He also decides the daily quest is worth a shot.

John's first classes allowed for nothing but the contemplation of his plans for the rest of the day. Once he was out of school, he'd finally deal with Lily, bounty-hunting, and perhaps even experiment with bridge if he leveled up and felt up to the task... but for now, that daily quest taunted him with its empty meters. Then there's that text from Tricia... He tried, and failed, to forget it; where such a confession might've made his heart sing a week ago, this one came always with the memory of that invasive, controlling, glittering-green Eye. He needed to focus on the tasks at hand, in any case.

Cautiously, while feigning his mostly real boredom with Mrs. Flung's class, he glanced at his neighbor: one Sarah DeCroix, and only one of over a dozen girls in his class. She was one half of a set of swarthy brunette twins that attended the Academy, and she apparently thought highly of John, even without cult turned on: a +11 without having ever really spoken to him seemed oddly generous. Maybe it's my charisma score...? She was pretty enough, and despite being his age was somehow registered as a level 7 attorney. As if I needed a reminder about the law. All this time I've been having my fun, but I've crossed some lines, haven't I? Hell, all the panties I stole... John thought to the wide net he was casting... and then to the consequences. Wait... really, aside from underwear, what did they lose? Just one more point of libido doesn't do much, right? Then... I mean, it's not great, but if I just did it again... or something even harder to detect... John reached into his backpack and summoned to his fingertips the vacuum flask of tainted fairy dust, filled to the brim as he always made Fairy do when she was idle at the temple. The flask dropped quietly into his bag, sealed and ready.

Acquisition successful.

He took a healthy pinch, just 1% of its contents, back into his inventory. He eyed Sarah, whose eyes were sharply focused on the teacher's notes. Hers was a stoic poise, and she always answered questions with a controlled, projecting presence. If anyone could serve as a good control for this experiment, of what just 1/100th of the flask's sloshing, sparkling juices could do, it was poor, cold Sarah.

Acquisition successful.

A harmless deposit in her throat; a surge of saliva to her, if not for the taste. Her gently closed mouth tensed, and her brow furrowed as half of her mind remained focused on the notes while the other tried to figure out the odd flavor in her mouth. It was too late by the time she realized it wasn't natural: she swallowed, and her face turned red as she shuddered. Her hips bucked against nothing. She bent herself over the desk with her hands over her stomach, no, just over her pubic mound, but close enough to be mistaken for a stomachache. One hand rose to her mouth as she struggled to breath without screaming, and a familiar row of hearts popped up over her head.

DAILY QUEST PROGRESS:
1/100
BONUS DAILY QUEST PROGRESS:
7/100

Even this much, even on someone totally at ease... it worked! Sorry Sarah... but then again, this wouldn't be so bad if I don't actually try anything with her or the girls I influence, right? No one would know, I mean Hell, I'm not even stealing panties this time! Just giving them, you know... a good feeling. If nothing else, I'm helping them develop character, overcoming barriers in-!

His phone vibrated as hard as his moral high ground.

The timing was too fortunate, and John's breath caught as he tried to ignore it for now. Sarah slowly rose, still red-faced as if about to puke, and quietly excused herself for the restroom. Concerned looks and glances as one of the star students fled the classroom helped mask the barely-there odor of her orgasm that hung so faintly in the air. With John in the clear, he read his notification.

Moira: "I sense a corrupting evil not unlike that of your demon! Respond immediately if you've summoned her on school grounds again and then un-summon her!"

While he read it, a second one appeared.

Moira: "If it isn't you, then I'm sorry for accusing you of such, and hope you will standby in case we need to capture yet another invader."

John put his phone away with as stoic an expression as he could manage, given that... uncharacteristic second message. I should fuck her in the ass more often. He suppressed his grin. But damn it, she's not even in my class and she felt that? If only doing it to one got her attention, then there's no way I can get to the other 99 before she's onto me... He started to consider all the other bits of influence he had over his schoolmates, and how she never raised notice before... which probably meant he could only act with impunity until it involved the dust. With nothing more to do, John meditated the class away as he slowly put together his plan.

Gamer's eye failed. Target's level is too high.

Of course it was. John swallowed hard, and yet another reason to be cautious in his history class was learned. Ms. Wentworth gave no indication that she so much as cared about John's attention over those of any other students, and all had either tensed or perked up, based mostly on whether or not they did their readings, while none the wiser of the terrifyingly powerful mage wielding a stack of history and civics books.

John had entertained a brief fantasy until now: that, back when he was only getting started, perhaps Wentworth hadn't actually teleported him into situations without apparent causation; that the whole thing had been some kind of illusion spell, and perhaps she was merely a great trickster. But at the very least, she was higher level than Yarrick Dell and Lord Brighton, and the possibility that those effects were real meant she was still firmly beyond John's grasp.

DAILY QUEST PROGRESS:
1/100
BONUS DAILY QUEST PROGRESS:
7/100

His quest would remain unchanged until lunchtime. Their mostly empty meters taunted him... and sparked a new series in his mind. Yeah, she's definitely high-level... but probably not higher than 93, right? I could find out- wait, wait, fuck, John! Are you out of your mind?! He looked down at his book as he considered the brief fantasy of the middle-aged mage: his history teacher, a woman of fair, even beautiful dimensions, with just the first signs of her age: crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, creases from her near-permanent frown, and not a gray hair on her head. If she deigned to wear makeup (she did not), even these would vanish. Wentworth, then, was plain, but not plainly unattractive... presuming he could convince her to play along.

Presuming she wouldn't turn him into a newt for asking.

John excused himself for the restroom, and made his preparations for the lunch period... and for his offer.

"Mr. Newman," she almost hissed.

Whatever spine he had to flirt with this epic spellcaster threatened to melt and pour out of his backside, but John cleared his throat and remained as he waited for the stream of students to thin out. Lunch period had begun... which meant he was working on a time limit, if everything went well. "Ms. Wentworth," he began, "I was hoping I could speak with you here for a moment, after class?"

"Oh," whispered a surprised cheerleader. John regarded her, and watched as she lined up behind him, as if to wait her turn to speak with the professor. Damn it, I don't actually want to ask some academic- John gave the girl a second-glance, and tried not to stare at her perfect, near-Vanessa build. Her smile didn't necessarily ward him off, either. He politely waved her forward, and waited until he and Wentworth were finally alone.

"I get the impression you were about to do something very stupid, Mr. Newman," she said over folded arms, "and I suspect Ms. Pine gave you a moment to reconsider."

Can you read my mind?

She gave no response, save an impatient pace to her picking up the books on her desk.

So she's faking, or I'm really immune now... Then again, this IS probably a stupid... fuck it. Here goes nothing. "I want to propose a trade."

"I wish you luck on your endeavor." Her stack of texts lifted neatly into the hook of her arm.

"I mean with you!"

"Oh," she smiled, "I'm sure you'll do alright by yourself."

"I want to offer you goods for services!" A silence. "Er, what I mean-"

"I can only begin to fathom what you might offer me, Mr. Newman, that would warrant my lifting a finger for you, and here under the long shadow of your keepers no less." With a curt flourish, she checked her thin silver watch. "But I've no intentions or plans for the next lunch hour." John sighed with relief. "You have five minutes."

Grimacing, John moved to her desk and checked one more time for any witnesses to their actions. There was no one outside. The hallway beyond, in fact, seemed blurred. In a sudden worry, he switched the mode on Gamer's eye and looked around.

Gamer's eye failed. Barrier level is too high to identify.

"W-We're in a barrier!"

"I wouldn't give you five of my actual minutes, Mr. Newman," she muttered as she set her books back down, "not for something as trivial as this."

She hadn't moved, and he didn't even detect her casting a spell, regardless of whether or not he could identify it.

She was still completely beyond him.

"A-Alright... well, I should probably start with why I need you to do this."

"What is this, Mr. Newman?" She sat back in her chair, which had become a comfortable-looking, gold-trimmed throne at some point. John looked down on the table where he leaned, and found it was just the monarch's end of a dozen-yards-long feast table in a castle hall, with hundreds, or thousands of white wax candles lit in racks paired off between every pillar of mason stone, and against every wall. The classroom, thus, was gone, and overhead, now a vaulted ceiling several stories above them, more candles floated in glass bowls that occasionally, gently tapped against one another in their errant journeys. This was still the barrier, or at least a barrier, even if he couldn't identify it, but the blurring effect was completely gone. Wentworth grew irritated with his baffled glances all about the chamber. "By this I mean your deal, not this paltry room I've made for us."

John looked back to this mage, and wanted to slap himself for hoping he could be anywhere near an even-footing... or that he'd want to spend an opportunity like this asking her to disgrace herself by coming for his quest. What the Hell am I thinking? Who knows what she could teach me, about magic, about the Kingdoms or the Dream or "Outside" or whatever the Hell else I still don't understand! What if she, too, had materials to trade, materials more significant than all the baubles he brought today? Books? Alchemy? He could imagine a hundred possibilities, all of which would be squandered for a chance in the sack with his history teacher.

But the idea of sex with her was suddenly... enticing, beyond its originally-foreseen benefits. How does someone as powerful as her fuck? If she said yes, of course... something tells me I couldn't use spells on her if I tried.