The fact that she didn't have to worry about men's eyes was something Ren deeply realized after moving.
People's gazes are surprisingly easy to read. Lewd stares from the opposite sex, in particular, are completely transparent. Coupled with the sharp senses of a succubus, she sometimes felt the illusion of her skin being caressed just by being looked at.
While she felt guilty recalling that she used to be "the observer," being "the observed" also bred a self-serving thought: "This is why men are..."
In that regard, a same-sex space was easy.
Of course, the same sex can be harsher than the opposite sex in some regards.
Being stared at in a "what is that outfit" manner can be quite painful, but girls are generally quite tolerant of stylish or cute outfits.
If they judge that the outfit suits the person and that the person isn't trying to attract the opposite sex, they often give genuine compliments.
Since Ren had gone to the trouble of creating a "women-only residential area" to minimize her encounters with men, even when she wore slightly revealing clothes, people would approach her kindly and say, "That's cute."
Given that Ren's wings and tail necessitated exposing more skin, she was very happy with this reaction.
...However,
"I really wonder about this one, though...?"
One day, Ren visited her familiar cosplay shop and frowned at an outfit the owner recommended.
"Huh, you don't like it? I think it's cute."
It was a garment that was too commonplace to be called "cosplay," yet too provocative to be called "casual wear" or "going-out clothes"—something that was truly difficult to react to.
Broadly speaking, it was a knit or sweater, characterized by a large opening at the back.
Using a garment meant primarily for warmth in this way was audacious, which made it stylish and liberating. Ren even thought it would be incredibly comfortable to wear.
"The Virgin-Killing Sweater, I highly recommend it!"
"No, the name itself is the main problem here!"
As per the history (?) of becoming famous within otaku culture at one point, it carried a strong image of being an erotic costume.
Of course, it was just a sweater, so there was no problem wearing it normally, but due to the large opening at the back, wearing it alone meant her chest might be visible from the side. In fact, wearing it with the intention of actively showing it off was arguably its original purpose.
Ren, who liked comfort but was wary of being overly erotic, was concerned.
Then the owner spoke up.
"In your case, there's nothing you can do about being looked at lustfully."
The frank and accurate observation pierced Ren's heart.
"You have a figure that even other women envy, you're cute, and you smell good even without perfume. People will think you're lewd unless you wear a full-body suit."
"Are you telling me to give up...?"
"Exactly. If anything, wouldn't being more confident mean you're looked at less lustfully?"
That was true.
Even with the open back, it should still be warm, and it was better to have something this comfortable for staying inside or walking nearby.
"I'll give you a discount; why don't you buy it?"
The price offered was a bargain, even by the standards of this world, let alone this shop.
"I'll buy it."
Ren didn't want to see a husband enthusiastically buying the item, only to be rejected by his wife and left desolate with the sweater in his hand. The sweater itself wouldn't have a happy ending either.
So, Ren paid and purchased the sweater.
Borrowing the fitting room, she put it on immediately.
"Ah, this is better than I thought."
"See?"
Her back felt incredibly comfortable.
Since wearing just this on bare skin would be too erotic, she would need to wear something underneath, but otherwise, it was an excellent item for winter indoor wear.
It might have been a surprisingly good purchase. She thanked the owner, returned home, and showed it to her companions.
"Ooh. Yeah, it's cute. You bought a good one."
Furi, her partner-like figure, praised her honestly. However, she then narrowed her eyes.
"But it emphasizes your chest, making it very erotic."
"Is that just because you're looking at me lustfully, Furi?"
"Yeah. Well, if someone you like wears an erotic outfit, it's bound to make you excited."
"Gasp."
Ren was the one who ended up blushing when told so directly.
Hastily averting her gaze, she looked at Iris and the others and asked, "What do you think?"
"I think it's cute! But I'm envious of you, Ren-san. It probably wouldn't suit me..."
"You think so? I think this kind of thing is cuter when the chest isn't too big."
When Iris tried it on, her slender figure made the slightly oversized sweater emphasize cuteness and style over lewdness.
Since she usually wore practical clothing when going out, this distinctly loungewear style was refreshing. Any man unfamiliar with Iris's private side might be knocked out immediately if they saw her.
"Hehe, is it cute?"
"It's incredibly cute. If you walked around town in that, everyone would try to pick you up."
"Hmph. Master. May I try it on as well?"
After complimenting Iris, Mei wanted to try it on too.
The backless style would likely suit her, given her pale, smooth skin.
"I think the maid outfit suits you better, Mei."
"Then how about wearing it over the maid outfit?"
"Hmm... Mei-chan, I don't think that would work. I mean, it would probably get stiff."
Since the maid outfit itself wasn't a skin-tight design, the sweater fabric might stretch out. Everyone intervened when Mei started trying hard to force it on.
"Phew, that was close. ...So, what do you think, Shion?"
"If I were to wear it myself, I would definitely hesitate, but I think it suits Ren-sama well. And it looks very warm."
"Thank you. But I think it loses out to Shion's fur in terms of warmth."
Ren tried hugging Shion while wearing the sweater.
The fox girl rubbed her cheek against the sweater as if checking its texture and murmured, "It's warm."
She was so adorable that Ren wanted to stay like that forever. The other members' expressions softened, and they all started stroking Shion, instantly warming the area around Ren.
Even the great sweater couldn't compete with human warmth.
Nevertheless, the item proved very useful for getting through the winter.
It would be perfect if she could lie around in a kotatsu (heated table) while eating snacks. Unfortunately, a kotatsu wasn't available, so they relaxed in front of the fireplace instead. On colder days or days with little sun, Shion also liked the spot near the fire and would nap beside Ren.
Mei, having finished her chores, also snuggled up to Ren to accumulate heat. Furi sighed at the three of them, saying, "You all have your own rooms, you know.""Magic Arrow!"
"Foxfire!"
The large Yōko darted through the humid air.
Shion, and Ren mounted on her, assaulted the Lizardman settlement at top speed, wiping out all the sentries with full-power magic.
Of course, even if they annihilated the enemies on the watchtowers, there were still countless enemies. It didn't take long for the Lizardmen on the ground to notice the anomaly and raise their voices—
The ten or so seconds before the enemies understood the situation and spoke was enough time for Ren and Shion to fire a second round of magic. Light arrows enchanted with homing capability pierced five or six Lizardmen, and Foxfire burned five others to ashes.
And then.
"Fireball!"
A large fire sphere struck the earthen wall directly.
A large hole was blasted into a part of the wall, significantly reducing the defensive capability of the enemy settlement.
While the Lizardmen hesitated, unsure whether to grab their bows and aim for the sky or take up weapons and strike the enemies on the ground, Ren and Shion continued to unleash their full power, without regard for pacing.
It was fine this time.
Allies—including the combat power of their cooperating party—were approaching from the ground.
The female mage who fired the previous Fireball created another one, destroying the earthen wall.
Iris's arrows, whose speed and power were enhanced by wind enchantment, pierced the enemies without mercy.
Mei, with her left forearm removed, fired an iron ball from the internal cannon, crushing a Lizardman and the wall of the house behind it.
The young swordsman and Mariabelle charged in while the confusion deepened, leveraging their physical abilities, assisted by the female cleric's support, to quickly carve a path.
"Homing is hard to use when allies are nearby—"
"Let's clear out the enemies in the back!"
It didn't take long before the Lizardman King was rushed out into the open.
The 30th-floor boss displayed impressive toughness, but once stripped of his entourage and surrounded by the three front-liners, he couldn't put up much of a fight.
His weapon arm was severed, his leg was kicked broken, and his skull was crushed by a mace. He vanished with a shriek of resentment, and the very few remaining Lizardmen also disappeared upon the King's demise.
"...Hah, it's finally over. No, that was rough."
The swordsman, the leader of the cooperating party, exhaled a sigh as he looked at the dropped items that appeared simultaneously with the enemy's disappearance.
Ren descended from the sky, folded her wings, and tilted her head at his grumbling.
"Really? I thought it ended as smoothly as it possibly could have."
"Don't be an idiot, that's exactly why! Imagine how much we would have struggled if we'd challenged it alone!"
Yes.
This 30th-floor conquest wasn't for Ren and her party but for their friends.
They had been gradually advancing their conquest while training their juniors (Sho, Ken, and the two girls of the native generation). It took them over a month after the New Year to finally clear the 29th floor. Then, judging that "solo conquest of the 30th floor is too difficult" due to the difficulty of the levels, they requested support from Ren's party.
Ren and the others agreed on the condition of "three-tenths of the reward." The result was as expected. Since they had already cleared it once and Iris and Mei had received a significant power-up, it was almost impossible for them to lose.
Conversely, what would happen if the friends challenged it with only four party members and no prior experience?
"Seriously, this dungeon is too sadistic. How much harder is it going to get?"
As the two Thieves, Furi and the male member of the other party, collected the drops, the leader complained again.
"You guys have seen the next level already, right? What was it like?"
"Hmm... Well, how should I put it? It felt like it got even more troublesome in another way."
Ren replied with a wry smile.
"We haven't seriously conquered it yet, but the Dark Elf forest is quite a handful."
-----------------
The new enemy was the Dark Elf—a subspecies of Elf with brown skin.
While the specific settings vary across different stories—some say it's due to worshipping a God of Darkness, others say it's due to being carnivorous—it was unknown exactly what kind of race the Dark Elves of this world were. However, it was confirmed that they excelled at bows and spirit magic, just like Iris.
Their habitat was a forest, not a cave.
The standing trees served as walls, and the mechanism was such that exploring the areas without trees felt similar to the dungeons they had traversed so far. However, assuming it was not much different would be a mistake.
Since the obstacles weren't walls but trees, they could take shortcuts if they wanted to.
There was no need to use magic like "Tunnel," as they did on the upper floors. Ignoring the narrowness and difficulty of walking, it was possible to take the shortest route.
Therefore, the enemies could also similarly cut through the trees.
The number of Wandering Monsters had increased compared to the upper floors, and Dark Elves were equipped with bows by default. If they lowered their guard thinking the trees were walls, arrows could suddenly fly in from the side, making it genuinely difficult to relax.
"Hmm... It's hard to notice ambushes because the sound doesn't echo much."
The burden on Furi, the Thief, had once again increased significantly.
Even though it was a natural field, traps were still set, and their concealment had become more skillful. If her concentration broke due to an enemy ambush, she risked misidentifying the trap locations because her sense of distance would be skewed.
"Leave it to me! I'm good in the forest!"
"I also have Danger Sense, so let's cooperate."
"Yeah, thanks, Iris-chan, Shion-chan."
It was a stroke of luck that the forest-raised Iris was with them.
She had ears that could detect faint footsteps without being misled by the rustling of leaves. Dark Elves were the natural enemy of Elves, apparently.
When asked if she felt any aversion to defeating an opponent so close to her own race, she replied,
"They are not my kin. They are monsters, and they are the enemy."
Elves seemed to have a racial aversion to Dark Elves. Iris, a Half-Elf, inherited a part of that and felt they were an opponent that must be defeated. Well, this might also be influenced by her mother.
The Dark Elves in the dungeon were indeed monsters.
Although they spoke something that sounded like a language, the translation function didn't work, so Ren and the others couldn't understand what they were saying. They were also full of hostility toward intruders, so discussion was impossible. In the end, they were simply an obstacle provided by the dungeon.
"The restriction on using fire is also troublesome."
"I feel like it would be faster if we could just burn the forest down."
"But then there would be no escape route..."
Since they were in a forest, using fire naturally carried the risk of ignition and fire.
Being caught in the flames would lead to exhaustion and loss of oxygen, ending the fight. They would annihilate the enemies, but they would also fall.
Although no new traps were introduced, the feature that "enemies can slip through the walls" was practically a new trap in itself. Given the sheer size of the forest, investigating the entire area thoroughly would be terrifyingly difficult.
"So, how did you guys conquer it?"
"Well, we burned the forest."
"Wait, I thought you said there was no escape route!?"
"We had an escape route, alright. Up."
Like the 20th and 30th floors, the ceiling of the new level was high up.
This meant that if they went high enough—far above the tree line—they wouldn't be attacked by the fire.
Ren carried Furi, and Shion carried Mariabelle on her back. Iris, having raised her Half-Elf level and learned a new skill, could fly on her own.
"And Mei doesn't feel the heat and doesn't breathe, so she's fine down below."
"That's a type of conquest strategy that absolutely can't be imitated...!"
"It's not all-purpose, though. The drops burned, too."
Mei's body also got nicely toasted, so it wasn't a damage-free endeavor. Since the stone and metal materials were hard to procure on this floor, they had to consume their stock to repair her.
Anyway, once the enemies were mostly annihilated, they extinguished the fire only near the boss room. After regrouping with Mei, who had walked over the ground, all they had to do was descend the stairs. They even bypassed the boss battle. The experience points for the monsters were distributed equally among all party members.
"Isn't that incredibly efficient...?"
"But our income was zero, or even a minus."
Moreover, there were no bonus experience points from casting magic.
Ultimately, if they didn't raise funds and gain experience on the 25th floor or so, they were bound to struggle later on. A solution that covers all bases is rarely available.
"I still envy you guys. You're probably going to leave us behind again."
"Don't worry about it. The more allies, the better."
Conquering the dungeon—or rather, reaching the bottom floor—required a numbers game.
The fact that Ren and the others could clear the previous floors so easily was largely due to the cumulative information provided by pioneers. Furthermore, the difficulty from this point on would jump higher than ever.
It was necessary to get as many parties as possible to the lower levels to gather information and discover new strategies.
Having one incredibly strong party wouldn't be enough; if that party fell, the quest would end there. They all needed to work together to prevent that.
That was the reason the man who acted as the leader in the other world, the middle-aged man called the Sage, tried so hard to send people into the dungeon.
"If we can get ahead of you, that's fine. The information we get will make it easier for you."
While there were times they wanted to object to the Sage's methods, Ren and the others also shared the desire to clear the dungeon and return to their original world.
-----------------
Once a year, an entire class from a high school in Japan would disappear.
Ren, a first-year high school boy who became a "victim" with the probability of a traffic accident, was summoned to the other world with his classmates and granted "the body and power of a Succubus" as a fighting force.
While most people were granted a profession, Ren, who was given a race, gradually accepted herself as a member of the all-female Succubus race and continued her dungeon conquest with her companions.
A little over a year and a half had passed since then.
The number of floors conquered reached thirty, and her companions had increased significantly: Furi the Thief, Iris the Half-Elf, Mei the Golem, Mariabelle the Kicker, and Shion the Yōko.
Now accustomed to her female self, Ren's desire to return to being a man had faded.
Nevertheless, the dungeon had to be conquered.
Because they were attached to their hometown.
Because there were people who wanted to return.
And because the future of this other world would also be bleak if they didn't expand the world using the "Fragments of the World" obtained through conquest.
"But it's already been a year and a half. Time really flew."
It was night.
Sitting on her bed in her own room, Ren looked up at the star-filled sky outside the window.
The girl who responded to her monologue was Furi, who had black hair and black eyes—whose appearance hadn't changed since she was in Japan, and who looked a little more mature now due to her growth.
With hair that had grown from a short cut to a bob length and slender limbs that felt soft to the touch, she was dressed in a matching black bra and panties. She laughed lightly.
"I know, right? We'd be third-years soon."
"Wow. That means we'd be in the middle of entrance exam season. That sounds rough."
Ren felt a momentary urge to look away into the distance.
"If we go back, I'd want it to be a year from now. I don't want to deal with entrance exams."
"Don't worry; wouldn't you have to start over from the first year? You don't have enough attendance days, and you haven't taken any tests."
"I'd rather wait until our classmates have graduated."
"Haha. That's true."
Furi sat next to her and leaned against her. Feeling her body heat, Ren thought, "It probably won't be just a year."
It was February now.
Their classmates would become third-years in less than two months. If they were to be transferred here, the next time would be the last chance. If they didn't meet then, their reunion would be much further in the future.
Although she didn't have any classmates she desperately wanted to see, she could now understand more deeply the sense of urgency and despair Mariabelle felt after being separated from her lover.
What kind of transferees would arrive this year?
Ren caught herself thinking with the assumption that "a summoning will happen this year" and gave a wry smile.
"What's wrong, Ren?"
"Nothing."
She replied, and instead of being completely honest, she said something else.
"I was wondering if we'll be able to procure cacao before Valentine's Day."
Cocoa, a rare ingredient that occasionally appeared in the dungeon.
Its source was the forest on the 31st floor and beyond, but since Ren and the others had burned the forest after reaching it, they hadn't gotten many drops.
============
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