The Search (2)

On the way back to the enormous hut I had raised out of Space Wall, I very nearly lost the road.

Coming back, I found the path I had laid with Space Wall broken somewhere along the middle, and rain was dumping down so hard I could not see a thing around ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me. Nothing to be done about that. The shock prickled goosebumps up my arms in an instant, but I scraped together every last drop of TP and threw a thin, wide sheet of amber Space Wall across the sky. Only then did the rain cut off, and far off I caught sight of a blue box.

Took ten years off my life. Honest.

I kept laying Space Wall as I made my way back to the hut, and there was Franc, seated on the floor with her legs crossed, deep in meditation. Like looking at a young foreign nun who had attained enlightenment...

If only she weren't naked.

From the shoulders up, the sight was pious enough to stir something reverent. From the shoulders down, impious thoughts came swarming straight at Little Guy, so I pointlessly flapped the leather skirt wrapped around my waist. Both of us were safe — that was the thought — and the moment I had it, my emotions started lurching up and down until I could barely keep a hold on them. A few problems were still left, but all in all, things had gotten better.

At the sound of my approach Franc drew a single breath and opened her eyes. In that instant I saw a faint thread of Phase Power flow around her eyes and stop. Looking inside her with Spatial Perception, I found the Phase Power had ceased its rotation and was gathering at her heart. She had been training, in that short a time. Diligent, earnest, tireless — that was Franc, all right.

Whether she had felt my Spatial Perception groping here and there through her body, her face was reddening when I spoke.

"I'm back."

"You have worked hard. The wind has settled."

"Yeah. But the rain was so thick I couldn't see well enough to check whether the hurricane was completely gone."

"That the wind has settled is proof the typhoon has passed, so you may set your worries aside. Will you clear the dark clouds from the sky at once, then?"

"No. I burned through a lot of Phase Power. I need to rest a bit."

Since becoming B-Class, my Phase Power had never once dropped below forty percent. Then I built a house this size out of Blue Space Wall and raised all that ruckus, and it fell below ten. The concentration that had filled my body had thinned outrageously, watery as my semen after a night of tumbling in bed with three lovers... ahem.

"Then come here."

Franc smiled and offered her palm. I landed on it and looked up at her with desire thick in my eyes. Yes. Now's the time to say it.

"So give me a reward."

"A reward... you say?"

"Yeah. I worked hard putting that hurricane to sleep, so give me a reward! I worked hard before that too, so a reward!"

I stared up at her with a look so serious I had to wonder if I had ever been this earnest in my life. Franc seemed a little taken aback, but she soon smiled, soft and kind, and nodded.

"What manner of reward do you wish?"

It's here! The moment's here!!

At a shout that spent my entire soul, Franc's expression warped into something strange.

"A... a breast bed?"

She unconsciously covered her chest with both arms, and thanks to that her abundant breasts gathered and pressed together like steamed buns. All I could think was that this, right here, was the one.

"Boob! Bed!"

"Boob! Bed!"

I led the chant, and Darky, hanging from my neck, took it up after me. I shouted it with my eyes blazing, like a slogan, and Franc looked genuinely at a loss — the face of a mother watching a mischievous child.

Ooooh~! I love that face! Lover and mother at once, that rush of maternal warmth — absolute peak!

"What's there to be troubled about! Make me a breast bed! A breast bed!! You said you'd give me a reward~!"

I started nagging and throwing a tantrum for her to hurry up. Unable to take back what she had already said, Franc hemmed and hawed, heaved a deep sigh, and brought her face close to me where I stood on her palm.

"Er... very well. H-how does one go about a breast bed?"

"...How do you do it?"

I had only been bewitched by the exquisite ring of the words breast bed, and I had no idea how it actually worked, so I asked Darky. The moment I did, Franc's eyes on him went cold, as if she were looking at a mortal enemy.

"......! M-Master. If you would please tell Madam Franc not to scold me, I will tell you!!"

Huh? This guy's way of talking changed. He's scared of Franc? Yeah, even I can tell she's going to chew him out hard later.

Darky was trembling in my hand, and I felt a little sorry for him — and I also very much wanted this breast bed — so I said it to Franc, whose eyes looked ready to drip frost.

"Franc, don't pick on Darky. Darky thought up the greatest pastime in history, the breast bed. He deserves to be praised!"

"...Good grief."

Receiving my request that was not quite a request, Franc loosened the force in her eyes and nodded, as if she had no choice. She could not, however, stop the tails of her eyebrows from creeping up. Darky stared at that faintly angry face, then grinned a sly grin, pointed at her breasts with a triumphant air, and flapped his mouth.

"Heh heh. Dead simple, Boss! Madam Franc's tits don't lose their shape even lyin' on her side — ultra-premium goods!"

At ultra-premium breasts, Miss Franc flushed and nearly flared up, then saw me and swallowed it. Her eyes had narrowed, and she was clenching and unclenching a fist in a way that did not bode well, but Darky, oblivious, pumped both hands with bright, lively energy and shouted.

"So if she lies on her side and you slip in between the tits stacked one over the other, that right there is the paradise of dreams! The paradise of hope! The Breast-holic Bed, complete!"

"Ooh!"

Between that warm, soft flesh...! Hearing Darky's simple explanation and picturing it, I could tell it was going to be incredible just from the thought. Not one of my lovers was lacking in that department, so of course I had put them to use. I had been on the receiving end of breast service in bed more times than I could count. Every time Little Guy sank into that skin, the pressure was nothing like the clutch of a pussy — softer, gentler, and it had been bliss. And now I could feel that with my whole body...!

"Franc~! Hurry, hurry!"

"Hurry, hurry!"

"Honestly..."

With a look that said there was nothing else for it, Franc shifted and lay down on her side, roughly, the way Darky had described. The moment he saw it, Darky snapped.

"That's not it! Lying down all half-assed like that is an insult to the Boss!! Lie on your side like Venus upon the waves!! Yes! The arm underneath should prop the breasts up, like it's supporting them!"

Franc looked at the slime, now lecturing her with his eyes gone triangular, and her face said she did not care for this at all. Even so, she had no choice. She changed her pose according to his instructions, and —

Th-that's the pose from the only Birth of Venus I'll acknowledge, Mr. Alexandre Cabanel's!

I stood on a Space Wall and stared. Franc tried to cover her reddened face with a hand, but at Darky's bellow she extended the arm she had been bending and set the pose again.

"The other arm — press the outer breast with your forearm and gather them, for the pressure!! They say shame is the spice of love, but that flavor ain't needed right now!! Put it away!!"

"Eugh..."

Perhaps she felt this was some sudden humiliation play. Franc ground out a sound through her teeth and shut both eyes. Even so, she was too pretty. The line descending from her shoulder in a smooth curve followed the contour of breasts past an E cup, narrowed into her waist, then rose again along the swell of her hip. Set against that snow-white skin, it was beautiful enough to make me forget to breathe. Venus reborn, maybe. No. At that level she would slap Venus across the face and still have some to spare. Yep.

At Darky's direction Franc lay on her side and gathered her breasts. Darky pointed at the cleavage where the two breasts met in a single straight line, and spoke in the posture of a courteous butler, just like Suhan.

"Please, partake. A bed without equal in all the world, for Master alone."

Franc pouted at the introduction. That was not what mattered right now.

"Hup!"

"......!!"

I threw off the deer hide at my waist and slipped my body in between Franc's huge breasts, stacked one over the other, as if I were being sucked in. A moderate pressure closed around me, and a soft warmth seeped into my whole body...!

W-whoa... how was I even supposed to put this? Like being caught between enormous puddings, warm and soft and squishy? Not muggy. Not damp. A hundred times cozier, warmer, softer, and snugger than crawling into a silk quilt dried properly in the sun. Take that feeling on a midwinter morning when you cannot stand to leave the blankets, and multiply it by about ten. That was this. I poked just my head out between the breasts and squirmed, and my whole body felt like it was melting into goo.

"I feel like my body's gonna melt..."

"...Is it truly that pleasant?"

"Mm. This is seriously the best..."

My face went slack before I knew it. If I slept like this and woke, I felt as if all the fatigue piled up since I entered on the fifth cycle would be gone.

"I'm gonna sleep a little."

"What?! S-Seoha..."

When Franc opened her mouth the vibration carried through, but even that felt good. More like a primal lullaby.

"Just a little..."

I knew she was looking at me with a dumbfounded face... but I was sleepy... Holding out any longer was impossible...

"...say? ...did you?"

"Madam Franc's ...... ain't ...... acted on instinct ...... sir."

Franc's voice was at my ear. As I drifted up out of sleep, little by little, Spatial Perception caught Darky's tiny mouth moving. Half-dreaming, I read what he was saying by lip-reading, and the sleep stuck to my mind gradually washed away.

"I attacked Seoha... haaah."

A tremor clung to Franc's voice. At the same time, the vibration of her speaking came through the skin of her breast and was stimulating a certain place, bit by bit.

"It was a little dangerous, but the Boss dodged just fine, and Madam Franc's body didn't seem like it was really tryin' to attack."

"And then?"

"The Boss went weavin' around Madam Franc's ears, her nape, the underside of her breasts, her navel, between her ass and her thighs, injectin' TP the whole time. That kept up for a while, and then Madam Franc's instincts decided the Boss wasn't an enemy and stopped the attack."

Stimulation and discomfort reaching my cock pulled my mind clearer and clearer. I did not want that. Seeking warmth so I could catch the tail end of sleep, I curled in on myself.

...Burrowing into the flesh, I could not breathe. Thanks to that, I woke faster. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠raised a hand and scratched at the floor — no, at Franc's breast — and she lifted the breast that had been covering me.

"Are you awake?"

A cold, damp air wrapped my whole body, and I had no choice but to lift my head. Franc was looking down at me with a cozy smile.

"Huh... how long was I out?"

Sleep still clung to me, and my head was foggy. Even so, the emotions that had been thrashing around like I had taken something seemed to have settled, more or less.

"An hour, perhaps? You did not sleep long."

I looked up, wondering where the sun might be, but of course there was nothing to see but thick dark clouds. I could not tell morning from afternoon, and yet the dimness on every side made me think night might be coming soon. I stretched both arms as hard as I could, sat up, and saw that Franc was still holding one breast aloft. If I stayed like this, she would be uncomfortable.

I unfolded a Space Wall, jumped up, and sat. Franc handed me the scale-deer hide and Darky. The hide had taken an absurd amount of rain, and yet it was fluffy and dry — Darky must have pulled the moisture out while I slept. I stared blankly for a moment at the rough sound of rain hammering the Space Wall. When I saw Franc sit up as well, I punched a hole in the center of the rectangular deer hide, just big enough for my head.

The whole thing ran a good three meters, so I figured I could wear it like a tunic. I put my head through the hole and tied a leather cord at my waist, and the result was a poncho. Lightning-struck hair, curled and frizzy, with a deer hide thrown over me entire. This was like...

"I look like a caveman."

"Pfft."

Ahh. Watching Franc giggle, her eyes drawing a pleasant arc, I was hit with the feeling that she had truly come back to herself, and emotion surged up. But that was that, and this was this.

"You're bald and naked, and you think I look funny?"

"Urk."

I jabbed at the Franc who had just gone pfft, and she flushed, covering her head with both hands. Anyway — could Healing Touch not fix this curled hair? This was damage too. I sparked a Healing Touch in my hand and ran it through the frizzled curls as I spoke.

"Still, you have lewd thoughts all the time, Franc, so your hair'll grow back fast."

"I-I do not have lewd thoughts!"

"Huh? Really? When you get all fidgety and keep sneaking glances at me, I figured you were in the middle of a lewd thought."

"—!!"

It must have been the right answer. Franc's face sank under shame, embarrassment, and confusion. I snickered at the sight, then changed the subject, partly to let her live.

"The problem is the huge body. What am I actually supposed to do."

"There is nothing to be done about my body growing this large. Still, I am Transcendent-grade now, and I retain what I learned in my days as a knight, so in the Phase World I should be able to aid you, Seoha, where force of arms is concerned."

I was thinking how beautiful she looked with her eyes shining when Franc clenched her fist and went on.

"In truth, while you were away dispelling the hurricane, and again while you slept, I tested the abilities I can use, and my techniques for wielding Phase Power."

"Huh? How? Did you learn that from Hwayeon?"

"Yes. When I served as Hwayeon's sparring partner for weapons practice, I asked her, for the sake of strengthening my own abilities, about Phase Power techniques, simple basic attribute shots, and how to use the universal resistance skill T Resist, and I learned them."

Training from before we entered the Asumpfre Sunken Ruins, then. I asked how it had gone, and Franc, sitting with a modest posture, turned her head toward Darky.

"When I was in my reflection form, I could not use Phase Power techniques or universal resistance skills. Now that I possess a body, and Phase Power with it, I can use them as a matter of course."

"Oh. Congrats."

"Hehe. It was all thanks to what I heard from Darky."

"What story?"

I looked at Darky, lounging sprawled in my palm as if the palm were a bed, and he blinked with a face that said this was the first he had heard of it.

"You said that when I moved by instinct, I had wrapped Phase Power around my fists and my body."

"Ahh."

As she said it, she showed me Phase Power condensing in both hands. Was that the maximum flow she could manage on purpose? She looked at the Phase Power gathered in her hands for a moment, then smiled as if shy and opened her mouth.

"So, just as you said earlier, Seoha, I tried practicing moving the Phase Power inside my body at will. It did not go well."

"Hmm. Still, I can see the potential, so I ought to figure out a way to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pass Mana Sieve on to you. Right now, all I know about Mana Sieve is that it's moving the Phase Power inside my body however I please."

"Yes. Perhaps reflecting on one's abilities may become a foothold for growth, so when you have the time, I think it would be good to try it at least once."

"I will. I was meaning to get an accurate grasp of my abilities anyway. That aside — when you were moving on instinct, you were kicking off empty air, double-jumping, triple-jumping, leaping and flying hundreds of meters at a go. You haven't tried that?"

"If my instincts did it, I believe I can as well. But there is no space in which to practice, so confirming it right this moment seems impossible."

"Figures... so we really do have to deal with the situation in front of us first."

After that, Franc said she wanted to confirm the durability of her body, and made a request that nearly made me jump out of my skin: shoot her with a Mana Bullet that was not focused with will. I scowled and recoiled. She persuaded me that confirming the limits of her abilities was important, and that confirming her defense in particular had to come before anything else.

"You once told me to strike you with lightning to test your abilities, did you not, Seoha? This is the same thing."

"Ngh..."

To think what I had done on my second entry would come back at me like a boomerang. She worked hard to persuade me, bringing up the fact that I could use Healing Wave as well, and in the end I gave in. It was not about recovery. I did not want to hurt her, and she would not even try to understand that.

...Is this a double standard? Fine when I do it, not allowed when you do?

"Fine."

I started Mana Bullet mk1 at 1 TP. Predictably, 1 TP vanished leaving a trace smaller than a raindrop. After that I stepped it up — 10 TP, 100, 500, 1,000 — and a Mana Bullet mk1 fired without will, without willpower, left no particular mark on Franc's body. The more TP I poured in, the larger the dark-blue blasts that burst out, sweeping over her hand, her wrist, her forearm... but that was all.

"Oh. Even 5,000 TP doesn't get through."

"When it touches my skin, it feels like a light press of force, and like fingernails scratching little by little."

But there was not so much as a scratch on the skin, not even a flush of red. I condensed 20,000 TP and fired it at the hand she offered, and only then did the struck skin redden, very faintly, and no more. Looking at that, an ordinary Mana Bullet mk1 could not really wound her no matter how much Phase Power I spent. And looking at Baekcheong, even a sword-aura bolt packed full of will had only cut a somewhat deep gash in the scales, so didn't Franc have a similar defense? Or maybe it was because I was still B-Class, Highest Tier.

I condensed 50,000 TP and fired it at the hand she held out, and only then did a faint red mark remain on the palm, as if a switch had struck it. Proof that a little damage had gotten through. But the damage repaired itself in no time, as if it had never happened. Pour in any more and the form changed, and I had no idea how much damage that version would do to an aberrant, so I passed.

"Then I'll go to mk2. This one you actually have to watch out for."

"Yes! I am ready!"

I generated the Mana Bullet with willpower, and the color of the bead changed at once. The round that had shimmered blue turned a deep blue-black. Darky, who had been watching from my shoulder, let out a thin scream at the sight of Mana Bullet mk2 and fled a good distance off.

"Eeeek."

At the sight of the cowardly Dark Matter Slime, Franc and I both snorted a laugh, but we wiped the smiles at once. Serious now, I fired a 100 TP Mana Bullet mk2 at the arm she offered.

"Ah."

A 100 TP Mana Bullet mk2 had less than a fifth the range of mk1. It only raised an amorphous blast spanning a few meters — and it left a clear wound on Franc's palm and forearm.

"Damn!"

Skin vanished in the shape of the blast, muscle showed, and blood welled up at once. On a human it would have been no different from a needle prick, but the sight of blood made me scowl. I leapt to the side of the wound in a flash and triggered Healing Touch. Grains of blue light poured from both hands, and the vanished muscle and skin regenerated.

"Huh. Healing Touch gets a noticeable boost once willpower's in it too. It doesn't hurt anymore?"

"Yes. This much is fine. More than that, Healing Touch seems to have evolved as well. It has changed from a faint blue glow to something like motes of light falling."

"That's not the point. A Mana Bullet mk2 that only used 100 TP left a wound. Isn't your resistance lower than a Highest-Rank Variant's?"

Transcendent-grade, and still wounded like this by a 100 TP Mana Bullet mk2. Her size had already grown, which meant more area to be hit... I knit my brows with worry, and Franc pressed at the place where the wound had been, then smiled and offered her arm again.

At the same time, the Phase Power clumped inside her body activated and spread to every corner of her. A blue light played over that white, pretty forearm. This couldn't be...

"Ooh?! This is an Energy Field!"

"Try once more."

She held it out with complete confidence, so I fired another 100 TP Mana Bullet mk2. This time it never even touched the skin. The round flowed along the skin and vanished.

"Whoa!"

At my exaggerated marvel, Franc smiled softly. Well, it would have been strange if she did not have an Energy Field. I had thought an Energy Field was something that always wrapped an aberrant, but apparently that was not the case.

After that I raised the TP little by little and kept firing Mana Bullet mk2, and the Energy Field blocked any effective damage the whole way. Thanks to that, I learned that damaging the Energy Field took at least a 10,000 TP Mana Bullet mk2, and that firing about twenty 10,000 TP mk2s into one spot could break the field in part. Beyond the Energy Field, where a large hole had been punched through a section of it, blood began to gush from the holed arm.

I freaked at a volume on the order of a liter and fired a Healing Wave. Franc's eyes went round at my panic, and then she only wore that soft smile, so I shouted with irritation packed into it.

"How are you not in pain with this much blood?! Seriously!"

Acting like it's nothing — and I'm the one whose stomach hurts. Unbelievable!

My cheek was twitching. Franc smiled brightly and raised a hand to show me.

"Hehe. It is not as large a wound as it looks. There only seems to be a great deal of blood. In truth only the skin was scratched a little. The muscle was not hurt at all, you see?"

"..."

Sure, relative to the size of her body it was not a large wound, but still... I looked up at her with a sullen face, and she kept smiling as she carefully extended a finger and tapped my cheek.

"...Yeah."

Put like that, I had nothing to say. Tch.