“Are you calling my cooking bad?” Even though the older girl—Gabriella—was crying, Castor still laughed.

“Just the food,” Gabriella replied after she wiped her face. Still, she ate the food he served.

Castor chuckled again; It’s not like she was lying. “What altar did you pick?”

Gabriella didn’t answer until she cleaned everything on her plate. “Expertise—”

“I picked Dream!” Diana interjected.

“Hold on, I think I got something for this.” Micah bragged, flicking imaginary screens with his fingers. “Accept the invite.” He said with a final click.

Micah has invited you into his party

Accept? Y/N

“What’s this?” The screen pushed itself in the center of Castor’s vision, no matter where he turned his head. It was so pervasive, so unlike the screens Castor’s seen so far.

“I finally got my Sprite.” Micah grinned when Castor accepted the invitation. “I think you’re gonna like this.”

Several windows flew past Castor’s vision. Similarly, he could see Gabriella and Diana gape in confused awe.

Party formation successful.

Status Identification and

Tutorial Guide extended to party members.

Ether Generation enhanced.

Quests and Paths Generated

Welcome to Badass Central

“…Really? You couldn’t make it anything else?” Gabriella asked Micah

“My party, my name.” The teenage boy stuck out his tongue.

Several windows flew past Castor’s vision, each one a treasure trove of information. Similarly, he could see Gabriella and Diana gape in confused awe. Castor felt his heart drum in excitement; names were finally given to his scores, any lacking entries were given explanations, and a couple of other things filled his status.

Castor Dark Human

Role:

PWR:0.4 ???

MND:0.2 ???

ATM:1.4 ???

Twilight: 69G

RP:8/8

Abilities: Aural Synesthesia

Skill List: Alter (Ra), Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Ba), Intuition (Uc), Bond (Inc), Unarmed Combat Proficiency (Ba), Perseverance (Uc)

Blue Canivora

Bloodline: Canine

RP:7/7

Skill List: Guard (Ba), Bite (Ba), Bond (Ra), Alter (Ra)

Spell List: Shadow Sneak (Ba)

“Now it’s starting to feel like a game.” Castor said excitedly, almost blowing through the rest of his Twilight to blow through his new path, but he just barely held himself back. Instead, he took a moment to peruse the new entries in his status.

“Hey, do you—” He was about to ask Micah if he knew anything about the path, but was interrupted by a flash of light. When it subsided, a stone sphere manifested in front of Micah.

“What’s that?”

“A Traveler’s Kit.” Micah enunciated, savoring every syllable. Unlike the magically summoned rocks before, the stone that appeared in Micah’s hand was unblemished and a perfect sphere, like it was crafted by hand instead of picked up from the side of the road

Micah pushed his energy—his mana—around the sphere. The Traveler’s Kit—only through the air, and steadily surrounded the stone. The Traveler’s Kit only accepted mana his when the resource enveloped it completely, steadily feeding on the surrounding energy. The crackling blue energy was continually drained to the point that Castor couldn’t actively sense anything with [Aura Synethesia], hallucination or not.

The rock pulsed once, and when Micah released his grip, it hung in the air affixed to a single point. “Be glad we don’t have to go through the same grindfest Rifts & Boundaries would’ve put us through to get these. With these, I’m officially a Player.” He squealed in excitement.

Castor poked at the sphere in doubt. His finger phased through its surface, like it wasn’t even there. “Is this a drone or something?”

“It’s a Traveler’s Kit.” Micah swiped the suddenly corporeal rock out of the air as he repeated himself. He said every word again—except this time slowly, as if he was speaking to a foreigner.

“That doesn’t explain shit.” Castor said with a deadpan expression.

“Apart from all their lore and convenience?” Micah smirked, “They’re the key to operating a monolith, but more importantly, it can also act as a compass to the nearest one.”

Micah fumbled with his kit, before throwing it in the air. Instead of falling to the ground, the stone caught itself at the apex of its toss and emitted a soft blue light in every direction. Beans shot out randomly before every ray concentrated into a single direction.

Right through a crack in the boarded window into the dark night.

An awkward silence filled the air, followed by a whine from Blue. Through their bond, Castor could sense that Blue understood—at least on some level—that they would have to leave the safe walls behind.

I think we all don’t want to leave. Castor could see the little signs from just a look around the room. How Gabriella hugged her little sister quietly as Diana trembled, while Micah chewed at his fingernails. He stared at the cracks between the furniture; maybe for answers, or maybe for more monsters.

His Traveler’s Kit was no longer shining a light, nor was it even visible, floating in some kind of inert mode. Castor only knew it was there due to the way light bent around it, and how his head hurt whenever he tried to stare at it for too long.

Castor pinched the bridge of his nose to relieve the pain behind his eyes. He didn't know what to do, so he did the only thing he could do. He explored his status, occasionally giving into Blue's constant demand for scratches, which was several times more annoying with a mental connection instead of being a physical nuisance.

Power

Force created by the Body

Physical Strength

Mind

Mental Elasticity and

Learning Capabilities

Mental Strength

Attunement

Harmonization of Existence

Strength of Correlation

Aural Synesthesia (Hidden)

Experience the blending

Of sensation through aura

Alter (Rare)

Alter your Alignment to various Aspects

Scores: ATM, ???

Available Aspects:

Dire, Malice

Intuition (Uncommon)

Unranked 4

Attain immediate insight

without direct cognition.

Scores: ???

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Basic)

Unranked 4

Skillfully wield blunt weapons

Score: POW

Bond (Incomplete)

Unranked 10

Create a lasting connection

between you and another entity

Score: ATM

Unarmed Combat Proficiency (Basic)

Skillfully wield your own

body to defeat foes

Score: POW

Perseverance (Uncommon)

Unranked 2

Push forward through obstacles

Continue despite limits

Scores: ???, MND

Paths Revealed!

Forerunner (0/100), Beginner (0/100)

Twilight: 69G

Quest Log

Emergency Trial Awaken Secondary Scores Find an Obelisk

Castor clicked everything he could, eager to gain any information. Many entries didn’t have an explanation for them; like the name, race, or question marks. Yet, he was excited to see the full names and explanations of his stats and skills.

A cool rush swirled in his gut as he traced every word in every blue square in his vision. His coins were burning a hole in his metaphorical pocket. Can I get even more?

Castor tugged on his bond, asking Blue to come. The mental action was slower than a thought, but everytime Castor used the skill, it became less alien and clear. Blue guiltily walked in the room and sat in front of him, with eyes more intelligent than they should be.

With a mouth covered in drool and rice.

“Did you eat all the food?” Castor asked. The dog in question only looked away, doing anything not to meet Castor’s eyes.

“You’re lucky,” Castor sighed. “Do what you did earlier.” He pressed on their bond to impart the meaning until Blue caught his drift. He protested through their bond, but stretched his whole body in preparation anyway.

Bond Expanded!

Unranked 11

“So what should I pick?” Gabby asked Micah.

The two boys went into separate corners without speaking to each other and looked through their status screens. Occasionally, the man that stole and cooked their food would whisper to his dog.

Two nights ago, if someone would’ve told Gabby that she would turn into a video game character and fight for her life, she would’ve laughed at their face. Now, she wished she was more prepared for this…disaster.

She hugged the now sleeping Diana a little tighter. Only the fire at her back kept her warm, in any sense of the word.

“What do you mean?” Micah asked without looking, his eyes glued to an invisible screen.

“My starting perk. I got a couple options.” Gabby said without an ounce of excitement. Emptiness tinged her words with exhaustion.

Would you like to share your Status?

Y/N

A screen popped into existence in front of her, making her flinch.

“Share your screen with me.” Micah said, still not bothering to look in her direction.

Gabby grudgingly accepted while muttering under her breath. This time she could see the blue box appear in front of Micah.

“Mm…Spellblade is a really good class, and you’d be crazy not to take advantage of your magic stat. Maybe I might be able to teach you my spell, if you have Mana class resource.”

“That kinda decides it, huh.” Gabby pulled up her bean bag gently with one hand, and Diana in the other. Not once did the little girl wake from her slumber.

You have chosen the Mana Ability perk

Gabriella Gomez Human

Role: Spellblade Squire 1

PHY:0.3

CON:0.7

SOU:0.8

Twilight: 0

RP: 23/23

Abilities: Natural Dynamic Fount

As soon as Gabby chose [Mana Ability], static alighted the air in erratic pulses, but even as her newfound senses tingled, she only sighed.

Motes of darkness swirled on the walls in bursts from the other side of the living room, disturbing what must be the mana in the air.

And killing the fire, Gabby thought grumpily. Looking over to see what was making her cold, Gabby saw the older boy—Castor—focusing on the space in front of him.

It looked idiotic until his dog suddenly materializing out of thin air. Her jaw dropped, but she was further surprised when the dog disappeared, only to reappear a couple seconds later.

“What are they doing?” Gabby asked Micah.

“What? Oh..” He was a little disoriented from staring at his status screen so hard, but he just shrugged it off. “I guess he’s going for a shaman build. Nothing wrong with that.”

“So, he’s teaching his dog magic?”

“From what he said, Blue is teaching him. Enough of that, let’s see if you can learn [Mana Bolt].”

“I don’t get it!” Castor roughly scratched his head. He tried not to yell and distract the other two from their training, but it was hard after a couple hours of failing to move his resource in any way.

Seeing Gabriella cast [Mana Bolt] in less than a hour, stung more than a little.

Even after all the failure, Castor could still watch Blue activate his spell all day—at this point he at least knew what it should feel like. The problem was he didn’t understand how in the hell the mutt was moving the energy.

Blue tapped Castor’s knee with his paw, grabbing his attention only to show him the same spell, this time only slower.

“That’s not helping, Blue.” He shook the canine’s paw, and took a deep breath to steady himself.

It was there, he could feel it; at the deepest part of every breath, Castor could feel that cool breeze rumble in his gut. It seemed responsive enough, diverting a small flow at the crux of every breath, but nothing so meaningful as to cast a spell.

Blue whined, exhausted at being forced to cast [Shadow Sneak] so many times in succession.

“It’s ok, buddy. Get some rest.” Castor said, giving Blue a scratch on the back for being a good boy. His [Bond] leaned into the scratch until Castor was forced to slowly lower him to the ground.

Castor chuckled seeing Blue act like a puppy, before realizing it should have been way harder to lay down a 70 pound dog with one hand. He quickly opened his character screen to see if anything was different.

“I’m such an idiot.” He said standing up while smacking his forehead, much to Blue’s displeasure.

Of course it was easier to lift Blue, he got stronger as his Power increased. Instead of wasting his time trying to learn a spell his dog already has, Castor might as well focus on increasing his skill levels, and therefore his scores.

“Why are you an idiot, Mister?”

An unexpected voice made Castor flinch, before he noticed it was the little girl, who was now awake and watching him.

“Oh, nothing. Just realize I was training the wrong way.”

“Oooo. Can I help you train?” Diana asked loudly. Across the room, the frequent flashes of blue light slowed.

“I don’t think so,” Castor laughed awkwardly. “I’m going to need something to hit.”

“Will this work?” Diana asked before scrunching her face for several seconds. Castor was about to ask her what she was doing when a ball of warm light floated above her head before zipping around his body.

Castor was in awe for only a moment, before the cruel nature of reality set in. “Am I the only one who can’t use magic?”