02 - Change
When I left my room, the first thing I did was brush my teeth before heading down to the kitchen in search of a water bottle to take on my walk.
But when I got to the kitchen, I was surprised by what I saw.
Jonathan was at the kitchen table, looking at a handful of papers, which I assumed were bills, with a tired expression while holding a coffee in his other hand.
When he heard my steps, I could see the surprise on his face as he quickly tried to hide the papers from me, probably afraid I would find out about the possible financial problems the family was having.
"Hey Champ, up already? Or did you stay up playing late?" My new dad asked me, trying to pretend nonchalance.
I pretended not to notice his concern with the bills and tried to respond in a more natural way.
"Just woke up, felt a bit off and decided to take a walk." I tried to speak normally, without using the submissive tone of this world's Noah, or my old aggressive way of speaking.
If I were to rely on the experience of this world's Noah to have this conversation, I could hardly say more than three words, but fortunately, I had some friends at school in my past life.
The problem is that my friends were all troubled, just like I was, so our way of talking was much more aggressive than normal people are used to, like us cursing at each other, speaking angrily, or things like that.
It was really good for us since we could vent our anger about other things on each other, but without offending anyone, since no one there cared.
As much as I tried to speak normally, I could notice the surprise on my father's face at seeing me saying so much.
I didn't intend to act like the old Noah, so showing small changes like this was something I had planned.
"That's good, son. I think this is the first time I've seen you wearing that shirt I gave you, it looks great on you." He said excitedly as he got up and grabbed two slices of toast from the toaster.
One stayed on his plate while the other he put on a plate for me.
I was surprised by the concern he was showing for me, and it seemed like he was really happy just with this little interaction we had.
Maybe the time he spends working away from the family is affecting him more than I imagined.
Seeing his expectant look, I sat down in front of him at the kitchen table and ate my toast with him.
But since I didn't know what to say, and apparently, he wasn't used to talking to me either, we both just sat in silence while we ate.
Even though no one said anything, I was very happy with this simple moment, since I can't even remember a moment of such peace in my previous life with my old father.
And from the smile I saw on Jonathan's face, it was clear that he was also happy to have company for breakfast.
(NunuNote: Hi guys, Author here, just to explain about these comments. Just like I used in my iCarly fanfic, I also felt that this would add to this novel.
These comments are basically like in a SitCom, where an interviewer talks to the characters to know what they're thinking.
Of course, the characters in the real world don't know they're in a story, or that they're "being filmed", it's just something to give more depth to the characters.)
-------- Jonathan Commentary --------
Sitting on the interview couch facing the camera, a little nervous, Jonathan didn't really know how to act.
"I was surprised to see Noah waking up so early... having company for breakfast was really nice..." He said with a smile on his face. "He even wore the shirt I gave him from the Emerald Thunders, it's been so long since we talked..."
"I think what made me happiest was knowing he would be exercising, his weight was starting to worry me, knowing he's going to start exercising gives me a little relief." Jonathan sighed as he thought about his son's weight.
He didn't really know how to bring up this topic with Noah when he thought about it before, but seeing that Noah thought of it on his own made him feel relieved.
-------- Commentary Ends --------
When I finished, I washed my plate and got ready to leave.
"I'm going for my walk..." I said, not knowing what else to say.
My dad smiled as he replied. "Alright, have fun Champ."
"Enjoy your day at work..." I replied as I left the house.
[CHA +1]
Seeing this notification suddenly pop up in front of me left me very surprised, as I didn't imagine I could raise my stats like this.
'So it's not just the missions that can give me stats?' I thought excitedly as I started walking.
Moving a body of 150 kg was much more difficult than I imagined, especially over long distances.
After just 10 minutes, I was already feeling my breath going away.
At 15 minutes, I was having trouble catching my breath, seeing that I had already walked 1 km, I decided to take a 5-minute break before continuing to walk.
Even though 5 minutes seemed like a lot, I was still very tired when I resumed walking, but this time I didn't stop to rest and kept pushing myself.
When I reached 30 minutes, I decided to do a 60-second sprint and another notification popped up!
[DEX +1]
As soon as that notification came up, I felt like my body got a little lighter and the movement I was doing before to walk 6 meters, now I could move at least 9 meters in the same time without getting any more tired!
Considering my Dexterity was only 2 points, now that it went up to 3 points it was like a 50% increase from my previous total!
'It's gonna be tough to complete 3 km in an hour, but with this Dexterity point, I can do it!' I thought motivated as I continued walking.
My endurance was terrible, as I was all sweaty and very tired, but I didn't give up.
At 48 minutes, I received another notification.
At this point, I was so tired it was hard to even think, but I kept walking and tried to read the notification.
But my surprise was huge when a lot of the fatigue I was feeling started disappearing.
Or better yet, the fatigue wasn't disappearing completely, but it was like my body was yelling that it could handle more and that the fatigue that before was almost killing me, now was no longer my limit.
With that, I managed to look at the screen and was very happy with the notification.
[CON +1]
Smiling, I continued running through the neighborhood until at 59 minutes I completed the 3 km!
[Mission: Walk 3 km (1.8 miles) in 1 Hour.
Rewards:
+1 CON, Mysterious Title
Completed!
Accept reward?]
As soon as the mission notification popped up for me, I couldn't even look ahead, it was like the adrenaline that was keeping me standing disappeared and my body just started falling forward onto the nearest lawn.
Not only was my body hurting, but my head was also hurting a lot, since I didn't have enough oxygen for my body.
After what seemed like an eternity breathing, I managed to open my eyes and accept the reward.
[CON +1]
[New Title Unlocked: Perseverant.]
[Perseverant: Only those who persevere to the end in a difficult task receive this title.
Effect: +10% ease when doing a task that requires a lot of effort.]
'What a useful title!' I thought excitedly as the other point in Constitution relieved some of the fatigue I was feeling.
[New Skill Acquired: Aerobic Exercise Lv 1]
[Aerobic Exercise Lv 1: Performing aerobic exercises increases the user's Metabolism speed by 1% for 24 hours.]
Seeing the new skill I gained, I was shocked.
Considering that a normal body burns about 2,000 calories a day, and with my weight, I probably burn more, it should amount to about 2,800 to 3,000 calories a day, with this 1% bonus it's practically 30 calories burned every day without doing anything!
And since this skill is at level 1, it will increase even more if I level it up!
Imagining the skill increasing my metabolism speed by 100% left me shocked, since with that I could easily lose almost 10 kg every month without doing anything!
Shaking my head to put that thought aside, for a moment I thought about going back to running to try to level up this skill, but I knew it would be useless with how tired I was, so I just got up from the grass I was lying on and went back home as slowly as I could.
Since I was close to home, it didn't take more than 5 minutes to get there.
It was only 6:05 am, so in a few minutes my mom and Olivia would wake up.
'I better go take a shower soon.' I thought in a hurry as I ran to the bathroom remembering how long Olivia took to get ready in the bathroom.
Usually Noah woke up after Olivia finished getting ready, so he didn't feel it as much, but since I was stinking of sweat, what I needed most now was a shower to feel clean.
Arriving in the bathroom, I was surprised.
In the mirror's reflection, even though I couldn't exactly identify how much, but I felt like I was a little slimmer and a little more handsome... but how?
Until I remembered!
Since I saw my reflection before, I had gained another 1 point in Charisma and 2 points in Constitution, which apparently made me a little more pleasing to the eyes.
Even the calorie burn from my walk apparently had some effect, since when I weighed myself on the bathroom scale I saw that I had lost 700 g!
For someone who weighed 150 kg, bringing that weight down to 149.3 kg was already a big step forward!
When I finished showering and looked at myself in the mirror, I was a little disappointed since it would take a long time to improve my appearance the way I was.
Looking at my long black hair, that was something that needed to change urgently.
I hated long hair on a man, especially like Noah's hair was, completely dry and poorly maintained, which gave an even dirtier impression to him who already didn't have a good appearance.
So using scissors that were on the counter, I started cutting my own hair.
Since my old man never gave me a dollar to get a haircut, I had to learn how to cut my own hair by myself.
At first, my hair looked like crap, and the old man would laugh at me because of it, but over time I got good at it.
[Skill Acquired: Hair Cutting Lv 1 (+23 previous Proficiency Levels.)]
Seeing that notification, I was surprised, both for getting a new skill so easily, and for getting this skill already at level 24 for knowing how to do it in my previous life!
[Hair Cutting Lv 24:
When cutting someone's hair, the cut has +24% chance to please whoever looks at it.]
Seeing the skill description, I got even more excited as I cut the hair, until I finally finished.
What used to be long and dry hair, was now much shorter and messier, which was exactly my style in my old world.
Luckily the bathroom also had a razor blade, which the old Noah used to trim the little beard he had, which I used to trim the little beard that was growing on me, trim the base of my toe hair, and with what was left of the blade now with less cutting ability, I used it to run through my hair, leaving it even messier, but much more stylish.
[Buff Acquired: Hair and Beard Done]
[Hair and Beard Done:
Effect: When Hair and Beard are well trimmed, the user receives a +1 CHA bonus.
Duration: 71:59 Hours.]
Looking at my reflection, I was quite satisfied, the CHA buff was really deserved with how much better I looked.
Even though this buff only lasted for 3 days, I wouldn't have a problem touching it up every day, since with the appearance I had, any extra point in CHA helped.
But thinking about how I got the Hair Cutting skill now, but hadn't received a Running skill, made me realize that maybe the technique I used to do something influenced it, so as soon as I left the bathroom I turned on the computer and searched for videos explaining the correct running techniques.
To my happiness, I was right!
[New Skill Acquired!]
[Walking Lv 1: When walking with the intention of exercising, you know which techniques to use and how to maintain the best posture possible to train the muscles.
Effect: When walking, your muscles develop 1% faster and your body gets tired 1% slower.]
With this new skill of mine, I was more confident in losing weight even faster.
And knowing how I could learn new skills, countless possibilities began to emerge in my mind of how I could develop in this new life.
Especially when remembering how small the video site of this world was currently compared to the YouTube of my previous life.
What they called MeTube in this world, was practically YouTube a few years after it was launched, something with few people accessing and only with a niche audience, something that could benefit me with my knowledge.
But my thoughts were cut off by a knock on my mom's door. "Come on Noah, you can use the bathroom, your sister has already finished getting ready."
Knowing the challenge it would be to interact with these new people, I was a little worried, but thinking that none of this would be worse than interacting with my old man, I relaxed and became more confident.
I just took one last look at my Status screen to gain more confidence.
=========================
| Character Status |
=========================
| Name: Noah Black
| Title: Perseverant
| Level: 01
|------------------------
| HP: 50/50
| MP: 90/90
|------------------------
| Weight: 150 Kg -> 149.3 Kg
| Strength (STR): 4
| Dexterity (DEX): 2 -> 3
| Constitution (CON): 3 -> 5
| Intelligence (INT): 9
| Wisdom (WIS): 9
| Charisma (CHA): 3 -> 5 (4 + 1)
| Agility (AGI): 2
| Luck (LUK): ??
|------------------------
| Skills:
| (Aerobic Exercise Lv 1), (Hair Cutting Lv 24), (Walking Lv 1).
| -----------------------
| Buffs:
| (Hair and Beard Done)
=========================
But before leaving, I was surprised to see an unexpected change in my HP!
From what I remember, my HP before was only 30 points, now it went up to 50!
Seeing a relationship, I quickly understood, as my constitution increased from 3 points to 5, then my HP is 10x my constitution, which really makes some sense, since it's like my body is healthier and can deal much better with injuries.
With the change in my HP, I looked at the Mana bar right below it and became a little pensive.
So far I hadn't gotten any skills that involved Mana, or needed Mana, I hadn't even been able to feel the Mana, but it was still in my Status.
Did I need some special condition to unlock the use of it?