While Ronny slept, I checked on another person of interest:

Prince Risitro, the first son of the Demon King and his nation’s greatest general, scrutinized a map of the land surrounding Barnock with a crumpled forehead and an uneasy mind. In a month’s time, he would be responsible for not only the deaths of the city’s inhabitants, but also the those of his own countrymen.

Two weeks before, hundreds of thousands of humans—and their allied races—had fallen at his hands; and, his nation had suffered similar casualties. It was pointless, he thought. The war was not waged for the betterment of Demonkind, but rather, to satisfy his father’s insatiable lust for power.

Risitro considered himself a fool. With the quality of his people’s lives at the center of his mind, he’d vowed to protect them from their enemies but despite that, he was the one sending them to their deaths.

To what end did the impassionate slaughter of all other intelligent life work toward? That, he did not know. All he could do was his best, meager as that might be.

He put the map down and sighed. The truth was that the best way to prevent deaths on both sides was to crush his opponents swiftly and efficiently. That way, the fighting would end sooner—assuming his father kept truly did to end the fighting at the fall of Barnock, like he claimed he would.

Risitro left the tent and gazed across the sea of men below. There more than one hundred thousand of them and yet half would be dead in a month’s time. He was amazed that many could still smile and laugh while knowing of the approaching calamity.

His next order of business was to check on how his lieutenant generals were doing. As he starting walking, an arrow flew through the air. The air screamed as the projectile sped towards Risitro’s head. Would this be the end for him? Had I decided hired a hitman on him like I’d done with Ronny? No. This wasn’t my doing.

The Prince didn’t even bother to react. The arrow hit the side of his head dead-on, crumpling as it tried to pierce his skull to no avail. Mere arrows were useless against someone like him, someone who had single-handedly slain a dragon. Risitro decided that a quick, painless death was the most merciful.

He bent down and picked up a pebble. With the flick of a wrist, he launched the rock towards where the arrow had come from. Half a mile, there was a loud bang. The assassin—and the surrounding area—was destroyed instantly.

Risitro understood it would have been wise to capture the aggressor for interrogation but knew that doing so would put them through a living hell which would have ended the same way. After making sure the assailant was truly dead, he resumed with duties.

♦

Ronny awoke the refreshed and was greeted by the System.

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“Status Added: Well Rested.”

He really was in a new world, it seemed. The small part of him that still hoped this was a dream resigned itself to the truth. Begrudgingly, he remembered to check his stat sheet to see what it did.

“Grants a 10% increase in skill acquisition (16 HOURS),” was the System’s answer. Additionally, the overworked debuff was gone now.

Still dressed from the day before, he slipped on his trusty old moccasins and left the room. There was no point in a dump like that for anything other than sleeping. As he descended the stairwell, he was surprised to find that he wasn’t sore at all. In fact, he felt great: His muscles were limber and his body felt light. It even felt a little easier to breathe. It seemed stats really did matter.

Because the sun had yet to rise, neither Alice nor the other inhabitants he had yet to meet were awake. He considered waiting for Alice, just to say good morning and to tell her where he was going but decided against it. He was still bad at his job and wished to give himself a lot of time to get stuff done.

He went into the kitchen, tore a loaf of bread in two, and sat down to eat. The thought that having to eat alone was lonely popped into his head, which immediately struck him as odd since that was what he’d done for the past nine years without fail. It felt strange that it had only begun to bother him now, but he dismissed it and finished his ‘meal’.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the construction site. Aside from him only The Boss and a few of the more impressive bricklayers were present this early in morning. After admiring their skill and dedication to the work, Ronny began.

It was markedly easier now than when he’d began the day before. It took a great deal of effort, but he managed the get the day’s first brick all the way to the wall in just one trip. He took a short break and then lugged the stone up to its position. Someone had already gotten around to applying mortal across the whole wall, so he didn’t have to do that part.

Over the next hour, he worked diligently. His breaks got a little longer with each successive brick, but by the end of the hour, he’d already gotten to five. I was happy to see that things were really starting to move.

After an especially long break, he began on the next set of five. He continued his pattern of breaking and lifting for the next four hours. He was about halfway into his fourth set when a familiar message popped into his mind.

“Status Added: Overworked.”

Things moved a lot slower after that. It would take him two, or maybe even three attempts to reach the wall—depending on how much rest he gave himself. Even so, the progress he’d made on the day before made him. He worked not only to earn money, but also to improve his stats.

Six hours into the day, Ronny got what he was waiting for, “Strength increased to 5.” It was a little past noon by then, and the sun was particularly ruthless that day. The sweat penetrated every ounce of cotton he had on, but he continued slaving away on the wall.

Work returned to about the same pace as it had been in the morning despite being slowed down by both heat and exhaustion. Ronny’s stats weren’t the only thing improving, it was also his form in picking up and carrying the bricks that improved. He also learned to take breaks before he was at the limit, which also helped.

The workday came to an end when the system told him that “Status Effect: Overworked upgraded to Devitalized.” It increased the debuff 35% debuff from overworked to 70% and the difference was huge. Ronny probably could have continued working, albeit at a much slower pace, but decided not to.

He’d already been working for ten hours and was for the first time in a long while, truly felt satisfied with himself. It was a great feeling that he’d all but forgotten until then, and he wanted to do even better on the next day.

Ronny collected his compensation—8 silver coins—and left for Alice’s Inn.