More or less.

John continued down the hallways toward study hall, having no better idea on where he was supposed to go. He wasn't sure what he expected to find there either, though - all the classrooms were empty, so surely the study hall was too? John's only logical interpretation that he could think of was that, much like an actual random encounter, he had been moved to a separate area. He wished that he had a map or overworld function on his menus that he could use to tell if he was really in some other plane right now…

"You! Stop right there!"

"Criminal scum," John finished as he turned around at the sound of the voice. He would've been more suspicious, but he was more or less just grateful to have finally spotted someone else living in this weird alternate-reality. There was a red-headed woman running at him, wearing a surprising outfit - it was a full suit of armor with a blue skirt popping out from under it. In her hands she was carrying both a shield and a greathammer, equipment that her relatively skinny frame did not seem to indicate she could carry, but she was toting around with apparent ease. Her gaze was as hard as her shield no doubt was, and despite the odd mixture of garments and the silkiness of her hair, John immediately took her seriously. That doubled when he used observe.

Moira Brighton
Level 17 Paladin
<Warden of the Golden Rose>
850 / 850 HP

A Skill has leveled up!

Observe - Level 2: Now displays relationship values! Mana Cost now 4 per use.

"Interesting," John noted, but he didn't dare spend the mana to use the skill again. That would've put him below 40, and as little help as he thought the ability was going to be, he didn't feel like handicapping himself further.

"What are you doing? Why did you create this barrier, and why would you pull me into it?!"

"Barrier? Wha?" John asked, glancing around. "I didn't make this!"

"That’s impossible," the angry woman said, glancing around, "You're the only other presence I can sense in here besides the creatures of the Abyss. Someone extremely powerful must have created this barrier… one of my father's enemies? Or are you merely deceiving me?"

Having Moira's gaze turned on him again made John wince, its intensity was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Even when she seemed to doubt it was him, her conviction was like nothing he'd ever seen. If he had been the one to make this barrier, even by accident with some new power, he sure as hell wasn't telling her.

"I'm not, I swear. Look, I don't even know what's happening - where are we?"

"You don't… you didn't actually make this, did you?" The girl said, glancing around. "No, this is far too powerful of a protected zone for someone like you, I can barely sense your mana. Still… another mage at this school? For a place of peace and education, this location seems to attract a great deal of chaos…"

"A mage?" John hadn't really considered himself a mage, but it probably made as much sense as any other term. And he did have mana…

"Listen, if you didn't create this barrier then we are both in great danger. Either a powerful mage is inside the barrier and hiding his presence from me, or they have already left, and summoned something to deal with us. Either way we will have to find the Anchor Point or kill whatever is trapping us here before we can leave."

"Kill?" John said, as if the idea was just occurring to him. Well, his interface did say that it was a Random Encounter. Still, he hadn't thought his day was going to go like this, slaying monsters and meeting Paladins.

"If you cannot handle it yourself, stand by my side," Moira said, glancing over at John with a sigh. "It is my duty to protect the weak and innocent."

"T-thanks Moira," John said, so relieved at having an ally he didn't even get offended at being called weak.

"How do you know my name?"

John flinched. That was the first person he'd used Observe on that he hadn't already known their name, and he'd already slipped up.

"I, uh, I have a spell that lets me see basic information about people. It says you're Moira Brighton, a Paladin, and that you're a Warden of the Golden Rose."

John felt intimidated under her glare, enough to let slip all that he knew, although he kept the actual nature of the ability and the fact that it wasn't really a spell under wraps. Despite what he considered a very unusual ability, Moira seemed almost relieved.

"I see. Be wary of prying too deeply, young mage," Moira warned, though despite that she didn't seem too offended. Perhaps John's abilities weren't as unique as he thought.

"Right. Well, fair is fair, my name's John Newman," he said, extending his hand. Moira eyed it for a moment before shaking it, glancing around them as she spoke.

"Well met, John Newman. Now, let us find the source of this barrier."

"With gusto," John said.

"I've already walked through this hall," John said, pointing down where he had just come from, "and nothing has attacked me."

"Indeed. And I came from the gymnasium. A short walk down this corridor here and all that will be left is the second floor," Moira said, eyeing the staircase as though it held some great secret.

"Let us make haste."

Moira led the way, her shield held out in front of her as the towering wall that it really was. John kept his eyes down every doorway they passed, but they were all empty. There weren't even any signs of life. Until they got to the stairs.

As Moira put her foot down on the first step, it was echoed. Not by the silent walls, but by another footstep. John was about to warn Moira but she was frozen in place, eyes locked at the top of the stairs. Clearly she didn't need John's advice.

"Skeletons," Moira said, a moment before John saw them under her raised shield. There were at least three of them, wielding rusted swords and maces, but it sounded a lot like there were more on the way by the clattering coming from up the stairs. They were descending the split staircase on the left, but were almost ready to turn around and start coming at them.

"Shouldn't be too hard, right? You gotta have some kind of light magic as a Paladin, don't ya?"

"I don't need magic to deal with these," Moira said, backing up her words with action. As the skeletons rounded the bend in the stairs and turned back toward them, Moira brought her hammer crashing down on the first one. It shattered into multiple pieces, including a few bones breaking apart from the sheer **** of her hammer. In fact, the swing actually shattered part of the stairs, nearly hitting John if Moira wasn't expertly protecting both of them with her shield.

"Woah! Nice!" John shouted, watching the bones crumble into dust. "But should you be smashing up the school like this? Won't it be hard to explain?"

"This is an alternate reality, a protected space separate from the other plane of existence," Moira explained, her voice not particularly worried as she squared off with the next skeleton. She continued her explanations as she smashed this one's skull into the wall.

"When we exit, and we will, all damage that has been done will be irrelevant, and should we form another protected space here it will be unharmed as well."

"That's pretty cool," John said. He kept an eye on his bars, but it didn't seem like he was getting anything from this. Killing monsters was the number one way to gain XP - but if he didn't do the work it looked like he didn't get the XP. Well, maybe he could do something? John could definitely afford to burn some mana with Moira protecting him.

The unfortunate part was that they were in a school. There was no earth around, nor any fire, and he wasn't sure how to kill a Skeleton using water. But there was air - there was always air. John did his best to think back to when he experimented with his abilities. In a fraction of a second he had compressed enough air to rattle the door and shake his shirt up - what could he do with about… yep, five seconds of charge time now that he had had a few minutes to regen while they walked and talked.

"Let me try something," John said, pointing a hand out toward the Skeleton. He wasn't even sure if he needed to, but he figured that it couldn't hurt. He focused on controlling the air around the skeleton, condensing it all, focusing it into a single point. He kept it up, trying to **** more and more pressure until…

When John's mana ran dry the air filled with a loud pop sound, and a wave of air washed over them. Enough that if John hadn't been right there behind Moira he probably would've been thrown off his feet. The Skeleton got the worst of it - just above its third or fourth vertebrae where John had been focusing the air, the spine separated, leaving the Skeleton's head to roll onto the ground. John wasn't a hundred percent on whether these skeletons could function without heads, but he was relieved to watch it crumble rapidly into dust.

Enemy weakness exploited! 28 Damage!
Enemy Slain! +25 EXP

"Well, that wasn't much," John said as he glanced over the skeleton.

"Agreed, it was very diluted, not concentrated enough for a reliable hit. Not bad for a novice mage, though. Can you handle yourself after all?" Moira asked, glancing over at him.

"Uh…"

John looked at his mana, grateful that she had made up her own explanation for what he was saying. Yep, he was back down to 0.

"I don't have much mana," John said sheepishly. "I can do that maybe… once every half-hour?"

"We'll be out of here long before then if I have my way. Stick close, and if you see something you feel comfortable using as a weapon, take it."

"Right. Any idea how many of those things there are?"

"It's far easier to detect mages. Creatures of the abyss blend in with their surroundings… but it should only be one more group of them."

"Great," John said, following her advice and sticking close to her as she started to ascend the stairs. As she went, John's eyes followed her, and he couldn't help but get a good look at that blue skirt she was wearing. It wasn't short by any means, almost knee-length, but the way she moved in that armor and how quickly she ascended the stairs left John getting a few quick glimpses of a pair of white panties, and something golden on top of them.

"More armor?" John thought idly, but figured it was best not to ask questions until later. Maybe never, considering that'd give away that he had been looking up her skirt. Either way, John followed Moira up the stairs as she rounded the corner, and was not surprised to see another cluster of skeletons. Five this time.

"This appears to be the last of them. Wait here, I will handle them," Moira said, grunting as she moved forward. The skeletons had seen her and were already moving toward the young Paladin with their weapons raised, and she was already preparing to cut them down. John glanced around, wondering if there was something he could do to kill at least one of them. He wasn't eager to get hurt, but his Gamer's Body ability should protect him from most damage - and he doubted Skeletons could affect his HP that much, even with rusted swords. And with that kind of supernatural protection, ideally he would get at least some experience out of this whole situation.

Since Moira said that things were going to be the same, John dashed to the side while she was busy engaging the first of their enemies. John went into one of the classrooms and returned with a chair in time to see Moira bashing one skeleton with her shield while slamming her impressive hammer into another. Both crumbled into dust, leaving only three.

"Heads up!"

John wasn't sure if he was alerting Moira or taunting the skeletons, but he felt like he should say something as he tossed the chair into the fray. His aim was a bit off, but thankfully he - barely - avoided hitting Moira. Instead of the skeleton he'd aimed at he hit the one next to it, causing its arm to fall off. Moira threw a glance his way but dealt with the other two quickly enough that John had a clear path to the one he'd injured. It was leaning down to pick up its arm, but having seen just how fragile they really were, John simply jumped onto its back and started pounding away at its spine. He didn't need to hit it at all - as soon as he jumped onto it, its lack of proper structure fell over entirely, falling over onto the ground and shattering into numerous pieces, then finally into dust completely. Hitting it with the chair had probably helped, but he'd been so preoccupied with getting the kill that he hadn't even bothered to check how much its HP went down from the hit. As he stood back up, he realized he was being bombarded with windows.

Enemy weakness exploited! 22 Damage!
Enemy Slain! +25 XP

Random Encounter defeated!
+100 EXP

Achievement Unlocked! "Baby's First Victory!" ~ Win your first battle.
+1 to all Stats
+250 EXP

Achievement Unlocked! "A Spectator Sport!" ~ Let someone else kill at least 75% of a Random Encounter. Why be brave when you can be lazy?
+10 EXP
+1 to all Stats for Party Members
+10% EXP from Party Members' kills

Skill Unlocked: Create Dungeon Barrier
Create Dungeon Barrier: Allows creation of protected zones inhabited by monsters. The creatures contained within are dependent on user input, location, and the current level of both the user and the skill. Barrier can be entered by anyone within its borders, monsters will only spawn at initial creation. Mana Cost: 50 at initial creation.

Level Up!
John has reached Level 4!
+1 to all Stats
+1 Skill Point

"Woah," John said, gazing at everything that had just happened to him in wonder.