The Revelation of Our Bond
‘This is where the bastard’s headed.’ That monkey had definitely heard Mom and me. Otherwise it wouldn’t be coming straight toward us. I turned to Mom and met her eyes, silently telling her we were about to fight the big one. She grabbed my arm for a moment; even without words, her worry came through loud and clear. ‘I’ll win this for you, so trust your son!’
I had no idea how strong the enlarged monkey actually was. Tension coiled in my gut, but for Mom’s sake I had to win. ‘I’m not throwing it.’ The distance between us had already shrunk. I readied myself to charge. Throwing the axe had crossed my mind, but the risk if I missed was too high, so I shelved the idea. The gap closed. I counted to three in my head and sprinted the moment the count hit zero.
‘Die!’ I kept the shout inside; there might be more monkeys nearby. I simply swung the axe with everything I had, intent on killing. Shiiing.
“Ukkikki.” The monkey dodged nimbly to the side, but my axe still bit into its arm with a solid thwack.
“Kkii-kkii-kkii!” It screamed in pain. I swung again without hesitation, cold and focused. The monkey caught my wrist with its good arm. Even with one arm ruined, its grip was monstrous. I was overflowing with strength from sucking Mom’s pussy, yet I still couldn’t overpower it.
“Kkikki…” It tried to call out again. Worried more monkeys would gather, I clamped my free hand over its mouth. Just as I expected, the wild monkey sank its teeth into my fingers. My HP dropped to 96%. Thanks to Warrior Mode, though, my fingers didn’t get severed.
‘The damage is way lower than I thought.’ I had covered its mouth knowing full well that, depending on how it bit, I could lose fingers. I’d trusted Warrior Mode, but I’d still braced for real pain. The actual damage was only 4%—laughably small compared to what I’d prepared for.
‘Sex?’ If anything had changed, the only thing that stood out was having sex with Mom. My body’s defense had jumped dramatically. I realized the reason immediately.
‘Kill it, now.’ I didn’t have time to dwell on the thought. Ignoring the teeth, I shoved the monkey down and pinned it to the ground. ‘You’re dead.’ As long as its bite didn’t do serious damage, I would win. I drove my hand deeper, trying to cut off its air.
“Kkrrrk.” Just as I’d hoped, its eyes rolled back and its grip loosened as it struggled to breathe. I yanked my hand from its mouth, clenched it into a fist, and brought it down hard.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. I rained punches on its face with every ounce of strength. The monkey’s face turned into a mess under my fists; its grip on my wrist finally slackened as it lost consciousness. I seized the axe with both hands and brought it down with all my might.
Thud—!!! The big monkey’s head burst open, brain matter splattering everywhere. It was a gruesome sight, but none of that mattered. I had won.
“Mom.” I called out. She had been waiting nearby and hurried over. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. “Let’s head back to where we came from. Quickly!”
The upper part of the forest was probably the big monkey’s territory. I decided we needed to return to the last safe zone and regroup. We moved fast instead of exploring slowly. Mom and I slipped out of the upper forest in no time.
‘We’re safe from here on.’ There weren’t many small monkeys left after I’d killed so many, and they rarely approached us anymore. If they got close their instinct to eat humans kicked in and they attacked blindly, but the area around us had been thoroughly cleared, so that wasn’t a concern.
We made it back to the safe zone without trouble. Once we had a moment to breathe, Mom immediately checked me over. “Son, are you okay?”
I held out the arm the monkey had bitten. “How does it look?”
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any problem. Why are you asking?”
“The monkey bit me right here. If it weren’t for Warrior Mode, my fingers would’ve been bitten off.”
“R-really? That must have hurt a lot.”
Between Warrior Mode and the life-or-death situation, I hadn’t even had time to feel the pain properly. Still, I made a pained face and nodded anyway, then said what I really wanted to tell her. “Mom, my HP is at 98% right now.”
“What? Why—why is it so high?”
It had dropped to 93% during the fight, but on the way back it had actually recovered to 98%. Excited, I explained while Mom stared in surprise. “If we hadn’t had sex back then, I probably would’ve died!”
I wasn’t sure a single big monkey would have killed me for certain, but I used the dramatic phrasing on purpose. Mom’s voice trembled. “Son… what do you mean by that?”
“Thanks to having sex with you, my defense and recovery rate went way up. That’s why the damage was low and my body healed so fast. It’s all because of the sex!”
Having sex with Mom, a healer, increased my defense and recovery. On top of that, it removed status ailments. ‘Sex really is the best.’ Kissing, drinking her milk, and tasting her fluids—all of them had weaker effects than actual sex. I’d suspected that becoming one through intercourse would be the strongest, and the fight with the big monkey had proven it.
‘I’m so happy… but it’s okay to be happy about this, right? It has to be!’ Becoming one with Mom might be the most important factor for surviving the Tower. The realization filled me with joy. I left the dazed-looking Mom behind and went to wash my hands at the flowing wall. After carefully scrubbing off the monkey’s fluids and blood, I held my arm out to her. “Mom, heal me.”
“…Okay.” Whatever thoughts were running through her head, Mom looked blank for a moment before taking my offered arm and licking the reddened fingers. Slurp. Slurp. Her tongue left trails of saliva as it passed over them. I got hard instantly, and my HP hit 100%.
“Your healing speed got faster too.” The recovery was noticeably quicker. Another effect of sex. I couldn’t hide my excitement. “So that’s how it is…”
“I’m going to wash up now. You should too, Mom.”
“Yeah… let’s do that.”
I stripped off my robe and panties and showered, making sure to clean my cock thoroughly. Still naked, I dried myself and told Mom, “You wash up too.”
“…Yeah. I will.”
Ever since we’d returned to the safe zone, Mom had been spacing out, lost in thought. I watched her shower and tried to guess why. ‘She’s thinking the same thing I am!’ Fighting the big monkey had made it crystal clear: a healer’s greatest ability was sex. Based on that, I was already planning how to become one with Mom without hesitation.
Mom probably suspected I was having these thoughts. That blank expression made sense if she did. ‘If I push for sex using recovery as the reason, she’ll have a hard time refusing, right? Yeah, that’s probably it. So what do I do now?’
We both knew how crucial sex was for surviving the Tower. I wondered what would happen between us from now on.
“Son, Mom’s finished washing.” She came over after her shower, still naked like me, apparently planning to let the water dry naturally. “Son.”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“You’re my mom, but you look so beautiful with water on you that my eyes just go there on their own.”
When Mom was wet she gained an almost mystical aura. I often thought that if forest fairies existed, they would look like this. Today the feeling was even stronger—probably because I remembered becoming one with her.
“You really… You’ll say anything to an auntie, won’t you?”
“Honestly, no one would call someone like you an auntie. Even now, guys probably ask for your number first, right?”
“…”
“There are probably younger guys like me among them too. Am I wrong?”
“Well…”
“See! I knew it. I know everything.”
“How would my son know that?”
“All men are the same.”
“…I see.”
Beautiful women looked beautiful to everyone. If she looked this stunning even to her own son, how much more so to other people?
“Actually… I…”
“???”
“I think I like being in the Tower with you more than when you used to go to work.”
“Why would you think that?”
“To make money you have to deal with all kinds of weird people. If it were happening to me I could endure it because I’m a guy, but I hate the thought of you facing those kinds of people.”
The mart where Mom used to work had its share of men who stared with sticky eyes. Seeing that had made me anxious, and when the Tower invitation arrived, the idea of bringing her along had come naturally.
“My son really is a filial boy who thinks about his mom a lot.”
“Of course. Dad’s gone now, so it’s just the two of us as family.”
I had come to the second floor of the Tower to save my father. That didn’t mean I still saw him as the head of the household or as my father. He had given me life and led the family for years, so I felt obligated to save him because of that. But I had no intention of bringing him back so we could return to the happy days when it was the three of us. That was the path the father who ran away had chosen. It wasn’t a choice I had made.