In a darkly lit park, Matt was standing above Ned, with a quest notification floating next to him.

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[Quest Complete]

Defeat Ned

1+ Mystery Reward, +1 Unassigned Stat Point, +50xp [XP 78/120]

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'Finally! I got a mystery reward!'

He was buzzing with excitement. Ever since the rent quest showed a mystery reward as loot for completing the quest, he has been curious as to what it could be.

'Whatever it is, it has to be good!'

Matt clicked on the 'X' to close the pop-up. As it closed, a bright golden light started to form in the air next to him. At the same time, the system chimed another notification.

[Dispensing Mystery Reward]

The golden light started condensing down and solidifying into a shape. It took the form of a small crystal shard, with a bright yellow color. It glowed slightly in the air.

'A shard?'

Matt grabbed the shard from the air and once he grabbed it, it started obeying gravity and now seemed like a normal shard. But it still glowed slightly.

'Uh, so what do I do with this?'

Suddenly, Ned on the ground seemed to be recovering. He stopped moving around as much and let out a groan.

'I should uh, probably get out of here before he gets up!'

With that thought Matt shoved the crystal shard into his storage. He readied himself and started sprinting away from the dark park, leaving Ned on the ground alone.

After about half an hour Matt arrived at his apartment and closed the door behind him. It had already been a long day, so he was feeling pretty tired.

'As much as I want to sleep, there are rewards waiting for me!'

Matt had an excited smirk on his face as if he just won the lottery. He headed to his kitchen before checking out his rewards.

'So, besides the weird crystal shard, I got 50 XP, and 1 more stat point. I guess I could always save it, but I think it's better to spend the point now so I can utilize it to help me finish more quests and stuff.'

He opened his stat screen and focused on his attributes.

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||Attributes||

[Str] - 11

[Con] - 10

[Agi] - 13

[Dex] - 12

[Int] - 16

[Luk] - 11

[Stat Points]: 1

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'I don't think increasing Int would be a good move for now. I noticed that when I increase my intelligence, it doesn't seem to make me instantly smarter, it's like my brain just becomes more efficient. I guess I would need to actually study to become smarter. But it'll probably be much easier to study now at least.'

He looked over the rest of his stats and quickly decided which one he should increase.

'I really should increase strength, because that fight tonight was kinda scary. It would be good to be able to defend myself.'

He pressed on the + sign next to Str and added his unassigned stat point to it. It went from 11 to 12.

He felt his muscles increasing again and now he felt much more prepared to get in a fight. His body was much more toned now, much like a healthy adult with a good exercise routine.

'It kinda feels like cheating. I didn't even really have to exercise and it looks like I've been going to the gym for months.'

After he finished assigning his stat point, he decided it was time to finally check out the yellow shard from the mystery reward.

Matt opened his spacial storage and pulled out the yellow shard. He turned it in his hands, looking at it in more detail.

It was natural looking, like a real crystal, but it was also strangely symmetrical, to the point where it looked man-made. It was a golden-yellow hue, and the one thing that really made it look strange was it was completely opaque, you couldn't see anything through it.

'This is the weirdest thing I've gotten as a reward so far. It kinda looks like it shouldn't belong in this world.'

The final thing he noticed every time he saw it, was that it had a slight glow. His apartment was pretty dark, since he didn't turn any lights on yet, and the crystal acted like a glow stick, illuminating his hands as he held it.

'Well, is it supposed to do something or is it just a cool-looking rock?'

He placed it in his storage again to see what the system called it since he was in a bit of a rush before to see what it said. But it was way too simple.

(+1 Yellow Shard) [4/25 Items]

'Well, that's useless. I guess I should probably ask [Help], but she can really be a pain…'

He decided to try a few things before resorting to using [Help]. He tried hitting it on his kitchen counter, but it just made a small dent in the countertop.

He grabbed a knife and tried to cut it, but it, of course, was as hard as a rock. He kinda felt like an idiot.

'Ok, fine I'll just use [Help].'

With that thought, he summoned [Help] again.

'Help!'

Blue air started forming in the kitchen until it materialized into a small blue fairy. Once again, she was wearing sunglasses, even though it was dark.

She floated there crossing her arms not saying anything.

"Hey, tell me what this is and how do I use it?"

[Help] looked at him and replied.

"No."

Matt sighed.

"Why not?"

She looked angry.

"STOP SENDING ME BACK WHEN I'M TALKING!"

Matt had the urge to plug his ears as she shouted at him. He was just tired and needed to know what this reward was all about, so he didn't want to have to argue with her.

"Fine! Just tell me what this is!"

She looked at him skeptically.

"Really?"

Matt sighed again.

"Yes! I promise. Now explain!"

He said as he held up the yellow shard in front of her. She looked it over and then quickly responded.

"Oh, you already have one? That was fast."

"What do you mean?"

She looked at him with a grin, like she was proud every time she knew more than him.

"It's called a Skill Shard. It gives you a random skill."

Matt looked at the shard with wide eyes.

"A random skill? Like being good at cooking? Or are we talking about shooting fireballs!?"

She pushed up her sunglasses trying to look cool and replied.

"Both. But also not really. Skill Shards are mainly for practical skills or magic that isn't combat-focused. But you're not gonna find a dumb skill like cooking in there."

"Wait, magic?! Really!?"

Matt had been hoping in the back of his mind that somehow this system would lead to magic. If it was based on a game, it would make sense. But so far he hadn't really seen anything point to there being magic. His inner nerd and gamer were screaming right now with excitement.