Chapter 162 - Catching Up (Patreon)

“So, seems like the patch is finally installed,” John stated as he finished going through the windows and comments Gaia had suddenly thrown in front of him “and she slightly nerfed me. I roughly understand why though.” It was the beginning of December; he was sitting in a well-heated house in western Germany, Cologne to be exact. 

It was a two-story building with light-brown wooden furniture that, while looking new, was crafted in a style he would expect from grandparents instead of his actual provider. Finely woven carpets covered the otherwise blank wooden floor. The cement walls were covered with blue painted wallpaper. The owner of this house evidently liked her design to be thematically consistent as this look stretched all throughout the house.

John was currently sitting in the living room, unlike his own room with the wooden chairs this room had very comfortable red couch. In front of him stood a laptop on a table, which was a relatively low one so it would not obscure the view between him or the television, currently turned off, hanging from the wall ahead. On the laptop a window was open, showing Rave. His girlfriend was currently busy polishing her nails.

“And, anything interesting in them?” she asked. “Mhm, apparently I get to pick a class now,” he said, but didn’t look at it further at the moment, facetime with Rave had been a bit of a rare gift these days. Following the start of the patch in the hospital, everything had slowly progressed to leave him here, in this house. 

He had had to call the princess to tell her that his powers were currently disabled the day after. At first, she had sounded very annoyed by this but as John explained the whole situation to her she had ended with what seemed to be understanding. “As long as it is underneath three months it is fine,” she had said, “you are coming with me anyhow.”

And that was where the problems had started. Regan had been vehemently against Rave leaving but John could not exactly stay while the woman he was owing 500 billion dollars to was figuratively knocking on his door. Amidst all of that his mother had come back to see if he was capable of living on his own. She decided he was but when he told her he was going to Germany she had been understandably surprised. He had asked Lydia for an excuse and she provided him with a faked message over a studying abroad, so at least he could squirm his way out of that one. He was allowed to go by his parents, but not after a very stern phone call by his father that informed him about the importance of communication in a family.

Anyhow, John had been ready. Rave however had not. Regan would not let her go. Rave could have fled from her father’s overprotective clutches; however, she did not want to be at bad terms with the only part of her family with whom she was still close. John could understand that and so was it that, while he flew over to Germany, Rave had stayed behind to negotiate with her dad. They all knew she would come after John eventually, still he wasn’t very happy to, after having just come from a month without her, to put a whole ocean between them. Regan had given in eventually, on the condition that Rave would first train until he thought she was strong enough. That was okay and all but since then about one and a half months had passed. Worse yet, Rave had demanded John left a certain something, or rather someone, with her.

The door behind Rave swung open and Aclysia entered. With quick steps, noticing John on the screen, she walked over to Rave and put a bowl of soup in front of her. ’So, it is around noon over there right now,’ John noted as Rave brushed back her hair to eat. It had taken about a month for it to become bright pink again; John did not even want to know what the magical hair colour reversal had costed. “Your meal, mistress,” she explained, then adding a, “greetings, master.” “I wonder when ya will stop calling me mistress,” Rave said but started eating all the same. “Hello, Aclysia, how are you today?” “I am fine, master, just missing you,” she said, a twinge of sadness in her voice. “Ya know that I am right here, right?” Rave asked between two spoons of soup. Her tone a played anger she pointed the spoon at the camera “Ya better don’t go cheating on me!” 

John raised his hand in a defensive motion, “I would never!” he assured, then added with a broad smile, “well, maybe if there was somebody around to cheat with.” “Well, there is one…” Rave teased. John was confused, “Who? Mono? I wasn’t able to feed her items, as generation was disabled until just now. She is still level 71, Libido 0. And I can’t exactly cheat on you with the elementals when you allow me to sex them.” “Also, that is more like masturbation if ya ask me,” Rave giggled, “Not who I mean though, think about it for a second.” 

John was left pondering. They both knew Lydia had dumped into this house and left doing other things, he hadn’t seen her in weeks. The moment they had landed she had started making phone calls (in public she had worn a surprisingly cute set of clothes, although her boots had barely been fitting with the rest) like a CEO on crack when his stocks began to rise. This eventually ended with her saying the phrase, “give me your money, I will take care of the rest.” 

He did and so did she. At the end of the day he found himself in his house, the last words he heard from the princess were, “call me when you have your powers back.” Now, normally John would not have minded the solitude, Lydia had even upgraded his phone to Abyss standards (he could now charge it using his mana and it had a connection just about everywhere), but he had nothing to play videogames on BUT his phone now. Which was the epidemy of boring. Because the princess had taken all of his money he couldn’t buy a PC or Laptop either and without the ability to farm new money he was stuck playing phone games or uselessly fighting monsters. After two weeks of that he unexpectedly met someone.

Now the door behind John opened. ‘Thinking of the devil,’ John thought and looked to his left at the door, where he saw Herman carrying groceries. “You come back pretty late today,” he commented as the apothecary inspected his socks for any dirt he might carry into the house. Thrice he did that for each foot. “Sorry, lots of stuff to do,” Herman answered with an apologetic smile, “the meeting is coming closer, don’t want to miss it, so I checked who was there already.” 

He was speaking about an upcoming meeting between WW2 veterans that also invited the direct family. That was the reason he was here, running into him had been a giant coincidence. John had not known that the apothecary was of German descent before. As always that memory made him sigh and he mumbled, “I am surrounded by Kraut.” “I am not German!” Rave protested. “You still speak fluent Kraut thought,” John ragged her on. “So do you,” she drily reminded him. “True,” John mused. He had started learning German in these two weeks of boredom and then continued even after, as he was going to spend the foreseeable future in areas where people would speak that language. Sure, he would be understood with English but why risk it. 

“Thanks for letting me stay here by the way,” Herman said. Repeating a semi-daily ritual John answered, “Hey, I thank you for letting me use your laptop, also for keeping me company.” “Anything for you, friend,” Herman smiled, “I bought some stuff to make a lasagne, you want some?” “Sure, want to play Street Fighter later?” “Sure!” Herman answered enthusiastically and vanished in the kitchen, just one door away. This agreement was a lifesaver for both of them. Herman would have had to stay in a hotel, alone, and John would have had to stay here, alone. This way neither of them would be bored out of their mind.

He turned back and found his wide-grinning pink-haired girlfriend staring at him with raised eyebrows. “What?” John asked. “Ya two are so gay for each other,” Rave giggled and then mimicked his tone, “Herman, baby, spread that lasagne!” “You have a terrible sense of humour,” John said but still chuckled a bit. “Maybe, but I am smoking hot, so that is okay,” Rave said eating another spoon of soup. “Am I supposed to believe that you are NOT having sex with Aclysia by the way?” He probed, “Because I have evidence that proves otherwise.” Rave handed the now empty bowl back to Aclysia. “Nope, totally fucking her,” She stated. 

The Artificial Guardian took the bowl but instead of retreating like usual she stayed. “Mistress, don’t you have something to tell master?” she asked. Rave thought for a moment and then her face lit up, “Ah, right!” she snapped and as she did the copper wristband that was Copernicus sealed form came into view for a moment. “Dad finally agreed to let me go,” she told him the news. John was shocked, “how did you forget to tell me that!” he wanted to know. “Oh, I am sorry,” Rave shot back, “I was about to when a certain game addict said, ‘Hold on, I think my patch is finally up’ and left me to do my nails.” “Point taken,” John said, “why the sudden change of heart?” “He said he taught me enough that he is confident to let me go into the world,” Rave grinned, “Wonder if my level is higher than yours again.” “Well, if I try to Observe you right now I only get the laptop, so no idea,” John, who had tried before, told her, “When will you be here?” “About two days, I hope you have room for me.” “There is always room in my bed,” John said with a perverted grin and got a wink as his response. 

Then there was nothing more to talk about. A few minutes of happy silence as Rave finished her nails and Aclysia left the room. Finally, John looked at the clock in the corner of the monitor and with a sigh he said, “I’ll have to go now, see you tomorrow?” “Maybe not see, but you will hear from me,” Rave told him, “I demand pretty flowers when you greet me at the airport!” John wanted to ask what kind but she had already ended the call. Something told him that she would ignore the question completely tomorrow. 

John shut the laptop down and stood up. He stretched and looked around. Aside from the couch and television formation he was currently at the room was only filled with a long table with six chairs. In one of these chairs sat the only other person that was around. Mono, resting her head on her hand, was reading a detective story that Herman had lend her. The guy had a surprising amount of those. Mono was quickly working through all of them. 

Just as John had been able to learn a language in under two months, Mono’s Intellect allowed her to consume several books a day. Not having to take pee or food break probably also helped. Herman returned from the kitchen. “So the lasagne is now in the oven, what do we do to pass the time? Street Fighter?” “Okay,” John, sat down again after pressing the button on the Playstation 4 (which was also Herman’s). 

“Any news from Jane?” Herman asked. “She is coming over in around two days,” John informed him. The apothecary smiled, “Really? That’s great!” he said enthusiastically as he executed a combo that sent John’s character flying. “Always Ryu with you,” he said while smashing a couple of buttons to save himself. “I like his character,” Herman mused. “Sure, sure, but do you also like this?!” John exclaimed, threw him and threw out a game winning combo. 

Herman put the controller down after a few more matches. “I think I have won like five times against you in the month we have been here,” he complained. “Yet you keep coming back.” “I can be very stubborn,” Herman said in a tone that sounded the complete opposite of stubborn. Then he stood up. “I should look after that lasagne,” he mumbled. John nodded, “well, I have a call to make,” “To whom?” Herman shouted out of the kitchen. “The princess,” John shouted back, “my powers are back!” 

Herman stuck his head back out of the kitchen, “that sounds like something important you could have told me and should have done earlier,” he said. “Mhm, pretty sure she won’t mind the few extra hours of waiting,” John stated and punched in the number of the princess of steel.

Does she mind?