New Day, New Responsibilities.

John awoke the following morning with a strange mixture of emotions. Having had a night to process the events of the prior day, he had now had time to process everything, and was slowly coming to terms with a few facts.

The first of which was that he was, apparently, a mage. A sorcerer, though it took the form of no magic he could imagine - even his elemental abilities were somewhat odd, though at least those were more understandable in comparison to the fact that his entire life had just become an RPG. This fact, combined with said abilities, meant he was going to have to shift his entire worldview. And that still wasn't the most amazing of them.

The most shocking fact seemed to be that even for a mage, he was somewhat of a rule breaker. Moira had insisted that Abyss creatures couldn't exist outside of a Barrier, and that they should even fade if the original user left the Barrier. To learn in the same day that he was something he didn't think was possible, and that he was something literal mages didn't think was possible… that was a real doozy.

But the one that had the biggest impact for John was that in the span of twenty-four hours, and on the advice of a voice that he still didn't understand, he had essentially become a father. He wasn't in a literal sense, but that didn't absolve his feelings of responsibility for the Nekos that he had Purified during his last encounter. John had a few options for taking care of them, only one of which made any real sense. If he left them as they were, they were going to require food, water, and shelter. Water didn’t seem that bad - if the strange world that he left them in expanded to include a "Lake"-type area, they should be able to get water for free, and easily. But the other two required funds, funds he didn't have.

On the other hand, he couldn't bring them into his world without exposing them to even more danger. Though he could've hoped that Gaia's ability to make non-mages forget about magical incidents would kick in, the last thing he wanted was to recreate the Salem witch trials. What good was being dismissed as a legend of history if he and his new creations still burned to ashes? Much as he didn't intend to create them, John was responsible for them in a way that filled him with ire at the thought of anyone causing harm to either Maera or Mithra.

That left only one option - John had to provide for them. That meant taking a lot of time away from home, time that he couldn't exactly explain easily. As John took his morning shower, washing away the filth of last night's combat and the stench of sweat and sex from his activities after, he realized that the only way he was going to able to avoid suspicion was to avoid company altogether. Given that he currently lived with his mother while he was attending the university… that was not a particularly easy goal. But he had discussed moving out with her before, this would not be an especially long reach. So long as he approached it from the right angle.

As John stepped out from the shower, a window appeared in front of him. Almost accustomed to it by now, he read the window carefully before he even set his foot down on the bathroom tile.

Quest Received: "Of Love and Logistics"!
Requirements: Provide Maera and Mithra with at least a week's worth of food and water, as well as basic shelter.
Reward: +1000 XP, +$500, +1 Level of World Shift.

With his body freshly dried and his day's clothes picked out from the pile, John knew what he needed to do. So when he approached the breakfast table, he was already prepared for his mother's greeting. He had to leave home. Unless he lived on his own there was no way to avoid suspicion when he disappeared for a day or two at a time. It would take a while before he could fully breach the subject of moving out with his mother, but for now he had a plan.

"Morning, John," his mother said, smiling at him over a bowl of pasta. "I just finished the eggs - bon appetite!"

"Thanks Mom," John said, smiling as he grabbed a plate and helped himself to the plethora of food his mother had fixed him. Despite the fact that his father was gone almost constantly, his mother almost always fixed a meal for three. That worked to John's advantage today - he was able to store a lot of bacon and a few eggs away in his inventory for later, hopefully much more nutritious than the granola bars and jerky sticks he'd left for Maera and Mithra earlier. His mother didn't even question how much of the food her son was packing away.

"Hey, I met a few guys after class yesterday - they said they want to have a game night, but it sounds like it could run pretty late," John said, deliberately being as vague as possible. "Kurt said his family was okay with him having a few people over since he's basically got the whole second floor to himself - any problems with me staying over there tonight?"

"No, that sounds great! Glad you're making more friends, I know you love your online games," Brenda said, smiling as she finished up the last of her pancake batter, "but I'm glad you have friends you can see in person too."

"Yeah, I know," John said, smirking. His mother had never been upset by his obsession with gaming but she still didn't like how his go-to group of friends were all from across the world on Discord, rather than people he could meet up with for a slice of pizza any time. "Just wanted to let you know I wouldn't be home tonight."

"Well I certainly appreciate the heads up," his mother said, smirking as she started to pull various containers out of the cupboards to store all the extra food she had prepared. "Will you be home before or after class tomorrow?"

"Uh, probably after," John said, trying to hide the fact that he'd been planning on skipping class that day to make it home after. "I'll just throw some spare clothes in my bag today."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow afternoon then."

John wondered if he had an unseen luck stat that was influencing him. Not only had his mother not even bothered to ask where he would be staying, but she hadn't even insisted on coming home before classes - that meant he could wait until after classes today, and put off skipping until tomorrow, when hopefully he would have a better gauge on this term's professors and what they would expect of him.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow after classes then," John said, smiling as his mother went to work stowing away mounds of bacon and pancakes.

"See you then, love you!"

John finished his food and returned to his room immediately after throwing his dishes in the sink, smirking the whole way. Things were looking up for him today. Even if the werecats needed food and shelter - things he was certain he couldn't provide without money - he had a way to get them. A lake was the first thing he needed, in order to provide water. After that, a forest - the branches and trees that would be easily accessible would hopefully provide enough wood to build adequate shelter, maybe even houses eventually. Then he needed food, and for that, since the only living things he had met in that strange place were his Nekos, he needed money. All of which seemed to mean one thing.

"I'm going to need to grind," John thought as he re-zipped his backpack, securing it before heading for the front door. "And that means going back into a Dungeon Barrier."

Considering that last time he had only barely survived (and even then, only thanks to an apparently rule-breaking ability), John wasn't eager to dive back into JRPG styled grinding, but he had few choices, and few enough of those were sensible. Only the Dungeon Barriers provided him with enough cash to sustain his new Neko creations, while simultaneously allowing him to advance his own skills enough to be prepared for any random encounters that he might be drawn into. Whether by his own powers or someone else's. Even if he wanted to seek a normal job to supply the twin catgirls with food, he would have to wait a month or more before his first paycheck, and there was only so much extra food he could steal from his mother before she started to question why he was suddenly eating enough for three people.

Besides, John thought as he headed toward the bus stop by his house, there was one major advantage that he now had. Namely, the two catgirls. The collar he had equipped Maera with didn't explicitly say that it made her loyal, or that she would obey commands, but if he could just raise her relationship high enough he was certain that she would gladly help him out in those dungeons. Hell, considering she had willingly had sex with him before the collar (animal instincts or not), the relationship boosts from the collar might be enough.

Hell, with any luck, he would find more equipment for the two of them, like clothes. As much as he was worried about exposing himself, somehow John found the thought of being seen buying women's clothing (especially when his classmates thought he was still a hopeless virgin) alone was not something he wanted to do, so if he didn't find clothing for the two of them in dungeons, they were going to be stuck nude until further notice, whether grinding dungeons got him enough cash or not.

John was occupied by thoughts about his future and the risks he was putting himself at for so long that by the time the bus pulled into his school, he was already planning what things he could possibly craft out of the Werecat hides and furs he had obtained. He was engulfed by such thoughts right up until the moment that he was pinned against the wall. The movement came so abruptly that it took him a brief second to realize that it was Moira pinning him up against the wall, not Frank.

"What happened to you last night?" Moira asked immediately. John took a breath to realize that her tone - and even the way she held him - was one of concern, not of suspicion. She looked as though she had spent all night worrying about him, something that John was both happy and distressed to see.

"What do you mean?" John asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't-"

"We felt that you were in danger. Only for a brief moment, but you had us worried," Moira said, shaking her head. "We would have come, but by the time my father had ordered me to your aid, we already sensed that you were no longer in peril."

"I- oh," John said, shaking his head, "I wasn't in… well, I was kind of in danger. I read that book you gave me and experimented with making a Barrier. The creatures inside surprised me, but I was able to take them down."

"You tried to-"

Moira seemed to abruptly realize that there were still students readying themselves for class around them, and straightened herself appropriately. Coughing lightly, Moira continued in a much more contained way, allowing John to drop to the floor and not touching him so aggressively anymore. The few students whose attention had been caught by her sudden motion slowly drifted away, though John could see eyes still on them.

"Such actions are dangerous, John Newman. Especially for one who has only begun the study of what… it truly is," Moira said, now avoiding any specific words. "Still, I am glad to see that you are okay. For what purpose did you attempt such things, though?"

"I’m just… I'm new to all this," John said honestly, hoping to avoid outright lying to the Paladin, knowing that his quest for her relationship depended on not being caught in any lies or otherwise pissing her off. "I wanted to see what happened, see what I could do on my own. You kind of saved my ass the other day. I got in over my head, but I did end up getting out of it - which is probably when your alarms started going off."

"So you killed everything?" Moira asked, raising her eyebrow. "Many novices have fallen to obstacles they could create, but not overcome."

"If I hadn't gotten free, I wouldn't be here, would I?" John asked, shaking his head. "I 'overcame' everything, and I know my limitations all the better for it."

Nothing that he said was an explicit lie, but he felt all the dirtier for it, especially when Moira smiled afterwards.

"Impressive, Mr. Newman. Though I would advise you to contact me before you do such a thing again - having a guardian cannot hurt, and it would be appreciated if you let us know you were going to be in such danger before we send an entire regiment to your home."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to explain that."

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. John and Moira both glanced away from each other at the same time. The few students who had been interested by her sudden accosting of him had long since gone, and were now filtering away to their own classes.

"I have to go," Moira said, backing away toward the hallway where most of the upperclassmen had their mandatory classes, "but be sure to contact me if you want to continue improving yourself!"

Moira threw something to him, something John couldn't quite catch, but was able to lift off the floor just in time to throw an Observe in Moira's direction as she turned away and scrambled down the hall.

Moira Brighton
Level 17 Paladin
<Warden of the Golden Rose>
850 / 850 HP
Relationship: 5
Alignment: +85

John shook his head. Despite all that he had done since first meeting her, his relationship with her was only barely in the positive. Still, from a -50 and essentially having his life threatened, he thought that was quite the improvement. As he glanced at what she had thrown him, that thought strengthened. It was her phone number - or at least the Order's number.

"Well, I might just have to take her up on that," John thought, smiling as he tucked the phone number away for later. Of course, John couldn't bring her immediately - she would likely be suspicious if a Barrier he created personally contained Abyss creatures that were permanent and dropped items - but having a Paladin able and willing to assist him in times of need was something he was not about to overlook.

John couldn't help but think that with all that had happened over these past few days, it was going to be difficult to sit through classes while daydreaming about all he had yet to accomplish.

Sure enough, the day seemed to drag by with John having so much more than grades and gaming on his mind, for a change. Even sneaking away between classes to manipulate water and air in the school restrooms didn't add enough excitement to make the day go fast - he had a brief window of adrenaline and thrill, and then it was back to meniality. The plus side was that his between-class ministrations finally got him to level up his elemental powers.

A Skill has leveled up!

Elemental Control - Level 2: The Gamer can now control moderate amounts of each element, and manipulate them to a greater degree. The Gamer may also control secondary elements as an extension of each original element - Water/Ice, Earth/Metal, Wind/Electricity, and Fire/Light.

Considering those new elements, though, only added to John's stresses, as he tried to figure out which abilities would benefit him the most against various stereotypical RPG enemies - like the skeletons he had faced the day before, or more bestial enemies like the Werecats. It wasn't until the final bell rang that he felt a wave of tension release from him, flooding into the ground as he frantically stepped out toward the bus.

"I have to start near my house," John thought, wondering where he would go. By the time he was halfway back to his house's nearest bus stop he had settled on a nearby park, where there was not usually a high amount of traffic. He could use the restrooms there, activate his World Shift skill, and then when it came off cooldown his chances of being caught were significantly lower than if he simply vanished off the bus or any other location.

His suspicions proved right - he disembarked from the city bus and walked the two blocks over to the park to find it completely barren except for a single mother and her child playing on the swings there. John marched to the restrooms, strolled inside, and made his way into one of the stalls, being sure to lock it behind him while avoiding touching any part of the filthy toilet seat. Surely nobody would be **** enough to crawl under the door to unlock it - at least, not in the span of the day he'd be gone. John checked his status screen, and was surprised to find that the ability was off cooldown.

"Maybe the first one was free?" John thought, unable to understand. He hadn't bothered to check when he came home the previous day, but it made sense - maybe the cooldown only activated when he came home, too. He'd have time to figure all that out later. For now, he needed to focus on getting to Maera and Mithra, and having them well taken care of.

"Alright, now… do I just focus on it like the Elemental Control ability? Or do I-"

John's mind was filled with a vision of the field he had left the Nekos in, as well as Maera and Mithra themselves. A moment later it was no longer a vision but reality - it was as if John had simply blinked, and his fantasy had become reality, instead. Even his feet hadn't shifted, the ground underneath them perfectly level with the park bathroom as he started to whirl. The only things that were missing were the Nekos in question.

"Maera?" John called out, raising up his hand to raise his voice, "Mithra?"

He received no answer, but the grass on a nearby hill started to rustle. Something about the motion reminded him of Jurassic Park as a disturbance in the tall grasses moved toward him quickly, with all the grace an excited cat could muster, before he was pounced up on - surprisingly, it was not Maera, but Mithra, her body weight throwing John to the ground as she began to roughly lick his cheeks.

"Ok- okay," John stammered out, laughing as he placed a hand on her shoulder and shoved her away. Mithra reluctantly stepped off of him, still circling him as he regained his footing and started to sort through his inventory screen.

"Seriously, hang on," John said, laughing as Mithra finally backed off a bit. Her INT score might not have been as high as her sister's, considering she had yet to say anything to John, but she seemed to understand what he wanted, if not the actual words. John had only just taken the bacon and sausages out of his inventory when Maera cleared the same hill. Unlike Mithra she was clearly visible, bounding through the tall grasses in leaps rather than stalking through them. She let out a cry, too, when she noticed what she was approaching.

"Myaster! Myaster! Fooooood!"

The last cry was so adorable that John couldn't help but to feed Maera himself, leaning down and scratching behind her soft catlike ears while gently holding out the bacon she eagerly bit into. He had underestimated their appetites, he thought, noting that even as he steadily emptied his inventory they showed only moderate satisfaction with the food, nothing resembling complete fullness.

"Maera," John eventually began as he pulled the last of the bacon from his inventory and began to delve into pancakes, "I need your help today."

"Myaster… help?" Maera said, a bit uncertainly, pausing in mid-bite of the pancake. Despite the fact he doubted a cat even knew what it was she had torn into it without hesitation.

"Yes… I want to get you more food, and to do that, we're going to have to go into a dungeon. That means we're going to have to fight. Um… food," John said, thinking better of his verbiage and pointing toward the pancake, "fight!"

He emphasized the last word by pounding his fist into his palm. Maera seemed to understand, but surprisingly it was Mithra who latched on the most, slamming her paws into the ground over and over as she chanted the words back to him.

"Food! Fight! Food! Fight!"

"Well, someone's on board, I think," John said uncertainly. He was a bit shaken by the fact that her first two words were "food" and "fight", but he was okay with it if it meant he had some backup. "Let's do this together then!"

Invitations sent. Maera and Mithra are under the effects of Collar of Bonding - invites accepted automatically!

"So, that's actually a thing," John noted, nodding his head. He had suspected as much when the notification came up about party members' EXP being boosted, but he had no idea how to do it. Perhaps, like his other abilities, it was just done whenever it was appropriate. Or perhaps it was something he had initiated just by saying they should do it together. Whatever the case was, he noticed immediately as a health and mana bar popped up over both Maera and Mithra.

"Help Myaster!" Maera shouted behind him, pointing a fist in the air. Whether the two Nekos understood what they were getting into or not, they seemed to have enthusiasm, and that was all John could ask for at this point. Nodding, he held out his hand, readying his mana.

"Alright, then... let's do this."

A menu popped up, giving John similar options to the ones he had seen the day before. John once again set the difficulty to easy, not trusting his life or the lives that were now his to take care of to the potentially vicious "Normal" difficulty. This time, he set the enemies to "Bats" figuring that a staple of his typical video games would be a bit better than an infrequent enemy like Werecats. Hopefully, they would be not terribly unlike real-world bats, and therefore fragile and easily slain by his Elemental Control ability if he found it too difficult to hit them with the bat he was still carrying.

John didn't bother asking if Maera and Mithra were ready for the transport, knowing it would be too difficult to explain. He double-checked the settings for the Dungeon Barrier, then mashed the Enter button, simply hoping that things wouldn't get too out of hand this time.