Fifth day.
It was weird to sleep right next to a stranger, especially a girl. But leaving that aside, my morning started by explaining my plan to Natsuna, whether we should go north, west, east or south. Though, it was up to her to join me or not, at the very least she had a way to defend herself.
"Hm~ then why don't we just move diagonally?" Said Natsuna nonchalantly.
But that was a brilliant idea, I wondered why I couldn't think such a simple answer, maybe I was overcomplicating it. Anyhow considering the rule of Pythagoras we might take a longer time, but it reduced the chance of choosing the wrong side.
After spending some time, doing a consultation with her. We decided it would be best to go to the northeast.
I walked in the front, the monstrous dog was on my side, and Natsuna was walking behind me, silently grabbing my clothes. When I asked why she didn't walk using her cane, she only answered it was faster to let me guide her.
We walked with a burning wind swept through the savanna, crawling on our back. Even the simple wind was unpleasant and caused a warm sweat falling from our forehead. Total desolation.
I saw many slimes, goats, rabbit with spiral horn and a tall bird, mainly of a pair of legs that merged with a round, feathery body and long skinny head.
For our lunch I captured some of the slimes and this time I had a better control of my strength, the number of accidental slimes that I killed was 4 and I managed to capture 2. Meanwhile, seemed like her dog managed to capture one horned rabbit.
And it seemed the dog could eat, but it wasn't a necessity. Anyway, I used butcher to skin the rabbit, keeping the horn, thinking maybe I could use it as a weapon and making a small fire with abracadabra.
Though, maybe I should keep a record of my magic usage, anyway right now I had 21 Magic while Natsuna had 28 Magic.
We finished our lunch just slightly before the sun was high and continued our way. But after seeing so many slimes and goats, suddenly I could not detect any breath of life with the exception of Natsuna's heavy breathing and her dog's naval sound. Most likely it was just that I could not tell if there really was no life, or if it was hiding somewhere. Whatever it was, it was not visible to my eye.
Why this kind of thought only crossed my mind after the fifth day?
Because I was watching the dog sniffing the ground, growled and barked. Even though I didn't see anything in the dog direction.
I squinted my eyes and I could see, in a particular spot, the grasses rustled in the wrong direction, fighting its way against the wind that was blowing behind us.
And then I saw round and small to me, and my body was fast enough to react and I tilted my head to the right, avoiding the small object.
"Ouch!" Natsuna shouted.
Right, I forgot she stood behind me, but as much as I worried about her, right now I saw the series of tall grasses rustling around, creating a sound as somethings were stepping on a bunch of plastic bags.
"Kiki!"
A dozen of high pitched laugh rung out, were they making themselves known now because a person appeared? Or did our human smell stir up their hunger so much that they let it slipped?
"We are surrounded, right?"
Surprisingly, Natsuna seemed calm. No, her face might seem calm but she tightly clenched my clothes as her left hand rubbing her forehead.
"Iddy, watch our back. Tsukasa, watch out for your right side." She said.
A second after she said that. A small and scrawny green humanoid with wide unbalanced head and long nose, a goblin charged with a rusty knife from our right side.
I shifted my body and did a low sweep right at its stomach, throwing its body a few meters away.
I wanted to ask how she could notice that but...
"Front." Said Natsuna with a calm tone.
Believing in her word, I turned to the front and did a football kick, but the goblin in front of me was jumping with a small rusty sword.
In an instant, I used my other foot to push my body and jump backwards, pushing Natsuna and forcing our way to the ground as I watched the goblin swing its sword.
Even though its body was small, not even reached one metre, it could jump and swing its sword in the mid-air huh.
Still watching the goblin, I rubbed my neck, checking if there was a wound, none. The sword was rusty, almost completely covered in a rust, even if it only grazed my neck or my body, I was sure it would be a fatal one.
Then I shuddered as I suddenly imagined what would happen if I leapt to the side or Natsuna wasn't telling me the danger.
"What happened?" Natsuna asked.
"Don't move from there!" I said. "Guidance."
With a strange warm feeling, I immediately stood and dashed into the goblin that jumped to me. And thanks to Guidance I kinda had this weird abstract feeling telling me where to attack and I sunken its long nose with another kick.
Once again the goblin body was flying away for a few metres, its hands were letting its rusty sword in the process.
But I couldn't one shot the goblin as it staggeringly stood, holding down its broken nose while glaring at me.
Not giving it any chance, I rushed once again and did another kick. This time, I could hear a cracking sound as the goblin's body flew upward and dropped to the ground, seemingly already dead.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
I needed to do a two kick to the goblin huh.
"Tsukasa! Your left." Natsuna spoke.
This time, before I turned my body I had a feeling I must do a punch rather than a kick. And I was right, just as I turned my body, I had this vague idea of where I should strike and at what timing.
"My left." Said Natsuna.
I turned my body, watching her dog, Iddy was biting another goblin, not the one on her left side. But I somewhat believed at her word, maybe it was her sixth sense or she used her skill, anyway I ran but the goblin already leaping out from the grasses, directing its almost naked body to Natsuna.
Using Flying Kick, I jumped low and my foot was snapping the goblin neck, bending it into a weird direction. This time it was a one hit ko.
Now I stood back on her side. Faithfully I followed each one of her direction. punching and kicking the goblins as I heard her dog, Iddy fought on our back.
After a ten or more goblin that I killed in roughly two minutes, I heard a bell. "Congratulations! You levelled up!"
Heh, what a coincidence, considering I didn't have any Magic left to cast Guidance.
With the refreshment bonus, I cast Guidance and Insight. The goblin had this kind of grey-ish aura, well... I guessed I should consider grey was something weaker than a purple.
And after another five or more goblins. I saw what left of the goblin, stopped charging at us.
"Kiii!!"
One goblin screeched and it and the rest of the goblins were running away.
It seemed the battle was over huh. And I didn't have a reason to chase after them and putting myself in a danger either.
"Tsukasa, are you okay?" Said Natsuna.
Me before her huh. Even though a blood was dripping from her left forehead.
But to my surprise, she really wasn't moving away from her current position, heck... she even still sat on the ground.
"Yeah, I'm completely fine, you?" I said as I squatted down, wanting to act romantic and wipe the blood on her forehead just like in the movie, but considering my hands were covered with the goblin greenish blood, no... I could use abracadabra to clean her forehead, but it wasn't like she couldn't wipe that by herself too, right?
She turned her face and simply nodded.
"Anyway... I levelled up, so... should I get a blessing magic?"
Since there wasn't a healing category, I just assumed blessing should have a healing magic but she shook her head as she wiped the wound while making a grunting sound and biting her lips.
"It's okay. This is only a small wound." She said.
I... I kinda relieved when she said that. Truthfully, this wasn't an emergency and I didn't want to waste a skill point in something that I didn't need... maybe that was the reason I asked for her confirmation, but damn... I'd just realized that I had this egoistic side from me.
Then again, even though she tried to make a poker face, I noticed she had this kind of sour expression.
Still... she did worry about me first.
I let out a very big long sigh, I didn't know why I did that.
Anyhow, healing was indeed a useful one, and I might be needed it a later time.
Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi: Movement 1, Unarmed 1, Blessing 0 → 1, Divination 1, Transmutation 1. Skill point 2 → 1.
"Hee..." There were a dozen blessing skills, enough to make me dizzy. But it seemed like blessing main property was buff magic, protection magic and healing magic.
Cure light wound: Lay your hand upon a living creature and channel positive energy that cures 6 damage coming from a small wound. Range: Touch. Cost: 5.
Might: Infuses the subject with a small surge of physical power, The target gets a +1 on a body and combat skill of your selection. Duration: 1 minute. Range: 10 meters. Cost: 7.
Selective Fortification: Grants a creature a 15 health protection from whichever one of the energy types you select. Duration: 10 minutes. Range: Touch. Cost: 7.
Featherbody: The target gets a +10 meters bonus on when doing a long jump or +5 meters when doing a high jump. Any fall damage no higher than 20 meters will be negated. Duration: 1 minute. Range: 25 meters. Cost: 5.
Just as I finished choosing the spell, I checked my status and my Magic regeneration went up by 1 while my Magic went up by 5. Then I called Natsuna.
"Hm~ Even though I told you not to do that." She said.
I clapped my hands while saying abracadabra and cleaning the blood from my hand and her forehead.
"Did you? I only remember you said it is a small wound." I said as my hand gently touched the wound on her forehead, transferring the golden-ish aura and slowly closing the wound and bruises on her head.
"Hm~ I guess so." She replied with closed eyes and a smiling face. "Hm~ this feels pretty good."
Did it? Her warm and satisfied expression kinda made me wanted to use it on myself. Then again, I didn't have any wound or injury.
Anyway, before I did this I asked her to open her status and I checked her lost health, and it was 2. It was a little bit unbalanced, right? Considering she had 18, and one small stone in her head dealt 2. Speaking of which, I didn't hear her used or said a skill but her Magic was reduced by 10.
I meant, if the number was correct, she would die if she took 9 hit in her head? as for me it would be 20 times?
But the wound wasn't that big and deep. Then again, I guessed punched a goblin and a goat to their death was a weird thing either.
Anyhow, even though her health already reached 18, it still took some amount of time to close the wound. After some seconds had passed since I used it, it the wound finally completely healed.
For the last skill point, after I spent some time thinking, with a consideration we did just fine when fighting against more or less twenty goblins and if it one orc I also could kill it by myself.
Hunting the slime and the food wasn't that hard either.
Anyhow, the skill that I wanted to take was culinary. Maybe I was acting like a spoiled brat, but I just hoped this skill would give me some kind of taste from my cooking.
After all, I guessed it was a human nature to search for something more whenever they were already satisfied by their current condition, right?
And I wasn't a great cook either. As for Natsuna... watching her burning the meat was making me shudder.
Just as I told her about my plan.
"Hm~ I don't mind eating your cooking though."
"Well, I mind it."
"Hm... then why are you asking me?" Said Natsuna as she tilted her head.
"Just in case so it doesn't get overlap."
"Hm~ don't worry. It won't happen, after all, Tsukasa is the one that picks it for me, right?" She said. "Then, I can't for tonight's dinner."
Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi: Movement 1, Unarmed 1, Blessing 1, Divination 1, Transmutation 1, Culinary 0 → 1. Skill point 1 → 0.
"Congratulations! You have learned Culinary Mastery Lvl 1, Recipe is unlocked,"
"Recipe?" Just when I muttered this, a new screen appeared right in front of my eyes.
It was a blank screen, there was no information written on it. And as the usual, it didn't give me any clue either.
"Erm... what?" I tilted my head as I confusedly watched the screen and seeing Iddy ate the goblin meat, but nothing happened either, and here I thought it would show me something if I look into a food material. Without any clue I decided to close it down.
Anyway, raising culinary gave me +1 to all of my health and its friends.
Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi.
Level 3.
Skill point: 0.
Health(regen per day): 41(16)
Magic(regen per day): 11/38(24)
Stamina(regen per hour): 34/51(18)