A new quest.

John spent the rest of the class sitting around, keeping his head low and regenerating mana. With the extra Observe he had thrown at Moira it had sunken to almost zero. By the end of class, it was back up to nine. Not enough to Possess something but he wanted to have it regenerate right now anyway.

There was a fifteen minute break between this and his next class, which would be art by Ms Summers (Or June as she wanted to be called). He wanted to go to the toilet to enjoy a sip of the glass of orange juice, simply pulling things out of thin air was just asking for trouble, when a window appeared.

New Quest: Stalk the Paladin

Find Lady Moira Brighton and follow her around for three minutes without getting spotted.

Reward: 350 Exp.

Optional: Masturbate while remaining unseen

Reward: 1000 Exp.

Accept?

John stared at the window with a slightly tilted head. That optional reward was just ridiculous but so was the condition bound to it. Also why Paladin? Questions for later. Regardless of all that looking for Moira was probably a good idea. She had sensed him, or at least he thought so and spotted him afterwards so he might as well talk to her so he clicked the Accept-Button. Even the base reward was a level-up. Hopefully she wouldn't catch him and ask what he was doing possessing some girls pants though.

Finding Moira was a bit tricky though. He knew that she just had a sports class but that didn't make it easier. Typically the sports classes ended about twenty minutes early so that students had the opportunity to take a shower. If she was somebody who showered quickly she could be anywhere by now. If she showered for as long as possible he wouldn't get a chance to talk to her before the next class started. Which would be a shame because looking at June's tits was one of the best parts of school.

Either way the dressing room was probably the best bet to start the search. He made his way there, doing his bests to stay away from the public eye.

New Skill gained: Sneaking Lvl 1

You sneak, make less noise during movement and are generally harder to spot. Costs 1 MP per 10 seconds.

He looked at his MP: 11. This meant he could do it for 2 minutes exactly when taking regeneration into the calculation. Not bad, probably. He still had to find her though and as such turned the last corner.

Where she just stood leaning against a pillar. Quickly John took a step back to be hidden around the corner. He cowered down, hoping she hadn't seen him. A window opened.

Target found, stay within ten metres or the quest will be failed.

It said and a countdown of three minutes started ticking down.

'Oh fucking fantastic' John moaned into his mind. It was one of those quests. Great thing was he didn't get a little map with a circle in his interface or whatever, he just had to guess where she was. He could use possess on a pillar to look at her. But just once, for twenty seconds and she had sensed him earlier so she would probably do it this time as well. In this situation his best bet was keeping quiet and staying right where he was.

"What are you doing?" Moira asked and looked down at him with a puzzled expression. She must have seen him in the corner of her eyes. John sighed and pressed away the giant 'QUEST FAILED!' Window. 'There goes my free level.' He thought and stood up, at least he didn't start masturbating, that would have been a lot harder to explain.

"Sorry, just thought I dropped something." He lied hastily. "Uh-huh…" the redhead looked not particularly convinced. John took a deep breath. "Weird question but…what is a Golden Rose?" Moira looked at him in shock and pulled him towards a dark corner of the hallway. He couldn't resist, her grip was like iron.

Once they arrived there she whispered "Who told you about that? Who are you?" "J-John, John Newman." He stammered. Her eyes bore down into him as he continued talking. "Sorry, it's just, well, I can see the words 'Warden of the Golden Rose' above your head." Now Moira looked confused again. "I have never heard of such a spell." She muttered and finally let go of his collar.

John pulled at it a bit to fix his uniform. "So, you know magic?" He asked. Moira gave him a stern look, "Of course I do, if you are able to use such weird spells you should be able to feel my mana." "Actually…" John told her how he just woke up with that kind of power today and his experience thus far. "You were the presence I felt earlier!" He had conveniently forgotten to mention what he used that power for but answered with "Yes, I thought you tracked the power back to me so I tried to find you and explain myself. Also, I wanted to find out what is going on."

Moira shook her head, "No, I lack the skills to track powers back to their casters." 'Then who was watching me?' John wondered and finally decided that it had just been his paranoia. "You asked me about the Golden Rose? I think I will have to tell you a lot more. Listen well, your life will depend on it."

Moira started from the beginning. God was real, or at least some power like God. Some called it 'Providence', 'The Natural Law', 'Principle' or simply 'Origin'. Moira herself called it 'the Lady' but the name most people used was Gaia. Gaia was the source of all natural powers that hid beneath the normal society: The Abyss.

Dragons, Gods, Ghosts, Mages and so much more, all of them were real within the Abyss. Whole kingdoms ruled by ancient kings hidden inside smaller dimensional pockets, so called 'Protected Spaces' also known as 'Illusion Barriers'.

These where created to differentiate the real world from the Abyss. As Moira informed John if he used his powers to heavily influence the real world Gaia, meaning the Earth itself, would punish him. For example, if John were to use his powers to make people's wallets disappear in front of their eyes the world would see it fit to make a car crash come his way. However, if he was subtle about it and no one noticed that something was off Gaia would not intervene. It was a matter of how weird the things he did were when compared to common sense.

She went on about how there were two types of fighters in the Abyss. One was the Innate Fighter. These were the people which were granted powers by the world soul itself. These powers corresponded to what a person had experienced in their life. As most of John's life consisted of playing video games, and watching porn doesn't make for a particularly effective power, Gaia had made him 'the Gamer' in real life.

The Second type were Acquired Fighters. These people had to learn martial arts, magic or other techniques on their own. Generally speaking Innate Fighters had a head start. Their abilities were either unique or a strong skill others had to master later. That doesn't mean Acquired Fighters didn't have the ability to overcome those differences though.

Over the generations people had gathered into Clans, Guild and other organizations to protect each other and work towards common goals. These goals reached from simple safety to more specialized activities, such as magic research, information broking or enslaving.

Yes, as she informed John the Abyss was a pretty rough world to live in. If you had mana chances were you would be caught by somebody and used as a living battery to fuel some enchantments. Maybe somebody had a bad day and just killed you in an Illusion Barrier. Kidnapping and mercenary work were pretty standard business, especially here in the U.S.A. where the sheer mass of land made it hard for a single organization to keep control.

"I therefore advise you to keep your head down and not get stronger if you want to stay out of all of this. Currently your mana is so faint that I can't feel it and you should have it stay that way." Moira finished her explanations.

John pondered about what he just heard. "You are telling to just forget about all of this and live a normal life?" He asked. "Yes." "Not gonna do it." Moira was bamboozled. "Didn't you hear me, it's dangerous!" John shrugged, "All I have to do is become strong!" he exclaimed with a motivated expression.

Of course, there was another motivation at the back of his head. If there was no such thing as a government that ruled the Abyss then Polygamy would be completely acceptable. All he needed to do was push his Charisma to a level where women actually wanted to fuck him. The hijinks that were possible with this new world that was opened to him.

It would be dangerous, yeah, but the rewards were pretty tasty. Moira was shaking her head in disbelief. "Either you are a simpleton or just very naïve. Be it as it may, I think we have to return to cla-" She looked at her watch. "Fuck!" She exclaimed in a very unladylike moment. John looked at his own and understood. The lesson was already half over. "The explanation did take a while." John mumbled. Moira sighed in shame, "My perfect record…." "Already ruined, sorry." He said and earned a very pissed off look for that. He didn't even need Observe to succeed to tell that that comment had just cost him a few Relationship Points.

Moira closed her eyes for a moment to calm down. "Anything else you want to know then?" "How do I create these 'Protected Spaces'?" John asked, he felt that was important. Moira showed him, it was a simple act of extending the hand and letting go of energy.

New Skill: Mana Power Attack Lvl 1;

Crude attack with mana. Scales with INT. 10 MP

Not what he wanted but useful anyway.

New Skill: Create Instant Dungeon Lvl 1:

Create a Protected Space. May or may not be filled with monsters, depending on the creators wishes. 5 MP

New Skill: Escape Instant Dungeon Lvl 1:

Leave a Protected Space. Stronger Spaces may not be escaped. 5 MP

These two were what he was after. It was weird to see a copy of the world fall into shatters and vanish as he destroyed his own experimental Protected Space. "Hey, it says I can have them be filled with monsters. What does that mean?"

Moira crossed her arms. "Exactly what it says, I told you Ghosts and the likes exists and few of them are nice. If you give them a place to vent their frustrations at, like a Protected Space, they will." She turned around. "Figure the rest out yourself, I need to make up an explanation for the teacher."

'Fair enough' John thought and left the corner as well. He had a lot to think about.