Emery sat up on the soft hospital bed. Well, not soft, but after months of living on the ground, anything was far better than what he was used to.
It was a relatively empty room devoid of any of the classic features of a normal hospital, but the overhead lights indicated that the room was at least being maintained. He instinctively reached for his arm to tie the cloth wrap, but met a strangely textured surface.
'Bandage,' he thought, sighing in relief for a brief second.
He wouldn't lose his arms anymore.
For a while, he sat on the bed, not knowing what to do next. He'd ticked off a lot of the goals on his list, so this was a little confusing for him.
"What else remains?"
He evaluated everything that had happened to him this past day until he finally got his answer.
"Right, the mission rewards from the system,"
As soon as that happened, a loud ding! Sounded in his brain.
[Wait patiently. Random offensive skill generating!]
A massive wheel-like object appeared in his vision and spun faster than his eyes could follow. The wheel spun for several minutes until it finally slowed down and landed on something.
[Ding!]
[Offensive skill: Razor Knife acquired!]
A bit of information flowed into his mind on how to use and activate the skills. It was different from when he'd done the action and then gained the skills in his previous fights. It was the complete opposite of that.
Hmm?
Emery focused on the skill to get the rest of the details from it.
[Name: Razor Knife (Active)]
[Effects: The user can use a knife with razor-like precision. At its highest level, tiny invisible razor blades can cut the opponent from several metres away.]
He heaved a sigh of relief. It certainly could have been a lot worse than that and luckily for him, this skill wasn't even that bad. He was just a bit at a loss as to how he would use it.
"Would I go around using basic cooking knife techniques to apply this skill?"
That was an answer for another day. He put the thought aside and moved his eyes over to the next one.
Specific Skill.
That was… great. But he wouldn't rush into it and pick something useless. So he skipped over that one for now and moved on to the last one.
Job Equipment.
His job on the status page was listed as Chef, so did that mean his job equipment would be simple chef tools? If so that would be pretty underwhelming, he had to admit.
"Well, you only live once, as they say."
So, without thinking further, he willed his mind to press the non-existent button. The same large wheel spun around quickly for minutes on end till it slowed and finally stopped on a single option.
[Ding!]
[Job Equipment: Enhanced Cherrywood Ladle, acquired]
A bright light appeared where the giant wheel once floated and a small brown ladle appeared, dropping into his hands. It looked ordinary.
A ladle. Well, that would definitely be the catch of this whole reward system, one couldn't always get what he wanted or what was useful.
Emery sighed and focused on the ladle.
[Name: Enhanced Cherrywood Ladle]
[Properties: Enhanced wooden ladle. Stronger than normal ladles. Difficult to break]
He frowned a little. It really was just an ordinary ladle. Or was it? The system didn't seem like the type to give out completely useless items, but he put that thought away and returned to observing the ladle.
After looking at it and finding nothing, he grew bored.
"Is there somewhere I can store this stuff?"
[Ding!]
[Job perk unlocked!
[Chef's Pantry activated!]
A dim light emerged, and the wooden spoon disappeared from his hand. That was convenient. At least he wouldn't have to carry anything on his back again.
Seeing as that was done, he thought of one more thing.
"Have I improved any bit since I got the system?"
There was no way the answer was no, but Emery just wanted to make sure of it for himself.
"Status!"
[Ding!]
[Name: Emery Fenon]
[Job: Chef]
[Level: Three…Exp:35/900]
[EP: 45]
[Attributes:
STR- Not enough data > Class Ten
AGI- Not enough data > Class Ten
INT- Class Ten
DEF- Not enough data > Class Ten
DEX- Class Ten]
[Skills: Basic Knife Skills, Basic Cooking, Beginner's Instincts, Stealthy Blade, Razor Knife (Lvl 1)]
[Summons: One– Elyn]
[Status: Injured (Healing)]
A mixture of emotions passed through him all in that minute it took him to read everything on his status page. He was Awakened. At first, it seemed like some sort of cruel joke fate was playing, where he would just wake up on the brink of death. But not again.
A Class 10 Awakened.
Filled with a brand new confidence, he decided to stop being so reactive.
"System, how are energy points obtained?"
[Ding!]
[To answer your question, energy points can only be obtained through two ways. The first is through killing monsters. This way is highly based on chance if you've noticed. It isn't guaranteed that you'll get energy points with every kill. The second is the system's missions. Energy points are fixed and guaranteed for those, but missions are highly difficult to come about]
Hmm, that was probably the reason he didn't get energy points every time he killed a beast.
That made sense.
Emery asked the system a bunch of things for a while till he got satisfactory answers. Most of the gaps in his knowledge had been filled and he wouldn't be half as lost the next time he was to go out.
"I should be able to infer the rest by myself," Emery said, shutting his eyes to rest a bit more. But the system wouldn't let him.
[Ding!]
[Energy required for next summoning is achieved!]
[Would you like to summon now?!]
[Would you like to summon now?!]
[Would you like to summon now?!]
The words blared and sounded in his head three times. Emery wanted to rest but with this, how could he even?
****
Author's note: I thank and appreciate everyone voting with power stones. Please review, they are helpful for books in their own little way.