-Steve Maraboli

John's return was a bittersweet affair, a menagerie of emotions and fondness tainted by a farewell that he knew was all too serious. Sophia already knew the extent of how distraught he was, and Seras seemed to pick up on things faster than the others. Mithra seemed saddened, but as soon as John placed his hand upon her brow, she stifled any objections she had and settled for nuzzling herself firmly into his palm, aching for his approval, then immediately returning her own affections to her newly born kits before they could miss their mother.
The hardest was Maera. Though she had grown dramatically in her awareness since her creation, Maera seemed the least understanding of their differences. John only barely managed to convince her to let Lunaya and the demon butler wander off on their own, her claws firmly dug into his leg as she did all she could to prevent herself from scattering off after the departing couple.

"Don't worry," John tried to soothe her, running his hand across the ivory hair of his most ambitious creation, "she's just going to live in the forest. She's like… a twenty minute walk away at best, as fast as you go. She'll always be there for you."

"Myaster, I miss her already," Maera cooed, sniffling lightly as she nuzzled herself against John's calf.

"She'll come to visit soon, I promise… until then, I have a very special task for you, Maera. A very secret one. If you're too sad, then we can wait… but I really want your help with this one."

John was playing it up a bit for the Neko, of course, but Maera's eyes lit up at the mention of her "myaster" depending on her for something. The Neko bounced against John's knee, her armor clinking lightly as she twitched to and fro in her exuberant excitement.

"Myaster needs Maera?! Maera fight! Maera kill! Maera eat, then fight, then kill, then eat some more!"

John laughed as he gently patted the Neko between her twitching ears, feeling a growing sense of familiarity and ease with her simple reaction to his request. "Maera, I want to help someone very dear to me. You remember Tricia, the one who's been helping with Mithra's pregnancy?"

"Maera remembers. Nice lady gave Maera many treats when she came here! When can nice lady come back?"

"Whenever she wants, if we do this right," John promised, nodding. "Evellyn gave me four skill points after the revamp to spend however I want, and-"

John paused, realizing that describing the intricacies of his new skill system was perhaps a bit beyond the Neko. It was honestly a bit much for him to take in all at once; he'd toiled for days or even weeks before when playing his MMOs in order to best min-max his ideal builds, and even then he had been heavily reliant on website information to make sure he was making an informed choice. With nothing else to rely on, making the decisions himself had given him such analysis paralysis that John had yet to spend his newly returned skill points.

Inspecting his skills revealed that the term "tree" was a bit of a misnomer. "Skill Triforce" was a bit more accurate. John could highlight and see three enhancements for each skill available, with one in the center that was grayed out and he couldn't read. From the looks of things, he would have to unlock all three additional abilities to enable the center one. Although the number of his options had been drastically reduced, every single Skill Point now seemed to do something fantastic - far better than his previous "+X%" upgrades, more along the lines of his Siphon enhancements that let him swap stats and swap from farther away, both of which he was happy to see were still there. What really caught his eye, though, was the removal of his Building skill, which was now a Skill Point under the Crafting ability… alongside it were Enchanting and Alchemy.

Enchanting: Allows the user to imbue objects with magical properties through various means, including the inscribing of runes, charges of active spells, and passive effects. All objects may be enchanted to have runes inscribed, have a single-use active spell the user knows imbued, or have their basic properties enhanced to a minor degree. Objects of the Rare category and above may contain persistent versions of an active, single-use spell the user knows, recharged by outside mana sources or a part of the object suitable for storing mana. Objects of the Legendary category and above can have permanent versions of buffing spells the user knows, as well as Legendary Enchantments discoverable through Heroic Dungeon rewards and Raid bounties. Objects of rarer categories cannot be enchanted.

That did explain why John's Runeforging ability had disappeared too - apparently it was now under this new "Enchanting" umbrella. John finally bit the bullet and tapped on the skill upgrade, adding Runecrafting back to his arsenal. He didn't feel any different, but the skill lit up.

"Evellyn, I'm going to make my first enchanted object. I'm gonna need some help on this one."

"Of course, Master Newman. You may activate the ability the same way you do your other skills. What are you trying to enchant?"

"I want to make a stone that can transport people between this world and mine - and I don't want them to share a cooldown. Just wanna make sure I understand these new guidelines. But I don’t have any items of a Rare quality… what’s the best I can do with a Common item, Evellyn? How many charges, and what do I have to do?" The idea was not only good for Tricia, but John. Even though the ability now only had an hour cooldown, he could always use a reliable way to make quick trips between the worlds, if he chose to make more than one of the objects.

"The only thing you would be able to do with the items currently available in your inventory and chest would be to create an ability with a limited number of charges. For an ability of this power, Common objects should be capable of storing a single charge. Uncommon or better will be able to hold at least two, as long as they have no other enchantments. Either way, you would simply use the ability like normal, it would go on cooldown, and the charge would be stored in the object until activated by your choice of method."

"No good," John grimaced. "I need something that I don't have to charge up every time - so by the ability’s description, I need a Rare item."

"For that you'll need a Rare object and something capable of storing mana - either the object itself or something added to it. The person would then be responsible for charging and maintaining it themselves, for when they wished to use it."

"Sounds pretty good… but I haven't found a Rare item my entire time crawling dungeons. It wasn't until the loot from the war I ever got anything rarer than common. I'm not starting a war for this. That's why I need you. What do I need to farm to get this going?"

"Myaaaster," Maera said petulantly, reaching up and very intentionally poking John's cheek with a pointed claw, not quite hard enough to cause pain, "Maera getting sooo boooorrreeed down here! Pet Maera!"

John chuckled without breaking eye contact with Evellyn, rubbing his hand through the ivory hair of his demanding Neko, teasing her scalp and gently tugging at her locks. She cooed and practically melted into his lap, immediately forgetting her annoyance with the long conversation.

"Fortunately, I have something that will satisfy both of your needs in this case," Evellyn said, almost proudly. "If you choose a dungeon of at least level thirteen, there are Arcane Golems which have a crafting material they drop as their rare drop - Enchanted Pebbles. They're rocks naturally infused with mana, which occur in the old world as well, though very rarely, usually on the sites of ancient Abyssal battlegrounds as the mana seeps into the sediment. It is likely that the blade you now wield was forged from ore found in the same circumstances. If you combine twenty-five of them, you should be able to create an Auric Sphere. It's a perfectly round, white orb which is capable of storing enough mana for use of this particular spell. Since you do not require any specific functions other than the enchantment, the rock itself will suffice."

"And that's where you come in, Maera. We haven't done a whole lot of training together lately… you feel up to some playtime?"

"Yay!" Maera cheered, half-whispering as she fervently pressed her scalp further against John's palm.

John was grateful for her eagerness. Both to take their minds off of the rest of the day's events and because he was going to need everyone. He knew the enchantment would need materials, but he hadn't been anticipating so many strict requirements. Level 13 enemies, rare drops, and needing twenty-five of them… that was a lot of dungeons he was going to have to grind, especially if the emphasis was on "rare" drops. But he'd do it. He needed to train anyway, at least now he had a proper goal.

"We'll get started on that first thing in the morning then!" John said, smirking at his Neko. She nodded absently, struggling to pull herself away from the pleasant attention. Tomorrow was plenty of time - today had been long enough, and he could think all night about where to put the rest of his new Skill and Talent Points.

"Mmmm… okay, Myaster. Maera go cuddle with Mithra and kittens?"

"Of course," John said, then thought better of it. "Actually, let's both go. I should really spend some more time with them."

Maera nodded furiously, and Evellyn offered only one slow bow before dismissing herself. John grabbed onto Maera's hand and held it tight as the Neko dragged him away, mewling and giggling furiously as she headed toward their bedroom, eager to greet her new nieces and nephews.

The sun had long since set and the waning moon was cresting the horizon when John finally slunk his way into his own room, sliding in with relief at finally seeing his own bed. He was starting to feel sort of tired, but although Gamer's Body kept the worst at bay, it was really the quiet and the alone time that he treasured most.

Well, not quite alone.

"Finally come to see me, 'ave ya? Can't say I blame ya, the lil' buggers are cute, aren't they? Mithra 'ad to about yank one away from me when they were ready for a nosh," Seras said, lying on her back and staring at John.

"We need to get a light in here," John replied with a smile, "and to find you a hobby. Can't have you just sitting in the dark waiting for me."

"Nah, that's alrigh'. I didn't get 'ere that long ago, I went outside to practice some of the stuff Etriyya taught me. Figured you wanted some alone time with the new mum, but didn't really have anyone else to 'ang out with after I left. Not gonna lie, the 'ole vampire thing is kind of a double-edged sword. Upside, pretty forever. Downside, don't 'ave to sleep but everyone else around 'ere still does."

"Well, unfortunately no luck with the new skill system managing to fix me needing to sleep, yet," John said, sliding into bed and leaning over to plant a firmly insistent kiss on Seras' lips. "On the other hand, you didn't need vampirism to be pretty forever."

"Don't you dare tell me you'd be sayin' that when I'm eighty and look like the bloody Queen," Seras taunted, turning onto her side and wiggling back until she was pressed firmly against John.

"I figured after you hit forty-five I'd just Purify you to youth again, once I figure out how the damn thing works."

"Don't you dare be denyin' me too much of my MILF stage. I might not be able to 'ave kids like this, but if I do start agin’ somehow, damn if I'm not gonna be the sexiest step-mom on the block," Seras growled, turning her head and locking John into a more passionate kiss than the one he'd dared. John returned it with intensity, but a lingering feeling kept him from getting too excited about the passion.

"Alright, alright, we'll settle for the vampiric eternal youth," John agreed teasingly, wrapping an arm around Seras' waist and pulling her into him.

"Don't be tryin' to replace me with some younger vampire either, even a few centuries from now," Seras growled, reaching behind her to tousle John's hair playfully.

"Sure you won't have replaced me by then?"

John didn't even realize he was asking the question until it had come out. A few days ago - a few hours ago - it would have been far more innocent, but despite his playful tone, a silence fell over the already quiet bedroom.

"No, I wouldn't," Seras said all too seriously. "I know you got 'urt by what 'appened, but don't let that confuse you. What you 'ave with me, with Sophia, an' with the cats is different. We love you. I love you. I always will."

"I know, I know, it was… sorry, just kind of slipped out. Didn't even mean anything by it."

"You don' 'ave to. You've worried about way too much today, from the sound of things. I still wanna know what that sword of yours does, but… for right now, don't worry about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about anythin'. Just enjoy this moment. Remember it forevah, when you're down an' out. Think about me and when we'll be back together."

"I always do," John whispered, nuzzling his head further into Seras' hair, running his hand along her side as he snuggled closer to her. She was room temperature, her body not quite cold but not warm. It was a sensation that still caught him off guard, even after so many nights embracing her. John reveled in it, and the feeling of her soft but muscular form melding into his own, feeling her slowly warm to his touch.

"Thank you for being there for me… always."

"Of course. I wanna share the rest of my eternal life with you… Mastah."

John's smile stayed even as he let sleep overcome him, as his body gave in to escapism and retreated to the land of dreams. But before he faded away entirely…

"I love you too, Seras. And I always will."