Hey guys, new chapter here!
Just letting you know that the next one will be uploaded on Monday next week instead of Saturday (I won't be at my PC next weekend).
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Huff
It felt as if I had to use every single muscle in my body to dodge the punch thrown at my face. My muscles burned, as did my lungs, but I knew that the fist of an E-Ranked Pugilist on my face would hurt a lot more.
Swoosh
The fist missed my chin by a hair's breadth, but this was not the time to become distracted. His next punch was aimed at my liver. I was getting better at predicting his attacks. I knew it was not because of my skill, as I had not spent any EXP on it, but simply because I was increasingly calm and calculated in these fights.
Swoosh
Bang
I could feel the smugness leave my body as my back hit the ground.
"You can predict my punches well enough now. I will start incorporating kicks," my teacher said as he reached out his hand for me to pull myself up.
It would, of course, have been nice if he had told me that before beating me up, but oh well.
"Are you ready for the next round?" he asked, to which he received a nod.
Just as I was about to rush forward and attack him, we were interrupted.
"Master, we will need to leave for the opening now," Verdalis said as he walked into the training hall.
"Very well. Teacher Tarynn, thank you for your teachings, and until next time," I said, following Verdalis out of the training hall.
"Until next time, Governor," I could hear before the doors closed behind us automatically.
"It is with the greatest joy that I can announce the opening of Zorik's Bakery on this beautiful day. I have, and will continue to, support every man and woman who risks their own time and money to make this city a better place to live."
"On this note, thank you to my friend Zorik for giving me the opportunity to speak before you all today. And please do try the croissants—I can assure you they are delicious," I said to the small crowd in front of me.
I had been giving one or more of these speeches every day for the past six months. Only the openings of public institutions like parks, libraries, train stations, or even kindergartens gave me quests that increased my reputation.
Events like the opening of this bakery, I did purely to be seen as an active member of the Greenhaven community. It would be a shame, after all, if my taxation skill earned me less than it could just because the inhabitants of this city thought I was some rich noble, living in an ivory tower and ruling them from above.
As I was spending my time here, in the newly opened bakery, enjoying my croissant and answering some of the questions that concerned citizens were asking me, I saw a system screen pop up in my vision.
[Congratulations on completing the F-Class Quest: Light Pollution]
Rewards: 1,300 EXP
And almost out of instinct, I did what I did every time one of my diligent little worker bees completed a task for me—I checked the total amount of EXP I had saved up until now.
[Experience: 1,000,566]
It shook me that something like this was even possible for what is basically a bureaucrat. After all, it had not even been a full year for taxation to pay off. I had 584 quests the moment I took office, but even as they were worked off, about 30 to 50 new ones were added every month.
If I had to guess, I would say that the average quest gave me 1,300 to maybe 1,400 EXP, which would mean passive earnings just from my day job of about 470,000 to 840,000 per year.
From my observation, these tasks were everything the current administration would not do—either because of budget, will, or skill. So, only things that would never have been done without me, which also explained why there was such an abundance of them when I took office. After all, the previous governor was good, but he could not simply cheat by looking at the quest panel.
The absolute best thing about this was not the EXP, but that there had been exactly zero emergencies in the last six months. Most things that could have caused them were simply extinguished at their roots.
So I had plenty of free time, which I used for fight training and publicity. The funny thing is that I was probably one of, if not the, best city governors on the planet—if not the Republic—while doing barely any work.
But back to the elephant in the room—my EXP. After I got the first returns from my quests, I decided not to gamble them quite yet. The threshold for advancing was, after all, still pretty low at this time.
I went to my system interface and started pumping experience into my main class. Luckily, I was already in the back of my car, or this might have raised some suspicion.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Anima Esper] has leveled up! +30 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +1 INT, +3 unassigned stat points, +1 talent point.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
[Governor] has leveled up! +1 INT, +1 CHA.
That, in addition to practicing the energy technique for the past six months, resulted in:
Energy: 600 (Lv. 5)
And a nice little boost to my stats that came with it. The unfortunate thing was that both of my classes took up exactly 900,000 of my experience.
Good news, though, was that I did not have to do the level 20 advancement mission twice, which had been my fear after I regressed my level.
Anima Esper Class Advancement Mission:
Learn all levels of any basic knowledge.
In some sense, this was even more stressful and dependent on luck than actual gambling. The absolute worst thing that could happen to me right now would be a combat-related mission like: Beat someone a grade above you.
Now that I think about it, could Han Xiao's terrible advancement missions have had to do with him completely ignoring the Luck stat?
With this terrible fate in mind, I blasted my assignable stat points into INT, MYS, and LCK in equal parts. And while I was having fun, I opened my communicator and searched for an advantage of my civilization.
As I looked through them, I got some system notifications that told me what they did. At the moment, I thought that the Gene-Chain type of knowledge would be the most advantageous to me.
[Tier 1 - Gene Chain - Strength Enhancement]
Description: Grants an additional +10 STR.
Do you want to spend 1 talent point to learn? Y/N
[Tier 1 - Gene Chain - Dexterity Enhancement]
Description: Grants an additional +10 DEX.
Do you want to spend 1 talent point to learn? Y/N
[Tier 1 - Gene Chain - Intelligence Enhancement]
Description: Grants an additional +10 INT.
Do you want to spend 1 talent point to learn? Y/N
[Tier 1 - Gene Chain - Mystery Enhancement]
Description: Grants an additional +10 MYS.
Do you want to spend 1 talent point to learn? Y/N
And just like that, the 20 talent points I had saved up until now were gone. This wasn't even the worst part, though, as I could see that some of the basic knowledge would be completely useless to me—just because of the type of Esper ability I had.
Esper is probably the only class in which something like this is somewhat normal. The pain came from the fact that I still had to grind out the talent points for this knowledge.
Success! You have learned one basic Esper knowledge completely.
[Lv. 30 Anima Esper Advancement Mission Complete]
Congratulations on gaining the class: Pupil Esper Lv. 1
For every other Esper, this would have been a vital moment in their lives, gaining a few skills on top of the attribute points I got. The restriction on my ability, though, meant that I could only gain a skill when I advanced a major rank.
+40 Energy, +1 MYS, +1 END, +4 INT.
Acquired 3 Unassigned Stat Points and 1 Talent Point!
I still had a bit more than 100,000 EXP left after leveling up my main class. Unfortunately, sub-classes are just like main classes in that they require more EXP depending on the person's level.
If I had to estimate, I would say that it will likely take me anywhere from 1.3 to 2 million EXP to reach the maximum level of my Governor class and, with that, level 40 and the next advancement mission.
So, I might as well take these EXP points and try out the second skill I got—not really with the intention of getting anything, but more so to figure out the mechanics of it.
Skills, EXP, and Health/Stamina/Energies can be permanently sacrificed to gain Skills, Information, or Equipment in return. There were still questions I had not answered, though.
[Government spending: 1 EXP]
[Result (Information): The grass is green.]
[Government spending: 1 EXP]
[Result (Information): The sky is blue.]
[Government spending: 1 EXP]
[Result (Information): Yup, grass is still green, sky is still blue.]
[Government spending: 1 EXP]
[Result (Information): Say it with me: The grass is greeeeeen.]
Well, clearly, this was getting me nowhere—likely just a minimum amount I had to spend.
[Government spending: 100 EXP]
[Result (Information): The secret to a good crêpe is a spoonful of butter.]
[Government spending: 100 EXP]
[Result (Equipment): Standard bullet of the Eozarithian army.]
A big grin spread across my face as a bullet casing landed in my right hand. Of course, I didn't care about a bullet costing an enas or less, but this was proof that I could gain something other than information just by sacrificing EXP.
My biggest worry was that, for example, to get equipment, I would have to sacrifice Health, Stamina, and Energies, and to gain skills, I would have to sacrifice other skills. Since this wasn't the case, I could not be happier.