Steven stared at the words in his head. Was “stared” the right word? They were in his head, after all, as he could see them even with his eyes closed.

He looked over the words again and again, then felt himself drifting. It was too much all at once, and the shell of apathy was slowly crawling its way back into place.

Panic tore through Steven in a flood. No, no! I don’t want to go back!

While apathy was a shelter, it was also a slow death. Steven leaned into his confusion, his fear, letting it all wash over him.

He felt, and the thought of losing that again terrified him more than whatever the hell was going on.

Desperate to avoid falling back into that shell, Steven pored over the words, trying his hardest to lean into his curiosity.

With a start, he realized even more words had appeared.

Character sheet: Steven Kalio: Level 1

Skill slots: 1

Class: Spiteful Defender

Rarity: Uncommon

Purpose: to defend others

Scope: Narrow. Conditionally, very narrow

Congrats! Due to your actions, you have gained a Class. Isn’t that neat? You have three starting Skills to choose from. Pick wisely.

Choose one: Shield. Hand Shield. Kinetic Give.

Steven blinked. That was a lot of information to take in at once. Level and Rarity were self-explanatory, but Purpose and Scope? What the hell were those supposed to be? Steven had read a few books with a similar premise to this and was no stranger to games, so—ignoring the general insanity of it all—he could wrap his head around most of what he saw on his character sheet.

He paused. Thinking ‘his character sheet’ and referring to real-life was surreal.

Purpose and Scope were throwing him for a loop. He guessed that ‘Purpose’ was the purpose of the class. But what did that mean in a practical sense? Did it affect what he could do? He didn’t have any guesses for Scope other than perhaps it being tied to the Purpose?

But even if that was the case, he didn’t know what that meant in a practical sense.

He focused on the Skills. Shield and Hand Shield were obviously, well, shields of some kind. But what was Kinetic Give? As soon as he thought about the question, the Skill description lengthened.

Kinetic Give: Uncommon. Due to its nature as a starter, Skill ‘Kinetic Give’ has 3 Augment slots instead of the typical 2 for an uncommon skill.

Effects: Imbue inorganic material with increased elasticity and resistance to blunt strikes.

Range: touch

Duration: 10 minutes.

Energy use: small/variable.

Cooldown: none

Steven blinked. Huh. “Okay then. Umm, Shield.”

The shield description scrolled out.

Shield: Common

Due to its nature as a starter Skill ‘Shield’ has 3 Augment slots instead of the typical 1 for a Common skill.

Effects: materialize a stationary shield

Range: 1 foot

Duration: 5 minutes

Energy use: medium

Cooldown: none

That was certainly easier to wrap his head around than Kinetic Give and more immediately useful. Though he wished it had specified how big the shield was. Did the higher energy cost mean it was more powerful than Kinetic Give?

Though Kinetic Give was Uncommon compared to Shield’s Common, how much did that matter?

He moved on to Hand Shield.

Hand-Shield: Common

Due to its nature as a starter Skill ‘Hand-Shield’ has 3 Augment slots instead of the typical 1 available for a Common skill.

Effects: materialize up to 2 stationary shields the size of the caster’s fist

Range: 10 feet

Duration: 10 minutes

Energy use: small

Cooldown: none

Okay, Steven, what do you do now? No, that was the wrong question. The main question he should be asking was, ‘what did he need right now.?

A clue to what was going on? Definitely, but not the answer he needed.

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No, he needed a way to keep himself safe before anything else. How did Kinetic Give factor into that?

The Skill was confusing. Imbuing elasticity into something was inherently whack to think about, but also, how would that work for him? It said inorganic, so he couldn’t use it on himself to help tank hits.

He supposed he could get some makeshift armor and use it on that. But that would require him to find armor of some kind, and even then, elasticity and resistance to blunt strikes wouldn’t help him against something like the moose.

While the description made him feel like the Skill could be useful later down the line, it wasn’t what he needed right now.

So Shield. He liked that one on principle, as creating a big o’ wall between him and any stray rampaging moose was appealing.

There was also the added benefit of simplicity. The Skill made a stationary shield in front of him, no scratching his head over the meaning there.

It did say that its energy use was medium, though. What did that mean exactly? He didn’t see any health or stamina bars in his vision, so would the Skill take energy from him directly?

That could be a problem, depending on just how much ‘medium’ actually was.

That left Hand-Shield. Less overall coverage than Shield, or at least, he assumed it was less since Shield didn’t actually say how big it was. But it gained more range and charges.

Hmm. The choice was definitely between Shield or Hand-Shield. Kinetic Give was out of the running for now.

Shield was likely more powerful since it had a shorter duration and a higher energy cost, but that was pure guesswork on his part since the Skill was so light on details.

For all he knew, it could just be a bad Skill that this System, or whatever that voice had been, was trolling him with. From his brief impression of it, it certainly seemed the type.

Shield was a lot of unknowns, and while Steven didn’t think it was unreasonable to assume it was larger and likely stronger than Hand-Shield, those were still assumptions.

Did he want to potentially bet his life on his assumption?

Then there was the fact about Shield that wasn’t an assumption, and one he didn’t like. It’s range. 1 foot. That was far too close for comfort. He would have to be smelling danger’s breath before this shield would do anything. Though, it didn’t say anything about how far he could be from the shield after he cast it.

Maybe he could throw it out while running to trip up his pursuers.

But that was, once again, an assumption.

While Hand-Shield was small, its range was a respectable 10 feet. And since it said stationary, he should be able to trip any wandering monster from up to 10 feet away.

He doubted it was an immovable object, being it was a Common starter skill. But he figured it would be strong enough to roll an ankle. At least, he hoped it was.

He looked over the options one last time before settling on Hand-Shield.

Its range and having two Hand-Shields out at the same time was enough of an edge to pick it over Shield.

There weren’t any buttons or anything, so how did he— Would you like to choose ‘Hand-Shield’ as your starter skill?

“Yes,” Steven thought.

The Skill flashed, then a wave of energy rolled over Steven as something clicked into place.

*Character Sheet*

Steven Kalio: Level 1: *Skill slots: 1*

Class: Spiteful Defender

Rarity: Uncommon

Purpose: to defend others

Scope: Narrow. Conditionally, very narrow

Skills: Hand-Shield

Trait Points: 1

Skill points: 1

Ignoring the Trait and Skill points, for now, Steven focused on Hand-Shield.

So…how did he make a shield?

He extended a hand towards the sky…nothing.

Reading back over his character sheet, he paused at the Skill slot section. Did he need to slot in the Skill? Focusing on Hand-Shield, he tried to will it into the available slot.

To his surprise, it worked.

The wave of energy from earlier returned, and something else clicked into place, but it felt…deeper. Like last time had been just skin deep, while this was something more.

An emerald green box depicting a hand with an oval shield over it appeared in the bottom left corner of his vision.

He focused on it, and an oval shield the size of his open hand appeared in front of him.

A small chunk of energy left him. It wasn’t much, but it was noticeable as if he had suddenly lifted something heavy.

A sense of wonder washed over Steven. He leaned into it, basking in the sensation. He had just done that! He’d made a shield appear with his will!

Steven examined the shield closer. It was the exact dimensions of his hand with his fingers held out straight and about a quarter-inch thick.

A few seconds later, his euphoria wore off.

I should probably get off the street.

He grabbed onto the small shield and used it to help himself up. It didn’t buckle at all under his weight.

Before anything else, he figured he should do a few tests.

He grabbed a chunk of ice from nearby and took a few steps back.

The chill of the ice reminded him just how cold he had gotten. The temperature had been the last thing on his mind while an enraged moose was doing its best to kill him. But he had spent enough time reading over his character sheet that the cold had begun to sink in.

These need to be quick tests.

Steven cocked his arm back and hurled the ice chunk into the shield as hard as he could.

The chunk exploded into shards, leaving the shield completely unharmed.

If this is supposed to trip people, I should make sure it can take the force without moving.

Not wanting to test that by running into it, Steven decided to materialize a second shield barely an inch off the ground.

Another trickle of energy left him. It really wasn’t that bad, but if he had to summon the shields over and over it would quickly add up.

He paused. Could he summon them over and over? It said the shields would last for 10 minutes and that they had no cooldown, but it hadn’t mentioned anything about him being able to destroy or dismiss his shields.

He focused on the first shield and tried to make it disappear. To his surprise, the shield instantly vanished. Well…that certainly opened up some possibilities.

Turning his attention back to the tests, Steven raised his foot up and gave the remaining shield a hard stomp.

It didn’t budge.

Steven kept his foot on it and slowly increased the weight until he was standing on it. The shield held.

Alright then, plan ‘trip them then run like hell’ was looking good.

He stepped back and dismissed the shield.

Now that he had a small handle on the whole sudden magical powers thing, Steven found himself struck with another question. …What now?