"What's wrong?"
Suzuki turned slightly, feeling the heavy, piercing weight of Yue's crimson gaze resting squarely on his back.
BOOOM!
Yue didn't answer his question immediately. Instead, she stared in absolute awe as a massive, armor-plated dinosaur-like monster crashed heavily to the stone floor, its head completely severed by a single, casual flick of Suzuki's wind-coated dagger.
Suzuki didn't leave a massive corpse behind. Wasting those precious materials was impossible; he stepped forward and stored the entire carcass in his [Absolute Storage]. He then harvested all the surrounding resources—rare ores glowing in the cavern walls, highly toxic but valuable subterranean herbs, and anything else his [Absolute Appraisal] deemed profitable.
It's a shame none of this has the same same value as the Ambrosia crystal, Suzuki noted, scanning the dark foliage. But that makes sense. The God Crystal was a unique item on the plot to keep Nagumo alive.
Still, since Suzuki had absolutely no intention of ever returning to this suffocating abyss, he was going to ruthlessly take every single thing from the place.
Yet, as he worked, Yue simply couldn't take her eyes off him.
Part of her awe was directed at his overwhelming strength, but the other part was deeply rooted in what he had just given her. She was no longer naked and wrapped in filthy, 300-year-old rags. Thanks to Suzuki's [Manager] AI and his vast inventory, he had instantly crafted her a set of bespoke, breathtakingly beautiful clothes.
She was currently wearing a sleek, high-collared, sleeveless turtleneck made of highly breathable Abyss Arachne silk, paired with a pleated, knee-length black skirt that allowed for 100% unrestricted movement.
Over that, he had crafted a perfectly tailored, pristine white trench coat. The inside of the coat was lined with deep crimson silk that perfectly matched the color of her eyes. Cinched at the waist with a sleek leather belt, the outfit gave the petite vampire the sharp, elegant silhouette of a high-end European fashion model.
For footwear, he had sensibly forged a pair of elegant, calf-high leather boots fitted with compressed steel toes. High heels were entirely impractical and would snap on the uneven cavern floors.
Naturally, just like his bespoke suit, her new clothes possessed powerful passive enchantments: auto-cleaning, low-level thermal regulation, and a massive mana conduit effect. Suzuki had woven microscopic strands of highly conductive Shtar Ore directly into her gloves and the sleeves of the white coat.
The result? When Yue cast her apocalyptic magic, the coat acted as a massive amplifier. She no longer had to strain her vocal cords to chant or forcefully push her mana out. The coat naturally drew ambient mana from the air and channeled it directly through her hands, reducing her casting time to absolute zero and practically doubling her magical output while halving her physical exhaustion.
Did I just make her severely overpowered way too early? Suzuki wondered.
Yes, of course he did. With the [Manager] AI handling the complex magical weaving, crafting top-tier equipment required zero physical effort. He just issued the command, and the AI executed the math.
Furthermore, using the AI completely bypassed the incredibly awkward anime trope where the protagonist accidentally "had" to manually measure the heroine's sensitive proportions to craft her clothes.
Then again, looking at Yue now, Suzuki occasionally felt a heavy, undeniable stir in his chest.
She possessed the petite, delicate frame of a fragile porcelain doll, but it was heavily contrasted by the sheer, crushing weight of her magical aura. Her skin was unnaturally pale and completely flawless, practically glowing in the dungeon's dim light.
But her most striking feature was her eyes. They were a deep, mesmerizing ruby red. When she looked at him, it wasn't the shy, nervous gaze of a normal human girl. Her eyes held three centuries of weight, intense longing, and a dark, overwhelmingly possessive hunger. It was a gaze that made Suzuki feel as if his absolute safety as a bachelor was in extreme, imminent danger.
Her golden-blonde hair cascaded down her back like spun silk. When she finally let her guard down around him, the regal, untouchable "Vampire Princess" mask entirely melted away. What remained was a breathtakingly beautiful, deeply devoted woman who was entirely, obsessively focused on him.
If he wanted to claim her right here and now, there would be absolutely no resistance. In fact, she would likely weep with joy.
Yet... once again, I need to hold back for a bit, Suzuki sighed internally. She barely knows me outside of the fact that I freed her and fed her.
"Suzuki, can you let me handle the rest of the monsters?" Yue suddenly asked, stepping up beside him.
"You want to take the vanguard?"
"Yeah," Yue nodded firmly, desperate to prove her worth and repay him. "I am not weak. I can help you with many things, you know?"
She knew Suzuki was incredibly strong. His fluid, acrobatic fighting style looked like a beautiful, lethal dance. But more importantly, the lingering taste of his divine blood... it was just so incredibly rich and intoxicating. Her petite body shivered slightly just thinking about drinking it again. And the memory of that immense, heavy heat pressing firmly against her belly earlier... it made her lower stomach clench, her inner thighs already slick with anticipation.
"...Sure. You can take the lead," Suzuki agreed, feeling a sudden chill. My chastity is in danger down here. Well, I already lost it to Shizuku and Kaori anyway. I guess I'm just a lost cause.
I am so sorry, Shizuku, Kaori, Suzuki mentally apologized to the surface. Life in another world is more stressful than I imagined. Even someone as cold as me needs a way to relieve his stress.
"However," Suzuki added smoothly, stepping back. "I will be acting as your tactical spotter. You follow my targets. Understand?"
"Yes," Yue smiled.
A moment later, a pack of twenty corrupted, highly venomous raptor-dinosaurs burst from the thick jungle foliage, screeching loudly as the parasitic flowers blooming on their backs prepared to launch deadly volleys of neurotoxin.
Suzuki didn't even blink. He stood casually with his hands in his pockets, flawlessly executing his role as the ultimate tactical spotter.
"Target group at twelve o'clock," Suzuki instructed calmly, his [Absolute Echolocation] pinpointing their exact positions. "They're using the dense foliage for cover. Do not aim for the individual targets. Destroy the entire area. Use wide-area suppression magic."
Yue, standing half a step ahead of him, smiled. It wasn't a cute, innocent smile. It was the terrifying, cold smile of a 300-year-old apex predator who finally had a Manager willing to let her off the leash.
"Understood," Yue purred.
She didn't chant a long, dramatic incantation. Thanks to the Shtar Ore woven into her coat and the sheer, overwhelming vitality she had just drank from his veins, her casting time was absolute zero.
She gracefully raised one delicate, white-gloved hand toward the ceiling.
"Azure Thunder."
She didn't aim at the raptors. Following his exact corporate order to "destroy the sector," she aimed directly at the cavern canopy above the jungle.
A localized, apocalyptic thunderstorm instantly materialized inside the enclosed cavern. Massive, blinding pillars of blue lightning crashed down, not in single strikes, but in a sweeping, continuous, devastating grid pattern.
BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!
The jungle didn't just burn; it instantly vaporized into white ash. The parasitic flowers were completely incinerated before they could spit a single drop of acid. The armored raptors were flash-fried into crumbling carbon statues. The deafening roar of the thunder lasted for three seconds before the entire sector fell dead silent.
But as the smoke began to clear, the ground directly beneath them violently shook.
A colossal T-Rex variant, heavily mutated by a massive, pulsing parasite attached to its spine, burst from the bedrock directly below them, its massive jaws wide open to swallow them both whole.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"
A standard adventurer would have panicked and scrambled for cover. But Suzuki just smoothly shifted his weight.
"I'll halt its momentum. When it stops moving, execute it."
"Mm," Yue nodded calmly.
Suzuki used his [Acrobat] footwork to step perfectly onto the very edge of the rising monster's massive lower jaw. He didn't draw a weapon to kill it. He simply stomped down. Channeling his 10,000+ physical Strength stat directly into his Shtar Ore-reinforced heel, he violently forced the colossal beast's head back down, completely shattering its upward momentum and driving its chin into the dirt.
BOOOOOOOM!
He smoothly backflipped off the stunned beast, landing silently next to Yue. "End it."
Yue didn't even look at the massive dinosaur. She kept her devoted, glowing crimson eyes locked entirely on Suzuki's handsome profile. She simply snapped her fingers.
A highly compressed sphere of vacuum magic instantly imploded directly inside the T-Rex's chest cavity, cleanly and violently crushing its massive heart.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
The colossal beast collapsed dead, kicking up a massive cloud of ash and dust.
The entire ambush had been flawlessly dismantled in under ten seconds.
Very efficient, Suzuki nodded, highly satisfied with Yue's raw destructive power and her ability to follow orders. But suddenly—
"Yue?"
Yue swayed on her feet, acting incredibly weak. She leaned her entire body weight heavily against his side. She looked up at him with half-lidded, intensely needy eyes, clutching his arm tightly. As she pressed her soft, incredibly warm body flush against him, her small hand intentionally slipped downward, brushing highly suggestively against a very dangerous, incredibly sensitive area of his trousers as if it were a complete accident.
"I-I used too much mana..." Yue whimpered sweetly, her breath hot against his neck. "I... I need more of your blood, Suzuki..."
"....."
Suzuki stared down at the 300-year-old vampire practically begging to strip him in the middle of a monster graveyard.
It seems, Suzuki sighed internally, letting her cast magic was an error of order.