Chapter 5 - Status

Joe, panicking a bit, begins to try and think up scenarios of how the next few interactions with Lady Gale may go. “Her interest in me seems to be in my lack of a status. If my Ascension Status has finished calculating, could she now see it? Also if she can, will she lose interest and leave me out here? Crap! It is possible it could also be my memory loss, and I had worded that in a way where the additional memories I had received and then lossed proved that to be true. Truth telling spells? Is that what was up with her eyes glowing?” He was not thinking of deceiving some kind of truth telling ability but it did seem, to Joe, she either had one or really good intuition. He did only tell the truth, luckily. “Okay Joe, first things first.” he tells himself. “Lets check to see if I can see my status. Then I can think of a plan from there.”

Joe focuses his attention to his notifications and notices a plus sign in the corner of his vision. Focusing on the symbol, a window of information appears in front of him. A large window, gridded out, is displayed with slightly translucent text, allowing him to still see the world around him.

Name: Joe Justice

Lvl: 4

Experience: 650/4000

Lifeform:

Race: Human{World Seed}

Type: Humanoid

Titles:

{Unique}, Death Dancer

Class:

Requirements not met

Attributes:

Strength: 12

Speed: 9

Endurance: 11

Mind: 12

Presence: 14

Spirit: 12

Luck: 5

HP: 32/32

MP: 38/38

Unspent Points: 12

Skills:

Identify(MAX), World Language(*) Small Blades(1), Climbing(1), Deception(1)

Abilities:

Status{+}, Lesser Regeneration

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“Ok, so the problem is confirmed.” Joe thinks as he scans over his status. “I also don’t know how any of this compares to other peoples’ statuses. Or what half of this even means, really.” Joe begins to look over his status still boggled by much of the information in front of him. Noticing curly brackets around some of his status he focuses on them in curiosity.

[“{}” indicates information that is protected from scrying such as identify, judgement, print, find, and etc…]

With the information popping up when he focused on it, he almost forgot about the impending dilemma. He knew this was going to come in handy with his lack of knowledge. “Oh nice, I guess that's one less thing to worry about. Now let’s look at these attributes then.” Joe thinks as he explores his new status window, but he is quickly interrupted by a voice from above.

“Oh Joe, come come. We have much to discuss.” Lady Gale leans over the railing of the bridge and calls.

“Oh, um, yes Lady Gale.” As Joe starts on his way up to the bridge he quickly makes a decision. “I’m just going to tell her the truth, well not the truth truth, but that my status has come back. Hopefully it will still peak her interest until we get to civilization. Better than her finding out on her own and thinking I am trying to deceive her. If that were to happen I fear what she might do to me.”

“You clean up quite well, boy.” Lady Gale says with a smile that is somewhere between seeing a delicious meal and mischievousness. A chill runs down Joe’s spine at the scene.

“Yes, thank you, Lady Gale. I don’t really remember how I look, clean or dirty. Ummm.. Pardon my rudeness for dawdling earlier, but… well, my status has reappeared to me. Though I understand little of it.” Joe admits. Suddenly Joe finds himself off the ground and slammed against the railing of the bridge. He tries to scream in agony as wood cracks along with what he is sure is his bones. Lady Gale, who had been at least 15 feet from him, was holding him by the jaw staring into his eyes with rage. The eyes that looked so majestic before, now burn with what appears to be purple flames. The gaze seems to burrow into him, his head feeling like it could burst at any moment.

“Don’t lie to me boy!” Lady Gale says through gritted teeth. A pricking sensation courses through Joe’s body uncomfortably and Lady Gale relaxes slightly with her grip. “Tell me why you have a status now.” she says, still staring into Joe’s eyes.

“I did, I did... I had just finished washing up... when I was alerted of my status.” Joe says.

“Alerted?” Gale says questioningly. “What was the notification?”

“It said... my Ascension Status... had successfully... calculated.” Joe tells her truthfully through gritted teeth and painful breaths, as his entire body aches and blood begins to leak from the corners of his mouth. Lady Gale releases her grip on Joe and he falls to the bridge. Joe then coughs out a mouth full of blood and passes out from the pain.

“Hmm… Death Dancer. Your status makes no sense, but it seems I have not caught you in a lie yet. You are definitely holding something out though. Charles, treat his wounds and put him in a room in the carriage.” Lady Gale directs Charles.

Lady Gale then turns and mumbles “Joe Justice” before waving a hand in the air ripping open a portal in space and stepping through it. Out of the portal the voice of Lady Gale rings out. “Oh, and Charles, if the boy awakens before I return, please do take it easy on him, for now.”

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Joe finds himself in a dream state again. “What is it this time?” he questions as he tries to take in the scene around him. As he looks around he sees a chubby early teen Joe, in a white gi and a gold colored belt. “Ah, kung fu. I remember this. I was getting bullied for being chunky and started taking these to, “take care of it”. In the end I just got healthier and wasn’t chunky anymore. I really enjoyed these classes.” Joe got lost in thought for a moment remembering the hours, days, and years he put into kung fu. He refocused on the dream to see now a black belt teen Joe going through katas and helping instruct the younger kids in the dojo. This put a smile on Joe's face.

Joe started going through some of the katas himself without really thinking. He surprised himself with as much of his practice that came back to him. “I’m not sure why I ever quit doing this. I used to really enjoy it. Guess college, and then my job, and then planning a wedding, just other things became more important.” Thinking back to moments before he blacked out, “Not that this would help me in this world though. I didn’t even see her approach me. It was supernatural, or magic maybe. Wait, I didn’t die did I? I am dreaming right, so I must still be alive. Surprised this is not a bad dream, finally looking up, I guess.” Then he thought again about what had happened before this dream started. “Or maybe not. Am I going to wake up in some kind of cell, tied up, handcuffed? Crap! Maybe I should have lied. No she would have been able to tell.” Looking back to the scene in front of him, teen Joe is receiving a certificate from his instructor. There was cake and everyone was telling him they would miss him. This was right before he left town for college. The images began to fade as he felt himself waking up.

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