As the most abundant monsters in the first through fifth floors, Goblins and Kobolds could easily be called a novice's best friends.
"I'll hold off the other monsters; you take a moment to get a feel for the atmosphere of combat."
Sushang walked forward, sword in hand. After tossing these words back to Furina, she dashed into the thick of the monsters.
With a gentle flick of the Xuanyuan Sword in her hand, she carved out the battlefield.
Four or five monsters were sent flying back over ten meters, leaving only a lone goblin standing blankly before Furina.
Goblin: Is this still the first floor? Where the hell did you drag me?
It stood there, stunned, but Furina was anything but.
Though she had never fought in a real skirmish, she had certainly watched plenty of them. Even without stepping onto the stage herself, she knew exactly what choice she had to make.
Without a shred of hesitation, Furina swung the longsword she had just purchased in a diagonal arc toward the goblin's neck. She had feared that her lack of practice might lead to a mishap, yet to her surprise, the simple strike sliced through as smoothly as a blade through butter.
Without even a hint of resistance, the goblin was cleaved into two, dissipating into a patch of black mist and leaving only a magic stone behind.
"Huh? Furina, have you practiced this before?" Sushang asked, clearly taken aback.
"This is my first time using a real sword on... well, a living thing—though I suppose you couldn't call it a person." Furina exhaled and explained, "Back when I was on stage, I underwent some training for the sake of the performance, though I never really had a professional teacher."
I see. That was unexpected, but it makes sense; many actors pick up all sorts of skills on the job.
"Self-taught, then?"
Sushang effortlessly parried a goblin's attack to the side and chuckled, "In that case, let's dial up the difficulty. Remember what I said yesterday? Don't just mindlessly vent your mana; you have to perceive and borrow the energy from the surroundings as well."
With that, she let a Kobold and a Goblin loose in Furina's direction.
There is a world of difference between hitting a monster that is already stunned and hitting one that is charging straight at you. The psychological pressure is simply not on the same level.
Furina gritted her teeth, still unwilling to use her [Enchant-Type Magic].
In her eyes, both the Kobold and the Goblin were moving far too slowly compared to Clorinde. Monsters of this caliber were not yet enough to force her to play her trump cards.
Blocking the claw swipe from the incoming Kobold, Furina immediately adjusted her footing, aligning herself, the Kobold, and the Goblin into a single line.
After all, these two monsters were [Novice's Best Friends]. They weren't fast, they weren't particularly strong, and they both charged head-on. Even with her lack of combat experience, Furina handled the encounter with ease.
One, two, three.
As Furina cleared them out one by one, Sushang gradually increased the number of monsters sent her way, and soon, every monster in front of them had been wiped clean.
Furina was panting slightly after the cleanup. Even for "novice's best friends," the sheer volume of monsters was truly exhausting.
"For your first real fight, you were amazing, Furina!"
Watching the silver-haired girl catch her breath, Sushang gave her a thumbs-up.
"When I had my first fight, my sword got stuck in the enemy's torso and I couldn't pull it out. In the end, I had no choice but to smash its upper body to pieces just to get my blade back."
...What do you mean by "smash its upper body to get the sword back"?
Did you really need that sword that badly?
For a moment, Furina didn't know if she should take that as a compliment.
"In that last fight, I tried to call upon the magic in the surroundings," Furina said, dropping the issue to focus on her own progress. "But just like back at the inn, I could barely control it."
"That's perfectly normal. The Edge of Taixuan isn't something one masters easily." Sushang nodded as if it were a matter of course. "Actually, compared to others who have some martial foundation, you're doing quite well. At least you haven't formed bad habits yet."
"You mean the habit of relying on internal mana?" Furina remembered what Sushang had told her.
"Exactly! Every martial art in the world has its own method of cultivation. Guiding your internal power is fundamental to almost all of them—it's part of 'cultivating the self,' after all. The Edge of Taixuan doesn't forbid the use of one's internal power entirely, but once that habit takes root, it becomes incredibly difficult to attain that pristine, unblemished 'Qi.'"
Sushang nodded. "That is why the Edge of Taixuan must be learned from childhood."
With that, she flicked her sword, and a breeze swept through the area, gently lifting Furina's hair.
Furina felt the power Sushang had released.
"Your five senses are sharper during combat, and since living things release their own 'Qi' when they fight, that is when it's easiest to perceive these 'external forces.'"
"Back then, my Master also had me fight constantly—and she'd beat me up for no reason at all whenever she felt like it."
Thinking back to when she first met Fu Hua in Mesopotamia, Sushang's tone was filled with a mix of sentiment and nostalgia.
Back then, she was nothing more than a novice who would lose her temper and unleash her ultimate moves in the middle of a spar.
"Beat you up...?"
Furina imagined Sushang being thrashed by an elderly woman she'd never met, then shifted her thoughts to the prospect of being thrashed by Sushang herself.
"....Does that mean, you'll be beating me up later too?"
"Well, it's not going to come to that... My situation was special back then; she only did that to force me to improve rapidly." Sushang scratched the back of her head, feeling the embarrassment of having a dark history revealed, and promptly changed the subject.
"Come to think of it, calling you 'Furina' all the time feels a bit distant, and it doesn't really roll off the tongue. How about we pick a nickname that's easier to say?"
"An easier nickname?"
Furina paused. Thinking of the cultural customs of the Liyue people—which were similar to Sushang's—she supposed it was natural for her to find her name difficult to pronounce.
Come to think of it, don't good friends always have special nicknames? No, not just friends—family members share such names as well.
With that thought, Furina found herself genuinely looking forward to what Sushang might call her.
Although they had only known each other for a single day, Furina had the strange illusion that they had been acquaintances for a long time.
Surely that couldn't be entirely credited to the other girl's straightforward and cheerful personality, right?
"Alright, let's pick a nickname for each other that sounds a bit more intimate," she said, though she quickly found herself at a loss.
Li Sushang... what kind of nickname would go with that? If it were a Fontaine name, she could think of a dozen instantly, but for a Liyue name... she was genuinely stuck.
"Then I'll just call you Fufu!"
While she was still struggling, the other girl gave an immediate answer. Seeing how fast that came out, it was clear she hadn't just thought of it on the spot.
But... Fufu? What kind of name was that? It felt a bit like she was calling out to a puppy or a kitten...
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL