A Quiet Friday

“I don’t know what’s worse… the fact that you thought I’d want this or the fact that you provided an incentive to use it,” John grimaced as he beheld the ‘present’ Gaia had left him.

Saccharine cackled loudly while Red crossed her arms and smiled at him wryly. “Is it something I did? Are you not satisfied? Well?!” she mocked, though underlying her questions was a clear demand for an explanation. “Why would you need such a thing?”

Seldom in his gaming career had John passed up an EXP boosting item, but he would be today. “I refuse to use this on principle,” he said vehemently.

“But… why a child?” Red wondered.

“She’s not a child,” John said quickly. No way he was letting his girlfriend maintain that incorrect impression. “She’s just a small 20-something year old woman.”

“Uh-huh,” the dessert fae sniggered. “Whatever you say.”

“Yeah, well, I’m burning this thing,” John scowled as he picked up the body pillow and stored it in his inventory.

“Suuuure,” Saccharine piped up again. “You’re definitely hiding it away to rut with later.”

“Do you come with a mute button?” John snarled back before placing a hand on the bridge of his nose and calming himself. “Nevermind. Let’s just go. I’m hungry, and we need to grind another 4k.”

“Mmm, lunch sounds good, darling,” Red agreed. “I’m feeling rather peckish myself.”

They found a cheap burger joint on the way back to their apartment and chose to eat there. It was largely uneventful, except for the slightly awkward process of sneaking some hot chips and a strawberry sundae into Red’s handbag for Saccharine to munch on.

Afterwards, they were back on the grind. Ideally, John would have liked to go back to the Depths and try to clear the second floor, thus unlocking more mob dungeons to farm. However, he wasn’t at all keen to close the distance between them and Vulpis, leaving them with relatively few options. All he had available were Seedlings, Rats, Ghosts, Wolves, Sprites, and Boars, now that the Goblin I.D. had run dry. Of those, it was only Ghosts and Sprites that John had yet to try. John chose the latter first, since the former was likely going to be tedious.

The Sprites turned out to be slightly older Seedlings. The problem was they actually attacked now and chose to do so in swarms. The lack of an effective AOE attack meant that clearing it took much longer than it really should have. The only real drop of note was the rare item, Sprite Sap, which John, by way of a quick search on Abyss Auction, found out sold for approximately $80 a unit. Nowhere near as lucrative as the market for Goblin Semen but still viable to grind.

They then ventured the Ghost Instant Dungeon. As John suspected, physical attacks didn’t work at all, making Red a glorified distraction and forcing John to rely solely on Mana Power Attack. So once again, John found himself in great need of some new spells, but at least the repeated use was good for skill levelling. By the time they managed to clear the Ghost I.D., John’s mana was all but depleted, essentially meaning they would be without a means to attack had they entered it again. So it was natural then, that the rare drop from the I.D., Ghostly Essence, had a market value of $460. The two that John had picked up covered almost a quarter of his goal alone.

So it was that John begrudgingly trudged them back into the Sprite I.D. to face the masses of little tree spirits. It was tiresome work, and the three of them let out a collective sigh of relief once John called it a day.

Once they had returned to the apartment, they quickly fell onto the living room couch, sprawled in varying poses. While John opened his phone to sell the day’s harvest, Red claimed his lap, resting her head on it to take a well earned nap. He stroked her golden-blonde hair idly as he reviewed his stat sheet and waited for the Ghostly Essence and Sprite Sap to sell.

John had levelled up once over the course of the grind, but, once again, his skills had benefited the most. Evade had become his first active skill to reach double digits, meaning, if he was so inclined, he could finally put that Skill Evolution Point to use. However, John decided to hold onto it until a few more skills reached level 10. Despite it being the first boss drop John had received, the SEP seemed to be a very rare item, meaning he shouldn’t spend it frivolously. He also decided to hold onto his six stat points for now, simply because he didn’t want to make the decision of how to invest them while feeling tired.

Red had also levelled up, according to the party window, but neither Saccha nor Moira had. Saccha simply hadn’t earned enough EXP, while the redheaded paladin was considered absent by the system and thus had not benefited from the grinding session today. Sadly, he’d received no word from Moira since her sudden departure the previous night, so he sent her a text asking if she was okay. He had, however, received a text from his mom.

Mom: Are you coming home tonight?

John: Nah, I’m staying at Red’s place again.

John: I’ll probably drop by over the weekend.

Mom: Okay, sweetie. Be safe and have fun ;)

Mom: Oh, and send Charlene my love <3

John smiled with slight embarrassment at his mom’s messages, yet at the same time, he was happy he was making her proud. ‘I’ll check in on her tomorrow,’ John decided as he put away his phone and sunk further into the couch, closing his eyes as he did.

He only snoozed with Red for about an hour before they both got up to prepare dinner. John actually helped this time, much to his girlfriend’s joy. Though, he could hardly tell given how many times he was called “useless”. They ate their dinner in peace, enjoying the comfort of each other’s company, and occasionally laughing at a joke Saccha had cracked, usually some sort of emasculating comment about John. Afterwards, they unanimously decided to go to bed early. Thankfully, it was a relatively quiet Friday night.

Vulpis Perrault was unbothered by the cold, midnight air as he gazed upon the sleeping city of Springfield from a nearby overlook. He was on the hunt tonight, and the hunt set his blood ablaze. Had the moon been full, it would have been poetic. Alas, it waned in a starless sky that night, peeking through a clouded canvas of dark blue and grey. But it was of no real matter. Punishment was best served swiftly and severely; there was no time to play by the moon’s schedule.

Unfortunately for the boy, it had been no serious issue to locate him. The whelp had reeked of a late-bloomer, and that jarring American accent of his had narrowed the search considerably. Those two bits of information combined with a first name had been all that was needed to locate him; after all, information was power, and power was there to be abused by those in a position to exploit it.

‘The boy will learn his place tonight,’ Vulpis thought, his fangs gleaming as he grinned. ‘He will learn what it means to steal my property, to fill her head with nonsense of escape, and defile her with his seed,’ the Alpha let out a low growl and spat out the bile that had built in his throat as he remembered the vile stench of their coupling, which he had so vividly detected in that decrepit watchtower. In a rage, he had brought the entire thing down, collapsing it into the depths below. It had been unelegant and childish but oh so very cathartic. But nothing would truly satiate his rage, until he turned that whelp into crackling and served him to his treacherous daughter on a platter.

His blood was boiling now. His claws twitched, and his stomach hungered for blood. Vulpis craned his neck towards the moon, barely visible through the mass of dark clouds, and howled.

He howled towards her pale splendour with a burning wrath, vowing that the first bite in his prey’s neck would be in her name.

His voice echoed through the early morning streets of Springfield. Neighbourhood dogs began to bark with false bravado, while alley cats slunk into the shadows, hissing quietly with their fur standing on edge. Rodents scuttled back to their holes, and young babes wet themselves and screamed for their mommas. But they were not his prey; Vulpis had his eyes on one target alone, tonight. The hunt was on.

Charlene Perrault woke up breathless and trembling. Her fairy tale dream of time spent idly with her boyfriend was over now. The nightmare had come to reclaim her, and there was no quelling his fury. She looked at the sleeping form of her boyfriend, wanting to cry, but found herself too distressed to even manage that. Urgently, she shook him awake, and her lips quivered as she cried his name.