Level Eater

While holding a picture of the sasara grass[1] in one hand, the two started searching for it and eventually found it a short walk away from the lake.

Checking whether the system marked the quest as completed allowed them to track how much more grass they needed to gather.

As the sasara grass was growing in abundance, the two finished their task without much problems.

“Alright, system says we’re good to go. Do you wanna look at the lake while we fly again?” Tatsurou asked.

“I want to see it from the ground this time though,” Ai replied.

“Alright.”

With their hands linked together, the pair walked back to the lakeside. There, with their arms intertwined, they spent a few more moments taking in the captivating beauty of the lake before heading back to the skies.

“I still can’t get used to the feeling of taking off,” Ai said.

“But climbing any slower than this would take up too much mana. That speed was the most mana efficient.”

Ai wanted their ascent to be much slower, similar to that of being pulled by a UFO’s tractor beam but life is never easy.[2]

However, upon hearing the word mana, a question popped out in her head.

“Then how about flying itself? Doesn’t it use mana too?”

“If I went flying alone, I’d say I’ll only have a few minutes at best,” Tatsurou answered while hugging her tight.

Then, it hit her.

So that ‘s why we could fly longer even though there’s the two of us.

“I see. We don’t have any problems with flight because we have [Perfect Harmony] huh…”

“Yep,” he answered, “but even with that bonus regen, my mana is still getting drained bit by bit so it’s not like we could fly forever.”

“Oh… Is that so now…” she mumbled, burying herself deeper in his embrace.

Controlling his Wind Magic, Tatsurou started circling around the lake. Satisfied after three laps, he finally left the area and headed back to town.

“Touchdown!” Ai exclaimed once they made contact with the ground.

Tatsurou, however, let out a sigh after landing. Tired due to the prolonged flight, he took this moment to catch a breather.

While making sure to not let go of Ai to maintain the title’s regeneration effect, Tatsurou stored the fly board into his item box. 

“You okay now?” asked Ai.

“Yep. I’ve recovered most of my mana now thanks to you,” replied Tatsurou.

“I see, I see…” she muttered while happily dragging Tatsurou by the arm as they walked back to town.

Tatsurou, who was busy focusing his attention on the soft texture hitting his arm, did not resist and followed her lead until they reached their destination.

“We should deliver these things to the adventurer’s guild first,” Tatsurou said.

“Uh-huh.”

Without further ado, the pair entered the guild building and turned their quest in with the clerk, who handed over the quest rewards without any complications.

Seeing that Rella wasn’t around, the two promptly exited the premise, not having anyone else to chat with.[3]

“It’s hard to tell because it’s dark all day but it should be about time for the sun to set now,” said Tatsurou. “Wanna grab a meal before we go back to the inn?”

“Shall we?”

Walking towards the plaza, they eyed each and every stall before entering one which looked promising.

Once they entered the shop, their stomachs growled simultaneously as they inhaled the waft of food being prepared.

“Welcome! What will you be having?” the shopkeeper asked.

““Chef’s choice!”” [Omakase]

“Coming right up!”

Just as they were about to sit on a vacant bench, the two recognized another customer eating his meal.

“Old man spotted!” Tatsurou exclaimed.

“It really is him. Hello uncle!” [Occhan]

In their view was the blacksmith, still with his ruffled hair and unkempt beard, quietly indulging himself in a spaghetti-like dish.

“Hmm?” The blacksmith swallowed the food in his mouth before saying, “First time seeing someone coming into a stall here dressed like that.”

““Eh?”” the two mouthed in confusion.

After their initial daze, the two remembered that they were wearing expensive garments.

It was the set of armour which the two bought for the high-class inn. As they were unable to find a good time to change, they went out dressed in them and even fought monsters with them.

“Not like there’s something wrong with that. Well, what did you kids come here for? Hurry up and take a seat.”

“Ah.” “Oh, right.”

The two sat down – Tatsurou right next to the smith and Ai beside him – and reached for the dishes on top of the counter.

The dish was similar to the smith’s spaghetti-lookalike, but theirs had white sauce topped with cheese instead.

As they enjoyed their meal, they started to strike up a conversation.

“Is the pelt work going okay?” Tatsurou asked.

“Course it is. I don’t have any other commissions so I should be able to finish it in time.”

Hearing a bit of shakiness in his voice, their faces stiffened but they tried their best to smile it off.

Feeling the atmosphere grow heavy, Tatsurou quickly tried to change the topic.  

“Oh, right! Old man, do you have weapons in store by any chance? Maybe made with something better than iron?”

“Better than iron?” the blacksmith wondered, “I have them but why do you ask?”

“Ai’s sword broke earlier so we’re trying to get her a new one.”

“By broke, you mean because of Ki?”

“Yep,” Ai replied.

The two were amazed by the fact that he knew the cause immediately.

He might not look the part, but he’s still a blacksmith huh? they thought.

“Look,” Ai said as she showed him the fragments of what was once a greatsword.

“Hey, hey, hey! Just how much Ki did you use for it to be broken like this?” the smith asked.

“I’m more surprised that it broke with just that much, you know?” Ai retorted, puffing her cheeks.

“Well, in the end, it’s only made of iron I guess…”

“Still, won’t it be good to go as long as I stitch it back together with magic?” Tatsurou interjected.

“You can’t, Tatsurou.” “No can do, kid.”

He was immediately shot down by the two.

Surprised at their almost instantaneous response, Tatsurou couldn’t help but wonder, “Eh? Why not?”

This time, Ai went into explanation mode which was rare.

“It’s hard for Ki to flow around equipment made with magic. So, unless Ki users use a handmade weapon, we can’t really fight that well.”

“That’s that, kid. If that wasn’t the case, magicians would have flooded the market with iron weapons since they can do it faster.”

“Oh, right!” 

Tatsurou thought back to the time when he made the iron fly board.

Using magic, he was able to finish the product quickly and even made it lighter than the conventional iron.

If he really wanted to mass-produce it, he would have no problems doing so. However, the fact that no one is doing it means that it doesn’t work at all.

As his thought process continued, a question popped up in his mind.

“Then do magic wands have to be made by a blacksmith too?” he asked.

To which Ai replied, “I don’t really know. Do they, Mr. Blacksmith?”

“Something like that. But well, there shouldn’t be any problem if you made it with your own magic from start to finish. Still, if you were to compare it to something made by a professional, you can easily see the difference.

“Blacksmiths are that amazing huh?” Tatsurou muttered.

“Well, that’s what you get in a world full of magic. There’s all kinds of jobs out there, kid.”

Getting a grasp on what kind of a existence blacksmiths are in this world, the two finally understood how important it was to leave the job to the professionals.

“So yeah… At any rate, whether you use mana or ki, equipment made by smiths are your best bet. That’s why kids, I’m telling you, the best smiths are those who can make items that can handle an insane amount of energy!”

“You don’t look the part, though,” Ai stabbed, with words sharper than any knife.

“Ack.”

As everyone was done with their meal, they paid their dues and took the conversation outside.  

“About that better-than-iron weapon you were talking about earlier, I have some at my house. You gonna buy one?” the smith asked.

“We want to, yes.”

“I’ll get them ready then. Will you be coming over tomorrow?”

“Yep. We got nothing to do tomorrow so if you’ll have us then…” Tatsurou replied first.

“We’re going!”

“Good to know.”

Ending their conversation there, they went their separate ways, with the pair heading back to the inn where they stayed at.  

“It’s been another peaceful day for us, isn’t it?” Ai muttered.

“It has. There were those weird monsters but… no, let’s forget about those guys.”

Not wanting to talk about those tentacled monsters, Tatsurou shoved them away to the deepest parts of his memory.

A few moments later, he muttered a name under his breath.

“Cardina.”

As soon as he called, a grain of mana separated itself from his body and took the form of a birdling.

“Over here, Cardina-chan!” Ai called to which it responded by chirping and hopping over to her hands. “Good boy!”[4]

Leaving the two of them to play, Tatsurou took out his light-darkness mixing book and searched for a way to make Cardina grow.

While the fact that it came into existence was already a feat to celebrate, it was still, in the end, a chick and bringing it into battle would only serve as a hindrance instead. At the very least, he wanted to give it the power to soar the skies with its own wings.

(There!)

Locating the information he needed with ease, he immediately started hammering each and every word of it into his head. 

TL Notes:

[1] ササラ has a corresponding kokuji in jisho （簓） meaning bamboo whisk, but the author specifically wrote ササラ草 so I think it is another type of plant that is similar to, but not exactly bamboo, as putting that phrase in a dictionary or an MTL yields no useful results.

[2] This is what I got from a 30-minute search. [Full explanation here]

[3] レーラ – Translated by the previous translator as Leela. This name is much closer to the correct pronunciation.

[4] Gender wasn’t specified, but I felt like it would be weird to translate it as ‘good birdie!’

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