A secret side of his mother.

John suddenly understood; he remembered now where he had smelled this before. The small, nondescript bag she had held against her, behind her purse (probably so that he wouldn't see it), was confirming his suspicions.

He didn't know if it was all she did today or just the last thing before coming home, but she had visited Felicity's and was apparently one of the select members that had access to the backrooms. It raised a lot of questions: Was the store owner aware of their relationship (both familial and sexual) and did she tell his mom he had been there? Maybe it was because she had recognized him as her son that she offered him access to the place? She was definitely a magic user, and there was little doubt that she knew he was one, had she told his mother about this too? Was he just becoming paranoid?

The spiderweb pattern of connections between everything and everyone around him was becoming confusing, as were the lies and exactly what each person knew or thought they knew about him. Why couldn't he just have been able to date Anna without all of this?

No! As fun as his relationship was (alright it barely started, there was room for improvement), getting this powers gave him a life he dreamed about (and exceeded his wildest dreams).

As he looked into the freezer to pick up a container full of leftover meat in gravy, John wondered if the bag that she had wanted to hide contained just sexy underwear or sextoys too. He got some water to boil, preparing to cook some rice to go with the meat. He wasn't much of a cook, but reheating something and cooking rice was in his range of skill.

New skill: Cooking lvl 1 passive.
You can now prepare simple dishes and cook simple stuff provided you have the correct tools.
Food you cook yourself regenerates more hp and gives a better bonus to hp and mp regen (+10%).
Some enemies now have 20% chance of dropping some sort of food on top of other loot (enemy must possess an inventory or be edible).

John was surprised that he hadn't got more skills like that yet and then remembered how much of a slacker he was about doing chores around the house. Maybe if he tried doing actual yard work, he would get some gardening skill to help improve his kingdom? Well, Sylvia would take care of this actually. John hoped she wouldn't worry too much, being alone there, time flew 20% faster in his place than in the real world. He'd have to find her things to do to keep her entertained when he wouldn't be there.

Once the meat stopped being a solid block, he put it in a pan to finish thawing and heating, then he got plates out and began setting the table. It was nearly done (the gravy wasn't hot enough yet, but the rice was already cooked and drained in a strainer.) when his mom arrived in the kitchen, finishing to dry her long hair with a towel and as usual these days showing off her perfect body. It was in moments like these where John realized the boon that was the no-boner Stat of his armored underwear (and where he regretted not wearing them right now).

Not getting erect in such a situation was something requiring a lot more willpower than John ever had. And probably ever would get, with his high libido, but he knew from who he had inherited it.

John knew his mother loved his dad a lot, and with his frequent absences, her needs must have been a serious issue. He guessed that she probably used quite a numbers of sex toys, and maybe it was that way that she had been introduced to Felicity's backroom. But the fact that she loved women too was a total surprise. It probably felt less like cheating on Dad that way to her.

"John? You did all that? You're becoming the real man of the house. The girl that will get you as a husband will be really lucky. You're growing to be a beautiful young man, a quick learner, with a lot of talents and great attributes..." she remarked, and at the end, her eyes darted to the huge tent that he had in his boxers. "Those are looking really tight, maybe you should remove them. With your recent growth spurt, we wouldn't want small underwear cutting your blood flow in such an important place."

"Oh, it's just that they feel tighter when you are around. And it's nothing, I just heated up some leftovers from the freezer and made some rice to go with it," he explained.

"You say the sweetest things. I hope your girl realizes what a compliment this is and does not react like a stupid girl in front of it. Let me help you!" she replied, got down in front of him to remove his boxers, getting her face very close to his naked erect cock, and even brushed it softly against her cheek. "There! Aren't you more comfortable now? It was very nice of you to prepare dinner while I was in the shower, no matter how simple it was. I like to see that I raised a boy that can take initiative and think of others."

John heard what was implied in what she said. His bout with Sylvia would have drained a normal human, but he was ready to go, as always. He put his arm around her, touching her ass as he did so, and led her to the table. "Let's eat, it should be hot enough now. Sit down and let me serve you."

She sat down on the chair facing his own at the dinner table. He served her a plate of rice with a generous portion of meat and gravy, bringing it to her before going back to serve himself. She was barely looking at the food, seemingly more interested in another juicy morsel.

"Did it go alright? The thing you had to do today," he asked her after sitting down. He couldn't reveal that he knew where she had been without telling her things he would rather keep for himself.

"Oh yes, perfectly. An old friend called me, she needed my help for something. I was really happy to see her again, and once it was done, we went to eat together and did a little bit of shopping," she explained. John suddenly felt something touching his balls, but his mom had both of her hands on the table holding her fork and knife. He looked down under the table and saw that what was brushing against his cock now was her left foot. It was amazing that she had managed to aim so precisely without seeing anything, but of course, John was sitting where his dad would usually be and she might have had some practice. "How was school?"

"You know, same old, same old. Classes, sports and I barely could see Anna; we don't have classes together on Thursdays except for PE, and she was absent because of her medical appointment. Sport was better than usual; the jocks trained separately, and us normal kids were able to have some fun rather than to be crushed down," he told her, keeping under wrap the fact that he skipped some classes, stole dozens of panties, and tamed a Dryad who he fucked. "I even went running after class; getting some exercise isn't that bad after all."

"It is showing. I'm really glad you took your destiny into your hands and tried to improve your life. I was afraid that you would just keep staying in your room all day and night playing video games; it can be a fun activity, but you should learn moderation," she complimented him.

They finished their meal, chatting about things of little importance, and then his mother surprised him.

"I'm really tired after running around all day, so I will go to bed early. Have a good night, John, and don't stay up too late," she told him, kissing him on the forehead like she did before all of this had started. From the way she acted, John was sure she would try something after eating, but she was retreating to her bedroom. John followed her upstairs, and when he passed her room to go to his own, he heard her lock the door. His guess about sex toys in the bag was looking even likelier now.

John changed his mind and went back down to the garage. After some searching he found a pair of heavy leather gloves that were used to do yard work and a mask (it was one of those masks that the family had bought during a flu season on advice from the CDC but never actually used because the threat was greatly overestimated, not the best but better than wet underwear). The fact that he had just searched the garage naked was ridiculous, and he wasn't really that used to nudity yet; on top of that, his dick was still hard and refused to go down.

He thought about the cocksleave and the jars of slime; he would have to craft new ammunition having used all bare one in the forest. He wondered if the sap that Sylvia produced would work to feed the slime in the jars. It would really help him try producing tons of the stuff to make items and furniture out of it. He got a few gallon sized plastic bottles that were stored in the garage and a funnel, adding them to his inventory. Those would be better than the buckets which would also be used with dirty stuff like earth or mud.

He ran up to his room and locked the door behind himself, hoping that his mother wouldn't try to get in.

He got the strange, ubiquitous, blue stone out of his inventory to return to his realm, this time with all the night in front of him to improve things and do some experiments or explore.

As soon as he got out of the small stone building, he remarked something different.