Chapter 26 - Kitsune of Five

Lan stared down at the icy tundra, his gaze drifting across an endless expanse of white. There were no features, no obstacles, and no creatures. Only snow, so thick and soft that merely stepping on it posed a challenge.

The wind blowing across the tundra was cutting. It whipped across his face as though furious he dared to enter its domain. Whatever direction Lan walked, the wind always seemed to be blowing the opposite way. Even when he turned to face away from the tundra, the wind still blew into his face, stubbornly refusing any movements he tried to make.

Not that the wind could do very much to Lan. His stats were more than enough to ward off a breeze.

Name: Unknown

Title(s): [Punching Up] [Class Of Your Own] [Disciple of David][Epiphany(Temp)][Embers][Adam's Apple][Gaia's Brood][Wind Watcher]

Age: 18

Race: Human - G

Class: None

Talent: [Weapons are my Weapons – G] [********* - Unique]

Health: 1066/1066

Mana: 540/540

Level: 12

Strength: 87

Dexterity: 68

Endurance: 64

Vitality: 59

Mind: 50

Intelligence: 54

Luck: 32

Free Points:

Skills: [Strengthen – F][Mana String – B]

'Surely, I'm close to the top of the tutorial regarding stats. For the average pathfinder, these stats would be the equivalent of, like… level 20? Maybe a bit higher. But I suppose I'm not just trying to be better than your average pathfinder. I'm trying to be better than the best there is. And for that, even these stats aren't enough,'

"With all these added Mind stat points, maybe I should have a crack at improving my control of mana strings. When I made the skill, I only had around 30 Mind, and now close to double that. Also, my mana has increased drastically since then, so improving the skill shouldn't be too hard." Lan checked the timer, seeing that he still had eight hours before the fourth step ended.

"Great, that's more than enough time for me to get the last cargo and still make it to the train. I'll improve the skill first, and then the fight will go far smoother… If I even have to fight, that is,"

Lan sat on the edge of the tundra, flurries of snow circling him like icy spirits. One and then two strings of snow wound together, and a third, then a fourth joined. Quickly, there were ten, then twenty and thirty strings of snow braided together in a tight rope.

Usually, it was about this point that Lan got a headache. Without his complete concentration, controlling that many different objects at once, especially with such precision, was incredibly taxing. 'It seems like Mind helps with that in some way. Even now, with forty-five strands in the rope, I feel as though I can keep going,'

So, he did.

In groups of five, he added additional strands, and the ethereal rope grew thicker and more substantial. Its presence gradually became more pronounced as its flickering form solidified the more strands were added.

Lan didn't stop adding strands until he felt the familiar tug in the back of his head that told him he was going too far and stretching his Mind too thin. When he was done, there were 93 strands in all, and the rope itself was far sturdier than ever before.

'But at a certain point, it doesn't really matter how sturdy the rope is. I don't need it to suspend bridges or lift monstrous weights. The best use for the rope is as an additional limb. And now, I should be able to make two ropes of about equal strength, and with my added mana reserves, fuelling them isn't a pipe dream,'

Imagining the scene put a smile on his face. He could stride through a battlefield with blades in both hands and shields hovering around him, effortlessly deflecting arrows and spears alike.

"Until someone like George comes along and blows me the fuck up," Lan added, ruining the beautiful scene with an unstoppable explosion.

As he practised with the rope, thinking of all the different applications he could use it for, night sank deeper over the tundra. An hour of practising became six, and before Lan knew it, he had less than two hours to collect the final cargo.

Despite the time crunch, it wasn't with apprehension that he strode across the frozen lake. He was confident, his footsteps falling measured and steady on the blue ice beneath him. Under the ice, the water was so crystal clear that Lan could easily watch the single, sleek, black Eel as it swam in lazy circles, orbiting the centre of the lake where a solitary wooden totem pole stood proudly against the white backdrop.

Lvl: 17 Great Eel

On the totem pole were many demonic faces carved in a brutal mixture of grotesque faces. Each carved face had horns and teeth that jutted from their inhuman mouths at odd angles.

Lan could make out a groove for his hand on the base of the totem pole. It was smooth, worn beyond the point of splinters being a danger. He couldn't see inside the hole no matter how hard he tried, so in the end, he had no choice but to place his hand in.

Before he did so, he had a sinister notion. 'Why not just kill the Eel now? It's not expecting an attack, so now would be the best time,'

But he smothered that thought in its infancy. "No. I'm better than that. It may be foolish, but bad habits die hard. This time, I'll do things the right way, even if it's more difficult,"

He sent mana flowing into the pole, waiting patiently as golden veins ran up and down its wooden surface. The eyes of the carved faces began to glow an intense blue, the same hue as the lake. It was almost crystalline in its purity. The glowing totem pulsed as it gathered up mana, focusing everything into a single, white cloud that hovered above Lan's head.

The cloud hung there, unbothered by the biting winds, in perfect stasis. Lan watched eagerly as the blue glow from the totem filled the cloud. Before his eyes, a lone raindrop formed, glowing a deep blue. It slowly descended towards him, landing on his head and passing straight through, disappearing within him.

Cargo retrieved; the train is waiting… All Cargo has been collected. Therefore the Bonus Cargo will shortly reveal itself.

Alert: Temporary title acquired – Neptune's Wish

Effects: Increased affinity and resistance to Water and Ice.

Note: Blessing removed on failure to pass the fourth step.

"Huh?" Lan frowned, "Did I hear that right? Bonus-"

A splintering crack ran through the ice as an enormous black head slammed against the underside of the frozen lake. Beneath the water, the Eel was writhing furiously, hammering its sinuous body against the barrier between it and Lan.

Lan grunted, "I mean… I kind of knew it would get violent like the others did. But at least this way, I won't feel morally corrupt about killing the damn thing,"

He had a plan to kill the Eel, which didn't involve any traps or schemes. All he needed was his rope and some ice. As he tried to string together the rope formed from mana and freezing water, Lan noticed that the process was going much smoother than before. 'It must be the title; maybe I can even get one hundred strands now,'

The Eel circled beneath him, hammering its tail against the thick ice so furiously it began to crack. Lan stared down through the frozen barrier, watching closely as the creature suddenly dived deep into the lake. He began to get his weapon ready, and this time, he had a new idea.

Directly beneath him, the Eel reached the bottom of the crystalline lake and turned. With the explosive force of a tightly wound spring, It burst back up towards him, blowing through the water like a torpedo and leaving a jet stream behind its streamlined body. It charged up towards Lan, mouth wide open revealing an endless black abyss.

Lan cracked his knuckles, concentrating as he finished making the two mana ropes. They shone a silvery blue from the mixture of snow and water, hovering by his side like ghostly jellyfish tentacles.

As the Eel neared, Lan began to rotate the two ropes, spinning them clockwise like a drill. The faster he turned the ropes, the more strain was put on his Mind, but he couldn't afford to slow down. They were travelling so fast that the silvery strings became little more than a cone-shaped blur in front of him. A cone that would shred anything it came into contact with.

The swiftly approaching Eel neared the ice, and Lan looked down, staring into its open mouth. 'What a big target,' He readied himself, crouching down like a tiger waiting to pounce. His muscles and sinews twitched anxiously as the Eel slammed into the bottom of the ice and burst up towards him.

Right before the ice beneath his feat cracked and gave way to the Eel's assault, Lan jumped, flying almost twenty metres into the air. He hung there, suspended as the Eel exploded from the ice beneath and continued up towards him, its black body glistening in the moonlight.

As Lan began to fall back towards the Eel, he positioned his cone of spinning ropes beneath him, aiming straight for the Eel's open mouth.

They collided mid-air, and Lan disappeared directly into the Eel's mouth. The spinning ropes shredded every inch of the monster from the inside out. He drilled through the creature like a screw through wood, and it wasn't long before he burst out the other end of the Eel, having tunnelled the entire way through its long body.

He landed back on the ice, and blood rained down on him, splattering into red puddles on the blue ice.

Alert: Killed Lvl:17 Great Eel – Experience Gained (Bonus due to level difference)

Lan took a deep breath, sighing as the tension left his body. "I did it… I can't believe that drill thing actually worked." He checked his timer, "And there's still an hour left before the tutorial ends. That's plenty of time to head to the train,"

Just as he was relaxing, a low rumble shook the whole tutorial.

"Huh?" He turned to the source of the noise, noticing an apocalyptic avalanche was occurring on the peak of the mountain that scraped the sky. An endless wave of snow poured from its unreachable heights, washing down the side of the mountain in an unstoppable, white wave.

All Cargo has been collected, and All Guardians have been dispatched. Bonus Cargo unlocked. Guardian unleashed – The Kitsune of Five.

"What? There's more?" Lan groaned, squinting at the peak of the mountain. 'Maybe I'll just not bother. I don't think I have the time to go kill another guardian, and I imagine collecting five cargos is more than enough.'

Having decided, Lan tried his best to ignore the crumbling mountain peak and made his way towards the train.

The journey back wasn't long, but it left him feeling distinctly uncomfortable. Besides the fact that he was somewhat of a completionist and didn't like the feeling of leaving uncollected cargo behind, Lan felt somewhat uneasy. It was almost as though something was watching his every move.

Even when the old-fashioned, green steam train came into view, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him. Something predatory.

The feeling reminded him of how security guards watched him when he entered a shop, and subconsciously, he sped up, first speed walking and then breaking into an all-out run as he made a break for the train. 'It's probably nothing,' He kept telling himself, stealing the occasional glance at the mountaintop. Obscured by clouds of mist and snow from the avalanche, he couldn't see anything up there but could feel the gaze. Something up there was watching him. He just knew it.

"Shit!" Lan started sprinting the final few hundred metres to the train, feeling the gaze on him intensify all the while. It sent chills crawling down his spine.

As he began crossing the final stretch of snow between him and the train, the mountaintop exploded in a wave of rainbow light. He whipped around, watching as a golden figure streaked down from the distant height, leaving five trails of blazing light in the air behind it.

'What the fuck is that?' Lan glanced back at the train and then up at the rapidly approaching figure. 'I can probably make it in time,' He thought hopefully.

But just as he was about to move, a tornado appeared behind the golden figure, blowing it forward. Five streams of colourful light trailed behind it like the tails of a comet. They were Fiery red, Cloudy white, Earthy Brown, Vibrant green and Deep blue. Each trail, irrespective of colour, seemed to pulse with energy and life.

Lan watched the figure blur towards him, rooted to the spot. When it was barely half a mile away and closing fast, he managed to rouse himself, 'Shit, I'll never make it to the train before that thing gets here. I only have half an hour left before this trial ends, so if I'm going to fight the damn thing, I'd better make it quick,'

He scrambled to create a 100-strand thick rope from nearby snow, twining the individual strings together in record time. He gripped his scythe tightly in one hand and held the rope in the other.

While he would have liked more time to prepare, the final guardian wasn't going to give him that time. It slammed into the ground between him and the train, leaving a dusty crater like that of a meteor impact. Clouds of dirt and snow filled the space between Lan and the creature, obscuring it.

As the dust slowly settled, a golden fox came into view, staring intently at Lan with strange eyes. One was pitch black with a white pupil, and the other was completely white, save for a regular black pupil. Instead of one tail, it had five, each made from its own element.

'Those must have been what was leaving those trails in the sky,' Lan figured, frowning at the five magical tails. From what he could tell, they corresponded to the five titles he had received in this tutorial. Fire, Wind, Earth, Nature and Water. 'It lines up too perfectly to be a coincidence.'

Its fur was completely golden and covered in swirling black tattoos, which Lan noticed seemed to resemble the carvings he had seen before getting the previous Cargo.

Lvl: 20 Kitsune of Five

Lan and the fox remained motionless, locked in place as they stared deep into each other's eyes, taking their opponent's measure. Neither moved nor made a sound, facing off like cowboys in a standoff.

'I'll just…' Lan shifted slightly, getting ready to burst towards the train. But the Kitsune immediately growled, rising up on its hackles. The sound was a throaty rumble that sent tremors through the ground and shivers down Lan's spine.

He took a deep breath, calming his racing heart, 'This time, it's serious. Those other beasts were all just tasters, and this thing is the main course.' He considered his rule, trying to make sure what he was doing was just, 'I could definitely classify this as a provocation, which means it's ok for me to attack,'

The five tails of the fox waved lazily behind it, each crackling with a life of its own.

'Those tails will be its major weapons, but if I consider the resistance my titles give me towards their respective elements… I should probably be able to take a few blows from each tail. My best course of action is to engage this thing in close quarters. Since it's nowhere near as big as the previous guardians, it should be weaker physically.'

Lan tensed up as he got ready to burst forward, but the Kitsune sensed it. Its glowing red tail shot a plume of fire out towards Lan, scorching the snow from the ground. The wave of heat washed over him, but with his title that helped him resist fire to some degree, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, besides the fact that the remainder of his tattered tutorial robe went up in ashes.

Strangely enough, when the final fragment of the material burned up, an entirely new robe materialised on Lan in perfect condition. 'If I had known that would happen, I would have burned that old one ages ago,'

Lan sprinted into the wall of flames, bursting out towards the waiting fox. But what met him was a wall of high-pressure wind from the white tail, buffeting him backwards and into the flames again.

He decided to back off and re-evaluate the tails. 'On their own, I can deal with them. But when it uses the different elemental abilities in tandem, it's nearly impossible for me to deal with. I need to eliminate a few of them. But how do I do that?...' He glanced around at his surroundings. The train was stationed on the edges of the snowy tundra, where the thick blanket of ice and snow gradually gave way to sprouts of grass and particularly hardy trees.

'Let's think, what elements can it use here? There's water from the snow, nature from the plants and earth from the ground. Then, it seems to be able to generate fire from the red tail and wind from the white one…' Lan was stumped until, in his moment of need, he had an epiphany.

'If I get it to burn away all the snow and grass, that will eliminate half of the elements it can use!'

He immediately set about putting this plan into action. By keeping his distance from the Fox and baiting out bouts of flame, the nearby ground was swiftly set ablaze. Not a speck of life could be seen in the scorched landscape. Only dry dirt and rock remained as steam clouds billowed into the air.

The Kitsune growled impatiently and stamped on the dusty earth as its brown tail began to glow. A deep crack split through the ground, and an enormous hand emerged from within. Five fingers hewn from black volcanic rock were curled up in a fist the size of a wrecking ball. Next came the arm, thick enough to drive a car across, followed by a titanic head and shoulders.

Slowly but surely, the earth was opening up to release a stone giant the likes of which Lan had never seen before. As it clambered the whole way out of the ground, it reached back down, twisting on something. Lan heard a sharp snap and gawked as the Giant pulled a wooden root twice as tall as itself from beneath the earth. The wood twisted beneath its grasp, forming a brutally sharp point at one end and a wide hammer at the other.

"What the fuck?" Lan looked down at his little scythe and up at the stone giant. He wasn't even sure that the blade could scratch the monster. But as he looked, he noticed something. When he checked for a system name, the Giant didn't have one. 'Does that mean it isn't alive? Maybe the Kitsune created it… Holy shit, this is ridiculous!'

On cue, the Fox leapt up to the Giant's shoulder, gliding on an updraft of wind it created and landing softly. When its paws touched the rocky shoulder, its red tail flared up, and the Giant's eyes began to glow like a furnace as a red light flickered on in its chest.

When it took its first step, the earth trembled in fear, groaning under the weight.

Lan took a step back in response, his heart hammering in his chest. Just to be sure, he checked how much time he had left. 'Only fifteen shitty minutes! For god's sake!'

The second he glanced away to check the time remaining, a mountain fell towards him. Or rather, a fist the size and weight of a mountain. Lan watched in awe as the rising sun was eclipsed by the fist rushing towards him. The only thing in his vision was pitch black stone.

He jumped, using his rope like a pogo stick to push himself out of the way at the last minute. As he flew back away from the rushing fist, the Giant swung its massive hammer down on him.

"How is it so fast? The Kitsune must be using the wind to speed up its movements. I'm glad I got rid of the water; otherwise…"

'Wait... Isn't steam also water?' Lan grimaced, watching as gusts of wind wrapped up the clouds of steam. They billowed around the Giant, blanketing its body in white armour formed from clouds.

He hurriedly used his rope to pull himself out of the way of the swinging hammer, cursing the overpowered fox. 'Why the fuck does a rock giant need armour? Although... I don't really need to kill the Giant. Since it's just being controlled by the Fox. If I just focus on the fox, I should have a chance,'

The problem was that the fox was on the Giant's shoulder, standing regally and without fear. It was so close, yet out of reach.

The ground trembled with the Giant's every movement, shaking beneath its titanic weight. Lan gazed up at its face, which was featureless save from the glowing red furnaces in its eyes. He acutely felt that time was running out. Without the luxury of coming up with a plan or running away, he just sprinted at the monster.

Its fist plummeted towards him like a meteorite, but Lan was ready this time. At the last second, he jumped onto its wrist and began running up the Giant's craggy arm. Wind slammed into his face trying to hold him back, but he dragged himself up with the rope, using his scythe like an ice pick.

The pointed end of the Giant's spear blurred as it stabbed towards him, but Lan slid past the attack, coming up in a roll. The spear slammed into the Giant's own arm, burying itself in the indestructible rock.

It thrashed as it tried to dislodge the spear, making climbing its body nearly impossible. Nearly. Not for Lan. Using his bountiful experience climbing trees, he jumped from foothold to foothold, rapidly scaling the monstrous titan.

When he finally arrived on the Giant's shoulder, he was standing on the other side of its thick neck to the fox. He attached his scythe to the rope and used it as a grappling hook, swinging across to the waiting fox.

The second Lan landed beside it, a wall of flames shot from its tail to greet him. But he was ready this time. Twirling the rope in front of him like a helicopter blade, he managed to deflect the fire to the side.

He forged ahead, gaining precious ground on the fox as the Giant twisted and writhed beneath him, desperately trying to dislodge the spear from its arm.

Lan gritted his teeth and ignored the blasts of wind that tried to keep him back. The fox was barely a few metres away, and he could almost reach out and grab it. But the fox wasn't one to give up without a fight.

A pocket of cloud dislodged from the Giant's armour and drifted over to Lan, condensing into a bubble of water around his head.

He froze, unable to breathe. 'Shit, it's just like that damn volcano death!' He felt his heart racing. He didn't want to die again; there was too much at stake.

Ignoring his screaming lungs and pounding chest, he pushed forward, covering the final few metres to the fox in a flash. He swung his scythe in a wide arc, but it dinged off the golden fur ineffectually. The blade had bent drastically in the centre, making it unusable.

Lan tossed the blade aside and shot out his rope, wrapping it around the fox's throat. It snarled, clawing at the rope as it desperately tried to free itself.

'Not If I will have anything to do with it!' Lan grimaced in the bubble, his lungs aching. He reached out and grabbed the fox, wrestling it beneath him and raining down blows on its armoured fur.

With each punch, his knuckles cracked and bled, but so did the fox. Fire poured down on his back from the glowing red tail, but he ignored the burns and kept hammering on the fox. He wouldn't die. Not until he was done.

After what felt like centuries, as his vision faded into blackness, the bubble popped, and water drenched his smouldering robe.

Alert: Killed Lvl: 20 Kitsune of Five – Experience Gained (Bonus due to Level difference)

Level up! [12->13]

Final Cargo retrieved! All Cargo has been collected. Trial completed.

Alert: Temporary title acquired – Eutierria

Effects: Increased affinity and resistance to the elements. (Replaces all individual elemental titles.)

Note: Blessing removed on failure to pass the fourth step.

Crawling onto the train was the last thing Lan could do before passing out from exhaustion. His body was battered and bruised. But he had won.