Owen was inundated with choices as a list appeared on a separate system panel. Reading through the list he was both surprised and also not at all, the first 12 beings listen were what he assumed was the different animals representing the zodiac. with the first option being a name he actually recognized.

*The Jeweled Monkey Emperor is offering sponsorship.*

The list went continued past the names of the zodiac, but he already knew he was just going to go with the first option. He already had the Polymath's skill and who else better to learn from than someone directly related to his skill. "Hey system, are these gods?" He was already very familiar with the trope, in many of the litrpg and manhwa he had read in the past, it was common for there to be gods behind the scenes that the characters would become the avatars of gaining special powers.

He didn't get a response from the system so he just shrugged. He was still a little upset by his parting with Jared and having seen people he had known dead, but the only thing he could think of was finding a good distraction.

He took the piece of paper with his news friends numbers on it and stuffed it into his pocket, he would memorize them later, but for now he needed a good distraction and meeting a god seemed like a good first choice.

*Would you like to select the Jeweled Monkey Emperor's sponsorship? Y/N?*

Without hesitating any longer he selected yes and the world shifted around him. It was less time than it would take to blink, but the void that had been all encompassing had been instantly replaced with what looked like an ancient school. They were at the top of a mountain, looking out over large valleys, rushing rivers, and a small town resting at the foot of the mountain several hundreds on meters below.

From where he was standing, this was also only just one side of the mountain. He was awestruck and before he had even had a chance to move, a familiar looking Monkey was standing right next to him. "It is beautiful is it not?" The voice was soft and low, it felt like he was speaking to a grandfather. "Walk with me," it said gently as it placed an arm on Owen's shoulder to guide him.

"This school has not seen a student in many years," "Are you a god?" Owen interrupted. He immediately felt bad as he could feel the stare the Emperor was giving him. "No, there are no gods in this world. We are but a step away from their world, but it is still a different one." Owen was surprised, but didn't interrupt this time.

"You are the first student I have had in a long time. The only requirement I have is for the user to have the Polymath's Keen eye skill. It is part of my kinds legacy. Many have forgone this skill in the many years since it's addition to the system and it is a blessing that someone has finally ready to learn about it and my kind before my passing." "You're going to die?" Owen asked worried, he had made sure not to interrupt again and waited for a lull, but he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"It is of no worry, I am old, but I still have many millennium before I too take a step past the curtain of life and death."

Owen stared at him, millennium, it was hard to picture being alive that long, much less living by himself. He stared at his sponsor who smiled back at him. It was hard to think of him actively as a person why staring at him. He looked like any other monkey from earth, but had many precious gems and rich earth combined to create a crown the adorned his head. He wore a loose tunic exactly the same as the one Owen was wearing.

He was wearing pants, which for whatever reason surprised Owen, but he didn't let it show. He knew from his fight with the horned monkey's that it was a part of his head as well. Right as the thought crossed him mind, the Emperor gave a mischievous smile and took his crown off. "I suppose you thought that I was stuck looking that gaudy all the time?" The emperor chuckled.

"Now, we must begin, I only have one week to teach you and that is not enough time to teach you everything if we continue to dilly dally."

He moved to put his crown in his pocket, but Owen was shocked when it fully vanished. Seeing the look on his face the Emperor smiled, but didn't say anything. "Let me see your status page," He said warmly. Owen just nodded somewhat dumbstruck, but sent his status over to his new teacher. Deciding it had been a little bit since he had seen his own, he pulled it up for himself as well.

Owen: Human Level 10

Vitality = 5

Mana = 9

Strength = 7 + 2

Perception = 9

Agility = 10

Resilience = 4 + 2

Dexterity = 10 + 1

Luck = 5 + 1

7 unallocated stat point(s)

Experience 29 out of 200

Skills

Self Creator

Basic Spear Thrust

Tactical Retreat

Sneak Attack

Polymath's Keen Eye

The Emperor seemed less than impressed, shook his head, looked again at the status and then at Owen. "Why do you not use your free stat points? They are potential that you are saving for a day that may never come." Owen was surprised that there was genuine concern and that he was even able to recognize it on a monkey's face. The emperor sighed and in a flash of mana, his appearance had changed to that of a human around the same age and appearance as Owen.

The only thing that set them apart were the silver hair and golden eyes that stared at Owen waiting for a response. "I was in constant life or death situations, the first time I used a free stat, I used it to try and help with what I thought might help me win the fight." Owen mumbled. He didn't think his idea was wrong, but he did understand that if he was killed before being able to allocate them it would've truly been a waste.

The emperor eyes softened slightly and the piercing glow of his eyes seemed to dim ever so slightly. "I often forget the early struggles of the system, I did not mean to be so harsh." The Emperor snapped his fingers and two chairs appeared.

"I suppose we can talk a bit longer before the training. Depending on your race when you first join into the system, the trial to define your base stats tends to start to range from 1 to 10, starting at level one. For my race, some of my stats were able to be set as high as 15 and others as low as 5 for level one. You are balanced my student, but despite your balance you are weak. I do not mean to say that you have not done well thus far, but Vitality in the beginning, will be your most important stat."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Owen nodded along and answered, "Is it because it isn't a stat I can raise through effort?" "Exactly!" The Emperor beamed.

"Mana can be raised through intense meditation. Strength can be raised through physical effort. Agility is about your speed and grace, which is by far one of the easiest to train. Resilience is by far easier to train the higher Vitality you have. Dexterity can be earned through hard work and training. Each of these stats can be raised through hard work, but this is why using you free stats in some of these can be considered a waste, because it allows for the others you cannot train to stagnate."

Owen nodded, it all made sense, he had already worked hard during the tutorial and gained 10 stats through hard work. Even though most of them were in Mana and Agility. "Is there a reason during the tutorial I had been capped at earning ten additional stats due to training?" The Emperor smiled even wider.

"You already gained 10 free stats? This is much better than I had thought then. Yes, the reason you were capped was you had yet to reach level 10. After level 10, you begin moving out of the realm your race was originally held within. You will notice soon that as you gain more levels and fight more enemies that you move further and further away from a 'regular' human. Already your agility and dexterity are on the border of what you humans are normally capable of."

"After level ten, your body goes through a type of adjustment that allows for you to gain more stats through hard work. In these cases to get the most out of your stats you must temper your body, otherwise it will begin to break under your power."

Owen thought back to when he had accidentally infused mana into his legs to try and make him faster and winced. "I see you are already somewhat familiar, though based on your stats I must assume you infused mana into your body rather than a weapon." The Emperor said with a knowing look on his face. "But I think it is time to begin," he said standing up.

"It is good you know how to infused your body with mana, because it is how we will train for a short duration, we need to gather all twenty new stats you can train for before tempering your body, it will give you the best chances of survival." Owen just nodded and tried to avoid thinking of his skin tearing the last time he channeled mana into his legs.

"I think it would be wise for you to use your remaining stat points to raise your vitality to a minimum of ten, raise your perception and luck by 1 point as well. After today, I will not tell you what to do regarding your stats, as your story will be your own."

They moved to an open courtyard and the Emperor had Owen run a few laps around it while he set up an obstacle course. Only around an hour had gone by, but Owen was still a little disappointed that he hadn't gained any new stat points. At the same time it made sense, he hadn't really been pushing himself, there weren't any obstacles to impede his speed either so he was just running, not unlike a certain man from Greenbow Alabama.

It wasn't too long after that the Emperor had finished setting up an obstacle course that seemed extremely simple to Owen. It was similar to one he had seen in a US marine's training video. Waving him over, Owen stopped running and was surprised he wasn't out of breath. He had been running for easily over an hour and a half, but he hadn't felt like he had lost more energy that what it might've taken the old him to walk to the fridge.

"I see you are starting to realize the barrier between a system human and regular human." The Emperor snickered. Calling attention back to himself, "I want you to take out your spear and channel mana only enough to increase your damage by 1%, you must practice this until you can get it perfectly, then increase it to 2% and so on. I need you to be able to have much better control over how you channel your mana, otherwise every time you try powering your body with it, parts of it will explode from the excess energy."

A training dummy materialized out of thin air already placed firmly into the ground. "I have set this dummy so it will tell you an average reading of the power behind a normal attack and then I want you to slowly increase it by a percentage point. This shouldn't hopefully take more than a day with your increased perception."

That day quickly turned into one of the longest days of Owen's life. As he continuously thrust his spear, after a couple hours he was able to master only channeling a single percentage power increase to his spear thrust and it only became easier after that. He had quickly realized that he had much better control if he imagined the mana flowing in from his core and helping to stabilize his arm and strengthen his power.

The feeling of a single percentage point was like the difference of what broke the camels back and what wouldn't. Originally, the amount of power had been an almost unidentifiable margin, but as he pictured mana flowing out and cover his spear in the thinnest protective layer it became easier and easier. After 16 hours and several breaks to talk with the Emperor, he had got it. Every percentage between 1 and 20% was now something he had control over rather than it always being an almost instantaneous charge to 20%.

When he had finally been able to control it all the way to the max allowed by the skill, he heard clapping and he turned with a big grin. "Excellent job Owen, that was not quite as fast as I expected but you were thorough and consistent, so that is even better." "Thank you master," Owen said with a big grin. "Now, without your spear channel mana into your body at 1%. Before you begin, this will be much more painful than before. I do not have anything to help practice with, so if you channel too much, you will have to wait between attempts as your body heals."

Owen just nodded and before his new master had the chance to walk away, he shouted. "Done, I've got 1% right now." The Emperor moved closer to examine him while he channeled his mana and shook his head in disbelief. "I must give you credit where it is due, that was many times faster than I thought would be possible, but I suppose your thoroughness on the first challenge served you well. It that case we will need to train you resilience then." Owen felt only slightly uncomfortable at the evil grin his new master was making, but didn't say anything.

He wanted to become as strong as possible while he was here and the harder he worked the easier it was to forget about the world and everything back at home. He worried for his dad though, his dad hadn't ever been the type to put up a fight, but Owen had to pause at the thought. He hadn't really been either, in fact after the first day of killing monsters, it had become easier and easier to deal with mentally.

"Master?" He said, as he saw him setting up a table and chairs. "The first day I came to the tutorial I had hardly ever gotten into fights and within the first day of the tutorial I had killed a monster. I remember so vividly the disgust and queasiness I had felt that day, but I killed more enemies and by the second day hadn't even given it a second thought. Is that due to the system or has my brain already adjusted?"

The Emperor seemed to give it a lot of thought before answering. "I think the system does help you adjust somewhat faster, but most of that change will always come from you. You were able to rationalize to yourself that at some point the levels and stats were more important that the discomfort you felt. I never had the same issues so it is hard for me to say with certainty." He had a grandfatherly looked on his face, which just looked weird to Owen.

It was a personal moment, but seeing someone who mostly looks the same age staring at you as if you were a child was an unsettling experience.

Able to tell he was no longer lost in thought the Emperor grinned at him. "Owen, it is time, you are going to love this. We will be able to train both your mana control, resilience and agility all at the same time!" Owen smiled but was groaning in his head, resilience meant he was going to be in so much pain, but if it was a path to power he would do it, he wasn't sure what his motivations for it were yet, but he could could figure that out along the way.