Penalty Quest
When Maximus came to, he discovered he was transported into a jungle, the trees were the biggest he had ever seen and the heat was unbearable.
Suddenly, he noticed something in the corner of his eye causing Maximus to become alert, but when he saw the creature,
"A rabbit?"
Maximus tensed muscles eased and he relaxed, but then he noticed something odd,
'Is that a name on top of its head?'
Just like a monster from a video game,
'Horned Rabbit'
'A Horned Rabbit?'
He then noticed the single horn on its forehead, Maximus had never seen such a creature before,
'what the hell...'
Suddenly, a familiar sound went off in his head,
Ding!
[Penalty Quest: Survival]
Mission: Please survive until the time limit.
Time Limit: 1 hour
Remaining time: 59 minutes 59 seconds
"Huh?"
'Survive?'
Maximus suddenly had a bad feeling and just when the timer began.
The Rabbit he was looking at suddenly pounced towards him, it was so fast that he only had the time to move his arm to block it.
"Splash!"
"Shit!"
The Rabbit rammed its Horn straight into his right arm, causing a bloody hole to form in his arm. Maximus's eyes opened wide and the pain was so intense he felt like passing out. He bit his tongue and started at the Rabbit with blood-red eyes.
The Rabbit seemed surprised that it couldn't take down its prey in a single attack. Just as it got ready for the second attack the prey suddenly turned around and bolted.
"...?"
...
Maximus did not care about anything else and started running for his life. In that first attack, he had figured out that he was no match for the Rabbit. He would have fought it if he had a weapon but, it was impossible for him to fight it barehanded while he was injured.
Running away turned out to be the right decision as more Horned Rabbits revealed themselves from behind the trees and started chasing him. If he had stayed there and continued fighting with that Rabbit, then he would have gotten surrounded. He steeled himself and started running with all his might, using the trees as a cover.
'Wait.. trees?"
'Damn it! if my arm was fine then I could have climbed a tree.'
He regretted letting his guard down against that rabbit. He swore he would never underestimate anyone if he managed to somehow survive this ordeal.
...
Maximus reappeared in his room exactly an hour later.
Crash.
He kneeled over on the floor and painfully wheezed
"Cough.. Cough.., Pant... Pant.."
He couldn't move a muscle, he laid on the floor powerlessly and looked at the ceiling for a long time, his entire body was covered in scratches and his right arm had a bloody hole in it.
Now that the adrenalin was gone the pain hit him in waves, just then a new message came
[You've completed the 'Penalty Quest']
"Fuck! more like a one-way trip to hell!"
Ding!
[Rewards for completing the Penalty Quest are now available.]
[Would you like to see the rewards] (Y/N)
'Rewards?'
Although Maximus very much wanted to know what rewards he got from risking his life, his body wouldn't allow it and his vision turned blurry, just as he was about to blackout he bit his lips hard and regained some consciousness,
'If I faint now, I might just bleed to death!'
He looked at the message and barely mouthed out,
"...Yes"
[The following rewards are available]
Reward 1: Complete Recovery.
Reward 2: One Random Spin Wheel Ticket.
Reward 3: A Single Additional stat point.
[Would you like to collect them now?] (Y/N)
Maximus did not have enough time to read all the rewards he just hoped that it would save him from his situation.
"...Yes"
Maximus could not hold out any longer and entered into deep sleep something akin to a blackout.
What he did not notice was just when he accepted the rewards a gentle white light surrounded him and the hole in his arm slowly disappeared, even the scars healed leaving behind no marks.
...
Ding!
[Daily Quest is now available.]
Maximus woke up with a start and looked at the screen in front of him in a daze. He quickly remembered something and looked at the time.
'3:01 pm'
He sighed in relief that he still had about 9 hours left,
"Huh?"
He looked at his arm and was surprised that there was no injury. He clearly remembered that freaking Rabbit leaving a bloody hole in his arm.
'Was it all a dream?'
He tried to remember the last thing he saw before he blacked out,
"Oh yeah! The rewards!"
He remembered the first reward being Complete Recovery,
"Did it heal my injury?"
He remembered that only Priests could heal Injuries and they were pretty rare.
He looked at the screen carefully. This is the first time he observed it closely and he noticed there were many options on the left side.
[Inbox]
[Status] (Locked)
[Inventory]
[Shop] (Locked)
"Hmm..."
He focused on Inbox and a message popped up,
[Do you want to open the Inbox?] (Y/N)
"Yes"
The screen changed and the right side showed all the messages he received, he looked at the most recent one,
[The following rewards are available]
Reward 1: Complete Recovery.
Reward 2: One Random Spin Wheel Ticket.
Reward 3: A Single Additional stat point.
[Would you like to collect them now?] (Y/N)
[The Rewards have been delivered. Please check the Inventory]
...
Maximus focused on Inventory and a new message popped out,
[Do you want to open the Inventory] (Y/N)
"Yes"
The screen changed again and rows of boxes appeared on the screen, only the first box had something that looked like a Ticket.
'Is it the Random Spin Wheel Ticket?'
He focused on the ticket but nothing happened, he thought for a bit and put his hand into the inventory box, surprisingly the screen distorted and his hand went through. Maximus's eyes became like two circles and he was speechless. He soon calmed down when he felt something, he grabbed it and retrieved his hand.
When he looked at his hand there was a Blue Ticket in his hand, just when he was feeling clueless about what to do with it,
Ding!
[Detected Random Spin Wheel TIcket, would you like to use it?] (Y/N)
Maximus quickly replied,
"Yes"
The ticket disintegrated into blue particles in his hand and the screen changed into a Wheel with a needle in the middle pointing towards the circumference. The circumference was divided into 9 equal parts and each part marked with a '?' and he had no idea what he would get.
As the blue particles merged with the wheel, it lit up and the wheel started spinning and soon gained momentum. When all the particles merged into the wheel it started slowing down and soon came to a stop.
Maximus watched on with anticipation as the needle pointed at a '?' and a new message popped up.
[Congratulations, you have received one Mana Crystal.]
Maximus stared at the screen in a daze.
He knew what a Mana Crystal was, It was a crystal that contained Mana in it and could be used for cultivation. Instead of directly absorbing Mana from the surroundings it was faster to use Mana Crystals. He had heard that it was pretty rare and only Adventurers used it extensively.
Maximus snapped out of his daze and could hardly contain his excitement. His cultivation would surely increase by leaps and bounds if he had Mana Crystals every day. But, he quickly calmed down. Since it was random then he could not guarantee that he would get Mana crystal every day. Maximus sighed and quickly retrieved the Mana Crystal.
He observed it carefully since it was his first time seeing one. It was a transparent crystal with Mana flowing within it. although it was only the size of his finger, Maximus was fascinated with it. He observed the Mana flowing inside with interest. It was blue and was flowing like some kind of liquid in the crystal.
When he was satisfied with observing it he quickly recalled the Information on how to absorb a Mana crystal. Although his cultivation was severely lacking, his theoretical Knowledge was the best among his age.
He held the crystal in his hand and closed his eyes. Concentrating on feeling the Mana present in the crystal he tried to make it flow through his Mana Channels. He suddenly felt a warm feeling in his hand and he felt the Mana flowing from the crystal through his Mana channels and getting stored in his Heart.
...
After an hour,
"Crack"
Maximus opened his eyes and jumped up with excitement, he did not care that the precious Mana Crystal that just turned to dust.
"I have finally entered the Core Formation Stage!"
Ding!
[You have several new messages]
"Oh?"
Maximus suppressed his excitement and looked at the screen and focused on the Inbox,
[Congratulations you have unlocked 'Status'.] (New!)
['Skill: Meditation' has been learned] (New!)
['Skill: Perseverance' has been learned] (New!)
Maximus pumped his fist and excitedly focused on the first message
Ding!
[Do you want to open the Status?] (Y/N)
"Yes!"
Maximus almost shouted from the excitement.
The screen changed and the Status option was now unlocked,
[Status]
Name: Maximus
Level: 1
Class: Warrior
Trait: None
HP: 400
MP: 10
Fatigue: 3
[Stats]
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 13
Sense: 11
Stats Points available to distribute: 1
[Skills]
Passive Skills:
-Mana Friendly Lv. 1
-Perseverance Lv. 1 (New!)
Active Skills:
- Meditation Lv. 1 (New!)
Maximus had a serious expression on his face when he saw his Status, Using his knowledge about the video games his classmates talked about, he mostly understood everything.
'Still... isn't my stats more inclined towards being a Mage?'
He somewhat regretted choosing a Warrior class just based on his preference, but then shook his head.
'No matter what I will walk the path towards my dreams!'
After looking over his stats he focused on the 'Skills' column.
[Skill: Mana Friendly]
Passive Skill.
Mana required to activate: 0
Your body is highly compatible with Mana, making it much easier to absorb mana.
[Skill: Perseverance]
Passive Skill.
Mana required to activate: 0
You possess immense perseverance. When your Fatigue reaches more than 50, all your stats increase by 10%.
[Skill: Meditation]
Active Skill.
Mana required to activate: 5
When this skill is activated, your speed of mana absorption will increase by 30%. During its activation, 1 mana is spent every minute.
"Hmm.."
'I must have learned 'Perseverance' and 'Meditation' while absorbing the Mana Crystal.'
'but, 'Mana Friendly'...."
"Ah! did I learn it because my Body was Modified when I got the Inheritance?"
"But still, to think Skills could be learned so easily..."
From what he knew Skills were very precious and only Adventurers knew how to get them.
A fire burned in his heart when he thought about this,
"Maybe I CAN become an..."
"Adventurer!"
...
After calming himself down, he focused on the Stat points.
[Stats]
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 13
Sense: 11
Stats Points available to distribute: 1
After a lot of thinking, he added his stat point to Strength. He decided on this allocation because he wanted to quickly finish the Daily Quest.
"Add stat point to strength"
Ding!
[Stats]
Strength: 11
Vitality: 10
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 13
Sense: 11
Stats Points available to distribute: 0
"..."
Maximus did not feel any changes so he decided to test it out. He got on the floor and started doing push-ups.
"1,2,3..."
"...10,...,11!"
Maximus grinned when he got up. Even though he did more than 10 push-ups he did not feel that tired.
"So, my strength increased by 10%"
He checked the time and realized he only had about 7 hours left. He quickly had something to eat and then got into it.
1 hour later,
Ding!
[Push-ups, 100 times (100/100)]
Maximus finished the push-ups and then had something to eat then left for the park. He ran his way to the park and started with pull-ups.
2 hours later,
[Pull-ups, 100 times (100/100)]
With his increased strength he was able to finish it in 2 hours. His arms felt like lead but he ran back home finishing the Running part.
Ding!
[Running, 10 km (10/10)].
He looked at his watch and saw that he still had 3 hours left, he took a break for an hour and finished the Squats slowly.
'11: 25 pm'
Ding!
[You have completed the Daily Quest: A Perfect Vessel]
[Would you like to receive the rewards?] (Y/N)
[Daily Quest: A Perfect Vessel]
-Push-ups, 100 times: (100/100)
-Pull-ups, 100 times: (100/100)
-Squats, 100 times: (100/100)
-Running, 10 km: (10/10)
...