The car was hot; the AC was turned off to save gas for the trip, and the windows were all rolled up to keep tear gas and smoke out. Jessica was about to die, she knew she was. Every second was an agony of sweaty, sticky skin rubbing against her shirt, her pants, her belt, and worse. And to top it all off, her hair was frizzy because it was so damn dry!

“Just another few minutes and we can roll down the windows.” Aunt Kaline said from the front passenger seat. “We just need to finish getting out of town.” Kaline had curly purple hair, and she was pretty tall. Taller then Uncle Max who drove next to her.

“That’s right. Just a few more minutes.” Max said, before refocusing on driving. They wove between cars, took the long way around demonstrations on the one hand, and rioting on the other. Several times large police tank looking vehicles rolled down the street and they had to pull over to let them get through. But now, they were on the outskirts of town. Max had told them he wouldn’t be taking the highway, at least not until he got past the big cities. He’d use the side streets and back country roads as far as he could.

Rony leaned over and whispered in her ear again. “So how many points do you have exactly? I have like, 6 character points and 5 skill points from just getting level 1. Mom and dad said they each got two levels though they haven’t leveled up yet.”

Jessica had to fight from rolling her eyes. She had asked to ride with Rony’s family because he might know more about the game stuff. But from what he had said his dad, Uncle Max knew a lot more. She had more than enough time to wait to choose what to do with her points after speaking with everyone.

She sighed and gave in. She needed something to keep her mind off the world around them going to hell in a handbasket. “I have 102 characteristic points and 130 skill points.” She had already told this to Rony, but this time he wrote it down in a small notebook he was carrying around.

“You said you got access to two ‘skill stores’. Can you tell me what that looks like?”

“Why? You reached level one right? You should have access too I think.”

“I do. But I want to make sure we’re all using the same system. If people each have access to a different store, or have different stuff in the store then it's best we all know right? I’ll add it to the wiki.”

“The what?” Jessica asked, leaning over to see what her cousin was writing.

“The wiki. Like Wikipedia but just for stuff in the System. A bunch of them popped up overnight, but a few of the larger ones merged this morning. I think the government is ‘helping’ with a few of the smaller ones but I'm not sure. Honestly, if the government is involved it probably will get censored eventually. They wouldn’t want what their soldiers do for training, for instance put up on the wiki for everyone to see.” Rony pulled out his phone and pulled up the wiki site he was using. The website was choked with ads, but once he scrolled down a bit the information was laid out clearly for her to see.

“So what about it? Can you tell me what you see or not?” He asked again. Intrigued, she pulled up the Skills Store she had explored a few times the day before, and started telling him what it looked like. Then, she started reading each of the skills that were available in the drop down in the basic store.

“See, I have access to the Mundane Skills Store, the Advanced Mundane Skills Store, and the Magic Skill Store. Though the last one I only have access to for the next week or so.” She explained as she started reading off the advanced skills listed in the store.

“Really? Is that because you’re so high leveled?”

“The message I got said it was because I was so high leveled, and it was a reward for being one of the first to get that high.” She didn’t want to tell anyone the system had said she was the first person ever to reach levels 6 and 7. The thought scared her. Maybe she would tell grandpa, but the first person would definitely not be Rony. “And that’s also why I got the bonus multipliers for skills and character points.” Rony asked her to read the prompts exactly to him, and she did. Skipping over only the parts talking about her being unique. “What was that skill you had at level one?” He asked her.

“Innate Sense 1. It says that I can detect magic somehow.” Rony plugged it into the wiki and a page already existed with way more information then Jessica had thought there would be in just two days.

“Looks like quite a few people have it. It says that out of a survey of 300 people done last night in one dude's apartment complex, only 5 people admitted to having it. Taking into account the refusal rate, that means that somewhere around 2 to 5 percent of the population has it. That's just a rough estimate based on that one guy's quick survey though. It also says here that you should be able to tell when magic happens within 10-100 feet around you. The radius depends on how high your mental acuity is and how high the skill score is between 1 and 10. Apparently there is a cap at skill score 10 right now. Though some people think that once people reach some higher level threshold that cap will either be removed or increased.”

“We just reached the first country road.” Max said, as he hit the buttons to lower the windows. It brought in a fresh breath of air and removed the muggy sticky feeling Jessica had almost forgotten about. Everyone in the car sighed some kind of relief as the cool air hit their skin.

“Thanks honey, that feels nice.” Kaline said as she leaned back in her seat. “It also feels good to be away from the chaos.” The two adults kept talking and Jessica refocused on what she was doing.

They went through each of the advanced skills she had listed, most of them were just better or upgraded versions of the ones in the normal mundane skill store. Almost all of them were already in the wiki as someone else had gained access to the advanced store somewhere else.

“After everything you’ve said, and what I've been reading, I think everyone has access to most of the skills in the store. But, there is a little bit of divergence or customization based on life choices.” Jessica almost rolled her eyes but stopped herself. She wanted to know more.

“Explain.”

“Look here,” he turned over his legal notepad he had been writing on. On each line in neat clean penmanship was a single skill with the definition she provided. Most of them had a little bracket on them, a few however had stars. “The stars indicate that those skills are not in the wiki yet.”

“Okay, I follow that. But how can it be based on a person's life choices? How am I at all related to the skill 'skydiving shooter’? I’ve never fired a gun, or gone skydiving.” Rony smiled and she had to bite the inside of her cheek before she said something rude. She loved her cousin, as anyone loves their cousins, but he was always carrying around an air of smug self satisfaction., Like he knew things no one else did. And though perhaps in this case he was right, that attitude had always bothered her.

“You once shot a bow and arrow while falling off that horse during summer camp, right? Your mom always tells that story as proof why she doesn’t like summer camps.”

“Yeah, but I don’t see the connection.”

“What happened to the arrow that let loose from your bow?”

“It hit the target square.” She said slowly, remembering the feeling of satisfaction at the success despite the pain it had caused her in bruises. “Wait, so you’re saying because I got lucky one time doing something kinda sorta similar, the ‘system’ gave me that as an option?” Her cousin beamed at her and nodded.

“That's the theory anyway. Do you mind if I put that story down as proof of my theory?” She gave her permission and Rony gleefully began typing, transcribing his notes from the legal pad into the wiki.

Jessica opened up the Magical Store and began looking through it. Unlike the other two stores, this one was based on different ‘tiers’ of spells. The only tier available right now were tiers zero, and one. Zero had five skills listed for purchase using skill points.

Magical Skill Store

Tier 0

Mana Generation: The enhanced ability to passively turn a fraction of your life force into a small but steady stream of mana.

COST: 1 skill point for purchase.

Innate Sense: The ability to sense magic around you.

COST: 10 skill points for purchase.

Magical Manipulation: The ability to directly manipulate magic in all its base forms around you.

COST: 10 skill points for purchase. REQUIREMENT: Innate Sense.

Magical Lore: The ability to codify, identify, and understand magic around you.

COST: 10 skill points for purchase. REQUIREMENT: Innate Sense, Magical Manipulation.

Mana Pool: The ability to take in and store mana (the basic unit of measure for magic) internally.

COST: 15 skill points for purchase.REQUIREMENT: Innate Sense, Magical Manipulation, Magical Lore.

She tried to look at the tier 1 skills, but none of them would provide requirements, or even how much they cost. Only their names and a short, rather unhelpful definition. And there were far more in tier 1 than in tier 0. But it did list the requirements to unlock the tier 1 skills.

Tier 1

Requirement: 1 Skill Point in Mana Pool, 1 Skill Point in Mana Generation

Conjuration - Bringing New Things Into The World

Evocation - Enhancing What Already Exists

Praesidium - Protecting What Has Value

Debilito - Weakening Those Who Would Destroy You

Abjuration - Spell Breaking

Transmutation - Changing the Substance of the World

Divination - Uncovering And Masking The Truth Of The World

Enchantment - Imbuing Things With New Quality

Illusion - Making Others See What Is Not There

Necromancy (LOCKED, Racial And Class Requirements Not Met)

“Hey Rony?” Jessica asked, interrupting her cousin's furious typing.

“Yeah one second. Aaaand done. What's up Jess?” She cringed, she didn’t like it when anyone used the shortened version of her name. But, he was family. And nearly everyone in the family, not her momma, called her that. No matter how many times she corrected them. Jess just sounded so childish. Jessica on the other hand sounded like an adult name. Someone who you could respect. “Jess? You okay?” The question took her out of her internal thoughts and back to the moment.

“You didn’t use my name or yours in that post right?” Rony looked at her like a confused puppy would for a few seconds before laughing.

“Nah, i’m not that dumb I used a burner account and posted everything under psudonyms. Why? Worried government spooks are going to come and get you?” He waggled his eyebrows at her and made that odd ‘ooooooOOOOoooh’ sound like from that old sci-fi show grandma and grandpa used to watch all the time. The Twilight Cone or something.

“Okay good. Well, I don’t know. This is all just really scary you know? Lots of things are happening and I don’t want stuff about me out there right now. I already deleted my facebook and twitter.”

“That's a smart move Jess.” Aunt Kaline said from the front of the car. “I already deleted them too. Removed everything. The only app I have on my phone now is MeWe and that's just so I can keep track of the Stone side of the family.” Kaline was Jessica’s mom's younger sister. She was the middle child between momma and Uncle Jethro who was the baby. Uncle Max’s family were a bunch of white farmers out in the middle of Idaho somewhere. The type that thought the government was out to get them all the time, and who had a ton of guns.

“In fact, both of you. Give me your phones.” Kaline reached a hand back and the two cousins gave each other concerned looks. “Don’t worry, I’ll give them right back. I’m just going to disable tracking and native wifi.” Rony complained, but Jessica handed over her phone without another word. She was starting to think Uncle Max’s family wasn’t so crazy.

“Dont worry champ, you can connect to the van’s native wifi. Its routed through Grandpa Stone’s radio network. It won’t be as good as your native wifi, but it’ll get you where you need to go. Particularly if you’re just doing text stuff on that wiki like you promised me.” Max’s voice had an edge of amusement and threat mixed as he shot Jessica a wink through the mirror.

“I saw that dad. And yeah, I know all about grandpa’s weird jury-rigged ham radio system. It barely gets 1 mg up or down.” Rony kept complaining until his dad put his foot down.

“That’s enough. I know you’re a tech jockey, so am I. But right now our safety is more important than you being able to play Clash of Clans on the go. Now sit back, and look out the window. Or go to sleep for all I care. Right now, we’re done arguing.” Rony opened his mouth to respond but Max cut him off. “If I get another peep out of you the tablet goes out the window, understood?” That shut Rony up and he sat back in his chair, arms folded and quiet.

When Kaline was done with the tablet he took it back with a grudging ‘thanks mom’ and sat and sulked trying to get the crappy wifi to work.

“Rony?” Jessica asked a few minutes later once the tension had started clearing from the car. “I have the magic skill store opened up, and I need some help understanding it.” Her cousin perked up and sat up ready to hear what she had to say. She read through the various options listed. While Jessica knew she probably understood it as much as anyone really would, Rony’s insights might be helpful. He had told her about the wiki, and walked her through several of the skills in the mundane and advanced store.

“Yeah? Like what?” Jessica read him the Tier 0 skills, and Rony wrote them down. “Interesting. It looks like they’re prerequisites. Things you need to have to open up the tier 1 skills. Can you see anything past tier 1?”

“No, it's all black. All I see is the tier numbers.”

“Well that at least confirms there are more tiers. How far do the numbers go?”

“Out to 15 it looks like.”

“Cool. I doubt that’s all of it but, that's probably what the system thinks will be the highest we’ll be able to get to here on Earth. That’s just a guess, but it matches with some of the other stuff I've read on the wiki.” They talked about the skills, and Kaline and Max even jumped in a few times adding in their insights as the rural area north of Detroit passed them by outside. Small towns, farmland, and even a few legit urban cities they did their best to bypass went by rather quickly as they talked and waited patiently for Rony’s tablet to pull up a page on the wiki to answer various questions.

“Rony?” Uncle Max asked, interrupting his son in the middle of reading a page describing the use of ‘close in energy projection’.

“Yeah dad?”

“Are you archiving those wiki pages?”

“Uh, no. Should I?”

“Yeah, let's have you do that. Save the pages on your tablet and if you run out of space let me know. I have an external hard drive or two around here somewhere. And be sure to get the reference pages too. At least one example of any of the claims in case we need to try to recreate them.”

“Got it dad.”

“Uncle Max?” Jessica asked, interrupting the two.

“Yes sweetheart?”

“Do you really think all of that is necessary?” Max was quiet for a long time.

“I hope not.” Was all he said in response, before he had to refocus on driving.