Tuesday, 15th of January 2019.

The weather was cold, which made John extra thankful that Magoi himself had come around. With a bit of preparation and alongside teaching his two children, the High Fateweaver put up a number of barracks that let Fusion’s military rest in a warm place. Beyond that, John didn’t get to see much of any of the Magus’ family. They were part of the battlefield preparation. For pre-agreed reasons, that meant communication stayed at a minimum.

Similarly, although John wanted to, he couldn’t discuss much strategy with his soldiers. All that could be established in advance was who partook in the battle, what the chain of command was, and how they would communicate. The answers were, respectively: 45 of Fusion’s average soldiers and 5 of the squad captains, groups of 9 under the 5, with the squad captains having a temporary hierarchy between them, and, lastly, via earpieces Scarlett had constructed.

They weren’t allowed to do any special drills beforehand. The forces they picked were meant to be representative of the average of their organizations. After all, the first competition was less a direct competition of fighting power and more about battlefield tactics. If John spent the day until the clash began in time dilation with those soldiers, he could drill into them a whole lot of specific reactions that the average soldier did not have, thus undermining the spirit of the exercise.

As much as John wanted to win, he wanted to do so properly.

Therefore, the Gamer could do little more than walk around with Chemilia and inspect the conditions of the temporary housing. It was as great as the circumstances could demand. The two generals even had their own, larger lodge at the end. “Sorry to separate you from Ted, by the way,” John apologized, just to make small talk, after they had headed inside.

“You may want to consider expanding the general staff,” Chemilia responded. “Having only four people for the number of duties we have at this point is too low.”

John nodded, he had considered that before. Chemilia was the general in charge of logistics, Ted of on-the-ground leadership and training, Elu of defensive stratagems around the east coast, and Nia of the elite individuals in the army. It was a fairly random selection of specializations. As the pink-haired general pointed out, it was also too little to oversee everything that needed overseeing.

The Gamer looked around, checking the room for any magical spyware, before he said, “At least when it comes to the current post-Gestalt issues, or similar things, the secret services should be able to take over after they get established.” He sighed and sat down on a remarkably normal chair. “Same issue with establishing them as there is for promoting more generals: it’s really hard to find qualified people. Fusion got pretty far just poaching who was around before, but that doesn’t work well for important offices.” He clicked his tongue. “We may have to wait a couple of years and just let the meritocracy sort things out.”

“Some kind of conflict would help with that,” Chemilia told him, putting her left leg up. The illusion that covered its mechanical nature vanished. Reaching into her personal pocket dimension, she pulled out a couple of maintenance tools. Nothing about her leg looked dysfunctional. It was smart to be ahead of the malfunction of one’s limbs, however. “Fusion’s army sees very little action outside of mock battles and supporting law enforcement. Neither are places where leadership can truly distinguish itself.”

“Yeah… a disadvantage of the way I do things,” the Gamer agreed. The vast majority of expansions were done only through direct action of John. This left little room for his soldiers to get in danger. The Training Hall allowed them to accrue power and their equipment was above the norm, but they lacked experience in using either. The only battle they had gotten in so far was the Hudson Brawl. Everything else was minor, a scout mission, or had no survivors (the Death Zone). “Maybe we should expand the scope of the wargames.”

“Unless you find something else to test them in, it’ll have to do.”

They continued chatting about this and that for half an hour, then John decided to leave and go try to do something productive. He was level 469 now, in two days he would be 470, courtesy of Experience of Love.

There was nothing important in recent developments. Artificial Spirit was still 9 levels away from the next Perk, which was also the only goal, Skill wise, that John currently had. SEP were needed to unlock Chains of Babylon and Skyfall. Generally, progress on his Skills had slowed. That was no surprise, his kit was basically full at this point. He had fantastic defences and mobility, incredible range, decent damage, and alright melee capabilities. His crowd control could use some polishing, which was exactly what Chains of Babylon was for. Beyond that, he was pretty set. More upgrades and additions would be welcome, but were not strictly necessary to fill any gap. The same could be said about his gear.

Class Perks were his current main avenue of progression. Mostly because Skill improvements were also rolled into it. Had there been a separate system to unlock Skill Perks, perhaps he could have focused more on that. As it was, the Classes did everything.

‘Well, let’s see if I get lucky with the Perks today,’ he thought and resumed his search for a way to narrow Adventure selection.

He had to go through four Challenges. First was to create a Protected Space a minute faster than he had before. Usually when John put these up, it was like part of his computing power was claimed by a background process. He couldn’t ignore it, but he didn’t need to pay a lot of attention either. A physical simile would be to pour water down a graciously large hole, using a bucket. He had to pay a bit of attention to repeat the motion correctly, otherwise it was sheer repetition.

Because it was exactly as dull as pouring water down a hole, John kept it as an automatic background process most of the time. The Challenge just requested that he did it manually and optimally.

Challenge two was to set up a Protected Space while getting a serious blowjob from Nathalia. That was a lot more entertaining and also incredibly difficult. All of those deepthroat-accompanied phone calls he had been making at work for the past months had prepared him somewhat for this, though, and he kept his concentration just enough to get this done.

Challenge three was to clear an Adventure in less than thirty minutes. Since John was short on time, this worked perfectly for him. The Adventure was another made-up Kingdom, so he just ruthlessly stomped his way through the five Quests and got himself 50 GP and the Challenge completed.

The last Challenge of the level was to materialize certain structures in his barriers. That had less to do with Protected Spaces than Illusion Barriers in general, but there had to be some of those in there.

After all of that, the seventh Perk of the Class finally rolled around in the nightly hours of Tuesday.

‘And there it is,’ John thought, leaving the Illusion Barrier he had practiced in behind, and started his walk back to the bus. It was late and he had to be rested tomorrow. Walking and reading at the same time was a skill he had picked up long before he had even gotten these powers. Not getting invested in things he couldn’t have, however, was a talent he lacked.

Create Trap Barrier was outside of what John needed. Regardless, he wanted to have it because it could come in handy. Compared to the other choice, it was utterly mediocre though. Fateweaving in all his barriers would make life a lot easier. Right now he only had Escape Rope to get out of his own dungeons partway. With Fateweaving, he could do some truly dangerous grinding without Magoi or another Fateweaver around.

Kingdom Theme, however, was what he had wanted to find. Three words was a little low to cover exactly what he needed. Something like “Soul Condensing Machine” or “Crystallization of Soul” could work, even if it wasn’t as specific as he wanted. The specific wording could be thought about. Important was that he had an avenue to get there.

All he had to do was give up one of the greatest self-sufficiency abilities around.

John sighed. There was no debate of what he should do. He had given his word and his ambition drove him. Besides, there were other innovations that he could appropriate from the infinity of the cosmos. There was a reason there was a 3-month cooldown on that ability. Otherwise, John would have put in ‘Astrotium Strip Mines’ every single day. The new limit would have meant nothing in that case.

Resigned and eager to explore opportunities, John tapped on Kingdom Theme, just as he returned to the bus barrier. He entered through the door at the back and walked up the four steps that separated the storage, bathroom, and engine sections of the vehicle from the mundane living quarters. For a bus, the kitchen, table, and miniature living room were all fairly spacious. Most people between 20 and 40 years old would have been content calling this their home, if there had been a bed. Said bed would be on the second floor of the bus. If the dimensional stretching was toggled off, the bedroom was all that was accessible. How exactly that worked for the other rooms, the Gamer didn’t quite understand. There was a science to the way things folded when they were compressed. He hadn’t studied it (yet).

The door at the top of the second flight of stairs was tightly sealed. Dimensional enchantments worked best if the border was solid. Mana cost would ramp up and become unsustainable if there was too much access. John opened the door and was met with a soft breeze. Because they could never open a window, technical and magical solutions had to be found for certain problems few ever thought about – like air quality.

Obviously, the room was way too hot. John had been out in the winter air for several hours and Rave had control over the thermostat in the meantime. Tapping the ‘nude’ button in his Equipment Sets selection brought some immediate relief. Stark naked, he wandered into a typical harem scene. All of his women were back in their mobile home and doing whatever it was they wanted. They waved him hello. After he cleared his throat, they paid him proper attention.

“I got a Perk that should allow me to go through with saving Delicia – the alchemist,” he added that last bit in case anyone had forgotten the shortstack’s name. “I can give some limited specifications on what Adventure I want to go on. Comes with a cooldown…” he quickly explained the way the Perk worked.

“When are we going?” Rave asked. “Tomorrow?”

“I don’t think this is something we’ll get done in an afternoon,” John responded in an amused tone. “Plus, I need to think about the best three-word combination to maximize the odds. For all we know, we only get one shot at this. Nobody knows how long Delicia will stay around.”

“If all goes well, we’ll be done with the Order by the end of the week anyway,” Momo added, tapping something into her laptop.

Scarlett sipped on her whiskey. “We’ll be done with them as a roadblock.”

“Which is good enough to send our attention elsewhere,” John hummed and pulled the laptop away from Momo.

“Hey!” she protested, trying to get back the device and continue on the email she was writing.

John snapped his fingers. “Momo, are you horny?”

“Oh ffffuuuuuck, youuu,” she moaned, words drawn out by the sudden surge of lust that took over her body. That the hypnotic command worked proved that she would rather do some sexual things than work. They both understood that, but she had to be sassy about it anyway. “I have your country to manage!”

“Hmmm, well, let’s ask more questions then,” John responded with a domineering grin. “Do you love your work or…” he snapped his fingers again, “…Momo, do you love my cock?”

Momo swallowed, her white eyes darted down to the Gamer’s dick. Used as he was himself to orders like these leading to pleasurable outcomes, it was practically erect already. “Yes,” she responded to the questions.

Firmly, he pulled Momo out of her seat on the couch. The sassy support went down on her knees immediately, giving John her best defiant look. There was believability to it. Alongside the glare came the opening of her intensely pink lips. Her tongue lolled out, her chin was raised slightly, and she stretched her back so her mouth and entire body was in the perfect position to offer a blowjob. John just had to place the head of his dick on that glistening tongue and the gorgeous metal fairy took care of the rest.

“Scarlett, could you put up the map for me? The state one?” the Gamer requested.

“S-sssure,” the Technomancer slurred her words slightly, rubbing her clit while watching Momo fellate the harem ‘owner’. The screen previously taken by a music video now displayed the map.

Maps were difficult at the best of times and Abyssal borders were downright impossible to get right. Some revisions had been made recently, causing changes all over the place. The core of each guild was the same though.

Fusion was a union of 12 state-level guilds (3 of which had their own devolved parliament) and 2 territories administered by the military. The FCZ (Fusion Colonization Zone) was theoretically cleared for people to set up shop in, but after the Death Zone incident, few people felt that particularly calling. It would take decades for enough people to move in there to make it its own state.

“Alright, now give me the North America one,” the Gamer requested.

Beyond the order re-assessment, only the Golden Rose had changed in the west. They had gobbled up the remaining small fry around the US-Mexico border. Perhaps they had even expanded beyond, that was outside the scope of John’s current ambitions and would have to be checked when appropriate.

After they had the Order out of the way, there were two major obstacles remaining. One was the Outer Mandate, a set of small tributaries that paid up to the Mandate of Heaven across the ocean. The other was Mae Ea and what lay beyond it. The name could have been a random selection of letters, an unknown language or, as John feared, a reference to Ea. Ea was a Babylonian god and supposedly another name for Enki.

Ancient Mesopotamian religion was confusing at the best of times. Now that John had confirmed that the Lorylim had close connections to them through Tiamat, he was wary of anything that had the vaguest resemblance to it. There were no reports about anything like the Death Zone up in Mae Ea or Alaska. There were no outstanding reports about anything there period.

If something like another Death Zone could be hidden anywhere, it would be in a frigid, isolated wasteland. Or in the unclaimed mountains on the western half of the continent. Or somewhere in the jungles of Mexico.

Mae Ea looked suspicious, but it was far from the only choice.

John sighed, letting go of his brooding and instantly focusing on the eagerness with which Momo worshiped his cock. The Lorylim had to be dealt with no matter where they were. Eventually they would come back out to play, just like Jackal, their crazed alchemist. Until then, he could only prepare and go on as before.