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The Gamer Chapter 1320 – The Preparations
🕑 Added 2022-11-05 18:48:47 +0000 UTCIt was a fantastically mundane week.
John pursued his work with all the vigour he could muster. That was initially quite close to his usual productivity. With each passing day, he felt his motivation drop a little bit. All of these scenes where office workers eventually got stuck in a deep grey world without escape began to make sense to him – which meant the vacation was certainly well timed.
There were a few highlights between the suffocating weight of federal administration.
The first was having dinner with Romulus. It was the first time, it occurred to John, that he spoke to the Apex in a truly casual fashion. Previously, there was always some large event going on, whether that was the end of the Five Day War or Lydia’s birthday. The talk itself was without incident.
The second was another Class Level. He did not feel like engaging in the usual grinding session with Magoi this month, and otherwise just spent his days trying to do as little work as possible. Experience of Love provided the necessary levels to get him to the point where he could make another choice. He went further down the Martial Artist path, only further convinced that burnout was the biggest enemy in his life at the moment.
This was what one could expect to find in a Martial Artist Class, but really not what John was looking for at the moment. The choice was almost inconsequential, the only time he would be using Martial Arts would be if he wanted to flex on people. The sole application he had for Techniques was to pop Arcane Rejuvenation stacks and the Remnant Techniques were superior for that in every way.
Looking at it neutrally and under the assumption that he may get some limited usage out of them, John decided on Flow Style. Defensiveness was always his highest priority.
Those were quite good, actually. Not good enough for John to reconsider his fighting style, but good enough to at least remember they existed. He would have to test how far he could push Redirect Projectile in particular. What exactly he could turn back on his attackers was likely to be limited by his Physical Stats.
The third highlight of the week, at the tail-end of it, was a double date with Maximillian and Irielz. One that he was on at that very moment.
They were hanging out by the Strange Sea, the large lake that separated the Newman Shire and the Midnight Forest. They sat on a picnic blanket, joking, as was usual, that John had as much hand in the preparation as he had in the rest of his household. This time around, the Gamer let these jokes roll over him. They were true, after all.
“Hey, Jane?” Irielz turned to the feline Lightbearer.
Rave returned a hum, muffled by the blueberry muffin she had inelegantly stuffed in her mouth.
“I think I saw something in the lake, want to check it out with me?” The question seemed odd. Everyone caught on immediately what its true purpose was. Rave nodded, chewing too much muffin to even get an affirmation out.
The succubus and the elemental cat girl walked away, attracting the gazes of their men. Swinging hips and curving tails emphasized their round behinds.
“You ever wonder how you got here and how you deserve what you got?” the king asked.
“All the time,” the Gamer responded. Irielz yelled and jumped back when something actually shot out of the water. Before Maximillian could get up, the Gamer grabbed his friend by the arm. “It’s just a fae drake, they’re harmless,” he told him.
“…Alright.” Maximillian settled back down.
“It’s funny that you think that either of us could do more to protect her than Jane could,” the Gamer joked. “She’s by far the fastest here.”
“You know how it is, you spot a potential threat to your girls and you just jump into action.”
“Truer words have never been spoken,” the Gamer agreed. “So, why did your fiancée find an excuse for the two of us to be alone?”
“I might as well be direct with this,” Maximillia said, more to himself than John. “Would you be my best man?”
The question was simultaneously expected and deeply overwhelming. Over the past year, the two of them certainly had become the best friends they could have been. They had so much in common, yet were different in many other ways. Now he was supposed to have the honour of being his primary attendant during the wedding? John had thought he would be asked eventually and still he could not answer immediately.
Maximillian poked him in the ribs with his elbow. “Snap out of it, buddy. It’s a yes or no question.”
“Yes,” John answered hastily and cleared his throat. “Yes,” he repeated, calmer.
“Man, you sound like I just asked you out on a date,” the king joked.
“To be fair, this is about as intimate as two men can be without being gay,” John defended himself.
“YOU TWO ARE SO GAY!” Rave shouted from the lake.
“KEEP THOSE CAT EARS SEALED!” The Gamer shouted back.
Maximillian snorted. “So much for us being alone.”
“They know what we’re about anyway.” John shrugged. “Guess that means I have to plan a bachelor party.”
“That’s months from now,” Maximillian assured him. “You enjoy that vacation first.”
“I’ll try,” John said.
________________________________________________________________________________
John woke up on Monday morning and felt that tingle in his stomach that marked an unusual day. He left the bed without the usual rituals and went to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth, emptied his bladder, then took a lone shower. Afterwards, he walked into the living room.
On the table sat, on top of a pedestal specially shaped to hold something spherical, a new Mandala Sphere. It was of an older design, more Baelementium than anything else. John touched the basketball-sized object. A moment later, the smooth surface broke open, revealing various plates shaped like thick, curved Ls. The new Mandala Sphere hovered upwards, circled once around John, then settled back down. Important was only that he had the cooldown started. He would be able to switch to a new model after the vacation.
One by one, the other haremettes poured out of the bedroom. A few needed their morning fix of lewdness, but most, like John, followed a mundane morning pattern. They sat down by the table, waited for breakfast, ate it, chatted, and checked their bags one last time. This was something new for all of them.
‘Hope you don’t mind the additional delay,’ John thought into the core he held in his hand.
‘As long as I spent most of the time in stasis, I don’t think I’ll know the difference,’ Delicia responded. ‘This is starting to get boring though. You better not turn out to be a useless guy, or you’ll never see my tits again! That’s all you can think about, right? I know guys like you.’
‘I don’t think you know anyone else like me.’
‘You might be great, but you aren’t that great. Actually, you’re just a guy times ten, so you’re definitely not special. Want applause for doing what everyone else in your situation would do and gather a bunch of hot women?’
‘Well, everyone would have tried that, but I doubt that nation building and such would have been on most people’s list.’
‘You’re right, most guys would’ve created a mandatory nudist colony.’
‘Which isn’t the worst idea for my property…’
‘AHA! You’re just another guy, swayed by my bounciness! Well, by the power of boobs, I command you: have a nice vacation, I need you to be useful once you give me my cute, shortie body back.’
‘Everyone is so attentive these days,’ John thought, after he put the core into his inventory. He made a mental note to keep talking to Delicia, to make sure she was entertained. ‘Well, half of that entertainment is for me. It’s fun to banter.’ “Everyone got everything?” he asked the gathered haremettes. As was typical, only Lydia was missing. She had not managed to take a whole month off on such short notice. He trusted she would swoop in every now and again.
There was general agreement in the room and they set out for the teleportation room. They emerged in New Orleans, at the centre of the Order’s new, growing headquarters. William and Moira had somehow moved the entirety of their mansion from Springfield to this new location. How, they refused to tell. He had a hunch there was something in the Order’s arsenal that allowed them to shrink their estate. Alternatively, they did go through the immense work of dis- and reassembling the entire manor. These stubborn paladins could go through something like that.
Aclysia and Claire had driven two of their cars to this location in the previous week. One was their travelling bus, the other a semi-truck that was perfect for the farming life, with its large open back and powerful engine. Those two would keep them mobile and their quality of living in the general ballpark they were used to – if they wanted that.
This Monday was still part of April, but the two more or less days were not going to matter much. All that was important was that they got moving. The engines roared. Jack drove the semi-truck, Claire the bus, and the rest of the large group caught up on what their nervous morning had denied them. It was a ten-hour drive, more than enough time for eroticisms, games, and erotic games. Strip poker was entertaining even when he had seen the goods so many times before.
They followed the highways. Many of the roads they traversed weren’t looked after too often, but they also weren’t used regularly. The result was a generally smooth travelling experience. They only stopped to change drivers, otherwise they continued. They had set out shortly before 8:00 and arrived, as expected, at 17:54 – pretty much ten hours later.
The bus came to a halt on the last bit of cement available. John didn’t trust the ground nor the gravel to be solid enough to hold the weight of the multi-ton vehicle. The semi-truck with its massive wheels was a different story, and he parked it on a spot that still had tire tracks from the previous owner.
The first thing that hit John was the smell. Even though the Guild Hall and Hudson Barrier were filled with greenery, they could not compare to the natural fragrance of the nearly untouched countryside. Forest, green, and spring enveloped him.
A constant breeze caressed the rolling hills that John now called his own. 200 acres of forest and creeks. It was warm, much warmer than he would have expected for late April. Of course, he knew the southern states were of a different climate than the northern ones. This was doubly true for inland, as the coasts had the benefit of the moderating presence of the ocean.
The only clearing on his land, a neatly rectangular cut-out created by whoever owned this lot previously, was where the structures stood. There were a total of five of them. A moderately sized house, too small for the demands of the harem by any reasonable measure. A shack made from rusty steel sheets. A large barn that had seen better days. A smaller barn, remarkably intact, and filled with a bunch of appliances that had been sold with the property. Finally, a randomly placed outhouse, possibly the oldest piece of architecture around.
Not even curiosity could move the Gamer to sit down on that filthy piece of wood. It had not been used in so long that everything at the bottom of the latrine had already returned to the earth.
They had a better look at the house. It had two floors and still less surface area than their living room on its own. There was an old bed with a worn-out mattress, much too small for them. The kitchen had a fridge that did not turn on and a toaster that had survived the time spent unused, somehow. The walls were thin. In this weather, and with their level of isolation from the neighbours, that was alright. The closest other person lived a ten-minute drive away.
After having inspected everything around the clearing, they all reconvened by the bus. “Is this what you want?” Scarlett asked. John heard the doubt in her voice. It was clear that it wasn’t what she preferred. A few of the other haremettes quietly expressed similar preferences, and none of them said it out loud. They just looked at him.
“Honestly?” The Gamer looked around the vacated lot. There was so much space here, so much quiet. The sun was warm on his back, birds sang in the forest, a feral cat tapped by in the distance. “Yeah,” he said with certainty and took a deep breath, “this is what I want, at least for a little bit.”
“That’s good then.” Scarlett shrugged, her long, scarlet hair waving elegantly in the breeze. The wind picked up, making clothes and hair flutter. “Alright, I’ll be heading inside and setting up the internet.”
“I will sort the inventory,” Beatrice decided and headed out to the small barn.
“Guess I’ll set up the Protected Space,” Lee said. “Can you guys come along?”
“O-okay,” Gnome answered, on behalf of the disguised elementals.
“And I…” John started, his phone buzzing in his breast pocket. There was only one call he had set to receive and he picked it up. Three minutes later, he told his haremettes, “And I will be receiving the building materials. Great timing on their part.”
Thus, the farming vacation began.
Comments
Quyan640
Building materials? Does this mean unlocking architect class for potential guild expansion?
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