Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

195. The First Victory

Charli couldn't help but feel like a mouse caught in a trap.

The Labyrinth began shifting as fast as she and her dozen or so could escape through it. No matter which branching pathway they took in which direction they never seemed to get any further away from her.

Every clack of her softly pursuing footfalls haunted her. The scrapping sound of the heavy sword never grew quieter, its terrible consistency grated against the nerves of her spine as if it were a grindstone. Every second that sword grew sharper and her nerves grew thinner.

No number of fireballs or other magic seemed to delay the Dravenkin Queen in the slightest. Every sense of confidence she once had for defeating Shayley had completely disappeared. All of the forum reference material she had imported to her logs in the game had fled from her mind due to the encroaching fear that overloaded her common sense.

However, despite having her fight-or-flight reflex jammed into flight with the knob broken off, she never once considered sacrificing a single one of her remaining forces. An action she would have taken naturally only a day earlier, she now didn't dwell on it as an option.

Save everyone.

She had to...

...just as desperately as she had to save herself.

Afterall, in this world there was no more respawning. She'd never see Batsy or Sir Renfall ever again if they died. And that truth dug into her conscience as deeply as fear of dying herself.

Although something at the back of her mind warned her that she was being led into a trap, she was unable to do anything but run from the seemingly invincible Raid boss chewing at the end of her tail.

There was a light at the end of her current hallway that promised as much hope as it did dreadful finality.

"There, I see a light!" Batsy called hopefully from behind Charli. Only then had she realized that she had taken Batsy's hand as she fled and soberly hoped those would not be Batsy's final words.

'Please be the exit.' Charli prayed in her heart.

They were blinded by the light when they entered the spacious room.

High above them was a large glowing crystal. A glowing crystal that wasn't a crystal at all.

[Fenrir]

<Level ???>

<Familiar of Calloway Calphius>

<Status effect: Self-inflicted Sleep Recovery>

If she couldn't read the monster's level, then it had to be at least 50+ levels above her own at 136. How was it even possible to raise a familiar to that kind of level?!

"Oh goody, a fresh batch of new faces!" A cheerful voice drew her attention away from familiar to a woman directly below it.

The blonde-haired woman had been floating in the air as if reclining and now lowered herself to the stone circle below her. The moment her bare foot touched the stone her outfit change from a west-style sundress into smokey grey and purple shrine maiden uniform. A pair of fox ears grew from her head and nine tails sprouted from behind her appearing from wisps of smoke.

The next moment sealed her fate as the Eden-like room was soon filled with many tailed fox women appearing from the smoke. She didn't have the presence of mind to count the tails of each one. From first glance, there were almost one hundred beautiful fox women in the room, with not less than seven tails each.

She could handle a single six-tailed fox with relative ease from experience. But the spike in difficult drastic rose after that.

Seven tail foxes were mini boss tier and would be simple for a party but a time-consuming encounter alone. Eight tailed foxes were more like royal guards and were exceptionally powerful boss monsters. The Nine-tailed high tier raid boss monsters and were reserved for high level challenge events for the highest ranked raid parties.