Indra goes home and sleeps soundly because he is very tired. But a big problem is waiting for him the next day. He forgot that his shoes had been ruined in the dungeon raid and now his mom is interrogating him.
"I-I couldn't sleep last night, so I jogged for a while. But then my feet felt sore, so I stopped in the park and sat for a while. I took off my shoes and dozed off. I woke up shortly after but some wild dogs were playing with my shoes and ripped them."
Of course, his mom knows that he is lying even though he thinks that his lies & acts are flawless. But his mom doesn't want to think too much about it now.
"Fine, let's just say I'll believe you. But you need to buy new shoes yourself. Buy 2 pairs, a pair for school and a pair for sport. You have saved enough money to buy 2 pairs from your part-time job, right?"
"Eh? I want to buy a Playstation though."
"Playstation, huh? Is that more important than shoes? How about you go play at the bus station instead, huh? It's cheap. Or maybe you can live in the STATION from now on so you can PLAY every day. So, you still want that PLAYSTATION?"
"N-no, Ma'am. I will buy shoes."
"Good, for now, you can use your dad's boots."
"B-boots? But those are rain boots, not cool boots."
"What cool boots? They're the same anyway. Or do you prefer to go to school with sandals? I'm sure it's not allowed."
"Ugh, but rain boots aren't allowed either."
"Still better than sandals."
Indra can only give up and do what his mom says because he doesn't have any other choice.
'I need to use different shoes for dungeon raids from now on. Damn, my money.'
Without any other choices, Indra goes to school wearing rain boots. His classmates laugh at it and the teachers can only sigh seeing it. He doesn't want this to happen again, so he buys 2 pairs of shoes just like what his mom asked.
'Sigh, forget about it. Let's check the new skills, they look really interesting.'
Indra tries to use the new skills he gets at Level 20. His Hardening skill doesn't change his skin's appearance, but his skin becomes as hard as a stone. He tries punching a tree and his fist really becomes more powerful while also removing the backlash pain from his punch.
The Blessing of Strength is just as it is named, increasing his strength. It increases his strength by 10% at Level 1. Currently, his strength stat is 38, so it becomes 41.8 as the 10% of 38 is 3.8 and he can feel the improvement clearly.
As for the Curse of Weakness, it's the opposite of the Blessing of Strength. It reduces his strength by 10%, so his strength stat becomes 34.2 after using it on himself. He is surprised that he can use a debuff on himself though, but it's not a problem because he can increase their proficiencies with this.
'Alright, let's use these new skills on the next raid. I hope I can find a newly discovered Gate so I can clear it before an attack team can enter it.'
Indra isn't lucky that night because the other 2 remaining Gates in his area have been attacked and almost getting attacked. The D-Rank Gate is being attacked right now while the E-Rank Gate will be attacked in a few hours.
He doesn't want to enter and kill the monsters when the attack teams are already there. If he kills the boss while they are inside, they can get trapped when the dungeons close because they won't know that the boss has been killed.
That's why he will attack dungeons that won't be attacked soon. Not only does he not need to worry about bumping into others, but he also won't trap the hunters inside the dungeons after he kills the boss.
"Hey, have you heard it? The newest Gate nearby suddenly closed without any reason."
Indra suddenly hears the conversation of the Hunters who are preparing to attack the E-Rank Gate.
"Yeah, I heard it. They said a Gate near here was also closed without any reason shortly after Gates appeared all over the world for the 1st time."
"Now the higher-ups are discussing whether it's a natural thing or if there is something dangerous involved in it."
"Why would they think about a troublesome thing like that? We don't even understand these Gates that much yet. They are still mysterious and I don't think it's strange for something like that to happen on these Gates."
"I also thought like that at first, but it only happened here. It never happens in other countries. It doesn't even happen in other regions, only here, and twice at that."
"Hmm, it truly sounds strange if you say it like that. Well, no need to concern ourselves with that now. We just need to focus on this dungeon or we'll lose our lives. It can be more dangerous than the previous dungeon."
"You're right."
Indra leaves after hearing the Hunters' conversation. He has expected his action will attract attention, but not this fast. Still, that doesn't mean he is planning to stop because he needs to kill the monsters in the dungeon to get stronger.
He is still just level 20 now and his stats are close to C-Rank already. There is still a long way to go for him to reach his goal. He needs to be an S-Rank in less than 2 years so he can participate in the 1st S-Rank Gate raid and to do that he needs to keep hunting.
'Sigh, let's go home for now. Going to another region is too time-consuming because there's no bus to ride at this hour and walking or running that far will make me tired so I won't be able to hunt. I guess I can only train my skills and raise their proficiencies for now.'
Just like that, Indra goes home and trains the skills he can use in his bedroom until he runs out of mana and sleeps. He also plays around with his skills that can't be seen by others while he is in school to increase their levels because he hasn't found any new Gate to clear nearby.
[Name: Indra Smith
Level: 20
XP: 400/30,000
Job: -
Title: Reincarnator
HP: 23,000/23,000
MP: 25,000/25,000
Fatigue: 0
Strength: 40
Agility: 40
Sense: 40
Vitality: 40
Intelligence: 50
Free Points: 8]
'I was bored so I tried to equalize my stats by rounding them up. Only my intelligence stat is higher than the others now.'
Indra does an experiment with his stats to see how they improve his power. It's actually very fun to see himself improve at a visible rate. But he doesn't have that many free points, so he needs to hold back.
'Hmm, now I should have the power of a lower C-Rank Hunter. But my stats make me an all-rounder, not a specialist.'
By a specialist, he means those like Mages who have high intelligence stats, Assassin & Archers who have high agility stats, Fighters who have high strength stats, or Tanks who have high vitality stats. His intelligence stat is higher than other stats, but that doesn't make him a Mage yet because it's still too low.
'Hmm? Wait! My MP & HP raised by 1000 for each level up while only raised by 100 for each stat point of intelligence and vitality. So is it possible that I have more MP than average C-Rank Mages and more HP than average C-Rank Tanks? Sigh, if only the system has a feature to show me my rank in the Hunter ranking system.'
Unfortunately, the system only shows his level in number although it shows other awakeners' levels in ranks. So Indra can only rely on his own senses to know his own rank. That's why it may not be accurate because it's only his gut feeling.
When he contemplates it, a yellow dot suddenly appears on his system map. It's very close to him, so he is startled by it because it means a Gate is appearing in his school. It can be a danger for everyone here, but it's also an opportunity for him.
'D-Rank Gate, I should be able to handle it alone. No! I can and I will handle it alone. Time to level up again.'
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