Lessons Learned

Without asking, both John and Sophia came to the silent agreement not to mention what had happened. John wasn’t entirely sure why the blunt woman went along with it, but then, she was surprising him quite often lately. The others had questions as they arrived – if nothing else, they most likely noticed the sharp dive in both of their health bars, far more than was normal for Barriers slightly below their levels. Lerianna was the most pushy, seemingly adamant that something was going on even after all five of them had finished their dungeons.

“I didn’t get shoved into a spooky graveyard with a bunch of bony assholes, worrying about both of you, just for you to blow me off,” Lerianna said. “The hell happened out there?”

“Aww, it’s sweet that you were worried,” John said, laying it on extra thick.

“I did not mean- okay, no distracting me,” Lerianna said, tapping one of her feet so hard the sound echoed through the grassy field. “Seriously, those things were annoying and smelly, but not that tough. What happened?”

“Sophia wanted to prove she could handle herself, I wanted to prove that I was strong enough to protect everyone. It turned into something of a race. Things may have gotten a little out of hand, but we’re both fine, aren’t we?” John said, wincing at the half-truth. It was leaving out a lot of context, and judging by the expression on her face, Lerianna was far from convinced, but she let things slide with little more than one quirked brow.

“Well, are we still going to do the third dungeon before lunch? Your mana is looking a little low,” Orria noted.

“Shouldn’t need much of it, I barely used any against them until the mini-boss, and Lerianna should be able to lend me some of hers since she never uses much of it,” John said, already activating his Siphon. “Plus I’ll set the dungeon a little easier this time.”

“No, no, that’s fine, don’t wait for me to give you permission or anything,” Lerianna grumbled, though other than rolling her eyes she didn’t do more than complain.

“Can you even use magic? All I ever see you do is get crazy strong,” John pointed out as the mana slowly transferred between the two of them.

“Why bother when I can already kick everyone’s ass? You should be grateful I’m here to support you when you mess up,” Lerianna huffed.

“Eternally,” John drolled, letting his voice drip with as much sarcasm as he dared. Lerianna sniffled, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge his retort, leaving John free to create their next set of Barriers. John left the settings at Undead, this time including Sophia’s dungeon in the mix. John wasn’t actually sure if requesting harpies had been relevant to her plan to shock him with her health loss or if it was just a display of dominance, but either way, he put an end to it. Sophia needed to learn to fight the undead as much as the rest of them… so much as John’s abilities could provide, anyway.

Their last round of dungeon diving went smoother and, surprisingly, nearly as fast as the second. This time John was transported to a desolate battlefield, a dried and cracked land reminiscent of a dried out lakebed. The only thing breaking up the long, flat landscape were clusters of tattered bones, discarded armaments, and the dust clouds occasionally kicking up in the rare breeze that seemed to touch upon the land.

“Well… I can see all the monsters, I’m pretty sure. But how do I know which ones are about to attack…?”

It was an annoyance more than a danger, but that was only due to the lower level of the dungeon. With so many dead bodies lying still upon the ground, John was sure that a step in any direction could trigger an ambush of falsely defeated undead rising up from the landscape, which left him a bit concerned on how to proceed at first. He didn’t have enough mana to channel his Rune of Puppeteering for too long, and wanted to save as much as possible for the mini-boss of the dungeon, but if he tried to stab them up-close, he was sure he’d get grabbed or stabbed by at least one long, bony arm.

”Didn’t my Fire Orb spell do area of effect damage…? No, it would take too much mana to cover this wide of an area. Maybe I could do something else… even if it doesn’t do any damage, they might not realize it, right? Every being can feel mana in some form or another, and even if they can’t, they know when they’re being touched. A few of them might catch on, but I don’t see anything too crazy around this area; I should be able to spot anything more complex than the average zombie or skeleton, and I don’t see any signs of liches or **** knights...”

John wasn’t entirely confident that there wasn’t something lurking amidst the fallen bodies like a bone construct or some kind of flesh amalgamation that was intelligent enough to see through his plan, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice. Besides, even if there were a few lurking in the masses, John could hopefully flush out the majority of his foes without wasting any effort.

So, with no small amount of concentration, John sent out fire and earth in equally violent waves. His Elemental Infusion spell didn’t carry enough mana to do damage to foes of the level he suspected were around him, but he could still severely disturb their rest. John created a wave of earth and fire in all directions, rings of fire and quakes emanating from his position as he slammed his fist into the ground. The earth moved like ripples in a pond and fire shot out in perfectly concentric rings, turning the calm museum of conflict into a living hellscape of fire and fury.

Bones began to move rapidly, some of their own will and some due to John’s spells. To his surprise, there were a few rare pop-ups that signified some damage had been dealt, though most were only a rare few points. Even that rapid barrage of translucent displays couldn’t keep John from seeing the obvious movement before him, though – as his mundane fire and earthquakes washed over the landscape, the bones of the fallen warriors shook and shifted. At first the movements were mostly in line with being jumbled about, but after a few seconds the motions of skeletons and zombies assembling themselves became more obvious, rising above the merely jostled remains of truly dead warriors.

”Alright, they’re out in the open!”

John stepped forward with his blade at the ready. He didn’t have to go far from his starting point to find the first pile of bones that was working its way off the ground – only a scant few feet from where he’d been when the Barrier was formed, John’s razor-sharp blade cleaved through a cluster of reanimated bones, sending them scattering to the dusty ground below. A few steps later and he dispatched a moaning zombie as it started to reach for his leg.

Moving as quickly as he could, it didn’t take long to clear out the minions. There were just as many as in the last dungeon, but without the fog or the hills to hide them, it was easier to find and speed over to each one of them without worrying about stumbling into an ambush. He still had to be careful about some of the more intelligent undead lying in wait, but even the revenants and chained souls resting on the battlefield eventually started rising up to seek him out, rather than waiting in ambush – perhaps they were smart enough to realize that they’d soon be alone, at the rate John was culling their numbers.

John tried not to let his eyes wander over to the health bars too often, but after what Sophia had pulled, he couldn’t keep himself from glancing over occasionally. To his **** relief, there was nothing to surprise him this time around. A few hits taken across the board, but even though John hadn’t had enough mana to fully heal Sophia back up, she was still well over half her health.

”Still not going to take my time… just in case.”

Mopping up the last of the minions took a bit longer since it was mostly the intelligent and powerful undead left, but it was quicker than before now that John was somewhat familiar with most of their abilities and patterns. Though most of the minions were the same, the boss was quite different. When the last of the undead minions fell to dust and bones at his feet, John saw a massive pile of flesh sludging its way from underground, pushing aside dirt and stone as it practically burrowed out from underneath the battlefield.

”Guess it’s not like there was anywhere else for a boss to be hiding,” John noted as what appeared to be a partially-decayed slab of humanoid meat eventually worked its way free of the dirt. Granted, that slab looked to be about fourteen feet tall and probably weighed nearly a ton considering how wide it was and how many corpses it appeared to be stitched together from.

Experiment #1894-B
Level 44 Flesh Golem
HP: 2,735 / 2,735
Relationship: -50
Alignment: -2
Status Effects: N/A

”More HP, even at a lower level. That means it’s probably slower, weaker… and just needs to be smacked around a lot. Happy to oblige.”

The creature reached underground and pulled out a massive slab of metal that, if it was a fifth the scale and had twice the craftsmanship, could’ve passed as a crude cleaver. Then it started shambling slowly toward John, blood and pus oozing from its seams as it walked.

”More than happy. Seriously, how gross did we have to get?”

“I am… so glad this stuff just disappears,” John grumbled to himself as the Barrier faded away, letting the last bits of the flesh golem literally slop off him in heaps. “Seriously, that thing was nasty enough before those air pockets started bursting with every hit…”

Mini-Boss defeated, Dungeon complete [Level 30]!
+4375 EXP [+50 EXP from Perks]
+$17,500 ($8,750 + 100% from Perks)
+19 Unholy Sutures
+22 Gourmet Rotting Flesh

John has Leveled Up!
John has reached level 39!
+8 all stats

“Hey, at least you didn’t have to touch the damn things directly! I’m gonna ask for a weapon if you keep making us run against these disgusting things!” Lerianna complained, shivering visibly despite her cleanliness. “I don’t care if they disappear, I still feel like I need a bath.”

“Well, luckily for you it’s time for a lunch break, so if you want a bath go ahead and take one,” John said, smiling around at everyone. The tension from the second dungeon seemed mostly abated, eased and somewhat forgotten after the throes of combat.

Not that their afternoon was yet free of struggle, per se…

"Papa's back! Papa's back!" The chorus of voices echoed around John as he was embraced in another group hug.

"Yes, yes - and I brought food, too." John said, watching the kittens' eyes light up as he started sorting through his inventory. It took a few minutes, especially while being jostled by eager kittens, but eventually John managed to get across the living quarters to the dining room and start pulling dinners out of his inventory, setting them throughout the middle of the table. Orria was quick behind him with her magic already in motion, vines sprouting from under her robes to rapidly set the table with enough plates and silverware to accommodate all of them on the long dining table.

"Still hot and fresh, dig in, but use the damn plates please!” John said, adding the last part as Mika and Miya looked ready to dive face-first into a pasta bowl together. He had abandoned trying to get them to use the silverware for now, but even he didn’t relish the thought of ladling out the leftovers of whatever food the Nekos had just faceplanted into.

"How are our supplies holding up?" Orria asked as she watched John slowly emptying his inventory onto the table.

"Eh, as well as ever. Can't exactly put in orders to feed over a dozen people on short notice, much less get enough to keep us supplied for weeks at a time. Still better than when I was holed up here except by absolute necessity.”

Ordering food from the old world was convenient, especially since his inventory kept it fresh and hot seemingly indefinitely. It was a nice supplement to their fruit stores, a good way to break up the monotony, but it also wasn't easy to stock up with so many mouths to feed. The Abyssal Marketplace could have probably provided enough food in bulk, but their prices were so inflated due to magic that even giving them the bare minimum of sustenance would've been extraordinarily difficult. Farming food from dungeons was decent, but it was often questionable, usually not cooked, and almost always tasted different than anything else John had ever experienced. Not always worse, but… definitely different.

"Next time I go shopping, I'll look into getting us a charcoal grill and some bulk meat, enough to tide us over through a few weeks. Once the war's done I'll see about finally getting some working electricity and some running water too. I'm not sure how healthy a diet of fruit and fast food really is in the long term..."

"I make sure the new strains I've been growing are highly nutritious, I'll have you know," Orria said, giving a fake pout as she sat down near the head of the table to John’s left. “I’ve even been working on varying up the flavors! I want to start naming strains after each of us for our favorite flavors.”

“Be that as it may, I’d prefer to balance out our diets a little more. Maybe get some agriculture going beyond a few different flavors of bush,” John mused.

The conversation died out after a little while, as everyone eagerly dug into their food. John himself didn’t partake until everyone else was finished – a habit he’d picked up during the year’s absence from the old world, back when they often ran short on food. Once he’d capped out Gamer’s Body, eating was mostly for pleasure and a bit for regeneration buffs, so there was no need for him to do anything more than pick at the unfinished dishes. Things were better now, but he still enjoyed the chance to watch his family as they happily tore into their meals.

This time, one person in particular had caught his eye – Farrah, of all people, humming away happily as she enjoyed a large nacho platter with obvious delight. It wasn’t what she was doing that kept drawing John’s eyes, but rather the calm, pleasant expressions she was constantly making as she did it. Farrah met his eyes multiple times as he stared; often it seemed like she could tell the moment someone so much as glanced at her. Still, John couldn’t help the way his eyes constantly shifted back to her as she giggled or bounced with glee while reaching for a new helping of whatever food had caught her eye. Compared to the nervous and worried woman who had accompanied John on his walk the prior night, it was a dramatic shift.

When the food had all finally disappeared and they were in the midst of the clean-up, John made his way over to Farrah while collecting the plates.

“You seem to be doing a lot better this morning. Did a good night’s sleep help you?”

“I’m not sure. Honestly, I was still feeling just as bad this morning… actually, probably a little bit worse,” Farrah confided. “But it got better after a while, and by the time you all came back from training, I had started to feel much better! I still don’t know what got into me, but it’s like everything is all better now.”

“Hm. Well, as long as you’re feeling better, that’s all that matters,” John said, smiling even as his mind was rolling in the background. He was more certain than ever that Farrah’s intuition was more than mundane senses and awareness, though he still wasn’t sure what that meant for them.

“Father, will we be returning to the battlefield?” Sophia asked, back straight and holding most of the table’s dinnerware unwaveringly in one open palm.

“We’re not all fully recovered yet, but we will soon,” John promised. “I want to get as much training in as possible today. I know tomorrow was supposed to be a training day, but after what happened yesterday I’ve got a couple of things I’d like to take care of, so if we get any training in, it will probably be with Kim, and maybe Moira. That won’t leave us much room in the party.”

“Hey, uh… could I come with you?” Lerianna asked, pausing with a handful of silverware while the kittens chased each other around her muscular legs. “Tomorrow, I mean. Tricia and I have been working together over the drones on a project, but she said it would really help if I could be there in person for some testing. It would just be… er, hard to test over a connection like that.”

“Hm? Oh, that shouldn’t be an issue,” John said. The awkward expression and blush on Lerianna’s face were enough to tell John there was something interesting there, even without the vagueness of her statement, but he knew pressing her would go nowhere fast. “How long will you need?”

“Not too long, just… uh, long enough to swing by. I’m sure Tricia will be fast with whatever tests she has to run, right?” Lerianna said, half-laughing the last part.

“Sure… anyway, let’s get these in the sink and head back for training. I’ll worry about washing these with my spells tonight when we’re done training. Everyone set for round two?!” John hollered across the kitchen and got a rowdy, affirmative response from a lot of those present – including the kittens and Nekos, who weren’t even involved in the training for the day.

“I’ll just assume that’s a yes. Meet out front in fifteen minutes; anyone late gets replaced,” John said loudly as he dumped his armful of plates into the sink.