Hahahahahaha, no.

John felt the distinct sense of déjà-vu as he was flung back by the protector and came back to a stop on his feet. This was pretty much the exact scenario he had faced with Mariana yesterday, only difference now was that his combat style was a lot more mana heavy and not as reliant on his close combat weapon, which turned out to have quite a big flaw in its charges... and now John was empty in terms of mana, had no charges and was no closer to his objective of taking the mask off of the protector.

Taking a deep breath to vent out some of his frustrations, he decided to leave things as they were right now; there was no reason for him to spend all his resources now. Sighing, he looked at the grey entity before him and said, "I'm done, for now, I'll probably try again later... Are you always down here?" to which the protector nodded their head.

"It is here that the possession of the Nexus will be transferred. Therefore I will wait here for either your next try or the next person. But I have seen you; I saw parts of your future. I know you will be back."

To that John just shrugged his shoulders because it was probably true. Right now, he had planned to get something to eat (he had used the last pieces of his pizza in the underwater Barrier) and then Meditate upstairs to stack on the multipliers to get his mana back. Depending on the food buff, that could take roughly two hours without the usage of potions or anything similar and some time extra if he wanted to fill up his spear as well since that only charged up once he was at maximum MP.

Going back the way he came from, John couldn't shake the feeling that he had overlooked something completely obvious and easy to the question as to how he could clear the objective the protector had given him. Something blatantly obvious that he didn't think about...

As he reached the room that he entered the Nexus through, Gary was at his side again and tried to run through the doorway, but John picked up the mecha-spider before it could enter the real world. "Woah there, little guy, I don't think you'd do very well beyond that door... how about you stay in here for now? Maybe explore the house a bit more? It's certainly better than staying in my stuffy inventory." The spider seemed to grumble in agreement (it was weird to say that about a robot...). The spider then left the room through the door to the staircase while John left the room through the door into his room.

The moment he was in his room he heard Brun say, "Fancy door, does it lead anywhere?" which made John jump out of his skin. Brunhilde was sitting on his bed, looking at him and the doorway with a raised eyebrow.

"Goddamnit, woman! How long have you been here? Never mind that, how did you get in here?!?" John asked loudly, a bit too loud perhaps.

"Dude, chill, I've been here for like five minutes now. And how, well I can pick locks, easy as that. Now, I think the more interesting thing to ask would be 'why' I'm here."

Sighing, John calmed his pulse and switched back into his school gear which he still wore. "Right, right... So, are you going to tell me why you're here?"

"Oh, right, sorry. First of all, I wanted to say sorry for how I treated you in the Barrier... I know you only tried to help her and you couldn't have known what the consequences of your actions were. Hell, I think very little people would've known that since apparently the Order didn't know about it either and they checked her thoroughly... I shouldn't have exploded at you like that; it's just... I haven't seen my sis in six years, and suddenly a day after she's back everything goes to shit in the exact opposite way, and I just saw you as the reason for that, and that's not fair... So, we cool?"

Without a moment of hesitation, John nodded to that, "Sure, you apologized for the way you treated me, I apologized for doing something dumb, I think we're even."

A wave of relief washed over her face before she got serious again, "Great because that makes the second part of this much easier... I need you to come with me... My grandma wants to see you and wants to learn everything you learned about Astrid. This is important, it could mean everything for her..."

His eyes went wide at that, "Is it really that serious? But, yeah, I'll tell her everything that I know. When am I going to meet her?"

Brun's eyes averted his gaze at that, "Weeeell... Firstly, we need to leave right now, and secondly, you won't meet just her, though... You will also meet my grandpa, and he's something else... But I think you're better off meeting him in person and making your own image... So, change your clothes and meet me outside, I hope you didn't have anything planned for the rest of the evening... I'm not even going to ask what the hell this portal thing is..."

Speaking of portal, the doorway behind John seemed to fold in on itself in the exact opposite way it did while opening, and everything returned to normal spatially, and the keycard landed on the floor with a soft flop. John picked it up and then took some random clothes out of the closet it was directly in front of, ending up with a simple jeans and t-shirt combo that he quickly equipped to his "Casual Set". Brun had meanwhile left the room; John could see her talking with his mom when he came down the stairs. He only heard the last piece of what Brun said which was "-so we're going on a date," to which his mother squealed in delight.

She looked at him coming down the stairs while answering Brun, "That sounds like a lovely idea, just be sure not to be too reckless, and try to find a not so public spot if you plan on doing anything." She finished that sentence with a wink that made both John and the Valkyrie grin and blush at the same time. It's not like that was actually happening from what Brun said, but the thought was interesting.

As Brun haphazardly put on her boots, Brenda meanwhile gave her son a peck on the forehead, "I hope you had some time to think about what I told you, and I hope that you can leave it behind you," to which John nodded. Honestly said, he hadn't really thought about it at all while in the Nexus, just like he hadn't thought about Brun's accusations towards him. The atmosphere of the Nexus just had taken his full attention.

So John put on his shoes and his most wind resistant jacket as he stepped out of the house, where Brun was already holding a helmet in his direction, which he quickly put on. He then sat behind the Valkyrie on her motorcycle as she revved up the engine. The machine started to roar loudly underneath John, and he could immediately feel two things: the vibrations of the motorcycle rubbing his junk against Brunhilde, and total envy about a machine like this. Now that he was 18, he really had to take the time to get his driver's license.

With a last look over her shoulder, and with a big grin, Brun figuratively put the pedal to the metal, and they took off, away from his home. Where did they drive? John had no idea, but he had assumed that it would be in the direction that the Gjoskenholm clan lived.

How wrong he was.