Lucky Rabbit

Charm was one of many stats that Pandy had considered and discarded as being essentially worthless. Clara ‘needed’ at least ten points of it early in the game, but it was replaced by more specific stats like Style and Talent later on. Like Innate Magic, it was meant to teach you how the game worked rather than really being useful in and of itself. Once Clara had impressed all of the boys with her simple Charm, the stat was never really used again.

But Pandy reminded herself once again that this wasn’t Gacha Love. Charm might well have broader use in a life where the line between game and reality were becoming increasingly blurred. Pandy would have to give it and Radiant Presence another shot. Even if she couldn’t figure out what Radiant Presence did – other than make her look like she had her camera filters turned up too high –  its high Mana cost could be useful in helping her level Minor Heal without actively injuring herself anymore.

That was something she would check in a bit, though, because first she had some dancing to do. And since Dance had worked even while she was lying down, Pandy did that again, hoping that having limited mobility would also limit how embarrassing this was going to be. she thought.

Dance successful. One use remains before next level.

Pandy’s body began to move. And if her first use of the skill involved a lot of hip movement and limb wiggling, this one was all about fast, sharp leg kicks, with occasional quick steps thrown in just to keep her on her toes – or off them, in this case.

As soon as her body stilled, Pandy moved deeper beneath the bed. Whatever that was had almost wiggled her out into the open, and that was very much something she wanted to avoid. Isidor didn’t need any more reasons to think she was possessed. Especially since she was, at least in that her spirit was controlling the body of a rabbit. Which was pretty much the literal sense, now that she really thought about it.

she told the System, bracing herself for another bout of thrashing.

Dance successful. Dance is now level 2.

This time Pandy ignored the actions of her body as she checked her stats. She was very excited to see that her Agility had increased to twenty-one. That stat already seemed quite high to her, especially since she could now twist in mid-air, but she wasn’t going to turn her nose up at more. Eventually, she’d become the Jacqueline Chan of rabbits, using her paws and Kung Fu to defeat villains everywhere!

That left two more skills she should be able to get to level two tonight, another one she might be able to use, and one she wasn’t willing to try while Thaniel was within range of any possible splash damage. Spark was the easy one, as long as she avoided catching anything on fire, so Pandy made her way back out from under the bed and thought,

You have no Mana. Using Life Force instead.

Casting of Spark successful. Spark is now level 2.

A check of her stats showed that she now had another point of Intelligence, which gave her a bit of a thrill. She didn’t even know what Intelligence did for her, and that was the one stat she hadn’t really been worried about anyway, since it started out at twelve. Still, she didn’t like seeing it trail behind as the others increased, and now she had a way to improve it, too.

It was also interesting that Edgar’s spell gave her more of the stat she would associate with him. Would Dorian’s skills give her more Strength? Was Bastian associated with Talent, while Kaden’s skills were all about Reputation or Charm? Kaden was an iron fist in a velvet glove, though, so his skills could really give almost anything. That was, of course, if she wasn’t imagining a connection where there wasn’t one.

Which brought her to her first true combat skill – if she didn’t count Bite and Scratch, which she really didn’t want to. But how was she supposed to level it? Pandy was almost certain it wouldn’t work, but she stood up on her back paws, held out her empty front paws out and thought,

And no, that definitely didn’t work. If she wanted to Dual Wield, first she had to have something to wield. Which brought her back to radish rapiers and jicama hatchets. Or maybe she could just tuck some twigs between her toes? In any case, unless Thaniel or Isidor had a hidden stash of toothpicks, that one would have to wait.

That left her with the skill she was most excited about. While at first she’d assumed Innate Magic wouldn’t be particularly helpful, since she had no Stamina, now she just really wanted to see what she would get from it. If it was Mana, she was going to tear off her own foot and kick herself with it for not getting the skill sooner. Or, no, she wouldn’t, especially since she theoretically actually could, but she would definitely regret her unlife choices.

Pandy thought.

Innate Magic successful. One use remains before next level.

And that did…exactly nothing, as far as Pandy could tell. The good news was that it also didn’t cost Mana, and it didn’t hurt, so win-win there. It was also something she should be able to use whenever and wherever she wanted, which was fabulous, so long as it actually gave her something she needed when it leveled up. she thought again.

Innate Magic successful. Innate Magic is now level 2.

And boom, ten more Mana. It wasn’t a huge amount, but by level ten, that would be ninety more Mana, which would double what she had started the evening with. Pandy glanced at the clock, which told her it was just after two in the morning. Best of all, she could do that, and more, before the morning bell rang.

By six, Pandy had used Innate Magic approximately five thousand times – she would have known exactly how many if she hadn’t lost track when Isidor suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, stared straight ahead for almost a minute, then flopped back down again without making a sound  – and the skill had reached level twenty-three. With eight more levels giving her ten Mana each, another nine levels giving her twenty Mana each, and four levels giving her a frankly ridiculous one hundred Mana each, she now had a total of seven hundred and fifty-two Mana. And if that wasn’t enough, at level twenty, she’d also gained two more Intelligence, putting that stat up to fifteen.

She was also bored. So, so bored of practically chanting ‘Innate Magic,  Innate Magic, Innate Magic’ over and over again for four hours. She would have switched to something else long ago if the gains weren’t so amazing, and the whole process so easy. There was no hip-wiggling, glowing, or fire hazard involved, but she was still done. Done and done.

Glancing at the clock for the millionth time since Innate Magic reached level fifteen and her gains had slowed to a comparative crawl, Pandy considered her options. She could stay here, waiting for Thaniel to wake, and sneak away during or after breakfast. But she hadn’t checked on Ms. Wellington’s room in almost twenty-four hours, and while she hadn’t seen any obvious signs of a search for a missing faculty member, she also thought it would be a good idea to work on putting the bed back together a little more convincingly, as well as picking up another outfit, since the only one she had left was the dressy one she’d intended to use for dinner. Plus, she just needed to go, and Shifting Faces had reset.

Hopping over to the door, Pandy started to leap for the knob when she paused, glancing back at the sleeping boys. With a small sigh, she returned to Thaniel’s bag, which had been hung rather haphazardly from the back of his desk chair. Using her front paws, she pulled herself up, gently biting a sheet of paper, which she tugged out and brought to the floor. The pen she’d used before was still lying on the floor, so she picked it up in her teeth and carefully scratched out a note.

MEET CLASS AFTER FOOD

That made sense, right? Thaniel would understand, wouldn’t he? She turned her head one way, then the other, trying to make sense of the wobbly lettering. She was pretty sure even first-grade Pandy would have been embarrassed to have anyone know she’d written that, but it was what it was. Another hop took her up to Thaniel’s bed, with the note clutched between her teeth. Pandy placed it beside the sleeping boy, then nuzzled his cheek gently and headed for the door.

Pandy had already unlatched the door and was dangling from the knob by her front paws when it occurred to her that if she didn’t use Shifting Faces now, she would have to pay for it with Corruption Points later. Closing her eyes in frustration, Pandy bopped her own head against the door, then dropped back down, returned to Thaniel again, and thought,

Casting of Shifting Faces successful. Two uses remain before next level.

She barely had time to register the slight coolness of the air against bare skin before she thought, and shrank back down to bunny-size. Hopping back out through the door she’d left slightly ajar, she gently kicked the door closed again before hopping off along the hallway, down the stairs, and past the floor supervisors’ rooms. Much like yesterday, the dining hall was already bustling, but this time, Pandy wasn’t going anywhere near the chancellor’s office this time. Was. Not. Instead, she ducked under the curve of the closest set of stairs and thought,

Shifting Faces has already been used today. You have01:29:59 remaining. Would you like to use it?

she told it, then pulled her clothes out of her inventory and strolled right out into the dining room. It felt like every one of the people there stopped what they were doing and stared at her  – probably because that’s exactly what happened – and she barely managed to hold back the awkward smile and shrug that came so automatically. Ms. Wellington definitely wouldn’t do either of those things, however, so instead, she lifted her chin, attempting to stare down her nose at all of them at the same time.

This probably explained why she missed the sound of the cart approaching the other side of the swinging door that led to the hall, and thus, why she took that same door to the face a moment later. She gave an extremely undignified yelp, stumbling back as she clutched her nose, which was already dripping blood down the front of her entirely-too-fancy dress.

-5 LF

“Oh my goodness, I’m so-” The voice stopped as the young woman who had been pushing the cart realized who she’d just run over. Her eyes went wide, her face went white, and she abandoned her cart half-in and half-out of the dining room, running back toward the kitchen and leaving a dumbfounded Pandy behind with her nose pinched shut. What had Ms. Wellington done to that poor girl? Or was the teacher’s reputation alone enough to cause such a reaction?

As Pandy stood there, trying to decide what she should do, the kitchen door swung open again, and Jonah Farrier strode out. He was encased in a white chef’s coat, with a floppy white hat sitting proudly atop his balding head, and a streak of flour on his chin. He looked nothing like the jolly, kind man Pandy had met before, however. Instead, his brows were drawn down over his nose and his round cheeks were red with anger.

“Ms. Wellington,” he said as he approached, “It’s one thing to wake me in the midd- What in the world happened to you?” He halted just on the other side of the cart, clearly taken aback at the sight of the bright red drops that decorated the front of Pandy’s dress and seeped between her fingers.

Pandy really, truly liked the kind chef, and she just couldn’t bring herself to be horrible to him, so instead she tilted her head back, holding tightly to her nose as she pushed the cart out of her way with her other hand. He backed up a step, then grabbed the handle of the cart, pulling it the rest of the way out of the door, and Pandy sailed through.

“I ab going do by roob,” Pandy stated grandly, internally cringing at the nasal sound of her voice. “Do dot disturb be.” Then she was past, her skirts practically pushing the poor man against the opposite wall as she turned up the stairs and beat a hasty retreat.