Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

After the excruciating teleportation, which I'm sure everyone who was present within the colosseum (except for the two head honchos) experienced, I landed back on my two legs inside the familiar room of the Dungeon Core Room.

"… It's good to be back." I exhaled a bit of air from my lungs as I let all of my guard down, my body finally feeling at ease (I was sure I still had some of my guard up during my night with Catalina) the moment the familiar scenery greeted my eyes.

"Papa…" And lo and behold, my surrogate daughter approaches with her tiny footsteps known to otaku-kind as the 'pata-pata' onomatopoeia. In short, she was cutely approaching me with her usual expressionless face. "Welcome back…"

"I'm home." I managed to muster a smile and rubbed the top of her head, her silky, smooth hair rubbing against my palm. She mewled for a bit as she leaned into my touch, but suddenly froze for some unknown reason.

Her tiny, cute, little nose twitched slightly, her mind focused on determining the scent that was coming from me, is what I assumed from her current actions. She then looked me straight in the eye, her expressionless visage now truly expressionless as she beheld my eyes in hers.

"Papa… Where's Mama…?" I froze, my mind grinding to a halt due to the innocent, but soul-tearing question.

'What the hell does she mean by that!? Does she mean about my fling with Catalina!?' I panicked, and for a good reason too. I'm not looking for a relationship now, not when I'm currently trying to find my bearings in this unforgiving world, but when a little girl, your surrogate daughter no less, asked for the whereabouts of her non-existent mother, I'm pretty sure all green lights are a go for panicking yourself to sleep.

"U-uh… Domino…? Why do you ask?" Trying to ascertain her current thought process, I pleaded towards the tiny loli who was looking at me with an expressionless gaze much harsher than before.

"Papa… I smell it… I smell her… Mama… You found me a Mama…" I wanted to clutch at my head and bang it on the wall nearby to effectively kill myself from this torture, but doing so in front of Domino would be horrible. The former, mind you, not the latter. The latter will never be done.

"E-err… H-how about we talk about it next time, alright? I still have important things to do." Salvaging this situation with a quick topic drop, I sighed in relief the moment Domino gave me an accepting nod. I let my pounding heart relax as I straightened my posture, approaching the loli with outstretched arms. "Now, come here and give good ol' papa a hug."

She didn't resist as I scooped her up in my arms and proceeded to give her a gentle squeeze. Her own arms tried, and failed, to wrap themselves around my body to reciprocate the gesture of affection we both shared. We stayed like that for a few moments, before I let her go and placed her back on the ground.

This caused her to pout, however, and I settled for carrying her once more on top of my shoulders, her legs swaying back and forth as she leaned against my head.

"Papa~" I heard Domino coo from the side of my head, a smile gracing my lips as I basked in her warmth. The previous situation now gone from my mind, I focused on the present situation with both of us basking in each other's warmth.

'Yep… It really is good to be back…'

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I was now back on the hammock, with my entire body snugly fit inside the sleeping bag I had brought from the Battle Royale event.

What? They didn't say it wasn't allowed to bring some items you liked from the events back to your Dungeon. Right on top of me, Domino laid spread eagle, her back facing front as she happily dozed off, using my body and sleeping bag as a cushion.

As I lay there, my mind was racing with various thoughts about my Dungeon and its current situation.

Such as the rewards from the Event, or rather, how there was no winner. I thought for sure they were going to force us to fight until the last man, but it seems it was not so.

Was there a change in plans?

Shaking my mind from those thoughts with no answers, I focused on the prizes I got from the event for surviving until the end. At least that part was true, with seven gift boxes, each of them corresponding to a day survived, snugly placed inside my inventory.

How they did that, I would never know, but I'll just chalk it up to them being Gods with bullshit powers that I currently have no way of fighting against.

'Seven boxes… Let's open the first day box…' I mentally picked the box and had it brought out from my inventory via telekinesis. Disclaimer, I don't know the magic on how to do so, but for some reason, when it pertains to taking things out from my inventory, I can exact my will upon it with just my thoughts, no magic needed.

Basically, I have telekinetic force over an item that was inside my inventory, but only until it touches something solid after getting taken out. To return items or place them back, however, I needed to do it manually, meaning using a part of my body to push them into the portal that connects with my inventory, something that could be quickly solved by learning Telekinesis.

But…

[Space Manipulation Spellbook] 250,000 DP

Yeah, I'm not getting that anytime soon…

Anyway, I've been going on a rant for a couple of minutes now, I think it's time to open the first giftbox.

Using the brief surge of telekinetic power I had over the giftbox, I quickly unwrapped its bowtie that was cutely wrapped around the box, and watched as the contents flew out slowly.

It was a wheel. You know, the ones that appear on game shows.

I also noticed that there were a bunch of infinitely small spaces covering the front of the wheel, an arrow on the top that would be used to determine the prize the contestant would get via RNG.

The wheel began to spin, some fanfare blaring out in the background, causing Domino to shift and open her eyes. She looked at me for a few seconds, before staring at the turning wheel in front of us with childlike wonder.

Eventually, the wheel slowed, and as my breath hitched, it stopped. It landed on a tiny space, with a very tiny logo, making it next to impossible to discern.

Luckily, my notification button was on, since my System oh-so gratefully gave me the description of what I won.

[Golemcrafting Skillbook] received!

… Welp… Industrial Revolution, here I come…