The two girls, Kaylee and Jessica, she reminded herself, exchanged looks again. They seemed to do that a lot. Finally, Jessica spoke, “Well, have you looked at your profile yet?”
“Profile?” And suddenly, she had figured out the magic word, because there in the corner of her vision was a little blinking blue dot, and when she focused on it, the blessed information screen finally appeared!
Name: Jade Winward
Age: 18
Strength: 7.94
Dexterity: 8.23
Constitution: 7.82
Intelligence: 15.56
Magic: 11.22
Charisma: 8.98
Luck: 13.45
Special Abilities: Siphon
Skills: N/A
Chapter Two – Stats
Temporarily ignoring Kaylee and Jessica, Jade stared at the screen in front of her while they smiled knowingly and waited for her to return her attention to them. She frowned a little as she studied her stats, then glanced questioningly at the two of them. “Quick question… Am I right in thinking the average stat for a normal person is around, oh, say…ten?”
Kaylee looked surprised while Jessica smiled approvingly. “That’s right! How’d you know?”
“Oh… It was just a guess…” Well, it was that and years of watching DnD podcasts. An average human had a ten in all stats, and she…she had four stats that were one or two points below that. Out of seven stats, she had three which were considered ‘above average.’ Granted, she was pretty happy with her intelligence stat. However, given that it was one of the few things that seemed unchanged from her old world, well… It was the only thing she’d genuinely had a chance to develop. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the luck stat, though. Was it luck that she’d been bedridden for most of her life? But then again… She was here with a new body, wasn’t she? Maybe her luck had changed.
She didn’t know what to think of her lacking skills section. Maybe every traveler started with a blank slate? She hoped so. It would be embarrassing to have such a low starting point, considering she already felt like she was behind the human race as it was because of her stats. That left just one thing: her special ability. Contemplating it intently, she wondered, just what the heck does Siphon mean? She knew what the word meant, of course. She just had no idea why it would appear on her special abilities list. There was no context support for it.
As soon as she focused on it, a new explanation popped up.
Siphon: Using skin to skin contact, you may permanently absorb 1% of one chosen attribute and skill experience of your target. The target will recuperate their attribute and skill experience after a set amount of time, receiving a 0.5% increase to those siphoned areas.
What the what? She could steal someone’s attributes and skills? She was mildly comforted by the fact that they would get something out of it too, but it seemed…strange. It also felt like the system wasn’t telling her everything, but she supposed that was part of the whole trial and error process.
Coming back to herself, she realized she’d been seemingly staring into space for at least two minutes. Jessica and Kaylee were having a whispered conversation that she wished she could hear, but unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be one of her strengths. Maybe she could develop it? How did that work?
“Sorry about that. Can you tell me how skill experience works?” She quietly interrupted their whispers.
Jessica and Kaylee smiled, and it was Kaylee who answered this time, “Yes, miss. Of course. Skill experience is gained by…well, doing just about anything. Your skills will form as you practice, and then you’ll gain experience by doing it. It’s pretty straightforward.”
I guess that makes sense. I mean, I didn’t do a whole lot in my last life, unless peeing through a catheter counts as a skill. Do they even have catheters here? I guess there’s no such thing as browsing the internet either. Maybe I could have gotten a reading skill at least… Oh well.
She mused to herself as she nodded, trying to get a grip and organize her thoughts. What she absolutely needed to know was the situation of the world. With all the weapons she’d seen, it didn’t seem like this was a particularly peaceful place. She also needed to figure out what she would do to get by, and maybe see if there was a library or something so she could just look up the information herself. Fortunately, Jessica saved her from her musings by trying to explain things simply to her.
“So, now that you’ve seen your profile, there are a few things you should know. You’re in the capital of Caoi, which is Abala. The kingdom is ruled by King Derrick and Queen Ashanna. More specifically, this is The Green Dragon, one of the dormitories for students of Dracona Academy.” They looked a little guilty at this, and she could pretty much figure out why. She wasn’t supposed to be here, and they’d have to tell whoever was over them. Still, she was determined to get as much information out of them as she could before that.
“This academy… What do they do there?”
Kaylee looked a little starstruck when she responded, “It’s sponsored by the king. They accept the most talented people from all over the kingdom to train them!”
Jessica cut in at that point, looking a bit more down to earth. “They’re usually the sons and daughters of the aristocrats. There are a few truly talented people who get chosen every year through the selection process, but most of them get in through recommendation. The king pays for their training and lodging since he declared ‘they are the future of the kingdom.’” She glanced at Kaylee and sighed at her wishful looks. It was obvious that Jessica was the more down to earth one, and Kaylee had all sorts of fantasies going on inside her head at the moment.
Jade ignored the daydreaming Kaylee and focused on the pertinent information. “So, what you’re saying is I could stay here if I get accepted to the academy through this selection process?”
This seemed to snap Kaylee out of her reverie, and she guffawed. “Yeah, but you’ll never make it…” She clapped a hand over her mouth, looking panicked as Jade chortled inwardly. She couldn’t honestly blame her… I mean, look at me. I’m just a waif compared to normal people, even Kaylee herself, who’s probably considered skinny. Why would she have any reason to think I’d make it into what’s basically the noble faction?
Outwardly, Jade just smiled at her. She wasn’t going to scold her for making a perfectly reasonable judgment call. What she wanted to know was if they took people in for things other than brawn. She figured she might be able to develop that aspect eventually, depending on how her special ability worked, but for now, she needed to use her brains.
Jessica came to Kaylee’s rescue, as well as Jade’s. “Actually, you might have a chance. They tend to let most travelers in if they have a special ability. Do you?”
Jade nodded gratefully. “Yeah, I do. So where do I go to find this selection thingy?”
Kaylee, as if trying to make up for her earlier faux pas, immediately turned helpful. “It’s not too far from here. You just need to go to the upper city hall and register for their tests and the interview. It’s still going on for the next two days.”