Alleging Alleged Crimes and Setting Goals

If I were to go to the public with my thoughts that Edward Pitcher had at the very least something to do with my father's death, I would have to keep prefacing my claims with "allegedly" because…well, I don't have any proof of it.

I just had a curiously strong sneaky suspicion.

Firstly, Dad was the face of the guild and held the position of guild leader, a title and position that Edward Pitcher overtook when Dad died.

And secondly, Edward…well, I never liked the man.

I admit, it's some pretty weak conjecture, but I was nine years old when Dad died, and that uneasiness that I felt around Edward never left me.

The only people that were there in the Dungeon around the time Dad died were Alan and Edward — the Dungeon Clearing team had to quickly escape the Dungeon during an expedition because an undocumented Anomaly was found in the A-Tier Dungeon they were charting.

And since the three men were the strongest Players around, they decided to buy the rest of the team time to escape.

Unfortunately, during the fight, Alan was knocked back by the S-Tier Soul Drake and lost consciousness.

According to the official reports, Edward managed to miraculously heave Alan out of the Dungeon, and they couldn't retrieve Dad's body until we received help from an S-Tier Dungeon Clearing team from America hours later.

They found his body cold and torn apart.

And who got the most benefits out of his death?

Well, at first it was the government since Dad was in negotiations with some sort of government contract with them when he died, and Edward finished those negotiations. ALLEGEDLY the finalised contract was quite government-friendly, but I'm not the kind of person that cared or particularly understood all that legal…contract…stuff.

But like I mentioned earlier, Edward gained quite a lot from Dad's death also.

Anyway…

Because of Edward's call, Alan had to leave the dinner early and the rest of the dinner went by quietly.

Don't get me wrong, I love Mum — I think that much is obvious by now— but with the original circumstances that I have the memory of and the 'variances' that had shown up during this version of events, there wasn't a lot that I was comfortable saying to Mum at that point. So, the dinner turned out awkward and silent.

Both of us were so happy with the good news that we received, but (probably because of the reasons I mentioned earlier), there was a bit of an odd atmosphere at the dinner.

We just ate our food, and when that was done, I got rid of the rubbish and made sure Mum didn't need anything before I left.

That night, I couldn't sleep.

Thankfully, the location of my apartment hadn't changed, though when I checked through my belongings and accounts, I found that I had quite a bit more money saved and better furniture. Obviously, Mum's second marriage meant that my family was a little bit better off financially.

My mind raced over what had happened to me in the last twelve hours and I was excited by what the System had shown and all the possibilities that were now available to me.

As I was lying down on my bed, the System came into my view. The Status tab floated as I looked over my updated info.

[PROFILE

NAME: Eric Stoller

AGE: 31

ATTRIBUTES

FORTITUDE: D*

APTITUDE: D*

THAUMATURGY: N/A*

VITALITY: D+]

"So, are the only Fortitude Attribute Quests only going to be the basic exercising goals?" I asked the System as I thought about the daily quests.

[Answer: Currently, the quests available to the Player are basic exercising goals. Once the Player reaches certain grades in their Attributes, more variety of daily quests will be introduced.]

"Well, I was planning on getting fitter anyway," I mumbled to myself.

I switched to the Skills tab and looked at the new Blood Circulation skill that I unlocked, "Blood Circulation has a level, what does this mean?"

[Answer: A Skill's Level shows the proficiency of the skill. The higher the level, the better the output.]

That made total sense. I tried to activate the skill but was only met by a System message.

[Error: The Player has not fulfilled the conditions to activate the skill <Blood Circulation>.]

I reread the information about the skill, "You mean I have to actually be hurt to use the skill?"

[Answer: Correct.]

I almost swore loudly. I looked at the clock on my phone and it said 2:51 am.

For a moment, while I stared at the message in front of me, the thought of hurting myself to test out the skill crossed my mind for a split second before I had to physically shake my head at the sheer ridiculousness of the thought.

I had already planned to start completing the Fortitude tasks the very next day. There was no doubt that my body would be sore after all that exercise, so I had ample opportunity to use the skill tomorrow.

There was no need to be so dramatic.

So, since there was nothing left for me to do, I decided to spend the time planning. I needed a goal I had to work towards for this prestige. I started off with two simple ones:

One: Be more financially independent (though this was more of a long-term one that might span multiple prestiges), and two: Reach the innate limitation for my Fortitude Attribute WITHOUT using PPs. The tasks were simple, and if the improvement was anything like what I got for my Vitality, then surely it wouldn't take too long, right?

***

I woke up the next day at around noon. I made a mental note that if I wanted to get healthier, I should probably start having a better sleeping schedule.

I had myself a…"healthy" breakfast/lunch — not "brunch", I'm not that cringe or rich — and I gathered what I needed for what I planned for that day.

When I woke up, I got an email that informed me that I had an account registered in the database and I was able to start using the guild's facilities.

That included the gym.

So, with a bag of spare clothes, a water bottle, and a towel, I made my way back to the guild building.

I got myself set up and made sure I stretched before I got up on one of the many treadmills. It was only when I was deciding how fast I wanted to go that I realised the enormity of how much work it would take to get the Fortitude tasks down.

Since I didn't walk — hell, do any exercise — often, I had no perception of how fast walking at 5 km an hour would be for my fat, lazy legs. And, as I stood with my feet apart on the edges of the treadmill as it chugged along at the just-too-fast-for-me-currently 5km an hour speed, I felt a sense of dread as I realised that it would still take almost two hours to complete the FIRST Fortitude task.