[Arc 2] Chapter 16: The World’s Strongest Toddler

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! That's golden! Garami, you're minted! Golden-minted!!" - Noire

So roared the fallen angel, forgetting anything even closely related to good manners as she saw me after my shopping trip with Mira. No, that there's anyone else here in Armveil's shop that's not laughing now, except Mira who's feeling partly responsible, and Shula who takes care of the register.

Just what's so funny about me turning into a five-year-old, huh!? Wanna fight, dammit!

After the whole incidence (exam) with the Cleaners-division, we were allowed to go back in town, as the Cleaners, led by Springwood, would take care of guarding the ranch... and the whole island to boot. For being glorified janitors, they're damn effective!

Of course, the little angel didn't want that~. She tried to drag Mira and the fallen angel back to the ranch. So cute~. Then she slipped, head-first into my stomach. Not cute! I got KO-ed from just that.

The previous day I'm fighting the mortal enemy of all Isekai-protagonists, the next I'm getting toppled over by little girls...

Maybe she felt guilty or whatever, but Mira took me on a shopping trip to one of the magic item shops she was a frequent customer of before having to work as a bodyguard to clear her debt.

The place was AWESOME! Not "awesome", but "AWESOME!". They had so many different items on the shelves that I'm not sure if even I could buy one of them all, not to mention being able to use them.

There were some joke items lurked in here and there, but the quality of all the stuff was B-rank or higher! Talk about being focused on quality.

So, I bought some stuff that could be useful for some later times. A few more explosives, both distracting types and destructive types (I'm used to them both), a Beginner Mixing Kit, and much more.

However, HOWEVER, why did I have to notice that thing? That accursed medallion!

What I'm talking about is the Rewind Medallion. A masterpiece of craftsmanship and Life Magic, which lets the user transform their body into that of an earlier state.

"Then can't I use it to go back before I got Waning and reduce the number of skills?" was my thought the instance I saw it.

I know that the idea is filled with holes, such as my skills could be regressed along with my body, or that changing my body wouldn't do a thing towards Waning, but I was desperate! Getting beaten by a little girl does that to people! 

So yeah, I bought the Medallion. Just 50,000 Sols. It's a one-time use after all, and the effects are only temporary. Luckily, only temporarily. 

Because the stupid item turned me into a little girl myself! There's no meaning with the item's quality being great if it doesn't know where the limits are!!

After using the item, my body shrunk into that of a 5-year little girl. Obviously, my clothes turned too big for me, so Mira gave me a lift back to Armveil's shop.

Aaaand back to the present.

Waylin was fast to whip up some clothes in my size, the type that will match my size in case I suddenly turn old again. A dark purple hoodie dress and some shorts. If she only didn't laugh so hard, then I would have shown my appreciation... 

"T-then, how long is it before the item expires?" asked Armveil in between his laughing fits.

"Think the shopkeeper said something about anything from an hour to half a day... so until midnight at the worst." - Mira

"Tch. She would be a good mascot for the shop..." - Waylin

Excuse me, I heard that! And Armveil, why are you nodding along with her words...?

"What about Garami's abilities? Is she capable of defending herself if things go wrong while she looks like that?" asked Ice-guy while trying to contain his laughter.

Good question though. Let's hope [Identification] still works...

Hey, I'm faring... WANING!? Why did you decide to leave right now!? Couldn't you have gone like, three minutes before I bought the stupid trinket?!

G-geez...... Better take the opportunity to sort my skills now before I turn weak again.

I'm definitely not practicing escapism, alright? This is an important thing to do so I won't end up in the mud like before. Definitely not escapism, you hear me?

And it's not because I wanna ignore the idiots that are making a mess behind my back either. I totally forgot to make the result window visible for only me. Eh, they only saw my total amount of skills. They don't know what skills I have. In other words, no biggie.

Hmm, lots of skills can evolve, but for those that can merge-evolve...

Okay, I'll take these.

System Message:

Skills: [Identification Lv.Max], [Discern Lv.Max], and [Magic Sight Lv.Max]

has been integrated and evolved into skill: [Empyrean Eye Lv.1]

It burned off 10 Skill Points, but when you think about the consequences, that's cheap. 

The skill still works as good as they were before the merge. I can still Identify stuff, better than before even. Back then, using [Identification] and [Discern] had the feeling of using two different computers to use a single program. Weird, but not impossible. The effects of [Magic Sight] are... not any different. I'll probably notice the changes when I use the skill some more.

There are no other skills that can be merged into something good. Maybe I should evolve one that doesn't seem to have a relationship with the un-maxed skills. There's a chance I miss a merge opportunity if I evolve the skills prematurely. 

[Gathering]... is a bad choice. It's not a skill that's of any use for me, so the evolved skill will probably be just as unused.

In that case... what about [Rest]? It's a skill I don't remember when I obtained it, but it's already maxed out. That's weird, right? Ice-guy's also got the skill, since before we met even, but he's yet to complete it.

The effect description doesn't make me any wiser...

Oh! Now I get it! "Improves natural recovery-abilities" extends to more than just SP. From the sound of it, I guess even the natural recovery of HP and MP is also counting. When you're wounded, rest is often the best medicine after all.

Then the reason why this skill broke through the limits is due to I was "recovering" my soul from the Waning status. I didn't use any skills for that (none would work said the [Identification] results), so that must also be counted as "natural recovery".

I've decided. [Rest] it is. I'm not expecting it to become almighty or something, but if my theory's right, then it's helped me a lot these last days. Let's reward it a little.

System Message:

Skills: [Rest Lv.Max], has evolved into skill: [Slumber Lv.1]

That's 6 more Points gone. Strange. I thought [Rest] was bought with 3 Points, so shouldn't the evolution cost 8 then? Or, did the original value for [Rest] go down since I grew more compatible with it? That's good to hear, but the opposite may also be true for other skills. That's scary.

An additional ability, and the old one's probably better than before. There's probably a need to raise the skill level before it gets better than the maxed out [Rest]. 

Also, "Skill Tiers"? [Identification] never showed that before. An improvement from turning it into [Empyrean Eyes]?

"HEY! Respond when people are talking to you!" - Noire

Guh! Don't yank people up by their neck! This fallen angel... Dark Bullet!

"Hm? Whoa-!?" - Noire

Tch, she dodged-*KA-BOOM*-... and the armor placed on display was blown into smithereens. The fallen angel put me back down, a notch paler than before.

So strange~, Wasn't that Bullet? I tried to recreate the magic formula, without activating it, and the result... whoops. I must have gotten rusty in the period of not using magic. That was Dark Burst, a higher-tier attack spell of [Dark Magic]. What it does in attack power is covered in that it's practically a close-range spell. The armor was at the very limit before the spell would have expired. 

There's a Light version of it as well, but my skill level's not high enough to learn it.

"Ehm, Garami? We're sorry for laughing so much, but can you please try to not kill anyone? Or destroy the wares?" - Armveil

Sorry? Wait, who's sorry here! You guys need to treat your colleagues with more respect! Especially you, fallen angel!

Seeing that they've stopped making fun of me, I decided to leave the store. My skills are finally back to normal. I wanna move my body-*Bang*

"...She tripped." 

Who said that?! Probably everyone except me. And I can't be angry at them for that since it's the truth! Damn these small limbs!!

---

"Feeling better now?" - Mira

I nodded to Mira's question while licking the Potion Candy she had given me. 

We're currently at a huge park that acts as the playground for the kids in town. Kinda surreal for a park to exist on the ledges of a huge tower, but hey, fantasy, remember?

Kids and their parents are walking around and enjoying the sunlight. Crazy folks. What's so good with the sun? It's shooting death rays at us for Pete's sake!

I'm glad they had this cafe here with parasols. Mira's doing the orders, but I'm the one that got the money. 

...My engine got jammed, so I needed a break. This body of a brat's stamina is too low! Damn it all...

The other two are back at the store. They wanna chose their new clothing on their own. Waylin's finally perfected the method for using the Spider Lord's Threads that I gave her before.

My own equipment's also getting an upgrade, but, as Waylin self said, it's only improving an inferior prototype to a prototype. My best outfit has a long way left to go...

Mira's also getting new clothes, but Waylin needs to focus on the first batch. We're gonna decide on Mira's design tomorrow. She's the only one using "normal" armor.

Speaking of armor... isn't what she's wearing pointlessly erotic? The coat's well and good, but why the bikini? Not to mention the miniskirt. Is she trying to catch some maniacs?

"......Stop that. Kids shouldn't have such an indecent look in their eyes." - Mira

Oh-ho? That reaction...

"...W-what? Seriously, stop that." - Mira

*Stare*...

"...I-it's not that I have any interests like that..." - Mira

*Staaare*...

"...Alright, I chose them because I was thinking I could fish some rich guy in the red-light district. I didn't though!" - Mira (Whispering)

*Staaaaaaaare*...

"...*Sniff*, fine! I did it! I was broke and needed money fast! But the first few guys got cocky so I broke every last bone in their body when they tried to take advantage of me, so I couldn't get much out of it before the rumors spread. And then there were only freaks that WANTED to be hit that came to me..." - Mira (Whispering)

Even ogres can be cute when they're brats. Who'd know?

Mira's been reduced to a weeping shadow of herself just by me staring at her. She's still capable of understanding that our conversation isn't something that should be spoken in high voices.

I left Mira behind so she could cry herself finished and started to walk around the park again. I'm more used to this body's limited stamina use, so I won't end in a tired mess like before.

Time to relive my childhood for real~. Never had one in this life though.

---

...Damn brats.

Turns out testing [Acrobatic] with this body was a mistake. All the other kids started to flock around me as if I was some local hero.

[Recognition Obstruction] will prevent them from knowing who I am, but it's a pain to shake them off my tail each time. Let's go back to Mira and head home...

Someone's coming. I quickly hid inside the bushes and looked for the intruders. A group of four, consisting of three men and one woman. None of them looked like they were part of a happy family.

Especially the woman. She had tons of wicked skills. [Sadistic Constitution] at max, just to mention one. You know that a person's dangerous when they got that skill.

They seem to be... searching for something? They're ignoring the children, no, trying their best to keep themselves unnoticed. They're using stealth skills to keep themselves hidden. Not on my level, but enough to stay clear of civilians. 

I kept myself hidden and stalked the four. They kept on looking in bushes and the threes... are they after some kinda animal?

After a short while, I got the answer to my question as they found what they were looking for: a black cat with white fur on its paws. It's stuck on a branch, high above the ground. Looks cool as a cucumber despite that. 

The suspicious group tried to climb up the tree, but to no luck. They're damn unathletic. That crosses out them being adventurers. At least not one with a high rank. They have high stats, but as demonstrated, they're only got high power and no finesse. 

"Damn it! And when we could earn lots of cash by demanding a ransom for that cat!" -Male grunt A

"Shut it! What if someone overheard us?" - Male grunt B

Uhm, you're just as noisy, and guilty, as the first guy. There are not many people left in the park since the sun's about to set, but even so...

"You guys. That's not how you get a cat down from a tree... this is how!" shouted the sole female, striking the tree with her ax... wait, she did what?!

The tree started to tilt with that single blow, but the cat didn't seem to worry. Then, the tree started to fall for real... don't come over here!

I jumped out from the bushes as good as I could with my small body, escaping from getting crushed by the tree. And that sure got those three idiots to notice me.

"Huh? What's a wimpy brat doing here?" - Male grunt A

"Whatever. Kill her and get the cat." - Male grunt C

Hmm? They pointed to something behind me... the cat's using me as a shield!! That little-!

The cat-nappers jumped at me when I turned around to give that nasty hairball-cougher a death glare (it was ineffective). Sorry to say, but I've got eyes in my neck. It's awesome to have [Precense Perception] back in action!

I hurriedly fired off three Dark Bullets at the three catnappers, knocking them unconscious and backward at the same time... where did that sadist-woman go to?

Just kidding. She went the other way and tries to attack me with her War Axe that she had pulled out of an Item Pouch, not that different from Ice-guy's... a War Axe!?

Thinking about it, the Identification result said that this woman's a Rage Warrior. No wonder she's using such a heavy-weight weapon.

But to use such a big thing against an (apparent) little girl? No mercy to be found! Then, she's not gonna get any from me either. This Is a good chance to test out that idea I got before. The ax's just some scrap metal forged into the shape of one only.

Instead of the Dark Bullet, I changed the formula to turn the spell into Dark Burst, not so different from what I did earlier in Armveil's shop. The spell collided with the ax and blew it into tiny pieces. Hmm, this spell works wonder against big and non-enchanted stuff. Could be a great weapon against stuff like shields.

The Rage Warrior woman looked at her ax stupefied over it being broken just like that, so I gave her a Dark Bullet straight to her head.

And done. All four of them are done for the count. Who needs to be an adult to get a job done? Not this girl!

"Over here!" 

That was... the guards. Should I stay and explain the situation...no. Let's run. Like they would believe me, looking like-*Swish*-yikes!? What was-?! 

I hurriedly dodged what looked like a flying slash... or what animes pictures one. After repositioning myself, I saw that the identity of the "flying slash" had captured the cat. An ally of the four knockouts? Or a different party? Anyway, what is this thing?

Is that a... card human? It looks human, but sometimes, it transforms into a huge playing card. Around 2 meters high. It's... the eight of clubs? The "human form" looks like a soldier clad in black armor that's decorated with clover markings. He's holding the cat, who looks damn surprised for once, in his arms. For some reason, the cat goes into the "card form" along with the soldier itself, with no signs of being affected. It's even moving around when it's the "picture" of the card.

The strangeness of the situation had me in a daze for a while, until the card soldier left the park with quick movements in its "card form", just as if it was caught by the wind all of a sudden.

I wanted to fire a Zahhak at the thing and convert it with [Necromatic Rite], but it would also hit the cat then, so I refrained. Both because I'm a cat person, and that I was unsure about snuffing out the cat would be a good idea, with the thoughts that so many wanted to capture it.

I also left while staying out of sight from the guards, who had finally reached the scene of the crime. Better discuss this with the others.

Greydra

Kigal-Note/Warrior Classes: Rage Warrior

Description:

Rage Warrior is an Intermediate-tier Warrior class whose M.O. is to inflict the Rage ailment on themselves to drastically improve their physical strength at the cost of their sanity.

They gain great skills for battles at close range right at the beginning, then they keep on gaining abilities that will let them endure the damage from their own onslaught. 

A Rage Warrior can only advance into the Berserker class, so any Rage Warriors are advised to train their endurance-enhancing skills before advancing their class.

Mira's comment: Rage Warriors and their like are too barbaric for poor, fragile maidens like us to imitate. Let them go crazy on their own and take a good kilometer's distance from that ground zero.