[3 Hours later].
[Kitsuna POV]
"Well, Kayda wasn't wrong when she said devil-related things give a lot of experience," I muttered, leaning back in my ice chair at the top of my tower, arms folded as I stared at the glowing number on my status screen. Level forty-nine. Just one more and I'd break fifty. The chair creaked faintly under my weight, and beside me my glorious railgun hummed softly, its barrel steaming slightly in the cool night air.
I grinned at it. "Heh, still awesome."
My grin faded as I looked down. "Sigh, forget about that. It's been easy after the dumb pup finally got his adventurers doing their jobs properly."
From up here I could see almost everything. Roughly three hundred had started the fight—right now maybe a hundred were still on their feet, flinging spells or loosing arrows through the fence. The other two hundred sprawled across the grass in little clumps, some resting, some nursing wounds, others just staring blankly at the battlefield as if they couldn't believe they were still alive. My fence crackled faintly, black lightning sparking along its icy wire. More than a thousand thralls had already died to its bite.
"Ooh, another seeker," I murmured, spotting a pile of rocks rolling unnaturally out of the summoning fire. I shifted the railgun into place, its weight comforting against my shoulder as I aimed. "Come on, come on, show me the eye…"
Boom!
The shot lit up the night like a second sun, shattering the rocks and the creature hidden inside them. I smirked. "There we—ugh!" My victory grin twisted into a grimace as pain lanced through my head. "A headache now!?"
I dropped the gun, clutching my temples. A moment later, my back flared like fire. "Agh, fuck, now my back hurts too. What the hell is going on?" I shouted, doubling over, my face pressed against the icy floor. My claws dug grooves in it as I trembled.
Time blurred. Maybe seconds, possibly minutes. The pain kept rising, crawling through my veins like molten lead. And beneath it, something worse—an urge. My throat vibrated, my chest tightening with the overwhelming need to roar. Not from the pain. From something else. An instinct was clawing its way out from my core.
"This… what is this?!" I hissed, sweat dripping down my face. "Fuck… hold it in. Can't let them know. Grrr…"
My teeth ground together, jaw aching.
"Ugh… roar—" The sound broke from me anyway, half growl, half whimper. Heat flushed my cheeks in embarrassment, even as my body shook. And then it hit—information. Like a river pouring straight into my skull, drowning me in knowledge I hadn't earned.
"Fuck—rawr!" Another humiliating noise ripped out of me as more of it filled me: blueprints, diagrams, the very structure of weapons and how they interfaced with magic, how to reinforce steel with mana, how to bend fire into a blade, and how to make lightning carve its own circuit. Then came magic itself. How it moved. How it wanted to move. How to coax it to dance more smoothly, more brutally.
'What is this? Why am I getting this info? Wait. No way. Is this… how we get classes?' My lungs burned. My fingers dug into my thighs as I pulled up my status.
Status
Name: Kitsuna Draig (Shiro Adachi)
Age: 14 (Immortal)
Race: Primordial 3-Tail Demon Fox
Bloodline: Primordial 9-Tail Fox
Gender: Female
Level: 51
Class: Weapon Sage (Wrath)
HP: 4,312 / 4,738
MP: 68,652 / 71,938
Str: 2,469
Vit: 2,369
Def: 1,969
Int: 35,969
End: 3,769
Agt: 4,169
Skills: Dimension Storage, Devil Fire, Devil Lightning, Fox Ice, Analysis, Short Distance Teleport, Sword Domain, Mana Sense, Fox Golden Lightning, Fox Golden Fire, Healing
Passive: Heightened Senses, Soul Regeneration, Eyes of Intimidation, Human Form, Mana Tails, Night Vision
Tail Abilities: Clone, Spiritual Magic, Illusion Magic, LOCKED
"Huh, three tails? Rawr." Another noise slipped out, making me want to bury myself in the ice out of shame. "That is such an embarrassing sound."
Sure enough, when I twisted around, three fluffy tails swished behind me. So, that's why my back hurt. I was growing new tails.' I dragged them around to the front, staring like an idiot before stroking them experimentally. Silky. Warm. Too fluffy. My cheeks burned harder.
"Hmm. Weapon Sage? I also got a class. Never even heard of it. Must be like Weapon Master, just with a sage twist." My voice dropped into a growl without my permission. "Grrr."
I frowned. "Oh, my tails give me abilities? That… wait. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY MANA? How is it over seventy thousand!? Rawr!!" My voice broke into another humiliating roar.
"This is… embarrassing." I slapped my face, groaning. "Mana Tails? What the hell is that? Ugh, whatever, I'll just hide them with illusion for now. Apricot said to use it like this, right?"
I pushed mana around me, weaving it into my fur. Slowly the three tails shimmered, merging into one again.
"There! All good," I said, dusting my hands.—
"Kitsu."
"Eh!? FUCK!" I yelped, nearly falling off the chair as Kayda's voice cut through the air.
She landed lightly beside me, eyes sharp. "What happened? What was that mana spike?" She grabbed my arms without hesitation, turning me this way and that, scanning me like a healer.
"Mana spike? Rawr?" I tilted my head, ears twitching.
"Yeah. Your mana spiked sky-high just now." Kayda didn't let go, her fingers pressing into my shoulders and my sides, searching for injury.
"You… you could feel that? Rawr," I mumbled, my cheeks heating again.
"Yes. It's a dragon's innate skill. By the way…" She leaned closer, brow furrowed. "What's with the sound effects?"
"Uh… I've never heard of that skill," I quickly deflected the question. "Anyway~, I became a sage!" I grinned, puffing out my chest, desperate to steer the topic elsewhere.
Her eyes widened, and then she slapped a palm over her face. "That's… wonderful. Wait, no—that's terrible. You have got to be kidding me. Your mother's going to kill me."
"A Weapon Sage, haha!" I couldn't help but laugh, even as Kayda gave me the flattest look possible.
"...You're hopeless," she muttered.
"Come on, it's an upgrade. I didn't get the class I wanted, but hey, sage sounds fancier."
"Sigh. Seriously, you made me worry for nothing." Kayda dropped onto her butt, exhaling hard.
"Hey, you can't relax now." I jabbed a finger toward the fortress. "We still need to finish this."
"It's fine. You can rest if you need to. We'll help."
"Are you sure those lousy adventurers can work without us?" I asked skeptically, arching an eyebrow.
She smirked. "Well, they had a rude awakening while you were out for ten minutes."
"Ten minutes? Was it really that long?"
"Yes. Luckily no rock seekers appeared. "But I could handle them if they had appeared," she added smugly, her wings flexing.
I smiled despite myself. "But others did, right?"
"Yeah. But it won't matter for much longer. The summoning's dying down." She gestured toward the fortress.
Sure enough, only about eighty thralls remained inside the burning circle, most dissolving as fast as they emerged.
"Jip," she said, "but do you have an idea how to stop it now?" Her gaze turned expectant.
A grin tugged at my lips. "Oh, this might be the perfect time to use it." Rawr."
"There it is again—the sound effect," Kayda muttered, exasperated.
"I said proudly, ignoring her, that I wanted to evaluate my new elements."
Her jaw dropped. "You… got MORE elements!?"
"Well, not new. Just… different," I shrugged, standing.
"If you say so…"
"Let's see what happens," I murmured, closing my eyes. My left hand rose, fingers curling like I gripped a bowstring. Energy surged.
Zap!
Golden lightning arced into form, shaping into a gleaming bow of crackling light. A string hummed into existence, and when I pulled back, a shaft of pure white ice formed, the arrowhead glimmering with frost.
"Golden lightning?" Kayda whispered.
"Yeah. Golden fox lightning," I said, focusing. My chest thrummed with excitement.
"Now blossom, my rose. Growl." The words slipped out before I could stop them, my stupid tick ruining the drama. I loosed the arrow anyway, sending it screaming straight into the fortress.
The world went white-blue.
Crack—BOOM!
Sprinkles of ice glittered through the smoke.
"Screeeeek." Thralls shrieked as the flames began to freeze, their forms locking solid before shattering. Black fire turned pale and brittle, consumed by the frost spreading outward.
"What the hell is happening!?" an adventurer shouted, his voice breaking.
"I don't know, but it's overpowering the black fire!" another yelled.
"Look at the middle!" A third was pointed, wide-eyed.
There, at the very center of the fortress, an ice branch was growing. Thick, crystalline, three meters wide, climbing skyward. At its tip, a massive bud swelled, pulsing with light.
"That's a flower bud?" A woman breathed, astonished.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! That's what it looks like!"
"You can't be serious—"
"I am! A Northern Ice Rose. Poisonous for humans and animals, but some monsters eat it for power. They only bloom once every hundred years." She stood tall, lecturing like a scholar to her baffled peers.
"Sacyr, nobody gives a fuck! Will it kill us or not!?" someone yelled back.
"Uh… maybe? Depends how far the ice spreads." She glanced nervously at the frost already racing across the ground.
"Fuck, we need to run!"
"Wait—look, it stopped," she pointed. The ice halted just a meter shy of the fence, as if respecting its boundary.
The adventurers sagged in relief, muttering among themselves.
"They sound so useless," I said flatly, watching them gape like children at a festival.
"Kitsu, they aren't like you," Kayda chided gently. "Not everyone can analyze things instantly."
"No, it's not that," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Look to the right."
She followed my gaze. Her face hardened. A group of twenty-three thralls had slipped through a weak point, tearing into adventurers who hadn't even noticed. Screams rose, and steel clanged desperately.
"Sigh. Losing focus in battle… You're just asking to die," Kayda muttered in disgust.
"My point," I said coolly. My gaze drifted back to the towering rose, now unfurling its petals in slow, majestic bloom.
"Well," Kayda admitted, awe in her voice, "I like your spell. Strong, beautiful. How much mana?"
"Tch. Forty-three thousand. High cost, but worth it. And…" My lips curled. "It's not done yet."
Her head whipped toward me. "There's more!?"
"Of course. You know I love going overboard," I said, smiling, and snapped my fingers.