Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long.

  Only a few moments after sitting down, Cindy twitched, her whole body convulsing once. Then twice. Then finally, her eyes fluttered open, revealing luminous blue irises that glowed with an etheric beauty.

  She sat up quickly, though I could tell she was disoriented. Rushing to her side, I grabbed her shoulder to steady her as she got her bearings.

  “Hey, Cindy. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

  “V… Vic? What happened? Why am I… !!!”

  Her eyes widened as they ran over my face and body, her frame freezing in shock. She was clearly panicked and confused, but frankly, I expected screaming, so this was a win in my book.

  “You’ve… changed.”

  I smirked, a dejected frown on my face.

  “Yeah, I… well. You see what’s happened to me. Now, don’t panic, but I just wanted to let you know that you’ve changed too.”

  Instantly, her fingers started searching for her phone across the desk. I noticed a tremor in her hand as she flailed around, searching. It was strange, to see someone I had always regarded as a rock so afraid.

  With her phone in hand and camera pulled up, she finally got a good look at herself. I could hear a small gasp come from her lips, but her familiar stoicism returned quickly. After several minutes of looking at her own reflection and body, fingers tracing her long ears and strange hair, she finally put her phone down.

  It was just in time, as well, because a panicked shriek ripped down the hall. Instantly, both of us were up and running to Taylors' room.

  She was sitting up in bed, her vine cloak writhing. Her chest heaved with panting breaths, her eyes wide and teary. She was clearly having a panic attack.

  Coming up to her, I saw her eyes turn to me, an expression of terror on her face, but before I could finish my approach Cindy placed her hand on my shoulder, gently pushing me out of the way.

  “Vic, I think it would be better if you let me handle this.”

  I swallowed down the sadness and hurt I felt at her words but nodded anyway. I understood.

  Calmly, Cindy walked Taylor through a series of breathing exercises while I waited nervously by the door. Faster than I expected, Taylor had calmed enough to breathe normally.

  “What… what happened? Vic… is that you?”

  Her voice was hoarse.

  I nodded solemnly.

  “Yeah, it’s me. Before we start talking about… all of THIS… let’s move to the living room. It’s also probably a good idea to lock all of the windows and doors, just to be safe.”

  They both quickly nodded their heads and rose to leave, but when Taylor tried to stand, we quickly noticed an issue. Her vines had grown into the mattress, locking her in place.

  I turned in a panic and started making for the kitchen to find a knife when I heard Cindy gasp behind me.

  Spinning back around, I marveled as the vines that once locked Taylor in place seemed to shrink and weave themselves backward toward her body.

  Cindy turned to Taylor.

  “Taylor, how did you do that?”

  She, too, stared agape at the vines around her, before giving a slight shrug.

  “I have no idea. I just wanted to get up, and then they moved. I don’t understand it either.”

  She rose and followed us out of the room, making no effort to grab new clothes to wear, something I thought was odd.

  “Aren’t you going to grab a shirt or something, Taylor?”

  “No!”

  She vehemently shook her head, then seemed to pause in confusion. That response was something we would need to unpack. The changes likely affected our thoughts as well.

  On the way, we stopped by each window to make sure they were all closed and locked, not leaving each other’s sight. As we walked around the house, the vines covering her body rearranged themselves into a luxurious flowing gown, ending just above her bare feet.

  The house finally secure, we moved to the living room. Only once we were all comfortable in our usual places, did I speak.

  “So, obviously, something strange is going on.”

  Taylor scoffed loudly.

  “Victoria Gale, the newly grey stormy lightning amazonian warrior coming in with the understatement of the year.”

  Normally I would have responded with a remark in kind, but I couldn’t help but agree with her. I simply nodded dejectedly, before clearing my throat.

  “Alright, guys. First things first, you need to say ‘Status’. Then we’ll see what we’re dealing with. But you should probably let me go first, just in case. There were some… issues… last time.”

  I didn’t want them to suffer like me if the menu was still broken.

  With my heart thundering in my chest, I whispered “Status.”

  After giving both the girls the okay that it was safe, I turned to my menu. Already, I noticed a few differences from the first time the menu was summoned. Both the health and stamina blocks were gone, leaving only mana.

  Meanwhile, all of the basic stats had filled themselves in. I was a bit insulted that I had a 10 in strength, and only a 6 in intelligence, though. Idly, I wondered what each of the numbers meant.

  At the speed of thought, another menu popped up.

  What.

  Quickly I shared the information with the others, as well as the fact that you could control the menu with thought.

  Before I could continue exploring, though, another pop-up surprised me.

  Curious, I mentally signaled my affirmation.

  I let out a sigh of relief. No more pain.

  *ding!*

  For now, I toggled ‘no’. I wanted to gather more information before I made any decisions.

  “Guys, when you get to the skills page, don’t pick your skills yet. We should learn more, first.”

  They both nodded and continued reading, engrossed in their own menus. Next, I tried to gain more information on skills themselves.

  That was easy enough to understand. Scrunching my brow, I counted the number of slots I had open, quickly noticing that I had ten total instead of the 7 that the system talked about earlier. What was up with Archetype Skills?

  Ah, fantastic. Good to know that the system was still broken.

  What about Tier and Core?

  Outstanding.

  Next, I decided to go back to the top and look at my Race, Type, Affinities, and Character Archetype. Whatever those were.

  Perhaps unsurprisingly Character Archetype threw yet another error, but the rest bore fruit.

  Kind of.

  Great. More errors. I continued reading.

  Wait, I could fly? Experimentally, I willed myself upwards, and sure enough I rose around an inch off of the couch. I sorely wanted to play around with my new ability, but decided instead that I should keep looking through the menu while I could.

  I could play later.

  Moving on.

  Based on the explanation of affinities, did that mean that they were determined when I was transformed, or when I was born? Considering my weird age readout, I was leaning toward the latter.

  Regardless, my character actually looked pretty well-built. I tended to lean towards the physical fighters in video games and D&D, while still having magic as a backup in case I needed flexibility. But why would the system just decide to grant me a Race and Type designed around my interests?

  It was useful but seemed a bit too good to be true. It seemed planned. Thoughts still turning over I continued to look at my list, trying to do an in-depth search on everything I possibly could.