I was stunned for a moment as the noble glared at me. Standing by his side was one of the bodyguards. I recalled hearing from Lydia that the other one had fallen in the dungeon. That was what had led this man to his retreat and also abandoning Lydia. She would have been dead if he had his way. In fact, his actions had almost killed me too. I felt anger rising in my gut. It took quite a bit to make me angry. Even being embarrassed and mocked in class was something I used to push off, but this guy’s arrogant and selfish actions were seriously pushing my limits.
“Deek! You’re alive!” The voice came from inside the inn.
There was a commotion of people talking inside. It felt like we had arrived at the end of a gathering. It was the Guild Master who came out. He was just as tall and had just as broad shoulders as the bodyguard of Lord Tibult. It made me feel a little better that I had an ally with a happy expression on his face while the other man shot me a stern expression.
The Guild Master came out and suddenly gave me a big hug. He didn’t show any restraint, and I felt my ribs creak. I was wrong, it turned out. In the end, it was as if my allies would be my death. As he realized I wasn’t breathing, he finally let go, and I let out a rough breath. He patted my back laughing. In the meantime, a tall man with a dark complexion came out. He wore a fine suit, not unlike the nobles, although it didn’t have the signs of travel wear that Lord Tibult’s did.
“What does he mean, about the hero position?” I wheezed out as I straightened myself.
The Guild Master put on a guilty look and scratched the back of his head. “Ah… well… after you fell into that trap, we managed to escape. We waited for you for two days, but Lord Tibult came out and said he found your dead corpse. So, we gave up any hope.”
The pair of us turned to the noble, who snorted, looking indignant. “You must have misheard me. I said that he might as well be dead.”
The Guild Master frowned. His expression verified that what the noble was saying was false, but he couldn’t argue with him.
“Either way, he’s been trying to woo the city with bribes for the last few days to have us make him the hero.”
The man sputtered. “Bribes… donations! I’m merely showing my generosity! Another town would have made me a hero five times over for the help I’ve provided.”
“But he didn’t do what he promised and finish off the dungeon!” I argued.
“Hmph! That dungeon is clearly a place far too dangerous for normal heroes. However, I bravely collapsed the staircase, not to mention we wiped out a good portion of the monsters inside. I’ve given the city the time needed to put out a reward for a dungeon diver to finish off the dungeon. I even contributed to the bounty.”
“Eh?” I blinked. “But the dungeon has already been defeated.”
This time everyone else stared with confused expressions.
“That’s impossible!” Tibult shook his hands. “Who could defeat such a powerful dungeon?”
I blushed slightly. “Well, I did…”
“Nonsense!” Tibult’s face turned to rage. “I can’t believe the likes of you could do anything of the like!”
“Is that true?” The Guild Master asked, a serious expression on his face.
“Sir… I saw him do it. After Master collapsed the entrance, it was the only way to escape. He… saved me as well…”
The Guild Master whistled, and two men came out of the guild. “You two are the fastest and sneakiest I have, go confirm this!”
The two men didn’t question his orders, immediately running off in the direction of the dungeon. As for Tibult, he looked like he had swallowed something very distasteful.
Tibult’s face turned red and his anger turned to the girl. “You… you insolent slave! How dare you speak out of turn!”
She winced as he reached out and grabbed her arm. I went to grab her, but the large man stood in my way. A moment later, Lydia was pulled away from me and put behind Tibult. She gave me a single sad look, and then lowered her eyes.
Just like that, she had been taken away from me.
I have no idea what he might have done to prevent her from being carried away without creating more enmity with the nobleman.
Or become a criminal.
What reward will he win by defeating the dungeon?
Thank you... I thought I was going crazy here. Like... why does everyone expect him to go on a murder rampage?
@whatsawhizzer I think it's because we are simple minded and the easiest solution to us is just to have MC kill the noble.
@whatsawhizzer Too many recycled chinese novels.
@Tsuru agree
I spend the last chapters pray for MC to kill him ( I am really sample mind, right? )
@whatsawhizzer Because he loves her and knows she loves him. He is much more powerful then he was. This is a wish fulfillment fantasy story. Anyone who would let someone own the woman they love needs to rethink their values. Some things are worth killing/dying for, especially in a fantasy story.
@whatsawhizzer Gotta be honest with ya.
Someone who went trough so many life threatening battles should have long developed a hardened personality as a coping mechanism. Every human is a monster if you put them in a situation without the illusory safety of society.
We are animals genetically programmed to adapt and overcome.
Fighting for your life and killing stuff (be it undead/monsters and not actual people) will still have a huge psychological shift in your mentality.
You would find it easier to take lives (sure it's a big jump from killing a rabbit to killing a person but make no mistake taking any life will make killing a person should push come to shove a little bit easier we mentally separate humans from other life forms when we kill them because we don't want to admit to the vulnerability of our own lives but nevertheless taking a life from animal or monster will leave you better prepared to kill a human,)
Sure you might get sick and puke after your adrenaline period is over but your body and psyche will be ready to do it if required.
MC being a whimp after fighting a necromancer and hundreds of monsters barely scraping out alive makes no sense. He even lost his V card and obtained a skill "Take Slave" which sounds pretty self explanatory.
You writing him as a whimp here simply to push the story in the direction you want (cheap drama and fake character development) is not giving you good marks as an author.
Good authors know the use of cause and effect and should realize the points of their already setup plot that affected their characters personalities. Good authors show the results of the development and don't introduce invasive and cheap drama crap that will be this chapter and the next 2-3 probably (still have not read them) to create a forced character growth.
If you wanted to do it that way (create more drama) you should not have given him a "Take Slave" skill to begin with.
It just makes the MC pathetic in the eyes of the reader and breaks immersion as the reader thinks to himself "there is no way MC is that ret*rded right?"
Better way to handle it would be to:
A - not give him slave taking skill - chapter proceeds up to the point the noble is abusing the girl and all MC has to do is interrupt the prick noble with some cheesy line like "you lost her ownership the moment you left her to die. She is mine now."
There = Done - it's that simple. 1 week fighting together and risking their lives built a connection. Even if every fiber of tiger girl is still a slave and she flinched at the noble "claiming possesion of her" she would take solace in the MC protecting her and stand behind him as the true owner in her heart instead of suffering the abuse of the noble.
Then when the noble naturally brings up the legality of her ownership the MC can offer to buy her (or even trade hero title of the town) and if noble refuses he fcks up the sh*t turd or comes up with a way to steal her.
You really just don't let someone walk all over a girl you like right in front of you even if they have a buff homo slave that can knock you out. After numerous life and death situations nobody would be so cowardly as to avoid confrontation that is very unlikely to even lead to death (the most the buff slave would do to him in the middle of town is a beat up job). MC behavior is unrealistic and stupid to the point it infuriates the reader (as you can surmise by the length of this comment)
B - he uses the skill on tiger girl as soon as obtaining it because the character growth was already done in his week long dungeon life and you don't need to force it down our throats with cheap ass drama of noble prick abusing the girl our MC supposedly is in love with and MC just taking it in stride like she means nothing to him.
Your option C
C - MC does not use the skill and lets noble prick traumatize his girl further to create more drama
is literally the worst and most unrealistic one he could go with and just shows that a week spent fighting for his live with the girl and losing their V cards together seem like a cheap connection that can be broken solely by a sh*t turd prancing around and shouting. He had zero growth in that week in the dungeon is what you are telling the readers with this chapter and he has to let the noble abuse his girl further to actually do something about it (and in earlier chapter he was literally ready to kill the noble if he learned that the scars on tiger girls back were done by him)
I hope MC stops being a whimp soon and shows some character development cause unnecessary drama that could be easily avoided is a huge turn off for me in a series.
As a modern person from 21st century and the age of internet no matter how pathetic MC was back on earth he should be able to deal with stuff in more pragmatic and logical ways.
Eliminate problems in the bud. Not walk into them and sink in self pity and patheticness (yeah i know that is not a real word but it describes your current chapter MC perfectly)
@DeathTheHorseman Agreeing with you. Also thumbs up for taking the time to do a so detailed comment and explaining interesting points.
Now i just hope author will see that and HOPE EVEN MORE that he won't sh*t talk/answer you. Because author. Let's be honest. You are not the kindness of humans when some people comment about your series.
Us commenters/readers are maybe pissing you off but not a reason to be so mean when you reply.
@Tsuru I went on his website and all his protagonists are beyound pathetic exception for Midnight king and the revenge po*n one (can't remember the name).
Author didn't warn his readers but this novel is not a serious one despite the atmosphere the first 50 chapters have.
Around chapter 310-320 (tournament arc halfway) it becomes a full blast harem eroge with little drama and more whimsical funny crap.
I just started reading this thing after reading 2 novels that take themselves rather seriously (Reverend Insanity and He who fights with monsters) so this authors switching style between serious drama sh*t and whimsical crap caught me off guard.
The series in not bad mostly cause the smut is good (monster girls yay) but story wise it fails to deliver seriousness and the drama is always cheap and forced. The comedy is good most of the time. I am at chapter 620 of it now (current) and it's decent but not great.
It's like a 6.7/10 eroge (where most of the score is hot smut scenes and comedy)
It gets better after 320 chapters but before that MC is super pathetic and even after that he is not badass badass but slightly badass at times and half whimp at others.
P.S. Author gets quite anal about criticism and blocked me on his own website when I lost my sh*t in volume 4 of this novel (3rd dungeon with the dragon)
MC makes a series of beyound ret*rded decisions and never gets punished for any of them. Should have died 100 times in that volume alone cause he used less than half a braincell....
@DeathTheHorseman If i was an author i would also hate comments saying mean things and also ban people. But not accept criticism that makes sense (because your series got some bad points) ? That just show he is narrow minded.
@Tsuru we were a tad late to the party. Comment8ng on changing chapter 50 when he has released up to 50 is okay but when he has 500 chapters out changing stuff gets more difficult. The author also has donation tiers from 1$ to 100$ and practically said he will consider the opinions of the people in the 100$ tier when writing so if you want him to change stuff you gotta be up to current chapter and pony up 100$ so he considers your way