Lunchtime Discovery

The lunch hall was crowded, which for once was perfect. Normally, John would dart in and out as rapidly as possible when it was like this, too many people, too many possible places to be cornered by people he’d rather not run into. Today, however, it offered an opportunity - the opportunity to observe a lot of people without being obvious. Admittedly, it was also a limited opportunity; the buff he’d gained from breakfast had now worn off, and while he had gotten topped up on Mana during the end of his last class, his Regen rate now worked out at about one Observe a minute.

As he looked for a suitable area to loiter while he burned through his Mana, John tried to keep his eyes open for anyone particularly interesting. There were a few candidates - some of the sportier girls from the athletics teams, a few of the staff - but nobody who jumped out at him waving a flag saying ‘look at me, I’m overpowered’. Dropping down onto a window ledge partially hidden beside a potted fern, a spot from which he could see most of the diners without being noticed himself, John did some quick math. At a third of a point of Mana per cast, fully topped up, he had about a hundred and eighty casts.

That’d let him cover a sizable chunk of the tables; however, despite being able to scan a huge number of people, he didn’t want to burn it all too quickly. Sure, he needed to find that one person to finish the optional Quest objective, but he also needed to keep in mind the need to Observe random objects. He couldn’t rely on things that were out of place to just keep falling into his lap, after all. He’d need to be smart - if he drained his Mana to the limit, he’d have to wait longer for it to refill before he could start scanning things rather than people; equally, if he scanned too few people, his odds of finding the fifth person would drop rapidly.

While dwelling on the subject of his Mana refilling, his stomach grumbled; grimacing, John acknowledged that hunger was also a concern. Breakfast had been a long time ago, but if he bought food here, there was no way one of Vanessa’s hangers-on wouldn’t notice and feed back that he’d had money. At which point, he would have to finish the day avoiding Frank and probably have to deal with handing over all his lunch money for the rest of the week. His best option then would be to scan the crowd quickly, before heading off to one of the vending machines elsewhere on campus. Out of sight, out of mind, and if he went to the one by the stairwell, he could camp out under the stairs on the bottom floor to eat whatever he bought without being spotted.

Running his gaze over the packed cafeteria, John reached a final decision. He’d observe mostly at random, sample each table and move on until he’d covered the room. That, plus a few of the staff, should drain about a third of his Mana, give or take. Then he’d go and get lunch, and if he still hadn’t found anyone at that point, he would try and get out of his last class as quickly as possible. Waiting by the bus stop, he’d be able to scan everyone leaving the gates without it being too obvious, and in the rush to head home anyone he targeted would hopefully be hard pressed to figure out it was him doing the scrying.

With a plan in place, he began to work his way across the gathered throng. The first people scanned weren’t that impressive. A Level two, then a Level three followed by a Level six - one of the cheerleaders - a Level four and then a Level eight - a second year. Moira and Emily were nowhere to be seen, otherwise he’d have risked observing their entire table in the hopes that their friends might also be Guild members. Three more Level twos followed, then two Level fours, another Level six and a pair of Level fives… John’s roaming gaze reached the lunch counter and the catering staff, and he smiled. Matilda was doing the cooking today; she’d always been friendly towards him, sticking an extra bit of whatever he ordered on the plate with a comment that he needed to eat better… Why not scan her too?

The chime ringing in his head nearly made him jump. Doing his best to settle his racing heart, he blinked at the three popups that had appeared.

John sat staring at the Observe for a full minute before his brain caught up with the information he had been given. Leaving aside the fact that he apparently could now find out someone's age just by looking at them with his magic powers, he appeared to be able to see what people thought of him - at least, that’s what he guessed opinion meant. And her disposition… Attraction? That couldn’t mean what he thought it did, could it? Acting quickly, he glanced around until he spotted someone he knew, one of Vanessa’s lackeys. Scanning her should give him a clear idea what exactly his new information gathering abilities were capable of and how accurate they might be.

Well, that answered that question. John did his best to keep his rapidly hardening cock from being noticeable; for once he was glad it was on the smaller side as he stood and awkwardly scurried from the canteen, thoughts bouncing around his head. He could see a lot of information now that he hadn’t been able to before; the opinion thing on its own was worth its weight in gold, but as for the rest of it… Reaching the stairs and the vending machine a little while later, he ordered snacks more or less on autopilot before ducking into his hiding place to eat.

He’d made it through half of an apple - Ashcroft being fancy enough to have fruit in the vending machines as well as the chips and fizzy drink that he had also piled next to him - before a new set of thoughts struck him. Momentarily ignoring the information he’d gotten from observing Jennifer, and especially ignoring the combination of sexual and further information that seemed to indicate she was serving Ashcroft’s queen bee in more ways than one, there was the information about Matilda to consider.

Trying very hard not to **** on his food as his imagination ran wild, John went over the data. If only he’d been a higher Level, he might be able to see what the further information said about the older woman. Reaching that point or alternatively leveling up Observe had suddenly gone up in importance, because right now one word was bouncing around his brain - attraction. Matilda’s disposition wasn’t caring, or friendly like he’d expected - but attraction.

Leaning his back against the wall, he ran over his past encounters with her in his head. She was about his height, and had a cheery smile for him every lunchtime. Physically, she was on the plump side, but curvy with it; beyond that he knew that she had long brown hair that was usually tied up in a net at work because he’d seen her letting it down one day, and it extended all the way down to her wide hips and soft backside - but that was about it. Oh, no, there was one other thing; she’d mentioned being down a few weeks back because she’d been stood up again. Which meant she was presumably single.

Swallowing hard, John tried to focus on anything other than thoughts of the woman’s rear in conjunction with her being unattached and unhappy about the fact. He didn’t have long until the next class, and walking in with a hard-on because he’d spent too long fantasizing about sweeping the chubby brunette off her feet would be a quick way to get mocked. Besides, she barely knew him. Though, if his powers carried on growing… He shook his head to clear it. First things first, he needed to get closer to her to get that extra info unlocked, level up Observe, or gain more Levels generally. Given that getting closer would probably be near impossible, he’d focus on the other things. But really, a woman was actually attracted to him despite his low Charisma? This was turning out to be a very, very good day.

Stretching as he emerged from under the stairs, John glanced at the nearest clock. Lunch had about a quarter hour left to go; if he moved now, he could beat the rush while still keeping an eye out for any odd objects. While scanning Matilda had finished off one of the optional sections of his Quest, he did still need to finish the other part of it. Three more random things, just three more and he’d tick off every objective - and with it, big Rewards and a chunk of the way towards a Level Up in the bag.

The topic of leveling up raised another question - to get the extra information, did he need to equal or over-level the other person? Or some other combination? He’d been so stunned by the sexual data he’d gotten on Jennifer that he’d left without trying anything else out. Dwelling on that thought, he walked in the direction of the classroom, doing his best to keep his eyes open for anything odd while at the same time turning thoughts of Matilda over in his head. He didn’t just want those extra Rewards now - he needed them. Before, daydreams of beating back Frank had been a good enough rationale to get stronger; now, however, it seemed there was the very real possibility sex could be on the line - if he played his cards right.