One thing I regretted after entering this world was that there was no status window.

 

In games where you can say status window, it’s common for a window to pop up.

 

It’s common to think about how to grow while looking at it.

 

Why don’t I have a status window?

 

On the first day I possessed Lucy’s body, I firmly believed that I would have a status window and went through all sorts of struggles.

 

I thought to myself, spoke, shouted, wrote, and asked the maid what the status window was because I wondered if I should use the language of this place.

 

I tried everything I could, but even while I was writhing in shame, the status window didn’t appear.

 

Now, three days later, I’ve given up.

 

Yes.

 

The status window might not appear.

 

But that doesn’t mean the skills I put in when I created my character disappeared.

 

Right?

 

They didn’t disappear, right?

 

They didn’t disappear except for the Mesugaki skill, right?

 

In any case, assuming that the skills were still there, I had a set task to do.

 

Become stronger to defeat the monsters that appear in the dungeon.

 

With Lucy’s current body, she wouldn’t be able to defeat even one goblin that appears in the dungeon.

 

How could she clear the dungeon with her body panting so much that it was hard to even climb the third floor of the stairs!

 

It’s fortunate that when I first created the Mesugaki character, I put in a lot of skills with the intention of having fun.

 

If I had decided to play as a veteran like I usually do, what kind of disaster would have happened?

 

If I didn’t put in any skills that would benefit this weak Mesugaki’s body, and only put in a lot of penalty skills?

 

Wow.

 

If that were the case, I would have made a rope with the frills in Lucy’s room.

 

While thinking about that, I took out the elixir I had received from the butler and laid it out on the dresser.

 

The elixir in the glass bottle didn’t look delicious no matter how I looked at it.

 

If I had to use a metaphor, it looked like a powdered medicine mixed in water given to a child who couldn’t take pills.

 

‘If you take the elixir, you will feel a twisted pain in your body.’

 

No way.

 

You can’t tell just by looking at it?

 

It’s a lie to scare me.

 

Let’s not pay attention to it.

 

I opened the lid of the stamina-boosting elixir and sniffed it.

 

There was no smell.

 

It was as if I was saying that what was inside was just plain water.

 

That made me even more anxious.

 

Why was that?

 

Just as the night before a storm is the calmest, wouldn’t this odorless elixir give me an extreme experience the moment I put it in my mouth?

 

I hesitated for a moment, but I had no other choice.

 

I had to drink it anyway.

 

Don’t be childish.

 

With a firm resolve, I drank the liquid in the battle in one go.

 

Surprisingly, the elixir didn’t taste like anything.

 

Is this really an elixir?

 

It’s too ordinary for an elixir.

 

The change came suddenly.

 

A second after I drank the elixir.

 

My body suddenly twisted.

 

It wasn’t just one or two places.

 

Pain came all over my body.

 

It felt like someone invisible was squeezing my muscles, as if my flesh was being torn apart.

 

The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even scream.

 

All I could do was roll around on the floor.

 

How much time had passed?

 

When I came to, I was crawling on the floor.

 

F**k.

 

What?

 

What the hell.

 

There was no description of pain when taking elixirs in the game!

 

But why does it hurt so much?!

 

Huh?

 

Is something wrong?

 

Is this really an elixir?

 

The butler didn’t give me poison as an elixir to screw me over.

 

There’s no way.

 

If anything happened to me, Benedict, who loves his daughter so much, would cut his own throat not before taking the butlers though.

 

He wouldn’t take that risk.

 

I staggered up and looked at Lucy in the mirror.

 

Her hair was all messed up and her eyes were bloodshot from crying so much.

 

Her hands were shaking, and her legs were weak and about to collapse.

 

Her clothes were dishevelled.

 

Was she really that Mesugaki who looked like a brat?

 

F**k.

 

I couldn’t stop swearing.

 

The pain I had just felt wouldn’t leave my head.

 

I once accidentally burned myself.

 

It wasn’t my intention,

 

I went camping and made a bonfire, but I tripped on something and rolled over the fire.

 

It was horrible to have my flesh roasted in the fire.

 

It felt like someone was repeatedly cutting my body.

 

The fire went out quickly and I wasn’t seriously hurt, but the memory of that day remained as the worst pain of my life.

 

And today, the worst pain was renewed.

 

The pain I had just experienced was even worse.

 

My breathing became ragged, so I held my face with both hands and took a deep breath.

 

I wanted to throw it all away and lie down on the bed.

 

Thinking that it was really horrible,

 

I wanted to close my eyes and dream about the fun times I had in the past.

 

But I couldn’t.

 

I had something to do.

 

It was strange.

 

If I were my old self, I would have definitely collapsed at this point.

 

I was never a strong person.

 

But, today was different.

 

My heart kept telling me to do it.

 

It’s okay.

 

I won’t die.

 

I’m not dead.

 

It just hurt.

 

It’s okay.

 

I raised my head after controlling my breathing again.

 

There were still other elixirs left, but there was something I had to check before taking them. I had to find out if they were really elixirs or not.

 

I had suffered so much pain that I thought I would die, how frustrating would it be if they weren’t elixirs?

 

The easiest way to check was to try to move my body myself.

 

I had just taken the elixir of stamina increase, so if it had worked properly, my stamina should have increased.

 

The method of verification was simple.

 

Go up to the third floor from the lobby on the first floor of the mansion.

 

Before taking the elixir, I would have been exhausted just by going up to the top floor, but if my stamina had increased, the results would have been different.

 

As I was leaving the room and going down to the first floor, a maid spoke to me.

 

However, I ignored her.

 

I didn’t have the energy to answer.

 

Just moving my body was too much for me right now.

 

When I arrived on the first floor, I climbed the stairs one step at a time.

 

My body felt lighter than usual.

 

As if I had taken off a sandbag that I had been carrying around.

 

Was it just my imagination?

 

To check properly, I ran up the stairs as if I was running with all my might.

 

Normally, I would collapse from exhaustion after climbing one floor, but this time it was different.

 

Even after reaching the third floor, I only felt short of breath, and I wasn’t as exhausted as before.

 

The elixir was working properly.

 

There was no room for doubt.

 

After confirming that, I returned to my room and quietly looked at the two elixirs on the dresser.

 

If I drank those, I would get really sick.

 

When I didn’t know anything and ate them, it didn’t matter, but now that I knew how painful it was, I was afraid to touch them.

 

However, thinking about the future, I absolutely had to take those two elixirs.

 

If I had known this would happen, I should have just swallowed all three at the beginning.

 

Then I wouldn’t have had to worry about this.

 

While I was fighting with the still glass bottle, I shook my head wildly and stood in front of the dresser.

 

Then I grabbed the glass bottle.

 

To be exact, I tried to grab it.

 

My hand wouldn’t move.

 

My body was remembering the pain from just now, and my trembling hands were refusing to take the elixir.

 

It’s okay.

 

I remembered the pain I had just experienced.

 

It’s okay.

 

The pain of my entire body twisting and tearing and being reassembled anew.

 

It’s okay.

 

It wasn’t okay at all.

 

If I ever experience that kind of pain again, I’ll go crazy before I even take the Academy exam. I can’t.

 

I.

 

Huh?

 

The moment the fear of pain gripped my entire body, the word fear suddenly disappeared from my mind.

 

I hadn’t overcome it.

 

It was as if someone had reached into my brain and stolen my emotions.

 

What happened?

 

A possibility came to mind in my head, which had become more complicated than before.

 

Overcoming fear.

 

The skill I had set when I created the Mesugaki character.

 

That had activated.

 

It must have erased the fear from my head.

 

Other skills besides Mesugaki were also activating just fine.

 

I never thought I’d be able to confirm it like this.

 

Good.

 

That was great.

 

Thanks to that, my hesitation in my thoughts disappeared.

 

I’ll probably regret it later.

 

Drinking this won’t kill you, right?

 

It’ll just hurt so bad.

 

I can endure a moment of pain for the sake of the future.

 

I opened the lids of both elixirs and poured all the liquid in the bottles into my mouth.

 

This time, just like before, I didn’t taste anything from the elixir.

 

And soon after, pain came to me, and when I came to my senses, a day had passed, and it was evening.

 

I unintentionally wasted a day, but the elixir’s effects were definitely taking hold in my body.

 

My stamina and strength had both increased significantly compared to before.

 

I felt fine even after going up and down the stairs several times, and I could easily open the many heavy doors in the mansion that I had to struggle to open.

 

With this, I had passed the first gate that I had in mind, so I came to find the supplies to proceed to the next stage.

 

The weapon that I would use.

 

The game called Soul Academy had a good balance between weapons.

 

There were some that were relatively good and some that were bad, but there was no trash that was completely unusable.

 

So, when I was choosing the weapon I would use, I only thought about how well I could use it rather than its performance.

 

First, I was sure I would be holding a shield in one hand.

 

With the Iron Wall, the pinnacle of shield skills, not using a shield would be a crime.

 

So now I had to choose a one-handed weapon to hold in my remaining hand, and there were only three options.

 

Spear, Sword, and blunt weapon.

 

No matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t a sword.

 

There wasn’t anything wrong with the sword.

 

What could be wrong with a sword that was cool and also high-performance?

 

I just didn’t have confidence in handling the sword well.

 

The closest thing to a sword I’ve ever swung in my life is a kitchen knife.

 

I hardly ever cooked, so I’ve only ever held it a few times.

 

Could I handle a difficult weapon like a sword well?

 

No way.

 

Spears were also rejected.

 

Spears are originally considered the best weapon for beginners to handle, but that’s only when fighting in open areas.

 

Most battles in Soul Academy take place in narrow passageways.

 

Could I handle a spear well in such a place?

 

I could clearly see myself crashing into a wall and dying without being able to do anything.

 

That left me with only one choice.

 

“What weapons are you looking for, Miss?”

 

“A mace and a shield.”

 

“…”

 

“Are you deaf? I’ll say it again. A mace and a shield.”

 

The soldier guarding the armoury double-checked to make sure what he had heard was correct.

 

It seemed strange that a girl like me would ask for a mace.

 

It certainly wasn’t a suitable weapon appearance wise.

 

A mace would feel out of place for a kid who was less than 150 cm tall (5ft).

 

But right now, whether it suits me or not doesn’t matter at all.

 

So, give it to me.

 

The soldier didn’t ask three times, perhaps because he didn’t want to upset the ill-tempered young lady.

 

Instead, he ran inside and brought the shield and mace in the armoury that were in the best condition.

 

“But Miss Lucy, these are a bit heavy.”

 

‘Just give them to me.’

 

“You’re a sloppy soldier, aren’t you?

 

Just give them to me if I tell you to.”

 

“Yes.”

 

The shield and mace the soldier handed me were quite heavy.

 

If it were me before, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on properly and would have dropped it.

 

But now that I’m doped with elixir.

 

This is easy!

 

The soldier blinked in surprise when I stood still with a mace and shield in both hands.