Level Eater
Chapter 161

The tools were ready. Leah's motivation was ample.

That being the case, there was only one thing to do.

"Leah, since the tools are ready, shall we..." (Nana)

"Ah, yes, Nana. I had forgotten." (Leah)

"Hey, Don't forget about me~" (Athena)

"Well then--" (Leah)

"'Well then?'" (Nana)

"I'm going to sleep!!" (Leah)

"Sleep!?" (Nana)

While Nana and Athena raised their voices in surprise, Leah fell asleep as if fainting and Ai caught her as she collapsed forward.

"Well, that's to be expected." (Ai)

"She's been working almost non-stop. So both of you, I know you're eager, but if you're going to ask, it'll have to be tomorrow." (Tatsuro)

"Ah. Come to think of it, she needs sleep, doesn't she? I forgot." (Athena)

"Uu... how embarrassing. Mother, please hand Leah to me. I'll wipe her body and use life magic to regulate her condition." (Nana)

"Nana-chan will do it? Alright then, I'll leave it to you!" (Ai)

Saying that she entrusted Leah, whom she had been holding to her chest, to Nana, who was about the same height, and the two entered the tent set up for Leah.

"Well then, shall we take a bath and go to sleep too?" (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, let's do that." (Ai)

Since Leah could not move and Nana was with her, the two avoided bathing together. They finished bathing while ensuring one of them could move immediately if needed and then fell asleep in the rhinoceros cart placed in the center of the small island, which was as bright as daytime.

Clang ~ clang ~ clang. Thud ~ thud ~ thud.

Such sounds echoed in his ears, and Tatsuro woke up.

As Cardina showed no signs of alertness, Tatsuro, assuming there was no particular danger, used life magic to gently wake up Ai, who was sleeping next to him, without rushing.

After changing clothes, they went outside to see Nana and Athena standing behind Leah, who was sitting on the ground working.

From this sight, they could guess what the sounds they had been hearing since waking up were.

So as not to disturb her work, the two quietly approached from behind.

Just then, Leah had finished processing one of Nana's fangs.

"It's done!" (Leah)

"It looks so cool!" (Nana)

"Wow, that's nice!" (Athena)

It had transformed from a mere fang into something that could properly be called a weapon.

First, the thrusting part was beautifully and gently twisted towards the tip, and the sharpness of the tip had increased. The handle was also properly made, with grooves carved to fit Nana's small hand, increasing its grip.

"Good morning, Leah. Thanks for this right away." (Tatsuro)

"Good morning" (Ai)

"Ah. Good morning, Tatsuro-san, Ai-san. Please don't worry about it, I'm enjoying doing this myself." (Leah)

She replied with a beaming smile that suggested she couldn't be happier, and it was clear that she had really wanted to create something herself.

"So that's Nana-chan's new weapon, huh?" (Ai)

"Yes, it is! I thought it would just have a handle, but it exceeded my expectations!" (Nana)

"Dad, I want you to give me a bone I can use!" (Athena)

"Hmm? A bone Athena can use. Specifically, what kind of thing would be good?" (Tatsuro)

"Well, you see~. Like this--" (Athena)

Seeing her sister's new weapon, she eagerly conveyed to Tatsuro the ideal length, using body language as well.

While watching this, Tatsuro opened the system and searched through the dragon carcasses in his [Item Box], trying to find the most ideal bone possible.

However, he couldn't find an ideal part with just the right thickness and length around the rib area that Athena had mentioned before, so he used the [Item Box] decomposition function to cut out a part of the bone to the ideal length and handed it over.

"This is the closest I have on hand right now, is it okay?" (Tatsuro)

"Ah, it's fine. This looks good enough." (Athena)

After handing over the bone, Tatsuro and the others began preparing breakfast.

Time passed again, and Nana's other fang, Athena's bone spear about as tall as Tatsuro, and a dragon bone club that Ai had secretly asked to be made were all completed.

All three were satisfied with the results, and Athena also acquired an [Item Box], wanting to carry it around herself.

Thus, ending their long break time, they returned to conquering the first layer.

"So first, I'll put up a shield, and we can walk on that, right?" (Ai)

"Yeah. But if there's no way to the second layer on the next island either, let's search from the air in one go." (Tatsuro)

"Well, walking around wouldn't tell us when we'd be able to progress next." (Ai)

"That's right." (Tatsuro)

An entrance to the next layer is as conspicuous as that would be obvious at a glance from the air. So it wasn't that they didn't think about going that way quickly.

However, while they had only encountered aerial enemies once, they were still unknown, and flying alone consumes energy. Considering the long term, it's better to go by sea if possible, since it has a lower cost.

So after discussing it together, they decided to choose another island to go to, and if there was no point to the next layer there, they would switch to that method.

The island they were aiming for this time was a small island beyond three small islands between here, about three kilometers away in a straight line.

Even with the thinnest arrangement of willpower shields, it was beyond Ai's control range, so they laid them out on the sea surface to form a circle about fifty meters in diameter with Ai at the center.

Using that as a foothold, they began crossing the sea in the following order: Jeanne at the front with Cardina on top, Athena at the rear, and Tatsuro and Ai, Nana, and Leah sandwiched between them.

Tatsuro, cooperating with Cardina to examine the sea again, found that there were still swarms of monster reactions that had come out earlier, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to attack.

"It's creepy, feeling like we're being watched like this." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, I wish they'd just come if they're going to. It's more tiring to keep worrying about when they'll come." (Ai)

As Ai answered Tatsuro's words, Athena, who was behind them, joined the conversation.

"Maybe that's actually their aim. They seemed oddly like that." (Athena)

"I don't think mere monsters would have that much intelligence. Isn't it just that they don't know how to attack?" (Nana)

"Well, it would be nice if that were the case, but it's better to think negatively like Athena-san so we can move quickly when the time comes." (Leah)

Leah, who had leveled up and could now wield a one-meter giant hammer, along with hand-me-down equipment from Ai, said this to Nana walking next to her with a serious face.

Nana listened to this advice sincerely and renewed her slackening spirit.

"My prediction is that their attack point will be when we're far from both landmasses again." (Tatsuro)

"Come to think of it, it was like that last time too. To prevent us from escaping to land, right?" (Ai)

"Probably. But well, as Leah said, it's important to be prepared for them to come at any time." (Tatsuro)

Everyone responded to Tatsuro's words, and they continued walking for several more minutes.

They had reached a place that seemed suitable for an attack point, as Tatsuro had mentioned earlier.

As they approached, the casual conversation decreased, and eventually, they passed through silently while being on guard. As if following their predictions, the group that had been watching them from the sea below began to move.

"Here they come!" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

First, cutting to the front, a wolf-like monster wearing short fur like a wetsuit, which Ai called a sea dog, ran vertically through the sea aiming for them, with others following.

The number was about thirty. All of them were approaching in such a beautifully formed line that one might want to call them a single organism.

"Six seconds until they reach the shield under us. Ai, just in case, make the shield a bit thicker." (Tatsuro)

"Understood." (Ai)

Ai increased the thickness of the shield laid on the sea surface by about two times, preparing for the sea dogs' contact.

Then, the sea dogs arrived exactly as Tatsuro had said. And all of them charged at the shield directly below Tatsuro and Ai.

With a thunderous boom, thirty sea dogs continuously attacked the shield from below like a hailstorm, struggling to break through, but it wasn't soft enough to be broken by mere charges that weren't even skills.

So Tatsuro sent a telepathic message to Ai to open a 5cm pipe in the shield, then passed a thick copper wire through it, and cooperated with Athena to manipulate it using a mixture of earth and lightning magic, electrocuting the sea dogs.

But that wasn't the end of it. The second wave and the third wave came, and the number of corpses in the sea kept increasing, with no progress on either side.

They couldn't ignore it, so they continued to deal with them, but eventually, they started coming up from places without shields.

Although they weren't as good at running on land as they were underwater, they still came up with their considerably fast legs and swarmed towards them.

During this time, the attacks from directly below continued, and the situation became increasingly chaotic.

Ai, Jeanne, and Athena took the initiative to move forward and began hunting the group of sea dogs running towards them. Nana and Leah knocked down those that tried to leak out, while Cardina while conducting underwater exploration and using detection magic around the area with Tatsuro, didn't neglect to assist Nana and Leah.

Tatsuro, for his part, used a mixture of water, earth, and darkness magic to create earth blades mixed with seawater, spinning them like a mixer to cut the noisy bunch below into pieces. However, he suddenly felt something catch in his detection magic.

Tatsuro looked towards the direction of this strange feeling, near the edge of the shielded area behind him, using dispel magic as well, but saw nothing. Yet, he felt something was off.

So he decided to set aside this suspicion for now and was about to shift his gaze when he sensed an unpleasant reaction of magical power gathering from that direction.

Before visually confirming, Tatsuro reflexively channeled magic into the long coat he was wearing to harden it.

And that split-second decision saved Tatsuro.

"---Guh" (Tatsuro)

"Tatsuro!?" (Ai)

"Pewee!?" (Cardina)

"Neigh!?" (Jeanne)

"Father!?" (Nana)

"Tatsuro-san!?" (Leah)

"Dad!?" (Athena)

Some kind of transparent bullet-like substance directly hit Tatsuro's right shoulder and the center of his spine.

Fortunately, thanks to hardening his coat to the extreme, it didn't penetrate, and the impact absorption effect also helped prevent it from becoming a fatal wound.

However, it seemed to have considerable power, as the impact that couldn't be fully absorbed was transmitted to his body. The impact that ran through his body was about the same as being punched by an average adult male, so the parts where the attack hit had turned red and bruised.

Leaving the approaching sea dogs to Jeanne, Athena, Cardina, and Leah, Ai and Nana rushed over to Tatsuro.

Before Tatsuro could heal the bruise with his own life magic, Nana immediately treated the affected area.

And Ai reduced the shield they were using as a foothold to secure a portion surrounding Tatsuro.

Then Ai, who was more than half angry, representing everyone, asked Tatsuro:

"Are you okay? What happened?" (Ai)

"I'm fine, Nana quickly healed the painful areas. As for what happened, I'm checking now. Give me a moment." (Tatsuro)

"Understood." (Ai)

Tatsuro, with Cardina's help, first checked what had hit him. It turned out to be water.

Apparently, it had shot water like an ultra-powerful water gun.

And he was certain that this something was the identity of the earlier strange feeling, as he continued to search for where it had gone now.

Until now, both Tatsuro and Cardina had been using detection magic simultaneously with battle, so its precision had been reduced to the minimum of just gathering enemy position information.

That's why Tatsuro had only felt a sense of unease about it this time.

It was liquid. And it was almost completely integrated with seawater to the extent that it couldn't be perfectly distinguished by detection magic used with reduced precision or while doing something else.

"I've found it. I absolutely won't let it escape." (Tatsuro)

Even after checking if there were any similar individuals around, there were only this and the sea dogs among the monsters.

So Tatsuro, while keeping his eyes on this mysterious liquid monster, began to relay the results of his investigation to Ai and the others.