Pan

***

            “What the Hell were you doing” Rose asked me. I replied to her the only way that I reasonably could “Would you believe research?” This being right before she smacked me upside the head for being foolish about taking on an unknown opponent by myself. I’ll admit that part of that might be because of how she’d been treating me up to this point. So, while I was rubbing my head where she hit me I looked at what I got for leveling that little bar that was on the bottom of my screen.

Skill obtained

Level 1 Dodge

While it might be quicker to end a fight by hitting an opponent you know the importance of not getting hit. Unfortunately, you seem to lack the grace of not being hit by your partner.

Add an additional 10% to agility when in a fight or when trying to get out of the way of thrown crockery.

Buddy are you sure the two of you aren’t married?

            Huh that was something else. I didn’t quite expect a window like that to pop up after getting a skill. “So, what exactly are those things?” Rose asks me. “Why ask me it should be in your bestiary right?” I answered her not knowing why she’d need me to answer that question “No, Pan it’s not in my beastiary since I’m not the one to kill it. Hell, I didn’t even get a hit in so it won’t show for me since you have to participate in the fight to get any kind of information on these things.” Rose told me once again being rather snarky in her response. Ok. So, I didn’t know that but since we’re in a party wouldn’t the system refer to us both as being in combat since she was hit by the stupid thing. Evidently not since she;s tapping her foot waiting for me to give her the info on the squirrel we’d just fought.

Dash Squirrel

Not to be confused with a blue hedgehog this squirrel can move in bursts of up to 50 mph. Getting away from this creature is often a matter of having the ability to teleport as once it locks onto you it will easily be able to catch up unless you can move faster than it can. This creature has a special ability once it gets to higher levels called Cannonball. If you can’t figure this one out, then may you never breed.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

            Now the windows are being snarky. Damn just what did I do to deserve something like this in my life? Snarky, hell they’re just being rude. Who comes up with these things?

            “Hey Rose, quick question for you. Why do you expect me to already know all these things about the menu?” I ask getting really frustrated with everything that’s going on. “Because they’re common video game menu’s for R.P.G. games which is what the world has become.” Rose said. “Um, just what exactly is a video game?” I ask her. She walks me back towards the ladies that are waiting for us to clear out the rest of the parking lot and asks them if there are video games in this world. “Yes, there are. Why do you ask?” Antonia asks. “Because Pan doesn’t know what a video game is.” Rose tells them. I get a few slack jawed looks from them as if it’s not a common thing to not know what a game is.

            “Well I constantly get low ratings from the the L.M.D. also the teachers and the Gym trainers that I go to constantly tell me that I need to work harder.” I reply. “It’s not my fault that they keep telling me that I’ll be exiled if I don’t work to bring up my scores. I look them up every night before bed and they look fine to me, but I’m constantly told that they’re too low for the Gene marker scores.” I tell them without blinking an eye.

            It’s time to tell you the sad truth. There are two scores that account for citizenship in the cities, or at least there were before all this happened. The score from the L.M.D. which gives you how you are doing with keeping up to the normal standards within the city and the Gene marker scores which tell you how high your L.M.D. scores are actually supposed to be. If the two scores don’t match for too long a period, then your citizenship is revoked and you are sent out into the wilds without even a canteen for water. There is no coming back from exile. Ever. People who are sent into exile are sometimes even shot before they exit view of the city since it was found that it’s the people who don’t live up to their Gene marker scores that are the cause of the plagues that will sometimes wipe out entire cities.

            Unfortunately for me I was almost out of time for matching my Gene marker score amongst other things. Not knowing what else to say to them I turn back to the parking lot and ask if there was something here that would us to plow through them faster. “Not unless you have some kind of bomb or something.” Rose replied. Damn it all to hell that just means that this is going to have to go the hard way. Walking forward a little bit I say to Rose “Does this new system just affect us or does it affect everybody?” thinking that I already know the answer. ” It affects everybody, but since the rest of the group hasn’t had any combat time so far they won’t be able to keep up with us.” She said. Ok. This is going to be interesting then. The two of us are going to have to clear out everything without any kind of help. Remind me again why I signed up for this…