Chapter 144 – 3 out of 4 days/weeks done.

John finally left his room (after Sylph had returned to coherency). The moment he opened his door, the tempest elemental stormed past him, utilizing her much smaller form. ‘I will have to look into exactly what she can do later,’ John thought as he watched after the slightly crackling streak of green vanishing around a corner.

During that sexual encounter just now, she had shown control over electricity and air moisturization on top of her usual wind powers. The Skill Evolution did say that she would have basic control over all wind types and that seemed to include some control over other elements? The lines were a bit blurry when only considering basic elements. Tests would need to be conducted.

“Yo, yo, yo, that is…HEY THIS IS SUPER UNFAIR, you cannot have fun without me, even if I am having fun!” he heard Sylph’s voice.

‘What is she on about now?’ he wondered and entered the living room.

A wonderful sight met his eyes. The curvaceous body of Salamander writhed in fiery red atop the naked, pale curves of his bottom-heavy maid. Tongues penetrated folds, the classic 69 position on full display, fingers digging into thighs and plump backsides. They had claimed the couch for that, while Gnome had opted to sit on the floor. She masturbated feverishly while she watched them, failing to notice Sylph’s blabber and John’s approach, until he was right next to her.

The stone elemental froze. “Um, uh, we were just, uhm,” she tried to stammer her way out of this. She failed. Her naked form and the two girls on the couch in the same state of undress left no room for interpretation. “Uwuwuwuwu….”

“You were horny and decided to have some fun with each other,” John analysed the situation with a perverted grin. “No problem with that.” John wasn’t entirely sure what he would have thought about his girls sleeping with girls he did not know about (probably nothing good) but inter-harem loving? That was just a bonus to everything. He wanted his women to get along very, very well. Them having fun with each other was wonderful (also gorgeous women kissing was hot).

Sadly, as awesome as the sight was, John could not obey the demands of his dick to get involved. This would have to be reserved for better times. Therefore, he ignored the tugging in his pants and instead went ahead and pat Gnome, who was in a state of wordless blushing, until she calmed down. Salamander and Aclysia took the situation much more calmly, or well, the latter of them did. Aclysia did send him a message asking to wait until she had climaxed while Salamander was so in the heat of the moment that John doubted that she noticed that he was even there.

‘Such is the reality of a growing harem,’ John added to what he said, thinking to himself. ‘The alternative would be a bunch of women who are just fighting for my attention and I don’t want that. I want them all to love each other as much… almost as much as they love me.’ He was allowed just a little bit of selfishness there, right?

With that on his mind, he got Gnome to follow him outside. Sylph lagged behind and watched them finish off what they had started. Leaving them with… blue ovaries, if such a thing was a thing, would have been cruel. “You know, this actually isn’t that bad, look at them go, that is hot, not as hot as you, Johnny, but still pretty good. Look at them go – gogo. What a silly word go, go, go!” Sylph’s lecherous words followed him outside.

“So, I am officially no longer the number 1 pervert in this group,” John said once the two of them went outside, “and I am not sure how to feel about that…”

“Wha-? You are trying to say Sylph is now worse than you?” Gnome asked, wrapping her arms around her as if to protect herself from some invisible molester, “this is worrying.”

“I don’t think it’s that bad, besides you seemed to be happy to watch that just now,” John teased. “Plus, you’re still naked.”

Gnome flailed around in wild gestures, while her yellow dress materialized again around her. “I, uhm, I-i-i-I was just caught up in the moment… yes, yes! I would never do something like that on my own. It is not like I regularly do something like that when you sleep or anything like i-,“ Gnome quickly sealed her mouth with her hands.

“Interesting, so when you masturbate, do you think of me or somebody else?” John wanted to know. Gnome just blushed deeper, her hands remaining in place.

‘Please drop it?’ she requested over the mental connection, her voice a pitiful squeaking.

“Okay,” John obliged, but he would keep this in mind for later teasing.

Gnome relaxed and they stood there, waiting for the sapphic engagements to conclude. “One more week, huh?” the stone elemental mumbled.

“Yes,” John answered quietly, his thoughts circling around the same thing. There was only a week left until this relative safety came to an end. He would have to face Thana. He was now level 63, 25 levels higher than when he had started this grind. His levelling advancements had slowed considerably since the start. It wasn’t a huge loss, the majority of his power growth had come from the Skills he gained and trained.

The evolution of three of his elementals had increased his combat strength extremely, he was certain of that much even without yet knowing exactly what Sylph could do. Next level he would unlock Endurance 100 and with it the Synergy Bonuses for Strength and Agility, so that would be another power boost. His scalings were all around better thanks to the World Ender Set items.

And despite all of that he was not confident at all. He remembered how Thana had taken out Copernicus with playful ease, and the solar feline had been level 76. The strength of his abilities allowed John to punch above his weight but he had no idea how strong Thana really was in the first place or how she fought. All he had seen of her was an overwhelming display of raw power. He wasn’t confident, he was afraid.

He felt a liquid hand connect to his left one and turned to see Undine. ‘No fear,’ she spoke into his thoughts. That was easier said than done but the calm of her thoughts spread partially to his own and so he relaxed the tiniest bit.

“Undine, I…” he began to say, struggling to sort his thoughts.

“I will not, Sally!” he heard Sylph shout as she flew outside.

“Why not though?” Salamander asked, similarly small. John was surprised to see them at the same height in their ‘flight’ form. “Cause, I don’t wanna, is that not reason enough? I don’t wanna, I do not,” the tempest elemental spoke, her flower-petal wings beating as quickly as a hummingbird’s behind her back.

Aclysia also joined the party, “I hope the earlier display was to your liking, Master,” she said.

“Well, yeah, was it your idea?”

“Affirmative,” the artificial guardian answered and turned to the bickering duo. “Salamander has been asking Sylph to change into her bigger form, who has declined,” she informed John about the subject of this particular fight.

“I don’t feel like it!” Sylph shouted and folded her arms.

“Why though? I mean you have gotten pretty sexy now –I was never a fan of that armour thing you wore- so Sylphie show me your body in full glory!” Salamander demanded.

“Oh, well, if you say it like that,” Sylph, being flattered instead of realizing that she was being played, answered, “I mean, yeah, okay, here, look upon my new hot bod!” Sylph grew into her bigger, but still pretty small, form.

Salamander burst out laughing, “AHAHAHAHA, you are still so fucking tiny!”

“Don’t call me tiny! I am proudly small!” Sylph demanded, her voice accompanied by a gust of wind that carried Salamander away. The blaze elemental just kept cackling as she tumbled through the air, landing a few feet away in the grass and rolling around, having changed into her own bigger form someway along the way.

Salamander was laughing so hard that she lost control over her heat and actually scorched the ground she was laughing on. Or maybe it was a completely conscious decision, John had no idea. As she calmed down, she got up and walked over to Sylph, who gave her older ‘sister’ an angry glare. “Well, guess you are at a good height to give blow jobs while standing,” Salamander ridiculed the tempest elemental, standing tall above her, lips spread in a cocky smile.

“You tricked me, apologize!” Sylph demanded and puffed her cheeks up when Salamander instead started patting her head.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you down there,” she apologized for something else entirely, putting a hand next to her left knife ear. “Can you repeat that, little Sylph?”

The tempest elemental's own elven ears twitched and she clenched her fists, “I am not amused, not in the slightest, this is the opposite of amusing, you are making me mad, silly Sally, silly, dumb, mean Sally. I will smite you!”

“Pff, with what? Gonna fan my flames with some more wind? Like that’s workrkrkrkrkrkrkr,” Salamander got a shocking introduction to Sylph’s new ability to control lightning. Red curves tensed as the energy set her own essence into disarray, achieving a similar effect to humans touching high voltage. Only when Sylph stopped did Salamander keel over backwards, saving herself from an uncomfortable impact by shaking her head and changing forms mid-fall.

“What was that?” she wanted to know, “The fuck was that?!”

“So, to inform you all,” John intervened, before Sylph could make this quick explanation into a self-glorifying twenty-minute monologue, “Sylph actually had a stronger evolution than the two of you, Gnome, Salamander. She either jumped directly to Tier 3 or some kind of Tier 2.5, I will have to read deeper into that after we have saved Jane.”

“That is bullshit!” Salamander complained to John, “why did she have a better evolution? That makes no fucking sense, you make no fucking sense, this is fucked up, I demand a retry for my own!”

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” John shrugged it off, nothing he could do about it. Salamander was left speechless.

“What exactly can she do now?” Gnome wanted to know, she didn’t look as offended by this as Salamander, more curious all things considered.

“Good question, Sylph, show us what you can do now,” John furthered the question.

“Kay, so I can do this,” she pointed at Salamander and there was a small spark of electricity, this one wasn’t nearly enough to hurt the blaze elemental.

“Oh, haha, Sylph,” Salamander spat out and distanced herself, “Rain on somebody else’s parade.” 

“Yeah, I can do that too, good idea, Sally!” Sylph said and struck a pose, her finger now raised to the sky. A cloud formed over her hand. “I have some weather control now, isn’t this cool?” The cloud started pouring down in a local monsoon that drenched Sylph to the bone. This was obviously not intended as Sylph started to make hasty movements, “Ehm, uhm, urgh, how do I turn this off? Maybe If I put some more energy into it, it will…” A lightning strike, made by herself, struck Sylph causing her to yelp in surprise.

At least Salamander’s mood was lifted again. “Clumsy airhead,” she commented, while everyone waited for Sylph’s head to stop spinning.

“Eh, uhm, so, uh, I can also do the usual!” the tempest elemental finally announced and made a sweeping gesture. John could not directly see or feel the ensuing attack but he saw the grass being pressed to the ground by the oppressive wind Sylph had just summoned. 

“So, lightning and some rain as well as your old powers,” John concluded, “although the latter are, expectedly, stronger and you can do it without my mana. Anything else?”

“Nuh-uh, do not think so, maybe, maybe not, I can do some funny stuff now though, look at this!” Sylph hyped everyone up and opened her eyes wildly. Nothing happened, “…uhm, I think I am out of mana,”

“Sylph!” Gnome said sternly, “You should keep track of your mana more carefully.”

“Says the girl who mindlessly threw spikes at me!” Sylph countered.

“I mean…that was…” Gnome stammered, “Just…THAT WAS YOUR FAULT FOR TEASING ME!”

“Maybe she can do it if you believe in her Gnome, come on, do it with me, EY EY OOOH!” Salamander teased the stone elemental.

“Y-y-y-y-y-y-you are awful!” Gnome cried and hid behind Aclysia. “Save me!” she begged the maid.

“Do not bully Gnome, Salamander…”

“Thank you!”

“…that is Master’s privilege.”

“NO-hoooooo,” Gnome sank to the ground and rocked back and forth in a foetal position, “why is everyone mean to me-eeeee?!”

“’Cause you are so adorable when we do it,” John explained, causing Gnome to give him a pouty, slightly teary-eyed glance.

“Why can I not be adorable when you don't bully me?”

“You are, you are just extra adorable when you look like this,” he stated. Gnome sniffed and mumbled something about being flattered.

“Anyhow, with that out of the way, Undine, I wanted to talk to you,” the mostly silent water elemental looked at John with anticipation following these words. John kneeled down so that they could speak face to face. “I know that what happened in the first week must have been really painful for you and that I have waited so long for me to want to make things between us clear again…” even bringing this up unleashed a rage inside Undine that pressed down on John’s every thought just like her calmness had earlier. Against the power of her emotions he was nothing more than a sailor stirring a suddenly stormy sea. “…but I am willing to make amends now,” the sea calmed ever so little, with every word he spoke, “I ask for your forgiveness and whatever it takes for you to give it to me, I will oblige.”

That, suddenly, caused the rage to rise higher than ever. ‘Would you forsake Rave for my sake?’ the words torrented through his mind. ‘Would you kill one whom you love for me? Do not spout empty phrases, John Newman,’ her words crashed like waves into his thoughts and exposed his lies, ‘Say what you truly want, I will state my demands in return.’ John clenched his teeth. He did not want to say the truth. It was far from the noble façade he presented. It was mechanical, self-centred, and dull. ‘Say it, I know anyhow,’ Undine urged him.

‘I want you to forgive me so I can evolve you without risk and have more power when saving Jane,’ he answered.

The turbulent sea became a silent pond, “Honesty about your intention, this is all I could have ever asked,” Undine said in her crystal-clear voice, “If you want to live in the peace of the ebb you need to face the mindless advancement of the flood.”

“Is that your lesson for me? Honesty?” he asked.

The water elemental shook her head, “That is what I expect of you, my lesson is different. Let us fight the demons, Gaia told me she has prepared something for us on the tenth floor.”

John furrowed his eyebrows. That actually didn't sound that great to him. However, Gaia was his benefactor still and when she did present him with an option it should be taken. “Okay,” he nodded, “Then we go now and grind that down.”