Chapter 76: Girls Of Night

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"That could've been finished ten minutes earlier if you hadn't wasted time with the orbs surrounding the Object Calamity," Kuzunoha remarked with biting sarcasm, pointing her umbrella at the decimated field. "As expected of a kilnalan, they are so great at fighting fire with fire instead of using water to quell the forest fire."

Verina glared back, wiping the sweat and ash from her brow. "Wasted time? I bought us time, you unruly fox. If we had just followed your brilliant lead and subdue it when it's at its utmost stable, this entire area would be a crater by now."

Kuzunoha clicked her tongue, her tone dripping with condescension. "Time? What you bought us was unnecessary risk. Dousing the anchored body parts with a flurry of spells was needlessly primitive. You think like a brute, kilnalan—forceful, messy. My method would've refined the fight, made it quicker, cleaner.

You just don't understand subtlety."

"Subtlety?" Verina's voice rose in anger. It was quite adorable by the fact that her face stayed with the same deadpan. "Your 'subtle' plan would've accelerated that thing's growth! It was consuming every bit of flame we threw at it."

Of course, this was the result of putting two mismatched spellcasters into a single bastion.

But so far, the two of them managed to do their utmost best while bickering nonstop with one another.

"Narcy, do you think that what I did was wrong!?" Verina urged her voice to me,

"Don't mind her, darling. She is just a little bit heated, that's all~" Kuzunoha let out a haughty laugh.

At this point, it was more akin to being a guardian with two children who couldn't get along no matter what.

Verina reminded me of that one child who always came up to their mom whenever they got picked on.

And Kuzunoha was that one mischievous older kid who do the picking,

These interactions thankfully didn't affect much of their fighting capability other than adding miniscule negative percentage on their Mood.

Speaking of Mood, I'm not in the best of mood as of now.

8 hours into the Ordeal, we barely encounter any Calamity Object whose remains could be useful as materials.

Even the Velvet Abomination that we fought before was practically non-intractable because of how cognitive hazard they were. Verina burned the remains of that Calamity Object into crisp afterwards.

Not to mention, the Calamity Objects that spawned this night were mostly destructive in a wide area and were harder to subdue than the usual one we encountered before.

"Well, at least I'll be at ease a little bit."

I thought that Verina was akin to a savior with how useful and reliable she was, but Kuzunoha was on another level.

She was akin to having a max-leveled character in her class when I was just beginning the game. In fact, she might actually be well-sought after the game was open for publication.

As of now, because of the contract, she practically exists in this world as my servant in exchange for learning more stuff about me, and some minor details about blood and experiment.

Speaking about blood.

"Seeing you casually drawing your blood from your veins will never sit well with me, Narcissus," Verina voiced her discomfort.

The culturalization of the Valtherion's Blood was being checked directly by Kuzunoha as she stirred the stem of her translucent goblet. "The self-reproducing theonites have already begun settling in your bodily system and imprinting your vessel as their workplace. If someone were ever to take a sample of your blood, hoping that they can gain the same healing ability. They won't be able to."

"I would have been more glad hearing that while not seeing you drooling over my blood, Kuzunoha," I wryly chuckled

Kuzunoha sighed before she wiped her drool. "It is a little bit disappointing that the culturalization of the gene is still in its utmost early stage. I don't want to ruin the first-time experience with such a lackluster sounding taste."

"Now I feel a bit insulted."

Kuzunoha manifested a vial with her arcane dust, storing the blood sample for further research.

For one's information, Kuzunoha possessed not the power to create with her arcane spell when she suddenly manifested something or made something vanish out of nowhere.

Those objects were stored inside her arcane influence. The arcane dust was basically akin to a building block, and what she did was stripping an object into their basic form..

She then saved the information regarding such object's configuration inside her mind, so that she could just draw back the deconstructed building blocks and rebuild it into its original form.

Because of that, I also declared Kuzunoha to become my personal baggage carrier in the future, especially when we began planning to become a little bit nomadic with our bastion placement.

—

[Tenebrae Lilium]

[Description: Tenebrae Lilium is a girl dressed in a gown of wilted black flowers, her hair crowned with thorns. She stands motionless in gardens or fields, surrounded by withered plants and twisted roots. Her touch causes life to decay and wither in an instant, and the closer one approaches, the more their energy drains away.

The air around her is filled with the scent of dying flowers, and she silently watches as life fades around her, feeding on the energy of the dying]

[Hint: Tenebrae Lilium saps the life force from everything around her, causing rapid decay in plants, animals, and humans alike. She is vulnerable to fire and sunlight, but approaching her directly requires immense strength, as her draining aura can incapacitate even the strongest attackers] Sёarᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

—

It was the first encounter where I met an extremely human-like Calamity Object despite its danger.

At some point, it made me hesitate on whether I was fighting an actual Calamity Object and not another human being.

Fortunately, both Kuzunoha and Verina held zero guilt and hesitation. They hurled all sorts of destructive spells onto the poor child and disintegrated her from existence.

It was quite the brutal sight.

After that, I scolded them for overdoing it.

Because if they just annihilate every atom from the Calamity Object.

I couldn't carve a single part into any usable material.

"Narcissus, I never thought that you can be so cruel to carve a child-looking Calamity Object," Verina said with a worried look. "We went to a great extent with our spells because we don't want to prolong its suffering, you know."

"Sometimes, darling, a passion needs a gate to prevent them from flooding the entire civilization." Kuzunoha shook her head left and right.

"... Why am I the cruel person now!?"

I would never have thought that they possessed such a reserved morality despite living in this world for so long.

Especially Kuzunoha, since she genuinely thought that I was an uncouth individual who would carve a dead child's body.

Well, I did want to carve a dead child's body in this case, technically.

—

[Umbra Puella]

[Description: Umbra Puella appears as a tiny, faceless silhouette of a girl standing perfectly still in the shadows. She blends into the dark, becoming indistinguishable from it, but when light shines on her, she does not disappear—instead, her shadow stretches impossibly long, twisting into shapes that seem to whisper forgotten secrets.

Her presence turns all light cold and distant, making even the brightest flames flicker weakly]

[Hint: Her shadow manipulates light itself, distorting the environment and disorienting anyone nearby. She doesn't engage directly, but her shadow's touch leaves individuals lost and confused, unable to trust their own senses]

—

"... What with the sudden emergence of child-shaped Calamity Objects."

Not to mention, it was one of the creepiest Calamity Object I've ever faced.

"No, we can't carve that one either, Narcy," Verina immediately warned me as if I was about to lunge at it for its material.

"Touching it can be dangerous. I hope that you can maintain distance with it, darling."

Why did these two suddenly focus on me whenever a child-shaped Calamity Object appeared!?

The appearance of Calamity Object tonight was rather more active than yesterday.

We couldn't really have much of a rest inbetween encounters because of that. Although, the spawning rate wasn't as aggressive as the night where the Hollow Star appeared.

That one was on a whole other level.

—

[Aetherica Candida]

[Description: A small girl dressed in flowing white, Aetherica Candida glows faintly, as if made of moonlight. She appears at the edge of dark forests or misty valleys, beckoning wanderers with a soft, ethereal glow. Those who follow her are led deeper into an endless labyrinth of fog and light, losing track of time, space, and memory.

She never speaks or stops moving, always remaining just out of reach, her blank, featureless face haunting those trapped in her domain]

[Hint: Aetherica Candida draws victims into a maze of illusions where the laws of time and space do not apply. Those who chase her endlessly become trapped in an eternal cycle, disoriented and unable to return]

—

"I know that you're really worked up right now, but please maintain your composure, Narcy," Verina casually uttered while facing me.

"Do you want me to shapeshift into my petite form? I can sate your urge before you go berserk, you know~" Kuzunoha haughtily laughed.

"I haven't even said anything yet! Stop slandering me immediately!"