Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Sorry for the delay, but here it is!

ANYWAY, today we see a bit more of our favorite Ero-maid within the game as well as some faces that don’t appear for quite some time! The next two chapters should be mostly about Gon seeing his acquaintances around the city before leaving, but I’ll try to not make it too boring.

ALSO, it seems that my whole Squffy joke won’t stay around for much longer now that it’s origin has been revealed… Oh well. SQUFFY! And next chapter within two days, with luck earlier than that.

Have a good read!

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“Now, Maya. I wouldn’t mind receiving some explanations.” I said while putting on a victorious smile.

“I know of no sensual girl who have a wonderful name such as Maya.” She said in her usual monotone voice. “I am but a humbly skillful ninja that goes by the name of Tanto Yami. Also known as Ojou-no-kage.”

“…Are you really trying to deny it?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Deny what?” She said with a defiant tone. “I am merely a roaming shinobi who happened to meet such an incredible and refined lady such as lady Hanbei and decided to forever guard her from danger for no other reason than the fact that I so desire.”

I stared down at the slime-girl who kept kneeling on the ground. Besides me, Hanbei was shaking her head in disbelief while Yuu seemed amused. Some people on the street were stopping to take a quick look at the situation, but they quickly left, probably getting used to strange situations like this.

Taking a look at Maya, or rather, Yami, I couldn’t help but actually feel a bit impressed. If it wasn’t for Cyg reminding us about her, I wouldn’t have thought on this way to drag her out, but even then, not even once I noticed her following Hanbei. Neither did Yuu.

For how long has she been following us. Stopping to think about it, it was actually quite impressive.

Besides, with her being a ninja, maybe I should introduce her to a certain someone else that I know.

“Look, if you admit that you are Maya and tell us why you are here, I will give you the right of receiving a petting session...” I told her, but she simply looked at me and mad a ‘hmph’ sound while smiling smugly. “From Hanbei.”

“I, Kurohime Maya followed milady inside this game so that I could keep an look out for milady while inside the game as well as keep annoying flies away from her.” She said immediately while looking towards Hanbei with expectation in her eyes.

I see, so that’s why the girls never mentioned about being hit on while walking on the streets. She had been taking care of them before the problem even began, and this means that she also have been following them almost since the beginning.

Nodding satisfied at her words, I turned to Hanbei, who looked slightly annoyed at me, probably because I used her as a bargaining chip without talking to her.

Shaking my head towards Yami, Hanbei sighed loudly and put her hand atop of Maya’s head before starting to pet the ninja-slime girl. Hanbei soon changed her frown into an awkward smile as the slime started to smile in a silly way.

I didn’t wait much longer and quickly sent her an invite to the group. Even if I didn’t do it, I’m sure that either Yuu or Hanbei would ask me to do it. Besides, the more the merrier, right?

She looked surprised when she saw the window and looked at me suspicious for a moment, but soon accepted.

“Twenty six?” I said when I saw her level. “Isn’t it a bit too low?” I asked surprised. She was even lower level than me! And I’m the lowest level of the group. Or was, at least.

“Well…” She stared at me with annoyance in her eyes. “I couldn’t follow you into the dungeon, so I ended up lagging behind…”

“You could have asked for a group, you know?” I said with a raised eyebrow, but she shook her head.

“A shinobi must always overcome her problems alone and not depend on the master for solving the problem.” She said in a proud tone.

“And where exactly did you take that idea from?”

“Manga!”

Wow, she was really straightforward with her answer. While smiling awkwardly at this girl that was probably a case even worse than mine, I couldn’t help but feel that things would probably get a bit more chaotic. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I made a question that was bugging me.

“Oh well. Anyway, welcome to the group.” I said shrugging. She nodded briefly while raising herself from the ground after Hanbei finally finished the petting.

“… Squishy.” Hanbei said while looking at her hand with a distracted expression.

But, squishy? How does it feel to pat something squishy… I suddenly felt my right hand twitching slightly as the thought crossed my mind. It seemed that Maya noticed this, because she immediately crossed her arms over her chest and turned away.

“Milady. That man was looking at me with lewd eyes. Please punish him.” She said with an obviously fake fear in her voice.

But this still worked to make Hanbei and Yuu look at me in confusion. I blinked confused for a moment before explaining myself.

“Hey. I was just wondering how it would feel to pet something squishy, okay?” I said in my defense, but immediately understood what was Yami’s intention as she smiled teasingly. “And before you say anything, I meant the head, okay.”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance because I cut off her hook for the joke. Mary face-palmed once again while Yuu tilted her head innocently. Seriously, I’ll need to watch out every single word I say around her? This is going to be tricky.

While thinking so, I let out a deep sigh and take another look at Yami, now that she was standing up and not kneeling on the ground. She had almost the same height as she had in real life, probably a little bit shorter. Due to her being a slime, her feet seemed to have melted slightly, forming a small pool on the ground. For the same reason, her whole body looked a bit… Rounder? And no, not in that meaning. I meant, like her fingers seemed to have a rounder end, the nose wasn’t as pronounced and so on. Almost as if someone had polished the edges off her.

This made her lose a bit of the mature look she usually had (which was as true as how the sky is red in the afternoon) and gave her a cuter appearance.

“I must say that I am surprised you didn’t make yourself a maid instead of a ninja.” Crys said with a cheerful tone, which made me look at her confused for a moment. I mean, shouldn’t she know about Yami for quite some time now? It seemed that she noticed my doubt, because she quickly said. “Didn’t I tell you that my database access is limited?” She asked with a sullen expression. “This way I can still get surprised! Where would be the fun otherwise?” I nodded at her words, but saw as Yami looked at us with a slightly pouting look.

“Well. I did look, but couldn’t find anything that would be worth using.” She said with a sullen tone.

“A ninja maid… Huh?” I said while thinking for a moment. That would be an interesting concept. As I thought about it, I noticed with the corner of my eyes as Maya stared deeply towards Crys, and it took me a while before I noticed why was that.

“These clothes… Who…” She asked the small elemental wearing a maid costume floating besides me.

Crys simply smiled while patting my head. It took Yami the record time of one point forty two seconds to drop on her knees, making a dogeza while saying:

“Master, matters not the price, but please make me one of those!”

“Huh?” I asked shocked at her sudden change of attitude, and as I recovered myself I quickly went on to say. “Well… I could do it, but I can’t guarantee the status…” I said with a wry tone.

This made not only her, but also Hanbei frown slightly in confusion. Yuu, on the other hand, didn’t seem all that surprised.

Well, the thing is… After spending so long crafting things, mainly armors and weapons, I ended up noticing a small detail about the gear status.

Three things affect the status of the gear you are creating. One, is the material used, obviously. Better material generates more status.

Second is the nature of the material. This one isn’t as obvious, but if you use the leather of a magic beast, chances are that the gear won’t have as much physical status like strength and toughness than the usual, instead have more magic-attuned status. This one is specially true if I take doggy in comparison. Even if the hides were of the same quality, Yagver’s gear had almost no offensive status, while Hanbei’s have only a few point in toughness and vitality, but a lot of agility and strength.

Thirdly, was, surprisingly, design. Depending on the appearance of the equipment, even if I used the very same materials as I did, the stats would end up different. This I noticed when making red-tail armor, as the ones that were simpler, but more padded usually ended up giving more defensive status than the ones I made lighter focused on mobility.

“So, not only I don’t have any decent material right now, I also have no idea what kind of status a gear with the shape of maid clothing would give.” I said while shaking my head.

“I didn’t know that crafting was so complex…” Hanbei said with a slight frown, and I nodded. But Yuu didn’t seem all that surprised, so she probably noticed it while practicing her tailoring.

“Not a problem.” Maya said suddenly. “I’m a slime. Things such as stats makes no difference at all!” She stuffed out her chest in pride, but seeing that the girls and me were left confused, she let out another smug smile and said. “What, you don’t even know the racial skills from other races?”

I felt my eyebrow twitch slightly and really felt like giving a good hit to her soft head, but that would be the same as admitting my defeat. So, deciding that it would be better to pay back in a similar coin, I turned to Crys at my side and gave a wide smile.

“I don’t need to memorize all racial skills, because I have a mobile data-bank with me.” I said while giving a wide smile. Yami widened her eyes in a mix of shock and confusion.

“The racial she’s speaking about is the slime’s Absorption skill.” Crys spoke cheerfully. “Not only it allows the slime to use their own body as bags, it also allows them to completely assimilate the gear into themselves and then mix-match the appearance of an item with the status of another. This, however, leaves them unable to sell or trade such items, on the other hand they do not use inventory space for these items. And yes, they can use gear the normal way too.”

“I see, so that’s why it looks like her armor is also made of slime.” I said while nodding to myself.

“Then, I’ll be counting on you.” She said while putting her hand on my shoulder and giving me a thumbs up.

“Who said I’d do it?” I told her in a fake tone of surprise. She blinked and stared at me in sheer shock and despair. “Anyway, let’s get going to the Silver Gauntlet. Lieutenant and Rio seems to be there anyway.”

As I said that, I walked away from the place where she was leaving a shocked Yami behind. Well, jokes aside, it would be interesting to work on something for her. I wonder if I can make her something that’s both ninja-ish and maid-ish at the same time.

But let’s not get her too spoiled, besides, it’s kind of fun to have her look despaired like that.

Whistling away a happy tune I walked away, leaving a shocked slime behind.

…

“Why am I not surprised?” I asked with a long sigh. Yuu and Hanbei giggled at the scene while Yami stared trying to understand what was happening.

Inside the guild was a the usual mess, with the smell of beer and the rowdy atmosphere. But what truly got the attention of whoever entered the guild was the central part. With many tables joined together and having around half of the whole guild sitting or standing around watching. On the table itself were a few people gathered with cards in their hands.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Well, people and hands might be a slight overstatement. Of course, there were a lot of people around, but there was also a cat wearing a military uniform who laid his back against a white wyvern, and a wind serpent who used her tails and wings nimbly.

More than half of the coins rolling on the table stood in front of the duo, who looked like they were at ease, while the rest all looked distressed.

Sighing loudly, I approached the cat who immediately gave me a salute which was soon followed by a smiling Rio copying him.

“So… How many did you already rip off today?” I asked Lieutenant and Whisi.

They crossed gazes for a brief moment before looking away embarrassed. Wow, so it’s that bad, huh. While sighing loudly, I discreetly signaled Rio to come with me which made a short flight up to my head where she nestled herself.

“Girls, this is Rioreia, Rio, these are Hanbei, Yuu and Yami.” I quickly made the presentations.

“Hi Hanbei, Yuu and Yaim.” She said cheerfully, and I couldn’t help but smirk when she spoke Yami’s name wrong.

“Waah, so cute!” Hanbei said cheerfully while standing on her tiptoes to look at the wyvern.

“Milady is much cuter.” Yami said with a nod and a decisive look on her face. Sadly, from her angle she didn’t manage to see Hanbei blushing embarrassed.

“So, Rio, do you know if a man named Goulder is here?” I asked her, but the wyvern tilted her head confused I understood that she had no idea who he was. “Then, what about Arcus, a beastman? Do you know him?”

“Yep! He’s Whisi friend! And there was a relative girl with him too! They left a few time ago!” She said cheerfully, making me smile a bit at loss at her awkward phrasing.

I thanked the small dragon with some petting that left her humming happily before quickly looking around. By relative girl she must mean Elraira, but she didn’t mention the other girl who was with him, so maybe she’s…

Yup, after a brief search I managed to see the clockwork/construct girl sitting calmly in a corner of the room while reading a book. Deciding that it was the best choice for now, I quickly made way towards her and knocked on the table a few times.

“Ara? Gon?” Shea sked surprised.

“Hey there Lila.” I said while taking a seat. “Mind if I take a seat?”

“No…” She said still a bit at loss. I quickly signaled the girls to also sit down. “It’s been some time, so we thought you had left the city.” She said with a slightly surprised voice.

“Well, I kept leaving and then coming back, so we probably only missed each other when I was at town.” I said with a wry smile, which she copied. “Anyway, I’m going to be leaving for quite some time now, and I wanted to tell Goulder. See if he have some kind of connection to use or so on, do you know where he is?”

She stopped to think for a moment before widening her eyes and nodding.

“I heard from the attendees, but it seems that he left to go and check about a dragon living in a village not far from here. Saying something about looking like there was something interesting happening. He should be back tomorrow or after.” She told me as she recalled the facts, I sighed while nodding.

“I see… Then, when he comes back, could you tell him that I left for Sandroze?” I asked her. “So if he needs something from there all he have to do is ask.”

“You are going to another capital?” She asked surprised. “Be careful then. I’ve heard that the other capitals aren’t very welcoming to each other, okay?”

“Yeah… I heard about that already.” I said with a wry smile remembering what I heard back at Olaf’s village. “No need to worry, I’m a grown golem and I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself!... I think.”

“I have my doubts about that, Gon.” Hanbei said with a serious tone.

“Yes. Someone as unfocused as you would never be as good as milady at taking care of yourself.” Yami added with a nod.

“Hmm? A humanoid slime?” The clockwork girl said surprised when she noticed Yami for the first time. “How rare! I never thought I would meet one!”

“Hmm?” Yami looked slightly confused, as well as the rest of us.

“Well, not only Slime-people are rare within Insania itself, but not many players make them due to how difficult it is to move around, due to their racial.” Crys said lowly to us. “It’s a passive allow them to change shape at will when out of battle, but since its always active, it becomes difficult to move their body as it change shape too easily and may enter in conflict with their human senses.” She let out a short sigh. “It was a small miscalculation due to the lack of tests, but it’s been difficult to adapt it to human sense without applying too much restrictions.”

“Then, doesn’t this makes Yami a genius for walking around like it’s fine?” I asked surprised, and Cyg nodded.

“The fact that she didn’t undo herself into a puddle yet is the proof of that.” She said with an impressed voice. I turned to the slime girl besides us who had begun to joke around with the hybrid. “Yami might not have noticed it yet, but she’s the highest leveled slime player right now.”

“Damn, that’s amazing.” I said impressed, which caught said slimes attention as she looked at me with a doubtful look. “I was just saying how I am an amazing guy by having managed to find a way to lure you out.” I told her with my best smile.

She returned me a look as warm as the north pole during the winter before looking away annoyed. I kept smiling at her to annoy her, but deep down I was actually impressed. If it was as difficult as Cyg said, she really was nothing short of a genius at self control.

Well, that would be what I thought, but when I saw her taking a quick glance towards Hanbei  I changed my mind. Thinking about it, slimes are the best when you want to stalk someone, as they can hide in spots too tight compared to other races. What was incredible wasn’t her self control, but her capacity of single-mindedly wanting to possess Mary.

She managed to completely destroy the image I started to build about her with only one small action.

Not that I had any right to say anything, truly.

“You actually make muskets?” She suddenly asked surprised while looking at Lila surprised. It seemed that the two were still talking while I was a bit lost in thoughts.

“Well, yes. Father taught me a bit, but I’m still nowhere as good as him.” Lila said while slightly hiding herself by lowering her head and letting the hair fall over her face. “I’m… Just a beginner…”

“A beginner is still better than nothing.” Yami said bluntly, which kind of left Lila in a shocked state. “You see, I’ve been needing a new musket for quite some time now. Mine’s status is already too low.”

Huh? Musket? As she said that, I saw as she extended her hand which soon morphed into something else. A long barrel with what would have been a wooden stock if it weren’t clearly made by the same black slime that composed her body. A few runes appeared around the barrel and the stock while she held the weapon, but it was far too simple of a musket to even be called a decent weapon.

“Wait a moment. Weren’t you supposed to be a ninja?” I asked while raising myself and supporting my body on the table. “What the hell are you doing with a rifle like that?”

“Are you underestimating ninjas by any chance?” She asked me while also standing up and staring right back at me. “A ninja must always be capable of supporting and assisting their master no matter the situation, be it in discreetly in the shadows or blatantly on the light. So it’s not the weapons that makes the ninja, but the skills and dedication that marks one as a true shinobi.”

I stared at her shocked for some time before closing my hands an lowering my head. This time it was my loss.

“That… Was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Nin-nin!” A new voice suddenly appeared besides us. We turned back to see the white-haired beast-man Arcus with tears dropping his eyes. “I… Shall strive to one day reach a level of determination just like yours, Nin-nin!” He said while looking directly at Yami.

“…Who’s this being that stares at me?” The slime asked confused while looking at me.

I smiled a bit awkwardly before briefly introducing the two and telling her the story about how I fooled Arcus into trying to become a ninja some time ago. She listened to it with a glint of amazement and mockery in her eyes. After finishing, I looked around but noticed the lack of the draconid girl who usually followed him, as well as a certain kitsune.

“El left with the kitsune. I think they want to have a spar...” He told me briefly after I asked him.

“When the hell did that happen?” I asked confused.

“Just after I arrived. They looked at each other, smiled and left.” He said with confused face. “It was actually kind of scary how they looked.”

I could imagine that scene. Yuu was surprisingly bloodthirsty when it came to martial arts. I still remember her duel with Elraira when the two met some time ago. That was not something a human being should be able to do on her own.

“Anyway, what brings you here? It’s been so long since the last time!” He said while signaling for us to sit down again, which I did, and called a waitress for a few mugs of wine.

“Well, I’m leaving for Sandroze soon enough, so I decided to come and tell you guys.” I told him with a wry smile, but this made Arcus look surprised.

“Sandroze?” He frowned slightly for a moment. “We also had something to do there, actually.”

“Really?”

“Wow, isn’t that a convenient coincidence.” Hanbei commented.

“Yeah, it was a request from Goulder, but we are only leaving in a few days. What about you guys?” Arcus said while looking at Hanbei, but she shook her head and looked to me.

“I have to check with my acquaintance, but I think that it shouldn’t be too long to tell the truth.” I said with a sigh. Now that I think about it, It’d be better to contact Argento as soon as possible so that he could arrange some passage for the girls.

“I see…” He said while nodding. “Oh yeah, did you know that…” He started to say excitedly, but before he could finish his words…

“Here is your wine.”

The waitress quickly put down the mugs of wine in front each one of us, but funny enough, for Hanbei, instead of wine she put down a large glass of warm milk, to which she smiled gently to the cat-girl before walking away.

Arcus and me had to hold back our laughter as Han-chan’s eyes went dead with the treatment she just received.

“But… I’m a grown girl…” She said while pouting and staring at the glass of milk.

“I know, milady. For me, no one is as grown as you.” Yami said while approaching Hanbei and petting her. Except that the scene made the cat-girl look even more childish than before.

We only managed to stop laughing when we were almost out of breath. After taking a deep breath to recover ourselves, I quickly took the mug and started chugging it down to moisten my dried up throat due to heavy laughter. It was actually a really light wine, so I didn’t feel the need to be too careful with it.

“Oh yeah…” Arcus said while wiping the excess wine from his mouth. “As I was saying, I heard some news that might interest you!” He said excited. When I raised my eyebrows at him, he smiled and said. “It looks like Dragon-general Wallace is in town!”

I spat out the wine in shock.