Departing to the capital

The days with his mom ended as it was now wednesday, the day of departure. Mason had already packed his bags last saturday so he didn't have that hassle anymore. Not that he had a lot of stuff anyways.

"Yes, that's fine." Elena could be heard talking to the driver of the car.

Driving cars around is a job that's paid well, because of how dangerous it is. There's beasts walking around everywhere, so even if there is busy roads. Those roads had to be guarded by level 20 Mages at all times.

It would cost Elena about 3 gold to get Mason from the boarder to the capital. The capital being in the center of the country. 100 copper would be 1 silver, and 100 silver would be 1 gold. Mason almost choked because of how expensive the ride truly was. The man named Jared, who owned the car, liked his job though.

"Why is it this expensive, are we driving in a sports-car?" Mason asked with a wry smile.

"No young man, there is guarded roads in the country. But in this backwater place on the border, we first have to drive a whole day before we finally reach those roads. It's truly dangerous, thus the reason I'm charging so much." Jared answered honestly.

Mason nodded, now his mother had already paid this middle-aged dude. He shouldn't make a ruckus. Elena now walked towards her child, and gave him a big hug. They wouldn't see each other for several years. The academy had 3 years in total, Mason would be a freshman.

"Goodbye dear, I'll miss you a lot." Elena said, trying not to cry.

"Bye mom, I'll miss you lots too! But it'll be fine since I'm going to be the strongest in the world after leaving the academy!" Mason said

And so, after almost 15 years in Greenwood Village. Mason was in the car for a new adventure! Was what he wanted to say, but what kind of music was this guy playing.

'This got released at least 50 years ago.' Mason complained in his head as he tried to fall asleep.

The ride was far and long, he would get bored after 30 minutes. Mason knew this and created the best plan ever! He would sleep the entire way! Of course, that would prove to be a dumb idea but Mason didn't know that yet.

As Mason fell asleep, Jared noticed as he smiled and thought. 'Must be nice being young. When I was young though, my mother would beat my ass if I did anything wrong.' It truly seemed that Jared's life was sad.

After driving for another 5 hours, Mason woke up because of Jared's shouts.

"Kid! Wake up! There's a beast on the road!" Jared shouted.

Mason, who was still half asleep, woke up fully after hearing that.

'System! What level and type of beast is that!?' Mason asked the system.

[Level 13: Stone Tiger, it's main trait is high physical strength.]

'Looks like I got the perfect target to test my new skills!' Mason thought happily as he knew a level 13 was no match for him now.

Mason started fighting the beast. He started off by using freeze, and immediately after that, Mason placed 2 Ice Walls in between the beast and himself. After using Ice Wall twice, he used Ice Lance. He was going for the insta-kill, since he was still tired and quickly wanted to sleep. After the beast broke out of freeze, he had to break through 2 Ice Walls. Those Ice Walls weren't there for defense, they were there only to slow down the Stone Tiger, and to block it's vision.

It worked perfectly as the moment the tiger broke through the walls, it didn't have time to react to the massive lance flying at it. The lance then pierced through it's body and it died instantly.

"Damn kid, you should've told me you were such a strong Mage. I thought we were going to die for a bit there!" Jared said while still being slightly fearful of the beast.

"Well, you know now!" Mason answered

[Killed Level 13 Stone Tiger, 115 system points rewarded.]

[Level-up!]

Mason was happy, he knew that farming system points was easy now. It seemed that the Wheel of Fortune was the easiest way to get stronger. So Mason planned on abusing it. He had 255 system points now.

After the car started driving again, Mason knew what he had to do.

'System, use Normal Spin!'

[Using Normal Spin on the Wheel of Fortune]

[Common, Tasty ham sandwich received!]

'What the fuck, a sandwich? I can actually get that type of shit from this?' Mason thought with a look of annoyance visible on his face.

[This is actually pretty common in a Normal Spin, Host! Up until now, you've been getting really lucky!] The System answered.

Mason wanted to refute, but he didn't. He knew he had indeed been getting very lucky, maybe he should start getting used to this type of reward. He still wanted to do stuff since he was awake anyways now.

'System, is there anything else I can do right now?' Mason asked

[Yes Host, you can still attempt a Mini-Game once!]

Mason completely forgot about the Mini-Game section of the System. It just didn't seem as good as the rest in his eyes. But since he didn't have anything better to do now anyways, he decided to give it a shot.

'Alright, attempt a Mini-Game!'

[Starting Mini-Game, Floppy Fish!]

[In this game, there will be walls with gaps. You, the fish, just have to try and go through those gaps. The more gaps you go through, the better your reward.]

'Sounds easy enough, how will I play it though?'

[Starting Mini-Game now.]

Mason who was sitting in the back of the car, felt his eyes forcefully close. As he entered the world of Floppy Fish. Now, he had to control this fish to go through the gaps.

The first couple of gaps were cleared easily, but when he got to wall number 7. He bumped into the wall.

'Fuck, why was the gap suddenly so far down. That's hard as hell!' Mason cursed

[Congratulations Host! You cleared 6 walls! 2 bottles of water rewarded!]

'Water, how many walls do I have to clear to get something useful!'

[The average guy could get at least 30, even on their first try! Don't worry Host, I believe that you'll improve if you practice enough!]

'This damn System truly is looking down on me.'

Mason started sleeping once again. And so, after 3 days of traveling. Mason White arrived in the capital, Nightfall City.