Chapter 70: A Mistake or Misfortune? (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 70: A Mistake or Misfortune? (1)
We visited the Celestial Pavilion every day, and Rin learned a few more magic tricks besides shapeshifting.
With her new skills, all she needed was experience. We prepared to head out and get some.
“Are you heading out?”
“Yes, Rin and I are going to the forest for a bit. Aren’t you coming with us, Seira?”
Seira no longer shadowed my every move. She had other duties, and I was no longer a person of major concern.
I thought that was why she wasn’t coming, but Seira brought up something else entirely.
“Today is the day of the full moon. On the day of the full moon, the wolf beastkins are given special leave.”
“Does it make you feel unwell?”
“Our wild instincts intensify. Especially if we smell blood. I can control it to some extent, but it’s better to be cautious. I plan on staying in my room today, so you don’t need to look for me. No, you must not come.”
“Understood. We’ll be back later, so please get some rest.”
After Seira saw us off, we left the city.
The place we went to was a swamp we often visited.
Slimes crawled along the ground.
Rin stood in the center of the swamp, her fox orb floating in the air.
“Huhu, you wicked slimes. After an age of suffering, the time for my revenge has finally come.”
“They’ve never done anything to you.”
“Do not interfere, Mastah.”
It seemed she was really getting into character.
Since she was so immersed, I decided not to bother her.
Rin focused, using the magic she had learned from Yuhwa. Her fox orb began to shimmer.
Fwoosh.
Three blue fox fires appeared.
“Amaterasu.”
“Where did you learn that word?”
“Mastah.”
Sheesh. I guess I must have let something slip while raising this gumiho.
It seemed too late, but I decided I should watch my mouth from now on.
Rin’s fox fires flew toward the slimes. They stuck to the slowly writhing creatures and burned them to a crisp.
The slimes squirmed, screaming silently. Soon, all their mucus evaporated, and they vanished without a trace.
Rin tossed her head, her hair flying.
“Hah, I have become too powerful. What do you think, Mastah? Wasn’t Rin cool?”
“Hmm, at least you won’t get dirty anymore. I guess we don’t need to buy you a new dress.”
“That’s not the point! This is when you’re supposed to say I was cool!”
“You were totally cool.”
“Too late!”
Hmph! Rin snorted and turned her head away.
The entrance to the forest posed no threat to the current Rin. We decided to head deeper inside to build up her spiritual power and gain more practical experience.
I trailed behind Rin, who walked ahead, holding her orb.
“Do you have to carry that fox orb around all the time?”
“Nope. Gwanny taught me how to put it away.”
Rin clenched her fist, and the fox orb vanished with a soft shrrk. When she opened her hand again, it reappeared with a pop. It seemed there was no risk of her losing it.
Just then, Rin, who was walking ahead, started sniffing the air.
“Mastah, I smell blood. There’s something up ahead.”
Just as Rin said, a pack of wolves appeared.
But they were huge.
Their fur was a dark, reddish-brown, as if caked with dried blood. They had four eyes, and their mouths were torn open at the corners, revealing all their molars in a grotesque display.
“Gasp. Mastah, it’s Seira!”
“If you say that in front of Seira, you’ll get scolded. Not all wolves are Seira.”
They were monsters classified as yokai called Blood Wolves. Since Vestia is a nation of beastkin, most of the monsters here are animal-shaped.
Blood Wolves are rather tricky monsters to fight. Being wolves, they naturally form packs, and they’re in a state similar to a berserker’s, so they don’t go down easily.
As a three-tailed fox, Rin should be able to win without much trouble, but we couldn't let our guard down.
“Rin, be careful. These are different from the things you’ve fought so far.”
“Worry? Nope. Just cheer for me unconditionally.”
With that confident declaration, Rin fanned out her three tails and leaped into the fray.
Having grown proficient in using her spiritual power, Rin could now unleash a variety of techniques, not just simple magic.
Rin charged, slashing at the air with her claws. Sharp, claw-shaped slashes rushed toward the Blood Wolves, slicing them and the trees behind them to pieces.
A continuous flurry of scratches followed. The Blood Wolves were diced into chunks and fell.
“My, my, this is so boring I could die.”
“It’s not over yet.”
“Eh?”
The butchered corpses of the Blood Wolves began to squirm and slowly rise.
A passive ability of the Blood Wolves.
They revive once even after death.
It was as if the severed upper and lower halves of their bodies had a life of their own. The lower halves moved without torsos, spilling blood and guts from their severed cross-sections.
“Hyaak! Mastah! Rin doesn’t like that!”
“But you like meat. It’s fresh meat.”
“Are you blind, Mastah?! That’s not meat!”
Even I had to admit it was disgusting.
In the game, they revived in their original form even after dying, but now that this was reality, they moved while still dead. It was a truly grotesque sight.
As if unwilling to be touched by even a single drop of blood, Rin summoned her fox fire and incinerated the Blood Wolves. The sound and smell of sizzling, grilling meat filled the air.
While Rin burned the Blood Wolves, I scanned our surroundings.
‘We haven’t gone deep enough for Blood Wolves to appear.’
The Blood Wolves’ territory is the Forest of the Crimson Night field. It’s a dangerous zone where dead wolves are resurrected in a forest filled with the reek of blood.
But this was still a green forest. We were a long way from where Blood Wolves were supposed to appear.
‘Hmm…’
I had a bad feeling about this.
“Rin, let’s head back now.”
“No, Mastah. Rin can handle it.”
“There’s no need to push ourselves…”
“Mastah, you don’t trust Rin?”
Rin asked in a serious voice, devoid of her usual theatrics. This wasn’t a simple question; it was a matter of mutual trust.
That made it difficult to insist on turning back.
“Sigh. Alright. With you here, I suppose it’s fine to go a little further. But we have to head back before sunset.”
“Okay! Got it!”
*
As we went deeper, we encountered more monsters, and Rin dispatched them all with ease, facing no danger whatsoever.
With a mere flick of her fox fire, the monsters burned away helplessly. The scent of the forest was replaced by the smell of char.
A perpetual motion machine: consuming spiritual power to kill monsters, then absorbing their essence to recover that power. Drunk on her own strength, Rin even started humming.
Our advance was unstoppable. The only problem was that Karami, who was out of shape, was slowly running out of stamina.
‘We really should go now.’
As evening approached, the atmosphere of the forest began to change.
It was time for nocturnal beasts and monsters to become active. Perhaps because we were near the Forest of the Crimson Night, a red mist had appeared, creating an ominous mood.
Karami didn’t like scary things.
“Rin, let’s go back.”
“Whyyy?”
“The sun will set soon. And I’m getting tired.”
“Mastah, you need to exercise more!”
“I have to spend that time liberating even one more slave. Or you could give me a ride.”
Rin gave Karami a pathetic look.
I could understand if other people looked at me that way, but not you. You’re in no position to be sighing at anyone.
That’s what Karami thought, but like a mature adult, he decided to let it go with magnanimity.
“Let’s go. Seira will worry if we’re any later.”
“Okayyy.”
The two of them turned around and started back the way they came.
Awoooooo.
A wolf’s howl echoed through the forest. From the dark undergrowth, dozens of pairs of bestial eyes glinted.
Sure enough, the forms that slowly emerged were Blood Wolves.
“Rin?”
“Eh?”
“It looks like we’re surrounded. Didn’t you notice?”
“Well… the smell of smoke hurt my nose, so I didn’t notice.”
“Sigh…”
“B-but it’s fine! This’ll be over in a flash, a flash!”
Fwoosh!
Rin’s fox fires shot out in all directions, targeting the Blood Wolves. I thought she would burn them down easily like before, but then something unexpected happened.
One of the Blood Wolves leaped forward and blocked a fox fire. That wasn’t all. It ran around, wreathed in blue flames, deliberately taking every hit.
Beasts are normally afraid of fire, but this one seemed to feel neither fear nor even pain.
“Rin, don’t stop. Keep firing.”
“R-right.”
A flustered Rin produced a large number of fox fires and launched them. The Blood Wolves tried to block them by sacrificing their bodies, but it was meaningless. Rin’s spiritual power was inexhaustible.
The same went for the Blood Wolves’ revival. Their bodies were still on fire, and they turned to ash the moment they revived. We were able to wipe them out without any trouble.
Was it because she was flustered? Rin hadn’t controlled her power, launching an excessive amount of fox fire, and the flames spread to the forest. The woods were painted over in blue flames.
The blue flames soared toward the sky.
The tips of the flames seemed to be pointing at something.
What the flames pointed to was the full moon.
The blood mist acted like a filter, making it look like a crimson moon.
Today was the day of the full moon.
The full moon that increased a wolf’s ferocity.
And we were currently near the Forest of the Crimson Night, the Blood Wolves’ territory.
FWOOOOSH!
It was then that a thick stench of blood washed over us.
Unsurprisingly, a Blood Wolf appeared. But this one had six eyes, two more than a normal one. It even stood on two legs, and despite its hunched back, it was tall, easily two and a half meters.
It was a Blood Wolfman, the boss monster of the Forest of the Crimson Night.
“M-Mastah. It’s a real Seira.”
“Not all wolfmen are the same.”
Both Seira and the Blood Wolfman were wolf beastkin, but they were clearly different. That thing was a monster.
‘This one’s a bit iffy.’
A Blood Wolfman was the absolute limit of what Rin, a three-tailed fox, could handle without much trouble. But right now, the full moon was out. The Blood Wolfman’s stats would have skyrocketed.
“Rin, there’s no need to fight it. Let’s retreat. Give me a piggyback ride.”
“No. This is a battle of pride. To show my back is a disgrace to all foxes. The current Rin is invincible.”
Completely ignoring Karami’s words, Rin created a fox fire and threw it at the Blood Wolfman.
The Blood Wolfman lowered its body. Planting its hands on the ground, it assumed the hunting posture of a wild beast. Its hind legs bulged before it kicked violently off the ground.
It moved at a speed that Karami, a layman in combat, couldn’t follow. The fox fire also failed to catch up, merely chasing its tail.
The Blood Wolfman rampaged through the forest. It paused for a moment, planting its foot on a tree, then launched its heavy, iron-like body at Rin.
KWAANG!
A tree shattered. Its blood-red mane whipped wildly through the air. It closed the distance in an instant and swung its hideous forepaw.
It was perhaps the first time Rin had ever faced an attack filled with true killing intent. She could have panicked, but her reaction was swift. She dodged lightly with her fox-like flexibility.
Then, Rin clenched her fist tightly. Pink spiritual power coiled around her right hand. Concentrating the power into her fist, Rin unleashed a straight punch.
POW!
Struck directly in the abdomen, the Blood Wolfman’s body exploded like a balloon, splattering blood and flesh in all directions.
It took just one punch.
One punch was all it took.
Rin’s strength, enhanced by becoming a slave, had far surpassed Karami’s expectations.
“Honestly, Mastah, you worry too much!”
Seeing Karami’s stunned expression, Rin turned her head back, excited for his praise.
“Huh?”
Karami groaned and staggered. He hunched over, clutching his abdomen with both hands. A large claw was embedded in it.
It was the Blood Wolfman’s claw. Its foot, which had been farthest from the point of impact, was relatively intact compared to the rest of its body.
And of all places, that foot had flown right where Karami was standing.
It was, without a doubt, misfortune.