Peter hadn’t intended to walk accompanied to the tavern when he’d woken up the morning after, but it seemed that the kid, Adrian, really hadn’t spent much time trying to get to know people and was close to starving to death – and so Peter was going to try and do the right thing and show him the ropes of how to survive as a slum rat.

Which was to say, he was going to try and teach the kid how to barely survive until he’s 10 and then the kid will probably be in the exact same position that Peter had found himself in upon receiving a system – and then he’d truly have to shape up or die trying. Peter realised that was harsh, but then again, so was the world they were in.

Peter turned the corner onto the strange back alley that led into the tavern where had worked many a time in the past and where he now hoped to find employment once again.

Peter grimaced as he noticed that the tavern’s owner, a one Mr Bobby, had still not decided to replace the rotting sign that hung above the shoddily constructed tavern door.

The sign, which must predate the apocalypse by a couple decades it was so old, read in bold text: Bobby’s Bar, but underneath the professionally carved text an obvious amateur (Mr Bobby himself) had scratched onto the sign the words: Under New Management – Now called Bobby’s Tavern.

Peter had always detested the sign. First of all, the place had never changed management – Mr Bobby had just decided to change his establishment from being a bar to being a tavern upon being told that his establishment being a tavern better fit ‘the setting’ or whatever that meant. Of course, nothing had changed about the tavern’s services with this new development – only the name.

Peter sighed as he pushed open the door and was met instantly with the warmth of a strong hearth, as well as the smell of sweat, blood, and the stench of alcohol.

The tavern’s interior was quite large considering everything, and it had at least a dozen or so tables and could probably seat around 80 or so people. And, in the far corner of the open floor tavern, stood the large and chubby form of Mr Bobby – playing at cleaning a glass with a dirty rag, though Peter was pretty sure that neither the glass nor the rag had ever actually been cleaned.

Mr Bobby saw Peter walking over to him, and his eyebrows raised almost instantly.

“Well, well, well. Looks like my favourite old rat has made something of himself and gotten to the peak of [Copper] rank. Be careful lads, this one might be our town’s first super genius.” Mr Bobby announced in his typical warm and gusto-full voice.

Peter ignored the glances that were sent his way by the shady clientele who currently populated the tavern, as he took a seat on one the stools in front of the bar – Adrian taking the one next to him.

Peter had hoped the tavern owner would keep what his Analysis skill told him to himself, but he should’ve that the man famous for oversharing would overshare about Peter’s status as well.

“You here to celebrate reaching the peak, kid?” The tavern owner asked curiously.

Peter smiled, before shaking his head, “I think the both of us need a job so that we can eat.”

The fat man laughed hysterically, before looking at Adrian, nodding slightly, and then saying, “Say, I don’t think I’ve seen you around before – what’s your name kid?”

Adrian struggled but eventually told the man his name. Peter then chimed in with, “He’s a greenie Mr Bobby, real new to the lifestyle if you know what I mean.”

The man nodded, before saying in a serious voice, “I can probably hire the greenie – but ain’t no way I can afford to feed you too lil Pete, sorry.”

Then, he gestured at a table of 5 people all dressed in armour and said, confused, “Plus, you’re a peak [Copper] rank now, shouldn’t you be trying to become peasant rich like those other [Copper] ranked adventurers do through clearing dungeons and the like?”

Peter thought about the man’s words and realised that his reason for coming to the tavern was kind of silly now that he had such strength – perhaps he had let his nostalgia cloud his judgement too much.

However, it seemed that the kid next to him was happy with this new development, and so Peter guessed that something good had come of this trip to the tavern after all.

The proceeding hours passed by quickly as Peter and Mr Bobby chatted, and the man explained some of the rules of the house to Adrian.

For all his flaws, the big man had a soft heart, and he clearly had decided to help out Adrian as much as he could and that included providing him whatever the only protection the man could offer – the badge that certified that he worked for Mr Bobby.

Mr Bobby was a universally beloved man in the slums, and no one raised in the slums ever dared mess with him or his establishment – as at some point in almost every slum rat’s life the man had helped them survive through a tough spot even when he himself was obviously struggling to keep everything afloat.

This adoration the slums had for the man also partly explained why the tavern still had patrons, despite the sign outside, and despite the fact that the alcohol served was objectively bad tasting, and the glasses were dirty as all hell. All of it because at the end of the day, those in a poor situation had to look out for one another.

Though, as the hours passed by, and his mind turned more inwards, Peter could only wonder if he truly could leave this life behind as he had so wanted to for his entire life.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He shook his head – he was being far too nostalgic again. He had to ascend up the social ranks otherwise he would remain weak, and that was a fate he couldn’t suffer for even a single moment.

So, no matter what part of his current life he had to give up now, he would do it in a heartbeat if that meant he could attain the true power he was looking for. And, potentially, when he had enough power and wealth to do with it as he pleased, he could help those currently sat in Bobby’s Bar to become powerhouses just like him.

One day.

Come the next morning, Peter received a system prompt that woke him out of alcohol induced sleep and into a hungover hazy state of semi-consciousness.

Your assigned bot has completed its task!

Skill: [Mana Bolt]’s level is now 6!

Updated Description: When activated, you form a bolt out of pure mana with your hands and can fire it at will in any direction.

Cost: 45 MP | Cooldown: 4 Seconds

Peter coughed violently as he dismissed the prompt from his vision, before sighing and pushing his back up against the wall his formerly former squatting spot.

Peter now had both of his bots available to utilise, as well as his upgrade time reducer tokens and he wondered what to upgrade. Whilst making such important decisions whilst experiencing a hangover wasn’t exactly the smartest move, Peter didn’t really care, as he had two upgrades that he knew he had to do thanks to some thinking he’d done the previous night.

With a thought, he assigned one bot to upgrade his [Enhanced Senses] perk, and with another he assigned the other bot to upgrade his [Shy] perk.

Then, ignoring the system prompts he had just received, at least for now, he mentally commanded his system to apply one [1-week upgrade time reducer] token to each task – instantly finishing them.

Peter positively groaned with glee as he felt all of his senses heighten incredibly, then his nose twitched in disgust as he swore that he could smell the sewage that ran under the city walls in pipes.

It was only after everything normalised somewhat that Peter grinned and brought up his system prompts into view.

You have assigned 1 system bot to increase Perk: [Shy], to [F+] rank!

Time remaining until assignment completion: 6 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes!

You have assigned 1 system bot to increase Perk: [Enhanced Senses], to [F+] rank!

Time remaining until assignment completion: 6 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes!

Your assigned bot has completed its task!

Perk: [Shy]’s rank is now [F+]!

Updated Information:

Shy | Type: Social | Rank: [F+] | Progress to Next Rank: 0/3 | Description: [Basic] skill grade scanning skills shall not yield up your status to others.

Your assigned bot has completed its task!

Perk: [Enhanced Senses]’s rank is now [F+]!

Updated Information:

Enhanced Senses | Type: Social | Rank: [F+] | Progress to Next Rank: 0/3 | Description: Your senses are inherently much better attuned to the nature of reality than others.

You have gained the [F+] rank title: All-Rounded

Description: Have One of Each Type of System Perk Above the [F+] rank.

Effects: +1% potency boost to all perks and their effects.

Peter grinned despite his throbbing headache as the he read through each and every one of his new system prompts, and his mind began racing upon reading the final system prompt.

He had never heard of the trait he had received before, though he guessed that was because he hadn’t met many people who had used 4 perk points before as most only got to be able to use that many upon reaching [Bronze] rank – or at least that was what Katie had said.

Though, according to her, there were such things as ‘Perk Point Dungeons’ that gave out perk points as a reward for clearing it, but such dungeons were extremely rare. Plus, just due to the absurd nature of their reward, they had a high likelihood of already having been monopolised by the already powerful and their overbearing factions. This was because being in possession of such a dungeon gave a faction the ability to entice promising new talents to join their faction as well as shore up their already existing members until they were unstoppable demi-gods.

However, thanks to Peter’s [Idle Progression] perk, he had no need of perk points at all and just the thought of not having to rely on anyone else to become strong made Peter the happiest slum rat in the whole entire galaxy.

Peter’s mind quickly found itself wondering what to upgrade now that all of his perks were at least at the [F+] grade.

He could upgrade his stats, but as his mental stats were already at or above the [E] grade, he wouldn’t be able to upgrade them with his current [Idle Progression] perk… wait, a crazy idea came to him and wondered, ‘could he… no?’

Sure, it would be a gamble, but if he actually got his [Idle Progression] perk to the [E+] grade then he wouldn’t have to wait as long for each future upgrade thanks to the time reduction percentage increase that came with each new upgrade of the perk.

Feeling ambitious, Peter commanded a bot to upgrade his [Idle Progression] perk to [E+] but his hopes and dreams were shattered as he received a new system prompt in return.

Cannot assign system bot to upgrade Perk: [Idle Progression] to [E+], because your User Rank: [Copper+] is too low!

Peter almost cursed out the system for this roadblock being put in the way of his progression, but quickly calmed down as he knew deep down that he was just being too greedy.

Plus, if Peter had anything to say about it, soon his system rank would increase, and this injustice could then be rectified. But, for now, he would just have to upgrade something else.

Returning to thinking about which stats would be best to upgrade, Peter eventually reached some conclusions about which stats he wanted to upgrade.

The first stat on his list to upgrade was his [Constitution] stat, for obvious reasons. Peter had endured far too many beatings recently to think he would not need far better self-healing than he currently had as he moved forward and fought with more monsters.

Plus, having a higher [Constitution] stat extended one’s lifespan and made on look far healthier and more beautiful. To Peter, whose whole method of progression involved waiting for long periods for growth, the time that a high [Constitution] would buy him was priceless – thus it was an obvious choice for him, and he assigned his first bot to upgrade it right away.

The next stat Peter decided he needed to upgrade was his [Learning] stat. To put it simply, the sole reason that Peter desired so strongly to see it reach the next rank was because he wanted to be finished with Katie’s lessons as quick as possible so that he could reach the [Bronze] rank in short order. So, thinking of it as a long-term investment in his future, Peter commanded his second bot to upgrade the stat as well.

Then, with a thought, both upgrades were instantaneously finished, and a second later Peter let out a bone-curdling scream of pain as it felt like everyone of his bones were cracking inside of him, and his skin felt as though he had been set on fire.

It was sheer and utter agony, and Peter soon blacked out from the pain – totally unaware of what had just happened.