Returning home she said a quick hello to John, her landlord. He was sitting on the stoep of his house, rocking in his chair. He just raised an eyebrow at her appearance and the dog following in her wake. “Tea in twenty, take a shower first.” She headed towards the flat she was renting in the back, somehow grateful for his laconic greeting. No big deal, everything normal.
Alexis stepped into the shower fully dressed, only bothering to strip once some blood had washed down the drain. She would burn her clothes later, Alexis decided. She could never bear to wear them again in any case. The hot water pouring down her body dissolved a little of the accumulated stress, the horror of the morning though remaining with her. Frantically scrubbing, she tried to forget, but the vivid images didn’t disappear. A quiet sob escaped, suppressed immediately. Kira was sitting just outside the shower, guarding her attentively.
After too short a time she left the shower, quickly dressing all black and stepping into a pair of boots. John waited on the stoep, thick black tea steeping in a pot, two cups ready on the little side-table, a plated sandwich waiting for her, a frozen steak for the dog. Although John was an avowed loner and, according to himself, socially inept, his insight into her needs and thoughtfulness often made her day just that little bit better.
Settling into the comfy wicker chair she waited on John to initiate the conversation. John didn’t disappoint, his brief “Do tell!” forcing a smile despite her grief. Alexis recounted the entire experience, and the thoughts plaguing her mind, the telling lightening the load. John listened patiently, providing no comment or feedback, not interrupting while unwanted. What she actually explained at great length was the experience of allocating her stats, the understanding and insight it provided, concluding that he had to experience it for himself. She shared her Character Sheet with John and once she finished she waited. “Must have been horrible.” he quipped dryly.
“It was” she said, “What do you think?” “Your Stat allocation was sensible, although you went overboard on Constitution”. John had understood her question in the spirit she had asked it, seeing no need to scratch her fresh emotional scars and helping her look to the future. “We need to do some planning for the future,” he continued, “town is going to become a shit-show soon.” “You need to inform yourself about what having a pet means, and please keep me updated. You will also have to choose your bonuses soon, I know you feel guilty, but they might help you survive”
Alexis considered the statement, and agreed in principle, nonetheless deciding to postpone the Achievements for the time being. John’s advice was good, he was an actuary working in the insurance industry, his secondary job he always joked. His passion was theory-crafting and she knew John sometimes worked as a freelance consultant to some of the top guilds in various MMORPG’s, when he recommended planning he probably had worked out several scenarios already and gamed the numbers. She raised her brow.
John smirked, continuing: “I have a plan, but no friends. You, my dear, however do have friends, I recall.” “Other friends.” he awkwardly continued, stumbling over the tiny elephant in the room. Her mood turned dour, having forgotten, even if only for a moment, that her best friend had died in her arms. “I will be a Healer.” was her only condition.
His voice soft, John answered “I know.” Alexis considered, not for the first time, that John acted as the father she never had, at 45 years of age to her 21 it was a comfortable feeling and it fit their relationship to a tee. Her mother had been one of John’s few friends and they both took her passing very hard, John continuing to look out for her afterwards.
“Could you look at your available selection for Professions, please, before we continue?” prompted John “The Help Menu was not very enlightening. All it said that Professions would be available from Level 3 onwards.” Alexis opened the Interface, searched for Professions and shared the tab with John. He had discovered, and before she left for the shelter, instructed her on that particular function, which proved immensely helpful now.
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The list was extensive, ranging from a variety of what could be considered gathering professions and pre-industrialist production professions to several esoteric professions which they could make no rhythm or rhyme of. Most modern professions seemed to make no appearance on the list, although several equivalent medieval professions were present.
John hemmed and hawed a bit before stating that he wold need to study this in some more detail before being able to incorporate the data into any plans he was making. For the time being, he suggested, they treat Professions as irrelevant to their short term plans, as few, if any, Players they might approach would have the option of choosing a Profession.
Case in point, Alexis’ choice was currently limited to one profession, Animal Husbandry, which, according to John made sense as she had earned a lot of levels in a short time, without engaging in actions that could assist the Interface in recommending specific Professions. It appeared that it was not taking into account pre-system actions to determine Profession choice, even if it did so when dealing with Skills. John nonetheless suggested that she consider selecting Animal Husbandry eventually, as this would probably greatly assist her with caring for Kira in this new world and might result in additional benefits beyond what she could expect just caring for the bitch in the usual way.
Segueing into a new topic John mentioned that the Affinities would allow them, with application of the correct Skills, to achieve certain supernatural effects by utilising Energy. He snorted, ”I don’t know why they didn’t just refer to it as spells and casting magic, would have been more comprehensible than the convoluted explanation the System provides.” He laughed loudly, “You need to listen to this: Players with a high affinity for Kinetic (micro) will eventually, when having achieved the commensurate levels in relevant Skills, be able to affect the molecular movement of molecules in a given sphere of volume, alternatively in a specific manner for specific purposes, dependent on skill level and affinity, which may include the physical body of an opposing *Creature, fauna or Player at a specific distance and for a given period of time to a given extent, dependent on the same factors as above.” “Now tell me you understood what they were trying to say”.
Alexis considered it for a long moment before asking “Can we cast temperature magic?” “Got it in one.” John answered, but growled that “they could have just said that Players, with a high affinity in Kinetic (micro), can eventually cast heat and freeze spells, range, intensity and volume dependent on skill level”. “What they provide is similar to a technical document couched in legalese, mostly mind-bendingly incomprehensible.”
He informed Alexis that it took him most of the morning to puzzle out the different interactions that the affinities allowed, eventually concluding that most classic RPG spells would be achievable given the correct affinities and training up the correct Skills. What eluded him however was how to get the correct Skills though he had the suspicion that they would be locked behind the Class mechanic. “At least I raised Cognitive Understanding by a whole 3 points.” he concluded his explanation.
“In any event, we need to recruit a couple of people.” he changed the topic, “we’ll need some physical brawn, some weapons knowledge and someone sneaky to start with if possible. I know people can’t choose a class yet but those general characteristics shouldn’t be too much to hope for. Any ideas?” Alexis thought on that issue for a while, slowly chewing the sandwich, “What about Mike, Lucy and Carmen, the terrible trio?” John frowned, “The group you invited to a pool party last year who trashed most of my patio chairs?” “The same” Lucy answered “Mike is a casual Rugby player and practices Taekwondo, should cover physical brawn, his girlfriend Carmen is an absolute gun nut and his sister is an incorrigible prankster.” “We could also ask Mike’s friend, William. Though I don’t know about his girlfriend, I think she was called Lizzy.”
John suggested that she climb on her bike and go find them as soon as possible, asking them to come to a meeting at his place in the early afternoon, warning them of the literal shit-storm heading for the town and that she had a plan to get out safely. In the meantime he would draw up a step-by-step plan of action. Before she left, he also asked her that, should they prove willing, to pack up their gear, focused on practical survival, any weapons, any form of transport and come to his place for crashing, reminding her that his property was in a cul-de-sac against the mountain, defensible and with lots of water in the pool and rain tanks. “I also have plenty of food stocked”, he added as if in afterthought.
Alexis rode off, Kira in tow, contemplating her new existence and what it might mean for the future. She knew viscerally that a lot of people would die during the next couple of weeks, but as long as she didn’t lose any more friends could not be particular bothered by that fact.