89–Status Update

[Write a poem using the words from your latest status update or a friend’s status update. If you don’t use sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can often search online for some funny ones to use as inspiration.]

            Lol, nope. I’m taking this in a different direction.

________________

Name:     Rausuhen (Rah-su-hen)                                                                                Class:     Warrior

Age:     17                                                                                                                          Level:     10 (+1)

Race:     Human                                                                                                   Available Stat Points: 4

Strength:     32 (+2)                                                                                                      Intelligence:     10

Agility:     21 (+1)                                                                                                               Dexterity:     10

Constitution:     21 (+1)                                                                                                            Luck:     10

—-Skills—-

Hide Status: Lvl Max                                                                                  Swordsmanship: Lvl 10 (+1)                         

Shield Handling: Lvl 4 (+1)                                                                                       Arc Slash: Lvl 9 (+1)

Archery: Lvl 3                                                                                                      Charge Slash: Lvl 7 (+1)                                             

Barehanded Combat: Lvl 5                                                                          Mana Infusion: Lvl 13 (+1)

Body Reinforcement: Lvl 15  (+2)                                                                       Shield Bash: Lvl 2 (+2)                                                     

Stunning Screech: Lvl 1 (+1)

“C’mon, what does it say?! What did you do?!”

            Holding his injured side with one hand and shaking Rausuhen’s shoulder with the other, Tumiso’s expression was a mix of shocked surprise and wild excitement of and for his best friend. Blood dripped from his recently acquired wound, but he paid it no heed, intently staring into Rausuhen’s eyes, awaiting an answer.

            “H-hold on, man. Let Owospa heal you while I figure it out!”

            “He’s right! Let go of him, sit still, and wait!” Said the girl at Tumiso’s side as she prepared a Spell with the help of her staff while glancing at Rausuhen. She, too, was exceedingly curious as to what was going on with her childhood friend, but at least she was levelheaded enough to order her priorities.

            “Sorry, sorry. It’s just, that was awesome!” Tumiso’s face retained his enthusiasm as he let go of Rausuhen, backed up against one of the surrounding stone walls, and sat down. After Owospa approached him with the Spell, Tumiso gingerly lifted his hand from where he was just stabbed. The wound was deep, but the boy gave no indication that it was painful as he continued watching his friend, waiting for a response to his questions.

            Rausuhen emptied his lungs in a long sigh as he looked over his Status Page and its changes. He set down his sword and shield onto the hard, stone floor before his gaze focused on the Screen. There was much to process.

            “O-okay guys, a lot happened. I’ll just read it all to you.” The teen swallowed his saliva as Owospa finished casting her Spell on Tumiso. “So, I leveled up in the last fight and chose the Class Warrior. As a Warrior, I gained the Class Stat Points of 2 Strength, 1 Agility, and 1 Constitution. As you two already know, I always planned to become a Warrior and have been applying my Stat Points like that since the beginning, so my build is perfect.”

            “Yeah, yeah, we know that! Get to what we were really asking about!”

            Although it came out sounding impatient, Tumiso’s words came from a place of love. He cared and worried for his best friend, who suddenly released a powerful, mysterious Skill that he shouldn’t have had, even after gaining the Warrior class. Since Rausuhen shouldn’t have been able to gain it normally, the question of where it came from arose, and some unlikely—but possible—reasons floated around in his mind.

            “You better not have made a deal with a Spirit, Demon, or other devious creature!”

            Owospa finished Tumiso’s thought, expressing their shared concern for Rausuhen. Although they knew that their friend wouldn’t be so foolish in his pursuit of power so as to promise his vitality to creatures with malintent, they wouldn’t put it past him to hastily make a deal in order to save their lives in a pinch. They didn’t have a clue as to when he could have found the time to summon such a being and form a contract before they entered the Dungeon, but it was possible.

            “Uh, no, I didn’t. Just let me finish reading this to you!”

            Rausuhen’s flimsy response did nothing to convince the Rogue and Healer, but they shut up, allowing him to finish.

            “The weird stuff involves my Skills. You know how I’ve always had those question marks blocking the name of the Skill I’ve always had? Well, the question marks disappeared and it says: Hide Status, Lvl Max.”

            Two pairs of eyes went wide as Owospa and Tumiso processed what all that meant. To begin with, there was the fact that his Skill was maxed, which could mean a number of things, including: he was gifted the Skill at that Level by some unknown being rather than being born with it, or the Skill had no Levels and everyone with it had it maxed. None of that really mattered, though, because they had no way of verifying any of the possibilities.

Secondly, when question marks appeared in someone’s Skill List in place of a Skill, that meant that the information of a powerful, innate or gifted ability was being hidden until some unknown set of requirements were met. It seemed to them that Rausuhen’s requirements were to reach Level 10, gain a Class, become a Warrior, increase the Level of one of his Skills to what it was now, have a certain amount of Stat Points allocated, anything else Rausuhen did since entering the Dungeon, or any combination of the aforementioned requirements. A lot of the people with hidden Skills went their entire lives without learning what their hidden Skills’ names and descriptions were. That being said, the information being hidden didn’t mean that the owner of the hidden Skill couldn’t use. They “just” had to stumble upon it, somehow.

            However, Rausuhen unlocked his, and it was Hide Status? That Skill only allowed him to hide the information of his Status Page and clearly wasn’t the source of the attack he used on the Skeleton that almost took off one of Tumiso’s arms.

            “I know, guys.” Rausuhen said in response to the thoughts he knew his friends had. “It’s this other Skill that I just got at Level 1, called Stunning Screech. With it, I can release a targeted scream, shout, or other empowered yell to stun any number of opponents. The stun’s duration depends on how many Stat Points I put into Constitution and the Level of the Skill. But, the stun length lessens a bit if I target multiple things, depending on how many I target. This…”

            Rausuhen gulped again after reading his new Skill’s description, marveling at how useful it will be in future battles.

            “…is wickedly powerful!” Tumiso finished his sentence. “With that Skill, you’ll be able to instantly behead your foes on the condition that they don’t have stun resistances or anything else to help them reduce enemy effects. But since most people, monsters, magical beasts, and other things don’t specialize in such resistances, you’re going to be unstoppable!”

            The reverence and envy Tumiso felt for the skill was evident on his face as he fantasized about how useful of a Skill Stunning Screech would be to him if it were his and he later class-changed to an Assassin.

            “But…” Owospa’s doubts could still be heard through the tone of her voice. “How did you get the Skill? As far as we know, that’s not a Skill Warriors should be able to learn. At least, not without specializing down the line and upgrading your Class, or something. And you’re a NEW Warrior! There’s definitely no way you would have learned that Skill with what we know about you. Tell us…is there anything else?”

            Rausuhen felt uncomfortable being the subject of Owospa’s accusing glare, but knew that she wasn’t in the wrong to act like she did.

            “Well, my Innate Skill is Hide Status. Maybe there’s something we really don’t know? Wait a moment to let me find out, because I definitely didn’t form some kind of pact for this Skill.”

            Tumiso and Owospa nervously waited and watched as Rausuhen’s eyes unfocused—the telltale indicator that someone was looking at their Status Page.

            “Okay, so…” Rausuhen thought, bringing to mind his Status Page. “If Hide Status is hiding something, then I should be able to turn it off, right?”

            Much more easily than he expected, the teen dug through his Skills with his will to find that Hide Status had what amounted to a mental button on it. He pressed it.

Name:     Rausuhen (Rah-su-hen)                                                                                Class:     Warrior

Age:     17                                                                                                                                  Level:     10

Race:     Human (Divine Beast Bird Bloodline)                                               Available Stat Points: 4

Strength:     32                                                                                                              Intelligence:     10

Agility:     21                                                                                                                       Dexterity:     10

Constitution:     21                                                                                                                    Luck:     10

—-Skills—-

Hide Status: Lvl Max                                                                                           Swordsmanship: Lvl 10                         

Shield Handling: Lvl 4                                                                                                       Arc Slash: Lvl 9

Archery: Lvl 3                                                                                                              Charge Slash: Lvl 7                                             

Barehanded Combat: Lvl 5                                                                                  Mana Infusion: Lvl 13

Body Reinforcement: Lvl 15                                                                                        Shield Bash: Lvl 2                                                   

Stunning Screech: Lvl 1

            “No. F******. Way.”

- my thoughts:
Yaharo~ Oh man, this one was fun! I'm confident that I can turn this into its own novel...
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