A Fox's Temper
Just as twilight settles before the night arrives, so too did the first pale light of dawn slowly lift the darkness as night began to recede.
Night had not fully ended, and so the monsters remained as fierce as ever — yet as day drew nearer, those who had been lying low inside the fortress began forming parties, one by one, and making ready to venture out.
They should be here any minute now… and there they are.
Ho-jin, who had been checking the time on his system window, spotted a group of women approaching in the distance and raised a hand.
"Over here!"
"We're not late, are we?"
"No, no. I just got here myself."
The truth was that he had stopped by the equipment shop to have new gear fitted, then — with nothing left to do — had been parked in front of the fortress gate for quite some time. But Ho-jin kept that to himself and offered them a good-natured smile instead.
"Did you three rest well?"
"It wasn't particularly hard to begin with. It's just…"
"Just…?"
Yeon's voice trailed off as her gaze drifted somewhere off to the side, and Ho-jin's eyes followed.
There stood Choco, radiating a gloom even heavier than usual.
Don't tell me she's still mana-depleted? That would be a problem.
Ho-jin chose his next words with care.
"If you're still suffering from mana depletion, we could rest a little long—"
"Nay. That was resolved long ago. Thou needst not concern thyself with it."
"Then…"
Then why do you look like a thundercloud? The words rose as far as Ho-jin's throat before he swallowed them, smile still fixed in place, and leaned in to whisper to Yeon.
"Yeon? Why does Choco look like she's in such a foul mood?"
"Well… we don't really…"
"You don't know? But you were together the whole time."
"Are you interrogating Yeon right now?"
"I'm not interrogating anyone. I just need to know what's wrong so I can fix it."
There was a genuine note of grievance in Ho-jin's voice. And not without reason — no matter how anyone sliced it, the actual combat power of this party rested squarely on Choco's shoulders. A mage with a mana pool so vast it defied her level, capable of hurling dozens of fireballs without breaking a sweat, was visibly in a terrible mood. He could hardly just leave that alone.
If they dragged a sulking mage out on a hunt and she wiped the party instead of the monsters, that would be six precious hours down the drain.
Faced with something that was very nearly a plea, Pretty Cute let out a small sigh.
"We really don't know. Choco didn't tell Yeon either."
"Not even Yeon?"
"No."
"Hah…"
Ho-jin dragged a hand down his face. He had a younger sister of his own, so he was well acquainted with how temperamental a girl that age could be — but right now, that knowledge felt distinctly unhelpful.
Dawn was breaking in earnest, and the parties that had been holed up in the fortress were beginning to file out toward the forest, one after another. At first, no one had dared go out — the monsters had suddenly grown stronger, and night had compounded the problem — but it wouldn't be strange if some of them were starting to adapt and push forward. Among them, there might even be a party bold enough to challenge the boss.
No. Absolutely not.
What had been the point of revealing that this was an alt account, otherwise? The surprise event had to be finished by their side. No one else's.
Ho-jin turned to Choco with a look of grim resolve.
"What?"
"It's nothing…"
But the sharp glare she leveled at him made his resolve crumple on the spot. He dropped his gaze and looked away. Determination was all well and good, but he simply did not possess the guts to win a staring contest with a high school girl.
Choco watched him turn away without another word, then let out a long breath.
"Yeo has no intention of hindering the hunt. Idle worry is unnecessary."
"Ah — well, in that case…"
Unexpectedly cooperative. Ho-jin let the tension drain from his shoulders and looked around at the three of them.
"Since Choco says she's fine, we'll head into the forest now. But before we do, there's something I'd like to propose."
"Propose?"
"What would you say to Yeon, Cute, and myself hunting as a trio? Ah — I'm not suggesting we leave Choco out. We keep the same approach as before, but the smaller packs, we handle ourselves."
As he spoke, Ho-jin pulled his newly fitted gear from his inventory. A one-handed shield with a broader face than the targe he had been using, paired with an arming sword. It was a set that leaned closer to a damage dealer than a tank, but it still classified him as one — a sub-tank, if one wanted to be precise.
"It might be a little rough without BlueSky, but after watching Yeon and Cute fight, I'm confident. We can handle this without leaning too heavily on Choco's magic."
There was a secondary motive, too: lightening Choco's burden, even a little. That way, they might prevent another bout of mana depletion from sending her packing. From what he could tell, the aftereffects hit her harder than most. If she burned out again, she might do what everyone else did — level up just enough and move on to Grape Cave.
That cannot happen.
While Ho-jin was muttering this to himself, Yeon spoke up, her voice laced with worry.
"Can the three of us really manage?"
"More than enough. And honestly, what if we can't? Choco will back us up with magic if it comes to that. Right?"
"…"
"…Right, well, we'll take that as a yes!"
Truly, there is no deciphering a woman's heart.
Ho-jin swallowed a tear and looked to Yeon and Pretty Cute.
"All right. Let's try it."
Pretty Cute was the first to accept. She answered so readily that Yeon could only stare at her, a little dazed.
"Even you, Se-jin…"
"Yeon. I told you before — you're a skilled player. More than skilled enough."
"But…"
"Have some confidence. All right?"
"…When you put it like that, I can hardly refuse."
Yeon let out a long sigh and turned to Ho-jin.
"All right. Let's give it a try."
"I knew you two would come around. By the way — you've started speaking casually with each other? You were so stiff and formal before."
"Something came up."
Pretty Cute's prim little reply left Ho-jin scratching his head, privately marveling at how quickly women seemed to become friends.
"Well then, shall we — hm?"
He had been about to suggest they get moving when a sudden chill crawled over his skin, and he gave a small shiver.
Did someone just cast ice mag— hhk.
Ho-jin looked toward the source of the cold and swallowed hard.
Choco was staring at Yeon and Pretty Cute with dull, leaden eyes, giving off a chill so pronounced it went well beyond a bad mood. The air around her felt genuinely cold.
"W-well then! Off to the forest we go!"
That is a landmine. Do not touch it.
Ho-jin forced as much cheer into his voice as he could muster and strode ahead, accompanied by the uneasy thought that this hunt might prove a little more difficult than expected.
Choco watched the three of them fight, a fox-fire hovering in the air beside her.
"Yeon!"
At Ho-jin's call, Yeon pivoted as naturally as breathing and knocked aside the Kobold Warrior's blade as it came rushing in from behind. He had only spoken her name, and yet she had understood exactly what he meant. The kobold's head left its shoulders in a matter of seconds.
They had been in the forest for some time now. There had been no shortage of battles, and yet the number of times Choco had needed to step in directly could be counted on one hand — this, despite the fights having long since climbed into the double digits.
They had started with four. A Kobold Archer had spawned alongside them, but Choco had dealt with it, freeing the others to fight without watching for incoming arrows. The result had been a victory so easy it was almost absurd. Encouraged, Ho-jin had proposed adding one more enemy at a time.
Four became five with the addition of an archer. Five became six. And now the three of them were facing seven at once. There was not a trace of strain on any of their faces. If anything, a faint exhilaration seemed to be taking hold.
It showed most clearly in Yeon. With each fight, as the enemy numbers grew, she had begun to find her confidence — and little wonder. When battle broke out, the majority of the kobolds lost their lives to her blade. To still be shrinking and second-guessing herself after all that would have been the stranger thing.
Of course, it was not entirely her show. Ho-jin read the field with a wide view, calling orders at precisely the right moments and drawing the attention of multiple kobolds so that Yeon and Pretty Cute could fight unhindered. And Pretty Cute, for her part, had been whittling the enemy down at a pace that rivaled Yeon's own. It was only possible because all three pieces fit.
In a way, it was an ideal formation. A seasoned tank and two capable damage dealers, locking together with a synergy that bordered on the fantastic.
But the better the three of them meshed, the more something ugly twisted in Choco's gut.
Yeon finding her confidence and showing what she could do was a good thing — good for Choco, too. That Yeon could take comfort from someone other than her was equally fine. They had ended up traveling together by a series of accidents, but if Choco was being honest with herself, she and Yeon were nothing to each other. Not really.
And if she truly believed they were nothing to each other, there would be no reason for this sour, twisting feeling at all.
Choco closed her eyes and let her mind drift back to what had happened in the soldiers' barracks.
After putting on a performance in front of Se-jin, she had snapped that she was going to sleep and climbed onto the upper bunk, fully intending to do just that for the rest of the break. The spirit-power depletion had left her dizzy, and the aftermath had left her exhausted. But if she had simply fallen asleep, her spirit power would never have fully recovered, so she had settled in and begun circulating it through meditation. Originally a mana-recovery skill used by mages, it worked much the same with spirit power.
The murmur of conversation from below had reached her well into the meditation. What began as light talk had taken a heavier turn thanks to a slip of Yeon's tongue — and that was how Choco, eavesdropping entirely by accident, had learned why Yeon had been so reluctant to log out.
For a moment, she couldn't understand why Yeon would tell Se-jin something like that instead of her, the one who had been there longer. But the answer came quickly enough.
Wasn't there a saying about that? The harder a thing was to say, the harder it was to tell someone close to you.
Se-jin, whom they had only just met, was someone they wouldn't see again for a long while once this hunt was over. Unlike Yeon or herself, who all but lived inside the game, Se-jin had a life in the real world. So Choco could understand why Yeon couldn't bring herself to share something so difficult with the person she was stuck beside every waking hour.
She understood all of that. And yet, somehow, it still irritated her. She couldn't even say why. It wasn't as though any of it was beyond her comprehension.
The thought crossed her mind that perhaps this childlike body had made her thoughts childish to match — but even so, the irritation, once it had risen, refused to settle.
I'm already impulsive enough as it is…
Choco dragged a hand down her face and let out a long sigh. By then, the battle was already over. Another clean sweep, no one hurt.
"Choco! How was I? I'm getting better and better, don't you think?"
The girl who had lacked all confidence was gone without a trace. Yeon came bounding over with a bright voice, and behind her, Se-jin followed with a small, fond smile, as though she found the whole thing adorable.
The sight of them sent a petty, spiteful little surge through Choco, and she muttered in a voice gone suddenly curt.
"Aye. Thou art rather capable."
"Choco…?"
"We shall speak of it later. More of them approach yonder."
"Choco?"
Before Ho-jin could get another word out, Choco was already conjuring fox-fires.
One, then two — the lights rising into the air did not stop. By the time some twenty of them had bloomed overhead, she could feel her spirit power draining away in a great rush. But the irritation welling up inside her was harder to bear.
Irritating. All of it.
She flicked her hand, and the hovering fox-fires came pouring down. It looked for all the world like a meteor shower.
A deep rumble shook the earth as the fox-fires detonated one after another, as though the ground itself were quaking. The kobolds, reduced to nothing more than an outlet for her temper, vanished without even a chance to scream.
Only the oblivious system saw fit to announce the level-up to the four of them.