A week passed by in the blink of an eye.
David spent most of his time walking in a single direction through the Wasteland and the rest of his time sleeping in the Cradle.
[Congratulations! You have received 10 Gold Coins!]
David sighed for the umpteenth time as he lay in bed inside the tent that was given to him by the orcs.
Six daily draws have been currency rewards, earning him 150 gold coins. Five Normal draws and one Rare draw were still quite beneficial to someone who had no money in the first place like David.
David was fortunate to receive a box containing 12 bottles of strawberry milk as a Normal draw though, something that made him quite pleased.
As David rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he dragged himself out of bed and decided to stay in the Cradle for the day and check on the progress inside.
He pulled a black pair of boxer briefs, a black fitted t-shirt, and grey sweatpants out of his inventory before putting them on and walking outside barefoot.
He enjoyed the feeling of soft green grass under his feet so why not?
Despite it being so early in the morning, there were already orcs out and about, working on their daily tasks.
Male orcs, who resembled humanoid hairy boars, were carrying logs and working on construction.
Female orcs, who resembled humanoid pigs with long hair, were harvesting fruits from the trees.
After walking for half an hour, David came across Emma who was monitoring the workers and making sure nothing went wrong.
"Good morning, Emma," David said, waving to her and speaking in a cheerful manner.
"David-sama, good morning!" Emma turned around and greeted David in a similarly cheerful manner.
"Did Tomoe tell you where she was going? I haven't seen her in a week and can't feel her presence in the Cradle, but I don't want to contact her if she's busy with something important."
Emma just shook her head, "I'm sorry, David-sama. Tomoe-sama didn't say anything other than that she's going to bring something back."
"I see... Well, I'm sure she's fine. Is there anyone that needs any help around here?"
"Hmm... I think some of the men a bit to the north were having trouble removing some trees. Other than them, I haven't heard anything."
David nodded and said with a smile, "Alright, I'll go check on them. Thank you for working hard so early in the morning, I appreciate it."
"Oh, it's fine, I really enjoy this! Being helpful to our savior is all I could ask for!"
David just chuckled and after a few more pleasantries, he went to the area north of the migrated village to look for the orcs that were having an issue.
After about five minutes of walking, he found the two orcs that Emma mentioned.
"This isn't good," one of them said.
"The deforestation isn't going well," the other agreed.
David approached them and asked, "What's going on?"
They turned to look at him and nodded slightly.
"Good morning, David-sama!" They said in unison.
The one on the left then said, "We were clearing an area for you and Tomoe-sama to live, but the trees in this area are quite hard."
David patted the orc on the shoulder.
"Sorry. Thanks for not only lending me a tent, but also building me a house. Which trees are you trying to clear out?"
"It's no trouble at all! As for which trees, we're trying to cut down all of the trees within a 700 square meter area."
David took an axe out of his inventory that he got from a group of orcs in the past when he was trying to help out before getting reprimanded by Tomoe.
He then expanded his Sakai to cover the area within 1km and after a few minutes of calculation, set some Linking, Amplification, Spatial, and Transfer runes on each tree in the area.
After that, David used his Sakai to strengthen the axe and swung it at one of the linked trees, slicing through the 3 meter in diameter tree like tofu.
CREAAAK! CREAAAK! CREAAAK!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
As the first tree fell, the other trees linked to the first one fell in the same way simultaneously, leaving felled trees and bare stumps littered across the area.
David withdrew all of the runes that were still in effect and threw the axe back into his inventory.
He turned around to see the shocked and bewildered faces of the two orcs and chuckled lightly.
"Heheh. Don't tell Tomoe that I helped or she'll be on my ass about maintaining my image again."
The two orcs nodded absent-mindedly and continued to stare out at the felled trees in a daze.
David paused as he saw that one of the orcs--the one with a necklace with three golden coin-like objects on it--had a bandage on his left arm.
"Did you hurt your arm?" David asked as he walked closer.
The orc just shrugged it off. "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before."
"Since I'm here, let me take a look at it."
'It'll also be a good chance to test the healing property of my Sakai.'
He walked closer to the orc and expanded his Sakai enough to cover the orc and himself.
The orc agreed and started unwrapping his bandage.
David extended his hand out to the cut and used the healing property of his Sakai to instantly heal the orc's arm, causing a soft green glow to appear on the wound as it rapidly closed up and returned to its peak state.
"You healed me without using mana??" The orc asked, bewildered again by David's powers.
"Haha, it's nothing much. That's just a simple healing ability. If I used magic to heal anyone alongside that ability, its effects would be greatly magnified," David said while rubbing his nose, intending to show off a little.
"Ohhh, that's amazing, David-sama!"
The two orcs showered David with a few more praises before David bid them farewell and allowed them to get back to their work.
David walked around for a little bit longer before sitting down on a smooth boulder quite some distance away from the village.
Thinking of the blood that was on the orc's arm from the wound, David's thoughts evolved in a strange direction.
'Could I make golems with my blood and give them actual life? I could infuse them with my blood and Reiryoku to give them soul energy, but would that give them sentience?'
After practicing with this world's magic in the Wasteland for the past week, his control over it has reached a remarkable level, even though Chaos-chan had told him he still has a few days before his body is fully adapted to the laws of this world.
David used a combination of this world's water and earth magic and visualized a 170 cm tall featureless clay doll with a hole in its chest. He lifted his hand and the elements coalesced into the doll he imagined.
'So far so good as far as the body goes.'
He then created a sharp spiked ball of ice and crushed it in his hand, letting his blood flow to the ground. Using simple gravity magic, he moved the blood into the doll's chest and filled the hole before using more earth magic to cover up the hole, allowing the blood to stay in the chest cavity.
With the same bloody hand, he touched the doll's chest and injected his Reiryoku into it, filling the doll while also focusing more energy into the orb of blood hidden inside.
Suddenly, the doll started heating up. Curious, David activated his Heaven's Eye for the first time and examined the doll.
'No way...'
Lines of energy started flowing out from the blood in its chest, almost like it wanted to circulate itself, but the energy faded before it could leave the chest cavity.
The doll started changing shape and hardening, looking less like a clay doll and more like a real person. Unfortunately, the energy in the chest cavity slowly dwindled and with no circulation, it fizzled out and left the doll's body.
When the energy left, the doll cracked and crumbled, leaving behind a pile of dried clay and a tiny puddle of blood.
'So it's a failure, but I'm making progress... Haha! This was just a random whim, but I didn't think it would actually work! I'll have to look into this more later.'
As David was about to clean up the mess he made, Tomoe appeared through a Mist Gate, holding an unconscious small old man.
'Ohhh, is she finally here?!'
"Tomoe, welcome back. Who's the old man? Did he piss you off and you knocked him out and kidnapped him or something?"
Tomoe looked offended. "What?! Do you think I'd do something like that?! I'm a noble samurai, I would settle things then and there, not resort to something like kidnapping!"
David just chuckled, "Heheh, I'm just kidding. So, what happened?"
"The Cradle was attacked by an old acquaintance. As usual, it seemed hungry. These are its leftovers."
Tomoe tossed a chewed up iron axe toward David.
'Finally! I've removed the defenses of the Cradle and kept it exposed for a week just waiting for this to happen!'
"I see, it seems to be quite ferocious," David said, trying to wear a concerned look on his face to hide his excitement.
Tomoe looked at the clay and blood on the ground and wanted to question David, but she noticed David's cut hand before she could ask.
"Oh, are you injured? That's not good. The smell of your blood will lure it here," Tomoe said in a low tone with a cheeky grin.
'Good! Lure her here! She's the only reason I've been staying in the damn Wasteland for so long!'
As if on cue, a crack appeared in the air, looking as if a red piece of thick glass had been almost shattered in the sky.
David looked over at the crack and could no longer contain his excitement.
The crack shattered fully and a giant black spider leg pierced through, followed by a giant black spider head with yellow eyes and a shiny black exoskeleton.
Its leg stabbed down and attempted to pierce David, but he jumped back in time to avoid even the slightest bit of dust from touching him.
"Hahaha! She's definitely ferocious!" David couldn't help but exclaim.
Tomoe just had a bored look on her face while she held the small old man in her arms like a princess.
"Oh, dear. I see it's as crazy as ever."
"Ahem! Indeed, she does seem rather berserk at the moment. Take the old man and make sure the villagers are safe. I'll play with her for a while, heheh~."
Tomoe didn't question why David kept referring to the giant spider as a female and followed his command, getting to a safe distance so she wouldn't ruin David's fun while also keeping the old man safe.
At this time, the spider finally broke through and fully entered the Cradle. It tried to stab at David once again, but David avoided it easily.
'Alright, let's just give her what she wants, heheheh...'
David's figure shifted for a moment before revealing his Shinigami form, holding Zangetsu in his right hand.
Before the spider could pull its leg out of the ground, David flashed in front of it and sliced it clean off.
"IYAHHHH!" The spider screamed in pain.
Without giving it a chance to recover, David charged in and swiftly cut off the rest of its legs.
"GYAHHH!!!" Once again, the spider screamed in pain.
David jumped back, landing 10 meters away from the giant spider. He created a fire bhrid and started to charge it up with his immense amount of mana.
The spider's legs regrew and shot out, allowing it to stand once more.
Once the bhrid was charged with enough mana and grew to about 5 meters in diameter, David condensed it slightly to 3 meters in diameter and shot it at the spider.
The flaming ball of destruction hit the spider and created a small explosion.
The spider screamed and flew back, landing on its back. It only took a few seconds for it to right itself and stare intensely at David.
"Ufu~... AHAAH~!!!" The spider started laughing as if drunk on the pain that David had caused it.
David just smiled while Tomoe and the old man were stunned.
"Um... Master, I think it likes the pain!" Tomoe shouted as she dropped the old man to the ground.
David just waved her off, not finding anything suitable to say back to her. After all, he was trying to do exactly this.
The spider absorbed the magic remnants from David's attack and healed itself even faster before jumping at David, launching its sharp legs at him quicker than ever.
David dodged all of the attacks and countered with a single slash, cutting off whichever leg was unlucky enough to attack him.
"AHAHAAA~!!!" The spider gave a perverted laugh.
'Alright, should be just a bit more. She seems to have already snapped out of it.'
David cut his hand open again with ice to allow for a lot of fresh blood to flow and formed a softball-sized sphere of blood before using gravity magic again to hold it together and launch it in the spider's mouth.
The spider swallowed the blood and let out a shrill cry of pleasure.
"AHHN~!!!"
David then kicked the spider in the head and forced it to fly back, landing heavily on the ground.
While waiting for the spider to recover, he charged and fired multiple basketball-sized bhrids behind him, aiming at the prone spider. It was like a Gatling gun of fireballs, each landing on the spider and causing multiple small explosions.
After 20 seconds of firing, David stopped and reverted back to his previous t-shirt and sweatpants.
A few seconds passed in silence before the spider jumped out of the ground it just got buried under. Right as it broke free, it shot a black web at David.
David chose not to dodge, allowing himself to be wrapped up and pulled toward the giant spider.
"Master!" Tomoe ran over, thinking David was taken by surprise and couldn't fight back.
"Ahaaa~! Delicious~!" The spider said while hugging David with its mandibles and small front legs.
"Haaa?" Tomoe said, a look of irritated disgust on her face.
"You're incredible. Amazing! It hurts so much! It tastes so delicious! It feels so good! I've never been so fulfilled~!"
The spider was fawning over David as he just accepted it.
"Mm, I'm glad you enjoyed the meal. Can you let me down so we can talk?"
The spider held David tighter, "No way! I'm never letting you go, I'm staying with you forever~!"
'Well, at least things went as planned.'
David released a bit of his Reiatsu to pressure the spider. Feeling the power emanating from David, the spider instinctively let him go and jumped back in horror.
David landed lightly on the ground. "Ahem... Sorry, I needed to get your attention. You liked the pain and my blood, right?"
The spider walked closer and looked down at David who was now accompanied by Tomoe.
"I love it~!" It said.
Before David could speak, Tomoe stepped forward.
"It's been a while, Black Spider."
The spider focused its attention on Tomoe. "Who are you?"
"You don't recognize me because my appearance has changed? I'm Tomoe, formerly known as Shin the greater dragon," she replied with a confident smirk.
"I don't recognize that name. Until now, I've been too hungry to think about anything besides eating. More importantly, what's your relationship with that guy?"
David was pleased with the direction of the conversation, but he felt like he was being left out.
'I had a plan to convince her to form a contract with me without me having to get stabbed, but it looks like I won't get the chance to speak.'
"I am basically his servant," Tomoe said. She stepped back and held on to David's left arm, holding it against her breasts.
"Spider, you said you would stay with him forever. What do think of this form and my relationship with him~?"
The spider was slightly taken aback.
"Your contract transformed you into a human form?" It asked.
"That's right. Commanding us both at once would be a simple task for him, but following him around in that form would be troublesome, don't you think? Can't you at least look a little more like he does?"
The spider looked at David.
"Would I be allowed to do that?"
David smiled and nodded, "Of course. I was going to ask you for a contract anyway since you're so strong."
'And because I want Mio to be one of my wives.'
The spider chuckled and asked, "Then shall we begin the contract ritual?"
"Sure, whenever you're ready."
The spider lit up with a magical red light and immediately formed a contract of control, same as Tomoe had done before.
Soon, the lights dissipated and what was left standing in the spider's place was a beautiful woman 170 cm tall with black hair just above her shoulders, yellow eyes, and a gentle expression on her face.
She's wearing a black kimono with white frills along the edges that gradually turns into a grey spiderweb design near her thighs and transitions into a transparent purple fabric near her knees.
She has a yellow obi and right below the shoulders there's a gap with the grey spiderweb design. She's wearing a red hairband with a butterfly-styled string tied to the right side. She also has long white socks with red ankle warmers and black footwear.
She stepped forward, held her hands in front of her, and bowed.
"I offer you my body and soul. I shall serve you for life, Master."
David just stared at her in awe.
⟪ Wow... Just like Tomoe, she's even more beautiful in person. ⟫
Before the black-haired woman could respond, David walked up until he was right in front of her.
"Would you like a name?" He asked with a charming smile.
The woman forgot whatever she was about to say and brightened up, giving David an incredibly beautiful smile.
"Yes, please! A name from my new master would be wonderful!"
David nodded. "In that case, your name will be Mio."
Mio brought her hands together and held them in front of her.
"Mio~...," she said with a smile.
"It's written as a combination of my country's characters for 'zero' and 'water'. Zero because you're starting over from nothing and water because you look as graceful as a fairy dancing on the water."
'That's not why, but it sounds good, right?'
[Eh, sounds good enough to me.]
"I humbly accept," she said with a bow.
Then, Mio suddenly jumped forward and hugged David tight.
"Ahh~! I absolutely love it! I will follow you for the rest of my life, Master~!"
David was startled by the sudden hug, but when he remembered that Mio and Tomoe would constantly try to get into bed with Makoto, the shock quickly died down and he hugged her back.
However, he suddenly had a question pop up in his mind.
⟪ Now that I think about it, why hasn't Tomoe tried sneaking into my bed? From what I remember in the original work, I would've expected her to try sleeping with me as soon as I went to sleep in the Cradle. I'm not horny or anything, but I am curious. ⟫
[That's because you only come back to the Cradle for a few hours to sleep and when you fall asleep, you're always knocked out cold. Tomoe has entered your room every night, but she never gets a response from you so she leaves you be since she knows you're tired.]
⟪ Ah... That explains it... I knew going to bed late would mess myself up, but I didn't expect it to be that bad. At least I'm still able to wake up early like normal. ⟫
Mio heard David's voice inside her head again, but this time she didn't think to question it and continued hugging David
Tomoe also heard David's inner voice and got lost in her thoughts.
[Tomoe] 'Now that I think about it, didn't he mention something about the "original work" before? I'll have to look through different memories to try and investigate what he means.'
While David and Mio were enjoying a warm hug and Mio started sniffing David's body, Tomoe finally came to her senses and jumped in between the two, shoving Mio away.
"How dare you! I haven't even hugged Master before, yet you get to do it right after the contract is formed?! Dream on!"
Tomoe then turned around and pulled David into a hug, running her hands inside his shirt and feeling his back muscles.
"Mmm, heheh~. Master sure is warm," she said, sneaking a peek behind her at Mio who was seething.
"Don't antagonize her, Tomoe. If you wanted to hug me, all you had to do was ask or just do it. You and Mio are both incredibly beautiful women so there's no way I would turn down something as simple as a hug."
Mio blushed and smiled, holding her cheeks with lovestruck eyes.
"Beautiful? Master thinks I'm beautiful?? Does this mean you're in love with me?!"
David pretended to think and looked up at the sky.
⟪ I was in love with the Mio and Tomoe from the franchise 'Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy', but it would be unfair to say I'm in love with the real Tomoe and Mio here. After all, they're real people and not anime, manga, or light novel characters. I'll have to spend more time with them to find out how I feel and I haven't even seen Tomoe in a week either since I've been wandering around the Wasteland. We can spend all of our time together now that Mio is here though, that should give us a chance to bond. ⟫
[Tomoe] 'Ah? So is the original work the franchise he mentioned? I will have to search his memories for this Tsukimichi show.'
Tomoe, who was still looking over and gloating at Mio, noticed Mio's expression and quickly sent her a telepathic message before she tried saying anything.
[Tomoe > Mio] 'You can't say anything to him about his voice. When you try, your voice will just get cut off. I don't know what causes it, but he'll likely think something is wrong with you if you try. I just saved you from embarrassing yourself, you're welcome.'
[Mio > Tomoe] 'I understand. Thank you, senpai.'
David finally looked back at Mio and said, "I'll find out how I feel about you when we spend more time together, but we just met so for now, no."
Mio didn't look upset and only smiled.
[Mio] 'I'll be by his side forever so it doesn't matter how long it takes, fufu~.'
David then looked between both Mio and Tomoe.
"Also, just because we have a servant contract doesn't mean I think of you two as my servants. I would prefer to think of you as my companions that can't betray me."
"I would never betray you, dear husband!" Mio shouted.
'Calling me "dear husband" already? I like the sound of that.'
"I didn't say you would, but it's just for peace of mind. You don't need to worry about it, Mio."
David then looked down and noticed Tomoe was secretly sniffing him as well.
⟪ My Sweet Body ability is quite effective it seems. Nice. ⟫
"Tomoe, can you let me go now? We should go talk to the short old man. He's been waiting for a while and looks rather uncomfortable."
Tomoe turned her head to look at the old man.
"Ah, I completely forgot about him! Yes, let's go talk with him!"
She switched her position to hold onto his left arm while Mio hurriedly rushed up to hold onto his right arm.
⟪ Two beautiful women on each arm. I can't wait for them to meet Marin, she'd love to meet a dragon and giant spider. ⟫
Tomoe had a triumphant look on her face while Mio blushed and had hearts in her eyes, feeling extremely happy to have a handsome master with blood as delicious as David's.
The three of them then left the cracked and burned area and made their way to the small old man standing a few hundred meters away.