Hiki was immediately interrogated once we had returned, but he completely ignored everyone. Yep, that’s Hiki alright. He instead decided to follow me around like an obedient little puppy. And what does that do? That means I get scolded, that’s what.

I clenched my fist in anger, only hitting the god ten times.

On a side note, I was now level 11! Ahahaha! First time I’ve leveled since the Beginner’s Village! I felt an inexplicable sense of smug pride. I could see my nose growing in arrogance right now.

“Oi, Luna, you listening to me?” The cold and annoyed voice of Yun reached my ears.

“Y-yes sir!” I said, straightening my back. we were sitting across from each other at a table, and he was full on glaring at me. Hiki was beside me, arms wrapped around my waist as he stared wide eyed at Yun. My heart was going doki doki right now, but it wasn’t for that reason (or actually, in my eyes, Hiki was this small fluffy animal that was in need of petting).

Yun’s glare is too terrifying! I thought that I had gotten used to it already, but no, he amped up the level of killing intent. My poor delicate heart can’t take much more of this pressure~~~

I wailed inwardly.

Poking at Hiki, I grumbled to him, “Answer Yun’s questions already. Before he beats me up. Quickly, okay? Okay?!”

Of course, Yun heard everything and glared even harder. Was that even possible? How terrifying can you make your glare when it’s already at the level of demon king terrifying?!

“I beat them up and they asked me to be their boss,” Hiki said, his answer short and to the point.

“Ah, I see.” Yun and I said in sync, staring at him blankly.

“W-well, you know, Hiki has been like this since I first met him!” Although what I met was a game character.

“The god. Huh?” Yun stared dull-eyed at the red haired “god”.

“Y-yeah, Hiki, tell Yun.” I said in a flustered manner, looking between the two of them.

“Ahem, ahem.” Hiki cleared his throat, looking more energetic than usual. Eh. Why do I have a bad feeling…?

“A long, long, long~ time ago…”

Two hours later.

“And so that is how I came to be here- wai- Master?”

“Zzzzz- ttt-! Huh! Whu-!” I woke up, my snot bubble popping as I glanced up, dazed and still half asleep.

Yun was sleeping across from us, his cheek leaning on his fist as he breathed quietly. Uwah, even his sleeping is elegant.

((Different from a certain someone))

Hm? I feel like there was a small fly buzzing around next to my ear?

((...))

“Were you paying attention?”

Hiki asked.

“Well, I mean, I already knew all this so…” I mumbled some half-assed excuse, rubbing the back of my head with a silly smile.

After a while of more scolding, we were finally released. I grumbled the entire way back to my room and opening the door... I found Ludan sitting on my bed.

I stared at him wide-eyed, blinking once, then twice before squinting. The daemon pulled at his hood, seeming slightly embarrassed over my excessive staring. "Hallucination?" I finally said out loud. "I mean, I knew I was tired, but I didn't think it was that much..."

"It's not a hallucination! How did you come to that conclusion??" Ludan answered with shock on his face. Well, as much as one could tell, seeing that half of it was covered by the hood.

"Of course I was joking you idiot. But seeing as how much you've been avoiding me lately, it was either that or you came to my room drunk in order to-" I gasped, not daring to speak further. "You aren't really drunk and here to do various unspeakable things to me, right?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Wha- no! Why would you think that!" His face turned bright red. "In the first place, and unmarried girl shouldn't be-"

"Yes, yes, we get it." I rolled my eyes, once again wanting to ask who the unmarried girl here was, because it certainly seemed like Ludan was more befitting of the part. "So? What are you doing here?" I asked as Hiki and I took a seat next to him... only to have the guy sneakily inch away from me.

... What did I ever do to you? I mean, aside from that one time I used you as a shield, but that wasn't that big of a deal, right? You're supposed to be a high leveled bad ass! But what the heck, here you are, cowering in the corner during that terrorist attack, or sacrificing me to run away from Yun Hua... I get his glare is deadly enough to kill, but I cannot believe you would actually kick such a beautiful lady like myself out at him, like sacrificing a virgin princess to the demon king!

Thinking of all this, I couldn't help but get slightly upset, frowning. But, this only caused Ludan to move away from me at a faster pace until his shoulder touched the wall and he could move away no more.

"..."

"..."

Silence descended between the two of us.

The bard fidgeted nervously, seemingly desiring to speak, yet at the end time, not wanting to be the first to break the silence. I continued looking at him with emotionless eyes. He finally broke. "Well, you see, the troupe has decided to leave, so Leader asked me to notify you..."

"Huh... is that so..." My expression turned thoughtful. "Where do you plan on going?" Although this was the perfect chance to get away from a certain demon king, and I was also a member of the troupe anyways, I felt that I still had to know where we would be going before carefully making the decision of whether or not to leave with them.

"We'll be headed to the Eastern Continent. One of the members, a half-Naga, has family there." Seir replied with a slight frown. Was there something wrong about the Eastern Continent? Or was it the half-Naga part?

... What is a Naga anyways? After thinking long and hard... when I heard Naga, the first thing that popped into my head was a snake. Or maybe a dragon? Dragon-snake? But no matter how much I continued to think, nothing more as recalled, so I gave up.

*Tting*

«Passive has leveled up!»

«Passive Lv.7 - Effects of passive skills are increased by +11%. Events beyond your control are +11% more likely to yield beneficial rewards»

Why!? I can somewhat understand the previous times, but why is it that you choose now of all things to level!? Is it because you were lonely for not appearing in the past couple of chapters!?

But, a half-Naga huh... if what I feel like a Naga should be is correct, then... Isn't that pretty cool? I mean, half-snake... or no way, could it be, half-dragon?

"I'm coming along!"

"No." Yun replied after we had gone to notify him, his face stern.

I revealed a hurt expression, like a small animal as my lip slightly trembled and my pretty eyes turned red at the edges, tears threatening to spill over. The handsome man glanced in my direction before snorting in disdain. I began trembling... in rage.

"Why no!?" I yelled, pouting.

"Obviously because you need to come with me to report to the Emperor." Yun Hua replied coolly.

"Tsk, just go report to him yourself," I said, face gloomy.

"No means no."

"..." At this moment, I had a sudden realization. "You can't stop me from going," I said, as if speaking a fact. "Hahaha, you can't stop me from going!" My face turned incomparably bright with joy as Yun's turned dark.

"Really? You want to give that a try?" He asked, face stormy.

I was certain that if I gave my all in leaving (escaping), he wouldn't be able to stop me. Yes, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be true... "No thank you." I obediently returned to my room after meekly answering. Well, I was certain... but you could never be too safe. And I had just had a very brilliant idea...

“«Contract Familiar»,” I said, a grin plastered over my face.

Contract Familiar

Beginner's Lv.7

Requires Summon Skill

Cost 600 MP

Contracts a new familiar of your affinity. Can now contract with a familiar of a nonopposing elemental affinity. Can now contract with a familiar of all general categories, disregarding affinity level.

I wonder what the difference was between the two skills, summon and contract familiar...

Invoking Contract Familiar Skill

Large affinity to all subjects detected

Which Familiar do you wish to Summon?

Demon

Fairy

Elemental

"Fairy." I actually would have gone for Demon (gotta collect em all!), but the only thing was that Demons strictly belonged to the "Dark" or "Fire" or whatever other seemingly evil and menacing element category... Plus they were more of a "physical" type of being anyways. And I was looking for a very specific element that couldn't be found amongst the six elemental categories, so fairy it was.

Large affinity to all elements detected

What element of fairy do you wish to Summon?

Light

Dark

Fire

Water

Earth

Wind

Other (please specify using a verbal command)

"Space! No, void? Which is it..."

A repeat of what had occurred with Khari now repeated, fairies appearing in my vision. The color scheme was black and glowing purple! To be honest, I don't think that fairies actually suit "all elements" - rather, it should be flipped with elementals, right? Elementals of all elements, and fairies of the restricted big six... But, oh well, it's not like I could change the rules of the world anyways- WAIT, NO, I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING! DON'T-

*Tting*

«System update pending: Elements corresponding to Elemental and Fairy summons will be switched. Please wait 48 hours before system update has been completed. Contracting or summoning Elemental and Fairy familiars will be suspended during this period»

FFFFFFFFFFF-

After a long time, I was finally able to regain my calm, restraining myself from spewing all sorts of colorful curse words.

*Tting*

«Luna Silverwing has learned the Passive skill "Restraint"»

Passive Skill:

Restraint

Beginner's Lv.1

+5% increase in control over your emotions and actions

... Excuse me, can I ask for a new system? New GM? I don't know! Someone more agreeable than this bastard, poking me where it hurts, doing system updates at the worst times!!

*Tting*

«Would you like to prolong system update for 24 hours?»

«Yes/No»

... I take it back, you're a pretty decent guy aren't you? I hit yes, before proceeding to happily contract one of the space fairies. It was a very cool and handsome looking man... just fairy sized. I wonder what would happen to this familiar once the system update completed though... would he be switched out with an elemental? No, in the first place, was it alright for the world to change so much?

I thought about it, but such concepts were just a bit too complicated for me to understand... Okay, maybe they were way too complicated... I admit, I'm a simple person. As long as I have a table of delicacies to try, a few beauties by my side, and a mountain (or two) of gold to roll in, I'll be satisfied. Just the normal things in life.

This time, the fairy didn't say anything, only a skill list and status window popping up before me. Err... Was he just not the talkative type, or...?

Status Window

Name: Ciro

Race: Fairy

Level: 79

Alignment: Chaotic

Titles:

Oron - Title granted to the strongest Void Fairy

Health: 5000/5000

Mana: 10000/10000

Strength: 39

Agility: 101

Vitality: 77

Intelligence: 140

Wisdom: 165

Luck: 42

Equipped:

Void Stone

My god. My. Sweet. Jesus. Christ. Holy... Let me just mention that this is the highest level I have yet to see... well, minus question mark levels - since I don't even know how high level those people are, there's no reason for me to think too much about it. Now, let's see. The average level of adults is about one or two. Very small. The village elder was level seven... but his class was Diplomat and he was a former Duke. The average level of Blue Bird's members was roughly seven. The Captain of Elmar's Knights was a level 22 Paladin and level 13 Berserker, while the lieutenant was level 18. Yun Hua was a level 21 Storm Dancer and level 13 Martial Artist... wait, make that level 22 Storm Dancer now. And he was a General of the Suisen Empire.

From this, it could be said that... level 79 was OP as fuck. Huh? Couldn't you take over the world with this sort of level??

Thinking up to here, without even taking a glance at the skill list, I, of course, had ended up contracting him as my familiar.

We were back in the present, and his tiny face was stoic and cold, like a certain well-known demon king. No, actually, I would peg him more as completely emotionless and indifferent to the world, rather than cold like Yun.

I then took a proper look at the skill list, looking for something in particular, until one skill caught my eye - not what I had been looking for specifically, but...

Passive Skill:

Spatial Manipulation

Advanced Lv.9

Increases effects of void type skills by +95%

Increases independent control of void type skills by +95%

I squinted at it. Independent control...? This... Independent control, independent control, independent control... My 26 intelligence and 35 wisdom was working hard at this moment, slowly turning the gears of my head over and over again as I digested this. In other words... to independently control the skill... meaning... meaning... It's no use. I think I'm too stupid for this.

Just as I was about to give up, I suddenly gasped, realizing something. This wasn't actually a game! It was a real world!! I mean, obviously, but playing it like a game makes it real easy to forget about this key fact. But, what I mean by this was that, in other words, the people around me would obviously not have the ability to just say the skill name and have the spell automatically invoke itself - they had to do things manually. So, essentially, native Arkon residents could only live in manual mode, while otherworlders played on automatic. But, this didn't mean that they couldn't switch to manual mode!

I feel like I had the realization of a lifetime, feeling extremely proud of myself. Well, I would experiment with the idea later. It's a pity that the skill was my familiar's, and not mine.

Active/Passive Skill:

Little Garden

Intermediate Lv.2

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

Costs 1000 MP

Creates a mustard seed dimension resembling a miniature world. Can hold living beings. Size increases in proportion with skill level (currently 1000 meters in radius). Those that are more than 10 levels higher than the skill user may freely exit your dimension.

This was essentially an advanced version of the inventory and interdimensional storage ring...? (Which basically added slots to my inventory.)

Active Skill:

World Gate

Beginner's Lv.3

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

Cost 10000 MP

Creates a gate that allows you and others to travel through worlds.

Worlds currently accessible: Arkon (World Level C), Spirit World (World Level C)

My mouth opened and closed once, then twice. Isn't this basically useless!? Was what I thought, but I knew that if I leveled them... If I leveled them... Couldn't I... return home? The moment this thought entered my head, I discarded it. There's no point. It's not like I can even remember anything from that... Earth? I sighed, shaking my head.

Active Skill:

One Step Crossing a Thousand Miles

Intermediate Lv.1

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

Cost 1000 MP

Long distance teleportation in one direction, one step equalling a thousand miles.

Can currently use in succession 10 times.

Active Skill:

Blink

Advanced Lv.9

Cost 100 MP

Short distance teleportation to one location, maximum distance 100 meters (increases proportionately with skill level).

Active Skill:

Asura's Gate

Beginner's Lv.7

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

Cost 1500 MP

Opens the gate to the netherworld, spilling forth a variety of Earth Demons and other inhabitants of hell.

Lack of skill proficiency may result in skill user and allies being caught up in resulting damage.

May currently control beings who come out of the gate under level 40.

Passive Skill:

Void Travel

Advanced Lv.6

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

All teleportation and travel void type skill effects are increased by +90% (effects stackable).

Active Skill:

Mass Teleportation

Intermediate Lv.1

Requires extremely high affinity with your familiar to activate

Cost 1500 MP

Generates a large magic circle that will teleport all those within it to a location specified by the skill user.

Current radius of magic circle: 3 meters (increases proportionately with skill level).

Mana cost will decrease or increase depending on mass and status (living or nonliving) of items and beings teleported (+10 MP for every kg of nonliving being and +30 for every kg of living being teleported - mana cost will decrease proportionately with skill level).

May currently teleport to any previously visited location.

Mm, tears appeared in my eyes. Truly, too OP. But... but... I couldn't use them! Okay, I could use Blink... Void Travel was a passive skill, which meant I couldn't use it as my own... And the others all cost way too much mana. Mm... After thinking, wasn't it just fine if I used Through the Looking Glass...? I'm an idiot, aren't I? Why is it that my intelligence and wisdom had increased steadily according to my status screen, but I couldn't feel the effects at all?

After lamenting my life, I decided to not think too much into it. So what if I'm stupid? What're you gonna do about it, bite me!?

But, now that my route toward freedom had been confirmed, I could move on to other things...

Mother always told me - don't forget to pack well before traveling!

Alright, I don't actually remember that happening, but the phrase itself still remained true.

Sayonara demon king! Sayonara Suisen! It was about time I hit the road again anyways.