DxD: Tutorial 01

I wake up slowly to the feeling of sunlight on my face. Blinking in the harsh light, I groan and slowly sit up, throwing my legs over the side of the bed, which is when I notice something wrong. Everything seems just a bit off. The sheets are unfamiliar, I'm sure my bed is closer to the ground than this, and my limbs feel weird.

I wake up all the way with a jolt and look around. The room is unfamiliar. I look down at myself. I'm only wearing a pair of underwear that I don't recognize, and my body is also not the one I'm used to looking down at.

Then I remember. The Void, Kyu, making a new body. And with that memory, I get new ones as well. I remember being raised in America, but moving to Japan when I was young when my parents got jobs here. Then, when their jobs required them to move back to America, I begged to stay in Japan. Japan's education was a lot more stressful than America's, but it was a lot better, and I didn't want to go back to the states before finishing my education. They relented, and I ended up transferring from a Tokyo school to Kuoh, which was a very good school but had much more affordable housing that my parents could set me up in.

A clean and tidy story to essentially give me free reign. Nice. I idly wonder if my so-called 'parents' actually exist before dismissing it as unimportant. I'm sure that a paper trail for them exists at least, but beyond that they don't really matter.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I get up and head to where my new memories were telling me the bathroom was. I strip out of my underwear and get into the shower. It's only after the hot water wakes me up that I realize something else is strange about my body. Finishing up quickly, I storm back to my bedroom, not bothering to put any clothes back on.

"Kyu, where the fuck are you. You've got some explaining to do." I looked around for the Love Fairy, but didn't see her anywhere. "Kyu?"

There. Movement under my covers. But far too small to be Kyu. Unless… I throw back the covers, and the tiny six inch tall form of Kyu flinches at the sudden change.

"Noooo, five more minutes," she grumbles.

What. No. What? Kyu is distinctly human in size. A bit on the short side if my memory is right, but definitely more than this miniscule form.

"Should I start calling you a Love Pixie instead of a Love Fairy?" I ask.

She grumbles, waking up slowly. "You better fucking not. This is your fault. The setup took way more energy than it should have, so I had to shrink to my small size. I'll be back to my normal size once you level up some."

That was interesting. I didn't even think Love Fairies could change in size like that. No wait, that's not what was important right now.

"I've got another question for you Kyu. What the fuck did you do to my dick?" I gesture down to my crotch, where my flacid dick hung, emphasis on hung. It's at least several inches bigger than I set it during character creation, and girthier as well.

"Oh that?" she casually answers, eyeing it with a weird mix of pride and lust. "You were gonna go with a boring only slightly bigger than average dick, and I couldn't allow that. No way, if you're gonna fuck some girls, you're going to give them a good time."

My eyebrow twitches as I hold back my frustration. "I was giving it room to grow. Who knows what fucking upgrades I'll get and magic I'm gonna learn. I wanted to start at normal and work my way up to big, not start at horse sized and then grow to be too big to fit into anything without hurting the girl."

"Nah, you worry too much," she dismisses. "Bigger is better, and girls stretch. As long as you treat them right it'll be fine. Trust me. You'll thank me for this later."

I sigh in defeat. Whatever. As far as problems go, my penis being bigger than I thought it would be is pretty ignorable. I throw on some casual clothes, jeans and a zip up hoodie. The calendar shows that today is Sunday, and my fake memories tell me tomorrow is my first day at Kuoh Academy. Which left all of today free. I could walk around town, get used to things, maybe see if I could trigger an event or something.

Or I could check out this Dungeon that one of my skills mentioned. An instinctual mental command brings up the skill in question.

<[Dungeon Traversal] - EX>

<Allows for entrance and exit into a Dungeon, as well as teleportation between safe rooms>

"Hey Kyu, what exactly are Dungeons?"

"What the fuck do you mean what are Dungeons? They're dungeons. You go in, they're filled with bad guys, you kill bad guys, and you get loot and XP. Sometimes there are puzzles, and there are bosses and safe rooms and stuff. You have played a game before right?" She was definitely awake now.

"Yes, I have played a game before," I answer patiently. "In fact, I've played a lot of them. Enough to know that the specifics of a dungeon can be extremely different from game to game. Is this going to be a grid thing with secret doors and traps, or a tower I have to climb, or just an arena with endless waves of enemies?"

"You could always go check it out and see," she says. I shoot her a glare, to which she responds by rolling her eyes. "Ugh, fine. It's like the grid thing, but not a grid because those suck. It's a maze filled with enemies. Honestly a lot of the details depend on the theme of the dungeon. Some have traps, some don't. But they all have safe rooms, treasure rooms, secret paths, and at least one boss room at the end. Some of the tougher dungeons also have mid-bosses."

Okay, so she has a point. That's just about as stereotypical as a dungeon can get. Not that I'd let her know I thought she was right. It also sounds like my best option for leveling up, something I desperately want to get a start on. I want to be at least a little above baseline human before my first day at Kuoh, if only to make a good impression on the devils there.

"Wait, do I even have a weapon?" I ask out loud. I wasn't keen on the idea of entering a dungeon without one, and I didn't have a lot of funds to buy something from a hardware store or the like.

"Ugh. I thought you said you played games. Check your inventory, you should have a starter weapon."

Inventory? Oh right, that was a thing. Another mental command brings it up, and sure enough there are two items. A smartphone and a knife. I mentally select the knife and a description appears.

<Iron Dagger>

<A simple iron dagger. It cuts things, but that's pretty much all that can be said about it. Damage = DEX, x3 Critical>

Well. That should be enough to get me started at least. Hopefully something better will drop as loot. Another mental command equips it and I feel the sheath of it settle on my hip. Looking at the phone, I pull up its description.

<HuniePhone>

<Kyu's personal brand of smartphone. Works in all realities with unlimited battery, phone, text, and data. Also has a few special features.>

Well that is...convenient? Sure, let's go with that. Leaving it alone for now, I close my inventory and use [Dungeon Traversal]. Instead of being teleported immediately, a window appears in my vision.

--<Please select a dungeon>--

0: Zombie Dungeon

-

--<>--

"Do I have to unlock more dungeons?" I ask.

"Yep," Kyu replies, popping the p. "The zombie dungeon is basically the tutorial dungeon. Once you complete that you should get a few more options."

That makes sense to me. Zombies are easy pickings. Selecting the dungeon I feel a slight pull in my gut and my surroundings change from my bedroom to decaying stone walls. Pulling out my knife I look around. The room I'm in is small, maybe six feet on each side. Two torches are lit on opposite walls, providing a flickering source of light. In front of me is a rotten wooden door.

"Relax, this a safe room," Kyu says. I jump, not expecting her to have come with me. She giggles at my reaction. "You'll always enter the dungeon here. Then you can teleport to other safe rooms you've found using the skill."

I nod and take a moment to calm my nerves. This was it. This was the first dangerous step in my path to strength. The first moment my life would be at risk. Slowly I open the door. The next room is just as simple, but much larger, maybe 20 feet on each side. There are two exits on opposite walls, and a desiccated corpse was leaning on the far wall, not moving.

I fully enter the room and check to make sure there isn't anything else. There's no furniture or anything else that can hide an enemy. It's just a big empty room. Boring, but comforting. I feel safe knowing that it was just the one zombie. Assuming the corpse on the wall was alive anyways. Or unalive. Whatever.

Activating [Sneak] I take a moment to watch my stamina bar. It ticked down, but slower than the one per second than I expected. Doing some quick mental math, I realized that I regenerated stamina even while using a skill. That was downright busted, especially since how much I regenerated per second was a percentage. I can keep [Sneak] active for more than six and a half minutes, and it will only take me a hundred seconds to get all my stamina back.

I bring my attention back to the zombie in front of me. I approach under the cover of [Sneak] with my knife gripped firmly in my hand. As I get closer, I notice more and more details about the corpse leaning on the wall. It's moving. Not much, but it shifts its weight a little bit every now and then. But what stands out more is that I recognized it. It isn't just desiccated, it's also extremely veiny, and looks exactly like a Hollow from Dark Souls. In fact, looking around the room now, this entire place looks like it took assets from the Undead Asylum.

I resist the urge to snort. Sure, a tutorial dungeon filled with zombies. Only it's Dark Souls themed. Not exactly the sort of game I want to risk my life on. Then again, it's the mechanics that makes Dark Souls a challenge, not the enemies, and I have the most broken system to exist.

Remembering one of the skills I have, I use [Observe] on it.

<------>

Hollow

Level: 1

HP: 60

MP: 30

SP: 80

CON: 6

STR: 8

DEX: 5

INT: 3

WIS: 2

CHA: 2

LUK: 1

<------>

Despite being the same level as me, its stats are a lot lower. Not really a surprise, considering what it is. Knowing it's HP is nice, but a little intimidating. My iron dagger only does my DEX in damage, which isn't very much right now. But if I can get a sneak attack or a backstab or something like that, it might be higher.

I step into melee range of the Hollow and tense, ready to strike if it reacts. But it doesn't. Picking my spot, I muster my courage and shove the blade of my dagger into the back of its neck.

<Sneak attack! Critical Hit!>

<65 damage dealt>

With a low gasp, the Hollow collapses before fading away into ash. Huh. One shot kill. Nice.

<Hollow slain, 5xp>

<[Sneak] is now level 2>

<Drops: 1x Bone, 1x Rotweed>

Nice, [Sneak] leveled up quickly. I bring up the skill description, but nothing has changed. Of course, the only numbers in it are the skill level and the cost, so it's likely it did increase in effectiveness, it just doesn't give me the numbers. At least the cost didn't increase.

Pulling up my inventory, I check out drops.

<(1) Bone>

<Human bone. Used for crafting.>

<(1) Rotweed>

<A diseased looking plant that is somehow still alive. Used for crafting.>

Huh. Well those might be useful later. Or they won't be and they'll just take up room in my inventory.

I drop [Sneak] to allow my SP to regenerate to full. It hadn't dipped down very low, but there's no reason to keep it active. I look at the two doors leading out of the room. Both are identical and head in opposite directions, though for all I know they ended up in the same place anyways.

I sigh. "I hate dungeon crawling." It was just such a slog.

"Suck it up buttercup," is Kyu's unempathetic reply. "You're the one that wanted to grind out some levels instead of hitting up the town and finding some ladies to grind up on instead. So either get to it, or let's head back."

I shake my head. "No, we'll make some progress here. I'm just complaining." Flipping a mental coin, I decide to take the left door, and I head deeper into the dungeon.

-x-

Six hours later I flop down onto my bed, mentally tired. I still haven't gotten hungry or physically tired. Kyu told me that [Gamer's Body] got rid of the need for those sorts of things, but mentally it was still tiring to be on constant alert. Thankfully I don't have to worry about keeping track of things. Kyu informed me that one of the functions of the HuniePhone is that it automatically maps the dungeon as I explore.

So while it had been a bit of a slog, I got some decent results for my time.

<------>

Axton

Level: 8

Class: Rogue(8/100)[36%]

HP: 160 (1% per second)

MP: 250 (1% per second)

SP: 150 (1% per second)

CON: 16

STR: 15

DEX: 34

INT: 25

WIS: 19

CHA: 17

LUK: 25

<------>

<[Sneak] - Level 10(28%)>

<Reduces visibility and sound created by movement, allowing for stealthy traversal. 2SP/s.>

<[Lockpick] - Level 1(0%)>

<Attempt to pick a lock, as long as the appropriate tools are used.>

The cost for [Sneak] had gone up by one at level ten. Thankfully, every level I gained at least one in every stat, except for DEX where I got three, and INT and LUK where I got 2. The increase to my Stamina meant I could still keep [Sneak] up for a pretty long time.

Unfortunately I don't have any lockpicking tools, nor did any drop. However, I did get a bunch of crafting materials, including some scrap cloth and scrap iron that dropped from some lightly armored Hollows I encountered a bit deeper in the dungeon. One of them even dropped another iron dagger, and one dropped a piece of armor.

<Rotting Leather Cuirass>

<A piece of light chest armor. It looks like it's close to falling apart, but it does offer a bit of protection.>

It smelt a bit off, but I had immediately equipped it over my hoodie anyways. It almost immediately paid off too, because shortly after that I took damage for the first time.

After killing some of the basic Hollows, I started finding tougher ones. They were just a little more aware, had some light armor, and had just enough health that I couldn't one shot them with a sneak attack. Getting that first sneak attack was easy, but then I'd have to fight and get 1-2 more hits in before they died.

One of them got lucky. Or I got cocky. Eh, probably a mix of both. Immediately after I stabbed one of the armored hollows it swung it's sword in my direction, slashing my chest. It hurt, though not as much as it should have, and I lost nearly a quarter of my HP. And then I nearly lost more as I panicked and tried to rush them.

Thankfully it was the last enemy in the room so I wasn't in danger of getting swarmed. But it was a pretty scary moment.

I was more cautious after that, which slowed me down some, but in the end I found a safe room containing a treasure chest, thankfully unlocked, and decided to call it a day after grabbing the loot. Speaking of the loot.

<Onyx Dog Figurine>

<Once a day this figurine can turn into a large dog-like automaton that can be ridden. Lasts for 1 hour.>

I guess this is my first magic item? Not a bad one if I do say so myself. I already tried it out before I left the dungeon. The dog it creates is large, but not impossibly big. But on the downside, it very clearly isn't a dog. It looks like a dog, but it doesn't act like one. It follows simple commands pretty well, but has no intelligence.

I look over at the clock. It's early afternoon now. I could go back in the dungeon...but fuck that. I need a break, I'll do some more grinding tonight instead of sleeping. I can go out and do some shopping. Another thing the enemies dropped was money, and in addition to what I found stashed away in the apartment, I now had a bit over 32k yen to spend. A quick online search shows that yes, the exchange rate is about the same as it was back home before I left, so that was roughly equal to $320 USD. I don't have to worry about bills, so that should be enough for a few tools and items.

"Alright Kyu, we're going into town to do some shopping," I push myself up off the bed, throw on a light jacket, and pull my phone out of my inventory to start making a list. I didn't need to eat, but I should grab some food stuff for when I wanted to. Or if I had someone over. I also need to find where I could buy a set of lockpicking tools.

I search through my fake memories for good places to shop. There is a plaza in the center of town not too far away that has a lot of different stores. I can start there.

"Hey Kyu, I don't suppose you know where I can get a set of lockpicking tools?" She's flying alongside me, invisible to others.

"Uhh, not a store. They're illegal here dumbass."

I blink. "Really? Huh. They're legal in the states." Hmm. That really put a damper on that. I guess I can try to make my own, that should work well enough in the short term.

"You know," Kyu interrupts my planning. "Lockpicks are Rogue tools, you can probably get them from the Hunie Store."

I stop. "The what?" Before she can reply I shake my head. "No wait, I can guess." I poke around on my phone and find it before long. What I assumed was a simple app store was actually a special store where I can spend Hunie on different items. Scrolling through I see some basic armor, weapons, tools, potions, and more. Everything a Gamer needs to stock up on. There's just one problem.

"I already spent all my Hunie though," I complain. "How do I get more?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

--<New Quest!>--

Picking up Girls: The Basics

Talk to a girl and get her number before midnight.

Rewards: 1000 Hunie, 500xp, ?, ?

--<>--

Ah, I was wondering where the quests were. Those rewards are very nice for something so easy. My body may have reverted to a teenager, but my mind is certainly no blushing virgin. Getting a phone number? With my looks and my CHA score? Easy. My CHA isn't godly high, but it is several points higher than the average of the people I observed on my way to the plaza.

Shopping can wait then. The new plan is to walk around the plaza and the nearby park looking for a good opportunity.

"Thanks for the quest Kyu, I'll have this done quickly," I say, a confident grin on my face.

"Ooh, talking big huh?" She giggles. "Well let's see if you can actually do it or are just all talk. In fact, how about this?"

--<Quest updated!>--

Picking up Girls: The Basics

Talk to a girl and get her number before midnight.

Bonus Objective: Get her number before the sun sets.

Bonus Objective: Get the number of the first girl you talk to.

Rewards: 1000 Hunie, 500xp, ?, ?

Bonus Reward: 1000 Hunie, 500xp, ?, ?

Bonus Reward: 1500 Hunie, 750xp, ?, ?, ?

--<>--

A time limit and an attempt limit huh? Kyu certainly knows how to pump up the challenge. "Alright, sure. Let's do this." I look up at the sun. I have a few hours of sunlight left. A few hours to get the number of a girl is pretty doable, especially since girls my apparent age likely won't be out and about on a school night after the sun sets anyways, so the time limit isn't much of an added factor.

So I begin my search. I take a relaxed approach to it. I have several hours to find a girl and get her number. Really, it's not a big deal. But I want to get it on the first try for that bonus reward.

An hour later though, with maybe just a couple hours left before the sun sets, I'm a bit more nervous. My pickiness has caused me to pass up a lot of opportunities.

It's as I'm walking through the park that I see a beautiful white haired girl wearing a Kuoh Academy uniform. She's just a little off to the side of the path, and she's crouching in front of a box and reaching into it. Like I had with so many other people today, I use [Observe] on her.

<------>

Momo Hanakai

Race: Reincarnated Devil

Level: 69

HP: 2340

MP: 3600

SP: 2010

CON: 78

STR: 67

DEX: 68

INT: 120

WIS: 117

CHA: 70

LUK: 38

<------>

A reincarnated devil? Ah, she must be one of Sona's peerage members. They didn't get a lot of screen time so I don't recognize her. But what was with her health, mana, and stamina? They are a lot higher than her stats indicate. Maybe it's her race? Something to ask Kyu about later.

If a member of the cast is here, even if it's a minor member, then I'll take that as a sign and take the chance on her. Plus, I have a pretty good idea about what's in the box.

Making sure I make noise and don't come from directly behind her, I walk up to her to look into the box. Sure enough, in the box is a mewling grey kitten.

Momo looks up at me, one hand in the box and petting the kitten, who doesn't seem to notice and keeps softly crying out. I smile and dip my head in greeting before squatting next to the box as well.

"This little guy got abandoned then?" I ask.

Momo gives me a look I can't decipher before responding. "It would seem so. I've been trying to comfort her, but I think the poor thing is hungry."

"I might be able to help with that," I say as I reach into my jacket pocket. I bought some chicken skewers while walking around earlier and had put them in my inventory. A little sleight of hand to make them appear as I put my hand in my pocket, and I pull a bag wrapped around the food out of my pocket. "How old would you guess she is?"

She's looking at me weird. I suppose I did just pull food out of my pocket, but it was better than pulling it out of thin air. "Maybe a couple months old? She's small but she doesn't look like a newborn."

I nod. "Should be good enough then." I take a chunk off of one of the skewers, I then take another, smaller chunk from the larger one, squish it between my fingers, and put it in front of the cat's mouth. I'm pretty sure kittens can eat solid food at around that two months, and that chicken is good for cats. I'm less sure about the sauce cooked into the chicken, but it'll probably be fine in the short term.

<+5 Affection with Kitten>

I blink. Affection? Well Affection is obviously some sort of measurement of how much someone likes me. A useful measuring tool for picking up girls. But why does something like that apply to a cat as well? Just in case, I [Observe] the kitten.

<------>

Kitten

Race: Feline

Level: 0

HP: 10

MP: 10

SP: 10

CON: 1

STR: 1

DEX: 1

INT: 1

WIS: 1

CHA: 3

LUK: 9

<------>

I didn't even know level 0 was a thing. But I guess a literal kitten being level 0 makes sense. I feed her more chicken, and get another five affection for it.

"This should tide the little lady over until I can get some more appropriate food for her." I shoot Momo a look. "Unless you were going to take her?"

She shakes her head. "Unfortunately I don't really have the time to take proper care of a kitten right now. School work keeps me busy." She looks at me questioningly. "Are you saying you'll take care of her then?"

I shrug, trying to look casual. "Sure, in the short term at least. My apartment allows cats and I can't just leave her here. I'm a student as well but I've got a friend who can look after her while I'm at school." I quickly glance at Kyu, who's hovering hidden from sight behind Momo, and I'm glad to see she's on the same page because she gives me a thumbs up. Truly, she's the best wingwoman a guy could ask for.

I feed the cat more chicken. I'm still not sure if the sauce is good for cats, but she seems to like it, as she keeps licking it clean off my fingers with each bite I feed her. Plus, I get five more Affection. Cats are easy I guess, you just gotta feed them. She isn't mewling anymore, and seems to be content.

I look at Momo. "I don't suppose you know where the nearest vet is? I should get her checked up on and get some supplies before taking her home." Please offer to bring me there please offer to bring me there-

She smiles warmly. "There's one about a ten minute walk from here. I'll go with you, I want to make sure she's okay too."

I smile back at her. "Sure, the more the merrier." I carefully grab hold of the box and gently lift it up, making sure not to jostle it too much. Despite my efforts, the kitten makes a little squeak of protest. I have to admit, this kitten is extremely cute. I was pretty okay committing myself to taking care of her for at least a couple weeks, if not longer.

Me and Momo leave the park together, and I decide to strike up some conversation. "You're a Kuoh Academy student, right?" She nods. "Well lucky me. I transfer in tomorrow, and it's comforting to know there will be at least one friendly face there."

"Oh? You're Axton Smith then?" she asks, surprise coloring her tone.

I blink. Wait, Smith? Really? That was my last name? I shoot Kyu a look and she just shrugs. "Uhh. Yeah. How'd you know? People aren't talking about me already are they?"

"Oh, no, not at all. I'm sorry." She tilts her head lightly. "I never introduced myself. I'm Hanakai Momo, and I'm part of the student council. I remembered seeing your paperwork the other day. We don't get many transfers this time of year, so you stuck out."

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, it's nice to meet you Hanakai. But please, call me Axton. I've never liked being called by my family name."

"You're American right? I've heard a lot of Americans are like that."

"Yep. I've been here in Japan most of my life," or at least I have according to my fake history, "but the one thing I never got used to was being called by my last name." Especially when it was something as plain and boring as Smith.

"I see. In that case, please call me Momo."

"Sure thing Momo, thanks for accommodating me." I flash her another smile. I swear I see a hint of a blush, but I'm not sure and I can't look too closely without staring.

We arrive at the vet clinic a few minutes later, talking about Kuoh Academy and what I should expect from it. She asks me why I'm transferring at this time of year and I recite my backstory. I look at the time and guess that I have about an hour and a half before sunset. That should be plenty of time for what I have planned. I haven't forgotten that I still need Momo's phone number for the quest. I have a route to getting it envisioned in my head, but it would have to wait until right before we split up.

Talking to the vet, we explain where we found the kitten. I get a light scolding for feeding my chicken to the cat, but since it was only a little bit she said it would be fine so long as I only give her approved cat food for the next week or so. They take the kitten into the back while me and Momo sit in the waiting area and keep talking.

Our talk is pretty mundane and mostly focused on Kuoh and the Student Council. It turns out that, unlike most other student councils, the Kuoh Student Council didn't really have any named positions other than the President and Vice-President. Each member has their own specialties and roles, but they aren't really divided up in the traditional manner. Sona prefers keeping things a bit more flexible it seems.

Half an hour later the vet comes back out with the kitten and a list of instructions for taking care of her. Thankfully, the kitten is in good health, just a little hungry. I'm given a list of things I need to buy and directed to a nearby pet store.

Momo, who is holding the now sleepy kitten on her chest, asks to come with me to the store. It's obvious she doesn't want to say goodbye to the kitten yet. I'm not an idiot, so I gladly accept her company. Momo keeps the kitten held on her chest as we walk, which I'm glad of, because it gives me a pretty good excuse to look at her boobs. They're decently big. Not that big for this setting where the average tit size seems to be 'watermelon', but she's pretty stacked by my past world's standards.

It's as we're at the pet store and looking at collars that I realize something important.

"Oh, she needs a name, doesn't she?" I say out loud. Momo's eyes widen in realization. "You found her first, so why don't you name her?"

Her brow furrows in thought. "Hmm. I'm not sure. You'll be keeping her, shouldn't you name her?"

I shake my head. "Nah, if I name her she'll end up with some lame name or something. She deserves a prettier name than anything I could come up with." That, and for my plan to work, she needs to be attached to the kitten as much as possible.

She mulls it over a bit. "How about...Yua?" As if reacting to the name, the kitten chooses this point to meow softly in her sleep.

<+5 Affection with Yua>

I smile. "Seems like she approves of it, and I agree. It's a very pretty name." Momo is definitely blushing now, but just nods and doesn't say anything.

We make our way through the store and get everything on the list. At checkout, Momo insists on paying for the supplies, though I manage to talk her down to half. I would have argued more...but it turns out buying a ton of stuff for a new cat is expensive, and I was just short of being able to get it all. Oops. Still, I'm not too worried about the money, I can make it back easily enough, and it'll be worth it just for the quest completion alone.

As we step out of the pet store I see the sun is approaching the horizon. It's now or never. Yua is sitting comfortably in her new carrier which is in one of my hands, and I'm carrying all of the supplies in my other. It's heavy enough that if I hadn't leveled up this morning, I think I'd actually be struggling a bit. As it is, it's noticeable, but not strenuous.

"Well, this is where we part ways I guess." I say. I raise the carrier up higher. "Say bye bye to Momo Yua, we have to go home now." Yua meows again. I'm starting to wonder if maybe she does recognize her name. Either that or she just has extremely good timing.

Momo pokes a finger into the cage. "Bye Yua, I'll miss you."

That's it, there's my chance. "Here's an idea," I say, somehow managing to make it seem like the past two hours hadn't been leading up to this. "If we swap contact information, I can send you pictures of her and updates on how she's doing."

She smiles. Is it just me, or is the smile a bit flirty? It's hard to tell. "Oh I would appreciate that so much. Thank you Axton."

I place down the carrier long enough to pull out my phone, and we swap numbers.

"Perfect," I say as I put my phone away and pick Yua back up. "I'll make sure to take plenty of photos and send you the good ones."

"What if they're all good ones though?" she asks with a teasing smile. Oh yeah, she's definitely flirting now.

"Well then I guess you'll get a lot of photos then," I flirt right back at her. "Unless you don't want that for some reason?"

She shakes her head. "Oh no, I'd never turn down photos of cute little Yua. In fact." She crouches down in front of the carrier and lifts her phone. The short skirt she's wearing rides up and bares a lot of her thighs, though from this angle I can't see anything other than her legs. I hear the sound of a shutter and realize that while I was distracted staring at her thighs she snapped a photo of Yua.

She stood up and straightened her skirt out before hitting me with a flirtatious smile. "Looks like I got the first picture of her."

"You cheater," I reply in a lighthearted tone. "My hands are full, that's not fair." She just laughs. "Oh well, I'll beat you in quality and quantity."

"I look forward to it," she says as if she's won. She's the one that's going to get a bunch of cute kitten photos, so I guess in a way she has.

"I live over that way," I say, indicating the direction with my head. "I need to get Yua settled in, so I should head home now. But it was a lot of fun hanging out with you Momo."

"I had a lot of fun today too Axton. I'll see you tomorrow at school?"

I nod. "Yep. I have to meet with the Student Council President in the morning. If I don't see you then I'll say hi after school before I go home."

She smiles. "I'll see you then in that case. Have a nice night Axton. And bye Yua, be good!" Momo waves as she heads in a different direction. I wait until she's around the corner before starting to head home.

Kyu, who had been flying around staying in the background for most of that time, flies up close to me and lets out a low whistle. "Damn player. You did way better than I expected, and I was totally expecting you to at least get one of the bonus objectives."

I shrugged nonchalantly, but I can feel the grin on my face. "I had a bit of help. This little lady here was the second best wingwoman a guy could ask for. You know, next to a Love Fairy such as yourself."

"And don't you forget it," Kyu says triumphantly. "Speaking of though, you do realize you're basically permanently attached to this cat now, right? Even if you find someone who wants to adopt her, you lose your in with Momo."

"It's worth it," I reply confidently. "I mean. She is a pretty cute kitten. And it's the perfect reason to send her pictures, which is definitely a door I want to open."

"Ooh, good thinking. So hey, real talk. How much of that was planned, and how much was luck?"

"Eh. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. The plan to adopt the cat and get her invested enough to give me a pretty good excuse to get her number I made as soon as she said she wasn't able to take care of Yua herself. But I got pretty lucky that she stuck around more than I expected and got more attached than I thought she would."

"Hmm, I see. Well champ, you did pretty good. Here, quest completed, here's what you earned." She makes a motion with her hand and several windows appear in my vision.

<+45 Affection with Momo Hanakai>

--<Quest Completed!>--

Picking up Girls: The Basics

Talk to a girl and get her number before midnight.

Bonus Objective: Get her number before the sun sets.

Bonus Objective: Get the number of the first girl you talk to.

Rewards: 1000 Hunie, 500xp, +10 Affection with Kyu, [Smooth Talker] Perk

Bonus Reward: 1000 Hunie, 500xp, +20 Affection with Kyu, [Silver Tongue] Perk

Bonus Reward: 1500 Hunie, 750xp, +20 Affection with Kyu, [Cunning Linguist] Perk, Gacha Token

--<>--

<Kyu Affection is now 50>

<Perk Unlocked>

<[Fae Kissed] - Increases affection/reputation gain of Fae by 20%>

<[Cunning Linguist] - Your tongue is an instrument and you know just how to use it. People are far more likely to believe you and girls just love the sound of your voice. You also become skilled at using your tongue in all sorts of other ways.>

<Rogue class is now Level 13>

<New Rogue Skill>

<[Sleight of Hand](Passive) - Level 1(0%)>

<Increases the users ability to perform sleight of hand techniques and dexterous movement>

A lot just unlocked. That one quest got me more than three times the XP than my time in the dungeon did. The Hunie I'd be able to make great use of to get some extremely useful things for the Dungeon. The Kyu affection is extremely nice, and only a little surprising. She had been romanceable in the game, so I wasn't too surprised she's considered eligible by the Game. The perks are extremely nice too. I don't see the other two, but I assume that [Cunning Linguist] is a straight upgrade that just replaced [Smooth Talker] and [Silver Tongue]. The new Rogue skill is alright, I'm sure it'll be useful, but it's a little underwhelming.

But the Gacha token is a total unknown.

"Hey Kyu, what's up with the Gacha token?" I ask. I'm at my apartment now and I set down the carrier to open the front door.

"All that and that's the first thing you comment on?" Kyu teases. She explains as I let Yua out to start exploring the apartment and start setting up all her stuff. "The Gacha is actually pretty cool. You use a Gacha token, and you get a random item. But nearly all the items are extremely good. They usually pull stuff from other worlds, and that can be pretty busted if you get lucky."

I set up Yua's bed in the corner of my bedroom and she immediately ran over to investigate it. "That sounds pretty dope. Let's give it a try." A mental command opens up my inventory. Below my money, now a mere 9800 yen, was a new entry saying "Gacha Tokens: 1" with a button that says "Spin" right next to it. Shrugging, I push the button.

<New Item!>

<Hornet Ring>

<When equipped, critical hits are more effective. Doubles the base Critical Hit Modifier>

Holy shit, that's broken. Daggers, or at least my dagger, already had a base 3x multiplier for critical hits. Double that is 6x. And if it's a sneak attack, that's another 2x, for 8x damage. I pull up my stat screen, seeing how much it's grown with the experience I got from the quests.

<------>

Axton

Level: 13

Class: Rogue(13/100)[26%]

HP: 210 (1% per second)

MP: 350 (1% per second)

SP: 200 (1% per second)

CON: 21

STR: 20

DEX: 49

INT: 35

WIS: 24

CHA: 22

LUK: 35

<------>

So, under ideal circumstances, circumstances that are easy to create since I could now keep up [Sneak] indefinitely, at least until it got to Level 20, my Iron dagger can do nearly 400 damage in a single attack. Which is more than three times higher than the health of any of the Hollows I saw in the dungeon. Though compared to a reincarnated devil like Momo, that isn't even half their HP. Hmm. I'm overpowered for the dungeon, but compared to even the lower levels of this world I still have some work to do.

Then again...I open up the Hunie Store. The lockpick set is only 300 Hunie, so I put it in my cart without hesitation. But while I'm here, there are some things I saw earlier. I open the weapons section and find what I'm looking for.

<Ka-Bar Combat Knife>

<The US Military's combat knife of choice. Damage = DEX x 3, 3x Critical Hit Modifier

1200 Hunie>

That would be just under 1200 points of damage in a single attack. Still not enough to one shot a reincarnated devil, but it's a hell of a lot closer. Fuck it, I've got the Hunie. I'll probably end up getting a better knife later on, but this will be pretty good until then.

I quickly browse through the armor, but even the basic light armor costs nearly as much as the knife, and honestly I don't really need it. I only got attacked once, and with the combat knife, the likelihood of that happening again is extremely unlikely.

Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. The Hunie Store has Moderate Health Potions that heal 50% damage for 500 Hunie a pop, and I go ahead and buy two.

That leaves me with 1000 Hunie left, but I decide against buying anything else right now. I might need to buy something else in the future, and it'd be better to have some on hand.

I go to my cart and hit the checkout button. Checkmarks appear next to the items and a message thanking me for my purchase appears. I open my inventory to equip my new knife...but there's nothing there.

"Kyu, how do I get my Hunie Store orders?" I look around for her and spot her leaning against Yua, who's curled up sleeping. I quickly snap a picture. "Also if I send this picture to Momo will she see you in it?"

"Store orders get delivered, they should be here in a moment. And no, she won't, unless she's seen me before." Kyu answers sleepily.

Delivered? Before I can ask what she means by that, the doorbell rings. I send the photo to Momo as I get up to go answer the door.

The most generic mailman I've ever seen is there with a package in his hand. I use [Observe] on him, already used to doing it on every person I see.

<------>

The Mailman

?

?̶͔͋̚͝?̸̪͎̈́̎?̷̥͖̩̒͐

<------>

A spike of pain shoots through my head.

"Ah, sorry about that mate. It's usually not a good idea for new Gamers to take too close a peek." The Mailman says in a light Australian accent. "I try to warn the new blood, but most of the time I'm too late."

"I-" My head is still recovering from whatever just happened. "Right. Noted. You have my stuff I guess?"

"Sure do. Just need you to place your thumb on this slate." He holds out what looks like a stone slate the size of a playing card. I look at it suspiciously.

"Is this going to hurt me too?"

The Mailman grins. "Just a little bit. Just needs a tiny drop of blood."

I sigh and place my thumb on the slate. Sure enough, I feel a small spike of pain in my thumb. It's honestly not that bad though. It feels a lot like that time I accidentally stapled my finger.

"There we go. And here you go," he says while handing me the package. "Thank you for your business. And welcome to the Game!"

"Right, thanks." I close the door and wander back to my bedroom. I go to ask Kyu what the fuck that just was, but she's fast asleep. Whatever. It could wait. Opening the package I take out my knife, lockpicking set, and health potions. The potions and lockpicks go straight into my inventory, but I equip the new knife as well as a single iron dagger, just in case, and throw on my armor.

Actually, now that I think about it, my daggers are a one handed weapon, and I have two hands. Could I attack with two knives at the same time? Something to try out in the dungeon. Speaking of the dungeon, I want to get more grinding in tonight. Though I'm having second thoughts about how worthwhile it is to grind in the dungeon. The quest experience had been way more than I had earned in the dungeon. But then again, it only gave me fives levels compared to the seven the dungeon had. Leveling is already slowing down pretty hard. My only hope was to push on and hope for tougher enemies that give more XP. And with my new knife, they should be just as easy to kill.

A glance at the clock shows I have about ten hours before I have to be back here, getting ready for school. Probably not enough time to clear the dungeon, but with my new weapon speeding things up it should be enough time to get a lot done.

Leaving Kyu to watch over Yua, I enter the dungeon.