Escape

“So, am I really just stuck in here? I got a popup that said this was a Trap Barrier, but what does that even mean?” John asked aloud as he walked over to the edge of the barrier he had ran into earlier. He tapped on it; the air seemed to ripple around the area he had touched.

Hmm, it’s definitely something physical; let’s see what happens when I Observe it, John thought to himself as he did just that.

Trap Barrier
Lvl: 1
Area: 20x10 meters
Current Owner: None
Durability: 99/100

“Wait, it’s already damaged? Was that because I slammed into it? If that’s the case, maybe I can just tear this thing down and escape,” he mumbled to himself with renewed vigor as he walked back to the bus to get just the right tool for the job. As he got halfway to the bus, he realized that in order to get to the fire axe, he would have to go by the imp’s corpse, something he certainly did not want to do.

Besides, it probably got destroyed or highly damaged by the explosion, so it would be pointless to get it anyway, he thought to himself, his reason to not have to return to the bus now justified.

“Well then, since that’s not an option, what else can I do?” he asked himself as he looked around his character sheet and inventory for things he could potentially use.

“Hmmm, 42/60 MP huh, since the Soul Weapon skill consumes 20 and has an upkeep of 0.5 per second, and I have a regen of 2.6 mana per minute, I should be able to use for about 48 seconds. Also, if my math is correct, it should deal about 13 points of damage every time I hit the barrier with it. So, I should be able to destroy the barrier with the mana I have.”

With that, he stepped directly in front of the barrier and conjured up his scythe. He immediately went to work and clumsily began to hack and slash at the barrier.

10 dmg

John felt the clash of unnatural metal against the Barrier wall ring though his arms. But with little time to spare, he swung again, this time not directly into the Barrier but at an angle so that the edge of the scythe slid across it instead.

13 dmg
8 dmg
12 dmg
12 dmg
11 dmg
13 dmg
13 dmg
9 dmg

With that final slash, John watched as the barrier’s durability dipped below 0 and reached -2. As John looked around to see the barrier begin to crack and break around him, his mana hit 0 as well, and because of this, his weapon disappeared from his hands. Then, the entire barrier shattered.

Trap Barrier destroyed
Returning to real word

John blinked, and could clearly see that he was indeed back in the normal world. He looked around and saw that both the bus and everyone else were gone. John fished out his phone from his pocket, curious to see just how long he had been trapped.

“A whole hour!? I probably just missed the second bus then! Crap, how am I supposed to get to school on time now?” John yelled aloud, as his mind started to frantically search for a way to get out of his latest predicament. John looked at his inventory, his eyes flashing over the amount of money he now had.

$200, yeah I can easily just use that money to pay for a ride with Bluber, he thought to himself as he opened the Bluber app.

10 minutes later

John sat in the back seat of the Bluber, as he always preferred to not have to sit in the passenger seat whenever possible.

“Hey, kid, you alright? You’ve been sitting like an armadillo rolled up in its shell,” the Bluber driver asked as he took a glance at John with the car’s rear view mirror.

Oh God, he’s a conversation starter, the one type of driver I really wanted to avoid, John thought to himself as he looked up to answer the driver.

“Yeah, uhhh, I just have a bit of a cold, so I feel pretty chilly,” John said as he pulled his spare jacket tight over his blood stained and ripped uniform.

“Ah, that makes sense, hope you feel better soon, kid,” the Bluber driver replied.

John nodded to that, as they spent the rest of the drive to Ashcroft in silence.

When they arrived at the front gate to Ashcroft Academy, the Bluber driver stopped.

“Alright, kid, this is your stop. That’ll be 20 big ones,” the driver said as he opened the palm of his hand for John to place them in.

John pulled his arm behind his back and pretended to grab money from his back pocket as he pulled them out of his inventory. He pulled out a $20 bill and handed it to the driver. John waved as he watched the driver backup from the school and drive away.

John sighed as he adjusted his school bag and walked through the front door of the school to reach his second period class, Art with Ms. Summers.

John walked up to the front door of the Art room, checked his phone, and saw that Art had started 5 minutes ago. John grabbed the door’s handle and cracked it open, there he saw in the middle of the classroom was the goddess of Ashcroft herself, June Summers.

She looked at the opened door and smiled at John, her eyes gleaming now that her favorite student had arrived.

“John! Please come in and join us. I already heard all about the bus, so don’t worry about being late for class.”

As he walked by her, he tried his best to not blatantly stare at June’s perfect breasts. As he took an empty seat next to the other students who worked on their wood carvings, John could’ve sworn he saw June wink at him.

Probably just my imagination, there’s no way someone like June could ever be interested in me, John internally sighed as he took his carving knife out of his bag, grabbed a cube of wood, and began to work.

As John carved the edges of the wood block, he was surprised as new popups appeared in front of him.

New skill acquired!
Craft
Allows the caster to create, shape, and repair materials. The MP cost scales with the complexity, amount of materials, and size of the object.

John glanced around to see if he was currently being watched. All the other students were either focused on their projects or stared at June as she bent down to help another student with his project. Now confident that he wasn't being watched, John hit yes and accepted his newest quest.

Hmmm, might as well try out Craft to see how quickly I can level it up and how it works, John thought to himself as he imagined the block of wood’s shape to change.

Block of wood
Would you like to use Craft on this item?
MP Cost: 10
Yes/No

John hit yes, not entirely sure what was about to happen. He watched as the wood block began to glow, John covered it with his arms so as not to draw attention to it. Within the next second, the glow disappeared and John was left with a small wooden statue. Curious as to what exactly it was supposed to be, John cast Observe on it.

Wooden statue of lust (crude)
Created by: The Gamer
This wooden carving is a crude effigy of a nude June Summers.

At the same second John finished reading the Observe, June Summers herself leaned over his shoulder to take a look at his creation. She grabbed the carving from John’s desk and held it in her hand.

“Well then, John, it seems you’re even more talented with your hands than I was aware of. But there’s far more you could learn to do. Maybe you could come by my home over the weekend for some extra lessons,” June whispered into John’s ear as she pocketed the carving. She turned away, already sure of John’s answer as he struggled to readjust his position to better hide his erection. As it finally calmed down, the bell rang, and it was time to go to Mr. Stone’s biology class.

John got up from his seat, swung his school bag over his shoulder, and reached into his pockets. That’s when he felt a small, folded slip of paper inside his left pocket. He took out the paper and unfolded it. On it was an address in Springfield. John instantly knew that it wasn’t just any address, it was June’s address. John swallowed, stuffed the paper back into his pocket and immediately tried to clear his thoughts as he walked to the next class so that he didn’t pop a boner in the middle of the hallway.

As John reached the halfway point between the Art room and Mr. Stone’s class, he was shoved. John fell onto the floor, all his stuff spilling out across the hallway. John looked up to see Frank give a toothy grin from above him. Frank reached down and grabbed John by his collar. He pulled John off the floor and slammed him against the nearest locker.

“Now then, Newman, I think it’s time for one overdue lesson about what it means to be friends,” Frank said as he pressed his forearm into John’s throat.