The Status Board

Everyone had already left for bed as Doreen stayed up late working on the status project. She was writing all of her notes on the chalkboard in the Tower of Magic's library. Thanks to Guy's newly invented electric light system installed on the Tower, they were able to work as late at night as they could stay up. Doreen wasn't usually interested in staying up late, but she lost track of time as she found inspiration in a spell she had been learning recently and was too engaged to head to bed. Doreen was looking at the formula on the board and screamed out, "Argh! This is so frustrating, why can't it just work!" She scribbled that under her formula and added several exclamation points. She threw her chalk at the board and to her amazement, the chalk was sucked into the board like the surface was made of water.

Doreen rubbed her eyes and then shook her head and said out loud, "I think I need to sleep." She got up and walked over to the chalkboard, her hand tentatively reached out and touched the surface of the board. Rather than a solid surface, it was like touching a cool pool of non-Newtonian liquid. Waves pulsed out and the writing on the board rearranged itself before her eyes. She took her hand back and took several steps back from the board as disbelief filled her eyes.

The board now read:

Name: Doreen Leon Class: Mage Level: 2 XP: 10/300

Strength: 6 Attack: 6

Dexterity: 6 Defense: 6

Intelligence: 9 (+9) Mana: 90 (+90) Bonus: Intelligence

Wisdom: 7

Charisma: 9 Love Interest: None Favorability: N/A

Constitution: 10 Health: 100

Doreen looked all around and then started to jump up and down screaming in excitement. Then she started to panic, she grabbed a quill pen and wrote down the formulas that were on the board on paper in case it didn't last. She also recorded the last few steps she had done as well as the date and time that she did it in case any of that mattered for reproducing the effect. She suddenly was too excited to sleep. She thought for a minute and then decided that she shouldn't wake any of the others and instead would watch the board just to see how long the status remained on it. Doreen drifted off to sleep a few hours later after staring at the board for so long.

The next morning as everyone returned to the Tower they found a sleeping Doreen at the table facing a black chalkboard. Madeline gently gave her shoulder a shake to wake her up. Doreen nearly fell out of the chair as she said, "I'm awake." in a half-conscious tone.

Madeline and the others chuckled. Madeline asked, "I see you cleaned the board after an all-nighter, did you make any progress?"

Doreen looked at the board and cried out, "Nooooo, I didn't see it change!"

Everyone looked at each other and then Guy asked, "The board changed by itself?"

Doreen nodded and then said, "After I finished up a few formulas I was working on to make a status spell, the board itself suddenly changed and showed my status."

Guy looked very serious as he asked, "Did you need to speak the spell to activate it or did it work just by touch?"

Doreen nodded and said, "Just by touch."

Guy walked over to the board and gently pressed a finger against it. Once again, waves spread out and his status displayed itself on the board:

Name: Guy de Montfort Class: Magic Swordsman Level: 35 XP: 150/5000000

Strength: 20 Attack: 200

Dexterity: 15 Defense: 150

Intelligence: 30 (+30) Mana: 300 (+300) Bonus: Intelligence

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 12 Love Interest: Madeline Celeste d'Aumont Favorability: Max

Constitution: 12 Health: 120

Guy walked over and grabbed Doreen and gave her a big hug. As he held her he said, "Amazing Doreen, you've done it! We now have a way to test out our students."

Madeline walked over and separated the two and said, "Good work Doreen, with this, we can now test out students that meet our criteria for Mage!"

Olivier looked at the board and asked, "Doreen, when you tested your status, was your class Magic Swordsman?"

Doreen shook her head and said, "It was Mage, level two."

Olivier walked over and touched the board.

Name: Olivier de la Marche Class: Mage Level: 25 XP: 2000/3000000

Strength: 15 Attack: 150

Dexterity: 10 Defense: 100

Intelligence: 25 (+25) Mana: 250 (+250) Bonus: Intelligence

Wisdom: 7

Charisma: 13 Love Interest: Ella Lutherie Favorability: Minimal

Constitution: 10 Health: 100

"Incredible. It seems that Guy is a Magic Swordsman, possibly because of his mastery of the sword as well as his magical ability." Olivier smiled his normal goofy smile and then asked, "I wonder if what it will say for the love interest for the First Mage?"

Alicia shook her head and said, "I would rather not see."

Claude cleared his throat and asked, "If my intelligence stat has.."

Guy said, "No. You aren't smart enough."

Claude asked, "What if I have Alicia cast that intelligence spell on me?"

Guy said, "Zero plus Zero is still Zero. Denied."

First Mage Diggory looked at the Status display and then asked, "Why does it show love interest and favorability? Those don't seem relevant to someone's abilities.."

Guy rubbed his chin and then mumbled out loud, "Probably because this is an Otome game."

Madeline asked, "What is an Otome game? You said that when you were delirious too."

Guy frowned and then sat down at the table, "I am not sure you would believe me even if I told you, do you still want to know?"

Everyone looked at each other with no one speaking until finally Olivier nodded and said, "Yeah, I think we all would like to know. I mean, I think we have all started to figure out that you know things that seem to be beyond the rational."