Chapter 1157 – Waiting for the enemy
Three days passed.
The gap was expected, Reetha had to contact the Emperor, the Emperor had to decide whether or not to go, and what stance to take towards John. If the Gamer was suddenly hit with the news that a dimension traveller had appeared in California, had taken over the state capital, murdered the governor, and was now demanding an audience after beating up one of his generals, he would have taken a day to plan his visit too. More than likely, he would have gathered every power he could into one host.
John had enough to do anyway. First, he had to continue sifting through the rubble. That was a job he personally attended to, because he didn’t want to move anywhere while waiting for the Emperor. Second, he had to consolidate his gains on the rest of the island. That was delegated to Ted, for the most part, with support of Beatrice, Sylph, Siena and Salamander, who were the most mobile. Third, he had the daily amount of sex required to max out the EXP for that day. Fourth, he tried to get some more Class Levels done.
He had three available and the decision was split between Metracana Master and Silver Arcanist. The latter was the goal because it led to the next Starforger level, which was still a priority in John’s mind because of its origin and potential benefits. Further chasing Metracana Master had two good reasons. One, he desperately hoped to find something that would decrease the abhorrent mana cost of having four active Artificial Spirits. Second, if he was successful in this Adventure, then he would more than likely give Delicia a new body. As her saviour and as (most likely) the person creating the strongest Artificial Spirits on the planet, it would only make sense that putting her crystalized soul into a new physical form would be up to him as well.
Giving her the best body possible was a project of John’s pride, even more than this entire thing was. He wanted to show the world that, not only could he save her, he could remake her better than anyone else. A double whammy on the global prestige scoreboard. Of course, there was a smart crocodile warning John that he should check her allegiances before he did that. Giving her a new body was fundamentally good enough. Creating a new body for Delicia using the Artificial Spirit system meant that her max level, until she was cut-off, was whatever John’s current level was.
If Delicia had an extreme loyalty to Romulus or the Horned Rat or whoever else that wasn’t aligned with John’s interests, then he would be an idiot to create himself a potential enemy in this level range. Her level could be controlled somewhat by preventing her from eating any metals unobserved, because Artificial Spirits typically gained levels via Consumption, but there was fundamentally no failsafe against someone feeding her against his will. Sure, he would notice, but what would he do to stop her? Murder her? Very much against the spirit of this exercise. Lock her up? Feasible but mean. Cut her off? That was bound to the Artificial Spirit Skill progress.
An additional issue was that John had no additional slots at the moment. Momo had been an exception made by Gaia because she was a returner and Metra had been transferred over via the system. Otherwise, to make an additional Artificial Spirit, John needed to pick an option giving an extra maximum Artificial Spirit during the Skill reset. He was close to hitting 50 at the moment and expected to get to 100 after another month or so. The exact progress of his Skills was always difficult to predict.
Anyway, it may have been useful to pick up additional Metracana Master levels for that reason. He only had two available Max Class Levels anyhow, so he couldn’t have progressed on Starforger even after he got Silver Arcanist to level 3. That was a bad reason, John was aware, because if that was the justification, he would never get to do more on the Starforger front. Unless he got another Perk that gave him twenty Class Levels out of nowhere, that was.@@@@
In the end, he went with Metracana Master, because of his mana bar and because of his pride.
Getting to level 5 was pretty easy and involved a few challenges he could do on the side, such as closely monitoring Metra’s actions or studying her body in the academic, non-fun way.
The good news was that taking New Metracanas was incredibly easy with these choices. Metra outright rejected Growing Devourer and John had no intention of taking it anyway. With the exception of Seminaris, John had no idea if any of the other Metracanas were evil and he certainly didn’t wish to feed them to the First of Wrath. Meanwhile, Path to Ragnarok was right up Metra’s aisle and John was 90% sure he would trigger an international crisis if the Sons of Odin ever caught wind of it. Political ramifications put aside, John rather liked the Nordic civilization and did not want to see it annihilated. Neither did he want Metra to get her skull bashed in by some son of Odin.
So yeah, New Metracanas it was. He did still have some Astrotium, although giving that to Delicia was probably a bad call. He would have to weigh his wisdom against his pride and his lust in this case. Delicia was a short, busty babe with a bratty attitude and a knack for alchemy. Cute, beautiful, of strong character, and talented, the short list for what John wanted in a woman. Just being able to do it was enough for the moment.
John got the sixth Perk roughly two days thereafter.
All three options were interesting. As someone who loved complicated stuff, because it gave him a feeling of superiority over those who didn’t understand it, John was naturally drawn to the first option. As someone who loved monster girls, he was doubly drawn to the first option. Pseudo Metracana and Foundation of Babel weren’t bad, likely they would lead to something amazing. Artificial Monster Girls unified what his brain wanted with what his pride and his dick wanted though: additional exoticness for his girls, a power increase, and something else he could give Delicia that nobody else could. It was the full package.
“I get that... Ya decided on calling Lorelei over yet?”
“Yeah, I’ll do it – after the meeting,” John responded.
“What about Scarlett and Lee?”
“They’ll have to stay home.” John sighed and stretched on the wooden chair. The backrest was fixed, so leaning wasn’t an option. “Much as I want to have everyone around, especially since we’ll be staying for a while, they would only be a liability and I don’t want them to feel that way.” Neither of their powers lent themselves to the environment. Lorelei could provide visions and act as a much better lie detector than Observe. Scarlett had no electronics to play with. Lee couldn’t create any barriers. Fateweaving was an art that was useless in Kingdoms, as far as John could see. That Gaia-sponsored creation of pocket dimensions wasn’t necessary on worlds that had no separation between the magical and the mundane.
If Lee had enough mana to create those barriers on her own, that would have been another story. Similarly, if they could cobble enough mobile equipment for Scarlett to create a command centre, she’d be immensely useful. Neither of these conditions were fulfilled at the moment. Knowing Scarlett, however, she could have been working on something like that.
“Ya better watch out, next time we get home, she’ll have built an improvised satellite so we can use our phones here,” Rave said, semi-jokingly.
“That would be useful,” the Gamer agreed. Not even the upgraded Abyssal smartphones could get a connection back to earth. With enough programming and equipment, local connection between them could be established with the necessary relay mediums. Working phones would beat the radio waves by miles. For the time being, the phones’ primary utility was to serve as notebooks. “It’s wise to have some of them stay back home though. In the end, if something happens back home, I’ll need to ditch this.”
“True enough... anyway, why only afterwards?”
“You mean why call Lorelei only after the meeting?” John asked and got his clarification in the form of a nod. “Well, reportedly one of the Iron Maidens has a spell that can level cities. Our position is currently known, so I’d rather not risk it.” He grinned at Rave. “As long as we get away from directly under it, I think we’re sturdy enough to take something like that.”
“What kind of spell ya reckon that is?” Rave grinned back, visibly excited at the prospect of people around her power level.
“Her name is Meteora, so I’d hazard a guess and say it has something to do with calling a meteor.”
“That’s so anime.”
“Are you complaining about that?”
“Not a bit.” Rave hummed and turned her head. Something had caught her eye and John noticed it a moment later. A pale green light in the distance. Many, as it turned out, gradually making their way over the horizon. A large procession, cutting through the darkness like a fantastic march of luminescent beings. The colour gave it a baleful impression. The make-up of the procession did the rest.
A hundred Ironborn marched in four rows, surrounding a massive carriage of cast-iron, drawn by six forged equines, each more than three metres tall. Atop the carriage sat Reetha, glaring towards John as soon as the closing distance allowed them to spot one another. Interestingly, Observe was blocked now. The carriage or something else was enchanted in the necessary ways. As for the Emperor himself, he was doubtlessly inside that unholy construct of iron and magic.
Finally, they would meet.