Clean-Up

John let go of the anger and turned to his group. Aside from Aclysia, who looked slightly worried, everyone was smiling. “What did you realize, master?” the artificial guardian asked, she was afraid that whatever Undine had revealed to John was unhealthy for his psyche. “That I should focus my effort where it belongs and that I should keep a level head,” John stated and shared the revelation with Aclysia.

In the end, she looked calm, even if not entirely convinced. “Take care effort doesn’t become obsession, master,” she left a piece of advice with him before joining everyone else in their happy expression. “I will. Now!” he turned at the beige windows, “Let’s get through this!”

That was quite the good skill, it would eventually increase all of the four elemental girls’ stats by 50%, although John was not quite sure what the main stats were supposed to be. ‘Here goes hoping that Libido is not one of them in Sylph’s case,’ he thought.

“Christ,” John looked at the choices with wide eyes. He would take the left one, he needed experience more than items right now, but this was a very good reward, stupidly good. He still had two more Keys of Forgotten Sins. Therefore, he could nuke the entire floor two more times and doing so this first time would give him not only instant access to this floor but also fulfill the quest he had been carrying since the start of this whole grind. Shit was crazy good, so he clicked it.

Two level-ups at once, been a while since he had gotten that from a dungeon. He noted that he could also enter on any Floor between 5 and 10 now, might come in handy if he wanted to farm better version of certain items. Anyhow, to take a look at that Item he got from the quest.

The glass flask had a very long neck, the top sealed with a cork, with a round end where most of the liquid would reside, a flattened bottom made it possible to put it on a table without it toppling over. It had no design whatsoever, just a clear glass, in black the three letters EXP printed on it. It did also come with a small leather holster that he could clip to his pants.

John was pretty eager to equip the thing, but there was a problem: It shared a slot with the Fake Keys of the Pearly Gates. While the Echo was less great then initially thought it was still the sole reason for him being able to have Undine at level 100 already. He had abused the thing and rolled the Slot Machine whenever he could, grabbing whatever Skill Point reward he could get his hands on, even with the 95% decrease that had been what had eventually gotten him there.

‘What skills do I even want to push at this point?’ John tried an elimination approach. There was one obvious answer: Artificial Spirit. Getting whatever, the choices of the maximum level were going to be was likely to grant Aclysia quite the boost. Therefore, the flask was put into his inventory, for now.

Now, for his new Statpoints, these went into Wisdom. What his Elementals ate now of his mana regeneration was quite sobering, even though keeping them active was still the same cost giving them extra power just drained him of his mana rapidly. Intellect would have been another possible solution, but he still liked a rapid regeneration over a high base pool.

With all of that cleaned up, he decided to head back, “Okay, now we evolve Undine back home, okay?” he asked, not expecting any objections and being affirmed in that expectation. A short time later they were walking towards his house, John’s eyes fell on Magoi who was standing frozen in front of the loot basin. ‘Right the Fear Eater had that legendary drop,’ John remembered, it even was an Artificial Crystal, like the one he had used to create Aclysia. Better check that out.

“What have you created?” Magoi asked once he realized John was next to him. His voice was devoid of judgment, just sheer disbelief. John activated his aura sight to check what the Fateweaver meant. The aura was blindingly white, and about the size of his fist, like a miniature sun, it burnt into his magical sight with frightening intensity. John had to deactivate it to look at the item itself. The crystal was formed like a twenty-sided die, the surfaces being either black or white in a checkboard like pattern.

“Seems like we can finally make a weapon for you, Aclysia,” John said and threw the thing into his inventory. Sure, it was pretty powerful, but at this point, he did not care that much anymore, he generated bombs like this every week, no reason to be surprised. Magoi was of a different mind, “you want to make a WEAPON out of this?” he was baffled, “John, listen to me, people would fight wars over that thing, keep it locked up in that inventory and never reveal it outside of this barrier.” “What? If I use it to build something it will vanish anyhow, just like with Aclysia,” John said with a raised eyebrow.

“What are you talking about? This guardian of yours maintains a powerful crystal as her heart,” Magoi pointed at the woman in question. Aclysia seemed as surprised by this news as John; the Gamer felt her searching through her own composition until she eventually found something at the center of her torso which she couldn’t move or replace. ‘It is true,’ she told her master, and John turned back to Magoi.

“You are saying people would start wars over this, like who?” “Middle to Upper-Class organizations, the Knights of Teuton, Thorne, maybe even the Czech League, I don’t know. You are already of interest to a lot of people don’t paint another target on your back,” the Fateweaver informed him calmly. “If you don’t take this as advice from an acquaintance, take it as a statement from a High-Fateweaver, that crystal is dangerous for you, wait until you have the power to protect yourself before you use it.” John nodded to appease Magoi, he was not entirely sure if he would follow the advice, but at the very least he would take it into consideration.

“Anyhow, you only have 4 more days, keep it going,” Magoi said his goodbye for the evening. John looked after the Fateweaver, ‘Do I trust you enough that, after making such a fuss, you keep this information to yourself or will you stab me in the back like Victoria did?’ He asked himself as he turned to enter his own house. In the end, he decided to do the former, Magoi could have gone ahead and informed the few superiors he had at any point before John had gotten back. If he was betrayed, it was already too late anyhow.

Clearing his mind of such negative thoughts, he concentrated on the positives of the day. It was time to evolve Undine. As was the tradition they entered his room. John waited for a moment at the door before opening it, expecting some plead for isolation as Sylph had made. There was no such thing. ‘You sure?’ He sent exclusively to Undine. He only got a feeling of certainty back as his answer.

With that finally out of the way, they spread through his room. John sat down on the edge of his bed, in preparation of what had happened every time. Gnome wanted to sit down to his side first, then blushed, stammered “Uhm, s-sorry, this is Undine’s day and all, sorry,” and chose his office chair instead. Aclysia had no such qualms and stood to John’s right-hand-side. Salamander sat down in Gnome’s lap, lifting the stone elementals skirt in a nonchalant motion, “no panties again, huh?” she commented, “Wha-!” Gnome quickly hid her pussy from everyone’s view by violently pushing her skirt down, “You are awful, Salamander!” she said. “We all know you are a closet pervert, just admit it already!” “I am no such thing!” Gnome cried out, but the way she decidedly looked into no one’s eyes betrayed her lies. Sylph laughed at the whole scene from her lookout on Aclysia’s head.

Undine took the place where two of her sisters had stood before, in front of John. The slime girl hadn’t changed, she had the appearance of a little girl made entirely from a blue highly dense liquid. Her short hair twirled around a maelstrom at the back of her head, and her misty white eyes stared at John as he asked, “are you ready?”

Everyone went silent as John opened his status screen, his finger prepared to push the button once Undine was. Slowly the feelings filled everyone’s thoughts. Doubt, slight fear, but above that, curiosity and desire, the desire to no longer be the last one stuck in the first Tier. The negative emotions were drowned out, and then he heard a single word, ‘Yes.’

He really wanted the Mending Elemental. A group with a healer was a lot safer, and it would fit Undine as well. As it currently stood Undine was the least useful part of their party, and that had been this way for a long time, her only job was to protect John from projectiles, after all, a job Mana Protection did a lot better. Yes, he would take the Mending Elemental.

As these things went, Undine’s form was suddenly consumed by a pillar of water. Her new form was revealed from the feet up. She was still the same pure white blue, as her naked feet and legs, long and reflecting the light of the sun outside beautifully came into view. A summer dress, a shade deeper in blue color, formed, its skirt was short, and the edges waved like a calm sea, complementing her C-cup breasts. Her shoulders were unclothed, the dress as part of her body needed no support, however sleeves of the same darker blue hovered around her arms that ended in hands with long, slender fingers. Her blue face was noble, from the form of her nose, to the elegant curves of her lips to the melancholic expression of her eyes. Undine’s hair was a single mass that reached below her hips in length, parting into a few broad strands at the end while swirling patterns inside the main mass created the illusion of waving, flowing hair.

Salamander whistled, “hot damn, Undine, from a girl to a lady,” the blaze elemental said. John agreed, Undine indeed now looked very much like a lady, standing at 1,78 metres she wasn’t small anymore either, which Sylph greatly lamented. “I am the smallest again, this is unfair, UNFAIR I TELL YOU!”

“I demand an orgy!” Sylph shouted, “I do not know how that will make things better but it feels fair, so I demand it, are my demands met?” “Sylph, you can’t just first get your solo time when you evolve and then rain on Undine’s parade…” John reprimanded his tempest elemental when Undine said, “sure.”