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Chapter 336

Chapter 336: Good grief, a cool fighting sequence was totally ruined because of NTR 1900 explanation.

Day 80 – Daytime, Dungeon, 52F

Ah, yes. Here is the sanctuary of my soul. Let’s continue through this comfortable dungeon while enveloped by this feeling of tranquility. Yup. Dungeons still remain the most peaceful and quiet places in this world, providing much needed solace. Well, since I escaped a lecture by classmates the other world does not not feel so guiltless I guess. Anyway, the dungeon.

Which reminds me, I remember hearing that there are more dungeon explorers now, since the number of adventurers as well as quality of their equipment increased, but I don’t see anyone.

Well, this one was apparently reported as deep and dangerous, but I’m yet to meet even a single adventurer in a dungeon. I can’t say that I’m not getting any encounters, but everyone I bring back home happens to be a monster? Isn’t meeting a beautiful female adventurer right after becoming an adventurer supposed to be the standard? No, I haven’t become an adventurer yet, but I go to the guild every day? Yeah, nothing has changed? Today was another fine Flat Gaze. At this rate, a future promotion to Flat Gaze Guild Master might actually be on the table. The current Guild Master is a middle-aged man though..

It’s dim, but humidity is not that high, and the air doesn’t feel stagnant. The walls and the floor are unnaturally smooth and flat, there is even a sense of intentional design to the room and corridors. It’s certainly a deep dungeon. As dungeons get deeper they gradually depart from cave-like interiors with their spontaneous layout, beginning to look more artificial and man-made. Are they performing remodeling or something? I want to do that too.

Maybe I can find a beautiful female adventurer on the lower floors? Who will swoop in to save me in a pinch? But despite my hopes, monsters still won’t come my way. I’ve been awaiting them in a cool pose, but since neither monsters nor beautiful female adventurers are coming, let’s keep going.

Only footsteps and the sound of flesh being cut are resounding through the stone corridors. Or, if I were to put the present situation in more easy to understand terms, the tamed ones once again went ahead on their own? They must’ve obliterated all of the monsters by now. Dancing Girl-san has been displaying a truly monstrous strength since she reached level 20. I’ll sure get beaten up even in sparring. But nighttime combat is delving deeper and deeper into the danger zone, driven by Highschool Boy’s natural curiosity spirit, the nighttime dungeon exploration has me going in and out and high speed, bearing pleasant experiences every time! Let’s do it again tonight.

(Jiggle-Jiggle)

「Welcome back, were they to your taste? Or rather, what even are the monsters of this floor? I’m yet to see any? Even if I get magic stones, I don’t know what kind of a monster dropped them, and I can’t recall it from memory either since I don’t remember the last time we came, and even if I did, I probably haven’t seen any of the monsters back then either, or more like, my dungeon exploration is pretty much limited to a very healthy activity of going up and down the stairs?」

Walking while petting Slime-san, I continue forward while gazing at Slime-san.

Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san came back looking refreshed. Looks like I won’t be encountering any monsters today. But still, even though they had some much fun last night that they kept fainting over and over from excess pleasure, were they still not satisfied? Guess I’ll have to put in more effort tonight. Well, there’s also a good chance they’re just taking out their frustration on monsters, but either way, I’ll do my best.

Then, on the 53rd floor, I successfully convinced, no, rather, begged, and had them share 『Lesser Salamander Lv 53』 that was just right for training. Is this what they call the dignity and presence of a master?…There are some theories that would suggest otherwise, but I don’t want to hear them. La la la, I can’t hear, I can’t hear!

In the end, the floor boss on 50F didn’t respawn after all. If I remember correctly, it was a huge monster with an unusual name『Good Job Mammoth Lv50』.

But『Lesser Salamander Lv53』feels sort of cute because it has 『Lesser』in the name, but the point is that it’s a worse version, a smaller relative. Well, 『Chibi Salamander』sounds even cuter, but probably even monsters would’ve been against such a name. Calling them fire lizards is probably a no too. It doesn’t seem like you can catch them by throwing a ball at them, nor will you get panties by collecting seven of them, although, I’m the one who is making the gals’ panties, so I have no need for any to begin with?

A lizardman wreathed in flames? It’s walking upright, a higher-tier species? Maybe it evolved out of some kind of inferiority complex over its name? Seems like even monsters in this world struggle over weird names.

I make as much noise as possible to lure them into the spacious room. Group battles should be better for training, and if we split up, they’d barely leave anything for me. But it seems like this world is still far from solving its monster shortage problem… The trio who is the main cause of it is standing right next to me though.

Rondo. Sounds sort of ominous, as if a bridge is about to collapse, but it wouldn’t be my first time falling in a dungeon, so I’m not that bothered. [1]

Anyway, rondo, dancing in a circle. When you hear ronde, it brings to mind an elegant and graceful dance, but the play La Ronde is actually based on a rather scandalous work centered around ten intimate dialogues between pairs of lovers, essentially a prelude to affairs. It starts with a prostitute and a soldier, then moves to the soldier and a maid, then the maid and a young master, and so on, until it finally loops back to the count and the very same prostitute from the beginning, NTR drama from 1900. Kind of makes you wonder if this is the time to be dancing? The playwright, Arthur Schnitzler, actually finished this play in 1900, but since it blatantly clashed with the morality and class ideals of the time, he had to abandon both publication and performance, instead distributing just 200 self-published copies among acquaintances.It wasn’t until after World War I, when censorship laws were lifted, that the play was finally staged in 1920, but even then, it sparked legal battles over its content. So no happy dances, actually an outright uproar?

No, that’s why it is rondo! …But before I could even get into that explanation, all the Lesser Salamanders were already wiped out! I was planning to take them down in style while giving a grand speech:『A ronde. It’s a musical form where the same melody—the ronde theme—is repeated multiple times, interspersed with different melodies. The structure goes A → B → A → C → A → B → A, always returning to the main theme. And this, this was precisely what we trained for yesterday!…Well, yesterday evening, to be exact. Midnight training was… something else entirely. A brutal, limit-breaking training session! Kind of?!』But looks like there weren’t enough Lesser Salamanders to go that deep into such a thematically rich topic with so many possible tangents.

「Good job~, I’d like to say, but the respawn rates kind of suck, don’t they? Well, I guess I’m done with rondo for now, not sure if the ball was useful or useless at this point?」

「You did, that… right.」
「Was alright
Moved Correctly
But monotonous?」
(Jiggle-Jiggle)

Looks like the first stage is cleared. Keeping the rhythm steady, and introduce irregular movements to create the illusion of variation in speed. Only an illusion, since the tempo itself never actually changed, it was easy to see through at a glance, or even if they couldn’t see through it, Armored Pres-san and the others just beat me down anyway. With them, practice didn’t matter; the result was the same, utterly one-sided beat down. However, the girls were thrown off by the irregularity and ended up completely at my mercy.

But now comes the real challenge: mastering irregular rhythm. Up until now, I’d been aiming for a rhythm-free approach, which means that even if I attach a rhythm to it, the tempo is too simplistic. Humans tend to move unconsciously at a steady tempo, making their movements easy to read. To break free from that, I need irregular rhythm, mixed rhythm, and ultimately, infinite rhythm. A limitless, ever-changing, endlessly shifting, dazzling array of infinite rhythms, this is Dancing Girl-san’s ultimate, supreme technique. But that is impossible. I mean, even Armored Pres-san found it too hard during the dance class, but if I can come even a little bit closer to that, it would become the strongest weapon. Even if it’s just a poor imitation.

And『Teleportation』can cover that changing part. Right now I can remove only one beat with it, but if I can use it at will and elevate it to Infinite Rhythm, then it will become impossible to read, regardless of how simple the technique itself is. Techniques that miss the timing become pointless regardless of how polished or sophisticated they are. And it’s both impossible to hit the target during『Teleportation』, or evade the attacks from『Teleportation』, since it can’t be read.

If I can synchronize 『Teleportation』 with my body through this training, I should be able to unleash a controlled 『Random Attack』.

But if I mess up the timing, I self-destruct. Earlier, my leg broke, this time, it’s my shoulder that got shattered.

Well, no big deal. 『Regeneration』-san, who reached level 8 through the relentless training sessions that’ve been performing every day, or rather, every night, will fix any injuries. As long as nothing’s completely torn off, it’s alright?

Armored Pres-san and company keep massacring monsters until I heal up, after which I take my time to practice, then, it’s their turn again. Repeating this process we continue deeper and deeper down.

And the ultimate enemy, the worst obstacle that we cannot hope to overcome, the floor boss of the 60th level bearing the name of『Giant Insect Juice Splattering Fly』didn’t respawn as well. Yup, that’s just too much.

I’ve purchased a massive quantity of insecticide herbs at the general store, but looks like they won’t be needed. They were pretty expensive, and the amount that can be procured at once is limited, so I won’t complain about being able to save them for later.

And finally returning to the 66th floor, we were greet by『Assassin Ghost Lv 66』innocently doing『Assassin Ghost』things. Yup, those guys vanish and approach their targets from invisibility, but they are perfectly visible to all of us, and yet they are still trying to sneak up on us… Only to get slashed? They can’t even attack unless they materialize, yet they are still trying to stealthily creep up on us, which makes they nothing but target dummies, and yet they still vanish to approach. Those ghosts possessed truly commendable professional ethics and dignity as assassins. Well, I’m still gonna cut them down though?

And with the perfect timing, the 67th floor had『Sword Weasel Lv 67』, aggressive assault magic-resistant mustelids entirely covered in blades. None is capable of performing kamaitachi though? A wind cutter if you will, the name derived from yokai of the same name which was thought to be a trio of weasels who appear in a whirlwind to cut their victims.

A massive horde of weasels surges forward, turning into one vast, boundless swarm, and pouring down upon me in a relentless assault. Imitating Fish Girl’s efficient, calculated swordsmanship, the real challenge I’m facing is in body control and footwork, that’s where things get truly difficult. I trace the imagined movements of Dancing Girl’s exemplary dance, stored within 『Wisdom』. The visualization itself is fine, but I must be very, very careful not to slip into daydreaming. After all, both the recorded dance and her body are way too erotic? For a high school guy, this is an unbelievably tough battle! Having her perform in a see-through leotard was a huge mistake after all. But that is a highschool boy’s timeless treasure!

Weaving through the downpour of hundreds of weasels, I spin, slice, and pierce, a dance of slashes, flowing seamlessly as I merge reality with imagined movements, occasionally sneaking peeks of sweet daydreams. I mean, that waistline is so alluring that it’s seductive power is destroying a high school guy’s discipline?

With each cut, I sync my timing to slip away with 『Teleportation』, never wasting the momentum, rolling straight into the next motion. This is the swordplay dance, this is true swordsmanship! Although I also sneakily use Magic Hands to stab a few weasels that slip by, it still counts as swordsmanship! If I miss the timing, I just hold them in place with 『Holding』before slicing. Still Swordsmanship! When that doesn’t work, I smash them down with 『Gravity』… or when I get too lazy, I just fire off 『Random Attack』 and let chaos sort it out. Still swordsmanship! …But yeah, I’m totally getting stared at with that Flat Gaze. I mean, come on, this isn’t something one can just do right off the bat, okay?

Those looks mean that the training after we get back is going to be brutal.. After all, in this world, the hardest and harshest battles happen during training. Yeah, lately, even when I’m fighting to the death, monsters somehow feel kinder?