... and it isn't the only thing doing so.

John was glad that the school week would end after this day. What he had planned for the weekend with June on Saturday and Anna on Sunday would leave him little time to do all the harvesting, building and leveling he would have liked, but he would be able to do this another week.

When he walked into the bus, he almost thought that Vanessa wasn't here, until he recognized the nauseated, bloated girl sitting in the back as his former fantasy/bully.

He managed to search the words from his quest description on his phone, checking the symbols one by one after having recognized it was in Korean. It meant, Friendship Egg, but he couldn't find it used anywhere nor did it seem to be a Korean cultural thing. The fact that he would meet with Kim in the afternoon made it clear that the quest was linked to her. More worrying was the optional part, did it mean that getting the egg would be dangerous or that it was just a stupid request to stop him from going on an adventure today?

When he arrived at the Academy, he was welcomed by one of the loveliest views in the universe. A girl, in love with him, was waiting for him. Anna had done her long blonde hair in ponytails and tried her hand with make up (she used to eschew wearing any, thinking it useless with her supposedly fat physique) and had the wisdom to keep it simple, only underlining her beauty rather than marring it. All the girls were wearing identical uniforms, but Anna filled hers out beautifully, and the fact that such a lovely girl dressed in the morning with what he would think of her in mind was extremely alluring.

They weren't able to exchange any greetings or love words before she was draped around him, gagging him with a sensual kiss. This very welcome greeting **** most of the bus' passengers to walk around them in order to get out. Being part of a couple embarrassing everyone or making them jealous with public displays of affection was another thing on John's bucket list that he could cross out. In fact, by the end of the week, there might not be anything on it apart perhaps for a trip to space, but who knew? With these powers even this could become real one day, if only by getting enough money to pay for one of those expensive trips to space some billionaires bought.

"Hello to you too, beautiful! I love your new way to say hello," he told her.

"I just really missed you yesterday! I only had a boyfriend for a few days, and already I can't do without you," she replied.

"I love you, Anna, and I can't do without you either. This whole week, I felt like I was in a dream, and I still fear waking up to my old life," he told her.

"You! You think your life changed? No one ever made me feel beautiful... Feel desired. My mom... Well she isn't dumb and knows full well what we intend to do. She booked a full afternoon at a spa for me and her on Saturday; she says you never feel better in your skin than after some spa-time," she explained. She was sounding truly exited about the whole proceeding, and frankly, John was too. He had had sex with others and would have some with at least another woman before her, but she was his girlfriend. The growing bond between them was only going to be strengthened after this weekend, now all he had to think of was a way to tell her about his other life in a way that wouldn't destroy the relationship before she found out by herself.

They walked together to their geography classroom. John noticed that Frank had not been in the bus (had the blow to his balls been so strong that it required medical attention?) and that a few other students were absent. He sat down near Anna and listened while Mr Howard made an announcement, reading a paper to the class.

"Students, you will probably have noticed the absence of a number of students today. Yesterday, a certain amount of ****, both recreational and performance enhancing, have been found in the gym locker of one of the football team's members. As you know, Ashcroft Academy has a very strict policy on substance ****, and as such in view of the quantity, the whole team has been suspended for the length of the investigation. Those that used some of it will be expelled, and anyone involved in distribution will be prosecuted. Please do not ruin your life for a short buzz. And now, we'll return to the study of the various types of mountains and their characteristics," he announced.

John had almost forgotten that he exposed this while leaving the day before. It had unexpected results; while not every football player was an asshole, if they cheated to win games, they deserved the punishment. He trusted the rigorous administration of the school to only punish the guilty ones; they had very high standards in this as in every thing else.

Listening to the lesson without paying much attention, he looked at his book and his phone at the same time. He stopped what he was doing every now and then to send Anna a short text complimenting her on her looks today or telling her how much he loved her and what he wanted to do to her. What he was really doing was looking at the Auctions.

The teeth had reached 2100$ already, and there was a lot of time left. The ore was more puzzling: the bid was at only 7000$ with apparently two buyers raising the bid every few hours. He had received a message from the Auction company: one of the buyers had just offered him 30k for the ore on the condition that he could buy it right away. John read in the message that it was possible but that he would have to pay a fee equal to three times the starting price and it could only be offered by the current highest bidder.

Reading further, he realized that the 30k he would receive would be after the fee and the commission had been deducted. This was more money than he ever had, nearly a year's worth of a wage **** job, and he would get it just by clicking a button. It wouldn't be enough to buy an elemental essence, but it would be a fuck-ton of money.

He accepted, and suddenly the money appeared in his website account. He would have to recover the cash later as he hadn't linked his bank account to it. He also had two pop-ups opened in front of him.

Achievement unlocked: High roller.
You won more than 25000$ in one go, it's the beginning of success. You'll take some extra money, right?
+10% cash dropped by monsters
-10% cash repair costs
2500$
+0 xp (who needs experience when you have money?)

New quest: Royal treasury
Accumulate one million dollars in gems, precious metals and currency (it will remain after completion).
Progress : 37753,62$/1M$

• multiple non estimated gems.
  Rewards:
  Kingdom element: Treasure Vault.
  2% interest rate on money left untouched for at least a month.
  Kingdom element: Sign of Wealth.
  5000xp
  ACCEPT REFUSE

Hell yeah! Of course it wouldn't be easy to get there, but it would give him kingdom elements and a ton of xp for doing something he would have done anyway.

Having finished his school book, no longer pretending to read it, he got another pop-up.

New function unlocked: Map.
You can now see your position and points of interest on a map in your interface.

John opened said menu and was welcomed by a grey map. Like in a video game, it only showed details where he had been. There were red icons on multiple locations: his house, Moira's Manor, the Academy, the mall, the hardware store, the junkyard, the street where he got caught in the fight with the slimes, the forest where he found the Glade...

Only the places where he had been since he got his powers were showing, but that was a start.

He turned toward Anna and smiled to her, and as often, she blushed not being used to getting any attention, and as always, it made him love her even more. Gaia truly had mysterious ways, because he couldn't figure out what he did to deserve all of this.

His only two quests were things he couldn't achieve at school, and it meant that he would have little to do today. He even had wasted a full hour of mana regen already, having found nothing of interest to do. Just to make sure the hour wasn't totally wasted, he used a charge of Alter Body on Vanessa to make her ass bigger and gave it a modifier that would make it grow slightly unevenly.

It was mean, but nothing he could think of would be too mean considering what she had done to him. It was her that made him a pariah for his first months here, it was her that maintained Frank's bullying focus on him in high school....

... It was her who, having learned he had a crush on a girl named Laetitia and was about to ask her out, made a pal of Frank's take her on a date to rudely fuck her before telling everyone what a dumb slut she was. It had been such a blow that by the end of the next week the poor girl never showed up again at school, having sworn off boys as perverted monsters...