Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

"Huh? Yi, you’re back?"

When Evelor got home, she saw her brother sprawled on the sofa, looking bored and utterly listless. He hadn’t even noticed her arrival.

It wasn’t until Evelor drew near and gently pinched his cheek that Lloyd snapped out of it as if waking from a dream.

"Huh? Sis, you’re back? I bought veggie wraps for dinner today."

"Yi... did something happen today?"

Evelor stared intently at Lloyd, then reached out with her small hands to hold his face, forcing him to meet her gaze.

Lloyd could only sigh, a helpless, wry smile on his face as he answered:

"It’s nothing, really. It’s just that the friend I worked so hard to help has gone home. I don’t know when I’ll ever see her again."

"Oh, is that all? It’ll be okay, then, right? You’ll be able to see her again someday."

Evelor seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. She kicked off her little leather boots, revealing her snow-white feet, then climbed onto the sofa and knelt beside Lloyd.

She then gently tugged on his head, making him rest his cheek on her small shoulder. She tried her best to stretch her short arms to pat his back and comfort him.

But her arms were a little too short; she couldn’t quite reach the center of his back...

Lloyd didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his sister’s antics. He gently hugged her in return and nuzzled her head with his cheek.

"I’m just glad my sister will never leave me."

"That’s right. I’ll never, ever leave you."

Evelor smiled sweetly, continuously nuzzling her brother’s cheek with her head.

His sister’s company soothed Lloyd’s mood considerably, but he still went back to his room rather early. He opened his Storage Bag and took out a pile of miscellaneous items—stuffed dolls, hairpins, small toys, trinkets, and so on.

They were all mementos he had bought for Elolo today. In the end, she hadn’t taken a single one...

SIGH...

Seeing these items, Lloyd couldn’t help but feel his spirits sink again. He quickly found a cardboard box, carefully packed everything inside, and finally tucked it away in the deepest part of his closet.

Then, he lay down on his bed and subconsciously entered the Thought Realm. He did his best to control his gaze, avoiding the barren, deathly still vista in the distance so as not to affect his mood, and focused only on the Spiral Tower pattern on the ground.

Elolo had said she would wait for him every night, but Lloyd had no idea if this old method could still get him to her side.

As it turned out, after staring at the pattern for a while, a system prompt echoed in his mind instead:

[Ding~ Madness Value +5]

’Huh? Why is there Spiritual Contamination?’

Lloyd’s heart leaped with joy. He immediately stared intently at the pattern, not daring to blink. After suffering several hundred more points of Spiritual Contamination, his vision finally began to blur and twist.

’Haha!’

’Looks like the old method is a little slower, but I can still [Infiltrate]!’

Soon, Lloyd found himself in a lavish, luxurious study. The room was larger than the high-end apartment he shared with his sister, filled with understated yet luxurious decor. It was lined with several towering bookshelves that required a ladder to reach, all stacked with heavy tomes.

And there, slumped softly on the desk, was Elolo, the very person Lloyd couldn’t stop thinking about. She was fast asleep, her fair, delicate face turned towards him, looking so sweet one might want to have a taste.

In front of her lay an open notebook. Beside it was a thick book on Mysticism, opened to one of the first few pages—an introductory text Lloyd had finished long ago.

To her other side sat a cup of coffee that had gone cold and an exquisite little cake with only two or three bites taken out of it.

Elolo’s expression was peaceful, her consciousness immersed in sweet dreams. She must have fallen asleep while reading.

Lloyd carefully inspected his surroundings again and found that while there were Orbits in the study, they were protective ones, meant for defense and early warning, not cages for a prisoner.

Although she had insisted on returning to the City of Joy, she had clearly escaped her former prison cell and was no longer being abused. It seemed she could now live what was, at least on the surface, a decent and comfortable life.

’This seems pretty good, right?’

’Except... she’s not by my side...’

Unfortunately, Lloyd still had no physical body, so he couldn’t take liberties with Elolo. Not wanting to disturb her rest, he could only use his inspiration to gently touch her back.

[Ding~ Madness Value +30]

[Ding~ Madness Value +1]

There was still Spiritual Contamination, but both its magnitude and frequency were much, much gentler than before. ’Looks like the ’double XP’ event is over.’

’Is it because she has awakened as a Saint and can now endure and dissipate a lot of the Spiritual Contamination herself, so I can’t absorb as much?’

’Then as she grows stronger, won’t she become like the other Saints and stop emitting Spiritual Contamination altogether?’

’That would mean... she’d have to bear all the Spiritual Contamination alone...’

Lloyd’s heart began to ache for her again...

’But on second thought,’ he mused, ’at least Elolo has me to help share the burden. What about the other Saints who don’t? Don’t they have it even harder?’

’No wonder that lunatic clerk at the antique shop also showed respect for Saints.’

Lloyd’s thoughts then drifted to the ’girl-next-door’ he carried in his pocket every day...

’Does she have it this hard every day, too?’

’Then why didn’t I absorb any Spiritual Contamination when I held the Saint Statue?’

’Is it because I haven’t had more... intimate contact with her?’

As his thoughts ran wild, he suddenly realized something and shook his head vigorously.

’No, no, I can’t think like this. Elolo, the "fated encounter," is right here with me. How can I already be thinking about the "childhood friend"? It’s like I’m some kind of scumbag...’

’I have to establish a persona for myself as a pure, loyal, and devoted young man!’

...

「Meanwhile.」

In a spacious and luxurious conference room in the City of Joy, decorated with festive lanterns and banners, a group of elderly men of apparent high status and power were gathered around a long, narrow table, discussing the "recent events" of the last couple of days.

But the long table was not placed in the center of the spacious room. Instead, one of its ends was pushed against a wall, making the arrangement feel somewhat awkward.

On that wall hung a turtle-shell-shaped shield. Its edges were lined with long, thin barbs, and its face was ornate and complex, adorned with all sorts of patterns and decorations.

But if one were to stand a little further back, they would discover that the patterns vaguely resembled a human face, seemingly looking down from on high to listen in on the meeting.