Independence Comes Tough

Mizuki trots up the stairs, accessing an information panel on the Friendship System through a navigation panel.

[Friendship Level 3: Unlock Occasional Gifts From Characters]

[Friendship Level 5: Unlock Character Backstory]

[Friendship Level 7: Eligible To Invite Characters To Main Party]

Mizuki slides her fingers through the air, flicking to a multi-character interface. There are two sub-tabs, one labelled 'Main Party' and the other a gallery of characters. The gallery consists of a list of characters she has already met coloured in their in-game colour scheme and the pictures of those that she is yet to meet in grey. Her Main Party only shows a 3D model of herself, three other spots locked.

Upon clicking on the portrait of a coloured character, she can find information on their name, birthday and basic details with their backstories in a separate column below depending on her friendship level with the character.

Mizuki runs her hand along the wall so she has some form of stability in case she makes a wrong step. She clicks on Miko's character file. Apparently, she's a longsword user and she's about ten years older than Mizuki. According to the general character details, she's a hard-working yet friendly woman who likes to tease her associates but is a reliable fighter who never backs down.

Mizuki skips a step and pushes against an available training room.

[Advanced Training Mode Unlocked]

Mizuki watches as a blue hologram panel appears in front of her, showing her the option to practice fighting in different regions. A couple of them are level-locked but as of now, she has the option to fight either in the middle of the forest, by the river or in a cave.

Out of curiosity, Mizuki selects 'cave' and the ground beneath her feet crumbles into pixels. Her eyes dart around in surprise as her surroundings are soon engulfed in darkness. Her heart drums loudly against her ribcage. She squeezes her eyes shut, hugging herself tightly.

It's not after long where she feels something material beneath her feet. Wary, she opens her eyes slowly and only one at a time. She's in a new unrecognisable location. Mizuki's eyes dart around in caution, analysing her surroundings. She can barely see anything with the underground cave being covered in deep fog. Under her feet, there's shallow water and tiny fish that swim by her feet. Around her, there's ferns and moss on the rocks, crystals hanging from the ceiling.

Crickets chirp around her, the situation a lot more ominous than it should be. She hears a splatter of water in the close distance, stumbling backwards against the podium right behind her back. Her palms fall in the center of the activation circle. It turns and then the podium vanishes. An ominous few seconds later finds Mizuki surrounded by enemies she hasn't seen before. She squints doubtfully at the misshapen wombat-like beasts flying mid-air. Somewhere close ahead of her feet, she catches slimes bouncing against the ground, squelching ominously.

She unsheaths her daggers and she spins them in preparation, flinging them mid-air and catching them perfectly in her palms. It's a move she's gotten way too used to in her few times of attempting them. Mizuki takes a step forward and the enemies lunge towards her, the bat-like creatures swooping in on her and grazing her with their wings. It deals her knockback damage from the force of them hitting against her but it's comparatively not that bad to the other injuries she has gotten.

While she tries to keep her eyes on the bats, the slimes appear behind her and wrap themselves around her legs, making her skin itch painfully. "Hrk, I hate slimes," she comments as she throws a dagger downwards, killing one off successfully. As she lifts an arm to block an attack from the air, a slime ejects a patch of condensate which lands on her shoulder. She grimaces, ultimately trampling it to death in her search for it.

The fight pauses and an information panel labelled 'Murinus' pops on screen. Mizuki has to squint her eyes to read with how dark it is in the area. "If only they showed me this a while earlier, jeez," she laments. There's a diagram of the aerial monsters that have been attacking her and they're much more intimidating with detail. They have wingspans that stretch up to a grown man's forearm and forked tongues even longer than that of snakes. Mizuki raises her gaze and time unfreezes. The Murini stare at her with an unblinking stare, irises plain white.

Dodging their aerial attacks, she first attempts to clear the wave of slimes so it'll allow her more mobility. Slimes are a lot harder than the first time she recalls fighting them, much more jumpy and mobile than her expectations. She squelches as she yanks her dagger out from a blob of slime condensate, praying that she doesn't miss her aim at the Murinus. "Ugh, it's so disgusting here," she mutters under her breath.

She swings her anelace and by some miracle, it hits. Mizuki has to make sure her aim's right for the next few hits because there's no way she'd be able to return her blades if they get lodged between the rock interior of the cave.

A last Murinus lets out a howl that reverberates through the cave, giving Mizuki an earache. She bends, readying herself for a jump and she leaps, stabbing her dagger through the heart of the winged beast. She lands on one knee, placing a palm on the ground to cushion the fall. The surrounding cave flashes blue.

[Training Mode cleared!]

[Achievement Unlocked: Fight for my Way - Clear one battle in Advanced Training Mode]

[x5000 gold coins and 150 EXP received]

The ground shakes and then falls, glitching Mizuki back into the room where she started. Standing back up, she brushes herself down, trying to get dirt off herself in an attempt to be a little cleaner. "Teleportation is such a pain," Mizuki sighs.