That morning, Ryu entered class as he usually did. Once he sat down, Kenji just started entering through the classroom door and waved at Ryu. Kenji approached Ryu's chair and plopped down in the seat next to him. "Hey, man, I just want you to know if anyone's giving you a hard time here, let me know," said Kenji.
"This might be able to temporarily solve my Kenzo problems while I'm getting strong enough to fight back," Ryu thought to himself.
"Well, actually, if I tell you something you have to promise not to tell anyone else," Ryu said to Kenji.
"Yeah, I got you, just let me know," Kenji retorted back.
"Well, Kenzo has been bullying me recently and if I don't report to the bathroom every day, he'll beat me up," Ryu said in a hushed tone to Kenji.
Kenji replied looking visibly angry and in a solemn tone, "When and which bathroom?"
"Start of my lunch period, on the 2nd floor bathroom outside the lunch hall," replied Ryu.
"It's taken care of, now let's just relax and pay attention to class, don't bother to show up to your bathroom appointment today either, alright?" Kenji said to Ryu.
"Alright," replied Ryu redirecting his focus back towards the front where Mr. Ito was about to begin teaching.
With that the day went by peacefully for Ryu, as he was walking out of the building, he thought to himself, "I guess what they say is true, it's good to have friends in high places, huh."
He had left the school grounds and was on his way to the gym, today was special because he had a class today.
As he was getting close to the gym, he thought to himself, "Quests". With that a display window appeared in front of him.
[Quests]
[Special Quest: Class Time]
[Finish your daily workout task (Incomplete)]
[Complete a Muay Thai class at the MMA gym (Incomplete)]
[Reward: Stat Points, Muay Thai Related Skill, Muay Thai Mastery Upgrade, 200XP]
[Time Limit: 1 Day]
"I can't wait to see what a class is like," Ryu thought to himself.
With that Ryu said his normal hello to Ken and proceeded into the gym where he changed and completed his workout.
After his workout completed, though, something new happened.
[Notification: You have successfully upgraded an attribute without the aid of the system, your strength has gone up by 1, because you achieved a hidden feat you receive 500 XP and a random skill.]
[Notification: Skill received, [Hyper Focus].]
"Status," Ryu thought to himself excited to see what had changed in his status menu.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 5: 300/500 XP]
[Strength: 11]
[Intelligence: 8]
[Appearance: 10]
[Agility: 4]
[Unspent Stat Points: 1]
[Health Status: On the low end of average, you're not anything special, but you fall within the norm.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[New Skills: Hyper Focus – This skill focuses all the host's attention to a specific task when activated. To activate it just simply say or think, "Hyper Focus" this skill has no cooldown outside of fighting applications. When fighting this skill has a second attribute, it allows the host to have peak human reaction speed. While fighting Hyper Focus can only be activated once per day and lasts a total of 6 minutes.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus]
[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 3]
"Wow, although this is a great fighting skill, I can even use it to study and work on homework, this is so useful," Ryu thought. Spitefully he also thought to himself, "This would've been really useful for the boxing tournament, though, thanks system," the last part was thought in a sarcastic tone.
Ryu's thoughts then focused onto the unspent stat point he still held, "Spend one stat point on agility," Ryu thought to himself, he recognized that he still lacked crucial stamina, which was necessary for a good fighter to have.
"Alright, class is probably starting soon so I should head to the fighting class part of the gym," Ryu thought.
With that Ryu took a quick shower in the locker room and changed into another pair of clothes he brought for the class.
Ryu walked over to the fighting section and saw a group of around 7 or 8 people all of them looked about average, but in front of the small crowd was a serious looking old man.
The old man stood at around 5'4 but had a scary aura to him. He had toned muscles that you could see through his athletic wear and Ryu could immediately tell he was not someone to be taken lightly or messed around with.
If Ken was a tiger, this man was a dragon.
Ryu headed towards the crowd, figuring that this was the lesson.
"Alright all 9 of you are here for the lesson, let's begin, first off my name is Master Kobayashi, and I will be teaching you the fundamentals of Muay Thai today," said the old man, now identified as Master Kobayashi.
"To start learning an art you should first understand what it is that you are learning, so here's a brief synopsis on Muay Thai. This is a martial art that originated in Thailand, it's a very versatile martial art focusing on utilizing almost every part of the body. In this martial art there are punches, kicks, elbow strikes, knee strikes, headbutts, and throws, every part is utilized with no exception. This art is very intuitive and requires muscle memory and fast thinking skills. If you think you have what it takes follow me," said Master Kobayashi, and with that he started walking away abruptly and reluctantly all 9 members of the group followed him to a corner of the gym.
In this corner, there were multiple staff waiting around to assist each of the patrons individually. Ken being one of them immediately approached Ryu and claimed him as his student.
"Wow, Ken, I didn't know you knew this many martial arts, you really are impressive you know," said Ryu.
"Thank you, bro, but enough with the flattery let's get you started with training," said Ken.
"Let me guide you into a stance, if you can do a boxing stance, Muay Thai is a little different with weight distribution, but not far off, so you should learn quickly," said Ken.
With that he helped guide Ryu into a Muay Thai stance and had him do basic footwork drills until he was content with the mastery Ryu showed of the Muay Thai stance.
After this he took him through the basics of jabbing and a cross. This took less than a few minutes because it was essential boxing knowledge that Ryu was already experienced in.
After this he guided him to the basics of a push kick and a round kick. This was frustrating for Ryu because he had never kicked before and had bad flexibility and balance which hindered his mastery of these two fundamental Muay Thai skills.
In response, Ken offered some guidance, "Hey Ryu, maybe you should stretch out a little bit before we continue that might help you get a little added flexibility for these kicks, you're not too far off as it stands right now, but this might give you the added push you need."
With that Ken instructed Ryu how to stretch and with that Ryu felt a lot more limber and was able to successfully complete multiple push and round kicks in a row.
After this they focused on balance and stance some more and Ken told Ryu that he wouldn't teach him elbow and knee movements until he mastered his balance more.
[Notification: You have displayed basic Muay Thai mastery, because of this the system has awarded you with [Muay Thai Mastery Level 1].]
Ryu wasn't very phased by the message because this wasn't the first time this had happened.
With that Ken proposed a little challenge to Ryu, "Show me what you've learned in a quick little spar, don't worry I'll go easy on you, then if you do good, I'll give you free tickets to see our MMA match we are hosting this Sunday."
"Alright, sounds like a plan, just don't get too blown away by my Muay Thai prowess," retorted Ryu, jokingly.
With that he followed Ken onto a sparring mat and they both put on protective gear.
"Alright, I'll let you start whenever you want, once you start trying to attack me, I'll respond in both defense and attack this time," said Ken.
With that Ryu approached Ken and immediately through a jab, Ken dodged the jab in a spinning motion which resulted in a round kick as a counter being thrown towards Ryu's center of mass.
Ryu thought to himself, "Hyper Focus." With that his brain went into overdrive and he realized that if he planted himself down onto one hand then jumped back up, he could dodge the kick.
Following his intuition he did just that, he effectively dodged the kick, but when pushing off his hand to get back into a standing position, he threw his leg out, performing a kick that shouldn't have been possible at his level, the kick was of course aimed for Ken's legs. This side sweep kick connected with a surprised Ken who fell over partly due to the power put into Ryu's legs, and partly because Ken didn't anchor himself as he wasn't expecting Ryu to do this.
As Ken started falling to the ground, Ryu didn't know what to do as he wasn't taught any submissions, or techniques to keep an opponent pinned, luckily Ken didn't continue to fight.
"Wow man, I wasn't expecting you to pull that kick out, where'd you learn that?" Ken said.
Ryu responded with, "I didn't learn it I just had a feeling it could work so I tried it."
"Well then you're a damn natural I tell you; you won those tickets fair and square, that's about all for today's lesson, you're doing a great job Ryu," said Ken.
With that the two men said their goodbyes to each other and Ryu exited the gym complex.
On his way out, Ryu thought to himself, "Quests".
This opened the display menu which Ryu proceeded to study to see if he had successfully completed his daily quest.
[Quests]
[Special Quest: Class Time]
[Finish your daily workout task (Complete)]
[Complete a Muay Thai class at the MMA gym (Complete)]
[Reward: Stat Points, Muay Thai Related Skill, Muay Thai Mastery Upgrade, 200XP]
[Time Limit: 1 Day]
[Claim Rewards]
"Claim Rewards," Ryu thought to himself excitedly as he expectantly waited for them to go through.
[Notification: You have received two stat points for completing the quest exceptionally, you have received the Muay Thai related skill [Hyper-extension], and you have received 200 XP. Secondly, your Muay Thai Mastery has now reached level 2.]
[Notification: Your XP bar has filled; you have levelled up to level 6, for this you will receive 1 stat point.]
"Status," Ryu thought to himself, giddy with excitement at his newly obtained goodies.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 6: 0/600 XP]
[Strength: 11]
[Intelligence: 8]
[Appearance: 10]
[Agility: 5]
[Unspent Stat Points: 3]
[Health Status: On the low end of average, you're not anything special, but you fall within the norm.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[New Skills: Hyper-Extension – Your joints appear to almost be made of rubber, this skill allows you to bend your joints at angles that don't seem humanly possible. It is important to note though, this is not a superhuman skill, there are many humans who are naturally hyper-extended, but since this is a skill you will avoid the health problems associated with hyper-extension.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension]
[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 3, Muay Thai Mastery Level 2]
"Wow that really is a useful skill," Ryu thought to himself as he remembered that what had been stopping him from succeeding in Muay Thai was flexibility and balance. With that he also needed core strength to become better.
"Invest 1 point in strength, and 2 points in agility," Ryu thought, the reason he dispersed one point to strength being that his core stability was still less than ideal for fighting and he wanted to be able to perform moves steadily and consistently.
Now that he had finished allocating his points and studying his skills, his final status menu for the day read as such.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 6: 0/600 XP]
[Strength: 11 -> 12]
[Intelligence: 8]
[Appearance: 10]
[Agility: 5 -> 7]
[Health Status: On the low end of average, you're not anything special, but you fall within the norm.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension]
[Arts: Boxing Mastery Level 3, Muay Thai Mastery Level 2]
Studying his status window, Ryu was proud of the progress he had made in such a short time. Now that he was finished with the gym, he headed home, ready to finish some homework and sleep.