A slow drip woke Silas as the incessant clamor of rain pounded through his subconscious, his mind trying to piece together the odd series of events in his dream from the night before. He'd been running around in some kind of nightmare-fueled town of furries?

He sat up and stretched, eyes still closed as he listened to the steady drum of falling water, a smile half-formed at the sounds of the storm overhead. He always loved a good storm, an excellent excuse to stay in bed curled up with a good book, even better if the power got knocked out for a bit—not long enough for anything in the freezer to thaw, just long enough for him to go through a candle or two as he hunkered down, listening to the rain while he read.

Had he fallen asleep in the bathroom, though? That might explain the drip and cold, hard floor he'd slept on.

Looking around didn't help, pitch black darkness greeting him, an odd white glimmer on the bottom left edge of his vision not going away even after he rubbed away the night's crust from his eyes.

The surface he found himself on felt like rough stone, which he tried not to think about as he carefully stood, noting the cold and his lack of clothes, except for some new choker necklace. Inching forward with arms out, he found a rough wall not unlike the floor and followed it to the right, looking for a light switch or some stairs.

Was he in a basement? His house didn't have a basement.

Or, no, he'd be on campus now, right? Maybe the dorm had one? His parents were right, he really shouldn't give into peer pressure and drink. Might explain his odd new fashion accessory? Who gave him the necklace, though? Had he met someone? Had someone slipped him something? He didn't even remember the party—or landing, even.

Had he been roofied?

Had he been kidnapped?

His stomach dropped as he found the metal bars to his cell. That wasn't good.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Let me out of here!"

Shockingly, other voices responded in kind, some low and gravelly, others screeching or hissing their angry, foreign words. None sounded happy, though a few chuckled darkly, either at his plight or one of the others shouting.

His breath quickened at the cacophony. Either he still dreamt, which, while a nice thought didn't feel likely, or the whole previous series of events hadn't been a dream at all and he really was stuck in an unfamiliar world, somehow on the wrong end of the law because some kids at a magic school had tossed him out with the trash.

Oh, right, and they'd apparently added a small pile of gold coins to his carry-on. An apology of sorts? Too bad someone else considered his bag their property, and he'd been too stubborn to just hand it over—like he'd just give up his laptop without a fight!

He finished his inspection of the small square room he was in. He found the constant drip and decided it was intentional, the ground sloped a bit towards that corner, the floor housing a grated hole smaller than his wrist. The other corner, close to where he woke, had a large, thin blanket. Not much, but it was something. He sat in the corner facing the barred front of his cell and wrapped himself in the blanket like a burrito, arms out of the covering so he could hug his knees to his chest.

Giving in to what seemed yet one more absurdity, he finally focused on the blinking white rectangle in the bottom left corner of his vision. Either he'd gone completely crazy or that was a terminal prompt.

A window filled with lines of white text appeared in the middle of his vision, causing him to scream and swat it away. The window vanished, and again the cursor blinked in the corner of his view.

After a moment of personal silence, ignoring the calls from beyond his cell and flashing cursor which refused to go away even when he closed his eyes, he took a deep breath and called up the window again.

[Scanning…]

[Integrating…]

[Initializing…]

[Soul Bond Successfully Formed!]

[Searching…]

[Skill Gained: Interface! +1 XP!]

[Congratulations, You Have Reached Level 1!]

[+1 Attribute Point]

[+1 Skill Point]

█

He stared at the words, trying to process their meaning, trying to not let himself get overly excited about what he thought the words possibly meant.

The messages seemed relatively straightforward, and when he focused on the message regarding the Soul Bond, he knew: Never again would he have to fear losing his laptop!

With a thought he summoned his favorite piece of technology, then frowned. He didn't have his mouse or controller. Gaming with just a touchpad might be fun, if you stuck to solitaire and minesweeper, or something text-based, but that was about it. No, he needed the contents of his carry-on bag.

Thinking for a bit just left him simmering. He was pissed he'd ended up in jail. It was just stupid. He hadn't done anything wrong!

He swept the area with his laptop screen, just in case he missed any hidden doors or lock picks. No such luck.

Dismissing his laptop back into…his soul, he guessed, he focused on that message window. He could level up and gain skills! Should probably focus on that, if he wanted to figure a way out of his cell and find all his stuff in a conveniently placed chest near the exit of the building.

He'd been training for this moment his whole life.

He focused on the cursor and thought, "Status," not a shred of doubt as to what would happen next.

Text scrolled up as new lines filled the window.

[Status]

Info: Silas Aegis Dircks (11 y/o Human)

Level: 1 (1/1 XP)

Health: 11/11 (15 per day rest)

Stamina: 11/11 (15 per min rest)

Mana: 12/12 (10% eff.)

Sanity: 72/100

Comfort: 55/100

Attributes (1 Attribute Point):

Physical: Strength: 8

Agility: 10 + Endurance: 11 + Vitality: 15 + Perception: 12 + Mental: Will: 14 + Wit: 16 + Spirit: 12 + Affinity: 10 + Charisma: 9

Skills (1 Skill Point):

Interface (Level 1)

█

…First of all, he was more than a month and a half past his sixteenth birthday. What the heck, calling him a pre-teen brat?

The rest seemed rather self-explanatory, excepting whatever "10% eff." meant in regards to what he assumed was his mana regen and the exact use of each Mental stat, though he had some guesses.

Focusing on the various attributes didn't give him any additional info, though it did move the cursor around, so without overthinking things he focused on his Skill Point, generating a rather unhelpful prompt.

[Choose a skill: █

He tried to get more info, using a common terminal command, thinking "Help."

[Learn Help skill for 1 Skill Point? (Y/N): █

He considered. He wanted the contents of his carry-on bag so he could hunker down somewhere and game in peace.

Or, no. What he wanted was a way to properly get his gaming on. His parents had ruined his perfectly reasonable plans to sit behind his laptop screen from the comfort of his room for the entire summer, and look how their plans had turned out! He was in fantasy jail now! Forget them. Forget everything. He was going to hunker down right here and play on his laptop, darn it! He didn't need his carry-on bag, in particular. He needed a mouse and controller. And a chair and desk. And an internet connection. And snacks. He needed…

Saying no to the Help skill, he tried again, focusing on what he needed. Peripherals. Accessories. Internet. Snacks. A desk and comfy chair. Heck, a docking station leading to a couple fancy monitors and a gaming keyboard. Access to anything and everything that would let him game in peace.

[Learn Gaming Necessities skill for 1 Skill Point? (Y/N): █

Yeah, that sounded about right.

[Skill Gained: Gaming Necessities! +1 XP!]

[Congratulations, You Have Reached Level 2!]

[+1 Attribute Point]

[+1 Skill Point]

█

Already? Right, the XP was at 1/1, wasn't it? Now it said 2/4. So… 3, 4…5 for the level up. Three more XP until Level 3? Not the notation he'd choose, but whatever. Time for more important things.

He summoned the desk and chair first, tired of sitting on the ground.

Both were of the folding variety, the "desk" just a square of rough gray plastic held up by some flimsy black metal legs on hinges. The chair was one of those squeaky brown ones every school buys by the truckload.

Cheap furniture made to fill a function, no thought given to the user's comfort, but he shouldn't expect better from a level one skill, he supposed.

The mouse he produced was corded, with two buttons and a scroll wheel, and an honest-to-goodness roller ball on the bottom. Silas felt certain they didn't even make those anymore. Anyone who sold such a piece of crap should feel ashamed for taking advantage of the kind of people who would just grab the cheapest mouse available, thinking themselves thrifty.

Sighing, he summoned a basic mousepad, just a rectangular flap of black cloth. It would do.

He resummoned his laptop and plugged in the mouse.

Opening it up, a few programs were already complaining about lacking an internet connection. Right.

He summoned a USB modem. It was a fat, bulky thing, but he'd take it. After plugging the thing into his computer even found the right driver and before long lights were flashing. Connection Successful!

He ran a bookmarked speed test…or tried to. The paged timed out while loading. The search engine worked, eventually.

According to a low-speed test for dial up connections, he was connected at 25 kbit/s, which… He didn't even know how slow that was compared to his normal gigabit speeds, but it was darn slow.

He tried checking his email, despite the wait, but gave up after the window timed out a few times.

[Skill Gaming Necessities reached Level 2! +1 XP!]

Well, he wouldn't be enjoying any online games with those speeds, so he loaded up one of his favorite single player RPGs and started up a new character as he often did, deciding to see how far he could get without using spells, weapons, or armor, an unarmored fisticuffs only character.

With half a thought he summoned pizza and a soda, the truest of all gaming necessities. The pizza was cold, some store brand, and the soda was flat. Beat the water running along the side of his cell, though.

As the game began he considered headphones, but decided against summoning a pair, knowing whatever junk he managed would pale in comparison to his laptop speakers. He just turned up the volume so it could drown out the occasional chatter from the other prisoners.

The prisoners had long gone quiet, confused and intimidated by whatever the newest initiate to their ranks did within the confines of his cell.

He screamed and shouted while creatures roared right back, which was fine. Accepted, even. Some of them called out their Bonded when they grew bored too.

But other times he'd converse with other people speaking unfamiliar tongues.

Stranger still was the eerie music which played through it all, increasing in tempo amidst sounds of battle, returning to calming tones afterwards.

Then with a sudden lurch the music stopped and all grew still, until the strange boy began cursing, though they knew not what he said.

"Darn it! Darn it darn it darn it!"

It had been at least an hour since Silas last saved, never entering a zone which triggered an autosave, he knew for certain, when his laptop suddenly disappeared.

It had been going so well, too. He'd checked a few times early on, and the battery stayed at 100%. What the heck?

He pulled up his status and found the culprit.

Mana: 0/7 (5 reserved) (10% absorb)

He had five peripherals summoned. Dismissing the useless modem confirmed his theory on what the reserved mana did.

Mana: 1/8 (4 reserved) (10% absorb)

He'd been playing for around three hours, had eaten a tasteless pizza, and drank one bad soda and two bottles of water.

Apparently he reserved mana to temporarily summon peripherals and consumed one mana per food or drink, or hour of computer time—roughly.

So. He needed better mana regen, or any mana regen. Based on the arrangement of the stats and the 10% figure, he guessed Affinity had to do with that. While he now had five Attribute Points to spend, having leveled up to Level 5 with 29/35 XP, partially thanks to Gaming Necessities reaching level 9 but mostly thanks to his newly earned Gaming skill skyrocketing to 19, he suspected a 15% eff., whatever that meant, would be just as unsuccessful at filling his mana bar as a 10% eff. had been.

No, first he'd need to take off his stupid prisoner's collar. No doubt it restricted his mana regeneration, else the entire building did. Since he didn't feel like making a break for his freedom quite yet, he hoped it would be the former.

And even if the first skill he tried didn't work, he would still have four Skill Points left for four more tries. Five, soon as he gained a few more XP.

In fact, his Interface skill remained at level 1 and needed cleaning up. He'd also like to keep some basics always visible on a HUD, so he didn't have to keep pulling up his Status.

After arranging the data more to his liking he cut the Sanity and Comfort entries, as knowing such values would do him more harm than good. He was fine enough, and seeing the numbers insist otherwise didn't help, thank you very much.

He also expanded what he assumed was the local representation of his age, down to the hour, in lieu of any clock for local timekeeping, earning himself Level 6 in the process.

In the top left corner of his view sat an almost transparent window with his compressed vitals.

Age: 11y 3s 13d 15h

Level: 6 (36/56 XP)

AP: 6 SP: 5

H: 11/11 (15 per day rest)

S: 11/11 (15 per min rest)

M: 01/08 (-4)(10% eff.)

But, did he really need to spend his limited SP to buy a new Skill? He'd picked up the Gaming skill while playing games earlier, so there was more than one way to earn a Skill.

He needed the collar off. It was necessary for his gaming. He pushed his Skill, conveying what he needed.

[Skill Gaming Necessities reached Level 10! +1 XP!]

[Skill Gained: Inventory! +1 XP!]

[Status]

Name: Silas Aegis Dircks

Age: 11y 3s 13d 15h

Level: 6 (38/56 XP)

AP: 6

SP: 5

H: 11/11 (15 per day rest)

S: 11/11 (15 per min rest)

M: 01/08 (-4)(10% eff.)

Attributes:

STR: 08 WIL: 14

AGI: 10 WIT: 16

END: 11 SPI: 12

VIT: 15 AFF: 10

PER: 13 CHA: 09

Skills:

Interface 8

Gaming Necessities 10 Gaming 19

Inventory 1

█

With a grin he activated his new skill, willing his collar into an Inventory slot, the first of fourteen squares along a single row.

When the item disappeared he held his breath, ready to summon the thing back to his neck in case some alarm sounded or guards came running.

After a time he relaxed and used his new skill to collect the trash he'd produced so far. He might be in a cell, but he wasn't a slob.

The practice raised his new skill by one, and the size of his Inventory doubled, gaining a second row of fourteen.

Dismissing his mouse and mousepad, he summoned his computer again and started a document to track the time and his mana levels in a text document.

3:37 PM - (13d 15h) - M: 03/10 (-2)(10% eff.)

Once recorded he started some music and waited for the hour on his personal clock to tick forward an hour, making sure to save his work. While waiting he popped an empty water bottle from his Inventory to his hand and back again, hoping to grind up the skill.

He didn't have to wait long for the hour on his age counter to turn over.

3:42 PM - (13d 16h) - M: 03/10 (-2)(10% eff.)

Deciding he shouldn't waste mana for another caffeinated beverage, he sat and waited for something to change while playing with an empty water bottle, popping it in and out of his Inventory while considering what skill he'd want next.