…Valuable Stuff, WHAT ELSE WOULD BE IN THERE?!11!

The door closed behind them, and John took a quick look around, making sure that none of the Heat Strikers had come in with them. They hadn’t, so that was cause for relief. However, John couldn’t help but feel weirded out by where he was standing now.

The Secret Room had the inside of a shop somebody had designed by taping room elements from other shops together. A book aisle filled the center of the medium-sized room, old and new books alike stacked on top, while all kinds of shelves stood in front of or were mounted on the walls. Swords, armors, figurines, potions, leggings, sex toys, normal toys, gardening articles, everything could be found in this shop. ‘It would not surprise me if Regan would be the one to own this store,’ John thought, unsure how he would feel to find Rave’s dad here. However, as he slowly stepped around a giant teddy-bear, a counter came into view. It looked like it belonged in a bar, not inside a store.

Behind the counter stood a handsome young man. He wore a white shirt, the buttons at the top loose giving him a slightly sleazy style while also showing off part of his muscles. On the breast pocket, a sigil of a staff with two wings was stitched into the cloth. The man had blonde hair and wore a slightly unfitting tin helmet with two wings of white standing from the sides.

John was slightly surprised by that Anal score. Then he remembered that it counted for both giving and receiving and that Hermes was a god that started in ancient Greece. Yeah, not that surprising an Anal score.

“Welcome, welcome!” the enthused god said, “to the Hermes Collection, I am Hermes, how did you get here?” “I stepped through the door?” John said with a mixture of confusion and dry humor. The god did laugh. However, it was so over-played that it probably was faked. “I see, I see. Let me ask a different way: Where do you come from? See, my door is enchanted to appear in random places,” Hermes explained, “I like to know who I am speaking too.” That made more sense to John, “Your door appeared as a Secret Room in my Instant Dungeon.” “Secret Room? Instant Dungeon?” the god's eyes lit up, and he bowed over the counter, “you must be the Gamer! Oh, how great, so asking Gaia to have our paths cross did work! I wanted to meet you and your item-spawning powers!”

“How do you know of those?” John wanted to know, even SecretBlonde did not find out that detail of his powers. “The Horned Rat told me!” Hermes enthusiastically answered, not seeing this as a secret. “And how did he know?” John probed, wondering if he could get to the source of this. “Nathalia told him!” the god said without a care. ‘Ah, so the source is me,’ John thought and sighed. It had been one and a half days outside of this barrier, and yet the news had already reached some random god John had never even considered to exist before really. Gods seemed to be a talkative bunch.

“But I have bothered you enough, please take a look around, or a breather, tell your friends that Hermes is happy with people just being amazed by his collection.” “This is amazing!” said Sylph at that moment, focusing all eyes on her. John spied her on the counter, sitting in her little form and holding a gummy bear bigger than her head, which she had grabbed from a bowl full of them. “It is sweet and sugary, and sweet, not at all bitter, and sweet, and the world seems to slow down, and I feel amazing and sweet, and wooooooooooow-ey,” Sylph was all jittery, and she chomped down on the gummy bear, “thisisamazing!” “Thank you, Sylph,” Hermes said, “how do you like my bowl of eternal gummy bears?” “Shuper, awshome,” she said, mouth full of sugar. Hermes turned with a smile to John to answer the question on his mind, “I stand in close contact with the mother of air, that is how I know her name. I will watch her, so go ahead and do what you want to do.”

John nodded, he had two things to do anyhow. First off he needed to spend the 10 Statpoints he had right now. All into Wisdom they went, and John waited for the 125+ bonus. It never came. ‘Would have been too good,’ he sighed and instead turned to Aclysia.

“Let’s get you powered up!” he announced and used Enchant on her.

Although he was tempted to take Defensive Stance III, reality had proven that to be useless most of the time. ‘If I could give that skill to Gnome it would be great, but Aclysia is always running around the place,’ John thought. He instead went with Sturdy Exterior III, that was probably going to help the most against Thana.

Counter had a real application, unlike the other two that were either useless or vanity. He took that and then waited for the final choice.

John was not prepared for this. “Uhm, Hermes, you mind if I borrow these chairs?” John asked and pointed at two boring looking seats that were pointed towards each other. He would need to sit down for this. “Not at all, not at all!” he said graciously, and John sat down. The chair transformed into the office chair that he had in his room the second his butt had hit the seat. He decided to just roll with it, “Aclysia sit down please, you will need to hear this,” he told her and pointed at the empty chair. She obeyed, and under her, it turned into one of the chairs they had at the dinner table.

John read her the choices in front of him. At the end, Aclysia just nodded, “that is a hard choice you face, master,” she said. “Yeah, see…I kind of do not face it, you do,” he explained, “I am handing this to you.” Aclysia was confused, so John laid it down for her. “Aclysia, ever since I suddenly brought you into this world you have been by my side, you have assisted in my battles, been diligent in keeping my house clean, you follow my whims, and you even saved me from myself, so I will give this choice to you. Do you want to be free from me?”

Aclysia froze, “free from you?” she asked, “why do you say it that way? It sounds like that would be desirable.” “To most humans it is, and whatever you might have been born as, you are a person now, Aclysia. Slavery is bad, after all.” “I am not your ****, master,” Aclysia quietly said, “I am your servant. Never once have I felt like your ****. You are kind to me, you do not **** me to do stuff I don’t want to, you might be my master, but you do not hold me on a leash. I will not be free from you; I would be parted from you. I do not desire this choice,” Aclysia stated, “I decline the freedom you grant me, the only thing about this that would interest me is the chance to carry your children.”

John was baffled by this statement, but Aclysia looked him deep into the eyes, even though she was slightly flustered. “Okay, I understand,” John said, and Aclysia breathed a sigh of relief, a part of her had feared that John’s morals would win over her wish. “But between ‘A new beginning’ and ‘Sisterhood’ what would you pick?” he played the ball back in her court.

“Given the current situation, Sisterhood,” Aclysia answered after some thought, “Reasons: You have a quest, you have a crystal that is like mine, you desire a supportive character.” “True on all accounts,” John said and looked at the choice, “but it is going to weaken you, I am not sure if our current situation allows this.” “We could postpone the decision until after the fight with Thana,” Aclysia offered. “No, that is wasted potential, we still have a few days to level that new Artificial Spirit up…” still, he was not sure, his finger hovered over the option.

Aclysia gently took his hand in hers and pulled it forwards so that it connected with the button. “Now it was my choice,” she said with a radiant smile the likes of which he rarely, if ever, saw on her usually so expressionless face, “John.”

A window popped up asking him for the three Skill Tree choices that he wanted to keep. ‘Good question,’ John thought and after some thought chose the two extra item consumption slots and the sword specialization. Not having Defensive Teleportation anymore sucked but that was barely used anyhow, for the rest, well, they were replaceable.

Wind and Rock and the Cleaver of Streets fell out of the air, suddenly appearing there after Adaptive Bladery ceased to exist, Ashkandi, however, Aclysia caught. “What will we do with these?” Aclysia asked. “Probably feed them to that new sister of yours, speaking about that,” John pulled the new Artifical Crystal from his inventory. Immediately there was a gasp from Hermes who came sprinting over.

“How much do you want for that?” he asked, the naked greed in his eyes. “Uhm, what?” John asked, surprised by the god's sudden interest. Whatever part of him had still doubted Magoi’s words was now snuffed out as the god started listing stuff. “Do you want money? I can pay you 2 billion for that,” that was a lot, but merely a drop on the hot stone that was his 500 billion $ debt, “you could fuck me, or reverse if that is your fancy.” No, that was not inside his interests, “I could give you books, hundreds of books, lost to the ages,” maybe there would be an ancient spell in there? John took a step back from the god, then he calmed his mind and found his center.

What was truly important right now? Rave was. Would any of the things Hermes just listed help him save her? Not with certainty. The only thing in this shop of which he knew with certainty that could help him was in front of him. “Would you help me in a fight?” “What? NO! Thing isn’t worth that much!” Hermes denied, “It is just unique, it tickles my fancy, but it is not worth fighting for…well it is for some people, but not a god like me.” Awkward silence, “two and a half billion?” Hermes then suggested half-heartedly.

John looked at the stone and then declined. Whatever would come out of this would be of bigger help than some dusty old books or stacks of money. John looked around, he would need a figurine, hadn’t there been a section where…? ‘Ah, there it is,’ John thought and walked over.

He passed Gnome as she held a yukata in front of her and looked at her reflection in a tall mirror. She smiled at the reflection, then she blushed and stammered something when she noticed John. Salamander laughed at her and made some joke that caused Gnome to swat at her, the blaze elemental dodged easily. Undine studied the comedic routine with grace. Sylph stuffed her face into the bowl of gummy bears, talking at speeds that made her voice too high-pitched to hear.

“How much money would one of these cost me?” he asked after noticing that none of them had a price tag. Hermes appeared at his side. Well, appeared was the wrong word, like Nathalia he was just too fast for John to notice him moving, which was expected really, given that he had 600 Agility on her. “Depends, I would give all of them to you for that crystal,” he offered. “No, sorry, I want to fuse one of these figurines with the crystal and then make an Artificial Spirit out of it,” John explained, he pointed at Aclysia who had followed him like the faithful maid she was, “like her.” “Oooh,” Hermes said, “Oookay, that actually sounds interesting. Well, let’s see, if they are going to be sisters, which they will be, they should have roughly the same look but the figurine also needs to be big enough to have the crystal put into it, mhm, I think we are only left with this one.” After deciding on behalf of John, he pulled out a single figure.

Everything about it screamed ‘monochrome’ at John. She had about neck length hair. White. Wore a wide poncho that reached below her hips. Black. Her clean skin reflected the light of the shop. White. Most of her skin was however hidden by a body suit, including her legs, the suit ended in plain shoes. Black. Her eyes had a sad expression to them. White. Prism-shaped earrings dangled. Black. Her hands were covered in gloves. White.

“Where is she from?” John asked. “Some video game that never got finished, you want her or not? In return I will take 10 million,” Hermes laid down. John had that kind of money, but he really did not want to give it away for a plastic figurine. “That seems a bit much,” John said. “Nope, it is worth exactly as much as you are willing to pay. I can see the perfectionist in you, you want this one,” Hermes said in a factual tone. He was not wrong; all the other figurines had a unfitting color scheme or, worse, were male. “Fine!” John spat out and pulled the money from his inventory, handing it over before he could regret it.

“Pleasure doing business with you~,” Hermes said and vanished back behind the counter as John combined the two items using Craft. “It has been a while since I created you, hasn’t it?” John asked. “About two months in experienced time, master,” Aclysia answered and followed with interest as John prepared to use the skill on the figurine.

What did he do last time? Right, he imagined what kind of character he wanted. Although it had taken Aclysia a bit to get there, she had become the nice, loyal kind of girl that would protect him to the best of her ability that he had wanted. Well, it had taken her to understand emotions to be nice, the rest she had done from the start.

So, what did he want this time around? He wanted a sister for Aclysia, somebody that would integrate well with the group and who could be friends with Gnome, as the pure stone elemental maybe was getting bullied a bit too much. A quiet girl that would be fine just enjoying silence with somebody, a supportive character, a compliment to Aclysia and himself. He used the skill.

The figurine started moving, about the size of Aclysia’s head the tiny thing reared its head. ‘Creator?’ she asked and caused both John and Aclysia to feel slightly nostalgic. ‘Yes, hello, I am your creator, John Newman.’ ‘Affirmative, your name is John Newman, shall I address you as such?’

John was surprised, with Aclysia he had had to explain what a name even was. This new Artificial Spirit just moved on to this question. Was it because of the difference in Artificial Crystals he used? Maybe because this was the second time around? Whatever may be the cause John answered with, ‘You may call me whatever you want,’ closing the window for the completed quest at the same moment. In response to that the new spirit turned to Aclysia, ‘Okay, Sister, what shall I call our creator?’

“What?” John asked out loud; then he calmly sorted his thoughts. He DID wish for her to be a little sister figure for Aclysia, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise, it, however, shocked him how quickly this little girl moved from one thing to the next. Her stats couldn’t have been high enough to allow that kind of thought processing.

John would Observe her in a second he wanted to do one thing before that though. “Call him master when in private and John in public,” Aclysia relayed to the figurine. ‘Affirmative,’ the figurine said and turned back to John, ‘may I have a name?’ she asked exactly what he was about to offer her. “Sure, your name will be, Mono, for your color and because of the essences that make up the crystal at your core. NOW!” John clapped his hands together, “Aclysia, feed her some Feelium!”

Feelium was the current main material of Aclysia’s body. It had replaced the old one after she ate too many Watches of Sorrow, but it was an upgrade, the metal was naturally filled with mana and that meant that this new girl would get a nice bit of power leveling from that.

Aclysia started to extract some of the metal from her body. As she did that, John finally used Observe.

Okay, those were a lot of attributes for a start. Best look at all four of them he didn’t know. Harmonized Spirit was quite simply another version of Learning Spirit. Where Aclysia had sought out stuff she wanted, Mono apparently would learn by just going with the flow. The other three, however, were interesting…or concerning.

Arcane Talent was just nice, and Origin had that bit about a godly gift that left John wondering, but Broken Wings…The hell was up with that? It seemed to do no harm, but that name was everything but reassuring and the fact that he couldn’t remove it also wasn’t something he was all that happy about. He could do nothing about it either though.

Aclysia gave Mono a bonbon sized piece of metal, the little sister started to eat, and the level ups started rolling in. “Like pulling a lowbie through an instance,” John grinned and sat down, this would be a bit of a wait.

It was all worth it however when Mono had reached about Aclysia’s size (They had fed her the now obsolete weapons as well). “You stop growing at this height,” Aclysia, who bloomed up in her new role as big sister, instructed. ‘Okay,’ Mono obeyed as Aclysia kept feeding her. “Make your hair into strands,” Aclysia said, “like mine.” The monochrome girl touched Aclysia’s hair, then her own, ‘I can’t,' she answered. John quickly fixed that by raising all of her stats (except Libido) to 10. Mono’s hair exploded outwards with a ‘poof,' the moment the block it was previously parted into uncountable strands which then settled in the same shape as they were before.

“Now what do we do with you?” John wondered. “I do not know what you intend with me, master,” Mono said (having just learned to do that) and then, after Aclysia showed her how, bowed slightly. “Thing is I set you up to become a support, but you have no skills yet,” John described his conundrum. “We need to get you out of here safely, but we also have a boss fight ahead of it…” he had one idea, which he did not like to present but it was the best he had.

“I think you should shrink and wait in my inventory,” he said. “Master!” Aclysia intervened, she hated the idea, the inventory was a prison to her. John knew that. Mono nodded, “okay,” and shrunk. Aclysia shared her memories of John’s inventory with her, the isolation and darkness. ‘I do not mind silence,’ Mono sent back, making it clear to John just how strong his thoughts were imprinted on the new creation.

And he wanted Aclysia to be loyal when he had created her. Did she really ever have a choice earlier? He found no answer to that question, but did it really matter now? Aclysia seemed happy, who was he to **** his viewpoint on her? He put Mono into his inventory. “We will take her out ASAP,” he promised the unhappy looking Aclysia, “so, with all of this out of the way,