Back to mundanity

Lex ended up running a few minutes over his lunch break, his supervisor just gave him an annoyed look before letting it slide. He tried not to look anybody in the eyes for the rest of the day, worried they'd spot the mismatch.

days at work were long but today felt like it dragged to a supernatural degree. Lex figured it was the mysterious book sitting in his inventory, as well as the new 'dual character' tab in the menu. He left them be, work was intense and he was way too close to graduating to start slacking off. If his internship company weren't satisfied with his performance than he would have to do this again. There was a whole new world available to him and here he was troubleshooting code for a game that wasn't even any good.

He stayed in after his shift was over to make up for the time he had been late. That got him a brief approving nod from his supervisor. He looked away, blushing ever-so-slightly.

Julia, his supervisor, was a severe woman. All harsh line and sharp angles. Her blouse looked like it had been made of origami instead of cotton with how stiff it looked. Her pants were in a similar bucket, black slacks ironed to a military precision.

He found her equal parts intimidating and strangely sexy. It was definitely not the image the woman was putting out. That message was something along the lines of 'work well or they won't find the body.'

Lex wasn't sure how old she was, his best guess was somewhere between mid thirties and forty. He could just make out a few permanent lines around her brows, no crows feet though. You have to smile to make those and he wasn't sure that Julia knew how.

A notification popped up, he enlarged it mentally.

Through repeated actions you have created a Special Skill: Observe

Achievement Get: Creation King I

Create a skill, special or mundane. Next level awarded at 5 total creations.

Rewards: 1 Stat Point

Pausing at the door he mentally opened the skill menu, pressing on 'Observe.'

Special Skill: Observe Lv 1

Skill XP: 0/200

Your ability to make observations of objects, people, items, and more. Creates an information box, combines current observations with past knowledge. some reasonable extrapolation may be made depending on stats.

Quality of Observe scales with Observe skill level as well as various stats.

Mana cost: 1 MP

Interesting, its a special skill so it doesn't take up one of the skill slots.

Lex looked back at Julia and cast Observe. A box popped up

Julia Williams

Age: 35-40

Consummate professional, slightly more relaxed outside of work hours. Work persona crafted to thrive in a made-dominated industry. Appreciates your work ethic and honesty.

Height: Average

Cup size: Small

It didn't tell Lex much more than he already knew. Though it did relax him slightly to know that she didn't think awfully of him. This was the woman who would decide if he passed or failed his internship.

"I'll see you on Monday Miss Maroone." He called, accepting the slight nod as all he would get before leaving.

He used observe a few times on his way out of the office, dropping ten points of Mana and gaining a lot of trivial information about various objects. He checked the skill XP once he sat down on the bus.

Skill XP: 5/200

One XP point per two casts. Not amazing, he did the math quickly. Half a point of XP per cast meant it would take 400 casts to level up the skill. Or alternatively 400 minutes worth of MP Regen since it was currently 1 MP per minute. Not great calculus.

He emptied his Mana bar on the way home casting the spell. He didn't have anything better to do and it was interesting seeing what observations he could make of people. Most of it was pretty dull but occasionally it'd make an interesting extrapolation.

Skill XP: 76/200

There was a sticky note on the fridge from his mom.

"Will be home late, took out some mince, pretty please start dinner.

Love u xoxo"

He went down the hallway to his room, ditching the uncomfortable work clothes. Lex took another look at himself in his bedroom mirror, whatever the game did it had been fairly subtle. Besides the eyes it really wasn't very noticeable unless you looked very closely. He noted that his leg and arm hair was slightly sparser and a little bit lighter. The eyes were a dead giveaway though. His mom wasn't unobservant, she was a smart woman, canny.

He quickly poked through to the new menu tab. There were not a lot of different things that 'dual character' could be referring to. Sure enough, when he opened it he saw his current character and an empty slot. He pressed on it.

Create New Character?

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

He selected yes

Name?

[____]

He inputted his full name in the textbox that showed up.

Gender?

[ ] Male

[ ] Female

[ ] Other

He selected _Male _this time.

He was hoping that he'd get to reallocate his stats but after making his selection there was just a short moment and the empty tab was populated. they were hard to tell apart like this, one just had an M in the descriptor and one had an F and was currently highlighted. He selected the unhighlighted one.

Swap to: Lex Frost-Moore?

He selected the yes. There was the briefest sensation over his skin and then nothing. He looked in the mirror and nodded at his eyes being back in the right spots again. He looked at his penis and frowned contemplatively, bringing up his character page.

Height: 187 cm, 6’1

Weight: 55kg

Boob size: na

Penis: 5.7 inches

Vagina: na

I knew it.

His penis _was _smaller in the female version. only by point-two inches sure. He found it strange that it did that but it was hardly a huge deal. It wasn't like he was going to use that form again.

He got dressed in some casual clothes and started on dinner, while he was waiting for stuff to cook he brought up his menu again and pressed on the 'dual character' tab, the same way he had to get stat info. He was rewarded by a popup.

Dual Character System

The Dual Character System allows for the management of multiple distinct characters (currently 2) Stats will be populated based off an existing character profile. Awarded skill points appear separately for all characters, abilities are transferable between characters but stat requirements must be met for any shared use. Most skills are shared between characters excepting those that have specific requirements for use.

Characters Share XP but hold individual HP and MP values.

Characters cannot be swapped during combat.

The Maximum characters allowed cannot be raised by normal means.

Lex kept cooking, sending out an observe every minute, getting the skill to 90/200 XP. He ended up finishing dinner before his mom came home. He even got a skill from it.

Gen Skill: Cooking Lv 1/20

Skill XP: 0/200

Your ability to prepare meals, quality of food produced scales with level. Prep speed scales with AGI.

At current level can:

• Make common meals to an acceptable level, must follow a recipe
  
• Make uncommon meals badly

"Why is it at level one? I've been cooking my whole life." Lex pointed out to the empty air. No answer came. "Whatever."

He began eating his spaghetti, it was almost painfully average.

Halfway through it he heard the sound of a car in the driveway followed by the sound of keys in the door. His mom was home.