Level Eater-Chapter 224

Although the twelve-day vacation was decided suddenly, it wasn't a waste of time for Tatsuro and the others.

First, on the night of the second day.

At this time, Tatsuro and Ai were cuddling on the feather sofa in the living room of the house they had taken out from the [Infinite Item Field], when Leah, who had dark circles under her eyes, came staggering in.

"Leah... Shouldn't you get some sleep?"

"Yeah~ Even though you're healthier now, overdoing it is bad for your body."

"Yes, I'll go to sleep after I give you this..."

Saying that Leah brought out Tatsuro and Ai's smartphones that she had borrowed.

And after they simply received them, Leah also took out a box from her [Item Box] that was about three times larger than the smartphones and about ten centimeters thick.

"What's this?"

"It's a magical device to charge smartphones. I wanted to see them working, so I made it. I charged both of them, could you try turning them on to see if they work?"

"'Charging!?'"

The two, who had never thought they would get a charger in another world, hurriedly held down the power buttons.

Then the familiar startup screen from their original world appeared—and once it reached the home screen showing Ai's cutest shot for Tatsuro, and Tatsuro's goofiest face for Ai, the battery mark had recovered to 100%.

"Amazing, it works properly."

"It really does! Here—"

Ai activated the camera towards Leah and took a picture with a 'click' sound.

"What was that sound?"

"It's a photo. Look, it's Leah-chan's face just now—"

"So it captures scenery. —Oh, what a terrible face... I'll continue tomorrow."

"Yeah. That would be better. Can you make it to your room alone?"

"I will escort her, so it's alright!"

"Fufu. Good girl, Nana-chan."

"Yes, indeed~"

Nana, whose cheeks loosened sloppily after being praised by Ai, enthusiastically went to deliver Leah.

While watching their backs, Tatsuro fiddled with the otherworld charger and removed the cover on the back, discovering a socket there to fit the return stone.

"So this also uses the return stone as its power source. I can't even imagine how it works—wait, Ai, why do you always use such a goofy photo of me as your wallpaper?"

"Eh~ it's fine, isn't it? It's cute, right? This half-asleep face when you dozed off~"

"It's not fine! Look at mine. From my collection of Ai's best shots, this ultra-super beautiful girl shot that I further selected!"

"That's from when we went to the aquarium together. This is truly a miracle shot."

That shot was quite cute even from Ai's perspective, showing her smiling with a sunfish visible in the background.

However, because it was embarrassing to accept it straightforwardly, she acted playfully.

But Tatsuro, having seen through such feelings of Ai, pulled her waist closer, met her eyes, and brought his face close enough for their breaths to touch.

"If this is a miracle, then I'm seeing miracles every day."

"—Geez! What are you saying? —mmph———mm"

When Ai pushed Tatsuro's chest lightly with her face bright red, Tatsuro pulled her even closer and kissed her.

While absorbed in kissing, Ai was thinking about Tatsuro's photos in a corner of her mind.

Actually, Ai also had a large collection of Tatsuro's photos in her smartphone folder, and among them, she had her favorite best shots.

And at first, she had used one as her wallpaper.

So why doesn't she use it as her wallpaper now? It's because her friends teased her when her heart would race and her face would turn red every time she returned to the home screen.

Even if she was teased, Tatsuro would be the type to brag about it in return and make her friends draw back, but Ai couldn't be that bold.

That's why she set a best shot that made her heart feel at ease as her wallpaper, but this was a secret from Tatsuro.

And so the two went straight to the bedroom and spent a sleepless night.

The next day.

After getting some sleep and looking somewhat refreshed, Leah came down to the living room to give them a detailed explanation.

"Somehow. Now you two look sleepy. Couldn't you sleep last night?"

"Eh. Ah... well, something like that."

"Yeah yeah. Something like that."

From their expressions and way of speaking that seemed to be covering something up, Leah quickly came to the answer.

"—Ah, you 'had fun' last night, didn't you?"

"'Why that phrase!?'"

After having a brief mysterious comedy routine with Leah, who had become quite familiar enough to say such things, they received the explanation about the charger.

According to Leah, this charger obtains magical power from the energy gained from the return stone, and that magical power generates lightning magic to obtain electrical power.

Then when you place the smartphone in the groove on the surface of this given charger and turn on the switch, the perfectly adjusted power by Leah is supplied and charging is done, that's how it works apparently.

"Since there's no magical power in Tatsuro-san's world it can't be helped, but in this world, electrical energy is inefficient."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. When comparing magical power and electricity, magical power overwhelmingly provides more energy. And in terms of the effort to create electricity versus generating magical power, magical power is overwhelmingly better in this world."

"Huh. Then, if such machines appeared in this world. Instead of charging with electricity, it would be like charging with magical power?"

"I think so. And about that, could you lend them to me again in a state where they can be operated?"

"Ah, of course."

"Sure~!"

Although it contained quite private content, this was for lifestyle improvement and combat power enhancement, and moreover, since it was Leah who had fought together with them all this time, the two gladly handed over their smartphones.

And while thanking them as she received them, Leah once again immersed herself in research.

Then after another day passed.

Cardina, who was monitoring for monsters from the house's ceiling, rang a chime that only echoed inside the room to signal an enemy attack.

So Tatsuro and Ai quickly got fully armed and rushed outside where Jeanne and Athena were already waiting.

Then, there was a monster reaction about several hundred meters away.

By that time, Leah and her assistant Nana had also arrived fully armed.

"It's just one, but it's quite big."

"How big is it?"

"About five meters, and it looks like something square."

"That's quite a big one indeed."

"My arms are itching to fight~"

"I'm looking forward to what materials we can get."

"Peewee"

"Neigh"

Everyone waited for the approaching large monster, each with their own thoughts.

And as the monster got closer, a sound like something being dragged spread out with a thud-thud.

Then Tatsuro put on one of the convenient items he had obtained recently: glasses with [Far Sight] enchanted on them, and along with Ai who had the [Far Sight] skill naturally, they peered into the dim distance.

Then they could see a giant golden treasure chest about five meters tall, dragging itself along while wobbling this way.

Furthermore, every time it shook its body, the lid would open slightly with a clack-clack, and they could see flesh writhing inside.

"I can see some big treasure chest... Is this what they call a Mimic?"

"I want to see it too! Father, please lend me those glasses!"

"Alright, alright. Here."

"Thank you indeed!"

When Tatsuro took off the far-sight glasses and handed them over, Nana started observing the monster while looking into the distance with a smile.

"Hmm. But aren't Mimics usually supposed to stay still while disguised as treasure chests? This is quite an assertive Mr. Mimic."

"At this rate, there's no way anyone would mistake it for a real chest~"

"———!? Everyone!"

"What's wrong? Leah?"

Leah, who had been analyzing with her sky-blue eye, suddenly changed her expression and pointed at the pseudo-Mimic.

"I want that flesh inside!"

"Eh, is it delicious!?"

"You can't eat it!"

"Eh~ Then what can it be used for?"

"That flesh inside is made of special meat that can rapidly change into any shape and hardness. I think it can probably be used to modify Nana's Frog-kun staff too."

"We absolutely must catch it and extract the contents right now!!"

"Nana-nee's eyes are scary, Dad."

Hearing that her favorite staff could be strengthened, Nana's eyes changed color and she was about to rush out immediately.

"Ah... Well, everyone try to defeat it while damaging the contents as little as possible. However, don't hold back if you might get hurt. And Leah, do you know the optimal way to defeat it without damaging the meat?"

"The flesh is stuck to the bottom plate in that state, but if you peel it off from there, all the internal organs will come out and it will die. After that, we can just use the clean outer meat that remains."

"You just casually said something gross..."

"So we just need to peel off the bottom plate!"

While they were hearing about how to deal with it, the other side had come quite close.

Everyone took their stance thinking something might happen, when suddenly it stopped moving and froze in place. It looked just like a real treasure chest.

"What...?"

"Did it finally remember its proper job?"

"Too late for that~"

Though they were amazed at this too-late mimicry since it wasn't moving, it was convenient, so Tatsuro took out his ice magic support staff and boosted ice magic with light magic to freeze the floor surface.

Then Jeanne used wind magic to draw the giant Mimic towards them, making it slide on the ice to bring it closer, and at that point, Cardina fired a mixture of magic bullets and earth magic aimed at the upper part of the box.

When the earth magic bullet hit its target precisely as aimed, the impact made it flip over on the icy floor surface and charge towards them with its bottom side facing them.

There, Tatsuro quickly applied [Level Eater] and started collecting skill levels.

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Level: 46

Skills: [Golden Body], [Quality Change Lv.7], [Bite Lv.5]

[Sword Arts Lv.3], [Axe Arts Lv.2], [Fan Arts Lv.2]

[Spear Arts Lv.2], [Shield Arts Lv.2], [Hammer Arts Lv.2]

[Staff Arts Lv.2], [Whip Arts Lv.2], [Sickle Arts Lv.2]

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(What is this!? Though its level itself isn't high, it has almost all weapon art skills. What kind of—)

While Tatsuro was surprised like that, the treasure chest opened by itself with a bang, and an orange clay-like mass jumped out from inside.

Then, those masses changed their shapes finely into swords, spears, axes, hammers, shields, sickles, carnivorous animal tooth models, and all sorts of weapons, multiple of which came attacking this way.

"So that's what it is!"

This was something that used the [Quality Change] skill to change its special flesh into various shapes and hardness, and by using that, it was in a sense like a super-degraded version of Ai who could use all sorts of weapon art skills.

Though the number of its attacks was formidable, each individual attack wasn't much.

So even without Tatsuro, it wasn't too difficult for the others to fight.

While everyone was protecting him like that, Tatsuro prioritized absorbing from the [Quality Change] level first.

"Alright. I've absorbed all the troublesome skills!"

In Tatsuro's eyes, he saw a being that could no longer make fine-quality changes and just swung around long, elastic meat whips.

So next he took the whip arts, then bite, sword arts, and so on in order.

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Level: 46

Skills: [Golden Body], [Quality Change Lv.0], [Bite Lv.0]

[Sword Arts Lv.0], [Axe Arts Lv.0], [Fan Arts Lv.0]

[Spear Arts Lv.0], [Shield Arts Lv.0], [Hammer Arts Lv.0]

[Staff Arts Lv.0], [Whip Arts Lv.0], [Sickle Arts Lv.0]

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"I've taken all the skill levels. Now peel off the floorboard and defeat it! I'll handle what it's swinging around!"

"Yes yes~"

Since they were trying not to damage the monster's flesh as much as possible, they could only dodge or deflect.

So, Tatsuro used a mixture of ice, wind, and light magic to shower it with glowing blizzard to freeze the flesh and seal its movements.

During that time, Ai and others hit the bottom of the golden treasure chest containing the Mimic to make holes, reached in through there, and started peeling off the bottom board.

If it could have made a sound, it would probably have let out a terrible scream and gone on a rampage, but its body was firmly frozen by Tatsuro so it couldn't move at all.

As they peeled off the flesh that was stuck to the bottom board, slimy contents spilled out and the monster's spirit faded away, until finally it died completely.

"Father. Please collect it quickly!"

"Yeah. I know."

While wryly smiling at Nana whose head was completely consumed with thoughts of the Frog-kun staff, Tatsuro stored everything including the internal organs in the [Infinite Item Field].

"Hey, Tatsuro. Though it looked gorgeous and golden on the outside, when we peeled off the board it was just iron."

"It had the [Golden Body] skill, the same one that Big Imomu from before had."

"Well~ Since it's not a real treasure chest anyway, it's enough if it can just deceive with appearances~"

"That's true."

And so such things happened.

Tatsuro cleanly separated just the Mimic's meat and sent it to Leah, and that day passed.