Life Goes On

The dim of early morning pierced John’s curtains, but nobody save for him saw the quest as he swiped it away, saving it for later.

Good choice.

“Come back to bed,” Jenny sleepily ordered, and John fell back into his pillow gladly, deciding to tell her when they were both fully awake.

“Wake up you two! You’re going to be late for school!” John was dimly aware of a soft sensation on his face and Jenny’s hand running through his hair. He opened his eyes to realize that his face was pressed into Jenny’s tits. Jenny laughed when she felt him wake up, and tilted his head upward to kiss him.

“Good morning, John,” Jenny whispered, finished playing with his hair. Looking up into her smiling face, John knew he had made the right decision.

A drone bumped against the window, and Jenny left him in the bed as she stretched before getting up to let it in. It bumped against her, beeped, dropped a small parcel, beeped, and flew off. She ripped open the small box to reveal a smartphone, a charger, and a thin case.

“This,” Jenny said, tossing the case to John, “will let your phone connect in the Abyss. You’ll get unlimited data in barriers. It’s also a really good case. Not good enough to get hit head-on by most attacks, but good enough to have your phone not break when you’re fighting.”

John slipped the case over his phone and noticed that the technology melded together. A moment later, the BU&U symbol in the top right corner of his screen switched to KoS, apparently that was his new cell phone provider.

“How much did it cost?” John asked, turning his phone over in his hands and sliding his hands over the back cover, which was extremely smooth.

“It was free actually, with my plan I get two phones or upgrades a year, and with how many years I had my old one, I have like five free phones coming to me,” Jenny explained, setting the phone to charge.

“I don’t think that’s how that works,” John replied, “and won’t my cell phone company be suspicious that my phone suddenly disconnected?”

“Nah it’ll be fine. Your phone still connects to their towers, so you’re still under their plan. It’s like you’ve got two cell phone companies,” Jenny explained, picking up her bass. She looked at her phone and apparently received bad news as her mood immediately soured. “I’ve got something to take care of before school starts, and I need to talk to you about stuff, so meet me at Ashcroft in like half an hour.”

In a flurry of bra, panties, jeans, t-shirt, and music, Jenny zipped out of his room. “Can’t we just talk now!” John called after her, but she was already gone. Grumbling to himself, he got dressed and showered, bidding Brenda goodbye before trudging out of the house.

Walking through the fast travel barriers, he decided to spend his stat points. He had also earned a perk point for levelling up to eight. He went with stats first, putting five points in Strength and five points into Endurance.

Achievement Unlocked: Bodybuilder
Reach 25 Strength through stat points or achievements

• Your outward appearance will now change much less when improving Strength; you will gain less muscle definition.
• HP Regeneration has been increased per point (retroactively).
• Tier I Strength Perks

Hotfix 1.04: The Perk Overhaul

• You will now gain a perk point every other level (retroactively).
• New perks for previous stats
• All current synergy perks will show.
• Perk sorting!

That certainly gives me a ton of new perks. The sorting is useful too, John thought as he tapped on each individual new perk.

Heavy Handed, Strength Perk
Structures, surfaces, and enemy limbs break more easily to unarmed and melee strikes.

Hidden Fist, Strength Perk
Unarmed attacks have a 10% chance to ignore any defense or damage resistance the enemy has.

One-Inch Punch, Strength Perk
Unarmed attacks require minimum windup for maximum damage and knockback.

Punch-Out, Strength Perk
Blows to the head from blunt weapons or unarmed attacks are much more likely to incapacitate or knock out those on the receiving end.

Fist, Strength Perk Skill, Variable MP
An unarmed strike with all your power behind it. Deals (Skill Level Mana Spent (Strength/2)) damage.

Well, those are all really good! I’m definitely going to check the other ones before I spend any points though, John thought as he pulled up the new Agility and Libido perks.

Pain Tolerance I, Agility Perk
You feel moderately less pain from all sources.

Sexual History, Libido Perk Skill
Using Observe (or its variants) successfully will include a brief sexual history of the target.

Both of those are good, but neither of them are really worth spending my points on. I don’t really care for the sexual history of most people, and the most pain I’ve felt was cut short pretty quickly when I died. Hopefully the new Intellect perks are better, John thought as he entered a fast-travel barrier. Before, any passerby would think he was just swiping at the air as he walked down the sidewalk. None saw him disappear in the alley.

Critical Thinking, Intellect Perk
Any weak spots or weaknesses in enemy physiology or equipment stand-out more when studying enemies during battle.

Multi-Tasking, Intellect Perk
You become much better at doing multiple things at once and can essentially split your brain into two processes without much if any loss of efficiency or speed in either activity.

Mental Resist, Intellect Perk
Low-level mind control spells and other attempts to subdue or control your mind will be weakened or stopped entirely.

Reactive Thinking, Intellect Perk
Speed up your thought process to match your reflexes, essentially allowing your thinking to match your reactions at any time.

Mind Reading, Intellect Perk Skill, 50 MP
Establish a connection between your mind and someone else’s. The higher your Intellect is compared to the target’s, the better you can understand their thoughts and the harder it is for the target to resist.

Wow, some of these are really good. I’m tempted to get Mind Reading, but I’ll read the synergy perks first, John thought as he walked out of one fast travel barrier and straight into another, not at all noticing the person following him. He pulled up the synergy perks, ignoring Nimble Fingers, since he had already seen it.

Vital Strike, Strength and Intellect Synergy Perk
Due to your knowledge of physiology, you can strike different points on enemies’ bodies unarmed or with a blunt weapon for a variety of random effects from muscle spasms to extra damage.

Precise Strike, Strength and Agility Synergy Perk
By striking the same exact point with the same method of unarmed attack or blunt weapon, you are able to increase damage by 10% with each successive attack in the same area to a cap of 300% increased damage.

Dirty Thief, Agility and Libido Synergy Perk
Any attempt to steal equipment covering up an opponent’s body through skills or otherwise has a 50% better chance of success.

Hot-Blooded, Strength and Libido Synergy Perk
When fighting near someone you have had sex with in the past twenty four hours, gain a slight boost to Strength and focus during combat. If you haven’t had sex in the past forty eight hours, receive a 10% boost to Strength until you have sex.

Mind Over Matter, Strength, Agility, and Intellect Perk Power
Once a day, you may make your Strength and Agility stats equal to ((Intellect+Strength+Agility)/2) for (Intellect/5) minutes.

Holy crap, that last one definitely seems the most overpowered. Right now, that's a 150% boost! I'd be practically invincible! John thought as he tapped on Mind Over Matter. That'll definitely come in handy. One more perk point... John scrolled through the descriptions of the perks in deep thought. Fist would probably go well with Gun-Kata, and it’s a pretty strong skill. I’ll go with that; I need better ways to deal damage up close.

After selecting his perks, John noticed that his stealth indicator was at one. He looked around for a moment but saw nothing. He hadn’t gotten any hostile popups, so he wasn’t very worried. “Hello?” John called to the seemingly empty barrier; “Is anyone there?” John used Spy on the barrier and found out that he definitely wasn’t alone.

Unnamed Barrier
Level: ???
Population: 3

When his question received no answer, he continued onward, slightly suspicious. Just as he was about to leave the barrier, he heard rapidly approaching footsteps behind him. He turned immediately, ready to enter Reflex Mode if necessary, expecting an attack. Instead, he watched a short, white-haired girl sprint past him carrying a backpack. He used Spy on her just before she left.

Sirian Lie
HP: 199/200
MP: 483/500
Level 15
The Innocent Priestess
Due to being homeschooled for most of her life, Sirian has trouble interacting with people. Though ****, her guardians have allowed her to attend Ashcroft for a year so that she gains experience of the outside world. Despite her naivety, she is a skilled healer and highly sought after by multiple Abyssal organizations.
RS: -10

“Hello to you too,” John spoke aloud into the fast-travel barrier, knowing there was still somebody else inside. He decided not to investigate, since they seemed to be leaving him alone.

John walked out of the fast travel barrier and toward Ashcroft, stopping in his tracks when he realized the priestess was nowhere in sight even though she had left it just moments before him. David appeared on John’s shoulder with his head cocked, staring at John questioningly, “It’s nothing David, just weird.” John pat David’s incorporeal form before continuing to the school. Jenny was waiting for him on a bench with her case strapped to her back. When she saw him approach, she stood up and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Without saying a word, she took his hand and dragged him to the abandoned classroom that he had practiced guitar in. She gripped his hand hard, squeezing it almost to the point of pain before finally speaking, “John,