Life in Arcadia.

John listened in delight as Anna described how she had introduced Kim to the joys of masturbation. She had first demonstrated it on herself and then in face of the failed attempts of her pupil she had decided to take the matters into her own hands with Kim directly. With John being her first boyfriend, she had some experience in pleasing herself and Kim's protests quickly turned to pleas for her to continue. As soon as she began to embrace the mindset, the bed began to react to her and soon the two girls had found themselves being toyed with by the kinky mattress. It might have been a bit ****, but dozens of orgasms had finally cleared Kim's mind of the thoughts that had made her search for help. It was pretty evident, even for someone with little interest in sex, that John was intimate with all of the women living here and as the result it was evident that Kim's offer to come train with him had some rather clear ulterior motives.

John and Anna were a bit bummed by the lack of a TV screen in the bedroom when they realized that the whole scene had been captured by John's gallery. Lists of things missing from the castle were created, from cooking appliances to more furniture and including more TV screens and tablets to allow everyone to access the kingdom's interface or some other media from anywhere.

John soon noticed something. Despite the short amount of time someone had already bought all the stock of refined sap he had put on sale, making him instantly 80 grand richer. John invested seven thousand dollars of the sum in buying a bow, quiver and arrows on the site. The archery set was only lightly magical, but of good quality. John gifted it to Cali and the huntress spent the next hours training with it. She was amazed at how practical a weapon it was and was quickly able to shoot with pretty good accuracy.

Anna had begun to gather things to make dinner while John was busy cutting a few resource trees in the forest. Anna had informed Algernon to have his pack on the lookout for resource spots in the tunnels and to inform John if they found any.

Vesta had chosen to got to the lake and train the control of her inner flame. She was able to project fire from her hands by removing the gloves of her suit, but it was a pretty wasteful exercise. She emitted the flames from all of her body, it was just the suit containing them everywhere else.

The plan had emerged to go back to the junkyard the next day. With 4 people rather than just him he would be able to really farm monsters for the first time rather than to walk in very asymmetrical fights were he was pitted against many enemies on his own. He was better equipped and a lot stronger than last time, the Junk rat's sneak attacks wouldn't work on a group and it gave him a pretty balanced party. He was a close and mid range fighter, he would have Sylvia as a healer with a few other tricks in her bag, Cali as an experienced huntress able to snipe targets and Vesta to throw fire waves on large areas, doing Aoe and keeping enemies at bay.

Anna was aware that her presence would be more a risk factor than anything else, but she was glad that her boyfriend wouldn't foolishly run around alone risking his life. She was not a fighter, but she was far from useless. John realized how helpful it would be to have someone to help him improve the place. She took her duties as a queen seriously, trying to hear everyone's advice and requests, and trying to anticipate future problems by looking for solutions in advance.

The rat folk would grow in number as less of them died in the tunnels, moving some of them to the surface to gather food there would be a good solution to avoid having them being **** to live in the tunnels, exposed to danger. Soon after she explained this plan dozens of them were busy digging some burrows around the castle, but also near the glade. Many could be seen gathering twigs, leaves, fruits and vegetables to build their new homes and feed their young. The kingdom produced a lot more of food than the 5 human-like inhabitants could possibly eat.

John had spent his mana summoning his Clone and using Alter Body on random animals. He had gotten Shadow Clone to lvl 2. The cost remained the same, but the Clone could stay twice as long before disappearing, sadly he could not summon two at the same time, something he had hoped for. The results on animals weren't as good as they had been on the rats. What made them special was their intelligence and he only slightly improved it. Still there were a few bigger rabbits hopping around, really fast squirrels jumping in the trees and a few fatter carp in the pond around the fountain. He had also transferred a few of the carp in the lake, transporting them in plastic bags full of water.

He saw something he had never seen, while wandering around in search of resources. He discovered what the blimp toads were. They were strange creatures, looking like long balloons. A huge ball full of gas, floating in the air. They moved around by sucking air and blowing it behind them, using their long webbed feet almost as wings to change direction. This was one of the creatures living there that were totally alien to John.

Back home with 4 full stacks of stone and 6 of wood John got to work. Soon the central room on the floor with the kitchen had a big wooden table and six chairs. John could have built another floor of the tower with the stone he had, but he preferred keeping it until he needed extra space.

With the news that Anna would cook dinner the whole court had come back to the castle. Vesta looked very tired but smiled hearing the hunting feats of her sister with her new weapon. Sylvia who wouldn't be eating was still curious about the cooking process and was looking at Anna work. John decided to use a Clone to watch too while continuing to work on the puzzle cube.

Anna had laid ingredients from the kingdom and a bag of rice that John had bought, on the counter. She began by chopping some onions and bell peppers into small dices while some animal fat heated in a pan. Her dexterity with a knife was amazing to watch and John was almost jealous of it. Once finished with the chopping she put some rice to cook in a big pot and sliced a few pieces of goat meat into small bite-sized bits that she seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and cumin. Sylvia had decided to help by pressing a few fruits to make juice to drink with the meal.

The onions and peppers were frying in the fat and Anna added the meat to the pan, moving it around to absorb the taste of the juices. The stir-fried meat took a nice brown color and Anna told everyone to come to eat. She filled four bowls with rice and poured a nice spoonful of meat, onions, peppers and juice in each of them. John was starving; he hadn't really advanced with the cube, he was pretty sure he was close to finishing a new side, but until it worked he could be wrong. His Clone did not only allow him to see, hear and touch, but also to smell, and the delicious aromas filling the kitchen were making his real body really hungry.

The spicy taste of the dish was like nothing the elven sisters had ever tasted before. They ate it with delight and were almost begging for more of it. Thankfully, Anna had made almost twice as much as she served and everyone had seconds. The elves were more and more interested in cooking and made Anna promise them to teach them the next time she would be here.

After eating John and Anna spent some time, discussing and cuddling in their bed, while watching his gallery videos on his phone. They even took a short nap, enjoying the proximity they could have here. Once they woke up, John checked the time and both of them decided that they had a very nice afternoon and that it was time for her to get home. It took some time to remember where they had left the clothes they were wearing when they left her home. It was almost 10pm and John brought Anna back home.

They exchanged a last kiss on the porch under the watchful gaze of her parents spying on them from the living room window. John had to go home before he could go back to his kingdom. His mother had received his text and had been informed by the Kleins that he had taken Anna on a date. She seemed relaxed and very happy, exactly like the last time she visited Felicity's, he couldn't tell her to stop going there without explaining to her a lot more.

He went to his room and did his homework while watching some anime. The clock on his desk was ticking closer and closer to midnight. He had not completed the damn quest and he had no idea what would happen at midnight when it expired. The mysterious rewards or penalties could be anything.

A few minutes before it he finally went back to his kingdom and hugged the three girls before putting on his armor, he had left the gas mask off and the hood down, but he was wearing his crown.

The tech dungeon element made his phone display both the real outside world time and the time inside of his kingdom. Sylvia, Cali and Vesta looked anxious to see him so afraid, he was the man who defeated or saved them and something which scared him was terrifying to them.

The clock ticked the last seconds of the day and suddenly reached the fateful hour.

00:00:00

In a blue flash everything around him disappeared!