Recognizing and correcting the errors of the past.

On his way to class, John checked his messages. He had seen the notifications but had not read them earlier out of fear of ruining the mood of June's introduction to the kingdom. Tricia had sent him a few mails during the lunch break apparently.

In the first, she informed him that she was not at school this day and couldn't visit him during the lunch break, which was some really good news.

She then sent him another one a few minutes later telling him that she had very important news for him and needed to see him today to discuss them. He was supposed to contact her to tell her when and where he could pick her up. John had instructed Cali to make a jump to June's office while they were in the bedroom, to have a pathway active to bring her there. If Tricia wasn't at school, it limited the options. He had to think about his other engagements too: his final settlement with Frank and the hope of introducing his mother on the evening limited his options. He sent Frank a text, telling him to be at an abandoned construction site 10 minutes away from the academy 20 minutes after the end of the last class. He then sent one to Tricia telling her to inform Anna of where they could meet 40 minutes after class. It was long enough for something. John had planned for June to drive home with Anna to make Cali set her way point to her house before driving Anna to wherever the meeting with Tricia would take place. His own encounter with Frank should not be very long, one way or another.

With all of this in order, he entered the workshop and changed from his shirt to a t-shirt before putting on the heavy leather apron he had to wear when working with red hot metal.

The rest of the class had their own projects going on. A few working on motors and the majority doing the same stupid handy work that bored him to tears in the previous classes. Miss Brooke had prepared something different for him today.

"Ah, John, you got ready very fast, good! No blades today. I know that it will be your end of semester project, but you also need to learn other techniques to get a qualification. Today, you will work with sheet metal and I will show you how to shape, cut and weld, both with modern tools and with only old techniques," she explained.

"That's awesome! I can't wait to do this. I was thinking that once I get a bit more acquainted with all of this, I could have my own little set up at home to train, is it OK if I ask more details about each machine and tool? Like how much it costs, where to buy them, the ones not to buy etc?" he asked her in return.

"You better ask all that you can, there will be a quiz in addition to your end work, and it will count for your grade. Grab a sheet and we'll begin..."

It was a revolution: one of the classes that John hated the most had suddenly become one of the only ones he had any interest in and considered useful. It was a true testimony of how much his life had been changed by what happened these last two weeks.

Using a plethora of anvils of various shapes and other devices, John was shown how to bend or curve metal. He was also shown how to weld it together, both with the modern method of using a welder and the old one of hammering the incandescent edges of the two pieces together to fuse them.

John realized that with Vesta providing the heat and his powers to hold onto the hot metal, there were a lot of things that he didn't need. A good quality anvil that would then be upgraded and reinforced with magic was the top priority, followed by a grinder to put an edge or smooth things more easily.

His teacher had really struck a chord by proposing him to teach him the forge. She had no idea of his situation, and he actually did not even have a kingdom yet when he started learning this. On the other hand, if he had followed this class seriously, he would have gathered some knowledge on handy work but would probably not have been offered to learn how to forge.

Today, he was not trying to create anything useful or complete. Miss Brooke was just showing him stuff on pieces of sheet metal leftover from other students cutting larger sheets for their projects. John realized that he could have saved time by listening since the start of the year. Forging was not everything, and some of the things he was shown were basic metal work that they had studied earlier. Adding bevels to the metal, polishing it, cleaning the edges, welding, piercing, cutting, bending, all of these things had their uses even after he forged a blade or piece of armor the old way.

He spent time browsing the internet while he was learning, looking for the kind of equipment he would need on various sites. He noticed some rather steep prices for new equipment on manufacturing sites, but second hand stuff from Craigslist or other such sites could be procured for low prices if he had a car to pick it up or an address to get delivered to... Two things he realized that June could provide him, and there was also a chance for a discount if she was the one picking them up. He texted her a few of the notices on stuff that could be picked up for cheap and asked her if she think they could use her car or house to get them. She replied really quickly that it would not be an issue and that if needed John could also order paint and other art materials in bulk from one of the suppliers that she used and have them delivered to her place without anyone finding it strange.

By the end of the two hours, John had trained in each of the things he had been shown multiple times. He had gained a new level in Apprentice Smith job getting him to 6/12.

John's meeting with Frank would have **** him to skip class to go home to get his quad if he had been dumb enough not to bring it with him. Which was of course shown to be true by Frank's presence in the bus this morning.

John thanked his teacher for the interesting lesson and asked if he could keep the cast-off pieces of metal to study them at home, which she accepted, happy to see him take this so seriously. John changed his clothes, putting his shirt and jacket back on, and exited the classroom.

He would have liked to go find the girls and have more fun, but he had some business to conclude first. A short ride of his bike led him to a blind spot behind a building, where he changed out of his uniform to put on some jeans and a hoodie that he had modified to change their color to darker ones. He had cycled the Veil charm to get someone with no characteristics matching his own. Heavier build, shorter, more muscles, bald, bearded, tanned, bad teeth. It looked nothing like him.

With the clothes on and a bandana on his face, he looked like some sort of thug. Frank was waiting at the designated spot, standing just next to a big quad bike. John took a careful approach and noticed the number 3 on his stealth indicator once inside the partially constructed building. He could only smile; he had already deprived Frank of the surprise effect.

It took little effort to spot who the other two were; they were really not good at hiding themselves. Travis and Raoul, the brute and the joker, each holding a baseball bat, were trying to hide behind half constructed pillars, unaware of the fact that if they could see him he could see them too.

"You're Francine Dickindaughter? Got what was asked of you?" said John in the deepest voice that he could manage. He dropped the subtle implication that he was not the one who contacted him but someone sent for the exchange, but with little hope of Frank being bright enough to get the hint.

"It's Frank, Frank Dickinson, asshole! Did you bring it?" screamed his former bully.

"Yeah, warned me that you were going to be all drama and all. Don't see the key to your little clitty until I see the money and keys to that beast."

"You don't have to scream that! Faggot! Here, happy?" Frank picked an envelope from a storage compartment of the quad and opened it to reveal some bank notes.

John, absolutely not ready to trust Frank, used Theft to inspect his inventory and confirm that there really were the ten grand promised. He also noted that the keys were on the ignition of the small vehicle.

"Throw the money my way, I need to count it!" ordered John.

"The fuck I will! Where is it? You don't touch the money until I see it!" Frank was enraged. Vanessa had not borrowed a simple sex toy from her mother; the cage that she had put on him was from a very exclusive company catering to some hardcore communities. The titanium alloy was impossible to cut without heating the whole thing enough to cook his genitals, the unpickable lock had high security keys impossible to counterfeit, and the company would only provide the single duplicate to the buyer of the product, in person.

"’Tis what you looking for?" he said, dangling the delicate little key from a string. “You give me the money, step away from the quad, and you get it, easy as that."

"Listen, stupid prick! Do you think I'm retarded? I let you near it, and you will get away with the key!"

"We are in a bit of a pickle then. How about this: I give you the key, and you give me the money, and once you are satisfied that it is the one, I leave with the quad?" Frank smiled as he heard the proposal; John knew this smile. It was Frank thinking that he was smarter than someone.

"Deal, but what do you mean by “be sure it is the one”?"

"You really should spend more time thinking and less time sucking cock, what proves that this key is yours until you open your clit cage? Here!" he replied, giving Frank the key and taking the envelope. He stashed it under his hoodie before putting it in his inventory.

Frank, still **** to pretend to be alone was now **** to lower his pants and unlock himself in front of his two friends watching the scene. Knowing Raoul, Frank was going to hear jokes about this for quite a while. With a shriveled dick and huge bloated balls cursed to produce continually, Frank had filled his underwear with paper towels. He tried to fumble for a minute or two and came to the horrible conclusion that he would have to literally lower his pants in public to get free. When he did so, John could hear puffing and giggling behind him. It was really hard to pretend not having heard it, or the distinct click of a photo being taken from a phone.

Frank finally freed himself; even with the lock open, it had been a struggle to get his balls free of the ring. He was probably hard right now, but it was hard to tell with how small he had become and the fact that he had been constantly dripping cum.

"I get why your girl likes big black cocks better, and why you do too. No mystery why she locked you up. I even wonder why you want out. What can you do with that anyway?" taunted John.

"This is it! What are you waiting for? Get him!" he shouted to his friends. While fumbling to get his pants up (a smart move before starting a fight), he got a knife out of his pants pocket and pointed it at John, holding his pants with his other hand. John reacted by letting slip the rough baton he had hidden in his right sleeve into his hand and removing his left hand from his pocket armed with brass knuckles. Doing so, he feigned ignorance of the pearl necklace he let fall from his pocket to Frank's feet.

John struck with a focused strike on Frank's wrist, who yelped like a girl, making the knife fall to the ground. He quickly followed with a punch with his left hand into Frank’s stomach.

The other two jocks were running at him with baseball bats. He probably could have run away, but he was not in the mood of letting them get away with this so easily. He threw a powerful punch at Frank's abdomen. The **** of the hit made him drop his pants to his ankles, and when he stepped back to recover, he fell on his ass.

Using the bonus for unarmed combat that John got from his quest with Kim, he crouched and swiped Travis’ legs, making him fall on the ground. He dodged Raoul's tentative attempt to score a homerun with his head by miracle and punched him in the knee with his brass knuckles. The two oafs were on the ground; John threw one of the bats away and kept the other one. Getting back to Frank, he found him crawling backwards with his pants down, trying to get away.

John picked the knife on the ground and threw it in Frank's direction. The former bully was crying when the knife stuck itself deep into the earth through his pants. In his haste to get away, he ripped them in two pieces which fell to the ground when he got up and ran away bottomless and leaving his friends on their own.

John burst into laughter and picked Frank's wallet and phone from the ground but also the cage with the key in the lock that he had abandoned there (that last one he just shifted to his inventory, **** to touch it). The two accomplices were trying to get away in the other direction, Travis helping Raoul to walk. John checked on the ground and noticed something funny, Frank had taken the bait. He had picked up the cursed necklace that John had stolen from an obnoxious girl on his way to the junkyard the first time.

Pearls to swines: cursed item. The person who receives this item will lose all respect for the one offering it.
-200rp towards giver.

And John could see only one use that Frank could have for this necklace: offering it to Vanessa to beg her to take him back...

"Thanks for the bat, losers. And if you catch up your bare ass friend, congratulate him on becoming famous," he shouted, while straddling the quad bike and revving it up.

He sent the command to the castle computer to send all of the compromising pictures and videos that he had of Frank to sites and forums where most of the Academy students would see them. And with the origin of the posts not even being on earth, he wished good luck to the cyber police to find who did it.

He drove the quad bike up to an abandoned warehouse, and once sure to be unseen, he faced a closed garage door before activating his ring, ending the trail of the stolen vehicle there.

A gathering of familiar faces was looking at him a bit shocked as he appeared in the kingdom, on top of the massive quad. He soon remembered the charm and unequipped it, bringing back a smile to everyone's faces. He was home and rid of all of this bullshit. Vanessa was back but had lost most of her status; she never had any friends, only underlings and rivals, now weakened, she had no one. Frank lived for only three things: Vanessa, football and bullying. His relationship with her was pretty much dead, the team had been suspended, and no one would take him seriously.