(Denzel's POV):
After returning to the palace, we immediately slept around midnight. All the girls went ahead and slept except for Lilith, Thrish, and Gayle.
"Where's Lester?"
"Oh, he wanted to sleep and told me to sleep soon..." - Gayle
"I see, then everyone!"
I lit up a candle as we stayed down at the main room of the palace. We sat down in the center of the large open room and started talking.
"Now everyone, we have lived through quite a hectic life in this virtual world. How are you all feeling?"
The first one to answer was Malech... He moved his arm around Thrish and kissed her in the cheek. She blushed nicely and kept leaned on Malech. Quite a good couple huh...
"I think I can say that it started with complete boredom. We were wondering on how to survive in this Virtual World for as long as we can until somebody finds a way out. It involves a life of treachery and danger, we can feel pain and agony but... Our happiness can also be felt in various ways. Besides, it was said that even carnal desires can be displayed and be done in this world." - Malech
"I see now, indeed... We have survived all kinds of problems in this world and will continue this for more years to come."
"It was difficult when thinking about surviving in a fantasy world. We were excited and we thought that we had enough information to survive, but it was completely different and harsh unlike the books, novels, and even animations." - Thrish
Thrish followed up after Malech, these two seems to want to let go of their feelings in this world and will try their best this time.
"Truly, it is completely different from what we saw behind the screen. That is why we need to become stronger eventually... If we want to complete this world and escape it."
"We should stick together. So that if one of us gets hurt soon, we'll protect one another. Until the very end of this world, we have to watch each other..." - Gayle
"Correct, our group is somewhat similar to being the front lines so we have to carefully examine each group to prevent any chaos and infighting. It will hinder our progress."
I turned my head towards Gayle who turned away on instinct. She's still shy but can say good points...
"I think, we're the ones that have the worst start... But we strived further..." - Flora
"Yeah, losing friends very early was a deadly pain to ourselves. It haunted our dreams as we further pushed through the game. But now... our only regret is being not strong enough early on, but it was to make us reach this place now..." - William
As William and Flora told me their side of the story, I knew that they were the ones that had the worst experiences. Their determination pushed through and made them this strong which is a massive improvement.
"To finish it off... Everyone, let's do our best together!" - Lilith
Everyone let out some sounds of determination as I blow the candle to remove the fire.
"Now, let us all have a peace of mind and sleep..."
We returned to our rooms satisfied with our accomplishments and planned to just sleep the night away.
Me and Lilith returned to the sky floor.
"Hey Lilith..."
"Hm? What is it?" - Lilith
I turned my head towards her and kissed her nonchalantly...
"I love you..."
"Fuh~ I love you too..." - Lilith
"Earlier wasn't enough... One more round tonight?"
Lilith chuckled and laughed a little bit, she smiled and clung to my arm.
"Geez, you're such a needy person... Alright~" - Lilith
Lilith and I entered the room and went at it again...
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Morning...
I woke up with Lilith's face in front of me. She was in underwea- swimsuit and is clinging on my arm while sleeping peacefully.
I poked her cheeks lightly and hugged her. She snuggled in to me which made me hug her tighter.
"Guu~" - Lilith
When she groaned, I leaned in to my desire and hugged her tighter. I closed my eyes once more and returned to dreamland.
An awkward silence passes through for a short time until I realized the I should check out the things occurring in the palace.
I let go of Lilith gently and started changing myself into casual clothing.
I immediately went out of the room and noticed two figures that are staring at each other for some reason.
"Malech, William... What are you two doing?"
William turns his head towards me with a bit of a shocked face. Malech, who noticed the opportunity, pushed himself out of the wall and tried to reach William. As William noticed, he let go of the ledge and dropped down to the floor. Malech turned his footing to push off the ceiling and boost his speed to catch William downwards.
"It's early and pretty noisy already huh..."
I walked down the spiral staircase and went down to the lower floors. I first arrived to the dining hall and ate breakfast along with Bella and her group.
"Oh Denz! How are you feeling?" - May
The first one to greet was May, she's pretty attentive to people who are coming in and out. The three of them were helping me during my past times which made me help them in their life here. I don't regret anything though...
"Pretty fine, a little bit dizzy since I just woke up..."
"Good, what about Lilith?" - Bella
Bella is the next one to keep an eye on my behavior. She is one of the people who kept me at a cheerful state after a few years. She keeps an eye on the people around me more.
"She's still asleep so I let her be..."
"It's gotten quite lively in this place, I feel like Denzel has become somewhat better now." - Ashley
Ashley is cute girl who had my heart had leaning towards her for a while. I got mercilessly friend-zoned which isn't really a bad thing right now either.
All three of them were formerly my classmates, they hang around with a few more additional friends but didn't really have a chance to play altogether.
"I might take a lap within the palace and maybe take Lilith around again later. I kind of need a piece of mind for today."
"I see... You should eat then, you'll need your energy back up." - Bella
After having breakfast, I started to hear some loud noises in the main room of the palace. I went out after greeting the three to see what's going on.
"You bastard!" - Gayle
Terrence and Gayle seems to be in an argument and have some attacks already. I moved towards Lester who seemed to have given up to stop them.
"What's the history of these two?"
"They often enter arguments and fight. Kind of like oil and water." - Lester
When I noticed, there are some dents on the crystals within the area. You two... now you've done it...
"Frozen Coffin!"
I channeled frozen coffin and shouted it loudly to make it audible for Gayle and Terrence. I heard some words but there were completely frozen before they could finish their shriek.
I moved in between them to show who stopped them. I started to feel a little bit of fear leaking out in their frozen bodies. I dispelled the magic and both of them knelt at the ground due to shock and chilled.
"You two... How many times do I have to tell you to fight in the dojo only, and using duel health..."
The two of them stayed silent while looking away from the scary pressure I emitted right at them. Since they couldn't answer, I should impose a minor punishment
"You two have inflicted damage to the palace. So I'll give you a minor punishment since I can just fix these quickly."
"Wh?!" - Gayle
"Kh?!" - Terrence
I activated frozen cocoon and teleported ourselves above the sky floor. It is a slippery roof that will be very dangerous when fighting around.
"The rules are simple... Dive without a parachute..."
"Wai-!" - Gayle
"Whoa-!" - Terrence
I pushed both of them off immediately and without mercy. I raised my voice so that they could hear the next thing I said.
"My bad but House Rules are House Rules, enjoy diving without a parachute if you're gonna break them!"
Will they be fine? Yep, there's a thick layer of snow on where they'll land which will cushion 90% of the fall damage.
I then used frozen cocoon again to go to where they'll land. As I started to see their figures, I stepped back to avoid being landed on. Upon landing, Gayle seems to have rolled gracefully while Terrence ended with a face plant.
"That was nice! and scary..." - Gayle
Gayle starts shivering not due to fear, but because it was completely cold. Terrence on the other hand seemed to be out cold and looks pretty hurt with the face plant.
"Nobody will probably raid this area so let's leave him here..." - Gayle
"Harsh? Well, I'll just teleport him back to his room."
I activated Terrence's magic mirror which teleported him back to his bed. Gayle and I returned to the palace entrance
"Gayle! Where's Terrence?" - Lester
"I teleported him to his bed, he had a bad landing..."
"I see... I'm glad you turned out alright..." - Lester
"Mu-!" - Gayle
Gayle couldn't react quickly as she was suddenly hugged by Lester tightly. She let out a groan and just returned the hug. I waved at them and signaled that I will take my leave. Gayle waved back since she noticed and I went towards the library.
Vanessa and Claire is also in the library and is reading some possible magic technology. I went towards them and called out on the two of them.
"Yo, you too..."
"Huh? Oh, Denz? What are you doing here?" - Claire
"Just looking for some peace and quiet place. Learning some magic there?"
When I pointed to the book she's reading, she seems to be enthusiastic about the magic itself.
"Ah it's about arcane magic, I want to learn about overloading the mana of my enemies." - Claire
"That's pretty tough, but it's also a great strategy. If you learn to charge and discharge quickly, you'll be able to practice chain casting without losing much mana. It's not my expertise but I'll ask a suitable person to teach you some things about it."
"For real?!" - Claire
"Shh, don't be loud here, it's a house rule..."
"Ah, my bad. I kind of got excited." - Claire
"No worries, it's a natural reaction so yeah."
I waved towards Claire and Vanessa which waved back. I remembered teaching Vanessa a few times within last week and she has drastically improved in her cryogenic tech. With this, they could manage to protect themselves if we're going to leave them in the castle for a while.
When I finally sat down near the window, I closed my eyes for a short bit and started hearing some noise on top of the bookshelves. I focused my hearing and started hearing rummaging on the top of the crystal bookshelves. Loud footsteps and continuous movement. When I heard a dagger piercing the crystal, I had enough...
"Frost spike..."
I shot two spikes silently and caught the two culprits making the noise. I simply sighed since they're still at it.
"William and Malech... What did I tell you again?"
The two of them started squirming around. I removed the magic and activated lightning magic instead.
"Paravolt!"
A thundershock passed through the areas and shocked Malech and William. I retrieved both of them and dragged them to their rooms. I called forth Thrish and Mea in front of their rooms to explain my request.
"My bad but, you two should sit down on your lover's lap for a while. I tied them up but you only have to sit on them until their binding goes out. Do not remove the piece of obsidian weighing on them as you have to sit on it. It depends on you two if you want to continue sitting on their laps after their punishment. Is that alright?"
"Umm... What did they do?" - Mea
Mea raises her hand and asks me about the details of the occurrence.
"They made noise in the library."
Thrish sighed, she's still pretty willing though...
I first entered Malech's room with Thrish. When I explained the situation to him, he showed delight. That delight only lasted until I said that there's gonna be a block of obsidian in between. After placing the obsidian block on his lap, he raised out a groan which makes him feel pain.
"Feel pain like this for a few minutes or so, you two can flirt all you want afterwards."
I left the room when I heard Thrish grinning a little bit. I then led Mea towards her shared room with William. I similarly explained what is about to happen which made William instantly lose spirit. I performed the procedure again which made his soul slip out a little bit.
"You should feel some pain for a while, you can then feel her up afterwards depending on you."
"Wha?!" - William
I then left the room wordlessly. When I noticed, Lilith was in front of me.
"What were you doing Denz?" - Lilith
"Ah, delivering punishment towards Malech and William for being noisy in the library."
"I see, that's why I can hear some warcry in both rooms..." - Lilith
"Well... That's that but... Can we go on a date for today?"
"Sure!" - Lilith
This is what usually happens when I rest in the palace with the new and lively residents.