Alex went back inside the inn with a smile. His hands were in his pockets and Grace followed him like a little duckling and sat down to eat with Alicia and Kaya. After eating, he began the long process of getting prepared for a departure.
He wasn't sure exactly when he would leave, but he wanted to make sure he was completely ready. The days went on as he decided to spar with Alan still in the mornings and do some training on his own the rest of the time.
He also started helping out as a real employee for once after Marie created a chain reaction that boosted the economy of Floren. As the Shogun of this frontier city, she started to trade with neighboring towns and villages and even some of the big cities further away.
More stores opened up and more money flowed into the pockets of the residents here. The inn was able to get a bit of a remodel and touch up the areas that were destroyed by the milfy cat fight.
He didn't waste all his time on those things and also spent a lot of time with Kaya and Alicia since it would be a while before they would see each other again. In that time he spent with them, Alicia quickly opened up and asked to be his girlfriend.
She was okay with sharing as long as the girls he had got along well with her. She and Grace came to a mutual understanding but wouldn't be considered friends.
Alex quickly accepted and he now officially had two girls in his harem! Kaya, on the other hand, was a bit harder to convince since she really felt reluctant to get closer to Alex. She apparently had a pretty bad childhood and rough adulthood as well and it wasn't until she got a job at the inn that it got better.
She had daddy issues and trust issues with men especially so it was a hard personal battle for her since she was crushing hard for Alex. With a bit of reassurance from Alicia and surprisingly Emma, she eventually agreed as well becoming the third woman of his harem.
Speaking of Emma, there was a dangerous amount of sexual tension between the two. Emma started flirting with him and he also flirted back but he was always incredibly tense when Alan was in the room or brought up.
They had made out a few times but Alex always pushed her away afraid of getting caught. Emma promised it would be fine, they wouldn't get caught and she would hold her dad back if he did get angry but Alex wasn't convinced.
To make it worse, her mother also came on to him a few times! Sharla apparently found out about her sleepy sexy time when she woke up but didn't get a chance to talk to him about it until now. She scolded him about it and said never to do it again but she was quite confusing since she quickly became touchy with him and started showing him "medical techniques."
If there was actually a medical technique that involved using your mouth on your patient's penis, then Alex swore to learn it himself as punishment.
While his dangerous activities with the two redheaded women went on, he began gathering things he would need for his journey.
He used the money from working and his new fortune to buy new equipment and medical supplies. He also convinced Alan to give him another storage ring so he could hold all his goodies and even took a trip to the destination on the map he got from Kate the slutty bandit.
He could feel her a long distance away but she was still alive so it wasn't far enough for her to explode. He wasn't sure what the maximum range of it was but he didn't want to test it with Grace so he chose to bring her along.
Back to the treasure, he ended up having to fight against a few 3rd Ring enemies but this fight was much easier than the first fight against Don and the Basilisk. He still ended up with serious wounds but nothing he couldn't just rub some dirt on and be done with it.
His prize at the end of the dungeon was a strange helmet in the shape of a lion's head. Unfortunately, the item could only be worn by a Beastman which sucked balls so Alex shoved it in his storage ring and grumbled all the way home that day.
- - -
(Author Note: for you all so you don't have to go back and try to find his info <3)
[Titles: Otherworldly Soul, Aria's Lover, Freeloader, Chaos Incarnate, Ezxio's Champion, Dual Avatar]
[Stats:
Health -1233
Strength -1247
Stamina -1520
Essence - N/A ]
[Skills: Booty Conqueror, Intermediate Weapon Mastery, Intermediate First Aid, Intermediate Resistance, Diamond Skin, Basic Crafting Mastery, Basic Trapping, Lost Art of the Living Chain, Unstoppable Regeneration]
- - -
He also visited the Ether forest a few times but for a much shorter periods to train his skills and get used to his new strength. For his titles, he found out that Aria had made him her avatar and it was a hidden effect of his Lover title!
That made a lot more sense since he was unsure how he got the dual avatar title. His dual avatar title came from his body sharing a portion of Aria and Ezxio's divinity. Both Goddesses gave him the power to help his body withstand the immense power he had however Aria's divinity only sealed his strength while Ezxio's directly strengthened his body beyond what a 2nd Ring should be.
With the two divinities working together, he was able to hold all the power he had gotten from the less than 1% of Aria's strength. A total of over 3000 stat points just for less than 1%? That meant she had at least 300,000 stat points in her being! Probably even more since he wasn't sure how much he actually absorbed from her.
This could potentially only be .001% or something even lower! She was a Goddess after all so he couldn't imagine how much power she actually had.
As for Ezxio's champion title, it gave Alex a ton of potential in battles and seemed to synchronize with many of his skills incredibly well. He was still unsure how he came to know this Ezxio, but his first thought was during his fight with the two 3rd Rings who killed him.
Of course, he wasn't aware that he died but he was sure he was at least on death's door for the two Goddesses to save his life.
Although Alex wasn't aware, his divinities had different amounts of control over his body. Because Aria got to him first, she had the biggest slice of him, with more than 70% of his divinities being hers while Ezxio only had less 30%.
As for how they actually helped him live again, it was a combined effort. With Aria's control over life, she used her powers to keep his soul together similar to when he died on earth. This time however she didn't let his soul leave his body and held it in place.
His soul and body may not have been connected anymore, but after allowing Ezxio to help save his body it allowed her to bind his soul to his new fleshy vessel again. Although Gods were beings that mortals could never comprehend, they weren't omnipotent.
They couldn't influence this world too much and what the two Goddesses did already defied that natural order set by the Universe. They were severely punished for it but both of them knew they were gambling on this.
They were lucky not to be stripped of their divinities and killed but they lost a lot of their power, not only because the universe punished them, but because Alex took a good chunk of it!
And that was directly related to his Chaos Incarnate title...
Because he defied the natural order of the Universe, the Universe recognized him, not only as a threat but as a savior at the same time. Many people confused Order and Chaos as two separate and opposing forces but they were ultimately two sides of the same coin.
You couldn't have one without the other and the Universe recognized that. If the Universe wished to continue thriving and evolving with its inhabitants, it had to allow some set backs to stimulate growth.
Even if Alex would eventually become a dark God and try to destroy the Universe, the Universal Law would not take back its decision. It was just a Watcher that governed and although it wasn't a physical being, it was sentient and learned just like everyone else did through trial and error.
It had a several billion-year head start but it was still a child as well.
Back to Alex's skills, most of them were straightforward. The ones he had before evolving all evolved themselves except for the Booty Conqueror skill which was still an anomaly like him. His weapon mastery jumped a level when he became Ezxio's champion and all his other once basic skills evolved after his intense trip to the Ether forest.
He had ton a ton of dangerous fighting and had to give himself medical treatment, making it go up while he got diamond skin off of his iron skin since he took so much of a beating. Intermediate Resistance probably came from getting attacked by the Basilisk and he got Basic Crafting Mastery and Basic Trapping from his time making weapons out of broken things and setting up traps for his prey.
His engineering knowledge really helped him get the Crafting and Trapping skills and would surely evolve faster than other skills as long as he tinkered on things.
The Lost Art of the Living Chain skill was actually his favorite. Apparently during his fight with the 3rd Rings he managed to gain enlightenment on the weapon and discovered an Ancient art of fighting.
He wasn't sure how or why he got it since the skill didn't give much of a description, but it was interesting and powerful. When he got his hands on another one of Alan's chain weapons, he had a naturally high affinity with it and it felt like the chain became an extension of his arms.
The chain vibrated from his touch and began flying around him. Just with his thoughts, he could command the chain to move somewhere and it listened like it was alive! It was all very cool and made Alex feel like a little kid again but he was unaware of how he could move this weapon without essence but he wouldn't question it for now.
Anything that was a substitute for essence was a treasure in his eyes. He might still ask Alan about it at some point but it wasn't high on his list.
As for Unstoppable Regeneration, that was a byproduct of his Dual Avatar title. It must have been another hidden effect of having two divinities, with one being the controller of life, and the other a bringer of death, he somehow gained a skill to heal himself passively.
It was very much welcomed but it was kind of slow-acting depending on many factors like his mentality and how much energy he had. If he ate a good meal, he would quickly use that energy up and become hungry only a few minutes later.
If the skill started eating away at his muscles, there would be a problem and his food bills might be sky-high.
With that done, Alex spent his remaining time training, fucking, training, fucking some more, and fucking even more.
He even managed to get into that Sarah girl's pants but that was a story for another time. He spent most of his time with Alicia and Kaya since his two girls wouldn't see him for a while and although Grace wasn't happy, she agreed since her master's orders were absolute and she was excited to have him all to herself.
And just like that, another 3 months quickly flew by...