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“Oh no…”

Juna had fallen terribly ill. The medicine to cure her sickness required a mushroom that grew inside the den of Schwarzwald’s boss. George had randomly heard about that, and while no one was looking, he delved into the forest on his own.

That was clearly too reckless though.

“We have to hurry and go after him…”
“Wait, not even you can do it alone!”

As soon as Crim learned the location of that den from Ludger, she attempted to run there without more forethought. But she was stopped, by none other than George’s father.

“I told you already! Not even you can do something if you go alone!”
“But if we wait too much then George might-”
“I’m fully aware of that!!”

Crim’s lips were sealed shut hearing Ludger’s voice trembling with anger.

“I know he’s…”

It was only then that Crim realized that Ludger’s arm was shaking as he restrained her.

I can fix this. I actually have a way to do that.

She knew what she could do, she just had to press the Call Support button. Then she would be able to reset everything she experienced, as her character’s starting position had been corrupted this entire time.

Then Crim would start properly in Wyndham, and the sequence of events that led to this quest would all be reset so she could redo them at a later stage. That would solve everything. She would have the opportunity of gathering a large number of allies, come here, and begin the quest again.

Next time she would be stronger enough, with trustworthy allies. Once everything was taken care of, she would also be able to regain her relationship with the people of Nebel. That would be the perfect happy ending.

That would be perfect… That would be the ideal solution… But then…when Crim met them again, they would no longer be the same people she knew right now.

“There’s no way in hell I’m doing that!”
“Ah, wait, Crim!!”

She broke off from Ludger’s grasp and dashed into the forest.

A destination marker lit up on her map, so she knew exactly where to go.

The map only showed the destination though, the rest of the terrain was void. Still, she charged ahead, defeating all the enemies she found, heading straight to the glowing marker.

After dashing mindlessly for a while, Crim found herself at the entrance of a cave.

That did not stop her, as she dashed in, dodging the stalactites all over the ground. If she took one wrong step, she would collide violently against those sharp rock formations, and with her speed that could mean instant death. And yet…

“This isn’t enough, I need to be faster..!!”

Her emotions taking over her, she put even more force into her legs, essentially shooting through the air at a maddening speed. Shortly after…

“…waaahhhhh..!”

She heard the distant scream of a boy.

“…He’s there!!”

Turning to the direction where that voice came from, she tried to run faster, but then she realized the cave was widening into a large dome.

Is this a boss arena?!

She instantly knew what that place was. There was also a large deformed figure, and a small child cowering at its shadow.

“Shadow Light-Weapon!!”

Without losing any momentum, she instantly formed her weapon in mid-air.

“Divine Strikeee!!!”

During her next step, she changed her stance into the motion necessary to activate that Skill. The assist system kicked in to aid her activation of the weapon art, but even that felt too slow to Crim, as she moved faster than the system to attack.

She had been using the Dash Skill to its fullest here, and she boosted that momentum with Divine Strike.

All of that speed let Crim’s body dart through the entire arena in the blink of an eye, leaving only a bright streak behind her as she plunged her shadow dagger behind the large monster’s head.

Cliiiink!

A high-pitched sound echoed through the cave as Crim’s body ricocheted away. Crim’s powerful attack managed to cut the monster’s thick black fur, but could not cut into its flesh.

“That’s tough-?!”

She somehow managed to twist her body and land on her feet, but she was still disappointed.

“Crim?!”
“I’ll distract this thing! You go ahead and run George!!”

Crim began to run back to pull the monster away from George. While her attack left little damage, it was enough for the monster to shift its focus to Crim, turning its large body to face her.

“…?!”

The moment she saw those red eyes, fear made her body shudder.

Then there was the thick scent of blood, exuding from its furry coat. The sense of dread and bloodlust emanating from it was nearly paralyzing.

Everything there seemed to be telling her the same thing.

This is a bad idea.

She barely had time to think that before the enormous black figure appeared right in front of her.

“…Woah?!”

An instant later she ducks, the monster’s body passed right above her, grazing her long white hair. Had her reaction time been just a little slower, the monster’s sharp claws would have torn her body apart, striking a lethal Critical Hit. Crim’s body trembled as she realized that.

“Dammit, it’s so big it’s throwing off my depth perception..!”

The monster was not extremely swift, her eyes could easily follow its movements. But due to its enormous size, taking just one step covered an unexpectedly large distance, throwing off Crim’s senses. That was also why it felt like the monster had teleported in front of her earlier.

Then she stepped back again to dodge the large arm that came for a follow-up attack, backflipping a few times before she stopped to take a long breath and reaffirmed her backhand grip on her dagger. There she observed her opponent, a ten meter long giant bear monster with black fur.

◇◇◇◇◇

◇◇◇◇◇

A cruel and tragic message appeared.

Even when she tried to use Examine on the monster, it was too strong for any results to show up.

“But even then..!!”

She dodged the enormous arm swinging at her again, before clinging onto it and running along it, holding her dagger with both hands to plunge it in the same spot she tried cutting earlier.

The dagger did not miss its mark, but the thick fur was like strands of steel wire, deflecting the attack with a strong recoil that sent Crim into the air.

“Ghuh…”

Considering that was the boss of the entire region, it was not an enemy Crim could challenge alone. Her dagger had worked flawlessly on all the monsters she encountered so far, but now it would not cut. That would probably not change, no matter which part of the large bear she attacked.

“…Woah?!”

When she hit the ground again, she quickly ducked to dodge an incoming attack. Not bothering to stand up straight again, she dashed in a low stance before leaping onto the monster’s back.

“Take this… Dark Bullet!”

Pointing her fingers like a gun, she began shooting bullets of darkness in rapid succession.

Dark Bullet, the starting Darkness Magic Skill. Its main distinctive feature was that it could cause damage while ignoring a certain amount of armor.

For the monster the hits likely felt like being bit by a mosquito, barely dealing any damage relative to its total HP, but they were enough to get it enraged as it began flailing its arms around angrily.

Eventually, the monster had enough of that and charged at Crim again.

“…Now! Snare!”

Crim was ready for that, and activated a different Skill. That was the starting Shadow Magic Skill, which opened up a small hole under the target’s feet.

The bear’s pivot leg sank into the shadow as it ran, which threw it completely off-balance and the monster tumbled forward.

“Haaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!”

Crim would not let that opening go to waste, so she instantly jumped high into the air, turning many times as she went forward. Using both the momentum of her rotations and altitude, she plunged her dagger with both hands into the monster’s neck.

This time she felt a smooth sensation as the blade made a proper cut. She had only reached a little past the thick fur, slicing a bit of skin.

So she straddled the monster’s thick neck, holding herself firmly in place as she raised the dagger and swung it down with all the strength she could muster, aiming at the same spot as earlier.

“Graawwwwrrrrrrrr?!!”

This time it reached further. Blood began to splatter everywhere while the blade slid inside until the monster’s spine stopped it.

But the monster realized it was taking damage, so it began tumbling around to shake off the small creature sticking onto its neck, and Crim had to jump off and put some distance.

My attacks don’t deal nearly enough damage to get rid of all its HP alone.

After her blade properly pierced the monster, Crim was sure of that. There was only one other way she could defeat it.

“…I’ll cut your head off!”

She just had to land one Critical Hit. Such an attack would ignore whatever amount of HP the enemy had left, killing it instantly. That was the only way she could defeat the monster now.

A cold sweat ran down her spine as the monster’s bloodshot eyes focused on her, but she reaffirmed her grip on her shadow blade all the same.