Claudia said that, in general, a rank will require anywhere from 100 to 1000 uses before it ranks up. Yet, she ranked up Haste to E after only a single use.

I don't really know why this is the case — Or at least, that's what I would normally think, but I do have an idea why that happened.

"Claudia, show me your status window."

"Fueh!? Master, do you have no sense of decency!? Are you planning on playing with me again!? In a place like this, my voice will echo everywhere!"

"…don't yell out terrible things about people while your voice is already echoing everywhere."

If there is anyone listening — Her words could be easily misunderstood as her voice is echoing out throughout the cave. There are no other adventurers in sight but I still don't want to risk it.

"…is that not what you wanted to do? If I open my status window for you, Master, what do you plan on doing?"

"…I just want to see your status window."

"Then…you really just want to see it? You're not planning on doing something strange?"

I can't see her face clearly due to the hood. Perhaps she's trying to determine if I'm lying to her. I can barely make out her eyes intensely staring at me.

"Do you want me to play with your status window again?"

"Wha-!? Wh-Wh-Wh-Why would I want something like that!? We're in a dungeon right now!"

"So you're saying you want to choose the time and place for me to do it?"

"That sort of thing…that's not…"

Even though she's not outright denying it, it's not like I expect her to want that…it was as I was thinking this that she said, in a voice that was barely audible, "…if Master were to order it, I'd have to obey."

How is she so cute yet still s.e.xy?

I wonder how cute she would be if I could see her smile without the burns. Even now, while she's trying to hide her face with the hood, she's still cute.

…I want to see Claudia without any burns.

For that reason, I asked Claudia to open her status window. I wanted to know the reason why Haste ranked up so quickly.

"Okay, you're only going to look at my status window, right? Status open."

Claudia opened her status window. Just as she said, Haste was now rank E. I'm the one that learned that skill for her, so it's definitely gone up in rank.

And on the last line…she had 25 SP remaining.

"Your SP has also gone up by one."

"Eh……I told you yesterday I can't see it."

"Ah, that's right."

Since I used 500 of her 524 SP yesterday, it seems to have increased by one.

"Try casting Mirage on yourself."

"Yes, I understand."

Claudia began concentrating…I thought this earlier but her casting time really is long.

She should have Fast Casting but due to her curse, it's two ranks lower. Rather, her Fast Cast skill has probably dropped below rank F, so it's most likely taking even longer than normal for her to cast.

After about ten seconds or so, Claudia cast Mirage. As a result, the outline of Claudia became slightly blurred.

It's probably because the rank of Mirage is low, but…it still doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not talking about the effects of her spell, but why Haste ranked up after only a single use — and so, I looked back at Claudia's status window.

However, the rank of Mirage and her SP hasn't increased. Normally, the SP would increase by a little just from using a skill, but…it probably doesn't show if the SP has increased by less than one.

"…it doesn't look like anything has changed. Maybe it was just a coincidence the first time?"

"No, maybe…this time, try to cast it on me."

"Alright."

And the result of Claudia casting Mirage on me was —

"Oh, the rank of Mirage is now E!"

"Just like I thought."

Her SP also increased to 26.

"What is it?"

"Maybe it has something to do with you casting it on someone that has a much higher overall ability score. My overall ability score is over 100,000."

"…you're saying it's caused by using magic on you, Master?"

I can't know for sure, but it seems pretty likely.

"Can you try casting Sanctuary now?"

"Unn…yes, I understand."

Claudia started to concentrate and prepared her spell…just as I thought, her casting is really long.

This time it's definitely even longer than before. Originally, this skill already had a longer casting time than other spells. It took over a minute for her to finally cast the spell.

A magic circle on the ground emits green light and a soothing air fills the area.

"Haa…….haa…..I cast it…….It didn't work. The rank didn't increase."

"It doesn't look like the SP increased. It seems it only works when I am the direct target of a skill."

This is just my guess, but the training required to rank up an ability is reduced based on the overall ability score of the target. So, if I'm the target, the training should be 1000 times faster.

However, I used Fire Bolt on myself but the rank didn't increase. It seems that this is restricted to other people using skills on me.

I'd like to test this out some more, but I can tell that Claudia seems to be getting exhausted from continuously casting spells. I decided to hold off on that for now and focus on killing monsters.

That's why we started walking for a few minutes through the dungeon while being careful to remember the way out. And then, a monster appeared in front of us…

"…a monster?"

"That's a monster."

"Really?"

"What else would it be?"

"…it just looks like a rabbit with horns."

It's just a white fluffy rabbit. It's probably around 30 centimetres long. Its horns are sticking out of the side of its head, but I feel that even if I were to get hit by them it wouldn't really hurt….

At most its horns could barely scratch my bare skin. Maybe if its horns managed to hit my eye it could hurt me, but…it doesn't seem like it can jump that high either.

"Because this monster is only found on the first floor, it's only rank F. Most likely…a child with average strength could defeat it with their bare hands."

"So it's extremely weak."

Rather, even if those horns were dangerous, the fluffy rabbit is so adorable I doubt it would even attack me…ouch.

Just as I was thinking this, the horned rabbit attacked my s.h.i.+n. It didn't manage to pierce my skin, but it did hurt.

"This guy sure is ferocious."

I tried to defeat it using Fire Bolt. However, if I tried to avoid its attacks it would cancel my own spell. This is because that skill is rank F and I can't use it while moving.

…I need to increase its rank.

"This is a lot faster than using magic —  Ei!"

Claudia let out a cute cheer and brought her foot down hard on the horned rabbit.

Uwaa…I could hear the bones breaking and several other unpleasant sounds — Those sounds –!

"U-Umm, Claudia-san?"

"Eh, what's wrong? Suddenly adding '-san' to my name."

"No, just now, that…the way you stepped on the rabbit…:

"Eh? Was that bad?"

She's still hiding her face with her hood so I can't make out her face at all. Is it possible Claudia's a Yandere as well….

No, if that were the case, Claudia would have the Yandere ability in her status window. She doesn't have that ability so she shouldn't be Yandere but….

Are there hidden skills and abilities? Maybe, regardless of a Yandere ability, Claudia just has a Yandere personality….?

"Umm…Master?"

"Ah, sorry. I just didn't expect you to step on and kill that rabbit so fast. Are you used to fighting monsters?"

"No, this was my first time ever fighting one."

"…I see. How do I say this…umm, you didn't have any resistance to killing it?"

"Umm…I know that it's bad to rob an animal of its life, but that's not the case when killing a monster. As for any kind of resistance, well…?"

What did she just say?

"Monsters aren't alive?"

"I don't think so. They appear due to the loose mana in the air and they are only able to move around due to the manastones in their bodies."

"Ah…I see."

To me, these creatures appear to be some type of living monster, but to the people of this world, like Claudia, these monsters are just some type of elaborate artificial being that's animated by the manastone in their bodies.

Still, it looks alive to me, but…the horned rabbit's body turned into particles of light that disappeared into the air. The only thing left behind was a small red stone.

Claudia picked it up and held it out to me.

"This is?"

"This is a manastone. Though, this is a rather small stone so it's probably only worth one copper coin."

"Hmm…."

Ten copper coins are worth one large copper coin and ten large copper coins are worth one silver coin. So, I'd guess…this is worth about a piece of bread. It's probably around 100 yen.

This dungeon is rather large, so it does take us some time to encounter a monster, but if I work hard I should be able to make a small income here.

"Anyway, congratulations on getting your first manastone."

I say this and handed the red stone back to Claudia.

"Umm…what are you talking about? I'm your slave. Every manastone I earn is yours."

"You're not a slave, remember? I wanted someone that could be my companion. So, I plan on dividing everything we earn here equally. Since that is the first manastone you got for killing a monster, you should hang on to it so you can remember this day."

"…Master, thank you very much. I'll cherish this manastone!"

She sounded really happy as she said that. I could faintly see a smile on her face beneath the hood and I could see the painful burn stretch across the right half of her face as she smiled…even with the burn I think she's really cute.

After that, we managed to hunt around twenty horned rabbits in two hours. I was hunting them while checking my status. From what I can tell, they don't really give me much experience.

None of my abilities have increased in rank but I did manage to earn 1 SP.

This is just speculation on my part, but each rabbit seems to be worth 0.1 SP. I think this is about half as much as two average people. This was something I needed to find out.

We earned twenty manastones in total, minus the two we'd have to give to the guild. We each kept the first manastone we obtained as a souvenir and sold the remaining sixteen and split the profit between us.

In total, I'd say we earned enough for dinner for the two of us. It was fun working hard and being able to earn money for my own food.

After all, it's fun spending time with an ordinary girl — No. It's fun spending time with Claudia.

And so, our first dungeon exploration ended. As we were leaving the guild I checked the clock in my log window to see it was about 17 o'clock.

"…It's not that late yet. We've still got some time before we need to return to the inn. Did you want to go shopping?"

"Shopping?"

"Yeah. I'd like to buy some equipment before going any further in the dungeon."

I was told that I'd be fine in the first couple of levels of the dungeon, but if I ever plan on going further, I'd like to at least have some basic equipment.

"If there's anything you need, Claudia, don't hesitate to ask."

"I can…."

"Of course, don't worry about the cost."

"Is that okay? I mean, we're already splitting the money we earn in the dungeon. I thought I'd be able to save up some money to buy equipment myself."

"That might be possible in the future, but right now we're not earning enough for that to be feasible. So I can cover the costs for now."

I expected to have to spend more on a slave after I bought one, but, as things are now, I think we have enough money to live off for the next year. I think we should buy the equipment we need while we have the money.

"T-Thank you. T-Then, umm…some underwear and a change of clothes…is it okay for you to be these things?"

"Ah, that reminds me…I need to buy more underwear and a change of clothes too. I escaped from that Yandere and left my old clothes behind."

By the way, I washed the clothes from last night…I somehow managed with the weird feeling.

"No, umm, I…well…."

Claudia held both of her arms close to her body and started fidgeting. When she did this, her robe was pressed tight against her and revealed the outline of her body.

"C-Claudia, when you took off your robe at the slaver's shop, you weren't wearing anything underneath. Does that mean that…now…."

"Umm…yes."

"Oooh…."

Is that so? So, when she was moaning on top of me she was wearing nothing but her robe?

Even when she was in the dungeon and yelled, "Ei!," while crus.h.i.+ng that rabbit she wasn't wearing any?

"…Claudia, you're an exhibitionist?"

"T-T-That's not it!"

"How? You were walking around a dungeon not wearing any, right?"

The cloth of the robe is very thin but it's not exposing any skin.

Still….The cloth rubbing up against her bare body….

"T-that's not my fault. I don't have any underwear or other clothing to wear. And isn't it your job as my master to buy me clothes?"

"Really? Then, that's my fault…still, couldn't you have asked me if you wanted clothes? After all, you really are an exhibitionist."

"B-Because it was embarra.s.sing! I was embarra.s.sed so I couldn't say anything! Mou~ Master, you really are the worst!"

Even though her face was mostly covered by the robe, I could see her turn bright red. Claudia's face is seriously cute even with the burn.

That's why I really want to tease her more…but I really can't do that now.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll go buy you clothes right now."

"…really?"

"Really. I don't really know this town, so can you be my guide."

"I don't know much about the town either, but…I think over here should work."

A section of the town where many shops stood side by side. We entered a clothing shop to buy clothes and underwear for two people.

I was really looking forward to seeing what a clothing shop in another world would be like, but…I was rather disappointed.

It makes sense considering that this world is similar to medieval Europe, but the quality of the fabric is poor, the colours are plain, and there's very little variety in the clothing. The designs are also rather bland. It's something I was capable of making when I first got interested in making clothing.

This clothing seems pretty standard for this world.

Well, there's no reason for me to complain about it. Someday I'd like to be able to design my own clothing, but… for now, I just need to decide on some clothing for me.

And Claudia also chose a set of clothing for herself. We each decided on a full set of clothes and went to the back of the shop to change in one of the fitting rooms…it was probably really embarra.s.sing for her to just be wearing that robe and nothing else.

"…Master, how does it look?"

After some time, Claudia exited the fitting room.

Her face was hidden by a thin veil and her blouse also covered up most of her neck, arms, and body, The only part of her outfit that revealed any skin was her skirt; it went down to just above her knees.

To be honest, it looks a bit odd. However, I'm sure she chose this outfit so people can't see her burns.

So….

"It looks good on you."

"…does it really?"

"I wouldn't lie about that. Though, don't you think it would look better if it was a little more unique?"

I said this and turned my attention to the shopkeeper.

"Excuse me. Are there any skirts that are a little more flowing?"

"….Eh, flowing? Do you mean like a petticoat underneath?"

The shopkeeper curiously tilted his head.

The Gothic dress Rose was wearing is kind of what I had in mind, but…it seems that quality of clothing is restricted to the n.o.bility.

"Umm….Excuse me, but I'd like to modify this skirt a little. Can I borrow a sewing kit? Of course, if that isn't too inconvenient."

I think I'm being a little rude asking to modify the finished product, but the shopkeeper looked interested to see what I was going to do.

"I'll need to touch the skirt."

I slightly lifted the front side of Claudia's skirt.

"…Master?"

She was coldly staring at me.

Does she think I'm going to a.s.sault her in public? Maybe it's just my imagination.

"I'm just going to modify it a little. Don't worry."

"That's what you say, but…alright, go ahead."

After receiving her permission, I sewed the front side of the skirt to the back of the waist. A completely new design.

"Master, you're amazing. The skirt feels so light and flowing now."

"…certainly. To be able to create such a vast change with only a minor adjustment."

Claudia and the shopkeeper both admired the new skirt.

All I really did was make the front of the skirt shorter…well, as long as Claudia likes it.

By the way, I was trying to decide whether to shorten the side or shorten the front. I decided on the front because I wanted to see Claudia's white thighs.

"Do you like it? If not I can change it back…?"

"Of course, I like it. I really love it!"

"I'm glad that you like it so much."

"Well…does it look good on me?"

"Yep, so much so that I want to dive into your thighs right now."

"…Master is perverted."

She quickly changed to a 'tsun' personality, but she doesn't really sound angry. When we get back to the inn, I should use my power as her master to rest my head on her lap. — No, that's just stupid to even think about.

….well, I would seriously enjoy that.

Anyway, we finished buying our clothes and went to another shop that sold weapons and armour.

We each bought armour…well, it's really just reinforced clothing and we also each bought a dagger and a sword. We also bought other items we thought would be necessary for a dungeon.

And that was the end of today's shopping. After the sun had already set, we returned to the inn.

"…we bought a lot of different items. It's going to be difficult to carry all of this around. Usually, this would be the job of the slave…."

"I told you before, I don't want to treat you like a slave or a luggage carrier. I have an item box for this."

Item box activate.

I activated the item box and threw all of the equipment we bought inside. Claudia looked surprised seeing me do this — Rather, she looked appalled.

"Master…won’t it be messy if you just throw things in carelessly like that?"

"…what?"

The item box basically feels like a storage s.p.a.ce in my mind. I didn't think things would get disorganized inside.

"…the item box feels like a different dimension s.p.a.ce, wouldn't it organize itself?"

"That would be the case if your item box was a high rank, but, at rank f, it's basically just a small warehouse."

"I see…."

When I checked the details of the item box skill, that was certainly the case. If I had put food and clothing in there together, it would've been a disaster.

"Thank you for telling me."

"I'm just happy that I was able to help you, Master –"

The sound of a bell coming from nowhere interrupted Claudia. At the same time, Claudia's expression changed.

"…Master, let's return to the inn quickly."

"What's wrong?"

"What are you talking about? That was the 19 o'clock bell…that reminds me. You're from a different world. I'll explain it to you as we walk, so let's quickly return to the inn."

"Eh? Wait, oi?"

Claudia forcefully pulled my arm and I had to do my best to avoid falling.

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"You know that this world is created by a Yandere G.o.ddess, right? The G.o.ddess Medea-sama."

"Yeah, I know that."

…rather, Medea-nee really is a Yandere G.o.ddess. Well, that's what I was expecting.

"So, what does this have to do with you being in such a rush?"

"Nighttime, especially the time between 19 o'clock and 6 o'clock, is considered to be 'Yandere Time.'

"…huh? What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's Yandere Time. Medea-sama's power is at its strongest."

"…Medea-nee's power becomes stronger? That means…no way!

Claudia nodded at me.

"It's exactly what you're thinking, Master. When night comes, the chances of someone turning Yandere increase by 20%. The Yandere attribute rank for people that already have the Yandere attribute is also increased by two at night."

"So, you're saying…."

Before, the guild master and the slave owner said something similar. They kept saying the night was bad.

And even before that, when I heard the bell ring at 19 o'clock, Rose changed. When she removed my arms and legs it was during 'Yandere Time.'

Although —

"I understand that the night can be bad, but you are resistant to Yanderelization so you should be fine, right? Or will you change as well?" (TN: I decided to use the word 'Yanderelization' to describe someone becoming a Yandere. It's used a lot in this series and I thought it needed its own word.)

"…Yes. For some time now, I've had the desire to confine you, Master."

"Seriously!?"

I instinctively stopped walking and looked at Claudia.

And Claudia was…doing her best to hide her laughter.

"I'm just joking, I wanted a little revenge for you teasing me before."

"…really? Was it just a joke? There's nothing wrong with you?"

"I'm fine. My Yandere resistance is enough to counter the effects. However, anyone that already has the Yandere attribute is going to change immediately. Considering your skill and the effects of the night — Master!"

Suddenly, Claudia tackled me to the ground.

"Eh? What, Claudia!?"

Has she actually become Yandere? I have the feminist skill so there's nothing I can do when she's on top of me like this. d.a.m.n, this isn't good —

"Master…are you al…right?"

— Claudia's voice was filled with anguish.