Back with his girlfriend.

John entered the room with the expectation of being beheaded. Instead he found Regan and Rave drinking light beer. Regan was in the process of assembling his Blood Ravens while Rave sat on a red sofa at the back. “Ah, there you are, John!” Regan said in a very good mood. He stretched out his hand and John shook it in confusion. Regan pulled him into a **** hug. “I heard everything, if you ever bring my daughter into such a dangerous situation again I will rip out your intestines and use them as a jumping rope.” The threat was slightly lessened by the stupid marine head Regan was wearing but it made John gulp nevertheless. “I understand, sir.” John crumbled and was let go.

He walked over to Rave. “You are in big trouble aren’t ya?” She asked with a giggle. “Yes…wait isn’t all of this your fault?” He whispered back. “Why would that be?” “Well, you could have not told your protective dad that you almost died.” “Are ya telling me to lie to daddy?” “No…I mean maybe?” Rave stuck out her tongue and pulled him down to the sofa next to her. They kissed and as they sat only centimetres from each other John noticed a slight red around and in her eyes. It looked like she had been crying, not a lot but still. “Just keep my mind from this stupid stuff here.” She demanded, “And I just might forgive ya, tiger.”

“I think I can do that.” “Shut up over there!” Travolta shouted. “This is important.” “…Why exactly are we here again?” John finally asked. They had only come here with the intent of seeing Regan but for the why Regan told them to come here they had not yet received an answer. “Travolta and I have to speak about something that involves you two as well. It’s about that whole Bloodfallen business.”

“Did anything bad happen with them?” John asked. “No, but no one becomes somebody’s protector without wanting something back.” Travolta said and put Necron soldiers on the table. “They want tribute basically. Nothing unreasonable just money or materials of the same value. As the Leader I will shoulder most of the costs but I still need the extra funds.”

So that is what they meant. “Jimmie and me already fund an arrangement, he will provide some basic services to them in the area if they need them. Getting Fateweavers to work for you is a pretty costly business normally so he gets a free pass most of the time. About what you will have to do though Rave your old man wanted to ask you personally.” Travolta explained and made a broad gesture over the table.

Regan took up the hint as he made sure his army was according to the point limit. “Yeah, so either Travolta will have to pay less of his debts back or you pay it yourself.” He explained. Rave was slightly puzzled, “How much money are we talking about here?” “Twenty-Five Grand a week.” Travolta grumbled. Rave pondered about the sum, “I can pay that myself. Gotta stand on my own eventually, right, dad?” Regan nodded, seeming a bit sad on the prospect. “Yep, fact is that I might be not be alive next month. I am past my prime after all and the Abyss is the Abyss.”

That was a rather scary conversation to have like this but with Rave’s decision made all eyes turned to John. “I will need the money from you as well.” Travolta said. John looked down on his hands. To pay that amount he needed to kill three Spectre’s a weak when he could only reliably kill two without missing classes. Either he skipped out on school once a week, every week or he would have to start farming something that dropped more. Either way he could do it.

“I will pay as well. I can start next week.” He promised, having just given his money to Carl. Travolta nodded “You better fucking see to it then.” He grumbled. “Don’t be such a grumpball, Baldy.” Rave said and protectively laid her arms around John. “Ya gonna scare my man.” “I am not that big of a scaredy cat!” John denied that. “I will have it, don’t worry.”

Travolta nodded. “That is all I wanted from you anyway.” “Yeah, you can go now. Jane, I trust you to be back home for dinner.” “Pizza?” Rave asked in a hopeful voice, “Pizza.” Her father affirmed. John smiled seeing Rave this happy. The couple rose from the sofa and went on their way, leaving Travolta and Regan as they started another shouting match.

“What did you do to pass the time by the way?” Rave asked as they distanced themselves from the shop to get outside of the Protected Space. “I bought a dress for Aclysia. Also wigs. Lots and lots of wigs.” “Why that?” Rave wondered. “Well, I needed more plastic to finally fix those black surfaces of hers.” John explained. “Well, that sounds like an incredibly bad idea.” “Why? We already found out that she can manipulate the plastic to have it feel like skin.” Well, it felt like skin on the surface but didn’t have the same elastic attributes and stuff. Probably would be the smartest thing to buy a sex doll or something and have her eat that whole thing, might teach her how to teach pussy replacement at the same time. Really a shame that they couldn’t use meat but it rotted as meat normally did.

“Yeah but this is an Abyss shop, right?” Rave asked, “Yeah, and?” “And the stuff here is enchanted. We know that she grows considerably quicker when she consumes mana.” They left the Protected Space and on command five windows popped up. Well, one window popped up five times.

“There you are!” Carl said, already waiting outside his shop. “Come inside, quick!” They hasted into the cosplay vault. There they found an about two and a half metre giant of an Artificial Guardian standing underneath the ceiling.

“Hello, Creator John. I have fulfilled the task.” Aclysia said and flashed her newly acquired sexual organ. Well, it was the appearance of one, John was fairly certain that there was only a plastic wall between the folds. “Well, uh, nice?” Towards Carl he said. “What happened?” “Well, she started eating the stuff, then she started growing so she could eat faster and then the whole box was gone and she was huge.”

Aclysia tilted her head in what seemed to be an act of confusion but also could have been her simply trying to see better. John on the other hand was wondering if the difference between his limited enchantment capabilities and wigs that could adjust their size were really that massive. Well, there was a problem here though. “Aclysia, can you become smaller again?”

“I can increase the density of my physical form, Creator John.” She affirmed with a slightly over worded answer. “Do it then, try to be around as tall as I am.” With a humming noise the magic got to work and Aclysia shrank until she was slightly bigger than him. John scanned her up and down. She looked like the perfect cosplayer. “Man, now you grew your own side-girl.” Rave said, “Ya wanna make jealous?” “Maybe a bit?” John teased. “Well, I think this is perfection!” Carl said. “Now get the hell out of my shop I want to close soon.”

They climbed back up the ladder after John had placed Aclysia in his inventory (an act only possible after telling her to shrink even more). “That was interesting.” Rave said. “I will have to spent points later…also I will need to find out how to make money.” John sighed as they walked towards the nearest bus station. “The most likely solution is starting to farm something that drops more.” “The Spectre was getting very boring anyway.” Rave said, arms folded behind her backs as she walked, now back in her disguise. “All we do is bind him and beat him to a pulp, spawning the guy is harder than fighting him.”

She wasn’t wrong, the time it took to kill enough Ghosts to spawn the Spectre was the main reason that he couldn’t farm it on weekdays. Fighting it was a joke, at this point John could it on his own. All he needed to do was bind him using Possession and Gnome and then crush him while firing Mana Power Attacks. Sure, it took longer than with Rave’s elemental advantage but he could do it. A boss that was permanently crowd controlled wouldn’t be much of a challenge for anyone after all.

“I guess what I need is a boss with a low spawn time that is relatively easy to defeat.” John mumbled. Oh well, that was a problem he had to deal with tomorrow, this day was almost over. The couple said goodbye after sharing a bus ride and went to their respective homes.