Giving a girl some courage and an angel her wings

John didn't have to wait long for Astrid as she came around the corner about a minute after he got there. Once she was close enough, John took her hand and pulled her towards the room where his Barrier would be. She clearly was pretty confused about being pulled somewhere without a word or moment's notice but she didn't say anything. Thankfully, he could see the room through his Transreceptive Eye, just as he could look into the Barrier. As they arrived at the classroom that he had created the Barrier in, the last group of students left that room, only giving them both suspicious looks while closing the door.

Astrid clearly was only more confused as to why they were in this normally looking classroom. "Uhm... I don't quite get what is so special about this room... I mean it's quiet, and I do appreciate that, but why this one?" John's only response was a broad smile as he felt out to the edges of the Barrier he had created (or rather the entrance to it since it seemed to span most of the school) and pulled both of them in there.

As reality shattered around them, Astrid looked at John with wide eyes while the world around them materialized into the mountain monastery. They arrived in the same spot where John had appeared first, in the stone replica of the classroom, looking at the horizon and the land that was hidden by fog. Astrid's eyes sparkled as she looked out of the window, "This...This is beautiful... How did you know this was here?"

"I know because I made it. I created this Barrier roughly two hours ago and spent some time in here. I was hoping you would like it. Let's get to the courtyard, I think that's the perfect place to eat."

If John's assumption was correct, then the wolves would not respawn for another two hours or so, giving them ample time to enjoy the scenery (and maybe each other). Picking up the amazed girl at his side in a piggyback ride, John quickly ran out of the classroom and to the nearest window facing the central courtyard. Taking not a second to give Astrid a look into the courtyard, John jumped out of the window, much to the displeasure of the girl on his back, who was panickingly squealing now. The drop was only for a second, though, as John cast his Magic Rope behind himself to slow down their descent just in time to land safely.

Astrid was giggling as she softly bopped the back of John's head, "Tell me beforehand when you do stuff like that, meanie!"

Which, in return, made John chuckle, "Right, right, sorry," he said while they arrived under one of the big trees in the courtyard where John softly dropped her into the shade.

Taking a seat next to her, he pulled out the rest of the pizza he still had in his inventory, still four slices left. Astrid meanwhile took a small salad out of the bag hanging around her shoulders. At that point, Astrid asked John a question she had been interested in for a while now, "By the way, what are your powers really? Sis said something about 'bullshit gaming powers', but that doesn't really tell me much. And looking at this Barrier, your powers have to be really impressive if you can easily create such an intricate world as this..."

John could not hide his pride and the accomplishment he felt by that praise, and answered with a big grin, "Well, bullshit gaming powers seems to be a good summary of the whole thing, but to explain it to you a bit more in detail: To me, everyone has a level dependant on their power, I guess. The more powerful, the higher the level. I myself also work by this logic, seemingly gaining experience for various things I do and leveling up in the process. I also gain skills and abilities which level up with me using them, making them better. Some of them are really useful like the rope one I used back there. Others, well... not so much..."

"What kind of skill or ability do you mean? Surely there has to be some way that it is useful?" asked Astrid with a confused look on her face.

"Well, I have this skill called Augment Body, it can seemingly improve the body of the person I use it on. Don't know how well that works though... It says it improves a part of a body by five percent."

She got curious hearing that, "Could you try that on me? Improving my body doesn't sound like the worst idea." That got John thinking on his side. He could do that, maybe he could help her body overcoming whatever sickness she had. But there was just one problem: He barely had any mana left, not enough for Augment Body for sure...

He did have enough for something different though, "Give me a second, have to prepare some things for that..." Activating Essential Alchemy (and throwing away his earlier reservations about saving mana) opened up a new window, not unlike the window opened by Craft:

Essential Alchemy
Inventory:
1x Flawed Essence of ****
1x Flawed Essence of Element (Air)
1x Flawed Essence of Element (Light)
1x Flawed Essence of Lust
1x Flawed Essence of Courage
2x Flawed Essence of Life
1x Essence of Flight
1x Flawed Essence of Element (Shadow)
1x Pristine Essence of Magic
2x Meager Essence of Element (Ice)
1x Essence of Element (Lightning)
1x Pristine Essence of Rage
1x Meager Essence of Life

Please select at least two essences to create something:
Essence 1: Pristine Essence of Magic
Essence 2: Meager Essence of Life
[Add Essence]

Select Result:
Potion
Poison
Essence

Huh, okay, so he could combine two essences to form another essence. Would that one simply be better that the two of them or would it be a combination? While tempting right now, it wasn't what John thought about, so he selected the Potion result:

Results:
Potion of Rejuvenation, Lv.2, Qty.: 4:
Regenerate 60 HP and 130 MP
Cooldown: 30 Min

Essential Alchemy, Lv. 2, More recipes unlocked.

Nice, that was exactly what he wanted, a potion that would give him a certain amount of Mana and Health back. The new potions popped up in his inventory, right next to the egg, still hatching. Pulling one of these out of his inventory and popping one down the hatch (the potion was actually in a bottle as big as his thumb), John could see how his mana was instantly full again. "Okay, I'm ready now. Just had to make sure I have enough mana to use that one. It's one of my more expensive moves. You ready?" While she obviously wasn't really sure if she was, she nodded and prepared herself for anything that followed by closing her eyes.

John saw his opportunity here, and instead of using his hands to apply the skill, he just decided to put his lips on hers and cast Augment Body on Astrid. The resulting flash of pop-ups and the blinding light certainly were not what he expected from that skill:

Act of true character. Point of Edge restored

Augment Body: Critical Success! Negative Effect neutralized for free!

Magic restrictor on target disabled. Stats return to normal. Combat Mode unlocked.

Flawed Essence of Lust consumed, Target LIB raised permanently by 100%.

Target: Body (general), increase by 1 in every stat.

Meanwhile, Astrid's whole body was glowing in a blinding white light, making it impossible to see what was happening to her. He did know she was in there though, as she put a hand on his cheek and recuperated his kiss with a lot of passion. After a minute or so of making out, the light died down and revealed Astrid. Nothing had really changed, yet she looked like a new person now. Where she was sickly thin before she looked athletically slim now, her blonde hair now seemed to glow with new life, similar to how the rest of her body seemed to glow in a lively color now. She was still very pale, yet it didn't look sick anymore, it looked royal, graceful. Her big, green eyes also shone with more life, but there was something else in those eyes, something John couldn't miss:

Lust.

She had a bit of that lusty haze in her eyes that people get when they are extremely aroused. Looking over her own body, Astrid's amazement could not have been more obvious while she told John, "This... This is amazing! I don't know what you did there, but it seemed like it did the job. I feel whole again, I feel like a part of me was missing that I didn't even know was there. Oh, thank you, John. This is the first good thing that has happened to me since I can remember," she said while hugging John close to her, planting some more kisses on his face.

Now, John wasn't complaining about this, but to say he was a bit dumbfounded would be an understatement, "Honestly, I have no idea what happened there... I think my magic only acted as a trigger for something that was in you. It said that some kind of restriction has been lifted from you. How do you feel?"

It didn't seem like Astrid was paying much attention to the things John said, she was a lot more preoccupied with his lips, his body, and exploring them in detail. John couldn't hold himself back either, as he started to kiss her once again and let the hands that were on her back slowly glide down to her ass and started to massage it.

John's plan was a complete success as it seemed, even better than he anticipated.