Chpt. 1) My first day alive…again.

Sawyer was your average guy and had a fulfilling life. Or he would have if he hadn’t died when he was thirty. Died in a car accident after a long day at work by some student going for a joy ride.

“Well, shit. I never thought I was going to die this way. Who am I kidding? Of course, I’d die this way. I’m a high school teacher. Clearly, I’m unlucky,” Sawyer complained to himself in the endless darkness. “Where am I anyway? It’s not heaven; otherwise, there would be pearl gates or something. Am I in hell, the deepest darkest part reserved only for pedophiles and people who talk on the phone in the movie theaters?! I dought that’s the case though,”

“Don’t worry, you’re not in hell,” a mysterious childish voice said.

That made Sawyer startle, “Who said that?”

“Open your eyes, numbnuts.”

Sawyer did and what he saw was breathtaking. He looked upon a planet seen from outer space. It looked almost like earth, but not quite. None of the continents were in the proper shape, let alone the correct location. As he looked at it, the sun was just starting to come around the horizon, revealing the planet further. Showing mountains that stretched into the lower atmosphere, forests that covered half a continent, and deserts just as significant. It was amazing watching the sun glisten on the ocean- ‘Wait, how am I breathing in space!? Is it breathing if there’s nothing to breathe!?’

Sawyer panicked and looked down at his body, which was missing. He kept looking down and rolled, which he only figured out after seeing the planet go by him again. This happened five times before he figured out how to stop and then started staring at the planet again, thinking. ‘Well, I’m dead. Otherwise, I’d have a body. Explains why I can survive in space,’ he thought.

“Are you done having fun?” the voice asked again. Sawyer heard the voice from his left, so he turned left… four times and then stopped. He stared at a child who looked like a tattoo practice dummy, sitting cross-legged on a throne made of board games and decks of cards, “Hi! I’m Tanashi. Nice to meet you,” he said.

“H-Hi?” Sawyer said questioningly.

“So, I bet you have some questions, and I’m sure you are owed an explanation,” Tanashi said plainly.

“Well, yeah.”

“Well, then let me explain,” Tanashi then sat as straight as he could and puffed out his chest, “WELCOME, SAWYER, I THE GREAT GOD OF PEACE AND FUN, HAVE CHOSEN YOU AS MY CHAMPION TO CONQUER THE DUNGEONS ON MY PLANET AND LEAD THE SIX OTHER CHOSEN HEROS OF THE GODS. DO YOU ACCEPT THIS QUEST?!”

“No,” Sawyer said plainly.

“EXCELLENT, WE’LL BEGIN WITH-wait, what?”

“I said ‘no.’”

“No? No? Why, No?”

“You said that you will explain, not give me a sales pitch.”

“But-”

“No.”

“But-"

“No.”

“But-” Tanashi started to whimper, and his smiling tattoo drooped to a frown.

“No. Start explaining.”

Tanashi was silent for a moment, then slumped onto one of the arms of his throne, “Fine, what do you want to know?”

Sawyer thought for a moment, “Why me?”

“You were the first to die,” Tanashi said instantly.

“I was the first to die. That’s why?! Out of how many?”

“Out of sixty-five million compatible souls. I wanted to go with the World War two veteran at age one-hundred and twenty-five, but he outlived you just like everyone else,” Tanashi said plainly.

“That’s dark,” Sawyer said.

“I know,” Tanashi said with a slight grin on his face.

Sawyer thought for a moment more, “What will happen on the quest?”

“I can’t tell you that because I don’t know, but I can explain what I can give you,” Tanashi countered, “I’ll be giving you access to the system we have in place here, access to your stats, and a Grimoire that gives you access to every class and sub-class.”

“What are the stats?”

“The ability stats are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Intelligence, Agility, Charisma, Luck, Wisdom, and Soul.”

“Soul? What does the soul stat do?”

“Soul: increases mana capacity exponentially by two percent per point, mana recharge exponentially by two percent per point, stamina recharge exponentially by one point one percent per point, and adds two Ability and skill points per five points.”

“Okay, good to know. I think I can figure out what the rest of the ability stats are. What are my stats?”

Tanashi pulled on his bowtie with a finger and said, “You don’t want to know right now, but don’t worry, I was able to procure the lottery of ability points if you will and will be putting assigning them for you.”

“That’s not comforting.”

“I know,” Tanashi drooped forward again, “but anyways, the quest for you is to complete the seven dungeons on the seven worlds, and you’ll get a wish.”

Sawyer nodded along or bobbed along. He didn’t quite know. Once Tanashi finished, he said, “Alright, sounds simple enough. Complete the seven dungeons on the seven worlds, and I get a wish?”

“Yep.”

“Anything I want?”

“Anything at all.”

Sawyer thought for a moment more than relented, “Fine, but I have some conditions before I agree.”

“Do you agree?”

“If my conditions are met.”

“Of course, of course. Name them.”

“Twenty skill points, and I get to make my own body.”

“I can’t make you your own body. It’ll be completely randomized, and no one has any control over it. As for the skill points, I can do ten,” Tanashi countered.

“So, I have no control over that and eighteen,” Sawyer complained. He spent years working out and eating healthy to get a near-perfect body. Getting an utterly random body could be weird and undo all that work. Not that it amounted to much anyway.

“Yeah, sorry about that, but there is a consolation I can choose the clothes. Don’t worry. It’ll be classy. Eighteen works, also you can choose your new name,” Tanashi agreed.

Sawyer looked at Tanashi’s massive bowtie and said, “How comforting. A new name, eh?” Sawyer thought for a moment, “Ford, I’ll make my name Ford.”

Tanashi recoiled and put a hand on his bowtie, “Hurtful, and Ford really? No creativity. Anyways, I’ll just need you to sign this terms of service agreement,” he then poled out a scroll as long as his throne was tall. Sawyer moved in closer to read it. Or tried to, he didn’t know how to move other than look around.

“Could you move that closer,” Sawyer asked, “I can’t read it from here.”

Tanashi rolled his eyes, and the scroll floated over. It read, after reincarnating, the seven gods of creation are not responsible for the following. Death, torture, rape, theft of possessions, disembowelment, memory loss, memory manipulation, the fact that nobody loves you, the fact nobody cares, lack of sleep, loss of limbs, mental trauma, the list went on like this for a while. Sawyer skipped down to the bottom of the list and kept reading; now that you know all the possible ways you could die, say accept or agree to continue. What are you waiting for? Come on. Hurry up. Hurry up, dead-beat. Say something, and let’s get started. Let’s go. The rest of the contract was just a bunch of insults. Sawyer looked at Tanashi and rolled his eyes, “Agreed,” he said flatly.

A wicked smile spread across Tanashi’s face as he stood and approached Sawyer. Then he grabbed Sawyer with both his hands, “Don’t worry,” he said, “This is only going to hurt a lot.”

“Wait, What?” A shock ran through Sawyer, causing intense pain to run through his non-existent body. “WHAT,” another shock racked his body, “THE,” another shock, “HELL,” another, “WAS THAT,” and another, “FOR!? YOU ASSHOLE!?”

“Well, I had to grant you access to the Yggdrasil system, download the system and the language to talk to the people in the world. Each shock did that for you,” Tanashi said, smiling.

“You shocked me five times. What were the other two shocks?”

“For fun,” He replied with a smile.

That ticked Sawyer off a bit, “Well, how about you let me go so that I CAN KICK YOUR ASS FOR FUN!”

“Not a chance,” Tanashi tightened his grip around Sawyer and cocked his arm back as if to throw him.

“What are you doing?!”

“Well, you got to get to my planet Erath somehow.”

Tanashi then threw Sawyer like a baseball, and soon after throwing him, Sawyer collided with a stray asteroid destroying it. “ASSHOLE!!”

“I’M SORRY!!”

“BULLSHIIIIT!!!”

“TRUEEEE!” with a snap of his fingers, Tanashi vanished.

***

“That went well,” Samael said as Tanashi returned to the other gods.

“Yeah, could have gone better,” Tanashi said, re-adjusting his Fedora. “He was somewhat untrusting at first. I think, but he came around,” he added with a shrug.

“Don’t you mean she?” Drake said, raising a scaled eyebrow.

“What?” Tanashi leaned forward with a few other gods and examined the small ball of light hurtling toward Erath. As they looked, they saw the body form as a female. “Well, that’s unexpected. I should take more care in picking out the clothes then.”

“You promised her clothes?” Samael said, with a hint of panic in her voice.

“Well, yeah. Can’t let her arrive naked. Besides, I won’t make her look like a clown or anything,” Tanashi said, trying to sound reassuring.

Samael stood, walked over to him, and grabbed the back of his collar dragging him off his throne. “I will not let you choose her clothes alone,” Samael said with clear annoyance in her voice.

“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad a dresser,” he complained.

Everyone looked at Tanashi’s massive bowtie, and as one said, “Yes, you are!”

He looked down at his bowtie then at everyone else as he was dragged away, “STOP HATING MY BOWTIE!”

“No,” everyone said again.

***

As Ford plummeted toward the planet that Tanashi called Erath, he felt the atmosphere burn his non-existent body and re-form it from nothing. The pain was unimaginable. He felt his nerves being built and connected, burned and destroyed and re-made all over again. As the pain grew to be unbearable, he blacked out.

A screen popped up, and a loading bar was in its middle. The bar started at zero, then jumped to twenty-five percent, then eighty, then ninety-nine percent, stopped there for a long time, and finally went to one-hundred percent. The screen that popped up after that read, I.G.A.S.S. active. Initiating startup. Startup complete HUD active. Then four colored lines flew up to the top right of his vision, red, yellow, blue, white, and were labeled HP, STM, MN, EXP. Next to those were three separate numbers, HP: one-hundred seventy-six/one-hundred seventy-six, STM: thousand six-hundred eighty/thousand six-hundred eighty, MN: seven-hundred sixty-five/seven-hundred sixty-five, EXP: zero/one-thousand.

A cogwheel came up on the opposite side and was labeled I.G.A.S.S. he focused on it, and a new screen popped up. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: none; class: none; Level: one. Abilities: STR: twenty; PER: fourteen; END: sixteen; INT: fifteen; AGI: eighteen; CHR: twenty; LCK: twelve; WIS: nine; SOL: zero.

Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. Ford started to feel the dirt underneath her, and her eyes shot open as she realized what she had just read, ‘FEMALE!’ and she looked down and saw the clothes she was wearing. She wore a ruby red dress shirt with a black waistcoat, cargo pants, dress shoes, and a ruby red tie. Ford started feeling her new body with her hands and was impressed with her muscle tone. Not so much that she looked like a bodybuilder, but just enough to be considered athletic with a four-pack of abs; that was the best part, in her opinion. As a former guy, she couldn’t help but feel her new breasts, and she approved; after all, medium is premium.

After the quick exploration, she looked around and noticed that she was in the middle of a green wood forest, the trees knotted and had grown high above her. The green canopy above blocked out a good portion of the sun, other than the human-sized smoking hole she most likely made when she landed. “Sorry, trees,” she said partially to herself. She looked down and noticed a puddle in front of her; in the very center of the crater, she didn’t even notice she was lying in. She sat up and put her legs under her as she leaned forward over the puddle. She gasped as she saw her face; it was beautiful and perfectly angled; she looked to be about sixteen. Her eyes were the only thing that didn’t match. Her left eye was a golden yellow color, and her right was violet. She also wore a red Fedora and took it off to examine it closely; by doing so, her long, golden blond hair came tumbling down just past her shoulders. The Fedora was ruby red with a black bow on it.

‘Nice hat,’ she thought as she put it back on. As she did, a notification popped up on the cogwheel. Focusing on it, the same window popped up with her skills and abilities. She then thought of scrolling the screen, and it moved, but nothing new showed up as it moved back to the original stats. Then she thought of swiping the window, and a new window came up, showing her body in a T-pose and labeled all the clothes. They were all as she suspected, except for the cargo pants, which read; interdimensional cargo pants, rarity; uncommon, effect; one-hundred percent weight reduction on anything that is put into the pockets.

“Inter what now?” she said and reached into one of the extra pockets on the side of her thighs, and another screen popped up, with a one by six grid of boxes, and one of the boxes in the middle was full. It had a gold coin symbol and the number one-hundred thousand. “Well, at least I’m not broke,” she said, “Where to now?”

Another notification popped up on the cogwheel. Ford opened it up and thought of swiping it to the right revealing a quest screen, and she read the new quest that came up. Time to work; find the closest church town and receive your Grimoire. Reward; Grimoire, plus one thousand exp, map function, action log.

“Well, at least I get a map after I need it,” Ford said to herself, “I need to find the nearest road, and I need to stop talking to myself.” Looking around, she didn’t see any sign of where to go. So, she left it up to the lords of holistic directions and started walking forward.

The forest was charming, quite beautiful in fact. Once she started walking, she started noticing the life of the forest, birds chirping, squirrels scurrying around the trees, although the squirrels looked rather scaley. “Probably just a trick of the light,” she said as she kept walking. After about ten minutes she found a road, finally. She then looked from side to side to figure out where to go but saw no signs or landmarks, so she turned right and walked.

Ford walked for what felt like an hour when she came across a wagon with a man and his kids working on it, trying to put a wheel back on. The kids looked to be sixteen, a boy and a girl. The boy was trying to lift the wagon and struggled to, and the girl was almost useless, just watching and holding onto the two horses’ reins. Whereas the man was trying to put a new wheel on, he looked far more muscular than the boy, probably trying to strengthen him up.

As she grew closer, they never noticed her coming upon them. Ford walked right up next to the girl just behind her and watched the man and boy struggle to put a wheel on. After about five minutes of struggling, no progress being made, and nobody noticing Ford, she said, “Hey, need a hand?” in as cheery a voice as she could make.

Ford couldn’t help but laugh so hard she nearly fell over. Everyone screamed and jumped away from her. This gave Ford the first clear look at everyone; the boy had dry, muddy pants and shirt and wore cowboy boots, but otherwise was plain-looking with his ginger hair, blue eyes, and pale skin; the girl, on the other hand, wore a patched-up dress and also wore boots, she had a sunflower in her hair which went well in her ginger hair that complimented her freckles and Azur eyes giving her an adorable appearance. The man was almost twice their age, if not more, and wore blue overalls and a muddy white shirt and a straw hat. The man spoke first in a deep voice, “What in the blazin’ ‘ell are you doing out here all alone, and how long have you been standin’ there?”

After a few quick breaths getting her laughter under control, Ford finally replied, “I’ve been watching y’all struggle for about ten minutes and stood here for last five. As for why I’m here alone, I couldn’t tell you because I don’t know myself,” She chuckled again, remembering their expressions, “Now do you need help?”

“No, my son and I got it. Thanks, though,” The Man said, gesturing to his son.

The girl decided to cut in at that moment and say, “We’ve been working on this for half an hour.”

“We do not need help,” The Man said again.

“Sounds like you do,” Ford said as she walked over to where the boy was standing a moment ago. She then crouched, grabbed the bottom of the wagon, and, with a grunt, lifted the wagon, “Might want to hurry you two. Ugh, I can’t hold this forever.” Her STM bar started to tick down three per second, and an anvil symbol came up under her bars, then went up two and a half per second. ‘That anvil must mean encumbered,’ she thought.

After a few quick blinks, the man quickly put the wheel on, and Ford set the wagon down, panting. “Well, thank you for the help las. I’m Luis, pleaser, to meet you,” he held out a calloused right hand that was missing his middle and ring finger.

Ford reached out and shook Luis’s hand, “Ford, nice to meet you.”

“What brings you this far out in the sticks?”

“Heading to town to get a Grimoire. Do you know where that would be?” Ford asked.

Luis looked puzzled, “So let me get this straight. You walked into a deadly forest with no idea where to go and no weapon that I can see.”

Ford thought for a moment, “Yup. However, it was more like I woke up in the middle of the forest with no idea where to go. Otherwise, your spot on.”

“Oh, I see. A bad prank, it sounds like. Luckily for you, we’re headin’ to the same town you are. Since you helped us, why don’t you come along?”

Ford shrugged, “Sure, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, las,” Luis said as he took the reins from his daughter and attached the wagon to the horses. Once he did the twins, Ford began to assume and climb into the wagon’s back once he did the twins, followed closely by Ford. The twins sat on the left side of the wagon next to three bags, and Ford sat on the right.

“How long till we get to town?” Ford asked as she settled on the ruff wood.

“A few hours till town. Better get comfortable,” Luis said as he whipped the reins.

Ford nodded and looked at the twins, locking eyes with the girl. Ford winked, making the twin blush. She then put her Fedora over her eyes and lay down. Within moments she began to drift off to sleep.

***

The wagon hit a bump as it came to a stop hitting Fords’ head hard enough to wake her. She didn’t move, wanting to sleep some more when a woman’s voice drifted over, as cool and calm as a gentle breeze, “Welcome, mister farmer, to our forest. What brings you through here?”

That voice sent a chill down Ford’s spine as if just hearing it set off every danger signal that she had. Luis responded, stuttering as he did so, “P-please ma'am, I-I don’t want any trouble.”

“Oh, neither do I, good farmer,” she put evident bravado into her words, “but there are only two reasons why someone like you would come through here. One is to sell your food or other things you make or grow, and the other is for a special occasion. Seeing as though you don’t have any products and we all know what tomorrow is means, you must have something valuable enough to afford three lovely children.”

One of the twins squeaked as someone walked by the wagon. Ford could hear them running their hand along with the ruff wood. “I-I only have two kids. The other is just a hitchhiker. Please, just let us pass,” Luis pleaded, fear starting to creep into his voice.

“Only one of them is not yours? That will help pay the toll we have here,” the woman said as Fords' hat was taken off and tossed aside, revealing the ugliest man she’s ever seen in either of her lives. He smiled at her, revealing the yellowest tooth she had ever seen. He looked like he had been half mummified and rotted before anyone decided to bury him, only to discover he was somehow still alive and starving. Ford took this opportunity to look around, but she only saw the ugly man and an older woman with red hair sitting next to Luis wearing a fur coat.

The ugly man put a knife under Ford's chin, making her look up at him again. “Well, how fortuitous,” the woman said, “I guess you don’t need that one then.” The ugly man smiled a vicious smile, and the world slowed down. Then without a second thought, Ford reacted. She grabbed the man's wrist and pulled him down close enough for her to head butt him, knocking out his last tooth. She then brought her right knee up and into his face. She could feel his jaw dislocating, knocking him out.

She used the momentum to roll to her feet off the back of the wagon and pulled the knife free from the man's limp fingers. She darted down the right side of the wagon toward another man in front of the horses who were more muscular than the ugly man. In front of him, within a second, Ford drove the knife into the mans’ left quadriceps, in the rectus femoris. As he bent over in pain, Ford pulled the knife out, slicing along his external oblique, then drove the knife's pommel into the base of his neck on the top of his spine, knocking him out.

She looked up and saw another man just as fit, stumbling back in shock. Ford dashed forward, the third man getting his feet under him pulling a knife. Before he could use it, Ford brought her knife up, slicing the tendons at the base of the wrist, making him drop the knife. She caught it in mid-air, used it to slash across his rectus abdominis, and then brought it down into his trapezius. She pulled down and forward, bringing her knee up and into his face, dislocating his jaw and knocking him out.

A knife came out from her blind spot, obscured by her hair. She could barely react in time to dodge it, only getting a small cut along her jaw bone. Her HP went down five points, and she looked at the fourth man holding a knife. He was slimmer than the other two. Behind him, the woman jumped off the wagon and ran down the left side. Ford focused on the man again as he made another jab at her. She turned on her heel, grabbed his wrist, twisted it, pivoted, and pulled him to the ground. Once there, she dislocated his shoulder, making him scream. She stood then stomped on his head, knocking him out as well.

Turning, she cocked her left arm back, ready to throw the knife at the woman, but froze as she saw her holding the twin girl in front of her with a knife to her throat. “You fight well, girl!” the woman said, “but I think I’ll be leaving,” She started to back away with the twin.

“What’s your name?” Ford asked, still holding the knife.

The woman stopped for a moment, and an almost charming smile grew across her face as she said, “The name is Jaine, highwaywoman of this forest, a pleasure to meet-”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Ford said harshly. She focused her gaze on the twin then, “What is your name,” she asked in a much gentler tone.

“I- My name- My name is Max,” she choked out, tears rolling down her face. Jaine ticked and pulled Max back as she began to walk again.

“Max,” Ford said, keeping her attention, “everything will be okay,” she cocked her arm back a little further.

Jaine's temper broke at that moment, and she yanked Max back, poking her head over Max's right shoulder, “How could you possibly do-” the rest of what she said was lost and replaced with an expression of shock as the knife that was once in Fords had planted itself in Jaine's right eye going deep into her brain. She collapsed limply to the ground.

Max stood frozen in place tentatively began to look down at the corpse at her feet. Before she could look upon it, Ford walked up to her and gently grabbed her chin, forcing her to look into Ford's violet and gold eyes. Max was a good head shorter than Ford, she noticed, “Look at me, Max,” she said, “focus on me,” once Max looked up into her eyes, she continued, “Don’t look down, and keep your chin up. Your safe now, and everything will be alright,” Ford boopped her nose with a small smile and gently grabbed her hand and led her to the back of the wagon, helping her in.

She then walked back to Jaine and looked upon her, fixing her face within her mind. She then looked at the rest of her body and found a red hair tie on her wrist. She took it off and tied her hair back in a messy ponytail as she walked to the three unconscious men and pulled them off the road out of the way of the horses. She then walked back down the right side of the wagon when Luis grabbed her arm. “Thank you,” he mouthed, and Ford nodded to him.

He let go of her shoulder and continued to walk when she bent down to pick up her Fedora. A child she hadn’t noticed before, no older than thirteen, standing in the shade of the evergreens, tears rolling down his pale face, bloodshot eyes just below his shaggy, ginger hair, “Mom?” he sobbed.

Ford put her hat back on and covered her face with it as she said, “Go home, kid, there is nothing left here.” She then climbed into the wagon, sat cross-legged, and gestured for Luis to go. He whipped the reins, and the horses started to move forward slowly. As they moved forward, she clasped her hands to stop them from shaking and rested her forehead upon them, watching the blood from her cut drip off her chin and onto her pants. All the while, she did her best to block out the sobbing screams of the child on the highwaywoman, Jaine.

‘What have I done? How did I do that? I’ve never killed anyone before. Let alone with martial arts, because that was what I did. Right? I need to set my feelings aside right now and think,’ all this went through Ford's head as she watched the blood drip onto her pants. ‘How did I learn that, though,’ she thought for a moment more, then she realized something, ‘The fourth and fifth shock was for fun. That’s what Tanashi said when he created me. So, if the fourth was martial arts, then the fifth was most likely the eighteen points he promised.’ Ford took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

Then she felt a soft hand clasp hers, and she looked up to see Max holding her hand and a bottle of clear liquid and a few bandages in the other. “Mind if I bandage the cut before it gets infected?” Max asked while trying to put on a brave face. Ford nodded and scooted forward, allowing her to apply the liquid with a cotton swab. It started to sting and burn as she rubbed the liquid into the cut.

‘Must be rubbing alcohol,’ she thought to herself. After getting the cut disinfected, she applied a small cotton square and taped it to Ford's face. Ford looked at Max, who was still struggling to keep a brave face, “Thanks. I appreciate it,” Ford gestured to her chin while noticing her HP went up to full within a few seconds.

“No, thank you. If not for you, I- we probably would have-” Max started to sob as she tried to talk, “We could have died. But thanks to you, we’re not. Thank you.” She couldn’t keep her composure up anymore, and she began to cry uncontrollably. Her brother pulled her close and comforted her as she cried into his shoulder.

“That experience was hard for us,” Max's brother said, “It happened to us two years ago. It was by different bandits, but we lost our mother. So, it brought back some bad memories.”

Ford rested a comforting hand on Max’s shoulder, “I’m sorry to hear that. I’d say I could relate, but the only family member I’ve lost is the family dog,” she then focused on Max’s brother, “I never caught your name. what is it?”

“I’m Sean,” he responded as he looked toward his father, Luis, who was white-knuckling the reins to stay calm.

‘While it’s good to remember those we’ve lost, it’s best not to get lost ourselves in painful memories,’ Ford thought to herself. She then decided to come up with a way to distract them and change their mood. “So, since I’m awake, mind if I ask some questions?” she asked everyone.

Sean shrugged, “Sure, ask away,” he still sounded depressed.

“Do you all have an I.G.A.S.S. system that you can access with a thought that shows your skills, abilities, armor, and quests?” Ford asked, trying to force the conversation in a total, one-eighty.

“Yes,” Luis said with a bit of surprise, “Though you shouldn't have access to it till you get your Grimoire. Why do you have it?”

“Good question,” she stated, pointing at him, “I have no idea I’ve just always had it.”

“Hmm, interesting. Since you have that, you probably got some EXP for fighting them, bandits.”

“Really? Let me check,” Ford focused on the cogwheel and opened the menu.

Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: none; class: none; Level: one. Abilities: STR: twenty; PER: fourteen; END: seventeen; INT: fifteen; AGI: nineteen; CHR: twenty; LCK: twelve; WIS: nine; SOL: zero. Skills: natural: carry weight: hundred kg, quick-witted, resilient, strong-willed, cook. ‘My endurance and agility went up. I guess I can level those through training and working out or something along those lines. How do I level soul?’

She closed the menu and looked at the four bars on the top right of her vision. HP: one-hundred eighty-seven; STM: one-thousand seven-hundred thirty-four; MN: one-thousand two-hundred twenty-four; EXP: zero/one-thousand. She stopped focusing on it and said, “I didn't get any EXP, but I did level my endurance and agility.”

“Well, that’s good. Also, not surprising, considering how fast you were moving,” Luis said.

“How did you level your endurance, and what are your stats?” Sean asked curiously.

Ford looked at him and saw Max had calmed down and listened intently with bloodshot eyes. “That’s not appropriate to ask Sean,” Luis said sternly.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Ford said, then thought for a moment since she can’t tell them her actual stats. “In order, it’s fifteen, ten, fourteen, fifteen, eleven, eleven, nine, nine, zero,” she said with a smug grin spreading along her face.

Sean nodded, “What does that mean?”

“It means,” Max jumped in, “you’ll have to wait to get your Grimoire to find out her stats.”

Luis laughed, “Haa! True.”

“Do you know how to level soul, Luis,” Ford asked.

“Yes, but it’s more difficult to level than the rest. You have to meditate or something like that, and it’ll slowly level soul,” He didn’t sound very confident.

Ford pointed it out, “You don’t sound very confident.”

Luis started rubbing the back of his head, then grunted, “Well, I don’t know this one very well. I’ve leveled it three times, twice by accident in the forty years since I got my Grimoire. The first time was in training, and it was so dull I forgot about what my teacher told me, other than it is almost worthless and there is no point in leveling it.”

“I disagree,” Ford said.

“I agree with her disagreement,” Max chimed in.

“Why not tell us what your teacher told you? For leveling soul,” Ford continued.

Luis sighed and focused on the ground a moment, “Fine, but only because I know if I say no, you,” he pointed at Max, “will just keep bugging me to remember.”

“Whaaaat? Me? Never,” she said sarcastically, a sly smile on her face.

Luis sighed again, “To level up your soul, you need to meditate and focus on touching your soul then connecting it to the world around you… I think that’s what my teacher said. Once you do that, you can feel the world around you. That’s how you level the soul; it’s feeling the world and the life within it,” Luis thought for another moment, “Or something along those lines, feels like that’s what my teacher told me.”

“Take my soul and connect it to the world,” Ford said to herself. She had meditated before in her past life, but this sounds like deep meditation, which she hadn’t done before. When Ford did mediate, it was to think on an essay or fall asleep; it always led to sleep paralysis, but she could try it. She then turned and looked straight ahead, looking deep into Max’s eyes, then with confidence and total conviction, she said, “Alright, to level the soul, I have to molest the world. Got it.”

“Don’t phrase it like that!” Luis said with a slight laugh.

“Especially don’t say it while looking at me!” Max said, crossing her arms across her chest as her face turned cherry red. Ford laughed and closed her eyes as she looked for her soul.