I Woke Up as the Villainess's Friend. I Don’t Want to Be the Next Dark Queen

I approach the cavern entrance and focus on sensing the stone. It's all around me. This will be easier to manipulate than earth, since I don't have to pull it from far away, from below, forcing it through cracks in the rock.

First, using part of those 25 cubic meters I have available, I fill the entrance with dense rock, turning it into a seamless continuation of the wall. Then I add extra thickness because I want this sonic wave completely blocked. I also leave some gaps in the middle, like air chambers, because I remember from my life on Earth that this dampens sound better.

Next, with the volume I have left, I section off the stalactites hanging naturally from the cave ceiling, which crash down below with a tremendous roar, shaking the area. All the enemies—the golems and the bats—go on high alert and react immediately. The bats, not really knowing what's attacking them, unleash their disorientation sonic attack in all directions to cover the entire cave. And my wall does exactly what I expected, preventing the attack from reaching me and blocking the status effect.

Now's the moment. Still focused on stone control, I withdraw the rock blocking the entrance, returning it to its original place on the floor and ceiling where I'd carefully extracted it without compromising the structure of either the corridor or the cave.

Then I release stone control and apply channeling with earth element to my body. I couldn't do it before, or I would have lost control of the stone.

I draw the queen mother's sword—I really want to learn to use claws—channeled with air and head in.

Yes, air, since I've already learned about balance and prefer to level up what I have at lower levels first.

So, two channelings. Four mana points. The earth one isn't negotiable since it's going to be my defense. I also have a few arrows I didn't use earlier and the ones I collected from the golem corpses that are still in good condition.

I enter the chamber. The bats, already agitated and flying around, dive for me the moment they notice my presence. I press against the wall near the entrance to cover my back and raise my sword. My mastery with it lets me take a good defensive position. The dance begins.

With clean movements, I intercept the bats going for my head and chest. The ones targeting lower parts of my body straight up succeed and nail me with their impact attack. They have so little HP that with one sword slash (boosted by channeling, my mastery, and the queen mother's bonus) I take them out.

My legs and abdomen show no signs of injury for now. I think between my leather armor and the earth channeling, I have enough defense that their attack isn't doing anything to me.

At least the collision damage.

There are many of them and they keep coming at me. My arms aren't getting tired yet. I swing the sword to slash at the bats approaching from above. They fall lifeless to the ground. Some at my feet, others bouncing back a bit. Eventually, they run out of room to attack my legs, since they're covered with bats trying in vain to pierce my armor with their sharp teeth.

I realize what a mess I've gotten myself into. If the channeling wasn't protecting me, I'd be bleeding out with small chunks torn off with each bite.

Well, I can always summon the wolf... but then that would be the end of farming wraiths.

It would be nice to learn a light shield like Mary's, or improve earth channeling even more.

After a couple of minutes, no more bats are flying impact attacks toward me, and I lean down to finish off the ones still biting me. Mostly my legs, because any that rise to reach my stomach or face get dealt with first.

My sword, with the channeling, cuts through their skin and flesh without problems. I finish just before the effects of the air and earth channelings wear off. Both last three minutes.

Now that there are no more bats they could hit with friendly fire, the nearest golems start shooting their ice bolts at me. I jump to dodge them and pull out my bow. I spend another two mana points channeling the quiver with fire. I stay still to aim properly and shoot. Two golems drop lifeless before an ice bolt reaches me. It's pretty big, about the size of one of my legs but thicker, and it hits me right in the chest.

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It hurts.

I fall backward, hitting the ground with my butt.

I think it did some damage. My armor and channeling couldn't protect me completely.

I hurry to roll and dodge another bolt, then get back up.

I have three mana points left. I didn't want to do this, but I see there's no choice.

I raise an earth wall, which shoots up from the ground, costing me two points.

I'll have to finish them off like other times, for three reasons.

First: channeling doesn't protect me enough.

Second: even if it did, it probably has seconds left.

Third: running and dodging while aiming and shooting? Let's just say I haven't mastered that yet.

Maybe at higher levels of bow mastery?

For a moment I picture myself in the future as some kind of elf leaping through trees and obstacles while nocking arrows and shooting with incredible mastery and ease.

I shake my head and focus.

Time to shoot through the arrow slits.

I finish clearing the chamber and sit down to meditate.

They won't respawn while I'm inside the dungeon, and I want to save both licks for the wraiths. Ten mana points is an hour and forty minutes. Make it two hours. I check the system interface and see I'm missing two HP, and as soon as I recover some mana, I cast a heal that tops me off, since it heals up to 3 HP.

Good. Here we go.

The wraiths. I know they're serious business, but I want to prove to myself that I can do it. Honestly, I'm a bit intimidated by Ronan's combat potential. Between that and realizing I need to push myself and do things on my own, stop relying on him so much, this is a perfect way to face a good challenge and see if I can handle it without calling the shadow wolf.

Just me.

That's what this is about.

So I go downstairs and enter the labyrinth, and the moment I do, I realize that what's a piece of cake with Ronan's golems is going to be more complicated here.

Bianca, I scold myself, if you want to be a leader and strategist, besides thinking about how you're going to beat the wraiths, you should have found a plan for this too.

Ronan definitely would have.

I sigh.

I know there are cracks you can barely see until you're right on top of them and they finish splitting, dropping you into a pit with ice spikes.

And that's the key: ice.

I can sense earth and rock, but not ice.

Ronan told Mary I could do this, so he definitely considered the labyrinth.

Hmm... let me think.

What if I send the pup? He has good agility and knows how to jump. If the ground breaks under his feet, he just needs to react quickly and get away.

Does he have more agility than me? I ask him to let me see his stats and check. I have 9, it has 11.

Like I was saying, the damn pup is smarter and more agile than me... Well, and way stronger too. I only beat him in wisdom...

Yeah, I should send him.

But I'm only thinking that because I'm a bit salty that he's smarter than me. The truth is I don't want to risk his life.

Looking for other options, I have the flash spell. But if I teleport on top of a crack, that's bad news. So that's out too.

In a game, my impatience would win and I'd go running like crazy, hitting jump when I saw the ground was about to fail. I'm not going to risk something so dangerous that could definitely go wrong.

If I had something heavy to throw, something that would roll ahead...

That's it!

I go back upstairs and grab one of the smaller golem corpses, the ones that are like basketballs, tucking it under one arm. Then I grab another for the other arm. I return to the labyrinth. I roll one down the center of the corridor like it's a bowling ball. I advance behind it. The pup barks at me. I don't know if he's laughing at me or appreciatively cheering me on.

I'm not in the mood to pull him out of the backpack pocket and see the expression on his adorable little face.

Because if he's laughing, I'm giving him the Darwin Award and launching him at the cracks myself.

Anyway...

The golem thing works. The only problem is that since the golem isn't undead, it doesn't levitate and falls to the bottom of the trap. And I'm not getting it out of there, so I'll have to go get more golems. As for the pit, if I get a running start I think I can jump it without problems. But first I throw the golem I'm still carrying under my arm so it lands on the other side. It lands fine and rolls forward a couple meters from the momentum.

Perfect.

I go back upstairs and make a couple trips to bring down four more golems, which I launch across the same way. Then I jump. I land easily. I think I could have done it even without a running start, probably thanks to my strength and agility stats.

I throw one of the golems ahead, collect two others, and continue. This is my slow and laborious advance through the labyrinth. Until I find the exit, I have to go back upstairs a couple more times for more ice golem corpses.

When I reach the ice arch marking the maze exit, decorated with deep carvings of intricate geometric snowflake designs, I stand there for a few seconds. I make sure I'm okay, not injured, that my mana pool is full, and the pup is fine too.

I visualize in my mind the path I need to take, avoiding the forest and thus the wolves too, straight to the lake.

"Ready, handsome?" I say to the seed, which I still haven't named.

He responds with a soft howl.

Perfect.

Let's do this!