An Unwanted Detour

A window blocked John’s vision as he looked up.

Warning!

You have been pulled into a trap barrier.

He jumped slightly as a monotone female voice read out the window. Assuming this was part of the update, he dismissed the warning screen only to have yet another pop-up.

Notice!

Alison Clark has been automatically added to your party temporarily

He groaned internally realising he’d have some explaining to do. He got rid of the second screen, and finally had a view of the world around him.

The sky was a purple-peach colour with the sun setting in the distance. The oppressive concrete monoliths that used to line the streets he was on had been transformed into similarly lumbering medieval-style castle towers and walls, topped with either crenellations or impractically sloped high roofs of various colours.

The tarmac of the road had vanished; in its place was cobble with channels for rain down both sides mimicking where the curb used to be. It was like someone had taken the cityscape of downtown Springfield and applied a medieval filter over it.

As he looked at the surroundings, movement caught his eye. The creature was barely visible as it was camouflaged against the tower due to its stone-like skin and scales. John couldn’t make out how big it was but its crystal blue eyes were not only looking at him but very noticeable now that he knew where to look.

The eyes vanished before the creature turned and began skittering up the wall letting John see its large lizard-like body.

Looking around he noticed more sets of eyes and more movement across the buildings. As he was about to use Observe on one of the creatures, he noticed something; unfortunately for him, it had also taken note of him.

The thing was coming right towards them diving from high in the sky. John managed to pull along Alison as he got out of the way, prompting her to let out a surprised scream. The ball of grey feathers crash-landed on the stone, before it ruffled its feathers and looked towards John. Looking at it now on the floor, John reasoned that it must be young as patches of white adult looking feathers were visible under grey furlike feathers which seemed to mask the creature’s true shape. Despite this, John did notice one thing: small pin-like teeth jutting out from what he thought was a small beak.

John’s freak out metre hit eleven when the thing started moving towards them. The way it moved just seemed unnatural and it was obviously aggressive in its approach.

John moved Alison away and kicked the thing hard, sending it tumbling back a few metres before it took to the air again. John was about to turn back to Alison when he noticed more of the little flying dinosaur-like creatures that had taken notice of them.

“Quick, we need to get to shelter,” John ordered as he grabbed Alison, pulling her with him towards the closest building entrance. Busting through the door and slamming it behind them, John saw lots of smaller lizards skittering away like rats as they moved further into the room.

They seemed to be in some kind of bank or bureaucratic building. There were teller booths and wooden barriers to direct foot traffic. Luckily, closer to where they were seemed to be several offices with wooden benches in a waiting area just outside of them.

John directed Alison over to a bench and tried to sit her down, but her vice-like grip on him wouldn’t relent. In the end, to get her onto the bench, he had to sit down with her. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and stroked her hair.

“Hey Alison, you’re safe now. They can’t get in here and even if they could I’ll protect you,” John promised.

Alison’s breathing was laboured and he could feel her entire body shaking. He felt her radiating heat and could see beads of sweat. John wasn’t a stranger to symptoms like this. “Alison, I need you to take slow deep breaths, can you do that for me?” he asked.

She nodded but every time she seemed to try, her breathing would quickly become irregular again. He wasn’t sure what else he could do, so instead he cast Instant Trigger twice condensing the effect down to ten minutes to lower Alison’s fear and panic by 35%.

“It’s alright, I’m here and I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I’m sorry, it’s my fault you’ve been dragged into this in the first place,” John admitted.

Alison’s breathing grew more regular though it was still laboured. She looked up at John and he could see how scared she was. “W-w-wha-what d-do you me-mean? W-what’s-s g-going o-on?” she asked.

John slumped against the backrest, allowing his head to limply fall back as he let out an exasperated sigh.

“It’s a really long story. I don’t really want to overwhelm you, but I think it might be a little late for that... The short version is that, uh... magic is real,” John confessed.

Alison stared at him, seemingly unsure of what to do or say. Instead, John realised there really was no short version and began to recount the last week of the Abyss, leaving out things like sex or Wentworth or what he’d done with June and Vanessa. Somehow, his explanation calmed her down somewhat, even managing to get a laugh while talking about the young girls that piggybacked on his transportation spell.

“So yeah, it’s been a crazy week for me and I hope you can forgive me for getting you involved,” John concluded.

Alison seemed to be mulling over all the information. “So, y-you have d-dra-dragon powers?” she asked.

John nodded before holding up a finger. He focused on his eyes and they shifted until his vision became much more detailed. Alison’s green hair seemed to grow slightly in vibrancy, almost giving it a strong natural plantlike colour. Her freckles stood more proud on her cheeks, though that wasn’t the only thing that stood out more. Despite her interest in John’s unique change, having his eyes on her for so long made a glowing red spread across her face.

“Uhm, I-I, uhm… Y-you k-k-know that Ob-o-observe s-pell you m-m-mentioned? Have y-you u-used it on m-m-mme?” she asked.

John felt his stomach lurch, while Alison looked up at him with big round puppy dog eyes.

“Uhm, I... uh… Y-yeah… sorry. I’m not going to lie to you and say it was an accident or anything. The first time was to see how much Vanessa and her friends… including you, hated me. I’m sure you could imagine my surprise when I saw that you actually had a relationship score only beaten by my mom.” John laughed nervously. “I’ll be honest there wasn’t a lot of information about why you liked me, just a snarky comment about someone actually liking me… then saying how guilty you are about Vanessa targeting me.”

John took a breath. Alison was still blushing but seemed to be taking it in and thinking. “Uhm, that wasn’t the only time I used it on you though…” John guiltily admitted. “I looked earlier today too. I kind of got an update on my powers which meant I could see more information, and I was still curious why someone like you might like me, and when I looked it jogged a bunch of memories that had basically been forgotten about. About how we spent time together when middle school started and stuff… I’m really sorry, Alison, I hope you can forgive me.”

There was an extremely long pause that made John’s anxiety spike.

Not being able to take the silence, John spoke up again, almost mumbling, “Listen, I promise I won’t use it on you again, and once I get you out of here, if you never want to talk to me again, I’ll respect that and leave you a-”

“No!” Alison interrupted. “I d-don’t want that! I, uhm, I j-just feel a l-l-ittle n-na-naked… b-but if you h-had-hadn’t then w-we w-wouldn’t have spent t-time t-together.”

John shifted uncomfortably. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. I’m really sorry, and I won’t do it again, and I promise you that I’ll get you out of here safely, no matter what.”

At those words a window appeared in front of John’s face, causing Alison to jump.

Self-issued Quest:

Protect Alison. Don’t allow her HP to drop below 50% before escaping the barrier.

Reward:
500xp
New feature

Failure:
This isn’t an instant dungeon or training barrier. There are no second chances.
-1000xp
(Note: This isn’t going to be something I’ll let you do all the time, but since you made a vow, I am making it official in the system.)

“Wow, t-this is what y-your m-magic looks like?” Alison asked, staring at the screen.

John dismissed the quest screen. “Yeah, kinda, at least my interface anyway. Right, first off, I should probably remind myself what each of the barrier skills does, and I can show you at the same time.”

John willed the Create Barrier skill up, opening the options.

Protected space

This is a non-hostile environment. It can be further customised using additional MP. [Warning: this type of barrier can be turned hostile should someone enter by ****.]

---

Training barrier

This is a similar environment to the protected space but you are able to have training dummies take the form of any creature you have faced previously. Training dummies have several modes that can be chosen from to customise your training experience.

---

Instant Dungeon

In this environment you will be given a quest or task to complete before being able to leave. You can choose the level of difficulty and you are able to use an item as a modifier. You are able to unlock features for other barrier types by completing these tasks. You can also collect loot.

---

Trap Barrier

Using this kind of barrier, you can either choose a specific target or kind of creature to trap or you can trap anything that crosses into it. [Be warned that if strong enough, they can break free of your trap.]

“Yeah, so, this is the skill to make a place like this one. The specific one we are in right now is the trap barrier. Hmm, I wonder if I’d be able to bring more info up if I tried clicking it?” John questioned before reaching out and tapping it.

Please exit the barrier you are currently occupying before trying to create another barrier.

“Well, that’s all we’re getting from that…” John sighed.

“Uhm…” Alison started. “W-what about u-using th-that Ob-observe skill? It t-tells you inform-mation, right?”

John tapped his finger on his chin while pondering the idea.

“Usually, whatever I’m observing is something I can look at, I’m not even sure if observing the barrier would work… But I guess it’s worth a try, right?” John smiled.

He fixated on a random point in the air and tried to focus on the barrier while casting Observe.

Trap Barrier

Created by: ???
Creator level: ???
Current owner: Celeste Fiera
Target: Dragon
Occupant average level: 5
Highest occupant level: 11
Time elapsed since barrier creation: 4h 36m
Status: Abandoned
Stability: 2h 24m until collapse

“Oh!” Alison exclaimed, jumping as the screen appeared.

“Guess your idea worked after all.” He laughed. “The good news is that I’m at a higher level than the average and you aren’t that much less either. Though I’m not really sure what to make of the rest of the information. Maybe the only thing we could do would be to try to **** our way out somehow? Got any ideas?” John asked.

“Uhm, y-you can make p-places like this, r-right? C-couldn’t you use th-that to g-get us out?” Alison mumbled.

John facepalmed before trying to use his Create Barrier skill to exit.

Error: You do not own this barrier. To exit, you must either defeat or get permission from the barrier owner.

“Damn… seems we have our answer. We’re gonna have to go looking for this Celeste person and hope they’re friendly.” John laughed awkwardly. “What do you say? Are you ready to head out?”

Alison looked uncomfortable, thinking about going back out where they could be attacked again. John closed his arms around her, hugging her tightly before remembering something.

“Oh, I actually have something I can let you borrow that will keep you safe,” he said, pulling the Golden Rose pendant over his head, and put the chain around Alison’s neck to fasten it. “So this has some passive magic effects but the main thing is that if you are ever in any danger, you can squeeze it and a magic shield will absorb damage. You have to be careful though because it’s only got one use a day and only lasts ten seconds.”

Alison’s fingers traced the rose symbol and she looked at John with a smile, though he could also see the worry in her eyes. The two stood and walked towards the exit, stopping at the door to take a deep breath.

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