Jonas was startled awake when he felt a light bump on his side. It wasn't anything that worried him. In fact, he was more surprised that it had been enough to wake him up. Especially since he could see daylight shining on him through his eyelids.
Whatever the reason, he couldn't help but wonder what might have happened while he was asleep. Part of the reason he'd stayed awake so long before the party that ended in such disaster was because he needed to make sure that he was doing something about the situation he was in.
At the moment, there wasn't a need for himself to do anything exactly, but he still felt a need to do something. Even if he couldn't be sure what that was. After all, the chamberlain had been captured before he or any of those in his group were aware of it, which meant that Owen would be able to interrogate him to make sure that he was the head of the conspiracy or not.
Which also meant that he was left without anything to focus on. Which in turn didn't sit well with him. He'd often been told in his life that 'Idle hands are the devil's playthings' or something like that. He'd always taken that to heart and wanted to make sure that his hands weren't 'idle' at any point.
However, right now there wasn't anything specific that he could even think of to do. He could feel his body needed more rest, but at the same time, he couldn't just let himself be idle.
Carefully opening his eyes, he looked to see what had bumped into him and saw Elmo on his left. He couldn't be sure if Elmo was asleep at the moment or just dozing, but he suddenly felt an urge to put his arm around Elmo's shoulders, to pull him closer. He couldn't say where the urge came from, but it was unexpected for him.
Jonas reached over and brushed some hair away from Elmo's face, giving him a better view of Elmo. However, as he started to pull his hand away he froze. Not because he was caught in the act, but because he realized what he'd just done and couldn't believe that he'd done that.
He'd never even had the urge to do anything like that before, so he couldn't understand why he did that now. He wanted to stand up and quickly walk away, not caring that Elmo would probably fall down on the ground without him to lean against, but at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to stop the contact between him and Elmo. Which served to further confuse himself.
He couldn't figure out what was happening to himself and wasn't sure if it was good or not. Not only that, but he couldn't think of anyone he could turn to, to talk about this. Kim might be an option, except he viewed their relationship as more of a professional relationship, which meant that he should leave personal matters like this outside of it. Elin possibly might be willing to not talk about it, but he doubted that he'd be able to get much insight out of her, as she'd probably go off on some fantasy of her own that wouldn't be helpful or even productive.
Jonas sighed and closed his eyes again for a minute, trying to settle his thoughts. Why he had to deal with this now, for the first time in his life, he couldn't say. As if dealing with this stupid competition wasn't bad enough. Now he had to deal with these confusing emotions as if he was thirteen again or something.
Jonas opened his eyes and looked around again. There wasn't anything of interest to see at all, but at least it gave him something to do other than let himself get overwhelmed by confusing thoughts that didn't help him out any. Or even create more confusion.
Idly he couldn't help but wonder if he had something to focus on if he'd even be stressing out over this issue. If he had something to do, then he probably would be getting it done, regardless of what he thought about the kid.
Jonas sat up straight. Of course! Elmo was basically a kid, right? He might be in his twenties, but he was still a kid, which meant it would be good for him to get involved with him, right?
Jonas glanced at Elmo and threw those thoughts out the window. He doubted he'd even be able to convince Elin with those arguments. Which just made him feel a little depressed at that.
As Jonas looked towards the sun that had risen at least a few minutes ago, he suddenly thought of checking his status. Which he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that before. Here he'd been stressing out about his reaction to having the physical contact with Elmo when he could have been checking his status and doing something useful.
With all the fighting they'd done the night before, he was sure that he'd have gotten something out of it. Something that would give him something useful to focus on rather than being useless like he'd been up to this moment this morning.
Sighing, he looked down, away from the sun and said quietly, "Status."
Hp 85/156
Mp 30/50
Stamina 20/63
Level 18
EXP 178/171000
Str 25
Dex 32
Con 25
Int 20
Wis 20
Cha 12
Agi 16
Vit 25
Endurance 25
Physical Resistance 10%
Magical Resistance 10%
Skills:
Appraisal III 40/150
Disabling/Enabling devices 0/100
Keen Eyes VIII 211/650
Keen Ears VII 103/600
Unnatural Reflexes V 23/300
Stealth VI 122/625
Shadow Sight
Magic Sense III 48/200
Shadow Regenerate
Manipulate Shadows – 2 MP
Elemental Attribute Application – 4 MP to activate and 1 MP for each minute of use
Abilities:
Shadow Merge III – 4 MP initial, 1 MP each minute 2/300
Crippling Strike III – 6 stamina 32/200
Boomerang Blade IIII – 2 stamina, 1 MP 39/250
Whirlwind Blade – 7 stamina 0/100
You have 5 attribute points to left to allocate. Where would you like to place them?
Jonas nodded as he looked at the stats. It wasn't as much of a change as he had expected, but he wasn't going to complain. It wasn't like it didn't give him anything to do. However, he wasn't in a rush to allocate his points at the moment. He needed to consider how best to place them.
It was clear that given some of his skills, he probably needed to balance out his stamina growth with his MP growth. His HP wasn't as big of a concern for himself at the moment as it might have been another time.
Jonas suddenly felt Elmo shift himself against Jonas, so he absently put an arm around Elmo, hoping to get him to not move and disrupt Jonas' concentration.
In the end, he decided that he needed to just put one point in his Int, Wis, Vit, Endurance, and Str. Int and WIs would improve his MP, Vit and Endurance would improve his stamina, while Str would improve the damage he dealt when attacking. The improvement to his HP was merely a side benefit. Which brought his max MP to 55, his max stamina to 67, and his max HP to 162.
Jonas looked over his stats again, pleased with the changes, as minor as they were. As the smallest part could affect a lot more than one would imagine. Especially when considering the long term effects. As a course change of 1 degree could lead to a difference of miles if the course wasn't corrected for a long time.
Then as he continued to examine his stats, he suddenly noticed the line at the bottom had changed: You can learn a new skill or spell. Would you like to choose or see the options?
"Tutorial," he sighed. This part felt more wearying than anything else at the moment, though he wasn't sure if that would really be a good thing or not.
"What new skill options do I have?" Jonas asked, not caring to deal with the entire list. He could only remember about one or two anyway, so if there weren't any new options, he figured he'd just choose one of those can let the chips fall where they may.
"Don't worry about it," Jonas replied. "I'll just take Increased Damage."
He wasn't sure how much it would increase the damage he dealt, or if there were variations in the ffect, since it didn't really explain that very well when he'd first had it as an option, but that didn't bother him. Any increase would still be helpful. The sooner her dealt with an enemy, the sooner he and those in his group would be out of danger in any battle.
Jonas was about to say 'no' when he suddenly had a thought. He doubted it would get him anywhere, but he thought it was at least worth a shot. After all, it wasn't like the voice would be able to announce it to the entire world.
"What can you tell me about relationships between people?" Jonas asked. "Specifically between individuals."
"More of a personal manner," Jonas answered.
Jonas sighed, not that surprised. "Well, thanks anyway," he said, ready to move on.
Jonas was about to stand up, when he suddenly realized where his left arm was. He felt a complex combination of emotions at seeing that. A few he could readily identify were mortification, surprise, shock, alarm, and satisfaction.
He wasn't sure what he could do to sort those out, but at the moment, he could tell that he really didn't want to let go of Elmo, but at the same time, he knew that both of them would need to regroup with the others. As such, all good things must come to an end, which meant that he would need to end this contact.
Yet at the same time, he was feeling a little apoplectic with himself at realizing he had considered that contact 'good' more than anything else. Never before had he thought anything of that kind before. Aside from being mystifying to him, it felt like it was a paradox in and of itself.
What was wrong with me? Jonas couldn't help but wonder.