*Day 067*

To say that he’d been busy since he’d woken up from his levelling-induced nap would have been an understatement.

Between restructuring Myriad Wonders, buying so many slaves, buying other… businesses, building a score of new apartment buildings- and furnishing them-, and his various social obligations in the capitol, he was wiped.

Sure, his Stamina regeneration was more than enough to keep his body going. But it was the mental and social fatigue that was getting to him. Especially the social fatigue.

When [Harem] had advanced to its current tier, he’d suspected that it would cause him many, many, issues. He’d been correct.

He was reasonably sure that the other effects/bonuses/whatever-they-were-called, had also increased. Between Bryana- for that’s what she now insisted he call her, albeit in private- and literally every other woman who even remotely thought that he was attractive, he’d needed to be constantly on edge. Constantly mentally reviewing and rechecking what he was about to say. Making sure that his expression was as neutral as possible. Making sure that even his tone and inflections weren’t anything a person could interpret in another way.

It… hadn’t worked nearly as well as he’d hoped.

It seemed as thought he’d already had quite the reputation for being stone-faced and hard to read, so no one was even the slightest bit put off by him actually trying to be stone-faced. On the contrary, they seemed to take it as a personal challenge. A challenge to see who could get his façade to crack first. Which was why he was sitting in a constable’s office.

“So, could you please explain why so many women were…” the constable, one Mr Cogsworth, trailed off as he seemed at a loss to articulate what had happened.

“Topless and throwing themselves at me?” he said as dryly as he could, still in utter disbelief at what had happened.

“That,” Constable Cogsworth said with a light cough into his closed hand, brushing his respectable handlebar moustache in the process, causing him to unconsciously stroke it for a moment.

“Where to start…?” he said, now rubbing his bearded chin as he thought back to how things had escalated to such a degree.

- - -

“I’m done!” Erys said as she threw her arms up, the picture of an exasperated and exceedingly frustrated office worker.

Joram really couldn’t blame her, especially since he also disliked paperwork. Especially paperwork tied to politics. Who needed everything filled-out five times?!

Well, that wasn’t too much of an issue for him, as he could just use a Power like [Copy] to take care of that tedious detail. It was the length of each of the documents that truly irked him. Requiring answers to questions that were worded slightly different from one a few pages back was just… stupid. It felt like they were trying to screw people over somehow.

Like, if one of the slightly reworded questions wasn’t answered correctly, or in a similar way to one of its siblings, they would deny the request/submission and require you to re-apply, also requiring a new application and filing fee. It felt like the worst of the bureaucratic world from Earth had somehow made its way to Iria.

Or. Crappy bureaucracy was a universal constant found in every universe in existence….

“How about we take a break, then?” he asked, knowing full-well that Erys would jump on that like a lion on a lame gazelle.

Which led to them heading into the re-purposed staging area of Myriad Wonders- he really needed to re-name the company at some point. At any rate, he’d already installed a large wading pool that slowly deepened to a full-fledged swimming pool the day before. Complete with an auto-[Cleanse] feature to keep the water nice and clean. He’d even made a bunch of beach/lawn chairs with beach umbrellas so that people could relax without risking a nasty sunburn.

Like he would have had to worry about before becoming a High Elan. Well, before the System, anyways. Sure, he could just heal himself up with a Power like [Natural Healing] or some such if he got a sunburn. Now? His natural regeneration rate made getting a sunburn an actual challenge. A challenge that he wouldn’t ever try, though. He still preferred cooler weather to hot weather.

Anyways. They’d gone out back, changed in the provided change rooms, and had been relaxing poolside when some of his employees had wandered out to join them.

Now, he wasn’t one of those relentless taskmasters that demanded his employees be constantly doing something, so he hadn’t said anything. Because, he really didn’t care what they did in their down-time so long as they got their work done for the day.

Now, before the restructuring, the male-female ratio had been 30:1. After the restructuring, most of the men had chosen to work elsewhere, or were outright fired. Some women too, for gender didn’t inform if a person was an as-… a jerk or not.

What had really astonished him was that almost every applicant had been a young woman, or a woman in her prime. Now, most weren’t remotely qualified for the work they’d applied for, which led him to wonder just why they’d all applied. Fast forward a bit….

Well, he then knew why they’d all applied. Heck, even some of the slaves that he’d freed wanted to work for him. Which, really, was fine. It would even be cathartic for most, as they were now in the business of helping people rather than selling them.

The point was, amongst the twenty-six employees who’d come out to relax poolside, there was only one male. A male that he suspected batted for the other team, as it were. Why? Because of the way the guy looked at him when he thought Joram wouldn’t notice. And the instinctual knowledge of how the guy was doing. A knowledge that came from the accursed [Harem V] “Accomplishment”.

At any rate, Erys’ choice of swimwear had quickly spread amongst the employees. Which basically consisted of a bikini bottom. That was it.

It had taken quite some time, and not a few threats of firing people, to convince them all to add the bikini top. Even then, it seemed as though public bathing was a thing in the Queendom of Muryn. Not only that, but mixed bathing wasn’t uncommon, especially amongst the economically-challenged. So, even having a bikini bottom had been a concession… from their point of view, that is.

Even after all that, it wasn’t uncommon for a “wardrobe mishap” to occur, leaving one of them topless. Which had led to him just turning off his modified [Touchsight] whenever they went to the pool so that he could just close his eyes and not worry about getting too distracted.

But after a few days, word had spread about the “novel” water play. Which had led to more and more women showing up to cool themselves in the autumn heat. Which had led to him posting a rules board. And handing out free bikinis because no one was willing to buy one when they could just go naked. Duh. A no-brainer due to the high walls that surrounded the compound.

At least the men didn’t seem to mind wearing swim trunks…. Well, most of them. Some had insisted on having a bikini bottom too. Which got turned into a speedo, because: no. Just, no.

Then Avi had brought the girls with her for a visit to the capitol, which led to everyone meeting at the pool. Something he’d needed to add to the Academy and the apartment complexes given the enthusiastic feedback he’d gotten about them. Especially from the aquatic races, like the sea elves and mer-kin. Well, just those two, really.

Amongst them all, it was surprisingly the three gals who’d been the shiest about the swimwear, even Fyrellia. But after a brief bit of debate amongst themselves, they’d also adopted the swimwear. The foxkin really didn’t do mixed bathing, so Myra had been more than happy to wear something, though Asami had pouted a bit.

Stolen novel; please report.

At any rate, things had gone decently well the past week or so. Until the contest.

Yep. Somehow, a seemingly mundane conversation about breasts had turned into a debate revolving around natural breasts and those produced with [Polymorph]. As was the case for Erys, and to an extent, Asami. Which led to a debate nitpicking a single-use, instantaneous usage of [Polymorph] that Asami had used vs being able to use [Polymorph] at will, like Erys could use.

Which led to topics like non-mammals using [Polymorph] to turn into a mammal vs mammals just changing their form. Which one had a better understanding of how “things should be” vs “how they wanted them to be”. Which then led to Asami subtly hinting that Avi was even more of a cheat. The subtext being that she’d been a mental construct before gaining a body, and thus was even more removed from “reality” concerning realistic physiology.

Which then degenerated to the point where bikini tops were whipped off to showcase their points. Yes, pun intended.

The other women present were also dragged into it. Well, he said “dragged”, but they practically leapt at the opportunity to show off their own assets to Joram, who’d been unanimously voted as the sole judge. Which highlighted the fact that he’d had his eyes closed the entire time, leading them all to first cajole him into opening his eyes, then trying to physically open his eyes. Which led to a massive dogpile, escalating voices… and a noise complaint.

Fortunately, public nudity hadn’t been thrown into the disturbing the peace charges that had been thrown onto the table since it was technically behind tall walls on his property. Still.

- - -

There were a couple of minutes of silence after he finished his story as Constable Cogsworth mulled over the ridiculous happenings. Minutes filled with “hmm”s and grumbles as Constable Cogsworth slowly stroked his moustache. Which had the side effect of making Joram wonder if he should try to grow one.

He’d basically had his short beard since he’d been turned into a High Elan. Well, once he’d found out how to stop his hair from growing any more, that is. He also disliked shaving, which was why he hadn’t shaved it off yet, even though it would only need to happen once. He’d grown to like his 1cm long beard.

Though, maybe he could grow out the goatee portion….

“That’s quite the story there,” Constable Cogsworth said, brining Joram back to the moment. “Will the others confirm your story? Or will I hear a wildly different story from them?”

Yeah, I’d also be suspicious as hell of that story, Joram thought as he couldn’t help but empathize with the constable.

“Pretty much,” he said with a shrug, knowing that people would change details to suit them… and to save themselves some face.

“Well, sit tight. This may take a bit,” Constable Cogsworth said as he got up and left the small room, leaving Joram to wonder how long it would all take.

He also mostly ignored the fact that he was still in his swim trunks, not bothered by the cool air. He did, however, start reviewing the progress of his [Fission]s.

Kinkade was still doing his thing at the Academy, though he wasn’t the only one laughing at him. But at least he was keeping up with things in their small town. The [Hero]s from Earth were doing well enough, even settling into a decent routine and no longer nearly as standoffish as they’d been when they’d first arrived.

The new younglings, now with a mix of older people now that he was just buying slaves in bulk, were actually pretty happy to attend the Academy and to learn everything that he could throw at them. The old adage that “Knowledge is Power” was certainly a thing here, and more applicable here than on Earth.

Dax was making wonderful progress with the dimensional storage items and tokens. The rings would be activated by anyone wearing the ring by feeding it a single point of mana now. The next part was to work on more storage space in said rings, as just a few cubic metres wasn’t as much space as one thought it was.

He was also making good progress with the storage tokens, even playing around with adding things like a renewable atmosphere or even stasis to them. Which would make food storage a non-issue in the future. Though, the tokens were designed to store away whole buildings, so that might not be as practical as all that. But still, stasis could also be applied to the rings, so there was that.

The progress that Aegis had made was also fantastic. Five or six new satellites were sent into a geo-synchronous orbit every day now, adding to the ever-growing coverage of the coastline. And also the island he’d claimed.

Not only that, but the emplacements Aegis had installed along the coast were… impressive. Or scary. Depending on which side of those anti-ship canons you were on. That they weren’t “anti sailing ship” canons, but “anti spaceship” canons was… terrifying. Even to him. Planetary defense batteries were… impressive.

All the more so since their targeting systems were being linked to the satellites in orbit. Satellites that weren’t just giant cameras. Nope. Aegis had gone the extra mile and added in various models. Like orbital platforms that could do anything from shooting a pinpoint laser powerful enough to melt a one metre wide hole through a mountain to tactical use of [Disjunction] and [Erase Psionics] to Mass Effect Canons. Yes, like the ones from his favourite video game trilogy. They shot 100kg slugs of tungsten carbide at speeds that would easily vaporize a mountain on impact, let alone anything within a good thirty kilometres of the impact site.

*Shudder*

Which led to Bob’s work on that island between the continents. Well, one of the islands. The one they’d basically claimed for their own with the not-so-binding approval of Bryana. Technically in a neutral zone, so no one really owned the island. But so long as it wasn’t a military staging point for any country, it shouldn’t cause any issues….

But! Bob was doing fantastic work! He’d already cleared away the centre mountain/dead volcano and had started laying the impressive foundations for The Tower. Yeah, he’d named it, though it was silently acknowledged that it would likely get another name in the future as their naming sense wasn’t all that great. As was almost constantly highlighted by those around him.

What was wrong with simple? Shrug.

Now, Cyd was the one he was most excited about. He was sure that he was getting pretty close to finding the Maple World Tree. He’d thought that they’d already been close to finding it, but for reasons unknown to them, the tree was proving to be remarkably elusive. Which, upon reflection, was probably why no one had found it in who knows how long.

But with Aegis’ work with the satellites, they were sure that they’d narrow down its location sooner rather than later. Especially if they could increase the range of [Mana Sight] and get that Skill somehow attached to some satellites.

Though, the programs that would have to be first designed then written wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at….

Joram facepalmed at exactly the same time that every other “Joram” did.

“[Summon: All],” he muttered to himself, once more reminded of his broken Skill. How it managed to slip his mind as much as it did confounded him more than a little bit, though. It was such a useful Skill, after all.

But upon further reflection, he realized that he was just so used to doing things himself, that he often forgot that he had such a cheat-like Skill to fall back on. Sure, he’d still probably have to find a way to tie those new satellites into the pre-existing network, but that would likely be much simpler than trying to make everything from scratch. Probably.

Joram frowned, now drawn into a much more entertaining line of thought than wondering when he’d be let out of jail, as it were.

* * *

Dax waved at a few of the Earthlings as he wandered past the mess hall on his way to his worksite. Yes, he could have just teleported there, but it was good to at least be a bit sociable. And to get some sun. And some exercise. Yeah.

In truth, the liked the minimal social contact, even with how weird [Harem] made things sometimes.

At any rate, he was excited to see if his new theory would work. What was it? Well!

He figured that he could so something along the lines of a mother and child setup with the Storage Tokens. Specifically, if he could have a master token that could activate one or all of the secondary tokens linked to it. Which would reduce the load on the master token when it came to storing away more than one building at a time. Which had been vexing him for the past few days.

He’d originally wanted one token that would be able to store away his entire town, as his property was being referred to these days. His house, the greenhouses, the cafeteria, bath houses, brewery, dairy, and apartments. But. It seemed as though it was just too much for one token. At the moment. But.

Being the kind of person that tended to prepare for the worst, he felt that having every building able to be quickly hidden away would be prudent. Who knew if one person or another might take issue with him or his own. Especially after the whole [Summon: Hero] debacle and the ensuing executions and such.

So! He’d started working on a possible solution. One that hadn’t proved possible with his current means. Well, his current knowledge, really. So, a workaround was needed! Which had proved somewhat more complicated than he’d originally anticipated.

Having gotten used to mentally activating things since he’d arrived, he hadn’t much liked the manual method of getting the master token to activate the secondary tokens. Sure, it wasn’t too bad, but it took time to do. Specifically, it took time to go to each secondary token to get within range to activate them.

Then came the thought of having them remotely linked. Something like those rings of communication that adventurers used while doing their thing in the many stories he’d read back on Earth. Which led to other things. Like how to implement the control features. Which then led to Avi suggesting something like a Network that a Vitalist could use. Which had led to him studying that whole class and its class abilities. Which led to him just assimilating the whole package, class variants and all.

Which, honestly, had been a boon in more ways than just item creation, but that wasn’t important right then. What was important was that he could now mentally connect to the master token and mentally activate any number of secondary tokens simultaneously. In theory. Hence the practice site. Which just so happened to be far away from anyone else if things went catastrophically wrong.

Dax paused, reached out, and knocked on a tree to ward off the jynx. Sure, that was probably pure superstition on his part, but it never hurt to be cautious.