The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #8 a LitRPG (ATS) Read online

  “I wish I had one,” Airi said, stars growing, forming a small pulse, but it wasn’t enough.

  “Anyway, that’s not the point,” the young man continued. “Sure, the treasures we received were great, like gaining everything the Ashfall family owned, but there’s something bigger at play. That’s not even counting whatever world star fragments are. There has to be some kind of reward at the end of all of this. Now that I’m thinking about it, what do the Watchers—”

  Airi anime-dove onto Clyde, eyes gleaming, and the mountain of questions erupted. He placed a finger over her lip.

  “I can only answer those for Team Stone members,” he said. “And again, I’d like to offer you a spot. No one’s forced to stay onboard of course. Breaks and even departures are allowed.” He laid back, thinking and doing his best to ignore the massive tower that rose to the occasion. Airi smirked until Harumi pulled her off with a single hand, annoyance in her eyes. Clyde continued. “Your skills will be better off here than anywhere else, Airi.”

  “Is that all?” She said, folding her arms. “Bribes and my skills?”

  “No,” he said, sitting up.

  “Oh?” Airi’s eyes twinkled.

  “But that’s a secret,” Clyde said. “If you leave—”

  “You want me that badly,” Airi said with a humorous tone.

  The other women blushed, taking the innuendo to the peaks of their minds. Clyde laughed.

  “You know what, I do want you badly,” he said. “Airi, you’ve got a lot of questions. I’ve got a lot of questions—”

  She jumped him again, eyes starry.

  “Are you going to answer them? What’s an enemy drop? What kind of power do you use to make chests appear? Can you share it with others? What kind of loot do you have? Do you want to plan some raids tonight, maybe alone and naked? What’s it like being—”

  “Airi,” Harumi said tiredly, plucking the young woman off Clyde again.

  Airi cleared her throat, blush bright and visible despite her brown skin. Anime logic. The young man was sure that even bluest of monster girls wouldn’t escape the anime-girl blush.

  “I still have a lot of things at my apartment,” she said then held up a hand, forestalling the young man. “Yes, an apartment. It doubly served as a place of storage, being on the go all the time.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say,” Clyde said. “I mean I started off with an apartment and a measly hundred bucks because the Watchers wanted to be cheapos. Anyway, either Tear or I could give you the Jumping power needed—”

  “You’ve never been to my city,” Airi said, “but I’ll accept Tear’s hospitality. You’re just trying to sneak a peek into a girl’s room. Although,” she gave Clyde a poster anime girl smile, “you’re welcome every night.”

  “Perve,” Melody said. Airi laughed.

  “There’s nothing wrong with asking for a drinking buddy,” she said then whispered, “and more.”

  Clyde offered her a hand.

  “Welcome to Team Stone.”

  She seemed taken aback at first, then accepted the handshake.

  “You forgot to welcome me to the harem,” she said in a joking manner, though the young man somehow knew it wasn’t. The other women sighed. Harumi didn’t bother to yank her away again, but she didn’t look displeased.

  Clyde wanted to hi-five the entire team for permanently gaining a super druid. They’d have to work on the God of Wisdom mode thing, coordinate and train. He realized it the prior night that it wasn’t anywhere close to full power. Nothing unexpected, since the transformation was fucking unheard of. Ah well, he’d worry about that later. One cannot promise his team a break then pull the rug from under their feet.

  Airi suddenly kissed him, causing the others to blush. Even Clyde blinked, but kept himself composed. His policy of not being an infuriating harem main character still held strong. The only women that still made him nervous were Tear and Yuki. Well, not nervous, but it was always a thrill to interact with them. Especially Tear.

  “That’s the welcoming kiss, right?” Airi said.

  “Alright, someone’s trolling too much,” Harumi said. “Let’s go call Tear.”

  “I’m not trolling,” Airi said, laughing and hugging the young man. She grabbed his boner. “Shouldn’t we do something about this—”

  “Let’s go.” Harumi yanked her up and away the trio went, leaving Clyde there, sitting. He glanced at the delayed prompt.

  [Ki increased! +1 to Purity, Romance, and Command, crests of Melody]

  [You have started to learn Cloaking, level 1. Requirement: Aura at 10 (Met), Speed at 5 (Met), and Spirit at 3. You need two more Spirit.]

  He gulped upon inspecting his Ki chart.

  [Harumi: Life: 2. Lightning: 2. Heart: 4.]

  [Kitome: Strength:1. Passion:2. Energy: 1.]

  [Alice: Soul: 6. Command: 9. *Radiance *: 6.]

  [Chika: Vitality: 9. Speed: 9. Aura: 10.]

  [Yuki: Heart(above), Mystery: 2. Power: 2

  [Maki: Ambition: 2 Command(above), Submission: 2]

  [Neko: Unpredictable: 1 Spark: 1 Rain: 1]

  [ Tear: Spirit: 1 Passion (above) Love: 1]

  [Kanako: Sweet: 1. Magical: 1. *Range *: 1]

  [Airi: Leadership: 1, Defense: 1, Nature: 1.]

  [Melody: Purity: 1, Romance: 1, Command(above)]

  Chika’s horniness saved him a crap ton of grinding time—Ki skills too FOREVER to learn naturally. Then again, his dragon breath one-shot some strong enemies, so it was nothing to sneeze at. Leveling skills were the best. Approaching Tear, his undeserved…

  “What is she to me?” Clyde said as he left the pink-haired girl’s room. A miracle he went undetected, because that would be surely the moment someone…

  Sniffing caught his attention. And not just any kind, but the anime girl/ manga variant.

  “Kun, kun.”

  Clyde turned to see Ruri smiling at him.

  “Really?” he deadpanned. “Well, since you’re here, my favorite hellhound friend ever.” His smile shifted to evil, gaining the desired teary-eyed anime expression. The drooping ears almost made his nose bleed. “Guess who’s going to meet Sazuki with me.”

  He’d check the ID store later. Hopefully it gave him something good this time.

  Episode 41 (Part 2)

  Unknown City…

  Chapel…

  Chizuru, the great crusader champion, the maiden who walks in the light, defender of the weak and helpless, blah blah….was hiding from her nun caretaker. Stuffing her face with potato chips and watching anime on her tablet, the young woman melted in her happy place. Even if it was just some random closet.

  The nun went on about health and fitness, living for the weak, and noble things that Chizuru just couldn’t find herself caring about during her off time. Too bad she couldn’t bring her secret collection of Loli saga books. The others wouldn’t approve her anime and manga addiction …ugh…She couldn’t be obsessed with potato chips. That was a thought she had while shoving another handful into her mouth.

  “Lady Chizuru!” her nun called out, eyes probably teary. “We have the meeting with the priests.”

  The crusader champion continued to ignore the call. They were about two days or so from Lot City. Of course if they ignored the dumb stops, they’d get to the place faster, take care of the problem, and move on.

  Normal girls didn’t have to deal with this. She hoped she’d at least find a worthy person to talk about anime with…or Anything that didn’t involve stupid fighting or being an empty heroine of justice. Why did superheroes have to lose their lives and motivation to have fun just to deal with the problems of the public? Shouldn’t the paid authorities be trained for this? Trained like her?

  Stupid special powers! Stupid goddess proclaiming her a prodigy.

  She…did love to save people though and didn’t want to be “rewarded” for it. She opened her bag, shaking her head at the thirtieth love letter of the week from one of the male crusaders. Was
it from arrogant Joe or the way-too-admiring-and-groveling, girl? She shuddered when that annoying girl basically tried to bed her. How many kicks to the face will it take to get across her point? She even mocked Chizuru with her “onee-sama” obsession.

  The crusader champion shuddered then pulled out a hand mirror. The reflecting image…Long wavy blue hair with matching eyes and a bust that will always keep the endless stream of love letters coming. She shredded the current one.

  “Why are people such idiots?” she said then grabbed the bottle of juice next to her. Ten minutes of struggling to opening it later, she chugged and binge-watched her favorite animes.

  As she got up, the young woman painfully stubbed her toe against the corner of a small table. A tear dropped from her eye. “Ow...”

  Corners were dangerous. Meanie corners. She pouted until the pain left.

  **

  Sato Academy…

  Student Council room…

  Clyde watched Ruri look around in wonder, sniffing things, wagging her tail in excitement. Her eyes were wide at the thought of attending a human school and eating all kinds of foods, though mostly meat.

  He got a kick out of watching her at first, but Sazuki killed the mood with a text stating she and Kiko were going to be an hour late. Conveniently, most of his party members came up with one excuse after another for tardiness. Even Alice, claiming she had House Hades business and would drop by within the hour.

  “These motherfuckers,” Clyde said, shaking his head. He took a seat, wondering if he should just leave. Ruri suddenly straddled the young man. She licked his face then kissed him.

  “Since they’re going to be late, let me lose control of my urges…please.” She blushed, tail wagging.

  Clyde’s erection answered for him. Ruri’s eyes went lusty as she first pulled off her gym shorts then panties, shoving the blue-striped goldmine in his pocket, then unzipped his pants. He didn’t get the chance to tell her that maybe they shouldn’t have sex at the school during the day, but the hellhound wasn’t listening.

  She drooled upon the mount. The mount that felt incredibly good, tight. And it awakened the beast within.

  She squeezed and rode wildly and a little awkwardly. Virgin awkwardly. He gave her a suspicious look, but she just continued the dance, juices seeming to leak everywhere. She snuggled against him after the climax, cheerful.

  [Your relationship with Ruri has increased to Friend, Closer level 7 and endearment.]

  Eventually Sazuki arrived to work Clyde and Ruri like slaves. There were other students around, assisting. A lot of the men wanted to gut Clyde at the sight of yet another strikingly beautiful girl. Ruri kept out her dog ears and tail—but the perverted men thought she was cosplaying. The female students muttered choice words at them.

  “Clyde, could you help me carry these boxes,” Sazuki said after twenty-minutes into the festival-setup activity.

  “Sure,” he replied. “Ruri, I’ll be back.”

  She cheerfully waved then resumed assisting the others.

  He heard someone say,

  “We should do a maid café!”

  “No way, pervert,” one of the girls said.

  “A cosplay café and Ruri could be our idol,” another said, voice dorky.

  Clyde just shook his head. Matsume was on her way. Oof, he thought. Maybe he could make it back in time to see the ass-kicking.

  As he lifted a heavy box to place on a shelf, a pair of blue-striped panties fell onto the floor. He and Sazuki stared at each other for nearly a minute. The young man gave her a sheepish smile.

  “There’s a perfectly good explanation for this,” he began.

  “Yeah-huh,” Sazuki said, unconvinced, arms folded. She tapped her foot repeatedly against the floor.

  “You see, this is just a prank,” he said. “You know how hellhounds are.”

  Sazuki’s eyes widened then she softly facepalmed. Clyde wasn’t fooling anyone.

  “So beneath the gym shorts, she’s…”

  “Well…yeah,” Clyde said. “I forgot to give her back her—”

  “This isn’t adding up,” Sazuki said. “No…you two had sex—”

  “President!” a girl said. “Misaka fainted.”

  Sazuki sighed.

  “I swear. How can a girl be so pretty yet frail? We’ll continue this later.”

  Clyde sighed.

  “Just try not to overstep your lecturing,” he said. “I am your leader.”

  She flushed, as if just now remembering.

  “S…sorry. Still, you shouldn’t…in school.” She hurried off. Who the hell was Misaka? Clyde shrugged. Just another rich girl at Sato Academy.

  The rest of Team Stone’s students arrived half an hour later or so. Somehow Sazuki and Clyde ended up alone together, chatting.

  “So, you can use your metal elements to summon little steel golems?” Clyde said. Sazuki nodded.

  “Toru helped me grind as much as possible at the Libado Grasslands,” she said. “If I get stronger, I should be able to bring out some interesting creatures. I can also make objects.” She sighed. “But I’m not very good at that yet.”

  Clyde nodded twice.

  “So you’re the team summoner. That’s awesome.” He stood and looked out the window of the student council room, admiring the late afternoon scenery. “Before you become full members, I will give you one last test.” He walked over to Sazuki, almost pinning her to the wall. The black-haired, gray-eyed young woman blushed. “How does Tuesday sound? You and your sister pass it, you’ll be full-fledged members.”

  A look of determination flashed into the student council president’s eyes.

  “Whatever it takes,” she said.

  Clyde smiled, breaking the tense mood.

  “Good. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go make sure Alice isn’t stuffing her face with cheesecake while everyone else is working.”

  “Wait…” Sazuki started to say.

  “Hmm?” Clyde was halfway out the door.

  “N…never mind. Go help the others.”

  “You got it, pres,” he said then hurried off.

  Sazuki bit her lip. She…she’d never been that close to a guy before, especially one as attractive as the leader. He gave off an unnatural vibe, yet…she felt curious. Adventurous…She shook herself. Student council president, not horny schoolgirl. She didn’t have time for things like that…

  But…He. Was that some kind of invite? But the other girls. Sazuki wasn’t a fool though. Within Team Stone, many of the girls loved that man. A harem and she actually considered joining it. How did they get along knowing they had to share the same guy? Did he somehow make time for all of them? She sighed.

  Pointless thoughts. She was about to become the team’s summoner. Undine told her she’d one day be able to summon giant metal dragons—ones that would make even gods tremble, whatever that meant.

  Sazuki nodded, determination in her eyes. She’d do her best…And maybe…get as close as possible to her team leader. She blushed.

  “That idiot…he’ll need to take responsibility…”

  Episode 41 (Part 3)

  Classroom…

  Clyde took the time to somewhat appreciate the setting of an anime classroom. Hinako and the rest of the teachers were gone of course, leaving the students to do all the work, but the idea of the event still made the young man excited. His home world had pep rallies, which sucked ass.

  Currently, he worked on signs with the men. Alice and the girls were creating pamphlets, food menus, and schedules.

  “I still say we should do a bikini contest,” Seth told Clyde. Clyde grinned, agreeing.

  “Toru,” he said. The noble’s returned evil grin confirmed him being onboard with the plan.

  “I can convince a few people in some higher places to make it happen,” Toru said.

  “Hell yes,” Seth said. “Clyde, I know they’re your girls, but.” He whispered. “Invite Tear and Yuki for this, so it will serve as a motivator for t
he other girls. Even Maki.”

  “And if Maki participates, they all will,” Yusuke said as he approached. “Why am I not surprised, Seth? You’re a fucking genius.”

  Seth laughed.

  “But wouldn’t your reaperess of death girlfriend be really pissed if she finds out—”

  “Ah, she’ll be fine,” Yusuke said.

  “Are you going to get her to participate?” Clyde said.

  “I think she’ll be curious enough to do so,” he said.

  “It’s all good with me,” Seth chuckled. “Just leave the kids at home. We don’t need Natalia and Nina to ruin the show.”

  At that moment, a chill glided up Clyde’s spine. He shuddered, sensing a familiar presence approaching the classroom.

  “You guys deal with the brat,” he whispered, gaining confused looks from the three men. “Drinks or food on me if you can keep my location hidden.”

  He nearly flashed stepped into the room’s closet, lightly shut the door, and peered through the peephole while in darkness. He could’ve sworn he heard snoring, but tuned that out to his imagination.

  Natalia skipped in.

  “Where’s pervy-nii?” she said loudly and embarrassingly, while everyone else spoke in hushed tones or amongst their groups. Clyde softly facepalmed as the entire class looked at her.

  “Don’t know,” Seth said. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  She ignored the blonde and poked Yusuke.

  “Dummy-ninja, have you seen him?”

  Yusuke comically snarled. Some of the classmates snickered.

  “Who are you calling dummy-ninja?”

  Natalia looked around.

  “Maybe I should have a certain someone sniff him out.”

  “She’s so cute,” one of the girls said. “What’s your name?”

  A group of girls surrounded the loli. Clyde grinned evilly. Snoring… He turned to see an impressive view of Matsume. He internally begged his horn not to rise, but it did of course. Large breasts, legs open revealing…bear panties. He snickered, causing her to wake up. He placed a finger on his lip. The hellhound grinned evilly, pulling the young man onto her and she took a huge whiff.