Level Eater

T/N: {} will be used to show any communication in telepathy.

——

Time passed since the dragon's waltz and the battle with the bats. Tatsuro, who just finished his watch, was already asleep peacefully within the walls he built.

Meanwhile, Ai sat cross-legged atop the stone bed, practicing using [Body Strengthening] on only one part of her body at a time. Occasionally, in between her training, she would sneak a glance at the moon.

"Haah… It still doesn't work…" (Ai)

Grumbling, Ai stopped her practice and placed her hands behind her back, staring blankly into the sky.

(I want to see the dragon too… I wonder if it'll come back later…) (Ai)

During her second watch of the night, nothing too special happened like when Tatsuro saw a dragon. Learning about the existence of dragons made Ai want to see one too.

However, they are still not creatures that one can see every day. In the end, Ai just vacantly stared at the sky, unable to find what she was looking for.

Now doubting Tatsuro's words, Ai released a sigh before resuming her Ki technique practice. She was in the midst of honing her technique when all of a sudden, she heard a rustle coming from the other side of the river. Turning her attention towards it, Ai saw multiple creatures with long, thin bodies hopping in and out of the river, creating splashes of water in the river.

(That's… A sunflower… No, it doesn't look like one— what is that thing?) (Ai)

The creatures were no more than two meters long. They had a sunflower-like appearance at the top with their long bodies looking like an extra thick stem. Tentacle-like limbs with leaves attached at the ends acted as their hands. For its legs, their roots were split into two, which they are using to hop around now.

During her observation, Ai found one colored differently from the rest that, although it looked like it was forcing itself to, still promptly swam to the middle of the river. Regarding that specific one as an oddball, she continued watching the rest of the creatures.

Soon, a total of seven creatures were in the middle of the river, after which, they started to line up. After lining up, they immediately stopped moving with their tentacles parallel to the ground.

Then, the atmosphere around them changed…

(—–What are they doing?) (Ai)

Ai gulped once and continued to watch the spectacle unfold. The unmoving creatures then started wiggling their arms at the same time and not long after, their legs and soon, the whole body followed.

They continued for a while as if they were showing the whole world the tribal dance of their race.

(What. Is This?) (Ai)

While they were wiggling around in the river, Ai wanted to be the tsukkomi in this Manzai comedy show. Disregarding Ai's opinions, the sunflowers continued to dance, their moves getting more reckless and violent by the second.

Every now and then, the sunflowers changed their formation: from a line to a square; from a rhombus to a triangle. Surely they must have practiced all of this before. They also spun their whole body around, sometimes jumping with their feet perpendicular to the ground like a ballerina.

It was as if the dance also served another purpose, making it more interesting for Ai to watch,

Leaning her entire body forward, Ai's eyes were full of joy and curiosity. She was itching to give them a standing ovation after their routine was done.

(Amazing! Oh, it looks like it's synchronized swimming this time!) (Ai)

Their faces protruded out of the water's surface as they swam freestyle, passing each other by without any collisions. Their legs bent at a 90⁰ angle, then stuck out of the water's surface and finally, they made a vertical jump, coming straight out of the water.

Ai continued to watch over their performance which looked like it was approaching its climax.

As all of them raised their heads out of the water and gathered into a circle, one of them, supposedly the leader, proceeded toward the center of the formation. And then, as if all the elegance earlier was nothing but a lie, they started to move roughly and violently, splashing water all around. They flailed around with all their might as if pouring all their memories of hardships and joys of life within.

For Ai, it was definitely something worth talking about in a future conversation.

During the wild dance, the flowers on top of their bodies basked in the moonlight, as if trying to absorb it all in. Soon, they abruptly stopped their movements and their eyes started to glow. All seven of them then started to spread their tentacle-like arms towards the sky.

At that moment, the flowers on their heads popped out with a distinct high-pitched sound. Once they floated up to a certain height, the flower heads started to release something all around. The thing was almost weightless, as it fell ever so slowly through the air. As a gust of wind blew, those things were carried with it, and into the forest they went.

The remaining parts that lost their head started to sink in the river. As the bodies lay unmoving, devoid of any life, they were slowly taken away by the river downstream.

(Somehow, this all feels surreal…)

Saying that in her heart, she continued staring in the direction where the bodies went until she felt something graze her cheek.

Thinking "What was that?" Ai grabbed it.

When she finally had a good look at it, she identified it as something similar to a dandelion's cotton –a seed.

(So they sacrificed themselves to spread these things…)

Holding it with the tips of her fingers, she released it as it was blown away by the wind.

As if sending her grievances together with it, she looked up at the sky and muttered, "I wonder if I can see a dragon tonight…"

The sun was on the rise, with one side of the sky already tinged with the colors of red and orange. Seeing that spectacle, Tatsuro started the beginning of their third day in this other world. Waking Ai up for breakfast, he split the last piece of their rice ball and prepared the fish caught in the river yesterday. Using the item box, he was able to cut the fish nicely before cooking it.

"Just a bit more and we'll see the path leading to the town. Let's keep going!" (Tatsuro)

"Yeah. It feels like I can finally see the end of this camping trip. I want to sleep in a real bed soon!" (Ai)

"Same here. For that, we make haste!" (Tatsuro)

"Roger that!" (Ai)

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel was enough to motivate the two as they resumed their travel, walking along the riverbank with triumphant faces.

"Hey, Ai… Do you have anything you want to see me do with my magic?" (Tatsuro)

"Why so suddenly?" (Ai)

Tatsuro, walking next to Ai, asked such a question nonchalantly.

"Hmm… You already saw the laser I can do, so I thought you might be curious about other stuff." (Tatsuro)

"What do I want to see, huh? What about you, don't you have anything you want to do?" (Ai)

"I have a lot, but I don't know in which order I should take the attributes with, so I thought you might want to see a particular one." (Tatsuro)

"Try taking them all— wouldn't really work, would it?" (Ai)

If he learns a new one, the cost of the rest will just multiply. If he learned a useful attribute too late and wanted to raise it to higher levels, it's gonna take a despairing amount of SP for him to do so.

That was why he wanted to put off getting a new attribute until he felt the need for it.

"Which attributes and what they can do at what level. We still have the choice of putting it off since there's a chance of getting hold of that knowledge once we're in the town, right?" (Ai)

"Ah, that's right! Even if we don't use them, the SP won't just disappear for no reason. Thanks for reminding me!" (Tatsuro)

"It is my honor." (Ai)

"This calls for a grand feast… what are we even doing?" (Tatsuro)

For the time being, they've decided on what to do with his remaining SP. With that burden out of his mind, Tatsuro wanted to confirm one last thing.

"Ai, did you get the [Perfect Harmony] title too?" (Tatsuro)

"Of course! We got it together, right?" (Ai)

Brimming with joy, Ai smiled as she looked towards Tatsuro. Succumbing to her cuteness, Tatsuro proceeded to pat her head without thinking and got to the main topic.

"It said that we can use telepathic communication, but… Want to try it out?" (Tatsuro)

"Sounds great! A direct phone line just for the two of us. It gives off a special feel, right!" (Ai)

"That's because it is special…" (Tatsuro)

"Huh, what was that? My, my… Oh my god! Can you wepeat that fow me, pwetty prease!?" replied Ai as she snuggled closer to Tatsuro.

Feeling embarrassed by what he just said, Tatsuro proceeded to test out their new skill to shake off the heat.

{Ahhh. Ahhh. Mike test. Can you hear me?} (Tatsuro)

"Hiiiii!?" (Ai)

{It's hi, not hiii.} (Tatsuro)

"No, I was just surprised. So… like this…?" {Tatsuro, Tatsuro, can you hear me?} (Ai)

{Yeah, if it came suddenly like this, I'd be surprised too.} (Tatsuro)

{See? It has that much power.} (Ai)

Tatsuro was stunned at the process before he recalled this particular familiar sensation.

{If I have to describe it, it's something like a ticklish feeling on the back of my head, not too little to ignore, but also not too strong to be a big nuisance, right?} (Tatsuro)

{That's it, Detective Kudos!} (Ai)

"That's not how you use that… Hmm, you don't feel tired right after using it, right?" (Tatsuro)

"Yep, no problems on my side!" (Ai)

To show that she was fine, Ai placed her hands on her waist with a puff. Tatsuro also felt nothing wrong with his body and smiled with satisfaction, knowing that they had gained such a convenient tool at their disposal.

"We still don't know the range of the skill, but I guess that's alright for now. Let's try that out once we get to the town and you somehow get lost" (Tatsuro)

"Never. Gonna. Happen. By the way, this skill… You think we can still use it after we get back to Japan?" (Ai)

".. Probably no…? Is what I'd like to say but we don't even know how it works, so I can't really give you a good answer?" (Tatsuro)

"That's fair. But talking about Japan after just three days is starting to make me feel nostalgic." (Ai)

"Yeah. It hasn't even been that long but we've already been through a lot." (Tatsuro)

The conversation reminded them of what happened during the past two days. How many experiences they have gone through in this short period… but beyond that, how everything feel like it had been thrust upon them by fate?

"It feels like we've been here for months, yeah?" (Tatsuro)

"Right. Well, it's not like there's someone else out there that experienced this before, so let's just enjoy the tour while we can." (Ai)

"Yeah." (Tatsuro)

Giving a nod to each other, the two continued with their journey, hand in hand, towards the town of Obsul.

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