Alex sat huddled on his bed in a dark forest, the trees creaking overhead. His blanket wrapped around him to fend off the chilly night air. Every so often a noise would make him whip his head around and stare fruitlessly into the gloom beyond the trees, hoping it wasn’t some crazy monster coming to eat him. His imagination running wild with the possibilities of what could be out there. That is if he was to believe the status screen in front of his face was in fact real.

It’s all in your head, Alex, he thought to himself, trying to reassure himself. He let out a nervous laugh. Just because you’ve summoned a glowy page thing a thousand times that says you're a demon does not mean there’s monsters crawling through the very dark forest. A sudden sound from behind him made him swing his head to look. His green eyes squinting to try and see anything past a few trees in the dark. The thick canopy above blocking any sort of light that might have come through. He jumped back in fright as a blue box appeared.

You have gained the skill

[Perception] (common) lvl 1

5 XP gained

With a thought, Alex dismissed it, breathing heavily as his racing heart started to slow. At least I figured out I can mentally get those boxes to go away. Only took a hundred times waving at them, he thought sourly. Though I think I’m beginning to get the hang of these boxes.

With a thought, he summoned a different box from the one before. Instead of the status page he had figured out how to summon before, a page with a whole bunch of skills that he assumed were his popped up.

Skills

Inferior

[Studying] lvl 16

[Cooking] lvl 4

[Cleaning] lvl 2

Common

[Reading] lvl 6

[Driving] lvl 4

[Sneak] lvl 4

[Improvisation] lvl 3

[Writing] lvl 3

[Woodworking] lvl 2

[Metal Working] lvl 2

[Survival] lvl 1

[Perception] lvl 1

Uncommon

[Mathematics] lvl 13

[Tinkering] lvl 2

Rare

[Engineering] lvl 7

[Physical Science] lvl 3

I honestly don’t know what to make of them. He frowned at the page. There never was a box that popped up saying I gained the [Mathematics] Skill. He had tried touching the different Skills to see if they would give him more information on what they were, but every time, the box just disappeared. What I wouldn't give for a wiki on this thing. Though I doubt it would even help that much.

Seeing all these skills is kind of nice though. Don't know what to think about my highest level skill is studying. Though thinking about it, that's what I've been doing pretty much my whole life, going to school. It is nice to see that [Mathematics] is high up there.

A distant howl brought him out of his thoughts, putting him on high alert instantly. He scanned the trees, looking for the glowing eyes that he knew were out there.

He squinted a bit and frowned. Maybe it’s slightly easier to see? Alex thought, trying to see if the [Perception] skill did anything. Probably just in my head, a placebo or something.

Fishing out a mostly non-squashed berry from his pocket, he popped it in his mouth. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some more of these tomorrow, he thought while chewing on it. They’re definitely helping keep me awake. A sudden breeze made the tree above him creak ominously. Not that I think I would be able to sleep at night in the woods anyways.

Trying to take his mind off the possibility of things lurking just past his vision, ready to pounce on him, Alex pulled up his status page.

Status

Name

Alexander White

Race

Demon (Human)

Class

-

Level

1 (10%)

Titles:

Marked by The Serpent

Health

10/10

Mana

11/11

Stamina

5/6

Attributes

Vitality

10

Toughness

8

Endurance

6

Wisdom

11

Vigor

6

Presence

6

Agility

10

Intelligence

13

Strength

7

Willpower

8

Attribute points

10

He looked at the confusing mess of statistics that seemed to represent himself. Hmmm, the percentage next to the level increased, so I'm guessing that's the XP gauge. It had raised from 5% to 10% after he had received the notification that he had gained the [Perception] Skill. Both the [Survival] and [Perception] Skills both gave 5 XP for gaining them. Maybe all skills just give 5 XP? Doing a bit of quick math, he tried to figure out how many skills it would take to reach 100% on his level. So, 20 skills for the first level. That seems pretty excessive, honestly. Looks like I’ll be stuck at level 1 forever.

On a happier note, it looks like I have mana! Which means magic! He took a second to envision himself throwing fireballs and flying through the air. But I've got no idea how to actually use it. He felt good cheeks heat up, remembering just an hour or so ago when he had started saying names of spells he thought should exist, trying to make them work. Instead of being able to wield the mighty power of magic, all that happened was that he felt exhausted and looked like a fool dancing around the trees.

Alex shook his head, trying in vain to get the memory out of his head. He pulled up his status screen again to try and distract himself. Deciding to leave the mysteries of mana alone, for now, he turned his attention to health and stamina. Those seem far more straightforward. I’ve already seen my stamina drop while prancing around like an idiot, so I’ll just assume that it’s tied to physical exertion. He looked at the number six sitting next to his stamina. That really doesn't seem like that much, seeing as just jumping around for a bit like a loon ticked it down two points. I guess I should have tried harder in gym.

Moving on to the next one, Alex turned his attention to the numbers next to health. With a shrug, he raised his arm and punched his thigh fairly hard. Wincing a bit, he looked back at his screen. He frowned when he saw his health still showed 10/10. Am I that much of a wuss? With more determination this time, he swung his fist down again at the meaty part of his leg. Biting his lip in pain, Alex looked again at his health, which showed 9/10.

That's definitely going to leave a bruise, but hey, now I definitely know that my health goes down when I get hurt. Now that I've figured that out, time to look at the attributes.

With determination, Alex peered over the last of 10 different attributes, feeling a spike of joy seeing that good intelligence was the highest out of them all. Though I bet Sam's would be 20 or higher. And the rest of them don't seem too good. The lowest of them being a 6, in three different ones. He paused for a second. Though I guess I don't know if 13 is actually good or not. The baseline could be 20 for all I know.

With that thought in mind, Alex eyed the attribute points at the bottom of the screen. I wonder if they do what I think they do. He reached out his hand to tap points, only got the screen to fizzle out. Fudge, I keep forgetting it's not a touch screen. With a mental command, he pulled the status screen up again and focused on the attribute points.

When he did, Alex got the feeling that he could add them to any of his attributes. He thought for a moment, unsure what to do. Now, let's just say this is real life, not some crazy AR that I'm in. What do I do? He heavily considered putting all of the points on strength, images of a burly version of himself danced through his head. But there's also magic, he told himself.

Hmmm, might or magic? He frowned, unsure what to do. Though there are ten attributes, and I've got ten attribute points. Might as well put a point in each one. I'll decide later what I want to focus on. Besides, this way I'll be able to see if any of the attributes match up to health, mana or stamina.

Feeling better about not needing to make a decision at the moment, Alex focused on adding one point into each attribute. With a mental confirmation, he saw all his attributes jump up one.

As soon as he did, a bubble of energy that felt as if it had always been there started to spring to life in the middle of his chest. Alex's eyes shot wide open as he felt a burning sensation ripple out from his center, washing over his entire body. It felt as if he had just walked straight into a slightly too hot shower, everything slightly too hot, but not quite enough to actually be painful. The sensation lasted only a few moments before subsiding. It felt as if the heat was pulled back from his body, and coalesced in his chest, leaving only a faint whisper of its presence behind.

Alex sat on the edge of his bed, surrounded by shadowy trees, not sure quite what happened. I think I can definitely rule out augmented reality. He shook his head, his body still feeling a bit warm from the remnants of what happened. That felt way too real. There is no way that was made with just a chip. With a thought, Alex pulled up his status to see how it changed.

Status

Name

Alexander White

Race

Demon (Human)

Class

-

Level

1 (10%)

Titles:

Marked by The Serpent

Health

10/11

Mana

12/12

Stamina

6/7

Attributes

Vitality

11

Toughness

9

Endurance

7

Wisdom

12

Vigor

7

Presence

7

Agility

11

Intelligence

14

Strength

8

Willpower

9

Attribute points

0

He smiled as he saw the changes that had happened. So I was right, the attributes do affect the resource pools, he thought happily, noting that they had each increased by one. Though I still don't know which attribute goes to which resource. He gave himself a mental kick. Crud should have done it one attribute at a time to figure that one out. I've got my guesses, but it would have been nice to know for sure.

Now, to test out what my new stats are! Alex found himself excited at the thought. How much stronger am I with an 8 strength instead of a 7? How much smarter, faster? I really wish I had a math test I could do to see how much better I am now. He chuckled a bit. Not every day that I wish I could take a test. He tried to remember a problem he had gotten on a previous math exam. Hmmm, it was something to do with how fast a function was approaching zero I think or something like that. He thought for a moment about how to solve it. I think it had to do with taking a limit... he trailed off, trying to remember the full problem, and also grappling with the solution. He gave up after a while, not able to fully remember the problem, and also not able to fully grasp the solution. Well, I guess I’m not too much smarter, though it was only a one point bump. I should put all the attribute points into a single score to really see how it changes! I wonder what a 24 in intelligence would feel like, or an 18 in strength. Now I only need to level up again.

I think that leveling up skills is what gives me XP that then raises my overall level, Alex reasoned, remembering the windows that popped up the two times he learned a skill. Or I guess it could just be when I gain a skill and there's other ways to gain XP. I guess I just need to raise my skills than to see, so that’ll probably take forever. He took a quick glance around the darkened forest. And I should probably do that tomorrow, so I have a little more light.

With that, Alex decided to try and get some rest. He wrapped himself in his blanket, and curled on his bed, his mind drifting off, fantasizing about all the things he was going to do the next day.