It took the whole day to drive back home. Because their tour through New Libraria had brought them quite far north, the travel time back to the Hudson Barrier was a ‘mere’ 11 hours. They arrived in the past-midnight hours of Saturday and immediately went to bed. When John woke up the next morning, he took his remaining frustrations and exorcised them in the usual way: through wild sex. For the entire drive, he and the majority of the girls hadn’t been in the mood. The familiar walls and a bit of time changed that.

Saturday was a pretty unpleasant day regardless of that homely feeling. He had to notify all potentially affected parties of what had happened and to make preparations for the eventual arrival of the demons. Declaring this a matter of Collide, rather than Fusion, allowed John to ignore several hurdles and simply carve a reserved block out of currently unoccupied Hudson Barrier land. That meant this would have to be paid out of his own pocket. Which, ironically, was actually good for him.

The Token distribution in the Hudson Barrier was in full swing at this point and every excuse he got to mint and pay with more coins was welcome. Being in full control of the money supply made things hilariously easy. It was no wonder so many rulers fell repeatedly into the inflation trap. It worked perfectly to keep one’s head above water – until it didn’t, of course.

A large faction he had to inform of the chain of events were the members of parliament. Because it was Saturday and calling an emergency session just for a war report would have ruffled additional feathers, John opted to just call the party leaders and choice members of the House of Exceptionals. This was, generally, an unpleasant affair.

People were getting really comfortable in their positions of power. This was good since it showed they had enough trust in the system to believe that the Gamer wouldn’t just come around and kick them out when they did something he hated. It also meant that they felt confident enough to berate him. This meant that John had to listen to several people, who hadn’t been there and operated solely on hindsight, tell him what he should have done.

John had pushed back, as friendly as possible. He wasn’t about to be reprimanded by pencil pushers, especially not in his current mood. It was fine that they were comfortable in their positions, but it was best if they remembered who he was. A modicum of respect was expected and the Gamer made that clear. That reigned most of them back in. John was just worried about what they would do behind the scenes, if they felt overly offended.

After he was done with the party leadership, he reached out to the press. There was absolutely no way any of this would remain under wraps for more than a couple of days. Between the party leadership distributing the information down the hierarchy and people noticing his return from the publicly announced deployment, things would reach the right and wrong ears. It was better to get ahead of the curve.

Because of this, he wrote a public statement, sent that to broadcasters of influence or personal favouritism, gave some of them a promise for an interview in the coming days, and then published that same public statement two hours later. That made the press feel honoured but also didn’t give them enough time to publish a proper article on the matter before he did.

With all of that out of the way and his Saturday basically over, John had nothing to do but wait for public opinion to catch up with the news cycle. In the meantime, the Gamer had a few other things to sort out. First of all was the level he had gotten from the usual work hour services.

‘I have another 2 Max Class Levels available,’ John thought, ‘and Gnome is maxing out soon.’ He leaned back to look at the autumn elemental currently engaging him under the table. She was so concentrated on her work that she didn’t even notice his gaze, slobbering all over his respectable size. That was something incredibly empowering about seeing the easily embarrassed brunette so shamelessly devouring his cock. Bending something purely to his will, that was the closest formulation he could come up with. Her constant moans certainly fuelled his enjoyment.

For the matter of her evolution, they had a slight problem. They still hadn’t had their moment of true understanding, enabling that final step. With Undine he had it on the battlefield, Salamander when he obliged her absurd request to face corruption, Siena when they had their moment in the midnight forest, and Sylph from cuddling (whimsical as all else about that woman). Only with Gnome, he still hadn’t struck that understanding. It was a worrisome matter, but they were certain they could work it out. Their love for each other was unquestionable.

The Class Levels, John wasn’t sure where to put. Elementalist was the obvious choice, but the newest Class Challenge was to synchronize his mind with five elementals at the same time. With how much he had struggled for the three, that was a near impossible task. It didn’t help that it only gave 50% of the required Class Experience. This meant that a six elemental synchro was very likely.

With that road barred, the other contenders for Class Levels were Martial Artist, Unfound, Harem Gamer and Negotiator. Martial Artist just to hone his physical capabilities, Unfound to boost his additional senses to the point where he could use Magus Step to teleport to the other side of obstacles, Harem Gamer for the obvious reasons, and Negotiator to make his political life easier. There were also Metracana Master and Space Protector, but he wanted to keep the Advanced Classes for when he was fully satisfied with his base build. If he had points to dump, there was also Tamer.

‘Unfound has the most tangible goal, so let’s start with that,’ John decided. Not that this decision netted him anything. He didn’t have the time to chase after the Challenges at the moment.

He wouldn’t have tomorrow either.

______________________________________________________________________

“Remind me why you’re tagging along, buddy?” John asked while he and Maximillian looked over the crystal-clear water of the Hudson. Anybody living in the real version of New York would have sworn that ‘clear’ and ‘Hudson’ were two words that couldn’t belong into the same sentence. Luckily, the Abyssal side had access not only to the Guild Hall, but also to clams the size of garden sheds. Nature’s filtration system had removed all of the gunk from the river and left it in pristine condition. Through the swirling surface, John could even see the riverbed.

“Because you decided that you wanted to go see the old man before your bestest friend,” the gravity mage returned, waving his arm in a dramatic gesture that ended at his chest. “Truly, I’m offended that you would do such a thing.”

“Say that to Lee for coming here in the morning hours,” John responded. Lee Magus, Magoi’s youngest daughter, was finally moving to the Hudson Barrier. They had sorted out the where a few days after the last grinding session. After that, it had only been a question of when she would move over. The answer had come about in an unexpected haste. Had things with the Golden Rose gone differently, he would have missed the occasion. Not that it was a particularly important one.

“I’ll tell her all kinds of things,” Maximillian grinned.

“First off, what happened to the MILF-hunter I know?” John asked. “You know she’s about as old as I am, yeah?”

“You know I’m only two years older than you, yeah?” Maximillian asked. “I’m allowed to be interested in younger women too.”

“Second off,” John just ignored that valid point, “I wouldn’t recommend trying to get close to her. Mabirl doesn’t approve of our lifestyles.”

“Ah… does Lee care?”

“Honestly, from what I hear, she might hop on your dick just to annoy her mother,” John answered truthfully.

“…Well, I’m not desperate enough to exploit a girl with mommy issues…”

“Also, you might get slapped by Magnus on his birthday.”

“He wouldn’t break my jaw in the process, so that could be worth it.”

“Also, Magoi would probably be pissed.”

“THAT, however, is scary,” Maximillian admitted. A High Fateweaver wasn’t physically imposing, but they had other means to get back at someone. Magoi especially, given the influence he had inside Fusion and his personal contacts across the rest of the globe. “Wouldn’t want to mess with the guy who maintains my new home barrier.”

“How are you settling in anyway?” John asked. After ditching Hollywood and in response to the Lorylim threat, Maximillian had decided to move into the Hudson Barrier. In a display of royal privilege, the exiled king had hired a construction company to build him a mansion without paying a penny. Providing the pretext that he would be the ‘ambassador’ of Austria, he had sent a request back home. His older sister Maria, the currently acting queen (although princess-regent would have been more accurate), obliged on the condition that he would pick up some of her administrative work. Once they agreed on that, she contacted John, who only had to point at a piece of land.

Maximillian had insisted it to be on the eastern coast. Close to the ferry that could take him to the Guild Hall, he explained in public settings. In private, he was fully open towards the fact that he just wanted to be nestled between the forest races and the red-light district. Elf girls with big tits and strippers, that was the long and short of it.

A mansion fit for a (self-exiled) king and for the parties he was doubtlessly going to arrange wasn’t built in a few weeks, however. Houses in the Hudson Barrier came in three variants. Quickest to be inhabited were the repurposed mundane houses, which only needed to be hooked up to the Abyssal resource networks. New houses erected with the materials of the Hudson Barrier also came about quite fast. Because of the Guild Hall, stone and metal were cheap and easily available and basic structures could be raised up in a matter of hours. Details such as windows, insulation and electricity took the most work there. Then there was the desire for extravagant mansions, which had to be built with specific materials and were decorated extensively. They still went up quicker on the Abyssal side than in the mundane case, magic helped quite a bit there, but it took a while.

Until that was done, Maximillian stayed in the Embassy in the Guild Hall. That Building met his needs for the moment. Also, it would be nice to have him that close. Having a male friend that he could meet after work for a couple of beers was refreshing. Magnus was always busy and Ted wasn’t someone John liked to be alone with. The guy was alright, but trying to have a conversation with just him was like swimming through tar.

Of course, he wouldn’t hang out with Maximillian at any given opportunity, they both had harems that were usually more pleasant company, but just the option was refreshing. Previously, getting together had to be a tightly scheduled event. Now they were practically neighbours. Even after he moved to the mansion, John could just hop into the teleporter.

“It’s going alright,” Maximillian responded.

“You don’t sound all that enthused,” John noted.

“Marie is… a weird neighbour,” the gravity mage told his friend. “I’m not sure if she’s interested in me, hates me or just wants to write down interesting things about me.”

“She’s a complicated one, for sure.” John nodded. “I would personally advise to keep away from her too, unless you’re going to be together with only her.”

“Does she have a mother out for a partner’s head too?”

“No, she just doesn’t have the temper for that life,” John told her. “In that regard she is a normal woman.”

“Ah, alright then.” Maximillian rolled his neck. “Guess I’ll just say hello to Lee then and wait for you to get done with showing her around.”

“You could just go to the Elemental Islands on your own,” John told him.

“Sure I could, but that sounds less entertaining,” the gravity mage responded. “I went with Jane the other day and that was at least a nice afternoon. Your girlfriend is pretty awesome.”

“I know, right?” John puffed his chest up, as if that was a compliment directed at him. “Although she did screw up massively just two days ago.”

“Yeah, yeah. Public hasn’t really digested it yet, have they?”

“Opinions don’t really form in less than twelve hours. It’ll probably take until Wednesday for us to have a clear picture.”

“Also, while speaking about your women, plural,” Maximillian looked around on the ferry, “where are they?”

“They took the teleporter.”

“…Why didn’t we?”

“I thought you preferred the ferry. You know, after you made us run around in search of one last time we were drinking. Also it’s been a minute and I like your company,” John admitted and got himself a friendly punch to the shoulder.