Gaining Strength

-Level Up-

You have gained 1 talent point.

Dack stood over the corpse of the beast, he was victorious. He stared at the weapon in it's hands, it was tinged with the grey blood of it. It shone in the fluorescent light. Dack grimaced. He felt strong, so strong, and that creature had died in his hands.

But the existence of this creature, showed that the world had changed. Profoundly so, it would never be the same. And the tools of this change, the tools that seperated Dack from the rest of the world, were in his hand.

The sword of his father, the book that he had left and of course the patience that had accompanied Dack for years. Patience that had seemed like such a curse. Patience that had forced him to be a mundane worker.

Dack raised his sword to the sky, right now felt like one of those moments that they describe in legends. Where the hero finally realizes his goal. Where he can grab it in his hand. Dack smiled.

Dack didn't know what he wanted. He knew that things had changed. He would have to get to the city to really see those changes. Would everyone that he knew before still be there? Would his boss? Would his co-workers?

He didn't really care. But the everyday people of the world, the barista at his favorite coffee shop, the people he travelled next to on the bus. Where would they be now? Within Dack's head, the system that had come to find it home sat there and stared out. Dack needed it now but he didn't know how to access it's power.

He tried all sorts of things. Saying system or status repeatedly didn't seem to work. Nothing seemed to work.

Dack looked outside his eyes bleary from all the effort. It was night and darker than any night Dack had ever seen. The lights of the world that had previously wound around and around had come to a stop. He heard sounds come from outside, however they were far away distant sounds, like thunder in a mild thunderstorm.

There were more creatures out there. Creatures with longer arms, and minds that were even more frightening. Dack let out the air that had been pent up in his lungs and reached for the book that was also his fathers.

"The Art of Waiting" was no book Dack had ever seen. As he read and read, a clear picture formed of what the book was. As if the book itself had transported itself into his mind. The book was about a 'martial arts' technique, and at that Dack didn't know if it was elaborate fiction, or mind boggiling truth.

As Dack read he found himself on the chair in which he always read, as if habit had forced him to the chair. The book started describing the origins of the technique.

It described how the world was composed out of a multitude of spirits and how they swirled around man and mountain as they worked. How one spirit, in particular, had taken refuge in a mountain and unlike its freeform youth it waited. See in this world, spirits were a fickle creature who never wanted to stay in one place ever, they made love constantly and never could standstill.

Dack chuckled and thought of all the humans he met who could be described the same way. The mountain spirit however was different from all the other spirits. Not because it was unique, or because it had some special quality, it wasn't Rudolph the Red-Nosed, no, what was different and the book went into great detail on this, the spirit had been enlightened. But the book never went deeper than the word enlightened and at this Dack couldn't understand.

When this spirit was enlightened, it created this technique. After the story, the book went into long detail about how exactly practice the technique. It was like meditation that wasn't meditation, it required a tremendous amount of mental power, and went into detail about not just how the user should breathe but also how the user should feel.

Dack finished the book. After the description of the technique nothing else remained, in fact plenty of the book itself was blank as if it was awaiting writing inside of it. Dack looked at those pages, they looked back at him. Inviting him to join the technique. The book didn't even describe the effects of the technique, it wasn't escribed any magical properties, nothing.

Dack felt drawn to it, like he had been tethered to this simple technique. Like the art of waiting was his dad's gift to him. His final gift. The sword Dack had already found useful.

The technique itself didn't escribe any particular position, sitting down wasn't necessary nor was any particular strangeness. It did require precise breath and even more precise, what Dack could only describe as 'thoughts'.

Dack looked back over the breath organization and memorized it. So he began, one breath in, one breath out. His brain tingled at that. Two breaths in quick succession in, two breaths out. One breath to the sky and forcefully exhaled, one breath to the earth, exhaled slow and methodically.

Dack's mind did not wander and it did not falter. All he focused on was the breaths. He repeated them, each time his mind seemed to grow faster as he went through a cycle, for hours it went. Until in the middle of his last breath, it appeared.

His status screen and a message above it.

-Congratulations-

You learned how to open your status screen using the Art of Waiting. For being the first to open your status screen without relying on outside help. You have been granted a special ability for your patience system and can now open the status screen whenever!

-Patience System-

Name: Dack Martin

Race: Human

Level: 2XP Until next level: 1532

Talent Points: 1 Author Note: (Changing stars to talent points)

Stats (The average human is a 10 in everything):

Strength: 9

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 10

Will: 16

Charisma: 4

Wisdom: 12

Personality: 14

*Patience: 102

Skills:

Biking: Lvl 4 Proficient

Swimming: Lvl 3 Average

Reading: Lvl 5 Skilled

Cooking: Lvl 2 Mediocre

Art of Waiting: Lvl 1 Beginner

System is a Patience system every hour that goes by all skill experience is multiplied by 1.01 and all stats are increased by 0.1.

Additional Abilities:

The longer you activate a skill or ability the more experience you gain for that skill or ability.

*Marks a unique stat

A lot had changed in Dack's system and he smiled as he looked at it. His strength, agility and will had gone up from killing the creature. His patience also had gone up and Dack knew why as he looked at the lower end of his screen.

The Art of Waiting had awakened something in Dack that wasn't there previously, he felt it in his mind. It's hard to describe the change that had happened. Almost as if the thought process was simply different, as if all the workings and turnings of his brain had been shifted.

He had been changed and now he was a different man than before this madness.

After, Dack looked at the talent points section of his system. He tried to touch it and another screen appeared that only read:

-Talent Points-

Points that increase your talent. Only gained through extreme actions. Can only be used at Woco Brand Talent Stations!

Dack laughed at the silliness of the corporate takeover of the galactic system, it was silly the amount of strange thing in it. However, his laughter faded. The sounds that were previously far away, Dack could now hear coming closer. So many sounds and that could only mean one thing, so many creatures.