Capítulo 15: Morning Aftermath
After an exciting morning where Noir's relationship with his younger sister Alice seems to have progressed, Noir finally started getting ready for his day. He has a date with Emma today where he wants to deepen their bond and generally get to know her better. He didn't feel comfortable using his fragmented memories of Noir after all. There's only so much he can rely on before it becomes an issue.
"Hmm?" While he was getting out of bed and taking off his shirt, Noir discovered a pleasant surprise on his body.
"My muscles are bigger now?" Noir commented as he tensed his muscles slightly. His arms, chest and biceps looked like they had been trained at the gym for a couple of weeks. For him who had barely any muscle mass before going into the dungeon, this was something that he could get excited about.
He didn't finish with just there though. He checked up his legs and thighs and they too were getting developed.
'Is this thanks to the level-ups? My body's still on the lean side but it's getting muscular. I'm getting close to my peak body type,' There were some concerns about this surprise, but all in all, Noir was happy about it. He didn't know whether levelling up would affect his physique after and was worried that it was impossible to change his appearance if he levels up.
Though because of that, it's led to some more questions being formed.
'What exactly does a level-up mean in this world? Other than strength and the basic stuff, what else increases?'' When playing an RPG game, there would be other stats that you could increase via level-up. Does levelling up do something convenient like increasing your intelligence? Maybe his luck increased?
Unfortunately, he couldn't do something as vague as stats, so after checking his important member to see it unchanged, he finally wore some clothes and went downstairs.
'Would be cracked if you could level up and get a magnum chode while you were at it,' Silly thoughts like that were in his head as he hummed the first opening of World Trigger. He was in a good mood today.
"..."
"..."
While he was walking downstairs, he saw Alice sitting at the table eating some cold tomato soup. When they made eye contact, Alice's face suddenly turned red as the soup in front of her as she hurriedly broke eye contact.
Normally she would have greeted Noir at a moment's notice, even going as far as hugging him to get what she said was her daily dose of "Noirium", but today she was meek compared to her usual self.
When Noir set down and there weren't any signs of Alice acting up, even their useless father thought something was odd.
"Hmm? Did something happen to you two?"
And without giving them much privacy, he immediately became nosy about the two's business, which only made the tension in the air almost worse.
"..."
Alice simply gave their father a dull look as if seeing someone recite the world's boring joke for the 20th time, which made the round man sweat a little.
"Nothing's happened. By the way father, why did you stop training your body in the past few years?"
Feeling the situation slightly unpleasant, Noir decided to deflect the topic onto his father instead. He wasn't in the mood to figure out how to make excuses in this situation and he genuinely wanted to know what the hell happened to him to end up in this state. Some of the details he read in the light novels and from Noir's memories don't make sense to him.
"M-my body? W-well, when you don't work out much… Well, it just sort of happens… Haha"
Shame was covered all over his father's face as his previous confidence rapidly declined and his voice became wobbly. As a former adventurer and someone who used to brag about his muscles, talking about his obesity was a touchy topic for him. He would always snake his way out of it in the most obvious way.
'But how did his body go to ruin? It's not like he quit training. He had a back injury while working as a tour guide, but before that, he was an adventurer.'
Unless tour guide work was a strenuous activity for the back, Noir found it a little suspicious.
'Curses exist in this world after all. Appraisers exist in this world but they're too expensive for the common folk. There might be a chance he's cursed,' Though this was merely a hypothesis he has using the original Noir's memories and his understanding of the kingdom.
He did recall the silver-haired half-elf, Luna Heela, but shook his head at the thought. His father is the type to refuse doctor appointments if he's lazy, much less go to a church to get healed.
Although it wasn't important to him whether his father had his curse removed or not, he wanted to know who did it and why. Depending on the reason, Noir will have to act appropriately. There are a lot of unknowns in this world and he'd rather be safe than sorry.
"Or it could be thanks to your obsession with sugary items that caused your features to become orcish. Such a shame, really."
"Guh."
While Noir was in thought, his mother chimed in to roast her husband's appearance. She had an innocent smile when saying such hurtful words, which only added salt to the poor man's wounds. It only further brought down his mood, but fortunately, it did the opposite to Alice as she was smiling again
'Everyone dislikes him huh?' A small chuckle left Noir's mouth when seeing everyone's reaction. There was a small part of him that wanted to help the man but there was another that didn't care much about it.
"I'm gonna head out after breakfast. I'm meeting up with Emma today."
"Ah, tell her to join us for dinner. I'm eager to see how much she's grown."
"I'll try to."
There was a sparkle in her eyes when she heard Emma's name as she began listing off lists of weird creations she could make for dinner if she joins. Although Noir appreciates creativity, he worried about his mother for her unique sense of taste. It somehow made the bowl of tomato soup and stale bread taste weird.
But all in all, other than Alice looking at Noir every now and then, Noir had his usual daily routine of helping with the dishes, training in the back garden for about an hour with his sword and some taekwondo before taking a cold bath to get ready for his upcoming date.
He spent some time figuring out what was decent to wear, but his options were really limited. The old host was a fan of wearing the same type of clothes with barely any variation, which annoyed Noir. In the end, he settled with a plain white t-shirt with a sleeveless green shirt unbuttoned over it before heading out.
The rendezvous was at the tall clock tower in the shopping district. The two of them agreed to meet up at noon, which was when the clock struck 15:00 in this world. The city streets were about to hit their peak with lunchtime around the corner, but the hustle and bustle of the environment didn't help Noir with his nervousness.
'Alright man, this'll be a piece of cake. You already got everything in the bag and we've already skipped a bunch of steps. You got this,' He was feeling uneasy about his date. It was the kind of nerves that tends to go away once the actual thing starts, but nevertheless, it was a nuisance to Noir. especially since this was his first time going on a date with someone.
'I was never into the idea of dating someone and never read or watched any romance series. I wish I took advantage of my popularity back in the days…' Because of the way he was raised, he didn't see the point of dating someone at a young age. Thanks to that he would decline people's confessions or avoid people that seem interested in him as he wanted to focus on football instead.
Although he was proud of his focus on his career path, considering he lost his legs and couldn't continue his dreams, he always wished he could've done what others his age would've done.
'Dammit, I hate getting these butterflies and then when the actual shit happens they just go away,' There were times when he had to present in panels at conventions and those were always nerve-wracking until you got on stage. The same kind of feeling was happening to Noir as he was getting to the destination.
It was about 30 minutes before it was the time they agreed to meet when he got to the place. He figured Emma would be the type to arrive earlier than planned so he didn't want her to wait for too long.
'And lo and behold she's here already,' When he got closer to the tower, it was starting to get less crowded as he saw a familiar blonde-haired girl who also noticed him coming from the crowd.
"Morning Noir!" Without a care for the etiquettes that a noble lady would have, Emma announced her presence as she waved at Noir. Unlike others her age, she felt the most comfortable around Noir after all.
"Morning Emma," Noir replied back to her enthusiasm while trying his hardest not to glance down at Emma's swaying breasts that looked like they were about to burst through her clothes. She was wearing a red dress that went down to her knees with a few frills here and there with a lot of free room around her chest area. She was also wearing the green pendant that Noir gave to her when they were younger.
He quickly realised that this was the same dress she wore in the anime when the original Mc deflated her breasts before recovering them back to normal afterwards.
"How do I look?" Once Noir got closer Emma switched to her normal tone as she showed off her dress to him. She did a small twirl, which lifted her skirt up, slightly revealing her plump thighs but nothing more as she looked at him eagerly. There was some pressure seeing that look, but Noir eventually figured out some words to say.
"I think you look great. The red dress gives you a mature vibe of a fine lady as opposed to your original cute design in your regular clothes. Plus the colour theme suits you perfectly," If Noir was honest, his first thoughts were that she looks sexy, but he didn't want to word it in a vulgar manner. Especially not in public where gossip about nobles spread quickly.
He could already tell that some commoners were looking at Emma and then to him with annoyance after all. There was a part of him that wanted to make them feel more jealous of him but he didn't want to make Emma a trophy wife in the process.
"Since when were you a sweet talker?" Emma became flustered from the unexpected compliment as Noir enjoyed the sight of her ears turning progressively red. If it was the old Noir, he would've answered something simple, which would still make her happy but this was a lot more than she was expecting.
"Always have been," Noir replied with an unfazed smile. There was something charming about seeing your compliments work which helped Noir lose the last bits of nervousness he had left.
"So what plans do you have for today?" After quickly recovering from his words, Emma regained her composure as she wrapped her arm around Noir's, engulfing his right arm into the abyss called her cleavage. Since he was wearing sleeveless clothes, he immediately felt the skin contact of her twin peaks.
'Hehe, I'm one lucky bastard,' Noir couldn't help but comment mentally about his luck as he looked at Emma. Her face was slightly red but tried feigning her embarrassment with expectations.
Seeing that and quickly adjusting himself to the physical contact, Noir stood upright and pointed in a direction.
"Let's go to a cafe that's just opened around here. It's not the fanciest but it looks good and I heard they have some good sweets," It was a cafe that he heard of a few days ago whenever he was out and about and thought it'd be perfect for their first day. Although the prices are on the little high side, he still had some savings from over the years.
'I don't want to seem like too much of a cheap skate after all. Plus I wanna know how good this world's sweets are. I've been having a craving for them lately,' The only thing he's had that's sweet lately are some strawberries that his mother plants. He may have been a sports enthusiast in the past; he still loves his sugary snacks.
"Sure thing. Let's get going," Emma said as she subconsciously hugged Noir's arm tighter which made a reaction down below for Noir but she didn't notice that as she was innocently looking forward to their date. It was then as they were walking that Emma noticed something.
"Have you been training with the Great Sage's advice? Your muscles are a lot more developed than I remembered," Emma said as she began feeling all around Noir's arm. From his forearms to his biceps and triceps, everything felt firm and developed as opposed to his flimsy limbs before.
"Yup, I've been making progress and feel like I stand a chance in the Hero Academy test now. It's thanks to your help, Emma," It was the truth that she helped him, even if he was being a little manipulative at the beginning, he wanted to treat her well for everything she's done for him and in the future too.
"Glad to be of help. Let's ask the Great Sage some more questions before we carry on our date."
"Sure. Let's take this route then," Noir agreed before suggesting a route they should take. It was through a park next to a pond that doesn't have too many people around, which was the perfect place for the shy couple who still feel embarrassed by public displays of affection.
After settling down at a bunch with no peering eyes around, the pair looked at each other a moment before leaning forward to kiss. Immediately upon their lips touching, Emma started inserting her tongue into Noir's mouth as they both felt a surge of endorphins flood their heads. After a few more moments of enjoying the pure intimacy, Noir began asking his questions.
'Oh Great Sage, what floor is Olivia on?' If he wanted to know how to plan things out properly, he had to define his goals properly to know what he was dealing with. For all he knows, she could be anywhere from the first floor to the last floor.
[I possess no knowledge on that matter.]
Unfortunately for him, the Great Sage wasn't able to answer his question.
'I expected much, but at least I confirmed it,' He was a little disappointed by the news but didn't dwell on it too much. At the very least the question served as a way to gauge what questions can the Great Sage answer.
And if anything, the answer just makes him want to go to the dungeon even more. The venture into the unknown was something that always seemed impressive to him. His excitement for it was also displayed to Emma as he eagerly kissed her back before asking his next question.
'How much information do you know about hidden dungeons like the unending dungeons?'
[I possess no foreknowledge of dungeons other than their locations, regardless of whether they are discovered or not. However, whatever happens within its domain is outside of my restrictions.]
Although the information wasn't as good as he hoped, it was still within his expectations and is usable. After he gets enough strength or maybe a group of hand-picked individuals, he'll explore the other dungeons and monopolise them for the resources. A harem requires funds after all.
But other than that, Noir picked up a word the Sage said.
'Interesting wording. Restrictions, ay?' There were some parts of Noir that felt like the Great Sage was like a person that an Ai. What were the restrictions placed on the Great Sage and who even is he?
It seemed a bit convenient to have yourself a living google ai in your head after all. Fantasy skill or not, it was still hard to believe something as convenient as the Great Sage's skill to answer his questions that easily. For that, he's slightly suspicious of it. Noir doesn't believe in a free meal after all.
'What are you, Great Sage, and why do I possess your skill?'
[I am simply a fragment of a God of knowledge in the form of a skill. My powers are limited due to the restrictions placed on me by the God. As for why you possess the skill, all I know is that you are the most suitable host for it.]
Noir paused for a second right as Emma was getting passionate with the kissing as she went into the offence. He was shocked by the revelation and didn't know what to think about it. The Great Sage skill, the skill that helped the protagonist and was almost forgotten for most of the series turns out to be a fragment of a God!
Such news nearly made Noir stop kissing Emma altogether but he quickly recovered and carried on kissing before asking a few more questions.
'Why were you made into a skill?'
[I do not have access to that information.]
It was a dud as a small headache was forming but there was something important that Noir wanted to know if he wanted to feel safe in this world. He grabbed Emma by the waist and pushed himself and herself together to feel her chest onto him. From there, a surge of energy suddenly went through his head as the pain mitigated somewhat and he asked another question.
'How many people have the same skill as me?'
It may have been because of his urgency and not having enough time to enjoy Emma's embrace but the pain got worse, however, it didn't matter as the question was received.
[There can only be one beholder of a God's fragment skill.]
And with that answer, the two of them slowly calmed down in their kiss as Noir's head was spinning slightly, 'Fragment skills… What the hell are they?'
There were more questions Noir had for the Sage, but he didn't want to ruin his date by being too curious. All he knows is that something fishy is going on. How do they all add up?
And why does the God's skill have such lewd requirements?
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