System Testing 1

'Level up? Lindsay, can you shed any light on what that means?'

'This is awesome Jerod! I didn't know if you would gain experience from fighting enemies or by doing quests. I know you never really got into the video game scene and only have some knowledge from overhearing your students so let me give you some information from what I know from my past life and what I have learned by exploring the system.

By doing activities, in this case hunting animals, you gain experience points. These points accumulate and once they reach a threshold you experience a level up. As you can see in your STATUS window you are now level 1. These levels assist you by increasing your abilities. Since you have only experienced one level up I cannot say if you get random points distribution every time or if you will eventually be able to allocate the stat points how you would like. Some games would let you do it yourself while others have a set path for your points, usually based on your class. Class would be what type of character you are playing, like now you are going towards a magic using class. We will have to see what further levels will look like in the future.

Getting back to the stats, this time you received points across the board. This is good since you are still so young it will help you to develop faster. So far you have earned a few points in stamina by building it up through practice over the past three years. You went from 1 stamina when you were born to 5 stamina, so you have gained 4 points over the last three years through effort. By earning a level up you earned 2 points of stamina instantly. I don't think I need to tell you how much leveling up will help you in the future.'

'Hmm... You brought up some things that leads to a lot of questions.'

Jerod began walking back towards his family's farm while ruminating on the biggest questions to start looking into.

'Okay Lindsay, I haven't really paid attention to stats so far since I am so young. Are you able to scan other people to see what their stats are? I ask because we will need to be aware of our limits and what should be our limits. I am currently three years old, but I gained strength from the level up, so I need to be sure I am not performing acts that aren't possible for someone my age.

Next thing we should think about is improving stats. Like you said I was able to improve my stamina over the years. We didn't do any special training to improve so we should figure out if I can improve my stats now before I start leveling up more. I have a feeling that once I get to a certain point I wouldn't be able to improve quickly. As they say childhood is when people are most moldable, so if I can improve my strength and agility, or if we can figure out how to improve my spirit or luck I think it would be best to do that prior to leveling.

We will also need to figure out if killing is the only way to get experience. You mentioned quests so we should see if there is a way to do one. I don't think killing animals forever will get us experience to level up, so we need to figure out how else we can earn them.'

Jerod arrived at his farm as he finished bringing his ideas to Lindsay. His brother Jacob happened to see him coming out of the woods with a bloody sack dragging behind him. Knowing that he would get into trouble if his father or mother found out he didn't stop him from going into the woods alone he ran up to Jerod and snagged the bag from his hand.

"Jerod what do you think you are doing? What is in this bag?"

"I found these rabbits stuck between some branches on the ground so I hit them with a rock to bring back for lunch. Do you have an issue with that Jacob?"

Jerod was always keen to pay attention to how his brother acted around him. Ever sense he was able to stay awake for longer periods of time he would see his brother glaring at him when no one else was around. In recent years when they would eat dinner if Jacob was the one serving food he would give Jerod less food and put the extra into his bowl. This didn't cause Jerod to starve but definitely painted the image of how his brother felt about him.

'He always has good luck. He just 'happened' to find these rabbits and was able to kill them just like that? I can't stand him. Why did he have to be my brother. Maybe I can use this though. He shouldn't be going to the woods alone, and he is so small they wouldn't believe him over me if I said I caught them.'

With a devilish smile on his face Jacob hefted the sack over his shoulder. "Good job getting these. I will just take them inside to mother so why don't you wash up out here. It is almost lunch time after all."

Jerod knew that Jacob was up to no good but felt this might actually work to his advantage. A three year old going into the woods alone and getting two rabbits is a pretty far stretch. Also, if Jacob claimed he went out and got them then he will have to deal with answering the questions about the how and where.

"Oh! Thank you Jacob. The sack was starting to get pretty heavy. I will go wash up for lunch, I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they see the rabbits I caught."

Jacob turned and ran to the house. 'Heh, and I can't wait to see your face when you see that everyone is praising me for your work'

After washing up Jerod went into the house and saw his mother praising Jacob for bringing some extra food to the table. Everyone else was just walking in as well and noticed the commotion so they asked what was going on. Jacob proceeded to tell everyone how he found some rabbits in the woods that were stuck and hit them with a rock killing them and bringing them back so they could have extra meat with dinner tonight. As Jacob told his story he watched Jerod's face to watch the surprise and anger at having the praise stolen from him.

Jerod faked a surprised look on his face and walked up to Jacob. Before he said anything Jacob whispered to him that if he said anything no one would believe him and that he would just look like someone trying to get attention. Jerod grumbled under his breath and just went to the table to get ready to eat lunch.

As everyone sat at the table their father Cal started asking the questions that Jerod knew would come up so he secretly laughed to himself and watched the scene play out.

"Jacob, while you were in the woods finding these rabbits where was your brother Jerod?"

"Uh he was here on the farm playing."

"So you just left him here? Without telling anyone you were going to the woods? Why would you leave your brother alone like that, and why did you go to the woods in the first place?"

"He was fine! He didn't go anywhere. He always just does stuff around the farm and never goes to far from the house. I don't think there is a point in having to watch him."

Jacob immediately got defensive once the questions started going towards what Jerod was doing at the time. He knew he couldn't say that he brought Jerod with him to the woods as that would get him into even more trouble, so the only thing he could do was shift focus on Jerod being able to care for himself now and hope that he could get off with a stern lecture.

"Dad! I'm fine. Jacob doesn't have to watch me anymore. I am a big boy now!"

Just as Cal was about to continue his line of questioning Jerod interrupted. Looking at his little three year old he glanced at his wife.

"Martha, what do you think?"

"Well... Jerod can be very curious about things, but he hasn't tried to crawl into the fire pit in the kitchen in a while and he really does stick close to the house when everyone is working. I suppose we could start easing up on having someone stay with him all day."

'This is way better than I had planned originally. While Jacob may be able to weasel out of trouble this time he has done me a huge favor by saying I am big enough to not need a babysitter.'