Gacha Harem System

Lukas followed the smell back through the trees.

Akira had set up the fire perfectly, and a slab of Nemean Lion meat now sat over the flames on a makeshift spit, seasoned and salted, the fat rendering slowly as the heat worked through it.

The aroma that rose from it was the kind that made rational thought temporarily difficult.

He sat down beside them, setting [Temptation] carefully within Melody’s reach.

Akira turned the meat without looking up. "What do you two actually do for fun around here?"

Melody opened her mouth. Then closed it.

She genuinely thought about it for a moment, running back through the weeks since she’d arrived.

All they’d done had been out of necessity rather than fun. The dungeon runs, the hunting outside city walls, the leveling, even the equipment purchases.

Everything had been done for one of two purposes. Making money to survive or leveling up to get stronger.

"We... haven’t really thought about it," she admitted.

"I see." Akira hummed. Her eyes flicked between Melody and Lukas. "You guys haven’t been having fun but don’t look that stressed. I see what’s going on here."

Melody frowned, confused. "What’s happening?"

A salacious grin appeared on Akira’s face. "You guys have been fucking like rabbits, haven’t you?"

Melody instantly went red, while Lukas laughed in surprise, having not expected her to say that.

"Don’t worry. I won’t tell." Akira lowered her voice like she was whispering a secret. "But you’ll have to take me along next time. Don’t keep the fun to just you two."

"I’ll be sure to send an invitation," Lukas smirked.

"See," Akira pointed at him, her grin widening. "That’s why I like you."

She turned to Melody, the grin dimming. "I can understand why you guys haven’t been focused on having fun though. When you’re behind where you want to be, everything else feels like you’re wasting time."

"Then one day you realize, you were never behind in the first place. You simply convinced yourself that you were." She turned the spit again. "I’ve spent years in that headspace, so I guess I can be of some help."

She glanced between them both, her green eyes moving from Melody to Lukas and back.

"Give me a month," she said.

Melody raised an eyebrow.

"I’ll get you both to S-rank within a month."

Lukas blinked in surprise. If Akira had mentioned just Melody, he wouldn’t have this reaction. After all, Melody was already A-rank, the gap was manageable. But both of them, including a C-rank Awakener, in thirty days?

"That’s possible?" he asked. From what he knew, the higher one advanced, the harder it gets to level up. So, going from C-rank to S-rank in the span of a month, it was almost unheard of.

Akira looked at him for a moment, then laughed, amusement shining in her eyes. It was clear she believed what she was saying and was confident in her ability to deliver.

"For most people?" She shrugged. "Almost impossible." She met his eyes. "But I’m not most people. And neither are you two."

"Here’s what we’re going to do," she said, watching the flames. "We’ll come here every day and we hunt until we drop or run out of beasts. Simple as that."

Lukas looked at her. "That’s the whole plan?"

"That’s the whole plan." She turned the spit one final time. "We have an Adept-rank weapon between us. The beasts in this forest, strong as they are, won’t hold up against that indefinitely."

"We hunt them, we kill them, then we come back the next day and do it all over again." She glanced at him.

"From what I understand, you’re already carrying stats higher than both of us, so you’ll be able to do more than just holding your own against the beasts. Melody is already A-rank, and with me adding to that, the only question is how long the beasts in this forest will last us."

Melody stared at Lukas.

He stared back at her.

They’d spent a lot of time calculating how long each rank up would take, trying to work around their limitations.

So, the idea that the answer could simply be to show up every day with an Adept ranked weapon and keep swinging was almost too straightforward to believe.

But it was hard to argue with. And there was a part of him that knew it was not just possible, but also achievable. In fact, from the moment he summoned Akira and added to his stats, it had been inevitable.

"Alright," Lukas said. "Every day."

"Every day," Melody agreed.

Akira pulled the spit from the fire and began cutting. She handed the first piece to Melody, the second to Lukas, and kept the third for herself. They began eating.

Unlike what Lukas had expected, the meat was extraordinary. It was oily and rich in flavors that seemed to explode in their mouths, while the meat simply me;ted on their tongues.

"You can cook," Melody said with wide eyes.

"I can cook meat over a fire," Akira corrected, chewing. "That’s the full extent of it. Don’t ask me to do anything that requires a pot or more than two ingredients."

"Meat over a fire is enough," Lukas said.

Akira pointed at him with her knife. "See. He understands."

They continued eating, trading jokes as they did, with Akira taking pleasure in making Melody blush with her innuendos.

Soon, they finished the meat, and Lukas passed around the flasks he’d brought along. Once they were all well fed and hydrated, they stood.

They began moving through the forest, continuing their hunt.

They soon ran into an A-rank Acidic Anaconda, the beast sliding between the trees ahead of them.

Before Lukas or Melody was even fully aware of it, Akira blurred forward, crossing the distance in a single motion. The snake dropped, dead without making a sound.

Akira turned back to them, a normal sword in hand, grinning.

"Watch and learn," she said. "Everything I’m going to show you starts with one principle."

She held up a single finger.

"End the fight in one blow."