In the Courtyard… Again.

John walked into the Firesmith courtyard and his aura flashed to life. Then the teleportation ring pulsed three times, and he found himself somewhere else entirely.

Ah, fuck. So it begins.

He stood in Natalya Ankov’s office, near the center. The monks surrounded him, evenly spaced in a circle… or a square… there were four of them, so the four points could very well make a square. The Headmistress herself sat at her desk, looking at John over steepled fingers.

This is definitely more hostile than last time.

The monks were silent, even after John swore mentally. After a few minutes of standing in silence, Natalya spoke.

“Do you not wish to defend yourself, Mister Newman?”

“Defend myself?” began John. “From what? Am I being tested again? I don’t think I can hold my own in a sparring match against even one of the professors, let alone all four.”

“Don’t be coy, Mister Newman,” Natalya continued. “We know what happened yesterday. I can see it in your eyes. It troubles you deeply. That you can joke at all right now is a testament to your will, I suppose. But you do not need to put up such an act, it is useless against me.”

“What I did… isn’t prohibited by school policy,” John answered after he was sure Natalya was done speaking.

“What you did was ****, Mister Newman,” the four monks spoke in unison.

John flinched.

“Fortunately for you,” Natalya spoke again after a few seconds of palpable silence. “There is no overarching code of laws in this corner of the Abyss. **** isn’t a crime you can be officially punished for. All you are beholden to is school policy, which, as you said, you have adhered to.”

“Then,” John hesitated, “why did you call me here?”

“You have killed twenty-three first year students,” began one of the monks. “You have killed thirty-seven second year students,” continued a second one. “You have killed thirty-two third year students,” continued a third monk. “You have killed seven fifth year students,” finished the final monk. They continued in unison, “It has been decided that you will be elevated to sixth year status. You will be extensively tested and tutored in your theoretical knowledge, as you have proven your practical knowledge to be more than adequate. Your new schedule will take effect starting this following Monday, you are excused from all classes today except for your Martial Arts lesson with Professor Amelia.”

John blinked slowly, taking in the new information.

“New schedule? Do I get a physical copy of it?”

The monks silently turned away from him, a synchronized billowing of robes.

“I will have the physical copy sent to your dorm, Mister Newman,” Natalya responded instead. “Be prepared, a sixth year schedule is more intensive. But that is all for this meeting; you are all dismissed.”

At Natalya’s declaration, John was ejected to the courtyard via his teleportation ring. He stood alone in an empty space, his next few hours free.

Well, what the fuck do I do now?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts of the anxiety that threatened to rise and consume him.

The only thing I can do is move forward. I can’t let myself wallow in this… Somehow it’s still working out in my favor… I guess I have Sera to thank for that… But knowing I just definitely made a shit ton of enemies, I have to level up. I have time before my next class, I should head back to my dorm and try to run a dungeon.

He began walking back to his dorm, still lost in thought.

I still don’t have any food in my dorm. I can probably still rely on Sera to just pop in with food whenever I need it, but I really shouldn’t. I’ll swing by a store or gas station or something on the way back.

He stepped purposefully into the first Circle J convenience store he happened upon, ready to fill his inventory with cups of instant ramen and cans of energy drinks. The cashier stood behind the counter, a dead look in his eye, and didn’t give John so much as a second glance as he picked up a basket and strode to the meager selection of cup noodles. John swept all of them into the basket and moved on to the back wall, which was floor to ceiling drink coolers. He ignored all the various brands of juices, waters, and sodas in preference of two doors behind which heavily caffeinated treasures awaited him.

If I’m going for pure caffeine content, Boom would be best. But Boom tastes like shit. I’m just looking to pull some all nighters without killing my stamina bar, not **** myself. Bluebull is straight out of the question, with the lowest caffeine content per can… I guess it’s between Creature and Turbo, both with decent caffeine content and great flavors. I’ll grab all the cans on the racks.

With that decision settled, and the coolers emptied of Creature and Turbo, John took his heavily laden basket to the cashier. The cashier, who had probably seen much weirder things, silently scanned all of John’s items and bagged them up for him.

“Your total is $140.32. Will that be cash or card?”

“Cash,” John responded, before willing the exact amount out of his inventory and into his wallet before opening said wallet and handing the cash over.

-$140.32

The cashier tapped away at their point of sale screen and the cash drawer opened. He accepted John’s money and counted it into the drawer before closing it and handing John his receipt.

“Have a nice day,” they managed to mumble to each other at about the same time.

Customer service is hell. That guy looked like he wanted to die, John thought as he walked out and continued on his way to his dorm. He took a quick look around, making sure that no one was around before shoving everything in the bags into his pockets one by one.

+20 cup noodle
+13 Creature
+11 Turbo

Kind of crazy that I just spent over a hundred dollars on shitty food and it barely put a dent in my, uh… savings? I mean, I guess it’s savings, but it’s just the money in my inventory. Does that, like, count as pocket money? Savings makes it sound like it accrues interest or something responsible like that.

John continued to think about inconsequential details of his powers all the way back, undisturbed and pointedly not thinking about the big important details of his powers. He summoned Omorfia, Calista, and Elora as he unlocked his front door and walked in. Omorfia and Calista immediately embraced him warmly, cooing soft greetings. Elora and her soldiers spread throughout the space and began their patrols. John took a deep breath to steel his resolve.

“We need to train. I’m going to bring all of you through the Gate and we’re going to complete quest after quest until I have to go back to class later today. Ignis will be with us. We’ve made way too many enemies way too fast, and I refuse to just sit here and wallow in regret. Let’s push forward, shall we?”

He tried to put as much bravado into his words as possible, but even to himself it felt hollow. Despite that, John’s summons looked to him with fire in their eyes, all of them clearly on board this train of thought.

“We will support you, John,” Calista assured him.

“We’ll get stronger together!” was Omorfia’s response.

“At your command, chief,” Elora added, followed by a chorus of, “Yes, sir!” from her soldiers.

John smiled and reached within himself. With a deep breath he replicated the process that formed an Abyssal gate last time. He sculpted a cube out of the earthen mana inside him and threw it at the fabric of the Abyss. A block of mud bricks materialized in front of him and landed with a thump on his floor. From that block arose a door frame leading into a small room with swirling galaxies of energy dancing on the walls.

He stepped in and kept his eyes fixed on the one piece of the walls that wasn't moving, so he wouldn't get dizzy. It was a menu of barrier biomes, though only three of the eight options weren't grayed out.
Flame Dungeon level 2
Lava Dungeon level 1
Earth Dungeon level 1
Plant Dungeon level 1
Water Dungeon level 1
Snow Dungeon level 1
Air Dungeon level 1
Combustion Dungeon level 1
“Oh shit, the flame dungeon leveled up! This should be interesting,” John commented as he chose the new flame dungeon option. The words glowed orange for a second, and John’s mana went down 20 points. Then there was a soft Ding! and a searing heat blazed against his back. He turned and saw that the Gate no longer led back to his room, but rather out to a sandy desert that stretched on towards the horizon. A sea of sand dunes stared back at him as he stepped out of the Gate. There was another soft Ding! as an info box appeared in front of him.

Flame Dungeon Level 2 activated
16 hours until Gate closes. Objectives:
Discover Oases: (0/6)
Discover Forts: (0/5)
Clear Forts: (0/3)
Discover Outposts: (0/10)
Clear Outposts: (0/7)
Maintain a Health Point level of at least 10% (100/100)

Optional Objectives:
Discover Oases: (0/7)
Clear Forts: (0/5)
Clear Outposts: (0/10)

Rewards:
+4000 bonus xp
+$2000

Optional Objective Rewards:
+2000 bonus xp
+Passive Skill level up

“Discover and Clear, huh? Seems straightforward enough. It looks like the dungeon is still in that desert world, so it might be difficult to find everything, but we have twice as much time as the level one dungeon gave us. Definitely doable.”

John looked away from the quest box and took stock of their surroundings. Seemingly endless dunes in every direction, with a Gate leading back to his dorm directly behind him.

Can… No… Other people and creatures can’t go through my Gate to my dorm, can they? I’ve just been leaving it open out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, no sand has gotten into my dorm before even though I spent hours on the other side… I should leave some Pixies stationed here just in case.

“Elora,” John began, “Have Infantry and Artillery Alpha stand guard over the Gate.”

“At your command, Chief!” was Elora’s immediate response before turning to her assembled soldiers. “You heard the Chief! Infantry Alpha, Artillery Alpha, execute defense drills! Archer Alpha, Archer Beta, Aerial Alpha, Aerial Beta, execute transport drill zero zero one! Infantry Beta, execute transport drill zero one zero!”

The pebble pixies scrambled to follow their orders, which, to John’s surprise, included the aerial squads carrying the archer squads and one of the infantry squads climbing onto John’s shoulders.

I’ll need to remember zero one zero means ride on my shoulders for next time, John thought as the first two pixies grabbed hold of his pants and started to scurry up his leg. He knelt and held his hands out to the other two pixies, carrying them to his shoulder as the first two crested his shoulder blades. Their auras flashed bright green for a second before turning the same orange as his own, and they took up defensive positions facing his sides and back.

“Alright, now we just need Ignis,” John said as he summoned her. A pillar of fire manifested a few feet away from the group, shifting between intense red and blue flames before dispersing in a halo of fire around Ignis. She sat regally on her haunches, surrounded by a crater of glass in the desert sand.

“Perfect! Now, to discover all of our quest objectives…”

How do I address them… It’s not like I’m Optime Primus; I can’t just say Autodroids, roll out! Or anything cool like that…

“Let’s, uh, head on out, then?”

John heard the pixies on his shoulders stifle giggles as he picked a direction and started walking.