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The Gamer Chapter 1071 – Final Grind of the Year 2 – Banter, Staff, Ancient Technology
🕑 Added 2021-09-18 12:54:06 +0000 UTCThe priority of this grinding session was definitely the Metracana Master Class.
What assurance he had gotten from the initial Perk was promising, but not enough to satisfy John. He wanted a total guarantee that the material swap would not only not have any adverse effects but also lead to the complete reconstitution of Metra’s former powers or, if that was not possible with all of the chaos related Attributes, at least a guarantee that they would be replaced with something of equal value.
Between that first Perk already teasing further help in that aspect and the way the Gamer ability reacted to his wishes (as long as they fit in the confines of the Class), John was reasonably certain that he could get what he wanted. The question was only if he would get it within the scope of this grinding session.
‘Well, let’s think about it, I will get another 12 levels just from sex, although I might lose some due to lengthy grinding sessions. Let’s just assume I get another 9, that already guarantees me another 2 Class Levels beyond the 3 I currently have. If the Court Dust works like I hope it does, I should get… an absurd number of levels out of an Assault.’
Within John’s inventory was a pouch of powder, the final result of his search for some kind of drug that let him abuse the Assault Instant Dungeon’s time-based experience multiplier. Court Dust was a mixture of fairy dust, Mithril, true ice, and various other ingredients, some less magical than others, synthesized in a complicated process that yielded about 1 gram worth of the drug over the course of several months.
The reason why John had to go with something this rare and difficult to refine over a drug as readily available as cocaine was due to his circumstances. If he had been a single person build, perhaps he could have beat an unnaturally prolonged Assault after powdering his nose a couple of times. However, he was a build based on summoning and him staying wide awake was worth fairly little if the elementals and Artificial Spirits reached the point of mental and/or physical exhaustion.
Court Dust was notable in that it only took the summoner to take it in order to keep everyone they were connected with fully awake and ready for a prolonged period of time (about three days were advertised). If this was true, and John had used a lot of leverage to pressure the seller into listing every potential drawback and side effect to make sure it was, then John could run a two-day Assault.
Of course, he would crash, intensely, afterwards. Snorting fairy cocaine would likely put him flat for the same amount of time he enjoyed being awake because of it. It was purely the way Assaults worked that John was willing to indulge in something like this. The pressure of the Lorylim looming somewhere unseen did the rest.
Although John was not one of those people who thought any outside the three culturally accepted drugs (nicotine, alcohol and caffeine) should be illegal, he was a friend of a certain level of caution. Anyone should be able to put whatever they wished inside their bodies, as long as they were aware of the potential consequences.
As for the consequences of Court Dust, outside the necessary recuperation period, there were two notable side effects. After the effect had concluded, there would be a period of a couple of days where any familiars would get a bit confused about their personalities. It was described as them ‘mimicking the most outwardly apparent traits of fellow familiars’, apparently born from the prolonged period of hyperactive sense-sharing. The secondary side effect, a pretty regular one as far as drugs were concerned, was the building of resistance.
Taking Court Dust just once built an immediate and pretty strong resistance to it, which would slowly decrease over three months. In other words, even if he wanted to and got his hands on a steady supply of pouches, John could not partake in it regularly.
That was a bit of a relief for John, if he was being honest. If Court Dust had been something that was just always effective, he may have been seduced into taking it regularly. Whatever natural distaste he had for performance enhancing drugs most certainly paled in comparison to the threat of death or failure on a national level. Having an easy excuse to limit his intake even during tenuous times was good for his health.
‘If I use the first day to scout out a good Assault, the second, third and fourth to run the drugged up Assault, recover on the fifth, sixth and seventh, I may just barely be able to kill another Raid Boss during the rest of the session,’ the Gamer thought, shifting his weight on the couch. As advertised, Lee had manifested their apartment within the Illusion Barrier. ‘Still not decided if I should try that or do Jane the favour.’
Thinking of the she-devil, his girlfriend entered through the door of their copied apartment. “Can ya do me a solid, tiger?” she asked with big eyes.
John had to bite the inside of his cheek to not answer yes immediately. ‘She knows exactly what she is doing,’ he thought, watching his adorable girlfriend pout to weaken his resolve. Cat ears twitching, she inched a bit closer. “Depends on what you want and what I get in return,” he held his ground.
“Can’t ya just give me things because ya love giving me things?” Rave asked, almost ready to jump in his lap. The problem with that was that the same was currently occupied by Metra, who he was to hold tenderly for an hour. Adorably, the reaction of the First of Wrath to prolonged affection was to turn completely silent and keep her eyes directed to the floor. John had never encountered that before. Usually, any loving moments with the berserker babe escalated so quickly to fucking or other wild forms that lengthy, dedicated cuddling just wasn’t in the cards.
Learning new things about his women always pleased him, especially when it was such an unexpectedly sweet side to the so outwardly brutal and tomboyish blonde. “Hmmmm,” John hummed and kissed the neck of the athletic, Middle Eastern woman. “Hmmmmm,” he continued to hum, while kissing around some more. “I do really love giving you things…”
“Like an engagement ring?” Rave poked, changing demeanour from begging to challenging smirk.
Sighing and swaying side to side with the ancient weapon in his arms, the Gamer responded, “You know that will come your way when I feel it’s the best possible moment.”
“And ya know that you’ve been letting me wait so long that we’ll marry two weeks after we get engaged.”
“A month,” John negotiated. “Even an administrative genius like me can’t work the miracle of organizing a wedding in two weeks.”
“Like ya don’t have all the planners on speed dial,” Rave purred, her tail softly swinging behind her bodysuit covered butt. While John was working on his Classes, the rest of the harem were busy with their individual combat training and were therefore in their chosen battle regalia. Rave was currently wearing a rather cheap bodysuit, a barely qualified knock-off of her original one and a definitive downgrade from the last one she had, which had unfortunately been destroyed during the Death Zone fights. A replacement was in the making.
“That’s beside the point, think of all the people who have to make room in their schedule to attend,” the Gamer told her. “Unless you want to make our marriage some kind of small event.”
Rave put a finger on her pink, lower lip and mildly tilted her head in thought. “Honestly, we’ll probably have to marry twice. Once in the mundane, once in the Abyss.”
Had he not been holding hands with Metra, John would have scratched his head. “Not even sure how we marry in the mundane. If I was a priest, I wouldn’t let us in… I guess we could go to Utah.”
“What’s in Utah?” Rave was confused for a moment, then she realized. “Oh, right, Mormons are fine with polygyny.”
“Exactly.”
“Can you two fuckers just get back to the topic?!” Metra cried out.
“Don’t get angry, Mat,” Rave reprimanded with a big grin on her face and bowed down to the bashful blond berserker babe. With a kiss that was half love bite, the feline Lightbearer temporarily distracted the First of Wrath from her ‘torment’. Then she turned to John. “Momo told me to get ya to finally look at Tiolyst. Also she and Magoi are discussing something and they want your opinion.”
“Right.” John nodded. For one reason or another, generally being distracted with sex or Class Challenges, the Gamer had not yet inspected the Astrotium staff Tiolyist. “I could do that – if you gave me something in return.”
A pure bluff, certainly, but John was willing to gamble that she would do something to humour him.
“I could bend over for ya,” she suggested with a wink.
Before John could even attempt to come up with a reason to not take that magnificent offer, his girlfriend had already turned around. The skin-tight fabric of her bodysuit stretched slowly and seductively, as she lowered her upper body until her palms connected with the surface of the low table. Somehow, her tail emphasized the roundness of her butt. The pink, aesthetic cat limb needed no hole above the fantastic bubbly goodness, courtesy of being a magical attachment. As long as the clothes were thin enough, they could be put in between with no issue, especially if they were mana conductive.
While John appreciated that fact, he appreciated the perfect ass of his girlfriend in a bodysuit a whole lot more. The material hugged the curve of the double spheres tightly enough to even emphasize the gap between. Instead, it just slightly stretched over. Rave raised her ass up a bit further, put one leg before the other, and deliberately created the shape of a heart with her butt, balanced between fat, round, firm and juicy, that way. Looking backwards, she raised one hand to make a cheeky victory sign.
The window allowed John to finally remember that his mouth could do more than hang agape at the gorgeousness of his girlfriend. It also allowed Metra to finally wind herself out of his loving embrace. “In my entire life, that was the most degenerate shit I ever had to do,” she exclaimed, and walked towards the open door, shouting, “I NEED TO PUNCH SOMETHING!”
“She’s so easily agitated,” Rave chuckled and licked her lips, looking at the tent between John’s legs. “You’re too, tiger.”
John snapped his fingers and asked, “Are you horny?”
Rave’s teasing expression turned depraved and needy. Glazed over eyes, audible breathing, an open mouth and a tongue almost pushing past her full, glossy lips, all mixed with the quick flushing of her face to display the obvious answer before she voiced it, “Yessssss.”
John would never get tired of hypnotic suggestions. They combined his desire to sexually dominate his women completely with the certainty that the commands would strictly not work if they didn’t want them to. Although some magic was involved in the hypnotism, it wasn’t of the variety that broke the fundamental rule of the practice: that all hypnosis was a suggestion that worked only with consent and belief. What made John’s hypnotism special, when aimed at those with Lover’s Will marks especially, was that the pleasure rewards were more than psychological.
Snapping his fingers again, he added, “Are you my naughty girl?”
“Yes, tiger,” Rave was switching into her submissive side and wiggled her ass invitingly. “I’m a very naughty gi-AAHH!” The room echoed with the sound of his slap and her moan. “Your naughty gi-Aaaah!” she started and moaned again. Her bodysuit made each spank a ripple of pink, the difference in sight and jiggling making up for the lack of hand imprints. A third and a fourth slap had the pink-haired bombshell’s legs threaten to give in.
Bowing over his girlfriend, rubbing her round butt, he whispered into one of her cat ears, “I’ll go meet Momo now. You’ll be an obedient little slut while I’m away, right?”
“Yes,” Rave promised.
He snapped his fingers. “Are you my sex slave?”
“Yes, Master,” she panted, her submissive switch fully flipped. “I’ll be an obedient slut while you’re away, Master.”
Another snap of his fingers. “Will you pleasure yourself?”
“Yes, Master,” Rave answered with immediate obedience, a hand creeping between her legs.
“Good girl…” He started to straighten up. A last stroke of desire caused him to give a regular request, without any magic or hypnotic suggestions involved, “Keep the bodysuit on for me, unless it gets too stuffy.”
Rave nodded. “Okay,” she answered casually, their roleplay interrupted by a moment of earnest affection. Placing a goodbye kiss on her forehead, as short-lived as that goodbye would be, John headed out the door. A deliberately audible moan reached his ears before he closed the door behind himself.
From the outside, the materialized apartment looked really odd. The walls were undecorated, solid stone, interrupted only by the correctly placed windows and the one door. The only exception to this was the one wall that would have normally been located on the Palace’s outer rim.
Before John headed over to the Magus family, he walked a circle around the house to give his boner time to settle down. It worked well enough to make the tent disappear, which was the only requirement he really had. That everyone knew what kind of horn dog he was did not excuse stepping up to Lee’s parents with a pointer in his pants.
Finding Momo was fairly easy. Together with the entire Magus family, she stood around a podium and inspected a bust-sized object in the shape of a pyramid. The side and corners had worn down somewhat through the ages, but the structure at large, including the runes along the sides, were in prime shape. That was the miniature IBMA Momo had found in Mesopotamia. A family of Fateweavers would have immense interest in this.
“Took you long enough,” Momo greeted him with her usual abrasiveness. “Can you go two minutes without getting distracted?”
“Probably,” John shot back immediately. “You sent Jane to get me though, when you just could have given me a quick mental call. You knew exactly what would happen.”
Rolling her eyes and blushing mildly, she muttered, “I can only guess what happened… would be a pretty educated one though…”
Although she was back in the mental network, Momo preferred to keep her thoughts firmly sheltered. Just a facet of her character that manifested itself in a predictable bit of behaviour. Some kept almost all their thoughts open, like Sylph and Gnome, others only put a basic wall up, like Siena and Stirwin, others walled themselves off as much as they could, like Momo and Undine.
“You can check it out for yourself in a bit,” John suggested with a smirk. “Now, let’s actually check out that staff.”
“Right.” Momo nodded and reached into her inventory. Pulling out the almost two-metre long staff took a moment. Then she presented it to John, who quickly cast Observe on it.
“Well, that’s a whole lot of Attributes I don’t know,” John hummed and opened all of them.
Incredibly useful, especially for him and Momo, but not all that exciting.
That appeared to be rather niche. ‘The aftermath of an Arcana Strike is probably pretty rich in mana,’ John theorized, ‘may come in clutch. We’ll see.’
John did not like this one at all. The chance was very low and because Momo’s buffs had a short duration, there was little chance to take advantage of it too.
‘Useful that I will gain access to those soonish,’ he thought.
That one would at least make it somewhat easier to keep the Arcane Star glowing as long as it was in there.
Now that was a juicy thing. With Momo’s recently raised Charisma, that was a total bonus of 75 across the three Physical Stats. In their weight bracket, that didn’t win any fights. Generally, however, and especially if they ever were in a clash of armies, it would be very useful. The range was somewhat limited, but as long as the aura applied ten metres in all directions, Momo could take advantage of her flying ability to grant the buff.
That was an incredibly niche and incredibly powerful Attribute. If there was one thing one wanted emergency defences against, it definitely was attacks by gods.
That one was just utility. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.
“Want to give me a second Christmas gift?” John joked.
“Like you have any hand slots left,” Momo chided him.
“Touché.” The Gamer raised both hands in defeat. Of his four hand slots, three were taken and this was a two-handed weapon. As good as it was, it did not compete with Purgatory. “Anyway, it’s a good and powerful staff, especially given that they were probably still figuring out enchantments at the time.”
“I’m rapidly learning that you shouldn’t underestimate what they came up with back then,” Magoi stated and carefully tapped on the small pyramid. “I barely understand this. The runes are the same we use for modern IBMAs, for the most part. There is no way it should be able to draw enough ambient mana to sustain itself though.”
“It has another Arcane Star at the core of it,” John spoiled the mystery for them.
“That was the theory… Observe?” Magoi wanted to make sure.
“Yeah.”
“Guess we can skip taking it apart then,” the High Fateweaver seemed almost sad about that. “Incredible energy efficiency… to last four millennia without any input…”
“I never found a second one like it,” Momo reported.
“Which either means there is only the one, there are very few and this is just the first found, or there are very few and the others found have not been reported,” Magnus clinically listed the possibilities.
“Of all people, I should have heard of this,” the High Fateweaver crossed his arms, “there is strictly no way such an item would have slipped through the Fateweaver’s fingers.”
They discussed some further implications for about ten minutes.
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