Tyl'Maeya'i stood with elegant grace, her lower two arms smoothing out her dress and the upper two ensure no hair obstructs any of her twelve eyes too badly. Considering what had been said, it was essentially assured that that dumb fox was watching and waiting. The Rulyelt'thea had an advantage however, in that the Kitsune would likely only take very limited actions, and even then, they'd be taken in response to Tyl's own. After all, if that wasn't the case, why would she limit herself to only interfering with one girl and her skill selection. The Kitsune likely wanted to find and disable Tyl's System backdoor before she caused an overload. she certainly hoped so, as this would make Etraxia far less likely to suspect the full breadth of the Elderling's schemes and thusly less able to interfere with them.

  Tyl walked slowly to the adjoining room where her pets were preparing her volunteer, an Earth Woman from a country called 'Japan', for the coming ritual. The agreement was simple enough, Tyl would make the woman unto a powerful undead, visual beauty intact, in exchange for helping Tyl with her plans. IT would be one of the few deals she made where the other party would likely never end up as a doll on her lap. Alas, she needed a warrior for the next phase, so her usual methods would be somewhat counter-productive. The door slid open, the scent of incense hitting Tyl's olfactory senses as it did, and Tyl stepped into the room to looked over her future warrior. The woman was tied to a stone alter, rune lines running through it and along the floor. Her paler than average skin also sported intricate lines of pale blue manacite, the crystals having been ground up and turned into a paste that was used to tattoo her skin.

  "Are you ready?" Tyl voice was calm, but an edge of irritation was still audiable.

  "Uhh, yeah... Can I ask some stuff first?"

  Tyl let out a long sigh, a hand pinching the bridge of her nose "What?"

  "Erm... why am I tied up so tightly? And Why am I naked" The woman squirmed in her restraints and seemed to flush with embarrassment, something which Tyl found somewhat amusing to watch.

  "The Ritual is to turn you into a Fleshsculpter. A type of Undead that can craft minions from the Flesh of others. It is, strictly speaking, an upgrade to Lichdom. The problem is, it's also hated by the Heavens and Reality itself far more than Lichdom is. So much so that your body and spirit will actively try to reject the magic. The restraints are to prevent your body from clawing itself apart before it can be brought to heel"

  "And the lack of clothes?"

  Tyl laughed "Your world is impure, even with the System doing it's best. As such your body is filled with so much Impure and degraded Mana Residue that it will be forced out of your pores during the ritual. The gunk smells worse than a Demonic sewer and clings to clothing rather tenaciously. The lack of clothing also allows for easier mana transference between the ritual circles in the chamber and the ones engraved into you"

  The woman nodded in understanding "Okay. I... I think I'm ready"

  "Are you certain? If you aren't prepared mentally, the ritual might fail. And if it does, your Soul and Body will be destroyed and your mind will cease to exist."

  ".... I know. I'm... ready. I want this, to finally be powerful and cool. I'm done being the weird girl who never goes out. I want to be a Goddess, worshipped by thousands"

  Tyl smiled "Ahh, now that's an admirable goal. This is a big first step for you then. Very well, lets begin."

  With a flourish of Tyl's hand, the chamber began to glow with the light of concentrated Mana. Almost immediately, the four dolls Tyl had selected to use for this express purpose collapsed to the floor and liquified, their entire beings converted to Mana and flowing into the lower ritual circles, where it was slowly refined into Death Mana and concentrated. The girl on the alter giggled in nervous excitement as Tyl herself was forced to take a few steps back in worry that the roiling mass of Mana might affect her own internal Mana flows or even the Mana within her itself. The temperature dropped drastically as the refinement continued, causing Tyl to shiver. The first drips of concentrated Death began to slip from the lower ritual and into the glyphs on the girl herself. At first the Asian just shuddered, then her body started pulling at it's restraints violently; pained screams echoed through the room as her tattoos began to glow and her body began to turn even paler than before. The ritual had begun in earnest now, and The Indigo Queen wouldn't deny that she as looking forward to seeing the results.

  As Chloe stood there, preparing lunch for the group, she realised how surreal she felt. Already, the time spent in this place was affecting her mind. Hell, even in these quite moments, where she was just doing small busywork that she honestly didn't like doing at home, she felt oddly at peace. Back in London, she'd grown used to just tuning out the minute noises; the hum of a fan or AC, the sound of cars, the chatter of people, even the sound of wind at times. Cities were never quite and so adjusting to that base level of noise was a must. After everything that had happened, after just a day here, she found herself subconsciously listening more attentively to the world around her.

  The other three were still discussing some of the finer details of their plan. They'd already hashed out the broad strokes of it before Chloe had gone off to start cooking; getting to level 2 was a priority and doing some recon in case they needed to deal with an infinite timer and had to fight their way out of this place. In regards to the timer, they'd come up with three possibilities. One: it was a visual glitch and it was still counting down normally. It would end tomorrow evening and the quartet would be able to leave without any issue. This was the least likely, and everyone seemed to agree with that. Next, was the vague hope that the timer slowing down was a one-time thing and they just had to wait an extra day and a half. Also unlikely, but they could hope. The final option was that the timer would half itself again, and keep going. This was the one they felt they had to prepare for and had therefore based their plans around. They'd get stronger and try and find a route to that Cathedral that didn't involve swimming.

  Once that was settled, Chloe went off to start cooking. The fine details weren't something she was going to be super able to help with; she wasn't really the planning type and the other three were all much smarter than her. Truth be told, the Martialist had been thinking over something else; her weapon. In the fight with the Ents, she'd managed to abuse her sword so badly it broke. Considering that under [Body Strengthening] Chloe's STR was 15, which was considered basically Peak Human by the System, and she was hitting the sword into a thick, flaming tree trunk constantly, it wasn't really that shocking that it'd get damaged. Plus she'd been parrying strikes from that whatever bear yesterday and hadn't even thought to check it over. And now, she was left without a weapon. [Novice Pugilist] made her just about able to fight unarmed, but that was still no replacement for an actual weapon.

  Another issue was that she wasn't even certain that she wanted to get another sword. It wasn't that she didn't like the weapon, she did, and it had performed admirably in her hands, it just felt somehow off. As if it wasn't quite the right weapon for her. It was a level of disconnect that Chloe struggled to put into words. Even disregarding that though, she didn't actually have the tokens to get anything from the System Store. It was at that point, as she was milling this over in her head, that she heard some footsteps approaching. Chloe looked up to see Lilac approaching her with a smile. "the food will be ready in a second" Chloe smiled and watched as Lilac stumbled over her response.

  "I uh... I didn't... I mean..." Lilac took a breath "That's good to know, but it's not the reason... Are you okay?"

  The cook blinked "Huh? Me?"

  "Um, well..." Lilac smiled softly "You seemed lost in thought, so I thought I'd come ask what was... up, I guess?"

  Chloe took out the two halves of her broken sword "Broke it last fight; Ent trunks are tougher than I thought"

  "Ah, well... not good... how are you gonna fight?"

  "I have no idea, that's what I've been thinking about" Chloe shrugged "My best option for now is probably to just use [Novice Pugilist] until I level up and get some tokens"

  "Oh yeah... I forgot you got that as well. Hold on, I have an idea" Lilac held out her hands and a pair of bronze knuckledusters appeared "Here, take these until your next level up. Was going to use them myself but I can let you borrow 'em for now"

  Chloe turned them over in her hands "Did you get these from the System?"

  Lilac nodded "Yep. 15 Tokens. I was gonna use them myself, but I can make-do with just [Novice Pugilist] and [Enchant: Fire] for now. I'll still want them back at some point though"

  "And you're sure about this"

  Lilac shrugged "Hey, I have options, you don't. Can't have our frontliner going in completely empty handed"

  "Thanks, Lilac; really. How can I make this up to you?"

  "You don't need to... But I guess I'd like a bigger portion"

  The two of them tried not to, but neither could stop themselves from bursting into laughter within a few seconds.

  The lunch was all around a more pleasant affair than Lily had expected. Whether that was due to Sonic Wolf being a better quality meat than Inferno Bear or due to Chloe's increasing cooking skill, she couldn't say. The Rouge would be hesitant to say it aloud, but she did also feel some pride at having properly hunted the meat herself. Perhaps the act of going out and actually hunting the meal made a difference as well. Though truthfully, Lily also felt a bit odd about that. In the past, she'd always been a bit squeamish at the sight of blood. Not excessively so, but it was something that had made her unable to watch some of the gorier horror films her sister sometimes downloaded to her tablet. Now though, she felt far calmer around it all than she would have ever expected to be. She'd always planned on just toughing it out, but it was becoming less and less necessary. If she had to guess, the bloodbath during and after the bear fight probably played a huge role, exposure therapy and all that. Though if she was being honest, it still felt a bit too quick. The other three didn't really seem bothered at all, but that made some sense. Lilac had never cared about blood. Ashley worked on a farm so had probably seen her fair share of blood. And Chloe was a 'scrapper', her words, even before all of this, she was definitely used to seeing herself bleed. Ultimately, though, Lily wouldn't complain if it helped her keep up with the other girls. The last thing she wanted was to be a weak link. And hey, she'd always said that people can be shockingly easy to adapt, she was just doing that herself for once. Lily will keep pushing forward, to give her Sister the bright future she deserved.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  After finishing her food, Lily spent some time going over her gear making sure it's condition was acceptable. While it had gone through some bumps and bangs the damage was limited to chips and scratches on the main body and wasn't really anything that was likely to damage the integrity of the bow itself. There was one problem that she did realise however; she was running out of arrows. By her count she'd fired off maybe 8 or 9 arrows in the fight against the Ents. She had 14 left, enough for one or two serious engagements. Given that they'd been ambushed by Trees, Lily wasn't all that thrilled about the idea of potentially not having enough ammo on hand if it happens again. Thankfully, the System wasn't unfair; it sold arrows in packs of 25, 10 tokens each. The price wasn't unfair at all, though Lily still disliked the idea of spending tokens on this instead of saving up to buy a skill or something. It was unfortunate that Arrows shot with [Power Shot] tended to become unusable after that use. For now, she'd have to suck it up and buy arrows as she needed them and maybe try to get more back from each fight. Some was to reduce how many arrows she'd fire off might be nice too, she'd have to see next level if she could pick up something good.

  Roughly an hour or so after the group had finished eating, everyone having had enough time to let their food go down and go over their stuff, the four of them were getting ready for their evening excursion. The plan was simple enough; head out of the cave entrance and hug the cliff wall to the left for a bit to see what they could find. Really, they were looking for more caves, ones that might hopefully lead to that network of tunnels her sister had mentioned that lead to that Cathedral place. Lily was honestly a little nervous, but she knew she wasn't alone. Chloe seemed quite robust, especially with Ashley backing her up and her Sister has become a bit of a powerhouse thanks to that Physique of hers.

  Without further ado, the group set out into the burning forest and began to follow the cliff face. It was an odd thing when Lily began to see the sky again after so long of it being obscured by the smoky haze. The tree line was getting thinner, and the air slightly clearer with it. Not too far in the distance, they could see the actual edge of the forest. Before they could break from the treeline, however, a skulk of 4 ash coloured foxes emerged ahead, each one emitting smoke like a smouldering fire and possessing burning tails instead of furred ones.

  Before Lily had even finished nocking her first arrow, Chloe was surging forward into the Foxes. All 4 fired globs of odd looking flames at the charging woman. Chloe dodged the first, but the seemed to put her into position to get hit by the other three. A barrier that Lily assumed was from [Skinshield] flicked as it was destroyed, a small portion of the flames making it through and striking Chloe, causing her to grunt. The woman closed rapidly and punched the first fox square in the snout, knocking it off balance. Lily activated her [Power Shot] and fired at that moment, the arrow flying true and the fox unable to recover quick enough to dodge it. the glowing projectile landed firmly in the flank of the creature, causing it to yelp loudly. However, that was not quite enough to fell the flaming beast. It rose to it's feet quickly to counter, claws glowing with flame as it cut deeply into Chloe's flesh with it's sharp natural weapons. The attack manage to catch the Martialist off guard and the attack had landed squarely in her flank. Chloe let out a scream as the fire seared with the claws to leave a nasty wound above her hips. Still, the fighter wasn't out and she managed to kick the fox away as Ashley's healing magic began to repair the damage.

  Lily saw a flash from the corner of her eye and turned to see that the other three foxes had launched globs of that strange fire towards her and Ashley. The Rouge let out a shout of surprise and tried to pull Ashley out of the way, but she knew she wasn't quick enough. Then, Lilac jumped in front of the two of them, taking all three blasts directly. Lily and Ashley could only gasp in shock. The three foxes tilted their heads in confusion, their fiery tails swishing about behind them. The tails stopped swishing as the smoke cleared and Lilac emerged unharmed. Before the foxes could do anything else to respond, the Pyromancer extended her hand towards them and a small orb of her own fire moved forward, impacting the ground and expanding in an explosion of flame that engulfed the three beasts. They fared worse from Lilac's attack than she had from theirs, their ashen fur blackened in places.

  "Lilac are you-?"

  "I'm fine! Just focus." Lilac began to move towards the rightmost fox as she spoke, a shimmer of fire flickering around her for a split second.

  Lily nocked another arrow as Chloe began to attack her second Fox, having finished off the first while Lily wasn't looking. "Careful!" The Martialist called out to Lilac "Those claws hit hard! Honestly remind me of the Inferno bear." The last sentence was spoken at the same time as the woman's fist made contact with the Foxes' torso. The Rouge let loose her arrow at the beast but it manage to dodge. However, the movement left it open to Chloe's follow-up punches. A one-two combo that, in it's swift and efficient execution, made clear Chloe's experience and expertise in hand-to-hand combat. the fox recovered quicker than expected and managed an attack of it's own, flame-wreathed claws striking at the Martialist's barrier but not quite getting through. A second later, a glob of fire from the third fox smashed through the barrier, scorching the Martialist's arm where she had risen it to protect her face. Despite the situation, Lily could see the slight smile on Chloe's face; the mad girl was enjoying herself. Lily couldn't help but smile herself in response.

  Lilac stepped towards the fox she'd selected as her target. The other two were thankfully distracted by Chloe's sudden appearance. It seems they had hoped their friend would keep the Martialist supressed for longer. Well, Lilac wouldn't complain; it meant that Lilac could focus on the Beast in front of her. This was to be her first real test to see how far her flames can take her. The Pyromancer felt confident. That being said, she'd still have to take this seriously. Chloe's warning played back in her mind. Unfortunately, her musing did her little good as she'd only really seen the end of the fight with the bear. The aftermath was gruesome, but it was all she had really seen. She didn't have much more time to dwell on it as the beast suddenly rushed her. Lilac channelled her [Enchant : Fire] into her limbs as the horrid looking thing swiped at her with flaming claws.

  The raw physical power of the strike managed to break through all 6 points of her shield with ease, carrying the fire through to essentially just brush warmly against her skin. Once again, the Medium-Grade Fire resistance her Physique granted her was able to deal with whatever dregs of flame made it through her defences. The little fox, however, did not escape the clash as freely as Lilac had. The damage from the [Fire Shield] was negligible, but it did manage to deal damage, once again causing the fox visible confusion. Lilac assume it's heavy aspecting to fire had granted it Low-Grade fire resistance. Unfortunately for the fox, Lilac's Flamepledge Amulet allowed her to ignore it.

  Lilac kicked the fox away, causing it to yelp. The young caver's attack lacked any of the technique or finesse that Chloe's melee did, something the System probably did care about and take notice off. Still, it didn't matter; Lilac's attack was just a was to deliver force and fire to the target. It wasn't as if she was weak, Lilac often did urban exploration and recreational rock climbing when she could. The System had graded her STR above average. With [Novice Pugilist] and [Enchant : Fire] together, her kick had a base damage of 11, which was then stregthened by her Amulet and Physique. The beast flew blackwards, tumbling over the dry earth. Lilac did not let it recover, following up with a [Fire arrow] that struck into the flank of the Fox. It let out a pained yelp, stared in Lilac in a mixture of fear and respect, before keeling over. The intelligence and malevolence of these beast disturbed Lilac deeply.

  Lilac let out the breath she was holding and turned to rejoin her team. Chloe had finished off her second Fox, making the fight a 4 against 1. The remaining fox looked at the group and began to run away. Lily nocked an arrow but hesitated to fire. The Pyromancer sighed and raised her hand, firing off a [Fire Arrow] that struck the beast's leg, causing it to stumble. Lily looked at Lilac in shock before averting her gaze.

  Lilac waved the notifications away and walked over to her Sister "Hey, you doing okay?"

  Lily nodded slowly "Yeah... just... It felt wrong to attack when it was running away."

  Lilac pulled her sister into a hug "I know. I don't like it much either to be honest"

  "Then... why?"

  "We have to." Chloe cut in, putting a comforting hand on Lily shoulder "Our position in this place is weak, as is our base camp. We can't risk it getting back to it's den and getting back-up. If we got ambushed by more of them with more resources, or if they stalked us back to base, we'd struggle."

  "Do you think they're... smart enough for that though?"

  "They almost certainly are." Chloe shuddered "That first barrage was calculated; the first fireball pushed me into the path of the others that were coming at me from my blind spot. Without my skinshield, that would have probably taken the wind out of my sails long enough for the Fox I'd charged at to hit me with a claw. All in all, I took 15 damage in the opening moves alone. I'm lucky I picked a defensive skill last level. After that though, their plan started to fall apart"

  Lily paled the more she listened. And when Chloe stopped, Lilac started "My resistance is rather high, a 7, and I have Medium Grade Fire resistance. Those three globs that they shot at out backline, while our frontline was distracted, would have likely put a massive dent in our frontline. At the point, do you think they would have allowed us a nice, safe retreat."

  Lily shuddered "So the reason we won so handily..."

  "Was because their plan failed and they couldn't come up with a new one quick enough." Lilac held Lily tighter as she began to breath heavily

  "So." Ashley clapped her hands, grabbing everyone's attention and even pulling Lily out of her mini-spiral "We all got a level up right? How are we doing this? Head back to base?"

  "We could but... I'd rather do more recon before heading back" Chloe knelt next to one of the fox cadavers and began to extract it's core as she talked "We still have most of our resources I think, and the sun is still up. Besides that, I want to see what's on the other side of the treeline. We take it in turns; one person does their level up, the others keep watch. I'll do mine last to make it fair"

  Lily clears her throat "I'd like to go first please"