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The Gamer Chapter 1099 – Tier 5 Guild Hall 5 – Patron Goddess and Fae Nobility
🕑 Added 2021-10-28 13:51:15 +0000 UTC
‘Interesting that there are drawbacks, but the benefits far outweigh them,’ the Gamer thought, looking at the next couple of windows.
‘Free levels are nice. Even if I don’t really need them right now.’ John’s thoughts were pulled away from the window by Nathalia, growling into his ear. The dragoness had been looking over his shoulder, a happenstance because the taller woman was hugging him from behind, reading the window in front of him. “Are you getting jealous?” he asked.
“You’re mine,” she asserted, increasing the pressure of her embrace.
“You’re sharing me with so many others already though,” John pushed back. “What’s the difference between them and other goddesses?” Nathalia didn’t answer, only dug her nails into his abs and glared at him. Sighing, John moved the windows to the side for a moment to address her. “Come now…” he reached up and gently touched her face, “…you should know that, no matter who else joins our harem, I will never forsake you. There’s no reason to be jealous.”
“I will consider allowing it,” the Flame of Destruction said, minorly appeased.
That was as much as John could ask for and he turned back to read through the last window.
Just a chunk of GP, nothing close to reimbursing him for the 2000 he had paid to get the last two Guild Perks, but nice to have regardless.
‘Let’s get those levels so we can keep the tour going,’ John thought and opened his Class menu. ‘Also let’s hope Starforger keeps track of future requirements. Would be unfortunate if I make a future level up harder by raising Disciple now.’ The possibility made John hesitate for several seconds, the paranoia wrestling with the benefit of an immediate Perk. The latter won eventually. It would be unreasonable to create a system where he couldn’t properly max out one Class because he maxed out the ones connected to it first.
Those were fairly mediocre choices, which was not surprising given that the previous Perks were absurdly powerful for how early in the Class they were. Extra Blessings and Charisma Blessing essentially did the same, just with one offering a scaling solution rather than an immediate benefit. Since John was already at 250 Charisma, if he took either of the two, Charisma Blessing would have made a lot more sense.
However, John was more interested in Sexual Blessings. The reason for this was primarily emotional, maybe even entirely. When it came to logical excuses to take the Perk, he thought he may be able to get Thana’s Blessing this way. It was also the most number-efficient of the three for the foreseeable future. On an emotional level, John just didn’t like taking someone else’s power as a gift and this at least let him give ‘something’ in return.
He picked it and was tempted to immediately strut over to Eliana and make her orgasm. There were many avenues to get that done in a matter of minutes, or even less, thanks to his various sexual Skills and her high Libido. No matter how fast he got it done with, it would compromise the resolution to keep things clean for the moment. ‘Not like I need to hurry up and fuck her,’ he thought and instead directed his mind to another question. ‘Should I level up Harem Gamer? Might be a waste of a Max Class Level…’
John still had 6 open, so he had wiggle room, but it wasn’t enough wiggle room that he was comfortable just throwing it away. For the next Starforger level, he needed Silver Arcanist and Harem Gamer at 3. The latter condition was already fulfilled, so there was no need to go any further. Silver Arcanist still needed two levels and Starforger would take another one. That left him with another 3 afterwards, and Starforger would only be level 5 then.
‘I’ll have to grind more Class Levels either way,’ he finally decided and tapped the button.
‘Oh great, two mediocre repeat choices and another pretty mediocre one to add.’ John scratched his head. Mark of Passion and Mark of Understanding were still too minor and unnecessary, respectively, to take. Mark of Domination was another pleasure increase. At this point, another one on the pile didn’t do that much. Even if John liked having them, it wasn’t quite enough motivation to take a Perk. The additional utility was a time saver though. Rather than having to hypnotize his entire harem, a process that could take quite a while, he just had to grab one and any future haremettes (Lorelei, at least, if John had anything to say about it), would just understand them. The usual limitations of hypnotism would still apply, of course.
So, John picked that, just because he liked the time saver.
“Alright, let’s keep going,” the Gamer said and walked back towards the staircase they had used to get up there.
_______________________________________________________________________________
They used the gondolas to sail all the way to the Strange Sea. The piers were just the automatically suggested destinations and where the gondolas could be found. With the necessary permissions, one could direct the gondolas to move anywhere in the Guild Hall, provided there was a path available.
Once they placed their feet on the Darkshore, John tapped two buttons and the gondolas turned around, returning to their pier of origin. Later, when they would be in steady use, they would try to be equally distributed between piers at all times. Down the line, John would have to do some manual changes to make sure the most frequently travelled routes had some additional gondolas to deal with demand.
“Alright, let’s activate the Fairy Lantern.” The instant John had done so, the sky above them began to dim. As the Midnight Forest sank into the timeless dark that provided its name, the gold of the sun was replaced with the silvery light of the stars.
The moon was a slit.
A celestial object on which two shadows were cast that just so happened to leave the remaining, reflective surface shaped like a cat’s pupil; the cosmic forces at work to create that particular shape should have been practically impossible to align. To John, who was quite used to beings powerful enough to use the sky as a tool of observation, wasn’t that bothered.
Until he read that, anyway.
“Methenia better be able to get rid of that,” Stirwin hummed, only for the moon to turn its gaze on them. It was cold, pleasant, alien and beckoning. John almost felt like he could walk up on the moonlight, despite him having resisted the debuff.
“Hey!” Momo shouted. “Stare somewhere else!”
The Mad Moon blinked, shadows and light shifting like eyelids, and suddenly descended. The last bit of normality in the sky was replaced by the pitch black between the intense stars.
“It’s not going to crash down on us, right?” Lee asked.
“Death by moon sounds pretty cool,” Sylph babbled. “I could work with that. Wait, no, being dead means no more teasing Salamander… It means no more teasing Salamander! PANIC!”
“Calm down, it’s just being a giant dick,” Momo told everyone, her firefly wings stretched out.
Now three times the size in the sky, the Mad Moon stopped. The shadows on its surface shifted again, this time transforming the massive celestial body into an eclipsed ring, a comparatively tiny dot at the centre. From that pupil descended a path of silver light, engulfing the harem and Momo specifically. It switched for a moment to John, but then dashed back. The fairy support’s wings glowed iridescently in the light.
“Yyyyeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss,” the Mad Moon spoke in a hoarse whisper and slowly crept back into the distance where a moon should be. All shadows disappeared from its surface, leaving it as a full sphere of pale light in the sky. The stars grew more numerous, the pitch black between them into a minorly more friendly dark blue.
Siena chuckled, “This place always entertains.”
“Let’s see just how much of that entertainment I want to stomach,” John said, as they walked into the forest before them. What had been a pretty normal pine forest a minute ago was now filled with a dreadful aura.
John deliberately had chosen the Darkshore as the group’s place to land as it would force them to take a march through the Unseelie Path. They were met with a mixture of sights, some worrying, some sickening, some almost adorable. A creature almost entirely made out of overlapping butterfly wings was angrily tearing the needles off a tree. A skinless, eight-armed humanoid, draped in black tatters, tore into another tree and pulled the sap out of it as if it were string, weaving the amber liquid into webs. A purple fae of an androgynous appearance flew circles around its fellow oddities, laughing like a windchime. Around the harem’s feet spread mushrooms.
The only worrying thing about them was the speed and their unknown point of origin. John observed them for quite a bit. Because of the Lorylim, he had grown suspicious of anything that looked like mycelium, but these specific mushrooms were merely creepy.
Copernicus stopped to hiss at some darkness between a particularly dense cluster of trees. A shape like a wolf’s head peeled out of it, forming pearly white teeth. Several more heads followed, all starting to bark at the solar jaguar. “SHUT IT!” the eclipse elemental roared, light exploding from his fur in a cascade of sparks.
The barking shadows disappeared and a displeased rustle went through the forest. “Didn’t we learn last time that they don’t like excessive light here?” John asked.
“I’ll remember when they learn not to bother me,” the feline responded calmly, and they continued their path.
For all their odd and often unnerving appearances, the fairies they came across were not particularly worrisome in terms of strength. The strongest were around level 80, which made them trivial to the group. “Compared to a hive made from liquified human flesh, this is actually relaxing,” John spoke his thoughts out loud.
“Ya remember when we were afraid of ghosts?” Rave asked.
“You were never afraid of the ghosts,” John told her. “The only reason I got to fuck you the first time around was because you were so desperate to put yourself in danger against the Spectre.”
“And look where that got us, right into bantering in the middle of a nightmare forest.” The Lightbearer crossed her hands behind her head. “I did good.”
Momo rolled her eyes. “Sure. Good.”
“Don’t ya sass me, you seem to feel right at home.”
“Against my better judgement, I do,” the support admitted with a long, happy sigh. Ever since the Mad Moon had stared at her, the mildly fairy-fied Artificial Spirit had been smiling. The iridescence of her wings was slowly bleeding out as rainbow-coloured sparks.
The Unseelie Path was gradually replaced by a thick bramble labyrinth. Somehow, the dark brown and purple spiked wood was friendlier than the forest they had left behind. All they needed to do was to find their way through. “Lydia,” John offered his hand to the queen.
“Why the special treatment?” the auburn-haired metal mage asked.
“Remember last time you tried to get through a fairy maze?” he asked. Specifically, during his birthday, when he first put the Fairy Lantern down, Lydia had always found herself back outside the bramble maze no matter what she did. Back then, it had only been a network of branches that hung at waist height. Now that it was a proper labyrinth in a much larger forest, there was every reason to assume it was more potent. “I’m afraid you’ll suddenly disappear. Fairies hate you.”
“That is a correct assessment and a mutual feeling,” Lydia said and took his left hand.
They continued deeper into the maze. The moon hung above them, always directly above them, shining onto them and the environment in equal measure. “At least it’s respecting my wishes,” Momo remarked.
A soft voice whispered from above the bramble walls. It was the voice of a woman and the sound of a glass knife carving ice. “And why would the Mad Moon not answer to a fairy of such power?”
“Methenia,” John called the daughter of Titania by her name. “Did you enjoy your trip home?”
“Forced returns are always a delight, Earl.” The fairy still didn’t show herself. John was able to find her by sending the Mandala Sphere upwards, however. The Bramble Dancer was making her title all honour, elegantly stepping over the top of the spiky walls without ever hurting herself. Her lean, almost rectangular body was covered in strips of silk, fluttering behind her twirls and jumps. Her skin was either black as coal or white as milk, depending on what one decided was the base and what made up the shifting lines. All that seemed properly human around her, body shape aside, were her simple green eyes. The feeling those eyes conveyed was far from human, however.
Sylph and Momo followed the Mandala Sphere, while Siena followed them by effortlessly climbing the wall.
“Should we follow them?” Lee asked.
“Do you want to?” John asked. “Because if I have learned one thing in regards to fairies, it’s that you should just do what your whims tell you – unless they get offended by that.”
“And what would offend them?” Lee asked, squeezing his left hand to find something that was reliable.
“God, I wish I kne-“ John realized that Lee was holding a hand that should have been otherwise occupied. “Where is Lydia?” The question was answered by a window popping up in front of him. The Harem Comms were already paying off.
Lydia: It appears I have been brought to the centre. I must emphasize that I loathe fae.
Nia: I am sad.
John now realized that Nia wasn’t around either. That did worry him considerably less though.
“Pass between us,” Methenia said above. “As we dance. The gale that hops, the infernal midnight, and the viscountess.”
“Well, that’s a title,” John hummed.
“What did that bitch just call the flat-chested assortment of holes?!” Eliana cussed.
“Earl is such an odd title that there is no real female equivalent. Their wives usually are called countess or viscountess.”
“Imma kill her,” Rave said. “Momo ain’t marrying ya before me, that’s against the rules. So imma kill the fairy.”
“How serious are you about that?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.
Rave gave him a wink and a dangerous smile. “Mostly not serious.”
They finally emerged at the centre of the bramble labyrinth. There, they found something approximating a massive tea party. The leaves of gigantic trees served as the blankets for groups of fae to sit together underneath a skeleton roof of brambles. At the centre of it stood the Fairy Lantern, surrounded by cut-off tree trunks. The brambles grew from the bark of those trees, while the tops served as the portals out of which some fairies climbed. Other fae just materialized wherever they wanted. Lively chatter filled the area.
Lydia stood near the lantern, Strimata drawn and pointed at whatever fairy came closer than three metres. Carefully, she manoeuvred her way towards the group. “I hate these creatures,” the queen stated, pronouncing every syllable carefully.
“As we do you,” Methenia said, dancing her way down a thin bramble path that connected the labyrinth to the portals. “Your existence is iron and twisted magic.”
“Statement: this is ironic, coming from a fairy,” Beatrice said and the entire court looked at the passive maid. Blatantly, she stared back. John could practically feel her wish to get an excuse. The only symmetrical thing in this place was the shifting pattern on Methenia’s skin. To the perfectionist maid, this was practically torture.
“Guess we’re married now, John,” Momo interrupted the drama with playful frustration. Everyone went back to their tea. The fairy support was dancing right after Methenia, with a little less grace. Sylph and Siena had taken other paths.
“No, you’re not,” Rave stated clearly, a little less joking than last time.
“A viscountess is a viscountess, regardless of rings and mortal oaths,” Methenia chastised them.
“Whatever,” John just waved off. “Methenia, you are still the head of the court, correct?”
Methenia laughed, the bramble path under her ever-dancing feet turning flexible like a jumping rope. “No… no, no, no, no,” she chided him, like a mother would her child after saying something ridiculous. “Head of this court? How could I be, Earl? The Mad Moon brought the Midnight Court.”
“So, I am the head,” Momo said.
“Yesssssss,” the Mad Moon confirmed.
“Fantastic, more responsibility,” the workaholic remarked and stopped her dance. “Methenia, I promote you to… Hey, Lydia, got any good noble titles in your head?”
“Baroness would be the next lowest under viscountess, in the English hierarchy.”
“Fantastic, Methenia, I promote you to Baroness of the Midnight Court. You will keep the fae in accordance with the Earl’s rules when I’m not around.”
“I cannot accept this, I am head of the Bramble Court,” Methenia denied.
“Fine, then you’re Baroness of the Midnight Brambles.”
“Such a title does not exist,” Methenia pointed out, shaking her head.
Momo made a tossing gesture. “Now it does.”
Those three words swung the mood in the court entirely. Cheers broke out all around and Methenia jumped with joy. The Mad Moon shed white flower petals, breaking down as they sailed towards the ground. “What fantastic an honour, wise and powerful viscountess!”
‘I just… alright,’ John thought, letting the scene wash over him.
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