"Haahhh!!! Haahhh!!!"

"Now, White. Finish it off!"

"UOOO!!! GIVE. ME. EXPERIENCEEEE!!!"

Slamming the creature in front of me as hard as I could, the metal staff connected with its head and its skill cracked into two pieces.

Gyrrrrraaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Losing its head, the monster collapsed onto the ground weakly.

[System] Terracap LV5 has been defeated. 

[System] You have gained 400 experience points. 

Miss Lestia went forward and consumed the Terracap into her body. Of course, it has been a common occurrence during these battles so I'd long gotten used to it. That was the characteristic of a slime anyway, and I followed that line of thought in order to not be too astonished each time she did that. 

"Phew..."

I lowered my shoulders to lower the heavy staff to the ground and sighed.

"Status Check."

Name White Shigaraki Level 2 Unused SP 10 Rank 1 Race Human Gender Male Occupation Undetermined Alignment Lawful Neutral Class Undetermined Health 150 Mana 100 Strength 101 Dexterity 101 Luck 510 Intelligence 526 Defense 100 Magic Defense 100 Equipment Leather Clothes, Leather Pants, Leather Pouch, Night Cloak of Fire-Poison Resistance, Iron Staff Traits Paranoiac Titles Reincarnated One, Miracle of a Goddess, Contradictory Existence Passive Skills

Presence Awareness LV2, Spatial Awareness LV3, Hawkeye LV1

Active Skills

Status Check

Foreign Elements

Secondary Soul Pocket

I had levelled up to LV 2, two days ago.

Since then, some parts of my daily lifestyle had become easier to carry out. I found it less tiring to travel and hunt monsters in the morning while having sex with Soma at night.

It was interesting to note that while I did not learn any skills, all of my personal parameters went up by 100. The most distinct change to my body from the level up. was the strength and dexterity differences. My grip was stronger, and I could hold slightly heavier things now.

Speaking of skills, I was surprised to learn that I had 3 of them. 

Presence Awareness LV2, Spatial Awareness LV3 and Hawkeye LV1. 

All of these skills were Passive types, and were more of an increase to the reach of my sensory organs than combat-oriented ones. For example, Hawkeye made my far-sight become a little less blurry as if I was looking through a mini telescope if I concentrated properly and consciously image the Hawkeye to activate.

Presence Awareness allowed me to detect living entities within about a 2 meter radius of where I am looking at.

Spatial Awareness allowed me to perceive things that I have seen or heard and creates a visual image in my head of what things are happening around me. I can do this for up to a 3 meter radius, which was appropriate as each of these skill raised the reach by a meter everytime it levelled up. And to level these skills up, I need skill points (SP) which I will get everytime I level up.

Each level increase would give me 10 SP, and raising their levels would require an amount equal to the skill's current level. For example, Spatial Awareness is LV 3 right now, so it would cost 3 SP to level it to LV 4. In spite of that, I saved these points since it was an extremely important resource that I couldn't continue to reliably get.

But the more important part of this... was that my own level stopped going higher. The reason for my sigh was because there was no System announcement for a level up unlike the first time.

"Ah... errr... Miss Lestia, how do you open the experience bar again...?"

"Ara, you've forgotten did you? Don't worry, I'll teach. You. Again~"

"..."

My body shivered at those words.

Miss Soma, who had been nearby trying to control the aggro of the Terracap earlier, suddenly popped a vein on her forehead. She quickly came over and held out a hand to stop Miss Lestia.

"Oi, you still dare to do that after yesterday. You had your fun already, we're supposed to be power-levelling this wimp quickly, so don't waste your time trying to appeal to him with your body."

"Ara, ara... whatever do you mean by that~"

"I meant what I said literally. Bitch."

"My, my... how crude... this is why White only sees you as an onahole~ much less a woman~"

"What did you say?! You seriously want to pick a fight now?!"

Miss Soma's sword suddenly glowed bright red, as she dragged it out to her shoulders.

"Ah... don't fight please..."

Hearing that, she suddenly lowered her blade and snorted.

"It's not like I care whether you like me or not. Hmph. I'm not stopping just because you told me to, but because I felt like it. How stupid."

Miss Soma walked off to a nearby tree and sat down under the shade.

I watched her back moving away from us slowly and sighed.

"She really doesn't like me huh... And here I thought that we could bond together if we fought like this... I guess it can't be helped, I'm being carried the whole time. She must really think I'm a good-for-nothing... On the contrary, Miss Soma could end it all within a single slash. She's a Sword Saint while I'm just a NEET who happened to come to this world..."

"My my, don't be discouraged White. I think you're progressing splendidly. Everyone starts off somewhere right~ I think it is fine for you to keep these training wheels up until you're ready to hold off on your own."

I didn't really feel better from Miss Lestia's words of consolation.

"Even so... levelling up feels slow... I've been stuck at Level 2 for so long already... Is it something that only happens to me I wonder..."

"Mn... it is indeed strange. I levelled up fairly quickly from 2. Although I'm not sure what levels goblins were, but you've definitely exceeded the amount of experience points I needed to get to Level 3."

"Uuuu..."

"W-well, it might not prove anything yet though! Look, I'm a slime after all... maybe we have different experience requirements? How about asking Soma about that?"

"Ask her huh... I... I don't think she would like it if I approached her again... I still haven't cleared the condition of being able to stand my ground against her in a sparring match... it's too much for me."

Miss Soma set the rules right from the start. She said I was only allowed to talk to her if I cleared two of her conditions. One was to satisfy her in bed, which I had continued to keep in exchange for me freeloading off these two women. And the other was to hold out against her attacks for a whole minute.

Needless to say, it was impossible for me. She had tossed out a Serrated Steel Two-Handed Sword casually for me to test my mettle, but I didn't even last a second. Her movements were too quick, even though I could see them.

Incidentally, Miss Lestia had given me the Night Cloak of Fire-Poison Resistance and Iron Staff since they were the only equipment she had that wouldn't weigh too much on my hands.

"That silly challenge, is it? That woman, she's really pushing it too far..."

Miss Lestia pouted her lips, which made me smile wryly. It was a decently cute expression.

I wonder how long has it been since I'd talked to a girl intimately like this?

But well... my slow experience gain aside... I didn't get to see the true strength of Miss Soma from these fights. Most of the time, she wasn't even looking at her opponent and only parried around until it was low enough for me to nab the last hit.

Last hits were the only way to register experience points when defeating monsters, which made me concerned about things that would appear in this world because of that.

Things like Player Killing (PK) or Kill Stealing (KS) might be pretty common here.

Fumbling about my Status Window, I finally found the experience gauge without Miss Lestia's costly help.

"Ah... as expected... there's something wrong."

Current Experience Accumulated ; LV2 31,043 Experience Required ; LV 3 [300] 0

I've even exceeded the required amount...

"Well, I don't know if it cheers you up, but the System has undergone some changes while you were unconscious."

"The System? You mean that robotic voice that records the major activity in combat?"

"Yeah, from what I've heard from Soma, it's being governed by the game master who is a Goddess. You can't see it now, but your status has been cleaned of glitches and the like already."

"Glitches?"

"Something like... unreadable or corrupted... text... ah..."

How did Miss Lestia know about a word like 'game master' or 'glitch'? This doesn't seem like modern Earth... unless...

"...Well, it's you know. That. I-I'll go ask something from Soma for a moment, please rest here White~"

I watched, as Miss Lestia walked over to Miss Soma briskly. They whispered something to each other and nodded her heads lightly as if they had come to some sort of conclusion.

Not like I didn't hold any sort of suspicion towards the two in the first place, but they're being awfully conspicuous about it...

I couldn't leave their sides as well, since this forest was infested with monsters. There were even a few spots in the sky, probably aerial types. We were almost reaching the next city of Hiomi, and I could leave them then. Even so, I couldn't help but hate myself for beginning to grow complacent with the over-reliance on these two...

Miss Lestia had shown that she was well enough capable to defeat one of those Terracaps as well, as I was once caught off guard by one behind me. And she just sliced it in half by solidifying her arm.

What do I do... they're coming over together...

Should I run? Are they going to silence me?

... ...

In the end, I trusted my instincts and stood my ground.

But I was bracing myself for an incoming bombshell of a statement.

Miss Lestia had brought over Miss Soma in front of me. I was looking down at their feet.

"Can you man up a little? Look at me if you want to say something."

I timidly moved my head upwards and held eye contact with Miss Soma.

...

...

"Yes, she's... we're from Earth. So what? It doesn't change anything. Or is there something you think would change our current situation?"

"Eh? A-ah... it is as you say..."

Huh? It got resolved rather quickly? She was right on the mark about that, but it felt like many things were suddenly swept under the rug... well, it really felt like it didn't matter at all if Miss Soma said so. I didn't feel uncomfortable with these two women being from Earth as well. I came from Earth as well, so it wouldn't be a surprise that there were people like me who had come to this world.

"More importantly. Your experience points, is it?"

Miss Soma squinted her eyes at me, as if looking at trash.

"It might be because you're too weak that the System didn't want to level y- OUCH! That hurts, you bitch!"

"Then explain it properly, please."

"Alright, I get it already..."

I didn't know why, but instead of feeling depressed about my current situation, I felt a little better from their exchange of words that felt more like a friendly banter than the usual cynical remarks that I was used to hearing.

"In that case, it might be a curse. That's the most likely explanation for it."

"A... curse?"

"Yeah, maybe this time it's a curse that stops you from levelling up. I have handled a few cases of these during my adventuring days. They're kinda invisible in Status Windows until it gets appraised by an appropriate skill or item. Either way, we can do that if we reach the Adventurer's Guild in Hiomi. We can find out the way to get rid of it if we understand it better."

"I see... then there's no point worrying about it for now..."

"Tch, that's what I've been saying, you wimp! Really, why can't you be more- Ouch!!! Okay okay! You can act all chummy with this person for all I care. Stupid White."

Miss Soma walked away as she left a snarky remark as a gift before leaving.

...She really sticks to that character until nighttime huh... Sometimes I have no idea why, but I find her behaviour to be a little cute... Although I must say...

I'm not a masochist.

"Really, that woman... she doesn't have any manners or tact at all... Are you okay White?"

"Mn... it's okay. Thanks for worrying about me, M... Lestia. She is not wrong. But I won't be this way forever, I'll try to become stronger so that I won't keep relying on you two!"

Alright! I said something good, I wonder if my points with Miss Lestia has gone up from this.

"Although it is fine if you keep relying on us though..." (Whisper)

Hm?

"Did you say something?"

"Fufu, nothing in particular. I'll call the elves over then, we've taken a long enough break for now. We'll continue the hunt for monsters tomorrow~"

"Ah... okay."

I replied absentmindedly to Miss Lestia, as she walked away slowly with light steps.

...Miss Lestia is like me huh... she doesn't really have good stamina...

Well that's to be expected... she's a girl after all.