Twelve

No way in Hell was John going to the changing rooms. With the jocks in class out to get him even more than usual, he would definitely be walking into an ambush that his 2 remaining HP wouldn’t make it through. Plus, all his stuff was in his Inventory anyway, so he wouldn’t be leaving anything behind, and he didn’t have more classes, meaning he could shower at home.

That decided, he slunk to the back of the pack of students heading back towards the changing rooms, then slipped away around the building. Once he found a spot that was away from any windows and shielded from other observers by decorative greenery, he changed to the other equipment set that currently held his regular school uniform. That put the bat he hadn’t realized he was still carrying into the corresponding weapon slot as well, but he’d have to return that tomorrow anyway.

His HP situation and the Quest to get home without running out had put to the forefront a needed change of plans that he really should have considered after the fight with Frank in the first place.

Originally, he had wanted to linger at school until most of the late afternoon classes and club activities ended to keep looking for Abyssals. That was decidedly not on the table anymore.

At most, he could try to dig up a few more that were leaving school in the next few minutes and hopefully at least hit the ‘milestone’ for finding 10. The only silver lining was that this was the end of the school day for something like two thirds of the student body, so there would be plenty of new people to Observe.

John rounded the corner to the parking lot and immediately saw that he was right. In fact, there were already more than he’d be able to check. Unless he abandoned the practice of looking for warning signs in their nameplate first at least, and that was definitely not happening. There was a steady flow of more people from inside the building too.

This called for prioritization. First, look for the Abyssals he had already found and check people around them, especially people interacting with them. Then go for people who stood out, because even if some could pull off a mundane disguise John couldn’t see through, that didn’t guarantee that everyone could. Then random spam as a last resort.

The first one he spotted was Tricia/Danielle. Which was entirely because she was moving at the edge of the crowd that was facing John. If not, she was entirely too short to not be hidden by the masses. This brought John to the realization that looking for familiar name plates rather than familiar faces was probably the better bet.

Which was, in turn, the only reason he recognized Moira. Not because she was hidden in the crowd, though, but because there was no way he would have made the connection between the leather jacket and biker helmet wearing girl astride what looked to be a Harley and the strict student council president.

This new side of her certainly added to the redhead’s appeal, and John was distracted for a bit by a fantasy of wrapping his arms around her midriff to hold on while getting a ride on that bike.

John was moderately ashamed to admit that what brought him back to reality, and by extension the stuff he was supposed to be doing, was another hot girl approaching the paladin.

This one was a tall, amazonian blonde. Some tattoos that looked maybe Celtic-ish were peeking out of her uniform on her toned arms and legs. Despite looking like she could lift John with one hand and no effort, she wasn’t short on feminine allure in the slightest. Her muscles were shapely and well proportioned rather than bulking, her hips most certainly didn’t lie and her school uniform was straining more across her chest than her upper arms.

Erica Carpenter
Lvl 25 Berserker
The Bloodaxe
19 years old
RP: 3
Guild: The Order of the Golden Rose [GRO]
Guild Rank: Honorary Knight

‘I suppose valkyrian would be more fitting than amazonian’

That really was all the time and thought he could spare right now, especially after zoning out. Sure, finding Erica put him at the 10 Abyssals milestone, but more found was still more EXP, and if he made 15, that was another free Skill Level and Stat Point.

While looking for nameplates that he recognized, he spotted one that wasn’t a known Abyssal but had a class that definitely called for an Observe. Moving closer to get the actual person in sight, he found a pale girl with a pink highlight in her blonde twintails and her uniform shirt straining across a bosom large and shapely enough to give even June a run for her money.

Interestingly, she was the first Abyssal John found that he couldn’t remember at least having seen in passing before. Or masturbated to the thought of, in the cases of Moira and Erica. He didn’t have time to ponder that now, though, so he just used his skill before she finished getting in her car, then continued his search.

Ela Grzmot
Lvl 16 Knight
Bookworm Knight
20 years old
RP: 0
Guild: -
Guild Rank: -

A few minutes of scanning name plates later, John spotted Kim’s and moved over to take a closer look. Her vicinity turned out to be more or less a bust. The people around her didn’t grow the quest counter, and the only one she was interacting with was the 'Perfectly Ordinary Student' that John had suspected earlier of being the Abyssal he hadn’t noticed.

She was a short girl of asian descent with not quite shoulder length blue hair, an athletic build, nice legs and a demeanor that practically radiated excitable energy. She was talking to Kim in what seemed to be a very one-sided conversation that John couldn’t quite make out.

Kaen Otoshidane
Lvl 18 Student
Perfectly Ordinary Student
18 years old
RP: 6
Guild: Ashcroft Academy Anime Club [AAAC]
Guild Rank: Genki Girl

John couldn’t suppress a chuckle to himself at the guild rank; Kaen definitely looked to be fitting the bill at the moment. Still, her hanging out with Kim and her high level both pointed towards Kaen being the Abyssal that John had initially overlooked. Which in turn meant that the title was wrong. In fact, even if not, the ‘Ordinary’ part of her title was already at odds with her level, now that he thought about it. Which in turn begged the question of what else in the Observe result might be false, and what exactly it took to fool the skill. That was definitely something to bring up with Qhila later.

Looking further for a bit got him neither someone standing out particularly nor known Abyssals. Then the name plate for Beth showed up at the entrance. If she was done in the locker rooms, the jocks probably were either done now or soon as well, which meant John had to leave before one of them spotted him.

He still popped off a few Observes in passing, but didn’t bother to read the results. He didn’t really have much in the way of hope from them anyway. At least not until he was a few steps from walking off school grounds and thus presumably end the Quest.

The lanky hispanic guy that caught John’s attention wasn’t really doing anything all that odd. He was just heading in the direction of an area of office buildings, rather than into the residential district or towards the stop for the bus going downtown.

He could just be heading to a part time job, or to meet a parent at their workplace. But it was unusual enough to make John notice him, and his name plate practically demanded a last second Observe.

Jasper Savareno
Lvl 21 Warlock
Demon Eater
19 years old
RP: -15
Guild: The Serpentine Circle [TSC]
Guild Rank: Second Ring

‘... Well, that’s just fucking ominous. I’m definitely keeping my distance from that guy.’

Getting cornered by a jock was still the more pressing issue at the moment, though, so John kept going. The moment he stepped off school grounds and onto the pavement outside, a notification joined the small stack that had been building since the start of the lunch break.

This one was almost certainly about the Quest to find Abyssals, and John expected one of the others to be an achievement relating to standing up to his long term bully. The rest were less obvious, but he could worry about that later.

For now, getting home in one piece was more important, which brought him to the next problem. By way of habit, he was currently heading to the bus stop, but taking the school bus home was a bad idea. Even if whatever had kept Frank out of PE kept him off the bus as well, there were other jocks riding it.

John was halfway to resigning himself to the long walk home when he realized that with 150 bucks in his inventory and over 200 waiting in his notification stack, he could just grab an Uber or something. Sure, he also wanted to save enough to order relevant gear from the Abyss Auction, but with the prices of things in the Abyss, getting more time to figure out how to earn money in the Abyss was probably worth more in the end.

—-----------------------

Back in his room, John was just about to check his notifications, which had gone up to 6 as he stepped through the front door, when his phone rang.

“Hey Mom, what’s up?”

“Are you okay?” The lack of an opening ‘hello’ and Brenda’s tone both spoke to worry. Which in turn explained why she would call instead of text when she should still be on the clock.

“Yes. Why wou- Ah, it’s about the thing with Frank, right?”

“The school called and said you got into a fight with him, and that he got a concussion. What happened??” A concussion explained why Frank hadn’t been at PE. And why everyone else had been extra on his ass.

“Uh, well… Basically, Frank was harassing Christie and had taken her white cane. So I told him to leave disabled people out of his douchebaggery, which he… uh… took exception to. So he tackled me, and slammed his head into the wall behind me in the process. Then Mrs. Wentworth showed up and that was it.”

“And you’re sure you’re not hurt? Did you at least have the school nurse take a look at you?”

“Err… I didn’t. But I wasn’t even sore anymore by the start of PE.”

Brenda let out a sigh of relief, though John thought he could detect a hint of exasperation as well. “Okay. Just promise me, if it starts hurting again before I get home, you’ll call Grandpa so he can have a look, okay?”

“I promise.” Given Gamer’s Body, the chance of that happening was basically nil, thus making for a cheap promise.

“Thank you. And… I’m proud of you for standing up for her, but please try to be careful too. He can hurt you a lot worse now than he could in middle school…”

‘No kidding,’ John mentally remarked while glancing at his whole 3 HP. “I know, Mom, and I promise I’ll be careful. But I couldn’t just do nothing either.”

“I know, sweetie, I just want you to be safe.” Brenda paused briefly while a leaden mass of guilt settled in the pit of John’s stomach, knowing that it would likely be a while before he could be considered ‘safe’ again. “I have to get back to work. I love you, see you tonight.”

“I love you too, Mom.” John hung up and sat for a few minutes staring at the phone in his hand and struggling with the guilt. Eventually, he managed to push it away. She didn’t want him miserable any more than she wanted him in danger, and the only way to reconcile those two was to get stronger. Strong enough to make dangerous Abyssals unwilling to risk messing with him, and to make Frank nothing but a trash mob. The first step to that were the quest rewards in his notifications.

That was… well, another tool was always nice to have, but even with Gamer’s Body, John wasn’t exactly keen on the tank lifestyle. Not when getting hit actually hurt, instead of just tinting the screen red or making the controller vibrate.

It was also CHA based, as opposed to his other magical Skills that worked off INT. While he did intend to raise CHA some, making his build dependent on too many stats was probably not a good idea, especially for a skill that fit a fighting style he’d prefer to avoid. So this was likely never going to be more than a bit of side utility.

That said, if he had been intent on pursuing a tank build with CHA on the side, it would be a very nice skill. Not quite on par with a ‘hard’ taunt that just **** the enemy to attack him, but the damage could make attacking someone else very costly very quickly.

As for why he got it now and not when he pulled aggro from the rat ogre, he had two guesses. Either it was because the beast hadn’t reacted to the taunts at all, but to the thrown piece of wood, or it was because John had passed a CHA benchmark, probably a total value of 10. Actually, both could apply now that he thought about it.

Achievement Unlocked: Take a Small Hit to Pull a Big Heist
Intentionally get hit in order to trick or manipulate an enemy.
You managed to find the one person in Springfield that’s easier to trick than a rat ogre, congratulations.
Reward: +50 EXP, +1 END, +1 Bluff Skill Level, +0.5 cm base dick size

‘I guess how that went down does count as big dick energy,’ John thought, moderately smugly. The Achievement was expected, as were the sass, and the rewards were just nice all around.

Achievement Unlocked: Saved By The Bell
Have an outside **** stop a fight moments before you lose it.
Here’s a little something so you can thank your savior properly.
Reward: 10$, 1 Schrödinger’s Present (Uncommon)

‘Yeah, I don’t really see Wentworth appreciating a thank you card or flowers, and anything the Gift can conjure she could probably magic into existence herself. Maybe if she weren’t a monstrously powerful Abyssal…’

John hadn’t really expected that, but in retrospect he probably should have. In any case, it was a very welcome addition. It also more or less stated that increasing his WIS and INT would make him better at casting on the move, but since that had proven to be a mental task, it wasn’t exactly surprising.

In any case, John was now down to 2 notifications, which had to be the Quest rewards.

LEVEL UP

That was a rollercoaster. The rewards for the Abysscroft Quest were awesome, and leveling up was cause for celebration, doubly so because it put him back to full health. The healing skill was thoroughly disappointing, though.

A channeled heal over time that ticked per minute was absolutely useless in combat, unless it ticked for an obscene amount. And even then, it’d still be too cumbersome to use without heavy investment in Theurgic Focus.