I awoke to an obnoxiously loud alarm bell ringing next to my head. “Uhgggg, I growled. That’s so annoying. How do you turn this damn thing off?”

“Just hit the button," she replied lazily. I slapped my hand on the alarm top but found no buttons. Grunting, I sat up and picked up the alarm clock. I located the button on the back and pressed it. Once again the room was blessedly silent. I lay back down with a huff and scrubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

Denise rolled over to me, throwing an arm over me and kissed my cheek. “Good morning baby I love you," she said.

“Good morning I love you too, my love.” After I felt a little bit more awake, I started to get up. I had a great deal of things to do if my family was meant to thrive in this changing world. As I went to get up, Denise put more pressure on me with her arm not letting me move. She adjusted the sheets, freed her leg, and put it across me, then straddled me in a seated position.

She looked at me playfully, “I know you were tired when you finally got back home, but you’ve been absent for two days, leaving us alone in this craziness. Now you’ve rested. It’s time to properly greet your wife.” I thought to myself, perhaps I didn’t have to get things done right at this exact moment, some things could wait a little bit.

When I left the room, I ventured into the kitchen where Denise was already preparing breakfast for me. Technically it was lunch since it was after twelve noon. Either way I didn’t care. My stomach growled at the smell of bacon and eggs, and the lovely aroma of coffee. I hadn't thought about coffee in the last couple of days. I had instant coffee from the MRE accessory packs in my ruck the whole time, with the means to heat water, but I hadn’t drank any. What’s more, I didn't suffer from the caffeine headaches I normally get from not drinking coffee in the morning. Was that due to my constitution stats, or my healing spell? I wasn’t sure.

Denise placed the plate of bacon and eggs in front of me with a steaming cup of coffee with our favorite creamer, Cold Stone Creamery’s sweet cream. “Oh my God, I said. Do we still have creamer left?”

“Not very much," she replied. But I thought you’d enjoy a pick-me-up after two days on the road.”

“God I fucking love you baby,” I exclaimed.

Denise smiled, “I fucking love you too honey.”

“Oh geez.” A female voice came from behind me. “You two take it to the room.” Denise’s mom said entering the kitchen.

“Already done and done Mamo,” I replied with a sarcastic grin.

Mamo bent down hugging me and kissed my cheek. “Glad to see you," she said. We were getting a little worried there for a bit. How’s your mom and them?”

“Took me a while but you know me, there ain't no apocalypse enough to keep me down," I said chuckling. “They’re good. They have a decent set up for the time being, but we need to figure something out soon. They’re probably liable to run out of water in just over a week and have to cart it from one of the canals in the area. Probably the same here I would guess.”

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“Speaking of that," Denise said, taking the seat at the table across from me. "What is the plan?”

"Well, first off, I replied. I need to get a feel for everyone’s skills and abilities. Let’s start with you my love. What did you gain at initialization?”

“I didn’t get much in the way of fighting skills, she started, except beginner levels in axes and hand to hand.”

“I’m guessing just about everyone got some levels in those," I replied, since we’ve been throwing axes and hatchets for some time now. And the kids have all taken some form of fighting whether it's boxing or wrestling or defensive tactics.”

“Correct, she said. The boys all got levels in bow and sword mastery as well. Probably from you always beating them with your bamboo sticks.”

“They’re not sticks, I said with a huff. They’re called Shinais. And I didn’t beat them. I mean I did, but I didn’t BEAT them beat them.”

“Moving on,” I muttered sheepishly.

“For spells or whatever.” She continued, obviously hating the fact that she wasn’t a gamer in any way, shape or form. However, she was now having to explain gaming concepts in regards to herself. “I got a passive ability called “nourishment.”

“Wait, let me guess. I said giggling. You always said you make things with love, and now you have a passive ability that proves it.” Denise was truly one of the finest cooks I’ve ever met. She made the most delicious meals, and always threw in her own little "something" to improve it even more. Whenever I tried to cook the same dish, it NEVER turned out the same way. When I asked her what she did, she'd simply say, “I make mine with love.”

“That’s exactly correct,” she said with an “I told you so” look on her face. If you finish your breakfast, you'd gain a ten percent boost to your strength and constitution for the next four hours.” I quickly finished the last of my meal and checked my status. Sure enough, I had the boosts she mentioned as well as a Well Rested buff that improved healing, training and experience gains by fifteen percent for the next four hours.

“Very nice, I said. These are some good stat boosts. What else did you get baby?”

“I have a charm spell that makes people more friendly towards me.”

“Wait just a darn minute,” I said. You have a charm spell that makes people friendly towards you? Like they want to give you free stuff. Kind of like what happens all the time no matter where you are?"

“Oh come on, she said. That didn’t happen that much.”

“Oh really," I rebutted. And how many free pizzas did that guy at Little Cesar’s give you before he got fried?”

Not waiting for a response, I raised an eyebrow at her knowing smirk “Like I said, Moving on. What else? What are your stats like?”

“My highest stats, Denise responded, still giggling, are intelligence and charisma.”

“Okay, let me think this through, I said. Having a high level of intelligence, charisma, charm and nourishment spells. The system is probably translating your skills and experiences into something of a merchant class, maybe with an emphasis on an eatery or pub.”

“What do you mean by "translating?" she asked.

“It’s just a wild guess I said, but I think the system took all of our training and experiences prior to initialization and grouped them into areas that align with its class structures. For example, my class, the one that fits me the closest, is Ranger. Basically I’m a warrior crossed with a woodsman and hunter.”

“That definition does kind of fit you to a T,” she said.