Avelina was more rested then she had been since the start of all of this. After her chat with Jacob, she had gone to sleep as he recommended. While she did find it a bit silly to sleep around someone who felt so untrustworthy and simply deranged it wasn’t as if she had much of a choice. What could she have done? Tried to run away and then get caught by the most likely far faster Jacob? What would that even have achieved?

It wasn’t as if Craig’s group had seemed that prim and proper either.

No. Jacob was an asshole, more than that even, but he was logical. As long as she was useful, she doubted that he’d do anything to her. That other group smelled of petty politics and she had a feeling that things would be far more dangerous there, especially as long as they were the enemies of Jacob.

And so she simply curled up in the corner of the room, using Adrian’s jacket as a pillow and just accepting that it was going to be rather cold. Due to her exhaustion, both from what had happened since the start of the culling and from the simple fact that she had already been running on far too little sleep she easily fell asleep, even with the subpar sleeping conditions.

She only woke up to feeling something firm poking her ribs, “What.”, she hissed out, never having been a morning person and having half-forgotten where she actually was and what had happened in her half-numbed state.

“Wakey, Wakey-”, Jacob called out with a smile on his face as he poked Avelina into her sides with his heavy boots, not planning to get much closer, “It is well, past, well, midnight if I had to guess from the time of the moon, perfect to get in some light exercise.”

His voice was akin to a bucket of ice-cold water being dropped over Avelina. As the woman suddenly shot up straight she could feel the wound on her shoulder, that she had patched up before going to sleep, flare up. She never had been the biggest fan of painkillers, except for once a month, but now she really wished that she still had some with her.

“Fuck you.”, she groaned as she massaged her ribs, giving Jacob a glare that she doubted he could see in the dark.

“Kitty got claws now that she’s all rested up”, A voice that she recognized as Max’ called out before a sudden slap echoed through the room.

“Keep up with those kind comments and I’ll show you claws”, the sole female security guard’s voice rang out, followed by a round of laughter of a few of the other men.

“Shit.”, Max called out as Avenlina’s eyes had adjusted a little bit to the dark, allowing her to barely see Max rubbing his cheek, “Couldn’t you have told me Jen was standing next to me, Klaus.”

“You deserved it, Max-”, Klaus’ firm voice that she could describe as being very fitting on any father type figure rung out, drawing out a thumbs up from Jennifer.

For a moment the normality of the situation got to Avelina, causing a brittle smile to sprawl out across her lips, fleeting as fresh snow at the end of winter. Still, this just reminded her of a few camping trips she had gone on in her youth, just a bunch of friends playing around and having fun by insulting and messing with each other, no hurt feelings present.

It really drove home the fact that the people she had been so suspicious and warry of yesterday only had been forced into doing all these kinds of shitty things rather recently. Perhaps it was unfair of her to judge them this quickly-

“You look better when you smile,” Jacob’s voice rang out once more, dousing her emotions and making her freeze up.

“Shame you always ruin it when you speak.”, she finally replied as she tested the waters.

“Ouch”, he made an exaggerated wincing noise as the smile on his lips never died, unlike Avelina’s, “Not afraid of me anymore if you are willing to give me lip like that?”

“More like testing the boundaries”, she admitted with a shrug, “Better to know what kind of temper you got when it comes out this kinda stuff as early on.”

It had been a risk naturally, but this was most likely the best moment. Jacob wasn’t going to mess with her too much given that they were about to do something rather dangerous and would need a medic on standby and frankly if he was messed up in the head enough to bash her head in that little bit of lip, she knew that she was doomed either way in the long run.

“Mhh.”, he stroked his chin before shaking his head, “I’m really starting to dislike the comparison I made yesterday.”

“Same.”, and that was that.

------

After the awkward mourning greeting and chat, Avelina had forced herself to get up. She had fixed her clothes and hair, mainly out of habit and for the first time since coming here actually properly inspected the weapon that she had taken of Adrian. At first, she had tried using it with only one hand, before quickly realizing that it was quite a bit too big for her to do so. It wasn’t as if it was unwieldy, but she just couldn’t properly control the tip by holding the handle as she assumed the weapon had been spawned in to accommodate for Adrian’s size.

In the end, it had been Klaus who suggested that she’d use it with two hands which felt a little bit awkward still, but was far better already.

Once that was done, she had opted against eating anything, only having drunk a bit of water. She didn’t know if she’d be keeping the contents of her stomach inside of them after all of this was over. With that, all taken care of she joined the rest of the group who was preparing to leave. The only ones who weren’t were Klaus, Max and Monica. Monica because she apparently would panic too much during it and the former two to have someone guard our own food supplies.

Still, as Avelina glanced at Max she had a feeling that Jacob didn’t properly trust the couple enough to leave them fully behind on their own and thus placed one of his more loyal and close friends with them to keep guard.

“Good, you’re ready.”, Jacob added with a smile, “You updated your stats?”

“Updated my stats?”, Avelina replied, the whole stuff about skills and stats having slipped from her mind due to how nonsensical it was. Without thinking much about it, she flicked her wrist and opened her status. The movement wasn’t necessary, but it helped with the visualisation.

Name: Avelina Louisa Croy Race: Human Titles: N/A Class: Medic Level: 2 Parameters Strength: 3 Dexterity: 8 Perception: 6 Endurance 5 Stamina: 4 Mental Capacity: 8 Magical Power: 0 Magical Control: 0 Unallocated: 10 Skills: Clean Cuts

“How many points do you have to spend?'', it should say at the bottom.”, Jacob added while leaning forward.

“Ten.”, Avelina replied without thinking much about it, yet suddenly Jacob’s smile became even broader and raised his hand, signalling something to someone behind Avelina.

As the blonde turned her head slightly, she saw Jennifer with a bit of a Cheshire smile on her lips, holding a simple club, “Sorry, girl, boss’ orders.”

For a moment a sudden rush of anger overcame the medic as she spun on her heels and grabbed Jacob by the collar of his shirt, yet due to the fact that the man was quite a bit taller and stronger than her, instead of it looking intimidating it just seemed a bit comedic. Akin to a small dog barking at a wolf who let it slide.

“Explain.”, she hissed out, “This wasn’t the deal.”

“Calm, calm.”, He raised both of his hands, eyes still glistering with amusement, “Everyone gets five stat points per level. You told me you were level two and I just wanted to check that you didn’t lie about it.”

“Don’t you think I could have just lied about the amount of stats I had! What was the point of this stupid test even!”, Out of habit she raised her voice, causing Jacob to press one of his fingers against his own lips.

“Come on, you are smarter than that.”, he whispered, “Think about why I would do it.”

For a moment the action actually got Avelina to calm down as she let go of Jacob, causing the room to lose the tension that it had. After a few moments, she let out a soft sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Because a test isn't useless just because it can be circumvented. Someone who didn’t know the set amount of stats you gained could have fallen for it”, she finally replied, “Paranoid fucker, you even saw me arriving after my Culling.”

“Your prim and proper persona is slipping more and more”, Jennifer laughed, elbowing Jay who stood next to her, “Maybe we can be friends after all.”

After Jennifer made her joke, Jacob smiled and shook his head, “I was actually a bit late for that, so I didn’t know how long you’d been there, I just assumed from the tension, but still wanted to double-check."

Finally, after another annoyed grunt, she glanced back at her own stats and inspected them. Seeing this, Jacob leaned closer again, putting his hand on her shoulder which earned him a small click of her tongue, but she didn’t feel like lecturing him about the definition of personal space at this point in time.

“Up your perception to ten at least, it helps with seeing in the dark”, He finally chimed in, “Then do something about that shitty strength of yours, your dexterity is probably already high enough. You want a solid base for everything.”

After a moment of hesitation, she decided to mostly comply with the group, she had something of a small theory that had popped in her mind when she had first seen these stats and wanted to test it out, but that was for later. She raised her perception to ten and could feel her eyesight getting sharper, sending a dull and painful throb through her head, painful enough to not have her put in more points into it.

“Oh, you already had a high perception.”, Jacob called out, once more sharing information in the smuggest way possible. Probably a six at least. Jenn had a five and passed out for a bit when she upgraded it, I had an eight and didn’t feel any real discomfort.”

It was bothersome. It really was. Jacob had so many qualities that she actually appreciated. He was callous, a bit of an ass and most importantly attentive to details and far smarter than she would have expected from any security guard. Still, the way that his eyes lit up whenever he explained his plans sent shivers down her spine. He scared her, even if she felt that she would have gotten along with him before all of this.

Finally, she decided to put three points into her strength and the remaining two into her dexterity. As she finished the allocation, she could suddenly feel her muscles cramp up, sending her slamming into the ground. Jay quickly reached out to catch her, but Jacob stopped him with a light smile on his lips, seemingly just wanting to mess with Avelina a little bit.

“Good, your strength should be at least nine or ten now.”, Jacob replied, seemingly satisfied.

The sudden cramps and pain that she was experiencing had almost made her miss the slip up that Jacob made. It was a bit too early to fully assume it, but she felt that the backfiring of adding stats happened based on the percentage you add compared to their original value, not based on the actual number that is added. She’d have to test that out in the future and silently filed it away, not sharing it with the rest of the group.

"Anything else?", she finally groaned out as she pushed herself up from the floor again, glaring at Jacob and ignoring the apologetic looking Jay, before dusting herself off properly.

"Your skills. What do they do.", He finally asked and this time Avelina did catch the little test in his wording.

"Good try, but it won't work twice in a row you know.", She grumbled before glancing down at her skills, "What levels do you get a skill at."

"Every 2 levels, for now, or so it seems.", Jacob didn't even seem bothered by the fact that Avelina had noticed that he was trying to confirm her level by the number of skills that she had again and if anything, seemed happy that he was getting called out.

"That was too easy of a trick," Avelina finally confirmed, "What are you playing at, Jacob?"

The response to her question was just his typical smile as he backed off ever so slightly again. This whole little exchange left her feeling a bit weary and jumpy, but she had a feeling that she wouldn't get anything out of pressing Jacob here and now.

"Clean cuts.", she finally read, "It increases the sharpness of tools and weapons I use."

For the first time, Jacob did look a bit surprised, confirming the fact that different classes got wildly different skills. For a moment she could even see a pang of annoyance flashing across his face, but that might have just been her wishful thinking.

"Good skill.", Jennifer finally said, "We'll test it out fully later today, not like it changes much."

"Well then, let's get going. I'll explain the plan on the way there-", Jacob clapped his hands together as he smiled and Avelina could feel that she was going to dread whatever it was, "And why I'm dragging you along, Avelina."