I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

Elanor continued examining the wall and finally found the secret entrance to the palace. The brick wall vanished like an illusion, revealing a tunnel illuminated by green flames.

"This is it. I don't know if it is safe, but I do know it goes directly to a courtyard inside the palace grounds." Elanor took a step back to let the others go first since she didn't know if it was safe anymore.

"Anything we should be aware of?" Shaman didn't mind Elanor stepping back, but she knew more about the palace than anybody else.

"Nope, just walk through and we should arrive in a garden." Elanor did not recall there being traps or dangers of any kind, yet she wasn't entirely sure if the traps were merely deactivated when last passed through.

"Alright, let's go then." Shaman entered the tunnel followed by the others. So far there was nothing suspicious or wrong, but this only made it more eerie for Shaman since it felt too easy.

'Why would they just leave this entrance here, there must be some traps.' Shaman constantly focused on her senses to search for anything out of place, but she sensed nothing.

"You alright Shaman?" Elysia saw how restless Shaman was which made her own anxiety spike.

"I'm fine, I just don't trust that this tunnel is safe." Shaman didn't want anyone else to worry, but she saw the look on Elysia's face and didn't want to hide it from her.

"It's to be expected, I know I would have set traps in places like these." Clara understood how Shaman felt and was also trying to sense if anything was wrong.

"We just need to keep going forward and hope for the best at this point." Silver was getting second-hand stress as he believed that there was nothing there. After all, if it was trapped, why hasn't something happened yet?

"True." Shaman felt more at ease after hearing Silver and kept going forward, keeping a few steps ahead of the rest just in case there was a trap.

*

Things started looking hopeful as they saw light at the end of the tunnel and assumed it was the courtyard Elanor mentioned.

However, just then a white magic circle appeared under Shaman's feet. She tried to jump back, but a barrier was placed behind her.

"Shaman!" Elysia tried to grab Shamana and pull her back, but the same barrier was in the way.

"El-." Before Shaman could speak, she vanished on the spot and the barrier disappeared.

Elysia and Clara both rushed forward, feeling the floor and wall to find out what had happened.

"SHAMAN!" Elysia started to freak out and tears welled up blurring her vision. Clara was a lot calmer, but seeing Shaman disappear like that made her heart race.

Silver also joined in the search, but there was no trace of Shaman at all as if she genuinely disappeared.

"It was a teleportation spell, we need to hurry and find where she is." While the group was looking for signs of Shaman, Kiruya was trying to figure out what kind of magic circle that was.

"Elanor!?" Elysia turned to Elanor with a murderous glint since technically she was the one that led them to this tunnel.

"I-I really don't know." Elanor was just as shocked as everyone else and didn't think such a spell was in the tunnel.

"Mom! Don't blame her, she didn't know! If she really had done that on purpose, the system contract would have been broken." Silver spread out his arms and stood in between them.

"Grrr." Elysia couldn't be angry at Elanor as what Silver said was 100% true.

"Thank you Silver." For a moment there Elanor felt her life was in danger, so she was grateful for Silver jumping to her aid.

'Shaman wasn't wrong when she said Elysia can be quite volatile.' Elanor was terrified of Elysia and couldn't believe how emotionally unstable she was.

"Elysia, let's go, no point in trying to find someone to blame." Clara grabbed Elyia's shoulder and tugged on it to get her moving.

"Fine, but I'm burning this place down." Elysia put on a calm face, but on the inside, her anger was still burning brightly. She was determined to turn the place to ash to find Shaman.

"How about we don't do that." Kiruya knew it would be the worst approach and would slow them down immensely.

"Tch." Elysia clicked her tongue knowing she couldn't go against Kiruya's word since the latter was stronger.

"I-I will lead us to where she could be." Elanor had an idea where Shaman could be and, although her memory was foggy, it was still better than nothing.

"Lead the way." Clara trusted Elanor, especially after Silver brought up the system contract which gave her a lot of credibility.

*

<A dark room>

"Ah fuck, what was that." Shaman got up from the ground trying to get her bearings and quickly lit a small fire on her fingertips.

However, when she clicked her fingers no flame came out and she couldn't feel any magical current in her body.

'What the fuck?' It was a weird sensation to not feel mana flow through. It made her feel… normal.

[Mana suppressed, please locate the suppression device]

A system message appeared in front of her which gave her an important context clue on where she could be.

'Shit I'm trapped.' Shaman's mind raced as she tried to think of a way out. Sadly, her lover's call was on cooldown, but she didn't even know if that would work with the mana suppression to begin with.

She walked forward to see if she was in a dungeon of some sort but instead walked into a wall. Trying again, she felt nothing but walls around her with no light source at all.

'There seems to be something above me though.' Shaman felt a slight draft come from above her and figured that's where the ventilation was.

Luckily, even without Shaman's magic, her stats remained unchanged. Shaman jumped up towards the ceiling, just barely making contact with the cobblestone roof.

Her hope reignited, Shaman kept jumping as she searched the ceiling until finally making contact with a metal grate.

Jumping up once more, she grabbed a hold of the grate. However the grate could not support her weight, so once her momentum ended both Fox and her new metalworks tumbled down to the floor.

Landing on her back, Shaman's mood soured. Without the grate as a hand-hold her climbing options were cut short. Depending on how deeply the vent was cut into the ceiling she might not be able to reach its ledge.

'Please let me reach.' Getting back up she jumped up again and brushed her hand against the sides of the vent.

"Damn it!" Shaman felt no ledge to grab, but since the wall was made of cobblestone, she thought there might be enough rock to grab onto.

"Don't bother, there is no way for you to get out." An old raspy voice echoed out in Shaman's cell, scaring her almost to death.

"Who?! Where?!" Even though Shaman's eyes had already adjusted enough to see the layout of the room, her frantic search did not reveal any silhouettes.

"Tch, stupid fox." The old man hit the ground with a cane, the resulting sound reverberating throughout the dungeon.

"AHHH!" Shaman covered her ears as the sound it made was extremely high-pitched.

"Now listen here, you bring my granddaughter back to my palace and think you can get away with it?! Surely she has told you she isn't allowed back here. I made it very clear that if I ever see her again, I would kill her!" The old man was getting more agitated with every word he spoke.

"Shut up! What do you even know of your daughter? She worked hard making a living all on her own and even worked up the courage to fight alongside us. Just because she diverges from your "Purebred" ideals doesn't mean she should be exiled." Shaman realised who she was talking to and was becoming infuriated.

"You know nothing about her and your naivety led you here, which will be your final resting place."

"Ha, the audacity to think you know anything. Have you ever spoken a word to her?" Shaman couldn't believe what she was hearing. Having a son herself, she understood to some degree a parent would feel he knows what's best for his child. She wanted to mould Silver into her own mind's image of him, but that just wasn't possible. The more time went on, it became apparent he was becoming his own unique person.

"I don't need to, she couldn't produce results, so I tossed her."

"Oh fuck you!" Shaman knew it was far from the truth. Elanor was far more talented than what the old coot knows, having her own unique element. Hearing his words just made Shaman want to smash something. Acting out of pure spite, she ended up activating [Royal bloodline arts].

Since the skill did not need mana to activate she started to transform into her hybrid fox form.

"What? How?" Elanor's grandpa was confused as he sealed Shaman in an anti-mana barrier.

"I'm sick of your shit!" Shaman's fur started to gain the stardust effect, the element no longer restricted by the barrier. She now had full access to her mana but still couldn't use any of her elements other than stardust.

"What is this element?" The old man was confused, as it seemed like the barrier could not stop the stardust element at all.