Chương 9: Interface With the Interface [Part 2/2]

Scarlet stepped out of the washroom already put together, fastening the final cuff of her shirt with a practiced motion, the top two buttons on her collar left undone for her murine companion. She'd hung the towel neatly on the rack behind her, dried the floors, and wiped down the mirrors, leaving the bathroom in the same tidy condition she'd entered it. No half measures, and everything in its place.

Her head was heavy, weighted down by the still damp braids she'd gathered and tied back into a low, practical ponytail. She'd then wrapped the mass in a smaller towel to keep them from soaking through her clothes. Washing her hair had been a time consuming, but necessary affair because finally she was clean once more. She stepped out of the washroom only to be immediately confronted with the rest of the bunker. For a moment she'd forgotten the mess Maus had made. It had been a pleasant bout of amnesia.

She paused just past the threshold, her gaze dropping to the floor as it tracked a series of small, damp paw prints. She could see where the freshly cleaned Maus had intersected with the trail of the carnage he'd created earlier. Those sections were faintly pink where diluted blood had mixed with water. Scarlet followed the trail to its culprit. Maus sat only a short distance away.

His fur, which she'd scrubbed thoroughly not ten minutes ago, had fluffed out unevenly as it dried, leaving him in that awkward, half-damp state that made him look both smaller and spiky. He was in the process of grooming his paws and remained completely unperturbed by the mess he'd made, or the fact that Scarlet would have to clean it up. Scarlet stared at him for a moment, then exhaled softly through her nose.

"Lovely," she said. Maus did not look up. She shook her head slightly and stepped past him, careful to avoid the worst of the mess that trailed across the room. After a brief cleaning session in which she'd reluctantly laid to rest her ruined suit - double bagging and disposing of it with the rest of the biohazardous materials - Scarlet settled herself onto the chaise with her notepad and a renewed resolve. Her focus was on the Interface and the Guide.

The structure remained unchanged, waiting with the same quiet patience as before, and this time her attention moved downward with clear intent, settling on the section she had previously set aside. Stats. She focused, and the system responded.

[Stats (Statistics): Quantified measurements of physical, mental, and energetic capability Strength: Represents expression of physical force Dexterity: Represents coordination and precision Vitality: Represents resilience and recovery Perception: Represents capacity for acuity and awareness Intelligence: Represents reasoning and comprehension Willpower: Represents capacity for resilience and focus Mana: Represents capacity to hold and express 'mana'] Scarlet read through each entry carefully.

The descriptions were disappointingly straightforward, and she had the feeling they were just scratching the surface. There was no metaphor here, no abstraction to misinterpret. Each stat was exactly what it claimed to be, and whatever complexity existed could come later, when she wasn't so completely out of her depth that she didn't even know if she was asking the right questions. Besides, it wasn't like she had no insights.

It was obvious based on her updated Status screen that her level and Titles were gained through experiences that the system recognized as 'meaningful' in some way. Her increased stats indicated they grew with use. Training, repetition, stress, and new experiences. Each of those stats indicated a qualitative difference in her capability. She could feel it with her perception. That meant that the higher she raised them, the better. She committed herself to the pursuit of growth.

The roidcoons had been a stark wakeup call. The world was changing and its people were changing with it. The only way to stay safe was to stay ahead, and Scarlet intended to. With that, her attention settled on two stats in particular – Vitality and Mana. Unlike the other stats where she could at least see a way to grow them, these two were less immediately intuitive. She queried the Guide about how she could improve vitality. [Vitality is increased through recovery.] Well, that was vague, she thought before she redirected her attention. [Mana is increased through use, recovery, and attunement] What the hell was 'attunement'? She added the question to her rapidly filling notepad. She reexamined her stat values and considered. If 'use' was the primary way to improve stats… Scarlet glanced down at her freshly bandaged leg. The injury had dulled down to a persistent ache. Then she remembered the improved VIT on her Status.

"Surely not," she couldn't help but breathe into the room. But her VIT had improved. She grimaced then pursed her lips. She pushed those racing thoughts to the part of her mind labeled 'Future Problems'. Scarlet leaned back slightly, considering everything she'd learned so far. If stats went up with use, then what were the FS for? She had 18 of them after all.

"All right, Maus" she murmured.

"Shall we do a test?" She focused on Vitality, her choice guided less by theory than by immediate circumstance, and a hope to avoid more pain. The injury in her leg made the stat feel relevant in a way the others did not, and if there was a place to begin, increasing survivability felt like the best place to begin. She added one point to VIT and watched the number change. Vitality: 4 / 11 Scarlet's eyes narrowed slightly as she read the result. That was not what she had expected.

She scooped up Maus and began to pet him as she studied the entry. The first number had not moved. Four remained four. What had changed was a second number. One she hadn't known existed until just now. She mentally scrolled back through her previous interactions with the Interface, glad that she even could, before settling on the description of FS. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

[Free Stats (FS): Increase a stat's potential when allocated] She let out a soft breath.

"Potential," she repeated. As in there were natural caps and adding FS to a stat increased those caps. However, if she wanted to increase her baseline she'd need to work for every new point. In gamer terms, she'd need to grind. Of course, all of this was just conjecture until she had a chance to test her theories. She selected Strength and allocated three points. The number shifted immediately. Strength: 5 / 13 This left her with 14 FS and a lot more questions than answers.

Her attention drifted, inevitably, to the one stat that had stood out from the beginning. Perception: 11 Presumably her stats were capped at 10. At least that had been true for VIT and STR. However, her PER had been above that threshold from the first time she opened her Interface. Just what did that indicate, and how would the System account for the anomaly? Wait, anomaly? She did have the Trait Anomalous Soul. Did this have something to do with it?

Of course she didn't have enough data to begin drawing conclusions, but she had a way to start collecting some. FS: 14 -> 13 Perception: 11 / 15 -> 11 / 16 Scarlet stared at the numbers for a long moment. Fifteen. Her baseline had been fifteen. Were all stats not initially equal in initial potential or was this just her? Did other people have different stat caps too? Just what did it mean to be Anomalous? She queried the Guide and got back the response she'd predicted. [Tier insufficient. Advancement required for additional information]"Mmh," she groaned. Just how was she meant to increase her tier? [Tier insufficient. Advancement required for additional information] Okay. This was fine, this was alright. She'd figure things out on her own just like she always had. Some guide.

It was obvious how far she could push for information before being stonewalled by the System, or the Guide, and she had no intention of wasting time bashing her head against the aforementioned stone wall when she could be working on getting answers. So, she leaned back and began to sort the information. There was a pattern here, one that extended across multiple sections of the interface. Titles rewarded excellence. Traits influenced potential. Actions translated into increased growth.

Free Stats expanded capacity but did not replace effort. In other words, FS brought up the ceiling but did not raise the floor. She'd have to do that herself. This was unlike the game worlds she'd been reading about. Or at least it was not a game in the sense that one could simply allocate points and expect immediate results. No results in this new System Integrated world worked much like before. They required participation, effort, risk, and commitment.

Only instead of the nebulous promise that hard work would be rewarded, there were actual, tangible rewards guaranteed for putting in the effort. How insidiously seductive. Scarlet approved. She looked down at where Maus was dozing in her hands.

"This is actually quite reassuring, my little friend," she said, her voice quiet. Scarlet had never been afraid to do the work. Her attention shifted again, this time to the Skills section. If she was going to put in the effort, it would be prudent to understand the tools she was working with. [Skills: System-recognised abilities available to the individual] [Empathy (Tier 1): Passive. A skill that allows perception of emotional states in entities within a certain range. Accuracy and clarity scale with focus and relative strength] [Bond Communication (Tier 1): Active. A skill that enables basic communication between bonded entities through intent, emotion, and simple concepts] This might have been the most detailed information she'd received from the Guide so far. Tier 1. Presumably there were higher tier versions of these skills. Or of Skills in general? Then there was the Empathy thing, which, yeah. She'd certainly felt that. It also explained her increased connection to Maus.

She'd never really had difficulty communicating with him before, however she'd never tried to give him complex commands they hadn't practiced before either. If before he was just a companion, then now he was something of an ally. A fact he'd more than proved in the yard only an hour ago. She studied the entries briefly, noting that while Empathy was passive Bond Communication was Active. She queried the Guide.

[Passive - Skill: Continuously active ability that does not require conscious initiation] [Active - Skill: Ability requiring deliberate activation to produce an effect] That made sense. She'd felt it with her Empathy. It was just another sense. It would be like 'turning on' your taste buds. The concept was absurd. Then she remembered what world she was now living in. Perhaps there were people or things out there that really could turn of their senses at will.

Perhaps if she got stronger, or got a new skill, she'd be able to do it as well. This reminded her of an effect of her Anomalous Soul Trait: … +2 Skill Slots. Just what did that mean? [Skill Slots: Maximum number of skills that can be maintained. Limited by Tier and modifiers.] Which made the next query obvious. [Standard Tier 0 entities begin with 5 available skill slots] Okay, so everyone got 5, and her Trait gave her an extra two. She looked at her Skills list again and wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it.

Both additional slots had already been filled. She shook her head, choosing not to dwell on things she couldn't change… Unless she could? She asked the Guide if it was possible to remove or replace a skill. [Tier insufficient. Advancement required for additional information] She was getting tired of that response. Well, the fact that the answer wasn't a straight 'no' gave her information as well. She made another note on the notepad before finally turning her attention to the last entry on her stat sheet.

Bond: Maus She focused. The interface responded. A secondary display opened. It was more compact than her own, but structured in the same familiar way, its layout unmistakably a reflection of the one she had just been studying. Was this Maus's stat sheet? Scarlet took one look at it, felt the immediate weight of additional information pressing in at the edges of her awareness, and closed it as quickly as she'd opened it.

"Nope," she said, leaning back slightly as she dismissed it with a flicker of intent. She needed a moment before she could give that the full attention it deserved. She knew her limits. A very loud part of her brain was screaming at her to just look at it! More information meant better preparation, which made for better outcomes. However, she'd been down this road before. There was a difference between gathering information and drowning in it, and she had no intention of risking the latter.

That's how 'better preparation' turned into 'avoidable mistakes.' She could already feel a headache building behind her eyes and knew it was time for a break. So, against every instinct and desire, she decided to leave the matter for later. As if in response to the thought, a notification flickered at the edge of her vision. Scarlet focused again. The Interface returned, and it didn't take Scarlet long to find what had changed. Intelligence: 9/10 -> 10 She blinked once, before dumping 3 additional FS into INT.

Intelligence: 10 / 13"I think that will do for now," she said, closing the interface once more before it could tempt her into another line of inquiry. She needed information, but more than that, she needed a moment to digest what she had just learned. She moved carefully as she thought of her next steps.

"What do you say, buddy? Should we go clean up the yard?" Cleaning was always a reliable way to relax and decompress. She made sure to put on coveralls this time before she made her way to the door. Only the closer she got, the more unnerved she began to feel. There wasn't anything she could pinpoint. Something just felt off. She'd learned long ago to trust that intuition. She made it to the top of the landing and slid the covering off the peephole.

The fish-eyed view of the yard showed everything was just as she'd left it. The only change was that the sun had dipped a little lower. There was nothing out there, at least nothing she could see. No shadows, no movement. Nothing. Still, as she stood there staring into the clearing, she felt the hairs on her arms begin to raise. Yeah, nope. Better safe. She closed the peephole and made her way back to the command center. Then she pulled up the feeds for the CCTV.