As the repairo one came in to line up to enter the moon base, Jake activated the ship's intercom. “Five minutes out, get ready to disembark.” Jake then said to the two bridge crew, “I would recommend keeping what happened to yourselves, but as a reward for all your hard work, take this ship into drydock for a rebuild. She could use a bit of love.”
As the ship was coming in to land, Zac walked onto the bridge, chasing the two pilots to turn and face the beautiful Venusian. Their faces were in surprise as she looked as if the last few days had no effect on her.
“Alright, you two, let's concentrate on landing before you both volunteer as test subjects.”
“Oh, they don't need to worry; they're good boys, but you, on the other hand, I—” Jake held up his hand to stop her there.
“I'm not interested,” Jake said.
“I'll take it as you're not interested now, but later maybe.” Zac said with a smile before she sat in a seat beside Jake.
“So where is Jo?” Jake asked.
Zac laughed and said, “He's still with Vili and Mili, and no, before any of you ask, they’re not sisters, just unusual names.”
“So how did your experiments go?” Jake asked.
Zac smiled as she pulled out her tablet and started scrolling through information. “It seems this human space is very adaptable; out of two fertile test subjects, both have been seeded. This will need more experimentation before I find out why that is.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, I should have mentioned this earlier: us Venusians have a seed rate of less than one in a hundred. So seeing that two out of two have been seeded is quite a thing.”
“So when you say more experiments, do you mean...?”
“I mean a bigger sample size, yes, and a bunch of lab tests.”
“Wait, did you only say two, didn't you?” the bear man asked.
“Us Venusians only become fertile once a year; my fertilisation time was half a year ago,” Zac said with a sad face. Clearly, things didn't go well for her back then.
“Anyway, let's talk about you. What exactly is your species? You have horns but also a human figure. Are you human or something else?” she asked Jake. Jake shrugged and said, “A bit of both, I guess.”
“So you're a half-breed. Interesting. What was your mum?”
“No, I am a demon with a human form I used to be able to change into.”
“So you're not human. That makes things more interesting, I—” she started saying, only to be cut off by the ship landing.
“Welcome back to Shackleton base, sir. Emma, James, and Lady Everval are waiting for you in conference room five,” the voice over the ship's radio said.
“Let's go,” Jake said before turning to the bridge crew. “Will you take care of Jo and our two guests? Send them to the infirmary or a private room,” Jake said.
Moments later, Jake had left the ship and was standing outside the conference room. Jake opened the door before heading inside, followed closely behind by Zac.
“Husband, it's been too long,” Jayne said as she jumped at Jake, changing into a snake moments before hitting him. She slithered down his neck collar and stayed in his exosuit while wrapping her body around his.
“I missed you two,” Jake said.
“So who is the nice lady behind you? Did you find another wife while you were gone?” Emma jokingly said.
“Nope, this one's a bit much for me,” Jake said before gesturing over at Zac. “I introduce Zac, the princess of the planet Venus and representative for her people.”
“So Bark told you. That man is going to get it when I get back.”
“I am going to get all my ministers together, so get your shit together. We're heading over to see Erica. James, you can come too.”
Just as Jake was about to leave, he also asked where Alric was, as Jake hadn't seen him since the incident.
“Alric has headed over to Erica. It seems we lost a territory or something; I haven't heard from him since,” Emma said.
“Get Annabel and her team. It's a pity Jo's out of action; I could use him.”
“Sorry, we may have gone a bit too far with him,” Zac said.
“It's fine; he did his job, and by the sounds of it, he did it well. I'll meet you all here in one hour. Zac, you can stay with James; he will look after you.”
Jake left with Jayne to a private room. Five minutes later, Jake was looking over her stats.
Name: Jayne Everval
Race: Evolved Red Belly Black Snake
Core: ??
Grade: F
Information on F grade:
Upgrades: 600 above previous. Anyone below this grade in the open universe will not survive unless protected by life-sustaining means such as planetary shields and the like. No F graders have ever entered space and survived for more than two years without adequate protection. Note: Levels are gained through cultivation; levels must be solidified by practical use.
Solidified Level: 33. Levels required for next grade evaluation: 1000 total
Cultivation Level: 1
Life: 0%
Genesis: 0%
Mana: 0%
Arcane: 0%
Class: Poisoning Striker
Solidified Class Level: 420
Cultivated Level: 1 of 10%
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Profession: Demonic Poison Alchemist (Rare)
Solidified Profession Level: 506
Cultivated Level: 15 of 90%
Stats points available: 311
Conversion Multiplier: ×10
Mana: 10,295,000
Arcane: 3000
Stamina: 6,816,000
Health: 10,150,000
Base Multiplier: ×10
Strength: 100
Agility: 680,500
Intelligence: 300
Wisdom: 1,000,295
Perception: 2,000,800above mortal capacity. Stat points limited to a maximum safe levelfor an F grade. Temporary perception level: 1,000,000.
Integrity: 1,000,500
Complete dungeons to advance multipliers beyond the starting ×10 multiplier.
A basic dual collection method has been granted to you by the heavens and a basic collection method.
Note: Genesis energy can only exist with the void.
“So you want to do that. How does it work?”
Jayne pulled out a reputation of the book and Jake's face went a funny shade of grey.
“You really want to do that?”
“Sure, it's a little odd, but it's just like dancing, only not. Plus, once we become one with each other, we won't even need to do all these steps.”
“Fine, we'll begin with step one; that at least looks simple." Jake was about to sit down when Jayne started taking off her clothes.
“What are you doing?”
Jayne pointed at the writing under the first image.
"Before commencing step one, the bodies must be cleaned of all internal impurities and as bare as it was the day of birth." Jake frowned after reading that part.
“I've got a bath ready for us,” Jayne said as she grabbed Jake's arm and dragged him to the next room, her curves glistening in the dimly lit room. Only once both were clean did the two head back. Jayne sat cross-legged in front of Jake, her hands out with her palms facing Jake. Jake replicated the same actions as his stunning wife. As the hands were about to touch, Jake entreated the cultivation technique by reaching inside himself and pushing out that feeling of emptiness he had felt ever since his parents died. Jake's eyes opened when he felt a counter to his feelings; it pushed up against his heart. Its power was too great, so Jake closed his eyes again and dug deeper, remembering the time his best friend betrayed him and slept with what he thought was his fiancée at the time. This pushed back the feelings that were building up inside him to a more equal footing, but then once again an overpowering emotion hit him hard—it seemed to want more, so that's exactly what Jake gave it. He gave it the emotion of growing up in an orphanage where you wouldn't know if the next day you would be sold to some creep for a bag of rice. Jake had even seen this happen; one of the pretty young girls just disappeared one night, only for a truckload of food to arrive the next day. Then Jake gave it more, like the time when his so-called cousins came to the orphanage just to poke fun at him. They did this every day for two years until finally, Jake straight-up broke their noses. Then, with a final push, Jake sentover one last emotion. He recalled every bit of it like it was yesterday. Jake's mind flashed back as he lost himself in the past, no longer being able to tell what was real and what wasn't. He could smell the air and feel the cool breeze; the alleyway was the same when suddenly someone yelled.
"Fuck, boss, we're in the shit now."
"What is it, trooper?" Jake asked, followed by a round of curses.
"Boss, they've got us surrounded high and low."
Takinga quick look at what the situation was, he immediately picked up the radio.
"Everval actual requests immediate dark night support." But only cold static came back over the radio.
"Dark night, this is Everval actual, come in." Static again.
"Fucking arseholes have hung us out to dry, boss."
Radio static echoed down the alleyway.
"Nobody is coming for you, Jake," a voice echoed out from a building.
Static persisted to haunt the air.
"Is that you, Adam? I haven't seen you in years. How is your wife? Do you think she will be up for a bit of rough and tumble like we used to do?" Jake shouted over the gunfire. Bullets erupted, ripping through his men one after the other until only he and his final soldier remained.
"Boss, it's been a blast working for you," the trooper said, before taking a round to the neck, severing his carotid artery. At the same time, Jake took three rounds: one in the shoulder and two in the stomach. After Jake slumped over a stack of pallets, all that could be heard was the crackling of the radio.
"Everval actual, hold on, we are coming for you, one minute out, Dark Night actual—"
These were the last pieces of memory Jake got before an emotion erupted inside of him: one of sadness, one of love, and pain. But Jake instantly understood these were not his emotions; these were the emotions of his wife. She had seen everything that had happened; she had felt it all, and most importantly, it was her Jake had been fighting this whole time. Jake finally gave up and let his defences down, unwilling to continue harming the one he loved.
The impact on Jake was so great he was physically sent flying into the wall behind him. Pain shot up his spine, and his eyes shot open for a second as he gazed upon his crying wife, as her chest covered his face moments before everything went black.
An hour later, Jake woke up still wrapped in an unrivalled embrace. Not being able to move and the fact that tears were still flowing from Jayne, Jake hugged her back and whispered three words he had said in the past but never meant as much as he did right now. “I love you.”
The two of them hugged for a good while before Jake finally opened up his stats.
Name: Jake Everval
Race: Demon of the Past. Unique
Core: Haven Breaker, First Grade Restricted, Fully Unlocked at D Grade
Grade: F
Information on F Grade:
Upgrades: 600 above previous. Anyone below this grade in the open universe will not survive unless protected by life-sustaining means such as planetary shields and the like. No F graders have ever entered space and survived for more than two years without adequate protection. Note: levels are gained through cultivation; levels must be solidified by practical use.
Solidified Level: 78. Levels required until next grade evaluation: 1000 total.
Cultivation Level: 1
Life: 0%
Void: 0%
Mana: 0%
Arcane: 0%
Class: Trooper Shadow Mage (Common). 2000 levels required until next major threshold.
Solidified Class Level: 1099
Cultivated Level: 15 of 10%
Profession: Arcane Smith (Common). 2000 levels required until next major threshold.
Solidified Profession Level: 538
Cultivated Level: 0 of 0%
Information: At common rarity, your profession will have less impact on the environment around you.
Stats points available: 109,459
Conversion multiplier ×10
Mana 1,000.000
Arcane 1,000.000
Stamina 2,000.010
Health1,526.500
Base multiplier ×10
Strength 100.101
Agility 100.000
Intelligence 100.000
Wisdom 100.000
Perception 100.000
Integrity 152.650
Complete dungeons to advance multipliers beyond the starting ×10 multiplier.
A basic collection method has been granted to you by the heavens.
Now that's what I call cultivation. Wow, I even got levels in my class.
Seconds later, the door to the room opened as Zac walked in, followed by James, but unlike the staring Zac, James bolted the moment he saw what was going on and who the two people were.
“Now that's an interesting position. I would like to continue watching, but since my guide just ran off and didn't complete what he was sent here for, you're late to the agreed-upon time of the meet,” Zac said.
Jayne changed forms and spiralled around Jake's naked body, her tail covering his private region moments before Jake re-summoned his clothing and exosuit.
“Let's go,” Jake said with not a care in the world, which for once actually put the good doctor in an awkward position. She just couldn't cope with his utter nonchalant attitude; she was used to men lusting over her, but this man—he just didn't care—and she liked it. Her skin started to change colour to a more bluish tinge.
This is bad; it can't be him. she thought as her skin colour kept changing until she was no longer yellow at all; she was now blue from head to toe. Zac grabbed hold of her breathing mask and pulled it off.
Oh yeah, this is really bad, she thought as she took her first breath of her new environment. How am I going to face father now?