Fittingly, the boss loot spawned in the middle of the Arcana Strike crater. There were four chests. One had the appearance of a craggy piece of granite with a liftable lid, somewhat like an unworked sarcophagus. The second was made from intertwining pieces of metal, lightning dancing between the four handles on top. The third was made from lots of pebbles, woven together with spider silk. Fourth, a fair bit smaller than the rest, was a chest that seemed as if someone had taken the remains of several Sicklemen and stuck them together in a rectangular shape.

Chests one to three were obviously in reference to each of the bosses. The fourth John had a good hunch where it came from, but he would need some kind of window to confirm it. Which required clicking his way through a murder of pop-ups.

‘16 levels, around 900’000 experience, maybe even exactly that,’ John thought. He may not have known how exactly his experience formula worked, but between the required number of his previous and his current level, he could make a good estimate. ‘I dared to hope I would get like 50, but I shouldn’t complain about getting this ‘little’. If I had run regular Assaults in the same time, I would have gotten about half as many levels and no loot.’

While doing so, he checked over at Jack’s location. In order to heal her wounds, Rave had left the barrier, leaving the Gamer’s double alone in the heart chamber of the Titanturtle. Unlike other bosses, it didn’t despawn. Given that it had been more of a scenery than the actual enemy they were fighting and that ending a fight by dropping into the water would have been awkward, he fully supported the design decision.

Having Jack be active over a broken item was oddly unpleasant. John would have even gone as far to call it painful. Sort of like shovelling spades full of sand with blisters all over his hands. It started off awful and would only get worse. Reverting back to the normal Mandala Sphere, after he put the left behind weaponry into his inventory, only made it feel like he had the blisters. Then he started to fly back to his real body to get repairs done as soon as possible.

“So,” John looked up to his gorgeous neck-support, “how did you actually know that I needed the help?”

“Oh, I had no fucking clue,” Salamander responded. “I just knew I would get blasted to shit if I stayed in the room where Jane was doing her thing, so I made the spur of the moment decision to use the teleport. Then I saw that we’re about to wipe and rammed my fist up that disgusting bug’s open throat.”

“Huh. Well, don’t know what to say to that except that it was the perfect call to make,” the Gamer stated and looked at the other windows.

“Even Gaia agrees,” he chuckled, while showing her that window.

“Because Gaia is a smart girl,” Salamander cackled. “Good to have that SEP, isn’t it?”

Nodding, John dismissed that window. Endflame Elemental Summoning would max out in the next few hours, which was just another reason why he wanted to beat the Raid so badly. The last Raid he had beaten had offered him to get 2 SEP as the reward, chances were he would get some this time around as well. He would have made looking for one his immediate priority otherwise.

Thunderstorm Elemental Summoning was going to follow in the next few days, but John and Sylph hadn’t had that moment enabling the final evolution yet. Same was true for Gnome and Siena. Technically, he hadn’t had it with Stirwin either, but that didn’t matter as the infinity elemental was already Tier 5.

“Aren’t we going to look at the loot?” the endflame elemental asked, understandably eager to see the full size of their rewards. After all the struggle they had been through, getting something out of it was so much sweeter. Which was exactly why John didn’t get to it yet.

“Let’s wait until the other girls are back,” he responded. “Wouldn’t want to rob everyone of the moment we all worked together towards. Already feels pretty unfair that they missed the kill.”

They had to wait for a little while. Be it through Rave’s return or the fact that John and Salamander still weren’t back, the wider harem must have realized that the attempt had been successful and came back into the Raid Instant Dungeon. While their return may have taken less than five minutes, the way over to John, even jogging, took thirty. The Raid was done, but the landscape was still huge.

‘Hope there will be portals or something in the next one,’ John thought. ‘Not a big fan of walking the duration of the attempt between attempts.’

The wait time was spent in a pleasing fashion. John was halfway tempted to fuck Salamander on top of any of the chests, but none of them had a shape that would have made for a good bed replacement. At the same time, none of them were high enough that they would have supported doggy style. Doing it directly on the floor was an uncomfortable solution. Doing some standing stuff would have been the best, but John decided to just postpone the fucking in favour of handing out some rewards. Specifically, that meant eating the hovering fire spirit out or massaging her. Particularly her large tits. The endflame elemental liked it when he paid attention to those.

All of the girls, including Eliza and Scarlett, eventually arrived where the two of them were waiting. “…And that’s about what happened,” John finished giving them the breakdown of the entire situation, all the while still fondling Salamander. Given that her breasts were so much fun to play with, he wasn’t even sure if he was really rewarding her more than himself. They were, by a slight margin, the biggest in the harem and a perfect mix between firm and squishy. “So I am going to prioritize rewarding our MVP once we get home.”

“It’s pleasing to hear that my risky action wasn’t in vain,” Lydia announced while looking around the granite chest. “Suppose there is a Worldturtle Egg in here, have you decided on my proposal by now? I have a facility on Fehmarn that could be repurposed for the task of raising it.”

“Well, we should check if it’s actually in there before I break my skull,” the Gamer responded.

“You mean before I break your skull,” Scarlett chimed in. “There is no way I will let you sell something THAT valuable for a particularly interesting blowjob.”

“Public impregnation.” The two words turned John’s current erection from present into a steel rod. The queen smirked slightly at him and bent her back in a challengingly erotic fashion.

Scarlett crossed her arms. “Look at the disciplined military queen, being all classy, whoring herself out for some resources.”

“Considering what else I do with our love, I struggle to find this particular instance of ‘whoring myself out’ greatly insulting.” The stern woman straightened up, staring back at Scarlett. Red and blue gazes clashed in a confrontation of wills. Although Lydia was looking at this more as a matter of national security, while Scarlett cared mostly about the economical advantages, both were interested in having a mobile island around. “A Worldturtle would be of great help in Germany’s ongoing efforts of becoming largely autonomous from Romulus’ greater empire.”

“Over the course of five hundred years, or however long it will take that fucking thing to grow up,” Scarlett retorted. “Better to raise it in the Hudson Barrier. It will have ample access to water there AND serve as a proper tourist attraction.”

“You would lower a Worldturtle to the status of a tourist attraction?” Lydia asked.

“Until it gets big enough to haul cargo around.”

“Not to pick sides here,” John chimed into the discussion before it could consume the remaining day, “but I have to say that raising it in the Hudson Barrier is a bad idea. Apparently Tilgun used to hunt these things for food, so keeping one around might give him cravings. That’s besides the point though. Before we decide what to do with it, we really need to find out if there even is one.”

“Open the chests then,” Scarlett told him.

“Kind of preoccupied with this chest,” the Gamer told her, pinching Salamander’s dark red nipples and pulling them in opposite directions. “My hands really don’t want to stop.”

“That sounds like your is- Sweet fuck, what have you done to my creation?!” Scarlett cried out when she saw the Mandala Sphere hover down to them. Damaged, the flying object had taken all this time to make its way over. It looked less like a sphere and more like a physics breaking potato. Several dents ruined the perfect sphere it had previously been, and at the edges of the bent plates, the enchantment that allowed all of the plates to be compressed underneath one another failed. This caused a visual effect like someone sawing through stacked cardboard.

“It was a necessary sacrifice,” John told her, looking at his near ruined Extension with a thinking hum. “Maybe I won’t repair it.”

“Why not?” Rave asked, before Scarlett could ask the same question. Her version would have had a few more words thrown in for colour.

“Because I like myself to have trophies and this would do rather nicely,” he answered, gesturing at the hovering Mandala Sphere with his head. “I can make a better one with new materials. Then again, that would take at least several weeks and I can’t exactly function without my double for that long.” He sighed, logic winning against emotional desire. With his brain in charge of his actions again, he managed to move the Mandala Sphere into Create’s repair space and stop fondling the endflame elemental in his lap.

With a desiring sigh, Salamander hovered away from him. “I’ll get you to myself, later.” She grinned.

“If that’s the reward you want.” John found it easy to promise that. “After your evolution or before?”

“After, let’s ride in that new booty right after I get it,” the endflame elemental cackled. “I’m burning under the nails for more power. I wonder just how much stuff I can torch once I am Tier 5!”

“Just don’t burn anything I like, please,” John joked.

“And stay the fuck out of my art gallery!” Eliza warned, while the Gamer walked over to the chests. “I spend way too much time making what I draw decent to have you light it up!”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Salamander shot back. “I’m a controlled pyromaniac! I don’t accidentally light stuff on fire anymore!”

“It was a dangerous time,” Rave giggled. “Dangerous and simpler.”

“I don’t know if it was more dangerous or any simpler than our current situation,” John stated as he pushed the lid off the first chest. Since everyone was on edge about it, he started with the loot of the Titanturtle. “Alright, so here we have… a gargantuan amount of money,” he said, pulling a cheque from the stash. Even Gaia wasn’t crazy enough to put over a quarter billion dollars out in notes. The moment he put the cheque in his inventory, it dissolved for the proper increase of his personal wealth.

He pulled a few things out of the chest that none of them had any direct use for. They got every crafting material from the Common category at least twice. The Uncommon Worldturtle Plate, an armour carved from stone, had been dropped, along with the Boots of Everstone and the Shield of the Titanturtle. Then there was the Spire Spear and the Titanturtle Fin Blade, dropping twice, representing the Rare category.

“Give this to Konrad from me,” John told Lydia, handing her the shield. “I think I should bribe your bodyguard to like me.”

“He already likes you, such offerings are therefore unnecessary,” Lydia pointed out. When her lover only kept holding the stone-carved shield in her direction, she took it with a disapproving shake of her head. “I wish you would be a less generous person, taking advantage of you would be more easily justified in that case.”

“But would you be in love with me?”

“Not that deeply as I am currently, I admit.”

“So how generous am I really, if I get something priceless out of offering you something that costs me nothing?” he asked.

Rolling her eyes, the queen acted immune to his charms. John knew that she was simultaneously amused by what he had said and thought him a fool. “What will you do with the remaining items?” she asked.

“As we discussed on the first day, I will give them to the military or use them as political gifts. Until I find use for them, I will keep them in the Guild Bank or whatever display I will have built for them,” the Gamer stated and pulled the last few items from the Titanturtle chest.

Of the two available Epic items, the Worldgems had dropped twice. They came contained in a satin bag and sparkled with shifting colour. John thought he would have preferred the Terrium Ore, simply because he knew what Terrium was, but upon reading the description of the Worldgems, he was quite happy with this loot. They were used in the construction of heavily advanced Mobile Barrier generators. Not only would they serve to appease Magoi for the extra day they had asked for, but they would come in handy in the construction of that Abyssal battleship that was still going on. Giving that thing a superior Mobile Barrier would be quite the advantage.

In the Legendary category, John was almost relieved to see that there was no Worldturtle Egg. Lydia and Scarlett both seemed disgruntled and Nia let out a disappointed sigh, but at least he was spared further arguments. They did get a Worldturtle Core Crystal, which had the fascinating ability to be able to fuse with the Guild Heart and permanently increase available mana and Room Slots by 1000 and 10, respectively. Not a fantastic Legendary item in the moment, but it had nice long-term benefits. It also almost allowed John to get the Sex Dungeon he so desperately wanted. Almost.

There was also the Heart of Stone and Thunder reward for the particular way in which they had killed the boss. The item itself had very few properties, but as a crafting material its main value was what it could be enchanted with anyway. It had a particular affinity for lightning and earth related Attributes, unsurprisingly, and also Spell Storage. That made it a good contender for the centrepiece of a new weapon for Metra.

Moving onto the Ravenstorm chest, John was presented with a whole lot more stuff he didn’t have much use for. There was the money and three Lightning in a Bottle, which was a one time use item. Thrown like a Molotov cocktail, it would proceed to create a massive lightning strike wherever it landed. John would issue it as equipment to some special unit in the next conflict, just to get them out of storage space.

Lightning and Air Gems dropped twice each, giving some extra stuff to craft something with. They provided Agility bonuses and elemental damage effects to whatever they were fused with. In the Rare category, John got his hands on a Tempest Scythe and Lightspark Boots. For a moment, he considered replacing his current shoes with those, but the Vergopunk Shoes were about equal in value, being an outdated Epic item, and fit his outfit better.

He managed to get his hands on two units of Tempi Ore and one Lightstrike Array. The latter was a staff that had the ability to call down the same attack as the Lightning in a Bottle, but on a cooldown or on mana cost. Quite potent, in the right hands. Personally, he could do little with it, so it would wander into the vault. As a trade-off for three Epics, he didn’t get the Legendary. For the pure meme potential, John would have loved to win a Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, but if Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, didn’t drop, then he wouldn’t have a Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker.

Even if it had dropped, it was unlikely to replace any of Aclysia’s current weapons. Metra may have used it, but that was about it.

The Sicklebrood Matriarch chest contained a whole lot of Edible Eggs that John refused to actually acknowledge as such. There were many weird things he was willing to put in his mouth if they were delicious, but spider-scorpion-mantis eggs were not among them. Eliza, Salamander and Siena did not agree, so they were allowed to take them and eat them if they wanted to. A Reshaped Sicklespear was the single drop in the Uncommon category. After Observing it, John ruled that it was actually boring enough to just be put on the Abyss Auction.

For Rare items, he got a Callblade and a Cullblade. They were clearly twin weapons, looking the same except the Callblade bent backwards and the Cullblade curved forwards. The former was enchanted to create helpful spiders, while the later healed the wearer whenever they killed something. Together, they made for a pretty alright combo, so John decided to put them into the vault as well.

He got both the Vilecloak, an item that made the wearer naturally unattractive to approach (among other less unique bonuses), and the Sicklespear Battery, a large quiver that continuously created Reshaped Sicklespears that would fall apart after two hours, in the Epic category. The Vilecloak seemed pretty useless, Stat bonuses aside. Perhaps, if the aversion was strong enough, it could be used to deter dungeon monsters from attacking him. That was the best application he could think of. Either way, he didn’t like looking at it, so it quickly wandered into his inventory. The Sicklespear Battery was strictly powerful and he decided to give it to Beatrice as a back-up weapon.

Although he had no initial luck at a Legendary here either, opening the fourth chest, the one he got for killing all of the Sicklemen, turned that around. There were more Edible Eggs, one Matriarch’s Poison, which was another consumable, and the Legendary item Skittersteps. That, finally, was an upgrade for John.

The drawbacks of these new boots were that they had no Stat bonuses nor the Impeccable Attribute. Losing some Stats and having to clean his boots was a worthwhile trade-off for all the things these offered. Better Acid Resistance was always nice and giving his kicks, as seldom as he used them in combat, a little bit extra reach and utility through fangs and venom was pretty good as well. Mind Slave ensured that, although these shoes were technically alive, they were completely subservient to his will while Lurking Appearance prevented mundane people from seeing them as something else than he wanted them to, which was whatever he used Customizable to make them seem as.

The true power of the item lay in the Adhesive Sole and Skitterstep.

Not quite as good as flying, it still gave John a degree of manoeuvrability he didn’t have until that point. It would have been even better if the Attribute also affected his hands, giving him the full Spiderman experience. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, however, so he resigned himself to use his hands in the regular climbing fashion.

The name-giving enchantment was pretty insane and justified the Legendary tag. Teleports were always good, there was no refuting that. Teleports that didn’t require him to look anywhere and were almost free were even better. Although one second of invisibility and silence weren’t a lot, it would serve to confuse enemies, especially since it followed a second teleport. This Attribute made John a really slippery target, under certain conditions.

With all of the chests looted, one more pop-up opened.

John only considered the choice for a moment. The only thing he could have wanted from the loot was another chance to get a Worldturle Egg, but he wasn’t really after that. He would be way happier to get a bunch of SEP stocked up, the GP and a Level Up were also nice extras. Giving Lydia a moment to try to convince him otherwise, John pressed the button when she gestured for him to do as he wished.