I sat down at a table right next to the sideway, a cup of coffee in front of me. I would have loved to chat more with Anne, but she had work to do as this cafe seemed really popluar amongst the middle class.

In our brief encounter, i had learned about nowadays money and the fact that coffee was still a middle class enjoyment.

Now i thought back to the stuff i knew about my quest. Hey, Whispy, what are 'stat-points'?

[Oh, Alira, i forgot that you used to be a mere mortal. Forgive me. You know, the screens you can see in certain situations, like when you use appraise? They are just a tiny part of the system. What do you think defines your strength, and speed and magical power? Or your survivability and resistance?]

Uh. I never thought about that.. so just tell me about that 'system'.

[It is faster to show you. As you are more than a human now, you can access your status-screen.]

My what?

[Your status screen. Just think 'My status'.]

How is thinking it gonna do anything? I need to say it, like a chant don't i? I was a bit confused.

[Oh, sorry again. Higher races can chant in their minds, without uttering any words aloud. Polymorphs are a higher race, so you don't need to chant aloud anymore either.]

What? That is like cheating, isn't it? You do not know when or even if i use a skill or spell?

[Haha if you see it that way, yes. There are other ways to detect chanting, but that is not the point right now. Open your status-screen.]

Yes, yes, Guide-san. My status..

A table popped up in front of me. How cool was that?

Name: Alira Wesz Occupation: None Level: 9 Class: Thief (Lower) Race: Polymorph (Human) Title: Harbinger of the Void Health / Max. Health: 280 / 280 Mana / Max. Mana: 280 / 280 STR: 6 INT: 12 DEX: 14 VIT: 8 CHR: 4 (This does not count as a stat) LCK: 6 (This does not count as a stat) Affinity: None (Locked affinities exist) Free Points: 8

Care to explain a little, Whispy? I stared at the screen i had never seen before. Sure, some kind of attributes that defined you made sense. But like this? And does free points mean i can get stronger, just like that?

[Haha, yeah. Okay. Name, etc. are self explanatory. So...]

[Health is what it says, your health. If it is zero, you are dead. Or in your case, suspended from reality for a while. Every point you put in this increases Max. Health by twenty. For humans it is ten per point, but you are better now.]

[Mana is the stuff that powers your spells, as you know. If it is zero you can not use magic. Except blood magic, but that is not the point. Points in it behave like Health. +20 for you, +10 for humans.]

[STR * 10 kilograms is how much you can carry for VIT * 10 meters, without breaking sweat. Also more STR, lower physical damage to your body.]

[VIT * 0.5 is your health recovery rate per hour, also increases poison resistance, mind control resistance.]

[INT * 0.5 is your mana recovery rate per hour, also less damage from spells to your body, the higher your INT.]

[100 / DEX is how much time you need to sprint hundred meters, you are already pretty fast girl. It also increases your reaction speed and nimbleness.]

[CHR is how good you can persuade someone to do your bedding.]

[High LCK increases the chance things go your way. 'High' means something like 10+ LCK. Yours is pretty average.]

[You can't put points into CHR or LCK.]

[Affinities are multipliers for skills of a certain type. For example a wind affinity of 2 will increase wind-skill effects by a factor of 2 as well. Affinities higher than 3 are very rare. More than one affinity is very rare, too.]

[Free points, yeah, put them in anything except CHR, LCK or affinities and you are golden. The reason you have eight points is that for every level, you gain one point as human. For Polymorphs it will be two points. But that does not count backwards, unfortunately. So you only got 8.]

[For details, just think the thing you want more details about, or ask me. You got it?]

I think so, yeah, thanks a lot. So, should i save points for now?

[Yeah, for now. We need to unlock at least one affinity of yours to see which stats you are gonna need later on.]

I have more than one affinity? I was pleasantly surprised.

[Yeah, or it would say 'Locked affinity' not 'Locked affinities'. You are something. But that was clear to me all along. Or i would not have been born into your mind.]

Haha, don't make me blush, Whispy. You can't make a lady feel special and then not make a move. But you can't make a move because you are me, so stop it.

[Sure, Alira.]

I grinned into my cup of black, savory salvation. My fourth cup.