After hunting about seven of the bivalve monsters (named "Surprise Clams" by Ai because "they pop out like a jack-in-the-box, don't they?"), Tatsuro had not only repaid his SP debt but was now in the positive, and Leah's level had risen to 18 just from this.
"We can't eat them, but they're easy to hunt and quite profitable." (Ai)
"Yeah. Except for the initial ambush, they're scattered individually, and they jump at anything warm that approaches." (Nana)
"Monsters are pretty stupid, huh~" (Athena)
"Yeah, but their bites can still be a real threat, so don't let your guard down too much." (Tatsuro)
Having already shared information about their skill composition and how dangerous they could be, everyone nodded obediently.
"So, what should we do now? We've got boats, should we go by sea?" (Ai)
"Well... Cardina, which do you think is easier, air or sea?" (Tatsuro)
"Huh? Isn't air easier?" (Leah)
"Pewee. Pewee. Pewee" (Cardina)
"It seems there are monsters waiting to attack from above the clouds in the sky. But there's also something in the sea, so both ways are troublesome. That's what she says." (Nana)
"I see. Thank you, Cardina-san." (Leah)
"Pewee. Pewee. Pewee" (Cardina)
"But if asked to choose, the sea enemies seem weaker, don't they? That's what Big Sister Cardina is saying." (Nana)
"Indeed. Either we face stronger monsters in the air route, or weaker monsters but potentially more tiring sea route. Ai, which do you prefer?" (Tatsuro)
"Hmm. We can always change later, so let's try the sea route first. We chose the boats after all." (Ai)
"That's true." (Tatsuro)
So, everyone decided to take the sea route to the next small island.
They looked for the closest-seeming island from their current location and walked towards that direction on the beach.
Upon reaching the beach, Tatsuro took out two of the boats that Ai and Leah had chosen earlier and placed them near the sea.
"Well, there's no need to row by hand like fools. We can just attach a sail and use wind magic to move easily." (Tatsuro)
"That sounds easy~" (Ai)
"Ah, no, we can't do that." (Leah)
"Why not, Leah?" (Tatsuro)
As Tatsuro was taking out iron ingots from his 'Item Box' to attach mast supports, Leah stopped him.
"If we try to modify it even a little, the bonds will break and it will fall apart." (Leah)
"Is that so? Well, let's try one." (Tatsuro)
Tatsuro, as if experimenting, tried to fuse an iron support to the center of the boat's bottom. As Leah had said, with a sound like a collapsing card tower, the boat disintegrated into debris.
"Oh... When you say 'fall apart,' you mean literally fall apart, huh." (Tatsuro)
"Hmm. If modifications are out, how about creating feet in the same shape as the hull and fitting them in?" (Tatsuro)
"Ah, that should work." (Leah)
Tatsuro took out another boat to make up for the destroyed one, and while making it slightly sturdy with dark magic, he poured thin iron into the hull to mold it, then solidified it and extended the center to make a mast.
This time, without turning it into junk, he successfully attached the mast.
Then he took out light silver ingots, stretched them thinly into large triangles to serve as sails, and attached them to the masts.
He did the same for the other boat, completing two boats with sails.
They immediately put the boats in the sea, and Tatsuro's group split into two teams to board them.
On the right boat: Tatsuro, Ai, and Cardina.
On the left boat: Jeanne (in small form), Nana, Leah, and Athena.
Nana was riding on top of Jeanne.
"Well then, let's depart. There will probably be monsters coming out from the sea on the way, so keep that in mind." (Tatsuro)
"Roger that~" (Athena)
Hearing six different responses, Tatsuro made eye contact with Jeanne and used wind magic, directing it at the sails to push the boats out to sea.
Tatsuro's boat and Jeanne's boat moved smoothly side by side, aiming for the small island several hundred meters ahead.
During this time, they had covered about half the distance while staying alert for any attacks, but no monsters had appeared from the sea yet.
The monsters on the other side seemed to have noticed them, but they were just maintaining a certain distance, which Tatsuro found eerie.
As they passed the halfway point to the next small island, reactions of meter-long individuals began to rush towards the sea surface from underwater all at once.
"Here they come!" (Tatsuro)
The moment everyone braced themselves, the creatures on the other side burst out of the sea surface simultaneously.
"Ooooon" ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N0velFire.ɴet
They had a wolf-like form but with smooth short fur that felt like a gray wetsuit, and four webbed feet.
Countless of these monsters landed on the water's surface, surrounding them, and began to howl in unison as if announcing that prey was here.
"They're everywhere! Cardina, Athena, help me out!" (Nana)
"Okey-dokey!" (Athena)
It was a combined magic of wind, water, and electricity.
They created waterspouts by whirling up seawater with wind and water, then mixed in lightning magic to conduct electricity through the seawater for an additional attack.
They generated five such magical phenomena around Tatsuro's boats, and the surrounding monsters were swallowed up by the waterspouts, paralyzed by electricity, and then torn apart by the wind vortices.
This wiped out all the surrounding monsters, but as soon as they saw their comrades' bodies scattered on the sea surface, the remaining individuals in the sea began to watch from a distance again.
"Do you think they won't come again after this?" (Ai)
"No, their fighting spirit hasn't diminished. They'll likely attack again." (Tatsuro)
"However, despite such a devastating defeat, they're surprisingly unperturbed." (Ai)
"Monsters basically consider everything except their own kind as enemies. Moreover, these seem to have a strong sense of territory, so they'll likely keep pursuing us persistently until we leave their domain." (Leah)
"Leah, I appreciate the information, but if you keep using your eye skill so frequently, you'll run out of stamina. We're still at the beginning, so take it easy." (Tatsuro)
"Yes. But because my stats have increased and my spirits are high, I feel like my stamina is recovering faster. So this much is still no problem for me." (Leah)
Clenching her fists, Leah seemed to be appealing that she was still energetic and no longer of weak constitution. The other members, including Tatsuro, showed expressions that were half amused, half wry smiles.
"If that's the case, it's fine. But if you collapse along the way, no skills for a while! Got it?" (Tatsuro)
"Well, I'll cast some life magic on you just in case." (Nana)
"Thank you, Nana." (Leah)
As she accepted Nana's life magic without any stubborn resistance, Tatsuro felt relieved and continued to push the boats forward with wind magic while keeping an eye on the sea monsters.
However, after advancing only a few meters, there was movement from the enemy.
Surprisingly, the monsters appeared on the sea surface just before the beach of the small island they were heading towards, standing in a line and lying in wait.
And then, there was action from under the sea as well.
This time, instead of recklessly jumping out, one monster first emerged and started running around on the sea surface like a wolf, drawing Tatsuro and his team's attention.
"Is that a decoy?" (Tatsuro)
"I think so too. It's too suspicious." (Ai)
"But we can't just ignore it either. Ai, can you shoot it with your bow?" (Tatsuro)
"It's a bit fast and hard to hit. But I'll try." (Ai)
Since Tatsuro couldn't follow the movement of that single monster with his eyes, he asked Ai to aim with her celestial bow.
However, while she managed to graze it, the opponent was considerably fast, and it wasn't a fatal wound.
While they were occupied with one monster, another appeared on the opposite side, also not launching any attacks, but just running on the sea surface.
"Can't be helped. It seems wasteful to use against just two of them, but let's crush them with area magic again. I don't know what they're planning, but leaving them be is unsettling." (Tatsuro)
Tatsuro decided to deal with them using the same combination magic as before, narrowing the range of the underwater detection magic with Cardina to focus on this.
The magic activated and defeated the two as planned, but at that moment, three monsters from outside the narrowed detection range charged toward the bottom of Tatsuro's boat.
{─────This is bad. Ai, shiel─────} (Tatsuro)
As soon as Tatsuro communicated the situation through mental transmission before he could finish speaking, Ai generated black energy from her armor, trying to create a shield directly on the boat's bottom.
However, unlike on land, the shield generation speed was significantly slower underwater, and it wasn't in time to stop the monsters' charge.
Judging that the dungeon-made boat didn't have the durability to withstand the monsters' charge, Ai abandoned the shield generation that wouldn't make it in time and jumped up to escape.
The three monsters broke through the boat's bottom, snapping their teeth in the air where Tatsuro had been.
"You bastards!" (Tatsuro)
Tatsuro fired a laser at the monsters below. The laser slaughtered one, but the remaining two quickly escaped to the sea bottom.
{They're nimble. If we keep dealing with them one by one , it'll take forever.} (Tatsuro)
{Hmm. Well then, how about this? You see──} (Ai)
{Hm? Ah, if that's the case── Look out above!} (Tatsuro)
"Haa! ────Deryaaaaa!"
Ai had long finished her upward jump and was now just falling. She had proposed a landing method through mental transmission, but because they had jumped too high, a few creatures from above had come to interfere.
They were yellow birds about sixty centimeters long, with beaks that became drill-like protrusions with grooves when closed. They were falling while rotating horizontally.
However, Ai swung her celestial bow and knocked them down. As more seemed to be coming, she switched to her jewel sword, imbued it with her full spiritual energy, and swung the blade upwards seven times.
Overwhelming energy slashes were released one after another, taking out not only those approaching but also those flying above the clouds, thwarting the aerial assault.
Seeing that Tatsuro and Ai were safe, the other members kept their eyes on the water, wary of a follow-up attack from below.
Cardina and Jeanne used combined magic to throw earth clods with wind, clearing away the monsters that were aiming for the moment Tatsuro and Ai would land.
Then, Ai extended black energy from her armor, concentrating it at her feet. She generated a shield just above the water's surface to use as a foothold, landing while carrying Tatsuro in a princess carry.
"See, this does work as a foothold!" (Tatsuro)
"Well, since it can block physical attacks, of course, it could do this much. I only thought of using it as a shield, so it was a blind spot for me." (Ai)
The footing created by Ai's energy boasted a hardness that the underwater monsters couldn't breach.
So after confirming that it could indeed serve as a foothold, Ai laid out shields over several meters of the sea surface around them, creating an impromptu land.
Thus, Tatsuro and his team, although in a confined space, stepped onto this hastily created field that was advantageous to them.
(T/N: Ai's Energy = Ai's Ki, It is the same, it is just my mood that determines the one I use.)