Mana gathered in his palm. A calm flow of energy spread down from his brain, tingled in his lower spine, then made its way to his hand. There, it seeped outwards. Volatile energies condensed into a formless bubble. Once it reached the power the Skill allowed, it was launched. On impact, it caused the ephemeral body of the Lower Ghost to dissipate.
“Ey, you’re down to three shots per ghost,” Rave complimented. “That’s way better.”
“Doubly so with how liberally I can use the spell now,” John agreed with a happy hum. 152 mana with regeneration at 4,5 a minute meant he could actually do this on his own now. “I’m not useless anymore.”
Rave suddenly jumped up to him and punched through the distorted face of another monster. “Are ya?” she asked teasingly. He was too stunned by her being right in front of him to answer. The sight still robbed him of his breath. “I always wondered how that worked.”
John found his voice again after she backed off a little. “How what worked?”
“Ya attack the ghosts with mana, right? And the ghosts are made from mana, right?” John wasn’t sure if that was entirely correct but his understanding of reality’s magic system was still pretty rudimentary. He just nodded. “So why can ya hurt them like that? How does that work?”
“Well, if I slap you with a steak, you get hurt too, right?”
Rave tilted her head and looked at him like he was a children’s book about bunnies that switched to an explanation of why the author’s daughter needed a liberal art’s degree in the middle. “Huh?”
“You’re mostly made out of protein, so if I slap you with a steak, according to that logic, it shouldn’t hurt you, right?”
“Oh, I get ya… guess that makes sense. Did you just pull that out of your hat?”
John shook his head. “I commented something to that effect on a reddit thread once. Most upvotes I ever got.”
They continued in their undead extermination for a long time. A very, very long time, especially compared to the usual. Usually they farmed for four to five hours, before calling it a day and hanging out at Rave’s place for the rest of the evening. Today, however, they had started shortly before noon and were still at it when the sun moved towards the horizon.
John pointed his palm at another Ghost and conjured a Mana Power Attack. The blue ball flew from his hand at the monster. It glowed slightly in the fading light of the sun that painted the forest in pastel red. The ghost turned towards John and gradually drifted towards him. They were a lot less imposing after he had spent so much time slaughtering these slow-moving entities. Two more blasts and it was dead.
“Ya should really try to get a better Skill in the future.” Rave pointed a finger at another ghost. A beam of bright light shot out and unmade the creature in a flash. “I mean, you’re down to three attacks but it still sucks. The name and everything. ‘Mana Power Attack’ – sounds like it’s mistranslated or something.”
“Yeah, I know.” John sighed. Considering he was catching up to Rave’s level, his only means of direct attack should not have dealt this little damage at this high a relative cost. It was better now. It was still bad. Each attack needed two seconds to prepare and the projectile was bright blue, flashy, and not that fast. In an actual combat situation, he wouldn’t be able to hit anything that wasn’t point blank.
“Then have you tried making it, I don’t know, not suck?” Rave asked, a streak of light twirling around her fingers. “You have an Innate Ability, can’t ya use it to influence stuff?”
“I don’t think that’s how mine works. It’s all translated into game mechanics. I can’t just will a mechanic to do something different – and I did try.” He shot another Mana Power Attack at a ghost. “Seems like the drawback for my powers being heavy on utility is that I don’t get to just decide what shape they take. Skills do what Skills say they do. I can reshape the attack just as little as I can strain myself to make Possession take hold of living things.” He sighed. “I also don’t get Skills whenever I want. Seems like Gaia just gave me a starting package and now I have to figure it out.”
“Ya can really talk a lot,” Rave hummed.
“Does it bother you?”
“Nah, it’s just that I had chalked ya up so completely as introverted.”
That did give him pause. He needed to think about it for a moment. Now that she mentioned it, he had felt none of the typical social exhaustion. That wasn’t a new development for today though. “Hanging around with you is just… simple. It feels right,” he confessed.
“…you know what, same,” Rave responded in kind. Then she drastically changed the topic. “Gained any Achievements lately?”
“No and I think they’re just Gaia’s way of making fun of me anyway. Just like some Observe descriptions. I looked at a pebble recently and it had several dozen paragraphs of descriptions.”
“Really? What was it?” Rave sat down on a toppled over tree.
“Alright, before I start, I’ll tell you that I checked and it was just a normal pebble.” With that cleared up, he took a deep breath. “The Mithril Pebble of Pig-Smiting. For you see, long ago that pebble was forged in the fiery pits of Tartarus by the grand blacksmith of Lucifer himself in a time before the world began…” John rambled on for three minutes or so. It was one of those moments where his high Intellect came in handy. He had memorized the entire thing, hoping it would make for a good joke. “And thus, the Guardian of the pebble passed from this world leaving behind the pebble for the Gamer to find. +1 to making pigs angry when thrown at them.”
Rave, unexpectedly, didn’t laugh. Instead, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Did you just rip-off SAO Abridged?”
John tilted his head. “What now?”
“SAO Abridged, Something Witty Entertainment?” he still didn’t understand. “The anime parodies?” Rave asked differently.
“I told you I don’t watch Chinese cartoons, so I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Rave let out a scandalized gasp. “Ya did not do that! Imma rip your world asunder!”
‘You already have,’ John thought.
“Alright, that’s it, we’re educating you after we get back to the tent.”
“That TV has reception?”
“And Netflix and Crunchyroll!”
“Okay, that’s it – how do you have electricity and internet and plumbing inside a container in the middle of the forest? I can deal with the Harry Potter self-unfolding giant tent, but I need more details.”
“We already have internet at the arcade, dunno why this is bothering you now.”
“It’s been bothering me the entire time, but this is just too weird. It’s a container in a pocket dimension, in the middle of a forest, in a county that has terrible wireless and you can’t send electricity like that in the first place!”
“It’s Fateweaver stuff. Ya know they just… hook stuff up and then it works… alright, I can see what ya mean when ya say I’m not good at explaining stuff.” She stopped for a moment. “Just ask Jimmie about it.”
‘I will,’ John mentally resolved. Then he got distracted by her crossing her legs. The mini skirt rode up a bit and revealed her panties again. Perhaps it was the long day, perhaps it was that he hadn’t been in the habit of masturbating since he had been capable of getting with her, perhaps it was both, but that was all it took for him to get excited. “Alright… could I convince you to still… show me things?”
“Like my boobs?” Rave asked, her sultry tone reflecting his needful one. “Ya already saw plenty of those and they ain’t that impressive.”
“Never plenty of them and all breasts are beautiful. They deserve to be marvelled at as often as possible. Everything on you deserves to be. You’re just… wow.” The thoughts flowed out freely.
“Oh stop it.” Rave smirked and looked off to the side. Slowly her eyes rolled back to focusing on him. “Continue?”
“You have the greatest butt in the entire school – no, world.”
“I do?” Rave stood up and inspected her own backside. “You mean this butt?” she turned around. The miniskirt did not do it justice. It hid that wonderful valley between the twin spheres. Every little wiggle of her hips made it clear that she knew exactly what she had.
“It’s just perfect,” John said. “Round everywhere it should be, has a beautiful little crease where it meets your thighs, and yet is so smooth. So firm. It’s just the right size to draw attention and not so large it's out of balance with your slender art piece of a body.”
“You’re actually a real charmer, tiger, aren’t you?” Rave sashayed over to him. A hand placed on his shoulder, the other on his crotch, she squeezed the bulge. “Ya know, I can actually feel the difference since ya got bigger,” she whispered in his ear. Then she continued. “Where do ya pull all of that from, hm?”
“I… wanted to say all of this to you for the last two days… but I just didn’t feel confident until I could… really talk to you,” John groaned. The little motions of her palm were enough to make him shiver. Her blue eyes gazed up at him, pink dancing inside. Her pink hair caught the red of the fading day.
He knew more now, about himself and her. Leaning forwards, he got ready to claim her lips as his. There would be more to this kiss than a lustful, thoughtless entanglement. He could feel it.
A terrible cold gripped his shoulder. The ghastly face of the undead creature rose up between them. Anger rose up inside John. By the time he was starting to formulate his response, Rave had already punched clean through the entity, her fist engulfed in the blue flickers of her Aura. “Fucking mood killer,” she cussed.
John’s rage died as quickly as it had risen. His mind reeled for a moment. “So, want to-“ he started, trying his best to salvage the situation. As the ghost faded from existence and the sun fully set, a new window demanded attention.
Mana gathered in his palm. A calm flow of energy spread down from his brain, tingled in his lower spine, then made its way to his hand. There, it seeped outwards. Volatile energies condensed into a formless bubble. Once it reached the power the Skill allowed, it was launched. On impact, it caused the ephemeral body of the Lower Ghost to dissipate.
“Ey, you’re down to three shots per ghost,” Rave complimented. “That’s way better.”
“Doubly so with how liberally I can use the spell now,” John agreed with a happy hum. 152 mana with regeneration at 4,5 a minute meant he could actually do this on his own now. “I’m not useless anymore.”
Rave suddenly jumped up to him and punched through the distorted face of another monster. “Are ya?” she asked teasingly. He was too stunned by her being right in front of him to answer. The sight still robbed him of his breath. “I always wondered how that worked.”
John found his voice again after she backed off a little. “How what worked?”
“Ya attack the ghosts with mana, right? And the ghosts are made from mana, right?” John wasn’t sure if that was entirely correct but his understanding of reality’s magic system was still pretty rudimentary. He just nodded. “So why can ya hurt them like that? How does that work?”
“Well, if I slap you with a steak, you get hurt too, right?”
Rave tilted her head and looked at him like he was a children’s book about bunnies that switched to an explanation of why the author’s daughter needed a liberal art’s degree in the middle. “Huh?”
“You’re mostly made out of protein, so if I slap you with a steak, according to that logic, it shouldn’t hurt you, right?”
“Oh, I get ya… guess that makes sense. Did you just pull that out of your hat?”
John shook his head. “I commented something to that effect on a reddit thread once. Most upvotes I ever got.”
They continued in their undead extermination for a long time. A very, very long time, especially compared to the usual. Usually they farmed for four to five hours, before calling it a day and hanging out at Rave’s place for the rest of the evening. Today, however, they had started shortly before noon and were still at it when the sun moved towards the horizon.
John pointed his palm at another Ghost and conjured a Mana Power Attack. The blue ball flew from his hand at the monster. It glowed slightly in the fading light of the sun that painted the forest in pastel red. The ghost turned towards John and gradually drifted towards him. They were a lot less imposing after he had spent so much time slaughtering these slow-moving entities. Two more blasts and it was dead.
“Ya should really try to get a better Skill in the future.” Rave pointed a finger at another ghost. A beam of bright light shot out and unmade the creature in a flash. “I mean, you’re down to three attacks but it still sucks. The name and everything. ‘Mana Power Attack’ – sounds like it’s mistranslated or something.”
“Yeah, I know.” John sighed. Considering he was catching up to Rave’s level, his only means of direct attack should not have dealt this little damage at this high a relative cost. It was better now. It was still bad. Each attack needed two seconds to prepare and the projectile was bright blue, flashy, and not that fast. In an actual combat situation, he wouldn’t be able to hit anything that wasn’t point blank.
“Then have you tried making it, I don’t know, not suck?” Rave asked, a streak of light twirling around her fingers. “You have an Innate Ability, can’t ya use it to influence stuff?”
“I don’t think that’s how mine works. It’s all translated into game mechanics. I can’t just will a mechanic to do something different – and I did try.” He shot another Mana Power Attack at a ghost. “Seems like the drawback for my powers being heavy on utility is that I don’t get to just decide what shape they take. Skills do what Skills say they do. I can reshape the attack just as little as I can strain myself to make Possession take hold of living things.” He sighed. “I also don’t get Skills whenever I want. Seems like Gaia just gave me a starting package and now I have to figure it out.”
“Ya can really talk a lot,” Rave hummed.
“Does it bother you?”
“Nah, it’s just that I had chalked ya up so completely as introverted.”
That did give him pause. He needed to think about it for a moment. Now that she mentioned it, he had felt none of the typical social exhaustion. That wasn’t a new development for today though. “Hanging around with you is just… simple. It feels right,” he confessed.
“…you know what, same,” Rave responded in kind. Then she drastically changed the topic. “Gained any Achievements lately?”
“No and I think they’re just Gaia’s way of making fun of me anyway. Just like some Observe descriptions. I looked at a pebble recently and it had several dozen paragraphs of descriptions.”
“Really? What was it?” Rave sat down on a toppled over tree.
“Alright, before I start, I’ll tell you that I checked and it was just a normal pebble.” With that cleared up, he took a deep breath. “The Mithril Pebble of Pig-Smiting. For you see, long ago that pebble was forged in the fiery pits of Tartarus by the grand blacksmith of Lucifer himself in a time before the world began…” John rambled on for three minutes or so. It was one of those moments where his high Intellect came in handy. He had memorized the entire thing, hoping it would make for a good joke. “And thus, the Guardian of the pebble passed from this world leaving behind the pebble for the Gamer to find. +1 to making pigs angry when thrown at them.”
Rave, unexpectedly, didn’t laugh. Instead, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Did you just rip-off SAO Abridged?”
John tilted his head. “What now?”
“SAO Abridged, Something Witty Entertainment?” he still didn’t understand. “The anime parodies?” Rave asked differently.
“I told you I don’t watch Chinese cartoons, so I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Rave let out a scandalized gasp. “Ya did not do that! Imma rip your world asunder!”
‘You already have,’ John thought.
“Alright, that’s it, we’re educating you after we get back to the tent.”
“That TV has reception?”
“And Netflix and Crunchyroll!”
“Okay, that’s it – how do you have electricity and internet and plumbing inside a container in the middle of the forest? I can deal with the Harry Potter self-unfolding giant tent, but I need more details.”
“We already have internet at the arcade, dunno why this is bothering you now.”
“It’s been bothering me the entire time, but this is just too weird. It’s a container in a pocket dimension, in the middle of a forest, in a county that has terrible wireless and you can’t send electricity like that in the first place!”
“It’s Fateweaver stuff. Ya know they just… hook stuff up and then it works… alright, I can see what ya mean when ya say I’m not good at explaining stuff.” She stopped for a moment. “Just ask Jimmie about it.”
‘I will,’ John mentally resolved. Then he got distracted by her crossing her legs. The mini skirt rode up a bit and revealed her panties again. Perhaps it was the long day, perhaps it was that he hadn’t been in the habit of masturbating since he had been capable of getting with her, perhaps it was both, but that was all it took for him to get excited. “Alright… could I convince you to still… show me things?”
“Like my boobs?” Rave asked, her sultry tone reflecting his needful one. “Ya already saw plenty of those and they ain’t that impressive.”
“Never plenty of them and all breasts are beautiful. They deserve to be marvelled at as often as possible. Everything on you deserves to be. You’re just… wow.” The thoughts flowed out freely.
“Oh stop it.” Rave smirked and looked off to the side. Slowly her eyes rolled back to focusing on him. “Continue?”
“You have the greatest butt in the entire school – no, world.”
“I do?” Rave stood up and inspected her own backside. “You mean this butt?” she turned around. The miniskirt did not do it justice. It hid that wonderful valley between the twin spheres. Every little wiggle of her hips made it clear that she knew exactly what she had.
“It’s just perfect,” John said. “Round everywhere it should be, has a beautiful little crease where it meets your thighs, and yet is so smooth. So firm. It’s just the right size to draw attention and not so large it's out of balance with your slender art piece of a body.”
“You’re actually a real charmer, tiger, aren’t you?” Rave sashayed over to him. A hand placed on his shoulder, the other on his crotch, she squeezed the bulge. “Ya know, I can actually feel the difference since ya got bigger,” she whispered in his ear. Then she continued. “Where do ya pull all of that from, hm?”
“I… wanted to say all of this to you for the last two days… but I just didn’t feel confident until I could… really talk to you,” John groaned. The little motions of her palm were enough to make him shiver. Her blue eyes gazed up at him, pink dancing inside. Her pink hair caught the red of the fading day.
He knew more now, about himself and her. Leaning forwards, he got ready to claim her lips as his. There would be more to this kiss than a lustful, thoughtless entanglement. He could feel it.
A terrible cold gripped his shoulder. The ghastly face of the undead creature rose up between them. Anger rose up inside John. By the time he was starting to formulate his response, Rave had already punched clean through the entity, her fist engulfed in the blue flickers of her Aura. “Fucking mood killer,” she cussed.
John’s rage died as quickly as it had risen. His mind reeled for a moment. “So, want to-“ he started, trying his best to salvage the situation. As the ghost faded from existence and the sun fully set, a new window demanded attention.
