Plot twist: John actually has friends

John waved over his shoulder to Moira, using the motion to hide his dismissing of another popup. This one had at least the decency to stay out of his field of vision until they finished training.

Speaking of, though, helluva training session! John had thought it would be useful before they started, but after his practice? He actually felt like he stood a proper chance against Frank. And the upgrades and bonuses made him feel like a proper fighter. While training with Moira, he could feel his body subtly shifting him to the correct movements, small corrections to ensure he didn’t hurt himself or hit improperly. When he finally managed to land a full blow on Moira’s stomach, she actually was winded for a moment. John had apologized, of course, but Moira had just laughed and said she was so happy to see he took to it so well! Called him a natural and said he was actually a good training partner and that she wanted to train more with him and that she wanted to kiss him senseless and sit on his face!

Okay that last part was wishful thinking on what she was saying in between the lines but it could have been slightly true!

While the two of them ate their packed lunches, John had taken a moment to Observe her once again, and noticed that his RP with her had gone up a few points to +50 RP! That meant she had strong enough feelings to say she “likes” him. A few more training sessions and he might be able to actually confront her about the whole “you seem to be a very strong paladin for an order that might want to exterminate me so could you not do that please” thing.

Baby steps.

“Shoot, I forgot I need to go talk to Mr. Silvernail,” Moira said, standing up as she put away her lunch.”

“Whht frr?” John asked through his full mouth.

“My dad has some old gym equipment he wanted to donate to the school, and I had to talk to Mr. Silvernail about when he can come pick it up.” Moira put her lunchbox back into her school bag and started to walk towards the exit of the gym, but before leaving she turned around and gave John a friendly smile. “Stay safe, John. And remember to stay quick on your feet when dealing with Frank.”

John offered a wave, and as she left, he let out a small sigh of relief. He wanted to look more into his character sheet and class, and waving his hands in front of his face might have raised suspicion from Moira, so he appreciated the solitude. He opened up his character sheet, tapping on the newly added class of “Brawler” and another window appeared.

John read it over and nodded slowly with understanding. The class felt like a classic monk from D&D, but it didn’t have the Ki Point system. Then again, he had mana, and he was sure that said mana would be somehow used in place of ki. Maybe activating certain skills he got down the line would cost mana instead of ki points? Like activating Flurry of Blows for some amount of mana instead of ki.

Would he be given options to further explore his class? Like specializations as a brawler? Also, what kind of a combat style was Counterpuncher? It didn’t even sound like a real style of fighting. But John was also pretty used to fighting styles being named after kung fu or other martial arts, so maybe this was what boxing styles had for a naming convention.

Wait, hold the phone. John looked back at Counterpuncher. The fighting style gave him a bonus to dodge at 50%, and based on what he was reading, if he got up to 31 Agility, he would have a baseline chance to dodge a blow at 50%. Would that mean he just… dodges every hit thrown at him? No, that couldn’t be right. That would be really overpowered and broken. He opened up his character sheet once more, and noting the new table created for “Fighting Styles”, he tapped it hoping for maybe some more information.

Thankfully, luck was on his side, and a new popup filled his vision.

Okay, so now it was time to calculate. His current base dodge chance was a measly 10%. However, if he activated Counterpuncher, he could rise to the lofty chance of 15% chance to dodge any attacks. But if he activated Lock The Fuck In, he could raise that to 20%.

Now, in his training fight with Moira, he knew that he dodged more hits than just one out of every five. So maybe it was a sort of “get out of getting punched for free” thing? There was that moment when his body seemed to autododge without him doing anything, so maybe that was what his dodge ability thing was. And then there was Fightin’ Words, which could further increase his chance to dodge an attack. Maybe those were more bonuses to his own chance to autododge a hit? So if he insulted Frank really good, and got that lofty 25% bonus, he would be sitting at… 25% chance to dodge.

Huh.

Funny how that math worked out. Did the bonus stack at least? Like, if he threw good insult after good insult at Frank, could he keep getting bonus after bonus after bonus? Wait, no, that was wrong. If it was just boosting his base chance of dodging, it wouldn’t be a +5%, it would be a… +2.5%. So only 22.5% chance to dodge.

Man he really hoped that the insult bonuses stacked.

John looked at his phone. His next class was… oh hey, programming. He had his project for that class already done as well, so usually he just spent it as a free period shooting the shit with his friends. He could easily use the time to do a bit of research on this new fighting style and if there was anything he should know about it. But before he could do any of that, he needed to deal with this new piece of equipment and the stat point.

First off the stat point. After that little breakdown of how his bonus system would be working, John could think of no better place to put the additional stat than in Agility. He already had a 15 in that stat, and going up just by one point would put him over the threshold to double his chance of naturally dodging an attack. Granted, he would be really bad at blocking and hitting back, and it was still almost a 2/3rds chance of getting hit by Frank’s punches, but it was better than nothing. Rechecking his math, he now had a base chance of dodging a hit at 20%. If he was in Counterpuncher, that chance would go up to 30%. Adding Lock the Fuck In would up that to 40%. Then if he got a good insult or two in, he would go up to 45% or maybe even a full 50% chance to auto dodge a hit!

Sure, his damage and damage mitigation would suffer, but he needed to focus on not being hit. And that was also assuming that Frank wouldn’t have something that changed his “effective dodge,” which he could only assume would be debuffs. So if Frank, say, slammed his head into the lockers again, John would doubt that he would have a coin flip on if he would actually hit the locker or not.

Damn, who would have figured that punching someone in the face would involve so much math?

Alright, second reward that wasn’t XP: this new gear piece. What did he get granted by the universe?

Wait, who was giving him all this stuff?

It felt like there was a personality behind it, so he didn’t just want to keep calling it “the universe” but he also didn’t really kno-

“Er… um, thank you, Gaia, Mother of All Creation and Goddess Above All for granting me these powers. I hope to put them to good use?” John said, eager to placate the seemingly temperamental goddess of EVERYTHING.

Alright, John just had to keep in mind that the person giving him his powers was a, potentially, temperamental goddess of all creation and could probably evaporate him in an instant if she so desired. So proper respect had to be shown and he would try to ignore the looming sense of dread that came with having every action he ever did watched, judged, and potentially immediately punished.

Then again, he did own a modern cell phone. Constant monitoring and potential instant punishment really wasn’t as new as he thought.

But he also had a new item, and he would be damned if he didn’t check it out now.

Well, it looked like the bonuses started comin’ and they did’t stop comin! More bonuses to all his combat skills just by putting some wraps on his hands? Man, was he in luck.

Course he would just store these in his inventory for now. He didn’t need to go to his last two classes with his fists all wrapped up for no reason.

Speaking of, John quickly packed up the remains of his lunch and made his way down to the computer lab for his programming class, setting up on his assigned computer and logging in. Before the other students had even crossed through the doorway, John was already several webpages deep into boxing history and famous fights using counterpuncher, which as it turned out was a legit form of boxing. It was used by a lot of boxers, including Muhammad Ali of all people. Of course, John was nowhere near Ali’s level, but it was nice to have a reference to go on. Someone to really aspire to.

Based on his research, it seemed that counterpunching was a bit more based on attacking than how he was using it. Which made sense, he did have a 40% buff. But he still felt like his Strength was too low to be able to really capitalize with damage, especially against someone like Frank. Not to mention that Lock the Fuck In really rewarded him focusing on one aspect of his fighting instead of trying to be more well rounded.

Maybe once he pumped his stats up a bit or got some more abilities to compliment his fighting style, he could justify being more aggressive. But for now he had to focus on his footwork and dodging.

“And the dork is already in class. I swear, if I hadn’t been to your house before, I would think you just live in this classroom.”

John smiled, turning to look at one of his closest friends who was taking her seat. Alex Luellen, full name Alexandra but only her dad called her that. Back in middle school when John was going between being a sad little nerd and getting bullied by Frank, Alex was one of the few people who actively went out of her way to be his friend. Since then he, she, and his other best friend Cho had been the three musketeers. Or maybe dork-eteers would be more apt. Each of them had their little quirks that made them social outcasts in high school, and Ashcroft Academy hadn’t exactly changed much.

For John, he was a nerdy dork who tended to be more anti-social and sarcastic. For Alex, she was also anti-social but had her whole goth/emo persona that tended to turn others off from interacting with her. Dark hoodies, band shirts, ripped jeans and combat boots were her bread and butter, as well as a few stray piercings that made her look more like a punk than a student at a prestigious finishing school.

Not to mention her tendency to tear strangers down the second they tried to talk to her.

But she was easily one of John’s best friends, and he wouldn’t trade her for the world.

“Hey, Alex,” John said as she set her stuff up at her computer. “Have a good weekend?”

“Would’ve been better if you hadn’t chosen such a lame idea for a birthday party. I mean you finally joined us in turning 18. Figured you would have done something cool like getting a tattoo or going out drinking.”

“Alex, I turned 18. Not 21.”

“Yeah, and?” Alex shook her head. “Seriously, John, you’re gonna be stuck as a virgin dork till you’re 40 at this rate. Ya gotta live a little!”

“She’s trying to tell you to have a shit relationship with your parents and dress in all black like her. Even if that would ruin the whole balance of our friend group,” another voice chimed in, earning a chuckle from John and a middle finger from Alex.

On John’s other side was Cho Ling, John’s other best friend. Cho and John had been neighbors for years until Cho’s parents ended up moving to a better house a couple of years ago. But Cho and John still found every opportunity to hang out. His membership to the dork-eteers was that while he was decent looking, he was an even bigger dork than John. His first date he ever had in high school was him telling his date about his favorite Dark Souls builds and his favorite bits of lore from Warhammer.

At least John could pretend to be socially apt. It didn’t work, but Cho was incapable of even pretending. But John didn’t care, Cho was his best friend and the only person that he trusted as much as Alex.

“너는 멍청하고 멍청한 놈이야,” Alex said with an evil smile.

“Hey, not bad. Your Korean is getting better,” Cho complimented. “Surprised you didn’t try to call me an 병신 though.”

“Still can’t get the vibration right,” Alex admitted.

“Still, my parents were surprised at how well the two of you can speak Korean. Now if only you two could actually eat some properly spicy food… Ah, but a man can dream.”

“Hey, I like spicy food. You just think that eating a Carolina Reaper is like biting an apple,” John said with an accusatory finger.

“And it's why my Korean genetics make me strong! Don’t worry, my poor weak white friend,” Cho said, placing a hand on John’s shoulder. “One day soon you shall be able to eat food spicier than mayo and join the rest of us in… Why are you looking up boxing techniques?”

Alex scoffed, leaning back in her chair. “Didn’t you hear? John actually grew a pair and talked back to Frank. Frank told him to get his ass to the soccer field after school.”

Cho’s face paled. “John, you just turned 18! You can’t throw away your life now! We still have so much to experience together!”

“Gay.”

“Shut up!” Cho retorted. “Seriously though, John. Do you have a **** wish? You could just go play twister in traffic if you wanted to kill yourself. Probably would be less painful than actually fighting Frank.”

John shook his head. “No, Cho, I don’t have a **** wish. I just… I got tired of dealing with Frank and his bullshit. I mean, for god’s sake, we’ve been dealing with him since middle school! Shouldn’t he have finally grown up enough to stop that shit?”

“Yeah, but he also has an I.O.U. sticker in place of a brain,” Alex said. “Pretty sure for him to grow up, he would need more brain power than a common garden slug.”

“What did you even say to him?” Cho asked.

John shrugged. “He told me to give him the cash in my wallet. I told him that the reason he was so scrapped for cash was that his rich girlfriend left him after getting tired of his steroid-infected dick and moved on to having a better conversation with drunk gorillas.”

Alex faked a sniffle. “Oh, John, I’m so proud.” She wiped away a fake tear and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve finally learned what I’ve been trying to teach you for years. The padawan has finally graduated to knight.”

“More like padawan has graduated to future corpse,” Cho grimaced. “Seriously, did you have to go so hard into him? Couldn’t you have just called him a dumb ape or something?”

“Alex taught me well,” John remarked. “If I was going to finally talk back to Frank, I wanted it to be a good one.”

“I think I’m gonna immortalize this moment,” Alex said, her voice still dripping with mock pride. She then held up her hands as if reading a plaque. “John finally grows a pair and gives a proper insult outside of his room.”

“So what, looking up how to fight in hopes you can somehow outbrawl Frank?” Cho shook his head. “He’s been on the football team for years. Your closest relationship to sports is a game of Blood Bowl. What is cramming some fighting knowledge into you gonna do?”

John smirked at this. “Actually, I got some private training in how to fight for my free period and lunch.”

“I had wondered where you were,” Alex remarked. “Who trained you?”

“Moira Brighton.”

Both Alex’s and Cho’s jaws dropped simultaneously. “Moira Brighton? As in rich girl with an ass like pow and hair that makes blood look pale Brighton?” Cho exclaimed.

“You would pay attention to her ass, you pig,” Alex commented. “But seriously? Since when does Brighton know how to fight.”

“Apparently she got self defense lessons when she was younger, and taught me some basics. Turns out I’m a natural.”

“Psh, yeah right,” Alex said with an eyeroll. “Need I remind you the time you tried to do Dance Dance Revolution at the mall arcade and managed to trip over your own feet before the game even started?”

“That was, like, three years ago!”

“How about the time you tripped on the flat sidewalk,” Cho asked. “Or the time you forgot to tie your shoes when we went sledding and proceeded to roll down the entire hill like a circus tumbling act?”

“Okay, that was clearly all in the past. I’ve gotten skilled since then! Learned some proper hand-eye-feet coordination.” John gestured to himself, and while a part of him wanted to just tell them, ‘I have coordination now because I have magic powers,’ he also didn’t have a way to really prove it. What was his magic? Punch good? Look at things good? Not exactly anything bright or flashy yet.

But with time, who knew? Maybe he would get so skilled at punching that he could grab bullets out of the air, or his punches would be covered in dragonfire, or maybe he would get some other form of magic. But for now, it was to be kept secret.

This, obviously, did not convince Alex or Cho at all. “You know,” Cho said after a moment or two. “If we head out the side doors, Frank probably won’t notice you and you could just wait until this all blows over.”

“No dice. He’s before my stop on the bus route. He knows where I live pretty definitively."

“Why is that meathead still riding the bus anyhow?” Cho asked.

Alex, who had shifted to looking at her phone, chimed in, “He crashed daddy’s car last month. I think it was into the Dairy Queen. But the rumor mill still thinks he’s grounded from driving for a while.”

“Why doesn’t Vanessa drive him?” John asked.

Alex shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe your insult hit a little closer to home than you thought, Newman.”

The three of them shared a laugh at Frank’s expense, and while John continued to halfheartedly search up things about boxing and fighting, he mostly focused on talking with his friends. The three of them could shoot the shit for hours, and often would if given the opportunity.

Just as Alex was about to defend her take about Saitama being able to beat Mob from Mob Psycho, the bell rung. The other students began to quickly gather up their items and funnel into their last classes. “Oh, guys,” Cho piped up. “We still on for the arcade on Friday?”

“Course we are, dumbass,” Alex responded. “Since when have we not been?”

“Great! See you guys then!” Cho waved goodbye to them, having to cross most of the building to get to his final class.

John logged out of his PC, grabbed his bag, and was about to head out when Alex spoke up once more, this time much softer than normal, “Hey… uh, John?”

“Hmm?”

A moment of silence followed. John could see that Alex wanted to say something, but that icy exterior was probably preventing her from doing so. Finally, after what felt like a few minutes, Alex said, “If you manage to kick Frank’s ass, you might actually get him to stop bullying you- and us! Us too! So… um… If you don’t win the fight, I’m kicking your ass for making us look bad.”

John smirked.