The Gamer Chapter 1159 – Prep Grind 1 – Overclock Barrier (Patreon)

“First, we prepare for the battle,” John explained the new strategy to his gathered harem, as well as Ted. “Three days means we can cram in an emergency grinding session. We’ll head back right after this meeting and get on that. Since Magoi isn’t available, I’ll use my Overclock. After we head back, we’ll fight back Arkeidos. As for our current attempt to help the people, we’ll have to drop that effort for now. The food we provided will last them for a while, unless they do something extremely stupid.”

“Which those drug-brained morons probably will,” Eliana remarked.

“Yeah, I know, but we don’t have the resources to both care for those we liberate and actually liberate them,” John responded, his foot repeatedly tapping on the ground. “This whole affair became a thousand times more complicated with Arkeidos being a lich. Even if we win, he can inhabit a new body. Any hope at getting this done quickly is gone. This will be a war to the last. Ted, your job ends here.”

“Does it?” the general responded with a question.

John raised an eyebrow. “Arkeidos will attempt to reconquer any territories we take from him and it remains to be seen if anyone but Eliana here can stop him. Any contingent of the army in an area he comes through will be wiped out. Deploying them would be assisting in murder.”

“The alternative is to let the people of this world die, correct?”

“Correct,” John admitted. He had already made his peace with that decision (as much as one could make their peace with knowing they would leave thousands to die to the fists of their neighbours and starvation). They strictly lacked the manpower to put together the necessary organization to occupy the area and the infrastructure to protect them from Arkeidos or the other Ironborn. “We’ll wage guerrilla warfare and take out target locations, until we’re certain where the phylactery is.”

“Gonna hazard a guess and say in the big fortress at the centre of the map,” Rave suggested.

“Uhm… I mean… yeah, but where in there?” Gnome threw in. “And it probably has like… a lot of security.”

“Beyond Arkeidos we also have the Kings, Queens, and Iron Maidens to deal with,” John reminded everyone. “Reetha was hard-countered by Beatrice, but if they all reinforce Arkeidos, that’ll even out the scales.”

Ted cleared his throat to get the attention back on him. “With all due respect, John, the army should still be deployed. Fusion was founded on values. The army upholds these values. We are obligated to help.”

The Gamer sighed. In terms of staying true of what he wanted to do in the world, that was correct. “It’s one thing to deploy the army in the world their families live in and another to extend that mission to a world we will never see again after we’re done. I cannot order such a deployment.”

“Volunteers, then?” Ted suggested.

Again, John sighed. There was nothing wrong with that idea. The consequences in terms of public relations could be disastrous. However, if those soldiers desired to help knowing full well the situation they put themselves in, he could only salute their bravery. “If you want to organize that, make it clear that they will have a supporting role for the infrastructure, and nothing else. Combat is to be avoided. Also try to dissuade the volunteers as much as you can. Inform their families. I want only people that are truly willing to die for this to risk themselves. While they’re on this mission, they won’t have any guarantee that I can protect them.”

“They’ll think thrice,” Ted assured.

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Final preparations were made and they left the barrier in a hurry. Three days were a pretty non-specific time slot. John trusted that Arkeidos would stick to it; however the Iron Domain had a slightly different day and night rhythm and John wasn’t sure when it was ‘culturally normal’ to fight. Most countries on earth had an understanding that large scale operations took place at day and skirmishes as well as combat between elites at night. How accurate that even was could be debated, but a world governed by immortal Abyssals with extremely short days may have seen the sun-kissed hours of the day as resting time.

Arriving at the battle on time was not vitally important. Strategically speaking, it could have even been well-advised that John delayed his return by a month or two, grind up a lot, and then overwhelm whatever new embattlements were put in place at the fort. Three factors prevented that approach. First, the places they had already liberated would be utterly crushed by the returning Ironborn. Second, Arkeidos would get pissed and it would make the war easier if they agreed on some basic honourable conduct. Third, a Quest had been given.


The guarantee of at least one of these Sylkarions was priceless when it came to easing John’s mind. Once he had that Quest done, anything else in the Adventure was something he did for his personal beliefs and bonus objectives.

“Seriously, try to dissuade them – and make sure to talk to Chemilia,” John warned Ted one final time, before he departed with the troops. He grabbed the dark-haired man by the shoulder. “I won’t hear the end of it if she turns into a widow because of me.”

“I will,” Ted assured in his usual, little-worded way. Gently, he got out of John’s grasp, before giving a farewell nod and marching ahead of his troops.

Truthfully, John admired the boldness of the general to head any volunteer force in their situation. The soldiers that would join him also had his personal respect. It spoke to them actually believing in the values of justice and liberty for all, beyond the material benefits they personally got from being inside Fusion and its military.

Who he admired less was Medelnick. “You will take me along again!” the Apothecary demanded, the only person sticking around while everyone else obediently left in pursuit of a hot bath and a warm meal. The apparatuses he had replaced his eyes with flared yellow with excitement. “I must know more about this world!”

“I’ll consider it. Leave,” John responded. He put the force of his emotional aura behind those words. The Apothecary was almost immune to the influence, the force of his obsession enough to compete with the magic. Mouth opening, Medelnick only stopped when annoyance swept into rage. The Gamer didn’t have time for any discussions.

“I’ll hear from you,” Medelnick decided and moved his bloated body, more mechanics than fat, away from the I.D. Gates.

John’s eyes swiftly enjoyed the pleasant sight of his remaining haremettes coming towards him. Lee, Scarlett, Lorelei and Nathalia, four of the five women that hadn’t been with him on his Adventure, all hurried towards them. John had dropped them a message the moment the meeting with Arkeidos had concluded and they must have waited nearby.

“You sure I shouldn’t call my dad?” Lee greeted him, while he already waved so they went back into the blackness behind the doors in the marble frames.

“He has other obligations and this won’t be too much worse,” John responded.

Magoi’s casual time dilation transformed one day into ten. John’s Overclock tripled his basic time dilation (taking it from 200% to 600%) for its three real-days duration. The formulation was slightly confusing, but this meant that every one day he had counted for seven. Attached to their current situation, this meant that Magoi could give them a total of thirty and John a total of twenty-one days. Granted, Magoi usually only allowed a single bonus grinding day per month, but John had skipped one and he was sure the High Fateweaver could be persuaded, given the situation, to stay an extra ten days.

However, he was on the other side of the continent, teaching Fateweavers that were desperately needed in order to stabilize Fusion’s rapid growth. Between the hours he would need to return to the Guild Hall and those other obligations, it was more efficient for John to use the Instant Dungeon Overclock. Doubly so since he was doing this to further his exploits in an Adventure, which would lower the one-year cooldown of the Overclock by one day with each Quest he fulfilled.

There were a few issues though, some less important than others, all related to this being the first time he used this ability.

Upon activating the Overclock, John was first presented with a menu asking him for an environment for the Intermediary Barrier. Those were evidently all pre-set and, thanks to him having the Instant Networking Skill, he could even spawn a house with all the comforts of civilization integrated in the barrier. He went with the standard ‘green plain’ without much thought on the matter and they were pulled inside, standing before a sizable manor that fit their group size nicely.

The greatest sense of urgency fell off John, now that they were inside the time dilation. “Alright, let’s do the proper greeting,” he said and turned to the women he hadn’t seen in days. Nathalia proactively stepped forwards first. The taller woman embraced him. Their lips met in a moment of passion.

The Gamer hadn’t been allowed to truly enjoy a kiss in several days. All the time he had sat in the fortress, he had been ready for Arkeidos to just manifest out of thin air, which made it difficult to truly enjoy the unity of the harem life. Now the brown-skinned dragoness pressed her breasts against him, while their tongues whirled. John’s thirst was far from quenched when she suddenly pulled back.

“My patience was almost depleted,” she complained in her noble fashion, while her scales retreated under her skin. “I will help myself to you.” She dropped to her knees, dragging her large breasts over his body while she descended. Once on the level of his crotch, she opened his zipper with her teeth alone. The pants fell and she began working on the undergarments.

Meanwhile, Lee stepped forwards and took her turn for a welcoming kiss. The difference between the two women was stark; John needed to lean down a little bit so the young Fateweaver could reach his lips. They moaned at each other. John took a handful of Lee’s round ass, while their tongues fenced playfully. The waistband of his underpants was gradually pulled down, revealing his hard cock to the air.

When he was mostly satisfied with how much of her he had tasted, he pulled back. “Think you can tap into the barrier?” he asked. This was vital information and entirely dictated what steps he would take next, due to the most important difference between John’s barriers and Magoi’s: the Gamer could not Fateweave yet. The Overclock had integrated basic Fateweaving, but that ejected him from the entire barrier, ending the time dilation early, if used. Also, it did not have protection for the elementals. Every time they died John would have to spend time regenerating their bodies, which would be unpleasant and drastically lower efficiency.

Fundamentally, this was not overly alarming. John was level 473 and it stood to reason that he could get the capacity to properly Fateweave on the next level of Space Protector. Two extra levels could be attained with relative ease, requiring just four days of sex. He could easily accelerate it by going for some basic Instant Dungeons as well. Raids without Fateweaving were unwise. Everything else, he had done before he got that safety net and there was no reason not to do so again, especially while Escape Rope was still available.

However, if Lee could access the control of the barrier, John could spare himself the time to get those levels and the Space Protector Perk. “I think?” Lee wondered. “Stop fondling my ass for a moment, I need to concentrate.”

“That’s a big ask,” John sighed and let go of her.

Lee stepped aside and Scarlett swiftly grabbed him by the collar, pulling him into a deep kiss. Groaning, his lips touching that of the technomancer just as those of another redhead wrapped around his exposed manhood, John tasted the hint of coffee in Scarlett’s saliva. With one hand, he fondled the slightly smaller bubble butt of the androgynous woman. With the other, he grabbed Nathalia’s horn, directing her efforts.

“Does all work and no play make Scarlett a bored girl?” John asked.

Scarlett mockingly blew air out of her nose. “Like I could get tired of work,” she remarked. “We made some basic progress on the investigation.”

“That’s good.” John hummed and looked to the last of the four. Lorelei stood two paces away, blushing softly at the scene before her. She was largely inoculated to the lewdness of their day to day life, but a series of greeting kisses accompanied by Nathalia deepthroating her man may have been a new flavour she wasn’t too familiar with yet. She squirmed adorably, dressed in a combination of a pencil skirt and a simple shirt. “Come here,” he ordered her softly, waving with the hand previously gripping Nathalia.

Lorelei obliged, taking two steps, only to yelp when he pulled her by her arm against his chest. Her white-blonde braid flew after her, then was pinned under John’s palm, as he pulled her into a forceful kiss. Submissively, her tongue met his. She quivered with excitement, while he shamelessly groped his way down her slender curves. He held the round butts of Scarlett and Lorelei in his hands, while Nathalia kept audibly bobbing on his erection. Nudging the technomancer with his shoulder, he transformed the kiss into a three-way.

Inexperienced but eager, the seer extended her tongue and they swapped partners back and forth, breaking apart the sloppy way they all joined together. About to cum, John groaned and leaned his head back. Scarlett saw that as an opportunity to deliver lovebites to his exposed neck. Lorelei followed the example with gentle kisses. The Gamer had his first worriless orgasm in over three days, pumping down Nathalia’s throat.

“Strip,” he gave a whispering order to Lorelei, once his orgasm had concluded. Aside from Scarlett and Lee, who were occupied, the rest of the harem around was already naked or in the process of getting so. “There’s no one but us here.”

“Yes, Master,” Lorelei responded in a dreamy tone. She began to undress, just like Scarlett did when he let her go. Something about the way Lorelei fumbled with the zipper of her skirt ticked John’s dom instincts off. He grabbed her again and simply tore her shirt open. Buttons flew everywhere, but he didn’t care. All he heard was her moan, all he saw was her pale skin. The bra she wore swiftly followed, as did her skirt.

As the ruined black cloth sailed to the ground, his hand invaded her panties. Her pussy was soaked, her hairless groin ready to be marked. A benefit of this grinding session was that he now could spend the time with her that he yearned for. After he tore through the panties, his hand wandered around her hips, back to her ass, and slid between the soft, round cheeks, expecting to find something. “Good girl,” he purred into her ear, feeling the base of a butt plug covering her back entrance. “On your knees.” Lorelei gasped after she had lowered herself next to Nathalia, the reward sending a surge of pleasure through her. “Nathalia, share my second load with her.”

The dragoness moaned around his cock in a mostly agreeing way. A couple of minutes later, he came inside the deepthroating redhead’s mouth again. Most of it was guzzled down by the greedy nymphomaniac, but enough to fill her cheeks was kept and she finally broke contact with his cock. John turned to Lee, who was standing, still dressed, with a concentrated look on her face. “Is it working?”

“Yeah… It will take me a hot minute though, especially if I keep getting distracted.” She glanced enviously at Lorelei and Nathalia, the latter toppling the former over, while they were still making out.

“Interesting that you can meddle with this without me getting a notification… probably an exemption for the Harem Party members.” John shrugged and scratched the back of his head. “You mind if we leave you to it and bridge the time inside?”

“Go ahead,” Lee waved off, a smile sneaking its way on her face. She turned her head away, embarrassed, and mumbled, “I’m just happy to be useful.”

“You’re vital,” John emphasized and gave her a goodbye kiss on the cheek facing him. “I’ll make it up to you after you’re done.”

Until he could grind, he had time to ‘grind’.