Chapter 55: First Aerial Combat

[Skill [Spear Art] has levelled up to Lv 5.]

Seeing her skill level up, Ai jumped backwards, using the momentum to pull her spear out. Body fluids started to gush out of the monster’s wound but as Ai was already a considerable distance away, not a single drop of it touched her.

After she retrieved her knives, they burned the corpse which Tatsurou took into his Item Box later.

“Hmm, still no level up…” Ai mumbled.

“Well, it was a low level monster so…  Let’s be patient with it.”

“Good point.”

Cardina, too, chirped in what seemed like an expression of agreement. For that, Ai petted its head.

Taking the fly board out from his Item Box, Tatsurou prepared to take flight.

“We’re done with the subjugation so let’s take a shortcut to the lake, shall we?”

“Let’s go!”

Cardina chirped a second time.

The pair stepped onto the board and took off immediately with Cardina following right behind them.

After waiting for a bit for Cardina to catch up, they made a beeline for their destination.

“Won’t Cardina get tired?” asked Ai.

“Nope. Creatures made of mana don’t have muscles that will tire out.[1] It does consume a lot of mana when flying but it’s fine as long as I make sure its mana doesn’t dry out.”

“Oh…”

“Yep. They don’t need sleep as well so I want to try leaving the night watch to Cardina later.”

Tatsurou was its creator and was also knowledgeable in magic. As such, he was confident that Cardina was able to do the things he said. Ai, however, viewed Cardina as a normal bird and could not help but worry about it.

“Are you okay, Cardina?”

While it did not understand her meaning behind those words, Ai’s feelings of anxiety went through, to which it shrieked to show her that it was fine.

“Okay! Looks like we can leave everything to it!”

“Yep. We have our tent, our sleeping bags and our trusty night watch! It’s wa—y better than when we were just wandering around in the forest.”

“You bet!”

In the middle of their conversation, Cardina suddenly shrieked and went into an uproar.

Seeing that, Tatsurou synchronised his information magic together with it and found out what was going on.

Right in front of them were a flock of tews, a black and bird-like monsters which were dyed orange by the setting sun.

“Tsk… Ai, we’re on a collision course with a flock of tews!”

“Huh? The one with black polka dots?”

“Yep. Cardina spotted them. It’ll be bad if they chase us to the lake and I got my hands tied using wind magic so I can’t use any big spells right now.”

“That means it’s my turn then! I’ll leave the piloting to you.”

“I’ll do my best.”

As they were currently flying over a sea of trees, landing immediately might result in them fighting a different monster which may pose a greater risk. Hence, the two used this opportunity to experience their first airborne battle.

Cardina, with a fighting spirit higher than the clouds, cawed at the flock, trying to intimidate them. Meanwhile, Ai held a spear on her right hand and a protective glove on her left. With that, their preparations were complete.

“Let’s do this!”

“Roger that!”

Using wind magic, Tatsurou increased their speed and formed a spearhead-shaped barrier in front of them. And as if it was what the tews wanted, the flock wasted no time, spreading out to encircle them while pointing their sharp talons at them. However, just before they collided, Tatsurou pitched their ride upwards, steeply rising in altitude. As they rose up, Ai thrusted her spear to the side, causing several casualties among the enemy’s ranks.

Following that, Cardina clawed on those who were lightly wounded, causing them to fall from the sky. Seeing the spectacle before them, the tews started to fly in a straight line instead.

Tatsurou turned his board around and flew it towards the enemy’s flank. Once they were close enough, Ai thrusted her spear at the flock again, causing even more damage to the tews.  

“Looks like we’re doing alright, aren’t we?”

“Looks like it. There’s less than half of them left now.”

True to his role, Cardina tailed them closely from behind and fended off any attacks that would’ve otherwise hit them.

Even so, it seemed like the tews were far from giving up, still chasing after them with great fervour.

Tatsurou then planned their next move.

“Ai! Cardina! <When I give the signal, look up and cover your eyes!>”

“Got it!”

Cardina cawed, mimicking Ai’s response. Glad that Cardina was able to understand them, the two broke into smiles before turning to face the tews again.

Accelerating upwards, Tatsurou positioned them above the line of birds. Motioning the board down, he made it seemed like they were going to attack, making the flock of tews glare angrily at them.

It was then that…

“Now!”

In a heartbeat, Tatsurou directed his mana and created a huge beam of light aimed at the tews.

Blinded by the sudden light, the tews screeched in surprise while the group used the golden opportunity to attack.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes sir!”

The party of three flew towards the flock of birds, zigzagging through them as they defeated the enemy one by one.

When the tews finally regained their vision, there were only two of them left, one that was about to be hit by a fist and the other by a spear.

Succumbing to the blow, they collapsed and fell to the ground below.

[Skill [Spear Art] has leveled up to Lv 6.]

[Skill [Unarmed Combat] has leveled up to Lv 7.]

[You have leveled up to Lv 28.]

“Oh, I finally levelled up!”

“There were a lot of them so it looks like you got a good amount of EXP.”

“Yeah.”

Delighted by the notifications, Ai leaned back and rubbed the back of her head against Tatsurou. Stroking her in return, Tatsurou altered their course back to the salt lake.

The group reached the lake right before nightfall.

Once there, the two set their tents up at their usual camping spot while Cardina curled itself on the top of the tent, turning it into its personal hammock as well as a sentry post where it took watch.

As they had nothing to do while waiting for the sun to set, they took a look at Ai’s status.

Name: Ai Yashiki

Class: Martial Artist

Level: 28

Ki: 3915

Mana: 35

Strength: 775

Defense: 757

Agility: 525

Magic: 32

Magic Resist: 32

Mana Control: 32

・Skills・

[Valkyrie], [Unarmed Combat Lv 7], [Staff Arts Lv 1],

[Throwing Lv 7], [Spear Arts Lv 6], [Sword Arts Lv 3],

[Shield Arts Lv 4], [Whip Arts Lv 4], [Ki Regeneration Lv 5],

[Body Strengthening Lv 9], [Universal Language Comprehension]

 ・System Skills・

[Item Box]

Unused skill point: 31

・Titles・

[Destroyer], [Perfect Harmony]

“As always, your stats grow as fast as bamboo, huh.”[2]

“Bamboo is a bit… but no, it fits all too well considering that I might reach 4000 Ki before even reaching level 30.”

While they were viewing her stats, something suddenly caught Tatsurou’s attention.

“By the way, you’ll be getting new weapons tomorrow but do you have enough space in your item box?”

“Now that you mention it, it’s almost full now!”

“Why not level it up then?”

“Hmm…… I guess so. It’s a bit expensive but I’ll at least upgrade it to get the decomposition function.” As she said that, Ai pressed the upgrade button, consuming 18 SP to upgrade her item box to +2.

“It’s down to 32% capacity now so I should be able to put the new ones in there.”

“It looks more like a weapon box than an item box for you, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I did get it for that. What about you? Aren’t you gonna use the SP you got earlier?”

“Should I…” Tatsurou muttered as he checked the amount of SP he had.

With a total of 48 available SP in his status box, Tatsurou was conflicted on whether he should allocate them to Information, Darkness or Wind Magic. However, after a moment of consideration, he decided to allocate them into Information Magic and informed Ai, who smiled in agreement, of his decision.

The reason for it was Cardina. With its current body, he was positive that he would be able to handle [Information Magic Lv 4].

After upgrading Information Magic, his available SP dropped to 20.

“Done! Then, Ai, can you help me again?” he asked before calling Cardina.

“Alright, let’s get on with it!”

She then proceeded to hug him from behind again.

“Cardina!” Tatsurou called.

The bird, hearing its name, left its post above the tent and went inside.

“I’ll be upgrading your [Information Magic] to Lv 4 too so <come over here>.”

It cawed once in reply and moved towards him. 

Focusing his attention on Cardina, Tatsurou sifted through the sea of information until he found the previous installation of Information Magic to which he promptly removed. Once done, he replaced it with the higher-level Information Magic he currently possessed. He made sure that the magic had safely settled inside the sea of information before releasing his control of Cardina.

 “It’s done. How is it? <Make sure to check if there’s anything wrong>,” he said to the bird, receiving a short caw in return. “Looks like it’s fine.”

Allowing the pair to pet it for a few minutes, Cardina then returned to the top of the tent to perform its duties.

Inside the tent, the pair stared at the bottom of the lake as it glimmered in the sunset. A few moments later, the sun started to sink below the horizon and their surroundings slowly turned darker.

“What is that?”

“… firefly?”

Tiny specks of blue light rose from the lake, floating in the air as they danced above the water’s surface.

TL Notes: 

[1] Raw: Kanji literally means ‘body power/energy.’

[2] Bamboo is a grass, and it grows really fast, for reference.

[Extra] I tried changing the color palette for system screens. What are your thoughts? Should I keep it or do I remove it? Y’all read in dark mode, right…?