The Systems Challenge

Elin was very much not happy. Not only was her sleep interrupted, bringing her back to… to… this place, but then Kim had called her 'princess' again. After having agreed not to!

She was tired, miserable, lonely, homesick, and she was starting to realize she didn't have a friend in this place. When Kim didn't give her much of a response for being told that she wasn't a princess again, Elin moved away to a corner in the room, to be by herself.

She didn't know or care why all of the others on her so-called team were awake. She could only determine that whatever it was, it was probably to find a way to make her life more miserable. Why was she the only one who was left out of whatever they were doing?

She thought when she went to sleep that she was a part of their team and wouldn't be left out of anything. Yet, she saw that wasn't the case. In fact, she could only assume they'd gotten together to think of ways to make her life more miserable than it already was.

She moved a hand to rub an eye that was bothering her and was surprised to find a wetness around her eye. She hadn't realized that she'd started crying. Which might be just as well, she told herself. What would they have to do with her that she could actually do? She really was just a burden that would be better off letting the others not have to deal with her.

So wrapped up in her own thoughts and misery, she jumped when Elmo spoke.

"I'm sorry you're upset," Elmo said gently.

Elin glance at Elmo, still rather unhappy. "I would have expected Kim to be over here calling me a title that's not mine," Elin snapped.

Elmo sighed. Of course, he's just here to try and excuse that away, Elin told herself. Why else would he be here.

"Kim wanted to be the one, but Jonas and I convinced her we wouldn't have time for her to get through apologizing to you for that. It's just that we weren't having much luck waking you up and we really needed you up," Elmo said.

Elin felt confused before she realized it had to be some sort of excuse. "I don't care why she called me that. It's clear that I'm just another burden on you guys and when I can, I'll leave all of you so you don't have to deal with me again," Elin said.

"If you really want to do that, I guess I can't stop you," Elmo said. "But right now we have another problem that you'll want to know about."

"Problem? Yeah, me," Elin scoffed. "Just another problem in this wretched place."

"Actually no," Elmo said, almost like he was afraid of telling Elin this. "The problem is that there's skeletons approaching this way."

"Skeletons?" Elin asked. "Why would those be a problem?"

"Because they're walking this way," Elmo said. "We're pretty sure we're going to have to fight them."

"You said you were having a hard time waking me up?" Elin asked, skeptical about the 'skeleton' story. "Why wouldn't I have just gotten up? If you wanted to, you could have left me and I would have been helpless. So, why wouldn't I have woken up?"

"I don't know why you didn't want to get up. You kept talking to someone named 'Cynthia' and that you should be allowed to sleep some more," Elmo replied, looking hesitant on telling her this.

As he mentioned the name 'Cynthia,' Elin could only feel embarrassment. There would be no way for them to know the name of her personal maid if she hadn't said it. In all, it was just another item to add to what she hated about this accursed place. It was even trying to drain any happiness she'd started to find in it.

"Okay, fine," Elin finally said. "I accept there's these 'skeletons' approaching. What is it that we can do about them?"

"Well, we think the best thing will be to fight them," Elmo said. "But we think there's at least ten of them, so we might have a little trouble with them."

"Ten?" Elin asked, starting to stand up from where she had started to wallow in her own misery. "What can we do about that?"

"That's what we're working out," Elmo replied, starting to walk with Elin over to the others. "Jonas said that if we let them in the room, we'll be in trouble, but if we keep them from entering the room, we should be able to keep them from using their numbers against us."

"So, I bet they'll just want to keep me from doing anything, right?" Elin asked, surprised at how miserable she still was.

"They might want you to, but I think you should help out where you think you can," Elmo replied, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I think when the fight starts, we're not going to be worried about what exactly someone else is doing, just what we can do right then."

Elin smiled at this, at Elmo. Maybe he really was someone who would be a friend here. Not in the same way as Cynthia had been for her, but still as a friend.

"-be good," Kim was saying as they approached. "Although, even if we have to break every bone in their bodies, we might not have any choice."

"Let's hope we're overthinking this," Jonas said. "I just worry that whatever we decide will just end up the same, with us losing."

"I don't think they'd have something too difficult for us in here," Elmo commented, jumping in their conversation. "I mean, they don't want us to die at night, but I think these skeletons are more so that they'll have some 'highlights' to show whoever's watching when the night's over. Besides, this is our first night, how strong would they expect us to have gotten by this time?"

Jonas looked like he was thinking about it for a minute. "Okay, kid. I'll go with that hope. It makes sense, more than this whole place does, and we don't have much time to discuss it anyway."

"I think I can see them in the distance," Kim commented. "It's hard to say with the lighting in here."

"Oh, have you checked your stats since we got here?" Elmo asked Jonas.

"Yeah, I added the points to my Str, Wis, Vit, and Endurance. Who's to say what I'll need my stats to be, so having them rounded out right now will probably make it easier if I need to focus on one area or other later on," Jonas replied. "Besides, weren't you paying attention when we did that earlier? I could have sworn you were right there."

"Did you check your stats, Kim?" Elmo asked, apparently not hearing Jonas' question. Or at least Elin assumed he hadn't and Jonas didn't seem bothered by it.

"Yeah, I did. Not exactly something to worry about now, though is it?" Kim replied.

"Well, if you hadn't allocated your attribute points, then now might be a good time to do so," Elmo replied. "I mean, I don't know if it would increase your HP, MP, or stamina right then if you put any points into anything that affects those, but you could still put it where you might be able to deal more damage."

"Already did it, kid," Kim replied. "Though, it was a good speech."

Elin grinned as she saw Elmo blush at Kim's response. She wondered if Elmo might be interested in courting Kim. If so, she wondered what competition she'd have.

As soon as she thought that, she mentally slapped herself. She wasn't free to court anyone! Her father would arrange for her marriage when he found someone suitable for her. Someone who would be able to either accept his title or who would allow her family to increase their standing.

One thing she was not allowed to do was to offer her own hand to anyone. Unless something happened to her father, that would be the case. If he wasn't able to do that, then she would be free to offer her hand to whomever she chose, but depending on whom she chose, her family's title, estate, and lands might be stripped from her.

Elin shook her head to dispel those thoughts. She could hear the clacking of dry bones moving over the stone floor as the skeletons became discernable in the terrible lighting.

The worst part about them was that they just seemed like dolls. There wasn't anything about them that indicated they were really a threat, but at the same time, there wasn't anything that indicated they weren't.

"What can you tell me about these skeletons?" Elin asked Elmo.

Elmo looked at Elin like she'd hit him in the face for a moment before grinning.

"I forgot about that spell," he said before looking at the skeletons. "View Stats."

Elmo didn't say anything as the skeletons got closer. Elin didn't want to rush him, but she was getting a little uneasy.

Finally, Elmo shared with them what his spell revealed to him. "The skeletons are resistant to weapons like swords, axes, daggers, and arrows. They aren't especially strong, but they will attack anything living they come across. They're weak to holy attribute weapons and spells, but any resistances still apply with weapon types. They also don't need light to, uh, well, see. Except if they're being directed by someone or something, they'll attacka anything living. Then there's the part that while they walk slowly, they still can attack rather quickly," Elmo informs them.

Elin sighs. What she'd heard didn't sound very good for them.

"Elin, remember to keep your magic for healing us. We don't know how well we'll be able to fight these, so we're going to rely on your spells to keep us alive," Jonas ordered Elin.

Elin bristled at being told that. She didn't want to just stay on the side during battle, only to be there if they got hurt!