Yuki glared at the system window. The message didn’t change. She remembered this story in the before where one could forcefully induce an emergency system activation by facing mortal danger. She looked outside. She smelled the lemony scent in the air. In her mind, she heard the clack of mandibles and saw half of Bunbun’s body disappearing.

  Yeah, nope. Fuck it.

  Yuki wasn’t going to try something she didn’t even know would work.

  What else could she do? Unlike her siblings, Yuki didn’t have a horn. Going out to bite the monsters was out of the question. The system wasn’t cooperating.

  No skills or magic. A flimsy idea about system unlock.

  Yuki turned away from the entrance and moved deeper into the burrow.

  Another idea was to mobilize the rabbits and suicide attack the enemies outside, but hadn’t the big rabbit already tried fighting back? Numbers might not help in this situation. Worse yet, Yuki wasn’t sure if doing this would unlock her system, and even if it did, the death toll would be too much.

  She needed another option, but none came to mind.

  In the isekai stories she read in the before, the logical course of events would be to kill the monsters outside, save the colony, get exp, avenge Bunbun, and get closer to evolution. But how could she do it here? The challenges were always proportional to the hero’s strength in all the stories she had read, even if levels were skewed. What were her advantages? Was there anything she could build or use?

  Yuki looked around. Her meandering led again to the nest. Whisker slept; Sir Hopsalot dug at the walls. Trying to find food, most likely. Her stomach ached with hunger. She laid down next to Whisker and closed her eyes.

  What were her advantages?

  - Yuki had modern knowledge from the before.

  That was a good thing.

  - But she didn’t have opposable thumbs to put most of that knowledge to work, nor any raw material to build anything.

  Bummer.

  - She was small and fast.

  That was good.

  - She was small and frail.

  Another bummer.

  “Status,” Yuki called out. The character sheet appeared. She noted even more differences now than before she tried to cast her spell. There was a ‘landing page’ now. It had an image of a rabbit. Luxurious white fur with dark circles around the red eyes. Was that how she looked?

  At the bottom of the landing page, were the familiar tabs. She clicked on the first.

  Name:

  Gender: Female

  Race: Mutant Dwarf Horned Rabbit

  Race Evolution Tier: F

  Exp: 33/1000

  Nothing there of note. Yuki clicked on the next.

  Body: Poor

  Mind: Good

  Soul: Excellent

  Yuki sighed, ears flopping. Was she reborn as a rabbit because of the template’s selection? She might have miscalculated what things meant when selecting her options. If she had selected warrior, would she have been reborn as a fearsome wolf, maybe a lioness instead? She still remembered the system messages, and the conflict between her perk and choices.

  A new tab had appeared after her reincarnation: Characteristics. This one also wasn’t available, another one that might be locked due to this age of maturity thing, probably.

  Yuki clicked the next tab.

  Heroic Trait: None.

  Heroic Title: Summoned Hero.

  Trait: Mana Sniffer.

  Title: None.

  Yuki had wondered what that new trait meant for a while, but now she knew better. She could smell magic, or in this case, mana. She didn’t think other rabbits shared this trait. Was this the reason for the “mutant” in her race? An ugly feeling brewed in her gut. Yuki was certain that the lemony scent she’d been smelling all along was the monster's magic at play. She just didn’t know that at the time.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  She clicked the next tab.

  Tradition: Sorcery.

  Skill: Invocation, Shaping.

  Also no changes. Skills were still locked, and she had yet to learn the difference between Invocation and Shaping.

  Yuki clicked on the spells tab and decided to summarize the magics in case any idea popped into her mind.

  [Appraise]

  Assesses the quality of physical objects. The spell does not work on organic things. Neither does it list flaws or enhancements present; only that they exist.

  [Contract Familiar]

  Forge a magical bond with a creature.

  [Enchant]

  Makes one of the sorcery spells everlasting, at the cost of reducing the caster's magical strength.

  [Neutralise Magic]

  Suppresses a single spell or miracle.

  [Portal]

  Creates a magical gateway connecting two places.

  [Protective Ward] Forms an extended wall that binds a different magical effect. This spell cannot be cast alone. This spell has to be melded into another sorcery spell.

  [Regenerate]

  Slowly heal injuries.

  [Shapechange]

  Morphs the physical body of the target into that of another species.

  [Spell Resistance]

  Blocks all incoming spells.

  [Wrack]

  Attacks the victims by wracking them with magical force.

  There were lots of options if only Yuki could use magic. It boiled down again to the system limitations and this age of maturity lock. How long until rabbits were ready to dance the horizontal tango? Instead of getting answers, Yuki heard distant howls. Her ears perked up, and she dashed toward the burrow entrance.

  Yuki dove and waved between the fleeing rabbits. The other rabbits wanted nothing to do with whatever happened up there. The colony fled to the lower chambers, further away from the noise. Yuki’s heart beat frantically in her chest; her legs wobbled, but she persevered. She was the master of the body, even if the body didn’t like to listen to her wishes.

  She slowed down when she got closer to the entrance. She stuck to the burrow’s wall and approached with slow, measured hops. Yells and grunts were also added to the cacophony of noises from outside. Breath catching in her throat, she looked at the clearing.

  The first thing she saw was the snakepards. A bright coat of yellow paint covered both of the monsters. The snake on their shoulders coiled and hissed. In one of the beasts, two of the snakes had been severed, their stump dripping dark, almost black blood. Arrows stuck out of both creatures.

  Facing the snakepards was a group of humans. Or humanoids. Yuki wasn’t willing to gamble that in a world of magic and monsters, there would be only humans.

  It was a diverse group. Two in the front held bulking planks of wood, which they used as a barrier between themselves and the snakepards. Each also carried a sword. They were the most armored ones, like patchwork knights wearing a mix of sturdy leather and metal bits.

  The seven behind were almost straight out of a D&D party. Rangers and Rogues, wearing pieces of leather covering the important parts, with an assortment of different weapons. Some held spears, others bows or crossbows.

  Yuki smelled the air. There was a different smell, but one she attributed to the paint. It lacked the same substance from the lemony scent from when the leopards used their invisibility.

  She considered this whole situation. In her inept opinion, this was a well-organized and prepared group.

  The rabbit observed the unfolding battle from the burrow entrance. The snakepards kept trying the same tactic: go invisible and then attack from where the prey was least expecting. But the paint made the attempt moot. The splotches of yellow paint were a glaring indication of where the monsters were.

  One of the creatures lunged, and the shielder turned, interposing his barrier between him and the attack. The spearman, hidden behind the shielder, poked a hole in the creature’s flank. When the monster tried disengaging, the sword lashed from behind the shield, missing the serpents by a hair’s breadth. Soon after, arrows peppered the creature, one found its mark on the monster’s flesh. On the other side of the clearing, the scene was similar. One blocked the attack, while the others used that opportunity to counter.

  It was a very methodical approach to battle, Yuki noticed. Nothing like she’d been expecting from a fantasy world with a system. No flashy attacks, magic, or solo hero going out of his way to kill the monsters and earn glory. Just ruthless men and women at work.

  It didn’t take long for one of the monsters to fall. A lucky arrow impaled it through the eye. Even so, the monster hunters didn’t take a chance. The spearman impaled the fallen monster before the group turned to the remaining snakepard. The creature was on its last legs, peppered with arrows and cuts. It seemed to have also noticed its predicament. It turned invisible and tried to leave. It didn’t work. The shielder bounded forward and bashed the creature. Two of the spearmen impaled it.

  After the battle, Yuki watched while the men and women hauled the carcasses away and collected the bits and pieces of the snake they’d severed. They even collected and removed the leaves and grass stained with the creature’s blood. She could hear their whispered conversation, but the language was a mystery.

  Near the end, one of the archers, a woman with sun-kissed skin, moved her hands so fast that Yuki thought she might have seen things.

  One moment, the woman was gathering the bloodied leaves, and the next, she looked straight at Yuki, bow-notched and ready. Sheer terror took hold of Yuki. She froze. Her rabbit-addled mind hoped that by being quiet, the scary human would ignore her. She knew that one movement might trigger the trigger-happy woman.

  “Cut it off, Mave!” Yelled one of the shielders. Yuki still didn’t understand the language, but the man sounded angry.

  The woman tilted her head, bow still pointed at Yuki. “It’s only one, Carlos. With the monsters here, no one will miss it.”

  “No, cut it off. You know who this farm belongs to.” The gruff man said.

  The woman’s eyes moved away from Yuki just a fraction. “They won’t ever know!”

  Rabbit instinct took over. Yuki ducked inside the burrow. To safety, away from monsters and rabbit-killer humans. Or so she thought.

  There was a twang sound, then her ear exploded in pain.

  A deluge of system messages filled her vision. Pain and panic drove her ever deeper into the burrow. Even with all that, Yuki still heard the people outside speaking. Her hearing was that good.

  “Shit, it fled.”

  “Better that way, did you forget the tattletale is also here?”

  “Shitting shit, right. I forgot.”

  “Get that arrow; don’t leave it behind.”

  “Right, shit, sorry, Carlos.”

  Yuki only looked at the system notifications when she was safe, hidden, and tucked in her favorite corner.

  A deadly situation was detected.

  Partial system unlock.

  Good luck.

  Wasn’t fleeing from the fucking monsters deadly enough? Did the system only consider physical injuries deadly? What about Yuki’s mental trauma and mental scarring? What about the hole in her soul where a [Contracted] temptress should be?

  And what about that good luck? That was the first time Yuki felt the system was talking directly to her. Was it a pre-programmed message?