It’s time for the reaping! (Of rewards that is)

Quest Complete!
The Four Runes of Righteousness!
Rewards
3,000 XP
One Small Bag of Rune Stones
20 Stat Points
10 Bottles of Runic Ink
$250,500

John gave a small laugh as he looked at the popup. He couldn’t believe it… In just a few days, he had managed to become a mage, get laid, meet Nordic gods, and now he was a millionaire on top of it all!

Granted, Lifthrasir had mentioned to John that due to magic making it easier to earn money, the Abyss had a big issue with inflation. So that million would not be as valuable in the Abyss as it would be in the non-magical world, but who cared? It was still a freaking million dollars!

Additionally, John had learned that his powers came with an additional benefit. When he picked up the bag of money and added it to his inventory, the money automatically got deposited into its own separate wallet system. John then experimented a bit with it and discovered that he had a separate setting for his money.

It seemed rather simple on the surface. He could choose the way he would manifest the money from his gamer powers, and could change it at any time. However, upon hitting the plus next to the “Cash” tab, he had learned just to what depth his options were. Page after page after page of different kinds of cash from all over. At the top were basic different forms of money, including American Dollars, Euros, and the British Pound. However, the deeper and deeper John went, the odder they got. He finally decided to call it quits after he managed to find “German Wooden Dollars” and “Katanga Crosses”.

‘I wonder if the Abyss has similar ways of converting currency? Is there some bank where I can walk in and say “Yes, I would like 75 dollars worth of Aztec gold!” John thought, but figured that if there were such banks, they would only accept and use currency that was accepted in the current era of time. Slowly he started to walk down the hall, his hand moving to pull up his character sheet. He had a good idea of what he wanted to do with his stat points, considering that the level up and the reward from his quest gave him… 35 points to work with.

‘That should be enough,’ John thought to himself as he began to invest point after point into his various stats. He had learned in his time in the barrow that it would be best to be rather balanced in his stat line. Greater agility to help him avoid strikes and move faster, better endurance to move for longer periods of time and carry more, strength for wielding Mavis, and so on and so forth. He figured for now he could just balance out all of his stats, putting everything at at least 20.

After getting his more ignored stats up to a respectable 20, he had two points left over. He decided to put one of them into Intellect, getting it up to 40. The second he threw into Libido, for no other reason than curiosity and a hope that a bigger libido would help him be a better lover to Talia and Mavis.

‘Plus, who knows? Maybe there is a secret achievement for getting all stats to a certain point.' John thought to himself as he turned a corner and made his way down a small set of stairs. Either way, he did get some benefit out of his distribution of stats. First of all, his health now sat at a respectable 113, so he had no doubt that he could take a few hits much better than before. Plus, there was something to be said about the feeling of having his new stats. When pumping his points into strength, he could feel his Gamer’s Body work its magic. He could feel himself getting ever so slightly stronger, and felt ever so slightly healthier with each point. With a quick glance at himself, he could easily see that he looked a little healthier in body type as well, his chest starting to be a bit more broad and his arms looking like they might be good for sword fighting someday.

‘Did the points in Charisma do anything?’ John wondered as he softly touched his face. Maybe he was a bit better looking now? John honestly wasn’t sure how much the stats affected him in a physical sense, as he didn’t really have the best way to compare his stats to someone else’s. Was a 40 in intellect really good? Subpar? Above average?

John shook his head. He didn’t really have the time to be asking whether his stats were good or not, he had things to do. Like check out his next big reward, the rune stones. Quickly, John pulled the bag from his inventory and opened it up. He expected to see the familiar glow of magical runes, but saw nothing but tiny rounded stones.

“Gaia… what the hell?” he muttered, slowly pulling one out and using Observe.

Runic Stone
Rare Enchanting Item
Designed to be specifically used with Runic Engravings, these stones allow the mana to flow a bit more easily through them with runes. When used in runic etching and enchanting, these stones reduce the cost of the etched rune by 10%

John had to read the description a couple times before his brain fully processed what he just read. Finally, it clicked. The stones were made specifically so that he could create his own rune stones, probably so that Talia or Mavis could use them if need be. Whenever he would use the stones to make usable runes, the rune’s cost would be reduced by 10%.

‘Not bad. Could let me create some good consumables for allies, especially if my runes get really, really strong with time. Oooooh, maybe I could use them with the Ankh for runic healing potions or with Aki so that Talia can have her own training barrier…’ John rubbed his hands together as he began to think of the possibilities, as well as think of how awesome it will be once he could create Godlike Rune Stones.

“And here is the main man himself!” said Mavis, who was standing with Talia and her parents in the hall John had just turned down. Talia had an arm around Mavis’ shoulder, and was clearly recovering from laughing at something as she was trying to catch her breath with a smile plastered across her face. Hálfdan and Frida were a bit further down the hall, talking to one of the councilmen that had defended John from the start, although John couldn’t recall his name at the time. John quickly made his way over to them. “Hey guys! What did I miss?”

“Never mind what you missed,” Mavis said, lightly punching John in the shoulder. “Tell us what we missed! You apparently somehow got five gods to come to your defence in a Ljósálfr council meeting, THEN somehow got to talk to said gods one on one!”

“Can’t you just read my memories and find out what happened, Mavis?” John asked.

Mavis shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s a whole thing I would have to do that would require effort and stuff… and then I would just hear about it again when you inevitably told Talia and I really don’t wanna stay through the same show twice. So tell us!”

John smiled and rolled his eyes before recounting to them what had happened. Talia and Mavis were quite the audience, reacting well to each reveal and each exciting moment. Talia was in more awe with each moment that John talked about one of the gods, and begged for more details about what they were like. Mavis actually managed to help, filling in a few details that she knew from the last time she had talked to the gods (which, granted, was about 1,500 years ago but it was still decently accurate). Mavis was a bit surprised about Heimdallr’s reveal that he had been watching over John, but did agree with Heimdallr’s statement that Gaia was an enigma who really couldn’t be understood. She advised John that he should be careful, that while Gaia usually kept an eye out for all of humanity, she was probably not going to be too concerned about whether John were to bite it in the end or not.

It was then that John told them about what the council leader had said. He had a bit of trouble stumbling over Lifthrasir’s name, so he just referred to him as “the council leader” as he told them about his offer to join his guild in Midgard. Simply put, having a place of safety that was in his home realm of Midgard along with being close to where he and his mom lived was too good to pass up. Frida and Hálfdan both agreed, Hálfdan mentioning that he had joined a guild when he first started smithing and it was probably one of the best decisions he had made. John smiled and told him that he would be sure to visit as often as he could, especially since seeing Talia would only be a rune away. However, at this statement, the smiles from Talia’s parent’s faces faded a bit as a sad look found its way to their eyes.

“Did… Did I say something wrong?” John asked

No one spoke for a moment or two, an aura of awkwardness hanging in the air around them. Then, Talia softly said, “Um… I talked with my… my parents and decided that it would be best if… um… I head out for a bit on my own. I need time to process the whole parentage thing and… time to become who I really want to be.” Talia gestured to the sword at her side. “I… I was hoping that since we are dating that maybe I could come with you. If that… if that’s okay.”

John was surprised. He figured that there was going to be some awkwardness between the Ljósálfr family, but to go with a full separation for some time seemed a bit much. However, if this was the decision…

John gave a nod. “If that is what you wanna do, then by all means, I won’t turn you away.” John gave a small smile. “We have a spare room at my place anyway that my mom would probably be more than happy to let you use.”

“Oh, I’ll just use yours,” Talia mumbled as she walked over to John’s side. She gave him a small hug, saying her thanks before turning back to look at her parents. “I…” She blushed a bit and looked away. “I… I love you, Mom and Dad.”

“We love you, too,” Frida said as her husband wrapped his arms around her. “We… We are sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We just… We considered you our child. It became a point that we feared telling you would create this very divide. That you would... not want us as parents any more.”

Talia stayed silent for a minute before sighing softly. “I… I have to admit I did have a moment or two of questioning whether or not you two should be considered my parents. But… I realized that no matter what, you two are my mom and dad. I just… I just need some time away.”

Hálfdan gave her a smile and a nod. “Of course. Trust me, when I was your age, I traveled all across Midgard. Figured it would be good for me to learn what was out there and to see that I was happy with where I was going.”

“Did you change your original plan ‘cause of that trip?” Mavis asked.

“Nope. And considering what an amazing wife I have now, along with my two amazing children, I could not be any more happy with my life.” Hálfdan grinned at them and gave a small kiss to Frida’s cheek. “But… if you find something out there that makes you truly happy, happier than you could ever be here in Alfheim… Well… just try to visit often. Okay, kiddo?”

Talia said no words at this, but rather ran to her parents and gave them a big hug. John and Mavis both smiled at this, but for John it just reawakened the feeling of homesickness within him.

“Just keep us in the loop on what is going on with you, honey.” Frida said. “If you get in trouble, or need help with anything, call us. We will be there in a flash to help you with whatever you need.”

Talia nodded to this statement while John stewed on it for a moment. Maybe he should look into talking to his mom about what he was actually doing now. Having someone he could talk to whenever he was having trouble dealing with the insanity that was his life would be… nice.

Sure, he could always talk to Talia or Mavis, but he doubted they would understand what it was like to be mundane one day and the most wanted man in two entire worlds the next. Granted, his mom also wouldn’t know, but his mom would probably have some good advice. Plus… It would be nice to get to call his mom any time things got hairy.

However, there was the elephant in the room of what Gaia would think about it. He didn’t want to tell his mom about his new life only to be smited along with his mom for his crime. Might as well ask her. ‘Hey Gaia,’ John thought. ‘Would it be okay if I told my mom about the Abyss?’

For a moment or two, no response came in. Then, a small ping on John’s HUD drew his attention to his inbox. With a quick mental click, he opened his new message from the head goddess herself.

‘Fair enough.' John thought as he closed the message. He was certain his mom wouldn’t talk, as she tended to keep her life pretty private from the other mothers in the community. And he was sure that she wouldn’t object if he also showed her how lucrative being an Abyssal mage could be

First things first, it was time to take him, Mavis, and Talia back to his home turf. ‘Hopefully that guild isn’t still looking for me.’

‘And what if they are?’ Mavis asked in his mind, causing John to jump back in surprise. He had forgotten that she could read his thoughts.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it with time,’ Mavis thought to him. ‘But my question remains. What if they are still looking for you? You gonna run or fight?’

‘I don’t want to kill any more of them,’ John thought solemnly

‘But you have to defend yourself, John. If they get hurt, that is not on you,’ Mavis said in his mind. ‘John, I know about the nightmares.’

John’s thoughts were silent for a moment, before he directed a single thought at Mavis. ‘Yeah. I’ve had nightmares. Nightmares about what I’ve done and what I might do. I keep seeing Brett’s face every time I close my eyes. What about it?’

Mavis gave a loud sigh, before sending a thought to him. ‘John… I’ve been around for a few thousand years at this point. I’ve seen hundreds of battles and tens of thousands of people die. I’ve seen some of the hardest decisions be made on the battlefield, ones that haunted those who had to make them. Life is not always going to throw easy choices at you. Sometimes, you have to do things you regret, but you do them for the right reasons. To protect those you love and care for.’ Mavis turned to him, and said quietly, “You made a choice to save not only yourself, but your mother. There is no greater honor than defending those who you love.”

John didn’t say a word, stepping forward as he started to trace the rune to go back home in the air. But, right before he finished it, he looked to Mavis and said softly, “Does it ever fade? The terrible feeling about killing someone?”

Mavis sighed, looking away. “No. My wielders who had such a conscience never lost that feeling. But…. that meant that any time they raised me in battle… it was for the right reasons.” Mavis gave him a sympathetic smile. “I think you’ll share that quality with them, John.”

John smiled at his sword, finishing the final stroke of the rune. Talia and Mavis walked to his side, Talia still turned around and waving goodbye to her parents. John took in a deep breath, let out a small sigh, before activating his rune.