The platform hovered back down to the roof of the central palace, powered by the core of the Creator. It hovered in the centre, above the pieces of plate and the human skeleton that had fallen to the ground, lifelessly, and were now dispersing into dust. Like all dungeon monsters, even those self-aware, the Creator was turned into particles that then vanished entirely. Once they were settled back on the roof and the stone had magically fused back together, no marks of battle or other changes retained, the core fell down. It bounced twice, before John caught it and inspected the guaranteed Legendary drop.

“Huh, no wonder he was the slightest bit interesting,” John remarked and turned the baseball sized object in his hand. “This can be used to create an Artificial Spirit with his abilities and personality.”

“Ya gonna do that?” Rave asked.

“Even if I had the mana regeneration to consider that, which I don’t, I wouldn’t,” the Gamer responded, while putting the Heart of the Creator away. “I don’t know if he’d be that useful and I don’t want an actual man in my direct vicinity. Stirwin and Cappy are alright, because animals aren’t competition.”

“A, ya don’t need to be that paranoid, tiger, ya don’t really got competition.” Rave scratched the back of his head with her index finger. “Second,” she added her pinkie, “ya sure none of us develop a bestiality fetish?”

“You just said: ‘Don’t worry, but you have to worry’,” the Gamer drily pointed out.

Momo blew air out of her nose. “Hey, we could also get insulted at the idea that we’d just hop on another dick that’s around just because it’s available. Bit more trust in your loves, okay?”

“Fair point,” the Gamer sighed, leaning into the head scratches. “I just don’t like having permanent male residents in my head. Stirwin is good because he’s… well, my conscience, in a way. No need to add more.” That wording got him accepting nods around and they turned to the two current matters: namely the chest that had appeared while they were landing and the window that appeared before him.

There was the choice for the arsenal again, but John still cared little for the Loot. Going the More Power route still felt the best and more SEP could be thrown into some additional options. Although he generally preferred to use them to improve his own set of Skills, he didn’t want to further mess with what he had currently. He hadn’t even tested Starfall thoroughly yet, since they were concentrating on Raids and these types of spells were either useless or countered by a specific mechanic.

Instead, he could either exchange the SEP for Artificial Spirit Perks, a worthwhile investment with the current monster girl Perks providing such value, or upgrade his elementals slightly. Very slightly, it had to be said. One SEP equalled a +1 in their Main Stats OR a -1 on MP upkeep OR a +1 in a chosen Stat. It was obviously an endgame mechanic to sink excess resources, so he didn’t really consider it yet.

AS Perks had the drawbacks of having a ramping cost (each Perk bought previously with SEP permanently increased the cost by one). He had already brought two Perks for Aclysia in the past, so buying one for her would cost 3 SEP. Better to invest that in Momo and Metra. Beatrice was obviously out, the symmetry demanded it.

‘Four levels today, five when I max out Experience of Love. That’s pretty good,’ John thought. “Let’s see what we got this time around.” With those words, he strutted up to the chest. He stopped next to it and smiled at Beatrice, then Metra, Gnome and Salamander. “Since you did the most work this round, how about you get the loot out.”

The four of them smiled in their individual ways, whether that was the barest hint of lip movement or a wide grin, and made their way over. Metra and Salamander competed for a moment over who would take centre stage, before glancing at Gnome and coming to a gentlewoman’s agreement that the cuddle rock should have the highest honour.

“Y-you sure?” the season elemental asked. “I mean… I didn’t do that much…”

“I saw you punch a dent in the guy,” Metra disagreed. “With your fucking fist.”

“I… I mean, I g-guess that was kind of impressive?”

Salamander rolled her eyes. “Get your act together, leader.”

“Compliment: you are a valued and deeply necessary member of this team,” Beatrice added. “Also, your hair is nice and you smell of flowers.”

Metra shook her head. “Listing it like that makes you sound so fucking insincere.”

“Retort: cursing like that unnecessarily lengthens your sentences and makes you a poorer communicator.”

“Uhm… Umu!” Gnome pumped her fists and took the charge, kneeling down in front of the chest. Banter ceased when she shoved the flat piece of stone that sealed the top back. Inside was a deep darkness, into which she had to reach to pull out the items they had been rewarded with, some of which could be larger than the chest should allow.

Even though the loot had so rarely an impact on any of them, getting their hands on a nice batch of it remained similar to getting their hands on boxes of presents for Christmas. Sure, most of the toys would be forgotten in the span of a few days or weeks, but there was always the chance for something really exciting.

“So, we have… another Augmentation Potion.” Gnome presented the bottle of a greyish fluid to John.

“Hm, I’ll find some use for that,” he hummed. The two he already had would likely go to Chemilia and Ted. He wasn’t sure if that would help, since they had already gotten accustomed to their artificial limbs. No harm in trying it though. “What else?”

“You tell me, stud,” Salamander said, after pulling a dark metal out of the box. The ingot was perfectly shaped, like an asset in a video game. Observe revealed it to be Gravinium.

“Oh, that’s interesting, it can be used to create self-sufficient gravity changes in an area,” the Gamer reported. Obviously that material was ‘used’ all over the Twisted City. “Not sure what I’ll do with it.”

“Do you know what to do with two?” Metra asked and waved around the second ingot she had just pulled out of the chest. “Wait, let me guess: you’ll pass them on to Scarlett to see if she can come up with something that’s semi-useful.”

“I knew I didn’t raise your Mental Stats for nothing.” John snickered.

“Yes, good job, you want some headpats?” Metra asked. “Or do you want me to crush your head between my thighs? I hear guys are into that these days.”

“I refuse to believe that they weren’t in the past,” the Gamer returned.

“Statement: something else for Scarlett,” Beatrice announced, a binder in her hand. It was already open and revealed inside parchment covered in pictures of the weapons used by the Ohmior Knights and lengthy explanations on how to make them.

“If that’s mass producible, it may help boost general equipment standards again,” the Gamer hummed. “Not sure how much Ohmior Silver we can get our hands on… it’s essentially a Mithril-Steel alloy, not something we have in excess. Then again, with the new Mine Schematics and the march of time, we’ll be able to make more and more.”

Metra reached in and pulled out a bar of Ohmior Silver right that moment. However, it was tainted by purple marks, so John immediately threw it into his inventory for later removal. “What happens to the excess weapons of your soldiers anyway?” the First of Wrath asked. “You keep increasing the equipment quality, so where does all of the outdated shit go?”

“They keep it,” John responded, soon adding another two Mithril Ingots to his inventory. “Unless it’s a dishonourable discharge, soldiers keep all of the equipment they were given during their service. It’s part of the send-off package. They can keep them as heirlooms or sell them for retirement cash or whatever else they want to do.”

With time, John imagined that it would somewhat resemble the US gun market, where old and new weapons were scattered all over the country. He had no particularly hard opinion about that state of affairs, mostly because guns were about as threatening to him as toothpicks were to a mundane person. When it came to the Abyssal side of things, the right and access to arms was a deep necessity. Not allowing it only furthered the gap between those born with Innate Abilities and those without.

“So… what’s this, John?” Gnome got her summoner’s attention by raising a peculiar object in his direction. A long piece of Mithril shimmered in its silvery white colour in the sunlight of the afternoon. It was roughly fifteen centimetres long and consisted of a finger-wide, flat spine and a number of side arms that extended out to the sides or artistically curved back to the spine in a decoratively winding pattern. Small tendrils of dark energy occasionally manifested, winding around segments of the object like tiny snakes.

“That… makes me so sad,” the Gamer sighed. “It’s the Voidtouched Maker’s Hand.”

“And whaddaboutit makes ya sad?” Rave asked, slurring.

“It has an Enchantment that decreases the number of Artificial Spirits that count towards upkeep by two,” he responded to his girlfriend. “It also has an Enchantment that fills your head with whispers of the void and you equip it by making it bind to your flesh. Says I can’t unequip it by regular means.” He scratched the back of his head. “Obviously I’m not putting that inside my body… really hope that secret boss has a cleanse option of some variety.”

“We got the cape too,” Salamander announced, raising the unblemished white piece of cloth upwards. Valontir, as the cape was called, boasted impressive protective enchantments. Not quite as impressive as they had been when the Creator had worn it, it had to be said. As was typical with video games, when an enemy wore something, it was boosted in power to account for the failings of the NPC’s mind (or lack thereof). “No shoulder pads with it.”

“To be honest, those were way too large, even by proportion, for anyone to want to run around with them,” John said and inspected the cape closer. Then he looked over the group. The elementals got no benefit from carrying items, enchantments for one reason or another did not work properly when used by them. Same was true for the Artificial Spirit, with the exception of weaponry.

Nia couldn’t make use of it either. Anything large she carried would be left behind when she teleported and it would interfere with her anti-magic anyhow. Best case it was just a nuisance and worst case she gradually destroyed it while unnecessarily pushing her towards fading.

Of those present, that only left Rave as a potential candidate to take the cape. “I don’t really vibe with cape wearing,” his girlfriend guessed his thoughts. “Lydia, maybe? Doesn’t really strike me as the type either.”

“Yeah… maybe I will forward it to Ted and Chemilia too,” John decided. The cape was good, but none of them really needed or wanted it. As for himself, stupid as he found that particular bit of design, Valontir took the Chest Slot, and if he had to choose between the cape and his suit, the Gamer would obviously go with the Suit of the Chosen. “That’s it then?”

“Uh, no, there’s also this?” Gnome said and pulled out a book. It looked a lot like those extraordinarily decorated Bibles. The cover was made from thick leather and decorated with golden letters that spelled out ‘Creator’s Wisdoms’. “Second Legendary, right?”

“Yeah,” John said and cast Observe.

The Gamer hummed and rubbed his chin. ‘I can’t really evolve Possession, because I’ll go blind without it, but I wouldn’t say no to a new Skill,’ he thought. Only question was whether he’d rather buy AS Perks or get one of these new Skills. Given that there was a Class attached, it drove him to the latter. Plus, this was from a Legendary drop, so those Skills had to be really good.

Although all three of those were pretty great, Creator Puppet was the clear favourite. Spy Puppets were really good. Like, absolutely absurdly good. John could create himself about a dozen small spiders or other insects, scatter them about the globe, and use them to gather information. What dissuaded him from that option, aside from a sense of decency, was the competition.

Armour Puppet was pretty okay. John would never complain about free defence, but it was comparatively underwhelming.

What made Creator Puppet the best of those three, even though its use requirements were the most stringent, was that it gave John the deeply coveted ability to be at numerous places at the same time. Possession had the disadvantage that it was limited by range, gracious as it had been. The Creator Puppet would not be. Both had the problem that the possessed body was obviously an animated object and that it could not speak. Both problems that he hoped the affiliated Class could remove.

If he could upgrade the Creator Puppet to a state where it essentially became a second Extension, that’d make his life a lot easier. Even with two bodies he sometimes had issues meeting the demands of both love and state. Obviously, best case, the Creator Puppet was also able to have sex, but John would be content if it could speak and looked like him, so he could travel with it.

With that hope in mind, the choice was made.

‘Two new Classes from this Raid. Levels weren’t that bad either, given that it’s only been two and a half days,’ the Gamer thought. ‘Aside from the frustration of unearned victories, pretty good.’ “Okay, let’s check out the Secret Boss.”

_____________________________________________________________________

John carefully moved the Heart of the Creator up to the coin-sized remains of Ruhrszatch. The closer he got, the more he could feel an anticipating greed grow in the air. ‘This is another one of these terrible decisions I would never make in reality,’ the Gamer thought, when the greed became so thick it physically pulled at the core. He let go and the sphere of crystal, stone and metal was sucked towards the void’s remains. The two occupied the same spot in space for a couple of seconds.

Then deep purple light oozed out of the Heart of the Creator, expanding and ebbing in beats. Black mist poured down onto the flat surface of the altar, spreading outwards and creeping towards the edge of the square platform. John recognized a transition animation and moved out of aggro range.

“A WORTHY VESSEL!” the voice of Ruhrszatch boomed. A new form was created around the hovering Heart of the Creator. Void energy burrowed into the city on whose underside they stood, cracking stones and metal out of the surface and binding them together with the semi-liquid matter of the nothingness. Out of that binding emerged the boss.

“THANK YOU!” the boss yelled, spreading draconic wings and beating them once. More hovering than flying, the Lord of Nothing travelled to the back of the arena, raising both hands and lifting it half a metre upwards through dramatic magic. The implication was clear: this would be another fight on a flying platform. “NOW DIE SO I MAY BE UNLEASHED ON REALITY!” Despite his threatening words, the boss just kept hovering at the back, waiting for them to attack.

‘There’ll probably be a lot of reused mechanics,’ the Gamer guessed calmly and turned to Lorelei, who they had fetched before coming here. “What do you see here?”

“I divine… a barrage of attacks greeting you,” Lorelei began her seeing. “You will need to dance through snakes and hostile energies, through scythe and creatures. After you survive the gauntlet, the boss will become vulnerable. Yet, he will also surround you in a shrinking cage. Cut deep or you will perish. His plan foiled, you will fight him head on. Darkness will continue to harass you, the scythe will cut you down. Then all will turn chaotic, as the beast lashes out in desperation. Finally, once it has been weakened enough, the true mind of the heart awakens once again and channels the newfound emptiness with deadly grace and deep cold.”

“Jesus… so… five phase final fight,” John tried to translate all of that. “First phase is a continuous assault of attacks that we have to avoid. Second phase sounds like it starts on a timer and we’ll have to then damage the boss enough before we get crushed by the cage. Third phase we actually fight him. Fourth phase, we fight him but the Ruhrszatch influence is going extreme. Fifth phase, we fight him, but the Creator is more in control and there’s a constant damage aura.” He smiled in anticipation. “Plus, he is almost at our level. We’re still slightly above, but not enough to let us get away with any sloppy mistakes. Everyone ready for a proper challenge?”