The next morning, I woke up in the temporary bed I installed next to my bed. Because Ludia wanted to be with me even while sleeping, I had no choice but to install this temporary bed. Since I only needed to sleep two to three hours, I gave Ludia my bed and slept in the temporary bed.

In any case, I wanted to sleep for a while longer, so I closed my eyes again, but soon reopened my eyes from the slight tingle I felt in my hand. At the same time, I realized what had woken me up. Lucia had stretched her hand out of the bed and was now holding mine.

“Ludia, you’re up?”

“…Mm.”

“Okay, you can change first. I’ll turn around and…Hm?”

Ludia peeked her head out of the blanket. When her eyes met mine, her face suddenly became red and she went back into the blanket. Even so, she didn’t let go of my hand. What was happening?

“What’s wrong, Ludia?”

“Noth….Nothing…!”

“Tell me. I’m worried. Come on.”

“It’s nothing…I only just realized that I was the worst piece of human trash…!”

What the hell happened last night!?

“That’s not ‘nothing’!” I said, alarmed.

She quietly replied, “L-Leave. I can’t think straight if I’m with you right now.”

“Okay, I’ll leave…but you have to let go of me.”

I took my hand forcefully out from Ludia’s grasp. When did this girl get so strong?

However, she quickly took hold of my hand again. Instead of letting go, she even pulled strongly, and I almost fell into the blanket with her. I held on since I was stronger than a priestess, but I pulled the blanket down and looked at Ludia’s still blushing face.

“Hey!”

She apologized, “Sorry, stay with me. I’m sorry. Please stay.”

I sighed. “…Okay.”

In the end, I had to stay within arm’s reach of Ludia. She changed while I looked away. I thought I’d die from embarrassment.

Ludia was wearing a white dress. Although the ribbon decorations or the material changed from time to time, she always wore white dresses when she was in my house. Her white and smooth legs showing under her dress caught my attention but then I heard her casually saying something completely astonishing.

“I think I have just awakened.”

“What!?” I was flabbergasted.

Wasn’t awakening something that only happened to people from Earth!? People from other worlds could do it too!? While I was staring at her blankly in shock, Ludia looked back with a pleased smile.

“How ugly.”

“It’s none of your business.”

She giggled. “Huhu, you’re really ugly…Come closer.”

“It doesn’t matter how ugly I am. What matters is your abili…”

“O Earth.”

I stayed still, but the floor wriggled and I had been moved in front of her. Surprise struck me once again. What ‘Earth’? This was the 2nd floor! All sorts of weird things had been happening since I woke up.

Ludia reached out and caressed my face. I felt quite strange as she touched my defenseless face. I tried my best to not bite her fingers and asked, “Ludia, is that your awakened ability?”

“Mhm. I can control the earth and utilize its power. It’s an ability based on animism. Perhaps it’s better to say it’s based on a belief of nature.”

She wasn’t lying. Even though I wasn’t on guard, I didn’t notice her moving me at all. Perhaps her awakened ability was stronger than her healing ability as a priestess.

“Sigh. If I had this power when I was in the Luka continent…No, there’s no use in thinking that.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d awaken an ability on Earth either. By the way, are you going to continue touching me?”

She murmured, “In my dream…I met many people I didn’t know.”

“When are you going to stop tou…Dream?” I suddenly asked.

“Mhm.”

Ludia easily ignored my question and said in a slightly sleepy voice. Dream? Ah, the premonition dream. The dream that acted as the trigger to awakening abilities and showing one’s future possibilities… Of course, with what happened in the Luka continent, I confirmed that it wasn’t absolute, but it was true that something similar would happen. I became curious as to what dream she had.

“Was I in that dream too?” I asked.

“Mhm, you were. That’s why it’s hard to control myself.”

“What does me being in your dream and you controlling yourself have to…Wait, you said control?”

“Mhm. Can you…bend down a bit more?”

“Ludia, your breathing is a bit rough. Are you sick?”

Feeling a sense of unease, I lifted my hand to remove her hand. At that moment, the door opened. Mother stood there and spoke with a bright smile.

“Son, it’s great to be so healthy early in the morning, but can you wait until the night for reproductive acts?”

“What!? What reproductive act!?”

She ignored me and said to Ludia, “New daughter, I’ll make sure the mood is right tonight, so do your best then. Alright, come down and eat breakfast.”

Ludia obediently replied, “…Yes, mother.”

“New daughter!? Mom, why are you calling Ludia ‘new daughter’? Ludia, do you even know what that means? Hm?”

I, Kang Shin, a man among men, almost became a married man at the age of 21.

“Then, see you later.”

“Crown Prince-nim, see you later!”

“Yeah, Ludia. Miss Shuna too, see you both later…I said, see you later.”

“But…” Ludia whined.

Marianne’s Garden had become a guild house, and I saw Ludia and Shuna off there. Ludia still found it hard to separate from me as she continued to cling onto me after taking a few steps away from me and being startled. After she repeated it a few times, I couldn’t just let it continue. I pried her off me and gave her to Shuna.

I said firmly, “Miss Shuna, take care of her.”

“Y-Yes! Crown Prince-nim, by the way…Are you dating Ludia…?” Shuna asked tentatively.

“No, we’re just friends…Ow!”

“Die!”

Surprisingly, Ludia had succeeded in getting away from me! Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly why she was able to.

Shuna smiled bitterly while watching us, but then clenched her fists and spoke happily.

“So I still have a chance…” she whispered.

Ludia growled, “Shuna, you need to go and leave…forever.”

“Kyak! L-Ludia! No, sorry, I’m sorry!”

Watching them talking loudly, I saw them off to the dungeon. It looked like Ludia was beating Shuna, but I also headed to the dungeon as I had faith that Ludia was only showing her affection for the other girl.

Time passed slowly whenever I was bored. After sending Ludia off to the dungeon, all I had to do was to hunt Wendigo three times a day and train my techniques. Although I knew how important it was, I felt like I was forcing myself as it was too dull.

On a positive note, I was confident that I had finally gotten used to my forcefully leveled up Spear Technique and Peruta Circuit. I considered using skill points to level them up again, but since I couldn’t be sure that I could always get more skill points, I decided to save them for when the two skills were at a higher level.

Su Ye-Eun suddenly messaged me. [Climbing the dungeon alone is getting boring.]

“Oh? That’s unexpected. I didn’t think that you’d like being in a party so much,” I replied as I ran across the Wendigo’s arm.

[I want to quickly party with you. Plus, you don’t come to school nowadays.]

“Sorry, but I prioritize solo play.”

The reason I didn’t go to school nowadays was because it was hard to separate from Ludia.

[I know it’s because you’re embarrassed.]

“No, it isn’t…”

Replying sincerely, I stabbed the boss in the eye and released a lightning attack. I leapt up, avoiding the screaming Floor Master’s hand.

“What floor are you on now?” I asked, changing the subject.

[40th floor. The reaper killed me twice.]

“Well, I didn’t think you’d pass that easily.”

[Ugh, the first time, it suddenly appeared behind me and killed me. The second time, I was doing my best to memorize its movement patterns, but it suddenly shot a scythe from its stomach and killed me. When Master finds out I died, I’ll get scolded…]

“Didn’t I tell you the strategy for defeating the reaper?” I asked.

[I’m not a monster like you, Shin!]

Apparently, the 40th Floor Master couldn’t be defeated easily with just her natural talent and magic. It made sense as the Grim Reaper was one of the strongest bosses. Once she beat him, she should have no problem until the 50th floor. Plus, she could get even stronger from the 50th floor.

…Of course, that was assuming that Ye-Eun could somehow deal with the freezing energy. While I pondered that question, I dodged Wendigo’s eerie white hands and landed on his head.

“Some of my friends are about to reach the 40th floor. Why don’t you try hunting the reaper with them?” I suggested.

[Friends? Sure! Your friends must all be nice, right Shin?]

“Mm, well, yeah.”

It was good timing. Even though Ludia had gotten stronger with her newly awakened ability, adding a powerful damage dealer like Ye-Eun to her party would be like garnishing a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.

[Hehe, I want to meet them soon. D-Don’t worry! I just mean I’m looking forward to seeing them as comrades. I don’t mean I’m looking forward to meeting other men!]

“One of them is the older sister of your old party leader. Her name is Palludia. If possible, try not to bring up her younger sister.”

[…A girl?]

I replied casually, “Well, yeah, that’s what sister means.”

I delivered a Heroic Strike to the boss’s forehead. The Wendigo tried to shake me off, but I easily hit it with a White Lightning Consecutive Strike.

[A friend…but a girl? A girlfriend?]

I restrained myself from sighing. “She’s just a friend. Like you and me.”

[I hate you, Shin.]

“In any case, treat her well, okay? She lost her younger sister not too long ago…”

[Yeah, okay.]

After talking with Ye-Eun, I finished up my fight with Wendigo. Lost her younger sister, huh… Coming from the one who killed her, I felt nauseous. Even though Shina had tried to kill me first, even though she had betrayed her world to join the Demon Lord, she was still once my friend and was Ludia’s younger sister. It didn’t change the fact that I had killed her.

[Choose your reward.]

[1. Wendigo’s Fur Boots

2. Frozen Crystal]

“Damn it, I need to let it go too…*crunch*”

[You have consumed Frozen Crystal to their limit, greatly increasing your resistance and affinity to freezing energy! Your magic has increased by 6! Consuming more of this item will likely have no effect.]

“…Eh?”

I suddenly realized that a month had passed since I started grinding the Wendigo!