Training the untrainable

John woke up. His body had taken the eventful mornings of the last few days as an exception, so today he was as tired as he was on any school day. Despite no school waiting for him.

"Get up already, we have a busy day ahead of us!" John blinked. Henrietta's voice came from right next to him. Wait, when did he even fall asleep? He couldn't remember. Looking down at himself, he noticed that he must have done so while reading his status screens, still fully clothed.

Just now he saw the last popup, and apparently the most important one, if he got its meaning correctly.

[full size picture]

So basically he would get every level up twice. First he gained power directly from new stat points, then he could level up someone holding a contract, which indirectly increases the powers he got from them as well. Sure, losing all his mana would be bad, but once he had a free hour, it would regenerate again anyway. It also didn't state that he couldn't boost the Hero Maker, unlike the other skill changes. Not that he had the intention of powering that guy up even further, but it was always a good idea to consider the options at least once.

"Alright, alright, relax, I'm awake. What do you want?" John grumbled about the rough treatment in the morning and looked up from the screen while it closed itself.

"We have to train you. We all saw how useless you were against Naomie despite her going easy on you." She what? "And we only have today to turn you into someone strong enough to stand out. So get up already!" John raised a finger. Despite the overly convenient timing of that, he had to ask.

"Why only today? And how do you even plan to do that? Like seriously, how do you want me to get from zero to mafia boss candidate level so fast?" She smiled devilishly. He didn't like that smile.

"Oh, I came up with three choices. We will try them all if needed. The first is our trust in you. We believe that your abilities will be able to grow in power quite fast, so we will assist you in training them.

"The second option is to give you our powers. Not with your mini contract copy, like you did with Naomie. We have someone who can legitimately clone them onto you. You would have to show off a lot to be in the focus, but better than not being seen at all. The drawback is that gifted powers require both you and the person who gifted them as well as the person who made that gifting possible, to pay the full price of them. We would like to avoid that.

"The last option is for us to pump you full of ****. We have gathered quite a few. The drawback is that you probably would have a life expectancy of less than 5 years in that case.

"In terms of time, well, as you might know, today is the 29th of July. The gathering is on the 1st of August. Sadly, it is in Italy so we will have to fly there. According to the Hero Maker, they are expecting the guests to also participate in some kind of 'bragging contest,' as he called it, one day prior. So we will have to leave in the morning tomorrow, leaving us with today to buff you up. Any more questions?" Henrietta ended her monologue, which John had used to come to his senses.

"Alright, given that I am not okay with neither option two nor three, let's grind some levels." She raised an eyebrow. It was weird talking around her without being cut off for once.

"I already told you I have gamer powers, remember? I have to get xp to level up. I get free stat points on level up." She just shook her head. "The last time I encountered a monster I got xp for beating... was a talking bat that got smitten by Gaia." Henrietta's mouth hung open.

"Gaia has protected you?" She asked, obviously incapable of believing it.

"Well, yes and no, I guess." John continued to explain how he started with deals that then became contracts later on.

"Alright. You have no idea how lucky you were. You see, monsters are usually incapable of speech. Only the mightiest are smart enough to form coherent sentences. That bat must have been an anomaly, and those tend to be more dangerous than normal monsters. Be grateful that your deal took it out." John swallowed hard, only now reliving the moment again in his head. Only one of many where he probably jumped off of deaths scythe.

"Anyway, remember how I taught you how to make an illusion barrier? We will make one of those and let it be filled by monsters. Since we won't be giving you any boosts, you can train against them. Come on." She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the castle and towards the place where Naomie had tortured him. Great memories.

"Alright, any requests on what you want?" She asked but John raised his hand.

"Let me. If I am supposed to train in them it is possibly best if I do it myself so they spawn in my level range. I really don't feel like fighting Omega Weapon MKX already." She shrugged and he focussed on the skill.

His mind filled with options, way clearer than it was before. Landscape, inhabitants, etc. He even saw a template to select from at one point, but he pushed it all aside. He didn't care for any of that. All he wanted was that in this barrier only he, his allies as well as monsters they could beat would spawn.

A few seconds later, the barrier seemed to accept it and formed itself around them. John worried a bit about his mana. After all, the only way for him to deal real damage was most likely with a chain casted Sidekick. Doubling his strength for one second, enough to punch with it once, or maybe twice given how his agility would go up as well, would cost him all 75 of his mana in one flash. Staying at 175% seemed more worth it for 35 mana.

He sighed. No matter how he planned it, he had no way of gaining strength that was comparable to his wisdom or charisma, or even his libido. Then what could he...

Splat

John jumped back in shock as he saw the white rabbit with its red, wide eyes. He would have been too late, however, would it not have been for Henrietta kicking the beast in its head the second it came out of the ground.

"What the fuck?" John looked around, looking for more of these beasts and to his horror, he found them. Hundreds of holes in the ground with rabbits climbing out of them. John observed one of them.

Baby rabbit of Caerbannog
Hp: 8/8
Level 10
This little rabbit is extremely fast and has an incredibly high strength for its size, being able to crush even iron in its claws.

That was a joke right? Henrietta just saved his life! More even, she saved him from a fucking bunny! One that was nowhere near his level. Gaia, what the fuck?

"Did that give you any power? EXP? Level up?" Henrietta asked hopefully. John wondered that himself. He had received nothing despite the kicked rabbit's ****.

"No. Maybe I have to give the last hit? Given their speed that might be hard, though. Then again, staying alive might prove just as hard. What do you... wait, what?" He raised an eyebrow at the window that just appeared.

Quest:
Stop being a fucking noob already part 3
Just invite her into a party. What kind of gamer are you, that you don't even try out the most basic game mechanics? You make me question my judgement by being stupid like this.
Reward: the xp you gain from being in a party with someone who actually kills things.

He sighed. On the one hand he felt insulted, but on the other hand he knew she was right. How had he not tried to form a party yet? There were guilds, that was a giveaway already.

"Henrietta, please join my party." He stated and instantly a window appeared in front of her. She accepted and John's character sheet opened by itself. Apparently he got a new version by doing this "quest". He didn't even get a "quest complete" though.

John wanted to close his eyes for a second of silent prayer, but the situation he was in stopped him. Instead, he shouted mentally, certain that Gaia could hear him.

'Were the pictures really necessary? I mean, maybe on the first sheet, when I didn't know what they meant, but I've used them for a while now. They aren't even fitting a theme! And don't get me started on the colour swap, AGAIN! What is it with you and changing colours? Why don't you just take a neutral tone that doesn't make me feel like I'm a druid or a tree hugger. What the hell did you think... as you... wait... Did you change the name of an attribute on that sheet? You totally renamed Intellect!? You know, I know you are a goddess and all that, but I really can't respect you as a game developer like this.' John smiled, happy that for one he was able to give Gaia a fitting smug last line. Or so he thought.

John's smile froze. This thing was going to kill him. That wasn't even a question. Henrietta apparently was able to hold her own against the normal bunnies, but a boss was a certain **** sentence.

He looked up and could already see the boss hopping towards him. On the plus side, despite being a "giant bunny," it still only looked to be the size of a dog. On the counter site, it left holes with every jump, out of which more baby killer bunnies crawled.

"Henrietta... Thank you for making my last day at least something fun." She turned to him, fear crawling in her eyes. "I am sorry but that thing is so out of our league, we will die here. Unless you have some more super powers, I don't know about." John didn't look at the white ball of fluffy **** hopping towards him.

His determination to stay strong broke as he saw it tense its muscles for the jump that would end John. He closed his eyes and waited.

"Ouch, this thing is strong." He opened his eyes again and looked at the black tank top covered back of the girl in front of him. Naomie.

"What are you...?" He asked her, but he was cut off by three things at once.

"Less talking, more surviving," was Naomie's short answer to his unfinished question.

At the same time Henrietta screamed, "watch out!" And to complete the trio of distractions he got a new skill popup.

He only read the first line while jumping back and out of the way of another small rabbit attack, Henrietta had warned him about.

New skill: Guardian, passive, Level 1

If it was activated by itself, he could read the details later. Now was not the time to spend even one second standing still.