The shower enveloped Tim in its hot spray, bringing his mind back to memories of a similar sort of heat he'd briefly felt a few minutes earlier. That was something. Not even sure how to feel about it. She's fucking gorgeous, and she's sort of fun to be with in a weird way, if only because of how nothing she does is what I expect. The sex was… It was definitely weird and very brief, but I can't really say it was bad?
He twisted the knob on the wall a little, increasing the temperature to the maximum he could handle. A couple bars of soap were positioned on a small alcove in the nearby wall, so he grabbed one along with the nearby brush hanging near it and started scrubbing amidst the dense, steamy fog. New Era has showers, but I've never had to actually clean this body before. Hm. Brush feels pretty good against scales. Little too abrasive against skin.
He didn't understand how the ten-out-of-ten shower functioned, firing water in omnidirectional jets from the smooth ceiling and some places on the walls as it did, but it was almost certainly the best shower he'd ever used. In contrast to his usual, strictly regimented shower time, he lingered for a while, enjoying the massaging feeling as well as the freedom of thought he felt like he was gaining.
A new idea occurred to him. Am I… He prodded at his shoulder, which had previously been injured to some unknown degree, feeling no pain. I got healed somehow? But when… He thought back over the last few minutes since he'd woken up. I think it was just since I slept? Probably would've noticed it a bit more when Vol was here. Or Scipio, I suppose I should think of her if I don't want her to get upset and accidentally kill me or something. Vol Scipio. That's a name. He let out a chuckle and brought both hands up to run through his hair before leaning his face into one of the jets. She's just so weird. How am I even supposed to react to something like that? I figured I'd have to at least do some flirting or something if I was interested, but I didn't even have the chance. So much for keeping distance.
His mind brought back the feel of her kneeling over him from minutes earlier, and it was difficult for him to feel much regret. May as well enjoy it now that I've already opened that box. She certainly didn't seem upset, and there's no telling whether I'll even survive another day. And she's from another world, so it's not like Colleen would have anything to be upset about if I do make it back home.
He stood under the spray for another minute or two, his mind wandering without particularly settling on anything. Gradually, his wife's nine-out-of-ten face coalesced in his thoughts. Wonder what she'd say if she knew what happened to me. He sighed. No point in thinking about that now. Need to get my head back into things.
The shower spray lessened and then stopped when he twisted the knob, leaving him inside with the warm steam that lingered due to the lack of ventilation. He stood there enjoying it for the five seconds he'd allotted himself before he stepped out, grabbing one of the fluffy towels off a hanger just outside. He brought it up to his face and started drying off. This is a nice towel. Fluffy, but still a little rough so it feels like I'm actually getting dry. He gave the towel a six-out-of-ten: it was good, but he was starting to expect more from a god.
He stopped in front of the full-length mirror on his way out of the bathroom area, staring at the familiar body he was now inhabiting. Well, I know why V—Scipio came on to me, at least. Other world or not, I look great.
A pair of small, red horns poked out of his tousled black hair on the sides. Dark eyes with pupils that were a little taller than their width stared back at him from just over a perfectly proportioned nose, a mouth with lips slightly more full than not, cheeks set with tiny, matching numbers of scales, and a jaw that was just barely short of what someone might call chiseled. His broad shoulders were partly scaled over in places, as were sections of his well-muscled arms and his similarly-defined, tapered torso. His legs bulged with more muscle than his arms, leading to wide feet with small claws at the ends of each toe.
He flexed for a moment, admiring the small changes that came with his new ten-out-of-ten body being real rather than virtual. Could definitely be worse. I could've been brought here as a total noob, looking like myself. Sort of get the feeling that Ir'alith doesn't like humans, so that probably wouldn't be ideal. He posed for another three seconds as his newly decided schedule allowed. Alright, let's get this going. Just have to put in the time until I can beat this thing.
Back in the sitting room, he grabbed his pants first and started pulling them on over the underwear he'd equipped on his way out. Extra glad I always went for the softest and most comfortable pants now, but I'm also regretting that the only underwear sold in New Era is the kind you'd wear to impress a girlfriend. I'd really enjoy wearing something just a little less form-fitting. Still probably better than the alternative though, if earlier was anything to go by. He tugged the waistband up, then reached inside to adjust the fit of one of the thongs Nendra had picked out for him at one time or another, this one a solid five-out-of-ten.
Tim looked around for his shirt, spotting it under a pair of dark gray pants. Did she really just leave her clothes here? He picked his shirt up and pulled it down over his torso, then snatched up the other pants and walked over to a blue shirt he'd spotted against another part of the wall. And that's it. Wasn't she wearing shoes earlier? And…nothing under her clothes either, huh. The memory of the woman's toned, gorgeous body standing naked a few steps away returned to his mind. Not that she's probably been lacking for support with a body like that. A blinding image of lightning shooting out of her skin flickered through his thoughts. In more ways than one.
He held the shirt and pants in his hands, looking around briefly, then shrugged and tossed them into his inventory. I'll give them back later if she wants them. It's just clothes. I've got plenty of them already. With a thought, he reequipped his health-and-offense-oriented dragonscale armor, again removing his helmet since Ir'alith had shown special restraint in avoiding any strikes to his head previously, and departed, making for the stairs leading to the training area.
He walked past the "Human" room and frowned. Hm. I wonder what she wanted before. Should I… No, need to focus. This thing with Scipio was distracting enough. I've got less than nine hours now to get into peak condition.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
The stairwell seemed deeper this time as he descended and it took a couple dozen steps to reach its bottom, forcing him to drop its rating down to a three-out-of-ten for the inefficiency of it. I should spend some time making sure none of my magic works differently than I'd expect. If the other two are still blowing up the world, I'll just stand off to the side near the stairs.
When he exited at the landing, he marveled at the way that absolutely nothing was ever as he expected today, including the things he'd seen before. The ruined valley was now a long, wide platform of gray stone. There were no walls, and it was completely surrounded by the black void of space everywhere besides the small doorway connecting to the stairwell, illuminated by the light of the stars.
This god stuff is way too confusing.
Still though, it was certainly an impressive view and use of god powers so he gave it an eight-out-of-ten.
Small flashes of light drew his eye to a distant part of the platform but it was too far away for him to see anything in any detail. Alright, staying near the entrance it is. He took a few steps forward to avoid blocking the entrance and pulled one of New Era's most expensive target dummies out of his inventory, setting it a short ways away before moving back to his previous spot. While the dummy had the flimsy-looking appearance of a scarecrow wearing shabby armor, it boasted full immunity to knockbacks as well as the ability to absorb a near-infinite amount of damage before its durability ran out. Definitely never expected to use one of these in a time or place like this.
Spells in New Era were invoked the same way as most game commands, where the game's programming, using the brain link, detected the player's intent to activate the command in conjunction with an explicit thought or spoken word. The skill aspect of it was that every spell had a sort of mental weight to it, requiring the player to imagine throwing it the correct distance and in the right direction if they wanted to hit their target. This required top players to have a deep understanding of both the weight of every spell they wanted to use as well as the amount of mental effort that should be exerted to cast it at varying distances.
Despite his limited playtime, Tim was still a top player, as he was in every game he'd ever played. What he lacked in time spent actively playing the game to refine his skills he made up for in different ways. In the case of spellcasting, he'd installed an app on his phone with similar facilities that could connect to the brain link earpiece and contacts he always wore, enabling him to practice at any time. He'd even thrown a few thousand bucks at the developers of the app to encourage them to improve its accuracy for certain spells he preferred and resolve some of the bugs he'd encountered. The result was that, after years of continued, habitual practice, he felt confident in his ability to successfully land spells that he was casting in any circumstance.
Thorn Snare. Tim focused, and a winding vine erupted from the stone to coil around the base of the dummy just as he'd expected. It was a low level spell he'd gotten, but he'd continued training it as he progressed through the game nonetheless, finding it useful in both offensive and defensive scenarios. It was durable to the extent that it was likely to slow a strong warrior for a moment in PvP—or at least briefly confuse them—and it was cheap enough that he didn't need to consider the mana cost, even if it didn't particularly do much damage. The only drawback was that it couldn't affect anything that was more than around knee-height off the ground, but that was mitigated by the speed with which the vine would shoot out, enabling him to create traps when a flying enemy landed for even the briefest of moments.
Seems right. He walked forward and kicked at the vine a bit with his boot, finding it to be exactly as durable as he expected, which was to say that it withstood a couple strong kicks before breaking. Might not be the strongest spell, but every little bit counts if I'm fighting for my life.
After spending considerable time thinking about New Era's classes when they were announced, having long since decided that it was a game he was planning to play, he'd settled on playing as a Druidic Knight, a hybrid class that granted stats and skills in a balanced way for fighting and spellcasting. He'd primarily learned spells for crowd control, defense, and healing, leaving it to his physical skills for dealing damage. This helped him when he was adventuring solo, which had the dual benefit of aiding the company he'd contracted to level for him while he was busy as well as giving him the tools to explore dangerous places alone in relative safety, and it also enabled him to swap reasonably well between healer and damage dealer when playing in a group.
Bright Field. He closed his eyes and focused, seeing the telltale explosion of light through his eyelids. This was a higher level skill that created a light so bright that it was guaranteed to temporarily blind anything that looked at it. He'd always been amazed by an anime series he'd been watching when he was much younger that had a character who possessed a similar skill called Solar Flare which had never failed. Regardless of who used it or how powerful the enemy was, it always seemed that the ability to produce a blinding light was unbeatable. The concept had resurfaced when he'd seen this skill for sale, and he'd bought it on a whim, if only for the novelty. While it used enough mana that he could only cast it eight times before he ran out, his dedication to leveling it had unlocked its max level perk: for five seconds when activated, Bright Field would block all sound in a small radius, and it had an additional disorienting effect on any non-allied creature's senses. Unfortunately, it had a two minute cooldown and a small area of effectiveness, but it had still proved undeniably potent in a number of situations.
I imagine the secondary effects are the only reason I managed to land that punch earlier. Good to know I can even use it on someone as strong as Ir'alith. He blinked a few times, seeing a few spots in his eyes despite having kept them tightly closed. Feels like it's almost brighter here than in the game.
More flashes of light exploded from the opposite end of the platform. He strained his sight, but it was just too far away. Should've gotten one of those farsight spells. I always put it off since they're more for novelty, but when things are real like this, scouting spells would be much more useful. Not like I'll find any animals here to use Beastsight… He tapped his foot for a few seconds until his mouth had curled up into a grimace. I guess I should definitely test these too.
He retrieved a random dagger out of the high level weapons tab in his inventory and took a deep breath. Then he drew it firmly across his palm, having removed one flexible gauntlet. When his skin proved too tough for the act to have any effect, he repeated it several times, wincing at first and then clenching his jaw when it hurt more than he'd imagined as he eventually succeeded in carving a deep rent in his hand. Maybe not the smartest idea. He watched blood seep out of the wound for a second as the pain continued to mount.
Restoration. As he continued to watch, the skin on either side scabbed over, bringing with it an immediate dulling and then cessation of the throbbing agony he'd been enduring. Seconds later, the scab grew brittle and flaked away, revealing unmarred, red skin. Alright, let's hope I don't have to use that again. I'd rather not need to test exactly how much health I can restore in real life.