Roge wasn’t sure how Fred knew that he was getting off work early, but the wolf stepped into the dragon’s path with an exaggerated affronted look on his face. He was almost to the stairs leading to the rooms as well, causing Roge to reluctantly sigh as he pulled his friend along.

  “What was that man? We always hang out in the morning. Always! And you just-“

  “Can you please lower your voice?” Roge asked softly, getting the both of them in his room before shutting and locking the door. “I just found out about Madam Madrid’s side business.” That made Fred come up a bit short, the wolf calming down a bit.

  “So I’m assuming from your horrified look, she told you about your previous job?” After a nod from Roge, Fred sighed, running a paw through his ears. “Yeah. That was always going to be a lot. Especially with your new ability fucking all of that up…”

  “Do you know why I made myself forget?” Roge asked quietly, that one part not making much sense to him. He had done *some* acting in high school, having vainly attempted to join some kind of larger social group. It wasn’t too hard to act his way through the scenes, though the director’s favoritism in him made the other students try to push him out. He felt like he could handle some kind of [Mind Magic] if it was all explained to him.

  The wolf gave him a serious look at that, it looking strange on the usually animated man. “That, I never could figure out either. Had a mind to try and ask you one night while you were working, and got a real tongue lashing from Madrid.”

  “I just… I’m not sure if I can ask her, you know?”

  This seemed to confuse Fred, the wolf tilting his head in an oddly cute manor. “You’ve always been able to ask her stuff. You’re her favorite, for whatever reason.”

  “Yes, I can totally ask my boss why I previously had her remove my memory of my time at her second business,” Roge responded sarcastically, his anger sparking once again before cooling into embers. “I’m not sure I even… like sex…”

  “Doesn’t… everyone like sex?” Fred asked in an even more confused tone, Roge not even noticing with the burgeoning idea coming into his head.

  “Some people don’t. We’re wired differently. Sure I like hugging as much as the next person, but sex just… doesn’t interest me as an activity.” Roge paused at that, taking a deep breath as Paul tried to cross his mind. “Some people just see you as broken though…”

  “Oh fuck that!” Fred shouted, causing the dragon to jump. “Who the fuck told you that?! I’m going to wring their neck so hard gods help me…!”

  “They’re not here anymore,” Roge stated, waving away that particular issue. “Anyway. I need some time to myself. You mind if we talk in the morning?” Fred huffed once before nodding, moving to the door and placing a paw on the dragon’s shoulder.

  “I don’t see you as broken, man.” Roge gave a smile at that, letting Fred head out before locking the door behind him.

  ‘Maybe that’s why he had himself forget…’ he thought to himself, moving over to the desk and heavily sitting down. ‘Being ace makes that profession hard… If he couldn’t even come out to his best friend… I could understand. A bit.’ He sighed as his mind once again tried to bring up Paul, Roge moving that off to the side to once again look at the collection of supplies on his shelf. ‘My previous hoard, I guess. Let’s see what *actual* stuff I can get out of it.’

  ~~~

  Sifting through the piles of junk, mostly failed art projects, Roge scratched at the side of his head in frustration. Not only did most of the items only have the [None] ability, the rest of the abilities he found were just more color ones. At the very least his previous self really liked blue, allowing Roge to pull up a new buff.

  Roge let out a sigh at that, letting out a pained chuckle at that description. ‘I don’t even have anything I can use that on…’ His thoughts trailed off at that, looking directly at the [Status] screens with a critical eye. Turns out the buff was as simple as desiring for a change, just the buff screen changing to a deep shade of blue with just an inkling of what he wanted. Next he tried the text, finding pretty much any part of the screens could be edited. They even persisted, Roge growing more and more excited as he dismissed a window and brought it back up, the garish color change keeping the same.

  After a few minutes to make his screens a bit more visually appealing, a rogue thought made him pause at the implications. He’d changed just the *corner* of one of the boxes. Mildly disbelieving it was possible, he began drawing on the various boxes, though he was very restricted on what colors he could use considering only the blue spectrum was fully unlocked. He even wondered if he could do this to other people’s statuses if they gave him access, knowing multiple people who complained about the designs of their [Status] ‘slates’. It could potentially be another service he could offer. ‘Maybe I could even change the color of my scales?’

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Unfortunately, his abilities were the extent of what he could change, his scale color staying the same bright sapphire as normal. He also kicked himself mentally for not thinking about his [Draconic Breath] before, puffing out a few fog clouds with various colors interspersed within them. The more abilities and skills he received, the more he could potentially edit them, especially if he got other buffs that could edit them in other ways. ‘I wonder how other kinds of hoards work…’ he thought idly, rolling one of the black [Pigment] coins between his fingers. ‘I guess books would give you more knowledge or something?’

  He gave a sigh at that, putting the coin back into his hoard and thinking everything over. “I just need more varieties of abilities. That and trying to see how they combine. Could I just…” His mumbling cut off as he thought more about the plants he’d made that day, slapping his forehead at how he could miss such an obvious fact. “The plant turned red *before* I’d added the [Color] ability.” A growl escaped his throat at that, Roge pulling back out the black coin and pushing it into his tan shirt. It immediately turned the exact shade of black as the paint, Roge sighing at how dark it looked. “And now I have to damage it to make it blu-“ The shirt immediately shifted to the exact blue he was thinking of, Roge’s eyes narrowing as he looked at it.

  “Why can I… oh DAMN IT!” he shouted, covering his mouth in embarrassment a moment later. “’Your abilities or skills’ it said,” he grumbled, looking over the two buff descriptions again. “I GUESS because it was a part of my hoard it’s mine, but still…!” He wondered how far that extended, especially with the thought that he was connected to any of the plants he’d modified. He’d have to check back at work the next day, Roge groaning as he thought about the other abilities the plants have. ‘Does that mean if I give a plant an ability, a Biting Buff could enhance the creeper vines’ ability?’ His thoughts were going no where at that point, Roge flopping himself down on his bed as his headache started to come back. “One step at at time here…” he mumbled to himself, cracking his fingers and pulling back up his [Status].

  ~~~

  Roge got part way through some of his redesign before he got bored, deciding to tell his [Status] to keep to his new ‘base’ design on any new windows that popped up. ‘Resetting the default, as it were.’ He’d had a brief thought to try and write everything down by drawing it onto his screens, but unfortunately he couldn’t change the size of the floating boxes, nor could he obscure any information on it. ‘Would need a writing ability coin for that or something…’ Feeling his stomach growl made him realize that he’d yet to have dinner, it being way past the normal time for a meal.

  Heading downstairs and grabbing whatever leftovers the cook had, Roge stopped in his tracks as he saw a group enter the inn, recognizing their expensive robes immediately. ‘At least these people have some semblance of taste,’ he thought to himself, sighing once he noticed their eyes lock on him.

  “Roge Youngston, yes?” the priestess asked kindly, Roge tracking her feline body to be more of a tan mountain lion by his best guess. Her robes seemed to be in more practical colors, the brown the exact shade of the dirt and mud outside, as well as it being a lot less ornate than Paul’s.

  “That’s me,” he responded, glancing at the two warriors behind each shoulder. They both wore pure black robes over pure white metal armor, their hoods obscuring most of their features. The last of the entourage was a skinny, short green skinned man, Roge assuming the guy was some sort of goblin. “You mind if we sit down at a table? I just got dinner.”

  “Sure,” the priestess acquiesced, waving to one of the tables in the corner. Once everyone was seated, and Roge had his leftovers out to start eating, the lioness pulled out a disk of metal, runes glowing on it as she placed it on the table. “A privacy screen. Mostly for your benefit, as we’ll be talking about some concerning things regarding your [Status].”

  “This is from Paul’s report I assume?” Her disgruntled frown made Roge relax a tad, cutting his steak and chewing on it for a moment as she spoke.

  “Yes. But before that, I would like to introduce us. I’m Constance Richmond, head priestess of the Centerville branch.” Roge nearly spat his food out at that, looking at the lioness with wide eyes. “Yes, I’m the highest ranking person in the church for this city. No, I don’t do autographs.”

  “Wasn’t going to ask for that,” Roge mumbled after clearing his throat, feeling the need for a cigarette for the first time in the new world. “Just wondering why you’re here. Unless you share concerns that I altered-“

  “Oh come on lad!” the goblin screeched out, the privacy field making it so only Roge flinched at his words. “She’s here about the class you got! And I decided to tag along after reviewing those plants you made at…” he trailed off, noticing Constance’s sharp look. “Er… ahem. I mean I’m Judson. Judson Marshall. Head alchemist.”

  “He’s quite right in that regard,” the priestess stated, turning her sharp look to the dragon as he nervously ate his food. “After having to throw out most of the report Acolyte Paul submitted, there were some concerns that we needed to speak to you about.” Roge noticed that the two knights hadn’t gotten an introduction, both unmoving and stoic behind the two priests.

  “Okay… Pretty round about way to ask for my [Status], but okay.” He tried to send his [Status] to them like he had with Paul, feeling a slight tug of rejection as the action failed. “Huh… I…”

  “One moment,” Constance muttered while Judson gave the dragon an odd look. “Your guardianship hasn’t been transferred yet.” After a few moments of fiddling with a screen Roge couldn’t see, he finally felt his [Status] being shared with the two as he went back to eating his food.

  Both the goblin and lioness quickly fell into silence at that, with Roge feeling confused for all of one moment before he remembered the work he’d done to his sheet. His favorite color happened to be blue, so he’d used his scale color as well as mimicking the texture of it for the background. Gentle loops of black encircled it as well to contrast the normally garish color, Roge having tried to replicate old style mirrors and picture frames he’d seen on TV. Considering how… plain his original was, and after having heard gossip some people had about how boring their sheets looked, Roge assumed his would look rather odd. It might even lead to them figuring he *did* get the information changed on his sheet. ‘I… may have made a mistake…’