“Kyaa! Mom, oppa’s looking like his soul’s been sucked out!”

“He’s been like that for a while. He seems depressed. Go console him, you guys get along.”

“Haha, I defeated the Wraith Queen alone…Mm, yup. That won’t change. But the Dark Ratman…”

“Oppa, oppa! Snap out of it!” An angel from above…no, Yua shook my shoulders and I flopped about with no resistance.

Yua’s voice was adorable. In addition, her support kept me from falling over immediately. If Yua ever got a boyfriend, what should I do? Should I tear his limbs apart or should I kidnap… huk!

“Oppa!” Yua shouted again.

“Y-Yua.”

“Are you okay? Haa.”

I noticed that Yua let out a sigh of relief when her last scream jolted me out of my thoughts. Was she really worried that something was wrong with me? Heh, how cute.

“Haha, no need to worry, Yua. Oppa is fine.”

“But you looked so soulless. You were murmuring something to yourself too.”Yua said with a look of disbelief.

“You’re right…well, your oppa just happened to fail at something, that’s all.”

“Failure?”

“Yep. It looks like I was too arrogant.”

I recalled what had happened just a moment ago. After saying farewell to Loretta on the 10th floor, I rushed to the 15th floor’s boss room. Following that, I entered a random party and challenged the Dark Ratman.

“Alright, let’s get this over with and move up!”

The party leader was a middle-aged swordsman, which might have been the reason why he was talking down to the other party members. However, that’s when I started to feel apprehensive about this raid. 

The party had consisted of dungeon explorers from five different continents if I was also included.  No party could successfully work together without harmony among its members. However, with the party leader acting in an oppressive manner from the start, it was nearly impossible to create good teamwork. Sure enough, there was a reason why I had a bad hunch about this party. 

“Come on, kill the ratmen!” shouted one of the members.

“You’re just charging straight at the ratmen! We should have discussed beforehand who would tank and who would lure the ratmen!” the party leader screamed back.

From the very beginning, the party leader and the main damage dealer had begun to argue, while I silently hunted ratmen on the side. If it wasn’t for that, the boss fight would have ended much quicker.

There were two healers, and they were both from different continents than the party leader. When they heard the party leader’s aggressive and arrogant tone, they immediately made unsightly faces. At the same time, our tanker, who was from the party leader’s continent, got along well with the leader.

“Squeeeeek! Don’t look down on me just because I’m a rat!”

“Kill that rat bastard!”

The Dark Ratman was around six feet tall, which was comparatively smaller than the other Floor Masters. Since the boss looked smaller, I thought that the tank would be able to handle it. Of course, my assessment of him ended up being wrong.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

“Ugh, this rat’s attacks are too heavy! Heal!”

“Fudge…”

Unfortunately, the tank had the same hot-headed personality as the party leader. Furthermore, the healers seemed almost reluctant to heal. As a result, there were times where both of their skill timings were off. In addition, the party leader was clearly only focused on attacking the Dark Ratman to collect contribution points for himself. To top it all off, our damage dealer, who had argued with the party leader, didn’t kill all of the minion ratmen, and they ended up heading towards the tank.

“What? Hey, what are you doing!? Get these off of me!”

“Fudge, just focus on the Dark Ratman!”

“Ah!”

As the tank and party leader yelled irritably, the Dark Ratman was no longer under their control and could do as it pleased. At that time, I had been hunting the ratmen one by one, but when I noticed the disaster brewing, I rushed towards the Dark Ratman.

Although the magician in the team had the smarts to instantly change his target to the Dark Ratmen, the boss acted too quickly for his attack magic to take effect. “Squeeeeeak! I’ll burn you all up!”

[Dark Ratman uses Dark Thunder Explosion!]

What followed was an unforgettable sight. In an instant, a dark light burst out from the Dark Ratman’s body and struck the people who were closest to it: the party leader and tank. In a blink of an eye, the two of them were burnt to a crisp and could only kneel on the ground. I thought it would end there, but I was wrong. It was only the start of the nightmare.

“Squeak! It’s a lightning party! Squeak!”

BOOM!

Just like the name suggested, waves of black lightning exploded out. Both the party leader and tank died in an instant. Unfortunately, I was also subject to this skill as I had run after the Dark Ratman.

Neither my high HP nor my Orc Lord set were of any help in preventing me from dying. Instead, they only made the pain last longer. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I was outside the dungeon.

It was my fault. Or at least, I thought it was.

In my arrogance, I had thought I could defeat the Dark Ratman no matter what these idiots did. For that reason alone, I didn’t try to stop their arguments nor did I object against the party leader’s foolish commands.

After looking back on it, I realized that I shouldn’t have stayed in that party in the first place. In fact, I should have left and looked for another party the moment I realized how dysfunctional this one was.

Furthermore, I should have attacked the Dark Ratman myself instead of relying on my party members. I had been playing around too much, which was why I had such an ignoble end while I was hunting ratmen minions. It was inexcusable.

Honestly, I had become too excited and full of myself after defeating the Wraith Queen alone. This was despite the fact that I knew that there were 100,000 people stronger than me in the dungeons! In fact, I wasn’t even close to being the strongest on Earth. The SS-rank easily outpowered me but any A-ranker could easily whoop me in a fight. Perhaps even the B-rank ability users were stronger than me. The dungeon was a place where an explorer had to be alert at all times. Since I had been fooling around with my guard down, it served me right that I died there.

As I was reproaching myself, Yua suddenly placed her hand on top of my head.

“You can do it, oppa.”

“Yua…”

“I believe in oppa. You can definitely do it.”

“But…”

“Everyone makes mistakes, oppa.”

Yua slowly rubbed my head. I closed my eyes and waited for her to continue. At the same time, I became more relaxed.

“Oppa, someone who learns from his mistakes can do anything. So it will be the same for you, oppa.”

“…You’re right. Thanks, Yua. I promise you, I won’t make another mistake. I won’t be kicked out of the dungeon ever again.”

Yua’s gentle words had healed my broken self-esteem. If I stayed depressed after hearing that, I wouldn’t be a man. I resolved to never let my guard down, to never make the same mistakes, and to never be kicked out of the dungeon again!

I patted my admirable sister’s head. Yua squealed cutely and twisted her body in delight without letting go of me. Our sibling relationship had finally reached the point that I had been hoping for a long time.

Yua knows how to comfort me, so she’s all grown up now! Oppa swears he will make you happy! Hm, that doesn’t sound right. Right, I will protect this angel’s smile!

After regaining my energy from Yua’s magical words, I clenched my fists. Suddenly, a crashing sound rang out. When I looked up in surprise, I saw my mother trembling as she stared at us from the kitchen. There was a piece of frozen pork neck on the ground. She should really buy pork belly with how much Father makes.

“N-No, you can’t! You guys are blood related! Don’t you dare think about it!” my mother stammered.

“I said it’s not what you think it is! Is that all you think about, Mom?” I exclaimed in an exasperated manner.

“But it’s too suspicious! Why else would two grown-ups be all over each other on the couch!?”

Darn, being too awkward was a problem, but being too close is a problem too…!? There was no one I could complain to, so I could only hold in my indignation at the unfairness.

A week later, I challenged the Dark Ratman to a revenge match. This time, the party I was in gave off a good vibe. That being said, I still planned to continue these raids until I could defeat the Dark Ratman alone. It was best if I did not rely too much on my party, so it was fine as long as they didn’t hinder me.

“Could it be…? Crown Prince-nim?”

However, the female party leader seemed to recognize me. Who was she? She was quite a beauty, with pearl white skin, a blonde ponytail, and sparkling green eyes.

Although I tried to wrack my brains, I had no recollection of meeting such a pretty girl. I asked if she had heard of me from rumors, but she shook her head.

“Thanks to Crown Prince-nim, I broke through the 5th floor two years ago. I’m still grateful for it. Back then, I couldn’t fulfill my role no matter what party I was in, so I became depressed, thinking I wasn’t suited for the dungeon. I challenged the Orc Lord as a final challenge, and that was when I entered your party.”

“Ah… I see.”

“You were really cool that day…By following Crown Prince-nim’s commands, I gained confidence in myself. I was able to defeat my fear and stab my sword through the Orc Lord. After we defeated it, my confidence grew and now I’m here, partying with my comrades from the Luka continent.”

That had to be ten floors in two years. Although her pace was slightly slower compared to Ellos or Palludia, those two were among the top in terms of talent and effort. For a girl who had been stuck on the 5th floor, being able to climb this far in two years was undoubtedly praiseworthy.

I didn’t hesitate to reveal my thoughts.

“That’s incredible. You must have put in a lot of effort,” I complimented.

“Ah, you were less informal then…can you talk casually like in the past? It would be too awkward otherwise…”

“No, how could I?”

Casually? I talked like that to a grown-up woman like her? Where were my manners then?

The woman giggled and shook her head when she saw me become flustered.

She explained, “No, you did. Because two years ago, I was a little kid who wasn’t even 130 sihai tall.”

“…Yes?”

Sihai. It was a unit of measurement from the Luka continent and was about equivalent to half an inch. In other words, she would have been about 4’8’’ two years ago. But how was that possible? She looked well over 5’2’’ now. How could anyone grow so much in two years? Not to mention, her chest size was quite amazing…ahem.

“Hee hee, you’re cute when you’re flustered.” Her eyes sparkled.

“No, that’s…” I stammered.

“You don’t have to be so surprised. People from the Luka continent experience a huge growth spurt when we hit a certain age. It’s definitely more significant compared to the growth spurts of people from other continents, so I suspect it’s one of our special traits.”

“Ah, I see.”

Her explanation made sense. Even though we all looked like humans, we were from different worlds. Thus, I didn’t find it hard to accept that our growth patterns would be different too. But for some reason, the word Luka continent seemed to remind me of someone.

Well, it’s probably nothing. With that, I turned my attention to something else.