2 Chapter 2
Markus woke up the next morning with a loud groan. Sleeping on the hard ground was not the best way to get a good nights sleep. He stretched his no longer sore muscles and got his blood flowing. He felt a little stronger thanks to the increase in his strength from working out yesterday. He thought about that while pulling out one of the meals in his inventory. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the meal he retrieved was steaming hot just like the first one.
The reward for the quest made no mention of getting attribute points for completing the quest. That meant that the workout itself, not the quest, had given him the increase in strength and agility.
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Thanks to your clever thinking, Spirit +1.
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His spoon paused on the way to his mouth. Just thinking about something increased his Spirit? Was that a replacement for intelligence? Interesting. It became pretty clear to him that specific actions would increase specific attributes. The system was obviously keeping him here on the island to increase his attributes. It was going to make him stronger before letting him out into the world. Clearly, whoever sent him here didn't want him dying instantly. That would be 'boring' for his watchers after all.
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For realizing your place and the greatness of the One Piece Gaming System, Wisdom +1.
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Markus rolled his eyes at the system's sarcasm but he appreciated the extra point in his Wisdom regardless. He needed to think of ways to increase all of his attributes. The stronger he could get before the month was up, the better. When he finished his meal and started to get ready to work out, he got a new quest.
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New Quest!
Keep going newbie!
You took the first step. Good for you! Now keep going newbie. Perform all of the following exercises before midnight. 300 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Run 3 miles.
Requirements:
300 Push-Ups (0/300)
300 Sit-Ups (0/300)
300 Squats (0/300)
Run 3 Miles (0/3)
Failure Conditions: Death, fail to complete any of the listed tasks
Rewards: 1 Days worth of food and water, 1x Firestarter
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Markus was both happy and upset to see the quest. Happy because he could get more food, water, and something helpful. Upset because the requirements to complete the quest had increased. If they increased daily... he didn't like that thought. It could eventually get to the point where it was physically impossible to complete the tasks. For the time being, the quest was still doable. Not easily, but he could get it done before the day was out for sure. He also decided to push himself harder and go past his limits. Yesterday he had stopped when he was feeling tired or weak. He had gained some attribute points but he wanted to push harder in an effort to gain more.
He started with push-ups again. Yesterday he only managed to do fifteen before he couldn't go on. Today he decided to surpass that. He pushed himself up and down with his still small and weak muscles straining just to move his own body mass. He knew he was stronger when he reached fifteen push-ups and wasn't as weakened as the day before. Still, his muscles burned and his arms were trembling as he pushed forward and refused to stop. He just barely managed to finish his twentieth push up when his arms gave out against his will and his body collapsed onto the ground.
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For pushing your body to its limit, VIT +1.
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Even though his arms felt like they were on fire, for the moment, he had a bright smile on his face. Nothing felt as good as having your hard effort rewarded. He also gained another clue on how to increase his overall strength. Physical exercise helped his strength, running helped his agility, pushing his body to the limit increased his vitality, thinking things through and being logical increased his spirit (oddly enough), and making wise decisions increased his wisdom. Now he just needed to figure out how to increase his charisma and luck.
For charisma, he assumed it likely had something to do with interacting with other people. With no one on the island, he wouldn't be able to grind that one at all. As for luck, he was even less certain that he could grind it at all. In most games, luck would only go up with special events or items. Still, if luck could be increased through actions it would have to be actions related to luck. Perhaps gambling? Though he likely needed to win the gamble to gain a point in luck.
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Your insight into the workings of the system is both logical and perceptive. SPT +1, WIS +1
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Markus grinned broadly and gave himself a mental high-five since his arms felt like lead at the moment. In less than a minute his arms stopped hurting thanks to his passive ability. He learned his lesson yesterday to rotate between his upper and lower body workouts. So he climbed to his feet and started to perform his squats. Like the push-ups he forced himself to go until he collapsed against his will. Next up were his sit-ups, then some running. He moved through all of his workouts and pushed his body until it collapsed every time. By doing so he gained two more points in his vitality along with one more in strength and agility when he completed the quest for the day.
It was a couple of hours after noon and he once again had three more meals inside of his inventory along with a Firestarter. The Firestarter was simple and consisted of two items held together with a string. A rod and a piece of metal. By scraping the piece of metal over the rod it would generate a large shower of sparks that could easily start a fire. It was better than a lighter! Since there were still a few hours left until the sun went down he decided to do two things. First, gather all the materials he would need to make a fire. Second, try a few experiments to increase his mental attributes.
He spent over an hour getting wood of varying sizes as well as some stones to make a circle to keep the fire in check. He dug a small hole with his hands and laid the stones around it. Some dry leaves went in the bottom with a pile of well-arranged small sticks on top. With a single strike of his Firestarter, the leaves caught fire and before long he had a nice little campfire going. He didn't have anything to cook but having a fire was comforting.
With the fire going he picked up one of the sticks and used it to write in the dirt. If mental actions increased mental attributes then what if he did some math? He wanted to find out so that's exactly what he did. He started with some basic arithmetic. Addition and subtraction gave him nothing. Multiplication and division did nothing either until he started using large enough numbers. Ones he couldn't have memorized. Only by doing math that was too big for him to mentally calculate did it make a difference. He managed to gain two points in his Spirit before the method stopped working no matter how big the numbers were that he used. On the bright side, he could do a lot more math mentally and didn't need to write it out to solve the problem.
With evening coming, he decided to call it a day. He opened his status to check his progress and smiled at what he saw. It wasn't much but it was a definite start.
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Name: Silvers D. Markus
Age: 16
Class: None
Level: 1
Exp: 0/1,250
Hit Points: 130/130 (+6.5/minute)
Willpower: 140/140 (+7/minute)
Strength (STR): 12
Vitality (VIT): 13
Agility (AGI): 12
Spirit (SPT): 14
Wisdom (WIS): 12
Charisma (CHA): 10
Luck (LCK): 10
Attribute Points: 0
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The gains really were not all that much, but still, it was something and it made him feel better to see it. The real problem he had was that he wasn't getting a single drop of experience. In games, you got experience in two main ways, quests and defeating monsters/enemies. At the moment his quests were giving him badly needed survival supplies so asking for experience as well seemed to be a bit much.
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For understanding your place and not demanding more than you deserve, All attributes +1.
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Markus blinked and then quickly checked his status once again. Everything had gone up by a point, including his charisma and luck attributes. He smiled and gave a silent, 'thank you' to the system. He relaxed in front of the fire and thought about what his gains might be while he was on the island. As long as he got quests to workout he would have food and water along with little helpful things. That was great, attributes helped with just about everything but there was something else just as important to gaining power in a game, skills!
He already had one skill, his passive skill 'Life is but a Game' but he would need more. He knew he could get more since he was going to be rewarded five skill books for completing the main quest he had on the island. Were there other ways to gain skills though? Could he gain a swordsmanship skill if he practiced with a sword? Or a cooking skill if he practiced cooking? He didn't have any weapons or utensils to try anything with. He had no memories of ever learning anything combat-related back in his original life. Unless playing fighting games counted, he doubted it did.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to give something a try. He climbed to his feet, balled his hands into fists, and got into a stance he'd seen in a couple of fighting games. He started to shadowbox with an imaginary opponent. His arms shot out to throw straights, hooks, and even a few uppercuts while he bounced around on his feet in a crude imitation of footwork. He kept it up for what felt like a good thirty minutes but nothing about his status had changed and he had no new visible skill. He decided to switch it up so he grabbed a decently straight stick and used it like a sword. He copied things he'd seen and swung the 'sword' through the air for a while. Eventually, he gave up and tossed his 'sword' into the fire to watch it burn.
So it would seem that just flailing around would definitely not give him a skill. He still wasn't sure if he could even gain skills without skill books. He rubbed his head as he searched through his memories for something he had actual skill in that didn't require him to actually have any kind of tools. After thinking for a bit he stumbled upon something, meditation. It seemed that he had spent some time meditating in his previous life. With no sense of time in his memories, he didn't know how long he'd practiced but it seemed like he was at least somewhat proficient in it.
He reviewed the memories he had of the process and nodded to himself. He crossed his legs, straightened his back, and let his palms rest on his knees. He slowed his breathing while calming his mind. He could feel the state of his body, even with his recent gains he still felt weak but there were clear signs that muscle was starting to grow. As he moved deeper into his meditation he started to feel relaxed and comfortable. He was really starting to get into it when a melodic jingle shocked him out of meditative state. Frustrated, he opened his eyes to see what it was all about. He immediately smiled.
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Due to showing proficiency in a skill you have gained the 'Meditation' skill.
Meditation
[Active, Level 1, 2.7% Experience]
When you use this skill you will enter a deep meditative state that enhances your physical, mental, and spiritual recovery. Leveling up this skill increases its effect.
+1% Hit Point recovery per minute
+1% Willpower recovery per minute
-1% Duration to mental debuffs
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After reading over the information the system presented him with, he smiled. There was a keyword in the message letting him know how he'd gained the Meditation skill, 'proficiency.' It seemed like he would have to show real proficiency in something in order to gain a skill. It explained why he didn't get anything for his shadow boxing and sword swinging, he had zero practical skill in either of those endeavors. Unfortunately, this meant he had very few skills he could actually unlock through his own efforts and the ones he did have, such as cooking, required at least rudimentary tools. He needed at least a knife.
Maybe he would think of some other skills he could teach himself later on. He really wanted to unlock Haki skills but he didn't put much thought into it yet. For starters, he only had an idea of how to train Observation Haki. He had no idea how to train Armament Haki or if he even had Conquerors Haki. Given that he had a system he most likely could learn all three but at the same time, he was certain that they would have requirements. Observation Haki probably had the lowest requirements to learn but every method he had read about to train it required at least some basic tools and equipment. He at least needed rope and a knife to cut that rope with to hang swinging objects for him to dodge.
This was only the beginning of his journey, he'd gain more strength and skills as time went by. There was no way for him to rush things. For now, he needed to train on this island for the full thirty days. Once his training was complete he would leave the island and figure out where he was in the timeline. Those were the only plans he could make for the time being. He closed his eyes to meditate until the sun went down and went to sleep after that. Tomorrow he would grow just a little bit stronger, then the next day and the next. He enjoyed the feeling of progressing step by step each day.
