The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest

“Girl, you don’t have to be so modest! That was awesome!” Hilda smiled, nodding. “If I had stepped in, I would have definitely finished it off no problem though~” 

“Yeah, right…” I laughed. “Well, it was indeed a welcome surprise, Baihe! Have you been training in secret?” 

“I simply practice magic over and over again every night and whenever I have free time,” Baihe said. “I have learned to sleep while constantly letting Mana and my Ice Ki flow through my body… eventually, I felt I could use a stronger spell. The skills really help make it a reality too.” 

“It’s impressive…” Jack said. Even my brother had to acknowledge it. “You have sure grown compared to the first time we met… well done, Baihe.” 

“T-Thanks…” Baihe felt so embarrassed she was as red as a tomato. 

She was really cute. 

“I wonder if I could one day conjure such strong spells?” Annabelle asked. “That was so awesome! The strongest I could do were my Dark Balls!” 

“Dark Balls?” Kevin raised an eyebrow. “That name is a little… kind of lame.” 

“Hey, they’re cool!” Annabelle said, furrowing her brow. “I need to learn flashier magic, but it’s just so hard…” 

“Baihe has special skills called [Frost Queen] and [Great Sorceress]. Both synergize amazingly,” I explained. “This is why she can grow so fast and learn such strong spells. Her only weaknesses were her extremely frail body and low mana pool, but through her intensive training and our adventures so far, she has overcome those limitations.” 

“If everyone talks so much about me, I’ll get embarrassed…” Dan Baihe said, grabbing my arm and urging me to stop. “It’s fine… I-I am still improving… I am nowhere near as comparable to you, your brother, or Henrietta.” 

“Aw, just have some confidence!” I laughed, patting her head. “Anyway, where’s that stupid lizard at? Is he not going to comment on our victory?” 

“I bet he’s seething inside his cave or something,” Kevin smirked. “Hey, lizard! You there?!” 

But there was only silence! I imagined he would be snarky again, but the bastard might actually be upset we won… or scared of Baihe, which, given that his main element is Fire… would mean she’s his greatest nemesis here. 

And if he’s at least a little smart, he would know that Gram’s two halves are here, both swords craving dragon hearts, blood, and souls… 

“That bastard’s going to pay…” Hilda said angrily. “But for now, we have to quickly gather everything we got here and power up a bit, right?” 

“I agree,” I nodded. “Leave it to me! I have my Gathering Skill. I can quickly collect everything, dismantle it, and then distribute whatever valuables we got.” 

“You mean those draconic monsters had monster cores?” Kevin asked. “They didn’t look as hideous as the thing we fought, but the dragon said they were homunculi, right?” 

“Do they even have cores?” Jack wondered, rubbing his chin, already back to normal. 

“I don’t know, but we might as well find out, right, Anna?” Henrietta asked. 

“I believe they do… despite being artificially made, they still count as monsters,” I explained. “So yeah, let’s pick them up… wait a sec!” 

I quickly moved forward, touching all the corpses left behind and gathering them one by one. At the same time, I noticed several new System Notifications. 

Right, I had been at max level for so long that I had completely forgotten about this! 

Ding! 

[You and your Allies have defeated [Vulcanus’ Draconic Homunculi Monsters (B ~ A Rank)] x300+!] 

[You and your Allies have defeated [Vulcanus’ Draconic Homunculi Chimera (S+ Rank)] x1!] 

[You have earned a large quantity of EXP!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Level Up!] 

[Your Level has increased from Level 0 to Level 10/300!] 

[All of your Stats have increased greatly!] 

[You gained Bonus Stat Points and Skill Points.] 

Ahhh, it felt so good to gain levels after so long! Each level felt like a surge of power coursing through my body, and that has happened ten times already. 

No Skill Level Ups or anything else for now, but that didn’t matter… 

Ding! 

[The Effects of [Gatherer (C): Lv9] have activated, increasing the Quality and Rank of Gathered Items.] 

[You have gathered [Vulcanus’ Draconic Homunculi Monster Corpses (B+ ~ A+ Rank)] x300+!] 

[You have gathered [Vulcanus’ Draconic Homunculi Chimera Corpse (S++ Rank)] x1!] 

[You have used the Skill [Gatherer (C): Lv9] to Dismantle all chosen items and filter valuable [Monster Cores]!] 

[Through a combination of [Crafting (C): Lv7] and [Alchemy (B): Lv10], it is possible to combine the Monster Cores to create stronger, higher-quality forms with increased chances of obtaining Skills and Stat Bonuses when absorbed, while making absorption much faster.] 

[Do you wish to do this?] 

[Yes] [No] 

Wait a second! I had no idea this was a thing?! Since when?! 

Maybe… Well, my System has been somewhat “upgraded” after the trial… 

Also, there’s this thing about Crafting where I can just place materials in the System Crafting Tab and, like in a video game, the materials merge into equipment. 

This usually creates subpar equipment with low durability, but this time it felt different. 

Like a way to more easily obtain higher-quality materials… 

“Alright, yes.” 

Ding! 

[You have successfully combined hundreds of [Monster Cores (Low Quality)]!] 

[The [Monster Cores (Low Quality)] x310 have merged into [Monster Cores (High Quality)] x31 and [Monster Cores (Excellent Quality)] x12!] 

Nice! It worked as intended, and I won’t have to tell everyone to absorb fifty cores or something. That would be impossible. 

Ding! 

[The [Gatherer (C): Lv9] Skill has reached Max Level and has Ranked Up to a B Rank Skill!] 

[The Skill has gained new Effects upon reaching max level.] 

Oh? Okay, alright, let’s see that. 

----- 

[Gatherer (B): Lv10] 

[Skill EXP]: [--/--] 

A Special Innate Skill that allows the user to gather materials from dungeons in perfect condition and store them in a personal interdimensional Inventory with unlimited storage! The higher the level, the higher the quality of gathered materials. 

Level Bonus (10): Item Quality +100%. 30% Chance for a Gathered Item to Rank Up an Extra Quality Rank. 

Max Level Bonus: You can now spend Mana to {Mass Gather} a large quantity of items within an area of your choosing. The more Mana you add, the larger this area becomes. Mass Gathered Items have an additional +30% Quality and Chance to Rank Up. 

----- 

This is a great upgrade! It’s more than welcome, honestly… I needed it so much right now, but I guess we can use it later. 

As I finished gathering and dismantling, I quickly took out the crystallized heart core of the chimera monster, which resembled several hearts stitched together, encased in crystallized draconic energy. 

When I gathered it, Dan Baihe’s ice had been removed, leaving it fresh and even warm. 

“Alright, Gram, it’s all yours!” 

[“Yes! Give it to me!”] 

Gram rejoiced as I swung him forward, slicing through the entire heart-shaped core of the monster. Its draconic energy and blood were instantly absorbed by him. 

SLASH! 

As the heart split apart, it lost all its red, fiery color and turned gray, slowly crumbling into dust! 

Wow, that’s deadly. 

[“Hmmm?! Scrumptious! And yet… kind of weird? Yeah, I guess this isn’t a real dragon, but a merge of a bunch of fake ones! Nonetheless… not bad, it satiated my hunger a bit more than the little ones.”] 

His Aura had grown much stronger, and although I received no notification yet, I knew he was progressing toward his Evolution… 

[“Just a little more… maybe that Vulcanus got bigger prey stashed somewhere else? You’ll have to advance deeper into his Dragon Lair. We’re only in the first layer.”] 

“Layer?” 

-----