-Book Two-

Schooled

F.E.A.R. has two meanings. Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours to make, or so they say. In my old world, I had no such choice. My life was decided by the people around me, and the only thing I had true control over was my mind. I couldn’t rise, I couldn’t run. All I could do was imagine, and envy the freedom of others to make the choices I could not.

I’ve given it some thought. What was the reason that I would be picked above all others to come to a new world? It was then I realized. What was the one thing I had that no one else did?

The first guy to come over? He was called the diligent, and it sounded like that was the deciding factor of his life. Diligence was one of the seven virtues. Maybe when the gods they speak of were planning things, they wanted to call over people who were amazingly virtuous, and it worked the first time. But what happened after diligence came? Wrath and pride. Maybe somewhere, the system got twisted, and it called over those who were filled with an emotion so intense, it ruled their personality? In any case, it sounds like it worked out in the end for the people here.

But what about me? I wasn’t particularly virtuous, and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that it was my sin that drew me here. My ability was the embodiment of envy. Jade, the green-eyed monster of envy; it even had a certain ring to it.

Still, I find that I can’t just forget everything and everyone else around me. I can’t just run from the problems they’re facing. They’ve quickly become my friends, even if they’re still keeping secrets. Then again, so am I. So I guess it’s time to face the music and rise. Maybe it’ll work out this time too.

***

The light shining on her face signaled the start of the new day, and she opened her eyes, the silence of her room comforting her. No beeping monitors, no doctors or nurses to disturb her. It had just been a very realistic nightmare. She held her hand up, happy to be able to do so without resistance. She laughed softly to herself. She was fine, which could probably be considered something of a miracle, given her stupidity last night. Granted, it wasn’t complete stupidity. She’d stayed up for an hour on the roof, staring at the stars in introspection, all while nomming down a massive amount of food until she almost felt ill. All this was in preparation for the real stupidity: mass siphoning the guards she’d touched.

Jade had been hoping her new ability would negate some of the massive drawbacks from siphoning so many people, since it had helped so much with the counts earlier. She’d literally felt almost nothing from taking the top off of two very high leveled people. Perhaps that and her realization that she was here because of envy had led her to try and bite off another huge batch. Sneezing a few times, she glanced around, trying to see if she’d breathed in dust or something. Not seeing anything, she shrugged it off and went back to her happy perusal.

Still, as she stood up and stared in the mirror, she grinned, because she was okay. She was more than okay! She was practically glowing, and she sang softly to herself, “Oh, what a beautiful moooorning. Oh what a beautiful day!” Laughing, she pranced around the room, gathering her clothes and heading to the washroom. The inn was oddly quiet, but she ignored that in favor of taking a nice relaxing bath while she checked her profile.

Admiring the fact that her skin felt softer and smoother, that her hair seemed stronger and shinier, that her bust had gone up in size again, and that overall, she now had visibly defined muscles when she flexed, she giggled giddily and finally pulled up her floating blue screens.

Name: Jade Winward

Age: 18

Strength: 12.21

Dexterity: 13.11

Constitution: 12.19

Intelligence: 18.31

Magic: 13.76

Charisma: 12.44

Luck: 15.19

Special Abilities: Adaptable, Siphon

Skills: Accessorycraft, Acrobatics, Appraisal, Archery, Athletics, Blood Magic, Bluff, Compulsion Magic, Danger Sense, Dark Magic, Deception, Diplomacy, Dodge, Earth Magic, Eating, Engineering, Fire Magic, Glasscraft, Haggle, Healing Magic, Heat Resistance, Herbology, Illusion Magic, Information Gathering, Insight, Intimidate, Life Magic, Light Armor, Light Magic, Lightning Magic, Mana Sense, Mental Fortitude, Metal Magic, Modeling, Nature Magic, Navigation, Pain Tolerance, Perception, Perseverance, Persuasion, Running, Sense Motive, Singing, Sleight of Hand, Small Blades, Speed Reading, Stealth, Tailoring, Tracking, Unarmed Combat, Walking, Water Magic, Wind Magic, Writing

Accessorycraft Beginner 4 33% Acrobatics Beginner 9 56% Appraisal Intermediate 5 14% Archery Beginner 8 24% Athletics Intermediate 4 92% Blood Magic Intermediate 3 3% Bluff Intermediate 4 52% Compulsion Magic Beginner 6 92% Danger Sense Beginner 5 6% Dark Magic Beginner 3 93% Deception Intermediate 4 2% Diplomacy Intermediate 6 73% Dodge Beginner 9 96% Earth Magic Beginner 10 6% Eating Intermediate 3 27% Engineering Beginner 5 92% Fire Magic Beginner 8 21% Glasscraft Beginner 4 70% Haggle Intermediate 2 81% Healing Magic Intermediate 5 25% Heat Resistance Beginner 5 52% Herbology Beginner 10 79% Illusion Magic Beginner 4 10% Information Gathering Intermediate 9 20% Insight Intermediate 6 47% Intimidate Beginner 10 83% Life Magic Beginner 8 23% Light Armor Beginner 7 83% Light Magic Intermediate 7 10% Lightning Magic Beginner 6 15% Mana Sense Beginner 9 87% Mental Fortitude Intermediate 6 14% Metal Magic Intermediate 1 88% Modeling Beginner 6 92% Nature Magic Beginner 4 83% Navigation Intermediate 2 39% Pain Tolerance Beginner 7 40% Perception Intermediate 7 9% Perseverance Intermediate 5 28% Persuasion Intermediate 5 16% Running Beginner 4 53% Sense Motive Intermediate 5 6% Singing Beginner 4 10% Sleight of Hand Intermediate 2 73% Small Blades Beginner 7 0% Speed Reading Intermediate 7 78% Stealth Intermediate 1 7% Tailoring Beginner 8 18% Tracking Beginner 4 58% Unarmed Combat Beginner 6 57% Walking Intermediate 7 16% Water Magic Intermediate 4 61% Wind Magic Beginner 10 69% Writing Beginner 2 15%

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It was a good thing no one else could see her sheet, because even she could tell it was absolutely ridiculous for someone who’d only been in the world for five full days. She had to laugh that her three highest skills were information gathering, speed reading, walking, and only then did light magic come in. Apparently the simple things in life really were the best!

She happily noted the values of her new skills. She’d siphoned accessorycraft and tracking, so she expected those on her list, but danger sense was something that had appeared on its own after her encounter with the doppelganger. It wasn’t something she’d seen on anyone else’s list before, not even in the library book about skills. She was curious as to how it worked, but just chalked it up to spidey senses tingling. Or maybe it was something that only came when you had both insight, mana sense, and perception? Did skills spawn new skills?

Deciding that was a useless path to tread since there were no obvious answers, she quickly got out of the bath and ready for the day. Given that she was going to be active and healing today, she opted to tie her hair back in a nice french braid while picking out clothes that were loose and comfortable to move in with short sleeves. Skipping down the hall towards the common room, she sang softly, “I’m walking on sunshine, wooooah, and don’t it feel good!” She jumped down the last step grinning, before looking blankly around the common room.

She could vaguely hear the sounds of someone washing the dishes in the kitchen, but otherwise it was completely empty. Oh, there were a few empty plates that looked like they hadn’t been cleared off in the far end of the room, but that was it. Making her way to the kitchen, she poked her head in and saw Kaylee and Jessica washing the dishes. Clearing her throat, she called out softly, “Morning!”

“Oh, Jade, you’re awake! Let me get you something to eat.” They’d both turned to look at her, but Jessica was the one who rinsed off her hands and started to bustle around the kitchen, gathering things for her.

“Thanks…Just one question. Where is everyone?”

Kaylee laughed at her quizzical confusement. “Oh sweetheart, they’re already at Dracona! Eric told us you were exempted from the morning workout. I was actually just going to go make sure you were awake in a minute. You’ve got just under an hour to eat and get up there.” Jade had taken a seat at a nearby counter, remembering that she had very vehemently opted against going to the earliest classes with a grin.

She hadn’t thought it might isolate her so much though. Ah well, she’d be healing them, so she’d still see people in her armload of classes. She’d asked Eric what the normal course load was, and he’d told her that most people only had around less than half the amount of afternoon classes she did. So really, she didn’t feel too bad about missing one hour of general fitness.

Jessica plopped a plate full of food in front of her, grinning. “Seems like you’ve got a few admirers though. Kaylee was asked by no less than five people where you were.” Jade paused shoveling food in her mouth to laugh a bit at that. Admirers?

“That’s unlikely. They were probably just curious.” She smiled and went back to eating. She wasn’t a bag of bones anymore, but she didn’t think she was anything particularly special either. It was probably Will, Jackson, Evan, or Adam who were asking, since she’d been eating breakfast with them the last few days.

“Speaking of curious, how did you do your hair like that? It’s so pretty.” Kaylee was now mooning over her french braid. “You always have the prettiest hairstyles, but this one would work so well to keep everything out of the way.”

Jade laughed. “That was kinda the point. It’s really simple though.” She pulled out her pocket watch, glancing at the time. She still had 45 minutes, and it was around a 25 minute walk, she figured. Grinning, she said simply, “Here, I’ll do your hair really quick, and you guys can watch me do each other’s so you learn how to do it. It’s not hard.” She pushed away her already empty plate, because she had unconsciously wolfed it down as they were talking.

“Really?” Kaylee’s eyes were bugged out as if she’d just won the lottery, and both Jade and Jessica burst into laughter as Jade nodded, trying not to cry because she was laughing so hard. Kaylee lightly whapped them on the arm, “Stop laughing!” This of course, only made them laugh more.

It really only took her about five minutes to do both of their hair, even with much giggling and her pointing out the necessary parts of the braid. It was a super simple thing, after all, but they were both amazed and enraptured by their new dos. They were still examining each other cheerfully when Raphael walked in, shaking his head. “I should have guessed you’d be in here.”

Jade grinned. “What, you expected to find me somewhere other than the source of all goodness?” He glanced around, noticing her already empty plate, and just grinned sardonically. He really looked a lot better when he smiled, flashing his pearly whites. Distracted, she realized that her teeth were getting whiter by the day too. If she kept raising her scores, would she too look like she was born to star in a dental commercial? Raphael waved his hand in front of her face, bringing her back to reality. All three of them were laughing at her.

“Welcome back.” Raphael was having a hard time suppressing his smirk. “Did you hear anything I just said?” Guiltily, she shook her head and Jessica burst into a fresh peal of laughter. “I was saying, you’d probably better head for Dracona if you’re done eating. You don’t want to be late on your first day, do you?”

Startled, she looked back at her watch, noting that she now only had 30 minutes. Jumping to her feet, she glanced around, now a bit flustered. “Okay!” She started patting things down, checking that she had her library card, her school ID, pins in case anything fell down, money to pay for anything she needed…

“Have fun! Don’t bully the other kids too much!” Jessica called out as she was leaving the kitchen, and Jade quickly turned around, rushing over to hug a surprised Jessica and Kaylee.

She grinned as she let them go. “I’ll try not to. Have a wonderful day!” She grinned and poked them both, dancing away as they squealed in protest. She returned to Raphael’s side, who was holding open the outer door for her. She was about to step into the sunshine when she realized… “My sunglasses!” Turning around, she sprinted for the stairs while she heard Raphael let out a laughing sigh.

She half tripped going up the stairs, and heard him call out behind her, “Don’t hurt yourself!”

Laughing as she quickly unlocked her room, ran inside and grabbed her brand new sunglasses, she locked it again behind her and traipsed cheerfully down the stairs. “Does it matter if I do? I can just heal it.”

He shook his head. “I suppose that’s true. You remember how to get there?”

Grinning, she stuck her tongue out at him. “Yes, Da.”

He whacked her head lightly. “If I was your dad, you’d have more sense! And be way, way younger.”

She grinned and stuck her tongue out again. “Maybe you were cradle robbed!” He laughed, gently pushing her out as she stuck her sunglasses firmly on her face, smiling that for the first time, she was outside and didn’t have to squint at the sun!

“Don’t get lost, don’t cause trouble, don’t get hurt. Please?”

She saluted him ironically, grinning. “I’ll do my very best.” Turning, she began to make her way to Dracona. When she was almost there, the streets were practically empty. Seemingly most of the traffic came from Dracona, and with everyone in the physical training, there was no one around.

Absently, she sung quietly, “I walk these empty streets, on the boulevard of broken dreams…”