Calm Before The Storm

"System, assign Summer as the third Protagonist, please. But don't let her know yet," said Magnus after he got home that night.

[Assigning Protagonist #3 successful.]

Plopping down on his bed, Magnus let out a long sigh. It was a happy sigh. The smile on his face hadn't let up since the kiss he'd had with Summer. He didn't know if he would be sleeping so deeply and peacefully tonight or if he wouldn't be able to sleep at all. His emotions were wildly through the roof right now.

Suddenly, he felt a part of him separated from his mind. It was so subtle it was almost unnoticeable, had he not been alone in his room.

'Ah, this was the best day I've had in a long time,' Magnus commented.

'You've been fused with me the whole day, haven't you?' asked Magnus.

'Uh-huh. There was no way I would've just watched from the sideline. She's mine, too.'

The way the two Magnuses could fuse their minds together was a bit trippy, to say the least. They had basically become of one mind and body. No one was really in control; all the sensations and emotions were felt as one, and every train of thoughts and decision was also made as one. There was no need for any conversation, since it was as if Magnus was by himself in his own mind. The downside of the fusion was that Magnus 2.0 couldn't narrate.

"Show us Summer's Status Window," Magnus instructed the system.

[Status Window

Name: Summer Murphy

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Age: 16

Title(s): None

Level 1

XP: 0/100

HP: 50

Mana: 10

Strength: 7

Agility: 11

Perception: 9

Stamina: 15]

"Looks like we're gonna have one more person to train. I hope she'll be able to spare the time every weekend afternoon, because TJ's training time is on the mornings."

Suddenly, the system gave him a notification.

[The hosts have been successful in raising The Viewers' Satisfaction Level after tonight's event. Would the hosts like to open the Mission screen?]

'Oh, they sure fucking enjoyed the kiss, didn't they?' asked Magnus 2.0 with a hint of resentment. 'Fine. Open the Mission screen.'

[Satisfaction Level: 19%]

'I don't know if I should be happy or sad about this,' Magnus 2.0 lamented.

By now, Magnus had stopped paying attention to whatever was happening. Partly because his mind was still replaying the kiss over and over. He'd lied down and had his arm covering his eyes. A few minutes later, he fell asleep with a stupid smile on his face.

---

And just like that, months passed by. TJ continued with his training and Summer had started to go exercise with Magnus every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. When winter arrived, the workout sessions were done indoor. Fortunately, despite having to work part-time during holiday season, she had still readily agreed and found the time to train with him. Unlike a certain someone who'd had to be 'forcefully persuaded' to go out every single time prior to his awakening.

Many training sessions and a ton of permanent boosts later, this was how TJ's Status Window looked like:

[Status Window

Name: Tyler John Haysmith

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Age: 18

Title(s): None

Level 2

XP: 10/200

HP: 500

Mana: 780

Strength: 71

Agility: 59

Perception: 44

Stamina: 59

Skill(s): Rejuvenate, Ignite (Lv. 6), Flamethrower (Lv. 5), Swordsmanship (Lv. 5), Death Flame (Lv. 2), Decay (Lv. 2), Wind Bullet (Lv. 4)]

What a generous friend he had! It had even become Magnus' hobby to give his best friend stat boosts every now and then. Although, he couldn't be bothered to boost his friend's Perception stat, since it would just automatically balloon every time he learned or leveled up a skill. Magnus was even sure at this point, that the stat would keep ticking up over time just by having TJ being himself, left to his own devices, doing whatever.

However, credits still had to be given where credit was due; TJ had managed to learn three more skills and leveled them up with great diligence, despite the limited training time. Add to the fact that he was just naturally talented in learning skills, it hadn't taken long for him to level up to Level 2, which had granted Magnus 100 DP.

He had also managed to learn how to mix darkness element to fire element, creating the skill [Death Flame], his signature skill in the original Universe. And then there was [Decay], a skill that could rot a living being's body upon close contact. At this level, it could only destroy layers of skin cells. Though the destruction was rapid, the overall rot brought on the body was slow and minimal. Unfortunately, TJ was only able to practice the skill on Magnus' arm—which he would use [Big Spark] on instantly afterward—and some chickens. Therefore, it hadn't yet gone past the second level.

TJ then decided to learn a spell that utilized an element he had no affinity to. Settling on [Wind Bullet] after a demonstration by Magnus, it had become the last skill he learned. After that, most days he would spend focusing more on leveling up all his skills, because the time it took to raise every level became exponentially longer. On top of that, leveling up his [Swordsmanship] skill was painfully slow, for some reason.

But all in all, Magnus was confident his best friend had been more than ready to face the Prolog. Moreover, after all the generous stat boosts, TJ had become the type who was way, way stronger than his Level. The Status Window said he was only Level 2, but all his stat points begged to differ.

Meanwhile, even though Magnus wasn't ready to awaken Summer yet, the girl had made some progress of her own. Still wanting to help her more than just being a workout partner, Magnus had decided to also give her a few permanent boosts, albeit subtly. If he'd given her big-numbered boosts at once, his girlfriend would've noticed. So he could only boost some of her stats by one point at a time. Her Stamina stat had been high to begin with. So, while he didn't need to worry about that, most boost points had been spent on her Health and Perception.

With that, this was how her Status Window looked like after months of training:

[Status Window

Name: Summer Murphy

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Age: 17

Title(s): None

Level 1

XP: 0/100

HP: 110

Mana: 10

Strength: 23

Agility: 27

Perception: 17

Stamina: 29

Skill(s): None.]

Meanwhile, as Christmas was over and New Year came, Magnus was slowly getting more anxious about what the gods had planned for him. He had made sure to hide most of his and TJ's capabilities, but he couldn't hide the fact that he indeed was a big anomaly in this world. The gods must've been cooking up some plan to eliminate him.

Or not. Most likely, they hadn't found out about the fact that he had an Author taking up residence in his head. Perhaps, they even wanted to select him as a Protagonist, he really couldn't know. One thing was for sure, though; he had been feeling their stare following his movement on most days. And it really hadn't been comfortable. Activating anti-god membranes was only a temporary solution. Once he leveled up his Divinity, he would make sure to come up with a better method to avoid the gods' snooping.

Magnus had spent his holiday season with his family, enjoying their times together, for he knew peaceful times were soon to be over. Come July, and the whole world would be turned upside down. However, Magnus had made some preparations to face that day.

[Name: Magnus Helvig

Race: Human

Age: 18

Title(s): Big Dreamer, Unwavering Heart, The Righteous Shield, The Bringer of The Sea's Wrath, Master Waverider

Divinity Level: 7

DP: 4920/7000

AP: 700…]