Reborn in a Dating Sim: Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Reborn in a Dating Sim:

Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Chapter Ten

The sound of bells echoed through the dorm. Slowly Copper awoke, and he noticed the form beside him. Her eyes were closed, and for all accounts she looked asleep. He wasn’t going to do anything though. For one he wasn’t exactly sure how he would proceed to begin with. Was Artemis even capable of doing anything? It was a question worth investigating, but at the same time he led him to another question. Did he want to? While she was created centuries ago, and she had the collected information from the old humans, it left behind the fact that she was still just learning her emotions.

For all rights and purposes she wasn’t really emotionally mature, and it felt like it would be wrong for him to take advantage of that. In a way it would be similar to taking advantage of a younger woman. Sure, he was biologically seventeen, but in truth he'd been twenty-five when he died in his old world. While it took a while for him to remember most of his previous life it didn’t change that he was actually closer to being forty-two in maturity. It also explained why he was able to learn things so much quicker.

His ability to understand things, to see how things fit together, and how they should work, came from his previous life. He was able to apply the way he learned things to how he was learning now. In a way it gave him the boost he needed in order to climb as high as he had. He was using his knowledge from his previous life to get ahead, and specifically he was using his memories of the game he’d played for his spoiled little sister. While it had wasted two of his days off in the end, that time had been time well spent.

Still, there hadn’t been anything where he could attempt to have a romantic relationship with Artemis. That hadn’t come up, so it made him question if that was because the protagonist had been a girl, or if this was one of the ways that the reality of this world was separated from the game itself. It wasn’t like the game was the end all when it came to the world. There had been other small differences. For one, he wasn’t just clicking on a command to summon the cores of monsters he had killed.

Instead he had been stuck reciting the incantation, although now he could use wordless magic. That made him far happier than he really had any right to be. He could use wordless magic, and he could so seamlessly. Even Primwood had explained that he had taken to the skill exceptionally well. Again he considered the reason behind it. When he was using magic he noticed how it operated.

The incantation wasn’t necessary, but it allowed people to feel the magic as it gathered. He studied his hand as he laid beside Artemis’ form. He felt the magic in the air, and it made sense why Artemis called it special energy. It was basically energy. It saturated everything around them. Another thing it reminded him of was the Force. A sort of presence around every living being, and it was connected to every living being. Using it meant directing it, controlling it, and of course he wondered if that meant corrupting it as well.

“Even in this dumpster fire of a game dark magic is taboo,” he said quietly, “It was mentioned that the users who studied dark magic were often kicked out of whatever nation they had been in. I guess that changing the magic into something darker might be something that could spread. Sort of like throwing a rotten apple in with a bunch of good ones. It’s going to spread the rot to everything else.”

Considering that he took the time to feel the magic there. It slowly shifted, going from cold, to fire, to water, to earth, and then to life or healing magic. Out of all of them that was his weakest form so far. He could use it, but it took him far more time to form a healing light than it did anything else. There was little doubt in his mind that the reason behind this was because he just wasn’t specifically gifted at healing magic. It wasn’t odd for someone to have a gift for one discipline and not have a gift for another.

Applebloom herself was gifted at potions and not gifted at summoning. He looked again at Artemis, and let ice form on the end of his fingers. It was juvenile, and he knew that, but at the same time it was going to be funny. He let the ice form perfectly, and then he lifted the sheet. His plan had been to reach around the cuff of Artemis’s shirt. He was planning on making her jump out of bed and exclaim it was cold. What he saw made him stop.

Artemis wasn’t wearing her uniform. She wasn’t wearing anything. She still had the form of a rabbit girl, and she hadn’t changed that at all, but he didn’t realize the extent of it. She looked completely normal. At least, from here she did. He was sure if he was get closer and look he could potentially see places where things didn’t look completely natural, but he wasn’t going to do that. He wasn’t because she was nude, in his bed, and his joke suddenly seemed far less funny.

He slowly got up, being careful not to disturb her. Some distant part of his mind considered his previous life. How waking up next to a nude girl was usually pretty awesome, but it wasn’t always something to be celebrated. He was still clothed, meaning he was still in his boxers, so there was that. He was reasonably certain nothing happened, but it didn’t stop his mind from screaming at him for the possibilities that he was just giving up.

He reminded that very perverted side of himself that Artemis wasn’t emotionally mature enough to commit to something like that, and he wasn’t going to take advantage of her. No matter how she looked, in his bed, completely nude. He closed his eyes, doing his best to think of anything not sexy. Having a teenage body again meant having the same problems again. He didn’t want to go there.

Not that it exactly mattered to his current body. The unwavering truth was that he was a teenage heterosexual male in bed with a female that had said that she wanted to be with him. The fact that he was emotionally more mature was the one saving grace. It did nothing for the massive case of blue balls he was going to have, but it absolutely did keep him from acting on his more base impulses. If he and Artemis ever got to that point he wanted it to be something that she absolutely wanted at that moment.

That wasn’t odd to him. That was just being respectful. Besides, there was a lot to still do, and he had a ton of things to get through. His coming here had been to find a wife. He actually had planned on that happening, but now he was considering the bigger picture. Marrying would be something he might consider, but it wouldn’t be the end all of it. It was going to be a sort of bonus. Instead he could learn as much as he could and apply that to his private island.

He could grow his crops, ensure that it was ran well, and live a nice and quiet life away from others. It was antisocial, and he knew it. He knew how antisocial it was, but it really seemed to feel right. Maybe it did because of how his job had affected him. In truth his previous life wasn’t exactly great. Working that call center job was about as close to purgatory as it could be. He felt like his entire existence was more or less just his working through sins that he hadn’t committed in order to escape.

That wasn’t really the case though. No, he understood more than anything that his job had been a job. There were other people there, and they all had to deal with the same kinds of calls he’d dealt with. Overly entitled people calling and complaining that they felt slighted because something they had purchased wasn’t acting exactly the way it had on the advertisement, or because they were too dumb to understand that submerging a cell phone in water was a good way to kill it.

Honestly, working that job had been exactly what made dealing with Delicate Emerald all the easier. She was pretty much like every single entitled Karen he had ever had to deal with. The same level of entitlement flowed through her. So, he just learned to deal with it. Again, he wondered how his Dad was able to do it. Gold Bit was a good man, and he certainly deserved better than Delicate Emerald.

He looked at Artemis again, and decided against attempting to wake her. He slowly started to get up, and noticed that she moved, Without missing a beat her arms reached out and wrapped around him. He felt her tightening her grip, and slowly she pulled herself closer to him. He felt her press against him, “Mmmm, Captain,” she said, her voice sounding sleepy, “Good Morning, is there anything I can help you with?”

He sat there, fighting the biological urges that were attempting to climb out and make themselves known. He didn’t want to take advantage of her, and that meant not taking advantage of her emotions for him. He wanted her to be emotionally mature enough to really grasp what she was suggesting, “Not at the moment, “He said, fighting himself, and understanding that he would be dealing with this on his own, “Right now I’m fine. But, why are you nude?”

She giggled, and it was strange to hear it come from her, “You allowed me to sleep in your bed. From what information I’ve gathered both from the old humans, and the books available in the various areas of the Academy it means that you intend to claim me. I am fine with this, and I want to allow it to happen. I am uncertain of how well we will mesh currently, but I am researching the possibility of creating a new droid to interact with you. Something that is more biological. I believe that it would be possible, and I could potentially create actual living tissue around metallic endoskeleton.”

She looked straight ahead for a moment, “I believe that I would like to keep my appearance much the same,” she said with a slight smile crossing her lips, “I may be incorrect, but it does appear that you seem to enjoy this form. If that is correct, then I have every reason to want to keep this form. It appears that you prefer demihumans. Perhaps they are more cordial than normal humans are.”

He breathed out, “Yeah, it’s too early to really go over this right now,” he said as he got out of bed, “I’m going to shower, and then I’ve got to prepare for the day. Artemis, I am sorry that I haven’t really asked before, but how exactly do you get clean? I mean do you shower, or what?”

She smiled at him, “Well, honestly the android bodies I use are able to shower, and at times I do so. Mostly to remove anything that is foreign and can hinder performance,” she said, “In my current form I believe that showering is needed because I need to show some evidence that I am no different from the other servants currently occupying the school. Shall I join you?”

He shook his head, “No, I’m good,” he said as he saw her smile, “Seriously, I’m fine.”

“My Captain, are you sure? It would appear that your body is arguing with you.”

He looked at her, “I’m sure,” he replied, “Look, I’m not sure exactly how things are going to work out between us. I don’t know where we’re going to end up, or how things are going to end up, but I want you to explore your own emotions. I can tell that you’re developing them, and I want you to learn more about yourself. Take the time that you need to figure out what it is that you want.”

She got up and stood there, “I want to assist my Captain, and I want to be with him always. I also want to ensure the complete and total destruction of any and all enemies of my Captain.”

The answer was straight forward, and it was honest. Her wants, her desires, they all seemed to focus on some part of him. Of course that made him happy, or at least it mostly made him happy. He still wanted her to figure out the things that she wanted for herself. Then again, she may never truly be able to do that. Despite how she looked Artemis was an artificial intelligence. She had been created for war, and she was adapting, but it didn’t mean that her programming would just be gone.

“Okay, is there anything that you would want, just for you?” he asked, trying to get her to consider the other possible options, “Is there something that you would consider to be a personal goal? Something that is important to you, and that you would like to see done. I’m asking because I’d like to know what it is that you would want personally. It doesn’t always have to align with what I’m doing, or what I want.”

She seemed to freeze for a moment, “My Captain, Copper,” she said, saying his name, which felt oddly pleasant, “There are a multitude of things that I want. I want you, and I am not lying about that. It is something beyond the scope of my programming as well. I was never meant to develop feelings of attraction. I was meant to serve, and calculate how our forces would stand. But being attracted, desiring intimate contact, wanting to be be held, to be dominated, to allow access to what I consider part of my body in an intimate fashion, these were not things I was programmed to have.”

She smiled at him, “So, I do not lie when I say that it is what I desire. However, I can understand your reluctance,” she stated as she presented herself to him, “I believe that you are worried that I am being driven by the flurry of emotions that I currently feel. That my decisions are being made solely on the prospect of where my personal whims are heading. In that regard, you would be very correct. I am allowing how I feel to dictate where I am going.”

She smiled at him, “It’s so new, exciting, and it feels…” she stopped and her eyes seemed to widen, “It feels, That is something else that is new. I feel things. Not the tactile touch, but rather I feel them emotionally. I feel a connection that I doubt I was supposed to feel. So, Captain, I offer myself to you knowing that I am new to this. I offer myself because I want you to want me as badly as I want you.”

He studied her, and he shook his head, “And I want you to understand your emotions more,” he replied after a moment, “I want you to understand yourself. God help me I want to give you what you want, but I don’t want to be taking advantage of you. It would be wrong for me to. I don’t want the fact that I’m your Captain, that I in essence own you, to be the reason for this.”

She looked at him, and he could see the confusion in her expression, “My Captain, you do understand that our primary relationship will not change, correct?” she asked, her voice sounding worried, “I mean, what I am will never change. I will always be Artemis. To be more specific I will always be your Artemis. I will stand against those who would harm or attempt to destroy you. That will never change.”

She smiled, “What has the capability of change is that I want to become more to you. I don’t just want to be your tool of war, but I want to experience other things as well,” she stated, “I want to know what it is like to be the object of affection, to know what it is like to be cared for, loved, desired, and even dominated to some degree.”

He looked at her, “So, basically you want me to get past whatever hangups I have, and pursue you, right?”

She nodded, “That is it, granted in a far more simplified manner,” she replied, “But that is what I would like. I would like for you to desire me as much as I am desiring you.”

He looked at her, and she was still nude. Her body was practically perfect in how she looked. It was difficult to see the small separations that her disguise currently had. For all rights and purposes she looked like a normal woman. Granted a woman that had the body of an athlete. She was fit, and she had a set of abs on her. They were defined, but not overly so. Her body was lean, designed for quick movements, and yet it did nothing to distract from her overall beauty. What she was offering was something that every teenage boy would have dreamed of. It was a chance to have a lover that would never defy him, and that would always desire him. So why was it so difficult to even consider it?

“Captain, would it be better if I attempt to pursue and woo you?” she asked as she stepped forward, “Would you prefer for me to learn the art of dating, and apply that?”

He smiled at her, “Actually,” he said as he looked at her, “Why don’t we both do that? Again, I am uncertain of how things will go, but why don’t we both attempt to pursue one another. We can date, and we can see how things unfurl. That will at least make it feel like we are being completely sincere with ourselves.”

She nodded, “Then, as my first attempt, at this new direction, please allow me to join you in the shower. I can wash your back, and you may return the favor.”

He somehow managed to keep from laughing at her reasoning. Her idea was to move past all of it, and give him the physical attention that she likely believed he wanted, “Maybe at some other point, but for now why don’t we shower separately.”

“Very well,” she replied, a slight pout forming, “However, I believe that you would have enjoyed my attention.”

He had absolutely no doubt that he would have.