Collecting Rewards (2)

Despite the sheer number of skills, Roland looked through most of the list and only found 3 skills that fit his criteria, and they weren't very useful either.

[Water Glide (Passive)]

[Allows you to stand on top of liquids]

...

[Water Breathing (Passive)]

[Allows you to stay underwater for longer periods of time by taking oxygen from the surrounding water]

...

[Water Movement (Passive)]

[Movement speed in water is doubled]

...

'Oh well,' Roland thought giving up. The first two wouldn't even be useful, since he didn't need to breathe, and he had basic mind magic to help him float. Even the third one was useless, since he wasn't planning on traveling into any bodies of water. Plus, their prices were so low he might as well just buy them instead of using the token.

Since he couldn't find anything he needed, he decided to save it for later. It was at that moment that he remembered something.

'Right! I silenced all the notifications earlier!' When he was putting out the fires, he had told the system to temporarily stop showing notifications so he wouldn't get distracted.

'System, show all notifications.' He said. A moment later, many blue screens appeared in front of him.

Roland took one look at the jumbled mess and gave up.

'System,' he asked, 'can you combine the notifications?' Most of the notifications were just skill level ups, but even if the same skill leveled up more than one time, it would still show two separate screens for each time it leveled up.

Immediately, most of the screens moved and combined. Now, there were only a few screens for each skill that leveled up, and some for achievements he had completed.

[You have leveled up twice]

[You have 9 bonus stat points]

[Spirit Sense Leveled Up]

[Basic Mind Magic Leveled Up Twice]

[Pure Mana Leveled Up]

[Wind Blade Leveled Up]

[Appraisal Leveled Up Thrice]

[Thunder Beam Leveled Up Four Times]

[Raincloud Leveled Up Six Times]

[Water Orb Leveled Up Five Times]

'That's a lot!' Roland thought. His skills had leveled up many times when he was putting out the fire.

Not only that, but it also seemed he had completed a few achievements during that time.

[Two Achievements Completed]

He looked to see what Achievements he had done.

[Achievements]

[Put Out a Fire] [Collect]

[Level Up Your Skills 50 Times] [Collect]

Not thinking much of it, he collected the rewards and moved one to the last thing he had to do. By now, his skill pure mana had reached level ten, so he should be able to evolve it.

[Form: Mana Conducting Rock] [Lv. 17]

[EXP: 573/1700]

[System Points] [836]

[Stat Points] [9]

[HP: 20/20]

[MP: 200/200]

[Def] [11] +

[Mana] [30] +

[Skills]

[Spirit Sense Lv.8] [Basic Mind Magic Lv.8] [Pure Mana Lv.10] [Wind Blade Lv.9] [Appraisal Lv.4] [Basic Language Understanding Lv.N/A] [Thunder Beam Lv.5] [Raincloud Lv.7] [Water Orb Lv.6] [Mana Barrier Lv. 1]

'Huh?' Roland thought confusedly.

'Hey system,' he asked, 'when a skill reaches level ten, it evolves, right?

[Only tier one skills. When a skill reaches tier two, it only evolves at level twenty-five]

'Oh, that's going to take a while,' Roland thought. Every consecutive level up needed more and more time to achieve.

'System, can you show the tier of a skill on the status page?' He asked. It would make it much more convenient for him that way.

[Sure]

He turned back to the status page and saw that there were now roman numerals next to the skill that had already evolved, representing their tier.

'Well, that's done.'

He turned away from the screen, surveying the charred forest. The aftermath of the fire still showed, and it would take a long time before the forest was back to normal again. Honestly, he should have just gotten the tsunami skill. It would have finished the job a lot faster, and although the damage done would be a lot, it would probably be a lot less than what had happened by now. He remembered the people that were helping to put out the fire.

'Hey system,' he asked, 'are they still around?'

[I'll tell you if you give me 100 SP]

'Nevermind.' Roland thought speechlessly. He just wanted to ask, but if the system wouldn't give him an answer, he could always find out by himself.

'Well that's everything done,' he thought to himself, trying to figure out what to do next. His only goal currently was to get stronger, but he still didn't have a concrete plan as to how he would do that.

'I guess I can only ask the system now,' he thought. Although it could be unreliable, the system at least knew what to do. It was the only thing he could rely on right now. Deciding not to waste any more time over this, he asked the system what he should do next.

[Give me 500 SP and I'll tell you]

Roland eyed the blue screen in front of him suspiciously.

'Are you sure about this?' He asked.

[Very sure]

'Alright...' Roland said, not quite convinced. A moment after he said that, a series of blue screens appeared in front of him.

[Starting Program]

[Calculating: 0%]

[Calculating: 0.1%]

[Calculating: 0.2%]

[Calculating: 0.3%]

Slowly, the percentage on the screens increased, but when he looked at his status, he noticed that his system points were slowly decreasing in number.

By the time it got to one percent, he had already lost ten SP.

'Wait!' He thought worriedly. If just one percent needed 10 SP, then wouldn't that mean he needed 1,000 in total?

[Just stop thinking, and it'll use fewer points! Your thoughts keep interrupting the program! If it isn't done yet and you run out of SP to use, then the program will shut down and you won't get your system points back!]

With that warning, Roland immediately shut up and silently waited for the bar to reach 100 percent.

[Calculations complete.]

Roland eagerly looked around to see what had changed. Nothing happened.

'System, what's going on?'

[The result of the calculations was sent to me. Your tiny brain can't handle the vast amount of information gathered]

'Okay...I guess...' Roland wasn't sure what to say, but he felt like every time the system talked to him, it was insulting him.

'So,' he asked, 'what now?'

[Now, you have to move your lazy ass to the snake's carcass]

'Hey! I highly resent that description of me!' He said. Why did the system have to say that all of the sudden? Was it because of something he said?

[Yes]

[Now would you like to be hit by another bolt of lightning?]

'No...' Roland said, shuddering slightly when he remembered what had happened earlier. He didn't want another repeat of that.

[Then deal with it.]

Roland sighed in resignation. The system was suddenly becoming very assertive. Did it suffer from a split personality or something?

[Ahem.]

Roland's non-existent face twitched again, but he quickly became silent.

[Hurry up]

'Alright, alright, I know what to do!'