Chapter 121. Another Power Leveling Plan
After gaining [I Want A Chocolate Flavored Meat] and [Every Transmigrator’s Dream Nose Plug], Catherina could now eat without feeling disgust.
As promised, Cedric also gave her a divine item that let her speak.
[Level 1 Divine Item, I am Curious What My Dog Say
Cost: 100 GP
Details: A mass-produced divine item that'll allow animal-type creatures to speak. Unable to support special languages like Divine Language, Draconic Language, Ancient Language, and any magical language your world has.
PS: My dog can now tell me when it wants to poop!]
From the item’s details, Cedric felt the item was definitely from the same series as the [Water Me!] Divine Item he gave to let Elisa speak human language.
Now, with both the divine items that allowed her to eat and speak, Catherina began her daily life in another world.
Time quickly passed by, and ten years went by in the blink of an eye.
During these ten years, Cedric has been mostly watching Helion and Catherina.
Unlike Catherina, who’s trying to get used to her life, Helion is busy teaching the dwarven and elven apprentice he recruited.
After the first few years, the apprentices learned the required knowledge about magic. Those apprentices also began their own research, which bore some fruit that has advanced the theory of magic.
During his time teaching them, Helion also kept warning them about the dangers of humans, especially the Temple that reigned supreme over the human world.
Once Helion saw his apprentices had learned most of the knowledge and had begun to embark on their own path, Helion finally left for human territory.
With some support from Elisa and the elves, Helion borrowed a giant bird that the elves recently started taming to help them with transportation.
Using the bird, Helion quickly flew near the mountain range that separated the continent.
He initially wanted to let it fly beyond the mountain range, but the elves had warned him about the dragons that would attack any flying magical beasts in their territory.
Unwilling to fight those dragons in the air, Helion decided to pass the mountain range on foot. Thankfully, he didn’t experience any dragon attacks. Every time he saw a dragon flying far in the distance, Helion immediately dug a hole to hide.
After a long hike, he safely arrived at the human territory.
Entering a random city, he looked around and found his wanted poster couldn’t be seen anywhere.
Actually, that’s pretty logical. After all, Helion has gone missing for a few decades.
Starting from that city, Helion began to secretly travel throughout human territory.
Whenever he finds a talented person in a difficult situation, he’ll try to recruit them to be his apprentice. Especially if they hated the Temple.
Within two years, he has already gathered five apprentices with varying talents. Because he feared the Temple, Helion and his apprentice mostly traveled around while looking for other suitable talent.
Meanwhile, after ten years, Catherina has matured enough.
After eating many magical plants and magical beasts brought by her new mother. Even though she hasn't killed any demon yet, Elisa has reached Mid Level 0.
Honestly, it was pretty fast compared to other dragons.
Cedric felt that it was thanks to her potential, which was much higher than that of any other dragon.
Feeling it’s a suitable time for her to start leveling, Cedric messaged her.
[Congratulations on your tenth birthday since reincarnating. Finally, it’s time for you to fulfil your destiny.]
Catherina, who had just slept in the cave, got startled by Cedric’s message. Then, she looked around at the empty cave and shouted, “Finally! After waiting for so long while doing nothing, I almost forgot I was reincarnated here as a hero.”
Through [Divine Intervention: Image], Cedric immediately sent her a map with the location of a Mid Level 0 demon marked.
[Here's the location of a weak demon. You must learn to subdue them and level up enough before dealing with the demon king.]
Catherina nodded her scaly head and prepared to leave the cave she's been staying at for ten years.
Before she left, Cedric gave her a [Level 1 Consumable Divine Item, Fire Lance]. It’s a weapon in the same series as the elemental swords he usually gives.
As to why he didn’t give Catherine swords? Cedric has studied the dragon’s anatomy for a long time and felt it would be pretty difficult for them to use a sword correctly.
Just like the Fire Sword, the Fire Lance contains three uses of fire attack equal to Level 1 blessed’s strongest attack. It cost him 30 GP to purchase.
Holding the Fire Lance with her front claws, Catherina followed the map.
Once she arrived, Catherina saw a half-bald giant bird with pus and a tumor growing around it.
With every flap of its wing, some pus flew from its body and landed on the surrounding area.
Seeing that disgusting bird, Catherina checked the map while holding back her disgust.
“Is that the demon?” She asked with half disbelief.
[Indeed]
“Shouldn't a demon look like a human with horns? At the very least, they should be humanoid, right?”
[You're reading too many novels and manga.]
“Damn it, my dream of kidnapping a handsome, sexy demon has failed even before it began.”
Cedric felt utterly flabbergasted by Catherina.
Thankfully, after throwing some complaints, Catherina started taking action.
She flew to the bird and started her first battle since arriving at the Crystal Cube world.
But as a noob in direct combat, coupled with her lack of detailed control over her body. She barely won against the demon bird even after using the Fire Lance’s Level 1 attack once.
After her first combat, Catherina had lost a few scales, and one of her claws was actually damaged.
During the melee, she clawed at the bird's head. But the bird responded extremely quickly and pecked at her claw until it cracked.
After watching Catherina’s first battle, Cedric felt it was a bit too dangerous for Catherina to fight demons on her own.
After contemplation, he decided to seek Elisa’s help.
Although Elisa couldn't directly move, she still controls a massive elven force under her.
Borrowing those elves, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to power level Catherina to Level 4 or even the limit of Catherina’s potential, Lower Level 5.
As long as Catherina reaches Lower Level 5, the demon king is basically done for.
While Cedric is planning, the System suddenly appeared.
[Sorry to burst your bubble, but when your world leveled up, the System mentioned that the maximum level a creature in a Level 2 world could achieve is Peak Level 4. Of course, there's some creature who could transcend a world’s limit, but the System doesn't think Catherina would be one of them.]
“Huh?” Cedric checked the memories when his world leveled up and indeed found the notification that said the maximum level for creatures in his world had risen to Level 4.
“Well, it doesn't matter. I'll just need to spend more GP and buy some Divine Items for Catherina.” Cedric muttered as he proceeded with his plan.
Using the [Divine Intervention: Word], Cedric sent a message to tell Elisa about the demon king, the new hero, and to give a helping hand to the new hero.
Feeling the threat from his description of the demon king, Elisa agreed to lend a hand.
While Elisa gathered some blessed elves, Cedric sent a map that showed the location of Elisa's city to Catherina.
To make sure she could travel safely, Cedric also marked the location of dangerous magical beasts and demons she might encounter along the way.
Thanks to her ability to fly, Catherina soon arrived at Elisa’s city.
Looking at the giant tree in the center of the city, she muttered, “Is that the world tree that's often seen in games and stories?!”
[No. That's your senior transmigrator, Elisa, who accidentally reincarnated as a tree. She's been reincarnated in this world around five hundred years ago. I sent you here to let her assist you in leveling quickly.]
“Five hundred years!” Catherina focused on another matter while exclaiming in amazement.
Then, she entered the city while exclaiming once again, “There are so many elves here!”
She looked around and became speechless upon seeing the many colorful advertisement screens that filled the street. “Are those… billboards? And the digital kind at that. Why do these light pollution sources also exist in another world?”
While she looked around Elisa's city, which mixed nature and modernity, an elf who had been watching Catherina finally gathered his courage to come closer.
The elf muttered in amazement while looking at the shocked Catherina,“I've never seen a dragon who could speak before.”
Without realizing it, Catherina has been speaking the elven language since she saw the advertisement on the digital billboards around the city.
Catherina also realized it once she regained her senses and heard a language that was both familiar and unfamiliar from the nearby elf. ‘Did I just speak the elven language? Is this one of the cheats I gained from reincarnating?”
Then, she looked at the nearby elf while slightly nodding, ‘This one is quite handsome.’
The elf couldn't read Catherina's mind, but her heated gaze made the elf flinch.
‘Never mind, I can still meet many other handsome men in the future. I shouldn't get too excited just after meeting an elf.’ Catherina quickly threw aside the useless thoughts.
She looked at the elf next to her and asked while pointing at Elisa’s main body, “Do you know how I could visit Elisa?”
Although she could just fly to the tree that's located right in the center of the city. Anyone with a little brain could guess that the tree is extremely important. Otherwise, it won't grow right at the center.
The elf looks a bit surprised, “You actually know Elder Elisa’s body. Did you look for her information on the internet before visiting this city?”
This time it's Catherina’s turn to be utterly dumbfounded. “Internet?”
“You didn't find out about Elder Elisa from the Internet? Did you talk with other elves? But if you have talked with any elf, news about a talking dragon should've spread throughout the internet. Perhaps you visited a village without an internet connection? But I thought every elven city and village had been connected by the plants' network?” The elf is actually kinda chatty. But Elisa’s brain is malfunctioning.
“Can.. can you show me the internet?”
“I could bring you to my house if you don't mind. It's quite small, though, so you won't be able to spread your wing.”
Catherina nodded and followed the elf to his house. ‘Meeting the senior transmigrator can wait for later. I must check the internet first. My internet addiction immediately flared once the elves mentioned it.’
Catherina soon followed the elf into a tree house, or perhaps house tree is the more appropriate description.
It's a small house made of wood. The house is located in a deserted alley, an alley similar to the place where a certain bat-themed superhero’s parents got shot.
After entering the small house, Catherina thanked her own small body, ‘Thankfully, I haven't fully matured. If I were as big as my mother, I might not be able to enter this house.’
Soon, she saw the elf walk towards a complicated-looking plant sitting on top of a desk. Its complicated network of roots can be seen from below the table. Somehow, the roots remind Catherina of electronic cables.
After touching one of the plants, the massive leaf located in front of the seat lights up with color.
Catherina excitedly stood next to the elf as he moved a plant that should work as a ‘mouse’ while typing something on a plant that worked as a ‘keyboard’.
The elf saw the excited Catherina and stood up from the chair, “Do you want to use it? I'll teach you from the side.”
“There's no need. Just tell me your PC’s password, I can handle the rest.” Catherina took over the elf’s chair and comfortably sat. “I might not have used this plant-based computer. But I am not unfamiliar with it.”
With familiarity, Catherina checked the internet, which was still in its infancy.
She looked at the elf standing next to her and said, “Let me borrow this for a while.”
“Don’t you want to visit Elder Elisa?” the elf asked, watching Catherina, who had already grown comfortable typing with her claws.
“I can visit her later. It's not like she'll run away if I delay for a short while.”
This ‘short while’ lasted exactly for a whole week.