Volume 1 - CH 18

Act 1-18: In A Certain Meaning, Those Were Fulfilled Days

―88099 years after the start of the game! The 899th floor!

Early in the morning, I left the building to continue the dungeon exploration along with Faf.

「GI GI!」

Above the ground, thousands of battamans, which I had caught in the subjugation picture book, formed lines. They punched the air with their right fists while assuming martial art stances.

The lion-beastman, Nemea, who stood in front of those battamans while crossing his arms in front of his chest, noticed my arrival,

『EVERYONE, stop at once… Attention!』

He commanded the battaman to stop. Hearing that command, all the battamans stopped at once and straightened their backs. It seemed today was a regular training day for the battamans.

Every day, Nemea taught martial arts to the subjugated monster in rotation so that they could maximize their potential. For the days other than the regular training day, the monsters usually spent time in their own world in the subjugation picture book for voluntary training or headed into the labyrinth to gain experience until their lives weren’t in danger. For that reason, I could confidently say that my monster subordinates had become more powerful than how they were before I subjugated them.

「My apologies for interrupting your training. Keep up your efforts with that spirit!」

I issued my usual lines.

『GI GA(HA)!』

Thousands of battamans cupped their hands at once and bowed to me.

The monsters captured by the subjugation picture book gained intelligence on par with a human. It enabled them to communicate with me to some extent. Thanks to this peculiar nature of the subjugation picture book, the training efficiency had tremendously increased.

『Take me too, Master!』

Suddenly, an adorable wolf puppy appeared on top of my head. It spoke as it raised its small right paw.

Then, lumps of jiggly, blue, and almost-transparent water balls nestled around my feet.

The wolf puppy was 【Fenrir】, and the jiggly water balls that nestled around my feet were slimes, to be exact 【Healing Slimes】.

【Fenrir】was the floor boss of the 800th floor, but he looked like a wolf puppy. He was so adorable that I had been unable to bring my sword down at him.

At this point, thanks to the vegetables and meat I acquired in the jungle zone, my cooking repertoire had significantly increased. Moreover, thanks to various cooking books I found in this dungeon, the quality of various kinds of seasonings and the cuisine had shot through the roof.

So, when I had offered a steak with plenty of special sauce I developed just for that mission, Fenrir had readily declared his surrender.

When I saw that he didn’t transform into a human like Faf, I guessed that Faf’s human transformation was a special case. Besides, I had no idea what was the condition for that transformation either.

Since Fenrir himself said that he wanted to become my kin and join the subjugation picture book like the others, I gave him my permission.

As for the 【Healing Slimes】, they were the floor boss of the 750th floor. To be exact, they were inside the giant salamander’s body, the floor boss of the 750th floor.

That salamander had an absurd regeneration ability that made it one of the most troublesome opponents to subjugate so far. Once I subjugated it, these slimes came out of the salamander’s corpse. They kept following me ever since then and became monsters of the subjugation picture book before I realized it.

「No problem. Well, sorry guys! You have to sit at home for now since it has become dangerous as of late.」

I patted Fenrir’s head once, then patted the 【Healing Slimes】, which were snuggling at my feet.

The 【Healing Slimes】 jumped around as if they enjoyed my pats. When I patted them again with a complacent smile on my face…

「So sly, nodesu! Faf wants to be patted too, nodesu!」

The spoiled dragon god beside me expressed her dissatisfaction.

Faf, you… always look for any chance to ask for a head pat. I mean, after Fen and the 【Healing Slimes】 joined our camp, Faf had become more spoiled than before. She was still as adorable as before though.

「Kay kay.」

Heaving a deep sigh, I patted the slimes with my right hand and Faf’s small head with my left. After both were satisfied, I entered the dungeon.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

We descended the stairs toward the 900th floor.

The stairways were long, stone-paved, and traveled beneath numerous huge red gates. When we reached the bottom of the stairways, we arrived at an open space surrounded by all kinds of trees. Pure white gravel covered the ground, and a splendid wooden building in the innermost part of the open space entered my eyes. If my memories served me right, that building was similar to a building from another world called 『Jinja』. It was inside one of the books from another world I found in this dungeon.

The front door of the wooden building creaked open, and a beautiful, young woman with nine tails came out of the door.

She was an extremely beautiful woman with glossy silver hair that stretched until her ankle, a pair of splendid twin hills on her chest, a constricted waist, a round buttock, and a pair of small animal ears growing on top of her head. She was most likely a beastman just like Nemea, just that she looked closer to a human. [TL: Is this the heroine?]

She was dressed in a red and white garment whose design resembled the clothes called 『Shrine Maiden Garment』. It was something I saw in one of the books of another world, which I found in this dungeon too.

「Congratulations for arriving this far, O’ nameless god(gentleman)!」

She spread her arms as she welcomed me with a pompous, yet clear and beautiful voice.

Well, that aside―

「Let’s get to the point! Surrender now!」

I had confirmed this with just a glance. She was weak. However, even if no one was going to blame me, I wasn’t a pervert who liked to find satisfaction in bullying a weak woman. That was against the code of a warrior. That’s why I decided to accept her surrender just like Faf’s and Fen’s cases.

「Is that a jest?」

The beautiful and perfect eyebrows of the silver-haired beastwoman twitched. She then asked me while poking her finger on her cheek.

「You’re way too weak! Give it up! You cannot defeat me. And I don’t wish to fight you. That’s why your only choice is surrendering. Am I clear enough?」

Yup, look at that simple yet perfect reasoning. Honestly, I’m scared of my communication skills. With this, I’m sure that she would obediently surrender.

「Kusu, kufufufufufufufufu…」

Contrary to my expectations, the silver-haired beastwoman covered her small mouth. She let out a muffled-yet seemingly eerie laugh while looking down on the ground.

「Yes, that’s right. Are you feeling relieved? Since that’s the case, and I’m quite a busy man too, immediately announce your surrender.」

Well, I wasn’t too busy in fact.

「Fufufufufufu…」

Her laugh became louder and louder.

「Eh?」

I frowned when I felt that her laugh contained an extreme madness that sent a chill running down my spine. [TL: Give it up. You just angered one of the most OP characters, a yandere.]

『Master, that big sister, is so scary.』

Fen, who was nestled on top of my head, shouted while hiding behind my back.

「Faf is scared too, nodesu.」

Faf, who had already hidden behind my back, said the same thing. She peeked her head out a little to look at the silver-haired beastwoman.

""

Yup, I know how you feel. I mean, it was only natural for them to get this scared on seeing a peerless, silver-haired beauty suddenly laughing like an evil spirit.

「This mistress is weak, huh! Then how about you witness just how weak this mistress is!!」

The silver-haired beastwoman charged toward me, brandishing her sharp claws. Her hair literally stood up as if it were defying gravity.

Numerous beads of sweat appeared on the almost-transparent white skin of the silver-haired woman. She was also breathing heavily.

At first, she unleashed various things such as fire pillars, wind blades, ice spikes, etc, etc. However, none of them worked on me thanks to my assimilation ability. Thus, she changed her tactic and kept brandishing her claws toward me.

「Geez! This is why I said not to force yourself.」

「It’s… none… of your business!」

When I dodged her claw attack that was aiming for the crown of my head, the silver-haired woman stumbled on her own feet and fell forward. Before she fell, I caught her by her thin waist.

「See, I told ya.」

At that moment, the silver-haired woman stared at my face from point-blank range. The next moment, her cheeks turned red and her lips trembled.

I helped her stand back on her feet again.

「Well, that’s enough for today. I’ll come to play again tomorrow.」

I patted her head, then turned around and left the 900th floor. As for the reason, well I had all the time in this world after all. I decided to play with her as much as she wanted until she was satisfied.

For around forty years after that, I visited the 900th floor every day to play with the silver-haired woman.

The reason I was stuck on this floor was that this silver-haired woman kept refusing to surrender to me. Moreover, I had no intention to force her to surrender by force either. Thus, the situation had reached a stalemate. I became more and more determined to make her surrender by her own will. After all, I had noticed after playing with her for so long that her mental age was in fact disproportionate to her body. It was far lower than her appearance suggested it should be. She seemed like a child trapped in the body of an adult woman.

I had all the time in this world. I was in no hurry. In short, it was a contest of endurance to see who had more patience.

「Well then, I guess that’s it for today.」

I declared so, signalling the end of today’s play to the silver-haired woman, who was already drenched in her sweat. I turned around to return to the ground above.

「Hey.」

「Uhm?」

I turned around, looked at the silver-haired woman, who had called me.

「When will you come again?」

The silver-haired beastwoman asked this question with an upturned gaze while twinging her hands.

「Ah, I’ll come again tomorrow.」

「Is that so!」

She delightfully smiled upon hearing my reply.

「Then, see you again tomorrow!」

She waved her hands as she sent me off. Personally, I wanted her to surrender by her own will though.

Unfortunately, an accident happened the next day, and I ended up having to take care of it. The dragons inside the subjugation picture book had hung a banner with the words 『A Meeting to Protect The Pride of Dragons』. This resulted in them claiming that 『Those from Girimekhala’s faction must apologies to us』.

I heard that one of the top brasses of Girimekhala’s faction had treated a dragon in the subjugation picture book like a lizard. To be honest, the matter was a trivial one. However, the dragons took this matter very seriously, and this trivial matter became a huge problem.

As a result, Faf and I had to enter as mediators. The problem got resolved two days later when both parties agreed that the top brass of Girimekhala’s faction, who had a slip of tongue, would apologize to the dragons.

By the way, Faf was something akin to a mascot or a boss for the dragons. The dragons would always be in a good mood whenever Faf was there. That was why I had asked Faf to soothe the dragons today. I mean, Faf’s withdrawal symptoms wouldn’t appear if she was with the dragons. In this way, we could divide our roles.

For that reason, today, I visited Kyuubi’s place alone, but…

「So? Shall we fight today, or not?」

I found that the silver-haired woman, Kyuubi(nine-tailed fox), was sulking. When I tried to ask her what happened—

「…」

She puffed her cheeks, answering my question with silence.

Good grief! What a difficult child! Well, this act made her no different from Faf and Fen. However, I guessed she wouldn’t talk to me today.

I stood up to return to the ground above.

「A-Are you going to leave?」

I turned around and saw that Kyuubi had an anxious look on her face. So, I heaved a deep sigh.

「If you really feel that lonely, how about you come with me? At the very least, you won’t get bored anymore.」

I tried to ask her to come with me.

「Going, with you?」

「Yes.」

She fidgeted for a while.

「I-I have a condition for you.」

「Uhm? What is it?」

「I want you to wrap your arms around me like what you did when we met for the first time.」

「Is that all?」

「…」

Kyuubi silently nodded, and her cheeks flushed red.

Good grief, if that was all you wanted, I hope you had said that sooner. Well, it’s not like I wasted time in vain either. I have all the time in this world after all.

Thus, I embraced Kyuubi’s exquisite waist, which looked like it would break with just a touch. The moment I did so, Kyuubi’s face flushed as red as if all her blood had rushed to her face.

「M-May I call you, H-Hubby?」

She asked this trivial question in a trembling voice.

「Yeah, call me as you wish.」

When I gave her my approval, she buried her face on my chest.

No matter how long I have lived for, I don’t think I would ever understand the being called “woman.” With this, I can finally advance to the next floor.

As I returned to the ground above, I carried Kyuubi’s light body in a princess carry motion since she wouldn’t let go of my back.