"Ragh!"
You swung your claymore at the last hilichurl and sighed.
Eight camps were cleared in the span of five hours. You were exhausted..
You picked up the mask that one of the hilichurls dropped and got a good look at it. Eventually, you threw it back on the ground.
That didn't look like it was worth much..
"Raghh!!"
Before you could turn around, a strong force made contact with your back.
You stumbled forward as you tried to gain your balance.
What!?
Suddenly, you saw a whole group of hilichurl's rushing into the camp.
The hilichurl's weren't really a problem, though. It was the Cryo Abyss Mage and Stonehide Lawachurl that caught your attention.
Before the hilichurl's could shoot their arrows and throw their rocks, you picked up your claymore and rushed towards the Lawachurl.
First, you would have to take it down before it got its shield.
You swung your claymore and struggled as you tried to fight off the larger being.
It pushed your claymore back, but before you could swing at it again, an Abyss Mage suddenly appeared right next to you.
Your eyes widened as you immediately ducked before it could shoot ice at you.
Creating distance between you and the Lawachurl, you decided it would be best to finish off the Abyss Mage first, seeing that it was going to be a distraction the whole fight.
You put all your force into your hit as your claymore made contact with the shield.
Seeing that it was barely doing any damage, you decided to try thawing it out since it was mostly made out of ice.
Cracks started to appear in the shield. That was a good sign..
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the forest you were currently in. Birds flew out of trees, and animals took cover.
You cursed under your breath when you realized that the Lawachurl got its shield.
The shield suddenly cracked and broke into many pieces. You took your chance and quickly finished the Abyss Mage off and rushed back towards the Lawachurl, but before you could swing your claymore, a sharp pain suddenly shot up in your head.
You stopped and hissed in pain, giving the monster a chance to swing its fists.
You threw your body back to avoid getting hit, making you only suffer a small scratch on your arm.
What was that just now...?
You quickly got back on your feet.
You will reach your goal of buying that ring no matter what.
A small scratch and headache wasn't going to slow you down.
-
The door to the teapot creaked open, and Furina put down Surintendante Chevalmarin and smiled. She had been awaiting your return for hours now.
You have been gone all day, but fortunately, you were able to rack up 17,000 mora from the adventurers guild, which sat you at 26,000 currently.
"Welcome home-"
Furina's face turned into a look of horror when she saw your condition. Just what happened to you!?
You dropped your claymore on the ground, creating a loud, 'thump!' and forced yourself to stand up straight.
Your clothes were dirty and ripped in a few places, but that was the least of Furina's concern.
"What happened!?"
Furina ran over to you and started checking if there were any other injuries she might've missed.
"I ran into a few monsters. Nothing too much."
There was a big scratch on your neck that looked pretty deep and a bruise on your head that was moments away from spilling blood. She thinks she saw a scratch on your arm, too.
"A few!?"
"Hey! What's with all that noise- Gah!!"
Paimon jumped back with shock, but her face immediately turned to worry.
"Y/n, what happened to you? Did you fight the Heavenly Principles yourself- HEY! Don't ignore Paimon!"
You walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
You had to clean yourself and cover up your injuries quickly before Aether got home. You didn't want to sit through another thirty minute lecture.
You looked in the mirror.
You really did look beat up..
To be honest, you got out of the fight due to pure luck.
Clearing eight camps back to back was not for the weak.
Hearing the front door open, you assumed that it was Aether coming back from doing requests.
You squinted as you looked at yourself in the mirror. Your vision was starting to get blurry....
What was going on..?
You heard a knock on the door.
Furina.... her voice.
"Y/n, are you sure you're okay?"
No.
You weren't okay at all.
You started getting dizzy and tried to find anything you could hang onto.
There was nothing around besides a small shelf that held a bunch of different cleaning supplies.
You put a hand on it and tried to take a deep breath.
Instead of a usual deep breath, it was a shaky one instead.
Your eyes grew heavy, and your limbs became weak as you saw your final destination. The floor.
"Y/n!? Can you hear me??"
Before you could say anything, you collapsed.
-
"Y/n..."
"Y/n..!"
"Y/N!! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
You flinched when a spear roughly tapped your head.
Six hours.
Six hours of straight torture.
"Your stance was a bit off. Get up and try again!"
You slowly got up and weakly picked up your claymore.
You were merely a child emotionally at the time, yet you had to face such cruel training.
The only memory that you had was you continuously swinging that claymore.
Even when it felt like your arms were about to fall off, you continued.
Your master. You never knew her name...
"No dragon of mine will be weak. That is utterly unacceptable. Now, begin."
Isolated and an outcast. What a combination.
They described you perfectly.
"I'm sorry..."
You didn't want your master to abandon you, just like everyone else did, so you listened. Even if it meant getting horribly injured in the process.
You got up and whiped away at the tears that threatened to spill out.
Despite it being summer, it snowed a lot that day.
-
"Y/n!"
"...!"
Your eyes shot open as you quickly sat up.
But, you immediately regretted it when you felt a sharp pain shoot through your head.
"Calm down. You just woke up."
You blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness in your eyes. You were met with three pairs of worried eyes staring back at you.
"Wah!! You're alive!!"
"What happened??"
"I'll go get something cold for you to drink!"
Furina rushed into the kitchen while you tried to process everything that happened.
You suddenly felt something on your side. Paimon was hugging you.
"Paimon was so worried! Especially when she couldn't open the door!!"
You tried to control your face from scrunching up when you saw snot on your shirt.
Aether looked concerned as he sat on the couch next to you.
"..."
"Do you feel ill?"
You put a hand on your head as you tried to recall everything that happened.
Ring...mora...Hilichurl's...
What happened after that?
Oh, wait... you came home and were greeted by Furina.
"I'm fine, just a bit exhausted.."
"Are you sure you're okay? You look pale.."
Paimon looked at you worriedly as you forced yourself to sit up.
"Yes, I just need to rest for a bit."
Furina came back from the kitchen with a glass of ice water.
"Y/n..."
You slowly shook your head.
"I promise that I'm okay. I just... overworked myself.."
-
"Oh, you're here for more commissions already? Well, I do have a request from Chioriya Boutique. You luckily cleared all the hilichurl camps in the area, so there are no commissions for that at the moment."
Katheryne handed you a document, telling you what you had to do.
You read the continents. All you had to do was model for a newspaper. That should be easy.
The reward was also worth a lot.
15,000 mora just to take a few pictures? Seems like a good deal to me!
You waved Katheryne goodbye and started looking for Chioriya Boutique.
You remembered going there when you had to pick Furina up for your outing. It shouldn't be too hard to find it, right?
"..."
You looked around.
All the streets looked the same...
How were you supposed to find the shop if you don't even remember what it looked like?
You took a deep breath as you tried to remember.
Chioriya Boutique...Chioriya Boutique...
"Are you lost?"
You turned around at the sound of the new voice.
Who was that? Have you met them before?
"Ah, allow me to introduce myself. Tis I, Lyney! The greatest magician in all Teyvat."
You blinked as you stared blankly at the "magician" in front of you.
So you haven't met before..
"Tough crowd? Well, I can see that you're lost. What is it that you seek? A performance, or perhaps something else?"
Lyney then made two cards suddenly appear from his hands.
"Chioriya Boutique."
"Huh?"
Lyney blinked twice as he tried to see if you were tricking him or not because you genuinely looked lost before.
You were serious...
Lyney pointed to the shop you both were currently next to.
"Uh.. it's right here."
"..."
"..."
"Oh.."