Earth-san Level Up Vol 2 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Turning Back and Gaining Strength

The Japanese Doll drop was an obi for dolls and a magic stone.

She was expecting a katana, but it was probably either a rare drop or not a drop item in the first place.

The obi was doll-sized, so it was about 1 meter long in width.

But it was a pretty good drop, Meiko thought.

There were many things to reflect on in this battle, but there were also discoveries.

It turned out that the [100/100] jersey would be able to block slash attacks from the battered and weakened Doll.

This was very valuable information.

However, it might not result the same way with Meiko's jersey, since Sasara's skill [armor performance increase small] might be in effect.

That was why they decided to have the obi that Doll dropped serve to be a little protection for Sasara and Ruru's vital points.

They cut it in half and wrapped it around their necks.

It was a bit gaudy, but it was impossible to ask beginners to create proper equipment on their own.

She didn't know how effective this would be, but it would be better than receiving a slash directly to their skin in case of an emergency.

But understood that the Doll was too strong for them at the moment.

It avoided her Water Bullet, stayed alive even though it received many attacks, and even made a suicide attack at the end.

It was not an enemy that they could no defeat, but at the same time, it was an enemy that was hard for them to defeat. The balance was unstable at the moment.

While treating Sasara's leg, the three of them decided to go back the way they came from.

There were many places they had not yet visited, so they decided to start their exploration there.

Looking at the map, they turned back and were relieved to see a Pestle Rabbit.

Meiko and the others had forgotten that even this enemy was actually a strong enemy.

Without a long-range attack, one would have need to have a deadly dance against it every time.

Meiko had the job Apprentice Grimoire and a Grimoire weapon, which made it easier for her team to defeat it.

First thing they did was to take a branch road not far from where they met the Doll in a direction they haven't explored yet.

After a while, a Japanese house appeared hidden in the mountainside.

It looked idyllic, as if it could have been in a good old-fashioned village, but Meiko and the others kept their eyes peeled and continued their exploration.

When they reached the entrance to the hedge surrounding the house, they saw a sign.

The sign read [Safety Zone].

Meiko was surprised to see such a thing.

It had not been mentioned in her talks with the professor, and they were likely the first to discover one.

The sign also had an explanatory note.

It was very kindly designed.

It said.

-----

The safety zone is a place in the dungeon where demons are not allowed to enter.

It could  be a plain, a cave, or even an inn.

The time you could stay in each safety zone varies depending on your karma value.

The remaining time could be checked in the status of each zone.

When the time spent in a zone expires, you will be forcibly thrown out of the zone, but you are free to enter and leave as long as the time limit have not been fully consumed.

The time spent in the zone will be reset when you leave the dungeon.

-----

Another negative karma disadvantage system was introduced.

"Are you done reading?"

"Nyah, want to take a break?"

"Yes. It's only 2pm, so let's take a break for about …1 hour, and then we can search until about 6pm. If we don't find a way out, we'll stay here today."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Nyah, Let's do that!"

It was a pretty intense day, but they had only been exploring since early in the morning after meeting with Ruru and entering the dungeon, and now it was only around 2 pm.

Walking inside, they found a living room with a sunken hearth. It was quite spacious, as if it was designed to accommodate multiple parties.

There was no bedding, and it seemed to be a place where only peace of mind was provided. There was also a toilet. Peace of mind!

Checking their status, they found out on their status screen how long they could stay, and it was 12 hours for all of them. They would leave the verification to someone else exploring the dungeon.

Meiko and the others put down their backpacks and lay down with their heads on it.

"Sasara, are your legs okay?"

"They're fine. It hurts a little when I bend it, like my fingers are chapped, but it doesn't bother me at all."

"I see. If it hurts when we are out exploring, please let me know."

"I won't push it too hard."

Sasara smiled at Meiko, and Meiko decided to change the subject, thinking that worrying about it would be too much of a bother.

"You're tired, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"But it's fun."

"Oh, Ruru thought the dungeon was fun, too?"

"Nyah, it's even more fun with Meeko and Shara!"

Ruru's directness made Meiko and Sasara nervous.

"It's dangerous, but it's a lot of fun for me, too. I've never had this much fun with someone before."

Sasara said, narrowing her eyes.

Ruru smiled happily and said, "We're the same, aren't we?".

Meiko, lying in the middle, looked up at the ceiling and compared the last time to this time.

"I'm also having much more fun than when I wandered the dungeon alone because I'm with Ruru and Sasara, you know?"

Sasara and Ruru thought back to the night Meiko spent alone in the dungeon.

It must have been an unbearably lonely night for her.

The two of them were thinking seriously like that, but this Loli had no room to even feel the loneliness as she slept soundly inside a treasure chest. Even before she went to bed, she was thinking, "Grass Ball, you'd better be ready for this".

Meiko's words had fooled the two into thinking about it.

Meiko then handed the two a candy bar.

"Candy?"

"It's special candy made with Synthetic Enhancement, so it's full of nutrients. It also suppresses hunger."

"Hou, Meeko is outstanding!"

"Mmmm, of course!"

Meiko got some points again.

She was someone who knew how to use misunderstandings and baiting skillfully.

After a short rest, the three of them went back outside the Japanese house to take photos, for their winsta.

In this world, if two girls get together, it would be a winsta experience; if three girls get together, it would be a crowd.

After a quick stop for a rest, the three of them resumed their exploration.

The three of them thought that the presence of such a rest point meant that the road where Japanese Doll must be the main road.

However, as originally planned, they decided to explore other areas first.

After all, the Japanese Doll was still too strong for them to face.

They decided that it was necessary for them to level up, get used to fighting, find treasure chests, or at any rate, strengthen their equipment even by a little.

They didn't know if there was a night and day cycle in outdoor dungeons, but decided to search until 6:00 p.m. and retreat to the safety zone after that.

They could train in the yard. Whatever the case was, they would not go out into the field during that time.

Relying on the map drawn by Sasara, they filled in the missing areas.

As a result, they found two treasure chests.

Meiko's eyes change shape when she saw the treasure chests, and she plunges into them with a care in the world, as if she was possessed by a different person.

Meiko was becoming a full-fledged treasure chest junkie. The girl who had been worrying about who owned the rights to the items had long died.

As expected, there were no traps in the treasure chests, and they got the contents.

One of the treasure chests contained a small sickle.

"Oh nice, we got lucky"

It was the first decent weapon they found in this dungeon.

...Well, they didn't know whether it was really a decent weapon or not, but a weapon is still a weapon regardless.

The sickle had a 40-centimeter-long handle with a 20-centimeter-long arc-shaped blade on the end.

The blade was attached to the entire inner surface and near the outer tip.

Also, there was a chain of about 30 cm on the handle, which was fashionable. … or rather stylish in Meiko's sense.

"I have a Grimoire, so one of you two should equip it. What do you think?"

"I'm used to swords, so I probably won't be able to make use of it properly."

"Is that okay? I'm also used to swords, but I should be fine with it."

"Oh, right, when thinking of small sickles, I could think of a NINJA."

Meiko didn't know if actual ninjas used weapons like this. Even ninja swords were said to have been suspected as fictional, and Meiko, who was not a historian, would not know nor bothered to think about what kind of weapons they actually used.

But a NINJA using scythes would be an incarnation of stylish combat style.

"Merci si! Nin Nin!"

Ruru did a Nin Nin pose with one hand and held the scythe in the other.

Her body already seemed to know how to use the scythe in a cool way.

She was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Scandinavian slender beautiful NINJA girl wearing Bunny Ears.

Unfortunately, she was wearing Japanese School Girl overalls. Equipped with a scythe, she looked like a very nice rabbit girl who helps out in the fields in the countryside.

After getting the scythe, they immediately started training to get used to it.

Since they avoided the Japanese Doll area, their opponents were Pestle Rabbit.

With a Water Bullet, the pestle flies out of Pestle Rabbit's hand, and Ruru immediately jumps in to attack.

Closing in with her long legs, she quickly closed in the distance and swing the sickle in her right hand.

The blade enters Pestle Rabbit's throat, spraying purple blood.

They knew that purple blood comes out of dungeon demons because they had beaten them up so many times.

This time, however, the amount was a lot.

Ruru was stunned as the blood spurted out, and Sasara hurriedly followed up and attacked the Pestle Rabbit.

"Hawwah, eh, blood..."

As soon as the main body turned into light and disappeared, the blood that had been scattered also turned into light and disappeared, but the images leading up to this were moderately shocking to the 15-year-old girl.

Meiko panicked and grabbed Ruru's hand tightly.

"It's okay! We have been defeating them like that before too! They don't bleed much, but what we do is the same. So, you don't have to worry about it."

"Nyah, Nyah, that's right."

Ruru closed one eye and backed away from Meiko.

"Nyah, nyah, nyah"

And posed.

Meiko admired her attitude of not whining, even if it was a bit traumatic.

The second treasure chest contained a bottle.

Of course, Meiko opened the treasure box without care.

Inside the jar were 10 marble-sized balls.

Each one was marked with an eyeball, and they have no idea what they were for.

"Hmm, what's this?"

"Why the eye?"

The three of them held the balls one by one and groaned.

Then, Sasara let out a squeal.

"What's wrong?"

Sasara was peering into the marble.

Meiko gasped at the sight.

She then hurriedly stopped Ruru, who was about to follow Sasara's lead and bring the marble closer to her eyes.

Could this be an item that has appraisal?

As if to confirm Meiko's thoughts, Sasara placed the marble in front of her eyes and began to turn her face in various directions.

"Let's see... it looks like we can see information on various items... Meiko's jersey has a defense of 12, Ruru's scythe has an attack of 14, the Pestle Handle Sword has 14..."

"Sasara, look at this item!"

"Oh, it's going to allow one to use Appraisal for 30 seconds, hmm?"

Meiko quickly had the marbles appraised, and while Sasara was providing the information, the marble turned into a particle of light and disappeared from her fingertip.

"It's gone. It disappears when you use it?"

"That's right, Ruru, I know you wanted to use it too, but sorry?"

"No, you wanted to use it too, right?"

Meiko herself was tempted to try it, but Ruru was right.

They never know when they could get something like that again, and wanted to use it carefully.

Meiko and Ruru put their own marbles back in the bottle.

"We got a good one!"

"Nyah!"

For now, Meikotook custody of the the jar, and they resumed their exploration.

However, it was already a good time to return, so they decided to move back to the safety zone.

As they returned, they continued hunting rabbits.

The small sickle equipped by Ruru had good offensive power. The result of the appraisal showed that it had the same attack power as the Pestle Handle Sword [100/100] even at its initial stage.

As Meiko hit the the pestle with the Water Bullet, Ruru immediately stepped in to swing the sickle.

Ruru got used to it after seeing the splatter a couple of times, and hunted Pestle Rabbit around without mercy. she had just entered Shura Mode.

But Meiko and Sasara noticed Ruru was meditating a little after each Pestle Rabbit she killed, as if praying for the death of the Pestle Rabbit she had defeated.

On the way back, a Pestle Rabbit dropped a Bunny Tail, which they decided to equip on Ruru.

Meiko was delighted to see the tiny round tail melding onto her overalls.

The Bunny Tail also reduced her magic by one, but they were not sure of its effect. As long as magic power was reduced, there would have been some kind of passive effect.

They would be able to find out by using the appraisal ball they got earlier, but since it was a valuable item, they decided to leave it for another time.

Pestle Rabbit dropped many other things.

The main one was fur, which was by far the most common. Then, Pestle Handle Sword, rabbit meat, Bunny Ears, and Bunny Tail, in that order, the probability seemed to decrease. Rare Bunny Ears and Bunny Tail may have the same probability.

Rabbit meat was a little unusual: it was not frozen, but it was so hard that it looked as if time had stopped.

Meiko was trying to figure out how to use it, and when she willed it to be used, it was defrosted, as if it's time tickle had started once again. She also found out that it consumed one magic power when doing so.

Since she did this during the exploration, she ended up synthesizing it into the candy.

After entering the mountain, they killed 50 Pestle Rabbit and a substantial number of items were in the backpacks of the three.

While walking through the mountain dungeon in this way, the sun gradually began to set.

It was almost certain that this dungeon had the concept of day and night, and Meiko and the others hurried to the safety zone.