!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: WEAPON ACQUIRED: VOL'S SIMPLE AXE
WEAPON STATS:
ATTACK: 10
DURABILITY: 90%
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: DEMONSTRATION QUEST, RETRIEVE AXE: COMPLETED. PLEASE SWING YOUR AXE FIVE TIMES TO COMPLETE THE WHOLE QUEST.
Frowning, Vol listened to the numbers again, and again, he did what he was told to do. He swung his axe. Once, then twice, then three times, then four, then five. He would have done more – it felt good to swing it. He was used to doing it for hundreds of strikes at a time. That was how he'd trained before – it was all he'd known to do. All that Jok had taught him, before he'd set out on campaign with Gorm, never to return.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: QUEST COMPLETE.
ONE-TIME QUEST REWARDS DELIVERED:
+5 STRENGTH
+1 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
TITLE ACQUIRED: CAPABLE OF FOLLOWING VERY BASIC INSTRUCTIONS
SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HUMOUR
"Wait, what?" Vol asked, grunting. He'd heard what the System had said – it was hard not to think of it as 'her', for it spoke in a woman's voice – and, ignoring her poor attempt at a joke, she'd said that the rewards for the supposed quest were '+5 strength'.
How could strength be given? Not without the blessing of a God, surely.
!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: STRENGTH INCREASED. CURRENT STRENGTH: 35. SYSTEM GOAL REMINDER: INCREASE VESSEL'S STRENGTH. SLAY OLIVER PATRICK.
"Strength… Increased?" Vol repeated what the system had said, and accompanying his words, there came a wave of excitement. If it was true… If… He wouldn't let himself get too excited, but still, if… He'd spent so long trying to improve his strength. His strength had seemed to stay at the same level for nearly half a year. He couldn't lift any heavier than the same rock, he couldn't strike any more than the same amount of times, no matter how much training he'd put in… and then this System, it was just going to hand out such an improvement, just like that? Was such a thing even possible?
Now, with the blessing of basic maths acquired, 17% increase. 17% all at once. Dare he believe it? Dare he? Could anyone be blessed with such power, such easy improvement? It seemed impossible to him, and yet, here he was, doing basic maths, when he'd hardly been able to count past twenty before. When he'd needed to hold his fingers out in front of him to do the most basic of sums, here he was.
He gripped his axe solemnly, desperately, his hands shaking. He almost cried. This – if the System were lying about this. If it was mere madness that permeated his mind… It would crush him. In a way that losing his home town never could. Losing all those people that he'd known – he was sure his own mother was amongst the corpses. Even losing his own life – had that even happened? – it didn't mean nearly as much to him as this increase in strength would.
"Seventeen percent…" he breathed. His axe was lighter in his hand, but that could have been an illusion. There was only one way to test it, only one way that he knew he wouldn't be able to fake it, no matter how good he felt.
He began to swing. Again, and again. Blessedly, the system was silent, allowing the boy his moment of quiet, in that frozen street, stained red with blood, amongst those smouldering buildings, he swung again and again and again.
In the past, he'd been able to swing his axe three hundred times before his arm grew sore, and then four hundred and ten had been his best, before his strikes grew truly uncontrollable and sloppy.
He sailed high into the three hundreds, hardly feeling a burn.
Some might argue that it was the endurance of the muscle being tested here, rather than the strength of it – but Vol knew better. He did all his training as a block, with his stone lifts, and his log lifts all affecting the next. He knew that he needed it all – both strength, and endurance. An increase in either one would improve his axe swings. He needed both together.
He continued to swing. Easily, comfortably, he passed his previous best of four hundred and ten swings, and the ache had only just begun to set in. Further and further he went, past four hundred and fifty, all the way towards five hundred, stopping just shy of it, with four hundred and ninety-five crisp swings.
He echoed the System's words back at it. "Acknowledgement," he said, testing the word, as he looked at his hands. It really had improved his strength. Just like that, ever so easily, it had all changed. Six months of stagnation, of fighting against the same boundary, and suddenly, all at once, here he was, stronger. Those stats that the System presented could be trusted, it seemed.
!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: VESSEL'S APPROVAL SENSED. CONFIRMATION AND REMINDER: THE SYSTEM EXISTS TO GROW THE VESSEL'S STRENGTH.
QUEST ISSUED: THE PATH TO STRENGTH: PERFORM 1000 AXE SWINGS
SWINGS CURRENTLY PERFORMED: 490/1000
QUEST REWARDS:
STRENGTH INCREASE +1
STAMINA INCREASE: +1
WEAPONS SKILL INCREASE: +1
QUEST ISSUED: FIND SHELTER BEFORE DARK
TIME REMAINING: 11H 15 MINUTES
REWARDS: UNSTAINED WINTER FURS
This time, as the System spoke, Vol made sure to listen to every word. His attention, of course, was mainly focused on the rewards. Again, it offered him a strength increase. Not as much as the previous time, but it was enough that he would greedily pursue it. The stamina and weapons proficiency increases were even greater rewards, for, if the System was to be believed, they were lagging considerably behind the rest.
Vol acknowledged his situation. He did not pride himself on intelligence – he knew he was not the smartest man out there. Growing up as the younger brother of Jok had cemented that idea in him early on. His brother had been a brilliant strategist – a rarity amongst the Yarmdon. Few would appear intelligent when compared to him.
But, even in acknowledging it, in attempting to understand it, he'd never heard of such things before. There was nothing he could compare it to… apart from, perhaps, Varsharn's blessing.