I sat in the middle of a seesaw, staring daggers at the defeated body of my enemy. Once the thrill of battle had passed, reality set in. Despite the farcical appearance “reality” had taken, this was it. The café, destroyed twice over, was a terrible port in this storm. I felt as though I were in the eye of a hurricane. A monster came from the trees which encircled me, and its existence was an impetus all of its own.

I couldn’t stay here. Well, I could, if I was okay with being besieged. This was no fortress. The Attack Animal’s shell taunted me. Would that it were so easy to keep safety with me, like a backpack. A high enough Resilience might make up the difference, actually. Except, I had chosen a path. “Well,” I conceded, “it was hardly a choice.”

Wiggling my fingers, I felt as mana danced between my knuckles waiting for my command. With the projectile nature of my only offensive skill, it made sense not to focus my attribute wholly on the final third of the page. Strength would increase the damage and range of the attack. Dexterity, Agility and Perception would improve my accuracy and my positioning. Recovery and Resilience would keep me alive long enough to make use of my magic.

The number which had felt overwhelming to start now felt like a pittance. Five points per level, but I needed everything! Unwilling to be caught unawares again, I refused indecision and placed the remaining points as best I could and lived with the decision. I had seventeen to distribute, and they went out fairly evenly between the nine stats leaving my Attribute Window looking much tidier.

Attribute Window

FP:0

Strength

5

Recovery

5

Resilience

5

Dexterity

5

Agility

5

Perception

5

Power

10

Regeneration

6

Command

10

Health

40/40

0.5 per minute

Mana

50/50

06 per minute

A point each went to Strength, Resilience and Agility, bringing all of my “secondary” attributes to five alongside three points to increase my Recovery. The effect on my body was slightly lessened now I knew what was coming, but it was still a profoundly disconcerting experience. Once it was over, my muscles felt even tighter, my vision more acute. I couldn’t help but smile. It definitely felt good. With ten points left, I decided to keep the numbers as even as possible.

Going from no control of mana to now was transformative. It almost seemed unreasonable to me that I hadn’t sensed its presence before. Mana was everywhere. It gently rose from every blade of grass, each waft of air carrying some tiny ambient energy. “It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.,” I mused. There was a certain childlike drive in myself to understand its mechanisms more, but it also seemed a sensible choice.

I had never been in a real knockout brawl. I had never fired a weapon or taken a life before today. If I were starting from scratch, then why not delve into this new form of existence and expression? I had already seen how effective it was. While I didn’t doubt that ten points in Strength could have a similar effect, how could the two have the same potential?

I flicked a Mana Bolt into existence, constantly tracing the way mana felt within my body as I did so. For the cost of one mana, which came back every ten seconds, I was mapping out the pathways within. My mana channels. Over and over, I created a bolt and flicked it into the ground where it chunked away some of the concrete. By the time I was ready to move, my emotions settled, there was a hole down to the muddy foundations below.

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It wasn’t fair for me to assume people would even get the chance to use magic like I had. I approached the body of the Attack Animal with disdain as I reasoned. Without the large burst of attribute points I had received, it would be a lot harder to “waste” points there when the other statistics can more clearly help. Strength and Agility would be the most heavily used attributes for certain. Feeling petulant, I kicked out at the body for upsetting my examination of how attributes worked.

Spatial Storage detected - Xaverweave Pouch

Would you like to loot Adolescent Amphibian Attack Animal (Level 06)?

“Um, yes?” I answered, looking for the supposed pouch. I felt a sort of clicking in my head as I accepted the prompt. An image of a handful of coins glittered in my mind, but where were they?

I had avoided any close inspection of myself due to the general awfulness going on with my appearance. I had been wearing a long black gown, “smart” shoes and uncomfortable clothing, the uniform of a graduate. In the chaos and fighting, the clothes had ripped and otherwise been covered in gore. I now had a filthy buttoned shirt with most of the buttons ripped away, my trousers were torn apart at random and I was missing a shoe. Just where did the System think I was hiding a pouch?

A shiver at my waist was my answer. “Seriously?” I asked, reaching down. A tickle along my back made me jump and only as I chased after the squirrelly pouch with frantic hands did I realise it was avoiding my grasp. It took all my concentration and effort to get the slippery thing, but I managed to get it eventually. The bag was wriggling in my hands, as though it was desperate to get back on my waist. I released it and it did exactly that. It seemed to shiver on my hip. Feeling completely ridiculous, I very slowly moved my hand towards it. When it didn’t move, I ran my finger over the lining gently.

The damn thing snuggled into me.

“What the fuuuu…” Without trying to touch it again, I instead focused on it. As they had before, my eyes tingled with a phantom pain. By soothing it with mana, I received information. My mana total also dropped a few points, so apparently this process wasn’t free. It had been against the Attack Animal, though. Was it a case of living versus non-living items? Or something to do with the magic within. In any case, I got the information I was hoping for.

Item - Xaverweave Pouch

Incredible pieces of magical artistry, Xaverweave can contain mana as well as nearly any material in existence. Though the material is rare, its most common use is in the creation of pouches, which are then infused with spatial magic and turned into storage. The items within are weightless. Due to their magical nature, Xaverweave pouches can become erratic, forming simple emotions and attachments.

This Xaverweave Pouch has a container space of 100 x 100 feet.

The text box which appeared was more than I expected, in truth, though it didn’t explain much actionable information. What it did suggest was that I had a scared little guy on my hip who had been avoiding my attention until now. It was a little silly, but no more silly than being able to throw out bursts of literal magical force. Like a scared kitten, I coaxed the pouch around by trickling some mana its way. It nuzzled into my hand. My eyes turned towards where Mrs Naebol’s body would be. “So, you must have been her’s?” I continued petting the soft fabric.

No answer was forthcoming, but it made sense. She must have put the pouch on me while controlling my body. Now the question was what did I loot? “How do you work, little buddy?” Despite my new companions' lack of conversational skills, I was glad for it. Despite it being a magical item, it was nice to have something around which wasn’t trying to kill or traumatise me. Not having any better ideas, I started throwing out random words and hoping for the best.

“Bag. Storage. Inventory- Oh, that worked.”

Inventory Page (Xaverweave Pouch)

Item

Amount

Gold Coins (Standard Mint)

8543

Gold Coins (Xaverion Minted)

2758

Guidance Stone of Mastery

1

Continuing its lazy cat routine, the pouch dropped into my hand as the Inventory Page opened. For just a moment I caught a glimpse inside and I readjusted my assessment on whether it would traumatise me or not. Gazing into the Abyss had entirely new meaning and my vision swam as perspective came back to the world. I assumed the same feeling would happen if I had my eyes replaced by the offspring of a lava lamp and a kaleidoscope. I shook off the effect, blinking hard.

While the Guidance Stone promised mystical mystery, the allure of a very familiar word drew me first. “Surely not,” I hedged my expectations and held my hand over the pouch. “Gold coin.” When nothing happened for a moment, I began feeling dumb. “Okay, fuck it.” I plunged my hand into the bag, and immediately crunched my hand off a rock.

“Motherfu-” The rock shifted slightly in the pouch as I hit it and my eyes widened. Gingerly, I placed my hand inside again and plucked out a piece of this “rock.” I pulled the small circular weight from the bag and nearly choked. “Yup,” I agreed. “That’s definitely gold.”

Some quick mental arithmetic, no doubt aided by my new stats said that if this was about ten grams each and gold was about-

“That’s half a million pounds,” I choked out finally. I closed the bag. I almost didn’t want to see it. That was just the standard mint, too. Producing one of the Xaverion minted coins, I shuddered. The Xaverion ones were so much fancier. I was suddenly terrified of my own possessions. My possessions. I cast away the impure, greedy thoughts of sitting and waiting for someone to help me. Of course someone would come, I was rich now.

That line of thinking was bad, so it was distraction time. Greed wasn’t completely banished, however and there was definitely some food inside the café which I would happily store in my new handy storage space. As I entered the room, I couldn’t help but wonder if the System was doing something to desensitise me to the violence around me. It had been the right choice to fight back, but it had also been my first choice, which wasn’t like me. It was another question that didn’t have an answer, but one that played on my mind as I scooped the snack bars, packets of potato crisps and other confectionery into the waiting mouth of the Xaverweave Pouch.

It probably wasn’t as simple as the System making it danger and death easier pills to swallow so much as the reality was obvious. The world had shifted to a wild place and survival was no longer even partially guaranteed. How many of these people would have been ready to fight if we were attacked? They were platitudes, certainly, but I wasn’t going to hold myself over a pyre for it either.

The sooner I was away from this place the better.

In my hurry, my foot brushed against the body of Mrs Naebol. There was a shiver in the air and for a second all of my anxieties exploded. She was back. She was alive and she would control me again. As mana gathered in my pathways, ready to lash out, I saw that I was mistaken. She hadn’t moved. The System had opened a text box.

Would you like to loot Naeboroseax (Level 79)?

Watching my inventory, I mutely nodded while releasing the mana in my hands. A new item appeared, and I removed it along with the Guidance Stone of Mastery. Try as I might not to jump to conclusions based on the names before me, it was impossible. The Guidance Stone was a luxurious golden coloured orb, while the new item was slightly bigger. Still spherical, it contained a much more confusing set of colours. “Okay… time to really get into the weeds.”

Just what the hell were Aspects and Guidance Stones?