Body Modification (Part One)

Hazel left the headmaster's room in victory. Not only did he complete a quest and become stronger, he also got a high paying job. He couldn't erase his smile, even since he left the room.

"Hehe, you seem so happy to get a little paying job, junior," Celina teased. Her face was also bright because her grandpa had approved her decision to stay in the adventurer club.

"What do you mean by a little paying?"

"I mean it is only $3000. You can only survive 3 days with that amount."

Hazel blinked his eyes. He was speechless. No wonder her grandpa had been opposing her to become an adventurer, it turned out her condition was worse than he thought. She didn't only neglect her job as a student, she also didn't have common sense regarding money.

"Excuse me, Senior Dumont, but how much is your pocket money everyday?"

"Only $1000. Mom is a bit stingy. I literally can only go to my favorite Three Michael Star Restaurant once every three days. I wish I could go there everyday."

"Senior Dumont...." Hazel grabbed her shoulders and stared into her eyes.

Celina averted her eyes while blushing. Contrary to her usual fierce character, she looked meek at the moment. "W-what? Why are you calling me Dumont? I thought you respected people by calling them by their names."

"I am your manager, right?"

"Why do you ask? If you don't understand your job details, you should resign."

"Fine then. From today, I forbid you to bring more than $50 per day."

Celina finally looked him in the eyes and showed an angry expression. "Huh? $50? Do you want me to starve to death?"

"People can survive with that amount per day. Also, if you want to be a good adventurer, you need to learn how to live without money."

Celina's face paled. "Living without money? H-how are people going to survive without money?"

Hazel put on a dumbfounded expression. Common sense didn't work for this daughter of a rich family. "Senior, be honest. You have survived adventures with your... Dad, right?" he asked while carefully mentioning her deceased dad. "How did you even survive in the wilderness without money?"

Celina put her index finger on her chin and pondered. "I can't remember those details. Dad always took care of that stuff for me."

"Okay, it's settled then. We will learn about common sense and discipline before I allow you to have an adventure. Anyway, see you tomorrow, senior."

Hazel waved his hand and left her, showing his back when the girl called him over and over. Today was both good and exhausting, so he really wanted to have time alone to sort out his mind.

As he arrived in his room, Hazel immediately threw himself onto his bed. He buried his face on a pillow and kicked the mattress repeatedly in excitement.

After a while, he turned around and lay on his back. He looked at the ceiling with a beaming smile and said, "I am rich!"

Mircalla floated above him and smiled at him.  "Congratulations, Hazel. You have taken the first step in changing your life," she said sincerely. Her happy expression and her compassionate gaze were genuine.

Hazel suddenly felt grateful to her. If it wasn't for her encouragement, he wouldn't have dared to take a gamble that could change his life. "It's all thanks to you, Mircalla. Thank you."

"Hehe, I did nothing. I am just a floating spirit. You have done everything by your own effort."

Hazel felt encouraged after hearing her words. He punched the air and said, "From today, I will climb the stairs that will take me higher."

"For sure. But don't forget, don't be hasty with your decision. Always take extra caution when you are walking on your path. The path to become stronger is lonely and full of hurdles, but it doesn't mean you have to become jaded as you face difficulties. Be yourself. Stay as yourself."

"I will remember that." Hazel jumped out of the bed and stood up. "Ah, I am feeling motivated. I will train harder today!"

"You want to train now?" Mircalla looked at him curiously.

"Of course. I can't become stronger if I keep sitting on my butt and do nothing."

"Hm, why don't you check your system first? This system is your good fortune, so you have to take advantage of it well in order to become stronger."

"I guess you are right. So many good things happened and made me too excited. Let's check the system together."

Hazel sat on the edge of the bed and summoned the system. He realized he could increase a stat grade by one, which was an amazing thing. There were a few ways of increasing one's stat grade, but none of them was easy to acquire. The easiest to acquire was to consume the Star Raising Potion, but someone could only drink it once, and the price was astronomical. He wouldn't dare to dream of getting it before.

Even though raising stat grades was extremely difficult, Hazel found out he could achieve the reward by increasing a grandpa's affection rate to the max.

"Mircalla, what do you think I should raise?" Hazel asked. He really felt confused after getting the chance to do it.

"You should raise your highest grade stat obviously. When you reach level 10 and you have S grade stats, you will receive a special ability in accordance with the S grade stats you have."

Hazel listened to her advice. His highest stat was strength, so he increased his strength grade.

[Congratulations! Your strength grade has increased from C to B!]

[Congratulations! Your strength stat has increased by 5!]

[Name: Hazel Larson

Species: Human

Level: 4

Talent: Grandpa System (Lv. 3)

Strength: 26 (B) || Endurance: 15 (D)

Agility: 11 (E) || Perception: 10 (E)

Intelligent: 5 (F) || Wisdom: 5 (F)]

[Abilities: Axemanship (Lv. 5), Power Slash (Lv. 1), Grandpa System (Lv. 3)]

After checking his normal system, Hazel opened the [Grandpa Systems]. It had reached level 2. The benefit of leveling this system up was he would get more rewards when completing quests. At the moment, the increase brought only a little change, but the benefit would be apparent when his system reached a high level.

Aside from reaching level 2, there was another change, a new feature called [Family Tree]. This feature allowed him to see the information of the family members from every grandfather who had high affection for him. He could also learn their abilities in the [Ability Research Function]. This was quite a good feature because it gave him more options.

Hazel immediately tried the new function. He was curious about the Dumont family, so he clicked Lucas's family tree. Immediately, the list of Lucas's family was shown on the screen. Surprisingly, he could check Lucas's wife's information and his daughter in law's information. It was surprising because they were not related to him by blood.

"I guess people who become Dumont family members as his wife or his children's companions are included in that list."

Hazel felt lucky for this. That meant he could learn non Dumont abilities from family members who were not born as Dumont.

Hazel really wanted to try learning an ability as he had a lot of points, but he was unsure what to learn.

"Say, Mircalla, it's better if I learn a breathing technique, right? Should I research the Dumont Family's secret breathing technique? I know it is a secret technique, but Lucas's affection toward me is max, so he probably will allow me."

"Bad idea. How will you explain where you have gotten your hands on their secret technique? Even if Lucas allows you, the other family members don't."

"Then this ability research function is useless for me."

"Not really. However, we can put it aside for now and focus on another function. There is a ton of useful stuff in the store. For example...." Mircalla asked him to open the store function and pointed at a certain product.

[Name: Magic Warrior Body Modification

Price: 5.000 affection points or 5.000 special points (discount 99% from 500.000 points for the first purchase as the reward for conquering a grandpa).

Description: Modify your body so it becomes suitable to learn martial arts and magic. Raise all your stats grades to C. If one stat has exceeded C, it won't increase.]

Even after Mircalla suggested him to buy it, Hazel still hesitated. At the moment, everything he bought would get a 99% discount. That was the reason he wanted to learn Dumont's secret breathing technique. From 500.000 points, he could buy it for 5.000 points.

The reason he wanted a breathing technique was because it would hasten his aura awakening. Once someone had an aura, it could compliment their lack of physical stats.

"Are you still hesitating? Don't worry, I have your back. Haven't I promised to become your teacher? I can teach you a profound breathing technique too."

"Really?"

Mircalla smiled smugly. "Of course. I don't want to brag, but in my world, I was famous as an invincible warrior. People who possess a threat to me could be counted with two hands."

"Then I guess I will buy your suggested product." The issue of learning a breathing technique was solved, so Hazel didn't hesitate to bring his finger closer to the product she was suggesting.