Chapter 69: Tomorrow, Rozz's first kiss absolutely belongs to me!! (Please Subscribe) (Patreon)

Rozz figured a large part of the reason their group had made it back to Orario safely was thanks to the beautiful young Adventurer he'd run into.

Orario actually had plenty of good people in it.

If she hadn't helped clear the way, Rozz couldn't even imagine whether they'd have made it back before evening, before night fell.

Hmm...

Given how sharply the Dungeon's difficulty had spiked again, making it back safely would probably have been rough going.

"Thanks."

Rozz stood in Central Park, his eyes on the tall, slender figure of the golden-haired girl, and said earnestly, "If it weren't for you... we probably wouldn't have made it back to Orario safely."

Even hearing his thanks, the girl's expression stayed just as cold, her delicate, ice-mountain face betraying no extra flicker of emotion. She gave a small nod in response, and that was that.

Riveria had once told her that prying into another Adventurer's private affairs was a genuinely rude thing to do.

Ais could only rein in her own curiosity.

Still, she had a feeling it wouldn't take much time at all before she heard his name somewhere in Orario.

Mana Burst.

Having watched Rozz fight with her own eyes, Ais could tell that both his technique and his stats already rivaled a Lv2 Adventurer.

Just to be safe,

before the golden-haired girl walked off, she tilted her head slightly. "What's your name?"

"Rozz."

As for the question in return—

Rozz didn't feel his name was anything worth hiding, but before he could even ask hers, all he saw was her back as she walked away.

You just asked me. Shouldn't it be my turn now?

Clearly,

she had no intention of giving him that chance. Her figure was remarkably nimble, and in the blink of an eye she'd vanished into the crowd.

Aloof through and through.

On the whole walk back to Orario, she'd barely said a word on her own.

By then Rozz, having drained his mental strength dry, had been thoroughly exhausted; only now had he recovered enough to actually talk.

"Damn it."

"We never even asked her name!"

Judging by how Rozz had spoken, Lili didn't think he was trying to hit on the girl — he'd genuinely just wanted to know.

He'd only just arrived in Orario.

He hadn't even sorted out the Dungeon's floor layout yet, so of course he'd never heard of the "Sword Princess," Ais Wallenstein.

After a moment's thought,

the Supporter girl decided to clear up his confusion. "She's an Adventurer of the Loki Familia — Ais Wallenstein."

"She's really strong..."

"How strong, exactly?"

"She's currently Lv5."

"Right, and when Miss Ais first started out in Orario, it only took her a little over a year to break through to Lv2."

Worried Rozz might not grasp the significance,

Lili added, "She set the legendary record for the fastest breakthrough ever recorded — and to this day, no Adventurer has broken it."

The first part was easy enough to understand.

After all, just fighting off nearly ten Adventurers surrounding him in the Pure White Dream had left Rozz feeling thoroughly wrung out.

And that was nothing next to Lv5!

Something about it didn't add up for Rozz. He frowned. "Lili, are you saying the world record still belongs to Ais?"

"That's right."

Better not to jump to conclusions.

Even with a clear answer from Lili, Rozz decided to play it safe. "How long does it normally take an Adventurer to break through a level?"

"I mean, to reach Lv2."

"Uh..."

The girl tilted her head up, her expression practically radiating question marks. "I'm not sure if you've got some kind of misunderstanding about how Adventurers level up..."

"Right now, the vast majority of Adventurers in Orario are still stuck at Lv1."

"Because Adventurers each have a different amount of Vessel, plenty of them never manage to meet the D-rank ascension requirement — not even by the time they die."

"So very few ever break through to Lv2. Even someone with decent talent might need two or three years, and they'd still need to rack up a proper Great Feat to ascend!"

Hearing all that, Rozz went quiet for a moment. Counting today, it had only been eleven days since he'd transmigrated to Orario and become an Adventurer.

As for his stats—

leaving Magic aside, everything else had already hit A-rank. Honestly, even at that pace, he'd figured he was moving kind of slowly.

And now she was telling him

that an Adventurer only needed a single stat to reach D-rank, paired with a Great Feat, to breeze through to Lv2?

And on top of that—

Ais, the most talented beauty Adventurer alive in Orario, had still taken over a year to reach Lv2?

Noticing the flicker of disappointment in Rozz's eyes,

Lili's smile took on a motherly warmth. "Don't get discouraged..." she said gently. "Honestly, from where I'm standing, you're already amazing."

"You'd barely become an Adventurer, and you already beat Nwankwo and his crew."

"Right..."

"And you took down a rare-species baby dragon — Lv2 strength — without breaking much of a sweat. I really think breaking through to Lv2 will take you six months, tops!"

That was even her conservative estimate.

The girl tilted her head up, her still slightly childish face turned toward him. "By then, Rozz, you'll be setting a brand new breakthrough record for Orario."

"Six months, huh?"

Now that he was an Adventurer,

he obviously needed something to chase — only that would keep giving him the drive to grind through the monotony of Dungeon exploration.

It was only then that Rozz realized—

before hearing Lili lay out Orario's Adventurer hierarchy, he'd had no real sense of his own talent, or how strong he actually was.

His stats had already cleared the breakthrough threshold long ago.

If killing Zanis and the rare-species baby dragon counted as a Great Feat, then tonight, once he got back to the Familia Home, he could ascend right then and there!

"Huh."

Rozz broke into a relieved grin.

When he'd transmigrated into the DanMachi world, he'd assumed that without a cheat ability, he'd have to rely on nothing but hard work just to avoid getting stomped to death on the roadside by the world's stronger residents.

Good news, though:

he'd never actually been lacking one at all!

He turned to look at Lili beside him and, unable to help himself, reached out and ruffled her hair. "I think six months sounds a little too slow."

"Hm?"

"I want to set a brand-new record — one that can never, ever be broken!!"

Lili really didn't like having her head patted.

But the sight of Rozz looking so bold and full of himself left her briefly dazed, even though the guy had all the personality of a block of wood.

Who could really resist liking someone like that...

The girl tilted her head up, her face lit with a bright, radiant smile. "Lili believes you can do it. You definitely can."

"So what's your plan?"

"Twenty days. Tops."

Rozz's tone left no room for doubt.

What mattered was setting a speed for the world's fastest breakthrough that no other Adventurer could ever match, no matter what.

Just thinking about it felt exhilarating!

He'd use his own overwhelming talent to smash the world's fastest record into the dirt. And even if some brilliant, once-in-a-generation Adventurer came along later—

well,

they'd just be ordinary souls born into an age that hadn't had him in it!

Hearing this guy claim he'd go from rookie to one of Orario's rare Lv2 Adventurers in just twenty days,

Lili: o.O

Was this guy even speaking human language anymore?

But before the Supporter girl could put together a proper retort, she caught the look on Rozz's face — that reckless, youthful, utterly self-assured grin.

And—

the ridiculous, completely unreasonable Adventurer's declaration that came with it.

"Good."

"If you never become an Adventurer, you'll see me the way a frog at the bottom of a well sees the moon above; but if you do become one, you'll see me the way an ant looks up at the endless blue sky!"

"Rozz... you're back?"

"Yeah."

"Was exploring the Dungeon today... more or less smooth?"

Rozz got back to the Familia Home at the Traveler's Rest, and the moment he pushed the door open, he found his goddess wearing an extremely aggrieved expression.

Like

a jar of vinegar had been knocked clean over, the whole air practically sour with it.

Faced with Hestia's questioning, Rozz had no intention of hiding anything. "Things went fine at first, but toward the end—"

"—we nearly ran into real trouble."

"We ran into a rare-species baby dragon on the twelfth floor. Thank god Lili and I worked well together... we finally managed to kill the thing."

As for the rest,

Rozz didn't really feel like hiding it, though when he thought back to the part where Lili had forcibly kissed him, he had a feeling that was getting a bit too close to the truth.

He decided just to come clean:

"Other than that, there was a bit of a small incident. When we ran into the baby dragon, I was actually pretty drained physically."

Um—

"So then I remembered..."

"...that Cuddling with you, Lady Hestia, always seems to leave me feeling lighter, so... just to play it safe."

"I know~"

Being able to be this honest with her

meant Rozz was clearly not hiding anything shameful — otherwise, whatever had happened down in the Dungeon, she'd have had no reason to press him about it so directly.

It could have exposed the whole Hero Cloud-Raising Plan on the spot.

Looking at it another way:

at the very least, in that moment of crisis, when the Supporter Lili had forced that kiss on him, Rozz had definitely been thinking of her.

Hestia waved a hand casually.

Her smile was broad and magnanimous. "I think, compared to that, staying safe matters a lot more," she said seriously.

"Hmph."

Not wanting to dwell on it and get down about it, the goddess girl decisively changed the subject. "If you haven't eaten, want to go grab something outside?"

"Beating a rare-species baby dragon definitely calls for a celebration!"

Faced with Hestia's invitation,

Rozz obviously had no reason to refuse. But before dinner, he was more curious about something else — after two days of intense combat,

how much had his stats actually climbed?

Only by knowing that

could he figure out how much longer it would take to max out all his stats, and plan his training accordingly going forward.

Rozz looked at the doting, beautiful girl in front of him. "Lady Hestia, could you give me a Status Update first?"

"Of course!"

Status Update.

A Status Update wouldn't just bring the two of them closer — as a goddess, it also let her see exactly what Rozz had accomplished over this stretch of time.

Hestia agreed without a second thought.

She pulled out the silver needle and parchment the update required, then looked over at the boy, who'd already obediently pulled off his shirt and lay face-down on the couch.

"Hmm..."

"If Rozz would just strip down and lie in bed like this every day... and let me drain him dry morning and night~"

The goddess girl felt a little wistful inside.

Because—

even if some shameless woman out there really tried to seduce her Rozz, as long as he had nothing left in reserve, the seduction wouldn't do her any good at all!

Rozz

Level: Lv1

Strength: A895 → SS1086

Endurance: A825 → SS1010

Dexterity: A890 → SSS1125

Agility: A854 → SS1034

Magic: I0 → C603

Skills:

· Forge Onward

Magic:

· All Creation

By now Hestia had done Status Updates plenty of times, but compared to her usual method, this time she chose to straddle Rozz's lower back directly.

Since they were home,

she wasn't wearing her shop uniform, and the loose dress she had on meant that, in that straddling position, the skin of her inner thighs inevitably ended up pressed against him.

"Let me take a look..."

"Let's see how your Status Update turned out this time, Rozz!"

The goddess girl couldn't hide how curious she was.

Hestia finished tracing out the stats from the Falna panel. As she lowered her eyes and took in just how much had changed over this stretch of time—

her whole body tensed,

and the pale, soft legs straddling his lower back tightened around him without her meaning to. She murmured, "Rozz... you actually did it."

"Hm?"

"After these two days in the Dungeon, your stats — leaving Magic aside — have all hit SS-rank!"

"SS-rank..."

"That's right, and your Dexterity's gone even further — all the way to SSS!!"

It seemed the Hero Cloud-Raising Panel really hadn't lied to her.

As Hestia explained, her voice was thick with pride. "After all, you've only been an Adventurer for such a short time~"

"I have to tell you."

"Your talent is genuinely off the charts. In the Falna system, an Adventurer's stats are normally capped at S-rank."

"And then—"

"You went and broke straight through that cap, Rozz. Right now, in all of Orario, you're in a league of your own!!"

From her tone alone,

Rozz could tell how excited his goddess was. What he couldn't figure out was why she still needed to stay sitting on his lower back after the update was already done.

He had no choice but to just lie there and read the parchment.

The fact that he'd learned the spell All Creation relatively late explained why that one attribute lagged behind the rest — that part made perfect sense.

As for everything else,

there was basically no gap left at all. He'd only need a little more time exploring the Dungeon before every stat could be maxed out.

"I never imagined..."

"...that I'd actually turn into a stat monster."

Not only that,

at his current rate of growth, the goal he'd declared in front of Lili — ascending to the next Adventurer level in just twenty days — suddenly felt within reach.

Was it really something he could just... grab hold of?

Once the Status Update was finished—

or rather, once Hestia finally stopped treating him like a horse to ride, Rozz rolled over, sat up, and started pulling his clothes back on.

Maybe it was because he hadn't managed to shower right after Dungeon exploring,

but his lower back felt more than a little sticky. He pulled his shirt on and looked at his beautiful goddess. "Lady Hestia."

"Hm."

"Now that the update's done, should we go grab dinner?"

"Sure... let's go!"

The goddess girl's eyes kept darting away.

Hestia's stunning, still faintly childish face had turned an inexplicable shade of pink. She smoothed down the hem of her dress and took a deep breath, trying to steady herself.

Finally,

she looked up and took the initiative to grab Rozz's hand. "Dinner's on me tonight. I have to treat you to something good, after all your hard work lately~"

"Then I won't hold back!"

"Mm — just give me a minute. I need to change into... a different outfit."

Going forward, Hestia intended to make absolutely sure she claimed plenty of uninterrupted alone time with her follower.

His first kiss had been forcibly stolen from him back in that moment of crisis, sure — but once midnight passed tonight, his first kiss tomorrow...

would belong to her, and her alone!!

Underwear — 5000 / 500, Nude.

Door — 10,000,000.

Tentacles Door — 15,000,000.

[Author's Note: This is the second update tonight. There's one more coming, but I can't promise exactly when — I'll try to get it out before 2 AM, meow.]