CH 65

Leveling

‘I can raise my level while solo, no problem.’

Ahh. Who was it who got carried away and said such a thing?

The first day that I went outside of the walls in order to raise my level, I saw how the local Adventurers hunted, and gave up on the idea of solo leveling.

And after consulting the front desk at the guild, it was suggested that I join a party temporarily. This was received better than I expected.

While I was an apprentice priest, I was also a D-Rank Adventurer who could fight with a sword. That made me rather popular with Adventurers here who lacked potions, and wanted me to heal them, even though they could not protect me.

After that, whenever I wanted to level up, I would search for a party I could join temporarily.

“Hey! Come over here!”

The crocodile, which had tough skin made of stone, dove into the sand. Rock crocodiles were D-Rank monsters that attacked with their jaws wide open when Adventurers raised their great shields and provoked them. But even with their four meters of length, it was not possible for them to swallow a tower shield whole.

As they were distracted in the front, I would move in from the back, and stab them near the legs, where the skin was the thinnest, and then jump away. Once stabbed, a rock crocodile might flail around wildly with its stone body. And that was incredibly dangerous to get caught up in.

And so I keep my distance and let it go wild. Once it is tired and stops, shield wielder Wakilz blocks its path once again, and the other party members surround it and attacked.

In general, we repeated that over and over. But just then, a pillar of smoke rose in the corner of my vision. Something was coming towards us… It was two Desert winders!

“Bimmi!”

I shouted, while moving away from the rock crocodile. One more person… Ah, it was Delmui, the dual axe wielder. Desert winder skin was not too hard. It was a good decision.

From behind,

“I’m leaving it to you!”

A voice shouted.

“Aye!”

I answered. Leave it to me!

As we were a temporary party, communication could still be awkward, but that could not be helped.

Outside of the walls around the mines, the area was all wastelands. And so the desert winders could not swim as smoothly here as they did in the sand. They jumped at us with the same momentum of their charge, but the speed and height was lower than when in the desert.

I swung my sword to the side, slamming it into a desert winder that had tried to bite into my waist. It pulled its head back quickly. But I was not about to let it go!

I stepped forward on my prosthetic leg and slashed with my sword.

Clang.

Tsk! It had turned around and blocked it with the hard side of its back.

However, showing your back to your enemy was a bad idea!

I slid forward one step, and as the desert winder turned around, spun my sword above my head.

Slash.

The blade went through its neck. But even though more than half of its neck had been cut, its body was still moving.

My new leg seemed to be doing well. While the motion of digging my heel into the dirt was still not going well, I had been able to slide forward.

It was a good thing I had rounded out the bottom. It made a big difference. Heels really were incredible. I wish I had one.

Delmui was fighting against the other one, but the rest of the party were about to help him, after they defeated the rock crocodiles. So there was no need for me to act.

And so I stayed on my guard while waiting for the battle to finish.

“Alright, let’s carry them!”

Once the battle was over, Bimmi, the party leader, shouted for us to start with the transportation of the monsters. But as the carrying of heavy objects was difficult with my leg, they let me off, and I was put in charge of watching the area.

After all, iron slater corpses lured in other monsters, so there was no telling when we might be attacked.

Once we reached the walls, a whistle was blown, and a gondola was lowered. The monster corpses were put inside, and the Adventurers were given tags in exchange.

While you had to pay for this service, they carved up and transported the monsters for you. In the meantime, we returned to the hunting grounds, along with the wagon with the iron slater corpses.

After seeing them hunting like this, I could not try leveling solo right next to them.

Not only that, but if I attacked the monsters that appeared, I would get in the way of their hunt. Even if fighting with a party meant that leveling up would be slower, wandering around in the wastelands by myself would be incredibly dangerous.

“Good work. Can you still continue on?”

Asked Bimmi. An Adventurer who I seemed to team up with a lot recently. He was also the leader of this party.

“I am fine. Does anyone here need to be healed?”

“Wakilz. It’s hard to avoid, as a shield-wielder. Can I ask you to help him?”

“I’m a Healer. Of course, I can.”

“When I see the people that the Rokuidol church sends, I don’t know what a Healer is anymore.”

How rude! Don’t compare me to the others, with their monstrous strength!

And so I approached Wakilz, who leaned on his shield, and raised my hand over him.

“Mei-lei-moto-sei! Heal!”

And chanted.

“Thank you. Even when I know what is happening, it is such a strange thing.”

Wakilz said with gratitude. Indeed. This was the effect of the small, shield-shaped ‘magic staff’ that I had attached to my right hand. Due to its length, the range would have been reduced greatly. Only, it was maintained to that of an ordinary staff through limiting the direction.

And so I had to be very precise when holding my hand over the target.

Regardless, the result was that it looked like I was activating magic without a staff!!

Wonderful! Brilliant work, Lettelotte!

People would be a little surprised every time I healed them now. But because the targeting was severe, I would likely not be able to use it for attack magic. But I couldn’t even use attack magic to begin with, so that was fine.

As for the medium implanted into my prosthetic leg, as I could only use Heal right now, I would not be able to use it unless I was injured. After all, I didn’t want to kick someone else while healing them.

“There, here comes the next one.”

I turned to look, and saw that two sand scorpions had appeared. Wakilz raised his shield and moved towards them. Great hammer-wielder Nusuls took on the other one. Due to my prosthetic leg, I could not help but be slower to act than the others.

Clang.

The sounds of the sand scorpion pincers clanging against the greatshield echoed around us. I kept my distance and slipped past them and…

“Arrghhh!”

I swung down, aiming at the joint where the tail connected to the body. The sand scorpion was fully distracted by Wakilz, and undefended.

Shocked at having its tail torn off, the sand scorpion tried to retreat, but I stabbed the stump with my sword, just as it backed into it.

While the sensation was disgusting, with so much weight behind it, the blade went in deep towards the monster’s stomach.

The sand scorpion then fell to the ground. But its limbs just twitched, and it could no longer resist.

I got back to my feet and looked around.

“More are coming!”

Wakilz’s voice entered my ears.

“To the right! Rock crocodiles!”

Crocodiles should stay in the water!

“I’ll leave them to you!”

Wakilz said as he moved away. We didn’t need a shield-wielder since they were F-Rank monsters. But we had to act quickly.

“I’m going to burn the iron slaters for now!”

They were pushed off of the cart and set on fire. Oil had been poured on them in advance, so the fire spread quickly. Now we wouldn’t have to worry about them attracting more monsters.

“Kyaaaunn!”

I cut down two of the poison coyotes, while Delmui crashed the skull of another. Then the other two ran away.

We had no time to chase after them. And so I turned around in order to join those who fought against the rock crocodiles. Once they were gone, we could rest!

As we fought near the town, in spite of the desert season being quite cool now, I was sweating profusely.

And just like the slow steps of the seasons, my level rose gradually but surely.