With a nod and a wave the Dean hopped down off the altar and strolled into the firest, literally vanishing as soon as he hit the tree line. Like into thin air. Weird. I turned to regard my friends to see them all looking as shell shocked as I was, though in various flavors. Shawn looked the most excited, with most of the others seeming either confused or nervous. I looked around before saying “All right if we’re doing this team thing I suspect we’re going to need to share a bit. We need somewhere quiet to talk. You guys should come back to our place.”

Erin nodded “Definitely, this is going to be an…interesting conversation, plus I think we could all use a beer. This shit is freaking me out. We cant even talk to our families about this.” She glanced worriedly at me and Ali and we returned the gaze. We had essentially just gone rogue. We couldn’t complete our mission in case the school found out and murdered us and we couldn’t defect because if the school found out we were spies aforementioned murder would be the end result for that too.

We all made our way out of the woods and piled into the cars not having to work hard to avoid the other students. Apparently this secret was well kept even among kids who knew what they were, because all of the others looked just as shell shocked as we did. A few of the kids were either giggly or nervous and those tended to group together but pretty much no one was going to bother an established group they weren’t a part of.

Within about thirty minutes we had all arrived at our building and headed up to the penthouse to have out big talk. I looked at Ali and Erin. Being basically cut off from the family we were going to need some backup, if I was right and that passive was as broken as I thought with a few strong friends I could offset most of the families threat to us in just a few months, but we needed to trust them with the information first. Sarah already knew, but I had no idea how the others would react. Guess we were about to find out. Fingers crossed.

We all slumped onto the couches in the penthouse exhausted. Some ineffable part of having our basic reality overhauled was oddly exhausting. I hadn’t realized it in the woods because of all the adrenaline but I was completely drained. I forced my eyes to remain open, realizing this was probably why our intro classes were so late in the night and glanced at my equally exhausted friends “Ok guys, to start, we should at least all break down what our strong points and our passives are, if you have any stats over a three let us know, anything below don’t bother unless you’re planning to focus on that stat anyway.”

I had to admit I was interested if anyone had a starting stat any higher than my big one. Not that I assumed luck would be very useful, but maybe I could find a class that would use it in combat. From what the Dean had said, my natural “talent” for Luck would make me pretty much untouchable by anyone at my own level if I could find a good class. Plus having all my party members getting approximately ten times XP from my passive couldn’t hurt.

Shawn was the first to speak up, of course, grinning widely as he geeked out about the entire situation “Well as I’m sure you figured, my best stat is intelligence, which is a six! I figured it would be high because of my bloodline but still, the Dean said hes only seen one six! Nothing else is too high really mostly just ones with two charisma. My passive is pretty amazing though. Its called Avalon and it allows me to pull mana from party members equivalent to my total mana pool. Not exactly a game ender at early levels, but once we all bulk up its going to be brutal! Besides an extra sixty mp during a fight is nothing to sneeze at!”

We all chuckled at his enthusiasm and apparently it was infectious, because Magnus volunteered next my highest stat is a five, my strength, and aside from a three in stamina everything else is ones. My strength may not be as high as Shawns intelligence but my passive makes up for it. With Magni, any time a point is added to any stat a point is added to strength. With our ability to train stats every level and the fact that it applies even if the point goes into strength itself I’m going to be a powerhouse in just a few levels. It is a bit limited though since strength based classes only really affect enemies at melee range.”

We were all staring at him, but Abby was the first to speak up “Jesus Magnus, that’s….thats absurd. I legit cant think of a way someone could have a more broken ability.” We all nodded along, shell-shocked by how crazy strong Magnus was going to be. The craziest part was the others didn’t even know about my own broken skill, an ability that would make Magnus even more absurdly powerful. I thought about the teachers here who were at level twenty, max, and thought about how we should be able to reach that point so much faster than any of the other students could even dream of.

Abby shook off her shock her head in amazement “My highest stat is a four in Dex with a three in Charisma to boot. My passive isn’t as incredible as the other two though Gae Bolg allows me to bypass any defense and land a hit on my target as long as they’re within my sight at the moment of my attack. Guess I wont be assassinating people by watching old videos or anything. I was actually proud of that one until Magnus told us about his.” She glared over at the huge blonde man “Way to show everyone up you big ox.”

Magnus winked at her and was about to respond when Theo cut him off “Well I like my passive” his sharp tone was completely at odds with the usual carefree style of the big lug, and I couldn’t help but glance over to Abby and wonder if Magnus’s wink had irritated him “My Charisma is my big gun at five and Bacchanalia creates a sort of contagious frenzy that spreads through the participants of high energy events, be they battle or party, within a number of feet equal to my base Charisma. Each affected person adds a point to my Charisma for the duration of the event.”

I whistled at that one, once he started getting higher level he would be able to drop that on entire battlefields for massive boosts, with a proper class that kind of spike in power was going to be absurdly effective. Much like the rest of us, at low levels it wasn’t such a big threat, but I could see some real potential long term. Sebastian looked up at the rest of us and the quiet tanned boy responded as stoically as usual “Five Dexterity four Vitality, my passive is Warmaker and my skills grow from any weapon use by a party member even if I’m not present.”

Another amazing ability, I was beginning to sense a pattern here. I wondered if my insane luck had anything to do with ending up with all of these powerhouses in our group. Sarah cleared her throat, catching everyones attention, so I shifted my focus to her. She looked incredibly nervous about telling us her stats but she pushed on “Well my main stat is Charisma at six” my eyes went wide, I mean yeah Sarah was beautiful and that could be an indicator of high Charisma but that was insane “My Passive is called Daylight and it allows me to double my stat value for Charisma for the purposes of healing skills.”

I blinked at that, that was almost as crazy as Magnus’s Passive, more so if group heals are possible. Not to mention if things worked how I thought they did, the massive XP gain from those mega-heals was going to level the shit out of her Skills and class. I didn’t know about actual leveling but even if that didn’t count, Sarah was going to be a fantastic healer and a huge asset to the group.

Before any of us could register the shift Erin was out of her chair and grinning. “My main stat is a six too! I have six Luck and five charisma! My passive is pretty amazing too! It negates all damage to me from infernal foes! Its called Infernal Empress and its so crazy broken!” I furrowed my brow at that. In terms of utility that may have been the most overpowered skill any of us had except possibly mine. With Erin and I both having such powerful passives it made me wonder just who our mother was. It seemed off for both of us to be so powerful when we were so thin blooded.

Aiden was next and he looked a bit let down “My main stat is charisma at five and my passive is a bit odd. It says that when encountering hostile parties all negative reputation for the party will be automatically capped at a minimum of zero. The ability is called Unity.” He shrugged a bit and returned to looking pensive while Erin dropped into his lap and began loudly assuring him that it was an amazing ability.

Finally we reached the last member of our group. Ali looked up at as all and chewed her lip “My main stat is also Charisma at six.” We all got our third big shock of the night but she wasn’t done “followed by Dexterity six.” Our mouths all dropped open at that but she still wasn’t done “And my ability is called Reclamation, and it allows me to resurrect a fallen party member once a day.” We all froze. I was sure I had misheard, but everyone else looked just as stunned as I was. I hadn’t imagined anything. She had really just said that.

I just stared for a second as everyone looked to me, before shaking my head and finally deciding to speak up about my own capabilities “Ok well my main stat is Luck at 7” every person in the room literally gasped out loud, which actually made me smile, before I continued “and my Infernal Evolution perk allows every member of my party to gain the full 100% experience regardless of blood concentration.” At this point I think the shocks had mostly worn everyone down and they all just nodded blankly.

Shawn was the first to recover “Ok, well I think it’s pretty much official we’re going to be the most powerful party this University has ever seen. Like seriously, give us a year or two and we’ll be stronger than the professors.” His voice was nearly shaking with anticipation and the rest of us couldn’t help but grin along. The thought of getting so strong, of becoming legends around here was pretty intoxicating, not to mention how amazing some of our powers were going to be and how much fun it would be getting there. I stared down at my hand, slowly clenching my fist tight as I grinned to myself, this was going to be the most fun I’ve ever had playing a video game.

We spent the next few hours going over skills and tactics for group composition, led mainly by Shawn who was in geek heaven coming up with strategies and plans. Based on what the Dean had said classes could be found or even made so could definitely find ones suited to our unique abilities. I was a bit curious what Luck focused classes would look like, but worst case I could invent my own somehow. I smirked to myself, imagining a two face type class where I had to flip a coin to decide if I could attack.

Finally it was time for us to try forming the party. We all agreed that doing it before the classes was the best bet because of the bonus from my passive, not to mention any of the other benefits my friends had. I took a deep breath, knowing from the stares that I was expected to be the party leader. “Invite to party.” I kept them all in sight and spread my focus out as I spoke the formal words to bind us all together. I mean, sure technically the party could be dissolved at any time, but more realistically we were forming the group that would see us through the next four years.

I felt my awareness expand as my friends accepted, not just in terms of the interface but my actual mental understanding of the world subtly shifted as I felt the new portions of my consciousness slot into place. I could feel an underlying sense of my party members directions and health, not to mention a slight undercurrent of emotion resonating in the back of my mind. I would’ve thought the variation in the tone and depth of their feelings would seem wrong or off, but in reality the discordant noise melded together perfectly into a beautiful song that could only be called my party.

I could tell the others felt the same through the party sense and the sensation reinforced itself as it cascaded into a loop of wonder and a feeling of safety. Knowing we were as prepared as we were going to get I cast a smile over at my party members. “Ok guys, looks like we aren’t getting more ready than this. Guess its time to go.” And without waiting on the others I stood up and headed towards the door and the next step in our journey. It felt good not having to look over my shoulder though. I knew they were coming. I could feel it.