Chapter 070

After helping Cynthia with her lower back and stress testing it to make sure it was sound, Leon departed her room and decided to make a quick stop at the Menagerie since it was on his way.

"Leon is here...!" 

"Leon...!"

"Garuff...!"

As she happened to be playing tag near the entrance of the Menagerie, Luna, who had successfully evolved into a shiny Umbreon, complete with beautiful blue rings against her backdrop of sleek, ebon-black fur, rushed over and leaped into his embrace. She had grown 'considerably' since her time as a runt, so much so that if Leon held her up by the pits of her arms, she was nearly 150cm long with her feet dangling.

Following close behind Luna, Ember, having evolved into a Ninetales using a Fire Stone, sat and waited patiently for her turn to be held and snuggled while their playmate, Mordred's Arcanine, Blaze, sat beside her.

"You're going to make the others agitated if you keep rubbing each other like that," said a petite figure with rabbit-like ears, a thick, sturdy tail, and bobbed, creamy white hair with side bangs that framed their round face, set with yellow irises with horizontal slants for pupils and cream-colored whiskers that resembled blush marks. At first glance, one might mistake them as a Pokemon, but they were wearing a pair of gray-green, baggy, drop-crotch harem pants with dark-pink hip-bags on both sides, red pant legs, and a pink flap that could be rolled up to cover their usually naked torso, a light shade of tan compared to their predominately brown-furred body.

"Hey, Nanachi," said Leon, setting Luna down after allowing her to lick his face slowly and deliberately a few times while trying to link the backs of her digitigrade legs around his hips.

"Nnaaaaaa...and a good afternoon to you too, Lord Leon," responded the rabbit-like person serving as the caretaker of Leon's Menagerie, Nanachi, a rather tragic character from a cute but exceptionally dark series called Made in Abyss.

"Anything to report...?" asked Leon, taking a knee so he could more easily rub the sides of Ember's face and somewhat long neck while she gingerly and affectionately licked his face and lips.

"Not really," replied Nanachi, spreading their hands and shrugging as they added, "But I would appreciate it if you gave Eris another stern warning. I would do it myself, but I would just become one of her victims..."

"Is she here now...?" asked Leon, looking around, but as the Menagerie was effectively a greenhouse twice the size of a football pitch, there were a lot of places he couldn't see at a glance.

"Well, she was getting pretty heated playing around, so she's probably at the pond," guessed Nanachi. "You know how she likes to let the cleaners nip at the dirt and grime from her body."

"Then I'll lecture her later," said Leon, causing Nanachi to groan but offer no resistance as he extended his hand to pet and gently ruffle the space between their ears. They would never admit it, but based on how they sat down in a squatting posture and closed their eyes, they enjoyed it quite a bit...

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As he wasn't in a hurry to see Eris naked for the umpteenth time, even if she insisted she was an adult back in her world, Mushoku Tensei, Leon left the Menagerie after greeting Sylvia and a few of the other Pokemon who called the space home. 

"Oh, Lord Leon. How are you doing today...?" asked a girl with long brown hair fixed in a ponytail through the hat she commonly wore, long and curly side bangs framing her charming face, set with confident blue eyes. She was one of the three members of Cynthia's Squad, but as the latter hadn't ordained a dress code, the shapely and athletic woman wore a black vest over a white tank top, tattered blue shorts with distinctive white tufts that hugged her perky ass and left her long legs exposed, and red-and-black hiking boots.

"Oh, hey, Hilda. Dropping someone off or picking someone up...?" asked Leon, approaching the Pokemon heroine and unhesitantly embracing and hefting her up by her ass for a deep kiss. By now, quite a few people had been summoned from the world of Pokemon, which, unlike the anime he was familiar with, didn't allow Trainers to set out and travel until they were at least sixteen rather than the baffling age of ten. People also tended to age, so even the ever-ten Ash was 19 at the time of summoning.

Placing her hands on Leon's shoulders, Hilda enjoyed the lengthy kiss for nearly half a minute before tapping him to indicate she needed to breathe. A thread of saliva briefly connected their lips when they parted, but Hilda promptly licked it up, smiling as she responded, "I'm going to explore the volcanic region where Groudon once slumbered, so I came by to pick up a few Water-types."

"Okay. Just make sure you don't get cooked..." said Leon, releasing his hold on Hilda's ass and giving it a light smack as she stepped past him to continue with her business. Leon followed her with his eyes, but since he had places to be, he withstood the moderate temptation to pull her aside and returned to the training field to continue preparing for the impending Grand Banquet...

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"We're getting close," said Leon, holding the Mana Radar in his left hand as he, Tatsumaki, Miu, and Latia made their way into a spacious crystal cavern with multiple entrances and exits that had noticeably been carved out by something incredibly large over time.

*beep* *beep* *beep*

"What exactly are we hunting...?" asked Tatsumaki, floating with her arms crossed rather than walking beside Leon.

"We'll find out soon enough," replied Leon, placing the Mana Radar into his storage as the Mana signature they had been following started moving toward them with impressive but manageable speed. Leon was expecting something like a record-breaking Barioth, given the size and composition of the Mana signature, but instead of a giant saber-toothed Wyvern, what came rushing at them was a roughly 200cm tall, very distinctively female humanoid with glowing orange eyes, vulpine features, vicious white claws on its hands and feet, a head of wild midnight blue hair, and a remarkably voluptuous body that was an ashen bluish-brown at its base but covered in bluish scales and icy spines...

Unleashing a roar similar to an enraged cougar, the buxom humanoid monster leaped nearly sixty meters in a single bound, producing streaks of powerful ice-infused Mana as it cleaved toward Leon with its serrated white claws. Unfortunately, though she wasn't able to completely restrain its movements, Tatsumaki managed to stop the creature mid-air, causing it to trash about wildly until the green-haired psychic swept her hand and smashed it into a wall.

"I'm going in...!" shouted Miu, moving like a blur as she performed a flying heel kick that landed at the center of the humanoid monster's abdomen, causing it to exhale and spit up a mouthful of liquid that produced a layer of frost over anything it touched. More notably, the wall behind it gained a three-meter-wide fractured crater as its body was smashed into it.

Noticing the usual bluish-red light that indicated damaged dispersal, Leon noted, 'So it's definitely a native of this Floor...but since when did Monster Hunter have humanoid monsters?'

"We need to be careful not to kill it!" shouted Leon. "This thing could be our clue to opening the next Floor...!"

"You sure you don't just want to fuck it...?" asked Tatsumaki, directing an accusatory, half-lidded stare at Leon out of the corner of her eye.

"Mmm...she does have massive tits and a downright succulent ass..." admitted Leon, referring to the strange monsters near g-cup breasts and exceptionally toned ass and thighs, likely needed to support her sizeable, somewhat familiar tail. In fact, he was almost certain she was based on a Lunagoron...

Before Tatsumaki could get too pouty, Leon playfully poked her right butt cheek with his left index finger, causing her to startle and straighten her back as he appended, "But size isn't everything. Some of the best things in life come in small packages..."

"Hmph...!"

Making a forceful wringing gesture with her hands, Tatsumaki attempted to further restrict the suspected Lunagoron by interfering with the bonds of the surrounding stone and crystal, causing it to emulate the properties of a liquid as she encased the struggling monster's lower body and arms, leaving its upper body and head exposed so it could breathe.

"As expected of my favorite psychic..." mused Leon, grabbing Tatsumaki's calf and planting a kiss on her conveniently eye-level ass before stepping past her to approach the desperately struggling monster. It attempted to keep him away by yowling loudly, hissing, and baring its incredibly sharp teeth and lengthy canines, but Leon wasn't even remotely deterred as he entrusted his body to Miu and promptly possessed it.

'Rip! Tear! Kill...!'

Hearing the monster's thoughts, murderous as they were, Leon adopted an imaginary smile and remarked, 'Good. It seems like we might actually be able to get through to each other.'

'Out! Out! Out! Get out...!' responded the humanoid monster, shaking its head wildly from side to side. In the process, Leon felt a sensation that was similar to taking a sledgehammer to the head, but while the monster succeeded in ejecting him from its mind, its spirit and stamina gradually diminished as he invariably pulled himself together and repossessed her over, and over, and over again...

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Though it took well over an hour, the humanoid monster became much more docile after Leon assured it they weren't there to kill it and gave it some delicious food from his Storage. After that, while Tatsumaki didn't release her, she was remarkably compliant, answering his questions to the best of her ability.

'So you were birthed by this 'Mother' to counter us, the strange creatures invading your lands...?' asked Leon.

Nodding in response to Leon's question, the humanoid monster replied, 'Yes. Everyone scared. Your kind small, but good hunters. Mother scared you kill us all. Make us to hunt and kill you first. But you too strong. Can't kill...'

'We don't 'want' to kill your kind,' assured Leon. 'We originally only fought to protect ourselves. Our true goal is to move beyond this Floor and enter the next...'

'But 'must' kill,' argued the humanoid monster, expressing, 'Must kill to evolve. Must evolve to breed. Strong, eat weak. Weak disappear. Strong remains. That Creed of Dragon. Creed of Mother...'

'That may be what you were taught, but true strength is the capacity to choose your own path and way of life,' contended Leon, preempting the humanoid monster's response by asking, 'That food I gave to calm you down. It was good, right?'

'Yes! Very good...!' responded the humanoid dragon, her yellow-orange eyes glowing with excitement.

'That kind of food, the clothes we wear, and the weapons we use are all things that came about as a result of people working together, creating a world where people can be happy and safe 'without' the constant need to fight,' explained Leon, quickly adding, 'And while it's true that might make the average person weaker than they could be, there will always be those like us who, as a result of the burden we bear, possess power far beyond the norm. In other words, true strength comes from the desire to protect, not merely to survive...'

'Too much. Me not understand...' replied the humanoid monster, furrowing its brows and looking frustrated.

'It's fine not to understand everything at once,' assured Leon. 'The most important thing is the desire and willingness to learn. That, too, is a form of evolution.'

'Learning is evolution...' repeated the humanoid monster, taking several moments to ponder Leon's words. Then, as it would rather learn than die, it accepted when he ultimately offered to allow it to join them, promising to feed it lots of delicious food in exchange for it doing as it was told and not harming anyone who didn't try to harm it... 

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