After Shiori defeated the "perverted researcher":

"Hmm... uh... where am I...?"

"Oh, you’re awake, Chika?"

A few minutes later, Chika, who had been unconscious, woke up. Noticing this, Shiori—sitting on a small chair beside the bed—called out to her. Chika sat up, still a little groggy.

"Ah, big sister...? Hmm... Ah, right, I lost to the ’perverted researcher’... Hey, big sister. Could it be...?"

"Yes, I took him down while you were unconscious."

Even half-asleep, Shiori seemed to understand what Chika was trying to ask and answered concisely.

"I see. Thank you, big sister."

"This is my thank-you for you defeating the fourth-floor monster for me."

Chika smiled at Shiori’s reply and got out of bed.

"Um... thank you for waiting for me, big sister. Alright, let’s go."

"Yes, let’s go."

After exchanging those words, the two left the small room and headed toward the top floor, passing through the deserted dueling field.

And so, they reached the top floor of the "Tower of One-on-One Duels." There was only one magic circle there.

"That’s... ah, a teleportation magic circle."

"Um... it looks like it leads to the first floor. There doesn’t seem to be anything else, so let’s just try using it for now."

A sign next to the magic circle indicated that stepping onto it would return you to the first floor, with nothing else of note. Without hesitation, the two stepped onto the magic circle and returned to the first floor.

"Well then... Whoa!"

"What’s going on...?"

"I have conquered the ’Tower of One-on-One Duels’!"

The moment they returned to the first floor, the sign appeared in their field of vision.

"Looks like we’ve cleared the ’Tower of One-on-One Duels’ now."

"Yeah. Any changes... Oh, there are more items on the terminal."

Nodding as they read the display, the two headed to the terminal to see what had changed and began checking the various new features.

First, a new section called "Challenge Menu" had been added below the explanation. As the name suggested, this feature allowed them to fight monsters they had already battled in the tower again—this was also mentioned in the initial description. Currently, they could only fight the five types of monsters encountered this time, but the instructions stated that taking on new challenges and fighting different monsters would increase the available roster.

Additionally, depending on how many times they completed the tower, the variety of monsters that appeared would increase, the characteristics of the dueling field could be changed, and it would become possible to summon multiple monsters simultaneously instead of just one at a time.

Incidentally, more information was also available regarding simultaneous play. If they chose to fight from the challenge menu, they could fight together regardless of individual completion counts. In that case, if one of the players playing simultaneously had fought a monster before, the other could fight it even without prior experience.

"Hmm... This looks like it’ll be quite fun."

"Yeah, the more times you clear it, the more things you’ll be able to do... And I just checked—it seems you can travel here using a teleportation item, so they clearly expect you to come back multiple times."

Reading the explanation of the newly added "Challenge Menu," the two nodded repeatedly at the thought of the game’s engaging content.

"It looks like a lot of fun just being here, but... should we go back to town for now? If we keep playing here, the whole day will be over before we know it..."

"Right. In its current state, the only monsters that seem fun to farm are the ’Poisonous Orc’ and the ’Perverted Researcher’... and even if we try again to increase the variety, it’ll probably take some time... so let’s stop here for now."

Though very intrigued, with many other things they wanted to do, the two reluctantly left the Tower of Duels and used a teleportation card to return to the Wilderness Town.

"Anyway, I’ll come over to your place again next week like today, so let’s each try a few more times before then to increase the variety of monsters we can summon."

"Yes, it seems it’ll be fine as long as one of us is ready to fight when we team up, so let’s do that."

With the details regarding the "Tower of One-on-One Duels" decided, the two looked at each other and began discussing what to do next.

"Well then... since we’re back in town, why don’t we check out some quests?"

"Yes, I saw them earlier, but let’s take another look."

Having briefly explained the plan, they headed to the Guild and began checking the quests again. However, since the in-game date hadn’t changed, the quests posted on the bulletin board were the same as before. There were some interesting ones, but nothing that immediately grabbed them.

So the two began considering whether to go out into the field again without making a choice, or to pick one or two options from the board... Just then, their gazes suddenly fixed on one spot.

"Hey, isn’t something overlapping over there, big sister?"

"Huh...? Oh, you’re right. They’re overlapping here... Wow, I didn’t know that was possible."

Among the quests they had just seen, the two noticed that some were hidden from view because other quest sheets were overlapping them. This happened because—perhaps in an attempt at realism—quests were haphazardly posted on the bulletin board.

Slightly surprised, they picked up the hidden quest and began examining its contents.

The quest was titled "Liberation of the Occupied Town (Recommended Level: 50)." The request was that a town had been occupied by monsters belonging to the Demon Lord’s army, and they wanted the monsters defeated.

"Hmm... the Demon Lord’s army..."

"Well, this is..."

After reading the contents, the two looked at each other, froze for a moment, and then nodded.

"Next, let’s try this quest, Chika."

"Yeah, let’s do that, big sister."

Having decided on their next plan, Shiori and Chika exchanged smiles.