David was immediately put on the spot, remembering that Camila had asked him to explain things to Sarah rather than Charlie, who was right there next to him.

  “Uhh, we are kinda meant to be on watch so I don’t think we should both settle down to questions and answers. Why don’t you pick one of us while the other keeps an eye on things.”

  Charlie looked at David funny for about half a second before realization dawned and he grinned. Then he jumped up and spoke quickly “Yeah OK man, good point. You should bring Sarah up to speed. I’ll go and check in with Camila and keep an eye on things over there…” he gestured vaguely towards the camp and walked off still grinning from ear to ear.

  David was still trying to parse what Charlie was up to and preparing to launch into a description of the ins and outs of their systems and this new world when Sarah spoke.

  “So, I get the impression from what Camila said that she prefers you to Charlie as an explainer. She admitted he could answer some technical questions but said you were best overall. Why?”

  David paused, flustered remembering his conversation with Camila, then suddenly he flushed as he realized what Charlie was doing, or thought he was doing.

  “Err, well. I guess she feels that I am more likely to give you the kind of answers you are looking for?”

  The combination of his hesitation and the way he turned red before turning what should have been a statement into a question that got him into trouble. He instantly saw her face light up and a wicked grin transform her from nice to very pretty. “OK, spill! I know she told you something. Now you have to tell me…”

  David almost fell for that one and tried to fill the dead space with something, some version of the truth before managing to shut his mouth with an audible snap.

  “She totally said something to you, I can see it written all over your face!”

  She smiled then ruthlessly continued “so spill. I’m going to start guessing if you don’t tell me the truth. You won’t like that so it’s better just to spill…”

  When he again resisted filling the gap with sound and focused on the Obelisk behind her to try and make this less uncomfortable, she opened up with a big one.

  “Right, so she asked you because she’s been taking care of you...”

  As David tried to work out exactly what she meant she continued watching his face closely “like BJs on the DL” seeing his reaction she grinned then said “no that isn’t it, though I get the impression you wouldn’t mind. Of course you wouldn’t Cami is gorgeous…”

  Here she turned conspiratorial, smiling cheekily “…and I’m told very good in the sack.”

  As David blushed bright red Sarah grinned enjoying herself as he desperately thought well Camila did try to warn me, I guess.

  Before he could pull himself together, she continued her assault “So not screwing you, she isn’t screwing the kid is she?”

  A second later “no, didn’t think so but that was closer wasn’t it. So something to do with the kid. Got it. He has a crush doesn’t he?”

  Even though he didn’t say anything David knew from her expression his face gave it away.

  “How did you do that?” As David tried to reassert dignity and some measure of control Sarah grinned.

  “It’s a gift, I’m good at reading people and once you get someone off balance you can usually tell when you get things right. It’s fun and nobody gets hurt. Well there was that one time…”

  She then looked up at him through her eyelashes and he knew from the mischievous grin he didn’t want to know.

  “Look, just don’t tell Camila I told you, I’ll never hear the end of it. I’m meant to be answering your questions to help you get yourself ready for this madness so can we at least try to do that?” David realized as he said it he sounded like he was pleading.

  Sarah smiled again and then gently patted his cheek. “Of course hot stuff. So what should little ole me be doing to keep herself safe in the big bad world?” She pouted theatrically.

  “You’re not taking this seriously. I don’t think you get it.” David ignored his reaction to the pretty heavy-handed flirting and tried to focus on the issue.

  “Look, I promised Camila I would help you. That means that I gave my word I would get you ready for a reality that is literally trying to kill you.” He paused.

  “Your friend Katie. I was the one who found her after the fight at your apartment. I saw her lying there in a pool of blood with her back torn open so deep I could see bone, I saw the blood pulsing out of her as she struggled to live.”

  Davids face took on a serious expression as he spoke, his eyes growing distant even as he wondered if he should be this calm about it…

  “She nearly died because we didn’t take this seriously enough and only I had a skill. I didn’t have a chance to use it before she was down and I’m not going to let you make the same mistake.” David saw that Sarah had gone from teasing and prodding to serious and was looking at him with a troubled expression.

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  “OK, I get it. I won’t goof around with you while you try to do this. Jeez, no need to be totally deputy downer though. I get my friend got hurt but she’s fine now. Don’t you get it. If you’re right and we can all heal like that injuries will become like missing a goal on the hockey field or maybe losing a set in a game of tennis – something that happens and it’s how you react to it that counts.”

  David looked at her seriously. Maybe she did get it more than he feared.

  “OK, you seem to get it. For what it’s worth I agree with you on the injury thing. I haven’t actually said that to the others yet and I’m a little surprised you arrived at that. What made you think that if you don’t mind me asking?”

  Sarah’s response surprised him a little “It’s how I thought before this whole thing. I never let the possibility of injury hold me back, I even make a point of getting back to something as soon as I can after I get hurt and trying just as hard.”

  She continued “I lost track of the number of toes I broke learning to dance as a kid. I broke my arm learning to ski. Twice. The second time my parents stopped skiing with me until I agreed no more tree skiing.”

  Sarah had clearly given this speech or a variant of it many times before and David began to wonder exactly what sort of person she was to need a canned speech about risk-taking.

  “Fine, remember there are still no do overs, so screw up enough and you die. We need to get you a plan of attack. Are you putting all your excess experience into your System initiate title?” When she nodded he continued.

  “We haven’t been keeping precise track but you should get the ability to unlock a second resource pool and a second attribute pretty fast. The first few levels only cost of the order of a hundred or two hundred XP. Before you assign those you need to decide what sort of skill you want because we don’t know how quickly you will get something else. So far Charlie and I have gone for Magic, which is pretty self-explanatory and gives us skills you might associate with Wizards. Crowd control for me and direct damage for Charlie. Billy is interesting, he got Psi and seems to have got something that helps him with Bessie. I don’t know the dog but she seemed highly capable and responsive and I think that’s his skill. It’s one of the ones which subverts expectations as I would not have predicted it though it sort of makes sense. Mark, Katie and Camila all have Stamina, as does Carl. That seems to give internal boosts, though honestly I know less about it. Mark also has magic but his is healing. It needs health to operate really well. It all kind of looks like roleplaying or MMO fantasy builds. I don’t know if that is a coincidence or literally because that is how all the stuff was translated into English – like when they say magic or stamina it’s because we had a word for the idea…”

  Seeing her nodding along he continued “nobody has taken Qi, which I’m guessing is kinda like eastern cultivation stuff, probably a hybrid of Magic and Stamina that does those things but not as well to compensate for flexibility. That’s a guess though. You already have Health. Which is IMO more or less mandatory.” He paused then continued “so what do you want to be?”

  Sarah considered his words and smiled. “I want to be the hero, someone who can save the day. Someone who isn’t afraid of taking risks.” David nodded, then he replied “OK, so let me ask a different question. There are a group of us who will probably go out in the morning and try to save more people, do you want to come?” Sarah nodded then replied “yes, Cami told me about that, about how you led them out and the chaos out there.” David paused, surprised that Camila, who he would have called the leader, was extending that label to him.

  “Sure, things are a bit less formal than that. We aren’t a team with leaders and special roles. If this were an MMO we would absolutely have that frame of reference but that’s not what we are right now. My suggestion is that you pick a second powerbase ASAP. If you want to come with us you will need something to help you and the only way we know to get a skill quickly is to bring an unconscious person into the safe zone before anyone else does – that completes a quest. Failing that you need to practice activation for hours to get the skill.”

  Sarah nodded. Then she spoke “what does the group need more of?” David snorted at that “everything, though if I had to pick it’s a tossup between someone else who could heal and more magical damage or control. We haven’t really figured out the stamina stuff enough to see it shine yet and Psi and Qi are just too much of a gamble.” There was a pause before he continued.

  “Look, healing isn’t something we have figured out yet, but I think it really depends on the target having health... Given how powerful Katie’s regeneration is self-healing seems pretty badass and Mark’s healing is quite a bit less impressive than that. You probably get the most immediate bang for your buck out of the route Charlie has gone down. The system seems to use elemental stuff not anything we recognize as physics. Though I have no idea why.”

  Sarah looked at him, her eyes going wide and then she blurted “so I could have ice magic?”

  David almost facepalmed, she was a little old for that but it totally made sense. Then he stopped and actually thought about it. How effective Charlie was with his firebolt, how exploring a different direction would likely help a lot and how useful ice magic was in games. Sarah could clearly see his reaction, given her skill at reading people and she saw he was giving her idea serious thought.

  When he finally nodded she smiled and asked “you actually gave that some thought. Why is it a good idea, I think I know why you had the initial reaction…”

  David nodded again more decisively. “Look we don’t know anything about most of this. However, what we do know is that Elemental magic is a thing. Charlie getting fire means that other things are possible and growing in that direction is good.

  I expect Charlie to have great damage scaling but not a huge amount else with Fire magic. On the flip side Ice magic will probably give you more flexibility. This is all speculation as we don’t actually know.”

  Sarah spoke decisively “Look, I know you can’t offer me a certain path but Ice magic sounds like a good idea so what do I do now?”

  She looked surprised when David walked over to the Obelisk and touched it. His eyes going unfocused as he queried it. A newly awakened individual who has gained health and He paused “Sarah, what stat did you pick to go with Health?” Her response was “Vitality” he quickly finished vitality wants to gain combat effective ice magic as quickly and efficiently as possible how should she use her progression in the System Initiate title? Should she invest in something else instead?

  As his Magic plummeted a text box appeared partially blocking his vision with the answer.

  David nodded, he had got more information than he expected, grinning he turned back to Sarah. “OK, this is how we are going to turn you into an ice mage…”