225 Chapter 221: Dungeon

Because the nobility and clergy wanted the heroes to increase their growth speed, on the ninth day of coming to this world we were taken to a place called 'Great Orcus Labyrinth', an underground dungeon used for training and collecting magic materials.

Although I've only been able to steal 30% of the plot armor, it's enough to see the plot path and with [Reader's Madness] I can see that this is the main core of Arifureta's plot.

The non-combatant students stayed in the kingdom castle while the rest of us came to this place to improve our levels and combat skills.

It's funny, in every training I give the fake protagonist Kouki Amanogawa a beating, but even though it's obvious that I'm the most talented person in combat, most of the students and people of high status consider Kouki to be much better than me because of his job, he is a 'Hero'.

It doesn't mean that he really has the title of 'Isekai Hero', it's just a borrowed power and when it stops being useful he will lose his skills unless he manages to assimilate all his magic abilities without relying on the magic system of this world.

Although the use of experience points and levels to strengthen makes the growth of power faster, it has the defect of developing an extreme dependence on skills, so in a battle against entities from other worlds, it is very possible that the person will be killed for not knowing how to fight without the support system.

It is similar to someone who learns to draw solely by tracing photographs without ever trying to draw a sketch from scratch.

Although the person can still draw a silhouette, when he does not have a tracing medium then the person can only look at the paper without knowing what to do.

Despite everything, there are still some people who have approached me for advice on how to improve.

The girl this mess started over was one of the first people to ask me for swordsmanship advice as I showed off my kendo techniques and other Japanese sword arts.

Shizuku Yaegashi is another of Arifureta's heroines so I managed to get close to her through the path of the sword. She reminds me a bit of Saeko but without being crazy.

She's a close friend of the fake protagonist Kouki and because I used the 'Neotori' Concept when I hit that idiot, Kouki developed an irrational hatred against me making him act like a jerk.

Kouki got to the point of yelling at Shizuku that she's a bitch for talking to me to which, quite justifiably, I kicked his testicles apart.

It's funny that Shizuku just gave me a little scolding for being violent while she was genuinely disgusted at Kouki who was convulsing on the floor with foam in his mouth.

Due to my bad reputation, most of the girls see me as a womanizing, libertine, violent and degenerate idiot so they idolize Kouki for being the stereotypical noble hero.

Although I can easily manipulate a group of naive teenage girls, I have only concentrated on the women important to the plot.

Liliana S.B. Heiligh, Shizuku Yaegashi, Aiko Hatayama, and Kaori Shirasaki. Those are the heroines important to the plot within the pool of summoned heroes.

Princess Liliana and her mother are fond of me enough in this short time, and while it's not enough for the queen to leave her husband for me, he won't live long so it doesn't matter.

Shizuku had an argument with Kouki since the idiot doesn't know how to handle frustration and when Shizuku asked me for help with training, he started acting like a spoiled child when he loses a toy.

Aiko may be an adult, but she is an innocent and naive woman who could fall in love with the first man who kisses her. She doesn't develop romantic feelings for me yet, but she sees me as the most trusted figure.

Kaori turned out to be in love with the real protagonist, Hajime Nagumo. Since those feelings are not superficial, it will take a long time for her to fall in love with me, but I'm already working on it.

Unlike Kouki who is an idiot unable to listen to others and too blinded by his own ideals, Hajime is a calm and easy-to-manipulate boy.

The boy has no character or will, but at least his brain is functional so if he doesn't cause me problems I have no problem recruiting him into my group of heroes, I can even get him some unimportant girlfriend since he has no romantic interest in any of the heroines and seems more interested in anime, an otaku.

Hajime has the job of 'Synergist' which is something similar to an alchemist who uses magical energy instead of equivalence principles.

Transmutation is a skill that relies on knowledge rather than strength so I helped the boy understand how to handle his skill.

I used Arisa's knowledge for reference, and since Hajime is also an Otaku, he understood that his skill is similar to an anime called 'Fullmetal Alchemist'. I can say the name of that series since that's where my homunculi Sloth, Lust, and Envy come from.

Now Hajime is a Raku 2 and he calls me aniki.

Kaori also became my friend as I am helping her romantic interest, but little by little I have managed to make her develop an interest in me without her being aware of her own feelings.

I originally wanted to take my time to seduce those women to get the plot armor, but the problem is that none of them is the main heroine and I'm not going to let Kouki meet her first, besides, I'm getting bored so I'm thinking of parting with the group after faking an accident.

The day after I spoke with Marika, she met with me to negotiate.

Marika had taken the pills I gave her and felt that her health was almost completely recovered so she decided to believe me, although she also has no other choice since the nobility and the clergy see her as trash for not getting the blessing of the god of this world and if it wasn't for Honda, she would have been scrapped.

In fact, Marika gained 0.1% plot armor because of this… Life is absurd.

Honda tried to negotiate by offering herself in exchange for curing Marika which I refused.

Honda is a beautiful woman, but she is just a bodyguard and a relationship with her will not ensure the unconditional support of the Tachibana family.

Marika relented a little saying that when we return to Japan, she will talk to her mother to make an alliance with the Ichijo family, and in case the Tachibana matriarch does not accept it, Marika will be my lover.

Marika is thinking of procrastinating to meet up with Raku when we return to Japan to convince him to marry her, but I am confident that I can make this dying girl fall in love before returning to Japan so I allow her to make useless plans.

For now, I gave Marika various medications so that her health is stable for a couple of years, but I told her that I can only do the surgery when we are in a safe place so we will have to wait until we return to Japan.

Marika wasn't happy about this as I can back down if she tries to marry Raku, but she also has no options to negotiate.

Marika stayed in the castle with Honda and other girls who don't want to fight like Nana and her friends.

By the way, another girl with whom I have become uncannily close is my stepdaughter, Kosaki Onodera.

My title [Protagonist Netori] increases libido in women who hate me as long as they also have some favorable feelings or carnal desires towards me so using the 'Netori' Concept increased that effect.

She wanted to avoid me on the day of the summoning since apparently, she had masturbated thinking about me when I used the 'Netori' Concept while I having sex with Nino.

Now I wonder how many women have been affected by that Concept…

Anyway, now Kosaki feels guilty since she is in love with Raku at the same time that she is developing carnal desires towards me and because I have protected her a couple of times in this unknown world she has also begun to see me as her hero that always is willing to lend her a hand.

An example of this is that a couple of days ago I used the 'Protagonist' Concept to try to search for the main heroine via the threads of destiny, but this caused my plot armor to increase the stupidity of an idiot who tried to put his hands on Kosaki.

The result was obvious, a priest used magic to reattach the idiot's arm.

At this point, many people believe that I am a serial killer and several students plan to report me to the police when we return to Japan.

That doesn't matter to me since as long as the Tachibana family is on my side I can expose that Luis is Kuro and I still won't be taken to prison. Blessed be the political and economic power.

Going back to Kosaki, I knew everything that happened to her since her best friend told me, a girl named Ruri Miyamoto whom I previously labeled as a background character.

Ruri talked to me as she has been worried about Kosaki's safety since that girl is a bad combination of naivety, clumsiness, and idealism. It's no exaggeration to say that Kosaki is the kind of person who would walk into a rapist's van if offered candy.

Ruri told me that even though I'm an idiot and disgust her for being a womanizer, I'm the most appropriate person to protect Kosaki in this unknown world.

Strangely we got along and developed a strange friendship. Cynicism brought us together...

Now then, none of the girls in my classroom that I have a relationship with are here in the dungeon since they stayed in the castle.

The team was led by Kouki along with the students from both her and my classroom.

Only Hajime, Kaori, and Shizuku talk to me since the male students who hate me keep spreading rumors that I'm a murderer, rapist, and the like that make me look like a terrorist.

Other than the rapes, I've done all the things they say so I don't care.

Seriously, I haven't committed rape, since those women agreed to it through blackmail so it's not rape under Japan's consent law. Stupid Okawa family...

Before coming I explained my plan to Tsugumi, Marika, and my wives with mental problems.

In this mission, I plan to fake an accident to separate myself from the group and thus exploit this world in search of a way to return to Gaia.

I had a long talk with the girls since they weren't happy that I disappeared.

Shion, Mion, Rena, and Akane teamed up to try to cut off my limbs to keep me 'safe', but after some civilized bashing, they reluctantly agreed to my idea.

It's not gender violence if I'm just defending myself from a woman who wants to cut off my legs.

Tsugumi was mentally tired since she will have to take care of troublesome women. I'll make it up to her later.

I left various magical artifacts created by System Goddess to contact them if there is a problem.

In case of danger, I left spatial markings on the women to take them to the Rasen Dimension, plus I can use spatial abilities to appear next to them in an instant, and thanks to Ortro's ability to ignore distances, spatial interference abilities cannot prevent me from being with my wives.

Just in case, I invoked the God of Water, God of Earth, and God of Wind to pretend to be magical artifacts to protect my lovers. They may be weaker than Rushia and Coco, but they still serve as meat shields.

I sighed as another wolf fell for my sword and looked at Shizuku who was decapitating a wolf.

Thanks to one of her skills and her own effort she was able to master the basic movements of the Kosaka Style.

On the other hand, I looked at my new subordinate who was using his transmutation skill on the ground to form a stone stake that pierced through a wolf's stomach. The boy is witty when given a little self-confidence.

In front of us were Kouki and his closest allies who were destroying the monsters with flashy attacks.

While my sword techniques are subtle and not very flashy, I can easily defeat most magic skills even if I use the strength of a human and just a normal sword, that's the difference between raw power and controlled strength.

I threw my sword to impale a wolf that almost bit the neck of a skinny girl who had lowered her guard when she didn't see a wolf near her.

I walked over to the wolf that was pinned to the wall and pulled my sword out of the wall causing the wolf's corpse to fall to the ground.

"Don't get distracted" – I sighed at the incompetence of these teenagers.

These idiots treat this situation as a game and do not take into account the possibility of dying.

The girl looked at me with fear and quickly walked away from me to go with other students.

"Hey Listen! Her instincts warned her that you can impregnate her with your degenerate eyes!"

I rolled my eyes internally, this idiot gets a kick out of it when people treat me like a degenerate freak.

Shizuku walked up to me as she frowned at the girl, then sighed and patted my shoulder. – "Ignore her, this is because of those silly rumors…"

I sighed listlessly. – "It doesn't matter, let's just keep moving forward"

"…" – Shizuku sighed and nodded.

"By the way" - I smiled with a slight bitterness. – "Some rumors are true, I really like beautiful women so if you continue to be nice to me, do not blame me if I make you my wife"

Shizuku looked at me blankly then sighed as she massaged her forehead. – "How can you be so carefree in a place like this?"

I quickly moved my sword close to Shizuku's neck.

"Anguish and anxiety only make you make mistakes, and a mistake can cost you your life" - I withdrew my sword and shook it to clean the wolf's blood. – "On the other hand, lowering your guard while you speak is a big mistake, do not forget to always be alert"

Shizuku looked behind her and saw the corpse of a wolf that tried to attack her from behind.

"Thank you..." - Shizuku sighed and nodded with a serious expression showing that she took my words very seriously.

We kept walking while Kouki kept using flashy skills almost like he was showing off.

Shizuku and I weren't using any special skills, just sword techniques so our attacks were efficient but not flashy.

As we entered the dungeon Shizuku started talking to me. - "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, as long as it's not my bank code, there's no problem" - I agreed and killed another wolf.

"In Japan were you some kind of soldier or assassin?" – Shizuk asked me seriously.

"Haven't you heard the rumors?" – I shrugged. – "I am just a bum who cleans sewers, he sleeps with random women and fights with gang members"

Shizuku frowned. – "I have trained in the best kendo dojos, but your sword skills are superior to anything I have seen, you even developed a technique to use the medieval sword as a Japanese sword…"

Shizuku is a sword prodigy by human standards and her specialty is the Japanese sword so the swords of this world limit her talent.

Since it would be a pain to explain where I got a Japanese sword from, I preferred to modify the Kosaka Style so that I could use a medieval sword as if it were a katana.

This isn't perfect and some techniques are flawed, but by human standards, it's a perfect technique so it's fine for now.

I shrugged. – "I learned it on the internet"

"…" – Shizuku looked at me blankly.

I sighed as I felt Shizuku's intense gaze. – "Later let's talk about this, we are supposed to be in a dangerous dungeon"

Shizuku reluctantly nodded and we continued forward.

Although this girl is a bit temperamental, I will add her to my harem not only because of the plot armor but because she is cute and I like her attitude.

Now I must look for an opportunity to separate myself from this group and if I have the opportunity it would be better to make heroic self-sacrifice...

Maybe I'm overplaying tragic hero tactics, but I can't help it, they're too convenient, or as Arisa would say, a cliche.