2 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions, Plans, Plans, Plans, Work, Work, Work,

Here I was. Wet, alone, and penniless. The rain just couldn't of come at a better time. I was currently taking shelter under the... I don't know what to call it part of a building. One of those thin sticky outty things of a store?

A sun blocker? I dunno.

Anyways, it was cold. Very cold.

I had nothing to do to get warn, except lay on the ground and start doing pushups. I don't care how ridiculous I looked, my stats aren't going to up themselves. Maybe I could even get cold resistance? Is that even a thing?

...

My strength was upped by two, and my stamina one during the rain. Still sopping wet, I sat against a building and pondered.

'What bending style should I get? Of course, I should max out Sword Mastery before removing the title...'

Air would be a good combo with my swords skills, I'd think. Allowing me to get up close and personal with wind enhancing my moves. There's also flight, that would definitely decrease my travel time, and increase my survivability. There's also Spiritual Projection.

Earth was by far the heaviest hitter, aside from lightning. It was also probably the best defense. There's Metalbending, Lavabending, Seismic Sense...

Fire is a heavy offense too. Lightningbending was good but, it took too long to use. But I always loved lightning. There's also Combustionbending, but too much could go wrong when using that.

And then there was one. Water. Waterbending was by far the most versatile. Healing, Spiritbending, Bloodbending, Icebending.

"Hm. Airbending..." I murmured to myself, and began thinking deeper about the bending style.

Airbending... Airbending... With Airbending, couldn't I take the air out of a surrounding area, making it completely uninhabitable? Also, since sound mostly travels through Air, isn't Soundbending possible? And if Soundbending IS possible, couldn't I make myself completely silent?

'How the hell would someone go about that though?' I asked myself.

"Air... Water... Seismic Sense though... Air... Water... but seismic Sense! Aaagh!" I felt like I was having an aneurysm with how hard I was thinking.

"But, wait... if I can develop Soundbending, couldn't I... make or use Echolocation? That's Seismic Sense, but through air! Then with Soundbending I can make my sword vibrant so that I can cut through anything! Haha! Yes! I'll become an Airbender!" I cackled like the evil genius that I was, making some people throw a few worried glances at me.

'Okay, plan of action. 1, find out how long until the story starts, meaning which year and season. 2, Gather money. 3, buy a ship. 4, pillage one of the Airbending temples for scrolls on Airbending! It's perfect!' I told myself with glee.

But then, a pop-up appeared in my vision.

[New Quest!]

[To Become A Bender!]

Objective 1: Get a Bending Scroll of any Bending Style and Learn it!

Hidden Objective: ?

Reward: One of Four Classes, Waterbender, Earthbender, Firebender, Airbender, +40,000 EXP,

Failure: You Become a Swordsman

[By making a carefully and deeply thought out plan, your INT has gone up by one!]

"Deeply thought out? Nah, I was just struggling to decide," I commented. Though it's not like I'd look a gift horse in the mouth.

As I continued sitting there for a while, someone stuck a hand out towards me. I looked up. It was a child, no older than ten it looked.

"Here you go mister," he said, jostling the copper coins in his hand. I blinked.

"Erm, thanks?" I thanked, despite being rather confused. The boy smiled bright at my words and ran off. I shoved it in my inventory when no one was looking. Then, a half hour later, another kid showed up and offered me money. For the next three hours, this continued in half hour intervals.

'Six luck has to be a lot in this world,' I thought to myself.

...

The next day, I woke up hungry. I didn't eat anything, so obviously I was quite famished. Using the fifty copper coins I got from unknowingly begging, I got myself some food. Steamed rice, noodles, and tofu. Probably not the most nutritious meal, but it filled my stomach.

I also learned it was the summer of 99 AG, meaning I had a few months until winter, where Aang is freed from the iceberg. So I had plenty of time... I think.

Avatar The Last Airbender takes place over winter, spring, and summer, so... Yeah. I'm good, probably. In fact, I think I should just camp out at the Southern Air Temple. It's the second closest Air Temple, if my memory's correct, aside from the Eastern Temple right above Seedy Merchants Pier.

'Actually, now that I think about it... The Southern Temple is probably closer, since I just need to go in a straight line instead of around and near fire nation territory,' I realized.

'Okay, so after I become an Airbender, practice there for a few months until the Gaang decide to come around and then hitch a ride. Great!'

Okay, now the only way I can fully actualize this plan was...

To get a job!

...

{Dishwashing} (Passive)

LV 30 (-30% EXP Gained)

EXP: 1,970/3,000

Passive Decreases the time it takes to clean Dishes by 90%

Passively Increases The Cleaned Dishes Integrity by 60%

It's been about a week and a half since I started my kitchen tenure.

I was cooking, dish washing, waiting, and all that good stuff. I also served tea at another establishment. Unfortunately, I disliked tea, but I used it to soothe my thirst anyways, in stead of water, worker discount, you know?

So far I got... Two Silvers and three hundred Copper coins. Quite the amount of wealth I've accrued for myself. I completed a few quests, like catch a thief, settle customer complaints, and such as that. Nobody could beat my twenty-first century customer service experience. Honestly, they're little angels compared to entitled millennials.

It... It did make me miss my home a little. But I tried my best not to think of that. Aside from working, I've continued my skill grinding.

My sword leveled up seven times, my dexterity went up eight, my stamina nine, and my strength two. I've also leveled up twice myself, putting me at twelve.

Besides that, I've lived a pretty lackluster second life. Sleeping atop rooftops, practicing skills up there. But there HAS been some cool information I found out from overhearing some people talking.

Some guy named Tai? Bai? Dai? Lai? I dunno, pieced out on the Fire Nation. He has a kill order on his head, seems like something for the fire nation to take their soldiers attention away from their wanton mass genocide of innocents. Honestly, I'm rooting for Dai, I also really hope his name is Dai. After all, isn't ironic that people want you to Die when your name is Dai?

I shook my head, shaking myself out of my amusing thoughts. I had a job to do after all.

...

Time seemed to slip from my grasp, as I lived an ordinary, calming, if somewhat boring life. I did good old fashioned hard, honest work.

Three silvers... four silvers... five silvers... six silvers... seven silvers... eight silvers... nine silvers... ten silvers...

[Silver C: 11 Copper C: 2,189]

Thankfully, I was impervious to being mugged. As my accumulated wealth was stored in my inventory. I also always traveled with my pockets inside out, showing that I had nothing to steal. As I was mindlessly wandering around, I noticed a mercantile ship.

Deciding to see where they were heading, I talked to one of the crew members.

"Where're you taking her?" I asked, referring to the ship.

"Oh, just a short trip to Chin Village," he replied simply.

'This... could be my chance, right?' I wondered to myself. After all, Chin Village and the Southern Temple were right next to each other.

"What's the trip for?"

"Ah, you know. They have this festival... Avatar Day, was it? It ended a few weeks back, sometime spring I reckon. It cost quite a lot of paper. And food since... y'know, festival and all that," he explained.

"So, you're going to be trading them food?" I wanted to just make sure.

"Yeup."

"Would it be... okay for me to speak to your captain? I can make it worth his while," I told him.

"Yeeuhh... I'll have to get back to you on that!" The crew member started walking rather... lackadaisically up the ramp to the ship's deck. He talked to some moderately plumb individual, before slowly making his way back to me.

"He'll talk to ya," he jerked a thumb towards the plump man.

"Great, thanks," I told him before heading towards the captain.

"So, you wanted to talk to me?" he inquired, as he cast an appraising eye on me, looking me up and down thoroughly.

"Yeah, I did. My name's Elliot," I stuck out a hand. He hesitantly grabbed it, and we shook.

"Nice to meet you...?"

"Bowen, the name is Bowen. Now I have to say Mister... Elliot, is that you have quite the unique name," he informs me.

"Really?"

"Yes, yes you do. But aside from that, let's talk business, shall we? What do you want from me, the humble captain of this vessel?" Bowen queried.

"Well, all I want is for you to take me to the island which houses the Patola Mountain Range, I'll pay you five silver coins," I explained to him my purpose for seaking him out.

"Hm. Now, I can do that with little to no problem, but why would you want to go to such a place? If you don't mind me asking, of course," he questioned politely.

"Well, you see..." I grinned, "I'm a bit adventurous, and I think there's no better adventure than exploring the ruins of the long deceased Air Nomads." I was lying, obviously.

"Well, that's as good as any reason, I suppose!" he let out a hearty laugh.

"Here," I pulled five silvers from my pocket, when I actually pulled them out of my inventory.

"Welcome aboard Elliot! Me and my crew will do our best to make sure you don't feel uncomfortable during your duration on this fine vessel of ours,," he promised with a smile.

"I'll hold you to that."

So began my ship ride to the Southern Temple.

[Proofread by me, Turtle, at 3:16 P.M. Tuesday April 18th 2023. Hopefully there aren't any mistakes.]