Sitting against the wall, Lelly shared her rations with Effie.

  “This food is so bland,” Effimia said between bites. “It’s disgusting.” A loose strand of her dark brown hair got caught in her mouth for the third or fourth time, so she set the rations aside and quickly redid her bun.

  Lelly couldn’t help but agree. Blembas Bars were basically tasteless but still managed to give her acid reflux half of the time. No wonder they were the cheapest rations at the campus store.

  “Ok, Ms. Mylona, I’ll start from the top,” Lelly said. She had been scratching her brain for any droplets of second-hand information about Disruption. What was just a MunFi series to Lelly was somehow a real life that Effimia had been torn from by unknown powers. “I know your name is Effimia Mylona and you work as a [Secretary] at Culture Fit Ltd.. Depending on the exact timeline, the company might have recently acquired a startup. If that has happened then maybe you’ve had some bad interactions with the new guy, Luke? Other than that I can only fill in what I know from MunFi tropes.”

  Effimia looked angry as ever but she was also dumbfounded. Lelly didn’t have much else to offer but even this much was astonishing.

  “That sounds right,” Effimia replied. “My memories close to the end are hazy but I remember most things clearly. Luke was a nightmare to work with but everyone put up with it for reasons I couldn’t understand. And in the story I’m some sort of mean girl?” A twinge of sadness came over her.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Mylona,” Lelly shrugged. “I’ve heard it’s easier for a writer to make one single character the source of all hardship in the story even though nothing is ever that simple in real life. But now that I know you’re real, it feels really unfair.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lelly added, “actually based on how those stories go, I can also say that Luke probably married the CEO’s daughter.”

  Effimia’s brown eyes widened. “Dammit!” she shouted. “That spoiled twerp did marry Celine, didn’t he!”

  The burst of emotion surprised Lelly. “You remember?” she asked.

  “I definitely remember Luke and Celine. Luke was so self-absorbed. He didn’t care about anyone so why would Celine–why would she–” Her voice became shrill and what little composure she’d had was lost. “She was the heiress to the company after all, does that mean...?”

  Anticipating the question, Lelly nodded. “Yeah, he’s probably at the top with her.”

  Effimia’s face was bright red with frustration.

  ***

  After Effimia had finished eating, Moomi and Rooroo (who until then had hovered between neutrality and discomfort with Effimia) suddenly decided they wanted attention and they wanted it now. Was this stranger actually a new friend?!

  As both creatures approached, Effimia immediately stood up. “Woah, hey, stay down!”

  “Oh my gosh I’m so sorry. They’re not used to other people,” Lelly said as she tried to hold them back.

  Rooroo was more responsive to the situation and kept a short but excited distance. Moomi, on the other hand, sniffed all around Effimia’s hands and legs.

  “Stop that,” Effimia said.

  Lelly put herself between Moomi and Effimia.

  “Moomi, sit. Siiiit,” she commanded.

  Moomi’s excitement was palpable as it slowly processed the command. Finally, it sat.

  “You need to get control over your pets,” Effimia huffed.

  “I am so, so sorry! They’ve only been my companions for a short time and they’re usually not around anyone else long enough to get excited,” Lelly said. “I would have liked to train with them more before setting off like this, but…”

  Effimia seemed to recognize something in Lelly’s words.

  “What are you doing in this place anyways, Lelly?” she asked.

  “My [Deity] told me that I would find something in the [Televator] to help me escape. I think you were that,” Lelly explained.

  “Your [Deity] ‘told’ you?” Effimia asked, then interrupted herself to add, “Escape from what?”

  “It’s a long story,” Lelly sighed. “But basically I helped someone and someone else doesn’t like her so they have decided to target me as well.”

  Effimia nodded. “And you are trying to escape this [Office Building]?”

  “Well, yes and no. We need to leave this training [Dungeon] and then we need to escape the campus of my school, ItherBeau Mage College.”

  “We do?”

  “Well, I mean, not necessarily you,” Lelly clarified. “But if you’re ok with it. Honest, I have no idea how to get you back to your home and you might have a better chance just leaving the [Dungeon] and seeking help from someone else, though. I would understand.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “I don’t know. I have no idea what is going on,” Effimia said. She crossed her arms. “I suppose since you’ve helped me, I will agree to help you until you get off campus. After that, we will go our separate ways.”

  Lelly nodded. She was a little sad to hear it. The idea of having a humanoid companion for this journey would have made the whole thing seem more bearable, and she was endlessly curious to hear more about Effimia’s experiences in an actual Mundane realm. But she couldn’t argue. This was going to be a dangerous journey and she could only ask so much of someone.

  “I would…really appreciate that,” Lelly said.

  “Were you hoping for something else?” Effimia asked.

  “Oh no, that’s perfect,” Lelly lied.

  ***

  Effimia hadn’t known how to access the [System] so Lelly had to walk her through the basics. Things like holding out a hand so the display would appear in her hand, adjusting the text size, and how to summon a [Stylus].

  “So it’s like a [PDA]?” Effie asked.

  “Oh yeah, I’ve seen those in some books. And when I access the [Forums] its much larger and sort of like those [Forum Units],” Lelly nodded. “If you’re comfortable showing me your Class page, this might be easier. Oh and when I say ‘Class’ it means the same thing as where the [System] says [Job]. And that’s the same with Level and [Rank] too. They’re just informal terms.”

  Effimia nodded and held out her interface for Lelly to see. Her classes were listed as [Queen Bee: Rank N/A], [Secretary: Rank N/A], [Traveler: Rank N/A], and [Undecided: Rank N/A].

  “Oh that’s good, you have an empty slot and those Levelless Classes might have benefits I don’t know about,” Lelly explained.

  [Secretary] didn’t have any effects. Lelly had never seen that, but it did line up with the idea of a [Job] in a Mundane realm.

  [Queen Bee] on the other hand gave Effimia a buff in all of her mental stats. However, the positive bonus values would become negatives instead “while interacting with certain individuals and circumstances.”

  “I’m surprised it has any effects at all,” Lelly said.

  “Well,” Effimia mused, “I knew I was a [Secretary] in my old world, but I didn’t know about this whole [Queen Bee] trope. Does that mean anything?”

  “So you’re saying that there may have been a [System] in your realm but it was almost non-diagetic.”

  “I have no idea what that means…”

  “I’m not even using the word exactly right. I just mean that because nobody in your realm knew about the [System] then that’s almost like it not being there at all?”

  Effimia shook her head, no. “Based on everything you’ve told me about stats, I think it’s quite possible this was impacting me in my home realm. I just didn’t know. So it did exist. It was just hidden.”

  “That’s a good point,” Lelly agreed.

  [Traveler] was the most interesting. Lelly had seen the other two classes referenced in MunFi novels, but this was totally new. It gave an unspecified bonus to all experience gained. That could be a powerful thing. Lelly’s best guess was that it was somehow related to the fact that Effimia was from another realm.

  “So what do you think you want to choose for your empty Class?” Lelly asked. “Based on the boosts to your mental stats, you might make a good [Mage] or something? Although the chance for those to decrease in certain situations might be a risk. Let’s look at your physical stats…woah!”

  Effimia had average [Dexterity] and [Strength] but her [Constitution] was her highest stat overall.

  “Did you know about this?” Lelly asked.

  “Obviously not!” Effimia retorted. “I didn’t even know there were stats until you told me. Why are you looking at me like that?!”

  “Sorry!” Lelly averted her gaze.

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means you’re tough,” Lelly explained. “Like you can take a hit or hold your liquor.”

  “I suppose I knew about the liquor,” Effimia said with a frustrated expression. “And I guess girls used to pick a lot of fights with me and lose.”

  Lelly was shocked. “I thought the Mundane World usually didn’t resort to direct fighting.”

  “Ha! Try telling that to a group of teenagers. Hell, even adults can get violent.”

  “Well, in that case, you could be a good [Barbarian]. You can enter a [Frenzy] which will boost your [Strength] and [Constitution]. Your [Constitution] impacts things like how much you can [Frenzy] and stuff like that.”

  “This sounds like one of those games people play,” Her confused expression softened momentarily. “My niece likes them. ‘Burrows and Bugbears’?”

  “I think it might be ‘Burrows and Bearbugs’ unless the writer was trying to do some sort of inversion on the real world creature,” Lelly suggested.

  “Hell if I know,” Effimia shot back. “I never cared about fairytales.”

  “Wait, do you think my realm is the one based on a story?” Lelly asked.

  “It would make more sense.”

  “In what way?” Lelly replied.

  “Well, this world has magic! I mean, that’s not normal, right? That only happens in stories.”

  Lelly shrugged. She didn’t see things that way but she would have to think about it.

  “Anyways, I’ll take that [Job] if you think it makes sense. You seem smart even if you are a little absent minded,” Effimia said with a hint of annoyance.

  Lelly couldn’t complain at the light jab. This wasn’t like the anger she’d seen in Effie’s eyes earlier. Effie was just speaking honestly with no ill intent. Lelly kind of liked it, not that she would ever say so. It made her feel like Effie trusted her already.

  “In that case, the axe you’ve got is a reasonable weapon, but we should also get you some hide armor. That’s probably the heaviest they have here. It might be good to find you some normal clothes when we have the chance.”

  “Is this kind of outfit not something you have here?” Effie asked.

  “Oh no, we’ve got pantsuits. You just might look weird wearing it under armor like that.”

  Effie removed her suit jacket before donning the hide armor and Lelly averted her eyes. The human woman’s bare arms revealed she was more physically capable than one might assume at first glance.

  “I’m not getting naked,” Effie said. Her olive skinned face had gone deep red.

  “Oh sorry, I just wanted to give you privacy.”

  Effie rolled her eyes.

  The new Class also granted her improved movement speed and she took the [Forceful Strike] and [Improved Breakthrough] which had the potential to help break through a defensive line of enemies in combat.

  ***

  Lelly placed a piece of a Blembas Bar from her rations onto the phiale and used her magic to summon a small font of water to pour over it. Then leaning her head back, she listened to the ambient sound of her room and pressed her tail to the back of each of her ankles.

  For the second time, Ki Shathra gave her a sort of direct answer. She closed her eyes and heard the message as if she herself was submerged in water.

  There is time to train one Level, but take leave before noon.

  When the trance subsided, Lelly looked over to see Effie…er, Effimia, that is, had fallen asleep. She must have been exhausted.

  Heads Up: next week's chapter might end up delayed. I haven't been as on-top of setting up the commissions from Botjira and next week's chapter is supposed to have two monsters in it so I don't want to rush her for my mistake.

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