Collide Gamer

Chapter 161 – Season 2 Start – Catching-Up

“So, the patch is finally installed,” John stated. He went through the comments and windows a second, then a third time, making sure he caught everything that was worthy of catching. He had been hoping for these windows for a while now. “And she slightly nerfed me. I roughly understand why though.”

It was the beginning of December and John was sitting in a well-heated house in western Germany – Cologne, to be exact. It was a two-story building with light-brown wooden furniture that, while looking new, was crafted in a style he would expect from grandparents instead of his actual provider. Finely woven carpets here and there covered the otherwise blank wooden floor. The cement walls were covered with blue wallpaper. Lydia either liked the style a lot or valued consistency more than anything, considering the style was the same in every single room in the house.

John was currently sitting in the living room, for no other reason than the presence of a comfortable, red couch. A TV was mounted to the wall opposite him, currently turned off. John had been paying attention to the laptop in front of him instead. He had to look down, the coffee table too low for a straight angle. On the screen, Rave was very carefully drawing a brush over her nails.

“And, anything interesting in them?” she asked. Had she not been in the middle of applying her nail polish, she probably would have been more excited.

“Mhm, apparently I get to pick a class now,” he said, similarly calm, then dismissed the windows. There was a factor of delight in having his powers back, but facetime with his girlfriend was more important. It had been a rare gift recently.

Following the start of the patch in the hospital, everything had gradually progressed to him sitting in this house. He had had to call the princess to tell her that his powers were currently disabled the day after. At first, she had sounded very annoyed by this. After John explained the situation in more detail, she had sounded appeased. “As long as it is less than three months it is fine,” she had said, “you are coming with me anyhow.”

And that was where the problems had started. Regan had been vehemently against Rave leaving but John could not exactly stay while the woman he was owing 500 billion dollars to was figuratively knocking on his door.

Amidst all of that his mother had come back to see if he was capable of living on his own. She decided he was but when he told her he was going to Germany, she had been understandably surprised. He had asked Lydia for an excuse and she provided him with a fake message over studying abroad, complete with Ashcroft academy’s backing. That let him worm his way out of suspicions fairly easily. Benjamin, John’s dad, approved of the move, but only after a very stern phone call regarding the importance of communication between family members. John’s dad was not good at being stern.

With all of that, John had been ready. Rave however had not been as lucky with her family situation. Regan refused to let her go. Rave could have fled from her father’s overprotective clutches; however, she did not want to be on bad terms with the only part of her family with whom she was still close. John could understand that and so it was that, while he flew over to Germany, Rave had stayed behind to negotiate with her dad.

John was beyond confident that she would eventually convince Regan to let her go. Still, to be without her again, after having just reunited with her, stung. At least she was alive and well this time though.

Regan had given in eventually, on the condition that Rave would first train until he thought she was strong enough. That was okay and all in theory, but since then about one and a half months had passed. Worse yet, Rave had requested John leave a certain something, or rather someone, with her.

The door behind Rave swung open and Aclysia entered. With quick steps, noticing John on the screen, she walked over to Rave and put a bowl of soup in front of her. ’So, it is around noon over there right now,’ John noted as Rave brushed back her hair to eat. One day, she had just popped up on camera with her hair bright pink again. Something about using magic to grow it out and then cutting off the grey ends.

“Your meal, mistress,” she explained, then added, “Greetings, Master.”

“I wonder when ya will stop calling me mistress,” Rave pouted.

“When I forgive you for the distance you have put between me and my John,” the maid declared openly. It was mostly a joke, one he had heard many times before. Rave blew hot air off her soup.

“Hello, Aclysia, how are you today?” John asked. He missed the maid, a lot. Being without her had been difficult to get used to. On the plus side, he had actually been tested on running a household on his own for several weeks. It was going… okay.

“I am fine, Master. I just miss you.” The twinge of sadness in her voice plucked at his heartstrings.

“Ya know that I am right here, right?” Rave asked between two spoons of soup. False anger resonating in her voice, she pointed at the camera, “Ya better don’t go cheating on me!”

John raised his hand in a defensive motion, “I would never!” he assured, then added with a broad smile. “Well, maybe if there was somebody around to cheat with.”

“There’s one…” Rave teased.

John was confused, “Who? Mono? I wasn’t able to feed her items. Generating them was disabled until just now. She is still level 71, Libido 0. And I can’t exactly cheat on you with the elementals when you allow me to have sex with them.”

“’Course they don’t count, although it’s still BS that they get more of you than I do.” Rave let out a little laugh. “Not who I mean though, think about it for a second.”

John was left pondering. They both knew Lydia had dumped him into this house. The moment they had landed she had started making phone calls like a CEO on cocaine when his stocks began to rise. This eventually ended with her saying the phrase, “Give me your money, I will take care of the rest.”

He did and so did she. At the end of the day, he found himself in this house. The last words he had heard from the princess were, “Call me when you have your powers back.” Since then, there had been radio silence.

Now, normally John would not have minded the solitude. Lydia had even upgraded his phone to Abyss standards (he could now charge it using his mana and it had a connection just about everywhere), but he had nothing to play videogames on BUT his phone now.

Because the princess had taken all of his money he couldn’t buy a PC or laptop either and without the ability to farm new money he was stuck playing phone games or uselessly fighting monsters. If he hadn’t been able to still talk to his elementals, boredom may have claimed him before long. He was just walking around, talking to the incorporeal elementals, trying to find everything the city had to offer. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t much of a sightseeing person. After two weeks of that he had unexpectedly met someone.

The door behind John opened. ‘Thinking of the devil,’ he thought and looked to his left at the door, where he saw Herman carrying groceries. “You came back pretty late today,” he commented as the apothecary inspected his socks for any dirt he might carry into the house. Thrice he did that for each foot.

“Sorry, lots of stuff to do,” Herman answered with an apologetic smile, “the meeting is coming closer, don’t want to miss it, so I checked who was there already.”

Herman was in Cologne because of a meeting of WW2 veterans, including direct family. Running into him had been a giant coincidence. John had not known that the apothecary was of German descent before, although the name made it somewhat obvious. As always that memory made him sigh and he mumbled, “I am surrounded by Kraut.”

“I am not German!” Rave protested.

“You still speak fluent Kraut thought,” John ragged her on.

“So do you,” she drily reminded him.

“True,” John admitted. He had started learning German shortly after Lydia had left and diligently kept at it. With his level of Intellect and Wisdom, picking up a new language was surprisingly easy and had been useful enough. Cologne was a fairly tourism heavy city and he could get around with just English, but why risk not understanding things – especially once he did get into contact with the Abyss again.

“Thanks for letting me stay here by the way,” Herman said. Repeating a semi-daily ritual, John answered.

“Hey, I thank you for letting me use your laptop, also for keeping me company.”

“Anything for you, friend,” Herman smiled, “I bought some stuff to make a lasagne, you want some?”

“Sure, want to play Street Fighter later?”

“Sure!” Herman answered enthusiastically and vanished in the kitchen, just one door away. This agreement was a lifesaver for both of them. Herman would have had to stay in a hotel, alone, and John would have had to stay here, alone. This way neither of them would be bored out of their minds.

He turned back and found his wide-grinning pink-haired girlfriend staring at him with raised eyebrows. “What?” John asked.

“Ya two are so gay for each other,” Rave giggled and then mimicked his tone, “Herman, baby, spread that lasagne!”

“You have a terrible sense of humour,” John said but still chuckled a bit.

“Maybe, but I am smoking hot, so it’s okay.” Rave took a moment to stick out her tongue, before getting back to eating her soup.

“Am I supposed to believe that you are NOT having sex with Aclysia by the way?” He probed, “Because I have evidence that proves otherwise.”

Rave handed the now empty bowl back to Aclysia. “Nope, totally fucking her,” she stated. “Why do ya think I wanted to keep her here? No way you get to enjoy our harem all on your own, while I have to sit here and masturbate.”

The Artificial Guardian took the bowl but remained where she was. She typically lingered during these conversations. Her not taking away the dirty dishes immediately was unusual though. “Mistress, don’t you have something to tell Master?” she asked.

Rave thought for a moment and then her face lit up. “Ah, right!” She snapped her fingers, revealing the copper wristband that was her itemized elemental for one moment. “Dad finally agreed to let me go!” she chirped.

A warm and cold feeling rose in John’s stomach, excitement and annoyance about the mild delay mingling, “How did you forget to tell me that?!”

“Oh, I am sorry,” Rave shot back, “I was about to when a certain game addict said, ‘Hold on, I think my patch is finally up’ and left me to do my nails.”

“Point taken,” John immediately gave, the reasonable and happy part of his brain taking over. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“He said he taught me enough that he is confident to let me go into the world,” Rave grinned, “Wonder if my level is higher than yours again.”

“Well, if I try to Observe you right now I only get the laptop, so no idea.” Observe was limited in a number of ways and one of the most intuitive ones was whether he had line of sight on a person. “When will you be here?”

“About two days, I hope you have room for me.”

“There is always room in my bed,” John said with a perverted grin and got a wink as his response. It wasn’t even true, his bed often was a pile of limbs, but the spirit remained.

Then there was nothing more to talk about. A few minutes of happy silence ensued. Rave finished her nails and Aclysia eventually left the room. Finally, John looked at the clock in the corner of the monitor and with a sigh he said, “I’ll have to go now, see you tomorrow?”

“Maybe not see, but you will hear from me,” Rave told him, “I demand pretty flowers when you greet me at the airport!”

John wanted to ask what kind but she had already ended the call. Something told him that she would ignore the question completely tomorrow.

John shut the laptop down and stood up. Stretching, he looked around. Aside from the couch and television formation he was currently at, the room was only filled with a long table with six chairs. In one of these chairs sat the only other person that was a permanent inhabitant of the house.

Mono, resting her head on her hand, was reading a detective story that Herman had lent her. The guy had a surprising amount of those kinds of books. The Artificial Support, meanwhile, had turned out to be quite the voracious reader. Just like John had been able to learn a language in under two months, Mono’s Intellect allowed her to consume several books a day. Not having to take pee, sleep, or food breaks probably also helped.

Herman returned from the kitchen. “So, the lasagne is now in the oven, what do we do to pass the time? Street Fighter?”

“Sounds good.” John sat down again after pressing the button on the Playstation 4 (which was also Herman’s).

“Any news from Jane?” Herman asked.

“She is coming over in around two days,” John informed him.

The apothecary smiled a calm, happy smile. “Really? That’s great!” he said enthusiastically, as he executed a combo that sent John’s character flying.

“Always Ryu with you,” the Gamer grumbled, smashing a series of buttons in an effort to save himself.

“I like his character,” Herman mused.

“Sure, sure, but do you also like this?!” John exclaimed, executing a well-timed grapple. One throw was chained into a series of hits, and the game was his.

Herman put the controller down after a few more matches. “I think I have won like five times against you in the month we have been here,” he complained.

“Yet you keep coming back.”

“I can be very stubborn,” Herman said in a tone that sounded the complete opposite of stubborn. Then he stood up. “I’ll check on what I have cooking. Wouldn’t want to ruin my food project.”

John nodded and sat there for a few seconds. Then he also stood up. “Well, I have a call to make,”

“To whom?” Herman shouted out of the kitchen.

“The princess,” John shouted back, “my powers are back!”

Herman stuck his head back out of the kitchen, “That sounds like something important you could have told me – and her earlier. You don’t mess with monarchs and their orders!”

“Pretty sure she’ll survive some additional waiting,” John stated and punched in the number of the princess of steel. He seriously doubted she’d mind that much.