Chapter 6: Party UP!

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*Driing~!*

[ Maple had accepted your friend request! ]

Gram smiled and contacted her through the messaging feature of the game. Kaede who was sitting and was thinking how to farm efficiently saw a blinking indicator before seeing it as a message, she saw the sender and her eyes immediately gained excitement. She replied slowly as she typed one key at a time.

"You're already playing? Why didn't you tell me!? I'm at the fountain at the town. neh~ neh~ what's your build? What are you going to show me?!" Kaede pouted while she entered the message.

"So slow~ Where are you Kaede, I'll come to you!" Gram waited for a minute for her to reply, he just laughed at her clumsiness.

"Yeah, I'll wait, I'm so slow when walking ha-ha..."

He headed towards the other fountain spawn point, he was much faster before as he could easily use [ Wind Acceleration ] making his AGI seem to be normal to other players.

One good thing about using gloves or gauntlets is that you don't have to raise or make movements to use skills or spells. You could just wave your hand with a silent mumble to cast the skill without any notice.

During that, he also thought of improving Kaede or Risa's status, they were a group and in the future. They might make a guild/clan or something, since they would always want to play together.

"So there were three transfer points at the village." Looking around now, Gram got a little fascinated, he didn't observe the place when he started but now, he could gawk at anything with a serious face and that's without getting other's attention. Albeit, even if he didn't want to, he would always get some attention, mainly because of his gear and his serious compatibility with it.

The town was moderately big and the houses were connected to each other. It had emulated the city they were currently living in real life. Although, the VR world was much larger and couldn't be really compared to reality. Every city had a different server. You can only visit them through these transfer points.

Moreover, every city had its alternate version. That's why different cities had more popularity than the other, their town is slightly better as it had powerful guilds that competed and fought each other. Guilds though, was only starting due to the fact that there were only 1 month since the VR game was released.

Clad in jet-black dotted with rose gears, Kaede currently sat on the edge of the fountain. Gram instantly noticed her with a rather 'unique' outfit, even in the midst of the passing players. He could easily see her due to the unusual dress code, as for Kaede, it was the same for her, she instantly noticed the male that she's waiting for.

With excitement, Kaede headed toward him, "Gram! I'm glad you started playing, I'm getting bored, you know? Leveling is so much harder now, ~ hah." Kaede approached him while looking at him with curiosity. She began with his white hair while at the same time creeping her hands towards his hand and held it.

"Shh~sh, don't call my real name. Use my nickname-nickname! 'Knox' and I'll call you 'Maple'. We don't want others to learn our identities right?"

Kaede *Un... Un* nodded in agreement. She saw him checking her up before proudly leaning her chest upfront and emphasizing her armor to him.

"It's very cool, right?"

"Ah! I love it... it's aesthetic and it made you more cute albeit you're already cute~" Gram patted her head, thankfully, he's taller than her.

Kaede grasped the hand that was currently patting her head. She looked closely with a pout and said. "You got your own [ Unique Series ] too! We had the same black color, he~he, a lucky pairing~!"

Seeing her happiness made him pinch her nose. Her glistening black hair accompanied by her armor was really lovely.

"Stop! You always do this... mou~"

"Because you're so lovely, all praise for me~ my glorious angel!" He said seriously even with that muffler couldn't hide his happiness.

Kaede made a sheep's face while she had a blush on her cheeks, although she had a happy smile on her face. Her embarrassed self totally made her somewhat of the so-called 'MOE' personality. "Is that so!? He~he. Although, why did you dye your hair? You just want to look cool right?"

"It just entered my head, If you want-"

"No! No! You don't have to geez~ It also suits you quite well..." Kaede shook her head that made her dizzy.

Her attitude was just a happy-go-lucky girl and a person who doesn't think too hard on many things.

Their display though, made others, jeering and snickering at their hearts. People like them who had the guts to display their lovely public display, had effectively enraged some lonely players. Although, if they did attack them. They will be the one that will get killed, which they will regret in their life.

The two bug players walked in the town to sight-see together. Few players turned curious about the two who's clearly a couple.

"Muhuu~, why did you play on your own while not asking me! You could have asked me to level you up."

"I wanted to surprise you. Look here, I had to get the gear completely alone. Although, it was hard at the start." Kaede made an excited expression and looked at him with an understanding nodding.

"You eat the boss, right? he~he! As expected from the glorious me!"

"Purposely, yeah it's because of you teaching me that trick, although, I did use some tricks I had to pull off." Gram laughed wryly.

"But where is your weapon? I thought you wanted to be a mage, a wand or a stick?" Kaede looked at his while slightly confused, she waved her big shield as if showing it was her weapon.

"I had a staff earlier but the treasure chest gave me a mage gauntlet." He rolled up the armor's sleeves showing the enchanted gloves that had lines and a lively magic circle in the middle. Kaede showed a wowed look and nodded.

Gram noticed that she walked slowly. He followed her step rhythm. He can't do anything for now, since he won't be able to enhance her AGI if there wasn't anything to multiply it too. He thought of a way to fix their nonexistent AGI permanently. Maybe fighting speed type monsters will work? Or he should create another AGI boosting spell.

"Muhh~ I saw that you're already level 20, how come you level up so fast?! I only leveled up to 18." Kaede puffed out her cheeks.

He patted her silken black hair softly to ease her light grief. "Don't worry, we'll find monsters to level up together."

"But, it won't go up. I just fought some monsters earlier and I made no progress for some time." Kaede sulkily said.

"Don't worry I have many strategies in my mind, just follow along- It's easy to gain levels if you have me!" Gram said with confidence. "Nnn~!" Kaede nodded gratefully and immediately gained back her bubble self, walking at the stone paved way while humming.

Right now, Kaede was level 18 while he was already level 20, and the top-level right now is level 48 according to her.

At the start, Kaede did not have an interest in anything other than trying the game but now, she started to like it so much. She wanted to increase her level. Hearing Gram confidently speaking, made her a little ruddy. She knew his professionalism in these types of games, sometimes relying on him in such things. If she asked anything, she knew he would try to accomplish it, just to make her smile thinking like that always made her expectant and giddy.

"What happened?" He looked at her blushing face while they walked.

"Iyah~iyah! It's nothing! Ha-ha." Kaede rubbed her cheeks with her free hand. Hiroto chuckled and began asking her specifics about what she had troubles with.

"Well… I have several AoE skills that can control an area en masse. I'm a magician build after all. You would want to know my skills right?"

"Un~Un!"

Talking to Kaede was always fun. She reasoned why she doesn't level up fast is one, she doesn't have any movement speed to find many monsters and two, she doesn't have big offensive type skills.

"We both have a rather similar AGI. We could buy better boots to increase AGI albeit, right now we don't have much money." He felt it was better to save money for later purpose rather than buying sloppy, bland-looking boots readily available in the market.

Gram had advantage over her since he can kill monsters faster and efficiently. So he just concluded that they farm, it's his purpose to make her happier.

Although, before they left, they looked through at the information bulletin board wondering if there was a skill listed that could be useful.

The board purpose is to share knowledge of other players, those who share their experience wanted two things and that's money and fame.

He can consider making a new type of spell that gives flat AGI or maybe use [ Power Augmentation ] or she might gain some sort of skill?

"You have a skill like that?! So amazing... I only earned a skill that had attack power but I can only use it for how many times~"

"You'll learn a way to attack later, don't worry." Gram patted Kaede's head to remove her sadness, she wasn't really sad but rather she's optimistic at his claims. She remembered that her friend always wanted to play the game.

"I wonder when Risa will play? Have you asked her?"

Kaede was a little sulky that her friend wasn't still able to play the game. He just improved her mood by encouraging her.

"Risa said she will finish it earlier than you think. I talked to her earlier, although I suspect she's nearly finished her assignments so she might be able to join us soon." Kaede stopped and looked at him.

"What did she say?"

Gram coughed and said, "She said you had turned into a monster in the game because you kept on discussing your adventures in your class, although you made her a little jealous. Ha~ha, she implied that you had turned into a berserker because of how she interpreted your build. Although, I don't know if she's joking. Hehe~" Gram looked at her jet-black gears and giggled at her honest expression.

"Risa~!"

[ ANNOUNCEMENTS! ]

While they were having their small talk, a comical bird wearing a hat appeared on all sides of the town following the players as it announces an event will happen tomorrow. Afterwards, vanishing as if it didn't exist.

Hearing the details Gram asked Kaede. "It seems a new event will start tomorrow and it looks quite promising. Should we join the event?"

Right after two days in game time, the first official event of the game will start and is scheduled tomorrow in real time.

The main subject of the event is a battle royal. Specifically, the participating players had to fight other players for points, points are counted and getting many of them will give you a chance to get a place in the top-ten which is required to acquire the specific limited event items as it's rewards. Of course, to get the rewards, you have to transfer equivalent points to get them.

Also, points only listed the dealt damage, and not the count of absorbing attacks. Kaede felt envious, "Kuhh~h, limited items, I want to join but I won't be able to defeat others. Muh~ I really want to join!"

She was the type of person who buys unique merchandise, as long as there's a limited edition written on it, she buys it.

He smiled wryly as they approached the north to increase level. Although she doesn't have so much of an attack power, her defense was clearly abnormal.

"Let's participate. We just have to level up, and you know? Skills~" Gram whispered at her that made her giggle cutely.

"Uu〜... You said that! So for the meantime~ Let's head and fight monsters now!" Kaede grinned and smiled radiantly.

"Yeah, tomorrow is the rest day... Don't worry, we can take our time leveling up! Let's [Party] up!"

Gram chuckled and invited her for a [ Party Request ]; she accepted it readily as she hummed through the way.

They arrived in the north forest. He didn't buy HP potions since he still had some, while his personal tanker was already here, it had little use when the tank clearly didn't take any damage. He hadn't sold yet those useless loots from the monsters from the dungeon listlessly staying at his inventory.

Both of them did the same, as expected of the couple, not bothering and just wanting to fight monsters.

[ Explosion Ladybug Lv: 15 ]

As they walked, they saw a lot of monsters congregating. One of them is called Explosion Ladybug, as from the notice board displayed, a monster ladybug that uses self-destruction as an attack. They already learned it's weakness but they didn't want to use other player's strategies. It's accompanied by another monster popular in many games called goblins. There had already noticed the two.

[ Goblin Lv: 16 ]

"This will be our first time, fighting together, isn't it a little exciting!?" He hyped the bubbly girl and got a furious nodding as a reply.

"Yeah, it is! Yosh... I'll start now. [Provoke]!" Kaede initiated the fight as her body released a circular light. The monsters in the vicinity got aggroed towards her and looked at her with red-eyes. She took within those goblins as the opponent, but as her skill had a big radius, it had attracted a larger crowd.

Although the number of goblins was eight, other monsters were neglected as she didn't care because even if she got attacked it wouldn't damage her.

"Let me buff you up!" It's true that he didn't choose the mage role just to be cool. He chose it because he wanted to complement both Kaede and Risa's build.

He can already see that the monsters don't damage or affect her in the slightest. He aimed his hand and used [ Fiery Aura ].

After seeing her status earlier, he decided that he will be the variable in the fights she will have. She can probably 'tank' everything and kill them, but it will be a slow process and he doesn't want her to experience a long gruesome grind.

But if they needed to improve their skill alone, he decided to just stick to being a support on the side and spectate the transgression of the fight while also buffing and supporting them.

The goblin slashed at Kaede using its rusty sword. But, even if Kaede had [ AGI 0 ], it's not like she cannot use the shield that was larger than the monster's attacks. After all, covering using her shield doubles her protection and block rate and adding the skills accompanied by that specific action.

"Take this~ [ Shield Attack ]!"

A *gachirin* sounded out as she stopped the furious goblin. It got knocked back while minor damage was done. It was a plain but courageous move, not until [ Fiery Aura ] ticked on the goblin, making it like the goblins around her were being roasted in fire, damaging them until she used her shield bash.

"Ohhh~! so this is your skill? Ahh! It looks like I just gained another skill after you cast your buff to me. He~he."

"Unya~ [ Shield Attack ]!"

He also used [ Fire Bullet ] on stray Flying Ladybug's and Giant Bees. It didn't take a long time before they wiped out the monsters.

Kaede clearing efficiency goes up to 500% as it made her happy before hugging Gram at her instinct albeit had a red-tint on her cheeks laterward.

[ Skill [ Mastery of Support I ] had been acquired. ]

"Oh cool! look I gained a skill too!" He whistled. It was a skill from the bulletin board that makes the used support skills or buffs to other players more powerful. Skills used will count to the targeted players buff while the EXP gets equally shared from both sides. The specific requirements was to use buffing skills to another player and they would easily get it.

[ Mastery of the Support I ]

Improve mastery over support skills, buffs, crowd-control and spells. The improved mastery will give additional perks to every used technique, thereby improving, damage, effectiveness and duration.

He easily understood that it's a skill that grows alongside the player. It seems to be a usual thing to suddenly gain a skill when a player uses their weapon continuously but he asked himself why he hasn't gained a specific mastery skill for his offensive spells yet. Maybe, it's because he just changed his main weapon?

"More damage reduction!!"

It seems she gained another skill that boosted her overpowered defense. Dealing with the monsters felt like a walk in a park afterward. Kaede will tank the monsters by using her [Provoke] while she bashed them using her shield and also having [Fiery Aura] around her had boosted so much of her damage making her satisfied. She really liked skills that had flashy antics and clearly wanted more so that she could show off, although she might get embarrassed afterwards.

If he wanted he could also add [ Light Barrier ] or [ Gravity Downforce ] on her but it seems that having the [ Fiery Aura ] was enough. It already made it easier for her to kill. It's unneeded to use his other skills because the majority of them could only be used in specific and complicated situations.

Like for example, when the enemy had wings. He aimed his hand towards Kaede and applied "[ Gravity Downforce ]!" to her as it's anchor.

[ Big Fly had been defeated. ]

Most flying monsters began feeling powerless, flying monsters were obnoxious to those that had low AGI. But clearly, these two unmoving players had been insta killing them without remorse, not affected by their ability to fly low.

Even though Kaede and Gram's [ Giant Killer ] passive don't work when partied up, her VIT was already so high that he felt normal monsters are inconsequential but they could just level up mastery for now so he didn't recommend going to another dungeon again.

Additionally, when he's added to the scene, it made it feel like they were both relatively close people because of how they supported each other with smiles on the face, making the scene both loving and apocalyptic.

It's around the latter hour that they started farming the monsters much aggressively. They already had decimated many large groups of monsters, seemingly to just increase mastery as a reason.

"Uwa~ My mastery skill grew up again! Though it didn't give me a level." Kaede sweeped her hand on her forehead as if removing some sweat due to their mass killing.

Gram rubbed Kaede's shoulders lightly. "Yosh! Let's keep this up~" He didn't use his single attack much since she won't be able to contribute if he killed all the monsters with one hit. He asked her to relax but feeling her determining expression he relented not before pinching her plump cheeks.

Also, since he asked her to level her mastery skill, it seems she was really determined to level it up higher.

Kaede only used her basic [Shield Attack], but they could be crushed easily as the example goblin had barely even held out before vanishing after her attack. As during that, she gained another skill that made him a little curious.

"What is this [ Abominable ] Skill you have?" He asked.

Kaede looked at the floating panel and said lively, "It says when I received attacks from opponents, it raises my VIT, it will activate every first battle and only 25 stacks are the limit per day~"

"Oh, stacking your defenses again. Well~ I had a skill a little similar to yours. It's called [ Spell Overkill ]. It raises my spell power when I cast my skills consecutively. I guess it's pretty normal to gain skills like that."

Kaede said in agitated excitement, "I'm so happy that I gained it! The better my defense, I won't feel hurt by anything in the future!"

"That's because you kept letting them attack you." Kaede though, had been trying to dodge as what he recommended, maybe it's the reason while she gained the skill.

Gram chuckled as Kaede pouted while looking at him cutely. Even if some lesser monsters were currently attacking her, it made it just much more shocking to others if they saw it.

"That's because you don't help much."

"I want you to get all the majority of the experience. Although, it made you look berserker. It seems Risa's predictions are right! Ha~ha!"

"Berserker?! I don't look like that mou~!" Kaede finished the monsters around her before approaching him with a pout on one of her cheeks.

"Well, it's good to practice your skill with these monsters. They can't even hurt you and increasing skill mastery level is better than leveling for now. We could just head towards a dungeon after this, we still had time before the event started so it's not that detrimental." He approached and caressed her hair, effectively making her like a docile pauper while she nodded subconsciously.

They continued their monster spree, he started using [ Gravity Downforce ] on her. Although, a higher leveled monster that had better magic resistance was able to reduce the pressure, while flying monsters were always the most affected one making them unable to help pressuring the two 'monsters'.

He could increase the [ Gravity Downforce ] effectiveness but he didn't use excess MP because it might stop them from doing basic attacks as he still needed the monsters to attack Kaede with light batters of [ - 0 HP ].

They reached some kind of spawning place that he had overlooked from before but with him occasionally using [ Perception ], he found the place a nice spot. They saw a massive congregation of flying monsters. It might be a segmented forest spawn area specifically for the 'Explosion Ladybugs' they had been fighting earlier, a perfect place to start a massive hunting and with that in mind they approached it determinedly.

[ Explosion Ladybug Lv: 16 ]

The Explosion Ladybug, as its name says, an insect that explodes upon close contact to players. It's size is similar to a bowling ball making them a little fearsome with the exception of the two players currently observing the Explosive Ladybugs.

While the experience gained from them is terrible but they did spawn in tandem, they already killed so many earlier that he could hardly look at the log. Kaede didn't even have to do anything since they would try to approach her and sacrifice their lives only to deal no damage, which they couldn't understand.

As Kaede approached, she used [Provoke] to call the ladybugs. But reaching the [ Gravity Downforce ] area of effect, they immediately fell flat. There were so many ladybugs that flew, but as an immediate response, she took out her sub weapon.

Kaede's sub weapon is called [ New Moon ] a short dagger with a sheath. It had a unique aura while maintaining a similar characteristics of her other gears.

"[ Paralyze Shout ]!" Although it's called a 'shout' it was silent and with clear sound of *Kin* echoed, the Explosive Ladybugs that had fallen flat on the ground had been supplemented by an extra status debuff.

"Kaede, you gained the skill from the Hydra, right?"

"Un! I infused it with [ New Moon ] because I don't have enough MP to use it. I can only use it a few times, but I think it's enough." Kaede wasn't bothered by her limited usage of the skills, the skill she imported to the sword had all a large area of radius. At least she understood that, the skill is afterall, an amalgamation of opness. [ Poison Hydra ] had many iterations like [ Earth Wyvern ] he acquired and she just used one of them, a AoE, a variation skill that could [ Paralyze ] monsters in range.

On the other hand, Kaede hasn't tried the other iterations it had. She's really excited about being able to use it.

All players can use a trigger to use their skills, unlike him who doesn't like shouting or saying the skill out loud, everyone always does. There wasn't any reason other than thinking it's cool to do so, a rather glorious thing to do in VR games, that's why she started liking this game, because it had so much freedom, that she's literally breaking the rules of the game.

Kaede grinned at him happily, "It's so cool, right?! It even had that *kiiin* sound~! Aren't you going to ask me why I did so?"

She approached him wanting to get praised, he smiled wryly and approached before patting her head that made her fluttery and contended.

"I do know what you're planning but aren't they a little weird looking?..." He oddly looked at the monsters littered around.

The Explosive Ladybugs were on the ground paralyze while already content with their miserable lives. They couldn't think of another way other than to target the two player's that had come towards their aggression range.

Kaede put aside her big shield and squatted. She picked up one of the stunned Explosive Ladybug, it currently still had many HP left.

"Oi... Oi! What are you doing? You're not really planning to do tha-."

Kaede looked at him before raising the bug towards him with a smile. It seems like she really planned to eat it.

"We have to eat this…. It's just a ladybug, but it had an interesting type of attack. Maybe it will taste better than that hydra~"

Kaede looked and patted the ground beside her, she then, picked another Explosive Ladybug occupying both her hands.

Gram approached and sat beside her, "A ladybug, you say, but it had explosives in its name. Are you sure it'll be okay? You understand what I mean right?"

Kaede just waved her head nonchalantly as she passed the other one to him. He might not have enough VIT for this, and so he might have to use [ Power Augmentation ] to enhance his VIT again.

"It's okay, it's okay." She brushed past his shoulders and patted it, claiming it to be a good thing to do.

Gram knew he would ultimately benefit from this, due to his newly gained skill [ Magic Devourer ] As any monsters that had mana could be eaten to enhance his INT or even gain skills occasionally. He just didn't know if there would be some kind of debuff if they ate the monster paralyze at his hand. After all, with it's weird looking body and it's smooth carapace didn't really give him the cravings to do so.

"Ohh!… it's like the candy that cracks and pops! You know its name... ugh... Why are you glowing red?"

In the end, he used [ Power Augmentation] and enhanced his VIT for an hour. Luckily it's been more than four hour since he finished the dungeon. He didn't even hesitate to use it now, rather, he just wanted to be prepared, although, ultimately because he couldn't think of a spell that can help him in this situation.

Kaede, who had been curious, nibbled the Explosive Ladybug while listening to his preparatory explanation.

[ Status, [ Poisoned ] for 10 seconds, losing 5 HP per second. ]

[ -0 HP ] Gram nodded when he saw his BP or LBP points didn't go down, it seems debuff like this doesn't affect the barrier unless that it's an attack from an external place.

"Pew~ I was right…Hey! Aren't you disgusted? But… Well, I can't say much but this does taste rather unique so much better than that dirty meat of the Earth Wyvern."

"RIght? That's the best thing! We even gain skill at it, we just have to eat many of them for some time." Kaede showed a rather cute smile as she finished the first one before she quickly got another stunned critter.

*Munch*

*Munch*

[ Status, [ Poisoned ] for 10 seconds, losing 5 HP per second. ]

[ Skill [ Poison Resistance (Medium) ] had evolved to [ Poison Resistance (Large) ] ] ( Requirements to gain: Receive strong poison 250 times. )

*Nom.. nom* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Nom.. nom* *Crunch* *Crunch*

It's not like Kaede had not thought about anything since she's doing this. She wanted to prove that she was right about this, that eating monsters will give them more than benefit than doubting.

Since similarly, she gained a skill from the Poison Hydra and will other monsters work, surely? Although, they had only tried now because he thought they didn't look good. He just acceded when she's the one that recommended this time.

"Maybe, the developers purposely added this feature.. everyone will get stronger if they just eat right?"

"Eh? Your right! But I think they had to have a good amount of resistance to do so. We just have to keep it a secret. He~he...|"

After some time they saw some pop-ups and stopped eating after eating each around fifty paralyzed Explosive Ladybugs. Their purpose in life is to detonate, not to get eaten without consent.

Gram and Kaede happily looked at each other while they surveyed the skills they had gained.

[ Skill [ Bizarre Eater ] had been acquired. ] ( Requirements to gain: Defeat Explosive Ladybug with HP drain. Armada's Station Quest Reward. Had Alien Scouter Sevastopol 'Friendship' status… etc )

[ Skill [ Explosion Manipulation ] had been acquired, Spell [ Explosion Ball ] had been acquired. ] ( Requirements to gain: Defeat Explosive Ladybug with HP drain. Arch Wizard Megumin's favor. Crimson Demon Clan Quest Reward… etc )

[ Mana Devourer ] [ 50 Explosive Ladybug had been devoured. [ INT: 5 ] status point had been acquired. No skill had been acquired. ]

Gram looked at her and said, "What did you gain?"

Kaede replied, "It's [ Bizarre Eater ] and [ Explosion Resistance ], yours?" Different from what he got, it seems that skills gained by every player are different.

Gram told and explained his gain skills to her. Although, she didn't really care about the descriptions and just wanted him to talk longer.

Kaede pouted cutely and said, "You gained three skills and some status point? Muhuu~ you're so lucky…"

"Well~, the extra skill I got is [ Poison Resistance (Large)], your immunity is a lot better. I'll help you gain many status points in the future." Gram rubbed her head before softly pinching her sulking cheeks.

"Hmm~"

Gram cuddled with Kaede while he checked the skills he gained. Kaede who had been pampered almost fell asleep in his care, she always loves idling like this.

[ Bizarre Eater ]

The skill that changes everything devoured as power. Will devour anything and convert it to a temporary MP or attack/magical power doubling the user's. When the magic powers get devoured, it will get stored inside the body as a magic crystal and could be used afterwards.

[ Explosion Manipulation ]

Ability to manipulate mana to create and shape explosions, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner. Additional MP to the sub-set spell will make the sub-set spell deal more damage.

Spells:

Explosion Force - 250 MP

[ Explosion Force ]

Instantiate a combustion of energy on the target's position, explode the area after two seconds of casting. Use 250 MP to cast. 2 minutes cooldown.

Sensing him finished contemplating, she returned to her bubble self, "This [ Bizarre Eater ] seems to be a satisfying gain right?!! Ha〜 This is the reason why eating them, you gain skills while you could try exotic taste... Huhun~n, my idea works!"

"Yeah, yeah... You're awesome." He squished her cheeks softly, like a pliant slime, although she began to sulk because of something. Afterwards, just cuddled and petted her head again while she leaned her body on him.

Kaede now seems content as she had read the description of [ Bizarre Eater ] and felt it would be strong when she tried it out. Though, she still seems dissatisfied with the other skill she gets, it was clear that her main purpose is to get a skill used by itself, explosion type ability which really interests and fascinates. (AN: She's an incarnation of megumin albeit more lovely and clearly better than the latter. XD)

"But, I'm jealous you got that [ Explosion Ball ] skill, I want to get one like that, but I got a different one. Ha~h."

Kaede pouted cutely again, although he can't do anything about it though. He gained the skill mainly because of his INT specialization while she hers mainly focused on her VIT that was why she got explosion related defense skill.

"Why not eat another batch of 50 again? Or we can just find another monster with a similar type."

"Eh?! Hmm~m. Looking for another might work... Un~un let's do it! First, we have to search for one though. It'll be hard to look for one if we don't have any information."

"Just think about it later…"

They had gained a powerful skill which was [ Bizarre Eater ]. She readily infused it with her shield named [ Mirror of the Dark Night ], it seems to change the ability differently. Rather, she could use the skill to double her current defense. Although, she probably will only use the latter ability that which could temporarily give her a large amount of MP.

"It would change to magic crystals and I can release big magic with my [ New Moon ]! Fuhe~he… It would be so cool!" Kaede drew out her sub weapon [ New Moon ], thrust it at the virtual sky while she leaned against him.

It seems she was preparing her image training for the coming display. He imagined her using her skills on the coming event which might shock many people.

Currently, it's already night-time on the fourth day in the game. So he settled for waiting for some time. Since the day and night here is accelerated, they could wait it out while lazing around. It would still count as sleeping if they sleep here. It was just like what Kaede did when she started out, although she accidentally gained [ Absolute Defense ] that currently made her so overpowered right now.

"We just had to continue leveling before the event started, right? Yosh, it's time to get more focused, but let's laze here for now."

"Hai~~!"

Who knows what will become their first event. It should be an explosive one. He looked at his stats for the meantime.

Knox

Lv: 20

HP: 225/225 ( BP: 100/100 ) ( LBP: 1000/1000 )

MP: 445/445

[ STR: 10〈＋10〉]

[ VIT: 195〈＋10〉]

[ AGI: 0 ]

[ DEX: 0 ]

[ INT: 390〈＋50〉〈＋5〉] (AN: +50 is from his armor, the +5 is the devoured INT.)

Equipment:

Head [ーーー]

Body [ Timeworn Armor of the Shadows ]

Right hand [ Mirror of Oblivion ]

Left Hand [ Mystic Storm Gloves [ Skill: Earth Wyvern ] ]

Legs [ Timeworn Armor of the Shadows ]

Shoes [ Timeworn Armor of the Shadows ]

Accessories [ Ring of Forgotten Knight ]

[ーーー]

[ーーー]

Skill:

Transcendental Meditation ] [ Perception ] [ Sensory Enhancement ] [ Mana Sensing ] [ Nature Gift ] [ Spell Creation ] [ Fire Manipulation ] [ Gravity Manipulation ] [ Spell Overkill ] [ Giant Killer ] [ Poison Resistance ( Large ) ] [ Enchantment ] [ Wind Manipulation ] [ Light Manipulation ] [ Earth Wyvern Eater ] [ Magic Devourer ]

[ Gold: 3671 ]

Low HP Potion x 4