Chapter 30: Second Target
A month later, we reached the end of the dungeon. There were no treasure chests or dungeon bosses. Only a single jewel lay at the end of the room.
“I thought there was supposed to be a boss monster here,” I sighed. While I am not particularly excited to fight a boss monster with my current stats and no way to get a steady supply of shards, Noelle here was particularly devastated.
“Uh…” She pouted.
“Either someone stole a march on us, or the dungeon boss didn’t respawn after the scout team killed it. Some dungeon bosses respawn, but there are examples where they don’t respawn. Especially the final bosses,” Yuuno said.
“What should we do? For your information, I am against moving to another city. At least until I graduate,” I said.
“Um… We can make it work. If you take a day break on Friday, we can go to another city and dive for the entirety of Saturday and Sunday. Then you can go back to school on Monday.” Noelle said
“No. Makoto is right. I think we should focus on gathering more stones first. We need more firepower. I wonder if we can recruit a mage… our party is a bit unbalanced. We have no ranged attacker.”
“I wonder if I should switch to using bows…” I muttered. It had been on my mind for a while; attacking the enemy from up close is scary.
“Do you have any bow skills? If not, then forget it. Using bows in a dungeon is different from sports. Without skills, there is a huge chance you would hit me instead,” Yuuno said.
“Ah. Sorry,” I apologized.
“Well, there certainly are some people who use bows despite lacking status skills. If you want to try, you could. But Makoto, do you have experience with bows? Did you go into the archery club by any chance? I thought only elite school had that.”
“Erm… No.”
“Makoto… are you chickening out? Even though we girls are on the front line? Man up!” Yuuno cocked her hips. She was right. I should man up. She was a tanker using a mere buckler and short sword against orcs twice or even three times her size.
“I mean… Noelle seemed better at dealing damage than me. So, I was thinking of filling other roles,” I said. Noelle’s spear strike often killed orcs in one hit. Her only downside was that she sucked at parrying. But as long as she was not surrounded, she could clean up the enemy from the flank.
“I see. If we obtain another crossbow or bows, you can try them. There is certainly merit in trying out your idea. With a ranged attacker, we can lure monsters into advantageous positions.” Yuuno nodded. “But! As I said earlier, using bows or other ranged weapons without system skill is dangerous. It won’t be a laughing matter if it hits your allies.”
“Yes. I will be sure to take on only the farthest enemy. If there are none, I could switch back to my sword.”
“Hm… Using two weapons also has demerits… it’s heavy, and swapping between a bow and a longsword is slow. Moreover, you could carry less during an adventure. Since we are in a short dungeon, that’s probably fine… but you also need to keep this in mind, okay.” Yuuno said, “As the saying goes, fear the men who had practiced 1 kick ten thousand times, not a man who practiced ten thousand kicks.”
“Yes, leader!”
“By the way, what about your friend? I heard she took some shady loan. Is it legit, or… you hired a lawyer to monitor her loan, right?” After scolding me, Yuuno asked about Sakura with a concerned look.
“Well… Dunno. My lawyer had doubts about the person Sakura was dealing with. But so far, he couldn’t find any fault with how they operated. The legal documents are solid so far.” It would take Sakura 5 years to pay her first debt. I doubt the scammer would do anything right now. Right now, Sakura had set up a monthly report with the lawyer.
“I see. Don’t let your guard down,” Yuuno said.
“Of course. My lawyer had been working closely with Sakura. The accounting is perfect. I think my lawyer had some beef with another scammer in the past. He was even willing to take the case for free.”
“I see. Can your lawyer be trusted?”
“Yes. We have known each other for a long time. He handled my father’s inheritance.”
“I see. Good luck, then.”
“So, are we going to explore the floors around here until we get a mage or an archer?” Noelle asked as she chewed a Snickers she took from her bag.
“Hm… Yeah. I think it would be best if we wait a bit. We just beat an orc a month ago. And I am still reeling from that near-death scene,” Yuuno said as she rubbed her stomach.
“Okay. Sounds like a good plan. Exams are coming up, and I don’t know what to do here.” I sighed.
“You don’t need exams if you are blessed!” Noelle yelled. I agreed with you, Noelle. But the problem is that there is a chance I will lose this blessing. I didn’t get a single shard this past month, and my essence shards have decreased by 40 because of the maintenance.
For the past month, my bond with Sakura didn’t increase. It didn’t just stay stagnant; it had decreased from 60 to 55. It just wouldn’t go any higher, even though we had sex every day. Sakura never refused my advances lately. She had become obedient now. She had become my ideal girl. I don’t know what the system wanted. But the bond still decreased.
“Hah… Should I do it?” I muttered. Yeah. I need to find another girl, right? I need to start creating a harem other than Sakura. She alone wasn’t enough to maintain my blessing.
So, who should be my next target?
I put together a list of girls around me. In the end, it boiled down to two choices. Either Nijima or Yuuno. Yuuno seemed to be a good candidate. I am already close to her, but she was so busy because of her debt. Noelle and I dived the dungeon once or twice a week, but she dived the dungeon daily, often staying the night inside the dungeon hunting goblins for a few more bucks.
She just didn’t have any capacity for any relationship right now. And I don’t have the heart to impose on her. She had huge debts to pay.
What about Noelle? Of course not. If I make any advances on her, her brother might kill me. So, I passed. That only leaves Nijima. This is a good chance. Since we had conquered the dungeon and had become stronger, I didn’t need to rely on body swap abilities. But I need to conquer and gather at least 1,200 points to advance the shop to the next stage.
Nijima, huh… Appearance-wise, she is not bad. A bit too slim for my taste. But she had the right curves. But I don’t like how she seemed to see males as ATMs. I bet she had slept with other guys a bunch of times.
Once I returned home, I scrolled through the list. My hand hesitated. I had gotten lucky with Sakura since we have the same taste, but I don’t know how I should approach Nijima. Well, she is a materialistic girl. Maybe I can get some quick points by paying her. I earned quite a bit of money adventuring, after all.
“Alright. Let’s go! Put Nijima as my second target!” I braced myself and clicked on her name.
[Name: Nijima HarukaAge: 18Bond: 0Status: Sleeping
Missions:- Make the target orgasm for the first time (100 Essence Shards)- Make the target orgasm from breast (100 Essence Shards)- Make the target orgasm from anal (100 Essence Shards)- Consensual sex (300 Essence Shards)- Make the target orgasm from vaginal sex (200 Essence Shards)- Bond above 30 (100 Essence Shards)]
“Hmm. Nijima gave more shards per mission. I wonder why. Was it because she is my second target? Or was it because she never had any interest in me to begin with?”
[Would you like to buy a dreamscape upgrade for 100 points? You can insert all your targets into a single dream if they are all sleeping.]
A notification entered my view.
“Alright. Buy it.” That would leave me with only 80 points remaining. Nijima and Sakura were good friends, so maybe I could learn something in her dreams. I opened my status and saw that Nijima was on the target list. Then my skills were also upgraded.
[StatsName: Makoto TanukiAge: 18
STR +1Dex +0Int +0Stamina +0
Target: Sakura Yuuki, Nijima HarukaMissions: AvailableDreamscape: unlockedShop: Shop Tier 1Special skill: Body swapPatron: AphroditeEssence Shards: 180 (maintenance 10)]
[Skills:DreamscapeMultiplayer (2P)Body swap lvl 2]
[Shop tier 1:Tentacle appendix (dreamscape upgrade): 200 Essence Shards (locked)Body modification (dreamscape upgrade): 200 Essence Shards (locked)Mana Eyes (power): 100 Essence ShardsControllable NPC (dreamscape upgrade): 100 Essence Shards (locked)Mana Ears (power): 500 Essence Shards]
Hm… Nijima is asleep now. If I swapped my body with her, she wouldn’t even notice I had become her, right? Maybe I can get lucky and find dirt on her just like with Sakura. But damn, she sure slept early. It’s barely 9 PM right now. Well, now that you mentioned it, I never saw Nijima late for school. I guess she was a diligent student despite being a loose woman. What a surprise. Her grade was even mediocre than me, though. Just as I expected from this world. Hard work hardly works.
I took a few deep breaths. Just in case, I locked my room with an electric lock. This way, Nijima shouldn’t be able to get out of the room. We can’t have her raise a fuss inside my house.
Then I lay down on the bed and activated my body swap ability. The world turned upside down, and through what seemed like a quantum tunnel, my consciousness flew toward Nijima’s house.
I opened my eyes. A small and dusty room. This is Nijima’s room. It was much more different from what I had imagined. I stood up, turned on the lights, and went for her phone.
Let’s try to find out who Nijima is. I heard she often went on paid dates with older guys. If that’s true, maybe I can become her customer as well. I just need to find out her stage name. That would simplify a lot of things regarding the mission.
It turned out Nijima was a very different person than I imagined.