PE Training

Inside the girls’ locker room

A redhead was changing into her PE gear when suddenly a red warning message flashed in one of the lenses of her glasses. Och, for fuck’s sake, thought the owner of the glasses, not Moira. What does she want with John? I know that the Order likes to keep track of everyone here in Springfield that has powers. And obviously, John’s new powers have made him an unknown new entity to the Abyss. But why in the bloody hell did that bitch hit him when it is obvious that, in his current state, he’s no real threat to her? Oh, I will not let her get away with this. Amelia was now furious, she had just found out about John’s new powers and now it seems that the Order had its sights on him. At least it seems she is leaving him alone for now and, thankfully, she left him alive.

Amelia finished changing into her gear and kept on monitoring John’s stats during the rest of her PE class. When John got injured, she complained once again but this time to John, as if he could hear her. Damn it, John, don’t be so frickin reckless with those buffoons.

Inside the boys’ locker room

John entered the already full locker room and noticed with the bag of balls in a corner of the room that today they would be playing basketball.

“Newman! You’re late,” his PE teacher coach Conroy yelled at him. “That’s five more laps around the court for you during warmup. Now hurry up and get ready, or else I’ll add another five.” He turned to the rest of the students. “Right guys, today we’ll have PE separate from the girls, so I’ve decided that we’ll do some basketball drills in the first hour and play some team matchups during the final hour.”

John quickly changed into his gear and headed out the door following everyone else. While doing his laps, he came to a realization. Damn, that -15 hp hit that Moira gave me is really going to limit what I can do here. She took a third of my health in one hit, and, at my current recovery rate, it will take me just about four hours to get 1 hp back. At least we are not playing dodgeball. Of all the classes, it was obvious that the jocks did enjoy PE more, having their coach as the teacher allowed them to have a free go at the other students. John was right to be glad that today they wouldn’t play dodgeball, but what he forgot was that basketball could turn into a contact sport if the referee, in this case their teacher, turned a blind eye.

After finishing his laps, John felt more tired than he had for quite some time. Even though he tried to pace himself to tire as little as possible, it was obvious that his low endurance did not help much.

During the warm-up and training drills, John tried to participate as much as possible to try to complete the quest, but his tiredness did not help much. He used the gym’s drinking fountain as much as it was permitted to him, but water was not enough for him to recuperate his stamina.

With the drills finished, the teacher gave them a five minutes break. John decided to use this time to go to a vending machine and buy an energy drink. Not wanting to spend too much, he just bought one to see if it would help him or not. He quickly drunk from it. While feeling the immediate effects, he was thankful that it was working. He got a message stating what those effects entitled and received a warning to not over use this solution.

+3 Endurance buff - Duration: 90 minutes.
Effect does not stack.
Warning, drinking too much during a short period will cause negative effects after product wears off.

Choosing to listen to the warning, he decided not to buy any more drinks for now. He was glad that the effects of the current one would last him for more than enough time.

Break time over, three teams were formed. John, as usual, ended up on the weakest team. Frank managed to form his as an all jock team, and the third was a mixed team of jocks and other students. The matchups were set as follows: John’s team played against Frank’s team of jocks in the first match, second match was the jocks vs the mixed team, and the last was between John’s team and the mixed team.

During the whole first match, John had used his abilities as a defensive mechanism, not to stop his opponents from scoring, but to not lose any hp due to his opponents’ aggressiveness. He avoided attacks by dodging to the best of his abilities when he perceived an incoming strike of the like of elbow hits. His teammates were not so lucky, especially during the second half of the match, when Frank’s team didn’t care so much about scoring points but scoring hits. By now, John had actually regretted that they were not playing dodgeball.

Throughout most of the second half of the match, things got more intense. His proximity sense helped, but, when he was inside the defensive perimeter and most of his opponents were close to him, the onslaught was too much at times. Sensing the many attempts on him scared him out of his wits; he never dodged so much in his life. His behavior, while dodging, was more amusing to the attackers than an annoyance for not being able to hit him. Frank was especially happy; this performance showed him nothing more than how much of a coward John was.

And so, the first match ended, and John didn’t even care what the final score was, it was a massacre either way you looked at it. He was thankful that he somehow managed to survive without a scratch. Scared out of his mind, but he survived it. Damn, it would have been so nice if I had gotten something out of this.

Achievement Unlocked - Dance for your life
That was quite a performance, it was really fun to watch. I guess you do deserve a reward for getting through this unscathed.
New skill: Dodge

Skill - Dodge Lvl 1 (Passive)
Ability based skill. 10% chance to evade physical attacks.

Skill level-up - Proximity Sense skill lvl 2.

The new skill and the fact that he leveled proximity sense felt like a good consolation prize for his troubles.

The second match was a welcome pause for John and his teammates. They sat and waited at the gymnasium bench. John knew that his troubles were not over, there was still one match left, and so he decided to observe the more evenly matched opponents play. He cast observe on the jocks and noticed how they positioned themselves based on their physical abilities. He also learned that two of them from the mixed team had a lower agility than him and learned other weaknesses from others. He felt he could now plan better for the next match and avoid more physical confrontations. And so, he made his game plan.

Achievement Unlocked - Tactical planning
You used your intelligence for preparing for next match, or will it be the next battle? Finally, you’re starting to put your head in the game.
+1 Wis

Second match came and went; all John did during it was learn about his next opponents, plan and rest. Now it was time for his last match. It started normally enough, the jocks on the mixed team gave them a clear advantage. At least, this opponent was concentrating more on winning than giving beatings. Or so he thought.

Half way through the match, John came to a realization that if he timed the use of proximity sense right, he could steal the ball from one of his slower opponents.

On his first try, John missed the ball completely and, being too eager to try it again, he never noticed that another opponent blocked his path and, quickly after, shoved him to the floor. John fell awkwardly and hit his head.

-5 hp

Mother fucker, did anyone catch the plate number of that slab of meat? He rubbed his head for the fifth time that day.

“Newman, what are you doing taking a dive for? This isn’t soccer. Get up!” the teacher said. “On second thought, that is your second strike of the day, go to the court sideline and give me two suicide drills for trying to cheat.” The smirk was quite evident in coach Conway’s face, he knew all too well that John had been fouled. “There better not be a third strike, Newman.” Every jock laughed together in what looked like a well-rehearsed choir of laughs.

John decided not to object to the punishment; it would probably increase it if he did so. He walked to the sideline and proceeded to do one of his most hated PE exercises. The suicide drill consisted of a fast-paced running to and from marked stages along the sideline. And John had to do it twice while maintaining the same pace. Thanks to the extra endurance he got from the drink, John managed to finish the drills and get back to the game. He was surprised when he got a message stating that he was awarded one endurance point for his effort.

Back in the game, John had to decide if he should try to steal the ball again or just let it be and not expose himself to anymore jock antics. He didn’t think for too long; the competitive gamer inside him quickly decided: he chose to once again try to steal the ball while using proximity sense. After all, it was a good way to practice the use of his skills.

He also decided from whom he would steal the ball, a Jock with a lower agility than him. Stealing from anyone of the non-jocks would be great, but doing it to a jock would make it that much sweeter. So, not thinking about the consequences of what he was about to do, John analysed the attacking formation the opposing side used. He positioned himself in a defensive stance confronting his chosen target as soon as the jock got the ball.

“Ten seconds left!” Coach Conroy yelled out the warning.

Maybe he finally timed it right or the jock got distracted by the coach’s yell, but John didn’t care much; he managed to steal it. Not only that, he was able take it in a way that he kept the ball instead of it going aimlessly bouncing around the court. With only a few seconds left, he took advantage of the stunned opposition and dribbled to the other side of the court without anyone chasing him. He took a shot with what must have been the final second. The ball went through the hoop, giving John’s team two points.

Achievement Unlocked - Buzzer Beater
You made the final second shot! Hopefully those angry faces around you don’t mean anything.
Reward: +1 Agi

John looked around himself and saw the angry faces from all the jocks in both opposing teams. Frank and John’s chosen target seemed to be the angriest of them all. They talked and seemed to agree on something.

“Ok guys, class is over. Head for the showers and then go home,” His teacher told them and left the gym.

Quest cleared - PE Training
+1 Str
+1 End

After dismissing the pop-up window, John headed for the locker room. No jocks were inside it, John was glad, but then he realized that this probably meant they were setting up an ambush for him. He had seen this happen before. I guess this school day is not yet over, he sighed.