I looked Lamia over as I read her… stats.

"Her stats… Oh that is as weird to say as it is to think," I shivered and tried to power through it as I looked at the window.

Despite using the word stats, there really wasn't any numbers. To the left were two circles and a three cards laid out in a row. The two circles were green and yellow respectively while two of the cards were purple with the last one blacked out and broken.

I looked them over and couldn't figure out what they could mean. Green in video game usually meant life… but then why was it a circle instead of a bar? And why were the colors in both circles pulsing and moving like some sort of audio indicator?

As for the cards… They looked just like the back of the card I used to summon Lamia. Lamia had taken one hit back when I fought the angel, and one of the cards was broken.

If I was right, then I would have to be careful to not let Lamia get hit two more times. I didn't even want to wonder about what would happen if all three of those cards broke.

I looked away from the bar and read the rest of the information in the window.

At the top was the name 'Lamia' followed by the word Hermit in brackets. Below that was a long line of squares with symbols with a second line of squares underneath. Most of the second row was empty except for three. Under the blocks with a flame and skull, there was the word resist. Under the snowflake was the word weak.

"I knew that I didn't like the cold but you didn't have to call me out like this," Who was I even calling out with that? The goggles? The box? Myself?

I was also surprised to see that I didn't have the word weak under the lightning bolt, but I guess it didn't matter. Under that was a list labeled 'skills'. It had three entries, Agi, Rakunda and blight fang.

Agi and Rakunda were what I had expected them to be, a weak fire spell and a curse to lower defense respectively. However blight fang had held a surprise. It was a physical attack with a chance to poison. That explained why it hadn't worked on the angel. I had just been unlucky.

Something about that rubbed me the wrong way. At least I know knew that I couldn't count on it poisoning every time. I could count on it…

Now that I looked at it, it didn't give me a set percentage did it? I wondered why that was.

I dismissed the screen as I walked out of the room. I had seen everything that that the information on Lamia had to offer, and now it was time to hopefully head home.

The TV lay in front of me turned off, the black screen acting as a mirror and allowing me to see myself as I gulped. I reached my fingers out to brush the screen, and nothing happened.

"The Bees must still be around," I grumbled as I set my arm down and headed out to fry some robots.

I walked out of the apartment and looked around at my now nearly fogless surroundings. I grabbed the goggles and lowered them slightly so that half my vision was seeing through them.

Yep, they were getting rid of the fog. Thank you magic goggles from strangers.

I made my way back to the stairwell and started climbing back up. It was halfway up the building when I noticed something… off. Today I had fought an angel and then outran a squad of metal bees. And now I was marching up the stairs without breaking a sweat.

I should have been dying and curing my lack of cardio.

Is it the world that allows me to do this or getting a Persona? I would have to figure it out after getting back to the normal world.

I made it to the roof without trouble and looked around. I had never been up here before and now that I had, it was kind of cool. The floor was made from some sort of gray material that felt sturdy under my feet. Aside from the rectangular stairwell-containing box that I came out of, there wasn't much else up here.

There were some boxes around that had fans inside as well as some open vents and pipes. What they did, I had no clue. There was also a wall running along the edge of the building, probably to keep people from falling off.

I walked to the edge, bracing myself on the chest high wall to see over the city. It was a strange sight to say the least. The sun was gone, the sky instead filled with an endless sea of fog. The city below was pretty much the same, a bunch of buildings emerging from the fog. I guess even the goggles had their limits.

Still for all that I could see from my high vantage point, I couldn't spot the bees anywhere. Maybe they had given up and trying the TV would work now? Or maybe they were gone and whatever monster I had to fight was somewhere else in the building. Or maybe…

"Or maybe they're right behind me," I sighed as I heard buzzing behind me. I turned around and saw the three bees rising over the edge of the wall on the opposite side of the one I was in front of.

As they appeared, the window appeared under them. I glanced at it and it expanded into a smaller version of the box that had appeared for Lamia.

All I really got out of it was the two rows of symbols. The top row was the same but the bottom row was mostly filled with question marks. The only exceptions were an empty box under a diagonal straight line and the word weak under a flame…

"It can't be that easy?" I muttered to myself as the bees came flying at me. I summoned lamia and had her shot an Agi at the central bee. The other two broke off as the central bee was swallowed in flames. It fell to the ground as I ran up and called for Lamia's fangs again.

I stabbed the bee with the two daggers and jumped away as it faded to nothing. I looked over at the two other bees who were watching me wearily.

A few seconds later, I was walking up to two scorched bees on the ground. I bent down and lazily stabbed one to death before calmly doing the same to the other.

I stood in the center of the roof, just kind of looking at the spot where the bees had been.

"Elemental weaknesses are broken!" I screamed into the void in disbelief.

After calming down, I headed back to my apartment and stood in front of the TV again. This time something happened when I got my hand close to it. As my hand neared it, the TV began to fill with static. When I touched it, the static began to crawl up my hand again. Instead of trying to pull it out, I dove it in deeper this time.

I felt the same strange pulling sensation and when I opened my eyes I was standing at the bus stop in front of my house. I took off my goggles and looked around. There was no fog in sight and a couple of non-wireframe people walking around.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time.

"This has been one strange day and it's not even noon yet," I put the phone away and walked back up the apartment.

"I'm home," I announced as I closed the door behind me. As the door shut quietly, I took a moment to remember the feeling of smashing it shut in the other world.

No, not the other world. What had the note called it, the world underneath?

Just another thing to worry about I guess. I could think it over some other day. For now I had to deal with the woman emerging from the kitchen and marching over to me.

"Where have you been? We were starting to get worried," She told me as I gave her a guilty smile.

"I got a little off track on my walk. You have no idea how long it took me to get back," I explained.

"Just try not to do it again," My mom sighed as I smelled something in the air.

"Sure thing… now the thing about walking around a lot is that it works up one heck of an appetite," I cheekily grinned as my mom rolled her eyes and led me straight to the breakfast plate still on the table.

My breakfast tasted different today. It tasted like… victory.

After finishing off my plate, I walked back into my room. I reaching into my hoodie pocket and pulled out my goggles. I put them back on, adjusting them over my face till they fit on right.

Despite the red lenses, the room was still its normal color. I picked up the book on my desk and held it open. Nothing special there.

I set the book down and summoned Lamia. When I looked her over, I could still see the info box. It opened up and I could see all the information again.

I was about to close it when I saw something that caught my eye.

That first time that I got hit by that snake… the lightning hurt so much. I could still perfectly remember the pain. But the box under the lightning box was empty. If that was normal damage and I was weak to ice…

I shivered as I imagined what that might have been like.

I closed the box and laid down on my bed. The box was gone now, as was the note.

"Who the heck was that?" I asked myself as I thought about the strange message. "We're expecting great things from you. Who's we… and what great thing am I expected to do?"

The question stayed in my head for the rest of the weekend. By the time I headed to school on Monday, I was still wondering about it.

"Well, I guess I'll just wait for the next weird thing to pop up," I told myself as I got off the bus. I stood in front of the school and let out a sigh. "I'm already expecting more weirdness to come my way,"

I mean, I was already two incidents deep. Once and I could just say that it was a one-time thing… but twice was the start of a pattern. There was no way there wasn't a third thing coming. If there wasn't I'd buy myself a hat and eat.

…Maybe I should buy a hat anyway? I had already switched out my hoodie to a new one, why not add a hat on top of that? But what kind of hat to wear?

The question of what was expected of me was thrown out as hatty thoughts filled my head until lunch time.

"So Fedoras are out, but what about…" I mumbled to myself as I sat down on the bench next to a dead looking Zach. I opened up my bag and reached in for…

"Are you okay?" I sat back up and looked at Zach's eyes. If eyes were the windows to the soul, then Zach must have sold his cause those things were empty.

"So you finished fangs over hearts then?" I guessed. He gave me a quick nod before sitting back.

"How could they end a book like that?"

"I know right?"

"I'm so glad I bought the second book ahead of time,"

"I know right?"

"I need to know how this goes,"

"I know right?" I said as I pulled out the copy of Fangs over Skies. "Good luck on that. I'll be here reading the end of the trilogy,"

He sighed as he took out his book and turned to the first page.

"Um… hey,"

We both put our books down and snapped our heads towards the disturbance.

It was one of Robby's boys, Kenny if I remembered right. He was flinching and watching the two of us carefully.

"Hi?" He said as I remembered what he had talked about the last time I had seen him. "Um, I wanted to apologize,"

"Oh right, this," I got to my feet and put my book back into my bag before hanging it over my shoulder. "I'll leave you two to it,"

I left the two behind before walking up to my next class. It was still some time till it started, but it was probably mostly empty and the perfect back up spot to read.

And who knew, maybe I would end up falling into another incident on the way there.

Case 2 end