Book 2: Chapter 2: (4)

「That looks tastier than anything. 」

Shizuku, who had taken on the shape of my clothes, jiggled around.

「Apples, daikon, mackerel, and sardine. I’ll try experimenting with these ingredients. 」

From all the foods that Shizuku had told me that look tasty, I focused on buying only the cheapest ones.

「That’s right. Since I had you come along Shizuku, why don’t you let me buy you something nice. 」

「Really?! 」

「Sure. 」

「Then, I would like a collar. 」

…I should ask again just to make sure.

「Uh…what will you use it for? 」

「Is there a use other than putting it around your neck? 」

She’s been reading too many doujinshi. I feel like she might have absorbed too much faulty information.

「For today, how about we choose something else? 」

「I can’t choose that? But I really wanted it too. It was written that by receiving a collar from your master, it is proof of his undying love. It’s so cute! 」

This is going to get a whole lot weirder if I don’t stop it now. I decided to walk around Tonskihote a bit with Shizuku. We looked at a lot of products, and I had to teach her about the proper way living creatures should be.

「Oh this! These are the bloomers that Ria is always wearing! There’s a lot of cute clothes here! 」

「…」

We looked at the cosplay corner and Shizuku started shaking around with excitement. Teaching her how to be proper would be harder than I thought. We walked through the bathroom supplies.

「This is where they sell products for bathtubs. You know what a bathtub is right? 」

「I know! What is this? 」

「Looks like it’s bath powder to make bubble baths. Look there’s a picture here. 」

There was a cute girl, but she looked gaudier than Ria.

「This! I want this! 」

「Yeah sure, this looks good. 」

「Yay!!!」

Shizuku really liked baths. She was always taking one after Ria and I went to sleep. She jiggled with excitement.

「I want to get inside this bubbly bath with my master. 」

W-What did she say?

「Y-You can’t do that. There’s no way we can do that! 」

「Why not? 」

「I told you before that guys and girls shouldn’t take baths together didn’t I? 」

When Shizuku asked me before 「Why don’t you and Ria take a bath together? 」I answered like that.

「But I am neither a male nor female. 」

When she says it like that it makes sense but…it still feels kind of immoral.

「Ria probably doesn’t want to be seen naked. 」

「I could transform into Ria and we could take a bath that way.  」

Well yeah, when she says it like that, it’s not like there’s a weird issue for us to enter the bath together.

「I want to wash your head and body with soap using my body. 」

「That sounds nice. Maybe I’ll take one. Nothing wrong with that. 」

「Yay! 」

Shizuku started jiggling excitedly. I decided not to think so hard about this stuff. Next, we walked over to the pet corner. There wasn’t really anything we needed there. I thought about heading home, but before I realized we had found a certain product.

「T-This is!」

「Master! Are you finally going to buy me a collar? 」

「No, that’s too weird! 」

This would probably be really effective! And for the amount you get, it’s pretty cheap too! I’ll try buying some different kinds.

—

I entered the room quietly, so I didn’t wake up Ria. I took off Shizuku, who had transformed to the shape of my clothes, near the bathtub.

「Master, are you planning to enter the bathtub like this? 」

I wondered if Shizuku was really not a male or female. I can only think of her as a girl.

「N-No, not right now. For the time being, I want to hurry up and test out the new food I bought. 」

「Okay…」

Her voice was always crisp and cheerful, but for some reason she sounded kind of disappointed to me. Or maybe it was just my imagination. I placed the apple, daikon, mackerel, and sardine in front of the iron gate. And finally, after that…

「Take this! Cat food! 」

This is what I bought at the pet department of Tonskihote. I bought the wet and dry types of cat food. I wondered if monsters would be attracted to eating this too.

「What is that? 」

「It’s bait for pets. 」

「Bait for pets? It has an amazing smell! 」

I didn’t know if that was just Shizuku’s natural monster feeding habits acting up, or if she’s just been reading too many weird doujinshis.

「S-Shizuku, don’t eat this okay? I’ll make you something a lot better than this later. 」

「O-Oh, okay. 」

Alright, now time to go back to my computer and wait for monsters to come. I’m excited to find out if the monsters will react the same way to cat food. Shizuku had returned back inside the drawer. I prepared some chips and cola and leaned back in my computer chair. The dark dungeon room was showing on my computer monitor. And of course, the iron gate was closed. This is where the fun part began. If this works, my monster hunting success ratio could skyrocket.

「Here we go, open the door! 」

In order for the robot arm to open the gate, I clicked the button on my mouse once. The iron gate started to open. Without the gate even having opened fully yet, a huge number of shadows were looming near the food I placed there. Monsters were here!

「Holy—Seriously?! One huge centipede, and two goblins? A giant rat, a monster mushroom, and a blue slime are all clumped up together! 」

They must have been drawn here from the bait since before I even opened the door. They were all gathered around the cat food. For the time being, I waited for them to be focused on eating the bait. I had to click the mouse at the perfect time.

「It’s you! Giant centipede! You’ve been eating well, haven’t you! 」

The strongest creature on this floor, the giant centipede, was threatening and pushing around all the other monsters. He was trying to get a monopoly on all the pet food. The other monsters couldn’t get close to it. The other monsters went towards the remaining apples, daikon, mackerel, and sardines instead.

「Alright now!!!」

With a click of the mouse, the robot arm moved. I saw the iron gate lower through the monitor. The goblins noticed something was weird and took the mackerel and left, but the other monsters continued greedily devouring the bait. When the gate touched the giant rat, it swiftly ran away, but the giant centipede, monster mushroom, and blue slime remained there and became prey for my trap!

I felt power swell up inside of me. There was no doubt about it, I leveled up. I was a little worried, but it seems like I can attack and gain experience even with just a click.

「But some slimes and monster mushrooms managed to make it in. I’d better head into the dungeon and check the status. 」

I equipped my headlamp and my ice axe and opened the front door. It was the same dark dungeon as usual. I stepped out into the dungeon room.

「I should hurry and check my status. 」

[Name] Suzuki Tooru

[Race] Human

[Age] 21

[Job] None

[Level] 7 / ∞

[Stamina] 31 / 31

[Magic] 45 / 45

[Attack] 120

[Defense] 44

[Strength] 16

[Intelligence] 29

[Agility] 18

[Skills] Unlimited Growth, Person Appraisal LV 2 / 10

「I did it! I got 2 levels! 」

I must have been close to leveling up earlier, so I got 2 level ups. I also defeated the giant centipede in one go!

My [Person Appraisal] skill also leveled up. I’m excited to test it on Ria.

First, for the sake of safety, I had better defeat the remaining monster mushrooms and slimes that entered the dungeon room. I can’t have them eating my remaining bait. I’m leveled up now, so I could easily defeat mushrooms and slime.

「The perks of leveling up are really amazing. My [Agility] leveled up so my body feels really light! 」

This kind of body and movement is something that would take even an athlete months to get. But my body became this strong in just 5 days! I’m probably 5 times stronger than I was. Even without using a hand dynamotor, I could tell my grip strength was strong.

「I wonder when I’ll become strong enough to defeat a giant centipede with just one blow. Ria and Deet, and even Shizuku, would probably think I’m so cool and be so impressed. 」

While daydreaming about that, I defeated a small fry monster easily.

「Alright, I finished cleaning up and getting rid of all the monsters that came into this side. I should go and restock my bait now. 」

When I walked over to the iron gate, most of my bait had been devoured. Like I thought, the cat food had all been eaten immediately. The mackerel was also mostly gone.

「The cat food and mackerel are expensive though…Maybe I should use the cheap dry type. 」

I scattered some more pet food in front of the iron gate and returned back to my computer. I glanced at the clock and it was already 5:30 in the morning! My part time job starts at 9 so I could only sleep for 2 hours. I thought that I should better get to sleep, but I was so excited there was no way.

「Just one more time! After 1 more I’ll go to sleep! 」

Open the door! Monsters came in immediately again! Another giant centipede too! This guy really liked his pet food. I estimated the time and clicked the button.

「Ahhhhhhhh! So close! He just barely ran away! 」

I really should get to sleep. But then again, I still had some remaining bait. I quickly closed the gate.

「One more time. Just one more. That giant centipede is just waiting outside. I know as soon as I open that door, he’ll come running in and start eating. 」

But as you probably can guess, there was no way I was stopping after just one more go.