After around two and half hours later, the boys were almost at the house, and Rhys had decided to call his mom to inform her.
Telling the targets that they're close, they began to perk up a little, despite Seth and Erin being a little drowsy.
"I'm going to call my mom to inform her we're nearly there, we just entered the property and it's a little bit further." Rhys told them, repeating the information Kane gave to him.
"We're already on the property? What's the point of owning so much if you're no using it?" Xavier questioned, the only one with his energy still perfectly intact.
As Seth was going to scold him for being rude, Rhys himself shrugged. "I also don't know." Even in his past life, Rhys may have owned his house, but it wasn't anything like his own private property that took five minutes to enter.
Unlocking his phone, he went through his contacts, barely any in there, and called up his mom, putting it on speaker, while Xavier decided to take it to hold for him.
"Hey mom, we've just entered the property, we'll be there in about five minutes, sorry for taking such a long time, a little incident happened when I went to pick up dad's gift." Rhys said, a little bit of exhaustion hinted in his voice.
"That's no problem, dear. I'm just glad you guys have arrived safely, I'll go meet you out front of the house, I can't wait to meet your friends." The woman said, her voice was soft and gentle, which slightly made want to fall asleep right at the wheel.
"She's nicer than my own mom was. She'd tell me off for being late or not calling her earlier." Rhys thought to himself, Kane just laughing. He better enjoy the easy worlds while he can.
As the two made casual conversation, Rhys finally made it to the front of the house and Xavier hung up for him, as he parked the car, alerting the ones in the back that they had finally reached.
As they stepped out, the woman ran up to Rhys and immediately gave him a hug, ruffling the top of his head, smiling. "Welcome home, dear." She said.
Locking eyes with her, he experienced an info dump. Cecelia Hyde, a 41 year old woman that works as a real estate agent. She is a kind hearted woman that prioritises family, and spends her free time gardening. "Why am I getting an information dump on her?" Rhys asked Kane.
"It's because she's an important person to the host, and depending on worlds, the background information changes so it's not always the same." Kane explained.
"Ah, by the way, your parents appearance will typically never change." Kane added on. Cecelia was a tall woman at 5'7 with shiny ocean blue eyes, pale skin, and mid-back black hair.
"Wait a second, isn't she prettier than me? Even her eyelashes look so long and pretty! Why don't I look like that?" He questioned, slightly annoyed that someone she was so much better than him.
"You'll get there one day, Rhys." Kane replied, watching Rhys introduce the targets to his mom, with a smile on both their faces.
"This is Xavier, Seth, and Erin." He pointed to each target as he introduced, his mom now ecstatic, her first time meeting any sort of friends Rhys had.
"It's so nice to meet you darlings! Please feel free to call me Cecelia, or mom! Whichever makes you happy. Thank you for taking care of Rhys." She said, shaking their hands and ruffling their heads.
"Wow, you're really pretty! I can see where Reece's gets it from." Xavier exclaimed as he happily shook her hands. With a small blush, she told him it was nice of him to flatter an old woman like herself, and guided them inside.
"I seriously think she doesn't get it. She has absolutely zero wrinkles, and doesn't even look over twenty." Erin said as she was a little bit ahead, Seth nodded along.
"I expected her to be an old woman but maybe Reece's family is secretly good looking! How could he deceive us?" Xavier said, pouting.
Taking offence in his head, Rhys just smiled on the outside. "Did he just say I'm not good looking enough to assume my family has good looking genes. Kane laughed.
Entering, she took their coats and put them on hangers in the mudroom before showing them in, guiding them to the music room.
"I know you've all just arrived, but I'll show you around tomorrow. Riel really wanted to see you guys tonight, he should be in the music room right now." She said, making her way up the stairs and down the hall, past a few doors.
"This place is huge." Xavier said, causing Seth to pinch his cheeks, reminding him to behave while he's here. She only laughed, finding his curiosity funny.
Entering, Rhys got ready to meet his dad, wondering just what the system made for him. Sitting on the piano bench was a man with icy blue eyes, slightly tanned skin, and beautiful rose hair. When he sat up, he was easily around 5'11.
"Why doesn't he have any wrinkles, either?!" Rhys thought as he locked eyes with him, an information dump unloading itself.
Gabriel Hyde, a 46 year old man who works as a pianist, and is relatively popular with a large fanbase. He never fails to speak his mind but close contact makes him nervous.
"I swear if I'm not as pretty as these people when I get enough handsome points I'm going to quit this system." Rhys thought as the man walked over, clearing his throat.
"You all can refer to me as Mr. Hyde, I'm a musician, so you may hear me playing the piano late at night, my apologies. It's nice to meet my son's friends." His tone was a little rough, but he genuinely did care about Rhys.
Giving his son a pat on the shoulder, he nodded and turned around going back to his piano as Xavier said a hello to him.
"I'll play you all a piece I've been working on, since you're all asking." He said, although absolutely no one asked him.
"What is with this sheer confidence of his?" Rhys asked Kane, who only stated at him with a twitching eye. Wondering who exactly seems similar to that?
A beautiful melody fell over the room, it even came as a surprise to Rhys himself, who had heard hundreds of different pianists over his years.
It felt like an angel had decided to play the piano, instead of a regular old man, nearly making Rhys jealous from how well he played.
By the time he was finished, the four boys were so engrossed and gave a round of applause, amazed.
"That's right, I am the best pianist, feel free to brag about meeting me." He said, Rhys now understanding why Kane fumed at his question earlier.
With them being dismissed by Gabriel, and Cecelia taking them to their rooms, they shared a quick conversation before the night ends.
"You take after your mom a whole lot more than your dad, despite how you two look almost exactly similar." Erin said, imagining Rhys to be a happy and idiotic person.
"Oh what he doesn't know what I have to deal with. The duality of man." Kane said causing Rhys to yell at him to shut up.
"I think he probably takes after his dad in the music field as well? Since he is a music major." Seth suggested.
"I can't wait to hear Reece's performance! I'm going to brag to everyone in class that I got to hear his playing!" Xavier exclaimed.
"I'm really nothing compared to my dad." Rhys said with a smile, trying to act nice, although on the inside he was fuming, actually knowing that this man was better than him, in almost every way.
Laughing, Cecelia joined in as well. "I wouldn't say you're nothing, by the time you were eight you held your first sold out concert." she subtly bragged about her son.
"How does she know that?" Rhys asked Kane, surprised that the timelines between his past life and this world are sort of adding up.
"The system finds it convenient not to change way too much, so events like the age you first started playing or your first concerts are the same, just different ways of learnings, and different locations." Kane informed.
Understanding, Rhys zoned back into the conversation they were having, something about his accomplishments. He felt extremely proud of himself for them, considering he couldn't brag about himself to them without breaking character.
The conversation soon died down as everyone was sent off to their own rooms one by one, Rhys last with his mom.
As she guided him, she held his hand and told him about how proud she was of him, of both having friends and in general, before sending him off to bed with a kiss on the forehead.
"Are you sure I can't have a mom like this in every world?" Rhys questioned as he entered, looking around.
The room was huge, there was even a piano in it next to the already large king sized bed. Even though it was unoccupied for awhile, it was still clean, not a single spec of dust.
"It's really impressive that she's kept this room clean every day all by herself." Kane said, looking around.
It nearly made Rhys' heart pang, as the people in this world all had genuine feelings, and this was their everyday life, they weren't just novel characters anymore, but at the same time, he didn't want to acknowledge it, knowing something like that would hold him back from completing his mission.
Reading his mind, Kane plopped onto the bed. "There are vacation days for a reason, you know? Or just acquire the system key." He rolled.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Rhys questioned, changing into a pair of pyjamas he found in his dresser.
"Vacation days can be used both in the world and system space. However, if you obtain a system key item you won't need to spend vacation time in the world." Kane explained.
"A system key? How elaborate is this system exactly?" Rhys asked, losing Kane midway through his explanation.
"A system is only good if it offers a variety of things. A key item isn't a skill, but it is at the same time. It's more useful than a simple skill, simply put, and you need to be a host for a certain criteria in order to get a key item, which is why you have seen your host profile."
"Why don't you ever tell me anything at once? Making me learn things along the way. But continue" He huffed, snuggling under the sheets.
"I can't tell you the exact criteria for all of the system keys until you complete at least three worlds, successfully, but I can tell you about attribute change, since you get it after your first world completion."
Humming as acknowledgement, Kane continued. "Attribute change is a basic key item every host has, it lets you open up your attribute screen while pausing the world for two minutes, letting you change you attributes on demand. At the moment, you'd have to wait for an attribute point reward to use it."
"Only three minutes?" Rhys questioned, finding that a little odd. Kane noticeably gulped.
"There was once a host who abused the system to pause the world and do whatever they felt like, not limited to robbing a bank, so the timer is three minutes every twelve hours, no matter which host you are." Kane sounded exasperated just from remembering it.
"You keep mentioning past hosts, just how many hosts are there?" Rhys asked, feeling a little drowsy now.
"Soon to be five hundred, we've been in a desperate need of hosts for a few hundred years, but our criteria for picking them is very high." Kane began.
"The system has been ongoing for about three-hundred years now, we need to choose good hosts and we have many different fields each host is assigned to." He finished.
"Are all systems as ugly and terrible as you? Or did I get unlucky?" Rhys asked his final question, before falling asleep.
As much as Kane wanted to punch Rhys he held it in, this is why he didn't tell him all the information at once. He's both a jerk and someone who can't handle learning everything at once.
"You should be thankful, you pathetic pea sized brain would explode if I gave you a huge information dump, seeing you can barely handle the world information dump." Kane hissed, drifting off to sleep himself.
The next morning, Rhys habitually woke up early, and decided to take a shower and practice his skills before his mom would come get him, much thanks to Kane's persistent nagging.
He spent his time from. 6:00 am to 9:00 am in a mess of quiet tears, while writing and getting cramps in his hand. Once he evolved signatures, please, Kane began throwing all the crumpled paper Rhys wrote with at him, forcing him to use his skill to dodge unless he wanted the chance of a paper cut on his face.
After finally getting a break, he laid on the bed, with laboured breath, staring at the ceiling. "So what I got out of this was a cramped hand, the most exercise of my life, and not even one level increase with either of my other skills? Great." He sarcastically said.
"Signatures, please evolved! You should properly check it on it at least." Kane said, huffing at Rhys bad habit of not checking the pop up screens as soon he sees that they appear.
"Signatures, please now level (5). Requirements met, now evolving." Rhys read, taking a deep breath every few seconds.
Kane was now very giddy as he waited for Rhys to read the next part, Rhys finding it creepy.
"Signatures, please is now penmanship, host is able to write in beautifully in the world's language. Host is no longer able to level the skill up, and will receive two subcategories to focus on."
"Wait, what's this?" Rhys questioned, the screen now saying something he had never seen before.
"Surprise! This system really is like a game right? Now that your skill penmanship is maxed out, you can get some sort of bonus buff for your skill." Kane said, pride radiating off of him.
The screen changed and showed Rhys three new subcategories he had unlocked, causing him to groan. "This is way too much effort. Just how damn elaborate is this."
"Penmanship skill is maxed, now showing two subcategories. Multilingual, and hot fingers. Multilingual allows host the write in any language the world offers, rather than the main one, while hot fingers allows the host to write at fast pace speeds." The screen read.
"I told you this would be really useful in the future! What if you become a CEO with a lot of paperwork, or you have a need to write in a second language? Or decipher a hidden message sent from an enemy kingdom?" Kane listed off suggestions, making Rhys groan.
"I did not sign up for all of this, since these are subcategories I'm assuming I still need to level them up?" To which Kane let out a loud correct to.
"You still need to raise each by five levels, multilingual will automatically write down in the language you're thinking of, but you may get the alphabet or messy letters at first until it's maxed. Hot fingers is the same, from messy to neat at quick speeds." Kane finished.
He hated to admit it, but it was useful. If Rhys could do all his assignments neatly and save half the time it took, that was good. Especially since he could work to level it up now, in an easy world to prepare for the crazy worlds Kane had told him about.
"Well whatever, that's great." Rhys tried to brush it off when it came to Kane, forgetting that he could read his mind anyways.
"Just wipe that stupid smile off your face so we can hurry to breakfast, I hear footsteps." Rhys sighed, awaiting for his first weekend to begin, with friends and family, no less.