Level Eater
Chapter 175

The back was full of holes and covered in blood, the right leg was bent backward from the knee joint with the sole facing upwards, rendered useless like an object. Balancing with a hammer held in one hand as a crutch.

Even to Tatsuro and the others, it seemed the battle was already decided.

But Leah was Leah, her stamina was decreasing and her performance was dropping. It seemed impossible to keep using [All-Seeing Eyes] continuously any longer.

"GAAAAA!"

The crow-faced monster moved first.

With the hammer in its right hand and its uninjured left foot, it approached Leah with large, somewhat jerky steps.

Its eyes were bloodshot, determined to kill Leah at any cost.

Momentarily intimidated but mustering courage, Leah ran backward on the floor again, dragging her hammer and infusing it with reddish-brown flames.

The monster finally realized that not only could it not catch up at this pace, but the area of reddish-brown flames was expanding. It decided to try a different approach.

It stopped, raised the hammer in its left hand, and took a stance. Then, using magic, it created stone-like objects in front of itself and hit them toward Leah like in baseball fielding practice.

"Hup!" (Leah)

Leah dodged the 20cm large stone chunk with a side step, then lifted the hammer she had been dragging and slammed it down at the end of the reddish-brown flames.

The monster checked its feet, confirming it wasn't standing on the reddish-brown flames, and confidently launched a second stone knock.

Leah dodged it again while finishing pulling her hammer from the floor, and the haphazardly drawn line of reddish-brown flames disappeared.

However, nothing seemed to have changed visually, and the monster, mistaking it for a failed attempt, shifted its position to launch a third knock at Leah, who was now approaching with an unnaturally flying or meandering trajectory. It placed the hammer in its right hand, which it had been using as a crutch, where the line of reddish-brown flames had been drawn until moments ago—at that moment.

"GAH!?"

"The floor's slippery now, so be careful. Though I suppose you don't remember where it's like that." (Leah)

As if placed on ice, the crutch hammer slipped, causing a spectacular fall.

In the meantime, Leah was approaching with her hammer imbued with reddish-brown flames, so the monster tried to stand up quickly. However, various parts of the floor had turned into slippery material, and since it couldn't visually determine which areas were affected, it still couldn't stand properly.

During this time, instinct warned that letting Leah touch its body would be dangerous.

Crow-face desperately gripped the hammer in its left hand tightly and swung it from an awkward position, attempting to crush her.

"GAAAAA!"

"Haaa!" (Leah)

In response, Leah, judging that she could somehow manage a serious counterattack against a blow from that stance, met the hammer with her own.

The monster's hammer and Leah's hammer clashed, one being deflected with reddish-brown flames covering its entire striking surface, the other breaking off at the base.

The monster momentarily let its guard down, smiling at having destroyed the opponent's weapon.

Leah saw through this and immediately overlaid a second hammer of the same shape from her 'Item Box' with the reddish-brown hammer.

However, by then, the monster, realizing there was still a threat, swung down its hammer, still wrapped in reddish-brown flames, at Leah without thinking.

Leah met it again by striking their impact surfaces together, just like before, and the moment it sunk in, she immediately countered and pulled it out.

"GAAAAA——"

Suddenly, the striking surface of Crow-face's hammer changed shape, extending into many long spikes towards the monster's face, piercing its eyes, nose, and cheeks.

Pleased with her success but consciously trying not to let her guard down, Leah switched to a normal hand-sized hammer, overlaid it with the reddish-brown hammer to envelop it in flames, and approached the confused Crow face. Using her [All-Seeing Eyes], she lightly struck its left shoulder four times.

The skin on the left shoulder joint peeled back, and the bone fused and fixed at an angle as if covering the eyes with the arm.

"GAAAAA!?"

Then she struck the right shoulder in the same way four times, this time bending it in the opposite direction, fixing the arm as if attached to the back.

With both arms and one leg now deformed, the monster realized it could no longer move properly and opened its mouth to spew black mist.

However, before it could, Leah lightly tapped its beak twice with a small hammer. The beak was deformed, with the upper part piercing the lower part, fixing it so it couldn't open.

Consumed by confusion and fear of death, Crow-face desperately tried to escape, turning its back on Leah and attempting to crawl away like a caterpillar.

However, this was like asking to be finished off.

Leah tapped the monster's waist area with her hammer, deforming the hip bone to connect the back and buttocks.

"—GA—A"

"Did that hurt? I'm sorry. Well, I'll end it for you now." (Leah)

With its buttocks and back connected, it exposed the top of its head right in front of Leah.

Leah tapped there to peel back the skin, then tapped the exposed skull with her hammer.

At that moment, the skull deformed, extending sharp protrusions inward, skewering the brain.

"————A"

|You have reached "Level: 35".|

"Haa—————. I'm glad I won——" (Leah)

"Leah!" (Nana)

Leah, no longer able to even stand due to overuse of [All-Seeing Eyes], fell to her knees on the spot.

Nana, ignoring the slippery floor, rushed over to Floating and began healing her with life magic.

"The combination of [All-Seeing Eyes] and [Smithing] is terrifying." (Tatsuro)

"When it's covered with skin, you need to touch the same spot twice, which is a drawback, but if it lands, it deals massive damage." (Ai)

Since Nana had gone to tend to Leah, Tatsuro and the others approached slowly, careful of the slippery floor.

After that, as Leah finished recovering her stamina thanks to Nana's efforts, the mysterious voice, reading the atmosphere, spoke up.

[Is it okay to start the lottery time now?]

"—Eh? Ah, yes. Please go ahead." (Leah)

[Here we go. Rattle rattle rattle rattle————ta-da! It's the First prize!!]

"Another First prize?" (Leah)

[Well, to be honest, solo clearers have the highest chance of getting the First prize.]

While the mysterious voice was revealing inside information, a golden treasure chest about one meter in length and width sprouted from the floor, just like with Athena.

Leah approached it and opened it with a pop to find a single card, yellow and thin enough to see through to the other side, measuring twenty centimeters vertically and ten centimeters horizontally.

"This time it's a card?" (Leah)

"Since it's the First prize, it must be something good for Leah-chan. I wonder what it is." (Ai)

"Hurry and take it out!" (Nana)

"Wait a moment, please. Just in case, I'll read the instruction manual first." (Leah)

Although the curious Ai and Nana were fidgeting, Leah first took the instruction manual that was also included, just like with Athena, and examined its contents.

"Skill Card [Quality Improvement.] Grants a skill to raise the quality of any material to a higher level— What is this? It's amazing... If this is the first prize, I wonder what would come out if we drew the special prize."

"It sounds like an incredibly advantageous skill, but are there no downsides or requirements?" (Ai)

"Let's see, mainly willpower and magical power—. Ah, it also mentions consuming the same material. Anyway, it only requires either of those, so it doesn't seem to cause any particular harm to me." (Leah)

"Then it's safe!" (Ai)

Nodding at Ai's words, Leah picked up the card.

After reading the skill-granting method described in the manual, it seemed she only needed to hold it and say one word, so she decided to try it out in front of everyone right away.

Leah grasped the edges of the card with both hands, held it in front of her, and spoke the words.

"Install!" (Leah)

|Skill [Quality Improvement] has been acquired.|

"Alright. It seems to have worked properly!" (Leah)

Leah checked her skill list and smiled with her cheeks flushed in happiness.

As everyone was warming up to her sincere expression, the mysterious voice spoke up.

[Well then, shall we move on to the next challenge?]

"You say 'let's go,' but wouldn't it be better to fix this floor first?" (Tatsuro)

Currently, due to the aftermath of Leah's battle, debris from protrusions was scattered about, and areas with low friction coefficients, like ice, had spread.

In such a state, Ai, who was next, probably couldn't fight to her full potential.

So Leah took a step forward to go fix it, but she was stopped by the mysterious voice.

[Don't worry about that, we'll take care of it.]

"Eh?" (Tatsuro)

[Fixie~]

When the mysterious voice chanted what seemed like a carelessly casual spell, the floor instantly returned to its original clean state.

[As you can see, we won't interfere during battles, but we can fix things like this afterward, so feel free to go wild.]

"Is that so? Then I might just try to break it thoroughly." (Tatsuro)

[Oh! Please do your best to destroy it!]

"Is that really okay with you...?" (Tatsuro)

Tatsuro couldn't help but let out such a voice at the mysterious voice that showed not the slightest resistance to being destroyed.

As they were collecting the solid gold treasure chest Tatsuro was wondering what to do with the monster's corpse.

"Can I have this? The bones of this monster have a very orthodox structure, so they might be useful for smithing practice." (Leah)

"Is that so? What about the meat?" (Tatsuro)

"I'm reluctant to eat humanoid—well, I suppose we should add the prefix 'former' now... things, and as for the skin—ah, I want the hooves!" (Leah)

"The hooves, huh. Alright then, I'll store it in mine for now, then after dissection, send this and this to Leah's [Item Box]. Is this okay?" (Tatsuro)

Leah opened the system to check the contents of her [Item Box] and nodded, saying, "Yes, that's fine."

"Well then, shall we go?" (Ai)

"Ai, if the opponent looks like they might use some dangerous magic, don't hesitate to call me." (Tatsuro)

"I know. But I'm sure you'd come without me saying anything if I was in danger, right Tatsuro?" (Ai)

"Of course. I always want to be that kind of person for you, and I intend to be." (Tatsuro)

"Me too——" (Ai)

Then, without hesitation, they gazed at each other and exchanged a kiss once, then gently parted and looked at each other again.

[Um, ......is it okay to start now?]

"Oh, sorry." (Tatsuro)

"Ah, sorry" (Ai)

[Well, it's fine. Now then, challenger, please go to the stone tablet.]

"Okay" (Ai)

Ai cheerfully responded to the mysterious voice and, without showing any signs of nervousness, walked towards the stone tablet with her celestial bow attached to her waist, fully prepared.