"Hah...huh…"
Running on the treadmill, Chrome was regulating his breath like usual which in turn let out some muffled wheezing sounds.
It was already his fourth day in the gym and he had slightly gotten used to the routine by now, cardio in the morning and general weight lifting in the evening, he had even completely changed his food diet by now.
He simply tried to give it his all in this world as he took it easy in his normal one, balancing both his behaviours to keep his mental fortitude his check, constantly anticipating some sort of a change as he often spent long periods of time simply staring at the scroll in his mind.
However, he didn't expect that…
Tapshhhs...Tapshshhs...Tap!
"Easy there Chrome, is something wrong?"
Clarke was suddenly surprised as he saw that Chrome almost tripped on the treadmill, he did catch his step quickly but it was quite weird for him to collapse just as he was about to finish his 15 minutes treadmill run, the day was barely beginning.
The Exos hall never had too many members in it and the other two registered barely stayed for 1 or 2 hours of training per day and they even missed days, so Clarke didn't mind giving Chrome some serious attention considering that he was ultimately going to join that Academy. He did at least have the resolve to spend more than half the day training unlike the other two who always did light practices just to keep in shape, they were just wealthy middle-aged men who joined the hall as members just to flaunt.
As such, Clarke was somewhat concerned, could it be that Chrome's mind was finally giving in as he lost his preservation or did he have problems getting used to his new food diet which made him somewhat anemic?
"It's okay coach… It seems like I didn't sleep too well yesterday and almost dozed off. I will just get some coffee after I finish this round…"
Seeing Clarke scratching his head from confusion, Chrome quickly made up something as he once again looked inside his mind…
Though unlike what he had expected… the change he had been waiting for had finally made an appearance!
`~~~`~~~`~~~`
"So, do you have an explanation for this, Quill?"
Chrome was currently standing within the throne room of the 'Self-Reliance Palace' as he stared at the scroll and asked the floating quill, who he already decided to call it just Quill for convenience.
After he had returned from today's training, he immediately entered the palace space, he had usually only done so to consume the candy produced by the machine and enhance his [Basic Energy Emission] ability as of late.
He did try to socialize with Quill and ask him about the change to his status only to receive a [ Negative. ], the same went for when he asked him about the existence of two worlds and the mystery of his case. Whether the quill really knew nothing or was just hiding something wasn't something that he could tell, it may have called him 'Palace Lord', but that was mostly just in name, he didn't have the ability to force things in the palace space.
However, this time, the purpose of his entry was exactly to ask the quill another question, not even bothering to take a look at the candy machine as he immediately focused his attention at the scroll as soon as he entered.
Ever since he witnessed change in the scroll in the gym, he wanted it to move into the palace space immediately and confirm what he saw as well as hopefully get an explanation from Quill, but he couldn't just suddenly vanish without a trace in the middle of the hall nor could he just leave for the day out of nowhere, so he suppressed his anticipation till this moment and was elated to find that the change he saw was still there!
During his staring contest with the scroll, the whole 'Physical Status' segment suddenly blurred before going back to normal, only that a new word had been added between Vitality and Intelligence...
__________________________
Name: Chrome Blue
Age: 18
Energy Points (EP): 9/16
_________________
Physical status:
--------------------
Strength: 9
Agility: 10
Vitality: 8
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 19
Perception: 14
Charm: 10
_________________
[ Affirmative, it seems that your 'Physical Status' have received an update due to a 'Stat Recognition' taking place. ]
'Phew…'
Aside from the very first time where Quill answered almost all of his questions, Chrome had been somewhat disappointed by the lack of answers for the more crucial questions, at least it seemed that Quill at least had answers when it came to the things within the 'Self-Reliance Palace'.
"Stat Recognition?"
[ Affirmative, a 'Stat Recognition' is the case at which the scroll adds a new Stat to the 'Physical Status' segment as long as it passes the recognized threshold of 5 points. ]
'5 points? That's the key?'
The title of 'Stat Recognition' was self-explanatory alright, it wasn't hard to guess that a stat had reached a certain value to be recognized, but one couldn't know the value just from the title as well, thankfully, the floating quill was there to answer.
'Was my endurance really that low to begin with…?'
Considering his condition when 'Endurance' achieved this leap, Chrome believed that this stat probably didn't refer to the health of the body as there was already a Vitality stat, concluding it was more similar to a stamina stat.
However, after seeing his 'Physical Status' more than once so far, he thought that the average of an adult was 10 points which he based on video games and webnovels that he read, but he wasn't so sure anymore.
It was true that alter Chrome has wasted his body with work and improper nutrition, but it shouldn't be at the level of him barely being above half the average value…
Besides, he was hearing about this 'Stat Recognition' for the first time yet it already changed the scroll once, which got him curious if he could do something to change it by himself or at least get to know if there were other conditions that had similar effects.
"Quill, according to what kind of unit system are the numbers in 'Physical Status' measured?"
Chrome took a breath as he calmed himself and asked, he wasn't running out of time anyway, so he could pour out all of the questions he had now, there was no need to hurriedly bundle the questions together which in return would possibly make the answer more vague.