Gemma handed her phone to Skyler and he showed her how to access the System interface through it. Then came the complicated bit of syncing her System profile into it.

When it was done, she was able to pull up her status screen without it taking up her entire field of view.

Gemma Dale

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Main Class: Babysitter Lvl 2 Secondary Class: Musician Lvl 1 Cumulative Level: 3

Skills 3/13

Danger Sense (Babysitter): Any strong intention to you or someone in your care is made known to you, and treacherous landscape is sensed and more easily navigated.

Horrific Scream (Musician): Your musical ability is accompanied by an awful scratchy voice! Please don’t sing! This ability will cause anyone within hearing range to crumple and cover their ears. Super effective against beings with sensitive hearing or fine balance. Still effective against beings that cannot hear, as you manipulate sound waves to use this attack.

Universal Language (General): You can communicate with all sapeint beings, through body language, verbal speech, or telepathy, depending on the being's nature.

“We have a limited amount of Skills we can get?” Gemma asked.

“Yup,” said Skyler, “and if you want to get rid of a Skill you either have to lose the class associated with it, or go to a Skill specialist who can remove it for you. And it’s not a cheap service at all.”

“Can we control what Skills we get in the first place?” This System was sounding a bit bogus.

“Sort of. What Skill you gain is based on your actions, for the most part. There are specific steps you can take to encourage the acquisition of certain Skills. But sometimes it can be random. And Skills are gained only when you've leveled enough. It seems the milestones are for every five levels you gain— between both Classes— you have a chance to gain a Skill for either one. And most people also get one or two General Skills--and those are basically impossible to predict.”

Gemma rubbed her forehead, “This is complicated.”

“And the more levels you have, the more powerful your Skills.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I remember the System saying that changing classes is super hard. What about that? Did you read anything about it?”

“Yeah. Changing Classes is basically...rejecting the Class.”

Doubt lined Gemma's face, “How is that difficult? All I have to say is ‘I reject my Babysitter Class’.”

Skyler snorted, “And did anything just happen?”

No screen had appeared, nor had her phone dinged.

“No.”

“See? It’s not just verbally rejecting it, you have to, like, reject on a reeeeeeally deep level. No pun intended. And it turns out people don’t like to reject powers or identities they’ve chosen to assume.”

“Huh.” So many details!

They paused as a waiter brought out their food. Steamed slime dumplings, crispy legs from some bird type monster, pizza made with cheese from a flying goat-like creature.

Nelleie dug in with enthisiam and mess making. There was a tiny island of chaos that surounded her.

“By the way,” Gemma said, “How did you get another Skill so fast? My cumulative level is only, like, three.”

“All those beasts I killed in the jungle leveled Wrath of the Brilliant Hunter a lot. And I guess Furrier is somewhat classified as a business related Class, since I received a level after all that negotiating I did at the store.”

“What level are you at?” Gemma asked.

Skyler lowered his voice, “Ten.”

“What!”

“I told you, after all those beasts I killed, my main class leveled up a lot.”

“But seriously! Isn’t that really high? That's more than twice mine!”

“Not at all. An adult will usually be around level sixty five, between both classes, and have a full set of Skills.”

“So, we’re like babies here…” Panic flashed across Gemma’s features. “Wait! Is...Nellie in the System? If she gets Horrific Scream as a Skill too, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Nellie, hearing her name, looked at Gemma and then offered her a piece of her own lunch. Gemma shook her head, and Nellie ate it.

Skyler choked, “You have a Skill called Horrific Scream? Can I see?” Gemma passed her phone to him, and he started laughing when he read the description.

“That’s actually hilarious.”

Gemma frowned.

“But cool! Really cool!” Skyler added, and then tried to change the subject, “Anyway, kids can’t access the System until they come of age, which is five, and even then, they can hold off on Classes and Skills until they feel ready to choose. It’s a pretty big deal normally, not at all how we just chose ours. People usually make a huge celebration and stuff, consult with their elders.”

“If it takes people until adulthood to get sixty five levels, how have you leveled so fast?”

Skyler shrugged, “It’s an unseen perk of being a Lost. We level really quickly compared to native Travalarians. This is even for Lost who come from a dimension where they already have a System.”

“Then why am I only at level three?”

“Gaining levels correlates to effort expended. I guess you haven’t been working too hard?”

Gemma huffed and didn’t respond.

“Did you find out anything about getting back to Earth?”

Skyler shook his head, "I didn't look into that, I got so into reading about the System. Sorry."

Gemma ate a bite of pizza, thinking for a moment.

"How about we go to the library together, after lunch? We can read up on it then."

"Of course!"

They finished lunch, and Gemma wiped Nellie down as best as she could.