Volume 3 Chapter 10 Playtime
It's been a few weeks since Moruru was born.
During these weeks, the five members of our party have been frantically taking care of the baby.
Moruru finished a week's worth of food in just one day, leaving us all shocked and rushing to buy even more food.
Responding to Moruru's strong desire to play, the party faced the seriousness of dealing with her demands.
In the face of the innocent chaos caused by Moruru, we even hunted down several wild boars in the forest to cover living expenses.
After many trials and errors, we finally managed to learn how to raise the small giant monster known as Moruru over these past few weeks.
Although we still faced issues like food expenses, the party members gradually got used to having Moruru around, and in turn, Moruru also became accustomed to the party members and this house.
"Papa! Look, look!"
And now, Moruru is bouncing around on the ground, several meters away from me.
In the forest nearby. It's a quiet space where the members often visit to train, with no one else around.
Today, Moruru was wearing sturdy adventurer clothes properly. We learned from the mistake of tearing expensive clothes to shreds during previous exercises.
For Moruru, who usually ties her fluffy hair in a ponytail during exercise, the only thing that hasn't changed since the day she was born is her collar.
Thinking about it, children grow up so fast.
"Oh, good job, Moruru."
I smiled and made teasing gestures with my fingertips.
"Alright, come at me seriously."
Moruru, freed from restrictions by my words, grinned.
"Let's go, Papa."
With that declaration,
Moruru disappeared.
"――――――――"
A large cloud of dust rose where Moruru was just before the declaration. And then, footprints appeared around the surrounding trees.
It's nothing special. Moruru's true strength is just beyond human eyesight.
Her physical abilities far surpass those of humans, allowing Moruru to move by leaping from tree to tree without ever touching the ground.
And that's it.
It doesn't mean she's stronger than me.
"I thought about using a feint, but you're still too naive."
I grab the ankle of the kick coming towards me and throw Moruru to the ground.
"Ouch! Not bad at all!"
Moruru, thrown to the ground, quickly takes a defensive stance, leaps again, and disappears from view. I dodge and deflect the punch coming from a completely different angle.
"Hmm, how about this then!"
The rustling sound indicates Moruru breaking through the leaves of the trees with her leaps. Without even looking, I knock down the heel drop with a backfist.
We repeated such exchanges over and over again. Moruru swiftly erased her figure and flew at me in a way that caught me off guard as much as possible. And I either dodged it, threw it, or knocked it down.
After continuing this for several tens of minutes, Moruru also started to get quite tired. I truly admire the stamina of the Metamorph Dragon. I can't keep up this kind of full-power movement for several tens of minutes.
"Nnaaaaaa!"
As Moruru, who was attacking with all her remaining strength, came at me, I chanted like this.
"Weight Increase, Object Weight Reduce, Object Point Shift―――Today's full power is over, Moruru."
I cast [Weight Increase] on myself and reduced the power and speed on Moruru with [Object Weight Reduce] and [Object Point Shift] in return.
And I caught it. I absorbed the energy that couldn't be completely killed by letting it flow around Moruru.
Moruru was sweating profusely, flashing a bright smile at me.
"That was fun!"
"Yeah, good job, Moruru. You're all sweaty now, wanna go for a swim?"
"Yes!"
"Haha, we can still play more. You're amazing."
I laughed and joined Ice and Toxy who were watching from the sidelines.
Toxy was the first to speak.
"Wade, are you going to get stronger?"
"Huh?"
What do you mean?
"Mama!"
Moruru, who had been lifted by me, hopped down and headed towards Ice.
"Here I am, Mama~... Moruru, you're all sweaty, huh?"
"Yeah!"
Ice wiped Moruru's sweat with a towel. Even though I was just playing and having fun, I was quite tired.
"Phew, playing with kids can be tough. I think Moruru is already as strong as a copper-tier adventurer."
"Wade, you effortlessly handled a presence similar to a copper-tier adventurer without using any magic."
"Huh? Well, I am a parent after all, I should be able to do this much."
Saying this to Moruru, she responds with a big smile, "Yeah!" This girl is too cute.
"But, what Mama Toxy said is right... Just a while ago, Moruru and Papa were evenly matched. Before I knew it, I was losing..."
"That's right, that's right! At first, we were all desperately running away from you, Moruru, but now Wade is the only one juggling with Moruru! Isn't it strange, Wade!"
"Papa is in trouble."
"Just because I got the hang of it, why am I being treated like this?"
Feeling a bit down, they comfort me, saying, "Oh, it's not like that. We just wanted to say that you're getting strong too quickly." "It's okay, Papa," they both console me.
Recently, things have been like this. Me, Ice, and Toxy taking care of Moruru. Clay handling finances with Alex. Sandra seems to be enjoying her freedom.
Speaking of which, Alex seems to be really busy lately, hardly showing up at this house.
We still have plenty of rune transcriptions in stock, so I've been continuing with that, but come to think of it, I haven't seen him since Moruru was born.
...If he doesn't come back even after finishing the transcriptions, maybe I'll try to demand something for breach of contract. He might give us something good.
Thinking about that, Ice finished wiping Moruru's sweat and said, "With this, all done..." We stood up and nodded, "Shall we go for a swim in the pool?"
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