Akari's voice echoed, but the pair continued their kiss. Her tail whipped around in excitement as if unable to stop it. Yumiko's eyes twitched, and her ears cocked towards Akari and Ryo.
"Nn."
With a sticky sound, she pulled back from the kiss, her lips slightly swollen and red from the intense kiss as she swallowed the excess saliva from Ryuji's mouth.
"Wait..." Her eyes opened wide as she looked at Ryuji, her voice quivering as if something in her brain had snapped back to normal. "I... Why did I do that? Was it because of the battle...? It must have been because of the battle! Sorry, I almost ravished you."
"Yumiko, don't panic. Calm down!" Ryuji held her cheeks with his hands and looked into her eyes as he smiled gently at her. "There is nothing wrong with getting excited. We just fought to the death."
"But..."
"It's fine, and it was amazing anyway." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
"Okay... I'll leave it at that, then."
Her face brightened once more while flicking her ears at him. Although he heard her whispering, "My abdomen feels so hot. Am I going into heat?"
Because he didn't want to continue this subject and felt it was better to continue with the dungeon and open the chest.
'She was so wild and passionate. I've never felt so aroused in my life. It was nothing like watching porn.'
Ryuji watched Yumiko's swaying hips, her large behind moving more visibly with each step.
He realised maybe it wasn't just her who went into heat, as he adjusted his pants and tucked something into his waistband to keep it in place.
Akari seemed to keep Ryo away from the door and came back a little out of breath with him in her arms. "Hah, did you two finish? Good, but there are so many bodies. How did you not get hurt?"
"That doesn't matter..." Yumiko sighed, looking at the remaining destruction. "It's not like we had any choice but to fight for our lives."
"I know, but I didn't think you would have so many beasts. Ah! Ryo, don't go there. That rat is still bleeding!"
"Ew!?" Ryo almost screeched while slipping on the blood as Ryuji caught him with one arm.
"Be careful—this room is dangerous, so we should leave it after opening the chest."
"Ahh, sorry."
Yumiko stood at the pedestal, her hands stroking the silver chest before looking back at Ryuji with moist eyes. "Can I open?"
"Yes."
He could tell Yumiko's mood from her wagging tail—the slightly flapping sound echoed while Ryuji kept Ryo steady, and Akari kept a watchful eye on the room. Yumiko showed a brilliant smile upon Ryuji's permission.
"This is a fancy-looking chest." Akari looked at the silver and gold engravings.
Yumiko stroked the chest before stepping back, her head turning slightly as she sniffed the air with a slight growl before she looked at Ryuji. "My nose tells me that I can't open it..."
"Eh?"
Yumiko nodded and stepped away as Ryuji stepped towards the chest that stood at his chest. He placed both hands on the lid. It was a large chest, around 50cm long and 30cm wide.
The first thing he noticed was a faint pale-blue light on the top of the chest, and two small indents were present at the side of the chest. He knew it wouldn't need a key—however, Yumiko's hunch seemed to have a meaning.
He then remembered Alex speaking about certain chests in novels where only certain races or people can open them.
Ryuji felt Alex's opinions were stupid, but most of them actually came true, so placing his hands on both sides of the indentations, he pushed.
Click!
To his surprise, the chest snapped open, releasing a rush of light and blue wind as a flickering light orb rose and illuminated the room.
"Ah!" Akari and Yumiko screamed as Akari hid behind Ryuji and Ryo.
Yumiko looked around and smacked her lips at the faint scent in the air as her tail slowly raised, almost pointing upwards.
The next moment, a bloody mark dripped down Ryuji's face, a slight cut appearing from the dart held between his two fingers.
"Yumiko, did you know?" Ryuji asked in a low voice while checking the contents of the chest.
— Bronze Ring: Grit +2
— Bronze Dagger: Skinning and dismantling skill + 1
— 12 silver
Inside the box, Ryuji saw a small but delicate-looking knife with a sharp edge and tip, the handle made of dark brown leather. A small bronze ring which gleamed with a single small green gemstone and twelve silver coins.
It was amazing how, once he focused on each item, the lovely voice of the system would tell him its name.
After that, he could see its name and values on a small blue screen that popped into his vision as if written directly on his retina.
"Ryo, do you want the knife? Since your class comes with a bonus to skinning and dismantling, this knife would help even more, right?"
"Eh, but we did nothing?"
To Ryuji, it didn't matter if they helped. They were a party, and he wanted them to take their roles to the limit. Since Ryo couldn't fight well, of course, he would ask him to maximise his cooking and other uses.
Ryo and Akari mistook him for being practical and for a show of kindness, which was a good oversight on Ryuji's part.
"Well, it benefits the party more for you to wear this, so take it. Don't be annoying." His voice sounded a little rough, as if he was losing his temper and causing the weak-willed Ryo to grasp the knife, terrified of Ryuji's low voice.
"A-Ah, alright!"
"Yumi, I'm taking the enchanted ring that increases Grit." He placed the ring on his finger and shrugged. There wasn't some magic feeling or anything, and Ryuji wondered if this little thing would really reduce the damage he took from monsters.
'I mean, I can see the numbers in the corner of my eyes, but these rats dealing 2 damage doesn't exactly help me since even with them biting me so much, I didn't die. However, let's monitor it for the future. One day my axe might not kill monsters with a [Critical Overkill] and grant me bonus rage to heal faster.
"Alright, no complaints from me! You are the one that takes the blows!"
"True; I wouldn't mind a blow from you, though."
"!!!"
"Heh!?" Akari's face turned bright red instantly, while Yumiko seemed to take a few minutes to realise what it meant before she punched Ryuji in the chest.
Ryuji tossed the money into his bag with the last 12 coins joining the previous 22 silver.
They gained roughly 2 silver from killing the monsters, and the materials Ryo gathered would probably fetch an acceptable price.
"I have 34 silver, which is for the future. Since we are facing danger now, I will try to buy potions for everyone. Don't worry. I will give the rest to the knights for the best room service, meals and treatment."
Ryo and Akari looked at each other; they never thought Ryuji would be so transparent with them. Yumiko was his maid, so they knew she would share things with him, but they were strangers.
They could barely be called fellow students because he only transferred the day they came here.
Yet he still treated them so well as they whispered amongst themselves, wondering why this party seemed so successful.
In the corner, slightly away from Ryuji and Yumiko, Ryo pulled Akari to the side with a worried face, looking at the pair with a sense of fear.
"Hey Akari, did your friends tell you about the missing students and how hard it is to get a meal?"
"Mm, it's strange. Why does it feel so different to Ryuji and his maid? How can a Class C hero earn so easily compared to the others who are almost starving and being beaten?"
"Well, even Haruki and Kenta failed to revolt and get better conditions for us after that knight beat them in public the other day."
"When Ryuji went to the dungeon with the knights?"
"Mm... I feel something strange is happening. Why does Ryuji feel like the actual hero?"
Yumiko's eyes narrowed while her fluffy ears flicked around; taking Ryuji's hand, she pulled him away.
The pair stopped speaking the moment she snapped her head back to them with a low growl and a glare that caused Ryo and Akari to become shocked into silence.
She seemed to want Ryuji to remain as he was. Not to worry or become concerned about the suffering of the other heroes.
However, by purpose or accident, Ryuji seemed to be oblivious, at least to Yumiko.
Even she wondered if he couldn't see the suffering of the other heroes. Even the first party barely ate good meals compared to him.
'I really want to get some cool gauntlets,' Ryuji thought to himself while remembering his arms being bitten during the monster trap.
"Ah? The rats didn't give me a tattoo. How stingy."