Inside Aidan's apartment, he was exercising with weighted weights bought from an online store. Bathing in his own sweat determined to surpass his limits. His concentration was focused on enduring the pain for as long as he could. Yet deep down, he was getting excited by the results of his effort.
"Feuw , I've been exercising every day for five hours a day, at the same time my stats have gone up!"
Not only did Aidan's stats go up, Similar to several games he was fond of when growing up. He learned that players could learn skills purely based on their actions.
After learning a skill by meditating to help his body after such intense training, for the past four days since the rift over Portland appeared he obtained one new skill.
[ Meditation ]
Both of his hands relaxed as Aidans sighed. He stood up from his push-up position to sit on the ground to meditate.
Am I getting way over my head?.
Staring into the Abyss, he wondered whether he could gain any other skills.
"On second thought, do I have a way to get another skill?"
Aidans opened up the status window and his eyes traced down to his status.
Name : Aidan Smith
Job : None
Level 1
Magic Shield 0/0
Strength : 12
Agility : 14
Dexterity : 4
Stamina : 10
Mana : 0
Points : 4
Title - First Player
Skills : None
His rapid growth was insane, although it was becoming more difficult after surpassing his stats past 10 besides his [ Dexterity ] and [ Mana ] most of his stats were past 10.
With him giving up on exercising for the day, he mindlessly thought of something else while browsing through some news sites on his phone.
"Good evening folks, it's five o'clock in the afternoon. Welcome to the latest news. As of now, leading experts have no current information on why the current phenomenon is happening here above Portland and the rest of the globe. Social media has run rampant with multiple videos and eye-witnesses regarding the bizarre sightings of strange creatures too."
Aidan kept on watching knowing fairly well that this was only the beginning. Hoping that he will be prepared for the worst.
" As you can see countless countries throughout the world are experiencing the same thing here. Major cities like Seoul, Shanghai, London, Paris, Rio, New York are reported to also be experiencing similar phenomenons..."
Aidan stopped for a moment while the news was displaying multiple images from different locations about sightings and the rifts.
"It's spreading"
He was left speechless not knowing how to anticipate the future. He doesn't know either if he was the only person who knew about the system too.
He glanced back to the side of his bed, lying next to it was a box filled with equipment he received earlier today. He took out his smartphone. It was still fairly early. The rift in Portland was similar to what he saw before in the garage. He couldn't help but imagine what kind of monsters would pop out from it.
If the small one in the garage let out a goblin, then would the huge one in the sky be unleashed.
He stopped himself from thinking about it.
Instead, he pulled a steel sword from the previous box, bought from the online purchase he had made a few days ago.
He focused his full concentration on the next few hours to mimic sword movements from videos. Starting tomorrow he would need to return to work after calling in for the past few days.
Skill: Novice Swordsmanship acquired
While others were resting and socializing, Aidan trained silently in his apartment. Unlike the rest of the world, Aidan's fatigue merely didn't matter to him. Something so minimal that he didn't dream of complaining when he had to face something worse than the goblin he fought. He swung the steel sword.
He felt his heart beating faster than ever, excited by this new prospect. Just a while ago, he had received this new skill. Although it was a passive skill, it was still worth a lot to Aidan. Not only that, his proficiency in this skill was rising at a monumental pace. It leveled up a few more times after swinging his blade.
Novice Swordsmanship level up to level 5
He didn't understand what determined his experience or ability, so all he could do was swing his sword as properly as he could to imitate the videos he copied. He had an urge to increase his ability the longer he trained the more his stats and skill grew.
"Okay, that's it for today. I hope I have enough for now.
Aidan felt reluctant to stop but he had to. At least now he knew there was a way to increase his strength through repetition.
All Aidan could do was stare at his status window.
Nice," muttered Aidan.
Vzzzzzt...
Aidan heard and felt the vibration of his phone.
Hi Mom?
A call from his mother. He picked it up and answered the call.
"Hi mom, how are things going back home?"
"Is that how you greet your mother after not calling her after almost a whole week? It's been almost five days and you've never left me a call," from the voice of his mother, he was definitely in trouble.
"Mom, you know I've been busy, plus this whole weird storm going around everywhere has everyone acting up."
"Aidan, why do you think I'm calling you?
Aidan stopped her as he slapped his face he completely forgot that his family would've worried about him being in a city where it was happening to begin with and not informing them how he was.
"I'll be fine mom, I'm sorry I didn't call you" a single sentence from Aidan, and the previous time his mother's tone disappeared.
Aidan could hear the light sigh of relief coming from the other end of the call. He didn't want to admit it, but his mother was right.
"That's fine then, you know you always have a place back home if you ever want to return back."
" I know mom, I love you, I'm heading to bed soon be safe."
"You son, I love you."
—
His body grew tired after a long day of immense training and he fell back on his bed after a hot shower. Aidan's head rested on the soft pillow as his eyes started to slowly close. The exhaustion his body displayed as an example of his body telling him to go to sleep.
"Just a good night's sleep is all I need," he muttered as his eyes closed.