The shower was amazing, having access to what felt like unlimited warm water was nothing short of luxury. The hostel was... not that well controlled. The soap was nice, not the best naturally but it was nice, better than the bottom-of-the-barrel he was used to using. He used that shower longer than he should have.

Once finally done he left the shower, got to his lock box and got dressed. Though he had to re-use his underwear that was hardly a problem, it wasn’t gooped up like the rest of his clothing was. His dirty clothing was just rinsed off so he could use the laundromat later, at least he got the worst out of them before putting them in a thin white trash bag that was supplied in the changing room. The stack of tracksuits was simple, grey with the TAC logo on them. It was fine, nothing to complain about there. The exciting moment came as he wanted to put on his new armour.

It was somewhat simple in design, which he felt was a good thing. A leather cuirass of sorts, with some tightening belts here and there, but kind of like a tightly fitted leather jacket. It didn’t have pants or any fancy things like that and stopped just before the wrists. Moving around in it was surprisingly comfortable, though it did look weird contrasting against the grey tracksuit. An update window listed that his Defence was now 5, which felt nice. He took it off and put it in the backpack, after all walking through the city with this would have him stand out.

Now he needed food!

Having proper funding for once in his adult life, he decided to not overdo it, but still get his fill properly. He knew of plenty of fast-food joints around this area. Putting his backpack on he made for the closest one.

Finding that he was running to get there faster, he didn’t care, just getting there was all that mattered and he soon found himself entering a main-franchise burger chain. He ordered a burger and fries, paid without feeling regret and inhaled the food faster than he expected to.

This process repeated itself twice more, to the point that he felt severe pain in his stomach, but he felt it was a good pain. He envied those who could afford this every day and could choose not to.

Sitting back in the chair he finally felt the food coma creeping in, the kind he missed from his childhood. Getting up from the chair he slung the backpack on and loafed back to the hostel. It took a while due to his slow speed but he eventually got there.

The stark contrast between the clean, sleek, maintained and pleasant TAC, to... this place... It was hard enough almost to touch. But he just needed to go to bed, he just wanted to sleep before going back tomorrow.

Dragging his legs upstairs to the bedroom, locking his stuff into his locker he laid down on his bed. His phone was out of power a long time ago so he couldn’t surf that on the hostel wi-fi before he fell asleep, putting it to charging he got out the TAC brochures instead. Flipping through the different ones he found one that opened his eyes more than letting him sleep... Something he didn’t consider but he should have. TAC offered accommodations, they even had a cafeteria of sorts. And as fucked up as it sounded; it was cheaper than the hostel. Most likely due to the cut they took and government support, but even so. This was the last night Sam was going to spend in this shithole.

With that final pleasant thought, he drifted off.

Waking up the following day was surprisingly good, though he desperately needed to go to the toilet, it was more pleasant than before the Monster event, this was good.

Getting up, getting semi-dressed he shambled himself to the toilet, as he sat there in a daze he finally noticed the little extra icon on his HUD. He saw the level-up windows blink up and slide to the side, but due to everything else, he didn’t consider that they remained there and were there still. Focusing on them they collapsed together into a window.

[ Level-up: +2. Please assign Attributes (2). ]

He had halfway forgotten that he had Attributes that made up his existence now. It was the whole thing that made Players what they were, but in the speed and chaos, it just didn’t properly land at the time.

Focusing on it, the familiar Attribute screen opened, with the +/- arrows beside it.

[ Attributes:

STR: 4 ↕

DEX: 4 ↕

VIT: 3 ↕

SPT: 10 ↕ ]

The down-arrow was disabled unless he was first raised by a point, seemingly letting him place multiple points and look at things before committing. But this did raise a question, what should he increase?

SPT was the stat that governed all his abilities, but having more in the other stats was never a bad thing. Should he get something more defensive before he pumps more into his SPT? Adding power to his telekinesis could aid him offensively and defensively, couldn’t it?

He pondered this for a long time, reading over the skills, attributes and everything again and again. He finally decided in the end. The new armour was decent defensively, and the main reason he needed the armour was that his telekinesis wasn’t powerful enough. He put the two points into SPT and committed to the changes.

[ Attributes:

STR: 4

DEX: 4

VIT: 3

SPT: 12 ]

The Energy and weight limit decided everything in his Class. Adding 2 points in SPT didn’t only increase his Energy by 1, allowing one extra Psyhand, larger range or the ability to throw heavier objects, but it also increased the weight limit per hand by about 20% at this point. He still couldn’t lift his phone with one Psyhand, but he was getting closer! The scaling math for the lifting capacity was his total Spirit times 10g/0.35ounces. So with two points in it now he added a small bonus! Adding that he could manifest an extra Psyhand as well it felt like his total weight limit increased by more than just 20%

He was feeling happy. Though this life was dangerous as fuck, he got halfway to death in a quest given to him at level 1. However, he grew past that and hopefully would keep growing. Realising all this while on the toilet had him chuckle.

If yesterday had taught him anything, it was that he needed experience. He could just go and explore Aetheria, but he did somewhat agree to contact Janik. Though, he was very hesitant. It felt kind of real as soon as he was considering sending that text. What if Janik was weird... He was absolutely weird, but what if he was weird in a negative way? Though he was the man who gave Sam the needle idea, with some training it could turn out surprisingly good...

Completing his lengthy toilet break he returned to his room, packed his shit and set off. He chose not to renew his room at the hostel, he was going to stay at TAC for a while, and if he could get enough money over time... owning an apartment sounded like a fever dream but... perhaps it was possible.

Walking the streets of New York with everything he owned in a bag felt surprisingly liberating. Especially since some of that stuff was Player Gear, he knew it well but was still stoked that he was a player, it was just so... exciting. But, now that the training mission was over, and as he didn’t connect with anyone there, he knew the value of friends and allies.

Before he knew it he was looking at Janik’s contact info stored in his phone. No message was written, and no phone call was planned. But there was nothing to lose in trying it out, worst-case scenario he could just leave and tell him to never contact him again. It was a strange worst-case scenario way out if things turned bad.

In a matter of a few seconds, he had written up the simple text and hit send in the same motion lest he change his mind. ‘This is Sam, the telekinetic, I think I’d like to talk’.

Putting his phone away he kept moving towards TAC, but within ten seconds his phone vibrated. Checking it the message was simple; ‘Glad to hear it, let’s meet at the Burger Haven close to TAC. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.’

He was surprised, not only at the quick response but that he managed to write and send, all that within ten seconds. A part of him was happy, though, he didn’t have friends and this was the first man who showed any proper interest in him. It didn’t matter if the reasons were selfish, that’s why they were going to meet!

Speeding up he felt a little excited, his step a bit lighter without realising it. Making it there within the planned 20 minutes, he decided to splurge on a burger for breakfast. This time he felt a little guilty, his last few years had trained him to use as little money as possible, and now he was getting overpriced burgers two days in a row. One part of him loved that he could do this, but another complained that he was wasting money.

By the time he was done with his internal turmoil, figuring out that he could treat himself this time, he was already sitting at a table enjoying a meal, waiting for Janik to arrive. With his duffel bag of stuff standing on the side of the table, he took the moment to skim through more of the TAC material, he realised that he should have done so when he was waiting in the training room rather than later. However, excitement and focus made things different even if that was just yesterday.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Flipping through the information pamphlets and booklets, there were simple explanations for a lot of things. Explaining how Dungeons worked, like how some of them were static and could be repeated, or things like quests, rewards, raids... and so on. The booklet was incredibly informative even though it just gave a simple introductory explanation for everything. But Sam liked what he read about repeatable low-level dungeons, it was common for new Players to take a few rounds in them, both for safety and Level building, but also for the pure experience of doing different things. The booklet had a few beginner Dungeons listed, along with their locations.

“Yooo!” A loud voice shouted over the murmur of the restaurant. Janik came walking with a plastic tray of food, almost spilling his drink as he decided it was more important to wave.

Placing his food on the table, he sat down and picked up a few fries before continuing. “So, how was your first outing? Did you get a quest?”

The question and tone of his voice confirmed that he had indeed been through this himself, which made sense as most Players had probably been through it at some point.

“Yes, I got a Goblin kill quest.”

“Oh, that’s exotic. I just got some dumb collection thing, had to gather leaves.” He didn’t sound too thrilled about the quest he was given, but turning it back to Sam he sounded much more excited. “How was it? I assume the instructors helped you?”

“Well... kind of.” Sam went into detail about the quest, how Toren came along, letting Sam do everything and just touched on most details except the gore of things. He also specified that Janik’s ideas came into play and helped structure how he approached things.

As Sam got to the part of indirectly complimenting, and directly thanking Janik for the thoughts and ideas of how to use his Telekinesis, Janik smiled widely with an almost proud expression.

Taking a bite out of his burger he replied before he was done chewing, speaking with surprising clarity even though half his mouth was occupied by food. “That’s great to hear! You got one hell of a starter quest but I’m glad that my little idea helped.”

“Yeah, not sure if I would have thought about it myself. Although I missed most of the time, I think that the indirect approach let me handle a larger group than I could have done otherwise. If I had just thrown in some weapons and gotten swarmed, without Toren’s backup I’d be dead.” Sam confirmed, based on how low his health went even with using the tactics he did, had more of them come alongside the Chieftain at the same time, he would most likely have been super fucked.

They continued to talk for a short while, it was mainly Sam being a little excited for his first combat, and feeling that he did well given that it was his first. Janik complimented him and built up the hype like a proud parent. He also gave hints and tips on what he perhaps could have done, and how he could have prepared if he knew that he was going into combat beforehand.

“You know-” Janik changed the topic slightly “-I’m looking for someone to enter Dungeons with. There’s a bunch of mages with two spells, or other fighters like myself who swing sharpened metal around. But I’ve been after someone with some versatility and, I think your abilities are surprisingly versatile.”

Janik took a moment to take a sip of his soda, washing down the food in his mouth before continuing. Almost to give Sam a moment to process it. “Not saying you have to join me, but I’m willing to train with you a bit, perhaps go through a newbie dungeon or something, see how it goes.” The smiling expression he had at the end of his comment seemed honest.

Sam was a bit hesitant at the straightforwardness of Janik. Strangely it caught him off guard. Not like he had a supernatural ability to discern lies from truth, his time on the street has given him a different view on reading people, but Janik seemed to be entirely honest about this. “Well, you did give me some good tips before, and I do want to get stronger.”

“Great!” Janik replied almost the exact moment that Sam completed his sentence. “We can book one of the training rooms at TAC and do some tests, get a feel for things before we find a simple Dungeon and give it a go, how’s that sound?”

Parts of Sam almost felt distrustful of the situation, he was used to being taken advantage of but as he analysed it, was it a bad thing? Janik was giving him training and possibly going with him to a Dungeon, unless he planned to murder him in there he should be fine. A second later he found his mind berating his paranoid half, this was a bad habit he had from the time he lived on the streets, expecting the worst in everyone. He was a decent judge of character and there was nothing negative in Janik as far as he could tell.

“Ok, I think we can give it a go.” Sam felt his smile widening, feeling almost strange for being not only accepted but sought after for what he could do.

His new mentor and potential teammate sprung to his feet. “Let’s go right away.” Almost like he didn’t have any intention of waiting, he took his plastic plate and took it over to the self-cleaning station, emptying it before placing it in the pile of others.

Getting to his feet, Sam picked up his duffel bag of belongings, after getting that over his shoulder he mimicked the cleanup before they set off to TAC.

Following the more experienced Player, Sam had to admit he was kind of interested to see what Janik could do. He had two swords and a dagger fastened around his waist, that was the only thing he knew about his skills. He seemed to know what he was talking about but that was the extent of his knowledge. There wasn’t any need to ask that now as it would show itself in time, if it didn’t come up naturally he would ask about it in the training, at least before they go to a Dungeon together, so he has a rough idea of what to fight around.

After being guided around some hallways in TAC’s building, Janik entered a room marked as Training Room 5, Sam followed into a decently sized room. It had a concrete ceiling, walls and floor, some wooden weapons on a stand in one corner, some ranged targets piled up in another, alongside some wooden mannequins, and was quite barren outside of that.

“Now, let’s get some information before we start.” Janik commanded as he took off his coat and limbered up. “I need to have a rough idea of what you can do before we start testing.”

Sam explained what he could, his weight limit per hand, the fact that the hands, when soiled, looked barely hand-shaped but felt like a hand to him. He explained how many hands he could manifest, how intuitive and real they felt, the launching concept and all in all gave the gist of things for everything else like his range. He didn’t go into exact detail about how his skills removed mana from his list, or how he only needed to consider putting points in Spirit for now.

“That’s interesting.” Janik commented honestly as his mind seemed to process it. “Your weight limit is pretty low at the moment, most daggers weigh more than that, but as you said; using more hands fixed that. Your range is also a bit low but I think you could do well in considering a Rogue-like fighting style.” He spoke as he walked towards the weapons rack and looked it over. “First let’s see how you do against a Player.”

This caught Sam off guard, they were going to spar? He didn’t hear any of that, he thought they were going to fight together.

Janik glanced at Sam as he noticed his hesitation. “Don’t worry, I won’t actually land any hard hits on you, but stop once I do hit you. Just for simplicity.” He smiled widely, a tiny bit sadistic but in a friendly way, as he took out two wooden swords from the rack.

“Pick your weapons and do your best to defend against me. You won’t win, just due to levels and experiences... And please no needles in the eyes... You can use something else, some cloth or cotton balls or some shit, and I’ll pretend for now. I kind of like my eyes, right?” Chuckling at his dumb joke at the end, he walked away from the weapons rack, using one of his swords to wave in a ‘your turn’ motion towards it, hinting that Sam should get armed with training weapons.

Sam did as told, though hesitantly. He spawned the full amount of Psyhands he could, all six floating in the air the instant after, as he grabbed and weighed the different weapons. Based on what Javik explained it seemed it might be enough if he just hit him, didn’t need to be hard, so he could go for the light stuff.

Thinking hard about this, Javik was a close combatant, actually getting close was dangerous, and he needed to be able to defend himself. In the end, he picked up six small wooden daggers, they were lighter than the real deal, allowing him to use more. In his normal hands, he picked up two bucklers, hoping to defend himself if Javik came close enough.

Taking a few steps away from the rack, Javik looked pleased, almost like he approved of the ideas Sam had. “Well, let’s get started then. You ready?” He took a weird stance, at least it looked weird to Sam. His left sword was horizontal in front of him, his right was pointed right at him but held further back, and he had barely bent his knees a little.

“Y... yes.” Sam hesitantly confirmed.

The senior Player’s smile grew. “Good. Start!”