Gameplan

According to John’s phone, the current time was 3:30 p.m. By now, most students would have already left school for the day. But he wouldn’t follow suit quite yet. For a personal call, remaining inside the Barrier of Wentworth’s office would still provide the most privacy.

The Gamer first checked the texts he’d missed. The first was an apology from Blair for missing his prior call. It came with a general check-up on how he was doing. Then, half an hour later, the follow-up was a reminder in case he missed the last text.

Shortly after that, she sent another text asking if he was okay. The Gamer frowned as he read the increasingly worried tone in the messages. Until finally, he had missed a call from her just ten minutes ago.

‘Did something happen?’ he asked himself. None of the texts mentioned anything specific about what suddenly caused Blair to worry so much. It’d only been just over an hour since he last checked his phone, right before Wentworth had summoned him. And yet, just in that short amount of time, something must have caused Blair’s anxiety to quickly escalate.

He decided not to waste any more time. John held the phone to his ear as he started the call, hoping she’d be able to pick it up.

“John?” Blair’s voice asked from the other side. The Gamer winced a little as he heard her nervous tone.

“Yeah. Sorry, Blair, I was kinda caught up with something and didn’t have any time to check my phone. But I just saw your texts. Is everything okay on your end?” he asked.

The shadow pyromancer let out a sigh of relief. “I… wasn’t sure. But now that I know you’re safe, it’s fine. It’s not something I can really talk about over the phone, though. Would you be able to come around so we can talk in person?”

“I can do that. Just need to call a Bluber, and I’ll be right over,” John said with a nod. After a quick goodbye, he hung up. The Gamer quickly proceeded to put in a request for a Bluber and stashed his phone back in his Inventory.

‘Actually… let’s not, he thought to himself. He took his phone back out and pocketed it instead. While keeping something in his Inventory was clearly useful for most items, that wasn’t a universal truth.

Even if it meant keeping his cell phone in his relatively unsafe pocket, John didn’t want to risk missing something important again. Besides, he had plenty of cash to his name now. Even if his phone broke, what was a few hundred bucks when he’d gained thousands just over these last few days?

‘Huh, that’s a good question. Would the Abyss Auction have magic phones for sale? Maybe ones enchanted to not need a carrier or that are extra durable? Although, probably safe to assume that if an expensive but still mundane phone can cost a thousand, an enchanted one’s probably outside my budget. Ah well, still worth a look.’

The Gamer then left the Barrier. As he walked through the school’s halls, John kept an eye out for Frank or one of his cronies. Chances were, the jocks would only be around for football after school was out for the day. But as he fell into his habit of keeping his head low as he walked, the young man frowned.

Why exactly was he even still afraid of running into Frank? Well, the answer to that was actually quite obvious. Years of bullying and getting kicked around made for pretty ingrained habits to limit said kicking. The better question was: why should he be afraid of Frank now? What could that meathead possibly do that was worse than the monsters or literal demons the Gamer had faced?

As John reached the pick-up point to wait for his Bluber, he got an idea. One that the version of him from just a few days ago would never have seriously considered. He wanted to beat Frank at his own game. Tomorrow, John was going to be the one to pick a fight, and then win it. He opened his character sheet.

Since he first woke up with his new powers, John had gained five levels. As a recent part of that endeavor to get stronger, he’d even solo killed the Grass Shogun. What was one jock compared to a boss monster that could shoot out energy slashes with its attacks? The most Frank could do was what? Just punch him in the face?

John chuckled to himself as he remembered Frank’s “promise” to him yesterday. The jock had decided to arrange for them to play dodgeball and then crush him. But since Wentworth dismissed him after her testing his reaction to holy power, he got to skip P.E.

‘I bet that finding that out made Frank pretty pissed. Might not even have to find him tomorrow, since he’ll definitely be waiting at my locker anyway.’ When his ride arrived and John entered the car, he happily imagined what the following day would bring.

As they rode past the gates of Ashcroft Academy, he daydreamed about being the one to throw the first punch. Or maybe he’d just go straight for kicking Frank in the family jewels. The Gamer could already see the pure shock that Frank’s cronies would probably have on their faces. And after they would definitely jump in to help, he could probably take them.

A part of John was a bit surprised by how much he practically salivated at the thought of getting into a fight. But that small part was thoroughly overridden by the itching craving he had for the satisfaction of winning that brawl. While being barehanded against multiple people bigger than him would normally seem impossible, were they really stronger than him? While the Gamer’s frame was still on the leaner side, he’d seen what his current Stats made him capable of.

Heck, there was still plenty of time left in the day. If he did some more grinding in a Barrier while at Blair’s house, he might be able to get another level or two under his belt. If John could get some extra points into Strength, then all the better for his chances of winning even while outnumbered. And if it got him suspended afterward or worse, expelled, did he really care?

If Wentworth could just teleport him to her office after classes were done for the day, he wasn’t sure what else the school could even provide him anymore. Speaking of which, his master had given him a free pass to deal with Frank, just as long as it didn’t directly involve Vanessa. So even if another teacher or the principal yelled at him for beating down the school’s prized football player, their thoughts wouldn’t matter as long as Wentworth approved it.

By this point, John cleared any remaining doubts within his mind. Tomorrow, he was going to make the final transition out of being the scared nerd hiding from his bullies’ shadows. For better or worse, the Gamer was an Abyssal now. But to truly feel like it, he wanted - no, needed- to break the most prominent chain that’d been holding him down for the last few years.

John blinked with surprise at the unexpected pop-up. While definitely not unwelcome, he hadn’t expected Gaia to directly encourage his decision with a free quest. It also seemingly only focused on Frank himself and not his goons. So even if they jumped him afterward, he assumed the optional objective would still count so long as he had already won the fight.

The Gamer smiled a little. ‘Well, alright then. After I check in with Blair, there’s still plenty of time in the day before I need to sleep. So if I start grinding again at, let’s say six o’clock, how much EXP after five or so hours?’

As his Bluber continued to put the school in the rearview mirror, John did some mental math. He knew that regular foes granted him EXP with a value ten times their level, while a Barrier boss monster upped that to 15 times. For the average level within a Barrier, he was pretty sure it was something like two-thirds his level. Which John figured was then most likely rounded up.

However, it seemed like his powers added a range to that to keep things a bit more random. Like when he’d last opened a Barrier at level 7, it put most mobs between 4 to 6. This was purely speculation on the Gamer’s part since the description of Create Barrier didn’t spell out those exact details. So, he just had to make an educated guess based on prior experience.

With that in mind, he assumed that each Barrier he’d make would be a Tier 0 with the boss toggled. Each instance would have a cap of 25 mobs and then a boss that’d be five levels higher than their average. Back when the max population was 22, and he’d grinded a few in a row, it had felt like the average count was something like 18 enemies. With its current limit, he guessed that the new average would be closer to 20 or so per Barrier.

So if John cleared a Barrier with 20 mobs and an average 50 EXP a kill and then a boss worth 150, he’d end up with a full clear value of 1,150 total EXP. Since he needed exactly 2,620 more experience to level up, that’d take him about two finished Barriers and then one partial clear.

If it took him around half an hour to clear each Barrier, then he should be able to do ten within the estimated time frame. So in total, that’d earn him 11,500 EXP once all was said and done. John couldn’t say for sure how much experience it’d take for him to reach the level after this one, however. But he hoped that through the coming grind, he’d get just enough to reach level 10.

The Gamer mentally nodded to himself, his game plan for the evening now set into place. With that in mind, he just quietly enjoyed the rest of the ride to Blair’s home.