"John, I just hit level 10!" After more than two hours, Aurora's happy voice came through.
John finished off the last werewolf in front of him and sighed in relief, rubbing his tired body.
This session had lasted ten hours. The system had already told him to log off.
He took the loot Aurora had gathered and said, "I'll take you up after I leave the starting village."
"Okay," Aurora said, reluctantly nodding. Then she thought of something and added, "Oh, I have something good for you."
She pulled out a scroll from her pack and gave it to John.
"What is this?"
John looked at it curiously.
[Revival Scroll: Special item. When used, it disappears. If you die within 30 minutes, you can revive at the same spot with no loss.]
"Revival Scroll!" John gasped, and quickly said, "This is too valuable. You should keep it yourself."
He knew how rare this item was. It was worth 100,000 gold coins and was hard to get.
Priests had a resurrection spell, but that required a priest at Stage 7.
This Revival Scroll could only be made by a priest at Stage 7 with the Advanced Engraving Art skill. Since Aurora was from the Aurelia family, she probably didn't have many of these.
Aurora shook her head. "I won't be in danger in the game. You have a dangerous hidden quest. I can't help you. Take this scroll."
John hesitated for a moment, then didn't refuse. "Okay, thanks."
Aurora smiled when he took it. "Let's go back to the starting village. Someone is telling me to log off."
The two returned to the starting village and logged off one after another.
...
John's consciousness came back to the real world. He felt totally sore and his spirit was drained.
"Looks like I need to get an Artifact Core as soon as possible. I need to merge my stats with the real world," he stretched his body and muttered to himself.
Once his stats were merged with the real world, his Constitution would get a huge boost, letting him play longer.
Some players with high Spirit stats could even play for more than seven days straight.
But that needed a Nutrient Tank, which could give the body energy in real life. John couldn't even think about that. The cheapest one was 1 million gold coins. He couldn't afford it.
But even if he just merged his stats, his game time would increase each day.
John looked at the time. It was already past six in the evening. The room was quiet. Isolde was probably still in the game.
He didn't think much of it and stood up, heading to the bathroom.
John opened the bathroom door. Isolde was sitting on the toilet, scrolling on her phone. They locked eyes for a second.
"Ah!"
Isolde screamed, her face full of panic. "Y-you, get out first!"
"Sorry, Isolde! I didn't know you were in there!" John panicked and quickly backed out, closing the door. He said awkwardly, "Isolde, I'll go make dinner first."
"O-okay," Isolde said, her face burning. She was used to not locking the door when she went to the bathroom. She forgot there was someone else in the house.
Dinner was simple but nice.
Isolde still praised John, and she had already forgotten the awkward moment in the bathroom.
"John, what level are you?" she asked curiously.
"I just hit level 10," John didn't hide it.
"What?" Isolde gasped, shocked. "You, you just got into the game! How did you get to level 10 so fast?"
John nodded. "I had a little luck. Got a few good things along the way."
He didn't tell her about his natural talent.
"Is that fast?" Isolde gave him an exasperated look.
She remembered when she leveled up. She had stayed in the starting village for more than twenty days. Every day, she played for over eight hours.
She knew John's so-called "luck" wasn't normal. But she didn't ask more.
After dinner, Isolde leaned back on the sofa, took off her shoes, and showed her white and soft feet. She boredly scrolled through her phone.
John felt a little awkward. He said, "Isolde, I'm going back to my room to rest."
"What time is it? Don't you have a night life?" Isolde frowned and said, "Come sit with me for a while."
"Okay." John nodded and sat back down on the sofa.
Neither of them said anything. The atmosphere got a little awkward for a moment.
Isolde scrolled her phone, and sometimes she secretly looked at John. She bit her red lip, her face turned slightly red, and she cursed in her mind. This guy was just a block of wood.
She made a soft sound, and a post caught her attention. She frowned and said, "John, someone is talking bad about you."
She held her phone and moved closer to John.
"Rascal John! A girl who was hurt by him tells her story."
John guessed who posted it.
A girl? That woman was really shameless.
John laughed coldly, but he still clicked on the post out of curiosity.
Sure enough, it had all sorts of lies about him.
A girl named Nancy claimed she dated him for three years and gave everything. But in the end, she got dumped...
"What a dirty woman. How dare she post this fake stuff?" Isolde said, gritting her teeth in anger.
The post described John as a total jerk - selfish, two-faced, mean, bullying classmates, threatening the dean, getting kicked out of the school, even using the whole school as an excuse to vent.
And she, along with the old dean and Macbeth, were all innocent victims.
John wasn't really affected. He said calmly, "Just a petty clown. Ignore it."
"No way. You didn't see all those people online who are calling you names?" Isolde was angry and posted a reply to clear his name.
But soon, her reply was drowned in a flood of insults. Even she got attacked.
"A bunch of ignorant jerks!" she shouted in anger.
"Isolde, if we get angry, we're falling into her trap. Ignore it," John took the phone and closed the post right away.
He didn't care about their insults. He had said he would make the graduation rate of this year's Karlove Academy students zero, and he would do it.
"You're really calm," Isolde said, giving him a look, and took the phone back. She continued scrolling, and said, "But you really are a heartbreaker now. Look, a lot of big groups want to recruit you."
She leaned in a little closer and said, "Too bad they're all small groups near Karlove Academy. If you got attention outside, maybe you could have a chance to get into a higher school."
"It doesn't matter. I'm still getting stronger," John said calmly. He had really wanted to get into a higher school before. But now that he had awakened his Divine Gift talent, it didn't matter anymore.
"Then it's not the same. Let me check if there's any higher school that accepts students with special cases," Isolde said, scrolling through the recruitment pages of various colleges.
John felt a sweet scent near his nose. Isolde was almost right in front of him, her long lashes fluttering, her clear eyes reflecting the light from the phone screen. Her face was as smooth and perfect as jade, her red lips beautiful and tempting.
Without thinking, he leaned in and kissed her.
Isolde's eyes widened. She felt like she'd been shocked. Her body trembled slightly. Her phone slipped from her hands and hit the carpet with a thud.
She wanted to pull away, but her body reacted on its own. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tightly as if afraid he'd run away. She kissed back, awkwardly and shyly.
But the next second, his teeth gently parted her lips. They kissed deeply, and a strange feeling filled their hearts.
After a long while, both of them felt a little out of breath and reluctantly pulled apart.
Isolde was breathing heavily, her head down, her face red, her eyes misty.
John gently lifted her chin, looking into her beautiful, clear eyes, and said seriously, "Isolde, be my girlfriend."
"Okay," Isolde said, her eyes downcast, not looking at him, but giving a soft answer.
John was happy, his heart racing. He leaned in again and kissed her deeply.
Finally, he got it!
Tears slid down Isolde's eyes as she kissed him back passionately.
John's hands moved, slipping under her nightgown, touching her soft, smooth breasts...
"Yeah..."
Isolde moaned, her body shaking from the feeling on her chest.
"Stop, John. Not here. Let's go back to your room, okay..." She struggled slightly, her voice begging.
"Okay," John picked her up and carried her to his room.
"Come to my room. The bed is bigger..." Isolde buried her face in his chest, her voice barely audible.
It was the first time John had seen Isolde's room. A soft blue tone, fresh and elegant, filled with a pleasant, calming fragrance.
He didn't take time to look around. He roughly put her on the bed, climbed on top of her, and kissed her hard, his hands moving to undo her loose nightgown.