Chapter 9: Cursed Ring
by fnovelpia
As soon as the leather pouch given by my master exploded, I was so startled that I burst into tears.
But.
The moment I was held in my master’s arms, I calmed down.
‘Hehe…’
‘This feels so good…’
Since I was young, I always liked being hugged by my mom.
When we hugged each other, I felt warmth and a strong sense of being on the same side.
That’s why I asked for hugs every day.
I was addicted to being hugged.
But.
I can’t hug my mom now.
She’s in the Celestial Realm.
She can’t possess anyone until the Demon King is captured.
So, I asked my master to hug me.
But.
My master didn’t hug me.
There were times when I tried to force a hug, but.
He avoided me.
That left me feeling a bit disappointed.
But today, he didn’t avoid me and hugged me instead.
It felt good.
‘Hehe…’
‘If he’s hugging me because I set off the bomb… I’d be happy to keep setting it off…’
Although I cried because I was startled by the sound of the explosion, that was it.
[Thanks to <Absolute Invincibility>, I didn’t feel any pain, and thanks to <Complete Immunity>, paralysis drugs didn’t work either.]
‘Still, I should pretend to cry.’
‘The longer I cry, the longer he’ll hold me.’
Tears poured from my eyes.
“Heeeeeeeng!”
***
Meanwhile, Kain was troubled.
“Ria.”
“Come down now.”
The moment he tried to push Ria away to make her step down.
“Heeeeeeeeng!”
Ria clung to me like a sticker, crying loudly.
“Haa…”
But when I gently hugged her and stroked her head.
“Hehe…”
She smiled softly and quieted down.
When I thought she had calmed down enough and tried to push her away again.
“Heeeeeeeeng!”
She cried loudly once more, clinging to my body.
‘Sigh…’
‘How am I supposed to handle this…’
A 20-year-old, well-endowed, beautiful girl clinging to me like a koala.
I was nearing my limit.
‘No, wait…’
‘I crossed that limit a long time ago…’
My partner had grown quite a bit.
Yes.
It meant I was aroused.
No matter how much I tried to distract myself by singing the national anthem, it was no use.
‘Haa…’
‘How am I supposed to resist when such a pretty girl clings to me while acting cute…’
“Hehe…”
“I love you, Master…”
Ria murmured in a sweet voice, rubbing her face against me.
Countless thoughts crossed my mind.
‘Should I just go down the harem route?’
I had considered it.
Capture my favorite character, capture Ria, and recruit the other four female warrior party members.
Not bad.
Turn all my top six favorites into my wives.
The ultimate male fantasy.
But.
There are too many problems with that route.
‘If they start getting jealous, it’ll be a disaster.’
Ria is S-rank.
The other warrior party members are A-rank.
If they start fighting, it’ll be the end of the world in a different sense.
‘Even if they don’t fight but just focus on me, that’s a problem.’
I’m a D-rank adventurer.
‘If S-rank or A-rank girls decide to kidnap or imprison me, I wouldn’t be able to escape.’
‘I could end up being split into six pieces.’
If they can’t have me alone, they might agree to share by dividing my body.
‘And one more problem.’
‘The goddess of light, Serena, who’s overly protective of her daughter, could be a huge issue.’
She could try to kill me for daring to touch her daughter, or she might kill me for daring to court other girls while claiming to marry her daughter.
So.
Choosing the harem route isn’t a good idea.
In the game, the harem route was possible, but that’s because the protagonist was S-rank and could handle it.
It’s too much for a D-rank like me.
Therefore.
The only answer is the pure love route.
If I had to choose just one heroine from the beautiful girls in <Prophecy RPG>, who would it be?
‘Of course, it would be my favorite character.’
…Thinking about it this way, it’s best to give up on Ria and the other warrior party members.
I can be friends with them, but being in a romantic relationship is too much.
…Even though I tried not to see them as women.
‘Haa…’
‘It’s not easy.’
“Hehe…”
“Master…”
Ria, acting cute while hugging me, looked adorable.
She was definitely my favorite character.
If my absolute favorite character didn’t exist, I would have rushed to bed and taught her what it means to be a man.
So, I pushed her away even harder.
“Ria.”
“You’re heavy, get off.”
“Ge-get off?…”
“Sniff… hic…”
“Heeeeeeeng!”
I hugged her again.
“Hehe…”
She stopped crying.
“Ria.”
“You’re heavy, can you please come down?”
This time, I tried a logical approach.
Telling a girl she’s heavy could get me slapped, but it’s not a lie, right?
Even if a girl is light, she’d weigh around 30-40 kg.
That’s still heavy.
A heavy rice sack at the market weighs 20-40 kg, so she really is that heavy.
Of course.
She could even weigh more than 30-40 kg.
“I once said that to a college friend and got smacked on the back.”
Ah.
Anyway.
Ria’s about that heavy too.
Even if she’s heavy, there’s no logical problem… or so I thought.
“Isn’t this lighter?”
Suddenly, Ria became lighter.
‘What?’
‘Why did she get lighter?’
‘Ah.’
‘There’s magic.’
In <Prophecy RPG>, there are many spells that can reduce weight.
You can use a lightweight spell to reduce mass, or a zero-gravity spell to lessen gravitational force.
You can also use flight magic or telekinesis to lift your body and make it weigh zero kilograms.
There are many ways to do it.
But.
All weight-reducing spells are intermediate level or higher.
They aren’t in the beginner’s magic manual.
But.
Ria, a beginner magician who only read the beginner’s manual, is using intermediate magic?
‘What is this?’
‘Is it talent?’
‘No.’
‘Now’s not the time to be impressed by talent.’
The problem is that Ria has become lighter, and now I can’t drop her just because she’s heavy.
So I thought of something else.
“Ria.”
“It’s hot, so get down.”
It’s spring, so it’s not that hot, but wearing thick leather armor makes it feel a bit warm.
Adding Ria’s body heat on top of that, it definitely felt hot.
“Is this cool now?”
Ria turned cold.
She was maintaining a cool state using ice magic.
Oh.
That’s nice.
“Hehe…”
“Master smiled.”
“Can I stay like this?”
“Sigh…”
“Do as you like.”
“Yes!”
“But.”
“Stay on my back.”
Even while Ria was clinging to me, I continued my tasks.
***
Finishing off paralyzed goblins and orcs with a knife.
That’s easy.
It’s something I can do while standing.
However.
Cutting off the goblin and orc right ears as proof of subjugation requires squatting down.
Since it’s hard to squat with Ria in my arms, I told her to get on my back.
Swish! Swish, swish!
Ria used a wind blade to cut off all the ears, then gathered them with telekinesis and put them into a leather pouch.
“Hehe…”
“Master.”
“Since we’re done with work, I’ll stay like this.”
I was too dumbfounded to say anything.
‘What is this?’
‘A bug?’
Oh.
‘A girl who just learned magic this morning is already casting precise spells like this?’
‘Even performing a multi-cast to cut off ears from a hundred monsters at once?’
‘Wow…’
‘That’s insane…’
‘Even if magic is an area of talent, isn’t this a bit too much?’
‘No.’
‘If she’s the daughter of a goddess, it makes sense.’
‘Serena, the goddess of light who created the world, her daughter, and a character loaded with cheat abilities.’
‘Thinking about how there were so many cheat abilities that I couldn’t remember them all…’
‘Having talent-related cheat abilities isn’t strange.’
I looked around while thinking that.
Although the request was fulfilled, the real reward comes now.
***
[Beep!]
Mana gathered from the monster corpses and transformed into coins.
‘This is just like the game setting.’
When you kill a monster, you get money.
By the way, it’s not real gold or silver coins.
They are coins made from condensed magical energy, resembling gold and silver coins.
They’re more like <Magic Stones>.
But.
In the <Prophecy RPG> world, they’re used as currency.
So they count as money.
I collected them all while thinking that.
‘Next up, treasure hunting.’
I wandered around the outskirts of the village, looking for anything useful.
“Master?”
“What are you looking for?”
“I’m trying to take anything useful.”
Creatures with a hideout tend to collect things.
There might be good items.
I searched here and there, thinking that.
“Oh.”
“Found one.”
I discovered a black ring in a place like a warehouse.
“A ring?”
“Is it good?”
“No.”
“It’s a cursed item with only penalties.”
A cursed item.
An item affected by <Curse>, basically junk.
Of course.
There are some good items too.
There’s the <Berserker’s Ring>, which has the curse of slowly depleting HP, but it greatly enhances attack power proportional to lost HP.
Not all cursed items are bad.
But.
More than 90% are considered junk.
‘It’s actually lucky if it’s just junk.’
Some items ruin you when equipped.
‘Like the Tentacle Armor.’
It looks like normal armor, but once worn, tentacles burst out, causing loss of purity.
You can ask a priest companion to purify it, or visit a temple to break the curse.
But restoring lost purity is impossible.
It mentally breaks you, and in the worst-case scenario, corrupts you.
…Even so, for us gentlemen (?), we’d enthusiastically yell, “Even better!” and use it like crazy.
I used it too.
‘There were other tasty things as well.’
Hyper-realistic graphics.
Immense freedom to do anything.
My own personal adult video made using all that.
Ah!
That was truly satisfying!
Hence, another name for <Prophecy RPG> was <Adult RPG>.
…While reminiscing, anyway.
The important thing is this ring.
“Pretty lucky.”
“I was planning to look for it at the auction house or from merchants.”
“Master?”
“Why are you looking for a cursed thing?”
“Because I need it.”
The cursed ring <Mana Eater>.
It constantly consumes the wearer’s magic power, forcibly maintaining MP at 50%.
When MP is 50% or below, it calms down.
Only when MP is 51% or above does it start absorbing magic.
After I explained, Ria looked puzzled.
“Why would you use something like that?”
“You haven’t read the guidebook properly, have you?”
“Hehe…”
“Well…”
“There wasn’t time to read it anyway.”
“Make sure to read it later.”
“It has useful information.”
“Yes!”
“So what’s the ring for?”
“It’s a gift for a companion I can recruit in the Ice Kingdom <Gleisia>.”
It’s an essential item for the ice princess <Happy Ending> route.
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