Running Errands

In the morning, William woke up, rubbing his eyes. Suddenly, he sat up straight on his bed.

"Did I actually wake up earlier than that rooster today?"

He quickly threw an outfit together and went into the backyard. He frowned when he noticed the sun rising in the air. He estimated that it was already past seven. How was the rooster not awake yet? It was normally very punctual, and it always woke up before 6.

He searched the backyard and found the rooster, peacefully sleeping in a tree.

Rooster: (U▹U) . z Z

He looked at it, frowning. It was sleeping peacefully, but...

William poked its head multiple times. It didn't react at all and simply kept sleeping. He remembered the rock from yesterday. Did it have something to do with that?

Luckily, it was his break day. If it were any other day, he would have to wait until after work before he could check on the rooster.

Picking up the rooster, William went to the house of the village's doctor. He didn't know what was happening, but they might. The current village doctor was a man in his forties named Jason, known for being friendly. William rarely visited him since he usually didn't have any serious injuries.

William walked up to the door of an old wooden hut, raising his hands to knock on the door.

"Knock! Knock! Knock!"

A moment later, the door creaked open, revealing a friendly middle-aged man with a gray beard. Jason noticed William standing at the door.

"William, what are you doing here? You almost never visit!"

He noticed the rooster in William's arms.

"Did something happen to the rooster?"

William nodded.

After receiving confirmation, Jason walked inside, beckoning William to follow him. Together, they went into the building.

When they arrived inside, William inspected the interior. There was a large wooden table in the middle of the room, covered in strange tools and surrounded by fake tree stumps for chairs. In the corner, there were three beds, presumably for the patients. The room had changed quite a bit since he was last inside. Some furniture was changed, and some of the things he once saw on the table were also gone.

"Place the rooster on one of the beds," said Jason.

William gently set the rooster down on a bed. Jason came over to inspect the rooster, while William waited impatiently on the side.

He could see the doctor taking strange instruments off the table and fiddling with them.

Then, the doctor turned away from the rooster and looked at him.

"There's nothing wrong with your little friend there. In fact, it's doing even better than it was before!"

"What do you mean?" William looked at Jason, confused. The rooster wouldn't wake up, so how was it doing better than before?

The doctor explained, "This was once a normal rooster, but when I checked it, I noticed that there were traces of spiritual energy in it. In fact, it is gathering in an area near its head, which might be signs of it forming a beast core!"

"A beast what?"

"A beast core is a sign of a beast starting to cultivate, similar to how humans cultivate. Therefore, this rooster of yours might become a spiritual beast!"

William was stunned. The rooster was going to become a spiritual beast?! Weren't all those beasts deadly and bloodthirsty?

"...Isn't this thing going to kill me in my sleep?"

Jason thought of this for a moment.

"Even if it does form a beast core, it was originally a rooster, so it shouldn't be too strong either way. Besides, it basically grew up with you. You should be fine. If you really want to, you could give it to one of the guards, since they are cultivators, but they'll kill it if it shows any aggression."

After weighing his choices, William decided to keep the rooster with him. It would be more friendly towards him than the guards. Even if it became more aggressive, it probably wouldn't kill him, right?

"So, you're saying there's nothing wrong with it, right?"

"Yes."

"So can I take it home now or will that have to wait?" asked William.

"There's nothing I can do for it, so yes, you can take the rooster home. It's just in a deep sleep due to the changes in its body," replied Jason.

After thanking Jason for his help, William picked up the rooster and brought it back home, setting it down on his bed.

Knowing that it would be a while before the rooster woke up, William went back to check on the system. He forgot to check the status panel yesterday, so he wanted to look at it now.

"Show me the status panel."

_______________________________________

[William Reynolds]

[SP: 55]

[Cultivation Level: None]

[Strength: 11] [+]

[Speed: 8] [+]

[Agility: 11] [+]

[Spirit 10:] [+]

[Will: 8] [+]

[Techniques Learned:]

[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)]

_______________________________________

"Things like cooking can be techniques too?"

William wasn't too surprised by the other things. He hadn't started to cultivate yet since he didn't have enough money to buy a cultivation manual in the past. And his stats were all around 10, which was probably the average for a normal person.

But how were farming and cooking skills? Yes, they were something you had to learn, but wasn't this supposed to be a cultivation system?

Shrugging, he posed the question to the system.

"Anything you learn can be considered a skill, battle technique or not."

William found this to be reasonable and continued looking at the status page.

"Why are there plus signs next to my attributes?"

"This is to show that you can increase your attributes by paying SP. However, this cannot go beyond the limit of your cultivation realm."

"What would that be right now?"

"20 is the maximum of any attribute a normal human can have, considering that they have no special bloodlines and don't have any spiritual force in their bodies. The host meets all of these conditions."

"...so, I'm just a generic human being?"

"Yes."

William decided to ignore that fact and focus on more useful information.

"How much SP does it cost to increase an attribute?" He asked.

"From 1-10, you'll need 5 SP, and from 11-20, you'll need 10 SP."

William calculated in his head. He currently had 55 SP, so he could increase his attributes a total of eleven points if they were below ten. He could increase his two lacking attributes, speed and will, with only four points, which would leave him with 35 SP left, after deducting 20 SP. He could then use 30 SP to increase his attributes three more times, since they would all cost 10 SP now, leaving him with 5 SP left for emergencies.

Finding this to be logical, William added two points to both speed and will, before adding two more points to strength and another to speed, leaving his attributes like this:

_______________________________________

[SP: 5]

[Cultivation Level: None]

[Strength: 13] [+]

[Speed: 11] [+]

[Agility: 11] [+]

[Spirit 10:] [+]

[Will: 10] [+]

_______________________________________

Feeling satisfied for now, William left the stats like that and went outside. As he walked, he could feel himself getting stronger, and maybe a little more confident. Arriving outside, he looked at the chair next to the door. He went over, and picked it up, testing its weight. He did feel a little stronger, but he wasn't sure of the difference.

Internally reprimanding himself for being too excited and not testing his strength beforehand, William walked back indoors and pulled a pouch from under his bed. He poured the contents onto his bed, revealing countless copper coins.

William counted and estimated there were around two hundred copper coins inside. Of course, he could've gotten many more, but he didn't have any places to hide the money, so it was best not to have too many.

William put the coins back into the bag and walked towards the village bank, putting the pouch in his pocket to hide it from others.

Eventually, he arrived in front of the bank and met two guards at the entrance.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" One of the guards asked.

"I'm William, and I'm here to exchange for some items." William replied.

"What do you need?" The other guard asked.

"One silver coin and cultivation manuals for the first, second, and third stages of the spirit foundation realm."

"160 copper coins."

William handed the money to them and one of the guards went inside to get his things. A moment later, they came out and gave William his things.

He thanked them and went back home, inspecting the things in his hands.

After he arrived home, he held the silver coin in his hand while sitting on the bed.

"System, replace the copper coin in my inventory with this."

"Replacement will require 1 SP. Proceed with replacement?"

"Yes."

"[Copper coin] has been replaced with [Silver coin]."

With a thought, another silver coin appeared in William's hand. He placed it in the pouch along with the other silver coin and put it under the bed.

"Hey system, how much will it cost to replace the silver coin?"

"100 SP"

William sighed. He would have to collect a lot of SP soon, or he wouldn't be able to replace the silver coin with a gold one even when he got it. Then again, he could just replace the bread with the coin.

Gently patting the head of the rooster sleeping peacefully nearby, he walked to the shelf, where he had placed the cultivation manuals. As he did so, he looked around the room. The bed was on one side of the room, while the shelf was on the opposite side. Besides the chair, that was all the furniture he had. That used to be okay with him, but now that he was rich, he should probably buy some more things. After all, why live in poverty when you could experience riches?

Deciding to buy some things tomorrow, he flipped through the cultivation manuals. Cultivation was entirely new to him, so he was really excited to learn. With this, it might not be long before he was flying in the sky and making giant sword auras to attack his opponents.