[Walking lvl 1 -> Walking lvl 2]
[Basic Lower Body Strength lvl 1 -> Basic Lower Body Strength lvl 2]
These notifications came in when Johannes was asleep. Whether or not the system respected his sleep or not, he slept through those notifications. Thus, there was no way of knowing. But for some strange reason he felt as if the system's notifications had been silent this time.
Yet another morning dawned. The red-crimson sky indicated that it was very early. A seasoned knock on his door had torn him out of his sleep.
"Good morning. I'm bringing in your breakfast", the joyful voice at the other end of the wooden oak door yelled. Johannes barely understood what was happening and rose up instantly as if a magnet was hovering above him, and he was attracted by it. His slender eyes had barely been opened and had to acclimate to the light that flooded the room.
Before Johannes could prepare, one of the nurses he knew had entered his room and placed his breakfast at the edge of his overbed table.
"I hope that's to your liking. Not that we have that much to choose from anyway" A chuckle escaped her lips. Not a mean one but rather one that seemed to be of delight from the confused young man's reaction.
Two light-brown buns, a variety of spreads, and gouda cheese were aligned on his plate, looking even tastier than usual. His stomach rumbled; his appetite could barely be contained. If it had been any other day, Johannes would not have cared much about his breakfast and would have just eaten the half of it.
But today was different. While a normal person would not have consumed many calories for a meagre walk of 500 metres, it had been incredibly straining on both his muscles and his activity consumption of calories. More than ever, he just wanted to eat his breakfast.
"Thank you. I'm just glad to eat something." Johannes smiled kindly, bracing himself for the inevitable demise of his food as soon as it entered his stomach.
"Oh, that's rare. You're actually hungry?" The corners of her lips slightly rose. She seemed to be in an excellent mood today - not that she was usually rude. But there was something behind this. However, Johannes figured that was none of his business. He was hungry anyway.
He laughed and nodded slightly. As much as she would have liked to talk with Johannes a bit more, she had to go and tend to the other patients, too. With a small wave, she made her way through the wooden oak door, where her trolley awaited her. An uncountable number of trays were resting on it. Most of them looked the same as Johannes' tray. However, some have meat options or even vegan ones.
After the nurse left his room, he barbarically sliced his dull knife into the first bun but eventually opted for the brutal method of pulling it apart. That's what they call a knife? It's merely a heap of iron.
His hands grabbed the already open spot and slowly tore apart the two halves. As he started to prepare his bun with a blank mind, the system sent out a sudden notification. He shrieked a bit as the system's words had an implication that would slowly open up more possibilities for Johannes. He eagerly glanced at his screen, ignoring his two tasty bun halves.
[Daily Quests Have Been Added]
[Walk 1 KM, Stand In Lower Stance For 30 Minutes And Meditate, 50 Repetitions With Hand Gripper]
[Reward: 1 POINT(S)]
[Penalty If You Fail: You Will Have To Survive In A Dungeon For 24 Hours ]
That was something he had been waiting for. A reliable method to gain points. He had to keep leveling his skills and buy new ones regularly to accumulate skills and slowly grow in strength. And this was an opportunity he could not miss. Assuming that he managed to not fail the quests. Even though he did not understand the task of keeping a lower stance.
If I mess up even once, I'm dead meat.
But he knew he could not carelessly walk around without informing his mother and the hospital staff about these sudden changes. It had already been a miracle that he could breathe and stand now. Walking was not too far away from that, yet his fear of the risks tempered his thinking.
While awakening was not unheard of in this age, a risk came with telling about your awakening - a risk that made Johannes contemplate whether he should speak about it. The cases in which recently awakened weaklings like him were kindly driven out of the competition by losing a leg or an arm had been on the rise lately. Those were called Drowners - people who metaphorically drowned the Divers and ended their careers by rendering them immobile.
Johannes had two sweaty pearls running down his neck, and his breathing started to hasten.
Not only does the system try to kill me with Master Atem and those potential penalties, but Drowners could end me, too.
He had already told his mother about his new abilities, which he called an awakening, to avoid stirring up even more trouble. However, he had been unable to walk back then, something rudimentary that was more important than one would think. It implied that he improved his body's condition after his initial awakening, which rarely happened in this context.
Even though everyone had to learn about their bodies and slowly get used to their powers, he knew no real story in which someone suddenly increased their skills after their first awakening.
Awakened had set stats and skills that could only improve in proficiency. For that very reason, Johannes decided to play it down nonchalantly.
Nothing will happen as long as I talk my way out of it. I'll just say that I already had been able to walk, but the new movements took their toll on me early on… Wow, that's actually a pretty good excuse for that.