Not having shoes is worse than grinding

I woke up after fainting. I feel so good now; I'm so happy and calm. I almost don't remember why I got so bad before.

— What the hell? Did I sleep a whole day? —

I can be sure of this by seeing the position of the sun almost in the same place it was before I fell asleep, but the weather is very different from before.

How absurd! Why would something like that happen to me when my life is perfect the way it is now and I am immensely happy? It just seems like I have been tired, and it was just a bad dream.

Even so, the feeling in my chest still hasn't completely gone away, and I feel like something isn't right. I'd better take a bath to clear my head.

I took off my belt, left it on the shore, and Gor extended our link, allowing me to enter the lagoon slowly.

—This is cold and unpleasant. —

I'd better warm it up a bit, and since I'm quite far from the ruins, there's not such a rush.

I conjure a fireball and supercharge it with 24 additional mana points, keeping it floating in the center of the lagoon, almost touching the surface of the water.

After more than an hour, I finally see how the lagoon begins to release a bit of steam; now it is much more pleasant to bathe.

The feeling of being covered in water was very comforting, and after properly cleaning my entire body and removing all the dried blood stains, I finally feel like a civilized lady again.

—This feels so good. —

Gor decided to leave the device completely, and next to the steaming lagoon, he watches me motionless while I bathe.

He seems curious about what I'm doing; for him, it must be something absurd and unnecessary.

Gor slowly approaches one of his "hands" to the water and touches it, withdraws his tentacle, and then gives a strong blow near the shore, splashing water everywhere, including me.

— Gor, this lady will be dirty if you splash water with mud on her. —

Gor ignores my comment and puts a tentacle under the water, then takes it out and observes it carefully, watching as the water runs over the surface.

At least it doesn't seem to bother him, but he quickly loses interest and slips back into the dimensional matrix.

When I finished my bath, the dress was finally dry. It looks clean and almost wrinkle-free, but it still reeks of holy energy.

— The best way to eliminate the remains of holy energy would be to imbue them with demonic energy. —

I immediately dismiss the idea; the last thing I want to do for those little animals is made it easier for them to detect my true nature.

— I guess I'll have to put up with it; I hope to get used to it soon. —

I lament as I carefully put on the dress so as not to tear it.

— I need shoes. —

I reflect, looking at my bare feet. In fact, I need many things that I have to get somehow.

It would have been great, and I would have even been inclined to spare the life of one of the creatures that invaded my home if she had also left me a pair of shoes as an offering.

But only if these were, of course, beautiful and comfortable. My benevolence has its limits.

It would be very strange and suspicious if a lady as beautiful and delicate as me was seen walking barefoot in the middle of the forest.

— I remember there was a serf village near these ruins. —

I almost died walking through this forest alone when I was younger.

After walking for just a few hours, I had enough time to remember and reflect on how foolish and careless I was six years ago.

Gosh, I was incredibly close to dying and missing out on the opportunity to meet the true love of my life.

I guess I was lucky not to be attacked by any monsters during the six days of walking to the ruins; just like now, the monsters simply walked away from me. It's like Gor was protecting me before we even met.

The fate statistic is actually supposed to be a tangible, quantifiable display of the affection the gods have for a human being.

The wise and great thinkers of the empire always believed that the higher your fate, the greater your luck. It is a proven fact that people with high fate tend to live longer.

But they were wrong; even I, with such a low fate, had incredible luck, and now that mine has reached zero, contrary to the prejudices of those bitter old men, my luck is the best I have ever had in my two lives.

— Let's leave those philosophical issues for later. —

I accelerated the pace until I ended up running as fast as my legs would allow me. They don't look strong at all, but I still managed to run much faster than I would have been able to when I was in the army, even though at that time I was a young man, trained, and fit.

On the way I see a monster, it is the well-known "Tyrant of the Forest." If I had to compare it with something, it would be a sort of very big and ugly brown bear, with dark brown fur, very large fangs coming out of his mouth, and claws six inches long.

He looks very dangerous and threatening, but I don't feel the slightest threat from him; I feel like I'm seeing a bunny.

It's a good time to check how strong I really am. My stats are high, but there are many factors that influence a fight.

Of course, I could cast another night sun on the forest, but apart from the fact that I may not be able to kill almost anything, I would be begging to be killed while I cast it, creating even more future problems for myself.

I cannot rely solely on a skill that is so expensive in mana usage, destructive, and slow to cast. While my husband, Gor, covers the defense, I also do not want to become overly dependent on him in future battles, so I must learn to defend myself.

I approached the monster slowly, creating a wind bubble around me to hide any kind of smell.

I want to test my physical abilities, so I'll better try to use melee attacks. I ask Gor to pass me my dagger; it's not the same as a bayonet, but I think I still remember some of my basic training about how to use a knife.

My stealth skills are almost non-existent, so the monster became aware of my presence long before I was close enough to attack.

It's so funny that when he noticed my presence, the first thing he did was turn around and run with his chubby paws.

He didn't hesitate for a second and just started running as if his life depended on it; he's not wrong about that.

— As if you could escape from me. —

I reached him without any difficulty; I jumped on him. With one hand, I held his head, and with the other, I was ready to slip my dagger around his neck, but I overestimated myself.

In fact, I greatly overestimated my physical capabilities since I couldn't move his head enough to expose his neck and slit his throat. The monster shook, and I flew away, not having enough strength to hold me up over him.

After seeing that, the monster seemed to gain some confidence and lunged at me to attack, but before I could prepare any spell to defend myself, I saw how he literally exploded in a mass of blood and flesh, hearing a powerful sonic boom that left my ears ringing.

+Exp

/Error/

+level up

/Error/

The person responsible for that was one of the tentacles of my beloved Gor, of course.

— Thanks, darling, but I could have dealt with him on my own. —

I feel very ashamed and pathetic for failing so miserably, so I rule out the idea of fighting meele, at least for now.

Gor comforts me with a buzzing in my head and encourages me, but I'm still not happy.

To let off steam, I slowly killed the next monster I encountered using diverse types of magic. I calmly watched as he screamed and writhed.

Seeing the pain reflected in his eyes made me feel so good, and when he lost all hope, a chill ran through my body. It was so satisfying.

It was as if he was begging me to kill him, but I denied him a quick and easy death. I waited and waited until his body stopped bleeding and he finally died.

— Since when have I been so cruel and sick? I'm a fucking psychopath. —

I still believe I have empathy towards some people, so at least I think I'm not a complete psychopath yet.

Doing something like that would have disgusted and horrified me before, but I guess it's normal for a demon like me to find satisfaction in the suffering of others.

After all, I deserve a little fun, and Gor doesn't seem to mind, so why not treat myself a little?

Plus, I'm doing them a favor by killing the monsters that roam the forest.

— Of course, that's just why I do it, as it turns out I'm still a merciful noble lady instead of just a madwoman who kills monsters for her pleasure. —

My next victim is an insectoid-looking monster; it has compound eyes, and two of what should be its legs look like parts of blades.

It's a very ugly and disgusting bug. I don't have the slightest idea what it's called; I've never seen it before, but I don't feel like it's a big threat to me.

I have to kill him without getting any kind of bodily fluid splashed on me, or I'll die of disgust. I'm sure of that.

I never liked bugs, even when I was a man. I wasn't afraid of them, but I did dislike them a lot. Like Victoria, my level of disgust was to give a little scream when I saw one.

Now that I think about it, isn't that a big problem for an explorer? It's not like ancient ruins or tombs are going to be clean and bug-free; I almost died of disgust camping for almost a week in the forest.

Even though six years ago not even mosquitoes bit me, everything inexplicably seemed to avoid me as if I were something poisonous or toxic that they had to avoid at all costs.

I wasn't that ugly, you know?

Anyway, I'm distracted from the topic; I have to kill that big and nasty bug. The best way to do it is with a blow to the head, but that would be very boring.

How can I incapacitate him without killing him with a single hit?

One option would be to burn him badly so that, being overwhelmed by pain, he can't escape, but I would like to test the effectiveness of some spells that just occurred to me.

I like space magic, but it is an extremely rare type of magic that I know almost nothing about. It would be a shame to use it only to make barriers or compound spells.

From what I know about space, it is closely linked to time, but since in theory you can't modify time with magic, I suppose I couldn't do something like divide space and cut something with space magic either.

But would it be possible to increase the gravity? From what I remember, gravity was the interaction between two or more things with mass, so no, it would not be possible to increase the gravity of any being with mana, except perhaps myself.

Could portals or things like that be created? Gor can get into a dimensional matrix, so I imagine it can be done even though I have no idea how it works; at most, I just know how to activate the artifact.

I'm starting to get frustrated again because something that is so incredible in theory has so many fucking limitations... I can't directly alter whether a being possesses mana, but I could distort the space around them, for example, by diverting the direction in which they fall by changing their angular momentum?

If something like that could be done, it would be an impressive power, but I have never heard of any magician capable of something like that, so either it is not possible, it is a super secret weapon, or it is extremely difficult and no one has achieved it yet.

I'll have to consider the idea and do a lot of experiments to take advantage of my enormous affinity with space magic.

For now, let's focus on killing that thing. Although I can't separate something with mana using space magic, I can do it using brute force.

Just as a wind blade can cut someone in half, a space distortion "blade" could cut someone in half too, right?

I concentrate my mana and make it flow through my body slowly while maintaining the mental image of what I want to achieve. It is slow and difficult, but I am ready.

Concentrating as much as I can, I throw the "distortion blade" towards the creature's legs. It shoots out and cleanly cuts three of the monster's six legs, dissipating it when the spell hits the fourth, leaving only a superficial wound.

The bug notices my presence and, between screeches, tries to escape from me. I prepare another distortion blade and throw it at the monster, but it fails as it ends up dissipating after cutting a couple of trees along the way.

— I don't have many other options then. —

I cast a firebolt, overloading it, then compressed it and shot it like a cannonball at the maximum speed I could. It passes through part of the creature's body, making it lose control and fall to the ground.

I shot more firebolts at him until all the bug's legs were destroyed. It sucks to only be able to use two spells in real combat, except surprise attacks, but there's not much this lady can do about it.

I keep shooting small fire bolts at him with a very concentrated amount of mana on each one. One after another, quickly, until the bug stopped screaming and moving.

— It's not bad at all; it could serve as an attack against fast and agile enemies. —

I practice using overloaded fire bolts with the next monsters I encounter; it is very efficient and lethal and it feels somewhat familiar and nostalgic to me.

I cannot feel the recoil" like shooting them with an M4 carbine, I guess, because the ammunition has no mass, although I suppose that the projectile in this case, the firebolt, has a much greater caliber and destructive power than a fifty-cal projectile.

I smile and look at the corpse I recently made. I'm getting faster at casting this spell, and soon I'll be able to use it almost instantly. I make a gesture with one hand as if firing a gun and cast an overloaded firebolt into the trunk of a tree, leaving only a smoking hole.

— I would like to blow the heads of those who said that a firebolt was a basic and almost useless spell, used only for lowly commoners mages. —