Chapter 6:
It took him another day, but it turned out that the new quest was easy. But first, he did his daily quest to get rid of it as soon as possible, and he could concentrate on the newest quest instead.
He struggled a little and his arms were shaking by the end of the twenty sit-ups, but he did it without much difficulty. It was just a matter of willpower. Despite his young age, his body was fit enough to perform the physical effort if he pushed himself. That being said, his tiny body is still not accustomed to repetitive muscle motions. Jung is simply not used to exerting very specific muscles within him with regular effort, and he has no plans to make this a habit, but he can still do twenty sit-ups. He worked slowly but eventually finished the task.
Jung sat up after wiping his forehead with the accumulated sweat. He checked his screen and confirmed that the quest was done, and he nodded happily. He smiled to himself as he felt some sort of weight is lifted off his shoulder. Now that he can read, he didn’t think he will have any problems doing the daily quest for now. After a while, he stood and stretched a bit before moving on with his day. An unconscious jaunty skip escapes his walk.
****
That night, Jung was snuggling closely with his mother while learning his letters, just like any other night. He listened comfortably as his mother’s voice droned on and he followed her with his eyes in the pamphlet they are using. Suddenly, a dinging sound inside his mind startled him, and a new pop-up screen appeared in front of his eyes.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the specialist skill “Literacy.” The skill gives you the capability to both read and write specific languages.
Current known language:
Korean
Requirements: MIND 1
Current level: 0
He didn’t react visibly, and his mother didn’t notice any changes, but Jung started rapidly reading the blue screen.
When Jung concentrated on the skill itself, he got 7-page info about it, and below that message was a question:
Would you like to activate the skill by upgrading it to level 1? y/n
Jung was too curious about the new message that he didn’t have time to fully grasp the info given. He skimmed the information and resolved to check it out more thoroughly later. For now, Jung clicked “Yes,” with his mind, and he received another message, this time a red one.
Error! You do not meet the requirements to upgrade the skill “Literacy.”
Requirement:
MIND 1, INTELLIGENCE 1, WISDOM 1
Jung hee blinked once in surprise. Again, not reacting in any way that would alert his mother. He pretended to listen to his mom as she talked about reading the small propaganda pamphlet they were using to practice, even occasionally nodding and making noises that his mother would help indicate that he is listening. But Jung’s mind was on the message in front of him.
Error! You do not meet the requirements to upgrade the skill “Literacy.”
What the hell does that mean? Jung thought, annoyed. It says here that I already unlocked the skill, but I still can’t use it. Why? Is it because it is level 0?
Jung rechecked the information, and he verified that the skill was indeed 0 at the moment. Jung can upgrade it, but there are certain requirements. He hesitated. He did have the available points to upgrade those needed sub-attributes.
As silently and nonchalantly as he could, he checked his status once more.
Name: Kim Jung Hee
Age: 5
Class: Peasant
Level: 5
Attributes:
Body: 0
Mind: 1
*Perception: 0
*Intelligence: 0
*Wisdom: 0
Spirit: 0
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Current XP: 12,701
Total XP needed for the next level up: 14,175
Available skill points: 126
Available Attribute points: 5
Available evolution points: 1
Available Perk points: 0
He shrugs and upgraded both INTELLIGENCE and WISDOM on his screen.
Congratulations! You have increased your INTELLIGENCE attribute by 1.
The current INTELLIGENCE level is now 1. You are slightly smarter compared to a normal adult human in your age bracket.
Intelligence: a measure of the user’s comprehension level and logical processing power. Most mental skills will require intelligence as a minimum requirement to advance.
Needed Attribute Points to upgrade to the next level: 1
Remaining Attribute points: 4
Congratulations! You have increased your WISDOM attribute by 1.
The current WISDOM level is now 1. You are slightly wiser compared to a normal adult human in your age bracket. You will have a better understanding of human body language and the intention behind a person's words.
Needed Attribute Points to upgrade to the next level: 1
Remaining Attribute points: 3
Jung stared at his screen for a minute longer. And then he pulled out his status screen as well.
Name: Kim Jung Hee
Age: 5
Class: Peasant
Level: 5
Attributes:
Body: 0
Mind: 1
*Perception: 0
*Intelligence: 1
*Wisdom: 1
Spirit: 0
Current XP: 12,701
Total XP needed for the next level up: 14,175
Available skill points: 126
Available Attribute points: 3
Available evolution points: 1
Available Perk points: 0
“Ooo-kay. What am I supposed to do now?” he asked the system silently, but he received no answers.
He sighed. Jung just kept staring at it until his eyes narrowed. When his mom ordered him to read the pamphlet she just read, he did so automatically. Good thing he has already memorized the damn thing since last night. His mom nodded in satisfaction and gave a few pointers about grammar and spelling and what will happen to specific words if they are talking about a female or male subject.
“Huh,” Jung said eloquently. He wasn’t sure, but he just realized that by upgrading his INTELLIGENCE and WISDOM, the previous error message is gone.
“What was that, Jung?” His mom asked.
“Nothing, mom.”
“Well then, continue reading. I don’t have all night.”
Jung thought about that for a moment until he dismissed the remaining messages inside his mind without answering the prompt. He decided to concentrate on the pamphlet and his mom instead. He just felt that his time with his mom is more important to him than the mystery the system is telling him. So he redirected his focus to the new pamphlet. It was a new one compared to the others. Jung’s mom gathered it in the market yesterday, which was freely given by a civil servants. It has 7 sentences with 119 words or 2 paragraphs’ worth of words and it is enlightening them about the virtue of hard work in the rice fields.
He only read it once, but he now knew the entire content of the pamphlet by heart. Was that because of the new increase in his intelligence? Or was it the increase in wisdom? Jung didn’t know, but whatever it is, it became so much easier to read and the flow of the sentences became easier to understand. The little boy realized a lot of things from the previous sentences he just read. Before he is just just memorizing the words but now the constructions of words actually made sense why those particular vowels and consonants are used to construct those words. It all make sense! Jung had to shake his head to return his attention to what he was reading since his mother was already frowning at him.
Jung hee recited the next paragraph with confidence and his mother nodded to him, a bit surprise. His mom then analyze every sentence once more and explained why it was structured that way. Jung listened attentively, as best he could. They continued his training, but the candle in the kitchen grew dim, and just like clockwork, his dad admonished them to stop reading or else they might ruin their eyes from the low lighting.
Sighing, his mother said the old idiot is right and they should stop for the night. She promised to continue his lesson tomorrow evening. Jung resolved to somehow buy more candles before that time.
So Jung brushed his teeth, washed his face, and made for his bed before saying goodnight to his parents. Eventually, in the silence of the night, Jung’s mind returned to the messages he received from the system.
Jung hee dived back to the message inside his mind after a moment and then he reread it all again. It still made little sense to him when he reread it the second time. After reading the information he has about the new skill, Jung hesitatingly spent a skill point to increase the new skill. After all, he has over 120 skill points.
Congratulations! You have activated the specialist skill “Literacy.”
-Provided that you know the language, you are able to read any form of reading material 50% faster.
-25% chance of complete comprehension of anything you read.
-10% chance of permanently memorizing a portion of what you read.
Current level: 1
Needed skill points to upgrade to the next level: 2
Remaining Skill Points: 125
There is no way for Jung to compare his stats since, as far as he knows, there is no one else who has access to the system like him. There are also no convenient color bars on top of people’s heads to see their levels. Jung never really knew if he was an average person or if he was doing something special. When he upgraded it to level 2 after paying 2 skill points, now the system is asking for 3 skill points to upgrade to level 3.
Jung made a face. So it cost more every level up. Jung thought he could level up the skill up to level 10 with just ten skill points. But the system doesn’t work that way.
It cost a lot.
But Jung was young and never really thought about things like this. As such, the young Jung hee lost his qualms in spending his points that night. In a very short period of time, Jung spent many of his points like a five year old would. He shrugs. It is not as if he wanted to hoard all those points he received in the first place.
With his sudden spending spree, he learned a lot more about the system. For one, it gets exponentially more expensive to upgrade your skill the higher the upgrade is. By opening the mind attribute, Jung hee found out that more options are now available to him in the system.
At the time, Jung remembered he didn’t have any plans or strategies for what he has chosen. His five-year-old self’s chief concern is that he wants to see the options available to him. As such, he spread the points he has to see what they offered.
He spent the other evolution point he just earned on upgrading the BODY attribute.
Congratulations! You have upgraded the BODY Attribute to level 1.
You have unlocked the sub-attributes STRENGTH, ENDURANCE, and AGILITY.
Tier 1 skills from the BODY category are now available to be discovered.
All subsequent upgrades to the main attribute categories will receive an additional 10% increase on top of the unique capability the main attribute offers.
Jung hee learned through the text info that the key attributes can be upgraded by 1 evolution point per level but upgrading the sub-attributes costs more every time. Level 1 costs 1 attribute point or AP, level 2 costs 2 APs, level 3 costs 3 APs, and so on. Again, there was no particular reason, but he spent the last 3 attribute points he has on each of the 3 attributes of the Body Evolution path.
He then spent a whopping additional 54 skill points to upgrade the “Literacy” skill to its maximum level. The skill improved to a 400% reading speed, 250% comprehension speed, and a 98% permanent memorization of everything he read.
The last 71 skill points he kept in reserve, not because he was planning for the future but simply because there was nothing else to upgrade at the time.
But his limited skill list didn’t last long.