Chapter 1814 – Quick Events and Class Levels
Lydia explained, “Gamer’s Body has an interesting relationship with exhaustion.”
Lulu hummed, then stopped in front of the memorial piece they had made. A wooden board with a handprint of each haremette that had been present, from Rave to Delicia, all of it protected by a glass pane. They had made it on the final night out here and the imperial tomboy’s handprint was, by the tyranny of time, not present on it.
“To have missed so much,” she sighed.
“You will be part of more,” Lydia stated. “The events never cease, for worse and for even worse.”
“Yes, yes, I’m a bad news magnet,” John waved away. “Want to see the farm Claire has put together? She has emus.”
“Emus?!” Lulu perked up immediately. “Where? How tame are they?”
“Tame enough to scratch.”
“I demand to be guided at once to the location of the adorable birds!”
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‘What a dull and sordid man,’ Siena lamented. ‘A character like a steak cooked well-done by a beginner. Rubbery and tasteless, bland except for the ketchup he no doubt enjoys with such a meal.’
‘You must be really bored not to present sex metaphors during all of this,’ John responded to the shadow spirit.
‘Sex avoids this man, especially the opposite one,’ Siena remarked.
Following Justinian around had been a horridly dull affair from all that John had witnessed and listened to. Certainly, he was making the effort of finding corruption in and around the Hudson Barrier, but the way he went about it could not have been less capable. He was stopping random people, asking them about their lives, then quickly turned sour when their answers were not up to his moral expectations. Usually, his talks thusly ended in arguments.
The effect Justinian had on women was pretty fascinating to watch as well. To start with, they were quite happy to talk to him. He was handsome, it had to be admitted, and few people minded being approached by a handsome member of the opposite sex. Once he opened his mouth, though, he managed to rapidly creep out the women.
“My lady, it is my sincerest desire to seek to protect you for the rest of your life and the life of all your fellow citizens, thus it is important that you talk to me!”
To say that he was coming on ‘too strong’ was to put it lightly. That, combined with ready criticisms on revealing attire, just made for the ‘this guy is way too weird to be sexy’ package. Justinian, after such encounters, seemed more upset than he seemed reflective. That he kept trying the same thing was like watching someone slowly feed their hand to a grindstone.
On the few occasions that Justinian did get a lead to something, he swiftly ruined the trail by rolling over it with the grace of a feral hog.
‘I underestimated his incompetence,’ John thought to himself.
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“So that’s the situation with Justinian,” John told Moira. “I ought to remind you of your duty as a presidential advisor.”
Moira squirmed uncomfortably on the gym bench. John had caught the redhead during a workout session with Rave, Metra and Hailey. Two of the usual suspects, one that the first of the harem had invited for the obvious reason. Metra knew everything about muscles, even if her own were artificial.
“Can’t you deal with this yourself?” she pleaded.
“You know as well as I that he doesn’t listen to me,” John countered, “and you have been inconveniencing me thoroughly in this whole thing. The least you can do is try to help me.”
Moira opened her mouth, only for a nearby moan to pull their attention away. On her own workbench, Metra had started to masturbate. “Fuck!” she cried out, squirting pussy juice drenching her gym pants after just a few seconds. “By… fuck…. John… Master…” Another orgasm broke her voice. The intensified Libido was putting her into a state of heat.
John had been dealing with similar events the past two days and, lesser concentration, the last two years. He did not think twice about walking over, bending the blonde over some sturdy steel bars, and pushing his cock into her cunt. That Moira was still in the room barely registered as even a minor issue. She had been around a lot of the harem’s erotic activities by now.
The redhead barely even blushed at the sight. If anything, she seemed more comfortable now that he was several steps removed from her. That he was pounding a wolf woman into screaming orgasms was apparently welcome. She used that time to think.
‘Fascinating,’ John pondered the familiarity Moira had with his household by now, then concentrated on Metra’s ass. A couple of swats coaxed more climaxes out of her. Eventually, the rough pounding went down to a steady thrusting. Metra’s screams diminished to a series of low grunts. “Can I rely on you coming to the office tomorrow?”
Moira let out a long sigh. “I will be there,” she surrendered. “You are right to demand… it is my duty.”
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The whole harem was together.
A joyous occasion, one that saw Lu Zhi and Lydia claim the spots by his sides. The date earlier that day had been thorough, but not thorough enough. “Will you stay the night?” John quietly asked the empress.
“I have that time today,” she whispered back.
The news made John a very happy man. He dwelled on the sensation for long enough to kiss her. Then, he went to the main reason why they were all gathered on the Couch, rather than dispersed into their usual pockets of conversations, cuddles and debaucheries. “Class Levels time,” he declared.
He had a total of 6 Class Levels he could distribute. 2 of them had to go to the Lover by the limitations of the Quest that had unlocked them. John was resolved to focus on that Class for the foreseeable future, but he also wanted to cast the net wide. Since he could not spend both of those levels the same day, he might as well spend the remaining four on other Classes.
First and foremost was Space Protector. It was time to wrap up that Advanced Class.
All three of these were impressively useless to John. Cooldown Reduction II was already pretty meh and it reinforced an Overlock that John did not use and had no reason to use either. Finder Barrier was interesting, but had the glaring issue that he had to have people staff the barrier he made. He also was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of yanking people out of their regular life just because they had potential. Raw Utility was okay in isolation, but when did he ever need to escape a Protected Space by physical means? When was a Protected Space ever his chosen means of confining someone? That was what he had familiars for.
After a solid minute of consideration and head scratching by the haremettes, they all decided that the Finder Barrier was the least worst of the lot. If life calmed down enough for it, John could at least use that one to scout new talent personally. Play out the whole ‘mentor figure presents a call to adventure’ trope. Might be fun to do in his forties.
A tremendously useless Overclock added to the frustration. The upgrade covered further personalization and let him save environments as he desired. Really not the most impressive set of additions to a half-forgotten mechanic.
Again, phenomenally limited.
“We do not need to have an argument over this, do we?” Scarlett asked, swirling her glass of whisky.
“No, we do not,” John agreed. Sanctum Forger sounded interesting and Barrier Master would have been the easy choice had Lee not been around. Guild Hall Architect, however, was clearly the best choice for his lifestyle. After choosing it, he checked out the Efficiency Edict. It was a simple mechanic, boosting the automatic processes of a chosen Building by 25%. John put it on the Mine.
The other three Classes John decided to get a Perk in were Tamer, to give Velka her final reward for her work during the Aztec expedition; Master of Magic, because he really wanted more of that and Monster Girl Creator, for the obvious reasons. He went for them in that order.
‘Didn’t she already have that?’ John asked himself when he looked at the middle Perk. ‘Difficult to say what is her supernatural instinct and what is her just being a smart bird…’ “I would go with Seeker,” he told everyone. It was the ‘show a picture’ part of the Perk that made it valuable. Certainly more valuable than having the Magryph start stealing historical documents in addition to wedding rings.
A set of basic choices that was all the more tantalizing for it. Simplicity was all fine when it was applied to a Skill that scaled with his imagination.
Efficiency was simply eliminated as an option. John did not view Free Casting as a viable combat option and, even if he did, mana was the least of his concerns, especially at this stage of development. Between Complexity and New School, that was the hard choice.
“There’s two ways this Class could go,” John thought out loud. “Either it’s designed in such a way that whatever path I pick is going to be what my Free Casting specializes in or it is designed so that I eventually get everything, the question is just what order I want it in.”
Lulu followed that thought effortlessly. “Which makes the question what you would prefer: highly complex arcane spells or a variety of mediocre everything.”
Put like that, the choice was pretty obvious. John picked Complexity.
‘For a Class called Monster Girl Creator, it sure is a lot about my extra bodies…’ John combed over the choices carefully, trying to come up for a reason not to pick Ascendant Golem Infusion. The shenanigans he could get up to with that were numerous. When none of the haremettes provided anything that could change his mind either, he went with it.
Which brought them to the Class the harem was most excited for.
“I fucking hope I’m a Submissive,” Scarlett stated. “Yes, I know what I just said. Click the button.”
“I’m tending towards Wild.”
“When will you people learn that getting metal out of the earth for basically free is the most absurd thing imaginable?” Scarlett complained, loudly, and downed the rest of her drink. An arm extended to the side was all the signal Aclysia needed to get another glass for the redhead. “The sooner we get the extra Mines, the sooner we have more metal. More metal equals cheaper industry.”
“The current Mine could still hire more people.”
“Which would draw more people to the Hudson Barrier. Economy of scale is good and all, but we cannot stuff all of the workforce into one place,” Scarlett retorted.
“All valid arguments,” John conceded, “but Metra’s tail is wagging at the thought of 5% more punching power.”
“Whoops!” Metra grabbed the golden floof to force it still.
“I passed on it last time, that’s the only reason. It’s obvious by this point we’ll get all of them before this is done.”
Scarlett clicked her tongue, took the new glass, and sipped the whisky. “Fine,” she surrendered.
John tapped the button and watched with interest on who would be affected this time. ‘Wild’ was not as solid a category as ‘Servant’ was.
Metra was an obvious choice, however, so John watched her in particular. New lines sprouted from the base Lover’s Will Mark that all shared. A secondary heart was placed within the first and a pair of symmetrical swirls extended beyond the original arms of the womb tattoo. Both of the additions had little fangs along their lengths, thorns to symbolize the dangerous nature of these women.
After the change was through, John scanned for all who had received it. Nathalia, Salamander, Siena and Sylph, that was the list of additionally marked women. The dragoness clenched her fist. “So this is what it feels like,” she said out loud. “To be empowered by you.”
“Welcome to the club,” Rave spoke with a sincere smile. “Was about time ya joined us.”
“Want to fight?” Metra asked with a broad grin.
“…Yes,” Nathalia answered.