Chapter 307 – The order going forward.

Chapter 307 – The order going forward.

John was catapulted on his back and admitted defeat by just lying there. Wheezing breaths left his lungs as he inhaled the cold of winter and exhaled the heat of exhaustion. Rave laughed and threw herself down at his side.

“Well, you’re getting better… s-l-o-w-l-y,” she spelled out.

“And you are able to keep that thing up longer,” John answered. What they were talking about was their fighting practice. John, having fought and beaten one of the enemies’ strongest members, didn’t really feel the need to focus on EXP grinding at this time.

That train of thought was reinforced by the fact that the patch was supposed to be done soon. Afterwards, he could get into Assaults as much as he wanted and have it count for something.

So instead, John went ahead and helped everyone else in their training. Nia had been pouty (another discovery: if the blank felt passed over, her lower lip moved forward a bit) because he was no longer supplying her with Soulpotions, but he had given her so much that she should have been working on her fine motor skills instead of chugging down more of those.

Also, she had the backing of the Horned Rat. There had to be other ways for her to get stronger.

Lydia was still doing her own thing. While occasionally brawling with Nathalia, Thana had largely foregone Soulburn now, saying she had gotten as great a handle on it as she thought she could. So, the only person he could really train with was his girlfriend, which was a nice excuse to get some more alone time.

“Why did ya go with boxing anyway?” Rave asked after a minute passed with them staring at the cloudy sky.

“Because it’s straightforward,” John answered, Gamer’s Body having restored his stamina by now; “I don’t want something about the use of my opponent’s movements or something; it would get in the way with Mana Protection. Also, I want to fight like I live, honest whenever I can and cheat whenever I must. Boxing sounds perfect for that.”

“That is so corny,” Rave laughed and rolled on her side, warmth seeping through her clothes to his side; “I like it though; the whole ‘evil schemes’ thing shouldn’t be my boyfriend’s style.”

“Hey, I will scheme when I need to!” John made clear. “I just won’t make backstabbing my main line of work. I want to win, and honesty is important in the long run.”

“However ya want to twist it,” she purred into his ear, playfully biting his earlobe before getting back on her feet; “Let’s continue!”

“Eh, we only have 10 more minutes,” John informed her. The team meeting regarding their ongoing strategy was coming up.

“Aw, shucks,” Rave mumbled; “I was having fun beating ya up.”

“I am sure I make for quite the nice sandbag,” John laughed.

“Yes, ya do,” she confirmed, sticking out her tongue in a cheeky manner. “With your videogame body, sheer endless pain tolerance and other bs.”

“You forgot to mention Undine’s healing, without which this light beating could turn out quite deadly,” John pointed out. That was literally the only downside John had discovered about Gamer’s Body. Little punches, that would have dealt literally no lasting damage to the whole of a normal body, could kill him if there was just enough of them as they all dealt 1 damage.

Instead of ‘death by a thousand cuts’, it would be ‘death by a thousand pokes at the shoulder’. A highly unlikely scenario but something that should be kept in mind. It was important to know oneself and the enemy.

“Anyway, why don’t you help me with this?” John asked and pushed his hand into his inventory. What he pulled out was a green poker chip, the second of the four upgrade tokens he had been promised to exist.

He quickly informed Rave what it did and then asked her, “What should I use it on?”

“Your underwear,” she instantly answered. “I need your swimmers to be protected, tiger.”

“Wow, baby-crazy all of a sudden?” he wondered.

“Nah, but if anyone is going to break your dick it’s me!” Rave declared. “And if we ever want to have kids, ya better not have been ruined by one of your dungeon encounters being a boss that specializes kicking ya in the nuts.”

“Don’t give Gaia ideas,” John pleaded and did as she suggested, sliding the Token into his pants. After a few seconds of pressing it against the Preserver, it vanished underneath his fingers, and he was presented with a new window.

Rave still couldn’t see his windows, so he had to read the choices to her. Fighter’s Will and Magus’ Clothes were the same as last time, Lover’s Control had replaced the choice to upgrade current attributes (although it also did that).

Personally, he would have went with Magus’ Clothes this time, but Rave’s choice in the matter was rather predictable. “Go with the first one,” she demanded, in line with her earlier logic. John hesitated.

Magus’ Clothes was the better choice here, just because 5% more Intellect was way more useful in most circumstances than protecting him from a kick to the balls. However, he got Intellect bonuses rather easily from the rest of his equipment. Even just getting done with this upgrade would give him 2,5% to both Intellect and Wisdom, thanks to having picked that as a ‘per set piece bonus’ for his vest.

So, instead of looking at what was strictly better in the circumstance, he asked himself if he wanted a bonus that everything could give him or a bonus that only this specific item could get him. From that angle, getting his balls protected was the reasonable choice.

“Okay, I picked it,” John said and then checked out what exactly these two new attributes even did.

Exactly what he subscribed for, but nothing else.

That was tremendous! That meant he would no longer have to consider the weather when he thought about wearing the suit. Glory be upon Gaia, letting him run around in this thing on the hottest of days and the coldest of nights. Sadly not during acid showers, though, it seemed.

Then he read the next choices to Rave; there still was the set-specific bonus to pick.

“No idea there,” Rave shrugged.

“Well,  I have some,” John mused and picked Gamer’s Familiarity. Afterwards he explained his reasoning to his girlfriend. He now had 5 Possession Slots (3 from Possession being at level 100, 1 from Puppeteer and now another 1 from the item).

That number was important, since it allowed him to make Jack (who he had fixed with Craft after the match with Mario) and another object of his choice a Spellcarrier. It wasn’t cheap on his mana, but it enabled him to pull some more shenanigans without the need to invest more into Puppeteer in the near future.

“So nerd reasons, gotcha,” Rave poked fun at him and opened the door.

Inside, Lydia was already sitting on her chair at the top end of the table. Of the other participants, only Momo had found her way there already, being in her usual reading spot. Thana at least was already in the room, throwing chips into her face while watching Metalocalypse. That was a break from her usual genre.

“This shit is brutal,” Thana said to John as he raised a questioning eyebrow, people’s faces melting off in the background. “I love it.”

Leaving that without comment, he and Rave went over to the table. The second the clock struck 8PM, Nia came into the room with hovering steps.

“The remaining three single fights are before us,” Lydia opened the meeting. “With that in mind, we need to get an order together, preferably one that nets us the highest number of wins. How do you all feel about your progress?”

Rave went ahead and started reporting, “Well, I am doing good. Got the part about Unleashing Copernicus down, pretty much, so I wouldn’t be against going first. One or two more days should allow me to get a bit farther though.”

Lydia looked over to Nia. “My instructor tells me my progress is good, but it won’t be enough to win right now,” the blank simply said, eyes staring straight ahead.

“Are you requesting to be placed last, then?” Lydia inquired. The blonde nodded, and the princess sighed.

“I myself feel rather good about my progress but am not quite yet at a point where I feel comfortable using my new range in combat. Another few days would be necessary,” Lydia crossed her arms. “Let’s formulate this another way then: Rave, could you win against your mother in your current state?”

“No… I don’t think so,” the lightbearer muttered, disheartened. “One more day and she might have a chance,” Copernicus meowed as he jumped at the table. “It would be a victory bought entirely on surprise at her sudden growth, but a victory nonetheless.”

“I will face Maximillian, without a doubt. He will not be able to deny himself that symbolic opportunity,” Lydia closed her eyes as she thought about the predicament. “We all need more time. Someone will have to sacrifice their fight to buy it, it appears.”

The room stayed silent as they let the princess formulate her plan. John would have sent Nia out there first. She was going to fight the goblin Ankleshanker, by pure virtue of him being the least magic reliant. Her chances were… not that great.

“I will do it myself,” Lydia opened her eyes, the determined grey inside leaving no room for doubt. “My fight against Maximillian is unlikely to end in my favour, one or two more days will not change that fact. Let it be, thusly, that I will buy us more time. Rave, you will have to fight after me. Nia, as you wished, you will be last.”

That worked as well. “Welp,” John stretched. “There is another factor that could work to our advantage here.”

“And what would that be?” The princess’ forehead wrinkled as she asked.

“Games,” he smirked with a raised finger.

“I’d almost rather lose than be saved by that stupid tradition,” Lydia spat out. “Whoever thought of tho-“ she took a deep breath, calming herself down; “Before I begin another rant and waste everyone’s time, please continue your training.”

The whole meeting had been rather short, but necessary nonetheless. “So, wanna let me bash your head in some more?” Rave asked.

“It would be my honour,” John rolled his eyes, “but I will make my prime objective to grope your ass!”

His girlfriend laughed and slapped his own. “Typical sexist female behaviour!” John complained as they headed towards the arena.