The Orphanage

It has been a week since my arrival in to the Naru-verse, and it was a week spent exploring my new found abilities. I managed to gather more information about the gamer system through extensive trial and error. Firstly, I received an explanation on the stats and their effects on me.

HP stood for hit points, obviously, and determined how much damage I could sustain before it hits 0 – and I was not keen on finding out what would happen after that.

CP quantified the amount of Chakra I had at my disposal.

STR was just what it sounded like. It mainly determined my physical strength and damage I could dish out.

DEX corresponded to dexterity, influencing my overall speed and nimbleness and finesse.

VIT increased my HP and overall stamina and at higher levels could reduce damage received.

INT stood for intelligence and it increased my learning speed, memory, CP and even chakra recovery.

CHA was my quantified charisma, a really odd stat which the system only explained as affecting social interactions and other's perceptions of me.

REP, I assumed to represent reputation. However, there had been no way to view the total amount of REP points I had with anyone nor was there any quantifiable measurement of how much REP was gained from the quests.

The only real indication of how much REP I lost or gained was through the descriptive adjectives attached to the messages that I have observed to range from 'slightly' to 'significantly'.

The REP points could be gained or lost from quests or even my daily actions and words. When I had complimented Rie on her new haircut I gained a slight REP increase but when I accidentally broke a window during one of my evening chores, my REP decreased significantly.

She had given me the cold shoulder for the rest of the day but thankfully I managed to grind back REP points by taking the initiative to help the other kids with their chores.

Speaking of the other kids, there were quite 30 or so of them staying in the orphanage. The youngest was only 2 years old while I along with another girl was the oldest. It turned out that Konoha's public education not only provided free education for orphans, but also lodgings and allowances for when we entered the shinobi academy. Thus, there were no other children aged 8 or above still living in the orphanage as that was the age they started the shinobi academy.

The other child my age was a plain looking girl that I realized had a major puppy crush on me, or rather the Shinji Ikari that had resided in my body before my arrival. Unsurprising as the body I was inhabiting now was a super cute 7 year old, plus I was the only other one her age after all.

She was kinda clingy but I had to go along with it to maintain my façade as a 7 year old boy playing with a same-aged girl. Every innocuous gesture or praise I gave granted me significant REP boosts with her. It was educational at least as I could experiment with some of the gamer system mechanics.

I realized that no one other than me could see the system notifications such as the status screen or inventory screen. Thus if I placed something within my inventory, it would look as it the object was disappearing in mid-air.

I would have thought that was going to be difficult to explain to the girl when she first witnessed a branch disappearing into my inventory, but I easily convinced her that she was mistaken, and the branch was obviously right there on the floor (after I discretely removed it from my inventory).

She believed me instantly and had no further questions about the subject, which was probably the result of the presumably huge REP score I had with her.

Next, I also received quite a few quests which helped me figure out how quests were generated in the first place. It was a strange combination that vaguely took into account what I needed to do and what I wanted to do.

For example, every day I had at least two guaranteed quests generated – my morning chores quest and evening chores quest. Both provided 20 EXP and slight EXP increases. Thankfully after my disastrous first quest, I quickly learned from my mistakes and began completing the quests with no issue.

But quests were also generated based on things that I wanted to do but was also necessary. For example, I had received the second quest following the first Morning Chores, when I began wondering how big was the orphanage that came long with the necessity to orient myself to my new environment.

[Quest Alert!]

Explore the Orphanage:

Investigate the Konoha orphanage!

-Go through every room in the estate and discover their purpose (0/12)

-?

-?

Rewards:

+50 EXP

-?

-?

Failure:

-New Title

-REP slightly decreased with Kuroda Rie

-REP slightly decreased with Konoha Orphanage

I had immediately grimaced at the quest failure consequences. I already had the Incompetent title, what would I receive if I failed another one?

Thankfully, walking around was not as difficult as making a bed for me at least; not to mention most rooms had signs that communicated their purpose. However, the question mark had gotten me thinking.

The quest rewards had a similar question mark, which I could only deduce represented a hidden objective and corresponding hidden reward. The implication being that the quest was not as simple as it appeared. Thus, I carefully investigated every nook and cranny of the building.

Oh and I also received another +1 INT after that deduction.

At the end of the exploration I had discovered a hidden stash of cigarettes, some porno mags, a blunt kunai and some blunt shuriken, a tattered academy issue guide on Body Conditioning, various sweets and candy littered behind crawlspaces, and even some money. The biggest challenge I faced was actually Rie's office.

Not because it was locked or anything like that, but because upon entering and searching through the shelves, I had found that it was exceedingly inconspicuous. I suspected something had to be hidden in a place as important as the head caretaker's office, but not I had not been able to find anything.

But when I opened the drawers of Rie's desk, and looked underneath it, I discovered the unmistakable mechanism of a false bottom secret compartment. I had quite a few of those manufactured for myself in my previous life, so I was familiar with how it worked.

Pushing against down on the further end of the drawer, the front end tilted upwards, allowing me to lift the false bottom to reveal the contents of Rie's secret compartment.

It was another porno mag.

With a blank face, I immediately returned the false bottom back in its proper place and made sure to make it seem untouched. The revelation that Rie was a closet pervert had been slightly disturbing but understandable as well. From what I could remember, she was someone who spent almost every waking hour of her days taking care of a few dozen children. Needing some adult entertainment was not unreasonable.

I had also received another notification after successfully completing my second quest.

Quest [Explore the Orphanage] Completed!

Investigate the Konoha orphanage!

- Go through every room in the estate and discover their purpose (12/12)

- (Hidden) Find one secret stash (5/1)

- (Hidden) Discover Rie's secret compartment (√)

Rewards:

+50 EXP

+10 EXP per secret stash found

Skill [Observe]

[Congratulations! You have completed your first quest! Bonus 100% EXP to quest reward!]

[Congratulations! You have completed all hidden objectives of a quest for the first time! You have earned Title [Competent]!]

[New Title [Competent] has been cancelled out by Title [Incompetent]]

[Title [Incompetent] has turned into Title [Slightly Incompetent]]

[You have levelled up!]

[Congratulations! You have levelled up for the first time! Double stat points gained!]

[I had immediately checked my status upon quest completion.]

Name: Shinji Ikari

Age: 7

Level: 2

Next Level: 100/150

HP: 150/150

CP: 500/500

STR: 1

VIT: 1

DEX: 3

INT: 8

CHA: 3

Points – 10

Ryo – 150

Titles:

[Slightly Incompetent]: -10% for all EXP gained

The previous had now been replaced with a new one, and the effects were less harsh than before as well. The 'First time!' messages were amazing in its effects, but thinking back on the first title, they also penalized as much as it rewarded.

I realized every level up would grant me 5 stat points to distribute into my attributes, but now I had 10 stat points due to the first-time achievement. I decided to withhold stat point distribution until I really needed them.