Making Appointments

"Fuuuuuuck!" John's scream was heard throughout the whole mansion as he bolted up the stairs using a combination of Flash Step propulsion and Parkour to practically run along the wall up the flight of stairs and into the terminal room. Without touching the floor a single time, he barreled into the room, used Flash Step to change his direction, and leaped through the entryway into his actual room. He landed with a somersault on the floor, barely stopping in front of his nightstand.

He hurriedly equipped a clean set of his school uniform and barreled out of his room, taking all of his school stuff with him. He quickly noticed how much faster he moved around with some minor uses of his skills. Flash Step might be the most practical tool he could imagine once his creativity envisioned new ways to use it. It could potentially be the best tool for anything involving stealth or traps since he could avoid the floor most of the time and the small structures of mana made no noise.

This fact of no noise was important right now as he jumped down the stairs and landed without a sound thanks to the use of a step at the last second when he landed at the bottom. Looking into the kitchen, he saw that his mom wasn’t there. It wasn't that surprising, she sometimes left the house before John left for school. Picking up his shoes and jacket and equipping them, he darted out of the house, barely in time for the bus according to his calculations.

There was no bus, however.

Checking his phone again, it now told him that it was 7:08...

Fuuuuuuuuck John had to swear for the second time of the day now in the span of three minutes. So, he was now 20 minutes earlier than he had expected to be. If the same time dilation stuff had happened here as in Mariana's Barrier, then he should be able to calculate how much extra time he had in the Nexus...

So, he entered the Nexus at roughly 11 PM yesterday, so that meant that he had roughly eight hours in the Barrier. So he 'got' twenty minutes in eight hours, which meant that an hour inside the Nexus was roughly two and a half minutes longer than on the outside.

Which would mean that inside the Nexus, a day had twenty-five hours instead of twenty-four. That was neat, though he still had to find a way to sync up his phone with that time difference, seeing as how he kept getting messed up by it.

Something inside John's head clicked and he remembered what Sarai had told him. Taking out his phone, he immediately used Bond on it, ignoring the blinking messages on his HUD for now. His peripheral vision immediately shifted a bit as a 'Messenger' appeared in the left-hand corner of his vision, displaying the first line of the four different messages he had received.

Since he now had 20 minutes of waiting for the bus, John took the time to walk to the next stop so his mother didn't see him standing at the stop way too early, making it seem like he would avoid her, which was obviously not his intention... Starting with the system messages:

Daily Patch
Update
Transreceptive Eye: You will now only be able to gain one Skill Level of Transreceptive Eye per day by using it in combination with a Barrier.
Reminder: You still have one unused Skill Level and five Stat Points.

Achievement unlocked: Kanassan much?
Look into the future. Anything interesting there? I stopped looking after the ten billionth time. Wanna try it again?
+2 WIS
+Double-Drop of Mimir

New Daily Quest: You're never alone
Join an Organization
+300 XP
+25 RP with members of that organization
+2 Uncommon Materials (Relating to the most prominent elements of the organization)
+1 Essence Chest (Relating to the most prominent elements of the organization)
Optional:
Make an enemy
+150 XP
+1 Weapon of a type of your choice
+2 Combat Skill Levels

That vial of water that was now in his inventory could fuck right the fuck off for now! He didn't want to deal with that kind of a headache right now (his head was still pulsing with a slight pain from the single drop). But he was glad that he was reminded of the unused points, which he immediately dumped into Endurance, bringing his HP up by 25 points. The Skill Level went into the Melee skill, seeing as how that would be harder to level up at this point, and John really wanted that specialization.

Melee, Lv. 10, Passive
Specialization for Spears unlocked: Spears will now deal 1.1x Base Damage, Access to further abilities unlocked.

Buzzing Hummingbird, Lv.4

Next on his list were the text messages that now appeared in his vision. It was weird, they were there, but somehow John could still see through them and see what happened behind the window that they were displayed in... The first one was from Brun, asking him how his 'adventuring without interesting loot for her' went.

Brunhilde [00:23]: So, I'm home now, hope your adventuring thing without me is going well. What is this 'grand loot' that you expected for yourself anyway?

John [07:10]: Eh, nothing much, except for basically my own kingdom! I'm basically a ruler over a small patch of land now. I think that qualifies me as a Lord. ;D

Brun didn't seem to be online yet, so John didn't expect an answer. Interestingly enough, he didn't even have to use his hands or his phone to type the message, he could simply think about the words and they were written.

After his message to Brun he also sent one to Astrid to check on how she was doing and how her schedule looked like for today's school day.

John [07:12]: Hey, you angel ;D Hope you're doing well again? Wanted to check in and see if we share any classes today and if you're okay.

His messenger told him that she hadn't been online for the last 10 hours, that didn't give him too much hope...

The messages from unknown numbers varied a lot on their intent. John could immediately guess the person behind the first number.

??? [22:20]: Hey Hotshot, ready for me to **** you again? ;P Hope you could fix the little guy. Say, do you have any plans for Friday evening? xoxo Spiderqueen

That was obviously Aranea. John was surprised that she hadn't contacted him yet, but, then again, it was only a bit more than 24 hours since their last 'encounter'. He took his time with his reply.

John [07:16]: You seriously have some weird kinks... And yeah, the little guy seems to be pretty happy, though I guess he needs some companions. Uhh, I'm busy Friday, and not the kind of busy that gives you the opportunity to sneak up on me and **** me :P

The next message was a bit more cryptic...

??? [00:00]: Dear customer, we have received information that you have gained powers beyond the mortal world in the last 48 hours. It is our customary procedure to send out an invitation to our services after a set amount of time to see if you would either lose your powers again or perish in some delusions of grandeur. If you are able to read this, then you have successfully survived this amount of time and are qualified enough to use our services! We will provide you with further information as your account will be created. Please be patient! With best regards, AA

AA? Who the hell was that? And what kind of service were they talking about? He quickly sent that question to Brun, in hopes that she could explain to him what happened here...

If the last message was cryptic, this one was pretty straightforward:

??? [06:00]: Good morning Mr. Newman, I am a representative of the organization called the Fateweavers. We have received multiple letters of recommendation, both official and unofficial, regarding our consideration of your membership. We always value our open-mindedness towards new applicants and their various skill sets. In the coming hours, you will receive an official time slot for your evaluation and interview to see if you and your skills fit within our Springfield branch of operations. A High Fateweaver and several other members of the organization will be present at your evaluation. Your interview has been deemed of high importance due to the received letter. We wish you good luck and a nice day, Emilie Winter, Fateweaver HR.

Wow, these guys certainly did not take their time with this. Just yesterday evening it was decided that John would be evaluated by this organization, and the morning after they already prepared his interview... but what did they mean with 'multiple letters of recommendation'? Did both Svenja and someone from The Order send one for John? This was either flattering that they both thought it to be important enough for him to get this opportunity, or they both saw him as a big enough threat that he had to be reined in, in some capacity. John was still hyped about this chance, and he was interested to see what this organization was like. This also aligned weirdly well with his Daily Quest... Did Gaia know that this would happen?

John didn't have much time to think about it as the bus rolled up and waited for him to enter.