Chapter 54 – A little decorating hurt no one

Yuki who had been in a foul mood had her eyes brighten at the mention of a present.

With a smile hanging on her lips she accepted the rectangular wrapped present from Adam's hand and just like a child began tearing through the silk wrapping.

Fen's gift to Yuki was a sketch.

The sketch illustrated a boundless blue sky with cotton candy clouds that drifted in it.

In the centre of the sketch was a majestic creature who was in midflight.

A beaked dragon but not at the same time.

A golden beak for a mouth with the head and body of a dragon. Atop its head was a single long and twirling horn that was similarly golden but also had a glossy finish to it. Behind the horn were jet black feathers that acted like this dragons crown.

These black feathers grew shorter after its crown and went all the way down from its head to the tail. Its underbelly was covered by pure white scales.

The scales on its joints were golden.

It had stocky dragon limbs with ink black hooves at the end. The hooves shone with splendour.

Two massive white feathered wings jutted out from above its shoulder blades while a slightly smaller pair of them came out from just above its lower back.

Its tail was almost twice as big as its whole body. The tail had black feathers on the upper part to a degree and then it turned furry like a horses tail right at the tip. 60% of the body of the tail was still pearlescent white scales.

It had hooded eyes on its white scaled face. The deep-set eyes were a radiant neon blue like the waters of a clear stream.

When the sketch was unveiled Adam felt like these eyes that had a strange power in them were following him. He quickly dismissed it as him overthinking it because no one else in the room had this feeling.

Adam's room was very minimalistic, furniture wise. He had no decorations or posters of any sort in his simple room. All he had was a bed, a small low lying round table and some seating mats.

Yuki gave a look around his room and then called a few girls in and gave them instructions.

Soon enough. Two girls walked into Adam's room with a toolkit. One began hammering a nail into his wall above the head of his bed while the other assisted her with handing over the right tools.

Very quickly the sketch had already been framed and was hung right above where Adam slept.

"Nice. It really is a beautiful painting. Good job you two." Yuki praised and then sent the two girls on their way to complete their usual tasks in the lodge.

"Mother…You do know that this is my room, yes?" Adam loved how he only had just what he needed. He also kept getting this feeling of being watched from this painting. How was he supposed to sleep like this?

"It's not just your room. The girls basically live here too. Girls cant have such an empty room. I was planning on getting some pink curtains and pillows for your bed too." Yuki teased him but when she said it a light flashed in her eyes that showcased that she would actually like to do it.

"No, please no! Ill live with the painting." Adam had the shock of his life.

"How about just the pillows?" Yuki began negotiating.

"Absolutely not!" Adam was not going to have any of it.

"Young master…" Elaine and Luna's soft voice came from behind him.

Adam froze up. Like a wooden puppet, his head turned around with a creak.

The girls' desires had been tingled with Yuki's idea.

"Can we decorate the room? Pleeeaaaassseee" Luna pleaded with all her heart.

His mental image shattered like glass. With his mother, he had the power to negotiate. With the girls however it was different. They usually never asked for anything so in a case like this Adam was hard pressed to deny their request.

Adam turned and looked indignantly at the culprit of this whole mess.

Yuki grew flustered. She had not known that the girls would actually have an interest in this whole thing.

Seeing the look on his mothers face, Adam sighed. He did not have it in him to make things hard for the girls or be mad at Yuki.

"Fine, you can decorate the room on one condition. No pink. If you cannot abide by this rule then you guys can move into another room."

"Young master is kicking us out?" Luna said. The girl's eyes grew limpid and round. Adam got hit with the legendary Kitten Eyes move.

"Ugh, No negotiations!" He almost gave in but his will was strong. Channelling his willpower he squeezed out a decisive refusal.

"Just a little pink? Please." Elaine asked. The girls got back up again for round 2 and this time, they hit him with the Gentle Tug on the Sleeve move.

Adam's willpower began showing cracks. He had truly fallen into dire circumstances.

He had to respond soon. He risked it all in the name of his pride and spoke.

"Absolutely…. not!" It almost took all he had. What he did not know was that this was just the beginning.

The girls pulled out one mythic and legendary move after another. An epic battle of words commenced.

In the end, Adam conceded to allowing them to get one article of the wretched colour pink and only then did their assault recede.

Adam felt defeated and sat down listlessly on his bed with his head drooping forward. He stared at the floor in dismay.

The girls happily skipped out with Yuki leading the way. They were going to make a trip to the stores in the marketplace.

Adam silently shed a tear in his heart for his minimalistic haven and bid it farewell.

....

For the next three days, Adam did not see a sign of the twins. He was shifted out of his room and slept in a vacant room of the lodge.

Every time he would cross his room that was tightly shut, he would hear loud thumps and thwacks. It sounded like the girls were creating a whole building in that one room.

He had spent these three days on solo trips to the dungeon. Though it was a lot slower. He was able to get all the way to the tenth room on the third floor alone.

Every time he got there he would take a look at that portal that would pop open when he cleared the room. A longing to go fight a battle like the last time burned in him. Once he got the taste of that thrill for battle, it was now hard for him to curb it.

He made his trip to the dungeon on these days for two main reasons. Number one – he needed to save up funds to ensure that he could smoothly set up an Experience Farm.

Number two – to make sure that the dungeon still functioned the same after he took away its heart (that little snake of light).

When he went to the dungeon with the girls it was more of training their moves and coordination. His solo trips were different, He went in with the sole purpose of killing as much as possible. He was quick and efficient.

He developed a rhythm on the third floor of the dungeon, where he would cycle through the first 3 rooms in a constant killing spree and not have to wait on respawn of the monsters. Purple Copper Armadillo corpses filled his storage ring.

He made quite a sum from these trips of his and even ordered the manufacture of new daggers with the black tipped teeth and another cage ring (with a small loan from Mrs Bren) to help ease the process of transporting the monsters when they began doing it. His earlier ring had still not found an adventurer to begin its delivery so it seemed that both his rings would arrive together.

As for the dungeons workings. It was absolutely the same. Adam found no changes in the spawn rate and times of the monsters. The only difference was that there was a less lively feeling that emanated from it. Adam deduced that the dungeon might have lost the ability to grow since that was the ability that he had gained.

Without the heart to devour the energy of the heavens and planet, the dungeon would absolutely fall into a state of stagnation.

There was no dungeon that would perpetually have monsters with such low levels. This might actually be a good thing. The Two Fang city might become the town of beginner adventurers in the foreseeable future.

Today was the third day and Adam had once again made his trip to the Guild to trade in his monster corpses and materials for rewards.

At the counter, Mrs Bren gently handed him his two cage rings that had finally made its way to this town.

Adam did not spend much time at the Guild and took his leave after a few pleasantries.

Returning to the lodge he saw the twins who he had lost sight of for the past three days eagerly awaiting his return at the gate of the lodge.

They dragged him in the second their eyes caught sight of him and he was only let go of after he was standing outside the door of his room.

The girls had giant smiles plastered on their faces and didn't speak a word, only gesturing him to open the door quickly.

To be completely honest, he was a bit creeped out.

But he had just got out of a solo dungeon run and did not have the energy to argue so his hand lifted up and pulled the door aside.

The first thing Adam noticed was the floor. His usual plain tatami mat floor was nowhere to be seen. Replacing it was a wall to wall soft and fluffy beige coloured carpet. Stepping on it felt like walking on the clouds.

In the centre of the room, the small and sturdy round table was gone. In its place was a small white round table with a lace covering atop it.

On the previously empty left side of the room was now a hanging double rattan swing. Cushions of various different colours and patterns were stuffed on it with a white furry animal pelt used as the seat cushion hung from the front.

The bathroom door had now become a glazed glass door that only lets light through it.

On the right side of the room, his simple bed was now a slightly bigger bed with white curtains that hung from its frames. On the bed lay three pillows, one white one in the centre with two pink ones on both its sides. The sheets and blankets of the bed were black with golden designs on them.

Atop the head of the bead hung the sketch of the dragon, its frame had been changed out to a more luxurious black and gold coloured wooden frame.

"we designed it all to match the colours of the sketch that big sis sent! What do you think?"

Adam took a quick round of his room. Sitting on things and patting cushions and the mattress.

'What is this comfortable feeling? Was I living the wrong way all this time?' He thought. 'Maybe the fairer sex is just better at these things…'

"It's not bad." He said nonchalantly as he sprawled out on the bed, taking in the mellow scent that now permeated the room. He would never admit his thoughts openly though.