A well deserved rest

To say that Mrs. Stanfield was ignoring John and the other boys would have been an understatement, but with his new skill set, she disregarded his existence even more so than before. It was like he wasn't even there, except an empty chair would've been more noticeable than him, but John was glad about this for the time being because that meant that he had enough time to look at his new ring, fiddle around with his interface and use those two new skill points he had thanks to the achievement.

Starting with the ring, it looked like a simple broad ring for men with a silver colored outside and a crimson colored inside. Other than that the only thing remarkable about the ring was the thin groove running along its length. It was a simple design, not giving anything away about what it could do. Thankfully, he had Observe for that:

Ring of the Slayer
Uncommon
+2 AGI
+2 STR
+4 CHA
Slayer Aura: +50% RP gain (positive and negative) towards a beast that is trapped, bound, heavily wounded or revived. Half of this Bonus also applies to every beast in the vicinity. Does not work on humanoid beasts.

Okay this was pretty cool, but sadly it came a bit too late because he really wanted one of these wolves (maybe even that big one...). Thinking about how he wanted to Bond with one of these wolves, made John think about something quite critical to his thinking process: Where would he even be able to keep them? He couldn't keep them at home at no cost, and keeping them in his inventory sounded just idiotic (as if he could keep living things in his inventory...). So that would mean that he would have to keep the bonded creatures in their Barriers, making it quite impossible for him to keep them around to even be useful... He would need to look into that to see if there was any way to connect Barriers.

That just reminded him... did he use Delete Barrier on that mountain monastery? Checking his character sheet, two things told him he didn't: First, his Mana wasn't refunded from the Barrier like the skill told him it would do, meaning he forgot to use it. Second, and this one surprised John, his Bond value once again said 2/6, meaning that something bonded to him. Thinking that it might've been Kim went out of the room when he clicked on the number and a small pop-up appeared in front of him:

Bonds 2/6
Brunhilde Gjoskenholm
Barrier #1 (Name Pending)

Note: Undeleted Barriers you are not in and that you have created will count towards your Bond maximum

Huh, okay... It made sense in a way, he left a part of his magic there, kind of like the Bond with other individuals acted, even though in Brunhilde's case he had some of her magic probably.

This gave John an idea though. Concentrating on his Transreceptive Eye, he thought about a mental image of the monastery and the courtyard he just had been in. And just like that, he could actually see the thing like he was looking at it from a bird's-eye view. He could see the giant trees in the courtyard, the rubble left by his fight with the boss and the surrounding misty environment. John thought that it looked mystical from where he was and with the light that came in from behind him, he could really see taking one of the girls here on a date looking over the sea of mist and into the sun (would there be a day/night circle here?) and having a intimate moment here... Brun, Astrid, Kim... wait, Kim?

Why did he include her in that thought? Astrid was okay since he always had some fantasies about twins, but why Kim? It's not like she did anything except fight, but that she did with a lot of power and grace... Well, looks like he would have to look into that meeting with her father after all, only for an excuse to get to see her some more and maybe to get her to open up to him a bit... But with due time there, next goal would have to be Astrid. He really needed some of that twin action...

Another thing he noticed with his eye ability was that he could not only look into the barrier itself, but also the classroom where he had created it. They currently had an art lesson in there, led by an art teacher John hadn't seen before. But it was nice to know that he could always look into that room now.

Seeing how much he actually drifted off from his original doing (checking out the ring), John came back to his own senses and checked the clock. All in all, there was still half an hour of sociology left until he had a lunch break. So, on his To-Do list were still his fighting style and the various points he gained. It would make sense to look at the fighting styles at first so that he could select the stats to raise accordingly.

Opening his sheet again and pushing the empty space next to his fighting style opened another pop-up, giving him options for his fighting style:

Fighting Style unlocked. Each Fighting style will also unlock new skills. Please select one:

Twisting Serpent:
Your fighting style represents your way of thinking: cunning, outside the box, quick and sometimes unorthodox. You'll be able to strike from points your enemies don't expect, you'll hide in places they'll never look and take your time to strike at the opportune moment. This fighting style relies heavily on displacement, both temporal and local. Requires high mana regeneration. Counter-heavy style
Favored Stats: INT, WIS

Sticky Monkey:
Where others try to get distance between themselves and you, you always seek the closeness to your enemy to prohibit them from doing anything grand. Short, precise strikes are your trusty tools to slowly batter down the enemy while also bringing them in situations they can't handle. This fighting style relies heavily on close range combat, short weapons, and a strong grip. Defense-heavy style
Favored Stats: STR, LIB

Buzzing Hummingbird:
You don' like to stay in one place for long and you don't like to wait for your opponent. You're the offensive **** in the battle, pushing the enemy against the wall, preferably from every direction. This fighting style relies on a mixture of minimalistic and fast movements in all dimensions, quick and crippling strikes, and a lot of quick reactions. Dodge-heavy style
Favored Stats: AGI, INT

Hidden Scorpion:
You wait in the shadows for your enemy, lay traps and lure them into your plans. You're always prepared and always have some kind of Plan B, maybe up to Z. This fighting style relies on tools and skills to trap the enemy long enough for you to strike at them and then leave into the dark again. Stealth-heavy style
Favored Stats: INT, AGI

Most of these sounded really awesome, but the Sticky Monkey style was straight out of the window. If that style worked as he imagined it to then his spear would be completely useless since it requires way too much room, which he wouldn't have. So that one was pretty much straight out of the window. The scorpion one sounded interesting, but for that he had to mostly use Magic Rope right now, which he could still do with the other styles to get an edge.

The hummingbird and the serpent style seemed like the most plausible styles for John right now, but the preferential stats from the hummingbird style appealed more to him right now, even though the WIS and INT of the serpent style wasn't that bad either...

Choices, choices...