Chapter 238

When Tatsuro communicated his strategy to Ai, who was carrying him while running around, she immediately nodded in agreement.

Tatsuro again asked the spirit magic to delay the enemy while having Ai continue running around.

Meanwhile, in Ai's arms, Tatsuro took out some plant seeds and modified them using a combination of tree and dark magic.

Then for those seeds, twenty in total, he wrapped them in tree spirit magic and made his request.

"Alright. Preparations complete. Ai, are you tired?"

"Not at all, I can still run around!"

"That's good. Then, please take care of these seeds."

"Sure thing!"

Tatsuro created a basket with handles using earth magic, put the seeds in it, and handed it to Ai.

Ai put her arm through the handle of the basket and stored her jeweled sword.

Then she took out several seeds from the basket and held them in both hands.

Seeing this, Tatsuro created as many clusters of ice, wind, water, light, and dark magical power as possible, and summoned spirits into all of them.

Thanks to the new rifle staff, he easily exceeded his previous limit and successfully created over a thousand spirit magic spells at once.

"Please keep changing the wavelength to prevent anti-magic, and delay that thing as much as possible while supporting Ai."

"Then I'm going!"

"I'm counting on you. I'll definitely protect against any magical attacks."

"Yeah, I'm counting on you! —Ha!"

Ai enhanced her defense further by layering scales using the beast spirit martial arts skill, and with over a thousand spirit magic spells in tow, she approached while avoiding the spiritual arrows released by the monster.

Tatsuro observed the information coming through mental transmission from Ai using [Multiple-thinking] while dealing with magical attacks coming at both himself and Ai.

And the spirit magic spells continued to entangle the monster further by freezing it without causing impact or coating it with sticky water and earth.

At this point, numbers prevailed. The opponent's processing slowed down, and more and more of their moves became effective.

Then Ai gently attached the earlier seeds to the monster, finishing setting all twenty in less than a second before retreating like a startled rabbit, leaving four scale clones behind as she rejoined Tatsuro.

The monster, completely surrounded, tried to escape using Mist Dispersion. However. For some reason, it couldn't.

"—————? ———? —?"

"Looks like the trap worked perfectly."

The seeds that Ai had attached earlier suddenly sprouted with the tree spirit magic that had been imbued in them, taking root inside the monster's body and binding it without leaving any gaps.

While preventing it from moving even a millimeter, they further multiplied at an incredible speed using spirit and magical power as nutrients, frustrating the monster as it tried to wither them with tree magic.

Then spirit magic further wrapped around it from the outside with ice, earth, and water, further restricting its movement.

However, even this would be neutralized within three minutes by a monster that had taken the best characteristics of both Tatsuro and Ai.

Therefore, they had to completely annihilate it without leaving a trace using their maximum attack before then, or there would be no chance of victory.

"Ai"

"Tatsuro"

The two joined hands.

And with their free hands, they gripped the rifle staff and jewel sword, crossing them in front of themselves.

Then they began preparing for the spirit-magic fusion.

However, this time was slightly different from before.

This time they would use significantly increased dragon power compared to before, what could be called dragon spirit-magic fusion using Ai's dragon spirit power and Tatsuro's dragon magical power.

"—Ugh"

"—Phew"

But even for Tatsuro and Ai who had grown accustomed to spirit-magic fusion, this was difficult to control, struggling just to mix it.

Still, believing deeply in each other and accepting one another, they knew it wasn't impossible, and squeezed their joined hands without a shred of doubt.

"Here we go—"

"Let's do it—"

The rainbow-colored power they created took the form of a massive dragon's head and eventually opened its maw.

And then—.

"'HAAAAAAAAH—!'"

As the two simultaneously swung down their crossed rifle staff and jewel sword, at the same time, a rainbow-colored breath like a laser carrying enormous energy was released from the dragon's mouth, dyeing their field of vision in vivid colors.

"—————"

The monster, desperately trying to wither the still-multiplying plants inside its body while dealing with spirit magic attacks from all directions, couldn't move and took the breath head-on—and vanished from this world without leaving a trace.

|[Level: 87] achieved.|

|[Level: 80] achieved.|

|Title [Perfect Harmony +2] acquired.|

|Title [Endeniente] acquired.|

"Endeniente?"

"Is it circle for two circles?"

The level increase itself could be accepted as proof of defeating the monster.

Also, the increase in the plus value of [Perfect Harmony] could be set aside for now.

The problem was the unfamiliar mysterious title acquired at the end.

However, the two decided they could check it after leaving this room and turned around to push the door.

But it wouldn't budge. Then they remembered being told that all doors would open simultaneously.

So, assuming it would probably open when everyone had cleared their rooms, Tatsuro and they kept holding hands, stored their equipment, and sat down together on the rough cave-like ground to confirm it.

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Title Name: Endeniente

Rarity: Unique

Effect: Adapts to all environments and recovers all physical damage.

All stats +35.

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"The stat boost is nice, but I'm curious about the mentioned environmental adaptation and physical damage recovery. Let's experiment a bit."

"Experiment? Don't do anything too dangerous."

"I know————"

Tatsuro directed an extremely thin laser at his left index finger, gradually increasing the output until it just exceeded his magic resistance value, causing a slight burn about one millimeter deep.

Then without using life magic, the wound healed immediately.

But for hurting himself, Ai lightly smacked Tatsuro.

"Hey! You shouldn't do things like that. Really."

"No, no. This much is fine. Even if it didn't heal, I could fix it with life magic."

"But you shouldn't do such things. If you get hurt by necessity that's one thing, but doing it to yourself is absolutely not okay."

Understanding that even though it was an experiment, it wasn't pleasant to watch, Tatsuro sincerely apologized to the pouting Ai to calm her down, then moved on to the next experiment.

"Then next, let's try something not dangerous. Want to join in, Ai?"

"Of course!"

Since Ai wanted to participate too, this time they used ice magic to freeze their surroundings, turning the area into an impromptu freezer.

"'C-cold———————........................huh?'"

At first, their bodies shivered in the extreme cold, but after a few seconds, they stopped feeling cold completely.

"We really did adapt."

"We did! I'm not cold anymore, this is amazing!"

"Given it says 'all environments,' I thought something like this would be manageable... But experiencing it firsthand is surprising."

After confirming the effects of the title: Endeniente, they went on to check the other title that had increased its plus value.

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Title Name: Perfect Harmony +2

Rarity: 17

Effect: Enables telepathy with others who acquired this title simultaneously.

Enables mental transmission to the same person.

Enables use of skill abilities at a distance through the same person as a medium.

Optional enhancement of five senses while in contact with the same person.

Greatly increased fatigue recovery rate while in contact with the same person.

Super greatly increased spirit and magic power recovery rate while in contact with the same person.

Special great increase in all stats while in contact with the same person.

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"The existing items have gone up one level, and what's been added is optional enhancement of the five senses. That makes some sense. But what does this mean about using as a medium at a distance—?"

"Hmm. Should we try separating for now?"

"Yeah. Let's try it out."

So the two took some distance and faced each other about five meters apart.

Then when they focused on the title effect, they felt a strange sensation of being connected to each other by something invisible even with their eyes closed.

Because of this, they could somewhat sense where the other person was.

Then Tatsuro, with the sensation of channeling magic power into his staff, directed it through that invisible something and imagined releasing a laser.

Then magic constructed itself in front of Ai, and a laser shot out, scorching the ground.

"Amazing! It was like I used the laser!"

"Then try it from your side too, Ai!"

"Okay!"

Then Ai wrapped white spirit power around her fist and transformed it into a dragon's head, but rather than just releasing it, she imagined channeling it through the something connecting her to Tatsuro as she punched the empty air.

Then that white dragon head disappeared from Ai's hand, and instead appeared and was released from in front of Tatsuro, gouging the ground.

"This might be quite useful, don't you think?"

"Yeah. With mental transmission and telepathy too, we can use it plenty even when separated."

After trying various things, they decided to test the enhancement of the five senses next.

First they held hands to confirm the title effect had activated, then Tatsuro enhanced his sense of touch while Ai enhanced her sense of smell.

Then Tatsuro became able to feel things touching his body more sensitively, and could understand the details of bumps and dips in the floor more clearly than before just by rubbing it with his fingertip.

And Ai became able to closely smell Tatsuro's familiar scent among the smells permeating this space.

"I can smell Tatsuro! *sniff sniff*"

"Hey! I just sweated so I probably smell. Stop it!"

"Mm-mm. I like Tatsuro's smell. *sniff sniff sniff*"

"Hey, that tickles!"

Trying to push away Ai who was pressing her nose against his neck, but in this world status differences mattered more than gender differences.

So there was no way he could do such a thing, and Tatsuro was left at Ai's mercy as she kept sniffing him.

However. It goes without saying that Tatsuro later got his revenge by smooth-talking Ai into letting him do the same to her.

After they finished confirming their newly acquired abilities, they noticed that the door had opened at some point.

"Ah. The door's open."

"Yeah. Shall we go then?"

The two stood up simultaneously and walked toward the door.

"Come to think of it, those seeds we used on that monster were rice. Right?"

"Yeah. The professor said their reproductive power was strong enough to disrupt ecosystems, so I made use of that this time. I modified it with dark magic and strengthened it further but... Even I would have trouble completely withering it once it takes root."

"Scary! So that's what it was. Handle with care, huh."

"I did ask the spirit magic to only take root after sticking to the monster, but we shouldn't be overconfident. If something like that took root on the surface, it would cause panic."

In the first place, if it hadn't been against a monster with regeneration and dispersion abilities of that level, they wouldn't have needed to use the ultimate weapon rice, and could have used other normal plants.

And if used on the surface, they would need to completely annihilate it along with the monster without leaving a trace, just like earlier.

While Tatsuro had several other magically modified plant seeds, he decided in his heart to stop carrying rice seeds, as he and Ai left through the door.