Chapter 180: Encounter
[Day 39]
"Haaaaaaa...this is going to take a while..." sighed Vahn, sinking into a hot spring pool in one of the Frozen Abyss's Checkpoints. Nearly a month had passed since he began his self-imposed trial of ridding the Floor of every Draugr littering the landscape, but he had seriously misjudged how big 1.2 million square kilometers was.
(But you've been enjoying yourself, right~?) asked Sis, causing a smile to develop across Vahn's face. He had always known it to be the case, but unleashing his power and generally exerting himself for upwards of twelve hours a day made everything from eating, drinking, relaxing, and spending time with his harem all the more enjoyable.
"Let's just hope Akeno never finds out that I'm beginning to enjoy getting my ass kicked..." joked Vahn, referring to his near-daily sparring sessions with Jack-O. He originally picked her as an opponent because he found her two-tone red-and-white hair and remarkable physique attractive, but after experiencing her strength, he was determined to defeat her and one day meet the real deal.
ssfssh
"Hmmm...?"
As he was the only person on the Floor and Checkpoints had never had monster spawns, Vahn's brows rose to their limits when he looked to his left and found a pair of large yellow eyes peering at him from behind one of the boulders populating the springs. Said eyes were attached to a little girl with messy, almost midnight-blue hair, a prominent ahoge, and, most notably, a pair of large, wolf-like ears.
'What's a little girl doing here...?' Vahn wondered, outwardly adopting a friendly smile as he asked, "Did you come here to use the hot springs...?"
Leaving Vahn at a momentary loss for words, the girl, speaking in a low and somewhat raspy voice, tentatively asked, "Are you my papa...?" while sticking her head out further from behind her hiding place, revealing her bare right shoulder and collarbone.
'And she's naked to boot...' Vahn realized, a wave of confusion washing over him as the girl appeared to be between five to six years old and, at least on a surface level, sapient. The only other truly living being he had encountered in the Corridor was Akeno's mother, Shuri, so there was a non-negligible chance the girl had wandered out from one of the strange stone doors that periodically appeared.
grrrowaaaaaaaaaaaaagh