“Aki, Maki, we’re back!”
“Ah, welcome…! Hn?”
“S-Shouta! What is that blood!?”
“Eh? Ah…”
Yes, I have blood on my sleeves.
“This is from when I hit myself. It’s not from a direct attack from the monster or anything. And Ayane healed me, so don’t worry.”
“No no, how did that even happen?”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Maki is looking up at me with tears welling up in her eyes.
“You’ve never really been hurt…”
Come to think of it, yes. It was self-inflicted, but I think this is the first time I’ve gotten hurt in a fight. I did it in the heat of the moment to rouse myself, but it still hurt. It’s not something I want to experience too much.
As I try to find a way to comfort Maki, Aki puts her hand on her shoulder.
“Calm down, Maki. Ayane, let me see the camera, I want to know what happened. I’ll connect it to my smartphone.”
“Yes.”
As I pat Maki’s back to calm her down, and she’s clinging to me even harder than usual, we all watch the fight with the Golden Swallowtail Butterfly. Now that I’m seeing it from this perspective, without the effect of the scales, I really would’ve just thought it was kind of pretty, and not nearly enough to charm me.
Ah, but now I have the ring that helps me resist it. Then again, no one else is reacting strangely, so I think it’s fine.
“A monster that can charm… There are few monsters with this troublesome ability, and there is no way to block it the first time you see it.”
“So this is what you fought…”
“But this is how I was when I was charmed? It’s like I was sleepwalking. It looks dangerous.”
It’s like my mind wasn’t really there.
“But that was incredible, Shouta.”
“Eh?”
“Most high rank adventurers can’t hit themselves out of the charm condition like that.”
Says Aki.
“Really? But Aira got out of it pretty easily.”
“That was thanks to you, master. The charm status is a delicate one that can be broken by external methods, but dealing with it on your own is a very different story.”
“That’s how strong darling’s feelings are!”
Everyone praises me, and I’m a little embarrassed.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe.”
Maki leans against me with a happy expression.
It’s nice that she worries about me, but that still tickles a little.
“L-leaving the rare monster aside, I’m hungry. How about we have lunch?”
“…Fufu, yes, let’s. Everything is ready.”
Maki opens a basket with sandwiches inside. They look great.
Aira also takes multi-tiered boxes from her bag, the kind that you’d see in the new year… It’s a lot, as usual.
“Here’s a wet towel, Shouta.”
“Thanks Aki.”
They look after me like this during lunch, as time slowly passes.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
After we’re done eating, we have tea and talk about what happened after the fight.
“So I told them about Level Gacha.”
“I see. So you’re like us now, Ayane and Aira.”
“Yes! Same!”
Maki and Ayane high five, and I smile.
“Miss Aki and Miss Maki, thank you for having me.”
“Same. Watch over Shouta, he’s the kind of guy that doesn’t know when he’s being crazy.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Am I?”
I look around, and they all nod. No one’s going to back me up.
“Mumu…”
Oh well, I’ll just think about dungeons and rare monsters and leave the rest to them. Putting the right people in the right positions.
“Ah, that’s right. I left things vague that time, but you two can also see my stats. Aki and Maki, check how much I’ve grown too.”
“Yes!”
“Oh, I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
“Then I will have a look.”
“I’m so excited!”
Everyone has Appraisal, so they all activate it and see my stats.
That said, Aki and Aira have Lv4, and Maki and Ayane Lv3. That means they can see my skills, but can’t see my stats too thoroughly. Also, at Lv4, they can’t see when I learned the same skill multiple times, or the II and III after the names.
That’s inconvenient. Maybe I should be more proactive in hunting monsters that drop Appraisal…
Aira takes notes of the stats to show the ones that can’t see, and Aki whispers with shock.
“Your Luck is incredible, but this amount of skills is crazy. I’ve never used Appraisal and saw the result screen become vertical.”
“It’s both the skills from gacha and rare drops. It really is a big amount, but I think it’s more impressive how Shouta can use them all.”
“There’s so many skills I’ve never heard of! It’s incredible, darling!”
“That’s my master.”
I’m getting a lot of praise.
“Lady, Miss Maki, these are the stats.”
“Thanks!”
“Thank you Aira.”
“Please return it when you are done, so I can burn it.”
Aira is very thorough.
Ayane freezes when she sees my Luck.
“…I-incredible.”
Might as well tell her about that other thing too.
“Ayane, as you can see, most of my stats come from stat boosting items, so they’re pretty much a sham. Remember when you were talking about making a second generation adventurer? I don’t know how this would affect that. But if…”
“Darling, say no more.”
Ayane says before facing down like she’s thinking. When she faces up again, it looks like she made up her mind about something.
“Darling, I did use that pretext of excellent second generation adventurers to get close to you, but I felt differently about you then. Now I’m happy if I have a warm household with you. Forget about the rest, but thank you for being considerate.”
“I see, then let’s stay the course.”
“Yes!”
I pat Ayane when she hugs me, and Aki and Maki pat her too. After a while, Aki raises her hand like she just remembered something.
“Ah, hey Shouta, what’s this True Appraisal? Did your Appraisal change?”
“Yes, it evolved when it became Appraisal LvMAX.”
“Eh, it went to MAX?”
“So you can use that feature too…”
“Y-yes, he can…”
Aki and Maki hold each other, looking a little embarrassed.
I don’t have to ask, I know what they mean by that feature.
“But you still haven’t used Appraisal on us?”
“Well, yeah Aki. Only a stalker would peek like that.”
Although I did have a look at the receptionist’s stats during the Golden Worm hunt.
“I see… Thanks for waiting, Shouta.”
I’ve never seen their stats. They’ve never said I could, but I hesitate to ask too.
I don’t know why, but I feel like they don’t want me to do that.
“You can see all you want from me, darling!”
“I-I see…”
“Mu… If Ayane and Aira are okay, maybe I’m fine too. Maki, we can’t lose! Shouta, check out my stats!”
“Me too… Shouta!!”
“Eh? Are you sure?”
I really do feel reluctant somehow.
“It’s not fair for us to be the only ones looking. And I knew I wanted you to see eventually, so…”
“Aki…”
“Shouta, I want you to see my everything!”
“Thanks Maki. Then I’ll take a look.”
＊＊＊＊＊
Name：Aki Saotome
Age: 23
Height: 163 cm
Weight: 48 Kg
Three sizes: 80 / 53 / 80
Level：60
Physical Strength：590 (+169)
Dexterity：758 (+217)
Constitution：341 (+98)
Agility：343 (+98)
Magic Power：262 (+75)
Intelligence：257 (+74)
Luck：7
Equipment: None
Skills: Appraisal Lv4, Appraisal Obstruction Lv4, Presence Detection, Fast Run II, Martial Arts Lv3, Grappling Lv3, Arithmetic, Wind Magic Lv2
＊＊＊＊＊
…Hn?
＊＊＊＊＊
Name：Maki Saotome
Age: 19
Height: 158 cm
Weight: 49 Kg
Three sizes: 83 / 55 / 83
Level：40
Physical Strength：227 (+65)
Dexterity：612 (+175)
Constitution：171 (+49)
Agility：229 (+107)
Magic Power：233 (+67)
Intelligence：287 (+82)
Luck: 45
Equipment: None
Skills: Appraisal Lv3, Appraisal Obstruction Lv3, Bio Detection, Fast Run II, Martial Arts Lv1, Spear Techniques Lv2, Arithmetic, Water Magic Lv2
＊＊＊＊＊
…Hnn??
Are my exclusives… Really strong??
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Thanks for the treat.