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Day 50 – Evening, Dungeon.
For some reason, the girls unanimously decided to hand over『Infinite Tentacles – Create and Control Tentacles』to me. Apparently, it’s an item that maidens can’t be allowed to have? I think it’s a big no-no not just for maidens but for humans in general? I’m a human too, you know? Honestly? I have『Human』written in my stats? Look, you can look for yourself? I’m not lying? Just look at it? Race: Human, right? It’s true? Seriously?
Actually? Maidens can’t have it? And selling it to the boys is prohibited? So I’m the only one?! Since selling it to the general public is also prohibited, it means I’m the only one who can have it? My Affection Rating is flickering far away, you now? It’s on the verge of vanishing? Or rather, I can’t catch a glimpse of it! Ever since the time in the previous world!
For some reason, the girls surrounded Armored Pres and began girls-only assembly in a dungeon?
「So after Vibration came tentacles
 Hang in there!」
「You say after, but there is a possibility of vibrating tentacles as well?」
「「「Kyaaa!」」」
「They were all wiggling and wriggling?」
「You get it? He can produce an infinite number of tentacles and control them?」
「「「Kyaaaa~!」」」
Seems like they are having fun? I wonder what they are talking about? Why am I being left out from the conversation? Holding a girls-only talk when there are 11 girls, 1 boy, and 1 slime, is basically ostracization? I’m being ostracized, you know?
(Jiggle, jiigle
)
So I’m playing with Slime-san. I’m not lonely at all. Sob, sob.
Looks like Slime-san likes to be patted. I’m glad that it’s enjoying it.
「Heeey? What are we gonna do? Are we going down? Are we going back? Are we going to live here? I’ll remodel it? Are we staying here?」
「No! N-N-No, you can’t! You can’t stay here! You can’t come to such a place and stay here to vibrate tentacles! You can’t come
? You can’t, you can’t, you absolutely can’t do that!!!!! (Scream)」
Looks like we aren’t staying. But for some reason, all of the girls are blushing? Is this some kind of mass infection? Speaking of which, Nudist Girl got caught, didn’t she, was it then that she received some kind of virus? Can it be treated with mushrooms?
We are going back it seems? I wonder what’s this all about? Apparently, it’s a girls’ secret.
・
・
・
An encounter at the inn?
Poster Girl and Slime-san are staring at each other?
As Poster Girl extends a hand to it, Slime-san also stretches a jiggly tentacle towards her? Is this a handshake? ET?
Then, they seem to have begun conversing through hand and body movement?
A robot dance?
How mysterious. Specifically, Poster Girl.
Why did she begin a robot dance upon encountering a dungeon master slime? It’s a slime, you know?
How mysterious. Well, robot dancing Slime-san is quite mysterious as well. How can it produce such machine-like movements with that jelly-like body? Well, they seem to be having fun, so it’s fine, I guess?
「And so we beat two floor masters and called it a day. So we are still in the process, with only one dungeon dead due to the desertion of the dungeon master. Sort of?」
「No, it was enticed with food, wasn’t it? So it’s either abduction or capture? Moreover, this is already a full-fledged recidivism.」
「「「N-no remorse at all!」」」
「But being that cute is justice, you know? Seriously?」
「「「More importantly, tentacles! More details please! DETAILS!!!」」」
Hey, geeks over there, what is that excitement? You think 『Here is it!!!』? Can’t you read the mood? The girls’ gazes are ice cold, you know? The room is about to freeze? As I thought, 『Infinite Tentacles』should be kept secret from them. Seriously.
Since the Geeks were annoying, I scattered them and proceeded to serve cutlets with aurora sauce while trampling the geeks.
「Cutlets with aurora sauce. If they have no katsudon, let them eat cutlets? Sort of?」
「「「Marie Cutlets! Let’s dig in.」」」
Well, I actually didn’t have enough eggs for everyone. The eggs became mayonnaise. It’s about time I went to buy more, or it will become a problem soon.
And then, there is Stalker Girl, who cheekily shows up for dinner.
Well, she cleans up with everyone, so it’s fine, but she has completely blended in by now.
She was also desperately trying to take part in that robot dance but it looks like the difficulty was too high. Or rather, she is too busy with the cutlets at the moment.
(Jigglee, jiggle!)
It seems Slime-san liked cutlets too. It ate to its hearts content during the day, but it’s stuffing itself again? Well, it seems to be enjoying it, so it’s fine, I guess.
As we split up after dinner, I took Slime-san and went to the bath. And returning to the room I get to work. A never ending night begins. No matter how cool I may try to make it sound, it’s still just crafting.
There was an unexpected surprise.
Tentacles are quite convenient, they are extremely dexterous! Unlike Holding, tentacles are physical objects, so they are very easy to handle. I mean, the work on copying the manuscripts ended in an instant? Tentacles working all together moved by『Apex Thinking』, they are also good for sewing. This is a surprisingly great find. The problem is that the list of orders keeps growing at the same rate as the speed of work. Also! Who is this person! Who placed an order for a school swimsuit to a highschool boy? It’s Nudist Girl! Wait? Wasn’t she a competitive swimmer? I’d understand if it was a racing swimsuit, but why a school swimsuit? You are going to attract the geeks with that, you know? It’s dangerous? No, even if it was a racing swimsuit, I’m still not going to make it! On top of that, she wants 『Dissolve Resistance』on that? Is she planning to fight in that? In a school swimsuit?
Trial and error. No, it’s not about a school swimsuit. Why is a highschool boy supposed to trial and error a school swimsuit in the middle of the night? There is no way I’m doing that. It’s the research into multicolor items. Hmm? Maybe there would be demand for a multicolor swimsuit? From who!?
「Okay, at this rate I should be able to handle multicolor. Now I won’t have to make tons of differently-colored versions. The workload is so big that if this were Tsuru no Ongaeshi the crane would’ve died of overwork before anything else? On top of that, the crane at least got a loom, and I have to do everything by hand. The crane had it nice. I have to start from first making blueprints for the loom, you know?」 [1]
The principle is extremely simple since all it takes is pulverizing magic stones, and then rubbing them into wet thread or fabric, and once it’s dried up, pass mana through to make them stick together. Also, it seems to boast the ability to change colors as the main feature, but if high-quality magic stones were used in production, it can be useful in combat too? The problem was in the fact that magic stones had to be pulverized, while not to particle level, they still had to be smashed into uniformly small grains. To put it simply, they had to be crushed, and it’s a real pain to crush them into small particles of equal size.
But the combination of Vibration Magic and Alchemy allowed to mass-produce that. It was quite extremely annoying, but if I can mass produce the dust, it should be alright to accept orders for multicolor series. The process was seriously troublesome, but being able to pass mana through clothes by itself makes it greatly beneficial even in regards to safety.
When the girls finish their girls’ only meeting I’ll take measurements to finish one piece for the president, and might as well try to make it multicolored. But the girls’ talk seems to be extremely unendingly loong? Merely deciding on the time for tomorrow’s girls’ only assembly will probably take them 3 days? That’s how long it takes. Are they not done yet?
However, while things got more convenient, I have a hunch that there now might be a bit of a problem in terms of visuals. Actually, what I have is not a hunch, but a confidence that there is a clear problem with appearance.
That’s because when I was studying the ways to use 『Infinite Tentacles – Create and Control Tentacles』, I fused it with 『Cloak?』. In other words, there is now a highschool boy that has squirming tentacles poking out from his black cloak, who is bound to be declared guilty even before getting reported? Was there even an other piece of apparel this hostile to the Affection Rating with the opposite sex? Rather, before getting into Affection Rating, it already maxed Unpleasantness Rating with Opposite Sex to the cap? I mean, it’s plain gross? It’s very convenient, but it looks evil and disgusting? It is so bizarre that rather than an item from a fantasy world, it looks more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos, you know? If I were to be attacked by such an enemy I’d absolutely run away! Nope, just nope. No way. Even so, the tentacles are very handy and hardworking, you know? They are doing their best, okay? BFFs who share struggles of my unending overtime work. I mean, there is no one else rushing to my help? Well, it’s still a huge nope though.
Are the girls still not done with their discussion? Maybe I should check on them?
[TL Notes:
[1] Tsuru no Ongaeshi (lit. “Crane’s Return of a Favor”) is a story from Japanese folklore about a crane who returns a favor to a man. I don’t want to retell the whole story here, so I’ll just link the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuru_no_Ongaeshi