As she walked, Kurushimi through out a random question on her mind. “Who are you really, Voice-san?”

She was now far away from the canisfangs she had just slaughtered. While traversing through the forest and its foliage, she had stopped to take a break. Even with her heightened physical abilities and stamina, she was still lazy at heart.

“I’m the god of this world. I brought you here to save it from a deadly threat. Only you are capable of defeating it and saving everyone.”

“Ha?! What do you mean?! You are a god?? I need to save the world??? Why didn’t you tell me this earlier????”

Kurushimi lept up in surprise, a black object in her hand swayed around in her fluster. Voice-san had very casually laid this information upon her, which had startled Kurushimi greatly. Shouting at Voice-san, she asked a multitude of questions, getting louder each one.

“That was a joke. I don’t know who I am and I don’t know why you are here. And I am certainly not a god.”

“T- That was a joke…?”

Kurushimi was in disbelief. Her heart-rate slowly dropped back down from what it had risen to. Kurushimi really hated it when Voice-san teased her like this. She would say Voice-san enjoyed teasing her, but Voice-san was always monotone and emotionless so Kurushimi couldn’t really tell. It was entirely possible that Voice-san had a natural talent for messing with Kurushimi.

“Then... Do you know anything?”

Kurushimi calmed herself, laying the shadow construct in her hand back on the ground. Out of curiosity, she asked if Voice-san knew anything about the situation she was in. Kurushimi didn’t know how much Voice-san actually knew but apparently she didn’t know everything. Including her own identity or why Kurushimi was here.

“What I can tell you is that your arrival in this world, the revival after death and I are all linked somehow. I personally do not remember anything from before you arrived here and it is entirely possible I may have not existed prior to then.”

“Ohh- UWAH!?”

As Kurushimi was listening to Voice-san’s explanation, the shadow construct in her hand exploded. It broke apart and traces of it were scattered about, even getting on Kurushimi’s clothing. Frowning, Kurushimi wiped the shadowy substance off herself.

“Kurushimi, What are you doing?”

Finally deciding to question it, Voice-san asked Kurushimi. Kurushimi during their conversation and before had been using ‘Shadow magic’ and trying to create various constructs. Though, every time they would explode after a short time and the black substance would get everywhere.

“I’m trying to create a proper weapon out of ‘Shadow magic’ but it keeps exploding after a bit. I can get the shape down but…”

Kurushimi looked around herself, at the traces of ‘Shadow magic’ on the ground around her and behind her. A trail of shadowy substance was left, indicating the path she had been walking on.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

Kurushimi conjured mana once more, causing her shadow to twist and turn into a shape. The shadow quickly changed and was constructed efficiently, showing how many times Kurushimi had made the shape before it had exploded.

The shape transformed into a dark and beautiful katana. Its shape was reminiscent of a traditional Japanese katana but the blade was rather dull. Even if it managed to keep its shape, the material seemed to be lacking for this type of creation. The blade fluctuated and gradually grew more unstable until it blew apart.

BU. BU.

Kurushimi had held it a bit too close to her face this time and the shadowy substance had gotten on her face and in her mouth a bit. Kurushimi spat out in an attempt to get rid of it.

“Have you tried ‘Blood magic’ instead? I recall you’ve made something similar to a knife with it before.”

“Yeah, I have. But the shape was more like a long, pointy stick. It was sharp but not very good. It seems ‘Shadow magic’ can make a good shape but is unstable and ‘Blood magic’ can make a stable object but not a good shape…”

Kurushimi sighed as she thought about it. She wanted to make a proper weapon to fight with. ‘Shadow magic’ was good and worked as a substitute to fight with other than ‘Blood magic’, but it was still a little lacking. She wanted some kind of close-combat way of fighting. Like a melee weapon of sorts.

“Have you thought of combining ‘Blood magic’ and ‘Shadow magic’?”

“Ohhh! No I haven’t! I didn’t even know I could combine them!”

“But you combined ‘Camouflage’ and ‘Shadow magic’ before?”

“Oh yeah, I did… Well that doesn’t matter! Let’s try it!”

Kurushimi conjured mana, preparing to use ‘Shadow magic’ and ‘Blood magic’.

《Used skill: 『Shadow magic Lvl. 3』!》

《Skill:『Blood magic Lvl. 4』has failed!》

‘Shadow magic’ was successfully cast, but ‘Blood magic’ failed. Kurushimi was confused for a second until she realised the problem. She looked down at her arm and groaned.

“I need to cut myself first…”

Kurushimi didn’t want to. She really didn’t want to, especially when she wasn’t in danger and didn’t need to. But she needed to see if this would work. It would be incredibly useful if it did.

After a moment Kurushimi grit her teeth and used shadow magic to tear the skin of her arm, making sure to go deep enough to draw a decent amount of blood but was careful not to go too deep.

“Gah!”

《Used skill: 『Blood magic Lvl. 4』!》