Jonathan was still heaving, heavily when he heard Augus's question. With every breath, he felt the droplets at the back of his throat, each breath bringing them closer to leaving his body, but each falling just short of giving him comfort.

"I'll wait a moment for you to...compose yourself."

Jonathan didn't know what bothered him more; the fact that he had almost been killed, or the fact that he had learnt a skill while doing so, because this meant that his would-be killer did it to help him.

“You almost killed me”

“Yes I did, the key word being ‘almost’. I told you I was going to give you the tools to survive, which is what I am doing.”

Jonathan had made the wrong assumption about Augus. He had hoped than Augus would be ignorant to his attempts to get in Augus’s good graces. He had also spent energy silently praying that Augus was an incompetent man, one who would leave keys unguarded, unfortunately as his father would say, ‘life doesn’t work that way’.

“I assume you learnt the ‘Will to live’ skill, a lot of people do. Occasionally one earns a title alongside the skill. Unfortunately, the skill does not provide any stat bonuses.”

“You assume?”

“Yes. I know you have learnt a skill, from experience, but I cannot tell which one until I use the ‘Appraise’ skill.”

“And you…can’t?”

“To prevent those who would free slaves from doing so, all examiners are monitored. All examiners are not allowed to use skills outside the list.”

“Does this include you?”

A look of confusion flashed onto Augus’s face.

“Why would it not?”

“Florence told me that I was part of an experiment and that I came alone, meaning that even with my attributes; I am a special case. As a special case and even with Florence’s’ determination that I am a ‘failure’, it is unlikely that they would send anybody who couldn’t double check Florence’s information using the ‘Appraise’ skill.”

“Hah! All that from one conversation with that idiot?”

“I also made a few suppositions. I assumed that the ‘Appraise’ skill was a simple skill to learn and use, secondly you said ‘all examiners’ are not allowed you didn’t say you weren’t. “

“So it seems. You are correct; I used the ‘Appraise’ skill when you were asleep. I simply will not use it again.”

“Why?”

Augus smiled;

“Sometimes I wonder that too.”

From his actions it was obvious that Augus was not the kind of man who could agree to any schemes Jonathan thought of, clearly he had his own. Jonathan decided that while Augus should not be trusted, he had tortured him after all; he could at least be trusted to keep Jonathan alive. Suddenly Augus continued;

“Now let’s see what else you will learn by the end of the week. Or do you have second thoughts about the whole thing?”

Jonathan thought about the uncertainty of what was ahead, he thought about how he had almost just died; he thought about Eddie, he thought about Marie and how awkward it would be if he was actually crazy and he thought about his parents and how he missed them even though he chose to live on campus to get away from them. He thought about how he missed all of them and how he longed to see their faces again. He blinked away a few tears before deciding.

“Let’s do this.”

“You ever heard of the bait and switch?”

“Ah, here we go again.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

”You know exactly what I mean, you wanna tell me about a concept you learnt from tv tropes or the dialogue from a Quentin Tarantino film and try to somehow relate it to my situation.”

“That’s not exactly true, the version of the bait and switch I was gonna talk about was the Kansas City shuffle.”

“Oh I was wrong, please forgive me. Lucky Number Slevin is not a Quentin Tarantino move” Jonathan mentioned sardonically.

Eddie smiled and patted Jonathan on the back.

“Yes! At least you admit your mistake, peasant! This is a good first step onto the path of forgiveness.”

“Sometimes you’re an ass, you know that?”

“Is that so? No wonder you love me so much.”

Eddie dodged a punch from Jonathan before laughing. Jonathan quickly gave up before opening his mouth to speak.

“Come on man, why do you have to make it weird.”

“You walked into it, you gotta admit.”

“I refuse.”

“You sure that’s not what Marie said to you?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

“Anyway before you so rudely butted in, I wanted to tell you about how to use the Kansas City shuffle on your parents.”

“And thus, the ‘here we go again’. I don’t think that’s gonna work out too well.”

“Why?”

“My parents are too smart for that type of thing. The Kansas City shuffle relies on somebody realizing that their being tricked but not realising that that was part of the trick. They would probably realise that as soon as I tried to pull it on them.”

“Come on man, I got your back.”

“Yeah but you aren’t exactly known for being a good influence. I mean, you did convince me to trespass on Mr Ndlovus’ house because you thought he was a vampire.”

“It’s not my fault that he was so creepy. Anyway you could have chosen not to come with me. If anything, you just proved that I am a very convincing person and as such, we would be able to pull it off.”

“Damn it, so how are we going to convince them that going on a date won’t distract me from my schoolwork, and eventually lead me to a path of sin?”

Eddie leaned in close to Jonathans face.

“Simple, we tell them you are going on a date.”

In the following days of the ‘examination’ Jonathan was not allowed to eat. Apparently, by being starved for a week, one could learn the ‘Starved’ skill, which Augus was adamant would help Jonathan in the future.

Jonathan also found that his bowel movements were taken care of in his sleep. Although it would be an effective torture method to have stew in his own waste, Augus really hated the smell.

On the third day of the ‘examination’, he was subjected to a form of torture where he had drops of water dropped onto his forehead in infrequent intervals. After 3 hours of expecting drops of water that never came and being hit by water every time he breathed in relief, he learnt the ‘Paranoia’ skill.

As soon as the notification for the skill filled his vision, he found that by concentrating, he could read the skills description;

[Paranoia]

Everybody has to earn your trust. As a side effect of always being on guard, you are less likely to be caught by surprise.

The remaining time of day was spent on trying to coax the manifestation of the ‘Starved’ skill or so Augus told him. Augus had food delivered to him, which he ate in front of Jonathan, causing him to feel hungrier as the hours went by. By the end of the day Jonathan had learnt the ‘Temperance’ skill.

[Temperance]

The path to righteousness is long. You are more resistant to any temptation.

On the fourth day of the ‘examination’, Jonathan awoke to another notification;

[You have been afflicted with the ‘Starvation’ status condition]

He focused on the notification and information about the condition popped up;

‘Starvation’

All stats are temporarily reduced by 1. You will gradually get weaker. If no food is consumed soon, you will die.

Well, that’s awesome, Jonathan thought, hunger was always my ideal way to die.

While he agonized over his seemingly incumbent death, another notification filled his vision;

[You have read your status, read the description of 3 or more skills, and 3 or more status conditions.]

[You have met the requirements of the basic skill ‘Appraisal’.]

[Congratulations, you have learned the ‘Appraisal skill.]

Before he could read the description, he remembered that Augus was in the room and tried to hide the fact that he had learnt it, hoping that he was still unwilling to check. Luckily, Augus was still asleep, and had not stirred when Jonathan reacted to the notifications. He organized his thoughts and read the description.

[Appraisal]

Knowledge is power. You are able to read the status of anybody or anything you touch. If you have a skill that detects danger, the status will be altered to include their danger level. You cannot read the status of anybody more than 10 levels higher than you.

Jonathan decided to test the skill on the chains binding him to the table, hoping to find a weakness. He spent 10 minutes touching the chains and going through various commands in his head before giving up and simply feeling the chains. Suddenly a description appeared in front of his irises;

A chain forged by a common blacksmith, the quality of this chain is dismal. You cannot break these chains at your current strength level.

“Ouch”. The description on the chain was more than a little too personal for his liking, and he had no way to free himself, but he had figured out the way to use the skill which meant he could at least gauge himself based on others.

When Augus woke, Jonathan told him about the ‘starvation’ status condition, which Augus laughed at. Apparently, having the condition was a prerequisite to gaining the ‘Starved’ skill. Twice more that day, Augus repeated his practice of eating food in front of a starving man.

On the fifth day, Augus told Jonathan that was the last day of his ‘examination’ and that he would reward Jonathan for not dying by finally giving him food, provided that he got the ‘Starved’ skill, before leaving due to ‘other matters’.

Desperate for any type of food, Jonathan contemplated eating what was left of his torn, dirty shirt. At first, the thought passed as soon as it came. As the hours passed though, the idea started to seem better, and eventually, he gave in.

The shirt was in tatters, wet, dirty and it stank of sweat, bile and blood. Jonathan struggled to turn his head in a way the that would allow him to eat the rag he called a shirt. He struggled and craned his neck to reach the piece of cloth around his neck. When he finally got a piece of it into his mouth, and he nearly retched the little he had in his belly. He doubted his own sanity for a moment, before his hunger interrupted his thoughts again. He breathed in and he bit down and tore at the shirt, each bite being increasingly desperate. As he swallowed the piece he had torn, he got another notification.

[Desperation]

Hope is but a dream. In times of need, you receive a 20% increase to all your attributes. This skill effects and is effected by your emotional state.

As he read the description, he got another notification.

[Congratulations, you have met the requirements to learn the ‘Starved’ skill.]

[Congratulations, you have learnt the ‘Starved’ skill.]

[Starved]

You are more resistant to ‘Starvation’. When fighting over the opportunity to eat, all your stats will increase by 50%.

Jonathan felt his hunger lessen, he wasn’t sure if it was food he had eaten or if it was due to the effect of the skill, but he decided not to eat anymore. He had learned the prerequisite skill to get food from Augus after all.

Later that day, Augus returned, followed by a trolley covered in a white cloth.

“I trust you have learnt the skill, yes?”

“Yes…” His voice was barely audible and he had started to shake.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you but...”

Augus walked up to Jonathan and touched Jonathans’ forehead. Jonathan noticed a ring with a large purple Jewel on his index finger. When he touched Jonathans forehead, Jonathan decided to try and read Augus’s status.

When he did, he realised it looked different from his;

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Augus Caius Octavian

Human

Male

[Unwanted] [Illegitimate] [In name only] [The thinker]

?

?

?

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

??

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

?????????

??????????

Jonathans eyes widened as he tried to make sense of what he had read. Augus smiled after looking at his status and spoke:

“It looks like you are ready for life outside of this room. On the trolley I came with, I brought you some food. I keep my promises”.

Augus turned and pulled the trolley over to Jonathan before removing the chains binding Jonathans hands and feet. While Jonathan rubbed his wrists and ankles, Augus spoke;

“Eat and rest well, tomorrow you will meet the other examinees.”