It was very late when Mark completed the Fifth Floor of the Dungeon. He stored all the crafting materials on the first floor in the large cabinet that he prepared for materials storage then went back home. He unequipped his dungeon items, ate Chinese Food and took a shower. Before sleeping, he tallied the stats and skill points that he earned.
First off, he leveled up to twenty seven from twenty three earning a total of nine stat points, four from leveling up and five from monster drops. Mark also earned a total of thirteen skill points, four from leveling up and nine from monster drops. He added one point each to Strength, Vitality, Agility and Dexterity bringing them up to nine each and his HP to two hundred and seventy hit points. He added four to Intelligence to make it an even base twenty and it actually made the multiplier to damage increased by two meaning that the total damage of his spells would increase by adding total Intelligence multiplied to two so base twenty Intelligence would add a total of forty to every spell damage. He also added a point to Wisdom, bringing it up to twenty as well and increasing his MP, mana points, to four hundred. Once he was done with his stat points, he turned his attention to his skills.
Mark added five points to his Inventory bringing up the level from thirteen to eighteen and the grids went up to one hundred by one hundred. It also reduced the MP cost to one MP per six kilogram of matter. He also increased his Replicate to seventeen from twelve, bringing up the grids to eighty five by eighty five and bringing down the MP cost to one MP per four kilogram of matter. He spent the last three points on Field of Briar, increasing it to level three from level one so he could add one point to Swamp of Briar which he did. Mark felt that Swamp of Briar was kind of illogical. How can briars grow in a swamp. He just shrugged and thought that it again all boils down to one thing. Magic. Anyhow, a level one Swamp of Briar summons a swamp with an area of effect of fifty feet. It had a long range of seventy feet and a cast cost of thirty MP. It severely slows down the enemies inside it and damage them as well for thirty damage to HP per second for five seconds. He was thinking that if he had a fire spell, he could light up the swamp and everything would blow to kingdom come. Just like the combination spells in one of his favorite games, Neverwinter Nights. Once he was done on spending all of his earned points, he slept.
The next morning Mark woke up and did his morning ritual. Eat, shower, brush teeth and work out. He was surprised at himself on sticking with his workout regimen which was simple really. A twenty minutes aerobics that he already memorized from YouTube and the One Punch Man set, which were one hundred sets of push ups, sit ups and squats excluding the run. He thought that he should buy a treadmill so he could do the one hundred kilometer run instead of the aerobics exercise. When he weighed himself, his weight went down to one hundred and eighty pounds. He was no longer obese, just a little chubby. A few more days and he would be fit like one of those influencers from TikTok. Mark thought that this maybe one of the biggest advantage that he could have gotten from the System. “Now, I can get a girlfriend.’ He laughed.
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Mark knew that now was not the time for silly little things like dating or relationship. He knew deep down though that it was just an excuse since he had been living alone for quite sometime, never meeting anyone new outside of his gaming buddies and work mates. And of course, it would most definitely take some time before he could get over the insecurities that had been lurking on his psyche for being obese and a little shorter than normal. He was actually not that short, Mark thought. A five feet seven inches height was perfectly normal in Asian countries, thank you very much. He wished that he inherited his father’s height. Although his father was not too tall as well, at least he was five feet ten inches.
While he was contemplating his weight and his height, he received a call from Sam.
“Mark, I wouldn’t be able to finish the job.” Mark can hear the anxiety from Sam’s voice.
“What happened?”
“I need to go to L.A. My sister got involved with someone from a gang and now she was taken hostage.”
“Who told you this? And how are you going to solve it? You know what, never mind. I’ll go with you.”
“Why?” Sam asked, still very anxious.
“So I can help you, dummy.”
“You! How can you help fat boy?”
“Hey! I’m fit now and I have connections!”
“What connections?”
“You know what? You’re focusing on the wrong things. Let’s just go. I’ll rent a car and it’ll just take us an hour and a half to get there. We can help Melissa asap!”.
“Okay, thank you. Thank you.”
Mark calmed himself and went outside to rent a car. He did not pack anything since everything that he might need was in his Inventory. He had fifty thousand dollars cash that he can replicate and a bunch of jewelry worth around fifty thousand as well. When Uber arrived he said to the driver to drive as fast as he can to the car rental company, and because of the thousand dollar tip, they almost got into an accident. When he arrived there he immediately rented a car and drove to Sam’s place.
Mark saw Sam anxiously waiting and when he honked the car, Sam saw him and immediately went inside the shotgun seat and asked Mark to hurry. While driving, he asked Sam the details and Sam said that his cousin, Luis called him and said that Melissa’s boyfriend stole some money from a gang and Melissa was taken and said to give the money back or she would be raped and killed. Mark became anxious as well since on this type of situation, even if Melissa was not killed or harmed, she could be enduring something unspeakable right now.