As well as you expect against 600+ years of experience

Now that they were properly sparring, it was immediately apparent what John lacked the most: Experience. Not in the sense of EXP, but in the sense that he didn't know how an opponent would react to a particular attack so that he could appropriately respond to that. There were many instances where he merely struck again after an attack and fell into a trap that way that would end with him on his back. But then again, it was just a sparring session, so it was the whole point to work on these flaws. Thanks to the entire training John already reached level 3 with Melee and got another level in Physical Resistance. Getting beat up with a wooden sword did have its merits, even if they were slim.

They fought for an hour in smaller rounds of about 5 minutes each, most of them ending with John on his back. While it was true that Mariana had no big magical powers aside from her curse, she had the experience and intelligence to work around that by merely fighting smarter than John, using his slower reflexes and sloppy moves to bring him down to the floor.

It also didn't help John that the spear lowered his Agility and therefore making him slopier and more rigid in his movements. Hopefully, he could toss that piece of junk into the grinder soon enough and use his Valkyrie spear. For that, he still needed ten points in Strength, but with a bit of grinding that wasn't anything that would be a problem... Maybe something he could do tonight after dinner...

Speaking of dinner, at some point, John looked at his phone and noticed the time; the phone said that it was already way later than he had anticipated. "Shit, is it that late already? I've gotta go, captain, I don't want my mom to be angry for missing dinner..."

"Ah, relax, your phone probably has a problem dealing with the time dilation inside these Barriers. To the outside, we've only been here for 30 minutes since I pulled you in here. It's a common thing for the phones to fuck up. Once you send a message or go to the internet on your phone, it should properly reset. But I think we should call it a day anyway, I don't think you're gonna last any longer," said the elder pirate and shattering the Barrier around them.

They reappeared in the basement of the game shop, pretty much exactly where they 'left' close to the stands with the RPG books. The basement was still empty, so thankfully the reentering effect was not needed anyway except to give John the time to store the spear away. By now Mariana also was in her 'old lady' persona again, probably some kind of spell that she activated. "Now, do you need any of the other books? They might give you some ideas."

At that, John shook his head, "I think I'm good for now, but I'll still take the delivery you have for me."

"Ah, yes, that's waiting for you behind the counter, let's go back up and send you on the way with it. Maybe you get some weird ability to animate that so it could fight with you. But alas, with powers like yours we never know what can come out of that," she said while going up the stairs.

Upstairs some people were just skimming about, looking at the various wares and chatting in small groups, most of them wearing street clothing with various reference-heavy shirts. Behind the counter and overlooking everything was... Mary? But the young Mariana, the one John just got to meet inside the Prison Barrier. "How-" "She's not real, a robot if you want to call it anything. She keeps watch over the shop while I'm busy downstairs or in the back. Have you never seen her? Oh, no, that's actually the enchantment she has, pretty weak but strong enough to affect every mundane person."

John was sure that he had seen her before, but there was no memory of her face, even now that he knew that her face was a replica of Mary's... It was a weird feeling knowing that your memories are altered in some way and that he could only perceive it now because he had special abilities. Shaking his head to get that thought out there, he already saw Captain Storm search for something.

That something was a 40-centimeter high statue of a woman with red, tightly braided hair standing on top of some kind of machine; her outfit mostly consisted of various pelts and machine parts, and she held a composite bow in her hands. It was a statue of Aloy from the game Horizon: Zero Dawn and while John never played the game himself, he watched a lot of Let's Plays and instantly fell in love with her. Picking up the still packaged statue he looked it over with awe and satisfaction, "She looks beautiful, just like in the game. Thank you very much for this! I hope getting her wasn't too hard?"

"Ah, don't mention it, it wasn't that hard to find her. But I'm starting to see that you have a certain thing for redheads, eh?"

At that, John blushed a bit out of embarrassment, "I won't deny it. Red hair simply does something for me... though it's probably more simple than that even; special hair colors interest me, be it green, blue, red. It's just something special that should be cherished."

Mary nodded, deep in thought "Sounds about right, now then, off you go, I have some customers to deal with. I'm gonna send you a message should I stumble over anything interesting. And greet your mother for me!" John nodded happily and with a final wave left the game store.

To think that even 4 days ago, when he ordered that statue, he didn't spare a thought that there could be anything special about that store aside from its theme and now he knew that the owner was a 600+-year-old pirate, the 'intern' was a automaton that was made to look like her, and somewhere in some dimension there was a ship here (he still had no idea how that worked...). But losing his head over this was going to help him just as much as losing it over the Valkyries.

Speaking of Valkyries, while John stored the statue in his inventory (outside of the vision of anyone of course) he took out the slip of paper Brunhilde gave him and put the number on his phone. His messaging app immediately told him that she was available. The profile picture also told him that it was indeed Brunhilde's number and not some random number she gave him because the image was Brun sitting on her motorbike. Even just looking at the picture gave John an erection to some degree... So, should he write her?

No time like the present!

John: So, did you angels safely return to heaven?

Brun: Haha, I'm gonna assume you're Noob McHeroface there. Nice to have your number too, John ;) Also, no we don't return to heaven, we live in Springfield just like everyone else :P

J: So wait, you're celestial beings delivering dead people to Valhalla, and you actually live on Earth?

B: Yeah? Do you know how boring the heavens are? If you actually want to call them heaven... But yeah, we live on earth like all the normal humans. Most games would be hard to get up there anyway

J: Soooo, you a gamer? Casual or Hardcore?

B: Hardcore. But I'm pretty hard into RPGs that just take forever to finish... I think I'm on my third playthrough of the Witcher 3 by now ;P

J: ... Where have you been all my life?

By now John was sitting on the bus that would take him close to home, the ride would probably take round about 30 minutes, so he had plenty of time to talk to Brun and look over his sheet and all the changes that happened.

Huh, the thing already rearranged itself, it looked a bit slimmer now, but what was that weird little blue emblem? Was that his emblem? It looks cool! Looking over the rest of the sheet, John noticed that it said Bonds 1/2. How the hell did he already have a bond? Who gave it to hi-... Brun. She was the only one that got close enough to him, with consent, to do something like that. Well, except for Mariana, but she would not make sense since she wants to stay low. Should he ask something like this? Was that appropriate? However, his curiosity got the better of him anyway.

J: By the way, do you know anything about a bond?

B: ... How did you find out? It was an accident... kinda... well okay it wasn't! But seriously though, how did you find out?

J: A) You just told me :P and B) I got a similar ability in the last... half an hour? This whole time dilation stuff is still weird... But anyway, yeah I got a skill what would let me bond with people, creatures, and objects and it has a limit to how many bonds I can have. And now it tells me I already have one Bond, so it isn't that hard to figure out who it was. So, what can you do with it?

B: Well, it tells me that you are still alive as long as the bond is built. That was the main reason I used that on you. I wanted to know if you're in trouble or mortal danger. You seem to be the kind of guy that would get into dangerous situations like that... And second, if necessary, I can track you with it. Not like see where you're going, but see where you are when needed. Those bonds are pretty basic though; my Ma can make stronger bonds that can actually teleport an individual to her. Does that creep you out? If you want we can break that bond.

J: Nah, it's not that bad, I just wanted to know. And how do you break them? My skill tells me that they are until the of one party.

B: Hahaha :D Yeah that's the noob version, apprentice shit that should only be used on things. I have that on my sword so I can always find it. Can you do anything fancy with your bonds?

At that John had to think for a second. What did the upgrade tell him? He could look through the eyes of individuals and creatures he had a bond with.

Should he try it?