Chapter 3

Meditation—a skill that could be learned naturally when certain conditions were met in Satisfy. According to Satisfy's Lore, Meditation is the act of transcending from the pain of the mind and returning to a pure state of mind, without any distortions. It is the best way to look at oneself or to look at specific situations and find a solution. Meditation can also be used as a means to increase strength and stamina, restore health and mana, and reduce the cooldown of skills. The unique class 'Red Sage' even has a method to increase the level of the user through Meditation. But humans are always self-centered. Meditation is a very challenging method of training that even the most famous knights find difficult. Mediation is not a skill that can be used at any time a person wants. It is a skill that occurs spontaneously when the concentration is extremely high. The speed of successful meditation can be shortened by practice.

For Satisfy's users (players), even though it was a conditional passive skill that usually activated when concentration was extremely high, it was still one of the best recovery and buff skills since it not only increased the regeneration rate of health, mana, and stamina but also reduced skill cooldown time. For them, the mastered level of Meditation was something godly, yet Grid had acquired something better than the mastered version just at the beginning of Satisfy—

[Meditation]

[Level: Mastered

This skill has 2 effects. Only one type of effect can be active at a time.

1. Type: Passive Skill

An always active skill.

* Increases health and mana regeneration rate by 50%, and stamina regeneration by 30%.

* Skill cooldown time will be reduced by 10%.

2. Type: Conditional Passive Skill

* Increases health and mana regeneration rate by 100%, and stamina regeneration by 60%.

* Skill cooldown time will be reduced by 20%.

Skill Activation Condition: Focus.

This effect can't be invoked artificially. It will activate automatically when your concentration is extremely high.

Resource Consumption: None.]

'Th...this is awesome... I didn't think the ability correction would be applied to this extent.'—Grid was amazed at the level of Meditation skill he had just acquired because of the 'ability correction system' of the game.

The 'ability correction' was one of the sub-systems of Satisfy. It usually measured the extent of abilities a user had and rewarded the user accordingly when they over-performed during a 'certain occasion'. This certain occasion could be a 'Quest' or an 'Achievement'.

Before regression, Grid had acquired the 'Bow Mastery' skill because of ability correction being applied to a 'hidden compensation' during a quest on Behen Archipelago. At that time, the system had judged his understanding of archery, bow, and arrows to be higher than his ability; this resulted in him acquiring the 'Bow Mastery' instead of a simple rare archery skill.

However, currently, Grid acquired the specially buffed mastered level Meditation skill because; not only his level of focus and control on his mind was that great, but also because of luck. Skills in Satisfy could only be acquired through quests, achievements, skill books, or if NPCs teach someone. There were also two other methods but they didn't apply to the current situation since Meditation already existed in the world of Satisfy. In Satisfy, the Meditation skill could be learned naturally when a person was focused enough or went into a meditative state. Since learning Meditation skill was an achievement in itself and Grid's mastery of it had reached the pinnacle stage due to his prior experiences, the system naturally applied an ability correction to his skill. This resulted in him getting the mastered level of skill with an extra buff.

This specially buffed skill was unique to him since it was different from the generic Meditation skill for normal users. At the mastered level, the regular Meditation skill only had one effect—the 2nd effect of Grid's Meditation skill. Although it was worse than the one upgraded by the 'Martial God's Secret Technique'; it was still at least half as great as that and far superior to the regular one. At least, it had one true passive effect (1st effect—an always active skill), whereas the regular one didn't have any.

'The Meditation skill buffed by Chiyou's Technique provided a recovery rate of 100% for health & mana and 60% for stamina, as well as a 20% reduction in skill cooldown time permanently. This one has only half of that... Still one of the greatest skills nonetheless.'—Analyzed Grid, still unaware of his mental fortitude that had caused Morpheus to mark him as someone who could reach the level of an absolute in the future.

All this considered, the 2nd effect of the skill wasn't to be trifled with either. Although tricky to activate since it required high focus or going into a meditative state for it to work, it triumphed over 1st effect whenever it got activated. When activated, it showed the true pinnacle level of the Meditation skill that was as good as the Meditation skill buffed by Chiyou's Technique in terms of the numerical benefits it provided.

'Now let's see the descriptions of stats.'

[Composure]

[The probability of being affected by an abnormal state is lowered. If affected by an abnormal condition, you will recover quickly.

* The higher the number, the higher the effect.

* Stat points can't be distributed to this stat.]

[Concentration]

[Can concentrate more easily during the works that require high focus.

* The higher the number, the higher the effect.

* Stat points can't be distributed to this stat.]

"Hmm... It's also same as before."—Grid said after looking at the description of the 'Composure' stat that was also identical according to his memory.

'It is pretty nice that I acquired this stat just at the beginning of the game. It will be quite useful in my beginner period until I become a Legend. Even after becoming a Legend, it would be very useful in certain conditions where a Legend's 'resistance to all status conditions' does not apply. However, it would be hard to increase the points in this stat; perhaps crafting items may solve the problem...'—Grid contemplated the uses of the Composure stat based on the information from his memories.

Composure was a special stat that increased the recovery rate from status conditions. It was one of the four special stats that a user acquired after becoming a Legend; though it doesn't mean it could only be acquired after becoming a Legend.

Although the resistance to status conditions provided by the composure stat is low compared to the complete status resistance of a Legend, it had the potential to become a lesser version of complete status resistance or even better in certain conditions. For a normal player, who didn't have complete status resistance of a Legend, it was a divine stat that could help them against many crowd control abilities. A user who was able to raise the stat properly could also overcome status conditions at an extremely fast speed. The stat worked as a persistent passive which was always applied. Even then, for a Legend, it was very useful in certain conditions where the complete status resistance didn't work such as against the 'Frenzy' state.

Meanwhile, Grid didn't know much about the 'Concentration' stat except that it was available in certain specific classes such as higher advancement of 'Monk' and 'Martial Artist' type classes like Regas' 'Asura' class, and non-combat type classes like Elizabeth's 'Accessories Maker' & Lim Cheolho's 'Fisherman'. It may have been related to monks and martial artists since their classes included regular 'Meditation' practices that required high concentration. The same could be said about the accessories makers since they worked with jewels and accessories that had to be carved with extreme concentration to make intricate designs for them to come out as fine products. A fisherman needed to have extreme concentration to feel the minor movements to know whether the fish was hooked and catching it the moment it did.

'It may help maintain focus during certain situations. Anyway, only with real experience would the importance of the stat be revealed eventually. Now let's do some hunting finally.'

***

"Hmm... It's also same as before."

Some players who heard Grid talking about the description of Composure stat thought that he was talking about his status, which was the same as before, even after all the weird actions he had performed.

"What? Lol, does he think he will easily acquire some OP abilities or skills with those weird actions of his?"

"Lol, to think that someone can be this stupid. So stupid that he thought his status would change and he would gain some OP abilities just because he did some training that he liked."

"Huh? Seriously, has he never played a game? Does he truly think games work like this, or is he into some role-playing? Perhaps that might be the answer."

"For real, this seems like he is role-playing in the game. Perhaps a mix of Martial Artist and Sword Cultivator. Such a chuunibyou thing to do in a game, hahaha..."

Players, still unaware of what had transpired in the game, thought of Grid as someone who was living in his delusions and wanted to acquire abilities easily instead of playing properly. To them, hunting monsters to level up seemed the correct way to play a game instead of wasting time on unnecessary training.

Some players had even started recording Grid's actions from the very beginning to show his foolishness on the internet and make it viral. They didn't know who Grid was yet and would be too embarrassed to recall their foolishness of the current time in the future.

***

'Let's remove the black scenario of my past here completely.'—Thought Grid who was very excited to hunt down the rabbits.

There were rabbits in the forest, deer at the lake shore, and bears in the deep forest. Grid went alone to hunt rabbits, unlike many other players who had formed parties. Grid first searched for a less congested area and walked towards the rabbits.

Grid took a deep breath and wielded his sword. Since he didn't have any in-game skills for now, he could only rely upon his control, the footwork of Overgeared God's swordsmanship, and vertical & horizontal slash techniques that he had practiced earlier to hunt down the rabbits efficiently.

The rabbits acknowledged Grid's presence and prepared to attack him simultaneously. It was a group of three: a white rabbit, a black rabbit, and a grey rabbit. All three had their special attacks; those were bite, kick, and headbutt respectively.

All three rabbits attacked simultaneously. Grid moved to a side by using the footwork of Link to avoid the gray rabbit's headbutt. He then used Drop's footwork to move half a step ahead and played out the vertical slash that he had prepared for the white rabbit instantly on its head to prevent it from biting and killing it simultaneously due to brain damage.

Ptaak!

Grid had already accounted for the attack power needed to kill the rabbits efficiently, which he was lacking. That's why he had incorporated vertical and horizontal slashes into the strategy to make up for the lack of attack power.

The black rabbit's kick aimed at Grid's chest was swept away by Grid's counterattack who had changed his movements according to Revolve's footwork.

Ptaak!

The black rabbit fell to the ground in a half-dead state 3 meters away from Grid. Meanwhile, the grey rabbit who had just returned to headbutt Grid found itself falling prey to the horizontal slash that had accumulated power from the footwork of Revolve just earlier. It was hit hard and collapsed due to internal damage.

Lastly, Grid finished off the half-dead black rabbit with a vertical slash as well.

[You have defeated a white rabbit.]

[You have acquired 1 bronze coin.]

[You have acquired rabbit's meat.]

[5 experience has been acquired.]

[You have defeated a grey rabbit.]

[You have acquired 1 bronze coin.]

[You have acquired rabbit's meat.]

[5 experience has been acquired.]

[You have defeated a black rabbit.]

[You have acquired 1 bronze coin.]

[You have acquired rabbit's meat.]

[5 experience has been acquired.]

The fight between Grid and the rabbits ended in just a few seconds. No, it wasn't even a fight in the first place. It was a one-sided killing of rabbits by Grid that ended in a few seconds. Meanwhile, even a party of three users took 5 minutes to kill a group of rabbits. That was the skill gap between Grid and normal users just at the beginning of the game.

100 experience points were needed to reach level 2. Now that Grid had acquired 15 experience points already, he needed 85 points more, so he kept hunting them. Grid's fighting style seemed more sophisticated the more he fought. He beat the rabbits with a skill that was hard to believe for a level 1 user. He kept hunting them until he reached level two...