He's got mail.

John arrived home to find a letter waiting for him in the mailbox. It had no return address, but written in cursive on the front of the letter were the words Abyss Auction.

“My 31 Intellect tells me this is related to the Abyss,” John muttered to himself.

He took the letter inside and greeted his mother as he passed her in the hallway on the way to his room. John closed the door behind him and sat on his bed, giving the envelope another once over with Observe.

Letter from the Abyss Auction
Open to reveal contents.

John opened the envelope and pulled out a black card with white print.

Dear Mr. J. Newman

It has come to our attention that you have been operating within the realms of the Abyss. As such, we invite you to join us at https://abyss.auction which facilitates the sale of the most diverse range of Abyssal and Mundane goods on the planet. We further extend our invitation to any associates that do not yet make use of our services.
For more details regarding anything in this letter, please visit Abyss Auction or contact me by email at [email protected]

Kindest Regards,

Regan Hollmey
Community Outreach, Abyss Auction USA Branch

John put down the letter and moved to his PC. The web address redirected to a page where he was asked to create an account and link a credit card. Surprisingly, or maybe not so, the postage address was already filled in. Shortly after filling out the required forms, he was signed in as ‘Jihan’ and scrolling through the various categories they had available.

He stared wide-eyed at the screen. “‘The most diverse range’ isn’t even a joke.”

Everything from Alchemy Ingredients, to Spell Books, to Weapons and Armour, Subservient Creatures, and even People were available. There was even an Information tab. Curious, John clicked on it, and it took him to a webpage that displayed various data such as the most recent additions, low price deals, and trending packages. It was all interesting, but prices only started at $2,000, far above John’s measly $115. 'The Information War is an expensive game to play, I guess.'

It was a similar story for spell books. Even those on the cheaper end were at least $500, and they were just household spells like self cleaning enchantments.

‘Looks like I’m gonna have to do some serious Goblin grinding or get myself a job,’ John thought sourly. The Goblin I.D. was not high on his ‘would do again’ list. Speaking of which, there were some items in his inventory he dearly needed to be rid of before the metaphysical storage space was contaminated forever.

Submitting items for auction was a relatively straightforward process. He just photographed them, wrote a small description (easy when his Observe already gave him the basic information), and ordered an Abyss Auction drone to pick up all the goods to go into the company’s storage until they were sold, for a small fee of 10% of the selling price.

John had expected to wait up to a day before the drone arrived. He didn’t expect it to be tapping on his window no less than five minutes after he’d requested it.

‘They probably have a facility in the area,’ he rationalised as he opened the window for the drone and loaded it with the items.

The drone itself was a fascinating marvel of engineering, proving definitively that the Abyss was miles ahead in technology from the rest of the world. The drone was by no means aerodynamic, it was rather bulky to allow for storage space, yet it could lazily float in the air. Even when John applied downward ****, the drone only dropped about an inch in the air. It also seemed to be enchanted to be bigger on the inside and had access to a prehensile arm, which it had used to politely knock on his window upon arrival. As soon as the goods had been loaded, the drone zipped back out of the window, and John saw it activate some kind of active camouflage. That just about explained UFO sightings.

John spent the next half hour browsing the Auction while making a list and separating it into items he would need and items he would want. On his to get list was some armour, of which he was sorely lacking right now, and a mix of both summoning, offensive, and defensive spellbooks.

Previously, he had determined to become a summoner, but his current skill set was gearing him towards a much more physical class. In terms of raw strength, it was best to invest in one class. But there didn’t seem to be a level cap to this ‘game’, meaning John might get away with mixing classes, particularly if he did it pragmatically.

John’s thoughts were interrupted by a small blip from his computer. Fantastic. Somebody had bought all seven of his Goblin semen vials, for no less than $300 a vial (after fees). That was $2,100 he’d just netted himself. That was more money in an hour’s worth of effort than John had earned in a lifetime. It almost made him consider going back to the Goblin I.D., but he reasoned that there would be valuable item drops from other dungeons as well. Unfortunately, the wolf pelts and rat teeth still hadn't found a buyer.

Anyway, with the extra cash in his pockets, John could actually afford to do a little spending. The first thing he looked at was armour. It seemed cheaper to buy them in sets, and John eventually settled on a basic set of leather armour that came at an affordable price of $459.99.

Next, he looked at a replacement for his baseball bat. The item had seen him through his grinding that day but was now broken. Not to mention that John wasn't a huge fan of blunt weapons. He settled on the trusty broadsword for its versatility as both a slash and thrust weapon. More importantly, it was a sword he could hold in one hand while casting spells from the other.

The range of broadswords alone was enough to impress John. It took him an hour to sift through them until he settled on a Renaissance schiavona with a slightly curved blade and nicely adorned guard. John had always felt that style was important when it came to weaponry, though doubt did begin to creep in when it cost him a tidy sum of $900.

Last on his list were spell books, but with a little over $800 left he could only afford one. The choice was easier than one might expect. With John’s current setup, he severely lacked any form of defense beyond the armour. But John didn’t want to block his spellcasting capabilities by carrying a shield in his left hand, so investing in defensive magic was a must then. Especially when a spell like Mana Shield could do the job instead. John looked at $44 of cash he had remaining, thinking that $2,000 was a blissful dream now.

It took a little longer for the drone to arrive this time, probably because the various items were stored in seperate locations around the country. Still, it took less than an hour. John couldn’t help but smile like a child opening the biggest christmas present under the tree as the drone revealed its contents.

The first thing John took out was the Spell Book, which he consumed immediately.

New Skills: Mana Shield Lvl 1
Summon a temporary mana shield that is capable of blocking weak physical and magical attacks. 10 mp activation cost, then 1 mp cost per second of use.

John’s face creased into a frown. It wasn’t the most efficient spell. Then again, levelling it would probably make it more efficient.

Next was the leather armour, which John equipped on his character sheet before putting it all in his inventory. It was a pretty convenient system really. The auto-equip function would put it on as soon as he entered an I.D., remove it once he was out of it, and spare him looking retarded in public.

Last was his new sword. John picked up the schiavona and felt for the first time what a weapon made to kill was like in his hands. He practiced with a few swings, and the blade let out a satisfying whine as it cut through the air, trying to grow accustomed to the weight of the blade. But his arm was already beginning to feel tired from the effort.

John pondered this for a moment. He couldn’t afford to be physically tired if he planned on long periods of grinding. To that end, he’d need to raise his physical stats. Strength and Agility would both affect how easily he could wield weapons, while Endurance would extend how long he could wield them for. His current spread was 13, 17, 15 into Strength, Agility, and Endurance respectively, and with exactly 15 stat points he could get them all to 20. So John did exactly that, and he felt the changes immediately.

It began with a momentary nausea, followed by the sensation of his skin tightening around his body. It was over soon, however, replaced by a subtle euphoria. John felt healthier than he’d ever been in his life. Taking off his shirt, John moved towards the bedroom mirror. The lanky, pallid boy that used to stare back at him was gone. He was still quite clearly John Newman, but his body was tighter and tinged with more colour than before. His shoulders had broadened slightly, his chest had begun to push out a little, and his arms gave visible muscular feedback when he flexed. He could by no means be called ‘muscular’, but his fitness had clearly come leaps and bounds.

Achievement Unlocked: Mens sana in corpore sano
You’ve reached at least 20 in all three of your physical stats. And here I thought you were just gonna invest everything in Libido and Charisma to fuck everything with a hole in it. Feel good about yourself ‘cause I’m actually proud of you for once.
+1 Wisdom
+1 Charisma

“Set your expectations low for me, didn’t you, Gaia?” John voiced, the dream of his own harem still lingering at the forefront of his mind.

John stepped away from the mirror, and just as he’d put his sword safely in his inventory, he heard a knock on the door.

“John?” his mother called from the other side. “May I come in?”

“Yeah, sure mom.”

John was momentarily confused by the wide-eyed look his mother gave him as she stepped into the room.

“Oh, sorry,” John said sheepishly when he realised he was still shirtless.

“Don’t worry about it, John,” his mom said. “But you sure are looking… good.”

Regardless of the compliment, John dug out a clean shirt from his drawer and put it on. “Thanks, I guess? So what’s up?”

With that, his mom’s demeanour changed from surprised to stern. “I was told that you weren’t at school today.”

“Oh, that,” John sighed, bracing himself for a scolding.

“Are you alright, baby?” she asked him softly, the lack of finger-wagging surprising John. “It’s not like you to skip classes. Is there something going on?”

What could John really say? That a day ago he’d woken up with video game powers? Not likely. John didn’t want to put the strain of worry on his mom who would undoubtedly be against his exploits. If she’d seen that sword, she would have freaked out for sure. But he had to come up with something to say. Fast.

“Nothing’s going on, mom,” John finally said.

‘Great. Fucking fantastic excuse,’ he berated himself.

His mother looked at him crossly. “John. What’s going on?”

“I-I’ve been doing some thinking lately,” he began. ‘Great, John. Thinking about what, John?’ he asked himself. His mother’s raised brow seemed to be asking the same question. “About life. You know… how I’ve been living it, and what I’ve been doing wrong…”

His mom’s face paled. “John… don’t tell me you’ve been thinking about…”

“No!” John almost laughed when he realised what she was about to say. “No, I mean I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with my life and how I can be a better person. That’s what today was.”

That sounded good, right? It was basically true. Well, his mom seemed to buy it.

Her face flushed with relief. “John, I don’t think skipping school is how you go about that,” she said with a hint of admonition but otherwise sounded happy. “But I also think it’s great you’re trying to improve yourself.”

“Thanks mom,” John replied, wrapping her in a hug.

“Well, dinner will be ready in half an hour,” his mother said finally, as she stood up and left him to his own devices for the time being.