*A busy day*

Axel had put an arm around Kevin's shoulders. He knew exactly what Kevin felt, as he was an orphan too. He had also dreamed of having a family or at least someone to love, but the fear of abandonment was too great for him to dare take that risk.

And anyway, apart from Alan and Erik, his boyfriend, whom he considered as brothers, no one else had ever managed to get his attention - no one except Kevin.

His thoughts were interrupted by Douglas, who had stood up and asked everyone to join their shifts. Alan left first, and Axel realized he still had his arm around Kevin's shoulders. He withdrew his arm, and before he could say anything, Kevin asked him, "Will you still agree? I really want to see you in your wolf form."

Axel ruffled his hair and said happily, "Of course I still agree. Come back here at 6 PM; that's about the time my shift will be done. Then, we'll go into the woods - it will be more convenient for me."

Kevin was pleasantly surprised to see that Axel seemed as excited as he was about this idea. He had just had a great time with him, so he said as he stood up and put his hood back on his head, "Thank you, Axel, for the breakfast. That was really cool. I'll be there to wait for you when you go out. Have a good day."

Kevin waved to him and left; he was going to have a busy day too.

When he arrived on the crowded street and saw that the stores were open, he took the time to organize in his mind what he had to do today and decided on what to do first.

He would start by buying whatever he needed, as he needed time to digest his breakfast. If he ran right now, he was sure he would throw up whatever was in his stomach.

Once he had made his purchases, he would go for a 10 km one-shot run. Before starting his meditation, he would go back to his room and do an hour of workout and an hour of stretching for the second time that day.

Kevin followed his schedule scrupulously and found everything he needed. He had spent a total of 49 gold coins, so he still had 180 gold coins left.

Kevin initially wanted to buy a watch since he didn't have one, but he found that the date, the day, and the time appeared on the main menu of the System, so he gave up on that idea. This System was really very convenient.

When he had finished his hour of stretching, the familiar sound echoed once again in his head, and for the second time that day, he saw the same message appear:

[ Congratulations, you have just completed the Daily Quest: Strengthen Your Body. The rewards have been sent. ]

Before starting the meditation, he decided to take a shower and go eat.

At 1:27 PM, he was back in his room and decided to check his Stats before starting the meditation.

[ STATS ]

Name: KEVIN

Race: Human

Level: 1

Class: Mage

Exp: 60 / 100

Strength: 4

Agility: 4

Stamina: 4

Soul Force: 180

Perception: 10

HP: 10 / 10

Kevin was super satisfied; being able to progress so quickly was a real miracle. Now he was going to jump into the unknown and try to meditate.

He decided to meditate for at most 4 hours. He especially didn't want to miss his appointment with Axel. He just hoped that every hour, the system would send him a message like for the Daily Quest of Strengthening his Body, so that he wouldn't lose track of time.

He followed Alan's instructions and lay down on his bed. He had told him to find a comfortable position, close his eyes, and then focus on the spiritual energy around him. This energy would be represented by particles of light that he had to attract and absorb.

Kevin was nervous and excited at the same time, but he closed his eyes and calmed his too-restless heart.

He had been a sniper in his past life, so after closing his eyes, he easily managed to enter a state of high concentration. In the darkness that surrounded him, he finally saw the particles Alan had mentioned.

They were tiny, and at first, he could only see a few silvery ones. He decided to focus on them, and as if a string were wrapped around them, they moved towards him, and he felt a tingling sensation when he absorbed them.

Once he was done absorbing the first particles, he saw more appear, and with the silver particles, he could see smaller ones that were blue. When he absorbed the blue particles, he felt a sensation of coldness - a sensation totally different from the silver particles.

But he was not surprised; Alan had told him that when he would absorb different types of particles, the sensations would be different, and these sensations represented the different elements.

He continued to absorb silver and blue particles, and finally, he heard the familiar sound of the system, and a first message popped up, quickly followed by a second.

[ Congratulations, you have just completed the Daily Quest: Strengthen Your Soul Force. The reward has been sent. ]

[ Summary of your meditation ]

Lightning Element Level 5: 324 / 20,000

Water Element Level 3: 87 / 5,000

Wind Element Level 1: 0 / 1,000

Fire Element Level 0: 0 / 200

Earth Element Level 0: 0 / 200

Kevin finally understood what these numbers represented after this second message. To reach level 6 of the Lightning Element, he would probably have to absorb 20,000 particles of this element.

At this speed, he still had a long way to go, but he didn't get discouraged. As Alan had already warned him, the more he practiced, the easier it would be for him to absorb particles.

So he refocused his mind on this spiritual energy and continued to absorb all the particles he saw. He only stopped when the fourth message appeared before his eyes.

[ Congratulations, you have just completed the Daily Quest: Strengthen Your Soul Force. The reward has been sent. ]

[ Summary of your meditation ]

Lightning Element Level 5: 1,668 / 20,000

Water Element Level 3: 412 / 5,000

Wind Element Level 1: 97 / 1,000

Fire Element Level 0: 0 / 200

Earth Element Level 0: 0 / 200

He then opened his eyes and quickly sat up on his bed. He checked the time on the main menu of the System, and it was 5:32 PM. Perfect, he thought. It was time to go.