Rise and grind

[1 XP earned]

Kai froze, slowly turning his head towards Noelle to see her sleeping, then towards the timer and saw that it said an hour after he last checked. After a few moments hesitation, Kai opened his status just to make sure.

Name: Kai Reynolds

Age: 17

Level: 1 (9 XP needed)

"..." Well...it definitely changed. Kai thought to himself as he drank from one of the bottles of water delivered while himself and Noelle were asleep.

Then Kai frowned. Noelle must have been training more than me so did she gain 1 XP? If she did why didn't she say? Maybe she didn't and I'm the first?

With a sigh, Kai realised this is too much to worry about now and instead dedicated himself back to his exercise.

Even if Noelle also gained some XP, it's not like it changes anything about the situation. They're still trapped together in wherever this place is.

Another hour passed and the familiar voice rang in his ears again.

[1 XP earned]

Kai quickly turned to the hologram and saw that another hour has passed. After taking a few sips from his bottle and wiping some sweat off his forehead, he sat down on his bed and sighed.

So if the math is correct, an hour of hard working exercise is one XP. So I need another eight hours of exercise before level two...but then what? Will it double for level three? What happens when I reach level two? Well, it's not like I'll reach level two for another while, nothing I can do about it.

And with that, Kai fell asleep contently as soon as his head hit the pillow, unaware of Noelle's gaze on him through her half opened eyes.

*********

Nineteen hours passed and Kai is still training as much as he can. His arms hurt, his muscles scream out, his legs threatened to give out at any moment, but he pushes on for the promising things level two can bring him. And after another eight gruelling hours of training, pushing himself further than he ever had before...The reward came.

[1 XP gained]

Level 2 reached

Obtained 3 unnasigned stat points

Is...is that it? Kai inwardly groaned and lied down on his bed. All that effort for a measly 3 stat points. With a sigh, Kai opened the stat part of his status screen.

Stats:

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 4

Constitution: 7

Mana: 10

Stamina: 7

Will: 14

Luck: 12

Looking at his own stats, Kai felt pretty underwhelmed. All of his physical stats look pretty lacking compared to his unseen ones, especially his Will. So far Kai hadn't seen his highest stat do much, but then again he hasn't exactly been in any scenarios so far that would require the stat...except maybe when Noelle used her ability on him, that had him stressing but not as much as he thought he would.

After thinking it over. Kai reaches his conclusion. Since he is so tired after doing ten hours of exercise in the last...twenty-one hours, he knew what stat he should put the points into. It only seems right to put all 3 stat points into stamina, increasing his efficiency at leveling up.

A few moments later, Kai's stamina increased to ten and he felt some of his fatigue wash away from him, not a lot of it though, but he can definitely feel himself regain some energy.

Maybe it was worth it... Kai smiled as he got under the duvet cover, placing his head on the pillow, falling asleep nearly instantly.

******

Once Noelle watched Kai fall asleep, she sighed and sat up, opening her status screen

Name: Noelle Hafez

Age: 19

Level: 1 (1 XP needed)

Class: N/A

...

"..." With a sigh, and a determined look in her eyes, Noelle pushed herself out of bed and mumbled to herself "One more hour to go..."

Walking out to the middle of the white room, Noelle took her position. She started slowly and gracefully moving her body, each movement is eloquent and beautiful to watch. But within each movement, you see a woman brimming with strength, but also hurt...despair.

She used every part of her body in the depressing dance. It looked like a mix of a martial art and a dance style, yet it also looked completely random.

Her olive skin glistened with sweat as she continued to practice, she would not stop until she accomplished her goal.

Losing track of time, Noelle continued to practice until the unknown voice whispered into her ear.

[1 XP gained]

Level 2 reached

Obtained 3 unnasigned stat points

Stopping her movements, Noelle breathed in...then exhaled deeply. Opening her eyes, she looked at her status screen and allocated one of the three stat points into stamina and the other two into luck...bringing the stat up to eighteen.

*******

After waking up, Kai decided to treat himself to lying in bed for another hour, his whole body is sore from pushing himself yesterday after all. The boy isn't built for all this exercise.

Groaning as he sat up, Kai turned his head and saw Noelle fast asleep.

Pushing himself out of bed, he walked to the centre of the room, to where a food tray is now laying. Sitting down on the floor, he took one of the four water bottles and drank a small bit.

Since him and Noelle got paired up, the amount of food on the tray had doubled. But just because there's double doesn't mean it tastes better.

After forcing the porridge down his throat and reminiscing about how nice a bowl of cereal would be right now. Letting out a depressed sigh, Kai stood up and opened the level line of his status menu.

Level: 2 (15 XP needed)

So it increases by five per level... Kai walked to the corner of the room, the furthest away from Noelle and quickly did some mental maths. If he wanted to reach level ten by the end of the month, he has to do another... two hundred and sevety hours.

That...is a lot. Kai inwardly groaned as he put down his fingers which he used to count. Looking towards the hologram, he saw it read -

Time remaining: 690: 46: 13

Doing some more maths Kai realised he slept seven hours. And the final bit of maths for hopefully the rest of stage two is...

So two hundred and seventy hours of the remaining six hundred and ninety have to be dedicated to training, meaning I get... four hundred and twenty hours of rest...But I should be aiming for around eight to ten hours of training a day, equating to eight to ten XP a day.

With a sigh, Kai mumbled to himself as he got into the push-up position.

"It's going to be a long month..."

Twenty-four hours pass, seven Xp needed for level three.

Forty-eight hours pass, nineteen XP needed for level four.

Seventy-two hours pass, ten XP needed to reach level four.

Kai collapsed onto his bed, his body screaming out after pushing himself for an extra hour today, giving him another 9 XP.

He reached level three yesterday, giving him another three unnasigned stat points, but he decided to save them for now.

Greedily drinking from the water bottle beside his bed, he realised that getting thirty-five XP in that amount of time is pretty good going.

Looking over to Noelle, who is asleep in her bed, Kai sighed and rolled over on his own bed. While he was tired, he was also content. He though to himself as he started to fall asleep.

I've never seen her training, except for the first time...She must only do it when I'm asleep, how come we have opposite sleep cycles though? must be because we both slept at different times before we got paired...

After a few more minutes, Kai is fast asleep, unaware of Noelle getting out of her bed...

********

A week passesd. Well, just under a week, one hundred and forty-eight hours passed. Kai was now level five with sixteen XP needed until he reaches level six. But something strange happened when he got level five.

Looking back at his status screen, Kai saw the extra line added in the text was still there.

Level 5 gained

3 unnasigned stat points available

Skill selection available