Chapter 7 – Stat Increase
[You are not allowed to log in until you raise any of your stats or wait for 24 hours] the system screen appeared in front of them and Future spoke these words to them too.
"I guess we will not be able to continue playing this tonight," Ceylon spoke and Keith and Adrian agreed. It was already midnight and they should sleep. Continuing playing the game would not be good for their health.
"Sigh~" Keith sighed. "This game is hard. I hit the slime many times but it receives no damage. I got hit by the slime and my Health decreased a lot…" Keith sounded regretful.
"That's right, I am the same too," Adrian agreed. "How can we defeat the slime? Usually, slimes will be vulnerable to energy-based attacks but we have none. So, attacking its core is the best method but they have no core and physical attack is ineffective against them," Adrian spoke.
"Yeah, usually a slime will either be not that resistant to physical attack if it did not have any core or have a core which becomes its weakness. But this slime has no core and highly resistant to physical attack," Ceylon agreed with Adrian.
"What are you talking about? The slime I encounter has a core," Keith spoke surprising Adrian and Ceylon. Both of them encounter a slime without a core but Keith's slime had a core?
"In their normal state, the core is invisible. You need to hit it, to make the core appear," Keith spoke. "I accidentally hit the core and it appeared for a few seconds before it disappeared again."
"Oh~ Nice Keith! That is a piece of useful information. Then, the slime's weakness is still the core but it is invisible or camouflaged now," Ceylon praised Keith. "Then, it will be easier now to beat the slime!"
"Nah~ it will not be easy. I don't want to break your joy but the slime can move the core somewhere else in its body. I hit at the same spot again but the core was not there. Also, the first time I hit it, the core was not damaged at all. That means the slime has high endurance too," Keith added.
"I think they are quite intelligent too or they are learning," Adrian added and he told them his experience on how the slime suddenly shifted from tackle to slime shot in midair after it kept missing its tackle.
Not only that but the slimes prepared an ambush and hit Adrian with multiple slime shots and eliminated him.
"Yeah, they are surely intelligent. If what Keith said is true, that means they knew their weakness and learned to hide it. I guess the weakest monster is now not so weak anymore," Ceylon added.
"Maybe the best way is to run from them. With our current stats, I don't think we can win. Also, the slime is Grade C and if that is the weakest, we are in trouble," Adrian added.
"…" Everyone fell silent. They thought that the game would be easy as how many other Fantasy games were but no. Progress was hard or maybe it was hard in the beginning but easier once they became stronger.
"Future is making this game quite hard," Ceylon spoke.
"Argh! I don't want to think anymore. I want to sleep," Keith spoke and he continued, "Adrian, I am sleeping here tonight. I am too lazy to get back to my room."
"Me too!" Ceylon wanted to sleep there too.
"Sure," Adrian did not mind. There was three empty bed in that room and he wondered why the college management did not fill the room and gave the student each a room.
Ceylon and Keith pulled the blanket and went to sleep. As for Adrian, he decided to study a bit before he went to sleep.
[See? You deserved the Grade C Authority Level and five special slots. The others went to sleep but you open a book to study] Future suddenly spoke.
Adrian was a bit embarrassed to hear that and he spoke, "I am not a genius, so, I need to work harder."
[Humble too. You deserve my good treatment] Future added.
"…" Adrian decided to keep quiet and continued his reading. He felt that Future would talk again and he removed the earpiece from his ear.
Since Adrian had no intention of talking with Future, Future kept quiet too. He would not stoop so low and disturb a hardworking student.
Future was created to help the younger generation and he would not disturb Adrian for doing something good like studying.
An hour later, it was almost 1:30 am. Adrian checked the time and he felt he should stop and rest. Even so, his bracelet suddenly glowed indicating a notification. Adrian checked the bracelet.
[Progress' notification.
Player Adrian studying diligently, Intelligent increased by 1 point.
Player Adrian study about Plants. You get a chance to increase your Plants Stat. If you answer these three questions, Player Adrian will be able to raise the Plants Stat.
If you answer all the questions correctly, you will get 3 Plants points. If you get one wrong, 1 Plants points. If you get all wrong, 0 Plant points]
Adrian was surprised. "So, this is how you raise the stat?" Adrian mumbled. A message arrived on the bracelet from Future.
[Yes. You have the advantage as someone with a higher Authority Level. For someone with Grade C Authority Level, it is easier to raise the stats. It is not strict as compared to people with Grade D and Grade E Authority Level] Future's message read.
"So, the Authority Level affects the stats too," Adrian understood. "Give me the questions," Adrian replied to the first notification. Another notification from Future arrived.
[These questions are related to what you read earlier] The message started with this sentence and below it was the three questions regarding Plants. All three questions were easy for Adrian. He answered all three questions correctly and was rewarded with three Plants' stat points.
After that, another notification for Progress arrived in his bracelet. Adrian clicked on the notification.
[Congratulations on receiving your first Special stat points. The special stat points can be left there like that to increase the effect of anything related to the special stats or you can exchange them for basic stat points]
[However, every special stat has fixed basic stats in can increase. You can view that by long pressing on the special stat] the message ended there.
"Hmm… I will need to see it first before I can decide," Adrian spoke and he checked the time. As it was already late, Adrian went to sleep.
Three hours later, it was 5 am and Adrian, Ceylon, and Keith woke up. As Agriculture students, they were given a small section on a farm to manage. It was like their yearly assignment and they needed to grow anything there for the next five years.
The produce they produced would be evaluated at the end of each year. So, all of the Agriculture students would usually wake up early in the morning to work on their farm. Ceylon and Keith went back to their room to have a shower.
Adrian cleaned himself and wore his farming clothes and head to his farm. For his first year of college, he decided to plant an easy to grow plants. Adrian had experienced growing harder to grow crops but he decided to go for easy to grow plants. Out of many of them, Adrian chose to grow salad leaves.
Out of the many salad leaves, Adrian chose to grow Batavia Lettuce. For the past few days, the seeds had sprouted and soon, they would grow bigger.
Adrian arrived at his small farm. The farm was indeed small, with each side around 20 meters. Adrian's family farm was much larger than this. So, it was easy for Adrian to manage this small farm.
Adrian took the water bucket and filled them with water. After that, he manually watered the lettuces.
In a highly technological world like Rizend, there were a lot of technologies created to help farmers. However, for education purposes, the college prohibited the students to apply any of the technologies to their farm. They needed to tend the farm the traditional ways.
The truth was, the college never did this before but after the big move made by the World Government, the education side took part in it too to help the young generation get back to the right path.
As for the Agriculture Faculty of Orchid College, they threw away all those technologies and let the students learned from the most basic and traditional method.
Adrian scooped the water from the bucket and slowly and carefully watered the lettuce sprouts. If the water was too much, he would damage the plant. If he poured all of the water, the sprouts would get damage. So, Adrian scooped the water and used his hands to make sure the sprouts were okay.
The method was tedious but there was nothing he could do. He could get a watering pot but, the college prohibited it. They said that the students could get it once they had studied at the college for two months.
So, for the first two months, they needed to endure the hard labor work. After Adrian finished watering the lettuce sprouts, he continued with weeding and got rid of any pests he could find.
Although the farm was small, Adrian ended the work three hours later. After he finished his work, a notification arrived in his bracelet.
[Progress' notification.
Player Adrian did farm work diligently, Strength increase by 1 point and Endurance increased by 2 points]
"…Isn't this too easy?" Adrian spoke and a message from Future arrived.
thank you~
Note: This story is fiction. It is not real.