Last chapter of 10,000 Steps for today. Since I'll be working on Ecstas Online.

CHAPTER 36: Kiss on the Cheeks

「Eri. Stand there for a moment. I have something I want to test.」

「I understand.」

Dematerialize!

And with what, Eri became translucent again.

Materialize!

And then, she becomes unclear.

「Amazing. Onii-chan can do anything! Sasu Tetsu!」

Umu. I am too great.

The world is being led by me.

「Tetsuya-san! Tetsuya-san! Please look at this flyer!」

When I was impressed with myself, Aria who came home from shopping was filled with excitement.

「What's wrong, Aria? Was it something more amazing than playing on the clouds?」

「Compared to that, it's not a big deal, but my tension is high as usual!」

That being said.

「Ah, so this is a flyer. A Monster Tournament will be held next week.」

「Monster Tournament?」

I checked the flyer Aria handed to me.

Fumufumu.

A Tournament where one has to capture a monster and fight it on a one on one.

It seems to be held at the Colosseum at the Royal Capital once a year.

「The victory prize is 50 gold coins! We're adventurers but we've recently been skipping on work, so let's earn money with this!」

「Even if it is next week, will we be able to make money? Capturing a monster and raising them is rather unreasonable.」

「There, Sasu Tetsu will find a way!」

「Iya~a, that's impossible.」

Perhaps, I could do it, but I'm not really that interested so I won't do it.

Rather, we should just head to the Adventurer's Guild and receive a quest and get rewarded.

「Onii-chan, show Eri the flyer too!」

And Eri who began to laugh and smiled from reading the flyer.

「As I thought. The rules are the same ten years ago. However, from this Monster Tournament, anyone but humans can partic.i.p.ate.」

「He~.....However, even if you send out a dog or a cat, they won't be able to win against the monsters, so won't it just be a Monster Tournament?」

[TL Note: Meaning: Monster vs Monster]

「It's normal, onii-chan! But, I might be able to partic.i.p.ate, since I'm a ghost!」

Eri puts her hand on her chest and makes a smug face.

Certainly, if Eri's in her ghost form, no one would think it's a human being.

Furthermore, since they won't be able to touch her, every movement of the opponents would be invalid.

「But, Eri. How will you attack?」

「Onii-chan, have you forgotten? Though they can't touch me, I can touch them!」

「What happens if you touch them?」

「.....Chills run through the body.」

「That's all?」

「I wonder if that's really all.....?」

「I think it's impossible.」

You'd be surprised, but that's it.

She cannot lose, but she cannot win.

Probably, the decision would mean defeat.

「Hold on, Tetsuya-san! Tetsuya-san has that skill!」

「What skill?」

「Hora. It's the skill you used when you fought that enormous squid. With that, you can strengthen Eri!」

「Ah.... Level lease...?」

The level-lease is an early story, where I can lend my level by kissing a person.

But, the level-lease will not trigger unless the other party is with a mutual love.

「Eri, do you love me?」

「E,e~, onii-chan, I love you~!」

[TL Note: She said 'eee, oniichandaisuki' here but I separated it]

An answer that I expected.

What about me?

I think Eri is cute, and I think she's like an imouto-figure to me.

But when it comes to romantic feelings... if I do it wrong, will everything go south?

However, Eri is 10 years old.

[Okay, in the raw, he said 'しかしアリアは十歳だ。' which means 'However, Aria is 10 years old' so I changed it.]

If I kiss her, I'd be a criminal as expected... But, Eri is actually twenty years old.

Therefore, she's an adult woman! But, it still is difficult to say so.

[TL Note: Yup, let it rip man! Appearances don't matter, if she's legal, go do it, if she's on the clock, leave, but she's both.]

【Besides, you can just kiss her on the cheeks. Though the duration time would be three minutes.】

Really? Then that's fine!!

「Eri. Can I kiss you on the cheeks?」

「E~ In front of Aria!?」

Is it embarra.s.sing to be seen?

「Then I will withdraw to the second floor, and wake up Mimily who's oversleeping!」

Aria started going up the stairs....while looking back.

「Tetsuya-san. Kiss my cheeks later too, okay!」

「It's fine, but.」

「Yatta!」

Aria head to the second floor.... And she stopped again.

「No matter what, go with lips to lips instead of a kiss on the cheeks! It's embarra.s.sing!」

Moving selfishly, she kept moving and disappeared to the second floor, moving noisily.

Strange.

Well, I'm not obsessed with lips to lips though.

[TL Note: F**king liar, I bet you are, doing it every night with freaking lolis...]

「O,onii-chan.... I... you.. know..on the cheeks... but on the lips..」

「...After all, Eri is growing bigger.」

「Mmm. Eri is already a woman! But, I don't mind. It is proof that onii-chan values Eri. I will put up with having kissed on the cheeks for now.」

Eri said with a clear expression. You've really become a woman.

However, before I use the level-lease, I'll check Eri's current status.

Name: Eri Alcott

Level: 1

HP: 19

MP: 8

Strength: 2

Defense: 3

Agility: 9

Luck: 10

[TL Note: Originally, it was Attack power, Defense power, Quickness and Good luck, but I found that boring, so I changed it.]

The feeling of being an ordinary girl.

Kissing Eri on the cheeks

Activate Level-lease.

First of all, let's give her level 100.

Name: Eri Alcott

Level: 101

HP: 6080

MP: 731

Strength: 261

Defense: 326

Agility: 403

Luck: 389

If it's this, it can defeat most of the monsters.

In case, let's just give her level 500 the day of the Tournament.

[TL Note: Wow, okay.. give me that too.]

「O,onii-chan... I'm feeling strange... Power is welling up from my body, it's hot....」

「I shared a bit of my level with you, Eri. Eri's current level is 101!」

「Amazing! But.. what should I do! There's a lot of power... let's do something...!」

Eri muttered with an enthusiastic expression.

Her hands emitted light faintly.

Magic is gathering is about to overflow!

「S,stop it Eri! If you release too much magic here, the house will break!」

「I know... It's unbearable.... auu... Useless, it's coming out!」

I rushed to the garden while carrying Eri.

And grasped her hands and pointed them towards the sky.

At that moment, Eri reached her limit.

The magic released from both hands joined together and form a huge fireball from our heads.

It flew to the sky at an intense speed.

A few seconds later, a loud roaring sound was heard from the Royal Capital, and for a moment two suns aligned.

The crowd began making a fuss and came out. *zawazawa*

Though no one saw it was us.... we ran back into the house because it was awkward.

「Hauuu...onii-chan....I ran out of when I used magic....」

Eri was suppressed with a lingering finish that released magic, so I had to carry her again.

When we enter the house, Aria goes down from the second floor while panicking.

「Tetsuya-san! There was a terrible sound coming from outside! What was it!?」

「Well, when I shared my level with Eri, magic began overflowing so she had to shoot out towards the sky.」

「Ha~a, I see. In my case, my physical strength rose a lot, but my magic didn't overflow... does it depend on the person?...」

Perhaps it may be.

Even at the same level, the statuses seem to be different for each person.

It would seem to grow with talent.

In other words, Eri has the talent as a Magician.

「By the way, Aria. Where's Mimily?」

「That's.... she still didn't wake up even with that sound.」

Even with that sound? Wow, I'm impressed.

In a sense, she's better than me.

Whatever, at the moment I'm holding Eri!

Amazing! Excellent!

「....onii-chan. I want to try that again... It was soothing.」

Eri mutters with an ecstatic face while being held by me.

Apparently, she has become addicted to it.

Well, I understand that.

Releasing magic is pleasant after all.

「It's only for three minutes that you can get stronger if it's on the cheeks and the duration has already reached its limit. And Eri seems to be tired, so let's just do it tomorrow. Until the Tournament, she'll have to practice to control her magic.」

「Wai~~.....」

[TL Note: She's trying to say 'Hai' but she's too tired]

There is no limit on how many times I can use level-lease, so I'll be able to share levels again by kissing.

However, after the level is MP, and Eri seems to be sleeping now.

Might as well lay down next to Mimily.

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