Swordsmaster Fox-girl

“Tch, good riddance.”

I stood on a rooftop and watched as the city guards apprehended the crazy bitch. Well, that happened. Now that I’m free from her….

I decided to visit an Alchemist, which was much easier than I thought considering that just like Kralid, Capital of Vetrix Empire, this place also had a district dedicated to Alchemy.

Very fortunately, the Alchemists here were more “civilized”—meaning, they didn’t bare knives at each other’s throats every chance they got.

I got inside a decent-looking Alchemist shop. I was preparing to pay a hefty price for reattaching my prosthetic since it would be really fucking stupid to cheap out on something like this.

“Fifty Silvers.”

Well, that was much cheaper than I thought. I presented my prosthetic to him a—

“But before I attach it back for you, would you be interested in an upgrade?”

There it is.

A high risk, high reward tactic. He purposefully made the primary service cheap so that he could get a chance to sell me on an expensive secondary service.

It can’t hurt to hear him out.

“Let’s see it.”

“Keum, I call this, the ‘Flame Vent.’” He inserted some kind of barrel into my prosthetic and poured some of his Mana into it. After a few seconds, flames came bursting from the palm. The force was so powerful that I was forced a step back by the resulting shockwave alone.

I think I can just barely handle shooting it directly. But it’s too useful to pass up on.

“Cool, right?”

“Indeed….”

Not just cool, but very useful. I could imagine it saving my life in a few situations.

“Anyways, this baby will refuel itself by absorbing Ambient Mana or Aura. But the downside is that you can only use it three times per day. Though, the rate can go up to fifty times per day if the atmosphere is thick enough with Mana. Also, you can release the flames in small bursts if you want to use it more often.”

I gulped. He had convinced me. “How much for it?”

“Half a Gold.”

“Tch.” I took out the Gold Eclair gave me and flung it to him.

The Alchemist took it with glee and gave me the changes in Silver.

“A pleasure to do business with a lady such as yourself.”

—

 

{You’re not resting, are you?}

“Nope!”

I couldn’t take my mind off the Eclair bitch. The spell that she used to try and kill me was familiar.

All too familiar.

{Do you think the Mage girl has a disciple somewhere?}

“That’s what I’m thinking too. Maybe she taught someone her magic before she joined the Hero’s party.”

Regardless, it was too suspicious to pass on. Guess I’d need to pay her a visit in prison to figure things out once and for all.

But for now, I train! I’d been neglecting Theodore’s Lightning for quite a while, and my fight with Eclair made me realize that Lightning was a really strong force to be reckoned with.

{You still haven’t told me what happened to your previous Affinity….}

“It’s nothing special, really.”

I didn’t want to talk about Theodore. It would just confuse Nira and possibly make her paranoid. Plus, I didn’t think Theodore and Ast would be too pleased if I talked about them to anyone else.

“Now then, let’s start small. Do you think you can handle it?”

{Hah, who do you think I am?}

I smiled and grabbed Nira, returning her to her normal size. With the familiar feeling of Nira in my palm, I had to make a decision.

Do I use Aura or Mana?

It honestly wasn’t even a decision to begin with, as Nira would just inadvertently absorb Mana of all kinds.

I shot my eyes open and felt a tingly feeling all over my skin.

[«Red Lightning» is activated]

Lightning dyed bright red coiled around my body. It then crawled its way toward my arms and finally condensed on Nira’s blade. 

I could feel weight on my hands. It was as if a gentle strike from me could fell a giant. 

“S-Shit! I don’t think I can hold it any longer! Why didn’t I bring a test dummy!?”

{The ground! Strike the ground!}

I obliged. Before anything disastrous like Lightning crawling back to me and roasting me from the inside could happen, I struck the ground with Nira.

The ground split apart.

Lightning shot up from the crevice like water shooting out of a geyser. It roared thunderously before fizzling into the air like nothing happened.

But nothing didn’t happen, for the split ground was still there.

“Holy—!”

{Start small, you say}

If Nira wasn’t Nira and I had been using a normal sword, it would’ve been broken and the Lightning would’ve crawled back toward me.

{Damn, now I’m all tingly}

“Me too….”

My arms felt like the texture of sandpaper. It was a feeling that I found hard to describe, but it was just a bit annoying.

“It’s too dangerous.”

{You don’t say}

“L-Let’s actually start small this time.”

 A technique that my Ihwa showed me when I told her I wanted to learn how to shoot spells. Of course, my past self had no talent for Magic. But I could do it with this body.

“What did she say again? Condense my Mana into a ball?”

It would’ve taken a normal Mage years to have this degree of Mana control, but I could work around that.

My Aura control is immaculate.

That meant I could afford to be terrible at willing Mana. I moved my Aura so that it would push Mana together into a ball shape.

Then, something clicked in my head.

[«Ball Lightning» is activated]

Lightning started shooting up from under my feet. It was like they were sucked into the ball of Mana. Once the Lightning had eaten up all the Mana, I had my Spell ready.

“How much time did it take, Nira?”

{Eight seconds. You’d better not try this in the middle of a battle}

“I know.” I sighed. If things continued to go this way, it’d be a long time before I could use anything ranged in battle. I needed to find a Mana Control technique, fast. “I kinda miss my Ice and Fire a bit now.”

{...What do you want to do now?}

With my arms feeling sore and the city guards surely rushing to this place soon, there was only one answer.

“Let’s rest. I’m fucking tired.”