Chapter 22

  “I would appreciate it if you filled me in. Why do you suspect that to be the case Phony?” Wes asked.

  Phony, by this time, had fashioned herself a comfortable seat in the dirt. The soil caressed her body in such a way as it accentuated her attributes. Her tiny waist and being the highlight of how her tight-fitting shirt did not have any other choice but to hang over her sides do to there being no shelf.

  Now that Wesley had really decided to take her in he saw that she was wearing leather boots like he was. Not the same style of course, but they offered the same durability he suspected. They were rugged like his. Her pants had strips of leathers along the knees and hips as well.

  Breaking him from his musings, Phony snapped her fingers to get his eyes on hers. She smiled as she nestled into her seat more. “I think we are on 8124D because it is the one where the strongest in the Clans still live. Mother would want to stash you here for an eternity. She has many responsibilities on our side of the universe. As easygoing as she may have seemed with you, she rules her holdings with a heavy hand. If her attention is here for to long the borders of her domain will be encroached upon by others.”

  “That told me nothing.” Wes held his arms up in a mocking gesture.

  “What I am saying Wesley is that you can not monopolize her time the way you have. You seeing her as much as you did over the last 48 hours is a rarity. I have seen her myself only once in the last three years before her meeting with me about you.” Phony sighed. “You can imagine my disappointment when she only came along to tell me about you.”

  Wes let the jab at him hang in the air.

  Phony continued. “So what I am really saying is that she would want to stash you somewhere safe. Somewhere that outsiders would be found snooping around, somewhere where her dropping by from time to time would be seen as nothing more than her checking in on things. And of course somewhere where you will be protected while you gain levels.” Phony looked at Wes seriously and pointed. “And don’t think I haven’t taken offense that you have not shown me your status yet.”

  “To be fair, you haven’t shown me yours.” Wes shot back.

  Phony asked. “We doing a full reveal?”

  Wes winced, “I am afraid I can’t share with you my traits. Your mother made it clear I should never share my traits with anyone. And after your reaction when we first met, I am beginning to understand why.”

  Phony exaggerated a huff of disappointment before sharing with Wes her status.

  Name: Phoneuo of 7738M

  Race: Human

  Age: 24

  Unique Abilities: Hallowed Domain

  Abilities: Runners High, Mana Shield, Redirection,

  SharpenedMind, LifeSteal, Mana Arrow, ManaSlash

  Skills: Swordmanship, MinorLeatherwork, Braiding,

  Fluid Tongue, Workers High, Chopping, …(x36)

  Achievement(s): Last Stand

  Trait(s): 1

  Current Status: Healthy

  Level 255

  Health:10,050,000

  Stamina:4,150,000

  Mana:7,050,000

  Strength:9,000,000

  Dexterity:7,000,000

  Wes sat back into the hard soil as he looked over Phony’s status. He had never seen a completed status screen. Her health was a jaw-dropping number alone. But he couldn’t help but feel a bit naked in comparison. She was three years younger, but was still two hundred and fifty-three levels higher. The gap in their levels seemed impossible to bridge.

  Wes couldn’t help but look over all the different things over and over before the patterns he had seen in Dozel’s and Mordune and Orthol’s status stuck out. Looking over to Phony, he caught her fading grin for a moment. “why are some words stuck together and others are not?”

  “You really are from an uncivilized world. This is really common knowledge stuff in the universe.” Phony said.

  Wes shot back. “Maybe in your universe. But the universe I grew up in, only the lucky ones got a status, and even then, none of them ever had much chance to populate it with abilities. Those who attained levels always put it on their health stat to live longer.”

  Phony held up her hands in surrender. “Fair point. All abilities in the universe are common. You can awaken just about any ability that there is that is not unique. Same goes for skills. Skills are usually what you can do as a profession, and Abilities are what you earn when you level up every 25th level. You following?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Wes nodded, so Phony trudged on. “Okay, this is where debates still happen. Even after all the research and studying of the way the words manifest, we still can’t for certain predict what allows them to be combined or separated. But what we do know is that these words can be influenced by your efforts. The bigger the effort you give, the more likely you are to have a better version of a skill. I mean, in the version you get. Either combined or stuck together, of course. Not the rarity. Still following?”

  “Ugh, I think so.”

  “Good. Well, here is where the tricky part begins. It has been studied and tested over and over again that if you and I went for the same skill and gave the exact same amount of effort. We could still end up with different versions of the skill. I could have the combined, and you could have the better separated version. But thats not all, the rarity could be different as well. For example, I could end up with MasterFireStarting with the words attached together, while you end up with the same skill essentially. But it could be Minor Fire Starter. Oh yeah, you know about the more words a trait has, the more powerful they are, right?”

  Wes nodded. “I do now. Your mom filled me in.”

  Nodding Phony continued, “Well, the same goes for abilities and skills and achievements. Just by your version of fire starter with three separated words, it would be better than mine, where it counts as one word.”

  “But what is the difference?” Wes asked.

  “Overall, not much changes in the structure of the skill or Ability. You are just better at using them when it comes to skills. Having the better version in abilities allows you to use a lot less mana. But that's not the important part really. The important thing to take to heart is that you should only do things when you can dedicate your time to them. You want to give it your best effort always when adding another word to your status. Because upgrading one from the lesser version is a pain. I have been trying to upgrade my MajorArmorSmithing for fifteen years now and have not done it. And I don’t expect to for thousands of years.”

  Wes nodded along, he was deep in thought, comparing what he could remember about Dozel and the other two’s status.

  Wes asked her a few more questions about her status, but all were inconsequential to his own. Nothing he didn’t already assume or know about. Wes was about to get up when Phony called out, “Well?”

  He replied, “well, what?” but as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized what he had forgotten to do.

  He shared his status with Phony.

  Name: Wesley of 29744C

  Race: Human

  Age: 27

  Unique abilities: Imperial over Metric, Back in My Day

  Abilities: Deposit, Eternal Spark, Cleanse

  Skills: N/A

  Achievement(s): Bloody Soul, Pragmatic Savant

  Trait(s): 3

  Current Status: Blessed

  Level 2

  Savings: 2,506,925

  Next Level: 414.72

  Level 2 Exp Per Sec: .0048

  Current Exp: 48.384

  Phony’s eyebrows as she saw Wes’s Experience tick up second by second.

  .. 48.3984

  …

  .. 48.4272

  Phony counted the seconds and saw Wes’s experience rise just as his Status indicated it would. Her lips naturally formed a smile, followed by an immediate grimace like her mother had done the first time she saw his status.

  Dozel, who had remained mostly silent for the prior conversation, looked at Wes expectantly. So Wes shared his status with her as well. She shared the same interaction that Phony had just been wearing.

  Wes couldn’t help but smile at both their expressions. He couldn’t help himself. “What do you think?”

  Dozel was the first to speak. “Do you mind me asking what your stats look like?”

  Wes shook his head. “No, I don’t. Just look down toward the bottom of the page. You see my savings?”

  Both girls nodded yes, so Wes continued. “That, from what Nia and I could tell, is all my stats pooled into one bucket. But now that I think about it, if that is what I got from Argyros, I can’t help but wonder what I would have been expected to do without Argyros' wager? My status is curious to me, and all I do is look at it in every free moment I have. I am sorry I can’t explain more, but it feels like everything that I have been through in the last few days has kept me off balance. I went from being a poor man on a slightly more developed planet than the frontier to a poor man with servants a hundred levels above himself.” Wes sighed to himself and looked up at the empty sky. “I was given a house a thousand times bigger than what I grew up in. And less than twenty-four hours later, I am here, and from what Phony tells me, I will probably be here for a while. I just have not had any solid ground under me since my sister passed. So, forgive me for not sharing my traits to offer greater clarity for you. I just don’t feel I can depend on us sticking together or me being around for long.”

  The girls took his judgment of them and their situation in stride. They did not take offense to what he was saying, and when they considered it themselves, they could see that he was more than right; he was being told one thing only for those around him to change their minds.

  Phony followed up after some consideration. “I hope you don’t hold it against my mother. She is a bit eccentric, as all gods are. But she is someone that is worthy of your trust. If she put you here with us, it is for a reason. She has a lot of experience to draw from. If she thinks sequestering you away to this planet, then I believe that we should be thankful for her giving all of us this opportunity to grow together.”

  Wes laughed, “No, I am not holding it against your mom or you guys. I am not some spoiled brat pouting. I just wanted to share with you that it is hard for me right now to trust anything. To me, it still feels like the minutes after I found out that my sister Marny had passed. My hope is that with time, I can grow to depend on you. And that I can grow into someone that you can depend on.”

  “Now I get it. Too much change too fast?” Phony asked.

  Wes nodded.

  Dozel added. “Take your time, but we have already agreed to support you. I can’t speak for Phony, but where I come from. To enter into the support role is not done lightly.”

  “Same for us humans.” Phony agreed.

  “I understand, all I am saying is just give me some time to adjust. I would love to trust that you would be with me always to support me.” Wes flicked his finger to Phony. “But from the way your mother reacted, and the way you both have, I can see that my traits are highly sought after. And from what your mother says, if their details got out, I would be in the best-case scenario, pestered into being some prized stud. Worst case, I would be kidnapped and imprisoned.”

  Both Phony and Dozel looked at each other. They shared some unspoken agreement. Answering as one. “We understand.”

  Smiling Wes said. “Thanks.”