The City and the Adventurers' Guild (8)
The City and the Adventurers' Guild (8)
#
"Wake up. Wake up."
"..."
"Wake uuup!"
"Huh?!"
What the?! A sharp, tingling pain suddenly shot through my chest. When I opened my eyes, Yuri was looking down at me again. I had a strangely strong sense of déjà vu about the sight.
"And last night you went and wrecked me like that again..."
Yuri glared at me as if she was absolutely furious. But despite acting like that, she was still connected to me. Her face was still flushed, yet this country girl was putting on bravado again...
A broad smile spread across my face.
"...You liked it too, didn't you?"
"Don't act all smooth. Nighttime's over."
Urk... Th-this girl. She'd figured out that I was weak by day and dominant at night.
"...Why do you always have to be so rough?"
At Yuri's grumbling, I used my Invisible Hand to lift up the Goblin Mask.
"Didn't you bring this on yourself?"
"Tch..."
After saying that, Yuri slowly pulled me out of her and staggered toward the bathroom.
"Want to wash up together?"
"Hmph!"
-BANG!
It seemed bathing together was still off-limits. When would she allow it?
...
We took turns washing and then came down to the dining hall, but Reni still wasn't there. At this rate, we might run a bit late.
"I'll just go up and check on her."
"..."
At those words, Yuri shot me a stinging glare.
"You've gone into heat again, first thing in the morning..."
"N-no! I'm just going to check! I'll be right back, okay?"
"..."
She still did not relax her glare. Why was she acting like this? Was it because I had been too rough last night?
"N-next time it's your turn, I'll do it properly. Whatever you want."
"...Whatever I want?"
Yuri's eyes flashed for an instant. When I leaned in to make sure I'd not imagined it, she whipped her head away and snapped.
"...Just go and come back quickly."
...
-Knock, knock.
"Reni?"
"Eep!"
A small moan. And then I heard the sound of someone scurrying. Could she still be getting ready?
"Reni? I'm coming in?"
"..."
When I heard no answer, I opened the door. Reni lay on the bed beneath the blanket. What time did she think it was, and this priestess was still asleep...
"..."
...No, she wasn't. She was fully dressed. Even her shoes had been flung aside, as if she'd torn them off in a hurry.
Looking at the bed, I saw Reni's eyes squeezed tightly shut. But her throat bobbed as she repeatedly swallowed. Why was this priestess pretending to sleep again?
"Reni?"
"..."
What on earth... Could it be?
I brought my finger to Reni's lips. Then, Reni began to wriggle her lips bit by bit.
"Mmm... Yoo-jin..."
...But maybe she didn't like the feel of it. Reni furrowed her brow, and then finally opened her eyes.
"..."
"Ah..."
Reni glanced once at my face, then once at the finger, and her face colored bright red as she urgently yanked the blanket up to cover her head. This priestess, really...
"Reni. Shouldn't we be heading out now? We need to have breakfast."
"I-I was just th-thinking... Hhut?!"
I roughly snatched the blanket away and then tangled my tongue fiercely with Reni's.
"Ah, mmph. Mm, n-no... f-first thing in the morning... mmph..."
...
Reni walked with her head bowed low as though looking anywhere but the floor were taboo. Thanks to that, she bumped into several tables. I really did not know what she was doing.
Yuri sat in a slovenly sprawl, legs stretched out and hands resting on her stomach. Then she spoke curtly.
"There's somewhere we need to stop before heading to the dungeon today."
"Where?"
Yuri glared daggers at me with furious eyes.
"...We need to go get a contraceptive spell, don't we? What if you pour that much inside me? Of course I'll get pregnant. Even now, my belly feels strange."
At those words, Reni's head creaked as she turned to look at me. Her movement was as jerky as a scene from a horror movie! H-her eyes were dead!
"Y-yesterday, h-how... how much did you...?"
I quickly pulled Reni close and whispered into her ear.
"W-we didn't do it ten times. It was p-probably around five."
"Ah..."
Psssshh. I could almost hear Reni's jealousy leaking out through her ears. Reni... she was surprisingly obsessive about this sort of thing. Well, I thought it had actually been more than ten times, but it was still nowhere near twenty, so it should have been fine.
Yuri looked at us as though we were pathetic.
"But what about you? You two must have been doing it long before this, right? Aren't you already pregnant?"
"Ehht."
At those words, Reni suddenly clutched her stomach and nervously glanced at me for my reaction.
But there was no need to worry. Because I had this.
[Skill: Irresponsible Pleasure]
[Type: Passive / Toggle]
[Effect: The skill user is free from the responsibility of pregnancy.]
The moment I saw this skill, I turned it on, and I hadn't turned it off a single time since. Pregnancy? That was way too much of a burden for me right now... I didn't even have a house... my job was unstable... and most of all, if there were kids, I couldn't keep having lovey-dovey time with the girls...
"Don't worry. You two aren't pregnant."
"Huh?"
"My ability... amplifies people when I have s-sex with them, right? What would happen if every amplification caused a pregnancy? You won't be pregnant. There's a restriction."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. It will probably remain this way until I fulfill enough of the Goddess's mission. You don't need to worry."
"Ehht?!"
Following Reni's foolish little sound, I found her looking at me as though she might cry.
"Th-then... I can't have... Y-Yoo-jin's child..."
She wanted to have my child?! N-no, it was not as though I never wanted that someday... but not now...
"L-later. Once we're settled, and we've completed the Goddess's mission, wouldn't it be okay then?"
"Ah..."
Reni's face was a mix of half relief and half disappointment. She was a little dejected as she stroked her own stomach. D-did she want it from the start?! In contrast, Yuri wore an indescribably complicated expression.
"I-I think children are cute too, but... right now is a little..."
"If you really want, you can check to be sure."
-Ping!
[A baby! Education!]
[Don't rush me! I'll do it after we get back from the dungeon!]
[Holy Sword's Satisfaction Reserve 30%]
This one seemed to have been doing nothing but eating candy all day. It wasn't working like a drug, was it?
#
"Ah, welcome."
After making all that fuss in the morning, we arrived at the Guild, where Lize greeted us warmly.
"Are you heading into the dungeon right now?"
"Yes. We're going now."
Lize had asked us to stop by every time we entered or left the dungeon. It was customary, and...
"Ah, just a moment. About that Magic Tower quest from yesterday."
There were also quest-related matters like this.
What Lize was talking about was the Magic Tower's quest to find a wizard from Emils. I had taken care of that at the same time while registering yesterday. Well, there wasn't much to do besides handing over the journal and the wizard's corpse.
Carrying a bare skeleton around in my Inventory felt unpleasant. When I told Lize I'd brought the body, she was shocked, then led me to the mortuary inside the Guild, where I handed it over before coming back out.
Anyway, a mortuary, huh. I hadn't known they had such a thing in the Guild building. Come to think of it, adventuring was dangerous work, so it made sense they'd have one.
"Yoo-jin?"
"Ah, yes. I'm listening."
"You said you're staying at Daphne's Garden, right? The Magic Tower will be contacting you there soon."
"Yes. So that's all taken care of now, right?"
"Yes! I'll be wishing you luck! And please be sure to stop by when you return, too!"
Having this conversation every time seemed a little tedious, but receptionists needed at least a rough idea of adventurers' schedules to reduce the chance of accidents. After seeing the mortuary, I couldn't dismiss that explanation.
...
Past the Guild's reception desk was the entrance to the dungeon. A piece of equipment that looked like some kind of large security scanner was installed at the dungeon entrance.
So this was what Lize was talking about.
'The adventurer's license we gave you—it's essentially your pass to enter the dungeon.'
There was only one dungeon entrance, and to prevent criminals or others from fleeing into the dungeon, or just for the safety of ordinary citizens, a magic detector was installed that would trigger an alarm bell if someone entered without a pass.
'So those adventurer's licenses cost quite a bit. If you lose them, the reissue fee will be a little steep.'
'...'
Lize had smiled as though it were nothing, but we weren't amused in the slightest. She kept beaming regardless of our stiff faces... This woman really marched to her own beat. Or was it professional dedication?
Anyway, the adventurer's license Lize had mentioned was a card made of some unknown material, with a small magic stone attached to its center. It was just the right size to lose if carelessly slipped into a pocket. I did not understand why it wasn't shaped like a necklace or ring. Were they deliberately encouraging people to lose it so they could squeeze out reissue fees?
While I entertained those pointless thoughts, we passed through the long tunnel at the entrance, and the spectacular view inside finally came into sight.
"Wow..."
"This is incredible."
This was a dungeon? There were mountains, forests, and all. To me, it just looked like another world.
"...Y-Yoo-jin. L-let's go that way."
The first one to snap out of it was Yuri. Some other adventurers passing by had been snickering at us, and that seemed to have embarrassed her considerably.
...
"Alright. So first..."
The map Lize had handed over was a standard one, but the circled zones and the paths connecting them were marked more darkly. It resembled a bunch of grapes with almost every grape plucked off.
"So... these circled parts are the central zones, right?"
"Yeah. They said those parts have fixed environments. That they're stabilized, or something like that?"
Lize had said that if we discovered a newly stabilized zone, the Guild would pay us a discovery fee. The larger the stabilized area, the higher the reward. We'd also receive the right of first refusal to purchase the land.
'If I'm the discoverer, isn't it my land?'
'Well, if you have no intention of receiving the Guild's support...'
When she said that, Lize's eyes had flashed sharply. It was meaningless talk from the start since the Guild controlled access, but she had still seemed excessively protective of that right.
"Ah, it's a rabbit."
When I looked where Reni pointed, there was a pure white snow rabbit, out of season. It looked cute, but... hold on. This thing was showing up as red on the minimap. A monster?
"Reni. Don't get close to it."
"Huh? But..."
The rabbit had been prowling around us as if sizing us up, then suddenly took off somewhere. And then a scream rang out.
-Kieeeek!
...A rabbit could make a scream like that?
I froze for a moment, then followed the sound to find the pure-white snow rabbit tearing into a snake, blood dripping from its mouth. A carnivorous rabbit? The snake, bitten in half, screamed and writhed frantically as it tried to dig a hole. A snake that screamed?
"..."
"Wow... they said dungeons defy common sense..."
Yuri's voice sounded full of admiration....That was something to admire? I needed to get a grip.
I shook my head and compared Lize's map with the minimap. Various pieces of information appeared on the minimap, but places I hadn't personally visited were blacked out, so I would have to keep comparing it against the physical map.
"Let's head this way first."
Today's target location wasn't very far from the entrance. It was said that only weak monsters appeared there, to the point it was called the Beginner's Forest.
"On the map, it's called... the First Land? Something like that? But honestly, wouldn't it be fine for us to go a little deeper?"
Yuri, who had taken down a few carnivorous rabbits, was giggling. She'd been just as startled as me when she first saw them, but now she shot an arrow at every single one she saw, and then boasted about it.
"You, if you let your guard down like that, you're gonna get..."
"No, it isn’t carelessness. Thanks to the amplification, I barely miss anymore. Look. I severed this one’s spine with a single shot, didn’t I?"
"..."
Hearing that made me a little uneasy. It was a good thing neither Reni nor Yuri was strength-oriented. If I ever buffed someone in a class that relied mainly on raw power, wouldn't I end up living under her thumb?
Well, Holy Buff was a skill I could toggle on and off, and I could also erase it with Sex Warrior's Performance. It was a needless worry. Even so, it gave me a slight chill. I felt as though I'd glimpsed a fragment of a future where I lived under someone's thumb...
"Yoo-jin, do you know how to clean a rabbit? Look. You grab it tightly by the neck and squeeze as though wringing it out... ta-da!"
"Hik!"
"The guts just spill out like this, see? What do you think? Isn't it neat?"
"..."
"But it feels way easier than it used to... are dungeon rabbits just different?"
"Y-yeah..."
Even if she was the daughter of a former hunter, she should not smile like that while pulling out a rabbit's entrails! Yuri kept giggling regardless of my horrified stare. Then her expression suddenly turned serious.
"Yoo-jin. You hear something?"
"Yoo-jin. That thing... it's glowing."
The emergency beacon hanging from my belt was glowing. It was the thing Lize had sold us yesterday. What had she said? If it was used in distress or danger, it sent a signal to nearby adventurers?
"There seems to be something nearby. But isn't this supposed to be the beginner zone?"
They had used an emergency kit in a place like this? Were dungeons more dangerous than I had thought?
"It's that way."
Yuri, who had been listening carefully, pointed in one direction. Before long, a scream reached us.
"Save me!"
"Cure and Haste! Hurry! Emily!"
"Heck... I-I can't! Hwaaahng..!"
We looked at each other.
"I've heard that voice before."
"Isn't it?"
Just as expected, the idiot trio we'd seen before came running toward us. They were covered in grass, as though they'd rolled several times. Behind them, a pure-white horse chased the trio as though they were its mortal enemies.
"...Looks like they're being chased by that horse, right?"
"Yeah. But that horse... doesn't it have a horn?"
Yuri furrowed her brows and murmured.
...A horn? A unicorn?