You're Not Ready Yet
Tongqiu unhesitatingly sat down cross-legged and took out his low-class concocting device before also taking out countless amount of diverse flora. Looking through all of them, and seeing some intermediate-grade ones, he took a look at the flora all around him that were Fatima's. Seeing that most of them were merely ordinary and definitely not helpful for him, he instead left a few cute, beautiful-looking lots of them all around her garden, carefully planting them and giving them necessary care.
This action of his took him a full 3 hours, it didn't look like he'd done much but, in the future, this garden of hers would definitely look many times better than now with maybe even some mutating to advanced-grade. He felt satisfied.
Without time for more concocting though, he left the garden after pulling away all the remaining of his herbs/plants. Once coming out, he saw Tonkia resting upon Fatima's boundless chest as she nibbled on her left teat as she had her head laying down on her right breast. Meanwhile, still sleepy, Fatima was grazing her larger and slender hand from Tonkia's knees to her breasts. More gently than lewdly even though Tonkia was getting visibly more and more... aquatic, down there.
With a devious grin, Tongqiu joined in by slowly and softly pouncing on Tonkia's already flooded garden before she woke up to her own orgasmic screaming as the fun then began again.
. . .
After another two hours of fun based conversations, Tonkia went back into the White Space after passionately kissing Fatima as saliva splurted here and there from within their mouths into the air, and with the contrast of a short woman like Tonkia and Fatima it was obscene yet alluring to no ends. Unfortunately, Tongqiu reacted too late as Tonkia had already gone into the White Space before anything could've happened.
Fatima merely laughed as she embraced the short man in front of her before also exchanging some previously already mixed liquid and some farewells.
At the end of all these events though, the completion rate of the objective merely raised to 90%.
'Seems like I'll have to actually 'conquer' her, huh? That is rather... weird, what kind of game... never mind that.'
Shaking his head and remaining pure, Tongqiu disconnected from Rising Essence.
***
Tongqiu's villa, Tongqiu's room.
"Waaaaaaah!!"
Stretching himself ostentatiously and thinking to himself that such an objective like the one from the second floor is like eating a juicy meaty steak after months of black bread, Tongqiu went downstairs as he already 'saw', let alone smelled, that dinner was more than ready and served on the table.
While eating, he recounted the happenings in Rising Essence as they both Natalia and Diana, looked at him wide-eyed and speechless. As their eyes clearly expressed: 'doesn't he has too much dogshit luck or is the game straight up perverted?!' and 'we were even worried in case you had another big BOSS fight, but you were instead sleeping with another woman, and a threesome at that?!'. However, they felt some kind of pride... like that of a wife that allowed her husband to watch a game with his friends in the and after acting all excited and fangirling all around, came back to their wife all satisfied and content. Or as if their puppy had finally learned how to poop outside and even cover it with newspapers so that it doesn't smell too much and is obvious that it had finally 'done' it.
...It was a weird feeling, which was also the first for them and Tongqiu. After dinner, they merely watched some TV on the sofa before going to bed, peacefully and without unnecessary lewd. With each passing day, they felt more and more closer when passing time together like that, than going at it like rabbits all the time.
Pure skinship and silly, corny moments were their every day routine for when fooling around with each other. Or them, with Tongqiu, more like so.
Tongqiu and Diana level of skinship was already at the level of him and Natalia while also, their natural affinity with each other was already beyond 'boyfriend and girlfriend' as casual moist quick kisses and even rapid touches here and there were common. Unlike Natalia though, she didn't shy away from being 'properly' teased in front of others -like his other lover, since he would never expose them to anyone else- and instead went back at him for revenge right away.
Natalia seemed to already have had come to terms with Tongqiu's boundless love while Diana herself was no longer overthinking nor over-heated her brain with the idea and treated instead as their way of living.
Besides, with Tongqiu's genuine affection and devotion towards her even though he barely knows nothing of her background; as well as her 'Big Sister' hard support on sharing their man, she could only feel both, grateful and caring.
Another day passed as both kittens slept entangled to their 'scratching post' ever so endearingly.
***
*PING*... second floor's objective: [Successfully conquer 'Fatima, Goddess'] progress has advanced from 90% to 97%.
'Ah? How com-'
Before Tongqiu could even continue to think, a pair of large and slender hands embraced his entire being from his neck to his back as well as another pair of huge, meaty and fragrant bouncy 'things' also assaulted his face.
"Nehee, hee~."
What came to his ears was the silly laughter of a girl in love as he thought 'Ah, I guess she's seen my 'surprise' then.'. As such, he naturally embraced her back until he had to bite at her breasts so that she'd allow him to breathe.
"Ehem- cough! Cough! Well... why don't we go to the garden, ah? I'll let you see a master in action!" Not going around the bush, Tongqiu invited Fatima so as to not let her wander around. Since he was around then, why not spend that time together? She should be aware of the floor's objective as well. And taking in consideration how she is supposed to be a prisoner here, more than anything, it was obvious she would more than happily- accept.
Sure enough, as soon as such words befell on her slightly trembling ears, she nodded before answering in a soft yet imposing voice: "Mn, I'll accompany my husband and diligently take care of him."
'Tonkia... I don't know if you did evil or good to me, tsk tsk.' He understood that she was naturally born as a Goddess by now and as such, the glorifying, imposing and grand aura of hers wasn't a surprise to him; but her mannerisms of calling him her husband and the like, from the looks of it, she didn't even really know more than superficially what those words meant but... it was alright . Since she didn't start feeling superior nor above him, that was enough for him to actually accept her.
As they entered her little garden, Tongqiu realized that it was little no more and that there was quite the space for even future planting pots spots.
It became a 100 square meters big garden instead and for the looks of it, it even seemed that she was planning to make multiple adjacent floors all around it... cute.
There was also a fact which made Tongqiu's heart soft; he found out that wherever he planted his plants and herbs before, she had moved the entire plant pot to a side, without modifying nor beautifying it, merely moving it to a place where it'd look more prominent than the others.
'Ah, she really seems like a young girl.' Thinking to that point, Tongqiu's head and heart were invaded by the outline of a certain figure from the past... before being brushed away by Fatima's slight, gentle embrace from his behind.
"Ah, you. Are you trying to provoke me?" As he asked deviously, Fatima innocently responded: "I just saw your mental state deteriorate quite substantially out of nowhere, I had to clear your mind from such pain, no? Isn't that what a good wifey does...?"
Tongqiu merely looked at her wide eyed: 'That's right... she's a Goddess, it should only be normal for her to have this kind of... vision...'
Though Tongqiu was momentarily remembered of another such being, he brushed it off as he raised his left hand to grasp her chin with a couple of his finger before answering her: "Yes, sorry. It was something from the past, would you like to see me 'work' then?"
Looking straight at his eyes, Fatima no longer found his mental state going astray, as such she gingerly nodded and followed him to a clean, spaced spot where he could 'work' without being brushed against the plant's leaves and the likes.
Once he started going at it, he immediately became absorbed so much into it that he even seemingly forgot the existence of the extremely tall beautiful woman to his right, tenderly looking over his every action with a hint of playfulness and harmless mockery, as she was thinking to herself: 'What kind of trashy device is this? How can I allow my man to use this primitive tool? Hmph, were I to find who conned my hubby...'
Not realizing at all that he was already taken as an easy to fool client, he began to concoct and concoct, until he finally arrived to the potion he so much wanted to cook up.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Kindness Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 3, quality: Top, difficulty: Medium-Intermediate.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Kindness Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 2, quality: Top, difficulty: Medium-Intermediate.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Kindness Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 3, quality: Top, difficulty: Medium-Intermediate.
x111 [Kindness Low-Potion]: Type: Potion, Grade: Powerful, Effect: Instantly restores 15% HP and regenerates 150 HP every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds.
This 'Kindness Low-Potion' was one of the very few, and the most 'basic' of the recipes granted to him by that old man from the Novice Village. It was obviously only available to him, unless there was another person with the 'Forge and Create' special sub class branch. In any case, he should be the only one with it but there might be others with similar unique branches on another areas, or the same.
And seeing how it was an Intermediate-grade, he shouldn't be able to make them right away, but thanks to nature being well maintained as well as the environment being one that was definitely focused on the growth of flora; were all substantial factors in aiding him into concocting intermediate potions. Even though he was already Intermediate Gardener, he wasn't familiar nor used to concocting such difficult items and without it, he'd surely waste some resources which he was completely unwilling to do.
Feeling quite grateful, Tongqiu finally gave Fatima another glance along with a grin full of thankfulness and genuine affection. 'Ah, he got me'- though Fatima as she... blushed (?), it was impossible to know since her skin had a layer of pure gold over it, but the gold around her cheeks and even around her collar bone started to somewhat make cracking sounds which easily attracted Tongqiu's gaze.
'Ah... that's the way she shows embarrassment...??! Sigh, every being here in this world is really unique in some sense.' While in his thoughts, he unconsciously reached out to place his right hand on her chest as he patted it with dear softness.
"Haaah~" Without waiting for a confirmation, she pinned him down before 'mercilessly' unclothing him, then she straddled him and even without being entirely 'ready' she went down on him...
. . .
*PING*... second floor's objective: [Successfully conquer 'Fatima, Goddess'] progress had advanced from 97% to 98%.
As Tongqiu was sitting cross-legged with Fatima's head resting on his lap, a notification had just abruptly popped up before him.
'Oh! That's weird, why would it suddenly advance because of intercourse? It... didn't... happened... be-fore...'
Tongqiu's thoughts became muddled as they went on and on, slowly coming to a stop and merely began to contemplate.
After a little while, his gaze went down before moving his hand to softly caress her hair.
Then, he once again began to concoct more potions for his future adventures. The lack of useful and impactful items hit him very hard last floor, he wanted to at least have ways to make it a little bit easier.
He would occasionally use the crank when he'd already melted a little some flora before once again rotating the crank, once such procedure was complete, he would pick up the remaining liquid into one of the tubes before repeating the process with the very same ingredients and later on with different ones.
He would sometimes blend the ingredients a total of three, four times before picking it up with a tube. In cases of more complex methods, he had to blend ingredients at a total of 5 times while using the centrifuge tool a couple of times between the second and last use of the crank before the liquid inside of it reached the requirements needed for the rest of the recipe.
At some point, Tongqiu finally started the creation of the potion...
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Benevolent Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 4, quality: Top, difficulty: Low-Intermediate.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Benevolent Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 7, quality: Top, difficulty: Low-Intermediate.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Benevolent Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 3, quality: Top, difficulty: Low-Intermediate.
*PING*... you've successfully concocted: Benevolent Low-Potion , result is as follows: quantity: 6, quality: Top, difficulty: Low-Intermediate.
x322 [Benevolent Low-Potion]: Type: Potion, Grade: Powerful, Effect: Instantly restores 35% MP and Stamina, restores 200 Stamina and MP per second for 20 seconds. Cooldown: 25 seconds
It was evident that this potion much more easier to concoct. Tongqiu decided to invest much more resources in these more than any other, not only because of the easiness but because he is less likely to get injured in a prolonged fight, namely against BOSSes, but instead he'd waste much more resources. If he wasn't able to kill many BOSSes to recuperate the lost MP and Stamina, he was in for an unnecessary amount of trouble.
He would've gone for an elixir that'd grant him much more HP, MP and Stamina Regeneration but, his grade was way too low so he could only cope with these two types of potions first.
There was also potions that'd increase his Hit Rate, Physical/Magical Defense and even a potion for jumping an extra 10 meters at will and reducing falling damage, again, he couldn't concoct them because of his too 'low' of a grade.
Funny, if just many players who weren't even giving a single glance to their own personal sub-class, they'd go crazy on his thoughts. How could a person say they're low level when it's been merely a couple months since the release and already have half a semester of hard work of others as a 'low' grade? Ptooey, ptooey!
There were no more than a few hundred at the Intermediate grade in any class, even the 'easiest' ones to advance at are still a pain in the ass, specially because the auto-mode ones gain little to no experience while the manual ones are basically putting someone's capabilities to the test.
No one really expected that and when it came to the second month of the game, and these news and dumps of information became an unstoppable current, players all over the world got more or less drawn into it more. It seemed as if Crestfallen Industry were trying to make their players more flexible to actual labor. It was weird and somewhat forceful, but it was of no harm and it came directly from a game, besides the fact that it was entirely optional, so it only ended up as being accepted as a harmless educational system in Rising Essence... for now.
***
For the sake of completing the second floor's objective from the Mysterious Hidden Grounds; Tongqiu decided to sleep from night to morning with Fatima, as such, when he went back to have a meal he indicated of his malevolent plan to the girls which they speechlessly accepted.
And so, Tongqiu's first night while playing Rising Essence was... played by sleeping inside, too.
. . .
Rising Essence, unknown location.
As morning had already arrived, Tongqiu woke up to a golden shining Goddess, so much he felt his eyes were to be blinded right away. He obviously wasn't sleepy or the likes but, he indeed maintained his eyes closed for hours and that alone made his eyes quite vulnerable to this invasive bright sheen right at his side.
"Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?"
After a little while, the calm and composed voice of Fatima was heard from the dimming bright sheen...
Tongqiu noticed that she, however, had something different about herself. She seemed to be somewhat transparent.
Tongqiu: "..."
"Ah. So you noticed." This time, her voice was no longer that of what one would imagine a god's voice to sound like and it was instead a that of a distant one, a childish-girly voice which was ethereal, heavenly.
"Was it yesterday, was it-" As 'Fatima' was gently asking, she was indifferently interrupted by Tongqiu.
"No. The moment I entered the floor... too fake; and the moment you did that dirty insinuation, those little tests confirmed it all."
"Hmmm... what a strange one." 'Fatima' answered back, not offended at all by his rude interruption.
*PING*... second floor's objective: [Successfully conquer 'Fatima, Goddess'] progress has advanced from 98% to 100%.
Right after receiving such a notification out of the blue, Tongqiu's body was gently teleported towards the floor he saw the very first time he entered the second floor. But only for a second, as everything, all the gold and the immensity of the room instantly vanished after merely seconds from returning there.
What was behind all that facade was a small room of approximately 12 square meters, full of light blue-white colors, as if the testing grounds for some kind of advanced simulation yet without a single bit of technology as the room was entirely empty.
"You've shown me the typical functionality of a human being... your seed and your reliance, no- rather, your foundation based on your emotions. All of these, are pure, yet you somehow carry abundant self-hate...or used to... it matters not why, I merely wanted to point that out." The same ethereal, heavenly voice of a little girl was heard right in front of Tongqiu, from where he deduced was where the gate to the next floor was as there was also a milky-blue orb of light in the middle of the 'wall' he was facing.
*PING*... you've successfully completed the Ancient one heart's test! Dream Floor has been cleared!
'Uhm, that I did not truly expected.' After thinking so, Tongqiu waited for whatever else this voice, or rather, Ancient one had to say.
"Mn, very well. This garden, seeing how much you liked it, I've decided to reward you with it for clearing my doubts, young one." As the voice sounded out, a miniature cube-like object materialized out of nowhere. It was formless but when one looked deeply into it, one would be able to see images of what seemed to be a garden... it was precisely the garden he's worked at before!
"Fuse it with your bestowed blessing, after all, not everything is an illusion when inside a dream."
Tongqiu merely nodded noncommittally before instinctively raising it above his head, it was then 'eaten' by a whitish light in but an instant as it disappeared.
"Mn, your mental fortitude is really too good. You make good for a inheritor, unfortunately, you're not available." These few words made Tongqiu's eyes and mouth to gape in shock, could it be... a hidden class?!
"W-w-wait! I may not be able to- no, I may not have the chance for this cl- profession but, I'm sure I could find someone who does!" With these suggestive words, if the so-called 'Ancient' one didn't understood his meanings, then Tongqiu was truly hopeless.
After silently feeling a gaze directed towards him, or rather, his entire being. Tongqiu heard 'her' ethereal voice once again: "Hmm, alright. But, without completing your task here, there'll be no such reward... 'class' how you Journeyers call it."
With that, the voice stopped and the milky-blue light enlarged until it was the size of the previously seen arched gateway from before, he then heard that voice once again: "Come."
After remaining thoughtful for a few seconds and not receiving any annoyed nor impatient remainder, Tongqiu adventured once again into such doors.
...
Author's Note: Plot Twist! Lol no, but I for sure wasn't intending to just give dear little Tongqiu an easy Goddess's thigh to hug! Too op, too op.
Meanwhile, Tonkia: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
V1: #1 9/10
