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

I walk through the snow. It's falling pretty hard, but the wolves don't come for me. I reach the lake quickly and stop before stepping onto the shore.

It's covered in snow, hiding what I know is a completely frozen body of water underneath.

What's more, the snowfall makes it hard to tell where the shoreline even is. But I remember there were trees nearby, so I stop next to one of those last trunks, its canopy also heavy with snow.

I'm glad that I'm wearing the yeti cloak to protect me from the cold.

There's no sound except the heavy fall of snowflakes. No wind. Even my footsteps have been muffled by the soft whiteness on the ground.

My breath creates vapor when I exhale.

The view of the enormous lake inside the cave is breathtakingly beautiful. I feel like I'm looking at a fairy tale landscape. I almost hesitate to move and break this stillness I've become part of, feeling alive and with my mind one hundred percent focused on the present moment.

My focus is perfect.

I feel good about myself and what I'm about to do.

I bow my head, as if thanking I don't know who for the opportunity to test myself like this and keep improving and learning.

Then I cast fire element channeling on my entire body and feel a pleasant warmth that drives away the cold. I lower my head and look at my chest, my legs, my arms.

A red glow, an aura of small tongues of fire that move in rhythm with my breathing, covers them.

Now, yes.

I draw my sword, cover it in fire too—that's four mana points down—and break the stillness by stepping into the lake.

Five steps separate me from it.

I know because the moment I step on the snow covering the ice, there's an angry hiss and multiple wraiths appear to attack me.

But the magical fire damages them before they can do anything to me. That fire that protects me from their freezing touch.

And even though I could fight without a sword, just with my hands, I don't have hand-to-hand mastery, so I use the weapon. I take out more than twenty wraiths before they realize something isn't working.

The rest retreat and surround me. I see their translucent faces thirsting to drink my mana, to drain and freeze me until they leave me lifeless.

And I imagine that I would then become one of them and join their ranks.

But I haven't come here, or to this world, to become a hungry, lost soul.

"Come at me!" I shout and challenge them. "Aren't you so fearsome that your XP is worth almost as much as an alpha wolf boss? Come at me!"

I completely counter them. It doesn't matter if they rush at me all at once and materialize their hands inside my body. They're going to burn and I'm not going to freeze. And they don't get to drain even one mana point from me because they break contact to avoid dying. Then I attack them with my sword.

They can't do anything.

Well… nothing except wait.

But even if I have to recast these two spells and drop to 3 mana points, I'll ask the pup for a lick to be able to cast them again. And then another lick if I still haven't beaten them. The wolf is my final card for when I only have about 3 or 4 points left.

I have time.

But not forever.

I'm going to try to get them out of their strategy, anger them and make them think they can't win.

I'm about to launch a fireball against the ones surrounding me in front, hoping to get lucky and have it explode, when I remember that I already fired a dart arrow at one of them on the first day and it went intangible and the arrow passed through without hurting it.

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Better not. I don't want to waste mana.

And I also can't modify the visual effect of my fire aura, which I assume they can see because their magic is water-based, to make it seem like it's weakening and disappearing.

So it's going to have to actually disappear.

I turn and start running toward the labyrinth, the way I came, away from the forest.

The wraiths that were surrounding me from behind go intangible so my fire won't burn them, and I pass right through them. As I flee, I start casting a fireball and access the system. I can see the seconds left on the fire element channeling.

Channeling isn't like earth or stone control, whose duration depends on me staying focused on the spell. I can cast other magic losing the channeling.

I close the system interface and continue the countdown in my mind. When it reaches zero, I turn and launch the fireball at them.

It hits the bulk of the specters that were following me head-on, and seeing that I'm no longer protected, they just launched themselves at me at full speed.

And it explodes.

Oh yes, it gloriously explodes, dealing double fire damage.

These wraiths are extremely dangerous but they don't have too many hit points.

However, I can't revel in the fallen enemies because three of them managed to reach me, avoiding the fireball, and have just pierced my flesh with their icy hands and begun draining my mana. I ignore the pain and, like that other time, focus on casting the fire element channeling spell. It's hard to pronounce the minimal words needed for the spell. I feel again like my very throat and jaw are freezing, even though none of the specters has touched me near that area. I manage to say them.

As I do, a fourth and fifth enemy reach me, stabbing their frozen fingers into my arm and left side. It hurts.

The heat explodes through my body and it's glorious. Unlike when I channeled the bow, this time it's my entire body emanating the heat, so I hit them with full force and they begin emitting howls of pain. They pull away from me as fast as they can, or try to, since as I said they have few hit points and are vulnerable to magical fire. All damage from that source deals critical damage to them.

I don't even look around. I open the system.

Bianca L'Crom

Race: Human

Age: 18 years

Level: 10

Constitution: 15

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 8

Agility: 9

Wisdom: 11

Health Points: 7 of 18

Mana Points: 0 of 11

Holy shit, that was close. Those first three wraiths must have drained one mana point each from me. Since I had already spent 6, they left me at 2. The last two wraiths didn't have time to drain anymore because I had already used those two points for the spell I was finishing casting.

Ignoring the defeated wraiths that have already vanished without leaving corpses behind, as well as the handful that lurk before me, glaring with hatred, I drop to my knees on the ground. The snow melts beneath me, my leather-clad legs touch the earth below, and the meltwater rushes away.

Tears of rage escape from my eyes.

I'm such an idiot.

Only I would think to let the spell that protects me end without renewing it in time, and on top of that to set a trap for creatures that teleport and are also faster than me even without teleporting. And that drain your mana if they touch you and maintain that icy contact.

Fuck!

I could be dead.

Maybe that's what I'd deserve for being stupid. Oh yeah, "I haven't come to this world to be a hungry, lost spirit!" I berate myself savagely.

I'm not that OP, my magic isn't that broken. Even being a counter to these creatures, I shouldn't have done something so reckless. I bet Ronan imagined I'd kill a few and then call the shadow wolf.

But no, I have to act tough and strong, I want to prove to myself that I can achieve great things.

Idiot, I'm an idiot!

I shake with bitter sobs as the channeling time ticks by.

Common sense pulls me out of my self-pity and I ask the pup for a lick.

I renew the fire element channeling before it ends and look at the four wraiths that are still alive, floating above the ground and looking at me with what is now more hatred than hunger.

If I attack them, they'll dodge. If the channeling ends, I think they'll attack. I've killed their companions and right now revenge might overpower their survival instinct.

The pup is on the ground, beside me. I stand up and call the shadow wolf.

"Just paralyze them, please," I ask.

Because I want to kill them myself.

The enormous wolf lets out its shadow howl and I approach the creatures. With my own hands wreathed in fire, I finish them off. I just need to get close and burn them.

The specters disappear without a trace. They swell at my touch and explode.

Only the wolf and I remain.

He's bigger than me. I try to wrap my arms around his neck. I can't quite manage it, but I still hug my pet, my friend, my divine beast… or whatever he is.

And I keep crying.

When the minute ends, since I don't want to spend more mana, I let him shift back into the pup, his head barely reaching above my knee. I lose my balance and don't care about falling. I don't even try to stay upright. The seed jumps on me and licks my face, trying to comfort me.

Yes, I'm an idiot.

A contract says I'm the future Demon Lord and I think I believed it a little too much. All this power clearing dungeons… I'm way stronger than any academy student, and I could probably beat a few professors in a fight. But that doesn't make me all-powerful.

Or infallible.

I still have a lot to learn.

And good thing they didn't attack the pup, who was tucked into the side pocket of my backpack.

Grounded by a fresh dose of reality and humility, I get to my feet, ask the pup for its second lick, and start walking. It's time to leave the dungeon.