Tatsuro first gathered stones using earth magic. With those, he created a roofless rectangular-shaped structure that was large enough to fit a person inside. While he was at it, he took the liberty to make some sort of partition screen before filling the inside with hot water using fire and water magic.
"I made us a simple bath!" (Tatsuro)
"Oh, great job!" (Ai)
Seeing Ai's delightedly shining eyes as he'd expected, Tatsuro had a suspicious-looking smile plastered on his face.
"You can go in first." (Tatsuro)
"Eh? But you made it and… I'm all dirty…" (Ai)
"I can just change the water if it gets dirty so don't mind that. That must feel uncomfortable, right?" (Tatsuro)
Looking at Ai's current state, Tatsuro told that to her. With dried monster blood covering her, not only does Ai smell horrible but it must be disgusting on her skin too. Despite that, Ai still felt that it was rude to enter the bath before its creator.
"Then, want to go in together?" (Tatsuro)
Thinking that it couldn't be helped with Ai like that, Tatsuro held her hand and was about to enter the bath.
"Eh? It's too early for…!" (Ai)
"See, if you think like that, then just go in first. If I go first, then the blood's gonna become unbearable soon." (Tatsuro)
"Mu… Aren't you being a bit too forceful? I'll just take your word for it, then." (Ai)
"Ah, just leave the dirty clothes over here. I'll start washing them too." (Tatsuro)
"Uuu… You doing everything somehow makes me feel bad," is what Ai said but…
Everything was done as a distraction for Tatsuro to conceal his master plan, and since it was going so smoothly, there was no need for any reservation.
A plan that would not have been possible if they did not have that fight earlier.
"You took the most dangerous role in the fight, so just think of this as an award for your military merit." (Tatsuro)
"Hmm… Okay. But if you need me to help out somewhere, don't hesitate to say it, okay!" (Ai)
Hearing that one sentence, a flash of lightning struck Tatsuro's mind.
"–––– Did you say anything!?" (Tatsuro)
"B-Besides that kind of stuff that you're thinking about!" (Ai)
"Oh… It's fine, then." (Tatsuro)
"Don't you have anything else?" (Ai)
Sighing at Tatsuro's request, she turned around and entered the partition. There, she took off her clothes and handed her jersey and PE uniform to Tatsuro outside before entering the bath.
Tatsuro, feeling the spirit of a gent (gentleman), reluctantly looked away from the scene and headed towards the other side of the partition to stand guard. While hearing the splashes of water inside, he gathered up Ai's clothes and placed them all inside his item box. Using the disassembly function, he removed all the dirt that adhered to the garments and took the clean clothes out of his item box.
Next, he separated the monster's blood from the dirt, stored it, and threw the dirt away.
(Monster blood is always an ingredient in games but… does that apply to this world too?)
While lost in thought, Tatsuro used this chance to sort out the things in his storage. He did that for a while until he heard Ai's voice, whom he handed over the now clean clothing.
"Wow… You put your all into cleaning these. Did you just use [Item Box] for this?" (Ai)
"Yeah. That skill does have all sorts of functions." (Tatsuro)
"If I had a lot of extra SP, I'd have upgraded mine too…" (Ai)
"Why not do it?" (Tatsuro)
Now, it was Tatsuro's turn to enter the bath. He performed the same process as before to remove the grime from his clothes and after feeling refreshed from his shower, stood up from the makeshift bathtub to put on his clothes. He then went outside the partition screen to meet up with Ai.
"I'm done! …and you're still staring at it…" (Tatsuro)
"Yeah. With the lighting from the moon making it shine , it's just too beautiful…" Ai murmured as she stared at the golden crystal.
It was true that the crystal possessed a mystical beauty as it could even captivate Tatsuro, one who had no interest in such precious stones.
(Isn't it a bit too perfect? It's creeping me out…)
With that thought in mind, Tatsuro scrutinized the stone closely but could not find anything strange about it. It might just be the shell's nature for all he knows.
(Yeah… I'm gonna make a ring with this in the future.)
However, for now, he could not think of nor did he have any means of processing a material of such hardness. All he could do was to stick a mental note in his brain to remind himself of it in the future.
"Even if we go home now, we could prove that we really got isekai'd! By the way, we still have a lot of this, right?" (Ai)
"Yeah, a whole lot. We have more of the blue crystals too." (Tatsuro)
"One bear was enough to get this many crystals… I wonder if it has a market value…" (Ai)
"Now that you say that, it might not be worth anything at all in this world… If it's actually just shit, then we could just use it as your ammo for throwing, or even make a blunt weapon from it, so it's not really too bad to take with us." (Tatsuro)
Tatsuro said that with a face implying "what a waste," but since he knew how hard the shell was from experience, he believed that it might actually have value.
"Don't forget to save a small piece for when we get home, okay? High price or not, it's still beautiful." (Ai)
"That's true. We have a lot so I'd like to keep one for myself too." (Tatsuro)
"Then, we're all set!" Ai said while rubbing the small piece in her hand on her cheek.
"This pebble… Switch places with me!" screamed Tatsuro's mind as he watched the scene.
After a short while of rest, reality suddenly hit Tatsuro. They had to find a suitable spot to sleep in or they'll have a hard time continuing their journey tomorrow.
"… Uh, that's not what we should be thinking of. Right now, we are still in need of a camping spot to spend the night in." (Tatsuro)
"What's with the acting…? But that's true, I guess. What are we waiting for, then?" (Ai)
The two walked about another kilometre's worth of distance. There, they found another boulder much larger than the one they slept on yesterday.
"Isn't this great?" (Tatsuro)
"Eh, the topside is a bit too rugged. Looks like a perfect place for a bad sleeping position." (Ai)
Ai pointed at the bumps and cracks on the upper surface of the boulder. She could never sleep in that kind of "bed."
"That's what earth magic is for, you know?" (Tatsuro)
"Ah, I forgot about that." (Ai)
Feeling sleepy enough that her mind was already up in the clouds, Ai was unable to process her thoughts probably. Understanding that Tatsuro quickly used earth magic to smoothen out the boulder.
"Yeah… This is what a bed… should feel like." (Ai)
Liquefying the bumps and jagged edges down, Tatsuro first created a flat surface for them to sleep. Then, using the liquefied stone, he made walls similar to the one they had yesterday.
The time he needed to craft the bed was a lot faster too.
"You had a lot of trouble with that yesterday, but now…" (Ai)
"It's magic. Then, you sleep first. I'll take the first watch this time too." (Tatsuro)
"Yeah. I won't argue with that anymore. I'm so sleepy and the sleep world is calling…" (Ai)
The two entered the walls while conversing. The instant Ai lay her head down, she fell into a deep slumber. Tatsuro once again used life magic to help improve her sleep and alleviate his drowsiness.
With the free time he had now, he tried using information magic with all the improvements he thought of. With the existence of Help and his mana control stat, he was able to implement them smoothly. He succeeded in thinning out the mana needed to gather information and also managed to increase his radius of search.
"Alright… Now that it's all under control, I should check my stats." (Tatsuro)
Class: Light Magician
Magic Resistance: 475
[Level Eater], [Light Magic Lv 10], [Dark Magic Lv 1]
[Fire Magic Lv 10], [Water Magic Lv 1], [Life Magic Lv 1]
[Earth Magic Lv 5], [Information Magic Lv 3], [Mana Purification Lv 1]
[Mana Regeneration Lv 2], [Focus Lv 3]
|System skills| ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net
[Master of Light], [Master of Fire], [Destroyer]
(Huh? I know I leveled up, but isn't this too much of a growth?)
Thinking that, Tatsuro started searching for the culprit which he found without too much trouble.
(So it's because of this… I thought titles were just nicknames.)
Title: Master of Light
Description: Mana, Magic, Magic Resist, and Mana Control increased by 100.
Increased affinity with light magic.
Title: Master of Fire
Description: Mana, Magic, Magic Resist, and Mana Control increased by 100.
Increased affinity with fire magic.
Description: All stats increased by 30.
Title: Perfect Harmony
Description: "Partner" refers to the other soul this one has earned this title with.
Allows the use of telepathic communication with the partner.
When in physical contact with the partner, dramatically increases Ki and mana recovery.
When in physical contact with the partner, dramatically increase all stats.
(All of them sound grand, huh? Even the plain-sounding [Destroyer] is doing a good job. Still, [Perfect Harmony]… Isn't it too much of a cheat if we use this? Telepathic communication means talking without words, right? And all my stats get stronger with physical contact… No harm in trying, I guess.)
Tatsuro stretched out his hand and gently brushed Ai's head. When he did so, he was instantly enlightened by the words he read earlier.
Without warning, the mana within him started to flow much faster. Taking in mana from the environment at a much faster rate, he could feel the strength entering his body.
(Woah… This is… If I use the simplest spells , I'll get the mana back in no time. I wonder if Ai will let me hold her hand when I'm practicing magic…)
With that thought circulating in his head, Tatsuro started the first watch of the night.
T/N: The next updates for the old chapters will come up in the first week of February. I will be translating a new series [Dungeon Farm], raw language is Korean. Updates on that will begin next week.
Thanks for the co-operation