The Gamer Chapter 1469 – 27 Days of Preparation 22 – What to do from there? (Patreon)

“Look who remembers her place.”

Scarlett shot him a glance equally displeased and turned on, as she dropped every last article of clothing at the entrance of their temporary home. The condition presented at the start of this grinding session was still fully in place and so Scarlett was not allowed to wear anything within these four walls. Beside the collar that she so properly had put around her own neck days before – and continued to put back on each time she went home.

“Don’t make me reconsider,” she told him.

“Like you would ever go back on a deal.” The Gamer weighed her bunched up clothes in his hands. They were still warm, which was just one reason why he found it attractive to hold them. Dropping them into a bin wisely prepared in the entrance area, he gestured for the naked and collared redhead to step closer. “We should have some fun on your skyscraper sometime,” he hummed.

“Again?” Scarlett showed a hint of a smile. “Not that I’m against it.”

“Again,” John confirmed and smacked her pleasingly wide backside. “Now, I’m in a mood to see you crawl.”

The redhead wrestled with herself for a moment, before predictably giving into the parts of her that she could only show around him. The single-woman enterprise dropped on all fours, remaining just upright enough to reach his dick if he told her to.

“Let’s get inside,” he told her instead, wanting to make this a little more comfortable. Scarlett followed obediently, her knees dealing with the hardwood floor for the distance between entrance and living room. There, Momo currently had her crotch firmly planted on the face of the Ambassador Double.

Momo was doing her best to read while his tongue explored her clean folds. An adjective only worthwhile using because it was past the morning orgy, which usually meant that there was an aversive amount of his own fluids inside his women. Just another reason why he wasn’t quite as frequently giving oral favours as he was receiving them: unlike the women, he had a disgust reflex towards the idea of tasting anything that came from himself.

Like so many other parts of their life, Delicia had found an alchemical solution to that too. A little bit of mixing and suddenly they had a new variety of soap available that just cleaned out the insides with minimal application, working for both the front and back entrance.

While the sassy maid tried her best to pretend to read, more and more of the harem poured into the living room. It was that time of day where individual assignments or general activities were wrapping up in preparation for dinner. Aclysia hadn’t quite started yet and so they were all together around the table. Momo claimed one body, Scarlett’s head was bobbing in the lap of his primary one, and the Creator Puppet, switched into the Socialite Mode, was letting a very enthusiastic Sylph ride it reverse cowgirl. After just a few more seconds, Undine decided she wanted to take the unclaimed cock of the Ambassador Double up her rear.

Beyond that, the lewdities were limited to a few touchy-feely cuddles and Nathalia casually masturbating to it all. So casually, in fact, that she was reading a financial report as she did it. Even though she was far from the highest Libido in the harem by now, she did remain one of the most overtly sexual haremettes. There was more to personal expression than Stats, after all.

John had the classical duo attached to his left and right side: Aclysia and Rave. His two longest serving haremettes were the backbone of their lifestyle almost as much and in some aspects more than he was. The household by and large would have been unfeasible without the maid’s constant efforts and his fiancée was the social glue that made sure the harem remained more than a collective of women sharing a man.

“Boop.” The love of his life tapped the Gamer on the nose. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“What we’re doing next,” John told her. “We have 18 more days… wondering if the Court Dust is-“

“No.”

“I mean, I agree, but-“

“No.” Rave pushed her finger into his cheek, drilling into his skin as much as her eyes drilled into the side of his head. “Yeah, I get it, totally efficient and all of that junk and there’s the whole Divided Gates stuff coming up, but no. Just no.”

“Master, I do remind of the recklessness we displayed last time.” Aclysia joined from the other side. “While it did work out perfectly the first time, I believe it is proper to assume that using Court Dust has a chance of us not only suffering the adverse effects, but to do so in a manner that nets us nothing. Perhaps we should take that chance seriously and treat it as a high likelihood, before we force ourselves to do something we hate.”

John lingered on that logic for a little bit. It was certainly true that he had pulled several absurd stunts the last time and there was no guarantee he would make it out alive the next time. Much like any other drug that had the effect of lowering inhibitions, there was a chance for stupid decisions, and if he failed the Assault he was trying to exploit, then that was an entire drug trip and set of terrible memories gained for nothing.

Plus, the harem had evidently made up its mind regarding the use of Court Dust.

‘Let’s just hope I won’t need those levels,’ the Gamer thought. The likelihood was ever shrinking, as he reached the heights of legendary power, pulling his women to the apex with him. Skipping out on the several days’ worth of a single grinding session did not mean he would not grind at all though.

___________________________________________________________________________

12th day of the grind and John just got confirmation on something he had suspected. “Nope, Raid is on cooldown,” he told everyone. There was a mixture of enjoyment and disappointment regarding that announcement. “All right, so we’ll just do regular Instant Dungeons. Should we still prioritize Loot?” He looked to Lydia.

“I believe the Raid has provided enough to fundamentally dazzle your opposition. However, if you are looking for items you can use for national gifts…”

“Also known as bribery,” Scarlett threw in.

“…then perhaps it is advisable you continue down the current path of grinding for Loot,” Lydia finished, not giving the interruption any attention. “A breadth of trinkets from various dungeons, of middling power primarily, with great power thrown in second.”

“Give them a taste of how incredible the items can be without giving too much away,” John agreed. “All right, now the good news is that we can overhaul the way we approach dungeons.” He rolled his shoulders and looked around all of them. “Since Experience of Love is now shared between all of you and the Equalizer serves as a rubber band for anyone straying too far from my level, it’s no longer really necessary for any of you to attend Instant Dungeons for levels. Also, since their difficulty scales with the attendants, it’s also not going to be necessary for efficiency.”

That was mostly true. All scaling mechanisms had their little oversights. Typically, there was some kind of breaking point where the addition of more people became more of a detriment than benefit. That point was relatively easy to find in video games, where math could be applied to the various abilities and whatever resistances enemies got in order to not get nuked or stunlocked. In reality, that was too difficult to determine, so John didn’t bother.

“I owe you manifold for the boons bestowed on me on this trip, therefore you shall have my aid until my consciousness weighs light on my love.” Lydia’s eyes drifted to the side when Rave snickered. “Is something the matter?”

“Juuust a tad thick, even for ya,” Rave responded.

“Does the eloquence of my speech still surprise you, Jane?”

“Surprise? No. Amuse? Y-E-S, yes, a lot of yes.”

“I do not approve of you using me as cause for snickering.”

“Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, princess,” Rave declared and several of the haremettes around started laughing immediately. The meme brain damage wasn’t universal, but that particular one had wormed its way into the consciousness of most haremettes, if only because Rave kept using it.

“Might as well use it as an opportunity to get used to your new items?” John suggested, bringing the topic back to what they were actually discussing.

“No, I do not believe I shall.” Lydia showed a hint of a smile so faint, anyone who didn’t know her would have missed it. To tease him was one of the pleasures of her life and she knew that he was desperate to see the Legendary items he had given her in action. She’d look damn good in a radiant, full plate armour, he was certain of that.

“I got a question,” Claire spoke up. “You got three bodies, right? And you can open Instant Dungeons with any of them, right?”

John saw where that line of questions was going. “I can’t run several Instant Dungeons simultaneously. Gaia won’t let me. If I could, I’d just do everything in my power to get more double bodies available… I’m thankful enough that she lets individual doubles open Instant Dungeons these days. That used to be reserved to me proper.”

“When did that change anyway?” Rave asked.

“Don’t actually know, she just stealth-patched that in at some point,” the Gamer responded. Either Gaia or his system itself was steadily fixing and changing things under the hood. Which was ever so slightly unnerving, considering the system was written into his mana circuits. Between trusting Bill Gates with his PC and Gaia with his body, the latter was less worrisome, though. For the purely objective reason that Gaia tried to be neutral and, whenever she no longer cared to, it really didn’t matter that she had direct access to his operating system. All she had to do was wake up and that was it for all of them anyway.

Also, she was hot. Yes, that was important.

“Since Claire brought it up, though: I’ll only use the Creator Puppet for these Instant Dungeons – provided it does not break.” John’s golem body weighed Inkaryl in its hands. The mace was silent and had been for a while. Its blades moved quietly like the pads of a Venus flytrap. If John read the weapon correctly, it yearned for brutality, but was getting bored of fighting ‘fake’ opponents. Not that reading a weapon was easy. They didn’t think like people.

“What’re you prioritizing then? Floors, it sounds like?” Salamander asked.

“Since that’s the second best at giving Loot, yeah,” John confirmed. “We’ll keep cycling through different dungeons and just look for anything interesting. Maybe do a few Secret Levels if we stumble over them.”

“Hmm, kinda wanna keep groups small,” Rave weighed in. “It’s more fun if the battlefield ain’t a total cluster of explosions and people.”

“Traditional group size is five people,” John stated. “If you’re in agreement with limiting the party, you can make a waiting list? We’ll take a short break after each dungeon anyway. Perfect time to tag in and out.”

“Hmmm, sounds like a plan. All right, girls… Bae, I declare ya waitlist supervisor.”

“Wait, wait, wait! I wanna do that! That sounds like a super cool job!” Sylph declared, then looked over to John. “Actually, no, nevermind, just realized I have to do something else!” In a zap, she was on her knees in front of him and pulled out his cock. A second zap later, he was sheathed in her throat.

‘I have no idea if being spontaneously sexual will actually increase her Libido, but I really don’t have the power to complain.’ John had just enough self-control to put a hand on the back of Sylph’s head and keep her lips pressed against the base of his shaft. To let her do her stormy blowjob thing would have been too distracting for this conversation.

Luckily, it was already wrapping up. Random numbers were being drawn and places on the waiting list distributed. John moved his true body and Ambassador Double out of the untapped darkness of the unfilled Illusion Barrier. In that, he followed all of the non-combatants who had only tagged along to see if there was a new Raid to check out.

And on and on the grinding went.