[Nightmare]

"I… can't." Tilo claimed while shaking his head.

Leveling a preemptive strike, he lifted his hand in the air.

"I promised Helix I wouldn't tell." He clarified.

"Master Tilo… that just makes us want to know more." Marie replied.

"Everyone always says that when they're told [no] once.

If the answer is no, the amount you want is irrelevant." Tilo sassed.

"If you want to know, I'll confess. But you need permission from the boy."

Everyone looked at Helix's sleeping face with a conflicted expression.

"How good was it?" Marie asked.

"Good? There's nothing good about it!" Tilo snapped.

"So juu~see." Charlotte grinned.

She immediately reached over.

Marie growled at her like a dog willing to bite.

Charlotte pointed to Tinker, snoozing on her lap.

"If you growl, Tinker will growl, then Hellie will wake." Charlotte warned.

Marie narrowed her eyes on Charlotte.

"Relax. He'll fall back asleep or be thankful someone let him know he has a heavenly lap pillow."

The people around the campfire chuckled when they saw Marie's face turn rosy.

Marie sighed in defeat and allowed Charlotte to shake him a little.

"Guhhhhh? Marie? Charlotte? Riley? I love you, whoever you are." Helix muttered sleepily.

The people around the campfire burst into laughter.

"Huh? What's up?" He asked with his eyes still closed.

"We just heard about your wyvern fight.

Tyrene will kill Tilo if he doesn't speak about your match.

But he's willing to die to protect your secret.

The question is… will you let your poor teacher die?" Charlotte grinned.

Helix laughed in a pitiful state of bliss.

"Am I in a lap?" He asked.

"Yes. I'm giving you a lap pillow." Marie replied with a warm blush.

"Ahhhhhh. Okay, I can die happy." Helix laughed.

Everyone's faces lit up in excitement.

Especially Marie's.

She was just told her lap was worth dying for.

"To guarantee victory and further culture, I created a harem of naked women to assault Tilo and lead the prude into landmines." Helix explained.

"He died."

Silence fell over the area.

Then there was a chuckle.

Then another.

And another.

Soon everyone burst into laughter—including Helix.

The sensation of him laughing left Marie with a very complex laugh.

"What a legend! Leave it to Hellie to go for the kill!" Charlotte cried out.

"You're not even going to look at Tilo to verify?" Tyrene chuckled.

"Hmmm? What for? We would have known he died a merciless death even if Hellie didn't say so." Charlotte replied in genuine confusion.

Tilo looked around in shock.

He found Marie and Riley with the same nonplussed expression for being questioned.

"Don't worry, master." Helix called out in a muffled voice.

He spoke into Marie's crotch like he was lecturing on harem culture and proving it simultaneously.

"You were always going to lose.

If my eyes were open, you might have stood a chance."

Charlotte nodded multiple times in full agreement.

"Hellie pulled out the most ruthless trump card in—wait, what!?

Did you say you fought Tilo with a harem with your eyes closed!?" She gasped.

"Yes. Please ask Tilo. I'm living out a dream with one of the women I love." Helix requested while nuzzling his head into Marie's lap.

Marie was happy, embarrassed, and increasingly sexually aroused.

It was becoming a problem.

"But I'll leave you with one thing.

Tilo asked if I was using [Nightmare]." Helix grinned.

All of the women burst into laughter.

Helix already informed Tyrene and TIlo that he told Marie, Charlotte, and Riley about [Nightmare], and they could talk about it.

Even though he trusted them, he informed his partners they couldn't talk about [Nightmare] with Tilo and Tyrene unless they entered a bloodpact.

They immediately agreed.

Tilo looked at Helix with a murderous expression.

However, he couldn't help but be moved by how happy the boy was.

So he took the embarrassment like a champ and explained what happened.

"Jokes aside, he did a number on you." Tyrene commented.

"Yeah. I hate to admit this, but the boy straight-up murdered me.

That means our training next week starts up with me fighting back." Tilo grinned.

The young women all tried to interject, but Tyrene jumped in.

"Yup. If he can hand a seventy-niner, he can handle multiple sixties, no problem."

Marie looked down at Helix to check his expression.

He was out cold again, which made her worry.

"Don't worry about him. He's just happy." Tyrene commented with a gentle expression.

"He hasn't slept for a month.

Now that you're here and safe, he can rest."

"He hasn't slept? Has training been that hard?" Marie asked hesitantly.

Knowing she would be enduring that training again tomorrow made her shiver.

"It is… but not nearly as bad as he's making it." Tilo confirmed hesitantly.

"Alas, the boy is bringing it upon himself."

The man sighed, and Tyrene nodded in agreement.

Marie wanted to snap and say he was making excuses, but Tyrene gave them the same depleted look.

"Yeah. The poor thing levels up every monster hunt.

Therefore, his muscle memory gets thrashed, and I have to make him work harder and limit his strength stat in training." Tyrene sighed.

"Not only that, the boy's so talented and loaded up with resources that he's at risk of a real mistake.

Imagine if he created that Eruption circle and modified it without my guidance.

One mistake would have wiped him and everything around him off the map.

I'm forced to be harder on him for his mistakes, teach him more dangerous topics, and make him practice far more excessively to prevent that." Tilo sighed.

"Lastly, the brat trains and reads in his free time. He never truly rests." Tyrene sighed in agreement.

"He's been working hard for you three."

"I see. Thank you, then." Marie whispered with a warm smile on her face.

The other women nodded.

"Pssssst. Tilo. Will you tell us about the circles that Helix makes?" Charlotte asked.

Tilo nodded with a genuine smile.

"The circles Helix makes are mundane and standard more often than not." He explained.

"However, the small modifications he makes are extraordinary."

"How so, master?" Riley asked with a strange glint in her eyes.

"The boy will create a small [Waterspout] circle and throw a dozen [Gentle Charge] circles into it.

The electricity circles will only trigger if the Waterspout goes off.

As a result, you cannot defuse them in advance.

You cannot defuse a magic circle permanently, either.

His modification also prevents them from being triggered if there is a negation circle present.

Lastly, he created a blood pact with himself that prevents the spells from triggering if he steps on them." Tilos continued.

The eyes of everyone present couldn't get wider.

"Fighting Helix Margrave is like walking into a living minefield possessed by evil spirits hellbent on revenge." He laughed.

"How… does he think about these things week after week?" Tyrene asked with bewilderment in her eyes.

"I thought he'd eventually hit a wall with his creativity."

"That's what I thought. However, the concepts come as naturally to him as breathing.

What he's doing is connected to his hobbies back home which specialize in the art, so he has years of practice." Tilo laughed.

Tyrene raised an eyebrow.

"Hobbies? There's a name for the art?" She asked.

"Indeed. The boy calls it conditional logic." Tilo confirmed.

"That's right! Helix was an aspiring video game developer!" Marie gasped.

Tilo raised an eyebrow.

"You know about this strange art?" He asked with curiosity flickering in his eyes.

"Not personally, but I know the concept." Marie nodded.

"Programming is a computer concept that centers on conditional logic.

He designs worlds similar to Myriad's monster-fighting system.

He'll write code that states if the character defeats monster A, grant 720 EXP.

If a character's EXP exceeds 20,000, increase Level by one and stats by 5%." Marie explained.

"Programming is centered around [IF] statements.

In that battle, he's saying that IF Waterspout is triggered, trigger the electricity if available; ELSE, wait until the condition is met.

IF the Markov eats the magic circle, trigger it; ELSE, don't trigger it." Marie continued.

"Conditional logic is a general concept.

I don't think that Helix is being creative.

Instead, I think he's thinking of ideal usages for magic circles and then finding solutions to bring them into reality.

I'm sure you'd agree that preventing spell diffusion or traps from going off ahead of schedule is not ideal.

However, instead of Helix giving up on using them, he finds solutions to fix the problem."

Tilo was stunned to hear Marie's explanation.

"The boy said something about that before with a concept known as [encryption].

He wasn't creating the concepts; he said he was finding ways to recreate them…." He pondered aloud.

Tyrene wasn't interested in the topics whatsoever.

There was something different at the back of her mind.

"Marie. Did you just say that Helix [creates] worlds similar to the monster leveling system?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

Marie's heart started pounding, and she put her hands up and waved them.

"Don't misunderstand! This and that are similar, but one's life and the other is a game." She clarified hurriedly.

"Millions of people on Earth share that profession.

However, they can't modify the real world. That's absurd."

Tyrene put up her hands in response.

"Don't worry, child. I'm not accusing him of being a god." She chuckled.

"I'm just…."

"Increasingly convinced that he's someone that can build an army to kill the Mad Queen?" Charlotte scoffed.

Tyrene fell silent.

"Let's table this for the night." Tilo requested while standing up and stretching.

"We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and should get some rest."

—

Power stones and grammatical errors = more content. :)