章 13: The Aftermath

On his way home Ryu finally took a chance to look at his quest rewards, giddy with excitement he thought to himself, "Quests."

Almost immediately, a screen displayed in front of Ryu's face.

[Quests]

[Special Quest: Debut]

[Do not workout at all before the fight (Complete)]

[Decide to debut, and appear at the cage match (Complete)]

[Win your debut fight (Upgrades Rewards) (Complete)]

[Reward: Stat Points, Boxing Mastery Upgrade, 200XP]

[Time Limit: 1 Day]

[Claim Rewards]

"Claim Rewards," Ryu thought to himself, ready to see what an upgraded reward was.

[Notification: You have received 1 stat point, your Boxing mastery has been upgraded to level 4, and you have received 200XP.]

[Notification: Due to you winning your debut fight, your rewards have increased.]

[Notification: You have received 2 extra stat points, your Boxing and Muay Thai mastery have been upgraded to level 5 and 3 respectively, you have received an extra 400 XP, you have proved yourself worthy, the system gifts you an examine skill.]

[Notification: You have leveled up to level 7, you have received one stat point as a reward.]

"Holy hell, they really decided to go all out with the rewards for this quest, not only did I level up but I also got mastery levels and extra stat points," thought Ryu, "and what is this system skill I was given?"

"Well, the only way to answer my questions is by opening the status window, I guess, Status," thought Ryu.

With that his status window opened, revealing a multitude of interesting things.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 7: 0/700 XP]

[Strength: 12]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 10]

[Agility: 7]

[Unspent Status Points: 4]

[Health Status: On the low end of average, you're not anything special, but you fall within the norm.]

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

[New Skills: Examine – This skill allows you to examine your opponents, this will reveal their information as if they had a system. Warning, this only works on opponents within 10 levels of you, if they are higher some aspects of examine may not work as intended.]

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

[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 5 (Upgrade Available), Muay Thai Mastery Level 4]

"Wow, this new examine skill seems overpowered, that must mean I can even see what martial arts they possess, also, I didn't know that upgrading an art was possible, I wonder what that does," thought Ryu.

"Upgrade Boxing Mastery," Ryu thought to himself.

Once he thought that, a display window of information popped up in front of his face.

[Art Upgrading Information]

[When arts reach a certain level, you are able to upgrade them, each art has multiple specializations to choose from, whether you have a system or not. When upgrading the system offers you the choice between different specializations, you will choose only one of them, this choice is permanent. Specializations give you benefits and negatives that you will have to weigh before choosing, good luck and choose carefully. Side note, the benefits and negatives of your specialization are only applied when the art is used in that specific fight.]

[Continue]

Ryu read over the system's information on upgrading, "So basically, I weaken certain aspects of my art, to strengthen others, makes sense, and I guess unless I specifically tell the system to upgrade them, I can keep my art unspecialized."

"Continue," Ryu thought to himself after he was done contemplating the information provided.

[Boxing Specializations]

[Pressure Fighter/In-Boxer: A pressure fighter is a fighter who strives to control the fight, you take a lot of hits in the process, but you dish out a lot of them too. If chosen, you will gain strength while fighting using the boxing art, the system will negate some of the damage from enemy blows, but you will lose a marginal portion of your agility when fighting.]

[Out-Boxer: Your goal is to dish out punches, while not allowing your opponent to do so themselves, you try to stay outside of their fighting range, and because of this you utilize high stamina and slowly break down your opponents. If chosen, you will gain agility while fighting using the boxing art, your reaction speed will increase while fighting, but you will lose a marginal portion of your strength when fighting.]

[Slugger: You might not hit fast, but you damn sure hit hard. If chosen, you will gain a large amount of strength fighting using the boxing art, your reaction speed will slow down slightly while fighting, and you will lose a significant portion of your agility when fighting.]

[Boxer Puncher: A combination between infighting and outfighting, you are skilled at both styles but aren't the best at either one individually. If chosen you will gain a small amount of strength and agility when fighting, there are no negatives to this style, but you do not gain an increase in a special stat such as reaction speed or fortitude as you do with the others.]

"Hmm... I do have a large wingspan, so outfighting good be beneficial, I'm definitely not a slugger or in-boxer, but honestly, Boxer Puncher seems like the best option," Ryu thought to himself as he read over the descriptions of every specialization a few times.

"I'm going to choose Boxer Puncher," Ryu thought, content with his decision.

With that the system displayed a new window.

[Great choice, I also believe this is the most compatible with your current fighting style. As a level 1 Boxer Puncher you will gain a 10% increase in both agility and strength while using the boxing style. Each level will increase this bonus by an additional 5% until you reach the max of 25%.]

"That isn't bad, 10% can make or break a fight, and 25% is a pretty significant amount once I level it up," Ryu thought to himself, happy with the choice he made.

"Now it's time to spend my new points, Status," Ryu thought, excited to become stronger yet again.

With that a status window immediately appeared in front of Ryu.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 7: 0/700 XP]

[Strength: 12]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 10]

[Agility: 7]

[Unspent Status Points: 4]

[Health Status: On the low end of average, you're not anything special, but you fall within the norm.]

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

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

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

"I want to upgrade my agility, but I also feel like my intelligence will be lacking after this, I also have a feeling that since this is a fighting system my intelligence has more to do with my intuition during a fight rather than my intuition in school," Ryu thought to himself, utilizing all 8 of his intelligence points to come up with that theory.

"Spend 3 status points on Agility, and one on intelligence," Ryu thought, he wanted to bring all of his stats up to 10 before focusing on strength again.

With that his status window was updated, but something other than his attributes had changed.

[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.]

"LET'S GO! I'M AVERAGE!" Ryu shouted out loud, quickly becoming embarrassed, because he was still walking home and had just proclaimed to all of the pedestrians that he was average.

He looked around and realized almost everyone on the street was now looking at him, "So much for 'nobody goes out of their way to think about you'," thought Ryu as he held his head down and quickly hurried home.

Once he entered through the apartment door, he saw that his mother was home. She was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the two of them. "What the hell happened to you," said his mother when she saw the state he was in. For reference, Ryu had no shirt on with bruises going up and down his abs. "I know it's hard to believe mom, but I had a fight today," Ryu said, not offering much explanation initially.

"A fight? Since when was my little Ryu a troublemaker, who did you fight and why, details, NOW!" said his mother visibly angry and concerned with him.

"Mom, mom, it was nothing like what you think, it was a competition fight, I've been going to the MMA gym," said Ryu.

"And why is this the first time I'm hearing about this, you know MMA is dangerous, honey, and I don't want you getting hurt, I think you should quit," said his mother in a stern tone.

"Mom, I promise, it's good for me, it's why I've put on so much weight recently and have been acting so much happier," said Ryu in response pleading to his mother.

"Well, you can keep going to the gym, but no fighting," his mother said, compromising with Ryu.

"Mom, I might be able to change your mind, you know? I'm really good at fighting for a beginner, today was my debut fight, look at how much I won," said Ryu as his final attempt. He took out the envelope of cash and dropped the 1 million yen onto the table.

"Good, lord, are you being truthful with me, you didn't join a gang or something right?" said his mother, not believing that his son could earn that much money from a single fight.

"Mom, I promise, I want this to go towards rent, so that way you can maybe quit one of your part-time jobs, or at least work lower hours for a while," said Ryu.

"No, honey, that money is all yours, if you're being completely honest, I'd never stop you from going after your dreams, but, if you get seriously hurt, you're never competing again, no buts about it." said his mother.

"Thank you, mom, I just want to be strong for you," said Ryu.

"I know, honey, I know," replied Ryu's mom, hearing that come from Ryu welled up emotions in her that she had been bottling up, she turned away from Ryu and wiped a couple tears from her eye silently, then turned back to him. All she wanted was to see her son succeed, and even this small amount of success made her feel infinitely proud of her son.

"Dinner will be ready soon, you go shower and change into some clean clothes, I'm really proud that you've found something you're good at," said his mother dismissing him until dinner.

"Everything I do is for you, mom," Ryu thought to himself as he entered the bathroom preparing to take a shower.