Chapter 790: Strengthening Period
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 790: Strengthening Period
Ah, right. Now that I think about it, that was the case.
Leia had been trying to enter her Gumiho state during combat for a while now.
There was no way she wouldn’t have put in the effort, especially with a situation like this—hunting alone with me—on the horizon.
She must have practiced like crazy by herself for the three days after I descended into the dungeon and before it was her turn.
The slight nervousness she showed before we left the village probably wasn’t just about fighting alone with me, but more about whether she could properly transform into a Gumiho.
But it seemed her practice paid off. Leia finished her transformation in the short time it took me to deal with the piranha swarm. And just now, though she claimed it was a slip of the tongue in her panic, she’d said that word again.
It was a huge improvement compared to before, when she was too embarrassed to even say it properly.
Well, it’s not like she isn’t embarrassed at all right now.
Leia was curled up into a ball, hugging her knees with her arms and burying her face between her legs, floating listlessly in the water.
Meanwhile, one of her tails drooped down, swaying gently with the current. The sight was somehow both cute and funny.
“Leia. I get what you meant. It’s okay. Alright?”
“Awooo…”
I placed a hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, trying to soothe her, but Leia just shook her head, letting out a sound like a fox’s whimper.
Every time she shook her head, her two drooping ears brushed against my hand, tickling me. The sensation felt surprisingly good.
No. That’s not what’s important right now.
Although she had practiced, the unique environment of the 4th Floor must have played a big part in her being able to overcome her embarrassment and transform so quickly.
She must have been confident that no matter what embarrassing things she said here, her own voice wouldn’t be heard.
But right after that, she’d blurted out to my face that she liked sex—and at a moment when she didn’t even need to say it. Of course she’d be embarrassed.
Still, we couldn’t stay like this forever. I needed to get her to lift her head.
Alright. In that case.
“I understand what you were trying to say. Okay? And besides, if you really like sex that much, I’d be more than happy…”
“Reaaally! Guwon!”
Only after I said that did Leia finally lift her bright red face.
Just as I expected, it was super effective.
Well, I did earn a bit of a glare from my angel as punishment.
Then again, in a way, isn’t that a reward?
“Sorry, sorry. If you’re that embarrassed, you don’t have to force yourself to turn into a Gumiho. It’s not like we’re in any danger here anyway.”
“…I don’t… want that.”
“Okay. Then just don’t push yourself too hard.”
“…I’m sorry. I feel like I’m just holding you back when you should be focusing on your own growth.”
“No. It doesn’t matter at all. In fact, you can lean on me even more. I’m actually happy I got to show you a more mature side of myself for a change.”
“Hehe. What’s that supposed to mean? …I’ve always thought you were mature, Guwon.”
As I deliberately puffed out my chest with a smug look, Leia brought a hand to her lips and giggled.
“…O-Oh? Y-You do?”
My angel, it’s not my place to say this, but aren’t you looking at me through some seriously rose-colored glasses?
If anything, I feel like out of all my women, Leia is the one I usually act the most spoiled around.
Not that I’m complaining if she sees me in a good light, of course.
“Anyway, shall we get going?”
“Hehe. Yes. I’ll do my best!”
Finding my awkwardness a little amusing, my angel kept one hand to her lips, giggling, while making a cute fighting pose with the other.
And just as she said, Leia truly did her best after that.
Every time I finished a battle and checked on her, Leia was in her Gumiho form.
Though, the moment our eyes met, her face would instantly flush red and the transformation would break.
The fact that she had transformed meant she had shouted that embarrassing line, so it seemed just showing me her transformed state was enough to make her shy.
Mm. That unwavering coyness of hers. It’s a wonderful sight to behold.
And Leia wasn’t the only one making progress.
My hunting—or rather, my slaughter—method was also evolving.
Until yesterday, I had at least been swinging my arms and legs around to attack, but today, I simply drew aggro with Holy Ground Proclamation, used Stealth and the full power of the Saint, and just stood there, letting the monsters attack me.
And without fail, any monster that attacked me died on the spot as if it had been hit by a counter.
On the surface, it might look like I was developing in the wrong direction, since it seemed like I was just taking hits without even attacking. But that wasn’t the case at all.
This hunting method had the major advantage of drastically reducing my stamina consumption, since I didn’t have to move around to strike each enemy.
Even with my ridiculously high stats, moving around violently underwater was pretty exhausting.
Furthermore, since I only used Holy Ground Proclamation for a moment at the beginning to draw aggro, my mana consumption wasn’t as high as I’d expected.
The only downside to this method was that, since it was premised on taking hits, my health would get chipped away in every battle. But even that wasn’t a problem at all, since I had Leia, a healer, right by my side.
If anything, it could be seen as a plus, since I could raise my own job level while also helping Leia raise her job and skill levels.
“Even if it’s fast and easy, it’s too reckless. Have you been fighting like this the whole time?”
Of course, that very same angel would chide me with a distressed look every time she healed me after a hunt.
“No, of course not. I’m only doing this because you’re here, Leia.”
“…Honestly. It doesn’t make me happy to be helpful in this way.”
Leia, who had initially been worried if she would be of any real help to me, muttered with a complicated expression at my brute-force solution.
But even as she said that, the way she meticulously observed every inch of my body, rubbing me down with her hands, proved that my angel was truly an angel.
In any case, my hunt with Leia progressed much faster than I had anticipated, and we were able to return to the village with satisfying results.
“But in the end, you never got over your transformation breaking the moment our eyes met.”
“Awooo… P-Please don’t talk about that.”
“I can’t do that. You said it yourself, Leia. That you’d do your best. Good. I think it’s time for another round of special Gumiho-countermeasure training.”
“Not again…”
As I stroked my chin and muttered, Leia blushed and shot me a gentle glare.
But even so, my angel didn’t say she wouldn’t do it.
Mm, mm. Having the desire to improve is a good thing.
Sharing that conversation in a sweet and lovey-dovey mood, we entered our inn room, and I immediately stripped the robe from Leia’s body.
Why was Leia suddenly wearing a robe, you ask?
Think about it. Leia was wearing her priestess’s robe, which she had modified to be form-fitting like a cheongsam.
And she had come back completely soaked.
Even if the clothes had been waterproofed, it couldn’t prevent them from clinging to her body.
So you can imagine what she looked like, right?
There was no way I could let other guys see such a magnificent sight.
Therefore, I had immediately draped my own robe over her as soon as we returned to the village.
And when I pulled the robe away, the incredible sight hidden beneath was, of course, revealed before my eyes.
The already form-fitting clothes were now plastered even more tightly to her body because of the water, and my angel’s breasts, as large as her generous heart… Ugh. I feel this every time I see them, but it’s good to be alive.
“Reaaally…”
Sensing my blatant stare, Leia made a slightly embarrassed face, then wrapped her arms tightly around my body.
As a result, those massive breasts were pressed against my chest, which was a delight for my eyes, but it was also a bit of a shame.
My angel! I’m wearing armor right now, I can’t feel anything! I said I can’t feel anything!
As if hearing my inner screams, Leia wrapped her arms around my back and slowly began to unbuckle my armor.
But it seemed her reason for hugging me in the first place was to take off my armor, because as soon as it was off, she immediately pulled away from me.
Aww… my hopes and dreams…
Leia then stripped off all the clothes I was wearing under my armor and began to slowly circle me, observing my body.
Wh-What is this?
“A-Are we starting the special Gumiho training already?”
“N-No! Reaaally! I’m just checking to see if there are any places I missed healing.”
I asked with a bit of a pounding heart, but of course, that wasn’t it.
Leia smacked my body a few times with her wet tail, then resumed observing me with a serious expression.
“It’s fine. You healed me perfectly, every nook and cranny.”
Lately, I’d been fighting by dodging most attacks.
It had been a while since I’d fought by stupidly tanking every hit—no, today I really did just stupidly take hits.
For that reason, my angel couldn’t help but worry about my body.
Even if there were places she missed, we were about to have sex anyway, so Healing Sex would take care of it.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think of that, but I couldn’t just ignore my angel’s kind heart, so I stood still with my arms spread wide, waiting for her physical examination to end.
“Mm. Yes. You seem to be perfectly fine. …But, Guwon?”
My angel, who had been slightly bent over to check every spot, maintained that posture even after she was done, raising only her gaze to look at my face.
“Yeah?”
“This part… why is it already like this?”
She then pressed the tip of her finger firmly against the end of my dick, which was straining as if to burst through my underwear, and asked her question.
Haha. Why, you ask? My angel, you ask such an obvious question.
“Well, you suddenly started stripping me and observing my body. I thought you were starting some slutty roleplay the moment we walked in.”
“S-Slu…!?”
As soon as she heard my answer, Leia’s face turned beet red, and she froze solid.
But her index finger was still pressing firmly against my dick, so her frozen, embarrassed state created a strangely erotic atmosphere.
“No, I don’t mean that you’re a slut or anything. It’s just that to transform, you need to be a little bolder, or rather, more honest about your sexual desires, right? So I thought maybe you were planning to do that kind of play as part of your training.”
I hurriedly tried to explain myself, but Leia remained frozen stiff, showing no sign of moving.
“L-Leia?”
She was so completely frozen that I even tried waving my hand in front of her face, but her eyes didn’t react.
Yep. She’s completely turned to ice. Was the word ‘slut’ that much of a shock?
“Eek… G-Guwon, is that what you were hoping for?”
After being frozen for a while, my angel finally thawed and uttered those words in a slightly trembling voice.
“No, it’s not that I was hoping for it, but I was thinking that if it’s special training to master the Gumiho transformation, we might have to go that far.”
In truth, I’d been thinking about it ever since we started talking about training on our way back to the village.
The word ‘slut’ had just popped out of my mouth because I’d already had that thought in my head.
“Awooo… T-Training…”
Hearing my words, Leia’s face turned bright red as she began to ponder, all while tracing circles with the fingertip that was pressing on the tip of my dick.
Hey. My angel. That’s actually pretty stimulating.
On top of that, she was still slightly bent over, which further emphasized her breasts, already highlighted by her clinging clothes.
“I-It’s for training. You won’t… think it’s weird, will you? You won’t hate it, will you?”
Finally, having made up her mind after much deliberation, Leia looked up into my eyes and muttered in a tiny voice.
Of course, there was only one answer I could give to a question like that.
“Leia. Listen carefully.”
“Y-Yes?”
“There isn’t a man alive who would hate that.”
Even to my own ears, my voice sounded more serious than ever before.
But how could it not be!
A woman as beautiful and normally demure as Leia becoming aggressive at night? That’s like every man’s ideal