“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! KYAAAAAAAAAAHH!”

As I, Saori Segawa, was taking a few ingredients from my storage, I heard a girlish scream from the direction of the lake.

As if she was a rocket, Hestia bolted right pass me all while shrieking from the top of her lungs. In the fading sunlight, it didn’t take long for her silhouette to slowly melt into the depths of the forest, only her crimson hair was visible as it fluttered around in a panic.

My arm was stretched out in the direction she ran and my voiced tried to utter, “Hey, where are you going?”, but I quickly closed my mouth, my attention shifted to my [Prediction]’s warning.

From the shadow of the water geyser that Hestia caused, a long, slippery tongue shot out like a bullet.

“Tch!” clicking my tongue, my eyes began tracking its every movement.

Everything felt slower, as my senses went on overdrive to understand what is currently happening. My awareness of the surrounding was slowly being processed, quickly identifying the target of the attack and how long the tongue will need to reach it.

Reflexively, my right arm jolted upwards, claws ready, and sliced the tongue just a few centimeters away from hitting its mark, the flying Tasianna.

"Eek!" Tasianna shocked face suggested that she wasn't aware of the attack before I cut it apart.

Blood sprayed out of the tongue’s opening, showering the ground red, while its tip fell onto the ground with a thud.

“Miss Tasianna, would you please go find Hestia? I believe you will be safer at her side.” I told Tasianna, my eyes didn’t meet hers, as I was cautiously glaring at the new threat.

Knowing that she could find Hestia with the party bracelet’s search function, Tasianna began moving towards that direction after saying, “Please, be careful, Madam Saori.”.

Despite not having any real tracking skills, she moved with confidence and efficiency as she kept her eyes on the blue party screen projected by her bracelet. I do hope that Hestia didn’t run too far away, otherwise, Tasianna’s probability to encounter another ambush would be all too high.

I wanted to find Hestia, too, but most of our food was currently sprawled on the ground. I was confident that nothing will happen to Tasianna when she’s with Hestia, so it was my task to make sure that our food isn’t stolen from us.

Hestia’s insatiable stomach would cause me problems if I backed out now.

Identify.

Giant Fume Toad A giant monster with pores that emit toxic fumes when it's endangered. Warts on its body are filled with toxins and are used to defend itself from being preyed by other monsters. This monster uses the neurotoxins in its tongue to paralyze its prey. It is extremely docile until it is harmed. Rank D

Oh, Hestia…

From the tingling in the hand used to cut the tongue, I could feel that the toxin doesn’t only paralyze potential victims. I was completely immune to even Hestia’s weird concoctions, after all.

Looking over to the enemy’s side, I could see fumes coming out of the skin of five toads. The posturing and angry croaking of one of the toads suggests that they won’t flee without a fight.

No choice, I should probably look at the bright side here. It’s a great situation to test out my new body.

I quickly took off my party bracelet, as it would break upon monsterization, and put it in my storage. A mana mist dispersed out of my body as [Humanize] transformed me back into a Cadejo, a wolf-like monster with red eyes.

“Wrooooooo!” the toads were clearly surprised by my new form; however, they did not back off.

How presumptuous. I should see what I can do, first.

With those words, I quietly chanted the spell [Dark Bolt]. Putting into action what I learned from Tasianna, the chant was quickly done, and a magical circle appeared before my head, before shooting the spell.

The front toad noticed the projectile and dodged to the side, leaving the one behind him as the next target. Crashing into the toad’s skin, the spell left a visible burnt mark, enough that it began squirming around. Seeing their friend in pain, this agitated the other toads to begin their assault by shooting their tongues out of their mouth.

Having already prepared a [Shadow Dash], I activated it and was taken into my shadow. It was only for a few seconds, but I could never forget this experience, whenever I used this spell.

Swimming through a completely dark and empty sea, there was nothing for me to do in it but to swim onwards. A single light in this vast world was shining at the end of my path through a hole, the shadow that I chose to exit out.

Reaching out to it, I transitioned from this dark world back into the world of light, which was behind the back of the toad that I attacked with [Dark Bolt].

Wrapping my claws with [Shadow Armament], I pierced its skull with spear-like claws of darkness and crashed its body into the ground. Water exploded upwards and showered me in it, as I was currently standing in the shallow part of the lake.

[Poisoned (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

I should hurry up.

My initial plan was to kill these toads with range spells, but an ingenious idea came flying into my head in the last moment.

“Isn’t this a great time to train [Poison Resistance]?”, was what I thought. Considering Hestia’s hobby of mixing and creating new toxins, it would be smart of me to use this to my advantage. The effectiveness of Hestia’s venom was shown when we fought the trolls.

It was currently too dangerous for me to continue using it for a prolonged time, risking being poisoned myself. Hestia couldn’t heal any status ailments that has reached the major stage, and how dangerous they were was currently random, until Hestia categorizes and organizes them correctly.

So, why not train my resistances with these toads, first? At the rate that I can kill these toads, at worst, I will be affected by [Poisoned (Moderate)], which is perfectly curable by Hestia.

The tingling throughout my body from being poisoned was uncomfortable, but I’ll endure it. Any Health damage will be healed up once I level up.

Once I finished casting another [Shadow Dash], I used it to dodge the incoming tongue lashes and re-entered the world of black.

Like a shark, I dived out of the shadow of my next quarry and quickly finished it off with another skull piercer. The toads were unsure of what is happening and weren’t able to adapt to it. Their natural cowardice showed when I managed to kill the third one, promoting the rest to flee.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Poison Resistance Lv. 1] evolved into [Poison Resistance Lv. 2] [Lifetaker (3 kills)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

A surge of unnatural strength entered my body, empowering every single of my stats. Instead of ecstasy, the announcement made me ask myself a question.

Why haven’t I level up yet? They are D rank, this should be enough for one level.

I slightly tensed my face up as my question was left unanswered. My Health wasn’t anywhere close to critical yet, but it was nonetheless dropping slowly. It was baffling that I couldn’t level up even after killing three D rank monsters.

I shook off my concern and pursued the monsters before they could jump back into the lake’s depth.

I quickly slashed off the legs off one of the toads, making sure that none of the blood and warts would touch me, I then shot out a [Dark Slash] towards the last toad. The claws made of dark mana sliced a chunk of the toad and staggered it long enough for me to cast [Dark Tendrils] on it.

With that, the battle was over and all I needed to do was to kill them.

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 1] Attributes have increased due to level up Acquired 500 skill points Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Poison Resistance Lv. 2] evolved into [Poison Resistance Lv. 3]

Upon killing the fourth giant amphibian, my level rose up. The damage I took quickly healed and I finally had SP, again.

I quickly used it to upgrade a skill.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Poison Resistance Lv. 3] evolved into [Poison Resistance Lv. 4]. 450 SP remaining [Poisoned (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

Oof.

The instant that messaged appeared; my body was assaulted by lethargy. My muscles complained similar to being under the effects of lactic acid and my head felt foggy.

My stomach churned and bits of vomit burnt my throat as I pushed it back down.

Shit, I wasn’t fast enough…

I lamented while I killed the last toad by slicing its throat from a distance using [Dark Slash]. I quickly rushed back to where our camp was and humanized back to my Wolfkin form.

[Humanized (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

I then picked up some herbs and started mincing it into small pieces inside my mouth.

Parshkey A flowering plant that can only grow when the amount of mana in the soil reaches a certain level. The plant produces an antitoxin using the mana to cultivate itself. Letting it soak in water allows it to show its maximum effect

This aromatic herb is the Peolynca version of Parsley. The taste and smell were exactly the same, the only difference was that this version is exceptionally good at detoxing your body.

The dizziness caused by the poison suddenly stole most of the strength in my legs and sent me falling down onto the ground. I turned my body to lay on my back, making sure that my body was in a proper position to swallow comfortably.

[Poisoned (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]

I continued chewing the plant leaves inside my mouth, making sure to swallow all my saliva that was soaked in the antitoxin that this plant was producing. I continued breaking down and sucking this wonderfully sweet spit until I heaved a sigh when my poison status was to back to minor.

I could feel the effects instantaneously. The tingling was dulled but hasn’t faded yet. I still needed Hestia to heal me up.

Brushing off my sweat-filled face, I took out my party bracelet and put it back on my left wrist. With my fever slowly dwindling, my mind was sober enough to notice something peculiar on my blue party screen.

Name: Saori Segawa Level: 51 Job: None Health: 1579/2002 Mana: 650/682 Stamina: 1006/1236 Effects: [Humanized (Moderate)] [Poisoned (Minor)] Party Leader Name: Hestia Atsuko Level: 74 Job: None Health: 2634/2634 Mana: 9051/9051 Stamina: 1229/1352 Effects: [Damaged Mana Path [Left Wing] (Minor)] [Humanized (Moderate)] [Terror (Minor)] Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Level: 34 Job: Mage Health: 509/509 Mana: 1906/1906 Stamina: 280/391

It seems the experience sharing function was the cause of my reduced experience gain.

Tasianna was level 31 before I killed these monsters, so it seems she benefitted quite a lot from my efforts.

Looking at my section, I noticed that my humanized form’s level was 51. Wasn’t it level 50 when we formed the party? Hestia and I rarely cared what our human form’s stats were, as we preferred to fight in our monster forms. It seems like the two levels were synced with each other.

I really like that “Effects” will only show up when it’s filled. It’s a waste of space on the status board.

I then raised my finger and touched the map icon on the screen.

Name: Hestia Atsuko Distance: 231 m Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Distance: 231 m

For some reason, this world was also using the metric system to calculate distances. Tasianna mentioned that the creator of this manatech, the dwarves, invented this system and it was quickly picked up by the majority of the world.

However, how did this happen? Why is a race of Peolynca sharing a system created on Earth? Even the pronunciation was exactly the same. It is baffling.

Sigh, well I should be thankful though. At least I won’t have to learn an entirely new unit system.

While having these thoughts, I eventually found Hestia and Tasianna using the locator. It might not be as effective as using my skills to find them, but it was definitely more relaxing. Even the toxin inside my body subsided during the time I walked.

“A-Are t-they gone?” shivering as if she was freezing, Hestia directed her gaze to me and asked me feebly.

“Yes, Hestia,” I walked over to Hestia’s body and shuffled her hair with my hand to calm her down.

My hand was quivering simply by leaving my hand on her head. I then proceeded to wrap my arms around her body in an embrace.

The poor girl was shaking so violently that some would presume that the cold was getting to her, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Her body was so warm that anybody unfamiliar with her would believe that she was stricken with a fever. Keeping her close to me was similar to being warmed by a hearth, warding off the cold, dark night.

I should make some warmer clothes soon. Winter is coming.

“Bwuh!” shuffling out from my hug was Tasianna. Her aquamarine dress was completely soaked in sweat as she huffed and puffed. [“Madam Saori, huff, I have fulfilled your request. Princess Hestia is alright, huff.”]

I quickly apologized to Tasianna for accidentally sandwiching her between me and Hestia. I then released Hestia from my grasp, but something prevented me from standing up.

“Not enough…,” like the spoiled little princess that she was, Hestia’s trembling hand pulled me back towards her, with a strength unimaginable for her thin arm.

Despite some struggling, I forcibly freed myself, [“Hestia, we need to go back to the lake. The food that we left there will be stolen if we don’t return soon.”] Looking at her pouting face, I used [Telepathy] to convey my thoughts as my throat couldn't manage to talk this much, [“The toads are dead so you can extract their toxins.”]

“NEIN!” as if she was about to hear something terrible, Hestia closed her ears with her hands and shouted. “No frogs! No toads! I won’t go back to the lake. Never! Never again!”

Hugging her lessened the shivering to an acceptable rate but, like a flash, it returned. The loud protests and this irrational behavior reinforced the [Terror (Minor)] that she had. Her habit of not crying, even in her most emotional moments, seems to persist even in her current state. Fear has completely overwhelmed her body and mind, but her conviction to never cry was still as strong as her scales.

It would be inspiring; were it not for the pitiful reason that forced her to do it.

I gave out a sigh in resignation, “Alright, we will make camp here. Miss Tasianna, with Hesta’s aid, please prepare a shower for the evening.”

My body was drenched in sweat and lake water. Having fur covering my whole body made me smell like wet dog hair. My nose couldn’t handle this.

With my orders, Hestia staggered to her feet and started constructing a shower with Tasianna.

I went back to the lake and packed most of the ingredients back inside my storage. I still haven't gotten used to the amount of mana I needed to use, but it was surprisingly good training to increase my maximum mana capacity. Might this be the reason for Hestia’s insane mana growth?

I was also considering cutting the frogs into unidentifiable pieces, but I quickly abandoned it. It would be insensitive to do that when the mere sight and mention made her scream in horror.

Even slimes weren’t this bad. She found them disgusting and would rather avoid them, but she never was this hysterical.

What a waste…

I would have loved to taste frog legs, but it seems that would stay a dream.

Maybe when Hestia isn't around?

Going against this annoying urge to bring them with me, I headed back to my companion’s location with a cauldron full of firewood and larger ingredients.

Back at our new camp, I saw that the impromptu shower was finished. Hestia seemed to have calmed down a bit but her crestfallen expression is telling me otherwise.

[“Do you want to go under the shower, first?”] I asked Hestia.

She hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth, “Nein, I’m good. You go first. I’ll prepare dinner.”

It was shocking to hear her say that, but those thoughts quickly subsided. I stroked her head and thanked her for her thoughtfulness “Thanks. I will expect a good meal, alright?”.

Her face loosened up and a smile formed.

I knew children and adolescents appreciated compliments and praises, but Hestia especially loved them. Her broodiness disappeared instantly, and she made her way to the cauldron.

I do hope she didn’t overthink things, again. She has an annoying habit of doing that.

[“Thank you for being with her, Miss Tasianna. I hope Hestia did not give you too many problems,”] I walked with Tasianna to the shower.

[“It was my honor and duty, Madam Saori. Besides being overwhelmed by an unknown power, she was very docile. I am worried that her [Terror (Minor)] was caused by something beyond our power,”] it would seem like Tasianna had not realized the reason for Hestia's behavior. It would seem like these two shared the tendency of being worrywarts.

I dispelled her worries and we entered the shower, after taking off our clothes. I looked up and flinched back when I saw something sticking at the ceiling.

[“Princess Hestia made it in the time you were gone. She told me that the heat will last long enough for us to enjoy the shower,”] Tasianna stated.

Hearing that explanation, my nerves calmed down, enough for me to inspect the item. It looked very similar to one of Hestia’s bombs, but it seems like its function was completely different.

Hestia’s Heater Ball A creation made by Hestia Atsuko. The ball is packed with fire magic inside a thick, stone covering to maximize insulation efficiency

Hestia's bombs had the description that they would explode upon infusing her mana, but this ball seems to be different. It might be due to a difference in the spell she used to create it.

Tasianna started using [Greater Create Water] around the object and warm water started falling on me. The heat of the water slightly scalded my skin, but it wasn’t bad enough to not enjoy.

As time went by, the sticky sweat on my face was washed away while the water cleaned my fur from all the dirt that was gathered on it today. The slimy residue of the toad's mucus-filled skin stuck under my claws but that was quickly gone with a good scrubbing.

After she was finished creating the ball of water, Tasianna also joined me under the shower, prancing around as she let the dripping water wash away all exhaustion, sweat, and tension.

I then took out a cup filled with Tasianna’s shampoo and began applying it on her body, making sure to regulate my strength to an appropriate level.

[“Ow! A bit too strong…”] she winced in pain from my clumsy attempt.

[“I apologize…”]

After I finished cleaning her body, I was ready to apply the shampoo to myself, however, Tasianna pleaded that she would do it. She probably wanted to do it to assist Hestia while she showered, and this was practice, I believe? The size difference must be daunting.

How nostalgic.

My mother would always do it for me when I was little. We would enter the bath together and exit out of it squeaky clean.

Hestia was shy when we took a bath together at the lake a few days ago. We might have gotten used to seeing each other “naked” but her embarrassment was clear on her face. She quickly got used to it, but I did feel a bit hurt.

Thankfully Tasianna seems to not mind it very much. Is it due to her upbringing?

As Tasianna’s mana quickly dwindled from using [Greater Create Water], we had to stop this wonderful experience. After exiting the shower, our wet bodies felt the chilly winds of the night sapping our body heat.

Putting our mana clothing back on, we ran and flew together to Hestia, asking her to produce her magical body dryer. As our mana dresses couldn’t get wet, it was perfectly feasible to do it this way.

With the warm air drying our bodies off, our shivering bodies quickly regained the strength that was stolen by the night.

With that done, we both helped out Hestia with the cooking. Once I was done, we sat around the campfire and began eating.

[“So…,”] after half-filling my stomach with the warm food, I looked at Hestia, our eyes meeting each other. [“Only frogs and toads?”]

Her body shrunk down from embarrassment. Her mouth quivered for a bit before stopping, [“…I’m not good with any amphibians but frogs and toads are the only ones that can send me into a hysterical fit.”]

With that, Hestia has confirmed her batrachophobia, a fear of amphibians.

[“Really, Princess Hestia? But how?”] Tasianna looked flabbergasted just as I was dumbfounded from this information.

Our reckless dragon princess would look into the eye of a giant troll and smile, but she would revert back to a little girl at the mere sight of a small frog? It sounded unbelievable, but all the screaming and shivering wasn’t made up.

The terror that I saw in Hestia’s eyes was enough to cause a cold sweat bead to form on my forehead.

[“How did it happen?”] I asked Hestia, curious about the origin of this phobia.

Hestia’s frowned face was trying its best to pry her mouth open, wanting to speak with her voice. However, she realized that Tasianna wouldn’t understand so she reverted to using [Telepathy]

Slowly but surely, her words entered our minds, ["When I was little, my parents brought me to the park for their off-day. We had a picnic."] Her face tensed up when she started to remember this bit. ["I was left alone for a bit when they went to buy me ice cream, but that's when a big frog jumped onto our blanket. I tried to shoo it off when it tried to steal our food, but it just slapped my hand with its tongue. It then attacked me by jumping on me.”]

…Well, I guess that’s how some phobias develop.

[“From that day onwards, I just couldn’t look at frogs nor toads anymore. Their disgusting looking faces and that wide, monstrous mouth just sends shivers down my spine,”] she continued speaking after stumbling on her words. [“A-And that jumping! That jumping, urgh. They always look like they’re trying to cause a fight. Aaaahhh, I can’t stand anything about them!”]

Ok, that’s a bit more understandable. Their appearance scares her.

I stood up and went to soothe her with a hug, [“There, there. Do not worry, Hestia. I will make sure to kill all the frogs and toads for you.”] Patting her back, I further added in a murmur. [“I’ll also kill everything else, while I’m at it, too.”]

[“Nein!”] Hestia pushed me back a bit and stared into my eyes. [“You promised not to steal all the kills!”]

Eh, worth the try.

[“Besides, why are you hugging me again? I know it’s an embarrassing reason, but you don’t need to patronize me!”] she said in indignation.

I was about to stand up when Hestia, once again, pulled me into her arms. [“Wait, wait! I didn’t say that I wouldn’t like it. Sorry…”]

Oh jeez, this girl…

With that said and done, we finished dinner and then went to bed.