Collide Gamer

Chapter 223 – A far cry

The battle between blood mage and dragon goddess was a heated one. It was also something that John had trouble following. A series of punches, each capable of killing pretty much anything below level 100 in a single movement, echoed loudly all around. The shockwaves sent more and more dust flying, ruining the sight.

Thankfully, John was at a safe distance now. He and the rest of the crew had climbed up into the empty spectator platforms all around. Which were, quite literally, just splattered with loot. They were all gathering stuff, which gave John a moment to be alone with Rave as they went off together.

“I hope that didn’t hurt too much,” he said in an apologetic tone. While he wasn’t responsible for Nathalia doing what she did, it was because Rave continued to hang out with him that she got dragged into situations like this.

“I have had worse, not a lot, but worse,” Rave waved off. “If ya live my life of just punching your way through problems, ya gotta live with the fact that people punch back sometimes. No biggie…I am going to punch her in the face once I get to her level though.”

“That will take like… years,” John reminded her. “If that’s even possible for you…”

“Ey, she will be around for years too, right?” Rave answered, giving John a well-knowing glance, and picked up a crude looking stone axe. “I mean, me being me, I do not think that I’ll be holding a grudge that long, but still.” She brought the weapon back to Aclysia and Momo.

The two Artificial Spirits were not involved in this. Thanks to John’s massive level-up spree, the two now had to eat like crazy to catch up. Thankfully the trolls up here all had individual loot, and it was filled with more mana than stuff of his level had.

He looked down into the arena. The simple punching had stopped. ‘Apparently they are done measuring each other up,’ John thought. Thana executed a low-kick, trying to sweep away Nathalia’s feet. What happened instead was Nathalia jumping up, ramming her knee against Thana’s lowered chin.

Thana fell backwards, stunned for a moment, but managed to only stumble back a few feet, remaining standing. Nathalia was already setting after her though. A punch, which Thana only side-stepped narrowly, shook the arena as it collided with the ground.

John just swayed in his step for a bit as he picked up more and more money. ‘Trolls really have a lot of cash, don’t they?’ John thought; ‘Now that’s a stereotype I’ve never heard before. It’s always that trolls are some sad, basement dwelling neckbeards. Ah well… I should probably spend the rest of my points.’

After spending the 5 points earlier on Charisma, he still had 25 points left. He could use them to get to 50 Charisma, but the recent efficiency upgrade had given him 3 Relationship Slots. From all he knew, the only female addition to his life in the next few days or weeks should be that Nia girl and he doubted that she’d also join his harem immediately.

Well, he doubted he would need more Charisma for the moment. Therefore, he continued to invest into Wisdom.

Still no Efficiency Upgrade. At this point John was convinced that the next one would be at either level 200, 250 or 500. Those seemed like logical points. ‘I think going for 250 is okay,’ John told himself. ‘Echo of Destruction is taking care of immediate concerns of Strength and Agility. My Intellect could use some work, but I’d rather check the next level of Wisdom now that I am already at 185. In other news, I don’t feel much wiser.’

This wasn’t the first time John had noticed that, but now that he raised it by 25 points at once, the lack of difference was obvious, especially compared to earlier, immediately notable increases. ‘I suspect some sort of diminishing return going on,’ he thought as he dumped yet more money into his inventory. ‘I guess Stats eventually stop changing me physically and mentally and just became Stats. Like in WoW. I mean, who believes that his Priest has 12000 Intelligence?’

Stats were a bit wonky, anyhow, as they were numerical representations of reality for him but guesses for everyone else. Nathalia had an Intellect that was higher than his on paper, but just sucked when compared to her Physical Stats. John was pretty sure that, if the two of them were to play something like chess, he could beat her. Although he could have been stereotyping her on that front. She just didn’t feel like an intellectual person.

The arena shook again, and John glanced over to the battlefield. The two had gone completely crazy by now. Parts of the arena were fields of lava, which Thana had to dodge but Nathalia had no problem happily wading through, even using balls of the molten stone as projectiles. Thana in return had taken to using her ignited blood in a fashion similar to bullets.

It was pretty obvious, however, that neither of them favoured ranged combat, and so they slowly circled closer to each other again. Quickly, they engaged in a wild flurry of cutting claws and calamitous kicks.

John would have loved to just put all the loot into his inventory, but it was simply too much. So, he filled it with as much as he could, dumped it in front of Aclysia and Momo, then went to get more. Three times he filled his entire inventory, and he was only one of seven people searching.

Plenty of opportunities to keep thinking about his mechanics. Diminishing returns to his physical changes made sense. If he got smarter with every point, he would eventually start thinking at a level of complexity that was simply so far beyond human that he would wonder if he was even still part of the same species. Yeah, it made sense to be limited to something.

He really didn’t want to become the Mountain if he raised his Physical Stats more as well. Having abs was nice and all, but he didn’t see himself rocking a suit while looking like Vin Diesel. And he liked this suit. He looked like a real badass in it. Plus, it would be difficult to explain to his parents how he got three times as broad as his dad.

After a while of searching, he sat down. The arena was still shaking from the occasional missed attack cracking the earth, but that wasn’t all that bad if he was sitting. There was a pile of money waiting for him.

“So, what did the dragon give ya?” Rave asked as she returned as well.

“Ah, yeah, it’s pretty good,” John said and pulled the dagger out.

It was a white thing, carved out of the tooth of a dragon and with some gold ornaments worked into the spine of the blade.

“It lets me revisit whatever bonus level I want once and I get unreduced bonuses. Will have to think which one I like the most.”

“Sounds pretty meh to me,” Rave said, “just once?”

“For how we got it, it is pretty awesome,” John insisted.

Lydia, at that point, pulled a bottle of sanitizer from her private pocket dimension and poured a bit of it into her hand. Both Rave and John looked perplexed, and she looked back beratingly. “That dragon’s snout was wet, and I am not going to carry with me whatever diseases it has,” she told them.

“I guess ya are the type of person who would stay away from a dog at a party,” Rave said after Lydia put the bottle away again.

“If you take care of your dog and he doesn’t smell, I am most happy to pat him. Every saliva spreading Köter will have to stay at least 5 metres away from me. Same for cats. And all other animals. Take care of your pets is what I am demanding,” the princess laid down.

“Yes, yes,” John waved off. “The only pet we have is Copernicus, and I am pretty sure that cat just burns off all dirt.” Speaking of the solar feline, he was currently doing his usual cat thing and making a show of the fact that he didn’t care for the group, while also watching them intently. His level had remained unchanged since Rave had contracted him, stuck at 76, leaving John to wonder what would happen once his girlfriend, now 65, caught up to her familiar. Questions for later.

He had two items to inspect from those Achievements he had gotten. Putting away the dagger, he pulled out Vol’Jin’Zul.

It was a sword of the type ‘too heavy for John’. He already realized that once he saw the handle of the blade. It was about as long as his lower-arm and was followed by a guard of bundled tusks. “Aclysia, pull this out for me, please,” he told his first maid.

“As you wish, Master,” Aclysia responded and grabbed the weapon. What came into view was an enormous, grey-bladed monstrosity of savage beauty. The whole thing was bigger than Aclysia, who wielded it with visible strain.

“It is heavy,” Aclysia informed John.

“Unsurprising,” he said. “You think you could use it?”

The artificial guardian stood up and distanced herself enough for nobody to be in danger of getting hit by her test swings. The execution of the strikes was good, but they lacked the usual oomph and speed Aclysia had to her. “I would need more Strength, Master,” Aclysia spoke her verdict.

“Mhm,” John checked her stat screen. He had 25 points to spend. He wanted to spend some amount on her Wisdom, not because it was effective but because her being uncontrollably horny was its own problem. “I will see how we go about this when we get out of here,” he gestured for her to return the blade for the moment. ‘Here goes hoping she will get Adaptive Bladery back,’ John thought to himself. Artificial Spirit was at 22, and it was high time to check what perks he could buy for Momo and Aclysia. Another thing he would have to take care of once the Nathalia situation had blown over.

“Now, to the other item,” he announced and pulled out Zur’gastha. It had a similarily savage design as Vol’Jin’Zul, a gnarly staff of reddish brown wood, broadening towards the tip. Crowned by a weaving of small branches and tusks, a blue orb encapsulated in the middle, it lay lightly in John’s hand.

The staff was pretty good. Just one problem: it was Two-Handed. He only had one empty Slot for hands, and the three currently occupied were all part of the World Ender set. Asking him to get rid of the 4-piece set bonus was a tall bar, one this item came nowhere close to.

“Here,” he therefore gave it to Momo, “this is yours now.”

The support took it, “On a loan, right?”

“No, you can have it. You want to be independent, that means you have to take care of your own equipment,” John said sternly but then smiled.

Momo looked at him, wordless for a moment. She clutched the staff and nodded, “Thank you.”

John then resumed watching the events as the two were in a final measurement of strength, he wanted to move out of the arena soon.

The two fighters had both hands locked into each other’s, and they simply pushed. Thana may have a stupendous amount of Endurance, but Nathalia was still stronger, and so the blood mage was wrestled to the ground.

Thana’s back hit the floor. She pushed back for another moment, only for Nathalia to press her lips on hers. It took only one love bite for the mood to shift drastically – at least from John’s perspective. Thana’s resistance melted away. Nathalia’s scales disappeared. The masochistic maniac was pinned to the ground by the much larger woman.

John’s sparrow beat its wings. The Gamer wanted to see exactly what happened next.