Chapter 627: No small upgrade

Being a giant, half-wolf monster with bat wings had its advantages—for example, people left you the fuck alone.

After their animalistic screwing on the battlefield, Mason picked Demi up (after she yet again re-grew her clothes), and flew her over most of the city. He winced at the damage to buildings, and some corpses lying in the street. But they’d send out teams soon enough.

He landed outside the palace, currently mobbed by hundreds of people. He looked around, trying and failing to tuck or fold his wings. It was fair to say he…drew a lot of stares.

“We should

probably

get you a bath,” Demi muttered, seeming happy for him to keep carrying her.

“Not yet. I’m hoping we make it all the way to the bedrooms without…”

“King Mason! Please wait, King Mason!”

An older, overweight, maybe East Indian man came running from a pack of fancy looking civilians. He smiled and pushed up his glasses, giving a friendly smile. He looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes off the monstrous features, and his voice from trembling. Mason tried not to enjoy the smell of his fear.

“I…apologize. For stopping you, sir. But we’ve received messages saying

all

previous civilian rules in the city are lifted. That only the official

system

rules are in place now. Is that…that can’t be true?”

Mason really needed a bath, and to wash off the beast. Something about the man rubbed him the wrong way. He found himself eying the jowls and excess body fat of a man in a starving city, wondering what he’d look like running away in terror.

“That’s what I ordered,” he said. “Civilian problems are for civilian leaders now. Talk to them.” He turned to walk away.

“Yes, but…I’m sorry.” The man scoffed as Mason slowly turned back. “We have

guilds

here. Whole areas of the city, property I mean, determined by previous leaders and their rules. A whole external

currency

guaranteed by the crown. It’ll be worthless if you don’t…”

“You’ll adjust,” Mason interrupted. “You can all do whatever you want within system rules. But Jeong and his people imposed their schemes with violence. If anyone tries that again, I will kill them.”

The man blinked, and they stared for several long seconds. He shook his head and made that scoffing sound again, looking ready to say something else. But by then Mason had turned and walked.

“What?” he said, giving Demi a look as he walked.

“Me? Nothing.”

“Not going to tell me to be nicer?”

Demi grinned and kicked her feet.

“I’m not Haley. I was kind of hoping you’d just growl at him. I think he was close to pissing himself.”

Mason grinned and picked up his pace, but soon found an even bigger crowd of people stuffed in the outer courtyard. The smell and sound and chaos of thousands of human beings grew like a storm. Demi’s anxiety hit him shortly after. He gave her a squeeze.

“We’ll get through quickly,” he said, looking for a decent path without much success. He tried Wayfinder but closed it instantly, eyes going buggy at the overwhelmed interface.

“Christ. I’m gonna start a panic looking like this. Maybe I should fly over and find another way in.”

Demi frowned and pat his arm like he should let her down. Eyes were slowly turning his way, but at least no one was running or screaming. She kissed the back of his hand.

“Maybe they

should

see. What it takes to protect them. I’ll meet you on the other side.”

He was about to complain when she gave him a smile and started snaking through the crowd. She drew her own share of eyeballs, but probably for very different reasons. He sighed and slowly moved forward, mostly just trying not to crush anyone.

A few goblins found him and started bowing and scraping, calling him ‘large lord’ and ‘mountain king’ and pledging their undying devotion. It really didn’t help.

Lodie popped out of the pack, giving him a cute little wave before looking unsure and trying some ridiculous curtsy. Haley stepped out from a small group behind her with Demi pulling her. They made their way back to him like twin queens of England. Which he supposed wasn’t far off.

“We’ve got a lot of wounded coming in,” Haley whispered, clearly struggling to look at him in his current form.

“Carl’s on it,” he said. “Every support who can heal. I assume they have doctors. Nurses.”

Haley gestured like he shouldn’t worry. Rahman came up behind her and bowed his head. She told him quietly that they needed rest after the battle and wouldn’t want to be bothered, and he said he understood.

“Feel free to use some patron points,” Mason said. “I saw the city. It needs some work.”

Rahman looked at him like he was surprised.

“Thank you, Patron. But that won’t be necessary. We have many builders in the city. Everything will be repaired quickly.”

He was nearing the end of his patience for civilian problems—at least after a battle and in his current form. He wanted food. He wanted to gather up all his women, take them somewhere they could scream without worrying, and bang them until he passed out.

Haley looked at his eyes, then at Demi. She whispered for Lodie to follow her, then started sending servants running off.

“I need a bath,” he said, not even sure where to go.

“There’s a private pool in the royal wing.” Haley was smiling politely as she struggled with his form, but he was done waiting or worrying.

“Tell Naya and Ayet to join us. And anyone else.”

“Of course, my king.” She smiled, looking somewhere between excited and overwhelmed. “I’ll mark the pool on your map. You should see it now.”

He walked away without another word. The problems left in the city were for others to handle. He’d take his women, then meet with his players in the morning.

The Nexus was next, training program, arranging all the players properly. It all felt small. Not

easy

, exactly, but solvable problems for a different moment.

He walked through the corridors, hearing his clawed feet clack on the tiles. It was less alien now but still not home. Palace servants had clearly taken things down, trying to remove all traces of Jeong. No one wore the robes anymore. The imperial paraphernalia was gone. He supposed he’d have to replace things, but he’d let people who cared do that too.

He hadn’t even noticed Becky had followed behind him. She’d moved up to his side now and was watching him, looking unsure, off balance. He didn’t worry about her anxiety or nerves. He’d shatter it all soon enough.

His map was marked, just like Haley said. He walked into the ‘bathing hall’—a kind of Persian looking chamber with a medium sized pool, sparkling with clean water, beautiful blue tile on the bottom. There was a hot tub in the corner, a massage table, a few chairs with a small coffee table. A skylight above the pool showed a perfect view of the moon. It was perfect.

“Want me to join ya?” Becky said.

The fact that she was asking showed how unsure she was. Was it his form? His manner? He shrugged and banished his vestments, stepping into the water with clawed feet.

“Do as you like.”

He walked deeper, feeling Blessing of Gaia affect it without conscious thought. Green mist leaked from the water as power moved through his body, and he had to double check to make sure the power wasn’t active. It wasn’t, and he knew instantly what it was—his new title, Champion of Cerebus.

All it said was that it ‘improved nature powers’. But he could already feel the difference. Unlike most of the system’s stacking rewards, this wasn’t some minor improvement.

It was the pinnacle of the game—a final reward for a champion of the world. And it was pretty clear it had some fucking pep to it.

Some excitement built in his chest about trying all his powers to see the difference. But he could feel it affecting all his passives. Maybe even his stats. He moved through the world like it was barely there, the force waiting in his body to jump across the room and shatter stone walls.

In that moment he felt like nothing in the world could touch him. That he was somehow apart from it, above it. It

maybe

wasn’t a good thing. He knew he’d have to fight to keep his humanity. To find some balance, some synergy. But not tonight…

He shivered as his flesh transformed. The now blessed water stripped his Transformations, washing away the destruction and fur and excess bone and flesh without leaving a trace in the clear pool.

A memory of the first time he’d tried such a thing flashed before his mind. It was the dungeon where he’d first met Gaia, and it had nearly drained him to ‘cleanse’ a corrupt pool—which really meant blessing it. Now he did it literally without thought.

He dunked his head and relaxed, letting his body return, the feeling just as good as becoming the beast. For a little while he just stayed under, eyes closed, letting the man emerge.

His mind was clearing. As was the realization he was bringing every woman he’d slept with to this pool for some kind of theoretical group orgy. He shook his head and laughed at himself. It would have concerned him a month ago, hell, maybe a week ago. But even without the beast it didn’t now.

He came up and ran his hands over his face, grinning to see normal human fingers. Looking down at himself was still strange. The tattoos of his Sleeves and Boots glowed beneath the water. His limbs were his, but not. Corded muscle greeted him everywhere, making him look like fucking He-man.

Becky was apparently watching him from the side of the pool. He’d damn near forgotten she was there, but gave her a smile.

“Sorry. I’m…fully me again. Are you OK? We didn’t get a chance to talk during all that.”

She practically sagged with relief, eyes raking him as she crossed her arms under her breasts, sliding a booted foot on the floor.

“I’m doin’ OK. You were…a little scary.”

He laughed and moved towards her, walking up the steps fully naked. Her eyes were locked on his body, her chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.

“You smell like…really good,” she said, breathing in deep. “I think yer magic thing is doin’ somethin’ crazy to me.”

He pulled her in for a hug, kissing her hair. Her arms wrapped around him and slid down, gripping his ass.

“You smell good too,” he chuckled. “A little sweaty, but good.”

She lost a battle against a moan and nuzzled her face against his chest, still looking unsure but more comfortable in his arms. She looked up at him.

“Um, what’s gonna happen when all the other girls come, exactly?”

He met her eyes and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. He was mostly back to ‘normal’, but his normal had changed a hundred times since he dropped down that stupid tutorial chute.

Things changed quick when you killed, and when you almost died. When your body and thoughts were shaped and warped by magic and fake gods and pain that should have broken your mind.

But he’d survived. He’d overcome it all. He wasn’t quite what Cerebus wanted, maybe, but he was as close as he chose to be. He was still in control. And his new ‘normal’ was command of the world of men, a king with a harem and no apologies.

“I’m going to enjoy all my women, and leave you dripping.”

Becky swallowed as her face went pink.

“Oh.” She couldn’t quite hold his gaze and looked down. “Should I…take my clothes off?”

He nodded, and helped strip her top, then undid the button on her shorts. His Wayfinder was open in the corner of his eye, and he could see the others coming. But they still had a few minutes.

He pulled her in and kissed her, gripping her athletic ass, cheeks halved by a little pink thong

“You wore

this

to a battlefield?”

“Says the guy fightin’ half naked,” she said, a little of the normal, stubborn Becky coming alive. “Anyway I like it. Makes me feel…sexy.”

He spread her and slapped hard, kissing her deep until she opened her mouth and took his tongue with a moan.

“I’m not complaining.” He unclipped her bra then let go of her like he was in no rush and didn’t really care, grinning as he walked back to the water. “You coming?”

It didn’t take superhuman hearing to know she followed.