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The Gamer Chapter 1421 – Thorough Grinding 13 – The Completion of the Puppet
🕑 Added 2023-04-10 20:39:59 +0000 UTC
Which one John wanted was immediately clear to himself and everyone else in the room. Despite that, he gave the other two options the time of day. Unlike the previous tier, there was actually a choice here.
Power Overwhelming was pretty terrible at the face of it, but one should not underestimate the value of an emergency button. 15 seconds at 500% boosted Stats was a generous amount of time to absolutely wreck whatever was in his way and the explosion at the end could make for a solid finisher. The greatest problem with it was purely psychological. John wanted the Creator Puppet to be impressive and to that end he needed it to be pumped full of powerful materials. A natural detergent to using the kind of Skill that would see it annihilated fully upon using his trump card. That was not the best justification, but he did not need the best since he did not believe this was the objectively best choice anyway.
Puppet Awakening was strong. There could be no doubt about that. It allowed him to continuously create golems. One would be a powerful asset, ten would increase his reach tremendously, a hundred would be an army unmatched, a thousand were the tool of world domination. Each of them would have incredible Elemental Resistance, physical resilience, and damaging auras. They would be loyal without doubt. Obedient without question. Which put another one of John’s psychological issues in the spotlight: he did not want obedience without question.
‘Well, okay, I want it, but not in the way I need it,’ John corrected himself. ‘The opposite, really, I want it in a way that makes me not want too much of it.’
‘Good,’ Stirwin weighed on his mind with that singular word. His conscience crocodile kept a keen eye on his thoughts, in a manner that the haremettes rarely did. They regarded it as a breach of privacy and he afforded them the same distance, unless he wanted something from them. Stirwin did not have that limitation. It was his expressed purpose to make sure John did not tilt too far into either extreme selflessness or egoism. Granted, the former was rarely a threat.
‘Back to the choices,’ John kept himself on track and went over Ascendant Puppet. That was the one he wanted subjectively. It gave his third body the power he wanted, even providing a base level of Elemental Resistance better than what most metals provided. The entrance cost wasn’t that steep either, since the condition was only ‘contained’, without a hard number. To have a body in which he could wreck face with sheer physical power, it scratched a violent itch at the back of his brain. That part of him was less pronounced in him than it was in most men, his aversion to sports proved that much, but it still existed.
What Puppet Ascension provided was a way to keep the Creator Puppet growing as its own fighting entity. Exactly what he needed. Pure Stat sticks, even those with powerful weapons, had a hard time competing against those that had useful abilities. At the level they were at, Innate Abilities could be presumed useful at a minimum and battlefield altering at the top end. The kind of raw Stats that the golem would have needed to overcome that gap, it did not have access to. That required Metra levels of absurd buffs.
Broken down, he had a Perk incredible for throw-away bodies (there was no cooldown listed on the effect without the Overclock), a steady supply of loyal super soldiers, or making himself a raid boss.
‘Yeah, the conclusion was always clear,’ John thought and pressed the middle button. “Delicia?”
“Yeah, yeah, you need my help, I get it.” The alchemist let out a theatrical sigh. The frown turned into a smug grin. “Got something more to say than my name?”
“…Oh great alchemist Delicia, please do make me another golem, one that contains the six Celexiums,” he relented. Her smile grew ever more self-absorbed. A big toe poked his knee. “You’re the only one I can trust with this.” She kept poking. “Your cuteness is only trumped by your genius.” More urgent pokes. “…You’re pushing it.”
“Am I thoooo?” Delicia rolled her head and then laughed. The poking continued.
John suddenly grabbed her by the thigh. He pulled himself over, pressed his lips on her mouth, and made her eyes open wide. The sudden affection made her face burn like a gas torch. The Gamer stroked her hair and she swooned. “What you are is a good girl.”
“You sure about that?” Delicia whispered back.
“Yes,” he responded swiftly.
“Hmmm, let me think about that…” Delicia tilted her head left, then right. It was meant to look teasing. Between the quivering smile and the red dusting her cheeks, it only looked adorable. Before either of them knew it, John was pressing another kiss on her forehead. “Oy, I cannot think like that,” she complained. Another kiss. “…Okay, okay, I’ll be a good girl…” she whispered. “…But you have to cuddle me in bed tonight. I’ll give you that honour.”
“A great one,” John hummed and backed away. Delicia jumped off the couch and made her way to her laboratory.
There were some pieces of each of the Celexiums in her possession. Less than a quarter coin in size. They, alongside some Astrotium, had been entrusted with Delicia for research purposes. Relying on Apothecaries for his scientific advancement was a gamble John did not want to engage in if he had the choice. Progressively, he was given the choice to detach more and more from those international scientists. Soon enough, he could even cut ties with Medelnick… which he was likely to do despite the services the Apothecary had rendered.
He was a bit too crazy and ornery for John’s liking.
Just half an hour later, Delicia called him over to switch bodies. Two replacement Swirls had been around, replacements for Raiding that would likely go unused now that John had resolved for the more economical option of cheap extra bodies. Regardless of that, shoving the six Celexiums into the already present body was an easy task. As was switching from one to the other.
Elemental power crackled around the Ascendant Mode Creator Puppet. John was so excited at the prospect, he only realized then that he hadn’t checked out the other windows that went along finishing a Class. This time around, there were only two. No follow-up Class for Golemcrafter. That made enough sense since it was granted through a book he had looted from a Raid.
That was easily among the more powerful Modifications he had gotten to date. 2,5% Stat Scaling was a good chunk of Strength and Agility added, considering the Mental Stats those were scaling from. The upkeep of the Creator Puppet was 10 mana per second, considerable as well. Neither effects blew his socks off, but it was at least worth a consideration when it came to what Modification he should have active in a war situation.
Then, it was time to look at the Overclock he was itching to use.
Having another place to dump excess Skill Evolution Points was useful. Not strictly needed, Artificial Spirits were a good place for that anyway, but useful. Of course, John didn’t care about efficiency in this first instance. He had a point available, so he was going to use it on the new and shiny thing. "I strengthen the hand that crushes my enemies," the words crossed his lips.
None of these were terribly impressive. First Perks rarely were. As much as that put a damper on John’s excitement, this was still more customization for him to work with. Elemental Renewal was solid enough, yet it suffered from the same issue all healing did: the material bottleneck. If there was something to solve that, it was likely down that path. ‘Do I want to make my Physical Stats body into a healer for that upside…? No, not really.’
Elemental Bolt and Elemental Dagger both looked interesting. Since he already had the melee weapon covered through Inkaryl, getting an off-hand weapon was skippable. The mace had a grip proper for both one- and two-handed usage. The Elemental Bolts covered a ranged issue, so he went with that.
With that selection made, John stood before another issue, though. “Do I take this into a Raid?” he mumbled. Even a cheap Creator Puppet would now have to contain the Celexiums, to be fully effective. That meant there was no such thing as a cheap Creator Puppet anymore. ‘Hmmm, perhaps…’ “Lee!”
“Huh?” the gamer girl looked up from her handheld at the duo that came barging into her room. She had been completely immersed in whatever JRPG she was playing. Legs pulled to her chest, wearing only one of his shirts and socks, she was the adorable image of a stay-at-home gamer girlfriend. Too bad he would have to get her working. “Waddup, dude?”
“Would it be possible to specifically link the Celexiums inside a Creator Puppet to Fateweaving?” he asked.
“No? Kinda?” Lee reluctantly put aside the game to talk to him and Delicia. Where the console had been, she instead cuddled a huge pillow. “The Creator Puppet has a ‘death’ state, so if you give it a structural weakness that triggers when that part of it is threatened, that’d do it.”
“But that would mean introducing a weakness into my creations!” Delicia protested. “Can’t you work some Fateweaving BS? Please? Urgh, you know how much work it would be to fully build new bodies each time they wipe? I can work fast but not that fast.”
“Aren’t they just throw-aways?”
“I have standards, Lee!” Delicia threw her hands in the air.
The young Fateweaver rolled her eyes and stopped halfway through. “I mean… hmm… Lemme go talk to my dad real quick.” She hopped off her couch and put on some pants. “Alone,” she clarified when the Gamer and shortstack followed her. “This’ll take a bit and be full of technical jargon.”
“Alright,” John responded, mildly disappointed. Typically he liked being in the room when there was technical discussion going on. If Lee wanted to avoid his inquisitive presence, however, then that was her right.
__________________________________________________________________________
The house was half empty. John had sent the Ambassador Double back to the Raid, with all of the usual subjects in tow. That left him in the house with Lorelei, Nightingale, Nathalia, Eliana, Scarlett, Hailey, and Delicia. That he had seven people still around and could describe the house as half empty said a lot.
John had busied himself with the usual for a little while, before finding that no one was in an urgently horny mood. Nathalia and Eliana were practically always ready for another round, but even the dragoness could rein in her need for a good pounding. Matter of fact, John had the feeling that Nathalia was getting horny attacks less frequently these days. He credited himself for that fact. After ten millennia of okay to good sex, he was blowing her mind on the daily. Maybe he was slowly unwinding the knot of dissatisfaction inside her, like one slept off prolonged exhaustion during a vacation.
That and she had another outlet for her boredom, being her work with Scarlett. The two redheads had bunkered up in a corner of the house and were discussing ideas for new companies. Scarlett’s standard strategy was to take poorly run businesses and streamline them until they turned a profit – or poach all experts in the company, then dissolve it. She did open a fair share of businesses herself, though, or at least lend upstarts the money to get off the ground.
Scarlett had a great number of important roles to play in the economy. Whether that was as a corrective measure or a helper of new companies, she chose on intuition. One had to assume that it was a working system. The green line kept going up.
Anyway, with Nathalia appeased, that left only Lorelei among those that desperately needed a pounding. That was a project John was going to leave boiling a little while longer. Either until the end of the grinding session or until he resolved to use Court Dust. He couldn’t be trusted to do anything reasonable while that loathsomely efficient substance was in his system. Which was why he had given his girls the go ahead to restrain him by whatever means necessary if he misbehaved using it. Best to have that clarified while he was still sober.
Now, John was sitting at a computer in a room on the ground floor. He was catching up on the big releases he had missed. He had already beaten Kingdom Hearts 3 during this grinding session. He hadn’t 100% cleared it, just beaten the main story and some of the major side quests. Maybe he had just grown out of the age where Kingdom Hearts really appealed to him.
Devil May Cry 5, however, which he was currently playing, absolutely engaged him. The story was a disjointed pile of something. John did not want to call it a mess since he had not played the first two games nor consumed any of the supplementary materials. What he got was enough, since it wasn’t complicated to start with. Demon lord bad, minor twist in the middle, he was the storm that was approaching – really simple. The pace was great, going from one action blasting fight to the next and the combo system was exactly what John needed to keep his superhuman reflexes engaged in a fighting game.
John was in the middle of the final fight when the door behind him slammed open. “JOHN!” Lee shouted, attempting to startle him like he had earlier. Unlike her, his senses penetrated the walls. “Ya could at least try and act surprised, dude.”
“Look, I am trying not to get killed by Vergil’s awesomeness over he-“
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Lee stuck her fingers in her ears. “SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!”
“Fuck.” John pressed the pause button and shut the screen off. He gave Lee a signal when she glanced in his direction again. “Sorry about that,” he said, a frown in his face. “Thought you’d beaten it already.”
“I haven’t even touched it yet.”
“Maybe if you stopped spending every living moment in Factorio…”
“Factorio deserves my every living moment!” Lee tossed something in his direction.
Instinctively, John caught it. What he found in his hand was a smooth ball, about the size of one used for tennis. It had a glassy exterior and consisted of two halves that were joined by a screwing mechanism. There were two holes on opposite sides, letting John look into the hollow sphere. “Is this your solution?” he asked and turned the object in his hands. Observe answered his question already, but he wanted to hear the details from Lee.
Proudly, Lee put a hand on her hips. The other she used to wag her finger, a gesture she must have picked up from Momo. “It’s a Trigger Capsule. The enchantment on it defines it as the vital marker of a golem’s body.” She rolled her shoulders. “Was pretty hard to put that together, you know? Trigger enchantments have been discontinued.”
“Why?” John asked, curiously. “Sound pretty useful.”
“For what? Teleporting broken golems right into the mundane world, for Gaia to smite you?” Lee posed a counter question, one that John did not have a good answer for. “Usually people prefer their toys breaking over Gaia’s anger.”
“Then what were they used for?” John wondered.
“Games,” Lee responded.
“Like laser tag?” he caught on quickly. If someone wore a target that, upon being struck, immediately triggered Fateweaving, then that would make for an enjoyable base for a ruleset.
A slow nod confirmed his question. “Something like that, I guess? Eh, point is that they weren’t cost effective and prone to malfunctioning, so we had to iron some kinks out with that over the last few hours.” She turned her eyes away and mumbled something. “May’ve… helped that you… Innate….”
“What was that?” John asked with a growing smile. “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“Urgh – It may have helped that you pushed me to use my Innate Ability more,” she repeated, loud and clear. Strutting across the room, she sat down in his lap. Arms wrapped around her lovely waist. “Dad was surprised when he realized I could even do the enchantment – he sucks at that stuff.”
“He must’ve been mighty proud.”
“Yeah, it was hella awkward.” Lee leaned against him, smiling. “Not exactly a useful advancement in Fateweaving, but an advancement nonetheless. Basically, while that’s inside a golem, you can think of it as the same as the Artificial Spirit cores. It gets struck hard, the golem is out.”
“Still a vulnerability, but an acceptable one,” John hummed. “I’m sure Delicia will find some ways to coat this protectively…. Funnily enough, I think that makes the golem the only artificial entity around that still has a ‘core’.”
“Huh? Aclysia, Beatrice, Delicia, Claire?” Lee stopped for a moment. “Don’t let Bae hear I screwed up the alphabetical order.”
“I’ll blackmail you with that.”
“Oy!” A soft headbutt led to them sitting head to head. “Answer the question.”
“The status of their cores is pretty interesting, now that I somewhat understand Metracana matrices,” John told her. “Metracanas don’t need cores and by Perk my Artificial Spirits are Metracanas. Technically, they shouldn’t need their cores anymore, but they still do have them. I’m not going to run the experiment whether they survive them getting shattered, so that’s as much as I know.”
“Pussy, just risk one of them dying.”
“Do I need to wash your mouth out with soap?”
Lee stuck her tongue out. “I’m a League player, I use all the gamer words I want.”
“I see, I need something stronger than soap,” John hummed and nudged her off his lap. Understanding reflected in her hazel eyes, as they grew glassy. It had taken her several hours and hours was an eternity in harem time.
He rewarded her plenty.
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