Accessorizing.

John sighed, glancing again at the window in front of him. He had originally planned on going outside - since nobody would be able to see him once they were in the Barrier he created anyway - but had changed his mind when he realized he didn't want to deal with his mother catching him slipping in and out of the house at weird hours. Plus, even though Gamer's Body should protect him, he didn't know yet if it worked on his clothes. If they got damaged - or worse, destroyed - he didn't want to be prancing around outside in his underwear.

So his 100 by 100 Barrier was going to consist mostly of his house and his backyard. That seemed fine, really - it wasn't like any damage he did was going to carry over. He'd gone back to the stairs at the school that Moira had destroyed just to see for himself, and just like she had said there was nothing changed in the real world. John could smash a few things up for stress relief that way.

Meanwhile, the actual ability was odd. Where most of his skills just seemed to activate by him thinking about them and then went to work, this one had popped up a menu. Not only did it show a grid of the area John had been picturing engulfing with it, but it also showed a drop-down that let him choose what kind of enemies he wanted to put in, and whether they were hostile, although that option was grayed out.

"Only two difficulties, Easy and Normal… well, I guess they can't be Hard since they can only be up to half my level," John thought, glancing at some of the options. There were staples, like the Skeletons, Giant Rats, Bats, Goblins, and a few other miscellaneous RPG tropes, but one stood out to him as fairly unique - Shadowcats. Unfortunately he couldn't see a description of what anything was, only a simple name, so there was no way for John to know if he was getting himself into something by picking them. Still, he could always escape if it came down to it - hopefully since he was the one creating the Barrier there would be no trap inside of it like last time. Reaching up, John altered the difficulty of the enemies from Normal to Easy. Going in for his first run he didn't want to take things too seriously.

John clicked on the Accept button and let the magic do its work.

Dungeon Barrier created! Centered on user's location. To enter, hit Enter.

A second window popped up with that option. Below it, the stats of the Dungeon were displayed, but most of the options were blurred and unreadable, except for one: Population - Werecats.

"Awesome," John said, before his mood was rather soured by something else he saw, not in that window but in his character sheet. In his excitement to start grinding, he had overlooked an important fact... which was that his mana was now well below half. In fact, he barely had enough to control the elements for three seconds, and even with a weapon he wanted something to fall back on besides his now even more pitiful mana reserves.

"Shit! Come on, must be something I can do…" John muttered, glancing at his room. There was nothing magical in there, so he wasn't sure at first what he was looking for. Then, his eyes locked onto the same closet he'd snatched the bat from.

"Can I… can I make something with this?" John asked himself as he dug through. For the most part it was filled with old junk he hadn't used in years - knick knacks and trinkets from a forgotten vacation or clothes his relatives had bought for him for Christmas. His Craft skill point he'd spend said that he could see the requirements to make something, but what would boost his intelligence…?

"I need to craft a trinket."

Nothing happened, so John tried focusing. He needed to make something, an object, like a Mage class from an RPG. Well, in World of Warcraft there were all sorts of off-hand items, rods and orbs and-

Orb of Capacity
+15 Maximum Mana
Durability: 100/100
An orb which can store extra mana. That's really all it is.
Requirements: Snow Globe. Mana Cost: 50

"Shit, that's no good. By the time I regenerate the mana to create this thing, and then fill my mana up again, it would be... two hours," John said, sighing. Despite the fact that it was so enticing, John planned on sleeping at some point, and even if he could stay up that late, he did not want to be tired in a life-or-**** situation.

All at once, John's stomach felt like it was caving in on itself. He nearly doubled over from the shock of it, though after the initial wave he didn't think it was quite as terrible. Still, John realized with certainty he had forgotten something very important - food. With all the excitement of the day it wasn't until now, when he relaxed and started min-maxing, that he really got hungry. He'd even fetched supper and had yet to touch it.

John had forgotten the pasta his mother cooked for him for dinner - he'd been so busy dealing with the book and such that it had sat for almost two hours now on his desk. Despite the fact it was ice cold, John dove in, wolfing down bite after bite as he started to consider what to do next.

"I need something cheaper, but something with good mana stats anyway. Maybe I could make something with that dust?"

John noticed two windows pop up as he finished his meal, and as soon as he'd thrown the fork down he glanced at them in interest. One was interesting indeed!

Status Effect: Sated - Unsatisfying, Duration: 1 Hour
x2 Mana Regen
x1.5 Health Regen

"Nice… that gives me plenty Mana regen," John thought, nodding to himself. His mana had ticked up a couple points already, just in the time he was eating. At least now if he wanted to make the Orb of Capacity it would only take half the time to replenish the lost mana. Still too long for his tastes, but the second pop-up seemed to dispel that.

Cloak of the Apprentice Necromancer
+20 Maximum Mana, +5 INT, +5 WIS, -5 CHA, -10% Unholy damage taken, +10% Holy damage taken.
Durability: 150/150
A set of robes signifying that a Necromancer has taken you on as an Apprentice. You poser.
Requirements: Trashy Hoody, Unused bedsheets, 4x Dust of Undeath Mana Cost: 40

"So this must cost less because it doesn't only require mana as the crafting ingredient?" John thought, trying to figure out the design philosophy of this game. He doubted that he was going to, so after a few seconds he returned to planning. With his mana regen boosted up to 2.4 now with that food boost, he would only need about forty minutes to completely fill his mana bar back up after crafting that.

John crafted the gear without hesitation. A black cloak with light gray trim appeared, pretty simple but thankfully more impressive than anything he could've made by physically stitching together his forgotten sweatshirts and bedsheets. It had a skull on the back, a bit blatant for his tastes but he wasn't ever planning to wear it around Moira or her father. He equipped the cloak and tucked the hood over him, swished it a time or two, and began to wait. Thankfully, the equipment gave him the mana from both the flat boost and the Int increase - meaning that it didn't take as long as he originally suspected, particularly with his new Wisdom boost and the mana regen from the food.

"Wonder what I could do if I upgraded my Crafting even further…" John thought, going over a few different ideas in his head. If the abilities and stat boosts that these weapons could have were as expansive as a game like Borderlands or Diablo, there was no telling how far he could run with things. John ended up considering the many possibilities until the last point of mana was added, and then he took a moment to brace himself for the entry.

"Alright," John mumbled, grasping his bat calmly as he pressed the Enter button, "let's grind out some levels."

John didn't really see the change so much as he felt it - like an invisible wave everything rocked out from where he pressed the button, wiping everything and starting over anew. The world became a mirror image of itself, shaped by his desires and the reality it was in.

"Okay, careful what you read. Sometimes you go on long tangents if you learn long, tangential books," John thought idly. He hadn't long to appreciate the change in scenery, though, because the moment that he took in the sights, he heard something in the distance. Somewhere between a meow and a roar, the sound was distinctly feline with a hint of humanity mixed in there somewhere.

"Great, I don't even know how to get-"

Skill Unlocked: Dismiss Barrier Level 1.
Dismiss Barrier: Dismiss a Barrier that the user has created previously. Duh. Mana Cost: 10 for empty Barriers, 100 for Barriers with creatures inside.

"Shit, that's expensive… and that means if I don't wipe them out I can't use any mana or I won't have a way out. That's probably not good."

The scratching that was coming at John's door told him that no, it was probably not. Hisses and yowls came from the other side, as whatever beasts he had summoned were apparently quite good at finding him. Judging by the sounds of wood being torn away, he was especially glad that he had to be in a Barrier to do this.

(Character sheet will be back in a couple chapters)