“Urgh…”
My head feels like it’s breaking apart. My vision is blurry, and I feel nauseous. That’s the first thing I thought of after waking up.
I tried raising my body but it was unbelievably heavy. Looking down, I gasped in shock.
“Uh? Who are these two?”
Two naked beauties were sleeping peacefully on both sides, hugging my body. One was a fluffy-looking woman with what looked like perky dog ears and a tail. She had this older sister’s aura around her, despite being asleep. The other one was a cute-looking girl with a pink colored body. Although it should be my first time seeing her, for some reason, she looks familiar to me.
The sweet warmth from the two of them slowly revitalized my sleepy brain. Wait, really what happened? Why can’t I remember anything?! Did I have a “good” night last night?
Before confusion permeated my mind, I slowly remembered what had happened.
“Right! Ember evolved using the high-energy essence crystal then… I…”
The feedback from evolution caused the overflowing energy to rampage inside my body. I remember the part when I felt the pain that surpasses all forms of pain I felt before by a mile, then after that, I blacked out.
“Where’s Ember and Fang? And who’re these two?”
While I was asking myself, I quickly tried sending telepathic messages to both of them. As soon as I did, the dog-eared girl’s ears twitched. Then, she quickly woke up and stared at my face.
“…”
“…”
T-This is awkward… While I was planning my words to ask her, she quickly smiled brightly as traces of tears appeared in the corner of her eyes.
“Leader! Thank god you’re alright!”
She pounced at me in an embrace. The softness of her body was completely passed through the two modest bulges in her chest. As I was speechless while savoring this situation, the other girl woke up and rubbed her eyes.
When our eyes met, she smiled gently.
“Master… Welcome back.”
“???”
Although I can feel the affection the two of them had for me, unfortunately, I don’t know who they are… Wait?
“Ember?”
Looking at the pink girl in front of me, for some reason, Ember’s name came out of my mouth.
“Yes, master. I’m Ember.”
She nodded her head, her smile growing wider.
“Then, are you Fang?!”
The dog-eared girl who had been sniffing my neck for quite some time now quickly drew back and showed a toothy grin while replying “yes”.
After making sure that the two of them really are my tamed beasts, I quickly used the bedsheet and the curtain to use as temporary robes for the two of them. Although it was nice seeing all those jiggly things, as a gentleman, I can’t let them be while naked.
“So, can you now tell me what happened last night?”
After the two of them finished covering themselves, I quickly proceeded to fill in the blanks in my memory. Although Ember, as soon as she heard my question, her pink face suddenly changed color into a deeper red. Fang, seeing this, shook her head with a sigh.
“Last night, Leader almost died…”
Fang explained everything from the start to the end.
Apparently, the feedback from Ember’s evolution led to me getting energy overload. The two of them did their best to extract the excess energy and used it to strengthen themselves to better absorb more of my energy. This cycle went on for quite a while it seemed.
“After the 8th cycle, when I and Ember had cumulatively drained approximately 40% of Leader’s rampaging energy, the energy we absorbed ended up making us evolve instead. When we did, the two-fold feedback worked to support your body against the damage caused by the energy overload.”
“Evolve? Wait, so the two of you are 3rd stage now?!”
Fang nodded to my question. However, Fang’s expression turned dark shortly after.
“Leader, while we were fixing your energy overload, I noticed that it had a large impact on your energy body. Do you feel anything strange or out of place? Please tell me no matter how insignificant you think it is.”
I tried moving my body but noticed nothing out of place.
“Other than my body feeling heavy, there are no other symptoms to mention… Wait, what’s this?”
While I was replying, I saw a strand of flying light. It was drifting around my palm slowly, like a cloud. I tried catching it but it dispersed as soon as my other hand touched it. It diffused like a drop of ink in water.
Looking around the room, I noticed that there were more of these weird light strands. They vary in colors from white, gold, purple, or blue.
“Do you see these weird strands of light too, Fang?”
I tried pointing at one nearby but Fang seemed to not see the strands. Fang placed her hand over her chin while thinking.
“Maybe…”
Saying that Fang dove into the shadow. A few seconds later, she returned to her original position. However, this time, the purple light strands were slowly flying into her body. As soon as it touched her, it dissolved as if getting absorbed.
“Fang! The light strands entered your body!”
I panicked while trying to shoo away the other strands. However, Fang was just sitting down on the bed with a smile.
“It’s fine, Leader. If my guess is correct, what you see are the strands of energy present in the air. I guess due to the overload, your sensitivity to energy got heightened.”
Hearing her words, I quickly relaxed.
“So these things are elemental energy?”
It was a weird thing to be able to see something that should be invisible. However, I guess it’s something similar to synesthesia where one sense gets triggered instead of the other. Like people who can taste colors, my eyes automatically translate the energy I can feel into a visible form.
After that, I went out to buy some temporary clothes for the two of them. I made them wear the clothes as soon as I returned before going out once more.
“Let’s buy a few sets of clothes for each of us.”
Since I only had one set of clothes remaining after my other set got shredded by Fang last night, we decided to take today as a rest day and went shopping.
We bought clothes, armor, weapon, some daily necessities, cooking utensils, and emergency supplies. Having a lot of money to spend feels nice, especially if you have two beauties by your side. The gazes of envy from a few men were quite pleasing to me.
After that, I placed all of what we bought inside the storage ring. In just one day, the storage ring’s 10 cubic meter capacity was almost all used up.
Just like that, the day ended and nighttime came.ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖