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"So, you like, don't shoot webs out of your butt?"
"No! Nothing goes in or out of my butt!" Peter answered my question.
"What? Don't you poop?" I asked.
"You know what I meant. Anyway, I use those to shoot out webs." Peter showed me two twin devices on his wrists, and my eyes bulged.
[Web-Shooters(Rare): The creator of the devices used scraps to build them, so they have to be replaced/fixed every single time they are used. The special fluid inside them is another brilliant creation of their creator, using materials he was able to access at his school.]
God damn! He had created Rare items out of scraps! And the webs were made out of stuff he was able to find in his school. How intelligent was he?
Then I remembered, the description Observe provided me stated, he was highly intelligent before he was bitten by some spider that boosted all of his abilities, all of them. Peter was a literal genius!
"Teach me how to make stuff like that," I said impulsively.
"I would like to, but..." Peter pointed at his pajama mask. "I wear this for a reason. I want to help people with my abilities, and I don't want my identity to be known."
Yeah, that doesn't work against the broken ability called Observe.
"Peter, I know who you are," I said, smirking underneath my own mask.
"P-p-peter? I'm not Peter. I don't know any Peters. I mean, I know one, but...umm... I'm not Peter. I don't know the Peter you are talking about," He started stammering, looking terrified for his life. I guess, someone finding out his identity so early wasn't part of his plan.
I could've stopped there and acted as if I made a mistake, but I didn't.
"Really? Parker? We just fought together, and you are acting like this?" My grin was visible even through my mask, I was sure of that.
"P-p-p-p-parker? I...uughh...aghhh...eehhh..." At this point, he was literally at a loss for words, and only weird sounds came out of his mouth.
"Come on, I'm even going to pay for it! Thinking about it." I pulled out a stack of cash worth $7 500. I had received $15 000 after I grabbed the loot from Groot. He deserved at least half of it.
Peter gulped so loudly, I bet everyone in the building that we were standing on had heard it. He couldn't take his eyes off the cash and stared at it for a minute before he shook his head.
"No, no, no. I can't take it. That's your money, and it's a lot of money, and..." I shoved the stack of bills in his hands at that point.
"This is not for you to teach me. This is for the fight with Groot. This is your reward. Take it, use it to buy actual equipment to build your Web-Shooters. They are made out of stuff you've picked out of garbage cans. Imagine how good you can make them with proper materials. Imagine how many more people you will be able to save if you had good equipment."
Peter was hesitant until the last part. When he heard that, I saw him steel himself and straighten his back. I felt a bit bad about using the information I knew from Observe, but he wouldn't have taken the money otherwise.
$7 500 was a lot of money for someone like him. A week ago, I used to be the same. I hadn't even seen this much money until then. Now, I made over $20 000 in about a week. I was no longer worried about money at all.
"I... Okay, I will help you, but, in order for us to have a working relationship, I would at least need to know who you are," Peter said.
"Ew, I don't want to be in a relationship with you," I said, sounding disgusted by that thought.
"That's not what I meant!" Peter sounded just as disgusted.
"I know..." I talked with Peter for, I don't know how long now, but it must've been over 20 minutes at this point. We were both pretty antisocial, but we did hit it off. Believing that he might be someone I would want to have as a friend I removed my mask.
"William Williamson, nice to meet you."
"You're so generic, brown hair, brown eyes, and that name! I was expecting something more like Merlin the Second with all the magic you did," Peter said and removed his mask.
"What are you talking about, you are just as generic, brown hair and brown eyes," I said.
"Not true! My eyes are hazel!" Peter protested my statement.
We laughed it out before exchanging our numbers, and I teleported away.
---
Peter stared at the money in his hands. Cash was hard to get, especially for someone his age. He was in 10th grade, living only with his aunt.
This money could be helpful to him, but... he stored $500 in his pockets before he fired his web-shooters and swung away, returning towards the place they fought with Groot.
Peter saw a lot of families that were left without homes. Some had their cars destroyed because he and Will used threw them at Groot. He dropped down and began giving the money he got to them. It wasn't much, but it was something.
A hero is what he wanted to be, and sometimes, heroes had to make sacrifices. Keeping the money for himself would've been a simple thing to do, and he could've made a lot of gadgets for himself, but that wasn't his personality, that wasn't him.
---
I returned home, opened up my Inventory, and pulled out my Pyrokinesis book.
[Pyrokinesis (Active) Lvl. 1/100: Through the usage of mana, the user can create and manipulate fire. MP cost depended on the shape and quantity of fire. The higher the skill, the less MP it would cost for all actions. Damage depends on Intelligence.]
I... think I might have just become a pyromaniac, judging by how excited I was from the fire in my hand. Then I brought the fire to my other hand. Ouch!
[Fire Resistance increased to 2.]
[Pyrokinesis increased to 2.]
Well, well, well. Well. I can increase both skills at the same time? The Gamer, you shouldn't have!
Then I checked the item I got from Groot and pulled out a... branch.
[Floral colossus offspring(Legendary): The offspring of Groot XXCVII. To raise a Floral colossus, it has to be placed in soil and taken care of. The Floral colossus will then look at its carer as a parent.]
I can get my own Groot? Oh, hell, yeah! But, I don't want to be a parent. Ugh. But my own personal Groot! My own familiar!
While wondering how to raise and take care of my Groot, I changed my clothes and went to see grandma. Since I wasn't supposed to be at home, I entered the Mirror Dimension, exited the house, and then entered inside.
Grandma looked relieved when she saw me enter. I assured her that I was fine and that nothing had happened to me. I then cooked her some food, gave her a massage, and helped her get to bed.
After that, I returned back to the kitchen and walked up to the refrigerator while thinking about something grandma told me. She said she felt energized after my massage.
That got me thinking, why can't I give myself a massage? And I did, and I felt my fatigue disappeare in seconds. This was a goldmine! I didn't need Stamina Potions or energy drinks anymore.
With this, my grinding time was doubled, and it couldn't have come at a better time since it was starting to get harder to level up.
Before proceeding with said grinding, I removed my shirt, opened up the freezer, took a bag of ice blocks, and hugged it to my chest.
It took me some time, but I finally heard the ding sound, I so much loved.
[Through a specific action, the skill, Ice Resistance, has been created.]
[Ice Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 1/100: Reduces ice damage by 1%]
I grinned like an idiot. If I get enough resistance skill and max them out, can't I become virtually invulnerable? This was a very lucrative thought, but I would have to hurt myself a lot to achieve that. I will still probably do it.
With that completed, it was time for me to grind. I created a Zombie ID since I wanted to start working on Pyrokinesis.
I started off with some simple stuff like forming fireballs and sending them at the zombies. Then I took it a step further and began forming into various weapons like whips and spears. Since I already had a lot of practice with Eldritch Magic, I had easy time forming the weapons I wanted.
After that, I started forming the fire into animals, like wolves, snakes, birds, dragons, anything I could think of.
Pyrokinesis leveled up crazy fast. With my two skills and title, it increased by a lot.
During that time, I didn't forget to use it on myself as well. Fire Resistance improved far slower, but it was still better than nothing. A few times, I had to stop to regenerate my HP through a quick meditation session, but that improved that skill as well. It was a win-win in my eyes.
One thing I found out during that time was that burned zombies smelled god awful. I bared the smell and hoped to get a smell resistance or something similar, but I was left disappointed there.
Still, I was making good progress and had slain the Legion Zombie a few times. It was hard leveling by grinding the zombie Boss, but I was focusing on my skills right now.
Then I got tired, and I massaged myself. All the fatigue that had built up disappeared and my energy got restored. Sleep was no longer a necessity!
Ah, you beautiful broken ability. I love you!
Fighting the zombies with fire was novel at first, but it was starting to get boring, so I switched it up and began working on my physical skills.
I realized that Massage was even more broken than I believed. When my muscles got sore from all the running and jumping, I used the skill on them, and they got back to normal almost immediately.
I trained like a literal madman, and my physical stats were there to show that off. Even my Strength, which had been stagnant for some time now, saw an increase of 2.
I didn't forget to work on some of my other skills as well. I even managed to read some of the books I had purchased while meditating.
For Meditation to activate, I had to sit perfectly still, and I was, I just had an energy construct hold the book for me and flip the pages. At the same time, I was also forming any shape I can imagine with Eldritch Magic, working on that as well.
At some point during the night, I even started farming the Skeleton ID.
The patterns of the skeletons were easy to adjust to. The Skeleton Mages were the trickiest, but not impossible to handle. They were also useful since I got two new skills from them.
[Lightning Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 1/100: Reduces lightning damage by 1%]
[Poison Resistance (Passive) Lvl. 1/100: Reduces poison damage by 1%]
Poison was a bit trickier since it left a negative status effect that reduced my HP at a constant rate, but I left the Dungeon, sat down, and activated Meditation.
By the time morning came, I was grinning like an idiot at my status screen. It was time to allocate my free stats.
[Name: William Williamson
Mutant Power: The Gamer
Level: 34 Next Level: 26%
Title: Apprentice Sorcerer]
[HP: 799
MP: 2,605]
[Strength: 23 + 16.56
Vitality: 29 + 20.88
Dexterity: 31 + 22.32
Intelligence: 101 + 74.74
Wisdom: 51 + 37.74
Luck: 11]
[Stat Points: 53
Cash: $40 819.70]
[Skills:
Crafting(Active) Lvl. 10/100 (+2)
Cooking(Active) Lvl. 19/100 (+1)
Create ID(Active) Lvl. 13/100 (+3)
Exit ID(Active) Lvl. 13/100 (+3)
Eldritch Magic(Active) Lvl. 56/100 (+12)
Spinning Mana Bullet(Active) Lvl. 43/100 (+9)
Mana Strengthening(Active) Lvl. 60/100 (+21)
Massage (Active) Lvl. 9/100 (+6)
Pyrokinesis (Active) Lvl. 29/100 *
Physical Endurance(Passive) Lvl. 24/100 (+2)
Martial Arts(Passive) Lvl. 36/100 (+4)
Meditation(Passive/Active) Lvl. 37/100 (+6)
Weapon Mastery(Passive) Lvl. 17/100 (+5)
Parkour(Passive) Lvl. 19/100 (+8)
Fire Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 8/100 (+7)
Ice Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 3/100 *
Lightning Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 3/100*
Poison Resistance(Passive) Lvl. 3/100*]