Collide Gamer Chapter 307 – The order going forward

John was catapulted on his back and admitted defeat by just lying there. Wheezing breaths left his lungs as he inhaled the cold of winter and exhaled the heat of exhaustion. Rave laughed and threw herself down at his side.

“Well, you’re getting better… s-l-o-w-l-y,” she spelled out.

“And you are able to keep that thing up longer,” John answered. What they were talking about was their fighting practice. John, having fought and beaten one of the enemies’ strongest mbers, didn’t really feel the need to focus on EXP grinding at this ti.

That train of thought was reinforced by the fact that the patch was supposed to be done soon. Afterwards, he could get into Assaults as much as he wanted and have it count for sothing.

So instead, John went ahead and helped everyone else in their training. Nia had been pouty (another discovery: if the blank felt passed over, her lower lip moved forward a bit) because he was no longer supplying her with Soulpotions, but he had given her so much that she should have been working on her fine motor skills instead of chugging down more of those.

Also, she had the backing of the Horned Rat. There had to be other ways for her to get stronger.

Lydia was still doing her own thing. While occasionally brawling with Nathalia, Thana had largely foregone Soulburn now, saying she had gotten as great a handle on it as she thought she could. So, the only person he could really train with was his girlfriend, which was a nice excuse to get so more alone ti.

“Why did ya go with boxing anyway?” Rave asked after a minute passed with them staring at the cloudy sky.

“Because it’s straightforward,” John answered, Gar’s Body having restored his stamina by now; “I don’t want sothing about the use of my opponent’s movents or sothing; it would get in the way with Mana Protection. Also, I want to fight like I live, honest whenever I can and cheat whenever I must. Boxing sounds perfect for that.”

“That is so corny,” Rave laughed and rolled on her side, warmth seeping through her clothes to his side; “I like it though; the whole ‘evil sches’ thing shouldn’t be my boyfriend’s style.”

“Hey, I will sche when I need to!” John made clear. “I just won’t make backstabbing my main line of work. I want to win, and honesty is important in the long run.”

“However ya want to twist it,” she purred into his ear, playfully biting his earlobe before getting back on her feet; “Let’s continue!”

“Eh, we only have 10 more minutes,” John inford her. The team eting regarding their ongoing strategy was coming up.

“Aw, shucks,” Rave mumbled; “I was having fun beating ya up.”

“I am sure I make for quite the nice sandbag,” John laughed.

“Yes, ya do,” she confird, sticking out her tongue in a cheeky manner. “With your videoga body, sheer endless pain tolerance and other bs.”

“You forgot to ntion Undine’s healing, without which this light beating could turn out quite deadly,” John pointed out. That was literally the only downside John had discovered about Gar’s Body. Little punches, that would have dealt literally no lasting damage to the whole of a normal body, could kill him if there was just enough of them as they all dealt 1 damage.

Instead of ‘death by a thousand cuts’, it would be ‘death by a thousand pokes at the shoulder’. A highly unlikely scenario but sothing that should be kept in mind. It was important to know oneself and the enemy.

“Anyway, why don’t you help with this?” John asked and pushed his hand into his inventory. What he pulled out was a green poker chip, the second of the four upgrade tokens he had been promised to exist.

He quickly inford Rave what it did and then asked her, “What should I use it on?”

“Your underwear,” she instantly answered. “I need your swimrs to be protected, tiger.”

“Wow, baby-crazy all of a sudden?” he wondered.

“Nah, but if anyone is going to break your dick it’s !” Rave declared. “And if we ever want to have kids, ya better not have been ruined by one of your dungeon encounters being a boss that specializes kicking ya in the nuts.”

“Don’t give Gaia ideas,” John pleaded and did as she suggested, sliding the Token into his pants. After a few seconds of pressing it against the Preserver, it vanished underneath his fingers, and he was presented with a new window.

Exactly what he subscribed for, but nothing else.

“No idea there,” Rave shrugged.

“Well, I have so,” John mused and picked Gar’s Familiarity. Afterwards he explained his reasoning to his girlfriend. He now had 5 Possession Slots (3 from Possession being at level 100, 1 from Puppeteer and now another 1 from the item).

That number was important, since it allowed him to make Jack (who he had fixed with Craft after the match with Mario) and another object of his choice a Spellcarrier. It wasn’t cheap on his mana, but it enabled him to pull so more shenanigans without the need to invest more into Puppeteer in the near future.