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The Gamer Chapter 1334 – Afternoon Adventure
🕑 Added 2022-11-25 06:26:38 +0000 UTC“Country rooooads…” Tock. Tock. “…take me hoooome…” Tock. Tock. “…to the plaaaace…” Tock. Tock. “…I belooooong…” Tock. Tock. “…West Virginiaaaaa.” Tock. Tock. “Mountain Mamaaaaa.” Tock. Tock. “Take me hooome…” Tock. Tock. “…country rooooads…”
‘Did anyone ever tell you that it is impressive that you can sing in three tones simultaneously?’ Delicia’s voice echoed in his head in all the smugness that came with the set-up of a joke.
‘Which three would that be?’
‘Wrong, loud, and with enthusiasm.’
‘It is fortunate that my audience has no choice but to listen, then.’ The Gamer took a few more of the long nails and drove them into the corners of the wood one after the other. He had spent most of the early afternoon bricklaying. When he had run out of mortar, he decided to spend some time in the shade instead, preparing the wooden frame inside the barn. The old building was an interesting place to spend prolonged time in. The architecture was from a time when a reliance on wood meant that the projects had to make certain compromises. There was so much more open space where sturdier walls would have allowed for additional stowing room.
‘Yeah, I would run away screaming otherwise. Screaming just so I don’t have to hear your howling behind me!’ Delicia returned. ‘But man, good on you for not letting reasonable people get you off your path. Commitment truly is your greatest virtue, John.’
‘Which is good, otherwise you’d be stuck as a core forever.’
‘Weeeeell… weeeeeeeellllllll,’ Delicia stretched the word obnoxiously, ‘it’s been a month and you’re just sitting there nailing wood.’
‘What else would I be nailing?’ the Gamer asked suggestively.
‘Oh, I don’t know, not like you’re spoiled for choices, you manslut.’ Delicia cackled inside his thoughts. ‘Hmm, but could it be that you’re still not satisfied, hmmm? Do you want to get between my big alchemist jugs, hmmm? Or my shortstack dumptruck ass, hmmm? Can’t resist my beautiful feminine wiles, can you?’
‘You lack the grace and self-respect to be called feminine,’ the Gamer responded drily. ‘But yes, once you have a body, I will absolutely try to flirt you into submission.’
‘Think I’ll fold like another one of your haremettes?’
‘I am picking up just a slight note of anticipation at the idea.’ John put the corner frame aside and stretched. Delicia’s core in his pocket shifted slightly.
‘It’s a shame I do not have hands, otherwise I could call a psychiatrist to check you for your delusions of grandeur.’
‘So did I hallucinate it when you previously said that you would enjoy the opportunity of getting courted by one of the most powerful and sexiest men in the world?’
‘You must have been, because who would ever toot your horn like that? No one as reasonable and smart as I.’ Delicia cleared her non-existent throat. ‘Speaking of smart ones, how did the meeting with the new girl go?’
Between John, Nightingale, and whatever other haremette felt like having a talk with the immobile alchemist that day, Delicia picked up every bit of news that was floating around the harem (most private matters aside). This had only intensified since they had settled in here. Although many of the haremettes still had responsibilities in the Hudson Barrier, many more saw his vacation as their own opportunity to tune out and relax. Part of that relaxation manifested in way too much free time and some spent theirs inspecting the other potential addition. John would definitely have to institute a private embargo on additional haremettes for a while. Let everyone settle in and get to know each other.
While those thoughts bounced around in the back of his mind, he gave Delicia the breakdown. ‘Huh, you attract all sorts of talent, don’t cha?’
‘That one really was exceptionally lucky – you don’t happen to be a Latebloomer yourself, do you?’
‘Nope, just enthusiasm and elbow grease. How much will that matter anyway? When I get your Perks, I’ll be all kinds of set. You’re a bullshit factory.’
‘That is accurate if unflattering.’ John put his tools back on the shelves. ‘To the point of getting you your body, let’s check the progress on that…’
‘Less than halfway still,’ the Gamer brought the bad news. ’46 out of 100, to be exact. I’ll be able to skip a bunch of levels soon, but not the whole stretch. The store says I can buy 100 Skill Levels, but for Artificial the effectiveness is usually reduced to half because it’s so impactful.’
‘I said I would be patient, but, honestly, could you do anything to hurry that up for me?’ Delicia requested.
The Gamer contemplated that question. Short: yes, he could. Long: the primary way to get Skill Levels was through using the Skill, obviously. In the case of Artificial Spirit, it was steadily going up on its own, as John never disabled it. The speed was accelerated when the Artificial Spirits did something taxing, such as fighting, but not to such a degree that John felt like keeping them in a constant state of combat for efficiency’s sake. Outside of the natural progression, John could hurry Skills along by acquiring Skill Levels via the Achievement Store or as rewards from activities such as Quests and Raids.
John should have been getting back into the Music Library Raid anyway. The first boss they had fought had been level 500 and the entire selection of bosses in that Raid had been advertised as around the same difficulty. The final boss of the Raid, being Steve the Shop Owner, was level 530. If they didn’t get back into that sometime soon, this would be another Ohmior situation where they just stomped through it. That was interesting, in a few ways, but it was less rewarding both in the spiritual and the EXP way.
Even if he out-levelled the current bosses by more than 30, John still needed the majority of harem combatants around to deal with that. ‘Maybe we’ll sink a few hours into that tomorrow,’ he considered. ‘After some bricklaying. I’ll need help if I want to get those walls up in time.’
Another side-thought, occurring while the rest of his erudite mind unpacked the question Delicia had posed within a second. Raids were not an option. Quests, however, were and John had a reliable and fun way to get access to those.
‘Want to go on an Adventure?’ he asked.
‘Oooh, that sounds like a fun idea!’
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‘It would have been pretty awkward if I entered a real Kingdom right now,’ the Gamer thought and looked around. The description of generic starting area did indeed fit. They were in the middle of some sort of isolated patch of the landscape. Hills and walls separated them neatly from the outside. Protected, the basin was filled with a forest that was dense but not too dense, had a field that was large but not too large, and possessed a central structure that was impressive but not too impressive. A basic blue flag with a golden lion on it waved atop the five towers of the chapel-like structure.
Sadly, no Skill Levels in this Quest, but John had anticipated that anyway. The good news was that the Quests would all reward him with some level of GP, which he could use to buy Skill Levels eventually. Either he got Skill Levels or he got currency to buy Skill Levels. There was no losing here.
‘Alright, let’s treat this as a ‘choose your own adventure’,’ John contacted Delicia. ‘I’ll be your humble player character.’
‘Humble? How could you ever use humble and you in the same sentence? Apologize to that word. Come on. Get on your knees and beg for its forgiveness. Do it, my player character.’
‘Don’t make me drop you,’ the Gamer warned her.
‘You wouldn’t, Gale would never forgive you.”
‘Got me there,’ he conceded. ‘Anyway, what will it be? Do you want to be a good girl or do you want to be a little edgelady?’
‘What do you want me to be, hmm, hmmm?’
‘I think you have massive good girl potential,’ John responded sincerely. ‘You would definitely make for nice cuddles, squishy as you are. Plus, I think you would look adorable with a happy little smile on your face.’
‘I, uhm, uh, I… what the fuck, I thought we were doing a sexual thing? What about calling me your good girl and such stuff?’
‘If you want me to, although I would need to wipe that smug grin off your face first, you brat,’ the Gamer responded firmly in that deeper, darker tone of voice. The reaction to it was so intense, he felt the excitement radiate off her surface thoughts before she could reign it back in. John made a mental note of that. Delicia having a submissive streak would be far from surprising. Not all women that behaved like brats were looking to be ‘put in their place’. Women that behaved like a brat towards one of the most renowned doms on the globe, well, that was a different story. Constant innuendos certainly did not help.
Counter argument was that Delicia behaved teasingly with most people. By her own confession, she was being meaner with him than with most people because he could take it. That had been the starting point of their typical banter and the many conversations since had only deepened that. As the weeks flew by and their bantering became more intimate, John picked up signals regarding her enjoyment of submissive fantasies more frequently.
‘Psh, and how would you do that, huh? Stuff my mouth and spank me? You probably can’t think about anything else, imagining my fat ass rippling about.’
A shirt that said ‘pin me down’ would have been about as subtle.
‘Your exaggerated honesty is amusing,’ the Gamer told her. ‘My other brats put on the denial routine, so this is rather refreshing.’
‘And you’re back to delusions. I’m not one of your brats.”
‘Not denying being a brat though?’
‘Nothing wrong with being a brat, if you’re right!’ Delicia declared and giggled triumphantly. She had a particular laugh, invoking a bit of a spoiled, ridiculing feel, just as much as it was carefree and loud. ‘Anyway, you go talk to Tom. I’m not heartless enough to leave him standing there forever.’
John looked at the NPC. The entire time he and Delicia had their back-and-forth, the bald man had been waving. Any normal person would have gotten a tired arm by now. Even weirder was the consistency of the motion. Uncannily robotic, it would have been fine as a video game animation, but as a real phenomena it just made John feel like he was staring at an automaton with particularly convincing human features.
‘De-facto, you don’t have a heart,’ John pointed out.
‘Oh, wow, such a fantastic observation. Hey, did you know you don’t have boobs?’
‘Debatable.’
‘What? Did you get fat in the few seconds I wasn’t looking? Man, I know you don’t have any impulse control, but that’s just sad. Got to detract a bunch of points from your hotness score…’
‘I’m not fat!’ John played his annoyance up a lot. He usually did this when bantering with her. Much like Momo liked getting humiliated by him, getting faux-angry at Delicia was oddly entertaining. She annoyed him in a good way. That was just the essence of good sass though.
‘Okay, okay… if you insist… but how does that make sense then, hm?’
‘I own the boobs of a bunch of women, just like I own the rest of them.’
‘And there you go making women chattel again, good job.’
‘There’s massive differences in types of property. My women aren’t the same as my shoes or my pets, but they’re all still mine. I don’t care about other women the same way I care about mine, because I obviously care for my property. They’re my partners, my household, not my chattel. What good owner lets their assets deteriorate? Ever met someone successful that doesn’t try to see the things they care about prosper?’
‘So, what, you owning women is the prerequisite for you caring about them?’
‘It’s a word to describe the type of relationship we have. Look at it this way: I obviously have an investment in my harem. An emotional investment, not necessarily a monetary one. Typically, the very act of investing in something means that you take ownership of part of it. Thus, my emotional investment does partly make them my property – which is valid only as a mutual exchange, of course. You don’t even need to bring the whole BDSM dimension in there. I want my hammer to work because it is my hammer. I want my pet to be well-fed because it is my pet. I want my woman to be happy because she is my woman. Those three aren’t the same, but they have the same foundation. Property is a word that went out of fashion to describe these things because people immediately think of slavery. I think that’s a bit silly.’
‘…Because you think it’s hot, don’t you?’
‘Won’t deny that that’s a reason,’ the Gamer responded, amused. ‘That’s bringing the BDSM dimension back in though. Anyway, I think everyone has the freedom to give up as much as they want to be owned by someone else and to take as much responsibility for someone else as they are willing to shoulder. Do you disagree with that?’
‘Do I disagree with an obvious fact of human psychology? Gee, let me think hard about that one…’ Delicia fell silent for several seconds. ‘Wow, I actually don’t! Can you believe it? I know, I know, difficult to believe anything that comes from a green ball in your pocket. By the way, I’m closer to your dick right now than I have ever been to any.’
‘Impressed?’
‘Not feeling anything, so you definitely don’t have that big dick energy.’
‘I’ll make you choke on those words sometime.’
‘Psh, yeah, right. If you want to stuff my throat, I’ll have to give you permission first. What are the chances of that?’
“Hello, brave adventurer!” Tom spoke up suddenly. The words pulled the Gamer out of his mental discussion. Both he and Delicia focused on the NPC, executing a set of overexaggerated motions as he talked. “The lands of Adventuria are in grave peril! Alas, little can be done here. Why don’t you start by picking some herbs? A well-fed soldier is a motivated soldier and a motivated soldier keeps the vile greenskins at bay!”
“I’m personally rather fond of some greenskins,” the Gamer confessed. Conversing with Delicia put him in a mood to think about shortstacks. The goblin he had fucked before, Worlina, had been even shorter than Delicia, as goblins tended to be.
“I do not doubt that some of them may be nice, but the invading orks are marauders and they must be dealt with!” Tom responded fervently. “Please pick up those ten herbs!”
“You know I can literally blow-up entire city blocks?”
“You can find the herbs northwest of here.” Tom pointed at a point somewhere behind the chapel. “Be wary. Wolves have been seen in the area.”
‘Wolves and herb gathering, very stereotypical,’ the Gamer thought and set off. Anything unusual they wanted to do with this Quest they could decide on while being out there. ‘Anyway, I think chances are high.’
‘So confident of getting between my tits, hm?’
‘You’re practically begging for it,’ the Gamer pointed out.
‘Maybe I’m just leading you on because I’m bored out of my skull?’
‘No, I don’t think so… I think you’d rather like being my property,’ he put a lot of emphasis on that last word and let her work out in what way he meant that. The previously described mutual ownership of partners in a relationship. A more lopsided surrender of autonomy to him like Aclysia. Perhaps even an existence bordering chattel, like Eliana liked to pretend she was in. The thing was that her pretending that was the level of ownership he had over her effectively made it so. There was nothing there but their mutual agreement on how much she gave and how much he took.
‘We’ll see,’ Delicia chirped.
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