A Day Off

The days continued, as usual, it's already been more than a month since I came to this hidden dungeon, and my course of learning scythe, double-sided scythe has ended. I am halfway through the swordsmanship course.

My training with trying to manipulate the water using mana, aura, and demonic energy is going well too. I am able to make lots of ripples in the water by touching it and it only takes me 10 seconds to make those ripples!

How impressive of me!

As for figuring out the differences between magic and psychics, Liza and I sparred with each other while the demon lord took notes to point out those differences.

The results are as follows -

Psychic is a tad bit faster than magic.

The range of magic is larger than psychic. Though psychic shows the potential to grow that range in the future.

The magic attack doesn't hurt the castor unless he misfires it upon himself while psychic attacks can harm the castor if not handled carefully.

Also, the psychic attack cannot be dispersed in the middle, unlike magic where if the castor is interrupted the spell he worked on will go puff. I like this one.

My psychic attack power also depends a lot on my mental image and how much I can feel it. In layman's terms, I can't create a fireball at 100 degrees Celsius if I don't know how 100 degrees Celsius actually feels like, the more I remember the feeling of that heat the better.

In other words, I gotta remember that vivid burning sensation plainly and clearly if I want my attacks to actually do any damage and of course, if my mental image isn't good then it doesn't matter how much I remember the feeling of that heat.

Of course, it's just pyrokinesis that I am talking about, for aquakinesis I will have to remember the sensation of being in the water, the water pressure that I felt when I went down deeper into it ...and so on.

Meanwhile magic doesn't require this condition, you can simply use chants and launch the attack.

Gosh, it's a shitty thing but I have to use what I have.

Besides all this, I am getting good with demon language and other languages as well. I thought I would learn other languages later down the line properly but I guess the sooner the better.

Before I knew enough to not look dumb and now I know enough to look absolutely good.

Yup, those 2 weeks weren't really enough to truly learn the languages properly.

One can study the night before exams and obtain average results but to obtain the absolute highest marks you really gotta study diligently.

As you can see my life has been smooth sailing ...is what I had like to say but I haven't slept for more than a month now.

I have been using Elixir to remove my fatigue and brain tempering from time to time to remain awake.

But.. Elixir doesn't remove the 'wanting' to sleep emotion and I am not using brain tempering to the best of its ability because I still don't know much about 'energy' so I am still cautious about it.

My daily life is all about grinding, and training from day to night, there's no rest in between. What? When I draw manga all I do is sit at my desk. Well, that thing actually does tire me out!

The point is, I am getting tired of this life!

I can't even play games because there are no games here!

There are no TV shows to watch or any series to binge, I mean, let's be honest the world is pretty messed up. People are living in hiding while demons go around doing whatever, so it makes sense.

Gone is the gung-ho nature that I began with at the beginning of coming into this world.

Just thinking about that I have to go and do another hidden dungeon after this is enough to creep me out.

"Get up," Demon lord said as she took a bite of the cookie.

"I am in my burnout session. Leave me be" I replied in a muffled voice, lying on the bed, my head buried in the pillow as I continued "Hey, is that chocolate cookie?"

"Want one?" Demon lord asked and without waiting for my reply shoved the cookie in my mouth.

Ugh.

The hell.

"Hey, don't give me that half piece of cookie you ate, give me a full piece," I said while munching down on it.

"What? You don't want the same cookie that I ate? Shouldn't you be flustered by the indirect kiss? Just so you know, my charm is SSS, even Elves only have SS or SS+, you know?"

Past me, if I ever met you I will kill ya.

Why the hell did you write romance manga's? And cliched and generic ones at that?

Good lord.

What have I done?

"Yeah, whatever," I said while picking up the manga I drew.

I tried to read it but it just didn't give me the satisfaction and fun that I would get from reading.

Guess, I am a consumer type than a production type guy.

"Hey, Liza make copies of these, ask some dwarves to build a printer if you guys don't have one. I want copies of all these" I said pointing at 15 manga that I have drawn, yes manga I am not gonna even bother with how many volumes each manga has.

"Reason being?" Liza asked in a displeased voice while the other ..onee-san simply became startled.

Of course, you would be displeased if someone stopped you when you were in the middle of flirting.

Don't think I didn't notice Liza!

Leave the poor kid alone, will ya? I highly doubt it's consensual...

And why are you doing it here? Are you getting a kick out of it? Flirting in a lewd way in a workplace with people while trying to not get caught?

What kind of kink is this?

The demon lord is one thing, she is innocent ..well, actually she is just dumb in this area but it's different for me.

It's uncomfortable!

"I want copies of my work" I will leave this place but I definitely am not leaving without my manga!

I gonna publish them and earn money once I am out of this hidden dungeon but if I took them then the demon lord will be deprived of it.

So, I am just asking for copies, it's no big deal.

"I understand. I will get to work." Liza said with a sigh but then she showed a smirk and took the girl with her...

Fucking lunatics, if you do anything in the damn printing room I swear I won't sit back idly!

Don't you dare do anything weird while printing my manga!

"Alright, I have decided. Let's go." Demon lord said pumping up her fist, a bit of excitement evident in her voice.

"Have a nice day. I am on rest today."

One needs to know how much they can push themselves. I know my limits, it's time to take a day off so I am doing that.

"You are coming with me," Demon lord said with a stubbornness evident in her tone. She has grown, gone was the indifferent, bored voice of hers replaced with little bits of emotions now.

"Where are you going?"

It doesn't seem like she is talking about our training.

"Let's go on an outing to help you with your burnout"

Oh, hell no.

She is one of those types who on holiday would go to freaking malls and places and say 'It was a fun day!'.

I hate them. Like, dude, do you NOT know the meaning of the holiday?

It's supposed to be the day for rest!

Rest means, lying in your bed!

"No."

I replied to her.

"Your opinion doesn't matter"

Before I could make heads and tails of her words she grabbed me by the collar, princess carried me... I mean, prince carried me and jumped out the window of the room.

...How the fuck did you jump 250 feet in the air?

The absolutely creepy thing is, that she didn't actually jump with her all her might, it was just a casual, light jump.

I tightly clung my hands around the demon lord's neck so as to not fall.

"Are we gonna fall now? Why jump so high?"

I mean, we are in the sky! Open sky!

And we are falling!

"Nope, we aren't falling. Just hang on tight"

She said as she ...

Wait, did she just kick the air and the air pressure helped her propel forward?

This is some anime-level shit.

SSS+ rank...

'Ah, gotta work hard to get to her level'

I thought as I looked at the sky view that I was getting to see, it took some time for my eyes to adjust because of her speed.

Though Demon lord wasn't really going that fast. I can tell, she is holding back, a lot, if she didn't I would most likely die by air pressure alone. How considerate, indeed.

But where are we going?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damn it!

We are out of the demonic continent.

The sun that I hadn't seen for ages is shining down on me, its radiant light making me want to run back to the demonic continent.

"Why are we on a stranded island?" I asked, yes she brought me to an island, an island where there's a damn eagle flying in the sky and it is the size of a fucking helicopter!

"It's my personal island where all my beasts live"

Hot shit.

Imagine having a whole-ass island for your pets!

O-our standards are sure world's apart.

"I came here to find a suitable sparring partner for you. It's good to be training with me but it wouldn't help you if you only fight against people. Fighting a beast is different from fighting a person and of course, they are my beasts so spending time with them is a normal thing to do, isn't it?"

I can't argue with that.

"You can do whatever you want to do while I am away, it shouldn't take me more than a few hours."

"Seriously?"

"Well, there are around 40 million beasts living here"

...

"Hey, I will come with you. I am going to slow you down but I still wanna come with you"

I don't wanna die!

They are the beasts 'The demon lord' has control over.

Ain't no way they are weak! What are the chances of me meeting one and getting attacked?

...I did a bit of mental math which told me I am... a bit bad at math.

A-anyways, there are a lot of chances of meeting one and getting attacked, I mean there are 40 million beasts here!

"Don't chicken out, they won't attack you. I have personally told them to not attack unless attacked first"

...Why?

Wait, actually...

"How do they live? They don't attack each other, do they? So... what's their food source?"

"The other beasts that live inside the ocean. They do their own hunting and eating. From time to time Liza also comes here and leaves the wild beasts for them to hunt and train and eat."

Liza sure does a lot of work.

I am starting to respect her a bit.

"So, why am I here?"

I asked unable to understand what's my need. She could have just come here all on her own.

"After I am done selecting, you can choose who you would wanna spar with. I mean, there are 40 million beasts even after choosing them it would still be around 100 or so. From there, just choose the type of beast you want to spar against. I mean, in the end, you should fight against someone you think you can learn something from. That's something you will have to choose."

Your explanation is shit but I understand.

Fighting against a bird beast or fighting against a reptile or a huge ass beasts.

She is telling me she will choose beasts that she thinks are suitable for me and then I can choose from them to specialize against whichever I want to.

After all, in the end, that's something I have to decide.

It's kinda like someone bringing me lots of weapons but in the end, which weapon to use is still my own choice.

...But, does she have any beats who would be weak enough to fight against me? I mean, I think that an eagle flying up in the air can take on 4 or 5 A rankers.

"I understand"

I nodded.

"Well then, do whatever until then"

With that, she left.

I walked towards a small cave nearby and decided to rest.

That's right. I am just gonna sleep!

What else can I do?

Demon lord will be busy for a few hours now and I have nothing to do. So, let's sleep!

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(Demon Lord Pov)

I looked at his sleeping face.

'Finally..'

Finally, he is asleep.

Since I first met him, he hasn't slept and he has been working hard, really hard.

He said he didn't want to waste any time but I knew that wasn't the only reason. He has been cautious. He has been cautious from the beginning.

And that wasn't good.

He needs to rest.

In the end, I decided it would be best to bring him to a place where no species lives, there are beasts but I already told him to not worry and I gave him a legitimate reason to not worry about me coming back anytime soon.

And I am glad it worked.

He finally went to sleep.

Truth is, he isn't wrong for being cautious.

Right now, I can crush his limbs and pull his jaw out. Even if wakes up and teleports to somewhere it wouldn't matter.

He wouldn't be able to consume any potion by himself and with the injuries I can inflict on him he will die soon too.

I can kill him. Right now, I have the means to kill him. I might not be able to confirm it but currently, I have the highest chances of killing him successfully.

....

Slowly I reached my hands towards his face, using my finger to poke his cheeks.

Even though I could kill him, I didn't want to.

It was true, at first, I wanted to kill him. I found him annoying.

But ..at some point, it just became more fun to be with him.

At first, I thought it would be boring to teach someone, I thought it would take a long time for him to learn all the techniques but ..he learned fast, faster than I could have imagined. As if a sponge, absorbing every move of mine as he saw them and then performing them.

The times when he talked back to me, I really didn't like it but at some point, I started looking forward to it. The awkward comebacks that we threw at each other ... were enjoyable.

It was cute how he freaked out when I threw an ice cube down his clothes.

It's been more than a month and in that time I really started to enjoy being in his company but ..

For some reason, it also hurts a little to see him being distant and wary like he always has been.

His voice remained the same, indifferent, his eyes didn't reflect anything.

Not once did he change.

'Hey, if spend more time together will you open up to me? Will you also smile from time to time when you talk with me? Will you find it fun to be with me like I do with you? Will you find the time you spend with me peaceful just like I do?'

Thoughts like those kept squirreling around my mind.

With a quiet sigh, I slowly stood up and left the place without making a sound.

I hope you have a good sleep and maybe you could trust me a little.