I stared at Pursius. The cat carefully avoided my eyes. My mask lay off to the side, and my hood was down, letting the horrid purple on full display. He shifted from paw to paw and then knocked on the window with light impacts of his telekinesis. The limo's engine kicked on.

  ”I didn’t come here specifically for you. Just passing by…” Pursius meowed quietly before shifting his gaze out the window of the car.

  I didn’t say anything…

  I followed his amber eyes to the gathered crowd surrounding the area where the rift used to be. The Bureau and Bastion’s Containment and Defense Forces had already set up a line around the area. The rift was already cleared, though, so I didn't really see the point in all that.

  ”You cleared that, huh?” Pursius nodded to the defensive line. A moment later, a steaming cup of coffee floated over to me from a cup holder.

  ”…!” My lips curled into a smile as I grabbed the offered cup. Just its scent alone brought me a level of comfort. I lightly blew on the dark liquid to cool it down.

  Francis, sitting beside the cat in the limo, frowned at me with a suspicious look in his eyes. “You awakened, Nyx?”

  “…?!” How’d he know?

  “Otherwise your brain would’ve been carrion.” The large orc huffed and looked out the window, going back to ignoring me and his boss. Or, at least, half-ignoring. Even in the safety of Pursius’s private limo, he kept his eyes peeled, ever the studious guard.

  Pursius’s ears perked up in interest. “What did you get? Anything good?”

  “…” I shrugged lightly. Oh! I pulled two small jars of catnip from my pocket and the bonus shard I’d been given, passing them both over.

  Pursius took them in his telekinetic grasp. He shoved the catnip to the other side of the car, whiskers twitching erratically. “What’s this?”

  ”Bonus.” I’d almost forgotten about it. He still needed his two-thirds cut. No way I’d shortchange him, especially after he came all the way out here to get me. He even brought me coffee! Truly a great boss, yep.

  "Lux." A SIGIL grew on the back of Pursius’s paw. Even though he was quite a bit smaller, his silver SIGIL was the same size as everyone else's. The SIGIL stretched out, fully covering his paw.

  He drained and crushed the shard into a mangled mess, tossing it out the window. After a moment, he withdrew another shard, transferred Nytes using his SIGIL, and passed it to me. “One thousand, six hundred Nytes.”

  I pocketed the shard and looked back out the window. The coffee's taste drew my mind back to the rift. My memories felt hazy after a certain point, but I remembered enough. “Kid?”

  His face scrunched up, the fur raising slightly. “And why- how would I know that?”

  “…” I shot him a look.

  Pursius’s eyes shifted, following my gaze to the closing rift. He once more avoided looking right at me. Right, my eyes. Sorry. I threw my mask back on. “Safe. Bureau ruled her heavily contaminated, but she’ll live… I won’t ask. There’s a light search for the ‘mysterious masked awakener’ who saved the kid, but nothing too heavy. Lay low for a couple of days, and it’ll pass.”

  "Yep.” I could lay low for a bit. The sixteen hundred Nytes would pay for my half of the rent, at least. Kali would probably let me back in the apartment now, right? I've been out the entire night and well into the next day.

  “Let’s go!” Pursius called out to the driver. As the car started moving, he floated a blanket over to cover my blood-soaked and trembling legs. He hesitated for a moment before lightly jumping into my lap. The Miix made himself right at home, forcing my legs to go still. ”Are you going to register?”

  I half-heartedly patted his back and ears, careful to keep any blood off of him. Registering… all awakened were supposed to register. Those who didn’t were considered Anarchs, even if they didn’t commit any crimes. It was also how awakened got their SIGILs upgraded to white like Bombastic Bowman’s.

  ”SIGIL?” I asked the cat. I couldn't register in the first place. I hadn’t gotten a SIGIL yet since I didn't really need one, but it might finally be time.

  ”I can get one for you, if you want. You’d owe me fifty thousand more, though. Haaah…” Pursius settled down, his eyes closing. His loud yawn exposed his sharp fangs.

  “Yep.” I already owed him hundreds of thousands. A bit more wouldn’t be too crushing a debt. Besides, I’d be able to earn more money as an official Warden then I could as Nyx the mundane Stray.

  Entering rifts was extremely lucrative. Not only were the loot drops expensive, but so were other products. I didn’t grab much since I wasn’t in a great condition, but I probably could’ve made a couple thousand more Nytes if I fully scavenged the rift. More if I found something rare.

  ”Okay, I’ll get it set up… I got some jobs… for… Wardens… too.” Pursius dropped down mid-sentence, lulled to sleep by my light stroking. The cat purred slightly in contentment and the car continued driving toward our destination.

  Francis eyed me, though he didn’t say anything. I likewise didn’t attempt a conversation, allowing Pursius to sleep. It was the least I could do after he came out with Dew to fetch me so late.

  — — —

  I got back to my apartment super early in the morning. I snuck to my room, careful not to wake my roommate, and took a shower as quickly as possible using one of my few utility chips. I was covered in blood, and it wouldn’t do to get it all over my bed.

  After that, I grabbed my stuff bunny and laid down in bed. Nivia was the perfect cuddler as always, and she lightly lulled me into sleep even with my thoughts rolling. It’d been an exhausting night between the heist and the rift… mainly the rift.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  In the morning, I stretched out and went about my morning PT, though I stopped when I caught the mouth-watering scent of fresh coffee. I glanced around my room, smiling at my stuffed rabbit sitting up in the bed like she was saying, ‘I’ll wait for you.’

  ”See. You.” I nodded to the rabbit. Nivia had been a gift from… well, from a really long time ago. When I was just a kid, really.

  The rabbit was worse for wear than when I got her, but she’d been enchanted quite heavily to resist the elements. Her snow-white fur was soft and luxurious, and although she was missing an eye and half a floppy ear, I’d kept great care of her. For a moment, I was tempted to lie back down and snuggle up with Nivia once more.

  I forced myself to step out, wiping at my eyes in confusion when I took in the chaos of my roommate trying to cook. Flour was everywhere, and it looked like an egg had somehow gotten stuck on the roof, dripping down every once in a while.

  Kali, amid the chaos, stood without a care in the world with flour caking her face and clothes. Her curly black hair, which usually was quite beautiful, caked to her head thanks to a combination of ingredients not even a master chef could try and discern. And yet, a bold grin greeted me when I met her icy blue eyes.

  Her lips twitched slightly as she side-eyed the mess. “Aylin! You’re up?!”

  “Yep.” I back-stepped a lunging hug, cleanly dodging the flour that she tried to rub off on me.

  She finched slightly, though her smile returned just as broad a moment later. She moved to the coffee pot in the corner and poured me a cup. ”Ah… late night last night? Heard you got in past five.”

  No surprise she caught me. Hoping to sneak past her was a fool's dream to begin with. She may not look it, but she had senses sharper than a wild animal.

  I grabbed her offering, sipping on it lightly. What an angel to have it ready for me so early. “Yep. Held. Up.”

  “Wow! Three words!” Kail rubbed at her eyes as if to wipe away tears, making them go bloodshot when she accidentally rubbed pepper into them. “O-our Aylin really has grown up so fast.”

  I stuck out my tongue and moved around, setting up tableware. She followed a moment behind me, dropping a perfectly round pancake onto it along with two eggs, sunny side up. A piece of meat flopped onto my plate, turning the eggs into a smiling face.

  No clue where Kali always got ingredients for food considering the state of Bastion, but then again, there was a lot I didn’t know about her. It was a mutual understanding between us not to ask too many questions.

  Kali sat down across from me. “So? How’s it taste?”

  “…!” I flashed a thumbs up and quickly scarfed down the meal. No idea how she always managed to do this, but it was delicious. Watching her cook was like watching a natural disaster, and yet the food always turned out so good.

  “Good! Tried a new recipe…” She flinched as I glanced at the destroyed kitchen, sheepishly rubbing at the back of her hand. “Heh, heh… oopsie. I’ll clean up later.”

  I shrugged and sipped on the coffee… so good. Oh! I dug the shard I got from Pursius out of my pocket. “Here.”

  “Your half of the rent?” Kali took the shard, draining it with her white SIGIL. “On time as always. Ah! It’s the weekend… You- uh- you have anything today?”

  “…” I shook my head. Aside from maybe hanging out with Nivia and sleeping a bit more. I was still super tired. I still felt drained from the rift and Dew… mainly the Dew. That stuff always made me feel lethargic afterward, though I guess that wasn’t much of a surprise considering its effects.

  ”Wanna go around Aegis with me in a few hours to run some errands? It’ll be fun!” The SSS-class disaster chef hopefully looked up at me with puppy eyes.

  “Sure.” I could sleep later.

  “Alright!” She pumped her fist. “I’ll let you know when I’m leaving. It’ll be a few hours, though.”

  “Yep.” I grabbed the coffee cup, refilled it from the pot, and went back to my room. I snuggled underneath my blankets and hugged Nivia tightly to my chest, feeling her warmth and comforting scent.

  Now, how did I do this? System? OS? Status? One of those keywords seemed to work. The OS mechanically chimed in response to my calls.

  [Aylin Io

  Innate Trait: [Dream Stride], [Ebonshroud]

  Skills: [Basic Ether Sword] [1/7]

  Bound: [Will Wire]]

  There was realistically only one place to start—my Innate Trait. It was usually the foundation for most awakened to ‘build’ the rest of their strength upon from what I read on the Grid. Of course, that was assuming it was good. Could be anything from [Sword Sense] to something wild like [Embodiment of the Dragon] depending on the person.

  [Dream Stride - Stalk dreams with cat-like grace]

  Well… that was informative. Did it mean I could go into someone's dreams? How exactly did that work? Or did I myself have to go to sleep first? Why didn’t it work last night when I passed out?

  More interestingly, at least to me, Ebonshroud was recognized by the OS as an Innate Trait at some point. It even took the name I’d been calling the ooze by. I couldn’t hold my curiosity back about what the OS would say about my lifelong companion.

  [Ebonshroud - Produce and shape Ebonshroud to your will]

  About as I expected. Hmm… if it was in the OS though… I’d have to do some research, but I’d heard in passing that the evolution of Skills and Traits was a core empowering method of the OS. Did that mean my Ebonshroud could be evolved? Interesting.

  [Basic Ether Sword - Lightly imbue your sword with ether]

  [Will Wire - An endlessly expanding wire, following your will]

  Cool. Imbuing my sword with ether… It’d probably increase my firepower? I’d have to go test it to be sure, but an ether clad sword was likely to be more dangerous then just a normal sword.

  The wire also seemed interesting. As I thought about drawing it out, ether condensed in front of me. I stuck my hand out to the ether, grabbing onto the wire. The thin silver wire spooled out into my hand.

  How did I use this? Hmm… I pretended it was like Ebonshroud, drawing out its length and curling the wire into a knot. There was some resistance, but it otherwise followed my will perfectly. The end stretched out and tied itself into a knot.

  I played with it a bit before sending it back to wherever the OS kept bound items that weren’t in use. I liked Ebonshroud more. The wire was intriguing, but it seemed weak compared to Ebonshroud. Not only that, but it wasn’t nearly as versatile. Might find a use for it later, or maybe just sell it for a quick buck?

  After looking through the OS, Nivia and I sat back in my bed and scrolled through my Glass, checking out clickbait titles that I usually would’ve passed up on. I sipped at my coffee occasionally and read article after article about Wardens.

  In particular, anything about Skills, how to acquire them, and what people thought were the strongest Skills caught my eye. Now that I'd been awakened, there was actually a need to know some of this stuff. And I didn’t want to get weak skills when there were much better options.

  That led into a spiral of hours of research on various ‘need to knows’ from unofficial sources and countless opinions about the strongest ‘build’, Skills, and the ‘ideal’ way to strengthen myself as a Warden. Like I said, opinions. Everyone had a different idea about the best way to grow.

  Before I knew it, Kali knocked at my door. “C’mon, Aylin! It’s time to go! Oh, I’m so excited!”

  I hugged Nivia to my chest lightly, set the rabbit back down, and then moved to get ready. Although I was now an awakened, some things didn’t change.

  — — —

  AN: Hello! That ends the mass release of Myth//OS. Like, comment, subscribe- wait, wrong platform.

  I am aiming for RS with this one though, so if you liked it so far, leave a rating or review? I’d be mighty appreciative. Otherwise, I’d love to hear thoughts so far. We’re just getting into it, and I have a whole host of story lines plotted out for Myth//OS, Bastion, and the broken world beyond. Aylin’s got a very busy future ahead of her. Wish her some luck?

  This should have a chapter a day for the next week or so before I fall into a normal schedule. Assuming I have connection to the net over the weekend, that is.