“I do! Another day, another rogue mage.”

A lot of questions passed through John’s mind, too many to be exact. But, as soon as he looked at the source of the voice, his only concern turned to discovering who was the sexy redhead in front of him that was dressed like a knight.

That knight was definitely out of place in the academy; she was holding a shield with one hand and a war hammer with the other. But still she looked familiar to John. He cast observe on her.

Lady Moira Brighton
Lvl 17 Paladin
Relationship: -20

Skill level-up - Observe level Max
Indepth information will now be displayed when cast. Not all information may be correctly displayed on targets a lot stronger than you.
Mana cost has been reduced to 0.

A paladin? Well, I guess that answers it, I am not alone in regard to having powers. It also answers my need to train against whatever dangers there are out there. Well, she probably is a fellow student. At least, he deduced she was. He also turned his attention to where he was. Something tells me that these trap barriers are not that rare. The barrier looked a lot like the real corridor he was walking through on his way to PE class, but the difference between the two was blurringly evident. Fearing he would fall in more of these traps made him want to know more about them.

“State your business here!” Moira stood at attention with her shield ready to block any possible attack from him and her war hammer to counter.

“Ehh, studying!? I am a student here just like you.” John felt this was quite obvious. “Why did you call me a rogue mage?”

“Don’t be a smart ass. And I will ask the questions first.” Moira felt provoked by his remark.

“Well, what do you want to know? My name is John by the way, John Newman.” John felt it better to back down and try not to provoke the paladin anymore.

“Well, Newman, tell me how you got your powers. I know you must have gotten them recently. And who are you working with?” Moira demanded to know.

“As for the how, I don’t really know, got them this morning. I woke up with a…” John thought a bit how to explain his weird morning. “With a message window floating in front of my face detailing a quest for me to complete. After that I found out that I have a title called The Gamer. So far, I’ve got some skills and I also have other game character traits.” He chose not to tell her everything, leaving out details about skills and his inventory system. Her authoritarian demands were starting to annoy him.

“I’ve never heard of anyone with gamer’s powers. You better not be lying to me.” Moira warned him.

Seeing that she was clueless about his kind of abilities and choosing to at least give him an edge in other possible confrontations, John decided to be careful in divulging his abilities to anyone he couldn’t trust. Right now, he couldn’t think of anyone he could trust enough. So, he ignored her warning and just answered her last question, “As for the who, I don’t work with or for anyone. Until now, I wasn’t sure if there was anyone else like me.”

Moira looked at John more attentively; she knew he was no threat to her, not at his current level at least. Her basic perception skill permitted her to sense Johns mediocre power level, and there was also a hint of a spell around him. She recognized the spell’s signature and knew that there was only one person who used this kind of spell that lived in Springfield. It’s some kind of protection and monitoring spell; I don’t know why she would cast it on someone of such a reputation, she pondered. At least this confirms he is not connected to any questionable or evil factions. I thought her clan would never permit her to have anything to do with someone like him. Moira decided to put most of her battle gear away inside her shield, after which it shrunk into a medallion and she dressed back to her school uniform. While doing this, she stunned John twice: she seemed to not care he was around while she changed and it looked as if she had an inventory system, although it was different from his.

“Since you are already being monitored and protected, my Order will not touch you.” Moira decided it was time to leave.

“Protection from whom? What do you mean?” John asked.

“Not my job to tell you. If you don’t know, the faction doing so probably doesn’t want you to know yet. I can see why they wanted to monitor you, but I don’t understand why they’d want to protect you.” She turned around to leave. “Good luck.”

Once more Moira made John angry. And again he chose to try to obtain information rather than confront her; he knew that, by the difference in their levels, it would be a losing battle. Trying to stop her from leaving, John reached for her arm. Big mistake. Through his proximity sense he perceived her intent to punch him, he just didn’t dodge fast enough.

-15 hp

That certainly knocked him on his ass.

“Watch it, Newman. Just because you are protected doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass or kill you if you try to do anything to me,” Moira threatened him. “You already have a bad reputation in this school.”

“I just wanted some information from you. I have already done my part in answering your questions, you should at least return the favor.” He stood up and rubbed his face where she had punched him. “That’s some punch you’ve got.” He was glad to test how proximity sense worked, but he still had some issues to figure out about it. Fuck, that’s the fourth time I got attacked today. I really need to get stronger. Even though I knew she was going to punch me and, from the trajectory of her intent, where she would hit, she was too fast for me to even react. Well, at least it was nice to know how the skill works, even better to learn it has its limits.

He then told Moira something she didn’t realize, “You were just going to leave me here without telling me how to leave this place. I am new to my powers, just got them today. I don’t know what a barrier is. And also, since you mentioned a faction protecting me, I don’t know about the existence of factions or other people like us. I would like to know more.”

“Fine!” said the frustrated paladin looking at her watch. “I am a member of an order called the Golden Rose, my father is the leader of our branch in this city. We serve a higher entity by protecting the weak and powerless. The entity in question, god if you will, we call The Lady, others call her Gaia.”

Achievement Unlocked - Learn My Name
Learn the identity of the One responsible for your powers.
Reward: The knowledge is rewarding enough.

John read the pop-up and dismissed it with a thought, Thank you, Gaia.

Moira saw John’s weird motion as he was closing the pop-up window. She chose to ignore it and continued her explanations, “Anyway, apart from the world you know, there’s a hidden world called the Abyss. The Abyss is populated by all sorts of creatures perceived by the normal world as being magical, mythical or whatever other things they can’t explain. You’ll probably find out about some of them soon enough. But what you need to know now is that not all that belong to the Abyss are good. There are many evil beings and organizations out there. A lot of them adore **** weaker people like you to sell to a mana factory, and believe me, you do not want to live the rest of your life as a mana battery.”

Ok, now that is something worrying. I should really be more careful, John thought about what Moira just told him.

“On that note,” Moira continued, “I don’t know if it is wise to teach you about the barriers. I would advise you to remain weak, do not try to develop your powers. If you stay like this, chances are that you could live a normal life unnoticed.”

“I am sorry, Moira, but I won’t do that. This power will allow me to correct some injustices that are happening around me. I won’t back down, especially since I’ve been handed this gift.” He hoped this was enough to convince her to teach him about the barriers.

“I can respect that, even though I don’t think you’re being wise. I guess the best way for you to train is for you to do it inside a barrier or protected space as some call them. You should learn how to create them and obviously learn how to exit them too. First, since we’re already inside one, let me show you how to exit a barrier. Follow my lead, you raise your hand and imagine this world around you shattering, like so.” Moira raised her hand and instantly disappeared.

You are now alone in the trap barrier. You may now leave.

John did as he was told and soon after was back inside the original corridor of the academy. And so, he got the new skill for exiting an illusion barrier.

New Skill - Exit Instant Dungeon lvl1, 5mp.
Exit an illusion barrier when possible.

“Now, it’s your turn to create one. The process is quite similar. You raise your hand, but this time imagine a box around you and try to create it while channeling your mana,” Moira instructed.

John did so and was presented with a window that gave him options for what type of barrier to create, but due to time constraints and Moira’s obviously increasing lack of patience, he chose to create an empty barrier.

New Skill - Create Instant Dungeon lvl1, 5mp.
Creates an illusion barrier around the caster. It can be empty or contain monsters who will grow in strength depending on the caster’s level.

Moira appeared inside his barrier almost at the same time as him. “I advise you to be careful. You are the owner of every barrier you create, but if someone much stronger than you enters your barrier, he could take over the possession of it and trap you with almost no means for you to escape. So be careful, especially at your current level,” Moira gave him a final warning about using the barriers, and to do drive her point home, John got the pop-up.

Someone much stronger than you has entered your illusion barrier and has taken control over it. You may only leave when you defeat all enemies.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to tell you about the other factions, I am already late for class as it is. Just buy a book with the information about the existing factions in Springfield. They are quite cheap.” She turned around to leave.

“Buy a book? From where?” John almost repeated his earlier mistake in trying to make her stay. His only option now was to ineffectively plea to her. “Please wait, don’t go.”

“Sorry, I’ve wasted enough of my time with you already. One quick last thing though, I advise you not to showcase your powers too much around mundane people; trust me, you don’t want that kind of attention nor suffer from the Lady’s wrath if you step out of line in your actions against them.” Before he could try to stop her again, she was gone.

You are now alone in the illusion barrier. You may now leave.

John exited his barrier, Well, at least I can leave. Better yet, I now have a place to train.