The eyes of what I had first thought of as a human, were solid black. Except that every now and again there would be a spark of light in them, as if a distant explosion took place inside their depths. I could not see much more than the creature's eyes though, with him so close. He moved in even further, flattening my nose.

"Once again, welcome!"

I felt uncomfortable and unsettled. Just then, the creature pulled back and straightened, looking down at me. He was slim and tall, aside from the eyes he looked human. But no matter how I tried, I could not get a grip on the details about him. Only his wide creepy, white smile and deep dark eyes stood out and was discernible. The rest was like an out of focus backdrop, I knew I could see it, but it also eluded my mind.

"Have you ever wondered how leveling up works?" The question made me blink in surprise, I did wonder, and had done so only some hours earlier. I hoped it was just hours at least.

"It is strange, is it not, that no one speaks of leveling up. How does it work? What happens? How can it be, that all of a sudden you have a higher Perfection score..." His hand snaked out and grabbed my left breast, squeezing hard enough to make me scream.

He once more shoved his face close, strange eyes staring into mine as the pain made tears run down my cheeks as he mauled me. Before just as abruptly letting me go.

I fell backwards, discovering that the bunk I had been sitting on was just gone. I fell the extra distance hitting my butt hard against the ground, and sending a jolt of pain streaking up my back.

"... and just like that, you are more appealing to those around you. Or your Constitution increases and all of a sudden you can take more of a beating!"

I did not even see him move before he was next to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me sideways before slapping my butt hard where I had just landed. The pain sent a another shock through my body as I was starting to truly panic. All the while he smiled his wide, creepy, sickening smile.

"Or your Willpower makes you able to handle what life throws your way. Strange is it not?"

Once more he was just standing a distance away looking down at me, seemingly without moving through the the intervening space. I was rubbing my hurting breast, sobbing, as I hoped this was just a sick and strange dream.

"This is what happens, this is where that fabulous experience is traded, bartered, sold and made into whatever you fleshy creatures desire. At wonderful rates too!" The creature struck a pose holding its arms out wide, like a street performer waiting for applauds.

With effort I was starting to get a hold of myself, this was just too bizarre. I took a deep shaking breath as I got myself under control. I was catching on to something here, which helped me to calm down. While I was still scared, having something to figure out and unravel, was comforting. Familiar.

My suspicion was that this was all an act, a performance. The goal was to make me unsettled and afraid, so far it had been quite successful. This creature wanted something from me. From the sounds of it, he wanted my experience. He claimed this was how you leveled up, but I had no way of knowing if that was true. Would agreeing to anything here affect me? Was it all a lie? The pain felt real, but would I wake up bruised?

I looked around, everything around me was covered in a gray fog, the only thing to be seen was the creature.

He stared at me for a while longer before sighing, shoulders slumping.

"It does work more often than you would think. Men, women, you name it. Grope them a bit and act creepy and they fall all over themselves just to get away. I have made fabulous deals that way!"

He once more struck a pose while I stared at him in bafflement. Sure, I had been catching on, possibly. But did he not give up too quickly? Games within games. I rubbed my forehead. Obviously I was not affected by the Infusion Sickness, wherever this place was, or I would quite probably have reacted as he desired.

"I have no way of verifying anything you say, so how could I possibly agree to a deal?"

My voice was far more firm and clear than I had expected, with more than a hint of anger. The creature winced.

"I hate the smart ones, at least have the decency to gain Intelligence after we have made a deal!" His eyes became unfocused for a moment, as he stared out into space, before abruptly getting in my face again.

"This is wonderful, you are special! I love special! I love different! You have no idea what is normal and I can trick you in oh so many fabulous ways! You just do not know any better and all will be just swell!"

Having said that the creature started dancing around, making strange noises that might have been singing, but I could not tell for sure. I lay down on my back and closed my eyes. This was too absurd to be real. It had to be a dream. If everyone went through this, the world would have gone insane. More insane. This could not be how you leveled up.

I let out a grunt as a heavy weight settled on my stomach. I opened my eyes to see the creature sitting on me, staring down. He was not smiling anymore.

"You are not playing the game." His voice sounded cold and hard, and somehow more articulate than before, certainly less jovial.

"Why should I?" I tried to sound calm and uncaring. The number of unknowns here were far too many, and a creature with a predisposition towards abuse was sitting on me.

The creature frowned down at me, he then sighed and was just gone.

I sat up and looked around. The gray fog remained, but there was no creature in sight. He would no doubt show up soon to scare me. I lay back down again and tried to prepare for that.

The world changed. From one moment to the next I went from lying down in the fog; to sitting up in a comfortable chair inside a small room, near a blazing fireplace with a cup of something hot in my hands. The aches and pains I had been feeling were just gone. Across from me sat a man in an expensive looking suit. He was older, slightly graying at the temples with a well trimmed beard and long black hair flowing down to his shoulders. And creepy black eyes.

I sat there staring at him as he sipped from his cup. Then a smile started to spread across my face.

"Oh, how annoying. Well, yes, you figured it out." The man spoke with what seemed to be genuine annoyance.

"There are still rules though, you have to agree to a deal."

"Experience."

The man glared at me now.

"You have 311 Experience. " He answered, tone clipped.

"How often do I get to meet one of you?" The question was probing, but I asked anyway, curious if he had just given up or if this was another part of their game.

Now he looked truly disgusted.

"Fine, no more games! You can negotiate every ten levels if you have left room for it. No agreements may be changed unless all parties agree."

"Are there more parties than you and me then?"

"Yes!" I could still not be sure if this was more of a trick, but I had either managed to confirm something, or I had been truly fooled.

"Our offer is two Attributes per level, and a Trait or Ability every three, from a list of appropriate choices."

I considered that for a moment. Was this why no one would talk about gaining levels? Would I be able to remember this deal the next time, if there was one?

"Four Attributes, define appropriate choices."

"Appropriate choices is a well established term. It means anything with a value of seventy percent or less of the value of a level and something that can be feasibly called relevant to class, actions, skills or lifestyle."

He sounded like he was repeating something by rote, so not a new questions then.

"Who makes the call of what is feasible then?"

"We do." The pronouncement made that seem very final. Which made me very skeptical. I sat back and sipped what turned out to be a very nice ... something, while considering. There were so many ways this was being manipulated in their favor that it was hard to put my finger on where the greatest problem lay.

The choice of Traits and Abilities could be a big deal, but I had never heard of anyone bemoaning their Abilities or Traits, quite the contrary. No doubt they were normally good and relevant. So that was a distraction then?

I decided to go for what I felt was the more obvious flaw and made a counteroffer.

"Four Attributes, Traits or Abilities at the value of the level where the choice is being made and the level just before that."

The creature looked at me calmly, with a wide smile. I reminded myself not to be overconfident, there was still a chance I was being fooled here, in fact it was overwhelmingly likely. His reaction made me afraid I had missed something, which made my guts clench. But I could not think of anything, maybe I was not as clearheaded as I had thought.

"Three Attributes, a Trait or Ability at or lower than seventy percent of the sum of the three levels it concerns, efforts will be made to make certain all choices are highly relevant."

I considered that, it averaged out to be even over the levels, which was more in their favor, if I considered that at some point I would probably stop gaining levels. It did make it clear though, that three Attributes were far less valuable than thirty percent of a level. Did the cost increase the higher an Attribute got? Or would their gain from that part of the deal go up and up the higher level I became?

I decided to hold off on that for a moment.

"What happens every ten levels?"

The creature put his cup away and leaned forward.

"You get to choose a special Ability that is worth more than usual or have a class evolve or similar. But you forgo your Attributes and that level does not count towards the three." I nodded slowly.

"And I come here for that?" The creature shook his head.

"You only come here if there is a reason to negotiate."

"At what value is the special Ability?"

"We have the special offer of ninety percent, just for you!"

I did not actually know the experience cost of levels so I had to ask.

"Would that be worth more than the Trait or Ability before and after?"

"Before, yes, by a lot. After, no. But by that time you would be a third of the way towards the next special Ability! And special Abilities are special! They offer things normal ones do not. Or evolved classes, that is very important!"

"I see, I would like to add that no Ability or Trait should be worth significantly less than the seventy percent mentioned, and an effort should be made to make them close in value."

The creature's smile seemed a bit forced.

"Are we in agreement then?" He held out his hand and I shook my head, making him frown.

"Does the cost of increasing an Attribute increase as the Attribute gets higher?" He blinked in surprise.

"Yes."

"At the same rate as experience values for levels?" His face went completely blank, but I could see something dark and dangerous start to show in his eyes. The sparks of light had started to shift and change. I got a very unsettled feeling. I decided not to push too far, but push some never the less. It could be another trick, was there something about Attributes he did not want to tell me?

"Lets say three Attributes per level for the first nine, and increase that by one additional Attribute per level, for every tenth." I sat back, hoping this would not end up with me being very dead. That was when it struck me that I had just assumed I knew how leveling worked. Far too much of this was assumptions based on what I had been told by the very creatures I was negotiating with.

"I think you should explain the mechanics of levels instead of me fumbling in the dark, and make telling the truth a part of the deal."

The creature looked disgusted as it began to speak.

"We agree to not tell an untruth..."