after seeing Emily still fighting against two opponents.
Emi caught her breath for a moment before locking on to the final wolf. It was keeping a watchful eye on its subordinates as they all fought, but now that she had finished, it kept its gaze firm on Emi. She walked slowly and calmly towards the watchful wolf as it stood still. Once Emi got close enough, she used Water Magic Mastery, Level 5: Water Prison which at her current Magical Proficiency and mana pool, it unfortunately wasn’t much of a prison. But, she use it to test the waters—literally—against her new opponent and with a spell she hadn’t yet used.
Leaping far away from the magical attack Emi had performed, the wolf soared through the air backwards to escape—though not until after a moment of panic and confusion. Using the opportunity that presented itself when the wolf jumped backwards from the Water Prison, Emi went towards the wolf with a Lightning Dash and performed a downwards slash using her short-sword. Right before her slash lands true, the Frost Wolf somehow manages to twist its body midair to narrowly avoid the blade.
After the two of them land together on the snowy grass, the wolf lunged and swiped two sets of claws towards Emi in a criss-cross slash while her sword was still pointing down from her attack. By using her right hand and pulling out the short-sword she hadn’t yet attacked with, Emi managed to block most of the Frost Wolf’s attack head-on. However, her lack of strength was evident when the claws managed to push through Emi’s defence and leave a thick scratch going across her chest and left shoulder, leaving her clothes in a bit of a state.
“Mmph…!” Emi let out a quiet noise of pain as the stinging sensation jumped through her body and her focus wavered.
She lethargically pounced away from the wolf after it cut into her chest and shoulder. Capitalising on the attack it got through, the wolf chased after Emi with long strides.
This hurts really bad…!
Barely able to hold her left short-sword with the pain from her wounded left shoulder, Emi manages to slip it back into its sheath so she can focus her full attention on using her right arm. With the wolf reaching her as she finishes doing this, it does the same criss-cross slash from a moment ago, except this time it didn’t land as Emi chose to dodge out of the way instead.
Progression: Dodge Mastery Level 3/10.
After dodging, Emi put a little more mana into a Fire Magic Mastery, Level 1: Ball of Fire to make it bigger than usual and launched it to the wolf by her side, and with a somewhat sizeable explosion, both Emi and the wolf got forcefully pushed back in the air from the impact. Despite hitting herself with magic, the main force from the attack was focused on the Frost Wolf in front of her and Emi saw it writhe around in pain on the ground as she finished stabilising her footing after landing. The Frost Wolf weak to fire had clearly taken a fair amount of damage from the attack but was slowly climbing back up to it’s feet; with barely any mana left, Emi can’t do much else besides use her blades.
The two of them charge head-first towards one another, focusing purely on the opponent opposite them and nothing else. Emi had her right arm stretched across her chest and held her short-short by her left side with the blade across her back with determination, she prepared to put her all into delivering one last ferocious strike to the already heavily injured wolf. As the two ready themselves to finish with one last attack each, their showdown was interrupted by yet another explosion. With a thud, the now slightly charred corpse of the Frost Wolf that Emi had been battling it out against fell over onto the ground with a heaviness.
“Looks like I got the fourth wolf!” Emily happily yelled out in excitement. Behind her are two wolves dead on the snowy grass.
“…That doesn’t count—I already weakened it. You defeated a third of it or something.” Emi replied with a slight pout.
“Nope! I defeated it!” She happily states.
“Whatever.”
Both of the girls had wounds all over their bodies; Emi had a large gash across her chest and shoulder and some burns on her side, while Emily was riddled with cuts and bruises. After joining together again, they both walk back to the beastmen who brought them here in the first place.
“Are you guys okay?” The man asks before one of them can.
“Yes.” Emi answers as blood runs down her chest from the large cut.
Heh…
“I’m sorry you had to protect us…” He apologises with a sad look as he looks down at Emi and Emily as the woman behind him was kneeled down and softly consoling the young boy in front of her.
“…I’ve never fought any monsters before so when those wolves surrounded us, I didn’t know what I was going to do… Really, thank you so much for protecting my family.”
All three of them bowed their heads towards Emi and Emily and each said their thanks. There were nine Frost Wolf corpses in total that were scattered all around the snowy grass clearing they all stood on; despite only being young girls, the two protected the beastmen family and had slain this pack of wolves.
“It’s okay.” Emi simply replied.
“Nonsense.” The man shot down her lacklustre reply with just one word, before continuing.
“I won’t ever forget this day. I am forever in your debt.”
After bowing once more, Emi watched the family of three leave shortly after, still visibly on edge from their encounter but nonetheless continuing.
Hm.
All that Emi and Emily had to do now was collect the materials from the Frost Wolves.
“Hey. Do you know what we need to collect from these things?” Emi asked as she gazed at the wolf corpses strewn across the area.
“…Not at all.” Emily replies.
“…”
“…”
“The lady at the Adventurers’ Guild said I can get money from monster materials…” Emi mentioned with a questioning gaze as she looked at the nine wolves Emily and her had slain.
“Does that mean I can get money as well?!” Emily asks with wide-open eyes from excitement.
“If you become an adventurer. But, I can probably just sell the materials for you.”
“Okay! Let’s get the materials then!”
“Yeah…but how do we start and what do we keep?”
“…I don’t know, just sell the fur or something.”
“Okay, but remember—you killed the last wolf so that means you have to skin it.” Emi said with a smirk.
“Hmph! That’s fine, It only proves that I’m better than you!” Emily says as she puffs out her chest.
“…Sure.”
Emi and Emily move all the monster corpses to the one spot to make less work later on, and also so they could skin them right then and there without moving too much. Emi started doing her own thing and began skinning a wolf using one of her short-swords, yet couldn’t quite focus on the skinning because of a distraction in the form of an awkwardly loitering girl. Since she couldn’t exactly use a katana for it, Emily didn’t have anything she could use to skin the wolves with, so Emi had to give Emily her dagger so that she could.
It was surprisingly easy to skin the wolves, even if it was crudely done. Emi and Emily spent a few hours together after their respective battles so they could skin the wolves together and remove the manastones, with Emi helping her skin the final one. They cooked and ate Frost Wolf meat together and walked back to camp under the setting sun. Ideally, they could probably sell the meat as well as other things, but they didn’t exactly have anywhere to store it or any way to carry it.
We already have our hands full as it is…
The rest of the week went much the same, even up until the day their hellish repeating training regime eventually concluded. It was manageable at the start, but the training eventually left the two of them looking like empty husks once it was finally over.
Emi and Emily’s current status:[1]
———
—Status List—
Name: Emi Age: 11 Species: Blue-White Cat Level: 10
Status: HP: 50/50 MP: 40/40 EXP: 4/100
ATK: 40 DEF: 10 AGL: 300 INT: 110
Skills: Magical Proficiency Level 25, Fire Magic Ascendency Level 2/10, Water Magic Mastery Level 6/10, Wind Magic Mastery Level 4/10, Dark Magic Mastery Level 3/10, Short-sword Mastery Level 9/10, Dual wielding Mastery Level 5/10, Dodge Mastery Level 4/10, Martial Arts Mastery Level 4/10, Fighting Spirit, Cat Reflexes, Blue Cat Agility, Heightened Senses, Night Vision, Slow Health Regeneration, Slow Mana Regeneration, Critical Attacker, Lightning Dash, Delayed Casting, Quick Casting, Heat Area
Equipment: [Used] Standard-class dual short-swords, [Used] Standard-class dagger, [Damaged] Simple cotton clothes, [Worn] Newsboy cap, [Used] Dark grey leather boots
Inventory: 23 silver and 55 bronze coins, 11 Frost Wolf skin, 11 Frost Wolf manastone, 1 Evil Tree manastone, 2 Trap Plant manastone, 3 Frost Rabbit manastone, 3 Frost Rabbit hide
—Status List—
Name: Emily Age: 12 Species: Brown Dog Level: 7
Status: HP: 70/70 MP: 28/28 EXP: 72/80
ATK: 14 DEF: 7 AGL: 35 INT: 84
Skills: Magical Proficiency Level 10, Fire Magic Mastery Level 5/10, Water Magic Mastery Level 5/10, Katana Mastery Level 8/10, Brown Dog Health
Equipment: [Used] Standard-class katana, [Damaged] Simple clothes
Inventory: 13 Frost Wolf skin, 13 Frost Wolf manastone, 1 Evil Tree manastone, 2 Frost Rabbit manastone
———
[1] I forgot to properly decide how many monsters were killed and its relation to the EXP gain when writing Emi and Emily status (I know how much EXP each monster is worth). It doesn’t matter and I’m just being pedantic, considering the only real thing that matters in the end is that they sell monster materials—which is why I didn’t care enough to fix it. I just didn’t want someone seeing that and somehow figuring out and thinking I made a mistake. I didn’t make a mistake…I mean I actually did, but I’m also just lazy.