Capítulo 12: Chaos

While Noir was busy risking his life and escaping from the Slime's relentless attacks, Emma on the other hand was enjoying a restful afternoon. She was currently in her family's mansion drinking some tea as she was waiting for her friend to join her for lunch.

'It's been a while since I've seen her. She even has a child…'

Emma took a sip from her tea as she looked out of the window in thought. She hasn't seen her friend for over a year now. The reason for that was because of her marriage to the son of a marquise, not to mention she had to raise a child. Yes, she was a young mother at the age of 19.

When Emma heard the news, she was excited for her, but for some reason, the marquise didn't allow anyone to visit. It was mostly due to family complications and each other being busy that led to them holding off the meeting until now.

'I wonder what it would be like to have Noir's child? A child with either blonde and grey eyes, or brown hair with blue eyes? Maybe even a combination of the two? Hehehe.'

While thinking of Takoda's child, Emma's thoughts shifted to Noir and her as she pictured them as a family. There was a young boy with blonde hair and grey eyes with a mischievous smile, while next to him was a girl with brown hair, blue eyes, a face similar to the previous boy but with a shy face.

Emma was there too with her hair down that went past her mid-back along with a more toned and muscular Noir with some stubble, carrying a sword in one hand and the other was around her waist as they looked at their children with loving smiles, living in a small cottage and enjoying each other's embrace.

'Ah, right. That wouldn't happen. The family would be a lot bigger, wouldn't it?'

Although she enjoyed the thought of a little family of her own, she had to snap herself back to reality when she recalled Noir's wish for a harem. It wasn't uncommon for nobles to indulge in such practice but if she said she wasn't unhappy about the situation, she'd be lying.

Though because of his situation and the condition of his skill, Emma is able to put it past her.

'Ugh, I miss Noir already…' She said as she rested her chin on her hand. Thinking about Noir just made her miss him more. She wanted to cuddle with him, have some fun and do more things couples do. She was a healthy teenage girl after all.

However, she can't forget about her duties as the only daughter of a Baron. She still had her responsibilities to attend to. Fortunately, she's aiming to attend the hero academy, and if she succeeds she can deal with a lot of annoying sides of being a noble without too many issues.

'If I pass and get good grades, then I don't have to deal with those higher nobles who are desperate to get me to become their wife or concubine. Not to mention I can hang out with Noir and see him almost every day. It's a win-win!'

Emma may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she was at the very least aware of the noble's intentions and actions. The reason she hasn't been interacting with Noir much lately was due to her worries that one of her 'fans' would mess with him. It's happened many times in the past where Noir was picked on simply because she was friendly with him, and it would only get worse as she's gotten to the age where marriage is expected.

Going to the hero academy means she's prepared to go to the battlefield when necessary. To most of the nobles, it's a massive turn-off for those who want a trophy wife and would rather put their efforts into more docile characters.

But that wouldn't solve the problem, just helps it slightly. She knows there are nobles who flaunt their strength thinking girls would gravitate to them with just that.

'Why can't the boys just be sincere? They're all just a bunch of hormones. Gah!'

It was frustrating for her as someone who developed earlier than the rest of her year group. She had a rough time dealing with the boys her age with their hormonal acts of masculinity, which was part of the reason why she's so on guard against men.

The only one who was an exception to that was Noir.

'I'm glad I met Noir when we were younger. It feels like almost yesterday when he stepped in on those older nobles messing with me,' Emma chuckled to herself as she recalled a distant memory of how the two of them met.

It was during her first year of preparatory school. There was an upper-year nobleman that viewed barons as insignificant nobles that used to bully her just for her household. The Emma back then was too scared to offend others, which was part of the reason why they targeted her.

At the time Noir was in the same class as her. When he found out about the bullying, he jumped in to protect Emma, which got him caught up in her mess and got beaten up. After everything was over and he was covered in bruises, he didn't blame Emma for being weak or for not helping. Instead, he became friends with her and helped her break out of her shell.

It goes without saying that without Noir, she wouldn't be the same person as she is today.

'Now I kinda wish I hadn't made a meeting with Takoda. Noir and I could've gone on a date or spared or something… more…'

She started off annoyed but towards the end of her sentence, she became slightly red. She recalled her actions yesterday, which would've been a shameful act as a noble. At that moment she felt like a switch was flipped when she kissed Noir.

It was an ecstatic shock that was both embarrassing and exciting. She couldn't figure out why, but the idea of nearly getting caught for their deed seemed hot to her. Not to mention she didn't feel awkward with Noir and what he did.

'Are boys normally that big?'

When she recalled Noir's behaviour, she suddenly recalled Noir's penis. She's heard some of her classmates tell her about their servant's penis. Although they aren't bad people, they were too carefree in telling her that their servant's penis was about a finger long and slightly thicker than a thumb.

Noir wasn't like that though. His member was clearly bigger than the rest. When she pictured his penis, Emma had a sudden craving for it. She wanted to know what kind of pleasure that beast of a thing could give her and what it felt like to have it inside of her.

Her breathing started getting rough as her hand gradually lowered down. Down to an area, she doesn't have much experience using it.

"Hiya Emma," But just before she could do anything outrageous for a young lady such as herself, she was suddenly intruded on by the guest she was waiting for. She quickly fixed her expression and posture as her friend for many years entered the room.

Once she entered, Emma greeted her with the best smile she could make.

"Hi Takoda, you seem to be doing well these days," The girl in front of her is a young woman with purple hair that covers her forehead and goes down to her shoulders that are braided into twin tails. She had a pair of spectacles and bright blue eyes which shone when she reunited with her good friend as she went in for a hug.

Emma was already one step ahead of her in the hug as she stood up and hugged her. The two beauties had well-endowed figures, causing their pair of mountains to squish into each other as they thought for supremacy. After moments of hugging, the two separated from each other and smiled.

"Yup, It's been a rough couple of weeks. Little Taki's steadily growing," Takoda was the first to break the hug as she sat down across Emma. Every action she made, from her hug to her sitting down had a poise of elegance to it as if it was ingrained into her. Such was a natural charm she possessed within the preparatory school as she was one of the beauties in the school.

"I still can't believe you're a mother! I want a child of my own," Emma congratulated her friend as she looked her up and down. She had been married for over a year now and had recently given birth, but even with that, other than her aura being a little different, she looked exactly the same before pregnancy.

Emma heard of the effects pregnancies have on the body and had a little fear about it, but seeing her friend look fine even after giving birth gave her the courage to get a child one day. She's not expecting to get pregnant soon or anything, but it would be nice to have some small pair of feet running around someday.

"Haha, you still have to confess to that sour face Noir. Like come on, that guy seriously needs to get his head into gear. He's got a good boobalicious girl after him yet he still can't put two things together and figure it out."

Takoda quickly chimed in as she recalled the brown-haired boy that was always followed by a gloomy aura. She didn't know what Emma saw in him, but she didn't like his guts. She didn't know what was worse. Emma falling for his depressed ass, or for Noir not even recognising the only girl that would be into him.

"Oi, I'm not just a pair of tits, you know?" Emma shouted in a joking manner to Takoda's joke. She was the same perverted girl she remembered and was the one who taught her about the sacred ritual between man and woman among many other things.

"You aren't?"

"Hey!"

Takoda smirked as she looked at Emma's chest. She could've sworn those melons of hers had gotten bigger again. She herself had a good pair too, but it still wasn't enough to beat Emma in terms of bust size.

"Haha, sorry, sorry. It was a good opportunity to tease you," Though she doesn't care much about her body appearance and would rather mess around with her friends. Her habit of teasing others was still present.

"Anyway, how's it been progressing between the two of you?" Without minding Emma's displeased and red face, Takoda wanted to know how the two of them have been lately. Thanks to her duties as the only child of a viscount, her parents wanted to secure her future as soon as possible.

Under those circumstances, she was married to the son of a marquise who her father was friends with. Thanks to that, she wasn't able to have her share of romance. As such, she takes it out on her friends by seeing their romantic life progress.

"Noir asked me out yesterday,' However the answer that came out of Emma's mouth wasn't what she expected as her mind froze. It took her a second before she was able to respond.

"Huuuuuuuh!? For real!?" However only an idiotic sound came out of her mouth as she looked at Emma as if she'd seen a dragon in front of her. She's known the two of them for over five years now and only she knows how frustrating it was seeing Noir being such a dense idiot.

Though seeing her friend stumble in the path of romance was cute to see. She loved seeing Emma get back up whenever she'd face difficulties.

"Hahaha, congrats! You finally got your lifetime crush!" Takoda wasn't able to contain her excitement for her best friend as she went in for a hug. Noble elegance has left the room at the moment as she was too caught up by the good news.

"Thank Takoda," Emma smiled as she was getting buried in Takoda's chest and was having difficulty breathing. Takoda was the one who taught Emma of her sexual knowledge and was the reason why she's so physically clingy to Noir, much to Alice's dismay. She corrupted the innocent maiden in the arts of seduction!

Or at least that's what she likes to think in her head. She mainly used her knowledge from books and told her some advice. She had no experience with the topic until after her marriage, but now that she has a bit more experience to spread.

"I'm kinda jealous, to be honest," After releasing Emma from her bosom trap, Takoda looked at Emma with warm eyes. She skipped out a part of her life thanks to issues at home and wasn't there for them for the past year, which she feels guilty for.

"Remember, if that bastard of a marquise son tries anything to you, you can always rely on me and Noir," Emma picked up on Takoda's words and she held her hands. She knows that the marriage was something Takoda didn't want, but because of the ongoing war, the nobles have been taking it upon themselves to secure their bloodlines and strengthen their ties.

"I told you. I told you. Everything is fine between us. He's just been busy with work," Takoda shook her head and did her best to give Emma a reassuring smile, but she was able to see the pain on her face.

'At least that's what I tell myself…' Even Takoda herself knows it wasn't the truth, but she wasn't going to drag Emma into her mess.

"Now you two just need to get married and have a child," In an attempt to change the topic, Takoda tickled Emma's stomach as she looked at her with a loose grin.

"H-hey! It's still too early for that!" Emma shouted in response to the tickle as she got red again. Although she seemed extroverted to others, Takoda knows that Emma is timid and weak to these kinds of things. Which makes it even better for her.

"Hehehe, let me give you some tips," And because she knows Emma is always super shy with her advances, she's taken it upon herself to impart her superficial knowledge on romance and sex to her. She told her of different positions and places she could take Noir to do the fun stuff and even suggested a few places that don't have many people nearby

'I pray for those two to have a stable relationship. Noir, you better take good care of Emma,' It was the simple and true desire she had for her friend. All she wants is for them to live their lives in peace and happiness.

Too bad for her, she wasn't aware of what Noir had planned. For both her and the kingdom.

>\/<

While Emma and Takoda were having another lecture on the arts of man and woman, Noir was currently meditating. He was successfully able to escape the Slimes on the first floor and had left the dungeon momentarily to see the time of day.

It was just past noon for him, which meant he had another 8 hours before the sun would set. He was mentally exhausted and was feeling hungry, but his body seemed fine thanks to the level ups he experienced.

Though he had to rest a little, after eating some of his rations, he meditated in the cave to clear out his thoughts. He used the Great Sage's breathing technique to gather mana to help with his exhaustion.

From Noir's perspective, the technique seemed like a basic yoga technique, but only he knew what the true purpose for it was. If you weren't aware of it or weren't near a source of mana, you wouldn't be aware of the mana around you or even be able to use Aura.

Of course, most of this world's residents are able to use magic to some extent, but that would only be limited to Aura. Using elemental magic is a different topic which isn't something he could use with his current technique.

Regardless, the purpose of his current meditation was to try something out. He's read cultivation stories in the past and in them always talked about using meditation as a way to expand their qi or whatever was their energy source. In this case, his mana reserves.

After an hour of meditating and feeling his mana cycle around his body, he could feel his reserves increase a slight amount as the resistance to transfer mana in his body seemed to lessen a bit.

"An hour's worth of work and it only amounts to this. Now I see why those old ancestors and patriarchs in Chinese novels were obsessed with isolated training. This really is a tough journey."

Noir sighed as his progress was only this amount. Though thanks to that, his body and mind were relaxed and he was feeling better. He reckons it would take a few months to reach the average citizen's mana levels if he was to continue meditating but that's still too long.

Not to mention that's not even the average adventurer's mana reserves, and forget about a mage specialised in magic.

'Which makes me question, why does Noir have so little mana? In the series, it wasn't mentioned about him having low mana. He was able to fire out spells like it was nothing.'

It was odd to Noir why he wasn't able to do much but he thought it had something to do with being in an alternative timeline or because of the Entities doing. Mana wasn't a big topic that was talked about in the original, so he wouldn't know anything about the theory there.

'Altered timelines or the entity. Either way, it's made things inconvenient, but not stupidly difficult,' It could've been worse, like if he had no way to use magic or didn't have the Great Sage skill. Compared to that, he was quite fortunate.

After finishing his rest, Noir stood up and did some stretches. He's rested up enough and wanted to figure out a plan to deal with the Slimes better.

The situation earlier was too bizarre. Even if they were beings created by the dungeon, they were too different to their outer dungeon counterparts

Slimes are usually peaceful and don't fight amongst themselves unless they are provoked. Something must've happened on the first floor for them to act hostile to each other. It could be for the damage they did to the environment or it could be something as simple as the dungeon programming them that way.

But there was another detail Noir picked up.

'There seem to be priorities between the slimes,' In the normal elemental table, fire is weak against water but strong against wind. The wind Slime normally would have avoided places with fire as they're afraid of it, but these weren't the typical slimes. It even looked like they enjoyed battling him.

'It seemed weirdly eager to fight against the rock slimes,' Eager to the point it abandoned its original target without a care of whether it gets attacked or not. The Fire Slime tried following it but ended up finding Noir instead.

'Wait, that doesn't make sense then. If they target the element they're strongest against, why didn't the Fire Slime blindly follow after the Wind Slime?'

It didn't add up if that was the case. That sporadic behaviour was uncommon even among monsters. They would tend to stand their ground to fight against the enemy in front of them. The only explanation Noir could think of was if the monster was their sworn enemy.

'If that happens, then it would make sense why the wind slime suddenly switched targets like that. There's a chance that that was just a one of a kind fight, but when I was running away I saw two pairs commonly fighting against each other.'

Pair one was Water and Fire Slimes and pair two was Wind and Rock Slimes. It seems like if you gather those two together they would ignore Noir's existence entirely, but that was an assumption on his side. He doesn't have any definitive clues on this, but he had a hunch.

'I guess it's about time I get this party started,' And with that train of thought, Noir was finally ready to enter the first floor again. Another detail he picked up about this place when he ran out, he doesn't need to repeat the cringey password again. It was another difference from the original world, which didn't have something like an automatic door feature.

'Another thing to figure out later,' Noir sighed as he had a lot of questions that he knew wouldn't be easily answered by his Great Sage skill. He could only get stronger for the time being and unravel the mysteries as time goes on.

Currently, he had plans he could use and if those go down the drain then he could always use the good old method of fighting the slimes individually instead.

'Time to invite the guests,' Noir smirked as he made a light run in the dungeon. He was being careful not to make too much noise in case something else was on this floor. He hasn't seen the golden slimes yet, but he has a feeling he'll see them soon or on a different floor.

'Chances are there's going to be more floors than the original series. More floors and more monsters. I'm gonna have to train myself on the first floor until I can get to Olivia's floor,' Training was the only option he could take at this point. The first floor was too chaotic and unpredictable, so if he goes any deeper what's not to say it wouldn't get worse?

Sure, the allure of getting the world's most god-like skills would make the average adventurer go deep into the risk for the rewards but Noir wasn't the type to blindly rely on the information of others and be reckless. Especially now that the knowledge from his past life is unreliable now so he had to take other routes.

'Plus, I have no way to know if Olivia is really alive or even inside the dungeon. At least not yet,,' It was thoughts he was trying his best not to think about, which was the reason for him making all the backup plans.

Unfortunately for him, he strongly doubts Olivia is stuck in such a dungeon. Because if she was here, then that would mean he'd have to be extra careful of the traps on that floor. She may have been carefree, but she was still an S-rank adventurer. For her to get trapped here means the traps were outside of her detection skills level.

How was he going to survive on that floor if that was the case?

'Haaah. No point in thinking about that for now. Even without her skills, this place would be the best loot spot and farming place,' Noir mentally sighed as he shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. His thought process was naturally inclined to think of the worst outcome for himself. It was a habit he gained after the accident and stuck to this day. Luckily that doesn't always mean he's correct, but he still can't help worrying.

"I need to level up," So to help those anxieties, he put his mind into focusing on the task at hand. He was looking for a water slime. It took some while to get back into the main room where the Slimes seemed to have calmed down and the area looked to have returned to normal as if nothing happened in the first place.

'Does the dungeon have some kind of healing ability? That tree was broken earlier,' Noir thought it was peculiar that some of the trees and rocks were back to normal, and although it intrigued his nerd side, he wasn't going to stop and find out more about it.

Instead, he carefully navigated the room to avoid any of the other Slimes as he walked deeper into the rocky terrain covered with pools of water. He had an assumption this was the area where Water Slimes were created, but there was also a chance that Rock Slimes were formed here too since there are Rocks surrounding the area.

It was a simple guess but it doesn't matter which spawn for what he had in mind. After some time, he found Water Slimes and a bunch of them.

"Come here ya cunts!"

Noir shouted to the Slimes that were peacefully hanging out after surviving the battle that took place before kicking a rock at a few of them to gain their attention. The ones that got hit were knocked backwards upon impact, but the ones that didn't get hit looked at Noir as an enemy as mana gathered.

"Wrii!"

They all shouted in unison as they each performed a water ball. Tens of water balls quickly formed, but Noir had already run away. Using the terrain to his advantage, he hid from boulder to boulder as protection before luring the slimes out of their territory with taunts.

"Come on, you sad excuse of water balls! You can't even catch a single human like me!"

Noir didn't know if the Slime were able to understand him, but he felt like provoking them now and then would be necessary. But just in case, he picked up a bunch of rocks and kicked them at the Slimes.

Some Slime would pop from the rocks due to their recent injuries coming back to haunt them. Making the original number decrease by a third, but thanks to that he was able to level up a few times, making the wounds he gained earlier disappear completely.

'Perfect, now to the second part,' Noir thought as he increased his pace again, this time he was able to outrun the Slimes, leaving them in the dust.

'This body was seriously wasted by that old Noir. Damn I love this,' Noir was inwardly thankful for his body being able to hold up to what he was doing and the level ups made it even better. He was beginning to lose track of the water Slime but they were in the general area he wanted them in so it didn't matter much.

After another few minutes of running, he was quickly greeted by jagged and edgy rocks as the terrain started resembling that of shark teeth. Unlike the forest or the water slime territory, slipping up in this hurt a lot

'This is new territory. I gotta be careful,' Fortunately for Noir, the water Slime number has shrunk compared to before. He didn't need too many of them, not yet at least.

"Chri?"

When he made another turn, he saw the Slimes of the territory, the Rock Slimes. Just like the Water Slimes, these Rock Slimes were also injured from the chaos earlier as cracks were all around their shell and not nearly as energetic as before. As soon as they noticed Noir's presence they became confused before some of them started rolling towards him and others started forming rock bullets.

Since Noir wasn't ready to fight against them just yet, he did the same thing he did to the Water Slimes. Attract their aggro and lure them to the "Centre" of the room. Once he got a decent amount of Rock Slimes following him, he turned for the next region.

The Rock Slimes thought he was running away so they chased after him as they soon found themselves either at the centre with the Water Slimes or at the upcoming territory, the Fire Slime's territory.

'Looks like I was right. The room is split into four parts,' Noir thought as he ran faster. The rock Slime was faster than the water Slime, so if Noir wasn't careful he could get in trouble.

He copied the same tactic as before on the remaining two slime groups.

The Fire Slime Territory was hot, with red rocks as opposed to the black or grey ones from before and on the ground, there was some kind of red liquid that they were bathing in that Noir didn't want to touch at all cost. He didn't want to risk getting burned from making contact with it after all.

As for the Wind Slimes, their territory was covered in dense forests which were soon burned down thanks to the Fire Slimes trying to attack Noir. Thankfully, that attracted the Wind Slimes towards them which Noir turned another sharp left and headed towards the middle of the room.

At this point Noir used up half his mana and was starting to bite off more than he can chew. All four sides of him were surrounded by Slimes of the four basic elements as they all looked at each other before they started fighting amongst themselves.

"Hriii/Wriii/Chriii/Friii"

Using that crack of an opportunity, Noir escaped through the battlefield before retreating to the next place to start phase three.

"Time to snipe the kills," Noir had a grin on his face as he picked up rocks and kicked them at the Slimes one after another. It was chaos, worse than before with random elemental attacks being thrown around here in there.

But thanks to that, they were preoccupied to ignore Noir and what he was doing. The Wind Slimes were especially annoyed by it, blaming it on the Rock Slimes even harder.

'Gotta love aggroing players and having them fight each other before sniping them out,' Noir had a slight bit of nostalgia to his days of using other players to fight his battles so he could steal the rewards. He was having that feeling now as he felt like he was levelling up quite a bit.

He didn't forget to look around his surroundings now and then too, in case any abnormalities existed amongst the group, but luckily that didn't happen.

And so was his second attempt at conquering the first floor.

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I got assignments for this month and next month so I'll be doing irregular updates till then. I'm still recovering, but a lot better now. Don't forget to give me power stones if you liked the chapter. Thanks for reading!