Unnamed Totally-not-Terraria LitRPG Chapters 25-49 (Patreon)

((Same disclaimer as before, very rough draft, may be some mistakes. There are also two lewd chapters in this batch, and each one is marked in case you want to skip over them. I'll also say that since there's a chance I'll cut the lewd chapters out when publishing to Amazon, I decided to just go yolo and went full hentai for them. Vanilla hentai, but still hentai, because I felt like it. Anyways, here's the rest of the first volume. If you've enjoyed the story afterward and want to read on how I plan on monetizing it and what sort of update schedule it will have after this, check out the Weekly Update I'll be posting after this.

Oh, and again, PDF version in case anybody wants it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dazJysBkw9ziUqK6xk6UeDRxPxxCC6tK/view?usp=sharing ))

Chapter 25

//New Achievement!

//[Boss Slayer]

//Awarded for killing your first boss! You’ve finally moved onto the big game.

//Reward: [Boss Altar]

//New Achievement!

//[Eye Poker]

//Awarded for defeating The Watcher! Just poke it in the eye hard enough.

//Reward: [Watcher’s Mask]

Neither of those rewards were items that I recognized, and I was too tired to actually get up and walk a few feet over to where my pile of boss loot was to pick it up, so I opened up my inventory to check out the reward items… only to see that I had hundreds of [Wooden Log]s in my inventory. That must have been thanks to the boss destroying so many trees and then me running around picking up all the wood without realizing it.

So.

That meant if I ever needed to farm wood on a mass scale and wanted to be lazy about it… all I needed to do was spawn a boss in a forest and let it tear down all the trees by running into them.

There was also a lot of [Ash] and [Charcoal] which came from the burnt trees getting destroyed. The former wasn’t really useful for much other than being used as a material for a fancy building block, and the latter just didn’t exist in the original game at all, so I had no idea what it might be used for.

But those aside, I checked out the new items.

//[Boss Altar]

//Furniture

//Using this will allow you to summon defeated bosses to fight them once again.

//[Watcher’s Mask]

//Vanity Helmet

//“Perfect for when you want your head to look like a giant eyeball!”

The first item was new. Nothing like the [Boss Altar] existed in the original game. Sure, there were altars that boss summoning items could be crafted at, but there wasn’t any sort of reward altar that could be used to summon bosses directly. As for the second item, it was just a differently named version of something that existed in the original game: a mask that would make the character’s head look like the boss.

Next came the pile of loot at the center of where the boss died. Once I stepped close enough to it, all the items got sucked directly into my inventory.

I was going to have to do some inventory management soon with how cluttered it was getting.

//[Minor Healing Potion] x7 added to inventory!

//[Artifact of the Watcher] added to inventory!

//[Gold Coin] x2 added to inventory!

//[The Watcher’s Iris] added to inventory!

//[Eye Flesh] x49 added to inventory!

//[The Watcher’s Flail] added to inventory!

//[Soul of the Watcher] added to inventory!

There was only one item that I didn’t recognize there. For starters, the artifact was more proof that the world was set to the highest difficult since it existed in the original game as a guaranteed drop from bosses, but it was only available on the highest difficulty. The potions, coins, and flesh were also to be expected. The flesh could be used to create some weapons, tools, and armor, but I would need to kill the boss a few more times if I wanted another flesh for everything.

Then there was [The Watcher’s Iris] and [The Watcher’s Flail]. I recognized both of those as modded items, so I checked on them in my inventory to refresh my memory.

//[The Watcher’s Iris]

//Accessory

//Transcendent Difficulty

//Allows you to rapidly dash in a straight line for a short distance, dealing damage to enemies you dash through.

//Dropping below 25% Health will trigger a berserk state. During this state, you gain +20% Damage, +15% Attack Speed, and +10% Movement Speed.

Right. “Transcendent Difficulty” was the name of the enhanced difficulty mode that came from the one mod, and that mod was also what added a ton of new items and combinations for them. The iris was one of those items.

Each boss dropped a special accessory that could only be dropped on transcendent difficulty, and they were all pretty good items that could be combined into each other, so I was looking forward to getting more of those. For now, this accessory was an instant equip… which caused a leather belt to appear around my waist which featured a smaller version of the Watcher’s iris hanging from it as a sort of trophy. It looked kind of gross, seeing as how I had a monster’s iris hanging off my belt, but I was too tired to care.

Moving on.

//[The Watcher’s Flail]

//Damage: 27 (Melee)

//Knockback: Average

//Critical Rate: 6%

//Critical Attacks with this weapon will spawn Homing Eyes that fly to the nearest enemy and explode.

Now that was a great weapon to have at the start of the game. Normally, by the time I got it in previous runs, I already had something just as good and for a specific build, but compared to what I had available? It was an incredible weapon. That was why I immediately moved it to my hotbar which caused it to appear at my side opposite of where my sword was. The flail was basically a smaller version of the boss, meaning that the ball end of it looked like a giant eyeball, but its “mouth” was open with those sharp teeth sticking out ready to cut into anything they touched.

Actually holding the weapon was a bit…

Well, fleshy.

Rather than be connected to a chain like one might expect from a flail, its “chain” was a long optic nerve that was more of a rope than a chain. The part of it meant for me to grip was a bit thicker and less squishy, but still. It wasn’t exactly a nice weapon to wield.

I was still going to use it thanks to just how good it was, though.

That left me with only one more item to check out. It was the only one I didn’t recognize from the drops.

//[Soul of the Watcher]

//Unique

//Once belonging to the Watcher, the monster’s soul has been freed from its physical form and may be given new purpose.

//Consuming this item will grant you a permanent +10 Health, +10 Mana, +2 Defense, +1 Health Regeneration, +5% Damage, +3% Attack Speed, +2% Movement Speed, and +1% Critical Chance. You will also gain the ability to dash with incredible speed for a short distance, and Flying Eyes will no longer attack you.

That item… just seemed objectively good to use. If it was a video game, I would have used it right away without any doubt.

But it also had the [Unique] tag. That meant it was the only one in the world like it. I would never get another copy of it if that tag worked the same way it did in the game. Now, most of the time, it was perfectly safe to use items with that tag. They only had a single use and were meant to be a permanent boost to the player.

But this soul didn’t exist in the original game.

Also, it was a soul. It was the soul of an enemy who didn’t even want to fight me. Consuming it… just didn’t feel right, if I was to take it literally, not to mention that there might have been another use for it I wasn’t aware of which wouldn’t involve basically consuming another being’s soul.

What would even happen to me if I consumed somebody else’s soul? The item just seemed way too good to be true. It was either brokenly good, which meant the world was going to get way harder than I could even anticipate, or there was a downside that I wasn’t seeing.

Whatever it was, I’d leave it in my inventory for the time being. It wasn’t like it needed used right away.

Something just didn’t seem right about it.

But with everything safely in my inventory, I looked around to see if I was missing anything and confirmed that I wasn’t. The only thing I was missing… was my ability to keep my eyes open.

My health was regenerating thanks to the food and campfire buffs, but that didn’t stop my shoulder and thigh from bleeding as much as they were. Then there was the fact that I just felt utterly exhausted in general and my entire body was pushed beyond its limits.

I was really, really tired.

That wasn’t good considering that, now that the boss was dead, the night’s normal enemies began to spawn again. Zombies and flying eyes both appeared in the distance heading our way.

I needed to stay awake, though. I needed to make it back safely to Guide.

I needed to—

Chapter 26

The next time I opened my eyes, I found a familiar face looking down at me from above, almost looking ready to cry.

“Is my face that ugly?” I mumbled out, still too tired to talk properly.

“Anything but,” Guide said.

“Come on, I thought we decided you’re the cool one? What’s with the tears?”

“I’m just… so happy that you’re alive. You came back here covered in blood and looked like you were on the verge of death. I… I didn’t know what to do.”

I looked around enough to notice that, this time, I was laid out in front of her with my head resting on and between her thighs rather than trying to rest on them from the side. This worked much better. “I told you I’d be back, didn’t I? Wait… how’d I even get back?”

“I… I heard banging on the door. I didn’t open it because I feared it would be a zombie, but it was Mimic. Mimic broke through the door and was carrying you.”

“Carrying me?”

“With its tongue wrapped around you.”

The next moment, I felt a long, especially wet lick run up the entire side of my head from none other than Mimic who was off to the side watching us. I also saw a hole in the wall that shouldn’t have been there beyond the broken door, and I could tell it was morning outside.

I survived until a new day.

“Mimic… since when can you break through walls and doors?” I asked. Not only did Mimic break through them, but Mimic broke through a stone wall. To do that… it would have had to be lunging into the wall, falling into the moat, jumping out, and repeating over and over again.

No monsters from before the world moved into its hard mode were supposed to be able to break through stone buildings, but Mimic wasn’t supposed to be available until hard mode in the first place. Friendly monsters especially weren’t supposed to be able to break anything, but… well, I figured the world must have decided to be realistic again.

I turned to look at my shoulder and saw that the wound I had there already looked far more healed than it should have been in such a short amount of time since getting it, and my health also regenerated to full thanks to the buff from the outside campfire. On top of that, my thigh looked like it was healing at a pretty rapid rate as well.

If my wounds were able to rapidly heal, then… that made sense for why I was able to move at all for the last couple of days. If my muscles weren’t adapting and healing at an advanced rate, there was no way that I would have been able to move around as much as I was. I probably should have figured that out sooner.

But even with the advanced healing, my shoulder and thigh still hurt pretty bad, and then there were my muscles. Those felt just as sore as always. Still, not as sore as they would have been had my body not been recovering faster than it should have been. Probably one or two days of taking it easy would be all that it took for all my muscle soreness to go away.

As for Mimic, all it did was lick me some more in response to my question. It was still a bit weird getting licked given what I saw Mimic eat before, but after bringing me back to the house and throwing itself into a stone wall over and over again for me just to get me to safety… how was I going to refuse some licks?

“Thanks, Mimic,” I said, earning a lick that came dangerously close to my lips.

I might have been letting Mimic lick me, but I didn’t want any accidental tongue action.

“By the way, we won,” I said, looking back up at Guide.

“Obviously,” Guide said, sounding relieved even though it was supposedly obvious. “I knew you would.”

“So, I’ve earned a lot of praise and pampering and all that now, right?”

“You earned that even before last night.”

“I should probably go back into the cave before I let you spoil me, though.”

“Wha-what? Why? You—in your condition?! You need rest!”

“I know. That’s why I want to go get enough material to make a bed so that I can sleep in it for a couple of days.”

“That’s… at least do that later after you have recovered some more.”

“I’d rather just get it over with sooner rather than later so that I can commit to being lazy instead of having to stop and—”

“Rest. First.” I never heard Guide sound so snappy, but she definitely got me to listen with that tone of hers.

“A-alright,” I replied. “I’ll take it easy and make the bed later. But at least let me go and fix the wall and door before I take it easy.”

Guide huffed a little, but she gave in and sighed. “Fine. But that’s all you’re allowed to do before resting.”

“You know, in the original game, you never got this demanding.”

“Is… is that a problem?”

“Not at all. It makes you more real as far as I’m concerned. You’re not just the cool and calm guy who gave advice every now and then who never worried about anything. You were too cool to care before, so it’s nice to see you still be just as cool but with even more caring.”

Guide blushed and looked away a little, scratching at her cheek with one finger. “I’m—I’m glad you like it.” She then looked to her left, and then to her right, and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something… but no words left her lips. However, before I could ask her what was on her mind, she gently held onto each side of my head and lifted me up a little while bending over, bringing her lips against mine for a kiss. Upon breaking the kiss off, she returned my head to her thighs and said, “It’s… it’s alright if I kiss you when I want to, right? I mean… we—we already did it before, so…”

Yeah. She was definitely the cooler one between the two of us. “Do you really expect me to say no to you kissing me whenever you want? But I do have a condition.”

Guide smiled at my initial response but then raised her eyebrows when I mentioned a condition. “Yes?”

“I get to kiss you whenever I want to, too.”

And just like that, she was back to smiling. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said while stroking a hand through my hair.

“You know… I’ve never been this bold with a girl before.”

“Hmm?”

“I was just thinking, I’ve had a couple of girlfriends before, but… I was so awkward and too nervous to progress things that I got dumped every time. But when I’m with you, I don’t know. It just feels… natural. I don’t think there’s any way I’d be able to talk like this with some random girl, but with you? I feel comfortable being myself and saying whatever thing comes to mind, even if it might turn out cheesy. There’s just something special about—”

I didn’t get to finish what I was saying due to Guide pushing her lips against mine once again, this time with even more passion and an even longer duration. Then, when she pulled away, she asked, “You didn’t think you’d get to talk like that without making me need to kiss you, did you?”

Guide might have been more caring than before, but she was still the coolest.

Chapter 27

After fixing up the wall and door, I told Guide everything that happened during the boss battle, what I got, and about Kingmaker. Unfortunately, she understood even less about Kingmaker than I did. She did, however, agree with me that it sounded like Kingmaker knew about what was going on with our situation.

But without the ability to get more answers out of Kingmaker, we didn’t really know anything that we didn’t know before. All we knew was their name and the fact that they existed.

“One thing still bothers me,” Guide said.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“She said that if you failed… then humans would have failed ‘once more,’ right?”

“Right.”

“Then… something like this must have happened before.”

“That’s a good conclusion to reach.”

“Is there anything from your history that might sound like this has happened before?”

“Maybe if you believe that some religious and mythological events have actually happened. Outside of that, I can’t think of anything where humans were tested by some higher powers.” I wasn’t going to believe that Kingmaker was some sort of god, but it was probably safe to assume they were some sort of higher power. Whether they were a secret AI gone rogue, mad alien scientist, literal god, or whatever else, I didn’t know. But if they were responsible for what was happening, they had to have some degree of great power beyond what humanity was capable of.

“I see… so, what do you think we should do?”

“Continue on like we were already planning,” I answered. “What else is there to do? We have no idea what’s going on. The only way we’re going to get any sort of answers is to keep on progressing. Explore this world, defeat more bosses… if Kingmaker showed up after beating the first boss, maybe they’ll show up again if I beat more and give us more answers.”

“But… you said that the boss did not even want to fight, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Then is fighting and killing them really the right choice?”

“I figure killing them won’t just bring us closer to answers, but will also free them from serving somebody against their will. At the very least, I wouldn’t want to be forced to fight on somebody else’s behalf.”

Guide smiled and brushed her hand against my cheek. “You’re a good man, Player. To even be thinking about that, and for your enemies… speaks volumes of your character.”

“Don’t get me wrong, if they’re an asshole who wants to kill me just for fun, I won’t have any problem killing them first. But I mean… if they’re being forced, I’d rather save them from that fate if I can.”

Guide only continued to smile before turning her gaze toward my shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling pretty good. This is the longest I’ve just… sat down for. It’s kind of crazy that I can feel my body healing in real time. This sort of muscle strain would usually take days to weeks to heal, and the damage to my shoulder and thigh? Weeks to months, easily. But my shoulder has already closed up and just needs to grow some skin over it again. Wonder if I’ll get some scars.”

“You… you sound like you want scars?”

“Yeah. Scars are cool. If I’m going to get beat up and have flying eyes explode against me, then I better get some cool scars out of it.”

“What is cool about that? I would feel bad every time I see them! They would be nothing but reminders of the pain you have gone through…”

“Sure, but consider the following.”

“Yes?”

“They look badass.”

Guide sighed and lowered her head. “I don’t understand what’s so cool about them. It would be much cooler if you survived your fights without ever getting hurt so that I would know you’re never in pain.”

“Trust me, it’s not like I purposely got hit. But I promise I’ll keep trying my best to avoid getting hurt so that I won’t get scars, alright?”

“Good. That’s enough for me.” Guide looked away for a second only for her eyebrows to raise for seemingly no reason. It was as if she just got an idea or something and I half expected a lightbulb to pop up over her head. Then, she turned to look at me again and brought out her coolness to say, “And if you do get scars, I’ll just have to kiss them until they all disappear.”

I brought my hand up over my heart and clutched at my shirt. “You’re too effective against me.”

“Good. It wouldn’t be fair if I was the only one constantly being given a racing heart.”

I clutched my shirt even harder. “Too good.” Then I remembered something. “Wait. A bed. At this rate, I’m going to be all healed up before I even get to rest in a bed.”

“Oh, right. Do… you really want a bed that badly?”

“Listen, I’ve been a sheltered city boy my entire life who has never had to sleep on anything other than extremely comfortable beds before. I haven’t gotten to sleep on anything other than the floor and in a chair for the past few days, and your thighs aren’t big enough for me to use as a bed for my entire body. I need a bed.”

“Alright, I get it. I must admit, I’m curious about what it would be like to actually use a bed, so… fine.” Guide turned to look at Mimic and said, “Make sure to protect Player, alright? Don’t let a single thing hurt him!”

Mimic stuck out its tongue and formed the shape of a seven with it, looking like it was saluting Guide.

“Good,” Guide said and then gave Mimic a few pats atop its body, making it practically purr up against her hand… well, “purr” in a somewhat horrifying way that sounded like a stomach full of acid purring.

With that, it was time to head back into the cave for a bit. I only needed to get some more iron and silk, and then I’d be able to build a bed.

This meant walking back to that cave I found.

Given that I didn’t want to have to walk over to the cave every time I wanted to go spelunking, it would be a good idea to start digging a hole through the ground at the base once my body was recovered. In the original game, it was often referred to as a “hellevator,” which was basically just a giant hole in the ground that would take the player all the way down to the lowest biome in the world: Hell.

And while thinking about Hell… I was extremely grateful for having mods. Why? Because, in order for the world to switch over into its hard mode, a certain boss needed killed… who could only be summoned by sacrificing Guide.

But several of the mods I installed had other methods for summoning the boss that didn’t involve cruelly sacrificing the one person with the player ever since the start.

…

I really hoped that part of the mods was going to be active. I also wondered if Guide had any idea about that part of the game’s progression.

More importantly, beginning a hellevator would be a good idea since digging one always including running into a bunch of other underground cave systems during the process. That would save me from having to run around the surface looking for cave entrances far away from the house.

But that could be saved for after my rest, and I needed a bed so that I could continue my rest.

Chapter 28

Naturally, Mimic went on a murder spree while heading over to the cave. If any slime so much as dared to exist within our sight, it got absolutely annihilated.

The same went for the enemies unfortunate enough to be alive in the cave once we reached it.

And once we were inside the cave, I had to admit that I didn’t really want to leave. Yes, I wanted to head back to the house and get pampered more by Guide, but the cave was so far away and we were already there. It felt like it would be a waste to go back after just getting some silk and a few more chunks of iron. So, instead of head back right home after getting some silk, I decided to go a bit deeper down one of those other cave branches. I was sure Guide would understand. Putting in the work now meant getting to relax for even longer once I made it back. And honestly… I felt pretty good. Sure, my body was still sore, but I felt fine aside from that.

Then I realized something.

So far, I had been wearing my armor over the clothes I came to this world with. The armor didn’t fully cover me up, and now both my shirt and pants had destroyed sections. If I lost my clothes completely, I was going to be naked underneath my armor… because where was I supposed to get more clothes from? Sure, in the original game, there were some clothes the player could wear, but those were equipped in the same slots that armor was equipped in.

Would I have to make or find some normal clothes to wear over my armor as vanity sets? That would be kind of disappointing since I wanted to actually look like I was wearing the armor I had on, but it would be better than running around in revealing armor.

Then again, I could also always just go and craft better armor. The better the armor, the more it would cover me up. Really, it was just the copper and wooden armor that looked so revealing. Pretty much everything else in the game did a good job of covering the player up… unless… did I download any of those mods that made the armor way more revealing? No, I was pretty sure I didn’t. I always liked to play on male characters, and all those mods were targeted toward people who played on female characters.

I always wondered how the developers felt about some of the game’s biggest mods being mods that turned the player character into a bimbo with bouncing breasts as big as her torso while sluttifying all the armor in the game.

…

But I still did get some of the mods that would make certain NPCs look more revealing than they were supposed to.

I shook the thought of my head and continued my way through the cave, mining any clay and ores I found along the way.

Clay wasn’t exactly that rare of a resource, but I always found myself never having enough of it when I wanted to use it, so I figured I would collect it when available. I was going to need it for making pots to grow flowers in, and upgrading the house to a brick house sounded pretty nice as well.

And it just so turned out that I made the exact right choice to mine out all the clay I found in the cave’s walls.

Mining the last piece of clay from a deposit of it revealed a single block hole into an adjacent cave. I would have had no idea it was there if I hadn’t mined the clay out.

Now, in the original game, since it was a 2D game, it was pretty easy to see adjacent cave systems even if there was no connection to them yet. It was also easy to place blocks anywhere within sight as long as the player had enough reach to do so. But since I had to actually place items down myself, I had to reach through the hole to place a torch down on the block above it, inside of the new cave, in order to light it up a bit.

That was when I saw something that absolutely did not exist in the original game nor any of its modded versions.

Protruding upward from the ground in the middle of the new room, surrounded by what looked like a pool of crystallized, red water, was a heart. Now, heart-shaped crystals in the original game served as a method of increasing the player’s maximum health. But they were more… cartoonish. They looked like a heart shape, not an actual heart. The heart in the room was massive, about half as large as I was, and it was shaped like an actual heart… albeit one that was crystallized. It almost looked like it was frozen. Not only that, but there was a streak of red crystals leading from the heart down to that pool on the ground surrounding it.

With what information I had available to me, I could only assume that the heart was once beating and pumping out blood which created the pool on the floor, and then all of it somehow became crystallized.

Was the heart supposed to be how I gained more health?

I wasn’t sure, but I widened the hole in the wall enough for me to walk through with Mimic right behind me. Inside the room, I lit it up with some more torches and saw that there weren’t any other tunnels connected to it, so the only way to find the room was by pure luck via breaking into it randomly.

“What do you think, Mimic?” I asked, prompting Mimic to try licking the red crystals on the ground.

Mimic seemed to really like the taste of them since it kept licking afterward.

Before checking out the heart, since I still felt a bit uneasy about it, I tried to mine some of the crystallized pool below me and Mimic first.

//[Eld Blood] added to inventory!

That was definitely new and confirmed what I thought: it was blood.

Curious to see if the item might have a description, I opened up my inventory… only to see that it didn’t have a description similar to most items.

Next came the heart itself.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to take it or not, since actually looting the hearts typically involved breaking them with a pickaxe, but I did want to get closer to get a better look at it.

Only, as soon as I got close enough to it, the heart began to pump once more and what looked like red, mystical streams of energy connected itself to me.

I blinked my eyes only to then open them and find myself in an entirely new place. In a vast field of dirt and sand with a scorching sun hanging over the sky, I found myself surrounded by hundreds of men wielding shields and spears.

And before us was what could best be described as a godly monster: a winged, multi-headed serpent the size of a castle with legions of men just like me and the others dead on the ground in front of it.

Then I saw them.

Floating in the air behind the giant monster was a group of white-robed figures watching the battle below. They remained perfectly still, only silently watching, as hundreds of soldiers desperately threw themselves at the monster in an attempt to kill it.

Every man brave enough to approach the monster died.

At the end of it, only a single man was left—the one whose vision I was sharing.

I blinked again and found myself back in the cave with Mimic.

Chapter 29

Everything was back to normal… except for the fact that the heart in front of me was gone. However, there was a line of text that was in the processing of fading away which said:

//[Defier’s Heart] added to inventory!

I opened my inventory to check and see if there would be a description this time, and this time there was.

//[Defier’s Heart]

//The heart of a challenger who failed to ascend. Even so, their desire to survive has lived on and may be used to empower future challengers.

//Consuming this item will grant you a permanent +25 Health, +1 Defense, and +1% Damage.

I placed the item on my hotbar and held it in my hand. The heart, once massive, was now only the size of a regular, human heart.

The description made it sound like it didn’t have a soul attached or anything, so I didn’t feel all that apprehensive about using it. Furthermore, it seemed like it was this world’s equivalent of the game’s heart crystals… albeit with more stats. The heart crystals only gave twenty health, but this gave twenty-five health as well as some defense and damage.

“Is this the heart of that warrior I saw?” I asked it, not expecting an answer, and I didn’t get one either.

Without thinking about it, I felt an… urge, to hold the heart up against my chest over where my own heart was.

The next instant, I found myself sharing that warrior’s vision once again.

The godly serpent who slew so many lay dead at his feet, his spear thrust right between the eyes of its final head. However, his left arm was gone and it looked like a chunk was bitten out from the left side of his abdomen.

He wasn’t going to survive, and he didn’t.

The warrior dropped to his knees, blinked, and opened his eyes to see one of those white-robed figures standing over him.

That was the last I saw of the warrior’s life.

I was back in my body and I saw my health bar grew an additional heart. The heart that was previously held in my hand was gone… and standing before me was the warrior whose vision I was just sharing.

The warrior, an ancient man who looked like he was from an era thousands of years in the past, looked me over and scoffed. Considering that he was significantly taller than me and bulging with muscles, basically looking like the stereotypical peak of masculinity, while I was… me, I couldn’t exactly blame him for having that sort of reaction.

But even though he might have scoffed, he showed me a gentle smile and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“I failed my people,” he said, his voice just as gruff as his appearance, “but I have not given up. If I can help humanity, even if those of my time have long passed… then take my strength and defy those who would look down on us.”

“Wait,” I said, reaching out to try and grab him, but my arm passed right through him.

He faded away the next second, his smile being the last thing I saw.

The life of a king—of a hero flashed before my eyes. It was the life of a man who was born in a time long ago, raised in the region that would become known as Mesopotamia, who became a proud warrior and eventually a king. Then, following the arrival of those white-robed figures, he and his people faced countless hardships that culminated in the battle against that serpent I saw.

It was a story that couldn’t be found in any historical records, but I knew it was real. I saw it as if I was there myself. A lifetime of events summarized in just a few seconds before my very eye.

“Mimic, did you see any of that? Those visions? That hero?” I asked.

Mimic turned its body from side to side to tell me no.

I held my hand over my chest for a few more moments before checking on my inventory again. I had enough silk and iron for what I wanted to do, and a decent amount of clay, so it was time to head back. I didn’t want Guide to worry about me, and… I just felt strange after that experience with the hero.

Though, I did mine up the rest of that [Eld Blood] on the ground before heading back. I figured it was probably pretty rare, so I wanted to collect all of it that I saw until I had reason to believe it was useless.

“I’m back,” I said, opening the door to the house only to find Guide standing by the extra, interior door. She was probably opening and closing it some more.

Old habits really did die hard.

“Welcome back!” Guide said. “Did you get what you needed for the bed?”

“Yeah… and some other things, but I’ll tell you about those in a bit,” I answered.

Guide immediately narrowed her eyes at me in response to that. “I thought you were only getting enough for the bed and then coming back to rest?”

“W-well, I figured it would be a waste if I went all the way out there just for that. But with what happened… I promise that it was worth it.”

Guide sighed and shrugged. “If you say it was worth it, I’ll believe you.” She looked at my shoulder and thigh next. “Good, it looks like you’re all better already.”

“My muscles are still sore, but that’s it. Anyways, just let me toss this iron into the furnace and then I’ll tell you about what happened.”

“Why do you need iron for a bed?”

“Because I need to smelt them into iron bars, then I need to use those iron bars to make chains and buzzsaw, and then I can combine those with wood to make a sawmill, and then I can use that to make the bed. Oh, I also need the sawmill to make a loom using some wood, and then that will let me turn the silk from spider’s into the fabric kind of silk which I also need for the bed.”

“Oh! That… sounds like a lot of work.”

“Thanks to the power of clicking a button and instantly combining things into existence, it won’t be. Just need to wait for the iron to smelt. Then—wait. I… only got enough silk for one bed.”

Guide tilted her head. “Is that a problem?”

“Well, there are two of us.”

“And?”

Looking at her expression, she looked genuinely confused, not like she was trying to be smooth or flirty or anything.

Either she really didn’t understand what sort of reasons adults usually shared a bed for, or she did understand and just didn’t see a problem.

“Or do you not want to share a bed with me?” Guide asked, switching over to her teasing tone.

It was the latter. She understood.

She definitely understood.

Chapter 30

And so, the bed was crafted.

The new sawmill and loom were both placed outside since we were running out of space inside, so expanding the house was something that I needed to do. But for the time being, I placed the bed down in the extra room since I didn’t want to have to move around it whenever walking in the main room. Nobody else arrived to move into the spare room yet anyways, so it was fine to use.

Now, thankfully, despite not really calling for any materials that would have been used in making a mattress or pillows, we had a bed that had everything required. A frame, mattress, pillows, blankets—everything. It was only the size of a full, which was smaller than what I was used to for me alone, but it was a bed.

A bed that I made.

Never before had I slept on a bed that I personally made, and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

So, with me and Guide standing at the foot of the bed, I flopped onto it.

I immediately felt like I was teleported to some heavenly realm full of warmth and softness.

“This… this is so much better than the floor,” I said while climbing the rest of the way up onto the bed until my head reached the pillows.

The bed was nowhere near as comfortable as the ones I had back on Earth, but it was infinitely better than sleeping on the floor.

As for Guide, she chuckled and said, “You look so content. Is it that comfy?”

All I could do was give her a thumbs-up to answer her question.

“And it’s alright if I join you, right?”

It took a bit more courage to answer her that time, but I still gave her another thumbs-up.

Guide climbed up onto the bed next to me as soon as she had my answer, sitting on her knees atop the mattress. “I… I can see why you wanted this so badly. It’s already better than the floor and chairs..”

I nodded and said, “Right? See, now you understand. You just can’t beat a proper bed. And this isn’t even as comfy as they get. Someday… I’ll make us the comfiest bed in the—wait.”

“Hmm? What?”

“I’m a fool.”

There was another boss. Not the one that came next after the Watcher, either.

There was an optional boss that was technically the weakest boss in the game. Most people fought it first due to how easy it was to summon. Despite that, it wasn’t really considered the game’s first boss due to it not being implemented until later on in the game’s life. The Watcher always remained seen as the game’s real first boss.

And the optional boss that came before the Watcher was none other than the Slime Monarch.

The Slime Monarch… was just a giant slime with a crown on the top of its body. It was a really easy fight as long as somebody knew how to run backwards in a straight line. Mods made the fight slightly more difficult, but nothing crazy.

And with Mimic… defeating the Slime Monarch would be extremely easy.

But there was one reason and one reason alone why I wanted to fight the boss so badly all of a sudden.

It was for the boss’s special drop: the slime shaper.

The slime shaper was a special station used for crafting that dropped from the Slime Monarch. It allowed the creation of slime-based furniture and building blocks.

That meant.

I could make.

A slime bed.

“Think, Guide!” I shouted, shooting up from the bed to grab her by her shoulders, staring directly into her eyes.

“Wha-what am I thinking about?!” Guide asked.

“A slime bed! Just think about how much more comfortable that would be! People who like stiff beds would probably hate it, but I’ve always been a shameless slut for all things soft! I want the softest best possible!”

“Did… you just call yourself a shameless slut?”

“Yes. Don’t question it. It’s a figure of speech. The point is that I really, really love soft things. And I really want a super soft bed. That means I have to go kill a boss so that I can make a—”

Before I could even finish talking, Guide grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me down against the bed, straddling my waist to keep me pinned down underneath her.

“No,” Guide said. “You need to rest. I already gave in once letting you go to the cave so you could make this bed. Now, you’re going to stay here, rest in this bed, and get spoiled by me.”

I gulped and nodded. “Al-alright. I—I wasn’t thinking of doing it until later, but—”

“Besides,” Guide cut me off again, grabbing my left hand and bringing it up to her chest, “you already have something soft to touch if you want. I know I might not look cute or anything, but… I think I’m pretty soft.”

And with that, she brought my hand against her chest, planting my palm right against her breast.

“See? You don’t need to think about any other softness,” Guide teased.

Maybe it was because of my pride as a man, but I felt challenged. She was pinning me down, sitting on top of me, controlling where I touched and when. That was why instead of just submitting and letting her get away with whatever she wanted, I said, “I don’t know, all I feel is shirt and bra. They’re not that sof—”

I shut up as soon as she started unbuttoning her shirt, exposing her chest to me… and then found myself pretty speechless once she slid my hand underneath her bra for a more direct touch. “Sorry, what were you saying?” That smug smirk on her face as she looked down at me made me feel many, many things.

Yet, all I could say was, “This… this softness definitely wins.”

“I thought so.”

Chapter 31

Things escalated pretty quickly.

Within just a few minutes of me and Guide being on the bed, that evolved to me groping her breasts, and then that evolved into the two of us making out on the bed. Though, it felt like she was the one making out with me more than anything else. After all, she was the one who had me completely pinned down underneath her. She straddled my waist, pinned my free hand down against the mattress above my head, and was in complete control of our making out. It only stopped when she wanted it to stop, and the only reason she ever wanted to stop was so that she could look down at whatever expression she left me with.

I felt like I was a toy being played with by her.

And it was great.

A bit emasculating, but also extremely arousing.

“I think I have to ask it again,” Guide said, “but is this me spoiling you, or is it me spoiling myself?”

“Why—why not both?” I asked.

“I suppose it would be both of us… but I wonder which one of us is feeling even more spoiled right now.”

“Where did you even learn any of this?”

Guide shrugged and smiled. “I’m just doing what feels right. The more I tease you and play with your body… the happier I feel. And seeing you enjoy it makes me even happier.”

I had to admit that the way she phrased things made me extremely happy. Happy, even, to the point that I had to look away.

And that caused Guide to completely stop her teasing behavior, instead gently resting one hand between my cheek and the mattress while her other hand stroked through the hair on the back of my head. “What’s wrong? Did I say something bad? Do you—do you not like this?”

Shit. I felt myself getting emotional and I really didn’t want to look lame in front of her. “It’s—it’s nothing.”

“Player… please don’t lie to me. If I’m doing something wrong, I want to know.”

“You’re not. I promise. If anything, you’re doing everything so right that it hurts.”

“It—it hurts?”

“It’s just… my whole life, I’ve wanted somebody to treat me like this, but… nobody ever has. It’s always been me trying to make everybody else happy. So, when you talk about how happy it makes you to make me happy, it… brings a lot of things to the surface.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nah, I don’t want to bother you with the details. Plus it would ruin the mood. Then again, I guess I’ve probably already done that.”

“You haven’t ruined anything.” Guide turned my head to look at her again. “And you could never bother me. So, please. If it would make you feel better, you can talk to me about anything you want, whenever you want.”

I considered her offer, took a deep breath, and shook my head as much as I could with her holding it. “I promise to vent to you sometime in the future, but not right now. For now, just keep being cool and spoil me some more.”

Guide smiled and nodded. “I can do that. But you might have to excuse what I’m about to do. It could be considered… very manipulative after what you just told me.”

“Wh-what do you mean by that?”

Guide leaned farther up my body, bringing her head right down to the side of my own so that her mouth was in front of my ear, and whispered, “You make me happy, Player.”

Oh, I thought. Fuck. I see where she’s taking this.

“You’ve been trying your absolute best ever since you arrived here. In a world where I’m supposed to be the one with the answers who guides you, you have been the one serving as my guide and my light in the dark. No matter, as long as you’re here, I feel safe and know that everything will be fine.”

Yep. As lame as it felt to, she made me tear up.

“Not only that, but every day with you as been enjoyable. I had no idea that it was possible to enjoy life this much. Even if we don’t have much and have to fight for the right to survive, I’ve enjoyed all of my time in this life with you, and I hope that it never ends.”

She was too good at spoiling me.

“No matter what happens, I want to be here for you. I want to always be somebody who you can rely on. Even though I can’t do much, I would be happy to always do this for you—to make you understand just how much I appreciate and cherish you. It… might sound too soon to say something like this, but you’re the most important person in the world to me. And it’s not just because you’re the only other person in the world right now.” That part made both of us laugh a little. “I know within my heart that even if there was somebody else… I would still choose you. I would choose you every time no matter what.”

“I—I really don’t deserve all that,” I said.

“You do.”

“Why… do you like me so much?”

“I might not know much… but I do know that this feeling doesn’t need a reason. And even then, I have reasons I could give you. You work hard, you care about those around you, you have a determined spirit, you’re capable and smart, kind and funny, and also… this one might be more selfish, but what can I say? You’re my type.” She gave my earlobe a little bite after that part which caused my entire body to shiver in response. “I love looking at you as much as I love spending time with you. To me… you’re perfect, Player. Everything about you is perfect. I would not change a single thing about you. Being with you makes me happy, and I want to do everything I can to make you happy. That, Player, is why I lo—”

Guide’s whole body tensed up and trembled as what sounded like an almost pained gasp left her mouth. When I looked at her, she was making the same expression she made when I tried to get her to follow me before.

“Guide? What’s wrong?” I asked, getting out from underneath her so she could rest on the bed as I held her.

“I’m… I’m fine,” Guide answered. “Let me try again.” She looked straight into my eyes and, as quickly as she could, said, “I lo—!”

And once again, she froze and trembled.

“Guide? Seriously, what’s wrong?” I asked.

Guide, with tears in her eyes, groaned out and whined, “Damn it! The moment got ruined! I was giving it my all to build up to the perfect confession and it won’t let me say it!”

“Are you—are you trying to say that you love me?”

Guide whimpered and nodded, her cool act having completely dropped as she instead looked into my eyes with an expression that made me think of a sad puppy. “But it won’t let me! I get stopped each time I try! I want to say that I lo—”

Surely enough, she got stopped again, causing her to bury her face into the pillow as she kicked her legs against the mattress.

She looked like she was throwing a temper tantrum… and it was adorable.

Chapter 32

“Why can’t I say it?!” Guide whined out against the pillow, still kicking her feet against the mattress.

“I think I know,” I answered. “Similar to how you can’t follow me yet until I unlock you as a companion, I’m assuming that you can’t say you love me until I unlock you as a… wife. Because in the original game… nobody ever says, ‘I love you,’ until the wedding.”

“Fine! Then let’s get married! Right now! I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t get to tell you that I lo—” And yet again, she got frozen which only made her grumble and whine even more.

“It’s—it’s not that easy.” I had to try my best not to blush too much. After all, she just said she wanted to marry me, and there was no way I could ever say no after everything she just said to me even if we only really knew each other for a few days. She was already wife material before that spoiling, but hearing all of that firmly pushed her into “I need to make her my wife” territory. “First, NPC marriage isn’t possible until a wedding chapel has been built… and that can only be built after the priest moves in… and the priest only moves in once we have an actual town… and founding an actual town requires clearing the dungeon to get the dungeon core and turn it into a town core.”

Guide, looking me in the eyes during my explanation, looked increasingly more dead inside the longer it went on for. “Then… I have to wait… until then, just to say… that I lo—” Each time she got stopped from saying it, she’d end up with her face back down against the pillows as she kicked the mattress. “It’s not fair!” Guide whined against the pillow. “I was being so cool! Now it’s been ruined! I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to say it, and then that moment finally came, and I can’t even say it!”

“Well, I mean,” I paused and scratched my cheek, “just knowing that you’re trying to say it is enough to get the point across. I—I still received your feelings, you know?”

“It’s not the same! I need to say it properly!”

“Then all I have to do is clear the dungeon and—”

“But that’s dangerous! I don’t want you to be put in even more danger!”

“I’m going to have to do it eventually.”

Guide grumbled even more, and hearing all of her whining and grumbling gave me an idea.

It was a pretty sadistic idea, though.

“Hey, Guide, look at me,” I said.

Guide, with tears in her eyes, lifted her head away from the pillow and looked me in the eyes.

“I love you.”

Guide teared up as soon as she heard those words, and she started to smile… but that smile turned into an angry pout pretty quickly. “N-no! That’s—that’s not allowed! There’s no way that’s fair! You’re not allowed to say it until I’m allowed to say it! Don’t you dare say—”

“I love you.”

“Y-you too! I lo—”

And again, frozen.

“I love you, Guide,” I teased.

But that was as far as my teasing went, because I then found myself pinned back down against the bed, and now she had her hand pressed down over my mouth to shut me up. “You—you’ve had your fun. N-now… if… if I can’t say it… then—then I’ll prove it in another way! A way that will let me show you just how cool and capable I am!” With that, Guide brought her hand away from my mouth and slowly slid herself down my body until her crotch was right over my own, but they weren’t touching yet. “How—how about this? I—I can still do this!” Guide lowered herself until her crotch pressed down against the bulge in my pants… and then she froze and rolled off of me, falling onto the bed next to me.

There was no more emotion in her eyes.

She was officially dead inside.

“You… you alright?” I asked.

Hearing that only made her eyes tear up again.

“I guess… because you can make an NPC kid after you get married… maybe… to try and keep progression the same… this world won’t let you do that until we’re married, either?”

The tears forming in her eyes grew even bigger.

If simply bringing our crotches together with that intent was enough to trigger the world into forcing her to stop, then it wouldn’t matter even if I was the one to take control and try to make it happen.

However.

There was no problem getting lewd when it came to me groping her chest. If that was the case, then…

“Just because we can’t do that doesn’t mean that we can’t do other things,” I said.

Some life finally returned to Guide’s eyes as she asked, “Like… like what? What else is there to do?”

“You could… try using your hands? Or… or your mouth?”

“That’s a thing?” She blinked a couple of times. “Do people do that?”

Apparently, Guide only knew about the most basic, vanilla form of sex.

If that was the case, then it was time to introduce her to a whole new world of possibilities.

“There are a ton of different things adults can do to pleasure each other,” I said. “Humans have basically sexualized every single part of the body for both sexes.”

Guide looked genuinely impressed as I explained, nodding along every few words. “I see!”

“And since the world was letting me grope you before, then… I’m assuming it’s still possible for us to do those other things. We’re just not able to do anything that might result in, you know, you… getting pregnant.”

“That’s unfortunate… but as long as I can still pleasure you in other ways!”

“What—what do you mean that’s unfortunate?”

Guide turned her head away and said, “W-well… if I’m fine with marrying you and doing all that with you… then it should be obvious I’d be fine with having your kid.”

“It’s too cute how you always jump back and forth between cool and in charge, and cute and flustered.”

Apparently, what I said was a challenge to her since she smirked at me and climbed between my legs, pushing me down by placing a hand against my chest while her other hand rubbed down against my bulge. “Looks like you were right. We might not be able to do what I originally planned, but I can still touch you with the rest of my body.”

With that, Guide lowered her head until it was right in front of my crotch, her eyes looking up at my face as she slipped her hands underneath my pants to pull them down… only for her eyes to go wide in shock.

And because the torch on the wall was above the head of the bed, it was in the perfect position to cast a shadow running up the middle of Guide’s face as her eyes looked the shadow’s source up and down.

“Thi-this… is… is this—is this real?” Guide asked, suddenly failing to act cool.

Possibly the cutest thing I had ever seen happened next.

It throbbed… and that caused Guide to jump and close her eyes.

Guide was impossibly cute at times.

Chapter 33 (Lewd)

“What… what the heck… how were you hiding this the whole time?!” Guide asked, still too afraid to actually bring her face back toward my cock in front of her.

Admittedly, it was pretty big. It was responsible for what little confidence I had in life. No matter how low I felt at times, all I ever had to do to cheer up a little bit was remind myself that I had a pretty huge dick. I had absolutely zero complaints in that department aside from the fact that I had to be careful of hiding any bulges when aroused in public. And even then, the few times I got horny and didn’t realize it was showing, the worst that happened was older women blatantly staring at it and other guys giving me death glares out of jealousy.

“I’m a grower, not a shower,” I answered. “It’s pretty small when I’m not horny.”

“That’s—there’s no way! There’s no way this thing is ever small!” Guide said, slowly reaching one of her hands toward it… only to quickly pull her hand back again as soon as it throbbed. “Seriously! This is a monster! How—how am I supposed to do anything with this? It would break me open if I tried to put this in me!”

The more she talked like that, the more aroused I got. She was basically in shock of my dick. How was that not arousing? Maybe if it was shock from being small, that would be horrifying, but she was in shock from how big it was. That was great. Then again… she actually looked afraid of it. “Is… is it too big?” I asked. “The other girls I dated never made it this far with me, so—”

Guide, probably noticing my worry, shook her head and said, “It’s not! It’s… it’s huge, and it’s scary… but the important thing is that it’s yours! No matter how much of a freaking monster it is… I’ll still cherish it as much as I cherish you! Even if it means breaking me apart… I would let it because it’s yours!”

“It’s not going to break you, I promise.”

Guide gulped and finally managed to give my length a single poke. It was slow progress, but it was progress. “I… I was expecting something not even half this big…”

“I’d take that as an insult if it wasn’t for your expectation still being on the upper end of average.”

Slowly and carefully, Guide slipped the fingers of her right hand around my length—or tried to, anyways. Even though she had pretty long and slender fingers, they weren’t able to fully wrap around the girth of my tool. “What… what the heck… I can’t even fit my hand around it. This thing is insane…” Then, with even more caution than before, she brought her face right up to my cock until its length was directly in front of her nose. And with her nose so close, she gave it a couple of sniffs and said, “It… it smells good. I wasn’t expecting that…”

“You know, I think they say something like… there’s some chemical reaction or something and, if you like the other person’s body odor, then that means you’re exceptionally compatible or something like that. I have no idea if it’s true, and I have no idea if it applies to this as well, but—”

“No wonder I always love how you smell. Even this.” Guide closed her eyes and pushed her nose up against the underside of my length, just focusing on smelling it as her hand around it began to slowly rub up and down. Her eyes then shot open when she realized what she said. “Wait! I said that I love how you smell!”

“Yeah?”

“And I was saying earlier how I love spending time with you and how I love looking at you!”

I wasn’t sure what she was getting at, so I just said, “Yeah?” again.

With renewed determination in her eyes, she focused her eyes on my dick and said, “I love you!”

Both my heart and my cock throbbed in response to that.

“I win,” Guide said, all of her confidence coming back to her. “I beat the system. It’s not as good as saying it directly to you, but if I can say it to this guy here…” Guide moved even closer to my cock, rubbing the side of her face up against it until she was right behind the tip while looping her arm around it. “I love you,” she whispered, only looking at me from the corner of her eye after saying it.

Within the span of a few minutes, I saw Guide do the cutest thing ever… and then the sexiest thing ever.

And the more she said she loved my cock, the more her confidence came back, apparently.

Her other hand pulled my pants down enough for her to have easy access to my sack which she was more than happy to grab and fondle once it was free. “I was so scared at first, but now… you’re pretty cute, aren’t you?” Guide teased, placing a loving kiss on the side of my cock’s tip while not breaking eye contact with me. “Hey… Player, does this feel good?”

I gulped and nodded. “Y-yeah. This… this is pretty amazing.”

“I’m glad.” She then broke eye contact to look at my cock again. “I love you.” Each time she said it, my length throbbed and dribbled some more precum for her, encouraging her to just whisper it over, and over, and over again directly to my cock. “I’d ask you what I should do next, but your face makes it pretty obvious whenever I do something that you like.” She was back to looking me in the eyes again. “So then, all I have to do is watch your face until you finish.”

“It’s—it’s embarrassing if you watch me that intently while doing this.”

Guide smirked from behind my cock and said, “Too bad. Consider it my revenge for surprising me with his monster you’ve been hiding in your pants. No… calling it a monster is too insulting. I should probably call it a god instead.”

I had to admit, that was a bit much and made me laugh a little. “I—I think that might be a bit too cheesy, even if I appreciate the sentiment.”

“I guess I shouldn’t worship your cock as if it was my god then.”

“Ha-hang on now, let’s not be hasty.”

With a teasing smirk, Guide lowered her head until her face was right at the base of my cock. From there, she stuck her tongue out so that she could slowly drag it up along the underside of my length, tracing the bulging vein there with her tongue until she reached the tip again. “I’ll be happy to worship this whenever you, or whenever my god, desires.”

“You—you’re going to make me cum with your words alone at this point.”

“So? It doesn’t matter what causes it or when it happens. All that matters is your pleasure. After all… I’ve been feeling on the edge just teasing you like this. Having the satisfaction of knowing that I could make you finish would probably be enough for me to finish as well… even… even if it’s embarrassing to admit that.” Guide shook her head when she realized she was slipping back into her cute side. And as if to cut me off before I could tease her about anything she just said, she took the tip of my length into her mouth. Only half of my cock’s head was inside of her mouth, and even that was already requiring her to open her mouth pretty wide.

It was then that I realized one of the potential downsides about having such a big dick.

It was going to be way harder to suck than something smaller.

Not that I would last long enough for her to try putting any more of it inside of her mouth in the first place. Between her hand playing with my balls, her other hand stroking my shaft, the feeling of her tight, warm mouth around the sensitive tip, and everything that she said—it was already over.

“Guide, take it—take it out,” I moaned out. “I’m going to—!”

Guide smiled from around the tip of my cock when she heard me to tell her to pull it out, and that only encouraged her to push the rest of my cock’s head into her mouth. Her cheeky confidence and teasing personality must have convinced her that she would be able to handle all of what was about to come.

But she had no idea just how much cum was to come, especially after not masturbating for several days.

With what was probably the greatest orgasm of my life, causing my entire body to tremble and my cock to spasm and throb harder than it ever did before, Guide sped up her hands playing with me to make my orgasm even greater at its peak… but then stopped with wide, shocked eyes once the first rope of my seed shot into her mouth.

“Se-seriously! You don’t have to force yourself!” I groaned out, barely able to speak from the pleasure.

But, if anything, my words simply made her even more determined. She shut her eyes and bobbed her head a little as she struggled to swallow all of my seed. I struggled to watch since it felt so good that I just wanted to lie back against the pillow, but watching her swallow all of it was too hot of an opportunity to pass up. It was especially hot watching how her throat moved each time she swallowed.

But no matter how hard she tried… she wasn’t able to swallow it all. Eventually, she pulled her mouth away from the tip and coughed just before another rope of my cum shot up and splashed onto her face.

Guide’s cute, cool face got covered in my cum, and I wished that I could store the sight of it forever in my memories.

The rest of my seed didn’t shoot out so much as it dribbled out, but there was still a decent amount of it that ran down the length of my cock which eventually reached her hand.

However… I noticed something was off.

Guide wasn’t doing or saying anything. She was simply resting her face against the underside of my shaft and… shaking?

“Wait, Guide, are you—are you cumming?” I asked, not sure for certain.

Guide looked at me from behind my cock, her eyes half-lidded and full of pleasure as she bit her lower lip, and nodded.

She looked unbelievably sexy.

Then, once we both calmed down a little, Guide sighed and said, “That… that was amazing. I… had no idea it was possible to feel that good.”

“You’re too perfect, Guide,” I teased. “How is anybody supposed to compete with you? I mean, you came from sucking dick.”

With a hint of red coloring her cheeks, she shyly looked away before holding up two fingers. “I… I came twice.”

“Wait, when?”

“I… was done… the first time, right before you asked me if I was. But then when I heard your voice… it made me cum again.” Too embarrassed to let me look at her, she buried herself against the first thing she could find to hide her face from me… which just so happened to be my sack.

“That’s one heck of a hiding spot you chose.”

“Shu-shush. Ah… it… it smells really good down here, too.” I couldn’t see what she was doing, but I did feel when she rubbed her nose against my sack. The next thing I felt was a kiss on each of my orbs followed by her saying, “Thank you for your hard work.” Her face returned to my length after that, returning to the now-cum-coated tip to give it a kiss. “And you. I love you, and thank you for… wai-wait. I… I thought it’s supposed to get smaller after finishing?”

“A-ah… about that.” I scratched the back of my head. “You see, uh… once I cum once, it usually doesn’t calm down until I go another… three times typically, and that’s only when I’m a little horny. But when I’m this horny—no, I’ve never really been this horny before. But normally when I get close to being this horny, I’d have to take a couple of hours or so out of my day just to jack off until it calms down.”

“A—a couple of hours?” Guide gulped. “What’s… what’s the most amount of times you’ve… finished, in a single session?”

“Twenty-seven times over about… five hours? But I was barely shooting anything by the end of it, just small loads.” Then again, my “small loads” were supposedly the average size for most men. “Ah, but don’t worry. I obviously don’t expect you to do it until it calms down. I can take it from here—”

Guide shook her head, wrapped each of her arms around my cock, and pushed her face up against the underside of it some more. “Not allowed. You’re not allowed to do it yourself.”

“How—how come?”

“Because… if you do it for yourself, then that means less for me.”

“Your jaw is going to be as sore as my muscles by the time you’re done.”

“Sucks to be my jaw, then.”

With that, she planted a single kiss against my cock’s underside before getting started again.

In that moment, I realized I was probably the luckiest man to ever live throughout all of human history.

Chapter 34

“I think I have a stomachache,” Guide said. “And… and… I can’t feel my jaw.”

“I warned you,” I said and sighed, petting the top of Guide’s head. After all of that, she came to lie down next to me between my body and arm, her head resting on top of my shoulder as she rubbed her stomach. “You didn’t need to do all of that.”

“But it finally calmed down, so… I—I win.”

“It’s not a competition.”

“It’s a competition between me and the world that expects me to fail at the impossible, your thing being the impossible.”

I kissed her forehead as a response to that.

Guide then continued by saying, “We… we need more women. As much fun as I had… there’s no way that I can handle that thing every day all on my own.”

“Wait,” I blinked, “what?”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“We need more women here. You know, to help me attend to you. As much as I love what you have in your pants, there’s no way that I can handle it on my own every day.”

“You… wouldn’t get mad? Or jealous?”

“Why would I? Besides, didn’t you say that you got a mod that turned everybody into girls and got another one that lets you marry all of us at once specifically so that you could do stuff like this?”

“It was for the stat boosts! But… wait. Is that why? Is the reason why you’re fine with it because I got a mod that lets me marry everybody simultaneously, so that removed any jealousy you might feel?”

Guide laughed a little and shook her head against me. “No, that’s not it.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“Well, the me from the game was a guy, right? And thanks to the mod, now I’m a girl. I can… feel that, kind of. It’s hard to explain, but I can tell what I originally was and how I’m supposed to be. This whole body feels… different and off to me. But the more time I spend in it, the more I like it! Besides… it makes you happy, and that makes me happy. But—but anyways, the reason I brought that up is because I can tell when something is different with me. I know that you’re supposed to only be able to marry one of us, so you being able to marry multiple women feels off, but not in a way that I care about. And my own lack of jealousy doesn’t feel off to me, either. You’re just… so incredible that you deserve to be shared with as many as possible! I would feel horrible keeping you all to myself. And now that I know what you have in your pants… I need you to find more girls so that my jaw doesn’t break off, too.”

“So, you’re seriously fine with me getting a harem?”

Guide nodded. “I’ll even help you build it as much as I can! There’s not much that I can do, but I like talking! Any girls you bring back, I’ll convince them in no time to fall for you! Not that you need my help to make them fall for you in the first place, but I can help by speeding things up!”

“Guide,” I paused, taking her hand and holding it between my own, “You really are my bro. You’re the best bro that a man could ask for. You finished that many times just from servicing me, and now you want to be my wingman to get even more girls to service me… I don’t deserve you, bro.”

Apparently, Guide couldn’t help but to laugh when she heard that. “It—it feels strange to be called your bro still after what we just did for hours, but… it makes me happy, too. It’s strange. It feels like when you call me your bro, it’s you… appreciating me for who I am, not just because I’m a girl now.”

“And I always will appreciate you. I promise.”

“See? All you have to do is say lines like that to the next girls and they’ll fall for you in an instant!”

“To be fair, romance in the original game wasn’t exactly difficult. All you had to do was find out what presents somebody liked and then give them one every day until they fell in love with you. That was as hard as romance got. Find out that somebody likes shiny rocks? Gift them a shiny rock every day until they love you.”

“Oh?”

I gulped. That was Guide’s confident and cool tone coming out.

“Then I guess that makes you my favorite present.”

“Yep,” I said. “I don’t deserve you after all. Oh, by the way, since there probably isn’t a better time to bring this up at.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“I won’t have to sacrifice you. There are some modded items that let me summon the boss that spawns from sacrificing you normally, so don’t worry about that.”

“From—from sacrificing me?”

“You didn’t know about that?”

Guide, with terror in her eyes, shook her head.

That was how I ended up explaining to her how the final boss of the game’s early difficulty was summoned by getting a doll of the guide and throwing it into lava, thus killing the guide and summoning the boss.

“I thought you might have known about that,” I said.

“I… I had no idea,” Guide said, still pretty shook up about it. “But… you said that you won’t have to do that, right?”

“Right.”

I never heard somebody sound as relieved as Guide did when she sighed after that. “Still… what kind of person makes something where you have to sacrifice your friend from the start for progression?!”

“A sadist. That’s who.”

Guide huffed and wrapped her arms around me, snuggling up against my side as much as she could with one of her legs draped over my own. “This is the best day ever,” she said for a change of subject. “This must be the power of having a bed.”

“I told you. Beds are great. Now, just imagine how much better it’ll be once I have a slime bed for us.”

“Rest.”

“I know, I know. I’m just saying, later—”

“Rest.”

“I’m not even allowed to think about working later?”

“No. You’re only allowed to think about resting… well, and me.”

“Alright, I’ll surrender and dedicate my thoughts to resting and y—”

Mimic’s stomach grumbled from the side of the bed, causing both me and Guide to jump.

That was when I noticed that the door was closed.

Mimic couldn’t open or close doors on its own.

“He-hey, Mimic,” I said. “How… how long have you been in here for?”

That wasn’t exactly a question that Mimic could answer, but I already knew the answer anyways.

Mimic… was in the room with us… watching everything… the entire time.

Guide’s cheeks turned pretty red before she hid her face against my neck.

Me and Guide were so lost in each other that we had no idea we had an audience for… everything.

At least Mimic kept its stomach grumbling until after everything was over. Hearing Mimic’s noises in the middle of our fun would have been a serious mood killer.

Chapter 35

Admittedly, nothing got done for the rest of the day nor the day afterward. Once we had the bed and learned just how great it was to enjoy one another’s bodies—well, again, nothing else got done. Besides, it was all in the name of resting. Definitely just resting. Sure, I felt completely fine the next morning, but why go out and do anything when we could… rest?

We also talked some more about… pretty much everything. I told her about the heart and the visions, we talked about what it was like to be a human living on a normal Earth, we talked about the game and I somehow ended up rambling to her about all the different major content creators for it and what sort of videos they’d specialize in, and so on.

I also realized during all of our talking that I didn’t want to live in the forest.

Sure, the basic forest was nice and all, but… I wanted to get a bit more adventurous. Though, admittedly, that might not have been a good idea, and I brought that up. I wanted to build a house in a biome that was more interesting—more wild. Not the jungle or desert since I figured both of those places would be too hot, but I would love to live in the snow biome, or even at the ocean. Then there were the modded biomes which… were probably way too dangerous to actually try living in.

Of course, I had no idea where any of those were, so I was going to have to explore at some point to discover more of the world and figure out where everything was.

I also needed to start digging underground to create a hellevator so that I wouldn’t need to go searching for a cave every time I wanted to move.

Going underground was probably the best option for the time being. I needed to find chests for accessories, get more hearts to increase my health and, apparently, boost my damage and defense as well, and I needed to get more resources in general, especially of the metal kind.

Even though the armor I could start to make with the boss’s flesh was better than anything I could make from random ores underground… there was a pretty good reason to go and make all those other armors still.

I already confirmed that the mod for what I had in mind was running seeing as how the transcendent difficulty was from it. The very same mod also included a reason to basically collect absolutely anything and everything in the game, leading to pretty extreme hoarding.

And that reason was “egos.”

Basically, everything in the game could be combined, and there was cross-mod compatibility to introduce even more combinations.

The first stage of these combinations were “egos.”

For example, the “Forest Ego” could be crafted with a full set of wooden armor, a wooden sword, the [Day Glow] flower, and a captured bunny.

…

The bunny part… might be hard to justify in a real world, since it basically meant I’d be sacrificing a bunny to create an item… but I’d think about that more later.

Anyways, if I remembered correctly, the Forest Ego wasn’t exactly all that great. All it did was make acorns fly off from the player to home in on enemies when hit. However, the beauty of it came from what could then be done with that ego.

Each surface biome had its own ego. That meant there was a Forest Ego, Desert Ego, Ocean Ego, Snow Ego, and so on. All of these had unique effects when equipped as accessories… and, once they were all acquired, they could all be combined into a single Surface Ego. Equipping the Surface Ego as an accessory counted as only one accessory but gave the player the unique effects from all of the accessories used to make it. It was basically ten accessories or so for the price of one.

And it didn’t stop there.

The Surface Ego could then be combined with the Underground Ego, which was made with numerous more lesser egos, and Sky Ego to create the Biome Authority, which then gave the player the effects of about twenty different accessories for one.

And it still didn’t stop there.

The Biome Authority eventually got fused with other authorities that turned it into an even stronger authority, and then that got fused with other authorities and would become a concept, and then all the concepts could be combined together. Basically, everything in the game could be turned into an ego which then got combined into a bunch of different things.

And at the very end of it all, there was the “God Soul.”

The God Soul basically combined every single accessory in the entire game, modded ones included, and put them in a single accessory. The player would have access to the benefits and unique powers from every accessory all in one. Acquiring this soul was a monumental undertaking since it required more or less acquiring every single possible item in the game, some of which had extremely low drop rates or only came from incredibly difficult and optional bosses, but acquiring this item was basically winning at everything forever.

For an ultimate goal of sorts to work toward, creating that soul was a pretty good one.

First, though, it would be smart to prove that it was even possible in the first place which required trying to craft an ego.

And the easiest one to craft that I could think of would be the Iron Ego. All that required was iron armor, an iron sword, and an iron shield. All of those could easily be crafted with enough iron as long as the recipes didn’t change.

So, heading underground was definitely the best choice.

But first.

The Slime Monarch.

Defeating the Slime Monarch would get me some more loot and accessories, let me make a slime bed, and was going to be needed for the Slime Ego eventually anyways. And seeing as how I already defeated a boss that was harder than it, it should be easy, especially with the flail I got.

Before fighting the Slime Monarch, though, it would be a good idea to craft some new armor using the flesh from the boss. So, while Guide took a nap on the bed, I went over to my anvil and checked out my options as far as armor went.

//[Watcher’s Helmet]

//Head

//4 Defense

//+5% Attack Speed

//Ingredients: [Eye Flesh] x20

//[Watcher’s Vest]

//Torso

//5 Defense

//+7% Attack Speed

//Ingredients: [Eye Flesh] x30

//[Watcher’s Legs]

//Legs

//4 Defense

//+5% Movement Speed

//Ingredients: [Eye Flesh] x25

Considering that I had forty-nine [Eye Flesh], that meant I had enough to make both the helmet and the legs if I wanted to, and that would also give me the biggest upgrade since I already had a [Copper Breastplate]. Both my pants and helmet were still only made out of wood, so upgrading from wood to the first tier of proper boss armor would be great.

The only problem… was how that equipment looked. If it looked anything like it did in the game, then the helmet was basically going to look like I was wearing a red and white eyeball around my head that left my face uncovered, and the legs were going to look like white, metal greaves but with an eye over each knee.

In other words, it was going to look pretty… gory. I would look like some sort of psychopath who killed a giant eye, gutted it, and then decided to wear its skin for a helmet.

Fortunately, it was possible to toggle the visibility of helmets… but would it really be protecting me in that case? Sure, its defense value would probably still help me in the case of regular attacks, but what if something tried to pierce through my skull? Or something hit my head really hard? Would the helmet still protect me from realistic forms of damage if it was toggled to be invisible?

…

I had an idea. It was an incredibly masochistic idea, but still an idea.

“Mimic,” I said, “I’m going to need you to try knocking me out again.”

Chapter 36

I made myself the new helmet and legs and equipped them, confirming that they were just as grotesque as they were in the original game. The helmet… was especially strange to wear. It felt so… squishy.

“Alright, Mimic. Try knocking me out,” I said, prompting Mimic to lash out its tongue toward my head.

It was only after Mimic was in the process of pulling my head down toward its body that I realized I could have just tried banging my head against the wall instead.

“Wait!” I panicked. Thankfully, Mimic stopped. “This—this is stupid. I might actually get knocked out again.”

Mimic looked confused as it retracted its tongue.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I think I just might still have some brain damage from the last time I got knocked out.”

For example, I then realized that I could just smack myself in the head.

I went from the most extreme methods of testing out helmets to the least extreme, and I felt like that was probably the opposite order of things.

So, first, I unequipped my helmet completely. I then hit myself on the side of my head pretty hard—hard enough to hurt. After that, I equipped the helmet and did it again. I was still able to feel the hit, but it didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it did before. I also learned that the exterior of the helmet was just as squishy as the inside. It felt like I hit my hand against an actual eyeball, and that was… pretty gross.

And then, for the moment of truth, I toggled the helmet to be invisible before hitting myself in the head for a third time.

I expected my hand to hit my head like normal, but while dealing potentially less harm, yet it wasn’t able to actually hit my head. In fact, I still felt the helmet and all of its squishy grossness there even though it was invisible.

So, in other words, the invisible toggle just literally turned the helmet invisible. It was still there, still got in the way of attacks, and could still be interacted with, but was invisible. I was even able to take it off my head to hold in my hands, though it turned visible again as soon as I did that.

That was probably a good thing. If it remained invisible even when taking off, it would get lost if I ever took it off and left it somewhere.

Moving on, between my armor, [Chain Necklace], and that heart I got, I was up to fourteen total defense. Switching over to the new helmet and legs almost doubled my total defense.

So, with a heart, decent armor, a good weapon, and Mimic, I felt more than confident about my ability to take on the Slime Monarch. All I needed to do was go mine some gold to create a crown so that I could combine that with some slime to make the summoning item and—

I jumped a little when I heard something loud and… wet crash against the roof. It almost sounded like a giant water drop.

Then I heard it again.

And again.

And slowly, the rate of the crashes grew faster and faster.

“Pl-Player?” Guide asked, poking her head out from the other room. “That noise…” When her eyes widened, I figured that she came to the same conclusion that I just came to. “A slime storm! If there’s a slime storm, then it means there’s a powerful slime on the way!”

That was the same dialogue she had in game when the slime storm event began.

“It’s because I beat the Watcher,” I said. “I normally killed the Slime Monarch first when playing just to get it out of the way with, so I forgot to consider that the chance of the slime storm event happening goes up more each day it fails to happen after killing the Watcher. Looks like it finally managed to pop up.”

“Then… you’re going to fight another boss?” Guide asked, holding onto her shirt over her heart.

“Yeah, but don’t worry. This one is even easier, so I’ll be fine. But I need to leave so it doesn’t spawn on the house.”

Guide looked worried, but she still nodded. “Alright. But, first…” She walked right up to me, grabbed me by my shirt, and brought our lips together for a kiss. “Don’t forget to come back.”

“Come on, you think there’s any way I’d never come back?” I teased, ruffling up her hair a bit which made her smile and rub her head up against my head. Guide with even messier hair than usual, and smiling from behind said hair, was far too good to exist. I must have been dreaming.

Yet, I wasn’t.

“I’ll be back,” I said. “Promise. I’ll also get the machine I need to make a slime bed out of this, so it all works out.”

Hearing that, Guide smirked and looked into my eyes before saying, “I’ll look forward to testing that bed out with you, too.”

“Don’t be getting me all worked up right before I have to go fight a boss.”

“Why not? It’ll encourage you to come back even sooner, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s… a good point.”

With that sly smile of hers, Guide brought her lips back to mine while brushing one of her hands over my crotch. Though, it was only a very quick, teasing touch, and she pulled her hand and lips away right after. “Oh, sorry. Accident.”

“You’re a horrible liar, Guide.”

Guide winked. “But really… do be safe.”

“I will be, don’t worry.” I then looked over at Mimic and asked, “Ready, partner?”

Mimic hopped up and down, its tongue already hanging out from its body and drooling. It must have been able to smell the slimes or something, and Mimic definitely did enjoy killing and eating slimes.

That aside, I eat some bird to get my food buff, gave Guide another kiss, and went outside only to see that there were… many more slimes than I expected.

To be fair, that made sense. In the original game, only a certain number of enemies really spawned at once, and there were never so many that they would take up all of the screen. There was only so much space on the screen for enemies to use, and it was important to leave the player room to move around.

But in this world?

It was an actual world with wide, open spaces. Sure, we were in a forest, but the forest still provided far more space in a real world than it did in a video game.

There were already over a dozen slimes just between the house and the wall, and there were even more on the house’s roof.

That was just in one, small area.

I actually kind of feared what I was going to see once I looked beyond the wall.

Chapter 37

Problem.

Mimic was strong. Very, very strong.

Mimic could also only attack a single enemy at a time.

In the time that it took Mimic to kill one slime, anywhere from one to four more slimes would fall from the sky near us. I didn’t have anything capable of killing them in a single hit, either, so more slimes spawned than we were able to deal with. It didn’t help that there were already a swarm of them within the walls and a bunch up on the house’s roof.

The good news was that they barely damaged me, and that was very, very good news because it was impossible for me to avoid getting hit as the slimes swarmed around us.

Even with my new flail, which I swung around as quickly as I could into the slimes, I wasn’t able to stop them from reaching me and knocking me around the yard. My defense was high enough that each attack only did between four and ten damage depending on the color of the slime—since different colored slimes did different amounts of damage—and the health regeneration from food and the campfire was enough to keep me alive. With two health regenerating per second, all I had to do was not get hit for a few seconds and my health would be back up to full.

But still, with just how many slimes there were… getting over to the boss arena was going to be difficult, and I didn’t want to fight the Slime Monarch at the house. It had a teleporting move in the game that could cause it to go inside of buildings, and the Watcher proved that monsters were able to destroy the environment itself, so I needed to keep Guide safe by fighting the boss away from the house.

Slimes couldn’t break down the walls nor doors, so it would be safe to leave Guide at the house. She also had her bow to protect herself with in the worst-case scenario, and that was enough against some slimes.

“Alright, Mimic, I need you to stick close and protect me long enough to break the wall down,” I said. Considering that I always sealed the wall up, I needed to mine it open every single day when I wanted to leave.

Mimic, immediately following my order, jumped over to me and focused on the slimes closest to me.

That bought me enough time to mine the wall open. Though, I did need to pause every now and then to smack a slime or two away from me with the pickaxe.

And once I saw outside the wall… I realized that I was in far more trouble than I realized.

It felt like I was looking at an ocean of slime.

No matter what direction I looked in, all I saw was slime and almost none of the forest’s floor. They were in the trees, covering the ground, hopping on top of each other—there was an endless amount of slime.

If I had to guess just how many slimes I saw out there… there were probably hundreds. Potentially even thousands.

“Mimic… we’ve got our work cut out for us,” I said. I wasn’t able to resist smiling, but it wasn’t a smile out of joy, sadism, or anything like that. Instead, it was the kind of smile a man might smile when he felt like he just broke inside—the kind of smile somebody might have when given an impossible mission that was expected to be done immediately.

Then I remembered something.

Thanks to that accessory from the boss, I was able to dash. And if I remembered correctly, the dash did damage when passing through enemies based off of whatever weapon I was holding. So, as long as I had the flail equipped, then dashing through the enemies would deal its damage and knockback.

And it turned out that dashing was as easy as thinking about activating that effect while moving in any direction.

I dashed through the opening in the wall, pushed through four different slimes on the other side of the moat, and then came to a stop. The dash covered more distance than I thought it would, about three times my height in length… but it was kind of disorientating to use from just how fast it made my body move. I was going to have to practice with it just to get used to it.

More importantly, it knocked back the slimes I dashed through, and all I had to do then was swing my flail in an arc around me to finish them off.

Unfortunately, dashing had a cooldown of about three seconds, it couldn’t be canceled mid-dash, and it locked me into moving in a single direction. It could easily screw me over if I wasn’t careful, but it was fine to use against the slimes.

“Try to keep up, Mimic!” I shouted as Mimic followed behind me.

It was going to be a slow process of dashing, attacking, and dashing again to get to the boss arena, but it seemed like a plan that would work. Any damage I took between dashes was recovered for the most part during the next dash and following attack to clear some space, and then there were also those potions I had to heal with in case I needed them.

Mimic struggled to keep up since more slimes kept on falling from the sky between us, blocking the path I was clearing out, but all it had to do was lunge over them into a slime closer to me whenever it started getting left behind.

And because of the way the game originally worked, which carried over into this world, every monster in existence basically just wanted to kill the player, aka me.

So while dashing through the forest full of slime, every slime around tried to follow us, and I quickly realized that was going to be a problem. I had no doubt that I could make it back to the house if I wanted to thanks to dashing, swinging my flail around, and then dashing some more, but I needed to stay away from there since the boss could spawn at any moment.

That was when I had an idea.

My flamethrower… used slime as ammunition… because slime was flammable.

So, if slime was flammable enough to be used as fuel for a flamethrower, then that meant every slime currently in the forest was made out of highly flammable material, right?

And as I learned before, fire could be spread.

So, if slimes were highly flammable, and fire could be spread, then… what would happen if I switched over to my flamethrower and caught all the slimes around me on fire?

It was either an amazing idea or an absolutely horrible one.

As I switched over to my flamethrower, I really hoped it was going to be an amazing one.

Chapter 38

I… might have made a mistake.

“Just… just stay down, Mimic,” I said, prone on the forest floor with one arm wrapped around Mimic to keep it close.

So.

As I learned.

Setting an ocean of flammable things on fire… in a forest full of flammable things… was almost definitely an objectively bad idea.

An effective idea. An extremely effective idea.

But also an absolutely horrible and terrifying idea.

Hell was supposed to be a biome at the bottom of the world. Instead, I brought it to the surface as flaming slimes exploded all around us. The trees caught on fire, the grass, bushes—everything was on fire.

Fortunately, we already made it far enough away from the house that I couldn’t see it, plus there were the stone walls to keep any flames out in the event that the fire did reach back to there.

Unfortunately, it was more or less impossible for me and Mimic to safely proceed.

No matter how many slimes died from fire, the storm raining even more slimes down into the forest… or what used to be the forest, meant that the fire never got a chance to go out.

Every tree I could see was burnt down, the air was heavy with smoke that I could barely even see through, and all I smelled was burning slime.

“Now I know how the soldiers in Vietnam felt,” I said to Mimic, not that my partner understood the reference.

Sometimes, the flames would reach so high that they would catch slimes on fire before they even finished falling to the ground. And if they were close enough to each other while falling, a chain reaction of immolations would occur that resulted in slimes far above the trees getting caught on fire.

It seriously felt like I was either in Hell or in some sort of grimdark hellscape equivalent.

So much death.

So much destruction.

And worst of all…

It was really, really hot.

“We’re moving to the arctic biome once this is over,” I groaned.

Fortunately, even if the idea might have been horrible and despite it basically destroying an entire, local environment… it did work. The ocean of slimes was cleared out and, after just a short while, enough space was cleared for us to move through without relying on dashing or having to constantly stop and fight. Sure, there was burning slime all around us, every tree in the area was turned into a pillar of charcoal, and the ground was covered in ash, but we killed enough slimes to actually walk through the forest again.

“It’s a good thing we don’t have the druid NPC yet,” I said. “Pretty sure she’d be trying to kill me if she saw this. Anyways, let’s get over to the boss arena. The boss should spawn after enough slimes have been killed, or after enough time passes, and I feel like we should be getting to that first part pretty soon.”

Mimic made one of its stomach noises as a sign of acknowledgement.

With that, we continued our trip to the boss arena.

A new achievement to celebrate my destruction showed up shortly after reaching the boss arena.

//New Achievement!

//[Murderhobo]

//Awarded for slaying at least a thousand enemies! Do you feel proud of yourself?

//Reward: [Blood Fountain]

Since the reward was an item that I didn’t recognize, and the storm slowed enough that we were finally able to keep up with the slimes without relying on creating a local apocalypse, I check out the item in my inventory.

//[Blood Fountain]

//Furniture

//Increases the rate of monster spawns by 5x when nearby.

//“You know, for the blood god.”

The icon for the item also looked like it was a normal water fountain… if normal water fountains were made out of bones and filled with blood instead of water.

That aside, I closed my inventory and focused on some of the slimes getting close to me.

Looking up at the sky revealed that the slime clouds weren’t moving as quickly as they were before. They also looked like they were getting thinner, but that was only for the ones directly above us. There was still a wall of clouds approaching in the distance that looked just as thick as the ones I first saw. In fact… the sky above us was clearing up pretty quickly.

That was when I realized what was happening.

We were entering the eye of the storm.

No more slimes fell from the sky, but a chill went up my spine regardless as a single, massive slime cloud in the center of the storm’s eye dropped down to the ground in front of me and Mimic.

That was no cloud.

It was the Slime Monarch.

Needless to say, I downed my last [Toughness Potion] and got ready to fight.

With a golden crown sitting atop its body and a royal, red robe draping over its back and sides, the massive slime was several times the size of my house and even larger than the Watcher was.

Also, just like in the original game, there was what appeared to be a ninja inside of the slime’s body. Why? I had no idea. The game had a giant slime boss with a ninja inside who was already dead and, upon defeating the slime boss, dropped some pieces of the ninja armor set.

Only…

Rather than be dead, the ninja looked alive and was waving one of their arms at me from inside the slime while holding one hand over their mouth.

How that was possible, I had no idea. I was sure that none of the mods I added made the ninja within the slime boss actually alive. If they were trapped inside and looked like they were struggling, then they might not have had long until they suffocated, too.

Furthermore… if there was a living person inside the boss, I couldn’t just set the boss on fire since the fire might burn through its body and burn the ninja alive.

I wasn’t sure what the most effective way of killing the boss would be, but at least I had Mimic with me and—

Mimic lunged at the boss.

Mimic, upon crashing into the boss… got absorbed into its body and could no longer move, trapped inside the boss’s slime.

Maybe, just maybe, I shouldn’t have been underestimating the boss.

Chapter 39

The awesome flail that I got and was excited to use against the boss turned out to be absolute garbage against the boss. Why? Because as soon as I swung my flail at it, the ball end of it got trapped inside the boss, and it took me a couple of seconds just to pull it out which left me with almost no time to dodge the boss hopping at me.

Mimic was trapped inside.

I couldn’t use my flamethrower out of fear for burning both the ninja and Mimic alive.

Melee weapons were seemingly worthless against the boss since they’d get stuck inside of the boss’s slime.

That meant the only reliable weapon I had to use against the boss… was my bow which only had a very limited number of arrows, most likely not enough to defeat it.

Then, as if my mind purposely wanted to throw me off guard, I remembered what happened with the Watcher.

The Watcher didn’t want to fight me. Something, or somebody, was forcing it to.

“He-hey! Slime Monarch!” I shouted, “can you understand me?!”

I kept on backing up while waiting for an answer to dodge its hops, but I didn’t get any sort of response other than its continued approach.

It either didn’t understand me or didn’t care enough to answer me.

But regardless of whether or not it was fighting me of its own will or being forced to, I needed to kill it. To survive, and to potentially free it from its suffering, I needed to put the Slime Monarch down.

So, equipping my bow, I began firing arrows at the boss.

Now, the fight itself wasn’t that complicated. The boss’s body kept on shifting between three different colors due to the transcendent difficulty: blue, green, and purple. While the boss was blue, every time it hopped it would cause a cluster of slime balls to rain down from above where I was standing at the moment. When it was green, each time it hopped it would spawn a group of five, green slimes to come toward me just like normal. Then when it was purple, each time it hopped it would create a wave of slime that moved over the ground I had to jump over. Each color shift lasted for about ten seconds.

The lower the boss’s health got, though, the faster the colors would shift and the more frequently the boss would hop. It didn’t help that, every thirty seconds, the boss would also teleport to directly above the player to drop down onto them.

Fortunately, while I might not have been good at much, I was great at keeping a timer going in my head. As soon as the boss appeared, I was already counting up to thirty seconds in my head. Surely enough, once I counted to thirty, the boss’s entire body began to shake and jiggle until it teleported directly above where I was standing.

Jumping out of the way from that drop was easy when I knew exactly when it would happen.

I also had to be careful of where I positioned myself. Rather than fight between all the campfires, I stayed on the outside of the arena while still being close enough to benefit from the campfire buff. After all, I didn’t want to accidentally kite the boss onto a campfire and light it on fire.

“Sacrifice is a part of battle,” a familiar, masculine voice said in my mind.

It was the voice of that hero whose past I saw.

“There is no victory without sacrifice. Only fools and failures believe otherwise.”

The sight of countless warriors’ corpses covering the battlefield in front of the hero flashed before my eyes.

The thought of switching over to my flamethrower and lighting the boss on fire to burn it into nothing came to mind.

All I had to do was light it on fire. If it was anywhere near as flammable as the regular slimes, killing the boss would be the easiest thing in the world just by lighting it on fire thanks to the world merging realism with game mechanics.

But that meant risking Mimic and sacrificing the living person trapped inside of the boss.

“I’ll proudly be a fool then,” I said before dodging to the side to avoid more falling slime.

While the thought of lighting the boss on fire crossed my mind, I never once considered it an option after spotting the living ninja trapped inside of it.

I then felt what was probably the strangest, most indescribable feeling I ever experienced.

A smile.

I felt like, somewhere within me, somebody else was smiling. It wasn’t a mocking smile, either. It was one of pride—a smile to tell me that I chose the right answer.

But at the same time, there was something… bittersweet about it.

“The path of a fool is better than the path of a pawn,” the hero’s voice said. “Intelligence is what makes humans superior over lesser beasts. Even the weakest child is smarter than the strongest beast, and that intelligence is what earns our rightful dominance. The mind of a human is more terrifying than even the mightiest of bodies or sharpest of fangs.”

It felt like that hero was still alive within me, but at the same time… not.

More importantly, the voice reminded me to calm down and think.

He was right. Ever since humans first walked on two legs, they earned superiority over others through intelligence. There was not a single beast in the world capable of overwhelming humanity’s intellect.

That included giant slimes with the delusional belief that they were rulers.

I opened up my inventory and moved the hundreds of [Ash] and [Charcoal] items I got thanks to the earlier apocalypse.

With the boss heading toward me in a straight line, I dropped all the items onto the ground in front of me. They were all stacked up on top of each other which created a small mountain of items, and I stayed right behind it to make sure that the boss would approach them.

The next time the Slime Monarch hopped, it landed right on top of the mountain of items… and absorbed them all into its body.

In an instant, the interior of the boss’s slime became full of ash and charcoal, and it had the exact effect I was hoping it would have.

Ash was absorbent.

Charcoal was adsorbent.

Slime was very, very moist.

Thanks to accidentally causing an apocalypse, I was able to fill up the boss’s body with so much ash that it began losing viscosity. What I assumed was probably the water content making up the slime got absorbed into the ash, making it harder for the boss to move around while also making it more solid in general. Meanwhile, the larger particles making up the slime clung to all of the charcoal inside of its body, giving it less control over its slime.

Each time the boss hopped, all those items inside of its body got even more mixed up into its slime, and it began to dry out at a rapid rate.

I swapped back over to my flail and swung it into the boss once again. And this time, rather than get sucked into its body and get stuck inside… the flail swiped right through it, dealing damage while also breaking some of the dried slime off from the boss’s body.

“I might be a fool,” I said, “but I’m still smarter than you.”

It was time to go on the offensive.

Chapter 40

The more damage I dealt, the smaller the Slime Monarch became. The smaller it became, the more condensed all the ash and charcoal inside of its body grew. The more condensed those got, the more the boss solidified and struggled to move.

For once, rather than grow stronger the lower a boss’s health got, I was finally up against a boss who got weaker the lower its health got.

Its body even shrunk down to the point where Mimic was ejected from its slime, allowing my partner to help me out in dealing damage now that it could lunge into the boss without getting trapped inside of it.

Between the continued attacks from my flail and Mimic, the boss grew smaller and smaller until it was only about twice the size of me. And at that point, its body was basically made out of thick, clumpy putty rather than slime.

It even grew so solid that its surface began to crack each time we attacked it.

Admittedly, that made me worried about the ninja still trapped inside of it, but that meant I just needed to try and attack it even faster to kill it as soon as possible.

And seeing as how I was either defending myself against something that wanted to kill me, or I was killing something to free it from the control of another, I felt no guilt in my actions. If anything, the faster I killed it, the less it suffered.

It didn’t take much longer to kill it after that.

So solidified that it couldn’t even hop anymore, meaning that it could no longer trigger its attacks or even teleport, the boss was just a solid block of hardened “slime” that shattered into thousands of pieces with a final blow from my flail.

And with the boss’s death, the ninja trapped within dropped to their knees on the ground, covered in ash as they coughed.

At the same time, the slimy clouds in the sky dissipated and two more achievements popped up within my vision.

//New Achievement!

//[Slime Regicide]

//Awarded for defeating the Slime Monarch! Does this mean there’s an entire slime feudal system?

//Reward: [Slime Monarch’s Mask]

//New Achievement!

//[Slimeproof]

//Awarded for surviving through the Slime Storm! It’s a good thing none of the slimes were white. Imagine sticky, white stuff falling from the sky.

//Reward: [Slimy Cloud]

I didn’t recognize what that cloud item was but checking on that could be saved for later. Making sure that the ninja was alright was more important.

But of course, I wasn’t able to walk up to where they were without all of the boss drops getting sucked into my inventory.

//[Minor Healing Potion] x4 added to inventory!

//[Artifact of the Slime Monarch] added to inventory!

//[Silver Coin] x75 added to inventory!

//[Slime Monarch’s Cape] added to inventory!

//[Royal Slime] x36 added to inventory!

//[Slimy Crown] added to inventory!

//[Slime Shaper] added to inventory!

//[Shinobi Pants] added to inventory!

//[Slime Sprayer] added to inventory!

//[Soul of the Slime Monarch] added to inventory!

Just like in the original game, the Slime Monarch dropped a ton of loot, and that wasn’t even everything that it could drop. And like with the Watcher, another soul was dropped as well.

Disregarding that for the moment, I crouched down and placed a hand on the ninja’s shoulder and asked, “You alright?”

Being that close… I realized something.

The ninja was pretty small.

I wasn’t exactly a big guy or tall or anything, but the ninja just looked so small. Still bigger than a child, but probably the smallest an adult could be while still passing for one.

Then they shook their head, probably to get all the ash off from them… and that was when I noticed the ears. I wasn’t able to see their face due to their mask and hood, but the hood had a couple of slits in the top of it that allowed two large, fluffy ears to stick out through them. They looked like a wolf’s ears, too.

And then they talked.

“You—you saved me,” they said, a quiet, feminine voice coming from behind their mask. “I thought that monster would be my tomb. If it wasn’t for the breathing technique my teacher taught me, I never would have lasted…”

That explained how they were able to hold their breath for so long.

Wait.

“Do you remember your teacher?” I asked. “Their name? What they look like?” I wanted to see if they were like Guide, who had a sort of artificial past built into her that didn’t actually exist, or if they had an actual life before the boss.

“Of course!” the ninja replied, sounding shocked that I would even ask those questions. “It was just last week that we went to see the azure bloom together atop Mount—… Mount… my memory fails me. My teacher—the head monk… why can I not remember any of their names or faces? Even the emperor—I…”

The ninja recalled enough specifics to make me feel like maybe they were just suffering from memory loss.

And I had an idea for how I could test that.

I told them the name of the game that the world seemed to be based off of as well as the situation so far as well as about Guide and how Guide could vaguely recall things that didn’t actually exist. Guide also understood that she was from a game, though.

Yet, when I was done telling the ninja about all of that, they shook their head and declared, “I do not know where I am, but I know that the world I am from is real. The world, my teacher, the emperor, those beautiful flowers… I can see their shapes in my mind, but I cannot remember the exact details. Yet, I know that they are real!”

“Well, I won’t deny your belief,” I said. “For all I know, you’re right. Maybe my friend is unique and everybody else we meet won’t be from that game. Though, I want to test something else. I want to test and see if you’re stuck following the same logic as her.”

“A test? What do you have in mind?”

“Tell me that you love me.”

The ninja jumped, their ears twitched atop their head, and that was when I noticed they also had a large, fluffy tail behind them that shot straight up in response to the test. “Wha—what?! But—that—we only just met! I—I know you saved me… and I will dedicate my life to repaying you for that, but—but… l-love… it’s… it’s so soon… and I am so… such a privilege is not…”

There was definitely a cute girl behind that mask and hood. “It’s just a test, you don’t have to mean it.”

“I… I see. Then…” The ninja clutched her shirt over her chest, looked up into my eyes, and said, “I—I lo—”

Aaaaaannd frozen.

The ninja collapsed onto her side, her body locked up, and recovered after a few seconds. “What… what is this sorcery? I tried to say it, but—”

I inhaled through my nose and then sighed. “Yep. You’re affected by the world’s game logic as well. Even though you might be an original person who isn’t from the game in any way, it looks like you’re still affected by it.”

“Then—why is it that you can say it? Why does the sorcery not affect you as well?”

“Well,” I paused and scratched the back of my head, “it feels kind of lame to put it this way, but I guess… I’m the main character, basically. I get all the perks and can do things nobody else can, just because that’s the role I was given. And before you ask why, I have no idea why. That’s just how it is.”

“I see. Then to be saved by a man such as yourself… I understand.”

“What do you understand?”

The ninja got up off the ground, but only so that she could kneel down on one knee in front of me. “I may not remember my name nor my past, but I do not need those to dedicate myself to you!”

“You… what?”

“To have been brought to this realm and rescued by you, it can only be destiny! It is not coincidence that we have been brought together in this turbulent land! Please, my lord! Allow me to serve by your side as your retainer!”

“You really don’t need to do all that for me.”

“I do! Not only would it bring endless shame to my clan to not devote myself to the one who saved me when I could not save myself, but the strings of fate do not make mistakes! I would not have been brought to you if it was not to serve as yours!”

“Listen, I’m serious. I have no problem with you sticking around and figuring out what’s going on with this whole thing, but you don’t have to devote yourself to me or anything. It’s not a big deal. All I did was help out somebody in need. Anybody would do that. You don’t owe me or need to pay me back or anything.”

“Such a generous lord… I am grateful to have been brought to serve you.”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“I am, my lord. That is why I am even more determined to serve as your retainer. Please, trust in me when I tell you that I wish to serve you from the depths of my soul. Not only is it the right thing to do brought about by destiny itself, but it is what I desire for myself. If you insist on denying my servitude, I will not push the issue further… but I beg you to consider it just one more time!”

Looking into her eyes, it was impossible to not see just how genuine she was. She meant everything that she said and it was impossible to deny that.

If she was really that determined to serve me, then… well, it was probably alright, right?

“Alright,” I said, causing her eyes to instantly sparkle with excitement. “You can—wait.”

I stopped and looked around.

Kingmaker showed up after I beat the Watcher, and I thought they might reappear if I defeated another boss, but I didn’t see Kingmaker nor any other robed figures around.

Did I miss them while talking to the ninja?

Did they just not show up this time?

“Is something wrong, my lord?” the ninja asked.

“I’ll explain once we get back to the house,” I answered. “For now, you need a name I can refer to you with.”

“You may call me whatever you wish, my lord. I am yours to do with as you please. Whether you desire to use me as a blade or a bird, I can do it all!”

“A blade or a bird, huh? Well, for now, I’ll just call you Ninja. Mimic over there is Mimic, Guide is Guide, I’m Player, and you can be Ninja.”

“Very well, my lord! Henceforth and until the end of time itself, I shall be Ninja, your loyal retainer!”

I was starting to think her personality was as doglike as her ears and tail.

Chapter 41

“Hoh… I see! I am not familiar with such technology!” Ninja said as the two of us walked back to the house.

She got curious when she noticed my flamethrower, so I showed it to her and that ended up becoming a conversation all about guns and their different variants. None of them were recognizable to her. So, wherever she was from, it was a place without any firearms whatsoever. Bows were advanced as they got when it came to ranged weapons, apparently, since she understood what a bow was. She didn’t know what crossbows were either, though.

That aside, while we might have been walking together, she wasn’t following me. Asking her to follow me froze her up again just like when I tried getting Guide to follow me. However, telling her to return back to the house worked.

I had to assume that was like in the original game, too.

NPCs were able to spawn whenever an empty house was available for them and the prerequisites for them were satisfied. Some NPCs could be found out in the wild even when a house wasn’t available for them. When a house was available, though, and one was found in the wild, then—upon talking to them—they would get unlocked and automatically be assigned to an empty house or room. Since the room we put the bedroom in at the house counted as a whole room suitable for NPC housing, that meant we had a spare room open.

Therefore, upon talking to Ninja, I basically unlocked her, and then she was automatically assigned to living in that room. Therefore, I could suggest that she head back to the house, and she naturally knew where to go to return to her room even though she had never been there before. That meant we could walk together on the way back.

“Also… I hope I am not bothering you, my lord,” Ninja said. “I know I am asking many questions, but I cannot help but be curious when brought to such a strange realm. Please, my lord, let me know if you would like me to stop!”

I shrugged and waved a hand to dismiss her worries. “Don’t worry about it. I’d be asking a million and one questions if I was in your shoes, so I understand how you must feel. Ask as many questions as you want.”

“You are too kind, my lord.”

“You can call me Player. You don’t need to be so formal all the time.”

“Lord Player!”

“I feel like you just got even more formal. That being said… I kind of like how that sounds.” There was just something endearing about the way she talked. Her voice was full of energy, but also feminine and innocent, while sounding so proper and formal.

“Aha… I am glad you like it! Also, my lord… may I ask what happened here?”

I stopped walking to actually look around and pay attention to where we were.

I immediately understood why she asked what she did when I looked around.

There were hundreds of slime, ash, charcoal, and coin items all over the ground with blackened trees and signs of fire in every direction.

“The slimepocalypse,” I answered.

“Hoh… it sounds like a terrifying event with such a name,” Ninja replied. “Did you participate in it?”

“I caused it.”

“As to be expected of my lord!”

She probably had too much faith in me, but it was great for my ego, so I allowed it to continue. Plus she was like an excited dog. How was I supposed to reject an excited dog? I didn’t want to crush her innocence and let her know that I was just some random, normal guy.

And because I didn’t want to let all those items go to waste, I ended up taking a detour to walk around and collect as many of the items as possible. By the end of it, I had thousands of [Slime] in my inventory as well as hundreds more [Ash] and [Charcoal] items. I also picked up enough coins that, when combined with the coins I already had from fighting and the bosses, took me up to a total of thirteen [Gold Coin]s. That meant we had more than enough gold for the trader to move in which would also enable a few more NPCs after him to move in.

I needed to build more houses.

At the same time… I kind of didn’t want to. I already had Guide and now Ninja. Building a bunch of houses so that everybody could move in as soon as possible was a good idea in the game, but we weren’t in a game. I didn’t want to deal with a bunch of people arriving all at once. Taking things slowly felt like the better idea from a more social perspective, but getting as many NPCs as soon as possible was obviously better from a game perspective.

I just didn’t want to get overwhelmed by too many new people all at once. Heck, that even happened in the game. Enough NPCs would move in all at once that I’d completely forget to check up on some of them.

That was less likely to happen in an actual world with real people, but still. I’d like to get used to having Ninja around before having any more newcomers arrive.

Getting a couple of proper houses set up for us was probably a good idea, too. Right now, it was me and Guide in a house with two rooms. One room had a couple of chairs, a table, and a workbench. The other room had a table, chair, and bed. We weren’t exactly living in a nice house or anything, and we were about to have a third living in there with us.

It would probably be better to build a new, proper house for me and Guide. I figured she wouldn’t mind sharing a house with me considering how far our relationship already got. We were basically dating, just not officially by the world’s game-like standards.

Ninja was going to need a house for herself, too. She wasn’t going to want to stay in the same house as me and Guide, especially since me and Guide weren’t going to stop our… adult activities. Plus with how much of an innocent vibe Ninja gave me, I didn’t want to ruin that innocence of hers by letting her hear everything me and Guide would surely be getting up to.

“Is that the house?” Ninja asked, taking me out of my thoughts as the stone wall surrounding the house came into view.

From what I could see through the opening in it, the wooden house behind it was still in good shape. The grass and trees around the wall were fine, too, so that meant the fire never reached the house.

That was a relief.

“Yeah, that’s home,” I answered.

“Hoh… I see! It is a splendid manor, my lord!” Ninja said.

Hearing her say that about such a pathetic, tiny little square of a house made me want to try turning it into an actual manor worthy of respect. “Your standards are pretty low, aren’t they?”

“A-ah… I suppose they might be. I recall being taught to stay humble and to appreciate even the smallest of gestures and amenities in life! One should never want for more than what they are provided, and provisions should never be expected!”

“I feel like that’s something somebody would teach just so that they can get away with treating people like crap.”

“It is all so that we may transcend the mortal realm when reincarnating! Those who enter the realm of death while still wanting material possessions will be unable to reincarnate beyond the mortal realm until they learn to want for nothing!”

I didn’t believe any of that stuff, but then again… I wouldn’t have believed the current situation to be possible either, so I wasn’t about to say that any religious beliefs were wrong or unrealistic.

Besides, live and let live.

Moving on, I took her through the entrance in the wall and looked around to see if Guide came outside at all. I didn’t see her, so I figured she must have been inside still. Maybe she was worried about there being too many slimes outside? I didn’t know, but I did open the door for Ninja and said, “Here we are, home sweet—”

Ninja’s face—what I could see of it, anyways, since she still had her hood and mask up that covered up basically everything other than her eyes and the skin around them… turned bright red as she looked inside.

When I looked inside to see what caused such a reaction, I immediately understood.

Sitting on her knees behind the door was none other than Guide. Not only was she on her knees, but her shirt was unbuttoned to show off her breasts and her face managed to be an even brighter shade of red than Ninja’s as she stared right at me with tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Slowly, to not cause any more alarm, I slid one hand over Ninja’s eyes while my other hand closed the door.

I was definitely not going to let a bunch of new NPCs move in all at once.

Chapter 42

“I—I see! It—it is… ni-nice to meet you, Ninja!” Guide said, still not calmed down after having her surprise for me ruined.

I expected that Ninja would be the one struggling to calm down after a sight like that, but she returned to normal pretty quickly. Guide, however, was still red and flustered.

“It is an honor to meet you as well!” Ninja replied, politely bowing before Guide. “My lord has told me much about you! It would be a welcome privilege to get to know you better.”

Guide blinked a couple of times and asked, “‘My lord?’”

Ninja was all too happy to nod in confirmation before gesturing toward me with both of her hands. “Lord Player! He saved me when death appeared to be my fate.”

Hearing that, Guide seemed to calm down a little and flashed a smirk my way. “Is that so? Tell me more. It sounds like a good story.”

“It is! When I feared that all was lost, my lord appeared before me and valiantly fought the monster restraining me! He never let up for even a moment of rest, doing everything in his power to defeat the monster and save me!”

Did she watch a completely different fight or something? That didn’t sound familiar at all.

“I have never seen such a brave warrior before! I recall hearing legends of such bravery, but even if I could remember them in detail, I am sure they would pale in comparison to the bravery that my lord exhibited! Everything about him is heroic! Just look at his eyes! Those are the eyes of a warrior!”

No, I was pretty sure my eyes were just normal human eyes.

“Watching him fight for me… I felt my heart pounding within my chest. Watching his efforts inspired me to survive for as long as I could! I knew from the moment I saw him that he was a warrior worth devoting my life to!”

How could she even think of all that when she was busy trying not to drown in slime?

“Once he saved me, I vowed to devote my life to him as his faithful retainer! I would be overjoyed to satisfy whatever use he may have for me! While I fear I will never be as incredible as my lord, I will do my best to live a life that is as useful as possible in his service!”

By that point, Guide had her elbows on the table and her hands folded together in front of her mouth, nodding along with everything that Ninja said while occasionally looking up at me with a teasing look in her eyes. She looked like she was trying her absolute best not to laugh, too.

But even though that was how she looked, she removed her hands from in front of her mouth and nodded before saying, “I understand how you feel. I feel the same way about him.”

“I cannot imagine anybody feeling differently after seeing him!” Ninja said, causing Guide to almost crack into a laugh.

I couldn’t tell if Guide found Ninja amusing, how awkward I felt from all the praise amusing, or both amusing.

It was probably both.

“When you say that you will serve him however he wants,” Guide said, “does that include… bedroom activities?”

Now that got a reaction out of me, and my reaction was—well, panic. I had no idea how I was supposed to react to that. Did I tell her to be quiet? Try to cover up her mouth to stop her from saying anything else? Blurt out whatever came to mind to change the subject? I had no idea what to say or do, and that meant I wasn’t able to change the topic before Ninja replied.

“Bedroom… activities?” Ninja asked.

I let out a sigh of relief. It sounded like Ninja didn’t know any better. As long as she was too innocent to understand, it was—

“I think I know a way to phrase it you might understand better,” Guide said. “What about the services of a mistress? Or a concubine?”

Ninja… definitely understood that since she turned red again. “A-a-absolutely not!”

Guide actually leaned back when she heard that, surprised by Ninja’s answer.

Even I was surprised, not that I expected her to be alright with it. I just didn’t expect her to… so loudly reject the idea outright. Then again, that was probably a pretty normal and fair reaction to being asked about serving a man she just met as his mistress.

Then Ninja elaborated.

“I—I would never wish to lower my lord’s status! I am sure there are countless others who would be happy to service him who are more beautiful and capable than I! For me to serve him in such a way would do nothing but harm his position in society! After all, I—”

“Come on, what kind of bullshit is that?” I asked.

“My—my lord?”

“At least say you don’t want to do it because you don’t want to do that with some guy you barely know. Hell, even say it’s because you think I’m ugly. Anything is better than saying you don’t want to do it because you’re worried about how others might look at me.”

Guide leaned back, a smile on her face, while letting me handle the situation.

“Why would you even think that?” I asked.

“How—how could I not?” Ninja asked. “My kind… even though I cannot remember much in my current state, I know that it is shameful to have a body such as mine. To be mixed with the blood of a beast… my kind should not even associate with humans. We bring nothing but misfortune and dishonor with our existence. Even being taught by my teacher was an honor that I did not deserve! To perform such activities with you… would be even lower than sharing a bed with a wild beast.”

“Tell me something. Even though we’re inside now, why haven’t you removed your hood and mask?”

“To spare you both from having to look at my uncovered skin!”

I looked over at Guide and said, “Hold me back, Guide.”

Guide only replied with a silent and slow shake of her head.

She really was leaving it all up to me.

“Fine,” I said and then looked at Ninja again. “Take them off.”

“My—my lord?” Ninja asked.

“You heard me. Take them off or I’ll strip you myself.”

I heard a teasing, “What a brute,” come from Guide under her breath.

As for Ninja, she gulped and took a step away from me, but I wasn’t going to let her escape.

If I had to force my way onto her, I would.

It was for her own good.

Chapter 43

“Are… are you upset with me, my lord?” Ninja asked, walking backward even farther away from me. “I—I am sorry if I have caused you distress, I promise that it was not my intention!”

“No,” I answered. “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at whoever brainwashed you into having such a low opinion of yourself. Even though you’re in a brand-new world and you can’t remember anything else, that negativity was apparently drilled into your mind so damn much that you can remember that of all things. That is what pisses me off. Anybody who judges somebody else based off their looks or the circumstance of their birth is automatically on my shit list. I don’t care if God himself comes down here and tells me to judge you for being born the way you were, I’m going to spit in his face and tell him to fuck off.”

Ninja took another step back, her hand clutching her shirt over her heart. “My lord—I…”

“All that matters is who you are—who you choose to be. Where I’m from, we judge people based off the content of their character, not how they look. That’s all that matters to me. If somebody would look down on me for doing anything with you, then they’re somebody I wouldn’t care about in the first place.”

Ninja didn’t say anything, but the more I talked, the more she looked like she was about to cry.

I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.

Maybe I was being too harsh? Even if that harshness wasn’t directed at her, maybe she was taking it that way.

Or maybe she couldn’t understand why I felt the way I did.

“Look,” I said, trying to calm down a little so that I wasn’t raising my voice anymore. “My whole life, ever since I was born, everybody had high expectations for me. My parents pushed me as hard as they could legally get away with as soon as they were able to. Private tutors, constant lessons, punishing me over every mistake… I was given everything, and I was expected to rise above everybody else. But I never wanted that. All I wanted was to live my own life how I wanted without caring about what other people thought or expected of me. And once I made that obvious, everybody stopped caring. I was forgotten about and left to do what I wanted. I was basically disowned as soon as my parents realized they couldn’t control me. Not a single member of my ‘family’ gave a shit about me. They treated me like I was less than an insect, not even worth acknowledging the existence of. I doubt that what I went through is anywhere near as bad as what you went through, but the point is that I understand how it feels to be looked down on. I understand how insidious it is. It’s something that eats at your heart and mind every single day. You’re constantly put down, treated like shit, and made to believe that you don’t deserve anything. Eventually, you start believing it. You agree that you’re worthless and that nobody should care about you. That’s when you have two choices. One, you can roll over, submit to those shitheads, and let them treat you like trash for the rest of your life. Or two, you can raise your middle finger to them, tell them to fuck off, spit in their face, and live your life however you want to no matter what anybody says.”

I didn’t realize it until I paused to take a breath, but… I was crying. Or at least, I felt a couple of tears on my cheeks.

The toxic beliefs still stuck in my mind immediately made me feel pathetic for that. Like I was less of a man.

“How dare I cry a little because I’m getting emotional, right?” I asked. “A real man doesn’t show emotion. He’s stoic, in control of his emotions, and never shows weakness to others. I’m a lesser man for daring to open my heart to you. Right?”

Ninja was quick to shake her head, stepping forward and reaching a hand out to me. “That—that is not true, my lord! You—”

“I know it’s not true. But if you can say it’s not true for me, then you can say it’s not true for yourself, too. You’re not lesser. You’re not inferior. You’re you, and that’s all you need to be. Me crying and getting emotional is something I have control over, so it’s nowhere near on the same level as you simply being born how you are. If you still choose to let those shitty beliefs influence you, then I’m going to do the same. I’ll let my parents win. They were right. I’m a worthless piece of garbage who has done nothing but waste their money and time. I never should have been born.”

Ninja lowered her head and asked, “After… even though you have already saved me when I was not able to save myself… why do you still go beyond to treat me with such kindness?”

“Why? Because I see my old self in you and it pisses me off. I wasted years of my life depressed because I let the opinions of shitty people influence how I viewed myself. Whenever I see anybody like that, it makes me want to harass them until they stop giving a fuck and start being happy just being who they are. It took me way too long to learn how to be happy just being me. If I can save somebody else some time by ranting at them and getting involved in their personal business without being asked to, then I’ll spend the rest of my life doing it. I’m a stubborn, invasive asshole like that.”

“You—you… are nothing but a kind man, my lord. I… do not believe I have ever had anybody speak so bluntly to me… nor have I ever been spoken to with my own wellbeing at the forefront.”

I might have gone from zero to a hundred, but I always believed the world needed more people who were willing to go from zero to a hundred for the right reasons. And as far as I was concerned, this was one of those right reasons.

“You don’t have to remove your hood and mask if you don’t want to,” I said, “but I don’t want you ever looking down on yourself, and I don’t want you to wear them because you feel like you have to be ashamed of how you look. All that matters is your own comfort and happiness. If you want to serve me, then consider that a standing order and the most important one in your life. Be happy. Be yourself. Love yourself and who you are.”

Even after all that, there was a voice inside my head shouting at me telling me to shut up and to stop acting so pathetic.

But that was a voice I learned to ignore years ago, so too bad for it.

I wasn’t going to stop being who I was—who I chose to be, and I chose to be somebody who would open up to others if it meant I might be able to help them. I didn’t care if they were a human, a monster, a girl or a boy, or anything else. All that mattered was that if I could help them, I was going to no matter how annoying it might have made me.

Though, I had to admit, I was kind of worried what Guide thought about all of that. I hadn’t looked back at her since I started ranting, so I had no idea what kind of face she was making.

My fears made me worry that maybe I made myself look lame or cringey to her, but… even if I did, no matter how much I would hate that, I wasn’t going to regret what I said. I meant every word of it.

Before I could check on Guide, though, Ninja spoke up and said, “My—my lord… would you… please look at me?”

“Whenever you want,” I answered, looking her right in her eyes.

Following a deep breath, Ninja reached her hands up and grabbed onto her hood and mask, slowly pulling them away to finally reveal herself to us.

Chapter 44

I was right.

Ninja was really, really cute.

Following the removal of her hood and mask, what me and Guide saw was a perfectly normal, and really cute, girl’s face. Sure, she had a wolf’s ears and tail, but the rest of her was just… human.

Was that really all it took for people to discriminate against her wherever she was from?

If that was true, it pissed me off even more, but I reeled my anger back so that we could focus on the positive. She didn’t need me to get upset on her behalf again when she was making progress and embracing who she was. It was time to praise the good, not rant about the bad.

“Even… even after what you said, I cannot believe a man such as yourself would desire a girl as plain as me,” Ninja said, struggling to look at me.

It took everything in me to not get mad again. Instead, I took a deep breath and calmly said, “Ninja.”

“Y-yes, my lord?”

“You are god damn adorable. You are so damn cute that it makes me want to punch something. And you know what? I’ll say it. The ears make you even cuter. I want to touch them and play with them because of how fluffy they look. Your tail, too. It makes me want to brush it. And your face—you’re attractive enough that any man would want you. Most women probably would, too. Where I’m from, everybody in the world would be fighting themselves over who gets you because of how damn cute you are.”

Ninja’s cheeks turned red, her ears twitched, and her tail wagged increasingly faster behind her. “My—my lord—I… how—how can you say such things so genuinely?”

“Because they’re true.”

“I… have never met a single person in my life who spoke with such an open mind and with such honesty. It… it really is true that you will accept me despite what I am?”

“I won’t accept you despite what you are. I’ll accept you regardless of what you are. Also, you’re fluffy, and fluffy is cute.”

For the first time, Ninja looked away, scratched her cheek a little, and… giggled. “Eh-ehe… I have… never been praised in such a manner. I must admit that it is praise I hope I never grow accustomed to so that I may always enjoy it as much as I do now.”

“Too bad. I’ll call you cute every damn day until you get sick and tired of hearing it so that you never forget the truth.”

“Fortunately… I believe that no matter how often my lord may say it that my heart will always beat with such fervor when those words grace my ears.” Ninja let out a long, relaxed sigh. “I had no idea it was possible to feel such… happiness. I know I believed I was happy before under my teacher’s guidance, but… even in the short time we have spent together, I already feel happier than I even knew was possible as your retainer.”

“Like I said before, you have low standards.”

“If my low standards are responsible for the joy within my heart, then I shall keep them low for as long as I may live.”

And with that… Guide clapped from behind me and said, “Alright! Sorry to cut in, but I’m going to steal your lord for a moment. There’s something I want to talk about in private, so wait out here for us, alright?”

Ninja jumped a little when she heard the clap but nodded her head. “Un-understood!”

The next thing I knew, Guide was grabbing me by my wrist and dragging me into the room with the bed, shutting the door behind us.

“Guide?” I asked. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”

Guide didn’t answer me. She didn’t answer me verbally, at least. Instead, she answered me by pushing me down onto the bed, rolling me onto my side… and then joining me on the bed by hugging me. She also made sure to hug me so that my face would be pressed right against her chest. “I’m sorry, Player.”

As much as I was happy to enjoy my face against her breasts, I ended up leaning my head back so I could look up at her and ask, “What are you apologizing for?”

“That… all of that happened because of what I asked. Because I wanted to try and rush things, you were forced to remember such painful memories and—”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It was going to happen eventually, so better to get it out of the way with as soon as possible.”

“But—!”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. You didn’t do anything wrong. Well… next time, maybe have a bit more tact and wait a little. You don’t need to ask new girls if they want to sleep with me in your first conversation with them.”

“That… that’s true. Now… there’s something else on my mind.”

“Yeah?”

Guide placed one hand on the back of my head so that she could push my face back against her breasts and hold it there. “Hearing what you said about yourself… do you have any idea how hard it was for me to hold back? I was clenching my fists so tightly that my nails cut my palms. I wanted nothing more than to stop you and praise you for how wonderful you are. What you implied about your family… they’re monsters. All of that anger you expressed just from hearing about the discrimination against her, I felt hearing about how you were treated, and I am so proud of you, Player, for leaving them to live your own life. I am sure that couldn’t have been easy, but you did it, and now you’re here. Even though you were raised by such horrible people, you have become such a kind, honest, wonderful man.”

“Come on, don’t you think I’ve cried enough already?”

“If that’s what you think, then it’s time for me to give you some proper guidance. If you still have tears to cry, then you should cry until your eyes run dry. Whether they’re tears from anger, sadness, stress, excitement, joy… you should never feel ashamed of crying. Tears are just an expression of emotion, and refraining from expressing how you feel is never good. That is why, Player, you are welcome to cry as much as you want, whenever you want, for any reason. And if you ever feel too embarrassed to do it around others, all you need to do is come to me and I’ll hold you just like this until not a single tear remains.”

“Hah… you’ve helped me realize something, I think.”

“What is it?”

“I think the reason I blew up like that… was probably because I’ve always wanted somebody to accept me for who I am. I’ve never really had that before. I didn’t want anybody else feeling that way, so I made sure that Ninja understood I’d accept her no matter what.”

Guide’s hand on the back of my head gently stroked against me, the feeling of her nails lightly running against my scalp causing me to shiver. “I accept you, Player, and I always will. You only need to be yourself for me. After all… you are the one I—the one I cherish. I would say those other words, and now would be a perfect time for them, but… since I can’t say them, I’ll tell you that I cherish you instead. I cherish you. I value you. I respect you. I admire you. And I will do everything I can to support you.”

Even though a part of me still felt lame and ashamed for crying, especially after hearing everything that she just said, I… let myself cry. It was probably the first time in my entire life that I ever just… didn’t even try to hold back.

I cried.

“These emotions must have been weighing on you for so long,” Guide whispered.

“Yeah,” was all that I could say in response.

“I want you to never hold your feelings back again.”

“I… I won’t. But you know… now that you’re treating me like this, it’s going to turn me into some clingy guy who always wants your attention and pampering, so I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“Oh no, what a shame. The man I cherish wants me to cherish him. Truly, how horrible.”

“Smartass.” She got me laughing a little. It was weird to be all teary-eyed and laughing at the same time.

Guide then tilted my head back so she could look me in the eyes again and said, “Just you wait, Player.” Her cool voice was out in full force. “As soon as I’m able to properly tell you those three words, I’m going to repeat them so much that your ears fall off. You won’t be able to go five seconds without me telling you them.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“Good. Also… Ninja is really cute, isn’t she?”

“She is.”

“And she totally fell for you already.”

“I—I think it’s too soon to be saying that.”

Guide shook her head and said, “Thanks to this body, I’ve got a woman’s intuition now.”

“I’m… not sure that’s how that works.”

“Trust me, Player. I recognize the way she looks at you. She already had feelings before your whole rant at her, and I could tell she felt the same way about you that I do by the end of it.” Guide looked smugly proud of herself. “I was right to stay quiet and let you handle it.”

I wasn’t sure if I could believe her that easily—or rather, I did believe her. I had full faith in Guide that she wouldn’t lie to me. Even so, I struggled to believe Ninja already felt that way about me.

“By the way,” I said. “When you were on your knees when we came back—”

Guide forced my face back against her breasts harder than ever before, making sure that I couldn’t talk without my voice being all muffled.

After how cool she was just acting, she must not have wanted me to remind her of that.

Chapter 45

When me and Guide finally left the other room, we returned to the main room where we saw Ninja crouching down next to Mimic. She looked like she was just sort of… poking Mimic in various spots and seeing how it worked.

The more I saw of Ninja, the more I saw her like an overly excited, cute, curious dog who came from an abusive home.

And as soon as Ninja noticed we were back, she reached for her hood and mask as if to cover herself back up, but she stopped before actually putting them on. “Ri-right… I… don’t need to worry about covering up in the presence of others anymore…”

“Good, you’ve learned,” I said.

“Ah! My lord! Your eyes! They look so red… is everything well?”

“Come on, it’s embarrassing if you call me out like that. But yeah, I’m fine. Better than ever, even. Didn’t think that randomly getting brought to some game-like world where I could seriously die at any moment would be this great, but I can honestly say I’ve never been happier.”

“I—I see! I, too, feel that way. Just a short time ago, I was sure I would die… but now I am here with you and feeling joy and comfort I did not even know was possible. A-also…”

“Yeah?”

“I… thought about what… I was asked. About… servicing you… in the bedroom as a concubine. If… it would be alright, and I have your wife’s approval, then I would be honored to serve as your co-c-c-conc-concubine! I am not experienced in such matters, but I will do my—my best!”

I sighed while Guide looked increasingly more smug next to me.

“One, you don’t need to push yourself,” I said. “Two, Guide isn’t my wife… not yet, at least.”

“That’s right,” Guide added on. “Yet.”

Ninja blinked a couple of times. “Is—is that so? With how much love she looks at you with, my lord… I was sure that she must be your wife.”

I expected that to potentially fluster Guide, but no. Guide owned it. Instead, all she said was, “See, Player? I told you. Womanly intuition.”

“Wait,” I said, “do women actually have a secret power I didn’t know about that lets you read each other’s emotions or something?”

“Obviously. Isn’t that right, Ninja?”

Ninja tilted her head and said, “I fear I do not know. Could it be possible that the reason I am able to read others so well is not only because of what I am, but because I am a woman as well? I have never heard of women having such power, but…”

Guide placed her hands on her hips, looking awfully confident. “It’s a power that only we have.”

“I—I see! You are clearly wise, Guide! Please, teach me everything that you know!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you everything I can, including how to best serve Player, of course.”

“Please do! Nothing would make me happier, Miss Guide!”

“Miss—Miss Guide?”

“I am not sure what other title I should give you. Is that one not appropriate?”

Guide shook her head. “I just didn’t expect it. I… like it. Lord Player and Miss Guide.”

“Hoh, I see! I am glad!”

“Also, let me clear something up.”

“Yes, Miss Guide?”

Guide stepped away from my side, approaching Ninja a little, and dramatically pointed a finger out to her. “I know I was silent during what happened earlier, but I feel the same way as Player. Never hide who you are. Be honest with us and we’ll accept you no matter what. Everything that Player said is true of me as well. And if you ever need comforting or spoiling and Player isn’t around, then you come to me!”

Ninja blushed some more at finally getting to see Guide’s cool side and nodded. “U-understood!”

“And that’s not all. I only used being a mistress or concubine as an example earlier so you’d get what I was trying to say, but that’s not what you’re going to be. You’re going to be just like me and be one of Player’s future wives!”

“His—his wife?!” Ninja looked back and forth between me and Guide with panic in her eyes and red coloring in her cheeks. “But—but! That—a—a concubine is one thing, but—bu-bub-bubtut-but—but, a wi-wife?! I do not deserve such an honor! Not only is such an honor impossibly far beyond what I deserve, but I fear my heart would rip itself apart from joy! Simply serving as his retainer is already enough for me! Becoming… becoming Lord Player’s wife… my heart would not be able to handle the happiness.”

Guide lowered her voice and looked at me. “Try telling me again that she doesn’t love you.”

“Al-alright,” I said. “You win.”

A satisfied huff left Guide’s mouth before she returned her attention to Ninja. “Being a ‘mistress’ or ‘concubine’ implies that you have a lower position than me, and that’s not going to work. We’re going to be equal wives! And every other woman who shows up will be the same!” Guide walked toward Ninja, making the poor girl so nervous that she backed up until her back was against the wall, and that was Guide grabbed Ninja by the chin. Tilting Ninja’s head back and looking her directly in the eyes, Guide said, “I won’t settle for anything less.”

Ninja’s lips were quivering and her eyes were spinning, completely caught off guard from Guide being cool.

At least I wasn’t the only one who Guide could catch off guard like that.

Also… from the way it looked, it looked like Guide was in the process of making Ninja fall in love with her, too.

Well, that was alright. If I was going to have a harem of women who loved me, it was obviously alright for them to love each other as well. That was probably the healthiest way to go about it. It would also be a mercy to me. Rather than have to satisfy all of my wives all on my own, they could help each other out whenever I was busy.

…

I got into the habit of viewing them both as future wives pretty easily.

That aside, Guide looped an arm around Ninja’s shoulders and stood next to her. The two of them then looked at me together and Guide asked, “It’s time for Ninja to learn about bedroom activities, don’t you think?”

“Al—already?” I asked. “Don’t you think we should let her get a bit more used to us firs—”

Ninja stepped forward and declared, “I—I am ready to service you however you desire, my lord! All I ask is that you be patient with my inexperience!”

“Don’t worry,” Guide said. “We were both virgins before the other day. You’ll get a hang of things pretty quickly.”

Ninja, with a determined expression and her hands held up in front of her, nodded to Guide before looking at me again.

I was planning on building and crafting, but if both of them were adamant about fooling around in the bedroom… well, I was a guy who was a virgin just a couple of days before, and there were two attractive women who wanted to screw around with me.

It was impossible to refuse them.

Chapter 46 (Lewd)

In the bedroom, this time with Mimic left in the other room so that it wasn’t just watching us the entire time, a familiar event occurred.

I was sitting on the edge of the bed with both Guide and Ninja on their knees in front of me, with Ninja being the one more directly between my legs while Guide was off to the side a bit.

And as soon as my cock was pulled out for Ninja to see… she jumped, covered up her face with her hands and only allowed enough space between her fingers for her eyes to barely peek through, while Guide nodded next to her.

“I understand,” Guide said. “I felt the same way when I saw it for the first time. Even now… it’s still hard to believe that this thing is real.”

Ninja just kept on looking it up and down as it throbbed every now and then in front of her face. “I… I recall tales of legendary spears… but I have never heard of one residing in a man’s pants before!”

“Don’t worry, I know it looks pretty scary, but he’s a friendly guy who just wants some love.”

“He—he?”

“Player likes it when you talk to his dick like that. He’s never confirmed it, but he always throbbed more when I did it.”

I… I didn’t even realize that. And it was true? Thinking about it, there was something pretty arousing about them talking to my dick.

“I… I see!” Ninja said. “Then, if it is what my lord enjoys…” Ninja placed her hands on her lap and bowed in front of my dick. “I will be in your service, Lord Spear! Please excuse my inexperience! I will do my best to serve you!”

“See?” Guide asked, watching as my cock throbbed way more than I expected it to in response to that.

“Haa… I see… it is even more active than before.”

“Wait.”

“Miss Guide?”

“Have you kissed him yet?”

“Lord Spear? I—I have not!”

“Not him. Player. Have you and Player even kissed yet?”

“We… we have not.”

Guide looked up at me with an unimpressed expression. “You were going to let her suck your dick before she’s even kissed you?”

“Hey,” I said, “this is your fault. You’re the one trying to rush things here and talked her into doing this.”

“That’s fair… alright.” Guide returned her attention to Ninja. “You have to kiss Player first. It wouldn’t be right to service his ‘spear’ before you’ve even kissed him.”

For some reason, Ninja looked even more flustered by the thought of kissing me than servicing my cock. “But! That is such an intimate and romantic thing! I—”

“You want to be his wife, don’t you?”

“I… I do… as guilty as it makes me feel for indulging in such an honor…”

“Wanting to suck his dick and wanting to be his wife are both way more extreme things than kissing him.”

I had to admit it, Guide had a pretty good point there. That was why, since Ninja seemed too shy to take the initiative to bring her lips to me, I grabbed her by her shoulders and brought her up so that I could press my lips against hers.

Guide might have been the one to take control between me and her, but Ninja was the submissive one between me and her.

It was nice that I got to act cool and dominant to at least one of them. Not… that I minded taking on a bit more submissive role with Guide. If anything, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

That aside.

Ninja whimpered for the first couple of seconds that our lips touched for, but she gave in and allowed herself to enjoy it before long.

Now, I was still sitting on the edge of the bed, my dick was out, and I pulled Ninja up so that our lips could reach one another.

That meant my cock was basically pressed up against her abdomen, and it being there showed just how far inside of her it would go if I penetrated her. Sure, she still had her clothes on, as did Guide, but she didn’t need to be naked to get a good idea of how far into her it would reach.

And when Ninja noticed that, she froze and stared down at it. “It—he would… go so deep…”

Guide leaned forward to look around Ninja and saw the sight as well. “I thought I getting less nervous… but… that really is deep… isn’t it?” With that, Guide shook her head and pulled Ninja back down onto her knees. “Let’s just ignore that for now. It’s not like we can do that yet anyways!”

“Ri-right!”

Sure, there were two girls in front of me wanting to ignore the thought of putting my dick inside of them out of fear for how deep it would go, but it didn’t matter. Their way of making up for it was servicing my cock together with the rest of their bodies, plus there was something arousing about them being that nervous about it in the first place. Or maybe, it wasn’t arousing so much as it was a huge ego booster.

I would say that at least I could thank my family’s genetics for giving me a huge dick, but that wasn’t even true. I had the uncomfortable honor of listening to my parents get into an argument about sex before where my mother mocked my father for his supposedly small size.

So, I wasn’t even able to thank my family for passing on those genes.

Actually, that made it even better. While they treated me like shit and left me on my own, now I had a huge dick, two women willing to service it, and I was having more fun and felt more alive than ever before.

I was told I would never amount to anything and that I was better off either disappearing or dying, but I sure felt like I was winning far more in life than they ever did.

“You have to be gentle with him,” Guide said to Ninja. “I know he looks big and scary, but he’s still a pretty sensitive guy. Try wrapping your hands around him.”

Ninja, nodding along to Guide’s instructions, tried to wrap each of her hands around my cock only to run into the same problem Guide did before. “It—he is so thick… my fingers do not even reach around him.”

“I know the feeling. But he’s kind of squishy and warm, right?”

“He—he is! I expected the hardness of a spear with the presence that Lord Spear has! But he is rather… soft to the touch. Very interesting!” Ninja might have been inexperienced, but there was something really nice about the way she curiously stroked her hands along my cock, bringing her face closer and closer to it as if to thoroughly study it.

Guide then looked up at me and smirked. “Player… you don’t mind if I train her, right?”

“Tr-train her?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean train her so that she associates serving ‘Lord Spear’ with pleasure.” With that, Guide slipped around to behind Ninja and sat directly behind her, wrapping her legs around Ninja’s and bringing one hand up to her chest. Ninja jumped a little when she suddenly felt Guide’s hand slip down into her shirt, and then she looked even more panicked when Guide’s other hand slipped into her pants.

“Lady—Lady Guide! What—what are you doing?!” Ninja whined.

“I’m doing what I said,” Guide answered. “Training you. Each time you make Player cum, I’ll make you cum. Before long, you’ll be able to cum just from making him cum, like me.”

“I… I see! I—I have never heard of such a training technique before. There is still much I have to learn… and if it is for Lord Player and Lord Spear, then I will undergo any training no matter how vigorous it may be!”

Guide looked me directly in the eyes and said, “You’re lucky that I—that I cherish you, or else I would want to steal her for myself.”

I couldn’t blame her at all. “I get it,” I replied.

“So… is it alright?”

“If you have to ask me that at all, then I’m pretty sure you’ve always been a woman on the inside.” After all, what man wouldn’t be alright with watching a woman make another woman cum while that other woman was sucking his dick and making him cum? It was a free, incredibly hot, show to go with getting serviced.

Well, I wouldn’t like it if I wasn’t dating both of them since that would make me jealous, but I was basically dating both of them. They both wanted to become my wives, even, so we were probably more than just “dating” even if things technically weren’t official in the world’s eyes.

In that case, it was a matter of watching one of my future wives tease the body of my other future wife while I got my dick sucked, and that was more than alright.

Regardless, Ninja let out a pretty cute moan and her ears twitched in response to whatever Guide was doing to her. I couldn’t actually see since Ninja’s clothes were still in the way, but that made it even hotter. Some mystery was nice. I could tell both of Guide’s hands were moving underneath Ninja’s clothes, but I had no idea what each hand was specifically doing. All I could do was guess. Sure, they were educated guesses with few options, but still.

“Don’t forget to service your new lord,” Guide whispered next to Ninja’s head. “You won’t get to cum if you don’t make him cum.”

Ninja let out another moan as she nodded her head. “U-understood. Is… is there anything I should do? I am still not sure what else I should be doing…”

Guide smirked at me again before whispering something so quietly into Ninja’s ear that I had no idea what she said. The next moment, Ninja nodded and removed both of her hands from my shaft to instead fondle my sack with them, one nut for each of her hands. Her fingers gently teased and rolled them around, occasionally giving them extremely light squeezes as she brought her face right against the underside of my cock to kiss the vein running up alongside it. Her tongue slid out from her mouth after a few seconds of kisses to give it a lick, and licking it made Ninja’s eyes widen even more.

“I… I did not expect Lord Spear to taste so wonderful,” Ninja said. “He has such a strong scent and flavor… all I ever ate before was plain rice. I do not believe I could ever go back to such plain meals after having a taste of Lord Spear…”

As absolutely arousing as it was to hear something like that, hearing it gave me the urge to spoil Ninja with all sorts of different food so that she could experience how much flavor the world actually had to offer that wasn’t related to my dick.

Guide, too, really. It wasn’t like she got to experience a bunch of different foods before.

They both needed some spoiling.

Though, Ninja was getting plenty of spoiling thanks to Guide. The more effort Ninja put into servicing my cock, the more effort Guide put into teasing her body. In fact, it didn’t take long at all for Ninja to look like she was on the verge of orgasming.

And Guide noticed that as well, stopping her ministrations. “You’re not allowed to cum until Player does,” Guide whispered into Ninja’s ear, causing her to shiver.

“Ri-right!” Ninja replied. “I—I am sorry for getting ahead of myself! I am simply not used to these sensations.”

“Actually… it would be better if I train you to be able to cum just from playing with him. After all… I was able to cum just from sucking him even though he wasn’t cumming at the same time, so it’s only fair if I let you feel the same.”

“Then… you will let me feel that if I am… sucking on him?”

Whatever Guide did next to Ninja underneath her clothes made her yelp and bite her lower lip. “That’s right. Why don’t you try it out?”

With eyes full of lust, Ninja nodded and leaned her body upward so that she could bring her mouth to the tip of my cock. “I fear I may not be able to accommodate such a size, but I will—I will do my best to embrace Lord Spear!” And with that, Ninja opened up her mouth, lowered her head… and basically stopped as soon as she had the entire tip inside. She looked like she wasn’t expecting it to stuff her mouth so completely even though she was examining it so closely that entire time.

But even so, it felt good. Really good. Watching what Guide was doing to her and feeling Ninja’s hands fondling my sack still only made the whole experience even better.

“Now, move your head up and down without letting his cock out,” Guide instructed.

Ninja let out a muffled noise of acknowledgement before trying her best to do what Guide said. Slowly and clumsily, Ninja bobbed her head up and down the top of my cock, only able to take in a couple of inches beneath the tip which left plenty of unused shaft below.

I wasn’t the only one who saw that, either.

“It looks like we would need at least two more girls here to properly use all of you,” Guide said, her tone a combination of cool and seductive as she looked my shaft up and down.

Four girls? At once?

Yeah, I was winning life.

Guide then continued by saying, “For somebody who was getting on my case about rushing things… you sure are quiet now, Player.”

“That’s—that’s because I’m getting close,” I replied. It was also because I couldn’t complain about rushing when I was enjoying the results of it so much.

And despite how close I felt, it wasn’t me who got to cum first. Ninja did. Ninja’s body trembled and muffled moans tried their best to escape from around my cock as she arched her back, pushing her clothed chest up against my shaft in the process, and her hands also squeezed my sack a bit more tightly than before likely without meaning to.

That was enough for me.

While Ninja was in the middle of her own orgasm, I reached mine, and Ninja’s body only twitched and trembled even more as she felt my seed flood into her mouth.

Guide, watching as Ninja managed to keep my cumming tip inside of her mouth for even longer at once than she was ever able to, gently gripped Ninja by her jawline and tried to lift her head off my cock. “You—you don’t have to force yourself to take all of it, I know how impossible that—”

But Ninja refused.

In fact, Ninja, in response to Guide trying to pull her head away, shoved her head even farther down on my cock.

That was way, way too good. Even with as many times as Guide sucked me off the other day, she never continued sucking throughout my entire orgasm because she just couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume of cum.

But Ninja did.

The longer it went on for, the more impressed Guide looked, and the more I felt like my soul was leaving my body. I finally understood all those “when you nut but she keeps sucking” memes on the internet.

Then, once it was finally over, Ninja pulled herself away from my cock, tilted her head back, and touched one of her hands against her throat as she swallowed down the last of my seed.

“Haa… so, my teacher’s breathing technique can be used for this as well,” Ninja said while I flopped backward onto the mattress as Guide just sat there blinking.

“You… you need to teach me that,” Guide said.

“Of course, Lady Guide! But I must ask… is… is it normal for such a flood to occur when he finishes? It felt as if a dam broke within my mouth.”

“That’s just how he is. Also… if you think it’s over, you’re wrong.”

“It—it is not over?! But with such an amount, how could there be anything left?!”

“That was what I thought every single time I made him cum. For hours.”

“There—there must be a demon possessing Lord Spear…”

“I think Player is just that incredible.”

“Hoh… I see, an even more likely explanation.”

They were both ridiculous, and they also went silent after that.

When I leaned up to look at what was going on, I saw Guide taking control and making out with Ninja for a few seconds, completely flustering the poor girl and throwing her off guard.

It was only when Guide noticed me watching that she stopped and looked at me. “She swallowed it all and didn’t leave any for me… so I wanted to steal a taste.”

“You sound like an addict,” I said.

“How could either of us not be after getting a taste of you? Oh! I almost forgot.”

“Yeah?”

“Ninja here is already trained.”

Ninja looked even more surprised than I did when we heard that. “Is she?” I asked.

Guide placed one hand atop Ninja’s head, petting her between her ears, and nodded. “I wasn’t doing anything when she came. She came solely by serving you.”

I would have appreciated how hot that was if it wasn’t for how adorable Ninja looked by closing her eyes and pressing her head up against Guide’s petting hand. Apparently, she really liked to be petted.

I wanted to pet her more than I wanted to cum again.

I wondered what would happen if I tried petting her while she was sucking me off…

Chapter 47

We thought we were safe from being watched the whole time by Mimic.

We weren’t.

Mimic stuck its tongue underneath the door… and formed an eyeball at the tip of its tongue that it used to watch us with without any of us noticing. It was only after filling up both Guide and Ninja over and over again, and covering their faces to an excessive degree, leaving them exhausted on the bed together, that I noticed Mimic was watching that whole time.

And strangely enough, even though we all felt more or less the same amount of pleasure, I felt pretty full of energy at the end of things. Guide and Ninja, however, were thoroughly exhausted and holding hands while facing each other on the bed, the gentle sounds of their breathing making it obvious that they already fell asleep.

I could probably go a couple more rounds, too, despite it having already been hours.

Maybe I really did need a bunch more wives.

Fortunately, Guide wasn’t bringing up any jaw pain by the end of this session which we probably had Ninja to thank for since Ninja being involved meant Guide didn’t have to do all the work. So, one problem was solved at least.

“Alright, you voyeuristic chest,” I said to Mimic, not speaking too loudly so that I wouldn’t wake up the girls on the bed. “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Leaving the room and closing the door behind me, I thought about a few different things that I could focus on next. I still needed to go over some of the items I got from the Slime Monarch, plus there was—

Mimic’s tongue licked my abdomen.

No, it didn’t specifically lick my abdomen, it was trying to get down into my pants.

As strange as it felt, I grabbed Mimic’s tongue and pulled it away from my pants. “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.

Mimic pointed its tongue at the bedroom’s door and then pointed it back at my crotch.

Then I realized what happened.

That was the second time Mimic basically watched me get serviced, orally, for hours.

And Mimic did have a tongue as well.

But Mimic was Mimic. Mimic was a monster—a large, hopping chest with no humanoid body nor even any way to communicate with language other than very vague pointing with its tongue and stomach grumbling.

“Sorry, Mimic, but I’m only into women,” I said. Doing anything with Mimic while Mimic didn’t even look human would just feel… wrong. I didn’t want to do anything with Mimic in the same way that I wouldn’t want to do anything with a pet dog. That was just weird.

Fortunately, Mimic seemed to understand and licked my cheek instead. That was alright. Nothing non-wholesome about a cheek lick.

Moving on, I sat down over at the table. Mimic joined me so that I could pet the top of its body while checking out my inventory.

The first item I checked out was the new soul.

//[Soul of the Slime Monarch]

//Unique

//Once belonging to the Slime Monarch, the monster’s soul has been freed from its physical form and may be given new purpose.

//Consuming this item will grant you a permanent +5 Health, +5 Mana, +1 Defense, +1 Health Regeneration, +2.5% Damage, +1% Attack Speed, +1% Movement Speed, and +1% Critical Chance. You will also gain the ability to jump higher and take less fall damage, and Slimes will no longer attack you.

Basically, it was just like the other boss’s soul except with lower overall boosts. That implied the stronger the boss, the stronger the soul, the more boosts I would get if I actually consumed them. And if that was the case, just how powerful would the souls be from some of the game’s hardest bosses?

I still wanted to try and figure out if there was anything else possible to do with them first, though, seeing as how they were both unique items that I would never be able to get again after using.

Next came the armor.

//[Shinobi Pants]

//Legs

//2 Defense

//+8% Movement Speed

Lower defense than what I already got from the [Watcher Legs], but even greater movement speed. It honestly might be worth switching over to them since I would rather just get not hit in general, and being faster would make it easier to not get hit.

Then there was the [Slime Monarch’s Mask] and [Artifact of the Slime Monarch]. Both of those were just achievement and difficulty drops for vanity alone, so they didn’t matter too much.

The next item, though, was something I never saw before.

//[Slimy Cloud]

//Furniture

//Permanently rains slime underneath it.

//“Perfect for when you feel like being covered in slime for some reason.”

I… had no idea what use I might get out of that. Maybe it’d be worth selling to a vendor as soon as somebody with a shop, such as the trader, moved in.

Then there was the beautiful item I was waiting for.

//[Slime Shaper]

//Furniture

//Solidifies and shapes slime into various items.

It was just as I remembered. And, thanks to how much slime I had from the slimepocalypse, I could probably build an entire village out of slime if I wanted to using the machine.

//[Slimy Crown]

//Accessory

//Transcendent Difficulty

//Weapons that are made with [Slime] or that use [Slime] as ammunition deal 1.5x as much Damage when equipped.

That would be great for my flamethrower. Presumably, it would also be good for some weapons typically available later on that weren’t quite able to keep up with the competition on their own. Most flamethrowers available late in the game were like that. With this, though, they’d stay competitive.

And next was a familiar item from the vanilla game.

//[Slime Sprayer]

//Damage: 3 (Ranged)

//Knockback: Average

//Critical Rate: 1%

//Inflicts the [Slimy] debuff.

The [Slime Sprayer] was a bit of an infamous item in the original game that was mainly used to mess with friends. While its damage was pretty bad and the only people who used it to actually fight were people purposely challenging themselves, the weapon was able to massively slow down players to the point where it became insufferably slow trying to move around until the debuff wore off.

The debuff also worked against bosses, but it was pretty nerfed against them and only slowed them a little. Combined with the [Slimy Crown], though, and it might be pretty useful to use in actual fights.

And finally, there was one more item to check out from the Slime Monarch.

//[Slime Monarch’s Cape]

//Vanity Accessory

It might have just been a vanity accessory, but… I still equipped it in one of the vanity accessory slots.

I was probably more excited for it than I should have been.

Appearing as soon as I equipped it, a long, red cape with a golden trim appeared behind me. It was long enough to reach down to my ankles and did a great job of making me feel pretty regal.

Really, I just wanted to try it on because I never wore a cape before and never imagined myself unironically wearing a cape in my entire life.

It was pretty nice. With how big my ego was getting thanks to Guide and Ninja, I’d probably want to unironically wear it around the place before long.

Well…

It was probably alright to keep it equipped for now. I’d unequip it the next time I got in a fight so that it wouldn’t get in the way, but I didn’t see any harm in wearing it until then.

“Oh, right,” I said, realizing that I forgot to equip the [Slimy Crown].

As soon as I equipped it, a golden crown with a bit of blue slime stuck on it appeared on top of my head. It was a pretty small crown, so it looked a bit silly, but still.

I had a crown and a cape.

The fact that I didn’t take them off right away was probably proof of my ego getting too inflated for its own good.

That aside, all that was left was the [Royal Slime] I got from the boss. That was just the boss’s crafting material for some weapons and armor themed around the boss, though, so the item itself wasn’t anything special. I wasn’t sure there was anything good I could make with them either that came to mind—at least, nothing that was better than what I already had.

So, rather than focus on that, I focused on a much more important task.

“Want to build a slime house with me, Mimic?” I asked.

Mimic jumped up and hopped over to the door like a dog waiting to go on a walk.

Thanks to the [Slime Shaper] and slimepocalypse, I wasn’t only going to make myself a slime bed, I was going to make myself an entire slime house.

Chapter 48

“Mimic, I’m starting to remember why I’ve never bothered with making nice builds before,” I said, looking over my crowning achievement: the slime house.

The slime house was… a square. A square made out of solidified slime blocks.

That was it.

Mimic patted the top of my head with its tongue as I looked at the house and sighed.

“I’m just going to tear it down and stick to replacing the current bed with a slime bed. Actually, wait.” I moved the [Slimy Bed] from my inventory onto my hotbar, placed it down on the ground, and looked it over. It was the same size as the other bed, but it was—well, made out of slime. Blue slime, to be specific. Everything about it was made out of slime. The frame, slime. The mattress, slime. Pillows, slime. Blanket? Slime.

While the idea of a slime bed sounded great in theory, I had no idea what it would actually be like, so I carefully lowered myself down onto it… and immediately realized that having a slime bed was not as great as I hoped it would be. Rather than just be a super soft bed, I partially sunk into it and got a bit stuck. Moving around on top of it was a huge pain. Sure, it felt soft, and it felt like it was perfectly conforming to the shape of my back and all that, but it was too soft.

I had no idea that a bed could be too soft, yet there it was, being a bed that was too soft.

I let out another, disappointed sigh and returned the bed to my inventory.

While the slime house and slime bed might have turned out to be disappointments, there was one thing that was absolutely not a disappointment, and that was the [Slimy Chest] I made at the [Slime Shaper]. I only had one free slot in my inventory left after all the items I gathered, so I was in desperate need of some chests if I wanted to keep hoarding everything.

The [Slimy Chest] was the answer to that particular problem.

Once I placed it down inside the normal house, seeing as how I tore down the slime house so that nobody else would ever have to look at how ugly it was, I dumped practically my entire inventory into the chest aside from a few crafting materials, my money, and the [Minor Healing Potion]s. Well, there was one other item I didn’t toss into the chest, and that was the [Slimy Cloud]. I wanted to see what it was like, so I went back outside and tried to place it down in the air in front of me.

Surely enough, a floating, cloud-shaped slime appeared in front of me. It was the size of a small car and, just as the description said, it rained slime. Not slime monsters, but actual slime droplets. The slime that it rained splashed onto the ground and disappeared right after, so it wasn’t like it was an item that could be used to farm an infinite amount of slime or anything like that.

Then, when I poked it, the cloud got pushed forward a little. When I pushed up against it, it rose into the air until its momentum ran out. It didn’t drop back down, either. It just stayed where it was.

Now, it might have just been a furniture item, but items such as building blocks could still typically “snap” onto furniture items in the original game.

My inventory was full of various items just minutes after I dumped them all into the chest. That was always the problem, wasn’t it? Storing things you don’t think you need, and then you immediately need them.

That problem would likely never go away.

That aside, I began my new round of experiments by taking a [Wooden Log] and placing it against the [Slimy Cloud].

It worked.

The wood formed a perfect connection to the cloud.

Next test.

With the wood in place against the cloud, I gave it a push… and it moved. Both the cloud and the wood moved together.

“Mimic,” I said, “I might have discovered something amazing and extremely exploitable.”

Next experiment.

I took some [Stone] and completely surrounded the cloud with it. Surely enough, even when surrounded, the cloud and everything attached to it remained floating and could be pushed through the air.

Next, I removed the [Stone] prison from the cloud and built a wide platform extending in one direction from the cloud. Once that was in place, I began stacking as many [Stone], [Wooden Log], and [Solidified Slime] blocks as I could on top of the platform until I finally noticed a difference. After attaching fifty blocks in total to the cloud, it reached its weight capacity and drifted down to the ground.

There were two more experiments left.

First, I returned the cloud to my inventory by “breaking” it with my pickaxe.

As soon as the cloud got minimized and returned to my inventory, everything attached to it “broke” as well by turning into their miniaturized item forms. Nothing was lost and they could all be picked up like normal.

One experiment left.

I placed the [Slimy Cloud] in the air again and pulled out my flamethrower. Then, with the cloud as my target, I pulled the trigger and unleashed the flames.

The cloud caught on fire in an instant and burned into nothingness just seconds after, turning into another [Ash] item on the ground.

That was disappointing but expected.

More importantly, I looked at Mimic and said, “I just figured out how to build the foundation for a skyship.”

First, I was going to need to farm the Slime Monarch a bunch of times in order to get more of those [Slimy Cloud]s. Presumably, I could stack the clouds together to increase the total block capacity. One cloud meant fifty blocks could be attached to it, so two clouds would be able to hold up a hundred blocks, I hoped.

Next, I needed to build a hull around them. The clouds didn’t actually need exposed to the air at all, and everything connected would still float in the air even if they were completely covered up. That was important. Seeing as how, if the clouds got destroyed at all or if they caught on fire, then the entire ship would either break or crash. To be extra cautious, it would be good to have each cloud in its own independent chamber. That way fire wouldn’t be able to spread between them in the event of one cloud catching on fire.

The only problem left then was propulsion. I needed to figure out a way to make the ship move seeing as how I couldn’t just push it everywhere I wanted to go with it. Getting some defenses for it would also be smart. So, those were the two issues I needed to resolve before my dream of a skyship could become reality: one, propulsion; and two, defenses.

I might have failed to build a slime house, and the bed made out of slime might have been a massive disappointment… but I figured out how to build a skyship.

And honestly, it just wasn’t possible to not get extremely excited about that.

Chapter 49

Guide and Ninja came out of the bedroom while I was in the middle of preparing to head out for some material gathering. That involved me crafting more torches, organizing my inventory, grabbing some food, and also replacing my [Copper Pickaxe] with a [Slimy Pickaxe] made from [Royal Slime]. The only real difference between them was that the [Slimy Pickaxe] had 20% total power over the [Copper Pickaxe]’s 5% power, so it would be able to mine slightly harder metals and also mine everything a bit faster in general.

“Going out, Player?” Guide asked while Ninja yawned next to her.

They both looked pretty tired still. That only boosted my ego more considering what it was that tired them out. “Yeah,” I answered. “I’m going to go head over to the cave I found before and do some spelunking.” I loved getting to use that word. “I was originally going to make a hellevator rather than bother with going all the way over there, but… with the plan I have in mind, there won’t be much use in making a hellevator here.”

“Plan?”

“It’s a surprise. It’s going to be awesome and shock both of you when you see it.”

Guide and Ninja looked at each other, blinking a couple of times, before looking at me again. “You’re not going to do anything overly dangerous, are you?”

Of course not. I was only going to build a skyship that could stay in the air because of extremely fragile and flammable clouds made out of slime. The worst possible thing that could happen would be the clouds getting destroyed and falling to my death. No danger at all! “That’s debatable.”

Guide sighed but smiled before long. “I have faith in you no matter what it is you choose to do. But… is there anything I could help with while you’re gone?”

“Actually, yeah. Can you access that chest?” I pointed at the [Slimy Chest] I placed in the room.

Guide walked over to it, opened it up, and said, “I can!” She was able to prove it, too, by pulling some wood out from it.

“Good. Everything that’s in there, I want you to record in your book. Seeing as how it looks like crafting recipes get unlocked in your book by you recording at least half of the materials required for them, if you record everything in the chest, that might unlock a bunch of new recipes for me to look through.”

Guide couldn’t have looked happier than she did about having something to do. “That’s a great idea! Alright, I’ll do my best to accurately record everything!”

Ninja, not wanting to be left out, stepped forward and asked me, “My lord, is there anything I could do to be of service? I cannot accompany you despite my desire to… so I am not sure how I can be of use to you.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t really have anything for her to do. She couldn’t follow me and I couldn’t give her orders that the game would typically let me give without first unlocking that by gaining her “trust” through quests, but I had no idea if quests were even going to be a thing, and she wasn’t from the game in the first place which meant she might not have any associated quests even if quests did eventually pop up.

That being the case, “Serve Guide,” I said. “If you’re willing to do anything I say, then I want you to do the same for her as well. If she ever needs help with anything, help her out with it. I’m sure she’ll take care of you and find something for you to do.”

That was enough for Ninja, apparently, since she looked perfectly happy with that order. “Understood, my lord!”

Guide, however, saw right through me. “You don’t know what to have her do, so you’re pushing that responsibility onto me, aren’t you?”

I pointed a pair of finger guns at her and said, “You’ve got it—wait. What if you order her to follow me?”

Guide raised a curious eyebrow and looked at Ninja. “Alright, I want you to follow Player and protect him.”

The moment Ninja opened her mouth, she froze up just like when either of them tried to tell me that they loved me.

“Guess that loophole won’t work,” I said. “Good thing I can still tell you to take charge and keep her busy.”

I realized I made a mistake as soon as Guide showed me one of her cool smirks.

Revenge was about to happen.

Guide stepped behind Ninja and wrapped her arms around the other’s waist, pulling Ninja back against her. “It’s alright,” Guide said, looking straight into my eyes. “I’m sure the two of us will find plenty of… fun ways to keep ourselves busy while you’re gone. So, don’t worry about us. I promise we’ll… take care of each other. After all, I can think of many different orders for Ninja here.”

As seductive as Guide was being…

Ninja just looked happy and excited. All the of the perverse implications were clearly flying over her head, even flying so far over her head that they cleared the tips of her ears.

I compared Mimic to a dog, but Mimic had nothing on Ninja.

“Now I just don’t want to go,” I said.

Guide, dropping the act, offered me a soft smile before walking up to me. The next moment, her arms were wrapped around me for a gentle hug and brought her lips to my own. “You better be safe,” she said, her face right in front of my own.

“I’ll be as safe as I can be.”

“If that was the case, you would be staying here with us. Wait, do you even feel all better? You just had another boss fight! And you didn’t even get to rest in bed for a few days like we talked about!”

“No, but, I’m motivated, feel good enough, and I also know that if I stay here for any longer that I’m going to get addicted to both of you and never want to leave the bedroom again for the rest of my life.”

“I fail to see the problem with that. And as your guide, if I say there isn’t a problem, that means there isn’t one.”

“The more I go out and work, the more tired I’ll get, the easier it’ll be to talk me into lazing in bed doing nothing and letting you spoil me.”

“I see what you’re doing.” Guide grabbed me by my shoulders and turned me around so that I was facing the door to outside. “And it’s working.” Of course, she made sure to sneak in another kiss on the back of my neck before sending me off… only to realize that she couldn’t actually kiss the back of my neck and instead kissed the back of my currently invisible helmet. “What… did I just kiss?”

Thinking about it, she never saw my eye helmet since I crafted it. I always either had it set to invisible or had it unequipped in my inventory.

It was probably best that she didn’t see what it looked like.

I went ahead and unequipped the helmet. “Now try.”

Guide managed to successfully kiss the back of my neck that time. “That’s better. But we can’t leave Ninja out.”

The two of us looked back at Ninja at the same time, catching her standing there with her tail nervously swishing around behind her as she watched us.

“There—there is no need to mind me!” Ninja said. “I have already received far more than I could ever ask for!”

Guide then whispered into my ear, “This is the part where you grab her by her hips, lean her back, and kiss her. That’s my advice as your guide. Oh, and try calling her a good girl.”

I wasn’t completely sold on whether that last part would be appropriate or not, but if Guide was saying it, then it was probably true.

So, I walked right up to Ninja, grabbed her hip with one hand and leaned her back with my other, and pressed my lips against hers. Saying what I was supposed to say was a bit embarrassing, but I still managed to say it. “Good girl, Ninja.”

Ninja was her usual flustered self from everything… right up until she heard those words. That simple phrase was enough to turn her entire face red, and she looked as if her mind got shut off since all she did was stare straight ahead even after I moved away from her.

“That was even more effective than I thought,” Guide said, waving a hand in front of Ninja’s unblinking eyes.

“Did you teach me the secret phrase to shut her off or something?” I asked.

“If anything, I think she is the opposite of off right now.”

“Well, I’ll leave her to you. I want to go and get some things done before it gets dark. Once the next forced spawn boss is defeated, I’ll be able to take a proper break, but for now… I’m pretty behind compared to how far I would be if this was the usual game. I’ve got some grinding to do.”

Guide brushed her hand against my own and said, “I understand. As much as I wish you could just stay here and be lazy with us, unless you fight on our behalf… we don’t be allowed to indulge in this way of life at all.” She took her book off from her side and looked down at it. “That’s why I’ll do what I can to support you to the best of my ability.”

Ninja snapped out from her broken state and nodded her head. “Me as well, my lord! Until the day comes when the last breath leaves this body, I will faithfully serve as your retainer!”

I couldn’t resist and ended up petting both of their heads at the same time. “You’re both too good. Now, if I don’t go, we’re just going to get stuck in a loop of me trying to leave, saying goodbyes, getting lewd, and then repeating. We’re never going to explore the skies at this rate.”

“Explore the skies?” Guide asked.

Ninja tilted her head. “My lord?”

“Skies?” I asked. “Dunno what you’re talking about. Anyways, gotta go. Mimic is probably getting bored listening to us. Later!”

Guide and Ninja both reached out for me, but I managed to escape them with Mimic at my side.

“Alright, Mimic. Me and you,” I said.

Mimic made its usual stomach noise.

“I’ll be counting on you like usual. Let’s go explore the underground.”

I might not have known why I was brought to this world or what was going on in general, but I did know that, for the first time in my life, I couldn’t resist the urge to go out and adventure, especially with knowing that Guide and Ninja would be waiting for me back home.

And not only did I want to explore, but I wanted to protect those who I cared about, and I was going to need to get far stronger and acquire way better gear if I wanted to properly protect them.

So, with a little under a week left until the next boss was forced to spawn, it was time to power up as much as I could before then.