My parents were asleep still. The clock above the stove read 3:16 as I entered the house. It took me a little over 3 hours to close that door. I hurried into my room; making sure not to click the spear against the tile floor as I push the door open. Clio pushes herself out of her bundle of blankets and wags her stubbed tail as I flick on the lights.
I lean my spear against the corner behind the door, and toss my bag to the ground; its contents jingling on the ground as I rush to hug Clio. I hold her for a good five minutes; petting and scratching all of her favorite places, before she loses interest and buries herself within the blankets once again.
I pull out the Shard and place it on my bookshelf, and begin peeling off the layers of clothes that I had been wearing. My muscles screamed with every movement I made, and the thin, hastily made, scar tissue across my body stretched as I raised my hands to allow the sleeves over my head. As soon as my clothes are off I collapse onto my bed; without throwing the covers on; despite the chill wintry air bleeding in.
Four loud knocks jolt me awake.
“Huh?” I manage to stammer out as I look around the room.
Four more loud knocks; hurried and more agitated.
“Hold up,” I groan as I push myself from the bed. I shamble over to the door; nearly falling over my own feet.
“Hurry up.” My mother’s voice called.
I pull open the door and peek my head through.
“What happened?”
“Where’s the ibuprofen?”
“...did you check the medicine cabinet?”
“No.”
“It’s probably there.”
“Go look for me.”
I sigh.
“Let me get a shirt on.”
I dig around in my drawer and pull out a large polo and pull it over. I walk past her a couple of steps and to the restroom right behind her, and pull open the medicine cabinet. The bottle of chalky white pills sits right in the open, so I grab it and hand it to her. Everything still hurts.
“Thank you.”
“I’m going back to sleep.”
“Wait, can you open it for me.” She shoves the bottle at me.
I sigh and grumble as I twist the cap open. I take a couple for myself to swallow, hand the rest to her, and slam the door. Once again I collapse onto my bed. Thirty minutes pass before the next four knocks. She asks me to show her how to use the microwave. I try to fall back asleep. An hour passes, and the sun was now fully awake. She wakes me up to get her a fork. Thirty minutes, and she tells me how she’s feeling sick, so she needs me to put her plate in the sink for her. I lay back down and barely have enough time to close my eyes before my doors are thrown open and my mother comes in holding a marker.
“Can you open this for me?”
“Christ, can’t you just let me sleep?”
I pull open the cap and hand it back to her.
“Jeez, calm down. It’s nothing to get upset about, you don’t do anything anyways.”
She slams the door on the way out. Whenever she comes back down from a high, she is like this for a couple of days. I roll out of bed. Clio shakes beneath the cover, and I calm her down with a pat before grabbing the Shard off the bookshelf. The screen, without the timer, merely showed the number, “1.”
“What’s the one for?” I ask.
“The number of doors you’ve shut.”
“Why is that important?”
“Rankings.”
“Rankings??”
“Yes. Humans grow through the competition so the gods have decided to incentivize it by adding a ranking system: at the end of every week, those that rank first will be rewarded with 20 stat points, 3 additional skills of their choosing, and an item gifted to them by the gods. The second place will receive 15 stat points, 2 skills, and an item, and 3rd place will receive 10 and 2 and no item. The top 100 people will be gifted with 5 stat points and 1 skill point in recognition of their work.”
“It’s becoming more gamelike,” I say.
“Indeed. That is the most popular method chosen by the gods for those chosen.”
I drum my fingers against my knee.
“Can you show me my stat page?”
The screen clears and my stat page shimmers in.
NAME: LAWRENCE ABLE
AGE:30
OCCUPATION: NOVICE MAGE???
LEVEL: 7
EXPERIENCE: 10/300
ADDITIONAL STAT POINTS 15
SKILL POINTS 2
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STATS:
STRENGTH: 10(-3)
STAMINA: 10(-5)
PERCEPTIVENESS: 7
INTELLIGENCE: 14
CREATIVITY: 15
ENDURANCE: 12 (-7)
MAGIC: 8 (+2)
“Why did I level up so much?”
“You cleared a level 5 dungeon at level 1.”
“Can you show me what each stat does? I want to get a good idea of what I should focus on.”
“Just touch the one you would like to know.”
I put my finger on, ‘strength.’
“Make you stronger.”
Fucking.
I go to stamina and do the same.
“You tire less.”
Hell.
Each stat is met with the same useless information; though I did learn that, ‘magic,’ also influences how much, ‘mana,’ you have, and that ‘endurance,’ also increases one's overall vitality; including how much damage one could take.
“Put 3 in the perceptiveness,” I was bothered that, aside from magic, it was the only stat below ten naturally, “One in Strength, two in stamina, two in intelligence, and the other seven in magic.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
With that my stat points turn to 0, and the numbers increase just as I had distributed them. I inhale sharply as fire spreads all over my body. My eyes, my head, my lungs, my heart, my muscles, and, most of all, my stomach. When the burning stops I open my eyes again, and everything is clearer — my nearsightedness is gone, my muscles feel just a bit more compact, and I find it just a little easier to breathe. Most of all, I feel the very air tingle around me.
“Is this, ‘mana,’” I ask the Shard.
“Yes. Due to your Magic stat increasing above 10, you have been gifted with the ability to sense it.”
“What is it?”
“It is the Energy of Creation. It is what connects everything to everything else.
“I don’t understand.”
“Few do. Understanding that is what separates the Atman from the Brahman.”
“The what?”
“Do your own research on those terms if you wish.”
“Can I see my skill page?”
“Of course.”
With that, my skill page shimmers onto the Shard.
COMBAT SKILLS:
MAGIC
Lesser Heal 7/999
Ember 3/999
Ensnare 1/999
Meditation 6/999
CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT
Jab 10/999
Straight 12/999
Hook 14/999
Grapple 16/999
WEAPONS:
SPEAR 4/999
KNIFE 2/999
PASSIVE SKILLS:
MAGIC AFFINITY 2/999
DUELING 3/999
HEALING AFFINITY 4/999
MANA SENSITIVITY 1/999
GRIT 1/999
SHADOW RESISTANCE 3/999
PAIN TOLERANCE 6/999
CRIME SKILLS:
LOOTING 9/999
I figure the shadow resistance I got from the attacks from that shadow...things in the tunnels below the street, but curiosity pulls at me to learn more about the other ones.
“Can I do the same thing to my skills?”
“Of course.”
I place my finger over the looting. The crime label has me worried.
“You are getting better at finding good loot; graverobber.”
That worry turns into annoyance. I earned my loot fair and square. I place my finger over, “Magic affinity,” which was a skill I got while within the other world. I was curious.
“Your affinity for magic. Increases with the amount of magic you use — regardless of class, and determines how effective it is.”
I’ll want to increase this. It’ll make me more effective overall. I figure healing affinity does the same. I’ll increase that as well. I want to survive. I click on, ‘grit.’
“Grit is the ability to cling onto the thinnest thread of life. As it increases, so does your will to survive even in the harshest circumstances.”
I don’t even know how I would increase this. I press, ‘mana sensitivity.’
“Increases the effectiveness of all magic, and increases the magic stat naturally when high enough.”
I also do not know how I would increase that.
“Okay. That’s enough.” I say.
The Shard goes back to displaying the, “one.”
“Can you show me what skills I can get?”
The Shard changes to the skill page. Only three trees are viewable on the shard at one time.
“I wish the screen was bigger,” I sigh.
“If that is what you wish.”
The Shard thins out and expands. It hovers in the air of its own volition as it expands to curve around my vision so that the very edges stretch past my periphery.
“Why didn’t you tell me you could do this?”
“You didn’t ask.” Came the reply flashing on the screen quickly before the skills return.
I look through them. Herbal magic seems to be used for crafting things — sachets, potions and poultices, and the like. Some of it was also used to curse. It looks tempting, but I pass. I could probably learn the basics from a book, and that’s all that was offered at the moment.
Under the healing section, I can now gain, “cure,” which lessens the intensity of diseases and poisons, and, “dispell,” which removes curses. Wouldn’t leveling cure make me lots of money in the future? I could become a national hero...maybe later. I want to focus on my survival first. The longer I survive, the more people I can save in the long run by closing doors.
Under witchcraft, the section at the top is, ‘hexes and curses.’ Again, with the popularity of witchcraft, I could probably find a book about it. So I skip it. There was one, however, that got my attention, on that specific tree; and one that I could take but didn’t lead anywhere. ‘Familiar contract.’
“Form a contract with an animal that is closely bonded to you. Get an increase in stats, and a skill depending on the animal type. Also increases the lifespan and strength of the animal depending on your level and stats.”
I look at the lump of blankets that Clio lay under. I click it.