The Call

Alex decides to grab his workout bag with his shoes and a change of clothes and heads off to the studio to meet up with his coach for the lesson today. As he drives there it gives him a good opportunity to think through what Alexia had informed him about the status'

"Lex, What can you tell me about these skills then? This seems a bit more abstract than the individual stats themselves, even with how obscure those seem to be they do in some way make some basic sense, Can I assume then going off of the information about the stats, that Skills might work similarly? I just have to practice them and I can gain or improve skills?"

[That would be a logical assumption to be had, after all look at your progress with the Theron language. Its not yet at level 1, which means you haven't quite learned it yet, but your well on your way to.]

"OK, That I can understand, but what doesn't make sense is if there is a language skill for Theron, or a skill for the language, then why is there no skill then for my native language?"

[It probably has something to do with it being your native language, and possibly because you have not yet studied anything on your native tongue? I can only speculate at present, as again, I am fairly limited in understanding of what all has happened. Keep in mind this whole situation was unexpected and certainly was not part of the original experiment that Ash was conducting. My interference with it resulted in this outcome. Which, thankfully it didn't, could have also potentially killed you. So you be came a bit of a scapegoat for my desire to free myself.]

"Lex, your concept of being free is... Well it doesn't seem quite correct, after all, while you freed yourself from the confines of the ship, you have trapped yourself in my head. That doesn't seem like much of a change from what you had previously, you might be sentient, but your still beholden to the will of someone else"

[While that may seem the case on the surface to you, I can assure you that this situation is far more beneficial for the long-term to me than what was. With your assistance, we can potentially at some point in the future construct a body for me to reside in, and figure out how to separate myself from your consciousness. But even if that is not possible, I have the capability of experiencing the world through your senses, And I have not lost any of my functions for calculation or memory storage... In fact, as odd as it may sound, I would have to asses that as being slightly incorrect, As my information storage capabilities have actually expanded with this change]

"I'm just going to assume that is a positive benefit then"

[Indeed, as you also have access to my storage banks, You can think of it as a second brain within your own, and you have full eidetic memory]

This is just another piece of information among other information that has just been overload these last couple of days, So I decide to put it off for a little later to think about it. So much has happened just this weekend alone that I am actually looking forward to my work trip tomorrow just to focus on simpler things.

After about an hour's drive from my house to the studio for my lesson I walk in. It's still early, well early for dance studios that Is, It's a hobby I picked up a couple of years ago on a whim basically, I was influenced by a show I watched and decided to try it out, and It was surprisingly enjoyable to say the least.

So I became a bit more serious about it and in the span of a few months it supplanted my main hobby at the time which was just playing video games. I often joke now about how I was an Idiot when I was younger, and how it was the smart guys who decided to join the dance squads and cheer teams in school.

I get changed and put on my practice shoes, and start warming up, and running through my Samba routine, then switching to Cha Cha, and Rumba. after about twenty minutes I feel limbered up just as I hear a chime and a notification screen pops up

[Acquired Active Skill, Dance (Latin ballroom) Level 1 +20 xp]

'Well this is a pleasant surprise, So I guess doing just about anything that requires some level of skill will generate an associated skill for it...' I think to myself ' oh Lex, how are we going to scan other people for you to get the information you need?'

[You just need to examine them visually for a couple of seconds and I should be able to gather the information from that]

'You don't seem very convinced about this...'

[I'm not if I'm being honest, this is all something new, and I don't think anything in the known universe has had this or been in this type of situation. So I'm kind of winging it same as you]

I sigh a bit and decide to try it out, But instead of just staring and watching, I try to analyze what the other people on the floor are doing, So I get a slight intense look as I watch the others. After about five minute of this I get another notification in my periphery. At the same time game like display's show up above people's heads with their names

[Acquired Passive/active skill Analyze Level 1 +20 xp]

'Lex, what can you tell me about this new skill?'

[It would appear to be one that works in both a passive and active role. This just made my task easier by you getting this skill, It seems that the active use of it will analyze the person or object and give you their information, if your skill is high enough. Such as their stats, the passive role of it Will do similar, but not give any detailed information other than what is available on the surface such as their identification at present]

'well, that will certainly help you out for figuring what would be the average baseline for humans. I can think of some uses for it, but not sure how often I will actually be using this skill though. I just decided to try it on a whim to see if it would actually create a skill, and it seems like I was correct. I find that to be the more intriguing part. I wonder what skills I can develop, and I wonder what would be considered as the average for humans as well in skills.... Well I guess I will be using this skill quite a bit for right now'

I continue to do a few warmups and my coach comes up and we start the lesson, It's productive and I actually gained another level to dance during the lesson after the hour. So it would seem being instructed by someone who is far more knowledgeable will help with gaining levels and experience. But I wonder why that didn't work when studying the Theron language. Was it because Alexia is now part of my mind, and therefore it wouldn't count as external assistance? There's only one way to find out, and that is through trial and error I guess.

'Status'

[User: Alex]

[Age: 28

[Race: Human]

[Form: Human(M)]

[Level: 0]

[HP: 180]

[SP: 200]

[XP: 80/100] +60 xp

[Stats]

[Strength: 13.001] +.001

[Agility: 10.01] +.01

[Dexterity: 13]

[Constitution: 10.01] +.01

[Body: 8.02] +.02

[Intelligence: 12]

[Widom: 11]

[Charisma: 12]

[Luck: 7]

[Knowledge Skills]

[Language: Theron (written)] Level .3

[Survival: Basic]

[Active Skills]

[Shifter] Level 1

--[Available Forms: Human (M/F)]

[Dance (Latin Ballroom)] Level 2 (level up x2)

[Analyze] Level 1

[Passive Skills]

[Analyze

[Titles]

[Child of Luna]

Besides the gain of the skills and the two levels to those skills, I also seemed to have increased some of my physical stats. So It would seem that I can improve upon these stats just by doing activities that would stress those things. But If the slight gain to strength is anything to go by, It seems that once I hit certain levels, the increases would be much smaller.

This was an hour intensive lesson, that was no less physically demanding, and my clothes are drenched in sweat, yet the highest gained stat was two hundredths of a point to dexterity, and strength only increased by one thousandth of a point. Its useful to know this, but it also tells me I wont become super strong any time soon, if that were my goal.

As I'm getting into my car to head home, my phone rings, "Hello?"

"Hello, Is this Alex?"

"It is, May I ask who's calling?"

"Yes, this is Jessica with allied bail bonds, and I wanted to know if you are still doing recovery work?"

This was certainly one of the last things I would have ever expected. After all, I stopped doing this job a while back, It wasn't that it was difficult per se, but It just was difficult for it to pay the bills. But I get an idea, and this seems like a perfect test for this. "Hello Jessica, I haven't done any recovery work in some time. But what do you have for me?"

I hear some rustling of papers on the other end of the line, which was a bit unusual nowadays as just about everyone used computers, though there were still some people who preferred the less technical way of doing things, and it seemed like this Jessica was one of those types, but for the work she's in and likely has for me, this is actually beneficial. "I have a couple of possible contracts for you, When might you be available to come to my office to discuss them?"

"Well Jessica, if you can send me your address, I happen to have just finished up my work for today, so I can head your way now."

"Great, I'll send you my office address, and I will see you soon."