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Chapter 385

Day 90 – Late Night, White Weirdo Inn　　　　　

I’ve made a blunder. Perhaps it’s because my sense of danger was dulled after I managed to dazzle and captivate the Girls with magnificent Illusions and made my gallant escape? I guess the overwhelmging victory last night through the power 『Mutation』 also contributed to my lack of wariness today.

But is there a Highschool Boy who’d be able to resist if two stunning beauties in tight mini dresses sat next to him and coquettishly snuggling close to him touched here and there? No, there isn’t! Or rather, if there is any, he should be stripped of his Highschool Boy qualifications and banished for eternity.

Lovely long legs in stockings are resting on my lap, while large round mounds of fair flesh are changing shape as they are pressed close against my arms. Even the most austere of the Highschool Boys would find himself helpless before this continuous attack from both sides! Or rather, there is no such a thing as an austere highschool boy! Yeap, I got stripped, my gear taken away, and pinned down from two sides, not even leaving Highschool Boy any choice.

Wisdom of conjurers and magicians, polished for thousands of years, contains countless techniques, using patterns of human perception, allowing to trick the brain itself. An inevitable result of psychology and cognitive science, a sort of mind manipulation. That’s right, they used Misdirection right back at me!

No, I mean, how could I not look? And the moment I did, I ended up in a sort of a trance, with my thinking completely halted? Yup, but the time I came to my senses I was completely disarmed, and restrained, with the helpless Highschool Boy being stroked and licked and rubbed and tugged from the top and from the bottom, putting me into a very complicated and tough situation, to which I had no choice but surrender once they put their mouths to it. That was a very pleasant surrender, is what they surely aren’t going to tell the next generations, yet it was still true. Damn, they got me!

At some point, I had become reliant on his gear, dependent on it, and vulnerable the moment it was taken from me. In the heat of battle, I had forgotten what battle was.

「Like, come on, how’s a regular Highschool Boy supposed to fight a one-on-two against Dungeon Emperor-class opponents? At least let me keep the neckla… (*nomf, squelch squelch*) …urghh! No wait, at least the cloak or some… (*squelch, splash splash*) …gaaah!」

Clearly, reasoning was no longer possible. From this point on, it was the path of carnage, words would no longer work, only actions could speak!

「Wait, no, that’s seriously bad… urghh. If it’s come to this, wha?! (*slurp slurp, smooch*) Gahh! Not yet… I won’t let it end like this! Focus the mind, Overdrive with vibrational waves… gaahhh, (*squelch squelch, schlurp*)… ahh… (*slurp… sluuurp…*)…」

A soft, supple, aerodynamic, round butt is swaying before me. Narrow waists with seductive body lines followed by toned yet plump white and amber peaches. Every movement made them bounce and sway, returning with a gentle plop. Long legs followed that curve, their thick thighs lining up before my eyes in a glorious sight.

Where my hands were guided and put was a soft yet firm, rounded surface overflowing from my palms. Smooth and supple skin, almost springy to the touch, yet so soft that my fingers could sink right in. No Highschool Boy could be expected to endure the promise the sensation held.

But my arms were trapped, pinned between those trick thighs, unable to move. My lower half was in a dire state, preventing me from calmly considering my response. Lately, it felt like they had started to pick up on this Highschool Boy’s preferences, purposefully dressing in charming and astonishing ways leaving me wide open for an attack. I’m full aware of this, yet I can’t help but look! Yeah, even now I’m still staring?

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Side by side, two peacefully sleeping faces, smiling in their sleep. In a battle between men and women, even if one is left without any equipment, there are still ways to fight. I’ve even been perfecting my techniques and learning their weaknesses. But when it came to grappling matches based on physical strength and submission holds, followed by tongue-based special techniques, there was no resisting. It had turned into a one-sided ravaging, an all-out violation that didn’t end until every ounce of 『Regeneration』 was drained. Only after that would the real battle begin. It shifted to the so-called corpse-kicking overkill mounted combat. For a moment I even seriously considered if maybe it was a divine retribution for bullying the horsey in the Dungeon but the two who mounted me also took part in horse-surfing so they weren’t just collaborators, but full blown accomplices! Actually, they rode it for longer than the culprit, or rather, me, so they could be called the main perpetrators.

They are dreaming with graceful smiles, their beautiful sleeping faces looking almost like works of art. I wiped away the white stuff drooling from the corners of their lips and slowly sat up. Sadly, the Highschool Boy had burned through all his fuel, leaving no energy for revenge. So instead. So I quietly got to work.

I regularly took care of the classmates’ armor, repairing and inspecting it using 『Rajingan』Every fighter has different stress points depending on their fighting style, strengths, and weaknesses. Those stress points revealed areas of constant strain or spots likely to take hits. For hit zones, I thickened the armor and used 『Alchemy』 to increase surface hardness, that’s the simple part. The tricky part is reinforcing the strained moving parts. Expanding mobility too much can impact durability or structural integrity. So I fine-tune each component’s movement range, adjusting angles and positions based on the user’s characteristics.

After having firsthand experience with dodging and redirecting swords and attacks, I could safely say my understanding of armor had grown significantly. I applied that knowledge to improve the armor design, favoring streamlined curves that deflected rather than absorbed impact, and incorporating streamlined contours that prevent the sword from getting a clean hit.

And working on the armor like this made it all the more clear.

「Compared to the girls, the guys really aren’t pushing themselves at all. Not a dent on them.」

There were some nicks and scratches, especially on the Idiots’ armor. But those scratches were the kind they allowed intentionally, letting the armor absorb blows, redirecting them, using the thicker, less vulnerable parts to deflect and take hits. As for the Geeks, their armor was practically spotless.

In contrast, the girls had way too many grazing marks. They cut it far too close, dodging at the very last second. That’s how the surface of the armor ended up covered in deep scratches from shallow grazes from near misses. They were shaving down their safety margin too far. One tiny misstep at that range could mean a fatal blow. They are pushing themselves too hard, diving in close and dodging with only the bare minimum needed.

「Are they still nervous? I mean, come on, I’m still alive, right? Haven’t died even once! Why are you all so anxious? Based on past results, my death rate is literally zero. I’ve never died, after all? Yeah, I mean, technically everyone alive has a 0% death rate, up until they die. So in a way, until that moment, you’re kinda 『Immortal』? Sort of?」

Actually, I’d love to mithrilize at least the armor for Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san. But the higher-level the equipment, the more mithril it takes, and if I allocate to their gear, it’ll seriously endanger the mithril reserves. I want to secure as much safety margin as possible, but the deeper we go into the dungeons, the greater the risks.

「I have to dig up more of it, but I haven’t found any promising area yet, so until my Detection picks something up I have no other option but to just dig through all of the nearby mountains.~」

Well, I have found a few iron veins. If I dig mining tunnels toward those, I might hit some mithril along the way. It’s probably more meaningful than randomly digging without a goal. Still, going out late at night might worry Armored Pres-san, Dancing Girl-san, and even Slime-san. Actually, those three don’t even need to sleep, so they’d probably try to tag along.

They only just started being able to sleep peacefully with a smile. I don’t want to disturb that. They probably spent ages in that pitch-dark Dungeon, terrified and alone, unable to sleep, haunted by nightmares. I shouldn’t interrupt that peace. Yeah… I’m still in no condition for revenge anyway.

What’s also been on my mind is today’s Dungeon Master 『Death Guardian Lv 100』’s drop 『Eyeball of the Abyss – Future Sight, Wisdom Eye, X-Ray Vision, Satori, Ultimate Death』

Okay, there are overlapping 『Future Sight』 and 『Wisdom Eye』 already covered by『Rajingan』. The problem is 『X-Ray Vision』 That totally defeats the purpose of all the effort this Highschool Boy put into resisting temptation and keeping up with this blindfolding thing to protect Affection Rating! Wait, now that I think about it, was there ever any actual point to blindfolding? Because the ones most obsessed with opening my eyes are the ones in charge of covering them in the first place! Who even chose those two?!

The one that feels like it could be integrated into into Rajingan -『Satori』. Compared to Future Sight, it feels more mental or spiritual. Maybe it’s like Elven Little Sister Girl’s Emotion Detection, but a visual type? In Japanese folklore, the 『Satori』 is a yokai that sees into people’s hearts, with various stories spread all across the country. It even shows up in Toriyama Sekien’s Edo-period yokai illustration book 『A Horde of Haunted Housewares』[1]

And then there’s the final one, 『Ultimate Death』 Just hearing that makes me feel like my eyes are going to turn even scarier, and I don’t like it. Now that I think about it, didn’t the 『Death Guardian』 have that kind of nasty glare too? Well, it’s not like I’ve ever seen a monster with gentle-looking eyes?

Selling it is obviously out of the question, it’s too dangerous. Even among my classmates, skills like 『Future Sight』 or 『Wisdom Eye』 would be hard to handle without some kind of thought acceleration or mental processing support-type abilities. Having your eyes filled with all sorts of extra visual information is surprisingly hard to manage. And besides, 『X-Ray Vision』 is in there. That means the boys are automatically disqualified! Wait, the girls aren’t much better!

I could go in circles thinking about it, but for now, it’s probably best to just seal it away. I feel like I’ve been running into a bunch of sealed items lately, but no matter, sealed it is. Anything that threatens my Affection Rating gets sealed, no exceptions.『X-Ray Vision』 and 『Satori』 are just too risky. There is too much intent to invade women’s privacy brimming from those skills.

Anyway, once I finish up this batch of armor, I’ll get some sleep. The festival prep had me swamped, but things have settled down now. I’ll need to be fully recharged by morning.…Of course, I’ll be sleeping in full gear. Hehehe…

[TL Notes: [1] Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (百器徒然袋) is the fourth book in Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien’s famous Gazu Hyakki Yagyō tetralogy. A version of the tetralogy translated and annotated in English was published in 2016. The title is a pun; “hyakki”, normally written with the characters “hundred” and “oni”, is instead written with “hundred” and “vessels”. This hints that the majority of the yōkai portrayed in its pages are of the variety known as tsukumogami, man-made objects taken sentient form.]