Published: September 10, 2025
"—Arisa, do you really think Master will be okay?"
"I’ve told you many times already, he’ll be fine."
Voices—Riza and Arisa’s voices reached my ears.
"Maybe a kiss will wake him up? Lulu, want to try?"
"N-no, Arisa. If someone as ugly as me did that, Master would probably abandon me."
"I don’t think that would happen~"
Well, I wouldn’t abandon anyone, but a kiss from a middle school girl is a bit much.
"Then I’ll do it instead."
—Stop.
Unconsciously, my hand pushed Arisa’s forehead away.
She really was about to kiss me, puckering her lips like a character out of a gag manga.
Seriously, what a troublesome person.
"Mas-ter~"
"Master has awakened!"
Pushing past Arisa, Tama and Pochi’s worried faces came into view.
"We were worried!"
"Thank goodness~"
Pochi and Tama licked my face softly.
Beyond them, I saw Lulu’s face.
Apparently, I was resting my head on Lulu’s lap.
"Stay like that and rest."
When I tried to get up, Arisa stopped me.
Looks like she wanted to pretend the earlier octopus-lip kiss never happened.
"Sorry for losing consciousness in battle against the wolves. It’s embarrassing."
Even though these girls, who looked barely older than middle schoolers, were fine, it was pathetic for a grown man like me to be in such a state.
"Don’t worry about it. You didn’t have many fights like this back in your previous world, right?"
Arisa comforted me without mentioning Japan directly.
"At first, I thought it was the rumored level-up sickness, but your level stayed at 1, so my theory was a little off."
"Level-up sickness?"
"Yeah, when your level rises sharply, it’s like seasickness and you faint."
Arisa explained level-up sickness to me.
"That means you had me use the Sparking Net magic because of that?"
"Yeah, but that plan didn’t work out."
I see, so that was the intention.
I found it odd before since Arisa’s magic alone seemed enough to defeat the grass demon wolves.
A missed chance for an effortless level up — a bit disappointing.
"What’s wrong, Master? Are you mad?"
"No, not really."
I casually opened the menu’s status screen and saw that my level had risen to 7.
"Arisa, my level has gone up."
"Eh? Delayed effect?"
I sensed Arisa was up to something.
"I tried appraising again—"
That was the feeling during the appraisal.
"—Still level 1?"
Arisa was certain, but my status screen showed level 7.
"Maybe it’s some concealment skill?"
"No, it’s not concealment—"
Flipping through the menu pages, I found the answer in the ‘communication’ section.
It’s a page where you write info to interact with other users, and there my level was still listed as 1.
I tried setting the level to 2 and asked Arisa to check.
"Really, it’s level 2 now."
With Arisa’s help to verify, it turned out the appraisal skill only viewed the communication page.
It seemed the level can be set within the range of 1 to your actual level.
Also, there’s settings to make skills and titles public or private.
"It seems I became level 7 from yesterday’s events."
"Concealment skill? That’s handy~"
Arisa said, impressed.
"Looks like Riza and the others leveled up too."
"Yes, Arisa just told me."
"Pochi is now level 3!"
"Tama leveled up too?"
Riza reached level 4, while Pochi and Tama were level 3.
All three had gained one level each.
Lulu—no changes. Apparently, just being with us doesn’t increase her level.
"I also leveled up once. Master, are you hiding your skills? Or have you not obtained them yet?"
"Not yet."
My skill list was still full of inactive skills.
"Master, may I speak with you?"
While talking with Arisa, Riza timidly approached.
"Sure, what is it?"
"Before the others return, I thought we should gather and dismantle the wolves you and Arisa defeated."
I realized the wolf corpses were still there.
It was before dawn, so they weren’t visible, but surely many were lying beyond the firelight.
"Fine, but be careful. Some might still be alive."
"Understood. Let’s go, Pochi, Tama."
"Yes!"
"Righto~"
Lulu rose but hesitated, remembering I was resting my head on her lap.
"Don’t worry about the lap pillow, just go."