The week passed.

It was unnerving and it was calm. John’s assumptions about what would happen were both proven correct and overly paranoid. He had thought that every last one of his internal enemies would come out of the woodworks, motivated by the news of his loss. Instead, what happened was that the boldest and dumbest of the bunch took uncoordinated actions that could be squashed in a week. Usually, John didn’t even have to get involved himself. Local army regiments or law enforcement took care of the issue.

Only one incident stood out there. A sitting member of the Free party used one of the islands in the North Lake state to launch an assault on Servitude Island. To their credit, they were smart enough about it to tear down the long-range teleporter and they were also strong enough to stand their ground against the locals. They had two days of fun with their rebellion, then John and Aclysia had made their way over and rooted the issue out. Aclysia would have been enough on her own, but the Gamer had to tag along to repair the teleporter.

A beaten traitor was the perfect utensil to shift the public attention away from John’s failure and towards the strength of law enforcement. Especially since the Gamer had his doubts about the Free party’s loyalty for a while, something he had never outright stated in interviews but alluded to in subtle and not so subtle ways.

One traitor wasn’t enough to outlaw the party, but it was a start.

On the bad news side, Aclysia’s island being attacked caused his weaponized maid distress and that soured John’s mood. Over the weekend, they would take a trip there together. John wanted to see how her project was coming along anyway and it had been a while since he and Aclysia went on a date. This would either double as both or transition from a tour to a date. That remained to be seen.

More importantly, the fact that he had lost did not leave the news cycle immediately. Not since Sigmund had he sustained a loss and, although that one had been more personally harming, it had still led to the expansion of Fusion. It had also occurred at a time where Fusion was a lot smaller and easier to govern centrally. People were less prone to rebel when their ruler was a one-hour bus ride away. Especially when that ruler was the human equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction.

With a larger population under his command, there were more people invested in him losing. His approval took a sizable hit, almost 10%, making John wonder just how many people approved of him primarily because he was winning. That there were politically uninformed people that just went with what appeared to be working was nothing new, but John felt like he had underestimated the whimsiness of that crowd.

So, while everyone was talking about him, and nothing really happened, John went about his usual business with only the occasional interview reminding him of the circumstance. That should have given him room to relax. Instead, he was anxious. His paranoia kept telling him that the worst was yet to come. Most of the week, he felt like he was in an ongoing online argument – the kind that got him stressed out for no reason.

Luckily, John had the best two stress-venting mechanisms of the world at his disposal: love and violence. The former came in the usual shapes, while the latter was done through dungeons (and the one rebellion suppression). Sex and Instant Dungeons came with levels.

He had reached 1000 in Wisdom, which had given him a couple of other benefits. First of all was the expected milestone reward. A sizable mana regeneration increase that was big enough to let him keep channelling one Arcana Ray continuously.

From there flowed a semi-expected Achievement.

Which in turn awarded him an item.

The Millennium Trousers were noticeable in a bunch of ways, but there was nothing about them that had an active use in combat. Their defensive capabilities were so absurdly high that John’s groin was now the most fortified area on his body. Given his lifestyle, that wasn’t a big surprise, but he wouldn’t have complained if the rest of his body could be shielded to the same degree.

Since he had also cleared past 335, he got another Max Class Level. He immediately got to put it to use as well, thanks to clearing the Challenges when he had time on Sunday. The advancement through Unfound continued.

The choices had been, for the lack of a nicer term, absolute dogshit. Reaching Aura Reading had at least moderate uses, letting him feel Abyssals without seeing them at a larger range. It synergized well enough with his ongoing effort to be effective through walls.

Gaia had also seen fit to give him a new Quest at that time. It was one he was rather happy to see.

The failure state was inconvenient, but John believed in the pact he made with Dramar, and so he had accepted the Quest. In ten years’ time, he assumed money from dungeons and the like wouldn’t be a necessary bit of his income anyway.

With all of this figured out, he had nothing to do but the usual.

“You did a lot of work this week,” Nia noticed, currently taking a break from her under-the-table service. “Very impressive.” While her lips were away from his cock, her hand scratched his short-haired head. It was almost as good as a stress relief. It did have the advantage of not being as distracting.

“I’ve been giving Mind of Work some time to test,” John explained, his hands rushing over the keyboard at over 200 words per minute. The meditation passive had been the second Perk of the Martial Artist Class. While it allowed him to concentrate at work and stay enthused for as long as he wished, the state of mind required was sadly broken by pleasure. In order to combat what stacked up on his desk in his absence and the additional work that was produced by recent affairs, he had decided to give it a prolonged trial period. “It is absurd how well that works.” Even as he spoke, he was reading an email with one eye, tracking what he was writing with the other, and holding a press conference with Jack. One slam of the enter key, and he had finished another public statement. “It might be worth investing more into Martial Arts just to see if I can get a Perk that improves this.”

“How much work do you still have?” Nia wanted to know. The desire to return to her shift was evident. She was as enthusiastic about her work as he was about his. That his Perks made women crave sucking his dick for hours on end was definitely a great boon in his life.

“Nothing, I’ve been finishing things whose deadline is next week for the past two days,” John confessed. Anybody who ever stepped into bureaucracy knew that it was unusual for things to get done at the first deadline set, much less before then. “I keep thinking that I should do just one more document. It’s as if my strategy game mindset has been transferred to my work. It’s atrociously efficient. I don’t even feel tired… somebody should stop me.”

Nia didn’t need to hear that twice. Her hand disappeared from his head, a feeling of weirdness filled the room for a second, then the pariah was under the table and kissed the most sensitive spot of his cock.

His concentration crashed into a series of typos that filled the document he had started next and John groaned with frustration and pleasure. Mostly the latter, admittedly, as he leaned back and sought out the golden, backwards oriented wildness of Nia’s hair. The short strands on top were so much fluffier than the extremely long ones at the sides and back, which she usually confined into a ponytail anyway.

“Oh yeah, work can’t keep up with that,” he groaned while guiding her down his shaft. Mind of Work was a bit dangerous because it was so effective at blending out all distractions that he almost forgot what he worked for in the first place. It turned him into a true work-addict, doing tasks for the task’s sake. With his Wisdom, he was still able to snap out of it if he wanted, but that was often a difficult decision to make.

“Then stop doing next week’s work,” Nia told him, the scolding intent written ever so slightly into her tone. “I want to pleasure you, darling.”

That tug right at his lust and heartstrings, and he was left wordless while she gave him a blowjob that left his vision shaking. Assaulting his member with all of the skill she had cultivated since her return, she had him gasping and at her mercy. Usually, it was the other way around, but John was happy to have his thoughts wiped out for a change.

Five minutes later, when he was done cumming down her throat, Nia licked him clean and then tended to his dick in a more casual fashion. Her face was bright red from her own post-orgasmic haze. “There’s so much power in this part of you,” she said, giving the length of him little kisses. John would have returned with banter, but he could read from little tells in her behaviour that she was still thinking. “Do you want to work more?”

“I honestly should,” John told her. “If I get just a few more things out of the way, I can take the entire next week off. Well, I’ll still have to be on call for emergencies and probably will have to send Jack to a few interviews, but I myself can spend a week just sitting on my couch and… do what I want.”

“Who you want,” Nia added with a tiny lewd smile.

“Aren’t you turning into a greedy minx?” John hummed, scratching her behind the ear. Like a cat, she leaned into his touch.

“I get better at expressing it, darling,” she returned with another kiss. “I support you taking time off. We could visit the Menagerie together.”

“That sounds like a nice way to spend a morning,” John hummed in support.

Before they could make any other plans, a mental signal reached John. ‘Statement: your presence is required, Master,’ Beatrice spoke when he shifted his attention to her. Along with her words, she sent the mental image of a certain duo, standing in the middle of the Harbour. One had red hair, the other’s mane was white, both had a holy aura to them that stood in stark contrast to the demonic crowd behind them.

‘Already?’ John thought and looked down at Nia. “We have to go,” he told her. “The Order is bringing the demons in. They are at the Harbour.”

She blinked up at him, considering her answer even while he pulled back and both of them got dressed. “I demand compensation for my lost time.”

“You’ll get as much as you want,” John promised her and handed her a bottle of cleansing water of the Floridian variety. After drinking it, not a bit of cum would stick to her mouth. Combining it with a self-cleaning towel let her clean herself up in a matter of seconds. It was not as thorough as a shower, but it did the job.

John went over to the Harbour through two teleporters. He and Nia stepped off the pad and into a crowd that had spontaneously formed at the Harbour. The reason why became immediately apparent: the Order of the Golden Rose had arrived on a golden, sparkling boat. John wasn’t sure if it was a battleship or a yacht, size and design lent themselves to both, but given the presence of numerous armaments, the former was likely more correct.

He spotted two knights, each of which stood as the endpoints of a chain of squires. Shields and weapons brandished in the style of a military parade, they created between them a corridor down which demons poured onto the island. The infernal humanoids seemed more fascinated than confused by their environment, a respectable stance towards things, given that none of them could have had memories more than a couple days old.

At the end of the delegation, overseeing the demons gathering into a crowd, stood Moira and Lorelei. The Shield Warden wasn’t in her usual armour, instead only wearing the tabard over a wine-red bodysuit. It was an incredibly sexy outfit, given how tight it sat, but John didn’t keep staring at her for a prolonged period. His interest in her was purely physical, at this point. Lorelei, however, he had genuine attraction to. Especially given what she was wearing today.

Presumably to cope with the summerly temperatures of the Guild Hall, the seer had exchanged her usual robe with one that revealed more skin. It was still classy, hiding her breasts, midriff and hips completely from view. Fashioned from only one layer of cloth and sitting a lot tighter than the usual one, the dark grey robe left all of her proportions to be deeply analysed, however. The skirt of the robe had decorative holes on each side, giving a teasing view of her naked, pale thighs. A moderate amount of squish was immediately apparent. He had seen her in a more revealing summer dress before, but this semi-religious garb tickled a different fancy. The ring covering the upper half of her head was the same as usual.

Lorelei turned redder with each second John stared at her. Rather than direct his focus elsewhere, the Gamer tunnel visioned with all of his lecherous intent. The closer he got, the stronger his attention focused on her, the heavier the effects were. Her seer powers were a blessing but they also made her overly apparent of what certain people were thinking and John’s attention had a particularly stimulating effect on her.

Usually, good manners would have made John a bit careful about this power he had over her. Right now, he used it to punish the unannounced intruders. Lorelei started to quiver, her legs shaking and her pink lips parting in a heavy pant. Rather than try to hide, she took half a step in John’s direction. That finally made Moira notice him as well.

“John Newman,” she called out, somewhat warningly, and the Gamer finally moved his eyes from the adorable, white-haired seer.

“…No…” he heard Lorelei whisper under her breath. She moaned when that made him glance back to her.

‘Whatever I am doing to that woman, please never let it stop,’ John thought and planted his feet firmly in front of the two. “Moira Brighton,” he extended his hand in greeting, “welcome to the Guild Hall. I hope you had pleasant travels.”

Moira looked between her agitated companion and John, then carefully took his hand. “Pleasant enough,” she responded sternly and loud, for the crowd. Quieter, she told him. “Why do you make such a scene of poor Lorelei, Gamer?”

“Why do you come without a warning?” John responded in a similarly quiet tone.

“No warning? My father…” Moira groaned and John took a deep breath, both of them having the same realization. The Shield Warden raised her voice for the public again. “Sorry that we arrived earlier than scheduled.”

“Well, it is unsurprising that you would have your things in such good order,” John responded with well acted flattery. “If you wish, I could show you where to get some water? Your companions must be roasting in the unusual weather.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Moira responded.