Chapter 17 - Some Guys Just Don't Like Dirty Girls.

The next morning, Asmund woke up with Shiori in his arms and, still half asleep, instinctively smelled her hair which was ruffling his nose.

She smells good today, at least… -Asmund

After enjoying the comfort of the bed and the company of the still sleeping young girl in it for some more time, Asmund left it while yawning and stretching his body.

Now fully awake, he remembered last night with a smile, but actually regretted a little that he let his thoughts wander in that direction, as he was now totally in the mood for ‘it’ yet couldn't let his lust run rampant as they were running out of time to annihilate the Death-Hounds before running out of food.

It's too bad, but ‘fun time’ will have to wait for tonight. We need to eliminate many more monsters today and so start the day early. -Asmund

Not wanting to lose more of their precious time, he lightly kicked Shiori’s bottom to wake her up.

“Wake up already you lazy-ass! You already overslept yesterday, and you do that again today?! What kind of a maid are you to wake up after your master?!” -Asmund

“Heh?! Ah?! What?!” -Shiori

Roused from her sleep by the pain coming from her kicked buttocks, Shiori sat up on the bed with a panicked expression, not understanding what was happening until her half-asleep brain registered what Asmund just said.

“A-Ah! Sorry, Master! I completely forgot about my duty!” -Shiori

Shittt! I totally messed up! I should have woken up earlier and ‘serviced’ him! -Shiori

Shiori was extremely conscious of her role as a maid, and wanted to do her best at it. It wasn’t because she fancied the position of being a maid, but because she knew that Asmund was someone with a lot of ambitions and wouldn’t stop himself from having more than one girl. Not only that, although she was already ‘precious’ to him, it wasn’t because of something like affection, but more like he was considering her like a rare item which has its uses. A rare item is good to have and is hard to replace, but ‘hard’ doesn’t mean it’s impossible. She was quite aware of that and that’s why she wanted to show her usefulness as much as she could, so she could secure her position as the ‘favorite’ when other women will be at Asmund’s side.

“Good, as long as you get it. More importantly, I intend to go back to hunting early, so I’m going to go take a shower now, then we eat our breakfast and leave immediately. So if you want to take a shower too, hurry up and follow me.” -Asmund

“Yes! I’m coming!” -Shiori

…

Their morning routine was done after taking a shower, which was much shorter than the last one as they did nothing but wash themselves, and eating their breakfast. The two of them opened yesterday’s capsules to see if anything nice would be dropped, which obviously didn’t happen, and with that finished they got their gear together to start the hunt.

On their way to the staircase they grabbed something to eat for lunch. Though as they were approaching said staircase Shiori seemed more uncomfortable to go down to the basement than yesterday, recalling their encounter with the Alpha.

“M-Master, is it really alright for us to go downstairs again? What if we encounter that black wolf again?” -Shiori

“No problem, although I don’t really have a way to handle the bastard yet, after having come in close contact with it and felt the full impact of its presence, I should be able to sense the little shit if he’s anywhere nearby and so avoid him with no difficulty. Of course that’s on the basis that he’s unable to hide his presence, but if that was the case he would have killed me before I could notice him yesterday and be done with it.” -Asmund

“Ohhh~! So you can ‘feel’ presences, Master?! Is that a skill?!” -Shiori

“Not really, it’s more like a side-effect of my increase in the ‘Mind’ stat. But I can only feel powerful beings and only if I don’t drop my guard like I did yesterday. You could say that my instincts became keener to danger or something, it’s pretty hard to put in words…” -Asmund

At the top of the stairs leading to the basement Asmund coated his weapons like always, made his left clawed gauntlet, and made gauntlets for Shiori before going down…

Their hunt proceeded pretty well from then on. In the morning they kept hunting low level Death-Hounds in the zone they already visited yesterday, and found higher level ones the more they approached the zone near the staircases where Asmund saw a lot of activity at the start of the apocalypse.

It seemed to confirm that the whole basement was something akin to a nest to the Death-Hounds, but the highest caste were living near that staircase while the lower ones were forced to live further away.

In the afternoon Asmund did feel that the Alpha was patrolling nearby, but fortunately he was able to sense it from further away than it could sense him, probably because Asmund had a higher ‘Mind’ stat than it.

Killing monsters for the whole day, no real incident happened this time and the amount they killed was quite satisfying as they seem to have literally slayed all the monsters under level 4 and also managed to hunt a lot of high level ones. The rewards of the day were also quite good, as they gained in total a level for Asmund, 5 levels for Shiori making her level up to 9, 697 Credits each, 47 treasure capsules, and Asmund also gained a point in Power and Constitution by absorbing monsters of level 6 or more.

In addition, Shiori also gained some fighting experience, as Asmund let her take on some weak monsters by herself. She’s still a far cry from being a good fighter, but she at least lost some of her fear of facing monsters.

Since it was getting late, they stopped their hunt there and walked back home, but while staying on their guard the whole time as to not repeat yesterday’s mistake. Only once they were back on the first floor did they relax a little. Shiori especially was in high spirits from the tremendous rewards they gained today when compared to their last hunt.

“T-That’s so incredible, Master! I’m already level 9! And I have 734 Credits too! I feel so strong and so fast, that’s awesome!” -Shiori

“Yeah, today certainly has gone much better than last time, since I knew pretty much where to go, we were able to avoid the damn boss, the killing went much faster with you not being completely useless, and obviously being able to reach higher level monsters. Still… When we compare your stats to what I had at the same level, the difference between having no class and having an Emperor ranked one becomes quite obvious…” -Asmund

“Urg… S-So I’m still useless even when I leveled up that much?” -Shiori

“I guess so yes… At the very least you still be in the way and nothing else if I were to fight a monster and need help.” -Asmund

“Uhhh~...” -Shiori

“Don’t be that down, after you get the ‘Elite Maid’ class you should become much more useful, think of it as getting the basics for now. And you ‘did’ grow much stronger, now pretty much no level 1, be it monster or human, should be able to be a threat to you, unless they are well armed or you are careless.” -Asmund

“I-I see! Hehehe.” -Shiori

Being complemented by Asmund, even though it wasn’t really his intent, filled Shiori with pride. Just like a child who was complimented by her parents, it resulted in her laughing in a childish manner while having a bright smile plastered on her face.

I have over 3 000 Credits now… Should I give her enough so that she can buy the Elite Maid class? No, I don’t feel like she proved her loyalty enough for me to do this much for her. If I spoil her she will grow cocky. If she really takes her brother’s life when I order to, then I’ll think about it. -Asmund

“Master! Can I buy the ‘Water Channeling’ skill with my Credits?!” -Shiori

“Hmm? Well… It’s a useful skill after all and doesn’t cost much. Alright, you can buy it.” -Asmund

“Yes! Thank you, Master!” -Shiori

Pumping her fist in excitement for buying her first ‘magic’, Shiori immediately went through the System’s Shop and bought the Water Channeling skill. That done she tried to use it, but realised that she didn’t know how to do so…

“M-Master? How do I use my skill?” -Shiori

Asmund raised an eyebrow at her question as he couldn’t understand why she just asked him that. After all, to him it sounded like she asked him how she could open her eyes or move her arms.

“Huh? What are you asking…? Just do it. As long as you want to use a skill you should be able to do it out of instinct.” -Asmund

“Oh!... T-That’s weird… I kinda know how to do it, yet can’t do it…” -Shiori

“That’s definitely weird… After all, the first time I used magic I was only level 2, had average stats much lower than yours apart from Spirit which was at 7 just like you now. It was my Blood Manipulation skill too, which is much harder to use than something like Water Channeling.” -Asmund

“I-I’m really trying my hardest! But it feels like something is blocked and can’t come out…” -Shiori

How is that possible… Is it because she has no class? No that doesn't make sense, if that was the case, people without a class wouldn’t be able to buy common skills. But then, where does the problem come from? Ah… Now that I think of it, the old man I asked before killing him and Shiori both had 3 in Spirit while being level 1, when I had 5. What’s the reason for that? It’s not like I could have conditioned my body to the use of magic or the absorption of mana… Wait, what if mana was like Qi in novels, and was traveling through channels unique to it? Then would that mean that Shiori isn’t able to open those channels? No… She said that it felt ‘blocked’, meaning that she’s somewhat able to control the mana in her body, so it shouldn’t be the problem. -Asmund

While walking, Asmund kept thinking about the difference between Shiori and him at the time they first tried to use magic, and what could have influenced the difference in starting ‘Spirit’. And recalling his life in his cage of glass he thought of something.

In novels, the flow of Qi travels more smoothly depending on how the inner body is ‘clean’. So it’s possible that the fact I lived my life without being tainted by the pollution from outside resulted in me having much cleaner channels than average. If that’s really the case, Shiori should be able to use mana properly after gathering more mana in her body and then pushing the filth in her channels out by force. Now that I think of it, I never found any use to pure mana when not used through ‘skills’, but what would happen if I inject my mana in someone? Would that help them regain their lost mana? Or in Shiori’s case, could I use my own mana to clean her channels? Only one way to know if my theory is correct… -Asmund

“Shiori, stop trying to use your skill for now, I thought of something. I’m not sure it will work but we’ll do an experiment tonight to see if I got it right.” -Asmund

Shiori, who was really depressed about not being able to use magic, looked really down but she had a lot of faith in Asmund and knew that he would find a way to take care of the problem. So she was already back in her previous good mood.

How simple minded… -Asmund

Was his thought as he looked at the young girl skipping next to him.

…

Later that night, after eating their dinner they opened the capsules they gained today, resulting as usual in the gain of spare Rank 1 items and no appearance of a Rank 1*. Asmund couldn't help but complain about how low the probability was for those items to appear. And so, before taking a shower and going to bed, they tried the experiment he thought of, both sitting on the bed while facing each other.

“Hand me your wrist, it doesn’t matter which hand.” -Asmund

Obeying, she extended her right hand and let him grab it with his left. Now holding her wrist, he applied his right palm on top of her veins, and tried to make mana leave his body to inject it in hers.

Focusing on the task, he felt the flow of mana in his body slowly reaching for his hand and move out of it. Soon after some of it moved into Shiori’s wrist, she screamed in pain at the sensation.

“OUCH OUCH OUCH! I-It really hurts! I-I don’t exactly ‘dislike’ pain, but this is a little too much even for me, Master!” -Shiori

“Bear with it and try to make your own mana flow out with the help of mine.” -Asmund

Gritting her teeth, not daring to complain more than she already did, Shiori focused on moving her mana out of her body. Like always, she felt something blocking it, but unlike before she felt more ‘strength’ behind her push, and soon she experienced an incredible sensation of release as she succeeded in pushing whatever was blocking her mana’s path out of the way.

“I-It feels so good… E-Eeeek! W-What is this?!” -Shiori

As she was fully enjoying the sensation, she suddenly noticed that a nasty black liquid was coming out of her skin’s pores, startling her out of her daydreaming. But unlike her Asmund seemed really happy with what he was seeing, since it was confirming his suspicions.

“Looks like the experiment is a success. Try to use Water Channeling.” -Asmund

“Heh? A-Alright…… Oh? Oh! It’s working! I’m able to gather the water like I should! Thank you, Master!” -Shiori

She was so happy that she tried to hug Asmund, but he wasn’t really willing to hug a girl covered in a dark nasty liquid made of pure filth, so he impressively avoided her charge with flawless movements, and walked further away from the bed, resulting in Shiori hugging air and falling face first on the floor.

“Uhhh~... You’re so cruel, Master… Why did you avoid me?” -Shiori

“You’re coming nowhere near me while you're that filthy. Now that you can use Water Channeling go take a shower, in the meanwhile I’ll go fetch a new sheet for the bed, as I don’t think we can sleep on this one tonight…” -Asmund

“Okay…” -Shiori

Dropping her shoulders, Shiori moved to the bathroom to clean herself while Asmund went out to fetch another sheet which wasn’t stained in unidentifiable liquid… Though the new sheet also got ‘stained’ the very same night...