Chapter 131: The 2nd Floor
Chapter 131: The 2nd Floor
“Come to think of it, you did say you wanted to go all night.”
Guwon spoke as he came out of the shower and laid Sara down on the bed.
“What? Wh-what are you talking about….”
Don’t play innocent. Weren’t you the one who got jealous, asking who I’d spent all night with before?
You might not think so, but I have a great memory for this kind of thing.
“Alright. Then let’s go all night.”
“A-are you crazy? We have to hunt tomorrow….”
“It’s fine. The last time I pulled an all-nighter was the day before heading into the dungeon. It wasn’t a problem at all.”
Though, to be fair, I’d never spent the entire night just having sex.
The last time I was up all night with Leia, she was passed out, and I was the only one awake.
“W-wait, a-are you serious?”
Sara put up a show of light resistance, but she didn’t seem to genuinely dislike the idea.
Alright. Time to go for it.
In the end, we really did go at it all night.
Guwon only stopped moving his hips around the time he would normally be waking up.
Recalling his previous experience, he’d spent more time moving slowly and leisurely rather than intensely, but after a certain point, even that became meaningless.
Partway through, Sara had practically lost her mind, becoming so sensitive that she’d reach her climax after just three or four thrusts.
As a result, she was now sprawled out on the bed.
Her eyes were open, so she hadn’t fainted.
But her face was a mess of tears and saliva, the muscles slack and blissful.
Seeing the usually cool-headed Sara with such an expression was exciting, but a part of me was also worried.
Did I go too far?
“Sara. Are you okay?”
“Haah, haah, haah. Hnghh…!”
When Guwon placed a hand on her stomach and gently shook her shoulder, Sara curled up, her body convulsing violently.
“Haah, wait, if you touch me…!”
Ah, right… Sorry.
Guwon decided to leave her alone until she calmed down.
I guess I’ll take a shower first.
When he came out of the shower, Sara was sitting up on the bed, glaring daggers at him.
She must have wiped her face, as she was back to her usual pretty self.
“Are you out of your mind? I can’t believe you. You beast.”
“N-no. You were the one who asked if I’d ever spent all night with someone. It seemed like you wanted to try it, so….”
“Don’t make excuses!”
“Okay…”
Guwon decided to shut up.
Even I have to admit I might have overdone it.
“I really can’t believe it. Ugh… it feels like the inside of my stomach is sloshing around….”
Muttering to herself, Sara slowly disappeared into the bathroom.
For someone with such an angry expression, her voice sounds surprisingly cheerful. Or is it just my imagination?
In any case, thanks to the all-nighter, Guwon had achieved a magnificent feat.
He had once again surpassed Sara’s level!
In a world where you level up through sex, falling behind a girl in your own party was a serious blow to the ego.
Of course, Sara’s level also went up from combat, not just sex.
Her level would probably creep up again once she started fighting, so I couldn’t let my guard down just because I’d overtaken her.
Still, thanks to her, leveling up was a bit easier for me, too.
After all, if I only slept with lower-level partners, my own progress would be slow.
You could call it a virtuous cycle: I raise my level by having relations with the party members, and when Sara surpasses my level through combat, I catch up again, raising the party’s average level.
Having surpassed level 50, Guwon decided to assign his skill points while Sara was showering.
There was a skill I’d been eyeing ever since we encountered the mosquito swarm, and now that I was over level 50, I could finally learn it.
Guwon opened the skill window and, without hesitation, invested his skill points.
It was a skill called Holy Ground Proclamation.
As the name suggested, it was a technique that turned a certain radius around the user into a holy ground.
Of course, the ‘holy’ in holy ground didn’t mean sacred, but carnal. [T/N: A pun in Korean. The word for ‘holy’ (聖) and ‘sex/nature’ (性) are both pronounced ‘seong’.]
All creatures that entered the holy ground would experience a gradual increase in arousal and sensitivity, taking pleasure damage over time, like a DoT effect, every second.
Described like that, it sounds like an overpowered skill that could solve everything on its own, but the reality was quite different.
Other games by Great Earth had similar skills, and they were all universally treated as garbage.
First, the mana efficiency was abysmal.
And above all else, its power was far too low.
As you might have guessed from the fact that it boosted arousal, sensitivity, and pleasure all at once, the trade-off for giving so much was that its potency was spread incredibly thin.
It was originally a skill designed for multi-partner harem play.
It lacked power unless the player was max level, but by the time you reached max level, you no longer needed such a skill for harem play. It was a classic ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ kind of skill.
But despite all that, Guwon invested his points into it.
It was solely to deal with the mosquito swarms.
With Diana around, mosquito swarms were no problem at all, but it never hurt to be prepared for the unexpected.
Something could happen that might separate me from Diana, or a swarm could appear when her mana was low.
The power of Holy Ground Proclamation might be severely weak, but it should be enough to handle a swarm of mosquitoes.
Individually, they’re weaker than the monsters on the 1st floor, and my Charm stat is off the charts.
“So, what now? Should we register at the teleportation circle here and head back to town for a bit?”
“Hmm? Is there a need for that? Now that we’re here, we can get a good night’s sleep. Why don’t we continue hunting?”
Hearing Diana’s words, Guwon immediately saw through her scheme.
So this was her plan from the start.
“Are you trying to run away from home again?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“You’re saying this because you don’t want to go home right now, aren’t you?”
“N-not at all! At your levels, you’ll need to stay around here and hunt anyway!”
“Is that really the only reason?”
Guwon stared directly into her eyes.
They faced each other for several seconds, like a staring contest, until Diana was the first to look away.
“W-well, it’s not like we have anything to do in town anyway.”
Diana said with a pout, her tone slightly sulky.
She’s so cute when she reacts like this, it makes it hard to tease her any further.
Pretty people always get away with everything.
“That might be true for me, but I don’t know about Sara and Leia. Even if they don’t have business, they might want to rest after being on the move for days. What do you two think?”
Though I phrased it as a question for both of them, it was really directed at Leia.
Sara, who came from the countryside and didn’t know anyone in town, was unlikely to have any business to attend to. In fact, she’d probably be the one urging us to hunt to level up as quickly as possible.
“I’m fine. Let’s do as Diana says and stay here to hunt, shall we?”
Just as I thought. The expected answer.
She was a Hero on a quest to defeat the Demon King; of course she’d say that.
“I’m fine, too.”
But Leia’s answer was a surprise.
She hadn’t been to the orphanage in days; I thought she’d want to visit by now. Was she being considerate of us?
“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not pushing yourself?”
“No, I’m really fine. I want to grow strong enough to be able to stand watch on my own.”
Leia answered, clenching her fists.
I see. So that’s what she was thinking. We’d be staying here for a while, so it’s not like we’d even be taking turns on watch. She’s so admirable.
And so, it was unanimously decided that we would stay and hunt a while longer.
The party’s skills had improved to the point where any one of us—Guwon, Sara, or Diana—could easily handle the monsters in this area. But in terms of level, our situation was absurd.
It was only because of our titles—Saint, Hero, and Archmage—that we were so much stronger than our levels suggested.
The appropriate level for the monsters in this area was still higher than ours.
Even though our hunts were more like massacres, we were still gaining a decent amount of experience.
Still, to make our leveling even more efficient, Guwon decided to seal away his Saint’s Touch.
If I used it, everything would collapse in one hit, and it wouldn’t feel like a proper fight.
So, we adopted a new strategy: Guwon would draw the monsters’ attention from the front, and Sara would pick them off one by one.
For the record, Diana was put on standby unless it was a special situation. It wasn’t like she needed to raise her job level anyway.
Once we changed our combat style, I finally understood why Sand Worms were considered a threat to adventurers.
As Guwon was walking a step ahead of the others, he felt a faint vibration in the ground.
Immediately after, something shot up from beneath his feet and swallowed him up to his waist.
Whoa. What is this? Ugh, this feels disgusting.
Thanks to Guwon’s considerable defense and his enhanced armor doing its job, the damage wasn’t as bad as he’d expected.
However, the sensation of being half-eaten by a monster was quite unsettling.
He reflexively almost used Saint’s Touch but managed to stop himself.
Instead, Guwon swung his leg, which was trapped inside the Sand Worm’s body, with great force.
“Kureeeek!”
The creature seemed to have taken some damage, but it didn’t spit out his lower body.
This one’s got guts. Let’s see who wins this.
But when it came to guts, Guwon had no intention of losing.
He kicked relentlessly from inside the Sand Worm’s body, alternating his feet. From the outside, you could see the creature’s body bulge with each of Guwon’s kicks.
The worm writhed in agony.
“Guwon!”
When the Sand Worm thrashed violently, it was only natural that Guwon, who was half-swallowed, would be violently shaken as well.
Seeing him in such a precarious state, Sara panicked and fired an arrow that seemed to be heavily charged with mana.
The arrow flew toward the Sand Worm, pierced its skin, and went straight through Guwon’s thigh, which was trapped inside.
“Gyaaaah!”
Taking such unexpected damage, Guwon let out a scream for the first time in a long while.
It wasn’t just because the damage came from an unexpected situation.
What the hell is this? It hurts like hell. Why is Sara’s damage so brutal?
“G-Guwon!”
“A-are you alright!”
“Guwon-ssi!”
At Guwon’s scream, the rest of the party screamed as well.
Forgetting all about efficient leveling, Guwon immediately used Saint’s Touch to knock the Sand Worm out and quickly pulled himself free.
Fortunately, Sara’s arrow had been so powerful that it had passed clean through his thigh instead of getting stuck.
Wait, is that fortunate?
“Guwon!”
The first one to reach him was, of course, Sara.
It was simply because she was the fastest of the three.
She rushed toward him at a speed that was almost like teleportation, then hugged him, not knowing what to do.
“Oh god. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, sniff. Waaah.”
Sara finally burst into tears.
And not just a few tears welling up in her eyes—she was wailing like a child.
Seeing her like that, Guwon was so taken aback that he forgot his own pain and started comforting her.
“I-it’s okay. Calm down. It doesn’t hurt as much as it looks.”
“H-how can it not, sniff, hurt! Th-there’s so much, sob, blood.”
Sara sobbed so hard she could barely speak.
Wow, I never thought she’d be the type to cry like this. I have no idea how to handle this. What am I supposed to say to calm her down?
For now, Guwon just hugged her and gently patted her back.
“Are you alright?”
“Guwon-ssi. Let me see, quickly.”
Diana and Leia, who had run up right after, checked on Guwon.
Leia immediately gathered light in her hands and caressed his thigh.
Her touch was gentler than ever, but having a puncture wound caressed still stung a little.
“Keuk!”
“S-sorry. Did that hurt?”
“No. It just stings a bit. Please continue.”
She had to tend to the wound for much longer than usual before it finally healed.
All the while, Sara remained in Guwon’s arms, sobbing her heart out.
“Sara. Stop crying. It’s okay. Look. It’s all better now.”
As Guwon continued to soothe her, Sara finally managed to stop crying.
Her eyes were still brimming with tears, looking as if they would spill over at the slightest poke, but she bit her lip, trying to hold them back.
“…Let’s go back to town.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Are you going to keep hunting with that leg? Let’s go back to town, now.”
“No, it’s all healed…”
“No. You need to rest for at least one day. We need to use Healing Sex or something to treat it completely.”
Sara stubbornly refused to back down.
And at the words ‘Healing Sex,’ Guwon’s resolve wavered slightly.
Yeah. Maybe we’ll rest today and go hard starting tomorrow.
“Ahem. It can’t be helped. Then I suppose I shall have to step up.”
“What?”
“Hmm?”
Sara and Diana looked at each other, tilting their heads.
“No. This was entirely my fault, so I should…”
“Nonsense. I am not so small-minded that I cannot cover for a comrade’s mistake. Besides, is it not my turn today? I shall take responsibility and ensure he is perfectly cured.”
“U-ugh…”
Ooh. It’s been a while, but Diana just completely crushed Sara with flawless logic. This brings back memories.
“Guwon-ssi…”
As Guwon watched their exchange like a bystander, he heard a pitiful voice from his side.
“Hm?”
“Was my healing not enough? Is it not fully healed yet?”
He turned his head to see my angel looking incredibly sad.
“No! Of course not! I’m perfectly fine!”
Guwon shot to his feet.
“Wow. Look at this. I can’t even tell where I was hurt. Leia’s healing magic is the best, as always.”
Guwon said in an exaggerated tone, swinging his leg around.
I can’t let my angel be sad.
It was true that I was fully healed, and we could have sex naturally when night came anyway. There was no reason to get worked up in broad daylight.
“Alright, everyone, stop worrying for nothing and let’s get back to hunting. You all know how amazing Leia’s healing magic is, right? Come on, let’s carve out the magic stone and get going.”
Guwon turned toward the spot where the Sand Worm had fallen.
But the Sand Worm was no longer there.
What? Did it run away?
“The magic stone is right here.”
Just then, Diana held out a magic stone to Guwon.
I see. As expected of the experienced Diana, she must have finished off the stunned Sand Worm in the middle of all that chaos.
But how did she carve out the magic stone?
“You don’t have a knife.”
“If you shred it to pieces with wind magic, the magic stone comes out on its own.”
“Then why didn’t you do that before and just let them pile up?”
“Because that would dirty my eyes, would it not? I’d rather not do it if I can avoid it.”
She had a point. Tearing a corpse to shreds until the magic stone was visible wouldn’t be a pretty sight.
So she did it this time because she had no choice.
That meant she clearly distinguished between when to mess around and when not to, and had been deliberately messing with me before.
Well, that doesn’t excuse her for dumping the task of carving magic stones on me.
So you could have done it all along but didn’t? Just you wait.
Guwon silently resolved to get his revenge on Diana.
Of course, it would be hard to win against her during the day, so his revenge would have to wait until night.
And as it happens, tonight is my night with her.
Now, how should I mess with her to make her admit she was wrong?