Chapter 20

"Sorry, I said something weird!"

After meeting Yui, we decided to go into a nearby family restaurant since we were already there. Yui bowed deeply, apologizing to me and Hana.

"Please look up. No one was hurt, and I’m not angry."

"That’s right, Yui-senpai. Besides, it was fun watching you flustered, so there’s no problem at all!"

"That’s a big problem for me, though…"

Seemingly remembering her actions, Yui blushed and buried her face in the table. Watching her, I felt a bit uneasy as Hana, who seemed to have an S personality, pressed her further.

As we were talking, two parfaits were brought to the table, one for Hana and one for Yui.

"Here we go!"

Hana happily picked up her spoon and started eating. In contrast, Yui looked at me apologetically.

"Um, Rin, is it really okay for me to eat this? I’ve already caused you so much trouble."

"Of course. Hana was also taken care of a lot in high school, so consider this a thank you."

"O-Okay, then. Thank you."

Watching the two of them enjoy their parfaits, I lifted my black coffee. I had already eaten a crepe, so a drink was enough for me.

However, Hana, who was in the same position as me, was eating her parfait without any trouble.

"Hana, how can you eat so much? Weren’t you full from the crepe?"

"Hehehe, don’t you know, Onii-chan? For girls, dessert is a separate stomach!"

"But you just ate a crepe, didn’t you?"

"Maybe I have two separate stomachs."

Shaking my head, I sipped my black coffee. I had tried to look cool by ordering black coffee in front of the girls, but it was really bitter!

I quickly added milk to my coffee to avoid being noticed by the two of them.

After the family restaurant, the three of us enjoyed some window shopping (or rather, I was dragged along by the two of them enjoying themselves). Still, it was a good way to relax. I should thank Hana for inviting me.

Back at home, I decided to prepare for tomorrow’s dungeon run. The preparation was simple—just allocating my accumulated SP. Since we were going to the Shion Dungeon, no special preparation was needed.

"Let’s see, I have 1310 SP. And to level up the dungeon teleportation skill to level 12, I need… seriously?"

The status screen showed that I needed 1000 SP. It was an outrageous amount.

"Still, I can’t avoid it. The reason I’m special is because of this skill."

With determination, I used 1000 SP to level up the dungeon teleportation skill.

"Dungeon teleportation skill level increased to 12."

"Activation time has changed."

"3 seconds × distance (M) → 2 seconds × distance (M)."

"This time, it’s just the activation time that changed."

It wasn’t a huge change, but reducing the activation time by a third would be quite helpful. Still, it was unclear if using 1000 SP was worth it.

Checking the SP needed to level up to level 13, it was 1500. I guessed that the required SP increased by 500 for each level.

"The next big change will probably be at level 20, but the road ahead is still long… Still, I have no choice but to keep going!"

I wasn’t the type to be intimidated by the size of the challenge in front of me. In my heart, I held a strong resolve.