“Tek here, we use seasoning so casually, but very few people actually know what they are made of. You only understand the merit of knowledge after going to a world where they don’t exist.”
“N-No, you can’t, Master.” Lulu looks back at me with an anxious face.
“It’s alright, just relax.” I put my hands on Lulu’s waist, she is frightened and inching back, leaning her body on me.
“Y-Yes.”
“Let’s go, Lulu.”
“I-I can’t, it’s too big.”
“You don’t need to worry, believe what I say.” I calm the anxious Lulu and place my hands on top of her small hands.
And--
Lulu gathers her courage and fires the large Magic Rifle that she holds in her hands.
***
In the basin below a waterfall, which spreads out before our eyes, there are six giant Monsters wandering around--they look like newts, but exceed 10 meters in length. The Monster’s name is Hard Newts, they are the ones with Acid Breath and levels at or above 26.
They’re relatively strong.
There is a reason why I take Lulu along with me when I hunt these Monsters, despite frightening her.
During the incident at Muno City, Pochi’s level had become lower than the others--so I took her on a Monster hunting date when there were Monsters around our camping grounds.
Arisa and Mia found out, and protested that it was unfair, so I promised to take them out on Monster hunting dates whenever there were strong Monsters.
They used this world’s variation of rock-paper-scissors to decide on the order of their turns, but not only Arisa and Mia, Nana, Lulu and the Beastkin girls joined in.
Doing it one-by-one is inefficient, but it is important to have time alone with the girls, killing together--having a date. Well, that’s our view on it, it could be considered weird on Earth.
About three days ago, I found some reasonably strong Monsters, and took Mia along. But, even though we defeated seven level 15 Caterpillar Monsters, she hadn’t leveled up--well, my Heads-Up-Display did tell me that it’s difficult for Elves to level up.
***
“M-Master, one of them is coming here. W-What should we do?” Lulu desperately clings to my chest--damn she is cute when she’s like that.
I fire a Remote arrow, and after her shot hits the Monster, I finish the Monster off with the Remote Arrow.
It seems that the remaining five Monsters have recognized us as enemies. Since they begin climbing the cliff, I shoot them down with a single Remote Stun each.
“Lulu, drink this, and shoot again afterwards.” I give Lulu a Magic Recovery Potion.
I had thought that she could fire 30 times, since she was level 3--but she used half her Magic Power in one shot. It seems that the efficiency differs greatly between people.
She seems to have leveled up after defeating one Monster, and this time one shot only consumes 20% of her Magic Power. Like before, we aim together and shoot.
Again, I finish the Monster off with a Remote Arrow after her shot hit--after 3 minutes of this routine, we had finished exterminating the six Monsters.
Lulu is completely exhausted, sitting on the top of the cliff. I leave her there and go down, collecting the Monster’s remains. It looks like there are three more Monsters, though of a higher level, on the other side of the waterfall--but Lulu should have raised 10 levels after defeating this many.
Let’s hunt the rest with Nana.
Since Lulu’s not feeling well, I carry her in a princess carry and run along the surface of the water using Sky Drive--well, I know that the name would suggest that the Skill would be used when traveling through the sky, but it allows me to run over any surface.
***
“Lulu, what’s wrong? Are you tired after your first battle?” Arisa asks anxiously as she runs up.
“A-Arisa. I-I’m fine.” Lulu asserts that she’s okay, though she is rather pale. Her body seems surprised from such a rapid level up, and just like the Beastkin girls in the Labyrinth, she should recover if she sleeps for 3-4 hours.
“W-Wait, just what kind of things were you guys fighting?” Arisa sounds shocked as she asked me--it seems that she had checked Lulu’s level, which has raised from 3 all the way to 13, from fighting just 6 Monsters.
“Six Hard Newts at the tributary head.”
I must admit, Lulu’s level rose much higher than I expected. She gained new skills: Cooking, which she has been longing for; Shooting and Sniping, probably due to using the Magic Rifle to hunt the Monsters; she also got Compounding, probably because she has helped me with compounding before--and lastly, she somehow got the Chanting skill.
I wonder how she got the Chanting Skill, she never participated when Tama, Pochi, and I practised chanting.
“Eh? Chanting? Ah, I might know. Lulu always practiced chanting together with me ever since we were small. She didn’t learn the skill until now probably because she wasn’t high enough level.” Arisa seems to know the answer.
“Then, wouldn’t she learn Mind Magic?”
“Somehow, Lulu isn’t able to think of anything related to science. She was just so bad at Magic Theory, that she dropped out halfway.”
“Isn’t it fine if she just memorized it?”
“That’s the wrong way of thinking about it! You have to understand the chant’s meaning if you want to use Magic!” Arisa seems strangely adamant about that.
I’ll teach Lulu some chants in secret next time--she might learn the Magic Skill next time she levels up.
Arisa puts Lulu on top of a cushion that she took out of the wagon, and cools her down with a dampened cloth. I take out a painkiller and anti-fever Potion, handing them to Arisa.
“Thank you. However, you shouldn’t ease the pain from level-up growth with medicine. I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems that the amount of Stats gained will decrease.”
Interesting. Good to know.
I leave Lulu’s care to Arisa, and ask Liza to make some easy to eat food for one person. Pochi and Tama have gone to the river to catch fish--they seem to really like the taste.
While thinking about this, I get Nana, and carry her towards the Monsters. Hunting with Nana is quite easy, since she can snipe from a range with Magic Arrow.
Instead, the soft feeling of her body when she clings tightly to me while we travel to the hunting ground, and how she looks when her wet clothing clings to her when we pass through the waterfall and enter the cave--is so sexy.
The hunt ends without anything noteworthy happening, and I collect crystals, and jade from inside the cave. If Nana didn’t stop to admire the sparkly limestone cave for almost 30 minutes, we would have returned much faster.
I wonder if the newts here are special and give a lot of Exp, Nana has leveled up from 5 to 12. She has learned: One-Handed Sword, Shield, Parry, and Horse Riding. It seems that her Nature Magic Skill has leveled up as well, she got two new spells: Shelter, and Sharp Edge.
***
“In just half an hour, Lulu had surpassed my level, and in another hour, Nana’s level now is equal to mine. I think that this is quite serious.” Arisa spoke, pointing at Nana, who was happily clinging to me.
“Agreed.”
“We want strong enemies too!”
“To the prey!”
It’s almost like Arisa and Mia are putting on a play, sitting side-by-side and talking in turn, both of them pointing their fingers at me.
“Prey?”
“Meat?”
Pochi and Tama have come back before I know it. They carry buckets full of fish.
Lulu seems to have woken up, but she still looks unwell, I decided to postpone our departure until tomorrow to let Lulu and Nana rest.
When I tell Arisa and Mia about another nearby cave with Insect Monsters in it--I ended up sortieing for the third time, this time carrying both of them.
The two of them hate falling behind in level so much that they don’t insist on us going alone.
“R-Running on water like this--you’re a water-strider!”
“Float Walk?”
I’ve already told Arisa and the others about the Skill, but they seem to have thought that it is for traveling through the sky and not over the water. Mia is probably talking about Float Walk, an Intermediate-Grade Water Magic.
I’ll surprise them by flying high in the sky next time.
“No wonder Lulu’s and Nana’s hunts were so fast.”
“Convenient right?”
“Nn.”
We repeatedly hunt the insects in the cave by having Arisa and Mia attack first with their Magic, then I destroy the Monster. Since they run out of Magic Power in the middle of the hunt, we change the pattern. I attack first with Remote Stun, then the two attack with a short spear and dagger to give damage, and I finish the Monsters off with the Fairy Sword.
An Insect Monster gives less than 10% of the Exp that the newts earlier. From Arisa’s observation, it seems that she will only level up after 40 - 50 kills.
The high-pace hunt ends after will kill more than 100 small Monsters in 2 hours--the result is that both Mia and Arisa have leveled up by 2. It seems that the Exp required for Elves to level up is around twice that of a Human.
When I wondered out loud what the Monsters eat that allow them to multiply so much.
Mia answers the question, “Spirits.”
We can’t see it, but there seems that there’s an underground lake with transparent water, where Spirits seem to gush out, and the Monsters eat them.
I try staring really hard at the underground lake--but, unfortunately, I still can’t see the Spirits.
***
To help digest the food after the meal, I’m practicing with the Fairy Sword.
I raise the sword overhead, stop, put Magic into it, and swing downwards--then when the sword reaches the bottom of the swing, I suck the Magic Power from it, and quickly raise the sword, that has become lighter.
I’m getting used to the weight changing characteristics of the Fairy Sword and the swing speed increases little-by-little. In 30 minutes, I’ve grasped the movement, after repeating the same movements without stopping--I decide to stop the practice there.
Suddenly, applause rings out--it seems that everyone has surrounded me, and were watching before I noticed.
“Really, cheat, huh? Do you know what you’ve been doing?”
“It’s just form practice though?”
Arisa comes really close and lays her hand on the back of my neck--her face almost touching mind, she whispers, “You don’t seem to understand, huh? Normally, one can’t pour Magic Power into a sword that quickly. Incidentally, you’ve even dispersed the Magic Power from the sword--I’ll say this again, something like absorption is impossible.”
Is that so?
Since I did it so easily with Liza’s Magic Spear, I thought anyone could learn how to.
“Isn’t it because they think it’s impossible, that they can’t do it?”
“There’s no way it’s like that, right? If people could do it so easily, something like Magic Recovery Potions wouldn’t be needed. When you need to consume MP for Magic, if you could do something like absorbing Magic Power from a loaded Magic Tool--it would be the only battery you need, if you load a lot of Magic Tools, and only use them when needed--”
Arisa goes to release my neck, but I lean in and kiss her, “Thanks.”
She flushes, “You’re welcome!”, and backs off a little. The other girls watch her for a second before the circle breaks up.
I should check the efficiency of using Magic weapons and tools as batteries. I pour Magic into the Fairy Sword, and then absorb it again--it seems to have no leakage, I can withdraw the same amount as I put in. Which is much better than even the best batteries on Earth.
