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The Gamer Chapter 1457 – 27 Days of Preparation 11 – Metracana Master Perks
🕑 Added 2023-06-13 14:24:11 +0000 UTC
None of these were intensely interesting. None of these were terribly bad either. Matter of fact, both Servant Strike 2 and Juggernaut 2 were good and Servant’s Presence had a real-life utility that was difficult to put into numbers. John had personally gotten a lot of value out of his ability to project his emotions outwards. It made negotiations a bit easier when he could make physical both his honesty and his annoyance.
Giving Aclysia this tool was… dangerous.
Aclysia had a good handle on her obsessive, protective episodes but they still did leak out occasionally. To let other Abyssals feel the full force of her devotion and anger may actually lead to some cases of heart attacks. The average person was not built to receive emotions that intense.
“My preference is for the Servant’s Presence, Master,” Aclysia weighed in.
“Yeah, I guessed as much.” John scratched the back of his head. Of course she would like additional tools that let her intimidate the numerous bothers in his life. Stabbing a petulant politician, jeering journalist, stubborn stalker or annoying assailant was typically overkill. To stare them into submission, that would work. “Alright then,” he relented and confirmed the choice.
A simultaneously interesting and dull selection. Personally, John had hoped for wings. Aerial manoeuvrability was always a value. Seemed like Gaia decided not to give him that this time around.
The exact metal she enriched barely mattered at this point. With Delicia, they could convert any Celexium into another Celexium if she was just given enough time to go through the progress. All that mattered was that they had the same esoteric value.
With that in mind, John and Aclysia could look at this from a pure preference angle. Frost and Fire was interesting for the duality, but otherwise there was no reason to take it. Sure, it was neat to have two damage types available. Heating enemies up and freezing them was diametrically opposed though.
Frostfire was mildly more interesting. Effectively it increased the reach of her ice. Quite valuable for Aclysia, since she already had an aura that chilled the area around her. Double dipping on making her an area threat could help in her duty as a tank. Ignoring the person that persistently slowed and damaged was a death sentence.
With that in mind, Absolute Zero functioned just as well. It didn’t increase the range or the linger of her effects. Instead, it deepened the effects that already existed by making everything even colder. A whole twenty degrees deeper down the thermometer was a substantial increase in her frigidness.
“I’d say either Frostfire or Absolute Zero,” John stated. “Slight preference to Absolute Zero. We might fight with allies that aren’t in our Federation at some points and it might be difficult to keep all the chill-burning areas under control.”
“I agree. Please make the choice, Master,” Aclysia stated.
One down, five more to go. ‘The Perks for them always take so long,’ John thought, between excitement and weariness. It was cool to make so many mechanical choices, it was a bit tiring to do all of it at once though.
Those were three pretty powerful choices. Servant’s Presence on Beatrice at first sounded like it would be a whole lot of nothing. However, Beatrice did have her occasional spikes of emotions, rare as they were. She had her own little obsessive streak, inherited from Aclysia, and there were all the smug and sassy statements she could deliver with extra force. This had to be considered.
Rend was just a powerful addition to her arsenal. Needle Assault was intense burst damage against enemies with low defences. Sunder shattered defences. Rend would be a good damage multiplier against enemies who had natural defences not that easily removed. Combined with Perfect’s ability to hamper healing, it further increased her Swiss-army-knife approach to duelling.
Pendulum Stop 2 was insane just because of how rare anything related to time magic was in the Abyss. To halt time for three seconds was already absurd. Moving in the last of those three seconds, even at such a much-decreased speed, was good. Beatrice had an Agility of almost 3000. 30 Agility was still above Olympic athletes. Enough speed to, without obstruction by anyone else, begin a surprising movement.
Much as there was to consider about the pros and cons about each option and the opportunity cost involved in missing out, the choice was made from the moment Beatrice could pick something up Aclysia had just gotten. “Symmetry,” the passive maid said a single word.
“You are absolutely sure?”
“Affirmative.”
And that was all the talk that would be had on the matter.
“Statement: Electricity Dedication,” Beatrice stated, before John could even begin his usual contemplations. Well, that was a lie, his erudite mind had gone through his personal opinions already, but she spoke up quickly nonetheless.
“Any particular reason?” John asked.
“Explanation: Storm Dedication is powerful, but unnecessary. I already have aerial manoeuvrability through Endless Step. Plasma Dedication does not match my style. Increased effectiveness of electricity is preferred.”
“Alright then,” John tapped on the button.
That was the faux-twins done. Claire was next.
Those three were juicy. To make it night on demand was pretty impressive and synergized well with a variety of Claire’s Perks and other abilities. The cost was steep, but could be worth it if she stacked up on the benefits of escaping the yoke of natural sunrays.
Contagion was just a pretty typical and powerful vampire ability. Since Sanguine could be converted into either HP or MP, this could be seen as a lifesteal ability of a kind. It also was just bonus damage. Only constricting factor here seemed to be that her enemy was required to have blood.
Pack Leader was just good. Increasing coordination between Familiars was never bad.
John looked to Claire for preferences. The vampire maid tapped her lower lip with her index finger. Head swaying left to right, she gave it a long consideration. “I would like to suppress the sun. I would like to erase the daystar. I would like to not suffer the insufferable brightness when I wish it to be gone.”
“I understand,” John agreed. “It will narrow you down to certain choices, though. We’ll have to pick up more things that activate during the night to justify this.”
“Affirmative,” Claire hummed with a large smile. Must have felt really nice to stick it to the sun itself.
Thankfully, the system followed the choice up with a number of options that synergized with it.
The second coming of the Masquerade Perk was more deserving of the name than the first iteration. Back then, it had just allowed Claire to do some modifications to herself to be more in line with the general aesthetic of John’s maids (white hair, pale, bottom heavy, all of that).
The Estate was okay. Comparable Perks had popped up before, and while it was good for home security, John was not stressed about that topic. The only compromise on his home so far was something he merely suspected and that both Aclysia and Claire seemed to be in on. If that was what was happening. Paranoia aside, he didn’t think much of this one.
The Night was boring. Powerful, but boring.
“I do lean towards the Masquerade, but it’s not that good together with the Crimson Sun, is it?” Claire thought and sighed.
“Well, the giant bloody red ball in the sky will probably give away that something is going on,” John agreed with a chuckle. “It’s still good, though… we’re not exactly lacking infiltrators…” he glanced over to Siena and Undine, “…but another one, one that could do more than sneak in, would be useful.”
Passing as a mundane meant that she’d also pass as an extremely low power Abyssal. That, in turn, would allow her to interact with people in the target area. Something that Siena and Undine had difficulty doing. One lacked the capacity to shapeshift and the other was discovered for what she truly was by anyone beyond basic aura sight capabilities. They were also both constricted by John being in the same Illusion Barrier.
“I would definitely want the Masquerade if you had a teleportation already,” John mumbled. She, Momo, and Metra lacked the capacity of instantly warping back to him.
“It will likely show up at some point, right?” Claire asked and continued the tapping on her lower lip. “I would go with the Masquerade. You have enough powerful fighters. Besides, there is the emergency strategy. The Crimson Sun will help with that already.”
“…Right, you’ll be able to retain the power in the blood for longer…” John could not hide the mild disapproval in his voice. Claire’s emergency strategy was potent and something he wanted her to never use. The potential drawbacks were either numerous or none at all.
John picked the Perk and immediately something about Claire changed. Her eyes, as crimson as blood, with their slit pupils, shifted to green. Suddenly, they matched Aclysia, Beatrice, and even Metra flawlessly. “Finally!” she declared when she saw the changes through his eyes.
A wave of satisfaction washed through the room, Beatrice using her newfound aura to make her joy about the change known. Then the passive maid stared demandingly at Delicia. The blue-eyed woman was one of two outliers in the harem. “Why do you stare at me, but not at Momo, huh?!” the alchemist demanded to know.
“Explanation: her white eyes work well with her monochrome aesthetic. Your blue eyes stand out for no reason.”
“Maybe I stand out because I am just that awesome? Ever considered that?”
“No.”
While the two maids stared at each other, Claire rubbed her cheeks. Her bone structure and balance of fat throughout her face kept changing. Ultimately, she reverted back to her regular face, only keeping the green eyes. For a moment she switched back and forth between slit and regular pupils, ultimately staying with the former.
“You didn’t just pick the Perk to have the correct eye colour, right?” John had to ask.
“No, but it was a considerable bonus.” Claire smiled broadly at him. With her standing next to Aclysia and Beatrice, he couldn’t deny that her also having the emerald eyes pleased his sense of aesthetics immensely. The sense of a throughline was just more complete with them. That Momo was the biggest outlier just made sense.
“Couldn’t you just take a mutagen?” John then asked Delicia.
The alchemist was a cat girl at the moment – which had come with all of the little things John wanted from her at the time. She usually shifted back to goblin when she was heading out for work for the day.
“‘Course I could, i’m a genius,” Delicia responded flippantly. “Just have to adjust the mutagens a tad. What, you neeeeeed me to do that so desperately?” The maid poked his shoulder. “What, can’t stand just a little disorder around you? That much of a control freak?”
“And what if I am?” John growled back, letting her get that rise out of him. “Are you going to disobey your Master?”
“Is Master going to make me obey?” Delicia returned in a low voice, between begging and teasing.
“Our love will continue with the Perks, so we can go on with our grinding,” Lydia intervened. The entirety of the harem was only waiting for the Perk selection to conclude, so they could get back to their individual tasks. “May I remind that there’s a most important meeting coming up?”
“Right,” John agreed and moved on to Delicia’s options.
Three interesting choices, although none as impactful as Claire’s were. Particle Skin was good defence, Enter Laboratory was good utility, Disassemble Brew was also good utility. “Thoughts?” he asked the alchemist.
“Disassemble Brew is pretty nice for research purposes, but I’ll go with the laboratory to see where that is going,” Delicia responded.
John understood the logic. Since there was a whole segment of the window dedicated to ‘Laboratory Spells’, it should eventually manifest interesting effects. Best to get started on that early, even if Delicia currently had everything she could want in her own body and the Alchemy Lab back in the Guild Hall.
There was only one choice here. Sex Alchemy was, like usual, hot but not hot enough that John forgot that he had a life outside of sex. The Inventory Perk would pop up again when there was weaker competition. Conversion was busted.
Sure, there was the clause to prevent Delicia from upgrading dirt gradually into Astrotium. Even with that, understandable, limitation in place, she could still take a bunch of things and make them slightly better things. She was creating additional value out of nothing. It was insane. Whatever material constrictions still existed in John’s life, Delicia’s existence was making them mere suggestions.
“You probably have the most valuable body in existence,” John pointed out.
One of Delicia’s cat ears twitched. Boastfully, she put her hands into her hips and pushed her chest out. “I mean, of course I do,” she declared, bouncing on her heels just to make her big tits jiggle. “Now press the button. It’ll come in handy while we keep on with the project.”
John did, and that meant he had 4 done and 2 to go.
Two repeats, one teleport. Easy choice, no debate about it even. Finally having Momo be able to retreat to him in a pinch was a big worry eliminated.
Those were very interesting. The utility of Fae Swap was all right. The Fae Maids could get up to 5 kilometres away and the new Perk did make it sound like they would finally be able to have at least some intel swapping going on between them. That alone would make it worth it. The Fae Maids becoming more intelligent and being capable of switching places with Momo was just the cherry on top.
Snap was weird. It was the kind of chaos John found attractive on a design basis, but actually picking it, he wasn’t sure about. It felt like it’d lean into the ‘L-o-l so random’ side of faedom.
Step was a more controlled instance of fairy shenanigans. Momo being able to effectively teleport between places did have its utility, but why would she do it this way when Fae Swap was more reliable? The interesting part was that it’d allow the Fireflies to leave Illusion Barriers on their own, but what use was that without the information sharing from the hivemind?
“…C-can I have the Fae Swap?” Momo asked.
“You’re asking for it because it resolves the orgy question, aren’t you?” John asked and gave the supportive maid a smug grin. Immediately, she turned a deep red. There would be no more confusion about whether or not John could have sex with the Fae Maids if the Fae Maids were just extensions of Momo.
“Does so not matter!” the sassy support tried to deny, bringing her left heel down on the wooden floor. “I just want it, okay, perv?”
“Sure, sure,” John stated. “How about you have two of your Fae Maids appear in front of me?” He stood up and claimed an empty bit of room to stand on. “And how about you stand between them? Just so we can all follow the change?”
Momo, staying tomato red, did as requested. A red and a blue Fae Maid appeared at either side of her. The manifestations of her Perks were clad in modest maid outfits, something that would have been actually appropriate for the Victorian era, rather than just inspired by it. They had long, white hair. Their individual colour was manifest in the irises that filled out the entire eyes, the highlights on their translucent firefly wings and the glow of the insectoid extension attached to the back of their hips. Typically, that part was hidden, whisked away by the same magic that allowed this miracle in the first place. For now, John wanted to see what would happen.
Both of the Fae Maids were notably shorter than Momo, standing at 1,60, when she was a tall 1,78 metres. They did copy her general build: flat chest, slender shoulders, wide hips, thick thighs, and a round bottom. Their faces were an approximation of hers, without quite being it.
John pressed the button and watched those faces shift. The irises shrank to regular size, sitting in white sclera, while retaining the colour of the individual Fae Maid. Bone structure shifted, until he felt he was looking at long lost twins of Momo, rather than facsimiles. The Fae Maids grew until they stood as tall as Momo. The insectoid attachment to their hips disappeared, their translucent wings glowing in their stead.
After the changes had settled, John asked, “How does it feel?”
“””Weird,””” Momo answered with all three mouths. A deliberate action, proven by her rolling all three of the heads she now had control over. After a few experiments of individual and group coordination, she relinquished direct control over one of the two. The Fae Maid yawned and walked away, standing in the corner until someone needed her. That was the same behaviour they had displayed previously.
John met Momo’s gaze. A little bit of lust was communicated, before she quickly glanced down. ‘Ever acting like she doesn’t want it,’ the Gamer thought. ‘I’ll do her the favour of giving her plausible deniability, I guess. No one will believe her anyway.’ He grabbed the second Fae Maid by the chin and stated. “Strip.”
The conservative maid outfit exploded into a cloud of plant fibres. They shifted out of existence before most of them had hit the ground, filling the room with the fragrance of the forest. John paid none of that any mind, instead reaching between the thick thighs of the blue eyed Momo copy. Quickly wetting pussy lips gave his fingers an easy target. He curved inside and the owner of the hivemind gasped.
“Sounds like you feel that,” John poured.
“U-huh,” Momo let out a confirming moan, suddenly too taken by pleasure to be embarrassed.
With a whisper in her ear, John changed that, “Someone was quite interested in seeing me claim her extensions.” The heat rushed back to Momo’s face. Her mouth opened, only for her to bite her lower lip when he penetrated her cunt with his fingers as well. “Do you feel me twice now?”
A strong nod and an even stronger shiver. The latter was going through John as much as her. Many a fantasy about a massive harem of maids was suddenly reality – even more than it had been before. 51 Momos were now at his fingertips at all times and whatever he did to one of them would drive her mental. If preferred, they could always choose to just have the extra bodies act with their base individuality or just be insects that hung around the area.
Between her and Undine, orgies could now escalate to truly absurd proportions.
John let the two Momos ride his fingers to conclusion. It took barely any time at all. “We’ll see what it looks like when I push three of you against the wall later,” he threatened her with a good time. A meek nod, the sign of a brat too eager to put up her usual resistance, was all the response he got.
“Alright, Metra, let’s get to you.”
“Finally,” the First of Wrath exclaimed.
Two repeats, one new Spender. John had no clear preference here. Last time around, there had been a Passive called Ragefire on offer, that would have worked nicely with Rage Rush. The Passive enveloped Metra in a damaging aura for 1 second whenever she spent 10 Rage. The synergy was obvious. Besides that, Rage Rush wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t terrible either.
It definitely served them well for the current boss fight, though. Metra needed to keep her Rage high, since she also took decreased damage based on how much Rage she had. To just stay at maximum was a waste, though, and this would combine with her already high health regeneration to let her tank Amadeus on her own with minimal help from Undine.
“I don’t care,” was Metra’s response, when asked. “Your choice, John.”
So Rage Rush it was.
This was difficult.
Chaosfall was fundamentally useful in John’s current situation. The Lorylim issue was still up in the air, with their main base likely located either in the frigid north of the continent or somewhere among the many islands of the Carribeans. Everywhere else, there were enough people that John could say semi-certainly that they would have been discovered by now.
Anti-Lorylim Perks were always attractive because John resented and feared those creatures. They were also not as necessary now as they had been in the past. The harem’s and Fusion’s power had grown immensely and would continue to grow. One reason that John expected the Lorylim had decreased their operations so notably was that they did not have the means anymore to actually pose a challenge to the Gamer without proper preparations.
How much would this one Perk contribute to keeping things that way? Metra could already kill any and all Lorylim John had run into so far on her own. The 25% bonus damage would not help with that. As for her fighting Tiamat herself on her own, John did not like Metra’s chances. The goddess of chaos was still among the strongest gods out there. Even doubling her damage would not change that. A group strategy was required.
The other two options being good was another issue.
Ragehound gave Metra an acute sense of smell, which was a sense only Claire and Eliana possessed in a capacity that was noteworthy in an ‘above superhuman’ way. War Howl was a fantastic morale breaker.
“What do you think?” John asked the blonde berserker.
Metra was as split as him. “I want to clean up the mess with Mother Chaos, but it feels a waste to put a Perk into that,” she responded. After a few seconds, she shook her head. “We’ll crush her with our power at large. I’m your weapon to cut down all your enemies, my king. Give me Ragehound, so I can find them all.”
The final choice made, they prepared to head out again.
Comments
gordianTangle
"The Blood Moon Rises Once Again"
Askance
Enjoying this sequence a lot. The Pendulum upgrade was insane, hopefully it shows again. He should do Bae first next time lol
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