Daily Quest. Meeting Pisces.

Ethan woke up to the sound of sweet swinging in his room.

  DING!

[Daily Quest Initiated!]

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* Daily:

- Run A 100km: [00/100]

- Do A 100 Push Ups: [00/100]

- Do A 100 Sit Ups: [0/100]

- Stay Focused For 3 Hours (Stop Being A Pervert): [00:00]

[Time Limit: 24 Hours]

[Penalty: Instant Teleportation To A Beast Plane For 3 Days]

[Note: You Can Die! Failure Of Even One Quest Will Trigger The Penalty]

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"What the fuck!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Honey boo? What's wrong?" a sweet voice asked in a worried tone.

"Nothing. I'm sorry for the sudden outburst. By the way, what are you doing here?" Ethan said to Harley who was sitting on his bed.

"I came to keep you company last night. We actually did it." Harley said with twinkles in her eyes.

"Did what?!" Ethan unconsciously grabbed Little Ethan.

"Slept together."

"Huh?! Sss... ss... slept together?"

"Not what you are thinking kid. I mean we slept on the same bed."

"Seriously? And that got you this happy? We've been doing since I was barely 2 years."

"It's different now, now that you are of age. It just feels different... get prepared for school. Bye!"

Before Ethan could speak, Harley ran out of the room. She was so fast that it got Ethan wondering when a healer became this fast. Yeah. Harley had the Healing affinity.

...

Ethan finished preparing really fast. Why? He was eager to see his mom before he went to school. He got downstairs just in time to see his mom and Harley setting the table for breakfast. He, for the first time, ate his mom's food. And it was the best food he had tasted ever. Thai chicken chowder, hot oat, bran cereal with fruits and hot milk. The food was so heavenly to the extent that, Harley moaned in pleasure and glee as she ate it. 

Ethan got out of the house and got on the main road. He was beaming like a headlight as he strapped his bag to his back and adjusted it so that it stuck to his back. He planned to do one of the quests as he went to school. The school was 150km from his street, so he planned to run to school to complete the "Run A 100km" quest as he went. He mostly walked to school anyways even though he was always late. He put on his air pods and turned on the music and started jogging. He gradually added more speed, moving from jog to run. He wore a blue hoodie, black sweatpants, and white sneakers. His hair as always, was messy and coupled with his glasses, his handsomeness was top notch. His spectacles were circular and black with gold designs at the joints. The old ones had broken on the day he nearly died but Miss Carmen got him new ones as replacement. 

For the first 50km, it was fairly easy. Advancing to 65km was a bit difficult but he prevailed. Then came, the hard part after 65km. 70km and above. He felt like he would collapse any second. The fatigue was starting to take a toll on him, and most annoying part was Zark, the system's voice who was mocking his slow progress. It even intentionally added 2km as motivation. And he couldn't even retaliate. 

Slowly and steadily, he reached the checkpoint which marked the end of his run. He was surprisingly not sweating as he had estimated. He had prepared clothes to change into just in case, but it seemed it wasn't important. But he could clearly feel the fatigue and the feeling to rest, to sleep. He still had 30 minutes to get to school, early. Right on track as it always was, the devilish system chipped in.

         DING!

[Bonus Quest Initiated!]

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*Bonus: 

- Surpass Your Limits (Run More Than 102km)

[Reward: Special Gift Card]

[Penalty: None]

[Note: It's An Optional Quest. You Can Choose Do It Or Not]

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'Yeah! Now you are talking.'

And he did just that. Surpassed his limits.

...

"Huh! I got here pretty fast. Phew!" Ethan said to himself as he doubled up. He was out of breath but luckily, he had reached school with 5 minutes to spare. He really surpassed his limits, but the system felt that he multi surpassed his limits. With Ethan's basic speed, the 30 minutes was enough for him to complete the run but he rather sped up the process by using little time to reach school. The system even warned him not to do that again unless he became stronger.

As a mage, it wasn't an achievement but if one was to know that he had recently awakened, they would really praise him. Because a newly awakened was just a mortal with powers. Basically, your typical magician with hat and wand. That was what a newly awakened mage was seen as, so you can imagine the level of power Ethan just showed. A feat worth congratulating but no one except for the system and those he passed by on the way saw him. 

As he was catching his breath, a blue ball flew towards him. He didn't notice it but just felt that he should move out of the way. An instinctive action. He quickly rolled out of the way. An explosion occurred at where he was standing seconds ago as the ball blew up. Ice started spreading quickly with the most concentrated part heading towards Ethan. Ethan was still trying to catch his breath but was left with no space for a breather. He swiftly turned in the direction of the quick approaching ice, another instinctive feeling and focused on it. Bright blue runes appeared on his face, forming a kind of serpent faced tattoo-like mask which glowed brightly. An invisible shield or more precisely, barrier appeared in front of him and blocked the ice from reaching. Even with that, he expended 90% of his remaining energy as he was too weak to block the Exploding Ice Ball. The ice slowly withdrew when he was almost on the verge of collapse. It turned into a snowflake and disappeared. He was left panting like crazy. Who in the fucking hell wanted to kill him?! 

A girl about 20 years old approached him while smirking with an arrogant expression. She walked with grace and poise, her blue ponytailed hair flying behind her. She was a beauty, with white skin, blue, glassy eyes, small red lips and the perfect round face. Her curvaceous form was nearly as good as Harley's coupled with a slightly big chest in that red jacket. She wore a red jacket with white snowflake designs, white tight jeans and black boots, highlighting her beauty even more.

"Hey handsome. Sorry for the trouble I caused you. I was trying out a new skill. By the way, I'm Pisces. One of the Zodiacs and you are?" the girl said in one breath while keeping her arrogant expression. She even seemed to be enjoying as a crowd gathered when they heard Zodiac. Zodiacs, the strongest among the current generation of mages who could unleash more power than their rank suggests. Basically, they were way stronger than their peers of the same rank. 

"Phew! Tch! I'm Ethan. A newly awakened and thanks for trying to kill me. I really appreciate it." Ethan responded with anger and spite.

"What?! A newly awakened and you are this strong? Don't you dare lie." Pisces's face twitched in embarrassment and anger.

"Lie? What will I get from lying to an exalted Zodiac. Tch!"

"Such bad manners. I still don't believe you, commoner. You even stopped my new skill."

"If you don't believe me, you can believe your ignorance and head to the principal's office for the records of Ethan Smith Junior. I got other things to do, I can't keep wasting my time here." Ethan said while turning around. The serpent tattoo was no longer on his face.

"That's a Zodiac. A real Zodiac!"

"He really said that to a Zodiac!"

"The guy is now on the blacklist of Pisces."

"He's handsome though."

"Stop right there! You dare talk to a Zodiac like that? I challenge you to a duel. You have a month to prepare!" a male voice echoed in the vicinity. It belonged to Leon Richards, one of the Tyrants of the academy. Tyrants were just below Zodiacs. They can be said to be similar to Zodiacs but weaker than them, but they had the potential to become Zodiacs. Leon looked like a male version of Pisces. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt, black jeans and black shoes. He had short blue hair in a quiff hairstyle. Ice blue eyes and the same arrogant expression as Pisces.

"Brother and sister, I can see, So shameless!" Ethan looked at them disdainfully and went his way, leaving them with embarrassed and twitching faces. He met Trevor on the way, and they headed to class together. He got a notification from the system but decided to check it later.