Edwin leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. His spear and shield were propped up next to him. Zoey stood nearby swaying back and forth slightly.

“You wanna talk?” Edwin replied neutrally. Ava was beaming. Even as Austin raged and more and more people could be heard muttering about the new danger the centaurs presented. Here stood Ava, with a large smile. Edwin expected her to try and take advantage of everyone’s fears, to manipulate the crowd however she desired. Instead she sought him out to talk. Edwin narrowed his eyes as he met hers. Her smile faded and her gaze sharpened to match his own.

“Your venture seems to have succeeded with quite a cost,” Ava began. “I’m not sure it could be considered a victory.What with two volunteers dead and one missing for only a handful of measly weapons. It’s concerning. What happened exactly?”

Edwin sighed. He uncrossed his arms and rubbed at his forehead with one hand. His hand came away bloody. He had no idea who that belonged to. “It was going fine, we got there and got the stuff and were leaving. On the way back those fucking centaurs ambushed us. They were throwing rocks from some upstairs windows. Jason, LJ and Steve went running off to attack them. The doors opened up in front of them and they were trampled by some more centaurs. I’m not sure exactly how things played out from there. The centaurs charged everyone and we managed to beat them back and run them off. You said you saw some of it so I’d imagine you know how it went. I’ve got no clue when or where Felix ran off to.”

Ava hummed as she thought for a moment. She clasped her hands together behind her back. “Do you blame yourself for their deaths? You were nominally in charge of everybody.”

Edwin frowned, he was uncertain of the angle Ava was going for. “No,” he decided to answer. “Maybe I could have saved them if I threw some concrete right away.” His frown grew deeper.

“But it all happened so fast and those three were in the way. I froze for a minute, but everyone froze. Nothing had gone wrong and then the three biggest guys were just down, dead even in Steve’s case. It’s not like throwing concrete is an instinct for me. I didn’t even think to use it once the centaurs were in my face. I was more concerned with keeping my shield between me and those hooves.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Ava said without sympathy. “This is going to complicate matters going forward. I think it’d be best if you took the rest of the day off. Go get lunch then relax. I will talk with Tony and we can further decide our future actions at dinner.”

She turned on her heels and waded through the small crowd that had gathered around Tony and Austin. Before she could reach them, Austin screamed. His voice was filled with anger and pain as he lashed out with his fists. He connected with Dan and sent the boy sprawling backwards. Austin fell to his knees and clutched at Haley. Dan scrambled away and Tony knelt down to pat Austin’s back. Ava joined Tony at Austin's side and laid a hand on his shoulder. Austin calmed down and turned towards her. His face was blotchy and stained with tears. Ava gave him a sad, reassuring smile and Austin seemed to fortify himself.

Jason made himself known as he stepped into the ring around the spectacle. “What the fuck was that?” He demanded. Austin shot the larger boy a hateful glare before he jumped to his feet and stormed out of the building. The crowd parted to let him through without comment.

Edwin gestured for Zoey to follow as they both walked out of the dorm and towards Washaki. The building was empty except for two people sitting inside as guards. They jumped to their feet and looked at the pair with concern. “You’re covered in blood!” One of them exclaimed.

“Oh, I sorta forgot. Let’s go clean up in the bathroom Zoey.” Edwin directed them to the nearby bathrooms where soap and paper towels were put to work cleaning their faces and arms. Their clothes were too dirty and Edwin already planned to throw them away when he changed later.

Without water the soap was a pain to get off and Edwin could still feel it between his fingers as they left the bathroom and wandered over to the kitchen. They rooted around and found enough to whip up several sandwiches. Zoey sliced some fruit and they made their way out to a table together.

Teresa walked up the stairs into the dining area and seemed to be searching for something, she spotted them a moment later and marched towards them. As she got close Edwin took a moment to look her over. He had not really checked in with the group before he left but she looked much better than he or Zoey looked. Her clothes were free of blood and she had been uninjured during the fight. From her perch in a tree she had been free to fire the crossbow. Which she was still carrying. At that moment, Edwin realized that both he and Zoey had left their shields and spears back in the lobby.

“Edwin,” Teresa greeted him. She spared Zoey a glance but didn’t say anything to the younger girl. “I want to speak with you.”

“Sure,” he replied easily.

Teresa took a deep breath before she started, “What was that seizure-ry moment I experienced earlier? I got more of those blue screens everyone's seen and they told me things like I'd leveled up and unlocked some trait and then there was the pain,” she trailed off.

Not really sure what she was getting at Edwin motioned for her to continue. This seemed to break whatever memory of the pain she was dealing with as she returned to speaking again.

“I want you to know that I believe you now about all the magic and video game stuff everyone was talking about earlier.”

Edwin nodded and said, “is that all then?”

“Oh no,” she said. Her arms uncrossed and she held her palms together. “I want to ask you to help me, to teach me about this stuff, you seem to understand it much better than I do. I mean you can do magic, I haven’t seen anyone else do anything like that.”

Edwin was taken aback. He hadn’t been expecting a request for personal guidance.

“Well,” Edwin started out. “I can tell you what I know, but I really don’t know that much of what’s going on. I don’t think I can be your teacher as I’ve got nothing to teach you. Sorry.”

Teresa’s knuckles whitened and her eyes narrowed. “No Edwin, please. I’ll do whatever you want me to. Please, teach me how to do magic,” she pleaded.

“Look,” he said sharply. “I can’t do that. I have no idea how to teach someone. I don’t think I could even teach you. It’s a skill that I have. You would need to have the same skill. I am willing to tell you what I know about what’s going on but I’m not just going to waste my time trying to explain something I don’t know how to.”

She deflated and agreed to listen to his current knowledge. It took Edwin only ten minutes to relay what he knew, which was more of a statement about how little he knew. He could have probably been done in five but Teresa asked him for clarification on a lot of things. Most of his replies to her questions were, “I don’t know either.”

Teresa wandered off to the kitchen and made herself lunch. While she was gone Edwin spoke quietly with Zoey. “Hey, let’s get out of here. I want to get our stuff back and then go through what you wrote in the notebook. Sound good?”

Zoey nodded. They both stood up before Teresa could rejoin them and wandered over to the kitchen to place their plates in the washing area. The pile of bowls from breakfast was still there. More dirty dishes would be sure to follow and pile up here. As they walked back they passed more people on their way to lunch.

The lobby had cleared out when they arrived. Both of their sets of weapons were where they had left them to Edwin’s relief. Several people were quietly milling about the lobby. One person seemed to be on lookout duty as they sat on a chair near the open side door. A spear and shield at hand incase of an attack.

Edwin could hear Tony’s voice coming from his office. He was probably in there talking with Ava. They made their way up to his room. Edwin opened it with the key and held the door for Zoey as she walked through. She moved over to the desk against the far wall and grabbed Edwin’s notebook. She handed it to him and he browsed through it. There wasn’t a lot written down.

What he did find though was rather off putting. Zoey had not examined any of the stats on the status window and so he was just as in the dark as he had always been regarding them.

She had written down her status window, at level five she had 140 HP and 150 psych while half her stats were 10s and the others were 8s or 9s. Zoey had taken his words to heart about writing stuff down and she had copied down the text given from the pen she had used psychometry on. Edwin held back a snort when he read that bit.

On her status window, Zoey had used her psychometry on each section. Her name, race, gender, and age all returned pointless descriptions along the lines of, What is considered your X. When she scanned her level is when things got more interesting, An approximation of your growth and ability. It was not exactly telling since that pretty much made sense to Edwin for what a level was, but it was more information than the other scans revealed.

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She had looked at EXP next, it read as, An approximation of your accumulated experience for your level. Nothing revealing there. Zoey had scanned HP next which was something Edwin was eager to see what it was considered to be. It was, after all, something that dealt directly with his own survival. An approximation of your health. It was not very helpful. If it was considered an approximation did that mean he would die if it hit zero? Or if he died would his HP then reach zero? Did more HP mean he was more healthy? Did that make him tougher and less likely to die from a potentially fatal injury? This was something important but Zoey’s ability barely revealed anything.

Edwin was scowling as he tried to think over the things he was learning. After another minute of fruitless pondering, he returned to reading what Zoey had noted. Next was psych, it read as, An approximation of your psionic power. Zoey had then scanned psionic power, which was interesting because it revealed she could dig deeper with her scans than what was immediately visible within the blue panels. The text informed Edwin that psionic power is a force of his natural world, and Zoey had then scanned natural world which returned, Earth, Homeworld of the Human-0 (Psych).

Edwin decided to finish the rest before stopping to think. So he quickly read it all but was disappointed to find Zoey had just scanned three random objects in his room which only gave cursory details about their origins. What did he care about the origin of his notebook, the window, or the pillow on his bed?

Turning to her, Zoey was sitting in one of the other chairs opposite him and was holding the front edge of the seat with both hands. She was sitting straight up near the front and watching him. Edwin cocked an eyebrow and Zoey looked away with a slight flush along her neck.

“This is some, uh, interesting stuff you have here Zoey. Would you be up for some more scanning?” He asked.

“Scanning? Oh yeah, I guess that’s a pretty good word for what psychometry does,” she thought aloud.

“But yeah Edwin, I have full psych so we can definitely look at some more stuff,” Zoey said.

“Well,” Edwin started slowly. “Do you have to spend psych to call up your status panel every time?”

“I don’t know,” she said, intrigued. “I can try it out though.”

Edwin watched as her eyes focused on the air in front of her and a small frown crossed her face. Otherwise, Zoey did not give any indication that she had just used an ability.

“It used some of my psych,” she said after a moment.

“Makes sense,” Edwin said and nodded his head. “So, can you scan the stats and write down what they tell you?”

Zoey made a noise of agreement and retrieved the notebook from Edwin. Yawning, Edwin moved towards the bathroom to relieve himself while Zoey worked. It was dark in the room. Enough faint light shone in from the doorway to let him see his silhouette in the mirror. His outline looked rough.

His business finished; he walked back into his room and saw Zoey hunched over his desk scribbling away. Her shoulders were taut and the hard lines of her body were emphasized. Perhaps what she’s finding worries her? Edwin wondered.

Rummaging through his closest Edwin grabbed some spare shorts and a t-shirt before quickly stripping and changing. Edwin then rejoined the room.

Zoey was still working. She paused between each line as she scanned her status screen. Edwin wandered over to read over her shoulder. His neutral face quickly morphed into a frown and then a scowl as he read down Zoey’s list.

With a flourish, Zoey completed the last word and set the pen down. Turning to look at Edwin, she discovered his displeasure. Her own feelings settled themselves as a mask of helplessness as she looked at what she had written. Her scans had been successful. Unfortunately, the returned information was rather suspect.

Strength (STR)

An approximation of your physical strength.

Vitality (VIT)

An approximation of your physical toughness.

Endurance (END)

An approximation of your physical endurance.

Agility (AGI)

An approximation of your physical speed and flexibility.

Dexterity (DEX)

An approximation of your physical nimbleness.

Capacity (CAP)

An approximation of your psionic capacity.

Acuity (ACU)

An approximation of your psionic acuity.

Luck

An approximation of your luck.

Edwin turned away from the notebook and started to pace. After several times back and forth across his room, he stopped and stroked his chin once before sighing. Zoey’s weak grin broke his moment.

“Those descriptions are pretty worthless,” he said. Frustration climbing, he groaned and brought his curled fists together over his head. He sighed once more and lowered his arms. Shaking his head Edwin said, “And yet, those descriptions are so important and they only give the barest hint about what they represent!”

Zoey nodded before speaking, “I tried to scan one of the descriptions, but it was a no go.”

“Figures,” Edwin replied with disdain. “Alright,” he rallied himself. “You should have, what? Like 70-80 psych left, yeah?” Zoey nodded in an affirmative. “Alright, hmm. Try scanning me,” he said after a moment's deliberation. Zoey glanced at him before scratching her ear and looking away. Edwin cocked an eyebrow.

“Ahem,” she coughed into her hand a moment later. “Yes, I will try scanning you.” When she looked at him her green eyes gazed with a startling intensity. Something flickered blue and Zoey focused on the air in front of her once more. She turned and started to write in the notebook once more.

Meanwhile, Edwin pondered what else Zoey should scan. A moment later she beckoned him over. “I didn’t get much,” she said. All she had written were his first and last name and current level. Edwin shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe you will be able to see more if you level up or if the skill can level up. Or perhaps since I am a higher level than you, my info is restricted to your view,” Edwin put forth several theories.

Likewise, Zoey shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”

Edwin asked her to try calling forth different screens like how she had brought out her status screen. Menu, Settings, Options, and Inventory all failed to produce any result. Zoey complained about receiving no feedback besides an ever growing feeling of exhaustion and being able to watch as the psych counter on her still open status screen ticked down.

When he suggested she try Skills she agreed with little hope of success. Her lips quirked and she sighed. She shook her head, another failure. Considering she was able to access her status screen he had been optimistic something would work as well. Instead it was just another dead end. Those options might exist, but they had no way of discovering them or interacting with them.

Opening the notebook he re-read back over the new additions. A minute later he grimaced and put the notebook back down. With a deep sigh, Edwin rubbed at his eyes.

The lackluster information was frustrating. Edwin was not clear on how things had changed and how they might change further. That aerial battle had been two days ago. He could propel and shape concrete with a thought. While this gave him some power, some measure to influence events as they happened, he was still pathetically weak. The wizard had easily overwhelmed him.

Then something had come and driven the wizard away. The man had collapsed a dorm building to make his escape. It all seemed surreal, yet it was so very visceral. He had seen the dozens of dead bodies left behind by a casual strike thrown by the wizard. Who could say when the next opponent of a similar caliber would appear.

How was he going to protect himself? Did he even stand a chance? He needed a plan. Edwin turned to the notebook and read over it all again.

From what he could gather, they had gotten two important pieces. The first was marginal, the flavor text for the stats, but it gave a slight insight into their working. Which was a hell of a lot better than assuming blindly. The second thing he noted was that skills could level up, or at least Zoey’s could. Thinking about everything he had done the last three days, Edwin believed his skill had also leveled up. Perhaps it was only his imagination but the concrete seemed to be easier to work with and even now when he gripped the shard he kept in his pocket he could almost feel its eagerness to be commanded, to be shaped.

Edwin jotted down several things on a fresh page. These were things he had been worrying about and he wanted to look into them. When he finished he looked up and saw Zoey asleep with her face against his desk. Edwin stretched out and found his own eyes drooping. Without anything else to do before dinner, he laid down on his bed across the covers and took a nap.

Ava never came to get him for dinner so Edwin and Zoey woke up much later than they expected to. The pair made their way over to Washaki and ate on their own again. It was dark out and hard to see. Someone Edwin didn’t recognize was standing watch in the dorm lobby still, the old fashioned lantern by their feet. The lookout didn’t say anything to them as they walked out the back later.

Still tired, Edwin grabbed a key to a room near his own from behind the desk and he and Zoey made their way to bed for the night.