Chapter 10.

Sex felt good. Good enough that Jin forgot his body was essentially three times the size of his husband. Acshellis tying his hands behind his head when he tried to object him going down on him out of embarrassment, his strength too much for him to control as he nearly sent Acshellis flying backwards. His husband handled his huge body otherwise with such ease that it wasn’t his fault for forgetting.

Mumbling sleepily in his husband’s hold, he asked him to wake him at daybreak. Acshellis waking him by pulling him up over him and sinking back into Jin’s sodden opening. Being married was a great life. Secret giggled whispers turned into moans as his husband made his toes curl again. Acshellis then carrying him to the bath, still buried inside, sinking them both into the hot water for a much needed clean up.

Getting dressed again, Jin finally got to tour his own guild space. He’d spent years on it. The walls were all made of deep black obsidian he’d mined himself and it spanned three layers. The first layer was a long entrance hall, red carpet greeted him on entry. If a player didn’t know, they’d have missed the secret set of stairs down to the second layer and have only seen the red carpet leading to the throne at the end of the room. The second floor was his living space. As he’d wanted to create a perfect palace, there were 6 guest bedrooms, a kitchen, and bathing area off to the side from his “living room”. Connected to the living room was his own kitchen, where, instead of a fridge, was his guild vault. There was also a fire burning there for cooking, set in a box rather then a fireplace as the fireplace hadn’t looked quite right, and game mechanics allowed it.

His bedroom and his bath lay to the left of the kitchen-living set up. Acshellis didn’t like the wall, so that had gone, the gap between his bed and the living room was about 10 metres if he had to guess now he was seeing it in person. Further beyond was his bar space, he’d made it thinking he’d never get to use it but it added to the look and feel he was going for. To see all his hard work in person made him proud… proud and a little annoyed to see where it could be improved.

As much as he wanted to linger, Jin didn’t have time to head down to the third floor. He’d designed cells on the third floor, already pretending he could lock up his enemies for looking at him the wrong way. The only thing he’d so far locked up were wandering mobs that had spawned in there using items to what they were. He’d then left them in there as they weren’t bothering him. Also on the third floor was his stairs down to his mining pit, but seeing as he couldn’t actually mine from there it was an abandoned venture. He was happy with his three levels, but now he lived in game, he might have to put some thought into that fourth level. Especially if he had to consider where to house his mounts should the game decide that he couldn’t keep them on the mount page of his inventory.

Standing in his kitchen, Jin opened his guild vault. 15 pages of neat items were stored there. He was truly a pack rat and liked to keep pretty things, or things that he felt he might need later… even if they were grey. At the front of the vault were a few display items, and for a moment he felt annoyed at how easily Shin had made it seem to find things. 

Behind him, he was pounced on. Acshellis wrapping his arms around him and kissing his neck. The fire inside him lit up again as his heart started racing. This was his first time being in love. He’d had plenty of petty crushes in the past, but his mother liked to smother him with love so he didn’t dare let it show in case she somehow found out.

His husband whispered right against his ear

“Lovely Baby, do you really have to go back?”

“Unfortunately we need to keep them alive. I need to find some stuff for them”

“You’re giving those things your own things?”

Jin snorted

“It’s for the goodwill. Rei needs a pair of pants. If they ask where I’ve been, I need a valid excuse. I have no idea what Shin has planned”

“I could throw them all in jail. You know I could”

“I know. But I need to learn all I can about everything here. I need to know what to avoid”

“I could lock you up”

“Don’t tempt me. Let me find what I’m looking for”

“Then should I make us breakfast?”

His kitchen was only equipped to play the part. He’d bought wooden chests and slotted them in to act as cupboards, then painstaking seperated out his looted food. It was probably most likely off unless the stingy system was being kind. If he did accept breakfast then he’d probably end up going back to bed with his hot husband

“Not now. Can you be off work again today?”

“Obviously. The only one who’s worth my time is you”

Butterflies filled Jin’s chest. He hadn’t realised he’d taught Acshellis’s AI so much romantic and dirty things. His husband knew the right things to say, but not always in the right ways. Acshellis mouthed at his neck, causing him to laugh as he patted his husband’s hair

“Stop it. I’m planning on going out and taking a few more quests. I need to find out if they’ve got mounts unlocked, otherwise we have to walk everywhere. And I need to find what I’m looking for”

“Alright. I’ll change my identity again. Should I pick a new character?”

“No, stay with the one you’ve got. My plan is for them to trust you and invite you more into our group. Unless you can get us all jobs working at the tower?”

“I can if you wish”

Jin had been joking… yet… if they were working there then Acshellis wouldn’t need to hide… but then they’d probably take advantage of his strength and Shin and Seiichiro would want to be closest to his husband… still… maybe once they’d adjusted further and done more quests, they could find a way for things to evolve “naturally”… Jin knew he needed to keep it in mind

“Let me think about it seriously. I’m not ready to share how amazing you are quite yet. Plus, you wouldn’t be able to get close to me without them getting jealous”

“I’m only yours”

God. Now he knew what it was like to feel weak at the knees. Damn him. He’d done this to himself

“I know. Let me finish up here”

“Alright, Lovely Baby”

***

8 years of playing meant Jin had accumulated a fair amount of things. It also meant he was incredibly strong as a character. Being a topped out miner had all these hidden perks that he fears the others seeing:

Double loot automatically even on legendary gems.

Legendary miner.

Lava resistance.

Ability to “enchant” gems with cuts.

Ability to price gems and ore on sight.

Ability to build anything to be perfectly structurally sound when made of rock.

Legendary strength.

Ability to summon rock golems or control rock based creatures.

That was why he stuck to dressing in his greyed miner’s overalls. It also meant that finding what was he looking for took a bit of time. If it was pretty, he kept it, even when it wasn’t his class and he found what he was looking for deep in the recesses of his inventory. Firstly a backpack he slung on, then the most important thing. Pants of Rei. He couldn’t take another day of Rei running around in essentially a sports skirt. Taking the item out, he held it out, a pair of leather pants that didn’t look much, but were blues and higher than the skirt. Once on the little idiot, he’d never have to see more of him than he wanted.

With a click of his fingers, Acshellis brought them back above ground, the sun showing it’d been a little while since dawn had broken

“Lovely Baby, what are you doing now?”

“I need to go get everyone else up and explain that I went out shopping. So I need to grab some things before we head back”

“Can I accompany you?”

“Obviously. I want to talk to you about quests. Today I want to pick a higher one so we have more money”

“I told you I’d buy you the world”

Jin snorted, covering the embarrassing amount of happiness

“Not me, them. I need them to buy better clothes and upgrade their guild space. It’s horrible in there”

“I can burn it down so they need to leave”

“Not yet. We’ll go shopping and I’ll leave you at the Bounty Board. We’ll come and get you when we get our new quest. You’re still in our party, right?”

“Mhmm. He didn’t tell me to leave”

“Perfect. I can’t let them go into a dungeon yet, but if they want to, I need to stay and watch”

“Alright. I’ll follow you, my little Lovely Baby”

After picking up what he needed, Acshellis walked him to the guild portal. Not tempting having been cursed out of the party, Jin used his “useful” lump to teleport back into the guild space.

Shin immediately snapping at him

“Where the hell have you been?! We woke up and you were gone. What were you doing?! What were you scheming?!”

Playing meek, Jin held up his hands

“I went and got food for breakfast then checked the Bounty Board. I also found an item in the street for a hunter… here, I’ve got food”

Slinging his backpack off, Jin squatted down and began pulling out what he’d put in. He’d rearranged things so what he’d gotten was what showed first

“Pants for Rei. They’re Ever Night Hunting Pants. They’re not great but they are pants and they were free”

 Rei screamed as if he were starved and seeing food for the first time in months

“Pants!

Before he could rush to take them, Seiichiro snatched them from Jin

“Shouldn’t these go to someone who needs them more?”

Of course the moron was jealous. But they were only blues

“They can only be worn by hunters. I can’t make the game magic up things we all need. I was bummed out that I couldn’t use them either”

“Then why bother bringing back useless shit?”

“Because Rei keeps complaining. Do you want him to keep complaining?”

Seiichiro threw pants at Rei with too much force. Rei staggering back a little 

“Fucking disgusting. What else did you get? Where did you get the bag?”

Jin felt pleasure at Seiichiro’s upset, lying happily

“I bought it for a copper. Here, food. You all drank so much that I was trying to do something nice”

Shin couldn’t stand not being the centre of attention

“If you had so many coins than you should have shared them! We gave you coins and you’ve been holding out”

Why did the little idiot have to be so sharp so early?! Jin held back his sigh. Instead he resorted back to playing the sad and pathetic follower

“Honestly… there was a quest on the Bounty Board for a delivery so I picked it up. You know, so I could buy the food. It paid 10 coins so then I bought everyone breakfast, and the bag for myself instead of food. I didn’t want you guys being hungry”

Following his words he pulled out bread, cheese, smoked meat, and tomatoes. He’d just about murder for some good old fashioned homely foods, but that was more money that he didn’t want to waste.

Shin finally let up

“As long as you’ve learned your lesson. Where’s the rest of the copper coins?”

“I spent them all on food. It was one copper each”

“Such a rip off. I’m sure if I’d been there we could have gotten it cheaper”

More likely if Shin had been there then the city guards would have been called. Acshellis had clung to him and made him eat as they’d walked around. He also had greys for them to sleep in, but he couldn’t bring that up now. He’d have to continue showing his benevolent ways by handing them over later

“I’m sorry I messed up. I wasn’t thinking. Let’s eat them go find a good quest”

Seiichiro sneered

“Who wants to quest. Yesterday was a waste of time. We want to dungeon”

Fuck. Acshellis is was waiting at the Bounty Board. Jin quickly finding another excuse to get them back there

“Sometimes the Board has dungeon quests where you can get more coins. It wouldn’t hurt to look. They don’t usually require extra effort so it’s basically free money”

Seiichiro met his gaze for a moment then shrugged

“Whatever. You can do them to make up for taking off”