Exploring the Gateway

Once he finished up creating all three spells, John got another popup.

Psychic Connection attunement increased: Attuned to Arcane magic, Psychic connection levelled up

For a moment John didn’t understand why Psychic Connection had levelled up, until he remembered its level task was to gain an Arcane spell through it. At first, this came as a surprise to John, but given he didn’t know of any other way he could gain spells in particular, it made sense.

He then took some time to look through all of his spells to check their categories and discovered that the vast majority of his skills were in the “Gamer” category and that only the three skills he had just obtained were in the “Arcane” category. The others, namely Psychic Connection and Modify Emotion were in the “Psychic” category. Beyond that he found nothing else of significance, and decided instead to go play some video games as he usually did on school nights. Unobstructed by the outside world, he continued until his parents had returned and it had become late enough that he needed to go to sleep. Heading to bed shortly after he noticed that. That was not before he realized that it made sense he had some limit on how many skills he could create, given how easily he could seemingly make them. If he was right to assume Psychic Connection had helped him create those skills, the obvious implication was that it could not do it any longer until he levelled it up.

He drifted off to sleep not much later, trying to keep the worries out his mind.

When he awoke the next morning, he was met with a collection of different popups.

First day and first phase completed. Information will no longer be displayed above other people's heads

It was a strange popup to find first, but it seemed reasonable that his game-esque powers would have some sort of tutorial, and seems like he had finished the first part of it. Closing the first, he noticed another below it.

The second popup reminded him of what he had forgotten in the chaos of the previous day. A quest he had gotten the previous morning. Forgetting it seemed a worthwhile sacrifice, however, as the achievement it gave him allowed him to never forget a quest again and gave him some more stat points as a bonus. John’s Wisdom, which had now increased by four points, finally changed drastically enough that John was able to sense the difference. His mind was now clearer and more focused than it usually was and he remembered more than he ever had before. Interestingly, the popup also seemed to address him directly, like the achievements the previous day, and almost in a teasing manner. Someone was definitely creating these messages, John was sure, but he still thought it was most likely his own mind.

The third gave him XP for completing that same quest, as it was now handed in automatically by the new system he had unlocked through the achievement. It was not much, but it was the first XP he had gotten since he got his powers, and John was excited to see what new quests he would now get.

Next, he got another achievement, which marked him finally completing his first quest. It had also apparently unlocked a new quest screen. The retroactive giving of quests for the day made John even more excited to see what he had gained.

‘Maybe I’ll even go up a level!’ John thought, ecstatic at the interesting concepts now opened to him, and somewhat comforted by the fact he now had quests to guide him. Without any clear direction, he had felt lost, and up to this point, John had been worried he wouldn’t be able to defend himself. So to him, this seemed the solution to his problem, he could do quests to get stronger, and there would be a higher chance he could live through whatever the world will throw at him.

After he had looked at the quest screen, he was hit with six popups for the quests he had already finished, and three more for the new quests he had gotten. They all seemed interesting to John, but strangely, they were all to be based on goals he had set himself, and not goals from whoever had created the system. He wasn’t sure quite what that meant, but clearly they weren’t the normal type of quests you’d get from an NPC in a game.

First, he got a popup for a quest he assumed he would have gotten first, and it was one he was overjoyed to see completed. As it confirmed his suspicions that he had seen people with ties to magic, or possibly even ones with direct access to magic. How many he had apparently found, however, utterly confused him. He had apparently noticed four people with ties to magic, instead of the two he thought he had seen.

Along with the completion popup, John got exactly what he wished for earlier, a level up.

You levelled up: you are now level 4, +5 stat points

John, obviously wanting to spend those stat points, opened up his character sheet for the first time since yesterday morning.

At first John wasn’t sure where to place his newly acquired stat points, so he thought about it for some time.

’Perhaps I should put those points into my Strength or Endurance stats, to increase my chances of surviving a fight if somebody physically attacked me,’ was John’s first line of reasoning. His second, however, convinced him much more than the first one did, ’no. If someone magical attacked me, even if I was average in Strength or Endurance that wouldn’t help. I need to up my Intelligence so I can use Arcane Bolts to fight them off,’ that line reasoning was far more intelligent, but it was too reliant on the possibility of getting into a magical fight to convince John for now, and he had a third one soon enough, ’I should up my Charisma. That way I could get out of some situations where I would be in danger without fighting. Maybe I won’t horribly fail at the date today, and I might just make it through questioning Melody or Aria for information,’ John concluded, deciding to go with the third, as it seemed the best course of action. When the Gamer did so, he changed, his whole posture, the way he walked, all transformed somewhat. From those of a socially awkward nerd to those of a somewhat less socially awkward nerd. John didn’t notice this, but what he did notice was the cherry on top, a notification he got after upping his Charisma to 14.

Charisma raised to above 10: Passive skill “Gravitas” gained

Gravitas was a particularly interesting skill to John. Weirdly, it seemed to not be entirely positive, though it could definitely be used that way. It could have negative consequences because it was said to increase the impact of all of his actions and interactions. Presumably, that meant both positive and negative ones, so he would have to be more careful with what he did from now on. His newly heightened Charisma had changed his understanding of social contexts a bit, so while he didn’t yet know this, he would find such an ability easier to manage.

Now that he had finished applying his stat points and looking at Gravitas, he returned to looking at the quest popups. Sadly, none of them were as beneficial to him as the first one.

John felt his heart start to beat more quickly when he saw that quest. Just the mention of Alice made it pound, and it represented a time he would not soon forget. When he finally succeeded in his desire to be with her. Knowing he didn’t have much time and getting the quest completed popup, he returned to thinking about his powers.

That 150 XP would make itself useful, John was sure of that. More than that, however, he was curious to see what the next quest was.

This was the final quest John had seen on the completed column in the quest screen. Even more than the prospect of more XP, however, he was excited by the quest giving him level ups as rewards. Curious to see how they would affect the skill as well as grateful he didn’t have to work for them. He was also comforted by the fact that both his defensive and offensive capabilities now got an upgrade.

As he expected, after he saw the quest complete screen, he saw two popups indicating the level ups of his skills. The first was for Arcane Bolts.

Arcane Bolts level awarded: Arcane Bolts levelled up

While it still cost the same, the newly levelled up Arcane Bolts was now much better. Doing about double the damage and allowing him to manifest up to twelve bolts at once. It even seemed that the level task had remained as he had gotten a level from outside that system.

The second popup held much the same for Arcane Barrier.

Arcane Barrier level awarded: Arcane Barrier levelled up

Instead of becoming more powerful, the level for Arcane Barrier made it much cheaper to create and also made it cheaper to maintain. Additionally giving him more distance to play around with. Once he had looked at both of the skill popups, John returned to look at the popups of the final three quests he had gotten.

The first quest was one that clearly aligned with John’s goals, as he had wanted to find out who had caused the strange sensation and blocked his ability to use Psychic Connection during Wentworth’s class. The reward for the optional objective was clearly the best part of it, as Observe was his main way to get information. Given that it worked on Aria and Melody, and might work on other magical people in the future, it seemed too good to pass up.

The second quest was one he was anxious to complete but also very scared of. He still knew almost nothing about any of the people that he could talk to in order to complete the quest. Since he didn’t, he would need to be extremely careful about how he got that information. John also wondered what skill it would give him if he found out what or who Gaia was.

'I do need to find out who they are… They’re the most likely candidate for who gave me these powers, after all. Or at least, they’re the ones that told me about them, in that dream. It is strange how I even get XP from all this, though. Perhaps part of my power is enhancing myself too?' John wondered, not exactly sure what to make of all this.

The third was one that John was fairly nervous about, as he wasn’t sure how the date with Alice would actually go. In an almost ironic way, what most grabbed his attention was that item he might get, and he became determined to see what it was.

Pondering it for a few minutes, John’s eyes began wandering around the room. He soon saw the clock and realized how much time had passed, it was already twenty minutes past seven. In a rush, he dressed, got everything ready, and headed downstairs. Once he was there, he grabbed some of the food his mom had made and started eating it hastily. A few minutes later, the bus honked outside and he ran out to meet it. When he got on the bus, he first saw that Brad was strangely missing, Tiffany sitting alone in one of the front seats. Then, he looked for Alice and found her sitting with an empty seat beside her.

“Good morning Alice”, John said.