Honey, I’m home!

John and Gus gave each other a big bear hug before Gus let him get out of the car. “Remember! Boobjob next time you come over, don’t be a stranger, oh, and join us and all that. Okay! Bye!” As John slammed the door with a smirk, Gus reversed down the forest road, not wanting to be seen black eyed and red printed by Miranda or, worse yet, Arnold. He’d never live it down on their poker nights.

John waved after the car, shaking his head with an amused smile on his lips. “The Abyss is full of idiots, but hey, at least some of them are my idiots, I guess,” he mumbled to himself after which he burst into a small chuckle fit. “Why is my first real life friend a fucking bro. And not even that, he’s the chaddiest of bros.” Tears formed in his eyes as he laughed at the absurdity of it for just a few more moments, before he wiped his eyes dry, coughed to compose himself, then walked into the hunter’s camp.

When he stepped through the wall, Jack and Toph jumped out from his back, followed by Nyxx. The pangolin and leopard dashed off, crying out in joy now that they were able to stretch their limbs again. John hadn’t wanted them to run around the wild hunt camp, who knew whether any of the wild fae could speak pangolin and get Toph in debt to them… He shuddered at the thought. Nyxx paced around him, nipping at his fingers for a second until he ran his hand through her mane. “Hey there, girl, glad to see you too, today. Why don’t you go and find Nissa, hm? I’ll be with you in a few to feed you.” He smacked her on the rear end, causing the little nightmare to stand up on her back legs, whinny and charge off.

While John equipped his gear, having felt almost naked without his green cloak, he spotted a black dot rapidly approaching him from the sky. John tried to get a closer look, even casting Hawkeye to boost his vision, and only then did he see what it was. It was a small… green… oh gods. Mimi and her dragon came diving from the sky right for him. “Joooooooooooohn,” Mimi cheered as the little dragon whelp spread her wings to slow their descent. Mimi jumped off to wrap herself around John’s torso like a koala. “Hi!” the derpy little gorgon giggled as the dragon whelp landed on his head. “Come play with us!”

John sighed and patted Mimi. “Hey Mimi, sorry I can’t play, I promised to help Ilis with something today and I am already a bit late.”

Mimi pouted even though she yelled, “Yay! Pats!” She then had her small snake point at the dragon “Have you met Yaya? Me and other Yaya came, we played, then other John also came and we beat a dragon! It was fun!”

John dismissed most of what she said as just her over imaginative gorgon brain making up things, and started to walk towards the smithy. His other hand was busy patting ‘Yaya’, while her paws tried to interfere with his vision, but he managed to see just enough to not walk into things, greeting a few of the other hunters along the way.

“It’s nice to meet you, Yaya,” John said in a gentle tone. The dragon let out a sound that was a mix between a bark and a purr while her claws continued to shift, making John stumble as he lost his vision. ‘Should really look into getting something cool to fix that, don’t all high agility builds have like super senses?’ he thought to himself as he with a bit of difficulty made his way to the smithy of Old Fred.

“Fred! I brought you some help!” John called out as he tried to shake Mimi and Yatina from his body; the duo was, however, quite insistent on sticking to him, refusing to let go.

Old Fred and Ilis came out of the smithy a few moments later, Fred carrying a bow in his hands while Ilis had some invention or another in hers, fiddling with it like a Rubik’s Cube.

“Ah, Johnathan, nice to see ya, lad. What is this help you spoke of?” he asked amusedly.

“Well, seeing as these two want to play, I think they might just be perfect to grab you some wood for your furnace,” John said as he finally managed to get his dragon helmet off his head, Yatina flailing her paws and tail as she got pulled away. With his vision no longer impaired, it was not that hard to get the Mimi constrictor from his leg either, and soon, the duo was sitting down in front of him with a huff.

“Bully!” Mimi yelled as she pointed a snake at John.

John snickered and patted them again. “If you play nice and help some people around the camp, I promise you that I will play with you soon, okay?”

Mimi whispered to Yatina for a few seconds, then extended one of her larger snakes at him. “Deal.” And with a shake of a snake, the deal was done.

As Mimi and Yatina scurried off into the woods behind the smithy, even though Old Fred hadn’t even agreed to need more wood, John turned to the two dwarves, staring curiously at the bow in Old Fred’s hands. “It’s John, not Jonathan, and what… is that?”

The bow was made out of gray wood, the grain a dark brown, and was about 1.2 meters long, the handle wrapped in a pale leather. As John looked at the bow, it felt like it sucked in parts of the space around it. The string was slightly reddened, giving the entire bow a bit of an ominous feeling. As Old Fred spoke, John cast observe on it.

Mage Hunter Bow
A bow crafted by the ingenious dwarf ‘Old Fred’ with materials provided by the Gamer. Made from the wood of an ent and the tendons of a nightmare, this bow combines the draining **** of an ent and the anti magic properties of a nightmare to imbue a mana burn effect on fired arrows. While using this bow, it is not possible to use magical arrow skills. Mana drained will not be imbued onto the arrows.

“This, lad, is that bow I promised you. I finished it the other day but didn’t have tha chance to hand it to ya. It’s one of my better works, if I do say so myself,” Old Fred happily said as he slapped John on the lower back, handing over the new bow.

While John tried it out, Ilis piped up, “And, seeing as you promised me we’d go on a barrier excursion, I think we might just see how it holds up compared to your other equipment.“