I groaned, and stepped onto the playground’s roundabout. Americans call them Merry-go-rounds but I wasn’t feeling very merry right now. The two flat text boxes were large in my vision, hiding the sky as I stared at them intently from my position on the metal play equipment. A single foot kept the momentum going as I let the considerations roll around again and again in my head. Five points per level. I started at level zero, and am now level seven, so thirty five attribute points to spend. Nine attributes to allocate the points between… but what was the right choice?
Character Window
Name
Grant Kaeron
Race
Earth Human
Title
Dragon Slayer
Level
7
Health
20/20
Mana
0
Attribute Window
FP:34
Strength
3
Recovery
2
Resilience
1
Dexterity
4
Agility
3
Perception
3
Power
0
Regeneration
0
Command
0
I had panicked at seeing myself at a quarter of my full health, according to the character window’s judgement. My immediate reaction to place one of my limited points into Recovery was the source of my current predicament. It had been five minutes and I felt fine. As in, I felt as though I hadn’t just been in relative agony. So surreal was the disconnect between how my body had felt from one minute to the next, I almost felt like I had begun dreaming.
Except the faces within the Café were laughing at me as I closed my eyes. Not a dream, not even close. That would be far too easy. Oh to wake up in my twin bed, late for graduation because of the weird nightmare I had been having. I would tell Jamie about it as she dragged me to the University and life would continue as it was supposed to have. I spun on the roundabout, focusing on the numbers and decisions to quiet the spiteful laughter of the damned.
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” I sighed. I wasn’t only dwelling on the haunting memories of the day, though. The decision for where to next place an attribute point was as arresting as any purchase I had ever made. As a middle child in a large, working class family, I had never had much money for myself. Instead of getting a part-time job, I focused on schooling and received a partial scholarship to St Gerrard’s. The life of a student was cheap, but my income was tiny as well.
All put together, it created a mental barrier I knew well. Grunting, I closed the Attribute Window and focused instead on the most interesting thing there. Blinded by my low health and then the options on with my attribute points, it had been strangely easy for my eyes to slip over the title nestled on the page. As I focused on the title, it opened into a larger description.
Title - Dragon Slayer
Perennial enemies of the Greater Connection, few lives are weighted as valuable as a dragon’s. Fewer still, intend to face them and come away victorious. None who sow the soul of a dragon upon the Tree are simple. The value of your soul grows. Good luck, Dragon Slayer.
“Hmm,” I emoted, pondering aloud at the implications of it all. I glanced towards Clive’s with a squint. The suggestion was obvious, but I refused to believe this wasn’t just a glitch in the System. All programs have glitches, right? Mrs Naebol couldn’t have been a-
You gained seven levels from killing her, didn’t you? She was strong, and her eyes changed into burning purple suns. She was definitely a dra-
I shook my head. It didn’t really matter right now, did it? There were unlikely to be answers forthcoming from the old woman, dragon, whatever she was, considering the snapped neck and all that. I was intrigued by some of the new implications in the description, though. Was it just poetic, or did having a “valuable soul” mean something more? That seemed to be the effect of the title, if it had one, so it must.
Again, there was little to do with the information but file it away for now. I returned my focus to the Character Window and took a deep breath. I spun the roundabout faster, my eye on my health points. With a gasp, I punched the spinning ground, tearing skin and cracking my knuckle. It hurt, and I watched my health dip by two points. Swearing, I kept my eye on the screen while holding my hand nearby to watch. The result was confusing. The damage on my hand was healing at a visible rate, but it wasn’t as fast as I expected. Minutes passed and my health didn’t tick back up. By focusing my attention on the health points, the System deigned to give me more information.
Health
18/20
0.2 per minute
As the extra info appeared, my health ticked up to nineteen. “Probably should have just checked here first…” I accepted my mistake with a rueful shake of the head. “Okay, so probably an extra point one per minute for recovery. Forty minutes to recover to full health from empty wasn’t terrible. In fact, it was slightly bizarre to consider and I wondered how far these health points really translated. If I survived the damage, would I heal from any injury? Was I a superhero now?
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Tempted as I was to dump all my points into recovery right away, I was aware there were other attributes to experience. Feeling excitement despite my situation, I started from the top. I stood up on the still spinning roundabout and pointed a finger at the first option. Placing a point in strength, I cried out as my legs fell from under me. All the power in my legs had gone at once. I clenched my fists, feeling that strange numbness one might feel upon waking up. I gripped the metal frame of the playground equipment and pulled myself to my feet.
My strength returned nearly as quickly as it came. The sensation was completely bizarre, but as the feeling returned to my muscles, it was as though it came back larger. I could tell just by flexing my shoulders that there was now a noticeable difference in the power contained within. It was a heady feeling, and one I wasn’t even sure I liked. I pulled on a bar of the roundabout and with a fair amount of exertion, it began to bend and buckle the frame. Impressive, regardless.
Nodding in satisfaction, I placed my next attribute point into Resilience, skipping Recovery in the name of fairness. My skin began to itch fiercely, and the partially healed damage on my hand ignited like it was on fire. I cast my eyes frantically to my health pool and was confused to see it rising. Nineteen… Twenty… Twenty One… The vicious itching continued for a few more seconds up to twenty five which was my new maximum. The damage to my knuckle was healed completely.
It hadn’t been much to fix, but adding that Resilience had fixed the damage. I felt that was too important to ignore, so I performed the same test. The slightly bent roundabout wobbled slightly but picked up speed quicker than before. I dashed my hand off the ground in the same way and was unsurprised when the pain was lower. I still chipped a health point from my maximum, but I also took a chunk out of the bouncy tarmac which hadn’t happened last time.
I was impressed, but there was more to check.
Next was dexterity, which I sat myself on a swing to start. Of course, I was apparently cursed to look like an idiot as my slight motion was enough to throw me to the ground when all my muscles locked at once. For a few seconds I was a statue as a noticeable feeling of tightness flexed through my joints. When I was released, I felt like I had been massaged. Never having had one, I couldn’t tell if they always felt so rough, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
I had expected the changes somewhat this time, so getting a sense for my new flexibility was where I started. It wasn’t as though I had suddenly become double-jointed in all of my flexors but it also wasn’t far off. I had never been able to bend just the tip of my finger before, but I was soon doing a very convincing wave with my arms. The moment I chuckled and realised I was having a little fun, the sound seemed to echo into the café and return back caustic.
I cleared my throat and focused. “Okay, dexterity is fun. Moving on.” I could already see how the effects of each attribute might connect to another. Strength and resilience would go hand in hand. Dexterity would increase my precision and Agility the speed at which I could perform the fine tasks. Recovery was going to be important regardless of how I went forward.
Proving my point, I placed a point into Agility and waited for the change to occur. Without even conscious thought, I began running. I couldn’t help it! There was just so! Much! Energy!
I burned myself out pretty quickly, gasping for breath for a few seconds afterwards. Okay, so Agility was like drinking way too much coffee. There were honestly times that might be helpful, much like a point in Resilience at the right time might mean staying alive.
I stopped my train of thought abruptly. When did I start thinking of things in terms of life or death? In asking the question, I forced myself to look at café and all at once accepted the truth. I even forced myself to say the words aloud. “A… dragon… took control of my body and forced me to- no, used me as a weapon to kill those people.” There was nothing in my stomach to evacuate, but my body tried all the same. This whole thing had been life or death since the countdown started.
Jamie had known that. It’s why she left me to figure it out slowly or die…
I shook my head. She couldn’t have known it would be like this. As my first thought of the world outside the “dungeon,” I realised she might be in a worse situation than myself. I had no idea what was going on, and here I was messing around with weird sensations and playground equipment. I sighed. It wasn’t like there was anything else I could reasonably be doing.
I shook off the doubts and continued with my experiments. With a few sprints of the playground, weaving amongst the equipment and hurdling obstacles with ease, I got a sense for how improved my statistics were. It was honestly daunting. How strong would I hit with ten strength? Or one hundred? The limitation then would be how high one’s Resilience was, lest the force of the punch explode the arm which threw it. I guessed a high enough Recovery might be enough there. There was a certain radical coolness in the idea of blowing up your arm punching and having it regrow by the time you threw the next.
Agility without Dexterity would lead to a lack of coordination. As I placed a point into Perception, the world shivered. My eyes seemed to be unable to focus, and I blinked away tears as blindness set in. I didn’t panic, and of course, a moment later my vision returned clearer than before. I had never worn glasses, but I wondered now if maybe I should have been. I could see the individual leaves on the trees, even from the relative distance they were at.
They were all brilliant feelings after the fact. With just over a level’s worth of attributes added, I truly felt like I had risen a tier of power. I was faster, stronger and more capable of using those attributes. I picked up a rock and whipped it at the chain of a swing, pleasantly surprised when my aim was true. It was an intoxicating feeling.
Seeing no reason to stop, I place a point into the somewhat esoterically named Power. Except… nothing happened. Unlike the placement of the other attribute points, I got no sensation whatsoever. It was so jarring that I couldn’t stop myself from adding another couple of points, also to no effect. A couple more and I was ready to cry as the complete lack of any feeling followed. I punched the air, wondering if it translated to striking power or something, but there was no change there either. Feeling a special kind of angry, I jabbed a point into Regeneration.
A pins-and-needles feeling crawled over my scalp and down my back, resting right in the centre. I was almost more angry when this one worked, as the prickly sensation on my back didn’t recede at all. If anything, it seemed to get worse as the seconds ticked by while I waited for it to stop. I looked at my Character Window and saw no change, even as the barbs in my back became knives of pain.
“What the fuck?!” I demanded, terrified now that something had gone wrong. Without any other idea, I placed a point into Command. Then because I was panicking I added another three. Like a cool water balloon thrown at my fiery back, the stabbing stopped and a warmth spread throughout my body. I gasped, not in pain or surprise, but like a man breathing after breaching water. Just like my lungs breathe, and my heart beats, something else was starting. A new autonomic process was beginning inside myself, and I watched with fascination as the mana points quickly filled. Five mana points per level of Command.
As the changes settled down within, I chased the feeling to its source. In the centre of my back, or maybe in my solar plexus, was a tight bundle of feeling. This bundle brought with it a slew of natural feelings within which allowed me to interact with it. I prodded it with a sliver of attention, and I felt a tickle in my fingertips. My eyes widened. For all I hadn’t allowed myself to focus on the words and implications, it was impossible to ignore now.
After all, I had decided this was all real, now. I accepted the dragon. I had accepted the System and its dungeon and the quest and all of it. My body was stronger now than it had ever been, at the push of a mental button. So, it wasn’t hard to make the jump. Even though the feeling was minute, it was there.
I had literal magic at my fingertips.
Unfortunately, my wonderment was short lived, warping quickly into inexplicable terror as a figure began to stomp out of the woods.
Attribute Window
FP:20
Strength
4
Recovery
2
Resilience
2
Dexterity
5
Agility
4
Perception
4
Power
5
Regeneration
1
Command
4
Character Window
Name
Grant Kaeron
Race
Earth Human
Title
Dragon Slayer
Level
7
Health
25/25
Mana
20/20
Health
25/25
0.2 per minute
Mana
20/20
01 per minute