Tropical Planning

“…Really? Huh.”

John was doing some more additional reading on his targets. Somehow, in all of his research on Hawaii, the one thing he had forgotten to check out was the population number of each island.

‘Am I getting sloppy?’ he thought to himself. That was one explanation. Another was that he had made a simple mistake in his haste. ‘Perhaps I should have less sex and do more reading… no, that’s not happening.’

“What’re… you… ‘really-ing’ about?” Lee asked. The Fateweaver was bent over a beanbag, trying to play a turn-based strategy game while he was fucking her from behind. She was kicking the game’s ass.

“Well, I just double-checked how to get to Niihau and what to expect there and, well, it has 84 permanent residents,” John reported. “It’s privately owned… there’s some guided tours, but I didn’t book one, so now we’re in a bit of a pickle.”

“What pickle? Why a pickle? Is it a sweet pickle at least? I don’t mind normal pickles but they’re kinda not that great. Maybe they’ll be better once I am pregnant? I always hear the joke that pregnant ladies get pickle cravings at 3AM. Do you think Eliana has pickle cravings right now? Wait… I also hear that pregnant ladies get super-duper horny. Is pickle a euphemism? Please tell me it’s a euphemism! I need an excuse to get horny at 3AM!”

“Why?” Salamander asked the chattering air spirit. “You get horny all the fucking time anyway.”

“Yeah, but when I have an excuse, I can just shake him awake and then bounce on him all gravid and stuff!” Sylph suddenly and feverishly began to masturbate to the idea. “Shaking him awake, begging him, mh, to rouse his member from slumber so he can do his husbandly duties and lay there as I go all up, down, up, down, to get another load of that precious cum…! Oh, yes!”

John was right there with her, filling Lee’s pussy up with a fresh load while the greenette howled out her sudden climax. All three of them were locked in their state of release for a moment. “Ah, fuck!” Lee cussed, breaking the spell. “I pressed the end turn button!”

“Sucks to be you,” John mocked and pulled out of her. He could not resist giving her bubble butt a smack in parting. The ripple spread down her thunder thighs. Her gaping pussy twitched. ‘Beautiful,’ he thought. “So, the pickle,” John said, “is that there’s a chance, however low, that one of those 80-ish people Awakened. That, in turn, means that we can’t afford not to check. Getting on that island, however, might prove difficult.”

He checked his phone again, to see if there was any good way to get onto that island. Checking, in this case, came via the mental connection to the device. He sort of needed his hands to guide Gnome and Aclysia. The two had decided that less than ten seconds was too long for his dick to go without attention.

It was good to be the emperor.

“Seems like we can sail by or book a helicopter tour to actually land there for a guided tour… neither is really what we want.”

“We could just be brazen and land there,” Salamander suggested. “Worst case, we get in the local papers and pay some fines.”

“True… We could also try to get invited, but that appears to be very difficult.” John sighed. “Or we go with option C: magical BS.”

“Meaning?” the fire spirit investigated.

“We buy some items granting lesser invisibility off the Abyss Auction, then we just go on the island and have a look around. If anyone spots us, we know they’re an Abyssal, even if their aura might be too subtle to give it away.”

“Do we have to buy it off the Auction?” Lee asked. “Got nothing on hand?”

“I have some stuff that would fit the bill in the Guild Bank, but I can’t access it right now. Undine and Siena took the Ambassador Double to go shopping.”

“Shopping?” Gnome asked, while Aclysia kept the entirety of his cock in her throat. “I thought they were laying the groundwork for Undine’s shadowy cabal thingy?”

“And the first step for that is deciding an aesthetic,” John responded. “That’s neither here nor there though. I am certain we can get a delivery of the item from the Abyss auction to here within a couple hours maximum.”

To this day, John was not entirely sure how the infrastructure of the Abyss Auction functioned. They had their local warehouses, yes, but they were never large enough to hold the sheer diversity of their inventory in any reasonable capacity. If he had to hazard a guess, they were likely poaching all manners of spatial mages from wherever they could to operate a truly mind-boggling global teleportation network that could rapidly move items around. Perhaps they even had a Latebloomer or three just squirrelled away, living large while providing their unique abilities to the upkeep of this network.

Really, it was fortunate that Dramar considered peace the greater pathway to wealth generation. As an individual dragon, he was already a formidable enemy for most people. With his web of relations, he could have easily landed a spot in the Divided Gates, if he had put an army together.

“So now we just need to get there… I suppose we can just rent a boat somewhere and do a pretend sailing trip. I’ll jump overboard, swim on over with the elementals incorporeal, and take a look around.” The Gamer groaned while Aclysia relinquished his dick, just so Gnome could take over. “Simple enough.”

“Any surprises for the other islands?" Salamander asked.

“Only the pleasant one that most of them have quite low populations,” John said. “Kahoolawe has outright no residents. It’s a nature reserve and not big enough for any Abyssal to hide from mundanes on it for long, so we don’t even have to take a gander at it. Lanai and Molokai only have a couple thousand people on them. About 70’000 on Kauai, which should be scannable in a day or two.” The Gamer stopped for a moment, to let the pleasure of another orgasm wash over him. “Maui will be a minor problem to scan, having over 160’000 inhabitants. Hawaii, this island, will be a big headache just because of how large it is. Oahu has about a million people, so that will be a different headache.”

Gnome and Aclysia swapped his cum back and forth, moaning all the while. The business side of John’s mind won out over pleasure, causing his erection to deflate. His Libido swung 200 points down, Source of Satisfaction going from buff to debuff. That left him hornier than over a dozen people, but that was easily overpowered by his Mental Stats.

Logging into his Abyss Auction account was a simple mental effort. Though he had little reason to personally use this site these days, he still checked on it with some frequency. This was in part because he used it to sell some of his Dungeon Loot, specifically items that weren’t so powerful he would accidentally prop up a rival with them. This selling had accelerated a bit recently, courtesy of the maids being able to use Create I.D. at half his aptitude through the Servant’s Mark.

Since they were connected to him, anything they procured went through his magical signature. This meant that, even though John scarcely used his account to buy anything, he had a very long purchase history. The Abyss Auction had long since penetrated the domestic market of Fusion. All they had needed to do was flip all the assets they already had, operating next to the old warlords, and integrate them in a now ordered state. A much easier process than the reverse.

John would have loved to detach Fusion’s economy from international actors. Self-sufficiency was always his motto in strategy games and he considered it vital as part of imperial ambitions as well. Alas, it was not feasible. Not only was the Abyss Auction in deep, being the sponsor, owner, or shareholder in vast swathes of the economy, they were also just too good at their primary business – being the moving of inventory around the globe. Even if Fusion’s merchant fleet was up and running as well as John wanted it to, that would still only be effective for mass transport of raw resources.

For everything else, there was the Abyss Auction.

‘All of that before even considering that I cannot act so blatantly against Dramar while we’re working together on making the Token the worldwide currency,’ the Gamer thought as he stepped out of the living room.

Walking with intent was all it took to make Layla moan. The brunette was squatting at the edge of a flower patch, her hair braided and tied into a bun so as to not get in the way during her gardening. Though the reforming stalker was admittedly beautiful, wearing a white shirt and coveralls, it was Nathalia who had John’s entire focus.

The volcano goddess inspected the soil critically, rubbing the matter between her fingers. She wore a simple outfit, a red shirt and pants of a white beige. Her true nature was entirely obscured, hidden as they always ought to be when walking where satellites could snap photos.

She was a redheaded woman of outstanding beauty. Tall, curvy, and yet neither her enormous breasts nor mature aura were what allured him in that moment. It was the casual way with which she raised the little gardening shovel to excavate a resting place for another bulb. It was the certain yet gentle way with which she snapped the unwanted or sickly branches off the hedge. It was the little smile that harmonized with her critical eye.

Layla held onto the edge of the raised bed she was working on, while John walked past her. The dragoness only hummed in response to his touch. His fingers gently parted her tresses, scratching her scalp with loving intent. The orange-haired goddess continued her work.

“Was I right or was I right?” the Gamer asked, taking a page out of her haughtiness.

“You were right, my mate,” she gave easily. “We have already established that.”

“I like hearing it anyway.”

Nathalia blew hot air out of her nose, stopping just short of flames. “Always one that needs his greatness confirmed. True pride simply is, John, it has no requirement for external validation.” She dusted her hands off and slowly stood up. “All the same, if it strokes your beloved ego, I shall say it clearly: you were right, I have a taste for more than destruction. In this, like in all other things where you have shown me a better path, you have my gratitude.” She put her forehead against his. “I will repay you for your kindness soon enough.”

John wasn’t even going to start the joking argument that a child was a two-way benefit. It was true in all the ways that mattered, but at the same time there was no doubt that it was a greater strain on the mother. Beyond the physical challenges, which were (hopefully) going to be greatly diminished by their superhuman nature, there were the mental aspects of it all. Having to act cautiously would pose its own challenge for a woman like her, so used to forcing her way.

“I will cherish every second,” he whispered, then kissed her.

Nathalia melted into his touch. He had never realized how tense she had been during their first meetings until she had returned to him, after the **** Zone. Now that she trusted him so absolutely, had put all of her eggs in his proverbial basket, she was just so relaxed when next to him. It was a subtle difference from the outside, but he knew. He knew very well.

Her ruby lips departed from his with a little wet smack. “You’re doing well,” she declared.

The firmness of her tone confused John for a split second. That he wasn’t the one addressed was made clear when Nathalia turned her head to look down at Layla. There was a truly complicated mixture of emotions on the brunette’s face, though the annoyance and anger were clearly dominated by a voyeuristic joy.

“I expected you to at least growl,” Nathalia continued. “Yet you sit there, patiently.”

“I am not patient at all! I would love to suck that juicy cock while you make out with him!” Layla’s blunt honesty really was working in her favour. Was her depraved tone a bit concerning? As always, the answer to that question was yes. It beat the sycophancy of women saying what they thought he wanted to hear by a million times though. “So yeah, keep your trials coming! I’ll prove that I have self-control, since you seem to value that so much!”

Nathalia let out a neutral, “Mhm…” then returned her gaze to her mate. “You have resolved our next step then?”

“I’ll buy some low-tier invisibility trinkets from the Abyss Auction to shield us as we… well, we invade a private island,” he told her. “I’m going with Gnome, Salamander and Sylph. Do you want to come with? I don’t foresee it being exciting. Chances that there’s an Abyssal there are miniscule.”

“You HAVE to take me along!” Layla shouted. “I have a way more accurate and wide-reaching aura sense than you.”

That was entirely true. The only reason he hadn’t led with asking her was that he assumed this would work out for him without doing so. Plus, it was Nathalia’s decision. He was convinced they would be fine either way.

“Wearing baubles to hide myself?” Nathalia had disdain for the very concept, clicking her tongue before sighing. “I suppose I can suffer the indignity. The loud one will make herself useful.”

“Just remember not to…” John started, then furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at himself. “I was about to tell you how to avoid attention, but I think you have more experience on that than we do.”

“Do I?” Layla drawled.

The sarcasm was unbecoming of her.