A Surprisingly Normal School Day

The first three classes of the day had gone smoothly and without incident. Even history class with Wentworth hadn’t been any different from a normal class, despite John sweating bullets throughout, worried about somehow offending or annoying her and promptly getting turned into a newt or worse.

In that time, he had made 500 mL of alchemist’s fire, leveled Craft and made some progress on Low Alchemy, Enhance Muscle, Theurgic Focus, and Biomancy. Then he’d run out of duration on the Food Buff and dialed the Background Creation back enough to keep his remaining mana regen at 2 per minute.

He had also learned that Frank was absent today; presumably the concussion was bad enough to net the jock a sick day. There had been a few cases of ‘lesser’ jocks standing in his way, glaring and huffing and puffing and all that. It hadn’t gone any further than trying to be intimidating though, probably because they knew Frank would want to punish John personally.

As for the intimidation itself… well, despite the outcome of fighting Frank yesterday, the rat ogre business still made these guys seem a lot less scary.

Now, it was time for art class with June, also known as the best part of John’s day. Like Monday, he put in the effort to be a few minutes early and help June set up. Also like Monday, he was rewarded for that effort with a thanks and a radiant smile.

Arguably more importantly, he got an opportunity to lightly bump into his gorgeous art teacher and give her a dose of skin smoothening Alter Body.

New Skill Level: Alter Body lvl 2.

Sweet, that Skill upgrade had been a long way coming. Well, not really, it had been two days, but he had been looking forward to it a lot anyways. And judging by how his boxers suddenly felt a tiny bit more filled, the increased alteration % applied retroactively too.

Kind of impressive that he could feel a 2% change, now that he thought about it. Then again, there were some highly sensitive parts down there so maybe not so surprising after all. While he spaced for a moment pondering that, the others started arriving and John had to find his seat as well.

When everyone was seated, June clapped once to quiet people, then addressed the class. “Thank you. We will continue doing free drawings today, as well as the classes next week. Those of you who handed in a finished or near finished drawing last week, please choose a more ambitious motif for your second one.”

John thought about that for a moment. June had reacted positively to the artfully nude drawing of herself previously, and he wanted to keep striking while the proverbial iron was hot. At the same time, she had made sure to catch his gaze when she said ‘more ambitious’, so clearly she was expecting something… more.

He could just go harder on the level of detail. Maybe go up to A3 size as well. That would be more ambitious, and take more time, but it would also be kinda… uninspired. Making a bigger piece wasn’t a bad idea, but doing something more with it than just scale up seemed better.

After a few minutes of thinking, he decided to draw a large picture with a pond on a floating island overlooking the edge of said island and a stretch of sky with other isles floating above clouds in the distance. In said pond, he would place a nymphic rendition of June, bathing or frolicking.

As an added bonus, if someone other than June got too close and he had to cover up the risque parts, he’d still have something to work on that wasn’t just a decoy. A ways into laying it out in rough sketch for composition’s sake, he hit upon a snag though. The pond part of the piece was a bit too… empty.

He considered filling it out with lotus flowers or other vegetation, and maybe a few fantasy beasts. What he settled on, however, was adding more people. With the primary focal point kept on nymph June, it should still speak that message loud and clear.

For the group as a whole, he decided to make it an all-female adventuring party. Nymph June as the centerpiece, lounging in the shallow end all relaxed grace. A few adjustments turned a few leaves at the edge into part of a leaf gown, accompanied only by a harp by way of ‘gear’. On the far bank of the shallows, he put a figure with a more hesitant, timid bearing, next to an outline of neatly folded robes and an amulet on which he’d put a fictional holy symbol…

As a more active counterbalance in the deeper end, he put an energetically poised tiefling. Come detail time, muscle contours would suggest that she fit with the haphazardly strewn sword, shield and chainmail on the brink. Lastly, he put an agitated goblinette on a rock sticking out of the water, shaking a fist still encased in an exaggerated steampunk gauntlet at the warrior. Implication being that she had been tossed into the water by her companion before she was done undressing.

John was feeling very excited for this drawing. Enough so that when class ended he was very strongly tempted to ask permission to take it home and continue working on it in his spare time. The main reason that he didn’t was that Abyssal business probably wouldn’t actually leave him with any spare time.

Instead, he wished June a good day and reaffirmed that he’d see her Saturday, then went to find Christie. Since she was waiting by the stairwell they had used to access the roof yesterday, that was quickly done, and a few minutes later they were sitting up there, unpacking their lunches.

“How has your day been?” John felt like he should inquire about her life in general before diving into some book based franchise or other. Actually show his interest in her wellbeing and all that.

Her blush, down turned face, and the delay before she said something made him think that that had been a fuckup. “... I uh… People have been loudly whispering about us… Implying that we… uh…”

She didn’t finish but she also didn’t have to. Her blush deepening at the end plus a bit of unwanted familiarity with the rumor mill was enough. With himself rumored to have a micropenis and neither him nor her being considered attractive partners, this was basically a way to reinvigorate the old rumor about him and laugh at the both of them over it.

Between recent developments with his size, and anger that the rumor about him was being used against Christie, he was momentarily tempted to do something drastic, and risk being charged with indecent exposure, to put that bit of gossip to ****. Instead, he shrugged. “People talk all kinds of crap. Give it a week, or until the next bit of celebrity drama drops, and they’ll move on.”

She nodded and they ate in silence for a moment. During which the cat from yesterday turned up and started eyeing John’s lunch again. Then she added, “There was also… someone had unwrapped tampons, colored them red and taped them to my locker… but… it doesn’t really make sense… Because the most I could have noticed on my own was that there were dry wads of cotton… I only know the rest because Lisa told me… She was very angry…”

Knowing that the teaching assistant that had been hired to take notes for Christie also had her back when it came to the bullies doused John’s rage at the culprit somewhat. It was calmed a lot more by Christie sounding more confused and even a little amused by this tampon thing than she seemed bothered by it. The whispers seemed to have been a lot harder on her.

So, instead of launching into an angry denouncement of that ‘prank’, he took a moment to try to figure out a way to actually make sense of it from the culprit’s point of view. “I think it might’ve been because you weren’t really the point. It’s too crude and ineffectual to be something Vanessa came up with herself, so it’s probably someone trying to curry favor with her.

“They were probably more worried about it being noticed and word coming back to the Queen Bitch. You were basically just a vehicle for the status play to whoever did it…” He couldn’t quite keep the disdain out of his voice. People who took that kind of attitude towards victimizing others were scarcely better than the ones whose purpose from the start was hurting their victim.

“That makes sense…” Christie nodded again, followed by another few minutes of eating quietly. The cat attempted to steal some of John’s lunch, but he foiled it.

“How… about your day...?” She was ‘staring’ attentively at a spot above John’s shoulder when she asked, the blush from earlier still persisting.

“Erh, well, there’s been a bunch of huffing and puffing from the jocks. But since my house is made of neither straw nor sticks, I don’t really care.” She giggled in response to that, prompting John to do a mental fist pump in celebration. And then realize that he could actually have done it for real and nobody would’ve known anyway.

From there, they ended up segueing through childrens’ fables to fairy tales, and more or less stayed on that topic for the rest of the lunch break. Along the way, John fended off a few more feline attacks on his food before he decided to give in, tear a small piece of sandwich meat free, and toss it to the hungry cat.

When they finished and were on their way back down, Christie stopped in the middle of the stair and muttered something that John was pretty sure was to herself. While he was curious about why she did so, he wanted to let her explain at her own pace, so he simply stopped and waited. Nevertheless, when the sound of his footsteps stopped, the blush that hadn’t entirely left her cheeks deepened once again.

“... I…” She clenched the hand she was holding down her side into a fist, as if to steel herself. “Do you want to play D&D with me? I… M- Father said you are welcome to join. We play on Thursdays at 6. If you want to eat with us as well, dinner is at 5.”

Offer made, Christie’s flushed expression of mixed anticipation, worry and embarrassment was absolutely adorable. So much so, John was very tempted to pretend to have to think about his answer so he could enjoy the sight a bit longer. He was so focused on enjoying the moment, he almost didn’t notice the Quest window that popped up and then almost immediately faded to total transparency.

That would be a little mean, though, and he didn’t feel like they knew each other well enough yet for him to tease her like that without risking creating misunderstandings. “I would love to. I, uh, need to check with my mom about the dinner thing though… If I can have your number, I’ll call and let you know as soon as I’ve talked to her.”

Instead of answering right away, Christie made a small, celebratory jump. Then she seemed to realize what she had just done, because her blush went from rosy cheeks to full-face tomato color. She then covered her face with her hands and hair.

“MyNumberIs7-” Between the speed, low volume and being partially muffled by her hands, it went from barely understandable to completely unintelligible past the first digit.

“Slow down a bit. I, uh, didn’t have my phone ready.” That was true, not something that might embarrass her further, and gave her a few moments to collect herself. Once she had, they managed a successful number swap, then headed to class.

It was methodology class, which they shared, and only once they were there and seated did it occur to him to even check her RS. A 12 point gain to 60 was some pretty solid progress. He wasn’t sure what he did today that was comparable to fighting Frank yesterday, but he sure wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth.

While Mr. Landcliff arrived, got his stuff in order and got someone to hand out textbooks, John took a look at the new Quest.

New Quest: Under Watchful Eyes
Join Christie for a TTRPG session at her house.
Reward: 100 EXP, 200 EXP for Christie, +5 RP with Christie, +1 RP with Christie’s father.
Consequence for failure: -20 RP with Christie, -80 RP with Christie’s father.

Bonus Objective:
Impress Christie’s Father at the game session.
Reward: +2 INT, 5000 EXP, 1000 EXP for Christie, +5 RP with Christie, +10 RP with Christie’s father.

Quest already accepted.

John didn’t really need any further reason to prioritize going to that game session, but he sure wasn’t going to complain about extra rewards either.

‘Christie’s dad sure takes it seriously when someone flakes on her, though. Can’t help but wonder how low his relationship score with the rest of our year is after how her birthday party turned out… And the size of the reward on the bonus objective suggests he is going to be very difficult to impress…’

The class itself was entirely unnotable, save for two things. The first was that John’s zoning out was more about what kind of character Christie might have, and what he could make to complement hers, than it was lewd daydreams. The second was that practice casts of Enhance Muscle, while trying to pay some level of attention to the class, had brought Theurgic Focus to level 2.

Electronics class afterwards had precisely one notable feature. The textbook was usable as a Skill Book and offered the immensely tempting Archanotech Engineering Skill. It wasn’t quite tempting enough to bump off Low Alchemy or Biomancy, but if he hadn’t already developed those two some, he would have had a very hard time choosing. Instead, he decided to keep it in mind for when he eventually raised his INT.

The class itself was fairly boring. It was an elective that he had taken because he had found assembling his desktop computer from various pieces of hardware moderately interesting. Unfortunately, he had since found that his appetite for the particulars of electronic hardware was easily overfed.

When electronics ended, so did John’s school day and it was time to turn his attention fully towards Abyssal matters. Marisa had confirmed by text that she had no plans to leave her home until way in the evening, and expected nothing to turn up suddenly, so he decided to visit Qhila first.

However, something had caused his conscience to gnaw at the back of his mind for the past two days, and the prospect of meeting the kobold alchemist again had caused him to realize what it was. Unfortunately, knowing what caused it didn’t result in knowing what to do about it. So, before he went to talk to her about the Abyss and guilds, he had to make a quick stop elsewhere.