Want to be human, but cube-like

She gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and yanked hard on the bass string she was still clutching. Bright yellow magical light covered the wires binding the familiars, and in a moment of contraction, it shredded the familiars into pieces.

It looks flashy, but in reality, this attack method is not very efficient. In fact, it can only be effective against familiars that are not very good at fighting and lack ranged attack capabilities.

Alex, who was observing Su Shi from the sidelines, made her judgment based on her experience of watching and personally experiencing her mother controlling her to fight countless times.

"call out--!"

Suddenly, several colorful projectiles flew from a distance through the gap between the familiars and towards the two of them.

For example, she is very likely to get hurt if she encounters this situation.

Seeing that Su Shi hadn't reacted at all, and that her clothes weren't exactly armor that could withstand attacks, Alex had no choice but to use Instant Step to get to her side, swing her Ruby, and cleanly deflect the projectiles.

Still immersed in the feeling of personally dismembering the familiar into pieces, Su Shi forgot that she was surrounded by enemies. Suddenly, her vision went dark and a fragrant breeze wafted over.

"ah!"

She instinctively took two steps back and exclaimed in surprise.

Looking at the several projectiles that had fallen to the ground, they were syringes containing some unknown liquid. Alex had cut them into pieces, and the liquid, which looked like paint, was scattered all over the ground.

"Are there no other weapons available?"

Feeling that it was much more troublesome than facing the monster alone, Alex finally turned to her with a helpless expression and asked a question.

"I'm sorry...it's my first time..."

Having been saved once, Su Shi, knowing she was in the wrong, bit her lip and whispered.

"If you feel you can't handle it, you can try signing a contract with me, Alex. Don't push yourself too hard."

While leisurely squatting in the corner, Cupid was quite adept at seizing every opportunity to offer suggestions to Alex.

"Fine, let's just waste a little Soul Essence..."

Completely ignoring Kyubey's words, Alex muttered something under her breath, then crouched down slightly and sheathed her sword.

"Om-!"

A barely perceptible buzzing sound rang in their ears. The next moment, countless ghostly blue phantom swords appeared above them, their tips pointing downwards. In an instant, they rained down like a storm, annihilating all the familiars around them.

…………

P.S. Don't ask why I was late for a day. It's because of the StarCraft anniversary update, and I went to play the game and got so engrossed that I lost track of time.

Okay, actually, it's because I saw someone say that my recent chapters were too drawn out. But when I checked them myself, each chapter contained crucial information that couldn't be deleted or omitted. On the surface, it only focused on Sue's wish and entering the witch's barrier, but it actually had multiple parallel storylines: Mutsumi's abnormality, Touko's psychological changes due to her wish, Alex's recovery after being comforted by Shoko for over half a month after Aine left, Sue's misunderstanding of Shoko because of Kyubey's words, and her struggle to overcome her fear to fight. And most importantly, the effects of the wish.

All of this is crammed into these dozen or so chapters. The pacing is actually tighter than the previous volume, so to call it dragging is really hard to understand what people want to read. Therefore, I'm just going to take a day off and play some games to relax.

I can actually guess what everyone wants to see—nothing more than petting and some funny interactions. Those will be written when Ai Yin comes back, probably around chapter 10 or 12, but I'm not entirely sure.

Volume 2: Chapter 214 The Bard?

Su Shi was terrified by the indiscriminate phantom sword. Before she could figure out how to dodge, the blade had already fallen.

She then realized that the phantom sword that had landed on her had passed through her body as if it were an illusion and pierced into the ground.

"As expected, there is a second type of familiar."

After clearing away all the familiars on the nursing beds around her with her sword array, Alex finally got a clear look at another familiar that was quietly throwing syringes at them from a distance.

Dressed in a white coat and wearing a nurse's cap, looking like a combination of a doctor and a nurse, the strange familiar, holding a syringe in its left hand and a scalpel in its right, waved its hands in the distance, looking panicked.

"Whoosh whoosh-!"

Six phantom swords shot out around her, forming a thin line like rifle bullets, taking out the remaining few familiars in the distance. After confirming that there were no more red dots on the minimap, Alex glanced at the still plentiful number of Radiant Souls on the ruby ​​before releasing her grip on the sword hilt.

Unlike the ordinary Phantom Swords that only require two points of Radiant Soul to use, these special Phantom Sword Arrays all require one hundred points of Radiant Soul to cast.

A single Soul-Glowing Iron Ingot only restores one thousand Soul-Glowing Souls. Even if two more processes are added to refine it into a Soul-Glowing Pearl, it only restores two thousand. If the restrictions are completely lifted, the number of iron ingots she trades with the villagers may not be enough to keep up with the consumption.

If Xiangzi, who was responsible for going to the bank to exchange coins for Alex to use in trading with the villagers, found out, he would be angry.

Speaking of which, shouldn't we consider setting up an iron brushing machine?

But... how do you make an iron brushing machine again?

Alex, who only remembered that this thing required an iron golem but had completely forgotten the specific principles, hesitated for a few seconds before temporarily abandoning the idea.

If Aine's mother were here... she would know...

Shaking her head to dismiss the thought, Alex reached out and caught a steel wire that had just been cut by her Phantom Sword and was slowly drifting down from the sky.

"Bass strings?"

She observed for a moment, blinked, and asked uncertainly.

Just as Su Shi was curiously reaching out her index finger to touch the phantom sword stuck in the ground, she was startled by the sudden sound of it breaking and shrank her neck in a rather cute manner.

"Ah...! Yes, you've also studied bass?"

Upon hearing this, her face flushed slightly, and she looked somewhat surprised. Pretending that she hadn't done anything, she turned around and responded softly.

After all, for someone who hasn't studied music theory, it's already quite impressive to recognize that these are guitar strings, let alone be able to tell at a glance the thickness of a bass string instead of mistaking it for a guitar string.

"I can play."

Although I haven't studied it.

Alex nodded her head and replied.

"You're going to use this as a weapon?"

She gently tugged at the string in her hand. It was slightly thicker than a guitar string, so it wasn't as easy to break. Moreover, it seemed to have magical enhancements, making it much stronger than a regular bass string.

It does appear to have some destructive power.

However, it is not very useful in actual combat.

"Just trying it out... I don't know what would be suitable as my weapon."

With her fingers interlaced and lightly touching in front of her, Su Shi's expression was somewhat unnatural.

If you can get used to the feeling of personally tearing your enemy to shreds

She could accept this approach, given the feel of the film.

It's better than taking up arms and engaging in close combat with the monster.

That's a bit too rude... It feels like something only a drummer would do.

However, at present, the limitations of using bass strings in combat are still too great.

If Alex hadn't blocked the attack for her, her bass strings wouldn't have been able to stop those ranged attacks.

What are you good at?

As soon as she opened her mouth, Alex realized that her question was inappropriate.

"...anything other than weapons."

Since the other party said they didn't know what was suitable as a weapon, it obviously meant they didn't have a weapon they were good at, so she added that.

"Bass...?"

Su Shi tried to speak, not entirely sure.

What special skills can you expect from an ordinary girl who has just started high school?

Aside from the basic cooking skills developed from having to solve the problem of meals on my own for a long time, the only thing worth mentioning is the bass playing technique I learned in the brass band.

"How about we give it a try, bard?"

When Alex thought of a profession that uses stringed instruments as weapons in battle, the first one that came to mind was a special profession that existed in a world that she and her mother had once adventured in.

She also tried this profession, and her support skills were quite good.

"A bard... a poet?"

Upon hearing this term, Su Shi's first thought was of those guys in movies and TV shows who carry around a musical instrument and sing in taverns all day long.

"Yes, a bard who uses singing or music to aid in battle, giving buffs to himself and his teammates, and debuffs to the enemy."

"Thinking back on the bard's various skills," Alex said.

"And what about using sound waves to attack...?"

Actually, Alex wasn't entirely sure if magical girls could do such a thing; she was just trying to broaden Sue's thinking.

"Is it even possible to do something like this in a game?"

After Alex's explanation, Su Shi understood that she was referring to the bard class in some role-playing games.

But this sounds even more unrealistic than the fighting styles of magical girls in anime.

"Generally speaking, each magical girl has to figure out her own fighting style."

Noticing that Su Shichao was looking at him, and realizing that she was seeking his opinion, Qiu Bi gave a nonsensical reply.

It also doesn't seem to offer any good advice to Su Shi.

Despite being the one who introduced magical girls to the world and was their first partner, she turned out to be surprisingly unreliable.

"Then, shall I give it a try?"

With no other good ideas, Su Shi could only try it out according to Alex's suggestion. She used magic to construct the bass she was most familiar with, held it in her arms, thought for a moment, and then picked up a pick.

Although fingerstyle is more flexible and offers more playing techniques than using a pick, the speed of a pick is still much faster than fingerstyle. If it were to be used in combat, speed would indeed be more important than technique.

Looking around, Su Shi finally turned to the medical trolley leaning against the wall not far away. She held her breath and prepared herself for a moment, then gently pressed the plectrum, which emitted a bright yellow light, onto the A string, making a soft scratching sound as it scraped. Then, she gently plucked the string up and down.

A very basic alternating plucking technique involves using a plucking tool between the E and A strings to produce two low, resonant notes.

Su Shi, who was using these magically crafted bass strings as instruments for the first time, suddenly felt an impulse.

She instinctively used her magic, and as the bass's voice spread, an imperceptible sound wave reached the cart she was looking at.

"Click."

The next moment, the medical cart started moving on its own. The wheels, which had been stuck due to the tilting, fell back to the ground with a soft thud.

Then, under the watchful eyes of Alex, Souji, and Kyubey, the little cart, with a do-or-die spirit, crashed into Alex beside her.

…………

I need to find a way to build up a backlog of drafts; it's really frustrating to be stuck updating every day.

I want to speed up the plot's pace. Lighthearted slice-of-life scenes are much easier to write and people enjoy reading them, but these are necessary plot points right now. I'll see if I can adjust their proportion.

Volume 2: Chapter 215 Mind Implantation

"Did...did it just move by itself...?"

Holding his bass guitar nervously, Su Shi circled the medical cart, which had been cut in half by Alex and lay helplessly on the ground, twice, as if trying to understand why it had started moving after he finished playing the bass.

"It's still moving now."

Squatting beside the wreckage of the cart, looking at its still-spinning, seemingly very agitated wheels, Alex offered a reminder.

[Mindset Implantation (4:37)]

She glanced at the status bar that had suddenly appeared on the stroller, then looked up at Su Shi, who still looked uneasy, with some confusion.

Did she not realize what she had done to that cart?

"It seems to be a very powerful ability. Congratulations, Su Shi."

Kyubey, who had been watching the whole thing, seemed to have figured out what was going on, and it spoke to Su Shi.

"Eh? Me?"

Raising an index finger, Su Shi pointed somewhat blankly to her small chin, unable to understand what it meant.

"Didn't Su Shi realize what she had done to it?"

Realizing that she truly lacked this awareness, Alex had no choice but to ask her a question.

"...So, if that's the case, I do feel like I subconsciously used magic just now...?"

Upon hearing this, Su Shi also looked down at the bass in her arms.

She wasn't sure if she had actually done anything to the cart.