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Standing in front of his house, Mai's expression turned odd.
Weren't they supposed to be doing a debrief?
Why were they suddenly doing it at his place?
She trusted Rosen—more or less—but as a former actress who had refused to do swimsuit shoots, walking into a man's home still made her uneasy.
Not that she was unwilling… she just wasn't ready yet.
Maybe with a little more time, she'd be fine with it.
Miko, on the other hand, was practically bouncing with excitement.
As soon as Rosen stepped inside, she followed right behind, peeking curiously into his place.
She'd been dying to see what his home looked like.
"Sorry for intruding," Mai Sakurajima murmured, slipping off her shoes at the entryway.
Even after running around all afternoon, her nylon-clad feet somehow had no trace of odor.Ah, the perks of being two-dimensional.In the real world, no matter who you are, an afternoon of running would leave you with sour, pickled feet.
Rosen casually produced two pairs of women's slippers.
"I've always lived alone. No one else here."
"Really? All by yourself?" Miko Yotsuya muttered under her breath.
Sure enough, the shoe rack by the door held no other styles.
The living room was nothing out of the ordinary—clean, tidy, almost too spotless for a teenage boy's place.
"From now on, you can think of this as your own home. Miko, stop peeking under the couch. Even if I had that kind of magazine, I wouldn't hide it somewhere that obvious."
Watching the girl bend over with her head down, Rosen's face didn't so much as twitch.
"Oh, I was just curious, that's all…" Miko scratched the back of her head, looking embarrassed.
"This isn't a school romance manga. Nobody actually hides that stuff under the bed or couch."
Mai chuckled.
"Alright, next up—shirts up, time to upgrade your stats. Who's going first?" Rosen asked.
The "shirts up" part made Mai flinch, but she relaxed when she heard the rest.
"I'll go," Miko volunteered. She lifted her shirt to reveal the holy mark on her stomach. "What now?"
"Lie down."
She did as told, and Rosen drew the Holy Spear, pressing its sharp tip into her abdomen.
Mai's eyes went wide—this was her first time seeing the whole process.
It looked painful, but in truth, Miko didn't feel a thing.
Before long, Rosen's panel displayed her updated stats:
[Contractor: Yotsuya Miko]
Rank: Junior God's Envoy
Strength: i0 → i20
Endurance: i0 → i18
Dexterity: i0 → i25
Agility: i0 → i8
Divine Power: i0 → i85
Skills:
Vengeful Maiden Greatly boosts physical attributes and grants extra damage against undead foes. After upgrade, can designate any target as a "vengeance target."
Spirit Sight Can distinguish the living from the dead. Enhanced vision, night vision, and motion tracking. Small chance to glimpse up to three seconds into the future.
Brave Heart Remains calm under any circumstances; thinking speed and reaction time are enhanced.
"Well? Lord Rosen? Did my stats go up?" Miko's eyes sparkled with expectation.
Rosen skimmed the panel.
Aside from the Divine Power spike, the other four stats had only climbed by about twenty on average, with agility barely budging at all. The divine boost was good, though—almost a full hundred points in one go.
Still, overall, she was… average.
In dungeon terms, most adventurers' first upgrades landed somewhere in the double digits, usually under thirty points. Miko's numbers fit that pattern perfectly—ordinary in every way except Divine Power, which likely came from her constant use of skills against undead.
"Not bad," Rosen said, printing a copy of the panel on an A4 sheet.
She took it eagerly, but her smile quickly faded. "That's it? Only this much?"
"This is above-average growth. And your Divine Power jumped fast—you'll hit the next rank before long at this rate."
Even so, Rosen couldn't help hoping for a little more from his followers. After all, in the original Dungeon story, the protagonist's post-awakening stat boosts were absurd—triple-digit jumps, breaking past the S-rank cap into SSS territory. Compared to that, Miko's talent was… not even close.
"..."
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