Shower Thoughts

John stifled a yawn as he trudged to the bathroom. It was far too early, but with everyone still very much asleep, he decided a shower would let him pass the time as well as getting ready for the day.

‘Plus, with as many people living here now, if I don’t get one before everyone wakes up, I’ll never get to take one,’ he thought with a grin. That wasn’t such a horrible thing, he came to believe. For too long, the household was just him and his mother, and it felt empty. Now, no fewer than seven were present most of the time.

‘I wonder how Beth’s keeping Lynn from knocking down the door and giving me an earful?’ he mused as he reached the bathroom. He smiled. ‘Nah, let’s be honest. She just hasn’t told her and Lynn’s too much of a workaholic to notice since Beth isn’t making a mess.’

Turning on the shower, John unequipped his clothing as the water heated up. Once it was at the right temperature, he stepped in, letting out a pleased groan.

‘That’s the spot,’ he thought as the water loosened his muscles. For a moment, John just let the spray wash over him, his mind blank to everything but the sensation. But then his thoughts wandered, and he found them drifting back to the dream he had before waking. All he could remember was a dark, stoney room with someone inside.

‘Wish I could remember my dreams better,’ John mused. ‘Wonder if pumping up my Intelligence will let me do that.’

Thinking about what the increases to his stats could give him, John realized he hadn’t yet allocated his recent stat points. The flurry of activity at the Golmerk village and the talk about approaching Teri and Kiera had pushed his level up from his mind. As he lathered up some shampoo, he began to ponder where to put his points.

‘Sticking with the usual two each to mental and one to physical has been a good strategy so far, but is it the best one?’ he mused as he rubbed his scalp. ‘Didn’t really do that great against that last boss. If I increase my Strength more now, I can make better use of my sword skill, especially now that it has leveled up too. And that could let me be more judicious with my mana.’

Summoning his sheet once he rinsed away all the suds, John took in his current numbers.

All fifteens in his physical stats before modifiers was a bit aesthetically pleasing, but he couldn’t let a pleasant sequence of numbers rule how he built himself. Thinking over the fights of yesterday, he couldn’t help but notice how limited his use of magic had been. Sure, the circumstances hadn’t been in his favor for most of the time. Fire was a bad match in a corn maze, clothing department and close quarters, after all, and he had been able to keep up with just his blades.

‘Maybe I should focus on the physical this time,’ he thought. ‘One point in each, then the other two into Int or Wis? Maybe both into Wisdom to get my regen closer to one a minute.’

Getting mana back faster was a tantalizing prospect and given how reserved he tended to be with using it, having a faster recharge time was a bit better than deepening the pool. The only counter argument was that a larger overall mana pool meant being able to maintain Senka, Candle and his other spirits easier and still have enough mana left over to use.

He looked at the twenty point deficit on his mana bar, the sustain cost for Senka. And if he summoned Candle and used an Overlay, he would be down close to half his current max. Not optimal, but increasing his mana wouldn’t exactly ease the strain. Senka’s cost would scale with his pool as long as she increased her mana at roughly the same rate, while Overlay and Candle used a flat percentage.

‘So there’s no real need to amp up my pool, but if I up the regen, I can cast and recover more effectively,’ John reasoned as he began to apply his points, one each to his physical stats and the remaining two to Wisdom. With that set, John studied his skills. ‘Really haven’t got much use out of Bask or Amplify. They have to be close to leveling. And having Small Blade Proficiency at level one is a bit embarrassing.’

Fighting with Senka’s vessel to level it, however, was a bit of a daunting task. Even if he could cheese it by fighting something so low-leveled that it wouldn’t be a threat to him, the benefit would be limited overall with minimum experience and loot.

‘I wonder if using Vessel Cloak makes the knife count as a large blade?’ he pondered as he reached for the soap. He paused when he felt Senka’s mana wash over him a second before the door opened.

‘Aww, I was hoping to surprise you,’ Senka pouted. ‘Kept my thoughts as quiet as possible.’

Before John could respond, the shower curtain was pulled back, revealing the sultry spirit in all her glory. While her large breasts were quite the attention grabber, John found his gaze pulled from them up to meet her blue eyes. Both of them.

“Guess I still did get to surprise you.” Senka chuckled, brushing some stray hairs away from her face before she moved to enter the shower.

“How?” was all John could ask as he stepped back to give her room.

“It seems my level-up has afforded me some upgrades,” she answered before stepping close to John, pressing her body against his. “Hmm, water’s just the right temperature.”

John’s hands couldn’t help but reach for the spirit’s butt, which prompted her to chuckle. He felt her mind probe his recent memories and she remarked, “I’m surprised you grabbing my butt has nothing to do with an increase to your Libido. It’s a bit bold of you.”

“Guess I’m just getting used to having girlfriends who don’t mind me grabbing their butts,” John said. “Or doing this.”

John trailed one of his hands up Senka’s back, making her arch into him before he threaded his fingers in her dampening hair and pulled her down to meet his lips. Senka let out a pleased moan as they kissed under the hot spray of water and wrapped one arm around John’s back. Her other dipped lower and squeezed between them to begin teasing John’s dick.

When they broke apart for air, Senka grinned, her eyes gleaming with desire. “You know, I think you missed a spot. Let me help you with that.”

With sublime grace, Senka sank to a crouch and brought herself level with John’s erection. Without hesitation, she took the twitching organ into her mouth, drawing out a groan from John. He brought his hands to her head and began to massage her scalp in tune with her ministrations.

‘Mhhh, that feels divine,’ Senka thought. ‘We need to make use of that massaging skill more often.’

‘If this is what happens when we do, I don’t have any objections,’ John responded, letting out a moan of pleasure as Senka licked the whole underside of his dick before taking it back in her mouth. With his early morning needs not yet met, John knew he wasn’t going to last long. And while he likely could go for a second round, doing so in the shower wasn’t a smart move when Kiera or his mom could walk in on them. He didn’t think that would help things.

‘Still, don’t want to leave without reciprocating,’ he thought privately, an idea coming to mind. Thoughts then left his head as he came, his fingers gripping Senka’s hair somewhat tightly, but not enough to bring her discomfort. Once Senka swallowed his load, she pulled away, lightly panting, grinning up at John.

“Since I really don’t have to eat, I guess that’ll do for breakfast,” she teased, giving John’s dick one last kiss before rising. “Suppose we should finish up before anyone else shows up for a shower.”

There was a slight hint of disappointment in Senka’s voice at how quick their time together would be and John didn’t want any of his girlfriends to feel disappointed. John quickly embraced her, kissing the junction where her neck met her shoulder, a spot they found was a weak point for the spirit.

Senka let out a coo as John continued to kiss her neck, his hand snaking down her midriff until he found her pussy, wet with more than just the shower water. She let out a gasp as John’s fingers began to stroke her lips, her head coming to rest on his shoulder.

“I think we’ll need to start doubling up on showers from now on,” Senka breathed into John’s ear. “You know, to conserve water.”

John grinned as he began to piston his fingers into Senka’s pussy. “I think that’s something I can get behind. Get a good rotating schedule going.”

Senka let out a beautiful moan as John’s other hand moved to one of her breasts and began to play with her nipple. The two-pronged attack, combined with Senka’s arousal from giving John a blowjob, left her primed to cum and John was eager to hear her come undone.

A flick of John’s thumb against Senka’s clit was her undoing and she came, her body nearly collapsing against John, most of her weight comfortably supported by him. Satisfied that he reciprocated her earlier actions, John smiled as Senka came down from her orgasm.

Skill Level Up: Massaging Fingers Lv. 3.

“Well, that’ll be fun later,” Senka remarked as John dismissed the popup. She wrapped her arms around John. “Let’s just stay like this for a moment. It’s nice.”

John had no objections to that.

Once their rest had gone both long enough and far too short, John and Senka left the bathroom. With one final kiss, Senka went to ensure the others were awake while John descended the stairs and made his way to the kitchen, where Brenda was fast at work making breakfast.

John did pause as he saw the gnoshroom helping her. It noticed him first and hopped excitedly about before tapping Brenda with some of its tendrils to get her attention.

“Hmm?” Brenda hummed, looking down at the gnoshroom before her attention was directed towards John. “Oh, good morning, sweetie. Didn’t hear you come down. Breakfast will be done in a bit.”

“Morning, Mom,” John said in a halting voice. “Didn’t know you’ve become friends with a gnoshroom.”

“Oh, Anita’s been quite the help,” Brenda remarked, much to the gnoshroom’s joy, if her jumping was any indication. “Turns out she’s been helping Estelle with work and can pretty much freely travel between there and here through your Kingdom. And she’s quite insistent on being a help, so I figured having her assist me was the best option.”

Anita brought out some of her tendrils and saluted at John before going back to whatever task Brenda had assigned her. “Well, as long as you know she’s coming around. I was ready to tell Verida to lock down the passage if they kept coming over unannounced.”

“I guess that could have been a problem,” Brenda laughed. “From what Estelle was able to make out from Anita’s attempts at communication, she’s the only one who’s keen on interacting with us. The rest prefer their forests.”

“At least we won’t be dealing with a fungal infestation,” John joked. The sound of footsteps drew his attention towards the stairs, but before he could turn enough to see, he felt Kiera’s aura cross his senses.

“G-good morning,” she said, trying to meet John’s eyes. Her anxiety got the better of her and she averted her gaze and hurried over to the refrigerator.

‘Yeah, I have no idea how we’re going to broach that topic with her,’ John thought as he subtly watched the bluenette begin to help Brenda make breakfast.

‘I think the girls and I will have to be the ones to approach her,’ Senka chimed in. ‘Let Brenda know we’ll be down in a few.’

‘Got it,’ John replied and relayed the information.

“So, do you have anything planned today?” Brenda asked as she worked to finish the meal before the girls came down, Kiera and Anita working quickly under her orders.

“Not yet,” John answered. “I’m half expecting the Order to call so they can talk to us about yesterday’s events.”

“Would they really?” Brenda asked. “They had their own people involved.”

“Okay, so they probably don’t want to grill me or Vivian over what we did, but I can still see them sending someone to discuss further cooperation,” John admitted. Before he could say more, his phone began to ring in his head.

“Talk about speaking it into happening,” he grumbled as he pulled his phone from his inventory. He paused, however, when he noticed who was calling. It wasn’t the Order, it was Estelle.

The instant he accepted the call, Estelle spoke before he could utter a greeting, “Good morning! Hope I’m not too early.”

“Uh, no, we’re all up,” John flatly said. “And you’re on speaker.”

“Good morning, Estelle,” Brenda called out.

“Morning! This makes it much easier,” Estelle said in a chipper voice.

“What’s easier?” Vivian asked, announcing her and the other’s arrival.

“Hi Vivian! And whoever else is there! And we had a breakthrough last night and think we’ve got a good way to make a proof of concept for the binding array,” Estelle announced. “You did tell everyone about what we discussed yesterday, right, Brenda?”

“Yes, I did,” Brenda responded, her cheeks going slightly red. “I wasn’t expecting you to come up with the next step in under a day though.”

“Well, we had a call with another friend, and something from her work gave me an idea,” Estelle said. “It’s a bit much to go over on the phone, so if you come over, that’d be great. Oh, and this thing is a bit of a group thing, so we’ll need Kiera and your goblin friend with the shamanic magic to make this work. Is that going to be an issue?”

“I-I’m good to go,” Kiera chimed in.

“Teri might be harder to get a hold of,” Vivian spoke up. “Her people are in the middle of something.”

“Oh, are they alright?” Estelle asked, in the dark about the Golmerk’s predicament and history.

“They’re fine, just dealing with some big issues,” John answered. “Is Teri a needed part in this experiment?”

“I was hoping her shamanistic magic would act like guiding lines for this,” Estelle explained. “Maybe not needed, but it would make things go more smoothly.”

“Well, we can give her a call and see if she can help,” John said. “And if she can't, we can give it a go without her. See if her magic would be needed.”

“I suppose,” Estelle remarked, her energy levels significantly lowered. “Was kind of hoping to get a hole-in-one with this.”

“Can’t win ‘em all,” Beth interjected. “Got to fail or screw up sometimes. Fuck, I’m sounding like my sister.”

“Look at that, we got you to be somewhat grown up,” Aeolia jibed.

Beth stuck her tongue out at Aeolia, who got up in her face and stole a quick kiss. Out of the corner of his eye, John caught Kiera frowning slightly at the display, a look of longing on her face, if he was to guess.

‘Guess that’s evidence she likes more than one of us, I guess,’ John thought. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. If she only liked some of them, then things would get messy when they approached her.

“We’re sitting down to breakfast, so we can be around in about ninety minutes,” John told Estelle. “If Teri can come, it might take us a bit longer. We’ll let you know either way.”

“Ninety minutes,” Estelle repeated, “got it. There is a bit of cleaning I need to do. See you then!”

The line went dead and John tapped his phone, bringing up Teri’s info. “Think Teri will be able to get away?”

Vivian leaned over John’s shoulder, her undone hair tickling his cheek. “Maybe. I doubt they’ll need her for more sorting and building.”

“Well, nothing ventured,” John said, shooting Teri a greeting and the question of if she was free.
Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if she was while they ate breakfast.

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