Geography.

Thankfully, John's geography class contained neither Frank nor Erica. There were, however, two new high-level students for him to eye carefully.

Kim Moon
Level 20 Martial Artist
<Silver Crane of the North>
Relationship: -3

Jane Hollmey
Level 15 Brawler
<Fun Loving Rave Girl>
Relationship: +2

John internally groaned; it was becoming clear that his school was a place where empowered weirdos gathered, and the last thing he needed were more potential threats.

What's next, some crazy girl with a third eye or something?

It wasn't lost on him that every higher level person he'd met or noticed so far was female. John wasn't quite sure what to make of that and chalked it up to apophenia; either that or he was dangerously close to being a harem anime protagonist. Which... might not be so bad actually. Except for the fact that anime protagonists never got laid. Seriously, it was ridiculous!

He spent a couple minutes internally berating the creators of the harem genre before focusing back on his goal: checking out the new girls without catching either's attention. Fortunately, they were focused on the teacher, and John was sitting out of their line of sight.

Kim was on the shorter side, with a boyish figure that ill-suited her feminine uniform. He noted a somewhat impressive amount of lean muscle along her arms and the icon of a dragon that was embossed on a silver clasp holding her hair in a short ponytail. There were other minor details that caught his eye: a scar that was barely visible on her left arm, the way she focused intently on the lesson... John could believe the Korean girl was secretly a martial artist.

In comparison, Jane confused the hell out of him. She seemed... bland, to put it nicely. Her dark brown hair was neatly straightened, and the conservative cleanliness of her uniform went against the title that hovered above her head. There was just nothing special about her at all, absolutely nothing that he could latch onto that could justify being level fifteen.

John cast Astral Observe, and was completely unprepared for what he saw.

The girl sitting in the chair was hardly recognizable as 'Jane'. Bright pink hair was tangled about her face, and her skin literally glowed. She blazed brilliantly against the rest of the world, as though a sun were trapped in the body of a woman. In the midst of his rather blatant staring, she turned around to look at him. Her irises were somehow brighter than the rest of her body, a strange blend of blue and pink. She winked at him and John snapped out of it.

He looked away and pretended to be deep in thought. The last thing he needed was more attention and... John looked back at her relationship score. +12.

Huh.

For the remainder of the class, John avoided looking at either Kim or Jane and did his best to pretend to be engaged in the teacher's droning about eastern Europe. He really couldn't care less about the provinces of Romania, but apparently they were important to some part of history that Mrs. Wentworth wanted to teach next week. To his relief, the class ended several mintues early, and he was freed from the hell of school for the afternoon.

He'd barely exited into the halls when an ugly and familiar voice called out across the stretch,"Nerd!"

John should have known better than to hope that, after the dodgeball match, he'd be able to get home without the bully finding him, but he wasn't expecting it to happen this quickly. The burly football star had already started to shove his way through the crowd in John's direction, and even from several classrooms away, he could see the **** in Frank's eyes. There wasn't much question what would happen when Frank reached John, so he threw aside whatever dignity he could claim.

"Get back here!"

For the second time in the day, John ran, ducking through the crowd and silently thanking the Developer for his increased endurance. Frank, being much larger, had to push aside whoever was in his way, which slowed him enough that John was able to build a lead and make it into the back stairwell. Instead of heading up the stairs or continuing through to the courtyard, he stopped and ducked under them. There, hidden in the shadows was the door to one of the janitorial closets. He pulled it open and slipped inside, closing it behind him and cutting off any light.

Ashcroft had seven similar closets scattered around the campus, which were often turned into impromptu make-out spots by the students. This one was only known to a few, the bullied who occasionally needed a place to hide. It was a tight fit, not designed to hold a person and contained no lights, so anyone who entered risked tripping into the various cleaning items stored within.

Several seconds passed in a desolate silence, then John could hear Frank shout loudly as he ran past.

"I swear when I get my hands on that nerd I'll ruin his ass!"

John breathed a sigh of relief and waited a minute before grabbing the handle to the closet door.

It refused to turn.

He rattled it with increasing desperation, but the door remained firmly shut. John slammed his shoulder into the wood, to paltry effect. It didn't even budge. He considered shouting for help, but that could attract the attention of the searching bully. Difficult as it was to admit, he was trapped.

John took a deep breath, steeling himself against the growing fear he'd die in a closet, and pulled out his phone. The screen's illumination was minor, but it helped. There wasn't much aside from him in the closet: a pair of buckets rested at his feet and a mop was pushed up against his shoulder. Several canisters of paints and chemicals were stacked on the shelves. There were no visible tools he could see, no screwdriver to try and pick the lock with or anything else useful. Admittedly, John had no idea how to pick a lock, but he figured if he tried hard enough the Developer might take pity on him.

Outside his hiding spot, bells signaled the end of the day, and the muffled noise of conversation grew louder as more and more students were freed by their teachers. John struggled with indecision. With the increase in people, there was no way he'd be ignored if he cried for help... but he had no idea who'd answer, and if it was Vanessa, Frank or one of their groupies...

He was so intensely focused on solving the problem that he ignored the window hovering an inch away from his face until it started flashing. John leaned back in the small room as best he could and read it.

How did you manage this?
Activate auto-unstuck feature?
YES/NO

In games like Globe of Battleart there were similarly named features that helped players get out of areas they weren't supposed to be in. Hopefully, this would do the same. John pressed 'yes'.

Spell Learned: Hearth
Teleport to a set location after a 20 second channel time. Cannot be cast for 16 hours after use.
Cost: 40 mp
(Domain: Translocation)

Automatic Hearth Point Set - Home (Newman Household)

Activating auto-unstuck.

Instantly, a swirling vortex of greenish-blue energy began forming around his fingertips and feet. With every passing second it moved faster and faster, rattling the canisters of paint on the shelves. His magic intensified to a blinding brilliance, and he felt it tug at something deep, deep inside. John let go, the maelstrom of energy surrounding him collapsing to a pinpoint, and, for a split second, he wasn't.

In the dark, one of the paint cans fell off the shelf and spilled blue paint all over a pair of sneaker-shaped marks on the floor.