160-170

161 Unexpected visitors

"Follow me." Freja turned around, flicking her blonde hair back. Opening up a blood portal, Freja walked straight through and everyone else followed.

Appearing on top of a gate that was on the edge of the Freya forest, they all looked down to see a bunch of armed soldiers that resembled all the races Shaman and her group killed on their assasination mission.

"Uhh did we cause this?" Shaman instantly noticed this detail and could not help but suspect it was her fault for an army appearing at Freja's doorstep.

"Yes it was, but I wanted this to happen." Freja wore a sadistic smile, looking as if she was about to jump in and murder the army herself.

"Empress Freja! We have come to your forest to seek vengeance for our leaders. You dared have them killed and you shall face the consequences!" A half bear in rather extravagant armour was leading the marching army.

"Ara~ is that so, well I'm afraid I was not the one to murder them, but it was actually these 4 I have with me." Freja looked at Shaman who had a shocked face.

"Huh?" Shaman had no idea what Freja was thinking, throwing them under the bus like this. Suddenly a voice echoed through each of their heads.

'Do not worry I will make sure you don't get hurt, but I want you to beat their leader so I can take control over their army for myself.' Freja explained the plan to them and Shaman instantly felt relief that they were not being betrayed.

'Hang, how did they even get here, aren't there high tier beasts?' Clara interjects as she remembers that the forest is guarded by wild powerful beats.

.....

'I actually have control over the beasts so I let them through on purpose.' Freja's explanation had caused Shaman and the rest to feel a little annoyed as they were rather terrified when coming into the forest with Kiruya.

'Haha, I know what you are thinking, but I do not have full control, they just listen to me whenever I offer them a good meal, so realistically they could have been wiped out before they got here despite me shooing the beasts away.' Freja went into more detail, better explaining the circumstances of the Freya forest.

The half-bear leader, hearing Freja's declaration, signalled his commanders over and soon the murmuring of a heated discussion could be heard.

The leader then turned back towards the gate and exclaimed "If you are willing to let us have their heads, we shall leave. But if not we will take it as if you participated as well." The half-bear was rather happy about the outcome as he did not want to fight Freja, but due to a contract he and the other commanders are forced by oath to get revenge on whoever killed their masters.

"You sure can, but you are going to have to fight for it." Freja opened a portal beneath each of their feet and transported them in front of the commanders.

"Tch a simple duel will be no problem." The half-bear was okay with fighting for their heads.

Shaman quickly looked at each of the commanders and leader's status so she knew who was the strongest.

[Jorn]

Half-bear

Tier 7

[Perry]

Prey mantis

Tier 6

[Skald]

Eagle

Tier 6

[Ralpeal]

Crocodile

Tier 6

After examining each of their status, Shaman instantly knew who should be fighting who. Sending a message to each of them, Shaman wanted to make sure the fight was advantageous to them as much as possible.

Elysia was given the eagle, Clara the prey mantis and Silver the crocodile. Shaman was particularly worried about Silver, but she had made sure to say in her message to just hide if the fight was too much.

"Now who shall I take on." The half bear raised his mace, scanning each of the 4 opponents in front of him.

"It will be me." Shaman was unsure if she could win, but with her newfound element she believed that she stood a chance.

"The rest will fight your commanders." Shaman saw that Elysia, Clara and Silver got into position, each facing the commander Shaman assigned to them.

"You know what to do." Jorn turned to the rest of the commanders and each of them nodded. Perry had mantis claws, Skald had a bow and Repeal had claws. Each of them took a stance, ready to face their opponents.

"I hope you are ready to meet your end, you low-life scum." Jorn gripped his mace and was prepared to begin the duel.

***

The purple tipped 12 tail fox sat on her couch watching the scene unfold.

"It's a shame my little height gag fell apart because of my own blessing." The 12 tailed fox rested her chin on her hand while eating some fruit.

"Akrone, I know you wanted to tease the poor girl, but she clearly has a complex about it." A woman who was over 2 metres tall stood over Akrone with a rather exhausted look.

"You have to admit it was rather funny, but I can't use my powers anymore to help since this damn seal is taking all my energy to break." Akorne sat up and looked up at the extremely tall woman.

"You are not wrong, but just because you can imitate my powers does not mean you should. It's hard enough getting here to pay you a visit as is." The woman sighed as she already felt the connection getting weaker.

"At least you are only a projection! I am already stuck here, so I do what I can not to go insane from the lack of social interaction."

"Indeed, but I have to say you have chosen quite a unique one to follow." The tall woman took a look at the screen that showed Shaman and her group.

"Mhm. That old man transported her a few months ago and she is making great progress. It's also the reason why he sealed me since he didn't want me interfering, but I did anyway." Akrone giggled to herself, finding the situation rather funny.

"Well it's for a good reason, if you help her too much you will make her go insane." The woman rolled her eyes as if this had happened before.

"Yes, yes I know what I'm doing, I don't need to be constantly reminded. Besides, he knows I will break out soon and hasn't even bothered to stop me, so clearly he wants me to do something when I'm out." Akrone felt excited as she was itching to help Shaman and it was only a matter of time.

"There is no stopping you." The woman facepalmed as she knew it was pretty much a taboo for gods to help people.

"Hehe~ I already know she will be meeting us in a couple years so why not?" Akrone smirked as she was rather confident in Shaman's ability.

"I would not go too ahead of yourself, she still needs to beat that pope who has made a deal with an underworld god." The woman's face got serious as the mention of the underworld made the atmosphere tense.

*Sigh* "I am aware, I don't know how he was able to get in contact with one, but that tells me whoever it is must be strong." Akrone did not like that thought, but it was the main driving factor for her interference in Shaman's life.

"Well, hopefully Freja will be able to inherit the throne soon and become the new Lucifer, but I'm afraid she is refusing to go any further until she saves her best friend." The woman changed the view on the screen to Freja who was watching the fight down below.

"She acts as guardian for Shaman and her group at the moment, so I think it is good she hasn't gone yet, as they need a place where they can go back to. Just tell that withering husk to hold on for a bit longer." Akrone was rather glad for Freja's presence as it meant Shaman and her group would generally be safe.

"If he heard you say that, he would have dragged you down to the underworld." The woman sighed as Akrone just insulted one of the most powerful gods.

"He isn't here so no need to worry about the devil himself." Akrone's seal had also given her freedom to speak her mind without having to worry about being overheard by other gods.

"To think you're the next god to get the title of supreme god."

"Hard work is what gets you there, I am sure it's a surprise to those old fogeys that love only giving family members this title."

"I'm glad for that since it's been quite some time since someone who hasn't had a family connection obtained the title."

"Well they had to once I beat them in a duel in a mere few seconds. To think they use such outdated divine magic." Akrone's face had a look of disgust, thinking back to the duel as the people she fought had to use incantations.

"They don't like change, so what did you expect?"

Akrone shrugged as it only made it easier for her to rise.

"Ooo the fights are starting!" Akrone quickly switched the screen back to Shaman who had finally started her fight with the bear.

162 Battle with the commanders

The duels between each of the commanders were beginning and Freja watched from above, ready to jump in if any of the girls or Silver were going to die.

'I don't think Shaman will be able to beat the bear, so hopefully she can at least draw out the fight until Elysia or Clara are done.' Examining the stats of the bear, Freja was concerned for Shaman and how she would deal with him.

'If she can beat the bear by herself, I might not need to send them on that mission to Elfheim.' Freja's intentions for the mission were for them to improve and grow stronger before she sent them to the demon lands.

'I think I will still send them to Elfheim anyway and hopefully they get to at least tier 6 before returning.' Although Freja was confident in their abilities so far, it still wasn't a good idea to send them out to the demon lands under levelled.

'No matter, this fight should give them a decent boost in their level, so let's hope they will push for tier 7 once in Elfheim.' Freja was confident in her decision and so she got comfortable with a glass of wine alongside a chair to watch the battle.

***

'I wonder if they can fly?' Elysia looked at the half eagle Skald, a female half-eagle who had wings on her back, but Elysia was unsure if she would be able to hold her own weight in the air. Skald also had an eagle head and feathers along her body, resembling her beast race more than her human side, which many would consider as having a purer bloodline.

Skald also wore rather over the top armour, decorated in gold with an embossing of the crest, signifying which family she was from. However, the armour did not cover any of the wings, nor did it have a helmet, leaving some major weak points open.

'I should aim for them if I want to end this quickly, but I can't assume she is weak, the eagle is tier 6 after all.' Elysia knew not to underestimate her as it was clear Skald worked hard for her power, so it would not be as easy as just shooting them out of the sky.

.....

"I have to ask, were you the specific one that killed my master?" Skald did not believe that the group of 4 they were fighting were the ones to kill them.

"Oh yes, I did. Do you want to know how I did it? I think it was the one where I blew up the entire mansion altogether." Elysia smiled. Although she didn't quite remember who or how she killed the nobles, she still wanted to play the role as a villain.

"Tsk you damn vixen." Skald looked at Elysia with disgust, as the smile she gave had a tinge of madness behind it, making Skald believe her words.

"I wonder how I will get to kill you?" Elysia pulled out her bow from her inventory while pondering how she would go about attacking Skald.

Skald was getting irritated by Elysia's attitude, so she decided to be the first to attack. Skald prepared her own bow. It was adorned with feathers, and from each of its sides had what looked like the wing of an eagle. Conjuring up a wind arrow on her bow, Skald aimed straight for Elysia.

Elysia, seeing Skald was attacking, did nothing and paced around like she was still thinking, pissing off Skald even more.

"Die you annoying vixen!" Skald fired the arrow at an impressive speed, but it was not something Elysia couldn't handle.

Instantly breaking from her aloof attitude, Elysia got on her knees and shot a fire arrow at the oncoming wind arrow. Skald had a smug look as she could tell Elysia was weaker than her as the arrow Elysia shot did not exude the same level of power as her own.

The arrows collided, but to Skald's surprise they stayed suspended in the air. Elysia showed a smug face as it was clear Skald had underestimated her.

"Maybe you should go build a nest and have a family, away from danger." Elysia stomped her foot on the ground and suddenly her arrow got stronger, absorbing the wind from Skald's arrow to use as fuel.

Elysia's arrow eventually overpowered Skald's and was much stronger than before. Skald narrowly dodged the arrow, but burnt herself in the process as the heat from the flame was able to burn her just by passing close by. The arrow almost made its way to the soldiers behind Skald, but Freja raised a wall of black flames protecting them.

"Oops." Elysia knew Freja wanted the army, so accidentally killing them was going to be a no go. This action from Freja had also reinforced the idea that she really was throwing away Silver and the girls.

Skald, deciding on a new approach, began to use her wings to fly into the sky.

"Ooo moving target practice~." Elysia prepared a few more fire arrows ready to shoot the Skald out of the sky.

Skald did not say a word and prepared what seemed to be a large-scale spell. A green magic circle appeared in front of Skald, its size just barely eclipsing her own. Finally, she softly spoke a few words.

"Shall the wind punish the vixen and rain down a windy hell upon her!" Skald spun in the air and fired a wind arrow into the magic circle. The arrow seemingly split into hundreds of arrows and began to rain down on Elysia.

"I can do that too!" Elysia was rather excited, so before the wind arrows reached her, Elysia shot back with her [arrow storm] skill, aiming high into the sky.

Once her skill was released, Elysia used [fire wall] and took cover, letting it block the oncoming arrows.

Skald was confused by Elysia's actions as generally spells that cover a larger area need some form of incantation to increase the power. Following the arrow with her eyes Skald was amazed to see that the fire arrow itself suddenly split into a bunch of arrows.

'How the hell.' Skald did not see any magic circle or anything come from Elysia, but what shocked her the most was that the arrows did not lose any power upon splitting.

The storm of arrows was fast approaching Skald and there was not enough time for her to completely move out of the way due to her being distracted. Skald began to dodge the arrows in the air while trying to use her wind to redirect the arrows. This however, backfired as it caused the arrows to explode in her face.

"Argghh!" Skald took the brunt of the explosion in the air and found her body getting covered in severe burns. The rain of arrows however did not stop. The arrows kept on coming and so a few of them managed to hit Skald's wings, causing them to catch on fire.

"AHHHH!" Skald screamed in pain and fell to the ground with her wings still burning.

The wind barrage had stopped and Elysia came out of her fire wall with a few scratches as the arrows that hit the ground would explode into wind slashes.

"I just got new stockings and there are already holes in them." Elysia looked at her legs which were covered in cuts. Her arms did not have it any better and she was slightly bleeding from the many cuts.

Skald, who managed to put out the flames on her wings, stood back up, still heavily breathing.

"Ha.. Haha… Is that really all you have to say?" Skald could not believe the girl in front of her was more concerned about her stockings than the battle they were having.

"Hmm well, I'm sure my girlfriend will love the look of it, but the cold breeze doesn't feel nice." Elysia put a finger on her chin, giving Skald a genuine answer.

Skald took a deep breath and, knowing that Elysia was just trying to provoke her, channelled the wind into her hand creating a wind sword.

'Surely she doesn't have short range capabilities.' Skald did not believe Elysia would have been able to fight at close range and so she sprinted forward using the wind to increase her speed.

"Oh my~ I guess we're going to use a melee weapon now." Elysia stored her bow and pulled out her spear, which caused Skald's eyes to widen.

'No it's just a bluff, no way she can use it properly.' Skald wanted to believe Elysia would have been inexperienced as mastering 2 weapons takes years of work as well as talent.

Skald swung up with her wind sword to slash across Elysia's chest, but before it could reach her body Elysia blocked the sword, holding it to the ground.

Elysia's face changed from innocent to serious which had intimidated Skald, but nonetheless she smiled as it seemed like she had a plan.

Still pushing on Elysia's spear the wind blade warped around the spear and essentially phased through it.

Elysia was not expecting this and tried putting up a firewall to block the blow. However, she was too slow and so Skald managed to slash across Elysia's stomach. Thankfully Elysia was able to move far enough back that the cut wasn't deep, but it was painful.

"Tsk you damn bird bitch." A switch had flipped inside of Elysia and she no longer was going to toy with Skald like she had been throughout the fight.

Elysia raised her spear and covered it in her flames. Skald jumped back, wary of Elysia's next move, but was still happy to see she finally managed to cause Elysia some real damage.

The tips of Elysia's hair turned into an orange flame as she was pouring mana into her flames, causing some physical changes in her body.

Skald seeing this swallowed her saliva as although she got a confidence boost from landing an attack, what was coming next terrified her.

Elysia taking the initiative dashed forward, leaving a trail of flames behind her.

Skald prepared for the attack. Knowing her wind would only add fuel to the fire, she tried condensing her windblade, improving its power and its resistance to the fire.

However, just before Elysia got close to Skald, Elysia had hit the ground with the bottom of her spear. Suddenly fire spears had come out of the ground charging towards Skalds body.

Skald screamed in agony as the fiery spears stabbed into her, burning her insides.

'How the fuck did she do that.' Skald had no idea how Elysia was able to cast spells so instantaneously at her tier.

'Damnit have the generations just evolved or is it something else?' Skald had spent years studying wind magic and was able to almost instantly cast powerful spells yet Elysia was able to do it instantaneously while being a lower tier than her.

Elysia using one hand thrusted her spear into Skald's heart, killing her instantly and turning her to ash.

Elysia dismissed the flames and fell to her knees as she used a lot of mana and the pain in her stomach flared up.

'Well at least I beat her.'

163 Clara killing her prey

Elysia fell to her knees exhausted from the fight. Pulling out some bandages from her shared inventory, Elysia treated her wounds as she did not have any healing spell like Shaman.

'Looks like I am the first one to finish.' Elysia looked around and saw everyone still fighting. Elysia tried to get up from the floor, but her injured stomach ached in pain every time she moved.

'Ah fuck, it even hurts to breathe.' Elysia held her stomach, knowing she had no choice but to sit back and watch.

'I can try to use my fire bow from range, but it doesn't look like any of them need help.' Elysia was able to conjure up a fire bow and fire arrows from it, but she couldn't see an opportunity to use it at the moment.

Dragging herself towards the gate, Elysia leaned back, taking full view of everyone's fight.

'Goodluck everyone.'

**

Clara stood in front of the prey mantis. Not wanting to reveal she had whips, she started off having them retracted into swords.

"You think your puny blades will be able to handle my claws?" Perry, a male prey mantis, also shared very beast-like traits. Having serrated claws for arms and a head of a mantis, it was a rather gross combination when seeing it on a human body.

.....

"Heh don't underestimate me, otherwise you will get squashed like an insect." Lightning flashed around Clara's blades as she drew them from her waist.

"You demons live peacefully in your own land, let's see how soft you have gotten." Perry was the first to make a move and dashed forward to Clara.

Clara attempted to dodge, but she felt her feet get rooted to the ground by the trees.

'Shit he uses nature.' Clara slashed down with one of her swords, freeing herself from the tree roots. Using that opening, Perry followed up with a horizontal slash right to her neck with both his claws.

Clara barely managed to raise her other sword to block the blow, but was launched to the side. Her feet dragged along the ground and eventually came to a stop, while her neck got a slight cut from her own blade being pushed up against her.

'Damn he is strong.' Clara did not expect Perry to be so strong, let alone combo his attack with an element.

"Tch." Perry was dissatisfied that Clara managed to live and so he dashed once again for another attack. This time, Clara was more weary of his element and better prepared herself for the attack.

Clara covered her swords in lightning and stabbed the ground. This had burnt the roots underground, disabling the root attack Perry was going to use again.

Dodging Perry's assault by a thread, Clara brought up her swords once more. She then slashed down at a greater speed thanks to her lightning and forced him to go on the defence. Even after Blocking with both his claws, Clara still put a massive amount of pressure on Perry, causing his feet to dig into the ground.

What Perry didn't expect was for the top of one blade to detach, seemingly guided by the lightning to wrap itself around one of his claws. Pushing Clara's blade back, the detached part of the blade had hooked onto his arm, slicing it almost completely off.

Perry's state was not looking good. His serrated blades had turned black, burned from the lightning, and one of his arms was on the verge of being cut off.

"How do you like that?" Clara retracted her whip blade while Perry held his arm that was profusely bleeding. Perry did not say any words while he focused on healing the wound with his nature magic.

'Of course he has healing magic.' Clara saw the green glow come from his hand and soon the bleeding from his arm came to a sudden stop.

"To think I would use this on a demon of a lower tier." Perry had suddenly punched the ground and tree roots began to surround him.

"Great, he has tree armour." Clara saw the tree roots wrap around his body, creating a sort of protective armour.

'I should keep my distance.' Clara's first thoughts were that he might be able to send attacks from anywhere on his body. The only weak spots were his arms as they were the only parts not covered by the tree armour.

'My lightning should be able to burn it, so I should try to strike it to see how it reacts.' Clara needed information before going in for any big attacks as they could very well be negated easily by the armour Perry was wearing.

Perry's body was now covered in wood, which seemed rather impractical, but thanks to it being infused with mana it acted like part of Perry's body, allowing him a surprising range of movement.

Clara this time did not have her whip blades retracted and was going to try for long distance attacks from further away. Spinning her whips to either side of her, Clara had created two circles of lightning.

Perry, not waiting for Clara, had punched the ground again, creating tree spikes that shot towards her. Swinging her blades in an X shape, Clara countered by sending a stream of pure lightning into the spikes.

The wooden spikes were instantly burnt up. They barely even delayed Clara's lightning that continued on, heading straight for Perry. Perry hurriedly raised up a wooden wall, which managed to hold in place the incoming lightning. The wall began to burn as it was slowly getting destroyed, but the lightning was getting weaker and weaker until it fizzled out.

Clara did not stand still while her lightning was being stopped by the wall and managed to get behind Perry without him noticing.

This time, instead of using her whips, she created a lightning spear and threw it at Perry. It travelled as fast as lightning, making it impossible to react to, forcing Perry to take the brunt of the blow.

Landing in his stomach, the lightning pushed him up against his own wooden wall, breaking it apart. While Perry was still getting pushed through the air by the lightning spear, his wooden armour was being burnt up, revealing his body.

"ARGGGGHH!" Perry screamed in pain as he felt like he was being struck by lightning over and over again. Pushing through the pain, he grabbed onto the spear that was now in his stomach, burning his hand. Using his nature element he was able to snuff out the lightning and stop the attack.

Landing on the ground, he held his stomach. The armour he was wearing underneath had turned completely black, only one push away from falling apart.

Perry ran while trying his best to heal his wounds, but Clara chased after him, not giving him enough time. Using her now retracted whip blades, she had swung down hoping to take out one of his arms.

Using the wood to push himself out of the way, Perry managed to dodge Clara's blades, but the lightning that had come out from her attack struck his arm. Paralysed by the attack, he felt his body locked up and unable to move.

Continuing her momentum Clara spun in the air and slashed down with her other whip blade, cutting one of his arms off. Perry screamed in pain. Trying desperately to get away, he put up a bunch of wooden walls, creating a dome.

Quickly replacing his arm with a wooden one, he had stopped the bleeding and created a temporary prosthetic.

"Don't think you are safe." Clara had retracted her blades and stabbed into the wooden dome, sending her lightning all over the dome and burning up the wood. What Clara failed to realise was that Perry still had control over the wood and so knowing where she was Perry sent a wooden spike into Clara.

Clara moved her head, dodging the spike, but more had come out and so her shoulder and hip got penetrated by wooden spikes.

Clara jumped back in pain and fell to her knees while covering the wounds with her hands.

Focusing on her demon regeneration, she had to stop the bleeding even though it made her defenceless. Luckily, she thought of an idea of how to take advantage of Perry's cockyness.

"Now look at how this turned out, without your weapons you are useless." Coming out of the burning wooden dome, Perry had approached Clara who was focusing on healing.

"Shut up, you were barely able to handle me." Trying to act desperate Clara wanted to make it look like she was on her last legs.

"You can hardly stand and all it took was a couple strikes, I would just call you a fly that was annoying to catch." Perry now stood in front of Clara, using his prosthetic wooden arm which he had turned into a spike, he positioned it under her chin.

"Now face the punishment of going against the noble families." Perry went to stab Clara in the throat, but she had grabbed a hold of the spike and pulled him closer while infusing her lightning on her hand.

Clara's lightning had increased her speed, making it hard for Perry to react in time, especially at such a close range.

Barely avoiding the spike which caused another cut on her neck, she reached out with her other arm, grabbing Perry by the neck while standing up.

"Just because I look weak doesn't mean I can't fight!" Clara with her infused lightning hand gripped Perry by the neck sending an electric shock through his body.

Perry swung with his other arm, using his claw to try and cut Clara's arm off, but before he could move it, Clara sent a massive wave of lightning through his body, making his muscles tense up, unable to move.

Crushing his neck even more, Clara strangled Perry with one hand while sending lightning through his body so he couldn't move. Soon Perry died, his entire body frozen in the same position.

Letting go, Clara let Perry fall to the floor. She stood over it, glaring at the corpse.

"Damn that hurt." Clara flicked her hands as using a lot of lightning on her body had caused a small amount of burning. Walking over to the slowly disintegrating wooden dome, Clara pulled out her whip blades and stored them in her inventory.

'Looks like Elysia has finished and Silver is about to finish up, I should heal and go help Shaman.' Clara felt her wounds slowly healing, but they would take a bit more time to finish as they were not small.

Clara limped her way close to Elysia who was up against the gate to also watch over the fights before she jumped back in.

164 Death roll

Silver was standing right in front of a female crocodile that resembled a human more than the other commanders.

The main features Raphael had were dark blue scales along her body and the teeth of a crocodile. Her gauntlets, embedded with the same scale as well, had extremely sharp claws. Silver could only guess they were meant for grappling and restraining her opponents.

She also had dark blue hair that went down to her waist and eyes sharing the same colour.

Feeling extremely nervous, as this was his first proper fight against someone stronger, he wasn't sure if he could pull it off.

'Mother trusted me with this fight, I can't let her down.' Silver motivated himself as he knew Shaman wouldn't assign him a task he had no chance to succeed.

"Ha! Seriously? A child? You can't be serious." Raphael was laughing as she couldn't believe that a child was amongst the murderers.

'Looks like I am getting underestimated, I should use that to my advantage.' Silver had the luxury of looking weak because of his age and size, so he was going to take full advantage of Raphael's rather naive mindset.

Pulling out his scythe, he spun it around while also coating it in shadows.

.....

"Oh my they gave you a toy~. I'm so scared." Raphael smiled, showing her teeth and raising her arms into the air. Silver sighed as it wasn't the best feeling being treated like a toddler. Although he had barely lived for 1 year, he was still mentally an early teen.

Stopping the scythe from spinning, SIlver prepared to go on the defensive as he wanted to see what Raphael could do.

"Now let's play!" Shooting forward Raphael appeared right in front of Silver and stabbed at him with her claws.

Silver was surprised by how fast Raphael was, but he was still able to react to the attack. Using [shadow cloak] Silver had partly vanished from her vision, making it harder to discern where his exact position was.

Still striking forward, Raphael hit nothing but air and came to a stop, looking around for anything odd. Thanks to the gate casting a shadow, it had made it easier for Silver to hide and prepare a chance to counter-attack.

From the shadows of the gate, SIlver swung upwards sending a shadow spike at Raphael. Infusing her gauntlets with mana she was able to grab the shadow spike and break it apart.

"Oho you can use magic, now that's a surprise, but it's too weak!" Knowing the general area of where Silver was, she hit the ground with her gauntlets and a small earthquake quickly followed. Shortly after, walls of stone came out of the ground, trapping Wolfy and Raphael in a circular dome and even building a roof, blocking all escape paths. Then to the surprise of Silver, she had started filling the room with water.

'2 Elements!' Silver was surprised to see Raphael being able to use 2 elements as it was a rather hard process without a system.

'Wait, it might be her gauntlets, but can weapons even have skills on them?' Silver's knowledge was limited, but he would assume the worst case scenario just to be safe.

The water had not filled the entire room yet, but Silver did not take any chances and, thanks to them being stuck in an enclosed space, he easily used [shadow walk] to hide on the roof. Raphael was still in the water, swimming around at great speeds looking for Silver.

"Tch where are you? Stop hiding you coward!" Raphael peeked out of the water to shout her taunts, but Silver stayed on the roof, hiding in the shadows.

'I could stay here and not move.' Silver considered not showing himself as Raphael might dispel the room if she thought he escaped.

However, Raphael was able to tell Silver was still in the dome due to a slight presence she could feel in her small domain.

SIlver had stayed on the roof unmoving, watching Raphael swim around and was rather bored.

'I think I will fight.' Silver had enough waiting around. It was their goal to kill the commanders after all, so there was no point in waiting around.

Since the dome was already draped in darkness, Silver only needed to merge his shadow with it to start covering the ceiling with his shadow swords. Once it was completely covered, the rain of shadowy swords descended on the pool.

Raphael was not expecting this attack, let alone that it would come from the roof.

"So that's where you are." Raphael glared at the ceiling while blocking the swords with her gauntlets. Once the swords stopped falling, Raphael dived as deep as she could and then swam back up, launching herself to the roof.

With a single punch, she destroyed the earth dome, letting light come inside it as she fell back into the pool. Silver had dodged the attack with ease and proceeded to leave the now opened up dome. Coming out of [shadow walk], he was about to leave through the hole when he suddenly felt something bite him in the leg.

Raphael had jumped up again, using the hole as bait, and managed to catch Silver.

Using her claws to dig into Silver's leg, she forced him to let go of the edge and be dragged into the pool.

Still biting down on his calf, Raphael dragged Silver into the water and started to spin, trying to rip off his leg. SIlver didn't even bother trying to resist being spun by Raphael, as he was in agonising pain, his blood spilling into the pool.

"AHHH!" Silver screamed in pain while fighting to keep his head above water.

Desperately trying to think of a way to get out of her maw, Silver realised his shadow was in her mouth.

Conjuring up a shadow scythe inside her mouth, he launched it up into her head, killing Raphael instantly. Finally, the rolling came to an end, but Silver's leg was still trapped by Raphael's teeth. Still, at least the dome she had created fell apart, releasing the water within.

Silver was moved by the water towards the gate with a dead half crocodile still attached to him. Laying on the ground to catch his breath, Silver lay still, not moving a muscle, as even the smallest of movements resulted in pain from the teeth biting his leg.

SIlver had successfully killed Rahphael rather, and rather easily at that, but he had still sustained a lot of injuries in one of his legs. Elysia who sat at the gate saw Silver's condition and quickly ran over in a panic.

"Silver! Are you okay?!" Elysia had slid to his side, not caring for her injuries as the sight of Silver gave her the adrenaline to push through it.

"Haha, I'm okay, but it definitely hurts a lot." Silver claimed he was ok, but with the occasional groans of pain he was releasing, Elysia was hardly convinced.

"Look at you, clearly you are not okay." In a panic Elysia pulled out general first aid supplies and started to patch up the cuts that were on his leg.

SIlver shook slightly as it hurt everytime Elysia touched his leg, but it needed to be done as he was still bleeding.

Once Elysia got to Raphael's maw that was still biting down on his leg, she could not hold back the urge to pull out Raphael's teeth and crush her head.

"Stupid crocodile bitch hurting my son!" Elysia threw away the body and started to patch up Silver's leg until she finally managed to stop the bleeding.

"Phew. You should be all good now." Elysia took a deep breath, calming herself down now that Silver was okay.

"I should have come and helped, I'm sorry Silver." Elysia felt guilty for not jumping in to help Silver earlier, but her injuries prevented her. Even now it was a struggle to get over to Silver.

"Don't be sorry mother Elysia, I still won the fight! Besides, I knew what I was getting myself into by fighting alongside you." Silver understood that he would get hurt and injured, so he didn't want Elysia to feel bad.

"Doesn't change the fact you are my son and I still want to protect you." Elysia pouted as Silver made a valid point that was hard to argue against, but she still didn't want Silver getting hurt.

"Haha it makes me happy to hear that." Silver smiled brightly and Elysia couldn't help herself, but pull Silver into a hug.

Getting smothered by Elysia's chest, Silver was unable to breathe.

"Ow! mother I can't breathe!" In a strained and muffled voice Silver tried to get Elysia to let go.

"Oop, sorry hehe~" Elysia lightened her grip as Silver pulled free. His face was completely red as he averted his gaze away from her.

"Now let's get you back over by the gate." Elysia wanted Silver to be a safe distance away as Shaman's fight was still going on.

When Elysia tried to move, she found herself unable to, as now that she had calmed down and her adrenaline subsided, the pain in her stomach came back.

"Ah fuck it hurts. CLARA can you carry Silver?" Elysia was down on her knees. Having no one else to call on, she asked Clara to come get Silver as she was the least injured thanks to her being able to heal.

165 Mind games

Shaman stood in front of the half bear Jorn, contemplating trying to take him down using her stardust. Jorn looked rather human, only his ears and fur betraying his true heritage. He was wearing armour similar to the rest of the commanders and his hands carried a mean looking mace.

'This should be a good opportunity to test if my illusions will affect him or not.' Shaman was confident in her stardust, but Jorn being a tier 7, it could be completely ineffective.

"Now come you little fox." Jorn spun his mace, inviting Shaman to get closer.

"Oi, I'm not little." Shaman knew full well what it's like to be truly small, so she did not appreciate the comment.

"Tsk, whatever." Jorn didn't care and continued to wait for Shaman to make a move.

'He probably has a space element like the noble.' Knowing the element of the noble made it a safe guess weather if Jorn had something similar or not.

'Let's see if I can apply an illusion.'

Pulling out Kotetsu, Shaman changed its affinity to the stardust and the gem by the hilt turned purple. She had also activated her sword domain, creating a field of red and purple dahlias, which came as a surprise to Shaman. It had also increased in size, but she had felt no other effects than feeling stronger when within the area.

'Seems like a few things have changed since I last used this.' Shaman was able to guess the change in colour was due to Elysia's hair and eyes turning red as well as Shaman obtaining her stardust.

.....

Jorn had stepped back at the sudden appearance of the flowers, but, realising that they did nothing, he decided to ignore them.

Now that she was prepared, Shaman covered her sword in a layer of stardust, making it look like the night sky.

Dashing forward towards Jorn, she quickly opened a portal in front of her who's exit was right above Jorn. coming out of the portal above Jorn, she had caught him off guard and slashed down at his head.

However, Jorn's speed greatly outclassed Shaman, thanks to which he was able to parry the attack with his mace. Using his other hand, he punched at Shaman's face while the latter was still in the air above him.

Creating a wall of stardust next to her face, she was able to block the attack and push herself away from Jorn, landing safely.

Jorn didn't give up and opened up a portal of his own. Shoving his mace into it, he opened the exit point behind Shaman's head.

The mace had come out of the portal, but Shaman expected this, responding by opening her own portal in front of Jorn's, his mace going right through it. With his mace in the portal, Shaman dashed forward while slashing horizontally across Jorn's chest..

Using the armour on his arm, he blocked the oncoming strike from Shaman while he pulled his mace back. Shaman, using the dust on her sword, created a spike that shot towards Jorn's shoulder.

Piercing it, Shaman was successful in getting the dust to contact his skin, which allowed her to start the illusion.

Getting his mace out of the portal, he gritted his teeth and smashed down at Shaman with his mace. However, Shaman turned to dust in front of his eyes, disappearing from the battlefield.

"Get back here you vixen!" Jorn looked around looking for Shaman, but was unable to see anything.

Suddenly 4 Shaman's had surrounded Jorn, who instantly realised it was an illusion and decided to completely ignore whatever the copies did. Standing proud as if the illusions would phase through him, he let them attack. He had already noticed that the eyes of the copies were of a different colour, reinforcing his belief that they were fake.

What he did not expect was that when the illusions attacked, they would actually physically touch him.

"What?" Although they had not done any damage thanks to the armour he wore, he still felt the impact, causing him to stumble.

Seeing more illusions try to attack, he took them a lot more seriously. Spinning around, he both blocked and retaliated against the illusions that came after him. Shaman, taking the opportunity while he was preoccupied, created stardust weapons and shot them into Jorn.

Jorn turned towards the stardust weapons and, using his hand, he created a portal to use as a shield. He had successfully redirected them by opening another portal into a copy of Shaman.

'Tsk looks like I need to come out.' Shaman used [shadow walk] to hide from Jorn and wanted to use the illusion to slowly wear him down, but it was clearly not working.

While still keeping the illusionary Shamans constantly attacking, she had entered her portal.

Opening it from below this time, Shaman used [shadow cloak] to make it harder to notice her, although she expected Jorn to be able to see right through her cloak.

Jabbing upwards into the back of his thigh where there was no armour. She had managed to land the attack without Jorn noticing and caused him to jump in pain.

"Ah you fucking bitch." Throwing his mace at the ground where the blow came from, Shaman quickly went back into her portal to escape. This attack had also opened him up and the illusions which were still attacking him managed to land attacks into some of his joints, doing more damage. Blood started seeping from his armour and staining his fur.

Roaring, he turned his hands into bear claws and started killing the illusions with his claws.

Shaman, not wanting to waste any more mana on the illusion, decided to stop throwing fakes at him and instead use her other elements. Although she wanted to exclusively use stardust and a couple other skills, the fight would drag on for longer than she would like.

'I should abuse the enraged state Jorn is in.' Seeing that it looked like he no longer adhered to common sense, she wanted to abuse it.

If I can create decoys then I might be able to get a few hits in.' Treating Jorn like a bull, Shaman created a copy of herself in front of him and as she expected he charged at it, destroying the copy.

Appearing out of [shadow walk], Shaman now had a plan in mind and hoped she will be able to finish the fight.

'Everyone seems to be almost finished with their fights.' Shaman saw that Elysia and Clara were finished.

Jorn spotted Shaman, so he ran towards her while picking up his mace. His eyes emitted a red glow while the many cuts across his body have mostly already closed.

Throwing his mace at Shaman, he opened a portal right in front of her a moment before impact. Expecting it to appear behind her again Shaman turned around, yet she saw no portal open and was confused for a moment.

It turned out the mace went straight through the portal and used the back of it as the exit. The mace had struck Shaman in the back and she fell to the ground winded. Getting a hold of herself, she quickly crawled back into [shadow walk] to recover. Jorn stomped down where her body was, but got disappointed when he hit nothing.

Seeing more copies and unable to distinguish real from fake in his rage, he once again rushed to them with his mace.

'Fuck let's not fight him head on.' Shaman regretted not using her decoys right away as she planned to switch with a decoy, but the mace attack caught her off guard.

Using the decoys to avert his attention, Shaman appeared behind Jorn, activating [blade of flamescion].

The sudden increase in heat made Jorn turn his head, but before he could block or retaliate, Shaman had already swung down on him. Slashing his back, the armour melted and a massive gash opened up. Blood spurted out, but Jorn didn't even flinch and still turned to hit Shaman with his mace.

Getting hit in the side, Shaman felt her ribs break and got launched to the side. Stabbing her sword into the ground to slow herself down, she came to a halt and held her ribs in pain, trying to use [heal] while she assessed the damage.

Shaman coughed up a bit of blood and saw Jorn kneel down as the massive cut on his back was becoming hard to ignore. The red glow in his eyes vanished and he seemingly returned back to normal.

"For a weaker tier fox you surely know how to fight. To think you even have more than one element… I'll admit I underestimated you." Jorn was surprised by how Shaman had two elements as it turned the fight greatly in her favour.

"Heh, you haven't seen everything yet." Shaman stood up, her ribs still broken, but was confident she didn't have any internal bleeding.

Jorn's eyes widened when wind started swirling around Shaman, as she suddenly pulled out a third element.

"No wonder you are so strong." Jorn got up from the ground, crushing a crystal in his hand that was infused with a heal spell that closed the wound on his back.

Shaman created a second katana out of ice and, wanting to try something new, covered it in stardust as well. She hoped this would make for a sturdier sword that could both send ice spikes as well as open portals with her stardust.

"Ha, a fourth, don't tell me there is a fifth." Jorn suddenly felt the fear of defeat as it showed how much of a "genius" Shaman was.

Just to show off Shaman sent a small wave of water at Jorn's feet which had enhanced the feeling of defeat.

"Ha… Haha, you must have been holding back before." This had actually infuriated him as it was clear he was stronger in power. However, it seemed the fox girl in front of him didn't see him as worthy enough to use everything from the beginning.

"Hmm not really, I just wanted to test out my new element." Shaman gripped the second sword intending to duel wield.

'Let's hope I can pick this up quickly.' Shaman wasn't sure how to fight with both weapons in her hands, but decided to give it a shot anyway.

Jorn growled at the comment as it felt like he was being toyed with the entire time. Now no longer going to use minimal effort, Jorn decided to go all out and began to transform.

His body got bigger and had obtained more of a bear-ish look. While his eyes had stayed normal, his fur pulsed in waves of red as his new form now towered above her.

"Damn I wish my animal form made me stronger than just a cute little plush that Elysia can hug." Shaman, realising it was his animal form was envious, as it made him significantly stronger, but her form had only changed her look and made her cuter.

"ROARR!" Letting out an echoing roar, Jorn had finished transforming and was now a full fledged bear.

"Let's hope I can finish this." Shaman herself did not feel confident, but hoped her mixing of elements will be enough to tilt the tides in her favour.

166 Bear attack

Jorn, still in his bear form, glared at Shaman while also preparing for an attack. Smashing his paws on the ground, he propelled himself forward whilst opening a portal in front of him.

Entering the portal, Shaman had no idea how he would attack, but then she remembered she had [spatial rift].

Not wasting any time she opened up a portal herself and jumped into it. As she had hoped for, she saw Jorn in the same space.

'It seems like we go to the same dimensional space.' Shaman had appeared behind Jorn who had yet to notice her, giving her the perfect opportunity to attack. Wanting to try out the ice stardust sword, she opened a small portal around the back of Jorn.

Using the ice that was underneath the stardust, she shot ice spikes into it, which acted as a portal and ice spikes came out of the small portals she created around Jorn.

Quickly exiting the space, all she heard was a loud roar of pain before it was cut off.

Soon, a portal opened up and Jorn exited it with ice spikes all along his backside. The rage was visible on his face as although the spikes did minimal damage, it was enough to piss him off.

"Heh, glad to see you enjoyed it." Shaman wanted Jorn to become enraged again, as last time it happened, his attacks became a lot more straightforward and easier to avoid.

Jorn Groweld at Shaman's comment as he was unable to speak while in his animal form.

.....

"Come on, I'm waiting." Shaman gestured at Jorn and it seemed like it was enough to get him to charge at her.

Running up to Shaman, Jorn lifted up his both paws and went for two simultaneous strikes, but before they could connect, he opened 2 smaller portals through which his paws disappeared. Another set opened up behind Shaman, but this did not bother her as she opened a stardust portal underneath her and slipped away.

Jorn pulled out his paws and went over to where Shaman opened her portal. What he didn't expect was for a massive ice pike to come out, piercing him right in the chest. The portal Shaman had used hadn't actually closed, but shrank in size making it hard to notice.

Shaking his body to break the ice, Jorn found his body getting weaker. Despite his upgraded form, it seemed he was still no match for Shaman.

More portals opened around Jorn and fire spears came shooting out of them.His fur catching on fire, he started burning alive as the spears which pierced his body were refusing to dissipate.

Shaman, poking out of a portal below Jorn, stabbed into his stomach and ran the blade across. Blood spewed out of Jorn. In an attempt to first get rid of the flames, he fell on his back. Unfortunately, that only worsened his wounds, his blood further soaking his fur. With such an immense amount of blood loss, he already started to lose his consciousness.

'Here I thought his bear form would have increased his combat strength, but I guess animal forms are really just for looks.' Shaman expected a bit more from the form, but it seemed to do nothing other than be intimidating.

Walking out of the portal Shaman was going to finish him off for good. Approaching his head, Shaman covered Kotetsu in wind that swirled around, creating a chainsaw-like effect.

"A shame that you did better in your human form. This one just made you a bigger target." It had dawned on Shaman that he had done more damage when he was a half-bear, where he was able to perform more complicated skills.

Jorn had started to return back to his human form and so he was once more able to speak.

"I WAS DESPERATE!" He screamed out as he was still being burnt by the fire.

"Oho I see, so you were hoping I would be scared, tch how pathetic do you think I am." Shaman was looking for an honest fight and to have it just devolve to someone getting desperate left a rather bad taste in her mouth.

'Since when could weak willed people get to tier 7.' Shaman, still being rather oblivious to how people got power in this world, found it ridiculous that someone like Jorn got to a higher tier than her.

'There must be more to this than just training and being born a high tier.' Shaman's first thought was, tiers had been given artificially and there had been no proper prior training beforehand.

'I need to ask Freja.' Needing to take care of Jorn who was on the verge of death, Shaman pushed those thoughts away and simply decided to later go ask Freja more about how the world works.

Raising her sword in the sky, she slashed down, decapitating Jorn's head.

Having officially ended the fight, all the soldiers that had come with the commanders now surprisingly cheered for their victory.

"Huh?" Shaman looked around confused, as she expected the opposite reaction, but then she thought back to the lion's mansion when as soon as he was dead, the guards had stolen all his belongings.

"Well done, I have to say, my hopes were not high." Freja had appeared by Shaman's side while clapping.

"Freja? Can you explain what's going on?" Having a growing suspicion that the soldiers were conscripted or were forced to fight, she still wanted a proper answer.

"Hmm I don't really know, but my guess is that the nobles had forced them to fight against their will." Freja had no idea, but she was going to capitalize on it nonetheless. Flicking her blonde hair, she walked in front of the soldiers and created her own platform made out of blood.

"Shaman, head back to the front of the gate, everyone is waiting for you there." As Freja was climbing up the stairs she quickly turned her head and informed Shaman where to go.

Shaman nodded her head and quickly rushed to the gate, however, when she started running, her ribs suddenly stung with pain.

"Shit I forgot they were still broken." No longer in battle, the pain from her wounds flared up in full swing, so she had to slowly make her way to the gate.

*

"EVERYONE SILENCE!" Freja's voice echoed out, bringing the cheering soldiers to attention as silence descended on the clearing.

"Ahem, good. Now I have no idea what's with your enthusiasm with your leaders dying, so if anyone would like to kindly inform me, I will allow him to speak." Wanting to gather information, she hoped that it was as simple as being happy to have been freed. One soldier had stepped forward and waited to be addressed.

"Speak!" Freja was impressed with their discipline, since she expected a bunch of people to try to speak up, but it seemed like there was a leader amongst the soldiers.

"W-we were forced to fight for the commanders, as the nobles had taken over our town and had threatened the families of many. As we were preparing, me and many others had planned this opportunity to rebel against the commanders if a full blown battle had occurred." The soldier felt extremely nervous as the pressure Freja gave off was enough to strangle somebody.

"Quite bold of you to plan something like that…. I like it." Freja smiled as she had planned to take in the soldiers from the very beginning. Furthermore, seeing as the nobles had taken over land in secret it would be a good opportunity to expand her little empire.

The soldier let out a sigh of relief, glad that Freja did not seem hostile towards them.

"Since you have been brought against your will, I want to offer you this." Freja had taken a moment of pause to make sure she had everyone's attention.

"I would like you all to join the regional army of Freya forest. Of course you will get the chance to see your families and you can opt out if you want, but I want to give you the opportunity to fight." Freja knew that if she did not allow them to back out, then she would be no better than the nobles.

The soldiers stood there silently, as they were conscripted against their will, but they were still rather tempted as the empress had given them a lot of freedom.

"Can we leave at any point and can you guarantee our family's safety?" A soldier amongst the crowd asked the questions that were on most of their minds.

"I can assure you that they will be safe. I am working in direct collaboration with the queen herself, so you should know it's always the people first." Freja did a small bow to show her sincerity and all the soldiers felt compelled to join.

"As it stands you will all have time to return home, so feel free to use this time to decide whether to join my cause. It also seems the nobles have been making moves in the fox realm right under my nose, so if you would like to join my personal crusade against them, now is your chance." a sadistic smile appeared on Freja as now she had to prepare to go on an expedition purging some people who were trying to take advantage of the queen's absence.

Murmurs of revenge spread among the soldiers, as many wanted to get back at the nobles for what they did. It seemed like these events happened to more than a few villages and the soldiers felt compelled to join Freja to stop it from happening again.

"If you want to stay, please stay where you are and if you wish to leave, start going home." Hoping she had convinced all of them, she waited for their answer.

Nobody moved from their position as many soldiers looked around, seeing if anybody was going to leave.

"WONDERFUL! Now follow me so we can get you ready. Don't worry it won't be long, I will set up teleporters so you can visit your families." Freja was pleased with the results, as she now has her one little army.

167 Recovery and upgrades

All the duels had finally finished. Due to each commander having a high tier as well as proper battle prowess, everyone had managed to level up.

[Shaman]

Level: 110 -> 120

[Elysia]

Level: 106 -> 113

[Silver]

Level: 103 -> 110

[Clara]

Level: 108 -> 114

.....

Kiruya had arrived by the gate and saw Shaman walking over. Seeing that she was injured, Kiruya went over and helped her walk to the gate.

"You did great Shaman, let's get you back to the mansion." Kiruya got Shaman to sit next to Elysia, who was trying not to move because of a cut in her stomach. Sliver was leaning on Elysia's shoulder, asleep, as he had passed out from exhaustion and Clara, being the least injured, casually sat across from them.

"Alright sit tight while I transport us back to the mansion." Kiruya had not really shown any of her capabilities until now, so this will be the first time any of them will see her element.

Standing in the middle of them, Kiruya spread her arms, her hands facing towards the ground. Suddenly in a small radius everyone started getting picked up into the air.

With everyones hair flicking back and forth, it was clear they were being lifted by wind. After a few more seconds, Kiruya had already raised them further from the ground, getting as high as the gate.

Going over the gate, Kiruya carried them slowly through the air, keeping a steady pace so Elysia did not get hurt from any sudden movements.

"Thanks Kiruya."

"Aha no worries Shaman, if things had gotten worse, me and Freja would've jumped in to help, but you have outdone yourself this time." Kiruya is a tier 8, as well as one of Freja's strongest, so if things had gotten worse then Kiruya was more than capable of helping.

"I don't know if getting broken ribs is a great outcome, but I have to say he did not seem all that strong. It makes me wonder if they were given their strength.' Shaman knew that people can be born in a higher tier, but wasn't sure if there was a way to increase someone's power through artificial means.

"That's something we do not know, but it's very well possible that someone has created a way to boost someone's power and is selling it through the black market." Kiruya did not have much information and thought Freja would be more informed than her.

"I see, well seeing how the nobles did not have very ethical ways of operating, it wouldn't surprise me if they did use the black market." Shaman heard Freja's speech and the soldiers telling their story, so it was clear their business in the fox realm was far from over.

"It's something you shouldn't worry about. If I recall correctly, you will be heading to Elfheim and I might be coming with you." Kiruya had talked with Freja while they were fighting the commanders and the latter considered sending Kiruya with them.

"Huh? Aren't you tier 8 and much stronger than us?" Shaman was a little confused, as if Kiruya came with them it would make the mission rather trivial.

"Yeah, she said something about becoming friends since she noticed I liked you guys." Kiruya was slightly blushing as she was also admitting she was fond of Shaman's group.

"Heh, I'm surprised Freja is letting her little kitten go so far away." Elyisa, who had been listening, couldn't help making a snarky remark.

"Shush!" Kiruya was now completely red. Even worse, the wind platform she created began to wobble.

"Woah"

"Ahh!"

Screaming out from the sudden movement, Kiruya quickly regained her composure and stabilised the platform.

"Oops." Elysia, knowing she was to blame, couldn't help looking away from Kiruya to avoid eye contact.

"If you keep that up while we do the mission together, I swear I will beat it out of you." Kiruya glared at Elysia.

"Uhh She would enjoy it." Shaman interjected, getting her own sneaking remark in.

"SHAMAN!" Elysia was now the one blushing and felt extremely embarrassed.

"Pfft." Clara struggled to keep her laughter in, but also blushed a little thinking about the scenario.

"Heh, it isn't so fun now is it?" Kiruya, happy that Elysia got a little taste of her own medicine, couldn't help but revel in it.

"Well we could say the same about you." Shaman, wanting to share the teasing, went for Kiruya.

"Yeah so?" Kiruya this time not being flustered by it had left Shaman at a loss for words as Kiruya had suddenly become somewhat shameless.

"Damn." Shaman gave up as it was probably not good to try to tease the very person transporting them through the air.

*

Landing in the courtyard, the maids had come out to help transport the group to get healed of their injuries.

"What can't the maids do?" Shaman was surprised as it seemed like the maids were capable of anything and covered almost all the basics of life.

"Hmm, other than fighting we pretty much have a maid for everything." Kiruya walked beside Shaman, who was in a stretcher being taken to a medical room.

"Freja has given us all a specific job and has even awakened magic in us to do our jobs better, so do not worry if you have any troubles, as there will always be someone suited for that job." One of the maids had spoken up giving a small brief.

"So do you get paid or do you just live in the mansion?" Shaman was rather curious as it seemed like they never left the mansion, let alone see them outside of their job as a maid.

"Freja pays us in…. Varying ways, but do not worry, we have rotation in shifts and have our personal lives, but we keep that very separate." The maid blushed as it was clear Freja had given some service of her own to the maids.

"Aha, I see." Shaman did not have any more questions and laid in silence.

*

In a room that looked like a nurses office, Shaman, Elysia and Silver laid in a bed while Clara sat in a chair.

Clara was quick to be healed as her injuries were minor, but everyone else needed a bit more care and mana to repair.

This time the maids had changed into nurse clothes and sat by the beds, using healing spells.

'I swear all these uniforms are just for Freja's enjoyment.' Shaman looked at how lewd the uniforms were and she found it completely unnecessary.

Gritting her teeth through the pain, Shaman could feel how her ribs were being put back together. The spell had also given a soothing feeling, but it had not fully negated the pain, making it rather uncomfortable.

Elysia had a better time as it was just the closing of the wound, but she had soon passed out, as the only thing keeping her awake was the pain. Silver, who was already asleep, did not feel anything and his leg was back to normal.

"Alright, you should be all healed up, some other maids will come in and take you to your rooms." The maid smiled and Shaman nodded.

'I should use my points before I forget.' Knowing she had gained quite a bit of levels, she did not want to forget to use them.

[Attributes]

Attribute points: 500 -> 0

Vitality: 600 -> 700

Agility: 650 -> 720

Intelligence: 710 -> 800

Strength: 750 -> 800

Dexterity: 710 -> 800

Defence: 600 -> 700

Feeling the satisfying wave of powering up through her body, Shaman felt relaxed as any feeling of discomfort washed away.

*

Maids had come in and taken Shaman, Elysia and Silver to their rooms while Clara had gone with Kiruya.

"So you're coming with us, but Freja has an ulterior motive for this, doesn't she." Clara was just outside her room and had confronted Kiruya about her joining the mission.

"Well it's not really a secret, but yes, Freja wanted me to keep an eye on you, but there really isn't much to it. My feelings are genuine and I am rather fond of you guys, but Freja is using this as a way to monitor everyone." Kiruya did not try to hide it as it wasn't something that secretive.

"Oh, well I wasn't expecting you to come clean like that." Clara expected Kiruya to come up with an excuse, but instead she just told her the truth.

"Don't worry, I won't be babysitting you. You still have to do the fighting and I will only help if there is any real danger." Kiruya, having a rather easy job this time, saw this as a vacation as it was unlikely she would need to help.

"Thank you, I guess." Clara wasn't sure how to respond, as although it sounded like she was being lazy, Clara did prefer to do the fighting herself instead of relying on Kiruya.

"Aha don't worry about it, go get some rest and when you guys are ready to leave just call for me." Kiruya's tail wagged, showing her excitement for the mission.

"Sure thing, although I feel like I could go and do some training."

"No!" Kiruya wouldn't let Clara train, as although she may be fine, it was better she rested.

"Okay, okay, fine, I will go rest." Clara felt the sudden pressure from Kiruya showing a bit of her strength and Clara did not dare go against her.

"Good, see you later~." Kiruya went back to her cheery self and walked off while waving at Clara.

Clara waved back and then entered her room to get some rest.

168 Traveling to Elfhiem

A few days had passed and Shaman's group was getting ready to leave the Freya forest. Currently, Kiruya was talking to Freja in her office about an issue involving Shaman.

"I need you to help Shaman with stopping Elysia from becoming some crazy yandere incapable of letting anyone near Shaman." Freja had planned to do it herself, but because of the pressing matters of the fox realm, it was hard to set aside time.

"Me? I mean sure, but you're the expert when it comes to this sort of stuff." Kiruya didn't have much experience and Freja was her second relationship she has ever had.

"Trust yourself a bit more, I even prepared a book for different kinds of scenarios. It's not like I can't help you at all, I just can't physically be there." Freja pulled out a book and a small black box.

"In the box is a small crystal that can communicate with me directly, so whenever you need some help, please use it to call me. You can even take out the crystal while something is happening so that I can give you some advice on the go." Freja pushed the items at the end of the desk and Kiruya stored the box in her inventory while opening the book to see what was inside.

"Wow, you really did cover everything." Kiruya flicked through the book, which was filled with a myriad of oddly specific situations, with different branches of things to say for different effects. There was even a page about herself and her personality.

"Fufu~ I have dealt with every kind of woman in my life, I'm sure my guide will be of great help." Freja was rather proud as she had worked on this book for several years and it had come in handy when meeting new people she was interested in.

"Aha thank you, but I'm still unsure how I'm supposed to approach this." Kiruya was happy to help Shaman, but the situation seemed so complicated.

.....

"At the end of the book there should be some tips, but what I can tell you right now is, don't try to seem like you are breaking them up, otherwise Elysia will try to strangle you." Freja knew that for anything that seemed like a threat, the first thing that goes through Elysia's mind is how to kill or remove said threat.

Kiruya nodded and started to formulate ways to approach the situation at hand.

"Alright, I think I have a way to help, but I will definitely need that advice on the go." Kiruya planned to keep the crystal on her whenever approaching the situation, as getting live feedback would be extremely useful.

"Just be careful, I may not always be available, so I recommend trying closer to the evening as I will just be in my office unless something comes up."

"Got it."

"If you have no more questions, get going before they leave without you and enjoy your trip with your new friends." Freja smiled and quickly got up to give Kiruya a goodbye kiss.

***

"Are you ready to go Elysia?" Currently in their room, Shaman was making sure they had put everything they needed in their inventory. Shaman also made sure they had plenty of spare clothes as they tend to get ruined quite frequently.

"Yep!" Elysia had come out of the bathroom wearing a red sweater and skirt and walked over to Shaman.

"Sheesh what was taking you so long." Shaman had been waiting for almost 30 minutes.

"I-I, uhhh… was busy." Elysia blushed as she knew they were going on a long trip and needed time to prepare herself for the lack of action during that time.

"If that's the case why didn't you ask me?" Shaman instantly knew what Elysia was doing and wondered why she didn't ask.

"B-because it would make it worse since it would only make me crave it more." Elysia put her fingers together, shy to fully admit why.

"Oh aha well, since you're done, let's not keep everyone else waiting." Shaman grabbed Elysia by the hand and walked out of the room to the front gate.

*

Silver, Kiruya and Clara were already waiting at the gate, with Clara looking rather impatient.

"We were supposed to leave 30 minutes ago." Clara tried to not sound angry, but was annoyed that they took so long.

"Aha sorry." Shaman didn't want to say why, but Clara and Kiruya had already made their assumptions about why they took so long.

"No need to be annoyed Clara, at least now there won't be a super clingy Elysia." Kiruya saw the light in the situation and figured it would be better if they weren't pent up while on their trip. Elysia had looked down at the ground, letting her hair cover her face to hide the blush.

*Sigh* "You're right, let's get going." Clara couldn't argue against Kiruya so she had to give up and move on.

"Why do you like to do it so much?" Silver, who had been in the other room when they were first together, didn't understand why they liked to do it so much. However, the comment had hit Shaman directly in the soul as she didn't want to remember how Silver was only in the next room over when he was a small wolf.

"B-because we enjoy it and have desires, now please try to forget you ever saw or heard anything." Shaman quickly spoke, trying to salvage the situation as she wanted to keep Silver somewhat innocent despite being able to murder people without mercy.

"Hmm okay, but it sounds fun."

Shaman face palmed as the innocence was still there and yet at the same time it was something she didn't expect to hear from her son any time soon. Elysia had covered her face with her hands as it was extremely embarrassing to think about how their son had basically seen or at least heard everything they did.

"Pfft, haha" Both Clara and Kiruya laughed, as watching Shaman desperately trying to protect Silver was entertaining.

"L-let's just move on." Shaman pulled Elysia by the arm and walked ahead of everyone.

*

Picking up a few lizard mounts for the 5 of them, they soon approached the gate where the battle had occurred.

"What about the wild beasts, or did Freja do her thing again?" Shaman was still concerned about the forest, hoping it was safe.

"Oh don't worry, the mounts are from the forest, so as long as you don't make too much noise or aggravate the beasts, we will be completely fine." Kiruya explained the situation, which put Shaman's worries at ease.

The gate was a large structure made out of wood and heavily reinforced with nature magic. The gate was then lowered into the ground, allowing them to pass through and exit the forest.

"You sure cleaned up quickly." only A few days had passed and already the entire front was cleaned as if nothing ever happened at all.

"Once again the maids came in handy. No matter the damage, they can still restore the forest to a certain degree as long as it isn't completely destroyed." Kiruya had led the repairs after her talk with Clara and only took a few hours to clean up.

Shaman nodded once again, amazed by the maid's capabilities to basically do anything.

Moving along the trail, the mounts had walked through at a moderate pace to avoid disturbing anything in the forest. Once out, they were met with hills and open fields as well as some towns that could be barely seen in the distance.

"We will be heading through the fox realm into Elfheim, so we should have easy passage until we reach the border." Kiruya explained their route and had taken the lead as she pretty much knew the entire realm off by heart.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Just as last time, Shaman and Elysia were on one mount while Clara and Silver were on another one together. Shaman wanted Silver to be with her, but because there were no bigger mounts and no way she could let Elysia be with Clara, it was better for him to just go with Clara.

The mounts picked up the pace and so the journey to Elfheim capital began.

***

A rather young elf boy was training with a sword and bow in what looked like a courtyard.

"Ren! Your father requests for you." An elf maid had called out from the entrance of the courtyard, causing Ren to stop his training.

"What does he want?" Putting away the sword in its sheath, he looked at the maid wanting the reason.

"He said we should be receiving guests soon and wanted you to greet them when they arrive."

"And why does that matter, I'm 19 now. Why do I have to stay cooped up in the palace still?" Ren had sounded rather annoyed still having to follow his father's orders and wanted nothing more than to get out.

"He wants to talk about something else, but he didn't say what and I heard the visitors are adventurers so it could be your ticket out."

Ren's ears twitched a little bit at the maid's words as it was rare for anyone aside from nobles to visit.

'Maybe he wants me to do dungeons with them.' Ren smiled, knowing that he might be finally able to leave without having his back constantly watched.

"Alright fine I will see him" Ren wiped away the sweat and walked out of the courtyard to his father's office.

169 Fox realm delicacies

After a few hours of traveling had passed, Shaman and her group had stopped in a nearby town to grab something to eat. The town itself resembled the architecture of rural Japan and it was rather peaceful with only a few people on the streets. Shaman and everyone else had stopped by a restaurant so that they had somewhere to sit down and talk.

Walking into a restaurant that had a traditional Japanese feel to it, Shaman could not help but feel she was back in her original world. The restaurant wasn't too busy, so they walked straight in without issue and grabbed seats in one of the corners.

They had also already sold the cores from when Silver did his solo dungeon run, earning them some more coins. Although before leaving, Freja had given them 10000 gold coins for the trip, so they hardly needed more cash.

"We have too much money." Shaman, when walking through the town, saw how everything was extremely cheap.

"Just you wait till you get to the capital, the auction house there would require millions of coins. The only reason why basic things are so cheap is because a lot of people don't become adventurers. There is also a continent wide law that requires all basic living costs to stay low even while everything that involves adventurers has become extremely inflated." Kiruya explained why there was such a discrepancy in prices.

"Wouldn't that mean people could retire as early as 18?" Shaman was a bit confused by the law, as even at tier 1 getting cores was relatively easy and yielded a good amount of coins.

"You didn't read the terms and conditions?"

"No?" Shaman averted her gaze as she didn't even know such a thing existed to join the adventurers guild.

"Nobody does, so don't worry. The thing that happens to most people is that when they try to leave they are not able to since you need to serve the guild for a certain number of years." Kiruya had seen that situation play itself many times as she used to work for the guild directly and had to enforce punishment on those that refused to follow the terms.

.....

"How many years?" Shaman was a little worried as it seemed like it was impossible to get out.

"For most it's 30 years, but exceptions are granted for those with valid reasons, like ruling over a country for example." Kiruya could only think of one example as it had to be a significant reason that makes you completely incapable of contributing.

"Sheesh, alright." Shaman didn't like the amount of time, but then the thought of her becoming the queen of the fox realm appeared.

"Aha don't worry, there is also another way and that's through getting approval from anyone at tier 10, so someone like Freja."

"Oh that's cool, but I don't think that's something I should be worrying about for a while anyway." Although 30 years was far away. Shaman, having the connections she had, would have no problem quitting whenever she wanted to, not that she was planning to stop anytime soon anyway.

"Seems like even knowing one person at tier 10 makes your entire life easier." Elysia couldn't imagine what her life would have been like if she were an adventurer alone as it was a rough occupation to begin with.

"As long as you are talented and put in enough effort before taking on the tougher challenges then it isn't too hard to rise in the ranks." Clara who had trained for as long as she remembers had found progressing not so tedious.

"There are many factors, but it has only been recently that schools are starting to incorporate training into the curriculum." Kiruya, while talking, waved at a waitress wanting to order.

"So we are in a period where adventuring will start being a part of everyone's lives." Shaman started considering that this world might be a little more progressive when it comes to adventuring, at least if compared to most of the novels she's read in the past.

"Yes. Oh I will have some of the tizzard please." Kiruya ordered some food for herself and everyone else followed.

"I will take whatever you think is the best meat dish." Elysia didn't know the difference between the different dishes as they all had unique names of beasts she hadn't heard of.

"Hmm, same as Moth- I mean Elysia." Silver also wanted something meaty, but only being born a few months ago, had no clue what most things meant.

"I'll try the farab sushi." Shaman had picked something at random as she wasn't a picky eater.

"Give me what Shaman is having." Clara couldn't make up her mind so she copied Shaman's meal.

The waitress took note and walked off leaving them alone.

"What are these names?" Elysia was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind. Although Clara was more familiar with the menu, Shaman and Elysia both were unfamiliar with these kinds of dishes.

"Oh my how naive, these meals are made from the wild beasts found in the fox realm, so they are quite popular." Kiruya had forgotten that Shaman was someone who was transported, so her world knowledge was rather lackluster. Elysia on the other hand had been isolated from the world while she was hiding with her parents. She also barely scraped by when she was a street rat finding anything she could eat.

"Hope they are good." Shaman and Elysia were both keen on trying what they got. Elysia was also taking this opportunity to see if she could get some recipe ideas.

***

After eating their meals, Shaman and Elysia were pleasantly surprised by the taste.

"Eli, can you make this?" Shaman looked at Elysia who was next to her, waiting for an answer.

"Eh? Eli?" Elysia however, was more caught up with the sudden nickname she had received.

"Can you?" Shaman was now grabbing a hold of Elysia's clothes looking up at her.

"I-I ummm, I think so, but I would need to find a recipe at least." Elysia answered Shaman honestly, but she still wanted to know where the nickname came from.

"Yes!" Shaman had enjoyed the food so much that, when Clara wasn't able to finish her dish, Shaman had instantly finished it off for her.

"To think this one can use 5 elements." Kiruya held her head as watching the scene made it hard to believe that the person in front of her was already so powerful.

"Hehe Mother is great! Although she gets very serious when fighting, she is always having fun outside of battles." Silver spoke up, hearing Kiruya talk about Shaman.

"You have a great mother so make sure you protect her." Kiruya smiled at Silver and found him absolutely adorable.

"Mhm."

"Shaman! What's with the nickname?" Elysia had blushed as she never thought she would receive a nickname and, since it was from Shaman, it caused her heart to flutter.

"Oh you mean Eli? It just sort of came out, do you not like it?"

"Of course I do, just wasn't expecting it." Elysia's voice trailed off while she turned her head away.

"Hehe~ are you embarrassed Eli~?" Shaman had leaned in and whispered in her ear, which further made Elysia embarrassed.

"No I'm not!" Elysia used her hands to cover her face and avoided any eye contact.

"We are in a public place." Clara, unable to watch any longer, brought up how they were in a public place.

"Oop." Shaman quickly backed off Elysia as shame had suddenly kicked in.

Elysia let out a sigh of relief. Sure, she would have liked to play along, but she is still trying to restrain her sexual urges so as to not disturb everyone.

"If we are finished eating then let's move on." Kiruya had enough as well and was surprised how Clara is able to deal with seeing so much affection.

Getting up from their seats, Kiruya and Shaman paid for their meals.

Retrieving their mounts, they had continued their journey to Elfheim and were now relatively close to the border.

***

"Tsk, even after searching all the nearby towns and small cities, that demon girl was nowhere to be found."

In the middle of the capital, Pope Klaus sat in his throne room all by himself, looking at a scroll that contained the reports of the search parties he sent out.

"It must have been her at the dungeon entrance. I was 100 percent sure I sensed a demon, but it had vanished the moment I got there." The Pope clenched his fists, ruining the scroll in his hands.

"Not to mention Himeko got away and I have no idea where she went." After Himeko had used her family skill, the Pope had no way to track her as the skill gave her a completely new body, making any sigils on her old body useless.

The pope stood up from his throne and a rather old looking butler came out.

"Orders sir?" The butler bowed awaiting the words of the pope.

"Get the leaders of the underground to come visit me in the usual spot, we need to move on with the plan soon." The Pope vanished from the spot after giving his orders and the butler left in a haste.

170 Getting through the border

Another couple of hours passed, and the group easily made it to the border. Coming up to a castle gate completely made up of wood, they were stopped by some elves which wore silver and golden lined armour and carried spears decorated with golden leaves at the base of the blade. Long white hair came out from beneath their helmets and long ears peeked out the sides while their eyes were hidden behind a face shield.

"Hey, Rein!" Kiruya waved at the two elf guards and the one she was addressing lifted up his face shield.

"Long time no see Kiruya, it's been a while since you came to Elfhiem." Rein walked up to the side of the mount and Kiruya handed him a sheet of paper.

"It has and I'm joined this time with some friends."

"Oh? Well nice to meet you Kiruya's friends. Seeing as you're with her, we won't need to search you." Handing back the piece of paper he gestured at some guards that were inside the gate to let them through.

The tree roots that blocked the path sunk into the ground, allowing them entry to the elven territory.

"Stay safe and don't cause any trouble, otherwise I will throw you out myself." Rein smirked as it was a genuine warning, but because Kiruya's reputation was good, he doubted anything of the sort would happen.

"Thank you." Going through with ease, Shaman and her group officially entered Elfheim.

Looking at their new surroundings, they saw a forest of giant trees in the distance, which they assumed was their destination. To their left there was a mountain range that seemed to be on the border with the human territory of Elysium. On the right, it was a vast field with a few clumps of trees in the distance.

.....

'I guess we are still following the Elf stereotype of living in a forest.' Shaman could tell the giant trees in the distance would be as tall as the skyscrapers from her world.

"Now that we are through the checkpoint, I'm sure you can already tell where we are going." Kiruya gestured towards the massive trees and everyone nodded.

"I wonder if we can climb on top of them?" Elysia thought about the view you would get and thought of it as a great date spot.

"The trees are sacred so I doubt you could go climbing them." Clara shook her head as what Elysia said was rather childish.

"Don't we have to go through a dungeon to get to the capital?" Shaman remembered that they needed to clear a dungeon in order to get an audience, which made it sound like it was in the dungeon or at least connected to one.

"No, no, just the palace is hidden away through the dungeon. No one actually knows where it is located, but it is somewhere in the Elfheim territory." Kiruya elaborated more on where they were going.

"So the dungeon brings you to a completely different location that no one knows where it is?" Shaman interpreted it. as a sort of wormhole which would 100% confirm that dungeons are a complete separate space.

"Yep, and it's what makes the palace one of the safest places. Many high tier humans have tried locating it, but failed every time."

"Wouldn't that mean the palace could actually be a dungeon inside a dungeon?" Silver figured that if it couldn't be found and the only entry was inside the dungeon, then what if the palace was in its entirety inside the dungeon instead of on the actual continent.

"Hmm I don't know the facts, I am just telling you what most people know." Kiruya really didn't know the truth, but still wanted to give some base knowledge about the territory.

"Oh well, let's just enjoy the trip and hopefully we can clear the dungeon while also getting a few levels." Elysia didn't really care as she just wanted to see if the tall trees could be a viable date spot.

"True, we do have at least a couple days worth of travelling, despite how close the trees may seem." Kiruya had done the trip many times and knew how long it took, so as long as they didn't have any hiccups, they would arrive rather quickly.

Hearing how much time was left, Shaman leaned back into Elysia's chest, using them as a pillow. Elysia hugged Shaman, however, what she thought was just Shaman being affectionate soon started to take a turn.

Shaman moved Elysia's hand down, but before Shaman could continue, someone yelled out.

"OI! if you're that desperate wait until after we stop and you go do what you want in the dark night!" Clara glared at the two as Shaman wasn't being very discrete.

"Tssk." Shaman stopped what she was doing, but she continued to stay in the same position. Elysia was blushing as she wasn't opposed to it, but certainly would need to wait.

Kiruya shook her head while lightly chuckling as she had never heard of someone doing it on a mount.

'I wonder if I should ask Freja.' Kiruya was in her own thoughts while Clara kept a close watch to make sure Elysia and Shaman didn't do anything. Silver sat in front of Clara bobbing back and forth trying to distract himself.

***

The sun was setting and it looked like the trees in front of them didn't move at all. Going slightly off trail, they found a small oasis of some kind that had a flowing river which went into a jungle like forest.

Setting up some shelter for themselves and a campfire, Elysia had started to cook for everyone.

"I better not hear you two while I try to sleep." Clara stared at Shaman as she wouldn't let up what she tried to do while they were travelling.

"Yes, don't worry we won't disturb you." Shaman blushed while looking away.

"I-I don't think we should, plus I prepared to not do anything for a couple days." Elysia spoke quietly, a little embarrassed since she would rather do it inside as there was no privacy where they were.

*Sigh* "I only wanted to tease you Eli, I didn't plan to really do anything." Shaman knew Elysia was restraining herself, so for a bit of entertainment, Shaman wanted to see how far she could go.

"Good thing Freja isn't here, she would have no shame." Kiruya, wanting to make light of the situation, said it could have been a lot worse. Both Elysia and Shaman got flashbacks to when they could hear Kiruya on their first night at the mansion.

"Oh yes, it could be."

"Mhm indeed."

Both Elysia and Shaman agreed, as they knew how loud they could get and being in such an open area, it would be hard not to hear them.

***

Ren was standing in front of a door and moved his blonde and black hair back before grabbing the handle. He wore rather casual clothes, only having a white t-shirt and black tracksuit pants.

"What is it father?" Ren entered a rather small office, its walls completely covered in old books.

"Good, you came, we will be having some adventurers sent from the Freya forest and I would like you to join them." Ren's father had not even looked at him and was reading a book while talking.

His father looked rather young and wore robes of white and green. His hair was long and was a very light blonde.

"Yes! Finally, who are these people exactly?" Ren, who wanted to leave the palace to explore the continent, was finally getting his chance.

"It is a group of 4, with 2 fox girls and a demon girl. The 2 fox girls have a son called Silver and is travelling alongside them. It is also noted from Freja that despite Silver's age, he is to not be underestimated." Reading from a piece of paper on the desk, Ren was surprised it was basically a group of girls.

"Umm, are you sure I should be going with a group full of girls, let alone ones that have a kid?" Ren wasn't sure if he would be comfortable in a group full of women.

"Ah you will be fine, one is a couple and you know demon and elf relationships are impossible, so don't go trying anything and just try to get along." Ren's father glared at Ren's emerald green eyes as it was clear what he was thinking.

Ren had felt a little relieved and only hoped he could get along as he hasn't had much contact outside of the palace.

"They should be here in a couple days, so make sure you are ready to leave by then and make sure to spend some time with your mother." Ren's father gestured for him to leave, which annoyed Ren as it seemed like his father didn't care.

'I swear, every time he wants me to do something, it's just for his own ego or benefit.' Ren walked out of the room and his first thoughts were of how his father might just be taking advantage of him.

'At least I get some freedom now, but I'm still not sure about joining a group full of girls.' Ren felt rather nervous about relying on his social skills and got worried whether they would really get along.

'I'll go see mother now.' Ren, knowing his mother was much more knowledgeable, decided to go consult her for some help.

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