The adventure continues

John removed his fighting gear and sat down on the ground. The quests, the situations, the bad or good luck, everything had been some sort of test to see what he'd do with his powers? No, Themis had sounded a little surprised concerning the kingdom, the gem probably was a random drop, the kind you get an infinitesimal chance of dropping. The disappearance of the daily quests was another sign of their purpose. They had pushed him to get in contact with Moira and Kim, to do things that would probably make him noticeable, all of this to see how he would react. And no matter what was thrown at him he got out of it (admittedly not always in one piece).

John looked up to see a very worried Sylvia watching him.

"I'm alright, just a lot to process. Thank you, Sylvia," he told her, accepting her help to get up.

John looked at the spare ring in the palm of his hand, he wasn't sure yet who he would give it to. Sylvia would deserve it, being the most senior of his subjects (by a few days), but she wouldn't have a lot of uses for it. Cali on the other hand, could really get a huge boost from it, both the inventory and a gathering or crafting skill would increase greatly what she would be able to do. The way it was described to him, only the crowns were linked to their wearers, he would be able to swap the ring around the other girls.

The rings didn't fix everything, he would still have to be in the entry room to exit the kingdom for instance, but it was probably something that could be upgraded later.

"What happened? Was it what you expected?" asked Vesta.

"Pretty much, except it wasn't the quest which was a test, it was the whole week since I got my powers. I get the feeling that Gaia gives powers to some people mostly to see what they would do with them. I got a couple of nice things from it. A few new powers that I have not checked yet and perks for the kingdom," he told them. He finished retelling them what happened while looking for the additions to the castle. He texted Anna to tell her that everything was fine, that he had excellent news and to tell her that he loved her.

The small group stopped in front of a door labeled Library, John noticed that it was right under the throne room; John opened the door and was amazed. It wasn't one of the small rooms, it had the same footprint as the throne room above it. The long room was filled with bookshelves, most of them empty, but a remarkably large number were full.

John walked past the large desk at the entrance, the few tables with chairs and the bunch of really comfy leather armchairs to get to the closest shelf that had books on it. There looked to be hundreds of books in the library, if not thousands, and a lot of smaller things. Comics? Mangas? John picked a few and was surprised to see that some Comics and Mangas he had binge read online or downloaded were here in a nice paper format he could hold in his hand.

On a nearby shelf he found the children's books with which he had learnt to read when his mom read them to him. He heard some gasps behind him. He turned on the spot to see the girls gathered around Cali who was holding a comic in front of her. Vesta was standing with her mouth open and a puzzled look on her face, Sylvia was almost blushing, which was a feat for someone with green skin.

John had trouble recognizing the cover, so he went to join them and see what it was about. In a huge centerfold picture a naked blonde was drawn getting fucked by two huge minotaurs in a very anatomically uncomfortable position.

John looked at the rest of the shelf where the girls had found it. Thousands of small booklets of hentai and adult comics he had read online were lined up on the shelves. Two shelves away from that he could see a bunch of books that were actually stories he had read online or written himself, but who had been, to his knowledge, never published.

The girls were picking more and more, each opening in porn versions of superheroines, girls being fucked by fantasy creatures, tentacle monsters, or walking around naked in public....

It was the library of what he had read, a lot of it was either geek stuff or porn, the mundane books or school manuals were dwarfed in numbers by the rest of the content.

"Well, I guess we will have a lot to read to get accustomed to the life in your world now, John," said Sylvia, trying to sound serious. John saw the huge work of explaining in front of him to make sure that they understood the difference between fiction and his real world.

John sat down in one of the armchairs to check his character sheet and despite the many free seats he ended with a naked dryad sitting on his lap while reading some hilarious hentai parody of a bad manga, chuckling at each page. John had not reached (and wished he never would) the point where he would mind a naked girl cuddling with him.

While keeping an eye on the book to follow the preposterous adventures of the young heroine who was getting fucked by everyone and everything she encountered, he opened his interface.

The outlay remained similar, but the graphics had improved. He was happy to see the extra cash he had received, putting him a bit closer to his vault achievement. His class was now Arcane Trickster and The Gamer was his title, like Warden for Moira.

He had a new tab that listed his class bonuses, but most of them were greyed and he couldn't read them. Three were visible though.

Apparently as an Arcane Trickster he combined attributes of a mage and a thief, with an added aspect based on trickery, deception, inventivity and use of unconventional means to achieve his goals. Theft and Unlock had gained a range of 40 feet. Using Glamour on himself or someone did no longer only change their opinion of him, but also their trust in him, making them more likely to believe him or accept things he would ask. The third thing was a new skill, one that he could easily see himself having some use for.

Parkour, lvl1 passive
You can now use Parkour to move around. This dynamic running will allow you to move really quickly in conditions involving jumping, climbing or encumbered environments. When choosing a destination visual cues will appear to guide you. High Intellect will allow you to detect more paths and high Agility to use harder ones.

This was something he wanted to try. After kissing her he gently asked Sylvia if she could get up, she was a bit disappointed for this calm cuddling moment to end, but he promised her that it would become a common thing now.

He didn't have to go really far to understand what the skill meant. Simply thinking about going out of the library made some green glow appear on the floor, creating a trail following the most efficient path. Moving around until obstacles were between him and the exit, multiple paths began to divide, green ones going around the furniture and yellow ones going above them, with clear hand or foot prints on the ground or furniture.

Just as a test he ran to gain momentum and jumped above the desk, aiming to put his hands and feet on the marks. The fact that he had kept his magic boots out of habit made him go through the move flawlessly. This item seemed almost designed for someone who had this skill. Running speed, jump impulse, climbing skill, recovery on fall...

John knew that he would have to fight the next day at the junkyard, and that the junk rats were very fast. He decided to put his 10 stat points from his lvl up in Agility, both to boost his movement skill, but also for the speed and precision it would give him in combat.

A quick check of the King's Altar, placed on the side of the throne in the great hall, revealed that he needed 10 subjects to gain a new ring and that he was nowhere near completing any of the challenges to upgrade the existing ones, it was something he would have to talk about with everyone gathered. Revealing the truth to June and his mother could end up being helpful for this, he doubted that Moira, Kim or Tricia would accept to swear fealty to him and join in kingdom. Maybe he should bring Etan in, if only to boost the numbers.

He needed very little sleep and his kingdom was running at 165% of the normal time, he had all night to have fun, train his new skill and make some decisions.