Chapter 11: Shadow Fiend Attack

The last Forest Wolf was pierced through the heart with a single sword strike.

After twitching a couple of times, it died.

[EXP +0.5]

Duoluolisi pulled her sword from the corpse and flicked the blood off it.

She admitted that she had been a bit overconfident just now.

It was true that a Level 2 Wind Blade could one-shot a Forest Wolf, and she had quickly dealt with the first wave of wolves.

But who knew these Forest Wolves were deliberately pretending to be weak?

They first sent a wave of weaklings to lower her guard, making her think the Forest Wolves were weak.

As a result, the later pack was extremely agile, jumping around in the woods, and she couldn’t hit them at all.

Especially that Alpha Wolf—one claw could break a tree trunk in half, and its speed was so fast she couldn’t see its figure clearly.

She dodged for a long time and finally managed to land one hit, but it only scraped off a small piece of skin.

It was one thing to have such high attack and agility, but defense that high too?

Was that reasonable?

In the end, she chipped away for a long time, exhausted her mana, and had no choice but to transform.

She cut down that Alpha Wolf with one strike, and then mowed down the rest like weeds.

She was so annoyed!

All that experience, just gone like that.

Gone!

Duoluolisi was furious.

She wanted to stab the corpse a couple more times.

She glanced at the level on her status panel and felt even more annoyed.

[Level: 4]

[4.5 EXP needed for Level 5]

Damn it!

If only she could have killed one more before transforming, even just one, she would have leveled up!

And why couldn’t leveling up restore her to full state like in games?

If she could recover mana, she might have worn down that Alpha Wolf.

Phew~

Duoluolisi let out a sigh, but noticed a pop-up window had appeared on her panel.

[Enable Level Up to Restore All Mana?]

[Note: Cannot be turned off after enabling. Choose carefully!]

Was there even a question?

Of course she’d enable it!

Duoluolisi had already placed her finger on it, about to tap [Yes] .

Wait!

She realized a very serious problem.

After transforming into Duoluolisi, leveling up would also restore her mana.

But if she hadn’t used up her mana and accidentally leveled up again, wouldn’t she have to start consuming it from scratch again?

If she kept leveling up without using up her mana, wouldn’t that mean she couldn’t transform back?

That was close!

She almost tapped it!

No, no, no!

Quickly tap no!

Duoluolisi frantically tapped the “No” position a dozen times, and only lowered her hand after confirming that pop-up window wouldn’t appear again.

‘She couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her…’

Before she knew it, Duoluolisi had walked out of the woods and reached a clearing.

Ahead was the exit of the canyon.

In the clearing was the carriage she had ridden in earlier.

It had been hacked to pieces.

The coachman’s corpse and the horse were long gone.

This was the location where Feili and the Shadow Demon had fought in the game.

Duoluolisi heightened her alertness and released her perception to scan the surroundings.

In the game, the Shadow Demon appeared directly.

She didn’t know where it would hide to launch a sneak attack.

Now, nearly two hours had passed since that Transfer Magic was activated.

She thought it unlikely that the Shadow Demon would be waiting here for her.

Could it be that the Shadow Demon saw nothing teleported over and went back to chase after Feili and Dailina?

Very possible.

Since the Shadow Demon wasn’t here, she should hurry and leave this place.

In the woods, a black shadow was rapidly approaching Duoluolisi.

The moment it left the forest’s shadow, a dagger extended from the black shadow, stabbing toward Duoluolisi’s back.

Duoluolisi sensed the black shadow.

She turned and deflected the dagger with her sword, then immediately slashed down at the shadow.

The black shadow dissipated.

She felt as if she had cut nothing.

“Oh? Not bad skills.”

The black shadow re-formed on the carriage, materializing into a figure in a tattered black robe.

It wore a loose, oversized black robe.

The hood was pulled low, covering most of its face, revealing a pale chin.

A bony hand extended from the tattered black robe, holding a dagger that emanated black aura.

Under the hood, a pair of dark red eyes stared at Duoluolisi.

“I thought I had missed…”

Its lips slowly split into a grin.

“Didn’t expect an unexpected gain.”

Duoluolisi said nothing.

This was exactly the Shadow Demon that specialized in assassinating students.

It basically struck while students were on their way to fulfill commissions.

The Shadow Demon’s speed was extremely fast; ordinary people could hardly detect its movements.

That Alpha Wolf earlier was fast enough to be hard to see clearly, but the Shadow Demon was completely invisible.

When it transformed into a shadow, even Mana Perception might not detect it.

Fortunately, Duoluolisi’s perception was very strong, and she quickly spotted its shadow.

If it had been Xi Ya, he would probably have been stabbed clean through by that dagger by now.

“Your aura is not like that of an ordinary student.”

The Shadow Demon held its chin with one hand, looking her up and down.

“In all these years, you’re the first to notice my shadow so quickly.”

“Hm? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Duoluolisi still said nothing.

This Shadow Demon talks way too much.

She remembered in the game, after its sneak attack failed, it would babble on for ages, and Feili, out of boredom, actually responded to it.

The two of them would go on for dozens of pages before fighting.

Every time she started a New Game Cycle, she had to press skip so much her hand would cramp.

She didn’t want to hear it again.

Now her mana was only at one-third; she couldn’t afford to drag this out.

Just strike directly.

Duoluolisi twisted her wrist, and a flash of golden light gathered on her sword blade.

The next instant, her figure vanished from where she stood, then appeared right in front of the Shadow Demon, slashing at it with her sword.

The Shadow Demon couldn’t dodge in time.

It twisted its body forcefully, and its robe was torn at a corner by the sword edge.

A puff of black mist leaked from the tear.

It staggered back, its hood falling off, revealing a pale, withered face.

“You actually sneak attacked—”

“Ha! You can sneak attack, but I can’t?”

Duoluolisi didn’t give it another chance to speak.

She swung her sword a second time.

***

After the black light disappeared, only Feili and Dailina remained in the woods.

“Feili… Xi Ya, he…”

Dailina knelt on the ground, her voice trembling.

“I know…”

Feili stood still, her gaze fixed on the spot where Xi Ya had vanished.

She hadn’t expected it to turn out like this.

When Dailina had reached out to save Xi Ya just now, she had wanted to directly and forcibly pull Dailina back.

But before she could act, Xi Ya had first shaken off Dailina’s hand and pushed her out.

…That guy.

Tch.

Feili bit her lip.

‘No, she couldn’t waver.’

She had to quickly take Dailina back to the academy.

If they couldn’t make the commission submission deadline, this life would be ruined again.

She took a deep breath, turned around, and extended her hand to Dailina.

“Let’s go. We’re heading back to the academy…”

“Let’s go save Xi Ya.”

Feili’s hand froze in mid-air.

“He’s alone… He’ll definitely die.”

Dailina didn’t take her hand.

Instead, she looked up at Feili with those moist emerald-green eyes.

“Please don’t abandon Xi Ya… okay?”

Feili looked at those eyes and fell silent.

No matter how many times she reincarnated, she didn’t want to break Dailina’s heart.

The only danger on the return route had been dealt with.

Dailina should be fine going back alone.

If she hurried to the canyon now and then used [Wind Shadow] to travel through the night, she should be able to make tomorrow’s deadline.

‘As long as she saved Xi Ya, that would be enough, right?’

She wouldn’t care about what came after.

“Alright, I’ll go save him.”

Feili withdrew her hand, a hint of helplessness in her tone.

“Dailina, you go back to the academy first.”

“I’m going too!”

Dailina stood up, her gaze firm.

Feili opened her mouth, but she knew she couldn’t win against her no matter what.

In the end, she sighed.

“…Then let’s go.”