Let's Play a Game – Chapter 7

Okay, time to hit some books.

Where do I start?

Well, I think the obvious question here is what constitutes a skill book?

Obviously, it's a book that teaches a skill, but nothing power wise happened with all the books in my room.

Considering I observed them all including my school textbooks and nothing jumped out at me in the description, that's a dead end.

Then again, there's not much of a skill to learn from just reading fiction. The only school books I looked through were literature, history, and biology, and those aren't about practical skills either. Of course, those were from last semester. I still didn't have my books from this semester considering how my first day went…

…and I totally ignored the idea of asking Dad to pick them up for makeup work.

I mean the Doctor's excuse would cover any missing grades, but I'd still be behind everyone else, and sure I have a freaking intelligence stat now that I've already raised several times that'll probably make school easier, and considering all the advantages my powers give me, I'll probably be able to excel again and the bullies can just go fu-

I shake my head.

Not important, Taylor. Focus.

I take a deep breath.

Okay, are there any books that I have seen or touched since I've had my powers that directly teach the person reading it a skill?

I think back to my personal library. Most of it, of course, was for leisure reading, not something that was actually practical in terms of something I could use every day.

Yeah, none of it would fit the bill.

Let's step back a bit.

Until I know how my powers interact with books, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for.

Skill books all differ mechanically from game to game.

I start pacing back and forth between the kitchen and living room.

Okay…if I'm not sure what books qualify for skill books, I should just move on to a different type of reading material that my powers possibly could interact with in a similar fashion.

Alright, let's follow the gaming logic.

Right now I have a cooking skill.

Cooking is a crafting skill.

Crafting skills need recipes.

Game characters can just add recipes they grab into…well, not their brain, but the pool of recipes the player can use.

While I started out with a good set of recipes in my noggin with just the skill, and I'll probably be able to pick up more as the skill progresses, I should also be able to grab cook books, and just add their recipes to my brain directly.

…Assuming that game logic works out with how my powers work.

I stop pacing, and head to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the kitchen doesn't have a huge library of cookbooks. The Hebert house is small so we don't really have the room for a bookshelf to cram cookbooks into.

There's about maybe a dozen cookbooks in a single pull-out drawer, and that's it.

I still remember being shocked at seeing the several dozen, if not over a hundred, cookbooks in the Barnes' kitchen. Their house was always bigger than ours…

I sighed.

Not helping.

With a slight pull, the drawer I was looking for slides out with ease.

All of the books were stored with their spines facing up, so I could easily see which book was which.

I glance over them, deciding on which one to test with. In some games, the books used like this are unfortunately destroyed. So, I definitely do not want to accidentally destroy anything of sentimental value or something that Dad uses constantly.

So, I need something safe to test.

The best one to me looks like the Betty Crocker Cookbook copy we have. It's mass produced and likely something I can replace easily down the line. As a plus, Dad doesn't use it that much.

Sure, I could probably use my journal system here to save me the grief if my powers do destroy it on use. I probably could just import it into notes, and assuming that doesn't actually use it like storing something inside an inventory; I could export a copy then use that for the test, but…

I check my inventory, and wince a little.

…I already used a good fat bit of the printer ink I already owe Dad. Printing out my own notes is one thing; printing out a book like this would probably run me dry and make me need to grab another cartridge…or several.

At that point, the book is literally cheaper to replace than the ink I have.

I'm pretty sure I don't have the pencils or pens for a job like that either.

It's a good idea though for later, but only if my power actually destroy books in the process…which knowing me means they probably will.

My fingers are crossed that they don't though. Because honestly, as a book lover I'd feel extremely obligated to hate myself just a little bit for every book my power destroyed.

Alright, it's the moment of truth.

I grab it by the spine and pull it…oh, hi box.

This is a recipe book, [Betty Crocker Cookbook10th edition].
Do you want to learn these recipes?
[Yes] [No]

With a short inhale and exhale, I tap on yes.

There's an explosion of light, and the room is fully illuminated like the Sun decided to pop in for a visit.

Then I realize it's not the Sun being cordial, it's me and the book.

Both I and the book are glowing.

Suddenly, the book I'm holding disintegrates piece by piece in to motes of light that fly into my brain and I start to glow even brighter. After a few seconds, the book is gone, and I have a thousand new recipes in my head.

I blink a few times as the light finally dissipates.

…Well.

I nod to myself.

…That just happened.

So if I wanted to make homemade grav-

Before I can finish the thought, step by step instructions for gravy filled my head, as well as the needed ingredients.

Okay, what about homemade ap-

Again, a recipe was in my head as if I photocopied the book to my brain, this time for apple pie.

I smiled.

This is so neat!

I looked down at my empty hand, where moments ago a book was held.

My smile froze, and then slid off my face into a frown.

Oh, wait…

….

…aaaand there's the tiny minuscule sliver of self-hatred.

I did not miss you.


So…when I use a book like this, basically, I eat the book. Sure, using that term is a bit creepy, but it really is the best word that fits with what happens. Destroy implies that's something is just gone without any bright side or benefit, and I definitely am not destroying books here. I grab the book, there's a lightshow, the book disappears, and suddenly all the knowledge is in my brain.

I consume the book and subsume its knowledge, just like eating food and digesting it for nutrients.

…Basically, thinking about it this way makes me feel a bit better rather than outright thinking I destroy books.

Yeah, mental gymnastics and all, but it works!

After the foray with the first book, I decided to test observe on the other ones. Lo and behold, observe told me explicitly they were classified as recipe books.

So, knowing that observe was definitely pulling its weight here, I decided to look through all the books we had in the house and observe them one by one.

It took roughly an hour for my hunt to conclude.

I even searched through boxes that held my mother's possessions in the basement and upstairs closet, after only a brief hesitation at the idea.

Considering my late mother was both an English professor at the local college and a bookworm, it's surprising it didn't take me longer, even with the size of our house working for me and observe telling me outright what books counted and which ones didn't.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for example had nothing to do with Zen or motorcycle maintenance.

Go figure.

Unfortunately, after all my hunting, I didn't find much. The biggest jackpot was simply all the cookbooks we had, and a good chunk of those were off limits for now. I did get a level of observe out of it, so that's a plus.

So, on one hand, I had two recipe books that would benefit my cooking skill, not including the one I already gobbled...which funnily enough did have a lot of thanksgiving recipes.

I shook my head.

On the other hand, I had two skill books.

Oh, and I did find one atlas…

…Which I don't have a third hand for.

Okay, that idiom just died. Moving on!

All six of them sat in front of me on the floor of the upstairs windowless bathroom. With the door closed and a towel blocking the bottom, there should be no way for someone to possibly see a strange flash of light coming from my house. I do not want to risk outing myself here.

Hopefully nobody caught the first one, but I'd be stupid to risk doing something like that consecutively downstairs in an open room.

A simple flashing light could be excused…probably, but when I eat a book, it's almost like Flashbang himself is trying to emulate the fourth of freaking July inside of my house. It's really not worth risking it.

So, I had two recipe books on hand. One that was specifically for baking, particularly focused on cookies, and another that was focused towards lunches.

They were definitely something I could grind cooking with and stuff my inventory full of goodies. Beyond the obvious healing benefits and even lacking the need to eat, the inventory was just too big of a tease as the perfect snack pouch. Besides, it's not like I could stuff the fridge full every time I decided to grind that skill.

I would need to get more groceries though…and double check to see if food went bad in a pocket dimension…but I digress.

In two flashes of light, both books were gone and their contents were firmly in my head.

Ooh, I can make snickerdoodles later…

Next, I had the atlas, which specifically was a map of the continental US. Unfortunately, it was a bit old and lacked some of the newer quarantine zones, like Madison. It was a sad thing to see included in a map, but it was practical. Even if I didn't plan on leaving Brockton Bay anytime soon, it was too convenient not to do this now.

It's not like our family goes on road trips anymore.

This is a map collection [Road Atlas: Large Scale].
Do you want to add these maps to your Journal?
[Yes] [No]

Another poke, another flash of light, and I now had a map of every state in the US whenever I needed them. It might not give me an in-depth map of cities like I have of the Bay, but I can work on that later.

Then, there was the glorious meat of today: books that actually will just give me skills.

I was really giddy about this.

The first one I found was a small handy-man guide to household repair that would give me a modest repair skill.

Dad might miss it unfortunately, but he hasn't had the time, money, or even the will to really use it. Our front yard's rotten porch step can attest to that. I think he left a replacement board in the basement, but it's been there for months really.

I can always buy him a new handyman book later anyways.

Poke.

You learned the Repair skill!

[Repair (passive) Lv1 EXP: 00.00%]
A skill using spare materials to repair broken
and damaged objects. With more mastery,
more complicated and sophisticated objects
can be repaired. The Repair skill also receives
a bonus based on crafting knowledge.
Currently allows the repair of [common] objects.
5% increase in Repair speed.

Just like with my cooking skill, my brain is now host to new information; information that felt as if it was accumulated for years rather than a few seconds. I knew it all from the correct method to repair a leaky pipe to the best way to fix a jammed door.

The sheer joy I felt, at just…knowing how to do all these things, kept me standing there and smiling for a minute. It was different than just recipes. With recipes, it was…flat. It was information that was nice to know, sure, but the only real excitement there was from knowing what I could create. With skills however, it was like a whole new aspect of my life just blossomed into being.

What felt like years of experience gained in mere seconds…it was such a rush!

Yeah, a book was destroyed…there I said it…and I feel a little sad about that, but if this experience keeps happening, I might end up addicted. There was no way I was going to feel sad about this a dozen books from now.

Eating books like this was…Reading 2.0!

Ten out of ten, would eat books again.

…Hey, I could probably take care of the front porch by myself!

A box appeared in my face.

…And I have a quest for it too!

First things first though…

I turned to the next paperback victim.

The one I couldn't eat.

This one was special.

The second skill book was a first aid handbook, tucked away in one of my mother's boxes. It, of course, would give me the first aid skill, something that I definitely felt I needed before I ever started my hero career.

If I could do something to help someone with an injury, or just stabilize them before the ambulance could get there, it could help save lives.

Note to self, I need to grab first aid supplies for my inventory. I may not need it, but others will.

Considering what city we lived in, at first I was surprised Dad didn't have something like this near the bandages in the bathroom.

Then, I saw the small dried up blood stains on the cover.

Morbidly, observe even told me they were from Dad.

I'd need to ask Dad what that was about.

Hopefully, it would just be part of a funny little anecdote. There's not that much blood, but at the moment, I just don't know. It could be back from when Dad met Mom in college, after they got the house, or even later. Only Dad and…Mom would really know.

So, eating it was completely off the table.

I grab the book, and press it into my inventory.

A few bouts of menu hopping later, I attempt to import it into my journal.

Unsupported Media

…What?

I try again.

Unsupported Media

…Okay.

Let's try something else.

A minute later, I have a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in my inventory. I try to import it.

Unsupported Media

…Alright then.

I guess it just won't work for books then. I scratch the top of my head in bewilderment. I'm not sure why though.

I really doubt it's because my powers have a sense of copyright. Could it just be that if it's not a note or something I personally wrote it just won't work?

The email printouts in my notebook were accepted just fine though…so there is some leeway there.

…Well, there's another limit I'll need to test later.

I close down my menu and take the book out of my inventory.

This is a skill book [The American Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook].
Do you want to learn this skill?
[Yes] [No]

This a book Mom used to help bandage Dad up from…something. There's a reason Mom still had this from whenever and Dad still kept it to this day.

I take a deep breath, before hitting no.

It's too special for me to do that to it, especially without Dad's input.

So…option two then.

If I can't, or more precisely, won't eat it, will reading it the long way still give me the skill?

Well, my long way at least. Thank you speed reading.

I flip to the back of the book. It's almost four hundred pages, index included…

I take a look at the nearest clock for the time.

Nine fifty-seven AM.

Honestly, I have plenty of time today. It might be a bit boring, but I do have speed reading as a skill.

Let's see what happens.

I take the time to sit down on the couch in the living room. After I get comfortable, I open the book to the first page, and I start to read.


Your "Speed Reading" skill has increased by 1!

Your "Speed Reading" skill has increased by 1!

For continuous study, your intelligence has increased by 1.

Your "Speed Reading" skill has increased by 1!

You have read the skill book [The American Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook].
You learned the First Aid skill!

[First Aid (passive) Lv1 EXP: 00.00%]
A skill used to heal minor wounds and
stabilize the critically wounded. With more
mastery, more complicated wounds and
physical status effects can be treated or
stabilized. Under your care, a patient will
regain 1 HP per 5 minutes, as long as they
have more than zero health and less than half.


I close the book with a big fat happy smile.

Unlike the instant rush of knowledge when I ate the other books, this time it's like…all the knowledge I had read up to this point had just clicked into place, and if I had a far greater understanding of it. Some spots were filled in with a few tidbits of missing knowledge, but the book itself was very comprehensive and covered a great deal.

I know now exactly how it feels to know something from just memorizing it to it transforming into a skill you've practiced again and again until it becomes second nature, in the span of seconds.

Reading the old way like this with skill books is wonderful too. It's nice to know I can appreciate both methods. They're both…novel experiences.

I giggle.

Though reading at over ten thousand words per minute was…weird. It was fun, but just weird. I could just glance and read an entire paragraph in a single second.

That's something I'll need to get used to. At this rate, I'll need to be careful when I read books in public.

I look up at a nearby clock.

Twelve Forty-Two PM.

Not bad. Speed reading is freaking awesome. Reading power is best power after all.

I look down at my hands.

The book is still there and has not disintegrated either.

This is definitively a success for book lovers everywhere.

I even gained a few more levels in Speed Reading and boosted my intelligence by a point. So, I might just do this later for the possible attribute boost, even if I could get away with the book munching.

It probably would be best to just use this with skill books I pickup from the library though, just to be more efficient. If I can't eat them since they're on loan, it makes the most sense to spend speed reading on them rather than books I could just eat.

I can always eat books I buy from a used book stand at the market, or some book store at the mall.

With a content expression, I move to put the book back with the rest of mom's things and clean up a little after my book hunt.

I'll need to remember to ask Dad about that whole…blood thing later.

With that done, it's time for me to work on a practical combat skill.

For a few moments, I resumed my patrol between the kitchen and living room, thinking on what to do.

Everything I've done to create a skill, that wasn't from a book, has been based on doing something and focusing especially on what I'm doing.

When I learned the cooking skill, I was focused on dinner. When it was observe, I was focused on figuring out what Dad was thinking by looking at his facial expressions, and so on.

That focus on whatever I was doing was really important.

So…I look down at my hands as I balled them into fists.

Let's keep this simple.

Being a superhero means it is very likely I'm going to be punching someone.

While…cliché and, honestly, kind of sad, that's probably what's going to happen.

The Sun rises and sets. The Earth rotates and revolves.

…and most heroic capes, like say Alexandria, punch criminals.

It's just the way things are.

Sure, I could probably find a better method down the line, but who am I to disagree with the classics?

Well, punching people is a skill.

I'll worry about working on something a bit more complicated later, but as long as I have my hands, I'll be able to punch something…

…And given how my powers work, I kind of want to be able to punch things really, really well.

If I need to practice on punching, I need to either hit something, or pretend I'm hitting something…or someone.

Because the skill itself is about punching, not actually hitting necessarily with the punch.

I think the proper term is shadow-boxing, but I'm not entirely sure.

I stop my pacing and stand in the living room where I have the most space.

I raise my fists up in some sort of guard, trying to mimic what I've seen on TV…and I'm pretty confident I'm doing it completely wrong.

Anyways, I focus and imagine someone standing in front of me.

Someone I will feel absolutely no remorse for shoving my fists into their bitchy imaginary face.

Why hello, Sophia!

I see her in my head, standing there, looking at me with that unfriendly smile, and those eyes inspecting me like I'm something beneath her, something less…something worthless.

I feel a slight muted pain. I'm not sure where it is at, but I can tell Gamer's Mind is at work.

I punch out once, and imagine my fist hitting her right in her smug prick face.

As I do, I can't help but imagine all the times she's hurt me.

I think about her pushing me in the stairwell dozens of times.

I punch again.

I think about her cruel smile every time Emma cuts me down.

...And again…

I think about her stealing Emma way back when this all started.

…And again.

I think about the locker…

Soon enough, I stop thinking completely, and I just keep punching…all with a smile on my face.


A skill has been created through a special action.

Through practicing hand to hand combat, a skill to fight without a weapon, "Unarmed Combat Mastery", has been created!

[Unarmed Combat Mastery (passive) Lv1 EXP: 00.00%]
A skill used to understand how to fight without weapons.
10% increase in attack damage with unarmed strikes.
5% increase in attack speed with unarmed strikes.
Due to understanding the basics of hand-to-hand combat,
you learn styles of martial arts 2% faster.

Your "Unarmed Combat Mastery" skill has increased by 1!

Your "Unarmed Combat Mastery" skill has increased by 1!

Your "Unarmed Combat Mastery" skill has increased by 1!

Your "Unarmed Combat Mastery" skill has increased by 1!

For continuous exertion, your vitality has increased by 1.


Slowly, I slump to the ground onto my back, utterly exhausted, greedily gulping down air as if breathing was going out of style.

I was completely covered in sweat and a few sniffs told me how much I needed a shower.

I glance over at the clock.

Two thirty-seven PM.

I laugh a bit to myself.

I went a teensy bit overboard trying to punch an imaginary Sophia.

I wasn't actually tired in an "I need to sleep" sense, but more in "I don't want to move right now" sense.

It really is weird to feel…physically exhausted, and not have the normal aches that come with it either. I've been driven to this state of exhaustion before in gym last semester and the year before last on a few occasions, but they came with aches and pains that I generally still had the next day.

Now though, I don't feel any pain whatsoever.

It's weird, but nice.

I stare at my boxes.

Not only do I have a new skill, I found a way to actually level it without getting into a fight. I didn't think shadow-boxing would give me such a work-out either to boost my vitality.

After I created my new skill, I just shifted. I kept my weight properly distributed between both of my legs. I knew the proper way to make a fist. I knew where to hit for a knockout, and on and on.

I even pulled off a few kicks I suddenly knew.

There wasn't a fighting style in my head or anything. So it wasn't like I knew MMA or anything. I didn't know any real stances or forms to move through. I just knew an assortment of techniques really well that I could use to defend myself.

As time passed and my skill gained levels, my moves just felt…more substantial and I felt like I was even throwing my punches and the odd kick faster.

The vitality boost was great too. I now know I just have to work myself to exhaustion and try to keep going in order to level it.

Maybe I should take up running or something?

I check my skill and let out a short whistle.

Well, it was more of an exhale of air than a whistle due to my exhaustion, but it was close enough.

Level five of Unarmed Combat mastery netted me a thirty percent increase in attack damage, fifteen percent increase in attack speed, and a ten percent faster learning rate for martial arts.

Yeah, I was going to spend a lot of time leveling this up in the near future.

Still exhausted, I stare up into the ceiling.

I had roughly four hours and some change left to my day before Dad got home.

Since I did promise Lasagna (oh hi dinner quest) and I did want to use my new repair skill on the front porch's broken step, that gave me roughly three hours to grind something.

Maybe when I feel like moving though…


The rest of the day passed fairly quickly.

My physical exhaustion was apparently based on vitality, from what I gathered.

After about thirty minutes of resting after my shadowboxing workout, my exhaustion just…disappeared as if someone just flipped a switch. One moment, I didn't feel like moving at all, the next, I was completely refreshed and ready to go.

I still stink from all the sweat of course, but otherwise, I was ready to exercise again.

That was amazing.

Honestly though, it feels like I should have a stamina bar or something given how it seems to work. Since I don't…at least, not that I know of, would physical exhaustion perhaps be a physical status effect I can check later?

Since I had extra time to grind, I dabbled with a few ideas on how to increase strength and dexterity. Since leveling vitality was basically working on my stamina, any method that worked me physically could boost it. So if I found a method to exercise strength or dexterity that exhausted me, I could level two physical stats at once and also check for a status effect.

Those two and luck were the last three attributes I haven't managed to level yet too.

I had a fairly good idea on how to level with luck and strength, but dexterity was something I had to spend more time on.

First, I did what I thought was most obvious.

For about an hour, I did nothing but push-ups.

Before my powers…I could do at least…ten in a row, and that's me being generous.

Now, I just kept going and going. I lost count after two-hundred and seven…

As long as I have stamina, I could just keep doing whatever really, and only forced to really stop once I ran out.

It's definite proof that my muscles, like the rest of my body, don't work like normal anymore.

That…ridiculous workout netted me two points in strength, and when I kept going, a point in vitality.

Again, for about thirty minutes, I had to rest, my back to the floor, and me swallowing the air like a vacuum.

A check to my stats confirmed exhaustion was a status effect called fatigue.

Fatigue popped up to the left side of my stats in its own little menu titled status effects. I guess if I'm not under the effects of one, that box just doesn't appear.

The box was like my skills with their own little cartoon icons. Fatigue just showed a cartoon me slightly hunched over from the front: my face red and sweaty, my eyes obscured behind my hair, and steam and stink just wafting off of me.

A poke at the icon gave me the run down.

[Fatigue (physical) Duration: 27m 41s]
Exhaustion from physical exertion exceeding
the body's stamina.
For the duration of Fatigue:
-75% reduction to physical skill ability and gains.
-50% reduction to strength and dexterity.

Ouch…

Okay then, so if my stamina is boosted by my vitality, then raising my vitality would naturally limit how fast I get fatigue.

…but I have to actually work myself to fatigue to boost my vitality? Or at least, a good bit towards fatigue?

Well, that's diminishing returns at work there. I guess at a certain point I'll just have to find a way to exert myself more and more the easier certain activities get. If my stamina increases…I'm guessing how fast my stamina regenerates is included too.

It also will dictate how long I can grind a physical skill before I'm forced to rest. So, it's definitely a limiting factor in that respect.

…Ugh, but what is my actual stamina?

A blue box pops up with information answering that very question.

Stamina is a stat that oversees physical exertion. All physical skills and actions deplete stamina by a certain minuscule amount that builds up over time. If Stamina is depleted, fatigue will set in. Fatigue's duration is based on the amount of time it would take stamina to be regenerated from zero to full.

The Gamer's total Stamina is equivalent to total Health. Stamina regenerates at twice the rate health regenerates at, but Stamina can only regenerate when the body is not overly exerting itself.

Oh, neat. Guess I was projecting there a bit.

Close.

So I do have a stamina bar, it's just tied into my health? Interesting…but is there a way for me to actually see what my stamina is at?

Stamina.

A blue box with a nearly empty green bar pops up. Currently, it was at twenty-eight point seven and climbing to a max of two-hundred and forty. Guess those vitality points did raise my health a fair bit.

…Wait, what about my other stats?

Health.

A blue box with a full red bar appears, at its expected maximum value of two-hundred and forty.

Mana.

Another box with a full blue bar appears, at a maximum value of four-hundred and twenty.

I whistle a bit. Well, I try. It's still more of an exhale than a proper whistle, but I'm tired and don't care.

Mana went up a good bit.

It's nice to know I have a shortcut to individual stats like this, but I'm still wondering why stamina isn't a part of the normal stat screen.

It's something I'll have to work out later. I just started using it, so maybe I just missed something.

Given how important Stamina is to me, and the fact I don't want to ever experience fatigue while I'm caping, I will need to work on my vitality for the next few days. It mainly increases health too…which is even more important than just stamina, so it would be a very good stat for me to focus on.

I sit down and rest on the couch while my fatigue counts down. Even with the reduction, I could probably try and grind a skill, but I just don't feel like moving right now.

…it's kind of funny when I think about it. I should have read my books now rather than take care of it first. With these thirty minute breaks, I could have used my time better doing that.

Oh, well, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Not like I knew stamina was a stat or fatigue was a status effect before now. At least I'll know what to do when I loan a few books from the library. I'll read what I can when I'm too tired to move, and exercise when I can move.

Time passed and my fatigue finally vanished. With only about an hour left before I had to focus on dinner and the front porch, I attempted to level dexterity.

Since my reflexes were tied a bit into dexterity, I tried flipping a coin in the air and just catching it when it fell back down.

After about forty minutes of doing nothing but that, I actually got a point out of it.

It wasn't the best way to do it, but hey, it worked.

I'd probably need to buy a few tennis balls and try to juggle to train it faster, or just research on a better idea.

Dodge ball would probably be a good idea for building dexterity, but unfortunately, gym was last semester.

I'll figure out something later.

With time winding down, I focused on the last two things I wanted to work on before Dad got home.

The front step was replaced in about thirty minutes, which netted me about half a level in repair and an easy two hundred and fifty experience points. Dad had nails and a hammer by the replacement plank in the basement, so it was easy gathering everything I needed. I did accidentally hammer my thumb though, so I'm slightly embarrassed by that.

I even lost a health point, which when I thought about it was kind of scary.

It's a bit sobering to see your mortality in clear numbers. If I actually hit my thumb like that a few hundred times, would I actually die from it?

Yeah, I'm definitely going to focus on vitality for the next few days.

The weird bit was that after the brief crushing pain I felt for about a second, I felt nothing. The pain just…vanished. My thumb didn't even swell or bruise. It was just slightly red for half a minute, and then poof, back to normal.

Even with the whole…gore…thing turned on in my menu, it seems my body doesn't exactly react to injury normally anymore. I know I regenerate my health, but I still expected…I don't know, feeling the pain from my power regenerating a broken bone or something.

But no, I didn't even feel anything really.

I'll need to look into that more later, but I have no idea how I can do that without hurting myself.

I mean, I technically regenerate, sure, but I don't want to test how my body works through…self-mutilation.

I shivered a bit at the thought.

After the porch, I focused on making dinner.


In no time at all, it was finished. The Lasagna was already done and just being kept warm in the oven, and the rest of dinner was waiting nearby on the counter and stove. My cooking skill got a point for that.

…I did try my hand at a pie…but…apparently the more complex a dish is the more chance I have at botching it with my current level of skill.

…I don't even know how I managed to both burn and under cook it…

I really should have made snickerdoodles…

Oh, well, there's always next time.

The remains of the disaster pie were currently in my inventory.

If there's anything I'm getting out of this pie, besides knowing how spectacularly I can fail in the kitchen, its knowing what happens to food after a few days or even a week in my inventory.

If a RPG character can place cold milk in their inventory and have it still be good five months later, then maybe mine will work in a similar fashion.

It's not long before I hear the sound of a car pulling up on our driveway.


Dinner went by with a much happier atmosphere than normal.

Dad was in such a great mood too. What I said to him this morning must have meant a lot to him.

My work out front did go unnoticed, but considering how long Dad was in the habit of just stepping over the rotten plank, I couldn't blame him. Not to mention it was already dark out and our dinky front porch light wouldn't exactly illuminate it for him.

I didn't want him to feel bad about it either, so I'll just wait and see how long it'll take for him to notice.

The conversation we had went relatively smoothly for us.

He complimented me on my Lasagna, asking did I do anything new with it. I answered that I tried a new mix of seasoning in the meat and asked him about his day. He told me a bit excitedly about the union coming into some prospective work for Fortress Construction, and then asked me what I did during my day. I told him I read a few books, exercised a little, and rested a bit.

We both just kept talking like that.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

We were still a little awkward here and there, but it was a happy awkward, not a sad one…

…If that makes any sense.

I wasn't ready to talk to him just yet about…everything, but the strain between us had lessened.

After dinner, I convinced Dad I could take care of the kitchen, and told him he could relax in the living room.

While Dad watched TV, I spent my time cleaning up. I could tell washing things by hand went by just a tad bit faster, and it even earned me another level in dish washing.

With that done, I spent the rest of the night spending time with Dad.


After we said goodnight to each other, and Dad went to sleep, I had roughly eight or so hours of free time to train something.

As long as I was quiet, and didn't wake up Dad that is.

Given how important it was to me, I decided that tonight, I'd work on vitality, and as a side benefit, strength.

I'd worry about my unarmed skill training later, and I'd work on figuring out how to use my mana probably tomorrow night.

A single hour of push-ups gave me three attribute points. If I spent the whole night working out like that, how far could I get?

I laughed quietly to myself. I'm really going to spend eight hours doing nothing but push-ups and sit-ups, and I'm actually excited about doing it.

It's funny how priorities change when you get super powers….

With a sigh, I dropped to my bedroom floor, my hands out wide, and I started to push my body weight up and down again and again and again…


Strength +8

Vitality +5

Speed Reading +3


At about six-thirty in the morning as sunlight drifted into my room, I called it quits.

Even covered in sweat and smelling as I did, I couldn't keep the beaming smile off my face.

…I really thought it would be boring working out for hours on end and that it would be this massive chore, but once I got into it, time just swam right past me….

When I saw a notification that my strength or vitality had gone up; I was motivated into exercising more and more. Because I knew what I was doing was having a positive impact on me right then and there. When you have immediate gratification like that, physical exercise is just a lot more tantalizing.

Even the down time wasn't that boring. This time when my fatigue kicked in, I had the books in my room to read while I waited it out, and I even raised speed reading a few times. I even finished three different books in the span of two and a half hours.

Again, that was going to take getting used to.

…I'm pretty sure I also did more push-ups and sit-ups yesterday than the rest of Winslow's student body did last semester combined

The bright side here is when I have to go through the Alexandria Fitness Challenge course next year as a part of our physical education; I'm going to pass with flying colors. Like so much flying color, people will think I'm freaking Legend. So, that'll be fun.

With a contented sigh, I grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the bathroom. I wanted to get my shower out of the way before Dad woke up, and also wanted an early start on breakfast…which I just got a quest for.

…Now that I know some good lunch recipes, I could also make him some lunch too…

…No quest? Oh well, it'll still be nice to do it for him, and you know, cooking experience.

In the bathroom, I turn on the light and lock the door. I start to set down my clean clothes on the counter…before smiling and shoving the lot into my inventory, and setting it up as outfit set two.

I don't need to change the old fashioned way anymore; in fact, my inventory can double as both my hamper and closet! I don't have to pile dirty laundry up anywhere at all!

I stared down at my soaked sweatshirt and sweatpants, clearly living up to their names.

I look over towards my inventory with a grin. A quick tap of my fingers, and suddenly, I feel the air of the room on my naked skin.

I let out a laugh…that dies in my throat immediately when I look back into the mirror. Across from me I see a naked stranger looking right at…

Wait…

What?

I lift my hand up and put it down.

What.

That's…me?

I stare into the mirror, specifically at my arms, legs, and stomach.

I recognize my lips, my hair, and my tall "for my age" frame…but…

Slowly, I pull my arm up and I flex it…

My eyes widen.

Yeeaaaah, I didn't have those yesterday.

My arms…aren't sticks anymore.

I look down.

Neither are my legs.

…and my…

Huh…what…how…why…

"Is that a fucking six-pack?"