Learning the basics of mind manipulation

Usually, John would have been bored out of his mind by a class like Psychology, as he had no interest in the field. Today, however, it was different, he had gained an ability which allowed him to manipulate people’s psychology, and he needed to learn how to use it properly. He needed to further understand two things. First, he needed to know how to use this ability without causing further damage to the mind he used it on. After all, John did not want to use the ability to harm people unnecessarily, and he was already fairly unsure of whether to use it in the first place. Second, he needed to learn to use the ability more efficiently, by learning how to pull the right strings to cause things to happen. Both so he could have more options with the use of the ability, and to minimize the risk of damaging that person’s mind.

A few moments later, the teacher walked in, she started the class by handing out the book they would be using that year. The book was aptly named Psychology 101. John had planned to listen to the teacher during the class that was until he realized that everything she was about to say was useless to him as it was all contained in the book that she had given out. Happy that he could now go through the material at his own pace, he decided to begin reading the book.

The book talked about a few things, mainly how modern Psychology formed, and what we know about how the human mind works. It mentioned some common conditions and disorders and explained some of the criteria needed to identify them. At first, reading this John thought that his belief that the material would help him was a waste, but then he thought back to his experience inside Frank’s mind, how it was all more like a dream than a concrete structure. That it seemed to John that Frank’s mind was shaped in that way by his experiences and the way his emotions operated. Those factors had made a world of their own, constructed by them. John guessed that every person would have a unique mindscape, forged by their personalities, experiences, and emotions. This was supported by the next part of the book, which explained how our experiences help shape our mind and how we think about the world, and that those are the main causes for most conditions and disorders as well.

By the time he had finished reading the book, John had used the information contained within it to understand what he had gone through. He had understood that the strange things he had seen in Frank’s mind were abstract representations of his mind and emotions. With that, he understood that he needed to play into those emotions to increase them, just like he had done in Frank’s mind by taking the banana. That meant that in order to reduce them, all he needed to do was work against those emotions when connected to the person’s mind. In the end, he still wasn’t sure why Frank’s mind had an ocean, or why it had an island, or what emotions exactly each monkey represented, or even why they were there at all in the first place, but he understood that they indicated emotions and thoughts that Frank’s mind held. Maybe they were only there the moment he had connected to Frank’s mind, influenced by Frank’s actions and feelings at that time, or perhaps some or all of them were always present inside him. John did not know what the right answer was, but it was unimportant, he had learned that they held meaning.

When he finally finished reading the Psychology book, he noticed about half the class had passed. The teacher was now talking about the same common disorders and conditions he had read about earlier. What John did not notice until then, however, was that a popup had now appeared before him.

New skill: Reduce Emotion. Skill combined with Reinforce Emotion to make new skill: Modify Emotion.

John realized that unlike most of his skills beforehand, which he had gotten through trial and error or just by doing something normally mundane, he had gotten this skill by understanding how to use his current ones in a different way. It seemed to John that both the level task system, and the system created to give him these skills, were both made to translate his understanding of the powers he possessed into skills for him to use. That meant he could learn skills by realizing new ways to use his power set that he had not thought of previously, or even by learning new abilities to add to his power set.

Thinking that, he decided to try to test the extent of his powers, specifically, he wondered what other skills Psychic Connection could unlock. So, for the rest of the class, John focused on using it, only occasionally considering other thoughts that popped into his mind.

John had not been particularly successful in his attempt to learn more about the extent of his powers through Psychic Connection by the end of the class, but he did reach one topic that was of particular interest.

‘Was it really right to invade Frank’s mind like that?’ John thought to himself. ‘If it had been anyone else, would I have done it? I’m not sure what I did could be classified as immoral, but I fundamentally changed a person. Possibly forever. Sure, it helped people, hopefully, a lot of people, but that remains to be seen. Can I truly consider myself moral, can I really say my actions help others if I go around using the power to bend minds so easily, so without thought or remorse? I’m not sure, but I do know that whatever the answer is, I have to use this power sparingly. This exact thought process should happen every time. I must keep myself in check when it comes to using this power. Thank whatever god gave me these powers that I now have a way to restore a person to their previous state, or at least I hope I do.’ he concluded in his mind. John still struggled with the thought of whether or not he should reverse what he had done to Frank.

After he had concluded that line of thought, he continued in his efforts with Psychic Connection until the bell rang. John, who was unsurprised by the arrival of the bell this time, stopped his Psychic Connection and quickly headed out of the class and onto his last one before lunchtime, Applied Maths.

Just like in the second half of his Psychology lesson, John spent most of his time in his Math class using Psychic Connection, and just like in Psychology, until about halfway into the class, John had nothing to do.

That was until he noticed a mind that had not been there before, appearing just outside the classroom. For some reason John couldn’t touch the mind no matter how hard he tried. Only a moment later, the mind was gone as fast as it had appeared. At first, John panicked, unsure of why it had suddenly done so. That was until a few seconds later, when the mind appeared again, seemingly moving in the hallway. John could touch it now. Once he did, he realized it was a student who was walking down the hallway. His panic subsided. He concluded that there must be some sort of maximum range for Psychic Connection, John relaxed as that would explain the sudden disappearance of the mind. It meant he had another one of the mysteries posed by his powers figured out.

After that incident, however, there was nothing else of special interest that happened through the rest of Applied Maths. After the lesson had concluded, the students were released for lunchtime. John excitedly attempted to look for Alice. He found her sitting down to eat at the cafeteria a few minutes later. After he had bought some food with the money his mother had given to him earlier that day, John sat down next to her. Before he could say anything, however, Alice quickly hugged him.

“I wanted to say thank you for the drawing again, it really is beautiful. I did want to ask why you made it though.” She said, slowly breaking the hug while doing so.

“I just wanted to draw you, and I thought it would make a nice gift,” John responded, slightly disappointed the hug was so brief, as he had missed her during the classes.

“Well, you succeeded, it’s a nice gift,” Alice said, smiling, and John had nothing to say in retort. After that, both of them stopped talking. They proceeded to silently eat for what seemed like hours, although it must have been only a few minutes. They occasionally touched each other’s hands, or sent each other glances. That was until John spoke up.

“We should go on a date or something sometime, right?” He said, completely unsure of how this should be handled.

“Yeah, I guess. How about tomorrow?” Alice responded, just about the same level of confidence as John had permeating it.

“Sure. Did you switch phones since three years ago? We should probably have each other’s numbers,” John asked and quickly excused, worried about whether it would be strange for him to ask for her phone number.

“Don’t worry, it’s not weird for you to ask. We probably should have each other's numbers if we’re going to be friends again,” Alice said, both understanding John’s plight and agreeing with him.

They proceeded to awkwardly exchange numbers, both not knowing who should go first. That was almost immediately followed by them talking for a few minutes about some other things once the awkwardness of their previous task had subsided, at which point lunchtime had ended. Once it had, they each had to go their separate ways, to their next classes.