In the morning.

"John... John... John."

For once, the gamer woke up tired. His eyes felt heavy, though it was possible that he was still spent from the previous day. He also had the idle suspicion that his curse and the ring may have had something to do with the fact that he felt at least a little more... normal now. It wasn't like the first week when had woken up with his powers, he could feel the lack of energy in his body again. He struggled to blink some clarity back into his eyes, and when he finally found the strength to sit up again, he was face to face with a groggy, pale, Indian woman. Her normal bronze complexion was still weaker than what it was used to be... but Grace was awake. Her mother still dozed softly off to the side, in the same room. When she spoke up, Tricia had already moved to her feet. Of the three healthy people there, Tricia was the only one who managed to stay awake, keeping watch over her patient with a careful eye. "W-what happened?" Grace asked and heard Tricia stifle a small sigh of relief. She must have assumed that Grace forgot everything.

"What do you remember?" John asked after a couple of long moments. He watched Giva sleep warily in the corner of his vision. She hadn't noticed anything so far, and when Grace went to call out for her, John had to stop her by lifting one of his hands.

"I-I..." she stuttered, but John felt like he was already filling in the blanks. She had been at the marathon one moment and then gone the next, just like it had been for him. "You disappeared," she managed finally with a small croak, and Tricia moved to get her some water. "And... and then you and Michel were there and... fighting? Why-"

"They had an argument," Tricia tried to step in, tried to do what she could to give Grace a way back out of the Abyss. John went ahead and explained everything, at least as best as he could.

"He was trying to abduct me," he said, and the room went achingly still. He could feel Tricia's eyes drilling into his back as he spoke, her warning never even needed to be said, but he didn't pay any attention to it. He explained it all, or almost all of it, once again he didn't explain how his own powers worked or what they were, just that he had powers. He told her what Michel had said his reasons were for what he was doing... why he was hunting people with mana for some unknown boss. He told her about the truth of magic and tried to delve into detail about the place known as the Abyss, but he didn't really know much about it.

Tricia stepped in and corrected him there. When he called it a place, she called it a life, one with magic. It didn't really make much of a difference either way. Grace was skeptical, despite the fact that she had already seen the inside of a trap barrier, and almost turned on John for lying to her about what happened. She only stopped trying to blame John when he finally cast Infused Strike in front of her. A gentle, buried glow began to radiate from within John's fist, outlining all of the veins and bones in his hand like they were just eerie shadows hidden beneath the skin before he reached out... and gingerly placed his glowing hand on top of hers. His fist, thankfully, didn't explode on contact since he hadn't punched her, but the show was more than enough proof for her. After a little while, his hand even turned back to normal as the spell faded.

Grace went silent. She didn't bring up any other questions or ask him about how he did it. She just stopped talking and stared at him. At first, he thought that she might have been mad at him again for something, like not telling her about the existence of magic in the first place, and he tried to reassure her by informing her that he had only received his magic recently, but she still didn't answer him. He said that he hadn't known about Michel's connection to the Abyss or that their friend would have done something like that, but it didn't help. The conversation was over.

In fact, the only time she spoke up after that was to give her thanks to Tricia when she learned that the blonde girl had used magic to save her life. The 'Scythian Healer' crossed her arms over her chest as she took a moment to scold John for recklessly revealing the existence of magic, calling him 'crazy' for risking their lives with something so dangerous, and then she took the opportunity to speak to them both.

"I don't care what you've been through. It doesn't matter if you've been to hell and back again or not. If you talk so openly about the Abyss like this, you will die. Gaia does not like that. Do not do it again," she snapped and made sure that Grace had heard her before Tricia finally excused herself. "That's like asking for an earthquake..." she muttered under her breath as she walked back out of the room.

John was about to insist that Michel wouldn't be able to hurt her or anyone else ever again when Giva woke up. She let out a little gasp upon seeing her daughter's open eyes and rushed over to gingerly hug and kiss her. Giva cooed and pampered her daughter as she got close, calling her by her name, baby, and some other nickname that he didn't understand the meaning of. 'Little Bulbul', she called her, but John never heard them explain what it meant.

He didn't actually understand much of anything that they said after that. Most, if not all of it, was in another language. With both Giva and Grace awake, John saw no further reason to stay around, especially since Grace had stopped talking to him. The doctors assured them that she was going to be okay after that, aside from a few scars, and that the surgery went well enough that she would be up and walking sooner than they would have expected normally. Some of the hospital staff was baffled by her strange recovery, but after John saw more of the guards in black suits from the Order of the Golden Rose help escort Tricia out of the building, he found that their questions and curiosities about Grace's miracle had simply... disappeared.

He excused himself from the hospital, oddly relieved to be away from the incessant beeping of heart monitors and endless bouts of waiting. He couldn't even bring himself to be mad that she wasn't talking to him after he had saved her life; he was mostly just happy that she was okay. He took a bus back across town to return home where he spent a good long time in the shower. A lot of that time was spent just soaking in the heat and trying desperately to scrub himself clean again. When the water ran off him, it pooled in the base of the tub in a massive red swirl, and the image got stuck in his head. When he got out, he stopped in front of the mirror and pulled open his character sheet. The ring glimmered slightly in his reflection as his hands waved around his screens and pop-ups, but he tried to push it out of his head. Even if he couldn't remove it now and the ring had cursed him in some way again, there wasn't anything that he could do about it at the time.

Twenty-five points, he thought and let his finger hover over the button to increase his strength. He considered putting the points into one of his other stats. They were all still low enough that he could change his mind about what he wanted to focus on if he did decide to do something else... but once he hit that button, the decision may as well have been final. He sighed at his image in the mirror, staring at the slight firmness he now had to his own body, and considered it. Before he had gotten his powers, Frank had been the man to attack him and make his life a living hell. The football player had always been stronger than John, and now, it was his friend who had been the one to stab John in the back. Both times, they had been stronger than he was. Both times, they had kicked him into a bloody pulp, though now those wounds were nowhere to be found. They had hurt him, and now, they had hurt his friends too. They had made him feel weak...

Not anymore... he thought and held his finger down on the button. It took a couple of moments, but after he had used up all of his points, he watched as his body seemed to lift slightly. He didn't stand any taller, or at least as far as he could tell, his height was still the same; it was just his overall physique that took the change. His muscles seemed to harden, tightening in ways that made an old, slight sag to his thin physique disappear... and then his definition locked into place. His body grew taut and toned under the geeky gamer form that he normally had, and he watched as a new figure stared back at him in the mirror. The outlines of strength in his body stood out in the light on their own. The subtle hint of a strong, muscle-packed abdomen could be seen even if he was simply standing still, observant, and relaxed. His shoulders looked broader, his jaw clenched a little tighter, and his biceps bulged slightly as he took a step back.

That single movement, the step away from the mirror, felt... slightly springy, like lifting his own weight around from one spot to another was as easy as moving a feather. He wasn't more quiet or quicker than he used to be by any means, but in a small way he could feel a strange sense of power waiting in the strength of his limbs. As a simple test, he punched the air twice, feeling his muscles tense and snap taut with each swing, and watched his reflection do the same. A small smile quirked up in the corner of his mouth before John nodded, satisfied for the time being.

Your Strength has reached 50!
You have gained the Regrowth ability!

New Skill: Regrowth. Level 1, 30 Mana.
Regrowth: This change marks a new degree of Strength within its user. When activated, this ability allows the user to spend some Mana in order to **** a boost of power into their own regenerative capabilities. On use, this ability will heal only the user for a total of 2 hitpoints (amount healed is equal to ability level times two).

You have reached level 10! Paragon points and features have been unlock- ERROR! Subject remains cursed. Subject has killed. Paragon features invalid, resorting to standard Evolutions path.

+1 Horrible Evolution Point

John blinked at the messages that appeared in front of him when his stat changes finally finished taking place. He was left confused and hesitant for a moment, worried that his fight with Michel might have ruined or changed the way his powers worked, before another screen popped up in front of him. The next screen was drastically different compared to the ones he was used to. The bordering, the colors, and the text all remained the same, but the images he found on it reminded him of something he might use in an online role-playing game. Dozens of small square-shaped buttons used to select feats or abilities for a specific kind of character class popped out at John, all glued to the images of three separate trees. The locations of the squares were precise, left only in spots where the tree split and branched off into a different path. Most of the boxes were grey and unreadable because he hadn't unlocked them yet. He had to level up to get to the Horrible Evolution points and take the paths that inevitably reached to those feats. Currently, there were three boxes he could access, one at the base of each tree, like a small grouping of seeds waiting to be planted so they could grow.

Each tree related to a specific kind of function. The first improved his mental health. It helped with skills to do with the mind and talking. The second improved his physical health. It helped with things like Strength, Agility, or Endurance. The last specifically worked with his magical capabilities. It helped with the things he could learn to do with his magic and helped his mana overall. He considered putting the Horrible Evolution point into that right off the bat, if it seemed to be safe, just because of the way the ring worked and how low his mana was already. Unfortunately, his focus still wasn't on covering his weak points. He had too many of those already; he needed a strong front first, and because of that, he almost made his choice before he had read what each tree might do.

Mental Rite, Horrible Evolution. Passive.
Mental Rite: This subject has evolved past the limits of humanity. Their mind has become a fortress and can no longer be so easily tampered with or destroyed by the uses of spells and items. Any effect that would normally intrude upon the thoughts and free will of this unit is countered by this evolution. This unit cannot have their mind read. This unit cannot be controlled.

Physical Rite, Horrible Evolution. Passive.
Physical Rite: This subject has evolved past the limits of humanity. Their body has become a temple, and as such, it can no longer be violated. Lasting effects that would normally incapacitate the body or the health of the user are countered by this evolution. This unit cannot be poisoned. This unit no longer succumbs to the harmful effects of time while within a barrier.

Magical Rite, Horrible Evolution. Passive.
Magical Rite: This subject has evolved past the limits of humanity. Their soul has become a weapon and seeps out of their form in various ways like a dangerous, invisible aura. Standard effects that would normally hinder the user are now countered by this evolution. This unit can no longer be blinded, even by complete light or darkness. This unit cannot be fooled by illusions or spells that would hinder their eyesight in any way.

After reading through the effects though, John decided that perhaps he ought to try doing things at least a little differently. They were all good, or at least they seemed to be, but the Physical Rite didn't seem to help with his strength yet. He needed something useful now, and since it didn’t explicitly state that it would hurt or visibly change him in any way, he decided to take a risk. The picture his layout had for Mental Rite flashed and filled with color at his touch, changing until the large brain in the image was a deep, dark, maroon color. He smiled happily to himself as he watched the square light up, pleased that he at least had something now to protect his own thoughts. Physically, he didn't feel as if anything else had changed, but it made him happy to know that he had it regardless. Perhaps that would have helped to restrict the amount of information that got out about him. He tried to get dressed and found that most of his clothes had grown extraordinarily tight on his body. Some of his smaller pieces of clothing even had to be thrown out. He took a quick nap on his bed, relishing in the silence of his empty house, before finally...

...he went back to the kingdom.