She stuck her hand out for a shake. “My name is Lindsey, you know Zack obviously.” She pointed at the others at the table listing their names off. In total, sixteen others sat at the table with Mathew. “What kind of questions do you have? It’s not often people come here for advice, other than people like Mr. Melton, or other people in charge. Not recently anyways.”

Mathew nodded and returned the handshake. “Firstly, I want to know what magic is. How can we suddenly use it? Why is my magic different from others? Or, have any of you not figured that out yet?”

Zack spoke up first. “We have strong theories, and a few booklets that talk about it in small details. Essentially we could have always used magic, but the ability evolved to become dormant in us. That’s why a quarter of Earth died. Those are all people who just didn’t have the ability to process magic through their bodies like us.”

“Once The System came, it reawakened that part of our bodies in us. Now anyone can use magic. Some are better than others, like yourself. Some just choose not to follow that path, like myself and Captain Henderson.”

Everyone else at the table nodded agreeing with Zack. Mathew found it an odd explanation. How come his mother couldn’t use magic, but he could? “Is the ability to use magic hereditary, or is it just a simple natural ability?”

“Both. Just like normal genetics, some are born with the flaws and benefits of their family. Two parents both under six feet in height can have a child taller than them if the genes are there. Same with medical problems like cancer, diabetics, or even dwarfism.” Lindsey explained.

It made sense to Mathew. The idea of magic and weird monsters have been in history for dozens of generations. The Greeks talked about gods and magical monsters. The Asians have an entire way of life revolved around absorbing ambient cosmic energy and growing stronger from it. Mayans, Hawaiians, Europeans, people who never interacted with each other in history have similar folk tales.

“So you’re saying that our history of dragons, magic, fairies, and other monsters were all true?” Mathew asked.

She shrugged. “We think it has a stronger possability than before. We were able to buy a bestiary from a shop and we found a few similar creatures. Sea Serpents and Dragons being a very common recurrence. Along with Centaurs, Sirens, Demons, Angles, and so much more. It’s crazy how many types of creatures we have in modern fantasy games that are the same in our new life.”

“I agree, it is weird.” Mathew muttered. “So then do monsters have menus as well? They can level up, as we all see. Do they acquire classes and such?”

Zack shook his head. “This was something we’ve been debating on till recently. Monsters that are not sentient do not have a menu, but still do as we do. Level up, and rank up. They have skills, abilities, and sometimes, they can have magical spells. However, they won’t have a class or profession. I doubt they can choose how things rank up, it just does from evolution or other means, maybe choices breeding.”

Mathew thought to the Pack Leader he fought. Obviously the Infernal Wolves were a natural evolution, so what caused that wolf to be different? The Quest mentioned the dungeon may have something to do with it. He would probably find more answers there. Including more information as to why that wolf may be related to Doozkora.

“What about titles? Can a monster acquire one of those?”

They all shrugged. “We have no idea. Only a few have been recorded. The most interesting was someone being one of the first 100 to acquire a class. General Payne informed us of that one and the benefits of it. Said someone from the White House acquired it. He was the sixty-seventh to do so according to the title. Records show it was about two hours before you received yours.”

Mathew at first thought Payne broke the contract, and spilled the beans of his titles. However it made more sense that what Zack said was true. Plus Mathew was sure if General Payne broke the contract he would know. A test with Leo proved that much already.

“So why do we earn Titles? What even are they?” Mathew wanted to know this type of answer the most right now. His Soloist title is the best he has ever gotten. He wanted more.

“If we had to guess, The System awards them like achievement medals. Be the first to do something, or do something unique. Like collect 1000 cheese wheels and eat them all in a minute.” Lindsey said. “Although, I doubt that will reward a title.”

“Do you think there are Titles for completing Dungeons?” Mathew asked.

“I would be more than sure of it. Payne said once they open up, his team is going in to clear out the threat.” Zack said. “Too bad you can’t join, I imagine the rewards would be awesome.”

Mathew nodded. “Yes, but I can enjoy my lavish life as a reward for ending the wolf threat.”

“You need to tell us how you did that by the way.” Lindsey said. “A mage soloed an area boss. That had to be extremely difficult!”

Mathew had a smug grin growing on his face. “Oh it was difficult. Luckily I am a powerful Summoner. Between my natural talents and a hint of luck, I was able to slay the beast. A good plan always will follow you through to the end. Remember that.”

A few asked him to share the entire story of how he did it, and decided on a compromise. “I’ll share my story if you all help me with something in turn. For answering my questions, I will ask you all to meet me at the range to show off a few new talents I want to test. Seem fair?”

Mostly everyone nodded in agreement, and Mathew started to share a very filtered version of the story. He flaunted his own skills more than the luck of his landing on a ledge. He made sure to not leave out Samuels healing spell that more than likely saved him.

He underplayed the role his wisps played in defeating the wolves, summoning one to show it off. Mathew ensured to leave out any mention of poison being used, not wanting that idea floating around the nerd squad.

Once his telling of the story was over, Lindsey had a question. “So, what extra rewards did you get? Did you get a title?”

Mathew raised an eyebrow at the question. “What makes you think that?” He held himself from glancing at Zack.

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“It’s obvious. You completed a quest alone, and killed a boss creature. Even if it wasn’t labeled as such, it was the strongest thing you fought, let alone what we have heard about. You had to get something extra, other than money.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, even Zack.

Mathew sighed, “Yes I did. I can summon one of the wolves to my side now. A spell I was going to test at the range.” He figured sharing that as a reward wasn’t too harmful to himself. He planned to have the wolf with him often, and it would be hard to explain it as a reward from gaining Level 15 versus a reward for his accomplishment.

Zack stood up, “Well, shall we go see what it looks like?”

Mathew stood and was impressed by the new and improved testing area. This was the place everyone tested new abilities and spells. Some even tested out weapons or sparred with one another. It wasn’t crowded minus the gaggle of observers that gathered to watch him.

Ever since Zack used himself as a human test dummy, when people saw the two of them here, they knew it would be an interesting show. He only had three things to test, two of which would be done at the same time.

Firstly was his new summon. He internally knew how to summon the beast, and noticed it was different from his wisps. Firstly it required a huge sum of mana more than the wisps did, but the mana didn’t stay drained from him. He would need to summon this one first before his wisps if he wanted to still cast other spells.

Secondly, it took way longer. An entire ten minutes. He could never use this in combat and would need to summon the wolf far in advance. Mathew started to channel the mana, using both hands to focus on the summon. He was halfway through when he realized he should have used his new weapon to upgrade the summon.

“It’ll be good to see the base form before the upgrade. Maybe I can tell the difference in how much stronger things are when summoned.” Mathew thought to himself.

The crowd waited patiently, watching Mathew. To their perspective a glowing form started to form in front of him where he aimed his hands. It was a red ball that grew to the form of a wolf. Once everyone started to realize it was an Infernal Wolf a few ran away in panic.

Mathew finished the spell with a grunt of exhaustion. That spell alone drained half his mana. He looked at his newest summonable creature and seemed a little disappointed. It was no larger than a golden retriever, but just as feral looking.

It’s red fur looked clean. It’s large paws dug into the dirt as it looked around, in somewhat panic. It’s yellow eyes locked eyes with Mathew.

“Good, now what can you do? Just normal wolf things? Sit? Attack? Maybe fetch my newspaper?” Mathew jokingly mumbled to himself.

Mathew was not expecting what happened next. The wolf lowered itself in a ready pounce, then launched itself at him. If not for it’s smaller size, Mathew would have had his entire shoulder bitten off.

“What the fuck! No! Stop!” Mathew shouted as the wolf continued to tear open skin. “Shit, UNSUMMON!” At the verbal command, the wolf vanished in a blink of light. Mathew laid on the ground, his shirt ruined and was bleeding out.

Everyone around ran away except for a few people who started to run to help Mathew. One of which had a sword drawn ready to kill the wolf. Mathew had unsummoned the creature before the man was within attacking distance.

Zack knelt down next to Mathew, “Dude, are you okay? What happened?”

Mathew’s eyes were wide in fear. “I- I have no idea. It just attacked me for no reason. The wisps never did this, what the shit is wrong with the spell!”

While a nearby medic ran over to start healing him with magic, Mathew pulled up the spell description for the wolf.

Summon Infernal Wolf | Novice 1

You summon an Infernal Wolf to your service, costing a large amount of mana. The wolf has free will, and may not follow your commands if it thinks something else would benefit itself better.

The wolf remains until killed or dismissed.

Mathew was confused. Nothing described a hostile summon, he didn’t even think that was possible. Zack said summons were always under the command of their Summoner. It was the evil creatures summoned with a circle or something that you had to be careful of.

“The bitch has free will. No idea why it attacked me, but I am not summoning it again any time soon. That spell can stay at Novice 1 for all I care.” Mathew said.

The medic had easily healed up his shoulder, the wounds were minor.

Zack looked worried. “I didn’t think that could happen. Did you command it to do so?”

Mathew shook his head. “No, I was wondering what it could do, but the idea of it attacking me never occurred. I didn’t even have a metal link like I do with my wisps now that I think about it.”

He was in disbelief, and with Zacks help, he stood up. He looked down at his blood stained shirt and sighed. He took it off showing his now toned body. A month of running and fighting left him with a body far better than he had before S-Day.

Mathew fished out a second shirt from his bag, one of the ones he bought from Di. It was far better quality, and had no symbols or markings on it. Just a plain dark blue shirt.

“Well, since that is a bust, how about we move on?” Mathew suggested.

Everyone else nodded and Mathew pulled out Zookora’s Rod. The long and black object held everyone’s eyesight. Zack even whistled. “Nice new staff.”

“It’s actually called a rod, which is a horrible name for a weapon. It’ll be weird saying, ‘Let me grab my rod.’”

Zack snickered. “Yea, well it’s the official name for it I’m pretty sure. So enjoy it.”