Not The Teacher He Thought He Had

“To my office, Mr. Newman. Where else?” Seeing that her student was still motionless, she walked towards him, held the bat by the barrel and brought its grip close to his face. “Come, my boy, we need to talk.”

It took John a while to notice that the bat was being handed to him. He grasped its grip in his hands and, seeing that his teacher let go of the other end, he stored it. The momentary shock of the whole event slowly faded, and John started to notice what was happening around him. The desks and chairs were moving as though they were reorganizing the classroom, that was when he noticed the items that were left on the floor.

So, before he followed his teacher, he decided to take what he could with him. He picked up and stored the pieces of his broken baton; he still felt a bit saddened by the state of his first weapons. Next, came the empty dented flask that had been thrown by Adrang; he noticed it was a bit heavy for an empty flask and decided to cast observe on it.

Then he took two of the shortswords, one had belonged to Adrang and the other Okred; he wasn’t able to find Fithrim’s sword. The weapons would at least serve as nice replacements for his batons. He cast observe on both of them.

He got a very similar description for Okred’s sword; the obvious difference was the sword was described as being in an almost pristine state.

Next to the swords, he also found the remains of the broken desk. He noticed that three of its legs were in a good state and looked like they could be useful. “You guys don’t mind me taking these, do you?” he asked the other furniture, wondering if and how they would reply to him. “I promise I’ll try to put them to good use.” Truth be told, he wasn’t quite sure what use he’d have for the legs, but from his experience with miscellaneous loot, he knew that something could turn up to make them useful. He didn’t get any response from them. He decided to take one just to test their response; with no reaction from any, he picked up the other two.

Meanwhile, his teacher just stood and watched this interaction with an amused look on her face. She wasn’t sure if he used his skills to find out what kind of furniture they were or if he was just playing it safe in fear of possible retaliation from them. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to further observe her student with her own skills. “Can we go now? I have a class to teach soon.”

“One moment, Mrs. Wentworth, please.” The loot hoarder in him had awakened, so he still felt the need to look for more. He went over to one of the bodies of the Bauchans expecting them to leave something behind. As he touched it, the body disappeared, but nothing was left for him. All that he got was the following message.

Looting from the Bauchans bodies is unavailable. The procedure for distribution of shared loot and rewards is still being written. You can have the flask and swords since they were dropped before the enemies were defeated.

“Well, that’s useful. Do you mind doing that to the other two?” his teacher asked wanting her classroom barrier to get back to its usual pristine state.

John answered with a nod and proceeded to do the same to the other bodies. As he was doing so, he wondered, It’s true, this is a useful way to get rid of the bodies, but will the effects happen every time I do this? It worked with the coyotes and now the Bauchans, what about humans? He suddenly shivered at the thought of doing so to a human body and the reason why he’d need to do it.

“Thank you,” she gave a quick appreciative smile. “Now let’s go.”

A thank you and a smile. Looks like this will be another day of firsts, John thought as he followed his teacher.

Inside her office, Mrs. Wentworth indicated for John to sit down on a chair in front of her desk. He hesitated which prompted his teacher to assure him, “Don’t worry, Mr. Newman, I am not going to eat you, although I am pretty sure someone will get to you sooner than you expect.”

As John sat down, he took in all the details from the room. He had only been there during the few times she had wanted to discuss any issue about one of his assignments. There were quite a few fixtures that he now wondered if their origin was mundane or Abyssal.

“Before you ask, yes, I did know that those Bauchans were here when I sent you. Also, I am the Witch they were talking about and I know you have gained powers very recently. I was quite sure that you would be fine; however, I was surprised by them attacking you so early.” She stared at her student and asked, “What did you do for that to happen?”

“One of them took issue with me comparing them to hobgoblins,” he replied. “I guess he just used it as an excuse to attack me anyway. The so-called leader seemed to be in a losing battle controlling him.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right.” She shook her head frustrated with the invasion of her barrier. “That’s the problem with his kind of Abyssal creature, all brawn and no brains. Did you manage to get any information from them?”

“Other than what they told me, Okred, the leader, was on a quest to steal from you to prove his worth for his tribe.”

“That’s all you got? No information on how they learned about this place?” she pressed on wanting to get from him all the details he managed to obtain.

“No, Mrs. Wentworth.”

“Hmm,” the teacher thought for a while before proceeding. “I need you to do something for me, Mr. Newman. Putting it in your Gamer terms, I have a quest for you.”

“Why me, Miss?” John asked before even learning what she wanted.

“Because, Mr. Newman, so far you have either been soundly beaten or been very lucky. You need to get stronger if you want to be a member of the Abyss and survive. I also need to know how they knew about this place and how they got in,” she told him.

“What’s the problem with them knowing about this barrier?” he preferred to ask about the latter part of her reason wondering if there was something that she was purposefully not telling him.

“Let’s just say that I went through quite a bit of trouble to maintain this place as a secret.” She looked at the hourglass on her desk and sighed as the top half was nearly empty. She tapped on it and asked her student, “Are you up for the task?”

“What do you want me to do?” he answered his teacher with a question, something that he knew annoyed her. As he looked at the hourglass, he got confused, I could have sworn that the sand was supposed to move faster than that.

“It’s simple, all I need is for you to obtain more information from their tribe. Especially in regards to how they came to know about this place and if someone is behind this.” She took out a wooden box from a cabinet behind her and kept on tapping on its lid while she waited for her student’s reaction.

“Are you crazy? You did see that, if it wasn’t for the intervention of your furniture, I would have been killed by them, right?” John was too stunned by the request to care that he was dangerously close to going over the line in regards to his behavior.

“I am not asking for you to raid the tribe, just to gather some information,” his teacher told him keeping too calm for the way he behaved. “From what I’ve gathered, you may be capable of doing this without any confrontation.”

“Come on, Miss.” He stood up from the chair. “Do you really expect me to risk my life while investigating a whole tribe of creatures after just having my ass kicked by three of them?”

“Language, Mr. Newman!” the disappointment on her face was obvious. “Watching you use your skills is amusing enough to let you stay here a bit longer, but I won’t accept you use such language here.”

“I am sorry,” he apologized still standing. “But I don’t even know where to look. How long do I have to search for them?”

“I am not sending you on a wild goose chase, don’t be stupid. Now sit down!” The teacher exclaimed finally losing her patience. She then took a deep breath to calm herself down and proceeded, “I have a basic idea of where you’ll need to start, you probably know that too. And don’t worry, I won’t be sending you alone. I have also sent someone there who should help you and, when you’re finished, she’ll send you back.”

“Wait, you want me to go to their tribe? You mean go to Scotland?” he asked surprised when he figured out where he was supposed to be heading to. “How will I get there?”

“As I said, I’ll be sending you,” Mrs. Wentworth shook her head. “Are you paying attention to anything I am saying?”

“I am sorry,” he apologized once again. “I have no knowledge of any Abyssal means of transportation.”

“As we are on the topic, Mr. Newman, remember this: knowledge is power.” She smiled as she was getting into something she enjoyed doing, teaching. “This next bit of information I’ll give you is free since you gave me part of the reason for these creatures being here. But I want more as I said already, I want to know how they came to learn about this place. So, to help you get the information I want, I advise you to use that special observation ability of yours. You might not know this, but not everyone can detect its use. It’s true that some have means of blocking it or even changing the information you get to mask their true identity, but detecting it being cast is a whole other level.”

“Can I use it on you then?” John asked feeling it would be better if he were polite and asked her.

“It’s may, Mr. Newman. No, you MAY not. What you know about me should be enough for now.” She then quietly waited to see if he would have the courage to try. She smiled when she didn’t detect anything and continued, “One other thing, whatever you do, please try to not kill any of the tribe members.”

“Why? I mean, I don’t want to kill any of them, but what would happen if I do? Didn’t three of them die in your barrier anyway?”

“Don’t worry about those three, I have concealed their presence here enough so that neither their presence or their deaths would ever be detected by anyone. Not even the other Abyssal students.”

“Other students? I only know of Moira. There are more?” John interrupted her explanation.

“Getting power must have really gone to your head, you never interrupted me so much. As to that bit of information, Mr. Newman, it would cost me more to tell you than it would cost you. So don’t bother to ask me who.” She told him with a serious look on her face. “Now, let me finish. If you kill anyone from that tribe, even in self-defense, there could be some serious repercussions against the local people. Or even you, if they learn about your identity.

“Which now brings us to one last bit of advice. Be careful when it comes to talking about yourself. It’s better that you don’t say much and, if the need arises, use a different identity. The Gamer should be fine.” She watched the expression on his face change as she said that last remark. “Before you ask, I won’t give you the reason for me knowing your title.”

It was evident that his teacher was taking over the rest of the talk, just like she did during her lectures. She finally opened the box and started taking some items from it. “Here, take this coin purse; there should be enough in there to cover the costs for this quest. Also, take these potions, two healing potions in case you need them and the other gives you a temporary boost in your physical capabilities.”

Mrs. Wentworth opened the cabinet once again and took another item out of it. “Here, take this cloak also, it might help you too.”

John cast observe on the cloak she handed to him, but all he got was a simple message window.

“This is just a normal cloak?” he asked even though he already knew the answer to it.

“Of course it is. Do you think everything is free?” she said sounding indignant. “I confiscated it from a student that was trying to pull a Halloween prank last year. He never had the courage to ask for it back.”

John stored everything she gave to him in his inventory, and while he was doing so, it brought a smile to his teacher’s face. “Now, do you accept the quest or not?”

New Quest - Teacher’s Pet Spy
Gather information for Mrs. Wentworth from the Bauchan’s tribe.
Optional Objective 1: Don’t get Caught
Optional Objective 2: Don’t kill any Bauchan
Reward:
500 XP, 1 rare item
Optional Objective 1 Reward:
200 XP, 2 stat points
Optional Objective 2 Reward:
150 XP, 1 uncommon item

“Ok, Mrs. Wentworth, I accept,” John replied while hitting accept, which brought another smile to her face. The rewards were too good for him to pass up.

“Now, are you ready?” His teacher asked as she stood up and walked to the opposite end of her office. “Stand here and face me, please.”

“Wait, you never told me where in Scotland you are sending me,” he said as he positioned himself.

“Don’t worry, you'll find out soon enough, trust me,” she told him in a mocking manner, and then she flicked his forehead.