My Overpowered Bunny Girls

Chapter 23: 23. Why won’t Nathan let her cook!?

A small pedestal materialized near the exit portal as nathan pushed himself upright and walked to it. The potions went into his inventory. Then he turned the gauntlet over in his hands. A piece of the Commander’s dark iron armor, it was still faintly warm with lingering mana.

"Uncommon material, huh" he murmured as Vex’s words echoed in his memory: Slot in the right materials, and this thing can scale with you. "This might be useful for the ring."

’Master.’

Mirko’s voice was quiet. Not the tactical calm of moments before, but something smaller and Uncertain.

Nathan looked down at her. She was sitting near his feet, her green fur dusty and scuffed, her pink eyes fixed on the ground.

"You were injured..." she said through their link, "...because... because I couldn’t fight properly. If I had transformed..."

"If you had transformed," Nathan cut her off, kneeling down despite the protest of his ribs, "yeah, we would have won faster."

She flinched.

"But we would’ve lost something else." Nathan’s voice was calm and unwavering. "We would’ve lost control... Of our secret... Of our story. The Tower doesn’t just get to choose when we reveal ourselves. That choice is ours. Mine. Ours. Not a dungeon. Not a flashing notification. Not fear dressed up as caution."

Mirko’s ears twitched. She still didn’t look at him.

"You’re not weak because you’re holding back,Mirko" Nathan continued. "You’re patient. You’re disciplined. You trust my judgment even when it costs you. That’s not weakness. That’s exactly what I need from My Knight."

Finally, Mirko’s eyes lifted to meet his.

’You truly believe that?’

"I don’t just believe it. I know it." Nathan stood, wincing as his ribs reminded him they existed. "Now. Floor 5. Let’s see if the Tower has any more surprises."

---

Floor 5, a Gallery of Mirrors. It beautiful in a way the Armory had not been.

Nathan stepped through the portal and found himself in a long, narrow hall lined with mirrors. They covered every wall, every surface, stretching from floor to a ceiling lost in darkness. Some were cracked. Others were warped, their reflections rippling like disturbed water. A few were pristine, their surfaces gleaming with an almost liquid clarity.

The floor was black marble, polished to a mirror sheen.

Nathan’s own reflection stared back at him from a dozen angles simultaneously. All of him. All at once.

"Creepy..." he muttered.

’Agreed.’ Mirko materialized beside him, her small form reflected infinitely ’This place feels... like it’s hungry.’

[Ding! Floor 5: The Gallery of Echoes]

[Enemy Type: Mirror Wraiths]

[Threat Level: Moderate]

The first attack came before Nathan had finished reading the notification.

His reflection in the nearest mirror moved.

It raised a bow... a mirror-bow, perfect in detail... and fired a [Mana Arrow] that erupted from the glass like a projectile breaking the surface of a pond.

Nathan dove sideways and dodge the arrow shattering against the black marble where he had been standing.

"What the hell!"

His reflection was already drawing again, and So were the reflections in the mirrors to his left. And his right. And above.

’Master! The mirrors!’

Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] painted the gallery in a new light. The mirrors weren’t just surfaces. They were conduits. The Mirror Wraiths... invisible entities, formless and silent.. they were pulling his image from the reflections and animating it. Each clear reflection became a hostile copy of himself.

He fired a [Mana Arrow] at the nearest mirror. The surface shattered. The reflection-Nathan dissolved instantly.

[Ding! XP Gained!]

"Destroy the mirrors," Nathan said. "That’s this floor’s mechanic."

Easier said than done.

Mirror-Nathans were spawning faster than he could shatter their sources. Each copy fired [Mana Arrows] weaker than Nathan’s own, but accurate, and there were so many of them. They came from multiple angles, forcing Nathan into constant motion. Dodge left. Roll right. Fire a return shot. Miss. The mirror-Nathans were fast, and the real Nathan was already tired from Floor 4.

Then the mirror-Mirkos appeared.

They were faster than the real Mirko in bunny form. Impossibly fast. The real Mirko had restraint, caution, tactical awareness, the discipline Nathan had praised moments before. The copies had none of that. They moved like green comets of pure aggression, [Headbutt] striking marble pillars with enough force to crack stone. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

One slammed into the real Mirko and sent her tumbling.

’That is deeply unsettling!’ she managed to tell as she scrambled to her feet.

"Agreed." Nathan shattered a mirror with [Focus Shot] at three seconds of charge. The associated copy dissolved. "We need to stop them at the source. Mirko, scout ahead. Find the active mirrors. Don’t engage the copies just yet. Just find the exact core of where they’re spawning from."

’And you?’

"I’ll keep them busy."

Mirko shot forward into the darkness of the gallery. Nathan turned to face the half-dozen copies still closing on his position.

He stopped fighting like an archer and started fighting like a puzzle-solver.

The mirrors couldn’t be destroyed all at once, there were too many. But [Hunter’s Insight] showed him which ones were "active," their mana signatures pulsing with Wraith energy. He prioritized those, moving between blind angles where his own reflection couldn’t be caught cleanly. A cracked mirror created a distorted reflection, and distorted reflections spawned weak copies. A shattered mirror created no reflection at all.

Nathan learned the gallery’s rhythm. Destroy the active mirrors first. Use cracked mirrors as cover, their distorted images creating copies too weak to threaten him. Avoid the pristine mirrors entirely.

’Master! I’ve found the main source. It’s at End of the gallery! A Large ornate mirror! Very ugly!!!.’

"I’m on my way!"

He fought his way toward Mirko’s position, shattering mirrors as he went. The copies grew fewer as the active surfaces decreased. By the time he reached the gallery’s end, only one mirror remained.

It was massive, twelve feet tall, framed in tarnished silver, its surface perfectly intact. Nathan’s reflection stared back at him and Beside it was Mirko’s reflection.

Then the two reflections stepped out of the mirror as a single fused entity... a copy of Nathan with Mirko’s speed, a copy of Mirko with Nathan’s tactical precision. It moved like a nightmare, fast enough to dodge Nathan’s [Mana Arrows] and precise enough to predict his movements.

"Mirko. The frame, not the surface."

’Understood.’

Nathan charged [Focus Shot]. The fused copy charged him. But Mirko intercepted, bouncing off its shoulder to disrupt its aim, giving Nathan the opening he needed.

He aimed past the copy, past the mirror’s surface, at the ornate silver frame holding the entire structure together.

Twenty seconds of charge then He released.

The arrow punched through the frame’s central joint. The silver buckled as the mirror’s surface cracked from edge to edge, and the fused copy dissolved with a sound like breaking glass.

[Ding! Tower of Beginnings: Floor 5 Cleared!] ƒreewebɳovel.com

[Time: 19 minutes 11 seconds.]

[Clear Rank: A]

[Floor Clear Reward: Echo Shard (Rare Material), Minor Mana Potion x2]

Nathan walked to the pedestal that had materialized in the mirror’s place. The Echo Shard was a palm-sized fragment of mirror that hummed faintly, its surface catching light that wasn’t there. A rare material. Exactly the kind of thing Vex had mentioned for upgrading the Leyline Ring.

He pocketed it into his inventory carefully.

’Master.’ Mirko’s voice was hesitant. ’During the fight... the mirror-Mirko spoke.’

Nathan turned to look at her surprised.

’It said something. Something that came from my own thoughts...’ Her ears drooped. ’It asked: "What if Master falls because I’m too weak to protect him properly?"’

The gallery was silent. The shattered mirrors reflected nothing but fragments of darkness.

Nathan knelt down again, ignoring the ache in his body.

"You’re not weak..." he said. "You’re... patient. There’s a difference! Don’t let a piece of glass tell you otherwise..."

Mirko’s ears twitched. She didn’t respond verbally. But her mental presence, the constant background warmth of their link, grew just a little warmer.

---

Nathan stood before the Floor 6 gate.

His mana was at half capacity, the Leyline Ring working steadily to restore what the last two floors had drained. His ribs still ached from the sword strike. His quiver held half his original arrows. Four healing potions. Five mana potions, one of which he had now drank. And an uncommon gauntlet and a rare shard weighing down his inventory.

"Five down," he murmured. "Five to go."

’Master.’ Mirko’s voice was steady now, the earlier doubt pushed aside. ’The next floors will be harder.’

"I know."

’If you need me to fight...truly fight.. you only have to say the word!’

Nathan looked at the gate. The carvings on its surface depicted a humanoid figure with a sword, facing a creature of shadow and fangs. A boss-type. He could feel it.

"I know," he said again. "Let’s see what Floor 6 has waiting."

Then He pushed through.