'Stats, yep, those are definitely stats and a fully decked status page. Just missing some HP bars.' Noah affirmed to himself but still not completely convinced he turned towards his friends.

"Hey, you guys seeing the same things I see?"

Shaun and Ava jerked their head towards him with wide eyes.

"Yeah, It looks like a stats screen." Ava answered with a dumbfounded look.

"This thing is even weirder than all the other stuff. All of that, I could somehow make sense of but this shit is straight out of rpg." Shaun looked like the world just got overturned and Noah couldn't have agreed more with him.

They didn't know what to say to this.

Even Noah was floored by it. Here he was thinking that after last night, his life couldn't get any crazier for a while. But what can we say, reality sucker punched him the next day.

Seeing the lost faces in the crowd, Rylee explained.

"I heard from Cap that this is new to y'all. So, to give you a general idea, every person in the Multiverse has Status from birth. They form an integral part of life itself and make LVL progression and advancement way easier." Rylee continued.

"The Akasha Records maintains the Status and its sub-branches. What is the Akasha Records, you say? All I know is that it is the will of the Multiverse or at least that's what I heard. Those who want to learn the complex stuff can visit the library. You can ask Miss Florelle here or any other employee for directions." Rylee said as if it was obvious to everyone to know about this.

"By the way, your rooms are ready. You can choose any room you want. We have all kinds of rooms here, ranging from individual rooms to rooms for whole families. Just make sure to inform me beforehand which room you choose so that I can mark that as booked." Miss Florelle intervened.

"Hurry on, we don't have all day for you to just choose your rooms." Not seeing anyone moving, she urged.

The crowd moved into the inn with groups and individuals trickling down the hallways into their chosen rooms.

The trio eventually decided on a family room since it was spacious enough and got their door key from reception. Closing the door behind him, Noah leaned his back against it.

"I think I'm way out of tune with this," Noah said while putting his backpack aside.

"You don't say" Shaun had an exhausted face dumping the luggage on the floor roughly.

"I don't know what is happening anymore" Ava added while hopping in on the couch, surprisingly. Who would have thought you could find one in a medieval inn.

"Before, it felt mystical or fantastical. Now it just doesn't make sense." Noah continued. "Reminds me of those old litrpg novels."

"Stop it, Noah, don't say a word more. You are just making this a lot more confusing." Ava said with an annoyed expression.

Noah shut his mouth seeing her expression. He could tell she didn't want to talk right now. Same with Shaun who was heading towards the beds.

'Well, he could definitely use some rest. He was always the one who worried the most.'

Now, Noah didn't know what to do. He decided to just have a tour of the entire room. He wanted something to divert his mind away anywhere else from this mess or he would start getting existential crisis.

At first glance, the entire room was huge. It was divided by a wooden partition into two parts. There was a living room with a couch along with a table and chairs. Then, there was a bedroom at the back on the other side of the partition with a few beds placed. There was a wooden cupboard built as part of a wall. He could also spot a few crystal lamps. Sunlight was coming in through a window on the other side of the partition.

Those lamps piqued his curiosity since they were clearly standing out. Moving closer, he inspected the lamp from all angles yet he couldn't see a candle inside. He instead found a small azure crystal placed on a disk with intricate carvings etched on it. The only reason he could tell they were lamps was because they were shaped like one. Also, they were fixed on the walls.

He reached his hand out towards it. The lamp lit up in bright azure light. His hands stopped reflexively. He pulled his hand back and studied the lamp. The emitted light was slightly dim but sufficiently bright. The azure color gave the lamp a mystical halo. It was like one of those night lights with an extra magical feel to it.

Curious at how it worked, he reached his hand out slowly but the lamp didn't react.

He waved his hand slightly and the lamp went out instantly. A bit surprised, he repeated the gesture by bringing his hand in and out fast and it went on and off correspondingly.

'Interesting' He tried it again multiple times from different angles and the lamp worked perfectly each time.

'There seems to be some sort of field around the lamp. Could it be electromagnetic? No, it is definitely something exotic. Possibly mana field. And the field seems to be disturbed by external movement. and the movement had to be sufficiently big enough to disturb the field. That should be the trigger for switching the lamp on/off.' Noah was pondering upon this magical device before being suddenly interrupted by a voice coming from behind him.

"What are you doing there?" Ava was disturbed by the light show going on in the room.

"Feeling better?" Looking behind him, Noah asked seeing her looking slightly relaxed than before.

"Better than before." Ava gave a short answer and moved in to look at the brightly lit lamp.

Noah demonstrated the crystal lamp to her. She had a curious look adorning her face as she tried to turn the lamp on herself.

Seeing the lamp light up, she burst in excitement as she repeatedly turned it on and off.

"This is amazing"

"It sure is." Noah replied looking at Ava playing with the lamp.

His lips quirked as he realized that he was feeling quite better now.

Having enough fun, the two went back to the couch and sat down comfortably.

"This is quite nice" Noah said while digging himself in the couch.

"I also think so. I had quite a nice nap while you were fiddling with the lamp." Ava added with half-closed eyes relaxing on the couch.

A silence fell between the two but it was a comfortable one. Eventually broken by a yawning sound coming from the bedroom followed by steady footsteps.

"You two seem to be enjoying yourselves." Shaun seemed to be back in his usual mood with the annoying smile back on his face.

"I don't know about us, but someone seemed to have enjoyed their sleep." Noah replied with a genuine smile. He felt calm seeing his friends behaving normally.

Shaun moved towards them taking a seat at the chair placed near the table.

"You two want to discuss about it?" Shaun said with his becoming serious.

"We should. It's better we deal with it sooner rather than later." Ava replied also with a serious look.

Taking a deep breath, Noah said "I think we shouldn't think this from our perspective. The Status page may resemble games but for the people here, it is part of life. We need to know more before coming to any conclusion. What is this Akasha Records and what does it do? Is it something like a god? But frankly, in my opinion, we shouldn't worry too much about it. It is way above our paygrade right now."

Ava nodded before saying, "I'm of the same opinion with you. Worrying about it will not solve anything. We should first solve the problems present before us."

Shaun hesitated slightly before adding, " I agree with you two, but I feel you two are being too carefree about this? Doesn't it make you anxious? The possibility that this world may be fake."

"It does and I'm keeping it in the back of my mind right now. I know my priorities. Which is surviving this place and returning back to Earth." Noah declared with a determined gaze and continued. "Other things can come later on. Or maybe we can even learn about it here during our stay."

"Sometimes I envy your optimistic outlook towards life." Shaun sighed before a smile came to his face.

The slight gloom present in the trio's expression faded as they restarted their discussion about the town and people. Noah showed the lamp to Shaun with him showing a similar reaction. They then toured the room and unpacked their luggage into the cupboards. With everything sorted out for the time being, the trio sat down on the couch to rest after the activity.

"Ahem" Noah fake coughed to get his friend's attention.

"Want to compare our stats?" Noah had a smirk on his face while waiting for friends to respond.

Ava and Shaun looked at each other before similar smirks appeared on their faces.

""Sure""