The furniture, a new challenge

It was time to find out what the other functions of the skill were. I didn't really think that House of Love could be upgraded, since it does anything you need to build a house. Looking at the skill description, I noticed two changes: the materials needed to build decreased, meaning that I could build more using the same amount of wood. The second change was the new function, Furniture Crafting.

Hahahaha

This game really was something, in some ways it always managed to give us what we needed. So after being able to create a house, now I can also craft the furniture that we need. For the time being, it was better to just make the essential things, such as beds, chairs and a table, because nobody knew when the game would have given us a new challenge.

"Alright, Junichi-kun. I have good news, I can now craft also pieces of furniture. Firstly, I need you to bring me some materials here. I'll just make essential things for now, since we could have a new challenge anytime soon."

"That really is good news! What do I have to bring?"

"I need wood, the main material, then some stones and some leaves."

I could see Junichi's puzzled look, perhaps he was wondering about the leaves. Strange though it is, this skill needed the most plausible materials to produce objects, that goes also for beds, I supposed that leaves were used to create the mattress. The guy started climbing down the ladder and wasn't in my field of view anymore.

I waited for Junichi to come back with all I needed, thus deciding to use this time to think about the design of all the pieces of furniture I was going to make. As soon as I finished thinking about the design the guy came.

When I saw him I was bewildered and was looking at him with confused eyes. He didn't bring anything back, even though that was his role he came empty-handed.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. I know what you're thinking, I can tell it from your look alone. I have the materials with me, I'm just testing out my new skill Lover Service. It basically allows me to help you in some activities, the other are unknown for now, the only help I know is for your House of Love. This function is called Dimensional Carrying, thanks to it I can store materials in another dimension."

I didn't even have the time to think and elaborate those information that something appeared in front of me.

ThudTompTompTomp

Wooden trunks, stones and leaves came out of nowhere and gently rested on the floor. I couldn't about it too much, this "GAME" allowed us to do unimaginable things, in the end I just had to accept that as the truth, he could use another dimension to store materials. Without further ado, I started crafting, we were on the first floor so I decided to make chairs and the table first.

In some seconds, they were ready and once again Junichi was surprised by them.

"Have you ever thought of being a designer?"

"You flatter me."

The table weren't simple, the legs were some well-structured, rounded and decorated ones. As for the chairs, they met the style of the house and the table, using a simple design which was so elegant in the beauty of the gentle structure. It wasn't time to distract while looking at those chairs and table, we needed to make beds.

I climbed the ladder once again, fortunately here my fear wouldn't affect me much since it didn't seem too high. Arrived there I opened the door and started the crafting process, here the most interesting thing was the procedure used by the skill to make the mattress and the pillows. Leaves fibres were taken and folded, united and intertwined. After that process was repeated several time the beds were ready.

They also had a peculiar design, they were queen-size beds and it's head had a complex decoration, the legs here were rounded and well-shaped, too. It was now time to test the mattress, we had to confirm it the bed was comfortable enough, since it was made out of leaves.

As soon as I touched it, I sank in. It was one of the best sensations, something you'd never expect even from a top-notch mattress. Since Junichi was in is room, I was rolling a little in the bed, letting my childish side go out of control.

FtzFtzFtz

A new screen popped up before me, yeah it was impossible that the "GAME" would just leave us be. We exited our rooms at the same time and looked at the announcement.

[Challenge: save lives

A group of defenceless people got captured in a goblin nest, and are going to be used by the goblin king. If anything is done, their death is certain, that's why you will save them. Their location is found on your maps.

Clearance condition: people saved (0/15)

Failure: ???

Rewards: safe zone expansion, +1 to every stat, skill level +1]

That was something we wouldn't have expected, since we came here we didn't came across any other person. But, now we had to save them. For their location, we had to look at a certain map but which map? It wasn't like we really had something we could call a map. Junichi was looking intently at me, then he spoke up.

"I think I know what this map is, we have been given this skill after we completed the shelter quest, maybe you didn't notice it. A thing that seems odd, though, is the skill Lover Party."

This time he knew more than me, once again I had to admit that he wasn't stupid.

"Alright, so we are sure of their location, regarding this party skill we can just confirm what it is by using it."

Then I asked him to form a party, and he accepted.

"Uh, uh. So, we have boost to increase our stats level and we have this special skill party communication, which I guess is a sort of telepathy. Finally, we have the most useful thing, stats experience share, which probably is the possibility to gain the same stats experience if just one of us does the work."

'Oooooi, can you hear me?'

Yes, unfortunately it was his voice, and I heard it directly in my mind. Therefore, it was possible to communicate with each other by just thinking and directing the message to the other party.

"Now that we have confirmed everything, let's go, if you've seen their location we have a long way to go."

After a while we encountered some monsters, we used our skill masterfully and didn't have any kind of problem with those goblins. Our stats were going up like craze, the party was a sort of cheat skill, or that's what it seemed to me.

Steadily getting closer to the goblin nest, monsters became stronger, and it was far more frequent for us to encounter hobgoblins. However, those times around we were having the upper hand against them, differently to our first time we fought one.

We arrived at the entrance of the nest, with our skill that went up a lot, we were ready to get in. But before, since my Lover kiss was higher I could increase the number of kisses, so I had to do something.

"Wait there, close your eyes and stand still."

Junichi looked at me.

"Just do it!!"

When he finally did what I told him, I got closer and closer. It was highly likely that he could feel my breath near his cheek since he trembled a little. And then...

Smooooch

I gave him another kiss, it was all for the sake of our safety, it was only because of my skill that forced me to do so.

"Ooh, I see. That's why I had to close my eyes, uh?"

His rhetorical question just pissed me off, if he already knew the answer why bother to ask. I feigned calmness and went into the nest. Since I was useless in combat he hurriedly ran to come first and stay on the first line.

"Oh, so you care to protect me, don't you?"

It was time for revenge, but his reaction was different from what I had expected. I was being him so I wasn't so sure about it but he may have blushed. His ears were bright red, and that left room for imagination about his face. With his head lowered he kept going on and didn't answer me.

Then our first opponent in the net appeared, it had a different aura from the rest, a simple goblin there seemed as strong as a hobgoblin from before. Yet, we now were stronger, and we dealt with it without any major difficulty. We kept going for a while, the nest was similar to a maze so we had to follow the map carefully, and I mainly looked for that while Junichi fought.

Our aim was so close, as we were around 100 meter away from it, yet so distant.

A goblin guard was in our way...