After logging out from the game, a quick glance at the clock told me it was already 6 in the  evening. c.r.a.p, Mother and Ruri should have been back from their shopping by now. They might  have even started dinner without me!

I left my room and hurriedly headed towards the living room. They should still be in the living room around this time, or in the kitchen.

But then, I noticed something unusual on my way to the living room.

The kitchen and living room are―― empty. Or rather, why do I feel Mother"s presence in Ruri"s room?

I wonder, what"s the reason for my mother"s signature coming out from Ruri"s room? Just as I was about to knock at the door, I heard 2 voices coming from inside of the room.

「Geez, it"s already this late huh. I wonder if Sou-chan is already awake.」

「Mama has suddenly become too engrossed haven"t you?」

「Sorry Ruri, mama will leave first since I have to cook dinner.」

Right after those words, I heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

――GON.

「Oh my, what are you doing in that place Sou-chan?」

Ouch.

「I"m still a bit dizzy after logging out from the game.」

「Sorry, mama forgot about it. But really, even Sou-chan can get dazed by something huh.」

Those words were aimed at me weren"t they? Well, since I basically understood the situation inside of the room just from the voices leaking from the inside, I could somehow predict this situation to occur.

Moreover, the reason why I didn"t step back from the door is because of my half-asleep head. Honestly, it was to refresh my mind and punish myself for forgetting about the time. Though it was more painful than I had expected since mother opened the door all of a sudden. [TL : Sou kissed the door when his mother suddenly opened the door.]

「Well, rather than that, what were you doing inside Ruri"s room?」

「Fufufu, it"s a s-e-c-r-e-t!」

「Fufun, it"s se~cr~et!」

Ruri was behind mother, mimicking her gesture of folding her arms with a "taken aback"  posture. I really want to take a photograph of the current cute her.

「What"s with that gesture? Ah, what about dinner? How about I help you as it hasn"t been  prepared yet?」

Half of me truly wants to help with the preparations for dinner while the other half is interested  in trying out real-life cooking after knowing that I"m no good in cooking in IEO. I shouldn"t just  focus on outdoor survival skills right? After all, it would be good to do a bit of domestic ch.o.r.es.

But my mother showed a strange expression upon hearing my words.

「U~hm. I"m grateful for you asking but, letting Sou-chan stand in the kitchen is a bit too horrifying. I mean, Ruri likes to mimic the way you use the kitchen knife and that"s…」

According to my mother, it seems as though when using a kitchen knife, me and my father seem like different people. She said it was as if we were not 「Cutting」 the ingredients, but  more of us 「Killing」, or「Murdering」 it. I"m still unable to understand her explanation even till now. I"m just using the kitchen knife the way I was taught to, what"s wrong?

Now that I think about it, me failing to cut the onion properly during today"s cooking cla.s.s might have something to do with my mother"s reasoning. A reflection of reality perhaps, but I  can"t really say anything when my mother is so blunt about it. Even more so when it"ll bring  danger to Ruri.

「Understood. I"ll take a bath for the time being then.」

「Thank you. Since you said so, please take your time in the bath!」

「Yeah, that was my intention anyway.」

After that, I washed the bathtub before filling it with hot water and getting in. After my bath, I  enjoyed myself on the sofa till the dishes were done.

So many things happened today. The first time I formed a party with someone other than Shinji; opening my heart to Wakakussan and Fuyukawsan; then becoming their in-game  friend. All of these events were things that I had hardly experienced up till now. I guess it"s okay  for me to keep going on as it is from now on?

While immersing myself in that sentiment, I searched up various information regarding IEO with my smartphone. The information I"m looking are the ones regarding 【Magic】.

The current me somewhat understood that the best shortcut to using magic was to gain a magician occupation. Though there"s the necessary skill to use magic, no one can find another way to use magic without having a job related to magic.

Moving on to the job change section, I found that there were no new information.

To do a job change from my current occupation, 【Gunner】, I would need a few materials, points from the subjugation of certain monsters and above that, I would also need to wait for a  special event to happen.

The so-called event is actually to receive a teaching from a NPC who lives in each city but, it seems that luck plays a part in whether one can meet this NPC or not. Though I might need  more research on this, I can roughly understand the nature of this NPC.

Though the NPCs in normal games will always teach you no matter how many times, the NPCs of this game have their own life rhythm. In short, NPCs in this game also have their own  families and they work for the sake of their family. Though there"s no grade schooler type NPC, there"re many NPCs who leave for work as soon as the sun rises and go home when the sun  sinks. To make matters worse, NPCs might also leave during the holidays for a vacation, so one cannot always meet the a.s.signed NPC at the designated times.

What a complete replica of reality. Maybe I can try befriend the NPC responsible for job changes? But this will slightly delay my plan to gain a magic related job.

「Sou-chan, dinner is ready~! Help us carry it!」

It"s already time huh. The time always flows by quickly when I"m in dazes.

「Oniichan, the dinner is ready~~!」

OH MY ANGEL.

「I"m coming!」

After finishing dinner, I logged into IEO again. At first, I wanted to watch TV along together with my mother and Ruri, but they just left me alone and entered Ruri"s room straight after dinner.

I would be lying if I said I was not worrying about what they were doing, but despite me asking, they"ve been insistent on keeping it a secret. Oh well, looks like I can only wait till they tell me their secret themselves. Thus, I decided to fully enjoy my gaming time!

Moreover, since tomorrow is Sunday, I can stay up till late at night. I won"t stay up till too late though, since I made a promise with Shinji-tachi to meet after lunch tomorrow.

Well, what should I do then? Let"s just look around Nago city for the time being I guess. Just as I was littering about the city, Shinji-tachi suddenly sent me a message.

【Oh, so you"re logged in too huh. How about hunting together with me? 】

Sounds cool! It"s okay since I have nothing to do anyway.

【OKE~~. Where are we going?】

【Tell me your position first.】

I guided Shinji to my location using a landmark. Taking a second look at my location, I noticed  frequent signboards such as 「Pafupafu World」 or 「Muscle House」. This game isn"t too strict with R-stuff, is this really okay?

Turning my face away from the dangerous looking signboards, I started observing the traffic  of the city. There were many wearing armour and had weapons strapped to their backs or hanging on their waists. They were obviously the ones having combat jobs. Though there were  also some that had much different outfits. Those people might be from manufacturing occupation as according to Hanzou-san and Sakursan, there were indeed professionals who  did their own research in the game to satisfy their curiosity. Oh, Shinji has arrived.

「Sorry for making you wait Sou!」

「Don"t mind it. So, where are we going?」

「Let"s challenge a dungeon! Since they are usually swarmed with powerful monsters, I want to  try taking on one with you.」

Powerful monsters huh. Ever since I started IEO, I haven"t been able to rile myself up due to the fact that I had only been fighting against small fries.

「That sound good, shall we go then?」

「Nice! Let"s go to the dungeon north of this city. I believe it"ll take around 2-3 hours to get there.」

That"s just right on time for my bedtime!

「There was a dungeon nearby? Isn"t the nearest dungeon very far away?」

「Actually, there are quite a few dungeons around this place. Amongst them, we"ll be going to  the one closest to us. You know, I heard that the farthest dungeon will take one week for a round-way trip on foot.」

Are you kidding me, that"s waaay too far! Eh, wait a minute, he said 2 hours for the nearest one, doesn"t that mean…

「The closest one is actually quite close? Wouldn"t that mean all the treasures are gone?」

「Well, at this point of the game, most of the valuable treasures have already been taken out of the known dungeons. Thus, many don"t bother going to faraway dungeons now.」

「I see.」

But, players who look for treasure or undiscovered dungeons huh. Though they"re adventurers, their actions make them more like treasure hunters.

「Yosh, let"s move out!」

Thus, Shinji and I gallantly went towards the nearest dungeon, in the middle of the night. On foot of course!