Chapter 5: Rewards

[User has avoided Phantom Wolves for 12.34662 minutes. Calculating points and experience gained…]

James scrolled through the system messages he got before he fell unconscious. ‘Wow, I was running from the wolves for a long time,’ James thought. And it was really a long time. Considering that he had been full on sprinting for most of those twelve minutes, it was actually almost inhuman that he had run for such a long time. Even athletes of the highest caliber would struggle to run at full speed for more than a minute, and yet James had for twelve.

That’s not to say that James wasn’t fit, however, he did not work out like an athlete, so the fact that James had run for twelve whole minutes was pretty startling.

[User has avoided succumbing to despair in front of Phantom Wolves. User has been awarded title {Fearless}]

James continued scrolling through his messages. It seems this time he had been awarded a title. ‘Usually titles like these come with some sort of advantage,’ James thought. And so he focused a bit closer.

[The title {Fearless} is awarded to the user for not falling into despair when fighting the tower’s first floor’s first obstacle, the phantom wolves. The title grants the user the skill (passive) Greater Fear Resistance Lv 1. Additionally, the user has been granted 10 information tokens.]

‘It seems like I’ve been granted my first skill. And it’s also greater, so it's probably pretty powerful. I also got some information tokens. Hmm, I wonder what those are.’ Then James focused on them more closely.

[The item information token can be spent at the shop]

‘Well, that’s not very informative,’ he thought, but he was kind of getting used to the vague answers the system gave, so he decided to carry on.

[Total points and experience calculated, user has been awarded 12,02--]

[Error detected, System recalculating…]

James looked over this. ‘I wonder what the error is from,’ he thought, ‘ did I do something wrong? I guess jumping off the cliff may have been unexpected, but what was I supposed to do there?’ James briefly considered that maybe he did something wrong, but thinking back, he wasn’t able to find anything wrong on his part, so he decided it was probably the system's fault for being faulty.

[User has gained title {Relentless}]

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He examined this title closely too.

[The title {Relentless} is awarded to a user for fighting on before insurmountable odds. The title awards the user the skill (passive) Enhanced Growth Lv 1. Additionally, the user has been granted a permanent Large increase to their endurance stat.]

‘Wow, that seems really good. Enhanced Growth was probably a really good skill to get early on since he suspected that based on the skill’s name it would make him grow more powerful faster.’ Looking at the large endurance stat increase, James realized that the reason he had gotten a sudden burst of energy when struggling through the river was probably because his endurance stat increase had started applying.

Lastly, James looked at some messages that he seemed to have gotten while unconscious.

[Due to unusual circumstances, total points and experience has been recalculated by Debugging Unit 1.]

[User has been granted 15,000 points, and 500 experience. Additionally, the user has been awarded title {Great Escape Artist} and item Evolution Card]

James focused to see more information about his new title.

[The title {Great Escape Artist} is awarded to a user for an escape from something designed to be inescapable. The title grants the user a large increase to all stats while escaping.]

James suspected this skill was probably from escaping the wolves. But it was weird, it says that he escaped from something designed to be inescapable. ‘Was I not supposed to escape from the wolves?’ James thought. Then everything came together in James' mind.

The wolves were designed to be inescapable, but they also weren’t designed to actually kill anyone. That was why they were called ‘Phantom Wolves’, because they weren’t actually real or something similar to that. ‘So when I had thought that the wolves were a hard first enemy to fight, it was because it was designed like that. I was meant to get caught. And the amount of time that I would have avoided the wolves capture would determine how many points and experience I would’ve been awarded,’ James thought. ‘And the reason the system had to recalculate my points, and granted me the {Great Escape Artist} title, had been because it didn’t expect anybody to jump off a cliff while running from the wolves.’ James felt a bit salty that he had jumped off a cliff and almost died when he didn’t even have to. The first enemies on the first floor had been made to be safe, yet James had still almost died. ‘Now that's bad game design, if you ask me,’ he thought, ‘Well at least these rewards better be worth it.’

Speaking of rewards James focused on the {Evolution Card} he had received.

[This card has the power to forcefully evolve the user when the user’s evolutionary progress has hit a roadblock.]

‘Now that seems powerful,’ James thought. If James had learned anything from the web-novels he used to read, then it was that evolutions were great ways to get a lot of power instantly, so something that would forcefully evolve someone would be very powerful. He decided he would save this for later and was better informed, because he would probably regret it if he used it too early he suspected.

Now that James had seen everything, he decided to look at his updated status. ‘Status,’ he thought.

Name: James Wall {Fearless} {Relentless} {Great Escape Artist}

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Level: 8

Strength: Average (Tier 0)

Agility: Above Average (Tier 0)

Dexterity: Average (Tier 0)

Vitality: Average (Tier 0)

Endurance: Average (Tier 0) + increase (large)

Intelligence: High (Tier 0)

Charisma: Average (Tier 0)

Magic: Locked

Physical Status: Healthy

Mental Status: Mildly Confused

Skills(active): None

Skills(passive): Great Fear Resistance Lv 1, Enhanced Growth Lv 1

Skills(special): None

Skills(bloodline): None

Points: 15,000

Shop: Unlocked

System Messenger: Unlocked

Tower Floor: Floor 1

‘Next, it's time to look at the shop,’ James decided.