Goblins Are Scary

Goblins are scary.

Having finished transforming for the climb, I completed my preparations and waited for the late hours to arrive.

By now the silence of the early morning felt as familiar ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and comforting as any daily routine. The cold wind that blew before I set out for the Tower put me in a strangely good mood.

"Ugh…"

I checked my outfit again and again, my face burning red. I still wasn't used to it. Not to being a magical girl, and not to having become a fragile little girl.

I simply could not accept it.

"…I have to go."

Even so, I had to force myself to come to terms with this reality. What kept me moving was money.

An empty bank account and a life that reeked of poverty. Becoming a magical girl hadn't changed a thing about that.

I think I can use it.

My condition was decent enough. My body felt light — almost good, even. The mana that used to threaten to overflow every time I transformed had stabilized beyond recognition.

Was it because of that skill? Right now, I felt like I could use the magic I'd cast during the tutorial. My body had absorbed the sensation naturally.

The only thing that bothered me was the lack of certainty. Could I really recreate those spells?

…I could really use something like a training ground. If I tried casting magic in this cramped house, I'd end up a arsonist instead of a hunter — that much was obvious.

Officially registered hunters could use national facilities, but that had nothing to do with me. Without any legal status, I couldn't even get access to a common training hall. If I'd had money, I could have figured something out somehow.

Unfortunately, that kind of life was a long way off. A training facility attached to the home of a young adult drowning in rent?

Impossible unless you were some crypto millionaire. A hollow dream you could only reach by somehow lucking into a jackpot item drop.

"…"

Right before heading out, I checked the Hunter Gallery out of habit. That uneasy place where talk about me had been circulating kept gnawing at my nerves.

"Nothing…"

As expected, the same bait never stayed hot for long. In this day and age, a magical girl just wasn't spicy enough content — maybe that was inevitable.

I searched for the word Nejeri, but the last post was from two hours ago. That seemed to be the point where the whole topic went cold fast.

My name was already nowhere to be found. Looks like they'd failed to figure out my identity.

Well, of course — I'd wiped the traces. I'd deleted every single post I'd ever written on the Awakening Gallery.

"It should be fine."

Most of what got posted on the Awakening Gallery was pure trolling anyway. A place where people constantly claimed they'd awakened, then looked at hunter rankings and ran tournament brackets.

The water quality there was murky from the start.

I wanted to believe that nobody was regularly checking a gallery like that and saving the posts I'd dumped. Please. It had to be that way.

"…Haa."

I let out a heavy sigh loaded with feeling about what was coming. Most of my worries bloomed from the Tower itself.

Honestly, I was terrified of climbing it. My feet wouldn't move easily. I hesitated on the way there.

With escape forbidden, even clearing the first floor had been a struggle. As if having the difficulty locked to Extreme weren't miserable enough.

I had to live with the anxiety of not knowing what dangers waited. Climbing every floor meant staking my life on it.

"…Hoo."

I had to climb ready to die. And I didn't even have a way to check my own power.

Who wouldn't be afraid of that? If I'd just had money, I never would have climbed the Tower — never would have wanted to awaken at all.

…I wish I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could freeload like the other hunters.

I entered the Tower carrying my tension with me. Fortunately, there was no one around.

I hadn't shown this humiliating appearance to a single soul. That alone gave me the strength to get through today.

Swallowing my fear, I stepped into the Tower, where the end was nowhere in sight.

Did the choice even mean anything? Once I'd already decided to climb, the right to choose was never mine to begin with.

"Please."

Let me run into some easy enemies today. I suffered enough in the tutorial — just let me clear the first floor a little more comfortably.

"Hup."

My mana was under control — no problems there. I remembered the sensation of channeling power into the staff. The moment the transfer hit, I'd be ready to fire. I waited for the numbers overhead to count down.

When the display hit zero, tall-grown trees began to appear inside the Tower that had been nothing but darkness. It didn't take long to realize I was looking at a forest.

It looked exactly as I'd heard. An endless, dense forest. The goal of this floor, supposedly, was to exterminate the goblins that infested it.

…I'd have to actually believe that first.

Even the tutorial had been different. The difficulty forced on me was Extreme — a setting no ordinary awakener would ever choose. Let your guard down just because it was Floor 1, and you'd be saying goodbye to the world in an instant.

I gripped my staff with trembling hands. Taking a few shallow breaths, I surveyed my surroundings.

"This is…"

Right beside me, a blue-tinged mana drifted in the air — a peculiar kind I hadn't seen in the tutorial. It became a guidepost, pointing me in the direction I needed to go.

I followed it without questioning. Before long the mana grew fainter, losing its form, as if it had finished its job.

"It's so dark…"

The place that mysterious guidepost had led me to was a thicket of shade woven from countless interlocking branches. Sunlight barely reached it at all.

It was the kind of place where something could easily be hiding — and the kind of place you had no choice but to enter if you wanted to clear this floor.

It matched the guides I'd seen on the gallery perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it was almost suspicious. Step into the shade, take out the goblins lying in ambush, and Floor 1 was done.

This seems way too easy…

Of course, I still had no real confidence I could cast magic. I'd only absorbed some inexplicable sensation. There was no reason to relax just because they were "only goblins."

With escape forbidden, even stepping into that shade was something I ought to hesitate over.

"…It'll be fine, right?"

My tension eased in a strange way. Those disgusting green faces somehow felt almost reassuring. Goblins were like that, weren't they?

Monsters you could take down with a single whack of a staff to the head. Weak little things that even beginners massacred without breaking a sweat.

"I can handle this somehow."

I had the delusion that today, of all days, climbing the Tower would be easy. Without a second thought, I walked into the shade — lighthearted, almost careless.

However.

About ten minutes after I'd entered the shade, dozens of small goblins stood waiting for me, drooling.

"Hiek…!"

I knew something had gone terribly wrong the moment I saw those vile lower halves.

"Nooo…!"

It took less than a second. I chose to run without looking back. The idea of trying magic wasn't even on the table anymore.

Shit. What the hell is that. What even is that. Why are there so many goblins. Why are they smiling like that.

"Why are you doing this to me!"

Hearing those disgusting goblin cries, I'd meant to try casting something first — but there were just too many of them. I'd seen something so shocking right in front of my face that my mind nearly short-circuited.

Stand still and you're done for. Get caught and you're getting violated…! At this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rate I'd meet a miserable end…

My thoughts froze. I couldn't reclaim my reason. The only thing filling my head was the need to get away from them. Those drooling, grinning monsters made me feel a threat to my chastity itself.

Kieeek!

Kekek—!

Even now I could hear that nauseating laughter. Even after I'd broken free of the shade, I couldn't shake the goblins' pursuit. The laughter of males delighted by the sight of a woman. Goblin cries that triggered a visceral revulsion.

"Are you out of your goddamn minds!"

Even the space I could flee through was limited. My stamina was hitting its limit. This soft body, which had never been trained a day in its life, couldn't keep running for long.

The moment I realized that, a sliver of composure returned. They say people put out three times their strength when they're about to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forced into something. That was exactly the state I was in right now.

I needed a way to take these goblins down. Only one method came to mind — using that Nejeri Shining Star skill, or whatever it was called.

"Ugh!"

After putting some distance between myself and the goblins, I tried to release the mana stored in my staff.

"Stay away from me!"

I screamed in a thin, delicate voice — the cry of a terrified girl ringing through the air. The goblins didn't stop moving. If anything, they seemed to enjoy watching me resist, their laughter growing even more grotesque.

"This is disgusting."

So this was how unpleasant it was. Facing someone who wanted to put their hands on your body — this was how terrifying it could be.

"…I have no choice but to try."

I couldn't be sure of anything. Awakening, the Tower — everything was unknown to me. And in this very moment, I was still in danger.

Even so, all I could do was trust the experience from back then. Recreating the magic that had killed the tutorial boss was the only way to survive here.

The staff I raised overhead glittered. The mana I'd poured in earlier wasn't enough. What I needed was an even stronger light — power enough to blow them all away.

"Please."

I poured blue mana from my body and condensed all of it into the gem on the staff. The blue jewel sparkled as if answering. Then beams of light began to spill from the gem. Stars that would burn everything circled around me.

It was a genuinely pleasant sensation. This moment when anxiety turned into certainty felt wonderful.

I aimed the staff at the goblins. Flames of pure mana concentrated into a single point. Suppressing my shame… I repeated yesterday's line once more.

"Nejeri Shining Star…!"

Brilliant stars exploded into the goblins that had been charging at me. The tiny stars circled around them, then burst into flame one after another.

They groaned in agony in turn. As their cries faded, they gradually lost their original forms, leaving nothing but black ash on the ground.

"Haa…"

Only when I heard the Tower's mechanical voice did I finally relax and sink to the ground.