The Adolescent Cave Wolves stood no chance against her now. With her severely enhanced ATT Stat, her bare hands were enough to rend flesh from bone. Red reveled in her newfound power and superior agility.

Her hands moved through the air like cleavers, snapping the neck of a pouncing Adolescent Cave Wolf before she twisted her body and used [Punch] the open jaws of one. Teeth shattered and blended with the pebbles beneath.

“Is that it? Stupid wolves. Don’t you realize something’s different this time?”

Not even their powerful fangs could damage her body thanks to her immensely powerful ATT DEF Stat. A pack of eight Adolescent Wolves snarled at her as they took a step back as if understanding the gravity of her words.

But even so, they held their ground.

“Wolves are wolves in the end. Monsters of pride! How does it feel now to be so weak?”

Whimpering and whines followed their howls of defiance. Blood splattered from their ruptured orifices due to the immense blunt-force trauma Red inflicted.

It was a good opportunity for her to level up her more redundant Skills like [Punch], and these wolves served as the perfect training material.

“Y-You’re just a kid, right? Right?” Snow watched from the back of Rockie.

As a Healer it was physically impossible to harm living creatures.

In fact, the fatal flaw of a Healer was their total inability to even conceive of ill thoughts or dark desires.

They were an existence of utter purity and served solely to help others. In the eyes of malevolent actors, healers played more depraved roles such as that of generational concubines or unwilling assistants for torturers.

After all, Healers were near immortal beings and the very best of Healers could reverse mortal wounds in mere minutes.

Due to this and their extreme rarity, Healers were highly sought after and that was why Snow wore a green common pilgrim hat to hide her white hair. One did not get white hair as they grew older.

At best it would become grey. Only Healers – which were always human women – were able to attain such sacred hair.

Her pale robes also had a hood but since Red already knew of her identity, there was no point in hiding her hair further.

It was a blunder on Snow’s part since she thought Red was just a normal child in need. She never expected her to be this powerful. As a matter of fact, was it even possible for a child to possess such strength in the first place?

Snow gripped her chest.

She was feeling nauseous from the metallic stench of animal blood. After dealing with the wolves the blood-soaked Red waved cheerily at them back before dragging one to her feet, like how a cat would bring a dead rat to its owner for praise.

“Phew! Now then –!” She took out a blade from her hip, spinning it wildly before immediately separating the meat from the pelt. “– Food!”

Red didn’t waste any time and planned to eat the meat right there and then.

“E-Eh!?”

“Hm? What’s wrong? You don’t eat wolf meat?” Red tilted her head as she held a filet of wolf meat on the tip of her blade.

“N-No. It’s just that… you’re not going to eat it like that, are you?”

Red titled her head further as question marks appeared over her head.

“Are you?” Snow reiterated, believing Red was simply not that ignorant to eat something without cooking it first.

The issue was that Red didn’t have fire to cook with. Not only that, but Red didn’t even know the concept of cooking either.

“Seriously… Here. If you were hungry then I can give you this.” Snow gracefully reached into the thin air. A portion of her arm disappeared into a tear into their reality. From there she was able to pluck a giant, heart-shaped red apple.

“Brrrrr!?”

“H-How!? FROM THIN AIR!?” Red’s jaw dropped at the sight, and even Rockie couldn’t contain its shock.

“You can do this too since you’re a Blessed. It’s called [Dimensional Storage]. Try conjuring it with intent. Just don’t show this to anyone outside.”

Was it magic? Red didn’t know any magic herself, but she had so much trust in Snow that she gave it a shot anyway. With closed eyes she spoke the words in her mind with intent.

[Dimensional Storage].

 

< ABILITY: Dimensional Storage I >

< 0kg / 20kg >

 

The same tear in space appeared, causing Red’s eyes to sparkle like fireworks. Rockie on the other hand slumped slightly after failing to open one of its own. But nevertheless, it was still riddled with excitement for Red.

“This is so cool! Agate! You idiot! How come you never told me I can do this!?” She instantly snarled at the fraudulent guide.

“Agate?”

Snow looked around but didn’t see a third person, so Red clarified by proudly pointing at her head.

“The voice in my head!”

“O-Oh.”

The expression she wore said: “Why was I expecting something else.”

Snow wiped the side of the apple with her sleeves to give it that extra shine before handing it over to Red.

And with a large, goofy bite –

“I-It’s dewishwus!”

– Red’s entire body was enraptured by the sweetness of the apple. Finally, she was allowed to eat something that graced her tastebuds rather than assaulted it.

 

* * *

 

They began ascending the caverns at a shallow incline. The Adolescent Cave Wolves were gradually replaced by their adult counterparts – the Cave Wolves.

 

 

A single strike was no longer able to cut it. Blood perpetually soaked Red’s attire as she systematically moved from chamber to chamber, eliminating the Cave Wolves with the help of Rockie.

“[Cleanse]. [Cleanse]. [Cleanse]!” Their Healer focused on cleaning them up since she had weakness to bloodshed.

Red on the other hand reveled in it. To the point where even her eyes were redder than blood like she was born like this. The Cave Wolves were only marginally stronger than their adolescent versions.

Heads rolled, teeth were punched out, and her blade cut through their flesh all the same. At some point the wolves gathered into packs of a dozen. [Huntress’ Slash] had been putting their smaller groups down with utter ease, but it wasn’t enough to activate her Skill’s second effect.

She approached their snarling muzzles with a devilish smile. The bloody trail that used to guide her blade had become a bloody mist. Heartbeats, the murmurs of blood flow, the whirls of each taken breath – she could hear everything internally within the Cave Wolves.

[Huntress’ Slash].

Red was slower than the wolves. But within the bloody mist Red felt like eyes riddled all over her head. She was able to sense things beyond a normal human’s ability as if possessing a form of precognition.

In truth, the bloody mist represented her manifested aura of pure instinct. Whatever moved instantly detected like it was a part of her biology.

Blood gushed from lacerations, spraying the cavern walls like fountains. Resistance was futile. Her Level was already close enough to theirs. If she was able to take on an Adolescent Cave Wolf at only level 1, then these things stood no chance against a Level 28 Hatchling Red.

The sound of slamming echoed from elsewhere. Rockie used its head like a giant club, swatting away the wolves that attempted to attack Snow. Every bone in their bodies shattered with ease before they were put out of their misery by Red.

“Wheeeew~! Think that’s all of them?” Red beamed, dragging dozens of wolves back to them by the tail.

“I’m hoping so. For their sake.” Snow gulped, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. “… What… Um. If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Hm?”

“What happened to you in here? I don’t understand how a child can be so strong. It’s one thing to be gifted with magic, but physically is different. Unless you’re a thousand years old? Even the hunters of my village struggle with wolves. The only person I know that can pull of something like this is the Huntsman.”

Snow was also eyeing the wolves. A high pile of caraccas were stacked atop Rockie’s back and tied with wolf sinew. Red intended to keep them as materials or food for later, but since there was so much.

“How about we make a deal!” Red exclaimed.

“A deal?”

“If I tell you how I got stronger, then can you tell me more about the world?”

Snow had no reason to refuse since she was losing nothing. However, her mind went back to her village as she peered over her shoulder at the mountain of wolf carcasses.

“Can I bargain too then? I want to bring back some of the wolves to my hometown. I-If you don’t mind of course –”

“– That means I can come too, right!? Then take it all! Take it! Maybe they can make the meat taste good too!” Red was more than happy to part with the wolves.

She didn’t even like them in the first place. Wolf blood was offensively vile, but she didn’t have a choice but to eat them.

So more than anything, Red was hopeful that the humans could make them tasty.

It surprised Snow once again who failed to read the mind of this person. But as a Healer she felt like despite their bloodlust, Red was a person who had a sincere heart.

 

* * *

 

Once upon a time, in the woodlands outside of the cave lived a spider. That spider was a creature called an Anid. They were a race of arachnids that were characterized by their hauntingly-pale, steel-like carapace.

Nests of steel string and territories covered in sticky webbing once plagued these forests. Humans, monsters and anything that moved were considered prey all the same. Anids were entities that were governed by instinct despite their immense intelligence.

At the center of the Nest was the Decanid – a ten-legged entity that was pupped on string which served as the hive mind of the Nest.

Its main body was an eye and had two disembodied hands that were hoisted by ethereal strings originating from nowhere.

Those strings were said to dictate its very existence. They were the deliverers of commandments that must be obeyed. The absolute tie to them and something greater beyond the blue mist.

So that’s what I fought. A Decanid. But it’s not like how she described… Agate. Could that thing be the same Decanid?

 

< Unknown >

 

Snow explained how they required living things to reproduce. How their brood were created in the wombs of other species such as humans. They were a violent race that preyed on everything that moved.

However, there was one exception to this. The Healers. The White Doves.

One of the reasons why the Healers were called the White Doves was because of how Healers 30 years ago found themselves under the intensive protection of the Anids, like a bird trapped in the nest of a spider.

Back then Healers like Snow were prosecuted worldwide until one day, people with artificial claw-like arms came to save them. Those people were the Potion Makers, an organization affiliated with the thing called the Nexus.

“Anids loved Healers very much. But Healers were always in so much pain because they couldn’t die or resist their ‘love’.” Snow’s voice filled the silence of the cavern as they steadily followed the light at the end of a winding tunnel. “Do you know what Nilhinids are? They’re the offspring of an Anid and a Healer. They’re children born without limbs. Those children were loved by their mothers, but the Anids had no use for them…”

“So they ate them?” Red caught on quick.

“That’s right. Nilhinids are not like healthy Mononids. They can’t help the Nest. They’re just humans with no way to fend for themselves. But they were still loved so much by their mothers. And yet, in their infinite hunger, the Anids devoured them.”

Snow sounded like she knew the tale on a firsthand account. Her sky-blue eyes glistened in the distant light as she saw a world beyond what Red could perceive.

“This happened in here too. The forests I live in. There’s a local legend in our province about a Nilhinid that was so loved by its mother that it was able to grow up to find its purpose. It’s a popular lullaby and children’s story, so it’s always played on shows and theaters using marionettes.”

As it turned out, the Still Unloving’s trauma originated from this dynamic between the Anids, the Healers and the Nilhinids. But what irked Red was whether the thing she faced was the same Decanid that once in these forests or was the collective trauma of the Decacnids.

She had no way of knowing for certain either.

In the end, what mattered was that she had retrieved her Fairytale’s Bane.

Red was about to ask something simple, like what was Snow’s favorite food and color. But suddenly, Rockie’s limbs locked up as it began to vomit a viscous, acrid mucus.

“What’s wrong!?”

“[M-Minor Healing]! [Cure Disease]!” Snow immediately began casting healing magic as Red hopped off Rockie’s back to assess it.

“Are the wolves too heavy!? Rockie! What’s the matter with you!?” Her blade was about to slash the sinew that tied the wolves on its back until its guttural groans loosened up.

Moments later, the irritation was violently expelled from its throat.

“What… is this?” Red went to pick up a strange egg-shaped object.

It was a white object that could pass as an artisan artefact. Now that she had a closer look, it was a fluffy tail which was coiled around into the shape of an egg. The object was textured like a bristly brush but was also oddly soft like silk. A strange, ominous glow pulsated from within as she heard a subtle ticking from inside.

The ticking ran up her arms, coursing through her veins as if she absorbed a mysterious power.

“Brrr~!”

“I don’t speak bug, but I’m guessing this came from that spider thing, right?” Red asked, poking at the object.

“Br. Br. Brrrr~!”

[Analyze Object].

 

//////// < WARNING > ////////

 

< Your Appraise Object Level is too low >

 

“No need to give me a warning… What a weird egg.” Red stowed it away into her Dimensional Storage without a second thought. “Let’s go cook it some other time.”

It doesn’t look like a Corrupted Item. Even I know what those are.

Corrupted Items were objects that were created at the time of death by a Corrupted. It was as if the ego of the Corrupted was condensed into a usable form for others – a way for it to live on eternally.

It was also a way for them to impart their egos on others, though this was quite rare and depended on the mental strength and aptitude of a person.

How did she know this?

Because she had seen this as a Corrupted. How the Workers of the Atelier ImpulseWorks wilded the weapons, armor, and tools of defeated Corrupted to enhance their powers physically, mentally, and spiritually.

This was so long as they did not allow their sense of self to falter.

Red gripped her Fairytale’s Bane tightly in one hand as they approached the light once more.

And finally, she was free from the darkness of the caverns and was greeted by warm sunshine, and the scent of roses.

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