Level Eater
Chapter 164

Athena added more amber smoke and converted it to lightning attribute, shaping it like a plate around them and letting thin lines hang to the ground in different directions, so they'd be ready for lightning strikes at any time.

With countermeasures in place, and lightning seeming to be the only aerial threat this time, they had Jeanne use [True Form] and leap to the center of the lake in one bound.

"Neigh!" (Jeanne)

"Thanks, Jeanne." (Tatsuro)

After flying to the small island in the lake's center, Jeanne was too big to fit, so they climbed down her tail to land. Then she used [Child Form] and jumped onto the island herself.

They circled the triangular-roofed stone structure on the island, finding a plain stone door on one of its four walls.

"Looks like this is the only entrance." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah. Doesn't seem to be any traps... shall we go in?" (Ai)

"I'll open it then." (Athena)

Athena gripped the U-shaped handle on the stone door. When pushing didn't work, she pulled, and the gap opened with a grinding sound of stone on stone.

Athena glanced at Tatsuro, who nodded, and she opened it fully in one go.

She cautiously peered inside, but with no windows or lights, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen.

"Hmm, it's totally dark inside. Dad, could you light it up with magic?" (Athena)

"Got it." (Tatsuro)

He created ten light orbs with magic and sent them into the room.

"Oh, it's bright now!" (Athena)

"But there doesn't seem to be anything here." (Nana)

Athena looked in through the open door, with Nana peeking out beside her as they surveyed the interior.

However, all they saw was a barren scene with just a stone pedestal in the center, seemingly carved from rock, and nothing else.

Even when Tatsuro and Cardina used detection magic, they found no traps or unusual objects, so everyone entered.

Once inside, with only the stone pedestal in the middle and nothing else, everyone naturally gathered around it.

"There's some kind of engraving on this pedestal." (Tatsuro)

"It's a fish and... what's that, some kind of nut? And a snake, I think." (Ai)

"...It seems we need to find these three items within this level and offer them on this pedestal to open the path to the next level." (Leah)

"It's just like a treasure hunt game." (Nana)

Hearing Leah's interpretation of the mechanism, Nana's comment made Tatsuro feel it was exactly that.

"You don't know where these things are though, right?" (Tatsuro)

"Not that far... I can only tell what kind of mechanism this pedestal is." (Leah)

"Well, it's helpful just to know the answer right away. And probably the fish is in the lake, while the nut and snake are likely in the forest area around where we first arrived." (Tatsuro)

"But starting from not knowing what kind of fish, nut, or snake it is seems troublesome. It'd be fine if there was only one type of each." (Ai)

"Indeed, it might be more work than just searching for the next entrance." (Tatsuro)

Feeling the atmosphere growing heavy, Tatsuro clapped his hands to dispel it.

"Standing here complaining won't get us anywhere. Let's search for them one by one, carefully." (Tatsuro)

"Right. Should we sketch this picture then?" (Ai)

"Good idea. -- By the way, I have no artistic talent, so I'm counting on someone else!" (Tatsuro)

"Ha, same here!" (Ai)

Tatsuro and Ai both gave a thumbs up with their best smiles.

Conversely, they were confident in their inability to draw well.

Sensing this atmosphere, everyone tried not to touch on it as Cardina and Jeanne looked at the human-form members.

"I'm not very confident either." (Tatsuro)

"Me neither. So, Leah-chi, we're counting on you!" (Ai)

"Leah-chi? You mean me?" (Tatsuro)

"Well, you were good at origami. Aren't you good at this kind of thing?" (Ai)

"That's right. And even if it's a bit messy, it'll probably be better than what we could do. Could you at least give it a try?" (Tatsuro)

Leah had only drawn in her early childhood before her system was even installed, with no real memory of holding a brush properly.

However, given their encouragement, she decided to try sketching.

She received paper and pen from Tatsuro and began sketching the pedestal's engraving.

"Hey, this is pretty good." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, it's identical to the original!" (Ai)

"I'm glad it met your expectations. But..." (Leah)

"But what?" (Tatsuro)

"It might be a bit late to say this, but... wouldn't it have been faster to make a mold with earth magic or something?" (Leah)

"Ah..." (Ai)

"Oh, right!" (Tatsuro)

Perhaps because the word "sketch" came up first, their minds didn't turn to other methods, and even Tatsuro hadn't thought of it.

"W-well, let's think of it as discovering Leah's new talent... No, I'm sorry." (Tatsuro)

"N-no! Um... I-I'm so happy to find out I have artistic talent" (Leah)

"Leah, this is terrible. It turns out you have no acting talent." (Nana)

"Ugh... Please just ignore that, Nana. I'm trying to cover for your father!" (Leah)

"Oh no! I accidentally said it because it was so bad!" (Nana)

"Is it my fault!?" (Leah)

"Geez, what is this...?" (Ai)

Starting from Tatsuro's strange excuse, the conversation took an odd turn and became a mess, and the topic drifted away.

Since they had gone to the trouble of sketching, they were about to go outside with the paper when signs of lightning appeared.

Curious about what would happen if they stayed inside, they decided to experiment by staying in the stone structure. While lightning struck the lake and the brown ground surrounding it, not a single bolt hit where they were.

"Looks like we can use this as a rest area too." (Tatsuro)

"With a roof and walls, and no monsters. It's definitely good." (Ai)

"Then let's make this our spot when we're tired from treasure hunting. Is everyone okay with that?" (Tatsuro)

After looking at each person and asking, everyone agreed, so they waited for the lightning to completely stop before going outside.

"Since the lake is right in front of us, shall we start with the fish?" (Tatsuro)

"That's efficient. Let's see, from this sketch, it looks like a fish shaped like a sea bream." (Ai)

"Sea bream, huh. If it's edible, I'd like to catch extra." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah. We'll probably be living in the dungeon for a while, so it'd be good to procure some local food." (Ai)

While meat, vegetables, and fruits could be managed somehow, fish was different. In that sense, they wanted to eat it here if possible.

"So, Dad. How are we going to catch it?" (Athena)

"Since it's called a fish, maybe by fishing?" (Ai)

"Amateur fishing might not be reliable. Hmm... Let's try using detection magic to find where the fish are first. Cardina." (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

So they began investigating the lake using underwater detection, but for some reason, there were no signs of fish or any living creatures in this lake.

Puzzled by this, they tried a wide-range detection disregarding precision, but the result was the same.

"What's wrong, Tatsuro?" (Ai)

"There's nothing in this lake, not even fish." (Tatsuro)

"Eh?" (Ai)

"Neigh!?" (Jeanne)

"Really!?" (Nana)

"No way" (Athena)

"Seriously...?" (Leah)

It wasn't an exceptionally beautiful lake, but it didn't seem like a particularly poor environment either. Despite this, the absence of any living creatures seemed rather strange.

However, having investigated it himself, he couldn't deny the fact.

This raised the question of how they were supposed to catch a fish.

Even if they discussed it, producing a fish from where there were none was like trying to pull a tiger out of a folding screen.

So it turned into a mere complaining session, with jokes about needing the wisdom of Ikkyū to somehow solve this, and no constructive opinions emerged. (T/N: Sorry can't explain Ikkyū wisdom here. Please use the google search option (~_~))

"If they want us to catch it, they should have prepared it properly! That's negligence!" (Ai)

Frustrated by this, Ai picked up a small stone that happened to be nearby and threw it into the lake.

Thanks to her throwing skill, it was thrown with a beautiful form, and despite being just a small stone, it created a splash as if a small meteorite had fallen.

"As always, ridiculous power-- What's that!?" (Tatsuro)

Around the time the water splash had completely settled, suddenly a rumbling sound echoed, and the lake began to ripple with vibrations.

Tatsuro immediately tried to signal Cardina with his eyes to investigate the cause, but it wasn't necessary.

Because the cause revealed itself to them.

"Isn't that the snake from the picture!?" (Ai)

"No. It matches the picture, but that's not a snake. It's a moray eel!" (Tatsuro)

About ten meters away from where Ai had thrown the stone, a giant yellow and black spotted moray eel, estimated to be about 10 meters long, had its head and part of its body above the water's surface.

Comparing it to the sketched picture, it was indeed a shape that could be nodded to as a moray eel.

"So if we catch that, we've cleared one, right?" (Athena)

"Surely that's it! Let's catch it!" (Nana)

Just as Nana raised her voice and was about to prepare for battle, another eerie low rumble began, and the lake started to vibrate again.

"I see! They weren't in the lake, but buried in the lake bottom!" (Tatsuro)

"Tatsuro, save the investigation for later!" (Ai)

As Tatsuro was using water detection magic with Cardina again to figure out why they had missed such a large specimen that shouldn't have been there,

Dozens of giant moray eels writhed out of the lake bottom ground all at once.

As a result, they were suddenly surrounded by a school of ferocious giant moray eels with sharp teeth.

"You're right, we don't have the luxury to investigate leisurely... Leah! Do we need to capture that alive?" (Tatsuro)

"As long as its shape isn't greatly altered, it should be fine even if it's dead!" (Leah)

"Alright, in that case, let's hit them hard without holding back!" (Tatsuro)

"Oh!" (Ai)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

"Neigh!" (Jeanne)

"Yes!" (Nana)

"Understood" (Leah)

"Roger that" (Athena)

And so, the curtain fell on the battle of seven against thirty-plus.