Level Eater
Chapter 174

After Athena successfully defeated the monster, the stone tablet in the center of the church rose up from below with a grinding sound.

Around that time, Athena received a notification of her level-up.

"Oh, looks like the experience points were quite high." (Athena)

[Congratulations! Your solo clear has been officially recognized!]

Athena had thought that Tatsuro's defensive barrier probably wouldn't count against her, but she was inwardly relieved to hear that she had officially cleared it alone.

"Is that so? Then, give me something." (Athena)

[I understand! Now, it's time for the lottery. Jaka-jaka-jaka-jaka---]

"Ah, you're saying that out loud, huh?" (Athena)

[--Jan. It's out! First prize!!]

The moment the mysterious voice shouted a golden treasure chest about one meter in length and width suddenly appeared from the sky-blue floor in front of Athena.

"First-prize. That means I missed out on the grand prize, huh? That's too bad." (Athena)

[Even with a solo clear, the grand prize doesn't come out very often. But I think the first prize is still pretty good. Plus, you get to keep that solid gold box too, so it's a great deal!]

"Well then, I'll take the box too. Let's open it right away." (Athena)

[Go ahead, go ahead~]

Just as Athena placed her hand on the golden treasure chest, Tatsuro, and the others joined her.

With everyone's eyes focused on the golden treasure chest, Athena opened it with a dramatic flair.

Inside was a small ring, seemingly disproportionate to the size of the chest.

Taking the ring in her hand to examine it, she saw that it was about one centimeter wide with a flat hexagonal base, into which a yellow stone was embedded.

"Isn't this box too big for something so small?" (Athena)

[Well, that's the smallest box we have~]

"Athena, what kind of item is that?" (Tatsuro)

"Let's see... Ah, there's an instruction manual in the box." (Athena)

Athena, who had thought it was just an ordinary ring, was about to tell Tatsuro she didn't know when she discovered a parchment-like paper rolled up like a scroll at the bottom of the box. Upon opening it, she found an overview written on it.

"Let's see... It seems this is an item called the Ring of Great Fortune. And its effect is... it can be used once a week, and when used, it temporarily greatly increases your luck. Apparently, when it's usable, the stone in the ring is yellow, and when it's not, it becomes transparent. So right now, it's in a usable state." (Athena)

"If I remember correctly, Athena-chan, you have a skill called [All or Nothing Strike] that's influenced by luck, right? If you activate this ring when using that skill, it could be quite useful, couldn't it?" (Ai)

"I was thinking the same thing. It's like this item came out specifically for Athena." (Tatsuro)

[Well, of course! We can't give items that the challenger can't use. For second prize and above, items that the person can use always come out!]

"By the way, what happens for third prize and below?" (Tatsuro)

[Those are completely random. So there's a good chance you might get something you don't need. Please don't complain if you get something useless. But well, if you clear it solo, you rarely get a third prize or below, so you can rest easy about that!]

Tatsuro thought that clearing it solo seemed to be the most profitable, but at the same time, he strengthened his self-discipline not to lose sight of what was important out of greed.

While Tatsuro was thinking about this, Athena had already put the Ring of Great Fortune on her right index finger.

Next, Athena pointed at the scythe and tattered cloth that the skeleton had used and asked the mysterious voice.

"Can I take the things that monster was holding?" (Athena)

[That's okay. You can do whatever you want with the monster after defeating it!]

"Dad, is it okay if I try using that scythe?" (Athena)

"Of course. That's yours now, Athena. If you don't want it, I'll take it, but if you need it, keep it yourself." (Tatsuro)

When Tatsuro said that, Athena nodded and jogged over to pick up the large scythe and, just in case, the black tattered cloth as well. She decided to have Leah look at the cloth later to avoid burdening her now, and swung the scythe two or three times to test it, wondering if she could split it like the skeleton had done. Immediately, it became two scythes.

It seemed to be a scythe that absorbed the owner's magic power and changed shape according to their image.

Thinking this was good, Athena stored it in her [Item Box] in high spirits.

As Athena's test swings seemed to be over, Tatsuro looked at Leah for the next challenge and saw her standing with tense shoulders, probably nervous.

"If you're that tense, you won't be able to win even if you could! Relax~" (Nana)

"I-I know that, but it's my first time doing this alone, so... Oh, that's enough, Nana. I feel much less tense now." (Leah)

"That's good then." (Nana)

Nana hugged Leah tightly and used her Life magic to forcibly relax her and calm her heartbeat.

After making sure it had settled down, Nana slowly let go of her.

"Well then, I'm going!" (Leah)

"Leah, we don't know what kind of monster will appear, so at first, try to stay as close to us as possible." (Tatsuro)

"Understood!" (Leah)

"Do your best! We'll be watching from behind, and if it really gets dangerous, we'll help you, so just do your best without worrying!" (Ai)

"Yes!" (Leah)

Responding energetically to Ai's encouragement, Leah walked to the stone tablet.

Then the mysterious voice spoke to her.

[Another solo challenge, huh? You're quite spirited, the monsters are pleased. Now then, challenger, please touch the stone tablet and repeat after me --- I am the challenger]

"I am the challenger" (Leah)

[Oh demonic being who seeks battle, respond to my challenge]

"Oh demonic being who seeks battle, respond to my challenge" (Leah)

As Leah repeated the same words as Athena, the stone tablet she was touching sank down, and a black vortex appeared about five meters in front of her.

Seeing this, Leah immediately ran back and stood as close to Tatsuro and the others as possible, waiting for the monster to appear. Tatsuro and the others also prepared themselves to defend immediately in case of a sudden attack.

Then the monster revealed itself.

It was just under two meters tall, with a crow-like face, a muscular thick body, and thick elephant-like feet. In its hands, which were shaped like human hands, it held a hammer about one and a half meters long in each hand. (T/N: I can't really imagine this monster)

"It looks like a heavyweight type, but do you think you can handle it?" (Tatsuro)

"I think... so. It doesn't seem to be a quick type, but rather one that relies on brute force as it appears, so I'll try it alone once." (Leah)

Activating her [All-Seeing Eye], and changing her red eyes to blue, she peeked at the opponent's information. As a result, Leah judged that she might be able to handle it.

"If it seems too much, call us right away, okay?" (Tatsuro)

"Don't push yourself! Okay?" (Ai)

"I understand. Dying from overdoing it wouldn't be funny at all. Well then, here I go!" (Leah)

While the crow-faced monster was spinning the hammers in both hands and staring at them, Leah gripped the hammer she had received from Tatsuro and modified herself - with a handle about one meter long and a compressed head about 10 cm vertically and 15 cm horizontally - in both hands and bravely approached it.

"Gaaaagaaagaa!"

"Hya!" (Leah)

As it also lumbered towards her, Leah overlapped her hammer with an identical reddish-brown hammer created from her smithing skill.

Then, enveloping it in reddish-brown flames, she traced the sky-blue floor with it, drawing a meandering line of fire on the floor while backing away.

The crow-face frowned, wondering if Leah was mocking it by coming towards it only to drag her weapon on the floor, swaying it left and right while backing away.

But this monster wasn't foolish enough to charge in a fit of rage over something like that.

Where Leah had dragged her hammer, reddish-brown flames still flickered, seemingly staining the floor.

The crow-face cautiously tried to extinguish the flames by hitting and rubbing the floor with its hammers, but they wouldn't go out. Then it touched them with its elephant-like feet, but they weren't hot and didn't burn.

Relieved that it was just an illusion of flames, it started to lumber across them, advancing to catch up with the retreating Leah.

When the crow-face had covered about half the distance between where the flames were first drawn on the floor and Leah's current position, she lifted her hammer from the floor and brought it down at the end point of the long, connected line of flames that acted like a fuse.

Normally, this would have resulted in a loud sound of striking the floor, but instead, the head of the hammer was swallowed up as if sinking into soft mud.

Confused by this inexplicable phenomenon, the monster stopped in its tracks.

At that moment, as Leah raised her hammer again, 20-centimeter sharp protrusions suddenly grew from all parts of the floor where the reddish-brown flames had been drawn. The flames disappeared, and the protrusions stabbed into the crow-faced monster's feet.

Surprised and losing balance, the crow-face fell backward, deeply impaling itself on the protrusions due to its heavy weight. Although it managed to protect its head and neck, as a consequence, the protrusions were deeply embedded from both shoulders to both elbows.

"Gaahhhhh!"

"Not yet!" (Leah)

Once again enveloping her hammer in reddish-brown flames, this time Leah skillfully ran with her small feet, jumping over the parts without protrusions.

When she reached the monster's right foot, she swung the hammer down towards its knee joint, attaching the reddish-brown flames.

With the second strike, she deformed the surface skin, making it curl up like a milk crown and exposing the bone.

Ignoring the monster's cries of pain, she delivered a third strike to the exposed bone part, coating it with reddish-brown flames.

With the fourth strike, she deformed the joint bone, bending and fixing it in a U-shape in a direction it shouldn't normally bend.

"Gaahhhh!"

"That was close--" (Leah)

On the verge of losing consciousness from the intense pain, the monster forcibly raised its upper body, ignoring the pain from the protrusions, and breathed out black mist from its mouth.

However, Leah avoided this by swinging her hammer, which was heavier than her own weight, horizontally, propelling herself several meters away.

"--Haa, haa. --Actually, I wanted to do one more, but... I guess it can't be helped..." (Leah)

"Gaahh!"

"Ugh, it's incredibly angry... Scary..." (Leah)

"You're the scary one," Tatsuro and everyone else thought in their hearts, but no one said it out loud.

Unaware of being thought of in this way, Leah observed the struggling monster on the line of protrusions with her blue eyes. She wondered which part to destroy next.

The technique Leah was using now was deformation and creation in smithing.

By enveloping objects with the reddish-brown flames created through smithing, she could deform them, and by conveying her image with the hammer created through smithing, she could create.

However, this normally requires a deep understanding of the material to even deform, let alone create.

It would be no exaggeration to say that it's impossible to do this on living monsters with variations in blood flow, physical condition, and individual differences.

But Leah has a special eye, namely the [All-Seeing Eye].

With this, she could skip the process of accumulating knowledge, analyzing components and structures that ordinary blacksmiths would have to do, and exercise deformation and creation within the limits of her current level.

Of course, Leah's skill level isn't that high yet. So, she can't create or deform into elaborate shapes.

However, if she limits herself to simple shapes like just bending, breaking, or sharpening, and focuses only on destroying the shape, she can do it with materials like the monster in front of her or the floor of this place.

"The right shoulder is---, the left is---, ah, time's up." (Leah)

"Gaahhhhhh!"

The crow-face finally realized that it could destroy the protrusions with its own hammers. Enduring the pain and scattering blood, it wildly swung both arms, shattering the protrusions all around.

Then, crawling out onto the flat surface, it stood up unsteadily, using the hammer in its right hand as a cane.

"--Haa, haa. Well then, let's go to the second round. I'll skillfully break you apart." (Leah)

Although she was circulating her Ki to recover as much physical strength as possible, her body was becoming heavy due to overuse of the All-Seeing Eye.

However, the opponent was in worse shape than her.

Thinking that she couldn't lose like this, Leah turned off her [All-Seeing Eye] and returned to her red eyes.