Chapter 19: Wednesday

The day started as normal, Ryu woke up sleepy, rushed to get to school, and ate a quick breakfast.

As he was walking to school Ryu started to think to himself, "I should use examine on Kenji since he was able to go toe to toe with Kenzo, then I'll have an idea on where I stand."

He wanted to know how far away Kenzo was from him in attributes and in skills, but he was never near Kenzo in school, and didn't want to risk running into him, even at a "safer" place like school.

"Quests," Ryu thought to himself as he was entering through the front gate into his school parking lot.

A quest menu displayed itself in front of Ryu's face.

[Quests]

[Daily Quest]

[Complete exercise requirements (incomplete)]

[Increase an art level (incomplete)]

[Rewards: Stat Point, Mastery Level Up Point, 300 XP]

[Time Limit: 1 Day]

[Emergency Quest]

[Survive the fight against Kenzo (incomplete)]

[Win the fight against Kenzo (Optional, Increases Rewards)]

[Rewards: Stat Points, Random Specialization, Random Skill, 500 XP]

"Wow, that's actually a really good daily, huh," Ryu thought to himself, excited by the potential rewards of the quest, especially the mastery level up. "I really do need to focus on boxing the most, it's by far my best art, next to Muay Thai, but if I invest a point into Muay Thai I can get a specialization bonus."

Ryu was already theorizing how he'd spend his gains if he passes the quest.

He walked into his classroom, today he was a little late, but still not as late as Kenji.

As he walked in Mr. Ito looked at him and asked, "Why were you late today?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Ito, I just slept in a little, I was really tired," said Ryu simply telling Mr. Ito the truth.

"Alright, I can let it slide today, but don't make it a common occurrence, alright?" said Mr. Ito.

Ryu could tell this final response was rhetorical, so he walked back to the end of the classroom and took his seat. As he sat down, Kenji entered the room and took his seat next to him. As normal, Mr. Ito said absolutely nothing to him.

"Favoritism I guess," Ryu thought to himself, but wasn't bitter because Kenji was the closest thing to a real friend he had.

"So, how do I use the examine skill," Ryu thought to himself, "I guess I'll just try this." Ryu stared at Kenji intensely, somewhat too intensely if anyone were to notice and thought, "Examine." This opened a display menu in front of Ryu's eyes.

[Host: Kenji]

[Level 19: 400/1900 XP]

[Strength: 26]

[Intelligence: 35]

[Appearance: 18]

[Agility: 19]

[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]

[Skills: Dense Bones and Muscles, Hyper-Focus]

[Arts: Out Boxer Level 5]

"Good lord," Ryu thought to himself as he analyzed Kenji's stats. "He's a freaking tank, I would've never expected all of his stats to be so high, especially intelligence. Also, when the hell did he do boxing, I've never heard of him boxing," Ryu thought, he was extremely surprised.

"He also has the hyper-focus skill without a system, what type of overpowered kid is this," thought Ryu, wondering if he'd ever be able to catch up to someone like Kenji without a system.

After he was done examining Kenji's status window, he locked back into class. Oddly enough, today Kenji didn't really speak to Ryu, instead he focused on his studies and just got through the day. Ryu wondered if everything was okay with his home life as he had been so off recently.

Nevertheless, he had bigger things to worry about the fight was coming up and it was in his best interest to do everything he could to survive Kenzo.

With that he went to the gym and completed a good workout, afterwards he followed his plan by approaching Ken. "Yo, can you help me out with form again today?" Ryu said to Ken as he walked up.

"Yeah, no problem," said Ken, "Let's head to the back corner and get started."

With that both Ryu and Ken went to the back corner where he focused on improving his form and reducing his tells. Over time Ken got increasingly surprised at how fast Ryu could improve, it really was some heaven defying speed.

As Ryu was finishing up almost an hour-long session with Ken he got a string of notifications.

[Your hard work has paid off; you have raised the level of the art 'Boxer Puncher' by one.]

[You have completed all requirements for your daily quest.]

[Congratulations you have completed a feat. You have successfully leveled up a specialization mastery without the help of the system. Because of this you will be awarded with 3 stat points, 500 XP, and a random skill.]

Ryu decided to wait until he was alone to check all of his notifications and his status window. "Hey Ken, I think I'm done for today, thank you so much for helping me out, man," said Ryu in a sincere and gracious tone.

"Yeah, no problem, man, I always am down to help, you get home safely, alright," said Ken, Ken had started to care about Ryu as he realized he was a good kid, because of this he would ensure his safety inside of the gym whether Ryu knew it or not.

With that Ryu went into the gym locker room, took a shower, and threw on some clean clothes. He realized while looking in the mirror that he almost had a fully formed six pack, and that his muscle definition was growing. Although he was incredibly skinny still, he had put a good bit of muscle on his bones. "Wow, I've really changed, huh?" Ryu thought as he studied himself closely in the mirror.

After he was done performing an amateur body building show of one in the mirror, he headed home ready to check his rewards.

As he entered in through the door, as usual, his mother was out working. "I really want to provide for her, so I can get more time with her," thought Ryu to himself.

With that he entered into his bedroom and thought "Quests". With that a display opened in front of his face.

[Quests]

[Daily Quest]

[Complete exercise requirements (complete)]

[Increase an art level (complete)]

[Rewards: Stat Point, Mastery Level Up Point, 300 XP]

[Time Limit: 1 Day]

[Claim Rewards]

[Emergency Quest]

[Survive the fight against Kenzo (incomplete)]

[Win the fight against Kenzo (Optional, Increases Rewards)]

[Rewards: Stat Points, Random Specialization, Random Skill, 500 XP]

"Claim Rewards," Ryu thought as he analyzed the display screen in front of him.

"Alright, time to check the real gains, Status," Ryu thought.

With that a status window appeared in front of him.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 8: 300/800 XP]

[Strength: 13]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Appearance: 11]

[Agility: 12]

[Unspent Stat Points: 5]

[Unspent Mastery Level Up: 1]

[Health Status: Average, you're basically the most painfully normal human, nobody goes out of their way to think about you, whether that be negatively or positively.]

[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]

[New Skills: Enraged – This skill allows you to gain power when you need it. If your opponent is beating you by a significant amount or you are about to pass out, you gain a 50% increase in all stats except for appearance and intelligence, furthermore your intelligence stat goes down by 25% while in enraged mode. This mode activates itself for 5 minutes and must be manually activated by the host. Once done, the host will lose 25% of their strength and agility stats for the rest of the fight. This mode can only be entered once per day.]

[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension, Examine, Enraged]

[Arts: Boxer Puncher Level 2, Muay Thai Mastery Level 4, Kickboxing Mastery Level 1, Judo Mastery Level 1]

"Wow, that skill really does have the ability to turn fights around, it's definitely not a joke, I'll have to utilize it during Kenzo if he beats me bad enough," thought Ryu excited at the prospects his new skill offered.

"Alright let's spend the stat points first," thought Ryu as he contemplated which stats he should upgrade.

"I think I should put 3 into agility and 2 into strength, that way I stay on my mission of increasing agility, but I also don't lose sight of my strength goals," thought Ryu.

"Alright, invest 3 points into agility and 2 into strength," once he was done, he examined his stats and was happy with the outcome.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 8: 300/800 XP]

[Strength: 13 -> 15]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Appearance: 11]

[Agility: 12 -> 15]

[Unspent Mastery Level Up: 1]

[Health Status: Average, you're basically the most painfully normal human, nobody goes out of their way to think about you, whether that be negatively or positively.]

[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]

[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension, Examine, Enraged]

[Arts: Boxer Puncher Level 2, Muay Thai Mastery Level 4, Kickboxing Mastery Level 1, Judo Mastery Level 1]

"I'm going to invest that mastery point into Muay Thai so I can gain another specialization that can help me during the fight," thought Ryu.

"Invest the mastery level up into Muay Thai Mastery," Ryu thought.

As the point was invested, he got a notification.

[Muay Thai Mastery has been upgraded to its max level; would you like to upgrade it to a specialization?]

"Yes," thought Ryu, excited to see what the system would offer him.

[Muay Thai Specializations]

[For Muay Thai there are 5 specializations all with different benefits.]

[Muay Tae: These are martial artists who emphasize the importance of kicks. Because of this, while using Muay Tae your kicks are 50% more powerful, but any non-kick Muay Thai attacks are consequentially 50% less powerful.

[Muay Bouk: These are martial artists who emphasize speed, they relentlessly attack without stopping. Because of this, while you are utilizing Muay Bouk, you gain double your initial agility, but you lose 25% of your strength, and opposing blows do 25% more damage to you.]

[Muay Khao: These are martial artists who emphasize the importance of knee strikes, and also are great at defending blows and finding openings. Because of this, your knee strikes are 25% more powerful, your reaction speed increases by 25%, and you take 25% less damage from opposing blows. Despite this the rest of your attacks power are reduced by 50%.]

[Muay Mat: These are martial artists who emphasize heavy punches, these artists work well in conjunction with boxing. Because of this, the power of your punches while using Muay Mat are increased by 50% but the rest of your attacks have their power reduced by 50%.]

[After reaching level 5 of specialization mastery, Muay Femur will be available to choose as a specialization.]

"Alright, so it seems like the specializations of Muay Thai are highly focused on specific movements in fighting. As someone who barely uses Muay Thai in their fights, except for in kicking and kneeing I should choose either Muay Tae or Muay Khao, but Muay Bouk is also pretty useful. I honestly think Muay Bouk will be the most useful, as it doesn't hinder my ability to use other moves, and gives me a crazy agility increase," thought Ryu, as he was mulling over the possibilities.

"Alright, locking it in, I choose the specialization Muay Bouk," thought Ryu.

[Great choice, Muay Bouk is definitely compatible with your fighting style, the system hopes that you will utilize it well.]