The Earth-san Has Leveled Up!

2-11. Resuming the Exploration

At 4 a.m., Meiko woke up groggily and, in the dim light of dawn, searched for the familiar sound of the newspaper delivery bike.

In Meiko’s area, the newspaper delivery comes around 4 a.m. every day, and hearing that sound makes her feel happy, knowing she can still sleep more. Although, recently, she’s been running in the morning as part of her training, so it’s hard to say she can sleep “a lot more.”

However, upon seeing the cute sleeping face of the blonde beauty emitting a pleasant scent in front of her, she remembers that this isn’t the place for such sounds.

From her sleepy brain, she pulls out the adventure book and presses the “start continuation” button.

As Meiko tries to sit up, she notices something strange with her body.

Uh, I can’t move! I’m restrained!

“Munya… Meiko-san, that’s not flounder, it’s tuna…”

“Nfufu! Even as a fillet, you can’t mistake it!”

Sasara, who had been using Meiko as a hugging pillow from behind while sleeping sideways.

Such Sasara was dissing Meiko in her dream.

It must be that the talk about flounder and sole got tangled up in that dream-specific way.

Meiko stifles a laugh while teasing her friend about her strange dream and struggles to wake Sasara up.

As Meiko wriggles her body like a tuna or flounder, Sasara finally wakes up.

“Fwa? The tuna has turned into Meiko-san.”

“You’re not awake…! Wake up! Everyone, wake up!”

At Meiko’s shout, Lulu in front of her reacts and opens her eyes drowsily.

However, with a “fueee”, she relaxes and hugs Meiko, falling back asleep.

Here, our shop’s proud morning sandwich.

“Really, really! You two are such bad morning people!?”

Finally having woken the two, Meiko puffs up in frustration.

Sasara, looking dejected, says,

“That’s not true. We were just so tired yesterday that we slept too deeply. Really?”

“I can understand that!”

She could understand.

“I had a fun dream, Master.”

Lulu is her usual self.

At this point, there’s no choice but to listen.

“What kind of dream?”

“A dream where the three of us went on an adventure. Nfufuu.”

“Then we have no choice but to forgive.”

Lulu says with a smile, her eyes still sleepy.

It seems she was adventuring even in her dream. Meiko felt happy that Lulu found it a fun dream and was laughing about it.

Completely disarmed, Meiko retracts her puffing mode.

“Well then, Sasara, Lulu, let’s do our best today!”

“Yes! Let’s do our best!”

“Nyau! Let’s ninja it up!”

Nodding in agreement at the two who are pumped up, Meiko turns her face to Sasara.

“That’s right. Sasara, how’s your leg?”

When asked, Sasara is startled.

It’s not a severe injury, but yesterday it was throbbing painfully enough to be concerning. However, from this morning until now, she had completely forgotten about it, as it didn’t hurt at all.

Rolling up the hem of her tracksuit, there’s only a slight trace of blood, and not even a scar remains.

“I see, [Auto Recovery – Tiny] must have worked.”

“It seems so.”

“That’s good, Shaara!”

It would have healed eventually, but the sooner, the better.

For Meiko and the others, it was the first injury they received in the dungeon, so although it wasn’t a serious wound, it was quite a significant event.

With it resolved like this, Meiko and Lulu feel relieved.

Breakfast is Calorie Friend Plain Flavor 25/25 and rabbit meat.

Even just candy can change dramatically, so if Calorie Friend is synthetically enhanced, it must have an absolutely dangerous performance. If you keep consuming it without exercising, it will surely lead to trouble. However, if you exercise a lot, it’s a very reliable ally.

While drinking their drinks, the three munch on Calorie Friend with rabbit meat as a side.

When Sasara asks Lulu what kind of adventure dream she had, a fluffy explanation begins, typical of the often incomprehensible fun in people’s dream stories.

Still, Sasara seems to find it interesting and listens eagerly.

Meiko wanted to ask about the flounder and tuna. However, Sasara probably doesn’t even remember having a dream.

And so, they started their exploration early in the morning.

The lantern’s light had already gone out, and instead, a slight mist had appeared.

They would have liked to stay at the inn a bit longer because of the mist, but with the time limit almost up, they had no choice but to go out.

There’s about 30 minutes left, but they left that as a contingency for evacuation. This way, they have the option to rush back to the inn.

Today’s exploration is planned to head towards the Checkered Doll.

They’ve mostly explored the first layer area and judged that there’s no return gate there.

The problem is still the Checkered Doll, but their clothes are almost maxed out, and Sasara and Lulu have also obtained jobs.

They want to believe they can win with this.

They’ll warm up their jobs in the first layer area until the mist settles a bit more.

Although the mist is light, they wanted to challenge the Checkered Doll in perfect condition.

Sasara entrusts herself to [Sword Techniques], practices swinging her pestle sword, and learns swordsmanship.

Lulu entrusts herself to [NINJA Techniques] and learns stylish attack techniques.

Martial Arts Techniques type skills don’t have the effect of making you a master immediately, but they guide you to the correct movements.

If you move slowly, you’ll make the correct movements; if you move fast, you’ll greatly deviate from the correct movements. By accumulating this practice, perhaps it will become martial arts usable in actual combat.

When they try warming up against a pestle rabbit, the moment the pestle is knocked away, Lulu closes in on the pestle rabbit and lands a continuous combo.

“How’s it going?”

“Feeling good! Especially Shashaa is fun!”

Shashaa must be high-speed movement.

This technique is different from the instant movement seen in anime, as Meiko’s eyes could still follow it.

However, if it were done suddenly, Meiko thought it would be difficult to respond.

The true nature of this technique is the top speed at the initial velocity.

When activated, the next movement can be performed at top speed from the start.

It’s a very convenient technique that can be used for both charging and evasion.

In addition to this.

“And [Agility Up – Small] is amazing. My body moves smoothly.”

Lulu, moving her long limbs dynamically, originally had ample potential as a speed type.

With the addition of skills, her speed increases even more.

[NINJA Technique]’s high-speed movement and this combination have very high compatibility.

If her physical abilities increase, it feels like it could become a technique akin to shrinking the ground.

Next, when Sasara also tries fighting, her slash sword is quite strong.

She had heard from the professor that the attack power is no different from a normal slash, but when used with the pestle sword, the flying slashes had a proper edge. Clearly, the lethality was higher.

The professor wouldn’t lie, so it’s probably a hidden technique exclusive to wooden swords.

It’s a very convenient technique, but Sasara only has 11 magic points, so she can only use it once. Martial arts techniques consume 8 magic points per use.

By the time they checked their condition and recovered the used magic points, the mist had cleared.

It’s time to set out.

Arriving at the place where they encountered the Checkered Doll yesterday, there stands the Checkered Doll, just like yesterday.

It’s a repop phenomenon. It seems that in dungeons, enemies frequently replenish.

Because of this phenomenon, the map Meiko gave to the Self-Defense Forces was incredibly useful. That map had the enemy locations marked.

And Sasara’s current map also has them marked. However, in this dungeon, since enemies move, it might not be as important.

They deal with the Checkered Doll they’ve encountered again using the strategy they discussed last night.

First and foremost, they drop their backpacks.

If they were to fight with backpacks weighed down by numerous pestle rabbits, they couldn’t go all out.

As Meiko drops the backpack she had slung over one shoulder, she prepares a water bullet in her magic book.

Yesterday, she was scared and shot water bullets from a distance, but this time she’ll draw it closer.

Close combat seems like it would be mentally exhausting, but the three judged that they couldn’t smartly defeat the Checkered Doll without doing this much.

The Checkered Doll, holding a sword, glides towards Meiko at eye level.

Its cheeks are puffy, and its mouth is small like a flower bud. However, the eyes under its bob-cut hair are bright red.

The expressionless face protruding forward in its flight method was terrifying.

The moment the distance between them closed to 3 meters.

“Nin nin!”

Lulu uses [Apprentice NINPO] to shoot water from the stone pavement with a “pyuu.”

The water spurting out right below the floating Checkered Doll catches it off guard, wetting its kimono.

The water art has no attack power, but the Checkered Doll stops moving for a moment.

In that instant, Meiko fires the water bullet.

The Checkered Doll shows signs of dodging, but distracted by the water art, its reaction is delayed.

The dodge isn’t in time, and the water bullet hits the Checkered Doll’s shoulder.

The floating Checkered Doll is pushed by the water bullet’s force, spinning strangely and getting knocked back in the air.

“Slash Sword!”

In the moment of hesitation, Sasara steps in and unleashes the Slash Sword. Perhaps from leveling up while walking around the mountains, her step-in is noticeably sharper than when they learned together in the open-air training class.

The Slash Sword is extremely fast, with the slash flying along the trajectory of the swung sword. This time, it’s a vertical slash.

The knocked-back Checkered Doll has no way to dodge this, and it gets sliced from the face to the torso.

However, it’s still alive.

“Nin nin!”

Lulu closes in on the consecutively knocked-back Checkered Doll with high-speed movement and slams the small sickle’s blade into its face.

The blade entering the temple greatly damages the Checkered Doll’s face as it’s swung out, and Lulu retreats from the spot without checking if it’s still alive.

Replacing Lulu, Sasara approaches and bashes the Checkered Doll with a diagonal slash from her pestle sword, breaking the hand holding the katana.

Meiko was ready to switch to a magic book attack or close combat at any moment, but fortunately, Sasara’s strike proved decisive, and the Checkered Doll disappears in a flash of light.

After defeating the Checkered Doll, they breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, they don’t let their guard down and remain vigilant of their surroundings.

“We managed, didn’t we?”

“For now, at least.”

Meiko nods at Sasara’s words.

Yes, for now.

This battle started with Lulu’s water art catching the Checkered Doll off guard, followed by a long-range combo to pile on damage, and ended with close combat to finish it off.

However, due to Sasara’s magic points, this combo can’t be used in consecutive battles.

Sasara currently has 11 magic points. The Slash Sword uses 8 per use.

Even assuming there are almost no consecutive battles, using it twice with natural recovery would almost deplete her magic.

The enemy has the eyes to dodge water bullets, and Lulu’s support is essential.

Furthermore, if they want to avoid close combat, Sasara’s Slash Sword is also essential.

Fighting an enemy with a blade in close combat is still scary.

Although their weapons are generally longer, if the enemy dodges and closes in, it would be troublesome.

But due to magic constraints, close combat is unavoidable.

Therefore, this battle had the aspect of getting used to the Checkered Doll’s movements.

That’s why the result of this battle is “for now.”

This time, the Checkered Doll dropped a broken katana blade.

This is quite a good item, so they’ll synthesize it into Lulu’s small sickle.

As expected from a strong enemy drop, and with perfect compatibility, it’s nicely enhanced.

Next, they encountered a pestle rabbit.

The pestle rabbit was completely a bonus enemy.

They skillfully knock away the pestle with water bullets and beat it up together. The magic consumption is just one water bullet from Meiko.

The faint hope that the Checkered Doll was the only one guarding that area was quickly betrayed.

This Checkered Doll was defeated with a combo starting from a long-range attack, and they thoroughly learned the enemy’s movements.

Then, they immediately encounter the third Checkered Doll of the day.

Sasara’s magic is below 8, so Meiko and the others activate Plan B.

“Nin nin!”

“Water Bullet!”

Lulu catches it off guard with water art, and Meiko promptly fires a water bullet.

It still shows signs of dodging, but the water bullet lands slightly faster.

The moment the Checkered Doll with a large crack on its face is knocked back, Sasara powerfully kicks the stone pavement and steps in.

She swings her pestle sword in a diagonal slash and then slashes upwards diagonally.

The first strike slashes the Checkered Doll’s face, knocking it back.

The second strike, perhaps as Sasara’s insurance, misses the enemy and slashes through the air.

The second strike might be frowned upon by martial artists, but they’re 15-year-old girls who have never been in life-and-death battles before.

They can’t fully trust their own skills, don’t want the katana-wielding Checkered Doll to get inside, and it’s understandable that they’d release such a second strike.

The Checkered Doll, already with a cracked face, loses half of its face. The apprentice knight’s [Strength Up – Small] is not for show, and the attack power seems to have indeed increased.

Furthermore, Lulu, who closed in with normal movement, slashes off the Checkered Doll’s katana-wielding arm with her small sickle.

This is also a very fast movement without using high-speed movement.

After succeeding, it’s just a full-on beatdown.

In a life-and-death battle, they go all out without question.

The Checkered Doll disappears in a flash of light on the stone pavement.

“Phew… It seems we can win properly.”

“But there are points to reflect on.”

Meiko wanted to give full marks, but she guessed Sasara was probably talking about the second strike that slashed through the air.

“Let’s get used to it little by little. It’s not like things will go perfectly right away. The enemy moves in real-time too, so it’s natural to panic.”

It’s not like in games where if you perform a mid-attack motion, it will hit an enemy in the mid-position.

If you’re going to attack, you have to properly swing your sword down to the enemy’s position.

Judging that during combat is enough to make amateurs panic.

To avoid that, they’d like to practice a lot before actual combat, but that’s difficult in the current situation.

So, they have to hone their mind, technique, and body in actual combat.

The Checkered Doll’s blade is scary.

But with each victory over that fear, they can feel real growth.

Meiko found such hellish growth incredibly enjoyable.

Sasara and Lulu feel the same, and growing stronger together with the three of them is irresistibly fun.

The exploration and actual combat of these maiden warriors who have entered the hellish path continues.