Gwen had enjoyed Adventure Time almost as much as Lenny had, which was more charming than surprising to John. While a short time ago, she had played the part of a seductress to tease John, he found her joyful and inquisitive nature that came through as she had watched something new and fun even more alluring. For his part, Lenny seemed to take to Adventure Time the same way he had taken to T.M.N.T., like a fish to water. When John had shut down Adventure Time, Lenny had seemed disappointed that it had ended so soon but had perked up again when John started an episode of T.M.N.T. However, Lenny’s excitement had been palpable to John, Gwen, and Jake, who had all watched on with amusement as Lenny mimicked Michaelangelo, which was almost as frequent as his mimicking of Leonardo. John hadn’t been sure why until near the end of the watching session when he had stopped the episode before turning it off. Lenny had turned around and looked at John before pointing to Leonardo then himself. John hadn’t been sure what Lenny was getting at until the word “Name?” came through their connection. It was then that John realized Lenny thought John had named him after Leonardo, which much to John’s chagrin, was certainly not the case.

It had been hard for Gwen to work up the courage to try and act sexy around John. It was something all of her etiquette classes had warned her was something a proper lady not to do, but seeing the flustered look on his face had been worth it. Gwen knew she had somewhat ruined the effect with her blush as she had tried to turn away, but she had felt John’s appreciation for both sides of her. She had enjoyed watching the cartoons, and it had been almost as fun watching Lenny’s reactions to both Adventure Time and T.M.N.T., both of which had had their attractions for Gwen. However, Gwen had personally enjoyed Adventure Time more. With the number of eligible people watching the “shows” as John had called them, she was also unsurprised that they had picked up a couple of research benefits from them. There hadn’t been any reductions to other Research projects, but they had gained a decent amount of Blueprints for weapons, accessories, and clothes. Those Blueprints included the Turtle’s armaments and masks, and Finn’s first sword Scarlet, bag, and hat. Upon receiving them, John had told her he had a surprise in mind for Lenny, and she was excited to watch as that happened. She was also interested in what they had gotten from her “Research” of The Fellowship Of The Ring, which she barely considered work since making notes on the lore of the story was something she had done for fun as a kid anyway. When Gwen had told John that, he had laughed and called her a nerd, which he then explained was a lightly pejorative term for someone who held particular interests and habits. She had been slightly off-put by that until John explained that he was also a nerd and that when nerds used it among themselves, it was more of a term of endearment and comradery.

From The Fellowship Of The Rings, Gwen had obtained patterns for more Magic Rings, including the three named Elven Rings. She had a suspicion that John would not be able to make those for a while, at least the versions described in the story. When John asked about the Elvish and Dwarven languages, they had gotten into an esoteric Multiverse and System discussion. Following this, Gwen forgot to mention to John that Elvish Script and Dwarvish Runes could be used for Enchantments. Even partially unlocking both languages had reduced the Research Point cost of the Enchantment subskill under Dungeon Crafting to 8. Gwen had also gained templates for the Legendary Monsters: Barrow Wights and the Watcher In The Water, the latter of which was only available as a Boss or Rare monster, similar to the Ring Wraiths and Balrog. Besides Gandalf’s Sword and Staff, she had also gained Weapon Blueprints for the Barrow Blades, The Ring Wraith’s Cursed Swords, and The Bow Of Galadhrim. The Research had also given Blueprints for Chainmail, Elven Cloaks, Elven Brooch, Elvish Rope, Gold Elvish Belt, Silver Elvish Belt, and The Phial Of Galadriel. Gwen had also unlocked Templates for the Materials Star-Glass, Mithril, Ithildin, Dwarven-Steel, Elfstone, and Galdirel’s Tresses, the Magical Plants Athelas and Mallorn Trees, and the Recipes for Lembas Bread, Miruvor, and Gaffer’s Home Brew.

Having immensely enjoyed watching Adventure Time, Gwen decided to watch the first four episodes again, but this time was doing so in the Research Room and taking notes as she had while reading The Fellowship Of The Rings. Watching it the second time, she was also able to pick up some background events she had missed the first time, and Gwen was happy to find out that watching something again, much like reading a book you enjoyed for a second time, you could find new things to appreciate about it. By paying closer attention to the episodes, Gwen was able to unlock a large variety of new Templates, including the Monsters Candy Zombies, Snow Golem, Sign Zombies, Brain Beast, Skeleton Butterfly, Wall Of Flesh, and Crystal Mimic, along with the Magical Plant Crystal Apple Tree. She even gained two new types of Templates, NPCs and Environments. Under Environments, she had unlocked Candy Kingdom, Lumpy Space, Ice Kingdom, and Evil Forest. While for NPCs, Gwen had obtained Candy People, Magic Dogs, Rainicorns, and Intelligent Animals. Gwen had been surprised at the sheer variety of Templates unlocked from watching something only a quarter of the length of The Fellowship Of The Rings. She vowed never to underestimate any creative source on Earth, even ones that may be focused on entertaining children. She chalked this up to the probable uniqueness of Adventure Time compared to The Lord Of The Rings within the Multiverse’s gestalt. Lord Of The Rings is much more aligned with reality, so the wackiness and zaniness of Adventure Time allowed it to draw more from the creator’s unique creativity, offering John a chance to add almost unique features, Monsters, and beings to his Dungeon. After reflecting on this for a few moments, Gwen wanted to get back to “Research” and picked up the first book in another series that John had recommended for her. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.

John had panicked a bit when Lenny had concluded that John had named him after Leonardo, and so had excused himself to go work on the surprise he had come up with for Lenny. Lenny seemed okay with it, and Jake said he would hang out with Lenny and watch some cartoons until it was time for Lenny to wake up. It would be one of John’s first alterations to a couple of items that he planned to manifest permanently. Hence, John put more care into the design than he had for the quick adjustments to the pens when he first tested his Blueprint capabilities. These adjustments would also require some of his Creation Ability, as John had not absorbed the required materials directly. To start, John made a sheet of worm leather. While rodent skin leather would work as a more traditional leather type, he felt it would be kind of odd using it to make something for Lenny. John then used his Crafting ability to shape the leather and make it slightly more rigid, though not hard enough to be dangerous if used to strike someone. He then filled the center of the shapes with more soft leather to give them some weight without increasing the danger of being hit by them. John then dyed the resulting training swords and training nunchucks that had been made a dark brown, rather than the light gray they had been. Finally, he made a blue ninja mask to go with the pair of swords and an orange ninja mask to go with the two sets of nunchucks and placed all the items on Lenny’s table. All that remained was to wait for Lenny to wake up.

Lenny indecisively looked between the blue mask with two leather swords that he believed belonged to his namesake and the orange mask and leather nunchucks, his first true love. John didn’t want Lenny to discover who his namesake was yet, so John stacked the deck by creating a cookie underneath the orange mask. He also put restrictions on Lenny’s access to any Of Mice And Men related media, though he knew that was only delaying the inevitable. One day, Lenny would find out that his namesake was not Leonardo, a cool animal ninja, but instead Lennie, a mentally challenged man known for petting cute things a bit too hard. That day, however, was not today.

John was satisfied with how his present for Lenny had turned out, so he scaled them up and added a couple of each to the Dojo. Finishing up with those, he then made some more practice weapons from the Blueprints he had, including the variety of swords he had access to, along with bo staffs, wizard staffs, daggers, and sai. As he did so, he got a notification that the Training Room would now also give bonuses to learning Techniques for those weapons, as long as someone with a Technique for those weapons trained in the room first. John was glad to see that the Training Room would grow in multiple ways to make it more attractive for people to stay longer in the Dungeon, and was hopeful that similar additions would work for his Crafting related rooms. John was also happy to see that he had unlocked hardened varieties for the leathers he had used and that by doing that, Crafting had levelled up to level 5.

It had taken John much longer than he had expected to make all of the different weapons, and he was surprised to see how close to midnight it was as he finished. What was more surprising was that the System gave him another warning, that he had to commit the Research Point before midnight, or John would lose the extra point. From this warning, it appeared that John wouldn’t be able to go above his Research Point regeneration for the day. If he wanted to get a more expensive Research option, he would have to commit to getting that for a couple of days before finishing any other Research projects. It must be one of the ways that the System was trying to balance out the power of Research, as John felt it was allowing him to advance much quicker than a standard Dungeon, though that was also due to him being the source of mana currently. Deciding on what to Research, John decided to put a point into Cooking and get Chemistry as that finished. While he still had the feeling that Mana To Electric Conversion would be a significant benefit, John wanted to get ready for his date with Gwen as quickly as possible. And, John thought that spending more Research Points was also more likely to level up his Research Ability. As midnight came to pass and John got the notifications for Cooking and Chemistry as he acquired them, he was glad to see his guess had been correct. John saw that his Research Ability was also now level 6 as he brought up the notifications for his new Crafting sub-Abilities.

Cooking

Dungeon Creatures, Monsters, and Plants are now available as cooking materials for the Dungeon to experiment with and these materials are now available as drops. Recipes created using these materials will give buffs to those eating them, and known Recipes are also available as drops in the Dungeon.

Chemistry

Dungeon Creatures, Monsters, and Plants can now be harvested for Chemistry materials or give drops as applicable. These chemicals will also be available for the Dungeon to experiment with and be used in Dungeon Traps and Creation as appropriate.

What surprised John the most after unlocking these two new sub-Abilities was the features that crossed between the different sub-Abilities. While Cooking and Leatherworking didn’t have much crossover, just giving a couple of different Blueprints related to clothing and holders for cooking made out of Leather, Chemistry had a significant crossover with the two sub-Abilities. From looking into it, he could use Chemistry to create new chemicals for better curing different types of leather and adding other features like waterproofing and etching. When used with Cooking, he could develop flavouring and scents to add to his Recipes. It also looked like these new crafting sub-Abilities would help unlock the plethora of Templates that Gwen had acquired while John had worked on the wide variety of leather training weapons. Since he was looking over the Templates, John sent a feeling of gratitude and pride over the work she had done over their connection. As he got a sense of affection in return, John wondered what drove her interest in him and vowed to himself that he would do his best to continue to earn it.