The Rising of the Scythe Hero

"So that's a filolial?" Naofumi asked, staring at the chick quietly sitting in my hands. Then his eyes shifted to his own bird.

By morning, almost right after Raphtalia and Naofumi woke up, Naofumi's egg started to hatch. And, as expected, another filolial chick popped out. This one had soft yellow and pink feathers.

And, well, this little guy was seriously hyperactive.

Since the moment it hatched, the chick had been hopping all over Naofumi — first his head, then his arm, his shoulder, just running around the whole room…

I glanced down at my own chick, still lying flat in my hands. She had been like that for nearly two hours now.

"Why such a difference?" The Shield kiddo frowned at my chick. Who, by the way, was already bigger.

"Mine hatched at night. I had nothing better to do, so I went for a little stroll with her through the woods…"

By now, Night was already level 14. The most dangerous monsters come out at night, but even they couldn't touch me anymore. And with my vision, I could navigate in the dark just fine.

"That's what you call a little stroll?" Naofumi looked skeptically at the clear difference between our birds.

By the way, early in the morning, while the villagers were still waking up, I checked at the farm and confirmed that Night was, in fact, female. And definitely a filolial. You never know, after all… I also grabbed some feed and dumped it in one of the farmer's empty stables. Thanks to our reputation, I didn't even have to pay rent — sweet deal.

"You forget about the Monster Owner bonuses. This world really is amazing… To speed up the process that normally takes at least a month to just one night…"

It really was impressive. From a chick to a full-sized chicken, Night grew up in less than one night. Even less, considering I didn't start right at the beginning of the night.

I fed the scythe her eggshells right after she hatched, along with her feathers. After that, I tried to give the scythe one feather every time Night changed even a little. Or during her natural molting. Surprisingly, she wasn't even annoyed by me plucking her feathers now and then. I swear, her little face looked like, "Oh well… if you really have to, take it."

Her intelligence was honestly scary. And the way she seemed to actually understand what I was saying? Insane. Especially at such a young age… She had barely been born.

But all of that felt like minor details, considering she was eventually supposed to transform into a human… Compared to that, nothing else mattered.

After the morning chaos, our journey continued. Well, my journey with Night. Naofumi and Raphtalia flat-out refused to come with us and be dead weight. Fair enough. I already gave them a head start, they could figure out the rest on their own. Honestly, I wasn't dying to travel with them anymore either. Better to share EXP with my chick, who'd be by my side always… or so I hoped.

We agreed to meet back at the village chief's house in the evening. And, to my surprise, Raphtalia very shyly asked me to continue our training sessions. I definitely had better ways to spend my time, like focusing on Night, but… turning down Naofumi and Raphtalia completely would be dumb. And, truth be told, it was kinda nice to spend time with the raccoon girl. Especially since Raphtalia had grown into a really beautiful young woman, with all the right curves in all the right places.

"And you… you're probably destined to stay in loli form, huh?" I muttered, crouching in front of my chick.

"Pii?" she tilted her head lazily.

I veered off from Naofumi's route, heading to higher-level areas. The farther I went, the more this world impressed me with its "biome diversity."

Just recently, I was in a normal village… and now, after walking a bit farther, I basically stumbled into the Amazon rainforest. Naofumi, if I understood right, headed toward the swamp area. Who would've guessed that not far from there the entire terrain would shift into full-on Amazonian marshes?

The wildlife matched. Giant snakes, frogs, insects… God, I hate insects.

The snakes (I called them anacondas) dropped scythes that either boosted defense if you fed them scales, or boosted attack if you fed them fangs. A nasty surprise was a small snake that could blend into the surroundings. Only my freakishly good reflexes and high level saved me from that ambush. But the reward? Totally worth it.

New skill acquired: Camouflage (Level 1)

Just like that, I got myself a cool little invisibility skill. Guess I'm a proper assassin now.

It also reminded me — I should explore lower-level zones too. I still had no clue what triggered new scythe unlocks. Who knows what kind of useful scythe might drop from lowbie monsters.

All skills used up some kind of Spirit Energy. But my pool was so ridiculous that I could spam basic skills for ages. Even the energy drain from maintaining Camouflage at level 1 was basically negligible.

Keeping Camouflage up the whole day (with short breaks) got it to level 4. At that point, the energy drain became noticeable. I could probably walk around invisible for three hours straight, but during combat, it burned through energy like crazy — a few minutes, and I was drained.

Although my total Spirit Energy increased with my level, so some balance was maintained.

By the end of the day, I'd reached level 56. I actually leveled from 54 to 55 during the Wave. Night reached level 29. Her growth rate was way slower than mine, but that wasn't surprising. She didn't have Life Absorption like I did.

"It's still hard to believe the difference is… this huge." Naofumi commented, eyeing the bird beside me.

By evening, Night had plumped up like a round chicken and gotten taller. Her main feather color hadn't changed, though a few grayish feathers on her head had turned completely white. Not many, but still noticeable.

I just shrugged at his words. The rest of the day, the Shield kiddo spent grinding his crafting skill, occasionally dragging me into it too. And turns out, it wasn't a waste of time.

Legendary Weapons really were unique. Each had quirks, as we'd already noticed. But we were still scratching the surface.

Potions crafted by the Shield and the Scythe could be different. Apart from the fact that my bonuses to crafted potions were weaker than Naofumi's, since I hadn't absorbed the right monsters, his defense-boosting potions were way better than mine. On the other hand, my attack-boosting potions turned out far superior, even compared to Naofumi's, despite his skill buffs.

Healing potions? About the same. Poisons and antidotes? Much better on my end. Miscellaneous stuff like speed boosts, detection potions, etc.? About equal.

So, we agreed to craft what each of us did best for the other.

Honestly, I really should spend more time studying my weapon. Especially why it was called "Demonic," and what that meant for me as its wielder. Something told me there was way more going on with it.

I dedicated most of my free time to practicing scythe techniques, with Raphtalia helping me out. Her sword skills were improving visibly every day.

Then again, I wasn't slacking off either — more like the opposite. My own weapon basically guided me. It corrected my stance, nudged my swings when I did something totally wrong. That, combined with a bit of talent and imagination, let me improve crazy fast.

With each level, I felt closer to… something greater. Something special, if that makes sense. And my gut told me the real evolution of my skill awaited me at level 10.

"Nott-sama?" Raphtalia suddenly called out to me.

"Sorry, spaced out. You've really improved. Good job." I smiled at her.

"T-thank you…" Raphtalia blushed lightly. Probably the only person (or not-quite-person) who reacts like that to my smile. "But I'm still nowhere near your level…"

"Don't stress about it. You're progressing fast purely thanks to your own talent. I have my weapon's help."

"But you're from a completely different world, Nott-sama. And from what Naofumi-sama told me, people in your world don't even use weapons like that anymore. That's what surprises me."

I just shrugged. Guess I did have at least a bit of natural talent. Who'd have thought my total lack of skills back in my old world would come in handy now…

Even after Raphtalia and Naofumi went to bed, I kept training. It was way too early for me to sleep, and honestly, I was dying to see what awaited me at level 10.

By now, my skillset was shaping into a clear style. I knew how to redirect attacks, how to use my weapon's weird balance to my advantage, which angles worked best for striking, and which swings to avoid entirely… I even figured out certain stances that let me attack, defend, or parry most efficiently — always flowing back to them as my default position.

Night was already asleep, probably wiped out from our day's adventures. She definitely needed all her resources to fuel that ridiculous growth spurt.

So, I spent the next few hours improving my language skills and, finally, cracking open the book on illusion magic.

Tomorrow promised to be another eventful day, so I'd better get some rest and recharge…