Cardina flew to the top of the stone tablet in her [Adult Form] state and gripped the peak tightly with her sharp talons.
Remaining in [Adult Form] without changing to [True Form], Cardina called out to the mysterious voice.
"Cardina is letting them choose based on her [Adult Form] state. That's a safe approach." (Tatsuro)
"Yeah. Oh? Come to think of it, can Cardina chant spells?" (Ai)
While Jeanne was flustered as this concerned her too, Cardina proceeded normally.
[Well then, challenger, please repeat after me while on the stone tablet — I am the challenger]
"Pew— Pewee-we, Pewee-ee-wee" (Cardina)
When Cardina chanted in Cardina language, a black vortex properly appeared. (T/N: The system should be able to translate this language just as it has done for Tatsuro and Ai when they got to this world? Maybe the author left it for some other reasons, upcoming chapters may tell) Google seaʀᴄh NoveI~Fire.net
"Ah, so that works." (Tatsuro)
"The meaning was correct, so it seems any language is fine as long as the intent is understood, desu no." (Nana)
"That's great, Jeanne-nee." (Athena)
Athena patted Jeanne's right shoulder, who seemed relieved that she too would be able to challenge properly.
"Ah, the monster is coming out. That is... what is that?" (Ai)
What Ai saw was four ring-shaped blades of the same size intersecting like a ball, glowing ominously in a leaden color. It looked more like an inorganic object than a monster.
However, Cardina's magic analysis clearly identified it as a monster.
Cardina, still in [Adult Form], flew into the air to distance herself from the monster.
The monster then began rotating its four ring-shaped blades, intensifying the leaden glow.
Ignoring gravity, the monster rose into the air and transformed the leaden light into blades, launching dozens of crescent-shaped slashes towards Cardina.
Cardina used her analysis magic and detection magic to grasp everything about the crescent-shaped slashes - their power, position, trajectory, and speed.
Once she finished her analysis, Cardina began to move.
The leaden slashes, as if possessing their own will, curved accurately towards her, even those initially fired in completely different directions.
Cardina relied solely on her wings to glide through the air, sometimes twisting her body, sometimes taking an undulating trajectory up and down, and dodging everything exactly as calculated.
Eventually, Cardina found herself surrounded on all sides by the leaden slashes.
While Tatsuro and the others held their breath, Cardina had actually been avoiding and guiding the slashes to create this situation.
In this circumstance where slashes were closing in from all directions like a cage, Cardina flew straight towards them.
Cries of surprise rose from Tatsuro and the others, but Cardina aimed for the tiny gap between the slashes. A gap that seemed impossible for Cardina's one-meter body to pass through.
Just as it was about to close in, Cardina used [Child Form] to shrink her body to the size of a chick, slipping through that precise point.
The slashes collided with each other where there was nothing, canceling each other out and disappearing.
While still gliding through the air from inertia, Cardina returned to [Adult Form] and began a sharp dive toward the monster.
Her speed was so great that the monster didn't even have a chance to launch a second wave of slashes.
However, just before making contact with the monster, Cardina threw earth created by earth magic at it, then arced upwards again.
The monster tried to shake off the earth, but because Cardina was controlling it with earth magic, it clung and wouldn't come off.
When the monster tried to blow it away with slashes, Cardina descended from the sky again and threw more earth.
The monster found this annoying but not damaging, so it decided to ignore it and resume its attack, but the earth interfered with the rotation of its ring-shaped blades.
While it was flustered, Cardina kept piling on more and more earth - three times, five times, ten times - until eventually it became too heavy to float in the air and descended to land on the ground.
At that moment, Cardina commanded the earth that had been clinging to the monster with earth magic, encasing it in a sphere of earth.
Screeching, Cardina dive-bombed towards the monster, grabbed the earth ball containing the monster with her taloned feet, and carried it high into the air.
Although it was quite heavy, thanks to her status, she had no problem ascending almost to the ceiling before beginning another steep dive.
This time, holding the earth ball added to the weight, increasing her speed even more than before.
Just before impact with the ground, Cardina released the earth ball, throwing it downwards. At the moment of impact, she gathered the earth towards the ceiling side, slamming only the monster into the floor.
She herself landed at a distance, skimming low over the ground.
The monster's once perfectly circular blades were now warped and misshapen. Unable to float or launch slashes, it vibrated like a broken toy.
With a face that seemed to say "You're still alive?", Cardina took to the air again. This time in her [True Form], she kicked off the ground with her four legs in low flight, channeling dragon power into her wings to the fullest.
As she passed by the monster, she slashed it in two with [Dragon Wing Blade], then twisted her body to slice vertically with her other wing, ascending to the ceiling.
Enveloping her thick hind legs, reminiscent of a large feline, with thick earth using earth magic, she stomped down from her dive, completely flattening and destroying the monster.
|You have reached "Level: 30".|
|Skill [Dragon Wing Blade Lv.5] has been acquired.|
Cardina let out a cry at the announcement that seemed to celebrate her victory, then changed from [True Form] to [Adult Form] and flew towards where Tatsuro and the others were.
"Good work. The whole battle felt like it was in the palm of Cardina's hand from start to finish." (Tatsuro)
"That's right. Especially when you used [Child Form] to slip through the cage of slashes, that was amazing!" (Ai)
With Tatsuro patting her head and Ai stroking her wings, Cardina looked pleased, intoxicated by the sweet taste of victory.
She also received praise from her sisters and was inwardly relieved that she had maintained her dignity as the eldest daughter.
[Well then, shall we move on to the drawing time? Is that okay?]
[Alright, here we go! Drawing time. Jaka jaka jaka jaka— jan. Here it is! Second prize!]
"Cardina... It's good you didn't inherit that unnecessary part of me..." (Tatsuro)
Tatsuro had suspected that at least one of them might be similar, but now he was certain that Cardina was a member of the "no-luck-in-drawings" club. He hugged her from behind, comforting her with pats.
Cardina had seemed shocked at first, but being comforted by her beloved father made her so happy that she no longer cared about getting second prize.
While this was happening, a silver box emerged from the floor.
Cardina flew over, placed her foot on the lid, and skillfully opened it by lifting it up.
Inside was a thin, transparent card measuring twenty centimeters vertically and ten centimeters horizontally.
"Four out of six got skill cards. It's not bad, but are most of the prizes here these?" (Tatsuro)
[You all already possess many abilities, so conversely, skill cards are probably the only things that would please you.]
"Ah, I see." (Tatsuro)
"Eh? Ah, yes. I understand, Big Sister Cardina." (Nana)
Since Cardina doesn't have hands, she asked Nana to take out and open the instruction manual.
As they read through it, it was indeed a skill card, and it was written [Magic Bullet].
Tatsuro took the instruction manual from Nana and explained what kind of skill it was so that Cardina and everyone could hear.
"Let's see... Well, as the name suggests, it seems to be a skill that turns non-elemental magic power into bullets and fires them. That's pretty good, isn't it? With Cardina's detection ability, she should be able to pinpoint accurate locations from afar." (Tatsuro)
"Like a sniper, huh?" (Ai)
"Well, it depends on how powerful it is. So, Cardina, what are you going to do?" (Tatsuro)
"Looks like she wants to install it right away." (Athena)
Cardina jumped into the box, grabbed the card with her mouth, and came out. Then she mumbled "Install" in Cardina language.
|Skill [Magic Bullet] has been acquired.|
"Looks like you acquired it successfully. Why don't you try it out right away?" (Tatsuro)
Cardina immediately activated [Magic Bullet], aiming towards an empty direction.
A colorless, transparent sphere about three centimeters in size formed, and she launched it forward.
It flew straight to the opposite wall, created a small dent, and then the bullet disappeared.
The power of the bullet fired without any thought, just relying on the skill, seemed only effective against weak monsters.
Observing this with magic vision, Tatsuro began to experiment while consulting with Cardina.
"Can you freely change the shape of the bullet? Then, let's make it , like a gun bullet, and add rotation..." (Tatsuro)
"Pewee-Pewee" (Tatsuro)
This time, instead of a sphere, they made it long and thin like a rifle bullet and added rotation. They also charged it up before firing.
Unlike before, it flew like a real bullet, penetrating the wall before disappearing.
"So it needs to be charged to increase power. We could use the previous version when we have time on our side. Then—" (Tatsuro)
As they continued to experiment, with Nana and Athena translating, it seemed possible to add elemental attributes through mixed magic, just like Tatsuro's explosion magic.
This led to an interesting idea.
"I wonder if we could create mixed magic with my explosion magic and Cardina's magic bullet?" (Tatsuro)
"Oh, then let's try mixing in my lightning magic too!" (Athena)
"In that case, my poison magic also—" (Nana)
"Let's save that for another time... Poison is a bit scary to try without preparation." (Tatsuro)
"...Muu. How disappointing, desu no." (Nana)
"Hm? You want to mix in your wind magic too, Jeanne?" (Tatsuro)
When Tatsuro looked at Jeanne, she was nodding enthusiastically, so they created a small bullet by mixing magic bullet, explosion, lightning, and wind magic, further boosted by light magic, and compressed it.
When they charged it for less than a second and fired, it not only penetrated the wall but blew away an entire section with a loud explosion.
"Wow. This is incredible~ But don't use it in confined spaces, okay?" (Ai)
"Ah, y-yeah... Of course, I understand." (Tatsuro)
"This really shows how terrifying magic can be. Or rather, it seems like Tatsuro and the others could soon rival a country's army on their own..." (Leah)
Leah stared at the large hole with somewhat escapist eyes. It was a technique made possible by using the characteristics of magical beings to output the power of four people for a mixed magic that normally only one person could do but judging by its power alone, it was quite a dangerous magic.
"Well, we have no such plans, so it's pointless to think about it." (Ai)
"That's right. We're not at all interested in things like 'conquering this world with our own hands' or anything." (Tatsuro)
"If Tatsuro and the others said that, they'd be invaders from another world, right? Just hearing that sounds like a fairy tale." (Leah)
"Haha, it really does." (Tatsuro)
With such casual conversation, they moved on to the final challenge. Jeanne transformed into [True Form], changing into a giant figure, and headed towards the stone tablet.
"Jeanne is going with [True Form] from the start, huh?" (Tatsuro)
"It's like she's saying 'Bring it on, anyone!'" (Ai)
And so, as Jeanne touched the stone tablet that was smaller than her fingertip, the mysterious voice spoke up to allow the final challenge.