Not wanting to rob Magoi of any more of his time, the group left the Raid and, after informing the High Fateweaver, the Illusion Barrier at large. “It is always good to hear that you were successful,” the masked man said, while they stepped out of the I.D. Gate.

“All thanks to you agreeing to give us another day,” the Gamer answered with a thankful nod. They emerged in the Hudson Barrier around 7 AM. Usually, they would have come out in the very early morning hours, almost night even, to have a seamless return to schedule. Two hours later than usual didn’t do too much to throw them off balance. If anything, it would be that they hadn’t slept prior to leaving that would make at least that day difficult to get through.

The High Fateweaver stopped to chat for a moment. “I can be helpful when I want to,” Magoi joked, adjusting his top hat with his cane. Behind him, Mabirl checked her pocket watch. It seemed that they had other plans for the day, so John decided to keep it short.

“Good for me you want to be helpful most of the time then.” The Gamer reached into his inventory and retrieved the two satin bags containing the Worldgems. “Here. You will know better what to do with them than I do.”

Interested, Magoi tucked his cane under his arm to check what was inside the bags. Once he had caught a glance, the snout of his raptor mask went so deep inside John doubted the High Fateweaver could still see anything. Made curious by her husband’s reaction, Mabirl stepped close, took the second bag, looked inside, and had much the same reaction. Sometimes, John forgot that Magoi’s wife was learned in the field herself.

“Bullshit,” the unflattering word escaped the housewife, once she realized he had not one, but two bags of the Epic-rarity gemstones. “One of these things requires years of synthesization.”

“Not quite right, honey,” Magoi retrieved one of the stones from the pouch and held it against the light of the rising day. It was a flat, hexagonal thing, with a black core and translucent edges, which were equally red, blue and green. “The synthesization relied on Gehnigm first and the centralized nature of the Fateweavers second. With the Supreme Fateweaver gone and the Mountain of Time drastically reduced in importance and manpower, I think we should talk about decades.”

“Yes, yes,” Mabirl waved off. Likely she had been aware of all of these things but had spoken her mind hastily. As was often the case between lovers and friends, her husband had then seen it fit to palaver at her expense. “That only makes the sixteen we have here more valuable.”

John whistled to himself, happy to hear that his loot was as ludicrous as ever. “So, we are looking at several hundred years’ worth of resources here?”

“Well, no,” Magoi responded. “We are looking at about sixteen years’ worth of resources here. Much like alcohol, you don’t make one of these at a time.” He turned the Worldgem a little more between his white-gloved fingers and then put it away. “What do you expect me to do with them? I could turn them into a rather sizable sum.”

“How sizable?” Scarlett perked up.

“Between 16 and 160 billion, is my guess,” Magoi responded. Scarlett grinned, John was taken aback, Velka warbled happily, the rest of the harem had similar reactions. Even in the world of absurd riches they lived in, that was a stupendous number. It once more made John wonder just how much money must be flowing around in the Abyss and why it didn’t regularly totalled the real-world economy.

“That’s a pretty huge spread,” John pointed out, gathering his thoughts. “How come?”

“As I just said, the Fateweaver headquarters basically had a monopoly on creating these,” Magoi answered, shaking the bag. “The last few batches will be coming to completion over the next years and then I expect a sharp drop in supply, raising the price something fierce.” Taking the second pouch from his wife, the High Fateweaver finished his explanation, “Of course, that will lead to people creating their own ones, so the market will stabilize in a hundred years or so. In the time between then and now, they will become rather valuable.”

“Is that the case?” Lydia asked, thoughtfully stroking her chin. “An accidental counsel, how beneficial. I should look into this before it becomes a problem for my people.”

“Same, I suppose,” John looked over to Magoi who waved a single finger in his employer’s direction.

“No need, John Newman aka. The Gamer aka. Mister President, I already had facilities built and Magnus compile a list of promising candidates. These,” he raised the bag, “are strictly speaking unnecessary. At least when it comes to local demand, we should be able to cover Fusion pretty soon. Valuable as they are, Worldgems aren’t necessary for basic things. They are needed more for vanity things, such as building a Mobile Barrier into a giant, moving robot or a cruise ship.” The examples were, doubtlessly, deliberately chosen.

“That’s good then,” John nodded along, only to shrug at the end of it all. “What you do with them is up to you, as long as it serves Fusion in some fashion. Whatever you want to do, I trust you.”

“Hmmm… whatever I want? Including destroying them?”

Rolling his eyes, John grinned and crossed his arms. The amused tone of the High Fateweaver made it clear enough that it was not an earnest suggestion. He just wanted to tease John a little. “Depends on why you want to destroy them.”

“The field of Mobile Barriers is still relatively young and research on Worldgems is generally limited.” Magoi raised one of the pouches to head height and looked at it from a few different angles, as if he could spy through satin and gemstones and see some secrets beyond. “Giving me a whole sixteen of them gives me some wiggle room to run some experiments that could destroy them without any direct benefit outside of data. Would you mind that?”

“I trust you to do whatever you think is best,” John reiterated his position. “You are one of my oldest allies, Magoi. You will do something that benefits everyone in some fashion. I believe in you.”

Magoi went quiet for a minute. “I am touched,” was all he said. “I am really getting sentimental in my old age. I’ll get to it then, whatever I will do.” The High Fateweaver turned around.

“Just remember to keep clear notes. Don’t want your research to be lost if you blow yourself up!” John joked, while they made their goodbyes with a few simple waves. That out of the way, he turned to Lydia. “As much as it pains to even suggest it, but don’t you have to leave?”

“By deliberate design, I have the first blowjob shift of this day. Surely you agree that it would be a waste of time for me to teleport home, only to return so soon?”

“Absolutely,” John enthusiastically nodded and, with no further questions asked, they relocated to the inside of the Palace. Eliza let Velka down once they were inside and, much like the Magryph quickly ran somewhere to the room so she could curl together and look cute, the gathered girls spread throughout the apartment.

Those interested in John’s Perk choices stuck closely to him when he sat down on a corner of the large couch construction. This time around those were Rave, Nia, Eliza, Lydia and Gnome, the latter watching on behalf of all elementals. Aclysia and Beatrice would have normally stuck around as well, be it only because they liked to be around him when anything was happening, but they were tasked with preparing breakfast instead. John kept his thoughts open so everyone who wanted could watch without further crowding the couch. Even now, John had a hard time to even move a hand, with all the naked or semi-naked women on top of him.

The smell was more intense and less sweet than usual. They hadn’t yet had an opportunity to shower, following the Raid. It wasn’t so bad to affront John in any fashion, however, and so he prioritized allocating his newfound power before doing anything else. Once they were in the shower, they would be stuck in there until urgency called. That was usually how that went.

“Alright, so I have 2 Class Levels, 2 Skill Evolutions and 147 Stat Points to distribute,” he told everyone, while opening his character sheet.

“2 Skill Evolutions?” Rave asked. “Thought ya had four? One for Salamander and…?” she looked on the screen that had just opened. “Ah, Sylph, alrighty, go on ahead. Stats first?”

“I was going to start with the Class Level,” John told her. “I am still going with the Gamer Class, so it’s pretty likely I will get another Perk for the Statpoints I lost out on when going from 6 to 7 points per level. Can’t get the second one immediately, which is a bit annoying.”

“You’ll get it sometime today,” his girlfriend waved off.

“Yeah, let’s hope the Challenges are easy enough,” John agreed and proceeded to raise the one Class Level he immediately could. The Gamer Class rose from level 4 to 5 and the pop-up followed immediately thereafter.

“Bah, repeated choices and an upgraded one,” John snarled.

“Piss off, you spoiled stud,” Eliza cussed him out, poking him in the ribs. “The upgraded choice is exactly what you fucking asked for.”

“I don’t remember allowing you to complain,” the Gamer playfully reprimanded her.

“I don’t remember when I said I would give a shit,” she shot back, only for the aggression in her eyes to diminish greatly when John took hold of her chin and pulled her towards him. “What?” she hissed, still defiant. “You got a problem your big dick can’t solve?”

“It’s just been a while since you were this offensive,” he told her. “It’s cute to see you cursing around like that.”

“Cute? What the fuck you on about, you total degenerated cumbucket maker?”

John smiled a bit broader and played with her hair. “I prefer this over you being sorry for yourself. It’s best if you rein in your excesses, but still,” he leaned forwards and gave her a quick kiss, “I love you.”

The pretty little psycho started giggling. Quietly at first, then growing ever louder before it threatened to become painfully deranged in its volume. At that point, she suddenly froze, remained still for a second and then snapped her mouth shut with an audible sound of her teeth clashing. “You keep making me way too fucking happy, you ass!” she declared, gently punching him in the stomach. “It’s shit-eating awkward! I still don’t know how to handle being this ecstatic about being alive!”

“Paint some happy pictures,” John told her. “Or, this would be my recommendation for now, give me a handjob.”

“Why only go halfway when you could push that fat cock down my throat and double my neck width?” Eliza asked, even as she slid down to the floor.

“Because I can’t hear your cute voice commenting on the things I do when I do that,” he told her. “But if you want to do that rather than keep talking about my Stats, go on ahead.”

She did. Probably to repay him for the loving words, Eliza pushed her lips over his erection until she hit his groin. For all her mood swings, it was pretty easy to predict a few things about the blood mage. Answering her crazy little outbursts, especially the aggressive ones, with a bit of patience and care always got him rewarded.

“I think we don’t need to have a discussion about what I should take?” he half asked, half groaned, as Eliza’s tongue massaged the lower half of his shaft. Her throat took care of the rest of his cock. Barely managing to look at each of the girls, he got no pushback. His choice was delayed regardless, due to pumping a heavy load down Eliza’s throat. The tiny bundle of perversion was giving it the maximum effort. Her cheeks were caved in and her lips stretched outwards when she slowly slid up. The odd look of her blowjob face was only trumped by its eroticism.

Only once his orgasm had subsided, did he feel confident enough to hit the correct Perk. One release and 109 Stat Points richer, the Gamer was treated to Nia reaching underneath Eliza’s head and taking hold of his balls. The gentle rolling of her slender fingers only added to the moment. Desire rose across the room. That they hadn’t celebrated their victory with an orgy yet became more apparent by the second. There was nobody in his harem that had a normal Libido and they were all thirsting for release. Rave and Gnome failed to withhold their desires any further and started kissing his neck. Lydia managed to stay somewhat on top of her Libido, merely shifting her position so that her sizable breasts pressed against the side of his head while she looked over his shoulder.

Buried under horny, devilishly attractive women, the Gamer could do nothing but grin. He still concentrated on the task at hand, but there was no rule stating he couldn’t have fun while doing so. Having orgasmed once, his brain was working more effectively anyway. “You will cum whenever I cum,” he commanded those girls directly around him. Eliza didn’t even need the command, her muffled, climactic screams had been reverberating in his dick since she started drinking his cum.

Against his male instincts, John pulled his character sheet between his eyes and the view of the pretty little psycho sucking him off. Looking over the choices he still had, he decided to continue with the SEP.

“Possession, Mana Blade, Arcane Echo, those three are the candidates for an upgrade,” John read out. Technically speaking, there were a few more. With how Skill Evolutions were supposed to be stronger if the Skill getting the evolving was maxed out, it didn’t make much sense to consider them, however. “I would just invest into Mana Blade and Arcane Echo, what are you thinking?”

“Possession works as it is, I support this,” Nia commented, speaking in his direction even while her eyes were glued to his crotch. A slight quiver in her eyebrows betrayed her discontent on not being in that position.

“You haven’t been in a habit of using Mana Blade recently,” Lydia observed.

“Mana Blade is only really useful on the Mandala Sphere, because it can spin around so fast,” John told her. “When I go into melee, using the swords Purgatory creates is much better in most situations. They cost me no mana and I can rely on them. More importantly, whenever I want to use Mana Blade nowadays, they get enormous and it’s a pain to wield them. When it comes to burst situations, having several dozen Arc Lances is just overall more reliable and damaging then one big Mana Blade.”

“And Arcane Echo has always been kinda meh,” Rave added.

“It does its job. It’s just that I don’t often need an AoE wave,” John defended the Skill. “It’s a reliable niche thing. It’s just not a fight winner.”

“Skills that don’t win fights are boring, get rid of it!” Rave stated, only to giggle and get back to kissing his neck. If it hadn’t been for Gamer’s Body, he would have been covered with hickeys by now.

“It is one of your weakest ones… so… it does make sense?” Gnome’s assertion sounded more like a question. Tone aside, she was right. It was more a question of exclusion anyway. Since Possession did what it was supposed to (and John had no idea if he could even evolve it without breaking the numerous Perks associated with it), going for the other two was more reasonable.

He started with Arcane Echo.

“Ah, yes, the typical three choices,” John sighed. “Full attack, full trap or mixture between trap and attack.” He moved his hand towards Unstable Arcana, “I would go with this one, anyone thinks otherwise?”

“All of them seem pretty powerful,” Gnome hummed. “You sure that’s the best choice?”

“Arcane Torrent will have very few situations where it’s better than sending Salamander or throwing an Arc Lance,” John explained. “Manacrystal Trap will need more set-up to work optimally than my current playstyle really allows for. Both are powerful, but Unstable Arcana just fits me the most right now. It’s not the best AoE skill either, especially at range, but it works well enough and is a nice zone-control tool.”

With his explanation out there, none of the girls disagreed and he tapped the button. Then he moved onto Mana Blade.

“…The only thing that could convince me not to take Arcana Ray is that it’s an endpoint,” John mumbled and looked to the girls for any counter arguments. He got none. While cheap and probably potent, Elemental Infusion had a random element to it that could ruin clutch situations. Arcane Weaponry was just a better Mana Blade, but it lost in a competition against Purgatory because one cost mana and the other didn’t.

Arcana Ray at least sounded as if it would serve him in the middle-range field. Its costs were high, but not so high that John couldn’t use it. His Fencing and Particle Skin would keep him powerful at close range, Arc Lance was a winning Skill if he could hit it and Arcana Ray would serve as a permanent threat. Throwing Unstable Arcana in there gave him some area domination and Arcana Strike was an extreme threat whenever he could justify casting it.

“How renowned is it?” John asked, looking at Rave, then Eliza, Lydia and finally Nia. None of them had any visible reaction. “Really? I feel that this is false advertising!”

“I might have seen some powerful Arcanists use it, but I could not tell you,” the queen of steel responded with a shrug that made her soft breasts brush against him. “I have only basic knowledge in the field. As you might figure, arcane magic is not particularly popular within Germany.”

“I have seen it before,” Nia told him, her facial features unmoving. Her eyes were still focused on his barely visible dick. “Strongly condensed mana. Was impossible for me to neutralize at the time. The Horned Rat guesses it was developed specifically against blanks or other defensive measures. It’s difficult to control mana so expertly - for normal people.”

“Well, I was never quite normal,” John said and picked his second Skill Evolution. “Now, what to do with 256 Statpoints?” he hummed. “I’ve already decided to get Agility to 250, that’s 40 gone, and I would like to follow up Strength with that, that’s another 125. I would still have 91 after that. Any suggestions there?”

“Put it into Libido,” Rave stated.

“…You’re talking with your ovaries,” John pointed out, still being beset on all sides. Although he had kept their sensitivity low in an effort to keep the discussion at large running, they had all orgasmed twice from his command. “Raising Libido doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

“Nah, makes total sense,” his girlfriend started to count the advantages, “A: you will feel better during sex, second, you can impress Nathalia with it whenever ya use that shard to call her over, and also you should get all your Stats to 250, if you’re already doing this.”

“First two are vanity points, but fair enough for the third… although I should start with Charisma, in that case.”

“As First Lady of Fusion, I command thee to invest in Libido first.”

“I don’t think you have that authority,” John chuckled.

“And what if I do this?” she asked and stretched up from his neck to his face. Their tongues met moments before their lips did. Her warm body nuzzled against him. Her firm, smooth midriff and her soft breasts both pressed against his side. One hand of hers gently brushed through his short, brown hair, the other guided his right to her squishiest part. It didn’t take long for the squeezing of her ass to translate to the fingering of her wet cunt. The sweet taste of her mouth was underlined with increasing moans, which intensified in a sudden burst. Echoed all around him, Rave came at normal sensitivity just as everyone else around did. Gleefully, Eliza sucked every last drop of his seed from his shaft.

“Fine,” John conceded afterwards. “Libido first.”

“Good tiger,” Rave purred, continuing to press her body against him.

Allocating the Stats caused a few more windows to open up.

Just a continuation of the Agility Perks as a whole giving him more spatial awareness.

Sounded useful, but realistically he had been immune to those attacks already. There was no way for anyone with low Stats to get through Particle Skin.

‘Well, that’s an increase,’ John thought. Even with that, his Health Regeneration was still pretty lacklustre. Perhaps Gaia was stingy because he had picked a mage build, but the fact of the matter was that he would never really rely on his natural HP recovery. It was all about MP, to protect himself with Particle Skin and to replenish his health with Undine. Most of the time, HP was a resource he sacrificed to conserve mana. Just one of the quirks of a mage build.

Another defensive extra he didn’t really need.

This was interesting and could help him fight back without sacrificing mana in some rare situations. Although not helpful to his core kit, he was happy to have it.

“Alright, let’s get to the showers,” he stated, hovering his finger over the plus sign next to Libido. “If I am going to increase my lust even more, then I want it to be in a situation where I can plunge into the first cunt I see.”

And that was exactly what he did when he was inside the shower. Because Jack wasn’t around, he had to satisfy the entire harem by himself. Which was less of a task or a challenge than it was a well-spent morning.