Day's Gains

I find myself immensely satisfied upon the completion of the last dungeon run for the day. Not only is the military themed air dungeon a ton of fun, and really good practice, I also managed to get Ivy and I to level 130, exactly like I was hoping to.

We come out of the dungeon, and as soon as she confirms we’re done for the day, Belle scampers off into the castle, and presumably up to her bedroom.

“Wonder how long it’s gonna take for her and Olivia to hook up.” Mia remarks, watching the redhead go.

Olivia was extremely **** to do any more dungeon runs past the first one. She came through one more time, and couldn’t seem to stand the tension she had with Belle.

After the second run, she said she was going to supervise Emma and Lena for the day.

“Belle and Olivia?” Ivy asks.

Mia giggles. “Yeah! Didn’t you see them today?” She replies.

Ivy shook her head. “I’m too busy making sure everyone is okay.” Our healer says earnestly.

I kiss her on the cheek. “And you do an amazing job at that.” I tell her.

Ivy glows happily at my compliment.

“Whatever happened, I hope they can sort it out. I don’t feel like it’s really our business at this point. Neither of them would want to talk about it if we asked.” I tell Mia.

She shrugs. “True I guess. They can’t be making googoo eyes when we fight Mathias though.” She points out, and I chuckle.

“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.” I say.

“Hopefully. I’m gonna find Elsa.” Mia says, kissing Ivy and I.

“Which Disney movie are you gonna **** me to watch tonight?” I joke.

“Probably either Tangled or Sleeping Beauty.” Mia hums cheerfully, leaving Ivy and I to do our level ups. I look to Skylar, who’s stayed silent about it.

“You still won’t tell us what’s up with Olivia?” I ask.

Skylar shook her head. “She told me in confidence. Don’t worry, she’ll be okay when it matters.” She promised.

I shrug. “If you say so.” I reply, kissing her. She kisses me back with a small smile. It’s an expression I’ve gotten very used to from her. It means she’s feeling peaceful.

With Skylar departing too, Ivy and I sit down in the snow to do our stats and most importantly, to do my class level. I put all my points into agility as previously agreed with my guild, leaving me at a solid 130. Ivy’s go into intellect, putting her at 175.

After previously spending a lot of time debating it, the choice is pretty clear for the class level. I invest the level into the Gamer class, very interested to see what the perk choice is for it.

I immediately know which one I want, but I at least want to give the other perks some consideration too, even if they are mostly repeats of the last choices.

The dungeon XP increase was a mechanically interesting but otherwise dull perk choice last time.

This time it’s a bit more interesting, seeing as it doesn’t specify that any dungeons are excluded, meaning the siege, defence, and waves dungeons would already have their fairly substantial XP rewards doubled.

It’s worth the consideration at least. Even if I doubt I’m going to take it, it’s still a fairly powerful perk. The new dungeon types perk is much weaker fundamentally, in comparison.

Last time I was hoping for the choice of more dungeon types, I was coming into the decision only having access to regular dungeons.

This time, I already have new dungeon types that give more XP. The wording it uses, implies that it would just be an expansion on something I already have, which is wholly unnecessary. I’m a little curious what the actual structure of them would be.

Mazes are fairly obvious, tombs make it sound like it’d be similar to a Tomb Raider game or something where we have to solve puzzles to find a hidden treasure, which I’m slightly familiar with already, thanks to the quest I got from Gaia where I had to go through a Legend Of Zelda themed dungeon to give Emma access to mana and magic.

The games one is the most interesting out of the three, purely because it’s so vague. Is it like a capture the flag thing? Dodgeball? I’m not sure, and I’m almost tempted to pick that one just to find out.

But, the middle perk choice is the most attractive out of the three, and it’s what I’m drawn to initially.

Further consideration confirms my interest, and it’s the big reason why I’m not considering the double dungeon XP perk, despite it’s mechanical power.

Raids in MMOs are the be-all and end-all. Typically the most difficult and most rewarding type of dungeon possible.

The double XP could be pretty powerful, but compared to the XP rewards of a Raid, it could absolutely pale in how much it would provide.

In addition, the perk specifies “immensely powerful rewards”, meaning loot as well as XP. In my entire experience grinding dungeons, loot really hasn’t been that big of a deal, even legendary drops.

I suppose that’s partially because every piece of dungeon loot has to be balanced around the idea that I can go through every dungeon an unlimited number of times.

A piece of legendary loot only having a 1% chance to drop, over a large enough number of times, has to be dropped one day.

It’s limited by other factors, including how many times I can feasibly run through the same dungeon without losing my mind, but it’s still a bit of a flaw in the system design.

A Raid by comparison, seems like it’s specifically going to include the chance to find extremely powerful weapons and armour.

If we could get more stuff on the level of Belle’s chain blades, that would be amazing.

With all of that in mind, I turn to Ivy to give her the chance to object. “Go for it.” She encourages. I tap the raid perk, and bask in the satisfaction that comes with easily measurable and tangible power increases.

Ivy kisses me on the forehead proudly. I beam with pleasure. “You’ve done such a good job, my lovely Gem.” Ivy praises, and I blush at her words.

She giggles happily, squeezing my cheeks. “You are so cute! Come on love, let’s go check on Emma and Lena. They’ll be exhausted by now.” She says, taking my hand to lead me to them.

I let her, thanking Gaia for allowing me to have such awesome people in my life.

We find Emma and Lena taking a break from their training session, with Elsa and Mia having walked away to have a conversation between themselves. I’m not sure what’s being said, but it seems light hearted from the expressions on their faces.

“Want some water?” I offer Emma and Lena, taking out a couple of spare bottles from my inventory. They have water nearby, but more water is always good.

The two of them gratefully accept, drinking in deep gulps in between catching their breath.

“Mind if I observe you to check how you’re doing?” I ask them.

“Yeah please!” Lena says, and Emma nods in agreement.

I note the changes in their level and stats with interest. They’ve definitely grown a lot since they first started training with us. The growth in relationship is definitely nice as well.

Emma’s title change is definitely for the better. Sapphic Knight sounds way cooler, and is an awesomely lesbian title for her.

“The training you’re doing is definitely working. You’ve both come a long way.” I praise.

Lena beams with pride, and Emma smiles too, proud of the both of them.

“Still not sure we can do much to actually help when y’all fight Mathias.” Emma says.

“Cheerleaders babe, remember? Cheerleaders.” Lena encourages, and Emma chuckles.

“Yes dear, cheerleaders.” She says, and Lena playfully bats at her, which Emma dodges.

“Your support means a lot, even if you might not be able to help with the actual fighting.” I say truthfully.

“Yeah! And you two should be proud of yourselves, it’s not easy to do this every day.” Ivy encourages.

Lena smiles, pretending to look bashful. “Aw shucks, y’all are cute.” She says.

Emma grins at her girlfriend. “We’ll keep going. And we’ll be here as emotional support chaotic bisexuals.” She jokes to Ivy and I.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” I grin.