Ios And The Others’ Leveling Day (Part 1)

For these two months—

We devoted ourselves to earning experience points.

Up to about level 3, we fought F-class monsters, but from there, we ranked up to the E-layer.

As expected, E-class monster experience points were intense for single-digit levels. Our levels rose rapidly.

It was when I reached level 4.

“Nishishishi! Maybe I’ll take Heavy Strike!”

Misha suddenly said something like that.

“Heavy Strike…? You can’t use it at low levels, you know?”

“I want to use it too! Like a finishing move! I want to attack while saying, Heavy Strike!”

After saying that, Misha acquired Heavy Strike Lv1.

“So, what about you, Ios?”

“Hmm, for me—”

“There it is… Lockpicking Lv5.”

As the name implied, it was a skill for forcing locks open. Since it was the maximum level, it could probably open most locks.

“Eek, Ios is going to break into my room!”

Misha said while laughing merrily.

“That’s convenient! You should take it!”

After thinking a little, I replied like this.

“…No, I’m a little torn…”

“Why?”

“There aren’t that many cases where I’d use it.”

In ordinary life, there was no need to force locks open. Inside the dungeon, the upper layers we advanced through had already been cleared, so there were no closed doors.

Only mighty people who challenged unexplored dungeons really used it. If I remembered right, it was standard scout training not to take “Lockpicking” at low levels.

Misha opened her mouth.

“But the other skills are iffy too, right? Then—”

“…It’d be fine if I had points to spare, but…”

That was another cause of my worries.

I only had 40 points so far. When I was a warrior, I had over 200 saved points, so if I judged a skill useful, I took it, but now I had to think about saving them too.

I would be in trouble if I took something unnecessary and couldn’t take a skill I really wanted.

“…I’ll let it pass.”

It was a waste, but I let it pass.

And then, the next time my level rose to 5.

“Swift Sword and Dual Swordsmanship, huh!”

I groaned without thinking.

Swift Sword was the scout version of “Heavy Strike.” I was happy that it simply raised attack power.

Dual Swordsmanship was a skill that gave corrections when fighting while holding weapons in both the right and left hands.

This, as expected, was not something I could choose to let pass.

“Dual Swordsmanship! Dual Swordsmanship! It’s a man’s romance!”

Misha said excitedly.

“…Well, it’s true that it’s a man’s romance.”

While accepting that, I easily reached this conclusion.

“Swift Sword Lv3.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Misha raised her voice in protest.

“W-why!? It’s dual swords, you know!? It’s cool, you know!?”

“It’s definitely cool, but… the dual sword style itself is…”

Holding one weapon in each hand was difficult. A severe attack power down correction was applied to the weapon in the non-dominant hand.

If you had Dual Swordsmanship, that attack power down was eased, but—honestly, if you were going to use a dual sword style, it was more stable to just hold a shield normally.

Scouts who took Dual Swordsmanship tended to be thought of as “a little like that.”

To the realistic me, Misha said this.

“You have no dreams or romance, Ios!?”

“Before precious skill points, dreams and romance don’t matter.”

After saying something dreamless, I acquired “Swift Sword Lv3.”

In the first place, compared to a skill that could only be used in the special situation of a dual sword style, Swift Sword, which could be used anytime, was obviously more convenient.

Swift Sword and Heavy Strike—

They were the two spears that would support me from now on.

My leveling continued even further—

…Dual Swordsmanship again!

Was my heart seeking romance?—setting that aside.

“Silent Step Lv5 came up.”

“Ooh!”

Misha clapped her hands and said this.

“You let Lockpicking pass, so are you skipping this too?”

“No… I think I’ll take it.”

“Hmmm, why?”

“I thought I should stick to my original intention. What’s the reason we’re leveling up here?”

“To see the named monster, the Ice Guard Largorin, and the popular party, ‘Twilight Lightblade,’ right?”

“That’s right. And—if possible, to defeat Largorin.”

Normally, it was a monster we could not lay a hand on, but Largorin had a weak point on its back, and if an assassin’s “Backstab” landed, we could win.

In order to land that, I needed “Silent Step,” which let me approach without making footsteps.

“Besides, this Silent Step Lv5 itself is useful even as a warrior.”

“It is?”

“The performance of Silent Step itself doesn’t change from Lv4, but it has the effects of ‘not making sound even in metal armor’ and ‘treating extremely bad terrain the same as flat ground.’”

Because of that, actual professional scouts did not really take Lv5.

That was because they did not wear metal armor. There were also few chances to use Silent Step in extremely bad terrain.

But in my case, it was different.

I would become able to use Silent Step as a warrior. Being able to kill the sound of metal armor was a major advantage.

“All right, I’ll try taking it.”

And so, I acquired Silent Step Lv5.

“Hey, hey! Try using Silent Step!”

“Got it.”

I tried using “Silent Step.”

…Whoa…

Until now, every time my feet touched the ground, they made a dull sound, but there was absolutely none now. Am I even here!? That was how soundless I was. It was the same even when I entered the grass. The sound of stepping on grass had vanished.

I really felt like a ghost…

“Amazing!”

Misha raised her voice.

“Hey, hey, Ios!”

“Yeah?”

“Creepy! Nishishi!”

“Don’t call me creepy!”

…Well, actually, I also thought it was a little creepy…

But I thought this was quite useful. If it could even kill the sound of metal armor, then the range of situations where it could be used was wide.

All right, I would pull myself together and work hard at leveling up!

At the next level, level 7, I skipped skill acquisition—

And then it happened when my level became 8.

“There it is.”