“Raph,” said Raph-chan, riding on Sadeena’s shoulder and waving at Raph-chan II, who was being held by Ruft.

“Dafu,” Raph-chan II replied.

“Two sisters, both water dragon miko priestesses, were swimming freely through the depths. It might not be long before they even surpass the water dragon himself. What do you think, Shield Hero?” Ruft asked me.

“Oh my! I think that might be going a little too far!” Shildina said. I personally wasn’t so sure he was that far off the mark. Still, it wouldn’t do for them to get too full of themselves.

We continued our hunting and continued to increase our levels.

Ethnobalt was racing up in levels even as he just continued to explore the seabed. As the main point of this was to raise Ruft’s and Ethnobalt’s levels, we hadn’t taken on any higher-ranking monsters yet. There were apparently some incredibly powerful monsters down here, if you went looking for them.

“Ah, Shield Hero! I just reached level 40!” Ruft said.

“Sounds good. Want to go back?” I asked him.

“Might be a good idea. I can’t increase any higher than this, and I don’t want to hold everyone else back,” he replied.

“Gotcha. I’ll portal you back to the village,” I told him.

“Okay. I’ll take part in the training there,” he said. Ruft really was a hard worker. So serious. “See you later!” I saw him waving, then used the portal and sent him back to the village.

“What next, then? You don’t need a level 40 class-up, right, Ethnobalt?” I confirmed with him.

“That’s right. Before I became a vassal weapon holder, I went through all sorts of training to become the library rabbit leader. The level 40 restriction seems to be an element unique to this world, and there’s no sign of me stopping at level 40,” he reported.

“Okay,” I muttered, stroking Raph-chan II with both hands. Ruft had chosen to leave her behind with us. I had to admit, quite aside from my plans for Ruft, I had been hoping to have Ethnobalt undergo a Raph-chan-type class-up. I had really been wondering about what it would do to him.

“I’m not sure how to explain this, but I sense something from you right now very much like what I feel from Kizuna when she’s planning some fresh mischief,” Ethnobalt said.

“You do?” I said innocently. Was it so easy to tell when a hero was plotting something?

“Dafu,” said Raph-chan II. As though reading my mind, she hopped up onto my head and started batting at my skull. It was cute. Okay then. I’d try to limit my evil notions, just like I did when Raphtalia was around.

“Right, Little Naofumi. You keep that little precious bundle safe. We’re going to push things a bit harder!” Sadeena said.

“Go ahead,” I told her. We followed the two sisters deeper into the ocean depths. Based on the experience we were receiving from the monsters, it looked like the recommended level for defeating them was 150, and Sadeena and Shildina were cutting through them one after the other. Ethnobalt looked pretty freaked out by the proceedings. They should have still been weaker than the Spirit Tortoise—or at least I hoped they were. I’d feel terrible for Ost if that wasn’t the case. That said, we had defeated a fake hero who had claimed to be level 350.