[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Lesser Archdemon Lv. 2]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 14200/15600] 3600↑
[Total Combat Power: 15700/17100] 3900↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]

I got to level two of Lesser Archdemon.

I only gained about 5 magic from killing a single normal person. Even if a soldier was worth 10, I still didn’t kill all that many people this time around. About 3000 of my magic gain was coming from out of nowhere.

“…was it you?” I spoke to the reborn Sapling. I thought I felt a faint wisp of mana reaching me, as though a response.

 

The souls of the 99 secret alpha testers, those who had died from the corporation’s betrayal, were resting in the World Tree. They would then be granted new lives as the reborn Saplings.

Who this Sapling used to be, I didn’t know. All the same, they had turned a fragment of their newly-gained lifeforce into a white magic stone to give to me.

Thanks. I’ll protect you, I swear it.

I and Blobsy continued building the small mulch hill.

*boing*

We finished our work. Blobsy jiggled on my shoulder, as though proud of a job well done.

 

I should confirm the location, at least. I climbed on top of a nearby mountain. There, I saw the town, so far away it shrank to the size of a button. I’d already known a new Sapling couldn’t be too far away from the old one, but this was probably 200 kilometers at least.

There was even a deep gorge in between. I was quite sure the new Sapling could grow to maturity without being discovered.

…I wondered how that country was doing. Well, the place was sure to be crowding with watcher drones anyway, and it wasn’t like I had all that much time to waste.

“Alright. Come on Blobsy, let’s go back.”

*boing*

As things were, it’d be risky to continue with the Southern Continent. We returned to the reborn Sapling and rode on the network, going back to the World Tree.

 

***

“The Dark Lady Fluffy Bunny decided to get started on her campaign of terror right away, I see.”

“I saw that sudden announcement. So what’s going to happen? Apparently the Sapling’s gone and you can’t use the Temple there anymore. Does it mean people from that country won’t be able to revive anymore?”

“Looks like it. New players can no longer choose the country, while existing players there would see their bases as ‘out of bounds’ and get teleported to the closest country.”

“I saw this in another game too, the thing where a human territory gets taken by the big bad and then you can’t use the town services anymore. Though in that game you could retake the town by killing enough monsters without dying.”

“Still no information on that front, huh. I haven’t seen any event quest to revive the destroyed Sapling either. Does that mean the monster players can live there now?”

“Hey peeps, so I bought the monster avatar DLC. And then on today’s morning, there’s a weird new quest. It says the objective is to ‘defeat the current Dark Lady and become the new Dark Lord/Lady’.”

“What? Monsters aren’t the Dark Lady’s allies? What’s with that?”

“According to what they said, that Fluffy Bunny isn’t a normal Dark Lord, she’s a world-destroying Demon. If the world is destroyed, it means the monsters will die off too, so the main goal of monster players is to grow stronger and become the new Dark Lord.”

“...that’s kinda different from what I imagined. I thought it’d be super cool to fight against humans under the Bunny’s banner, which was why I’d been thinking about buying the DLC, but now…”

“It kind of feels like the game direction is going all over the place, don’t you think? Like the game developers are flip-flopping.”

“That reminds me, what’s going to happen to that country now that the Temple’s unavailable? Is it going to turn into a hostile area full of monsters?”

“I can tell you about that, I picked Rantetrois as the spawn point back when I first signed up. Basically, the town got fucked up.”

“The Fluffy Bunny came there, right? Did you see her?”

“And it wasn’t just any normal destruction, either. There was a riot in front of a huge building, probably the king’s palace. I could barely see my feet due to the fog. I thought the Bunny was fighting, but turned out it was all humans killing each other. Now the whole street’s fucked up by mosaics. Couldn’t see shit.”

“Oh, so by ‘fucked up’ you actually meant the town turned into a pixelated mess…”

“So what’s going on in the Rantetrois region now?”

“I tested a few things out since I was nearby. Logging in and out still works at least, but if you die, you’ll randomly revive somewhere in your spawn country. But more importantly, monsters there are way too tough! Like the caterpillars. They must have gotten a 50% increase in stats.”

“The whole country’s an absolute mess now. I’m playing a monster avatar, and I can just go into villages just fine. They don’t have barriers anymore. The slaves ran off, the farmers are panicking and running from the black caterpillars eating their cabbages. I honestly wasn’t sure how I should be reacting.”

“I guess that country’s pretty much dead now.”

***

 

Near the northern edge of the Southern Continent lay the Principality of Rantetrois. With its Sapling destroyed, anything that used mana in the country were turning themselves off one after another.

With its high demand for mana, the first to go was the railway.

The locomotives did have magic stones as batteries, but they were only used to start the engine and as reserve mana in cases accidents occurred mid-way through a trip. In normal running, the rails supplied magic to the trains.

When the rails were no longer active, the trains stopped. Before starting up the train with the reserve mana battery, the conductors decided to call to ask about the situation. It was only then that they learned about the destruction of the Sapling.

 

The next to go were the lighting, plumbing, and other such essential utilities. The only bit of lamp oil and kindlings available were at the shops selling traveling goods. The people couldn’t even cook due to the lack of water. Unable to understand the situation, they fell into panic. Chaos reigned.

Next to fail were the magic equipment managing the slave collars, and almost at the same time, the barriers protecting towns and villages from monsters. Demihumans began their escape.

In farming villages with nothing but a simple fence, Fiend Wolves commenced their attacks, looking for livestock to feed on. The humans were still fending them off, but their own food supply was beginning to look dire. People were going into forests to get firewood despite lacking proper preparations, which often resulted in them being attacked by monsters. The situation was spiraling into unmitigated disaster.

The people in power took no time in escaping the country on express carriages, together with what valuables they could carry. Bit by bit, society unraveled. The Principality of Rantetrois was slowly turning into a wasteland.

 

***

 

The events that had transpired in the Southern Continent — the loss of a Sapling, and Rantetrois’ ensuing descent into chaos — were being taken under serious considerations by the Central Continent, by nature a continent sensitive to information of all kinds. In contrast, the other continents did not attach as much importance to the matter. Perhaps they weren’t even aware of it.

52 years ago, the 92nd Sapling was discovered, and a new country was born. Torbandeux, a relatively young island country.

However, no one was interested in it, due to the simple fact that the island had nothing but forests. Despite being the 92nd, it was only 18 years ago that development truly started, when one of the nobles of the 97th country, the large country Torbasept, decided to stake their claim.

Despite being called a ‘country’ due to possessing a Sapling, Torbandeux had only just recently become a small village. It had just the bare minimum of soldiers and about two thousand settlers.

 

Convenience and comfort were still far away, but the people were lively, full of spirit. There was no lack of smiles on their faces. Night after night, in taverns they declared their dream of turning their village into a true nation. And working toward that dream were hundreds of beastmen slaving away without rest.

 

The Sapling still had nothing more than a simple fence surrounding it. Stakes were driven into it to gather mana. Standing on top of a fortress constructed a few years ago, the young governor of the country was watching the tree, all the while taking sips of alcohol.

And then, in front of him, the impossible happened. All of a sudden, the Sapling turned white.

“Wha…”

And shattered into dust.

Where the Sapling used to be, there now stood a girl, white rabbit ears drooping from her head. He stared at her, dumbfounded. She noticed him and gave him a gentle bow. Then she disappeared in a blink of an eye.

 

With the Sapling’s blessing now gone, Torbandeux returned to its true climate of a northern island. An abrupt blizzard ravaged the village. The citizens could do nothing but ran for their own lives, leaving their demihumans slaves behind.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Lesser Archdemon Lv. 3]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 15200/18700] 3100↑
[Total Combat Power: 17000/20500] 3400↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]

---

Author’s Notes: Demihumans were used to toiling away without the convenience of mana, so as long as they had tools, they could survive even if the mana was gone. Climate’s worse now, but it was still more peace of mind than they ever had under the humans’ rule.

A few years later and the beastmen might actually get fluffy fur again!

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

What was a Demon?

I used to think it was just one of those things no one could prove the existence of, much like God. Just one of the type of monsters I had to choose as a tester of weaponized avatars.

But now, I had been reborn in this world as a Demon.

Miraculously, I still kept my former appearance, if only more grown up. Yet in the end, it didn’t change the fact that I was no longer human.

 

Still, was I a real demon?

The sort of demons I knew were the type to worm into the hearts of humans, to corrupt them and take their souls. And with my recent experience, I’d come to hold a vague suspicion: could it be that demons were corrupting humans because they gained more experience from souls of evil people?

[Absorption] was how I drained the lives of my enemies. Something that I was now doing without a second thought.

Perhaps human thoughts and desires had come together in a stroke of random chance, and the World Tree had taken it, given it direction, turning it into what I now was. An Artificial Demon.

I was indistinguishable from a real demon, yet at the same time our natures could not be any more irreconcilable.

I was still me, only now playing the role of a demon named Shedy.

 

Which was why I could become a Demon for another’s sake.

 

***

 

The Principality of Rantetrois was a quaint little pastoral country. Their population was meager, and their main – and only – industry was the cherry plantation on the mountainside used for making wine.

Thanks to the infinite mana coming from the Saplings, no humans ever went hungry. They had no need to steal or pillage from others. It was the reason why Rantetrois could keep their idyllic peace.

The Central Continent might still see conflict of interests from time to time between men and women with unending, unsatisfiable greed for fame, luxury, and more, but here in the Southern Continent, the closest thing to a conflict was the little spat between the two large countries. There was no serious discord. And as Rantetrois itself had no resources particularly worth disputing over, people in the country were satisfied as long as they had demihuman slaves to bring them a bit of profit. They might envy the other rich countries somewhat, but they were happy with the tranquil, effortless lives they had.

 

Such peaceful countries still maintained armies and knight orders, not to defend themselves from other humans, but mainly to fend off monsters.

Forests and similar places within the mana-rich regions around the Saplings tended to accumulate mana. From these so-called ‘manaswamps’, weak monsters would be born without end.

Towns and villages could make use of the abundant mana from the Saplings to erect barriers around themselves, but the streets between them enjoyed no such protection. Soldiers and knights patrolled daily to deal with any monsters near the roads.

One of their other missions, no less important, was to search for and destroy the manaswamps.

These manaswamps, formed from mana leaking from the Saplings, were sources of nourishment for the forest in which they were created. Once they were destroyed, the mana would then re-accumulate back at the Sapling. In other words, the mana usable by humans would increase.

With that said, the job of knights and soldiers was still a simple, easy one. Just stand around, go patrol, call out if they saw a girl walking around. If dangerous monsters appeared, just get the demihuman slaves to deal with them.

 

Laurent, born as the fifth son of a family full of that sort of knights, only had the job of the town gate guard left for him.

Just the minimum earning was enough to live comfortably, so he wasn’t particularly worried. Still, if he lost his noble standing – even if that nobility was nothing but an empty title – he’d quickly find out how much ‘minimum wage’ could actually vary. Marrying a good woman or buying a good-looking demihuman slave girl would then get difficult.

But then, he saw a strange girl walking from outside the city.

She was wearing an unassuming cloak, the hood hiding her face. But Laurent could still see her fair, pristine-white skin and the high-heels she was wearing, the kind frequently seen in higher society. Probably a noble girl of some other land on an incognito trip, he thought.

He did think it strange that she had no attendants. Still, the moment he saw her fair features and her hardened eyes of scarlet peeking out from under the hood, he was taken over by a single thought: I wanna make her mine.

 

Laurent was confident in his looks and his conversational skills, yet it had been half a day and she was still giving him the cold shoulder. When she started talking ridiculous stuff out of nowhere, he got nervous. Just as he was thinking to just forcefully pull her somewhere, she suddenly shot an ice spell toward the front gates of the governor’s mansion.

“Aaaeeyyaaa! W-What happened?!” He screamed.

The resulting wave of frigid wind knocked him to the ground. The whole gate, together with the gatekeepers, froze over in an instant. They were crumbling and shattering from the contraction caused by extreme temperature change. As the world turned into a nightmare in front of him, Laurent heard the spellcasting girl spoke.

 

“Hurry up, people. Get out of my way if you don’t want to die.”

 

Her legs and back came into view. A dress, red as blood, covered the white girl.

But neither Laurent nor the onlookers were taking much notice of her strange attire. They were far more occupied with the long, snow-white ears drooping from her head and the small, adorable bushy tail.

“…a beastman?”

For a single moment, indignation overtook Laurent, even pushing aside any thoughts of her magic. Just a common animal dared to deceive me? To deceive humans? At the same time, he also realized that if she was a demihuman, then nothing was stopping him from taking her as his possession by force.

But then, what were those long ears?

They looked just like a rabbit’s. A vague memory niggled at his mind… and then he heard the words one of the onlookers let slip.

 

“The rabbit… Five thousand large gold coins!”

 

With the voice came the recollection for everyone at the scene. They remembered how a few weeks earlier, they had seen the bounty dispatched by Touze Empire all the way from the Central Continent.

The white rabbit beastman girl who used mist magic. Whoever caught her would be rewarded five thousand large gold coins.

Large golds. A currency unit the common man would never see even for the whole of his life. Enthralled by greed, the onlookers surged toward her with nothing but fists and knives.

“The bunny!” “Rabbit beastman!” “Five thousand large golds!”

Voices chained from one to another like a game of telephone. The news spread out in an instant. More than just men were joining the crowd of people flooding toward the governor’s mansion; even their wives were joining in with kitchen knives in hands, while the elderlies were grabbing whatever rocks they could find nearby.

 

*

 

“Golds! My large golds!”

A plump woman screamed and charged at me. I jumped off her, at the same time sending her flying with my stomp. I weaved through the sea of people.

I knew showing my ears would cause a ruckus. I just didn’t think even the women and the senior citizens were joining in.

I hopped on their heads, jumping around the crowd but never leaving. After a while, soldiers from inside the governor’s mansion finally showed up.

 

“What in the world was going on here?!”

Surrounded by the group of soldiers was an important-looking person. The crowd of citizens, nearing a hundred, immediately stopped whatever they were doing at the sound of his voice. A shopkeeper-ish looking person from the crowd hastily ran toward him and started talking. Then, the important-looking middle-aged man smirked and pointed at me.

“I see, so you’re the rabbit beastman girl that boy from Touze posted a bounty for! Just stay right there! I won’t let him have you, you’ll be staying with me for life!”

“…”

I supposed ‘that boy’ was Tiz, then. Was this guy this country’s governor? Never thought he’d be showing up right away.

The crowd of people, daunted by his orders, slowly lowered their weapons.

But then I noticed another few hundreds townspeople on the other side of the crowd running toward us. I smiled at the crowd, my ears lightly swaying.

“My, my. Are you sure you don’t want those large gold coins?”

 

“…” “O-Of course we do!” “Yeah, that’s right! Money’s more important than that stupid governor!”

A few of them regained their courage, their voices slowly getting louder. The governor, hearing their words, widened his eyes.

“Fools, have you forgotten about your own lord?! I was the one to have fed you, to have given you places to live, and you good-for-nothings don’t even have the decency to pay the taxes!”

“The fuck you saying?!” “Shut the fuck up, dumbshit governor!” “Oh, sure, we haven’t forgotten at all how you kept raising the mana price all the time!” “And all that money just goes to your pockets, right?!”

 

The governor here really wasn’t very popular at all, was he. With the new influx of people, the crowd only got bolder and bolder. They rained down complaints upon the governor.

The governor’s face was turning into an unhealthy red. He pulled out and swung his sword.

“Enough! Cut down whoever stands in my way!”

 

The moment his soldiers charged at the citizens, I threw out a large, thick cloud of mist.

“Wha-?! Where the hell did this mist come from?!”

“I can’t see shit! Where’s the rabbit?!”

“Wasn’t she just here-”

“I-I… aaaAAAAAAGGHHH!!”

After I attacked a few of them, the citizens and soldiers began wildly swinging their weapons in terror. More and more of them were hurting each other.

The cold mist could kill all of them at once, but that wasn’t what I was using this time. This particular mist was simply a harmless wide-range smokescreen that would stay for a long time even without my supervision.

I slipped through the chaos and headed toward the mansion. Suddenly, someone blocked my path.

“Found you, damn rabbit!”

The governor came out to face me all by himself. How thoughtless of him… I supposed it was no wonder. No matter how much he touted himself a nation’s king, in the end, he was nothing more than the lord of a relatively big town.

I stopped. His mouth twisted into a nasty smirk, perhaps thinking I was surrendering. He approached.

“Yes… that’s right… I got you no-aaakgh!”

Inside the mist, the governor abruptly fell on his face.

For a moment, I wondered what happened. Then I saw Laurent standing behind the governor, his sword slick with blood. He looked at me with a eerie smile on his face.

“You’re supposed to be mine… isn’t that right?”

 

“…”

I had no idea what he was talking about. Well, I supposed it was about time, anyway. I had already destroyed the watcher drones I found, but if I dragged this on any further, the corporation might just throw some more monster avatars my way.

Laurent walked closer to me, his smile unchanging. I gently raised my palm and blasted off a wave of icy wind. It swallowed him, then continued on toward where I thought the mass of people were.

 

*

 

I left the smokescreen there, outside the mansion. The messy riot was still going on.

Inside the mansion, I only saw servants at most. After freezing just a few who ran up to attack me, there was no longer anyone else standing on my way.

The mansion was quite spacious, about a baseball field’s size. Still, there was no need for me to find a guide. I knew right away where the Sapling was.

It was inside the mansion’s courtyard. There were no locks. Anyone could have come here if they wanted to.

 

“…”

It was a tree over a dozen meters tall. But its bark was stripped off, its trunk was stabbed by stakes of metal, and its leaves were all plucked clean. There were workers standing nearby to harvest any newly grown leaves. They turned into ice statues in an instant.

It hurts, right? I know. People used to do this sort of things to me all the time, too.

It’s okay. I’m here. You’ll be free from the pain soon.

I touched the Sapling’s roots, slowly freezing it. The branches, long-since withered, fell to the ground and turned into dust. Then the Sapling itself followed suit, scattering into the wind.

 

Immediately, I felt something in the air changing.

Lights and air conditioners inside the mansion shut off one after another. Confusion spread out from the building. Well, they would soon find out that the real chaos was only just beginning.

The Sapling network connection was the last to go. Before it did, I hitched a ride to go to the birthplace of the new Sapling. The destination was deep inside a forest, forbidding trees barring the way of any intruders. Hidden among the greenery was a small, thirty-centimeters tall seedling.

This was quite far away from human territories, so I didn’t think it’s be discovered. Still, just in case, I and Blobsy gathered some mulch to hide the newborn Sapling. As we did, a small, white-colored magic stone appeared from within the Sapling and flew toward me. It disappeared inside me.

Eh…? What was this?

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Lesser Archdemon Lv. 2]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 14200/15600] 3600↑
[Total Combat Power: 15700/17100] 3900↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]

…I just leveled up.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Back to the recent past.

 

Far below the Central Continent was the Southern Continent. Two large countries and five small countries lay claim to the continent, and neighboring them were two island countries.

The island countries only had populations of about 50,000 people. Barely enough for a single decently-sized town. All the same, apparently in this world, any population group congregating around a World Tree Sapling could be legally considered a ‘country’, and so that was what they were.

I had had some time thinking about where to attack first. According to the guidebook, the Central Continent was the original birthplace of the human race. Civilization there were quite advanced, plus those countries had a lot of people too. Which meant their military were possibly the most difficult opponents I could face.

The guidebook also included the order in which the Saplings were discovered. Countries until 50 had the ancient history to back them up. They really seemed like proper nations.

The Touze Empire, where Tiz was, was number 12. It was even in the Central Continent to boot. Military, population, history, it had it all. This one was going to be a pain in my neck.

And so I decided on the Southern Continent. Reason number one, it wasn’t the Central Continent. Two, the countries there were only about halfway through the numbering.

 

Getting there was going to be so troublesome. Continent-crossing without using an airship would waste tons of my time.

If I was a normal human, I’d have to take an airship or a ship ride from Ayune to Cinqres, then transit through Neuft and Quarondeux to enter the Southern Continent. But I didn’t have the time for a world tour.

The world wouldn’t die off in just a decade or two, obviously. But if I took too long to move between the Saplings, it would take dozens of decades to destroy them all. I was worried that Earth would have begun large-scale mana harvesting by then.

Thankfully, my ‘partner in crime’, the World Tree, had solved half of the problem for me.

The World Tree and its Saplings were networked together, transporting mana and souls between them. So I thought, maybe I could hitch a ride on the network, considering I was a spiritual lifeform? It was a simple idea, but it worked… partially, at least.

If I turned into mist, I could travel through the network. But once I reached the barrier of the human country surrounding the Sapling, I’d bounce off it, perhaps due to me being a Demon. And I couldn’t turn back to human during the ride anyway…

 

“…where was I?”

After hitting the barrier, my landing spot was a forest somewhere between the mountains.

*bounce*

Oh, Blobsy was looking as lively as ever. My [Subspace Inventory] skill, the evolution of [Packer], couldn’t store living beings. Or to be more precise, I could force them in if I wanted to, but their biological activities would cease within storage and they’d die. Blobsy was only fine by virtue of being my Kin.

Still, she seemed bored after her time in storage. She bounced to her usual spot on my shoulder.

 

First off, I’d need to know where I was. I took out and wore my cloak from [Inventory], then ran up the mountain. Within a few minutes, I crossed the distance a normal human would need half a day to make.

On the way, there were a few times I detected hostilities from what I assumed to be wild monsters. I just focused and threw [Fear] at them and none would dare get any closer. All hail high combat power.

As I reached the mountaintop, I searched for a tall tree. I climbed to its top, standing on tiptoes.

To my left was the sea. Far off to my right, I could see a town.

With how close it was to the ocean, maybe it was one of the small countries on this continent? I was closer to my target than I thought. I jumped off the tree, transforming into mist and flew.

 

I just needed to flash my adventurer card to the guards and they let me in without any problems. Border control was as lazy as always. Well, I supposed a traveler entering the country on foot wasn’t exactly a common occurrence around here.

“Hey, you over there!”

“…”

For some reason, one of the gate guards called at me. The young man nearing his twenties said something to the other guard and ran toward me.

“Where did you come from?”

“Outside.”

“No, that’s… well, yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”

He leaned closer and spoke in a whisper.

“Looking at your shoes, you’re a noble girl from somewhere, right? Did your carriage break down and you had to walk here?”

“…ah.”

Whoops. I forgot about my scarlet stiletto heels (which were actually as deadly as their namesake, I might add). They were still peeking out from under my cloak. You’d never see normal adventurers or travelers wearing these.

Was the guard planning on threatening me? As he saw me slightly raising my guard, he hastily jumped back.

“Wait, no, I’m not going to do anything to you! I mean, you were going to a noble’s mansion, right? Maybe the guardhouse? It’s dangerous if you were alone on the way.”

Hmm… apparently he was just worried about me. Of course that’s all it was. I never thought all humans were trash in the first place, but maybe I did have a bit of a bias.

“…I want to go to the governor’s mansion.”

“The Governor?! No, I mean, it’s fine, but it’s quite far, you know?”

“Really?”

“I can guide you there, if you don’t mind? I can show you the town on the way too.”

“…”

 

He might have been friendly, but it looked like he had ulterior motives, too. Well, it was convenient for me anyway, so I nodded. He waved to the other guard. They smirked and gave him a thumbs-up.

He told me about the city express stagecoach, which we found and got on. His name was Laurent, nineteen years old. The fifth son of a destitute knightly house. The family was still of nobility, more or less, even if in name only.

“Well, we’ll drop back to being commoners if we don’t contribute anything worthy, though.”

“I see…”

Laurent told me a lot of things, all the while sitting unusually close to me.

We were in the Principality of Rantetrois, a small country situated to the north of the Southern Continent. Despite being called a ‘country’, it was composed of only the capital, where we were, and a large cherry plantation for wine-making. The population was only around 100,000 people.

I had known it was different from the Central Continent. Still, I never realized how wide the gap was until I noticed there wasn’t a single classy-looking establishment in the whole city, like those I saw in Trestan Kingdom’s capital.

“This place used to be called ‘the front door to the Central Continent’ in the old days, but once airships were invented, the only people coming here were merchants after our wines.”

“…but you have a Sapling, so you’re living just fine, right?”

“Yeah, thanks to it, we don’t even need to worry about wasting magic. I once heard a geezer working on the fields complaining that the vegetables were growing so fast due to the mana, he were having trouble eating them all before it rots.”

“Hmm…”

So they were wasting magic.

 

It looked like the World Tree Sapling was truly at the governor’s mansion, then, considering how heavily guarded the place seemed to be. Most countries were probably the same in placing their Saplings inside the palace.

A few hours later, we reached the district in which the governor lived. We got off the express carriage and started walking there. My steps carried me through the streets… and away from Laurent every time he started up another one of his constant attempts to hold my hand.

Now that I was aware of the truth, the town in my eyes no longer looked the same.

Here and there, air conditioners ran with doors opened. Glowing sign boards lit up the street even during midday. Piles of produce overcrowded groceries, grown in excess due to the mana.

And no humans were working the fields. Only the demihuman slaves they had captured.

The mana here was like oil of Earth, I suppose. It could even work as electricity without needing to go through power plants.

If the mana went away, what would happen to this country?

The ensuing chaos wasn’t difficult to imagine. Once again, the impossibility of any attempts at persuasion made itself apparent to me.

I stopped on a clothing store along to way to buy new cloaks and boots for disguising purposes, plus the latest guidebook. We were standing in front of the governor’s mansion a while later.

It really was a mansion, not a castle. Three stories, looked quite spacious.

 

“Hey, hey, tell me your name already. I came with you all this way, why not have a bit of a drink with your hard-working guide?”

Laurent must have gotten impatient with how I’ve been shrugging off his approach. He kept trying to touch me, to drag me to the bar.

“Hey, Laurent.”

“Mmm?”

“So, just hypothetically… what if mana is no longer free?”

“Whaa? Why would that happen? We can get as much mana from the Saplings as we wanted, right?”

“And what if this world gets worse in the future because we keep doing it?”

I stared into his eyes. He just snorted.

“Heh, you’re joking, right? No way that would happen. And even if it does, it’ll be way after I die of old age anyway.”

“I see…”

 

Was this the general opinion of the human race here? So much like Earth of old, back when people there were still aloof to the environment.

Yet in the end, all the countries still continued to leech mana. Once they knew of the comfort it brought, no one had the courage to stop.

No one wanted to be the first to speak out and be branded a villain.

To change things, Evil was necessary. An overwhelming Evil to become the target for humankind’s displeasure and resentment.

 

“Well then, thanks, Laurent. I can find my way from here.”

“Hahh? What’re you saying?”

 

At first, I had thought to just sneak in and destroy the Sapling in secret. But then, the resentment of humanity would just be vented upon the weak.

Just as they’d always done to the demihumans. Just as the adults had done to me when I was younger…

A few dozens meters away, the governor’s mansion guards looked at us with dubious gazes. At Laurent walking around in his gate guard uniform, and at me hiding my face under my hood.

For better or for worse, I had quite the reputation now. I intended to use it.

 

I slowly walked toward the gate. Laurent put a hand on my shoulder.

“Come on, enough al-eeek!” He yelped at the whiff of ice-cold air.

I stretched out a hand and blasted arctic mist at the gate.

 

“Aaaeeyyaaa! W-What happened?!”

The gate froze in a blink of an eye. The edge of the frigid cloud hit Laurent. He screamed, tumbling on the ground.

Eddies of wind whirled from the temperature difference, blowing off my hood. The moment the onlookers noticed my snow-white ears, their eyes widened.

I took off my cloak, showing off my rabbit ears, tail, and the scarlet bunny girl outfit. I turned my mouth into a goading smirk.

 

“Hurry up, people. Get out of my way if you don’t want to die.”

---

Author Note: Shedy had resolved herself to play the part of Evil. Still, that doesn’t mean she should be picking head-on fights like this!

This chapter takes place in the 43rd country, the Principality of Rantetrois.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Three months had passed since the beginning of the beta test of the VRMMORPG World of Yggdrasia. Despite original plans calling for a six-months test, the official game release had just recently been announced.

The official reason for the early release, as the public knew it, was because of “great beta player response” and “to scratch the itch of everyone who weren’t chosen as beta testers”. Meanwhile, those more aware of the situation suspected interference from the game’s financial backer – the government.

To some extent, both were true: it was true that there was great customer demand for the full release, and it was also true that the government was hurrying the development. Yet there was an even deeper reason, a secret only known to the upper echelons of the project.

 

Within the terminal care medical facility of the 7th research center of a certain pharmaceutical and defense conglomerate, an accident resulting in the death of nearly all staff members had happened.

Casualties numbered over seven hundred. While some sort of bladed weapon had claimed the lives of some, including all the security officers, the vast majority of victims had died from hypothermia. Their bodies were found inside an environmental chamber, a room equipped with perfect temperature and humidity control capability.

The cold wave must have been extremely rapid, as there were hardly any lucky survivors who managed to escape through the windows. The less fortunate had turned into ice sculptures littering the path to the outside. Clinging to the glass in despair were frozen statues of those who hadn’t been quick enough to open their own windows before the frost welded them shut.

 

Hypothermic deaths in a closed room. Such a mysterious, almost supernatural incident was certainly worthy of attention, yet the upper echelons remained far more interested in the culprit of the matter.

 

A white girl in a red dress with rabbit ears.

She was uncannily similar to the rabbit beastman girl who had been witnessed single-handedly destroying multiple experimental weaponized monster avatars within World of Yggdrasia.

According to the testimonies of the survivors and what the cameras had captured before the cold shattered their lens, the girl had looked nearly identical to No. 13, a subject of the first monster avatar test who had been transported to the collection facility following her mental collapse and coma. However, the culprit of the incident had looked older than No. 13, and so the link remained unproven.

The government and the corporation’s leaders had certainly noticed the high combat power she displayed even when limited in a humanoid form, but they were far more interested in the possible existence of the ability to cross between worlds that she might have possessed. They began thinking about using the players as local eyes to help them capture The Girl.

 

The number of potential players, people who were expected to be buying the official release, was at least three millions. By setting her up to be the final villain of the game, the Dark Lady, the players’ enthusiasm could easily be directed toward the rabbit hunt.

 

To that end, player battles weren’t the only videos shown at the announcement for the official release of World of Yggdrasia. The game developers had also included a few combat scenes with monster avatars. Even footage of The Girl in a red dress massacring the facility staff members — an incident that had been quietly processed behind closed doors — were edited and presented as if it was simply a high-quality CG video. The scenes of carnage poured more fuel onto the players’ interest in her.

 

There were several changes from the beta version to the official version.

First was the halved-magic death penalty. In order to let the players have more fun with the game and have less reservations about dying, the penalty was reduced to thirty percent.

Second, implementation of the feature to change one’s appearance and equipment that wouldn’t drop upon death. Both could be bought in the in-game store.

Third, addressing the issue of transportation that a subgroup of players had reported, mainly by adding more train lines and dispensing discount tickets. The developers had also reiterated that as the in-game countries were generally around the same size as real-world countries, players were recommended to have fun within the area they spawned in first before looking beyond.

Fourth, an addition to Terms and Conditions. When a lawbreaking player was arrested in a city, they would now immediately receive an official notice of character deletion. If their activities were deemed overly offensive and had affected other players as well, then even their account might be deleted.

And finally, the implementation of a feature long-awaited by many players: monster avatars.

 

Just as always, the VR chat boards of World of Yggdrasia were aflame with talks of the official release.

 

“The standard game will be priced at $69. The limited First Edition release, which included a ⅙ Fluffy Bunny figurine, will retail for $198.”

“Fucking expensive! Still buying though.”

“Oh… so whoever making those fan figurines must have gotten a C&D, then…”

“Actually, I heard they got an exclusive contract instead, and that they’ll be working on the rumored ‘grown-up version’ too.”

“I suppose now that the Fluffy Bunny has become the Dark Lady, the devs are putting a stop to sales of fan merchandise, then...”

“So... I guess figure A’s gonna be the twelve-year old casual-wear version? Then B must be the fourteen-year old Dark Lady dress version?

“Never would have thought the game’s final boss was hiding inside a player-held event. What the hell were the devs smoking? Gimme some.”

“A bunny suit? But isn’t it a dress?”

“It looks kinda like a bunny suit if you ignore the skirt.”

“Shit, I can’t decide which to buy. The first kid version’s so cute, while the teenage one’s even a little bit sexy too.”

“Why not both? Better be quick though, otherwise the resellers are going to buy it all up.”

 

“So monster avatars are finally here… what’s it like? Would I need a separate account?”

“You’ll need to buy the new $19.80 DLC, which is also a lot more difficult. Tons of restrictions, too. You can create a monster character in parallel to your main human one. Apparently if you get discovered by humans, it’s pretty much a 100% chance they’ll be hostile.”

“Holy shit, that’s rough. Can you fight human players?”

“Considering what sort of game this is, I’m pretty sure you can even fight human NPCs if you wanted to. There’s probably gonna be a hunting force out for your head sooner or later, though.”

“Wait a minute… does it mean I can join the Fluffy Bunny’s side?”

“The devs might be expecting that too. You’ll have to actually find out where she is first, though.”

“Alright, I’m pumped! I’m gonna be the Bunny’s pet!”

 

***

 

“Little bunny… where are yooooouuuu…”

 

Among the staff of the 7th research center, Brian had been famous for absolutely never staying at work beyond his hours, no matter how busy his subordinates were. Yet now, he was spending every moment of free time inside VR. Bloodshot eyes stared from the viewpoint of a watcher drone.

Around one month earlier, he suddenly lost his right leg despite being completely healthy just moments before. It had since been replaced with a prosthetic leg incorporating Avatar technology.

With the new leg, his daily life saw no inconvenience. However, phantom pain still plagued him even until now, and his hatred toward The Girl who had robbed him of his leg had rendered his mind dangerously unstable.

 

The general-use monster avatars were still far from being suitable for practical usage. All the same, it was Brian’s suggestion to release them for the public.

He chased after The Girl like a man infatuated. He was the one to have given the order to edit and release footage of her as bait for the normal players.

He had convinced the higher-ups to unveil the monster avatars by saying it was to “work out the kinks in usage time for the militarized monster avatars” and to “increase versatility in their action patterns”. The normal monster avatars, even with their growth, could only reach 60% the capability of the militarized models at most. On the other hand, The Girl might let down her guard around harmless monsters. She had been taking care to avoid being seen by humans or the watcher drones. There was a good chance she would allow a friendly-looking monster avatar to get close.

And as long as her location was pinpointed, Brian could use that monster avatar as the anchor to send more militarized avatars. Removing the mana safety regulation to turn them into suicide bombers at point-blank range could also be a good choice, if she seemed negligent enough.

 

“Come out, come out, wherever you aaaaaare, little bunny…”

In his madness, he would not hesitate to deceive his superiors just for a chance of vengeance. Even Audrey dared not go near him.

 

***

 

Pre-orders reached 2,300,000. Including release day, total sales reached 3,430,000 copies. Around sixty percent of the buyers, after their character creation and subsequent game login, were immediately met with a sudden event announcement.

 

“Southern continent, Principality of Rantetrois. The Sapling has been destroyed by the Dark Lady. Subsequently, the Temple at the Principality of Rantetrois has lost its function. Players of the affected country are recommended to move to the closest country as soon as possible.”

---

Author’s Note: Suzumi-sama has blessed me with a wonderful drawing.

Super cute. It’s ten-years old Shedy at around the beginning of Arc 2.

According to Suzumi-sama, Shedy was growing up so fast they couldn’t finish the drawing in time *sweatdrops*.

Thank you very much.

 

Light exposition. Spawning point.

The militarized monster avatars need an anchor point to spawn from. In most cases, the anchors are fixed on the watcher drones that were deployed from a Temple.

On magicless Earth, however, avatars need specialized equipment to be created.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

My foggy vision slowly cleared up. I was standing at the World Tree, a giant so enormous it took up all of my field of view.

Good, I came back without any problems. Honestly, staying any longer on Earth would have been really dangerous for me.

*bounce!*

“I’m back, Blobsy.”

She rubbed herself on my feet. She’d been waiting for me on this side.

I scooped her up and put her on my shoulder. Exhausted from overuse of magic, I dragged myself toward the Tree’s roots and spread my arms.

“Here they are.”

The souls of the fifty-six secret alpha testers, children who had met their demise on Earth, flew off from my chest. One after another, they were absorbed into the Tree, as if following an invisible guiding hand.

Go ahead and rest, okay? You’ve earned it.

Through the Saplings, the souls of the other forty-three secret alpha testers who had lost their life in this world were already resting within the World Tree.

Except for me, all the ninety-nine children were together now.

No. 01, No. 08, No. 17… there was no way you could hear me now. Still, I wanted to say thanks. For saving my life.

 

The [Contract] I made with the World Tree had allowed me to reincarnate into a demon. I had been granted a new life on this world.

It was all thanks to the powers I inherited from my comrades. If I lacked even one, I wouldn’t have been standing here.

The contract had also granted me more power and maturity for my body. I now had the height and appearance of a fourteen-year old.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Lesser Archdemon Lv. 1]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 730/12000] 6780↑
[Total Combat Power: 1930/13200] 7460↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]

I gave up.

Sure, I might have already accepted the fact that I would be spending my whole life with rabbit ears and tail, but that [Race] was still going way too far, wasn’t it?!

And I might have had thoughts about just embracing the inevitable and getting an actual bunny suit, but that was no permission for [Materialization] to do such a stupidly good job. Now I had a weird outfit. I never even wanted it.

The design, except for the skirt, was probably influenced by the images I’d seen of those sorts of bunny girls.

…at least my chest and hips were covered up. Thank goodness I still had enough subconscious shame to stop the outfit from looking too outrageous.

My skirt was made out of layered sheets of fabric, which made it quite puffy. However, once I took out my cloak from [Packer] and wore it, the skirt magically flattened. How convenient.

Right, so [Packer] evolved too.

It turned into [Subspace Inventory] now, which allowed me to use it in human form, too. Turned out the items I’d been storing until now wasn’t actually staying inside my body like I used to think. They were staying in distorted space.

 

I was now a [Lesser Archdemon]. Apparently there was a big-shot called an Archdemon, and my class was based on it.

The World Tree must have given me the information. These weren’t knowledge I would have known otherwise.

However, my class didn’t have Low or High-Rank like before, but a level display instead. Did it mean there were multiple more steps before I could become an actual Archdemon?

Most probably, I wouldn’t be changing like in the Rank-Ups I’d done until now. I would only be gaining more power. I had no basis for my belief, but somehow I knew it to be true.

I had over ten thousand magic power now. Still, it wasn’t enough power for me to complete my [Contract] by my lonesome.

 

This was where my ‘Unique Skills’ came into play.

This was just a guess, but… perhaps my race had changed due to the evolution of my own unique skill, [Reroll].

It had become [Causality Alteration].

I was born with the power to unconsciously cause ‘bad luck’ to happen to other people. They would trip on flat ground. Their scratches would become serious wounds.

My newly-evolved [Causality Alteration] interfered with my target’s karma in order to change an event to ‘the most unlucky outcome’.

But even evolved, my skill was still governed by a chance of success. If the wound in their past was easy to avoid, or if my target was powerful, my chance of success and amount of magic consumed would vary greatly.

Those guards were formerly mercenaries. They were, quite literally, all lucky survivors, so the chance of granting misfortune to their past wounds were over 75% for all of them.

Although the magic consumption really surprised me. To worsen a single wound of a mundane human with no magic and only around 150 combat power, an opponent which might as well be an ant to me, actually took a whole 100 of my magic.

My own stockpile of magic was dropping like a rock just by maintaining myself on magicless Earth. Combined with my attempts to hurt the Deputy Director from a distance, which only had a 12% success chance and which I only succeeded after multiple failures, my remaining magic had dropped to under a thousand.

The minimum combat power I could have was ten percent of my maximum magic power, so I was practically invincible when facing mundane humans. Still, seeing my magic going so low got me a bit worried.

…I mean, I couldn’t help myself. I really wanted to get at least a hit in on those guys.

 

Unlike before, the mist was no longer the real me. My base form had switched over to being the ‘bunny girl’, while I gained [Mist Form] as a racial skill.

It didn’t really change my combat style. Still, if my body was destroyed, I wouldn’t be able to reform myself into mist again like I used to. I’d need to be more careful.

Especially when I would have to take on the whole world in order to fulfill my contract with the World Tree.

 

Everyone, from the people of this world to the corporation, all believed in the same thing. That the World Tree and its Saplings sustained the world with infinite mana.

 

But that was wrong.

Mana on this world was created from the souls of living beings.

As creatures died, their souls were then gathered by the Saplings and then sent to the World Tree.

The World Tree was the maintenance system created by the world of Yggdrasia. Among the gathered souls, souls that had gathered a large amount of experience would be allowed to retain some of it and reincarnate as a higher form of life. Souls not as accomplished would have their experience absorbed by the World Tree, and then reborn as a normal living being.

And finally, souls with only a miniscule amount of experience were completely recycled into pure mana, becoming materials to create new souls.

 

The mana filling this world all came from converted experience of living beings.

The mana kept inside the World Tree and the Saplings were for creating new life.

But the human race of this world was squandering it for their own luxury. The Tree wasn’t able to keep up with the conversion. It even had to begin dipping into the mana storage set aside for creating life.

With less and less new life being born, this world was slowly heading toward destruction.

And now, even another world came to steal the mana. Mana used on Earth would not return. Yggdrasia was, quite literally, having its lifeblood drained.

 

The contract I made with the World Tree was one of Destruction and Rebirth.

The human race had built countries around the Saplings, stealing mana like blood-sucking parasites.

My goal was to destroy the ninety-nine Saplings all around the world. And then, with new, strong souls, the World Tree Saplings would be reborn.

Souls possessing power and purity… I would help my comrades, the ninety-nine secret alpha testers, gain their second lives as the World Tree’s new Saplings.

Their souls had known as much. They still decided to go with me.

 

Once humans lost the Saplings, their civilization would crumble. While individual human thoughts might vary, the countries would surely come to prevent me from completing my quest.

War was inevitable. War between me… and all ninety-nine human countries.

And as Earth was planning to lean on this world to solve their energy problems, they would certainly interfere.

 

I would destroy this world’s civilization, and I would shut down the meddlings of Earth. I would make enemies out of two planets.

I looked up at the World Tree, at the new home of my comrades. Here, I swore an oath to myself.

I shall become the demon of death. The shatterer of worlds.

---

Link.

---

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I was an unwanted child.

My earliest memory was of a fight between my so-called “parents”.

They looked at me with scornful eyes. They vented any and all irritation upon me. They were always yelling. The man called me an eyesore every time he saw me, told me to shut up every time I cried.

How many times he’d kicked me, I didn’t recall. Nor could I remember the number of beatings the woman had given me, even as she screamed “You should never have been born!”

Bruises littered my skin. Every morning, I got a single loaf of hard bread to last the whole day.

Once every few days, I would have a chance to wash myself with the leftover bath water. They threw me out to the veranda at night, and I would curl up and sleep in any empty spot I could find among the mountains of trash outside the house.

Before I noticed, the man was no longer around the house. The woman, mind sick and heart twisted, called me a “demon” as her final words to me. The last I saw of her was her misshapen grin as her hands tightened around my throat.

 

When I came to, I was in a white hospital room. I was fed decent, warm food for the first time.

I vomited it all.

I didn’t speak, laugh, or even cry much. No one would love such a kid. The adults of the orphanage always hit me first before talking. They would take my food away, lock me inside a storeroom until morning, and they called it “discipline”.

What did I ever do?

 

Upon turning eight years old in the orphanage, I finally gave up on being a child.

 

***

 

“Audrey, what’s going on over there? No. 13 had a response, right? Come on, explain quick!”

 

The audio-visual VR device could not share any data that was yet to be digitized. Brian, in the 7th research center, could not see what was going on in the collection facility. Audrey and the staff members heard his voice.

But none could speak. The unnatural sight they saw and the chilly presence they felt had rooted them to the spot.

 

No. 13 was lying there, outside of the suspended animation capsule and connected to a myriad of machines. Her body turned white, as if the color was being sucked out of her, and finally crumbled into a pile of salt.

As if in response, the other fifty-six secret alpha tester bodies inside their capsules followed suit and collapsed into salt.

The voice of a girl faintly rang deep inside the ears of everyone there.

 

“…I’m back…”

 

A white, shining ball of light gently rose up from No. 13’s pile of salt. The salt flew up and weaved around the ball, forming a vague human shape.

Sounds of fracturing glass rang out throughout the room. From the other fifty-six capsules, the salt slipped through the newly-formed cracks and danced around the human silhouette. They gathered, putting details to the shape.

 

Smooth white skin, like porcelain.

Curly snow-white hair hanging to the shoulders, and poking out from the locks were two long, similarly white ears.

Her eyes slowly opened, revealing two pools of blood-red pupils.

She floated in the air, graceful limbs bare to all. Then smears of bloody liquid began to form, staining the pure whiteness. The liquid transformed into a scarlet dress with a black collar and a puffy, layered miniskirt. Black stockings with a hint of red, scarlet high-heels, and red gloves wrapping around sharp claws completed the ensemble.

 

Such an eerie bunny girl.

As the girl leisurely spread her arms, fifty-six balls of light gathered toward her. She tenderly hugged them to her chest.

 

“Can you hear me? What the hell is going on?!”

 

Brian’s voice unknowingly cut through the fantastic spectacle, bringing the room’s occupants back to their own minds.

Hearing the voice, the white girl finally turned her eyes to the humans. Her red eyes narrowed into a cool glare.

 

An electrode rod clattered on the floor.

“…ah?”

Their thoughts could not catch up to reality for an instant. Between one blink of the eye to the next, the white girl’s kick had already taken off the orphanage supervisor’s left arm. The limb was pulverized into dust.

 

“…aa…aaaaAAAAHHH!?”

The stump froze. Despite the lack of any pain or bleeding, the woman still screamed from the terror of seeing her own arm blowing off. As she held the wound with her right hands, the frost spread to her fingers. They shattered, prompting another howl.

“AAAaaAAAArRGGHH!!!”

There was no pain. As the terrified woman writhed on the floor, screaming all the while, the white girl picked up the electrode rod on the floor. She calmly approached, holding down the woman, and slowly pushed the rod deep into her ear.

“Aakh…gah…”

The supervisor woman twitched, once, twice, then finally lay still. The staff members could only watch in silent horror.

 

“…aaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

A woman was the first among the spectators to react. Her terror, no longer under control, made itself apparent with a throat-splitting scream.

With her voice, the other staff members finally came back to themselves. They rang the alarm.

 

“Gah…”

A few of them attempted to escape through the exit, yet in another blink of an eye, the girl was there. Her gloved claws tore their heads clean off.

The other staff members were running about in their terrified panic. A blast of mist from the girl turned them into frozen statues in an instant. The sculptures fell down and shattered.

The room temperature dropped sharply, turning the survivors’ breaths into white fog. Their clothes were soaked with cold sweat.

 

“Freeze!”

The guards showed up, shouting a token warning. The moment they noticed the massacre, they immediately opened fire on the white girl.

The promptness with which they assessed the situation and made the decision to shoot a girl who looked barely a teenager hinted at their experience. Most likely, they were ex-mercenaries hired through the contacts the corporation had in the defense industry.

Three guards stood in front. Running up directly behind them were another five. The bullets grazed the girl. She narrowed her eyes, then pointed her palm at them and made a motion to crush something in her hand. The eight guards suddenly collapsed, blood spurting out from everywhere on their bodies.

What did she do…?

Their wounds shared nothing common, both in location and in severity. Over half of them still drew breath. A man among them, both legs broken, still attempted to aim his gun even as he whimpered from the pain. But his efforts were futile; the meandering mist turned him and the rest of the surviving guards into ice sculptures.

 

“I give permission to deploy the magic weapons!”

 

Brian finally realized something was wrong and connected to a monitoring camera inside the collection facility. He gave his order.

The monster avatars were still in the experimental phase. However, development of guns with carved runes to allow them the ability to use mana was already near completion. The so-called “magitech weapon of the modern world” was almost ready for use in real combat.

To create mana-sensitive material, they would need to store an amount of silver in close contact with mana for nearly two years. Thus, the resources available to manufacture the weapons were still limited, and the guns themselves could not fire in full-auto due to the large amount of mana required for each activation. On the other hand, the runed guns had the range and power of a typical rifle despite shooting 9mm-sized bullets. Furthermore, the projectiles weren’t affected by the atmosphere or gravity. The very first firearm in the world with a straight bullet path.

 

Several minutes later, another group of guards arrived. They were holding strange-looking assault rifles.

The guns themselves were slender. Attached to the underside were small containers the size of a pen case: mana batteries. If they could deploy the mana-operated avatars here, they would already have done so. Unfortunately, operating time was still too limited, perhaps due to modern Earth’s atmosphere, or perhaps because Earth itself had no mana. The other choice of avatars was the old model that used no mana, and this type could only exhibit 70% the physical capability of a normal adult. In the end, the corporation was forced to use real humans for this fight.

 

Though the power of magic-using weapons might vary, it didn’t change the fact that they were effective against spiritual life forms.

Currently, the facility possessed twenty such ‘magic guns’, including the reserve. Twelve guards and six staff members with shooting experience were aiming eighteen of the guns at the girl.

 

“Fire!!!”

Chairs and tables were torn into shreds by the salvo. The moment everyone thought the girl would share their fate…

…she turned into mist. The bullets passed through her without leaving a single trace.

In their shock, the guards even forgot the existence of the guns in their hands for a moment. A white mist blew at them, and from within, the girl leaped out. Once the mist cleared, all that remained were eighteen frozen statues.

 

“…what the hell is that?!!”

 

Brian’s voice leaked out from the VR device. The white girl looked at the camera that was connected to his vision, her rabbit ears swaying as if to say, “You already forgot?” She pointed her palm to the camera and squeezed.

 

“…aaAAAAaaaAAGAAaaaAA! My leg! My leeeeeg!”

 

Brian, who was still supposed to be staying back at the 7th research center, screamed.

He had forgotten. About the fact that in his childhood, he had nearly lost a leg in a traffic accident. Fortunately, the driver had stopped in time, and his wound hadn’t been as severe as it could be.

But back in the present, unfortunately, the driver turned out to not have stopped in time at all. One of Brian’s legs detached from his body.

A disconnection cut short his echoing scream.

 

In the room cold enough that water could freeze, Audrey sat on the floor. Her face had turned blue, her lips purple, and she couldn’t even muster the courage to stand up.

“…No. 13…” Audrey whispered, her voice shivering.

There were barely anyone left alive. Hearing her whisper, the girl quietly turned around.

Clack… clack… She approached on heels that looked more like they were made to gouge out flesh rather than to carry a girl’s weight. The razor-sharp footsteps stopped in front of Audrey. The girl stared at her face.

 

“You recognize me?”

“Are you… No. 13? Why do you look like that? What did you do to the Deputy Director…?”

Hearing Audrey replied with only more questions, No. 13… the white girl named Shedy looked exasperated. She quietly pulled her head back.

“Nothing special, really. Besides… well, you’ll do.”

“Ah!”

Shedy picked Audrey up with one hand around the woman’s neck.

“I have to go back soon. I’m still not strong enough to stay here for long. But remember this…”

Audrey gulped. Their faces were barely ten centimeters apart. She thought she saw dark flames faintly smoldering deep inside the girl’s eyes.

“I’ll come back, and I’ll be a lot stronger then. The demon will come back to kill you all.”

 

Shedy dropped the woman on the ground. The girl casually turned away and disappeared, melting into the thick mist.

That day, the corporation learned of the existence of the demon that would be their enemy.

---

Author’s Note: The description of her outfit might not be easy to understand, so I made this rough sketch.

If you’re not very good at imagining how she looked and if you’re interested, feel free to take a look.

TN: Bigger sized image.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Surrounded by the towering mountain range was a green giant several times larger.

Just how enormous was it…? While the air here was certainly a lot cleaner than Earth’s, I still could not believe I was actually seeing the silhouette of a tree thousands of kilometers away.

The World Tree… together with the ninety-nine saplings, they served as the cornerstones of this world.

…wait, no, this wasn’t the time to be admiring scenery. That ‘thousands of kilometers’ was exactly what I must cross.

 

*Ratatatat!!*

“Not again!”

More explosive wind bullets appeared out of nowhere. I promptly dashed away.

The militarized monster avatars, driven by secret beta testers, showed themselves. Five black cricket-spiders galloped after me on their eight legs, shooting their spells all the while.

It had been twenty-four hours since my first encounter with the cricket-spiders. They never stopped attacking. Every time they ran out of magic and left, they would return a few hours after. Or just ten minutes, if luck was being particularly uncharitable.

They would just revive if I killed them. They weren’t getting the penalty to their magic like normal beta players, but they should still be losing the amount I drained from them. Yet to the contrary, it seemed their magic was even slightly increasing. Perhaps they were taking turns killing monsters or humans somewhere else.

Even when I was recovering thirty percent every hour, it still wasn’t enough. My current magic was already down to half capacity.

 

I really couldn’t afford to keep fighting them. I stayed as human and ran toward the sea.

I was ‘the demon of tempestuous mist that ravages the northern seas’, so I could cross the ocean just fine if I turned to mist here. But with the threat of wind bullets looming behind me, I didn’t dare.

Flight as a human was possible too, but keeping it up for long hours would be rough on me, plus I’d lose a lot of my maneuverability. So I decided to just run on the water.

The mist from my feet froze the waves with each step I took.

Not very stable footing, but it would suffice. I kept up my speed. Their attempts to follow me ended in shattered ice and drowning spiders.

Really… were they even using their eyes? Why did they think my ice could support their weight?

Six days of borrowed time left.

Considering I’d have to cross the ocean, the mountain range, then another strip of ocean to reach the Central Island where the World Tree was, I was cutting it really close.

 

I kept on running on the frozen path for a whole day and night. As I expected, the sea had stopped any further attacks. Still, I had to constantly create mist, so I didn’t recover all that much magic.

Perhaps I should just accept the loss of secrecy and go all-out as flying mist? I couldn’t decide. Especially when there were still drones watching me from beyond my attack range even now.

A giant shark attacked me on the way. I kept up my speed, leaving behind a sinking frozen fish.

Four days of borrowed time left.

I could finally see the shore. The regions around the World Tree and its Saplings generally had mild climate and an abundance of greenery, yet the mountains here had nothing but precipitous cliffs, its rock face permitting no life.

 

“Damn it!”

So this was why the secret beta testers didn’t attack me on the ocean. They were setting up an ambush here! Over forty cricket spiders were occupying the relatively more level areas of the shoreline, waiting for my arrival.

The ten foremost spiders fired their wind bullets in unison. I immediately stopped creating mist and dove into the ocean.

I supposed it wasn’t time to worry about keeping secrets, then…

With the full strength of my magic, I carved out an enormous chunk of frozen ocean to throw at them. They immediately blew it apart. I fully transformed into mist, blasting through the ice fragments and their ambush. I left behind several spider popsicles as I began climbing the mountain.

 

But there was a surprise waiting for me. A surprise that, I was convinced, was also unknown to the secret beta testers.

There was a reason why no one ever reached the World Tree without following the official path. The mountains itself rejected all intruders.

 

***

 

Of the secret alpha testers, the survivors with broken psyches were being kept and monitored in a separate facility. The comatose children were lying still within fifty-seven suspended animation capsules. Audrey was there in front of them, connected to her audio-visual VR set. She was in a call with Brian, who was still staying back at the 7th research center.

 

“Hahahhah, unbelievable! So she truly was connected to No. 13! I just saw our little bunny turn into the mist monster, hahahahaaah! Audrey, what about your side?!”

She coolly began her report.

“No. 13 still hasn’t shown any responses, and neither have the other subjects. Also, the supervisor of the orphanage that No. 13 used to stay in has arrived as per your invitation. How shall we proceed?”

“Oh, she’s there already? She should be quite familiar with No. 13, so I invited her for another point of view. Feel free to talk to her. Let’s see, so No. 13’s still unresponsive…”

“Then I will continue my observation.”

 

Audrey cut off the visual feed and returned her eyes to reality. Turning around, she saw a woman around fifty with heavy makeup slurping some coffee, while making herself very comfortable. She turned her smirk to Audrey.

“Done with the Deputy Director’s call? Yes, that’s right, no one in the world knows that girl more than me! The ‘demon child’ used to be such a brat when she first joined up. Nothing a few beatings couldn’t fix though, heheheh.” The supervisor woman said, sounding so very proud of her deeds.

“I see…”

“Yes! And if she hasn’t shown any responses, then we can take her out of the capsule and give her the full-body electroshock treatment just like I used to! Even the brat was scared of it back then, screaming and crying every time I did it, so it should work great here!”

 

Even among the research orphanages established all around the world, this woman was still one of the best in terms of getting results. The corporation rated her highly. And in similarly high-achieving orphanages, such cruelties were a daily occurrence.

“…We will need to request the Deputy Director’s permission.” Audrey replied.

 

Policy required the children who were forcefully logged-out due to mental collapses to be kept alive in the collection facility for exactly thirty days. Their plugs would be pulled in order.

The final processing would only begin once life support stopped for all the secret alpha testers. As of now, around seventy percent had reached the end of their lease on life. Their deaths were already confirmed. The very final tester, No. 13, had four days left.

Even if this observation truly revealed a link between No. 13 and the rabbit beastman girl, a live dissection was all that awaited her.

With how her life had been, it would have been much more merciful to just let her die in peace, Audrey thought.

Suddenly, Brian’s shout rang out from the VR device.

 

“What the hell are those monsters?!”

 

***

 

As mist, I was practically running up the mountain. Once I reached a fifth of the way, the cricket spiders finally realized the monster of mist was me. They opened fire.

I had a lot more surface area as mist, so dodging was difficult. Still, with the distance I gained, just a bit of token avoidance was enough to get me out of the way of most of the bullets. Only a few hit.

But the moment the projectiles smashed into the rock face, a vast number of magical signals appeared on my radar. Here and there, beasts made out of stone and boulders began to come into existence. They attacked both me and the cricket-spiders.

What in the world were they?!

[Rock Monster x Lots]
[Magic Points: 500~700]
[Total Combat Power: 530~780]

I didn’t see their hit points, so were they spiritual lifeforms? If they weren’t demons… then elementals?

Their magic power were about the same as me when I just became a lesser demon. Their numbers were worrying, however. Hundreds? No, perhaps even thousands.

The cricket-spiders had more combat power, yet it meant nothing in front of overwhelming quantity. They immediately gathered up and focused fire on the newcomers. It still could not stop the rock avalanche from swallowing them whole in a blink of an eye.

I didn’t have the leeway to worry about them here. If they really were elementals, then perhaps their purpose was to eliminate anyone trying to reach the World Tree without using the sanctioned path.

About a thousand of them began to move toward me. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was trying to cross the mountains, or because I was a demon, but they seemed extraordinarily hostile.

I couldn’t afford to oppose them head-on. With all my strength, I blasted freezing air at the elementals above me. The frozen boulders became obstacles for the ascending elementals chasing me, and I continued my way to the top.

 

Time after time, stony barrages assaulted me, and I would avoid them by condensing myself. My path twisted and turned. Sometimes I ignored the newly-formed elementals, and sometimes I would kill them. After what must have been a whole day, I finally crossed the mountaintop, battered and bruised.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 1370/5220] 600↑
[Total Combat Power: 1890/5740] 660↑

Having over 5000 magic still wasn’t enough for an evolution or rank-up.

Was there even anything above [Greater Demon] in the first place…? Well, stronger was stronger, especially since the elementals were still on my tail.

The World Tree was so close the trunk was clearly visible, but only the trunk. Its higher branches lay hidden behind fog.

Surrounded by an inland sea was the Central Island, which I thought was already quite large by itself. But with how much space the World Tree’s trunk was taking up, I could barely see any visible earth.

Three days of borrowed time left. More rock elementals were forming around me.

Any more damage and I would seriously risk death here. I flew off from the downward-sloping cliff, taking a few hits from the elementals below me while dodging the projectiles from behind. Finally, I managed to escape to the inland sea.

The rock elementals stopped chasing me at the shoreline. They weren’t even shooting, despite the straight flight path I was taking above the sea.

Were they not considering the waters to be their jurisdiction since they were earth-type? Then whose…

 

“GGRAAARGHH!!”

 

The waters erupted. From under the sea appeared aquatic serpents, with fins and everything. They looked like wingless dragons.

[Water Dragon?]
[Magic Points: 465/480] [Hit Points: 1280/1280]
[Total Combat Power: 4950]

Hold up, what the hell was with that power?! And there wasn’t just one of them; hundreds of water dragons were patrolling around the Central Island, as if guarding the World Tree.

Damn it, considering how much combat power I had currently, I could die in just one hit if I wasn’t careful. Hesitation almost made me freeze up for a moment, but I pushed myself forward.

A few of them noticed me. They opened their mouths, shooting out torrents of water.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 940/5220] 
[Total Combat Power: 1460/5740] 

No no no, too much damage! And that was just a single hit!

I attempted to freeze the water to interrupt any further attacks, but with how low my power had become, I could only create a thin layer of surface ice.

I dodged, avoiding any direct hits, twisting and turning through the water beams. At least I had an advantage in my flight speed. The swimming water dragons were slightly slower than me.

I weaved back and forth to shake off the dragons, at times approaching, at times going away from the island. After a long while, I finally managed to land on the shore.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 330/5220] 
[Total Combat Power: 850/5740] 

I could literally die from just a scratch. Thankfully, the water dragons no longer pursue me. Again, was land not their jurisdiction? I thought they would still continue attacking since they weren’t elementals. How bewildering. But once I attempted to go inland, I understood why.

An invisible wall was blocking my path.

Was this… a barrier? That can’t be right! Were monsters not allowed to approach? I came all the way here, what the hell do I do?!

In my stupor, I barely noticed something rolling out from my [Packer] inventory.

 

*boing*

…Huh? Blobsy? She bounced ahead, going through the barrier as if nothing was there, then stopped. Then she stopped and began hopping in place, as if to say ‘hurry up!’

Why could she pass…? She’s a monster too, right?

[Blobsy] [Race: Jelly Slime] [Kin of Shedy, the Demon]
[Magic Points: 10/10] [Hit Points: 10/10]
[Total Combat Power: 10]
[Special Skill: Laundry - Cleaning]

Oh, ‘Cleaning’, that was new… wait, no, not that. She hadn’t had any important change, that was the point.

Why could Blobsy go in? Such a harmless… ah!

An idea came to mind. I transformed into my [Human Form] and gingerly stepped forward.

Nothing stopped me.

So only harmless beasts and real humans could cross the barrier, then. If my skill was still at [Humanoid Form], I might have been stuck here forever. What a relief…

‘Thank you, Blobsy! I’ll treat you to tons of food later!’

*boing!*

 

Two days of borrowed time left.

I was still some distance away, yet the Tree was already dominating my view. I ran toward it, Blobsy on my shoulder.

Aside from the moss covering the area and the Tree itself, I detected no other signs of life. After a while, I reached one of the Tree’s roots, so enormous its thickness alone took up the space of a baseball field.

 

I was here. After so long, I was finally here. My salvation must be waiting for me. I had already gambled all my hope on this, after all.

I quietly, gently touched the Tree’s roots.

…nothing’s happening? Perhaps I needed to do something? Or perhaps the roots wouldn’t work, and I’d need to go further up? But back then-

 

“――――world――――waiting―――you――save――――――――――human――――――salvation―――――――life――――――――souls―――――――――――children―――――――――――”

 

A massive influx of information poured into my mind. I nearly blanked out.

This was… the will of the World Tree? It wasn’t a matter of language or intelligence; its thought processes were simply too alien for human understanding.

If I hadn’t had the experience of processing similarly insane amount of information ever since I began the ‘game’, the Tree really would have fried my brain there and then.

I processed the vast voice of the World Tree. Slowly but surely, we communicated.

I wasn’t sure how long it took, but it must have been quite a while. As I comprehended its words, the truth of this world was revealed to me.

 

“…yeah. It’s a [Contract], then. Between you and me. Between the World Tree and a demon…”

 

***

 

“…slight fluctuation in No. 13’s brain activity!” A staff member reported.

Audrey raised her head and let slip a whisper. “Could it be…?”

“See! This was all thanks to me! I knew unfreezing and shocking her would do the trick!” The orphanage supervisor proudly said.

 

Only No. 13 was the only one left. All the other secret alpha testers had already had their plugs pulled.

The white girl was lying there unconscious, outside of her suspended-animation capsule. Dozens of electrode rods were stabbing into her flesh. A horrific sight like no other.

 

“No. 13’s vitals are… huh?”

“Something’s not right…”

“What’s going on…?”

The slight tick in No. 13’s brain activity suddenly went off the charts in a blink of an eye.

Audrey and the supervisor woman looked to the white girl. As everyone in the room turned their attentions upon her, No. 13’s body rapidly began losing color.

And collapsed into a pile of salt.

The unthinkable sight shocked the staff members into stillness. Meanwhile, the other children’s corpses that were waiting for disposal followed suit, turning into piles of salt one after another. The fully-lit room darkened ever so slightly, as though simply a trick of the light. Within the skin-crawling chilly room, a faint voice reached their ears. The voice of a girl.

 

“…I’m back…”

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Nine days of borrowed time left.

I was finally on my way to the World Tree, in order to find a way to save my soul back on Earth.

I had to wonder if there really was a way… No. 01 had believed in the faint possibility, and he said as much in his testament. Yet that was no guarantee of salvation.

…at least a bit of hope was better than nothing.

 

According to the travel guide I read on the airship, there were two possible paths from the Free City of Seis to the World Tree.

I could continue south and pass through Cinqres Academy City, get on a ship to go to the Holy City Ayune, then cross a bit more land and sea to reach the Central Island, where the World Tree was.

The other path was similar. I could go by airship from Seis to Ayune, and the rest would be the same.

The Central Island was surrounded by a donut-shaped mountain range. The only way in was through the Holy City Ayune, which was why both paths required me to go there.

And it was also the most problematic part of the journey.

According to the guidebook, Ayune was the country closest to the World Tree, and at the same time housing the headquarters of the religion revering the Tree. So it must also be the main base of the corporation that was playing God to this world. It would be the most dangerous place in the world for me… and I even heard rumors of ‘Heroes’ there, too.

 

Besides, that mess with the beta players made it a lot more difficult for me to use public transportation in the first place. If I entered a large town and got discovered, the resulting complications would waste more of my time than simply taking a detour.

So I decided to take the third path: moving by myself.

I would head south toward the peninsula to the western end of Cinqres, cross the ocean by my own power, climb the steep mountain wall surrounding the Central Island, and head directly to the World Tree.

I should be able to make the distance… probably. According to the rough map I saw, at least.

 

I dealt with the watcher drones tailing me and went south, detouring around towns when necessary.

Within territories that looked like they belonged to humans, I stayed in my human form. Once I escaped the area surrounding the Free City, I could finally turn back to mist.

It wasn’t like there were no downsides to having a body with substance. The biggest disadvantage was that I had lost the ability to partially transform. I could only either be completely mist or completely human.

When dispersed, I became almost completely immune to physical attacks, and absorption would work a lot faster. On the other hand, my own attacks would lack weight, and area-of-effect spells could hurt me badly.

When in human form, I could deal out heavy strikes and change position rapidly, which made dodging spells relatively easier. But physical attacks would hurt me more, my detection range would shrink by a bit, and the most annoying thing was that I could no longer use [Packer] when human. I would have to take what I needed out of my inventory beforehand.

I gained the ability to create mist while human, too, so there wasn’t much of a difference between freezing things in mist form or in human form. And while my human form was better at short-ranged, instantaneous movements, my mist form was much faster at traveling long distance or going through wastelands.

So once I left the lands of humans, I immediately changed back into mist. My speed was probably around the same as an ordinary train’s.

Might as well take the occasion to confirm my power.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
・The demon of tempestuous mist that ravages the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.

[Magic Points: 4300/4300] 300↑
[Total Combat Power: 4730/4730] 330↑
[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: Fear]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Specialist Packer]

With the acquisition of [Materialization], [Humanoid Form] turned into [Human Form]. I wasn’t just looking like a human; I had gained a real body, one that was practically the same as when I was still a normal human, only more grown-up.

My voice was no longer simply me messing with pockets of air. I was truly breathing now, even if I was actually breathing mana, not oxygen.

In the beginning, I could recover only ten percent of my magic each hour. With the combination of [Absorption] and [Materialization], that number had jumped to thirty percent.

Yet all that did not excuse the use of (Wonderful) to describe me… just what the hell was it assessing? I agreed, [Human Form] was really quite wonderful, but still!

So my body was almost indistinguishable from a real human’s now, but the rabbit ears were still staying… unsurprisingly. Honestly, I was halfway to complete resignation by now. Weird, isn’t it? My brain was supposed to be taking over the job of the System these days, yet I was only evolving in the oddest ways.

Maybe I should just embrace the inevitable already… might as well find myself a bunny suit, in that case.

Anyway, that was about it. From now on, I’d need to learn how to fight with both forms, and how to use them in the right situation.

 

Three days after I went south from Seis, I finally began to see traces of what looked like human civilization in a forest, so I turned human again.

Whenever I turn human, first, I needed to throw out my clothes and satchel from [Packer] inventory. The moment they appear, I would slip my body of mist into the outfit and change form. Clothed human transformation, in effect.

It took me half a day to learn how to do this… god, so much precious time lost. But this was important. I would never allow myself to forget wearing clothes!

Personal dignity aside, once I started putting one foot after another on solid ground, Blobsy immediately jumped out from my satchel. She hauled herself onto my shoulder, then jiggled in joy.

Cute. I took some jerky from my satchel, fed Blobsy her snack, and began running. My sprint was as fast as a cheetah’s now.

 

The Academy City of Cinqres was supposed to be nearby. Apparently the country was gathering elite students and researchers from all over the world to do… something.

I only turned human as insurance. I had no plans to get anywhere close to the country. The people there must be doing mana research by orders of the corporation, so I expected heavy surveillance. Which meant I shouldn’t be showing my mist form here. I didn’t want to allow for the possibility of them realizing my link to No. 13.

Well, I had a feeling they already had an inkling of my identity, though… whoa!

 

The moment I exited the forest, I noticed a watcher drone. I immediately blasted mist from my fingers to freeze it.

I could now expel mist in human form, in exchange for the ability to partially transform. This mist was both me, yet not me. It moved according to my will, but it also had some similarities to spells in that it consumed my magic power.

In the end, it might not sound like much of a distinction. But the important thing here was that if an attack hit the mist, it would only cost me the magical expense of the lost mist. I wouldn’t need to worry about the attack seriously hurting me.

Well, my real body of mist would be able to do absorption a lot faster, though.

 

Just as I thought, once I left the forest and got closer to the country, I began to see a lot more of those watcher drones.

They hadn’t found me yet. All the same, the corporation would be suspecting something was wrong once they noticed dozens of drones breaking down in the same region within just a few days.

I should be able to reach the peninsula if I turned west here. I focused my eyes on what I hoped to be the right direction. There, so far away, I saw the shadow of a mountain. A silhouette robed in fog, foot resting upon the ocean.

…it was the right direction, then. As I got ready to leave-

“Whoa?!”

-I suddenly detected multiple magical signals. I promptly leaped away.

 

*Ratatatataat!!!*

The ground where I used to stand on exploded, blowing away my cloak of mist.

What was that?! I recreated my mist, checking out my surroundings. Strange monsters were surrounding me. I never even noticed.

They were colored black, with torsos and wings of a cricket and spindly spider legs.

[Cricket Spider x15]
[Magic Points: 475/500] [Hit Points: 750/750]
[Total Combat Power: 1750]

More secret beta testers?! Different avatars, but much stronger this time.

As I attempted escape from the encirclement, they gave chase, lanky spider legs running like a horse. God, that looked disgusting! And fast too, at that!

I created even more mist to hide myself. Several cricket spiders opened their mouths, wings vibrating at high-speed. Invisible projectiles shot at me.

*Ratatat!*

So this was what they ambushed me with!

Exploding bullets of wind. No direct hits, yet my mist was still blown away. Were they spells? They actually hurt me.

These monster avatars were purely long-range combatants, and their focus was on raw speed rather than agility. Their aim must be to keep me away from melee range, then… how troublesome. The moment I moved, the whole encirclement followed. But that didn’t mean I was helpless…

I dashed toward one of them, my step gouging out the earth.

They all promptly retreated. Still, I didn’t have over 4000 combat power for nothing. My superior acceleration blasted me past my target, and my claws ripped it apart from head to wings. Frost spread from its wounds to turn it into a popsicle.

They were a lot softer than the carapace spiders! I could do this!

Then, just as I got ready to leap toward my next target, it jumped. It began to hover in mid-air, wings flapping.

It wasn’t true flight. It was slowly descending, but I still couldn’t reach it.

 

*Ratttatatata!!!*

A rain of explosive wind bullets came from the other cricket spiders.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 3860/4380] 80↑
[Total Combat Power: 4290/4810] 80↑

That really hurt. I rolled away, dodging the projectiles. I attempted a dash toward the nearest target, but again, it immediately jumped up. More bullets came.

My suspicions were confirmed. They couldn’t fire in rapid succession, and there weren’t that many bullets in each salvo. The damage wasn’t that bad.

Still, this couldn’t continue. I weaved around the hail of bullets with rapid dashes. An idea came to mind, and I immediately froze the ground.

Yes! One of them got stuck on the ice-covered earth. I instantly changed direction. Before the other cricket spiders could do anything, I tore it apart with claws and dagger, then drained it dry of magic.

*Ratatatat!!!*

A sudden hail of bullets rained down, blowing away both me and my target.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 3440/4460] 80↑
[Total Combat Power: 3880/4900] 90↑

At least they were killable. Still, they had the advantage, and it was only going to get worse for me. I should try to repeat this a few more times. Hopefully I could get rid of another one-

 

My thoughts stalled as I witnessed the cricket spiders releasing their encirclement. They stepped back, then faded into nonexistence.

“…huh?”

…did they log out? What’s going on?

At least this was better than the alternative. Continuing that fight would have just left me worse off. I departed the area and continued toward the direction of the World Tree.

 

After that first encounter, their assaults became a regular occurrence. Yet the battles always ended in their retreat, even when they still hadn’t lost.

I see… so they were returning to refuel the magic consumed when they shot those explosive wind bullets. That was just unfair.

After another three days of constant battles, I finally crossed the peninsula. I could see the sea now.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral Neige] [Greater Demon (High-Rank)]
[Magic Points: 2750/4620] 160↑
[Total Combat Power: 3210/5080] 180↑

Across the ocean was a craggy mountain range, towering over a thousand meters. Yet behind it was an even bigger tree. A green colossus, sharing home with the clouds.

 

“The World Tree…”

---

Author’s Notes: The secret beta testers’ avatars were controlled semi-automatically.

If defeated, a few hours of calibration and refueling magic would return them back to combat-readiness.

TN: Bigger sized map here.

---

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