“Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.”

Leo Buscaglia

It might be uncharted territory but sometimes you just needed to wake your sister up to find out another story and I wasn’t in the mood to wait another moment for it.

“ . . . . zzzzzzzzzzzz!” Aleera pretended to fall asleep.

‘You’ll see when you get your stats.’ What did she mean? Was she just trying to sound worldly and older than she was or had I missed out on something? Who knew?

“What they look like?” I quizzed and poking her, not falling for her poor pretend effort at feigning sleep. I had managed to get a better hold on my super senses now able to filter out overwhelming stimuli and focus on something in particular. In this case, it was my sister and how she was or rather wasn’t sleeping. At least not yet, as her fake slow breathing gradually quickened up a little as she stopped pretending that she was asleep.

My syntax was gradually improving as I learnt more of the language and let a little more of who I really was come through. I had my family, we were hiding out here on Ash Island and I was beginning to realise that they would move heaven and earth to keep us safe.

Taking a big sigh and resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to let go back to sleep without answering a few more of my questions. “Mine looked like a string of pearls, same as mother’s and father’s stats do. They would tell you all of this if you asked them.”

“Pearls?” Mine didn’t look like that. Had playing the odd video game or being aware of what a Dungeons and Dragons character sheet looked like affected how my stats looked to me even if I had never been a keen player of either games?

“Yes, lines of Pearls for each stat. My stats for vitality were red pearls, my stats for strength were represented with orange, my endurance was yellow pearls, my dexterity was green pearls, while my senses appeared as blue and my mind as purple. Unlike some little monsters I know I hadn’t learned how to read yet so they didn’t come with labels back then only a sense of what each stat did.”

So everyone’s stats looked different to themselves I guess that would make sense if there were illiterate people in the world how would they be able to read or understand them otherwise. Kind of made creating a false status redundant even if they could actually see mine as they wouldn’t actually understand it as it was written in English! Suppose I would have to make my false status written in Bussola, unless the system somehow translated it for them, where was the rule book when you needed it. This life was no different from my first there was no rule book there either and as game-like as this life seemed to be sometimes there didn’t seem to be a rule book here either.

“When did you get them? Will I get them soon then?” I asked convinced that maybe I probably shouldn’t actually be able to see them yet. I knew I must be ahead of the curve with some of my stats but by how much I didn’t know.

“Sometime between age 4 and five, closer to four than 5, so earlier than most. I can’t quite remember but I am sure that mother and father could tell you how old I was. We had a nice little party to celebrate my stats coming in.” she went on to describe a little party that the family and extended family had held for her. Did this mean I was 4 or 5 years ahead of the curve in terms of stats and skills? I had already been disabused of my super baby status after meeting with the merchant and realising that nobility could buy their way to the top of the pile through literally buying experience through one form or another for their children so doubted that my level would ever be higher than a child with the full backing of their noble house behind them. They might not start with as many stats as I may have had but each level they get bought for them would come with the extra points that they could allocate to their stats. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the princes and princesses of the compass kingdom would start their lives with a possibly obscene amount of stats the majority of the population would never have access to.

“How many stats did you have then?” I quizzed wondering if I could get her to tell me more. She was being a little more talkative than usual perhaps the fact that we were back here for an indeterminate amount of time once again was weighing on her and her talking partners were limited to her family once more.

“I’m not telling you how many stats I have or points I have to allocate.” She raised an eyebrow at me. In the dark, I don’t know why she thought that would be effective but even in the low light, I could see her well enough to get the message.

“No, I mean how many did you start off with. You know when you were four or five. How many will I start off when I’m 4 or 5?” I backpedalled hoping to gain a base for comparison.

“Well, you’re a little monster so I have no idea how much you will start with but I started with 10. Which is a fair amount and I was earlier to unlock than most plus I had gained enough experience to unlock somewhere above level 5!” She said proud of her achievements and seemed to have forgotten that she wasn’t going to tell me her levels and stats. Although I guess they would have changed in the last 4 years that she had been alive.

“10 of what? Which stat? Were the points spread?” Finally getting some information I was keen to keep soaking up as much as I could.

“10 of everything.” She shrugged smiling.

“What?” I frowned confused. When my status had appeared I had 0 in most things except mind. How could you start with such a higher base? But thinking on it 6 months after gaining consciousness I had entered the world with the majority of my stats starting around 10 with the exceptions of the ones I had been able to work on in the womb, senses, mind and magic. Clarity had improved too so making it to term was clearly more dangerous than I had thought it had been.

“10 vitality, 10 endurance, 10 strength, 10 dexterity, 10 senses and 10 mind and 10 magic. I hadn’t had the pleasure of my clarity being unlocked yet. That happened the next month after staying with Grandfather.” She frowned in turn probably remembering an equally unpleasant experience with him.

“10 of everything? Does everyone start with 10? What if I get 100 strength will I be stronger than you?” 10 didn’t seem as much as she was making it out to be and I had over twice that now in my physical stats let alone my mental stats and the more eclectic stats I had managed to unlock.

“Ha, no. You are still a baby you are limited by your vessel, your body. An ant might have a strength of 100 and be able to lift 20 times its own size but it’s still only an ant. It would still get squashed under our feet even if it had a 100 in vitality and 100 in endurance. There is only so much stats can do. Just like we would get squashed if we me some of the beasts out there. Even if you had 100 in all your stats Kai your still going to be my little brother. I’m going to be stronger than you for a lot longer yet. Although you are freakishly smart and a monster for having unlocked your magic somehow.”

“Oh,” I said disappointed to hear that physics limited stats although perhaps relieved that the ants wouldn’t be able to take their revenge one day unless oversized ants were living somewhere, which seeing as this whole world seemed to be a mix of myth and fantasy that might not be as far removed from reality as I might be hoping. I guessed it made sense. I might be super strong . . . for a baby and although I thought I had managed to run my older sister ragged keeping up with me it might have been more about my stamina and attempts to escape than my strength and speed. Also, her exhaustion was probably more caused by her attempts to keep me safe from myself than any physical challenge I posed to her. I guess I was still a baby and it would take time to grow into my stats. But I wasn’t completely convinced on this. I was able to outperform any baby I had ever heard of and as I turned into a toddler I felt it wouldn’t be long before I was giving her a run for her money. My insane vitality stat that I had had from the moment I was born had given me a crazy amount of stamina throughout my earliest development allowing me to stay mentally awake for far longer than would be normal even if I had looked asleep to everyone else. There had to come a point when stats overpowered the limits of my ‘vessel’. But so far it was my mental stats along with my access to magic that allowed me to achieve the unbelievable. It would be a while before my physical stats caught up if ever. They should probably be where I invested my points when I was finally, one day, able to allocate them.

“Well if you awaken your Stats before five yes most people start at 10 or around there. Although if you access them later than five then maybe you will awaken with slightly different levels of stats.” She explained. “But most people awaken their stats around five and everybody does before 10 when you are finally able to allocate your free points.”

“How many points do you have?” I raise an eyebrow even though she can’t see it and not expecting an answer, nothing ventured nothing gained.

“Secret.” She purses her lips not pleased at my continuing questioning.

“What level are you?” I asked raising both eyebrows and biting my own lips.

“That’s the same question stupid, and still secret!” she answered.

“Does everybody start around level one to five?” I consider the different awakenings other people seem to have had. However, to most babies, toddlers and children how useful would a stat screen be other than as a system given baby crib mobile to distract them with coloured pearls?

“Nobody says explicitly but it gets harder and harder to level up so I doubt that anyone can awaken to their stats any higher than level 10 in the first 5 to 10 years of their lives. Although there are tales of heroes and kings who must have had unbelievably strong stats and start in life to achieve half of what they are rumoured to have achieved in their rises to fame during their youth.”

Well, I was definitely ahead of the curve but did I want to be a hero or king. Not really. They both sounded incredibly dangerous and or taxing to do. I just wanted to be strong, safe and secure. Then once that was achieved independence and explore the world on my own terms. But family seemed to have different expectations of me depending on which family member you listened to.

Sister was happy with me making her money through selling my magic made salt, but I didn’t want to spend my whole life simply making money besides she would soon saturate the local market if we kept going on. Father clearly wanted me to follow in his footsteps or rather his wake sailing around the lake, but again while there was clearly a lot more to explore on the crater lagoon and I certainly loved sailing it was not the sole thing I wanted to do with my life. Mother was happy hearing me hum so singing was definitely an option with her, but how successful would any singer be here in a world without the radio, tv or internet. Most musicians made their money by selling their songs. Did recording and playing devices even exist here in a world that seemed medieval at best? Finally, there was magic, becoming a mage was a dream of mine however without a school or a teacher how much would I actually be able to learn and any hope of entering society looking for them according to my family at least was like painting a target on your back. Still perhaps as a noble, there might be a way to do it a little more safely. Not that being a noble had proven particularly safe so far. Something to think about certainly.

“Right I’m tired and I’m not answering anymore of your questions Kai.” She said. “Time to go to bed.”

“But I’m not tired.” I jokingly complained.

“Night Kai.” She pointedly ended the conversation

Left to my own devices and bored without the internet to keep me entertained I dove into my head to continue with my work in my mind fortress world-building details to my home away from home and practising the odd skill each one taking longer and longer to level up without real-world experience to help them grow.

"Night Aleera," I whispered as she fell asleep and I fell into my own head.