NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31:
Yuki expresses her confusion, "I still don't understand why you are doing this," she says.
"Because it broke," Nekra replies.
"What broke?" Safi inquires.
"Don't act like you don't know, Safi nya. Can you please refrain from using my sword as a toothpick next time nya," Nekra requests as she begins to melt down her gladius.
"But it worked," Safi counters with a smile.
"What did you have stuck between your teeth nya? You don't need to eat," Nekra questions.
"Rust... yes, rust," Safi admits.
Nekra eyes her skeptically.
"Do I want to know, dear daughter nya?" Nekra asks.
Safi shakes her head no.
Nekra nods.
"Well, nya, I'm going to be in the workshop for a while nya," Nekra says, closing the door.
"So, what do you want to do now, Momma Yuki?" Safi asks.
In truth Yuki had grown taller as well. It was an over night thing much like Nekra, although they were not 6ft tall Yuki stood at a comfortable 5’ 7” while Nekra was a little shorter being 5’ 2” which was just ever so slightly shorter than the female adventurers.
"We could always go terrorize some adventurers," Yuki suggests.
"Those three look like good targets," Safi says, eyeing a ninja, a female mage, and a male swordsman. They're the Kaval party.
"Seems good," Yuki agrees as Safi suddenly teleports into the room in front of them before increasing the size of her dragon body.
"Why didn't we take that quest to the Jura forest again?" Eren asks.
"Because we could just kill a few iron golems and get a lot more money," Gido reasons.
Kaval opens the door to see a giant dragon.
"Welcome, humans. Do you wanna have a bad time?" Safi asks as several dragon-like heads float behind her, charging some sort of energy attack.
Eren closes the massive iron door extremely quickly.
"So, Jura forest?" Gido suggests.
The other two nod as they start to run back towards the entrance.
"So I really can't get you to enter the dungeon again?" Fuze asks.
"Not in a million years," Shizue says.
"Guild leader! We will take that Jura forest quest!" Eren shouts, bursting into the office still shaking with slight fear.
"Really? Well, I was about to give it to..." Fuze starts.
"Shizu," Shizue interjects.
"Shizu here," Fuze confirms.
Why the flame monarch wants to hide her rank and importance is not something he would understand although maybe in a few years he would.
"Can we will do it with you? Please, we don't wanna go back into the dungeon," Gido adds.
Shizue looks at all of them and nods in understanding.
"Joint quest then?" Shizue proposes.
Fuze just sighs. How is the dungeon that scary? Just don't go near the dragon and you're good.
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Nekra's workshop was a chaotic scene of bubbling crucibles and scattered tools, each surface bearing the marks of her fervent endeavors.
"So many choices nya," Nekra mutters amidst the organized chaos, her brow furrowed in concentration, as she meticulously tended to the various crucibles scattered across the workshop. Each crucible contained a different ore, ranging from mundane metals to rare, otherworldly alloys.
"So I need to go with an alloy nya," Nekra continued, her tone thoughtful as she considered her options. "Let's stick to mythical metal as well nya."
he carefully inserted the ingot into one of the crucibles, the molten metal accepting it eagerly as she surveyed the workshop. Her hand remained submerged in the crucible, holding down the metal bar which wished to float atop the adamantium goblin silver being a much lighter metal.
Nekra watched the enchanted steal refuse to yield to the searing heat of the crucible although her hand was much the same way holding the bar down unprotected. However, the fact that the bar was not melting was an annoyance.
"This could be an issue nya," Nekra mutters.
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Several days later.
Yuki and Safi were sitting in the “living room” discussing defense strategy to defend the dungeon.
"What kind of sword do you think she is making?" Safi asks.
"I don't know, it's probably something insane," Yuki says as they are watching Fate/Stay Night.
"I'm done nya!" Nekra shouts as she comes out holding a sword which seems to be glowing with magical power.
"That sword feels dangerous," Safi says and Yuki nods.
"Of course it is, I also had to make it a gladius like my other sword. I also made a shield to go along with it nya," Nekra says, pulling out a vibranium shield.
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The Great Jura Forest sprawled across the landscape like a verdant tapestry woven by the hands of nature herself. Towering ancient trees, their gnarled branches reaching towards the heavens, formed a dense canopy overhead, casting dappled shadows upon the forest floor below.
It was in this seemingly peaceful environment that a should rang out.
"Why are there so many ants!" Eren shouts.
"Just keep running," Gido advises.
Kaval nods along as Shizue is doing amazing acrobatic maneuvers behind them, slaying the killer ants as they got to close.
After what felt like hours running the ants eventually stopped giving chase the last of which having just been slain.
The party stops running. "Well done," Eren says to Shizue.
Suddenly, the ant that was thought dead in a burst of energy rises from the ground too close to use any large AOE attacks and it would catch them if they tried to run.
Shizue gets in a battle stance falling to her knees only to realize that she has hit her limit.
As she collapses, a black bolt of lightning descends from the sky and strikes the ant durning it to dust.