It was official: this world wasn’t cute at all! And I was inclined to take that personally. First, I’d run into a hideous bear monster, which I accidentally exploded into bloody confetti—and then my adorable little squad of Irregulars had been obliterated. In the game, Sprigoblin Irregulars came equipped with “Natural Stealth,” a skill that allowed them to avoid unwanted encounters with any monsters or animals in the area. It was very rare for them to be killed by anything but other players. That was why I’d sent my level one squad into the forest so confidently.
The notification didn’t say how they’d died, only that they were wiped out. Hopefully they’d remember what happened after I revived them. I still had far too little information about this place I was in. If they could remember what happened to them, it would make things a lot easier for me.
In the game, Sprigoblin Irregulars were the lifeline of an early-game tower dungeon. Without them, a dungeon master couldn’t gather the materials needed to summon other creatures. To prevent experienced players from bullying newbies, a system had been put in place that gave players whose Irregulars were killed a substantial number of dungeon points, which could be used to strengthen monsters or expand the dungeon. In other words, if someone killed your Irregulars to keep you from gathering resources, you got dungeon points instead. That was why the Irregulars hadn’t revived automatically while I was asleep—there were enough dungeon points to level them up, so the system waited to see if I wanted to do that or not.
The answer to that question was a big fat “yes,” so I upgraded all of my Irregulars to level two. Once the upgrade was complete, they revived automatically, since enough time had already passed.
This time, I was wearing a blue dress called “Monster Tamer’s Gown,” which gave a small bonus to the stats a monster gained when it leveled up. Unlike the bonus from the Summoner’s Gown, this one was permanent, which made the Monster Tamer’s Gown a much better item. It didn’t have any other effects, but it was definitely the best thing to wear when leveling up monsters.
The Irregulars appeared before me, looking exactly as they had the first time. They immediately knelt before me.
“My Irregulars, I am troubled by what befell you. Tell me, do you remember what happened?”
This was the real question. If they had no memories and they acted like freshly summoned monsters, then I wasn’t going to be able to sleep that night after casually sending them to their deaths.
“The mission began as normal, and we went out to gather materials as Your Majesty ordered,” one of them reported. “It was dark outside, but that posed no problem. We gathered a decent amount, but were ambushed by a group of people with swords and axes. They appeared to be Hyumins.”
People? Really? Wow.
“I see,” I said. “This requires further investigation. Return to your duties; I will look into this matter personally.”
The prospect of people was both exciting and terrifying. It was possible they’d mistaken my adorable Irregulars for something more dangerous and launched a preemptive strike, but it was also possible that they were just bad people in general. I had to check.
“Your Majesty, should we not accompany you?” one of the Irregulars asked.
“I’m afraid at your current level, you would only slow me down. It would be far better for me if you simply focused on gathering materials.”
He looked so sad to hear that, but it was true. Still, I wanted to cheer him up.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but none of us has one.”
Ah perhaps that was insensitive of me. Come to think of it, in the status readout, it just listed them as Irregular A, B, C, and D...
“In that case, from this day forth, you shall be known as Ringo,” I announced. “Take care not to bring shame on this name.”
A look of pure elation flashed across his face, and then, he started glowing. When the light subsided, he looked completely different. He was taller than me now, but not by much. That adorably chubby body had been replaced with proportions similar to my own. He was actually kinda buff.
I quickly took a look at the status screen and found that his stats had nearly quadrupled. It also displayed his name as “Ringo” instead of “Irregular A.” Wait, in most role-playing games, only boss monsters had actual names. By giving him a name, had I inadvertently made him into a boss? Wait, one of my new skills, Ruler’s Blessing, said something about granting titles in the description. Is that what it did? Still, if it had this much of an effect, I wanted to try it on the others.
As the others looked on enviously at Ringo, I clapped my hands to draw their attention.
“I will also bestow names on the rest of you,” I said. I pointed at each of them in turn. “You’ll be Manzana, you’ll be Pomme, and you’ll be Mela.”
I named them all with the word for “apple” from different languages, because those round green bodies reminded me of green apples. Ringo was Japanese, Manzana was Spanish, Pomme was French, and Mela was Italian, but they all meant “apple.”
The other three started to glow as well, and they underwent similar transformations. The biggest difference was that while Manzana looked much like Ringo did, Mela and Pomme were distinctly female, and with attractive proportions. They all still had green skin and light green hair, but they now had limber, muscular bodies. They were all still cute, just in a different way.
Even with their higher stats, though, I still thought they’d slow me down.
“I’m going to investigate the place where you fought,” I told them. “While I am gone, please gather materials. I have the utmost confidence in your ability to carry out the task I have assigned you. Dismissed!”
They still wanted to go with me, I could sense it in their gazes, but I made it clear that wasn’t going to happen. Those resigned yet guilty looks were so sad, I had to try really hard to resist the urge to give in. I wanted to bring smiles to those adorable faces. It took a lot of willpower to stay stoic as I saw them off. If I looked worried as they left, they’d think I didn’t have any faith in their abilities, and I couldn’t let their feelings become any more battered than they already were.
Once they were gone, I left as well. As I left the tower, I activated my Fairy Wings and ascended into the sky. Normally these wings were invisible—or rather, since they were made from my magic, they didn’t exist until I activated the skill. With the skill active, they were on full display, making it easy to spot me in the air. Even as I flew off toward the site of my Irregulars’ ill-fated battle, I could feel their expectant eyes on me. They were well hidden, but they couldn’t hide the feeling I got when they looked at me.