***

Peter awoke the next day to the alarm that he set with his clock ability. It was 6:30 in the morning, but he didn't feel tired at all. Living in a medieval time period meant that once the sun went down there wasn't a whole lot to do. Early bedtimes were easy to adhere to when there was no technology to distract you. The wonderful smell of a breakfast consisting of freshly baked bread, and a large fruit that tasted a lot like a peach also made waking up that much easier.

There was a pitcher of water there for him just in case he got thirsty. He ate everything and had a large gulp of water before heading down to the training area for his first day of real combat practice in this world.

On his way, he identified everything he could. Peter found it was much more difficult to level up [Identify] now that it was adept. He still kept at it though, and just as he was about to arrive at the training grounds he received a notification.

[Identify] has risen to Adept level 2!

Peter smirked to himself and did a small fist pump. Thanks to his [Student of a God] passive, it still didn't take unreasonably long to level up the skill even at Adept.

Once he walked through the small archway he came to a wide open space. The floor was packed down dirt, with obvious scuff marks from regular use. The wide open space was the second courtyard in the temple. The first was meant to be a relaxing place to study magic, and the second was essentially a workout area with sparing rings, a running track, and several training dummies.

Nobody was here at this hour of the morning though. Peter was interested in what his body was capable of, so he decided to warm up with a few laps around the training yard. He felt extremely sluggish compared to his time in the white realm with B67, but that was to be expected. He had inhuman abilities there, while here in this mortal body he had yet to train himself to be strong.

Most would see this as a deterrent and feel like it was a huge step back, but Peter knew otherwise. The two traits he had gained from enduring the pain of dying a thousand times had given him a serious leg up in this world.

Peter's [Stamina] was draining fast. He was down to 90/100 now according to his heads up display. He didn't want to tucker himself out immediately and make himself useless for the rest of the day. He took a break and sat down on one of the few benches that surrounded the training area. That was when he heard some heavy footsteps coming from one of the corridors into the courtyard. Peter turned to look down that direction, and soon enough he saw Jogun's burly figure coming down the hall with his arms full of various equipment.

"Good morning Peter!" He called out.

"Morning Jogun. Is all that a present for me?" Peter called out sarcastically, still a tiny bit winded from his run. His [Stamina] raised to 92/100 now though, so he felt like training with regular breaks wouldn't be too bad.

"You're not gonna think of these as 'gifts' when I'm done with you today! Hah!" Jogun called back. Peter was unsure if Jogun was just replying in kind with his sarcasm, or meant every word.

He helped Jogun with carrying everything to the middle of the courtyard.

"Alright Peter, we're gonna start with getting a feel for where you're at with your physical abilities. Normally asking for someone's stats is rude, but as your trainer and seeing as you have little experience with the system, you should strongly consider telling me what your stats are before we begin," Jogun requested.

"All of my stats, [Endurance], [Vitality], [Dexterity], [Strength], [Perception], [Processing], and [Magic Resistance] are at 10 sir," Peter responded immediately.

A blank expression took over Jogun’s face. He tilted his head to the side and stared at Peter like he had two heads.

"So it's true. Kayel must not have been losing his mind after all. Unfortunately, I've never even heard of those last three stats before. What on earth do they do?" Jogun felt rather unprepared after all.

Peter realized how strange it must be to have such a different set of stats from anyone else. Literally everyone born naturally had the regular set, and it never changed as far as Peter knew. He was a serious outlier compared to anyone else in the 'System'.

He rattled off exactly what each of the stats did for Jogun. His fantastic memory allowed him to regurgitate them exactly as they were described by his status. Jogun nodded his head as Peter was explaining, and let out the occasional hem and haw.

"Well I don't know about [Perception]'s combat uses, but [Processing] and [Magic Resistance] are likely going to be the things that really set you apart from the average fighter," Jogun said.

"What makes you say that?" Peter inquired.

"Well the ability to resist magic is an obvious one, but having a mind that works faster than your opponent’s, well, the uses for that are nearly endless," Jogun picked up a wooden sword and sat back in a blocking posture, "If I can think much faster than my opponent, then it doesn't matter how refined their fighting style is. I'll be able to see the most efficient way of blocking, dodging, or attacking no matter how they swing their sword," Jogun took a step back, then made an impressive thrust with the sword into the air.

"Woah, I never thought of it that way," Peter said in realization.

Jogun made a few more swings with his sword as he said, "The only weakness to a stat like that is your ability to move as fast as you can think. You still will require the [Dexterity] and [Strength] to move your body in the ways that [Processing] will allow you decide on. Until we figure out exactly what the most efficient ratio to build your stats up at is, you should refrain from spending points. How many unallocated points do you have by the way?"

"Forty." Peter responded plainly.

Jogun, in the middle of his swing suddenly choked. He almost stumbled from the shock, but regained his composure quickly.

"That's... incredible." Jogun stared at Peter with wonder in his eyes, "A level 0, with 40 unspent points. You're the statistical equivalent to a level 8 right off the bat!"

"Yeah, I guess so," Peter said with a smile.

"Well," Jogun shifted his weight, "I know exactly what to start our training with then!"

Jogun reached down into the pile of stuff he brought to the training yard, and picked up a couple fist sized balls of wood, and another wooden sword. He tossed the wooden sword to Peter, who caught it by the handle easily.

"We're gonna test out that precious stat of yours by seeing how fast your reaction time progresses," Jogun said with a smile, "Stand back there, and block these chunks of wood as I toss them at you. As I go I'll throw them faster and faster until you can't block them anymore."

Peter looked at the training sword in his hand, and the balls he was going to have to block, "I feel like this is what you were referring to when you said I wouldn't think of these things as gifts."

"Haha, this isn't exactly what I was thinking, but it'll do," Jogun chucked.

Peter walked a short ways away, then stood facing Jogun. His training sword seemed a bit small for his large stature, but figured it wouldn't matter. This was a reaction time test, not a combat test.

He decided to try and [Identify] Jogun to see what he was up against before he began.

Human Level: ? Male Highest Stat: ?

"Well crap. He's way too beyond me to identify just yet." Peter thought to himself, then nodded at his instructor to signal that he was ready to begin.

Jogun wound up, then let the ball fly.

It was way too fast.

The ball nailed him square in the forehead, knocking him straight to the ground in a daze.

Warning: You have entered Combat.

He looked at the window that popped up in front of him and sighed weakly. He swiped it out of the way, and saw that he had lost 1 [Health] from that blasted ball.

"Woah, sorry Peter!" Jogun called out, "Are you alright?? I guess I'm not used to working with level 0's, haha."

Peter shook his head to rid himself of the slight dizziness he felt, then stood up. The pain was hardly noticeable, and there was no confusion caused by the impact either. He figured that he had his trait to thank for how easy it was to shrug off that hit to the skull.

"Yeah I think I'm alright. You'll definitely want to slow that down by a notch or two, though. If I didn't have a passive that reduces damage by 3 per hit, 24 more of those would have killed me," he replied with a nervous laugh.

Jogun went wide eyed, "Oh.. I-I'm sorry. I had no idea. Here, we need to make sure you can survive your training, so you can survive the world. How about you drop about 5 of your unspent points into [Vitality] for now. It'll also let you recover faster."

Peter really did like the thought of recovering faster, and knew he would be adding a fair amount of points to [Vitality] soon enough anyways. He decided to follow Jogun's advice. He opened his status window, and held his finger over the number beside [Vitality], then tapped lightly on it. Suddenly the number raised to 11, and his [Health] also rose to 109/110. He did that 4 more times, bringing [Vitality] to 15, and his [Health] to 149/150.

He smiled, then tried to close his status, but a window popped up instead.

Warning: You have added unspent points to your status. Do you wish to confirm these changes? YES NO

Peter was comforted by this window. It made it much harder for him to accidentally spend points where he didn't intend to. He selected yes, then a wave of heat came over his entire body.

It was a very comfortable heat, almost as if he stepped into a bath with the perfect temperature. Peter closed his eyes, and his mouth dropped open from the surprising pleasure it brought. It finished up in about 5 seconds, and left him feeling like a million bucks.

"Woah. That's incredible!" Peter vocally acknowledged his surprise.

Jogun laughed, "Yeah, you've never felt the rush of adding stats to yourself before have you? It's an indescribable feeling. It gets less and less overwhelming the higher your stats become, but for you, it must be euphoric."

It really was hard to explain. Peter felt physically stronger, and more capable somehow. He supposed that this is kind of what it should feel like when you increase your life force by a whole 50% all at once. On top of that, his [Health] was already back up to full. The increased regeneration rate might have already been kicking in.

"Alright, throw another one but gently first. Lob it over if you have to, then increase the force incrementally from there," Peter said in an eager voice.

"Haha, alright here it comes!"

***

Jogun threw the ball with Peter for 45 minutes. The first thing that he noticed was his [Fervor] passive stacked up to the maximum in no time, and he was able to block much more effectively. As long as Peter took some damage, and didn't wait for longer than 5 minutes between blocks, the system still counted him as in combat. Apparently it didn't matter if you were attacking a projectile, or a living being, if you were swinging a sword at something specific it counted as an attack and was buffed by [Fervor].

Jogun was much more careful to not hurt Peter, but eventually he had to start throwing the ball hard enough to damage him if the ball wasn't blocked properly. Once they found the limit of what Peter could block, Jogun suggested that Peter add 5 points to [Dexterity], then they found the limit of what Peter could block again. The feeling of adding [Dexterity] was not as incredible as [Vitality]. It only made him feel as if he could move around much faster, and probably learn to play an instrument easier if he tried. Peter added 5 points to [Strength] soon after to test what effect that would have.

When he tapped 'Yes' on the confirmation window, the strength that flooded through his body was almost as much of a rush as adding 5 points to [Vitality]. Peter's muscle mass visibly grew, which was a welcome sight on his skinny frame, and he found that he could swing his sword much faster and harder than before. This training exercise worked well to build up Peter's skill with blocking, but he was starting to get tired. His [Stamina] was only down to 41/100, but Peter was feeling quite winded. He decided that he should add points into [Endurance] to see how much that helped him.

Once he accepted the stat change, he felt just as good as when he added 5 points to [Strength] if not better. He felt even more energetic than when he had arrived this morning. Technically speaking, he actually was more energetic with 91/150 [Stamina].

They continued practicing in the same fashion until, once again, Peter hit a point where he could no longer block anymore. Sometimes when the ball hit him it would do damage, other times it would just bounce off. It all depended on the place it hit him. He then added 5 points into his last combat stat, [Processing]. He hit accept and was immediately overcome with a large headache. He held his forehead with one palm, and clenched his other fist at his side. Only a few seconds later, it was gone, almost as if it had never happened.

Peter looked around, and saw a leaf that was tumbling in the breeze that flowed in the courtyard, but something was strange about it. Peter felt like when he tried concentrating on the leaf, time would slow down by a small factor. He tested it a few times until he got better control over it.

He signaled for Jogun to throw the ball again, and focused hard on Jogun right as he swung his arm. The ball still moved very fast, but Peter was able to decide on where he should move his training sword much faster. Even with the same physical stats, gaining that extra 0.1 second of reaction time over a normal person meant blocking way more often. An average human's reaction time was 0.3 seconds to begin with, so shaving a third off was a huge gain.

Peter continued practicing blocks for another 15 minutes like this, but along the way he found there was a weakness to the [Processing] stat. He couldn't stay in that 'slow motion' state for very long before it gave him a headache. He could use it periodically as often as he wanted, but a consecutive 10 seconds of it was painful. Adding more points to the stat would likely increase the time he could use it consecutively, and increase the slowing factor it produced.

At the end of that hour, Peter went to go sit down and take a small break. He drank some water, and let his sweat drip out of his white hair onto the ground. Not long after that, Peter got a notification.

You have left Combat!

Notifications enabled. [Toughness] has risen to Novice level 2! [Toughness] has risen to Novice level 3! [Toughness] has risen to Novice level 4! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 2! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 3! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 4! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 5! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 6!

"Woah. I forgot notifications didn't bother you while in combat," Peter said aloud.

"Hmm? What notifications did you get?" Jogun asked as he looked up from setting up a practice dummy.

"[Toughness] went up to novice level 4, so now it blocks 6 damage from every attack on me. [Fervor] also went up all the way to novice level 6 and now has a maximum of 46% attack speed," he cocked his head to the side, "I wonder why [Fervor] went up so much more."

Jogun chimed in just before Peter figured it out himself, "Because [Fervor] was active the whole hour we spent training, whereas toughness only went up with the damage you took."

Peter nodded his head, "That makes sense," Peter perked up and looked at Jogun, "Hey, I wonder if it's the raw amount of damage I take, or if it's the amount of damage blocked that determines how much [Toughness] levels up. Is there a way to test it?" Peter asked.

Jogun thought for a second with a hand under his chin, "There is I suppose, but you're not gonna like it." A wicked grin appeared on his face. He walked over to a nervous looking Peter, "Say, what’s your [Health] at right now?" he asked while cracking his knuckles.

Peter looked to his H.U.D. and saw he had 131/150, "131 out o--"

Warning: You have entered Combat.

Peter was hit by a fist to his abdomen... and with a sudden case of déjà vu. Peter was buckled over with the force of the hit.

'-cough- -cough-' He spat out some blood. "Crud, that was rude..." He righted his posture, "You remind me a lot of a good friend of mine."

"What's your [Health] at now?" Jogun asked with a smile.

Peter struggled to his feet, then he read his H.U.D. aloud, "110 out of 1--"

Another fist connected with the same spot, but instead of just knocking the wind out of him he was hit to the ground and slid back about 4 meters.

"And now?" Jogun laughed.

Peter was beginning to feel worried about how much his instructor liked this. The similarities between him and B67 made Peter feel a strange mix of scared, and nostalgic.

Peter coughed up some more blood. He could feel much more pain now compared to when the balls were hitting him, but it still wasn't overwhelming. He shakily stood to his feet again, much to Jogun's surprise.

Peter wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and calmly said, "63 out of 150. I'd like to kindly ask you to stop now, though. Another one of those could be pretty dangerous."

Jogun cringed a little, "H-How can you talk, much less stand?! That much [Health] loss would normally make someone pass out for a day! I honestly didn't mean to take almost 50 [Health] with that hit. You just took the first one so well that I figured I needed to put more effort in."

Peter smiled, "I have a trait that makes my mind able to function even under extreme stress."

"I see. So Kayel wasn't exaggerating with that either. He told me you have two, and that they were both actually the highest rank," Jogun said in complete shock, "I figured he had to be exaggerating about some stuff that you were capable of. This, however, is insane," He gestured to Peter's body.

Peter laughed but a bit more blood trickled from his mouth. He wiped that off and said, "I guess you could say that I'm.." He thought for a moment, "..optimistic about my potential."

You have left Combat!

Notifications enabled.

"... oh ballsacks," Peter said, then sat down on the ground, "I didn't get an upgrade to [Toughness], so that means it's either damage blocked, or the raw number of attacks I endure that determines how the skill levels."

Jogun laughed, "Well at least we're absolutely sure. Here," He tossed Peter a small vial with red liquid in it, "Try this. Sip it slowly so you don't waste any."

Peter caught the vial out of the air and examined it. The liquid was slightly viscous like a syrup. Peter looked at Jogun, then back at the vial. He popped the small cork on the end and began drinking.

He noticed he felt much better as he drank. His [Health] was rising at a steady pace, and when his [Health] was at about 120/150 he stopped to cork the vial again. He decided that he was now in the safe zone, and could regenerate the rest on his own if he needed to.

"That there is a life-saving trinket called a [Health] potion. We have our alchemists to thank for those. They have a whole area behind the temple fenced off to grow the necessary ingredients. We also have another one for [Mana], but I'm not sure you would care much for it. It's a little bitter anyway, so you're not missing out," Jogun said with a chuckle.

Peter was impressed with the results. He looked at the vial a little more closely. "[Identify]," he thought.

Health Potion Quality: ?

"As for our little test, you should actually be happy. This means that large amounts of pain aren't required to level up [Toughness]. Not that pain really bothers you anyway.." Jogun added, then pat Peter on the back lightly, "I mean, all things considered, you shouldn't be upset no matter what," he said with a sigh and walked over to his pile of equipment on the ground.

"Both [Fervor] and [Toughness] are powerful skills that I have never heard of before," said Jogun in a low, serious voice, "They seem incredibly strong even in the novice levels. You must never tell anyone else about any of your skills. If word gets out, people will hunt you down just to make you tell them how you earned the skills in the first place. Those kinds of people won't accept 'I don't know, I was given them by a Goddess' as an answer."

"Yeah, I can see how people would want to know." Peter said with a concerned look, "I'll be sure to keep it a secret. I promise."

Peter got up from the ground, "Anyways, what's next on the training regimen?"

Jogun turned to him smiled, "I'm glad you asked!"

***

Chandi was taking a break from her work around noon to get some food. She got some cold water and a bowl of her favorite stew from the temple cafeteria and went to go to her favorite spot in the temple to relax; The training ground. Her ritual was to eat lunch, then spend the rest of her lunch break relaxing around the training courtyard.

She used to come here often when she was training to become a blacksmith. It takes a lot of raw [Strength] to be able to do her job well, and stats weren't everything. Training was still necessary after getting stats so you could use your stats efficiently and control them well. Control was especially necessary for blacksmiths because their trade required precision to get a sword or armour to the perfect proportions.

When she got there, though, she saw the Avatar training with general Jogun. She knew that his training was set to begin today, but forgot that he was actually going to be here.

It was a welcome surprise for Chandi. Jogun was known for his workout routines, and how hard he was on anyone he trained. While eating she saw Peter running around, sparring, doing an obstacle course, and lifting weights. It was actually a bit comical how big he was, yet how slow and weak he seemed to be. She knew that he hadn't even gained a level yet, but it was still odd to behold. There were some temple initiates who could run circles around him, or lift way more than he could.

Plenty of people around here were watching, and scoffing at Peter for how useless he was. It made Chandi pretty upset, but she knew she shouldn't.. or rather couldn't say anything.

"If you fools knew who you were mocking, you'd all throw yourselves at his feet and grovel for forgiveness. You foolish, foolish children." She thought to herself.

While she was upset, she also felt a bit guilty. She had to admit that his current capabilities were a little disconcerting. All of the people who dedicated their lives to making this temple survive, all of the sacrifices that countless people made for Adrestia... Did all of their work amount to this?

Chandi shook her head and slapped herself lightly, "No. How can I even think that way? He hasn't even gotten a chance to prove himself yet. We need to give him time before we judge him. It was our fault for assuming we would have a fully trained warrior who would defeat all of our enemies immediately after coming to us," She lightly smiled, "Of course he's weak right now. All rumors of other God's Avatars say that they started out weak, then became powerful. He'll get there in no ti--"

Chandi's inner monologue was cut off by her noticing something strange in the crowd of people. A man had something in his hand, and was winding up to throw it, and his aim was trained on Peter.

She immediately canceled the thought she was pondering and moved to intercept, but it was already too late. By the time Chandi got into her stride, the stone had already taken off. It was easily the size of a fist, and it was thrown by a warrior initiate. A warrior initiate wasn't very strong, but strong enough to hurt someone as fragile as Peter was right now.

Currently Peter was running at the far end of the track completely unprepared for such a cowardly act, Chandi was right about to yell out to warn him, but something unusual happened.

Peter suddenly stopped, turned around, and held up his palm out towards the rock. The moves were as if he was acting on instinct, or had eyes on the back of his head. He was also fairly fast in that moment. Faster than Chandi had seen him perform so far at least, but that was because she didn't arrive in the morning to see him blocking Jogun's thrown wooden balls.

He caught the rock in his bare hand. The arm recoiled a bit on impact, and he winced when he looked at his hand, but he looked totally unharmed.

The entire crowd stopped and stared, even Chandi just looked with surprise. The rock wouldn't normally be dangerous to him at all, but the danger came from him not seeing that the rock was coming. Nobody was sure how he was alerted to the incoming projectile, but however he did it, it was impressive. The faces of all the people who were scoffing changed a little. Some looked angry at the possibility of them being wrong about Peter, while some looked regretful or had a tinge of guilt.

Chandi regained her wits and tried to find the jerk who threw the rock, but he wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Tch. Gone already eh? Figures. That guy was as cowardly as they come," She thought in frustration.

She looked back at Peter and smiled, "Maybe he's already more than people assume. I hope he trains well."

Chandi watched for a few more minutes, then decided she had to get back to work. She enjoyed watching, but she had to do her part to help him as well. The chain mail parts for Peter's custom armour needed to be finished by noon tomorrow so they could be sent to Daalia the head tailor.

***

Peter's training consisted of running around the whole courtyard, jumping over obstacles to improve control over his new power, lifting weighted bars and bricks to see the limits of what he could do, wrestling in hand to hand combat, and sparing with Jogun using wooden swords. All sorts of other activities were also in the schedule.

During that time a meal was brought to him and Jogun, as well as constant refills for their water jug. Any time Peter got a little too hurt from a practice or sparing, Jogun would have another one of those vials brought over for him. These were the ideal training circumstances. Peter didn't forget to use [Identify] on everything he could while he trained this time.

As the day went on people eventually started coming by the training courtyard. They came to not only work out and train themselves but to also see who the famous General Jogun was teaching one-on-one. Many of the warriors saw how big and intimidating Peter was, and were disappointed by how little he could physically do. Compared to the more impressive warriors of the temple who were in between level 30 and 40, Peter was a whelp.

The scorn of the people around him certainly didn't help his view of himself. He may not have added any points to his [Perception] yet, but the 10 he did have made his hearing and eyesight much better than the average human. Most of the spectators were saying things like, "Why is he even here?" or "He's so weak. Not even fit to kiss Jogun's boots, never mind get one on one training!".

During the afternoon, Jogun decided to take a break and relieve himself while Peter was jogging around the track. He was to continue running until Jogun came back. While he was running, suddenly a small blinking red arrow popped up in his H.U.D.. It was pointing up, and to his left outside of his vision. Peter suddenly stopped, turned around to see a rock flying straight at him. He immediately lifted his palm in the same way he caught B67's fist the last time they saw each other, and caught the rock.

"Woah, that sure was useful," He thought to himself about the indicator, and looked at his hand. There was a little bit of blood where it hit his palm, and he lost 2 [Health], but it didn't hurt at all. He winced looking at it, but that reaction was pure instinct from seeing his blood, not due to the pain.

"At least my blood isn't blue foam anymore," He thought with a slight cringe. He then looked out to the direction the rock came from with a glare. Peter's physical performance may have been sub-par, but when a 7' tall, glowing-eyed man glares, it is still intimidating. The lineup of spectators stared at him in surprise and a bit of fear, "But holy crap that was a cheap shot! Who would be such a jerk to just... well..."

Peter wanted to be angry at them, but he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He was weak, but he was still getting preferential treatment. It was an undeniable fact. Rising in levels was an exponentially difficult process, so getting to level 20 was over 3 times as hard as getting to level 10. Having the stats of a level 8 at only level 0 was impressive for a level 0, but it wasn't impressive in terms of a full grown adult man. Just by killing common monster pests, and the occasional rat, kids could reach level 5 before they were 12 years old. Even though changing any part of one's status was locked until puberty, Peter's current stats were still behind many children of this world.

He decided that starting a fuss was unnecessary, and unwarranted. He would only demand respect once he had earned it. Until then, his responsibility was to training himself and becoming someone great...

Someone powerful...

Someone, who, no one, could throw a stone at.

Peter continued his run with renewed determination.

***

Earlier in the day, after the first time he left combat, Peter didn't want to see 6 separate notifications for the same skill any longer. He tuned the setting for notifications to only show final level results per skill. He also used the 'silent' mode for the day, so all notifications would be hidden. After the training was done he deactivated the 'silent' mode, and his skill gains were all summed up and shown to him in a single notification.

|Silent Mode: Disabled| [Identify] has risen to Adept level 4! [Toughness] has risen to Novice level 7! [Fervor] has risen to Novice level 9! [Momentum] has risen to Novice level 4!

Peter smiled at his progression for the day, and thanked Jogun for the training. They were just shaking hands when Peter decided to ask about a concern of his.

"General Jogun, there's something I've had on my mind," Peter said.

"It's just Jogun to you. I appreciate the gesture of wanting to add a title, but I can't accept it from Adresita's chosen one," Jogun replied adamantly.

Peter knew by the tone of his voice that there was no arguing on this. He wasn't a fan of getting respect for not doing anything, but arguing would be disrespectful to a superior anyways, so he accepted.

"Alright. Jogun, I've been wondering how I'm going to begin leveling up. I've been told that the large forest we're in is actually called the 'Blood Jungle', and it has an incredible amount of monsters. I assume that you're going to eventually send me out there to level up right?"

Jogun looked at Peter like he had lost his mind. His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms.

"Peter, I don't know who told you about the blood jungle, but if you think I would send you out there to level up then you've seriously underestimated what you were told," Jogun shook his head, "Even I myself wouldn't go into the blood jungle alone. It's insanely dangerous. Some of the trees give off a poison that can make your [Health] drop by over 20 a second, never mind the creatures that would love to take a bite out of you."

Peter's eyes went wide, and he audibly gulped down some saliva, "O-oh. I had no idea. So, how on earth am I supposed to gain levels in here?"

Jogun leaned back a bit and crossed his arms in thought, "I actually do have a method for you to begin leveling up in a relatively safe way. It's the same way the initiates use. But what is this... 'earth'?"

Now it was Peter's turn to give a strange look to Jogun, "Well it's the..." Realization hit him, "oh right. I don't live on earth anymore, haha. Earth was the planet I lived on before coming to Athone."

"Hmm. Odd. Was it similar to this one?" he inquired

"No. Not even in the slightest." Peter chucked a bit, "But don't worry about my last planet. I'll likely never go back. I have no memories of my actual life there, just the raw knowledge that I gained." He cleared his throat before continuing, "But enough of that, what is the method for leveling up? I want to start as soon as possible!"

"Haha, calm down Peter. I'm going to leave how we'll do it as a surprise. In the meantime, we're going to finish 4 more days of training like this. Those fancy passive skills of yours deserve our attention as much as your leveling does. They're unique to you, and they're incredibly strong, so let's exploit that shall we?" Jogun had a wide grin on his face.

"While I see your point, I also think leveling should begin as soon as possible," Peter countered, but didn't press for getting his way too much.

"I actually agree. Unfortunately, 4 days is the earliest we can begin. You would understand if you knew what the method was, but that's my surprise!" He chuckled.

"Well if that really is the case, I have nothing left to worry about!" Peter sighed in relief.

"I'm glad!" Jogun said cheerily, "That means you'll get a good sleep and be here bright and early tomorrow!"

"Sure thing!" Peter replied, "See you tomorrow."

Peter said his farewells to Jogun for the day, and checked his clock to find that it was almost 6 in the evening. He decided to go back to his room for the night to get his supper. On the way he passed through the studying courtyard to see if he could find that Elf from yesterday. He was very interested in seeing if he could talk to her, or see what she was here for.

He passed through the courtyard rather slowly, but he didn't see her. Few people were here anyways since it was dusk, and there was very little reading light.

"Sigh, maybe it's for the best. I should ask Jogun or Kayel about the elves before I ask her out of nowhere," Peter thought to himself, slightly disappointed.

He arrived in his room after 6, and his supper was there for him. It was the same delicious meat from last night with a new set of veggies. It looked amazing, so Peter sat down right away to eat.

Just before he began to eat, Peter stopped. Out of interest decided to wait for a second.

"I wonder...." he thought as he identified the dish.

Spiced Chockaroo with Bonazali (Modified) Slight traces of Health, and Stamina potions have been mixed into this dish. The effect will be small, but adds strongly to the enjoyment of the meal.

"Aha! That's wonderful information," Thought Peter excitedly, "I wonder if some foods could be made with ingredients that increased stats, not just recover them?" Peter inquired to himself.

He ate the dish, savoring every bite. It certainly did top up the last few points of [Health] and [Stamina] he was missing. He was thankful that he had people who took such excellent care of him. They even had food made extra special, just so he would enjoy it more. It was relieving to know that people liked having him around. Especially after how he was treated earlier today.

Peter got up to go to bed, but just as he sat down on his bed, he had a weird feeling cover his body.

"Wha.. what's going on?" Peter questioned.

The feeling was fairly uncomfortable, but not enough to incapacitate him. It was as if his body temperature was rapidly rising, and lowering repeatedly. He could still walk if he needed to, but it was difficult. He guessed that he should be in quite a bit of pain right now, but his trait kept him from it. A window appeared suddenly.

You have completed the necessary requirements for the Evolution: 'Enhanced Recovery'.

Do you wish to implement this evolution?

Y / N

Note: You will be incapacitated for up to 4 hours while the necessary changes are made to your cell structure. Please only accept once you get to a safe location.

Peter read the window, then laid back on his bed. He wasn't really sure what he was getting into, but what he did know is that he spent 30,000 points in the Equilibrium Construct for the Evolver modifier. He sure as heck wasn't going to just say 'no' and waste the benefits that he paid so much for.

He got as comfortable as he could, then hit 'Y' on the window. Peter began to feel lightheaded. Black splotches appeared as his vision failed him, and he blacked out.

***

In an infinite white expanse, a large cyan coloured orb was sitting in a container of sorts. The container was a semi-circle which cupped the orb perfectly, and a single support on the bottom connected to the ground. Several strands of loose plasma occasionally connected with the glowing orb then faded away. This went on for a short while before a larger bolt struck the orb, which made it change colour altogether to a beautiful viridian.

Alert: Major change detected.

Adrestia has been notified.

Shortly after, a very tall woman seemed to appear out of thin air, and walked briskly to the orb. Her blindfold didn't seem to have any effect on her, as she stopped right in front of the pedestal, and put her one free hand on the orb. She furrowed her brows for a second, then tilted her head to the side in what looked to be confusion.

"What? How? There's no way he could have already unlocked a part of the Evolver modifier. My most optimistic guesses were around 3 or 4 weeks, not 3 or 4 days!" She took her hand off of the orb and her sword appeared in that hand, "Is there any explanation for this, B67?"

A large man also appeared from seemingly nowhere. The wreath in his curly hair bounced slightly as he walked with a princely etiquette towards the beautiful lady. He pulled his toga slightly up his leg and bowed down on one knee.

Looking down to the ground he spoke formally, "My lady, there seems to be some... unforeseen synergy between some of the Evolver parameters, and an Avatar exclusive skill. Namely [Student of a God]. As you already know, the skill is the only one of it's kind. No other exists which increases the rate of aquiring, and improving all other skills.

Adrestia sighed lightly, "You're going to have to spare me the details. I'm still on trial in the high courts. I'm accused of altering system data for my own personal gain, and the court will resume session shortly," She held up her usually occupied arm, and seemed to look at her scales as a bit of blood dripped from the side, "Try as they might, they will never be able to prove anything. Yet I must not be late."

"Very well," B67 responded shortly and took a deep breath, "The short version is... Evolutions and skills are listed in the same directory in the system. The Evolver modifier just unlocks the Evolution category for the character. Therefore; The same multipliers that [Student of a God] uses to ease the process of earning skills, also makes earning Evolutions easier."

There was a small pause in conversation. Adrestia didn't move a muscle.

B67 let her process the situation before continuing, "Theoretically, the designers of the Evolver never had any reason to design it any other way. Why would they spend all that extra time designing a brand new directory, when they could just make it a locked category, much like psychic skills." B67's voice went a few notes deeper than normal, "This exact situation was the one that was never supposed to happen."

B67 slowly shook his head in disbelief, "He breaks safeguards meant to protect him, and uses it to his own benefit. A totally unexpected disaster.”

Adrestia giggled softly to herself. She tried to hold it back, but holding down the volume of her laugh only made her shoulders jump up and down harder. Eventually she burst out into a gleeful laugh.

B67 stood up from his bow and smiled. He hadn't seen her this happy in over a millennium. She calmed down a few moments later, but was still giddy with excitement.

"This is quite possibly the greatest windfall I have ever had choosing an Avatar. The influence someone like him stands to earn is without limit! How could one with such unusually poor karmic fate be so gently wrapped in Fate’s loving arms?!" Adrestia gushed, "I have no choice. I would be a total fool if I did not put all of my cards down now. Even if I am found guilty, the most that will happen is I would be locked away for a time, and the changes I made to the Arbiter V2.0 would be reversed, but nothing and nobody can change what Peter has already become!"

She turned around and faced B67 with a mischevious smile, "The rules placed on the High Gods, keeping them from meddling with mortals, will be their own ball and chain to keep them from undoing my greatest power play."

B67 was stunned with Adrestia's vibrant monologue. He walked closer to her with a doubtful look on his face, "M-My lady Adrestia, what do you mean? What other moves do you have that you can make this late in the process?"

Adrestia slowly walked over to B67. She towered over his 6 feet in height, at about 9 feet tall herself. She daintily bent over and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Sweet soul manager. I would like to put in a request with you. I wish to make Peter my Harbinger."

B67's eyes nearly expanded out of his skull with surprise.

***