One week had passed since Cain had killed Geb and shut down the Gate. In that time, he had learned a few very important things about the System and the way it worked.

First, only his basic information was viewable by others. Things like his name, his rating, and any visible titles or ranks assigned to him could be seen without his permission. His stats, abilities, and bonuses remained hidden, even with the use of observation abilities.

Secondly, when he shared his stats, only his assigned stat points would be shared. This meant that whoever was viewing them would not be able to see his unallocated points. He was hesitant to share that information with Ariana initially, as he couldn’t think of a plausible reason to explain how he had ended up with thirty-eight total points to allocate.

Thirdly, he was TERRIBLE at utilizing his energy properly, even with the System’s built in tools. It felt like he was trying to use a chainsaw to skin a squirrel most of the time, and when he did get it right, the mental exhaustion caught up with him quickly and it was no different than if he had just spent all his energy.

“Again. You still aren’t doing it right, and until you get it down, you aren’t spending a SINGLE stat point,” Ariana shouted at him, leisurely reclining in a pool chair as she watched Cain pull himself out of the river near their house for what felt like the thousandth time.

“Why am I even doing this? There is so many other things I could be learning right now, and yet you are having me learn how to walk on water? If I hadn’t seen you do it, I would have called you crazy...” Cain responded heatedly, shaking his head in her direction, causing water to spray at her.

A sharp pain erupted from the top of his head, and Cain rubbed the spot gingerly, pulling a watermelon seed out of his hair. Grumbling quietly, he dropped it to the ground and turned back to the river.

“I know you where you based this technique from too and that is copyright infringement,” he shouted, focusing on the symbol on his right hand, attempting to feel the flow of energy like he did when he was communicating with Geb. He had a sneaking suspicion that the god had helped him form his energy the first time, because this was difficult. But he was finally getting the hang of figuring out what he was looking for.

A thin wisp of something that felt like a string was attached to the back of his hand, floating upwards towards the sky. It looked like, in his mind's eye, a marionette’s string, waiting to be pulled by a puppet master. Firmly connecting his mind with that string, Cain slowly began expanding the string’s width, turning it from a fishing line in size to a rope.

Once he had managed that, and made sure that the size was stable, he began to coat himself in the energy, similar to donning a cloak. Focusing on the bottom of his feet, he closed his eyes and took a tentative step on to the water, expecting to fall back into the river yet again.

Instead, he found that it felt like he was standing on solid ground. Opening his eyes slightly, Cain looked down through the clear water beneath him, staring at the bottom of the riverbed. Elation filled his body as he turned around excitedly to stare at Ariana, only to lose his focus.

Splash

Sputtering, Cain pulled himself on to the shore and swore loudly, ignoring the loud laughter coming from his sister. At least he had managed it this time, and that meant he could actually take a break.

“Well, if you hadn’t lost your focus, you probably would have been able to actually walk. But since you did manage to properly stand for at least a second, I’ll give you this one. Good job,” Ariana said, smiling warmly at her brother. It had taken others that were three stars or lower at least a month to even manage the first step. There definitely was a difference in between the ratings, that was for sure.

“So, does this mean I can actually assign my stat points?” Cain asked, flopping to his back and laying down on the ground. The warm sun felt good on his face, as the river was undeniably freezing cold. They could have used the indoor, heated, training pool available to government agents, but Ariana had decided that the river right at the beginning of spring would provide good incentive to finish this exercise faster. And unfortunately for Cain, she was correct.

“Yes, you may. How many points did you get anyways?” Ariana asked, sitting up and peering at her brother intently.

Cain gulped nervously, not entirely sure how to answer the question. She obviously knew how many points on average the initial new person got, and he had absolutely no idea. He would just have to wing it the answer, and hope he wasn’t too far off.

“Six. How many do people normally get?” he asked, trying to sound genuinely curious. He was certain that Ariana would be checking his stats later to make sure they were invested properly, so he would just have to hold on to the remaining thirty-two points until much later.

“Hmm... That’s actually a lot for recently awakening. Normal people only get between two to four points, depending on their rating. And that’s between one star and four stars,” she said, sounding slightly surprised.

“Huh, then my theory did work. You talk in your sleep a lot about how everyone is too low of a rating recently, so I tried to do a different method than the one they described,” Cain responded, pointing lazily at the axe sitting next to his sister’s chair.

“A different metho... I talk in my sleep?! Why are you even listening to that?” Ariana shouted, throwing a sandal at Cain’s face and missing slightly.

“You keep me up at night! Do you have any idea how LOUD you can be?”

Silence

System alert: Blood lust detected.

New Ability obtained: Danger Sense.

Description: Able to feel danger from a distance. As level increases, direction and rating of source can be determined with greater accuracy. Current level: 1

-----

Hanging from a nearby tree, Cain remained upside down, spinning in a circle slowly while Ariana looked over the axe.

“This looks like a normal axe to me, but it feels... Different,” she said, setting it back down and turning towards her brother. “But if you killed it with this, that might explain the extra stat points. Go ahead and assign them where you want.”

Sighing to himself as she made no moves to cut him down, Cain opened the System and looked at the stats. It wasn’t easy for him to try and assign them himself, but based off of just trying to walk on water, he had a slight idea.

Stat points assigned. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N

“Yes. Assign points,” Cain said, needing to talk instead of just hitting the accept button. His head was beginning to feel like it was about to explode, hanging upside down for so long.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he was met with the ground abruptly as Araina cut him down and looked at his current stat assignments.

“You assigned them to Intelligence? Why?” she asked, curious about his choice. Normally someone would have assigned the points to a more combat based attribute rather than not. There weren’t many people who initially increased their mental abilities at all unless they were an extremely low rating.

“Well, it was really hard to complete the water walking, and intelligence helps with molding the flow of energy and accessing it right? Plus, I have a bonus relating to intelligence,” Cain responded, wiggling out of the loose ropes and opening his bonuses menu, making sure to carefully choose the Communicator bonus and sharing it with her.

“Communicator huh? I haven’t seen this one before... This is actually really useful. Have you figured out how to use it yet?” Ariana said, an expression falling over her face that made Cain freeze in place.

“Not yet... Why?” he asked, beginning to feel frightened to his core.

“Because it’s training time again.”

System Alert: Blood lust detected.

Danger Sense level up.

Current level: 2