Reward
After days alone in the forest, Ryu finally went back to the sect, the journey back was long. He tried his best to keep his composure walking at a normal pace, but anxiety kicked in and his normal unpretentious walk quickly evolved into a fast rushed one, something that stood between a run and a walk.
He reached the mission Hall, where he was greeted by another man in the reception, at which Ryu asked;
"Thank you, I want to deliver the content of an herbalist quest." the man mechanically pointed to a door at the side.
Ryu passed through a wooden door and found himself in a huge room with countless shelves. Looking outside the building one would not imagine that inside had a room as large, maybe it is an impression caused by the high ceiling. Ryu approached a woman behind a balcony and said he wishes to deliver herbs to complete a quest.
"If it is something of considerable volume, in great quantity, something wet or stinky you should deliver it in the dock backyard, otherwise you can deliver it to me directly." the woman explained with a smile deducting that this should be Ryu first time here.
"I don't know if this fit in great quantity, but here." with a gesture of his hand hundreds of herbs appeared on the balcony.
"This amount is fine." the woman made a gesture and all the herbs disappeared, "Show me you identification token please.".
"Eehh, I am sorry to ask. It is not that I am doubting you... but...eehh"
"Something wrong? What is it? You don't have to become embarrased, just ask what you want, I am here to attend you." the woman said with a smile closing her eyes and putting her hand on her chest performing a gesture to pass the impression of professionalism and trust.
"Will you not count it? The herbs and types I mean, to calculate the reward you know." Ryu was afraid to quest the woman and offend her.
"So you think I am a scammer, trying to cheat, to deceive, to fool you for this measly tier 1 herbs?" her voice raised and her eyes widened showing an angry gaze, a vein of her forehead popped up while she bent forward to the balcony intimidating Ryu.
"No, I was not my intentition. I... just..." Ryu gave a step back while cold sweat ran down the bock of his neck, his eyes wide open with the quick turn of events.
"I am just kidding, come back here." the menacing tone in her voice turned back to the usual professional and lovely tone. "come here, I am just teasing you a little bit, don't make this face."
"Your system perform the calculation of your reward automatically, even if you picked more than you delivered you will only recied the reward for the ones you delivered to me. So there is no necessity of me counting it and you worry about an error. But if you are still in doubt we can count it together."
"You scared me a lot here. There is no necessity in counting, I will just trust your words." Ryu sighed in relief and handed his Id. token to the woman.
"Now you go to the conection room and you will recieve your reward." she said indicating where Ryu should go to use the token and get the reward.
Ryu left the room bidding farewell to the woman and went right to the room where he would level up.
This other room had nothing particularly special about it, it is just and small square place with no furniture. There is only one rock pillar on the middle reaching the heigh of his belly, the walls and floor had some kind of inscriptions, but since Ryu could not understand formations it looked just like some painting decoration.
On top of the pillar, a card-shaped was engraved, Ryu placed his token there and waited a few moments. The entire room started to shine, light passing from the formation to the pillar which was lit in blue color.
The blue light passed slowly from the base of the pillar to the top covering its entire extension, eventually, it reached the top forming a circle at the side of his card.
Ryu placed his hand on the light and felt something refreshing entering his body, running through his arm, reaching his chest until it dissipated spreading a refreshing sensation.
A second letter a melodic sound emerged in Ryu's mind and he felt his body tingling. A notification appeared for him.
<
Ryu imagined the system opening and an image showed before him.
---------------------------------
Name: Ryu Sei
Cultivation technique: Heaven and Earth Inversion (book zero)
Level: 2 Exp: 642 of 1100
Essence: 0
Stats:
Strength ->11 Agility ->11
Dexterity ->11 Resistance ->13
Focus ->12
distribute: 5
Skills:
Heavenly Pillar Martial Art Style (degraded)
Enhanced Vision (first stage)
Axe Mastery (Beginner) level 1, Sword Mastery (Beginner) level 1
---------------------------------
In a single blow Ryu covered more than half the exp needed to reach level 3, his days collecting herbs was repaid very well. Still, he had no wish to go back there.
He noticed that one point was added in every stat and there are still five points to distribute, without thinking too much Ryu used three points.
<
About the two points left he had trouble deciding where to put those. Resistance was promptly discarded since he had already earned 2 points in that stat. Focus stat was something he did not want to increase either, he could see no benefit in raising this stat.
The major problem was to decide whether he will put it in agility or in dexterity. Those two attributes looked the same to Ryu, and he was not able to differentiate one from the other by the name alone.
After thinking for some time Ryu made a decision for dexterity, in his baseless guess that would be the one that would allow him to move faster. He made the decision thinking in his countless time walking in the outskirts, if he could at least run faster it would save him a lot of time.
<
Delighted Ryu went back to his house, the best recompense he could think of now is to go back home and sleep in his comfortable and warm bed. On the journey back he could not hide the smile on his face, he is happy, and even trying his best to display a serious semblance failed, everyone that passed by him was able to see his mood.
He reached home and found no trace of Nura, but that was not something to worry about. The guy should be doing quest somewhere.
Ryu was feeling sleepy, the next day he have another class. Question is a thing he was not lacking at all, the system had displayed many actions that were a complete mystery for him, and getting a better understanding of its working is the utmost.
After eating something Ryu finally reached his so dreamed bed, night had barely kicked in but he had no trouble falling asleep since he had a bed now.