7) Illuminatus

The three of us sat back around the kitchen table. I sat at the head with Guss to my right and Billy to the left.

"So our public persona is going to be the Illuminati. How are we going to refer to ourselves? Illuminati, The Illuminati or the Latin Illuminatus."

"I think we should go with Illuminatus because it sounds cooler than 'IIlumanati' does." Guss said the Illuminati in a high pitched whiny voice.

"I agree with that." Ok, so are we adding a 'the' before the name or not. It sounds like a stupid question but it is important for the contract."

Guss and Billy looked at eachother and answered at the same time ""Nah, that's dumb.""

"Well then that should have Duke's unspoken agreement if you both think that." I wrote a section after the signing area saying that we should refer to ourselves as Illuminatus when in public settings.

"So what should our actual name be?" We all sat in silence as we thought about this important question.

"What about an acronym? Super Powers In Real Life, we can call it S.P.I.R.L. Just a letter short of spiral." I immediately jumped on it. "I like that, it's catchy and we don't have to use the proper name, we can just refer to ourselves as The S.P.I.R.L. it sounds awesome. What do you think of Billy?"

"I don't know, it's a little too nerdy for me." Guss defended his idea, "Dude your gamer name is BobtheBoss, how is that too nerdy for you?"

"I'm just being a pain, you know. Playing devil's advocate. I like the name, throw it in the contract and let's get to signing." "Don't forget to add the clause where Duke doesn't have to use a shovel."

I quickly wrote down Duke's condition with a small caveat to allow for emergency situations. "Got it, Store Item. Retrieve Item, four copies. Sign on the line of each contract and then rip it up and it should take effect."

I signed it and ripped it to show them how it works. The pieces glowed and disappeared leaving a ball of light which was absorbed by me.

The two others followed suit and ripped up the contract after signing with their new gold pens. The glowing orbs were absorbed into both of their bodies.

"Welcome to S.P.I.R.L. obviously I will be the guild master and our party will be the high elders along with my sister. As you saw in the contract if you read it, other members will have 3 positions they can be within the guild. Low elders, Captains and normal members. If someone is worthy by unanimous decision they can be brought into the high elder position."

To my right Guss said, "Thanks bro. Now that we all joined your cult can you tell us what is up with all of these scrolls?"

Billy said. "It's super power time right?"

"Yup, it is Billy. Each pile of scrolls are yours. You should rip each one and then once all of them are absorbed you just need to say system and then you can see your powers."

The two guys went about tearing the pieces of paper as though they were racing to see who could get through them faster. I laughed through them as I leisurely went through my pile of scrolls.

Within a minute Billy yelled out "SYSTEM!" then started laughing like a maniac as he looked through his skills.

Seconds later Guss also yelled out but with less fervor than Billy did. "System!" he went silent after as he looked through his skills.

After I finished using my own skill scrolls I opened up my system page

Name: Joey Elost Age: 17

HP: 30 Mana: N/A

Strength: 3(1) Dexterity: 2

Stamina: 2 Constitution: 3

Intelligence: 2 Willpower: 2

Hope Skills:

1 - Item Maxing (P)

2 - Endless Storage (A)

Store Item, View Inventory, Search Inventory, Extract Item.

3 - Create Item (A)

4 - Create Knowledge (A)

Other skills:

Speed Reading (P)

System Access (P)

Fast Memorization (P)

Calligraphy (P)

Lesser Dexterity Boost (P)

Lesser Willpower Boost (P)

Lesser Intelligence Boost (P)

Lesser Constitution Boost (P)

Lesser Stamina Boost (P)

Lesser Strength Boost (P)

Lie Detection (P)

Enhance senses (P)

Status Limiter (A)

We all had similar stats now aside from my increased constitution and strength. I began to get the tingling sensation which I now realize is the feeling of my body getting stronger.

"Are you guys also getting this weird tingly sensation?" Guss spoke up in a concerned voice.

"I am," said Billy. "Do you know what this is Joey?"

"It's the feeling of your body being strengthened. Let's go help Duke, you can test out your new body's strength and see how much it has improved."

The two of them ran out back hollering at duke, they looked like toddlers on christmas. "DUKE! WAIT UP!" "SAVE SOME FOR US!"

I walked out back slowly and by the time I was out back Guss had the shovel and was filling the hole enthusiastically like it was his favorite thing to do.

Billy was standing on the edge of the pit and was pouting like a kid who had got his toy stolen.

Duke was shirtless on the ground panting and laying like a starfish. It seemed like the help of the guildmates was appreciated by him.

Guss walked out of the hole which was much smaller now than it was, and handed the shovel over to Billy. "You can do the rest, I'm good now."

Billy gleefully took the shovel and jumped into action, shoveling like his life was on the line. Only he had a big goofy smile on his face.

"Having two strength now is crazy. It makes such a difference, it's like instead of shoveling dirt it's like foam and a toy shovel. It's so easy. It might be hard to use normal strength now though, I don't wanna accidentally break the keyboard when someone kills me."

I pulled out a status limiter skill scroll and handed it to him. "Use this, it should limit your stats."

He tore the scroll and used the stat limiter, reducing them all back to 1 except intelligence and willpower. "Wow this is crazy, I can actually feel myself getting weaker with this. That is the point though."

Billy walked over with the shovel in his hand. "That was fun, you should dig more of those holes."

Duke who was lying on the ground whimpered "please no…" causing the three of us to laugh at his plight.

"Do either of you want to grab the papers for Duke? I don't think he will be getting up anytime soon."

"I'll get them." Guss jogged inside to get them from the kitchen. "Can't you just pull out another bath of the scrolls instead of sending him to grab them?" Billy asked.

"That is a good point. Oh well he is already there, he will be back in a little bit. It's not like it's a big exertion for him." "That's true."

Guss came back a few seconds later and walked over to Duke who was still on the ground. "When you are done dying on the ground you should rip all of these in half. They are skill scrolls like in the game, when you're done just say system. It should be self explanatory for you."

He dropped the papers on top of him.

"We will be inside, come join us when you are done playing dead. Using the scrolls should also help with your exhaustion and sore muscles."

Duke visibly perked up but still struggled to move drawing snickers from Guss and Billy as we walked back to the kitchen.