A young girl sits with her father.

In his hand there is a small silver coin. She watches as he flips the coin between his fingers, the coin dancing in and around his hand until it stops, balanced perfectly on top of his pinkie by its edge.

“Wow! How do you do that?”

A chuckle. The father gives the young girl his coin. “Practice. Lots and lots of practice. Do you want me to show you?”

“Hmm…” The girl looks uncertain. “Is it a lot of work?”

“Of course. If you want to get good at it.” Another coin appears and starts jumping from finger to finger. “You need to put in the work.”

The young girl pouts. “But it’ll take forever!”

The father shrugs. “Than you better get started.”

She pouts again before giving the coin a determined stare. She tries to flick the coin just like her father, but only ends up dropping it. “Aw…”

Another chuckle. “Here, let me show you.”

“It’s gonna take forever,” she repeats. She still watches closely as her father slowly shows her the trick.

“Don’t worry. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll be like riding a bike.”

“Hmm…”

“And if you get it right, I’ll take you to that burger place you like.”

She gasped. “Really?!”

He smiled back. “Really.”

She hugs him, burying her face into his fluffy beard. “Thanks, Dad!”

He laughs and hugs her close. “You’re welcome [__].”

Something was poking your shoulder. “Little miss? It’s time to get up.”

You opened your eyes.

You were still sleeping in the stables. Sleeping beside you is your squid friend, whose name you are still not sure on, but are currently floating between Tentacled Joe and Bob. Standing over you, wearing a familiar concerned look, is John.

“Ugh.” You sit up, brushing the hay out of your hair and stretching the kinks out of your back. “Thanks.”

“No problem, little miss. Say, how’s the job hunt going for you?”

You shrugged. “It’s going.”

“Ah.” He shifted on his feet, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Well if you still need a place to stay, feel free to sleep here. Don’t mind the misses none, she’ll get used to you eventually.”

You weren’t convinced. “Right.”

You watched as John walked out, taking a few of the horses with him. You had asked him if you could work for him more than once. You knew you didn’t know anything about horses, but you told him that you were ready and willing to learn. You even offered to shovel all the horse shit for him if he wanted you to. God knows there was a lot of it.

But he turned you down each time. Came up with all sorts of excuses, saying that you were too young to work, that he already had a few people working for him, that he couldn’t afford to hire someone else right now -- all reasonable, logical excuses. You probably would have accepted his reasoning if not for him refusing to look you in the eye when you tried to talk to him. Or the way he stuttered over his words when he gave you his excuses. Or those brief looks of pity he gave you when he thought you weren’t looking.

Then one day you overheard a conversation he had with his wife, and all your suspicions were proven right.

“We can’t let her stay in our stables! That girl is cursed!”

“Mary --”

“No! What if she spreads it to us, John? You think we’ll last long without our connection to the System? Without our Status and Skills? Huh? You need to get that girl outta here before --”

“Mary, I’m telling you, curses don’t work that way!”

She scoffed. “Who cares! We can’t be having some girl without a System connection in our stables! She’ll draw nothing but trouble!”

“Mary, she ain’t got nowhere to go. I can’t just leave her out on the streets. Not when she’s… like this.”

A sigh. “I know. Damn you, but I know. It’s just…”

“Mary, it’s just until she can get herself a job or another place to live. She’s young, it shouldn’t take that long.”

A snort. “A girl without a System connection gettin’ a job? Who would take her? She doesn’t have any Skills or Stats or anything -- and she can’t learn any! She’s good as useless!”

“Mary…”

“No. Don’t give me that look. You know it’s true.” A sigh. “You’ve been watching her, right? As she runs around town with that elemental of hers, trying to get a job. You damn well know none of them want her. They all know she’s cursed, that she’s useless.”

Silence.

“We can’t keep her here. We can’t afford another mouth to feed. We just got rid of the kids, we don’t need another one.”

“...then what do you suggest I do?”

“...I don’t know. But we can’t keep her.”

“Mary --”

“A week, John. That’s all I’m giving that girl. After that, she’s gone.”

You stopped listening by that point. You heard all you needed to hear.

It had been several days since you woke up in that flower field and more than anything else, you were focused on trying to get a job. You knew you couldn’t depend on John’s altruism forever and you basically had nowhere else to go. Money was a priority and you only had so much.

After John denied you, he turned you over to a small restaurant where a friend of his worked. It seemed like a good place and the owner looked like a nice lady, if a bit stern. The two of you hit it off after a quick five minute interview, with her warming up to you and your situation rather quickly. She didn’t even seem to mind that you were a literal child, more focused on whether or not you were capable of cooking and waitressing.

It wasn’t until the subject of your skills came up and you told her about your lack of a System that she suddenly wanted nothing to do with you.

“I’m sorry, we just can’t have you working here,” she said, shooing you out of the restaurant.

You were caught off guard. “Wait, what? What’s wrong? Did I say something bad or --”

“It’s nothing you said. You just won’t be a good fit.”

“Is it about my squid? Because I’ll tell him to wait outside of the restaurant if you’re worried --” you said frantically.

“Blrb!” he protested.

“No, it has nothing to do with your elemental. We just don’t want you here. We can’t accommodate something with your… disadvantages,” she said delicately.

You frowned. “The hell is that supposed to mean --”

But she had already thrown you out the door. “I’m sorry. Find somewhere else, because we can’t afford to take someone like you.”

The last thing you saw before the door was closed in your face was the pitying looks of the rest of the staff.

What the hell, you had thought.

So you went to a different place. A small general store that sold all sorts of items, potions and weapons especially. The owner there was a gruff, but sweet man who seemed to be sympathetic to your plight. You told him about your circumstances and he offered you a job -- but then he took out that red orb thing and started talking about your skills. You tried to divert his attention, but he seemed to get more and more suspicious the more you tried. You eventually had to come clean, at which point he told you that he couldn’t hire you.

This sorta thing happened again and again and again. Everytime you tried to get a job, every time the subject of systems and statuses came up, they would tell you:

“Sorry, but we can’t support someone like you.”

“Sorry, but you’re not someone we can hire.”

“Sorry, but you’re not what we’re looking for.”

“Sorry, but we don’t want to attract trouble.”

“Sorry, but you’re not qualified for something like this.”

“Sorry, but you’re cursed.”

To be honest, even before you eavesdropped between John and his wife, you knew what was going on. It just confirmed things for you, made you realize that you just couldn’t keep ignoring the problem: the fact that you didn’t have a system like everyone else.

It didn’t seem like a big deal at first, though you could understand why John was giving you those looks when you said you didn’t have one. Apparently with a system connection came all sorts of perks: a complete list of all skills and abilities, an easy and effective way to get stronger just by leveling up and completing objectives, the ability to gain new skills and learn things just by putting the correct amount of points into a certain category or simply buying new ones -- it all sounded pretty cool.

Much like every video game character ever, the people of this world had the potential to get really powerful, really quickly so long as they knew what they were doing and were willing to undergo the risk. The only thing really holding everyone on this world back from being stupidly powerful was the fact that they couldn’t respawn. Theoretically, every person on this world could just get stronger and stronger with no upper limits, continuously training their skills and abilities to new heights and gaining more power with each level up.

Normal people like you, on the other hand, had to constantly train and practice to maintain skills and abilities. Any power you wanted to gain had to be cultivated over time through serious effort and hard work, whereas any new skills you want to learn would need to be taught to you first. Otherwise you’d just bumble around, not knowing what the hell you were doing, most likely just making things worse.

You also didn’t have an exact measurement and list of your abilities handy, meaning that you kinda had to guess where you were in comparison to everyone else and were forced to remember your abilities on your own.

And level ups weren’t a thing with you, so killing things or completing quests or whatever won’t make you stronger in of itself. You might learn a bit more than you did before, but that’s pretty much it. No instant power ups for you. You had to do everything the hard way.

...okay, now that you really thought about it, it was no wonder everyone turned you down. From the perspectives of the people here, you’re basically diabled.

Disabled and living in a semi-medieval fantasy world.

With no family, friends, and just a small bag of money to your name.

Shit.

The only consolation to your shitty situation was that you had a place to live -- even though it was no longer permanent -- and you had Tentacled Joe/Bob there with you to keep all the muggers and freaks away.

You used to think your stone skin was included on that list-of-actual-good-things-you’ve-got-going-on-in-your-life, but apparently not. Because your ability just randomly disappeared one day while you were out job hunting.

Happened while you were in the middle of a fight, frustratingly enough. You were walking through the streets, looking for another job to apply, when you bumped into some guy.

Said guy was drunk as all hell despite it being in the middle of the afternoon, and seemed to think you did it on purpose. He whipped back a hand to slap you and you tried to tense up and activate your skin. Only your skin didn’t activate and you ended up getting slapped so hard that you were sent sprawling on the ground.

Tentacled Joe/Bob had not been happy.

The only good part about the whole fiasco was the huge bag of money the drunk guy had tossed to you as he ran away with his hair on fire. The guards hadn’t even tried to arrest you or anything, instead merely telling you to stay away from drunk older men and keep an eye on where you were going.

Your face still stung for a good day afterward though. You were lucky you didn’t get a bruise.

Anyway, your ability disappeared. You had no idea why or how, but it was gone. Which meant that you had next to nothing to protect yourself with if someone just decided to randomly kidnap you off the streets. Well, aside from Tentacled Joe/Bob, of course, but he had a tendency to wander if you didn’t keep an eye on him.

So to sum it up: you were disabled in the eyes of everyone in this world, you couldn’t get a job to save your life because of it, John’s wife was planning on kicking you out of the stables in a week, your ability disappeared, and you still didn’t know which name to choose between Tentacled Joe and Bob.

Also there was the whole amnesia thing but quite frankly, that was very low on your list of problems right now. If your recent memory-like dreams were any indication, then the situation would solve itself eventually. Maybe.

The only saving grace in this entire mess was your two bags of money. Asking John about the local currency gave you a good amount of insight as to how much you had. Turns out, it was a considerable amount. Enough to buy a place to stay at a cheap inn for the next seventeen days. Eleven if you wanted meals to go along with it.

So you had eighteen to twenty-four days to figure out how to get some more money. It gave you some breathing room, but not much.

You sighed and poked Tentacled Joe/Bob in his side. “You got any ideas, man?”

The squid let out a sleepy, “Blrb” before rolling around and falling back to sleep.

“Yeah, I figured.”

You gave him a sharp poke in its side and he jerked up, tentacles flailing. You saw his flame aura rise slightly, the heat becoming a bit too unbearable, before going back to a more manageable temperature.

“Blrb…” Tentacled Joe/Bob said, rubbing all ten of his eyes. “Blrb, blrb.”

“Come on man, we gotta get up.” You stretched one more time before snatching a couple of apples out of the barrel and getting to your feet. “Time to look for another job.”

“Blrb, blrb,” he whined, plopping back onto the pile of hay, his flame aura flickering. You threw an apple at him in response. “Blrb!”

“Yeah, yeah, get up. You know we only have a week before John and his wife kick us out.” You started putting on the dress John had given you, an old faded white one that went down to your ankles. Your usual outfit of a T-shirt and jeans had started to get a bit gross after a while.

The second you got the chance, you’d see about giving them a wash. John did say there was a public well nearby. “The restaurant down near the bar is hiring a dishwasher. The pay’s shit, but we get to live in the basement for free. If I get that job, it should be able to tide us over for a good while.”

“Blrb, blrb!”

“Yeah, I know. But we don’t exactly have that many options,” you said, pulling on the flats John had given you. Apparently they belonged to his daughter when she was younger. “Not unless you’re willing to be sold to some mage as their familiar. Or to that potion place for ingredients.”

The squid shot you an offended look, his flames rising and lowering. “Blrb!”

“Of course I’d never do it! It’s just a joke, calm down!”

“Blrb, blrb!” He folded his tentacles. “Blrb, blrb, blrb?”

“Hey!” You pointed a finger at him. “Don’t even talk about that place, alright? All those crusty old men, looking at me with their creepy, fucked up pedophile eyes. Ugh.” You shivered in disgust just thinking about it. “And besides, they didn’t want me either. Assholes,” you muttered.

Tentacled Joe/Bob gave you a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. It didn’t make you feel any better.

You and Tentacled Joe/Bob ate a few more apples before hitting the town. It was early in the morning, so there wasn’t as big of a crowd. You mostly saw day laborers, guards, and homeless people, maybe the occasional kid playing in the streets. A few of them gave you and your squid odd looks, but for the most part they just ignored you.

When arrived at the restaurant, you were blocked at the door by a red headed girl who looked fourteen.

“You that girl lookin’ for a job? The one with the fire elemental?”

You perked up. “Yeah! I was wondering if --”

“I heard that you don’t have a System connection.” She looked you up and down. “You cursed?”

“Uh…”

“‘Cause if you are, then you might as well beat it. We need people with Skills workin’ around here.”

“But --!”

“Bye.” Once again you had a door get shut in your face.

You sighed. Tentacled Joe/Bob gave you a one tentacled hug and patted you on the head.

“Well that was a bust.” You looked through the list you brought with you and crossed out the name of the restaurant. “What else is left, anyway?”

It was a list you and John created together when you made it clear you wanted to get a job. On it was every shop, restaurant, and business nearby that was willing to hire someone with your level of inexperience and age.

Some of them were decent enough, like the restaurant you first went to. Some of them were shady like that “adult” store you briefly visited with all those old men. A few of them looked downright dangerous, like the pet store filled with all sorts of monsters and things with sharp teeth and claws and weird appendages that you really didn’t want to think about.

After several days of job hunting, every job on the list had been crossed out. Every job, except for one:

Apply To Become An Adventurer

Being an Adventurer, from what little you could gather, essentially meant being a monster hunter/bodyguard/mercenary for hire. You were paid to clear out monsters that were running around nearby, paid to guard carriages and merchant supplies during long journeys, and paid to basically kill anything with a bounty on its head. Whether a monster, a group of monsters, or a person who managed to piss off a lot of rich people.

It was a dangerous job, but a popular one if the amount of people who applied were any indication. From what you could tell, the Adventurer Guilds didn’t really deny anyone no matter what age or disability they might have. They made a special exception for wanted criminals of course, but everyone else was free game. Plus, they didn’t have a limit to the amount of people they were willing to accept. Hundreds of people could become Adventurers and the Guild would happily accept them all.

The pay was also decent, so long as you were willing to put the effort in. You had asked John how much being an Adventurer paid and he said it paid anywhere from a ten nickels to several gold per quest. Which was the equivalent of a hundred bucks to a few thousand dollars if you had it right.

The Guilds were also really common in cities, rural areas, country sides -- basically anywhere with a large mass of people, there was bound to be an Adventurer's Guild somewhere nearby. So even if you wanted to leave town and try to make your way somewhere else, you can still keep your job. You just needed to transfer your paperwork -- yeah being an Adventurer came with a lot of paperwork apparently -- to the next Guild and you were set.

It honestly seemed as sweet of a deal as you were gonna get -- if you were willing to put your life on the line. You had asked John about the whole Adventurer thing and he said:

“It might be best if you tried something more reliable little miss. Being an Adventurer isn’t the sorta job you can retire on. Its dangerous, risky, and unreliable at the best of times.”

“Even more dangerous than the pet shop?” you asked. “I saw a tiger with wings spitting acid in there!”

He gave you a solemn nod. “When you’re an Adventurer, that’s the sorta beasts you’re gonna hafta deal with all the time. Goblins, dungeons, wolves, elementals, dragons -- Adventurers are the ones who hafta deal with them all. Most of them rookies, who go into the Guild and come out expecting to have a life full of adventure, don’t last more than a few quests. Sometimes not even one. That boy you saved is a good example. Coulda died out there in those fields if you hadn't saved him.”

“Oh.”

“And you wanna know what’s worse than dealing with all those monsters?”

“What?”

“Dealing with Adventurers.” He shook his head. “Some of them can be even worse than the monsters they fight.”

How ominous.

John had put it on the bottom of your list and told you to only consider it if you really had no other choice. At the time you figured that you wouldn’t need to worry about it. Now though, it looked like it was your only option.

You sighed and checked over your list again, looking for something you might have missed. You were tempted to go back to some of the earlier restaurants and see if they were willing to take you in if you begged -- but figured it would be a waste of time. The owners looked pretty damn sure that they weren’t gonna take you.

Which left adventurering.

Honestly, the thought of risking your life for the equivalent of a hundred bucks and some change did not appeal to you. You kinda loved living, and the thought of taking a job that would risk your most basic of loves was not a good one.

But it wasn’t like you had a choice. You were getting kicked out and your money wasn’t gonna last you forever. Plus you had Tentacled Joe/Bob to take care of; he didn’t eat much, but he had a bad habit of increasing his flame aura when he was startled. Or happy. Or angry. Or bored.

Honestly, it was nothing short of a miracle that he didn’t set anything besides that church on fire yet.

So after tugging Tentacled Joe/Bob away from the cat he was trying to eat, you headed on down to the Adventurer’s Guild.

The place was way less crowded than it usually was, with only a few stray people sitting and chatting at the tables. A few of them were giving you curious glances as you walked up to the reception booth while others were eyeing your squid.

“Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild! How may I help you today?”

It was the same receptionist you saw before, only she looked a bit messier. Her long blonde hair was in a half hearted bun, with long strands of hair sticking to her sweaty neck. Her long white shirt had red stains splattered on the sleeves while her blue vest looked slightly ripped along the edges. Her black pants looked fine, though it looked oddly faded in some areas. She had a cheerful expression on her face, but the bags underneath her tired eyes were telling another story.

All in all, she looked like a well put together mess. The fact that she could sound so cheerful even when she looked so tired and worn out spoke volumes of her professionalism.

You were almost tempted to ask what happened, but figured it was none of your business. “Yeah, I’d like to become an Adventurer.”

She looked you up and down. Then glanced at your squid. “...very well then! May I see some form of identification?”

You handed her your card.

“Hmm… looks to be in order. It says you are twelve years old, correct?”

Your eye twitched. “Yeah.”

“And are you sure you wish to become an adventurer? The local death rate for new and inexperienced Adventurers is over fifty-nine percent. This percentage increases for those with little to no experience in combat, strategy, or magical capability. And from the looks of your identification card, you do not have an established Job or Class.”

You were starting to have second thoughts. Still, wasn’t like you had a choice. “Yeah, well. I still wanna be one.”

“...very well,” she said reluctantly. “You will, of course, have to pay a two nickel application fee in order to gain your license. As well as undergo a mandatory Full Appraisal by our Computing Orb.”

“Alri -- wait, what?” You blanched.

“A Full Appraisal. All Adventurer’s must have their full list of Skills, Stats, Spells, Perks, and Titles available scanned and archived by the Guild.” At the expression on your face, she tried to assure you: “Don’t worry. All of your personal and private Status information is secure and under lock and key. Not even the King is allowed to look into your information if you don’t want him to. This is strictly so we can monitor your progress and give you the quests that best suit your ranking.”

“R-right. You see, the thing is. Um. Shit.” You ran your hand through your hair. “I uh, I don’t have one. A Status.”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I’m cursed basically. My connection to the system has been blocked. Or whatever.”

You braced yourself for her to tell you to get out. Or for her to even try and appraise you against your will. Some of the jobs actually did that, using that appraisal skill or whatever on you to see if you were hiding something.

It never turned out well.

One guy just had all of his clothes disappear, revealing some very unfortunate tattoos. An older woman actually started floating and had to be pulled down by a bunch of her employees. One guy in particular -- the one who owned that “adult” shop -- turned into a giant frog.

You had to book it out of there afterwards, though later on you found out that he turned back to normal. A shame.

Surprisingly enough, the receptionist didn’t try to kick you out or appraise you. Instead he gave you a long look before saying, “I see. Do you still wish to be an Adventurer despite your… handicap?”

You blinked. “Wait, you believe me?”

“Let’s just say I have ways of knowing if you’re lying,” she said. “That, and I have heard of some strange stories lately. About a young girl with no Skills and a fire elemental running around the city, after the recent burning of the Gaia church. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” She arched an eyebrow.

You coughed and looked away. “Uh. N-no. No idea at all. So I can still be an Adventurer?”

She sighed, looking unhappy. “Well… I would advise you not to. Adventuring is a dangerous job as it is and factoring in someone with your…” She visibly searched for the proper word to say. “Handicap would mean that even the simplest of quests would be a danger to you. As such, I would strongly suggest you walk out the door right now.”

You shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but I can’t. I need to be an Adventurer. No one else wants to hire me and my friend’s kicking me out in a week. And I only have so much money right now, so I kinda need to get some more. This is the only place I’ve got.” You gave her a hopeful look. “I mean, unless they’re hiring someone to work at the Guild?”

She hesitated. “I’m sorry, but --”

“Then Adventurer it is.” You reached into your bag of money and took out two nickel coins. Idly, you flicked the coins through and around your hand, popping in and out of the folds of your fingers before handing them to her. “Here you go. So, how long does this take?”

She sighed again. “Well usually it would take no more than two minutes. However, your lack of System connection complicates things.”

She reached under her desk and took out a huge stack of paper, easily a good fifty pages thick. “You will need to fill out all of these forms. Along with,” she took out another stack of paper at least twice as thick, “these complementary forms once the first set is turned in. Once both are approved you must sign these as well.” She took out a stack of paper easily the size of a dictionary.

You stared. “Really?”

She nodded, looking as unhappy as you were. Probably because she was the one who was gonna have to look through all of them.

“And how long does it take for them to be approved?” you asked, hoping she would say a few minutes.

“It should only take four hours,” she said, dashing your hopes completely. “It’s a good thing you came in the morning, otherwise it would have taken twice as long.”

You could feel a headache coming on. “Ugh.”

This was gonna take forever.