ALL NOVEL Volume. 4: Chapter 4: I Miss My Family, But I Still Have to Work.
Chapter 4: I Miss My Family, But I Still Have to Work.
*Mika’s POV*
I have researched many dimensions before, and yet, I have never seen this egg-like thing ever.
Originally, it was being protected by a bunch of different women. But one day, they just up and left it completely alone.
Once they were gone, it opened up the floodgates for an even more vicious war. Group after group had taken claim of the castle and the egg. No one held it for a long time, though.
My curiosity peaked, so I ended up dealing with the latest group to take claim of the castle. Once inside, I found the egg.
It radiated immense unseen power. It was honestly no wonder why so many different people and groups were drawn to the egg.
My process of studying the egg was annoying. Why? Because every time I sat down and examined it, some other group would try to take the castle again.
Even after holding the castle for a month, I still was nowhere near close to figuring out what the egg was.
Well, that was, until another group took my attention away from the castle and the egg. I had to chase them down.
When I came back to the city, there was a woman just standing out in the open, looking quite confused.
I was furious, thinking that they might have messed with the egg. Much to my surprise, the woman had blocked my attack with ease.
After talking to her for a bit, I realized that she was the one who was in the egg. She even admitted as such. Though I didn’t fully believe her.
But when I went back to the egg, it was open. Looking inside yielded nothing of interest to me. Though the woman, Erika, was quite an interesting person, to say the least.
She told me something about how she is a tester for the System. I sensed that she wasn’t lying, so I was extremely interested in her at that point.
Luckily, I managed to convince her to follow me back to my dimension. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about how easily jealous my wife gets.
Though, Erika didn’t even seem to flinch, even though she had a handgun pointed at her head. She was able to quickly calm down my wife as well.
Then she showed us her Status and the System version that she was using. Which made I and my wife do a double take.
To top it all off, she ended up buying everything from the System store, and even let us take whatever we wanted.
Erika said that each item was the highest Grade and Rank. To my wife and I, all it showed up as was three question marks. So we had to take her at her word.
There were even pills that gave you skills… It was truly a shocking experience that Erika put us through.
Erika had also told us about how there will be a war in the future. Rie and I concluded that sticking with her would be our best bet.
I can only imagine the chaos that will break out once this update is finished. There is no telling whether or not we would be safe in this dimension.
Although Erika didn’t say so, my gut tells me that everyone will end up with a System. It feels as if the powers that be have decided to finally usher in the last arc of all of existence.
And Erika is at the forefront. After we went to bed, I told my wife as such. And she agreed with my hunch. Sticking with Erika’s group will keep her and I alive. So that’s what we intend to do.
It’s a slight annoyance that we can’t just head to Erika’s dimension right away. But, as long as Erika stays with us, we should be fine.
She did say that the update was many years away. So, we have time to wait until we can switch to living in Erika’s dimension.
*Erika’s POV*
I woke up to someone knocking on the door of my room. Looking at my phone, it’s only 6:35 AM. After getting up from the bed, I put on my usual loadout before answering the door.
Mika: “Huh… it really wasn’t a dream then.” Mika said with a sigh.
Erika: “Good morning to you too.” I reply with a chuckle.
Mika: “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Rie made us some breakfast.” Mika said before walking away.
I followed her down the stairs. Once I made it to the bottom, I could smell that there was some most likely very tasty food in the dining room.
Mika showed me where the dining room was. At the table were three plates of American-styled breakfast. I quickly sat down after Mika did. She, of course, took the seat right next to her wife. Aw… I miss my wives…
Rie: “Erika, what’s wrong? Did you not sleep well last night?” Rie asked with a curious tone.
Erika: “I did sleep well last night, thanks for asking. It’s just seeing you two act all lovey-dovey, has made me realize that I miss my wives.” I answer with a sigh.
Rie: “I understand how you feel.” Rie replied with a giggle.
Mika: “Hey! Stop flirting with my wife!” Mika jokingly said.
I chatted with the two for the rest of the time we ate breakfast. Which was why it took a little longer than it normally would.
Mika was trying to convince her wife to let her go to other dimensions with me. Her reasoning is that she can go to any dimension she wants, but it’s all random.
Going with me to a dimension that is probably in conflict of some kind, would most likely lead to more interesting things for her to research. Rather than just leaving it at the luck of the draw.
As you might expect, Rie completely refused. And I wasn’t going to go behind her back. If I did, I would have to worry about her trying to kill me out of spite, or maybe jealousy. Or both...
After we finished talking for a bit longer, I went back to the guest bedroom. I was going to find a dimension to do Tasks in.
Two problems occurred. The first problem, which isn’t really a problem now that I think about it, is that I can take on every available dimension to do Tasks in.
The second problem is that, without Lilith, the filtering is gone. Luckily, I could just apply filtering by myself. I set it to be filtered to only show XXX+ Rank dimensions.
There were still quite a few dimensions for me to choose from. Even had two different dimensions that dealt with a zombie apocalypse. I wasn’t going to go through a world like that again, so those two were instantly shot down as options.
I really had no other reason to even go to a different dimension to do Tasks, other than to just kill time until I can see my wives again. So, I wanted a more interesting dimension, rather than one where I would get benefits for completing it.
I mean, I pretty much have every type of item or gear that I would ever need. So there is no point to try to find new ones. Even without my items and gear, I am very overpowered.
The most interesting one was this one.
Showing Available tasks.
Task dimensions.
Dimension 1:
Dimension Name: Frozen Hell.
Planet Name: Hootri.
Main sapient Races: Humans. Elves. Demons. Demihumans. Gods. Goddesses.
World State: Frozen.
Available Main Tasks:
End the perpetual Ice Age.
Difficulty: XXX+
Reward: 100 XXX+ Grade Monster Cores.
Number of Tasks required to return from dimension: All.
Restrictions: No outside help of any kind.
Dimension Difficulty: XXX+
Yeah, this one sounds fun! Look, my definition of fun might be different from yours but, it still sounds like a fun thing to do to me. Plus, I’ve never been to a dimension where there was only one task to do. And look at that reward! I should be able to bump the shit out of my Stats once I complete this dimension.
Heh, Hootri… what a funny name for a planet. Going by the information from the System, it isn’t a planet controlled by owls. So it’s just a funny name. At least, I find it funny.
After I get back to my wives, I think I might just retire. At least until the new update is ready to be released. And even then, it will take a long time for someone to catch up to my Stats.
Since I had nothing else to do, I just went ahead and accepted to do that ONE singular task in Frozen Hell. The familiar white flash showed up again.
Once it was gone, I was now in a dimension covered in ice and snow. Walking around was a little hard, I kept sinking into the snow. And it was very, very deep as well. How annoying…
And wouldn’t you know it, I packed multiple sets of snow shoes in my inventory. The ones that look like a tennis racket. See? I knew that continuing to shove random things into my inventory would be a good idea. And with now having an infinite space to put shit into now. Why would I bother stopping?
With the sinking into snow problem solved, the latest problem was that it was fucking cold!
I had the urge to check my phone and see what the temperature is. So I did… The temp in this dimension is -26°F or -32°C…
What? how was my phone able to tell me the temp in a fantasy dimension? Ah, it didn’t, you silly. It was just a randomly added feature to the System. I guess it’s a pretty useful addition.
Back to my current situation, I’m wearing a dress! A very thin dress that barely stops the cold wind that is blowing at me. Oh, did I not mention that it was super fucking windy as well? Cause it fucking is!
My only solution was, using wind magic to fight off the uh, natural wind, and making a fireball float around me to warm me up. It actually worked out well, and I wasn’t being bothered by the environment at all anymore.
As for where I am, I have no idea. It’s just white everywhere. No mountains or any kind of landmarks. No trees either. I’m guessing that I’m currently on a flat plane.
The real question is, which direction do I even go? I don’t see any sticks to throw so that I could use the old method either… Oh wait, I did have a stick-like object on me.
Throwing my sword up into the air, which was a very stupid thing to do, and when my sword landed… it landed and sunk into the snow… Noooooo! That was a gift from Sofiel! Fuck you, Nature!
Fuck… now I have to dig it out. But at least I have a direction to go now. Which was east. Huh… surely a coincidence. Anyway, after digging in the snow for an ENTIRE HOUR, I now have reclaimed my sword. Ah, precious sword that my pretty wife gifted me, I will never mistreat you ever again. I promise on my life.
Speaking of digging, it really didn’t help that the snow kept recovering itself. I had to mix digging with my hands, and using fire magic to stave off the snow. With that, I set off to the east. And this event will be forever forgotten, and will never be brought up again.
*Many hours later.*
Though I had a fireball that would quickly melt the snow that landed on me, I still got annoyed by it. So I took out an umbrella to use. Fancy, right?
It did have a fancy design on it as well. It was a gift from Alice. She gave me it before she changed her clothing style, and how her body looks. So, it was a Gothic Lolita themed umbrella. I felt very fancy using it.
Alice went a little overboard. I was fine with her changing how appearance, but she was clearly trying too hard to make me like her. I told her as such. Now she will occasionally wear Gothic Lolita clothes from time to time. Since she does really like that kind of clothing. Even with her new look, she was still very cute in those clothes.
Ah, I’ve gotten sidetracked… Anyway, I still haven’t found a single damn thing, though… Where is everything, or anybody? Huh… what a surprise, there was no answer to my question.
After walking for a few more minutes, I came across a white fox. It just looked at me, and then slowly walked away with its back turned to me.
It stopped walking and then looked back at me. Apparently, it was telling me to follow it. So I just leisurely did. I wasn’t in any hurry, and nor was the cute foxy.
The white fox led me to a cave. When we made it to the entrance of it, the fox then walked away, back into the snow-covered plane. Quickly disappearing from my sight.
Well, I had a light anyway, so I entered the dark cave. Though, before doing so, I took off my snow shoes, and put both my umbrella and the shoes into my inventory.
The cave was pretty empty. Not a single rat, bat, or insect, was in sight at all. Eventually, I came to a part of the cave where, rather than a cave wall, it turned into brick stone walls.
Was this what they call a dungeon? It sure seemed like it. It wasn’t dark like the cave either. There were torches on the walls that were lit up, giving off a warm light. I didn’t sense any danger, so I continued further into the cave. Or, I guess, I went further into the dungeon.
After I had walked for twenty minutes, I heard the sound of people. Continuing further, I found a huge town full of people.
Ah, I see. They couldn’t survive on the surface, so people retreated to live in dungeons. There was no way this dungeon was made by people, so it was probably something created by this dimension. Or that’s what I will assume. I don’t have anything else to go on.
I walked over to what looked like a guard post. The guards weren’t slacking at all. And they were also wearing what seemed to be very decent-quality armor. Though, I got some very bad vibes from them.
???: “Halt! State your name and business!” The man yelled.
Erika: “Erika Ardent. Traveling.” I reply with a calm tone.
The guard then nodded and let me into their makeshift town. But I immediately sensed a problem. There were no females here at all. Not a single one…
And, after I walked around for a while, I ended up being surrounded by a bunch of people. All men of varying races.
???: “Drop your weapons. Unless you want to die. Don’t worry, we’ll treat you well. It’s been a long time since any of us have seen a woman.” One of the men said with a perverted look on his face.
All of the other men also had perverted looks on their faces. And looked at me with a lecherous gaze. That white fox totally set me up!
Oh well, none of these people are good. Thinking about it, I’m also not on the good side. Why bother to hold back? Thus, I started the slaughter without any hesitation.
*Four hours later.*
It was… surprising the number of people that could fit in this dungeon. It reminded me of when I had to deal with all of those Goblins. All in all, I think that I have just killed well over a thousand people… Oh well, no use crying over spilled blood… I mean, milk.
None of them could manage to land a single hit on me. Because of this slaughter that I committed, only now did I finally realize how powerful I am. I mean, I even let a few of them hit me for fun. But they couldn’t do any damage to me whatsoever.
It was like I was a dirty, dirty cheater, playing the start of an RPG game with a max level character…
I now had this entire place to myself. Though, I would prefer it not covered in the blood and gore of a thousand people. But takers can’t be choosers. Actually, couldn’t they?
It’s not like I was going to stay in this place. Not exactly a first class location. And that isn’t counting the bodies and viscera lettering the place.
Now that they were all dead, I guess that I should loot this place for all it’s worth. Then I’ll just leave. I was about to go looting, but then I saw that white fox again.
Erika: “Ah! It’s you! You set me up!” I yell with a fed-up tone.
???: “If I’m being honest, I led you here to be a distraction.” The fox said.
Erika: “And how did that work out?” I ask with my arms crossed.
???: “You’ve killed everyone. So, it worked out pretty well for me.” The fox said with a giggle.
Erika: “You could have at least warned me. I would have worked with you.” I say with a sigh.
The white fox sounded like a mature woman. Kind of odd, but she is probably a Demihuman.
???: “Really? Then help me look for something. A little trinket of mine was stolen. And the thief was living here.” She said.
Erika: “What does it look like?” I ask.
???: “It’s a pocket watch.” She replied.
Erika: “Do I really have to search every corpse? You do realize that I killed around a thousand people, right? It will take forever to search for your pocket watch.” I reply with a sigh.
???: “You won’t have to search the bodies. My pocket watch isn’t something a person would just carry around with them.” She replied.
Erika: “Then where do I look for it?” I ask with a head tilt.
???: “Check the houses. From a glance, there seem to be only a hundred buildings.” She replied.
Erika: “A hundred buildings for over a thousand people? How exactly did this living arrangement actually work out?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
???: “Most of them were probably homeless travelers.” She replied with a chuckle.
I guess that would make sense. Or it could be that they just didn’t finish making the buildings for them. There are a lot of unfinished buildings. And this dungeon is surely big enough to hold a few thousand people with ease.
Did I just destroy a budding civilization? Oops… Oh well, they attacked me first. I am completely in the right here. And you can’t convince me otherwise.
*Many hours later.*
It took far too long to find this damn pocket watch. Why does she even want it? It just looks like a normal gold pocket watch. I mean, yeah, it’s probably worth a lot. But is it worth all of this effort? I don’t think so.
Erika: “Is this pocket watch really that important?” I ask the white fox while holding the pocket watch in my hand.
???: “Do you think that I am just a white fox? I am a Demihuman. We foxkin imprint on an object. And if that object isn’t near us, we can’t transform into our human-like forms.” She answered.
Well, that is certainly a good reason to want to find this pocket watch. As such, I placed it on the floor for her. To which she tapped onto it with one of her paws. Then she was enveloped in a white light. After the light went away, what stood before me was a naked mature looking woman.
She had major “assets” if you know what I mean. She was around my height. The most interesting thing was that she had fox ears and a fox tail. Her eyes, fox ears, tail, and hair were all a deep snow white. A cool beauty would be the best description of her.
???: “Thank you for your assistance. My name is Liuka. May I ask your name?” The cute naked woman asked.
Erika: “It’s Erika. And here, put this on.” I say after taking out a dress, and lingerie from my inventory and handing it to her.
She then took the dress and lingerie from me and put them on. How she managed to figure out how to put on a bra, I have no idea.
Liuka: “Oh my god! It’s been so long since I’ve worn an actual bra!” Liuka said with an excited tone and expression after putting her clothes on.
Judging by that reaction, she clearly isn’t a native of this dimension. Though, she does look the part. Maybe she reincarnated to this dimension, and with her memories intact?
Erika: “I take it that you aren’t from this dimension?” I ask with a curious tone.
Liuka: “Good eye. What about you?” Liuka asked with a curious tone as well.
Erika: “I am a dimension traveler. More specifically, I can go to different dimensions but, only to complete tasks in them.” I reply.
Liuka: “What happens when you complete your tasks in a dimension?” She asked.
Erika: “I can just leave said dimension, and go back to whatever dimension that I was in before going to it.” I explain.
Liuka: “Can you take me with you?” She asked with a serious tone.
Erika: “I can. I just have to finish my task in this dimension first.” I reply.
Liuka: “That’s great! Oh, right. What is your task?” She asked.
Erika: “Figuring out how to unfreeze this dimension.” I answer.
Liuka: “…”
Erika: “What’s wrong?” I ask with a head tilt.
Liuka: “I have been trying to do that for over a hundred years…” Liuka said with a sigh.
Erika: “Don’t worry. I am a complete cheat, so I can easily complete this task.” I say with a prideful tone.
Liuka: “How much of a cheat are we talking about here?” Liuka asks with a curious tone.
I have long since stopped caring about keeping my being a tester for the System a secret, so I am just going to tell Liuka about it. She should believe me after seeing the System app on my phone.
Erika: “Do you use the System?” I ask.
Liuka: “Yes, I do use the System.” Liuka answered.
Erika: “Alright, cool. I am a tester for a new update for the System. Because of that, I am stupidly overpowered. Here, take a look at the System App on my phone.” I say before handing her my phone.
I wonder how many more times I will have to explain this... I feel like there keeps being more, and more things that I have to explain to people…
Liuka looked at my phone and had similar reactions to what Mika and Rie had on their faces. Seeing how she knew exactly how to use a smartphone, she most likely was born in a modern dimension, before dying in some way and reincarnating to this dimension.
Liuka: “…”
Liuka: “This really gives me a migraine…” She said while rubbing her head.
Erika: “I have that effect on people.” I reply with a deadpan tone.
Liuka: “Even with your crazy Stats, dealing with this frozen hell will still be a decent challenge for you.” Liuka said with a thinking pose.
Erika: “How so?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
Liuka: “You need to gather five crystals, and then take them to the heart of this planet so that you can end the frost.” Liuka explained.
Erika: “And? Will they be hard to find?” I ask.
Liuka: “My tribe has one of them. And another group has the other. As for the rest of them, no one knows where they are located at.” Liuka said with a sigh.
Erika: “Darn… I really hate fetch quests.” I reply with a sigh.
Liuka: “I do too! That other group will be trouble to get the crystal from them. But my tribe won’t put up that much of a fuss.” Liuka said.
Erika: “Why not?” I ask.
Liuka: “I am their princess. All I have to do is tell them that I am going on a journey with you to end this ice apocalypse once and for all. And then they will give it to us.” Liuka said with an assured tone.
Erika: “That’s good. What about that other group?” I ask.
Liuka: “A group of humans that refuses to accept any other race. Real annoying. They try to raid our dungeon all the damn time.” Liuka said with one of her hands on her hip.
Erika: “Eh, I can just kill them if they refuse to give me the crystal.” I reply with a nonchalant tone.
Liuka: “That you can…” She said.
Erika: “Hey, can I ask you a few things?” I say.
Liuka: “Sure, I don’t mind.” Liuka replied.
Erika: “Does everyone live in dungeons? And how did you end up in this dimension?” I ask with a curious tone.
Liuka: “When I was born in this dimension, there wasn’t any ice and snow covering the entire planet. That happened a few hundred years ago. Because of that, everyone has gotten used to living in dungeons. As for how I ended up in this dimension, I’m sure that you can make an educated guess.” Liuka explained.
Erika: “Truck-kun?” I ask with a deadpan tone.
Liuka: “Truck-kun.” Liuka replied with a deadpan tone and expression.
After bantering with Liuka for a bit longer, we left this blood-soaked dungeon. She said that her dungeon is just a little ways away. I asked her how she could even figure out where she is going. She told me that the people of the world have developed a type of magic that most people can use.
Said magic just points you towards a place that you once marked. No one leaves the safety of their dungeon without first marking it. It’s extremely easy to get lost in all the ice and snow after all.
At the entrance of the cave, I stopped Liuka. I plan to give her a full set of those skill pills. So I handed her an entire pile of them.
While I was walking earlier, I was quite bored. So I ended up placing full skill pill sets in individual luxury bags. Honestly, I feel like I will totally end up forgetting the things that I’ve put into my inventory. It will be a treasure hunt for the future me or something like that.
Liuka: “Are you trying to drug, and or kill me?” Liuka asked with a confused tone.
Erika: “No. These pills will give you skills. The latest update has a shop section. So I bought everything in it. Which includes these skill pills as I call them.” I explain calmly.
Liuka was clearly reluctant to eat a random pill that was given to her by a stranger. Though, after thinking it over, she ended up consuming one of them.
It seemed like she took a look at her System. Her eyes widened in shock. Probably from realizing that I was not lying about the skill pills use and effect.
Once she realized this, the floodgates opened. And she started quickly swallowing pill after pill with gusto. Ah, yet another girl corrupted. All in a day’s work. Any day now she will break from my continued craziness.
Liuka: “You’re such a fucking cheat, I am actually pissed off about this.” Liuka said with a pout.
Erika: “Hey, the store was only added yesterday. Don’t go thinking that I’ve never put in any effort to get where I am today.” I reply with a stern tone.
Liuka: “Really? I don’t believe that one bit.” Liuka said with a smug tone.
Erika: “It’s true!” I say with a pout.
Liuka: “Sure… whatever. I’m going to head back to my tribe’s dungeon. Hunker down here. I’ll come back with the Crystal, and then we can set off to get the rest.” Liuka said with a serious tone before walking out of the cave.
She really just left me… Oh well, I am pretty tired anyway. Though I don’t know how long Liuka will take to make it back here, I got out my tent from my inventory anyway.
Once inside my tent, I took out my sleeping bag, and a space heater from my inventory. I can’t just let a fireball float around me while I sleep. That would be dangerous. And do I do dangerous things?
Before going to sleep, I took out some ramen to eat. It was really good. As you and I would expect from Nadia’s cooking. Once I was done eating, I then snuggled into my sleeping bag. Yep. It’s nap time.