The Leveling of Humanity CH 2

Chase was ushered out of the house by Emily and brought to her familiar light blue Honda. He was surprised to see two people waiting in the back seat. There sat a girl with long dark hair, glasses, and a book in her lap. Beside her sat a guy with short blonde hair. Despite the heat, he wore a long-sleeved flannel shirt and smiled excitedly as the pair approached. They climbed into the car, and Emily immediately started the engine while gesturing to the duo in the back with her free hand.

"Chase, this is Gary and Sofie. They're my friends from my new apartment complex. Sofie was the one who found the website to learn more about our abilities and the importance of leveling up. There is a bonus for leveling up before the deadline." Chase smiled and shook their hands as Emily began backing out of the space and pulling forward to head towards the Atlanta spawn zone.

"Hi Chase, it's nice to meet you. Emily talks about you all the time." Gary said while they were shaking hands, Sofie elbowed him as Emily shot a sharp look into the rearview mirror, "Ow, why did you hit me? She does." Chase nodded at Gary while turning his attention to Sofie.

"I'm Sofie, and I was looking up whatever I could and found this forum, and this forum was talking about this other forum, and before I knew it, I was buying a subscription to this.. wait, that's not important. What's important is that you're here, and we're here, and we're going to level up before the deadline to get the bonus."

"Sofie, you're rambling again," Emily said with a smile in her voice. "But yeah, so Sofie found out that there are three tabs on our status screen. First, we know we have our stat page, which is the default page. Then there is the quest page. We can't see it, but anyone level two already has a quest listed there that says Hidden Quest Completed; level up before the deadline. It gives quest rewards and lets you get a start ability." Chase perked up at this information. It was far more than he'd expected to find out regarding the system today.

"What about the third page?" Chase asked eagerly, but Emily shook her head and looked in the mirror at Sofie.

"No one knows yet. We may not have enough levels to unlock it. So far, we can view it, but there is a weird symbol on it. Think about your stat screen, then nudge to the right with your mind. Hand gestures don't do anything, but they do help you mentally nudge." Sofie explained while she was doing the same. She subtly swiped her hand and tilted her chin, a small smile creeping onto her face as she did. Chase nodded and attempted to follow suit but was disappointed when it proved much harder than he thought it would be. Several failed attempts in a row were causing him to begin to doubt what they were telling him.

"Hey, it's okay. It took me a lot of practice to be able to do it too." Emily explained to Chase in a reassuring tone while reaching over and grabbing his hand. "Take a deep breath, and nudge it with your mind. Picture in your mind the tab changing." Chase nodded and tried again, and again, and again. Finally, the tab changed. In his surprise at the change, he nearly closed the menu completely while seeing a stream of binary that quickly converted to display what they'd described. Quests and Challenges were listed at the top of the screen. Nothing in the main field, but at the bottom was a footer with Phase Ends in 00:44:32 displayed. With several more mental nudges, he managed to get to a third tab. This tab had a red hue and a symbol that looked like a circle with an infinity sign at its center.

"You mentioned basic abilities. Do we know what those are?" Chase asked, interrupting the general soft discussions in the car. Gary excitedly sat forward.

"Yeah, man, it's like class choices in a video game. The stat points you get work that way too. I'm going the spellcaster route myself. I've always wanted to be able to use magic, and now I'll get to do that." Gary pulled some papers from the back of the seat and passed them to Chase, "We printed these off from that forum that Sofie found. The best part is after you select one, the system gives you a notification that you can change it once for free without penalty, so you can safely pick something to start with and then change it later if you don't like your starter class." Chase took the papers and rifled through them. There were a lot of options. Fighter classes, farming classes, servant classes, assembly classes, artisan classes, and Paladin were all options listed.

"What's Paladin?" Chase asked, and Gary looked at Sofie for help before hesitatingly saying, "Some people get to choose a special class that's not available for everyone, and we don't know what has to happen to unlock it." Sofie leaned forward and, while nodding, added,

"I wouldn't worry about that one. It's just a well-rounded one anyway, a bit of everything. Focusing on one of the main ones would be better long term. They all probably have some advanced classes to choose from later." Chase nodded in agreement while looking at the window and seeing the giant beam of light and orbs of lights drifting steadily out in the surrounding area. One sphere passed within feet of the little blue Honda, and Emily excitedly announced,

"We're here! We made it on time!"

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I hope you're enjoying my story The Leveling of Humanity, if you are please continue reading in the next chapter: https://vocal.media/fiction/the-leveling-of-humanity-ch-3