In the middle of the night, Yuki’s companions were soft breathing, the wind’s whooshing, the chirping of night insects, and the occasional firefly. She glanced again at the crystal goblet on her landing page. A small trickle of blue liquid sloshed inside. Yuki turned her gaze to the many other system windows open in front of her. While she read, Yuki concentrated on the sounds around ears turning at each new noise.

Guilt prickled at her ears, but she couldn’t use the little magic she had to heal Jenny. What if they were attacked in the middle of the night? With Jenny out of commission, the only way Yuki had to defend the both of them was [Wrack], and she barely had sufficient magic points for a single casting. Even if she wanted to heal Jenny and herself, logic wouldn’t let her. Logic and fear. Yuki was in her last life already, and she didn’t want the blonde to die. Jenny wasn’t a bad familiar to have.

Yuki once again scanned the list of unlockable advanced skills. She didn’t see [Memory Manipulation] there. The list had only generic-sounding skills: [Acting], [Engineering], [Gambling], etc. Some looked like magic-related ones, like [Trance] or [Exhort]. Yuki eyed the advanced skill [Healing] and re-read the already open description of it.

Healing (INT+POW): In-depth knowledge of medical procedures based on cultural practices. This skill provides knowledge on treating serious wounds, diseases, poisons, and performing surgery. The appropriate equipment and resources are needed to use this skill successfully.

To the other side, she reread the list of available spells. It was still the same list she had seen when she had been reincarnated, but now, at least, the system gave descriptions of the magic; some of which was vile. [Extract Heart], for example, ripped out the still beating heart of a living creature. [Trap Soul] did what the name implied. [Exsanguinate] caused the target’s blood vessels to rupture. Yuki looked away from the list. The sadistic side of her wanted two spells. [Torment] and [Transfer Wound]. Torment was a copy-paste version of the cruciatus curse, while transfer wound temporarily transferred a wound from one creature to another. The first was her fangirl wannabe evil witch speaking, while the second could be used in combat in an emergency.

Before any decision, Yuki needed to know how it worked. She looked at [Invocation] skill and willed the system to improve it.

Improve advanced skill [Invocation]?

Yes/No

Yuki glared at the yes.

Calculating…

[Invocation] check successful.

Calculating upgrade value.

[Invocation] skill upgraded.

New details about magic flooded Yuki’s mind—though not as many as when the system first unlocked. Small details she had overlooked, even a few conjectures about the nature of the magic runes. It was over in a blink.

Yuki looked at her invocation skill again, and it was now at fifty-three. The improvement gave her two new points. Yuki felt a pang of regret. It didn’t seem worth using the stack points to improve existing skills if the improvement was this minor. Acquiring a new skill or even a new spell seemed to be the better investment.

Depending on how rare these stack points were, she might benefit more from hoarding them until she needed a new skill or a new spell in an emergency. Yuki looked again at the system information about stack points, but nowhere did it say how she earned those. She didn’t even know if she had received them before or after the dungeon. With a mental command, she updated the landing page to also show the number of stack points.

Layout updated.

The quiet night dragged on, and Yuki had trouble sitting still. It had been a few hours already, and the smells of the forest called to her. Yuki wanted to hop between the bushes, dig beneath the leaves, and eat some of the tasty foliage she could smell from here. Instead of doing all that, she hopped around the alcove.

What should they do now? Yuki wanted to go back to the burrow and look for her siblings. She knew it was a pipe dream, but maybe some of them survived? But that would put Jenny at direct risk. The woman barely managed to flee from that place; given how they’d met in the forest, asking the blonde to return didn’t seem fair. But if they didn’t go back, where should they go?

Yuki realized she knew nothing about this world aside from the things she managed to infer by herself. Could they become adventures? Was that even a thing here? Jenny was a competent fighter, and if they managed to add magic to the blonde’s repertoire, she’d be hard to deal with. But that was considering Jenny even wanted to adventure in the first place. Aside from the Gizelda girl Jenny often mentioned, Yuki didn’t know anything else about Jenny either.

But that also didn’t answer what Yuki wanted to do. Deep down, Yuki just wanted to live a magic adventure; the thought of a monster girl evolution made her giddy with happiness. But she couldn’t ignore Ferdinand and the things he had done. Yuki wasn’t delusional in thinking his actions were her responsibility, but whenever she thought about the creep, hate burned behind her eyes. She wouldn’t mind sending the murderous freak to the abyss where he belonged.

Yuki sighed and shook her head. She needed to be careful. After suffering the effects of the passion system thing, even thinking about the stalker was enough to send her into an evil mood. Yuki wanted to stop the guy, mostly because she didn’t want another reincarnator ruining her own magic fantasy life. Yeah, it was a selfish reason and a bit on the evil side, but she didn’t care. Yuki wasn’t a hero, despite what the title proclaimed. She wanted to go on a grand adventure and didn’t really care about saving the world.

The night forest sounds kept Yuki company while her thoughts wandered. Fortunately, no predator showed up.

Dawn broke over the trees with a warm orange glow when Yuki made a decision. She would check with Jenny what the woman wanted to do, and if the blonde decided to settle down, Yuki would let the woman be and leave after resting and restoring her own magic. It would be a shame to leave Jenny; Yuki had grown fond of the girl, but if her pet didn’t want to adventure, Yuki wouldn’t try to force the woman into that life.

Yuki felt better after deciding on things: have a grand adventure, find out what Ferdinand wanted, stop the creep if possible, and be happy. Those seemed like reasonable enough goals. Yuki hopped back and nested beside the sleeping blonde. Better yet, if Jenny decided to join, too.

FatElf

Thank you for reading. Next chapter tomorrow.