“So um…” Roge mumbled, his food forgotten as he looked at the two priests. “Can I explain before-“

  “No need to Mr. Youngston,” Constance interjected, her voice kind as she presumably navigated his various screens. “One of the skills I have is a truth sense. And since it’s not activating on any of the words on yo-“

  “Yo, can you design mine next?!” Judson interrupted, the lioness giving the goblin a cold glare he didn’t notice. “This looks so cool, even though I know you only half assed it.”

  “Anyway,” Constance said forcefully, the goblin hunkering back down into reading the menus at that, “While yes, the overall design is shown to be a falsehood to my skills, there’s no hint of deceit anywhere else in your sheet.” She frowned as she looked over his sheet more, though, her whiskers bunching up slightly. “However, what does concern me is the [Static Mind] ability. How long has it been since you lost your memories?”

  Roge blinked in shock at that, scratching one of his horns absentmindedly. “A week. Maybe a little less,” he mumbled, glancing around to make sure the privacy screen was still up.

  “That’s what I thought. Why didn’t you come to us when it first happened?” she asked kindly.

  “Well… I… uh…” Roge mumbled, trying to find a way to not lie while also not giving too much away. “Paul…” The priestess did not look happy as he said that name, Roge taking a deep breath and moving forward. “He seemed so mean during our first encounter and… I wasn’t sure if the church was any better or not.”

  “Man, you sure you don’t want to kick that guy out?” Judson grumbled, not earning himself a look for the interjection that time.

  “It’s being investigated. Clearly Mr. Youngston here was not treated with any sense of decency whatsoever.” One of the knights moved forward at that, causing Roge to jump as he’d forgotten both of them were still there with how little they moved.

  “If I may, High Priestess?” he asked quietly, his voice sounding somewhat gravely. Constance looked to the guard and nodded for him to continue. “We had a few reports of a priest assaulting someone out on the streets from this area. Someone is still investigating matters with the witnesses according to the [Guard Log].”

  “Oh. Um. Yeah. He’d gotten a bit upset at my new class,” Roge muttered, his hand moving to his mostly healed hip.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Judson interrupted, Constance only letting him with how mad she appeared to be. “Roge, can I have a jar of that ash that’s in your secondary inventory screen?” Feeling slightly confused at the request, the dragon slowly pulled out a jar and filled it with one unit of ash, his eyes keeping track of the priestess as she calmed herself down.

  “Paul is- No. That’s private information,” the lioness sighed, angrily scratching one of her ears. The goblin patted her on the shoulder as he tended to his screens, that gesture seeming to help calm her down more. “But rest assured, this type of thing will not happen again. The most I can say is that that bird will not have any public facing job if I can so help it.” Even though her anger was not directed at Roge, he still leaned back in his chair at the force of it, looking down and noticing his food still sitting there. “Thank you.”

  “It’s the least we can do for you,” Constance said, her tone now mostly back to the gentle way she spoke at the start.

  “Especially if you dig up a lot of treasures like this,” the goblin commented, Roge noting the jar of ash no longer sitting on the table. “The customizations to not only your plants, but also your [Status] screens? If you’re not willing to work *for* the church, I’d be at least willing to fund you getting a side business set up.” He tapped a few screens in front of him, the burnt red screens jittering as he did so. “This ash is also interesting. I’m going to have to let it percolate in my inventory for a good bit before I can see what uses I can get out of it.”

  “Go right ahead. My low rank [Inspect] shows me nothing on that… stuff…” Roge trailed off, now focusing more on the strange sight in front of him, though he could feel something wanting to push his attention to something else. It felt similar to when he meditated on that first [Color] coin, digging to see what the boxes were hiding from him. “Are your boxes… red?” he asked quietly, that one simple remark making the feeling to look away even stronger.

  All four people at the table jerked to look at him, though he wasn’t paying too much attention as the fuzz around the boxes started to sharpen. The alchemist especially looked taken aback, his green skin paling as he saw where Roge was looking. With a flick of his finger, the burgundy box moved off to the side, the dragon not letting it out of his sight as he followed it. Seeing as it was now in arms reach, though, Roge darted a claw out to snatch it, catching it by the corner and flipping it around to look at it.

  Most of it was still too blurred for him to make out, not helped by the cursive writing the boxes loved to use. “Something is in progress? 4 hours… remaining?” he puzzled out from what he could see, the goblin swiftly moving over to stand next to the dragon.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Can you see this?” the priestess asked, presumably pulling up one of her own screens, though Roge only looked away for a moment to check.

  “Nope. Only the red ones. And it’s… hard…” he ground out, letting his attention waver for a moment to let the box fade somewhat. “Lemme check something.” Considering the alchemist could use a skill on something in his inventory, Roge decided to utilize his [Inspect] on the remaining ash in his hoard, only then noticing all of the alerts showing the levels it had gained.

  That last error nearly spiked through Roge’s mind as he looked at it, his focus so narrowed that it felt like he almost fell into a deep pool of information. He waved both that screen and the resulting bug report away, feeling a massive headache coming to his head as he thought about what it showed him. He could tell the priests were waiting for him to say something, and he needed to think first before saying something stupid.

  “It’s… It’s hard to tell, but I think keeping the ash that I put in my hoard has a… binding effect? The text was vague, but it said something about possession, and my buffs rely on me ‘owning’ a skill or ability to allow their function.”

  “So for the next four hours, you can see my screens?” the alchemist asked, Roge shaking his head and inflicting a bit more pain on himself. Soothing waves of healing came over him at that, the dragon looking up at Constance and her worried look as she presumably cast a spell.

  “Kind of. It’s very clear my abilities *can* work in that way, but don’t *want* to. It’s like…” he trailed off, wondering how far he needed to explain the impression he got from his class, deciding to leave the errors out of his explanation. “It’s like every idea that I have for how my class should work is correct, but it’s not the *standard* way it's supposed to be used. Hell, it took me a good day for me to find out about the buffing effects of my hoard, and I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be the main feature of the skill.”

  “We haven’t had the time to look anything up yet about the class,” Constance gently says, a claw massaging her whiskers. “But from what I’ve read on your screens, I’d agree with you. So I assume it’s to do with your memory loss, then?”

  “Probably? I apparently act pretty differently than before.” Roge was about to say more when another burgundy screen popped up in front of him. He immediately noticed the look away feeling, ironically making him focus on the screen more as he tried to puzzle out what it said.

  “Glass Bottle Making? Is that one of your skills?”

  “Try to pull a coin out of it,” the goblin ordered, Roge looking at him aghast at the suggestion. “It won’t hurt me, I have too much health for that. From what I could glean of your skill from my [Investigator] class, you only unlocked a part of it and not the full thing.”

  “Is that… common?” Roge asked, looking at the lioness for confirmation.

  “Very. It’s why rare classes are so rare. Only unlocking part of a class’s potential by not understanding what it should do, or having a limited image of it.” Constance did look a bit worried at that, giving Judson a look. “But it’s generally a safe bet to try and expand it when you can by pushing the limits of your class. This feels… unsafe for some reason, though.”

  “Oh it’ll be fine,” the alchemist grumbled, pushing the red screen closer to Roge’s face. “Now try!”

  After giving a nod to the overly excited goblin, Roge reached a claw out to the screen, his mind flashing back to the first time he’d pulled a coin out. It had been remarkably easy in hindsight, as if the ability *wanted* to be taken out. The skill, however, fought him every step of the way, feeling more like a fencing match as his headache came back in full force.

  Trying several different ways to make the skill screen cooperate, including trying to sweet talk it in his mind to no avail, Roge grew frustrated. He knew it was possible, as the back and forth would not happen if it wasn’t. He got the distinct feeling of something not being finished, like when he was behind on a project for school or late in a deadline at work. He could have waited some more time, especially considering he’d only seen the bug reports go out with no update. He could have waited for them to resolve and get a proper, functional class eventually. But he knew he was behind most of his peers, his previous self not caring about ranking up their skills whatsoever. He didn’t even have a second class, for goodness sake, something he assumed was common considering how easy it was for him to get one when he tried.

  ‘Besides,’ he thought to himself, feeling his conviction solidify in his chest. ‘I was never one for the easy road. Bring me all the code you can, system. I can take it.’ With that, he plunged his whole hand into the [Status] box, feeling the resistance abate in the face of his frustration. Instead of going to the other side of the box, his hand seemed to disappear as all four people watching gasped or shouted in alarm. He could feel some sort of powdery substance on the other side, feeling it moving around his hand and making his scales feel hot. Like sandpaper being buffed along them. Grabbing a fistful of it, he went to pull it out only to feel his body lock into place when he tried.

  For a few moments Roge struggled, thinking that it was the sand stuff itself resisting his movement. He then noticed the others around him were also frozen in place, as well as the feeling that he couldn’t move any part of his body, not just his arm. The only thing he was able to move was his eyes as a new screen popped up in front of his face, the background of it looking like a starry night’s sky.