The Gamer Chapter 1490 – Beyond Enigmatic (Patreon)

John was put face to face with a new limitation on Observe.


Observe was built to present definitive effects. An object defined by the multitude of effects it could achieve was logically impossible to display accurately in a bite-sized text box.

At least the math was relatively straightforward. Sets of 10 runes across 7 layers meant it was simply 10 to the power of seven – 10 million different outcomes. John would have loved to mess with it and try to find out from where to where that stretched, but he was deadly afraid of touching the Rose of Artifice without supervision. The object was not Indestructible – unless that was part of the currently active circuitry.

“The runes rewrite themselves, right?” John asked. That had been one of the major goals of Hailey’s research: to overcome the innate fragility of carving runes into surface areas by having the runes be repaired by sub-flows of the mana that powered the enchantments. Typically that had led to the power source burning out within one, maximum two, uses, with catastrophic effects on the entire circuitry.

If these things were easy, it wouldn’t have taken a Latebloomer to even attempt it.

“Should?” Hailey responded, herself staying away from the palm-sized object sitting in the middle of the table. The Rose of Artifice had bloomed the moment it had been put down. Eternally, the petals circled, for reasons that John did not understand. That no one understood, apparently.

“Should?” Rave asked. “Ya made it.”

“Uhm, yeah, technically,” the enigma engineer scratched the back of her head. “Kinda let the Lady work through me on this one.”

Whether that was the actual truth or just the perceived truth of a genius that let her instincts quiet the doubts of the conscious mind hardly mattered. Scarlett put their situation succinctly, “We have an object of artifice, a category of creation barely ever used due to how fucking complicated it is, created by a Latebloomer, hundreds if not thousands of years ahead of current theory and application, that she – herself – does – not – understand.” The frustration rang out in every word. “Nia, Lorelei, analyse the fucking thing.”

“Headache,” the pariah denied immediately.

“The Lady’s grace webs through the object too densely to-“

“Why the fuck did I quit smoking?” Scarlett interrupted, rubbing her temples at a constant pace.

John could empathize. Doubtlessly, the Rose of Artifice was impressive. No, impressive was understating it immensely. If this had been a movie, the creation of the Rose would have been the opening scene where the device either held the key to defeating the villain or secretly was the product of a demon whispering in the engineer’s ear. This was the kind of technology that shouldn’t be trifled with.

As if it had only waited for John to understand that point, the Rose of Artifice’s petals closed at that moment, leaving a considerably less awe-inspiring/threatening bud on the table. There, it remained, while they continued their conversation.

“Every bit of it enchanted, every bit of it covered in rune-circuity, all of it capable of drawing from the magic dispersed throughout and the rechargeable power source,” John stated and carefully – very, very carefully, picked the object up to inspect it from multiple angles. “What is this gemstone anyway?”

“A modified Worldgem,” Lorelei answered.

“Modified how? When?” John asked. Those gemstones were phenomenally limited in supply and typically went into Illusion Barrier research, as they were required to create the cores for Mobile Barriers, among other things.

“If I may, the explanation on the technical adjustments made will not serve you.” Lorelei bowed her head in apology.

“…Right,” John agreed with her. He had cursory knowledge on matters of enchantment, but if she started telling him how she had adjusted the Maybel flow speed by 0,13 Magores by decreasing the supernatural plasticity by 23,4%, that wouldn’t do him any good. “Just the when then?”

“It was part of our learning process,” Lee chimed in. The Fateweaver confessing to that did also explain why they even had access to one.

“Alright.” John put the device back on the table. It barely made a sound, hitting the glass as lightly as a falling feather. “Yeah, I don’t know what to do with that,” he confessed. “In other words, Hailey, it’s your invention, you do with it as you please.”

“It’s a proof of concept, so imma have to try to figure what I did do done there,” the southern woman drawled and picked her creation up. With the immediate concern of the Rose of Artifice covered to what little extent they could, John focused his attention on the enigma engineer.


“You had a breakthrough,” John told her.

“D’uh, ya see this thayng?” The way she drawled the word ‘thing’ was almost enough to distract John from everything else that was happening. The way her breasts swayed as she casually waved her invention also almost distracted him enough from her doing that very thing. She realized what she was doing before he could say anything and put the Rose of Artifice into her pocket dimension.

“Not even gonna test it at all?” Lee asked, disappointed.

“After I had my beauty sleep.”

With the Rose out of the picture, staring at her tits was easier for his consciousness. The way the black satin of the nightgown cupped the enormous pair was nothing short of mouth-watering. “What I mean is that you broke through your Stat scaling. It went up from 5 to 6.”

“Oh… oh… guess I can count that as a blessin’.” Hailey hummed, fully pleased, then yawned. “Sorry for getting’ everyone up, by the way.”

“Hey, none of us would’ve stayed in bed if we knew ya were dealing with stuff,” Rave told her. “Rel got it sorted, though.”

“Do I have to expect two of you to ramble about the Lady all the time now?” Scarlett asked.

“Eh, pro’ly not,” Hailey took the question in good humour. “Still ain’t the most practicin’ gal, just… world starts makin’ sense again. Will absolutely join Moira in her Bible study tho.”

“Don’t expect her to stay nice the entire time,” Rave cautioned jokingly. “She’s a very Lydia kinda gal.”

“So I hear.”

The conversation turned casual and yawns grew more frequent. Interrupted sleep was a cause of tiring even among superhumans, and so they soon moved back downstairs. They all stripped out of the oft minimal clothing they had put on before going outside and that was about all John could take.

Blood rushed out of his tired brain to his cock, leaving him in a thoughtless state of need. Only a half-grunted demand warned Hailey of his approach, then he had her tossed into the massive bed. Catching herself on the large mattress, she immediately assumed an offering position, her round, tan-line marked ass raised. Siena and Aclysia were quick to flank the country gal. Dark lips pressed on the pinkish brown mouth of the enigma engineer, while the maid’s hands spread the plush butt of the woman.

Wet labias, considerably paler than the surrounding flesh, parted, revealing folds that John lost no time pushing against. The engorged head of his cock penetrated her familiar hole, sinking inside at a consistent speed. Hailey moaned into Siena’s mouth, “Twisht my nipplesssh,” the masochistic power bottom pleaded and the sadist was eager to oblige. Her insides gripped John while the crowns of her dangling breasts were given a carefully administered pull and turn.

Thrusting her ass back at him, she met his groin with a ripple of her cheeks. Gripping her hips, John obeyed the demand of his body. It was a simple one: pump a load into her and phase out of consciousness afterwards.

All around him, the other haremettes began working their cunts and nipples at the sight. A symphony of moans, often sapphic in origin, filled the room. Chasing that same relaxing release, gorgeous nymphomaniacs engaged with themselves and each other. John let the sounds fill his being while his eyes remained focused entirely on the bubble butt quaking under each of his thrusts.

Speed and intensity picked up rapidly as he got closer to his orgasm. Before he knew it, he had Hailey flat on the bed, only her ass slightly raised so he could keep prone boning her. The ripples of his constant, heavy impacts spread down the softness of her thighs, while her torso rocked back and forth on the flexible cushion of her large tits. “O-o-o-ooh ye-e-e-ee-e-e-eessssss,“ she cried, the air getting hammered out of her lungs. “Maa-a-aa-a-aasssteee-e-ee-e-eeeer, fiiii-i-i-illl meeeeee-ee-eee- uuuuu-u—u------- UUUUUUUUUP!”

John slammed into her one more time, cock almost connecting with her cervix, and then flooded her babymaker with his seed. Hard, his shaft tensed and balls contracted, sending jets of white seed into her. The unrelenting force of his release caused a fresh wet patch in the sheets, the creampie addict reacting to her favourite end to any intercourse in the usual, explosive manner.

Release found, John climbed a little deeper into the massive bed. Laying on his back, he closed his eyes. Around him, a few of the haremettes continued to softly moan, having not quite found their release yet. Others were joining their soft breath with his. A beautiful little song to fall asleep to.

______________________________________________________________________

“Oh, I get it now!”

Legs resting on John’s shoulders, arms held by Aclysia and Beatrice, Hailey was hoisted up in a horizontal position. Her face hovered about a metre above the Rose of Artifice, once more blossomed, its concentric layers rotating around the red core underneath.

Hailey had wanted to get a bird’s eye view of her invention and this had been the best idea they had for it. Evidently it worked better than just bowing over it. To live with geniuses was odd at times, although John may have agreed primarily because it meant he got a very close-up view of Hailey’s butt in booty shorts.

“Ya can let me down now,” she said and was carefully dropped on the couch.

“Get what?” John asked, while Hailey closed in on the Rose.

“It’s spinnin’ as a self-repair mechanism. Every rotation reacts a bunch of different refreshing circuits that make sure everything’s dandy.” Hailey grabbed a petal of the lowest layer and suddenly the entire thing stopped spinning. “So now, if I do this…” One after another, she moved the concentric circles, until she had created some kind of sequence she was happy with.

Suddenly, John felt a tug at his everything. Clothes rose, a phone fell off the cupboard, the couch groaned against the bolts that kept it in place.

“Whoops, gravity surge,” Hailey stated and gave one of the rings a tap. It spun like a well-oiled revolver chamber, only coming to stop when she pinched a petal carefully. She drew her hand back, causing prismatic energy to stretch between the gemstone and the attaching side of the petal like some kind of liquid glue.

John watched with a mixture of worry and fascination as Hailey shifted around the order of a couple of the petals. Size limited them to positions within their respective layers, but otherwise they appeared to be fully adjustable. What she did to activate it, John wasn’t entirely sure about, but he knew that something had happened when he smelled cherrywood.

‘Great, so, adjusting calculations… if the order in each layer is also important, I have to take the factorial of 10 instead of just 10, so that’s…’ He ran the calculation in his head. ‘...Yeah, over 8 quattuordecillion. Might as well call them infinite at that point.’

“Man, this’ll take forever to decipher,” Hailey chirped, in a fantastic mood. “Now where does this circuit g- Oh, there, so… Oh yeah!”

Hailey reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out some kind of half finished circuit board. Giving all of his haremettes their personal storage space, even one less efficient than his inventories, may have been a terrible idea. “What are you doing?” John asked when Hailey used her magic to disassemble the circuit board. She left it in its individual parts, only to use them like some kind of improvisational Lego set.

“It’s safe indoors,” the enigma engineer assured.

John took that one on faith, but still remained ready to get between her and any kind of explosion. A readiness that doubled when Hailey slotted the base of the Rose of Artifice into the circuit board. The size of the flower suddenly doubled, the petals extending in size, the inscribed runes continuing themselves over the newly available surface.

Above the chalice of the open flower, a bubble of clear water appeared, wobbling as liquid in zero gravity would. With a single move, Hailey changed the acting enchantment to dissolve the water instead.

“Yup,” she lifted the Rose out of the circuit, causing it to immediately return to its usual size, “circuit extensions for additional power and reach are possible… Iiiiii…” Glancing at John, then the environment, she sighed, “…will keep further tests for back home.”

“Probably a good call,” John encouraged her. “Also, we need to get our story straight.”

“Hm?” Hailey was so busy prodding her invention, despite what she had just said, that she did not understand what he meant.

“Hailey, you did all of the putting together in front of a crowd, half of which were journalists scouting the corridors for a scoop, all of which took video of the entire thing because you and Lorelei were wearing very photogenic outfits doing very impressive work and then Moira came along with a halo behind her head.” The summary of events pulled the enigma engineer away from her new device. “And then the ‘sacred Warden’ dropped something onto the device that looked a whole lot like Mythical Ichor, which is neither here nor there, and a local leyline popped up. They have enough footage to write an article about every third frame. So, we need to get our story straight because you will get ambushed the moment you set foot out of this room.”

“How about the truth with a lil’ obscuring? I got inspired by the Lady to create somethin’ new and then I made it, although we don’t know what it does yet.”

John hummed deeply. To even attempt to say that the Rose of Artifice was nothing impressive would not work, so saying they weren’t quite sure what it did was indeed the better obfuscation (and not even entirely a lie). The part about the Lady having inspired her was somewhat problematic to John on the level of power politics. Hailey had made a pretty public event out of her conversion, which would give additional legitimacy to the Order for very obvious reasons.

Power politics weren’t enough a reason to request Hailey downplay her readjusted faith, though. “That will work,” he therefore surrendered. “I’ll make sure it gets across during the interview today. You just try to fend off the journalists. Remind them they’re only here because of good relations with us, that should keep them cordial.” The easiest way to create a docile media class was always to give them access to front seats in the luxury class.

“Alright. Ya should hold onto this for a bit.” She handed him the Rose. “Your inventory is safer.”

That was entirely true.