Trials and tribulations

Despite his shortcomings when it came to shopping and meal planning, John had managed to cook some perfectly edible if simple breakfast. The news of the folk’s official ascension to full personhood was welcomed with glee by Anna and a lot of pride by Tricia.

While talking about various things with the two girls, John sent a text message to Anna, telling her that he needed to talk to her in private.

"Tricia, I need to show John something in my office; can you wait for us while you finish your breakfast?" said Anna.

"Sure thing. I might take a look at the library if it isn't an issue," she replied.

"No worries, it shouldn't take very long," added John. He looked at the three plates on the table. While he admittedly went a bit overkill on the portions, the eggs were not really a success. Anna had barely eaten half of them and Tricia had been toying with them using her fork for a few minutes already. He wasn't an expert at this cooking thing. His absence would probably provide an excellent excuse for Tricia to clear the table.

The couple went upstairs to the office, and Anna sat on her official chair and motioned John to the one on the other side of the desk. He sat down, but not before retrieving a new ring from the Altar and putting both unassigned ones on the desk.

"I have good and less good news."

"Do I want to have the less good news first?"

"Well, it would usually be the thing to do… But it really would be hard to get as the good news is the reason for the less good news. The good news is that with the arrival of Stella here we have an extra ring to distribute and that with Algernon's folk becoming subjects we have another one and that when Sylvia comes back with her sisters/daughters we'll have yet another extra one."

"That's an awesome thing, what's the problem with it? I would think that 3 new ones would solve issues, not create some."

"Well I did too. And I almost did something that would make me a bad boyfriend."

"It wasn't to give one to Stella and make her one of your concubines?"

"No! Nothing like that! I… thought of a good way to assign the rings and while going through it, well… I almost gave one away without even asking you."

"I'll be honest, I understand why you could have went through with it while being excited, but you were right to think that I would have been pissed. How were you going to split the rings?"

"With Stella and the folk we went over the threshold for two extra rings and with Sylvia's sisters it will be three. I think we should embrace feudalism of a sort and grant one each to Sylvia and Algernon as well as an official nobility title as rulers of their people in our kingdom."

"I get why you were so convinced that it was the right solution. I guess it was Algernon's ring that you almost gave away? I fully approve of this. But Sylvia is not back yet and we have an extra ring, who is it for? Mousy scientist or busty artist?"

"Tricia. June, well… I'd really like for her to have one maybe one day, but she seems to be getting along very well with my mom, which gives her an easy way in. Crafting items with spell levels is possible and it's something I'd like to look into. Tricia, well. She is a nice girl and a great ally for us. She saved me and Sylvia before, and now Algernon. She is well connected and knowledgeable in the Abyss and less opinionated or restrictive than my few other sources of Intel."

"And you want her help to boost the productivity of the lab."

"And the whole analysis and exploration of the kingdom to find even more sources of income. Besides, she looks like someone who just found the first place and people she's ever been happy around."

"And it has nothing to do with your desire to savagely ravage her in bed at the drop of a hat?"

"It would be in the best interest of the kingdom to facilitate the access and availability of her services."

"So this is what we call it now?"

At this point, she couldn't refrain from bursting into laughter. It was really clear that both of them were in agreement and that she was just having fun ribbing him. With the ambiance getting lighter, they put themselves to work. There were some things to prepare.

Thump

John felt a sharp pain in his jaw as the heel that violently connected to it was already away and its owner getting ready to strike again. Already, a ray of green light was shining on his face to heal the damage done and restore his Hp.

Slam

The fist had connected with his ribcage with nearly enough **** to crack some bones. John's mind had trouble focusing on the fight and this fraction of a second of delay in his reaction was getting him beaten black and blue. He had just held a great ceremony, gathering pretty much everyone available, his mother even came to attend (access to the kingdom and the extra time to take naps there has messed with her sleep pattern and she was awake despite the early hour). All the girls had played dress up, trying on some of the clothes they had him buy in New York. He had to use his crafting powers to adjust the size and make them fit whoever wanted them. In the throne room, he officially granted a ring to Tricia as well as the titles of Royal Philosopher and Court Physician.

Thud

He had just successfully dodged the round kick to his head, but it was a feint, and as his opponent finished rotating, he was bashed behind the skull by an elbow. The cheers he could hear weren't helping. Algernon the Underduke, Lord Mayor of Underdeep, as were his titles after receiving his ring, was watching the fight with attention, as were his warriors gathered around him. The ceremony for him was full of emotion as the ratfolk patriarch was bursting with pride of having his king put so much trust into him.

Swoosh

This one missed, but his strike back was parried too. It had been his idea, but he had not envisioned it that way. After the ceremony was over and some drinks and light snacks consumed, Kim had arrived for his training session. While impressed by his new armor, she insisted that they should first train without it so that he could learn some moves he could use in any setting before getting too used to fight assisted by the armor.

Blam

Not content merely avoiding his punch, she just grabbed his arm and sent him flying above her, slamming him on the ground. As he got up he wiped some of the dirt from his body. Anna, Tricia and his mother were sitting on some lounge chairs, wearing some bikinis (most likely provided by June) that managed to make them even more alluring and lust inducing than if they had been naked, naked like he was currently. Stella and Vesta were sitting on the ground, wearing light summer clothes. Cali had went back to the glade, bringing Daphne with her. Once discussion of the modalities of this sparring match had begun, Tricia immediately proposed that she heal both fighters going along, so that each could fight seriously without having to stop too often. At some point it had been proposed that since John wouldn't wear armor or use weapons, he wouldn't actually need anything and that it would make seeing where he was hurt or healing him a lot easier if he was actually just fighting naked. Kim was only wearing a sports bra and a pair of skin tight gym shorts. He had protested it for a little bit but was put in a minority of him versus everyone else who bothered to give an opinion. He was also not allowed to use any form of magic or skill that wasn't based on physical combat. According to Kim, mastering combat this way was important because he could find himself in situations where his powers wouldn't work. It sent shivers down his spine as he recalled how helpless he had felt when **** by Mrs Wentworth.

"You're slow, Newman, you have to focus. Get your mind into the fight. Don't let the rest distract you," said Kim as he was getting ready to continue fighting.

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one standing there with your dick swinging around and getting ogled by a bunch of girls in sexy clothes, getting beaten while people cheer," he pointed out.

"That's exactly the point. It is really distracting. If you can fight like this, you'll be able to fight in nearly every situation."

After more than an hour of this treatment and John managing to land a few serious hits, he was finally allowed to wear his armor. By then Kim had turned the fight more into a lesson, explaining how many of the moves worked or why John failed to parry or dodge them. The ratfolk had formed pairs or small groups and were either performing some of the displayed moves or engaging in sparring matches.

As soon as his helmet sealed itself, John felt like a different person. It somehow felt like the armor knew what he was about to do, truly like an extension of his body, one that made him stronger and faster. The display on his helmet was highlighting incoming attacks or weak spots in a way that seemed to mix what the technology was programmed to do and what his powers usually showed him.

This time it wasn't an absolute reversal. Kim's years of training and martial arts skills were still showing, but he no longer was just beaten around like a training bag. He noticed that she had more and more to use her powers to avoid getting hit or grabbed and that him managing to hit was no longer an oddity or a luck based thing.

Tricia had imposed a few breaks so both fighters could rehydrate and rest a bit. She even proposed to demonstrate some relaxing massages on John while Anna did the same on Kim (to learn how it is done). While really good this had to be cut short, or what would have followed would have put an end to any training.

John had taken the breaks as chances to try a few things, and while meditating to regain some mana, he unlocked something. Not a new skill, technically, but an option. For a small fraction of their mana cost, he could now use a training version of most of his offensive spells, one that only displayed visual effects and barely a small tap of ****, just enough to know if it hit or not, but without inflicting any damage. During the next few bouts of sparring, he was now able to combine his fighting with his magic, getting a fair feeling whether he would have time to activate or chain his skills in a real fighting situation. Knowing how good his armor was by now, Kim had started to use her powers a lot more and to hold her punches less and less.

The result of this training showed John how little he had trained before. His Kriegskraft skill had went up from lvl 8 to lvl 11 in the 4 hours of training, both through the fighting itself but also from Kim teaching him so much about his mistakes. Without going full speed they even trained an hour with training swords and daggers.

Suddenly John received a message and immediately jumped out of the training area. He called an end to the fight.

"Kim, Tricia, get to the quad and follow me! Something happened, Cali is under attack!" he shouted, switching his training weapons for his real one. He then turned back and started sprinting in the grassy plains in the direction of the forest. "Algernon, get your people to your village and prepare to defend. Everyone else, get inside and ready to leave if needed. I'll keep you updated."

He was using Parkour following the quickest path to travel the uneven ground and patchy vegetation, his boots and suit granting him far more speed than he could attain on himself. He was focused. His mini map was displayed on his helmet showing him the location of each of the rings he had distributed. His stride wasn't that of a runner, not simply built for movement in a straight line, right now he was a hunter, a predator, half running half leaping forward in a fashion that would have him fall repeatedly if it wasn't for all the magic enhancements from his skills and equipment. He could hear behind him the sound of the motor getting closer, and with it reinforcement.

He finally reached Cali. She was trying to retreat while fighting some scarabs. Half a dozen of them, the size of large dogs and with bright red shells, were trying to reach her, climbing over twice as many cadavers. Cali was bruised all over and covered in a lot of a strange purple goo, but she didn't seem to be cut.

"Cali, behind me!" he shouted as he rushed to get ahead. Without a word, Kim stopped the quad and jumped from it to join the fight, leaving Tricia to take care of the injured elf.

"Be careful, they spit some stuff," warned Cali, loosing a last arrow from her bow, right in the head of one of the beasts.

John saw one of the beasts turn and knew what was about to happen; he jumped to his left, dodging the spray of goo that just shot from the creature's abdomen. The beasts were the strangest thing: they were a lot bigger than the other scarabs in the tunnels and with their color it was impossible to miss them, but while Cali looked really uncomfortable, she didn't look poisoned or as if she was getting attacked by some acid. The mandibles and their legs, normally sharp and pointy, were smooth and bumpy, like cartoon versions of the original. This wasn't a fight, this was a slaughter. Cali had only been pushed back because she was facing nearly 20 of them. With enough arrows she probably could have finished them off by herself. It took no time for Kim and John to slice their way through all of those remaining.

"Get it off me! It itches so much… And it tickles if I scratch myself," screamed Cali as Tricia was using one of her drones to heal her bruises.

"I’ve never seen that, the effects make no sense as a way of attacking or defending yourself. And this fluid seems to be extremely sticky, oily and slick at the same time, which shouldn't be possible…" Tricia pointed out, faced with her first mystery in her cataloging the fauna of the realm.

"I’ve never seen any of those on the surface, and even the ones below were smaller. There's only one explanation that makes sense: the creature that fled into the tunnels modified them and they managed to break out. It could be anywhere now…" said John.

"What creature? I thought that the animals in your kingdom didn't attack people," asked Kim.

"I'll explain it to you on the way back to the castle. Let's gather all of this and get back home. I need to call someone to help us," he said as he began to harvest materials from the corpses around him.