Level Eater

Chapter 12: Monster Pack

"Good night, Tatsuro." (Ai)

"Night." (Tatsuro)

Exchanging their good nights, Ai finally went to bed. It took her a few minutes of rolling around before she could finally sleep.

After ensuring that she was fully asleep, Tatsuro once again used [Life Magic] on her. As he did so, he caught the scent of Ai's sweat lingering in the air, sending him into a fluster. In an attempt to drive away the shameful thoughts building up in his mind, Tatsuro sat down cross-legged and tried to fall into meditation.

An hour passed by.

As though waiting for the right timing, his [Mana Regeneration] skill leveled up. A few minutes later, so did his [Focus] skill. Joyful about this achievement, he snapped out of his meditation and wanted to try out some new techniques but at that exact moment, he heard a rustling sound from the bushes.

(Hmm? Is something in there?)

Laying his body down, he hid behind the cover of the wall. From a peephole in the said wall, he looked out to get a grasp of the situation. What entered his eyes were 6 four-legged beasts, visible under the moonlit night.

(Those are, wolves Well, it seems like wolves with cat-like heads. From the ones I saw, the biggest should be around 150 cm tall, I think.)

As Tatsuro continued to observe their movements, the wolves moved towards the river. When the pack was about 6 meters away from the boulder the two were resting at, they started looking around restlessly before drinking from the river.

(They came here for a drink? If that's all, then I wish they'd leave soon but If they find us, it's gonna be a big trouble for us. Let's just take their levels for now.)

Tatsuro activated [Level Eater].

To camouflage the sound of him blowing the sphere away from his mouth, Tatsuro waited until the first wolf, which seemed to be the leader, started drinking, after which, the others started cleaning themselves, waiting for it to finish.

Level: 12

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 5], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 5], [Sprint Lv 5]

[Leadership Lv 3], [Sonic Wave Lv 3], [Scratch Lv 4]

(Wow The levels are high. As expected of the leader.)

Level: 1

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 0], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 0], [Sprint Lv 0]

[Leadership Lv 0], [Sonic Wave Lv 0], [Scratch Lv 0]

After the levels were absorbed into the sphere, Tatsuro quickly gulped it down and used [Level Eater] again on the second-largest wolf.

Level: 8

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 4], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 3], [Sprint Lv 3]

[Leadership Lv 1], [Sonic Wave Lv 1], [Scratch Lv 4]

(The first one was a bit more generous, but beggars can't be choosers. Thank you for the meal!)

Level: 1

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 0], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 0], [Sprint Lv 0]

[Leadership Lv 0], [Sonic Wave Lv 0], [Scratch Lv 0]

(4 left to go!)

Without delay, Tatsuro gulped down the wolves' levels.

Level: 5

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 2], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 2], [Scratch Lv 1]

Level: 6

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 2], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 2], [Scratch Lv 1]

It was at this moment when he was going for the fifth wolf's levels;

Level: 2

Skill(s): [Bite Lv 1], [Enhanced Olfactory Perception Lv 1]

That the other wolves started attacking the leader. Naturally, it tried to retaliate to save itself but it could no longer activate its skills properly. Seizing the opportunity, the others went for its neck and bit into its throat with practically no resistance, causing the leader wolf to die.

(Did it lose control of the pack because it lost its [Leadership] skill?)

The second wolf immediately tried to assert its dominance over the pack. However, just like the first wolf, it had already lost all its skills and quickly met the same fate as the previous leader. Without anyone in command, the other 4 quickly got into an internal strife.

After the bloodbath, the only two wolves who survived were the ones that had their levels and skills intact. Circling around each other, they stared warily at the opposite party.

(Who would have thought that it would end like this? I know it's my fault but the scent of blood will draw in more and more monsters Let's just do this.)

Coming to a decision, Tatsuro started gathering mana at his palms. While doing so, he slowly stood up, so as to not alert the wolves. When he was fully upright, the two wolves turned their heads towards him, as if they knew that he was there the entire time.

Upon seeing a common enemy, the two came to a truce and slowly approached Tatsuro.

Tatsuro was thankful for this. If he were to release his magic now, it would be weaker as it had to traverse some distance. In addition, he wasn't sure if the wolves would run away after seeing his magic.

(Wait Just a bit closer)

Tatsuro was diligently measuring the distance between them. Once they entered within 3 meters, he released the mana that he had gathered on both of his palms.

(FIRE!)

Shouting that out in his mind, his hands locked onto their targets, releasing a fierce, black flame pillar that easily devoured its prey.

Grilled by the extreme temperature of the flames, the wolves died without the chance to even make a sound. Using the same magic formed by compounding the Fire and Darkness attribute, Tatsuro disposed of the other corpses as well.

|You have leveled up to Lv 14.|

"WHOAAAAA!" (Tatsuro)

(From 3 to 14 in one go. I know [Level Eater] gets me a ton of exp but Do level-ups only work when I defeat an enemy or something?)

(T/N: exp = experience gotten from defeated monsters, I will be leaving it as exp from now on)

Just in case, he checked his surroundings for any more signs of monsters, but there were none. Not a single sound could be heard from the perimeter.

Feeling relieved, Tatsuro sat down and opened up his system. With such a massive jump in level, he was going to scrutinize every single change in his stats. When he finally took a look at it

Name: Tatsuro Hasami

Class: Light Magician

Level: 14

Ki: 21

Mana: 222

Strength: 32

Durability: 32

Agility: 27

Magic: 130

Magic Resistance: 128

Mana Control: 130

|Acquired Skills|

[Level Eater], [Light Magic Lv 1], [Dark Magic Lv 1]

[Fire Magic Lv 5], [Water Magic Lv 1], [Life Magic Lv 1]

[Earth Magic Lv 1], [Mana Purification Lv 1] [Mana Regeneration Lv 2]

[Focus Lv 3]

|System skills|

[Map]

Skill Points: 183

|Titles|

None

(Mana control increased the most, huh? Does the stat increase every time I use magic? Next, I gathered a lot of SP from those wolf-like things. I really should think about what I want to do with the points.)

Afterward, he thought about his next step in magic and tomorrow's plans before idly passing the time. Then came the time for the two to switch duties once again.

"Goad mohning, Tatsuro." (Ai)

"Good morning. It's time to switch, is it alright?" (Tatsuro)

"Yeah, I'm up, I'm up. Hmm N? Why does it smell like something's burning?" (Ai)

"Oh, while I was on watch, I fried a few wild monster-like animals." (Tatsuro)

"Did you eat them?" (Ai)

"Don't even speak about it It's just, I don't want the more violent bunch to come here so I tried to finish the fight as soon as I can." (Tatsuro)

"Haaaa I knew it. The creepy crawlies always come out in the middle of the night." (Ai)

"Well, we're in a giant forest after all so it's natural to expect there'd be a bunch of animals and insects here." (Tatsuro)

While saying that, Tatsuro spreads his arms out while looking at the forest, as if telling it to do its best and that he can take it all on.

"I want to sleep in a proper bed soon" (Ai)

"Same" (Tatsuro)

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