Danielle and Sadie went into room 6024 and found Cassy reading at the counter. “Time to eat?” she asked.

  “Yep! Eating, then dinner prep,” Danielle said. “In here, unless you want to go eat with your roommates? I heard you came back in because you were tired of the crowd, but it might be a good idea to spend some casual time with the people you live with once in a while. You know, just to,” she gestured vaguely, “get to know each other, and stuff.”

  The door opened again, and Akari and Heather came in.

  “Maybe I would, but Bethany’s kind of in the middle of all the ‘ignore the religious nuts and just enjoy their fire’ chatter, which bothers me kind of a lot,” Cassy admitted. “Maybe more than it should, considering she’s probably talking people out of harassing us, but it does, so I’ll be eating in here with you.”

  “We can go back out to take care of the fire after we prep dinner,” Akari said. “Maybe the crowd will thin out a little by then.”

  “Hopefully,” Cassy said.

  “I just hope if we had to have a crowd, it’ll turn out to have been a big enough crowd to spread the word about mutation prevention,” Danielle said. “I mean, it felt like a lot of people, but I think it was less than a hundred, so that’s still less than ten percent of the town that’s been told.”

  “It’ll be more than that by tonight,” Heather predicted.

  “It’s more than that already,” Akari said. “It was less than a hundred when you made the announcement, but then people went to get food and told people there was a picnic going on and by the time the Wolves showed up there were already more people in the field.”

  “I figured they came down from the building,” Danielle said. “I definitely recognized three girls that did their cooking up in a fire corner during the prayer meeting but came down to eat with everyone.”

  “There were some of those, but there were definitely some from other buildings, too,” Akari said. “I got asked about it five separate times, and three of those were guys.”

  “I’m pretty sure more people came after the Wolves left, too,” Heather said. “That story is going to spread like wildfire.”

  “Ugh. They’re just going to be even madder. I really need to get to the Access Point and get that shield Skill Ranger Flo recommended,” Danielle groaned.

  “If it helps spread the word about not trying to level twice in a month, would that make it worth it?” Cassy asked.

  “I guess,” Danielle agreed reluctantly. “It’s still a pain to deal with, though. Literally, if they ever catch me in a situation where they think they can get away with attacking me.”

  “They’re talking about our org, too,” Heather said.

  “What, really? Why? How?” Danielle asked.

  “We told the ABCs about it last week, remember?” Akari said. “Adrien really pried out all the details she could, and she’s a real precise type; so when someone said they bet our org had some rule about praying, she corrected them. Then someone else got interested in the whole ‘members must protect each other’ thing, and it started a big debate about what counted as ‘reasonable measures,’ and now a bunch of people know bits and pieces of our charter.”

  “It’s kind of cool, but while we’re out of camp tomorrow, we probably need to talk about what to do if random people start asking to join,” Heather said.

  “Why while we’re out of camp?” Sadie asked.

  “Because that discussion sounds like work to me, and it’s rest day!” Heather said. “Seriously, I get why you did it Danielle, but all this stuff is going to be such a pain for all of us. I promise, I’ve got your back, but I really just don’t want to deal with it anymore today. This morning was nice, but this afternoon has not been restful, and I want to go back to resting before we try our first overnight camp. Who even knows how much sleep we’ll be getting tomorrow night!”

  “That’s a good point,” Danielle said. “We’ll save it for tomorrow. For now, let’s eat the lunch rabbit while it’s hot!”

  The rest of the afternoon passed peacefully, if only because they stayed in the room. They each had a rabbit quarter for lunch, then they had a determinedly light discussion while shredding the rest of the rabbit meat and cutting tomatoes and onions. Cassy got it off to a good start by asking, “If you could have a Skill to paint anything a specific color, what color would you pick?” and when they got done suggesting humorous uses for a single-color paint Skill, Akari asked what everyone’s favorite music group was.

  When all of the ingredients were in the pots, Akari activated Hostility Sense to check the door, and then looked outside to see whether the fire was burned down yet or not. From her position near the end of the kitchen counters, Danielle could just see a bit of sky over the trees – cloudy now, though it had been blue earlier.

  “I’ve got good news and bad news,” Akari said from the doorway. “The good news is, we won’t have to build a new fire to cook the hot pot. The bad news is, someone added wood to the fire, it’s bigger now than when we went inside, and there’s more people, too. Also, I think there’s another, um, thing happening. I’m not sure what I’m seeing.”

  Cassy came over to the door and looked out. “It looks like they’re showing off their Skills? Let me see if I can hear them.” The room quieted while Cassy listened. “Oh, it’s a Systemist thing,” she said. “I guess they decided they needed equal time or something. I don’t know what they call their meetings, but I’m pretty sure it’s that.”

  “That’s not too bad, I guess,” Danielle said. “Systemists are supposed to be nearly half the population, so it’s no surprise if they have a bigger meeting group than we do.”

  “Yeah, let’s just stay inside,” Sadie said. “I had to listen to your thing because half the party was there, but I’m not going to go listen to some other party’s – “

  “Shh!” Cassy said suddenly, and leaned out the door a bit further. Everyone in the room went silent again. After a long minute of intense listening, Cassy said, “Good news. Someone over there heard your announcement, and they presented it to the rest of their group just now. They left you out of it, just said news had come down from the Rangers on how the System protects from mutations; they expressed it as, ‘take extra System tools like a backup Class and extra Careers, and give the System a month to work between level-ups.’ Um, plus some System-worship stuff I don’t think you all need me to repeat.”

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  “Heh, I’ll take it,” Danielle said. “It sounds like they’re the kind of Systemists that consider Skills sacred and want to get as many as they can?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Cassy said, still at least half listening to the Systemist speaker. “Current speaker is saying that being Sent is a great opportunity because they can add Skills, Traits, and ‘even larger System structures’ freely; we know we’re going to have to spend mana on trade this year in order to survive, but do your best to replace mundane tools with ‘holy Skills,’ and save as much mana as possible for adding to your System, etc. etc.”

  “All right,” Danielle said. “This is good. The crowd is big, but they’re not angry at us; are they surrounding the fire?”

  “No, they’re off to the side,” Akari said.

  “OK. I can do this. We take the pot out, we quietly stir it until it bubbles, we bring it back in,” Danielle said.

  “Maybe just me and you, so the others can relax,” Akari said.

  “I’ll come too,” Sadie said. “If the wolves come back, it should be three on three, not three on two.”

  “You won’t be offended if I stay here, right?” Heather asked.

  “No, it’s fine,” Danielle said. “If the wolves come back, it’s not three on three, it’s three on a hundred and three. The Systemists aren’t exactly going unarmed, you know?”

  “Let’s get this done as quick as we can,” Sadie said.

  “Yeah. I’ll take the pot,” Danielle said, turning toward the counter, but Sadie snatched it first.

  “I’ll take the pot,” she said. “If people try to interrupt us, they’ll be wanting to talk to you, not me.”

  “I kind of wanted to be carrying an excuse to keep moving,” Danielle admitted.

  “Bring a spoon and say you promised to stir,” Akari suggested.

  “All right, a spoon then,” Danielle said, and got one from the end of the counter where the washed mugs and spoons usually sat to dry. “OK, out we go.”

  They climbed the retaining wall at the end of the building, where it wasn’t in full view of everyone; both Danielle and Sadie ended up handing their burdens up to Akari, but Akari pointedly gave Danielle the spoon when she saw her friend eyeing the pot, and returned the pot to Sadie. Then they walked back around the corner of the building and tried to pass the semi-circle of Systemists. They all seemed pretty focused on the six people in the middle, one of whom was still talking about the importance of gaining Skills to replace physical tools.

  They got all the way past and started around the end of the group towards the actual fire, which was still on the walkway to take advantage of the relatively grass-free zone, and was therefore still long and narrow. The flames danced in a stiff breeze. Danielle would have worried about errant sparks in the grass, except a number of people with camp spades and canteens were sitting spaced out around it, talking while other people roasted rabbits or boiled water or otherwise cooked their evening meals. Danielle figured they were pretty much safe from major interruptions now that they were only facing the people who were actively tending the fire or cooking their food.

  She was wrong. They were almost to the fire when one of the people cooking looked up and shouted, “It’s her! BELLE! I found the girl that heard it from the Rangers!”

  Just like that, Danielle had the attention of the entire Systemist meeting. Worse, the people in the center looked pretty put out about it. She waved awkwardly. “I’m just here to do a little cooking,” she said.

  “Don’t be so modest,” the girl by the fire said. “You’re the one who got the information, you should get to share it! Otherwise it’s all third-hand rumors.”

  One of the girls in the center of the Systemist group raised her voice and called out to Danielle. “We would appreciate it if you would share what you have learned with us, in the same words as best you can remember them. If we were still Inside, we would learn such things from our elders in the System, but the Sending has left us without honorable elders to consult with.”

  “Oh, um, sure. Ranger Flo, a Healer, told me this: Actual genetic mutations can sometimes be treated in a way that keeps them from spreading; but most of what we call mutations are more properly called “non-Systemic mana traits” and the problem with those is, they can spread to people that aren’t - I forget the exact wording here, but people that aren't children of the people who have the, uh, non-System trait,” Danielle reported

  “That sounds blasphemous,” someone said.

  “I don’t actually know about that?” Danielle said. “The point is, mutations are bad, they can keep you from going back inside.”

  “It’s not blasphemy,” the girl who had called on Danielle said. “They’re non-System traits; of course they’re evil. The protection of the System comes through the traits of the System. Traits that are not of the System are not part of the protection.”

  “Oh! Right, yes; the bad stuff is like mutations, not like System Traits,” Danielle said. “System Traits are good. Um, let me keep going – after Ranger Flo told us about the mutation problem, Ranger Michael said ‘For you, the lesson is this: even if you somehow have the mana for it, don’t change your base level twice in one week. A month is a pretty safe bet, if you have the need and the option for a rapid level-up. If you’re in danger of double-leveling, it’s safest to point your absorption to your Class for a while. If your Class is already maxed, take a new one. And don’t be afraid to ask the System for a new Career; Careers help you respond to mana bursts – that’s why you get new Career Skills first when mana bursts hit. Your active Career will go first, then recently used Traits and sometimes Skills.” So you see, he was saying that System Traits protect from mutation.”

  The group muttered something – Danielle thought it was “Blessed be the System that defends.” She could only assume it was some kind of call and response thing, and she’d accidentally said something pretty close to the caller’s line.

  "Anyway, since he said we shouldn’t be afraid to ask the System for a new Career, I asked him how to do that.” Danielle said. "I said I was asking for a Lost Boy, so part of the advice might be related to that. The Ranger said, “I would recommend they read that Treatise on Finding Oneself from the bookshelves. It’s got a pretentious title, but it was written by a Returned who started off as a Lost Boy, and it’s got some good advice.” After that, you decide what kind of career you want, and arrange things so you can do a lot of it for the next week or two. Then bring up your status and ask it to ‘re-evaluate my career.’ It’ll give you a 'processing' kind of message and then nothing happens for a week or two, but if you do a lot of your one thing and not much of whatever your existing System Careers are about, usually it’ll pop up a new Career for you. Um, and that was the end of the part of the conversation that was about System stuff.”

  “Did he not tell you the General Skills for base level 2?” One of the boys in the center asked. “I had heard that you were telling them to people.”

  “Oh, that. Uh, that didn’t come from the conversation about avoiding mutations,” Danielle hedged.

  “If you have the information – but only if you’re sure, please – we would greatly value it,” the girl said. Danielle wondered if she talked like that all the time, or if it was just because she was leading a religion meeting. Maybe she was imitating the leader of whatever meeting she attended back in school? Not the time to think about it, she reminded herself.

  “I do. Just a moment, I have it recorded in my System,” Danielle said, and shaded her eyes the way some people did when concentrating on their Interface; she wasn’t sure the Systemists would approve of her work to make it less obvious when she used her System. She pulled up her unlocked Skills and scanned through the list, looking for the ones from her level up, to be sure she got the names exact. “OK, found it,” she said, and slowly read off the five items. “Level 2 General Skills Unlocks are Skill: See System Info – Creatures (tier 1), Skill: See System Info – Persons (tier 2), Skill: Mana Diagnostics (tier 2), Trait: Scouting Skills (tier 1), and Skill: Identify Foreign Skill (tier 1, prerequisite Trait: Scouting Skills). Um, close Interface.” She put her hand down.

  There was a lot of excited whispering in the ranks of the Systemists. “You’re positive that’s correct?” the girl in the middle asked. “See System Info is only tier 2?”

  “That’s what it says in my Interface,” Danielle confirmed.

  Galaxy Heroes: Elements of the Stars, which one would you pick?"

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