Gamer Explantions

John nodded to himself as Blair continued to stare at him in disbelief. After a few solid seconds, Blair regained her composure and cleared her throat.

“So, you’re a Late Bloomer, huh, what kind of powers do you have? If you don’t mind me asking, of course,” Blair asked John. She tried to pour herself a fifth glass of wine, but frowned at the now nearly finished bottle as she emptied it into the glass.

“Well, to put it as simply as possible, my powers make everything game-like. I have a character sheet that displays my health, level, mana, stats, skills, and de- other stuff on it,” John said to Blair. He had to cut himself off before he accidently revealed the demonic aspect of his powers. With her fascination with demons and relatively high RP score with him, John felt that he should share that aspect at some point, but he decided to play it safe for now, just in case. Blair seemed to have not noticed his slip up as her eyes grew wide and bright.

“Wait, does that mean life to you is basically like one giant RPG? ‘Cause if so that’s sweeeeeeet. Oh oh oh, when it said you have a level, can you see other people’s levels, like mine for example?” Blair asked John, her voice filled to the brim with genuine excitement.

“Yep, I saw your level; you’re level 17 while I’m level four right now,” John told her. She leaned back onto the couch and crossed her arms as she pursed her lips in deep concentration.

“17, huh, from what you’ve seen so far, how high is that?” Blair asked John. John also leaned back into the couch as he began to go through his mental list of everyone he’s used Observe on so far. He sat up as he remembered one person in particular.

“Well, I’m not sure if you know her, but a girl in the school I go to named Moira actually has the same level as you,” John told Blair, and her eyes widened a bit once her mind had processed what John said. She began to chew on the nail of her thumb as John heard her begin to mumble to herself.

“Same level as the Warden herself? That can’t be right; although, if I consider what I did a few weeks ago, that actually might kind of make sense, I suppose,” John heard Blair mumble to herself. John waved his hand in front of her face for a bit, which was enough to gain her attention.

“Oh right, sorry about that. Anyways, we still need to cover the next thing you need to know about demons, their powers and the different wondrous shapes and sizes that they come in!” Blair happily chirped as she grabbed the second book and opened it up to its first chapter. “Alright, since the vast majority of demons are born straight from negative emotions, their powers, personality, and appearance are influenced by the emotions they're born from. However, the degree of how affected they are varies. For example, there can be a demon born from rage that's constantly angry, or there can be a demon that's more of an acute anger. So it might only become enraged in specific circumstances. Any questions so far?” Blair asked John. John poured himself a second glass of wine from his own bottle as he began to think. He handed his bottle to Blair as he asked his question.

“Yeah, when you said how much they’re influenced by the emotions they’re born from varies, how does that apply to the stronger demons like the 13 Devils?” John asked Blair. She took the bottle from John and began to swish the liquid around for a few seconds before she poured it into her glass.

“Kinda, we don’t know which emotions all the Devils are born from. Since if you know what emotions a demon is born from, that could give you a possible advantage when dealing or fighting with them. So they’ve taken measures to make sure as few people as possible know that kind of information. However, we can still make guesses and theories about their origins, some more likely than others. For example, Arnamos the 10th Devil is well known for fighting as a berserker, so he was more than likely born from anger or rage,” Blair explained to John. As they both sat there, John felt his phone vibrate inside his back pocket. He pulled his phone out and opened it to see a text from his mother.

Sent just now
’John, where r u? U should’ve been home by now’ John read from his mom’s text.

Awwww crap, I should’ve told her I was going to be late earlier, John thought to himself as he texted her back. As he did that, John was too distracted to notice Blair take a peek over his shoulder to see his discussion with his mom. She tried to hold back her laughter when she saw what John had saved as his mom’s contact name, but utterly failed as she rolled around the couch while she died from laughter. John’s face turned beet red as realization dawned on him and he knew Blair saw that he had set his mom’s contact name as “Momzilla”.

As Blair continued to die of laughter in the background, John texted his mom to assure her that he was fine, at a girl’s house, and that he will mostly likely not be home until tonight. After he sent her the message, he sighed to himself as he read his mother’s almost immediate reply.

’A girl’s house huh, I never knew you were so popular with the ladies! Just make sure to remember to wear protection hun (;’ John read from the text, which made his already beet red face deepen into an even darker shade of red. He quickly stuffed his phone back into his pocket before Blair could see his mom’s insinuating reply. After Blair took the few minutes she needed to calm down, they both sat back down in front of the book on the table. That’s when John remembered something he figured he might as well ask Blair about.

“By the way, how do you make barriers? Because it seems like every magical person I’ve met so far has been able to make one, and I want to see if I can learn how to,” John said to Blair. She closed her eyes as she tried to think of the best way to explain the concept to someone who knew nothing or next to nothing about how magic actually worked.

“Well, the reason why everyone seems to know how to make them is because the first and most important thing to learn is to hide magic from the mundane world. That’s because, if you do something that may risk exposing the Abyss to the world at large, Gaia will smite you right then and there. So, when either being born in or joining the Abyss, the most important skill to learn is the creation of barriers, that way we can do what we like without risk of exposure and the subsequent smiting. Now, if you wanted to share the existence of the Abyss to a close friend or family member, that’s fine. It’s only when you try to do something like throw fireballs and lightning bolts in the middle of Times Square where you’ll have a problem. As for how to make one, it’s actually not that hard to learn since you know, like I already said, it’s one the first things everyone learns,” she got up as she said that and lifted her hand into the air as she focused.

The world around them shifted, and they were both back in the plain version of Blair’s home. Which, when compared to her true home, was so boring it almost made John’s eyes hurt.

“Alright, so all I have to do is raise my hand into the air like that and focus on actually making the barrier?” John asked Blair. She nodded to herself as she led him by the arm back outside and onto the front lawn. Once they had stepped outside, one of the first things John noticed was the weather. The storm had reached them and was clearly in full ****, made obvious by the heavy rain and nearby booms of thunder.

Blair began to explain, her voice raised to allow John to hear her clearly through the high winds, “Sorry, but we have to do this outside! Making a barrier while in an area covered by a barrier isn’t exactly what one would call the best idea. Now, you need to imagine recreating the area around you and try to make a copy of it. Actually, you know what, scratch that; make a copy but take out the terrible weather!” Blair instructed John as she pulled her head into her coat to try and protect herself from the rain.

John nodded as he mimicked Blair’s earlier movements and raised his hand into the air and closed his eyes in concentration. He tried to recreate the world around him within his mind. The green grass he stood on, the sidewalk in front of him, the worn out street, and a less terrible version of the weather. As John focused on all these things, he felt a slight tug inside his chest, and when he opened his eyes, he knew he had successfully done it.

New Skill Acquired!
Create Barrier:
Allows the caster to create barriers of their design. Allows them to make the barrier empty or populated with monsters of the caster’s choice. Complexity of the barrier increases with the current level of the skill.
MP cost = 5 MP

New Skill Acquired!
Escape Barrier:
Allows the caster to escape a barrier. The likelihood of a successful escape is dependent on whether the caster is the creator of the barrier and if they’re the most powerful being within it.
MP cost is dependent on the previously mentioned factors.

Once John had dismissed the popups, he took a look at the world around him. It was a near perfect copy of the real world. The only distinguishable difference was that instead of a full storm the weather was simply cloudy instead. John heard Blair whistle beside him, her head no longer tucked away inside her coat.

“Got to hand it to you, that’s an impressive first try if I’ve ever seen one,” Blair said to John.