It was the morning; Ryu had already woken up and was on the way to school. He realized that after his first win, he still had a long way to go until he would be considered a "good fighter". Because of that he knew that this week he had to stay just as dedicated if he wanted to improve.
The only thing that had changed about his morning routine this week was that he prepared the supplements in a shake every morning now. This was an effort for him to gain weight and build muscle quicker than he previously was.
As he was walking to school, he realized that this would be Kenji's first day out of suspension. Thinking back to how his mother reacted, he felt bad for Kenji. It wasn't as if Kenji was doing anything wrong, he was just supporting one of his friends, which was commendable in most other circumstances.
As he was walking into the building he saw a rare sight, Kenji was walking in just as he was, which was confusing because Kenji had never been on time to school, at least Ryu had never seen him be on time.
"What's up Kenji, how'd the vacation go?" Ryu asked Kenji. Kenji looked up at him with a confused look, he was so focused on getting to school that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, although Ryu grabbed his focus, he still didn't comprehend what he said, as he was so focused.
"Hey, what's up man, I'm not gonna lie I didn't hear what you said," Kenji said with a genuine chuckle at the end.
"Hmm, that's abnormal for Kenji to be that locked in, I barely ever see him focused even in class, that's why it's always so surprising that he gets top grades," Ryu thought to himself, unable to shake a weird feeling about Kenji's behavior.
"I said how'd that vacation go, buddy," Ryu repeated himself to Kenji.
"Oh, not great man, my mom is pissed, but hey she'll get over it, and it was worth it if it helped you out," said Kenji in a genuine tone.
"Sorry man, I didn't want you to get in trouble for me, really it wasn't a huge problem," said Ryu, lying to Kenji with the purpose of detracting Kenji from getting into any further altercations with Kenzo.
"No, I won't let anyone bully one of my friends, especially not you," said Kenji with conviction.
"Alright, just don't do it again, I can protect myself you know," said Ryu sincerely. With that conversation over they both headed to class, both of them silently appreciating the effort of the other person to hide their emotions to make the other feel better.
Once they entered class, Mr. Ito looked very surprised at Kenji's punctual arrival. He wondered if the sky was falling today. "Wow, on time today, huh?" Mr. Ito said, seemingly surprised.
"Yeah, haha, I just woke up extra early," said Kenji with an awkward chuckle, dismissing how unusual it was for him to arrive before the first bell rung.
After that interaction they both walked back to their seats. Since Ryu could tell Kenji just wanted to get through the day, he didn't bother him by talking anymore, instead he poured his focus into his system.
"Quests," Ryu thought to himself as he waited for the window to open.
He didn't have to wait long as it almost instantly opened.
[Quests]
[Daily Quest]
[Complete exercise requirements (incomplete)]
[Learn another art (incomplete)]
[Rewards: Stat Point, 200XP]
[Time Limit: 1 Day]
Reading over the display window Ryu thought to himself, "Hmm, I guess I could use the internet to learn a fighting style again." He was barely paying attention to the lesson, thinking more about which art he could learn next, after thinking for a bit he decided that the easiest art for him to learn by himself would be kickboxing as he already understood the basics of kicking and punching because of Boxing and Muay Thai.
As the day went by Ryu kept up his routine of low performance in class and daydreaming during lessons.
As the final bell rang indicating class was out, he said his goodbyes to Kenji and exited the building heading for the gym.
He got a good, normal workout in. At the end of his workout, he got a familiar notification.
[Notification: Due to your hard work in the gym, your strength and agility stats have increased by one. A friendly reminder that this happened due to your own hard work, the system had no intervention in it.]
Excited from a practically free status point Ryu thought to himself, "Status."
With that a status window appeared in front of his face.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 7: 0/700 XP]
[Strength: 12 -> 13]
[Intelligence: 9]
[Appearance: 10 -> 11]
[Agility: 10 -> 11]
[Health Status: Average, you're basically the most painfully normal human, nobody goes out of their way to think about you, whether that be negatively or positively.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension, Examine]
[Arts: Boxer Puncher Level 1, Muay Thai Mastery Level 4]
He saw that his appearance had actually upgraded too, due to his increase in weight and muscle mass.
"Wow I'm getting pretty good looking, huh," Ryu thought to himself.
[Notification: Don't get too full of yourself, you still look mid as hell.]
"Damn, harsh," Ryu thought to himself, the system destroying his self-confidence.
After having his appearance roasted by the system, he left the gym. Now his focus was on learning kickboxing.
He found a simple kickboxing tutorial online that showed him basic moves, he grasped the understanding of most of them except for the hook kick, defensive techniques from kickboxing, and how to utilize his footwork for kickboxing.
As he stood in his room, he first studied the hook kick. After watching the video and examining their form for a while he planted his feet as the person did in the video, and then kicked as they did.
[Wrong]
"Alright, you know it would be slightly helpful if you mentioned what I was doing wrong, system, instead of just telling me I suck," Ryu thought aggravated with his unhelpful system.
After many unsuccessful attempts, mostly due to either his footwork or his landing after the kick. He finally got one successful attempt.
[Correct]
Although this was a start, his frustration increased as he couldn't seem to get three right in a row, which was the system's requirement for each move he had to build mastery on, as he had figured out when he learned boxing by himself.
After hours of practice, he had finally got the stance down well and had mastered control of the hook kick. Ryu was drenched with sweat and was breathing heavily from persistent training. "If I didn't upgrade my agility so much, I'd be burnt out by now, but I got a little gas left in the tank," Ryu thought to himself.
Now that he had completed two of the moves he thought were necessary to gain mastery for the art, he started researching on his new phone about other moves to learn. He thought this was necessary as he hadn't gained level one mastery yet for kickboxing.
He found a video on defensive and offensive techniques for kickboxing and tapped on it. He watched the full video, and it included a few useful techniques for both kickboxing and boxing, but he already knew the bulk of them. "So, what I could work on is leaning back for dodging kicks, and I could learn how to jab with kicks on both legs," Ryu thought to himself, he picked these because they were the only moves, he didn't know that were included in the video.
After another hour of practicing doing shadow boxing and practicing jabbing with his legs, he had finally mastered both of these techniques. Feeling heavily accomplished in himself; Ryu was content with his progress, regardless of if the system was. But as he finished with his final move and sat down to rest he got a notification from the system.
[Notification: Congratulations, you have displayed basic mastery in kickboxing, as your reward you will get the art Kickboxing Mastery at Level 1.]
[Notification: All requirements for the daily quest have been passed, please check your quest window to claim your rewards.]
"Let's go," Ryu thought to himself, he had proven to himself that he could become great by solo training. This elicited a feeling of excitement for him, as he daydreamed about the future and how great he could become.
Sadly, though, he brought himself back to reality, and realized that this was all in the future, and right now he could barely be called average, he had a long way to go till the top.
"Alright, Quests," Ryu thought to himself expectantly waiting for the window to pop up.
[Quests]
[Daily Quest]
[Complete exercise requirements (complete)]
[Learn another art (complete)]
[Rewards: Stat Point]
[Time Limit: 1 Day]
[Claim Rewards]
"Claim Rewards," Ryu thought to himself, almost immediately the system presented him with a notification.
[Notification: 1 Stat Point has been given to you as your daily quest reward.]
"Status," Ryu thought ready to spend his stat point.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 7: 200/700 XP]
[Strength: 13]
[Intelligence: 9]
[Appearance: 11]
[Agility: 11]
[Unspent Stat Points: 1]
[Health Status: Average, you're basically the most painfully normal human, nobody goes out of their way to think about you, whether that be negatively or positively.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension, Examine]
[Arts: Boxer Puncher Level 1, Muay Thai Mastery Level 4, Kickboxing Mastery Level 1]
"Alright, spend one stat point on intelligence, with that I'll finally have all attributes at average," Ryu thought to himself.
Since he had just worked up a sweat, he stank a good bit, so he took a shower and went back to lay down in his bed to relax.