The Dead Ocean

"Who do you think you are?" Jessica was too stunned to respond, still confused by the notifications, and distracted by the disappearance of everybody. "Using such powerful furtivomancy on a teacher. Where did you even get magic like that," the man gave her a moment to respond but when she didn't he continued, "I swear we teach you upstarts not to just go buying powerful spells and random magic, the Flotilla can't teach you theory, which you need to truly master a craft."

Jessica finally found her voice, "um, flotilla?" She was somehow becoming more confused than scared.

"Yes, the Flotilla, are you even paying attention?" He went to stand but was stopped by her next question.

This was possibly the first lecture she had ever fully listened to. "Yes sir, um, I mean what flotilla?"

This question seemed to truly confuse him, Jessica was about to clarify when he truly looked at her then said, "You aren't a student are you?"

"I can assure you I go to this college," she asserted. "Just because you don't recognize me doesn't mean I am no student!" She finally dismissed the scary quest and stood, "please let me leave this... mirror world place, sir."

"Mirror? Hold on, when did you first notice magic?"

"This morning, I just woke up and there was a floating window in front of me."

"Gods damnit, why did you have to drift here, why not somewhere with a more established guild." He stood and started pacing, "This is going to be so much paperwork, and of course I have to be the one to do it." He stopped and looked at her "Okay here is the deal, you have accidentally joined the underworld of society called The Dead Ocean." While speaking he conjured a black board and started writing down the key parts of his speech. "Magic is hidden to people without, we call them mundanes, the way we hide magic from them is this space which we call Grave Zones."

"We are the inhabitants of the Dead Ocean, but the important part to you is the classifications of how any individual gains power. Firstly, we have techniques belonging to those who train and study to gain power, anybody can gain a technique, even mundanes if they get pulled into the abyss. Secondly we have soul affinities which you are born with and range from slightly more powerful versions of techniques to wholly unique abilities to an individual or family." He pauses for a moment to do something on his phone and let Jessica absorb the information. "Lastly, for our purposes, is a type of soul affinity who tend to have significantly more potential than the other two and are thusly in far more danger for it, we call it, and you, driftwood."

Jessica in confusion asked, "why all the weird names for things?" Before Oliver could answer she yelled out in shock, "hold on, did you say danger!?"

He nodded, "if you listen to nothing else from me listen to this. The Dead Ocean is dangerous, there is no greater ruling power in the Ocean and the largest organization in the USA just fell to civil war. With no government there is no law, if you continue within the Ocean you will encounter the absolute dredges of society and you personally will be targeted for your potential. Right now would be the only time you can choose to forget all of this, go back to your mundane life, and hope nobody figures out you were in the Ocean even briefly."

Jessica considered that for a minute. A few minutes ago she was scared of this man, earlier in class she found out there's a literal goddess watching her, and last night she had been ready and happy to have a usual boring birthday. Should she leave this behind and celebrate her birthday with a cupcake and reading fanfic in bed? Probably, but while she is anxious she isn't a coward. "In that case I just need to be strong enough to be the danger instead of in danger correct?" She said with a cheeky wink.

Oliver sighed, did a motion with his hand and said, "I'm disappointed by the wording, but not surprised by the decision, which is why I already invited somebody here to be your guide. As the most powerful guild in your region, we believe we have the obligation to ensure your safety as you adjust to the Ocean, the person I invited is one of our top students within the school and will be the person to guide you, answer questions, and hopefully keep you alive and not trafficked." After which he raised his hand and disappeared...

"Hello." Jessica heard behind her. "Just because I'm meant to keep you alive doesn't mean I will be your friend." When she turned around Jessica saw a young woman dressed in dark combat boots, knee length black skirt, and a black blouse with dark purple trimming. Her makeup also was very goth but somehow managed to highlight the fact that she had very cute freckles, the black lipstick contrasting her naturally pale skin. The aforementioned black stained lips started curling into themselves just before the girl burst with giggles. While she giggled and calmed down Jessica noticed her name plate floating above her and remembered she can use Observe.

'Savanna Winters

Level 20: Blade-Mage

Sunshine Goth

21 years old

Ally of the gamer'

"Sorry, sorry," she finally catches her breath. "I love teasing new people with the gloomy goth stereotype. I'm Savanna, I love the goth aesthetic and like being active. I was told you are a drifter but haven't heard much else so who are you?" Savanna smiled at her.

"Uh-uhm I'm Jessica." She felt too awkward to add anything else and decided to instead ask something, "why are you called a 'Blade-Mage'?"

Savanna looked confused. "Where'd you get that? Did Mr. Spiegel say something about me? That's not like him."

It was Jessica's turn to be confused "I- What? The name plate above your head obviously, like a video game." She was slightly worried she was indeed crazy the whole time and just accidentally stumbled into something she should have nothing to do with, then remembered that Mr. Spiegel said something about wholly unique abilities. "Oh, that's part of my soul thingy isn't it?"

The goth tilted her head "I would love to hear more about this supposedly game like power but I have my next class soon and I need to teach you how to not get smote by the world for not hiding magic from mundanes. And to answer the question, I am called a blade-mage because I can, and will, cut a bitch." She giggles, "I'll explain more about my powers later, you can tell me about yours then too." She grabs Jessica's wrist, raises her hand, and suddenly everything is back to normal with all the people in the cafeteria still enjoying their meals. Savanna starts walking, barely giving Jessica any warning and all but dragging her, "C'mon, lets go somewhere private so I can teach you."

A few minutes later Jessica was lead to an isolated part of campus similar to her earlier one then Savanna turned to her. "Ok so first we need to get you moving your magic, you need to have at least a basic understanding of your own magic before creating a zone. Close your eyes and-"

Jessica interrupts her, "actually, I managed to do that earlier, I was trying to make a magic blast or something cool, all I managed to do was push my mana into my hand."

Savanna giggles and says, "your issue was intent, you need know what result you want to get anywhere close to any result at all, but we'll see if you can't do some fun magic later, first that hand thing will be useful. Do it again and raise your hand to the sky, push it out and the mana will expand like a scent filling a room."

Upon doing as instructed Jessica found herself alone in the room with a window in front of her.

A moment later Savanna appeared next to her exactly where she was before, arm raised causing Jessica to notice her shirt was riding up slightly revealing a quite toned midriff, with a blush on her face Jessica said, "So, doing that gave me a skill which basically means I can do it at will." Savanna gave a hum and a nod and Jessica continued, "now I have to ask, how are you going to 'keep me safe' while we are separated? It's not like you can just know if I am dying or in danger like an MMORPG with a... party... system." She face palmed, spooking the other girl slightly. 'I have video game powers, I wonder if I can just add Savanna to a party.'

This time Savanna let out a full squeak as a window appeared in front of her asking if she would like to join Jessica's party "I have reason to believe that if you accept that you will be able to see my HP and MP for as long as we are in the party, if that goes down I am obviously in danger." When she hit Accept Savanna's eyes went wide as she saw her own status bars, Jessica's, and the window Jessica still hadn't closed from a moment ago.

"I really wish I had enough time to understand all this, regardless this party will be useful. My plan was a week long sleep over." Savanna pulled out her phone and with a grin said, "anyways! Lets trade numbers so we can text whenever, hard to keep a new friend safe if I can't find 'em."

Jessica pulled out her phone to let Savanna add her contact info, while that was happening Jessica shyly said, "friends? I thought earlier you said we wouldn't be friends?"

The girl let out an amused breath of air. "Like I said, I just like joking around. Of course we'll be friends, I mean we'll be basically bound at the hip for the next week so I'd hope we can be friends. Also if I care about your life, even as an obligation, that makes us friends in my book." She smiled, Jessica truly could never have expected such a bubbly person to actually exist, especially not someone dressed like Raven from Teen Titans.

When Jessica finally got her phone back, with her text app open and a text sent to Savanna plus one from her already returning, the bubbly goth in question had tucked her own phone away raised her hand to leave. "Welp cutie, I've gotta run to class, see you after so I can show you my magical talents," and with more giggles she disappeared.

Jessica inferred that Savanna had class half an hour earlier because she still had about 30 minutes until she needed to be in class, so she decided to stay in her new 'zone', try to take the intent advice to heart, and make something actually happen. Just then she got the dialogue telling her that her quest was completed and she got got the familiar sensation of Gaia speaking to her head.

'Wait, you actually made a friend? I put that objective there as a way to make fun of you, I expected you to fail that!'

'Hey, rude! I mean fair, but still rude!'

'Don't worry, you'll get the reward still no matter how little I actually expected you to do it. I am proud of you for managing to subvert my expectations, see you cuties later, I have a different hopeless cutie to eaves drop on'

'I guess it makes sense Gaia watches more that just me, glad to know I'm not some super unique special chosen one.'

Jessica checked her sheet and saw that she had indeed leveled up as expected and had 5 stat points to spare. She debated spending them to bring all her stats up to a nice multiple of 5, but decided this is likely a much more important choice than her usual way of playing RPGs and closed her sheet.

Jessica found a discarded can lying around, really people just toss things so carelessly when nobody is looking, and set it up then stood about 3 feet away and pointed her palm at it. 'Okay, I think I can do it for real this time. I know what expelling mana feels like thanks to Create GZ, I know how to move mana around, and I know I actually need some level of intent. I really do not want to be some magic blasting Super Saiyan copying weirdo.' She considered for a moment what she would like to do, she knew that she needed some way to defend herself ever since the lecture about the danger she will be in. Her mind wandered to some of her favorite action games and realized exactly what she wanted to do, 'I have always loved throwing my lightsaber around in Star Wars games, and moving stuff with your mind is really cool!' Jessica excitedly focused on the can, sending her magic out with the intent of lifting it, two heartbeats and she feared she was doing something wrong then suddenly.

The can was hovering about a foot from where she had placed it! Though she lost focus with the skill window and it clattered to the ground. Jessica dismissed the window while vibrating in excitement and opened her character sheet and the tool tip for the skill to watch the XP, she used the skill and realized that now she only needs focus on the can, not point at it. She flew the can through the air and around her head until she ran out of MP and saw the skill had gained 4 XP, she did so again when her mana fully regenerated then decided to go to class, leaving the zone.

On the way to class she texted Savanna about her new skill and asked about the Flotilla Mr. Spiegel had mentioned then put her phone away for class. She observed everybody in this class she hadn't yet, or felt safe observing. After Dusk and Mr. Spiegel she decided to stop observing anybody above level 20 and there was surprisingly 4 in the class leaving only one new person to observe.