Gacha Kingdom Building

I\'m happy that everyone liked it, but I couldn\'t expect that everyone would go so far for it.

I could imagine Ellie and Anna, but even Mia and Bea? That was pretty surprising.

Not to mention...

Miwen: "Where\'s Claire?"

Licia: "Hnmm... Dunno... Maybe she fell off the bed?"

Miwen: "Yeah, right."

It was so early that even Licia wasn\'t completely awake yet even though she\'s normally among the first to get up.

I went to the kitchen directly after leaving the bed, only to find Claire getting a headstart on everyone else.

Miwen: "A proud knight has fallen to the point of sneaking through dawn just to... steal cake?"

Claire: "I\'m not stealing though? It\'s first come, first serve, right?"

I never said that though...

Miwen: "Oh but it\'s not me that you have to convince you know?"

In a second I accepted everyone\'s request, and a bunch of girls suddenly appeared in the kitchen.

They quickly made sense of the situation unfolding before their eyes and with incredible strength, a dark, malicious aura started to emanate from them.

Miwen: "Alright, I\'ll be up in a few minutes, so be sure to behave."

Sensing that a murder was about to take place, I decided to flee to the comfort of my bed.

The only problem was that...

Licia: "...Sounds like a war down there."

Miwen: "It pretty much is."

I couldn\'t enjoy resting with Licia due to the noise, but neither of us wanted to go down either.

Even though she\'s usually the one keeping everyone in line, it would be suicide to put her neck out there.

Eventually, it started to look like things had settled down, so Licia and I went to check the situation.

The good news is that no one died. The bad news is that there were cuts and footmarks here and there on the walls.

Also... why is the floor wet?

Licia: "What did I tell you about jumping on the walls... and the ceiling?"

Mia: "S-sorry..."

Since she didn\'t stop eating to apologize, she had her ears down while maintaining a gleeful smile. It was hard to know if she meant it or not, but it seemed to be enough for now.

Licia: "Also, don\'t use magic to attack inside the house. What are you going to do if you break something?"

Bea: "I-it was j-just water so... and I was striking for upwards from a pool, so it was very precise... a-and... it\'s gonna evaporate anyway?"

Pretty good arguments, I for one am totally convinced. Still, an angry Licia is not so easy to persuade, and trying to do so will only make your punishment harsher.

You just need to ask Claire about it and she could testify for days straight.

Licia: "It will not though? After you guys finish eating I\'m expecting you to clean this mess up or else..."

Everyone: "Y-yes ma\'am."

Even Claire, who was dealt a comically small piece ended up accepting her punishment as it seems like she got thoroughly disciplined today.

And while this situation was dealt with, another one came just before we departed to the dungeon.

Seems like her previous punishment was not enough, after all, she still got a piece.

The girls decided to use Claire as their test subject for everything that Bea bought and decided to do her makeup.

I was expecting them to take longer since there were plenty of things to experiment with, but with their combined might they ended up being pretty quick.

I can\'t say I like the result too much though... even more so considering her red hair.

Bea: "So, what do you think?"

Miwen: "Hm... 10 out of 10 if you wanted to make her a clown."

Bea & Claire: "Ehh?"

For starters, too much foundation. I get that they wanted to use red as much as possible to go along with her hair color and choice for clothes but... yeah, a bit too much, even more so considering how thickly they applied the lipstick.

The eyebrows and the eyeliner were also...

Miwen: "Go wash your face Claire, I\'ll do it for you."

Licia: "You can do makeup?"

Miwen: "If it\'s just a little bit. Bea, give me that other brush set we got please."

As soon as Claire was finished, she came back and I started applying some pretty basic foundation on her.

To be fair, she\'s already very pretty, so it would be a waste to do something drastic. Also, I\'m not confident I could do that much.

Knowing the blushes and using the girls\' past mistakes went a long way, and I used light tones to avoid giving her an unnatural appearance.

There was not much to do in regards to her eyebrows, just filling one spot or two spots with the pencil was enough.

Last, I didn\'t think her lips needed too much, just some Lip Balm was enough to add a bit to her charm.

I could\'ve done more, but this much felt enough. I had to stare really hard to notice that she was using any makeup at all, so she might not be too satisfied with it, but still, the way it fit unseemingly with her natural look was a quality in my eyes.

Miwen: "So, what do you think?"

I used the mirror so that she could see for herself how it ended up.

Claire: "...Uwaah... That\'s... How?"

She had a very genuine smile on her face, which frankly, did more for her looks than any makeup could.

Miwen: "When sis started doing makeup, she sucked at it. So while trying to help her I ended up learning a bit. Since that one is the same brush kit she had, I kind of cheated a bit."

I\'ll probably never understand why pretty girls see the need to use makeup though.

I can understand why sister was interested in it since she was pretty young when she started doing it, but while she wasn\'t the type of girl that would attract everyone\'s attention like Bea or Claire, she had a modest charm to her, pretty close to Anna and Ellie\'s, so I always wondered why she kept doing it.

She did become incredibly good at it though, and since I haven\'t been polishing this skills, if she was in my place, she could probably do way better.

And now that I\'m thinking about it... why would they do makeup in the first place if we\'re going to the dungeon?

Licia: "No one does makeup expecting it to last forever."

Miwen: "I guess..."

The girls wanted me to make theirs too, but it would take too long, so I told them that once we got home later today I could help them out so that they can do it themselves whenever they feel like it.

I was going to walk to the dungeon with Licia for no particular reason, it\'s just that her company is pretty calm, but Claire insisted on going too, so the three of us went together.

She walked with a smug smile, head held high, showing all of her... pride.

Every stop on the way would prompt her to ask for a photo, which Licia happily agreed to.

I couldn\'t even complain since I also liked the idea of having these fun moments stored somewhere so that we could revisit them whenever we wanted.

It was also good to see how far they\'ve come with technology. When it comes to common daily things, their knowledge is pretty much the same as anyone born on Earth.

They still struggle with a few things that are normally out of everyday sight, but it\'s at the level where that could be chalked up to ignorance or lack of interest if I had to pass them as girls born on Earth.

It took us way longer than it should have, but we finally entered the dungeon.

Once we got to a safe place, I brought the girls from inside the kingdom, and we resumed our dungeon-raiding activities.

We got to level 23 and were somewhat close to 24, so, I thought it would be a good idea to go all out and try to hit the level cap today.

If things go the way we planned, by tomorrow we should be ready to face the floor boss.

Venturing too deep through a path always leads to difficult confronts though, but we were managing well enough.

Thanks to Licia\'s training and the skill levels in [Swordsmanship] that I shared with Mia, she had a pretty clear improvement in fighting with the daggers.

She still fights better barehanded, but it\'s good enough for her to consider it as a second option in case an opponent demands it, like the monsters on this floor.

We were a bit deep when we managed to hit level 24, so we decided to rest a little before continuing.

It was then that a second party showed up.

There were humans, dwarves, and demons among them. Their total number amounted to nine people.

Four of them were humans, while three were demons and the other two were dwarves.

As soon as they approached, the girls readied their weapons.

They immediately reacted by doing the same, but a girl with a tail and wings told them to drop their guard.

She had an enticing smile and was barely wearing clothes, though what caught my attention most of all was her purple lips.

She sat right in front of us and told the other members of her party to do the same.

Then, she pointed her finger toward Claire and... complimented her. She also started asking questions about her makeup.

The dwarves on the back left their weapons, a mace, and an axe on the floor, reached for their bags, and brought out bottles of alcohol.

It was the first time I had such an encounter inside the dungeon, and it was prompted by a demon of all things.

I checked the bottles to see if there was nothing out of place, but they were clear.

The woman leading them is a succubus, she\'s called Erika. She\'s a level 50 mage and is helping her sister\'s party get through the fifth floor.

Since there\'s the whole thing with the sacrifice before fighting the boss, I can understand why she would be worried and lend a hand to her sister, even though this party seems to be working for some time now, it\'s better to be safe than sorry.

These guys were pretty friendly, and I finally got to feel firsthand why it\'s said that demons are the easiest to deal with from all the races of the other world.

They are very... unrestricted. Speaking their mind no matter what, they also seem to be pretty nonchalant about contact. Even the humans from this very party can\'t warm up so easily to us, even though our party consists of mostly humans, to begin with.

There was one unexpected problem though... perhaps, Erika was a bit too friendly.

She was very close to me and even had her arm around my shoulder at one point.

Of course, the way she was being so chummy with me didn\'t go very well with the girls... But it was still in good fun, so aside from deathly stares, not much happened.

They offered to explore the dungeon together and made a pretty fair offer to share whatever we got from this point on evenly, without considering from which group was the person who managed to drop the item.

Since they had a number advantage over us, this would pretty much be a bad deal for them, so it was pretty nice of them to suggest it.

Still, we decided to go on our way. It\'s simply better for our party to go alone since we get way more experience.

This was pretty much the highlight of the day, as even though we found more [Lords] today, their Gifts either didn\'t comb as well, or they simply couldn\'t use them too well, so in the end, we managed to hit the level cap of this floor and head back home safely.