Andrew and Jenny arrived home mid afternoon. The bag holding all their valuables clicked like loot and considering the origin of the items, it most likely was loot.

Jenny placed the bulging bag on the sofa and immediately set to making some food. She also sent Andrew to change clothes, doing the same herself because both were still damp from the unexpected shower at the bank.

She knew Andrew desperately wanted to dig into the bag and explore what they had brought back, but being a typical mom, she made sure they had something in their bellies beforehand.

By the time they got to dumping everything out onto the table, Andrew was a bundle of nerves all over again. Jenny smiled inwardly, thinking it wasn’t everyday that you incorporated Christmas and a birthday all into one. She hoped that there wouldn’t anything strange happening but knowing Albert, and those damn Fae, She couldn’t bet on it.

“Come on Mom!, Please lets get this over with.” Andrew begged. The anguish on his face plain to see.

“Okay, okay.” she relented. “Let me first separate my stuff and you can go through what’s left.”

Andrew hadn’t told his mom about the Quest update message and wanted to know if it would show up again. It reminded him of one of those RPG games Josh loved to play online. He didn’t think his life would be a video game, but if he could get quests and such, then he could also possibly level up too. That would be awesome!

Jenny took out her papers from the pile. The house deeds, the insurance papers and a few other items from her inheritance that her mom had left her. Trinkets mostly, but all very personal to her. All that was left were the items once owned by Albert. She gestured expansively, “Go on, the rest is yours, but remember we want to perhaps sell some items, so don’t get too attached.”

Andrew looked at the remaining pile stacked on the table. At the bottom was the cloth wrapped Journal. The rest was just laying there and he reached out to what was familiar. The slick bag that clinked. “What’s this mom?” He reached for it and stumbled as his fingers made contact. A feint spark arced up his fingers and words appeared before his eyes.

Do you wish to identify?

(Identify cost: 4 mana)

Y/N

He breathed in sharply and looked to mom for help. She obviously had no idea what he was seeing, but she picked up right away that something happened.

“What is it? That’s a slick steel bag if I remember correctly. Your father said it was made from the skin of a Slick-Steel mole. No idea what that is, but he said it could stretch and retain its strength. Are you okay?” She was concerned with the way he was staring blankly into space. Albert used to do that, but it became less noticeable over the years as he learned to hide it. He said something about conversing with his inner self. This was hardly the time to be meditating. She was doubly annoyed that those irresponsible Fae had been messing with her son.

“No, its okay mom. I just get these like, these messages popping up. I was asked if I want to identify the bag, but then you said what its called and the words went away.”

Andrew was almost regretful that she had named the bag, because he wanted to try out and see what it said. As he thought that though, the words popped up again, and without thinking it through too much, he mentally said Yes!

Nothing happened. Andrew frowned and reached for the bag again. As he touched it, he felt something drain from his belly. Like when you fall unexpectedly and your stomach seemed to swallow itself before your feet catch up.

A sparkle of golden glowing stuff reached out from his fingertips to surround the bag and then in the blink of an eye, words formed in front of his vision.

Identify Success (4 Mana used): Slick-Steel bag, made from the elusive Slick-Steel mole hide. The hide is both extremely elastic and resilient. Slick-Steel moles are found in deep caverns where part of their diet is actual iron ore. Their metabolism allows for their unusual skin to be elastic and extremely durable. The SlickSteel Mole is known to burrow through rock, dirt or sand, but their preferred habitat is within rock. They also have the unusual habit of plugging. Due to the elastic nature of their skin, they can expand themselves quite considerably and plug tunnels to protect the rest of their nest from intruders while they defend with claws and teeth. Unlike regular moles, Slick-Steel Moles have excellent eyesight as well as tremor sense and several earth based offensive spells including Quake. Do not approach these vermin below level 10 if you want to survive.

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Quest Complete: You have cast your first spell.

You are Level 1

Requirements met to activate Interface:

1: Absorb a Core

2: Journal and Core soul bond

3: Cast any unbound spell

Interface activated.

Jenny watched in horror as her son blanked after she told him what the item was and then sent sparkling motes from his fingertips to surround the SlickSteel bag. He dropped it, or it slipped through his fingers, clinking loudly as it hit the table surface, but he remained frozen in that position.

At first a golden glow seemed to encompass him and then it turned blue, almost iridescent in intensity and then bonelessly he slumped back onto the sofa.

“Andrew!” she called, rushing to him.

Andrew heard his mom call his name, but he was deep inside his mind, a whole new screen had popped up in front of him and he saw he had choices to make.

Before him was a table, and it very definitely resembled what he knew from PC and console games. It had his name, his rank and so on, but it also quantified his abilities. He also noted that he had two points to add in to increase his base scores. The idea thrilled him and without thinking too much, he immediately decided he would increase his strength and intelligence. Before he could do that however, he had to find a way to interact with the table. Before, when he wanted the spell to work, he had simply thought the answer yes. That had been the trigger. Now if he thought about those attributes, would the point be added automatically? He looked at the table and tried the command in his mind: add 1 point to Strength.

Nothing happened.

Hmm, what was he missing?

User Interface: Andrew Thatcher

Rank: Squire

Class: N/A

Skills:N/A

Level 1

Ability Rank Strength 3 Dexterity 3 Constitution 2 Intelligence 3 Wisdom 2 Charisma 3 Magic Unbound Mana (5) 1

As a Classless individual, you have 2 points to attribute

He tried again, this time saying the words out loud in a commanding voice.

“Put one point in Strength!”

Again nothing happened.

What was wrong? He took a moment to think, but was suddenly accosted by his mom shaking him.

“What mom?” Her worried expression gave him pause.

“”What is going on Andrew? Why are you spacing out like this? Do we need to see the Doctor?”

She was very worried and it took a moment for Andrew to figure out what she meant. Of course she couldn’t see what he was doing. He took a moment and tried to explain it to her. She seemed to get it, but her worried expression didn’t change. He tried to explain again.

“Mom, I have abilities, it says I have a core and I’ve cast a spell and bonded with the journal. It says I can level up.”

The excitement in his voice did nothing to defuse the situation.

“Andrew what are you talking about? Are you getting voices in your head?”

“No mom, its hard to explain, but I promise its okay, I get experience points doing stuff that eventually allows me to level up. With each level, I get bonus rewards to add to my abilities. Abilities are things like Strength, Dexterity and Charisma. If I add points to the table in my head, I will get stronger!”

Jenny had no idea what he was talking about but Andrew’s excitement was clearly on display. Whatever it was he was doing, it had him ecstatic, and eager to continue. They hadn’t even gotten around to the items in the bag yet.

“Whatever, Andrew, just please be careful. Don’t you need to consult the Journal? Perhaps you should read up what you supposed to do?”

To Andrew these words made him pause yet again. Mom had a point. But he really wanted to try and see what it did. So instead of the wise choice, Andrew Thatcher dived right in and went ahead without guidance, forethought or caution. Something he would never do again.

Into his mind he said, “Core, please increase my strength and Intelligence by one point each.”

This seemed to be the correct way to do it.

The core responded and Andrew screamed, then passed out.