Chapter 5: The Achievement System

"Hey, what's next!?" Jack yelled at the exiting Zariff.

"What do you mean? That's it. Now you go fight monsters and make me money," said Zariff nonchalantly.

"Huh?" Jack immediately became depressed.

"Papa, you forgot the level analysis!" Maura's voice rang out from the first floor.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Zariff grabbed Jack's arm and dragged him across the hall into another room. He proceeded to throw Jack onto a makeshift bed with no delicacy whatsoever, saying, "Relax and don't move a muscle."

"But I—"

"Can it! I said don't move!" Zariff yanked the bandana off his neck and stuffed it into Jack's mouth. Before Jack could do anything else, Zariff placed his hand on a raised podium with a translucent gem in the center. It lit up, along with the bed Jack was laying on. Obedient and wanting to avoid any other unexpected tactics from Zariff, Jack stayed still for half a minute until the light around the bed faded.

"What are you waiting for, come check this out," said Zariff, pointing at the podium.

Jack spit out the tattered bandana and walked up, careful to be on the opposite side of Zariff. He put his hand on the podium and his eyes lit up the same color as the gem. Like he was in a vision, Jack saw his body floating in an abyss. With only a thought, he could zoom in closer and see what he was wearing, the stats of each piece of clothing, and his stats. Unlike his status screen, every statistic was far more precise; it even included a list of his magic affinity, telling him what types were the best and worst for him to focus on.

"What do you think brat? You're not much to look at; no wonder the king just let you leave without swearing to the Royal Court," joked Zariff.

"So what? I'm sure I've got some OP abilities once I unlock some of my achievements," said Jack. "Just wait and see, I'll have that king furious that he didn't give me what I asked for. And once it's too much to bear and he finally begs for forgiveness, I'll rub it in his face and reject his offer for a second time."

"You got a bad case of revenge don't ya," Zariff smiled. "As long as you can bring in enough money for your keep, I'll let you strip naked and streak through the castle if you want."

"You know what? You're not half bad for an old fart."

"And you're not too bad yourself for a cheeky brat. Just don't forget to store your analysis before exiting," said Zariff.

"How do I do that?" asked Jack.

"With one of these," Zariff pulled out a gem similar to the one embedded in the podium, only much smaller. "These are stat gems. They're called something else, but that name's too stale and long so we call them stat gems. You can make them into anything, but they're typically made into an item or put it in your armor. Then you can always look back at your last analysis, it helps during those long EXP grinds."

Jack took the stat gem and placed it on the podium. Instantly, the light from the center gem passed to the stat gem and slowly died down. Then Jack tried using it and found it just as easy to use as the podium.

"Great, now all that's left is to stamp your application with the Adventurers Association's seal," Zariff ruthlessly grabbed a fat stamp from off the desk in the corner and slammed it down on Jack's application that was laying there atop the same desk.

Suddenly, a notification popped up for Jack. He selected it and a couple welcoming messages opened up, saying:

[Application to Adventurers Association accepted]

[Achievement System activated]

Jack immediately opened his class tree and saw that a few of the branches and skills had become visible. Checking the achievement board, the results were the same. Ecstatic, he began to cackle in front of Zariff.

"What's up brat?" asked Zariff.

"Finally! I guess I had to officially join some organization first, but some of my skills and achievements are visible now," answered Jack.

"What in Halmut's beard does that mean?"

"Not sure, but it's part of my weird hero classes abilities. I can finally figure out what I need to do next. But only after I joined something?" asked Jack, somewhat startled at Zeriff's phrase based on the god of the heavens within "A Hero's Tale."

Zariff shrugged his shoulders and began to leave. "Here you're only considered an adventurer after joining some kind of power. Not sure what happens to you now, but don't break anything. And if you're looking for your room, go talk to Maura."

"My room? I have a room?"

"All members get a room. It's not free, it'll be paid for by the bounties and missions you fulfill, got it? So, go and make me money!" Zariff disappeared down the hallway, surely on his way back to the now-broken bar.

Jack sat down on the bed, opening the class tree in the meantime. First, he checked out his new available skills. Only five became visible: bow, physical resistance, evasion, intuition, and persuasion. He thought this was peculiar and selected bow first. It opened up to a description and its level.

[Bow – lv. 0]

[Basic proficiency with shooting arrows from a bow. Further training needed to improve or specialize. 0/5 skill points]

Reading that, Jack got an idea. Clicking the next one for damage resistance supported his claim.

[Physical Resistance – lv. 0]

[Basic ability to resist physical encounters or damage. Further training needed to improve or specialize. 0/5 skill points]

Jack began to think to himself, "So none of these skills can do anything yet, but they offer a way to improve or specialize in anything. Is that it?"

He looked through the remaining three skills and it confirmed his hunch. The only thing he wanted to know was why did he only reveal these skills. After some thought, he tried something. Leaving the bow behind, Jack walked back into the armory and picked up one of the swords lying around. Just then, a notification popped up and Jack smiled.

"So that's how it is. By coming in contact with something relevant to a certain skill, the respective skill will be revealed and become trainable." Without second thought Jack began to grab and put down every item he could get his hands on. Not a single weapon or piece of armor was able to avoid his clutches.

Once he had opened up another ten or so skills, he checked his skills list again. Seeing them all at lv. 0 confirmed that he had to train a skill and wasn't given any freebies.

Moving on to the achievement list, some were within his expectations and some caught him completely off guard.

[Join an organization: completed]

[Join a superpower organization: completed]

[Get revenge on King Leodoro: in progress]

[Seduce Maura: in progress]

[Complete first mission: incomplete]

[Get Zariff's recognition: incomplete]

"What the…" Jack's mind was working overtime to figure out the meaning of such weird achievements. He chose the first one to see it's description.

[Join an organization: completed]

[Become an active member of an organization. Reward: 3 skill points. Would you like to claim the reward?]

Smiling at the easy achievement, Jack claimed his reward without a second thought and did the same with the next achievement.

[Join a superpower organization: completed]

[Become an active member of an organization with international recognition and influence. Reward: 10 skill points. Would you like to claim the reward?]

Going back to the achievement list, there was an update.

[Join an organization: claimed]

[Join a superpower organization: claimed]

[Get revenge on King Leodoro: in progress]

[Seduce Maura: in progress]

[Complete first mission: incomplete]

[Get Zariff's recognition: incomplete]

Eager to learn what the system was wanting him to do about King Leodoro, Jack perused the next achievement.

[Get revenge on King Leodoro: in progress]

[Fulfill your hunger for revenge towards King Leodoro through means of humiliation, torture, or death. Reward: varies upon manner and severity of completion.]

"That's darker than I expected," thought Jack. "But why would such an achievement exist? There's even one about Maura, and I've only talked with her a few minutes at most. Sure, I thought about sliding into her DMs but…" He paused his train of thought and opened the next achievement.

[Seduce Maura: in progress]

[Get Maura to admit she has romantic feelings for you, regardless of the severity. Reward: varies on the depth of feelings conveyed in her confession.]

"Seriously? Did this happen because I thought about asking her out?" pondered Jack. "But some of these are way too specific to be generic achievements like the first two. The only explanation is that the system is adaptable and self-generating. If that's true, doesn't that mean that there are technically endless achievements?" After thinking about a possibly endless list of achievements, Jack felt a fire in his belly ignite. The perfect challenge for Jack, the Achievement Junkie.

Jack checked the remaining achievement to see the reward it offered but was disappointed to see that is was very vague and offered another varied reward. Not forgetting about the 13 skill points he just received and anxious to use them, Jack returned to the skill list and thought carefully about what skills he wanted to upgrade. Not even a minute passed before he upgraded his bow and noticed the updated description.

[Bow lv. 1]

[Proficiency in shooting arrows with a bow within 20 meters. Further training to specialize. 0/10 skill points]

Happy with the results, Jack also upgraded his evasion.

[Evasion lv. 1]

[Proficiency in evasion, mainly in close combat and somewhat against mid-range and long-range weapons. Further training to specialize. 0/10 skill points]

Dumping the last 3 skill points in persuasion, Jack hoped that he might increase his chances with Maura. Using up the last of his skill points and armed with a better understanding of his achievement system, Jack smiled and walked downstairs to ask Maura about his room.