As cliché as it probably sounds, waking up the next morning g was a pretty surreal experience. Erin wasn’t home, but she’s left a note that she was going out for a run and would be back later and she loved us. The fact that she had thought of us made it clear that she felt bad about going off on us, but was still too riled up to face any of us yet. I found myself frowning into my cereal (penthouse or not, Reese’s puffs are the perfect breakfast) as I thought back to the odd vagueness my sister had been spouting. I needed to figure out what was up but no one was going to talk to me.

Before I could spiral into my depression about that anymore I saw a familiar text appear in my vision New Quest Available! I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin, no wonder there were so few highsiders, most of us probably had goddamn heart attacks within the first week. I focused on the quest notification and my surprise grew even more.

You have been offered a quest by [Unknown] Honor thy brother: Find out what exactly is affecting Alex and save your brother! Due to doubled experience this quest offers 20,000 XP! Do you accept? (Warning, though affected by the tutorial, this quest is affected by the tutorial you are unlikely to complete it within the three day period. Despite being a long term quest, the trial bonus will still apply once the quest is completed) Do you accept?

I frowned at that, my heart rate picking up. My last quest o0ffer had been from an actual person, and this particular quest was “offered by Unknown” which implied something was watching me and could see into my head well enough to have offered me a quest along the lines of my current worries. I shook off that chilling thought. I was tired as hell from my weird, ever changing schedule, and if I let myself worry too much about this kind of thing I would go crazy.

I shook my head, and decided to finally see what I could find about this focus thing Kelloway had mentioned. My brows creased as I considered how to actually do that. There wasn’t too much I actually understood about this system. Then I had a thought, and almost literally face palmed. If this worked I was going to feel like an idiot. I took a quick look around to make sure no one was nearby, in case it didn’t and I ended up looking like crazy person. Then said clearly and with intent “Help.”

Congratulations! You have unlocked the help interface! Surprisingly only about five percent of highsiders access this feature, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king! As a Level One, your access is limited, please state your inquiry! Well, that was kind of shitty, guess I couldn’t just use the help interface to master all the games nuances and become crazy powerful. I shook my head, before enunciating clearly “What is a focus?”

The focus is an artifact that amplifies divine or infernal energy to allow thin blooded highsiders to interact with the system! All highsiders below fifty percent saturation require a focus to access the system. Most foci are irrelevant to actual progression and aren’t summoned into physical form, as having your focus broken will sever your connection with the interface!

I blinked at that. So the focus was just a manifestation of the ritual? Made sense the Dean would’ve mentioned it in that context, he probably just forgot who he was talking to or just didn’t care. “Wait, what do you mean most?” I waited for a response, but apparently that wasn’t something I was allowed to ask, because I got no response to the question. After tossing my cereal (I got so distracted it turned to inedible mush) I slipped into the living room to plop down onto one of the absurdly comfortable yet still expensive couches.

If my focus could be useful I wanted to know, but the idea of losing my access to the system was scary. Not just because it would hurt my friends ability to progress but because I was pretty sure if I wasn’t in the system I would count as an outsider and would be summarily excecuted. I figured I could always unsummon it or whatever. Or get a safety deposit box. Highsiders had to have banks that were safer than normal ones. Either way I suspected I could handle whatever happened.

Having made my decision I smiled and said aloud with confidence “Summon focus.” Holding out my hand as I stood proudly waiting for…nothing to happen, well shit. Ok, maybe just “Focus” nothing. Damn it. Alright no problem, I still had the help interface. I could just ask it. “How do I summon my focus?”

Foci are manifestations of bloodlines. To summon a focus, only blood is necessary! Wait what? I have lots of blood. It’s running through my veins pretty consistently, did I need to like prick my finger or something. I took a folding knife I usually kept around and slashed open the pad of my thumb. Nothing happened. “Why didn’t that work?” I said you needed blood, moron. This is a powerful ritual, you need more than a paper cut. Wait, what the hell. The interface was occasionally sarcastic but that sounded like an actual person answering me, before I could decide how to actually ask more information appeared.

To summon your focus, simply cut your wrists into a silver bowl, half fill it with blood, and then drop in a fist sized lump of raw gold! All thoughts of whatever had made that comment fled in disbelief at that comment “The hell? Where am I supposed to get a fist sized lump of gold?” No response. Fucking interface. I glared down at my uselessly cut finger in sullen anger. Looked like this wasn’t going to get this done today, I just wish I hadn’t had to slash my fucking hand open before I figured that out. With a roll of my eyes I got up to go wrap my hand. Note to self, don’t use the help function again without being careful.