Matt was running as fast as he could, trying to hit the quest running goal quickly so that he could move on to the other goals and finish them on time.
But he wasn't doing well.
[39 Minutes Left]
[4/10 Miles]
'I'm going as fast as I can, and I even have 14 agility. I should finish on time, right? What am I doing, like a mile every 2-3 minutes?'
He had never really jogged or run to exercise or anything before, so he wasn't really sure how fast people usually ran a mile. But judging by the wind on his face, and the things streaking by, be assumed he was above average at minimum.
He had decided to take back alleys and routes that seemed more deserted since he had realized his speed was becoming a bit inhuman. It would only bring attention to him if he was zooming past people at like 15 miles per hour or however fast he was going.
'When the system is released, I probably won't have to worry about it as much.'
He had run another mile by now, and the minutes were ticking away. He had hoped he could finish the run fast enough and due to the short time limit, he would just drop to the ground and start doing the other exercises.
'I wanted to go to my apartment first, but I definitely don't have time.'
He hoped no one would see him, since it was a bit strange to speedrun pushups on the sidewalk. He checked the status of the quest again.
[36 Minutes Left]
[6/10 Miles]
He decided to just focus on finishing this. He kept running for a few minutes before hearing a light ding.
[29 Minutes Left]
[10/10 Miles]
He instantly stopped running, his feet creating a bit of smoke as he stopped too quickly. He almost lost his balance due to the momentum. Just as he finished his run he heard another notification.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Agility
__________
'I really could've used that before the run! Oh, well, it's kinda crazy how many stats I've been getting recently.'
Without taking time to savor the new stat point, he immediately dropped to the ground and started doing pushups. After that run, his legs were a bit sore, but with his stats, it wasn't that bad.
'I kinda feel bad. This system is too good.'
[63/100 Pushups]
'Am I really allowed to just use this? It's like cheating at life.'
[89/100 Pushups]
'Well, I guess everyone will have one soon though. So I should just enjoy it.'
As he finished that thought, he heard another light ding.
[24 Minutes Left]
[100/100 Pushups]
'Not bad. So I really can finish it on time?'
He started the next set, he had never done situps before so he just tried his best to replicate what he saw on TV or videos. He very quickly got the hang of it, making sure the quest counter started tracking it to know if he was doing them correctly.
[12/100 Sit Ups]
He decided to focus a bit more since he didn't want to run out of time and have to do all of it again. Actually, he wondered if the quest would be gone and he wouldn't be able to do it again.
'That would be awful. Well, I don't want to find out. Too many rewards on the line.'
[43/100 Sit Ups]
He thought that actually, the rewards would probably only get better in the future, so this would be the best-timed quest to test how it works, but he decided to just finish it and hoped he would never have to deal with a failed timed quest.
'It's probably not that big of a deal anyway.
His muscles were definitely burning now as he was nearing the end of his sit ups. The stats he had now made it much less tiring but he was still human. He heard another notification as he was almost done.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Strength
__________
'I was wondering when that would happen.'
He felt his muscles become even denser, and the workout suddenly got a little easier. He quickly heard yet another light ding.
[19 Minutes Left]
[100/100 Sit Ups]
'Wow, I really got a lot of time to spare.'
He surprised himself a bit. He hadn't expected his stats to be this effective. He had assumed that they were a static multiplier like 15 strength would equal 1.5x, but it seemed a bit better than that, though he wasn't sure by how much.
There wasn't really an easy way to tell either unless he bought or made testing equipment or something.
'Well, just one more set, 100 squats. After that, I'll get some rewards and I'll level up!'
He was super excited. With the system, it was like his birthday every day. He just kept getting more 'gifts' to unwrap. He felt the same as when he had rolled a rare character from a loot box, but it was real rewards now, not fake loot.
He started to do squats, again hoping he was doing it correctly. After the new point in strength, most of his fatigue was gone, but it was starting to come back only a tiny bit.
[27/100 Squats]
He kept going, nothing really holding him back. Before he started this quest, he really thought he was going to fail. So it really was a nice feeling to have completed it fairly easily with time to spare.
'I wonder what stats I should invest in when I level up? I don't really know which ones would be important right now. I guess I could always save them in case I get into a tight situation.'
He thought about it and weighed the pros and cons in his mind. If he did hold onto the unassigned stat points, he might be able to assign them more usefully later, instead of just guessing for now. But he was also thinking about one stat he hadn't really leveled.
'I wonder if luck is worth it to level? Would it affect my luck a lot or only a little? Also, how could I even tell? What if I was already going to get lucky, and it actually didn't affect anything?'
As he considered his options, he heard a light ding, then a loud ping, and then a third loud notification. He also felt his body changing. So many things happened at once.