The next morning Warren woke up with the sunrise. He took a glance around and made sure that everyone was still asleep. He placed one hand on the blanket and thought "Equipment Enhancement."
He was greeted with the now familiar sight of the blue translucent boxes. However, instead of the "Enhancement Successful" message, he got a new notification.
[Not enough CF]
[Enhancement Unsuccessful]
Warren was first taken aback, but thinking about how it's only been four hours since he had depleted his Chi Pool, he realized this was what was suppose to happen.
Since Warren had already wakened, he didn't want to go back to sleep. He gently got out of the bed, being extra careful not to wake anyone. His father stirred a bit but ultimately went back to sleep.
Sitting on the floor of their little hut, Warren began to meditate. Today was not the first time he had gotten up so early. But it was the first time he meditated this early. Usually, he would go into the city to find food for his family.
Warren wanted to use this time to restore his Chi Pools just enough to use "Equipment Enhancement" before his everyone wakes up.
Sitting there on the floor, Warren closed his eyes and cleared his mind and began to meditate. He noticed that his Chi Pool was just the tiniest bit larger.
"Interesting... I haven't done anything differently in last few days aside from using the two new skills, so that must be the reason" Warren thought to himself. Although he knew that the "Equipment Enhancement" and "Basic Analyze!" was somehow helping his cultivation, he could not pinpoint exactly how.
---
Roughly two hours of meditation later he felt his Chi Pool swelled and a small pop that only he could hear went off in his body. He knew that this meant he had just gained an extra unit of Chi Force. In two days, he had gone from 7 units of Chi Force to 9. This was unheard of to Warren, but then again, he was just a boy and didn't hear much.
Opening his eyes, Warren looked in the direction of the bed; he saw the rest of his family was still sound asleep.
Walking over to the bad, he softly touched the blanket and thought "Equipment Enhancement"!
---
[7 (UCF) Used]
[1/9 UCF Remaining]
[Enhancing...]
[Enhancement Successful]
"Basic Analyze!"
[1 UCF Used]
[0/9 UCF Remaining]
[Analyzing...]
[Analysis Complete]
[Item Grade: Lesser Common]
[Enhancement Level: +3]
[Item Name: Blanket Rag]
[Attack: 0]
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[Defense: 2]
[Durability: 5/8]
[Description: A poorly-made, worn-down blanket that can barely keep one person warm]
[Enhancement Requirement: 8 UCF]
---
To Warren's delight, the enhancement worked this time, and it filled his heart with determination. It's only been two days since he has acquired these skills and he was already able to make small improvements to his family's living situation. He can only imagine how things would change in a few years when he had explored all the options these skills gave him. Warren also felt a little bit better about leaving his family in two days.
"At least they will be able to sleep a bit warmer at night" Warren muttered to himself.
---
Instead of going back to sleep, Warren decided to go into the city to see if he could bring some food back for his siblings, although it probably won't be much it could help tie them over until he can bring some money back.
Taking the first step outside his little hut, he immediately felt the chilling autumn breeze. Although it is a bit colder than usual, it was not enough to phased Warren.
By this time, there was already a fair number of people about. Some were similar to Warren, begging and looking for scraps of food. Others were going into the city to find work. And there were few that already had work.
By the time Warren got the Pine Street, the corner where his family usually begged for food, the city was already bustling. He saw merchants and street vendors haggling and trading, he saw children not much older than his siblings going to school and he saw labors tracking to the docks to brings goods into the city.
Settling down for a morning of begging, Warren laid out his small chipped bowl and made himself look as small as he could. Having some experience, he knew that people would pity those who are young and are more likely to give something to them.
Slowly minutes turned into hours and it was already past noon. He still had nothing in his bowl. He also didn't catch sight of his siblings.
"They must have gone to a different street today." Warren thought to himself.
Then suddenly a small bun was dropped into his bowl. Looking up he could only see the back of a young girl about a few years older than himself. She was wearing a cyan color dress, she had a middle-aged maid next to her and two guards walking behind her. Warren only had a small glance at the girl and immediately his face redden.
It must be said that Warren didn't have much interaction with other people his age in the past year and a half and especially not pretty young girls. For almost a full five seconds Warren was stunned by her beauty. When he finally regained his faculties, he saw a palm-sized fragrance pouch next to his bowl.
Putting one and one together, he knew that this must have belonged to the young girl that had just given him a bun.
Wiping his hands on his semi-clean clothes, Warren tried his best not to get the pouch dirty. He quickly caught up to the group, however before he could say a thing he was harshly kicked in the abdomen by one of the guards.
He flew into the air and backward by more than five feet. He landed with a thump onto the hard cold ground.
"Kid, what the hell do you think you are doing?" The guard that kicked Warren asked in asked in a stern tone.
Taking several seconds for the shock and pain to pass he realized what he just did. Warren couldn't help but call himself stupid. The guard did what he was supposed to do and it was him that was running over at full speed. No matter how someone looked at it they would think Warren was the one making trouble.
Cursing his stupidity, he reached his hand out to show the pouch. However, he did not dare to look up, he was afraid that he had just caused trouble for himself. He had heard the rumors that people from rich houses loved to pick people off the streets and "play" with them and discard them after they were done. And those people would always come back with gaunt eyes.
---
All the commotion had caught the attention of the young miss and the maid. They turned around to see one of the guard yelling at a beggar on the floor.
"Joe Yee, what do you think YOU are doing? How could you hurt a defenseless child!" The young Miss rebuked the guard that just kicked Warren.
Joe Yee couldn't help but felt wrong; he was just doing his job.
"Young Miss-" He began to say, but before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off.
"Enough Joe Yee, we will discuss this when we get back to the sect." This time was the maid that spoke up.
Walking up to Warren, the young Miss took the pouch from Warren's hand.
"Thank you for retrieving my pouch. My name is Xia Mi, and I sincerely apologize for my guard's actions."
Hearing her sweet voice, Warren couldn't help but look up. In front of him, was the young Miss in the cyan dress that he saw before. Warren was still young but felt like his heart was beating so fast he was afraid that the girl in front of him could hear it.
In that few seconds of confusion, Warren forgot about the pain that he felt in his abdomen, but he also forgot to breathe, and his vision started to close in from all sides. The last thing he saw was Xia Mi's concern face, and his last thoughts were, "Shit, not again." before he passed out.
End of Chapter 5