5 A Step Further (1/2)

Jered s.h.i.+fted slightly on his bed, before opening his eyes. He breathed calmly, letting the air clean his lungs. Just thinking about that painful experience made him want to throw up, luckily he pa.s.sed out, or else he'd have nightmares for nights to come from that much pain.

He was still dizzy, his body a bit numb, but overall nothing major, and he was glad for that.

The room he was in was dark, but thanks to the moonlight and other various sources of electricity coming in from the window, permitted him to have a clear view of his surroundings.

He instantly recognized this place as his bedroom.

As for how did he get here? He didn't know, but he was pretty sure that Opak sent him there.

Whatever...

He grunted in enjoyment as his body relaxed in the soft mattress, and coupled with the cool breeze that was like the gentle hand of a woman caressing his face, he felt in heaven.

He let a small smile adorn his handsome face.

When he finally regained some motor capacity, he lifted his upper body. He wanted to rest for a bit more, however, that notification of his body being consumed by his mana wasn't funny.

It was a bad situation, he knew that. But he couldn't help but feel a bit excited at his gains.

All those notifications...

”Status.” He said.

[ Name: Jered von Jacobs ]

[ Age: 16 ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Cla.s.s ] [ ? ]

[ t.i.tle ] [ Shadows' Contractor ]

[ Strenght ] [ 10 ]

[ Dexterity ] [ 10 ]

[ Vitality ] [ 11 ]

[ Endurance ] [ 11 ]

[ Intelligence ] [ 17 ]

[ Mana ] [ 20 ]

[ Appearance ] [ 19 ]

[ Attribute Points ] [ 5 ] [ System Points ] [ 120 ]

[ Shop ] [ Skills ] [ Quests ]

Well... there sure is a big change.

He looked at his stats, pleased that at least they were average while most of them were above. Not counting that he still had 5 points to use.

While he knew the value of these points and the changes that they'd bring, he couldn't be sure that that theory would work for all of his stats. It was definitely something to test though.

He then tapped the 'Shop' option on his screen, as a new one appeared.

[ Sword Arts ] [ Potions ]

[ Magic Arts ] [ Items ]

[ Body Arts ] [ Spells ]

Taking a quick glance at the clock hung on the wall, he knew that it was better not to waste time exploring his shop, so he quickly clicked on 'Magic Arts'.

However...

[ Alert: You need to unlock the 'Magician' cla.s.s to use this section of the 'Shop'. ]

Yeah, what did expect?

He sighed in frustration. Everything depended on the cla.s.s, so he quickly excluded trying 'Sword Arts' and 'Spells'.

He tried 'Body Arts', and thankfully...

[ Low-level ]

[ Mid-level ]

[ High-level ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

[ ?? ]

His eyes slightly widened at the question marks. Was he too weak to view them? Did he need to meet some sort of requirement to unlock them? Nevermind, it wasn't time to figure it out, he'd think about it later.

So he went for 'Low-level'.

The screen that appeared showed a good number of skills, each with varying prices. Some ranged from 20 to 100 and others from 100 to 300.

Obviously the higher the price the better the skill.

With only 120 System Points, he couldn't afford much. Nonetheless, there were a few good stuff he could buy.

He settled on 2 in particular.

[ Low-level ] [ Bodybuilding ]

[ 3x times the speed of a normal work out session with half the effort. ]

[ Price: 20 SP ]

[ Buy

Cancel ]

[ Low-level ] [ Martial Arts ]

[ Hand-to-hand combat for newbies. It'll be useless against experts. ]

[ Price: 80 SP ]

[ Buy

Cancel ]

They were not the best, but as of now, they'd still be useful. Moreover, he was particularly intrigued by the bodybuilding skill, he wondered if he could raise his stats if he started working out.

He pressed 'Buy'.

[ Alert: You have bought the skill 'Low-level Bodybuilding' ]

[ Alert: You have bought the skill 'Low-level Martial Arts' ]

Information flowed into his brain, allowing him to access to memories that weren't his. He felt his body stiffening as his muscles reacted to the skill that was imparting its knowledge to him.

He entered a semi-conscious state as his muscles trembled and twitched at an unG.o.dly rate. He sat down, clenching tightly his bedsheets, his breath quickening.

Movements of punches and kicks executed fluidly flashed before his eyes, showing him how to perform the skill he just bought.

He squeezed his eyes, digesting the information that pervaded his head, and still slightly dazed, tried to stand up.

Staggering, he reached for the door and left the room.

The house was dark, sign the n.o.body was home. Still not being able to walk normally he leaned on the wall to support himself as he headed towards the bathroom.

Once there he turned the light on and approached the mirror, putting both his hands on the cold washbasin, opened the tap, and let the pleasant touch of the water splash on his face, was.h.i.+ng away a bit of his tiredness.

Looking up, he noticed his reflection in the mirror and just smiled bitterly. That point added to his appearance wasn't worth anything, however, thanks to his already enhanced looks it still caused a little alteration.

Well, the situation wasn't that good, to begin with. But if that kept on going then the difference between 'him' prior the change and the 'him' after, would become so vastly big that even upping his intelligence to 100 wouldn't help him find a solution.

How troublesome.

He sighed, knowing that it'd be really difficult find an excuse to get out of the problem without too many questions.

Taking one last look at his tired face he went back to his room.

Laying down on his bed, he decided to allocate his points.

He couldn't be stingy with his points, after all, life was a road of uncertainty, it was better not push his luck too much.

Therefore he put 2 points in 'Strength', 2 in 'Dexterity' and 1 in 'Endurance', thus initiating a painful process that sent shocks through his body, making him convulse and spasm.

Thanks to his repeated experience with the pain, it was more bearable.

After a few minutes, he was left panting and with cloudy eyes.

”d.a.m.n...” He muttered in nuisance.

He steadily stood up, the pain slowly disappearing. He clenched his fists, feeling the power behind them. It wasn't anything earth-shaking, obviously, but it was still more than he had before.

He stepped forward and looked mildly surprised at his legs, they felt lighter. It was like walking with a few kilos worth of weight attached to his legs for all of his life and suddenly remove them.

Really... it was an amazing feeling.

Now though, he had to go somewhere.

He opened his wardrobe and put a black hoodie on, grey pants and black sneakers. It was a simple yet manageable outfit.

Especially for what he was about to do...

...

Walking in the streets with his hood on, Jered kept wondering to himself what were the conditions to trigger a quest.

His last one, with the old lady, involved the lost cat. It was interesting to notice that even after he found out about it, the quest didn't pop up until the woman asked him his help.

So does this mean that the system works on a necessity expressed in voice like the old lady did?

However, his first quest refused that theory altogether. He didn't even saw his mother that day, let alone heard her asking him something, so how could have the system gave him a quest without a catalyst?

Was it because of him?

He rubbed his chin, thinking of a plausible explanation.

There was definitely something the system was based on to provide him the correlated quest.

It was tricky, that's why he decided to verify it in person, aside from saving his a.s.s.

.

.

.

He heard loud music coming from the building he was heading towards, while people were crowding around it, either smoking or chatting.

It was a nightclub called 'The Fairy', and it was famous for its lack of rigidity. Everyone could enter as long as they weren't too young, and in time it practically became a place filled with underages.

He made his way past the mob and arrived at the entrance.

”h.e.l.lo. Are you old enough?” A blonde-haired man in a suit asked.

It was just a routine question, he really didn't care if the young man in front of him was really old enough to enter.

”Yes.” He nodded while taking his hood off.

The blonde man's eyes slightly widened at his very handsome looks, but hid his surprise rather quickly and nodded, letting him enter.

”Have fun.” He smiled from behind.

...

Once inside he noted a large number of people were sensually dancing with a partner or alone on the dancefloor, while a few ones were sitting at the s.h.i.+ny counter, drinking and flirting with the beautiful barmaid.

He cast a glance towards the luxurious couches, finding that they were almost empty aside from some lonely dude that failed their hunt.

He walked to one of them and sat down.

His main objective was to get a quest, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't also there for a bit of fun. He had around 2 days, even less since he lost a lot of that time by sleeping, so it was better to get hurry and complete them as fast as possible.

And so he waited or so was his main focus if someone didn't interrupt him.

”Well, what do we have here? Aren't you a bit too handsome to be sitting alone?” A brown-haired beautiful girl said in a sweet voice, taking a place next to him.

She was really pretty, he could admit that. Her long brown hair tumbled over her shoulders, ending at her back, she had fair and glossy skin with no signs of blemishes, her eyelashes were velvety and accentuated her crystal-like blue eyes, and coupled with her hourgla.s.s-shaped body made her entirety stand out even more.

There was no doubt about it, she was a bombsh.e.l.l of a woman.

He spared a second glance at her, this time looking carefully. She was sticking her body at him in a flirtatious way showing her ample chest, but her pupils weren't dilatated, so she wasn't interested in him in a s.e.xual way. Her smile seemed a bit forced while her eyes were continuously going over to another spot. Her legs were crossed and aimed in his opposite direction.

Yeah, she wasn't interested in him. Of this he was sure.

If so then what was she doing?

He caught her eyes momentarily s.h.i.+fting, looking somewhere else, before looking back at him again.

This time he saw what was the cause of her nervousness, it was a man.

He was pretty average in his opinion, at least he didn't see anything to make him stick out. However, what he noted that caught his interest was that he was looking at him angrily, hostility clear in his eyes.

Mhh... maybe...

Jered looked back at the beauty next to him and smiled.

”Would you be so kind to tell me what's going on?” He asked curiously.

”Uhh?” She was confused.

”Oh, come on. You clearly don't want to be here, don't fool me. I can see you're nervous, and that man over there didn't stop throwing me malicious looks. Is he the cause of your anxiety?” He explained confidently.

She stared at him, a bit stunned, before looking down, a restless look in her eyes. But nodded nonetheless.