The Abyss

Moira started from the beginning. God was real, or at least some power like God. Some called it ‘Providence’, ‘The Natural Law’, ‘Principle’ or simply ‘Origin’. Moira herself called it ‘the Lady’ but the name most people used was Gaia. Gaia was the source of all natural powers that hid beneath the normal society: The Abyss.

Dragons, Gods, Ghosts, Mages and so much more, all of them were real within the Abyss. Whole kingdoms ruled by ancient kings hidden inside smaller dimensional pockets, so called ‘Protected Spaces’ also known as ‘Illusion Barriers’.

These where created to differentiate the real world from the Abyss. As Moira informed John if he used his powers to heavily influence the real world Gaia, meaning the Earth itself, would punish him. For example, if John were to use his powers to make people’s wallets disappear in front of their eyes the world would see it fit to make a car crash come his way. However, if he was subtle about it and no one noticed that something was off Gaia would not intervene. It was a matter of how weird the things he did were when compared to common sense.

She went on about how there were two types of fighters in the Abyss. One was the Innate Fighter. These were the people which were granted powers by the world soul itself. These powers corresponded to what a person had experienced in their life. As most of John’s life consisted of playing video games, and watching porn doesn’t make for a particularly effective power, Gaia had made him ‘the Gamer’ in real life.

The Second type were Acquired Fighters. These people had to learn martial arts, magic or other techniques on their own. Generally speaking Innate Fighters had a head start. Their abilities were either unique or a strong skill others had to master later. That doesn’t mean Acquired Fighters didn’t have the ability to overcome those differences though.

Over the generations people had gathered into Clans, Guild and other organizations to protect each other and work towards common goals. These goals reached from simple safety to more specialized activities, such as magic research, information broking or enslaving.

Yes, as she informed John the Abyss was a pretty rough world to live in. If you had mana chances were you would be caught by somebody and used as a living battery to fuel some enchantments. Maybe somebody had a bad day and just killed you in an Illusion Barrier. **** and mercenary work were pretty standard business, especially here in the U.S.A. where the sheer mass of land made it hard for a single organization to keep control.

“I therefore advise you to keep your head down and not get stronger if you want to stay out of all of this. Currently your mana is so faint that I can’t feel it and you should have it stay that way.” Moira finished her explanations.

John pondered about what he just heard. “You are telling to just forget about all of this and live a normal life?” He asked. “Yes.” “Not gonna do it.” Moira was bamboozled. “Didn’t you hear me, it’s dangerous!” John shrugged, “All I have to do is become strong!” he exclaimed with a motivated expression.

Of course, there was another motivation at the back of his head. If there was no such thing as a government that ruled the Abyss then Polygamy would be completely acceptable. All he needed to do was push his Charisma to a level where women actually wanted to fuck him. The hijinks that were possible with this new world that was opened to him.

It would be dangerous, yeah, but the rewards were pretty tasty. Moira was shaking her head in disbelief. “Either you are a simpleton or just very naïve. Be it as it may, I think we have to return to cla-“ She looked at her watch. “Fuck!” She exclaimed in a very unladylike moment. John looked at his own and understood. The lesson was already half over. “The explanation did take a while.” John mumbled. Moira sighed in shame, “My perfect record….” “Already ruined, sorry.” He said and earned a very pissed off look for that. He didn’t even need Observe to succeed to tell that that comment had just cost him a few Relationship Points.

Moira closed her eyes for a moment to calm down. “Anything else you want to know then?” “How do I create these ‘Protected Spaces’?” John asked, he felt that was important. Moira showed him, it was a simple act of extending the hand and letting go of energy.

New Skill: Mana Power Attack Lvl 1;

Crude attack with mana. Scales with INT. 10 MP

Not what he wanted but useful anyway.

New Skill: Create Instant Dungeon Lvl 1:

Create a Protected Space. May or may not be filled with monsters, depending on the creators wishes. 5 MP

New Skill: Escape Instant Dungeon Lvl 1:

Leave a Protected Space. Stronger Spaces may not be escaped. 5 MP

These two were what he was after. It was weird to see a copy of the world fall into shatters and vanish as he destroyed his own experimental Protected Space. “Hey, it says I can have them be filled with monsters. What does that mean?”

Moira crossed her arms. “Exactly what it says, I told you Ghosts and the likes exists and few of them are nice. If you give them a place to vent their frustrations at, like a Protected Space, they will.” She turned around. “Figure the rest out yourself, I need to make up an explanation for the teacher.”

‘Fair enough’ John thought and left the corner as well. He had a lot to think about.