John swallowed the last bit of his breakfast and washed it down with a cup of peppermint tea. Putting the cup down with more force than necessary, he managed to direct everyone’s attention towards him and then grabbed it by clearing his throat. “Jane, Metra, Lydia,” he said and looked at the three women in turn, “I would suggest you tag along in the Raid.”

“You think that’s a possibility?” the queen asked, looking over the rim of her own cup.

John nodded. “I didn’t want you or Jane to tag along for a while now because of our power differences. If you are only half my level, an Instant Dungeon is extremely dangerous. Fateweaving does a lot to diminish that problem and your levels…”

“…we’re not exactly equal, but you’re not that far behind anymore either,” he continued after throwing quick Observes around. “In any regular RPG, I would say anything more than three level behind is a death sentence for group content. As my powers project them onto reality, I don’t think fifty levels is an insurmountable issue.” Doing a quick calculation in his head, John hummed. “You broke through the scaling barrier, Lydia.”

“Scaling barrier?” the gorgeous royal asked, brushing a strand of her red-brown hair behind her ear.

“Most people have five Statpoints per level, people that have immense talent usually get to six at some point or another,” he explained. “I think seven should also be possible. I have it. Romulus is the only person I have ever seen that has eight.”

“As if a superior level wasn’t enough. The Apex of the Abyss continues to be an irregular entity,” Lydia complained and finished her tea.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to complain about power when you gained another fifty levels since I helped you,” the Gamer responded. Since they were in contact almost every day, even if it was just a phone call, he knew that she had sunk quite a bit of money into acquiring more Mithril to ingest. Once the cost associated had become too high for comfort, she had returned to regular methods of training. “Proximity to me alone makes you an irregularity.”

“As my willingness to participate in this lust-ridden group clearly proves,” Lydia stated and glanced over at the exposed breasts of Siena with clear desire. As Observe showed, the queen was still horny and her Libido had increased even more since the initial burst of levels almost two months back.

“Don’t think levels were ever the issue with me,” Metra chimed into the conversation. Hands folded behind her head, she balanced on the back legs of her chair.

The reason Metra had tapped out of fighting in dungeons with him was her specific ability. Metra was immensely powerful, gaining massively increased Stats depending on how angry she was. The limitation of this ability was that she had to fight on her own. Why exactly this was, John had no idea. However, given that she was created out of a hodgepodge of different divine ingredients, most of which came from the goddess of chaos Tiamat, certain oddities were to be expected.

That had been a large deciding factor, but there was another reason why John had opted to not take her along way back when. “True, we have to work around your limitation to make optimal use of your potential, but I think that won’t be an issue anymore.” He smiled at her. “I would say we know each other a bit better now, so we can coordinate things properly.”

Teamwork had been an issue. When she had just entered the contract with him, Metra had just been a presence on the battlefield that brawled at the corner. Because any area attack could accidentally deactivate her ability, coordination had been very important. Several months had passed since and they had grown as close as two people could. They suffered from a lack of ‘side by side’ battle experience, which was in part why John wanted to get started now. However, this should be outweighed by their mental connection, so his rationale.

“What do you say, Metra, do you want to fight with me?” he asked and earned himself a growing grin by the First of Wrath.

The chair’s front legs slammed onto the carpet and Metra’s hands onto the table. Standing with a hunger for excitement in her verdant eyes, she stared at him. “Lead me into a glorious battlefield, my king.” Metra straightened up and bowed her head in a subservient gesture. “I will do as you wish.”

“Oy,” Rave cried out. “I was supposed to get the first proposal!”

“Sorry, seems like I broke that promise,” John joked back. “Anyway, I take it you’re on board?”

“Are ya asking me whether or not I want to risk my safety fighting some monsters Gaia specifically created in order to be extremely difficult to defeat?” the Lightbearer returned a rhetorical question. “D’uh.”

“Yeah, could have spared myself the question.” Chuckling, the Gamer looked over to Nia. “Sorry that I can’t ask you to tag along. Because you’re currently at a higher level than me, you would reduce the experience I get by quite a bit-“ He got interrupted by a window popping up.

“-Well, never mind that,” he corrected himself. “Gaia just let me know she will pause that system within a ten level range, as long as I take someone weaker along as well. Which Lydia and Rave fulfil. So, you can come along too, if you want.”

Nia thought about it for a little bit, then said, “Yes.” That was all the conversation he needed to have with her.

Once he was certain she wouldn’t add anything else, John’s eyes travelled away from her and back over to Metra. “I have a question for you,” the Gamer stated. “How strong do you feel? Like, are you as strong as you usually would be now?”

Metra had let him know in the past that her contract with him had left her weaker than she actually was. Interactions between his mechanics and her nature caused her to be held back to his level. Ever since finding that out, John had wondered if she would also be pulled up along with him once they crossed her original ceiling. The only reference he had for where that lay was Seminaris’ level, which had been 212 last he had seen her, with a contractor much stronger than that. Even making the fair assumption that Metra was the stronger of the two, the First of Wrath should have crossed or be close to her ‘real’ level.

“Hard to say, honestly,” the blonde responded, making a fist and rolling it around, causing the pronounced muscles in her upper arm to shift. “I spent the better part of a century without any power to use before I went under your contract. You know, being stuck inside a brain and all that-”

“…Fuck you for reminding me of that. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you,” Eliza cussed her way into the conversation. Every curse came along a shiver, as if she had just risen out of ice water. John grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his lap, before the pretty little psycho could have a proper panic attack.

He partly failed. By the time he was cuddling her, she had fallen completely silent. Her purple eyes were glazed over. “Shhhh, it’s alright,” he whispered into her ear, combing her wild hair with his fingers. “It’s safe and warm here. You’re free.” For several minutes, John just kept holding her. Metra looked at the process with a mixture of guilt, uncertainty and annoyance.

John couldn’t blame her for that. Nobody enjoyed triggering Eliza’s memories of mistreatment, but the unpredictability of what would do it made dealing with her bothersome at times. A simple joke could be the cause of prolonged tending. They were all willing to put up with it, because they loved her and because she made the effort of getting better. Uncomfortable as it was, even their willingness to help was accompanied by a feeling of inconvenience. How much varied between them. Both of these factors came along being imperfect people.

John didn’t mind having these less friendly impulses, they had their validity. When a stranger approached him with his issues and kept loading them onto him in the waiting line of the supermarket, such annoyance would have been quite justified. When it came to handling one of his loves, he had all the patience in the world to counteract whatever part of him was irked.

“You doing okay?” Metra asked when light returned to Eliza’s eyes and she looked around, surrounded by the worried faces of John and the harem.

“Yeah… sorry for being such a useless cumdump,” Eliza mumbled, “…can’t even tag along with you all…”

“That’s the opposite of you being useless,” John told her with a well-meaning chuckle. “You’re too powerful. If you come along, we don’t get any experience points, that’s the issue.”

“Also, SOMEBODY has to stay here with me,” Scarlett exclaimed. “Do you want me to get bored out of my fucking mind, all alone while everyone else grinds the day away?” It was a thinly veiled white lie. Everyone knew Scarlett was an introvert more than happy to spend several days on her own. Most of her life, the technomancer had spent without much in the way of social contacts. Realizing this, Scarlett added a more fitting line, “Do you expect me to take care of Velka the entire time?”

Hearing her name, the Magryph softly meowed. Sitting at John’s feet, the young pet had noticed the distress of her favourite pampering food dispenser. Worried, she had kept looking and now playfully pecked at Eliza’s feet. If there had been space for her, she would probably have jumped up onto Eliza’s lap. Instead, she just made big eyes.

“See, Velka needs you,” John said and kissed Eliza’s neck. “You’re not useless.”

“…Yeah, I’m not…” the pretty little psycho mumbled, recovered from this panic attack. “Wish I could reign in these giant fucking mood swings though…”

“Well, you are getting better, given that you no longer break my bones whenever you get mad. No use in hurrying the development along,” John told her and looked back up to Metra, wanting to restore normalcy to the room. “So, you aren’t sure if you have reached your proper power yet?”

“I’m sure I’m around it, but I don’t know if I am just below or slightly above,” Metra responded with a glad sigh. “No fucking clue yet whether your bullshit powers keep me scaling along as well.”

“Could be that they don’t by nature but now do because I got Lover’s WIll before it became an issue.” He shrugged. “Ah well, some more grinding and we will have a definitive answer on the scaling.”

“You have a plan for what we do if I don’t keep levelling along with you?” Metra asked and looked around in a rare sight of visible and extreme discomfort. Her shoulders and entire posture tensed, causing the motion of her sitting back down to be rigid. Anger and uncertainty radiated off her mind. Being who she was, John had an easy time imagining that she hated the idea of being the weakest person in a group.

“If Lover’s Will, for some odd reason, doesn’t take care of it, I am sure a Metracana Master Perk will,” John answered. That single line put Metra at ease. The berserker babe had always been pretty easy going about things. “Anybody got any more questions?”

“Yes,” Nia spoke up immediately, “I need a reminder. How does your ability interact with us getting stronger?”

“As far as I understand it, the power you gain through combat experience inside dungeons is entirely yours,” John answered. “What you get through EXP Potions or by defeating dungeon monsters is part of the system. That bit I am very certain about. Sadly, that does mean I have to split the ten levels I can bestow on people through the party system between you three.” He looked between Lydia, Rave and Nia.

“Focus on Lyly,” Rave stated, pointing at the queen.

“That would be the most efficient,” Nia nodded along.

Sighing, Lydia tugged her lingerie into place. “I will not refuse your graciousness, but I will admit that this continuing special treatment is taking its toll on my pride.”

“I can distract you from that,” John announced, changing Eliza’s position a little bit to reveal his erection. The table wasn’t nearly high enough to hide anything and the blood mage’s butt too squishy to not get hard. Lydia’s gaze was immediately glued to his cock.

“We should not spend too much time fooling around,” the queen stated, in spite of her obvious desire to come over. “Even though stretched, the next 240 hours will still be regarded as one day, when it comes to Experience of Love. It makes little sense for us to engage in excessive coitus.” Her words didn’t carry quite the usual authority, courtesy of her shifting around in her seat and her pussy visibly becoming wet.

“You expect me to only have eight hours of sex in that time?” John asked with an amusedly raised eyebrow. “That might be the ‘efficient’ thing to do, but do I have to remind you that we all have pretty extreme Libidos at this point? Being sexually unsatisfied would be quite the detriment.”

“That is… true enough,” Lydia conceded the point, swallowing excess saliva. Despite having just eaten, she was hungry for more. “Regardless, we just had intercourse. I am satisfied enough.”

“I am not,” John stated in his dominant voice. “Lydia, come over here and worship my cock,” the command rang with magical power. Sitting still for a few seconds, Lydia was visibly contemplating whether she should obey or try to convince him that entering the raid now was the smart thing.

“The things I do because of lust and love,” she sighed and dropped down to the floor. On all fours, she made her way over to his seat. Velka ran away when the auburn-haired metal mage approached. The Magryph had likely spotted the pattern of when things got annoyingly loud around her owner. Lydia stopped in front of John, leaning towards his shaft. “Your commands are a tool that I should forbid by decree, given how much I yearn for the pleasure you bring me.”

“Nobody told you that you needed to crawl, you perverted queen,” John teased, while Lydia’s tongue travelled from his balls to the engorged, pre-cum dribbling head. The motion pressed the upside of his cock against Eliza’s pussy. Unsurprisingly, the pretty little psycho started to get wet herself. Especially once Lydia loudly moaned, rewarded for following his order. “We’ll get going after a nice little breakfast orgy.”

“Can’t start the day without one,” Rave agreed, even as Lydia rolled her eyes.