Invader

((Author's Note: As those of you who are also in the The Gamer discord might be aware, I recently moved to a new home and there's an issue getting internet through. Which means I'm currently operating on workarounds and mobile data, from an area with kinda crummy reception.

Since I am using google stuff and cloud based services to write stuff, keep notes etc., that makes the process of chaptering a lot more difficult. Fortunately, I have plenty of buffer to last a while, but until it's fixed I won't be able to make the pictures for character sheets and so on. So, on the assumption that you'd prefer chapters without them over no chapters, the branch will be sheet-less for a bit.

BTW, if you want to know more about the Discord server, the instructions to join can be found here: https://chyoa.com/chapter/The-Gamer-Discord%21.359141

Now, without further ado, let's get to what you're actually here for: the chapter))

---

Barrier Invaded. Barrier Control Lost. Regain control in order to leave or initiate repopulation timer.

John immediately turned towards the direction of the cold gust, but all he saw was a blur of motion on the edge of his field of vision. Something roughly human sized was moving towards him fast, while swerving to his left to stay out of his field of vision as he turned.

Adrenalin hit him like a freight train, as it had when he provoked the rat ogre, and before he’d consciously processed pretty much anything, he was dodging backwards and to the right.

-0 HP

Somehow, the spot where he landed was far too slippery for packed dirt, causing him to fall. When the back of his head cracked against the ground, he found it too hard for dirt as well. By all rights, that should’ve hurt.

Worse yet, when he tried to get up, he discovered that his feet were stuck. Bands of ice had sprung up around them in the fraction of a second he’d spent being surprised by his fall. The bands connected to a patch of ice on the ground beneath him that explained what had happened to his footing.

As he pushed himself up into a sitting position, similar restraints began forming around his wrists. Throwing the weight of his upper body into it, he managed to tear his right arm free, but in the moments it took before he could try with his left, the ice had turned too thick and strong.

**** to get eyes on his attacker, John whipped his head around from side to side. When turned as far as he could, he could just barely catch a human-ish shape on the edge of his peripheral.

Immediately, he summoned one of the lit molotovs to his hand and flung it over his shoulder. Hopefully, the AGI buff on his arms would help him hit despite the circumstances.

Unfortunately, what came next wasn’t the sound of shattering glass or the heat of nearby flames. Even a damage notification from some of it having splashed back onto him would have been welcome compared to the feeling of the frigid blade tip pushed against the side of his neck from behind.

“Who are you, who do you work for, and why are you here?”

Wait, that voice was familiar. Sure, hearing it with this icy, sharp tone was new, but the voice itself… “Marisa??”

“John?!?” The pressure from the blade tip softened for a moment in tandem with her surprise. Then it returned twofold and brought with it a pricking sensation and the feeling of liquid trickling down his neck.

-1 HP.

Her tone had increased in demanding severity as well when she continued, “Answers. Now.”

“Shit, sorry, of course,” he hurriedly blurted out, then cleared his throat and collected his wits. A little.

“I’m John Newman, that hasn’t changed since Sunday. Titled ‘The Gamer’ by…” At this point he realized that claiming to have been given a title by a supposedly aloof supreme deity might not go over well. “... well, by some. Unless you count chores or schoolwork, I don’t work in general, for anyone or otherwise… If ‘here’ is the neighborhood, it’s because I live here. If it’s the barrier, I was training.”

“Right. And just like that I’m supposed to believe that a family of unregistered, unaffiliated Abyssals have lived unnoticed in Order territory for over a decade, and then one day one of them just decides to pop into a barrier that clearly took some Fateweaver work to put up, just to ‘train’?” While the skepticism practically dripped from her tone, she sounded less hostile now. Progress… hopefully.

“... You’re supposed to register somewhere as an Abyssal?? Shit! I had no idea. I’ve only had powers since yesterday morning and I’m pretty much figuring stuff out as I go… I, err, could you maybe help me get this registration thing sorted?”

“So now you’re claiming to be a Late Bloomer?” Marisa didn’t sound convinced, but she did sound a lot less derisive about this than the other scenario. John also briefly wondered why Qhila hadn’t said anything about the registration thing.

Then again, in retrospect she had seemed like the type of person to be just such an ‘unregistered, unaffiliated Abyssal’. Maybe she’d thought it best if he didn’t register, whatever it meant. That didn’t really seem like an option anymore, though.

While those thoughts passed through his head, he responded, “Yeah, and I can prove… actually, I’m not sure if anything I can do proves anything definitively. Still figuring everything out and all that…”

There was a long moment of quiet before Marisa removed her weapon and responded, “Okay then, let’s see what you’ve got.”

John gave the restraining ice a tug trying to get up and found it as solid as ever. ‘From down here then, I guess…’

“Advance warning. A panel with text is going to appear in front of you in a moment.” Additionally, he removed Qhila from the party before sending Marisa an invite. If he could avoid getting Qhila pulled into whatever tangle this was, he would.

Marisa let out a splutter-like sound for a few moments before she failed entirely to contain her laughter. After a minute or so, she reigned it in enough to speak. “Dude, really? Is this an invitation to an adventuring party?”

John could feel embarrassed heat rising in his cheeks as he replied, “Well… uh… kinda, yeah.”

Marisa replied in between giggles she failed to suppress, “And I suppose the fun starts when I do this.”

She proceeded to giggle some more while her face and info showed up in John’s UI, along with a notification straight in the chat system rather than the pending pile.

Barrier Controller detected in party. You may initiate barrier repopulation with the controller’s approval.

Marisa Groenn
Figureskating Fencer
Level 27 Frostblade
175/175 HP
50/55 MP

‘... I really should have paid attention to her nameplate yesterday evening…’

“You’re right, this doesn’t really prove anything… but it’s good enough to get the benefit of the doubt. Too weird to make a good lie.” She spoke in an amused, casual tone that stood in sharp contrast to the focused aggression from before. She sounded a lot more like he was used to from overhearing her chat with his mom over the hedge, or the two times such a chat had turned into Brenda inviting Marisa to join their dinner.

While Marisa spoke, she’d expended one MP to no apparent effect. Then she’d pulled back the blade and spent a bit more mana causing the ice restraints to crumble into powder snow. While getting back on his feet, he asked, “So, does that mean that the whole ‘try to prove I’m a Late Bloomer’ thing is called off?”

“Nu uh. I want the full tour of Late Bloomer weirdness.”

‘I’d love for you to tour Climax Control, but bringing it up is probably bad for my health…’

While thinking that, and also about how to do the ‘tour’ in general, he got his first proper look at Marisa since she entered the barrier. She was wearing a form-fitting, blueish-white, shoulderless bodysuit with a bramble-like pattern down the front.

The torso part lifted and slightly squished her bosom, creating maximum cleavage for her size, and a couple of decorative lines on the curve-hugging fabric emphasized her slim waist, the swing of her hips and the alluring, athletic thickness of her thighs. With the bodysuit she wore matching gloves, boots and a choker.

She wore her hair in a bun with one bang left deliberately free, the stern air of the hairstyle producing an interesting contrast to the cheeky bend of her smile and the playful twinkle in her eyes.

She held a fencing saber with an artful handguard in silvery-white metal in her right hand, back of the blade casually resting against her shoulder. With her left, she held out John’s molotov, bottom pointed towards him. The formerly lit rag was now dusted with the same white powder ice that the restraints had left behind. “By the way, you dropped this.”

“Uh, right. Sorry about that…” John accepted it and put it away in his inventory, briefly noting that it didn’t stack with the lit ones.

“Chill, dude, you’d have to get up way earlier to hit me with it anyway. What’d you just do with it though?”

“I put it in my inventory. I’m basically like an RPG video game character.”

“Neat, but I’m guessing there’s more to it than an inventory and inviting people to the less fun kind of party.” The casual tone and the jest at the end felt dismissive, which in turn annoyed John. The inventory alone was a pretty awesome power, and by all indication so far the party system had major potential too.

“2 seconds.” He held up a finger while taking a moment to think. Her flippant attitude towards it left John with little choice but to move on, but he wanted to go for something that’d impress. Unfortunately, he was nowhere near leveling up.

The other flashy option was making one of the special Gamer barriers, so he quickly navigated to Create Barrier only to be met with a different window than usual.

Create Barrier
Creating a nested barrier isn’t possible. Repopulate the current barrier instead?
Yes | No

‘Well, it’s better than nothing.’ He picked ‘yes’, which caused a window to show up in front of Marisa.

The Gamer has activated repopulation of a barrier you control.
Allow | Deny

‘Right…’ John mentally deflated a little at recalling that he needed to ask permission. Still, it was better than nothing.

Marisa turned to him with a cocked eyebrow, pointing at the window with her thumb. “So, what’s ‘repopulating a barrier’ mean?”

John opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by her adding, “Tell it like you're talking to a convention booth babe, but one that's actually gonna bother listening.”

John took a moment to digest that instruction. Why would Marisa even know about booth babes without knowing about game or RPG stuff? Had she been, or considered being, one? Why would an Abyssal do that?

Pushing those questions aside, he should answer the one Marisa had asked. “Basically, games are about overcoming challenges and obstacles. In this case, and usually, in the form of hostile creatures to defeat, in return for various rewards.”

“Hold on, so you’re gonna open the barrier to Echoes? Dude, that’s dangerous. You’re risking to pull a Hydra or something and get yourself eaten.” The note of genuine concern in her voice felt nice. And put to rest his annoyance at her being dismissive before.

“Actually, I know that we’re getting pseudodrakes. But it’s usually random?”

“Yeah. It’s called Mystic Echoes if you wanna look it up, or find a magical theorist to ask about it. In general, it’s a lot of risk for little reward since you never know when you get something big and nasty, or just way too many direwolves. Plus, they fade away when killed so you can’t even hunt them for food or parts.”

“Huh, I gue- Wait a second. The Abyss Auction has listings for stuff like griffon feathers and things made from catoblepas leather. Where do they get those things if Abyssal creatures just fade to nothing?”

“Oh, they’re from Natural Barriers, or Kingdoms sometimes.”

That would explain why the local power groups had been fighting over the Springfield one. And gave him a sneaking suspicion about his drops. Taking out a handful of scales, he said, “Then this stuff is pretty special?”

Instead of answering immediately, Marisa picked up one of the scales and looked at it more closely. “And you got these from an Echo?”

“More or less. It’s a little roundabout, and it probably makes more sense to just show you.” Marisa looked thoughtfully at the scale for a bit, then flipped it like a coin, sending it back to the rest in his hand.

“Even with extra steps, that’s pretty wild, dude.” She paused for a moment, and when she continued some of the razor edge was back in her tone. No hostility though. “It’s the kind of thing you should be careful who you tell. With that kind of ability, lots of people would kill to get you under their control.”

‘… Well, that fits with Qhila’s warnings.’ Still a chilling thought. John put the scales back in his inventory and tried his best not to seem put off by that. “Okay, keeping that to myself then. I probably shouldn’t sell stuff on the Auction that can’t be gotten locally then?”

“The Auction values its neutrality a lot, so it should be fine as long as you don’t put your location in the sales listing, I think. If you go to sell it at the Abyss Market, though, people are gonna have questions.”

“Right. Probably still best if I can brew them into a potion or something first though.” Adding a degree of separation between the creature and what he was selling couldn’t hurt.

John was getting the feeling that, despite the warning she’d given, Marisa was less cautious than Qhila. Maybe that was because Qhila was on her own. Though, come to think of it, he didn’t actually know if Marisa was part of any Abyssal guild.

Realizing that he would have known if he had Observed her, he mentally facepalmed. He really should make a habit of just doing that to everyone and everything. Still, maybe it was best to do it when she couldn’t see his windows…

While he was thinking that, Marisa cocked an eyebrow and asked, “Is alchemy part of your video game character stuff too, or was that just a hypothetical?”

“Kinda both… I can treat some books like skill books in a game and erase them to learn something from them instantly. My chemistry textbook offered alchemy but no actual recipes, just the capacity to learn them apparently. And a damage bonus with chemistry. Hence the… uh… molotov…”

Marisa responded to that last bit by nudging his shoulder with her knuckles. “I already told you, dude, chill. No hard feelings. That book trick sounds neat, though, and like you should swing by Barnes & Noble ASAP.”

John chuckled in response. “Yeah, you’d think that, but the amount of stuff I can get from it at a time is limited, and I got no-sell’d when I tried to ‘eat’ my math textbook.”

“A shame, but still neat.” Marisa shrugged, then turned her attention back to the window still floating in front of her, as indicated by it turning opaque again. “Anyway, you were gonna show me something,” she said, before poking ‘allow’ with the tip of her saber, which spawned a countdown in the air.

“Kinda an anticlimax, huh?” Marisa remarked when the countdown reached 0 with nothing obvious happening.

“Yeah, but they’re probably hiding in the rocks like the first set. I figure some enemy types might come charging instead,” John said with a shrug. Then he switched to the squirt gun and went towards the nearest rock formation.

The second clear was laughably easy. Mostly due to Marisa carrying him about as hard as you could expect of someone nearly 4 times his level. She consistently reacted fast enough to hit the draconids with her blade part way through their opening pounce, and dealt enough damage to one-shot them every time.

“Damn, that was pretty amazing.” Despite getting carried, and being so by such a beauty at that, John had managed to keep focused on the task while they were clearing. So the compliment was paid while they were following the trail back to the reward chest.

“Nah, they were pushovers. You just need to hit the gym, dude.” She waved her hand dismissively as she said that, but John did notice her smile growing a tiny bit wider.

“Really? You’re like the third highest level Abyssal I’ve found.”

Once again, her laid back demeanor gave way to a hint of the sharp focus from before. “Yes, really. Aside from the Witch, Ashcroft is a small pond with small fish as far as Abyssals go. Even the Warden’s only barely started to come into her power.

“Basically, I can hold my own in most cases, but I’m nothing special and there are very few I can afford to not take seriously in a fight. And while uncommon, there are still a lot of people who can afford not to take me seriously in one. Unless I’ve got backup.”

John would’ve stewed quietly on that for a bit if not for them having made it to the reward chest. Poking it, it popped open to a much tamer lightshow than before.

15 EXP gained. EXP reward sharply reduced due to assistance from a much stronger ally.

That was more or less as expected. In fact, he wouldn’t have been surprised if he received no EXP at all. Marisa got some as well, judging by a few of the glowing orbs flying at her. “How much EXP did you get? It’d be the yellow bar at the bottom of your field of vision.”

“Dunno, it still looks emp- oh. 1 point outta five thousand and a bit.” She sounded about as unimpressed with the amount as could be expected.

“Yeah, ‘nothing special’ or not, you’re way too high level compared to the pseudodrakes to get worthwhile amounts. And also, because I got over-leveled help, my EXP was docked into the ground as well… But that’s pretty much business as usual for games. What’s surprising is that the loot doesn’t seem affected.”

That last part was true enough. There was a bit less than from the first clear, but well within what could be explained by the lack of first kill bonus and RNG. Notably, there were no tails this time, lending further support that it was tied to triggering the autotomy.

John was about to start putting the drops away when something occurred to him. “Since you did basically all the work, this stuff is yours.”

“Thanks, dude, but I’ll pass.” She waved dismissively. “I’ve got no real use for the drake bits besides selling, and I’m not strapped for cash.”

While it didn’t sound like she was joking, John still let a moment pass just in case. Then he put the loot in his inventory. “Well, if you’re sure, then thanks.”

“No worries.” She shrugged. “If that’s the last of Tour de Late Bloomer, we’ve got to talk a bit about formalities.”

“There’s one thing, but I’d prefer not to demonstrate it.” John scratched the back of his neck. “As long as I have HP left, that’s the red bar, injuries close and vanish almost immediately. I still lose HP from damage though, and it still hurts initially. Whatever takes me to 0 is supposed to both stay and be fatal if untreated. I haven’t really tested how that’d work…”

She giggled. “Yeah, I can see why. Still though, that’s one hell of a power too. Does this party stuff share it around?”

“Not according to the tooltip.” John shrugged apologetically.

“Tooltip?” Marisa cocked an eyebrow. And the opposite hip. For the umpteenth time since she released him from bladepoint, John mentally thanked Gaia that he could, and had, raised his ‘boner threshold’.

“Yeah, if I focus on a bit of my powers the right way, I get a text description. Like this.” He called up the HP tooltip to show her.

“Nice. It’s not quite ‘absorb books’ or ‘get True Substance from Echoes’ level, but my Innate coming with an instruction manual sure would’ve been nice.” She giggled again.

“Actually, what is your Innate Ability?” John wondered.

“I’ve shown you mine, now show me yours?” She giggled some more while John could feel the embarrassed heat rise in his cheeks. He told himself that he’d have bantered back if not for the peeping sessions, surely.

In any case, she did answer the question, “I’m a natural Cryomancer, thank Gaia. I really don’t have the head for the magic theory stuff that’s needed to learn anything besides Martial Arts otherwise.”

John was about to ask further questions when Marisa unbuckled a clasp on a looping strap on her bodysuit that he’d thought was just there to accentuate her hips. She then put her hand through the loop except it didn’t come out on the other side.

When she pulled her hand out again, she was holding a phone. She checked it briefly, then put it back in the magic pocket, or whatever that was. “Okay, I’ve gotta go in a moment, so I’ll sum up the formality stuff. I have to report you to the Goldies. Order of the Golden Rose, I mean. You’re not in trouble, they just keep tabs on mages living on their turf.

“You’ll be called in for a talk, and at that talk you’ll be presented with a Contract of Allegiance. Signing it will make you an auxiliary sorta member of the Order, which comes with a bunch of restrictions. If you don’t want that, ask for a Writ of Protection instead. That’s basically the citizenship deal, so to speak.

“Normally, you’d probably be called in basically immediately, but things are pretty busy at the moment, so if I report it ‘right’, you’ll get a day or two to think about it. You can also come by tomorrow afternoon if you have questions and I’ll try to answer. If you’re not ready to decide, it’s a lot easier to go from Writ to Contract than the other way around, but signing one is pretty much required.”

She rattled all that off fairly quickly, though not quite so much so that John couldn’t keep up. Then she slipped the saber into the magic pocket as well, turned away from him and raised her hand in the ‘leaving or entering a barrier’ pose.

Before vanishing, however, she looked over her shoulder with a cheeky grin and said, “By the way. Unfortunately, tonight’s show is canceled.” And then she was gone.