As Matt walked, he thought about what he should do next. He wanted to get strong quickly.
'I do have that gym pass. I could train a couple strength.'
He looked over his quests, and the only one he could really do was the win an event quest. But that would take some time. He needed to find an event, and then be prepared to win it.
'Gym it is then.'
As he headed to his new destination, he knew what else he should do.
'I need to go see my parents. Hopefully, they'll still pay for my college. If not, I guess I could pay.'
It felt a bit easier to make money now, with the system. He had only thought of one way to use it to turn a profit, but there were probably many other ways to do it.
He thought about his parents again. He wasn't sure why it was so hard to talk to them. They probably just wanted the best for him, but they always approached it the wrong way. He sighed, he would just have to get over it. The world was going to change, so he needed to as well.
He was at least glad he didn't have those super awful types of parents. He at least had decent ones, and so he felt like he needed to just appreciate that fact.
'Oh, I almost forgot. I should use mind palace too. Maybe I could train some skills and also read some books for the knowledge.'
He decided to use mind palace while he was walking. It didn't really matter when he used it since time didn't pass in there, so he thought it wouldn't hurt to use it now.
Once he entered his mental space, he looked around and decided to first read some books. His goal in reading them wasn't getting skills or stat points, he just thought it would be useful to pack his brain full of information in case he ever needed it.
He could always use mind palace and read them whenever he encountered something relevant, like what he did in the cafe. But he just felt like reading a few ahead of time. It could change how he made decisions in general, depending on the book.
He went through a few classic subjects like math, biology, and humanities. Overall, it took him a couple of hours. Suddenly a sound chimed.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Intelligence
__________
'Oh, I almost forgot that happens.'
He noticed he was fairly close to hitting 20 int, with the new point, he was now at 18 intelligence. When he finished reading, he looked over at the pile of books he had saved and tried to find some that could give him skills. He once again found the wilderness survival one.
'Might as well.'
He read through it at a lightning-fast speed. The new point in intelligence only helped make his comprehension speed faster. After finishing it, he got the skill.
__________
[New Skill]
Basic Survival [LV.1]
__________
'Not bad, not bad.'
He went through some more of the books but decided that was enough for now. He canceled the mind palace, and overall, he had spent around 5 hours of mental time there. He had thought about training one of his already existing skills, but he was starting to get bored. He could always do it at any time, since no time passed while he was in there.
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He finally arrived at the gym and went inside. He greeted the front desk person again and went to his secluded corner once again. It seemed like people never went back there.
'So, I should try the heaviest weight I can handle, so that my strength with train faster.'
He looked around and noticed the weight bench. He had always been tempted to try one, at least it always seemed fun. All the tough guys on TV used the weight bench.
He noticed how the last person who used it left 2 100lb weights on it. He wasn't sure if that was normal or not.
He laid down and pushed the weight up. But he was disappointed.
'Too light.'
It almost felt weightless. He set the weight back on the bar above him and got up. He wanted to find some heavier plates for it and managed to find 2 more 100lb weights.
'So does it go like this?'
He slid the weights on, now it was a total of 400lb. He tried it again, and this time he could feel the weight for sure, but it wasn't close to his limit.
'This is kinda ridiculous. What is even the multiplier per strength point? I'm at 21 strength so it's at least a lot more than a 2 times increase.'
He speculated, due to how much he could lift, that it was probably upwards of a 4x increase or higher. He was a bit shocked by those numbers. He planned on attempting to test himself eventually to figure out the real algorithm. It would be useful to know.
He used to do that in games as well since knowing the equations that they used for XP and stat bonuses always allowed him to think more critically about how to build his character.
He did a couple of reps with the 400lb weight, and while he felt it, it wasn't straining him at all. No strength point notification had happened yet. He set it back down and looked around.
'I could probably put another 200 on it.'
He felt like that would be around where his limit was, so he put another 100lb weight on each side and started lifting. He was now lifting a total of 600 lbs.
'That's much better!'
He could feel the pressure on his muscles and it felt like he actually had to work hard now. It felt good to push his strength to the limit.
After only a few minutes, he heard a familiar ding.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Strength
__________
'That was fast. I guess I'll just keep doing this for a while.'
He continued doing reps and every so often he received another strength point, though they became more and more uncommon as he continued. After about an hour, he heard one more ding and decided that was good for the day.
'Overall, today I got 3 more strength points. Sheesh, I really should've done this sooner.'
He felt a bit stronger once again, but since he has been accumulating so many points recently, it didn't feel like an insane increase, but still decent.
‘This level of strength is just too much. But I know, it feels like cheating right now, but I imagine once others start leveling, that’ll become the new normal.’
He realized though, it had only been a few days since he got the system. He couldn't believe how much had happened in the short amount of time since he got it.
He left the gym and headed toward his apartment once again. There wasn't much he could do in town, so he thought it would be best to just stay home and train his skills.
Once he arrived, he sat on his bed and trained. He was a bit annoyed that if he trained in his mind palace, time wouldn't pass because he seemed to have too much time now. He wasn't sure what to do with himself. They always say that things are the most exciting when you first get them and then you become used to them.
He increased his boxing skill to level 2 and then became bored.
'What's missing?'
He felt like he had been so absorbed in the system for the last few days and now that things had settled down and his leveling had slowed down, he felt like a hermit or something. If he wanted to, he could train in the mind palace forever and become very strong. But he felt like he would go insane if he did that.
'I need to do something. I don't just want to sit here. Maybe I really should just go see my parents. It would be better to do it sooner than later anyway.'
When he thought about his past, he really didn’t want to go back, but now the world was going to change, and so he would need to make exceptions as well. Also, if he was going to teach his family how to use the system, it would be better to start talking to them, rather than avoid them.
With that in mind, he got up from his bed and headed out of his apartment. He didn't have a car and his hometown was at least a few dozen miles away. But, he felt like he could just run there with his new stats and shoes. It might take a little longer than a car ride, but at least he could train his agility.
'I've never gone long distance before with my speed yet. Should be fun.'
It was still light out, so he made it his goal to try to get there before dark. He used his map to figure out which direction he needed to go and sprinted full speed through the city.