They continued to talk for a while and with the shop having been closed down for the rest of the day no one came and bothered them. As Owen was getting ready to leave, Myra motioned with her hand for him to sit back down. Doing so he asked, "What's this guys?" "We were thinking that it's about time we show you our status pages, but would you mind sending yours again?"

Owen hadn't even remembered he had never seen their status before. He had just assumed he had, so he shrugged. "Yeah, let's do it." He sent his panel over to them and waited for less than a second before two separate status pages were in front of him.

Myra: Human - Level 10

Vitality = 8

Mana = 7

Strength = 13

Perception = 7

Agility = 10

Resilience = 8

Dexterity = 8

Luck = 7

Skills:

-Self Creator

-Ivar's Fated blow

-Empowered Body

-Identify

-Into the fray

Peggy: Human - Level 10

Vitality = 6

Mana = 7

Strength = 9

Perception = 10

Agility = 14

Resilience = 10

Dexterity = 10

Luck = 9

Skills:

-Self Creator

-Piercing Strike

-Empowered Body

-Identify

-Pursuit of Change

Owen was originally impressed and then confused. "Wait, why do you guys have such low stats?" "Fuck off dude, why are your stats so high?" Myra said bewildered. "Because within the first couple days, all I did was max out the amount of stats I can gain between now and level 20. My sponsor said it was required for a body tempering, to, you know, make sure my body doesn't explode or whatever is supposed to happen."

He said shrugging. "I didn't really get that opportunity until the second to last day of the third round. Apparently, I hadn't done enough to stand out." Peggy said her usual charming air gone. "I'm not sure that is what it was. I found out that most of the reason people were picked day one was due to gear collected or skills collected. In my case, it being a skill." Myra nodded at that, "I was sponsored by some guy calling himself Ivar, that liked one of the skills I had and he upgraded it for me."

"I guess that just leaves me out then," Peggy said with a small laugh. "I was sponsored by a woman hiding in a bedsheet that upgraded my healing ability and then sent me back almost immediately after the body tempering." Owen frowned. "She was some sort of weird nun or something?" He asked. Peggy let out another small laugh, "Yeah pretty much, she kept talking about some god, but I couldn't really pronounce the name."

"Alright, I guess I know what the three of us should do for the last day before the gates begin appearing." Owen said. He tried to crack his knuckles menacingly, but both woman just laughed at him, so he joined in. "We should try to get you guys collecting those 20 free stats, before the gates appear." Peggy and Myra nodded and after another couple minutes of talking they set up a time to meet up the next day and left.

The next day flew by faster than any of them expected. They had gone to a mostly secluded park and sparred almost the entire first half of the day sadly, as none of them were comfortable bringing weapons to a park it was just hand to hand spars. By the end of it both Peggy and Myra had agreed, Owen was a monster. He seemed to heal faster than both of them combined and attacks they were sure could stun him had hardly made him more than flinch.

They knew he had a higher grade body temper, but they hadn't expected the differences to be that stark. For Owen, the most interesting thing about there sparring, was Peggy being able to fill other peoples HP pools from a distance using her sponsor skill and Myra being able to infuse large portion of her mana into attacks that were guaranteed to hit an unprotected spot. None of them had of course used their full strength, but the extra 20 stats Owen had gained proved their worth time and time again.

Of course until both Peggy and Myra had started to gain their own extra stats. It quickly became less one sided, but the combination of his body and soul tempers, made it hard for them to keep up. The rest of the day Owen had tried to replicate the workouts his master had had him do, but he was surprised that it didn't work for them, his best guess being because they already had the skill.

By the end of the day both of his friends had only 5 stat points left to gain and they wanted those stats spread differently, so the training was called to a close. They parted ways there and Owen rushed to start running through errands he had skipped over to help them train. He managed to make it to a bank minutes before close and withdrew most of his money as cash, he then spent some time sorting his belonging into things to throw or donate. He knew he wouldn't need much after the gates started appearing.

The equipment that he already had would probably be enough, but he just had to hope he'd find system pants at some point to help him complete the outfit. He spent the last hours of the day deep cleaning his apartment and moving everything out.

He had to thank any and all gods he had been a single guy living by himself. He had barely owned anything other than the basic essentials and a single futon and tv in his living room. Those he just abandoned by the elevator in his building.

By nightfall, he had just a backpack with his laptop, a set of street clothes, as well as some basic hygiene items packed up and ready for him to go. His mattress was the last thing he needed getting rid of, but despite it being in the apartment, having never had the chance to fully wash it, the idea of sleeping in it just felt gross.

Having been used to waking up at ungodly hours of the day for an entire week, he was up and moving before most, lugging his mattress towards the dumpster of his apartment building. He still had to wait for his buildings office to be opened and he quickly let them know that he was moving out. He signed a few papers and showed them his apartment and with the go ahead, he was free.

He went to the coffee shop he was going to be meeting Peggy and Myra at, still way too early into the morning and started researching everything he could find other people saying about the system. Hours slipped by as he became increasingly frustrated. Not a single person had made an attempt to document information about sponsors, tempers, or anything to do with stats. Everything he could find was at most half said and at worst not said at all.

Eventually, he just began compiling everything he could remember his master telling him, as well as everything he had learned by himself. Peggy and Myra joined not too far into the process and began helping him create the beginnings of a guide to the system.

They weren't the first ones to do it, but Owen was confident that theirs would definitely be listed among the best. They hadn't been at it for very long, but finally the long waited system notification they had been waiting for appeared.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

*The 3 days of preparation have passed. Tier one and Tier two gates will begin appearing all over your world. Good Luck!*

Wishing he could ask his master how long they would need to clear gates until they stopped spawning, he instead turned to Peggy and Myra. "You guys ready to find and clear some gates?" The three then began scouring the internet to try and learn any information. It wasn't long before Myra pumped a fist while cheering. "I recognize that place," she said pointing.

Owen and Peggy leaned in to see her screen and a tiktok showing a small bakery that had a gate that had spawned directly in front of it. "Isn't that only a couple miles down the road?" Owen asked and Myra nodded enthusiastically.

They all continued to sit for a second or two longer as each of them tried to gauge how the others were feeling, before Myra yanked Peggy's car keys from her purse. "Let's go already!" she said laughing as she started running to the car. Both Peggy and Owen were less than a second behind climbing into the car.

It took them less than ten minutes to make it to the bakery and other people had already began showing up. Owen was scanning through the crowd as his group began inching their way closer to the entrance to the gate. "It says you need to be level 10 to enter this gate." They heard shouted over the din. Thankfully that didn't apply to them and they pushed their way to the front of the crowd.

There was a small man standing inside the bakery looking too terrified to leave the building and another man standing in front of the gate trying to force his way inside. Owen and Myra locked eyes when they saw the gate itself. They had both talked about how it was possibly edited, since it showed up strangely in the tiktok, but seeing it now there was no doubt it was a real gate. It had similar looking energy radiating off of it, reminding Owen of his own core.

It seemed to pulse to an irregular rhythm as it seemed to slowly spin. It was a rainbow of colors that continuously rotated in place, with a beige color being the main color shown. Before he could stop her, Myra walked up to the front of the crowd hands on her hips. "Me and my group will talk care of this," Myra said confidently, waving both Peggy and Owen closer. "But we were the first ones here," said a nasally voice. He was part of a group of 5 and Owen had to do a double take as while he didn't recognize the face of the person.

He knew their energy somehow. Standing in the back of the group of 5 was Jared, though he looked different to every memory he had of the man. He was currently a shorter black haired muscleman, wielding a sword and shield that he had definitely not had at the end of the second round of the tutorial.

"Jared?" Owen said before he could stop himself. The entire group of 5 looked confused, except for the one man, that Owen had been confident was Jared. The man just glared daggers at Owen but didn't say anything, but he slide his finger in front of his throat before pointing at Owen. The gesture was missed by all but Owen and Peggy, who gave him a worried look. Myra had continued arguing with the crowd, which had slowly begun to rile up.

Owen began feeling more and more uncomfortable as they stood before the group of maybe 20 people, though since they had gotten there more and more had slowly begun to trickle in. Owen and Peggy moved closer to Myra and they tried pulling her off to the side, closer the the bakery, but out of the way of the gate. As they walked past it, Owen was surprised as he got a system notification.

*You have met all requirements to enter. You have entered the territory of a tier 2 gate. Must clear, before you can exit.*

Peggy and Myra looked back at him in shock, as all three of them had gotten the same message. Then the gate started rotating faster and faster. They started being dragged closer towards it and people started screaming. It didn't look like anyone else was being dragged into the gate, but several people had started running away and Owen and his group were dragged into the gate opening and disappeared.

Owen's vision blackened for a short moment, then he could suddenly see again. Owen, Peggy and Myra were standing in the middle of an abandoned city. Plants were growing out of windows and moss covered most of the side of one of the buildings facing them. The roads that they could see were cracked in hundreds of places, with large plant growths reaching out of the ground towards the sky. Another system notification popped up and Owen averted his eyes from the scenery to read it.

*You have entered tier 2 gate Wasteland of the Overgrowth. Number of Monsters remaining - Unknown. 71:22:16.*

"Do you guys think we will have to be quiet? Because if these are plant type enemies we might be fine with talking normally." Peggy asked while looking excited. Gesturing her closer, Owen whispered. "It's hard to say, I'd rather find one of these enemies first before we assume anything." Myra nodded her agreement. Looking between the two Peggy pouted, "Why does it seem like you guys already know so much more about this type of thing?" Owen flushed slightly before saying. "I've read a couple books that have this type of system thing in them and this is usually how they go about it."

"Wait, so you're basing your decisions on some book you read?" Peggy asked incredulously, though she still kept her volume to a whisper. "I think it's a smart choice," came a whisper from Myra. This time both Peggy and Owen turned to Myra with incredulous looks. "I may have read some of the same types of books and it always seems to work well for them in the end." Myra whispered even more quietly. Owen kept staring for a moment, which was apparently a moment too long as Myra smacked him hard on the arm.

They kept walking through the city but didn't see anything that seemed like a monster, they had almost made it to the other side before Peggy spoke up again this time at normal volume. "Do you think they are in the building, cause this so called city looking thing is completely empty." Owen and Myra gave up whispering as well, as Owen spoke. "It might be a good idea to start checking in builds, we haven't looked through the entire city area, but I agree the building might be where they are all hiding."

Myra pointed to one of the buildings with the most plant life growing from it. "I'd be willing to bet they are in the buildings with the most plant life growing on them. Unless the plant life is what we need to kill." Myra said shrugging. They all nodded their agreement and began moving towards the closest building with plant life everywhere attached to it.

Myra opened the door at the front of the building, but instead of it opening in a normal way, it swung on it's hinges for only a moment before the hinges broke apart and sent the door crashing to the ground. Myra made no move to stop it, but just continued walking forwards further into the building, with Owen and Peggy close behind. There was an enormous root that looked to have broken through the center of a reception area that seemed to be the first floor of the building they were in.

Owen recognized small things strewn about, staplers, a printer and even a jar that looked like it might've once held candy. "This is weird, most every thing I've seen on this floor so far is something that exists on earth." Owen said slightly concerned. "That's cause we are in a building, Silly." Peggy teased, but she had a similarly worried look on her face. Myra stayed silent as they moved up to the next floor, which as Owen had guessed was a large office space with the plant stalk having grown through it's center as well.

This time they did see silhouettes on the far side of the office space. "Should we call out to them?" Peggy asked. Owen didn't shake his head, but frowned. "Those don't have quite the right shape to be humans." Despite the situation beginning to turn tense Myra threw him a look, before whispering. "Not helping your case, perv." Owen just sighed and picked up a roll of office tape. "I'm going to chuck this at that group, hopefully they will come closer or if they are humans, they'll speak up." He purposely missed them and hit just a few feet in front of them.

The silhouette shambled closer and light from one of the windows finally landed on them. They looked horrifying. Owen watched in disgust as three human bodies shambled closer. Their walk was funny in it's own right as they looked like babies just learning to walk. They looked like they could've been real people at one point, but now they were just bags of flesh. They were stuffed full of plants, with roots having grown into the arms, legs, and chest.

There was what looked like a small seedling growing from the mouth of the closest monster, forcing it's head up looking towards the ceiling. "OAAAAHAO RAAAO."

One of the monsters shouted, before both groups prepared to attack.