“Where the hell did you learn to fight like that? No way that was just the combat skill.” Nick grabbed several cheap beers from the fridge, placed the bottle neck against the counter and then thought better of it, hunting through the drawers until he found an absurdly over-complicated bottle-opener.

“It looked like judo to me.” Jinny commented. She was leaning against the counter, close to Nick but positioned slightly away from him. He crossed easily into her personal space, handing her one. I blinked, numerous things clicking in my mind: the shared scent of perfume, the easy camaraderie between them.

Nick really did move fast.

Jinny continued, “When you weren’t throwing things or bothering tables, anyway. My uncle had a studio, or dojo, or whatever you call it.”

“I took lessons as a kid. Guess some of it stuck.” I squeezed past Nick, opening the freezer and searching through it until I found a package of frozen peas. Carefully, I wrapped them in a towel and brought it back out to the living room.

Sae was lying on the couch, blanket over her face. I pulled it back. She squinted at the sudden brightness and groaned, until I gently placed the bag of peas on her forehead. Her grumbling was cut off by a shiver and sigh of relief. The health potion was helping with the swelling and bruising, but her nose was still a mess.

“That was the martial art of hitting Sae in the face. A lot.” Sae said indignantly, her tone stuffy and nasal from the still-healing damage. Then, a second later. “Thanks for the ice.”

“On that note. Was that Wing Chun?” I asked.

Sae opened a single eye and peered at me suspiciously. “Because I’m asian?”

All my social nerves seemed to come back at once. “Uh. I mean. I know it's Chinese, and you’re… not. Just recognized it.”

“From the secret fight club you’ve been running?” Nick called from the kitchen.

“I fuckin’ saw Ip Man a few times, okay?” I snapped back at him. Jinny and Nick both snickered.

“Too loud.” Sae groaned. “And I liked how it looked. Picked it up for cardio.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

“Give me the blanket back.”

Careful not to touch her, I pulled the blanket back over her head.

“Matt, you want a beer?” Jinny asked. I heard Nick whisper something, then Jinny spoke again. “Or uh, water?”

I rolled my eyes at Nick’s mothering. “Water would be great, thanks.”

Sudden movement caught my eye when I returned to the kitchen. Jinny and Nick’s hands returning to their sides.

They were holding hands.

It was tempting to tease Nick, but realistically, it would probably embarrass Jinny more than him, so I held my tongue on that.

Nick pulled up a stool beside me.

“Alright, out with it,” I said.

“Out with what?” Nick asked.

“The reason you guys decided to throw me into the deep end, despite my only having a class for a day?”

Jinny and Nick both looked over to where Sae was, sprawled out on the couch.

“We uh…” Nick trailed off.

“We ran into a problem.” Jinny explained. “There was a fourth member before you. Hunter type named Randall. He talked a big game, but when we started clearing the area around the Trial—”

“Dude went full Apocalypse Now,” Nick said, mouth tight. “Just completely lost it. Pissed himself. Eventually, he accidentally shot Sae in the back with an arrow and ran off.”

Jinny lowered her voice to whisper level. “I was against testing you. Nick was too. But Sae insisted. Since we don’t really have a lot of time, she wanted to make sure you weren’t going to immediately lose it.”

I nodded, understanding. “And then I smashed her face into the table.”

Nick grinned. “I was just going to watch, pull Sae away once she got her gut check, but after that? I wanted to get a little action too.”

I snorted. “And the level differential? I’m level 3 still, and I’m guessing the two of you are significantly higher.”

Nick took a swig of beer. “So, from my extensive information gathering—“

Jinny rolled her eyes. “You mean calling everyone you know and asking questions.

“Like I said, information gathering.” Nick confirmed. “Levels seem to operate in terms of breakpoints. You put a few points in Strength right? You had to.”

“A few,” I confirmed, keeping my deception as close to the truth as possible. “Before I realized the stat points were going to slow down.”

Nick winced. “Probably should have mentioned that, my bad. Point being, a few points didn’t make you a bodybuilder, right?”

I shrugged. “More muscle definition, slightly easier to lift things. Nothing extreme though.”

“Right.” Nick nodded. “Just like a few points in Intelligence doesn’t make you a genius. I’ve been mainlining Strength, throwing a few points here and there towards Agility and Toughness. The first few…” he squinted at me. “You’re going to make fun of me if I say gains, aren’t you?”

“One hundred percent.”

“The first few advances were significant, but after a certain point I started to see diminishing returns. Which really put a dent in my plans to eventually throw cars at dragons.”

I glanced at him, then to Jinny, suddenly concerned. “Have either of you actually seen a dragon?”

Jinny shook her head, her face serious. “No. I keep telling him to stop tempting fate.”

“If there’s going to be dragons, there’s going to be dragons, and me talking about them isn’t going to matter,” Nick interrupted. “Anyway. A friend of mine told me he was experiencing something similar until he hit Level 10.”

My mind tripped over itself. How the fuck were people already that high? I’d been pushing myself to the brink without a party to share the experience with. Still, I couldn’t comment anything to that effect without drawing suspicion.

“Uh. Is that common? Feels like I’m starting on one hell of a back foot at three.”

Nick chuckled. “No. I’m Level 6, Sae and Jinny just hit 5. Dude was a monster long before the meteor, total grinder. What he told me was that something happens at Level 10. He was cagey on the details, but he basically encouraged me to keep putting points in strength.”

I considered that. “Definitely sounds like a breakpoint of some kind.”

Jinny hopped down from the counter and walked around the center island, tossing her empty into the blue recycling bin. “What I can’t understand is… why?”

“Could be a few different reasons.” I mused aloud. “Might be intended to keep us from out-leveling or dominating quest content too quickly. Could be to keep the gulf between Users from widening too quickly, keep us all on a semi-even playing field.”

Nick pointed at me. “See, that last part was my assumption as well.”

Still, even if stats couldn’t carry a User, I knew all too well that a single perk used correctly could make a massive difference. “There are bigger problems.” I looked at Nick. “Did you mention to anyone else that you could turn an NPC into a User? Anyone who might have sold that information to another group?”

“You, the team, and no one else.” Nick said, his brow furrowed. “Hell, the only time I’d even mentioned it in public was at that Turkish place.”

“Randall—“ Jinny started.

“Was an idiot, but I don’t think he’d do that.” Nick shook his head.

“It was totally him,” Sae called from the other room, her nose sounding fully plugged.

“It had to be,” Jinny said, exasperated.

I certainly hoped it was. Nick hadn’t realized it yet, but if it wasn’t their previous fourth, and he’d really been as careful as he claimed, then it was almost guaranteed that someone in this room was leaking information.

“The upside is, no one even attempted to follow me. So they’re probably just scouting you. Looking to bolster their ranks with someone who can award User status to preferred civilians.” I said.

“They’re going to be real disappointed when they find out I can only do it for one person at a time,” Nick grumbled.

I pressed my lips tight, considering the situation. “We might be coming at this wrong. The ability to create a new User is invaluable, yes, but if they’re actually looking to recruit you, it could have something to do with your class itself. They might know something we don’t.”

“Maybe,” Nick admitted, then his eyes glazed over as he navigated his menus. “Currently, we’re on a timetable. I feel it would be better not to leave that Trial for after whatever happens when that timer ticks down, in case we need the XP. Moreover, I think it’s best for us to have some cushion time for recovery if things go sideways.”

“Okay. That’s not a lot of time to spare. So, now what?” I asked.

“Now, we review abilities and figure out how you fit in with the team.” Nick strode to the glass door, and gave me a sour look. “Away from anything fragile.”

There was a rustle of fabric and a groan as Sae removed the blanket and rose to her feet. I followed Nick into the backyard, content to let him take the lead for the time being. His group had an established dynamic, and so far, there was no reason for me to mess with it.

I was dying to learn more about User abilities in general apart from my own.

And I needed as much information about Nick’s class as I could get, to get a metric for how much shit he’d gotten me into.