ăNee-chan, could it be that you only became an adventurer recently? Is that why youâre here?ă
Kurtz-kun asked. I nodded.
The older boy tapped on Kurtz-kunâs shoulder.
ăKurtz.ă
ăOh, Iâm sorry. Weâre not supposed to pry into other adventurerâs lives inside the dungeon.ă
Hm? He mentioned that word again.
ăDungeon?ă
Was this cave a dungeon? This cave looked to be about as wide as a gymnasium, how could this be a dungeon?
ăIt might be small, but itâs still a dungeon. Thatâs why slimes appear here.ă
Kirika-chan explained to me.
ăHere goes!ă
Smack. Kirika-chan swung her makeshift slipper at the black devil.
ăAhh, it ran away! Next time!ă
Smack.
Watching a five year old girl finish off the black devil with undivided attention was⊠uuu.
Just watch, this oba-chan here will do her best! Oba-chan wonât lose!
This was no time to shriek at every movement. Oba-chan here was not evil enough to let a bunch of children exterminate the devils by themselves!
Smack, splat, bounce.
ăHuh? Ah, it went over there! Iâm not letting you escape!ă
ăWow, is it just me, or did nee-chanâs speed go up?ă
ăOnee-chan, you really are amazing!ă
I exterminated the black devils whilst collecting the small bottles that appeared occasionally.
ăItâs almost time. Letâs leave.ă
The older boy said, acting as the leader.
ăEhh? But I only got twoâŠă
Kirika-chan said with disappointment.
ăKirika, those are the dungeon rules.ă
ăI know. We have to preserve our stamina and leave when itâs time. We canât be unreasonable.ă
ăThatâs right, good girl. Okay, letâs get out of here.ă
Everyone followed the leaderâs instruction and went outside.
ăI never got a chance to introduce myself while we were inside. Iâm Bryce. Iâm almost level 10.ă
As soon as we left the cave, the older boy spoke to me.
ăAh, nice to meet you. Iâm Yuuri. I just registered as an adventurer, and Iâm level 1.ă
ăEh? Onee-chan, youâre level 1? Kirika is level 3, you know.ă
Even a five year old girl was level 3, huh. Then again, being level 1 at this age must be shocking.
ăThatâs strange. Even if you lived a regular life, you should be level 2 or 3 by the time youâre ten years old, yet youâre still level 1, onee-san.ă
Bryce-kun tilted his head to the side in confusion.
ăThat must mean she didnât live a regular life. Right, nee-chan? Itâs rare for anyone at your age to try and become an adventurer too. Oh, Iâm Kurtz. I wanted to become an adventurer when I was three. My dream is to become an S-ranked adventurer like Rofas-san.ă
Kurtz-san introduced himself. His eyes glittered when he mentioned Rofas-san.
Could it be that even though Rofas-san called himself an adventurer ossan, he was actually quite popular among the townsfolk?
ăEh, she didnât live a normal life? Kirika doesnât understand. Onee-chan, can you tell me?ă
ăStupid. She might have been bedridden her entire life, or she could have been a noble lady who did nothing her entire life and then watched her family get destroyed. You shouldnât ask, nee-chan might be uncomfortable talking about it.ă
Kurtz-kun quickly stopped Kirika-chan from asking any further.
I see. Not living a regular life meant I didnât do anything⊠in other words, a life where I never worked.
That hurt a bit. It felt like an insult to my last ten years as a housewife.
ăUm, you see, I came from a different country. In my country, there are no such things as levels. We donât have dungeons and monsters, so no adventurers either. Please, teach me about those things.ă
Rather than country, our worlds were different.
ăEh? Really?! Thatâs so cool! You came from a really faraway place then!ă
ăThen nee-chan, did you come here because you admired adventurers?ă
ăKirika, Kurtz, letâs continue this conversation once we get home. There are a lot of things we need to teach her first.ă
Bryce-kun said, then pointed at the potions I picked up in the dungeon.
I didnât think I forgot to pick up any dropped potions after beating the life out of those black devils.
ăOh, she really doesnât know the difference between good potions and bad potions.ă
Kurtz-kun looked at the bottles I laid out by my feet.
ăIâll teach you! Yuuri-oneechan, this one is a potion.ă
Kirika-chan picked up one of the bottles and shook it lightly. The yellow liquid inside swayed around the bottle.
ăThis one is bad.ă
She picked up another one, this time with black liquid.
Ahh, so it was quite easy to tell them apart.
ăThis one is bad too. This isnât a potion.ă
Kirika-chan picked up a bottle that also had yellow liquid inside, but it was a lot paler compared to a real potion.
I crouched down and looked at the other bottles.
This one was yellow, so it was a potion. Then, in order: black, black, clear, pale yellow, potion yellow.
There were many different types of bad potions, it seemed.