Everything is Fine!

Once John had gotten over the shock of what had just happened, he went to collect the loot he had earned. First of all, there was a slightly scorched sheet; a circuit board that appeared to be quite outdated by today's standards, due to the size of everything, but contained quite noticeable runes etched throughout that directly connected to the wiring; an oversized capacitor that seemed extremely out of place, due to the bright coloration and “Succ” logo on the side; and the lens of what seemed to be a remnant of the robot’s optical sensors.

So John shoved the items into his inventory to give them a look later; it definitely ranked lower on his priorities than finding out what the fuck had just happened.

He exited the barrier with a thought, reappearing in his bedroom that was exactly how he had left it… mostly. Didn’t he close the window earlier?

Immediately feeling that something was off, John’s blood turned to ice.

He went to close the window, becoming slightly more paranoid and uncertain with each moment that passed. I shouldn’t have made a barrier here…

As he closed the window with a soft thud, John turned on Machine Mind, just to be sure. The vivid auras of electronics became visible to him once more. Taking a moment to glance around, he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Deactivating the skill, John sat on his bed to contemplate this.

Why would anyone with access to magic need to open a window? If they wanted to spy on me or something, I’m sure they could disregard windows entirely. Was it to leave a message? Or… is the stress of being in the Abyss already getting to me? And I had just simply forgotten to close the window?

John shook his head, clearing his head of the creeping paranoia that had begun to spread within his thoughts. In any case, I need to be more careful. But with my current level, how will I find a way to protect myself from others without making a target of myself? With a sigh, he questioned himself, “I need to get stronger, fast. But… how?”.

With a jerk, he remembered the crate he had gotten earlier, and summoned it to his hands with a thought. It was a shiny yellow case with a lock attached to the latch.

With a quick prayer to RNGesus, John poked the latch.

The lock opened with a slight click. Then the box flew open. Revealing three items inside. What looked like a chunk of some kind of bluish quartz that glowed slightly, a bar of some yellowish-brown metal that reminded John of bronze, only with hints of discoloration throughout the surface, and a… bar of gold?

Trying to get a scale of how heavy it was, John took it into one of his hands, well, tried, as he could barely lift it. So eventually he resorted to Observe.

A little bit more on the nose than he expected. But a bar of gold was welcome nonetheless.

A little bit strange, but there were certainly practical applications to the quartz.

Useful for protection, wiring, too. But with only one ingot, wiring was the only practical option. He really needed more of this stuff...

While he was at it, John figured he might as well check the loot that he had gotten from the barrier earlier.

Wow! Those were some nice materials. But first things first, John pulled out his pistol and used Craft in order to upgrade it with the stuff he had gotten. Taking the leftover bits and putting them in the chest along with the other stuff, he didn’t have much of a use for them at the moment.

As for the other materials, he couldn’t wait to put them to use. In fact… he had some ideas in mind that he could use this for. So John promptly opened his desk to grab a piece of paper and got to work.

Approximately three hours ago, Northern Springfield

Layla walked through the aisles of sweets, inspecting those that intrigued her, only grabbing what truly caught her fancy.

She slowly accrued an entire basket worth of the stuff. This was probably her last chance to stock up for months, after all, so she made it count.

After doing a bit of research a couple weeks back, Layla had found that sweets (or anything with a particularly strong taste) were actually quite a good way to boost your focus if there was anyone with a particularly large or powerful aura around. Being in a school that specialized in magical education… this had quickly become one of her routines.

The little bit of spending money the Academy gave her was more than enough to pay for the entirety of it. So after exchanging pleasantries with the sales clerk, she went on her way back towards her dorm. She was meant to study for Professor Arjun’s test with Tess in an hour or so.

As Layla exited the store, a car ground to a halt at a nearby stoplight. While this wasn’t noteworthy by itself, the aura of one of the passengers was. His aura projected at least a foot or so out from his body, shining with a radiance that rivaled even some of her weaker teachers, something none of her peers could do. This was definitely a testimony to his potential.

Stopping in her tracks, Layla inspected the man closely. While he wasn’t physically noteworthy in any way, aside from looking a bit weak, he was wearing a uniform of some kind, “Ashford” or something. He was scrolling through something on his phone.

As if sensing Layla’s scrutinizing gaze, he glanced towards her, making eye contact for a brief moment. In that infinitesimally small moment, her heart skipped a beat and her every atom yearned to be with him. No matter what.

As the light turned green, his gaze returned to his phone, leaving Layla a mess in more ways than one and with a new goal, one infinitely more important than school.

He will be mine.

John sighed; he had made decent progress on this sketch, in fact, it was nearly complete. But… he had absolutely no idea how to make the thing actually work. I guess I’ll make it up as I go, need to get some more Craft levels.

And then there was the question of where to get the materials. With the steel plates he had gotten from the barrier, he could at least begin to make the framework. But finding copper or silver would be a challenge, or whatever magical metal bullshit he could get his hands on, really. So it would have to wait for the moment.

Perhaps he should go to the scrapyard tomorrow… With all of the junk there, John was sure there would be more than enough of what he needed. Getting in would be the easy part, he’d heard rumors about a hole in the fence even with how little he talked to his classmates. However, there would probably be some guards patrolling...

John’s train of thought was stopped entirely as his mother called for him to eat dinner with her.