-Bram Stoker {Dracula}

Over a week passed in relative comfort, with John and his creations falling into a bit of a rhythm. John continued his Barrier training whenever he could, though with Kim not contacting him, he was able to relax a bit and not push himself or his creations to excess.

Maera proved herself to be an incredibly adaptable fighter. She insisted that, since the Order had provided her with armor, she had to be a part of all dungeon explorations. The young Neko was so insistent that John couldn't really bring himself to turn her down, so he cranked the difficulty a bit lower and allowed her to accompany them whenever she was up for it… which was quite often. The Neko's drive to better herself and accompany her "Myaster" whenever possible was quite powerful, considering the Neko's obsessions usually didn't last for very long. Her level continued to grow, though admittedly her presence did slow down the growth of everyone else.

Mithra's stomach continued to expand… at a startling pace. Fast enough that only two weeks after the end of the war with the Cabal, she looked ready to burst. John was so astonished that he had to check with Evellyn - whose words did nothing to ease his concerns.

"Master Newman, according to my databases, Nekos have a gestational period of around three weeks."

"How?!" John practically screamed at his virtual assistant. "Cats take like… two or three months, don't they?!"

"Master Newman, your creations are not bound by any mortal physics or biological restraints, no matter how similar you may believe the comparisons to be. They are species all their own, with magic imbued in their very nature. Depending on her exact genetic nature, and based on the date of conception, it is entirely possible that Mithra gives birth within the next week, should the babies come early. If it is any consolation, according to the information in my databanks, her litter should be considerably smaller than the average cat. A maximum of three to four kittens, with an average of 2.48."

"Wait, if you know all this, why can't you tell me how many children she's going to have?! You didn't know any of this last time I asked!"

"My powers continue to grow with yours, John Newman. I gained access to such information relatively recently, but it does not seem to be tied to any particular progress of yours… something is strange."

"Weren't you the one who talked about my 'benefactor'? Maybe they gave you the information?"

"Perhaps… but that does nothing for me. I know they granted you these powers. I know nothing of them myself."

John was deeply troubled by Evellyn's revelations, but he could do little besides watch Mithra's stomach grow daily. In search of providing a more sustainable future for his creations, John dedicated time each day to preparing a dedicated food source, utilizing the materials and ZCP he gained from his daily training to prepare a farm. With complete control over his world's climate, John was able to purchase several different plant seeds from a local Springfield farmer's market. His initial plantings had a survival rate of about thirty percent… but with access to the internet and the occasional shift of his private world's climate, John was able to boost that quickly over the following days.

Though nothing was even approaching edible, after only a couple weeks of effort, John had a budding crop of vegetables. Combined with the fruit trees he had spawned earlier and Sophia continually assisting in harvesting, John soon had a relatively sizable food supply going. With a few more zones added, he would soon reach a self-sustaining equilibrium for his creations.

Seras discovered, through constant training and the level of the dungeons John was completing, that a mundane firearm was rapidly being outpaced by the durability of magical creatures. So it was that she started to return to a more basic and deadly form of combat - vampiric melee. Her fists, knees, and even headbutts were far more damaging and deadly than her rifle, and she took full advantage of this.

Both out of a sense of devotion to her character and to her fighting style, John attempted to find alternatives for her firearm, but everything ended in either enchantment or high-caliber firearms, neither of which he had the ability to easily acquire. The Order had no books relevant to basic enchantment; every tome Moira offered only gave John an ERROR message and insisted he had too low of an Intelligence stat or too little experience with Runecrafting when he opted for the lower level tomes.

The few beginners' tomes he could find online in the Abyssal Auction were too high-priced to afford, and too above his pay grade to justify asking Moira for. The first time he'd questioned Moira for a loan, she'd only laughed at him. So at length, Seras was left with few alternatives besides indulging in her bloodthirsty side and taking things - quite literally - into her own hands until such time as John advanced himself further. John's Master of Darkness Talent Tree and his ability to endow projectiles with magical abilities never left his mind for long, though.

Lunaya at first seemed to insist on having no part in any of these combat missions. However, when Maera accidentally knocked over Lunaya while playing in the mountains - without even realizing Lunaya was there - the Canid Reaper realized exactly how far behind she was falling. From that point forward, she insisted on accompanying John on all training excursions. Her self-training had finally fallen behind John's Gamer-fueled advancement, and she was having exactly none of it.

At that point, John had a full party of his creations to join him on each dungeon, which was nice for a few reasons - not the least of which was denying the strange demonic butler a chance to accompany them, and knowing Lunaya was growing faster than he was so that she could protect herself should the man's words turn sour.

However, that also gave him a lot of problems with experience. Now that his creations were not receiving direct experience for dungeon completion, John wasn't sure how to dole out what he was given as "creation experience". Simply evenly splitting it would result in progress so slow he couldn't help but feel it would hinder their overall advancement. Seeing Seras in action against the Cabal after drinking his blood had fueled John's belief that higher leveled units were significantly better than having more at a lower level. All the same, only Sophia and Seras were of a high enough level to justify bringing them along on proper combat missions with people equal to or higher than John's current level. He found himself afflicted with one of the Gamer's many curses, analysis paralysis - and so his Creation EXP continued to grow.

John himself grew in leaps and bounds, thanks largely to the repeated efforts of his creations. Sophia and Seras were fully devoted to helping John, and continuously pushed themselves as far as he would allow them. Lunaya refused to allow herself to fall to a level where Maera and Mithra were beyond her, so she too took quite a few risks John eventually discovered and scolded her for… much to the Canid's joy.

Maera was the least devoted, mostly due to her fickle and playful nature with Barrier creatures themselves, but she still contributed massive amounts to John's overall progress. Despite that fickleness he thought he was beginning to understand, Maera never missed a single opportunity to join the Order in training. When John had ventured to their libraries to search for enchanting tomes, she had gone. When Moira called in John to discuss their plans and alliances for Springfield's future, she had gone. When Maera had her mind to something, she seemed unstoppable - it was only that she seemed to view training more as playing than a proper service, and so she never really dedicated to it.

Mithra tried to help fill her sister's shoes, much to her credit, but John shut her down more often than not due to her growing stomach. More than once he found Maera abandoning a dungeon run to console her sister, reduced to tearful wallowing for what she seemed to perceive as uselessness.

John eventually sat down with the raven-haired Neko one night, cuddling with her over a blanket and mattress formed from the loot he'd recovered from defeated bandits. While she hummed and purred with the satisfaction of having her "Myaster" and baby-daddy cuddling against her backside in the warmth of their home, John debated the best way to approach his conversation.

"Mithra… why do you want to fight so badly? You've been pregnant for a while now. You never really seemed that interested in keeping up with the others, or with protecting your children."

"Myaster will protect them. Myaster has protected everyone… not worried for children, worried for Mithra."

John quirked an eyebrow at the young Neko. "Why are you worried about yourself?"

"Myaster always fighting. Myaster spends lots of time with Maera and the others, all fighting. Mithra just doesn't want to be forgotten."

"Mithra…"

John paused, unsure of what to say. Though she said it casually, and she didn't show any real despondence at the idea of not being taken along, the concept of being forgotten seemed to bother her. John cuddled the Neko closer, whispering sweet nothings to her as his fingers ran through her hair.

"I'm trying to take good care of your body, but I've been neglecting your mind. You aren't forgotten, I promise. I'm spending a lot more time with you lately, aren't I?"

"You are… but Myaster is always so restless. Even when he's sleeping, he talks about fighting. Myaster won't let Mithra fight. Mithra misses Myaster sometimes when he's gone…"

"I'm… I'm really sorry, Mithra," John mumbled, unsure of what to say. Seras, Sophia, Maera, Lunaya… all of them had neglected to say exactly what he was supposedly mumbling in his sleep. They avoided the subject or simply told him he was worried about them and that they thought it was romantic. John could only imagine the worries he had spilled, or the thoughts that had escaped him since joining the Abyss.

"No be sorry. Mithra sorry. Mithra would love to help Myaster… sometimes she wishes she could forget Caturday. Before then, Myaster always let Mithra help…"

"I would never want you to forget that," John swore, wrapping his arm gently around Mithra's growing midsection. "I know I’m being a little restrictive, Mithra, but I don't regret what happened. Honestly, sometimes it feels… simpler to raise children with you. They can grow up in the new world and know what a life is free of hate, free of want, free of enemies. I would never abandon that, and I hope… I hope no matter what happens, you know I want the best for them."

"Myaster is so good to Mithra…"

As Mithra said those words, John swore to himself that he would redouble his efforts. Over the next several days, every creation of his had a bed of their own, and in time he started to add on to the house to provide beds and rooms for each of Mithra's potential daughter… or daughters. John still wasn’t sure about Neko anatomy. Unfortunately Evellyn's data did not include the amount of kittens Mithra might bear, so John was **** to be quite liberal with the creation of his rooms. Considering the Libido of his creations and the lack of proper birth control (aside from mundane condoms) available to him, John assumed any unused rooms would not remain so for any lengthy periods of time… Sophia was already practically begging him to fill her with the same seed as Mithra.

The unnamed butler never found himself a proper title; Lunaya suggested several names, but most were simply verbs or adjectives like "Good", "Serve", or "Touch". None of them made John particularly happy, but he at least had the standing with her to tell her none were really "names" for a particular person. Lunaya was frustrated with his insistence, and the butler seemed rather unhappy himself, but all the same he remained without a proper title until Lunaya could think of or speak a name that resonated. Lunaya never did so, although she received a few too many massages for John's particular liking. He found himself quite grateful that she couldn't speak loudly…

Overall, John's world fell into a bit of a rhythm, going mostly unperturbed. Moira seemed reasonably accepting of John's assurance that his newest creation was under control (no matter how doubtful he himself was of that assessment), his forays into the Abyss outside of the Order remained relatively uneventful, and Tricia eventually convinced Moira to fund repairs and construction of additional drones for John's private world, so that if one were destroyed in the future not all communication would be lost… they both somehow managed to avoid describing to Moira the exact way his phone itself had been destroyed during the conflict.

It was John's restored phone itself which eventually broke through the rhythm of his existence. A ringtone so soft and casual that John didn't even notice it until they finished their most recent dungeon resonated through the air. When he finally checked his phone, he was shocked to find a missed call… from none other than Kim Moon.

The voicemail she had left was perhaps even more surprising.

"Busy abusing your growth even further, are you? I cannot blame you… I would surely be doing the same were I not so foolish as to have pressed you so hard on our initial meeting, which is the reason I am calling you in the first place. I may have been foolish in our agreement, John Newman, but you still held up your part of our agreement so far as was safe for my own health. I intend to uphold ours. Our blacksmith is nearly finished with your weapon - meet me at three in the afternoon tomorrow."

The text ended with an address John was unfamiliar with, but a quick search of his phone's map system against the map of Springfield Moira had texted him assured him that it was well within the Moon Clan's territory in the residential area of Springfield, near the industrial sector. John texted back a confirmation, but the original message had arrived over an hour ago - he was not holding his breath on a response.

"Problem, Master?"

"Not sure," John noted, not looking away from his screen for a moment. "Just… unexpected."

"I never really liked surprises," Seras groaned. "Bein' around you has made me like them even less."

John was inclined to agree with Seras, but there was little he could do about it. The temptation of a weapon was too great, and his need too pressing. Fighting with spells was fantastic for short bursts, but despite John's rapid increase in levels, he was having a very hard time with sustained dungeon runs. His unarmed melee attacks were like tickling the beasts they now faced on a regular basis.

"Well, let's call Moira… and find out just how far she trusts Kim."

"Trust? Moira?" Seras scoffed, barely glancing up from cleaning her rifle. "Honestly, I don't think she's capable."

"I think she trusts us as much as she's capable of trusting anyone, aside from maybe her own father," John admitted, shrugging. "Not that that's saying much."

"So whaddya wanna do for the rest of the day? Can't really push ya to the brink of dyin' if we're plannin' on bein' somewhere tomorrow."

"I suppose not," John agreed, smiling. "Why don't we see what the Nekos are up to? You have a promise to keep, after all."

“P-promise? What are you talkin’ about?”

“Just a little date I set up… I’ve been watching the calendar.”