Alex focused her power, gathering the surrounding magicules and compressing them into shape. Luckily this spell was saved in her Grimoire, so there was no need to chant the words, as that might attract attention this close to the enemy camp. Bands of soft green light twisted around her legs, and she jumped onto a tree branch to get a better view of the situation.

It was a relatively simple mission from the adventurers association; people in the outskirts of the Blumund Kingdom had been going missing lately. All Alex needed was to figure out if it was the monsters' fault or if something more nefarious was going on. But from what she saw here, the latter seemed more likely.

Alex reached into her Grimoire, still floating behind her, and pulled out a spyglass. She silently thanked the world for giving her a unique skill with an inventory as she observed her targets and opened her Magic Sense. Of course, it wasn't strictly necessary to get a visual on the targets when using her skills to Analyze something, but over time Alex had learned it helped to lessen the strain Magic Sense placed on the brain.

"Hey Khepri, anything useful in the book?" It was an unfortunate weakness of her skill. Any information she analyzed using the Grimoire could only be read, making the transfer of information slow. Luckily her spirit friend could help with that.

"Yeah, and it's not good," Khepri whispered as she emerged from the Grimoire. Since Alex formed her months ago, Khepri had been helping her out. The tiny light spirit had been good company after Shizu sensei retired and Alex started on her own. "There are 13 people down there, seven captives and six bandits. Three of the bandits' spiritual signatures are much higher than average and have been recorded before."

"Let me see." Alex turned off her Analysis skills and reached back for the floating book. Then, using the light Khepri gave off to see, she willed the book to show the faces of the three. "Damn, I know these guys. They are advanced-class adventurers in the Blumund association. They go by the name Silver Slayers." This meant they had betrayed the association and had some power, though it didn't narrow down their power level as much as one would hope.

"The mission was just to find out what was happening. It would be best if you reported this to the association without fighting."

Alex smiled at her friend's usual cautiousness. "No can do, it would take days to reach the association from here, and it already took me a week to find these guys. So by the time a team returns, these guys would already be gone, same as their victims."

"I don't know why I try." Khepri sighed. "At least spend some more time planning and researching what you can in your book."

"Yes, yes, that is what I was planning anyway."

—

After 20 minutes of studying everything Analyze and Asses could give her, Alex was finally ready to attack. The plan was to take out the sword-using adventurer on the lookout first and then take the rest of the team while they were still waking up. After that, the three remaining bandits would be easy pickings.

Of course, things don't always go as planned.

Alex pulled her sword out from her Grimoire and cast another silent wind spell to boost her speed. Then, exploding from her place on the branch, she rocketed toward the unaware sword user, bringing her sword in a horizontal slash. Only to come up short as the traitor rolled to the side just in time.

"Hah!" Alex brought her sword around to block the counterattack and cursed her 12-year-old body as she was sent flying from the force.

"Are you kidding me? A little girl? We set this trap up because a little girl was on our trail?" Alex recovered her footing as the man spoke.

"Oh, stop complaining." The party's female member and magic user walked out of her tent. "Don't you recognize that clothing? That's the apprentice to the Conqueror of Flames; she is not to be underestimated."

Not great. If they recognized her, then this might be a little harder than expected.

"Shit, should we expect the master?" The third and final member came out of his tent wielding his battle ax.

"Unlikely, we only started this operation because she retired." So they were really ignoring her to talk amongst themselves. That would be a mistake.

Alex's Grimoire floating at her side, flipped through pages before it settled on one in particular. She then focused her will and strengthened her body for the following exchange. The other bandits seemed to have longer-range weapons, and she was now surrounded by six enemies.

Which meant she needed to focus on taking out one first! Alex's sword burst into flames as she mixed her magic with her battle will and launched herself in the swordsman's direction.

*Clang* The man managed to block though he could feel the heat of the flames. "Better luck next time, little girl."

"Ok." Her Grimoire shone a golden light that fused with the flames of her sword. Fire and light, merging the more destructive effects of the elements with compound magic, was complicated. Even now, Alex could only do it with the help of her Grimoire.

"Burning Dual Slash" The plasma-like attack melted through the defending sword, breaking the traitor's guard as he recoiled from the light and heat. In less than a second, Alex brought the blade around for another slash, quickly burning through the defending armor and launching the defeated enemy into the nearest tree.

"Trom!" The magic user could hardly react as her teammate slammed into the tree. "How dare you!"

Alex brought her sword up in guard and tried to control her breathing. Those moves still took a lot of stamina. "Why are you capturing these people?" She looked at the seven people in chains sitting on the other side of the camp. They weren't anything special, just ordinary townsfolk. "Have you fallen so low to be common slavers?"

"We're strong!" The battle ax user charged, bringing his weapon over his head to crush her. The ground cratered as she dodged backward. Sadly she would not get the chance to counterattack because she had to avoid an arrow from one of the ordinary bandits. "We can do whatever we want." He continued his attack.

The man really was strong. If Alex tried to block one of his strikes, it would likely crush her. But he was nothing compared to Shizu sensei. So Alex traded ground for time, hoping to lure the man away from his allies.

"Get back here, Balvurn." So the magic user had recovered from her distress. "We should fight her together. [Earth Spikes]" The ground exploded into spikes beneath Alex as Balvurn retreated.

Her Grimoire was still set to light magic, so Alex had to cast manually.

"[Air Steps]" She launched herself into the air and used a wind barrier to push herself to one of the bowmen. It was simple to break his bow and deal a lethal cut to his chest. She had no time to consider the lives of slavers.

"All together now!" The woman called out, and Balvurn charged with another bandit wielding a knife. The other two decided to launch their ranged attacks.

Alex was at a disadvantage. While she could have taken any of them individually, they were clearly used to working together. It would only be a matter of time until-

"Gah!" A burning pain lanced through her shoulder as she was forced to take an arrow to dodge Balvurn's attack. She switched her Grimoire to wind magic and focused on the stored magicules before letting them explode. Pushing the melee fighters away and deflecting the oncoming ranged attacks. She smirked as she heard something crack in the knife-wielding bandit.

"Khepri, I could use some help here," Alex spoke to her floating book.

"Oh, but it didn't seem like you wanted my advice earlier." The small light spirit emerged from the Grimoire, obviously annoyed. "Who could have guessed you would get into a situation like this?"

"Not exactly the time Khep." Alex ground out as she pulled the arrow from where it was stuck in her shoulder. If anything was good about this body, it was that it was flexible.

"I suppose that's true." Khepri focused her light magic, and the wound stitched itself together in seconds though it was a rush job.

"Damn, you bitch just die already!" Magic circles began forming in front of the woman as she readied more powerful spells. Too bad Alex had already switched her Grimoire to fire magic.

"Flashbang." As Alex closed her eyes and floated her Grimoire into her hand, Khepri rushed forward and exploded into a blinding light. This made all the bandits cover their eyes and distracted them from the 'Bang,' which Alex was currently constructing.

Combination magic, or taking two different facets of separate elements into one spell, was incredibly difficult but powerful. For example, Shizu sensei would combine the destructive aspects of flame and explosion magic to give her flames the power they were known for. And by Analyzing these flames, Alex became capable of using them too.

A large magic circle grew out of her Grimoire, and Alex launched the exploding flames at the two ranged enemies. Barriers flew into place to try and defend the magic user, but they only held for a second before shattering, and the flames finished the two off.

At least that was over. Now Alex didn't have to hear the woman's annoying voice anymore.

"Really, Alex," Khepri formed her power into a needle that flew forward straight into the potion Balvurn was attempting to give his sword-wielding friend. "You have to pay attention to everyone on the battlefield."

"Oh, stuff it." Panting, Alex took a deep breath to steady herself. "I knew you would get it." Readying her sword for the last time, Alex slowly stalked her way toward Balvurn. In the fading light of the flames, the traitor thought she looked more like a devil than a little girl.

"W-wait, please, you don't have to kill me. I'll surrender and turn myself in!" Balvurn dropped his battle ax and fell to his knees in surrender.

Alex considered the man before her for a couple seconds. "Your right. I don't have to kill you."

Outwardly Balvurn faked relief while slowly reaching for the knife he kept in his armored boot.

"But I'm strong, so I can do whatever I want. Isn't that right?"

—

Alex dropped to the ground in exhaustion. The gibbering oaf that thought he could get the drop on her lay unconscious to her right. She was perfectly fine with killing in the heat of battle, but if it wasn't too inconvenient, she preferred not to kill. It was also likely the group had accomplices. The scale of the reported disappearances couldn't have been done solely by this group.

Khepri flew up behind her, and she groaned before flipping to her stomach so the spirit could fully heal her wounds.

"That fight was… adequate." Her spirit friend said after a couple seconds, always the critic.

"Don't you act all wise and mature. You're only a couple months old. I still remember you flying yourself headfirst into a tree while practicing."

"W-What I remember no such thing."

Alex couldn't see her friend, but it was almost a guarantee she was blushing. "Oh really? Wow, that hit to the head was more serious than I thought."

Khepri considered whether it would be better to keep acting oblivious.

"Fine, I admit I might have had some trouble at first. But that might say more about you than me. So where is your maturity, oh great, and old 19-year-old?"

"Tch." That hit closer to home than Alex expected. "Fine, you win. I'll listen to you next time I want to take on three advanced adventurers simultaneously."

Khepri nodded doubtfully but continued healing for the next minute. Normally Alex would have taken her comment in jest as was intended, but the fight had obviously had some impact on the girl.

"I know I'm fairly stingy with compliments, but you are getting better." The spirit landed next to Alex's head and sat down on the grass. "Your finishing moves actually finished the enemies off this time."

"Hah, that's true, I guess." The girl flipped over to look up at the starry sky. It was amazing how many were visible in this world compared to her own. "I guess I just wonder… If it would have been better for me to follow Shizu sensei to Ingrassia. Stop being an adventurer and just go to school like she asked me to."

"Well," Khepri smiled at her friend. "I can't see the future, but the townsfolk you just saved are certainly glad you decided to stay."

"... Is that your way of telling me to stop brooding and get off my butt to free them already?"

"Maybe a little."

Notes: The story starts two and a half years after Alex was summoned into Tensura. I plan to have this story slowly build up the power of the MC, so she won't be killing demon lords any time soon. Also keep in mind this takes place before Rimuru comes to the world, so some things are going to be different. Right now, the Free Guild doesn't even exist.

Anyway, hope you enjoy and have a great day! Adios.