Chapter 152 – The end of grinding is here (Thursday 7/7)

Chapter 152 – The end of grinding is here (Thursday 7/7)

“Master, it is time.” Aclysia gently nudged him awake.

John looked at the clock. He had spent the last few hours sleeping, right up until he could not feasibly sleep any longer. Fifteen minutes to midnight, until Magoi would close the barrier, and until they reached the day that all of them the past ‘month’ had been working towards.

He left the house in a strangely calm mood. ‘Within 12 hours, I’ll be dead or have Jane back or...’ He found it difficult to contemplate the manifold options in-between. He walked forwards, finding the loot basin, the table and even Magoi’s house to have disappeared. The moment everyone from his group had stepped out, John’s house disappeared too.

He stood at the heart of a seven person party. There was himself, the Gamer equipped with some serious power in the form of the World Ender items (sadly, he had not acquired other stuff that could be of use).





To his right stood Aclysia, thanks to Artificial Spirit reaching level 10 again just today she had gotten Adaptive Bladery back. However, she was only equipped with Ashkandi still. That weapon would suffice.



To his left was Mono, the newest member of the group was clutching a spear which they had gotten from the floor 10 boss of the Angel I.D.



Her first Skill Tree choice had of course been the question for specialization. He had gone with Support, then it had asked him what kind of support: Healer, Buffer or Blocker. Between the last two he had been thinking for a bit but finally he went with Buffer. This had presented him then with the choice of Mana Battery and after reading through it, he had no choice but to take it.



If there was one thing Mono had a lot of, it was mana, plus she could share it with anyone else in the group, including his elementals. That alone made her presence a substantial upgrade.



Undine stood behind him, her lower body mostly a singular mass, the outline of her hips and thighs alluringly hinted at.



Sylph flew around the group and chatted with everyone, although nobody answered she was happy just having her mouth run about.



Salamander sighed, sitting on his shoulder, “When this is over, I am taking a vacation,” she mumbled, “gonna visit that endless landscape of sexual fantasies in your head and just laugh at them.”



Lastly, Gnome was standing next to Mono, like John had hoped (or partly created Mono for) the two of them got along well, which was hard to realize for a normal onlooker. They just quietly existed next to each other. That seemed enough for comfort though.



“I’m not a maid,” Mono was swift to deny and checked back in with Aclysia.

Herman scratched the back of his head, looked back to John, and bit into his sandwich as he waited for the explanation to continue.

“Thana uses her as a hostage to ensure I come to her. In her words, she is dying and wants to go out with a bang or something,” John relayed what he knew.

“...In other words, we can save both of them.” The hope in Herman’s eyes shone even brighter.

“Save Thana?” John asked, “she killed seven of your friends.”

“What’s done is done. Again, I will not let their deaths be in vain,” Herman insisted. “She was maddened when she got out of the prison, wasn’t she?”

“Terrifyingly so,” John said, remembering the laughter and violence, “let’s say I go along with your idea, what is the plan?”

“The barrier I put up to heal her on site is still in place,” Herman told him. “if she is dying that means she will get weaker until eventually you can capture her... right?”

John wasn’t convinced that was the case, but Herman’s eyes had a deep certainty to them. “Let us assume that.” Best to trust the opinion of an Apothecary on such things.

“So, all we have to do is wait until she is that weak.”

“I cannot wait, if I don’t get there soon she will kill Jane,” John reminded Herman.

“Then go fight her for a bit. While Thana is occupied, I will get Rave out,” the Apothecary said. “Then you retreat and we wait until she should be weak enough to capture outside.”

“Wouldn’t she just follow us?” John asked, there was little reason for her not to.

Herman hesitated for a moment, thinking about that. “Doesn’t she look inhuman?” he finally asked.

“Not really, but I guess her eyes are not exactly normal,” John answered.

“Then she won’t follow us, if a single normal person outside would see her she would get taken care of by Gaia and if she wants to go out with a bang that’s not what she will do,” Herman said with certainty.

“Why? If I was in her shoes and my options were wasting away or dying immediately, I would go for the latter,” John pushed back. “She’s probably only staying because she has another option.”

Herman’s fingers drummed on the table, while he swallowed the rest of the sandwich. “...No, she will probably try to cling onto what emotions she can feel and when she can’t feel any longer... she’ll go back to being inert, right?”

“...You sound really certain about all of this,” John mumbled.

Herman awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, “I am not certain at all, I just hope for the best,” he admitted.

John massaged the bridge of his nose and thought about it. If Herman was right and succeeded Jane would be secure much earlier. If he wasn’t, John lost nothing. If it turned out that it was possible to save Thana and she actually was more than a psychotic murderess, they even got done what they had set out to do in the first place. If she turned out to be completely insane and psychotic, then they could still get rid of her later.

Pragmatically speaking, there was no reason for him to decline. “Okay, let’s try to do it your way.”