Critical Failure

John woke up cradling Jenny, listening to her snooze contentedly on his chest. His dick was distinctly sore, and he wondered how much worse it would be for her. She still has two or three hours before she needs to be at the Inferno, with that thought, he reasoned that he should silently sneak out of bed and give her more time to recover.

Gently shifting out from under her, he decided to get started on his first waypoint, which would connect to another at his dorm. He took a mana regeneration potion first, taking two regular mana potions and uncorking them before holding them with his mouth, chin down so as to not drink them. He felt the mana pool in his hand before rushing out from his fingertips, similar to using Mana Bolt.

Once his mana pool hit zero, he tilted his head back and consumed the first potion between his teeth, using his tongue as a temporary stopper for the other one. After that mana was completely diminished, he drank the other one. Thanks to that forethought, it only took him five minutes to make a waypoint, rather than forty.

The shining globe golden of light filled his vision, though it looked to be white to him. One down, one to go.

Just to see what happened, he decided to grab hold of the sphere. The error message was pretty much exactly what he was expecting.

Error. Two waypoints of the same aura signature must exist to enable travel.

It was worth a shot. He stood up, equipping his usual loadout. I don’t mind the freerunning, it’s good exercise, but having a way to instantly travel between here and there will be convenient as hell. He left their apartment and made his way up the stairs and to the roof, stretching as he did so.

He decided to check the achievements and rewards he had ignored last night on his way to the base. Starting with the Love’s Protector set. Apparently it was a longsword and a shield. The former was more of a sharp piece of steel than a sword proper, consisting of a blade with the lower end wrapped in fabric, capped at the bottom with a heart that was pink with a yellow outline. The latter was a heater shield made out of an unadorned smooth piece of silvery metal. Their effects were much more interesting.

This stuff will be really useful, but… it’s not the real reward. It’s in the name! Having a waypoint at my dorm will make it so much easier to see her. It’ll be easier to make with help though…

“Almost done,” John said to Amy, who was feeding him potions as he was creating a second waypoint. So far he had consumed two mana regeneration potions and five mana potions. “And… that… should… do it!”

“Nice! So how does it work?” Amy asked, leaning forward. She could clearly see the floating ball of golden light. In fact, looking between him and it, it was exactly the same color as his aura.

“Well I guess you just touch it and-” John’s finger grazed the sphere, and he was glad he had put it in the corner of his room as the world shifted around him… but he was instead looking at Amy from across the waypoint, instead of being next to her.

Travel cancelled due to insufficient information! In order to travel between waypoints, please clearly envision the destination you wish to travel to, not letting the image leave your mind. Insufficient focus may result in bodily harm.

Well, the skill didn’t mention any of that. John was a little frustrated that this wasn’t mentioned in the description. I guess it doesn’t matter that much since it gave me a warning. I wonder what would have happened if my abilities were a little less… safe.

“We’ve got to envision the place we want to be. You’ve never been to my apartment so… I don’t think you can do it. Be right back.” John did as he was told, imagining his bedroom, which is where he put the other waypoint. He reached out slowly and grabbed the pulsing golden reuleaux triangle.

His vision compressed down like a crumpled up paper ball, and it felt like his entire body was being **** through the tiny straw coffee is stirred with. His eyes were pushed further back in his head, and his arms were **** to his sides. The pressure released bit by bit, like he was being pushed out of a sausage maker.

“That sucked to shit,” John puffed out as he appeared in his bedroom. He heard a yelp behind him, and turned around to see Jenny with a towel on her head, her body shimmering from the light coat of water if the head garment weren’t enough of a hint that she had just showered.

“I wasn’t expecting company,” Jenny tossed the towel off her head and onto the bed before prancing up to him and wrapping her arms around him, pecking him on the cheek. “I had to wash everywhere after last night, but I don’t mind getting dirty again.”

That was a wildly tempting offer, but… “You need to get to work, Jenny.” John pinched her butt and she pressed tighter against him, molding to him like wet, hot clay. She kissed him again, and his commitment to make a barrier for Abigail be damned, his girlfriend wanted the dick, who was he to refuse?

“Gaaah, you’re right. I have to leave in like half an hour. Quickie later, get ready now,” Jenny conceded, putting her arms on his shoulders and pulling him in for one last kiss. She took pre-selected clothes from the bed and scuttled back into the bathroom.

Man, we should wash those sheets. Though it didn’t give it the nice detergent smell, John still hit the bed with a thorough sweep of Clean for now, at least it would prevent the various… fluids from drying in it. “Hey, I set up the waypoint!” he called into the bathroom. “Don’t you want to know how it works?”

“Tell me later,” the bassist answered, flinging her panties at him. He shrugged and used Move to catch and put them on the bed before using the waypoint to teleport back to his dorm. He was surprised to find Amy still in his room waiting.

“How’d it go?” she asked, scrutinizing him to see if he was alright. “Did it work?”

“Like a charm! Though it was really, really uncomfortable. Teleporting has never really felt like that before. It was like I was a bullet being fired through a gun that was too small,” John explained, though it was much less disorienting the second time around.

“Huh, reminds me of an old form of teleportation some European Abyssals do. It’s not really used that much anymore because it’s harder to learn than most, more dangerous, and less useful.” Amy seemed to be a veritable fountain of information regarding the intricacies of magic, a perfect candidate to ask about ambient magic.

“So, how does ambient magic work? My detect magic ability tells me how much ambient magic a spell leaves behind,” John explained, activating Auric Vision and using it on the waypoint.

Magic Detected: Create Waypoint
Used: 10 minutes ago
User: John Newman
Level: 1
Ambient Magic Created: 1750 units

Jesus Christ! That’s half the magic I used creating the thing! That’s got to be significant in some way, right? John read over the information as he awaited Amy’s answer.

“There’s a lot of debate about that. There are a few known sources of ambient magic, though they can’t possibly account for all of it that exists in the world. The first, as your spell detects, is magic that is wasted when casting a spell. Most mages consider they have mastery over a spell when it creates no ambient magic when cast. The second is given off by all creatures that have souls. In the same way that we regenerate mana, when we’re at our full capacity that magic goes back into the world. Beings with souls that can’t naturally harness magic are doing this all the time. The third and most controversial is proposed to be given off by Gaia on Earth, and Thrones in Kingdoms. It’s thought they produce as much as their world needs. It’s pretty hard to prove though.” Amy summoned a small squirrel into her hands as she spoke, allowing it to run across her shoulders and skitter around.

“Wow, and my waypoint spell wasted half the magic I used. That’s… pretty disappointing. There’s got to be a way to improve that, right?” John asked, David appearing on his shoulder and looking at him curiously, as if asking for permission to attack the squirrel. “I’d put that one away, David’s getting restless.”

The tiny creature dashed across her arm and disappeared into a portal. A frosty blue creature which looked strikingly similar to the phoenixes he had encountered in Jarako flapped onto her shoulder. At this David took physical form, eyeing the pale turquoise bird with open interest. He cawed softly at the newcomer, who slowly closed and opened her eyes in response.

“Teleportation spells are tricky. Most mages can’t do them at all, and the ones that can spend years mastering them. You learned Fateweaving in five minutes though, so… who knows what will happen. Maybe its efficiency will increase as you level it up.” He could argue with that logic, but was distracted by his companion launching into the air with a splash of feathers. Amy’s feathery friend did the same, but left a dusting of snowflakes in her wake instead. “I think they like each other.”

“I don’t mind watching them if you want to let David have a little fun. He probably doesn’t get to spend too much time with other friendly birds, it could be good for him,” Amy reasoned, watching the two birds of prey as they swooped at each other playfully before David transitioned into a dive, stopping himself millimeters from the ground and redirecting his momentum sideways.

“You’re right! That would be great! Oh… but I was going to go train in a barrier with Abigail. I was going to ask if you wanted to join us. Are you sure you don’t mind staying?” Truth be told, John wanted to see how her powers would work in a group dynamic like theirs. I guess there’s always next time…

“I’ll be fine, I may take him to my family bestiary if you don’t mind. I don’t think the resident Beast Master has ever seen a Void Hawk. Before I met you, I hadn’t either!” Amy requested, and whistled twice. Her phoenix obediently flew back to her shoulder, nuzzling against her. David, without his playmate, landed back on John’s shoulder and began preening.

“How about it, David, do you want to spend a few hours with Amy and…”

“Vitally!”

“Vitally? Go on a little trip with them? Or do you want to come and see some combat with Abigail and me?” John stroked the bird’s under feathers gently when he asked. David appeared to be considering his options deeply, cocking his head to the side and looking between John and Vitally. “Whatever you decide is okay, buddy. We won’t be doing anything too dangerous.”

With the addition of the last sentence, David flew over to land on Amy’s shoulder next to his new friend. He cawed softly, and the frost bird bobbed up and down in response, looking at him closely. John took that as his cue to leave, peeking into Abigail’s room, who was currently listening to the uPod Jenny gave her.

“You ready?” John asked as she took off the loaned earbuds, setting the device down gently on her bedside table.

“You bet! Going into the forest, same as before?” Abigail asked, shucking off pajamas and switching into the blessed pants.

“That’s right, but we’re not theming it after forests this time. It’s a lot less fun when my competition is so obviously over my head,” he replied, exiting the barrier with her and entering back into the actual reality of their dorm. He opened the window, getting ready to jump down with her.

“Fine!” she huffed. “You still won though, which was dumb.” She clearly hadn’t let it go, but that was fine. She was probably going to “win” whatever barrier they made this time.

“Here we go, maximum size and time dilations, search and destroy barrier. Random theme. You ready?” John asked, about to tap the ‘yes’ icon.

“Sure! I’m pretty excited. I know the tests were plenty of excitement, but… I get to fight enemies like never before in your barriers. It’s pretty cool,” Abigail confessed, flames engulfing her right hand as she punched into her left.

“Alright! Then away we go!” He hit the accept button… and they were both sucked into a bleak, grey labyrinth.