Walter concluded, once and for all, this world was not a game. It pretended to be one. He also banished the idea he was a summoned video game character. It was a power fantasy.

But, even if he gave up the fantasy, it didn't mean he lacked power.

Scan II revealed a mistranslation. 'Eyes of the Archwizard' should have displayed 'HUD.' The more powerful spell corrected it.

Reading the term materialized his own personal HUD, in earnest. The HUD entered his attention the same way a person remembered they are breathing, and, like looking at a computer screen, his HP bar appeared. One of the menu sections included available spells, learned while playing the Sorcery Chronicle anthology, sorted by game. The last category contained spells from Sorcery Chronicle Online, custom crafted using the Sigil System.

It stood to reason that video game characters summoned from another world passed on their magic to their children. That would include elements gamers take for granted, like HUDs. The process Walter didn't understand, but he guessed it worked similar to genetics. Over time the mutations accumulated, and the magic changed. Sometimes for the better, mostly for the worse.

Laira inherited a HUD from someone in her family tree, but it malfunctioned. When he saw the zero in his level report changed, from 0 to ∅, it dawned on him. He taught her how to enable the screen-shot mode. The girl cried with relief, it must have been like staring at a flickering screen 24/7, Ludovico brainwashing style.

It was the only theory Walter could muster.

The oracle armed him with knowledge. She unlocked his magic as he aided her with hers.

I have a HUD now? So what? I still have zero mana.

There was another more logical option.

"Walter?"

Walter stopped and turned to face Elin. They stood on the Temple of the Witness steps.

Til now, the rapid-fire chain of events overwhelmed him, and Walter strived to keep up. If asked, "What happened to you," Walter would have trouble recalling all the details. Now that he had a foothold, his HUD, even if it was illusory, he could stop and smell the roses, and see things clearly.

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She was beautiful, beyond a ten, and he thought this since she first pulled him into this world. Undoubtedly, someone painstakingly designed the perfect woman, one of her ancestors, and those genetics defied the odds to arrive here. If you ignored her fighting ability, then her looks alone were heroic.

She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and glanced to the side, "Walter? You're staring."

Her personality was amazing, too. She could cut a man in half with one swing and leap twenty feet, she still reacted bashfully to attention. Cooking and cleaning were her hidden specialties.

"Walter!"

"My bad. I was lost in thought."

"Clearly!" she lifted the ends of her hair, to study them, before clearing her throat, and asked, "What's bothering you? What did the oracle say?"

"She scanned me and told me I'm still a level zero. She also updated my information. Apparently, I'm not an archmage. I'm probably never going to hold any heroic power."

She nodded but remained silent. Elin won't tread indelicately with careless words, so she's holding back.

"However, what I gained might be worth the exchange. I think I can give you something you really wanted."

"Like what?"

"I like you, Elin."

Elin's mouth dropped in surprise.

Walter wouldn't be able to explain where his sudden confidence came from. Until this moment, he was still deliberating if he should move things forward or not. When he watched her standing there, playing with her hair to distract herself, he made up his mind. If their relationship was a mathematical equation, then it suddenly added up when it didn't before. Logic be damned.

After he admitted to himself the mutual attraction, Walter sensed they approached a crossroads. Elin celebrated the possibility of her paladin-nominee status with her brother. Intuitively, he picked up, she couldn't associate him and her paladin-hood.

I'm overthinking it, he admitted, but even if I'm wrong, this is still the right move for her.

"I think of you as a yardstick of what a good person should be. Honestly, just being around you makes me a little better, too. Well, I could do a little less with the scales forcing me to be so disciplined with my thoughts."

Elin closed her eyes and stifled a laugh.

He continued, "Thinking you lost your nomination because of me, so I want to help you regain it. No, I'm telling you I can give it to you."

Walter waited for her response.

Elin sucked in a breath and held it, before saying, "Walter, I like you, too."

A goateed man and a taller man resembling a druid approached them.

"Hi! Remember us?" Erik said.

"Are we interrupting something?" Duan asked.

"Yes!" both Walter and Elin said simultaneously.