Chapter 5: I Think I Know What To Do.
After running for almost 15 minutes, I finally stopped. I couldn't keep up the rhythm any further, even though breathing helped me a lot. My body was very weak, and it took some time to recover. With my hands resting on my knees, I was breathing like crazy. Soon, under the influence of my skills, my breathing and heart rate came back to normal.
After reading the description of my new skill, I sighed.
Level: 1
Description: You can train just like most people. Regular training increases your strength and endurance.
As soon as I got this skill, I instinctively felt some inconsistency with the fact that I was not running correctly. It also confirmed the fact that the experience for the skill didn't add up much. But I also found a very surprising thing: as soon as I get a skill, I instinctively feel the rightness of how to do this or that. For example, with the breathing skill, I started to feel like I was breathing correctly, and the experience added up for almost every few breaths and exhalations after increasing the level. This applied to the other skills as well.
It hasn't even been a day, but there are already some changes. If I can get this body in order, becoming very strong won't be a problem. Now that I realize the full potential of the skills, I already know what I need to do: self-defense and the ability to use weapons. I also need to explore other aspects of the skills, such as whether I can acquire them by reading books or learning an existing craft. Or whether the skills only work on the physical level, although the mindfulness skill doesn't apply to that.
After thinking it over, I turned toward home.
..................................
As I opened the door of the main entrance, I began to make slow steps so that my sister would not hear. But just as I was about to pass by the restroom door, the door opened and a tall girl came out. She had blond hair, blue eyes, and a pretty face, only slightly tanned because of her work. But at the moment, she was very sleepy and had a disheveled look.
As soon as she saw me, however, her sleepy face immediately disappeared, replaced with a certain coldness. "Elanora, I'm waiting for you to explain... Why does our house smell like cigarettes?"
I thought she'd be asking questions about where I'd gone early in the morning or fighting with me. But she asked the question with a pause in the middle. You could see by her gaze as she looked at my cheek. Her question made me instinctively start taking short breaths to see what she was talking about. But I still couldn't smell the play, and then I looked at her puzzled. She understood what I meant.
"Don't pretend, did you bring... anyone here?" When she asked again, memories of those three freaks came to me. One of them seemed to be smoking the whole time. Though I understood the situation, I still began to act as if nothing had happened and show my doubtful face again.
"You, did he hit you?" Realizing that her face was wrong and the subject of going somewhere else, I had to pretend. "No one hit me, and I'm still going to work from today."
On my way home, I thought about finding a job to earn money and use it as an excuse for when I went to kill someone. Though the excuse wasn't much, my companion's face flickered with joy before turning to doubt and then anxiety. I ended the conversation by telling her not to worry about it.
Once in my room, I sat down on the bed and turned on my laptop to surf the internet. I found a video that demonstrated some boxing moves and watched it for half an hour, hoping to learn the skill by observing the other person's movements. But I still didn't get the skill after watching it for a while.
After some thought, I stood up, closed the door, and began to repeat the moves from the video while watching it repeatedly for 15 minutes. When I made another punch in the air with my fist, different words than before flashed in front of me.
[New skill gained (Fist Fighting)]
My heart overflowed with joy, and I quickly unlocked the skill.
Level: 1
Description: You know the basics of fist fighting, but your strength and accuracy leave a lot to be desired.
After reading the description, I got excited, but I also had a doubt. Why did I get a fist fighting skill instead of a boxing skill?
After thinking for a while, I switched to another video that demonstrated kicking techniques. Repeating the man's movements over and over again, another skill finally appeared.
[New skill gained (Kick Fighting)]
Without even looking at the description, I started looking for all sorts of tricks from wrestling to hitting weak spots to self-defense. For almost three hours, I was running back and forth in the room. Sometimes some moves didn't give me the skill, sometimes you only had to do a few moves, and the skill was ready. And sometimes, it took a lot.
When the third hour passed, I had done enough to get a feel for myself. The pulswas already running frantically, and I was panting and wanted to drink a lot of water. Apart from that, the dizziness had begun.
I decided that this would be the last one. As I was doing the moves, I also watched the progress of the other skills. There were almost nine more skills with different movements. But as soon as I made the last movement, suddenly a strange thing happened.
All these skills literally disappeared, which puzzled and frightened me. But other than that, another feeling kicked in inside me. My body became quite light and my movements became coordinated with each other . When I looked at the skills with doubt, I saw a new skill instead of nine.
This was a new skill that probably included everything else. I wanted to try it, but my condition was pretty bad. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I could call it a day. Even though I only had 13 days, if I died early from overwork, it would be very bad. It was a miracle that I had lasted this long with this body at all.
Looking at the dream panel, I was in a good mood.
Power: 4 (10 Ordinary Man) Flexibility: 6+(1) (10 Ordinary Man) Speed: 5 (10 Ordinary Man) Intelligence: 11 (10 Ordinary Man)
Skills:
Breath: Level 4 [134800/1000000] (+)
Walking: Level 3 [43300/100000] (+)
Stamina: Level 3 [32100/100000] (+)
Balance: Level 3 [400/100000] (+)
Attention: Level 2 [7700/1000000] (+)
Pain Threshold: Level 2 [2700/10000] (+)
Cleaning: Level 2 [7500/10000] (+)
Cooking: Level 1 [300/1000] (+)
Master of Combat: Level 1 [100/1000] (+)