When he woke up, his soul nearly left his body after face-planting straight into a mountain of system notifications.
[ You are now Rank 2 ]
After clearing the larger-than-normal rank up message, he was again bombarded by the combination of flashing panels and ringing noises.
[ Status: Strength has been unlocked ]
[ Status: Agility has been unlocked ]
[ Status: DP has increased (5->6) ]
[ Status: HP has increased (10->15) ]
[ Circadian Quests have been unlocked ]
[ Skill: Stat Creation has been unsealed ]
[ Would you like to use Skill: Stat Creation? ]
[ (Yes)/(No) ]
After slowly reading through foggy morning vision all the panels in front of him, he grumbled at the pedantries of the system and once again pulled his phone from his Inventory to Google what 'circadian' meant.
'Ah so they're like daily quests in RPG's'
[ (Yes) ]
After selecting to use the skill he had looked over during last night's venture, he thought about stats he could make. He already had the prerequisites to all RPG's: strength and agility. And seeing has his DP was already a stat, he began to think- something someone like Atlas was not accustomed to doing all that often.
'I can't imagine that such a freedom-based skill is multi-use, so best to make an OP as fuck stat.'
As he was pondering, yet another panel popped up.
[ Imagine the Status you would like to create ]
He usually like playing Assassin-class characters in most MMORPGs he played, and his skills that he currently had complemented that well. But he also realized that, like most pop culture he had consumed, that diversity was key and being a one-trick pony was a one-way ticket to getting fucked.
[ Status Created: Aptitude ]
[ Definition: The user will learn a basic skill related to their current situation and/or possession. As this Status increases, higher level skills can be learned.
[ Status: Aptitude will begin at 1 ]
[Only LVL. 1 Skills can be learned at the time ]
'If the system really did read my thoughts and make this stat as I wanted this should work', he thought to himself at he walked to his kitchen and picked up the rusty knife he used to make food from the sink.
'How have I actually not died yet, I've been eating with things people wouldn't approach with a hazmat suit'
And just as he had hoped, a notification popped up.
[ Skill Acquired : Knife Mastery LVL.1 ]
[ Effects: The user will be ever-so slightly better at handling knives. ]
After confirming this, he put the knife down and turned on his faucet, cringing as it struggled and sputtered to produce any liquid at all.
After a difficult battle between his faucet and the water pipe behind it, some strange brown liquid sputtered out. Reluctantly placing his had under the running sewage, he took his hand out as soon as he heard the system notification.
[ Skill Acquired: Toxin Resistant LVL.1 ]
[ Effects: Toxin will have an ever-so slightly less noticeable effect. ]
'How dirty and putrid does my water have to be for me to get Toxin Resistance rather than Water Resistance or some other water skill?'