The 'God' Of War... Or Gaming...

John didn't bother trying to tuck any of the gifts that the Orcs had given him into his inventory. Even if he had wanted to try to carry all of the supplies and jewelry around with him, he couldn't see a reason for keeping it with him. At most, he would have eventually found the option to make something out of some of it with Craft, but it left him **** for missing out on other valuable items later on. He had a place to store the stuff with his tribe, and if he did need to Craft something later on, then he could just go back to the tribe to do it...

... hopefully.

A lot of things changed for John after Mub 'gifted' him what seemed like control of the tribe, but the biggest change of all came in the form of a pop-up. It gave him more bad news and restricted his abilities, once again, like it always seemed to do just when he was starting to get more and more powerful. All he could do was learn to live with it.

ALERT! Abilities may no longer be discovered, unlocked, or earned while in combat!

However, it wasn't the only pop-up that he received. The changes to his Kingdom Management tab were also immediately shown to him as the screen reappeared in a golden flash and various buttons began blinking brightly in front of him. Most of what John could do in the tab was restricted just to the villages that he had already conquered and mostly involved doing things like ordering the tribe to construct buildings, but there was one option that he saw that he immediately liked. An option that called for the tribe to deliver him a tax. According to the Kingdom Management tab, it had already been activated and there was a timer set in place over the grayed out button, but it was now an option that he could take advantage of...

... once a month.

Finally, the last option that he found available to him in the Kingdom Management tab was the option to enable or order a 'Raid.' He considered trying to use the button for the time being. If there was an area for him to send the Orcs out to attack preemptively, then he could have prepared a beacon for destruction before he ever even showed up to fight it. The only problem with that was that all the villages were too far away from where they were at currently. He would have lost all his warriors or it would have cost him more time than he wanted to spend when working on the smaller villages. Ultimately, it seemed like a bad plan for him to use the feature now, even if it could have possibly earned him Experience without even fighting, and John decided to tuck the idea away for the time being.

He still had other things to deal with. Firstly, he had to deal with the leftover belongings of Rugga and Putt. Both pack members had passed and left John with a giant wooden chest to deal with in the center of his tent, placed next to the pile of gold, silver, and silk that the tribe had just given him, and John had to figure out a way to get into the locked boxes. Compared to the chain that had held Favoris in place, however, the locks were easy. John simply kicked them off with a bit of fire from his Infused Strike and grinned to himself when he managed to swing the boxes open to look inside.

Rugga's box was completely empty, like John expected. Rugga hadn't been an accomplished Orc. What he had done had mostly been with John, and John figured that the Orc's family had taken what little loot he had earned for themselves. They had the first claim to it after all.

Putt's box on the other hand at least had a few things. A pile of pelts, wooden bowls, eating utensils, and **** collars filled most of the large, shoddy, wooden chest, and when John told Dofi that he didn't plan on keeping the dishes that had already been used and had probably never been washed before, she got rid of half of the stuff inside it. The 'Elvish' **** collars were tucked aside as if a use might one day be found for them, but the real prize that he found was the pile of unused pelts. There was enough there to increase the size of his bed, so he ordered it done.

Finally, there was one last thing for him to deal with before he left the Kingdom for the day. A couple of pop-ups for a quest line that he had nearly forgotten about. It was one of the few reasons that John hadn't just outright left the tribe yet, and now that every Orc north of the Burning Pass seemed adamant about following him, he felt certain that he had fulfilled the quest's objective to recruit five members into 'his pack.'

New Quest! Rise to Rule or Ruin: Part 2 of 4.
Your journey continues deeper and deeper into the reality of another world. Safety seems almost tangible now and less like a distant hope. Climb the ladder of leadership and establish not only your oncoming rule but also yourself now.

• Increase the size of your raiding pack. (231/5 Members)

Rewards:

• +1000 Exp
• +5 Stat points

Optional Objective:

• Recruit one of the tribe Elders into your pack.

Reward:

• +500 Exp
• +1 New Ability

TURN IN QUEST?
YES | NO

It was probably one of the most painful quests he had ever gone through just to get stat points, but John was happy to see them after he accepted the rewards. It made his branding scar ache to think about what he had gone through to get it... but it was almost worth it just based on those rewards alone. A pop-up appeared to tell him about his new ability and the next part of his quest.

You have learned the Rememory Ability!

New Skill: Rememory. Level 1, 10 MP.
Rememory: Created by the Gamer after his brief excursions with the illusionist Otrov and the Cabal's attempts at making Mana potions. This ability allows the caster to **** a subject to relive the events of a specific memory all over again. The effects of the spell lasts for a number of seconds equal to the spell's current level and varies in strength based upon this too. This spell has no range. This spell is a touch spell.
Requires the caster to know of the target memory.
Requires the caster to touch the target to cast the spell.

New Quest! Rise to Rule or Ruin: Part 3 of 4.
Your journey has led you onto solid footing with a society outside the one you know. You've become not only a prominent member of the world around you now but also a trusted one. Now you must ascend to the top of the leader's ladder and let this new world know what it is that you've come to do.

• Take the place of an Elder and become one of the Tribe's newest leaders.

Rewards:

• +1000 EXP
• +5 Stat points
• +1 Charisma

TURN IN QUEST?
YES | NO

John barely even noticed the statement at the end of the quest when it asked him to turn it in. There was no accepting the quest, there was no great flash of golden light to tell him that he was about to embark on another painful journey just to get Gaming stuff...

...For once, he just got the reward for a quest that he had completed before he even knew he had it.

Begin your journey towards Dornwich or Bulgebottom to begin the next part of the quest!

It was enough to make him breathe out a soft sigh while Urga and Dofi sifted through the piles of loot that he now had. He watched them for a moment and took the time to explain that he had to leave again for a little while, but they were both so adjusted to him disappearing and reappearing at that point that the information didn't surprise either of them. He sighed again and shrugged, pulling up his Kingdom tab to use the Enter/Exit button, and then with a soft press, he vanished into thin air again.

The sun was already out by the time that John returned to Robyn's house. The early morning blue sky almost blinded him as he switched from dusk to immediate daylight, and then he groaned and began coughing into his hands as the air changed around him. John had gone back and forth between the Kingdom and regular world so many times by that point that he barely noticed it anymore when the air changed on him, but after it surprised him one more time, John found himself wondering why the atmosphere in his Kingdom made him feel slightly giddy.

It was almost like he had t-

"Are you ready to go?" Robyn interrupted his thoughts before John had time to fully compose himself and try to approach her front door. She stepped out from the open gap in the garage, twirling her keys around a robotic finger while Mary followed her out of the house. The cheerleader stopped as soon as she saw John again and stared at him with a furrowed brow. She wasn't shy, embarrassed, or afraid like she had been the other day. At least... not while they weren't standing right next to one another. Whatever she had heard the previous day when Robyn and John had been talking right in front of her had given her something else to think about, and the way that she bit at her upper lip told John that she was probably looking for a good moment to ask him about it.

That good moment was not now.

"Where are you going?" he asked Mary. Robyn followed his gaze back to the cheerleader and flicked her keys up to catch them with the other hand. Both women were still dressed in the outfits that he was used to seeing them in. Robyn still had her long, brown, fur-lined coat, cargo pants, and makeshift bra formed out of tightly bound straps of cloth... and Mary was wearing her cheerleading uniform. The uniform was repaired now, stitched back together probably by his mother's own hand, and looked new and clean again. Her indecently short red, black, and white skirt barely hung low enough to cover the curve of her firm, perky butt once more and her sleeveless top squeezed her tiny tits together in a bundle of cloth that was meant to only cover up her breasts. Her shoulders, her arms, her slender stomach, and her toned legs were all left completely bare... until she put on the red jacket that he had given her and pulled it tight to her form.

"She wants to go back to school," Robyn spoke up for the Latina woman. Mary didn't even bother trying to speak for herself, she just brushed a lock of her wavy black hair over one ear and smoothed it out into her dyed-blonde highlights. Apparently, Robyn already knew the answer and they were both more than comfortable to let the veteran talk in her place. "Are you coming or not? I thought you wanted to just get paid," she snapped at him and crawled into the driver seat of her car, all while John and Mary continued to stare at one another.

Eventually, John took a step towards the vehicle and Mary rushed forwards. She slammed the door shut before John could pull it open completely and held it there, staring through the window while John blinked at her. After a couple of seconds passed, Mary swallowed heavily and her cheeks began to redden. Her brow squeezed into a tight knit as she looked back and forth from her own reflection to his... and then she turned to face him.

"I-I don't know what it was that you two were talking about yesterday... but-but I-" Mary didn't get to finish her sentence before John interrupted her. He tried to interject, to tell her that it was just about some stupid video game, and that the fight got out of hand, but she stopped him before he could finish writing the conversation off as something else. "N-No! Let me finish!" she snapped at him, and the two of them froze and looked at one another in silence. He considered talking to her some more... or even just walking away from what could undoubtedly be a bad conversation, but... he stayed. He listened... even if he didn't know why.

"I don't know what happened yesterday, but..." she paused on the emphasized word and looked down at John's chest. His chest must have seemed bigger than she remembered because she stared at him longer than he thought she would. "... I don't care. I don't care about what happened, or what you may or may not have done. I just-"

"No. I-I didn't do anythi-" John started... and was promptly stopped when Mary stuck a hand up and covered his mouth with it. She gave him a look, curt and clear with its meaning, so he stopped talking.

"I-I just-" she paused and let her hand fall away from his mouth. "You helped m-" She stopped again and again, stammering out the start of sentence after sentence, like she couldn't decide on what the right thing to say was. She changed her mind almost a dozen times and left John standing there with a building sense of confusion and unease. It felt like she might have been trying to thank him again for helping her the previous day and then let him off the hook so she could try to separate from him and the event entirely, but he didn't get a word in edgewise to try and excuse her from the conversation. He could only imagine how worried she must have been after hearing him claim that he had killed someone right in front of her.

If he had been the one in her shoes, he would have been looking for a place to hide. There wasn't any doubt about that, he had tried to hide like that from Vanessa and Frank and even Mary hundreds of times.

It never worked for him in the past.

"Listen, alright? Whatever you did, you did the right thing." That stopped John's thought process completely. He blinked and stared down at Mary as she clenched her hands into fists and hugged them to her sides.

"You don't even kno-" he started and watched as Mary quickly shook her head before he could speak up again.

"I don't care," she snapped again, and something in John's gut twisted... or loosened, he couldn't tell. He started breathing heavily while Mary swallowed and blinked a wetness out of her eyes. "You did the right thing for me yesterday, and you didn't even have to. After everything that I did to you and everything that Frank and Vanessa have done to you, you could have just walked away. So if what you did is anything like what happened yesterday, then I don't care.

"You did the right thing," she told him, and this time, John swallowed heavily. She stared straight at him as she spoke, trying convey the power behind her words... and John froze underneath her gaze. She was trying to reassure him.

Mary Davis-Lorenzo was trying to help him. He didn't have anything to say to her.

Long, silent minutes passed with the two of them standing there; Mary shifted awkwardly under his gaze all the while. Robyn stared at them from inside the car, annoyed, but for once she didn't rush them. She just left them to sit in the awkward silence.

"I..." The words died off before he ever had the chance to utter them. Surely, she wouldn't feel the same way if she knew what he had done. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to tell her. Not only was it dangerous... but it could have changed the optimistic way that she was thinking about him now. Eventually, he gave up on trying to think of something to say back and just leaned against the car.

He knew that he did the right thing. Robyn had told him as much. Mub had told him the same. Hell, he had even reassured himself of the fact... Michel had been about to kill him if John hadn't defended himself... but the fact still remained that he had killed his best friend. Michel was gone, and he had been the one to get rid of him.

"I..." John repeated himself, like he was some kind of broken record. It felt like she hadn't done anything to change his mind or absolve him of guilt or worry... but she had managed to stun him with the inexplicable amount of care and reassurance. Of all the people that he thought he would be able to talk to about this, she was probably one of the ones that he expected the least. "I..."

"Are you okay?" she asked, and John looked up at the cheerleader. He realized it only a second later and hated the thought, but... he wasn't able to talk to her about it. Even if it felt like he was already trying to communicate with her, he was still keeping it a secret.

"Yea-I-" he stumbled through half a dozen different instinctive answers, things he could have given her just to finish the topic and move on. He was supposed to leave it alone. Actually talking to her about the fight was reckless and stupid. It was... unwise... but the second he thought that it was a conversation that he wanted to have, he practically jumped at the chance. "No," he didn't interrupt himself or stammer off into a lie when he finally and truly answered her.

He just gave her a real answer for once... so she stepped up and hugged him for it.