Gaia still gave John the Loot for the final boss.

The World Disease, to no surprise, provided John with three more of its Shards. Various crafting materials went to Romulus, including an ingot of Eternal Iron. It was the same metal that Arkeidos had made using the souls of the people of the Iron Domain. Usually that would make it highly immoral to have in possession, but as a Raid drop it was sourced ethically. The weapons and consumables were not noteworthy whatsoever.

Which made it all the sweeter when John was met with a success.

The effect of the disease was slow acting, which was fine for John. He had wanted it because it added an extra layer of confusion to the plague mist around Nahoa, not because he wanted to see his enemies turned into charred skeletons that thought Skinwalker’s into existence with their paranoia.

Disappointing lack of interesting Loot aside, John did get a total of 15 Level Ups. 10 from the Quest and 5 from finishing the Raid.

Class Levels would have to be distributed later, when he had time to go through all the Challenges.

“To victory, then,” Romulus declared.

They were having a feast. A gap in the forest Romulus had grown allowed for a great firepit to take its place. A long table saw John and his many haremettes on one side and the Apex and his two women on the other. An unequal distribution by all means, but the one that was appropriate for the situation.

Everyone raised their chalices. The wine within smelled sweet and tasted sweeter still. A pleasant sweetness, like the ripe grapes that had been used to make the dark red liquid. Romulus himself had made it and the expertise of thousands of years was clear in every sip.

The many dishes before them had been prepared by the maids and Salamander. A whole pig had been roasted, serving as the centre piece of the opulent selection of various fruits, meats, and vegetables. It was, by all accounts, a feast worthy of the meeting of two emperors, even if one preferred another title and source of legitimacy.

“I honestly expected you to go down at least once,” John said between bites of expertly roasted swine. “Maybe if one of the bosses had a damage reflect mechanic.”

“Backed by Gaia’s absurdities, that may have been enough to deal a fatal blow to me,” Romulus answered. “Although I am hardy.”

‘Understatement of the century,’ John thought while they ate. There was plenty of chatter at the table, but it stayed mostly between the usual faces. For all that they shared, the divide between the two camps was still evident. Romulus was an approachable yet distant figure and the talk with Gaia had put him into a contemplative mood. Out of respect, John did not pry.

The Raid with the Apex came to an end simply. They went to bed once more, then emerged from the Illusion Barrier the next morning. John offered to teleport the Apex back to Germany and Romulus took it. “I enjoyed this,” the Apex stated, once they stood in the cold air of central Europe. “Perhaps we can repeat it once you approach my level.”

“Perhaps,” John agreed. It was a loose promise, the kind neither side was unlikely to press on. Considering the span of their lives, it had a higher likelihood of occurring than the bowling evening he had planned with Maximillian for a while. ‘Though then again… I got some time on my hands now. I should give him a call.’

Romulus departed, John went back through the teleporter to find his haremettes waiting for him. The temperature difference was stark. Both sides of the teleporter were in winter, but Abyssal Berlin kept the natural weather. The Guild Hall most certainly did not.

John glanced up at the sky. The sun shone with summer-like heat. Quite the oddity on the closing days of December. They actually still had a third of the Sunday left, and since they had just slept, they would likely remain awake until Monday night. “Alright,” he clapped his hands, “I’m going to the administration with bodies 2 and 3. I’ll hang about in the jacuzzi and listen to an audiobook in my real one. I would appreciate some ‘alone’ time.”

He put the ‘alone’ into large air quotes. In the Newman Lifestyle™ ‘alone’ meant ‘with up to four of you’. If he wanted to be actually alone, he would just go somewhere quiet (usually his trophy room) and trust his harem knew how to read his body language. That hadn’t failed him so far.

The harem then began to disperse. As per usual, some left alone, others in clusters, depending on what they had in mind for the next couple of hours of the day. John made sure he let his Artificial and Natural Spirits know that he was expecting them in the Sex Dungeon around midnight. It was time to up their Libido.

With that future privilege in mind, the maids, who usually were among the first to cling to him, dispersed as well. They had individual duties to tend to anyhow. Beatrice, Ehtra and Momo did follow his other bodies to the government area, so they would be near him. Their tasks would remove them from his direct presence, however.

They had a few things to double check before Justinian got the proverbial baton.

The women that ultimately accompanied John back to their apartment were Nightingale, Rave, Lee and Sylph. An interesting cross-section of his harem to share a jacuzzi with. Well, he shared the jacuzzi with Lee. Rave and Sylph sat to either side of Nightingale slightly removed from the edge of the tub.

“I express my deepest gratitude.” The slender harpy had both of her wings extended, giving easy access to the two haremettes around her. Rave and Sylph carefully combed through the fluffy feathers, finding the quills and rubbing away what little dead skin stuck to them. The act of preening was an intimate activity for a harpy and the quickest way to deepen bonds further.

Obviously, Nightingale enjoyed it with regularity.

A singular loose feather tumbled to the ground. Rave picked it up, accessed the Guild Bank, and put it away. As they were part of a goddess, her feathers were rare crafting materials, too valuable to be just tossed out.

John beheld the scene lazily. There was a mild degree of eroticism to it. Naked women preening each other always had at least a hint of allure. It was not enough to stir him out of his current relaxation. Same went for Lee, sitting next to him in the jacuzzi.

He allowed himself to dissolve his mind in the entranced state. The majority of his mind, anyhow. Pockets were still busy doing administrative work.

Like it often was with these things, it ended spontaneously. A sudden spark in his mind spurred him back into motion. It had been over half an hour of soaking and that was more than enough relaxation for him to crave doing active work again. There was plenty to do and there was a phone call he wanted to make.

“I’ll go do the Space Protector Challenge,” he told the women with him, who just nodded. His assertion earlier that they knew when he wanted true alone time was proven correct with the ease with which they let him go. Then again, Rave was currently busy rubbing her cheeks against the butts of Sylph and Nightingale. It could be said that they had their own priorities.

Out of the bath, John grabbed his private phone with one hand, put his clothes back on with the other, and rang one of the non-harem numbers. There were not a whole lot of them. A fact he was more than fine with. He did not need many friends, just good ones.

The phone tooted a couple of times, before clicking. “Hello, John here,” the Gamer spoke up.

“Oh, great, just what my day needed,” Maximillian groaned into the speaker. “You know it’s midnight here, yeah?”

“I figured you would either be awake or I’d just leave a message,” John answered.

“You lucked out on the former, buddy.” A dull sound made it through the speaker, likely from Maximilian cracking his neck. “Doing overtime in the office tonight.”

“Still sifting through your sister’s expenses?”

“Yeah… some of this is genius and some is completely asinine, so I have to use the fine-toothed comb.” The demonstrable rustle of paper filled the background. “Been on this most of the day. Got the usual distractions.”

“Irielz?”

“Is that a guess or a question.”

“Guess.”

“Then you are correct. Say hi, honey.”

“Hi, John!” The voice of the king’s succubus wife made it through the speaker. A short exchange later, she was back to doing what lovers usually did under the table in their lifestyles.

“And what are you doing that has you this bored tonight?” Maximillian asked.

“Walking, currently, from my home to the I.D. Gate. I have to do some mental exercises to get a Class Level.” He kept it brief, explaining things in detail would take unnecessary time. “Said goodbye to Romulus earlier.”

“You were with the Apex?”

“Yeah, we did a Raid together by Gaia’s request. We even met her.”

“Whew… sounds eventful.”

“It was surprisingly plain, if I’m being honest.” John shook his head, now back outside. “I’ll tell you more in person. I wanted to ask if you had time for that bowling trip sometime next week?”

Maximillian sucked on his teeth, creating a high-pitched sound. “Should have time on Wednesday, if you come to me?”

“I can do that.”

“Will it be just you?”

“I’ll try to rope Ted and Magnus in. Also, for the laughs, I might try to get Justinian. Have you heard of him?”

Maximillian groaned and it was not due to the pleasure his wife provided. “I watched the tournament on the side screen after Romulus went over. What entertainment could be derived from that sanctimonious prick?” A short pause. “Actually, do not say it. I’ll let you be the judge of it.” He groaned again, this time for lustful reasons. “Not that I love talking to you in the first place, buddy, but anything else you want to talk about?”

“No, I just wanted to be a good friend and be the one to call for once,” John responded. “I’ll leave you to it. Bye.”

“Bye,” Maximillian pressed out.

They hung up before John was subjected to the sound of him getting his soul sucked out.

John only had a moment of silence.

A silver star curved through the air and took a violent stop in front of John. The Gamer curved around it, forcing the entity to hover next to him. Mana particles drifted and re-ordered themselves into the face of a slender dragon head. The eyes were black, constellations glowing around the slitted pupil. “Have you seen my funding request?” Enki asked.

“Your funding requests go to Hank and through him to Beatrice, I do not see them,” John reminded the remade god of stars. A god he technically was no more, but until a new one was chosen by the Faith, he might as well continue to lay claim to the title.

“I urge and beseech you to intervene and grant my request before that calculating woman fails to see the wisdom in it in all of her passivity!” Enki sounded genuinely agitated, prodding John to run a quick mental inquiry as to what this request even was.

“You do not need a personal army of enforcers that beat people up that annoy you,” John answered.

“A most foolish assessment of the situation – by which I merely mean that you do not see the big picture in your haste, my lord.” Enki’s tone switched immediately when John threatened to mess with the slider that provided the god with power. “It would serve my authority well were I given means to exert a physical threat if need be. Hank is an irksome character, but he is competent. No room for power between those qualities.”

John considered the question. “I have a simpler solution for you. I’ll assign one of the powerful Sentry Golems to follow you around. That should do the same trick.”

“…It will do,” Enki relented. No doubt he had wanted a human that he could send to go and get things for him. Sentry Golems were limited in what they did to what John allowed them to do. Enki wouldn’t be able to send them all around the map, nor would he be able to throw them at anyone that annoyed him.

The embodiment of the entity flew away, sensing that John was not going to relent further on the matter. That left John to finally enter the I.D. Gate again and chase after the Class Challenges.

As before with the Space Protector Challenges, he was presented with a variety of mental exercises that regular Fateweavers went through. It was all about visualization and holding onto thoughts. It was difficult in the same way lifting appropriate weights was difficult. After four hours, John had chewed through the Challenges. Actually picking up the level, he left for later.

‘What else should I level up?’ he asked himself and went over the list. ‘Obviously I am getting a level in Lover… Monster Girl Creator is also a good choice… Death Knight? No, that’s an unnecessary novelty. Master of Magic would make more sense.’

He pulled up the Class Challenge for that. Unsurprisingly, it was about solving various issues with Free Casting. John had quite a good time doing that. He was simultaneously phenomenally limited in what he could do and totally free. Both were novel feelings for him. All of his Skills were absurdly destructive by this point and yet so narrow in their usage.

The Challenges all involved moving a little ball from one end of a wooden maze to the other with a set amount of mana spent. Destruction, pushing, pulling, area manipulation, anything he could think of was permitted in that task. It gave him deeper insights in the practical application of what he had worked out about Free Casting so far.

Arcane magic had three fundamental components: force, direction, and longevity. Force represented not only the strength of the spell involved but also the way it manifested, ranging from blunt to slashing. Direction was obviously where the spell was headed. Longevity represented how long a spell would last.

The standard mana bolt spell, in the sense, was simple force with a straightforward direction and short longevity. It unified all of the easiest shapes of mana into one package, that was why it was the premiere beginner spell. The Arc Lance was more complicated, possessing blunt, piercing and burning force, a straightforward direction, and the longevity to last over the course of its enormous range. Arcana Ray then was a spell with layers, changing depending on how long it was channelled and unifying with others of its kind to change the direction and amplify force.

There was an additional layer to the programming of arcane spells, being ‘on trigger’ effects like runes that exploded on contact with a human aura. That was, for now, far beyond John’s reach. He could move a marble through a maze though.

‘Can’t wait to invest more into this,’ he thought. Like the other Class Levels, he held this one back until the next harem meeting. He checked the time. It was fifteen minutes to midnight now. ‘Alrighty, time to go and drive maids and Metra mad with lust.’