Danielle took a deep breath, and started, “All right, so, I want you two to know I wasn’t keeping this a secret specifically from you before. It’s just something that makes me nervous, and I never mention it if it doesn’t come up somehow. It’s definitely not something I’d give permission to share outside the Council. The thing is, well, starting from the beginning, you know how everyone has hidden stats that only get uncovered when you advance?”

  “Sure.” Sadie shrugged. “How many times did our gym teacher tell us not to “let Body 0 happen to you” the last two years?”

  “And all our other teachers said about the same about Mind,” Akari joked (not that it wasn’t true).

  Heather added, “Everyone knows they get revealed when you Advance. I saw them under Individual Skills and Traits when the Access Point was doing that search thing.”

  Danielle nodded to confirm that they were seeing what she was getting at. “Right. So I already knew that I had a bigger mana pool than a normal youth, because normal is ten for everyone, and I had, um, more. And my big mana pool filled up faster than you’d think, too, so I was pretty sure my mana gen was more than just three.”

  Akari’s eyes widened. “Wait, more than three? Are you saying you already had three skills instead of two, and then you had more mana gen than that? I thought you were just saving up into your oversized pool.”

  “Yeah. You know Illusions was my Youth Skill, and you already know about Focus, but I also have one called Deflect Notice that just showed up this January.” Danielle shifted uneasily on the bed.

  Logically enough, Akari asked, “What does that one do?”

  “Let her finish telling us about her mana first!” Heather demanded impatiently.

  “Deflect Notice is just what it sounds like; when it’s active, people are less likely to notice me. I think I got it from dealing with a certain bully.” Danielle explained quickly.

  “Oh – yeah. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but – yeah,” Heather said. “Nice that something good actually came out of that.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like the kind of Skill that could save your life out here!” Akari commented.

  “No kidding. But anyway, the mana thing. I already knew that I had more mana than most people, and I was keeping it a secret because some people are scared of mana, and other people would’ve been jealous, and it just didn’t seem like it would be smart to let it get around. The worst part was, I didn’t know why it was different or what it meant or anything. When the Access Point got to uncovering hidden Traits, I found out part of that, because instead of two hidden Traits, I had three. The third one is called Mana Improvement. It “improves” my mana pool by a factor of three, and my mana generation by a factor of two.”

  “Whoah.” Sadie joined Akari in leaning over the counter. “You’re telling me you have thirty mana??”

  “I have four right now, I already told you that,” Danielle said, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

  “Three. We each spent a point on the organization,” Akari corrected.

  “Three, then. Seriously, Focus eats my mana a lot if I’m not careful, and today seemed like a good day to go ahead and use it. We got a lot of information thrown at us, and it might be life and death. I want to remember it.”

  “OK, but you could have 30 mana at a time. If you saved up, I mean,” Sadie clarified.

  Danielle nodded. “Yeah, and my mana generation is 12. I wasn’t sure before – because apparently 6 mana gen is a pretty hard limit for youths – but now it’s spelled out in my status, so I should be getting one point every two hours, and when my base level goes up, it’ll be, uh, 24 right? Isn’t normal for level 2 supposed to be 12?”

  “I think so. That’s what my step-dad has, and I think he’s level 2.” Akari paused, then added, “It’s weird to think I’m probably going to catch up to him, probably sometime this year now.”

  “So this is why you got weird when I said we should all have a ten point mana pool,” Heather said. “Because you already knew Danielle had 30?”

  “Well, I knew it was more than 10,” Akari said. “I didn’t know it was that much more! I didn’t know about the Focus problem either though. See, that’s why we need to share this stuff – so we can remind Danielle not to over-focus, but if she gets a handle on that, we’ll know she’s got more mana than us most of the time.”

  “Unless I end up using it faster for some other reason! Anyway, let me run down the rest of my status real quick, and then you can each have a turn, OK?” The others nodded, so Danielle continued, “OK, so my traits are Body 2 (thank you gym class), Mind 3, Mana Improvement (the level spot says A, whatever that means), my youth trait is Hear Data (which is worthless with no network devices around), obviously I have the Literate Trait, and then another Trait I’ve been keeping secret – it’s called Mana Deflector, and it kind of blunts the effect of mana Skills used on me, unless I deliberately let them through, which requires focus (either normal mental effort or the Skill). That could be another life-saving thing, but it could actually be a problem for healing – not sure. I’ve never had System healing before, I don’t think. We’ll talk more about that later, if you’re OK with that, Heather?”

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  Heather nodded, and Danielle continued. “Anyway, I got Payment Plan from Advancement like everyone else, I used Advancement mana to buy Skill Sharer (which gave me the template for a Skill Token), and I took Silent Steps and Speed Improvement from my Class.” Akari’s eyes widened again, but she stayed quiet while Danielle moved on.

  “My Skills are Illusions, which you’ve all seen, Focus and Deflect Notice which we’ve just talked about, Token Manifestation from the Advancement token, I spent mana for Medic’s Diagnostics, Sense Mana Source, and Staff Apprentice, and then I got Active Camouflage and Bubble of Silence from my Class. Oh, um, my active Career is Survivor, and my Class is Basic Sneak. I’m hoping it’s good for scouting and not scaring wildlife when we’re hunting, and you know. I mean, if I had to go it alone, it would be good for getting out of the proverbial high rise if I had to. Kind of like what Sadie was saying earlier.”

  Heather chuckled weakly. “I’m so glad I’m not the only one who was worrying about that stuff.”

  Akari gave her a lopsided smile. “I’m guessing practically everyone is having some version of those worries. Except maybe the Predator psychos. Anyway, I’ll go next: my Career is Survivor and my Class is Basic Weapon Fighter. I have Body 3 and Mind 2. My Youth Trait was Thick Skin, which is literal, so it’s basically good for biting insects and stuff. I do not want to talk about why that came up for my youth trait. Anyway, I have Literate and Payment Plan like everyone, I bought Rapid Muscle Recovery from the Exercise Skill tree, and my Class gave me Weapon Sense and Speed Improvement. Weapon Sense makes it so I always have a feel for where my weapon is, like I do for my own arms – but it’s got to be a weapon I’m practiced with, which turns out to be none of the ones I have with me. Sparring will be important.

  “Moving on to Skills, my Youth Skill is Tell Highlighting, which is good for telling if people are lying or about to move a certain direction or whatever. It works better the more I’ve been around the person I’m using it on, but it doesn’t have to be socializing. Just observing. I have Focus just like Danielle, but it doesn’t activate without the System prompt for me, which I think is probably a good thing. I also got on the bus with Improved Proprioception, which is a Skill that’s about being more aware of exactly how I’m moving, and works with my Class now, too. Token Manifestation came from advancement, Basic Weapon Fighter gave me Sword Apprentice and Hostility Sense, and I bought three more Skills that all work with my Career: Tracking, Fire Starting, and Sharpening, which also goes with my Class. There seems to be a lot of overlap between Skills Survivor likes and Skills my Class likes.” Akari looked over at Sadie.

  Sadie nodded. “I can go next. My new Career is Survivor, and I chose Basic Craftsman for my class. I have Body 3, Mind 2, Weight Reduction is my Youth Trait, Literate from school, Payment Plan like everyone, I bought Long Sighted to improve my archery, and my Class provided Near Sighted, which is about seeing well up close and somehow doesn’t conflict with Long Sighted at all (thank goodness). My Class also gave me Cut Resistant, which is about resisting blades – I guess it’s a Class Trait so you’re less likely to cut yourself while carving or cooking or whatever. And yes, cooking does seem to be a possible craft Skill tree, but not one I took.

  “For Skills, I did buy Purify Food, which works with my Career but not my Class. I started with Gymnastics, Memorize, and Calligraphy. Token Manifestation goes without saying. I picked up Bow Apprentice for obvious reasons, and Find Material, which works with both Career and Class. The Skills I got from the Class itself are Wood Carving and Fiber Twisting. I think that will be the one for cordage, and if we can find something wooly, or maybe just hairy enough, I can use it to make yarn. And thread – you know. Any kind of spun or twisted stuff. Twine, thread, yarn, rope. Weaving’s a different Skill, but it’s no good until I have something to weave, anyway. I also have my eye on a repair Skill that looks like it’ll do “impossible” repairs, but safe food and help with my shooting took priority. Heather?”

  “I guess I’m last,” Heather said, and took a deep breath. “I didn’t get Survivor, and I’m a little worried about what that, you know, says about me. At least I’m not a Lost Girl though! My Career is Camper and my Class is Basic Healer. I only have Body 1, so thank you all so much for helping me out on the way here. Um, I also have Mind 3, Perfect Pitch – that was my youth thing, Akari – Literate and Payment Plan, and I bought Temperature Hardy, which works with my Career and basically means I can handle being hotter or colder before it starts to really affect me. My Class gave me Iron Stomach and Active Immune System – Active Immune System is about not catching diseases from the people I’m trying to heal.

  “My Youth Skill is Breath Support, which is a singing thing, Speed Reading from school, Hostility Sense is pretty new and I’m not that used to it yet, but I guess it came from school too, the same as Danielle’s Deflect Notice. Except Hostility Sense is more about noticing the people I need to avoid than keeping them from noticing me. Anyway, obviously I have Token Manifestation, I bought Amplify Voice, Fire Starter, and Find Edible Plants, and my Class gave me Align Body and Close Wound. Those get used together – Align Body holds the wound in the right position to heal well, and Close Wound heals it enough to stay in that position until ordinary healing finishes the job. Higher levels will supposedly be more thorough about how much more healing the patient has to do; I don’t know what that’s going to look like, yet. They both have a variable mana cost.”

  “That means we’re going to have to make a point of managing your mana, as a group,” Danielle said. “Because if we need you, it could easily cost half your pool in one go, or even all of it, for all we know.”

  Heather nodded. “I think I’m going to go ahead and keep my pool low enough that I’m not wasting mana generation though, even if it means I’m usually down a point. I do need to save up for more Skills. Oh! And I can use mana tokens with Close Wound – that’s definitely something to know!”

  “But not Align Body?” Akari asked.

  Heather shook her head. “No, and I always have to use one point of mana from my pool to activate Close Wound, but I can apply a token for the rest. I don’t know more than that – it’s not like I’ve had a chance to try it yet.”

  “OK, just to try it then, and not because I couldn’t deal with this myself, but would you be willing to heal one of the blisters I got from the hike?” Danielle asked.

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