'This... the hell is this thing supposed to be?'
At the moment, Aurora found herself face-to-face with a creature that was completely unknown to her. The creature was a mess, made of vines that coiled around each other like snakes. These vines were what made up the creature's body; at its bottom were two leaves large enough to cover its whole body.
Other than the large leaves, there was one more thing that stood out: a considerably thicker and tougher-looking vine grew upwards from the rest of the body. At the end of this thick vine, a head similar to that of a Venus flytrap grew out.
Though the creature was only about a meter and a half tall, before Aurora's small body, it appeared to be gigantic.
'Seriously, what the hell is this thing!?'
To understand how Aurora got to this point, we need to go back a bit...
-----
After entering the forest, nothing seemed to be out of order. The forest's high trees blocked off almost all the sunlight; furthermore, the forest was incredibly lush and dense, making it difficult to traverse. Due to the lack of sunlight, it was hard for Aurora to see, making it even more difficult.
'Are all forests supposed to look like this?' But none of that seemed to matter to Aurora, who, at the moment, was looking around like a curious cat, or rather, a curious fox.
This was the result of Aurora's memory loss. Though she remembers what a forest is, or rather, what it should be, she doesn't remember ever personally seeing one. Actually, it wasn't just the forest that was like this. She seemed to remember most things from an overall point of view, but not a personal one.
Basically, you could say she knew everything in theory, but she had no real practical experience. So even though she knew what a forest was, this was the first time she saw one—at least the first time she remembers seeing it.
[You have unlocked a new skill Night Vision level 1.]
'Huh? Night vision? Did I get this skill because I'm in the dark right now? But why did I not get it when I was in that cave during the storm before?'
The sudden appearance of a new system message left Aurora feeling a bit puzzled. If she indeed unlocked a new skill just by being in the dark for a bit, why didn't she get it before when she was in the cave?
'Probably because the system only appeared after I was already out of the cave, or maybe the experience is cumulative and just the time I spent in the cave wasn't enough.'
Aurora came up with a few possible answers, but after deciding that it wasn't anything important at the moment, she just opened up the information about Night Vision.
'The name tells me basically everything I need to know, but it's better to look at it regardless.'
[Night Vision]
- Level: 1
- Grade: Basic
- Skill Type: Passive
- Attribute Type: Light
– A basic skill that allows the user to see in the dark.
[Effects:
- Modifies the user's sight, allowing them to see in the dark.
- Higher level improves how much the user is able to see.
'Yeah, pretty much as expected, though...' Aurora looked around her a bit.
'The difference is small, but I can definitely see better. Nice!'
Unlike before, when Aurora depended on the little amount of sunlight that was able to peak through the trees, now she can recognize the things around her without it, even if only barely.
After confirming the effectiveness of her new skill, Aurora set out again. Set out where you ask? Shd herself has no idea; she's only been wandering in the dark, figuratively and literally.
As Aurora continued on, the forest was just as stale as before. The only thing present seemed to be grass, trees, and occasional rocks. It was silent, almost eerily silent. The only sound was her own footsteps and the crackling of the leaves Aurora was walking on.
But this silence was soon broken. Suddenly, Aurora felt all her instincts screaming, which made her involuntarily jump back. Just a moment later, like a whip, a vine struck the ground where she previously stood. As if sensing that its attack had failed, the vine quickly pulled back right after.
Aurora wasn't stale either. Right after she jumped back to dodge the attack, she turned in the direction the vine came from and stayed alert, looking for the source of the attack. She didn't have to wait for long, as the creature soon emerged from the darkness.
'This... the hell is this thing supposed to be?'
-----
Now back to the present.
Aurora stood face-to-face with the first enemy she had managed to come across in this world. Despite this being her first time ever fighting someone, she was completely calm and dead-set on killing the weird creature before her. The thought of running away never even crossed her mind.
Though she was eager to fight (for some reason), she didn't act rashly and rather waited for the creature to attack first. The creature was already enraged that its initial attack failed, so its patience soon ran out, and it immediately started to attack.
One of the whip-like vines that made up the creature's body shot out forward in Aurora's direction. Aurora, who was already prepared for the attack, jumped forward towards the approaching vine and faced it head-on.
Using her claws, Aurora slashed towards the vine and cleanly cut it off... or not.
'What?' Aurora's eyes went wide as she realized that not only did she not manage to cut the vine off, she barely even scratched it.
Unfortunately for her, though the creature was clearly not very intelligent, it still used this moment as an opportunity and continued its attack. The vine collided with her small body, and before she could even realize what hit her, Aurora had already crashed back-first into a nearby tree.
"Kyuuu!" Letting out an involuntary wince of pain, Aurora landed on the hard ground and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Though her whole body screamed at her, Aurora knew she didn't have time to wait for the pain to subside.
With her body still shaking a bit from the previous collision, Aurora tried her best to get up from the ground. Unfortunately for Aurora, the creature didn't give her much time to get herself together, as another one of its vines was already heading towards her.
Knowing that she basically stood no chance in a direct clash, Aurora decided to instead dodge the attack. She quickly jumped to the side to dodge the vine, or at least, she tried to. Due to her body already being damaged from the previous hit, Aurora only managed to barely move aside.
Even though she mostly avoided the attack, the vine still grazed the side of her body, inflicting minor damage. This was a bad sign since, even though the damage was small, it still meant that Aurora couldn't dodge completely.
That was already problematic enough, but it seemed like the creature had different plans. Almost right after she dodged the vine, another was already on its way to hit her. Aurora knew it; she couldn't dodge this one.
Maybe it was an act of instinct, but even though she knew it wouldn't work, Aurora quickly moved her front paw and tried to face the vine head yet again. Though unlike one would think, this time, the result of the clash was different.
*Swish*
With a sound similar to that of a sharp blade cutting through the air, Aurora's claw, which enlarged seemingly on its own accord, cleanly cut the approaching vine off. Forget about clashing; the vine wasn't able to even put up any resistance in the face of Aurora's counterattack.
"Screeee!" The creature howled in pain as it felt its vine being cut off. It couldn't understand how this puny little fox was able to cut off its vine! But the one who was surprised the most was Aurora herself.
'Wha-? How did I cut it off? I barely scratched it when I tried before, so what changed?' Her mind was suddenly flooded with questions, even forgetting the pain she felt.
As she was trying to think of what changed, Aurora finally realized she had ignored something she shouldn't have.
'Right! Other than the Snow Magic, I had two more skills!' Aurora quickly opened up the skill menu while she had the time and looked up the information about the two skills.
[Scratch]
- Level: 1
- Grade: Basic
- Skill type: Active
- Attribute type: None
– A basic skill owned by most animal-type magical beasts and monsters.
[On activation: Consumes 1 SP to sharpen the user's claws, directly strengthening them.
- Deals low physical damage.
- Has a very small chance to inflict the status effect: Minor Bleed.
[Bite]
- Level: 1
- Grade: Basic
- Skill type: Active
- Attribute type: None
– A basic skill owned by most animal-type magical beasts and monsters.
[On activation: Consumes 1 SP to directly strengthen the user's fangs.
- Deals low physical damage.
- Has a small chance to inflict the status effect: Minor Bleed.
The two skills were very similar, but it certainly explained why Aurora was able to cut off the vine this time.
'The cost of 1 SP is negligible, so I can use either Scratch or Bite without worrying much. Even though it's great knowing that I can attack, I still can't dodge...'
Just as Aurora was about to think about not being able to dodge the creature's attack, she suddenly got an idea.
'Or can I?' A sly smile spread across her small face, making her look even more adorable.
While Aurora was busy with all of this, the creature finally snapped back to reality and returned its focus to the annoying little fox right before it. Just as it was about to resume its assault, it was hit by a sudden wave of freezing coldness.
'Freezing Snow!' Of course, Aurora was responsible for this, as she activated the spell Freezing Snow.
[You have inflicted the status effect Minor Freeze on the target.]
[Due to the target's low resistance, the effect's power has been doubled.]
'Gotcha! That's a 10% decrease in agility, you ugly plant!' With renewed enthusiasm, Aurora was ready to continue the fight, completely dismissing the previous pain.
The creature also no longer stood still, and fueled by the rage it currently felt, it started to attack Aurora yet again. The creature no longer held anything back and attacked Aurora with everything it had.
Aurora braced herself for the incoming attacks. They turned chaotic, as if the creature had thrown even the bit of logical reasoning it had out of the window. But even in the face of multiple vines, Aurora never stopped smiling.
Now that the creature's agility was lowered, Aurora no longer had any problems dodging its attacks. She skillfully avoided all hits and used Scratch to counterattack, cutting off the creature's vines one by one.
*Swish* *Swish* *Thud* *Thud*
With every scratch, one vine fell to the ground. Aurora was like a machine, dodging and cutting off vines without stopping.
*Swish* *Thud*
And rinse...
*Swish* *Thud*
And repeat...
*Swish* *Thud*
...
"Screeee!" As the final vine fell to the ground, the creature let out an ear piercing howl of pain.
"Phew..." Though much better off than the creature, Aurora was breathing quite heavily, a proof of how much SP she used up by using all those scratches.
'Finally, you're done for now.' Taking one last deep breath, Aurora shot out towards the creature, intending to finish it off. But as soon as she closed the distance between them, her eyes went wide in horror as intense pain assaulted her back.
"Kyuuu!" Letting out a painful wince, Aurora's eyes turned bloodshot as she realized what just happened. As its last resort, the creature actually just bit her!
'You fucker!!!' Aurora screamed internally and held nothing back. 'Scraaaaatch!!!'
*Swish* *Swish*
Using all the strength she could gather, Aurora unleashed two scratches at once, ripping the head off the thick vine.
[You have defeated the Vicious Trapper level 5.]