An introduction

The walk from the coffee shop to the old church was a pleasant one. John and Matilda moved at a gentle pace, talking about nothing in particular as they meandered through the streets of Springfield. “So we’re going to see the temple and meet your friends nearby - which one are we doing first?” the brunette asked as they turned a corner and the church came into view.

John shrugged. “We should probably say hello first? Then we don’t have to keep carrying around this bag of vegetables you brought?”

Matilda leaned into him, smiling. “You could have just ducked into an alley and put it in your magic space if it’s that hard to manage. Besides, it’s only a handful of things - you need to see my garden now; I’ve been practicing with that book you gave me and everything’s going wild!”

Despite the weight of the bag being far more than just a handful’s worth, John didn’t mind. His free hand snaked behind his girlfriend, pulling her into his side as they arrived at the gate to the church grounds and stepped through. It was late in the day, and nobody was about so he steered them to a spot where there was little chance of them being spotted from the road, handed the bag over to Matilda, squeezed her hand, and dropped them into the Barrier.

Matilda’s gasp at the transition made John look around for a moment in concern, before he relaxed. “Sorry,” she said, craning her head back to look at the change to the building in front of them, “I was expecting it but even so it was sudden. So, where are your friends? And I assume we can stop talking in code and whispers to hide things now?”

John nodded, leading her towards the entrance to the church. “They’ll be inside. And yes, while we’re in a Barrier, the only people we’d run into are also Abyssal - or they’ve fallen into it by accident like you did. Either way, as far as I know, it’s safe to talk about all that stuff without being careful.”

Stepping inside, John paused. Firstly, to let Matilda take in the sight of the pictsies’ home, the scaffolding structure filling the inside of the church. And secondly, because of the other woman standing talking with Not-So-Wee Jimmy.

While John had been dealing with the aftermath of the weekend, Flyx’s week meanwhile had been filled with work keeping the goblin very busy. Hours spent mixing up potions, travelling and dropping her creations off at Felicity’s shop (as well as the time she’d taken before stepping into the store to psyche herself up to ensure she only sold potions rather than bought any products from the range of lingerie on offer) had all added up. As such, it wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that she’d finally made her way to the church Barrier.

Not-So-Wee Jimmy had been delighted to see her; the trade with the pictsies had been exactly what she expected, all about maintaining good relations rather than making any real profit. Then, with business concluded, she’d just been in the process of asking him about the wood being harvested in the park when she heard footsteps behind her.

Turning, she froze. There was the human that had rescued her the previous week… what had his name been? Oh, right, John. John was there, leading an excited looking brunette whose curves did a whole lot to remind Flyx of just how attractive women could be into the pictsies’ home.

Not-So-Wee Jimmy glanced between Flyx, John and Matilda and sighed. “Alright, laddie, pleasure to see ye again. Yon shrine’s been grand. Do ye ken the wee lassie here? Flyx, have ye met the laddie afore?”

Jimmy’s words jolted John out of his surprised state. “Uhh… yea, I ken… I mean, we’ve met before. Flyx, right?” Then, turning to Matilda, he explained, “She was the goblin I told you about, the one that I fought those dryadrone things with.”

Matilda glanced from John to goblin and back again, then frowned. “You didn’t mention she was cute, John… and the gentleman talking to her I presume is the person you wanted me to meet, given you seem surprised to see Flyx here?” Then, stepping forward, she offered the shorter woman her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Flyx. I’m Matilda - John’s girlfriend.”

John watched as the greenskinned woman smiled and took the offered hand. As she did so, two things happened at once - the first was that Flyx returned Matilda’s greeting. “Likewise a pleasure, Matilda. I should have known he had a girlfriend, the good ones always do!” Despite the goblin’s cheery tone, the two women locked eyes and held the handshake a moment longer than was needed - which gave John time to process the second thing: a glowing box appearing in front of his face and distracting him utterly from introducing Matilda to Not-So-Wee Jimmy.

Opening his Status before he could second guess himself, he blinked - his experience had jumped to 14/1000, and there were more Stat points to distribute. Checking his Quests, the one responsible for pushing him over was obvious - Ladies and Gentleman was now tracking the number of potential harem candidates he’d introduced to Matilda as one.

He knew after his discussion with Malal that the goblin woman had wanted to thank him in a more physical manner at their last encounter, but this wasn’t what he’d expected to happen when he brought Matilda to meet the pictsies. Stepping forward, he hastily pulled a couple of containers of leftover curry he’d swiped that morning from his Inventory, adding them to the bag of produce Matilda had brought before and setting the food down in front of Not-So-Wee Jimmy. Sorting out the harem Quest with the ladies was going to take a lot longer, and he didn’t particularly want to have that discussion in front of the grinning old pictsie.

“These are for you and your kin - Matilda grew the fresh stuff, and we had way too much dinner left over last night so I thought I’d see if you wanted any before it went to waste,” John explained, trying not to think too hard about the two women who were still sizing each other up.

Not-So-Wee Jimmy winked at him. “Yon wee lassie had something she wanted tae ask me about the park barrier, but I feel ye may have the knowin’ better than I dae. Leave yer offerin’ there, I’ll get the kin to put it tae good use while ye go tae speak with yer other friends.” There was a teasing note to the old pictsie’s tone, and John winced before nodding and turning back to the women.

“Matilda…” he began, causing his girlfriend to look up as he gestured to the arch leading outside. “Could we talk for a moment? Sorry, Flyx - I just need a brief word with her alone about something private, then we can have a proper chat.”

Leading Matilda outside, John glanced back towards the curious looking goblin before turning to his girlfriend and sighing. “Matilda, do you remember I told you yesterday that I had a Quest I wanted to talk to you about?”

Matilda nodded. “Yea. Did you complete it already or…?”

John groaned and shook his head. “No, not quite. But it gives experience for partial completion apparently because I just leveled up. As to what the Quest is about, it’s… well, it’s to do with what we discussed before. About how I seem to be getting pushed into forming a harem.” At his words, Matilda frowned, but he plowed on. “Basically, it offers me a little xp if I introduce you to a potential, umm… candidate. And it completes when one of them ‘joins us’, which I assume would mean…” He could feel his ears turning red as he spoke.

The brunette wrinkled her nose for a moment, then glanced from John back to where Flyx had resumed her conversation with Not-So-Wee Jimmy. “Oh. Ohhh… So given the timing I assume you mean…?” John nodded, resting his face in his hands.

“I genuinely didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t even think I’d meet her again, and even if we did, I didn’t think the Quest would give me anything for it,” he groaned, before looking up as Matilda giggled. “What?”

Resting her hand on her hip and leaning forward so that his attention was rather divided between her words and the way she was filling out her top, his girlfriend shook her head and sighed. “I’ve told you before, John, I don’t mind if we share. And she is cute, and Gaia seems to think she’s compatible with us or you wouldn’t have gotten that xp…” Then Matilda frowned, straightening up. “Of course, if you wanted to farm xp we probably shouldn’t make a move on the first woman that comes along. Not to mention we barely know her. But… it wouldn’t hurt to test the waters, I guess? See how accurate this Quest really is?”

Sighing, John nodded. “Alright. Let’s call her over and explain things… well, some things, I guess? Like, I don’t know if I want to tell her all about my Quests and xp and everything right away.” Turning, he beckoned to Flyx, waiting for her to join them on the grass outside the church before he tried to get the point across.

Flyx blinked as John finished a hazy explanation hinting at the fact that he had an ability that made him think she would be compatible with him and Matilda, and then shook her head. “Oh no. I totally believe you that you can tell we might be compatible, but no. Sorry, I might be the most sex-deprived, desperate goblin in existence, but I am not fucking a couple unless I know them better than just ‘saved me from dying’ and ‘hot tall lady’. Well, that or I get really drunk first. I mean, if it was either of you individually propositioning me, my underwear would already be on the floor, but couples are complicated!” Then she blushed and looked at her feet, mumbling, “I wouldn’t mind making the time to get to know you better though, if you don’t mind waiting…”

John didn’t know how to react to that, but fortunately Matilda did. With an almost musical laugh she patted the goblin woman on the shoulder. “I have to admit, despite his ability, I’d also like to get to know you better myself before we think about all jumping into bed, cute as you are. Though… you think I’m tall and hot, huh?”