Level Eater
Chapter 167

The bow of celestial equipment held by Ai had received enough Ki energy for transformation and revealed its new form before everyone.

Its shape was no longer just a thick and heavy-looking bow. It had shrunk from nearly three meters to just over two meters in size, and its width, which was once 30 centimeters, had slimmed down to about 15 centimeters.

The color had also changed from a plain lead color to a black base that seemed to match Ai's armor, adorned with geometric patterns whose meaning was unclear.

"It's become smaller and easier to handle, but I wonder what will happen to the spear now?" (Ai)

"Why don't you try summoning it?" (Tatsuro)

"That's true. Come forth, spear" (Ai)

Responding to Ai's somewhat silly voice, instead of springing out from the outside like a wiper as it had before, it now shot straight out from the bow's tip like a growing tree, perhaps due to its new form.

Contrary to Ai's worries, this one remained exactly the same in thickness, length, and shape, so it seemed that its operability hadn't changed from before.

As everyone was focusing on the spear, a mysterious rod extended from the side of the bow's grip.

"I wonder... To be honest, it's a bit difficult to hold, so I'd like it to retract..." (Ai)

"Ah, try pressing that against Ai-san's armor near the waist." (Leah)

"Hmm? Like this-- Wha-what?!" (Ai)

As Ai followed Leah's instructions and pressed the mysterious rod against her waist, U-shaped arms emerged from the flat rod's tip and firmly clamped onto Ai's waist, fixing it in place.

"What just happened?" (Tatsuro)

"Um, it seems to have attached itself to me. But this makes it hard to walk because of the width--" (Ai)

Just as she was about to continue her sentence, both ends of the great bow folded and crossed each other, storing themselves away.

Even in this state, the spear remained intact, with only its left and right positions reversed, and there were no other noticeable changes.

"Perhaps Ai-san had previously felt inconvenienced by having to hold it manually somewhere?" (Leah)

"Ah, yes. There were times when I thought it was a bit inconvenient because I had to hold onto it even when I wasn't using the bow but the spear instead... Could it be?" (Ai)

"I think so. To put it simply in understandable terms, that weapon is alive. So it seems to want to grow in response to Ai-san's thoughts." (Leah)

"A weapon that can grow, huh. Celestial equipment is amazing." (Ai)

"Well, among celestial equipment, it's almost only the automatic armament types that can grow." (Leah)

"I see." (Ai)

As Ai gently stroked the surface of the now more user-friendly celestial bow, she felt the blue stone embedded in the center of the grip flash for a moment.

Then, Ai casually looked at the spears that were still extended from both ends of the bow, drooping limply on the ground, and at the grass that was still spreading and entangling. She had an idea.

"I wonder if this will work-- Here goes!" (Ai)

"Whoa-- I didn't know you could use it like that." (Tatsuro)

"Oh, this is quite convenient." (Ai)

What she demonstrated was changing the tips of the two spiritual spears into three-pronged forks, placing them sideways on the ground like feet, and then extending the spherical joint upwards, lifting Ai into the air.

It looked more like two long legs rather than spears.

As she moved these spears in a walking motion, Ai, connected to the bow at the waist, moved along with them.

Since she wasn't walking with her own feet, she didn't feel the unpleasant sensation of grass entangling her legs.

"This is nice. It might expand our combat options too." (Ai)

"Indeed, it's like having a third and fourth leg." (Tatsuro)

"When you put it that way, it sounds creepy like an insect, but if I want to use just one spear, I have one free hand, and when I want to use the bow, I can do this--" (Ai)

The moment Ai thought about using the bow, the rod part that had been joined to her waist instantly retracted into the grip and detached. She grabbed it in mid-air and was able to fire rapidly.

After thoroughly experimenting and generally figuring out how to use it, Ai attached the bow to her waist, extended the spear arms to stand up, and then expanded the bow to carry Tatsuro, Athena, and Leah on top of it as she began to trudge through the forest.

"In this state, doesn't Ai get tired?" (Tatsuro)

"Well, I am consuming Ki energy, but as long as I'm connected to Tatsuro, I recover as fast as I consume, so it's actually a net positive." (Ai)

"That's good then." (Tatsuro)

It seemed that Ai truly had no problem even in a state where she was carrying herself plus three people. So, feeling reassured, Tatsuro turned his gaze towards the depths of the forest that still lay ahead.

Moving in this manner, they avoided several more encounters with propeller monsters and lightning strikes. After wandering through the forest for about four hours, they still hadn't managed to find the mysterious fruit.

"Ah~ Geez, where is it~?" (Athena)

"Maybe it's not in this area..." (Ai)

"We've improved our mobility, but the humidity and temperature are still an issue. If we could just do something about that--" (Tatsuro)

As they were complaining about not finding anything despite moving around so much, Cardina interrupted with a warning about monster reactions.

"Pewee" (Cardina)

"What? Are the propellers coming again?" (Ai)

"No, Ai. Stop for a moment." (Tatsuro)

"Got it." (Ai)

After descending from Ai's bow, Tatsuro used a detection spell along with Cardina. They detected two types of monster reactions: one from the propeller-attacking monsters they had encountered before, and another from a different kind of monster.

Moreover, one of them wasn't moving from its current location, seemingly waiting for the propeller monsters.

After relaying this information to everyone, Tatsuro and the others proceeded cautiously toward the monsters, walking normally so as not to attract attention.

And a few minutes later, what they saw was...

"What is that...?" (Ai)

"It looks like a huge fish stuck in the ground." (Tatsuro)

"It's disgusting." (Leah)

"I agree." (Nana)

"Me too." (Athena)

There was a bright red fish about one meter long, shaped like a sea bream, with its tail fin stuck in the ground and its eyes blankly staring at the sky.

As they watched it uneasily from hiding, four propeller monsters arrived a little later than Tatsuro's group, carrying small fruit-like objects in their feet.

Their target seemed to be this fish. As they approached and flew around it, the fish didn't move at all. The propeller monsters opened their bun-like bodies sideways and tried to bite into the fish's head.

However, at that moment, the fish split vertically in half, revealing sticky red tentacles covered in mucus inside its body. It entangled the four monsters and dragged them inside, then closed its opened body and returned to its original shape with a thud.

".........................................."

Tatsuro and the others, who had witnessed this whole scene, were stunned by the bizarre sight. They listened for a while to the faint chewing sounds of something being crushed.

"Um... I guess that fish might be the one we're looking for, huh?" (Tatsuro)

"Oh, you're right. It does look exactly like the sketch Leah drew." (Ai)

"So if we take that, we'll clear the second task, right?" (Nana)

"But how are we going to pull it out?" (Leah)

"If we try to do it by hand, we might get snapped up." (Athena)

What had started as uneasiness due to the creepiness had now upgraded to disgust after witnessing the predation scene. The women all had faces that showed they didn't want to touch it at all.

So Tatsuro, being the only male, stood up, knowing he had to do it himself.

"Cardina, I want to know what the tail part looks like. Help me out." (Tatsuro)

"Pewee!" (Cardina)

First, to understand the enemy's full picture, they used earth and soil exploration magic to investigate what the buried part looked like.

They found that the buried part was indeed shaped like a fish's tail fin, but beyond that, it had roots attached.

And that wasn't all they discovered.

In fact, it turned out to be a single giant plant-type monster connected to hundreds of fish stuck in separate ground over a wide area.

When this was relayed to everyone, they all made faces that seemed more disgusted by the fact that there were so many of these things rather than by the idea of a giant plant.

"Hmm. For now, it seems it won't move unless touched, so let's get a bit closer and try using [Level Eater]." (Tatsuro)

Since they couldn't let Tatsuro go alone, everyone came to a distance where [Level Eater] could be used easily. Tatsuro then blew a black sphere and hit the fish with it.

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Level: 39

Skills: [Familiar Creation], [Self-Regeneration Lv.7], [Tentacle Control Lv.3]

[Sticky Acid Lv.3]

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([Self-Regeneration Lv.7] is quite high. At this rate, cutting off just one of these fish probably wouldn't be enough; it would regenerate quickly. Also, what's this [Familiar Creation] skill about?)

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Level: 1

Skills: [Familiar Creation], [Self-Regeneration Lv.0], [Tentacle Control Lv.0]

[Sticky Acid Lv.0]

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To defeat this monster this time, it seemed necessary to eradicate all the fish growing from the ground, so Tatsuro also absorbed the individual's level.

After finishing absorbing the skill levels, he swallowed the black sphere that had formed in his mouth.

"Hey, Leah. This thing had a skill called [Familiar Creation]. Can you take a look at what kind of skill it is? There seem to be a lot of these all over this area, so I want to know just in case." (Tatsuro)

"Understood." (Leah)

Leah changed her eyes to a sky-blue color and observed the fish-shaped plant monster with her [All-Seeing Eyes], allowing her to fully understand the skill's outline.

"It seems that these familiars are what Ai-san calls the propellers." (Leah)

"Huh? But they were attacking earlier, weren't they?" (Tatsuro)

"It appears that this monster can't create highly intelligent beings. Originally, this monster's ecology involves releasing familiars to feed them and help them grow, then using itself as bait to eat the familiars when they've grown larger, using them for nutrition. Of course, it will also attack anything else that carelessly approaches." (Leah)

"What a roundabout creature. But I guess that explains why the propellers were unusually weak. They weren't born in a dungeon, but created by a monster. Thanks, Leah." (Tatsuro)

"I'm glad I could be of help." (Leah)

Having strayed a bit off topic but feeling clearer now that various things had been explained, Tatsuro returned to the original purpose.

"Alright, we've successfully stolen its SP, but... I still resist touching it directly, so maybe I'll dig it out with earth magic." (Tatsuro)

As everyone watched, Tatsuro used earth magic to channel magical power into the ground, accurately locating the area a bit deeper than the fish's tail, and began to twist it.

Then, with a series of snapping sounds, the roots connecting it to the other fish began to break.

Looking at the fish, it began to convulse, then opened its body vertically in half, its internal tentacles thrashing about. After tearing off all its roots down to the finest one, it finally stopped moving with its body wide open.

A slightly sour smell like gastric acid wafted from the fish-like body, and while suppressing nausea, Tatsuro used Dispel magic to confirm its life status.

When he confirmed that there was definitely no life response from the fish-like creature, Tatsuro stored it in his [Item Box] from a slight distance.

"Ugh... There's still a weird smell lingering, so let's ignore these even if we find more from now on." (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing." (Ai)

Jeanne used wind magic to dispel the still-lingering stench, and finally, only the smell of grass and trees returned.

"What should we do now? Are we still looking for the mysterious fruit?" (Athena)

"No... Let's go back to the building standing in the middle of the lake for today. Camping here would be too tough for me, Ai, and Leah." (Tatsuro)

"That's right. Dwarves are relatively tolerant of heat, but we're not good with humidity. So, I don't think I could sleep here either." (Leah)

"I hate this place too. Above all, these weeds are just too annoying." (Nana)

"I agree. So, what should we do about going back?" (Tatsuro)

Here, Ai's "what should we do" meant whether they should continue searching on their way back to the lakeshore, or completely give up for the day and try again another day.

Tatsuro understood this properly and decided to ride back on Jeanne today, thinking that continuing further might lead to accidents due to loss of concentration.

"Alright then, Jeanne. I'll clear this area, so please carry everyone after that." (Tatsuro)

"Neigh" (Jeanne)

After checking one last time for any sign of the mysterious fruit, Tatsuro created a whirlwind with wind magic to turn the area into a circular field. Then he had Jeanne use [True Form], and everyone climbed onto her back.

Then, leaping high into the sky at once, they flew straight towards the lake.