Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Dark Magic Lv. 6] [Unarmed Technique Lv. 2] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 2] [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 2] [Prediction Lv. 6] [Tracking Lv. 3] [Night Vision Lv. 6] [Evasion Lv. 6] [Acrobatics Lv. 6] [Bleed Resistance Lv. 2] [Torpor Resistance Lv. 2] [Identify Lv. 6] gained Multiple acquisition requirements fulfilled. [Unarmed Mastery Lv. 1] [Holy Resistance Lv. 1] [Water Resistance Lv. 1] acquired Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Chant Revocation Lv. 9] evolved into [Chant Revocation Lv. 10]. 50 SP remaining Abilities acquired: [Just Blink] [Shadow Descent] Spell acquired: [Shadow Snake]

“Are you really sure about this?” a high-pitched voice asked me, skeptically.

“Of course, otherwise it would not be a fair fight, correct?” I responded to the girl’s question, unwaveringly requesting that she not hold back her strength. “A week has gone by and the only thing you fought was a kobold, and you finished it off with [Fire]. Your hands are trembling, your eyes have grown sharper, and your tail is on constant alert!”

Two days have gone by since Hestia gained [Toxin Secretion] and Miss Tasianna bought the ice skills. We were currently standing in a large arena Hestia created using earth magic.

I stood at one corner, staring at her scratching her messy hair.

I, Saori Segawa, was currently pointing out the many symptoms of [Battle Frenzy] that Hestia was showing since yesterday when she instantly killed a kobold.

Prior, I was only able to observe it once. Initially, when she explained it to me, I dismissed it as a tantrum since I thought she was unhappy that I was taking all the monster kills. However, once I learned that it was a problem, I made sure to ask her about the details again.

Now, they are resurfacing. Constantly sharpening her claws to destress, a tail that restlessly swings around like a pendulum, and overly energetic behavior.

Like a certain coffee addict that I knew, she was showing signs of withdrawal; in this case, it was the lack of a good fight to unwind herself. My dear friend, Hestia, was extremely close to being inflicted by the status ailment [Battle Frenzy (Minor)].

“You know how dangerous my spells are, Saori,” she argued.

“We are only sparring, Hestia,” I pinched my fingers together to remind her of the reason why we were doing this. “You are this close to having [Battle Frenzy] come active and as you can see; we have not found anything that can fulfill your urge to fight.”

As promised, I made sure to control my urge to gain experience. Ever since I gained the power to fight by myself, I wanted to progress faster and faster. Strong enough so I don’t have to rely on Hestia too much.

Unfortunately, before we gained these party bracelets, the only way for me to gain experience was to be the one to kill the monster. Seeing as all I ever did in my second life was to scout monsters, my detection skills have steadily outpaced Hestia’s, allowing me to strike any prey down first.

It was inconsiderate and who knows what will happen when [Battle Frenzy] worsens. To prevent that, we would hunt together when we aren’t using the idol concert strategy. However, a week has gone by since we fought those trolls and we have not found a single D rank or higher monster.

If Hestia can’t get excited or engaged in a battle, then it won’t get rid of her battle instincts. If she wanted to earn experience, then all she needed to do was to activate [Spark Flame Veil] and jump into a horde of weak monsters. She could literally fall asleep and wake up unharmed with one- or two-level ups if she wanted to.

Hestia requires stimulation from fighting strong opponents or through exciting hunts to keep herself stable. It’s a problematic trait to have but living in a forest filled with monsters makes it easy to manage…is what I thought.

[“Alright, Miss Tasianna please hide in this pocket,”] I called Tasianna over.

[“M-Must I really have to do this, Madam Saori?”] she hesitantly flew onto my shoulder, fear clearly shown on her face. [“I-I can’t imagine being able to survive Princess Hestia’s attacks.”]

I have decided that I will put Miss Tasianna’s newly found power to the test.

When I agreed to have Miss Tasianna join us, I knew that she wasn't a fighter. She was a simple maid that served a family and barely ever had any fighting experience.

She showed the determination to train herself up to becomes somebody that can protect others, especially as it is her way to atone for her past failings. She has not neglected her magical training since we met. Besides her dedication to serving Hestia as a maid, she is also teaching us a new language and lecturing us about various mechanics of the System.

The amount of work she's been doing is admirable and I praise it from the depths of my soul. I respect hardworking individuals and Tasianna is somebody that deserves it.

It goes without saying that she was elated when she learned that she could buy [Ice Magic] and [Cryokinesis] from the Skill Shop.

According to my two magical companions, [Ice Magic] is a hybrid skill similar to [Lava Magic]. It requires the user to have [Wind Magic Lv. 10] and [Water Magic Lv. 10] for it to unlock in the first place, however, Tasianna seems to have skipped that part for some reason.

We also learned that Hestia seems to be extremely susceptible to ice spells, just like she is weak to dark and water magic. Besides receiving more damage, when her body temperature lowers, her senses and movements are dulled by a second’s delay. She can mitigate it with [Body Temperature Control] but that requires mana to be used.

There was no better opponent to test Tasianna’s powers than Hestia. She gained a lot of levels from our power leveling and we needed to see how well we can fight together.

Tasianna's Status Board Profile: Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Level: 36 Race: Fairy Age: 87 Years Job: Mage Status: Health: 552/552 (+80) Mana: 2178/2178 (+427) Strength: 65 (+23) Intelligence: 873 (+175) Vitality: 75 (+39) Wisdom: 559 (+92) Agility: 608 (+157) Stamina: 414/414 (+102) Effects: None Skill Points: 0 Skill: Magic skills and related

[Fairy Magic]

[Arcane Mind Lv. 6]

[Ice Magic Lv. 2] (New)

[Water Magic Lv. 6]

[Wind Magic Lv. 2]

[Chant Revocation Lv. 4]

[Silent Casting Lv. 1] (New)

[Mental Warfare Lv. 2]

Senses and movement skills

[Stealth Lv. 2] (+1)

[Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 2]

[Prediction Lv. 1]

[Danger Perception Lv. 1] (New)

[Enhanced Vision Lv. 1] (New)

[Night Vision Lv. 2]

[Evasion Lv. 3]

[Acrobatic Lv. 3]

[Flight Acceleration Lv. 1] (New)

[Mid-Air Maneuvering Lv. 1] (New)

[Concentration Lv. 4]

Resistances

[Physical Resistance Lv. 3]

[Pain Resistance Lv. 3]

[Poison Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Paralyzation Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Torpor Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 1]

[Holy Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Fire Resistance Lv. 1]

[Water Resistance Lv. 4]

[Earth Resistance Lv. 2] (+1)

[Wind Resistance Lv. 2]

[Dark Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

Stat growths and related

[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 1] (New)

[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv.´4]

[Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 4]

[Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 1] (New)

[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4] (+1)

[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 1]

[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 4] (+1)

[Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 1] (New)

[Enhanced Stamina Enforcement Lv. 1] (New)

Other

[Identify Lv. 2] (+1)

[Cooking Lv. 1] (New)

[Royal Etiquette Lv. 4]

[Cryokinesis] (New)

[Telepathy]

Spell List: Custom Magic

[Create Water]

[Greater Create Water]

Ice Magic

[Ice Spike]

[Frozen Shield]

Water spells

[Water Ball]

[Water Wall]

[Water Bolt]

[Cleanse]

[Protective Water]

[Droplet Torrent]

Wind spells

[Wind Bullet]

[Wind Cutter]

Titles:

[Hestia’s Retainer]

From the 2100 SP, she had available to spend, she spent 700 SP for [Cryokinesis] and 650 for [Ice Magic].

With the rest, she bought the other stat growth skills that she still needed. However, as a fairy, her Health and Vitality growths were pretty abysmal, to begin with, so taking the "enforcement" skills for a flat increase in her stats were better.

Fairies only needed to prevent their Mana from dropping to zero to survive but under the influence of the System, once their Health dropped to zero, they will fall unconscious. It would be safer to have it increase regardless of its niche use.

Speaking of limited usage, Tasianna chose to completely ignore her Strength stat. With me and Hestia around, it was unnecessary to increase her least used stat.

[“Alright, so what are the rules again, Saori?”] Hestia asked while shrugging her shoulders.

[“Everyone may be liberal with their skill and spell usage,”] I pointed a finger up. [“Of course, please be careful of inflicting lethal damage. Once your Health reaches 25% then you must forfeit the battle.”]

[“Yeah, thanks for the advantage,”] Hestia said sarcastically with a laugh.

I ignored her obvious concerns and continued raising my finger count from one to two, then to three, [“Your winning condition is to subdue both of us with that 25% Health rule or through submission. While ours will be to steal your party bracelet.”]

Hestia glanced at the bracelet around her left wrist, now understanding the goal of this spar [“Ahhh, I get it. In other words, instead of focusing on offense, you want me to concentrate on my defense.”]

I nodded, [“Miss Tasianna will stay by your side in the future, but it will not hurt to practice defending yourself while alone. You know that my skill set only allows me to be useful when I go into the midst of a battle, which means I need to become better with dodging attacks.”]

Aside from [Dark Tendrils] and [Shadow Clones], my skill and spell list are skewed towards infiltration and killing.

When I was choosing my evolution choices, I had three choices that I could have taken. Those choices were: [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo], [Young Fenrir], and [Young Guardian Inugami].

Young Shadowstalker Cadejo An immature black-furred wolf with eyes of blood red that appear like mist when they melt into the veil of the night. These wolf monsters use their extreme bloodlust to eviscerate any monsters that dare to challenge them. These wolves have no predators, as anything is prey when these monsters begin hunting. Rank C Young Fenrir An immature mystical wolf type monster that is a descendant of the wolf monster Belzac. Using their enhanced magical powers, they prey on their enemies with the tricks of the god of darkness and fangs of the goddess of monsters. Rank B Young Guardian Inugami An immature mystical wolf type monster that acts as a guardian for a single person. While fighting together with their “ward”, they gain enhanced abilities and parameters. Their abilities skyrocket when their “ward” is close to death, finally displaying all their destructive might. Rank C

I had a hard time deciding on which evolution would benefit me the most even when I only had two real choices. Like Hestia, SP was more important to me than the extra stats that I could have gotten with evolving into the rank B monster [Young Fenrir].

During the time when Hestia was recuperating after the troll battle, I had the time to look through the Skill Shop for some more skills. Unfortunately, there was nothing that immediately caught my eyes.

Compared to Hestia’s and Tasianna’s more "colorful" and varied skills, my status board was pretty simple. My magical potential wasn't very high, although, it is increasing. I have also put more focus on improving them, but I was still conflicted about buying other magic skills, even after I had Tasianna teach me how to use magic.

Buying [Space-Time Magic] further deteriorated my confidence as a magician. I had more practice and more mana, but it still was exhausting. Hestia makes magic casting seem so easy; I couldn’t help but compare her with myself.

…But it wasn’t good to do that. My mother always told me that comparing oneself to others can be useful for motivation but that I had to choose the correct person.

My family wasn’t wealthy, but my father’s profession as a firefighter did earn us enough money to enjoy our lives in an expensive city like Yokohama. We had comfortable lives, but it never was enough for a trip outside Japan, just because our medical bills and my tuition costs didn’t give us too many options.

That, unfortunately, changed when my father died during work. My parents did a terrible job with our savings and the survivor benefits we got only lasted for a few years. My mother couldn’t function properly, and working was forbidden at the school that I attended.

Until I got my position at Shirako High School, I couldn’t help but be envious of everybody without money and family problems. I wish it hadn’t affected me so much but complaining about unfairness was a very teenager-like thing to do, unfortunately. I took comfort in the times that I could shout and cry in a tantrum.

Comparing my mediocre magic abilities to Hestia's was similar to comparing my family's situation to a "normal" one. It would be an impossible task to catch up with a person that improved at such a high speed.

So, instead, I chose something that I was good at. It wasn't my dream to be a teacher, but it was a stepping stone to fulfill my father's wish. I could earn good money by being an amazing teacher at a private high school where people with massive amounts of throw-away money send their children.

I would slowly build up our savings through this job and when we had enough, then I would take a vacation and go around places with my mother. We would take pictures, eat exotic food, and be happy for my father, who wasn’t there anymore.

I took that decision to heart, so instead of choosing magic, I chose to specialize myself completely with what my body was best suited for. I have one magic element that I can use well, and I have skills that complement it well, so why should I not choose the option to help me master it?

Hestia’s tip was correct: “why must we fight if we can take them out before we even engage in the first place?”. Why must the mage be the bait, when the assassin can slay everything before it gets to that point.

Why should I support Hestia by defending her with [Young Guardian Inugami] when she can do it better?

No, to protect my friend, I should do what I can do best. Take the initiative with [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo] and shred any soul willing to threaten us before they can even move a muscle.

If I am forced to fight, then this will be the path that I will walk on.

“Sanctuary!” casting her [The Light] spell, a holy barrier encapsulated Hestia under its protective light. [“I guess we are also fighting in our humanized form, right? How about you turn back into your [Humanize Lv. 5] version, so you don’t have [Humanized (Moderate)]?”]

Fighting in our monster forms was possible but I suggested that we should practice as “humans”. Once we enter the elven kingdom, it would be better to stay in our humanized forms to avoid misunderstandings. We could use some fighting practice in this form.

[“I expected you to be confident, but now you are looking down at me, Hestia…”] I said with exasperation. [“Fine, I lose too much mana in [Humanized Lv. 6]’s form anyways.”]

With that said, I transformed back into [Humanized Lv. 4]’s form. The edge of my vision registered black hair appearing around my eyes, growing long enough that it restricted my vision. The cold air assaulting my naked face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a cozy mantle of wolf hair.

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

My body also started to transform, elongating my claws and strengthening my muscles. The fur on my body also started to grow, making it difficult to wear my dress at this point.

I chose this form as it was the only one where my mana regeneration could fully compensate for the mana cost of keeping [Humanize] active.

Also, my [Humanized (Moderate)] degraded to [Humanized (Minor)], leaving me now with 2/3rd of my monster forms stats. I now had more Strength, Vitality, Wisdom, Agility, and Stamina than Hestia, however, by only a small amount.

This wouldn’t equalize Hestia’s immense mana capacity and Intelligence, but it gave me a small advantage with my own niche.

[“Alright, I’m ready,”] I stated while loosening my neck. [“You?”]

At that moment, eight magic circles appeared around Hestia’s silhouette, ready to shoot out holy, fire, earth, and wind spells at me, [“Ready.”].

[“Miss Tasianna, stick with me and follow our plan,”] my body tensed up after it saw Hestia’s smirk. [“Using [Telepathy] will use up our precious mana so you must react properly, despite my silence.”]

["M-Must my first battle really be against our Princess that we swore to serve? Gulp, I-I understand. I will do my best,"] Tasianna said with trembling hands.

[Hestia’s Retainer] validated our role as “servants” in the eye of the System but Hestia, the person we are supposed to serve, acts nothing like a “master”.

I might have teased her about it when we found out about it just to help her calm down from forcing her to relive her unpleasant memories, but I would have probably hated it if we turned our relationship into that. It was more comfortable and fun to occasionally pamper her than to entertain the idea 24/7.

Tasianna, on the other hand, believed that our “master and servant” relationship was similar to what would happen on Earth, so she didn’t have much to complain about. I and Hestia are indulging her in that idea, but we needed to find a way to persuade her to think otherwise.

Understanding that Tasianna grew up with a different mentality, it would be prudent to not force her into our thinking. Neither do we want her to force us to act how she would like us to.

[“Ahh, I swore to protect, Princess Hestia, but now I must fight her. Just imagining hurting her makes me anxious.”] similar to Hestia, Tasianna has a bad habit of overthinking things.

[“There is a saying from Earth that I would like to use here, ‘If you have no confidence in life, you are twice defeated. With confidence, you have won even before you have started’,”] I said with a smile while my eyes are still glued at Hestia. [“It is a quote from a famous man from Earth’s history, Marcus Cicero. I like your optimism, Miss Tasianna, but cast your fear away if you even believe for a second that you could hurt Hestia while she’s serious.”]

[Y-Yes! I accept your wisdom with gratitude, Madam Saori!] Tasianna said, tensing up from what I said.

Knowing Hestia, she won't treat this too seriously, otherwise, we wouldn’t have much of a chance. This is the girl that created a storage full of lethal toxins, survived a point-blank mana cannon shot, and fought off two giant trolls simultaneously and easily won.

While I had to fight three at once, I still had a very hard time even with Hestia’s fire support. I understood it. Even if Hestia were to hold back, my natural instincts told me that it was foolish to do this. My body didn’t want to fight, and it couldn’t stop telling me that this was a risky idea.

However, this isn’t the time to cower. This was my time to test myself against Hestia and it was also a great time to improve my skills! If I couldn’t find the trust in my own power, then what have I been training for?

Asking to fight her when she’s this close to awakening [Battle Frenzy] would be dangerous, and I would usually dissuade others from endangering themselves. However, I trust that she’ll be able to control herself and without a bit of risk, nothing great can be achieved.

Did I just use two famous quotes in a span of a minute? He, the wisdom from books gained is a life-long possession, I said to myself while smiling.

I disconnected my telepathic link with Hestia and steeled my will.

Let me show you everything I learned, my friend!