31. Leveling up and a new costume

“Are you sure you can do this? What if your wound opens up again?” Kiandra continued her worrying a while after they’d continued their journey from the camp area. Due to lack of change of clothes Waldina was now wearing her slightly torn ninja dress and a cape on top of it. The cape guarded her from both wind and curious looks. Not that it was cold outside. On the contrary, the forest was quite warm. Waldina enjoyed the tranquil journey without a single mosquito. That was something she’d rarely got to experience during summers in her home world’s forests.

“Yes yes, I’ve said that who knows how many times now,” Waldina laughed dryly casting a calm and serene smile on her lips. She had to admit her back was aching a tad bit more than she’d anticipated but she wasn’t about to admit that to Kiandra nor Claudia. Marching forwards was more important. Besides, according to her bracelet, she didn’t lose any health points nor did her condition worsen from moving around. Perhaps the wound wasn’t as deep as she’d originally feared. Nor how it seemed like.

Though she didn’t want to dance with death either. She kept the horse’s pace slightly slower than yesterday to avoid any extra bumps and movements whilst riding the horse. On top of that, this pace gave her plenty of time to notice monsters. Especially those she could defeat with her shurikens.

Water magic was a choice as well, though she wasn’t exactly proficient in using the only offensive spell she knew, aqua peila. Lately she hadn’t practiced water magic as much as she wanted which was a shame. Yet that was the reason why using it to attack any monsters was both a possibility and a threat.

Around this part of the forest, the territory of the gray bears, there were all sorts of monsters and animals. For example there were a colony of yellow wasps, some slimes (somewhat stronger than those on Inizio, yet still quite weak) as well as bear and wolf hybrids, arthunds. Alongside the monsters there were common predators such as foxes and bears. As monsters gave more experience towards her levels, Waldina mainly focused on killing those. After all, she didn’t want to waste any of her daggers or shurikens. Though defeating common predators would be useful as experience, it still wouldn’t help much in leveling up.

“Hmm, I wonder if I should put my latest experience points towards magic,” Waldina thought half-outloud whilst checking her bracelet’s information. Leveling up her magic would strengthen her water bullets in the future, not to mention all the other water magic related skills. At this rate it would take a long time before she was a full-fledged ninja, so she might as well learn to use other abilities on the side.

“That’s a good idea,” Kiandra encouraged, though she knew Waldina didn’t ask for opinion. It still worked as a way to begin a conversation. “By the way, did you receive anything else from your third stage-exam?”

“Other than the drops you already saw I got a ninja skill: stilgan which means silent movement,” Waldina nodded adding, “Though at this point it’s not actually silent, but it will eventually be, and right now it can help with ambushes and other stuff.”

“Can you level it up similarly to your other skills?” Kiandra tilted her head while thinking.

“Somewhat. However, most of the leveling up for it comes from stage-exams,” Waldina shrugged, displeased and faced forward. Two yellow wasps were flying towards them. Waldina mimicked a gun with her fingers and pointed at the first wasp: “Aqua peila.”

The water bullet splashed straight at the wasp and it dropped down, flapping its wings. It didn’t die on impact and the ninja looked at the result with dissatisfaction. She aimed another water bullet at the wasps causing it to disappear into mana dust.

The remaining wasp charged at Waldina, now considerably angry. It held its poison spike forward ready to sting any moment. Seeing it from up close, the yellow wasps were frightening in size. They were nearly half of Kiandra’s size making them way bigger than the wasps in Waldina’s homeworld.

“Aqua peila. Aqua peila,” Waldina chanted the spell twice and the wasp took a hit both times, disappearing into thin air even before falling to the ground.

“Did you already get level 30?” Kiandra inquired enthusiastically and ready for battle, but the ninja just shook her head: “No way. According to the bracelet I’m only half way there.”

“Aww shucks. Why can’t you just wear the dress without the level?” Kiandra didn’t really value the system which restricted her friend’s actions.

“At the game it was because the custom held elements that strengthened the player and low level players simply weren't capable enough to wear it,” Waldina reminisced back to her days as an active Adventurous Online player. “But here it seems that I simply can’t take it out from the bracelet before I reach the next level.”

“Stupid system and its rules,” the bluehaired fairy snorted, “shouldn’t you get some more clothes from shops? Ones you could actually wear whenever you wished. That way you could change your style every so often.”

“Haha, a good idea. Remind me of that once we’ve finished this mission. We could also look for clothes for you,” Waldina laughed without completely shutting down the thought.

“Why can’t you go shopping with me?” Claudia inquired as she suddenly rode next to Waldina and Kiandra.

“Because it would prolong our journey,” Waldina raised her eyebrow at Claudia, wondering why she’d suddenly decide to ride next to them. “Besides, it would endanger you.”

“Endanger me? Stopping in one of the bigger cities? I mean for example Jimdar is on our way and big enough not to run to anyone I know,” Claudia suggested making Waldina squint in suspicion. The ninja just kept her mouth shut, turning to look at her map. And yes, Jimdar was on their way to Xunte Sintra. Not for a while now but perhaps in a week or so.

“I guess so,” Waldina mumbled, trying to think of a potent enough argument. “Though stopping there for shopping would still prolong our journey.”

“You don’t seriously think that for a month’s trip there wouldn’t be any rest days? I’m sure it was accounted for in my knights’ plans,” Claudia’s voice was filled with disbelief.

“If we are in a hurry, why would we laze around?” Waldina tried arguing, knowing she’d already lost this round.

“Well well. Not a single noble actually travels for a month without any breaks,” Claudia laughed, ending the conversation in her victory.

Their journey continued in silence. At times Waldina defeated the approaching yellow wasps with water magic. She mostly ignored slimes as she figured water wouldn’t damage them much, and she didn’t want to waste her daggers on low level monsters. Besides slimes were mostly harmless, even more so as they were riding horses.

Arthunds on the other hand approached them a couple of times. First Waldina had tried to defeat them with her water bullets but those weren’t causing much damage - at least not when she used them. Thus her only possibility was to fight with her daggers and shurikens. It disheartened her a bit, as she knew she didn’t have time to gather those weapons so she’d have to leave them behind. She tried telling herself that she needed new daggers anyways.

The shurikens and daggers were luckily enough to defeat the arthunds and they continued their journey without much problems. Most of the monsters and beings in the forest weren’t causing trouble for Waldina and her party and it gave her hope.

And finally, after what felt like forever - plus a one night spent sleeping in the forest - Waldina’s bracelet informed her of a new level. She sighed in relief, stopped her horse and jumped down to the ground. Claudia followed after her.

“Did you finally get the level?” Claudia and Kiandra asked curiously. Waldina nodded in response and without a moment's hesitation took off her torn black ninja dress and tossed it back to her inventory. Perhaps it could be fixed later on.

“Oh, by the way, how does the wound look like?” she asked before grabbing her new ninja costume. Kiandra flew to check her wound and with Claudia’s help, took off the bandages. The wound was still reddish but seemed mostly closed.

“It looks great. You get well at an incredible rate,” Kiandra stated, cleaned the wound with her water spell, dried it and then bandaged it with Claudia.

“Yes, at a supernatural rate,” Claudia added, expressing her amazement.

“Perhaps it's thanks to Slehtkubi - I’m their backup hero, after all,” Waldina let out a dry laugh and turned to look at her new costume. This time it was a two-piece set with short top, which hid mostly her boobs and nothing else, and a skirt settling beautifully on her waist. The skirt was slightly longer compared to her prior dress. However it didn’t have shorts with it. There was once again a slit at the side, which revealed her leg all the way up to her waist. Both the top and the bottom were dark-colored, slightly grayish.

“Hmm, that should be okay,” Waldina nodded, slightly disapproving of the way the costume exposed her body. Kiandra’s words echoed in her mind about the fact she could always buy other clothes.

“It looks gorgeous,” Claudia praised, and her cheeks reddened a bit. As a noble she wasn’t used to clothes that showed so much skin, although she knew commoners used those.

“Oh mi gosh, you can’t get embarrassed seeing such clothes,” Kiandra scolded with a gentle tone. “Countryboy Diaz is used to all sorts of things, even worse than that. And surely you’ll come across those in the big cities.”

“Ugh I know,” Claudia hid her face with her hands, hiding her growing embarrassment.

“Well, at least you have time to get used to it whilst we travel,” Waldina grinned and headed towards a close-by village. The sun was beginning to set but she was sure they’d reach the village before night. They could look for a more comfortable place to sleep in the village. And most of all, they could get used to chatting with other people. ‘Cause clearly both Claudia and Waldina needed it to get better at navigating this world.