Funatic
patreon
The Gamer Chapter 1667 – Season 3 Arc 11 Start – Perks, Perks, Perks
🕑 Added 2024-04-30 13:09:47 +0000 UTC
The wedding came and went. Velka’s birthday came and went. Salamander’s contract day came and went. Rave’s birthday came and went. Undine and Sylph’s contract day came and went.
Suddenly, it was the evening of the 31st of August.
‘There are minutes in which years happen and years in which minutes happen,’ John thought, as he rubbed his eyes.
The last two weeks had been nothing but work. Lu Zhi wanted meetings, few of them of the fun kind, and John had to continue trying to unruffle some feathers because of his frequent absences from domestic affairs. Trying and, for once in his political life, failing. There was no unruffling those feathers unless he stopped doing what they did not want him to do.
‘They should add to that saying something like: “but some minutes crawl like centuries”,’ he groaned and lowered his hands. ‘At least all of that is over now.’
Just twenty minutes ago, he had signed the last few documents that assured everyone knew who was in charge of what while he, Momo, and Beatrice were all gone. Doubtlessly they would come back to some incompetent decisions having been made, but who could really say?
At least all the office hours had given him enough time to max out his Lover’s Will EXP gain every day.
‘Might as well check what I can pick up Class Level wise before everyone else gets home,’ John thought. Everyone else was currently out, with the exception of Lee, who instead was either doing chores, gaming, or practicing out at the I.D. Gates. ‘What should I increase? Starforger? No, can’t do that…’
‘…at least that narrows down my choices… is there any reason to go Disciple over Silver Arcanist?’ John racked his brain to find any reason whatsoever, but came up short. Silver Arcanist was an Advanced Class, so it would always pay out more for each individual Class level. Adding to the fact that he was actually using arcane magic made the choice beyond obvious.
Thankfully, he had the conditions for that one cleared already.
Execute was interesting for two reasons. One, the question of what came next. If he could notably increase the margin of execution, then that would be an incredible DPS increase. Non-boss monsters was not as restrictive as one might think, considering the amount of adds during Raid bosses and the combat encounters between them. Also, Assaults would profit from it. Two, when he killed a target with arcane damage, he got a one-minute buff that increased his MP regeneration by 100% per stack (up to 4 stacks). Assuring a killing blow was pretty fantastic on paper.
2% was too narrow a margin, but point one applied. This was only the 5th Perk of the Class.
However, there were counterarguments to be made. For one, John was not reliant on that mana regeneration buff in the slightest. Secondly, he already had someone with a good execute mechanic thanks to Claire’s Death Nail and that one worked against bosses and regular enemies. There was also a potential worry, if the Execute ever affected real people, that he would explode people he only meant to cripple.
Sequencing was mathematically sound, but John did not have a diverse enough arsenal to make use of it. He was a caster with a few spammable moves. For everything else, he had the elementals.
That left him with Reshape, which was actually something John wanted. That it was a universal vibrator was secondary, he could already achieve something like that with Possession (or he could just use actual remote control vibrators). More interesting was that it made the Companion Cube a limited instance of normal magic. He could use it like Maximillian was using gravity. It wasn’t much, but it was something John wanted.
So, he took it.
The silver cube appeared next to John’s shoulder, then turned into a claw, then turned into a point the size of a marble. ‘Alright, it can’t grow but it can shrink, that makes this a lot more useful than anticipated,’ the Gamer thought. ‘That’s a universal thieves’ tool. Could come in handy… not sure for what, but it could.’
There was a long list of other, interesting applications that came to the Gamer’s mind. He kept imagining things, causing the Companion Cube to transform into them. When something was too large, it either turned into a half-baked version or a miniature of it.
‘God, freeform magic is so cool,’ the Gamer marvelled at it.
“Pfft, look at you, nerding out,” Delicia announced her presence.
“I don’t get a lot of toys, I’m allowed to enjoy it when I get my hands on something new,” John had not heard her enter. He did not need to in order to respond calmly. Immediately, Delicia began to cackle. “Yes, yes, the pure arrogance of saying I do not get a lot of toys,” the Gamer read her thoughts, then dismissed the Companion Cube. “Keep laughing and I’ll remind you that you’re one of them.”
“Oh nooooo, such a threat,” the alchemist plopped down on the Couch.
Before John could raise the question why she would sit somewhere other than his lap, he heard the simultaneous footsteps of Aclysia and Beatrice. “”Good evening, Master,”” they spoke in same-voiced unison. The difference in tone introduced a pleasant variation between them. A downright necessity to keep the two from sounding too much like reality was having an audio glitch.
“May we entertain you while we wait for the others?” Aclysia suggested.
John caught onto what she was getting at quickly. “Right, the Perks,” he said. They were heading down to Yucatan tomorrow and it would have been unwise to go into a potential combat situation without getting upgrades first. “You may entertain me.”
“”Thank you, Master,”” the two maids purred.
The Couch parted in their path, allowing them to circle up to the front. Hands brushed over his shoulders and down his naked chest in mirrored motions. An outcropping of the Couch on the floor gave the dragon ladies a proper place to rest their knees.
“Tsk.”
The little sound made John raise his gaze, to catch a very annoyed Delicia demonstrably looking away. She snapped back immediately, showing him a flowery smile. Too late, though, John had already caught her. “You can just say when you want to do things,” he teased her, while Aclysia and Beatrice showered his growing erection with kisses.
“It’s your job to read me!” Delicia declared. “What do I have a man for if not that?”
“Can’t imagine why you were single until we met.”
“Because I like work more than men? Because that’s the answer, duh.” John gave her a deadpan smile and let her slowly drive herself mad through all of the unsaid things. “Psh, you can doubt me all you want, but I guarantee you that I had more dates with girls than you did before you got your powers, ‘cause I had more than zero.”
“Okay?”
“Really says a lot about you that so much of your power manifested as porn logic upgrades. Must have been really backed up in there… not that it helped your quickshot cock that much.”
John felt his left eye twitch. What exactly was it about Delicia that managed to grate on his nerves in a way that was both effective and endearing? When Momo tried to pull these stunts, she was immediately bulliable. Delicia, on the other hand, immediately broke out into foot-waving laughter. Rather than bully, John got the urge to discipline her.
“Fucking brat,” he grumbled.
“You wish you were fucking this brat.” Delicia cackled.
“No… I think I am quite good over here.” The Gamer put his hands on the heads of the two maids who gave him lip in a more enticing manner.
“So delicious,” Aclysia swooned.
“Master’s cock is perfection,” Beatrice gasped, her passive voice compromised by erotic agitation.
“It is, isn’t it?” Claire bowed over John’s shoulder. “Evening, Master,” she whispered in his ear, before getting the greeting kiss she had so dearly wanted. One kiss turned into a prolonged make out session. It only ended because Claire got so into it that she nearly fell over forwards. “Sweeping me off my feet without lifting a finger.”
John chuckled, then tapped the cushion next to himself. Swiftly, Claire jumped over the reformed backrest of the Couch and settled down.
“Hey.” A tug on his ear prevented John from getting back to making out with Claire. He turned his head the other way, to find the sour expression of Ehtra. As per usual, the First of Hatred beheld him disapprovingly, yet she had put herself in kissing range – and did not pull away when he took advantage of that fact.
“Get over here,” he ordered her.
For a moment, Ehtra seemed like she would refuse. Then, he changed his smile to something a little more demanding and her scowl was joined by a soft blush to her brown cheeks. “As you demand, Master,” she ‘relented’ and plopped down next to him. She harrumphed and turned her face the other way after a glance at his crotch. “Perverted creature.”
“You know what you like,” John whispered to her, kneading one of her enormous breasts at the same time.
“I know that I hate yo-ngh.” Ehtra moaned halfway through her attempt at dismissiveness.
“Can you at least wait for me?” Metra asked, entering through the door that the First of Hatred had left open in her hurried entrance.
“I suppose I’m last?” The question came from a Fae Maid that had morphed from a small firefly-esque entity to the extension of the fairy maids hivemind. Red wings and red eyes, whose irises covered more of the sclera than was normal, were the largest differences between it and the original. An original that Swapped places with her extension an instant later. “’Talk some sense into the president’ they say,” she complained. “’He’ll listen to you!’ they say. As if you’ll listen to anybody.”
“I listen to plenty of people,” John disagreed.
“Will you listen to me when I say we shouldn’t be doing this with you balls deep in Bae’s throat?”
“That’s the reason why I am balls deep in Bae’s throat,” the Gamer groaned and let himself go. Cum surged down the white dragon maid’s gullet, filling her stomach with orgasmic seed – much to the envy of the other maids around. Squeezing Claire’s fat ass and Ehtra’s equally fat tits, he kept on getting milked by the throat of the climaxing maid. Aclysia kept on kissing his balls, animating him to give her faux-twin everything he had to offer.
About a minute later, Aclysia and Beatrice were seated to John’s right, the latter cleaning out her mouth with some fresh water to be kiss-ready later. Claire and Delicia sat right and left of their Master, the latter having taken the spot after Ehtra had decided to act all coy. Either that or the First of Hatred wanted to oblige alphabetical order, now seated next to Momo to John’s left. Metra sat a bit further than them, completing the line-up of John’s Artificial Spirit contracts.
“Alright, then let’s do this in alphabetical order,” John said and focused on Aclysia first. Usual anticipation for Perks filled him, although he did not expect anything too spectacular. The mid-way point Perks often acted more like filler. The Skills were generally good though.
And they were… dull, even if they were good. Two were repetitions, those being Servant Strike 2 and Juggernaut 2, while Devoted Teleportation was another form of an upgrade. Since Aclysia had much of her roster filled out already, her choices getting more limited was hardly surprising. Incremental upgrades were likely to be the norm for her, with the occasional new Skill as a pleasant surprise.
As for John’s choice, John had to consider for a moment, then decided to go with Servant Strike 2. It was just the most universally useful of the bunch, giving Aclysia access to more Devotion to spend and giving her attacks more damage.
Another instance of two repeat choices and one replacer. ‘No wings,’ John noted with some disappointment. ‘I expect that Aclysia’s flight option will be worse than Bae’s, considering the ice tank vs electricity DPS themes involved, but I still want her to have flight.’ “Any preferences?” he asked the head maid.
Aclysia’s folded hands shifted slightly in her lap. “I find all options attractive. As I understand the Frost Ring, it would give me access to a limited zone of absolute control over the element of ice, which would enable a few creative solutions to issues. Frost Fangs would grant me an additional avenue of attack. Frost Breath is similarly useful.” A contemplative pause later, she nodded. “I request the Frost Breath, I believe it will be most useful for my position in combat.”
“Alright, that’s one done,” the Gamer turned his attention to Beatrice next. In the corner of his vision, he saw Aclysia put her hand up. “No, you may not serve me because you are unoccupied now.” Aclysia put her hand down.
Swing Transferral was a technical repeat, but at least it had been two cycles since John had seen it. Rend was a repetition that John actually liked seeing because he considered it insanely strong in the right circumstances.
Repeated Swing was new.
Repeated Swing sounded insane.
Beatrice’s current Max Reverse was 15. Getting 15 retries to land a good hit, even if it was on a singular enemy, was impossible to calculate the value of. Most important was the detail that they would not remember the tries, but Beatrice would, so she could rapidly analyse their responses and formulate countermeasures.
There were a few drawbacks, however.
First off, it did not have great synergy with Pendulum Stop. The Passive froze time for 3 seconds of Beatrice’s perception whenever she spent the maximum amount of Reverse. Those 3 seconds would presumably happen between the activation of the Repeated Swing and the actual utilizing of it through a Swing Spender. It would still let her get a quick analysis of the situation, so it wasn’t completely useless.
Second off, it competed with Twist Position and Chronoshift, Beatrice’s primary movement tools. She needed those to stay out of harm’s way. Unless the Repeated Swing ended the fight outright, spending her resources on it was likely unwise.
Third off, Beatrice did not currently have any Swing Spender that profited that much from being a guaranteed hit. Unsteady Limb was a cheaper, less powerful movement option. Needle Assault fundamentally was an attack that was already too fast to be reacted to anyway. Sunder aimed for armour more than flesh.
Rend was likely the best option this update, because Beatrice needed something like Rend to make Repeated Swing really worth it.
“Affirmative…” Beatrice answered his thought process with a sigh.
“Disappointed?” the Gamer asked.
“Opinion: Repeated Swing sounds much cooler.”
She was right there, but sadly the reality of reality was that the simplest things were often the most effective. One choice made, they moved onto the next.
One repeat, two interesting new choices, John was quite content with that.
By sheer power, Volt Breath was probably the best and Electromagnetic Siphon probably the worst. Thunder Clap was specific, but a powerful entrance dealt psychological damage in addition to actual damage. Intimidation was a factor even at their level of fighting.
“Request: Electromagnetic Siphon,” Beatrice cut his analysis short by her statement. “Reason: the two alternatives provide little usage for my general combat strategies. The magnetic powers may come in handy.”
“Veto!” Metra shouted.
“You don’t have a veto… but why?” John wondered.
“I don’t trust her to not get up to shenanigans.”
“He-heeeee.” Beatrice’s deadpan chuckle was anything but trust-inducing.
“It is her choice,” John stated and then pressed the button.
That was number two done.
‘Smooth sailing so far,’ John thought.
Comments
gordianTangle
I'm with Beatrice that Repeated Swing was a better choice - any time reversal mechanic has so much potential for unexpected utility - you get X tries at the thing, but you bring your memory back with you - you could test a one-off weapon that you aren't sure if it would work, see the result, and then do something else. If you get a mind-reading weapon, you could even have this attack start the combat, gain you info, and then nullify ever even initiating combat. She could target an enemy she doesn't care about and, while attacking, get multiple shots at some other objective (like attacking with one hand while trying a password with the other)...
Christian Krueger
welcome back fun, hope your break was good. excited for what the other perks will be. I would be surprised if one of Delicia's perk options (at some point) was NOT to make her perkier. I am not sorry, the pun was BEGGING to be made.
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}