I was in a daze. It was pure luck that I didn’t encounter any danger on my way back. Or was it Luck? When I crossed into Ikfael Glen’s territory, I felt like I was submerged in cool water. The longing for the mushrooms lessened, and I suddenly had space to think again.

I immediately checked my Status:

Attributes Strength 8 (6) Constitution 8 (5) Agility 8 Intelligence 14 (11) Wisdom 14 (15) Spirit 13 (14) Charm 11 (9) Luck 12 (13) Hit Points 8 Mana 13 Conditions Addiction (III), Sensitive (II)

My Attributes were a mess, and...oof, there it was: Addicted (III). Not like it was a surprise. There was also Sensitive (II). When I focused on it, I felt naked and my nerves exposed to the air.

I ran the rest of the way home.

The otter was waiting at the forest’s edge and brought me to the cave. She’d placed five stone bowls on the ground. The arrangement looked like a combination pentacle and operating table. The otter urged me to undress and lie down in the center.

”Aren’t you going to buy me a drink first? Oh, wait… you kind of already did.”

The otter didn’t get the (weak) joke and just repeated the gestures. I nodded and did as I was told. What else could I do? I just hoped she knew what she was doing.

From the bowl above my head, the otter poured water into the air, where it hovered above me in a blob. She grabbed it and stretched it, forming a flat rectangle from the water. She looked exactly like an otter holding a tablet.

She used the tablet to scan up and down my body. I really wanted to see what it said, but the water was clear from my perspective. All I could see were her eyes moving back and forth, like she was reading.

The otter moved to the bowl on my left and poured its contents onto my forehead. My mind emptied and all my thoughts turned transparent. There was no other way to describe it--I was pure consciousness.

I felt more than saw how everything around me was both heavy and light. Heavy in substance, light in spirit. Curious if that also applied to me, I turned my attention inward and saw a map unfolding, endlessly complex.

Three areas inside my body were lit up--in my belly, in my chest, and in my head. They were whirlpools of light and connecting them were roads the color of stars. A golden syrup marred their cool brilliance.

Conditions Addiction (III), Sensitive (IV)

I glanced at my Status to see if my Conditions changed. Sensitive went from (II) to (IV), no doubt as a result of the otter’s magic. I also noticed how the Status page itself was constructed of pathways.

The otter dipped her paw into the bowl on my right and traced the water onto my skin. A coolness spread through me, and where the water went, the golden syrup was wiped away. Every two or three inches, she washed her paw clean in one of the bowls at my feet.

There was one point, in the middle of the ceremony, when the otter saw something that made her stop and frown. She poked and prodded, but whatever it was, it didn’t budge. Eventually, she gave up and continued.

Along the way, I compared the inner map to what I knew of Taoism and qigong, yoga and Western mysticism. The three large energy centers in my body could easily be qigong’s lower, middle, and upper dantian. And the pathways in between were the meridians. There were other energy structures too, including some that matched up to yoga’s chakras.

But I also sensed that I wasn’t seeing everything. My view was incomplete, like using three-dimensional sight to gaze at a five-dimensional structure. Or like there were layers and connective tissue still invisible to Sensitive (IV). Or the structures were too alien for human understanding.

When the otter finished, she gestured for me to dress and sit. She scanned me one more time with her tablet, pausing at the middle (heart) dantian. She chirped a question.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what you just said.”

She quirked her head, the motion a now-familiar expression of confusion. After a moment’s consideration, the otter sighed and let the tablet dissolve into water. She chirped and gestured, her paws waving at me, the cave, and life in general.

When she saw that I still didn’t understand, she shrugged and left to dive into the pool. Just like that.

“What the fudge?”

I tried to stand to follow after, but my head spun and my legs gave out. She poked her head out of the water, annoyed, and chirped at me, this time much more sternly. She pointed to the moss, and this time I got the message.

“Right, bed rest, I understand.”

She nodded and dived away.

I lay there for a time, meditating on what just happened. The excitement from exploring the System was quickly being tempered by the understanding of just how dangerous this world was. Even simple fetch quests were deadly.

“Status.”

Eight (Hidden Status, Oliver Michael Sandoval) Age 8 Soul Marks God Touched, Spontaneous Formation, Memories of Another World Attributes Strength 8 Constitution 8 Agility 8 Intelligence 14 Wisdom 14 (15) Spirit 13 (14) Charm 11 Luck 12 (13) Hit Points 8 Mana 13 (15) Talents Jack of All Trades Talent Scout Qi Sensitive Blessings Diriktot (Fallen Clockwork God) Helen Miriam Sandoval (Spirit) Ikfael Glen (Spirit, Temporary) Meliune (Goddess of Compassion, Temporary) Curses Conditions Sensitive (I) Skills Artisan Appraisal 5 Construction 8 Pottery 4 Woodworking 8 Domestic Cooking 6 Repairs 6 Magical Qi Body 2 Martial Archery 6 Logistics 11 Marksmanship 6 Strategy 4 Mercantile Accounting 12 Administration 12 Scholarship Biology 5 Chemistry 4 Literacy English 13 Literacy, Spanish 8 Numeracy 8 Physics 4 Social Gaming 12 Relationships 8 Storytelling 10 Spiritualism Meditation 8 Taoism 8 Survival Forest 6 Ocean 3

With a sigh of relief, I saw that Addiction (III) was gone. The otter’s magic was also dissipating, and Sensitive was down to (I).

As for my Attributes, I assumed at first that the numbers in parentheses were temporary bonuses and penalties, but that was wrong. When I focused on them, they turned out to be directions.

In other words, the numbers in parentheses were the direction the Attributes were heading. A Strength 8 (7) meant I was getting weaker over time, while a Wisdom 14 (15) meant I was growing wiser.

The mushrooms were incredibly debilitating given how significant even a 1 point change was in this System. Fortunately, the otter’s ceremony cleansed the penalties, while maintaining the bonuses. Probably because my mind had literally been blown open.

Hmm… my Mana score went up by two points instead of one. My assumption was that Mana was an average of Wisdom and Spirit, rounded down, but now it looked like the average of Wisdom and Spirit, rounded up.

Maybe there were hidden breakpoints? Or a wrinkle in the equation that I didn’t have enough data to see? Or Mana was disconnected from the Attributes entirely and had to be trained separately? Whatever the answer, I needed more data to know for sure.

Oh, there was a new Talent!

When I focused on Qi Sensitive, I felt the benefits of meditation and qigong practice accruing, day after day, year after year--a drop at a time until it was a sea. Superimposed unto this understanding was the recent experience seeing into the nature of reality. Holy sugar on a shingle, but that was a once in a lifetime experience. I shook my head, still not quite down from the high.

I also received my first new Skill, Qi Body. It was even considered magical! Focusing on the Skill brought to mind the map of my body’s meridians. The memory was so clear, like it was etched in glass. And if I concentrated, I could even feel the flow of qi moving through the meridians.

All in all, I survived, and even gained from the experience. The problem was that I needed saving. And not just this time either. Every time. No, that wasn’t quite right. The problem, the real problem, was that I didn’t know enough about this world, and my mistakes were producing deadly consequences.

For the situation to improve, I needed to find a way to recover from my mistakes. To make them less than lethal. If I didn’t, then one day my luck would eventually run out. There wouldn’t always be a Dr. Otter to save the day.