Dawn walked over to Agent X, who remained seated on the large, flat rock by the spring. "What should we do?" she asked.

  ?Agent X looked at her, his face emotionless. "This is your situation. I'm just here to observe and assist with what you plan. My task here is to test your problem-solving and see how you would handle problems as they come up."

  ?Dawn's shoulders slumped slightly in frustration, but she turned, looking around the spring. She began thinking to herself: Okay, what do I have to work with? I chose water manipulation, so I can move the water, but that doesn't solve the problem long term. Maybe I can make a stream that can create its own flow to their village.

  ?With that thought, Dawn excitedly turned to Agent X. "I have an idea!"

  ?Agent X just looked up at her, not saying anything.

  ?Dawn continued, a surge of excitement in her voice. "Let's make a waterway that leads to the village. This gives them a closer water source that might remove the risk of the rival faction."

  ?"That could work," Agent X replied, his voice flat. "But how are you going to make the channel for the water?"

  ?"I'll use my water ability to carve a path in the soil to their village," Dawn explained, feeling a surge of confidence.

  ?Agent X smiled faintly. "Yes. Please show me your power."

  ?Dawn, excited that she had a good plan, went to the side of the spring closest to the village. Now where she needed to be, she thrust her hands out toward the water. She concentrated, flailing her hands around, frustration mounting as nothing happened.

  ?Agent X, still sitting where he was, let out a short, amused laugh.

  ?Dawn, hearing his laughter, sighed. "What am I doing wrong?" she asked.

  ?Agent X stood up and walked to Dawn. "This may seem like a pretty straightforward thing, but you have to feel the energy inside you. Then picture what you want to do. Lastly, command that energy inside to do as you pictured. This is the basics of using most abilities. Keep in mind, all abilities have limitations, and their strength depends on the user."

  ?Dawn nodded, understanding. She shut her eyes, imagining a raging river cutting its mark as it goes. Water blasting through stone as if it were paper. With these mental images, Dawn thrusts her hands forward again. She could feel the energy leaving her body through her hands. Dawn opened her eyes to see a small stream pulling out of the spring, similar in size to that of a water fountain you drink from. Disappointment set in as Dawn's arms dropped to her side.

  ?Agent X laughed again.

  ?Dawn, feeling frustrated, asked Agent X what she did wrong.

  ?Agent X shook his head. "No," he said. "You did nothing wrong. You're just... well, how do I say it... weak. It's to be expected, though; you did just start. That's why I didn't have faith in your plan of making a stream. You still need to raise your stats before you can expect much of anything. Do you know your biggest mistake in this situation so far?"

  ?Dawn recoiled in shock and shook her head. "No."

  ?"You're not alone in this situation," Agent X said. "In those cases, always try to find out the abilities of the other Incarnates. This will help you when planning, no matter the situation. Always know what options you have even if you don't want to use them."

  ?A moment of confusion came to Dawn. "Okay, what ability do you have?" she asked nervously.

  ?Agent X smiled faintly. "I have elemental manipulation of light."

  ?Dawn's brow furrowed. "Isn't that like healing magic?"

  ?Agent X sighed, shaking his head. "No. While it can have healing properties, there is much more you can do with it. You can shape tangible weapons, form barriers, and even launch ranged attacks. It is not just healing magic. With light and dark magic most of it is the intent you feed into it. What do you want this energy to do?"

  ?Dawn looked a little doubtful. Just as Agent X was about to speak again, a group of elves walked up to the other side of the spring. Dawn and Agent X turned, seeing them. The first thing they noticed was these elves were different than the elves that summoned them. They were taller and their faces were more elongated with a pointy chin, instead of the shorter, more rounded faces of the elves that had summoned them.

  ?Agent X looked back at Dawn. "I think it's time for a demonstration."

  ?Agent X walked toward the group of elves that had just come to the spring. As Agent X closed the distance with a casual walk, the elves pulled out swords and began to focus their energy, readying to attack. Agent X grinned. "Good. I know how to handle hostility." Then, with a thrust of his hand straight up, light began to gather and condense. His open hand became covered in a bright white energy. Agent X whispered, "Divine Shackle." Then, from his hand, erupted several chains made of pure light and wrapped up all the elves before lifting them into the air, dangling them upside down. The elves were unable to escape, even though they were violently trying.

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  ?Dawn ran to Agent X, her voice urgent. "What are you planning to do?"

  ?Agent X turned his head to Dawn, his voice casual. "Don't worry. I'm just showing you the power that you could achieve if you work hard. Watch. Seering Light." With that, the elves chained up in the air started screaming and wiggling around frantically, with their skin sizzling they try to escape. Agent X just smiled. "See? No healing."

  ?Dawn shouted, "Stop! Please, I told the summoner that there would be no bloodshed!"

  ?Agent X then said, "Healing Light." The elves began to glow green from the chains before they stopped screaming and passed out due to the pain they had felt. Agent X looked at Dawn. "Now it's healing as you thought it only capable of. You promised no bloodshed? But why would you make such a senseless promise? In most cases it is the simplest method to a result."

  ?Dawn, a little shocked, stumbled on her words. "It's a life. That's not something you should take so casually. How can you think so little of killing?"

  ?Agent X replied with a serious tone. "A Cosmic Operating System runs and organizes all these realms. It sends us to do its dirty work. How do we even know what's real and what's just another experiment for this system? How do we know Earth itself isn't just another experiment? These lives are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. When the system we work for will trick a six year old child into a ruthless life. Why should we be the ones with morals. We are not the ones who make the situations, we are just the ones who are asked to solve them by any means." With that, Agent X said, "Dissipating Light." The elves that were wrapped up faded away, just like the chains that bound them. No traces left behind.

  ?Dawn collapsed to the ground, feeling defeated. She whimpered out, "I promised no bloodshed."

  ?Agent X coldly said, "There was no bloodshed. Every part of them vanished. Now, let's take care of this water situation." Dawn remained on her knees as Agent X walked back to the spot closest to the village. With a swift motion of his arm toward the village, a two-foot-deep groove was cut through the ground and through the plants toward the village.

  ?This snapped Dawn out of her slump. She started yelling. "Did you just attack the village?"

  ?Agent X turned to her. "Why don't you look for yourself?"

  ?Panic filled Dawn as she was unsure of exactly what he had just done. Anxiety overwhelmed Dawn as she ran along the groove, seeing how far it went. As Dawn followed the groove, the panic within her swelled up. Fear that Agent X might have attacked the very village that they were meant to help. After a couple of minutes of running, Dawn reached the end of the groove; it ended just outside the village. A wave of relief washed over Dawn as she realized he didn't kill anyone else.

  ?Just as the realization settled in, Agent X walked out from the woods and told Dawn, "I made the channel. It's up to you to create the current that flows all the way here. It will be a good exercise for how to use your ability."

  ?Dawn nodded, accepting her task. She ran back to the spring to start her task. Agent X then thought to himself, I wonder if I can put together a little welcome package while she finishes this. The image of Agent X begins to blur before it disappears.

  ?On the walk back to the spring, Dawn noticed the birds were no longer chirping. The forest was unnaturally quiet, a grim reminder of what had just occurred. Dawn fought to relax as she approaches the spring. Finding the start of the groove, Dawn let out a deep breath and began to focus. With her eyes shut, she could feel the water shifting and flowing in front of her. The energy coursing through her body beckoning the water to obey. She slowly raises her hands and instinctively does a soft pulling and pushing motion with open palms toward the water. The calm water started to get little ripples as she picked up momentum. Ripples became small waves and under her careful control, water began its way down the groove. Time passes as Dawn continuously encouraged the water down the path, sweat beginning to build up on her forehead. Dawn thinks to herself this shouldn't be this hard.

  ?While Dawn was working with the water, there was a blur of white light tormenting the forest. Beasts, insects, even some plants were snatched up in a blur. This white blur of light was strange to say the least. It didn't fully take anything it touched. A wind rabbit's foot here, a sparrow's left wing there, even the stone bear's bottom jaw wasn't spared. An unfortunate rival elf was robbed and dealt with before they even knew what happened.

  ?A few hours went by, and Agent X returned to the end of the groove he had created earlier. Just a little bit of water was about to reach the end. In his hand, he held a crate with Dawn's name on it. He set the crate down and sat on top of it. A little bit later, Dawn could be seen coming out from the woods. She was covered in sweat and looked exhausted. Her hands were diligently pointed toward the stream, water slowly but surely finding its way to the end of the groove. As she finished, she collapsed on the ground.

  ?Agent X smiled. "Well done for your first true situation. Relax here while I go over the storages again, with the addition of a couple more things i forgot to mention. Firstly, I'm sure you remember how I had you use the Stash skill, right?"

  ?Dawn nodded.

  ?Agent X continued. "As I've said, everything in there will stay there as long as it's placed back before you recall. Now, to fully cover the other kind of storage." As he tapped on the crate. "External storage when you recall will convert. This would include your pockets, backpacks, or any claimed storage containers. Currency or any crafted goods will convert to Earth currency. The crafted goods will sell to the system for market value for the realm, then converted to Earth currency depending on that. Beast parts will boost your base attributes based on what stat the monster is most known for and how strong it is. So if a monster is known for speed, its parts will boost your speed attribute. How you claim external storage is simple. Put your name on it and a drop of your blood. Then the rest Cosmo will take care of when you recall."

  ?Dawn nodded her head slowly, as if she understood, but was still a little confused.

  ?Agent X continued. "This crate here has a bunch of beast parts and some smaller currency. Think of it as a starter pack from me to you. I'll go get the summoner while you rest. Don't forget to blood the crate. We will be leaving soon."