That particular bit of unwelcome news did a number on my general mood to say the least.

It's fairly obvious that I've hit some kind of limit and I didn't just happen to hit the 999 Magic stat exactly for today's check. Especially since it would mean it only grew by 21 since yesterday, which would be the lowest since my first day here. I find that highly unlikely.

I knew that even for an extraordinary adventurer 999 is a hard limit for stats in general. Protagonist with a unique Skill exempted of course.

From what I remember from before I ended up here and what Eina told me about it, adventurers usually hit a plateau on their stat gains well before they would hit quadruple digits in their primary stats. For example Aiz Wallenstein's primary stats are Agility, Dexterity, and Magic, but even after three years only her Magic stat hit the S range before she leveled up from five to six, and even that only barely. Nevertheless, even without maxed out stats she became the strongest human in Orario by that time.

By that measure I would only need to shore up some of my other stats a bit, do something heroically stupid and I would be all set for a level up.

But I don't want to do that for two reasons.

One is my instinct to over prepare for challenges in RPG games, which can even be called prudence now that it concerns my life and continued survival and not just the level of enjoyment I derive from playing a game.

Of course, if I had to deal with my stats growing at a snail's pace like other adventurers do I might be singing a different tune, but since they are growing exceptionally fast, it would be a waste in my opinion to not take advantage of it and develop a robust foundation for my later levels.

The second reason is that it's not only prudent to take advantage of the opportunity, but I think it's downright required if I want to amount to something in the future.

On paper the combination of high growth rate and a Skill of decidedly unfair utility would produce an adventurer of unheard of caliber, but there is a problem with that in practice.

The fact that I'm behind the wheel of it.

I'm many things, but protagonist material I'm not. Instead of enumerating my many faults that support my conclusion, I'll just get back on topic and say that I'll need to max out as much of my stats as possible if I want to have even a slight chance of performing up to the standard of a competent adventurer of this world.

In short, munchkining the fuck out of what I have is not an option, but a necessity.

"Damn," I swore as I noticed the slowly congealing small puddle of blood underneath my hand. I should really clean that up before anyone from the pub notices it. Even imagining the possibility makes me shiver a bit.

Digging out my towel and water flask from my bag I wipe away all traces of my circulatory fluids.

With my mood shot and buried for today I decided to just go to sleep.

The next morning I was the very picture of enthusiasm. It took only about a quarter hour of muffled groaning and swearing for me to get up from the hard floor I rolled onto after I deemed my cot too cozy to get out from.

The combination of last night's news and the distinct possibility that I would make a fool of myself in front of Lily today was enough for me to not want to get up today. However, I promised Lily that I would meet her, so that's a distinct no can do.

During my morning routine I thought about the method I ended up remembering in my half sleep state yesterday that would most likely be the best to continue raising my stats with. It's not something I newly thought up, but the one I used extensively in my first week, namely the kind of reverse Shell method that restricts my movements. It's a very effective technique that netted me a lot of stat points and I only stopped using it because I wanted to get used to the dungeon first before handicapping myself.

It's a good thing that I went to bed early, since even with my less than expedient way of extraditing myself from my bed I had a good hour before I had to depart. Tuning my Shell up so it would be able to restrict my movements in addition to its defensive properties took me less time than I expected, but I still needed to fiddle with it so it was more easily adjustable depending on the situation. Kind of like an adjustable slider for the degree of resistance with a few presets built in.

Thankfully my maxed out Magic stat seemed to be able to support the upkeep of even this version of my Shell without pushing my Mind regeneration into the negatives.

It's a shame that my Magic stat won't be going up from now on, but I can't help but still hold on to a sliver of hope that maybe I will somehow be able to break through this blockage somehow. It might be a tad unrealistic to expect something like that, but the general speed of growth before I hit the wall might suggest that if I can overcome this stumbling block, then I might be able to eke out some more numbers.

I collected my breakfast from its usual place, then left my room through the window, like usual lately. I know I should be more sociable with the people here, but I can only take so much interpersonal interaction in one day and since I'm working with Lily now it's mostly allocated to that purpose.

By the time I got the central circle I was panting, desperate for oxygen. I did not run all the way from the Hostess, nor did I suddenly lose my Falna given strength, I just dialed up the resistance on my Shell quite a bit. It honestly felt like I was trying to walk on the bottom of a pool. I even had to take deep breaths to reaffirm to myself that I was still able to and I wasn't underwater.

Still, from the way it managed to strain me even during this short walk I would say the method shows a lot of promise. I will have to dial it back a lot during dungeon times, but I think it will help a lot in the long run.

I waited until I caught my breath, then proceeded on my way to the foot of Babel.

It didn't take me long to spot Lily, who looked like a sentient backpack that grew tiny pallum legs and set out on its own adventure when I only saw her from the back. That pack is really ridiculously large compared to her.

"Hello Lily," I called out to her.

"Oh, Avrora-san, good morning," she turned around to face me. "If we get going right now then we can most likely still beat the morning rush. Shall we get going?"

"Okay," I agreed and we got moving right away. The morning rush was not that big of a deal, but it's the time when the main route for the few topmost floors is so crowded with adventurers that it more resembles a packed train station than a danger filled underground cavern. For small pallums like us it would not be hard to get separated and swept off course if we get caught up in it. Better to just avoid it altogether by going down earlier.

During our descent, it occured to me that Lily and I could be called coworkers right now. If I look at it that way, then I can draw on my prior experience with dealing with work peers on how to approach interacting with Lily. This line of thought allowed me to kinda relax a bit it seems.

I thought of asking Lily to choose a route on the Fifth Floor so we could encounter as many monsters as possible, but then I remembered my resistance training and I decided to leave it for another time. It would be a tad too risky to combine the two for my tastes.

My contemplation was interrupted by the appearance of a mixed group of goblins and kobolds around a corner. Since we came down before the morning rush this kind of thing happens even on the main route sometimes. Although rarely it is a large group such as this. Overall I count no less than fifteen opponents. Hmm, sixteen according to a quick peek with my Territory, which shows a lizard waiting in ambush on the wall behind the corner. Good to know.

As I readied Biggy to take on all of them Lily interrupted.

"Avrora-san, Lily thinks we should run. Lily knows Avrora-san is strong, but taking on fifteen enemies at the same time is too risky even for you," she cautioned me. In the future, when she will hopefully be more aware of my abilities I will make sure to listen to such warnings from her, but right now I'm quite certain I can take them all without too much of a fuss.

Also, I might still be just a tad frustrated by yesterday's news and it's not impossible that I want to stomp a bunch of weak mobs because of it.

"Don't worry Lily, this is not the first time I fought against this many enemies." Well, it kind of was, although it was not much fewer than this, but she doesn't need to know that. "I'll be right back."

Adjusting my Shell to a lightly defensive setting and the resistance to be barely noticeable for now, I shot forward with my sword ready at my side. Straining my muscles more than usual, I performed a powerful slash that managed to catch four of the most aggressive monsters, out of which three were permanently dispatched thanks to not being in one piece anymore. Although the fourth one couldn't be called to be in one piece either thanks to it losing one of its arms(?) or front legs(?).

The loud, keening sound it started to give off made me feel bad all of a sudden, since it very much sounded like when you accidentally step on a dog's leg. Nonetheless, this was not an adorable puppy feeling betrayed by an inadvertent mishap, but a bloodthirsty monster aiming to feast on my remains. That fact allowed me to shake the feeling off and put it out of its misery by burying Biggy in its torso.

I expected the rest to throw themselves at me right away, but for some reason all the monsters did was encircle me and stand there seemingly wanting to attack me, but not quite having the courage to actually do so. I frowned at the strange stand-off that seemed to have come about as I looked around at the monsters surrounding me. Watching for any sudden moves I raised my sword with the last kobold still hanging from the tip and slashed out to get it off. The perforated corpse flew off Biggy and tumbled around on the ground, kicking up some dust as it finally landed in front of another monster. This might seem to be an unnecessarily cruel way of getting it off my sword, but due to Biggy's size I actually don't have the reach to do it any other way, except the telekinetic way, but that's obviously off-limits in front of Lily for the time being.

This particularly gruesome end of one of their numbers finally galvanized the rest of the enemy crowd to act, although I didn't expect three of them to just straight up turn tail instead. Not having time to bother with monsters that would rather run away from me I instead rushed forward to break out from the encirclement. A slash and a hard body-check with the flat of my blade later I was outside the circle, which was good, but this maneuver also exposed me to another danger.

"Avrora-san, danger above!" I heard Lily shout from way over the other side of the group of monsters.

I was well aware of the lizard getting ready to pounce on me now that I cleared the corner, but I didn't expect Lily to notice the few visible claws grabbing the edge of the wall too. Her situational awareness is amazing.

As if reacting to her words I spun with my heavier-than-I'm-used-to sword and punted the closest monster right at the already airborne amphibian. The much deceased projectile hit the target perfectly and rammed the lizard right back into the wall it jumped from.

I felt quite happy about that shot, but a sharp pain in my back tempered my enthusiasm. I expect pulling a back muscle like that is the price I'm paying for the unnecessary flourish I put in that take down. Also, I need to be a bit more careful now that Biggy doesn't feel like it weighs about the same as a particularly hefty piece of straw.

Gritting my teeth I concentrated on not damaging my back any more as I moved down the rest of the enemies with the least amount of movement I could. Even so, when I was done I was panting quite a bit thanks to the slight restriction I was under during the fight.

When it was obvious the battle ended Lily came out from her hiding place. For a second I thought I saw a somewhat confused expression on her face, but then she turned away to grab one of the few intact corpses and pull it closer, so I couldn't be sure.

"Lily doesn't know what to say. Should she scold Avrora-san for being reckless or congratulate her instead," she said as she got closer. "Maybe Lily should do both."

While she started harvesting the magic stones I got out my half consumed Healing Potion and took a swig from it. Once the potion made contact with my mouth I immediately noticed a slight itch in a part of my back. Before taking another sip I moved my back this way and that to check if it healed up all the way, but I wasn't that lucky. In the end, I drank the rest of the potion, sip by sip, until I could tell with certainty that my back was fine.

Meanwhile Lily gathered up the magic stones that were laying around, dug out two from corpses, and had to finish off the lizard, since it wasn't quite dead yet, before she could extract its stone. A quick stab with her extractor dagger was more than sufficient to rectify the situation.

"You know, Avrora-san," Lily started with a mildly amused tone, "Lily appreciates how Avrora-san sunders most of the monsters, but Lily feels a bit bad how much easier it makes Lily's job."

"Sunder? Is that what it's called?" I inquired. "I just noticed that if I cut the monsters apart, then their bodies break down fairly fast. I didn't know it had a name."

"Yes, it's mainly done by higher leveled Adventurers that have more than enough power to not worry about using more power than necessary for each kill. It's also a good method of preventing corpses from piling up and getting in the way sometimes."

"Well, in my case, I think it's more because the size of my sword would make it hard to prevent that from happening to such small enemies," I said while scratching the back of my head.

"That's true," she agreed.

Lily finally finished with the harvest, so we resumed our trek to the fifth floor.

"Speaking of higher leveled adventurers," I segwayed into another topic that I wanted to talk to her about, "have you ever worked with some of them? Maybe even someone famous?"

"No, Lily hasn't had the chance to work with any truly famous adventurers," she denied right away. "Big Familias with famous people almost always have their own group of Supporters, so there is little chance of working together like that for independent Supporters like Lily. The highest ranked Adventurer Lily worked with was a Level 2 from a smaller Familia, and she was only escorting a less experienced party past the tenth floor," she explained.

"That's too bad."

After that we spoke more about famous adventurers, some of which I knew from before and some I haven't heard of yet. I also asked about her impressions of some of them, but I only got some generic answers out of her for that one.

I took that as a sign to lay off on personal questions for the time being, instead it was time to build some rapport with her simply by working alongside her.

The fifth floor proved to be a bit more challenging and much more exhausting with my newly instated restrictions, but all-in-all we managed to cash in just a bit more money compared to yesterday. I think it's partially thanks to Lily getting used to what I can do, which in turn allows her to pace us better, which leads to increased efficiency.

I couldn't help but check once again if Lily took more than her agreed share, but as far as I could tell she did not. That fact put a small smile on my face for some reason. Perhaps I can steadily gain her trust this way without having to partially reenact what happened in the story. Being three years earlier could mean that she is not yet as closed off as she would've been later.

"What is it, Avrora-san?" Lily asked suddenly. "You seem happier today for some reason, even though we earned basically the same amount as yesterday."

It seems she noticed my fairly uncharacteristic smile I had on and decided to inquire about it. Her question made my smile a tad wider too, since that meant she was comfortable enough with me to ask that question. For only two days, I count that as good progress.

"I'm just happy to be working with Lily," I gave my answer while kneading my fingers and averting my eyes from her. "I feel lucky that I managed to team up with someone as knowledgeable and experienced as you."

"D-Don't say things like that, Avrora-san! I'm just a simple supporter, nothing more," she said while looking away from me, so all I could see was her hood. "Anyway! Good work today, see you tomorrow at the same time. Right? Right. Bye Avrora-san."

And with that she fast-walked away, like the puppies of hell were on her heels. Apparently Lily subscribes to the same 'run-away-if-embarrassed' school of thought as me. I just watched her retreat with the smile still on my face.

Still, there was something that gave me pause about that last interaction. Looking back at it, the way I acted was pretty much a picture perfect imitation of a shy girl act. The problem with that is that I didn't do it intentionally.

Looking at my still unfamiliar hands in front of me I pondered on it a bit more. Did I act that way because with my new appearance it's kind of what's expected of me? Or would I have done the same if I was in my previous body, only changing its impact from coming off as a shy girl to an off-putting socially inept older guy? I can't tell.

What I'm fairly sure of is that there is no pre-existing repressed little-girl persona in my head who I've taken the control from. There are no unconscious 'little-girl instincts' taking over from time to time, it's all me under the hood. I don't know if it's normal or not, but I think all this frankly absurd shit that's happening to me lately gives me some leeway on acting consistently at any and all times. Getting dropped in a formerly fictional world in a diametrically opposite body from my old one can leave anyone a bit cuckoo.

If that craziness only manifests as a tendency to act more like my apparent age and gender, then I would count that as a lucky break, since it could've been much worse.

With my trip down self-analysis lane done for the time being I went back to the Hostess without any detours. For one I was curious about how much my stats went up today, but I was also on the cusp of what I would call dead tired.

Thankfully, I soon discovered that it was more than worth it for the result.

Name: Avrora Lvl. 1

Strength: 508 D

Endurance: 207 G

Dexterity: 294 G

Agility: 485 E

Magic: 999 S

Skills: Invictus

Putting aside the for now maxed out Magic stat, I finally got another stat above five hundred. The fact that it ended up being Strength is both ironic, what with my small pallum girl appearance, and entirely expected, since that is the easiest one to raise with the help of my Territory after all. Not counting the Magic stat of course.

Endurance went up nicely too, but I'm still not at a point where I can take additional risks in order to get it higher faster. Doing it down in the dungeon is self-evident why it's dangerous, but if I were to try and inflict injuries on myself in hopes of raising my stats and it got found out by someone in the Hostess... I shudder to think of the consequences of that one.

So the Endurance stat will be on the back burner for the time being.

Agility is going up nicely too, which I can kind of tell when facing monsters on the way to the fifth floor. When I'm fighting simple goblins and kobolds, it's obvious they got a lot slower compared to me.

That leaves Dexterity, which I'm a bit surprised it went up even that much, since I barely made any headway with my sword handling. Still, I'm working on it as much as I can during battles, so it's nice to have my efforts recognized.

When I was done I closed down my Falna and stretched my whole body with my arms in the air, then fell over to my side on top of my bedding. I knew I still had to get up before I could go to sleep, for dinner if nothing else, but I couldn't resist snuggling and wriggling under the covers for a while.

In hindsight, it was a time spent wisely, since I felt much more relaxed after that. The good news of my stats advancing nicely contributed to that too.

In that fairly good mood I decided to go down to have dinner somewhat earlier than usual, perhaps that's why Mama Mia had the opportunity to talk with me a bit.

"So, Avrora, how has the adventurer life been treating you recently?" She asked as she put down the plate of food I ordered in front of me. "Still going solo or have you managed to find a party?"

I already opened my mouth to give a generic reply, but the second part made me pause and close my mouth. It seems Syr told Mama Mia about what I said to her about intending to go solo for now.

"I'm doing well according to my advisor," I answered her first question. Although I didn't hear those exact words from her, I don't think she would mind me saying that. "As for joining a party, I guess it would be more accurate to say I formed a two-person party with someone."

"Ohoh, and who was it that made you change your mind?"

"Well, she is a supporter and a pallum like me, only a bit older," I explained. "I wasn't really looking for anyone to join up with, but when she came up to me and asked, I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn from someone more experienced than me in the dungeon."

Which is true enough, if not the only, or main, reason why accepted her party request.

"I'm glad to hear that. Even with one other person to watch your back it becomes much safer to explore the Dungeon," she said, sounding somewhat relieved at my answer if my guess is right. "Though if I were you, I would look for another member, if only to discourage the riff-raff that thinks that two young pallum girls are perfect targets to rob."

"Thank you for the advice. I'll keep it in mind."

Mama Mia just snorted at that, shook her head and went back to her work after palming the rent money I put on the counter in the meantime. It seems she was somehow able to tell that I had absolutely no intention of following her advice and found my efforts of persuading her otherwise comical at best. I didn't even think it was that bad of a try to be honest.

Nonetheless, the discussion was over with that, so I continued with my dinner.

Back in my room I was organizing my notes when I realized that today was the third day I spent on the fifth floor. That means that according to Eina's recommendation I could be moving on to the sixth floor today, however, Eina also told me to speak to her before going down another floor, so I probably shouldn't. After a short back and forth in my mind, I decided to stay one more day on the fifth floor, talk to Eina after, then start on the sixth floor the day after tomorrow.

With my notes in order and short term plans set I went to sleep in a much better mood than the day before.

Waking up was similarly a better experience, maybe because physically exhausting myself during the day allowed me to sleep the sleep of the dead.

The day went much the same as the day before, right until... the incident.

Looking at the remains of the nightmarish interloper in front of me I wondered how it all ended like this. Still breathing heavily I glanced towards Lily at the exit of the room. Her shoulders were shaking, her hands on her mouth looking very much like she's trying to hold back tears.

Suddenly a twitch in my periphery caused me to let out a manly yelp, and made me jump... to better position myself for my counterattack, of course. I immediately took the opportunity to do just that and smite the shit out of the hellish creature until it was undoubtedly dead.

My frantic stabs and slashes, that kicked up quite a lot of dirt in the process of annihilating all remains of the thing, were apparently the final straw for Lily, who started laughing out loudly. Her laughter was still resounding in the smallish room when I finally managed to strike the magic stone of the killer ant with one of my clumsy hits that caused the target of my ire to evaporate.

The long sigh of relief I let out caused another round of laughter from Lily for some reason. An entirely unreasonable reaction in my opinion, which I expressed by frowning at Lily. Contrary to my expectation all that did was make Lily redouble her efforts to make her laughter heard throughout the whole dungeon floor.

She just doesn't appreciate the effort I went into to get rid of that horrible monster from our presence.

Okay, perhaps I overreacted a teensy bit, but finding myself suddenly attacked by an ant the size of a fucking harley davidson left me a tad rattled. Its height easily towering over my current body, the evil looking ridges on its exoskeleton and those fucking creepy insect-y front legs trying their best to slash apart my skin... I just need a fucking minute to fucking recollect myself. Fuck.

As it's perhaps became apparent by now, I don't really welcome the presence, or even existence of insects, especially those the size of a damn grizzly bear.

At least Lily was able to derive some amount of merriment from the situation. Despite the situation, a small smile found its way onto my face too. I just shook my head and waited for Lily to return to the fold of coherent people.

"Ahh, Lily is sorry Avrora-san, but Lily never expected someone that thinks of fighting more than fifteen kobolds and goblins at once as nothing more than nuisance and who regularly fights war shadows without any problems to get so worked up by a single killer ant and expand so much effort into neutralizing it so... thoroughly." She ended her sentence with a few more chuckles.

"I've found out...," I started to explain, "that... I do not appreciate the presence of monsters such as these," I clenched my teeth together and formed a not too persuasive smile as I gestured towards the empty patch of ground the ant used to occupy.

"Oh, it's more than understandable Avrora-san, Lily just never thought... never mind," she stopped that line of thought. With a notably more serious tone she continued. "Since Avrora-san experienced her first encounter with a killer ant, perhaps we should talk about how to deal with its kind in detail now?"

She phrased it as a question, but we both knew that my deep aversion to the damn things could prove to be a problem if not fixed, or at least mitigated, in short order. If I can't keep my cool while fighting a single ant, then I stand close to no chance of surviving if we find ourselves attacked perhaps by dozens of the things. Which could theoretically easily happen around the seventh or eighth floor.

So we decided to have an early and longer than usual lunch break to discuss the best way to deal with the ants.

Not to say I didn't know anything about the killer ants, both from the story and from what I've discussed about it with Eina, but it's quite different to face it directly instead of hearing about it from an advisor who, in all likelihood, never even came face to face with one.

In contrast, Lily spoke about their behavior, strong and weak points learned from watching over many kinds of adventurers battle them over the years. Suffice it to say, her impromptu lesson allowed me to calm down quite a bit.

"Thank you, Lily," I thanked her at the end of the break as we swapped back our empty lunch boxes. "I knew about killer ants, but I didn't think they would affect me this much. Nonetheless, I very much appreciate the information about them. I feel a fair bit self-assured in facing them again."

"There is no need for that, Avrora-san," she refuted. "Lily is a Supporter, this is part of her job."

After packing away we resumed our exploration, with a small amount of trepidation and a generous helping of determination in my case.

It's funny that it took me until my fifth day on the fifth floor to come across a killer ant, and yet, we managed to come across another pair not long after our first encounter. At least it allowed me to confront my fears while Lily's words were still fresh in my mind.

Since the two ants were accompanied by two needle rabbits I decided to do away with my restrictions for this battle, just to be sure.

"Avrora-san, I can help out with the needle rabbits if you need me to," she offered when she saw me squeeze the handle of my sword and not move to attack.

I had no time to respond before the rabbits decided to launch their attacks one after the other. Staggering their impact times like that could've been a bothersome maneuver to deal with, but I sidestepped the first one to make sure it wouldn't hit me even if I missed, then bisected it with an overhead slash. Thankfully I managed to time it just right, which wasn't an easy thing to do thanks to the speed of the little bugger.

The second rabbit arrived but a moment later. Not having any time to swing my sword in any meaningful way I used it to block the jump attack of the fluffy adversary by hiding behind the flat of the blade. Since the blade was far from perfectly orthogonal to the vector of the attack, the murder bunny slid across the blade thanks to its momentum and went flying.

I saw the airborne white fuzzball sail over me, but before I could even think about doing something about it I heard the twang of a bowstring.

"Don't worry Avrora-san, I got it," called out Lily.

I just nodded my thanks and directed my focus back to the greater threat of two ants marching our way.

I let the still very present feeling of aversion, and a fair bit of extra jolt of telekinesis, fuel my next slash that impacted one of the ants. I wanted to quickly get rid of the extra, so I could face off against a single one for a bit. Perhaps the telekinesis assist blunted Biggy somehow, because rather than cutting apart the ant it went flying hard enough to mow down a few stalactites hanging from the ceiling. By the time it landed it was in a number of pieces that hardly resembled any parts of a killer ant.

I might have gone overboard on that one. Also, I'm not totally sure, but I might've heard a quiet "Holy..." exclamation from Lily's direction too.

Still, just from seeing that I can do that to a killer ant if I want takes another bit of weight off my chest.

The second ant I spent quite a bit of time with, getting used to how it moves, how much force it can apply and so on. In the meantime I trusted Lily to notify me if something came up.

When I felt myself tiring I quickly finished off the ant by targeting its thorax. The killer ant is the first and most known example of a monster type that doesn't immediately go poof all the way when sundered. Even if the head is separated from the rest of its body, it still survives for a time just to call for reinforcements by releasing some kind of pheromones.

To avoid this you need to crush, stab, slash, or otherwise damage the head enough that it can no longer function, or just extract the stone that is located close to the neck equivalent part of the ant. In this particular case I employed Biggy in a stabbing fashion to achieve this.

Taking seat on a sufficiently sized stone I recounted the encounter while doing my best to catch my breath. Now that I actually experienced fighting against a killer ant, instead of frantically chopping it to pieces as soon as I laid my eyes on it, it became clear that although a killer ant is undeniably much stronger than a goblin or kobold, it's in fact easier to deal with than a war shadow. Both have some degree of physical resistance, one inherently, the other thanks to its carapace, but the war shadow has greater reach thanks to its long arms and bladed fingers and is also much more stealthy to boot.

The real danger of killer ants comes from their ability to call for reinforcements, which make it easy to get overrun if insufficient caution is employed. Sadly overconfidence is not a rare condition among beginner adventurers, which is why killer ants are also called newbie adventurer killers.

In conclusion, if we keep being vigilant, then we should have no problem facing more killer ants, even if my first instinct is to nuke the site from orbit when seeing even one of them.

"Lily didn't expect to run into another killer ants so soon," she said as she finished extracting the last magic stone.

"Me neither, but I think it was for the best. I don't think I'm entirely fine with them just yet, but I won't be freezing up or going berserk when fighting them in the future either," I tried to reassure both Lily and myself. "I'm sorry for being this pathetic about this."

"Don't be absurd, Avrora-san," she said in a near scolding tone. "There is nothing pathetic about recognizing the danger of killer ants. Lily much prefers to work with someone like that instead of those that just recklessly charge into danger without a second thought."

"Thanks, Lily. I needed to hear that, I think."

At least I managed to gain a point in my favor with Lily despite my shortcoming that came to light.

I sat there for a few minutes during which my breathing went back to normal. However I noticed Lily frequently looking at the small devastation I caused with the first ant with a small frown.

I think it might be time to tell Lily about my Skill, or at least the watered down version of it. It's more than likely that I won't be able to hide every manifestation of my ability, even in the near future, so instead of trying to keep it hidden I should just tell her about it. She would most likely figure out that something is not adding up, if she hasn't done so already, and trying to hide it anyway would be the same as saying I don't trust her with the secret.

Of course, if it was someone unknown rather than Lily, it would most likely be the prudent choice to do just that, but thanks to my one-sided knowledge of her personality the risks are reduced to an acceptable level.

Also, telling her about at least some of my capabilities would allow me to operate more freely in front of her.

"Lily," I called out to her before I chickened out. "You already told me about a Skill of yours, so I think I should tell you about mine a bit too."

When I called out to her, she was once again looking at the broken stalactites, so she got startled a bit, but after she heard what topic I wanted to discuss she immediately focused her attention on me.

"First, I need to ask you, Lily, to keep what I'm about to tell you a secret if at all possible," I did my best emploring puppy dog eyes.

"But of course, Avrora-san. A good supporter is expected to keep such details to themselves," she assured me. "Lily promises to never reveal it without Avrora-san's permission."

"Thank you, Lily," I smiled at her.

After a short pause to collect my thoughts I continued on.

"So, I best start by saying that, despite me mostly fighting using a sword, the highest stat on my Falna is Magic."

Lily's eyes just went wide at my statement. Apparently that information was even more shocking for her than I expected.

"The reason for that is a Magic that can probably be described as fairly rare," I downplayed it a good bit. "Once activated I can maintain additional invisible hands that I can freely use within a certain distance of me. For example..."

Lily was a bit stunned still, but she carefully listened to my explanation. However, when I pointed at Biggy propped against a large rock on the other side of me and in response it began to rise into the air apparently by itself, another fairly obvious shock ran through her. She looked back and forth between me and Biggy, probably trying to figure out if there was any trick to what I just did.

"Actually, most of the reason I can wield such a large sword this well is because I mostly use these invisible hands in tandem with my real ones when I fight," I continued with an almost truth. "That's why I was so surprised when you were also able to casually handle its weight the other day."

During my explanation I made Biggy perform a few slow slashes in place as a demonstration. Lily just kept staring at it, transfixed. To finish it up I concentrated on actually manifesting an ethereal hand in detail, not just mimicking it with the marking method, and used it to grab up a fistful of dust from the ground. The sight of my still invisible, but partially perceivable, thanks to the dust running over it, appendage seemed to have brought Lily back from her apparent trance.

"That's... that's absolutely amazing, Avrora-sama!" she said while clapping her hands together, the sound muffled by her gloves. She also seemed to have gone back to her exuberant self and evidently forgot to not use -sama when talking to me. "Lily never even heard of anyone having a Magic like that! Avrora-san is really amazing!"

She kept singing my praises like that, which honestly made me regret telling her a bit. She even used -sama with my name once, but since she didn't repeat it later, I decided to not make a fuss about it.

I suspect the reason why she's so used to giving praise is because the adventurers she worked with were mostly egotistical bastards who expected to be praised to the high heavens by someone who has an apparent lower standing than them, such as a supporter like Lily.

Yet, all it did for me was to make me uncomfortable.

Once Lily's jubilant stream of praises reached its end I went back to explaining.

"There are three main ways I usually use my ability during fights. The first way, as I mentioned before, allows me to use my sword despite its considerable weight. The second and third are direct offense and defense respectively."

It was readily apparent that Lily went into a thinking daze as soon as she heard what I said. Her eyes widening and facial muscles twitching from time to time signaled the moment she thought of yet another possible use of such ability. Although, it's very likely that most of those were ways to make her thieving easier.

Once she snapped out from her rumination she peppered me with a few relevant questions, like how many I can use at one time, how long is my reach, about how strong they are, etc.

I answered them to the best of my knowledge, doing my best to only hide what I absolutely must. I would like Lily to have a fairly good grasp of my abilities now that I ended up telling her this much.

The only aspect I left out entirely was the sensing aspect of my Territory, because I couldn't think of a sufficiently convincing reason why my fake ability could be used like that. Any half baked cover story for it would most likely be easily seen through by Lily and I would like to avoid that.

Overall, Lily took the news alright, going by the downright bouncy mood she was in even after she exhausted all her immediate questions.

"Let's go Avrora-san, I know a few good places on this floor where we don't need to worry about spying eyes," she all but pleaded with me. She was very keen on seeing my ability in action.

So for the rest of the day I was able to use my telekinesis in various ways in battle, which allowed us to advance through the various monster groups considerably faster. Lily lamented the fact that I did not use it since she joined me, which therefore meant losing out on some money, but she said she understood that it's not something you share with someone right off the bat.

Her saying that eased my concerns that she would carry a grudge about me not telling her earlier. I know rationally that telling her about it three days after I met her should be more than fine, but I can't help but agonize over it even so. It's one of my bad habits for sure.

We finally got through the day, during which Lily's apparent enthusiasm gradually abated, which caused her to retreat back to her fake expressions. I couldn't tell if that was because the novelty wore off, or she was lost in thought, or perhaps she has grown resentful for me having the ability. I hope it's not the latter, but as I previously speculated it's not impossible.

Once on the surface I waited for Lily to return from the Exchange on the usual bench, physically tired, but mentally exhausted. Worrying about whether I correctly handled today or not for half a day left me drained, so I just draped myself over the bench and watched the clouds slowly drift by.

My tranquility was disturbed by Lily's arrival not much later.

"There you go Avrora-san," she handed over a pouch of coins. "We got even more today thanks to Avrora-san's extra efforts in the afternoon," she carefully avoided mentioning my ability in an open setting like this. "Lily can't wait to see what we can gather if we have a whole day like that!" she said, chipper once again.

In contrast to that, I just looked at her with half-lidded eyes, not being able to summon any energy to externalize my agreement aside from a weak "Yaaay", which perhaps ended up with a result counter to my intention.

"Lily is sorry Avrora-san. Lily did not realize that today left Avrora-san this tired," she said, sounding contrite. "Lily let greed get the better of her. Lily promises it won't happen again," she said while bowing her head.

Dammit, it's like I unintentionally kicked a puppy. Consoling teenage girls is not in my job description. My brain scrambled for appropriate words to diffuse the situation.

"Don't say that, Lily. It's perfectly reasonable to want to maximize your advantages in the dungeon like that," I said, gesturing wildly with my hands as I tried to reassure her and dispel the gloomy mood. "Don't worry, I feel the same way, really. Today just left me a bit too exhausted to sufficiently express it."

Lily looked up, looking somewhat relieved.

"You know what? I will speak to my advisor and ask her to give permission for me to go down to the sixth floor. That way we can most likely get more magic stones. If not in number, then value at least."

Hearing that, Lily gave me a bright smile.

"With Avrora-san's prowess Lily has no doubt that Avrora-san will be allowed to advance," she encouraged me.

We said goodbye after that, promising to meet up again the next day. At least this latest exchange woke me up entirely.

In reality, I did not intend to go meet Eina today, but now that I blurted it out in an attempt to cheer Lily up I don't really have a choice but to go. But... she will still be there if I arrive ten minutes or so later.

With that thought I fell back to the bench I was sitting on before I got up to bid farewell to Lily. Contrary to a few minutes ago, I was wide awake with next to no chance of falling asleep, but a few minutes of relaxation after a long day was still very welcome.

Even with the high margin between my capabilities stat-wise and the actual floor we are working on, the whole thing is very tiring. Well, on the other side, that means I'm probably utilizing most of my capabilities, thanks to the slight restriction I've put myself under. That should be a good thing in the long run. I hope.

Feeling a bit refreshed after that short break, I grabbed Biggy, put it on my back, and set out towards the Guild Headquarters.

Usually I would just leisurely stroll towards my destination, window-shopping along the way, but this time I kept up a fairly brisk pace without any detours. Thanks to that I arrived there in a handful of minutes.

Ducking under the doors allowed me to take a look at the inside, which was much more packed than what I usually see. Since I usually avoid the evening rush when coming here I've not seen so many adventurers lining up here. Thankfully, the longest lines belonged to the local exchange desks, so I had no business with them. The other lines in front of normal advisors were a bit longer than usual, but not overly so.

The problem was that I wasn't seeing Eina anywhere. Damn, did she have the day off? I couldn't tell. Well, I guess I will just browse the notice board for a while and if she doesn't turn up in the meantime, then I'll just go back to the pub.

Going over the prices on the various advertisements, it really is amazing how much higher level weapons and potions go for. A not even a top quality weapon can be easily sold for dozens of millions of valis, costing more than a sizable building within Orario. And even then, those weapons can be called affordable for higher level adventurers who do indeed need that quality in the deeper floors.

In contrast, the prices for ordinary goods and services from outside Orario seems like a pittance in comparison. For example, on this board, there are advertisements for guard positions in outgoing trade ships and caravans, but when the promised reward is calculated down to a per day format, most don't even offer a tenth of what someone could earn in a simple beginner party on the first few floors.

I guess this really highlights the fact that being an adventurer is a high-risk high-reward job.

This fact gives me somewhat mixed feelings, since so far the high risk part did not hold true for me, aside from a single instance since I started dungeon delving. I know it's mainly because of the advantage I have, but things going just right without a hitch makes me uneasy. I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop anytime.

The best adventurers are not those who have overwhelming power right out of the gate, but those that endure, evolve, and overcome. Learning to cope with close calls and unexpected situations is an important part of growing as an adventurer, which I might be missing currently. I feel that by being perhaps overly cautious about going down to deeper floors the power I'm building will not have an appropriate foundation to stand on.

Damn, that is too deep a topic to ponder while standing in front of a notice board.

I turned my head to see if Eina showed up yet, but I wasn't seeing her anywhere. I almost gave up and left right then, but then I saw the pink haired advisor walk into view from the corridor most likely leading to the non-public sections of the Guild. As soon as she did that she looked directly at me for some reason and enthusiastically pointed me out to the one following her, who turned out to be Eina.

She probably noticed me just standing around and notified Eina about my presence. That's nice of her, but what if I was here only to browse the notice board or something? Perhaps she saw me checking the line up for her.

Eina shortly spotted me too, so I slightly nodded at them. I saw Eina reciprocate the nod and start making her way to me, but the spirited waiving and wide smile of the pink haired girl I did not expect. Not sure what to do about it, I gave her a brittle smile and barely perceptible wave back. Apparently that was fine because she gave me a thumbs up, waved goodbye and disappeared into the same corridor she emerged from.

Still not quite sure what to make of that, after exchanging verbal greetings I started walking with Eina towards the private meeting rooms.

"Don't worry about Misha, her bubbly personality can be an acquired taste. She was just excited since I've talked to her about you sometimes and she hasn't seen you in person yet."

With that clarified we sat down in an empty room, ready for the upcoming consultation.

"So, Avrora. You are still on the fifth floor I hope?" she asked in a tune that suggested that the answer better be yes, or else.

"Of course, Eina-san. I promised to ask you before going further down and there wasn't any unforeseen circumstance that would've necessitated me going down despite that," I assured her.

"That's good to hear, Avrora."

"Speaking of asking before going further..." I segwayed. "I would like to ask for permission to do that if possible," I smiled an innocent smile.

"Hmpf, I should've known," Eina grumbled a bit. "Today was your fourth day on the fifth floor, right?"I nodded in the affirmative. "You know, when I said you should wait three days before going down another level I didn't mean you should keep advancing at the same rate after that," she said with a sigh. "Knowing you I'm certain you have your reason for asking, so let's hear them."

"I guess the first reason is that I've found a supporter who is a good deal more experienced than me, so I'm confident together we can deal with lower levels."

"A Supporter? That's excellent news! Can you tell me more about the person in question?" she asked eagerly.

"Her name is Liliruca Arde and she is a pallum like me," I started describing her. "She's a bit older than me, but she's been working as a supporter for many years already. I've only worked with her for three days, but it's clear she is very good at her job. She even has a Skill that lets her carry much heavier weights than ordinarily possible."

Eina kept listening attentively without asking for clarification on anything, so I continued.

"I also told her a bit about my ability today, although just the severely retracted version of it." Eina narrowed her eyes a bit to that. "I'm fairly sure she won't try to sell the information to anyone, since apparently she is not too fond of adventurers and she's earning quite well working with me, I think."

I haven't shortchanged her yet and there is a fair risk that anyone she could approach would just go back on their word and not pay anything for the information. So from a risk reward perspective it's best to just keep working with me.

I thought about telling Eina about Lily's circumstances in her Familia, but finally decided against it. I kinda wanted to tell her, if only to have someone to bitch about it together, but the truth is that Eina is only about fifteen or sixteen years old and still a junior member of the Guild right now, so I doubt she could do anything about the situation. Telling her would only burden her with something she can't change at this moment. And by the time she will have the pull to do so, it should be already resolved. At least I very much hope so.

In light of me gaining a new party member Eina gave her consent fairly easily for us going down another floor. Although she impressed on me that I shouldn't try to show up four days from now to ask for permission yet again.

With our talk concluded I bid farewell to Eina and left for the Hostess of Fertility.

During these walks I sometimes just zone out, watch the display windows of the shops I go by, not even watching where I'm going, relying on my Territory to avoid the people that cross my path. This tendency of mine is what spelled my doom this late afternoon.

I was already walking on West Main street, where the pub is located, when I heard something that made me freeze up instantly.

"Avrora-chan! What a nice coincidence," the voice of the person I've done my best to avoid until now stopped me in my tracks. "It's getting late, so you must be heading home. You don't mind if I accompany you right? I wanted to talk to you more ever since you came to live at the pub, but I barely even saw you since then," Syr pouted, projecting her obvious dejection with the aforementioned state of affairs.

I have no idea if that's supposed to be a dig at me for actively trying to avoid her, or just a simple observation. I'm absolutely pants at all that double-speak and reading between the lines stuff, especially not in my native language or english at least. Therefore I decided to treat everything she said from now on at face value.

"Hello, Syr-san. Yes, I'm heading back to the pub and don't mind your company," I bent the truth. "I'm sorry for not keeping my promise about talking to you, but starting out as an adventurer has taken up most of my time since then."

"Ah, don't worry about that Avrora-chan," she waved my apology away as we started moving again. "It's not something so urgent that it would warrant taking away time from important things like that."

That's good. If there is no danger of her trying to chat with me, then I can stop actively trying to avoid her. One less thing to watch out for.

"Avrora-chan," Syr started speaking tentatively, "I don't know if you know this, but I often visit an orphanage on the western side of Orario. In fact, I just came from there." I glanced at Syr, but did not react any other way. I had no idea what she intended by bringing it up, so I waited for her to get to the point, which she did. "I just wanted to mention that there are a few children there around your age and I'm sure you would get along splendidly with them."

Syr kept talking about how children of smaller Familias are generally discouraged from interacting with other children from different Familias due to interfamilial politics, so their best bet for socializing with their peers are non-Blessed children.

At first I suppressed a grimace from the thought of having to interact with a bunch of young children for an extended amount of time and started formulating a suitable response to refuse her offer, but as she kept speaking I realized she might have a different motive for her offer after all. The way she kept praising the kids and the orphanage that takes care of them suggested to me one possible aim. To get me to leave the Hostess.

Ever since I remembered the fact that the Hostess of Fertility does not provide rooms to rent and my current situation there is temporary at best, it remained constantly in the back of my mind, like an ever present shadow. I'm both thankful that I'm allowed to live there and dreading the moment it will no longer be the case. I know I should have it together by now, nearly three weeks after my arrival here. Confident, determined, stalwart, none of those can be used to describe me, no matter how much I wish they would. No matter how many years I have under my belt, I'm just a scared kid not wanting to leave home-

Dammit, that's the gist of it right there, isn't it. That word. Home.

I started thinking of the Hostess of Fertility as my home in this world, not a temporary place to stay, not an acquaintance or relative's house, but a real home, a sanctuary.

That's why the thought of having to leave it rattles me so much.

I shouldn't have let myself get attached this much. I should've realized it and done something about it earlier, but it seems underneath my general disorientation caused by my displacement that rowdy little pub slowly and insidiously crept its way into my heart. Now it's probably too late to do anything about it.

In light of that, my recent behavior of avoiding everything and everyone is a tad bit improper. I should try to remedy that if I want to have a chance of fitting in enough to not be kicked out in short order.

Hopefully I can accomplish that before they move onto more direct methods instead of this soft approach by Syr.

Thankfully my various rapidly changing expressions were hidden by my hood, so my chattering walking partner did not notice them.

"Ah, thank you Syr-san for the offer," I said when I was able to cut in, "but I've recently teamed up with a girl near my age, so-"

"Ooh, that's very good news," she cut in and clapped her hands together at the new information. "Tell me, tell me! Who is she? What is she like?" she pressed me for details.

The rest of the way home was spent by me satisfying Syr's curiosity regarding my new party member. I also talked just a bit about Lily's less than ideal situation in the form of vague suspicions. Just in case something happens to me, hopefully Lily can find some refuge at the pub if all else fails. Preferably it won't come to that though.

"Syr! You're late!", came the thundering voice of Mama Mia as soon as we stepped inside. "Where were you loitering until now? Go and help out the elf take those orders!"

"Yes, Mama Mia!" After her quick reply Syr turned to me. "Have to go now, Avrora. Talk to you later!" I nodded.

The pub was in a minor state of pandemonium. For some reason there were a lot more customers than usual and Syr was apparently late for her shift, so the rest of the staff quickly became overwhelmed. Right as Syr went to the back to get ready someone must've knocked off a bunch of plates and things, because a huge racket could be heard along with a suffering nyaa~ sound. That must've been the cook, May.

Not wanting to get in the way I went upstairs to my room, offloaded my gear, picked up a change of clothes and everything else I needed for a shower and made my way to the bathroom. Since teaming up with Lily I switched back to showering at the pub rather than Babel, since we usually part way outside the tower.

Deciding I might as well enjoy a relaxing bath instead of just showering I did just that. In my old body our bathtub was much too small for me once I was an adult, so being able to frolic around a bit in the tub brought back some ancient memories.

Even so, after a few minutes of relaxation I noticed with my Territory that the staff was still overwhelmed by the number of customers, so I mustered my resolve from earlier to interact more with the others in the pub and decided take that step and help them out, even if I would rather just shut myself in my room instead.

After a few more deep breaths I finished up my bath and put on clean clothes. The clothes in question was a set that I bought with casual, not adventuring, use in mind. All it was a simple knee-length dark greenish shorts and a light blue shirt, which was probably a bit oversized for me currently. I completed the ensemble with a hair tie, tying together most of my green hair at the back. A few locks on either side of my face got left out, but there is nothing to do about those, because they are too short to be tied up at the moment.

Taking a good look at my reflection I realize that it's possible for me to be mistaken for a boy like this. A girlish boy for sure, but still a boy. I decided I liked this style.

With everything set I dropped off my dirty clothes in my room, planning to wash it later today or tomorrow morning, then with some trepidation walked down the stairs.

I was half watching with my Territory, so I knew that no new staff member showed up to help with the workload, so I approached the huge pile of dishes waiting to be washed.

"I'm sorry," I called out to the obviously distraught catgirl chef, "Would it be alright if I helped out with those?" I gestured to the aforementioned pile.

The tearing up and the look of someone who's been granted salvation I did not expect.

"Yes, yes, yes! Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" She all but kissed my feet in gratitude before whooshing away to continue making a few different dishes simultaneously.

Feeling more than a bit awkward from that exchange, I liberated a single chair from the corner of the kitchen, since I was much too short to reach up to the kitchen sink. Hopping on the chair I saw that the sink was chock full of dirty dishes, so I had to get some of them out before I could fill it with water. The problem was that there was absolutely no room left on the worktop. The crash noises and despondent cat noises at the time of our arrival was apparently caused by trying to fit more dirty dishes onto the pile than it could take. Thankfully most plates of the pub are made of wood, so none broke, but I can still see some of them on the floor, since nobody had time to pick them up yet.

This is an even bigger emergency than I thought.

I carefully made sure that no one outside the kitchen could see me, or my immediate surroundings, then started marking the dirty dishes one-by-one.

With my small pallum hands and short reach I could hardly work fast enough to be actually helpful here, so I decided to not care about the pub staff noticing my ability and actually do my best to alleviate some of the pressure for them.

I marked all mugs, plates, trays, etc and positioned them in the air around me while making sure nothing dripped on the floor. Thanks to my maxed out Magic stat I could easily support this many marks by now, although if I had to actually fight with all of them it would be a different story, but simply keeping them in the air was done with barely any effort. Heh, it kind of looks like the Gate of Babylon, only if it was filled with dirty dishes instead of treasures.

With the sink and worktop empty I could finally fill the sink with water and start washing the dishes. After a few minutes of adjusting to the unfamiliar setup I was able to work at a respectable speed, I think.

For May the floating objects didn't even seem to register, so focused on cooking she was. I had to even move some of them out of the way so she didn't run head first into them.

Mama Mia came in a few times to put together the meals to serve. The first time she came in she just said "Well, that's not something you see every day. Thanks for the help there. Keep it up a little longer." And that was that.

A few minutes later Ryuu-san arrived in the kitchen, but a short pause and head tilt later she grasped the situation and approached me.

"Hello Avrora-san. Thank you for helping out once again," she said as she walked closer, the floating object parting in front of her. "Although it shouldn't have been your task to undertake, the assistance is much appreciated."

"It's not a problem Ryuu-san. I saw how swamped everyone was, so I thought I would help out", I said as I moved a now clean bowl onto the dryer with telekinesis, since it was out of reach for me. Ryuu-san followed its movement with her eyes, but gave no other indication of caring about it.

"Indeed. Another employee called in sick unexpectedly and there are more guests than usual as well. Thankfully we now have a bit more leeway, so Mama Mia directed me to help out in the kitchen. Would you like me to take over now?" she asked.

"Ah, so that's what it was. There is no need, I would like to finish this if possible," she nodded in acknowledgement.

"Then I will dry the dishes in the meantime," she informed me as she took out a dish-towel from a cabinet.

Together with Ryuu-san we wordlessly continued to demolish the army of dirty dishes even with the occasional reinforcements it received. This was also a kind of therapeutic experience. I wouldn't like to actually work as a kitchen assistant as a main job, but from time to time it's not so bad.

"Avrora-san, I would like to ask the reason for keeping those in the air around yourself," she broke the relative silence.

"Well, at first I picked them up because the counter was too full and there was a high risk of things falling down, like it apparently happened when Syr and I arrived," Ryuu nodded. "After that I just kept it up since it actually makes things easier to manage."

"Won't you run out of Mind at this rate? It's a serious danger for adventurers with channeling type spells."

Hmm, so Ryuu-san thinks it's an 'activate, then channel to keep up the effect' type spell. That's good information, since most likely other high level adventurers would come to the same conclusion. I need to read up on those types of skills, so I know what to fake in more detail if I go with that route.

"Don't worry Ryuu-san, I can easily handle this many if I don't move them too much," I assured her.

"That's good." She paused for a bit. "Do you use it frequently for similar tasks too?" She asked finally.

"...yes," I answered hesitantly.

Seeing my uncertainty the elf reassured me.

"Don't worry, it's in fact good that you do. Channeling type spells are first and foremost need to be trained out of combat to get used to them as much as possible. Only after it becomes near second nature can they be used in battle reliably without too high of a risk of Ignis Fatuus," she explained in detail. "Therefore, you are already on the right track."

I took a few seconds to digest her words, then thanked her for the advice.

Although this is not entirely applicable to me, information like that is why it would be nice to have a higher level adventurer to go to for advice, but I'm not familiar enough with any to be able to do that. Anya, Chloe, and Lunoire I haven't even exchanged a single word with yet, if I don't count the breakfast greetings right after I moved in, and Mama Mia is too busy for something like that. Asking Ryuu could be an option, but I started out with causing her problems and I was already likened to a small duck following her once, so if I started annoying her with questions after that it would surely count as too obnoxious.

A short while later I sensed Syr coming towards the kitchen balancing a dangerously unstable looking pile of used tableware. To avoid the slight possibility of her dropping them if she gets startled by the floating dishes I marked everything she carried.

It seemed I didn't need to worry, because she concentrated on reaching a worktop before looking around the kitchen, so they were safely delivered before an accident could happen. The subsequent squeak and small jump was from seeing the just relinquished object fly away to join its brethren around me.

"What? How? What?" Although she was a clever girl, Syr wasn't used to expecting the unexpected like an adventurer needs to, so it took a bit longer to understand the situation.

To reduce her confusion Ryuu-san decided to enlighten her. "Don't worry, Syr. It's just Avrora-san grabbing the opportunity to practice her magic."

"Avrora practicing her magic?" Syr repeated back, her eyes moving back and forth between me and Ryuu-san. Then after a few moments her expression clearly showed she worked it out. "Ooooh, that's incredible Avrora-chan!" She then took two steps closer to be within an arm's reach from me, then leaned forward to presumably pat my head or something to that effect. The whole thing looked like she didn't even consciously think about it, it was just something she simply did all the time. Most likely she often employs this method of conveying praise on the children of the orphanage she visits.

Nonetheless, I'm decidedly not one of those children, so instead of her hands managing to touch my nature themed locks of hair, it bumped into a hastily assembled shield wall made of a number of trays and plates.

Although Syr is not in the same category as the young lady guests from the other day I ran away from, she is still not someone I would just let casually touch me like that.

Since I couldn't see over the barrier I erected the most noticeable reaction of Syr was something like a surprised yelp. Yet, this visible rejection did not deter her for more than a few moments, because she tried to circumvent the blockade to finish her intended action.

All that resulted in was an increasingly irritated Syr trying to sidestep around my makeshift shield, only to find it matching her movements. In the meantime I turned back to my work, not caring about the cutesy sounding noises of irritations she started to produce.

I have no idea why Syr deemed it so vital to complete this self appointed mission of hers, but Mama Mia appearing in the kitchen put an end to the whole thing.

"Syr! Stop messing around and get back out there!" she said in a tone that brooked no arguments.

"Yes, Mama Mia!" That finally got her to cease her attempts and exit the kitchen, but not before visibly pouting at me through the small peephole in my defense I opened up.

I glanced at Ryuu-san as I dispersed the components of my barrier back to their place, but she didn't seem like she felt the need to comment on what just happened. Although I may have seen the corners of her mouth curve upwards just a tad bit, I can't really be sure that I didn't just imagine it.

"Ryuu-san?" I called out. "Can I ask you to tell Syr-san to keep my magic a secret if possible? I don't mind if everyone here at the Hostess knows about it, but I would like it if outsiders didn't learn of it."

"Of course, Avrora-san. I will make sure to tell everyone."

"Thank you."

Not long after that, with our powers combined, the two of us finally managed to reach the end of the pile. Since Ryuu-san could easily handle the rest by herself I decided it was time to go and have dinner myself as well.

"Thank you once again for your help, Avrora-san," Ryuu-san expressed her gratitude as I used a kitchen towel to dry my now wrinkly hands.

"Don't worry about it, Ryuu-san. I just saw that some assistance was needed and so I tried to help out a bit. It was also good practice for my magic as well."

With my hands dry I hopped down from the chair, picked it up, nodded goodbye to my temporary colleague for now, and left the kitchen. Apparently the corner space at the counter I liberated the chair from was still empty, so I put the chair back and sat down on it. The one adventurer that saw me do that raised one eyebrow, but did not make a comment before turning back to his dinner.

The usual pasta dish tasted even better today for some reason, maybe because it was an especially long day, or maybe that I got a sneak peek into how much work it takes to make it.

I tried to pay the usual rent to Mama Mia too, but she waved it off, calling it even for the help I provided. I tried to argue that 500 valis was too much for that, but she just ignored it.

I was positively ravenous by the time I managed to get my hands on the food, so I ate a lot more than my diminutive stature should realistically allow. As a result I was immediately hit by a serious food coma, so I barely made it to my room before I completely zonked out.