Tutorial level

I woke up at six and started working on my homework the moment I rolled out of bed. I'd thought about it last night and had decided for sure—school was going to cut into my time a lot. Not only did I need to spend seven hours a day there when I could be training instead, but there was also stuff like homework I had to do out of class. So, to avoid wasting more time than necessary, I should get this done with as quickly as possible. Hence, waking up early and spending an hour on this week's homework.

Diligent studying caused your INT to increase by 1!

I turned to stare flatly at the notification, wondering why I was even surprised.

I could increase my stats like that, too?

That changed things. If it wasn't just by leveling up—that is, if I could get more than five points per level—then my plans needed to be adjusted accordingly. I'd need to test exactly how it work, experiment to see if how it applied to my other stats and how I could improve each, though I imaged that working out would improve the physical ones. In which case…

From eight to three I was in school. Taking into account breakfast and the time it would take to reach class, I would have an hour of free time in the morning that I couldn't use effectively in any other way, so I could study and work out then. At school, I could study and get ahead and nobody should be able to complain. After school, I could stay out until supper, if I told mom I was going to the library—which I was, so it wasn't even really a lie. I could practice a number of my skills then and after supper I could go into the woods to practice the ones I couldn't use in town. Mom would want me back by dark, though, at which point I could study and work out some more in my room.

No matter how exhausted my body got, I would recover after thirty minutes of rest. My hp and mp returned more slowly, but even they would be fully restored simply by sleeping in my bed for six hours. As such, no matter how hard I pushed myself at night, it was fine. If I could gain additional stat points at a reasonable rate, it was more than worth it—if I could gain even just one INT per level then even assuming I couldn't think of any way to get additional Wisdom, I could focus on it and get it to level fifty by level nine and still have an INT of eighteen or higher. If I switched my focus to it afterwards, I could raise INT to fifty as well by the time I was level fifteen.

I resisted the urge to pump my fist in the air before realizing there was no one around to look at me strangely and doing it anyway.

Then I went downstairs to make breakfast before Mom woke up.

The Breakfast of Champions.

XxXXxX​

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School was boring, as a rule, and it wasn't made particularly less so by the fact that I spent the whole time studying. My Int didn't go up again while I was there, which didn't particularly surprise me since even a week of school and homework hadn't raised it until this morning. After it let out for the day, I headed towards the library like I'd told mom, Observing everyone and everything that caught my eye on the way there. Most of them were just normal people, but practice was practice, right?

The library, however, turned out to be a treasure trove. Not just because it turned out that, yes, I could Observe every single book and not just because there were plenty of books there that I could use to study after I finished with my textbooks. Those were nice, but they paled in comparison to the true power of the library. I'm not remotely ashamed to admit that I made a beeline for the section about Hunters and such the moment I entered. I started from the top and went through it alphabetically, taking a book out, Observing it, and putting it back. Each use gave me what amounted to a summary of the book, which got more detailed as I leveled it up again. But as I was approaching the end of 'A'…

You obtained the skill book 'Aura: The Light of Our Souls.' Would you like to learn this skill?

It took me a minute to understand what I was look at. When I did…well, if I'd been holding a drink, I would have crushed it right then and I proceeded to press 'Yes' about twenty times in the half a second it took for the message to vanish. The book proceeded to fill with a bright golden light before flaking apart into what seemed almost like glowing petals and vanishing completely. As it did, I could feel the knowledge flowing into me and I knew, knew, exactly what Aura was despite having never even heard of it before.

Aura (Passive & Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The Manifestation of one's soul. Long ago, Man, who was born from dust, learned to wield the light of their being against the soulless Grimm. It's a power that allowed Mankind to reach past their human limits and drive back the darkness, letting them bear their burdens and shielding their hearts. Stat increases depend on the amount of Aura (MP).

Passively increases STR by 30%.

Passively increases DEX by 30%.

Passively increases VIT by 30%.

Passively increases INT by 30%.

Passively increases WIS by 30%.

Additional 30% increase to STR when activated.

Additional 30% increase to DEX when activated.

Additional 30% increase to VIT when activated.

HP regeneration speed increased by 100% when activated.

…Holy crap that's broken and it's only at level one. And all Hunters have this?

I looked at my hands as they—my entire body, really—started glowing bright white. After a few seconds passed, it began to die down, the power drawing closer to my skill. It was active already, I could feel it, and I had no objections to that whatsoever. This skill was one I wanted to level up as quickly as possible.

I tried to fight down the urge to start laughing and cheering like a madman and only succeed because I heard footsteps and they reminded me that I had no way of explaining what just happened and, also, I'd just destroyed one of the library's books which I really didn't want to explain either. Or, uh, pay for. Because my wallet was anemic.

Thinking quickly, I dove to the end of the row with my new found speed and turned around the corner, holding my breath in an instinctive attempt to go unnoticed. Someone—another library-goer or a librarian, I didn't know—stopped near where I'd just been and I silently crept past the thankfully empty row beside the Hunter section and turned down into the one two shelves down, where I spotted another person. I went back to looking at books in a way I hoped was casual, going back to Observing.

Seconds past and nobody came after me and I let out a slow breath.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous hiding has created the skill 'Stealth' to avoid notice!

I didn't react as the notice appeared, focusing on the books. Just in case, I should probably avoid looking at the Hunter section again today, though I could still browse through a few shelves of books. I needed to remember that using skill books came with a lightshow and vanishing books and do it somewhere out of the way.

Out of the way…

I spent a minute browsing the shelf I was on, just for show, before minding another empty row. After a few minutes of searching and Observing, as well as some basic thought, I found what I was looking for. A Driver's Manual—or rather, to me, a driving skill book. I could use this with the push of a button and instantly learn how to drive and all it would take is a destroyed book. And…it may have been selfish of me or said something about me, but the destruction of a book in return for skills like this just didn't bother me. If anything did, it was simply that I would be taking the book from the library permanently in doing so and maybe a minor fear of being caught. But…

I took a deep breath and spoke.

"Inventory," I said and the window appeared before me. I pushed the book into it and it disappeared into a ripple in space, stored neatly into one of the top slots. And then, I went back to the shelf and started looking for other skill books.

I'll pay you back someday, I promised the library as I left a few hours later. As I passed through the threshold, a notification appeared.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous theft has created the skill 'Theft' to take things that belong to others!

Mastery of the skill Theft increases! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one!

Damn it.