"So, what happened?" Ray asked casually as he would to a long-time friend. He was inside Mrs. Lufrin's house, close to the scene of the crime. "I want to know, like, all the deets."

"I think this little fellow followed me home when I was out for a walk," Mrs. Lufrin said, similarly keeping the casual tone.

Ray walked around the corpse of the goblin assassin, finding it strange how there seemed to be no gunshot wound on the body. It was almost like the goblin got hit by a heavy force that crushed its chest, rather than a bullet from a gun.

The concavity on the chest was a dead giveaway, in Ray's eyes. There was something off about the way the goblin died, to which Ray needed answers.

"What did you do to this 'little fellow'?" Ray asked, taking his eyes off the corpse to look at Mrs. Lufrin. She was looking over at her phone. "I don't see any gunshot wounds or anything from your Glock."

"Oh, I hit it with my fist," Mrs. Lufrin casually answered, not taking her eyes off her phone. "It was quite easy for me to handle, given the benefits this system has given me."

Ray was inwardly shocked at this statement. Speechless, he glanced over at his old family friend's body to assess if there were any changes. Then, he compared it with the goblin assassin's body on the ground. On one hand, there was a thin old lady.

On the other hand, there was a muscular green figure that had its chest caved in. How was it possible for Mrs. Lufrin to handle a goblin when Ray himself was struggling against monsters of the same type?

"Wait, are you serious?" Ray found the words and asked a dumb question. "How in the hell did you do that?"

"I'm going to excuse the language, but to answer your question, just keep in mind that I used to be very fit in my younger years," Mrs. Lufrin started, finally looking up from her phone for a moment. "Some context is needed, but we don't have much time, do we?"

"What do you mean?" Ray asked, dumbfounded once more. There was no way a little bit of martial arts training in her youth would equate to this much of a power differential. Was there someone else in the house? "And why do we not have time?"

"Well, we need to grind, right?" Mrs. Lufrin stated the answer like it was obvious. "We can talk while we move, it's time to get started, Ray."

With that, the old lady motioned for him to follow and left the room swiftly.

Too swiftly.

Ray barely had time to react, she moved at an extremely quick pace. He quickly followed in pursuit. She was already in the garage when he arrived, sitting behind the wheel and looking at her phone once more. Ray reassessed his situation for a moment, then shrugged. There was no way Mrs. Lufrin would be against him at this point, and Ray's thesis hadn't changed yet. He felt that she was still his best way of getting information about the system thus far.

She hadn't lied to him ever. He didn’t recall a single time where she had said something false.

"So there's that, I guess," Ray thought cynically. "What could go wrong?"

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Ray followed Mrs. Lufrin into her old sedan, getting into the passenger seat right next to her.

"Where are we going?" Ray wondered out loud as he set his backpack down.

"We're going to a grinding spot, a few old friends of mine are there, all ready and waiting for us," Mrs. Lufrin explained. "You can tell me about your abilities on the way there, we'll put together a survival plan for the team once we're there.”

“Sounds good to me, honestly, I’ll just follow your lead,” Ray shrugged again and tilted his head. He still had no idea where this grinding spot was, but Mrs. Lufrin seemed to know what she was doing.

“How’s your stats, Ray?” Mrs. Lufrin asked after a while. They had made it out of her garage and were driving along the interstate six-eighty. It seemed like they were going to a park.

“They’re okay,” Ray explained casually. “I’m going for an agility-type build currently. Feeling pretty good about that.”

“Great! We’ll want a DPS for our team,” Mrs. Lufrin replied. “Despite what it looks like, I plan on doing a healing INT build.”

Ray grinned. It was like they were grinding it out in the game again. He enjoyed the way she used RPG terms freely like she was twenty years old, rather than the sixty or seventy years old Ray thought she was.

“Who’s on the team, exactly?” Ray wondered out loud.

“We’re just some old casual gamers from way back in the day. Ended up forming a guild and fighting some evil bosses together,” Mrs. Lufrin gave an elusive answer once more. They ended up turning to the nearby Rancho wilderness park. It was a place Ray was familiar with, as he’d hiked there before with his mom.

“It’s right up ahead.”

Ray saw three other old cars parked on the side of the road. There were a few old people near them, having a conversation. He saw four in total, three old men and one old woman.

What game was this? Ray wondered. Everyone is so old. Must have been some prehistoric shit.

The old woman in front seemed to have seen them driving in. She waved, then made gestures for the three old men to turn their heads as well. The group of old-timers watched as Mrs. Lufrin drove to them.

“Good afternoon, Claudia!” Mrs. Lufrin called out. They had parked and got out of the car already. “Jim and Bobby, how are the two of you doing?”

Ray noticed that she ignored addressing the third old man in the group. He shrugged and continued walking with his old friend. It was a weird situation, but he trusted his instincts. Maybe this old gaming group would surprise him.

Just as soon as he ended that thought the third old man smiled at him. Then the old man motioned with his index finger towards Ray. Suddenly, Ray felt like he was no longer in control of his body. He half flew and half stumbled towards the group of old guys, almost face-planting into their car. Ray managed to stop himself short, using his increased strength and dexterity to right himself just in time.

How did he do that? Ray thought in amazement. Could it be a skill?

"Morty, don't do that!" Claudia called out. "He's new to magic."

"I'm just saying hello, Claudia," Old Man Morty said nonchalantly as if nothing had happened. "Don't be a worrywart. I can tell this kid has something in him."

Ray cautiously gave the old magician a once-over. He figured that crazier things have and had happened before. He could also tell that there was something special about the aura surrounding this group, now that he got close. The old woman seemed a little wary of him, and the old men gave him grins. It was like he arrived at some sort of reunion of old powerful people.

"What's on the menu today, Claudia? Why did you call us here?" One of the old men questioned. Ray couldn't tell whether it was Jim or Bobby. "What's with all this new status stuff? It feels . . . powerful."

"Today, we're going to level up," Claudia clarified to the group. "We're going to party together, just like old times, and kick some monster booty!"