Monarchs of Above and Below (On Hiatus)

Chapter VI: Reevaluation

Matthew stared wide-eyed at the brimstone screen in front of him. He glanced up to meet Luke's eyes.

"You can see this, right?" Luke asked again.

Matthew just nodded. "Why.... does yours look so different?" He asked quietly, mainly to himself and then to Luke.

Luke knit his brow. "What do you mean?"

Matthew turned to look in front of him and concentrated for a moment, thinking about the screen of his profile he'd seen in the hospital room. Not even a second later, a ding rang through the air as the gold and silver screen appeared in front of Matthew

===================================

[Name: Matthew Adams]

[Level: 1]

[Job: None]

[HP: 50/50]

[MP: 25/25]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Vigor: 10]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Sense: 10]

[Faith: 10]

===================================

Now it was Luke's turn to be surprised. "Why does mine look so different?" He echoed under his breath, turning back to his screen.

Luke looked between the two profiles. "We have the same stats."

Matthew glanced at Luke's screen. Sure enough, they were the same except for their names.

A few moments passed until Luke spoke. "How high d'you think it'll go?"

Matthew glanced at his friend. "What do you mean?"

Luke gestured to their stat screens. "Our stats. How high do you think they can get? Generally, the world doesn't give you a stat screen so you know where you'll be stuck all your life."

"Never really thought about that," Matthew mentioned, facing back to his stat screen. "Did you complete your first quest?"

Luke quickly turned to Matthew. "You got one? What did you do?" He asked, probably much louder than he'd expected.

Matthew waved his hand. "It just told me to rest and heal. The reward was a 'miscellaneous healing item' but," he reached into his pocket, producing the small box of band-aids. "I kind of expected more than this."

Luke chuckled at the sight of the band-aid box. "Very helpful." He said sarcastically. His face straightened as he faced back to his screen.

"Any idea what these screens even.... are?" Matthew asked.

Luke sat back in his chair. "After we got... crushed... by the statue in the dungeon, I had a...." He paused, trying to think of the right word. "Vision?" He said. "I was falling through dense smog. Like the ash from a volcano. I could hardly breathe, but then this," he pointed to his screen. "Appeared to me. It called itself the System. It asked me if I wanted to live; to be 'reborn' as it put it. Didn't have much of a choice, so I accepted." He rubbed the back of his neck. "To be honest I half expected to wake up in some fantasy land." Matthew cracked a smirk at the remark. "But, I just awoke in the hospital."

Matthew nodded. "My vision felt like I was ascending into the sky. My screen never really introduced itself as anything... but it said I was chosen for something. It said I showed courage. It asked if I wanted to become a #^%*+."