Chapter 24: Fan Service and Back-to-Back Level Ups.
.....
With dungeon exploration off the schedule, Kihara's days settled into a rhythm of sleeping until he naturally woke up, with a rotating selection of black-haired, brown-haired, and golden-haired companions appearing beside him each morning like a gacha system that had finally decided to be generous.
"This is the life," he remarked, to no one in particular.
The extended time at home also produced, on one otherwise unremarkable evening, the classic accidental bathroom encounter — specifically, the door-opening variety. He got a glimpse of Lili's damp pink shoulders and a silhouette that suggested spring was arriving early in certain respects, closed the door with perfect courtesy, and stood in the hallway quietly experiencing several feelings.
[Shinobu. After five girlfriends, I have finally encountered a genuine fan service moment.]
[Yes yes, congratulations, Master~]
The delivery was completely flat. Shinobu found his fixation on these specific types of events genuinely puzzling — he had unrestricted access to five women who adored him, and yet this was the thing that moved him to quiet reverence. She filed it under inexplicable male behaviour and moved on.
Hestia had been feeling a strange tightness in her chest for two days. She was certain it wasn't illness, but couldn't identify any other cause. She found Kihara and presented the problem with furrowed brows and both hands cradling the relevant area in a gesture of genuine complaint.
"Kihara, my chest has been really uncomfortable lately."
Kihara deployed every gram of his self-control to process the sentence she had actually said rather than the accompanying visual information, and leaned in to press the back of his hand against her forehead.
"Temperature feels normal. The back of the hand isn't the most accurate — let me try properly."
He pressed his own forehead to hers. Their breath overlapped in the small space between them.
Whatever had been tight in Hestia's chest became considerably tighter. Her breathing shortened. The fabric of her shirt — a gnome-sized piece that had been let out as far as structural integrity allowed — began emitting a faint but ominous sound.
"Not feverish. At least we can rule out—"
The fabric gave up.
There was a sharp tearing sound. Hestia shrieked and dropped into a crouch, both hands pressed to her chest.
A moment of shared understanding settled over the room.
[Her combat power is still increasing — this is outrageous—]
"Hestia." Kihara's voice was admirably steady. "The custom outfits are ready soon. Gnome-sized alterations were never going to hold up long-term."
"...Mm."
"Lili — could you grab one of Hestia's other tops from her room?"
Lili, who had arrived at a run when she heard the shriek, took in the scattered fabric on the floor, understood the situation immediately, and spared a single glance downward at the overflow situation in Hestia's current posture with an expression of pure, undisguised envy. Then she went upstairs.
The banned week ended. Kihara stopped by the Hephaestos Familia on his way to the dungeon and collected Shinobu's weapon.
He hadn't even finished reading the item description before she swallowed it.
She patted her stomach with satisfaction and produced a small, pleased sound.
[Now I can fight alongside you properly, Master.]
"From inside the shadow?"
[Correct.]
"Let's go. Show me what you've got."
He took Lili straight through to the tenth floor at pace, Shinobu's shadow running alongside his own, occasionally diverging to strike targets from a completely different angle than his body was facing. The monsters it hit showed no external wounds — they simply screamed and died, their shadows cut to pieces while they remained visibly intact.
Lili stared at this phenomenon for several floors before Kihara explained it, completely seriously, as a Stand attack, noting that only Stand users could perceive what the shadow was actually doing.
She chose to accept this.
With Shinobu managing Lili's protection independently, Kihara could move freely without monitoring her position — and the difference showed. They reached the seventeenth floor in a fraction of the usual time.
The floor of white stone opened around them, and Lili stood at the threshold looking at what Kihara had just casually crossed alone, previously, without telling anyone.
"Lord Kihara... should Lili perhaps stay home with Lady Hestia instead? I haven't contributed anything to the actual fighting."
"Why would you think that?"
"Because I haven't helped at all."
He reached over and thoroughly kneaded her cheek. She blinked at him in confusion.
"You picked the shortcuts. You briefed me on every monster variant we passed. You extracted ore when I needed materials. That's a supporter doing exactly what a supporter should do."
"...Lili understands. Lili will study harder and make Lord Kihara's expeditions even smoother!"
"That's the spirit."
He gave her cheek one final pinch and turned to check the torch beside the eighteenth floor entrance. Still burning, but low — roughly half the flame it would have had at full strength.
Lili pulled out her notebook. "The torch burns for exactly two weeks — same as the Goliath's minimum respawn timer. At this burn rate..." she calculated quickly "...three days."
"Three days." He looked at the torch, then back the way they'd come. "Nothing to do but wait. We'll clear back up from seventeen in the meantime — more magic stones, more materials to sell."
"Yes!"
The Adventurer's Guild posted its bulletin approximately two weeks after the Goliath's defeat had been projected: the floor boss of the seventeenth floor was expected to respawn within the coming days. One eager party, confident in their preparation, entered the dungeon a full two weeks early — determined to be the first to arrive when the monster returned.
When they finally stepped onto the white stone of the Wall of Sorrows, they found the Goliath already on the ground.
All seven metres of it.
A black-haired adventurer stood at its feet, considering his assessment.
"Tougher than expected. More fun for it, honestly."
He delivered his verdict, removed the creature's head from its shoulders in a single clean stroke, and watched the body dissolve into black smoke — leaving behind a magic stone the size of two grown men stacked together, and a pair of horns so clear they might have been carved from crystal.
The advance party stood frozen in the entrance. When Kihara began dragging the magic stone toward them, they bowed their heads without being asked.
Several days later, the Adventurer's Guild posted the following notice on the public board:
[Level 1 adventurer Kihara has defeated the seventeenth floor boss Goliath in solo combat, fulfilling the conditions for a Heroic Feat. Advancement confirmed: Level 1 → Level 3. A new star has arrived in Orario.]
...
Thank you for reading.