It was like a whirlwind of sounds as the system started to deliver many notifications one after another. Matt just watched as they all rolled in.
[15 Minutes Left]
[100/100 Squats]
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[Quest Complete]
Intense Training: Do 100 Pushups, 100 Sit Ups, 100 Squats, and a 10 Mile Run
+3 STR, +3 AGI, +50xp [168/120xp]
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There was a pause for only a second before the new stats hit him. His body felt like it was exploding. One second later, another notification went off.
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[Level Up!]
LVL 2 - LVL 3
+1 to All Stats
+3 Unassigned Stat Points
+10 Max Health
+0 Max Mana [Error: Mana not found]
[Skills Unlocked]
(Error: No new skills available at current level)
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Then it happened again, his whole body felt like it condensed and became more efficient in every aspect. It almost felt like it rebuilt itself, of course, all that happened was he had gained a ton of stats at once. In addition to that, he once again, felt strangely more alive.
'OK, that was too many stats! That just felt weird.'
He felt like he would've felt exhausted after that whole process, but of course, since the cause of it was his stats increasing, he felt better than before. He quickly opened his stats to see what the numbers were like.
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||Attributes||
[Str] - 20 (+4)
[Con] - 12 (+1)
[Agi] - 19 (+4)
[Dex] - 13 (+1)
[Int] - 17 (+1)
[Luk] - 12 (+1)
[Stat Points]: 3 (+3)
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'Holy! These stats are crazy! Also, I have 20 strength now!'
Matt looked down at his body and noticed that it didn't look much different, besides a few small unimportant details. Like his body was refined and was now a perfectly fit, toned, and healthy version of what it was before.
He had good muscle definition but wasn't beefy, his skin was a healthy full tone, instead of sickly pale like before, and his face and skin seemed smooth. Since the physical changes were becoming minimal, he imagined this was basically his physical peak.
'The stats seem to be applying more to my ability now, instead of my physical body.'
He imagined it was like how in movies, superheroes seem pretty normal but had strength far beyond their own body weight. Like an ant.
As he was considering this, he heard another notification.
[Congratulations Player Matt! The system has detected that you have reached 20 points in a single stat. Stat evolution will now begin.]
[Stat Detected: STR]
'Huh?'
Before Matt could react, his body felt weird. A bright light started to envelop him and then focused on his form. The light hovered right above his skin, and then condensed down and started to push against his muscles.
It felt a bit like when he increased a strength point, but it felt much weirder like his muscles were getting boiled, but with no pain.
'Ok, I hate this. What even is this supposed to be? I've never heard of this in a game before.'
As it continued, it started to feel less like boiling, and more like melting. It was a very gross feeling and he really wanted it to stop.
He felt like his muscles were reforming themselves and becoming much more powerful. Finally, after around a minute, it felt like it was stopping, and the light started disappearing.
Eventually, it completely stopped, and he heard another sound.
[Stat Evolution Complete]
He wasn't exactly sure what happened, but he did feel different. He was more curious than ever about his strength and considered trying to test it somehow.
'Was that somehow better than just increasing my stats? I really should ask [Help] about this one. I'll ask them later though.'
He turned back to his menu and looked at his strength stat, which was still 20.
'I honestly thought I was going to reach 20 intelligence first because that used to be my best stat. It's funny to think that I'm stronger than I am smart now.'
His whole life his small advantage in intelligence had been his main point of pride. But now it didn't really matter. He realized he was getting off track and refocused on his level-up.
'Ok, first I'll deal with this, then I'll test my strength. I also really need to earn more money to pay my rent for that mystery reward.'
After making a plan, he looked at his unused stat points. He had thought about not spending them and saving them for an emergency but figured that increasing his stats would help him level up, especially in the early stage, which was usually the case in games. He realized that if he hadn't invested in his strength, he probably wouldn't have been able to finish the last quest.
He knew it would probably come in handy to just be as stat-heavy as he could be. Now that he knew what he wanted to do, he checked the menu again to see what he was working with.
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||Attributes||
[Str] - 20
[Con] - 12
[Agi] - 19
[Dex] - 13
[Int] - 17
[Luk] - 12
[Stat Points]: 3
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'If I put a point into agility, it should evolve like my strength did right? But honestly, I don't even know how it's different from getting a stat point.'
He decided that even though he wasn't sure specifically what it did, he at least knew it was some sort of enhancement or boost. So there was no reason not to go for it.
'But, I'll spend the 2 other ones first since the evolution took some time.'
As he looked over his stats, he figured that the most useful ones right now were either Int or Con. Dex seemed a bit vague, and Luk was probably good, but it was hard to tell if it was helping, so he would rather invest in something solid.
'My intelligence stat is only 3 away from evolving, but I'm really lacking in con.'
Eventually, he settled on his Con stat. He realized that no matter how smart he was if he could be killed easily, it didn't matter. Building his con increased the durability of his body, and he assumed that at some point, it could stop a bullet. Putting points into it really seemed like a good idea in the long run.
'Ok, that's it then.'
He assigned the points, starting with putting 2 in constitution, and then 1 in agility, so that the evolution would happen last.
First, his body felt tougher once more. While his skin was still soft, it felt like it would be harder to pierce or cut it when he touched it.
He realized, this really was one of the most superhuman stats. While it was possible to increase strength naturally or be highly intelligent, increasing physical durability wasn't really a thing.
The closest thing he could think of were callouses, but they were hard and tough, unlike his skin which was staying soft, but becoming resilient. Also, callouses had a limit to how effective they were and he was pretty sure he already passed that level of defense.
Again, he felt really weird. But this time, it wasn't exactly his muscles. Every time he increased his agility, it kind of felt like his muscles, but it also felt more vague, like it increased his general flexibility, his general ability to move quickly, and a few other things he couldn't really pinpoint.
[Stat evolution will now begin.]
[Stat Detected: AGI]
The light this time moved into his body and settled. He felt a chill like there was cold water moving around inside his bones. After around a minute, it faded and so did the light.
[Stat Evolution Complete]
'Well, the last hour has been a weird experience.'
He was glad that he had leveled up again but was weirded out by the evolution thing. He looked around and noticed he was on some random back street with no one around. There was still some time in the day, so he thought about what he should do next.
'Ok. Time to test my strength.'