The Gamer Chapter 995 – The Surface of Ohmior 4 – Loot-check (Patreon)

They checked the loot of the Tower Knight the next morning, to start the day on a high note. Because of that same wait, it had been taken out of the usual boss chest and transported to the Loot Basin.

They had gotten a bow, gauntlet, sword and staff in the Common, an axe and a shield in the Uncommon, an AS crystal in the Rare, a Mithril ingot in the Epic and the Tower Knight blueprints in the Legendary category. John was more excited about the blueprints once he held them in hand. The reason? They were ACTUAL blueprints.

He had assumed they were going to be a recipe for his Create Skill. That would have been quite useless to him since he had no investment in that Skill and something like the Tower Knight would have doubtlessly taken extreme amounts of dedication. Whether that dedication came in the form of time or a Class to level, John had no time for it. As much as he wanted to be good at everything, he didn’t have the time to learn everything. Not between running an administration, enjoying his romances, doing his regular grinding and increasing other Classes.

One day in the future, he may have time or reason to focus on crafting, but not now. Gaia, or the wish-fulfilment engine that was his ability, had seemingly recognized this and not even bothered to give him a crafting Class, despite Create being maxed out. If he wanted some sort of blacksmith Class, he would need to unlock it by, presumably, engaging in the activity.

Since the blueprint was a genuine roadmap to build the Tower Knight (more of a manual than a simple blue piece of paper), John didn’t have to contend with any of that. He could just hand it over to a military engineer.

“Let me see that,” Scarlett demanded.

‘That’s an alternative,’ John thought and handed her the thick blue book. Even if it was as thick as the first volume of Lord of the Rings, it was printed on blue paper, making the title ‘blueprint’ technically accurate. “Can you do something with that?”

Scarlett flipped through the pages, her eyes darting over sentences and diagrams. Even if she primarily fashioned herself a businesswoman, Scarlett had an extensive background in arcano-tech. “…Maybe…” she mumbled. “…No idea how I would procure a ‘Stable Void’, but the energy requirements are outlined… I could supplement it with… no, that wouldn’t fit into the core…”

“Isn’t this more of a golem-maker thing?” the Gamer asked.

“Artificery,” Scarlett told him. “It’s a transitory stage between traditional enchantments and modern arcano-tech.”

“Where’s the difference?” Rave wanted to know.

“The energy source,” Scarlett explained, still skimming through the manuals. “Enchantments have the magical energy imbued and distributed through the whole object. Makes them more powerful, generally speaking, but harder to produce from both a material and talent perspective. They’re also harder to repair.” The technomancer glanced at John. “For normal people.” After those three words, she continued reading. “Arcano-tech draws its energy from exchangeable batteries. Mana batteries with some secondary electricity sources, usually. It can be mass-produced, used by people who have access to energy sources no matter their talent, and repaired with parts. The drawbacks are that arcano-tech is generally weaker and less sturdy.”

“And artificery has both?” John asked; Scarlett nodded. He pondered, then continued, “Since it’s no longer in common use, I’m going to assume that this is a ‘worst of both worlds’ situation?”

“Congratulations,” Scarlett said drily, reaching out with one hand to pat his head. “Your genius is truly showing.”

“I’m a big dumb-dumb, so can ya please tell me what ya mean?” Rave requested.

“Basically, if you use artificery, you would hope to get the strength benefits of enchantment and the producing benefits of arcano-tech, right?” John explained to his girlfriend.

“Right,” she confirmed, she followed that far.

“Well, sometimes when you combine two brilliant things, you only elevate the weaknesses. In other words, most artificery is hard to produce, hard to repair, and breaks easily.”

“It’s still a worthwhile craft, in theory,” Scarlett said. “Technically speaking, Ted and Chemilia’s limbs are artificery. Their parts are enchanted and they are also powered by a mana battery.”

“There’s a mana battery in those things?” John wondered.

“No, they are attached to one,” Scarlett stated.

“I’m not sure I approve of you calling my generals batteries.”

“Feel free to tell them to come to me and whine. I will tell them to leave their hand and legs at the door.” Scarlett turned another page. “The point is that artificery is a broad term for anything between enchantments and arcano-tech. Its almost fucking useless because it encompasses so many forms of mixing and matching. Most of which, as John pointed out, are trash.” She finally closed the manual and stuck it under her arm. “I can’t create the parts for this myself, but I can construct the thing. Maybe I can improve them. What do you want for it?”

“You won’t use foreign labour to build it, you won’t sell the products to governments outside of Fusion and Fusion member states and all research you achieve is classified as military secrets and owned by the Federation,” John gave her the usual list for military contractors.

“Private usage?” Scarlett asked.

“Allowed only for you, because your safety is a concern for the head of state,” said the head of state.

“What a powerful man has interest in me,” Scarlett said and turned away from the rest of the loot. She aimed for the door of John’s personal loot space. “I need to get to digitizing this and send it to my trusted researchers. Expect me to occupy the Military District facilities of the Guild Hall soon.”

“Whatever you say, bubble butt,” John shouted after her, while staring at the same. “And don’t forget this!” The shout caused her to turn around and then catch the Artificial Spirit core that came flying her way. “It would be the proper one to use!”

“The proper one would be the one that’s most effective,” Scarlett responded, but took the core all the same. She knew better than to refuse his gifts, especially when they were valuable.

With the redhead removed from the scene, the rest of the harem checked on the remaining items. “This seem useful to you?” John asked, picking up the gauntlet and waving it at Rave. As a Mithril-steel alloy, it would be quite sturdy. It was a bit annoying that it was only one, but it was what it was.

“Seems inhibiting to me,” his girlfriend answered, not even testing the gauntlet. “I ain’t used to wearing rigid metal. I wouldn’t be able to use martial arts through it.”

“I see,” John sighed and tossed it back onto the shelf in the Loot Basin, right next to the other weapons. “I guess I will… award these to some high-achieving members of the military? Not sure yet.” Most of the loot he got nowadays he either used as gifts or kept locked away in a vault to use as gifts at a later date. Rarely, he sold stuff anymore because he didn’t know in whose hands the loot would end. Since the items he looted nowadays were of considerable might, he felt he had a responsibility to be careful with their distribution. “Anything you want, Lydia?” he asked.

While she pondered the question, John took several paper cards out of the shelves. They were attached like price tags in a supermarket, each of them listing what and how many of an item had dropped. John could use those paper cards to transfer the items to his inventory, the Guild Bank, the Abyss Auction or to delete the items from existence, depending on where he put them.

“Would you oblige my request for the Mithril?” Lydia asked, pointing at the sizable ingot of silver-white metal.

“Hmm, difficult,” John responded, not only for some coy banter in this case. “I’d put it to use for Jane’s replacement body suit. It’s already being made, but every bit of extra protection helps.”

“That is of a higher importance than what I would do with it, keep it,” Lydia relinquished the request immediately. “A copy of the blueprints, perhaps?”

“If you make it worth my while, I might tell Scarlett that Rex Germaniae has an exception on the trade restriction.” The Gamer grinned and Lydia rolled her eyes.

“One must wonder if you are easily influenced by the opposite sex or if you are taking advantage of my desire to serve my country.”

“Both and neither – maybe I planned to offer this anyway and I’m just taking the opportunity to get some pleasure out of it.”

The queen sighed in a way that practically spelled out ‘how typical of you’ only to sink on her knees all the same. “I will oblige then, Master,” she purred, readily switching from their typical banter to a subservient modus operandi. “My mouth alone will suffice, yes?”

“Certainly,” John nodded. To his delight, Lydia took the ‘alone’, very seriously. She crossed her arms behind her back, her shirt stretching in the process and revealing more of her breasts. John got to enjoy the view, until she was so close that her head blocked out that particular angle. Her ruby red and perfect lips parted, her tongue reached out to flip up the handle of his zipper, her teeth held the tiny metal thing and the queen erotically pulled it down.

“How long ya think you’ll take for that?” Rave asked, leaning against the shelf.

“Not too long,” John said, glancing up only to see two maids and a green-haired elemental watching with a hungry look in their eyes. “Maybe a bit longer,” he conceded. “30 minutes tops.”

“Hmmm… ya fine if I head over to the Maguses for a minute?” Rave pointed over her shoulder, as if she could walk in that direction to the tower and they weren’t currently in a dimension dedicated purely to John’s loot. “I wanna see if Lee got the whole aura thing figured out.”

“You sure you won’t deal damage to the understanding Eliza so carefully built?” the Gamer joked, even as he looked back down to Lydia. Among world leaders, Lydia was often seen as a less skilful negotiator. This was, for the most part, courtesy of her honesty and militaristic tendencies. Even if her tongue wasn’t made from silver, she definitely knew how to use it. John liked the blue-tinted steel of her eyes more anyway.

“I can teach! Sometimes…” Rave responded. “If I can’t teach her more about aura, I can at least check if Eliza is currently putting self-deprecating nonsense in her head.”

“You totally just want an excuse to tease Lee.” John saw right through his girlfriend’s intentions.

“And who would blame me? She’s adorable when she gets teased,” Rave told him. “So, do I have the time or not?”

“Honestly, we’ll just be clearing trash later,” John told her. “So, take your time. The Raid should scale to be a bit easier, without you around.”

“But I’ll miss the action and that’s a no-no.”

“It’s probably going to be a whole lot more Ohmior Knights, you sure you care about that?”

“I mean… it’s better than not fighting anything.”

Lydia had managed to fully loosen his pants at that point and was now working on the Millennium Trousers. They were supposed to be Unmovable, but reacted to the wearer’s wish to discontinue with that for the moment. Lydia bit the waistband, nicely raised by the erection confined underneath, and pulled.

“How about this: you go check on Lee and Eliza, we’ll get our negotiations here done, and if you aren’t back by then, we’ll continue the Raid without you. We won’t start a boss without you, so you can always just enter after us.”

“That works?”

“The lock is only in place during combat. Since we will be walking between trash packs, you should be able to enter,” John told her. “Plus, there might be a delay because I need to get the next Unfound level. You won’t miss much if anything.”

Lydia finally managed to free his cock at that moment. It smacked down across her face with all of its girth. The waistband snapped back when she opened her mouth. Panting, she stretched to get more of her in contact with his member. He could feel her breath and her perverted sniffing. The scent of his manhood had her taken completely by horniness. No wonder, she spent several hours every week sucking him off and orgasming like crazy in the process.

“Alrighty. See ya later then.” Rave didn’t stand around any longer and quickly took her leave. Probably, she knew that she would get enticed into participating if she stayed any longer. Aclysia and Beatrice definitely were, kneeling down on either side of Lydia.

“She is here to make the trade worth my while,” John told his maids. “Let her take care of this by herself.”

“”As you wish, Master,”” the two maids answered in unison, only watching while Lydia licked her way up from his balls. They knew they would get their turn if they waited.

John managed to keep it to 30 minutes.