Chapter 104 - Preparation

Even before the alarm started ringing, Sylvia suddenly opened her eyes wide before getting up from her bed. Looking at her surroundings, Sylvia still can't get used to the room that's unfamiliar to her even though she had been living here for the past few days. Sylvia remembers back when she's living with her mother, whenever the alarm started ringing, her mother sleeping next door would get woken up to the alarm and ended up getting mad at her. Her mother works from night till the morning of the day, it's understandable that she wants to get some sleep. 

But in Sheila's household, most of them would awaken right in the morning either for work or school at the same time so she didn't have the trouble of disturbing anyone. If this keeps up, she might lose those habits that she learned back at home. 

After getting up on her feet, Sylvia went to the bathroom and refresh herself in the warm bathtub once she had removed all her clothes. The bathroom always has been a place where Sylvia could truly let down the inhibitions she had put up in her ordinary life, though her current situation is no more but ordinary. 

Twenty minutes later, Sylvia walks out of the bathroom with a towel covering her body to prepare for school. Most girls would usually take longer to prepare themselves but Sylvia is not of them as after drying her silky silver-white hair, she only needs a few minutes to wear the school uniform before exiting the room, there's no need for makeup. Even without any of it, her natural beauty is already plentiful enough to make girls in her class to be envious. That was why some of them would bully her to regain their already small dignity against her, girls can also be petty like that.

While she was on the way to the dining room, she came across a wild Sheila walking upstairs covered in sweats, she must have just finished her daily jogging and was on the way to clean her sweats off.

"Good morning, Mas- Sheila."

"Mhm, morning. You are early today too I see."

"Umm.. you too, do you always go jogging early in the morning?"

"Well, for the past few weeks, yes. I don't really exercise much back in the days, but now that I realized that it helps in keeping me both healthy and in shape, I don't mind waking up early for that. Though I do complain a lot when I first started, I'm used to it by now."

Sheila let out an awkward laugh when she remembers the time when she had started doing the daily quest, her body had never felt so tired and sore in her entire life. It took her quite an experience when she had to take a walk to school with that kind state, and when she arrived on her seat, all the energy she had used till then evaporated from her body as she leaned her face down on the table exhausted. That was one hell of a tiring day for sure.

After having a small chat, Sheila took a leave as she needs to take a bath before heading downstairs for breakfast while Sylvia will be going ahead and waits for the other to get ready.

"Oh? You're early today too, Sylvia."

When Sylvia arrived and found her seat near the dining table, she was greeted by Sara who was coming out from the kitchen with dishes in her hands. Sylvia gives a curt nod in response, though she had been living here for a while now, Sylvia was still quite shy around Sheila's family. It was especially the case for Sara, to Sylvia, Sara is a kind and warming figure of a mother. Whenever she was greeted warmly by Sara, she would always reminiscent of her childhood where her actual mother was once used to treat her the same. That was why sometimes Sylvia doesn't know how to respond when she was faced in such a situation again, all she could do was just nodding her head in response.

Sylvia even wonders why and how Sheila's parent is too kind and welcoming to her presence in their household. Sylvia didn't expect them to be upset or anything like that, but getting ignored for a bit is within her expectation as she was, after all, a stranger to the household. Or maybe this was actually normal in every household out there?

After filling herself with a delicious breakfast, Sylvia was discussing a bit about her current life with Sheila before the latter went to school with Ria by her side. Since her class started in the afternoon, Sylvia decides to 'grind' a bit in the Trial Tower, a phrase that she learned from Sheila. After making sure that the door is locked, Sylvia closed her eyes and when she regained her sight, she was back into a world filled with nothing but an endless grassland, First Floor of the Trial Tower.

『 Sylvia LV.7 』

『 HP: 60/60 MP: 45/45

Class: Assassin

GOLD: 362

—STR: 13 —INT: 9

—AGI: 22 —VIT: 12

—LUCK: 5 AP: 0 』

"For the past few days of grinding, my level is now at 7. Maybe this time I could beat that huge slime?"

When she was killing off the slimes in the past, she also came across the boss of the First Floor but since she couldn't fight it with her low stats, Sheila intervened right before the slime could land a hit on her or her fate would likely be decided by then. With her current stats, including all her skills went up to level 2, she has the confidence that it will work out if she didn't let her guard down and recklessly charge in. With a determined look on her face, Sylvia sneakily and silently move forward while looking at her surrounding, searching for slime to kill.

After killing too many slimes that she had lost count of it, Sylvia suddenly feels a tremor on her feet and without even looking ahead she already knows what was the thing in front of her that caused the small earthquake, it was none other than the Slime King, the Boss of the First Floor.