Chương 5: Solo Studying

There in his bedroom stood Ryu, throwing punch after punch at the air, visibly frustrated and fatigued, he looked as if he was having a horrible time.

This was because his "genius" idea wasn't working out exactly as he thought it would. While returning home he thought he would use online training videos to learn some basic boxing. This idea seemed promising at first. This was because the system prompted him with a quest once he had started studying boxing by himself. But he realized after a while that nothing is that simple.

Ryu had examined the quest window, and it was very simple.

[Quests]

[Basic Boxing]

[Throw a Correct Jab Three Times in a Row (Incomplete)]

[Throw a Correct Cross Three Times in a Row (Incomplete)]

[Show Basic Correct Footwork (Incomplete)]

[Reward: Boxing Mastery Level 1]

[Time Limit: N/A]

Every time he threw a jab as he saw in the video, Ryu would be met with a notification, this notification was a single word.

[Wrong]

After seeing this prompt repeatedly for over an hour he wanted to give up, but Ryu wasn't going to give in if it meant he could become stronger by prevailing.

"Who knew throwing a jab would be this hard?" Ryu thought to himself as he continually tried to improve his form.

After another hour of throwing jabs to no avail, he took a break, focused, and fluidly followed all the steps.

[Success]

"Thank God!" Ryu shouted, he then heard a response from his next-door neighbor, who didn't quite share the same appreciation, "Shut the hell up I'm trying to nap!"

Over the next few hours, he practiced each move until it was good enough to complete the quest, it was nearly 11 P.M. but he was finally ready for his reward.

"Quests," Ryu thought to himself as he opened the system display window.

[Quests]

[Basic Boxing]

[Throw a Correct Jab Three Times in a Row (Complete)]

[Throw a Correct Cross Three Times in a Row (Complete

[Show Basic Correct Footwork (Complete)]

[Reward: Boxing Mastery Level 1]

[Time Limit: N/A]

[Claim Reward]

"Claim Reward," Ryu thought to himself as he stared at the system window expectantly. As he claimed the reward multiple system notifications popped up.

[Notification: Boxing Mastery Level 1 awarded.]

[Notification: You have obtained your first art, congratulations, arts can be improved by repeatedly practicing them, the higher your level the more devastating your attacks.]

[Notification: Feat completed, learn your first art without external guidance.]

[Feat Reward: 100 XP, and skill [Regeneration] obtained.]

[Notification: Level Up, you have been awarded 1 stat point.]

"Regeneration?" Ryu thought to himself, "Am I going to be like a superhero, I repair injuries immediately?"

"Status" Ryu thought in his head so that he could check his level up and skill description.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 2: 0/200 XP]

[Strength: 6]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 4]

[Agility: 1]

[Unspent Status Points: 1]

[Health Status: Below-average, you are considered very weak to a normal person of your age and size.]

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

[Skills: Regeneration]

[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 1]

"System, can you explain what regeneration means?" Ryu thought to himself, hoping the system would reply.

A prompt appeared on the display window.

[Sure, regeneration means that your muscle fibers regenerate faster and repair stronger than a normal humans, therefor just sleeping should get rid of any fatigue from exercise the next day, and with that your muscles will fully repair.]

"Well, that wasn't exactly what I was thinking it would be, but that's still pretty overpowered," thought Ryu.

With that it meant that Ryu's ability to gain muscle mass would be much more efficient than the normal human being's. This would benefit him in the future as it would allow him to bulk up very quickly, and the fact that his muscles repair stronger than they normally would two folds this factor.

With the status window open he thought to himself, "Invest one point into agility." The status window then suddenly changed.

[Host: Ryu]

[Level 2: 0/200 XP]

[Strength: 6]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 4]

[Agility: 1 -> 2]

[Health Status: Below-average, you are considered very weak to a normal person of your age and size.]

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

[Skills: Regeneration]

[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 1]

"I feel like to be able to maintain my fitness, I need to get my stamina up a bit, if I just invest in strength, I'll be a meathead with no endurance." Ryu thought.

After finishing investing his points, a wave of tiredness washed over Ryu. Probably because he's had such a long day. With that he decided to go to sleep and focus on lifting and his quests tomorrow.

Over the rest of the week leave he had from school Ryu completed his daily quests and continued lifting daily. After a long week Ryu was excited to go back to school with his newfound strength.

"Status," Ryu said aloud waiting for the window to appear.

[Level 4: 0/400 XP]

[Strength: 10]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 10]

[Agility: 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]

[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 2]

He admired the status points that he had allocated, he felt a whole lot of improvement with his body. He looked at himself in the mirror and what reflected back was no longer a malnourished teen. Looking at himself he realized that he looks much more attractive, even without investing any points in appearance. He also realized that he wasn't that ugly, it was just his malnourished body holding him back.

Confident that he would be able to shock some people at school tomorrow, he went to bed happily awaiting his return to school. Before he fully checked in for the night, he whipped out his flip phone.

With this he texted Kenji, "Hey man, I'm coming back tomorrow, I think you'll be surprised, they fed me so good at the hospital I look like a different person."