Chapter 24: In Preparation

While heading home from today's dungeon raid, the girls and I make some small talk, that is until Claire suddenly asks me:

Claire: "Miwen, you were really rash today, is there any reason why? It's unlike you..."

I've already told the girls about the [Events], and they even agreed to help me when the time comes, but I guess even then my actions today might've seemed out of the norm for them. Although if I had to pinpoint the reason for my impulsiveness, it would be due to the difficulty slider not changing from the last level-up. Even now, after I checked the [Events] their difficulty still has not decreased, which is making me a bit anxious about it all. Today, I wanted to level up no matter what, just to confirm any change in the difficulty slider.

After last time, I thought that if the slider's difficulty did not change, then I'd have to change my methods somehow. The only problem is that the worst-case scenario happened and I've yet to come up with anything that could help me...

Miwen: "Well... the events are coming, and I kinda wanted to get to level 7 before them, so I thought it would be good to speed things up a bit..."

Claire: "I understand that but do be careful, Licia and I are one thing, but Sam and Roy do not level up as fast, if you try to power through your way, they might end up incurring injures or even worse..."

Miwen: "I know, but since we were doing alright up to those orcs, I thought we could handle some more challenging battles at a deeper point inside the dungeon..."

Claire: "Just be careful about these thoughts, sudden encounters inside a dungeon can be quite random at times, you might encounter a strong monster without even delving that deep. And you never know when a battle may draw the attention of other enemies... it's better to pick easier battles so that even if you end up ambushed, you can fight back..."

I notice that Claire is being quite mindful of me and giving me good advice, what she's saying is definitely not wrong, if you searched for tips from veterans online, most of them would say things like this. Seeing her care for me like this makes me quite happy, it feels like validation for me since I've decided to make my utmost for these girls, and now, they are willing and want to stay and help me, to be honest, it's quite rewarding and I interpret it as a good job done on my part.

Miwen: "I'll keep it in mind, thanks."

After that, our group eventually arrives at home, where my daily routine would once again begin. Before that came dinner though, and for the first time I let Licia handle the oven, although I kept close to her at all times, as if teaching a kid. Surprisingly she handled it pretty well. Maybe it's because she's been watching me do it all this time? Anyway, outside of helping her with cutting vegetables and whatnot, today's dinner was made mostly by her, and an air of excitement could be felt in the air when the time came for me and Claire to do the tasting.

Miwen: "It's... pretty good! Congrats!"

Claire: "It might be even better than Miwen's!"

Miwen: "No way? I refuse to accept defeat by a beginner like this!"

For some reason, Claire seems to like teasing me about my cooking, but I must admit that Licia's cooking was quite good... the best part however was seeing her smile as Claire and I ate, what can I say, that just added a lot to the dish, and it's not something I'm confident I can replicate since it seems to be her nature.

Dinner came and went quite quickly today since I thought we should start with something simple and then develop her skills as time goes on, so, since I had a bit of free time, I decided to try and teach the girls how to watch movies on TV. Completely different from the oven, this turned out to be a herculean task, and I'm not sure they can manage it if I'm not around, but at least I'm making progress in introducing them to the wonders of the modern world. It's gonna be some time until I'm capable of teaching them about the internet, computers, and cellphones though...

After that, finally came time for me to start the rolls, since I had used up almost all my mana, there were no rolls on the [Mana Banners], but from my level up, I had 6 rolls I could do in the normal banners through the daily tickets. The results for these rolls were the following:

[Movement Speed Up] was leveled up twice, making its level go all the way to 4. It's quite a simple skill, but it's also pretty effective, and I can notice how much faster I'm than what someone at my level should normally be by comparing myself with Sam and Roy, for now, having this skill at such a high level was definitely a good boost.

[Reading Speed Up] and [Enhanced Drop Chance] also leveled up. Out of these two, [Enhanced Drop Chance] was the best result by far.

And for the last two skills that I got...

[Faster Tree Climbing].

A whooping two times, as if to spite the [Movement Speed Up] skill that had just recently dethroned it as the highest level skill in my possession. To be honest this skill is not even worth the effect of my mind going blank whenever I roll on the gachas, even though that effect only lasts for less than a second. But I know how to punish my own Gift for this, since I've gotten a bit more mana now, I'll spend some tickets on another banner that I've been eyeing for a while now...

The last thing I need to do before going to bed is to claim the points from the Kingdom menu and organize the skills. With the 16 points I just got there should be a lot that I'm able to do now.

Alas, just the [Ice Magic] skill that I wanted to get from Licia did cost me 10 of these points, leaving me with only 8 since I had 2 in reserve from yesterday. For now, I saw that Claire had enhanced her [Mana Control] so I decided to also get it since it was only 3 points.

I didn't plan to share any skills with the girls, but since [Enhanced Drop Chance] has such a good effect on the party, I spent 4 points sharing it with them, this way, I was left with only one point remaining, but our main source of income should also be improved, if only by a little bit...

That would mark the end of the day for me and with the [Events] approaching, I spent all the time I had just thinking about what I could do to make them easier, and even if there was anything I could do to change the predicted difficulty.

These thoughts accompanied me to bed until a new type of anxiety soon took over as I shared the bed with these two girls to whom I find myself growing more attached as the days go by...