Collide Gamer

Chapter 178 – Mono is a disease?!

“Choices, choices,” John mumbled. He had no need for either, and regarded both of the classes as novelty. However, he was getting a free Perk, so he might as well take it. The pervert inside him urged him to take Loverboy, while the Gamer decided that his personal class should take the lead. It was a mental battle between John’s strongest personality traits. At the end of the day, however, he had been granted Gamer powers, not Pornstar powers. He chose the blessing of Ferikrona.

That meant he now had two Classes eligible for a level up. The Gamer and Arcanist, whose latest challenge he had cleared just now, by killing the boss with Arcane Explosion. He went with the latter first. It just was more satisfying to get what he had worked for.

Magic Machine Gun was out. He didn’t have the mana to support that, and he doubted that it would ever be in the interest of his fighting style to use Mana Ray that way. Between Overload and Whisper of Mana, that was a bit of a harder decision. Just earlier, he had thought about wanting something like Overload, but having Whisper of Mana could be incredibly useful. Doubling his current mana regeneration for a minute would essentially give him over 180 mana. That meant that killing something with Mana Ray refunded more than half of the cost. It would only get better as his Wisdom rose. Overload, on the other hand, was for that niche moment where he needed a decisive attack that wasn't Mana Blade (which had scaling damage for the amount of mana he invested). With a sigh he took Whisper of Mana. It was just too good.

Up next, Gamer perk. He hoped that would be equally or more interesting.

Loot Preference was nice and EXP Pots was a useful gamble, but he would take Escape Rope. Nothing would beat the safety of knowing that, if he got cocky and stumbled into a boss that he couldn’t beat, he could retreat. Attempting to fight above his currently recommended range was at least slightly possible now. Even if he never used it, it would be a good thing to have.

‘Now, what Class to focus on?’ John thought and looked at the three main options that presented themselves to him. Puppeteer’s main attractions were the increased Stats for Aclysia and Mono, as well as the Possession Slots. However, he didn’t have the mana regeneration to support more Possession Slots, every single one cost him one mana per second and to create a Spell Carrier with a single spell, like he did earlier, he already needed three. That was out, for now.

That narrowed it down to Arcanist and Elementalist. Both of these gave him more mana to play with, Elementalist by reducing the upkeep on the elementals and Arcanist by increasing his maximum Mana and Mana Regeneration. John put both windows side by side to have a better look at the bonuses while he pondered over this problem.

‘What do I want?’ He asked himself. There were arguments for both sides here. Arcanist gave him an all-around increase of the mana he had available, whilst also pushing down the cost of his Arcane spells. Speaking of that, how did it interact with Mana Protection? If it lowered the MP per HP ratio the choice would be way easier.

It did not, it only reduced the activation cost. So that wasn’t a point in the Class’ favour. Still, it reduced the enormous costs of the offensive Skills, so that reduction wasn’t useless. When it came to the question whether the cost reduction of the elementals or the increase of MP Reg was better, John tended to the former. Getting the elementals to a point where they were free of cost would be glorious, but getting them down to a mere 5% of his regeneration would also be pretty good. Also, the Stat increases would affect four people in his group instead of just buffing himself. Yeah, it was going to be a focus on Elementalist, for now.

“Ya done?” Rave asked, having patiently waited for her boyfriend to finish sternly staring at the air.

“Almost, sorry,” John apologised and looked at the last window of interest.

There were a whole lot of new enemy types. Also, some of the structure had been overhauled. For example, the display window now properly displayed in increments of five floors, four normal and one core floor, rather than the seemingly random cut off points he had before. To the old Wave and Floor types came Siege, Capture and Arena. There was also one that was randomized, named Corruption, which didn’t bode well, in John’s opinion. Lastly, he could now sort the whole damn thing, so that was nice.

“Now,” John stated and closed the window. “What did we get from the boss?”

“Ya tell me, scan-eyes,” Rave said and presented him with the five items. The girls had picked them up while he had been preoccupied.

First there was 150 grand. That refilled his cash reserves, so that was nice, but nothing new. Next there were two Healing Potions, which refilled 300 HP upon drinking, which was quite good. “You can keep those,” he offered Rave and Lydia. “I don’t get hurt a lot, and when I do I have Undine.”

Rave looked down on herself. Her top was the usual skimpy type and her jeans so tight that even the smartphone in the front pocket had gone into John’s inventory to not be a hindrance during battle. That nothing had been torn was equally relieving as it was disappointing. “Can’t exactly bring those along.”

“I will gladly take you up on that offer.” Lydia stepped in. “I have enough room for that in my uniform.” He handed the princess both potions and then looked at the last two items on the list.

One was a hoe.

“…I kind of want to keep it,” John said after explaining what it did to everyone.

“If you do, keep it away from my property,” Lydia stated and crossed her arms. “I do not want to be affiliated with you growing erotic vegetables.”

“Understandable,” John agreed and put the Hoe away. His inventory was still halfway empty, even with everyone’s jackets in there. After all, the loot they had gathered up until now was all fed to Mono, who had now reached Level 74. “What’s the last thing?” John asked, hoping it’d be something he could feed to Mono and have her catch up to his level.

“Uhm, we found this,” Gnome answered and handed him a branch of the Tree of Life. Branch was a strong word. Twig was more accurate. Thin, silver wood with golden leaves at the end.

Time to check what those Attributes did.

Those made the item pretty great fodder. “Eat up, Mono!” he tossed the branch at the artificial support.

“Is this your way of buying me dinner first?” the sassy support asked, after catching the branch.

“Kind of?” the Gamer had to wonder if she knew about his plans for today. She did have access to his mind, although he rarely ever felt her probe. “What if it is?”

“I’d ask for some flowers first,” she responded, but started munching down all the same.

“I am reminded of a question I have.” Lydia sheathed her rapier and relaxed as everyone else did. As much as she was capable of relaxing anyhow. John sometimes wondered if she had an iron rod for a spine, straight as she always stood. “Why did you name her Mono?”

“Because she is monochrome,” John explained and blinked.

“Ah, indeed, that makes more sense than naming her after the kissing disease.”

Mono tensed up and almost coughed the leaf she was currently chewing back up. So, not only could stones sneeze but metal girls could cough. The Abyss was a weird place. “Please, what?!” Mono cried out after having gulped down the leaf.

“Mononucleosis,” Lydia explained, “commonly called mono or the kissing disease.”

“I don’t want to be named after that!” Mono turned to the Gamer with big, surprised, mildly angry eyes. “Why would you do that to me?”

“I didn’t know!” he defended himself, the Gamer had completely forgotten about that disease. In his defence, it wasn’t like he ever suffered from it. The only people he ever made out with had immune systems that would kill any mundane disease in a minute.

“Really?” Rave snickered, “I have been giggling about it for months.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?!” John wanted to know.

“I assumed ya knew,” his girlfriend kept giggling.

“Oh, that’s just great. Really great.” Mono’s voice was drenching with sarcasm. “I just looooove that you’re laughing at my name. That’s funny really funny.” Her big eyes narrowed to a demanding stare. “Change it.”

“You want to change the name Master gave you?” Aclysia chimed in, blinking in confusion.

“Yes! Would you want to be named after a disease?! Actually, don’t answer that, you are the best, Aclysia, but you would do anything that perv tells you, even if he would change your name to Fuckdoll One.”

“That one even I would consider slightly awkward… although I would still accept whatever name Master deems appropriate. Not like any other opinions really matter.” Acylsia blinked in confusion when that statement was met with raised eyebrows. How anyone could think otherwise seemed to be a mystery to her.

“Ehm, a new name?!” John was entirely not prepared for this. “…Can’t you keep Mono?”

“Mono is a disease?!” Mono said as if this exchange would clear up everything that was wrong with that question. Which it did.

“Okay, okay…ehm, how about Momo?” It wasn’t a great change, but if he changed her name too much, it would just be confusing.

“Momo…okay I can live with that,” the newly dubbed artificial support stated, nodding to herself a few times. “Okay, new name, glad we had that conversation… AFTER, I ran around with it for 3 months!” Momo took her remaining aggressions out on the branch, chewing and swallowing its dense leaves.

Okay, so she was level 75 now, neat. Now to get those new attributes in. Ascended Mana automatically replaced Strong Mana, which was of little surprise to him. Silver Wisdom was put into the ninth slot, which meant that Golden Fortune was going to be in the 10th, and last, slot. When he tried to do just that, John got a window.

‘What is up with that Broken Wings shit?’ John thought and sighed in annoyance. ‘Well, time to see what the Stat bonuses from the Golden Leaves are. The current ones from Felligium are okay, but not outstanding.’

Yeah, that was better. That was way better. Out with the old. He reserved Observing Momo for later, when he had spent the 20 banked Stat Points she now had. If he was going to raise her Libido, he wanted that to happen in close proximity to a bed. “So, want to go on or go back?”

“I say we continue!” Rave enthusiastically said.

The elementals agreed, so did Aclysia and Momo.

“I will need to take it easy for a few more minutes. I can continue, however,” Lydia stated. “I have yet to reach level 69.”

“Bwahahaahahaaahahaha!” Sylph suddenly exploded into laughter, to everyone’s confusion. “She said 69! Hihihihi!”

Sylph’s hysterical giggling was contagious, for whatever reason. Maybe it was just because the little oddball was just the right mixture of annoying and charming, maybe it was the post-fight adrenaline. In any case, they all laughed with her.