School's out

The rest of John’s classes were not nearly as exciting as his free period was. He cast Observe on his teachers with no interesting information being revealed. John’s sudden improvement in Physical Education did draw the attention of some of the girls and the teachers. John, however, was much more interested in meeting up with Moira to get his new weapon and do some training.

John got to the entrance of Ashcroft and saw a black SUV drive away from in front of Moira. Moira spotted John as he walked towards her and waved him over.

“Ah John, the Order just dropped off a weapon for you. It is a two-handed sword like your previous one. It is the standard sword for many of our warriors. I’ll give it to you once we are in the barrier. Speaking of which, where shall we go to train?” asked Moira as she walked over to her motorcycle.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that all day and maybe we should just try the park?” John said as he followed Moira to her motorcycle.

“We should be able to handle the plant and forest Abyssal creatures that will be there,” Moira said as she handed John a helmet and then put on her own.

“Ok, so let’s get to it!” declared John as he got on the motorcycle, and then Moira drove straight to the forest.

Thanks to Moira’s unique driving skills, the two arrived at the park with little time wasted by travelling. The two then made their way to a discreet part of the park. With them being sure that nobody would notice them disappear, John created a new barrier that they both entered.

Forest Barrier entered. Average party level is 6. All enemies set to level 6. Guest party member detected.

“Huh. That’s strange,” muttered John.

“What is?” asked Moira.

“It says the average party level is 6, but there’s no way that’s the average. Your level is 19,” then it hit John. He was his own party, “I’m gonna try something out,” said John as he mentally sent Moira a party invitation.

“What…is this? Is this some sort of extension of your powers Newman?” asked Moira as she now stared at a party invite.

“Yeah. Click yes and the barrier should acknowledge you as a party member and adapt,” John told her. Moira clicked accept and a new notification appeared for both of them.

New party member added. New average party level is 13. All enemies reset to level 13.

“There we go!” John exclaimed as the barrier reset. John did not see any sort of UI that showed Moira’s HP/MP anywhere. “Hmm that’s odd,” John said as he turned to Moira and saw an HP/MP bar over her head. “Oh, well that explains it I guess. Here let me give you your new sword,” said Moira, who was in her full battle regalia with shield in hand. She reached into her shield and pulled out a two-handed sword, which she then handed to John.

“Thanks, Moira!” John said as he felt the sword in his hands. He gave it a quick Observe.

Blade of the Order
Uncommon Item
This is the standard 2H sword of the Order of the Golden Rose. It has excellent balance for a sword of its size.
+5 STR, +2 END

“What, Newman? And what is that over your head?” Moira inquired.

“Ah so you see it too? That’d be our HP/MP bars. Well MP for you, Stamina for me.”

“Your powers truly are strange and unique. So, shall we get started? I am curious to see how your powers work when they aren’t being used on me,” said Moira as she started to look around. That’s when they heard it, a blood curdling howl. The two noticed multiple rustlings in the foliage that were heading straight for them.

“Prepare yourself, Newman, our enemies are approaching!”

“Right. I’m ready!” John said as he prepared to use his new weapon. The first wave of wolves came out of the forest’s tree line to their right, closest to Moira. She brought her shield up and blocked the three wolves that leapt at her. John used this time to Charge into one of the wolves and then did a wide swing, hitting all three of the wolves. Moira followed this up with her warhammer connecting with the skull of the weakest wolf, crushing it and netting them some experience. John gave the other two wolves some quick swipes with his sword while Moira finished them off with a crushing smash from her warhammer.

-10 HP

“Gah!” cried out John as a wolf bit his leg. Another group of wolves had snuck up on them from behind as John and Moira were finishing up the first group. Moira quickly bashed the wolf with her shield, which caused the wolf to let go and retreat behind the two other wolves that leapt at the now weakened John. Moira once again used her shield offensively, causing the wolf hit by her shield to collide with the other wolf, which allowed John to use Slam on both the wolves for a single cost. The third wolf rushed Moira this time, only to meet its end with a crushed skull.

John and Moira continued to clear out three more waves of wolves. Once the last one was dead, John checked his status. His HP was steady at 156 but Stamina was on the low side, 21. Luckily he could already see both ticking up at a steady rate and would soon be back to max. Moira, on the other hand, was still at full HP with about half of her MP gone. He had gotten a good amount of experience from all the wolves, 273 in total. This left only 54 experience until John leveled up. Lastly, John looked over the loot he got, which was either wolf pelts or wolf fangs.

“That was a very interesting experience. Normally creatures don’t attack in such waves,” Moira stated, noting the differences John’s power caused from other members of the Abyss.

“Really? Oh, I got some item drops too. Some wolf pelts and wolf fangs. They worth anything?” asked John.

“You got item drops? It is uncommon for someone to be able to so easily get items from the Abyss. Normally you have to negotiate with Abyssal citizens or hunt special creatures,” explained Moira.

“Well, let’s do some exploring. There could be something else around here,” John said as he began to head into the forest proper. The pack of wolves seemed to be a special occurrence since John and Moira ran into some other creatures, mostly treants, but never in the same scale as the pack of wolves.

Eventually they came to a small clearing in front of a cave. There they heard some small whining echoing from the caves. They then heard a voice from inside the cave but could not make out what was said because of the echoes. Suddenly, a dark blur burst from the cave and slammed into Moira, followed by a claw slashing her breastplace.

“YOU DARE SHOW YOUR FACES HERE WITH THE SCENT OF OUR PACK ON YOU! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS INSULENCE!” declared the creature that stood on its hind legs. The creature stood at 7 feet tall, with a broad chest, and fur that covered him from head to toe, or in this case ear to tail.

“Holy shit, it’s a werewolf!” exclaimed John as he helped Moira up and then they both readied for the new fight.

Boss Encounter:
Lupene
Level 16 Elite
Unable to leave barrier until boss is defeated