After returning within the confines of Evergloria’s walls, a grand welcome began. After all, Miyabi and Kiki had just maxed out the favorability towards Tuntec and his men—who happened to be the best craftsmen across the entire city.

Of course, I had known this beforehand.

This was the main reason that "that" strategy even existed in the first place.

"Thanks for your help, adventurers! Our heroes! With your help, we showed those stubborn monsters who’s boss!" Tuntec praised, his eyes crinkling with genuine warmth.

"As thanks for your help, here’s a 10-day visa and a ring that gives you privileges as a Recruit Soldier within the city. Take it!"

He didn’t waste time and handed over two things—a passport-like booklet and a simple, thick ring. As soon as I took them, the notification rang clearly.

[Reward Received: Evergloria City Visa (10 days), Militia Status Ring (Rank: Recruit)]

"A ring...?"

I hadn’t heard of this system before.

Kiki would’ve mentioned it for sure if she had received such a reward during her own run, but no—I didn’t recall her saying anything even remotely close to getting a ring. Another divergence thanks to my second loop, perhaps?

Curious, I checked the ring’s details and gasped. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"I was disappointed after the dungeon reward changed to a piece of apple... But to think an item to replace it would appear here...!"

[

Name: Militia Status Ring (Rank: Recruit)

Equip Requirement: Level 50

Effect: Allows one to double the strength limit they could tap into across worlds

Description: A simple ring that signifies belonging to Evergloria’s Militia. Once a member, always a member.

]

The effect felt vague, and honestly didn’t do much beyond looking good on one’s finger in the game world, but in reality...

’It can raise the strength I can use from the current 5% to double that—10%!’

The item that used to provide that effect, which I hadn’t gotten from the dungeon reward, was the "Howling Dungeon’s Insignia"—which only raised the real-world stat limit by 50%. This one doubled the benefit!

Instead of losing out, I had just gotten a bargain!

Of course, since this was a Scenario Quest, everyone could get their hands on it. Unlike the first-clear rewards that were exclusive to the clearing party.

This also meant as long as people could complete this scenario and equip the ring, everyone could tap into double their stat limits in the real world too.

’I guess with this much of a boost, people would start realizing things.’

It would be a while before the inventory and skill systems fully descended into reality, but this alone should cause significant ripples across society. People would start noticing strength increases that couldn’t be explained by normal training.

But given that things in the real world seemed to be advancing at an extremely accelerated pace, this might be exactly the kind of balance we needed.

"The sooner normal players reach this stage and gain real-world strength, the better..." I muttered to myself.

Even if they couldn’t actively fight monsters, they could at least protect themselves. That was something.

After the awarding of our rewards finished, Tuntec and the rest said their goodbyes. Just in time, the sky began to brighten, showing the blinding sun rising from beyond the icy mountains to the east. The shift from deep night to dawn was almost shocking in how fast it came.

"Alright, everyone." I said. "Don’t forget to equip the ring before logging out. While you’re in here, just use the accessories you normally wear."

Currently, we could only equip two rings in total—one on each hand.

But in the real world, this limitation wasn’t enforced.

Once the inventory system descended fully, players could equip as many rings as they wanted—but with a caveat. Rings on the same finger would split the effects between them.

Two rings meant both had half their effect. Four meant a quarter each. Equipping rings anywhere besides fingers wouldn’t work either. So no D-Rings, thankfully—that would’ve been painful in ways I didn’t want to think about.

Anyway, since this ring had no bonuses in the game world, we should only equip it when we returned to reality. That’s where it mattered.

Thankfully, the girls nodded, understanding my intentions immediately.

Though the chat seemed confused about what I meant. They had no idea what the ring actually did from its description alone—which read more like simple flavor text to them.

After that, the next thing we did was move around together, looking at shops as a group.

Both Eri and I had lower favorability with the dwarven master craftsmen, so having Miyabi and Kiki negotiate quests and trades for us was significantly better.

They could leverage their maxed-out standing for better deals, better equipment, exclusive options we wouldn’t have otherwise accessed.

We visited every corner of the city, ensuring we picked up all available quests along the way.

We even grabbed special quests and unique quests that wouldn’t hinder us in any way—collecting them like cards, filling out the quest log with side objectives we could complete later at leisure.

All in all, we not only updated our equipment, we picked up roughly 100 quests total.

There were so many that tracking them individually would’ve been impossible, but since the Quest System did that automatically, we could ignore them for now and just focus on the main path forward.

We swapped out our old equipment for new sets.

For me, I picked a similar-looking military uniform, but thicker—specifically made for winter environments. A level 50 set with basically double the bonuses of the previous one. Though the bonuses to the flag’s range and buff effect remained literally identical, which was a disappointment.

Miyabi’s new set went for the same winter aesthetic.

She had waist guards that looked like roof tiles in deep blood red. Arm guards, shoulder guards, and shin guards all matching.

On her head sat a red Kabuto helmet, making her look both fierce and cool at the same time. Though her overall exposure was minimal, the parts around her waist and chest were skin-tight, making the design look more erotic than practical.

The Devs really knew their priorities.

Kiki’s set took a different direction entirely.

She wore loose, dirty-white Dougi—tight around her waist and ankles, but ballooning outward in the middle in a way that looked thicker than it actually was. I doubted it would protect her against the cold, but that was just how martial artist attire worked, apparently.

Over that, she wore a pure white tank-top covering her chest. Her arms were equipped with gauntlets that revealed only her palms and fingertips. Then there was that long, familiar white headband around her head, completing the look.

If she wore a white shirt with flayed or rolled sleeves and swapped the headband for red, she might actually pass as the female version of a certain famous fighting game character.

While the other two girls seemed more revealing than before, Eri’s attire went in the completely opposite direction.

Beyond her nun-like garb, she now had a tall hat and a veil covering half her face. Long gloves extended up to her elbows. Basically, not a single patch of skin besides her face was visible.

Whether it was a "conservative" design or not was obvious from how tightly it followed her curves, though. Almost to the point that I wondered if the Devs were all thirsty single bachelors.

Wait. The game’s devs are gods too, right?

Are they—

No. Going down that rabbit hole wouldn’t benefit anyone. Let’s forget it.

Anyway, with the stat bonuses from equipment and accessories added in, my average stats basically passed 200 now. This also meant Ram, Gwen, and Sunny’s stats were raised by extension—they scaled with my stats—regardless if it was through gear of from level up.

The three girls’ stats should average similarly to mine, though their distribution skewness—like Miyabi’s full STR build—was different. She’d hit 400+ STR easily by now, for sure, while her other stats lingered in the 150s. Kiki was similar, just with different priorities.

"Everyone’s ready, right?"

At the eastern gates, all four of us stood, finishing final checks.

"I’m all set!" Miyabi said, sheathing her new katana—Aogatsu (Blue Moon)—hiding its clear blue blade. "Ready to depart at any time!"

"Same here. I’m ready when you are!"

Kiki added, bumping her gauntlets—the Golden Xuan Wu Gauntlets—together, causing sparks to fly in brief, bright bursts.

Eri, too, adjusted her long, pale-red staff—Staff of Mikhail—using it like a walking implement, tapping it against the ground and causing the rings around its tip to ring nicely.

"I’m ready as well. Leave all healing to me."

They were all ready.

I smiled, then quickly summoned four new androids.

Girls I had crafted and assembled while we walked around the city, each built with a specific role in mind.

One for scouting—Elfie, with high perception and speed.

One for dedicated tanking—Veronica, built to absorb punishment.

One for healing—Nadia, because redundancy in support was never a bad thing.

And lastly, one that specialized in what we lacked—the heavy mage—Ageha, bringing raw magical firepower.

Now our team had no holes.

Now we were truly ready.

To face dangers nobody dared to imagine.

It’s time to forge our path towards the future!