Chapter 11 – May I nibble your―――
To complete our monster extermination quest, Emma and I made our way to the Ahone grasslands. However, this time wasn’t about hunting goblins.
Today’s target was called “Big Rabite”, a rabbitlike creature.
They normally don’t appear in these plains, but it seems like every now and then they find their way here and set up nest.
There is a problem with that.
When big rabites discover a place to live in, they bring along others not long after and before you know it their number has increased manifold. They are stronger than goblins and because they eat the grass off entire plains they’re also bad for the environment.
And thus the country employs adventurers, keeping them in check.
“I wonder where they are~?”
“Let’s try over there.”
These fields certainly were vast. We wandered them for a while until we eventually found not a rabbit, but a goblin. A lot of them moved around on their own around here, but this time two of them had grouped up.
“Giggoo!”
The two goblins charged at us while running side-by-side, visibly agitated.
“They’re coming, watch out.”
“I’ll take the right one!”
The left one for me, then. They were level 10 and… males, evidently. There are male and female goblins, but it’s easy to tell them apart with a look at their… groins.
Since there was still the big rabite battle ahead of us I opted to preserve some mana and just fired a stone bullet size 30 at my opponent’s crotch. A direct hit.
With a “Giauun” the goblin stopped its charge, lowering its head and cowering in pain.
I stepped into close range and performed a downward swing.
*Zash-!!*
A clean cut―――would have looked cool.
Instead, its cranium was tougher than expected and my blade got stuck midway. Well, it was still a fatal attack so it worked out. However, if I were attacked by another goblin at that time I would’ve been in trouble.
“Iga!?”
The other one let out a short scream as Emma sent it flying with a cluster of wind. A magic spell, 「Wind Attack」.
From there she leapt at the goblin, defeating it with a stab to its throat.
Sure enough, her movements were smooth and without a hint of disorder. …Well, no surprise. My battle career paled in comparison to hers. After all, unlike her, my levels were gained by comfortably killing gold slimes. Emma had always fought by freely switching between her daggers and wind magic.
“Uwa, as expected, you settled it first…”
“Haha, are you sure about that? Behold my glorious appearance,”
I said as I struggled with unlodging my sword from the goblin’s cranium.
Emma came to lend me a hand by gripping the handle with me and the wind carried her fragrance along.
“…Nice smell, from your hair.”
“Huh!? Wh-where’d that come from?”
“I don’t mean it in some weird sense, I just thought you must be using some nice shampoo.”
“Uh, yeah… I guess? Don’t you use any?”
“No shampoo over at my family. And if there were, father would just sell it right away.”
“That’s…”
It hadn’t been too long since Alice and mother got upset at him over it, resulting in father jumping into a kneeling position and apologizing.
That said, I suppose sniffing people’s hair is a rather perverted tic to have,…
At that time I remembered a saying, “Put into action what you thought of today.”
Precisely because we were childhood friends, there was a favor I could ask of her―――
“…You’re not kidding around?”
“I’m telling you, it’s necessary.”
“Then it’s fine if you do, but tell me why. You’re hiding something important from me, aren’t you?”
In the end, Emma knew when I was hiding things from her. After spending the majority of our lives together she easily saw through me.
And so I told her everything―――of the Hidden Dungeon, my powers, and the LP system. Of course, only after having her promise not to tell anyone else about it.
“―――Alright, so let’s go to the Hidden Dungeon together!”
“Sorry, master prohibited that.”
“Don’t let anyone else enter, okay~?”, is what I was told. In addition, I myself didn’t want Emma to come along either, to be honest. Gold slimes aside, I wouldn’t want her fighting something like a dead reaper.
“That’s mean, won’t you be the only one getting stronger then.”
“Although as far as that goes I’ve also been trying to think of something.”
“Boo, since that’s how it is I’ll be taking on the big rabite on my own, hmph!”
Acting as peevish as she could she walked ahead. Showing the childishness of someone our age like that was also part of her. A cute part.
Well, I could always lend her a hand when things got dangerous.
“Ah, found one.”
In a particularly vast spot a big rabite was chewing on some grass. The ground around it was bare to the earth, probably because of its excessive eating.
Big rabites sure are huge.
Going by its appearance it looked pretty much like a normal rabbit, except with three horns, but its impression was far from a normal rabbit’s cute one. Its vertical height reached two meters and it had a good amount of meat on it as well. For being a herbivore it did well in gathering that many nutrients.
With rabbit habits as the monster’s base, its attacks were reckless; having seen a human it was certain to attack. This time was no exception.
With surprisingly light movements for a body of its size it came attacking.
“Here I go―――!”
She fired herself up and first of all, a wind attack!
Hoh, a hit. However, the rabite endured. With a sliding sound it shifted its legs, taking some distance.
“And another one!”
She fired again, but no luck this time. With a bouncy step the rabite dodged it. ‘In that case!,’ Emma charged at it. Her hands gripping a dagger each, blades facing downward.
There was a swishing noise as she moved her nimble arms across the enemy’s white body, leaving red lines in her daggers’ trace.
That’s when the rabite itself switched to offense.
It whirled its head, trying to stab Emma with its three pointed horns, but thanks to her quick movements it couldn’t even graze her. Incidentally, the rabite’s level was 40. Not too formidable of a foe.
*Swish, whoosh, swoosh*
The big rabite only struck air.
Apparently having realized that its plan wasn’t working, it changed its strategy. ―――Into a huge leap.
“Ah―”
She checked the situation. Based on the rabite’s flight path it made Emma’s head its target. Given the rabite’s body, being crushed by that weight could easily lead to death.
Instead of attacking Emma dashed away urgently. Vibrations ran through the ground as the rabite landed, and without giving Emma a break it leaped back into air again right away. Once more, Emma ran away. It seemed unlikely for her to keep getting away if this pattern went on.
“Wha―!?”
‘This is bad!’
She seemed close to being crushed so I fired a stone projectile at full power, 100 cm. The rabite and rock collided in mid air, causing them to fall to the ground together. Thanks to that the creature landed a little distance away from Emma.
“Quick, before it gets up!”
“Y-yeah!”
Emma went into full sprint and delivered a critical hit to the monster as it was struggling to get up, a strike to its vitals. After that not even the big rabite could keep going.
…Ah, looked like her level went up.
I tapped her shoulder to tell her ‘good job.’ She could barely talk from shortness of breath.
“Noir,… Thanks for… saving me…”
It seemed like aside from being out of breath she was also disappointed that her plan to defeat the big rabite on her own didn’t work out.
“It got dangerous at the end, but other than that it was a good fight.”
“Why do you think I couldn’t take it down? I got so many attacks in, too.”
“I think the wounds were too shallow. That thing’s surprisingly thick-bodied.”
Daggers make up for their lack of power with their attack rate. Against a massive opponent like that the match-up was too unfavorable for her.
“But hey, you did hit level 19.”
“…yeah.”
Ahaha… she was really down about it.
I wondered if there was something I could do―――’Actually, of course there is…’
Giving her a skill should be fine, right? Or something like letting her rank up.
She seemed pretty good with daggers, so how about creating 「Dual-Wield Dagger Mastery B」 and―――No, that’s the wrong way to go about it.
If I were to create it, it would just turn into one of my skills. To fix that I’d have to use the bestowal skill to pass it on, which would also use up LP.
Double Effort + High LP Expenses.
In which case, edit might be the way to go? After all, she already had a grasp on C rank of her dagger mastery. Let’s check out the skill description.
＜Improves dual-wielded dagger handling up to skilled proficiency.＞
Now how should I tamper with that…
As a test I tried adding 『exceptionally』 before skilled.
『Exceptionally』 Addition: 500 LP
Dual-Wield Dagger Mastery C → Dual-Wield Dagger Mastery B
There it is――――――!
It really was cheaper than creating the B rank from scratch! On top of that, considering the additional cost bestowal would have required it was a far better deal.
But still, 500…
I was at 700, so that would have been a little rough.
“I could use my skills to make you stronger, but right now I don’t have enough LP.”
“How do you gain more?”
“In our current situation… One thing, does come to mind.”
“Go ahead, whatever it is! If it’s something I can do then anything is fine!”
“You won’t take that back, right?”
“Of course!”
Hearing that I promptly moved to behind her back. She was visibly nervous, wondering what I was planning to do. I boldly declared my intent.
“Can I chew your ears?”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, it’s not that I want to eat them, more like a nibble.”
“Eh, wait, th-that’s how you raise your LP!?”
“There are other things I’d have in mind, but this is the most appropriate one out of them.”
She was dazed for a moment, but accepted it quickly. With a face that said ‘If it raises your LP, then――’ she gathered her determination.
“Go!”
“Going.”
Chomp, with my own resolution I bit her ear. Although I didn’t use my teeth so it was more like trapping it between my lips.
“Aah-”
Plump, her shoulders gave in. After she recovered and stood straight again I continued, nibbling on her ear for some time.
Her earlobe was… surprisingly soft, a pleasant feeling.
The cartilages rolling around between my lips weren’t bad either.
“Hanh!? N-nooir, how much longeer…?”
Looked like Emma’s ears were her weak spot; her knees began trembling.
This should about do it. Now come, LP!
When I checked my LP they had risen so high I almost wondered whether my silent prayer had an effect. They went from 700 to 1300.
“Alright, it worked!”
I rose Emma’s dagger mastery to rank B right away. With that, my LP were at 800. I was about to tell her she was stronger now, but―――
“Are you still feeling it?”
Like a freshly born calf Emma was still shaky on her feet. To think her ears were this much of a weak spot…
I had no clue despite all the time we had spent together.
Childhood friendship is a complicated thing.
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