Molested by a Stunning Beauty

Fwoooosh!

Just as the tearful reunion was reaching its climax, light burst from my body.

Count Drake and the head butler, watching it happen right in front of them, jumped back in shock, but the saintess simply gazed at me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in silence. Then she slipped out of Count Drake's arms and walked slowly toward me.

"Thank you, truly. If we should meet again... by then, I'll be a real saintess."

"I look forward to seeing it."

Fwoosh!

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I was back in the Abyss.

The factories had kept running the entire time I was gone, and the armor made from spider carapaces was still rolling off the production lines. After making a full circuit of the facilities, I gathered Pitasha and Rune, my heart thumping with anticipation, and gave the order.

"Commander summoning."

"I wonder what kind of Commander we'll get this time, Master?"

"Good question."

Kuooooooo—

This would already be my third Commander summoning. The third, at last. The ritual, which I'd more or less gotten used to by now, ended, and the smoke cleared to reveal its product — a somewhat unsteady-looking man. The difference was that he had, of all things, four arms.

"Greetings. My name is Belzer. My specialty is information warfare — hacking and intelligence gathering, to be precise."

"Oh, hey. There's not much for you to do at this stage, though... Can you access the Community?"

"I can, provided you delegate the necessary permissions to me, Master."

"Then consider them delegated."

At my words, Belzer bowed his head slowly. Rune and Pitasha studied him in silence.

"Your job will be intelligence gathering through the Community — world servers ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and domestic servers both. That work for you?"

"Leave it to me."

As the composed Belzer gave his measured reply, Pitasha sidled up beside him.

"Nice to meet you...! I was worried we'd get another girl this time, you know? Hehe... what a relief. Want to look around the place with me? I'll give you the grand tour!"

"Ah... my deepest thanks, but I'm afraid I dislike outdoor activity. Haha... would it be alright if I excused myself to gather intelligence?"

"Uh... yeah. Sure, go ahead."

"Ask me anything later! Fighting!"

And just like that, Belzer went rocketing off toward the fortress on a drone. We watched him go.

"Hmm... he's kind of a quiet one, isn't he."

"He gives me the creeps."

"Now, now."

After shushing Rune for stating facts a little too bluntly, we each moved on to our own tasks.

Rune's was to clear up to Stage 60, then farm it on repeat. Pitasha left, saying she had things to take care of. And my job was to replenish the Machine Legion we'd just burned through. The units that had been scurrying around collecting magic stones had been smashed in the ambush, and the sheer length of the battle had thinned our numbers considerably. I'd refilled back to one hundred thousand last time — this time, the target was two hundred thousand.

The quest wasn't about the size of the Machine Legion — it was about the Commanders. And this was probably the last one.

"Summon thirty thousand mid-tier combat units. Fifty thousand low-tier."

Combat soldiers began flooding the space around me. Defense, I'd decided, was all about raw numbers — so these came first.

"About five hundred transport units too. And five thousand electronic warfare units."

We'd just summoned a Commander who specialized in intelligence and hacking. The number of electronic warfare units I had on hand simply wouldn't cut it. Once I'd pulled everything, my remaining points were nearly gone.

"Once I hit two hundred thousand this time, I should head back home. I'll use one of the twelve-day passes split off from the fifty-day one."

I was mulling that over when a message came in from Belzer.

Click.

"...Probably because my name's attached to it. I'll have to tell him about that later."

What I needed to do right now was the newly developed supply-grade elixir Pitasha had just finished. The plan was to drink ten of them and strengthen my body's foundation. Omnissiah was playing games with numbers out there, and what I had in mind was a mana field that stayed permanently active by drawing on my own power. Rune had promised that if my mana grew stronger from the elixirs, she'd teach it to me.

So my task right now was to make the supply-grade elixir truly my own. From what the others told me, it worked like ordinary mana use — the kind you'd do every day. The problem was that I still wasn't used to handling mana at all.

Which meant what I actually needed was the defensive robot Pitasha had built to take my one-on-one sparring. It would throw the occasional attack, but it had zero killing power. My job with this thing was to use the [Smite] trait I'd acquired last time and learn to genuinely feel and control my mana.

"The supply-grade elixir's weak, so they said to just drink it and go wild. Apparently it'll help me get the feel faster."

Pitasha and Rune had both agreed on that, so down it went.

Gulp.

Thump.Thump.

Heat came roaring up from my empty stomach.

"Activate."

Beep.

The robot began walking slowly toward me. I charged at it, staff raised.

Whum.

The robot swung a fist that was, quite literally, a cotton-padded glove.

Sweep.

"Smite!"

CLANG!

I dodged clean past it and brought Smite down on the machine's head. The robot didn't take so much as a dent. Pitasha had said I could hit it as hard as I pleased — I'd wondered what she meant, but the thing was absurdly tough.

Raising sparring intensity. Level two.

"...Huh?"

The robot suddenly spoke, then charged straight at me. Still cotton gloves, sure — but the speed was something else entirely. For now, dodging was the priority. I slipped the right hook flying at me, and a knee came slashing up from the lower left out of nowhere.

Tap.

I planted my hand on the ground, smacked the leg away, and vaulted up. The moment I left the floor, grabbing hands came reaching for me — I swung the staff down on the thing's wrist.

"Smite!"

CLANG!

I hammered its head again, and the robot spoke once more.

Proceeding to level three.

"What is this thing?"

It was suddenly pulling out a sword made of styrofoam. I suppose I'm supposed to take that seriously. I raised my staff again — and Rune materialized at my side before I knew it.

"Master, drop the staff. Fight bare-handed."

"Got it."

"And drink another bottle."

Gulp.

I set the staff down on the spot and drained the elixir sitting beside me.

"Whew..."

"Cast Smite through your hand."

"Okay!"

Dadadat!

I was sprinting forward when—

"Whoa—!"

The robot hurled its sword at me. The blade flew dead-on for my skull, and only the reinforcement of my internal force let me drop backward out of its path. The moment I dodged, the robot closed the distance and brought its interlocked fists hammering down toward my waist. I rolled backward with the backflip technique I'd learned in taekwondo, and the robot started after me again.

"Smite."

KANG!

"Agh...!"

I kicked out at its leg with a calf kick, and the hard steel sent an ache screaming up my own shin. Only the mana reinforcement from Smite kept my leg from getting hurt.

"Focus, Master. You're throwing Smite around without thinking. Everyone else has to learn this on a knife's edge, and you get to practice in perfect safety. Have some focus."

"Whew..."

The robot hadn't taken a single point of damage. It stood there calmly, then came at me again.

Whum.Whoosh.

I slipped every one of its punches, and this time the robot matched me — throwing a calf kick of its own. I raised my leg to block without thinking, and instantly regretted it. Its foot was soft padded material, but where my knee was about to land was its shin. And the robot's shin was hard as hell.

"Smite!"

I drove my knee up with Smite surging through it. Its calf and my knee collided, the robot staggered, and I seized its shoulder and swung myself around behind it.

"Smite!"

CLANG!Thud.

The robot toppled over from the impact.

Crack.Crack.Crack.

"Well done. You did that last one entirely on your own."

"Huh?"

Flicker...

The thing flickering at the end there was my mana. And an incredibly faint amount of it, at that.

"With insufficient mana left to properly activate Smite, you struck with your meager remaining mana in a way that resembled it."

"So this is the same thing as Smite?"

"No. It's greater, Master. It means you can strike at beyond one hundred percent."

"I see..."

"Two more elixirs, then. Sit down and start circulating. Your circuits are already worn out from the sustained mana use."

With that, Rune moved to switch off the robot.

"...How do you even turn this thing off?"

KA-BOOM!

The robot blew apart on the spot, leaking black smoke. Rune sauntered over as if nothing had happened.

I flinched.

Rune closed the distance and settled down cross-legged behind my back.

"Take it off."

"Huh...?"

"Your shirt."

"Ah. Right. Okay."

Swish.

The moment my shirt came off, her cool hand pressed against my back. Her mana began seeping into me drop by drop, and slowly my own mana started to be drawn along in the wake of her far more powerful flow. I let my mana move as hers guided it, and before I realized it, I was circulating without her help at all.

"Whew... Here. One more."

Gulp. Gulp.

Eyes closed, circulating my power, I drank down the elixir Rune held to my lips. My mana blazed back to life. I could feel my mana circuits — worn soft and slack from exhaustion — gradually stretching wider.

"You smeared some."

Sweep.

Rune's hand wiped the corner of my mouth. My body was already burning up, and her cool fingertips against it felt wonderful.

How ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much time passed like that?

Chiiiiiii...

"Phew..."

When I finished circulating and opened my eyes, my circuits felt different — changed, remade. So this was why people called training fun, I was thinking, when—

WHAM!

"Waaahh... You went way too long, Master!"

"Huh?"

"Hmm... did Sun Wukong's unique trait grant you some blessing of resilience? Knowing him, it's possible..."

Rune was sitting cross-legged beside a simple tent that had somehow gone up, murmuring to herself with her bare legs folded beneath her.

Heat rushed to my face.

"Rune... put some clothes on..."

"This is more comfortable."

"Sure, whatever. Pitasha — how long was I out of it?"

"Three whole days! Are you hungry at all?"

Grrrowl...

"Starving."

Tap.

"Let's go eat!"

"Yeah..."

Thud.

"Kyaaah! Master!"

"Mmmgh... carry me."

My strength gave out and I keeled over, and Pitasha hurriedly hoisted me onto her back.

Squeeze.

"Hey, your hand is kind of..."

"Hehe... yes?"

"Never mind. Let's hurry."