I called out, “menu,” and Abe and Jacob did the same.

“Hey, do you guys see the third tile?” I ask.

“No, I don’t see the party menu.” Jacob said.

“Alan, you didn’t say you were level two.”

The third tile, was a party menu, the image having two human figures. On it, I could see the stats and skills of everyone in the party, starting with Abe, so I assume its in alphabetical order (using our firsts names).

NameAbraham RahmanzaiLevel1 (73%)Age14GenderMaleConditionMax Hp65Max Mp76Max Sp59Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.5Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.3Hunger57%Rest41%StatusTangible AttributesStr8Vit9Con11Agi8Dex13App9Intangible AttributesInt10Wis10Cha5Luc12

Skills:

*  The Gamer (2nd Generation) Lv1 (42%)

*   The Gamers’ Menu Lv1 (12%)

* The Gamers’ Party Lv 1 (20%)

* Examine (6%)

* Adrenaline (13%)

* Flight Response (7%)

* Fight Response (6%)

* Sneak (4%)

* Finishing Blow (5%)

NameAlan DoltanLevel2 (74%)Age13GenderMaleConditionMax Hp68Max Mp59Max Sp65Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.3Hunger51%Rest62%StatusTangible AttributesStr9Vit11Con8Agi10Dex12App10Intangible AttributesInt13Wis9Cha6Luc12

Skills:

* The Gamer Lv2 (2%)

* The Gamers’ Menu Lv1 (79%)

* The Gamers’ Party Lv1 (20%)

* Sleep Lv1 (12%)

* Auto-Pilot Lv1 (83%)

* Examine Lv1 (56%)

* Cooking Lv1 (2%)

* Wash Lv1 (11%)

* Inventory Lv1 (23%)

*  Wallet Lv1 (37%)

* Adrenaline Lv1 (34%)

* Fight Response Lv1 (26%)

* Charging Strike Lv1 (60%)

NameJacob AdamsLevel1 (73%)Age13GenderMaleConditionMax Hp75Max Mp57Max Sp72Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Hunger52%Rest53%StatusTangible AttributesStr11Vit11Con9Agi12Dex12App10Intangible AttributesInt9Wis8Cha5Luc13

 Skills:

* The Gamer (2nd Generation) Lv1 (42%)

* The Gamers’ Menu Lv1 (12%)

* The Gamers’ Party Lv 1 (20%)

* Encourage Lv1 (18%)

* Adrenaline Lv1 (13%)

* Fight Response Lv1 (13%)

* Combo Attack Lv1 (20%)

* Power Strike Lv1 (12%) 

“Yeah,” Jacob said as he punched my arm, “Though you’re still weaker than me.”

“And smarter,” I snap back at him with a grin.

“How did you get inventory?” Abe asked me, after checking, I realised there was a lot of simple skills I had that no one else did and vice versa.

“Do you have something in your pocket?” I asked him, Abe nodded, “Take it out,” I told him. So Abe and Jacob took pens out of their respective pockets. “Okay,” I said, “Now put it back in your pocket.”

“Seriously?” Jacob commented, as he put the pen back in his pocket, “Well, holy shit,” He said in response to what I assume to be a message popping up in front of him. At the same time I received a message of my own:

[You have learned a new skill, Teach]

“You can get wallet by doing the same thing with money.” I said.

Abe said “Hey, did we all just get a new skill?” Then looked at me pacifically, “Teach right?” all while looking off into space.

“Yeah,” I said to him.

“Okay, so the party menu is in actual time, nice to know.” He commented, “Jacob I’ll teach you Examine if you like.”

At the same time Jacob was using his hands to navigate through the menu or something. To us he looked like he was just playing with the air though. “Huh?” Jacob said, as if only vaguely aware that we said his name.

“I’ll teach you examine if you like.” Abe repeated. Abe’s brows were furrowed, he was focused, and having fun.

“Yeah sure.” Jacob said.

“Okay, look focus on something in front of you.” Abe started, Jacob nodded, decidedly focusing on a tree beside us.

Abe continued to explain how it worked, right up until Jacob all but jumped for joy: “I got it!” Jacob said.

I watched the party menu and saw that Jacob learned Examine while Abe learned Teach and a new ability called Copy. At that point a strong breeze blew in and I gestured for us all to move on. We all made our weapons disappear in our respective inventories and continued on.

Abe and I tried learning some skills from Jacobs, but he wasn’t very good at explaining how he reached them. At the same time, I showed off auto-pilot, restoring my stamina, right up until I received a new message:

[A skill has levelled up, Auto-Pilot has is now level two! Your body can now perform three step procedures while under Auto-Pilot]

That was when Abe stopped walking altogether, at first I was thought about asking what was wrong, then it hit me too. My vision became blurred and the path became distorted. Sure enough, the three of us found ourselves in the midst of battle once again. At first I felt a leave of dread, but then “Here we go again, guys!” Jacob used encourage.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Before us was a single zombie and Jacob was gearing up to run at it. “Alan, what was the level of the monster you fought this morning?”

“Five” I answered while equipping my own hockey stick, but his line of question got me interested, so I used examine on the monster.

“This one is level eight.” Abe said in a worried tone.

“Not a problem,” Jacob called back as he rushed towards it. With combo, he launched two attacks on either side of its head. Then the monster swung its arm at Jacob, sending him to the ground. Despite that, Jacob was up again in a couple seconds, just not fast enough.

The monster was on top of him before he could recover, while it was focused on Jacob, I stepped in. With Charging Strike, I bludgeoned it at the back of its head. Jacob jumped back, half expecting it to drop onto him, but instead of dropping all together, its head bopped and it gave me a blank glare.

[You have used up 15SP, now at 57SP total]

[You have dealt 40HP worth of damage]

It rose its arm over its head and hammered its putrid hand against my head. It cracked against my head and it forcing me down to the ground, I felt completely light headed while my legs felt like jelly, damn it hurt like hell. As I saw myself hit the cold hard ground, I put my arms down to soften my fall.

[You have lost 54HP, now at 20HP total]

[Your status has been updated to “Bleeding and Concussion”]

I started trying to pull myself up. I scanned my surrounding to find that Jacob had pushed the monster back and ultimately ended it with a power strike. It fell to the ground in defeat as Jacob barely kept himself standing.

[Each member of your party has earned 70EXP from killing the zombie]

[You have levelled up! You are now level 3]

[You have 9 new stat points to allocate]

[Abraham has levelled up! He is now level 2]

[Abraham has 9 new stat points to allocate]

[Jacob has levelled up! He is now level 2]

[Jacob has 9 new stat points to allocate]

[Each member of your party has earned £13 from killing the zombies]

[The Zombies have dropped "Rotten Flesh" and you have the space in your inventory to collect it. Would you like to take it? Y/N]

At the same time Abe had sneak up behind me and pulled me up. Finally I got up, with Abe’s help. Then the nausea hit and I almost spewed then and there.

[You have lost 2HP, now at 18HP total]

I looked over at Jacob and a red patch started to grow around his stomach, he was bleeding out and fell to the ground. At the same time, a fluid red curtain poured down over my vision.

[You have lost 2HP, now at 16HP total]

“We have to get you guys to the hospital,” Abe called out, “No, wait.” Abe let me down onto the ground gently and held his hands together looking at them intensely. “We have MP for a reason.” He looked at his hands and while it was hard to see, there was something strange about them, almost like some kind of aura.

Abe took that aura and shaped it with his fingers, he hovered his hands over my face.

[Status has been updated to “normal”]

[You have gained 22HP, now at 38HP total]

Abe then looked at me, probably using examine over my injuries, before moving on to Jacob. After a while we both got up and where wiping the blood off of us.

“Abe,” Jacob looked up at him, “You just healed us.”

An older lady stared at the three of us and must have seen the entire thing. She had her phone in her hand and had the emergency services on the line.

For a second we all looked at each other. “Fuck it,” Jacob said, and started running. Abe and I followed after him.

By the time we reached my house, we where laughing again.

“Holy crap man,” Jacob exclaimed, staring at Abe, “So you can use magic now.”

“Well yeah,” Abe said exhausted, “It seemed only natural…that we would be able to…” He was breathing heavily.

At the same time I opened the door, “Hey Mum, I brought my friends over.”

She greeted us as we walked past her into the living room. Jacob and Abe gave her a courteous hello and we all sat down.

I fired up the old PS4 and handed Jacob and Abe a controller.

We put on a game for the sake of making noise, just to make sure my mum didn’t overhear a thing.

“So…we’re not telling anyone about this?” Abe sighed.

“Why should we?” Jacob responded, “This was awesome.”

“Maybe because we almost died.” Abe pointed out.

“No Jacobs right.” I weighed in, Jacob nodded in agreement, “But for the wrong reasons,” I continued, he looked at me hurt, “You guys might have believed me, but there’s no way of knowing how other people will react.”

Abe excepted the point. “More importantly,” Jacob started, “Teach me how to use magic.”

“Ditto” I chimed.

Abe thought about it for a second, “Well, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there's a power inside of use, mana, I focused on it and I pulled it out, right up into the tips of my fingers.” With the end of his explanation an aura started to build around his hands as he held them up.

I looked at Jacob, he seemed completely confused by this explanation, I wasn’t much better. Abe saw this and tried, “It helps that I put all of my extra stat points in intelligence and wisdom, I couldn’t use magic until both of those stats reached fifteen.”

“Shit,” Jacob said, “I already used all those stats on strength, vitality and agility, three in each.”

“You’re kidding,” I said, “Sucks to be you.” I went into the stat menu and allocated all my stats, two in Int and six in Wis.

[Int has increased from 13 to 15]

[Wis has increased from 9 to 15]

[As a result of the change in core stats:]

[Max Mp has increased from 67 to 105]

[Mp Regen has increased from 0.4 to 0.6]

[You have received the skill, magical awareness]

[You have received the skill, magical control]

“What happened?” Jacob asked, then he started playing with the air again, “Hey, how come you both get magical awareness and control.”

“I think,” Abe said, “that there are certain skills that are triggered after gaining enough points in certain stats.”

“Really, then why don’t I have anything new?” Jacob asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I have fifteen in agility, right, so where is my special skill?” Jacob asked.

“You probably need a different amount for agility,” I supposed, “or maybe you need to raise another stat alongside it? How is you strength and vitality.”

“They’re both at fourteen.” Jacobs reported.

“It’s getting late,” Abe said, looking down at his phone, “Is it okay if your mum gives me a lift home?” He seemed legitimately worried about trying to walk home. I nodded and asked my mum if it was okay.

“Sure honey,” She moved into the doorway of the living room, “Do you both want a lift?”

Abe and Jacobs both nodded, and were gone after a couple minutes. They left the same time my dad arrived, he said hello to them both and me.

“Want to play a game?” dad asked me.

“No, I’m kinda tired.” I walked upstairs, then stopped, “Did you just quote saw?”

He nodded, giving a guilty look, I continued walking away grinning at my dads dumb joke. Today had been a long day.