Harem Online: My Party Is Full of Beautiful Celebrities-Chapter 75: Level Up

Crimson Halo might be Chaos’s older sister, but who cared about that right now? She could wait. They had just gotten a new weapon.

For all the preparation he had done to teach a new healer who also happened to be his rival’s older sister, Martin could not care less about her at the moment. He touched the Baby Trident and pulled up its description to see what this weapon had in store.

[Baby Trident (Orange)]

[Type: One-handed Trident]

[Requirement: Lv. 5]

[Damage: 42-104]

[Strength: +94]

[Vitality: +82]

[Defense: +38]

[Agility: +26]

[Durability: 480/480]

[A compact but exceptional trident dropped by the Baby Kraken. Its three dark prongs carry the same black tone as the chains that once bound the creature, with a seaworn sheen that shifts between dull black and abyssal blue under the light. Though it is a trident, it belongs to the spear family and may be used with both spear and trident techniques. Built to pierce, catch, and redirect force rather than rely on raw impact alone, it is far beyond the standard of an ordinary level five weapon and rewards aggressive defense, close-range control, and the ability to turn enemy pressure into lethal counterforce.]

[Passive Skill: Tidal Shell (Orange)]

[Guarding, using a spear or trident skill, or taking a heavy hit forms a Tidal Shell around the user.]

[Tidal Shell absorbs damage based on the user’s Vitality and Defense.]

[While Tidal Shell is active, the user gains increased stability and cannot be easily interrupted.]

[The user may let Tidal Shell endure for defense or rupture it early through a direct strike or spear-family skill.]

[When Tidal Shell expires, is shattered, or is ruptured early, it bursts outward in a violent splash of compressed water.]

[The burst deals damage based on the shell’s strength and a portion of the damage it absorbed.]

[If Tidal Shell is ruptured early by an attack, the burst deals increased damage to the primary target.]

[Enemies struck by the burst are slowed and deal reduced damage for a short time.]

[If the shell is shattered by enemy damage, the burst becomes greatly empowered.]

[Passive Skill: Sea-Borne Form (Orange)]

[The Baby Trident belongs to the spear family and may use both spear and trident skills.]

[Within water, the weapon naturally parts resistance and moves as though the sea itself yields before it.]

[Normal attacks, thrusts, swings, and spear-family skills become easier to control underwater.]

[Underwater attack speed and skill execution speed are increased.]

[Underwater damage dealt with the Baby Trident is increased.]

Martin lowered the system window for a second and looked at the Baby Trident itself.

Its three dark prongs were shorter than a full war trident’s, but that only made the weapon feel meaner. It felt compact and focused, built for close work in tight spaces where one clean catch or sudden redirection could decide everything.

He rolled it once in his hand, testing the balance. The weight settled so naturally into his grip that his fingers tightened on instinct. Even on dry land, he could already picture it underwater, cutting through the drag and turning heavy swings into smooth killing lines.

Then another notification appeared.

[Equipment Restriction Notice.]

[You do not meet the level requirement for Baby Trident.]

[The weapon may be equipped, but its full combat performance cannot be accessed.]

[Bonus stats, passive skills, and full weapon output will remain restricted until Lv. 5.]

Martin clicked his tongue.

So even this feeling was only the incomplete version.

That only made the weapon more ridiculous.

This was not just a better weapon.

It was a weapon waiting for him to catch up.

Damn, this is huge.

Everything he had pulled from the Baby Kraken so far pointed in the same direction. He could breathe underwater, he had a trident built for the sea, and he had Ao Tenshin at his side, born for this kind of fight. Piece by piece, Martin was turning into a water-monster hunter.

A thought clicked into place. Maybe this was not just a temporary advantage. Maybe hunting water monsters was the path opening in front of him right now, at least until he leveled high enough to move into another weapon.

But underwater breathing and Ao Tenshin were not temporary advantages. Those would stay with him, which made the choice feel a lot more real.

Maybe with Warden’s Buffs, I’ll even be able to help others become water-monster hunters too. And in reverse, I could support them and make everyone work together like cogs in a machine.

The idea faded almost as fast as it came. Martin did not like pushing people into roles just because the logic worked on paper. And with Chaosgraphy, NukEncore, and Kill Clause, it probably would not work anyway.

Maybe Kill Clause would change her ways if he started talking about high profits. The other two definitely would not.

Just then, Martin noticed a red icon near his minimap.

He clicked it.

[Pet System Notification.]

[Ao Tenshin has gathered 342 EXP.]

[Would you like to assign this EXP to her or take it for yourself?]

Martin deadpanned.

Who in the world would steal EXP from their pet like that? Ao Tenshin was bound to him, and as wrong as it sounded, she could not leave him at all. She had played a crucial role in his fight against the Baby Kraken and was one of the biggest reasons he had beaten it so easily.

She had her own personality. She was not just some pack mule for loot.

[You have allocated 342 EXP to Ao Tenshin.]

[Ao Tenshin has leveled up.]

[Ao Tenshin has leveled up.]

In the blink of an eye, Ao Tenshin went from palm-sized to roughly the size of an adult human head, shocking Martin to the core. It was close enough to an evolution that he almost expected another system window to appear.

Ao Tenshin seemed to sense the changes herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if feeling out her new body, then opened them again a minute later, already adjusted to her new eye level.

She turned toward Martin and squealed, her eyes shining with excitement.

Then she tried to take a step, misjudged the length of her own limbs, and rocked to one side.

Martin almost laughed.