There's nothing but silence in the air.
No more voices, no more flickering lights, no cryptic threats rattling our skulls. Just the low hum of the floating screens, glowing faintly in front of each of us like quiet observers waiting to be acknowledged.
No one speaks at first. It's like we're all trying to process the same thing:
We have stats. And now… we have skills.
It's just like a video game. It's really weird.
The screen should be impossible to touch, yet somehow, it's responding to my finger gliding across the thin, semi-transparent blue display.
This is actually kinda cool. Wait, hang on. What am I thinking?? What are we supposed to do now? The only instructions we were given were to survive. What's gonna happen to us??
I feel a shiver run down my spine as I think of all the horrible possibilities that can come to pass. Playing all those video games really didn't give me much relief either—it just fueled my anxieties and fears. Our situation is bad.
- Kai: "Well, now that that's taken care of, let's see what the creepy ass voice gave me as a skill."
Kai doesn't seem even remotely scared of what's going on. He looks more eager to see what kind of powers he was given.
I'm also kinda curious on what he got though…
- Kai: "Hell yes! THAT is a cool ass skill."
He reads his status screen out loud to us. It seems his stats have also changed.
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STATUS SCREEN
Name: Kai
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 7
Speed: 4
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 3
Vigor: 7
[SKILLS]:
Hardened Skin: Lvl 1 –>The wielder's skin hardness and the rest of his body becomes as tough as stone. +2 to base strength stat, +3 to base vigor stat
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I guess the voice understood that Kai is kind of an idiot. Actually, no. Scratch that. He's a complete imbecile and everyone who engages with him knows it. His Intelligence stat fits him perfectly.
It seems his role is more fit for a Tank in a typical party setup. He should be able to dish out decent damage and take a good hit.
That's actually really exciting. I wonder what the others got.
- Lena: "OHHHHH! I got some cool stuff too! This is exactly like a video game."
——————————————————————
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Lena
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 4
Speed: 3
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 7
Vigor: 6
[SKILLS]:
Blazing Fireball: Lvl 1 –> Unleash a concentrated sphere of searing flame that explodes upon impact, dealing significant fire damage to all enemies within a small radius.
——————————————————————
I can only imagine what their status screens look like. For some reason, we can't actually physically show each other anything displayed.
That's okay, I think. It's better to keep most of your stuff a secret anyway. You never know.
Then again, these guys are willingly sharing their info out loud.
- Lena: "I guess I'm a Mage. That's cool. I don't really want to fight up close."
- Kai: "That's alright! I can protect you!"
"Yeah and hopefully anything involving intelligence will be left to her."
- Kai: "What's that supposed to mean?!"
That seemed to improve the mood. Lena was laughing quite loudly, while Kai was acting completely offended. I hear a light chuckle from behind me. It's Isabella and she seems to be in a slightly better mood now. She seems to have calmed down a little, but she's still lightly gripping my shirt.
- Isabella: "Um… I got something like this."
——————————————————————
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Isabella
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 7
Vigor: 6
[SKILLS]:
Soothing Aura: Lvl 1 –> Emit a calming aura that mends wounds and eases pain within a short radius. Cooldown of 30 seconds between uses.
——————————————————————
"So you'd probably be a Healer. That's really useful for us. Good for you."
- Isabella: "Oh, uh, thanks!"
She says that as her cheeks begin to blush a little. I can't really tell what she's thinking, but at least she isn't shaking as much. She also let go of my shirt. It's kinda wrinkled now.
- Christy: "Alright, I'll go next."
——————————————————————
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Christy
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 5
Speed: 7
Perception: 6
Intelligence: 4
Vigor: 3
[SKILLS]:
Precision Eye: Lvl 1 –> Detect the precise weak points of enemies, increasing damage output and critical hit chance against them. +1 weak point detection for each level.
——————————————————————
- Christy: "That's strange, why did I get something like this?"
- Kai: "Hey, it fits you perfectly! You know, since you're nitpicky!"
Christy responds with a clean elbow to Kai's stomach, leaving him gasping for air.
- Christy: "Huh, I guess it does work."
- Kai: "Did you just try to kill me?!"
"I guess that means we can use skills without saying them outloud. Intention is enough."
- Kai: "Are we just gonna ignore me like that?!"
- Christy: "Blair, what did you get."
——————————————————————
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Blair
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 4
Speed: 7
Perception: 7
Intelligence: 5
Vigor: 3
[SKILLS]:
Stealth Walk: Lvl 1 –> Conceals the presence of the wielder, as well as their footsteps, allowing them to perform sneak attacks. Lasts 10 seconds.
——————————————————————
"That makes you an Assassin. Kinda fits too, seeing as how you don't say much."
Or express anything for that matter!
- Blair: "Yeah."
"…"
That's it?
After our very intriguing "discussion," Blair turns her attention back towards the light overhead, still beaming with its same brightness from before.
Is she a moth or something?
"Since we have mutiple Mages, is there some kind of Mana system? Like, there's no way in hell we were just given these skills without any form of weakness."
- Christy: "I see what you mean. That is strange. I don't see anything about that anywhere on my status screen either."
- Kai: "Nevermind that, what'd you get? You're the only one who hasn't shared anything yet.
"Oh, right."
- Kai: "I wonder if you'll also be a tank. Probably not though, since you're so small."
Kai throws that comment at me with a dumb grin on his face. He's not wrong though. Even though we're the same height, what he's talking about is probably my body mass. Compared to Kai, who seems to fill his frame in, I look much scrawnier. I'm not muscular, and I rarely work out, after all.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's see what I got."
As I try to access my screen, a weird phenomenon occurs. The screen glitches again.
This didn't happen to the others. What's going on??
Once the screen stabilizes, I can finally see my stats. However, before I can explain to the others what I got, the words catch in my throat from what I see.
——————————————————————
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Ayden
Level: 1
XP: 0
Attribute Points: 0
[ATTRIBUTES]:
Strength: 5
Speed: 5
Perception: 5
Intelligence: 5
Vigor: 5
[SKILLS]:
Error - No skills to be displayed.
——————————————————————
What?