Curiosity...

New Quest: Curiosity…
Investigate the unfolding situation in the alley.
Rewards - XP to next level, Class System Unlock

Having planned to take a look anyway, he tapped accept to get the seemingly significant rewards, then turned to jog across the road and immediately stopped when his bag jostled his leg.

There was a long moment that followed, in which he glanced from the open inventory window to his school bag and back, and mentally facepalmed. Another small cry, this one even quieter than the last, prompted him into movement.

Quickly throwing his bag into his inventory told him that it could split containers into their individual items, so unfortunately, there wasn’t going to be an infinite storage hack.

Meanwhile, the rest of his brain already had him jogging across the road to the alleyway where the glass was shattered. A few metres from the entrance, there was one more soft cry that was overpowered by a rough laugh, and… a metal dagger skidded to a stop, clattering in the glass. The rounded pommel of the blade’s hilt just reached out of the shadowed alley to glint in the sunlight, pointed right at him as if waiting for him to pick it up.

John caught himself looking around again as if somebody was going to show up miraculously and take his place, and shook his head at the stupid reflex. Reaching down, he timidly picked the dagger up from amidst its bed of fractured glass and held it in the light, following the glint along the blade as it entered the sunlight.

It was a surprisingly detailed design, the crossguard of the hilt gently sweeping up at the ends, and with an intricate scrollwork engraved into the crossguard and the side of the blade. He was just wishing he could learn more, like an item description in a game, when he had another facepalm moment, remembering he literally could do that now, and used Observe to tell him a bit more.

Kitten’s Claw
A small magically-wrought steel dagger given to Velvet upon her 18th ‘birthday’ as a means of emergency self-defence, should her natural skills be restrained somehow. The name of the blade is engraved on the handle in order to contain the ‘Soulbound Intention’ spell.
5-13 Damage

He quickly checked the tooltip for the mentioned spell as well.

Soulbound Intention - A pricey enchantment that means this item refuses to be used against its owner, lashing out in retaliation to any attempt at this.

John put together the dagger’s description, the shattered glass, the cries, the rough and deep laughter, the shaded alleyway, and suddenly realised something was very, very wrong. His mind skipped a beat alongside his heart, and he moved forward in sudden urgency, ignoring the damage the glass shards were doing to his shoes’ rubber soles as he entered the alley to a modern day horror show.

It was the nightmare scenario that teenage girls are always given at school safety classes, two men and a large white van. The man nearest to John was almost entirely average, being slightly taller than John, with a nasty-looking scar stretching along his jawbone, and was grinning as he looked on, while the other man, who reminded John of Brick from Borderlands with his square jaw and bulky frame, was crouched over slightly, a squint on his face.

The apparent reason for the taller one’s smile was the slender, beautiful girl that Brick was looming over. John couldn’t get a good look at her, though, since the mountain of fat and muscle had one arm wrapped around her to hold her arms in and a meaty hand clasped over her mouth to stop her from crying out again. He could see a stream of dark hair and a flash of pale skin, but Average Joe was blocking his view for the most part.

It was the perfect stealth attack situation, John thought as his mind turned to analysing the situation and breaking it down. He was still holding Kitten’s Claw. A quick strike to Average Joe, facing away from him, either severely crippling or killing him to remove that risk, then throw the knife at Brick’s exposed head over the shorter girl to distract him, and get closer after and put him down.

But the reality of the situation hit John, and he froze in fear. He was going to have to stab a real, breathing person, draw blood, even maim or kill that person. This wasn’t a game, there was no detachment from the **** because they weren’t real. These were real people. Scum, absolutely shitty people, **** teenage girls, but still living breathing people with their own lives and identities, maybe even families, and he was going to make them feel pain and bleed. But if he didn’t, they’d take that girl. He needed to do it.

He was only just coming out of his frozen moment when Brick noticed him, and jutted his blocky face towards John. It was Average Joe turning that finally pushed John fully into movement, jumping forwards in fright and wildly slashing the dagger at the skinnier man with all the skill of a barely 18 year old nerd who had never held a real weapon before.

6 Damage

His stealth advantage lost, it caught the man across his raised forearm in a glancing blow, slicing the flesh and not even catching the bone as he was turning around. Still, it clearly stung as Joe hissed in pain and clenched his fist, looking at the new cut on his arm. There were a few seconds of stillness so quiet that a pin drop could have been heard, where John watched a bead of blood well up and run down the gash on Joe’s arm, and drop to the floor with a small splat, then he glanced at the window that just appeared.

Achievement Unlocked
First Blood - Draw blood for the first time in combat. Hope you’re ready for the retaliation, O’ Mighty Warrior.

John finished reading it and looked up to meet the thug’s rage-filled eyes.

Oh no.

“Little shithead, that fucking hurt!” Joe spat out the words like venom. The man had a nasal voice that perfectly matched his weaselly appearance, in John’s opinion. Joe moved forward and raised his other hand upwards, fingers clawed, as blue lighting or electricity arced around the hand. “I’m gonna fry your goddamn neurons for that.”

Oh, shit.

It hit John again that this was real. That man had magic lightning in his hand, and was fully planning to kill him. John’s hands were shaking so much that it was visually noticeable, looking at how the dagger point wavered constantly. The suddenly-much-less-average-seeming man clearly noticed as a cruel smile spread across his face as his eyes flicked back to John’s, full of a predatory glare.

He raised his hand and John cowered from it in fear. “Scared little fucker, huh?” The man chuckled grimly and began to repeat the little game, playing cat and mouse with John’s terror and revelling in it, until Brick finally spoke up, drawing both their attention.

“Toby, ‘urry up already and stop playing with ‘im. We’re already late because you grabbed ‘er too early and didn’t let me set up the barrier, so knock ‘im out if ya need to, but get ‘im in the van. Oughta make up for the time we’ve lost, and give a good reason for why you fucked up.” He’d finished getting a hold of the girl’s wrists and ankles, and was casually lifting her into the grey van as he spoke to them.

Brick had exactly the kind of voice John had expected: deep, rough, and gravelly, like an old chain smoker. He finished placing the girl in the van, her long black hair trailing behind her and falling on top of where she was laid on the floor in the back, black denim flashing for a moment as she wriggled. “I’ll go and put some juice in the camo while you grab ‘im, and make sure we won’t get any other nosy fuckers showing up.”

Brick did some kind of gesture that John didn’t get a good look at, but made a message appear-

Entering Barrier - Defeat owner in order to gain control of the barrier, or leave.

-and then went around the other side of the van, leaving both John and the newly named Toby to turn their attention to each other.