Bad Dreams

“Thanks, though to be honest I’m just happy my Gamer powers help me learn how to do stuff so quickly,” John admitted to Blair. He raised his hand to cast Escape Barrier and watched as the world around him shattered and they returned to the stormy real world. They quickly ran back inside and slammed the door behind them so they wouldn't get drenched by the rain. As they ran into the living room, John tripped on his own foot and crashed straight onto the ground.

-1HP

“Owwwww!” John groaned to himself as he lay on the ground. Blair giggled a little at his clumsiness as she reached down to give him a hand, one he accepted. John stood back up and tried to rub the dull pain off his forehead. Blair laid her hand on his shoulder as she led him to the couch to sit down.

“Since this was the first time you ever drank ****, I think it might have finally begun to kick in,” Blair told John. Who looked at her as she continued to pat him on the shoulder.

“I know you definitely have more experience with **** than I do, but how come you don’t seem to be affected at all?” John asked Blair. She leaned back as a proud grin grew across her face.

“Pssh, I’ve only had like five glasses today, it’d take at least another three before I even begin to feel it. Seems I was lucky enough to be born with quite high **** tolerance,” Blair jokingly bragged to John. “Anyways, you know, if you wanna take a quick nap here, I wouldn’t mind. I’ll wake you up before sunset so you can get home, so in about two or three hours,” Blair said to John. John let out a yawn as he nodded thankfully to her, and he laid across the couch as Blair got up and drifted off to sleep.

John woke up and felt himself hanging from a roof, his body completely wrapped in iron chains. As he began to scream for help, he felt the chains bite down, and when he looked at them, he saw that they had turned into black vipers. He looked down to see a lake of lava beneath him, and the vipers began to move as they slowly lowered him into the lava. John tried to struggle his way out of the vipers when a clawed hand grabbed him by the throat. It was the imp John had killed at the bus in the morning, and it held the fire axe that had helped John kill it in its other hand.

It hacked at the vipers, and cut them open along with his chest in one swing. John dropped out of the vipers’ grip and straight towards the lava. John felt his entire body begin to burn and melt as he crashed into the lava. He desperately tried to swim out and escape. However, as he nearly reached the black, rocky shore, a thousand hands surfaced out of the lava, grabbed John, and pulled him down into the fiery depths. Suddenly, as the pain began to reach indescribable heights, he felt himself be shaken out of the nightmare and woke up.

John felt Blair continue to shake him as he quickly sat up from his position, his clothes drenched with sweat. His eyes darted around the room as his heart continued to beat furiously and loudly inside his chest. Once he realized that he was safe, he slumped back down onto the couch and tried to catch his breath. Blair continued to hold on to his shoulder, her eyes clearly filled with concern for John.

“Hey man, you feeling alright? Whatever you were dreaming about seemed pretty intense,” Blair asked John. John tried to answer, but he could barely talk due to how dry his throat and mouth were. Blair quickly made her way to the kitchen to pour him a cup of water from the sink. She handed it to him and he quickly chugged it down, thankful for rehydration. He smacked his mouth and used his tongue to wet his lips.

“Yeah, it was. Thanks for the concern, but it was just a nightmare. So I should hopefully be fine now,” John said as he pulled out his phone to check what the current time was. It was only a few minutes before eight, and a look through the window also confirmed that it was currently dusk. “Oh shoot, I should probably go now. Thanks for everything today, Blair,” John said as he stood up and began to tidy himself and his clothes. As he put on his shoes, John turned back to her. “Hey, sorry if this might sound a little weird, but I really enjoyed hanging out with you today. Would you mind if we did again soon?” John asked Blair as he tied his shoes. She grabbed a pen and a loose sheet of paper from a shelf and began to write on it. Once she finished, she handed John a paper that had her phone number written on it.

“Yeah, you’re a pretty nice guy; we can do this again tomorrow if you have the time,” Blair told John as he took the paper, folded it, and placed it inside his pocket for safekeeping. They both went to the door so Blair could unlock it to let John out. John looked outside; thankfully the storm had mostly cleared up at this point and only a few clouds remained across the sky. John waved Blair goodbye as he walked away from her home and used his phone to call a Bluber to take him to the park, for there was still something he wanted to do before he went back home.

15 minutes later

The Bluber John had called arrived and parked in front of him. As John opened the door and went inside to take a seat, he noticed something quite curious. The man who was the driver of the Bluber was the same one John had taken to school earlier that day. John closed the door behind himself and tried to make himself comfortable on the leather seat. The driver turned around and looked John up and down.

“Hey kid, you seem to be in a lot better shape than earlier today, huh?” the driver asked John as he began to drive away from Blair’s home. John scratched his head, for he still found small talk to be impossibly awkward.

“Yeah, I guess so. I took the time to sort some stuff out and fix myself,” John told the driver as he adjusted his position on the seat. The driver let out a hearty laugh as he stopped at a red light.
“Good good, always nice to see you youngins sort your problems out instead of moping around all day,” the driver said with a toothy grin. With that the light turned green and they had a peaceful ride towards the park.

40 minutes later

John handed the driver the $20 he owed him and waved him off as he drove away. Once the Bluber had disappeared from John’s vision, he stretched a little and began to walk to the center of the park. Once he had reached his destination, the fountain at the park’s center, John began his training to try to level up some of the skills he had already acquired. He opened his character sheet and looked at two of his skills, Soul Weapon and Create Barrier.

Hmmm, in Create Barrier’s description it said that I can make monsters of my choice inside it if I wanted to. So maybe I could try to make it with some weaker monsters and grind Soul Weapon. With that train of thought concluded, John raised his hand and closed his eyes to focus on the creation of a new barrier. When he opened his eyes, he saw a popup in front of him.

Illusion Barrier Monster Population Options:
Tier 0: Rose Guardians, Pebble Warriors, Lesser Water Nymphs, Skill level not high enough
Tier 1: Skill level not high enough
Tier 2: Skill level not high enough
Tier 3: Skill level not high enough
Tier 4: Skill level not high enough
Tier 5: Skill level not high enough

John took a few minutes to consider and pick from the few options that were currently available to him. However, once he had taken the time to think it through, he decided that the Rose Guardians were probably the best matchup for him. This was due to the fact that his Soul Weapon took the form of a scythe, which meant that it should be an effective weapon of choice against this type of monster. He nodded to himself as he was now satisfied with the option he decided to pick. With that done, he pressed on the Rose Guardians and watched as the world around him shifted, the signal that he had now left reality and entered a barrier.