“I thought you said you were a vet,” said Sheila.
“I was. I am,” responded Samantha. “Animal Tamer is my Class. It lets me tame animals. I can almost talk to him. He helped us fight the bobcat.”
“I told you, Dad,” said Robert in an excited voice, looking at his father. “It is like a game. It’s like she’s a Pokémon Trainer!”
“I’m Anthony,” said our last party member, stepping forward. “I know I’m not as cool as Kaa, but don’t forget about me, guys.” He was smiling and obviously not too worried about being forgotten.
“Did you all not pick your Classes?” I asked.
“No,” said Sheila. “Robert wanted us to, but we couldn’t decide what to do.”
“We didn’t get Classes,” said Robert, with a highly offended tone. “It says we’re too young!”
“Really?” I said, surprised. “What did it say exactly?”
“We got a message that said, ‘The minor children in your care may select a Class when they reach fourteen,’” said Sheila. “Until then it said they… ‘bank’ their experience.”
“Wow,” said Anthony. “That’s… scary.”
“Why,” said Sheila sharply. “Will it hurt my kids?”
“No, no,” he said, making a ‘hang on’ gesture. “I don’t think it would. It means if they do get any experience…”
“Stop!” I yelled. “Not another word, Anthony!” Everyone jumped and I got a few glares. “This is important, I’m not doing it again.” Before anyone could question me I quickly described the ‘Secret of the System’ quest. With wide eyes, all four of them accepted the quest when it was offered.
“Sorry I yelled,” I said. “You’ll see why in a second. I hope. Anthony, go on.”
The light dawned on him. “Oh. Oh! I get it,” he said, giving me a big grin. He turned back toward the group at large. “Anyway, if the kids get any experience, it’ll all be saved up until they get their Classes. Then they’ll probably get it all at once. They could Level a bunch of times right away.”
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Progress on the “Secret of the System” quest! You’ve learned a little bit about how the System works. Children shouldn’t have toys that are too dangerous for them. 100 XP awarded. Continue to learn more about the System to attain further rewards.
“Ha!” I said. “Score one for us! Nice job, Anthony.” Everyone in our party smiled, but the family on the porch just looked surprised.
Grinning hugely, he said, “You too. You got them some free XP just by shutting me up.”
“I got experience!” said Robert loudly. “It says it’s in my bank!”
“Me too,” said Betsy, though with much less enthusiasm. Apparently she wasn’t into video games.
“It is like a video game,” said Bruce in wonder. “I got a message saying the experience would be awarded when I choose a Class.”
“So did I,” said Sheila. “Should we do that? How do we pick?”
“‘System, time’” I said. This got me strange looks from Sheila and Bruce but they didn’t say anything.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Local Time is 9:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, April 9, 2017.
“It tells you what time it is,” I said. “I know it’s weird, but that’s how it works. You don’t usually have to say things out loud, either. It works if you think it hard enough. And speaking of weird,” I said with a sigh. “We can’t take all day about this, but you’re going to need to know a few things…”
Chapter 15
Caravan Dodge
There followed an extremely brief review of what we knew about the System so far. Which, to be fair, wouldn’t have filled a long briefing in the first place. Sheila and Bruce were both about as vanilla/normal as it got. Bruce at least liked the Lord of the Rings movies, so he got a few of the more fantastic references, but Sheila didn’t like any fantasy entertainment that she would admit to. So we spent as much time on the basics as we did on the System-specific stuff.
PARTY CHAT / ANTHONY: This is going to sound bad but I think this is why so many people have died already. Three of us are gamers and we got the rest of you up to speed, and at least most of you had read Harry Potter or seen superhero movies or something. People who don’t even have that much will end up like this. They won’t level or have Class Skills. They’ll be helpless.
Our party’s faces grew somber. Samantha and Mike looked especially upset.
PARTY CHAT / SAMANTHA: It didn’t tell us about our kids’ Classes. Do you think they’re dead?
I gave her a quick look and she appeared to be silently crying. Fortunately Joe and Anthony were still giving somewhat disjointed instructions to Bruce and Sheila, which distracted them.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: NO. They’re NOT dead. They’re not IN your care, they’re with their grandparents. That’s all. Bruce and Sheila got the messages right away, they said. You would have too. They are ALIVE.
Samantha let out a soft sob and swiped at her eyes. Mike put his arm around her and drew her to him. She looked up at him and smiled a little.
PARTY CHAT / SAMANTHA: Thank you, James. That sounds right.
PARTY CHAT / MIKE: Thank you, James. They’re going to be fine. We’re going to find them.
PARTY CHAT / DANIELLE: You’re darn right. You said your daughter liked cats, Samantha. I’ll show her my Magical Catgirl Form. You’ll be the mom with the coolest friends EVER!
Samantha let out a choked burst of laughter at this and Sheila looked up.
“Are you okay?” she said hesitantly.
“I’m fine,” said Samantha, “I was just thinking about my little girl. She’d like Betsy.”
Sheila’s face softened. “What’s her name?”
“Katie,” said Samantha, wiping at her eyes again. “I hope to God she’s okay.”
Sheila walked over and gave Samantha an awkward but sincere hug. “She’s fine. You’ll find her.”
With another soft sob, Samantha returned the embrace. “Thank you. I know I will.”
“We will,” said Mike firmly, his hand on Samantha’s shoulder.
After a moment Sheila let Samantha go. “I’m sorry if that was rude,” she said. “But I can’t imagine what this would be like if I didn’t know where my kids were.”
“No, I appreciate it,” answered Samantha. “I’m glad your kids are with you.”
“So now that you’ve got the basics,” I said to Bruce after a minute, “Any questions? What kind of Class do you think you might like?”
“Joe says that if we take a ‘mage’ class we can do magic,” said Sheila dubiously. “I mean, I know that snake’s not normal, but magic?” Really?”
“Watch this,” I said, standing up. I walked a ways away and set up a rock on top of a post with an ornate birdhouse hanging from it.