Late at night.
A listless voice leaked from inside the tent.
"...Can't sleep."
Having quickly finished his bath after the women, Rest returned to the task of supplying mana to the barrier.
He focused solely on pouring mana into the magic circle on the ground, and when night grew late, he rested in the tent pitched atop the circle.
A lot had happened today, and he was truly exhausted. Mentally.
He had tried to fall asleep right away, but... he couldn't seem to drift off at all.
Well, that made sense.
Rest had just eaten a tonic dish that would put a soft-shelled turtle to shame.
On top of that, during the bath, he had been subjected to mysterious seduction from the women, leaving him in a restless state.
"Can't sleep... can't sleep at all..."
If anything, his eyes felt like they were growing more alert by the minute.
Relieving some of his desires might help him relax... but Yuri and Urla were sleeping in a tent not far away.
Yuri had excellent senses and was particularly sensitive to smells.
Urla probably wasn't, but... for some reason, whenever she stared at him, he felt like she was peering into the deepest recesses of his soul.
The two of them were already prone to unexpected behavior as it was.
To avoid any accidents whatsoever, he should probably refrain from doing anything careless.
(Yuri... is she asleep? Must be nice, being that carefree...)
Because he was constantly casting presence detection magic, he could sense Yuri, Urla, and Carly sleeping in a tent a short distance away.
I swear it, but... It's not like I'm deliberately looking for them.
It's just... maybe because of all the worm blood, meat, and testicles, my senses are sharper than usual, and I can pick up on every little breath and shift Yuri and the others make, even before they turn over in their sleep.
(She kicked the blanket off. I hope she doesn't catch a cold... wait, that's creepy!)
Just how much of a creep am I, sensing the every move of sleeping girls?
Even though the cause of this is entirely them, the sheer guilt of it is about to crush me.
"Gah, enough! I can't take this, I can't sleep!"
Rest sat up with a jolt and stepped outside the tent.
At this point, he might as well go visit Yuri and the others for a late-night... Of course, he would do no such thing.
For a split second, the thought did cross his mind, but he wouldn't do something so utterly ungentlemanly.
"I'll go hunt some monsters...!"
There's no point just lying there feeling frustrated. He should just move his body and burn it off.
Fortunately, there were plenty of monsters around here.
Why not blast them with magic until the blood drained from his face and vent all this energy?
(It's like those guys who vent their sexual urges through sports... Alright, let's do this!)
Rest poured ample mana into the magic circle.
With this, the barrier that kept monsters away wouldn't vanish even if he was gone for an hour or two.
"[Concealment][Levitation][Wind Manipulation]"
A triple-cast of magic.
To avoid waking the girls, he concealed his presence. Rest then floated up into the sky.
Flying up towards the vast, star-filled night sky, he then manipulated the wind and headed west.
"Well… honestly, it's the worm's fault that things turned out this way. It's all, every last bit, the worm's fault."
If the worm hadn't been there, he never would have come to this place.
If he hadn't eaten the worm's flesh, hadn't drunk its blood, his energy never would have built up to this extent.
He wouldn't have been pushed around by Yuri and Urla, and his head — or rather, his lower half — wouldn't have been surging with blood, leaving him tormented.
"Fine… let's kill them. Thoroughly. Let's slaughter every last one!"
Under normal circumstances, Rest wouldn't have entertained such radical thoughts.
He had trained by fighting monsters since he was a child, but he had never harbored resentment or hatred toward them.
The reason his blood was running hotter than ever was undoubtedly the worm's flesh.
Rest flew toward the swamp where the worms lived in the dead of night, determined to carry out his hunt from start to finish.
The worm's flesh would bring about the worms' complete annihilation.
It was the sadly ironic result of a food chain.