“Ah, ah, that’s the symptom of an Upgrade. The first time is more intense, but it gets less sensitive later.”
Siloque supported Hill, gently rubbing her back.
“Haah… haah…”
After a bout of heavy breathing, Hill’s complexion returned to normal, her calm restored.
She stood up, tried moving her limbs, and leaped three meters on the spot—a feat even Olympic Athletes would surrender to.
“Hill feels… amazing!”
“Congratulations on the Upgrade.”
Siloque offered his congratulations, and after a moment, Hill also smiled.
“Mm! Hill feels like she leveled up three times at once. If there was a device to check, Hill thinks she’d be at level 8 now.”
“Oh, oh, can just that much really raise your level that much? Then let me check for you. If you use a Ring Chart to scan, you can get some basic stat info.”
“So nice… Brother, it’s so convenient, Hill wants a Ring Chart too. Maybe I should take the National Explorers Academy exam too.”
“If you do that, Dad will cry himself to death.”
“Eh? …Who cares about that pervert?”
Dad, it seems your status in Hill’s heart is pretty low.
Since it was someone else’s data being checked, the steps were a bit more complex.
First, Hill had to touch the display screen of Siloque’s Ring Chart, then the Ring Chart’s laser scanned Hill.
“How is it, how is it, Brother?”
“Don’t rush, it’s parsing. Let me see… Hm?”
Siloque’s eyes swept over the panel, his expression freezing.
<LV> 5→7
Hilll
-Newcomer- 1
HP Max: 19-39
MP Max: 34-54
STR Strength: 54-81
END Endurance: 42-52
AGI Agility: 31-62
DEX Dexterity: 60-87
INT Magic: 32→42
So strong.
I can only see the stats, but to level up twice at once?
No wonder she looked so ecstatic—her reaction really was intense.
Maybe it’s because of close combat with the Man-Eating Flower; her Agility and Strength increased more than usual, with an extra 11 and 7 points respectively.
Leaving aside Protagonist Cass and his merry companions, even my little sister has more talent than me.
My first reaction is happiness for my sister—it means I can worry less about her.
My second reaction is… my big brother status is getting less valuable…
Are there really so many people with this much potential in the world?
“…?”
Seeing Siloque staring at her wordlessly, Hill showed an innocent smile.
Probably not, right…
Siloque couldn’t help but walk over to the Man-Eating Flower and kick it a few times.
“Brother? What are you doing? Insulting the corpse?”
After confirming there was nothing special on the Man-Eating Flower, Siloque grew even more puzzled.
“Hurry up and tell Hill, Brother! Did I really level up three times?”
“You’re amazing—you leveled up two times.”
“Only two levels…? Hill thought it’d be five.”
Aren’t you being a little greedy?
If Upgrading was that fast, you might as well be the Main Character.
“You don’t have to be so excited. Since you’re a Newcomer in the early stage, fast leveling is normal.”
“This is fast…? Then is Hill super strong?”
“Not bad. Stronger than an average Explorer, but still a bit behind your brother.”
“Ugh… fine! Hill will work hard and catch up to you, Brother!”
“Ah… yeah. Good luck. Here, take the knife.”
“Right… Brother said before, the Crystal Core has to be extracted from the Monster’s body… Can’t it just drop automatically like in games? So dirty…”
“That’s just how it is for Explorers. If you can’t get used to it, you won’t earn money.”
Hill glanced at the lifeless Man-Eating Flower on the ground with full disgust.
She shook her head.
“It’s okay, Hill often helps Mom cook, so it’s not a problem.”
Encouraging herself, Hill accepted the knife and approached the Man-Eating Flower’s corpse.
“Be careful not to cut your own hand.”
Brother is right next to Hill’s Perfect Knife Technique.
Heart pounding, Hill began the extraction, while Siloque pondered over his sister’s condition.
That Upgrade speed is not something a normal Explorer should have.
It seems that Upgrading has something to do with individual physique.
To give an exaggerated example: at the same level, if someone’s Experience Gauge is 10 and a Monster’s Experience Point is 10, then just killing one Monster is enough to Upgrade.
If another person’s Experience Gauge is 100, they’d need to kill at least nine Monsters to Upgrade.
Hill’s physique is good, and her absorption efficiency for Experience Points is high—in other words, her Experience Gauge is short.
Is she the Chosen One? On par with Teacher Gojo’s Original Stone?
No, no, I can’t jump to conclusions—it’s only the first day in the Dungeon.
I’ll observe more during battles later.
“So this is a Crystal Core? It’s so small.”
Hill extracted two Crystal Cores about the size of rice grains, and the two Man-Eating Flowers dissolved into dust.
“…They’re bigger than the ones I got from Goblins back then. Hill, you’re pretty lucky.”
“Yeah, true! It’s the first Monster Hill’s ever defeated, so there should be even better ones in the future.”
Said Hill, scanning the Crystal Cores into her Storage Bracelet.
***
Next came Siloque’s experiment phase.
He tried pouring N11 Rage Water onto a Goblin.
Not only did the Goblin become hostile towards Siloque, it also attracted all kinds of nearby Monsters’ hostility to him.
“Brother! Do you really not need help?!”
“No! Just stay quiet and hidden!”
He had his sister hide in a tree.
Before long, a horde of familiar Monsters—Goblins, Long-legged Spiders, Toad Shooters, Earth-eating Ants, etc.—formed a legion and charged at Siloque, causing the ground to tremble slightly.
How terrifying!
Enduring the Monsters’ enmity head-on made Siloque feel a bit daunted.
But this is for Upgrading! For gaining drops!
Besides, my level is more than 10 above theirs—just deal with them calmly.
If Myut can one-shot a Boss, there’s no reason I can’t defeat some small fry.
“Raaahhh!”
Siloque let out a battle cry to pump himself up and charged the horde.
Reality proved Siloque overthought it.
Three minutes later.
“Huff… huff, did… did I do this?”
Low-level Monster corpses littered the ground, and Siloque had only broken a light sweat.
“See, I’m still strong.”
At least, against trash mobs.
Even Siloque felt a bit grossed out by the sight, while Hill, seemingly unfazed, leapt down from the tree and latched onto Siloque like a facehugger.
“Amazing! Brother is amazing! Wiped out the whole enemy team—so strong!”
“Don’t hug my head. The armor’s poking me.”
“Eh? Really?”
The Monster legion had been defeated effortlessly.
But he didn’t level up at all.
The bottleneck for Upgrading was clearly there.
Siloque gave up on dragging huge groups of Monsters into traps for mass kills—it was too much hassle, and the Experience Points weren’t worth it.
From then on, Monster farming became Hill’s main event.
She started trying out different weapons.
“So hard to hit!” (Straight Sword)
“Too little damage! Though it feels nice.” (Dagger and Short Knife)
“Waahh! Why is it flying at Hill?!” (Meteor Hammer)
“Too light.” (Club)
No matter what weapon, after some time, Hill could adapt to it fairly well, but she still found them uncomfortable to use.
Compared to her initial fear of Monsters.
Now, with a learning attitude and cautious exploration, Hill fought Monsters like a visitor in a zoo.
Each new Monster sparked her curiosity—she learned their weaknesses and how to defeat them.
She picked up several useless skills, but at least they could be sold for money.
She even started asking where good Upgrade Points were and wrote them down in her Note Book.
At some point, they discovered a wild Treasure Chest.
“Brother, there’s a Treasure Chest!”
“Don’t touch it! Ah—”
But it was too late.
Hill had opened the chest.
She looked inside and showed a disappointed expression.
“There’s nothing in here at all… It’s empty. Ouch—!”
Siloque lightly knocked his sister’s head.
“With Treasure Chests, if there isn’t a Rogue or someone with [Trap Disarm] in the party, you shouldn’t open or approach them recklessly. It might be a Mimic or something similar.”
“Eh—?? But Mimics only appear on the second floor, right?”
It seemed Hill had done some homework.
But who knows what the developers will pull.
Back when I played games in my previous life, my luck was awful.
Sure, opening chests could get you good loot, and I could remember the locations of fixed Safe Chests.
But for random wild chests like this, no matter which floor, most of the time I opened Trap Chests and suffered terribly.
“In any case, treat Treasure Chests seriously. Next time, I’ll show you the proper way to open them. Be as careful as possible during Dungeon exploration.”
“Mm… Makes sense. Hill understands.”
Humbly eager to learn, Hill added this to her Note Book.
Siloque just sighed.
I’ve basically become my little sister’s tour guide…
Thinking of Hill’s Upgrade speed, a strange thought entered Siloque’s mind.
Could my adorable, proud little sister—Hill—be a genius?
***
In the end, they still hadn’t found a weapon Hill liked best.
After another round of Monster hunting, noon arrived.
The two found shade under a tree, set up a Barrier Tool to block Monster detection within a certain range, and took a lunch break.
With the rest of the afternoon ahead, there was plenty of time to try out different weapons.
By the way, Hill’s level had risen to Lv9, making Siloque break into a cold sweat.
If she really wanted to enter the National Explorers Academy, even getting into Class C would be no problem at this rate.
“Hill is going to eat!”
She put a French Fries Ball from the lunch box in her mouth—and at that moment, pure shock spread across her wide eyes.
“Brother, this deliciousness is too violent.”
The more she chewed, the happier she became.
“I made it myself. It’s not bad, right?”
Hill nodded enthusiastically, eating hungrily.
“Don’t eat so fast.”
Siloque brushed a grain of rice from the corner of his sister’s mouth with his fingertip, then licked it off.
“!”
The sudden touch made Hill freeze, her chopsticks paused, cheeks burning red.
If this were a manga, steam would be rising from her head.
“…As expected of Brother. Not only cute, but also good at fighting and cooking, with a gentle voice, and even smells nice… The perfect ideal of a good wife and mother.”
“At least call me a good man at home. What do you mean good wife and mother…”
And what’s with the ‘smells nice’ part?
“Brother.”
Hill took a deep breath, her smile as radiant as midsummer sun.
It sparkled dazzlingly, but sometimes the heat was overwhelming.
She spoke, full of emotion, each word clear:
“When I grow up, I want to marry Brother. Will you accept me?”
ah hell nah wtf man get out