Running forward, Kurushimi hastily impaled the mouth of the closest salamander. The salamander that had been trying to breathe out its flames was quickly stopped before it could do so. Kurushimi ripped the polearm’s blade out of its head before stamping on its head to make sure it couldn’t try using its flames again.

Watching the advancing salamanders, Kurushimi stabbed her polearm into the back of the salamander she had stepped on. Its wriggling and writhing quickly stopped as it was pierced front-to-back by Kurushimi’s polearm.

Kurushimi glanced at the incoming salamanders again. Judging their distances, about 1 more lone salamander would be coming before she had to fight a group of them at once. Kurushimi decided that she should quickly pick it off before the others got to her.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

Extending her free hand in the direction of the lone salamander, Kurushimi directed a few shadow tendrils its way. The shadow tendrils strongly wrapped around and binded a single leg of the salamander. The salamander hissed as its leg was caught. But its hissing was quickly interrupted as it was forcibly dragged towards Kurushimi.

Stepping off of the salamander, Kurushimi used the staff of her polearm to pick up the impaled salamander. With her left arm held out towards the approaching salamander and her right holding polearm and salamander in the sky, Kurushimi thrusted down. The second salamander was impaled by the blade too, making her polearm into a salamander shish kebab.

“And finally... “

Kurushimi held the polearm still while the salamanders writhed about on the blade. Both were still just about alive. Kurushimi really found the extra HP they had to be a pain in the ass. But Kurushimi, having known about it, began conjuring mana for the second part of her attack.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 5』!》

RIP-!

The blood tore through the two salamanders at once. A large hole was ripped through both salamanders. The lively writhing and wriggling about had become a complete and utter lack of any movement or signs of life.

《You have leveled up!》

《Skill proficiency reached. Skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』 has become 『Shadow magic Lvl. 4』》

Along with the system messages, Kurushimi pulled her polearm out of the two salamanders. The still advancing salamanders hissed angrily but did not halter their movements. Kurushimi didn’t know whether they were brave or controlled by their immense rage that they all seemed to share. Kurushimi wondered if they were always angry like that, and if so, how did they enjoy life when they are always angry?

Meaningless thoughts aside, Kurushimi walked up to the salamanders to meet them sooner. Immediately upon walking up, she was met by the roaring flames of one of the salamanders. Kurushimi hopped back to avoid the flames. The residual flames burned across the ground she had just stood on.

“You have to avoid the flames as much as possible, Kurushimi. If you catch on fire, there is no water around to put yourself out… And you don’t know any sought of magic that could help you.”

“Mhm. I’ve heard burning to death is a painful way to go.”

Voice-san warned Kurushimi of the flames. In the dry and hot climate of the scorched land, there wasn’t any water for Kurushimi to quell the flames with. Her best chance would be to hope only her clothes caught on fire, so she could discard them to stop the fire from spreading to herself. Even then, Kurushimi really didn’t want to lose her clothing either. There didn’t seem to be people around to see her but she still cared.

Kurushimi sprinted forward, head on towards the salamanders. Voice-san watched in shock at Kurushimi’s sudden recklessness. Just after being warned about the flames and acknowledging them, Kurushimi had run forward as if she were trying to die.

“What are you-!”

Voice-san was cut off by the crackling of the incredible heat from the flames. Two of the salamanders had simultaneously shot at Kurushimi. Her body was enveloped by the flames, completely covering her figure. The flames settled down after a second. All traces of Kurushimi had completely disappeared, as if burnt to nothing.

“Haha, I know you care about me but you don’t have to worry that much-!”

Suddenly a voice was heard from nearby. The voice chuckled as the blade of the polearm was stuck into the head of the centre-front salamander. Kurushimi stood above the salamander, a metre away from the blast zone of the flames, completely unharmed.

《Used skill: 『Short-distance teleportation Lvl. 2』!》

“That’s not it. I was just wondering what the hell you were doing by running into the middle of them all like that.”

In a low and slightly tired voice, Voice-san retorted Kurushimi’s remark. Seeing Kurushimi was fine and had even killed a salamander, Voice-san calmed down a little.

“I wasn’t just randomly running into the middle of them. I wanted them all to fire and waste their skills at once, so I ran at them as bait and used ‘Short-distance teleportation’ to avoid the fire.”

Kurushimi explained her actions as she finished off the salamander she had stabbed after coming out of ‘Short-distance teleportation’. By then the salamanders had turned to her and already started welling up the fire in their stomachs for Kurushimi again.

“Uwoah!”

《Used skill: 『Evade Lvl. 3』!》

The fire started to bellow out of the two salamanders to her left and right at the same time. As the fire got closer, they got progressively slower to Kurushimi as brain processing got faster. Skills seemed to have a bit of a soft cooldown after immediate use, meaning Kurushimi couldn’t teleport out since she had just used it. The cooldown was very short but sadly not short enough for this instance.

With her polearm still embedded into the salamander and ground underneath her, Kurushimi immediately jumped up without thinking. Pushing off the staff with her hands, she flipped herself upside-down. Her legs were sent up in the air above her, whilst her hands supported her body weight at the highest point of her staff.

The flames raged underneath her, hitting her polearm but luckily not melting it. Though she could feel the immense heat, it seemed it wasn’t enough to burn her polearm. After the flames stopped, Kurushimi lightly dropped down, flipping herself upright again.

“That has to be the most acrobatic thing I’ve done in my life…”

Kurushimi went to grab her polearm again, but quickly recoiled her hand. The polearm had gotten too hot for her to touch, meaning it would be hard to wield it for a bit. The salamander underneath her polearm had surprisingly come out quite fine, despite being dead. Kurushimi thought, perhaps their skin has fire-repelling properties?

Momentarily discarding that thought, Kurushimi bent down towards the salamander. Holding her hand out, Kurushimi conjured mana and pulled out its blood. Condensing the blood, she turned it into a rudimentary knife. Not having time to lay out shadow first, Kurushimi ended up with more of a sharp spike.

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 5』!》

Turning around, she crouched down and thrusted the blood-spike into a salamander. The salamander's mouth was locked shut. Noticing the hissing of the other salamander approaching behind her, Kurushimi jumped to the other side of the salamander she had stabbed.

As the approaching salamander opened its mouth, flames erupted in Kurushimi’s direction. Kurushimi lifted the salamander up by the knife stuck in its mouth. She held it up length-wise in front of her, making sure to stand fully behind it.

The flames spanned out in her direction, hitting the salamander Kurushimi was holding and passing by her sides. As the flames stopped, Kurushimi dropped the salamander along with the knife. Kurushimi wiped the sweat off her forehead. It was incredibly hot, encased by the flames like that.

The salamander hissed as it failed to hit Kurushimi. Kurushimi’s new body had a rather small frame. This allowed her to hide behind the long body of the salamander. And with the fire-repelling skin of the salamander, she was able to use it effectively as a barricade for the flames.

Kurushimi looked towards her polearm. It still hadn’t been long and she doubted it would have cooled off enough for her to pick it up. But without many other attacking options at the moment, Kurushimi opted for a short-term solution.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 4』!》

Wrapping her hand in shadow as much as possible, she extended her grip and grabbed onto the staff of the polearm. It was still hot but the insulation of the shadow she wrapped her hand with allowed her to hold it, as if she had a glove.

The final salamander began charging its flames again. Kurushimi rushed forward and stabbed the final salamander. Its flames died out before it could breathe its last breath. Finishing it off, Kurushimi slashed it once more. And finally she finished off the salamander she had subjected to being a meat-shield before taking a deep breath.

《You have leveled up!》

《You have leveled up!》

Level-up notifications embellished her victory. Looking around at the salamander corpses, Kurushimi went by each and every one and bit them. Sucking all of their blood, Kurushimi’s lips began swelling slightly after drinking an excessive amount of hot blood.

《Used skill: 『Fangs Lvl. 3』!》

《Used skill: 『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 3』!》

《You have gained +6 HP, +6 STR, +6 END, +6 SP, +6 AGI, +6 MP!》

《You have gained +6 HP, +6 STR, +6 END, +6 SP, +6 AGI, +6 MP!》

《You have gained +6 HP, +6 STR, +6 END, +6 SP, +6 AGI, +6 MP!》

《You have gained +6 HP, +6 STR, +6 END, +6 SP, +6 AGI, +6 MP!》

《You have gained +6 HP, +6 STR, +6 END, +6 SP, +6 AGI, +6 MP!》

After receiving all of her stats, Kurushimi looked back around her surroundings. Namely, in the direction the salamander had come from. Kurushimi thought she had seen something in that direction whilst in the middle of fighting. Although, she couldn’t confirm what it was.

Approaching it, it slowly entered Kurushimi’s vision. But as she got close enough, Kurushimi suddenly stopped and gasped in surprise. It looked like a skeleton, which wasn’t surprising for her to see here. But, the skeleton was obviously human.

“I haven’t seen a human body yet!”

Kurushimi curiously approached the skeleton. It leaned against a stone pillar and in its hand, Kurushimi spotted what looked like a note. Bending over, Kurushimi picked it up.