Level Eater-Chapter 129: Dropped Item

Tatsuro agreed to Nana using the [Dragon Drain] skill, but there was one thing that bothered him.

That is, in the case of [Life Drain], it is necessary to touch it directly.

He can't let his precious friends be the first to touch something so suspicious.

What's more, Cardina and the others are magical creatures. He doesn't know what will happen if they touch something that converts magical power or energy.

When Tatsuro said that, it seemed like Nana was thinking about it too.

"Therefore, although there is some resistance, I am thinking of using the [Dragon Drain], which does need me to be transformed into my [True Form], without touching it." (Nana)

"But you don't want to show it too much, right? There's no reason to defeat it even if I force you to do it." (Tatsuro)

"However, I'm sure I'll have to show it to you someday, and just because I'm reluctant, it doesn't mean I absolutely hate it. I'd rather be of help to you." (Nana)

"I see. Then please, Nana-chan. Please shoot our enemy!" (Ai)

"Yes, Mom!" (Nana)

When Ai hugged her tightly, Nana's face fell with joy.

As they looked at this scene with envy, Tatsuro hugged Cardina and Jeanne tightly.

"Okay, let's go." (Nana)

After enjoying Ai's embrace for a while, Nana approaches the black vortex, also known as Imomu Generator, until it is within three meters of her range.

Jeanne used wind magic to catch and exterminate the Imomu that appeared during that time. It seemed as if she was setting the stage for her younger sister's future, and Tatsuro patted her on the head.

When Nana walked within the range of the Dragon Drain at her current level, she stopped there and activated her skill [True Form].

Then, a change occurred in Nana's shape, and it quickly took shape.

Her appearance was that of a beautiful adult woman with beautiful brown skin.

The black kimono she wore when she became an adult has turned white, and two thick black horns like a cow's grown from her head, and large white wings shaped like a bat's on her back.

It also has sharp, black-stained nails on its hands, and long, pointed white canine teeth peeking out from its mouth.

In addition, the color of the eyes has changed from black to white, and a thin arrow-shaped black tail can be glimpsed from under the kimono, giving off a mysterious atmosphere, as if someone was trying to force a demon to look like an angel.

(T/N: No wonder she was trying to hide it. I kind of want to see a picture of her true form. Maybe I should use AI to generate a picture of it. Though I won't be posting it!!)

Having undergone such a change, Nana activated [Dragon Drain] without looking back.

Then, the two black cow horns began to vibrate finely, giving Nana a strange sensation as if something new had been added to her senses, wrapping up the Imomu Generator as if an invisible hand was reaching out.

Then, the spirit is absorbed all at once. Since it doesn't look like a living thing, you might think it has no energy, but it does have the power of life, and it absorbs it to its roots.

Then, changes appeared in the Imomu generator, which gradually became smaller and eventually disappeared completely.

|You have leveled up to Level 3|

The moment that announcement reached Nana's ears, a green regular hexagonal plate fell to the ground from where the Imomu generator was.

Nana picked it up, and while still holding it in her hand, used the [Dragon Drain] to transform the last remaining Imomu into a mummy as she walked towards Tatsuro and the others.

Although they were surprised to see how much different she looked from her previous appearance, she looked intimidating and aggressive, but the two of them didn't let that change their perspective on her and continued to interact with her with their usual smiles.

"Welcome back, Nana." (Tatsuro)

"I'm back now." (Nana)

Nana was a little worried that he might be drawn back, but she realized that her fears were unfounded, and she smiled and greeted him in a calm, adult voice, then handed Tatsuro the board she had picked up earlier.

"Is this the one that was dropped by the Imomu generator earlier? I wonder what it is... Cardina, I'd like you to analyze it with me." (Tatsuro)

"Pewee" (Cardina)

"Is this the so-called drop item?" (Nana)

"But I don't know what it can be used for." (Tatsuro)

Then, Tatsuro and Cardina learned about it by using Dispel magic, but they could not understand it well at this point.

For some reason, even though they haven't felt a single ounce of magical power since then, the monster... or rather, Imomu's reaction is faint.

Without understanding why, Tatsuro stared at it for a long time, trying to see the various reactions, and tried to put a little bit of his magic into it.

Then, something squirted out and stuck to Tatsuro's face.

"W-What's this?" (Tatsuro)

"Tatsuro!" (Ai)

"Pewee" (Cardina)

"Neigh" (Jeanne)

"Father!" (Nana)

"...Hmm? What is this really?" (Tatsuro)

"Are you okay?" (Ai)

"Ah, it's a little sticky, but it doesn't seem like it's impossible to remove." (Tatsuro)

While saying that, Tatsuro peeled something sticky from his face.

Then, his field of vision opened up, and when he looked at the object he had peeled off earlier, he saw that it was a bundle of thick white sticky thread.

"Doesn't this look like Imomu's thread?" (Tatsuro)

"Ah, that's what I was thinking too. Is this the board where you can use Imomu's Thread Spit?" (Ai)

"Try it one more time." (Ai)

"Ah, that's right. Well, let's do the opposite this time." (Tatsuro)

Not wanting to let it hit his face anymore, Tatsuro turned the board over and, just like before, he put a small amount of magical power into it again, staring intently to see the reaction from behind.

Then, just like before, a white thread spewed out. ──On Tatsuro's face.

"Why the hell!?" (Tatsuro)

"Ahahahahaha. What are you doing, Tatsuro? Ahahaha." (Ai)

"Oh, mother, he will be so sad if you laugh too much. Bufufu." (Nana)

"Nana is laughing too!? Even if I can't see it, I can hear it!" (Tatsuro)

With that, Tatsuro pulled the thread from his face while holding back his embarrassment.

At that time, Tatsuro thought about smashing this board into pieces, but there was no way poor Tatsuro would be able to do that, and above all, Nana had picked it up, so he gently loosened his grip.

"Why is it coming out this way even though I turned it the other way around earlier? Does it also have a facial recognition system?" (Tatsuro)

"What does that mean?" (Nana)

"Well? ...Ah, maybe." (Tatsuro)

Tatsuro came up with a hypothesis, and this time, instead of facing his own face, he turned towards a direction where no one was around and then tried applying his magic power. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Then, the thread was released in the direction Tatsuro intended.

To further confirm his hypothesis, Tatsuro placed both hands on the side of the board, held it between them, and turned the flat side towards the sky and the ground, then poured his magic into it, and threads came out from both sides.

"Is that so?" (Tatsuro)

"What do you mean?" (Ai)

"This is a mechanism that spits out the thread in the opposite direction from where the magical power is poured. When it hit my face earlier, I placed it on the palm of my hand and poured the magical power from there, so it spewed out in the direction of my face opposite to the palm. That means it happened." (Tatsuro)

"So, what should we do with that? Maybe we should sell it?" (Ai)

"Ah, well, I might be able to use it for something, so I'll keep it. It looks like the more magic power I put into it, the more threads it spits out, and I think I can restrain weak monsters with just this. Is that okay with you, Nana?" (Tatsuro)

When Tatsuro asked Nana, who had returned to her original small girl form before he knew it, there was no problem with that. So he put it away in the [Item Box] for now.

Although they were stuck like that, no particularly rare monsters appeared after that, and when they stepped into the sixth floor, the atmosphere of the dungeon changed.

It wasn't an open space like before, but a maze-like place blocked by walls of purple thorns.

"Also, the atmosphere has changed quite a bit." (Tatsuro)

"Ah, it's starting to look like a dungeon." (Ai)

"Can't this wall be destroyed?" (Tatsuro)

"Would you like to try it?" (Ai)

It's good to break the horizontal paper all of a sudden, but there's no reason to stay in a 1st level dungeon with little payoff for too long.

If you want to enjoy dungeons to the fullest, there are still level 3 dungeons.

Thinking so, Tatsuro used a combined technique between Jeanne and himself to unleash a tornado of flames using mixed magic of wind and fire and hit the wall of thorns.

Then, the wall of thorns burned and blown away without any resistance, but the burned end did not regrow and form a path, and the result was only a smoky smell.

"The theory seems to be that you can't break down the walls in places like this." (Tatsuro)

"Is that so?" (Ai)

"Yeah. There were dungeons in the games in our world, but you couldn't usually break down the walls to advance." (Tatsuro)

"That's right. Well then, let's pull ourselves together and move on." (Ai)

"Yes" (Tatsuro)

"Pewee" (Cardina)

"Neigh" (Jeanne)

"Desu-o!" (Nana)

Jeanne was in the front, Cardina was above her, Tatsuro and Ai were in the middle, and Nana was walking side by side when Cardina spotted four monsters hiding in the gaps between the thorns a few meters away.

"Hmm, they seem stronger than the ones before. Let's capture one alive and see if it has any skills." (Tatsuro)

Everyone nods at Tatsuro's words and slowly approaches the point where the monster is hiding while remaining cautious.

Then, just as Tatsuro and his friends were about to pass right next to them, four whips with thorns thinner than the thorns on the wall came flying at them.

However, it was blocked by the black energy shield created by Ai's newly equipped armor, and the attack did not reach them.

While Ai was blocking the attack, Tatsuro quickly took out an iron wire from the [Item Box] and threw it at Cardina in the sky.

Then, Cardina caught it with one foot, knotted the wire like a bundle of monster thorn whips, and flew up into the sky again, catching all four of them at the same time.

"I guess you could call this a thorn man." (Tatsuro)

"The Japanese name is Ibaranchu. It has been decided." (Ai)

"Okinawa?" (Tatsuro)

The monster, named Ibaranchu by Ai, was purple in color and had become humanoid with intertwined spines that were thinner than a wall. It was such a monster.

Ibaranchu was hooked by Cardina with a wire and was flailing around, but it immediately produced another thorny whip from its body and fired it at Cardina.

However, it was stopped by the pressure of the wind magic created by Jeanne, and it drooped towards the ground without reaching it.

In the meantime, Nana used curse magic to slightly reduce Ibaranchu's overall status and slow its movement, and Ai brought out two automatic weapon spears from the celestial bow in her hand. Which she used to cut it down to a compact size.

"Hmm. It might be quite difficult to move the spear attached to this bow." (Ai)

"Looks like they're both completely dead." (Tatsuro)

"Sorry. Tatsuro." (Ai)

"It's fine. It doesn't seem like it's going to be a big deal if you have the skills, and this time we're going to test out how to use the new equipment, so we need to get used to it with weak monsters like this." (Tatsuro)

While saying that, Tatsuro found two dark blue pebbles and magic stones about three centimeters on the ground.

Then he activated [Level Eater] and hit one of the two living creatures with a black ball.

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Level: 3

Skill: [Whip Arts Lv.1]

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"It's no good. I have some skills, but I only have [Whip Arts Lv.1]." (Tatsuro)

"Well, then it can only be SP (1)." (Ai)

"It's really a dungeon for beginners. Even with this, it would be tough for the little kids to have four of them at the same time, so it's the perfect strength for training for beginners." (Tatsuro)

While saying that, Tatsuro received (1) SP from each of the two monsters, and let Nana, who had the lowest level, with [Dragon Drain] to add up her experience points.

At that time, [Nana's Dragon Drain] rose to level 4.

From there, as they continued through the maze of thorns along the right side, they were attacked by Ibaranchu several times, each time defeating them and receiving SP as they headed deeper and deeper.

After spending about 30 minutes like that, Tatsuro and his team were starting to get bored, when a huge door came into view.

In the middle of a circular open space in the labyrinth of thorns, there was only a huge door that looked like an exhibit, and neither the front nor the back looked like it was connected to any room.

However, Tatsuro understood from the book Reginald had given him that if he entered this door, he would have to fight the boss of this dungeon.

"Finally, we've arrived at the boss room." (Tatsuro)

"Eh, it's almost over. I didn't really feel like I was diving into a dungeon." (Ai)

"According to the book Reginald-san gave me, the level 1 dungeon changes randomly every time you enter from the 3rd floor to the 8th floor. This time it's the 6th floor, so I guess you've been through it quite a bit." (Tatsuro)

"If this is the case, it would have been better if it ended on the third floor." (Nana)

Nana grumbled, and Ai agreed.

"Well... But, it's finally the boss battle! I wonder what kind of monsters there will be." (Ai)

"Ah, I'm sorry you have high expectations, but I don't think there are any big monsters." (Tatsuro)

"Hmm. Well then, let's just defeat him and leave this place." (Ai)

"Ah, but don't let your guard down. It would be no laughing matter if we, who are supposed to be high-rank adventurers, got injured in a level 1 dungeon." (Tatsuro)

At Tatsuro's words, everyone regained their composure, and Jeanne pushed the door open with her nose.