TT:E C12

Time to begin the chapter dump

*********

Maeve shot awake suddenly. She didn’t gasp and sit up quickly, she was just suddenly awake and fully aware she was awake after having not been awake. It was a weird sensation, especially for someone that generally took a long time to get up in the morning. She took a moment to breath before sitting up from where she’d been slumped against one of the the counters in the convenience store’s back room.

Scarlet glanced over from where she’d been crouching opposite Maeve and Amelia, who looked to still be out of it, resting her head on Maeve’s shoulder. “Maeve, you’re up! You feeling alright?” She looked over her shoulder, “Hey guys, Maeve’s up.”

“I feel… great, actually. Like I just got a full night’s rest.” She slowly clenched her fists and opening them, stretching her muscles the best she could without disturbing her friend. “I don’t feel much stronger, but I also didn’t pick a class that uses strength.”

“There are stats?” Alex asked as he stepped backward into view, still watching the front door of the store they’d found and taken shelter in.

“Yeah, there are… eight of them? Nine? They seemed to be a lot of the standard ones from games I’ve played.”

Ed peeked his head around the doorway to see Maeve before dropping back out of view, most likely watching the back door while Alex watched the front. “Can you remember them all?”

“Um… Wait, didn’t it say something about having access to my Status after I got my class? Let me-“

Accompanied by faint triumphant music a new screen appeared without prompting.

Congratulations on surviving long enough to get your first class! This already impressive feat is made even more impressive by doing outside of a safe zone. You now have access to your Status along with some automatic basic explanations of certain parts of the System. Merely focus on what you want to know more about to see basic information!

A smaller box temporarily overlaid the first one long enough for Maeve to read it.

Preempting your question on why you couldn’t do this during Class Selection, this feature requires the full process of unlocking one’s first class to be complete before it activates.

Maeve’s mouth swung closed. “You’re a bit cheeky, aren’t you?” She muttered in a bad British accent. “Alright System, lets see it. Show me my Status please.”

___

Name: Maeve Burton

Species: Human (Earth Native)

Age: 21

Class: Enchantrix

Level: 1

Experience: 3/300

HP: 100

MP: 120

Stats:

Str: 8

Con: 10 (Base 9)

Agi: 9

Dex: 9

Int: 12 (Base 10)

Wis: 14 (Base 11)

Cha: 10

Will: 15 (Base 13)

Luck: 5

Unused Stat Points: 2

Skills:

Body Magic - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Shadow Magic - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Lingering Spells - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Mana Control - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Magic Resistance - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Spells:

Lesser Strengthen (Body Magic) - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Lesser Haste (Body Magic) - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Lesser Shadowbind (Shadow Magic) - Neophyte 1 (0%)

Lesser Dancing Shades (Shadow Magic) - Neophyte 1 (0%)

___

“Oh, there’s more here than I was expecting.” She stared at a couple of the sections. Some where confusing, but one was mildly alarming. “… We can go over all this later after I have time to look at a bunch of explanations.” Maeve read out the nine stats to them and her scores. “Can I…? Yes, it can pull up old messages. Okay, so I’m below average in strength, my points from my class got me just to the lowest point of average in constitution, I’m the lowest point of average in agility and dexterity, my intelligence was the high point of average and is now higher than average, my wisdom was above average to start, my charisma is average, and my willpower was the highest level of average but is higher than that now. Luck is five, but I don’t know what that means since we don’t have a starting average.”

“So, you’re smart but don’t work out enough. We already knew that.”

“Shut up, Alex.”

He grinned at her, laughing quietly. “I’m right though. What else is there on your Status?”

“My class, hit points and mana points, my skills I got from my class, and the spells I got from my skills.”

“You can do magic?” Scarlet asked excitedly.

“I can. I chose a class called ‘Enchantrix’, which is a buff and debuff magic caster. Limited direct damage and no healing, but I can make you guys stronger and our enemies weaker.”

“Nice.” Alex shot her a quick look before switching back to watching the door. “Very useful since there’s more than one of us and definitely your style.”

“Thanks. Let’s discuss all the class and status stuff after we’re all done though. We should cycle through class selection sooner rather than later while we have the opportunity. Who wants to take my spot?”

“Scarlet should.” Ed answered immediately.

“Huh?” Scarlet twisted to look at hi back. “Shouldn’t it be one of you two?”

He shook his head. “Nope. The two of us should stay on watch and then have a buffed up you with a class spot one of us. If Maeve had a straight up fighting class I’d say me or Alex, but she doesn’t. We’ve got the heavy armor and weapons, so we stay on guard longer.”

Scarlet nodded cautiously. “Got it… Right, yeah, that makes sense.” She switched places with Maeve, gently laying Amelia’s head on her shoulder. “Here goes nothing.” Her eyes went distant for a second, and then she was asleep.

“Damn that was fast.” Maeve commented.

“Yeah, you did the same thing. Freaked us out for a second.”

“Anything you cool with sharing with us while we wait?” Alex asked her.

“Maybe in a minute. Let me read everything and come to terms with it all.”

“Makes sense.”

Maeve concentrated on wanting to know about the thing that had her concerned, trying to use mental commands instead of talking out loud. It was a staple of the series her brothers had gotten her in to, and it made sense based on the System’s comments that it would be possible.

___

Species: Human (Earth Native)

A species of human native to the planet Earth, from the most recently integrated universe.

The Greater Universe is a stitched together gathering of smaller universes, all connected through Quezeuq Energy. While it is unknown if the multiverse is truly endless as some believe, it is obvious that more than one universe exists. Some universes are similar to others, some are unique. The same can be said for sapient species brought into the Greater Universe by Integration. Convergent evolution of sapient species has been identified. The introduction of your universe and your variant of humanity to the Greater Universe brings the total number of variants of human to seven. Three of those variants (including your own) call their home world “Earth”, although your languages are different.

___

“Holy shit.”

“What?”

“There are six other kinds of humans in this,” Maeve waved her hand around, still staring intently at the screen. “Greater Universe it calls it. We’re the seventh.”

“’What!?’”

The both smashed into each other as they tried to look through the doorway. After a brief accidental scuffle where they both struggled not to fall over, Alex and Ed managed to get themselves situated.

Maeve didn’t even notice. “Two other ‘variants’ of human call their home worlds ‘Earth’ in their languages.”

Ed gaped at her.

“You’re not talking about other universe, but actual alternate universes?” Alex asked, his eyes feverish.

“I- I… I don’t know! System?”

___

The System does not release certain levels of information without it being earned or equivalent compensation.

Their are no records of across several millennia of an alternate version of an individual being encountered or existing from heavily comparative universes being Integrated into the Greater Universe.

___

Maeve read the message then read it again. “Okay. I got another prompt about how the System doesn’t give stuff out for free at a certain level, and then it added another bit.” She read that part out loud verbatim. “So yes but no. There are probably alternate universes, but not close enough to really freak us out, I guess.”

“That the System has access to.” Alex pointed out. “But you’re right, that’s a little less freaky than I was thinking. We also learned that they System is willing to bend it’s own rules somewhat.” He glanced over at Ed. “Dude, close your mouth.”

“Sorry.”

“It does seem like it will do that.” Maeve replied to the second part of his statement, “But if I had to make a wild guess I think it’s being nicer to us because we’re weak and we just got integrated. Once we get stronger its probably going to be stricter with us.”

“Why do you say that?”

She turned to look at Ed.

“I’m not disagreeing,” He added, “I just want to hear your reasoning.”

“It’s just a hunch,” Maeve said slowly, “But it’s talked about how its main goal is keeping the most people alive for each species, right? Wait… shit!. System do all the variants of humans count as the same!?”

___

No. Each and every species, including variants from different original universes, will receive the same levels of System support and protection.

___

Maeve sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness. That could have been really bad. Where was I? Right, the System’s goal. If this is anything like the stories I know with similar circumstances or systems or whatever, its that at a certain level of power you start getting separated from ‘the masses’. Having powerful people is probably going to be really important to keeping us safe as a whole, but those individuals are going to be like superheroes or polytheistic gods. They’ll still have desires and individual needs that don’t support the whole of humanity, our version of it at least, and that isn’t part of the System’s goals. So it’ll be stricter with the rules to people that are getting stronger, because they’re stronger than everyone else.”

“That doesn’t sound quite right…” Ed mused, his face screwed up in concentration. “Do you mean that the powerful will be some sort of pariahs or that at a certain point growing stronger and stronger becomes less about community and more about the individual, which the System is probably fine with but unwilling to use loopholes for?”

“The second one, definitely.”

“Okay, cool, that was my thought too.”

“Sorry, I guess I’m still frazzled from everything that’s happening.”

“Don’t worry about it, I am too.” Ed noticed Alex giving him some side eye. “What?”

“Nothing. Just wondering when ‘Mr. Smash Smash’ got all philosophical and able to think through the motivations of an alien intelligence with magic powers.”

“Oh shut it. You know I like this kind of thing, it’s almost as fun as smash smash.”

“What are you two talking about?” Maeve demanded.

“So we were doing a really over the top demonstration match for some people at an event, more of a choreographed wrestling match than a real bout, and my character-“

Amelia hastily sat up. “Alex!” Her eyes lasered in on her boyfriend, sounding demanding, not scared or worried.

“Yeah?”

She pushed herself up and grabbed hold of his face with both hands. “Hold still. This would probably be better if I could touch your chest, but your armor takes too long to get on and off.”

“What are you- Oh. Oh, that feels weird.”

Amelia’s hands lit up, an outline of green glowing light seeming to radiate out of her and into Alex. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she started into space. A few seconds passed before the glow faded and she stepped back, letting go of him. “How do you feel.”

Looking slightly dazed he looked down at his chest and then back up to Amelia. “Did you just…? It wasn’t nearly as bad as it should have been without all this magic stuff happening, but now barely hurts at all.”

Amelia grinned, bouncing on her toes. “I got offered a healing class! I’m officially a level one Magical Healer!”