He stretched his back, as he stood up. The System chose then to speak up to him, interrupting the quiet of the forest around them – not that anything in the forest other than Vol could hear it – with its loud feminine void.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!
QUEST DELIVERED: THE PATH TO STRENGTH
PERFORM 10,000 AXE SWINGS! 0/10,000
RUN 5 MILES! 0/10,000
REWARDS:
STRENGTH: +1
AGILITY: +1
STAMINA: +1
WEAPONS PROFICIENCY: +1
Vol calmly listened to its announcement. He was beginning to grow used to it now, and was able to focus more on the information that it offered him, rather than the strangeness of the voice speaking to him in the first place.
Hearing the quest for ten thousand axe swings, he'd begun to grow excited, expecting enormous rewards. He'd been given such rewards for relatively simple things yesterday, after all, but he was met with disappointment.
Ten times more work, and with only the same reward to show for it. He should have been happy with that – and in a moment, he would be – but being the impatient youth that he was, he'd quickly grown used to the idea of impossibly fast progress, and had been reckless enough to assume that was the norm… only to be punished for it now.
He set aside the momentary glumness, as he reminded himself that it was still impossible progress compared to what he was used to. Before the System's blessing, he'd swung his axe without the promise of progress. He'd done it with the hope of progress – but there'd never been the promise of it. That was a truth that his six-month period of stagnation highlighted clearly.
If he could swing his axe ten thousand times, and be assured such a substantial – by normal standards – reward, then he was only too happy to take it.
As well as the strength rewards, and the expected stamina and weapons proficiency rewards, he saw the agility reward for the first time. None of the other quests that the System had given him had offered anything like that, and according to the System, his agility was terrible, at least when compared to his strength.
Of course, Vol already knew that his agility wasn't particularly good, owing to his large frame. His body had grown faster than his mind could properly keep up with it, and so along with strength, there came a clumsiness.
According to the quest, he had merely needed to run 5 miles – which was still going to be a challenging distance in the steep snow, along with his pack – and his agility would improve by 20%. That there was significant. To be able to address a major weakness like that so easily – it was something else.
His stamina had increased by 30% the previous day, and his weapons proficiency by 60%. Both were considerable numbers, the type to make any warrior go mad with envy. But still, they weren't anywhere near enough to match Varsharn's Blessing, not from what Vol knew of it.
Varsharn's blessing had likely doubled, or even tripled Jok's strength, in all areas, all at once. His brother said it had happened to him in the middle of battle. But then, for months after that initial strength increase, his brother had made impossible progress. He'd been heralded by all around him as a genius. To achieve Varsharn's Blessing at the young age of seventeen, it was enough to make people frightened of him.
Vol did not know what God had blessed him, but the blessing clearly wasn't the same as Varsharn's.
"Maybe that's a good thing… Maybe to beat Oliver Patrick, I need something else, something different than the genius' path. A path that no one has ever walked before," Vol said aloud. Within that ruminating, there was a hidden question. The System answered it for him.
!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: AFFIRMATIVE. THE VESSEL IS THE FIRST HUMAN TO RECEIVE THIS PARTICULAR BLESSING.
Vol's smile curled upwards at that, and his hand clenched into a fist. If that was true. If what the System was speaking was true – then it might just be the path that he needed forwards. There might really be a road that led to him equaling, or even surpassing Oliver Patrick.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: QUEST DELIVERED
REACH NOOKHAVEN
DISTANCE: 6/30 MILES
REWARDS:
+3 STAMINA
+1 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
+2 AGILITY
Once more, he listened in, as another quest was delivered, one that once more aligned perfectly with his own motivations. It was as though the System was simply rewarding him for surviving, and, looking back at things, it seemed as though it was doing exactly that – at least for now.
Vol threw more wood on the fire, dusting the snow off the armful that he had collected last night, and the embers hissed, as the dampness was evaporated out of the wood. Within a few minutes, there was a pleasant flame crackling.
He took out the iron pot – another gift from the fur trader's backpack – and he began to melt some snow in it for a morning drink of water. He grabbed some pine needles from the trees, and sprinkled those in as well. Pine needle tea was a remarkably pleasant way to start the day.
With a warm drink in hand, and the leftover bits of dried meat that he hadn't eaten the night before, Vol sat, and watched as the world grew gradually lighter. He wasn't able to see the sunrise, not exactly, there were far too many trees in the forest for that. But the satisfaction of seeing the world grow gradually lighter made up for that.