Chapter 172: Psyche Up – Part 1

Chapter 172: Psyche Up – Part 1

Brutal. I love it, but I also hate it. I pity The Four because they were given the easier start in Rupegia while I was forced to go through my fated trials first, so I'm already past the "harsh but actually quite abusive training montage because, for some reason, teachers can't just be straight with you and need to give dumb, contrived tests to torture you to 'push you past your limits' or some other cliche bullshit."

I mean, people aren't dogs. If you tell them you made them suffer for no practical reason and only to "teach them a lesson," they might start to resent you. Negative reinforcement training has been shown time and time and time and time and time again that it's incredibly fucking ineffective, so why would you waste the precious training time of the hero on inefficient training techniques?

Yeah, yeah, you have to give them the taste of failure to prepare them for the pain of a real fight, but does it have to be so cruel? Do you need to ruin your relationship with that person and betray their trust? Aren't you just giving them trauma with such rough and uncaring methods? Shouldn't a more delicate and less harmful approach be more efficient at helping someone grow?

The problem is that I'm building a straw man to argue with. These stories either preach the philosophy that "suffering builds character" or "no pain, no gain," so they don't care about efficient teaching. To make the reader feel like the protagonist's OP-ness is earned, a price must be paid, and it needs to be through blood and tears.

Yeah, yeah, power fantasies. Nothing like a pathetic protagonist who trains really hard. Like, harder than anyone sane would train. Harder than it's healthy to (which teaches young men to not have self-control and do recklessly stupid shit because that's how boys become men or some other macho shit). And then everyone starts to think he's cool, and he also starts to act cool, but the suffering never ends, and he has to almost kill himself with every battle to amp up the tension because the antagonists somehow perfectly match the protagonist in power. And that forces the protagonist to do something drastic to win, which creates even more tension, but you know that he's going to win anyway because he's the hero! So-...

Wait a second...

N-no, I'm not like them! I'm definitely not a shounen protagonist!

I'm... I'm a seinen protagonist...

Then I drop onto the bed and stare at the ceiling, mindbroken at my own admission.

You know, there are those moments where I'm like, "haha, I'm a protagonist in a novel," and then there are the moments where I'm like, "holy shit, I'm really the protagonist in a novel." And this one is the latter.

"That was all on you, Wolfy. I didn't even try to banter," Roxanne chimes in through [Bind].

And I just blurt out, so demoralized that I don't care about what comes out of my mouth, "Yes, yes, it's my fault. I keep forgetting that my whole life is just a cliché and that the Overseer is an author having fun writing an obscenely erotic novel dripping with cum and lewd fluids."

I can't avoid the cliche because I am the cliche.

Then I ignore Ciel's complaints about my blasphemy because even Bastico offered to turn our lives into a novel, so I know that I'm at least partially right.

But what was I even thinking about before I launched into this rant, anyway?

It wasn't about anything particularly important, so I just continue making more proximity fuse golems.

The afternoon goes on for an excruciatingly long time as my mana organ gets more and more taxed, which piles onto the boredom and stress, making me really irritated. The dragon in me wants excitement, while the human in me wants stimulation, but both only get more factory work as I try to squeeze out as many golems as I can.

Eventually, the irritation becomes too much, so I decide to take a break to meditate and relax. Letting my imagination run wild is always a comforting thing to do, and that's what I'll focus on for this session.

Both the human and the dragon have different fantasies they like to think about, so I let the two daydream as much as they want. But then I start to notice that there are actually three dudes inside me... I mean, three personalities... that phrasing was kind of gay. Anyway, I have three fantasies running wild within my mind: the "human," who's sweet and gentle; the "dragon," who's energetic and lewd; and the "fusion," which is calm, cool, collected, and wise. And it's exactly that last one that makes me curious.

But wait, it's not actually the "fusion" that's "new." It's the "human" that's becoming a separate part of the "true me." My internal monologue is clearly the voice of the "fusion," or "true me," but now I feel like there's the "sweet old me" along with the "Symbol of Might" inside my head, both occasionally telling me their feelings, needs, and desires.

Wereanimals see no need to differentiate their "true selves" from their "human side," so this is something new for all of us, but it feels pretty "natural" to me.

Indeed, I feel... balanced, stable.

Even though my three identities are all whining about their tiredness, listening to them makes them feel validated, which brings a surprising amount of comfort. It's like I feel happy about myself, about who I am.

I've reached enlightenment.

I open my eyes and stare at my humanized hand. The Jaleowzeh enchantment is still active, but now it feels "natural," as if I'm not forcing myself to act like a human. It's almost as if I actually have transformed into a human.

I'm almost there!

Inspiration comes from the most curious of places. The stress from creating an endless number of golems pushed me into meditation, which gave me the opportunity to grow further as a weredragon.

I suddenly stand up, ready to fight, ready to take over the world as the draconic conqueror or create a philosopher's stone as the human researcher.

But then the motivation instantly goes away the moment I think about creating another proximity fuse golem.

Uuuuuugh~...!

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the end of my factory work eventually comes.

"Golems... you all need to learn how to create golems, too," I mumble as I stare at the ceiling, too tired to move right now.

"Very well, Master. We shall attempt it," Jarn obediently agrees with a gentle nod, the most emotion she can show since her face is a mask of steel... well, elven wood "steel."

"May you guide us in how to re-prioritize our training?" Suzy requests.

And I shrug. "Sure. This isn't something high-priority since it'll take quite a while until any of you can do it, but better late than never."

Then I finally recover enough energy to leave for the bath.

Everyone's tired, so today's menu is slow and loving fucking. Hana and Roxanne are a bit horny after the session of intense training and sadism, respectively, so I give them the Cock while everyone else is temporarily satisfied with just the tentacles. Except for Ciel, who's addicted to them, so she gets two orgasms while I only have enough time to give everyone else a single one.

Urmeie is also too tired to tease us, so she has a private bath. It's very convenient that she gives us time to ourselves, but I'm starting to get conflicted about it since she's gradually becoming a true member of the harem.

Anyway, Kaatohe is also playing the role of a diplomat quite well, so I reward her with a good amount of cum inside her womb, her favorite. She even cums from my cum, and then she doesn't let Aoi do any cleanup to maximize the pleasure she feels, which annoys the thirsty dragon a bit, but she lets it slide.

And Caterina just watches the orgy with an unreadable expression, but my lewd senses are tingling, and with each day, Hana gets closer to the promised land.

"You Ryders are quite mean," Urmeie remarks as we sit for dinner.

"Well, yes, but why?" Yunia immediately replies with a casual tone.

The bear Princess grunts and shakes her head softly, then gives us a complicated expression, "You all purposely destroyed the confidence of the Realm Travelers. The group pairings may have been random, but you certainly used your telepathy to make sure the Travelers suffered painful losses."

"I shall neither confirm nor deny that," our elven Queen gracefully [Dodge]s.

"Misery builds character..." I slowly remark, struggling not to giggle at my own inside joke, which just makes Urmeie confused, but I know better than to explain a meme to her, and she seems to realize I'm just joking.

"A golem that doesn't know its purpose from birth could be quite dangerous," I quietly state, a bit unnerved by the golem.

The Chuckys already happened once, so I won't let a bad "Charisma" roll create another one. The golems need to be ready to serve from the moment they're born so there's no room for misunderstanding, which increases the difficulty of the "baby golem army" project because now I also need to implant memories in the golems so that they'll know their purpose.

"If we create factory-like conditions," Ted suddenly begins through [Bind] because she's overseeing the joint exercise.

"Where every new birth is always the same," Suzy follows up.

"Then we can minimize the risk of rebellion," Jarn finishes.

And I rub my chin with a padded claw as I ponder, soothed by their words, "Hmm... yes, perhaps I was being too hasty. I just fear that I might accidentally create Terminators."

But then I get creeped out by the thought of the new golems asking the exact same questions, so I decide to let the OG golems handle the initiation.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

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