Chapter 8. The Daily Routine

Tick Tock… Tick Tock…

I woke up, acknowledging the familiar functioning of the clock.

I slowly stretched my arms to the side, feeling for the alarm clock on the table to the right.

Tr….

Turning off the alarm just as it set off, I gently opened my eyes to get up from my bed and walked towards the washroom, which appeared on my left as soon as I exited the bedroom.

It took me 3 minutes to finish brushing and then I headed towards the exercise room. The Study occupied the place right beside the washroom and there was a corridor in between the bedroom and the study which led to the exercise room which was situated at the furthest corner from the entrance to the house.

The exercise room was a room I specially modified for my daily routine before moving in.

It was a sound-proofed room with thick walls. It was very spacious after having devoured the master bedroom and the bathroom which originally owned the space.

The room housed several gym equipment that help me keep my body in shape and improve my physique. They were neatly arranged to the right of the door, from closest to farthest being in an order to complement my routine.

The centre area was empty, designated as a space for the activities that require no equipment. The left end was for relaxation and stretching exercises.

The first two hours of my day were usually spent in this room.

Ever since my days in the orphanage I knew that my body was physically weaker than the average and hence, I experimented on all kinds of methods before employing one that would produce results in the healthiest manner.

I wasn't in a hurry as there was a lot of time for me to prepare. So, I planned to take things slow and perfect each step.

Anyways, the routine I use now had been modified after moving into my new apartment. Though I still focused on my physique before, I neither had the resources nor the leeway to spend my time extensively on it. The orphanage, though wonderful, still had its own shortcomings.

So, the first step was to earn enough to move out and supplement the basic requirements to proceed with the plan to achieve my goal. That resulted in a simple app, the money from which landed me here, with all the preparations for the first step complete.

Since then, I followed this routine every day without fail.

After the two hours of a carefully planned training regimen, I returned to the washroom for a relaxing bath.

After the bath, I wore the uniform that was neatly ironed and placed on the top in the wardrobe yesterday.

I made a sandwich with cheese paired with a glass of milk and an assortment of fruits for breakfast. Sitting comfortable on the dining table, with my back towards the glass windows, I had a direct view of the TV in the lounge to get myself updated on news and the trends in the stock market.

After breakfast, I walked to the nearest bus stop and took the public transport to school.

The rest of the day was spent in school where the teachers went through various topics related to their subjects, stressing on the points that might be important for the college entrance examination. A regular day in a regular school.

After the regular classes in the school, I took the public transport back to my home. Although the school organised additional study hours, the principal permitted me to skip those under the guise of extra-curricular classes as long as I maintained my grades.

It was already late in the evening by the time I reached home and I freshened up a little to continue with the rest of my day. I had a late dinner, so I had a lot of time for various things before then.

I returned to the exercise room for the second time in the day. I did a few light exercises to loosen myself up as a warm up.

After that I started to practice several fighting styles. Each one complementing the other and focusing on improving different part of my body. I did this for an hour and a half, before slowly moving towards the wall opposite the door and opening a case.

The case revealed a beautiful sword with a blue hilt. Unsheathing it revealed a long, thin blade that was extremely sharp at the other end. The engravings on the blade, in a language I didn't understand, added to its beauty.

Holding it in my dominant, right hand, I slowly made my way towards the centre of the free space to practice with it.

I haven't officially learnt the sword. All I did was compile a few basic moves from various styles focusing more on getting acquainted with the sword and improving my body.

Why the sword, you may ask. I was using it just because I had it. It was left by my father in his friends care who returned it to me recently.

I practiced the sword for another half hour. I was really awkward with my movements with the sword, being in the early stages of learning, but I could feel myself getting better at it.

After the practice, I washed myself before moving into the study for studying. I seldom brought my schoolwork with me, having finished them during classes, so I make use of this time at home to look for additional materials. I focus on various topics during this time ranging from mathematics to computer programming.

After studying, I worked on my computer until it was time for dinner.

I took a look at the menu for today's dinner and continued to take out the ingredients to make chicken salad and shrimp pasta.

After dinner, I moved to the bedroom to prepare my clothes for the next day. The school uniform, a pair of clothes for evening exercises and a pair for the rest of the night.

Then, I opened my phone and ordered the ingredients needed for dinner the next day and breakfast for the day after.

After the order, I moved on to clean the house with the vacuum cleaner.

Finishing everything, I returned to the study to continue working.

As it got dark, I closed my computer and dimmed all the lights around the house before sitting on the bed to check up on the stock market and ensure that the alarm for the morning was set. Then I slowly made myself comfortable on the bed and closed my eyes.

Just as I closed my eyes, I heard a voice speaking to me.

"Danny, you're going to be fine!" I could feel the desperation and worry in Ms. Willis's voice as she said those aloud.

"Heal!" I heard a soft murmur, when I felt my whole body being blessed with warmth. The pain I was experiencing when I came to my senses was slightly lessened.

She must have received the heal spell as a reward, I thought to myself taking comfort in the fact that we defeated the monster and that I was in safe hands.

"How long is it going to take?" Mr. Willis's voice asked.

"I can't see any physical damages on him, and I am trying my best with the spell. Now, we can only believe in him to get up." Ms. Willis said, her tone hinting sadness.

It was still very painful even after the spell. I could feel almost no energy in my body.

Ahh…That's what the system meant by severe drain in the note, I thought.

Although I understood the danger but I couldn't estimate the extent of the damage that the skill had done.

I slowly opened my eyes and tried to talk to them.

"Wa…Wa-ter" I said in a hoarse voice.

My throat was completely parched making it difficult to speak out loud and clear.

Ms. Willis, who was standing with her back turned towards me, suddenly turned when she heard my voice.

"How are you feeling now? Are you okay? We were really scared that something would have happened to you." The excitement that was in her voice at the start slowly dimmed down, as a few tears rolled down her eyes.

"Do you know how dangerous it was to do what you did?" she asked me, sniffing back a tear.

"What happened?" Mr. Willis came rushing back into my line of sight when he heard his sister's tears.

"Wa-ter" I repeated in the same hoarse voice.

They handed me bottle of water, which I slowly sipped upon before slowly sitting up to observe my surroundings. I winced as pain slowly coursed up through my back and shoulders.

We were in the infirmary and I was placed on one of the beds. Several students were gathered here and the door was barricaded. I noticed that there were three bags that were placed by my bedside, belonging to me and the twins.

I took out an energy bar from my bag and started to slowly nibble on it.

While eating the bar, I opened my system interface to check my level-up notices. We were alive and Ms. Willis could use heal which most probably meant that the monster had been taken down.

I opened my notifications panel to see the messages.

Congratulations on killing an Abomination!

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!

2 level ups. That was all I got after nearly sacrificing my life. 4 stat points.

I read the notifications again to see if there was anything that I missed, but that was it.

The monster also seemed to be a stronger one, as it didn't have the 'minor' prefix tagged to its description. So, I could only assume that I couldn't level up easily at higher levels.

I opened my main interface to allot my stat points.

LVL. 5

Daniel H Martinez

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

Stats

Strength (STR) – 18 (+4)

Agility (AGI) – 29

Intelligence (INT) – 83

Mana – 4

Skills +

Equipment +

Inventory +

I put all my new stat points into my strength stat. My agility stat was on the border for evading with these monsters but the firepower I had was too low to deal any significant damage when not under the skill's influence and seeing that there was no other specific stat for my physique, it was safe to assume that my body would get stronger as a whole when I improve on my strength stat and not just the attack power.

After allotting the points, I turned towards the twins and asked, "So, what happened in the time that I was out?"