Laying down horizontally on the bed, the screen hovered a few inches before Wren’s face. It was different to the one that he had been seeing all day but still displayed the same information. It reminded him a lot of a character sheet he’d seen playing video games. At the top of the screen were two tabs, one said status and the other skills. He mentally clicked on the status tab.

[Status]

[Name: Wren Spectre]

[Race: Human Level 1]

[XP 0/100]

[HP 10/20]

[EP 20/20]

[Strength: 5]

[Speed: 14]

[Stamina: 7]

It was just like a game. Health points, experience points, strength, speed and stamina stats. He had no clue what EP was, but he had time to spare, eventually he’d find out. Next to the stats was an image of a body, Wren assumed that it was his. The vast majority of the image was green, with patches of amber around the head and torso area.

He raised a hand to his face and probed the bruises around his eyes. He winced. Yep, they were still tender.

He’d gained a single point of HP since taking a beating from Chadwick, the recovery of HP seemed to be directly related to the rate in which his body recovered.

[HP 11/20]

He’d gained another health point. It would take until at least the next day for him to recover all of his health points; sleeping might accelerate the healing process but he couldn’t know for sure.

“I wonder.” He muttered.

The system seemed to respond to him, he could call it up and dismiss it with a thought, and he was able to click on the tabs just by thinking about it, so he questioned whether he could do something else with the screen.

During his altercation with Chadwick the screen kept appearing every time he lost a health point, no matter how many times he dismissed it, every time he took a hit, it would pop up blocking his vision. He knew that it would be getting in more fights, if he knew himself and he did, it wouldn’t be long before his big mouth earned him another beating. He couldn’t completely dismiss the utility of the screen, it was a valuable asset to have, putting a numerical value to the amount of damage he could take. If he could find a way to monitor his HP without having the disadvantage of not being able to see anything he would be satisfied.

Thinking along the lines of video games he closed his eyes and imagined a health bar in the corner of his vision, small enough to not impair his sight, but visible enough so that he could still keep an eye on it. Upon opening his eyes he could see it. A small red bar had appeared in the top left corner of his field of view.

He pumped a fist in the air in satisfaction, making the bed squeak beneath him. Quickly pulling his arm down he leant up and checked whether the noise had woken his roommates up. They were both sound asleep, Wren didn’t know him but he thought Carlos looked kind of cute sucking his thumb as he slept.

“Okay, time to move on.”

He clicked the tab labelled skills.

[Skills]

[Wind]

[Wind Slice: Level 1]

[???]

[???]

[???]

[???]

That was all that was shown, a single skill and a bunch of question marks. He assumed that behind the question marks were other skills, the only question was how to access them. Perhaps he needed to level up to access those skills, maybe he needed to level up the particular wind slice skill to gain access to the other ones. He didn’t know. The system only provided so much information. It didn’t even tell him how he could level the skill up. Was it simply through using the skills, or did he actually have to use them in combat.

Either way, he wasn’t going to get answers now. The only thing he could do was wait and see what happens.

With a thought he closed the system and settled down for a sleepless night, staring up at the blank ceiling

~

Wren didn’t know when it happened, but at some point in the night he’d drifted off to sleep, only to be woken by a blaring alarm coming from the ceiling. It seemed that sheer boredom had got to him and he’d closed his eyes and hadn’t opened them. He rose up into a sitting position and paused at the end of his bed. His entire body ached, especially his ribs, Chadwick hit hard, and he was still feeling the after affects.

Liam and Carlos were already getting dressed. The pair had chosen the robes with shorter sleeves as it was a clear day outside and if they had any inclination of the weather from yesterday, it would be hot.

Wren looked over at Carlos to make an introduction. Before he could say anything the boy raised a hand.

“Let me stop you right there.” He said. “I have no intention of making friends or socialising with either of you. I saw your little altercation with Chadwick on the Ark yesterday and I have no desire to throw my social standing out the window as you have clearly done. We are roommates and nothing more. I only expect you to keep the room clean and stay out of my way. If you offer me that courtesy I will return it in kind.”

Wren looked at the boy and gave him a simple nod.

Satisfied, Carlos swiftly left the room.

“What a great guy, thrilled to have him as a roommate.” Wren said.

Liam chuckled having watched the two’s interaction, before remembering his own interaction with Wren yesterday. His smile dropped from his face and he left the room, following after Carlos.

Wren was left alone to get dressed.

“This is going to be a good day.” He said to himself cheerily.

He almost convinced himself.

Almost.