Calder Warrick:

“I for one am happy with this system and see nothing wrong with wholeheartedly embracing it”

 

My mothers voice rings slightly hollow with false cheer. I can see the worry and puzzlement in her eyes as she glances at a still pale Calder.

 

“What did it set your charisma score at mother?”

 

My dry response is met with several snickers and a self assured feline grin from my mother.

 

“17, if we take my relative attractiveness into account, 17 must be on the extreme high end of what's possible.”

 

My mother points out smugly, stands and takes one of the bloodied rags to the sink.

 

“19”

Victoria draws out the number with a small twist to her lips that lets me know her competitive streak is acting up.

 

“Hay we don't necessarily know it's based on physical attractiveness. It could also be your ability to influence others with your words and actions. Though if that was the case I would expect Clayton’s score to be negative.”

 

Tactus’s eyes swivel to Clayton with the unasked question/provocation.

“12”

 

Clayton sighs out, still leaning against the far corner and watching the surroundings through the window. The greenery seems even thicker than when I first walked out the door to meet the friendly neighborhood mantis.

 

“Alright people, let's get some basic information about the system and get back to planning. Everyone say their highest and lowest attribute scores. Then say the average of all your scores.”

 

My clap and order gets everyone back on track. I note down everyone's information on a napkin in front of me, though it does seem easier to organize and go through the information then it would have been just a day ago. I don’t know whether to attribute that to the system or something like the placebo effect coupled with the tail end of the adrenaline running through my system. The collective stats come out to something like this.

Calder Warrick:

High: Vitality 19

Low: Acumen 9

Average: 13 almost 14

 

Carter warrick:

High: Strength 18

Low: Memory  10

Average: 13 maybe 14

 

Anat Warrick:

High: Intuition 20

Low: Strength 9

Average: 14

 

Tactus Kane

High: Dexterity 19

Low: Wisdom 10

Average: 14.5ish

 

Amelia Kane: 

High: Wisdom 20

Low: Stamina 9

Average: 14 plus or minus .5

 

Victoria Warrick:

High: Charisma 19

Low: Vitality 10

Average 13.7 or 13.9

 

Wow, my family is bad at math. On an unrelated note I am officially the best, with a starting average of just above 15 I kick everyone else's butt.

 

“Ha, I am officially better than you all. We all knew it before, this system just makes it official.”

And I let them know it too.

 

“You are insufferable, I hope there are mutated parasites that take over people's brains, I'm willing to bet it would be a better conversationalist.”

 

Amelia groans out, I do love my sister so much. She may reflexively insult anyone she actually cares about, and I may have never heard her give me a genuine compliment, but that's just the way she shows her affection. She is reliable atleast and that will surely count for something in the coming days.

 

“Unlikely but I will keep my out. Now what skills have you received so far and what stats did they raise.”

 

This question is met with mixed responses. It would seem that some of my family have not been as productive as others today. Shame shame.

 

“What is a skill? I am assuming you are referring to something specific and now just my many amazing abilities?”

 

Victoria makes her ignorance known.

“I got one called cut resistance. Fat lot of good it did me.”

 

Calder indicates the numerous wounds still evident on his body. Though they have stopped bleeding are still obvious rents in his body underneath the soiled bandages.

 

“Knives, came right after I made scrambled mantis out of that bugger.”

 

Tactus waves his knife of massive cranial hemorrhaging towards the creature that is laying on the floor still. Its creep factor had only increased due to my subpar butchering job. 

 

“Alright, tell me exactly what the messages said and what the stat increases were.”

I lean over my page to write down the information. There is always a pattern, we just have to find it to better understand what is happening around us.

 

“Don't remember.”

 

“Can’t read.”

 

I turn my unamused gaze to the two would be clowns.

 

“Hay Pax, I really don't remember the exact wording, my body was leaking my insides onto the tile a little too quickly for me to really try and make sense of that message.”

 

“ Same dude.”

 

Tactus and Calder just shrug their shoulders, the in-sync motion only emphasizes how much larger calder is than everyone but his son Carter.

 

“Fair enough, lets try and pull those back up. I cant imagine they are just lost forever to the ether. This system seems well designed so far.”

 

I try and follow my own advice and pull up some previous words from the almighty system. I mentally reach back into my own head and try and pull up those first messages we received informing everyone of the new world we were about to embrace. Nothing. Zero reaction.

“Oh, that was fairly easy. Just had to think about it and viola.”

 

Calder seems pleased with his system acumen. I am stumped.

 

“Yeah pretty damn simple if you think about it.” 

 

Tactus turns to me and gives me a thumbs up. Curse him and his positive attitude. I turn my attention back inward and try to pull up the message from my first skill acquisition, observe. 

 

Huh. That worked a little too easily. The message is in front of my eyes again. Everything seems in order. Can I move it around? Yes, yes I can. Size? Easily controlled. Color? Ahhh very customizable. Custom notification animations? No dice. Curse this boring system to hell.

 

“Alright word for work boys.”

 

Calder gives me an odd look when I call him a boy but he lets it slide for now. They tell me the exact wording of their skill acquisitions.

[Skill Acquired: Cut Resistance]

[Cut Resistance: Increases the skin’s resistance to being separated. 1%* Skill level increase in resistance. Provides a slight resistance to cutting, slashing and other related affinity empowered attacks]

[Initial Skill level of Cut Resistance: 1]

[You Have Embodied Your Concept]

[Vitality:        +2]

[Strength: +2]

[Stamina:     +1]

[Perception: +1]

[Skill Acquired: Knives]

[Knives: Increases the penetration and attacking speed of knives. .5* Skill level increase to penetration and attacking speed. Slight mitigation of armor and shield affinities. ]

[Initial Skill level of Knives: 1]

[You Have Embodied Your Concept]

[Dexterity:        +2]

[Agility:     +2]

[Perception: +2]

 

“A few interesting things to go over here guys. I am not sure how much these stats affect us but I can say with certainty that making the numbers go up is a good idea. It seems that getting skills can do that. I don't know if it is the only way but keep that in mind. I myself have acquired four skills already.”

 

I wave my hands to calm down my outraged family. How dare I outshine them so brightly. I truly am a patrician surrounded by plebeians.

 

“I know, I know, I'm amazing, don't yell at me so much. As I was saying. Every time I received a skill I got 6 stat points in what seems like a semi random distribution. Always between three and four stats were raised and no stat was raised by more than 4. I see a pattern here and I would hypothesize that every skill acquisition will raise stats either related to the skill itself or based on our concept. What I am truly curious about is if we continue to raise our stats when a skill is leveled. That is the only logical leap I can make. Unless we are just being incentivised to gather as many skills as possible, which I obviously don't be mad about, but I have a feeling that is not the only way to raise stats. This system seems the product of intelligent design. Taking that into account I have to imagine it at least realizes that everyone running around trying to gain as many different skills as possible does not a productive society. ”

 

My exposition on our new reality is interrupted by an interesting but not unwelcome message from the system.

 

[You Have Embodied Your Concept]

[Wisdom:     +1]

Tactus Kane: