Collide Gamer

Chapter 147 – Clean-Up

Letting go of the anger was simultaneously easier and harder than John had imagined. Typically, he had kept his emotions on the downlow when he fought, so this was simply new and unusual. After a bit, however, his heart calmed and his jaw relaxed.

Aside from Aclysia, who looked slightly worried, everyone was smiling. “What did you realize, master?” the artificial guardian asked, she was afraid that whatever Undine had revealed to John was unhealthy for his psyche.

“That I should focus my effort where it belongs and that I should keep a level head,” John stated and shared the revelation with Aclysia.

At the end she looked calmed, even if not entirely convinced. “Take care that effort doesn’t become obsession, Master,” she left a piece of advice with him before joining everyone else in their happy expression.

“I will. Now!” he turned at the beige windows, “Let’s get through this!”

That was quite the good skill, it would eventually increase all of the four elemental girls’ stats by 50%, although John was not quite sure what the Main Stats were supposed to be. Observe would identify that over time, just because he would see the buffs. ‘Here goes hoping that Libido is not one of them in Sylph’s case,’ he thought.

John looked at the choices with wide eyes. He would take the left one, he needed experience more than items right now, but this was a very good reward, stupidly good even. He still had two more Keys of Forgotten Sins, therefore he could nuke the entire floor two more times and doing so this first time would not only give him instant access to this floor but also fulfil the Quest he had been carrying since the start of this whole grind. It really was insanely good.

Two level-ups at once. It had been a while since he had gotten that from a dungeon. He noted that he could also enter at any Floor between 5 and 10 now, which would be a non-insignificant time saver. With that done, he checked the reward for the Quest.

The glass flask had a very long neck, the top sealed with a cork stopper. The lower half was a large, spherical body, with a flattened bottom. It was nearly entirely clear glass. Only three letters in black, spelling out EXP, were printed on it. It did also come with a small leather holster that he could clip to his belt.

John was pretty eager to equip the thing, but there was a problem: It shared a slot with the Fake Keys of the Pearly Gate. While the Echo was less great than initially thought it was still the sole reason for him being able to have Undine at level 100 already. He had abused the thing and rolled the Slot Machine whenever he could, grabbing whatever Skill Point reward he could get his hands on; even with the 95% decrease that had been what had eventually gotten him there.

‘What Skills do I even want to push at this point?’ John tried to find an excuse to take the Fake Keys off. There was one obvious answer: Artificial Spirit. Getting whatever the choices of the maximum level were going to be was likely to grant Aclysia quite the boost. Therefore, the flask was put into his inventory, for now.

For his new Stat Points, they all went into Wisdom. What his elementals ate now of mana regeneration was quite sobering. The upkeep cost was unchanged, despite the evolutions, and they had their own mana to fall back on, but boosting their effectiveness remained his single highest expenditure during fights. Intellect would have been another possible solution but he still liked a rapid regeneration over a high base pool. Nothing worse than running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.

With all of that cleaned up he decided to head back, “Okay, now we evolve Undine back home, okay?” he asked, not expecting any objections and being affirmed in that expectation. A short time later they were walking towards his house. John’s eyes fell on Magoi who was standing contemplatively in front of the loot basin. ‘Right the Fear Eater had that legendary drop,’ John remembered, it even was an Artificial Crystal, like the one he had used to create Aclysia. Better check that out.

“What have you created?” Magoi asked once he realized John was next to him. His voice was devoid of judgment, just sheer disbelief. John activated his aura sight to check what the Fateweaver meant. The aura was blindingly white, and about the size of his fist, like a miniature sun it burnt into his magical sight with frightening intensity. John had to deactivate it to look at the item itself. The crystal was formed like a twenty-sided die, the surfaces being either black or white in a checkerboard-like pattern.

“Seems like we can finally make a weapon for you, Aclysia,” John said and threw the thing into his Inventory. Sure, it was pretty powerful but at this point incredible Loot had to have an immediate benefit to be the cause for hype. He generated absurd things every week, no reason to be surprised.

Magoi was of a different mind, “You want to make a WEAPON out of this?” he was baffled. “John, listen to me, people would fight wars over that thing. Keep it locked up in that Inventory and don’t reveal it to anyone.”

“You are saying people would start wars over this, like who?”

“Middle-Class organizations, like Thorne, the Small Lake Pact, the Watchers of the Azure Eye, maybe even the Czech League, I don’t know. You are already of interest to a lot of people, don’t paint another target on your back,” the Fateweaver informed him calmly, “If you don’t take this as advice from an acquaintance, take it as a statement from a High-Fateweaver: that crystal is dangerous for you, wait until you have the power to protect yourself before you use it.” 

John nodded to appease Magoi. He was not sure if he would follow that advice. If he survived Thana, he would be under the sway of a German princess, so that came with a degree of protection, probably? Beyond that, the Gamer wasn’t sure if Magoi quite realized how rapidly he grew compared to other Abyssals and how useful that weapon would be to that end. Still, he could at least consider what the more learned man said.

“Anyhow, you only have 4 more days, keep it going,” Magoi said his goodbye for the evening.

John looked after the Fateweaver, ‘Do I trust you enough that, after making such a fuss, you keep this information to yourself or will you stab me in the back like Victoria did?’ he asked himself, as he turned to enter his own house. In the end he decided to do the former. Magoi could have informed whoever he wanted before John had come back. If he was betrayed, it was already too late. All he could do was keep a level head and be mentally prepared for the eventuality.

Clearing his mind of such negative thoughts, he concentrated on the positives of the day. It was time to evolve Undine. As was tradition they entered his room. John waited for a moment at the door before opening it, expecting some plea for isolation like Sylph had made. There was no such thing. ‘You sure?’ he sent the question exclusively to Undine. He only got a feeling of certainty back as his answer.

With that out of the way, they spread through his room. John sat down on the edge of his bed, in preparation for what had happened every time. Gnome wanted to sit down to his side first, then blushed, stammered, “Uhm, s-sorry, this is Undine’s day and all, sorry,” and chose his office chair instead. Aclysia had no such qualms and stood at John’s right-handside. Salamander sat down in Gnome’s lap, lifting the stone elemental’s skirt in a nonchalant motion.

“No panties again, huh?” she commented.

“Wha-!” Gnome quickly hid her crotch from everyone’s view by violently pushing the skirt back down. “You are awful, Salamander!”

“We all know you are a closet pervert, just admit it already!”

“I am no such thing!” Gnome cried out, but the way she decidedly avoided everyone’s eyes betrayed her lies. Sylph laughed at the whole scene from her lookout on Aclysia’s head.

Undine took the place where two of her sisters had stood before, in front of John. The slime girl hadn’t changed, she had the appearance of a little girl made entirely from a blue highly dense liquid. Her short hair twirled around a maelstrom at the back of her head and her misty white eyes stared at John as he asked, “Are you ready?”

Everyone went silent as John opened his status screen, his finger prepared to push the button once Undine was. Slowly her feelings filled everyone’s thoughts. Doubt, slight fear, but above that, curiosity and desire, the desire to no longer be the last one stuck in the first Tier, to be bound in a form so inappropriate for the environment she had found herself in. The negative emotions were drowned out and then he heard a single word, ‘Yes.’

He really wanted the Mending Elemental. A group with a healer was a lot safer and it would fit Undine as well. As it currently stood Undine was the least useful part of their party and that had been this way for a long time, her only job was to protect John from projectiles, a job Mana Protection did a lot better. Yes, he would take the Mending Elemental. A little nod from her confirmed that she was fine with it.

Undine’s form was suddenly consumed by a pillar of water. Her new form was revealed from the feet up. Naked feet and legs, long and reflecting the light of the sun outside beautifully came into view. She was still of the same light blue, still clearly a being based in liquid. A summer dress, a shade deeper than her ‘body slime’, formed, its skirt was short and the edges waved like a calm sea.

C-cup breasts formed above a pleasingly narrow midriff. Her shoulders were unclothed, contrasting with the sleeves of the same, darker blue. They hovered around her arms, which ended in hands with long, slender fingers. Her blue face was noble, from the form of her nose, to the elegant curves of her lips to the melancholic expression of her eyes. Undine’s hair was a single mass, separated from her head through tinges in colourations and segmentation. Towards the tips, the hair parted into individual strands. Swirling patterns within created the image of it flowing eternally.

Salamander whistled. “Hot damn, Undine, from a girl to a lady.”

John could only agree. Undine indeed now looked very much like a lady. Standing at 1,78 metres she wasn’t small anymore either, which Sylph greatly lamented. “I am the smallest again, this is unfair, UNFAIR I TELL YOU! Or maybe it is secretly great? Yeah, I am the smallest now! The very smallest, like no one ever was!”

“I demand an orgy!” Sylph shouted, “I do not know how that will make things better but it feels fair, so I demand it, are my demands met?”

“Sylph, you can’t just first get your solo time when you evolve and then rain on Undine’s parad-”

“Sure,” Undine said, an exceedingly rare instance of her actually talking out loud. Her voice was even more graceful than her appearance. An opera could have been built for her and her alone. ‘I don’t want to monopolize,’ she added mentally.

Well, it seemed like the decision for the evening was made.