Interlude: Generic Hero I

Author Note: Webnovel doesn't allow the authors to use tables. So it might not look as pleasing as it normally would.

End of Author Note.

Ethan Brown's head throbbed with pain. The last thing he remembered was being tossed into a giant trash container by his school bullies, his consciousness slipping away as they closed the lid. He had fought for hours, but when the school day ended, no one had come to his rescue. And even if they had, who would have thought to look for him in the remote trash container?

It had all started with a simple crush on the most beautiful girl in class. When he asked her out, she rejected him in the most humiliating way possible, and he became the target of her friends, lovers, ex-lovers, and even guys who had a crush on her. School became a nightmare for him. At first, it was just harmless pranks like hiding his school stuff or flushing his clothes down the toilet during physical education. But it quickly escalated into something more sinister.

They embarrassed him at every opportunity, beating him up in corners and making him late for class. He tried to get help from a teacher, but the bullies only got more violent when the teacher intervened. They even accused him of selling drugs and said he threatened them with a gang of junkies if they spoke out.

Ethan wished he could have been suspended from school for it, to finally stop that nightmare, but the result was only detention and a warning from the principal. He suspected his mother had convinced the principal to go easy on him, but he didn't want to dwell on it too much. He loved his mother, as she raised him alone, worked two jobs, and loved him with all her heart. He hadn't told her about the bullying because he didn't want her to worry too much, but now he wished he had.

With the night came the cold, and Ethan thought that he would freeze to death before falling asleep.

When he woke up again, he was still inside the container, covered in a thick layer of trash. Panic surged through him as he realized that the garbage truck was moving and lifting the container. He tried to climb out, but his body was weak from the cold and exhaustion. He shouted for help, but his voice was so hoarse and weak that it was unable to contend with the loud droning from the garbage truck.

As the garbage compactor started to work, Ethan thought of his mother. He hoped she would have a better life without him now that she wouldn't have to care for two people anymore. As he resigned himself to his fate, Ethan closed his eyes, feeling the crushing weight of the trash around him. He could feel how his organs were slowly squashed and how a broken beer bottle slowly cut into his leg. The pain he felt was indescribable as he slowly felt his ribcage breaking, but it only lasted a few more seconds as his consciousness fell into darkness. He died at the tender age of 16 on January 14, 2020.

---

As Ethan Brown opened his eyes, he couldn't help but cry out in pain. But after a few moments, he realized that the pain was fading away and that he was wrapped up in something warm. As he tired to look around, he noticed that he was no longer in the garbage truck but on the ground of a house entrance with a light turned on. But what really caught his eye was the giant old woman in front of him. Everything around him seemed gigantic, including the woman's cat, and it took him a moment to realize that he was now... small. The woman's sympathetic cries filled the air as she scooped him up and took him in.

After making sure he was okay, the woman called the police. But since they couldn't identify him, they gave her the option to keep him until they found his parents or send him to an orphanage. The woman decided to take care of him until his family showed up again.

As Ethan settled into his new surroundings, he realized something: he had been reincarnated in a child's body, and his parents had abandoned him. While it depressed him, that his new birth parents didn't want to have anything to do with him, he was determined to make the most of his new life and never let himself be bullied again. The old woman gave him warm water, which was like medicine for his cold body. She held him in her arms like a doting mother would, but her age seemed to get the better of her, and she fell asleep on the sofa with Ethan in her arms. After some time, Ethan fell asleep and dreamed of having a successful life in his second life.

The next morning, the doorbell woke him and the old woman up. The woman slowly went to the door without taking Ethan out of her hands. Ethan couldn't see the face of the person on the door, but he heard a husky male voice that apparently came from a postman. "Good morning, Mrs. Brown. I have two letters for you today, one is a really big one, I hope it's not the bank making trouble again. Ohh, what a cute baby! I didn't know you had grandchildren." said the postman with an enthusiastic voice.

"Erik, I have no grandchildren. I've never had the good fortune, but yesterday I found this tiny child in my doorway, and I have no doubt that someone will come and retrieve him soon." A note of weariness and melancholy could be heard in her voice as she talked.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. In this case, I hope you can spend some time with the little boy before he gets taken away. I have to go now; work is calling." answered Erik and went away.

Mrs. Brown went back into her house and placed Ethan carefully on the sofa, wrapping him up so well that he couldn't move. She came back with glasses and began to open the letters. She sighed after reading the first letter before carefully placing it on the side. The second letter was really a big one, and there were several pages in it. While she began to silently read the letters, Ethan could hear her start to cry.

Ethan was worried, but he was in no position to understand what happened or even be able to help. Suddenly, to his surprise, a holographic interface appeared in front of him, absorbing all his attention as he immediately realized that his life wouldn't be an ordinary one.

The requirements for a new skill were met.

Do you want to earn the Skill "Breathing"?

Yes/No

Open Tier 1 Skill slots:

10/10

Breathing

Tier 1

Skill Level: unavailable

Requirements: Breath 10.000 Times

Description: Increases the amount of oxygen you can take in.

Base amount + Skill Level * 1%

Breathing

Tier 1

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements: Breath 10.000 Times

Description:

Increases the amount of oxygen you can take in.

Base amount + Skill Level * 1%

As Ethan looked at the holographic interface in front of him, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was like something straight out of the video games he loved playing. The blue window displayed a message saying that he had met the requirements to acquire a new skill: Breathing. At first, he was hesitant. It seemed like he only had limited skill slots, and the description of the skill didn't seem all that impressive. It would only increase his oxygen intake by a small amount, and it was only Tier 1.

But then he noticed that the first window also showed that he had ten tier one skill slots, implying that there were others on higher tiers waiting for him. He had unlocked the skill after breathing 10,000 times. Ethan calculated in his head that he breathed an average of 15 to 20 times a minute, so it had been roughly between 8 and 11 hours since the system started to count. This was probably the time he reincarnated into the child's body.

After some hesitation, Ethan decided to accept the skill. He didn't want to miss out on anything that could give him an advantage, and he was afraid that if he rejected it, the blue windows would disappear forever. Besides, he figured that even if it was the lowest tier, he would only lose one out of ten skill slots. As soon as he accepted the skill, a new window popped up, showing his entire status and the "Breathing" skill once again.

Name: -

Age: 0

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Tier 1 Skills:

Breathing: Level 1

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Tier 1 Skillpoints: 1

Tier 2 Skills (Locked)

Requirement to Unlock:

Collect 50 Tier 1 Skillpoints

Ethan looked fascinated at his status window. Unlike what he imagined, there were no stats like strength, agility, wisdom, or the like. The window only showed his health, mana, and stamina, and those were portrayed in percentages. The next interesting thing he noticed was that he was right, and there were indeed Tier 2 skillslots, and he needed to unlock them by accumulating 50 Tier 1 skill points. He saw that he already had one skill point, but he didn't know how he acquired it. The thing he noticed last was the first line of the box. He didn't have a name yet. After thinking about it, he thought that it made sense, but he didn't really want a new name. He was satisfied with his old one and didn't want to get used to a new one.

His focus was redirected to Mrs. Brown, who suddenly took him back in her arms, her face covered in tears. "Ethan, my boy, I will take good care of you. I will be the best grandmother you could wish for."

Ethan was perplexed by her actions, but he was happy to hear her call him Ethan. It took him a second to realize that the letter was probably from his parents, and he assumed that they couldn't or wouldn't take him back for some reason and that he would have to stay with Mrs. Brown. Maybe calling her Grandma Brown would be more accurate, as she seemed to want to adopt him.

To affirm his conclusion, he got a system message that told him that he acquired a name.

Congratulations! You acquired a new name. Do you want to register Ethan Brown as your name?

Yes

No

Ethan quickly accepted the name, that was surprisingly the same as his name in his last life.

Ethan soon learned that his new life hadn't had a better start than his last one. Grace Brown, or Grandma Brown, as he called her, was poor. Like the bank regularly threatened to take her house away from her, poor.

Grandma Brown still did her best to give Ethan everything he needed, but anything more simply wasn't possible. While Ethan never had to go hungry to bed, getting new clothes for his rapidly growing body put a serious dent in their pockets. Even though Grandma Brown was way past the age for retirement, she needed to work in a restaurant to be able to pay her bills. Grandma Brown was quite similar to his mother in his old life. She carried all the burden without even complaining once, and instead was content with just seeing Ethan smile.

Ethan promised himself that, despite never being bullied again, he would also become rich and give Grandma Brown a life of luxury. He knew that she probably wouldn't care about riches, but he knew that if anyone deserved to be rich, it was Grandma Brown. Besides his system, the greatest advantage Ethan had was that he was reborn in 1979 in England. While he didn't particularly know of any large events of that time, he still knew which companies would be successful 41 years later. He could already see himself investing in the stocks of Google, Amazon, and Tesla as soon as he turned 18. Buying Bitcoins early on was also a quick way to get rich, but it would take years before that became a possibility. The other problem with investing is, that you need money to invest. He thought about the quickest ways to earn money, but he was severely limited by his age. After thinking about his situation more, he realized that he wouldn't need to invest in some of the companies but could instead found them. He could be the inventor of Google, Facebook, and Bitcoins. All he needed to do was become a good programmer and later hire qualified people.

Ethan looked at his status with a complicated gaze.

Name: Ethan Brown

Age: 6

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Tier 1 Skills:

Breathing: Level 106

Walking: Level 95

Reading: Level 123

Talking: Level 78

Calculating: Level 37

Studying: Level 57

Writing: Level 20

Memorize: Level 51

Teaching: Level 29

Punching: Level 7

Tier 1 Skillpoints: 600

Tier 2 Skills

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Tier 2 Skillpoints: 0

Tier 3 Skills (Locked)

Requirement to Unlock:

Collect 50 Tier 2 Skillpoints

Shop: All Skillpointcosts are the same as the targeted Skill.

Level Up:

Cost 11 Skillpoints.

Level up a skill by one level.

Basic Delete:

Cost: (10 + Skilllevel) Skillpoints.

Delete a skill permanently from your skill list. Also permanently deletes all precursor skills.

Random Upgrade:

Cost: 50 Skillpoints.

Upgrade a random skill to the next tier

Advanced Delete:

Cost: (100 + Skilllevel) Skillpoints.

Delete a skill permanently from your skill list.

Specific Upgrade:

Cost: 100 Skillpoints.

Upgrade a specific skill to the next tier

Skillfusion

Cost: 250+ Skillpoints

Fuse two compatible skills above level 100 to a higher Tier skill. Any additional skill in the fusion cost 150 skillpoints.

Breathing

Tier 1

Skill Level: 106

Level up requirements:

Take 42058/106.000 Breaths

Description:

Increases the amount of oxygen you can take in.

Base amount + Skill Level * 1%

Walking

Tier 1

Skill Level: 95

Level up requirements:

Make 10558/475000 Steps

Description:

Increases your walkingspeed.

Basespeed + Skill Level * 1%

Reading

Tier 1

Skill Level: 123

Level up requirements:

Read 134.400/307.500 words

Description:

Increases your Readingspeed

Basespeed + Skill Level * 1%

Talking

Tier 1

Skill Level: 78

Level up requirements:

Say 74.009/195.000 words

Description:

Improves pronunciation

Basic ability + Skill Level * 1%

Calculating

Tier1

Skill Level: 37

Level up requirements:

Solve 320/1110 equations

Description:

Increases your calculatingspeed

Basespeed + Skill Level * 1%

Writing

Tier 1

Skill Level: 20

Level up requirements:

Read 16.035/50.000 words

Description:

Increases your writingspeed

Basespeed + Skill Level * 1%

Memorize

Tier 1

Skill Level: 51

Level up requirements:

Memorize 28/5100 patterns

Description:

Improves Memory

Memories are can be retained longer

Basetime + Skill Level * 1%

Studying

Tier 1

Skill Level: 57

Level up requirements:

Spend 5/19 hours studying

Description:

Increases your comprehension while studying

Base comprehension + Skill Level * 2%

Teaching

Tier 1

Skill Level: 29

Level up requirements:

Teach at least one person for 0,5/29 hours

Description:

Increases the learningability of people you teach

Baseability (of target) + Skill Level * 1%

Punching (unarmed)

Tier 1

Skill Level: 7

Level up requirements:

Throw 400/700 punches

Description:

Increases punchstrength

Basestrength + Skill Level * 3%

As today was his birthday or reincarnation day, his age turned six. In the last six years, he has filled all his Tier 1 skills. He also learned a few things about how the system worked. First of all, there was a skill for anything and everything, as far as he could tell. From eating, running, crying, laughing, pooping, and jumping to skills like reading the newspaper, eating (carrots), or even writing the letter A. The more specialized the skills, the greater the bonuses. The general skills, as Ethan called them, only gave a one percent bonus per level, but the more focused skills had much larger increases. The skill to read the newspaper, for example, would have given him a 4% boost in his reading speed instead of a one percent boost. Reading books would only give him a two percent boost, and Ethan knew that the internet would be the future, so he didn't want to limit himself to only books. The most general skill he found was the skill "Thinking". It would boost his thinking speed, but only by 0.1% per skill level. He still thought about getting it later, but leveling up and then advancing the skills he had was the priority at the moment. While accumulating skillpoints he gained from leveling the skills, he learned that he couldn't instantly earn skills of higher tiers and instead needed to evolve them with skillpoints.

At first, he thought of only upgrading the skills when all of them reached level 100+ but some skills, like talking, would not be worth training to a higher level. The first few levels always went quite fast, but the higher levels took weeks now. Breathing was the perfect example of that, as it slowed down in multiple ways. At first, he leveled up almost every day, but with the increased skill level, he needed to breathe less often and would need more breaths to level up. If he hadn't run around so much, the skill would probably still only be in the nineties. On average, he breathed 18 times a minute. But after the skill advanced, he wouldn't need to breathe so much anymore. At the moment, breathing nine times would yield the same result, but he forced himself to take shorter breaths to level the skill a bit faster. Walking worked the other way around, as he could get his steps much faster now. He limited himself a bit because he needed more food if he ran around too much.

To his surprise, there weren't any skills that helped him recover his stats directly, as no skill he was offered mentioned anything in the description. So skills like recovering stamina or health didn't show up. But the skill of breathing helped him recover the stamina he lost while running, even though it isn't mentioned in the skill description. But stamina seemed to be more than just showing him that he was out of breath. If he hadn't eaten enough, it would lower much faster, and the same went for drinking. It was as if his maximum stamina had been lowered, but as it was displayed in percentages, he had no way to prove it. His health only went down when he hurt himself or got ill. In the past six years, his health has never dropped below 90%, and he didn't want to try it either. Mana, on the other hand, had never changed from 100%. It may be that he just hadn't checked when the mana was down, but so far, he hadn't seen any other number on it. He believed that mana would be useful for higher-tier skills.

Besides the "Breathing" skill, he carefully considered all his future skills. He tried to build a company that would help in founding a trillion-dollar company and knew he needed to be a charismatic and competent leader. Charisma was never his strength, and he knew from his past life that he would blank and speak gibberish when he should do a presentation. The skill "Talking" should help him with that. The other skills should enable him to learn as fast as possible so that he will always be ahead of the others. The days of mediocrity were over. He would be the undisputed most successful businessman ever.The skill "Punching" was a small blemish on his dedication as he picked it out of fear, as he learned in his last life that if one wasn't able to keep bullies away, it didn't matter if he was smarter than him. He regretted that choice a bit, but as the skill was more focused than the others, the gains he could get from it were also greater, and he wouldn't need to invest too much time into it. The problem that arose with the skill was that he didn't have a target to really practice on. The only thing he could do was punch his pillow. He even got a skill offer just for punching a pillow.

He thought the skill "Teaching" was one of his smarter decisions. He knew from his past life that qualified workers would be hard to find, but with this skill, he would be able to train them himself. He was surprised when he got the skill offered when he taught his grandma a new card game and took it after carefully weighting his options. And now his first step to his meteoric rise would begin, as tomorrow his first day at primary school would begin, and he was fully prepared to show his genius and grind his skills.

"You look wonderful," said Grandma Grace while appreciating Ethan in his brand new school uniform. "You will have a wonderful time at school, I promise."

"Thanks, Grandma," said Ethan, looking a bit embarrassed. He knew that his grandma sold some of her old jewelry, like the pearl necklace she got as a present from her dead husband, to buy him the uniform, and it actually hurt him to see that she even tried to hide their financial situation from him. He would go to school in rags if it meant his grandma could have a few days off, but instead the woman worked herself to the bone to give him what she thought other kids would have and even sold things that were irreplaceable to her.

The first day at school was nothing really exciting, and the fun only began the day after, when the classes actually started. He showed that he was already able to read, write, and calculate and continuously asked the teacher for more tasks. With his skills, he was incredibly fast, and with his knowledge from his old school life, he wouldn't have any problems until he reached high school. The teacher was severely overwhelmed by the unexpected situation, and already on his second day, his grandma got a call from school to talk about his future.

The teachers told his grandma that he already knew all the stuff from the first year and wanted him to skip classes. To Ethan's surprise, his grandma wasn't a huge fan of the idea, as she thought it would make it more difficult for him to find friends, but Ethan insisted that he would be allowed to try. He knew that his grandma only wanted the best for him, but wasting years in school wasn't good for anyone. The only benefit he would have was that he could use the school library and wouldn't need to read the same newspaper articles hundreds of times to grind reading, but high school would have libraries too, and he would be able to actually learn something.

His grandma was always weak to his wishes, and she finally agreed but said that if he had any difficulties keeping up, he would go back.

The very next day, the school called his grandma again; this time they wanted him to do an actual assessment test with him as he showed the same behavior in second grade. To say that his results shocked the teachers would be an understatement. They even began to question his grandma about whether she taught him with unethical methods, as they couldn't explain his results. He even had to redo the tests under extremely high security to make sure he didn't cheat, and he had to do an additional verbal examination afterwards until they finally accepted the results.

As the school didn't have a protocol for situations like that, it took a few days before his grandma was once again invited to discuss his future. This time, a few other civil servants attended the meeting, and a psychologist was there too. The end result of the meeting was that he was invited to a state-sponsored special education program for gifted students. Even there, the students would be older than him, but he would get the best teachers the country had to offer, and everything he needed would be paid for. The only thing that was needed was his grandma's approval. His grandma was even more troubled than before, and for a short moment Ethan thought she would reject or delay everything, but the psychologist convinced her that it would be in his best interest. Even then, she only agreed quite reluctantly.

"The civil servants didn't joke around when they said that everything would be paid by them." said Ethan as he looked at a set of seven new school uniforms, several packages of books, and a schedule for his classes.

"They even take care of the transport," said his grandma as she looked unbelievingly at the schedule that showed the times when he would be picked up.

"Ethan, no matter what they try to tell you or how promising everything sounds, you must promise me that you will tell me if it is too much for you." said his grandma while taking his small hands and looking straight into his eyes.

Ethan looked at her old, shriveled skin and the blue skinbags under her eyes and could feel the calusses she got from all her work in the restaurant. "How could someone be so selfless?" was his only thought. How could someone have such an unconditional love for someone who wasn't even their own child? His grandma never told him that he was adopted, and he never told her that he knew, but that didn't weaken the bond between them even a little. Ethan would even say it strengthened their bond, as it was something they deliberately chose to have.

"Yes, grandma I will, but it won't be necessary. I will be fine, just believe in me." He answered her. It was a side of him only his gran would ever see, as he knew that he would throne over all others.

The program was everything he wanted and more. Unlimited access to books, good teachers, and he could even ask to do some projects that interested him.

The other eleven students in the program were also geniuses of their own, and Ethan even admired them a bit, as they managed to get in there with their own abilities, but now they were just potential recruits for his future megacompany. They were a few years older than him, most ranging from nine to eleven. Apparently there were older students that were preparing for college, but his classes were "only" doing high school stuff so far. The speed at which they learned was almost overwhelming, even for Ethan with his skills, but the skills increased rapidly, and Ethan thought that even his base level in most skills was rising sharply. Ethan was pleasant surprised that he could also level his teaching skills in all group projects when he explained his parts to the others. The teachers emphasized that no matter how good one was, if geniuses worked together, they would only yield greater results. They systematically learned how to work in a group and how to research together. More often than not, they would work on projects instead of learning with books, and the teacher would only take a guiding role.

After a year of schooling and dropping hints that his grandmother's financial difficulties had a negative impact on his studies, his grandmother received a letter saying that her debts had been sold to the state and that no interest needed to be paid anymore. It also stated that if Ethan absolved the whole program successfully, the debts could be waived entirely.

It took a great burden off his gran, but she still told him that it wouldn't matter to her if he completed the program or not. After another year in the classes, Ethan thought it was finally time to advance his skills. He looked satisfied at his status window and knew that his abilities would only grow faster from now on.

Name: Ethan Brown

Age: 8

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Tier 1 Skills:

Breathing: Level 122

Walking: Level 121

Reading: Level 182

Talking: Level 138

Calculating: Level 104

Studying: Level 152

Writing: Level 106

Memorize: Level 98

Teaching: Level 91

Punching (unarmed): Level 80

Tier 1 Skillpoints: 1194

Tier 2 Skills

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Tier 2 Skillpoints: 0

Tier 3 Skills (Locked)

Requirement to Unlock:

Collect 50 Tier 2 Skillpoints

Shop: All Skillpointcosts are the same as the targeted Skill.

Level Up:

Cost 11 Skillpoints.

Level up a skill by one level.

Basic Delete:

Cost: (10 + Skilllevel) Skillpoints.

Delete a skill permanently from your skill list. Also permanently deletes all precursor skills.

Random Upgrade:

Cost: 50 Skillpoints.

Upgrade a random skill to the next tier

Advanced Delete:

Cost: (100 + Skilllevel) Skillpoints.

Delete a skill permanently from your skill list.

Specific Upgrade:

Cost: 100 Skillpoints.

Upgrade a specific skill to the next tier

Skillfusion

Cost: 250+ Skillpoints

Fuse two compatible skills above level 100 to a higher Tier skill. Any additional skill in the fusion cost 150 skillpoints.

Additional Skillslot

Cost: 1000 Skillpoints

Gain an additional skillslot

The option to buy an additional skillslot was incredibly attractive to Ethan, but the costs were simply ridiculous. He would need to spend another decade to level the skills high enough to level up the skills and be able to get the skillslot, so he decided on a different approach and would invest everything he had in his growth speed and use it to level his next skills even faster. He calculated the points he needed beforehand multiple times, even though he was absolutely sure he hadn't made a mistake.

The first thing he did was buy a single level for the skill studying.

Studying

Tier 1

Skill Level: 153

Level up requirements:

Spend 0/51 hours studying

Description:

Increases your comprehension while studying

Base comprehension + Skill Level * 2%

Tier 1 Skillpoints: 1184

Like Ethan guessed he got one skillpoint back after buying a skillevel. So unless he didn't have 11 skillpoints he could calculate the costs as ten points. He then proceeded to buy 26 more levels for "Studying" nine for "Teaching" and 18 for "Reading". And was left with 654 skillpoints. He then used the skillfusion on the skills Studying and teaching together.

He had multiple options for skill fusions, as studying would also be fuseable with memorize and reading would be fuseable with writing, but he thought that fusing all his skills would decrease the pace at which he would earn tier 2 skill points more than he wanted to. He decided on teaching and studying as his classes really engraved the advantages of a good study group into his mind, and he feared that with his skills, after some time his progress would slow down because no one would be able to be of any assistance to him. And he didn't want to do everything on his own unless his system offered him a cloning skill.

After deducting further 250 Skillpoints he earned his first Tier 2 skill.

Collaborative learning

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Spend 0/0,5 hours studying with other people

Description:

Effect 1: Information Sharing: The user would be able to share their knowledge and expertise with others in the community and learn from the experiences of other members.

Effect 2: Critical Thinking: The user would be able to engage in critical thinking and analysis of the subject matter, leading to a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Effect 1: Increases comprehension of collaborative group members including yourself

Baselevel + Skill Level * 2%

Effect 2: Increase the ability to analyse Problems

Baselevel + Skill Level *1%

Ethan looked at the skill description in bliss. This was exactly what he wanted, and the first effect even had the 2% amplifier. Ethan looked satisfied at his status and drooled at his new his new screen before he eagerly decided to invest all his leftover points into the random skill upgrade. The random skill upgrade was 50 skill points cheaper than the targeted upgrade and was the main reason Ethan waited till all his skills reached an acceptable level. The waiting paid off, as he saved 400 skill points with that approach.

Now his Tier 1 skillslots were completely freed up again, and he could choose new skills again. He immediately took the thinking skill and looked at his new status before deciding what he would do next. A wall of text covered his whole vision as he opened his status window again.

Name: Ethan Brown

Age: 8

Health 100%

Mans 100%

Stamina 100%

Tier 1 Skills:

Level

Thinking: Level 1

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Empty

Tier 1 Skillpoints: 5

Tier 1 Skills (Stagnant)

Breathing: Level 122

Walking: Level 121

Reading: Level 200

Talking: Level 138

Calculating: Level 104

Studying: Level 179

Writing: Level 106

Memorize: Level 100

Teaching: Level 100

Punching: Level 80

Tier 2 Skills

Collaborative Learning: Level 1

Pleasing Voice: Level 1

Jab: Level 1

Sensory Memory: Level1

Marathon: Level1

Precise Calculation: Level1

Elaborate Writing: Level 1

Enduring Respiration: Level 1

Contextual Perception: Level1

Empty

Tier 2 Skillpoints: 9

Tier 3 Skills (Locked)

Level (Locked)

Requirement to Unlock:

Collect 50 Tier 2 Skillpoints

Thinking

Tier 1

Skill Level:1

Level up requirements:

Stay sober and awake for 0/5 hours.

Description:

Increases Thinking speed

Basespeed + Skill Level * 0,1%

Pleasant Voice

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Say 0/3000 words

Description:

Your voice sounds more pleasing to the listeners

Baselevel + Skill Level * 2%

Sensory Memory

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Use sensory impressions to remember something. 0/30 times.

Description:

The user is able to recall sensory impressions in greater detail

Baselevel + Skill Level * 1%

Jab

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Punch 0/250 times.

Description:

Increases the speed of your punches

Basespeed + Skill Level * 3%

Elaborate Writing

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Write 0/5000 Words

Description:

Write with greater subtlety, depth, and sophistication

Baseslevel + Skill Level * 1%

Marathon

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Walk 0/10000 steps

Description:

Reduces Stamina consumption from walking

Baselevel - Skill Level * 0,5%

Precise Calculation

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Solve 50 equations.

Description:

Increases your ability to calculate a equation correctly

Baselevel + Skill Level * 1%

Contextual Perception

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Walk 0/10000 steps

Description:

Enhances the user's ability to understand the underlying context and implications of what they read.

Baselevel + Skill Level * 1%

Enduring Respiration

Tier 2

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Hold your Breath for 0/10 Minutes

Description:

Be able to hold your breath for a longer time.

Baselevel + Skill Level * 1%

Ethan was pleased with his new skills. Most of them focused on a different aspect of the same activity. He especially liked the contextual perception, precise calculation, and elaborate writing, as they would further increase his future progress. After looking at his new skills, he realized that the requirements were more time-consuming than those of the Tier 1 skills. That is, if he didn't level the base skills to a high enough level. It showed him that the foundation, the Tier 1 skills, were really important to build a foundation for his future progress. The only skill that went in a complete opposite direction from the level up requirement was breathing, and he would probably make it a habit to hold his breath for longer times.

After upgrading the skills, he also confirmed his hypothesis that skills could not be leveled up anymore after upgrading them. While the skill effects were still active, the skills themselves were labeled as stagnant. Quite accurate if he thought about it but also misleading. The skills always worked with his base level in an activity that he could improve the old-fashioned way.

He also realized that the skill "Thinking" would increase just by staying awake and not taking any drugs or alcohol. A quick calculation showed him that the skill would double his thinking speed at level 1000, which he would reach in short 428 years if he stays sober and sleeps 8 hours a day.

The thought gave him an idea for another skill that could prove invaluable. The skill is sleeping. The Tier 1 version would increase the effectiveness of his rest by 1 percent, but the skills of breathing and walking showed him that a reduction of his need for sleep would be possible. He just wasn't sure if it was really worth it to learn such a skill. He knew that his future schedule would be more than full and time would be his most valuable resource, but was it really worth it to use a skillslot for a chance? The answer was yes; it definitely was. He would probably focus on many different skills in the coming years, and a skill that would level up by literally just sleeping would give him some easy skill points. He looked at the list of skills that he was offered and searched for sleeping skills.

Sleeping

Increases comfort and recovery while sleeping

General

1% per level

In Bed

2% per level

Sitting

3% per level

Sitting in a Car

5% per level

In Class

5% per level

Standing

5% per level

On the Sofa

3,5% per level

He thought about it for a moment before picking the skill that increased his benefit when sleeping in bed. He thought it would be unreasonable to think that he would use anything else on a regular basis. While he thought for a moment that after the level was high enough, sleeping while standing would be better than sleeping in bed, the skills always worked with the base level, and he thought that sleeping in a bed was at least three times more comfortable than sleeping while standing.

Sleeping (In Bed)

Tier 1

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Sleep for 0/8 hours

Description:

Increases comfort and recovery while sleeping

Baselevel + Skill Level * 2%

He thought about filling up his slots with skills that would quickly increase in level and fusing them together into one super skill. Like taking super-specialized writing skills for single letters and fusing them into one skill and then upgrading them and later fusing them with his general writing skill, but decided against it. His writing speed was already high enough, and the advantage wouldn't be too great. The problem he faced was that, until now, he wasn't able to use a computer, or what people in 1988 called a computer, on a regular basis. He only had access to a computer for special projects and wouldn't be able to grind the skills in that regard. On the bright side, he recently learned that the Internet was developed a few years ago. While so far only a few ten-thousand people have access to it, it is getting more popular by the day. He wanted to wait until he got regular access to it which could take at least another year as he would then go into the next special program which would prepare him for college or even get him a degree if he focused on one topic.

His teacher wanted to form a group that would earn one or, in the best-case scenario, multiple Nobel prizes, which would increase the status of the country, and they were currently working on an even more advanced program as his batch exceeded all expectations. Ethan Attributed this solely to his "Teaching" skill, as he didn't believe that the difference between his classmates and the one in the other training programs would be so great otherwise.

With their ambition, they focused heavily on physics and chemistry. While he thought those subjects were interesting, he knew that the real money was in the IT branch, and he didn't particularly care about a price that would only earn him pocket change compared to the riches he could potentially earn. He knew that Microsoft was already on the rise and if he wanted to compete, he had to hurry but he wasn't able to really convince his teachers.

"What happened, gran? Why are you crying?" Ethan was worried when he came home and saw his grandmother crying at the table.

Grandma Brown tried to wipe away her tears as quickly as possible and hide a letter as quickly as possible. "It's nothing sweety, just some adult problems. How was school? Should I make something for you to eat?"

"Gran, please talk to me; I could ask the people from the government for help if something happened. I think they would agree to almost anything if I promised them to focus my whole education on chemistry." He was worried that she would have money problems again.

"Don't worry about those old bones sweety, everything is fine. So what do you want to eat?" she asked slowly standing up.

"Gran, please be serious, can I do something. I may not like it, but I can take care of you." asked Ethan, still worried.

"Why would you need to take care of me? Everything is fine." I'm going to make fish and chips now. If you really want to help me, you can prepare the table." answered Grandma Brown and made her way to the kitchen.

When Ethan finished preparing the table, he saw that the letter his grandma cried over was lying next to the fridge, and in a split second, he decided to grab it as his gran was focused on cooking.

He was shocked when he opened the letter. She got fired from her job at the restaurant. The letter was written in a way that was more apologetic than anything else, but it was the reasoning that disturbed Ethan the most. Apparently, his grandmother was unable to keep up in the kitchen, would mix up orders, and sometimes just forget what she was doing. The owner wrote that he suspects that she has dementia and should seek out a doctor as soon as possible. He explained that he tried to keep her as long as possible as he knew her financial situation was never the best, but his small restaurant can't cover her for longer as she is not only not really contributing, her failures are actively damaging his business, and the customers' complaints were accumulating rapidly.

Ethan was shocked when he read that and immediately saw the signs too. He always thought that Grandma Brown was more exhausted in recent times and was forgetting small things because she was too stressed, but now it all made sense. The illness was only in its early stages, but he knew just too well that she had difficulties managing her everyday life. Things like forgetting to use salt on the dishes or bringing out the trash were a few of the smaller things, and Ethan tried to assist her as often as possible, but he never connected the dots to dementia.

When he tried to talk to his grandma about it after their meal that was once again without salt, she denied everything, and for the first time he saw something like aggression in her voice. She accused the owner of lying and making up stories to cut her off, but Ethan knew the owner was right, and he and she were just too blind to realize it earlier.

It took Ethan great effort to convince Grandma Brown to go to the doctor, as she always said she was fine, but after his relentless pestering, she agreed after a few weeks.

Ethan was searching through all the skills to find something that would be able to help her, but all the skills he could get were quite basic, as he hadn't done anything to fulfill the prerequisites for anything that could help with his grandma's situation.

The thought pained him, but he was unable to do anything besides making sure she took her prescribed drugs.

His grandmother's situation dampened his enthusiasm for school, and he started to take over more and more work at home, regardless of what his grandmother said. As his grandma's condition got worse and she realized how she wasn't able to take care of herself anymore and that she wasn't really herself anymore, she developed a severe depression. She was still clear in her head most of the time and was able to have mostly normal conversations, but sometimes she had moments where she drifted off completely, and sometimes she even forgot which day it was.

The illness advanced slowly but steadily, which depressed both of them. Ethan even considered taking a skill that would enable him to give her some comfort, but unless he wanted to pick up "cooking" which would increase the food's taste, he wouldn't be able to really do something for her that would increase her quality of life.

His days became increasingly challenging as he had to do more and more, but he knew that if he reported the situation to the civil servants, he would have to go into an orphanage and his gran would go into an old people's home.

The situation changed his mindset a lot, as he thought that maybe using his abilities to become a doctor and helping the world fight real problems instead of stealing other people's achievements would be better. He even talked about wanting to get a glimpse into medicine to his teachers, who happily agreed as they saw Nobel Prize potential in that too.

But because he was still undecided, he only filled two more of his empty skillslots until he was sure that he was on the path he wanted to be on.

Headstart

Tier 1

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Level Up 0/4 skills

Description:

Increases Level up speed of all skills lower than this skill by 25%

Experiment

Tier 1

Skill Level: 1

Level up requirements:

Do 0/10 Experiments

Description:

Increases the ability to understand cause and effect in a planned experiment.

Baselevel + Skill Level * 2%

He wasted a few levels on this skill by acquiring it a week after tiering up his old skills, but it would be even more of a waste to take it even later. The only sad thing was that this skill didn't give him any bonus at the moment as all his skills were higher than this one, but it would pay off soon. To test it, he waited before leveling up his "Experiment" skill and was pleased to see that the skill leveled up after 8 experiments. There were more focused skills in the experiment branch, but this one was general enough to even work in social experiments and not only in natural science. The most general one worked even for unplanned observations, but Ethan thought the higher bonus would be worth it.

A year later, he managed to get a good view of the medical system and was shocked. The government managed to get him into a lot of universities and pharmaceutical laboratories, and what he learned convinced him that getting rich was the best way to get anything done. The complete medical system was corrupt, and people died not because there were no remedies but because they couldn't afford their pills, which were sold for hundreds of times their production cost. He could live with companies making a profit and wanting to get the money they invested in their research back, but he saw that firms changed the chemical formula of pills in a way that didn't change the medical effect just to get a new patent. The whole industry began to disgust him, and he knew enough about politics that a sole researcher, no matter how accomplished, would change nothing. So while he didn't want to get rich for the sole purpose of luxury anymore, he wanted to become so influential that he could cause a real change.

To say the government officials were displeased, when he told them that he wouldn't continue to invest his time into medicine would be an understatement. While they didn't exactly threw him out, they weren't doing him any favors any more, and when he insisted that he wanted to focus on computer tech and not chemistry or physics, they gave him a highschool diploma and excluded him from the special program, as a form of cutting their loses as the whole programm costed a lot of money. They still offered him a regular scholarship for any university in England.

The whole situation went downhill from there. The scholarship would only cover the costs of his education, and his grandmother's pension was barely enough to feed them. To add to that, the medical bills began to stack. He thought he could manage everything on his own—take a job, go to university, and care for his gran but no one wanted to employ a ten-year-old for obvious reasons, and his gran's situation only got worse. The child support they got from the government for him also didn't cover his expenses, as he needed new clothes as he was having a growth spurt.

Ethan had no choice but to convince his gran to sell the house and move into a simple apartment. She was clear enough to understand the situation they were in, but the memories she connected with the house made the decision a hard one.

Ethan then began to use the extra money to invest under his grandma's name. It took them a year before they got financially stable again. With the knowledge of the future and enough capital to start, it wasn't too difficult to get a decent amount of money. In hindsight he should have done that much sooner but he dubed his gran would have allowed him to sell the house and invest it at his own leisure if she was completely clear in the head.

After the situation got better again, Ethan wanted to start studying at the nearby community college to get the basics of programming in a few programming languages before dropping out and starting a company under his grandma's name. He just hoped that she would live long enough.

Just as he was waiting for his letters of acceptance, he received a strange letter written in green ink. The letter changed everything. The letter gave him actual hope of saving his grandma from certain death in mind and body. The letter gave him more possibilities than he could ever hope to have. It was the letter of acceptance to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.