Side Effect

The Gamer huffed for air as he stared out across the Barrier. He was now standing at the very top of the fourth and final structure. In his hand was the cut off head of a Level 8 monster, the superior fountain fairy of this platform.

HP: 21/105

John’s health was down to under a quarter of its full amount. And even though Gamer’s Body was quick to repair his flesh, the damage was still evident on his clothes. Another day, another set of his school uniform ruined from a fight. At least he still had his Craft Skill to repair them in his downtime.

EXP: 3600/4800

But he’d done it. Over the last half hour or so, John had gone on an enraged slaughter across the entire Barrier. Something which had earned him a grand total of 1,320 EXP.

At a level equal to his own, the superior fairies at the top of each reverse fountain would have normally been a tough fight. Yet that assessment was before Demonic Rage entered the equation as a truly busted Skill.

With his Strength and Agility almost doubled, he practically bullied the monsters whose builds focused more and more on magic with every higher variant. And since each one had intentionally placed itself on an increasingly smaller platform, the result was obvious.

To fight against an opponent with much better speed and ferocity on a platform without much space was equivalent to fighting a lion in a cage match. Though when the metaphorical cage was open air and up to sixty feet above the ground, he’d finished one of the fairies by just letting it fall to its ****.

Sure, that kind of scenario had also **** him to eat several of their water-based attacks, but sacrificing some health in exchange for getting up close to them for the kill was a trade he gladly made every time. Especially when his rage seemed to almost convert the pain from something that would have usually slowed him down into just more fuel for his killing spree.

John had originally gone in with the intention of making this another session of grinding levels and experience.

And not once in these last thirty minutes had the Skill even threatened to run out. There were no sudden demands from his mana, no sudden timers or any other sort of warning. Even now that all of his foes were dead, it was still active.

When John eventually made his way back down to solid earth, his face was still red with fury. With nothing around to kill, every bone in his body still wanted to release his anger. To then smash his fists into the reverse fountains until nothing but piles of fine sand remained.

But he held back the call to unleash his anger just enough to instead focus on the Skill itself. A big part of the Gamer was **** to give up the rage and the feeling of immense power it gave him. Yet even so, he flipped the mental switch and toggled it back off.

“Alright, time to close this Barr- hurk!” John fell to his hands and knees as everything spun around him.

The amazing strength from the Skill was very quickly replaced with a feeling like his muscles had been injected with lead. Just before, a part of him had held the genuine belief that he could even lift a mountain if he tried hard enough. But now, something as simple as actually standing back up felt like an insurmountable challenge. Even just propping himself up with his arms to prevent a total collapse onto the ground was the limit of what he could do.

Just as the Gamer wondered just what the Hell was going on, a new pop-up appeared before his eyes.

New debuff: Demonic Exhaustion!
By pushing his body past the limits of what it can naturally handle, the Gamer has incurred a temporary debuff. For the listed amount of time, your Strength and Agility will suffer a negative penalty of being reduced by 80%.
Time remaining: 2 hours, 53 minutes, 47 seconds.

Note: This effect will take place anytime Demonic Rage is used for more than 60 seconds within a 60 minute period. For every second past 60, 6 seconds will be added to the debuff’s timer upon the deactivation of the Skill.

’And you couldn’t have warned me about that when I got the Skill? Or at least before I manually used it? Gaia, what the actual fuck did I deserve that for?’ John asked. His expression would have indicated his frustration, normally. But he still didn’t have the strength to even waste energy on doing that much.

Secondary note: Take it as a sagely lesson that there is no such thing as free sandwiches in the Abyss. Additionally… get fucked, nerd!

’Well screw you too, then,’ he internally grumbled. As it turned out, the little warning voice in his head had been right on the money. Who would have thought? Well, he did and really should have actually listened to his gut.

If nothing else, this was at least the best scenario to suffer such a drastic penalty to his Stats. Right now he was completely isolated and safe within an empty Barrier. In contrast, if he had just happened to decide to toggle Demonic Rage back off while only midway through clearing the mobs… yeah, that wouldn’t have gone so well.

’Actually, this might not be the best time or place for a power nap. Blair said the chances were pretty low for the Order to come snooping around my neighborhood. But low and none are two completely different things.’*

He didn’t know whether a single Barrier staying open for more than a total of three hours could attract any attention. In fact, John had no idea exactly how one even detected Barriers without just smacking their face straight into where it was created. He really needed to get on the Abyss Auction tonight and order some study guides to learn more about, well, everything.

But first, the Gamer needed to deal with his current predicament. Since he certainly wasn’t going to be in any shape for more experience grinding, it was clearly time to ditch that plan. So first, he needed to exit and destroy the Barrier. That would be the easy part. Then he had to find the willpower to **** himself to make it all the way into his house and at least onto the couch. Or at least just close the door behind him and collapse on the carpet. Either way, not so easy.

To get step one out of the way, John focused on the use of Escape Barrier. Since it was his own and was now empty of all other mobs, it cost practically nothing in terms of mana. Within a second, he felt a change in the air as he was plopped back into the real world. So far so good. Now came the hard part.

’Come on, John, kids probably have a Strength of five. You might feel super weak, but that’s definitely enough to at least walk on your own two legs,’ he tried to encourage himself. The young man took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a few seconds. After that, he readied himself.

’Alright. I just need to stand up in one motion. If I can do that much, I should be able to at least stay up on my feet. One, two… three!’ With a surge of summoned energy, John attempted to quickly push himself off the ground.

The Gamer mustered his strength and actually managed to get up to his full height. But it only lasted a second as he was then hit by a fresh wave of vertigo. Then, the next thing he knew, John found himself falling backward. After his back hit the grass with a light thump, the young man just stared up at the evening sky above.

’Welp, that didn’t work. Guess I’m just stuck like this for the time being. At least I had the good sense to actually walk up to our front yard first. Better than what would have happened if it was a neighbor's yard. They might think I’m on something, but meh, who cares at this point. Might as well just enjoy the sunset while I’m here.’

But you know what? John actually wasn’t all that beat up about being stuck outside and unable to really move. In fact, he actually felt quite good at the moment. Like a lot of pent-up frustration had just been released by his rageful **** spree. And gone with it was quite a bit of tension that he only now realized had previously been there.

Now that had little to no impact on his plans for the next day. As nice as the catharsis that had come with Demonic Rage was, it still didn’t compare to the feeling he already knew would come after giving Frank everything he deserved. Especially with the promised Quest rewards attached that only acted as the cherry on top.

Now what to do for what was almost three hours? Well, John had an idea there. Between school, grinding, Wentworth, Blair, and one smaller grinding session, today had been quite the day. The Gamer believed that he’d earned himself the right to a nap. So that would be all he’d be doing for the short term until the debuff ran its course.

After that, he’d probably get busy again and work through the night. He hadn’t taken the chance yet to log-in to the Auction with his own computer. So John would probably get to studying and eventually do one more grinding session after his HP was back to full. At least enough for him to reach Level 10.

So with that in mind, the Gamer closed his eyes and basked in the light of the setting sun. And as proof of his mental exhaustion, it only took seconds until he was out cold.