When I went to check on Maya the next morning, she has recovered completely from her hangover.

   “Are you sure that you’re fine now?” I ask her.

   “You worry too much, senpai. You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, not my mom.”

   “Well someone has to replace her, what with you having a mother complex and all.”

   “Why, you-”

   KNOCK! KNOCK!

   “Can Ichika nee-sama and I come in, Maya?” I hear Kaede’s voice coming from the other side of the door.

   “Of course you can, Kaede-senpai and Ichika-senpai.”

   The door opens, and in comes Ichika and Kaede.

   “Good morning, you two.” Kaede greets. “How are you feeling today, Maya?”

   “I’m fully recovered now. Thank you for asking.” Maya replied.

   “Be that as it may, it is best if you do not move around too much today.” Ichika says to Maya.

   “Oh jeez, not you too Ichika-senpai! Why am I surrounded by moms?”

   “For your information, I am too young to be a mother.”

   “I am always prepared to be your daughter, onee-sama.” Kaede drools.

   “Whoa there. You’re being absolutely creepy, Kaede.” I tell Kaede.

   “Am not. I mean, it’s onee-sama. Who doesn’t want to be her child?”

   “...Hmm, you got a point.”

   “Right?”

   Ichika rolls her eyes in anguish.

   “I must have done some unspeakable horrors during my past life, and now I am punished for it by being forced to travel with the two of you…” she moans. “Ah, well. Come along, Kaede. Now that we know Maya is fine, we shall begin our usual routine of Leveling up.”

   “Right behind you, onee-sama.”

   “Please wait. Um, I have something that I need to say to you.” I stopped the two of them.

   “Yes?”

   “Well, um, I know I was the one who suggested you two do your own Leveling up and all, but I was hoping that the four of us could take on quests together again.”

   Kaede raises her eyebrow. “What’s with the sudden change of mind?”

   “When it was just Maya and I, I felt, well, lonely. It wasn’t the same without you and Ichika-senpai around. I’m sorry. I should never have made the stupid suggestion in the first place. I was prideful and couldn’t stand the thought of being babysat by the two of you.”

   I bow at them.

   “I’m sorry.” I repeat.

   “Hey, you don’t have to feel that bad about it.” Kaede tells me.

   “She is right. We have never minded it in the first place. Therefore, no apology is required.” Ichika agrees.

   “I’m sorry too, Kotaro-senpai. I shouldn’t have teased you about your low Level.” Maya apologizes meekly.

   I shake my head. “You have nothing to apologize for, Maya. More importantly, does this mean that we can work as a party again?”

   “Of course.”

   “Naturally.”

   “I was waiting for you to ask.”

   “...Thank you, girls.”

   Kaede pats me on my shoulder.

   “Don’t mention it. And you don’t have to worry about your Level for long, either. We’ll be sure to help you out thoroughly.”

   “Yeah. Thanks.”

   “Now then, what’s your Level right now… Appraisal! Hmm, I see-huh?”

   Suddenly, Kaede stopped talking. Her expression has turned from smiling to shocked in a single second. Ichika noticed the change too.

   “Is something wrong, Kaede?” she asks her junior.

   “He, well, I think it’s better to see for yourself, onee-sama.” Kaede replied ambiguously.

   Ichika turned her neck to look at me. In the next second, her eyes became so wide they’re as wide as dinner plates. I hear Maya let out a loud gasp of horror. I look at her. Her face has become all pale.

   “What on earth happened while I was suffering from the hangover?” she demands loudly.

   “What are you going on about?”

   “Are you trying to play dumb here? I’m talking about your Level, of course! How did you get it to such a high number in a single night?”

   “My Level? Give me a second. Open Menu.”

   …Wait, that can’t be right. Last time I checked, my Level was 57. Right now, it’s 81. Maya is right. What on earth happened-

   Oh. Right. I killed lots of monsters with Lilinsya’s help. With all the experience points I obtained, It’s natural that my Level would increase tremendously. On a side note, I also have so much money I can live my life without a worry for at least four lifetimes.

   “The thing is, I ended up exploring the dungeon with a Daemon.” I inform the girls.

   My girlfriends stare at me dumbly.

   “How did that even happen?” Kaede asks me.

   “Well…”

   I told them about everything that happened, how I bumped into Lilinsya, how we formed a contract with the weirdly one-sided terms which favors me more, and how we reached all the way to the eighty-ninth floor during our first exploration together.

   “Are you sure that Daemon is trustworthy?” Maya asks me.

   I shrugged my shoulders. “Even if she isn’t, the contract that we signed will prevent her from getting any funny ideas. Now come on. You have some Leveling up to do.”

   Maya stares at me critically, as if waiting for me to get her back on all the teasing she did to me. I raise up both my hands.

   “Look, I’m not going to make fun of you like how you did me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

   Maya looks downwards guiltily.

   “I’m sorry for assuming, senpai.”

   “It’s fine. Let’s just head out, yeah?”

   “I need to get changed first.”

   “Right, sorry. We’ll be waiting for you outside.”

   While waiting outside Twilight’s Rest, I notice that the street is even more bustling than usual. It’s probably because the Faylight Festival is coming next week. That said, I also notice that people on the street aren’t really in celebration mode. I suppose I can’t blame them. After all, inflation is making prices of products go up like crazy. As to how bad things have become, a stick of beef skewer from my favorite stall has doubled its price since two days ago. I’m pretty sure that before long, we’ll start to see riots. We all have Kamei and his dungeons to thank for.

   A few minutes later, a properly-dressed Maya finally comes out.

   “So, where are we going, senpai? Are we going to a dungeon or Ravenwell?” she asked me.

   I think about it for a moment.

   “Let’s head to a dungeon.” I decide. “If a single trip with you-know-who was enough to get me all the way to Level 81, we could increase your Level in no time. Speaking of her, she might be there right now.”

   “And it’s good idea for the rest of us to meet her?”

   I shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I’m banned from bringing others.”

   Suddenly, all my girlfriends look at each other. It went on for two seconds. After that, they nod at each other. It’s like they had an agreement, even though they didn’t speak a single word.

   “Say, Kotaro. Where do you normally meet up with her?” Kaede asks me.

   “We never agreed on a place. Whenever she’s inside, the place is free from monsters, so I just descend until I’m at the right floor.”

   “I see. In that case, go into the dungeon by yourself first. If there are monsters inside, it’ll mean that she’s not inside. That’s your cue to come out and call us.”

   I raise my eyebrow. “What’s with the unnecessary process?”

   “Just do it, okay?”

   “Fine, fine.”

   When we reached the dungeon at Mayrane Hills, I was the only one who headed in, while my girlfriends were waiting for me outside. The knights who’re on duty are a different pair from last night, so I had to say the password to them.

   The first floor was crawling with goblins. To be more specific, goblins with a piece of dirty clothes tied to their waists and swinging daggers and knives around. Since I got the answer my girlfriends wanted, I exited the dungeon immediately.

   “She wasn’t in.” I report.

   “So she’s only around at night.” Kaede concludes.

   “So, are we heading inside?” I ask the girls.

   “Of course we are, senpai. Why else are we here?” Maya replies to me like she’s speaking to an idiot.

   “Hey, you were the one who wanted to make sure that a certain someone isn’t inside!”

   “Yes yes, and now that we’re sure of it, we can finally go in. Do try to keep up with what we’re thinking, senpai.”

   “I don’t think I ever can.”

   I look at the guards.

   “These girls are with me.” I tell them while gesturing at the girls.

   “We figured as much. All of you are allowed in.”

   “Many thanks.”

   The first fifty nine floors were a complete cakewalk. The Levels of the monsters were so low Maya almost fell asleep as she was mowing them down. She struggled a bit when she was fighting a Basilisk, the Level 70 boss of the sixtieth floor, but she managed to pull through. It couldn’t be said the same after the sixty-first floor, though, so the rest of us made sure to assist her. Similar to how Lilinsya did it when she helped me, we crippled a monster before letting Maya deal the final blow.

   In the end, we stopped at the sixty-eighth floor. I didn’t mention this during the previous raid I had with Lilinsya, but at some point the monsters that appeared on the floor became inconsistent. For example, the monsters that appear at the sixty-first floor are steel golems, while stone giants appear on the sixty-second floor. This is totally different from seeing only goblins for the first nine floors. My guess is that Kamei got bored with giving the same monsters better equipment/status as the floor goes on and started throwing in random monsters at different floors instead. Anyway, I digress.

   The monsters that appeared at the sixty-eighth floor are giant spiders. They may not amount to much at first glance, but they’re a lot more trouble than you think. For starters, the entire floor is full of their webs which limit our movements. Secondly, these spiders can spit out poisonous fluids that can melt floors, but the spiders themselves are immune to it. In other words, they don’t have to worry about friendly fire. Thirdly, and this is the most troublesome part of all, eggs will burst out of their abdomen when they’re killed. The eggs hatch almost immediately, and before you know it the whole floor will be full of tiny spiders. I can’t imagine people with arachnophobia surviving this floor.

   As to how we managed to defeat them, we burned them all alive. First, I doused as many of them with bottles of extra-flammable oil that I bought from an Alchemist. Then, I instruct the girls to head to the entrance. Before I closed the door, I told Maya to conjure out a fireball and threw it at the spiders. You could probably imagine what happened after I closed the door.

   All the spiders squealed pretty loudly as they were dying. Even with a thick set of doors blocking out most of the noises, the squeals of literally hundreds of spiders were quite agonizing for our ears. I was really glad when it was finally over.

   “How many experience points did you obtain?” I ask Maya.

   “Open Menu. Well, enough to get me to Level 72.” she reports.

   “Hmm…”

   I look at the girls. All of them are really battered up, even Ichika. I’m pretty worn out too. This floor really gave us a good beating. Without Khriswell or a decent healer around, I doubt it’s a good idea for us to continue.

   “We’re calling it a day. Let’s go back.” I decide.

   The girls were so tired they only nodded. And so, we retreated all the way back to the entrance.

   “Oh, you came back at the right moment.” one of the guards told me when we got out of the dungeon.

   “Is something wrong?”

   The guard is holding a small piece of paper with the emblem of the Noble Nightingale stamped at the back. I recognize it as a letter sent by trained hawks.

   “Dame Wilmort was looking for you. Said something about another boss monster that she can’t defeat. She wants you to go see her at the headquarters immediately.”

   I groaned. I was hoping to get a nice bath and some food after all the fighting I did, but it would be insane to keep the leader of the knights waiting.

   “You heard him. We’re going to meet Wilmort-san.” I tell the girls.

   Maya groaned as well.

   “I can’t believe that I have to meet that gorilla woman right when I need a good rest…” she grumbles.

   “We’ll head there right now. Good luck in your guard duty.” I tell the guards.

   “And good luck in meeting Dame Wilmort.” one of them tells me.

   “Thanks.”

   And they just casually ignored the nickname Maya gave Catherina. Well, I’m totally grateful for that.

   Catherina was waiting for us at the same guest room we were at the first time we visited the headquarters. This time, she was patient enough to at least wait for us to sit down before opening her mouth.

   “I went all the way to the ninetieth floor this morning-” she got straight to the point.

   …Wow, she actually reached all the way all by herself? She’s not the one known as the strongest knight in Faypeak for nothing.

   “-and I fought the boss there. I couldn’t beat it, so I retreated. I’m going to need your advice.” she continues.

   “Sure thing. What kind of monster was it?” I ask.

   “It was a tree that’s walking on two tree trunks.”

   I furrow my eyebrows.

   “Do you mean a treant? Doesn't the place already have those on the forty-second floor?”

   “They’re quite similar, but this one is a lot stronger. For one thing, I hit it with Judgment Veil, which is my strongest attack. Even so, it barely did a thing. On the contrary, my attack somehow made it even stronger-”

   That’s when I know this mystery enemy is a big deal. In the game, Catherina’s Judgment Veil can cut down the HP of any enemy by half without any fail. The only drawback is that it can only be used once per combat.

   “-worst part is, I can’t even look at its status with Appraisal.”

   “That’s strange. Treants can’t use magic, so there’s no way it can hide its status.”

   “Is there a possibility that this one is a variant from the usual treant that you spoke of?”

   “I highly doubt it. I mean, you know how mana works. You can modify a walking tree all you want, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it has no flesh and blood, which are required for mana to flow in.”

   “Then how would you explain the fact that Appraisal doesn’t work on it?” Catherina demands.

   “Maybe it’s because that’s not a treant at all. Can you be more specific on its appearance?”

   Catherina furrows her eyebrows. She has the look of someone who’s in full concentration mode.

   “It has quite a lot of thorns on its trunks, and there are no leaves or flowers sprouting from any of its branches.” she recalls.

   “Trees with thorns are rare, but not irregular. Flowers aside, it’s pretty strange that a tree has no leaves.”

   “Indeed. The treants that I fought have leaves just like regular trees.” Catherina agrees.

   “Anything else?”

   “Well, there’s one other thing. I saw a ring each on its right index, middle and ring finger. Moreover, the second ring was glowing with a red light the entire time.”

   “...Huh. Are those rings connected by metal chains?” I ask.

   “Yes. How do you know that?”

   “Let’s just say I have my ways of getting information.” I reply ambiguously. “More importantly, that wasn’t a treant that you fought. It’s a human who defeated Aeshma.”

   Catherina’s face went deathly pale. All the other knights who’re present in the room are shocked to the core as well. By contrast, all three of my girlfriends have zero reaction. It’s most likely that they don’t know what Aeshma is.

   “Aeshma, as in the Demon Lord that governs the Seventh Circle of Hell?” Catherina asks softly.

   “That’s him.”

   “And how did this human even manage to defeat a Demon Lord?”

   I shrugged my shoulders. “Beats me. All I know is that if we want to progress, we have to defeat him or her.”

   “And how do you propose we do that? Even I had a hard time fighting against that human!”

   “Tell me. Was that human maintaining the tree form the entire time that you fought?”

   “Yes.”

   “Did you try using ranged magic on it besides the Judgment Veil?”

   “Of course. I used lots of high ranked ones too, in fact. Sadly, the result was the same.”

   She paused.

   “Wait. How did you know that Judgment Veil is a ranged-”

   “What did the human do to counter your ranged magic?” I interrupt.

   “Nothing. It just kept on advancing until I’m within the range of its fists.”

   …Wow, if things go well, beating this human will be a cakewalk compared to fighting the real Demon Lord. However, I have no desire to share the plan with Catherina. I wasn’t as bothered as Maya when she looked down on me, but I was still bothered. I’ll be beating the mystery human without her help.

   “I’ll try to come up with something.” was all I said.

   Catherina furrows her eyebrows.

   “I would prefer it if I have the help of your teammates instead.” she says while looking at Ichika and Kaede.

   “As I said before, I only follow Kotaro.” Ichika declines.

   “Same here.” Kaede agrees.

   Catherina shrugged her shoulders. She’s trying to act all nonchalant, but it’s obvious that she’s disappointed. I’m not even going to tell her that I had a huge Level boost from exploring the dungeon. Instead, we left the room since Maya looked like she was about to explode from rage again.