“Soooo…” Jay dragged his query out, “you’re a teenage werewolf from another world?” It wasn’t that he was doubting her. It was more that he was having trouble processing all that Charlie had told them. Glen was doing better. Somehow getting a system, getting the [System], hadn’t fazed him in the least. In fact, he was triumphant.

“Ha! This is uber copacetic. I always knew there were other worlds and races. This is massive!” His grin transformed his normally laid back face, his eyes alight with a sparkle that made him look slightly manic.

Charlie was trying to keep it chill. “Yeah. It’s big.” She looked around the cafe. Nobody was paying them any special attention. In fact there was a guy over on the side having an animated conversation with no one. And no one was paying him any attention at all. Maybe it was normal to talk at yourself in this world. Still, she didn’t want to broadcast things in a public place.

Glen followed her gaze. “He’s on the phone Charlie,” as if that clarified it. She looked at the guy again. He was sitting on a chair the same as theirs. Glen saw she was still confused and made the link that she was not quite up to play with technology. “A phone is a device that lets you talk to others. See in his ear…” Ah, yes she saw it now that she was looking for it. Unfortunately the guy saw her seeing it too and glared at her in return. He gave her a sharp gesture and abruptly turned away. Opps.

Jay was still back on werewolf, “yeah… I always thought teenwolf would have been better with a hot chick as the emcee.” He was sort of dreamy. Charlie didn’t know what he was going on about. He focused on her sudden sharp and piercing. “Are you like a massive teeth and claws humanoid, raawghh, werewolf or do you like fully transform into a wolf and howl at the moon?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Wait! Don’t tell me!” He pondered for all of two seconds, “I reckon you’re..” but before Charlie got to hear his reckoning, Glen broke in.

“Jay! Snap out fanboy!” He was impatient. “That’s all cool and stuff, but that’s just a tiny as part! Check out your [System]!” He was starting to slightly hyperventilate. “Stats and skills and man, we got a trait too!” He paused, “and a perk as well! Holy crap!” He was hyperventilating fully now. “Hey, is yours the same as mine or do we all get something different?”

Charlie wasn’t sure whether he was asking her or Jay. She was just about to answer when a notification pinged and distracted, she pulled it up.

SKILL UP! CONGRATULATIONS!

Through constant use you have improved your proficiency in [English].

Your [Polyglot] skill has increased.

[English].

Spoken: 2 ⇒ 3

300xp earnt

She grinned. Now hopefully she would be able to understand them better. Glen was looking at her. Oh. That’s right. He was asking about [Traits] and [Perks]. “Oh. Ahh, well…” Charlie floundered. She was hardly an expert and everything she thought she did know was mostly wrong so far. “Umm… racial traits are pretty much the same for everyone of that species. But you can get individual [Traits] too,” she paused again. “I think… but they are pretty rare.” Her brow was furrowed as she strove to remember her lore. “If you advance your race when you tier up I think you have a chance to unlock a new [Trait].” She knew there was more to it than just this but she moved on to the second part of his question. “[Perks] are always fully individual and can be either totally random or based on something you did that the [System] recognises and rewards.” Charlie smiled as Glen drank all the information up.

Jay laughed. “This is unreal!” He too was alight with enthusiasm. “You’re an alien. You’re a superhero werewolf from a different galaxy. You’re cool and hot and mean as!” Oh, he was still on werewolf. “Hey we will be werewolves too? Like your pack? Or do you have to bite us?”

“I”ll bite you you great big muppet!” Glen was getting annoyed. “Forget the werewolf part. We have just had our life’s totally changed already.” A new thought struck him. “And there’s probably going to be heaps more changes too. If the [System] is here, it’s only going to grow, isn’t it? He looked at Charlie. She shrugged. It was all new to her too.“ He nodded. “Yeah, nah it’s totally going grow,” and his eyes widened, “it’s going to be a [System Apocalypse]! Oh, freakin myself out here!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jay laughed.

“We gonna be heroes,” he almost sang out, “of might and magic!” He stopped. Sudden and silent looking at them both. “Who gets decide who does what?” It was an abrupt change and Charlie was totally caught out. “I bags mage!” He looked at Charlie. “She’s totally going to be DPS.” What on Kentron was he talking about? He looked at Glen. “You’re a bit small to be a tank, maybe a dodge tank? Or a healer? You’re pretty clued in on this DnD stuff Glen, what do you want to be? Ranger? Druid?”

“Oy, slow down mate!” Glen made patting motions in the air with both hands. “We gotta play this right, play to our strengths. Get some synergies and stack the odds. Plus we don’t know what’s possible yet.” He looked at Charlie.

She looked back at him. She blinked. They were mates? That was unexpected. She blinked again. Not that she had a problem with it. It was just totally against the brotherly vibe she was getting. She shook herself. It didn’t change anything. What was the question?

“What’s possible?” She echoed Glen. “Anything is possible…” Heh! Charlie chuckled. It surely was. “But some things are harder than others.” She gave herself a mental shake. Get a grip Charlie. We’re talking about [Classes] and character builds. Not… with an effort she dragged her mind back on track. “Well I’m guessing you’ve both got the same [Trait] seeing you’re both humans so it’s really what [Perk] you received that could make all the difference.”

“I’m [Flexible]!” Jay exclaimed, “how about you?” He waggled his eyebrows at Glen.

“Yes, I am too,” Glen responded. “That’s our trait as humans.”

“Cool! Hey, let’s have a dance off and see who's got more flex aye? And see if it makes a difference over before?”

“Jay you numbskull,” Glen was exasperated, “you didn’t dance before so how could you tell the difference?”

“Charlie can judge between us. And I’ve got moves. I’m smooth as.” Jay gave a shimmering wave rolling his arms along his shoulders in a rippling motion. He bopped his head in time to some unheard beat. “See? Smooth!”

Glen laughed out loud. “Jay you clown!” He chuckled again. “Good to bring in some levity though. What’s your perk?”

“You first. I went first last time,” Jay smirked cheekily.

“Whatever,” Glen shrugged. My perk is Grade E and is called [LightVision].”

Jay frowned. “That’s dumb. Shouldn’t it be like darkvision or nightvision? Lightvision is like normal vision. You bombed out bro!”

Glen frowned but didn’t say anything. Charlie frowned too. At Grade E it was likely to be more than just normal vision. Before she enquire further though Jay announced his perk.

“Mine’s Grade C and is called [Physical Dynamo]! It takes physical energy and converts it to magical energy! I’m going to be an unstoppable mage!”

Glen nodded. Grade C was two steps up on his Grade E. Jay had rolled a significantly better perk. But it was all how you used it. And he needed to research and experiment more with his perk. He could see some interesting possibilities already that he couldn’t wait to try out.

Now Charlie frowned at Jay. That was a massively rare perk. At Grade C it was considered [Very Rare] or a [Platinum] tier perk. And she was pretty sure that wasn’t how that perk would work. In fact, she wondered, could she [Interrogate] it and discover more than what it was telling him? Come to think of it, she hadn’t really explored what her [Perk] was.

She pulled up her perk.

PERK: [EXPERT SPATIAL PROPRIOCEPTION]

Grade D

Your awareness of the position, movement and control of your body and the space you inhabit is greatly improved.

Range: 3m radius

This was an extremely useful combat perk to have. In fact, she realised that was how she knew Glen was stopping his bike with his shoe. There was no way she had seen that. She was in front of him, perched on his handlebars yet she remembered being fully aware of how he slowed so fast and had been ready for the screeching halt. And then her balance as she stood on the handlebars, she couldn’t have done that previously, let alone a double kick.

Charlie smiled.

She liked this perk a lot already.