GalaxyTL
* * *
What Emi desired after the Night Trite’s ambush was a safe base camp and a means to ensure her safety even while sleeping.
The former could be found simply by wandering around, but the latter proved troublesome.
Emi acted alone.
She had no comrades to take turns keeping night watch.
The entity residing in her mind shared consciousness with Emi, so when Emi slept, it slept as well, rendering it useless in such situations.
……If only her master were here. If only Kamasse were here.
Such imaginings surfaced, but they were merely feeble delusions that could never be realized.
Shaking her head to dispel them.
As Emi agonized, the voice in her mind proposed an idea:
Specifically, <Could you not utilize 【Magic Slash Thread】 as a barrier like that bald guy did?>
“That bald guy” referred to the cult leader who had once opposed Emi and her master, the original user of 【Magic Slash Thread】.
Indeed, that bald guy freely manipulated 【Magic Slash Thread】 and had briefly shown the kind of application the voice described.
In other words, if Emi could continuously maintain such a 【Magic Slash Thread】 barrier even while asleep, enemies couldn’t approach her.
Compared to now, that would provide a relatively safer sleeping environment.
However, Emi’s current mana manipulation proficiency made realizing that proposal outright impossible.
While Emi’s total mana capacity had increased significantly and her 【Magic Slash Thread】 control had improved considerably—
Once only able to produce mana threads as thick as ropes, through daily diligent practice, she could now refine them down to the thinness of spider silk, drastically reducing the mana required for 【Magic Slash Thread】 and enabling more efficient utilization.
But continuously maintaining that for an entire night was another story altogether.
Her mana simply wouldn’t last, no matter what.
What should she do?
Even after discovering the relatively safe hollow tree seized from the Neck Slasher Owl as her base camp, Emi continued pondering this issue.
Whenever not hunting, her thoughts dwelled solely on this, constantly activating 【Magic Slash Thread】 while experimenting with more efficient operation methods through trial and error.
* * *
Then one day—
The morning sunlight shone into the tree hollow where Emi resided, rousing her.
Still drowsy, she peeked her head outside.
That’s when she felt an unpleasant, slightly sticky sensation on her forehead.
A spider’s web.
The owner was simply a small, ordinary black spider.
It seemed to have industriously spun this web overnight while Emi slept.
Shaking her head to dislodge the threads, Emi spotted the spider scurrying away above in a panic.
It likely detected the vibrations from her destroying its web and chose to retreat.
Groggily observing its movements, Emi suddenly realized something, jolting her awake.
She then activated 【Magic Slash Thread】 and began repeatedly experimenting to realize her idea.
Why couldn’t she maintain 【Magic Slash Thread】 throughout the night?
As mentioned before, Emi’s current mana reserves were insufficient.
But why did 【Magic Slash Thread】 consume so much mana?
It was because she was using “slashing” mana.
An ordinary 【Body Strengthening】 palm strike versus 【Mantis】 where “slashing” mana was added.
Obviously, 【Mantis】 consumed more mana.
For some reason, Emi felt this “slashing” mana had higher usage costs compared to applications like 【Adhesion】 for “binding.”
So what was 【Magic Slash Thread】?
In Emi’s understanding, it was the technique of extending “slashing” mana into thread-like lengths and manipulating it.
“Slashing” mana had high costs.
Then what if she removed the “slashing” element from 【Magic Slash Thread】?
Wouldn’t the mana cost decrease?
That’s what Emi considered.
But when she tried it, 【Magic Slash Thread】 simply vanished.
Of course it would.
【Magic Slash Thread】 was “slashing” mana in thread form.
So Emi changed her approach.
Could she produce threads from mana other than “slashing”?
The first idea was using “binding” mana to create threads.
Imagining spider silk.
Sticky threads to restrain prey.
If achieved, it would prove immensely useful not just for base defense, but for hunting as well.
However, this proved extremely difficult to realize in simple terms.
Emi found it very challenging to extend this “binding” mana into thread form.
In her perception, that type of mana seemed to stick and clump up, refusing to stretch out.
So this was put on hold for the time being.
But Emi didn’t give up.
She loved this kind of trial-and-error process.
Even back in her previous life, she didn’t dislike pondering and considering things alone (or rather, she didn’t have anyone to converse with, so all she did was ponder).
And solving this puzzle promised to strengthen herself.
She became absorbed in tackling this issue.
Next, Emi tried returning to the basics.
What was the foundation of Emi’s mana manipulation?
It was 【Body Strengthening】.
The 【Body Strengthening】 she desperately learned to protect herself from her abusive birth father didn’t require altering her mana into “slashing” or “binding” forms.
It simply permeated the raw mana welling from her soul into her skin, muscles, bones, and organs to enhance them.
Now then, this “raw” mana.
Pristine mana unaltered by extraneous alterations.
What if she materialized that outside her body into thread form?
That was the next method Emi attempted, the first step that could achieve her goal and prove to be the correct solution.
Producing threads from “raw” mana proved far easier to realize compared to conventional techniques like 【Magic Slash Thread】.
So easy, in fact, that Emi felt regretful for not considering this approach sooner.
She could extend the threads smoothly with relative ease and control them far more freely compared to 【Magic Slash Thread】.
And the mana cost was also considerably lower.
At this rate, she could continuously manifest these threads all night long and still greet the morning with plentiful reserves remaining.
On the other hand, these threads lacked any real durability.
As a test, Emi extended one taut in the air and flung a thin branch at it, the thread snapping apart without any resistance.
However, Emi was satisfied with this result.
What caught her attention was the “PUTSURI” sensation produced when the thread snapped.
By spreading these threads around her surroundings, the moment any intruder approached and severed one, Emi would instantly detect their presence.
In other words, she realized these threads could function as alarm tripwires.
At this point, Emi’s original objective had been achieved.
The voice in her mind dubbed these threads 【Mana Sensing Threads】, which Emi promptly began utilizing that very night.
Initially, she struggled with the drawback of the threads reacting even to small animals like mice that didn’t warrant caution, but she addressed that by adjusting the thread placements.
As for the practical issue of continuously manifesting threads while asleep, that posed no particular problem for Emi, who had grown accustomed to constantly maintaining 【Body Strengthening】 even while sleeping.
This was the development approximately two months after Emi entered the demon realm.
* * *
A further month passed after Emi acquired 【Mana Sensing Threads】, leading to the battle against the Power Bear mentioned earlier.
Sensing the Power Bear’s approach through the 【Mana Sensing Threads】 she had active while sleeping, Emi instantly woke up and visually confirmed the enemy’s presence.
With her improved 【Magic Slash Thread】 proficiency granting greater length and control accuracy, she ambushed the PowerBear.
Caught off guard without proper 【Body Strengthening】, the Power Bear had its right foreleg severed by Emi’s surprise strike.
That was the true account behind the Power Bear battle.
“……..”
Now—
Emi surveyed the area around her base camp that had been reduced to a clearing by the rampaging PowerBear.
The surrounding Kaise trees were utterly shredded, a devastated sight.
And more problematically, the massive hollowed Kaise tree Emi had been residing in—
That huge tree with the cavernous hollow—
Had snapped off at the base, collapsing entirely.
“……..”
Emi let out a sigh.
It seemed she would have to search for a new base camp once more.
PANPAN, she slapped her cheeks, then turned her back on the fallen Kaise tree and began heading deeper into the forest.
She had already acquired techniques to defend herself.
Moreover, the number of prey like the Sword Leles inhabiting the area was gradually dwindling.
Perhaps it was time to relocate her base camp.
It was around when Emi was considering such thoughts that the Power Bear incident occurred.
That Power Bear had simply provided the catalyst, nothing more.
Sparing a glance at the Power Bear’s remains, reduced to just bones and pelt after Emi had devoured its flesh, she never looked back again.
The sky gradually brightened.
The stars’ glow faded, swallowed by the purple hues of dawn.
The sun began rising.
GYUN!!
GYUN!!
GYUN!!
With the casual chirping sounds of sparrows, Bulletpeeps charged straight at Emi.
Without so much as a glance at the small birds, Emi caught and crushed them at blinding speeds as she advanced through the forest.
Their numbers in this area were unknown, but living here meant encountering Bulletpeep ambushes around once a day.
By now, Emi had grown quite accustomed to dealing with these little birds.
In Emi’s perception, Bulletpeeps had simply been classified as automatically replenishing snacks following the venomous Yasago snakes.