3
Interface Change
As I stepped up to the printer closest to my desk, I found it surprisingly empty. Thinking maybe Stacy lost track and skipped it I moved on to the next printer, and then the next after that running a full circuit of the floor’s printers without finding any new documents. I headed to Stacy’s office to figure out what the issue was.
“Hey Stace, What’s up? No new docs, I know we have clients going past the letter ‘K’.”
“It’s been 9 hours already goof ball, I’m getting out of here.”
9 hours, that can’t be right, we just started, I pulled my phone out to confirm that it was already 6:11.
*Ding!*
WIS and INT have experienced growth due to extended use of the Skill: Meditation
Open interface, I thought as soon as I remembered the prompt that Genie told the world this morning.
Status
Skills
Titles
NAME
Maxwell Elias Rosen
Health
100/100
Stamina
80/80
Mana
140/140
Attributes
END
10
VIT
11
STR
8
DEX
8
INT
14
WIS
12
PER
16
Stacy started snapping her fingers in my face bringing me back to the present, “Earth to Max, anybody home?”
“Huh, I guess time flies when you’re having fun…”
Stacy gave me a skeptical look while grabbing her purse from her desk drawer. “Ok Space man, you got any plans tonight? I was supposed to grab dinner with some friends tonight, but they bailed with everything that’s going on. I could pick up Thai and we could do movie night and a sleep over like back when we were kids!”
“Sure, I was planning to have a low-key night anyway. Did you drive in today? If you want, I can get our order placed and we can stop and grab some drinks on the way.”
“Oh? What kinda night are you feeling? Wine or Margs?”
“I think some wine would be great for relaxing.”
We made our way to Stacy’s car deciding to go all out on the dinner order so we could have leftovers tomorrow. I gave Stacy my spare key while I ran around the corner to Vino’s to grab a bottle of Riesling for Stacy and a sparkling peach wine for myself.
*****
Stacy
Open interface, I thought as I grabbed plates from Max’s cupboards and tossed the spring rolls in the fridge to keep them cold.
Status
Skills
NAME
Stacia Elaine Windberg
Health
130/130
Stamina
70/70
Mana
160/160
Attributes
END
13
VIT
10
STR
7
DEX
11
INT
16
WIS
11
PER
10
What a weird day. Max was just pulling out of his funk, I hope this doesn’t bring him back down. I can’t help but worry about Max, he just moved across the country to get away from his parents, I was hopeful that maybe whatever all this was would help keep his mind off of them, maybe he’ll fall into making more Discoveries, I can’t believe he didn’t tell me about that at all today.
It was clear to me that it had to be him that Discovered skills that morning, in my 28 years the only Rosen’s I’d met had been family and when I saw the notification that morning I looked up the name and found that fewer than 25,000 people still had the last name at all. A few quick searches after that showed me that as far as census data reported there were only 2 Maxwell’s with the last name. If I was going to put money on one of them, then sorry to the other Max, but my cousin was the one I would be betting on.
Maybe I’ll grill him about it when he gets in. He was so focused on work today, He never even stopped by my office. Usually, I get to chat with him throughout the day. I guess he could have just been focusing to try to make up for us being shorthanded.
I kicked my feet up on the coffee table as I took a seat on Max’s ridiculously comfy sofa and muttered to myself, “How the hell did he manage to find this on clearance?”
I let my eyes close for just a moment allowing myself to relax.
The front door opened, and I startled awake blinking the sleep from my eyes as I tried to take in Max’s appearance shocked by what I was seeing. I bolted up and rushed to take the bag with our wine from Max’s hands as I see that it’s already passing 8:00
“Max, what the hell happened?” I shout as I try to process the bruise on his cheek and the torn collar of his shirt.
“Would you believe I was fighting crime?”
*****
Max
A few minutes after leaving Stacy in my apartments parking garage having made sure I had her park in my allotted parking space, I approached the wine store while pondering what this new ‘System’ means for me and what Meditation and my stat increases could mean, I don’t really feel any different and I’m not sure what new wisdom or intelligence I could have gained from organizing files all day, but I’m sure Genie and the System aren’t going through all this just to prank me with fake status changes.
Entering Vino’s, the cute little wine store just a block from my apartment building, I was broken out of my daydream by a crashing sound. As I looked up, I saw someone tearing at the drawer of the cash register and stopped dead in my tracks.
“Hey, stop!” Shouted the store clerk as he turned from the shelf, he was organizing to see the thief grabbing bundles of cash from the drawer. He ran toward the man and the thief turned to escape with his ill-gotten gains.
“Get out of my way,” he snarled at me, and apparently my fight or flight response was broken, if I even had one to begin with, as I just stood there frozen, having never been in a situation like this.
The thief lashed out as he approached my still frozen form striking me across the face. Finally breaking free from my stupor thanks to the pain blooming in my right cheek, I flailed my arms up trying to protect my head and ended up on the ground tangled up with my assailant who grabbed at my shirt collar and yanked so hard to tear himself away I heard the fabric ripping.
Having not meant to grab the thief in the first place, I pushed away from him, wanting just as badly as him to be separated, and accidentally knocked him off balance causing the thief to miss the opening of the door and hit his head on the door frame before collapsing onto the sidewalk.
“Oh my god, are you okay?” The shop clerk ran over to me as he was pulling his phone from his apron. He kneeled in front of me and grabbed my shoulder checking if I was okay.
Huh, he has really pretty eyes, I thought as I tried to pull myself together and respond. “Yeah, I-I’m fine, just a little shaken up. Should we check on him?”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
*Ding!*
END has increased due to combat experience.
“I’m calling the police right now; I don’t care about that thief. That looks like it hurts though, I’m going to lock up and grab some ice for that,” the clerk flipped the sign and ran to the back as he told the operator that the store had just been robbed and a customer had been attacked.
Open interface, I decided to confirm the change in my status instead of following the clerks form with starry eyes.
Status
Skills
Titles
NAME
Maxwell Elias Rosen
Health
102/110
Stamina
80/80
Mana
140/140
Attributes
END
11
VIT
11
STR
8
DEX
8
INT
14
WIS
12
PER
16
He came back with a 24oz can of Busch lite as he finished with the operator letting them know the address and that the thief was passed out just outside the door before hanging up, “The police are on the way they asked me to make sure you wait till they get here so they can get a statement.”
I take the offered beer and stare up at him in confusion causing the clerk to start laughing, “We don’t actually have ice, so I grabbed this from the cooler. I figured brand wouldn’t matter since it’s for your face.”
Raising the cold can to my face I wince at the cold sting mixed with the sharp ache of my already swelling cheek. I look up into the clerks eyes saying, “You said it looks like it hurts. Give it to me straight, how bad do I look now?”
“Well to be fair, I didn’t get a good look at you before. This could be an improvement for all I know,” his eyes sparkle mischievously, it feels like cupid shot an arrow through me when I process that his words sounded flirty? Seeing the shock on my face he hurriedly adds, “You don’t look bad at all though, you look great actually, I’m sure that a ton of ladies would think this just makes you look mysterious and dangerous!”
Oh no, what kind of face was I just making that I scared him, he was practically squeaking at the end of that sentence, realizing that maybe I wasn’t showing what I wanted to with my facial expression I tried to think of what to say to pull the conversation back in a good direction.
“Hey, no worries, I’m sure I’ll be healed up in a week, I’m really not too worried about it,” I said glad to see the young mans face relax. Then for some reason I fell on a horrible habit I developed in high school to mess bullies who were bigger than me I ask, “What’s your name kid?”
Why did I just call him kid? I frantically thought to myself. He’s been so nice I just ruined everything!
“Kid?” He squeaked again before getting his voice back to its usual pitch as he took on an indignant expression. “I’m 23, how old are you to be calling me Kid?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it, just a bad habit when I’m feeling intimidated by someone’s looks and size. I’m 26. You still haven’t told me your name?”
The red from his anger started to shift to a regular blush as the young man processed my words and muttered his response, “Silas.”
Red and blue flashing lights pull up to the building and pulled Silas’ attention from me as he walked up to the door waiting for the medics and police to have the thief in custody before unlocking and exiting the store. I quickly walked to the counter and set the beer down before following Silas out. The police asked Silas to balance his cash drawer to see how much was taken, meanwhile the EMT’s checked on me to make sure I wasn’t displaying any symptoms of a concussion, before taking off with the thief. 25 excruciating minutes later the police questioning finally ended for both of us and they let Silas know that the police report would be available for his insurance first thing Monday morning.
I followed Silas back into the store, letting my eyes drift over him a little more while asking about my planned purchases for the night, “So, I was actually here to buy a couple bottles of wine not to fight crime, what are the odds I can still make that happen?”
“Give me a minute to call my uncle to let him know what happened and then I should be able to help you,” Silas smiled while talking to me and I just about lost myself in his dimples.
Silas uncle picked up right away from the sounds of it, and Silas started speaking what sounded like French causing my heart to flutter. He got my attention and told me to grab what I was looking for and meet him at the register.
Looking around I quickly found the Riesling and peach wine making it back to the register just in time to hear Silas finish his conversation and hang up. Silas looked at what I grabbed and wrote a note next to the register.
“As a thank you for being here today and keeping that thief from harming me my uncle wanted me to give you those bottles for free,” Silas said while avoiding my eyes.
“No, I couldn’t accept that,” I immediately replied. “I probably made the whole thing worse and more dangerous by getting in the way and causing him to stay in the store longer.”
“Well, your money is no good here, so you are going to have to accept it,” Silas said firmly, finally meeting my gaze with a gleam of amusement in his eyes. “My uncle told me I can’t take anything from the man who ‘protected his nephew from a ruffian who would befoul my innocence.’ You can take me out for coffee some time to make up for me having to hear my uncle say that.”
I was shocked by the sudden forwardness and my mind almost went completely blank before I managed to respond, “Absolutely! What’s your number? I’ll call tomorrow to make plans for how I can pay you back.”
I added Silas name to my contacts and shot him a quick text so he would know it was me calling tomorrow.
I walked out with a smile on my face and made my way back to my apartment wondering why Stacy hadn’t been freaking out about me taking so long, she was usually super overprotective. When I walked into the apartment, I had already forgotten about the bruise blooming across my left cheek and hadn’t even registered the disheveled state of my clothes, so it took me a second to respond when Stacy shrieked at me asking what had happened.
After explaining the last hour and change to my cousin, I pulled up my system interface and finally noticed something I hadn’t earlier that day. There were tabs in it now.
I decided to check out the new tabs while Stacy looked for a movie.
Status
Skills
Titles
NAME
Maxwell Elias Rosen
Lvl. 1: Meditation – Passive/Active
Huh, I wonder what Passive/Active means, as I focused on the one skill I had, a new window showed up.
Meditation – Passive/Active
Profound thoughts require profound thought. Slip more easily into a meditative state. Your mind is clear and your focus is everlasting.
Active state:
Adjust your focus internally, sacrificing external perception to increase Resource recovery. Increased Resource recovery is equal to external perception sacrificed up to 100%.
Adjust your focus externally to increase PER. Effective PER increased by 1 point/10 mana sacrificed. Lasts 1 Min.
Passive state:
Resource recovery and perception are increased by 1% per level.
Range:
Self
Well, that’s interesting. This is a lot more detailed than the message earlier. It still doesn’t explain the increase in INT and WIS earlier though. Lets see if I can get more detail about my title, too.
Status
Skills
Titles
NAME
Maxwell Elias Rosen
Father of Skills - Unique
As I focused on the title a new window appeared just like with my skill.
Father of Skills - Unique
Increased ease receiving and creating new Skills. You are the Father of Skills
This title was granted for the Greater Discovery of the Skills aspect of the System. Thanks to you Skills are now available to all of humanity.
Affect:
Skill creation and acquisition will be easier for you.
Aptitude will not bar you from learning any skill however the ability to gain a skill will no longer indicate that you have the aptitude for it.
Others will learn your skills from you at a much greater rate than on their own.
That gives a lot more detail too, but no concrete numbers in that description. I wonder what kind of Skills there will be… my thoughts ground to a halt as I finally connected Mana with the idea of magic.
“Hey Stace,” I said.
“What’s up?” She asked, tilting her head toward me while keeping most of her focus on the screen as she looked through movie titles.
“Do you think we can do magic, now?”
Stacy stopped her scrolling and stared at me.
“I mean Genie mentioned Mana earlier and the only connection I can make to that is magic, outside of like, religious bread or whatever and I think that’s spelled differently,” I rushed the words out, trying to make sure I didn’t make Stacy thinking I was losing my mind more than the question already had by itself.
Stacy suddenly asked, “What’s the skill you Discovered this morning?”
Taken off guard I responded, “M-Meditation. The system says it helps me with Resource recovery and Perception.”
“That already sounds like magic to me,” she stated. “How did you figure it out?”
“Well this morning when the system made the announcement about Mana I started feeling it and I got distracted thinking about it and just feeling the Mana moving through me and the next thing I knew I had freezing water pouring over me in the shower cause a few hours had passed by.”
“It sounds kinda like the Meditation my therapist taught me, just instead of emptying your mind you focused on something,” Stacy stood up and moved to the side of the living room where she sat down cross legged. “Figure out what we’re gonna watch and I’m going to give this a try.”
I found a thriller a few moments later and paused it on the opening credits before getting up to fill my wine glass. As I came back to the living room with both of our wine bottles Stacy made an excited exclamation, “I did it!”
“That was quick,” I said with a furrowed brow, feeling more than a little jealous, is this about aptitude or did she learn that so quick because of my title?
“The message I got from the system is kind of weird though…”
*****
Stacy
I can totally learn Meditation; I thought as I stood up and moved to Max’s floor. I’ve been meditating to help with anxiety since I was like twelve. If Max could do this on accident, I can definitely figure it out.
“Figure out what we’re gonna watch and I’m going to give this a try.”
As I quickly let the world around her drop away, I thought about Max’s words about his Mana. I felt the cool menthol flowing through me, somehow pleasant, in spite of the minty burn of it.
*Ding!*
MINOR DISCOVERY
With the help of the Father of Skills, you have Discovered the Skill Meditation. No Announcement is made for Minor Discoveries.
“I did it!” I shouted as I jumped up, seeing my cousin walking into the living room carrying both of our bottles.
Why does he look so serious? I wondered, as Max responded, “that was quick.”
Looking back at my message I realized how odd this one was mentioning an entity other than Genie or the System, “The message I got from the system is kind of weird though… It says that I learned this with the help of the Father of Skills, did yours say that? Why didn’t you mention it?”
Max’s serious look morphed into a grin, before he starts laughing at me!
“What, why are you laughing at me?” I asked wishing I hadn’t missed whatever it was that had caused Max’s sudden mirth. As I reexamined the notification a funny thought occurred to me, but no, that didn’t make sense, Max told me the skill and how he figured it out. It can’t be…
*****
Max
Well, I guess that answers if my title helped her or not, Max thought as he realized he must have an aptitude for the Skill as well since he had earned it before earning his title.
“The system gave me that title when I Discovered the skill this morning,” he stated. “It is supposed to make it easier for people to learn Skills I have if I try to teach them. I’m surprised at how little I needed to do for it to affect you though.”
“Are you kidding me?” Stacy said, shocked that he had somehow become a Meditation guru over the course of a single morning. “So, you Discovering Skills made you a better teacher? How does that even work?”
“It also makes it easier for me to learn Skills, but it mentioned that even if I learn them it doesn’t mean I have the aptitude for them whatever that means.”
“Weird,” Stacy said before continuing with words that I could already feel would change our lives forever. “Max, let’s learn magic tonight.”