The sun rose steadily, illuminating the compound as Frank and the team gathered for their training session. It had been about a week since they had all agreed on their separate skills, and Max finally finished learning the "Cooking" skill from the system.
"Took you long enough," Leo teased, playfully punching him in the shoulder. He had been the first of the three to learn his skill, shortly followed by Elara.
Max immediately responded by putting Leo into a headlock and tussling his hair. "Don't give me that, Mr. 'Ooh, look at my Intelligence stat, it's so big!' It takes us commoners a bit longer to read!"
That's right, over the course of this week, the team finally did something that Frank at one time never believed they'd do: they shared their stats with each other.
While none of them were comfortable enough to share their more personal skills, that was a big show of trust. It wasn't lost on anyone in the room.
They even seemed to get along better, acting more like friends than coworkers. Leo seemed less nervous around the team, Elara was more straightforward instead of trying to subtly control them, Frank was more eager to help everyone present, and Max... well, Max didn't change much.
This was a very refreshing change of pace for Frank. His friend group had always been small, but after Jasmine had died, it somehow became even smaller as he had basically ghosted them.
This wasn't intentional, of course, but his mind had been solely focused on grieving at the time, and he didn't think to check his messages or reach out to anyone. So, this newfound camaraderie was a welcome improvement.
As far as everyone's stats went, Elara went first. She revealed that she had primarily focused on agility and strength, though for some reason her charisma stat always seemed to level up at an even pace every time she leveled up.
Max was next and shared that his main focuses were constitution and strength. Like Elara, his charisma stat also went up at a steady pace as he leveled.
Leo followed shortly after and, to the surprise of nobody, told them he had focused on agility and Intelligence, noting his luck stat seemed to grow steadily with each level up.
The last revelation made Frank green with envy, but he managed to bite his tongue after looking at his stats.
They had all shared their stats, so Frank finally revealed his, as well as his level.
As Frank expected, everyone in the room's jaw once again hit the floor simultaneously.
"You're maxed out? And there's a bottleneck stat cap at level 10?!" Leo inquired. He had played many games in his life prior to the event, so this wasn't a completely shocking discovery, but it did explain why Frank was focusing on gaining skills.
Elara, never missing the chance to tease Frank, grinned. "I wouldn't call an embarrassing charisma stat and a nonexistent luck stat maxed out, Leo. Seriously, Frank? Zero luck? And it hasn't gone up in 10 levels?"
The three of them were clearly trying to suppress laughter at his expense. The man who was head and shoulders stronger than them had a luck stat of zero, which they didn't even think was possible.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, everyone. It seems to be the universe's favorite joke, so it might take offense if you didn't find it funny," Frank groaned.
This light atmosphere continued with banter and teasing until everyone finally settled into the task at hand.
Today was all about applying what they had learned and leveling up their skills.
The first step was to build a forge, which both Elara and Frank had learned from the books they read. Gathering the materials from Leo's stash, they began working.
It wasn't a perfect product—very makeshift in design. The furnace was an old bucket that was both on top of, and surrounded by cinder blocks. For a crucible, they cut out and welded the end from a large pipe, and for the blower, they used an old vacuum.
As for the anvil, it was just a log sticking out of the ground with a sturdy piece of metal nailed into it. Both were crude, but they would be fine for their purposes.
Elara stepped toward their creation and closed her eyes, recalling everything she could from her reading. Frank followed suit, and soon enough they began working on metal leaves, a common practice for brand-new blacksmiths.
The process was long and tedious, causing both Frank and Elara to fail at this several times before Frank finally achieved an acceptable finished product.
While this carried on, both Leo and Max were hard at work training their own skills. Leo was working with leather scraps he had acquired over time, while Max went to the complex's mess hall, offering his help for free.
This continued for several days, with each person working tirelessly. However, Frank found himself pulled in multiple directions as he tried to juggle all three skills at once.
Normally, this would have caused him to fall behind the others, but once again, his skills bailed him out.
[Aspiring Scholar (Innate): Increases leveling speed of skills learned from books by 300%.]
This skill not only saved him from the deficit of dividing his attention, but as they continued to work, he gradually began to outpace all three of them.
The group was aggravated by this, but it was to be expected. When Frank had compiled the list of skills he gained from the library, "Aspiring Scholar" was included, so in their eyes, it couldn't be helped.
With this skill in tow and working fervently, Frank had reached the maximum level for all three skills within 3 weeks. The others weren't far behind, though, reaching their respective max levels just 4 days later.
The day Leo, Max, and Elara finished leveling up their skills, everyone was exceptionally jubilant.
Seeing their skills now saying "MAX" next to them made them feel an immeasurable amount of pride.
At least until Max ruined the mood with a terrible joke after finishing his training: Saying "Yep, that's me," when his cooking skill showed "MAX" next to it. When he gave everyone context to what he meant, he was met with various "Boo's" and food being tossed at him by both the rest of the team and the mess hall staff.
Still, they had done it, and they were overjoyed. Deciding to celebrate, Frank and Max offered to prepare a meal with their newfound skills. This, of course, was met with overwhelming agreement from both Leo and Elara.
Deciding to try something new, they prepared shakshuka, a vibrant and flavorful Middle Eastern dish that included eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce with onions, peppers, garlic, and spices.
They finished quickly thanks to their max-level skills and sat down in the mess hall to enjoy themselves. As they started to eat, a voice called out to them from the entrance.
"Oh wow! That looks good! C'mon, guys! Don't hold out on me!"
A couple of groans escaped their lips as Jason came gallivanting over without even waiting for an answer. Grabbing a plate, he immediately filled it and began chowing down.
"Wow, this is way better than the slop they normally make! They really stepped up their game!" Jason manged to say with his mouth still full, eating at a pace that defied his scrawny frame.
"Actually, Max and I made it ourselves," Frank replied, letting out a sigh.
"Yeah, and it was SUPPOSED to be a celebration of completing the training we were doing, which I don't recall seeing you attend," Elara stated flatly.
Jason wasn't perturbed, though, as he continued to stuff his face. "Ooh, special training, huh? Sounds fun! Wait a minute... why didn't you guys invite me?! I thought we were friends!" He complained in mock protest, being given away by his sarcastic smile.
"Still, you two know how to cook. Never would have taken you for the types. If anything, I would have thought Elara—"
He was interrupted by Elara glaring daggers at him, causing him to gulp down the food in his mouth.
"Right, right, outdated joke. I'll bring my A-game next time. Anyways, that's not why I'm here." He explained, gaining an uncharacteristic serious tone.
"I'm sure you guys are sick of being locked down like a bunch of convicts. I know I am, and I'm not the type to just sit around complaining. So, I've come up with a way for us to get out of here without anyone noticing, but I need your help to make it work. Y'all in?"
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