Despite having evolved, the ander unit (tentative) Haniwa was easily defeated, causio let out a dumbfounded voice.

  "Alright, a different part dropped. Let's move on to the one.""Ooh!""My arms are itg!!""W-wait, hold on! Don't leave me, yuard, behind. Expin first! What was that thing, why did it turn out like that, and why was it doing that? I 't decide what to do unless I know it's safe."

  Ign him, I targeted the Haniwa. A wing-like item dropped, so I attached it to a slingshot and tried to unch it, but Dent stopped me.

  "Ehh...""Don't 'ehh' me. Holy, I 't keep up with what's going on. And Nel, don't gre at me like that."

  Amina booed, asking if we should stop here, while Nel gred, telli not to interfere.

  "You'd uand, right?""I do, but the timing...""Sorry for not reading the room!! But as a guard, this is a normal judgment!! Monsters evolving is pretty abnormal, you know!?"

  In terms of experience points, defeating the Haniwa would level up all three of us. Acc to the Kagami Mochi, in this world, experience points are distributed equally based on the number of people who attaot the damage ratio.

  In short, if multiple people attack a single mohe experience is divided by the number of attackers, not by the damage dealt.

  This is just like in games.However, ohing to note is that after attag, you o maintain a certain distance. If the monizing you as a target, you won't get any experience.

  In other words, if you attad then run away to safety, letting someone else finish the monster, you won't get any experience.

  Using this, we've been dividing the experience from the Haniwa into three parts to meet the EXBP acquisition ditions.

  "So, to summarize, you're saying that by evolving them like that and making them into separate entities, the experience points we get increase slightly? And even after evolving, they don't get that much stronger?"

  Regarding EXBP, we kept it hidden on Nel's advice. Instead, I expihat using items to evolve the Haniwa increases the experience points we get from them.

  "They hardly ge. As long as you don't mess up the type and amount of items you give them, they don't get much stronger.""How much is 'how much'?""There are three stages in total. The Haniwa drop 14 types of items, one of which is a magic stone and another is a key, so those two don't t. The problem is the remaining 12 types. Using 4 types upgrades them to the first stage, 8 types to the sed stage, and all 12 types creates a plete form. Using just oype only gives a slight boost, making you wonder if they even got strowo types make you feel like they might have gotten stronger, and three types make the differeiceable. Wheage up, they css up, so their appearance ges too."

  Haniwa, or Petit s, e with a standard skill called "Merge." However, there are ditions to activate it.

  "...I get the reason. But why do you have to shoot it with a slingshot?""That's the activation dition for the Merge skill.""Merge skill?""It's a skill on to Golem-type monsters. There are several ditions to activate the Merge skill, one of which is shooting a part at the body to automatically merge."

  You might think there's o shoot items from a distae and evolve them, but the skill activation ditions are a bit special. There are three patterns: Golems mutually agreeing te, shooting items with a uo dock them, or forcibly merging with a higher-level Golem.

  "What the hell is that? I mean, I've heard that Golems sometimes bee rger entities, but is that how it works?"

  Petit s, or Haniwa, always drop one of the merge items. They have no sale value, 't be equipped or synthesized, and 't be used as ons or items. They exist solely to meet the EXBP acquisition ditions.

  "No problem. I fought them, and they didn't seem to get much stronger.""Is that so?"

  To firm the strength of the evolved Haniidd followed my instrus to evolve one and fought it. He cluded that it wasn't dangerous, a, roughly scratg his head, let out a big sigh.

  "ime, sult me before doing something like this. You just shortened my lifespan by a month.""Okay. Oh, by the way, a Haniwa that evolves to the third stage bees a Css 4 boss, abs surrounding Haniwa to evolve further. If left alone for about a month, it bees a Css 6 boss.""Absolutely don't do that. Summoning such a monster he capital would be no joke."

  In the end, it was judged that there was no problem, but I was scolded for not rep it and got a painful punch to the head. It was my fault for deg on my own that it was fine.

  Dent was right; I should have unicated the parts that o be shared. Keeping some things secret made it hard to make proper judgments.

  "Okay, I'll be more careful.""Good. Now, let's level up, right?""Yes."

  Refleg on this, I decided to do better iure.

  I bowed my head holy, got Dent's permission, and resumed leveling up.

  I set the wing-like part I picked up earlier into the slingshot.

  "Alright, let's get back to it!""Ooh!""Well, alright."

  Amina's cheerful response was really heartwarming. Nel was a bit annoyed but seemed fih it as long as we could level up, and she readied her slingshot.

  I uhe wing-like part, and it glowed again. This time, wings sprouted from the Haniwa's back.

  Not that it could fly, though. It came at us just like before.

  "I hit it!""Last one's mine!!"

  Nel and Amina attacked in turn.

  'Level increased by one. Css unlocked.'"Oh.""We leveled up!!""Yay!!"

  The annou echoed in my head. We finally got our level.

  "Oh, you leveled up? grats.""grats.""Thank you.""Thanks!""I'm so happy!"

  Our first level-up. Despite what happened earlier, Dent and Pidd gratuted us.

  I had to holy thank them.

  "Alright! Let's keep going to the level!""Huh? Aren't you going to check your status? Allog BP to stamina would make fighting easier."

  Dent tilted his head as we, without cheg our status, tinued leveling up.

  "It's more effit to raise the experieable a bit more before adjusting our status."

  I firmly decred that we wouldn't adjust our status yet and focused oing Haniwa.

  It was the same as before.I hit the Haniwa with a part, Nel hit it with a stone, and Amina fi off.

  We just repeated this over and over.

  Occasionally, a magic stone would drop, which we carefully picked up and put in a leather bag.

  Guarded by Dent and Pidd, we stayed alert to our surroundings and heard the level-up annou a few times.

  "Hey, it's about time to head bap. If we keep going, it'll be dark before we get back."

  Time .We were so absorbed in leveling up that time flew by.

  Lunch was just dried meat and water, which was bnd, but leveling up was so fun that it didn't matter.

  "Hey, hey, Liberta! We leveled up a lot today. Maybe we level up even more tomorrow.""Yeah, we're getting the hang of it, and we have some leeway in the experieable, so maybe we go solo soon.""Solo? Are you sure that's okay?"

  On the way back, we discussed how much we leveled up today and whether we could go solo tomorrow since we were getting used to the battles.

  "Don't go solo. If you move individually even within ht, we might not be able to keep up. And overfidence is the most dangerous. Today's teamwork worked well. Just keep going at this pace."

  In terms of experience efficy, solo is definitely better. But Dent had a point.

  My safety standards are definitely lower tha's. And there's Amina's aoo.

  In that case, there's o force a solo approach.

  Dent's instrus seemed to reassure Amina, and Nel didn't seem to have any pints.

  "Uood.""Smart guys live long. I guara.""When you say it, it's ving.""Don't praise me, Pidd. Dent, the man with a reputation for survival."

  If we're gettis, pushing for more might be dangerous. Unlike in games, dying here might mean game over.

  It's better to be cautious.

  "I'm not praising you.""Don't say that, you're making me blush."

  We were a bit tired, but we'd recover after sleeping.

  Back at camp, we'd also check our status and allocate points.

  "Status? Status?""Liberta, I want to sult with you ter.""Ah, me too!""Sure."

  I'd also have to check their statuses. I promised to make them strong, so I o allocate their status points optimally.

  "You're so fresh. I was like that too when I first leveled up.""You're old.""Shut up!! You're not much better.""I'm still in my thirties.""I'm still in my twenties!!""You'll be thirty year, no difference."

  The uys' shouting was loud. I was worried it might attract monsters, but there shouldn't be any souive monsters around here.

  If a "Stray" were here, it'd be bad, but the ces of one appearihe capital are extremely low, and sighting information is always shared with the Adventurer's Guild.

  Since Dent and Pidd, whuild members, were making should be fine.

  We, the kids, were excitedly discussing our status allocations, while the two guys ie twenties were paring their past and present, insisting they were still young.

  The status talk was just a firmation for me, but Dent and Pidd's versation touched on how leveling up could slow physical dee and maintain peak dition at higher levels.

  But that's high-css talk.

  You'd o reach at least the tter half of Css 7 for it to matter.Even then, aging still progresses slightly.

  I wonder how people would react if I told them that reag the tter half of Css 7 could pletely stop aging.

  At the very least, it wouldn't lead to anything good.

  "Nel should focus on stamina, and Amina on magic. sidering future skill builds, that's the best approach."

  So, while listening to Dent and Pidd's versation, I focused on thinking about Nel and Amina's status allocations.

  "Is that so? Should I allocate all the points I got this time to stamina?""No, the ratio is important. Even if you focus on stamina, you need magic for skills, and even if you foagic, you amina to move. Being too unbanced will lead trets."

  Status allocation and future developments.It's best to start thinking about these things now.

  "Is that so? How should I allocate mine?""Nel, as a mert, should allocate 3 to stamina and 2 to magic. o all out with 4 stamina and 1 magic.""What about me?""Amina should go with 2 stamina and 3 magic.""Why do I have two options?""The baype is more stable and allows for skill usage, while the biased type is for o kills. We discuss this more at camp. Skill position ges drastically depending on status allocation.""I see. It's a lifetime thing, so it's important to think carefully.""Then I'm doomed, huh?""Don't worry, Amina. Your skill position is too broad, so you'll have more to think about.""That doesn't sound good either."

  Adults and kids, each with their own worries, but different versations.For now, it seemed like we could end the day happily and safely.