Lillian didn’t dream, instead an endless loop of the day played in her mind. Waking up, finding the well, distracting the zombies, and the weird golden orb she had made inadvertently. Eventually, Lillian started noticing flaws in her plans, the original drawing in the dirt didn’t account for enemies besides finding a weapon. When she noticed that detail, the event stopped replaying and the memories started again from her finding the well. She noticed, in that memory, that there were more zombies shambling further down the road, and she even recognised the one that tackled her briefly walking between buildings. When she noticed it, that memory also dropped out of the rotation.
Was she being shown these so she could see her mistakes? The next one is easy, she had slipped off the roof due to poor footing. When she watched the memory back closely though, that wasn’t the case, her foot had connected with a shingle on the edge, but it was one that was visibly loose, so when her foot touched it, it just gave way. That memory too fell out of the rotation, confirming her theory. The last memory was the weirdest, she couldn’t tell exactly what it was trying to tell her, It was the moment that she had created the golden sphere. After a few moments of watching those few seconds repeatedly, she started to feel that same pit in her stomach bubbling up, but it was not the torrent that she commanded earlier, it was a trickle, an echo of what she had experienced.
She just was not getting what it was trying to tell her. She tried to focus on that weird sensation, focusing on it made it more intense and closer to what she had felt earlier but it still paled in comparison. Lillian got frustrated with the lack of direction and the vagueness of it all and lashed out, screaming.
“What is even the point!” Lillian would be tearing her hair out if this wasn’t a dream.
The memory paused at the moment her hand connected to the zombie, and she finally saw it, a hand resting on top of her own, barely visible but definitely there. The hand looked feminine, and the one distinguishing feature was, what looked like, a loaf of bread stretched out on the back of the hand.
Suddenly, the memory faded, being replaced by what she could only describe as a character sheet. She was staring at a reflection of herself surrounded by stat blocks and skills.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="129">
Stat Type
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="78">
Value
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="129">
Vigor
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="78">
4
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="129">
Resolve
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="78">
6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="129">
Fortitude
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="78">
5
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="129">
Heart
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="78">
6
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Lillian had no context for what the numbers there meant, and the stat names themselves were so vague, Resolve could be affecting anything that required effort.
The skills were ordered under their stat types so at least that gave her some context.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="85">
Vigor Skills
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="41">
Value
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="99">
Resolve Skills
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
Value
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="104">
Fortitude Skills
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
Value
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="93">
Heart Skills
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
Value
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="85">
Basic First Aid
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="41">
2
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="99">
Basic Conduit
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
1
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="104">
Basic Learning
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
3
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="93">
Empathy
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
5
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="85">
Basic Running
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="41">
2
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="99">
Basic Reflection
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
2
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="104">
Basic Reasoning
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
3
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="93">
Charm
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
5
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center" width="85">
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="41">
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="99">
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="104">
English
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
5
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="93">
</td>
<td style="text-align: center" width="53">
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Vigor looked like it was body related, Fortitude was her mind and intelligence, and Heart looked like it was social ability. Resolve still confused her, though, reflection felt more like a skill that should be in the Fortitude category.
There was something else along the top if the “screen”.
Reflection Points: 3
Lillian wanted to know more about the points and what they did, so she instinctively reached out to touch the words. Her movements felt disconnected, like she was in that weird white space again and it was still a very odd sensation to move without movement. The action worked, however, and a small box popped up with a description.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">Reflection Points</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Earned each night in the reflection ritual, reflection points can be used to improve or add skills and to raise stats.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
That answers her question about Reflection, it was the part of her dream that showed her the memories from the day. The name made sense now. There was one more thing she was curious about, so she touched the Resolve skill.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Resolve
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Resolve is the measure of strength in the spirit.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Lillian couldn’t think of any RPG she had heard of that used spirit as a base stat, let alone had an entire level up system based on it. From what she could tell, the reflection skill allowed her the opportunity to relive her day and see details she had missed. This day it showed her the mistakes she had made and the spectral hand that guided her when she made the golden sphere. She just could not see the way those things connected.
That was something she could worry about later, however, as what she really needed to do right now was spend the points she had gained. She thought about her situation, she was in a new world, surrounded by zombies and had no context for if that was normal, or even if anyone would be alive in the vicinity. She needed that context to survive.
Tapping on the screen seemed to be the way to interact with this new system so she did just that, hoping to see if tapping on Fortitude would bring up anything. It definitely did, the box open in front of her now filled with thousands of lines of skills, all starting with “basic” and having a one beside them. At the top though was a shorter list of only 5 skills.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">Recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Common: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Environment Awareness: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Survival: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Threat Assessment: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Mechanics: 1
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Lillian knew common was the language just about everyone used in D&D so she tapped on that one and brought up another little box.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Basic Common
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Cost: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
This language is a mishmash of ancient and modern languages used by most of the current population of Lower Hampton.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Accept Decline
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Perfect! Lillian tapped accept and the confirmation box closed.
The other basic Fortitude skills didn’t really interest her at the moment, so she decided to just back out to the character sheet. The only skill that wasn’t clear what it would do is the Basic Conduit one, so she tapped on it, bringing up another box.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Basic Conduit: 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Being a conduit means capturing and releasing the energies of the soul. At a basic level one can move and capture energies only.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Upgrade?
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Cost: 2
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%">
Accept Decline
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
It was 2 points to level from 1 to 2 in the skill. She wondered if she was going to be able to train skills without actually spending points. That would mean she didn’t waste point on an easy skill to train up. She could test that theory during the day though, so she backed out of the box. She wondered if the cost went up based on the level and tapped on one of her highest skills.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Empathy
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Empathy is the understanding and interpretation of other people’s emotions and thoughts. At a base level, the empath can more easily engage with people who are experiencing high levels of emotion. This does however mean that the empath is more influenced by the negative emotions of others.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Upgrade?
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Cost: 8
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
You do not have enough points to upgrade this skill.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Lillian didn’t like that last part of the skill, but she had always been a sensitive soul, influenced emotionally by the people around her so this was probably the system making sense of her own nature. The cost was much higher than levelling Conduit, she assumed that was to discourage levelling skills by buying them. She needed to experiment to figure out what the best way to do things was. For now, she wouldn’t spend the rest of the points. When she had the inkling that she wanted to back out, another box popped up.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Leave Life Overview?
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.0268%; text-align: center">
Yes No
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Lillian tapped on the yes and watched as the screen in front of her went dark.