Chương 12: Misunderstanding

——————— A WEEK LATER ——————

Zeke heard a ding sound just as he woke up.

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System upgraded to LVL 1

New Features:

-Lvl 1 Shop

-Inventory

-XP system

For your convenience, Would you like to have an overall interface? Y/N

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Zeke agreed. Having to memorize and utter multiple words in his head is troublesome, so he'd rather have one word for all of it.

DING!

Zeke knew the system finished compiling it all. He now only needed to remember two, 'System' and 'Check Stats' for checking others.

While Zeke was thinking all these, Charles and Catherine were preparing to leave for the town plaza. Today was the day they were supposed to meet with Charles' old friend.

While the couple is heading towards the plaza, Zeke, who was carried by his mother, is still focused on his System ability. As he planned before, he checked the stats of the people he saw on the streets. Their CP is only around a thousand, with the highest being 1050 and the lowest being a hundred. The one with a hundred CP is an old woman selling some cooked food for a copper.

Zeke was amazed by how powerful his parents are compared to the common folk. He found out that most of the people here have only less than 500 CPs and the people who are above 800 could be counted with his fingers. His parents had more than 4000 and is also nearing 5000, which means that his parents are 4x stronger than common folk at the very least. This then further sparked his curiosity about his parents' identities. He swore to find out whenever the time is right.

After checking people's stats, Zeke tried to open the System Interface. Soon enough, a floating interface appeared in his peripheral view. He had four options to pick with his Lvl 1 system, and those are his Profile, his Quests, his Inventory, and the shop. He first checked his Profile and found out that it was still the same except there's another row of text on the side of his name, which says,

(XP: 15/100)

He guessed that the xp he got from the two quests he finished amounted to 15 and it only showed after upgrading the system. He was a bit irritated that it takes a lot of xp for him to level up. Even after half a year of effort, he didn't even have half or even a quarter of his xp to level up. He could only hope for easier quests in the future.

Speaking of quests, Zeke also checked his Quests tab. He remembered that he received a quest as a reward for the previous quest. It didn't appear in his view so he guessed that it was just sitting on his quests. Sure enough, he saw one quest there.

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Progression Quest "System Upgrade II"

Form your Mana Core.

Hint:

-Read books about mana and how it's absorbed and refined.

For the full comprehensive guide, use the system generated book.

Condition:

-Complete before reaching 3 years old

Difficulty: C

Reward:

10xp

System Upgrade (New Feature/s available)

Access to quest "System Upgrade III"

Skill Tome

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Mana Core?

Zeke didn't know what a mana core means. All he knew was that its related to mana and a crucial part of his path to power. He was also a bit grateful for having a time period of 2 and a half year before the deadline, however he immediately felt suspicious. Why did it need 2 and a half years? Is this hard?

'Nevermind. I'll look into it when I get back home. Hopefully, my parents have books regarding this.'

He felt slightly sad after reading the quest, but that did not stop Zeke from opening the highlight of the system. He was saving it for the finale, but since the quest disappointed him for a bit, he just prayed that this shop better be worthwhile. He then chose the shop and opened it. He was welcomed with a list of categories which are Books, Skills, Weapons, and Items. Zeke was excited.

He opened the book section and saw a plethora of books to his liking. It had all kinds of topics, from the ancient monsters up to the medicinal plants. Zeke's eyes glowed by the suddenly high amount of information that he could have after reading all this. This was exactly what Zeke needed ever since he was born in this world. What made him more ecstatic was the price of the books are free! It was all for his choosing! The only limitation was the buying limit, which was only 1 per day. Still, with hundreds of books here, it was already enough for Zeke for a few years.

He then shifted to the Skills section, only to be dismayed. Although the skills in the shop were suitable for newbies, it needed either a mana core, a weapon, or xp to buy and learn it. He couldn't have it for now, but he expected to make use of it in the future.

In the Weapons section, the situation was almost the same. However, it only needed xp as payment with a few weapons only suitable for those with mana cores. He guessed that it needs mana to function normally hence the mana core requirement. He was also a bit dismayed, but he regained his composure after comforting himself that he will soon have access to all this.

In the Items section, Zeke felt a bit intrigued. The items listed only had names. He guessed that he could only see the effects if he had enough xp to buy it. He didn't know anything about what he's missing out of, so he didn't feel that bad about it.

After seeing all the items the shop had to offer, Zeke felt that he was too young to take advantage of it. He then tried to comfort himself by repeatedly saying that he still earned a plethora of books to read.

While Zeke is comforting himself, he and his parents had arrived in the plaza. Charles scanned the surroundings and found the back of his old friend. He then walked up to them along with Catherine and Zeke and nudged his friend. His friend looked around and when he saw the one who nudged him, his face beamed into a smile.

"Hey, Charles! Long time no see, brother! How are you faring? Does vacation feel fun with your demons?" The middle-aged man seemed like he knew Charles for a long time as he even dared to throw a light insult to Catherine.

"Oh? I didn't expect the great young master of Hydrofrost clan back then to be married! I'm truly surprised!" A low voice was heard from behind Charles, then a woman holding a baby appeared from behind and stood beside Charles. "Long time no see, YOUNG master." Catherine seemed to emphasize the word young too much.

Hearing the voice and seeing the person beside Charles, the middle-aged man slightly trembled. He then slightly sweated and looked at Catherine slowly, his expression a bit complicated

"L-long time no see, Cath. P-please, don't call me that anymore. I'm embarrassed." The middle-aged man stuttered for a bit before scratching his head.

Catherine just smirked, as if finding the man's expression a bit funny. "Still the same, huh."

"I've changed." He lightly chuckled. "But I guess old habits die hard, hehe"

The man then turned to Charles and whispered.

"Goddamn you! I didn't know you'd bring your demoness here. You should've said it to me in advance so I can prepare myself mentally!"

Charles just chuckled. The man then turned to both of them and invited the family to the table where his wife and daughter were sitting.

Upon nearing the table, out of everyone's expectations, the infant helped by Catherine, Zeke, lightly chuckled. Charles, Catherine and even the Hydrofrost couple looked at Zeke, surprise evident in their eyes. Why did this baby suddenly become happy?

After thinking for a bit, the four came to a hasty conclusion. The Flamehaven family was very near the table when the baby, who was silent the whole time, suddenly laughed. It only became happy when they neared the table, which means something, or rather, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞, at the table made the baby happy. They then turned to the infant being held by the man's wife. The four adults couldn't help but smile.

Zeke's sudden laugh just gave birth to a very big misunderstanding.