Of "Optional" Objectives [Dino]

"I Des here! New branch incoming. You probably read tidbits like this before. Our zixiest Izix has hatched a Dino egg into a new author. New take on our titular character, while things might be familiar they can differ or go in slightly other ways, so things working differently is a feature not a bug. I reviewed the start of it and it's promising with an interesting one. And now a word from his sponsor. Drops mic.

"I zix, zixingly declare that I have sponsored yet another great one. Do you like stuff? And stuff being put together? Then you'll love Dino! After all, he's made from stuff, and he puts it together to form a fun story. Honestly, Dino is joining the ranks of my favorite branches with ease. Read, have fun, rage at him for liking certain games. It's all a fun read. Ladies and gentlebeings, Dino's hatched."

Masturbation was really a fundamental part of John’s morning if he was being honest; there was no way he was going to miss this bonus. He supposed that he appreciated the ease of it at least, so he went to work on his bonus objective as soon as he got in the shower.

John almost found it difficult to keep his focus on jacking off, with his mind wandering to the powers he’d woken up to in the morning. He was reasonably certain that he wasn’t still dreaming, but he kept checking his character sheet to make sure it was really there.

’Doesn’t great power usually come with either great responsibilities or horrific costs?’ he wondered. ’What would I have done to warrant either?’

Despite his spiral of thoughts, The Gamer was nothing if not persistent in his journey to orgasm - and the completion of quests - so he reached out of the shower to grab his phone, pulled up his favorite hentai, and finished the dirty deed. As soon as he had done so and started washing himself properly, he noticed a text box out of the corner of his eye.

SKILL LEVEL INCREASE: [Masturbation] (Level 18)

“Huh,” John mumbled as he let the water wash over him.

‘Interesting that there would be a skill for that, but I guess I would have experience with it,’ John thought, trying to guess how exactly these strange powers worked. ’Shoutout to my right hand.’

The Gamer silently pondered what other things he might already have some proficiency in while he tapped on the text in front of him, hoping for some more information. John’s curiosity was rewarded with another popup, though he found its contents to still be frustratingly lacking in numbers.

’Cost? Oh yeah… I have mana,’ John realized, ’that’s weird.

‘I wonder if there’s an options menu or something where I can enable some better tooltips?’ The Gamer thought to himself as he finished his shower. ’Maybe I have some noob filter on so I don’t mess with too many things?’

He opened his character sheet again and started trying to poke around to see if he could find any options or get better descriptions when, suddenly, the menu closed on him.

Panicking, John frantically tried to open the menus again, hoping he hadn’t broken anything. Then, a single line of text appeared in the center of his vision.

Be patient. I’m hotfixing you.

John’s eyes went wide. He furled his brows and read the text again.

“Hotfixing… me?” he mumbled under his breath.

’OK, so… someone is behind these powers, I guess. Good to know. That’s… concerning? Is that a good thing or not? What’s going on?’

John sighed as he reread the line again, exasperated. ’The implications of a being who even could do this bring up too many questions this early on a Monday morning.’

A small progress bar appeared in the corner of his vision, ticking upward painfully slowly, and The Gamer decided that it would be better to get on with his morning, since he couldn’t do much while waiting anyway besides his normal routine.

---

He made sure to clean himself better than normal because the description of his two week-old underwear bothered him a bit. Remembering that pair of underwear, he had also realized that he couldn’t get to them currently, being that they were in the inventory he didn’t have access to.

So, when he’d finished his shower, John had to quickly wrap himself in a towel and jog back to his room to retrieve a fresh pair of underwear and a clean uniform. The Ashcroft uniform was fairly simple, if somewhat uptight, with a striking red jacket over a white shirt and black pants. The clothes themselves weren’t necessarily something John was opposed to, even if he found them stuffy, but he hated how the whole getup made him feel.

They seemed an ever present reminder of the monotony of his life. The same clothes, the same people, the same day, over and over. Nevertheless, once he was dressed, John grabbed his bag, wallet, and other normal daily items, then headed downstairs, both resigned to his day and hoping that his magic might change things.

’I have so many questions about this morning, but who am I supposed to ask? Am I supposed to ask anyone?’ John wondered. ’I mean, like, this isn’t normal…’

John was suddenly shaken from his thoughts as he walked down the stairs; The Gamer nearly face planted at the bottom of the staircase when the progress bar jumped from around 80% to full, causing a line of text to pop up and startle him. Barely managing to catch himself on the railing, John looked up at his assailant.

Hotfix complete.

“Geez!” John exclaimed. “Ow!”

LOL

John narrowed his eyes at the text in front of him. Was the person writing these messages mocking him? He shook his head; how silly would a thought like that have been yesterday?

’Who are you anyway, some kind of dev?’

Nothing.

He chose to move on, deferring to his grumbling stomach.

’Just complete the quest, eat breakfast, see where this all goes,’ he resolved as he walked into the kitchen. There he found his mother, Brenda Newman, pouring pancake batter onto a flat top.
His mother was a beautiful woman, with long, dark hair and very generous curves, though what really mattered to John was that she was always so warm and caring. It was a shame that he hadn’t inherited any of her natural charisma or looks - maybe then his life would have been easier. She had all the beauty and grace that he’d never even had in his dreams. As he walked into the kitchen, John did take note of a nameplate, similar to his own, floating over Brenda’s head.

Brenda Newman
Level 6: Loving Mother
[MILF]

The Gamer’s mother turned and smiled at him.

“Morning, honey!” she sang happily. “Eggs are on the table. I’m finishing the pancakes now. Go ahead and start eating so you aren’t late for school.”

John replied, “Will do! Thanks, Mom.” He passed her and walked over to the kitchen table. The Gamer sat down and started eating, but became curious; he’d gotten the [Observe] skill earlier, but hadn’t yet had a chance to use it. He experimentally focused on the skill and cast it on his breakfast.

John smiled softly at the description, though he was still slightly annoyed by the lack of a strict numerical value. He hadn’t taken care to note his regen stats to compare either. He wondered perhaps if food had always had a regeneration boon for health and mana.

’Are these items around me now behaving magically?’ he pondered. ’Or have these powers simply quantified what they were already doing? Am I now in a game… or am I a video game character? How much difference would there be?’

Trying to clear his thoughts, The Gamer looked around for a distraction and noticed that his mother was now on the phone while she was cooking. There was little else around the room that would have sufficed to take his interest, so John just tried to focus on the food in front of him. His mother’s cooking had always been exceptional.

As he returned to eating, John experimented with observing things around the room, noting that it cost a single mana point per cast, which he didn’t think was that bad. As he was doing so, his mother finally walked over with the finished pancakes.

“Eat up!” Brenda exclaimed as she set a stack of pancakes down on the table.

“Nice! Chocolate chip!” he said with glee, taking several and moving them onto his own plate.

John’s mother watched him begin to consume the food, and a small smile appeared on her face, her own hunger momentarily forgotten. Eventually, she snapped out of it and started taking pancakes for herself. The two ate for a few minutes in a comfortable silence. John was off in his own world as usual, though for very different reasons than his usual gaming-focused thoughts, and his mother was checking her calendar for the day.

After he finished his first pancake, John received a notice that he’d completed his morning quest.

“By the way, John,” she interrupted, “I got a call from my boss. It’s going to be another late night for me.” She looked a little sad as she continued, “I’ll leave money on the counter for pizza, OK?”

She glanced over at John, who swallowed his bite and responded, “Sure, that’s fine. Thanks, Mom. I’m sorry you have to work so much recently.”

She smiled again. “My job is my work; I have to do it for you. Your job is to make a future for yourself, whatever that may be. As long as you’re doing that, everything I do is worth it.

“I have to get going a little early too, John,” she continued, some of the usual cheer returning to her voice. “Don’t eat too much longer or you’ll miss the bus. Take some with you in a ziploc if you have to. I love you!”

She put a hand on John’s head and ruffled his hair as she stood up from the table. As Brenda was leaving, John realized that she was just about the only thing left in the room for him to [Observe]. He had plenty of mana left for now, so he threw an [Observe] his mother’s way as she stopped in the kitchen to set the pizza money on the counter.

SKILL LEVEL INCREASE: [Observe] (Level 2)

John found himself suddenly inundated with windows. The Gamer took quick looks at the top lines, ordered them, and started parsing them. The first made sense, clarifying some details about his [Observe] spell.

’Hmm…. basic scrying spell? That probably implies there are better ones, right?’ he thought as he moved the window to the side. ’Would I unlock those naturally or are there other people with powers I’d need to get them from? Are there books or vendors or anything like that?’

The second window John pulled over was the actual results of said [Observe] on his mother.

John frowned at reading about his mother’s work again. He knew she’d always been busy, but had it really been so harsh all his life? He thought that his father’s work alone was enough to take care of them, but he guessed that Ashcroft Academy’s considerable expenses must hurt more than he’d realized.

Despite John’s own aptitude, he’d never applied himself enough to earn a big scholarship, something he now felt guilt for. The Gamer shelved that thought for later; there was nothing he could change for now, though he tried to make a mental note to do something nice for his mother when he next had a chance.

He closed the [Observe] and moved to the final window, which excited John the most of all - something new!

‘That’s awesome! An achievement system! Love getting extra stuff,’ John rambled internally, choosing to ignore the snark in the description. ’What kind of things would achievements actually be, for me? I wonder if my life is the type of game where there are easy achievements I should try to get early for a power spike.’

A thousand thoughts about his powers started running through his head before John remembered his mother’s warning that he needed to be going for the day. He quickly collected the remaining pancakes in a ziploc. As he walked away from the table, he closed all his windows, trying to be mindful of the little time he had left.

As John passed by the kitchen counter, he also grabbed the money his mother had left behind, only for it to vanish. Opening his character sheet, John realized that the money had stored itself for him, and that it didn’t take a slot.

“Wait a second,” John muttered. “I’m a doofus.”

The Gamer opened his inventory and placed the ziploc of pancakes into the inventory section. It disappeared from his hand, and a single inventory square was now occupied by the remains of his breakfast.

’How could I possibly have forgotten that?’ he thought, chastising himself as he walked over to the pantry. ’Now I can definitely take some extras with me, and easily. Not exactly a whole kitchen’s worth or anything, but a pretty sizable stock - way more than I could carry manually.

“If food can help bolster my mana regeneration,” John reasoned, “then I may need it if I want to keep doing things throughout the day. I don’t know the rules of my inventory yet, though. Something to test at lunch I guess.’

Trying to remain cognizant of his inventory limits, John quickly stored a few extra water bottles and some granola bars. He didn’t want to overload his inventory, but taking some extra supplies seemed prudent.

The Gamer ran back upstairs, grabbed his backpack, stored an extra change of clothes and his wallet, then ran out the door, truly excited for a day at school for the first time in quite a while.