“The Gods of Water and Aether have joined to grant you a capybara, imbued with the power of Aether.”

  Anika looked at the small capybara in front of her. She wasn’t sure if she was amused, disappointed, or thrilled. Compared to a pegasus, a capybara seemed like a pretty lackluster gift. On the other hand, she had always thought capybaras were absolutely adorable and she just wanted to grab it in her arms and immediately start snuggling it like a 3-year-old who had just been reunited with a favorite teddy bear that she thought she’d lost.

  The Princess clearly felt that Anika’s gift was the worst of the bunch, and laughable at best, as her high-pitched whooping continued to peal through the chamber. She could hear Philip cooing over her new capybara companion as he stood near his pegasus, occasionally remembering to remind Epona that she was of course the best companion, even if the baby capybara drew his adoration.

  Anika decided not to give Morigan the satisfaction of anything but an enthusiastic response and immediately fell to her knees to pat the young capybara on the head. “I’m Anika. What’s your name?” she asked, not necessarily expecting a response.

  “Hi! I’m, uh, I’m Lily.” The capybara spoke with a high-pitched voice that reminded Anika of a kawaii anime girl – like Sailor Moon if she hadn’t been whiney… not like the dub though.

  “Whoaaa it can talk like my horse,” Philip said excitedly.

  “Um, your pegasus hasn’t been talking…” Panu’s gaze switched from the capybara to the pegasus and Philip.

  “What? Epona, maybe you have to speak up!” Philip turned to the pegasus then paused for a moment, his face falling into confusion. “Oh… they can’t hear you… I guess I just speak horse! Oh, you’re in my head…that’s cool!” His joyful smile returned as he worked out the telepathy of his companion.

  Anika tried to ignore Philip’s ramblings as she replied to Lily, “That’s a great name! I’m so glad to meet you! Can I give you a hug?” Consent was important, even with her newly summoned adorable companion.

  “Of course” Lily chimed, snuggling up into Anika’s waiting arms. Anika wasn’t sure what she expected, having never pet a capybara before, but Lily’s fur felt coarser than it looked and had a waxy feeling. She had always thought they would be fuzzier and softer, more like the gerbil her 5th grade class had had. Anika also supposed that capybaras could be a little different here – it seemed strange that they would have the same animals as her planet, but all the races here were vaguely humanoid, so maybe some things were just normal throughout the cosmos. Did the gods talk to each other? Were there long-distance phone calls to other planets so the Gods could have a little chat and share their favorite animals like 3D print files? That was a strange thought. More likely the capybara was just a manifestation of her imagination, indicating this was actually a dream. The thought was somewhat comforting.

  In the background, Morigan was still gasping with laughter and wheezed half sentences like “See, I told you water was weak!” and “It’s like a hamster the size of a pig” as Nilendi attempted to quiet her and gain the group's attention.

  “Now that you have all been given your gifts,” Nilendi spoke loudly over the sounds of Morigan’s laughter and Philip’s inane chatter at Epona, “Please ensure that your character sheets are properly showing their Anima-bonded status in the Companions tab.”

  “Why would a tome be considered a Companion?” The low voice of Zola spoke just loud enough to be heard over Morigan, who was starting to calm down.

  Anika snapped out of her musings, “I’m sorry, what?! You don’t think ‘character sheet’ is strange enough?!”

  Zola stared calmly at Anika, “A character sheet is a normal manifestation of the cosmos’s magic to display our status and thus inform us of how to better understand and enhance our levels.”

  “There are LEVELS?!” Anika looked at Zola like they had grown a second head while Morigan started laughing anew.

  “She doesn’t even know about character sheets – how is she the person you summoned? I shouldn’t be surprised, water magic is so weak that even the person with the most potential doesn’t have enough power to know their own level.”

  Anika stood angrily, “My world doesn’t HAVE magic. The only thing I know about magic is in fantasy games and shows. And dreams.” Anika shook her head and muttered to herself, “This just has to be a big dream.”

  Nilendi interrupted before Morigan could add more spice to the dish. “To answer your question, Zola, all your gifts are more than mere items or pets. They are sapient and can serve as a guide to this world as well as a powerful source of magic. The Primaries created them all to communicate with their Bonded in some way.”

  Zola started to look at their tome with more interest as Nilendi continued, “As for character sheets – they are a common magical tool to aid our understanding of ourselves and our connections to the world around us. Think ‘stats’ and your status should open for you.”

  Anika dubiously thought the word ‘stats’ and almost jumped backwards in surprise when a translucent window opened in her vision.

  In the Companions box, Anika saw Lily the Capybara listed. At least that part was working. But there was a lot of information here that she knew nothing about. Experimenting with the strange system in front of her, Anika focused on the word “Potency” and received a small dialog box.

  Potency: Strength, physical agility, reflexes and power

  She supposed that made sense. She looked at the two other stats.

  Anima: Mana, mana regeneration, mental agility, strength of mind and soul

  Vitality: health, endurance, health regeneration, and resistance to status effects and conditions

  Pretty basic video game stats, though she was certainly more used to the classic 6 stat tabletop systems than the more obscure 3 stat system this seemed closer to.

  Looking over the rest of the sheet, affinities made sense. Nilendi had talked about the 5 primary affinities (Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and Aether). Her body was now a Mizeta, the race created by the Water goddess of this world, so they knew she was the person with the Water affinity they had summoned. She had mentioned secondary affinities but hadn’t covered what those affinities were. She focused on Secondary Affinity and received a small dialog box.

  Secondary Affinities: Light, Shadow, Essence, Space, Time

  Abilities in most games were passives or things she had access to all the time, so Anika was curious what she was able to manipulate with these abilities.

  Manipulate Water: Control 1 cubic ft water. This amount scales with personal power, ability expertise, and level

  Manipulate Light: Control 5 ft radius light brightness/dimness. Area of effect and potency scales with personal power, ability expertise, and level

  Those seemed interesting and straightforward, though it looked like she would need to experiment to determine exactly how much she could manipulate. She immediately imagined herself with a flask of water like Katara using some cool water lash ability on a member of the Fire nation. Her brief daydreaming was interrupted when she looked at her spells and noticed the word “Splash”. Hopefully she got more than a dialog box saying “But nothing happened” when she used it. Anika quickly concentrated on the Spells.

  Splash: Water drops sputter from hand and deal minor damage in melee range. This effect scales with personal power, ability expertise, and level.

  Well that was better than a Magikarp but not by much. Anika sighed and checked her last spell.

  Flash: Blinds in 5 ft radius for 1 sec. This effect scales with personal power, ability expertise, and level. Requires a light source.

  It seemed decidedly less good to be able to control light if she needed light first. Wasn’t Light a cantrip in most games? Why couldn’t she start with the ability to at least make a small light – seemed underpowered. With a sigh, Anika looked at the last section “Boons”.

  Boons: Temporary or permanent buffs gained through abilities, blessings, or external factors.

  She had one permanent buff already and examined it with curiosity.

  Power Overwhelming, permanent: You advance without regard to Etalen level restrictions

  Having examined the full character sheet, she was left with a lot of questions… but this buff brought her back to one of the strangest parts of her Character sheet.

  “How am I already level 5 when I didn’t even know about this ‘character sheet’? And what’s this about a level cap?” Anika asked Nilendi.

  “The first 5 levels are accrued in accordance with normal physical and mental advancement through childhood. Most reach level 5 around the time they reach maturity.” Anika could hear Morigan, once again, cackling like a witch as Nilendi continued. “We had expected our ritual to acquire champions who were… more progressed in their power.”

  “So… I’m a lowbie newb with some catching up to do,” Anika stated. “What level is everyone else?”

  “I’m level 19,” Panu said. “We use magic all the time. I’m a wiz with my fire spells in a fight. And at night,” he winked and Anika inwardly cringed.

  Philip jumped in next “I’m level 15. I work on a farm, so like, I use my powers every day. My parents sent me to the farms when I was 13. They said I was too talented to waste my time in school!” Philip beamed a huge smile at Anika.

  “Oh yes,” Morigan laughed sarcastically, “I’m sure your ‘talents’ had everything to do with it, not your intellect.” Philip continued to smile, seeming not to notice the sarcasm in her words as she continued. “I am level 20. As heir to the throne, my experience has been carefully cultivated to ensure my power exceeds that of the general population.”

  Anika rolled her eyes and whispered to Lily, “The only thing she needs to cultivate is some manners.” Lily made an adorable squeaking sound in reply, but looked like she was concentrating on something.

  “So… what about you Zola?” Anika asked.

  Zola turned to look at Anika, “Level 23.”

  Nilendi made a soft sound of surprise upon hearing Zola’s level. “You are so young to have achieved such an esteemed level!”

  “So… is 23 high? What’s max level?” Anika asked.

  Zola replied, “I am above average for my age on my planet. We value hard work and discipline.”

  “The maximum level that we can achieve on Etalen is 25,” Nilendi looked at each of the five in turn, ensuring she had their attention. “The gods put this in place when they created our people and contained the ambient magic of the world in dungeons. This is why we needed to summon you from outside our world. The gods cannot change the natural order to allow us to grow in power beyond 25. However, they could prevent that restriction from applying to those from outside our world.”

  Nilendi sighed, as if afraid to admit the truth. “With even the lowest level areas growing in power, we will soon be overwhelmed by the level of monsters generated and the magic will escape confinement and destroy our world. We have very few who achieve level 25 to begin with, as the dungeons have historically been easily contained and our people live in harmony under the blessing of the Primaries. We already lack the strength to defeat the deepest dungeons without your assistance.”

  Anika listened as Nilendi finished her explanation. “So this ‘Power Overwhelming’ boon is like a cheat code for the planet. What’s the max level everywhere else?”

  “There’s no maximum where I come from,” Panu contributed. “Though I’ve usually never heard of anyone getting much higher than 35 or so. It gets exponentially harder to level and takes way more experience as you get higher. We fight and use our power a lot, but we aren’t exactly what you’d call ‘dedicated’.” He laughed, reflecting his carefree manner.

  “The leveling curve is exponential... “ Anika pondered, putting together what she had learned, “that is less good when I’m already behind. What I need is a catch-up mechanic. I wonder if there is a way to help me gain experience faster…”

  Lily perked up, “We will level quickly! My character sheet says I’m level 1 and I have a Boon to grant extra experience when we’re having a dungeon party!”

  ---------------

  In their Pantheon, Fire looked at Water and Aether, “You gave the companion an experience buff? We don’t tamper with the power gain of our world! This must be rectified in a full council immediately!” Fire looked at Earth and Air for affirmation. Both nodded in agreement.

  Water pouted slightly and looked at Aether, “I didn’t imbue her with that type of ability, that seems like a Aether buff. I just made her adorable!”

  Aether gazed at Fire and Water, “I did not imbue any specific abilities into the Companion. I merely imbued it with the same token of my power as you did the other gifts.”

  Air looked contemplative, “Then how did that kind of ability manifest from our power?”

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