Luck has never been on my side especially in the last couple of weeks; my girlfriend cheated on me, my brother was thrown in jail for twenty years, and to top it all off my grandfather died. Though he was 110 it still hit home when he died; after the funeral and the will was announced I received an old book which no one knew anything about, since it was my grandfather's wish I decided to keep it. Once I got home I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat on the couch relaxing for the first time in a long time. I have always wanted to be a chef and now that I am one I can't get enough rest; thanks to the 82 hours per week I could fall asleep quite easily but that was interrupted when I got a massive head ache the size of the Grand Canyon. Stumbling to the bathroom to look for aspirin, the headache subsided after about thirty minutes and four pills later. Wondering what the cause of the headache was I realized the old book that I placed on the couch was missing. Before I could even react, several messages appeared out of nowhere, this led me to tripping and falling on my ass however I soon recovered as I focused my attention on the messages.
[Update has been complete]
[Sorry for the inconvenience; you had knowledge that would make me (System) more sufficient as such I had to enter your subconscious to access that knowledge, the pain you just experienced was the after math of the transition and as such I must apologies. As for what I am and what's going on I can only tell you that the book you received was no ordinary book instead it held me which is passed down from generation to generation but it so happens your grandfather decided instead of giving your father the book he passed it to you.
You are given certain benefits after taking me in but those will be shown later on, as our time is short I will tell you this do whatever the system says because you will need it in the future
P.S: will talk to you later]
[Manual mode disabled, auto mode enabled]
[You now have full access to the system this gives you potential that others can't even imagine]
[Do you wish to View status?]
'Yes?'
[Name: Bishop
LV 1 Human
Profession: Master Chef
Titles: Master Chef
Credits: 500
Skills: Master Cooking, Rune Mastery LV 1, Identify, Syntheses LV 1
Points: 5]
[LV: measure of growth, each mile marker will give new rewards
Human: learning speed increased by 10%]
[Profession: job that will give unique skills and currency
Master Chef: you have long mastered the culinary world and now you seek to please people with your food, gives skill Master cooking]
[Titles: achievements
Master chef: you have mastered the culinary world, all foods are 30% better, all toxicity, disease, and parasites are removed from your food]
[Credits: currency used in luxury store]
[Skills: abilities one has
Master Cooking: all foods you cook will taste like a little piece of heaven, all effects on foods are amplified
Rune Mastery LV 1: barely knowledgeable on basic runes
Identify: reveal information on a target
Syntheses LV 1: combine a material and base item to improve the base item, can only add one material to each base item]
[Points: used to advance skills without training, gain five every five levels or the completion of missions]
[You have unspent points please assign them now]
'Are there any restrictions to these points?'
[No; each skill level will consume one point on use, you can advance it to LV 10 which is the max level on a skill unless it can evolve which results in an enhanced version of the skill, enhanced skills can't be advanced through points]
'I guess add three points into rune mastery and two in syntheses'
[Syntheses LV 3: able to combine 3 materials to a base item
Rune Mastery LV 4: though you have mastered the basics beyond normal means you still haven't even scratched the surface of intermediate runes]
[Mission: Training
Difficulty: Changing
Description: train yourself for the future you're going to need it, time limit: 0/10 days
Rewards: Unknown]
As the notifications disappeared I acquired knowledge of all the skills that I now have; the runes were magic symbols that needed an anchor for it to work, one could think of a talisman or an enchanted item both work but the effects are different. Talisman are one-use items however they are ten times stronger then engraved items with runes, as for enchanted items they are permanent use unless the runes are damaged also they are weaker than talisman. There are exclusives to each of course but nine times out of ten the runes would work for both, to test the knowledge in my head at the moment I grabbed my bag and drew a storage rune on it then tried analyzing it.
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[Name: Bag of instant storage
Owner: Bishop
Durability: 300/500
Rune Durability: 500/500
Description: this bag can instantly store any item that fits inside the mouth, can store plants but any other living creature is not allowed, time stops inside, think of the item placed inside to retrieve it, will only work with owner's permission]
Part 2
I have been training for the past week experimenting as much as I could and I have to say I have improved a lot in these past seven days. I created fifty talismans of which half of them were of elemental origin while the other half were of different effects such as heal, enhance, and explode. As for equipment wise let's just say I have seriously enhanced everything I have and I'm not even exaggerating here. As for my other abilities I have also improved on them but not as much as rune mastery; my syntheses skill can now combine four materials to an object, I can identify objects and people without touching them and I have awakened a few skills and if one is wondering what a awakened skill is I'll let the system explain.
[Hidden Skill: an ability that user already has but was not recognized as one until it is shown]
I gained the skills; knife work LV 9, Sleep resistance LV 5, Cut resistance LV 2, Disease Resistance LV 3, exhaustion resistance LV 8. These skills were truly insane; I could stay awake for five days without feeling tired, cut resistance gave me a 20% decreased chance of getting cut, Disease resistance LV 3 gives a 30% chance of not getting sick, exhaustion resistance LV 8 allows me to work eight days straight without feeling the effects from it.
I have to say the system was the best thing that ever happened to me; still though I had three more days left before the end of the mission but I have no idea what to do, I have truly passed the realms of a normal person with the help of my runes and equipment. If I get into any trouble I can always use my knife skill; the funny thing about the skill is that even if I don't have a knife I can still defend myself and move just the same when I had a knife in my hand.
'Hey system do you have any advice for here?'
[Mission complete
Description: you have surpassed the systems expectations and as such your rewards are doubled but this is not the end]
[Reward: 4 points, 500 credits, 1 random skill tome]
[Mission: Prepare
Difficulty: Easy
Description: you have trained but now you need to prepare, you have two days to prepare for the worst, what will you do?
Reward: changes depending on actions]
[You have a random skill tome do you wish to learn it?]
'What is that?'
[A random skill tome will generate a random skill for the user to use, it depends on luck alone]
'Go ahead'
[Name: Loot
Description: loot a target that you have officially killed, does not work if you didn't kill it personally or there are still life signs, items are random however they will be useful in their own ways]
What the hell?! I would never use this so why the hell would I be given something like this? Wait the system said I needed to prepare but what do I need to prepare for? There are too many questions at the moment; climbing into my old Ram which was half rust half vehicle by now, I drove down town to the military surplus store, the store didn't sell weapons but one could find almost any tactical item here. Going to the ATM withdrawing everything I had I immediately went on a shopping spree, of course I also stored items in my inventory as well, every other item that goes into my cart gets thrown into my inventory. I can't just empty the store then walk out with nothing in my hands that would just cause trouble.
After getting three carts filled with MRE's, medical supplies, and other items that could be useful I went over to the counter with a list of items that I had. I have been coming here for years and since each time I usually spend a lot on items I could bring I list to the cashier how would read the list and then give me the price. This would be strange for normal stores but when you have hundreds of items it is a lot easier than unloading and reloading them.
After checking out I went to the hardware store getting building material of all shapes and sizes, not to mention paper and ink for my printer. When I get home, I would be printing off as much information as I could; I had three ring binders as well so I could just store the information in those, running out of money after getting several barrels worth of gas and diesel I decided to head home.
My house was in a residential area so one could imagine I was attracting a lot of attention; while unloading the barrels I was visited by May my neighbor and the local SWAT member, she was a kind person by nature but after years of abuse she kind of shut herself away and was quite ruthless to men, well I was the exception. I was the one that kept her safe until she joined her team and was able to handle things herself.
"Bishop what are you doing with all of these barrels?" (May)
"Prep work; anyway, I was going to ask if you and your squad mates want to come over for dinner tonight, how's five sound?" (Me)
"Are you cooking?" (May)
"What do you think?" (Me)
"Then i'll be there!" (May)
'Never could get her away from my cooking.'
"Remember May that you'll have to share." (Me)
"What do you take me for, some gluttonous creature that can't be satisfied?" (May)
"You said it not me, well see you around May... oh and if you don't bring your squad you don't get any food." (Me)
"That's not fair!!!" (May)
"Life's not fair." (Me)
With the last of the barrels unloaded in the garage, I went inside leaving May to her own devices, whatever happens I just hope she is okay. Using the time, I had left I printed every how-to info I could think of and then sorted it between categories such as combat, survival, medical, construction. It's safe to say I didn't have a lot of sleep but then again, I didn't really need it; with the final countdown starting I began to worry about if I was truly ready or not
[…3
…2
…1]
[Mission complete]
[Rewards: 20 points, 5,000 credits, 1 random item, 1 upgrade stone]
[you have trained, you have prepped, now the only thing to do now is wait for the change]
[You have 1 random item do you wish to use it?]
'Yes, also what is the upgrade stone?'
[Pathfinders lantern LV 1
Description: a bound item that grows with the user, the path before you will be revealed and the light will never waver, light produced will illuminate 10 FT in every direction or 40 FT in one direction]
[Upgrade stone
Description: a stone of unimaginable power; this stone improves a items properties, if you use it on a vehicle or a building a new function will be added, be warned that these stones are valuable and as such are extremely rare]
[Count down till change: 3 hours]
{Ding dong}
As I read the descriptions I heard my door bell; putting the lantern in my inventory I went to the door and opened it to show several well-equipped figures with a van behind them that had Swat on the side of it. In front of all of the figures stood May who had a red face; I could only smile at her as I invited each of them in, this is perfect to say the least, since 2019 guns were illegal for general public so it was hard to find good weapons.
“Sorry we had a last-minute call, let me introduce everyone; the old man is captain Leo, next to him is his wife Brenda, and then Obrien he might not talk a lot but he is a really good guy… so bishop where’s the food?” (May)
“And there it is; you can’t go five minutes without thinking of food.” (Leo)
“Now now hun leave her alone we both know that you’re the same when it comes to good food.” (Brenda)
“…” (Obrien)
“Well come on in; the foods in the kitchen why don’t you four settle down while I get it.” (Me)
[Change will commence in thirty minutes]
‘I guess it’s nut up or shut up….’