Part 10

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***

Splat.

Sylphie flopped right on top of me and our foreheads bumped together in a way that made my ears ring.

- Ugh... w-what... what happened? Rudy? She panicked.

She shamefully covered herself with her arms, even though she was wearing a nightgown.

- Ohhh, well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. - I sighed.

Next to the girl's head hung a status window.

Sylphietta Dragonroad

Loli ur 6.

Health - loli durability

Mana - toughness archmage

Characteristics:

Strength - like a loli

Dexterity - she recently tripped over her own foot.

Stamina - physical labour is not for her.

Perception - never lets Rudy out of her sight.

Intelligence - the dumbest girl in the group.

Luck - became an apprentice to a great sorcerer for free

Talents:

Laplace Factor

Skills:

Water Magic level 9

Air Magic level 8

Earth Magic level 6

Fire Magic level 7

Lightning Magic level. 5

Healing magic level 6

Detoxification magic level 5

Masturbation level 4

Martial Arts level 1

Effects:

Magical Progression

And she did indeed turn out to have the Laplace factor and magic progression.

At the same moment, another message appeared in front of me.

The harem king's level has been raised!

Sylphie looked at her status in surprise, then shifted her gaze to me.

- R-rudy What's that...

- Yea, it's a system... okay, let me take you home before your parents find out you're missing. And I'll explain everything to you later. Okay?

- Uh-hum... - The girl nodded.

Anyway, I put off explaining the system until later. Not to explain to her parents how the girl next door ended up in my bed in the morning, in her nightie. And in the meantime, Roxy had already noticed the new girl in the group. After all, she also had a tab with the group in her status, which allowed her to assess the status of other members. It wasn't full of information, just health, mana, and mood, almost like a scan.

"Seduced you though," She sent me a message.

"That wasn't the intent. Don't be mad, please."

"I'm not mad, and I knew I would be. Don't hurt Sylphie, she's a good girl."

"I wasn't even going to! What do you take me for?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just thought you might start avoiding her, imagining you'd done something wrong to me."

Oh, she's pretty perceptive. I was really starting to have those thoughts. But, after all, it wasn't Sylphie's fault that I'd been acting up. In her next message, Roxy changed the subject. She sent me a coin box.

"I sold your figurines in Ranoa and they were much appreciated, but if you want to sell more, I'd suggest using a religious theme for your next piece."

Actually, yes, after all, I practice earth magic all the time in making various statuettes from different rocks. I've even found gemstones and worked them with magic. I thought about doing jewellery, but that was too boring. But using jewels in statuettes, such as ruby eyes, is more interesting. And then I thought I could make some money, so I sent the figurines to Roxy and asked her to try to sell them in Ranoa.

Meanwhile, it was fully morning.

Paul and I had cut back on our training over the winter, so I was soon on my way to meet Sylphie.

- Anyway, the system... yeah... it's hard to explain what it is, since I hardly understand it myself. It's probably some kind of spell or spirit, she clearly has a mind, and she likes to mess with me and Roxy. Now you may have to deal with it too.

- Roxy... your magic teacher?

- Yeah, she's in the group too. - Nodding to the girl. - Even though she's gone to Ranoa, we still correspond through the inventory. You can store items there and, the five cells in it are now rightfully yours, you can store your stuff there.

With Sylphietta's inclusion in the group, the inventory has also expanded by five cells.

- Also, the system helps with development, though it often teases you. And, you should check to see if you can change your class. Can you summon status?

- How?

- Just think about it. Or say it out loud.

- Could I see the status, please? - The girl asked politely.

I directly felt how even the system relented.

After which, the corresponding window actually appeared in front of Sylphie. I told her what to do and she had already clicked on the name of her class herself. Then the already familiar to me window of class selection appeared. However, Sylphietta had a slightly different choice of professions.

Loli the magician

You learn magic faster.

Each level gives you one characteristic point and two skill points.

But after twelve years, you stop growing, and you will forever be a loli

Extra experience for practising magic

Dark Maid

All of your stats increase by five points as long as you serve your dark lord.

Each level gives you one characteristic point and two skill points.

Extra experience for doing the dark lord's bidding.

Childhood friend

All of your stats increase by five points if you are in a group with your childhood friend.

Each level gives you two characterisation points and one skill point.

You gain additional experience every time your childhood friend gains experience

Honestly, I was even surprised. Though the system was gimmicky, it was gentler than usual, there weren't even any perverted classes. True, the classes are still weird.

- Ah... who's the dark lord? - Sylphietta was perplexed.

- Indeed. - I shrugged my shoulders. - Who could it be...

And then a new window appeared in front of me.

Attention!

Your harem king class has evolved!

You are now the Lord of Darkness

Lord of Darkness

You are a terrible demon lord! The embodiment of terror that makes little children wet their beds in fear. Lord of the dark minions! Master of a harem of willingly enslaved fair maidens.

Each of your characteristics is increased by one point for each concubine and wife in your harem

Each level gives you one characteristic point and two skill points.

You get extra experience for seducing girls.

Looks like the system decided to mess with the prince of darkness theme. But anyway...

I was distracted from my thoughts by a cheerful chime from the system and looked over to see that Sylphie had already chosen her class. Namely, she had become a dark servant.

- What are you doing?

- I'm your dark maid! - She said excitedly.

And Sylphie was obviously too into this game too. But really, the characteristics of my class haven't changed in any way. Except that now not only wives but also concubines were taken into account. And so even the level remained the same. Actually, experience was given not only for seducing girls, it was just so accumulated over time. But I wasn't sure about killing monsters. I asked my father to join a patrol once, but he turned me down. I was too much into researching magic to seriously pursue this issue as well. I probably should have.

Back to Sylphie.

- Come here.

- What?

The girl trustingly approached and I... somehow changed my mind about kicking her ears. After all, her choice of class is her choice. But still.

- You should be careful, don't just accept everything this system offers you. Think it over and then make a choice.

- I will. - She nodded. - Sorry...

- Come on, if you like... umm... this kind of class, it's fine.

The girl crumpled awkwardly, rubbing her fingers together.

- Rudy.

- Yeah?

- What's a...mas...tour...bation? - She glanced at her status window.

- Masturbation is... wait, what?

I was already staring dumbfounded at that window myself. And, indeed, the girl's skill list had masturbation at level four. Not as cool as Roxy's, but she's forty years old now, and she was a virgin a year ago. Sylphietta's a sweet little girl, she's only six! System, are you normal in there?

- Ahem... it's... you know, I'm not... ahem... exactly. Roxy's got a lot of that skill, text her, she'll explain it to you.

- Text?

- Yeah, write a letter and put it in your inventory, she'll read it and write you back.

- Okay... - With some hesitation the girl agreed.

But, damn it, seriously?

- Rudy...

- Y-yes?

- What does Dragonroad mean?

- Hmm... you don't know?

Now that was weird. Sylphie, on the other hand, just shook her head negatively.

- It's your last name. I have Greyrat, you have Dragonroad. It's a pretty sound family name. But, you really haven't heard it before?

And she shook her head again.

- I'll ask my dad...

- Hmm, and how do you explain how you found out about the family name?

- Ah... but...

- Right, it's best not to tell outsiders about the system, you know, who aren't in the group. You're not going to tell, are you?

- I won't!

- All right. I'm relying on you.

Afterwards, Sylphie played with the inventory for a while. But since her level was low and she didn't have any bonus character points yet, the system basically only displayed her abilities. And so, a little later, I started teaching her magic again as usual. And, like, it was like nothing had even changed.

But the next day, the bomb that Roxy planted on me exploded.

- Hey, Sylphie. - Meeting the girl, as usual.

- I'm gonna be Rudy's wife, too! - She gives me the answer.

- Kha.

- I know Rudy loves Roxy. And I love Rudy, too. Я...

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I got it! Okay. [Laughs] - Palm up.

- Aumm?

Putting my hands on the girl's cheeks. And she's still cute.

- All right, then. You will be my wife. 

- I will!? - The girl exclaimed happily.

- Yes, when we're older, if you don't change your mind, so let's put that question to the future.

- H-okay...

I breathed a sigh of relief.

- In the meantime... let's better continue your training, shall we?

- Yes! I can almost make an ice projectile without words!

- Well, good for you, Sylphie.

But, later, I caught up with Roxy to ask her what she'd told cute little Sylphie. And I guess that was her response to me sending a quarter elf to her with questions about masturbation. She also asked about changing my class. I told her that's what the local kids called me for defending Sylphie.

And then I asked myself, "What the fuck? I mean, if it doesn't bother Roxy, why am I making a big deal out of it? I'm gonna have two wives, fine. And if I find another good-looking girl who's right for me, I'll have three. Nothing to worry about.

Achievement "Honesty"

You've finally made peace with your desires and decided to be honest with yourself!

Reward: Random item

I only sighed and put my hands up when I saw the glow, whereupon a small box fell into my palm. There was no writing on it. And the scan said it was just a box. So, I decided to just look inside. I opened the lid and found six gold rings inside, buried in velvet fabric.

- Um, are they like wedding rings?

Why am I asking, though, I have a scan....

A set of dark lord wedding rings.

Five rings for the wives.

And one for the overlord.

When used, the rings bind to a character and personalise them, they also take on unique characteristics and bind their chosen ones together.

Lovely.

Sighing, I closed this goodness up and started thinking about where to hide it all. I mean, really, I might even use these rings. But definitely not right now. It would be very awkward to suggest Roxy get engaged through inventory. I'd like to do it in person and maybe a little more formally. Well, at the very least, looking her in the eye.

Which means just hiding the box in the inventory isn't an option, because it's shared and the girl could very well find the box there. Though, she tries not to touch my stuff without permission and doesn't even seem to have taken anything out of my part of the inventory except for the letters I've written to her. Still, just in case, I decided to hide the rings not in my inventory.

Basically, at first I just buried the box, encasing it in a metal container created with magic. I buried this treasure under the very tree near which I took the final exam for the holy magician. And then he just went about his normal business. He taught Sylphie magic, and at the same time tried to keep up with Roxy, who was also not standing still. According to her, the sorceress had almost reached the royal rank, which was pretty good. Perhaps I would have reached it too, if I perfected one thing. But I continued to explore all the types of magic I knew. And there were definitely successes.

So, after some more time, I improved my defence spell.

Although, it was now consuming even more mana, but it was worth it. At first, I just added an extra layer of insulation to the electromagnetic shield. This cancelled the repulsion effect until the object came into contact with the shield itself. And, because of that, I could also increase the power of the shield itself without fear of harming the environment. And then I changed its configuration, as if, layering on my primary field of insulation, which I used to protect my body from electricity. So the electromagnetic barrier tightly adhered to my body like a second skin, possessing a high degree of protection and mobility. And after some more time, when the amount of my mana became even greater and even such a spell no longer felt really costly, I improved it again. I added an extra armour made of metallic sand, which were held tightly together by the electrical connection of my field. In fact, it was a metallic skin, mobile and elastic, super strong, and in addition, instantly hardening under external pressure.

First it was metal, and then I got to the point where I started using a mobile carbon compound. And, in fact, you could say that the additional layer of my defence was a second skin made of super-strong carbon plastic.

This idea was sort of brought to me by an anime from a past life as well.

And, as a result, when this spell was activated, I was covered in black armour that was completely adjacent to my body. Feel like an alchemist. Well, or a homunculus. And actually, this isn't the first time anime has inspired me to create new spells. And while in that anime the homunculus just had carbon armour, my protection still retained the ability to repel objects that come into direct physical contact with the barrier.

Admittedly, I had to do a bit of head-scratching with how to use it while maintaining visibility. Additional spell fragments that create "slits" for the eyes. They are still protected by the electromagnetic field, but weaker than the rest of the body. Maybe I'll find a better solution in the future, but for now.

In the meantime, it's spring.

Father suddenly remembered a request I made a long time ago.

- You wanted to see the magical beasts, right? Let's go.

- What?

- The beasts have come out of hibernation, they're very hungry now and some are getting too close to Bueno.

That's the name of our village.

- Yes, I'll go, Dad.

- Just stay out of the way, stay behind me.

- I will.

Honestly, I was expecting a lot from these mysterious monsters. And, well, they were impressive. My father and I reached the edge of the forest, passed the familiar hunting lodge, and arrived just in time. Rawls was in a tight spot. A gigantic monster that looked like an upright, huge boar had just broken and toppled the observation tower from where the half elf could safely shoot at the monsters with his bow.

At the bottom of the tower were already waiting for him, some terrible dogs with a lot of eyes, fiercely grinning and ready to claw at their prey.

His father rushed to them first, to keep the monsters from tearing Rawls apart. And the huge boar looked right at me. When he saw the child, he obviously thought I was easy prey, and...

Swallowing nervously, I pulled a copper penny from my pocket.

Paul turns around, his eyes widening in horror as he sees the monster lunge sharply in my direction. But whether or not he has time to protect me is no longer important. I flipped the coin with my thumb, and sparks of static electricity struck the grass.

And thunder rumbled through the neighbourhood.

The raygun projectile pierced through the monster, creating a hole the size of a watermelon in its body. After that, the monstrously high temperature instantly boiled the fluids in the monster's body, and their instantaneous expansion and vaporisation caused a powerful bloody explosion. The upper half of the monster's body was simply scattered with hot blood and vapour splashes all around. And all that was left of the boar itself were its hooves and part of its legs. It was as if it was just bursting with anger. Behind it was a burning clearing hundreds of metres into the forest. I'm guessing the projectile just vaporised in the process, otherwise the Railgun shot would have gone even further.

- Oh... oh... fuck..." Paul said impressed.

- That's right. It's magic, bitches! - I said it.

My hands were shaking.

My father didn't comment on my swearing. He was too freaked out to tell me off for it. Rawls was surprised, too, so surprised that he was speechless and just stared at me, eyes bulging and mouth open.

Anyway, I'd met the local monsters and wasn't particularly impressed. Yes, my hands were shaking the first time, but that spring I had a few more patrols to help me shoot the beasts that were getting too close to the village. Gaining experience, so to speak. Both in terms of actual experience and in-game experience. Well, that is, the one that raises my class level in the status of the character. And, as practice showed, for monsters, if and give experience, then not much, because after a month, during which I destroyed more than a dozen creatures, my level rose only once.

- I'd heard that Paul's son was a talented mage, but I didn't think he was that talented. - That's what the locals said about me.

Paul himself took the situation strangely. I think he was upset.

Although the system didn't track his reputation scale, I could guess that he was upset that I didn't really need his fatherly protection and could deal with monsters on my own. And he probably wanted to show me what a cool dad he was and that I could count on him. Instead of just being proud of his son's success, he got upset.

I guess I didn't show him my carbon fibre armour and I kept getting my ass kicked in training. Not that Paul was trying to beat me up, but he was trying to be gentle enough to teach me, not fight me.

In the meantime, I was back into artefacting and barrier magic.

Sylphie improved her skills.

And Zenith suddenly got pregnant.

- Please Mistress... leave the work to me, you can't be stressed right now. - Lilia caught Zenith working in the vegetable garden.

- It's alright...I just can't get any rest without doing anything... - Zenith smiled carelessly. - I'm sure nothing bad will happen.

- Lily's right. - Paul smiled. - You should take care of yourself, don't overexert yourself.

Although, in general, why "suddenly"? She and Paul have been working together for over six years now, and just now they've managed to make another baby. Looks like I'm really gonna be a big brother soon. And by the way, the news of the new baby has cheered Paul up considerably. He seems to have decided that with the next one, he's going to be the cool dad. Well, probably, it will be so, if the next child also will not turn out to be a trapped from another world, and even with a system.

Zenith was also very enthusiastic.

- We need to get the baby's room ready in advance! And a cot! And toys!

- Yes, yes, we'll have everything ready for his birth. - Paul agreed.

- Rudy, what do you want, a boy or a girl?

- If it's a boy, he'll be a swordsman! - Paul exclaimed.

- We've been over this before. - Zenith frowned. - Oh, Rudy so what do you think?

- Girls are cuter, but if it's a brother, I won't be upset.

- Oooh... come here Rudy, let me give you a kiss!

- Oh no... tactical retreat!

- Come on Rudy!

- Ohhh, okay...just not for long.

In the end, I let her squeeze me.

And, that was about the atmosphere of the first few months since Zenith's pregnancy was discovered. Mum remained as positive as ever. Paul, on the other hand, became a little more nervous. Yes, used to the father almost every day caresses from the beautiful wife, and here, after the beginning of pregnancy Zenith herself calmed down and became much less active. So much so, that even I somehow became unusual to fall asleep in the evenings, when in the house no longer sound her excessively loud moans.

And so, one evening, the system suddenly gave me a strange assignment.

Assignment received!

Defence of Piety

Don't let Paul and Lilia make a mistake!

Reward: Preserving family values

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, I realised what was meant almost immediately. Still, it was with some bewilderment that I crept out of my room to reconnoitre. Everything seemed to be quiet. It was already late, it was getting dark outside. In my parents' room, only Zenith was sleeping alone. So, already guessing what I would find there, I head to Lilia's room. Her door was tightly closed and, I assume, locked. But there was a faint light coming through the crack from below, and I could see shadows flickering. Also, being so close, I heard soft footsteps and rustling outside the door.

I recognised Paul by the sound of his footsteps. It happens when you live with someone for a long time, and you start to recognise them by their breathing, their footsteps, or by some other little thing.

Well, it's not for me to judge them... although my situation is a little different.....

And I'm not going to stop them. After all, they're adults who should know what they're doing. But still...

I knocked.

There was a startled sigh from Lilia on the other side, and Paul seemed stunned and frozen to the spot.

- Lilia, are you awake?

- N-no... Mr Rudeus..." the girl said excitedly.

- I'm sorry, have you seen Daddy?

- No...

That sounded kind of pathetic.

- Well, it looks like mum's cold out there, I'll go and sleep with her instead of dad until he gets back.

Okay, that came out a little bit wrong, I just got a little bit tongue-tied with excitement. And, I meant just sharing a bed. I used to sleep with Zenith a lot. Or rather, I'd sleep and she'd lie next to me, afraid she'd crush me if she fell asleep herself.

But anyway, it worked.

I haven't even reached my parents' room yet, as.....

Mission accomplished!

Defence of Piety

Paul and Lily didn't make a terrible mistake!

Reward: Family valuables saved.

Achievement "Instrument of Doom" obtained.

You became the manifestation of a sudden fateful mishap, cruelly ruining someone's fun

And a somewhat dazed Paul appeared in the corridor.

- Aha-ha-ha-ha- R-rudy, what are you doing up?

- Oh, Dad! I just wanted to say goodnight to you and Mum, but I couldn't find you. Did you work out before you went to bed?

- Y-yes, that's right... well done Rudy... good night to you too... ha ha ha ha.....

He was desperately trying to pretend that nothing much had happened.

Anyway, just reminded him of Zenith and Paul could figure out what to do from there.