“No, what are those?” Even if she had a Permanent Skill, she hadn’t heard about Classes, or plain Skills. Arthur shook his head, walking with her to the cottage, which was presumably the infirmary. Now that he’d ascertained that she wasn’t interesting, powerful, or a monster, he didn’t seem very interested in speaking with her. Thankfully, the walk was short, and the silence only felt uncomfortable on James’s end. Regardless, she was too nervous to do anything about it.

Finally reaching the building, he opened the door and gestured for her to go in. Despite her attraction to the space, she was not enthused about entering a small, enclosed area so soon after her last panic attack, she eyed him uneasily, the memory of his gun in her face still all too fresh. Deciding that she really had no other choice but to comply, James walked in and was greeted with a softly lit room. She supposed it couldn’t be too bright though if it depended entirely on sunlight for illumination. There were some beds with people, a desk, and a guy in his late 40s who looked up when they entered.

Arthur smiled at him and gestured for him to come over. Given that that was the only time she had seen Arthur smile, James concluded he actually liked the guy. She wondered why he would saddle him with her.

“Dr. Aubert! I got a straggler here, name’s James. Would you mind getting her all caught up? She could also be your assistant, she said she’s doing veterinary studies.” And just like that, she was handed over, another problem checked off by their fearless leader: Arthur the Great! She knew she was a waste of time for them, but Arthur’s clean escape, punctuated all the more by the door closing behind him quickly after, hammered it in even further.

Maybe his smile was to soften the blow of her arrival and the inevitable work she would cause? She knew she was a liability, but he didn’t have to be so callous about it. Dr. Aubert snickered at her look, motioning her to come over.

“Just call me Christian, we’ll be working together. This is our advanced, top of the line hospital. There are the beds, where Jean-Paul and his colleagues are getting some rest until I say so,” he gave one of the men a look. “This chair is where I sit, but I’m sure we can find you one too.” He gave her a quick wink. “Now, how can I fill in the gaps?”

James eyed him critically. Normally demeanor wasn’t enough to calm her down, but somehow he’d managed something medicine couldn’t? She could feel something tugging at her will, going along with his unspoken message of him being able to help her. Since it didn’t feel malicious, she let the soothing sensation wash over her, unconsciously unclenching her fisted ahnds.

“I’m new.” She shrugged, “Arthur mentioned Classes and Skills?” The words felt capitalized, like they were important. Their significance seemed to transcend any earlier definition she had of the word; she doubted she could log on to a Class like the ones in her college.

“Ok, keep in mind we aren’t totally sure about any of this either. It’s all experimental data with no control, clinical trial, peer review, or proper statistical analysis.” At her nod, he continued.

“Classes seem to be your role. For example, I’m a Physical Healer Apprentice. Every time I do something that lines up with that tag, I get experience. Once I earn enough experience, I can level up. With every level up I get more stats, which can then help me do my role better, helping me to level up, etc. etc. Essentially, from what we can gather, it’s a cycle. So, if you get offered a Class by the System, take it and let Arthur know so he can deploy you best.”

“What Class is Arthur?” At this point she was convinced that her people headache was connected somehow to Classes. Arthur clearly had one, and probably high-leveled too. She would bet she’d be able to point him out with her eyes blind-folded after getting spun around. Christian had a similar feeling to him, but a lot calmer. It still didn’t feel as high as Arthur’s though. His wasn’t a headache either, which she deeply appreciated. It helped negate everyone else in the building.

“He’s an Infantry Second Lieutenant. Basically means he outranks all of us. So when he speaks up, we all listen,” he gave her a meaningful look. Obviously, everyone was now including her.

“Now, an interesting thing about stats. The numbers might go up on your status page, but you won’t feel a physical change, at least in most cases.

“An easy one to explain it with is strength, which, as far as we can tell, strictly represents how strong you are relative to the average, pre-System human of your age and gender. If your strength stat increases, you should be able to lift more, but you won’t feel any stronger and you won’t be until you ‘call’ for it.

“For example, if you’re walking around, you won’t suddenly be leaving indents around in the ground by accident. However, if you need to suddenly lift a very heavy object and don’t think about it too hard, you might actually be able to. We’ve found that if you doubt yourself, you tend to be unable to do things you should otherwise be able to with that stat level,” he kept eye contact with her to check up on her understanding. Normally this would cause James to fidget, but she still didn’t feel the usual awkwardness she experienced around people.

“The one stat that tends to have affects you can immediately feel is perception. Similar to the strength stat, it is relative to how the average human your age and gender usually gets their sensory input. Though the changes are hard to formally track since we lack the proper tools, if people put their free stat points, which we will go over later, in perception they can usually immediately tell. Most report how their eyesight has improved, or they can suddenly taste more nuances in their food.

“Let me tell you, once someone’s sense of smell goes overboard, they tend to become a lot more obsessed with cleanliness, you should have seen the clearing a couple of days ago,” he quipped to her and waived his hand above his nose to signify the stink. He was right though, James certainly appreciated that she missed that. Her perception stat was the one outstanding feature she had, and she suspected she would have just decided to not come to the clearing at all if it was as bad as he implied.

“Next: Skills. Skills are something you can learn outside of your Class or have them offered to you when you level up or join a Class. For example, for me, I got my Skill Reset Bone when I accepted my class. Outside of my Class, I got the Skill Calming Aura.

“Now, something you didn’t mention, likely because Arthur didn’t and it’s honestly irrelevant to most, are race levels. Since you’ll be working with me though, it’s probably better that you’re caught up on everything.

“Race levels appear to be much harder to earn than Class levels. Case in point, only a handful in the clearing have any. We don’t know why that is, or what experience gets designated for your race level. My own theory is that everything counts, but because everything counts, it counts for a lot less. So if we say me setting Jean Paul’s bone here gets me 100 points of Class experience, it only gets me 10 or so points of race experience. That being said, I haven’t been able to quantify anything yet, despite this System being so driven by numbers.

“Race levels also get you stats. So far, it’s been an increase of one stat point in strength, vitality, and agility. We also get 3 free points to distribute as we please, which are the free points I mentioned earlier when talking about stats.

“I’ve also been told that these race levels can get you Skills, though the only one I’ve been told about so far is Identify. Keep in mind we don’t have a real way of proving most of this.”

Christian shrugged his shoulders helplessly. The action seemed to downgrade his own opinion of this information, but it was obvious he had been the main person compiling it. If anything, it made her opinion of him shoot upwards: anyone that could keep track of all of this was surely talented. “Any questions?” He finished his lecture, sitting down with his hands sat on his thighs as he looked James in the eye.

“Not any that I can think of right now. How could I help you?” He grinned.

“You’re my type of person! Well-” An ear-splitting scream rung out, and it took a second before James realized it was from her. What a way to make first impressions. And lose her voice. That too.