Mathew walked out of the shower confused. It’s been nearly eight hours and no battle summary has shown up. He finished working out for the day, and was betting on it showing up before dinner at the latest.

Nobody knew how it worked in the first place. Now that it was gone, it was even more of a mystery. Mathew still was under the assumption that an Imp was hiding nearby, making him technically still in combat. Yet even after eight hours of looking over his shoulder, he had to discard that theory. Just why is it not showing up now?

Even a quick stop with Zack and Lindsey didn’t help sooth his mind. They too thought like he did, but nobody had anything concrete. With the shop function of the Hearth Crystal gone, anything was possible. Their source of information was gone.

“For now.” Mathew thought to himself. When he acquired a Hearth Crystal of his own, he would buy Di’s shop almost instantly. He would need to gather funds first, and it would be an uphill job. He just needed to wait till everything fell in place.

After getting dressed in comfortable clothes, Mathew walked outside and sat down in a chair. He looked over the base with a single thought. “What now?”

He still wanted to grow stronger, but after seeing that list of others far stronger than him, he felt defeated. Even his brother and niece were stronger than him. Zack mentioned being careful on rushing power. Mathew now agreed he had a point.

Power Gamers were what Zack called them. People who rushed levels and focused on the strongest meta in the game. Min-Maxers was another term he threw out. People who focused on the important skills and stats for their build, and left everything else behind.

Mathew saw merit in that plan, but it was more than likely what those at the top of the level ladder were. People who focused on survival and being strong now. They didn’t shore up any of their weaknesses, depending on brutish tactics to win.

Thoughts of the games his niece attempted to get him to play came to the front of his mind. “She has to be the best at everything, just like her father. I imagine the two of them are just as Zack described Power Gamers to be.”

Mathew would have to focus on all of his strengths and weaknesses to survive this new reality. Di put things into a better perspective on his last visit. He was a small little gnat. Maybe even smaller than that all things considered.

Mathew glanced up at his two wisps who were dancing in the air. He liked it when they bobbed around. He continued to mentally send them on a course to keep him entertained. Watching the two was calming.

Mathew wanted to work on his rituals, but the lacking ingredient of Mana Cores was his only hindrance. On a whim he had already drawn out the ritual for ‘The Perfect Butler’, only frowning when nothing worked. He quickly erased the chalk in case anyone came by later. He was more proud of erasing it now in case anybody thought it was the source of the Imp invasion. It did involve a pentagram style shape.

He sighed and really wished he was back home. He could just buy anything he needed with a single voice command to his home AI. If he needed something a bit more under the table or specific, he could just press a few buttons on his computer, or make a phone call, and have it post haste.

People walked with their weapons drawn or their hands near them as they walked past the dormitory Mathew stayed in. It was where Officers who visited the base would stay back before the world went crazy. Both him and Leo had a room. Leo’s was a floor above his.

Mathew grinned slightly at how people dressed these days. Armor, swords, robes with guns or the occasional bow were all worn or wielded. If someone never saw those blue boxes and came out of a cave, they would think a renaissance or comic con was happening nearby. That, or it was a new fashion trend. Robes used to be popular once upon a time, and fashion trends eventually repeated themselves.

Mathew pulled up his menu, a small summarized version as he didn’t want to see the details of everything.

Name: Mathew McGonald

Race: Human [Beginner]

Class: Summoner

Profession: Contract Scribe

Level: 15

Universal Currency: 19,059

Titles: Classy, Forerunner, Lawyer, Pack Leader, Soloist, Survivor

Strength:

44

Vitality:

58

Dexterity:

59

Endurance:

39

Intelligence:

126

Wisdom:

118

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

Abilities:

Share Sense | Novice 1

Universal Tongue | Unranked

Skills:

Knives | Beginner 0

Negotiation | Novice 6

Staves | Beginner 2

Writing | Novice 7

Rituals | Novice 1

Spells:

Mana Bolt | Beginner 0

Ritual of Enchantment: Increased Space | Novice 2

Bind Familiar | Unranked

Summon Infernal Wolf | Novice 1

Summon Wispy & Whis | Beginner 2

Mathew sat up and double checked everything. He then opened and closed his menu a few times to be sure nothing was wrong. “When did my [Mana Bolt] rank up? What?”

Mentally selecting the spell, an all growing familiar box showed up.

Spell Upgrade - Mana Bolt

Elemental Adept: Increased damage with an elemental type of your choice: (Once you select this option, you will pick an element afterwards)

Controlled Shot: You can change the direction of your attacks mid-flight to a minor degree.

Maiming: Your attacks deal less damage, but deal more bodily harm to your targets, causing pain and slowing their movements. Non-living targets take no damage and are unaffected by this spell.

Over Charged: You can build up more mana for a devastating area of effect blast. Over Charged Mana Bolt has a cooldown between attacks.

Mathew was more focused on the fact he had no alert for his rank up versus the actual choices. He closed the window for a moment and started to pace. His mind was like two hamsters running at maximum speed in their wheels, as he tried to understand what was going on.

“Why didn’t I receive an alert? Did I, and never saw it? No, those damned flashing lights always bugged me. Was it a feeling? I was exhausted after the fight, but I do remember my attacks getting stronger near the end. I rarely had one of those things, Imps, not be dead before it hit the ground.”

The two wisps followed behind Mathew like two balloons. They bounced when he turned around, and on occasion into each other.

“Damn it, more stuff I don’t know!” Mathew half yelled. He turned around and almost bumped into someone.

Leo stood there smiling. “If you are pacing and mumbling to yourself then we are doomed.”

“Hush, I’m thinking.” Mathew said without realizing who just spoke to him. He continued pacing in thought pointing his fingers at invisible points of his growing theory.

Leo shook his head and took a seat. He slightly enjoyed seeing Mathew look troubled, it reminded Leo that Mathew was just as human as he was. He glanced up at the wisps, “You two better get used to that. He only does it when he is really confused.”

The wisps made no response, but Leo didn’t care. He laughed at Mathew when he heard him call them by name a few days back. After questioning, Mathew explained it, “Why not? Easier to command them separately. When you can summon balls of blue magic, then you can judge me.”

Currently Mathew was stopped and turned quickly on his heels. “Leo, so glad you are here. Do me a favor and open your menu, check your skills and such. Did you fight any of the Imps?”

“Fuck yea we did. I had a literal blast. Lucky is great for when a bunch of those ugly things are grouped up. Damien was the only one who had a problem and-” Leo stopped as he looked at his menu.

“Mathew, I hate you.” Leo said with a growing irritated face. “How’d you know that one of my skills improved? When did it go up a threshold? ”

“Because, one of mine passed a rank threshold. [Mana Bolt] to be precise. I checked my Menu on a whim and there it was. Beginner 0. I received no alerts of any kind that it happened.”

Leo had an unfocused look, but still spoke, “Why do you think that? Hell, I wonder if others figured this out yet.”

“My guess? It was another handicap from The System. Just like the Shop, and the increased healing. What else did we lose? Do we level up slower? Do we even know when we Level up? I would say we stopped earning money, but based on my UC, those Imps, while cheap, did give out some currency. I imagine it’s because of their low levels.”

Leo nodded and soon focused back in. “My [First Aid] skill is the one that dinged, as Zack calls it. Brown’s upgrade made it to where any healing he did, magical or otherwise, was increased. My upgrade choice wasn’t one he had. I imagine my [Cleanse] spell influenced it. Essentially anyone I perform [First Aid] on has one disease or infection removed from them.”

Mathew frowned and opened his upgrade choices back up. “Mine are a bit more offensive. I can make the spell have an element theme, control it midair, maim living creatures, or simply pump the spell with more mana and have a larger boom.”

Leo nodded. “What do you plan on choosing? I don’t think anyone has any area based attacks. So that last one sounds great.”

Mathew sighed. “I was thinking Controlled Shot, the one that lets me control it midair. However, now that I think about it, can I split my focus like that? I have two wisps, a possible wolf, myself, and now a spell. I have a hard enough time with the two wisps and my own attacks, let alone more things to focus on. I don’t doubt I can do it long term, but what if I get more summons? Can I afford yet another thing to distract me in combat?”

“So big boom?” Leo asked with a smile.

Mathew shook his head. “I want to do Elemental Adept. It was a choice for my staff, but having it on this spell seems smart. Plus, I can write down the list and give it to Zack to study. Unless they have it already. I imagine a lot of people have this type of upgrade. Once we have shops open again, I can buy staves if I need to worry about elemental problems. Di had a staff for pretty much anything. At least, that is what Di claimed.”

Leo seemed impressed. “That’s a smart idea. I had a similar upgrade for Lucky, but it only let my shots deal Holy damage on top of whatever the slugs are.” Leo paused and cursed. “Shit, I bought my ammo from the shop! I didn’t even think about that till now.”

Mathew winced. He didn’t think about that either. He wondered if Payne would buy a shop soon. He quickly selected Elemental Adept and a window popped up. A list of ‘Elements’ shown. The only confusing part was some of them were not what he expected.

“Crystal? Thunder? How is Steam an element?” Mathew muttered. A few caught his eyes, such as Cold, Fire, Lightning, and other powerful ones. The Void element caught his eye for only a moment.

“Should I try to split my types evenly, or focus on something?” Mathew asked himself, thinking back to his class choice of a Cryomancer. If he has two spells with ‘cold’ damage, would that let him pick up some themes from that class? Could he split the two? A Summoner and Cryomancer? Summon angry snowmen to attack for him?

Leo shrugged. “Not my expertise. I say ask Zack, or go with your gut.”

Mathew nodded and decided to select Cold. The main reason was due to the fact ice and fire were common enemies according to Zack. The Imps shot fire attacks. Mathew saw nothing ‘water’ themed, other than maybe ‘steam’ or ‘salt’. Ice was the best second choice and he picked the closest one, being Cold.

“We should tell the others.” Mathew said standing up. “I would rather have everyone here not die. Considering I can’t leave the base to attack the Imps myself. I would get a little lonely.”

Leo scoffed. “As if you care about others. You were probably wishing you were back home, sipping your tea, and wanting to have some peace and quiet.”

Mathew said nothing, but his smirk was all Leo needed to know. They both walked to the library, where Zack would be. Mathew decided either one of them could tell Payne, or he would find out another way. He had no obligation to tell the general jack shit.