Rest and Reading

John took a seat against the wall a meter or so away from Aeolia; the rush of adrenalin was fading and his limbs felt heavy.

“Definitely got to up Endurance,” he said as he slid onto the floor, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this tired.”

Getting as comfortable as he could, John eyed the pop-ups.

Enemy Boss Defeated
EXP Gained: 318
EXP reduced due to non-party member assistance.

“Of course I’ve got a party system,” John said, suppressing a groan. “Would have been useful to know about that before. I’d have levelled up if Aeolia had been in my party.

“Whining about it isn’t going to fix anything,” John said with a sigh, dismissing the display. Before he could move on to the next pop-up, a new one jumped to the front of the line.

Congratulations! You avoided pissing me off with incessant complaining. Have a one time gift.
EXP Gained: 10

Level Up!
5 Stat Points gained.

“Well, that was nice,” John remarked, now cautious of whoever, or whatever, was tied to his powers. Evidently they were listening and could interact with him, giving him quests, items, skills and experience. And going by the latest pop-up, could probably do things to make his life harder.

“New rule to live by,” he wryly commented, “don’t piss off the entity that talks to you and gives you gifts.”

The Gamer dismissed the pop-up, surprised there was no retort to his statement, and paused to think.

“Think I’ll go through all the pop-ups before I invest those Stat Points,” John thought aloud, “see if any of them come with Stat boosts or new Skills.”

His mind made up, he returned his attention to the pop-ups.

Achievement Unlocked: Heroic Save
Came to the aid of a damsel in distress. Just don’t let her hear you call her a damsel.
Reward: Amulet of Valor

Achievement Unlocked: Mana Modifications
Used Elemental Mana to enhance the effect of a Skill.
Reward: Reservoir Ring

John paused after reading the two Achievements and opened up his Inventory. Sure enough, the two items were there, and John drew out the Alumlet, the gold charm and chain filling his hand. He grasped the chain and lifted his hand slightly, letting the shield-shaped charm dangle in front of his eyes.

“Pretty modest looking,” John mused, “at least it won’t stand out too much.”

With nothing else interesting about the item’s appearance, John used Observe on it.

“Glad I’m going through these before spending those points,” John chuckled, equipping the Amulet. The boost to his Strength would help with combat and the Charisma should hopefully help him be less awkward. Amulet in place, John looked at the Evocation.

‘That sure is an ability,’ John thought, realizing that his talking out loud could disturb Aeolia’s respite. He thought back to how quickly the pain from being turned into a bowling pin had abated.

‘Right now it isn’t great, and not having a healing skill makes it dangerous, but if I can keep people protected…’

His eyes drifted over to Aeolia’s prone form, a knot of guilt settling in his gut.

‘Keep it together, John,’ he chided himself, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. ‘Focus on one thing at a time. Let’s see what the ring does. From what the Achievement said, I’m guessing that the ring will do something with my Mana. And once I get through these pop-ups, I should check if Hex’ sheet will tell me just what happened when I cast it.’

John withdrew the ring and held it closer to inspect. It was, much like the amulet, nothing that stood out: a simple silver band with a small pearl sitting in a fixture. Upon closer examination, however, John noticed that it wasn’t a pearl but a sphere of glass filled with slowly moving gray smoke.

‘Well, that’ll make it a bit harder to just wear around,’ he thought. ‘Though wearing a ring is already something that could be a bit hard to explain, magical or not. I guess I could just keep it on me and slip it on when needed. Let’s see what this thing can do.’

‘Definitely going to be useful,’ John thought as he played with the Ring. ‘Wonder if the ring keeps the Mana stored when I’m not wearing it?’

In the hope that the Attribute held the answer to that, John clicked it.

Mana Storage(0/25; None): This item can hold up to 25 points of Mana. Mana will be lost at a rate of 1 MP per hour when not in contact with the Mana’s donor.

‘And, there goes the charging and storing plan,’ John thought with a sigh. ‘Still, having another backup Mana source is nice. Let’s wrap this up and see what the Evocation does.’

‘That’s cool,’ John thought, wondering just what this summon would look like. ‘Looks like I’ve got to charge this up soon. Nothing on the Observe said how so I guess...’

With a determined stare, John urged his Mana to flow into the ring, keeping the number five in his mind as he did. He felt the Mana lurch from his core and down his arm into the ring for a second before stopping. A quick check with Observe showed the ring now carried a charge of 5 labeled “Arcane” .

‘Nice to know that I can just think of the amount of Mana I want to use for variable costs,’ John mused as he slipped the ring on to his right index finger. ‘Think I’ll fully charge it before I go to bed and see if ‘Arcane’ has the same meaning as it does in games. Assuming I can get out of here.’

Closing the Observe sheets and the Achievement pop-ups for the two items, John moved on to the next one.

Achievement Unlocked: ...And he’s off!
Thinking about joining the track team, oh brave Sir Robin? Sounds like you’re running out of breath.
+1 Endurance

John flushed a bit as he read the Achievement, a mix of anger and embarrassment. “It’s not like I was running away because I was scared. I was doing a hero move. At least it gave me more Endurance.”

He dismissed the pop-up and moved on to the next.

Achievement Unlocked: There’s the wind-up….
….And the pitch! And here I thought the only baseball references would be the bases.
+1 Agility

‘Never thought I’d earn a baseball reference,’ John mused as he closed the final pop-up. ‘The rewards were nice, but didn’t tell me how to get out of here. And I don’t think the combat wear I got from the quest is going to do it.’

John stood up and summoned said item to his hands. It appeared as a neatly folded square of gray cloth that wasn’t as heavy as John was expecting. His fingers brushed against the surprisingly soft material as he let the attire unfurl into a woolen jacket, unadorned save for a series of dark metal buttons running down the center.

‘Nice,’ John thought with a smile, slipping on the mid-calf length coat. ‘It doesn’t look like it’ll help me get out of here and the sleeves are a bit too long, but…’

He stopped short as the coat began to glow with a faint white light and the sleeves shrank until they only reached his wrists.

‘I guess that’s what Minor Tailoring does,’ John remarked internally as the glowing abated. ‘But let’s see if there’s anything else to it.’

Minor Tailoring: This item will adjust its fit by 15%. It will also button and unbutton at the wearer’s command.

“Button,” John said quietly, deciding to test that feature the second he read it. Sure enough, the coat’s buttons took on that white glow and pulled themselves to their respective buttonhole. In a second, John’s coat had done what would have taken him several. And the fit was perfect.

He commanded it to unbutton and went about checking the remaining info the coat offered.

Earthen Reinforced: This item is made from material that was saturated in Earthen Mana, greatly increasing its resistance to damage.

Climate Comfort: This item will adjust the wearer’s external temperature to prevent overheating.

‘The Attributes are nice,’ John mused, taking off the coat and stowing it, ‘but the Evocation is just an extension of the coat’s normal properties. Guess all of them can’t be super awesome effects.’

With all his rewards and pop-ups exhausted as a means of egress, John turned his attention to the final thing he had to look at: the loot dropped by the Alpha.

The three items were nicely placed upon the floor and John was quick to add the monetary reward of $100 to his balance.

‘The money was one of the common drops, right,’ John thought, recalling the Observe he had done on the Alpha. ‘There were six total options and money was one of the common and rare drops. Looks like I rolled low on the money options. As for the rest…’’

John looked down at the two remaining items: an acorn-like piece of dull green wood covered in cracks and a sharp-looking tooth of dark brown. John elected to survey the tooth first.

‘Great, a repeated Attribute,’ John dejectedly thought with a frown when he saw Earthen Reinforced. ‘Let’s see what the other says.’

Sharpen Edge: This item retains any point or cutting edge.

“Handy,” John said, thankful that he had avoided being subjected to that Attribute. He stowed the tooth and picked up the last reward for surviving the day. The green oval chunk of wood looked fairly normal at first, but as John studied it, he noticed the smallest amount of green light leaking through the numerous cracks along the surface.

The presence of an Evocation confused John for a second, as the tooth had lacked such a quality.

“Guess not everything’s going to have an Evocation,” John said under his breath, tapping that portion of the display to call up the info.

John's eyes snapped from the display of the Evocation to Aeolia.

‘Observe doesn’t show me health stuff, but getting back a sixth of her health can’t be a bad move, right?’

There was **** to be considered. John carefully stepped closer to the ****, doll-sized woman and held his hand out, the eye loosely grasped between fingers and palm. He cast the Evocation and the wooden oval burst into a swarm of purple sparks that slipped through his digits and swarmed Aeolia, each fleck of vibrant purple phasing into her skin.

John watched as the final specks sank into Aeolia, awkwardly standing as he waited to see if her restored health would rouse her. He remained still for close to a minute, just staring, before he let out a dejected sigh when she showed no sign of waking.

“Guess she’s really out of it,” John said softly with a shake of his head, turning around. “OK, John, magic got you into this. Try to magic your way out of it.”