“Just do it,” John groaned, incapable of snuffing out the hope that had ignited on Momo’s face.
“Oh, don’t be so hasty.” The Horned Rat closed its fanged mouth, the twisted grin of his skull bending back into its regular shape. “I can’t do it right now, there will have to be preparations. I will visit you in Rome tomorrow.” By his tone, one would have guessed he was taking a casual stroll down a bazaar, not talking about infiltrating the capital of his enemy and Apex of the Abyss.
John glanced over to Lydia, who rubbed her temples – doubtlessly in an attempt to get rid of a sudden headache. “Can I even stop you?” the princess asked.
The Horned Rat’s fingers danced over the armrest of his throne, “You? My estimate would be no.”
“Then at least make sure you remain unnoticed. Testing Luna’s patience is inadvisable.”
“Who do you think, think you are talking to?” the Horned Rat laughed, then tossed three dice towards John. The Gamer caught them with ease. “To wrap this up, the excuse of you coming here. To refresh you on the rules: On an even number, you shall receive the number times 7’000 Experience. On an uneven number, you shall be granted that number of Skill Points randomly distributed amongst your Skills. If you roll a 1 you will lose a level but if you roll a 20 you shall gain one and 5 Skill points to spend on your leisure. You get three, three tries and you may pick the one you like the most. Now, throw the dice.”
“There are some rule changes there,” John noted. Besides the obvious change to the amount of Experience he would get, there was also a reduction of the Skill Levels (it used to be the number rolled times two) and the 20 now had 5 Skill Points attached to it.
“I decided to patch it up a little to make the 20 more desirable. Aside from that, you should get used to the idea of these things getting less impactful over time,” the Rat shrugged. “Feeding you mana to become stronger becomes an increasingly costly task. Unlike Gaia, us normal gods are limited.”
‘Makes enough sense,’ John thought. There was still plenty to be mad about, but he swallowed that for now. ‘There will be time for justice another time.’ His hand moved forwards. Three dice flew and clacked on the ground.”
“Aw, John,” Rave complained as they bounced over the floor, “where is your sense of entertainment?”
“Currently buried under the fact that I don’t want to be around him…,” John pointed at the Rat, “…longer than necessary.”
His girlfriend glanced at the offendedly gasping god, “That’s fair.”
“I can already see that hanging around with you will be great fun.” Richard rubbed his chin and looked at the dice. “19, 17, 4. Pick your number.”
“Before I do that,” John said. “I have a multitude of questions.”
“Figured. But you will have to ask them tomorrow. I have things to do,” the Rat dismissed. “I am not, not your personal answer machine to summon as you wish. You interrupted my business.”
John closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “The 19 then,” he decided.
The Horned Rat gave the response a bored nod. Power was conjured and flung across the room as a bolt that hit John in the chest. The impact was akin to a volleyball smacking him – harsh and unpleasant, but not enough to make him fall over.
A moment later, the room around them began to stretch. “Our time is up. Until tomorrow.” The words of the Horned Rat were contorted, just like the room itself was. The stone swirled under John’s feet like water down the drain. He, and everyone with him, were flung in the opposite direction.
They found themselves back in the rundown house. Nathalia reflexively changed herself into her human exterior, feeling that she was in the mundane realm. That made her a naked, incredibly hot redhead. The former part would maybe be seen as weird, but the kind of weird nobody (in their right mind) minded and nobody would have regarded as supernatural. Thana, the group's other member whose regular form would raise eyebrows, just made sure her robes sat right. She knew that they would be somewhat safe here.
“So, what now?” Rave asked.
Before he could answer that, John needed to check where the Skill Points had landed. He raised an eyebrow at the result. 13 had gone into Artificial Spirit, 6 into Sneaking. The chances of them landing in just two skills was insanely low in the first place, but he wouldn’t complain about it. One was exactly what he wanted, the other was exceptionally useless.
“I want to sit down for a moment and do some Artificial Spirit magic.” John walked towards the door that connected back to the mansion as he talked. “Afterwards we should grind some more. Clear out the different kinds of I.D.s so I get the Quest completed. Then I will go with Thana and beat the time run Quest. Then, when the Quest part about me being abstinent is completed, I will fuck until midnight. I get the inkling that I will get 24 hours without sex next and that is literally going to be the hardest thing on the list.”
“Ya have become a tad addicted there, tiger.” The chastisement in those words was entirely joking. A hand on her hips, his girlfriend embodied every argument to be a nymphomaniac.
“Look at you all!” The key turned, he gestured at all of them. “I’m drowning in the greatest of worldly delights! I owe it to the men of the world to live it up to the highest degree possible.”
“The only thing you owe anyone is two favours to the dragon goddess and 500 billion dollars to the princess,” Momo reminded him of the existence of reality, “and soon one favour to the Horned Rat.”
“Urgh,” John rolled his eyes as he opened the front door of the mansion, “don’t remind me.”
Nathalia walked by him and everyone else followed. “If you are going to be occupied for the foreseeable future, I will need to be entertained,” she announced and looked for somebody to step forth. At least one of the girls would have to lewd the dragon goddess. Since there were no immediate volunteers, John took it upon himself to volunteer someone.
“Siena, if you would help our guest,” John spoke.
An angry jolt ran through his spirit. ‘What do you intend with that, Master?’ she asked, her flirty words betraying a repressed rage.
‘That’s your punishment for not aiding us in the last battle. Get used to it. This one is at least nice. Now, will you obey me or do I have to make you?’
It was the latter. One rule change later, Siena rose from John’s shadow. “I am…honoured,” she tried to swallow the last word before it could leave her throat. She failed, but she could still glare daggers at everyone around. She really hated being ordered. John knew that she did not hate the part where she would have sex with a hot redhead.
Nathalia inhaled, as if she could smell Siena’s annoyance. “You are not satisfying on your own.” The words of the dragoness added insult to injury. Yellow eyes glowed, Siena bared her teeth, but that was all she could do.
‘I know she deserves it… but it feels so mean,’ Gnome pointed out what John felt at his core.
‘But she does fucking deserve it,’ Salamander spoke his justification.
‘She’ll be fine, sex is fine, maybe I should join? Yeah, I’ll join!’ Sylph chirped and flew over to Nathalia. Undine followed closely, a feeling of interest about how this would pan out in her mind.
That group went upstairs to find Nathalia a room to stay in. The rest of the party scattered out through the mansion, to take advantage of the break in their individual ways. John, for his part, took Aclysia and Momo and moved to the living room. He sat down on one of the armchairs, the Artificial Spirits took the couch and Rave and Thana hung around to see what was going to happen.
“Let’s start with you Aclysia,” John said and opened her Skill choices.
The choices had been retained since he had gone to fight Thana. Back then he only had 10 points available, which had been too little to afford any of them. Now he could and should make a choice.
Invincibility Frame was out of the window for the same reason it had been last time: Aclysia did not have the mana for it and he wasn’t going to invest into her Intellect to make it work. Way too niche in its usefulness for that.
‘Although I should get some spenders for her eventually, since she has that Aggression to Mana passive that gives her mana every time she parries,’ John thought. ‘Either that or Mana Battery so that it goes over to me. Either way, her mana needs to be useful for something.’
Something to keep in mind for the future. For now, it was either going to be Sword Specialization 2 or Defensive Teleportation. With how hostile the Abyss could be, and with yesterday’s reminder that he was still getting stalked by other interest groups fresh in mind, he chose Defensive Teleportation.
Even more old choices. Adaptive Bladery is what he picked after a short pondering. Reason being that she should be able to wield Ashkandi and Vol’Jin’Zul at her own leisure. That left 10 more points to spend.
Defence Stance. There, now she had something to spend mana on. Time for the juicy part.
Anti-Magic Shell it was. It was just a nice defence for her to use to overcome any difficulty she may have in closing the gap when fighting a mage.
Afterwards, it was time to raise her Stats. First, he pushed her Wisdom to 50, so that it was above her Libido. That would give her a bit more self-control. That left him with 15 points to put into Strength.
“Now over to you, Momo,” John announced and checked her perks.
These were all pretty good. Copperskin had a low AP cost and a decent effect. Novice of Magic broadened her mana pool and by proxy, thanks to Mana Battery, the pool of the whole group. Firefly, however, had something neither of these skills had: It gave Momo offensive capabilities. Not a whole lot of them, but anything was better than nothing.
“What do you think about this?” John asked once he had told Momo about what was on offer. He asked her because he genuinely wanted her to decide herself. If she was going to be independent from him one day soon, she had to have tools she was comfortable with, not what served him.
Momo let out a long hum. Silence ensued as she pondered. It wasn’t a panicked process, just Momo carefully weighing her options. “If I am to be independent of you I can’t run around unarmed…I will take Firefly,” Momo stated, a decision John agreed with.
Raising a barely closed hand, Momo concentrated, and a moment later five fireflies spawned into existence.
“It is really weird how my head just fills with the knowledge to do these things when you press buttons,” Momo pointed out as she explained the details of Fireflies. They were quite realistic, little insects with differently coloured hindquarters. Even in the well-lit room, John could make out the soft glow. “Red changes physical attributes, blue is for mental and green for social. The white ones are critical strikes, boosting all stats, while the colourless ones are flukes that can only deal damage.”
“How long do they last?” John wondered as they whirled through the air for a bit; “How do you control them? Can you de-spawn them and prepare a wave of just the white ones? Do the buffs stack? How long are they active?”
“Indefinitely. I just control them with my mind, like how you control your Possession. I can actively de-spawn them, but I don’t get the mana back. But yeah, I could probably prepare just white ones, if given enough time. The buffs don’t stack and are active for 5 seconds,” Momo rattled down a list of answers in response. “I guess we should check the strength of the buff next?”
John nodded. “Hit me.”
The red firefly went for him and vanished the moment it came into contact with his clothes.
“10%, pretty good.” John kept an eye on the buff. It ran out after just a few seconds. “Duration could be better.”
“That’s nice,” Rave chimed into the conversation. “Ya know, I will take all the buffs that I can get, keeping up with the dungeon mobs will not become easier.”
“Using a percentage buff on me would be fucking disgusting – just saying.” Thana had a broad grin on her face.
“Yup, anyway,” John turned back to Momo, “one more choice to make.”
“I don’t like the last one’s name, but could you give it to me?” Momo requested, causing John to make a sour expression. He really wanted that double on buff length. Alas, this was her decision, and he understood. She was preparing for her eventual departure. He clicked the button, and Momo put away her new staff.
“You’re fine with me just raising your Intellect further?” John asked.
“Yeah, that I don’t have problems with,” Momo agreed, and so it was done. John had her hold the staff again for a moment to figure out how high her Stats were in optimal combat situations.
The remaining fireflies hid themselves underneath her poncho. John wondered if they were able to stop glowing or whether Momo would look like a Christmas tree in the dark. A question for later.
For now, he had a Quest to finish.
“Just do it,” John groaned, incapable of snuffing out the hope that had ignited on Momo’s face.
“Oh, don’t be so hasty.” The Horned Rat closed its fanged mouth, the twisted grin of his skull bending back into its regular shape. “I can’t do it right now, there will have to be preparations. I will visit you in Rome tomorrow.” By his tone, one would have guessed he was taking a casual stroll down a bazaar, not talking about infiltrating the capital of his enemy and Apex of the Abyss.
John glanced over to Lydia, who rubbed her temples – doubtlessly in an attempt to get rid of a sudden headache. “Can I even stop you?” the princess asked.
The Horned Rat’s fingers danced over the armrest of his throne, “You? My estimate would be no.”
“Then at least make sure you remain unnoticed. Testing Luna’s patience is inadvisable.”
“Who do you think, think you are talking to?” the Horned Rat laughed, then tossed three dice towards John. The Gamer caught them with ease. “To wrap this up, the excuse of you coming here. To refresh you on the rules: On an even number, you shall receive the number times 7’000 Experience. On an uneven number, you shall be granted that number of Skill Points randomly distributed amongst your Skills. If you roll a 1 you will lose a level but if you roll a 20 you shall gain one and 5 Skill points to spend on your leisure. You get three, three tries and you may pick the one you like the most. Now, throw the dice.”
“There are some rule changes there,” John noted. Besides the obvious change to the amount of Experience he would get, there was also a reduction of the Skill Levels (it used to be the number rolled times two) and the 20 now had 5 Skill Points attached to it.
“I decided to patch it up a little to make the 20 more desirable. Aside from that, you should get used to the idea of these things getting less impactful over time,” the Rat shrugged. “Feeding you mana to become stronger becomes an increasingly costly task. Unlike Gaia, us normal gods are limited.”
‘Makes enough sense,’ John thought. There was still plenty to be mad about, but he swallowed that for now. ‘There will be time for justice another time.’ His hand moved forwards. Three dice flew and clacked on the ground.”
“Aw, John,” Rave complained as they bounced over the floor, “where is your sense of entertainment?”
“Currently buried under the fact that I don’t want to be around him…,” John pointed at the Rat, “…longer than necessary.”
His girlfriend glanced at the offendedly gasping god, “That’s fair.”
“I can already see that hanging around with you will be great fun.” Richard rubbed his chin and looked at the dice. “19, 17, 4. Pick your number.”
“Before I do that,” John said. “I have a multitude of questions.”
“Figured. But you will have to ask them tomorrow. I have things to do,” the Rat dismissed. “I am not, not your personal answer machine to summon as you wish. You interrupted my business.”
John closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “The 19 then,” he decided.
The Horned Rat gave the response a bored nod. Power was conjured and flung across the room as a bolt that hit John in the chest. The impact was akin to a volleyball smacking him – harsh and unpleasant, but not enough to make him fall over.
A moment later, the room around them began to stretch. “Our time is up. Until tomorrow.” The words of the Horned Rat were contorted, just like the room itself was. The stone swirled under John’s feet like water down the drain. He, and everyone with him, were flung in the opposite direction.
They found themselves back in the rundown house. Nathalia reflexively changed herself into her human exterior, feeling that she was in the mundane realm. That made her a naked, incredibly hot redhead. The former part would maybe be seen as weird, but the kind of weird nobody (in their right mind) minded and nobody would have regarded as supernatural. Thana, the group's other member whose regular form would raise eyebrows, just made sure her robes sat right. She knew that they would be somewhat safe here.
“So, what now?” Rave asked.
Before he could answer that, John needed to check where the Skill Points had landed. He raised an eyebrow at the result. 13 had gone into Artificial Spirit, 6 into Sneaking. The chances of them landing in just two skills was insanely low in the first place, but he wouldn’t complain about it. One was exactly what he wanted, the other was exceptionally useless.
“I want to sit down for a moment and do some Artificial Spirit magic.” John walked towards the door that connected back to the mansion as he talked. “Afterwards we should grind some more. Clear out the different kinds of I.D.s so I get the Quest completed. Then I will go with Thana and beat the time run Quest. Then, when the Quest part about me being abstinent is completed, I will fuck until midnight. I get the inkling that I will get 24 hours without sex next and that is literally going to be the hardest thing on the list.”
“Ya have become a tad addicted there, tiger.” The chastisement in those words was entirely joking. A hand on her hips, his girlfriend embodied every argument to be a nymphomaniac.
“Look at you all!” The key turned, he gestured at all of them. “I’m drowning in the greatest of worldly delights! I owe it to the men of the world to live it up to the highest degree possible.”
“The only thing you owe anyone is two favours to the dragon goddess and 500 billion dollars to the princess,” Momo reminded him of the existence of reality, “and soon one favour to the Horned Rat.”
“Urgh,” John rolled his eyes as he opened the front door of the mansion, “don’t remind me.”
Nathalia walked by him and everyone else followed. “If you are going to be occupied for the foreseeable future, I will need to be entertained,” she announced and looked for somebody to step forth. At least one of the girls would have to lewd the dragon goddess. Since there were no immediate volunteers, John took it upon himself to volunteer someone.
“Siena, if you would help our guest,” John spoke.
An angry jolt ran through his spirit. ‘What do you intend with that, Master?’ she asked, her flirty words betraying a repressed rage.
‘That’s your punishment for not aiding us in the last battle. Get used to it. This one is at least nice. Now, will you obey me or do I have to make you?’
It was the latter. One rule change later, Siena rose from John’s shadow. “I am…honoured,” she tried to swallow the last word before it could leave her throat. She failed, but she could still glare daggers at everyone around. She really hated being ordered. John knew that she did not hate the part where she would have sex with a hot redhead.
Nathalia inhaled, as if she could smell Siena’s annoyance. “You are not satisfying on your own.” The words of the dragoness added insult to injury. Yellow eyes glowed, Siena bared her teeth, but that was all she could do.
‘I know she deserves it… but it feels so mean,’ Gnome pointed out what John felt at his core.
‘But she does fucking deserve it,’ Salamander spoke his justification.
‘She’ll be fine, sex is fine, maybe I should join? Yeah, I’ll join!’ Sylph chirped and flew over to Nathalia. Undine followed closely, a feeling of interest about how this would pan out in her mind.
That group went upstairs to find Nathalia a room to stay in. The rest of the party scattered out through the mansion, to take advantage of the break in their individual ways. John, for his part, took Aclysia and Momo and moved to the living room. He sat down on one of the armchairs, the Artificial Spirits took the couch and Rave and Thana hung around to see what was going to happen.
“Let’s start with you Aclysia,” John said and opened her Skill choices.
The choices had been retained since he had gone to fight Thana. Back then he only had 10 points available, which had been too little to afford any of them. Now he could and should make a choice.
Invincibility Frame was out of the window for the same reason it had been last time: Aclysia did not have the mana for it and he wasn’t going to invest into her Intellect to make it work. Way too niche in its usefulness for that.
‘Although I should get some spenders for her eventually, since she has that Aggression to Mana passive that gives her mana every time she parries,’ John thought. ‘Either that or Mana Battery so that it goes over to me. Either way, her mana needs to be useful for something.’
Something to keep in mind for the future. For now, it was either going to be Sword Specialization 2 or Defensive Teleportation. With how hostile the Abyss could be, and with yesterday’s reminder that he was still getting stalked by other interest groups fresh in mind, he chose Defensive Teleportation.
Even more old choices. Adaptive Bladery is what he picked after a short pondering. Reason being that she should be able to wield Ashkandi and Vol’Jin’Zul at her own leisure. That left 10 more points to spend.
Defence Stance. There, now she had something to spend mana on. Time for the juicy part.
Anti-Magic Shell it was. It was just a nice defence for her to use to overcome any difficulty she may have in closing the gap when fighting a mage.
Afterwards, it was time to raise her Stats. First, he pushed her Wisdom to 50, so that it was above her Libido. That would give her a bit more self-control. That left him with 15 points to put into Strength.
“Now over to you, Momo,” John announced and checked her perks.
These were all pretty good. Copperskin had a low AP cost and a decent effect. Novice of Magic broadened her mana pool and by proxy, thanks to Mana Battery, the pool of the whole group. Firefly, however, had something neither of these skills had: It gave Momo offensive capabilities. Not a whole lot of them, but anything was better than nothing.
“What do you think about this?” John asked once he had told Momo about what was on offer. He asked her because he genuinely wanted her to decide herself. If she was going to be independent from him one day soon, she had to have tools she was comfortable with, not what served him.
Momo let out a long hum. Silence ensued as she pondered. It wasn’t a panicked process, just Momo carefully weighing her options. “If I am to be independent of you I can’t run around unarmed…I will take Firefly,” Momo stated, a decision John agreed with.
Raising a barely closed hand, Momo concentrated, and a moment later five fireflies spawned into existence.
“It is really weird how my head just fills with the knowledge to do these things when you press buttons,” Momo pointed out as she explained the details of Fireflies. They were quite realistic, little insects with differently coloured hindquarters. Even in the well-lit room, John could make out the soft glow. “Red changes physical attributes, blue is for mental and green for social. The white ones are critical strikes, boosting all stats, while the colourless ones are flukes that can only deal damage.”
“How long do they last?” John wondered as they whirled through the air for a bit; “How do you control them? Can you de-spawn them and prepare a wave of just the white ones? Do the buffs stack? How long are they active?”
“Indefinitely. I just control them with my mind, like how you control your Possession. I can actively de-spawn them, but I don’t get the mana back. But yeah, I could probably prepare just white ones, if given enough time. The buffs don’t stack and are active for 5 seconds,” Momo rattled down a list of answers in response. “I guess we should check the strength of the buff next?”
John nodded. “Hit me.”
The red firefly went for him and vanished the moment it came into contact with his clothes.
“10%, pretty good.” John kept an eye on the buff. It ran out after just a few seconds. “Duration could be better.”
“That’s nice,” Rave chimed into the conversation. “Ya know, I will take all the buffs that I can get, keeping up with the dungeon mobs will not become easier.”
“Using a percentage buff on me would be fucking disgusting – just saying.” Thana had a broad grin on her face.
“Yup, anyway,” John turned back to Momo, “one more choice to make.”
“I don’t like the last one’s name, but could you give it to me?” Momo requested, causing John to make a sour expression. He really wanted that double on buff length. Alas, this was her decision, and he understood. She was preparing for her eventual departure. He clicked the button, and Momo put away her new staff.
“You’re fine with me just raising your Intellect further?” John asked.
“Yeah, that I don’t have problems with,” Momo agreed, and so it was done. John had her hold the staff again for a moment to figure out how high her Stats were in optimal combat situations.
The remaining fireflies hid themselves underneath her poncho. John wondered if they were able to stop glowing or whether Momo would look like a Christmas tree in the dark. A question for later.
For now, he had a Quest to finish.
