A full C would’ve been good enough to qualify for further specialist training back during the war. “Were I more talented, I would’ve been there when they stormed central command,” he thought, justifying his low military position as the reason for his survival of the war. He wasn’t lying to himself, even though he was using the truth to justify his own lack of ambition.

“She’ll probably end me if I go rootin’ around in her stuff, but she won’t mind if I check my traits, will she?” he thought, sluggishly swiping through the projection. It flickered and changed to a projection with the title he had expected, but not one that contained what he had expected.

TRAITS Swordsmanship Lesser Gunmanship Lesser Aethermancy Fog Tolerance Greater Rubedo Tolerance Type-2-X Essentia Storage Glyph (Unique) Greater Purgation Arts (Anti-Rubedo Spec. - Unique) S.S.S.S. Arts (Unique)

The corners of his mouth and his eyebrows rose in unison. “Greater tolerance?” he mentally questioned, fully aware of the effects Rubedo had on him, lazily swiping the projection again to get back to the main attribute readout. “Eh, guess it’s right. Gettin’ horny sure is less debilitatin’ than sudden-onset shellshock paralysis.”

His train of thought was smashed clean off its rails by the sound of Spliteye’s voice from outside, ringing out clear as a bell, devoid of the hushed tone she had adopted after their first encounter with one of the Exclusion Zone’s beasts. “We should probably go check on him,” she said. “The overwrite should be done soon.”

There was no verbal response, only the sound of a mess tin being placed on the ground followed by footsteps - ones all too heavy and energetic to be Spliteye. And indeed, it wasn’t - it was the tan amazon that called herself Zelsys, though he doubted the veracity of that name. Then again, he was doing the exact same thing he suspected her of doing.

She poked her head into the doorway, her eyes briefly resting on the Tablet before jumping to his face as a smug smirk formed on her face. “Had a nice nap?” she mocked, not even waiting for him to give a proper response before she added “You sleep like a dead bear. Get up, soup’s getting cold and a certain cyclops wants to overwrite her record next.”

“Y’looked at my-”

“Don’t worry, it didn’t show anything while it was doing its work. Now get up.”

She could see his face flushing - ever so briefly - at the implication of such a benign invasion of privacy as looking at someone’s attributes. Perhaps it was her own lack of social awareness, but something like that came across as no more sensitive than asking someone how much they could lift. The redness came as quickly as it went, and he was none the wiser it had even happened, slowly rising from the bunk and visibly doing all he could to ignore the pain that the Tablet had caused. Zelsys made sure to take note of the name that the Tablet showed just before its projection flickered and faded out.