With nothing to stop him, Ronny started his first job. He wrapped his hands around a smaller-looking slab and attempted to carry it to the wall. He managed to get it about twenty feet from the pile before he had to stop and rest. That was about a third of the way.

It couldn’t be helped. The brick was as heavy as it looked—if not heavier. It had to have been at least a hundred pounds, which was about half Ronny’s bodyweight. Lifting it for great distances would have been quite the workout, even for a trained athlete.

After a few minutes, made a second attempt. He managed about the same distance. People gave him pitiful glances as they passed him. After a longer break than the last, he gave it a third and final push. This time, he made it all the way to the wall.

There was already a fresh layer of mortar where the brick was supposed to go, so all he had to do was put it in the spot. The issue with that was that the spot was in question was at head level. Lifting the stone that high was a lot harder than just getting it off the ground. He gave himself ten minutes to rest.

Already sore, Ronny finished the job, using the wall as leverage to place the brick. He sighed, fearing how much worse the soreness would be when he woke up the next day. Just as he turned to head back to the pile, a voice rung out in his head.

“Strength increased from 2 to 3."

I was waiting for that to happen. It was the ‘advantage’ I’d given him, and if he learned to understand it, his potential would be limitless.

Because mortal souls are extremely simple (relative to gods), it’s possible to modify them without much in the way of side effects. In Ronny’s case, I’d installed a somewhat expensive upgrade called ‘System’. I paid more for it than I’d like to admit, but from what I’d been told, it was well worth the price.

Boiled down to the essentials, System gives its users the ability to ‘level up’. That includes everything from physical characteristics, like strength, to more abstract things, like skills. The important thing was that it completely removed the soft caps of capability intrinsic to being human, allowing users to improve linearly without end. It was especially useful for me, who would own Ronny’s soul and be making use of it for centuries to come. System guaranteed that he’d become more valuable to me over the next few hundred years.

He got away from the wall and took a break another break. Confusion was plastered across his face, but that was only natural given the circumstance. After a good while, he got up and approached the pile once more.

He managed to get about halfway this time. The difference was immediately noticeable, and he was probably beginning to understand what I’d given him. Just as he started moving the brick a second time, he stopped dead in his tracks.

The system spoke in a robotic voice, “Status Added: Overworked.”

“What the hell does status…“ He got interrupted by System at ‘status’. It was one the keywords you could use to open your stat sheet.

Speaking of which, a huge wall of text appeared before him. The outside world froze with the appearance of the menu. Somehow, he instinctively knew how to interact with it—as though it were breathing.

STATS:

STRENGTH: 3 DEFTNESS: 5 MAGIC: 0

ACTIVE EFFECTS: Overworked

PASSIVE EFFECTS: None

SKILLS:

Scan

He could easily make sense of the sheet and found that if he focused his attention on any one thing, it would give more detailed information about it.

For example, when he focused on Overworked, it produced a message saying “Grants reduced ability improvement by 50%. Also reduces strength and deftness by 35% (9 HOURS).” There was also Scan, which gave him to see the base stats of anything as long as it was less than ten levels above him.

Eagerly, he used the ability on a passing mason, which he now knew was level 6. It was an interesting ability to be sure, though its usefulness was somewhat limited with how thing stood. He decided to experiment with it after work and got back to work.

The next few hours were grueling. In that timespan, he only managed to get five bricks, which was the bare minimum to receive compensation. He could have kept working, but because the construction site closed at seven, he chose not to. There was no way he could do another five in the time he had left.

Additionally, his strength stat reached 4 during the day. He couldn’t feel much of a difference because Overworked rounded it down to 3.

He went to the payment area, collected a single silver coin from an automated dispenser, and left.