History.

John took his seat, a chair at one of the windows and silently thanked his new powers. His confrontation with Frank had reduced him to 44/55 hp but Gamer's Body had absorbed any real damage. Normally, he'd be nursing a few bruises, so it was nice to be able to literally walk off the fight. It had cost him in another form though. John had noticed the relationship scores of the students who had seen the fight drop a few points. If he was to have a chance with any of his classmates, or a hope of ever getting a girlfriend he needed to do something about the bully.

I'll figure out a way to deal with Frank. I'm the Gamer. I won't wipe on the starting boss... right?

He half hoped for another achievement, but apparently whoever was behind them hadn't considered his motivational speech worthy.

Damn.

History was taught by a stern woman named Mrs. Wentworth. Precisely dressed, with just a hint of silver in the bun of her hair, she was at the edge of middle age but not quite old. Her square-rimmed glasses and sharp eyes helped complete the look of a formal instructor. Though it wasn't just her appearance; an appropriately disciplinarian attitude and the way she seemingly prowled the classroom intimidated her students. She was unquestionably the one teacher you did not want to annoy.

Today's class was focused on the Mayan empire just prior to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. John wondered, not for the first time, why history never followed a curriculum. Last week they had been discussing the impact of Leonardo DaVinci on the Renaissance period. The week before that they'd been analyzing the cultural impact of the Hundred Years' War. As class began, John ignored the 'fascinating process of manufacturing obsidian weapons' to focus elsewhere.

Most of his fellow students were between levels one and five, excepting two people:

Lady Moira Brighton
Level 17 Paladin
<Warden of the Golden Rose>
Relationship: -20

Erica Carpenter
Level 12 Berserker
<The Bloodaxe>
Relationship: -5

Both had video-game style classes and titles, but more importantly, they were much higher level than John. It wasn't surprising. There had to be other people like him out there, but the level difference made him a bit uncomfortable.

Next, he looked at Mrs. Wentworth and used Observe.

Victoria Wentworth
<???????? ????? ?? ?????>
Level ??? ERROR - BUFFER OVERFLOW
Observe skill level insufficient.

John stared in confusion at the ominously red window of error text. He had to consciously close his open mouth. If Moira was level 17, how high of a level was Mrs. Wentworth? He mentally upgraded her from 'scary' to 'raid boss'.

"Mr. Newman?" his teacher's terse voice calling his name snapped John out of his thoughts and he scrambled to focus on whatever she was asking.

"Yes! Sorry. What are we doing?"

Mrs. Wentworth raised an eyebrow at her student's distress, "Page 192, it's your turn to read."

John flipped through the book, trying to swallow his panic. He found the page and began to read the first thing he saw, "The Mayans consecrated major construction projects and historic events with the ritual sacrifice of slaves and captured warriors. Kings or other royalty were preferred for a new coronation..."

"Mr. Newman, we've already covered that. Begin with the fourth paragraph."

"Oh." Everyone's eyes were on him but nobody laughed. Nobody ever laughed in Mrs. Wentworth's classes. "Later sacrifices copied the Aztec method of heart extraction. The victim would be painted blue and strapped to a dais or other stone atop the summit of a pyramid-temple; or in the courtyard of said temple. Using knives made of sharpened flint, a priest would cut the sacrifice's chest open and remove the still-beating heart which would then-"

Mrs. Wentworth cut him off, "That will be enough, Mr. Newman." Several of the other students were looking a bit queasy with the topic but Mrs. Wentworth ignored their plight and continued, "As those who read the material will remember, the Mayans believed that blood sacrifice would appease the gods, prevent disasters, and bring their kingdoms favors and bountiful harvests..."

John sat back down, breathing a sigh as his teacher addressed the rest of the class. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, almost painfully loud. He was amazed no-one else could hear it. When Mrs. Wentworth looked back in his direction, John quickly turned the page and pretended to be engaged in the book. He immediately regretted it. The textbook contained an artistic portrayal of a traditional Mayan sacrifice, and the way the victim's disturbingly realistic eyes stared out at him was haunting. John's heartbeat skipped for a second, unable to resist imagining himself tied to that stone.

The binds tightened on his wrists and John could almost feel the point of the obsidian dagger...

New Skill: Fear Resistance ~ 1
Confers a minor reduction to the duration and effects of natural and magical fear.
(Passive)

The popup snapped him out of it, bringing him jarringly back to reality. He tried not to breathe too loudly, afraid that any noise would give away the terror he felt. It didn't matter though. Everyone else was too morbidly entranced by the picture and lecture to care about his panic attack. Over two, maybe three minutes, John's heart calmed back to a slower pace.

He'd never particularly liked history, but when John looked up from the textbook to Mrs. Wentworth's slight smile he decided he hated it.

John spent as little time in the history classroom as possible after the bell rung, diving into the crowd to get as far away from his teacher as possible. Fortunately, his next class was physics, which took place in one of the labs in the separate annex building. The trip gave him time to think, letting his mind race to solve his predicament. He should have realized the moment he saw people's levels that some would be higher than his. It was essential that he learned something to avoid their attention, a stealth skill, or invisibility magic, or anything!

As deep in thought as he was, John nearly ran into someone messing with her locker. He narrowly managed to avoid her without bumping into anyone else in the crowd.

New Skill: Evasion ~ 1
Confers a chance to dodge attacks from known enemies.
(Passive)

John stared at the new popup, distracted by it long enough to walk straight into a pillar. Several of the other students gave him odd looks.

-1 hp.

Achievement Unlocked! - "Ironic Injury"
Learn a defensive skill and immediately take damage it could prevent.
+$10, get a pair of glasses

Really. Just... really?

For the remainder of the walk to physics he focused on not running into anyone or anything else.

The physics classroom had large tables instead of individual desks, allowing to be used as a chemistry lab as well. The other students who had arrived early were already starting to cluster into groups around them. Mr. Antov, the physics teacher, encouraged open seating; or just didn't care if people payed attention. John suspected the latter was far more likely and the teacher's lax attitude always made it awkward for the loner students. Fortunately, he'd discovered that there were just few enough students in the class that if he sat at the furthest table only one person would join him. 'Fortunately'.

Seated behind a dozen Erlenmeyer flasks where nobody could see his hand motions, John took the opportunity to pull up his Character Sheet. His three achievements had improved his stats slightly and the damage inflicted by Frank earlier had mostly healed, putting him at 56/60 hp. It wasn't a particularly impressive rate of recovery but then... he was only level three.

An indicator blinked on the rightmost edge of his sheet and John remembered the message he'd gotten after his first achievement. With a tap, he accessed the Progress Screen.

Three new windows opened in a half-circle around him, each containing a different element of his 'progress'. A dozen icons filled the central space and a quest tracker took up the right side, but the left-most window was darkened out. Maybe it was something he'd unlock later. The primary window was unquestionably his achievement list. Three of the icons were lit up, likely referencing the ones he'd unlocked. His curiosity was drawn to the remaining nine icons. Some had progress meters and responded to a click.

Locked Achievement - "The Daily Grind"
Complete 0/10 Daily Quests

It made sense. Most games had some form of grinding missions but it was odd that he couldn't see the reward. He kept browsing, clicking on another icon with a mostly full meter.

Locked Achievement - "Apprentice"
Improve a skill to Rank 4. (3/4)

Now that was something he could finish! Suddenly the appeal of upgrading Observe had doubled. Not only would he get a more useful skill but he would unlock an achievement for doing it! Emboldened by the possibilities, he checked out the other icons, only to find the remaining symbols unresponsive. After repeatedly mashing one, a window eventually popped up.

Achievement requirement not met.

Please stop.

John stared at the messages until they faded. It wasn't the first time his actions had come with 'flavor text' but this reinforced the idea that someone (or something) was directly in charge of him. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing. For better or worse, he didn't have much time to ruminate on it as class was starting.

Ashcroft's accelerated pace meant that each class switched textbooks roughly twice a semester. It was around that time and class started with the distribution of new books; each student receiving a copy of Advanced Thermodynamics. John took his from a stack on Mr. Antov's desk and headed back to his seat, where a new window appeared.

Learn Contents?
Yes / No

Without really thinking, John clicked 'yes'. The book flipped open and through all its pages before slamming shut without a sound. In panic, John looked around to see if anyone had seen the display but nobody had. Not even his tablemate, a shy girl named Anna. He looked back at the cover of the book and cautiously opened it. Every single page was completely blank, erased of whatever had been written there before. John raised a hand.

"Mr. Antov? I think there's something wrong. My textbook's just blank."

The teacher raised an eyebrow and walked down the tables to examine it before nodding, "Take another."

John quickly grabbed a new book, trying to avoid the curious stares of some of his classmates. Whatever he might have gained from the textbook, it'd gained him more attention than he wanted right now. He took his seat again, watching as Mr. Antov scrawled a messy and complex formula on the board. John had never been particularly good at mathematics, outside of gaming, but somehow he could understand exactly what the teacher had written. It was an equation representing the energy produced by igniting ****, vodka specifically. Then, as the teacher began the lesson in his slight Russian accent, John already knew exactly what he was going to say.

This is nuts! Can I learn any subject like this? I'd never have to worry about grades ever again!

He looked away from the board as three new popups appeared.

Skill Tome Learned - Physics
(Limit Reached [1] - Wisdom: 11)

Spell Learned: Rend ~ 1
Deal 6 ~ (50% Wisdom) immutable damage to a target within 5 ~ (20% Intellect) meters.
Cost: 15 mp
(Domain - Quantum)

New Skill: Forge ~ 1
Deconstruct mundane items or create them out of raw materials.

Well that answered his question about more books; he'd have to raise his wisdom before he could pull that trick again. Still, he'd gotten two unexpected skills out of it. The first, Rend looked to be some sort of attack; which raised the question of what he'd use it on. Other people would be unacceptable, excepting maybe Frank... but if he had levels then maybe the Game had monsters. Forge appeared to be a crafting skill, but the information provided was limited. He wasn't sure how to use it or what he could make. It seemed a dead end for now. Looking back at Rend, John noted the underlined text and tried tapping it.

Immutable Damage
Magical damage that cannot be healed or reversed by anything less than divine intervention or a Paragon spell.

Well. There went his plan of threatening Frank with his new attack. Even if the bully had made his life hell, John wasn't going to throw unhealable magic at him. He'd have to find something else but... If he could learn magic from a Physics textbook, what else could he learn from?