Legend

After absorbing the Bloodydile magic stone, Rei decided to test the newly acquired Pain Burst skill against the next monster he came across……the next non undead monster which had a sense of pain that is, and moved on to the next magic stone.

「First of all, the Desert Lizardmen.」

Since Set had already absorbed a Desert Lizardman’s magic stone, raising the level of Wind Arrow, the remaining magic stone was naturally for the Death Scythe to absorb.

「Guru~!」

I learned a skill myself today, so it’s fine! Set seemed to say with a cry as Rei tossed the magic stone into the air before striking it with the Death Scythe, however……

The magic stone disappeared like mist but there was no announcement in his mind.

「Tch.」

「Even if you absorb a magic stone, you’re not guaranteed to acquire a skill, you knew that already, right? Besides, you were able to learn a new skill from the Bloodydile magic stone, so no need to be too depressed about it.」

Seeing Rei click his tongue involuntarily, it seemed Elena had guessed what the result was. She gently placed her hand on his shoulder to encourage him.

Rei calmed down at Elena’s words, but his irritation turned to bitterness as he replied.

「It’s true that I was able to learn a new skill from the Bloodydile’s magic stone, but the effect of Pain Burst is still unclear. ……It doesn’t even make sense why a Bloodydile would give a skill called Pain Burst in the first place.」

「Well, you basically can only learn skills that inherit the characteristics of the monster the magic stone came from, right? If so, then perhaps Bloodydiles really do have a similar trait.」

The Bloodydile magic stones were all obtained from the Bloodydiles the Earth Crab had nearly killed. Luckily, when they had fought underwater, some Bloodydiles ended up being launched out of the water while still alive, allowing Rei and Elena to give the final blow.

In other words, without actually fighting a Bloodydile, the only information Rei had about them was what he had heard from other people.

Another alternative was drawing from the knowledge he had of crocodiles back in Japan.

「Well, it’s fine. Any way, what’s next. All that’s left are the Earth Crab and Spiral Rabbit magic stones……which do you want?」

「Guru~」

In response to Rei’s question, Set chose the Earth Crab’s magic stone without hesitation.

Rei paused for a moment before nodding and throwing the magic stone to Set.

「Gurururu~!」

Set caught the magic stone and swallowed it.

【Set has acquired the skill 『Bubble Breath Lv.1』】

An announcement message echoed in his mind.

However, unlike Pain Burst, Rei was immediately able to tell what skill it was.

After all, the Earth Crab had used it when fighting against them.

The skill would expel countless soap like bubbles that, when popped, would turn into a highly viscous liquid that would hinder movement.

In some ways, it was even flashier than using Fire Breath and was something that Rei would hesitate to use in public.

That said, the effect was extremely versatile. The effect itself was also quite useful, with regards to slowing or stopping an enemy from moving.

After Rei explained it to Elena, she recalled the Bubble Breath used by the Earth Crab and stroked Set’s head with a satisfied expression.

「Kyukyu!」

Yellow probably didn’t understand what kind of skill Bubble Breath was, but seeing Elena and the other looking happy, he also let out a happy cry as he flapped his wings in the air.

「Set, for now……try using Bubble Breath on that wall.」

「Guru~. ……Gurururu~!」

After giving a slight nod at Rei’s words, Set opened his mouth wide and activated Bubble Breath.

Small bubbles, around 1cm in diameter, came out from Set’s mouth. As countless numbers of them hit the wall, they clung to the surface like burst chewing gum.

The bubbles that came from Set’s mouth were considerably small than those that came from the Earth Crab. Rei also felt that the adhesive strength was reduced proportionally to the size of the bubbles and was much less than compared to the ones produced by the Earth Crab.

(It can’t be helped considering the characteristics of the Magic Beast Art. In the end, I have no choice but to absorb the magic stones of monsters with similar attack methods. Besides, Bubble Breath is still a useful skill as is.

「I see, it definitely is the same as what the Earth Crab used. ……It loses out in terms of range, bubble size, and adhesiveness though.」

Elena seemed to come to the same conclusion as Rei and stroked Set’s head to praise him as she spoke.

After a few minutes, Elena eventually turned to Rei. Or rather, to the last magic stone Rei had.

「The last one, huh? I wonder what will happen?」

Rei murmured as he held the Spiral Rabbit magic stone in his hand.

Looking over at Set, Set gave slight nod and a cry. Turning to Elena, she also gave a slight nod.

Yellow sat on Elena’s left shoulder, wiggling his tail as he gave a cry.

「Alright then, this is the last one.」

Saying that, Rei threw the magic stone into the air before striking it with the Death Scythe.

As before, the magic stone disappeared like mist.

【The Death Scythe has acquired the skill 『Penetrate Lv.1』】

Yes, an announcement echoed in his mind.

「……Seriously, another skill with a name that is hard to decipher……」

Just like Pain Burst, the skill’s effect wasn’t immediately clear, so Rei couldn’t help but click his tongue.

「Looks like you learnt a skill.」

「Yeah. The skill is called Penetrate. Well, for now, let’s test it.」

After replying to Elena, Rei moved a short distance away from Elena, Set, and Yellow before shouting as he held the Death Scythe.

「Penetrate!」

The moment he activated the skill, Rei felt a faint wind blow around the Death Scythe.

Judging that the skill effect was active, he swung the Death Scythe’s blade down towards an empty space.

However……

「What, nothing happened?」

Yes, the attack was definitely sharp enough that it seemed to tear through space itself, but that was what usually happened when Rei swung the Death Scythe. Normally, it would be strange enough if a skill didn’t do much, but this time it didn’t seem to do anything at all.

「What’s going on?」

Rei could still feel the wind flowing around the Death Scythe, so the skill was definitely still active. He tilted his head in confusion before swinging the Death Scythe again.

Once, twice, three times. None of the attacks showed any additional effect. Eventually, the wind flowing around the Death Scythe faded.

「……Does the skill just wrap the Death Scythe in wind, or something like that?」

That’s a completely useless skill. Just as Rei was about to say that, Elena, who had been watching from the side, called out to Rei.

「Rei, the Magic Beast Art absorbs skills with similar characteristics to the monster’s methods of attack, right?」

「Hm? Yeah. That’s right……oh, I see.」

Elena’s words reminded him of how the Spiral Rabbit attacked.

That is, an attack with its drill like horn that was powerful enough to pierce tree trunks.

Certainly, considering that, he should have been able to predict the effect of Penetrate.

Activating the skill again, Rei switched the way he held the Death Scythe to one closer to a spear.

「Penetrate!」

Along with those words, he thrust out the Death Scythe like a spear. He felt the wind flowing around the Death Scythe just like before……piercing through the air as he stabbed out.

He didn’t know how powerful the attack was, but the skill had definitely activated successfully.

「Is it only triggered by stabbing out with the shaft? ……I’ll have to wait until I meet an enemy in order to see how powerful it is.」

「Guru~, Gurururu~」

Seeing Rei successfully activate the skill, Set gave a cry as he rubbed his body against Rei to congratulate him.

The sight of Set enjoying Rei’s happiness as if it were his own was heart warming to see. ……That is, if they weren’t currently inside a dungeon floor filled with undead.

「Hey, Rei, Set as well. Let’s get moving. You’ve finished absorbing magic stones, so I want to leave this floor as quickly as possible. Having a small room like this is convenient……but, it’s not a place I’d want to spend a lot of time in.」

Hearing Elena’s words, they all nodded before immediately resuming their dungeon exploration.

Returning to the fork in the path earlier, the headed to the rright, where the stairs leading to the next floor down were. Continuing straight ahead, they arrived at the place where they had fought an abnormal species previously. The path split into three passages at a small open space.

「Last time, Tivia and the others escaped here while fighting off the abnormal species Skeleton.」

Rei turned his gaze to the right as he muttered.

「Yeah. ……By the way, you asked them to help out with stripping materials yesterday, how did that go?」

「They did a good job of keeping the other adventurers in line. It seemed like they were used to being in charge.」

「Oh really? That’s……」

「Gururu~!」

As Elena was speaking, Set let out a warning cry.

Elena and Rei were surprised as they turned their eyes to the right passage, wondering what was going on, before a light click clack sound started to be heard.

「Hey, hey, it isn’t another abnormal species Skeleton, is it?」

Rei frowned in disgust as he readied his Death Scythe. Next to him, Elena and Set also prepared for battle.

In Yellow’s case, he just flew up higher to avoid interfering with the battle.

As expected from the sound of their footsteps, Skeletons appeared before the battle ready party.

There were just three of them. Rei gave a sigh of relief when he saw that there wasn’t another abnormal species.

「Phew, ordinary Skeletons? That’s a surprise. ……But, well, it’s not bad as an opponent to test your skills on, right Set?」

「Gururururu~!」

Understanding Rei’s words, Set opened his beak and spat out countless bubbles as he used Bubble Breath.

At first glance, the bubbles seemed like soap bubbles as they flew out and hit the Skeletons that were trying to approach them. However, they immediately showed their effect as they exploded.

Turning into a sticky adhesive as they hit the ground and bones……they caused them to stick together, halting the Skeletons on the spot.

Rei and the others had their eyes go wide at the great effect as the Skeletons were glued to the stone floor, but it was only for a moment.

As the Skeletons flailed about, the adhesive from the Bubble Breath gradually became less sticky.

「Guru~……」

Set gave a cry when he saw that and Rei gently stroked his head.

「Don’t worry about it, this is level 1. If you level up some more, it will become stickier and more useful.」

「Gururu~!」

I’ll do my best Rei, I promise! Set seemed to say with a cry.

Rei lightly stroked Set’s head before turning to face the Skeletons, who were struggling to regain their movement, with Death Scythe in hand.

The Skeletons’ actions gradually diminished the effect of the stick adhesive produced by Bubble Breath.

(That said, even if it can’t hold down a Skeleton sized monster for more than a minute, they are still stuck for now……that’s more than enough to be useful!)

Thinking to himself, Rei switched the way he held the Death Scythe.

Instead of pointing the large blade forward, he pointed the shaft towards a Skeleton who’s movements were still tied down.

「Now then, after Bubble Breath, it’s time to test my new skill!」

With those words, Rei dashed forward as he held the Death Scythe like a spear.

「Penetrate!」

He activated the skill.

As he felt the wind wrap around the Death Scythe, Rei thrust out in a straight line.

The moment the shaft hit the Skeleton’s side, the wind around the shaft released its power, impaling the Skeleton and destroying its magic stone, along with its rib bones.

Feeling that the wind around the Death Scythe had faded, Rei slashed the Skeleton before retracting the Death Scythe and swinging the blade out again, blasting away the two remaining Skeletons along with their magic stones.

「It seems the power of the thrust was increased considerably, but in the end, it was only a Skeleton. If possible, I’d like to test it on a stronger monster.」

Rei let out a dissatisfied sigh as he muttered those words.

************************************************

【Set】

『Water Ball Lv.3』 『Fire Breath Lv.3』 『Wind Arrow Lv.2』 『King’s Awe Lv.1』 『Poison Claw Lv.4』 『Size Transformation Lv.1』 『Tornado Lv.1』 『Ice Arrow Lv.1』 『Optical Camouflage Lv.2』 『Evil Eye Impact Lv.1』 『Power Crush Lv.1』『Sense Enhancement – Smell　Lv.1』 『Bubble Breath Lv.1』new

【Death Scythe】

『Corrosion　Lv.3』 『Flying Slash Lv.3』 『Magic Shield Lv.1』 『Power Slash Lv.2』 『Wind Hand Lv.3』 『Terrain Manipulation Lv.1』『Pain Burst　Lv.1』 『Penetrate Lv.1』new

Bubble Breath: Breath attack that releases countless bubbles. Bubbles are 1-3cm in diameter. When they hit a target, they burst and turn into a stick liquid that restricts the enemy’s movements.

Penetrate: Wraps the Death Scythe in wind and increases the attack power of thrusts. However, in order to activate the effect, the thrust has to use the Death Scythe’s shaft.