With the sun setting, Ferro, Anna and Liz are standing in the middle of the arena which is encompassed by a ring drawn with white chalk in the rough sand. In a normal battle, the ring would symbolize the loss of the other party if crossed. To disguise themselves they put on fighting attire which is covering their vitals and head.
Fighters must choose if they want to fight battles outside or inside of the ring. Usually, long-range focused fighters fight on the outside whilst short-range focused fight on the inside. This brings some realism to the battles as mages must decide if they are the long- or short-range type which puts them in the situation of having to fight their counterpart at the same distance as they are comfortable with. Brawler types would also fight spear- or swordsmen whilst long-range focused mages would also have to battle with archers and the like.
Ferro: We should probably start if we still want to enjoy some sunlight. We don’t have to draw this out as much as we did last time. I don’t know about you guys, but I got caught by my mom.
Anna: I was smart enough to avoid that fate.
Liz: My sisters would have preferred me to not come back so I made sure to be as loud as possible.
Ferro: You sure have it hard Liz.
Liz: You said you wanted to start?
Ferro: Ah, right. Memento, are you there?
From one of the deep shadows in the arena, one could see a silhouette slowly forming into a Demon with patch-like red scales covering the entire body, only to be interrupted by black gaps which appear to show skin-like surfaces. Two horns were slowly starting to appear on the head of Memento who swiftly starts to move into the circle, which hasn’t yet been covered by shadows.
Ferro: You are going to scare me with an entrance like that. You won’t kill us, right?
Memento [Was it that bad? I hope these kids don’t need to change their underwear before we start. Even though I still don’t know what we are starting. I am not sure how to confront them with the fact that I don’t know what I can and cannot do. Maybe I should just be upfront? It will be better in the long run, and I don’t know what happens if I fail this contract or whatever they did when they summoned me. I think I already decided.]
Memento: I want to be honest with you three because you seem like very nice to me since I have been following around for the day, I don’t see a reason not to trust you.
Anna: Pervert! You must have watched us in the bathroom as well, have you!
Memento: I can assure you there would not have been a reason to do so for me.
Anna: You say I am not worthy of spying on?
Liz tries to comfort Anna with a hug but somehow it did the opposite of helping and Anna began to cry for real.
Ferro: There was no right answer just now Memento. What is it that you need to talk about with us?
Memento: I don’t know how to say it, so I will just be upfront. I don’t know who I am, and I have no ideas what powers I have.
From one moment to the other the three lose all emotions on their face and it seems like they are close to falling into despair.
Ferro: Okay, I will just write out my will now, is it okay for me to leave early? Maybe I can see my mom this way before I die.
Anna: Me too, I need to take care of some stuff, see you tomorrow?
Liz: You three are okay if I make all sorts of experiments with this useless demon before we bit the sand, right?
Memento [Well save to say this didn’t turn out the way I would have liked it to do. I need to do something now, otherwise, this will turn bad quickly.]
Memento: Wait! I know something we can do! Liz, did you bring the status testing device?
Liz: Right now, I wish I brought so much more but to answer your question: Yes, I have. What do you propose? Even if we figure out what your stats are that won’t bring back your memory or enable you to use magic suddenly?
Memento: I don’t even know my basic stats, which means I could have abnormally high HP or Magic defence. If that is the case, I might be useful as a meat shield bodyguard for you three.
Liz: Oh yeah and you heal when we give you blood afterwards. That could work. Just come here and well start the test right away.
Memento: I don’t feel comfortable with coming closer when you have that look on your face.
Liz: It won’t get any better if you just stand there though.
Cautiously Memento starts to move towards the book which could have just been any book from an outside perspective.
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Liz: The reason it is a book is that each page will be written on and can’t be used twice, so having more than one is making this book as useful as it is. It is expensive still, but nothing compared to the stone walls which have been used in the past. It is the custom for famous personalities to preserve their status page in a stone but for normal people, that’s just too much of a bother and isn’t useful.
Memento: If I understand correctly my status will be preserved for the time the page exists?
Liz: That is correct. Just touch it now, you have been hovering with your finger over it for a while now. How does a coward like you want to protect us with his body if you are afraid of touching a page in a book?
Memento: Everyone staring at me like this isn’t making this any easier though.
Anna: What do you even expect at this point?
In the moment that Anna is distracted Memento moves his finger down on the page and activates it.
On the page the three could slowly see text appearing:
Name: (Memento)
Race: Demon
Level: (???)
Skill points: (2)
Health Points (790)
Magic Power (6000)
Strength (70)
Dexterity (20)
Defence (230)
Magic Defence (400)
Stealth (75)
Luck (50)
Fire Magic (???)
Water Magic (???)
Earth Magic (???)
Wind Magic (???)
Light Magic (???)
Darkness Magic (???)
Space Magic (???)
Time Magic (???)
Hell Magic (???)
Gamble Magic (20) [UP]
Demon Kin (???)
Spellbound (???) (No time limit)
Amnesia (???) (Time limit based on level)
Liz: Okay you may have had the right idea with the bodyguard. 790 HP? That’s just incredibly high. If we are lucky, we can get to 500 in our lifetimes, but it might just be a race thing. I am a bit confused as to why it doesn’t show a lot of these numbers though. One reason might be that you have some sort of concealing device or magic, but we won’t get too far asking you, useless Demon.
Memento: I get it! Can we go on, anything else interesting about it?
Liz: You seem like the gambling type to me. Your gamble magic is high, but your luck is atrocious if you wanted to go for that. With 50 you aren’t even guaranteed to go out with a return on your investment. Maybe you are more of an addicted gambler than a career gambler then.
Anna: You might have some debts you wanted to forget and that’s why you erased your memory?
Memento: Not that I would know it now, but it doesn’t feel like that is the case.
Ferro: You have two skill points. For now, we won’t be able to use them so why not just put them into the gambling skill and see what we get?
Anna: Are you crazy? These are hard to get and might benefit us much more in the future.
Ferro: What do we care about the future if we won’t live to see it?
Memento: I don’t mind it. As far as I know, I haven’t worked for them, so it won’t be much of a loss for me now. What are the odds of getting something good though?
Liz: You aren’t making a good case for yourself with the gambling.
Memento: I believe it to be a perfectly valid question though?
Liz: Okay, I have read a bit into gamble magic so you will have to do with what I know.
First, your luck highly impacts the odds, as you might imagine. Second, your race also has an impact on what you get and how good it is. The odds are higher for race-specific traits and skills which might help us out here because you could have better odds to get something that is defence oriented.
Ferro: I do feel a bit better now but won't the bodyguard plan be a problem? He must be in his physical form to do it and won’t be able to appear out of the shadows, so he will have to focus on one person.
Liz: We must stick together then. We will also have to set up a protection schedule, so he is always in the most vulnerable positions.
Memento: I will just spend the points, for now, please discuss this schedule later, or we will be here until the morning.
Memento focuses his mind on spending the special points on the gambling magic and on the floor now lays a dagger in the sand. For some reason, Ferro was the fastest to pick it up.
Ferro: Wow, what a beautiful dagger! If you look from this perspective, it almost looks like glass, but it also feels very rigid. Amazing.
Memento: Hold up! Those were my points, so it should be my dagger!
Ferro: Sure, let's see what else you get, and we’ll decide then who keeps what item.
Memento: I already spent the other point though.
Liz: It’s probably a skill then. Look at your skill sheet and see if anything has changed.
Transformation (1)
Memento: I got a unique transformation skill!
Liz: Amazing! Since you got it through gambling you should be able to use it right away. Unique skills don’t require the knowledge of the wielder, unlike normal skills which are acquired through training and studying and can be lost if the wielder forgets how to use them.
Memento: Okay, I will try it with the old person who got us the arena. I don’t remember his name though.
Memento starts transforming right after he said that and the three saw Ben standing in front of them, with him usually being this small the difference was quite big compared to the Demon.
Ben (Memento): I don’t like it in here, I think it would be more practical to go for a bigger stature to see threats better.
Anna: No, I prefer this. You won’t stand out as much if you need to be close to us now and you can see it as punishment for earlier.
Memento: I will accept it if you stop bugging me about it.
Anna: I don’t believe you are in the position to make demands here.
Liz: I agree, you should stay this small. Try to transform into someone of our age, around 20, or people will get suspicious.
Memento: I will try to use my normal face because making up a face out of nowhere is too much. I haven’t seen enough in the time I have been here to try that.
Liz: If it looks believable enough, I am fine with it.
Ferro: Maybe you should have the dagger then, Memento. After all, if we are going the secrecy route it would be better if you are the unknown variable to the enemy.
Memento: I will transform now, but I believe it will be the last time I can do this for today. The skill is only level 1 after all.
Anna: We should start making our way home then we should head to Ferro first, then to my place and then Memento can stay with Liz since it seems like you are endangered most at night because it is your family. Tomorrow we will start working on the schedule then.
Ferro: I hope my mother won’t catch me again. At least this time I have a proper excuse, but it will be very awkward if she does.
Liz: Alright let’s go then. Memento, are you ready?
Memento is just now turning into a human and is around one head smaller than the three. His face is quite sharp and is accompanied by a big nose. Because of his scales, much of his face was hidden but is now revealed.
Liz: You will have to work a bit on your face. The nose is especially standing out in more than one sense, but it will be fine for today.
The now four head out of the gate of the arena which swiftly closes behind them.
In the shadows of one of the market stalls, a shadow moved but none of them noticed, as they started to make their way back.