The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #9 a LitRPG (ATS) Page 18

  The others were engrossed in their conversations. Kitome would’ve followed if Sophia and Fuyoko hadn’t initiated a conversation about magical girls.

  Clyde didn’t realize it until it was too late. Yuki shut the door behind him and warded it. The young man wasn’t complaining, but he’d pretend that he immediately caught the woman’s hint right away. After all, she could repair things at will with just a wave of magic.

  Yuki wasted no time—she got to her knees and pulled Clyde’s pants down. She teased with a tongue on the tip. Even that threatened to make him blast off. When she used her breasts, the young man could no longer hold back.

  Yuki grabbed his balls before he had the chance to coat her face.

  “Ooh!” Clyde said, weakening.

  “You can’t be the only one enjoying yourself.” She laid back-first on the bed, pulling up her dress. “Come, spread that love.”

  Clyde happily obliged. Starting with a kiss, which quickly grew passionate, he moved lower. Kissing enormous breasts, playing with a hardened nipple with his tongue, and then finishing up with his meal before dinner.

  Clyde entered the tight woman and they rocked. The young man didn’t forget to pull out in time. After finishing, the duo snuck to the showers.

  Needless to say, the steak dinner that evening tasted even better.

  As everyone prepare to leave the table, Clyde noticed Harumi’s good mood was gone. She typed something in her phone, but from the look of things, hadn’t received a reply.

  “Harumi, what’s wrong?” Clyde asked.

  “Liru hasn’t replied to my texts or answered any calls all day,” Harumi said. “This is strange behavior for her…She’s usually the one worried about me.”

  “Shall we pop in on your Onee-chan?” Natalia said. She looked at Clyde expectantly.

  He nodded.

  “I’ll be buying a house in her nation soon, so we may as well take a look first hand.”

  Episode 50 (Part 1): Preparations and Finals

  Clyde had no idea that the news of a single man destroying the entire inquisition spread like a wildfire. The Watchers who viewed the event had expressions ranging from awed, to excited, to worried. Some wondered if they’d get blamed. But the situation in Celestial continued to get trickier.

  Every corner of the world would soon know the inquisition was annihilated. Even the crusaders. Even Chizuru, who carried out her new master’s orders. Even Tessa, his childhood friend.

  **

  Clyde’s house…

  Clyde took a moment to realize that all of Team Stone’s female members lived with him now. He thought about creating a men’s only chat, but realized he’d never use it. Why the hell would he want to text them anything outside of Team Stone business. Sure, hanging out wasn’t bad, but he’d rather just spend time with the women.

  As Clyde waited for Toru, Yusuke, and Seth to arrive—Ruri left to retrieve them, he contemplated on his actions for the day.

  The others knew of his abilities, but not the system, something in which he couldn’t reveal. He would tell everyone the news with Liru, Harumi’s big sister present. Her only relative. The young man only knew his kitsune fiancée was pregnant, but nothing beyond that. Did the Supreme’s influence affect her? Maybe he should get in touch with someone who could drop a magical nuke on the Supreme’s home and call it a day. Then again, knowing the anime tropes, it wouldn’t work. Otherwise, Alice’s father would probably be a dead man.

  Clyde was a little nervous that morning, but for some unexplainable reason, very happy. He still wanted a few pointers, maybe some advice, but Hinako was teaching, Toru ran errands for his father’s company and Seth responded way too late. He decided to ask Noona to accompany him for a serious talk, no personas allowed. She reluctantly agreed. When he told her the truth, she insisted on them meeting at a clothing department.

  Clyde didn’t know a thing about choosing baby clothes, especially before the baby was actually born, yet Noona, having been exposed to situations of pregnant and motherly servants knew way more than him.

  The woman’s sense of humor helped Clyde learn fast. She even taught the young man during lunch. Noona wanted to be the baby’s aunt or even godmother. Clyde had no doubt she had personas waiting for the role.

  Ultimately, that morning bought him a little knowledge and time to prepare for the reveal. After all, suddenly coming out with, “hey guys, I just fucked Harumi this morning and now she’s four hours pregnant ” wouldn’t work. Harumi did know and it warmed the man inside to know that she was happy too. The challenge would be to not spoil the kid…A difficult challenge. The baby would be spoiled.

  A hand squeezed his, pulling him out of his revelation. Harumi. Despite knowing her sister could be in trouble, the pink-haired girl still stood strong. She wasn’t perfect though. He’d have to work on having her immediately spill her troubles to Clyde the moment she sensed something off. Nobody was perfect. He’d protect her, she’d protect him. And that went for the entire harem.

  When Ruri returned with the rest of the men, Clyde Jumped Team Stone to Liru’s house, located in the nation of Terravon of the Zextral Continent. Ring City.

  [Area unlocked: Ring City, Terravon. Continent: Zextral.]

  “Stupid Seth,” Ruri said as they approached the door to Liru’s two-story house. Seth continued to rub his arm.

  “You didn’t have to punch me. You walked in right as I let out a loud one.” He dodged the angry hellhound’s series of super-fast punches while laughing. “Next time, just knock on the door like a regular person.”

  “Knock it off you two,” Matsume said. Clyde nodded his thanks. Harumi knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. No answer.

  “Move,” Alice said. “We have no time for pleasantries, I’ll—”

  “Let me,” Kanako said before his life mate could get all the words out. She walked through the door, unlocked it from the other side and swung it open.

  “I was going to open it…” Alice said. “I can enter unwarded locked rooms.”

  Kanako gave her an apologetic smile. Natalia hopped on Clyde’s shoulders.

  “Upstairs, we go, pervy-nii! Away-away-away.”

  Clyde sighed.

  “Fanout and search.”

  Team Stone nodded and followed the command. Of course, the house wasn’t that big, so they covered every room and closet quickly. No sign of life. Liru’s neat and tidy house looked as if it was on its way to being vacated.

  “Let’s go ask around,” Clyde said. “Do you know where she works? What about her daily routine?”

  “Liru’s a preschool teacher,” Harumi said. “And then afterwards, she volunteers at a local orphanage.”

  “Your sister’s a saint,” Toru said.

  “Just like our fox girl here,” Airi said. “Now let’s get moving. I met Liru in person like two times. Every other conversation has been barging in on Harumi’s video calls.”

  Harumi blushed.

  “Does anyone speak the language?” Seth asked.

  “They speak the common tongue, you dolt,” Ruri said.

  “How was I supposed to know?” Seth said.

  “History class or being silent,” Ruri said.

  “She’s still mad about the—” Yusuke quickly found the sky to be quite interesting as the hellhound princess’s glare washed over him. She dared the blue-haired young man to mentioned Seth’s disgusting act.

  Clyde tuned them out, but not without noting that interesting tidbit about the common tongue. He didn’t bother to learn much in terms of languages due to his Mystic ability to speak and understand them all. His life would be a living hell if he weren’t able to verbally communicate with his friends.

  The group first stopped at the preschool. Many teachers either recognized Harumi, knew of her, or guessed that she was a relative. The last they heard from Liru was the previous day. Alarmed that something possibly happened to a fellow teacher, Liru’s coworkers notified the police.

  In the meantime
, Clyde and the others pushed forward to the orphanage, but not without making sure that the coworkers would direct the police there too.

  Unfortunately, no one at the orphanage had heard from Liru since the previous day. This…was seriously worrying. Clyde could see it in his fiancée’s eyes.

  They continued to ask around for an hour, but bared no results. Then Clyde realized that he was a fucking idiot. He glared at Ruri. The solution to their problems walked among them the entire time.

  “Let’s head back to Liru’s,” Clyde said with barely contained anger. “And get our hellhound friends to sniff them out.”

  Ruri and Matsume frowned as the entire party looked at them.

  “You know, that idea didn’t even occur to me,” Tear said.

  “But they’re ass sniffers,” Natalia laughed, “they should—ow!” Alice removed her fist from the loli’s head.

  “Do not make me go back to hanging you on the ceiling again,” the half-demoness said.

  Natalia pouted, but said nothing.

  “We’re not dogs.” Matsume said. She gave the loli a look that dared her to use hellhound derogatory language. Natalia snuggled her face into Clyde’s neck.

  “So mean! Bullies,” Natalia said. “Booby cow bullies.”

  Upon reaching Liru’s again via Jumping, Harumi grabbed a worn shirt from her sister’s laundry.

  “You should give them panties,” Seth said. Clyde formed a paper fan using his energy materialize skill. Alice snatched it and delivered divine punishment upon the blond boy’s head.

  [Special Tier Skill: Energy Materialize. Type: light, deity. Class: epic . Form weapons and objects made of energy in your hands. The more MP invested, the larger the object. Chance to inflict light blight at 4% Chance to burn at 2%].

  Ruri and Matsume reluctantly took whiffs of the dirty shirt. Neko laughed. Ako sighed.

  “Neko, it is impolite to laugh when they’re doing their best to locate someone’s lost sister, nya.”

  “Nya, but the expressions—”

  Ruri threw the shirt in Neko’s face then stormed off, muttering something about skinning cats.

  “Let’s go before she rips out the catgirl’s throat,” Matsume said.

  Clyde mentally kicked himself for not printing out a map for the city. Without that, he couldn’t use his Mental Navigation System to pinpoint any targets. Oh well, there was nothing wrong with giving the hellhounds a chance to shine for once. Why didn’t the system generate this as a quest? Maybe it fit under the dragon threat storyline. He hoped not. He wanted to conduct the investigation hands-on. Anything to keep him out of Lot City just a little longer.

  For the next hour, Ruri moved fast as she tracked the scent midair. Either magic was involved, or she possessed one hell of a nose. It was midafternoon on this side of the world. The warm temperature beat having to deal with the late autumn chill, especially during a chase. He wished they were here on a better occasion so that the party could enjoy the numerous cherry blossom trees.

  Eventually they were taken to the cliché abandoned warehouse. Fuck. If the perpetrator made the effort to bring her all the way out, Harumi’s sister could be…

  He kicked the door open. A distant sound caught their ears. The sound of a squeaking mattress, thrumming rhythmically. Like sex. Team Stone drew their weapons. If Liru was being raped, the perpetrator would not escape this place alive.

  They were about to rush through the dark place and round the corner, but Ruri held up a hand. She followed a scent toward a nearby room. She opened it slowly. And there, they saw seven unconscious women tied up, but fully clothed. They were in line. Liru was second to the last.

  “Ming, call the police and get them to this location,” Clyde said.

  “Asu, get the ropes off them.”

  “Yes Master,” she said and with a single swipe at the air, the ropes burst into dust.

  “I smell…” Ruri gasped. “Mindflayer.”

  Episode 50 (Part 2)

  The party followed Ruri back into the main room.

  Clyde felt a little annoyed. This place had such an inconvenient design. From the entrance, it was basically a large area with two main paths. One which led to the room they just left. The path on the right ended at a closed door.

  Only a single lightbulb above poorly lit the place. Empty boxes of… ramen covered the floors. Dust paraded. The air stank of staleness and mold. The young man felt uneasy about the corner ahead, turning points which could house a number of nasty surprises.

  As if to encourage them to progress, the bed squeaking grew louder.

  “What the hell’s a mindflayer?” Clyde asked in a low voice.

  “Kun, kun.” Ruri wrinkled her nose. “And she’s definitely in the middle of something.”

  “A mindflayer’s a…Well, you’ll see. Everyone be on your guard,” Matsume said. “Don’t let her tentacles get anywhere near you. She won’t hesitate to shove them in your ear and take control.”

  “That’s just gross,” Seth said.

  “Let’s get this out of the way,” Clyde said. “Ruri, lead on.”

  “Wha—what? Why should I go first?” Ruri said.

  “For the nose,” Clyde said.

  “I think we all know she’s around the—”

  The squeaking suddenly intensified, cutting off the hellhound princess. A loud, inhuman moan echoed throughout the warehouse. That was followed up by a human woman’s scream. The party rushed on, weapons ready, spells on the tips of their fingers.

  What they saw almost made them take a pause—but Clyde sure as shit didn’t want to give the thing a chance to attack.

  It was a grotesque purple monster, with tentacles growing from her head, rather than hair. Shaped like a busty woman, with a cocky expression for her human prey, the mindflayer…well, it didn’t exactly wear clothes. Instead, it sported some kind of pink membrane, shaped like a dress. However, no one could miss the second creature on its abdomen.

  It was a squid-like thing, no bigger than a basketball. It took on the same purple color as its host, blank blue eyes large. Suspicious white liquid oozed from behind it.

  Clyde analyzed the fucking bizarre creature before him.

  Mindflayer

  Level: 180

  Type: Monster

  Work under: N/A.

  Special: Tentacle Special. [Any caught by this will be subjected to mind control or…well, you know the deal. And the tentacles don’t discriminate in their choices. Does severe damage.]

  Weakness: lightning, holy, purity.

  Resistances: dark and water.

  Secret: there are too many stolen memories of its female victims to follow.

  The victim was an unconscious naked woman on the mattress who more than likely fainted after taking a glimpse at the nightmare in front of her. She had a tentacle inside her and in her ear.

  “Mmm, that felt great” the mindflayer said, its voice a cross between a woman and…well, Clyde wasn’t sure what. Maybe a hi-pitched ghost? “So many to choose from the city. So much to do. And I could easily implant the desires that would eventually turn them into mindflayers. Men into squids.” The monster chuckled. “The Silent Ones, those who thrive in chaos and live beneath the abyss, will be pleased to see my work carried out.”

  The mindflayer turned to the group, her tentacle pulling out of the woman with suspicious white liquid trailing from the tip. She pulled the other one from her ear. “And now we have volunteers.”

  “Yeah, no,” Clyde said. “Rapey squid lady, yeah, this is just...ugh. Kill it. Burn it. She’s not even worth using to make calamari. And to think she was about to do this to Liru.”

  The fried squid joke struck a nerve, as she sneered at the young man. A tentacle shot out in his direction.

  [Your party has entered a Boss fight!]

  Clyde’s mystic senses guided his wind blade before his conscious mind took the sidestep. The flashed sword sliced, sending purple tentacle flying. The mindflayer screamed for a second, before a
nother one instantly grew back in its place. Of course. Why wouldn’t it? Clyde rolled his eyes at the high speed regeneration trope.

  The young man decided that with so many people in his party, he wouldn’t keep track of the entire team’s attacks. Fuck that, he thought.

  [Boss HP has dropped to 480%]

  The mindflayer bent her legs than made a long jump. She stuck to the ceiling, which was several meters high. Nothing strange for a warehouse. Harumi, aimed her wand.

  [Harumi has invoked Kitsune form!]

  Her aura shook the place as it blazed around her like a blue fire. This wasn’t an ordinary transformation, but the same one from the vampire mansion. The one that came with the personality change.

  “Squid meat thinks she’s going to violate my blood one. She caught her by a cowardly surprise attack.” The kitsune tossed the wand to the side. “Move. I’ve got a nice surprise for this one. Go distract her or something.”

  [Kitsune, Harumi is preparing a devastating attack that may wipe out the entire city and kill the party. Make sure it hit the target or you will get a game over.]

  [Time limit: 3 minutes.]

  “Harumi, what the hell, no—” Clyde tried to say but was blown backward by the intense aura. The mindflayer rained tentacles down on the party. One of them bashed Seth to the side. Another hit Toru.

  [Seth’s HP has dropped to 90%]

  [Toru’s HP has dropped to 95%]

  Clyde easily dodged the few that came in his way. He sliced any that attempted to disturb Harumi.

  [Time limit: 2 minutes.]

  The mindflayer cackled.

  “What’s the matter? Can’t join me up here? Personally, I prefer the air !”

  Clyde shook his head.