After watching Victoria and Rave put their clothes back on, John turned to the veritable flood of windows he had received.
LEVEL UP!!
Quest Completed!
Sothing more sensible.
Fight a new kind of enemy (a.k.a. No Undead) and kill 25 of them. Optional: Kill the Boss in the first I.D. Accept?
Existence Eater Monster Slayer
4000 Experience 3000 Experience
20000$ 1 Enchanted Weapon
Optional Bonus: Optional Bonus:
1 Enchanting Material 1 Crafting Mateial
(Epic) (Epic)
Accept? Accept?
Money was way less enticing than a weapon for either him or Aclysia. Plus 20’000 was a lot but it wasn’t the world. If he could just keep farming, he would be able to easily clear the weekly tribute he needed to pay Travolta.
LEVEL UP!!
Sword of Glory was added to your Inventory Dragonscale was added to your inventory
Achievent!
More than a one-trick pony!
You killed your second Boss Monster! Don’t expect these kinds of achievents for every single new kind of Boss though. I think I will grant you the next one at five. Probably. Not. Then again....
Reward:
10 Inventory Space
1 Skill Evolution Point
Achievent!
More than a limp-dicked phony!
You have transcended the mortal bounds of a normal and happy relationship (Which you had) and have reached the height of: The Threeso. (You perverted fuck)
Reward:
1 Charisma
Achievent!
More than capable.
You made two won have an orgasm at the sa ti. No, i don’t an simaltaneously. You didn’t manage to do that. Just at the sa ti.
Reward:
1 cm Dick Size
Achievent!
Ignorance.
Okay, okay I get it you don’t want my glorious wisdom the second it pops-up because whatever you are doing is just SO much more important than the word of THE LITERAL GODDESS OF THIS WORLD.
Reward:
Windows will now only appear when you are "at ease" and YES i can easily determine when that is because I AM LITERALLY GOD!
Fuck You!
"...I get the feeling Gaia is mad at ." John said as he closed the last window.
"Why is that?" Rave asked, wiggling her butt a bit so the waistband sat more comfortably.
"Well, she just gave an Achievent that sounded like an angry grandma whose calls I have been ignoring for a month." He explained and adjusted his own jeans. ’I should probably give these a wash before I give them back.’ John patted so pine needles off his back, his eyes wandered onto Aclysia.
He had honestly forgotten the Artificial Spirit was around for a second there. She was a low presence at the best of tis and hadn’t moved from her spot since he had ordered her to keep watch over Victoria. His mind had, understandably, been elsewhere.
Now that he was looking in her direction, Aclysia took it as her opportunity to ask, "Was this sexual intercourse?"
"Uhm, yes," John wasn’t overly surprised she knew what that was. What she did or did not know was a bit spotty, but sex was so fundantal to John that a creation of his not knowing what it was would have been odd. Still, he felt like a Twitch Strear that left the stream running by accident and was caught watching porn.
"Why do you engage in it? Do you wish to procreate?"
"No," Victoria was first to answer.
"Feels really good," Rave responded soon after and John confird that with a nod.
"What is ’feeling good’?" Aclysia wondered. This was, once again, taking a difficult direction. To the best of his Wisdom, John tried to answer.
"Well, we generally separate the things we do into good or bad, even if that doesn’t always work. As an example, your purpose is to protect , correct?" Aclysia nodded. "If you failed at that, that probably would feel bad."
"I understand... the idea fills with a sensation of... unpleasantness... like receiving damage earlier." So she could feel pain, or at least a muted variant of it. "Or..." she stopped and shuddered, a new display of emotion he hadn’t seen before, "...being put into your inventory."
John blinked a few tis, "Could you elaborate on that? What do you feel when you’re in my inventory?"
"Nothing," Aclysia spoke, her tone as void as the aning of the word. "I am left in tiless darkness. My awareness persists vaguely. I know I am where I can neither serve nor react to any dangers you may face. My chest constricts. Sotis I see your hand, pulling things out of the darkness. Ti freezes when you’re gone. There are no breaks between the appearances of your hand. Still, in that nothingness, I feel empty and alone."
"...You’re sad," John realized. "Sad and... full of dread whenever I leave you in my inventory?"
"Sadness... dread..." Aclysia spoke the words, as if to taste their aning. Slowly, she nodded. "I believe this is the case."
John looked to the ground. He could empathise with those emotions. They echoed what he had felt when sitting alone in his seat at school. The class or the break, ti barely existed during them. He was just waiting until he had the opportunity to head ho and play gas. "And when I pull you out, what do you feel?"
"Like I am once again given the opportunity to fulfil my purpose. After the dread fades, I face you, Creator, and ready myself for the duty."
"Sounds like that makes you happy."
"Happy..." Again, Aclysia tasted the word. "I believe so. I will contemplate."
John felt guilty, watching her stand there. Both for the torture he had unwittingly put her through and for the state of limbo between sapience and instincts she seed to be in. Was it just experience in emotions that she lacked or should he increase her ntal Stats further? He wished he had the answers, but he was an inexperienced creator.
Contemplating the questions himself, he turned to the Loot. Many items were scattered over the forest floor, where the Minor Tree of Life had been. It was ti to check on what the final haul of this grind was.
5 Magical Saps
Item: Magical Sap
Rarity: Common
Description: The Sap of a Treant. Contains faint traces of mana and can be used in the creation of wood based weapons and armour.
6 Treant Barks
Item: Treant Bark
Rarity: Common
Description: The Bark of a Treant. Harder than normal wood but not quite as hard as steel can be used in the creation of wood based armour and weaponry.
30045% in total
Item: Gardener’s Gloves
Rarity: Uncommon
Description : The Gloves worn by a native arican druid a long ti ago. Not really that special. Seedling you plant while wearing these gloves will grow 25% faster.
Attributes: Green Thumb
Durability: Complete
Item: Oakskin Shield
Rarity: Rare
Description: A shield made from the bark of a tree of life. Extrely durable, light and blessed with the favour of the land.
Attributes: Green Thumb, Lightweight, Self-Repairing
Durability: Complete
"By the way I levelled up too!" Rave exclaid with a smile.
"Which ans we have level parity now," John pointed out.
One of Rave’s eyebrows shot up and she checked the party interface. "Nah, that’s stupid. I can still whoop your butt."
"For a couple more weeks, maybe," John responded and glared challengingly at his girlfriend. She glared back. They stood there like that, until she started laughing. It was too sweet a sound not to join.
The truth of the matter was that levels only reflected Stats. The combat experience and Skills Rave had ahead of him were not listed in the purely chanical recounting of the numbers. The accuracy of Stats was difficult to gauge anyway. For John and Aclysia, for those directly part of his system, they could be taken at their full value. For everyone else, they were more like estimations.
"Yeah, yeah, we’ll see," Rave waved the topic goodbye. "Stupid Latebloor stuff."
John checked his Character Sheet. Not to distribute the Stat Points, there would be ti for that in a minute, but to see if he even had the inventory space to transport all of this Loot. The answer to that was a resounding no. He was already at near full capacity.
Equipnt
Head:
Neck: Necklace of the Haunted Wood:
Upper Body: Plain Black Shirt
Ring 1; Lesser Ring of Mana
Ring 2:
Legs: Blue, oilstained Leggings
Underwear: White Boxershorts
Feet: Blue Socks
Left Hand:
Right Hand:
Accessoire:
Inventory: 37/40
Na Slots
Green Ectoplasm 1
School Uniform (Set) 8
8Sword of Glory 4
Dragonscale 24
That Dragonscale was taking up most of his inventory space. ’I wanted to check the Quest rewards anyway,’ he thought. ’I can decide how to handle this afterwards.’
Reaching into his inventory, he grabbed the Dragonscale. It was as simple as that being the thing he wanted to grab. Then he pulled and out ca a giant red lizard scale. Dark blue swirling patterns decorated the surface of the teardrop shape, two-finger thick object. He kept pulling and pulling, stepping back once then a second ti. "Huh, this is pretty li—IGHT!"
He should have known better, after previous experiences with Aclysia. Once the scale was fully out of his inventory, the weight suddenly kicked in. He had to let go of it and he still felt the sudden pull snap sothing in his wrists. Dirt and forest debris scattered, when the scale ca to a rest with a dull sound, as if he had just dropped a concrete slab. Gar’s Body fixed his wrists a mont later.
Item: Dragonscale
Rarity: Epic
Description: The scale of a fully grown red dragon. Strong as tank plating, immune to fire and largely resistant to basic elental attacks. Can only be used by master Crafter’s to create Dragonscale armour.
Attributes: Fire Immunity, Inner Fire, Elental Resistance 3, Ironhide, Strong Mana
"What is that?" Victoria asked a simple and expected question.
"A Dragonscale. Gaia gave it to as a reward," John answered honestly. After all else that had happened today, he didn’t feel like hiding things from her.
The answer left Victoria open mouthed and staring. Eyes darted between the object and him. Rave giggled and leaned onto John’s shoulder. "Ya see that face? That’s the face you made whenever I told ya anything about the Abyss."
"Are you telling my powers are as weird to the Abyss as the Abyss is to mundanes?"
"I’m telling you your powers are bullshit."
"Crude but apt!" Victoria agreed, then cleared her throat to get her tone back under control. "Did you get sothing else?"
"Yes, actually, let’s see if it is any good."
Item: Sword of Glory
Rarity: Rare
Description: One of the many failures created in an attempt to create another sword like Excalibur. Much weaker than the weapon it aims to emulate, but a holy blade regardless.
Attributes: Holy, Lightweight
Durability: Complete
What he held in his hand was a European longsword. Long grip, long blade, and a moderate guard. It was forged from light steel and the brown leather wrapped around the grip made it pleasant to hold. John could hold it alright in one and in two it laid comfortably. Even with the Lightweight enchantnt, it wasn’t really made for him. "Jane, want to take a swing?"
"Oh, can I?" Rave grabbed it and imdiately took a stance. She swung it around randomly a few tis. It looked impressive, although John wasn’t certain if that was because she was just fast or because she was good with swords. The final swing sent the blade a third through a nearby tree trunk. "It’s way lighter than it looks. Also is it just or does it glow golden?"
"Lightweight and holy enchantnt, respectively," John explained.
"Pre-enchanted Loot. Yup, total bullshit." She turned away from the sword. "I was never one for weapons though. Are those gloves any good for punching?"
"Nope, they make plants grow faster."
"Yeah, ya can keep those. I take care of one plant and that’s enough for ."
"Do you want sothing, Victoria?" John asked the gunslinger. Her fire support had been really handy during that fight, he would be remiss not to offer sothing.
"I would like to make my money back for the ammunition. Give the shield, it should sell for enough." The Gar looked at the Rare drop. Just for rarity, he would have loved to keep it. However, he wasn’t sure what to do with a shield and he had made the offer.
"It repairs itself, if that’s important for the price."
Victoria nodded. "How do you know all this?"
John hesitated, but Rave quickly responded. "He has a Skill that lets him see so limited stuff about people and objects."
"People?" Victoria suddenly looked deeply worried. "Did you use it on ?"
Scratching the back of his head, he admitted, "Yeah. It told you are the Granddaughter of a family that fled the Soviet Union and that they got into the Abyss because they needed money. Also, that you didn’t trust at first."
"...Less now," Victoria hissed and grabbed the shield. "I’ll see you tomorrow!" With those forceful words, she left the Illusion Barrier.
John groaned and turned to Rave. "Did you have to reveal it to her?" he asked.
"Yeah, ’cause it’s kinda screwy that you can do that," Rave responded. "Longer ya keep it a secret, the more it’ll hurt later."
"I’m already doing it less," John grumbled. Personally he still viewed it as part of him, to be used like his eyes, but he could see Rave’s point so he tried to not do it as much. With a long sigh, he added. "You’re right, but it’s also been... a day. I don’t think we should trust people that we know for a day with everything I can or can’t do."
"Ya wanna build that harem? Ya gotta take so risks with other girls," Rave stated. "I think we’ll be fine. Today went pretty great, all things considered, right?"
She had him there. Threeso, levels, Loot, today had a whole bunch of good things. "Right... alright, let’s deal with this problem though," he pointed at the Dragonscale. "I doubt you want to carry that and I can’t put it back into the inventory even if I wanted to." He scratched the back of his head. He could use Craft on it, but with how low his level in the Skill was that felt like a waste. Neither Craft nor Enchant were ever going to be his focus. There was another option that felt more worthwhile. "Aclysia, can you eat that?"
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