I paused, a thought coming to me. This superhuman intelligence thing was weird. I didn’t know anything I didn’t know before, and I didn’t feel more creative. But it was so much easier to make connections. And thinking things through logically happened so fast it was like the answers appeared in my head by magic.
“It’s like Mike and Joe said with the languages. It’s translating to fit concepts into our heads as best it can. I don’t know if it’s really that close to our gaming systems or it’s just getting as close as it can to describe what it can and can’t do. It might be leaving stuff out that it has no concepts in our minds for, or at least not telling us or showing us. We’ll have to keep asking questions.”
Joe and Anthony could hear me, and they both thought it sounded like a good theory. So did something else.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Progress on the “Secret of the System” quest! You’ve learned a little bit about how the System works. There’s always more to learn. 100 XP awarded. Continue to learn more about the System to attain further rewards.
“Ha!” I said triumphantly. “Like I said, it’s a bastard, but it doesn’t seem to be trying to actively deceive us. When we figure something out, it says so.”
“I got experience,” said Robert proudly.
“We all did. And I finally leveled. Ding!” said Joe with a huge smile.
“Grats!” I said.
“Thanks.”
PARTY CHAT / JOE: I got two points, not one. I put them both in Strength. When I finally get to hit something I’m going to destroy it.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Did your regen rates change?
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: No. I did get more Stamina. We’re going to have to sit down with a pencil and paper and figure out the formulas.
PARTY CHAT / ANTHONY: When we do, we will minmax the FUCK out of this System.
Bruce was staring at me as we trudged along, probably wondering why I’d gone so quiet. Anthony explained in party chat what minmaxing was - basically, choosing your ability scores to get the maximum benefit for the minimum cost - while I went back to giving him and Sheila some basics.
“Anyway,” I said, “you don’t have weapons and your classes don’t fight. If something happens you stay in the middle of your group and watch the kids. Make sure they don’t run if they get scared.”
“I won’t run,” said Robert. “I’ll help.”
“You can’t, Robert,” I said. “When you get your Class, we’ll talk. But until then, you have to keep your head down. Stack up XP. Think how many levels you’ll get at once on your birthday!” I was trying to spin it so he didn’t think he was being a coward. It seemed to work. He gave me a big smile.
“Yeah! I’ll…” His mother cut him off.
“Let James talk,” she said firmly. “He’s telling us how to keep you safe.” She looked at me. “Please go on.”
“It’s all right,” I said, “but you’re right, this is important. You have to keep the kids under control and in the center. Robert, the best help you could give is making sure your sister and the little ones stay where we can protect them. Can I count on you for that?”
“Yes,” he said bravely. “I’ll watch them.”
“Good man,” I replied, and he smiled at me again. “Bruce and Sheila, you help Robert.” I gave them a little wink which Robert, thankfully, didn’t pick up on. Bruce smiled and Sheila seemed a little less nervous.
That didn’t last long.
“Because if anybody runs out of the group, they’ll be vulnerable,” I went on. “Especially if they’re small. Whatever we’re fighting might decide to just grab them and run, or at least try to take them out first.”
Anthony, who’d been bringing up the rear as usual, suddenly said, “Speaking of that, there’s a bird that’s been circling over us for a few minutes. It looks like it’s following us.”
I looked up. There was a large, grayish-brown bird moving through the air. It was the first one I’d seen for any length of time since System Start. It was definitely circling, though I wasn’t sure if it was over us or just something nearby.
“Anybody know what kind of bird that is?” I said.
“It’s a hawk,” said Samantha. “Probably a red-tail hawk, they’re common around here. It’s hard to tell how big it is exactly up in the air but somehow it feels big.” She looked over at Kaa, who was slithering along beside her. “Maybe he’s looking for a snack. Hawks eat snakes.”
“If it’s big enough, it may be looking at any or all of us as potential snacks,” I said, keeping my eyes on the bird. We had slowed and then stopped as everyone tried to track it. “How do we scare it off?”
“Hawks aren’t very bright,” she said. “I don’t know that we can, other than by looking like we’re too big to eat.”
“What about shooting it, nya?” asked Danielle.
“We’d never hit it with the shotguns,” said Mike. “Even if they’d hurt it, which they might not. All the shells we found have slugs, which are big, not very accurate bullets. To shoot a bird on the wing you need shot, which is lots of little bullets that spread out.”
“And the pistol hasn’t got the range, I don’t think,” added Samantha.
“My Mana Bolts would hit it. They can’t miss.” Danielle started to say something but then I went on. “Unfortunately, they don’t have infinite range either. They won’t reach something that high in the air.”
“Aren’t birds scared of cats, nya?” asked Danielle after I shut up. Whoops, that was rude. “Maybe it won’t come near when I’m around.”
“They are on the ground,” said Samantha. “But an eagle or a big hawk will eat a small cat like they would anything else they can swoop down on with their claws.”
“That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to do something, though, Danielle,” I said. “If it’s after us, it’ll probably try to get one of the kids or the snake. What if you walk to the side of the wagon? Think you could jump at it if it dives?”
She watched it fly in another lazy circle. “If it doesn’t move any faster than that you could probably jump up and grab it, nya,” she said teasingly.
“It’ll be much faster if it dives,” said Samantha. “They can hit a hundred miles an hour in a dive.”
“All we can do is watch,” I said after a minute. “If anybody else has an idea, please speak up. Otherwise we have to get moving. Danielle, walk by the side of the wagon and keep an eye out if you can, please.”
“I will, nya,” she said, dropping back a bit as we got under way again.
There were a lot of nervous eyes watching the hawk. It seemed unlikely it would get us by surprise, and that we the best we could do. It did come lower and the circles got tighter after several minutes, but we stopped and bunched up, and apparently the bird decided we weren’t worth the trouble. It flew higher and disappeared into the distance.