Chapter 23: It Must Be a Dream
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 23: It Must Be a Dream
"No, Isolde, you see..."
"Ugh..."
Thud.
"I-Isolde...?"
Isolde tried to speak, but she suddenly collapsed. Could it be...?
"Isolde, Isolde! Wake up!"
"Haah...! Haah..."
"Are you hurt? There are no external wounds. What's wrong?"
"A c-curse..."
"A bre—curse!"
Isolde’s curse! If it was the one I was thinking of...
‘Is she going to give me mamma?!’
However, a pang of guilt washed over me. I vaguely knew there were penalties if the curse wasn't resolved, but...
I didn't realize she would be in this much pain.
"W-what! What should I do?!"
"Come closer for a moment..."
As I knelt beside the fallen Isolde, she reached out a hand cautiously.
"Your mouth... over here..."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Following her instructions, I hurried to lower my head. I felt her hand, trembling as she lay on the ground, touch my cheek.
"Hehe... You shouldn't eat with so much food smeared on your face..."
"T-that is true..."
Isolde struggled to push up her upper body and then knelt on the ground.
"Now, come here..."
She patted her palm against her thick thighs, clad in tight leather pants, beckoning me.
‘A lap pillow? Am I finally going to get some mamma?’
This was absolutely not for my own selfish desires. It wasn't my sexual preference either; it was merely my tearful devotion to resolving Isolde’s curse and returning the party to a functional state.
I was definitely not a man who got excited about drinking the breast milk of a woman I had only recently met.
"Yes, Mommy."
Isolde’s silver hair softly tickled my cheek as I rested my head on her lap.
Pat, pat.
Isolde took a handkerchief and gently wiped the blood from around my mouth. The softness I felt against the back of my head was incredible.
It was firm yet soft, radiating a warm heat. As if asserting its femininity, her plump thighs were packed so tightly into the leather pants that they looked ready to burst.
Rangers essentially wore thin, skin-tight leather pants—almost like leggings—because any excess fabric in the sleeves or legs would flap and make noise during high-speed maneuvers.
"Ufufu..."
"I-Isolde...?"
For a while, Isolde said nothing, simply patting my chest and looking down at me with a gentle smile.
After about ten minutes, Isolde spoke, her face flushing a deep red.
"Hu, huuuh... Thank you, Yoo Eon... You can get up now..."
"Huh?"
What on earth was this? Where was my mamma? What happened to my internal vow to sacrifice my body for the sake of the party?
"Isolde, about that..."
"It's the Maternal Instinct Skill."
"Uh, excuse me?"
Excessive maternity.
It was a skill that amplified a person's maternal love; if they didn't perform motherly actions toward someone else for a certain period, their rational thought would become paralyzed.
If one continued to ignore the accumulating maternal instinct and took no action, they would eventually lose their reason and treat everyone they saw like a baby.
In a Labyrinth City where being wary of others was essential, a penalty that forced one into a state of unconditional positivity was dangerous.
If she lost her mind and did everything a criminal told her to do...
"I-I see..."
The younger the other person looked, and the more "motherly" the action, the longer she could maintain her rationality.
‘Breastfeeding would certainly be a very high-level motherly action.’
In the end, it wasn't a curse where she would die if she didn't breastfeed. It felt a bit much to say I was disappointed... but then again, it was easy for me to say since it wasn't my problem.
"I've noticed Miss Lis at the guild from time to time."
"Well, she does look like a bit of a kid."
With her short stature and high-pitched voice, she looked like a child at first glance. It seemed Isolde had been keeping an eye on Lis whenever they crossed paths at the guild.
She said she had been looking for an opportunity to join her in a fixed party. Lis was a rare talent, after all. There weren't many people who looked that young among Iron-grade explorers.
"So, uh, if you perform those motherly actions for Lis, how long can you hold out?"
"About ten hours seems fine. Though the time tends to shorten a bit after intense physical activity."
"I see... Then how long will what you just did for me last?"
"Maybe thirty minutes or a bit more. I'll have to go back and ask Miss Lis."
It was a difficult skill. To think it wasn't necessarily a breastfeeding skill.
"P-please keep this a secret from Garond..."
"Yes, of course."
Once Isolde finished explaining her skill, the question turned back to me.
"Then what on earth... why were you doing that...?"
"Ah, for me, well... it's a bit complicated. It's a skill that turns what I eat into my own body."
I explained how, as the ratio of Direwolf in me increased, it felt like my instincts were trying to take over my brain.
I also mentioned that I couldn't use the skill unless I ate the meat raw.
"That... sounds like it would be hard on you."
"There's a return for the hardship, so it's fine."
"I suppose... I don't get anything in return..."
Isolde pouted with a gloomy expression. Should I comfort her?
"B-but, it's a charming trait. There are men who like motherly women, you know."
"I have no desire to date a man like that."
"Ah, yes. I suppose so."
* * *
"Garond! We're back!"
"Good heavens, what happened? Did you manage to lose it?"
"We subjugated it. The carcass is a bit far away, so I'm thinking about how to handle it."
"No, that's impossible. What do you mean... Did you actually catch the Ursus?"
Garond, who had been standing at the entrance of the goblin cave in full gear, looked stunned.
There was no need for lengthy explanations.
Lis stayed behind in the goblin cave to finish tidying up, both to help Isolde resolve her curse and to calm the minds of the victimized explorers.
Garond went with me to the site of the battle to check the Ursus carcass.
Upon seeing the Ursus with a hole through it and its intestines trailing out, Garond asked what kind of battle could have led to such a result.
"I stabbed my sword into the Ursus's back from the air. The crossguard got tangled in its guts, and the blade got stuck in the ground. It pulled everything out itself while trying to back away."
"That is... remarkable."
Perhaps because it was the middle of the night when everyone should have been sleeping, Garond looked tired, blinking his eyes as the tension bled away. As for me, maybe it was because I had swapped out all the muscles I had exerted.
I didn't really feel like I had moved much at all. This was another new advantage.
"Right, let's head back for now. You must be tired as well."
"Garond. I have something to talk to you about regarding that."
"Talk? What is it?"
"I'm going to stay here until daybreak. You go back and get some sleep with the others."
The wind had died down, making it very quiet. I had to use Direwolf muscles—whether from the Alpha or a common entity—to tear apart the Ursus carcass anyway.
If I did that, my detection would surely reach the cave. My senses became much sharper at night, too.
Using the Alpha's vision allowed for direct Mana Detection. There shouldn't be any problems.
The current time was about 2:00 AM. For the next six hours, I had to chew, tear, taste, and enjoy the Ursus carcass to get the most out of it.
"Are you planning to eat the Ursus?"
"I have no choice because of my skill. Besides, it's not ideal to wake up late in the morning and start then. There's too much luggage for the three of us to carry everything."
I noticed that the victims all had their Achilles tendons severed. Far from carrying luggage, it looked like they would struggle just to move themselves to the portal.
In the end, I would have to carry a portion—a fairly large portion, to be precise—of the luggage. If we wanted to move quickly in the morning, now was the only time to process the Ursus.
"Go on and get some sleep, Garond."
"...I'll trust you, then."
"Yes. Please explain it well to Lis and Isolde."
Garond nodded solemnly and turned around.
"Ah, wait. Garond."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Do you happen to know much about the Ursus?"
Garond stroked his beard, answering as if in thought.
"I know the Ursus well as an ingredient."
"It doesn't have to be incredibly advanced knowledge. I was just wondering if any of the Ursus's internal organs have particularly great properties."
"You... can you even change your internal organs to match those of the creature you ate?"
"Well, yes."
Garond looked surprised, then fell into deep thought.
"First would be the liver. It can neutralize almost any poison..."
Following that, Garond’s "Pro-Tips for Ursus Consumption" lasted for about thirty minutes. Being from a Gourmet Clan, his knowledge of edible lifeforms was extensive.
"Thank you. That was very helpful."
"Right. Eating things raw must be quite difficult. Keep up the hard work."
"Yes, sir."
Now, the only thing left for me to do was to make the Ursus's high-performance body my own.
"Let's dive in."
* * *
"Uguuuu...!"
Lis, who had bad sleeping habits and had rolled around like a log inside her sleeping bag, ended up poking out toward the cave entrance and was hit directly by the morning sun.
Since human eyelids aren't blackout curtains that perfectly block intense light, she frowned, covering her face with one hand while giving a grand stretch with the other.
"Huaaaaam... Mmm..."
A deep yawn under the pleasantly warm sunlight.
Raising her small hands to rub her face, she struggled to open her eyes against the glare and looked ahead.
"Hmm. It must still be a dream...! I should sleep just a little more."
A monster in the shape of Yoo Eon was doing squats while carrying an entire thick tree on its back.