The cozy bed, the lovely view from the window , the reading table, everything. It felt like forever. He had missed it so much so that he wondered how. It's just been one day, right? But no, it wasn't weird, one day felt like an eternity.
Sitting in his room, Haruto pondered about all he had learnt today. It was a very long day, really. And he had gained more than he had anticipated. So much more.
Unknowingly, he had spent a whole day in that creepy lair. Learning about daemons, horrors, elixirs. Everything left him with unanswered questions altogether.
What exactly was powerful enough to kill the daemons? Just how powerful were horrors?
If the situation was examined really, one would discover that horrors weren't created by the enchantment. How did he know that? It was simple really,
According to what he had learnt from Mr Grey, it was as if the horrors had never existed anywhere in the age-long history. That solidified his guess. It was like horrors were already existing creatures from god-knows-where.
So then if horrors weren't created by the enchantment, how then were they created? Where did they come from? And many more questions like that…more importantly, he truly wondered why Mr Grey's expression had changed ever so lightly when he mentioned last year's expedition. What really happened last year? And just how horrowing and horrific was the expedition itself?
'So many questions!'
Grim, he chose not to dwell on it.
Passing the creepy staircase back to the corridors wasn't as fearful as before, although it was, as he was careful enough to fear running into another horror, he knew the way out other than walking into the unknown.
He had also decided not to perform his last task for the day, which was collecting his salary. After all, albeit not directly, he was officially a grade 3 sentinel. He had taken his first step to becoming stronger. Although painful, he decided that out of courtesy and since it was already dusk. He postponed it till tomorrow.
For now, he had two things to do. First:
There was something, he could bet he wasn't wrong. That was the same sound the system gave when he had a new notification. Right? Expectantly, he called up the system is interface.
Soon, the pale blue surrealism willed itself into existence.
[Status
Name: [Gensei Haruto] Age: [19] Level: [5] EXP: [0/1600]
Strength: [20] Intelligence: [10] Agility: [5] Health: [1600] Endurance: [10] Spiritual Level: [10] Stamina: [10]
Title: —
Stat Points: 33
]
Haruto froze, staring at the system interface in disbelief.
Then his lips curled up so much so that he let out a hoarse, villainous laugh.
"Yes!"
Four times! He had levelled up four times. What's more? He had whooping 28 stats points!!! Unused!. Of course, excluding the five he got from the daily quests today.
At first, he had really dismissed the idea of leveling up, thinking he was asking too much. But of course, he was. But, the system seemed to be generous.
'Leveling up sure is the best way!'
Apparently, the system gave him 7 stats points everytime he leveled up. That was gold!
But, he could bet he'd need to slay horrors to increase that Exp of a thing.
'Experience points?'
But, wouldn't that always put his life in danger? Would he survive it? Merely encountering a tamed one and he almost peed in his pants, what's to say if he had to fight one or more?.
Haruto grimaced.
'But really, can't I just consume another elixir?'
'Uhh, That had to be doable, right?'
Shaking his head and sighing, he fell into deep thought.
He didn't need anyone to tell him that distributing his stat points was something he had to do with wisdom. Only, he really hated how much options he had to choose from.
For him, the more the options, the harder it was to choose.
There was no doubt, strength was something he would surely need when in battle. But, that was not to say really. When he had encountered that horror back at the tunnel, he had learned one thing, agility mattered too.
In a case when one couldn't outright defeat his opponent, running was the best. But, If one wasn't fast enough, then it was futile effort. So, he had to prioritize agility too.
What's more? Way back in his former life, he had learnt from a maths textbook that, an intelligent system was one who, for every situation knows which action enables it to reach it's goals. Although, he had found it weird that a maths textbook, always riddled ridiculously with calculations carried such a life changing definition, he didn't think too much about that. He got the point.
No matter how fast one was, no matter how much strength one had. If one wasn't intelligent enough, one would be swindled easily and killed even by the weakest organism. Wasn't that how mosquitoes survived day to day? How much strength did those disgusting creatures have? So much as being blown away by the slightest breeze.
Moreso, right now he didn't need endurance, at least not yet, but stamina was gold still, how could he fight for long hours without it? Without enough stamina, he'd already be tired without fighting for long. He could bet, at some point, intelligent horrors might even gang up on him, who knows? One should never say never.
And so he was caught up in a web of looping right decisions. Yes, they were all right, but which one was more right?
…He had to prepare a scale of preference.
Lingering for moments too long, he finally came to a decision. And distributing it as he had thought, he called up the system interface again.
[Status
Name: [Gensei Haruto] Age: [19] Level: [5] EXP: [0/1600]
Strength: [30] Intelligence: [20] Agility: [20] Health: [1600] Endurance: [10] Spiritual Level: [10] Stamina: [18]
Title: —
Stat Points: 0
]
He let out a satisfied smile.
Although, he still did not understand what spiritual level was about, it didn't matter for now.
After increasing his stats however, he could sense that something about him had changed. He felt more nimble, more powerful, more smart? No, that had to be an exaggeration.
But overall, somehow, he was confident of facing a grade 3 horror.
Indeed, he was. But, he had not experienced it yet. Experience, didn't they say was the best teacher?.
Staring at the interface for a while, he heaved a sigh, and amidst the soft rustling sound of his shirt, brought out the books Mr Grey had given to him from his pocket.
The parchments were nothing out of the ordinary, each one had a title. The first one was: Astral Oracle.
He pressed his lips against each other, curling them downwards.
'...not bad'
The second: Thousand piercing punctures
The third however, stunned him.
'... Chorus of a thousand steps?'
Haruto truly wondered why did everything have to be so complicated. Really, what happened to…Cringed dance…or …or thousand steps devoured the heavens?
Reminiscing, He relaxed ever so lightly.
'...Yeah those were creepy too but they ought to have understood my point!'
Haruto believed strongly that whoever had came up with these weird names was a poet — theoretical as it was.
Focusing back on the parchments, he did notice something strange about them. Originally, he could see just the titles, nothing more.
But, after he focused too much on them, he would see a blur, of something that looked like a circle riddled with lines, just above the title. He just couldn't make out what it was exactly, what he did know however, was that it was pale bright yellow in color.
However, he was curious, very curious. He wanted to know what was behind the blur. And suddenly…
'...Yes!'
He could see it. But,
…Haruto's field of view started to grow grey, and dim.
'what the…'
…Soon, he could see nothing again.