Kurushimi opened her eyes. As always, the sudden transition from lying on the floor to standing made her knees wobble briefly before regaining balance. Back at the same clearing, Kurushimi sighed.

“I died again…”

This was her 4th death. Kurushimi would have failed to survive 4 times already if it wasn’t for the fact she returned to this clearing everytime. Kurushimi shivered as she remembered her last death. This time she got to experience the breaking of her spine and all her ribs, followed by being crushed to death. Kurushimi thought, Although that wasn’t pleasant, I got off a lot easier than on my first and second deaths.

Being back in the state she was originally, Kurushimi decided to take off her jacket again. Even if she wasn’t in the scorched land anymore, she felt a little more comfortable with it off. Perhaps it was because of her new skill ‘Salamander’s blood’? Pulling her jacket off of her arms, she wrapped it around her waist as she had previously done. But when she had done that, Kurushimi still felt something was off.

“Ah-! ‘Sword 1’ is gone! Despite the name that may suggest I didn’t, I really loved you!”

Kurushimi felt her right side, where she had previously put her katana to rest. Although her skills and stats transferred with her, it appeared that objects didn’t. Just as her jacket had lost all the rips and bloodstains it had gained throughout her time battling monsters. Kurushimi felt really bummed out that she had lost her katana. She could make another one, but she had put hard work into making it.

“Well, whining about it won’t bring it back…”

Kurushimi immediately crossed her legs and sat down. Lazily resting one hand on her lap, she lifted the other up slightly and started conjuring mana. Her shadow underneath her writhed about before spiraling up towards her hand. In her open hand, the shape of a katana started to form… But before it could, it suddenly broke apart and dissipated.

“Actually, rather than making the same sword again, why don’t I try something new?”

Conjuring mana into her hand once again, she controlled her shadow to spin around and form into a shape of her desire. A long pole was formed. At the end of the pole, a handle was created before a sharp pointed blade at the end.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

Kurushimi felt that her ‘Shadow magic’ was a little low leveled compared to her ‘Blood magic'. But regardless, with the shape set, what Kurushimi needed to do next was add the blood. Kurushimi glanced down at her arm.

“I’ll be able to heal in a second anyway.”

Kurushimi coolly said. Lifting her hand, she ripped at the skin of her other arm with her nails. Kurushimi squinted slightly at the pain as blood poured out of her arm. Conjuring mana, she lifted up the blood and infused it into the shape. It became a stronger and more stable form. All that was left was the finishing touches.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 5』!》

The black and red colour of the shape became more of a blend of the two. And the shape became much more dense and strong. A bead of sweat ran down Kurushimi’s face as she made a not so pleasant facial expression. Kurushimi found this step to be quite demanding.

The shape finally finished being refined after a short period that felt much longer to Kurushimi. As Kurushimi slowly began standing up, she picked up the shape in the process of getting up. Holding it in front of her and standing it on the ground, the shape was taller than herself.

“There it is, a polearm!”

Kurushimi marvelled in her craftsmanship. The structure she made this time was a polearm, unlike the katana she had made previously. With more reach, she could fight the avemlärj despite its flight advantage! She could also avoid the sharp, blade-like legs of the cimex! The better precision and thrusting power could allow her to strike in between the armour of the anguislärj and she could potentially apply the same logic to fight off one of the rock golems if she needed to fight them again.

《An item has been created!》

《What will you name your new item?》

Kurushimi noticed the system messages. Just as before, she was given the prompt to name her new creation again. But before Kurushimi could speak up, she was interrupted.

“You’re not going to name it ‘Polearm 1’, are you?”

Not allowing Kurushimi to name it before she answered her question, Voice-san interrupted Kurushimi. Just as she had named her katana ‘Sword 1’, Voice-san was worried she was going to call this one ‘Polearm 1’ or something.

“Well I was going to, but I do agree ‘Polearm 1’ and ‘Sword 1’ sound kind of tacky.”

“I will name it ‘P1’! Short for ‘Polearm 1’.”

Voice-san face-palmed despite the fact she couldn’t physically facepalm. Voice-san inwardly thought It’s a little better but it’s not that much better! Voice-san could only give up when faced by Kurushimi’s utter incompetence at naming things.

“Well anyway, your healing is here.”

Voice-san changed the subject with a heavy voice. Kurushimi turned around after hearing shrieking briefly after Voice-san’s notice. Three canisfangs stood opposed to Kurushimi. This would be the 4th meeting with these 3 canisfangs. Even though she knew they would come, Kurushimi sighed at the fact that they would never learn their lesson.

Wasting no time, Kurushimi approached the canisfangs. Confused shrieking from the canisfangs proved they didn’t expect their prey to walk towards them herself. The canisfangs only got more aggressive in response to Kurushimi’s approach, showing canisfangs really weren’t the smartest of monsters.

“These canisfangs are supposed to be like, Lvl. 3 or 4? Where do they get their confidence from?”

Kurushimi suddenly dashed towards a canisfang, thrusting her polearm into the middle of its head. Kurushimi was too fast for the low level canisfangs to react properly to. By the time the other two canisfangs reacted, another canisfang had its head chopped off by a vertical slash upwards from Kurushimi’s polearm.

KREEE-!

The final canisfang shrieked before attempting to run away in fear of its life being taken away. But as it had begun running away, it suddenly tripped and fell over. Something pulled on its leg and started dragging it back to Kurushimi. A black tendril of sorts was wrapped around the canisfangs leg.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

“You ain’t escaping!”

The shadow tendril attached to Kurushimi’s shadow slowly reeled back, pulling the canisfang with it. The dark crimson-black blade tip shined as it stood beside Kurushimi. Pointing it downwards, Kurushimi stabbed it into the canisfang. The canisfang wriggled and writhed about shortly before becoming unresponsive.

The noisy, shrieking canisfangs had very quickly turned silent. Kurushimi approached them one by one and bit them, drinking their blood. As always, the canisfang blood was disgusting. But the wound on her arm slowly began closing up in response.

《Used skill: 『Fangs Lvl. 3』!》

《Used skill: 『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 2』!》

《You have gained +1 HP, +1 STR, +1 END, +1 SP, +1 AGI, +1 MP!》

《You have gained +1 HP, +1 STR, +1 END, +1 SP, +1 AGI, +1 MP!》

《You have gained +1 HP, +1 STR, +1 END, +1 SP, +1 AGI, +1 MP!》

《Skill proficiency reached. Skill: 『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 2』 has become 『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 3』》

“Well let’s head to the scorched land now!”

Polearm in hand, Kurushimi was prepared to head back into the scorched land. As long as she kept away from the edges and didn’t get in her previous situation, she would be fine. The monsters around the clearing were rather low level to Kurushimi now but the levels of the scorched land monsters were perfect for levelling up.

. . .

Kurushimi stood surrounded by canisfangs. As the canisfangs shrieked menacingly towards Kurushimi, Kurushimi stood unfettered. These canisfangs were all around Lvl. 15, which she could handle. Though she couldn’t get too careless. The canisfangs still had the numbers advantage and there could be more hiding somewhere.

Kurushimi was currently somewhere along the left path. The canisfangs surrounding her were the ones that would wait along the left path, waiting to ambush any passersby. Having come along here earlier, the canisfangs were still alive and well.

As Kurushimi stabbed her polearm into the face of a canisfang, Kurushimi looked around to realise that she was nearby where she had previously fought the living armour. Thinking of the living armour now, Kurushimi wondered if she would encounter it. She had come rather early, so she wouldn’t be surprised if the living armour wouldn’t be around for her to fight.

Kurushimi lifted the canisfang she had stabbed with her polearm and used her polearm to launch it into a few canisfangs. As they crashed and stumbled into each other, Kurushimi lifted her hand up and started conjuring mana. Shortly after, the canisfangs face exploded as blood was shot out. The blood impaled the nearby canisfangs, either injuring or killing them.

Kurushimi turned away from them and ran towards another group of canisfangs. But as she was running, a large blur of motion suddenly ran at her from her peripherals. The blur held an equally large blur of motion that swung towards her as it came into focus.

《Used skill: 『Evade Lvl. 3』!》

Time slowed down as ‘Evade’ activated. Kurushimi quickly bent backwards, as if she were playing limbo, to avoid the large greatsword that had been swung at her. The sound of the air being torn through hailed above Kurushimi as the greatsword passed her, revealing the living armour behind it. The living armour’s eyes glowed a crimson red with its wide open mouth as its armour pulsated. Kurushimi briefly focused mana into her eyes.

《Used skill: 『Appraisal Lvl. 2』!》

《Living armour Lvl. 25(Berserk)》

“Already berserk…? Haha, did I make you angry by stealing your prey?”

Kurushimi taunted as she stood herself up to face the berserk living armour.