Eric opened his eyes and saw a white ceiling.
'Where am I?' He thought.
He ended up answering his own question. After looking around, he saw a needle at the bend of his elbow connected to a tube. The tube led to a bag with some sort of clear fluid. Then he noticed that he was lying in bed. A curtain was next to his bed reading from one wall to the other. He concluded that he was in the medical ward.
Close the the foot of the bed, in a chair up against a wall, sat Smith. He was leaning in the chair propped up by his arm with his head resting in his hand.
Eric was very surprised by this.
'Smith is here. He's asleep. How long has he been here, but that's nice. At least I have someone that cares, besides Mom,' Eric thought.
While lying there, he noticed he had system notifications.
< Quest: Survive from infection: completed>
< Quest reward: 100 EXP>
< 290/320 EXP>
< Quest Reward: Immune from all diseases>
"What!?!?" Eric spoke out.
Smith jerked and did a snort-sounding snore in the chair, but did not wake up. Eric decided that he should keep it down. He did not mean to be that loud, but being immune to all diseases was a big deal.
'Does this mean I will never be sick?' He asked himself.
The idea of never being sick again is a dream come true. He never expected anything like this from the system. He couldn't help but wonder what else may come from this system he acquired.
'What is the limit of the system? Does it even have a limit?' He mused.
He wished he had someone to ask questions to about this. He wanted to know more. He wanted to plan accordingly. Right now there seem to be no leads about something like that existing in someone's head.
During his free time he had the last few weeks he looked through the library to see if he could uncover anything about this system. The only thing he could find was that it seemed to be similar to how systems worked in video games back in the Old World.
It looks like if he wanted to learn more about the system, he would have to learn via trial and error. Experimenting would be his best course of action.
Eric realized that if he was in the same bad position as Smith was last time, then he would probably be here in the medical ward for a while. Eric had a feeling that he was worse off because they never attached a bag of guilds to Smith. So he decided to look at the new abilities and stats he received from the system.
First, he looked at his abilities.
< Shadow wall Level 1>
< Cost: 5 RP>
He noticed that it wasn't specific on how long something would adhere to it. He wondered what would be the stipulation that determines the period of time.
'More experiments are needed.' He thought.
Eric noticed that every time he received a new ability he needed to take time to practice to understand the ability. Fully understanding his abilities has so far given him an edge in sparring with the other trainees and with the razor rats.
He moved to the next one new ability in his system.
< Shadow Spike>
< Cost: 10 RP>
< Create a hardened point on a part of a shadow that is being manipulated.>
'The description is straightforward, but it seems very open-ended,' he ruminated.
Then he looked at his stats.
< HP 50>
While staring at this screen Eric was amazed by the amount he had grown. He first received his system, his stats have at the very least doubled. He could feel his body had changed. He's much more fit, probably more fit than any of the other trainees. He has always been chubby, this amazed him, but he loved it. He was ready to get out of the medical ward and check himself out in front of a mirror.
All of a sudden while looking at his stats, it dawned on him.
'Where are my beast gems?' He asked himself in a panic.
He reached down to put his hand in his pocket and pull out the beast gems. That's when he realized that he was in a hospital gown. he had two thoughts that went through his mind. The first thought was who stripped him down. He hoped it wasn't Smith. He was really hoping it was one of the nurses in training. Hopefully, she will come back to see him after seeing his goods,
His last thought was, 'Where are my beast gems? Where are my clothes?'
That was truly the main thought that occupied his mind. He frantically started looking around to see if he could find it. It was next to the stand that held the fluid bag. His clothes were folded on top of his backpack.
He sighed in relief. If he lost those gems then all the work, putting his life in danger, and almost dying would have all been in vain.
He used his arms to pick himself up and turned himself where his legs were hanging off the bed. He slid off the bed gently placing his weight on the balls of his feet. Then he stood up. His entire body ached. It felt like someone beat him with a baseball bat from head to toe. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that even his hair too.
He grit his teeth and bore through the pain. He was pretty positive that the pain was from his body recovering from the infection.
'Damn those razor rats. I will kill every one of them.'
He quietly tippy-toed over to his clothes then bent over and slipped his hand into the pant pocket where he last remembered putting the gems. and was relieved to find the beast gems. He didn't know how long he had been asleep and expected people to be nosey. If they got nosey those gems would disappear. They are very valuable.
Bullets cannot penetrate the hides of the creatures and most powers, that aren't trash, can stop or make bullets useless. Because of this, the beast gems have been a game-changer. The only thing that could stop the beast was powers. With the beast gems, they made weapons that could hurt the beasts and armor that could protect and save lives.
Those things are invaluable. But thanks to Eric's system he was able to absorb the gems and get stat points that made him stronger. Something like this actually existing was mind-blowing and brought even more value to the gems.
He grabbed all 3 gems in one hand and went back to his bed. After he got in he wiggled into place to make himself more comfortable. Now was the time.
< Consume 3 beast gems>
< Yes> < No>
The decision was easy. This is what he worked so hard for this weekend. He made his decision and then his system notifications started piling up.
< 3 Best Gem Consumed>
< + 30 EXP>
< + 6 stat points>
< 320/320 EXP>
< Congratulations! You are now level 7.>
< Stamina +2>
< Radiation +2>
< HP +5>
< New Stats>
< HP 55>
< 0/640 EXP>
Eric was pleased with his new stats. He now needed to make a decision about the new 6 stat points from the beast gems. He put a lot of thought into it. He was only able to physically hurt the razor rat with his saber due to his increased attack points. So he determined to place points in attack.
He also discovered that his dexterity's value was paramount. He was more flexible, nimble, and faster than he was before. It played an important role in his fighting the razor rats.
'But what about defense?' He thought.
It sounded great because he could take a hit better and take less damage. He was usually able to get out of the way of danger by his speed or by his shadow step ability. His shadow abilities made him a hard target to hit. He even now has a shadow wall which should make him even harder to hit now.
The decision was made.
< New Stats>
< HP 55>
< 0/640 EXP>
His system hasn't given him any points in defense for several levels now. He was hoping that would eventually change and let his defense go up via the system. Unless, of course, it turns out he needs it in the future. But he would just deal with that when the time comes.
Eric felt tired. It was most likely due to his body still recovering from the infection. He decided to lay back down and go to sleep since the tasks he worked so hard for were now completed.