He found the second essence in the Futuristic Siege of all places. After breaking through the energy dome that protected the cone shaped city of spires, John and his group quickly broke through to the heart of it. There they found one of those stationary bosses, a half-finished mecha-unit still bound to its station.

As the mecha was rather large, the fight had three stages. First they had to rush up the scaffold around its legs. Small energy beams, traps in the form of unbound cables and security bots blocked their path. Once they made it to the top, they found themselves on a large platform in front of the mecha’s chest.

From there on it was a somewhat normal boss fight. They did damage to it while dodging where it was possible and taking attacks where not. Eventually the mecha’s central plate burst off and the fight became all about beating it down as pulses of heat energy rolled outwards, slowly ramping up.

The finishing move came from John, throwing the Mana Blade stored in Purgatory at the core to not run the risk that the boss hit them with a deadly suicide attack.

Thus, they acquired the Essence of Centre.

The third essence was found the same day but acquired a day later, which was also still the same day. This was why time changes made anything more confusing. Unlike the Golden Tulip and the mecha, the boss that held the Essence of Tristesse did not have it as his only Epic drop. As luck would have it, he did not get the essence as the guaranteed one. The bright side of that was that it was a boss in a Wave dungeon, which meant John could face the same boss multiple times if he just made it into an Assault.

So, one round of bedroom activities (mostly sleeping, albeit not exclusively) later, they ran a three-hour version of the Ogre Dungeon. They faced a small kind of ogre, the Hive Ogre. These things were disgusting to look at, the naked mole rats of humans, and even if they were small compared to other ogres, they were still over two metres tall. The danger came from, as their names implied, the fact that they had a hivemind, in other words their attacks were extremely well-coordinated.

However, they had very little tools to deal with John’s own hivemind and the ‘build a fortress and turtle’ strategy. The only thing they did that was somewhat successful was flinging each other. At least until John got a spiked roof.

The boss was then the queen of that hive. Nobody should need to suffer through seeing that monster, a bloated mess of pregnant flesh constantly giving birth. It reminded John of the broodmothers from Dragon Age and those things did not seem particularly happy with their fate.

By the end of the Assault, they found two Essences of Tristesse.

_____________________________________________________________________

“I need a vacation,” Magnus told John when the Gamer told him that they got the last essence. In due diligence, the Fateweaver had held up until they got that part of the quest done, but now he was at his limit. “I am sorry.”

John shook his head and patted the bigger man on the shoulder. “No problem,” he assured. “You have made the last… 9 days into-” he had to calculate that; he spent some of the evenings back in the real world to sleep in a bed with Rave, so that was about a day lost every three days. ”-about 18. Honestly surprised you are only asking for a break now. How about you take the next three days off?”

“Thanks,” the eldest of the current Magus generation did look honestly relieved. It wasn’t like it was hard for him to maintain the 1 to 3 ratio, but just sitting inside the barrier all day must have been tremendously boring. Then there was the extra factor of living next to a guy who was having very loud sex every night for the entire duration. Magnus had never complained once, but John had realized that somewhere down the line and tried to tone it down.

“I should thank you, I am able to push my plans along way quicker because I can grind with your help,” John said to him. “Any plans for what you are going to do the next three days?”

Magnus looked at him with those composed eyes of his for way too long, as if he was trying to solve a riddle. “Not particularly.”

“Let’s go drinking on one of those days then,” John suggested. “Well, not necessarily drinking, I don’t really like alcohol, but just hang out. We are going to see a lot more of each other, might as well hang out.”

The Fateweaver shifted uncomfortably for a moment, as years of working with limited time contracts only had created the habit of not getting to cosy with his employers. “I will think about it,” he promised.

“That’s all I am asking for,” John said, hoping something would come of this. The time he had spent with Maximillian on the cruise had given him new appreciation of having friends his dick did not point at. He still preferred to hang out with Rave, Aclysia or any other members of his harem 6 out of 7 days in a week, but there was just something relaxing about getting away from people you cared that deeply about once in a while. It was a weird paradox.

They were about to leave the dungeon when John remembered one more thing. “Right, Magnus, would you let me test something? I would only take a minute.”

This time there was no hesitation; it seemed the Fateweaver was more skilled at business than social interactions. “What is it?”

“I want to see if I can make you stronger,” John told him. “See, I have a mechanic where I can give other people a few level ups per month up to their potential. I give most of those to Nia and Rave. In fact, I only have one more I can give away this month, but still.”

“Let me summarize: If I have any more potential, you can make me reach it quicker?” Magnus asked.

“And push you somewhat above if it is low, yes,” John answered. Going beyond the boundary of the Maximum Potential Level came with high costs, but one or two levels were still possible.

Magnus agreed to the experiment and John invited him to his party. As it was called John Newman’s Harem Association right now, that got him a majorly weirded off glance from the otherwise so stern looking man. He accepted anyway and John went to check his potential level.

Magnus was level 33 and his maximum level was 35. “Not a lot I can do for you,” John admitted, “but two levels, or about four percent, is what I can do for you without a doubt. Just drink this.” He handed him the almost full Helbrecht’s Soulpotion.

In one stream of movement, the Fateweaver grabbed the small glass construct, took off the lid, gulped down the contents and then waited. “I feel no different,” he told John.

“Give me a second,” John told him, as he had control over the level-ups he wanted to assign. As Magnus was quite low level, one almost full Soulpotion did the trick, and John granted him the last level. “How about now?”

Magnus blinked a couple of times and looked at his hands. “I guess I feel slightly more capable?” he said with doubt.

“Two percent really isn’t a lot, but it’s the best I can offer you,” John said. “I will get you up to your potential as extra payment. People under my employ should be the best they can be.”

_________________________________________________________________

With all essences gathered, John stood before a new problem: he hadn’t encountered Shard of Potential or Pure Drops so far. He found those items on the Abyss Auction rather quickly, so they couldn’t have been that rare, but the prices were still too high for John’s comfort. Well, for the Shards of Potential at least, 25 of those would have cost him about 50 million. Pure Drops went for 25’000 a piece, so getting 100 of those would cost him only two and a half million dollars.

‘Only a few million dollars… sometimes I like to remind myself that I am talking about US dollars and not Yen or whatever they have in Venezuela again,’ John thought; he liked to remind himself every now and again how ridiculous this all was.

As he went through the auction in desperate search for someone who had misclicked and was selling his stuff for way cheaper, he got a message.

Scarlett: What would you need Shards of Potential for?

John: TLDR: Making a new Artificial Spirit, need a new crystal. Already have everything else.

“Aclysia, I think the drone will drop what I just ordered on the sun deck, could you fetch that for me?” he told the weaponized maid.

“At once, Master,” she answered with a little bow, got up from her position at his side on the couch and walked the little distance. Nia wordlessly took that spot.

“You know, I am getting pretty hot here, right?” he asked, surrounded by body warmth where the couch didn’t block access. Rave was under his right arm, Eliza in his lap and now Nia pressed against his left side. He also had an erection because, aside from the obvious reasons, his left hand was resting on Eliza’s boobs as he looked over her shoulder to navigate his phone.

“You know it’s Sunday fucking evening and your dick is currently only pressing against my ass, right?” a horny Eliza asked him sarcastically. “You could use your stupid cock to actually do something interesting, but no, you and your boring-ass upper brain need to think about how to transform that thing,” she pointed with her foot at the 2B figurine sitting on the table, “into another tall, white-haired bimbo with an ass that is better than mine!”

“I would actually rate your ass on the same level as Aclysia’s ass which is the same level as 2B’s ass,” John stated, “and I am not just saying that because it is currently grinding against me.”

“How high would that be?” John’s girlfriend asked.

“9 out of Rave,” he smirked.

“Great, now you buttmuncher just took my psycho jealousy and guided it somewhere else. I know I am an unpleasable arrangement of character defects the likes of which fucks the world, but you should change your class to Retardin,” Eliza continued her tirade, doing more of said grinding against John’s pants. Before he ran into danger of cumming into his suit, he opened his window and unequipped all legwear. “What the shit?!” Eliza cried out when she suddenly felt his naked dick against her leather thong.

“You asked for this,” John reminded her, temporarily putting his phone aside to lift the small bundle of insanity up, slide her thong to the side and impale her asshole on his cock. It wasn’t as well lubricated as usual, but it went in easy enough. “Now bounce, you degenerate piece of ass.”

“Fuuuuuck,” Eliza was very enthusiastic about this, “as you command, John the Ass-paler.”

“And now we are going to have an orgy,” Rave stated factually, a hand pushing into her pants as she watched the masochistic curse thrower take off her bra and force herself up and down John’s enormous dick. Nia just remained calm for the moment. At least she looked calm. So she looked liked always.

The Gamer picked up his phone again.

Scarlett: You know I am trying to work here, how about you don’t just send me shlicking material without warning?

John’s answer to that was to groan extra hard and also unequip his shirt, leaving his naked body under the vest to be seen by the front camera.

Ten seconds later he got a shot made from between Scarlett’s legs. It showed an upwards view of her body. The focal point of it all were her opened pants, red lace panties bulging outwards thanks to the clearly busy hand inside them. Further up was Scarlett, sucking on two fingers of her other hand. The Gamer wished that was his dick. As to how she took that photo with both hands occupied, he just went with ‘Technomancer’.

“Now I am jealous of you!” John said and smacked Eliza’s ass. “You took my opportunity to be the first person to touch that fierce redhead.”

“If I say I am sorry, will you spank me like the bitch in heat I am?” Eliza asked. When he denied her an answer, she just whimpered in a weirdly pleased way and continued to ride him anally. They both loved it when she was left dangling.

John: Anyway, I doubt you hit me up for info and nudes, what do you want?

Scarlett: Right, I need you to actually do the next takeover of my territory yourself, for PR reasons.

Scarlett: Here is where.

John checked the map data while biting his lips. At least he couldn’t stumble his words while typing.

John: That’s a pretty corr all< of yours, is it not/.

John: *core *ally */

John: **?

So much for that theory. Scarlett, who could type with her mind, did not have that problem.

Scarlett: Yes, which is why I need you, specifically, to do it.

Scarlett: I have some Shards of Potential stored there, take them if you need them so badly.

John: Just like that?

John: You know I am not in conflict with you right? For the moment, I just happen to take over independents where your bases are.

Scarlett: Don’t worry, I will have it arranged that you get your hands on them.

John: What do you have those for, while we are at it? I am curious.

Scarlett: Technomancer protection, like every other mage, we can’t control ensouled objects and you can build a circuit with those that extends the modified person’s soul into their artificial limbs.

John: Doesn’t that go against your own goals?

Scarlett: It’s a luxury addition, so relatively rare.

Scarlett: To talk about more interesting backdoors, can you point your phone at how your dick is stretching that filthy asshole of this m-slut?

He did and promptly got another message.

Scarlett: Bloody Hell! To the BASE?

John: That must really shock you in order for you trn brittish.

John: *turn British

Scarlett: How does somebody that small take that huge a thing into her ass? When I try to get the you-shaped dildo into the proper hole, I barely get it in.

John: You know how much I want to test that tightness for myself, right?

Scarlett: The sooner you get that territory conquered, the quicker my plan gets off the ground, the quicker I can start living/hiding wherever you live.

Scarlett: Would be a somewhat good public persona, now that I think about it, Scarlett Newman – Harem Manager.

John: Why Newman?

Scarlett: Aren’t you marrying all of those girls?

John: For the moment, there is only one girl that briefly had the last name Newman during the tournament. Everyone else uses their own… if they have one.

Scarlett: Right, funny video footage with then-Thana breaking someone’s hand.

Scarlett: You totally should just marry everyone though. Not gonna lie, marriage is like the one romantic thing I agree with.

Scarlett: Guess it’s because it’s so disgustingly sweet, having a day where two people pledge they will be with each other until death does them part, not even I can make that sound bad.

John: I don’t disagree, but I have one girl I want to do that first with.

He glanced over at Rave.

John: And I don’t feel like I have cleared the conditions to make that the best possible day yet.

Scarlett: Huh, that’s some proper reasoning right there.

Scarlett: Anyway, back to you getting to fuck me before you marry anybody. When can you attack my territory? I have an opening in my schedule tomorrow 12:30 PM.

His answer was delayed by the need of grabbing Eliza by the hips and slamming his dick up to the base into her as he came into her anal cavity. “Be a proper sex slave and bend over the table so I can send Scarlett a picture of what it looks like when somebody takes my dick in their ass,” John commanded in his deep voice.

“Oh shit, that sounds hot,” Eliza gasped as she got off his dick and did as she was told.

Scarlett: Aaaaaand I am masturbating at least three times tonight. Great.

John: To appease you, tomorrow 12:30 is fine.

John: No idea why your schedule is important for when I attack, but I guess you want to keep the surprise alive.

Scarlett: You know me so well.

John: Do I? I have to wonder which position you would like more.

He bent forwards, camera pointing at his hand that slapped across Eliza’s ass. The masochistic blood mage quivered, the wetness oozing from her pussy becoming a stream for a moment in response to the dart of pleasuring pain.

John: Would you like to be me or Eliza in this situation, mhm? The way you surrendered to me rather quick indicates the latter, but you also like to take control of everything.

Scarlett: I am using you too, John, so the answer should be pretty clear.

Scarlett: But let’s test it when we next meet in person.