I arrived at the church and started to hear some voices. It was Hestia and Bell. I didn't know how long I had been out, but I think I had stayed inside the dungeon the whole day yesterday since it was morning.
While inside, I didn't even realize that so much time had passed.
"Urg~~" With my hand on my waist, I opened the door. As soon as I entered, I heard some quick footsteps coming toward me. It was Bell. "Goddess, he's here, but he looks pretty injured!" He moved closer and let me lean on his shoulder.
"Thank you." I smiled at Bell, and then we walked to the living room.
"Where is he?!" Hestia then came running from the bedroom and arrived in the living room.
"He's here. I helped him lie down on the couch." Bell had taken my knife and also removed my shoes. Even though my clothes were dirty, he didn't mind laying me on the clean couch.
"How did you hurt yourself so badly? You risked too much, didn't you?!" I could see the concern in Hestia's eyes.
"I overdid it a little, that's all."
"Here, take this." Hestia brought a glass to my mouth. After drinking the liquid, which was not very tasty, I began to feel the pain gradually diminishing. But I had lost a lot of blood. I felt dizzy.
"Rest here for a while; I'll get you something to eat. You've lost a lot of blood; you won't recover today." Bell had a serious look on his face. After I thanked him, he ran out of the church.
"You idiot, why did you take such a risk?"
"I thought I could make it to the 18th floor."
"We talked about it before you went. I said it was dangerous. You are still at level 1, and your basic abilities are not high. What did you expect was going to happen?!" Was I getting a sermon?
"I thought that with my skills, I could do it."
"Haaa~~ You need to control yourself and be more careful about your safety. How do you think Bell and I will feel if you end up dying inside the dungeon? We're from the same familia!"
"I see. I'm sorry about that."
"..." Hestia gave a small smile. Then she stood up ( She had sat down on the couch where I was lying ). "Now get plenty of rest. I'll leave to update your falna tomorrow, all right?" She said in her usual animated tone.
"Okay." I then closed my eyes and fast asleep.
####
I don't know how long I slept, but it was already night. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that I was clean and was wearing other clothes. My first reaction was to get up from the couch and look around. There was no one around.
"Are they asleep? Hm?" My dirty clothes were in a bag next to the couch. There was also a bucket with a wet cloth. "Did someone clean my body? Who did that? Bell? Hestia?"
'I think it's better not to find out who did it because I can imagine who it was, and I'll feel quite embarrassed when I talk to him.' Let's pretend I got up and took a shower myself.
Then I put my dirty clothes away. I have to wash them tomorrow. My clean clothes were running out. After putting everything away, I ate the food on the table.
It was cold, but since it was natural sandwiches, it wasn't bad. It was delicious.
I didn't have a clock around here, but I could tell that it would be a long time before dawn. Because of this, I decided to go out for a while and walk around the city. I found lots of parties and bars. Since I was feeling a bit under the weather, I didn't drink, just chatted with some adventurers and women before returning to the church.
I lay down again but could not sleep. I stayed all night, looking at my Status and thinking about what to do. And in doing so, I noticed that I had not tried my new skill.
[ Persuasion ]
[ The power to persuade a person to do what you want ]
[ Effects similar to mind control ]
[ Warning: Do not use this ability on Gods ]
Yes, it was a mind control ability. When I noticed the existence of something so convenient, the thought of "Rape is something I refuse to do" disappeared.
Even if I try to justify that I will induce girls to have sex with me, it is still rape. I have no way to escape that label.
"But if I have received this ability, I must use it. Unfortunately, I can't use it on goddesses... However, I have many uses for it besides creating my sex toys."
####
When morning came, I left the church and went after something to eat. I decided to stay away from the dungeon for a few days. I had gathered enough money and should focus on evolving from now on.
And how do I do this? By having sex with several women. 'I wonder if having sex with a character from the novel would give me more bonuses.'
"Luan?" As I walked, I heard someone calling me.
"Tiona?" I looked at her and smiled. This was a great opportunity.
"What are you doing here? Did you happen to be interested in the food?" I was in the same place I had discovered when I followed Tiona some time ago. The food looked delicious, so I decided to try it.
Meet Tiona was not my goal, but I had to take advantage of this situation.
"I heard the food here is very good, so I decided to try it."
"I see. May I sit with you? I'll also order something to eat."
"Sure." With a smile, I said that to her. Tiona then sat down, and the "bartender" attended her. After a few more minutes, my food arrived. It was spaghetti with tomato sauce and meatballs.
I could see that Tiona was drooling.
"Would you like some?"
"No need, my food is almost ready."
"No problem, you can eat." I smiled at Tiona, and she looked into my eyes. At the same time, I activated my ability and Persuasion. When I activated it, I heard a message say something in my head.
[ Tiona Hiryute is under the effect of your ability 'persuasion' ]
[ Your requests will be granted ]
'That simple?' I could feel my lips tightening. I felt like screaming and celebrating.
"Tiona, would you like to go out for a while with me so we can go somewhere interesting?" I said to her.
"Hm?" With her mouth full of noodles, Tiona tilted her head. After swallowing, she looked at me with a serious look. "What did you say?"
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Yes, it was a mind control ability. When I noticed the existence of something so convenient, the thought of "Rape is something I refuse to do" disappeared.
Even if I try to justify that I will induce girls to have s*x with me, it is still rape. I have no way to escape that label.
"But if I have received this ability, I must use it. Unfortunately, I can't use it on goddesses... However, I have many uses for it besides creating my s*x toys."
The f*ck kind of justification is that? "I must use it" my ass. Dude was just looking for an excuse to rape people
What?
I disagree, woman who wears makeup deceives you, right? Or a man who flirts very well or a person who acts exactly the way you like to seduce you or people who use internet filters to look prettier or someone who fakes a persona to win you over, all this is deception and mind control. The protagonist must use her ability to her advantage, just as women put on makeup to seduce someone for material/metaphysical/emotional gains.
@supersage First and foremost, eat sh*t for even pretending you actually believe that. If someone in your family or anyone close to you gets drugged and raped, I doubt you'd be this so confident in arguing this. Or maybe you would and have just been lucky that they never confided in you, because you would DEFINITELY lose them, if not everyone you know, saying something so obviously disgusting.
Moving on, if the makeup was able to FORCE you to be okay with any of their advances, then you could begin to have an argument there, but it doesn't, and never will. Unless they lace it with some kind of drug, which is just you being literally drugged to get raped.
A man flirting and a man lying are two very different things. If a guy's saying anything and everything to get you to f*ck him, then it's just blatant manipulation, which actually is almost comparable to this. "Almost," because you could still technically see through it and tell him to f*ck off. If a guy is just saying things they would've otherwise believed just to get you in the mood, it's a little "manipulative," but the scale is so drastically minor that it justifies an entirely separate word. You know, like FLIRTING, you f*cking idiot.
@KoolAidDogan It's okay if you don't accept the reality, about my family, they are in danger when they walk because they can fall and hit their head, when going out on the street they can be mugged and they can also get a stray bullet, so what to do about that? Can you protect yours? About the skill, imagine that the protagonist used it to obtain remunerated gains so would he take someone's vacancy/job/salary? Would that be wrong? My previous example works yes, everyone can be tricked just as we can be hacked nowadays, but my point was not to justify the mc BUT to remind you that EVERYONE uses their "resources" for their own benefit, why wouldn't the mc do the same ? By moralism/humanity? Tell that to the rich.
@supersage You entirely missed the point that I was making and just asked a useless question. The point is that you should and would be right to hate whoever drugged and raped them. Either you're too autistic to understand or are just pretending to not care about anything to... I guess act edgy? Whatever you think you're accomplishing, it just makes you look like an unbelievable tool.
The skill itself is disgusting and invasive, but taking advantage of someone's wallet over someone's body is generally seen as less terrible. I'd argue that any level of mind alteration is inherently disgusting though, so honestly, the best course of action the main character could have and should have taken, if they weren't being made out to be disgusting sexual assaulter, is to only use it when either strictly necessary. Like in a negotiation for something extremely important, for example. Not when you have a girl you want to f*ck that originally had no interest in you.
By moralism/humanity? Tell that to the rich.
Careful with the edge there, 'sage,' that's pretty f*cking sharp.
@KoolAidDogan Honestly, I don't understand you either, when you said that I would accept someone close to me being raped? Of course not, I also find the use of the protagonist's ability disgusting, but that's not the point, the point is what is the moral? Is it something decided by the culture of the environment, and ethics? Is it something decided by what "morals" consider right, as well as laws? No, it is not something decided by morals/ethics but by the government/authority to serve its interests. To answer your question of course I hate rape but I don't "should" hate it, I was taught to hate it because it was convenient and that's it, there is no right and wrong or anything like that there are only "interests" and people who defend their interests, of course I would hate it be invaded or controlled, but that doesn't change the fundamental truth that there is no right/wrong and that there are only conflicting "interests". As for the protagonist using his ability when needed, that wouldn't change anything, he would still be controlling someone. I'm nervous? Perhaps, I get carried away when I talk to someone, as a reader I'm not an active talker, so I exaggerate sometimes. I will not answer again.
@supersage Well, hope everyone that reads this interaction comes to the understanding that you're either a schizo or an armchair philosopher contrarian looking to get dunks with ideals that wouldn't hold up to any level of real-life applications. Cause, last time I checked, no one gives a single f*ck about whether it's a 'fundamental law of the world' or 'something taught by society' when they, or someone close to them, gets raped.
Wow, to think I'd see the day when someone would try to equate make up, flirting, acting, and lying to magical brainwashing.