Back in the cave under some ragged but clean clothes Harrison opened his eyes and looked around. It was dark and there were scary noises coming from the woods with the gentle noise of running water. The surrounding air was fresh and humid. As he took in a big breath he did not feel tired at all and his thoughts went back to the books.

'Inventory', he thought.

He came back to the four books.

'So I guess it remembers the last filter applied. Cool.', he thought in satisfaction.

He looked at the books and remembered he never read their descriptions.

Opening the porn book first he noticed the title and everything fit perfectly even the damn description of special effects was correct..

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Item name: Book - Satyr's depraved life

Quality: Low

Special effects: Makes reader horny.

Description: Low quality porn book with illustrations.

---------------------------------

'The system must have deduced the title from the illustrations and used lore from my original place to fill in the gaps.', he deduced logically.

Opening the sword book he looked at the now not empty description.

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Item name: Book - Basic swordsmanship for beginners

Quality: Low

Special effects: Teaches swordsmanship up to level 10.

Description: Low quality sword training book.

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'Hmmm. I only reached level 5 though. Probably because the system could not deduce all the words. I need more picture books.', he thought.

He looked at the one with the flower on the cover.

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Item name: Book - Book about flowers

Quality: Low

Special effects: Unknown

Description: Low quality book about flowers.

---------------------------------

'No shit Sherlock.', he sighed in disappointment.

Last but not least was the book with only some text on the cover.

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Item name: Book - Book with a lot of text

Quality: Low

Special effects: Unknown

Description: Low quality book with a lot of text.

---------------------------------

He just facepalmed.

'I don't know what I expected, but it was certainly not this.', he thought.

Harrison thought about what he could do in bed since it was dark outside and probably dangerous. He was not in the mood for masturbation so he thought about what other things he could do in bed. First thing he got in his mind was math so he started making multiplications in his mind.

Mathematics skill unlocked.

Mathematics skill LVL. 1 acquired.

Bonus Intelligence +1 (not applied since over 10)

He frowned at the message but since he had nothing else to do he continued multiplying, dividing and hoping his mind would get tired eventually and he would fall asleep.

Mathematics skill LVL. 2 acquired.

Mathematics skill LVL. 3 acquired.

Mathematics skill LVL. 4 acquired.

After a long while when he was almost asleep, and he was multiplying two four-digit numbers in his mind he finally reached level 5.

Mathematics skill LVL. 5 acquired.

Bonus Intelligence +1

The message that it was not applied was not present this time.

'I guess skills below level 5 can only add attributes up to 10, hmmm interesting. What do I do next?', he thought while yawning.

He forced himself out from his warm, cozy heap of clothes and started doing pushups.After a few ups and downs he received a pop-up again.

Fitness skill unlocked.

Fitness skill LVL. 1 acquired.

Bonus Strength +1

Bonus Agility +1

Harrison continued but after reaching level three his arms felt heavy as if he had lead in them and he collapsed. He dragged himself back to the heap of clothing and dozed off.

The smell of medicine was floating to his nostrils even through the ventilator which pumped oxygen into his lungs.

'I am back to the land of undead.' he mocked the hospital's ICU room.

With nothing else he could do he started multiplying again. After a really long time he heard the familiar ding of a pop-up.

Mathematics skill LVL. 6 acquired.

He still was not sleepy, so he continued but raised the difficulty since he figured out the more complex the calculations the faster he finished levelling up the skill but also needed more time for calculations. It was a matter of balancing the time used with the experience gained so he raised the difficulty gradually. The difficulty of the same calculations also fell when his level of math increased.

He was currently doing multiplication of two five-digit numbers and it took him less time than doing two, three-digit numbers at the start.

Mathematics skill LVL. 7 acquired.

Mathematics skill LVL. 8 acquired.

Mathematics skill LVL. 9 acquired.

It felt to him like eons have passed when he finally reached level 9. By now he was multiplying two seven digit numbers.

Nurse Finkle came in a couple of times to check on the patients. He knew it was her due to the scent of her shampoo and the sound of her shoes. She did not say even a word and left as soon as possible probably visiting other patients in different rooms.

'One more level and then I don't want to multiply numbers ever again.' he mused as he started doing eight digit numbers.

After what seemed like forever he finally reached his goal.

Mathematics skill LVL. 10 acquired.

Bonus Intelligence +1

'I knew it. There is a bonus attribute every five levels.' he mused as he figured out the logic behind it.

'But when I started doing math, there was no bonus attribute added since it's over 10 although I got one for carpentry. I guess unlocking an attribute gives a freebie.' he was guessing in his mind.

'Ugh. I can't take it anymore. I should invite nurse Finkle to give me some medicine.' he sighed in his mind and opened up the porn book and started looking trough the lustful illustrations.

Soon he heard the familiar noises of steps and the whoosh sound from the doors opening followed by mumbling.

"Are you having a nightmare again?", nurse Finkle said before she stuck a needle into his IV butterfly valve and sent him into oblivion.

He opened his eyes feeling refreshed. Looking around it was still dark.

'How long are the nights here? I must have been calculating for hours and it's still dark outside.' he wondered.

Meanwhile in the upper planes there were troubles of epic proportions. More than fifty agents died in a single time span duration of a night on Earth and no one knew the reason why. The only things they had in common was the two cosmic planes they visited.

One was the one in which Earth was located and the other one was the plane in which Harrison was.

The only two people that had any clue on what could cause this were sweating bullets or in their case spirituality.

They met up in the same conference room and were looking at each other for more than a minute in fear.

"Do we report him?", Peng Delan finally opened his mouth.

Long Jiahao looked at him in disbelief and scorn.

"Report what? Report you screwed up, and I covered up for you? We don't even know if he is causing this or how. Although it's too coincidental, this happened just now and in those two planes. The whole planes are going into temporal stasis at random intervals. He should not have anywhere near as much power to cause that.", Long Jiahao yelled.

"So what do we do?", Peng Delan asked in fear.

"We? We do nothing if you hold your life dear. Destroy anything you still have concerning him and I will transfer your jurisdiction to a different plane.", Long Jiahao said with a sigh.

He knew if this came back to them they would both have their souls dissipated within a day.

Some of those more than fifty cultivators that died were family members of important people on missions on those planes which ran into the temporary stasis while transferring between the different planes.

Their bodies dissipated along with their souls so nothing was left of them. The higher-ups only figured out what was happening from the time difference between different planes.

It didn't matter what your cultivation was you would miss your appointment in another plane if your plane was stuck in stasis for a couple of hours.

"After I transfer you forget we ever met." Long Jiahao said with a sigh and left the conference room.

In the meantime, Harrison was doing push-ups, squats and situps until he reached level five.

Fitness skill LVL. 5 acquired.

Bonus Strength +1

Bonus Agility +1

He was famished. He needed around four hours to level up, and dawn was finally breaking. The first sun rays came streaking through the dense woods like emerald and golden strings.

A new day was starting but Harrison did not care; he ate the dry meat with dry bread and drank some water before wiping himself off with the clothes.

Taking them in and out of his inventory made them clean again, anyway. His sweat fell from the edge of the cliff like rain after the clothes were removed.

As he covered himself into the clothes, he closed his eyes and awaited the now familiar scent of medicine.