I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?-Chapter 207 Close To The Next Tier
?<Middle of the elf dungeon>
*Heavy breathing* "Please tell me we are finished." Clara was on her hands and knees, out of breath as this was their 10th time running the dungeon.
"Don't worry we are done." Shaman was lying on the ground covered in blood and dirt in a similar state to Clara. Elysia found herself on top of Shaman almost falling asleep from exhaustion.
Silver was leaning on his scythe to keep his balance while looking over everyone.
"Does anybody know any healing spells?" Shaman wondered if anyone else could use one as she did not feel like moving at all.
"Nope, I believe you are the only one with a healing spell." Clara had her demonic regeneration, but nothing that could heal anyone else.
"Oh wait, Elysia, wake your ass up!" Shaman recalled the life-stealing flame which should be able to help with their fatigue, so she slapped Elysia's ass to wake her up.
"Ah~!" Shooting up awake with a moan, she looked around wondering what the hell happened. 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶
"Can you use your flame to help with this fatigue?" Shaman got straight to the point, leaving Elysia a little disappointed as she expected a surprise when she woke up.
"Finnnee~, but you are carrying me back." Elysia pouted and proposed her deal, but before Shaman could agree or decline, Elysia had already used her flame.
"I-I... Damnit." Shaman wanted to decline, but Elysia was too quick, letting her flames engulf everyone. Although it looked like it should have hurt, the flames were warm and had a nice satisfying feeling.
"That feels nice." Clara and Silver were basking in the warmth and felt the pain in their muscles diminish, allowing them to move properly.
Getting up from the ground, Shaman carried Elysia in a princess carry, the latter having a cheeky smile on her face.
*Sigh* "Anyway, how much progress did we make?" Shaman opened up a system menu showing everyone's levels.
[Shaman Shiroi]
Wind - Tier 4 -> 5
Fire - Tier 4 -> 5
Water - tier 4 -> 5
Ice - tier 4 -> 5
Level 132 -> 170
[Elysia Dahlia]
Level 131 -> 169
[Silver Shiroi]
Level 128 -> 166
[Clara ???]
Level 131 -> 169
Satisfied with the results, it would only require a day or two of grinding to reach tier 6 and they will finally be comfortable moving to the next floor.
"I'm sure Elanor and Kiruya are worried, we have been in here for… how long now?" Shaman didn't keep track of the time and assumed they would simply grind until they reached the brink of exhaustion.
"I think we have been here for 5 hours." Silver kept better track of the time, but he wasn't sure and so only gave an estimation.
[6 hours.] Rea's voice echoed in everyone's head, making them come to a halt as they realised they had stayed for an extra 2 hours.
"Okay, we realllllly need to go." Clara could foresee the earful they will get from Kiruya and can already imagine her standing outside the dungeon waiting.
With that said they all rushed out to the entrance, hoping Kiruya isn't going to be mad at them.
*
Making it back into the adventurers guild, Shaman looked around for Kiruya and luckily she was nowhere to be found.
"Phew, let's head back to the hideout." Knowing the lecture is yet to come, they were relieved to at least have some time to prepare before they returned.
Approaching the exit, still cautious of a potential lurking Kiruya, the group felt safer the closer they got to the exit.
"Ummm, Shaman." Elysia looked worryingly at Shaman trying to tell her something.
"Hmm?" Wondering what could be wrong, she looked at Elysia and saw her point. Turning around to see what it was, she was met with an annoyed-looking Kiruya.
"Oh fuck!" Getting jump-scared by the sudden appearance of Kiruya, Shaman tried to run away. However, her tail was grabbed by Kiruya and Clara was grabbed by the horn. Silver didn't dare move as he didn't want to be the only one to escape.
"Kyaa~!" Both Shaman and Clara screamed out from their most sensitive body parts being grabbed.
"Silver run while you can!" Shaman yelled to get Silver to run, but Kiruya glared at him, threatening him not to move.
"I… Ummm." Silver was frozen in place, conflicted about what he should do and wondering about the consequences of running away.
"You are coming with me, you made Elanor worried sick." Kiruya wasn't too angry, but they made Elanor extremely worried, so Kiruya took this opportunity to teach them to be more aware of the people around them.
"Y-yes." Shaman complied, giving up any thought of fighting back or running away. Silver in the end did not dare to leave and obediently stayed listening to Kiruya.
Elysia, who was not restrained, contemplated escaping and taking Silver with her, but she didn't want to leave Shaman and Clara. Plus there would be consequences if she did run away since it would only be a matter of time until she faced Kiruya.
Kiruya saw that they all nodded and dragged them back to the hideout.
*
<Hideout>
Everyone was on their knees in front of Kiruya, looking like they were about to be lectured.
Kiruya let out a sigh as she felt bad since they realistically didn't do anything wrong, but it was still irresponsible to not let her know if they were okay.
"I don't want to yell at you all, but please let me know you are okay. You have people outside the dungeon awaiting your return." Kiruya saw the relief on their faces, which made her happy, but she still hoped her message got across.
"Sorry, we lost track of time and only realised after we were on the ground exhausted." Shaman explained what had happened and all Kiruya could do was shake her head.
"It's okay, but be more aware of your surroundings next time." Kiruya made her way over to the bedrooms as Elanor was still waiting in her room.
"Elanor! They are back." Calling out her name, shuffling sounds came from one of the rooms and Elanor stumbled out.
"Shaman! Clara!" Elanor rushed towards them, giving Clara and Shaman a hug which incited a reaction from Elysia.
"Grrrr!" Growling at Elanor, she realised what she was doing and quickly backed off. 𝐟𝚛e𝐞𝙬𝗲𝒃𝓷𝒐𝘃e𝒍.c𝑜m
"Oop sorry, didn't mean anything by it haha~." Awkwardly laughing, Elanor realised she let her emotions get the better of her. Shaman on the other hand gave Elysia a brief glare of reproach.
"It's okay Elanor, Elysia is just a bit…. Possessive." Shaman didn't want to make it sound bad as it has gotten a lot better recently, especially with accepting Clara into the relationship.
"O-oh I see." Elanor could see it and was a bit terrified of Elysia, now seeing that she can get very hostile.
"Elysia, Elanor is allowed to hug us okay, if you're that envious, just join in." Shaman didn't want to deny Elanor some affection as she hardly has any friends let alone a family.
"Hmph, fine." Pouting and turning her head away, Elysia didn't want to watch the hug.
Shaman opened up her arms and offered Elanor a hug, but she looked over to Elysia hesitant if she should.
"Don't worry about her, I will put her on a leash if I have to." Shaman saw Elysia's ears perk up for a moment, but she still refused to look.
"O-okay." Accepting the hug, it felt awkward, but it was very comforting and reminded her of the times she was hugged as a kid. This almost made her start crying, but she held on as she didn't want to be seen crying, plus it would be a hit to her pride after staying strong for so long.
Elanor backed away satisfied and Kiruya smiled, glad that everyone was now okay.
"Alright if you're all good, I am heading to bed, just grab whatever you want to eat and I will see you all tomorrow." Kiruya was tired and she still needed to report to Freja today.
"Goodnight." The girls waved at Kiruya and said their goodnights as she left the living room.
"I guess I should start cooking." Elysia got over her emotions and made her way to the kitchen.
"Do you want a hand with cooking?" Shaman never thought to ask, but she wondered if Elysia wanted some help.
"NO! I mean... It's okay, I can do it myself." Elysia was afraid that Shaman would set fire to the kitchen as her cooking abilities only went as far as 2-minute noodles.
"Oh okay." Shaman didn't dare retort back as she knew how passionate Elysia was about her cooking and didn't want to intrude on that.
"Instead I will take Silver, I want to teach him some things." Elysia if anything wanted to teach her son how to cook just in case and figured it would be some good bonding time.
"Me?" Silver was confused and didn't expect to be invited to cook, but he wasn't going to say no.
'Let's hope he hasn't inherited Shaman's lack of cooking skills.' Knowing Silver had some of Shaman's genes, she hoped he did not take after Shaman's lazy side when it came to cooking.
"Yes, now come, mother will show you some tricks." Elysia smiled while gesturing at Silver to come over.
Shaman was jealous but she knew Elysia would shut her down if she said anything.
"It's okay Shaman, we have some skills to assign anyway." Clara tried to comfort Shaman as they still had things to do.
