"What is your level and what magic do you know?" Looking at the girl, Takeru directly asked.
"Level 25, water and earth dual-element mage. I can use Water Arrow, Water Blade, Water Cannon, as well as Earth Crack and Earth Wall." Hearing Takeru's words, Via quickly stood up and spoke.
"Water primary attack, earth support, huh? Then use Water Blade and Water Cannon on me." Hearing her words, Takeru spoke directly.
"Eh, use Water Blade and Water Cannon on you, Brave One?" Hearing Takeru's words, Via spoke nervously.
"What, is there a problem?" Hearing her words, Takeru spoke with an indifferent expression.
"No, but what if I hurt you..." Hearing Takeru's words, Via spoke nervously.
"If you can hurt me, I'll reward you with a better quality staff." Hearing her words, Takeru spoke calmly.
"Well..."
"Alright, that's an order." Seeing Via still hesitant, Takeru spoke directly.
"I understand. Please be careful, Takeru-sama." Hearing Takeru's words, Via bit her lip and nodded.
"I command you by the source of power, interpret the power of reason, and attack this person with a tough and resilient stream of water. Water Blade!" After an incantation, Via released a Water Blade attack toward Takeru.
Watching the rapidly forming water blade fly toward him at high speed, Takeru felt it was extremely slow. As the water blade approached him, Takeru simply reached out his hand. Black Devouring Power enveloped his right hand, and the water blade touching his right hand was directly devoured.
Across from him, Via couldn't process what she was seeing. She had been extremely nervous seeing Takeru not dodging or blocking the water blade, but when she saw the water blade disappear without a trace upon contacting Takeru's palm, she was even more confused.
"Only three hundred mana? Seems a bit weak." Looking at the increased mana reserve, Takeru murmured to himself.
"Alright, use Water Cannon now." Looking at Via, Takeru urged again.
"Ah... I command you by the source of power, interpret the power of reason, and unleash a torrent to strike this person! Water Cannon!" After gathering, a large sphere of water appeared before Via. After condensing for a moment, it was fired fiercely toward Takeru.
It formed a water pillar with extremely strong impact force. As the water pillar neared him, Takeru, like before, simply reached out his hand and absorbed the water pillar directly. After about five seconds, the Water Cannon attack completely stopped. Via was slightly out of breath.
Water Cannon was already a high-level skill, so even she found it somewhat strenuous to use. Takeru looked at the over 2,500 mana the Water Cannon had provided him and shook his head slightly, 'Too weak. However, in this world, it seemed already quite strong...'
As for Via, watching her strongest special move have no effect at all, she stared blankly at Takeru. It was simply unbelievable.
Takeru, however, didn't pay too much attention to Via. He looked directly at the balloon monsters rushing toward him again on the grassland. With a single swing of his longsword, a sword energy slash flew toward the balloon monsters, cutting them in half.
This sword energy wasn't any special skill. It was purely the result of strength and speed reaching a certain level, condensing the air into a sharp cutting wave. The principle was the same as Rankyaku.
Takeru's casual attack again plunged Via into silence.
Looking at the deep trench on the ground, Via suspected that a casual sword swing from Takeru could kill her instantly, 'No wonder Takeru-sama stated that only those who passed his test were qualified to be companions. Ordinary adventurers could probably only serve as burdens with no other use.'
With the death of the balloon monsters, Takeru gained 4 experience points. Added to the 3 points gained earlier, Takeru's experience reached 7 points. Leveling up to level 2 only required 20 experience points.
"Have you rested enough?" After checking his experience, Takeru turned to look at Via.
"Ah, y-yes, Brave One!" Hearing Takeru's words, Via quickly stood up, speaking formally and nervously.
"Call me Takeru." Hearing her address, Takeru spoke directly.
"Yes, Takeru-sama." Hearing this, Via immediately changed how she addressed him.
Hearing her call him that, Takeru nodded, then signaled for her to follow. He moved to a slightly more central location.
Five balloon monsters used the cover of the grass to quickly sneak up to Takeru, then opened their mouths wide and bit down toward him.
Seeing this, Via nervously used her staff to quickly chant a spell at one of them.
But before the Water Arrow could fully form, she noticed all five balloon monsters explode simultaneously. Takeru then gathered the damaged fragments.
After all, they were items containing some mana. At the very least, they could provide a good amount of energy to the Recycling Slime.
Additionally, with the death of the balloon monsters, Takeru gained another 15 experience points, raising his level to 2.
Takeru then looked at his status screen. He noticed there were free attribute points he could allocate. After thinking for a moment, Takeru directly allocated them to constitution.
Although the status screen was still garbled, on the Reincarnation Watch, Takeru saw his constitution attribute point rise by 1 point. It seemed this attribute point allocation was quite decent.
However, two points converting to one point confused Takeru. He wondered if it was because his attributes were too high, or if two or more points from this world were needed to match one point from the Reincarnation Space.
Shaking his head, as he was thinking, Takeru noticed Naofumi bringing Myne to a nearby spot. Naofumi then began his battle with the balloon monsters.
Compared to the balloon monsters that burst with one touch from Takeru…
Under Naofumi's attacks, it took five consecutive direct hits to burst one. However, he did have one advantage: while hitting balloon monsters was difficult for him, they couldn't break through his defense either. This meant he was invincible against balloon monsters.
Noticing Takeru's gaze, Naofumi looked at Takeru and gave him a slight nod. Takeru then led Via toward the forest. Balloon monsters were too low-level... leveling up with them would be exhausting.
"By the way, Via, there's a party function, right?" Then, Takeru looked at Via.
"Yes, Takeru-sama. Forming a party allows teammates to share the vast majority of experience points without reducing the experience gained by the person who earned them." Hearing Takeru's words, Via quickly explained.
"Is that so? Then let's form a party." Hearing her words, Takeru spoke directly.
"Yes, I would be delighted, Takeru-sama!" Hearing Takeru's words, Via showed a look of surprise.
As soon as they entered the forest, two rabbit-type monsters jumped out. They had short, round bodies and two very sharp fangs.
Using his investigation skill, Takeru could see their name was [Rabbity] and their level was 4.
The moment they pounced, Takeru moved his arm slightly. Two invisible slashes flew out, instantly cutting their bodies in half. Takeru directly gained 30 experience points.
After looking at the rabbit corpses with interest, Takeru stored them away.
"Takeru-sama, do you know legendary storage magic?" Watching Takeru make the monster corpses disappear, Via was stunned. She hadn't noticed much with the balloon monster corpses, as they were like scraps of cloth, but now she was shocked.
"Yes. Just be aware of it." Hearing her words, Takeru was momentarily surprised, then realized that this world basically didn't seem to have spatial storage items or abilities. Even the Heroes' status screens didn't have one.
"Yes, I will definitely not tell anyone!" Hearing Takeru's words, Via quickly and sincerely said.
Looking at the nervous Via, Takeru nodded slightly, then continued walking forward.
Soon, they encountered more Rabbity. Like before, Takeru swung his hand, and the Rabbity were again split in two. Takeru gained another 15 experience points, and Via gained 3 experience points.
Watching Takeru quickly kill monsters while she could only stand by and leech experience, Via felt a bit embarrassed.
Originally, according to the script, they should be leading the Hero to level up. But now the roles were completely reversed, making her somewhat uncomfortable.
Takeru, however, didn't pay attention to Via's distraction. Takeru's strength didn't require relying on these people. He had only let her stay because she passed the test. Moreover, having someone from this world as a guide in the days ahead would be a very good option.