Chapter 2 – Well, This Is Strange

He left the girl to her own devices.

She had followed him down the newly elongated hallway, her footsteps dragging as if she expected him to turn around, hold the door, or offer some kind of reassurance now that the crying had stopped.

Instead, Jake stepped into the first available empty apartment, turned around, and closed the door right in her face.

He heard her stop short on the other side of the wood. There was a moment of stunned, heavy silence, followed by a sharp, frustrated scoff before her footsteps finally stomped away down the corridor.

Jake let out a quiet sigh of relief. He didn’t understand why she was following him anyway. She had stopped crying, which meant the problem was fixed and the hallway was quiet again. The interaction was over. There was no reason for her to be in his room.

He scanned the new room. It was bland; consisting of only a table, chairs, a bed, and a kitchen. He aimed for the fridge, but it was empty. That wasn’t good. He tried the kitchen sink for water, realising that if they were stuck on this floor, then it would become a necessity for survival. He turned the tap. Empty. Double not good.

With a groan, he sat on the bed. He’d worry about that problem later.

He scanned the room again and shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t like things that were unfamiliar. He liked his room just as he liked it, where the remote was in its designated spot, and how the plant pot sat neatly on his table. Even the sounds here were different. He frowned. He didn’t like it.

Was this one of the rooms the… thing added?

“System,” he whispered, recalling the words he had awoken to. “Like something out of a game.”

He tried numerous words, experimenting with whatever was going on inside his vision. When he muttered the word ‘Status’, a new screen flashed in front of his sight. He didn’t pay attention to the words, not yet; his focus was on the screen itself.

There was no sign of that static like the door or the bow had. Was it not magic? Something else?

Jake ruffled his hair, annoyed at not having the answer immediately. He finally focused on the words in front of him.

Name: Jake Maddox
Level: 0
Class: (Unlockable at Level 15)
Trait: Absolute Perception

Skills:

Minor Heal (Mastery: 0%)

Stats:

Strength: 6
Vitality: 9
Dexterity: 7
Perception: 21
Mana: 2

He tilted his head. Minor Heal? Was that… magic? It certainly implied it.

Jake grabbed one of the arrows from his quiver and tested it. The shaft was hard enough to resist bending it, but it was flexible enough to endure flight. The arrow-tip was razor sharp, triangular. He recalled his late night, early morning Youtube doom scrolling. It was a tip designed for hunting.

Without hesitation, he pulled the arrow-tip across his forearm, scoring a red line across his flesh. It opened up, blood began trickling out. Jake bit his lip, trying his best to fight through the pain.

Only now did he realise that he didn’t know how to use his new skill.

Minor Heal?

Just the thought was enough. A golden light flickered to life above his open palm. He watched it in wonder for a moment, until he realised that he only had seconds to actually use it—like a half formed instruction manual planted in his head.

Quickly, he brought his open palm with the flame to the wound. An intense itch festered on the surface of his arm, the light blinding.

When he brought his palm away, only a scar remained that was pink around the edges. The wound had healed.

Awesome, he thought, lips curling into a faint smile, then his world spun. His head ached and a sickly sensation crawled in his stomach.

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His back fell onto the bed as he watched the ceiling spiral. It lasted two minutes before everything turned back to normal, sitting back up with a lethargic groan.

“I guess that has something to do with my low Mana score?” He asked himself. If he only had enough mana to use one Minor Heal… that didn’t sound too impressive. And would it work on a larger wound? There was a lot he didn’t know, a lot he had to find out.

But wow—magic? He could hardly believe it. And weren’t healing powers rare in video-games? Unable to contain his excitement, he brought up his status once more and really focused on the words.

To his surprise, more information appeared.

Minor Heal: Uses a small burst of mana to speed up cell growth. It closes shallow cuts, restores blood, and stops surface bleeding. It cannot fix broken bones or regrow tissue.

Well, that answers that. He moved onto the next.

Absolute Perception: Removes all filters from the brain. Processes every sound, movement, temperature change, and pressure shift instantly without causing mental exhaustion. +15 to Perception.