The Eton High students who had come to the park were all members of the rugby team, which meant they were used to bashing into walls of muscles. Strength and speed were both key factors in the sport to take down an opponent, but looking at Gary he had neither on his side.

As such it was all the more surprising to see him hold onto both planks with a single hand. The two students from Eton High had struggle written all over their faces as they attempted to yank their makeshift weapons free. The injured teenager merely tightened his grip until a snapping sound was heard.

The two Eton High boys stumbled a few steps back still holding onto the planks. Looking down they could see why they suddenly felt that much lighter. One end of them had been ripped off.

‘They’re still in his hand! Can a normal human even have such a grip strength?!’

The next second, another student slammed a wooden plank against the back of Gary’s head, snapping it in place and causing him to fall back to his knees.

‘These Eton High guys are ruthless. How can they not even hesitate to hit his head? Aren’t they afraid they might accidentally kill him? All of that for a stupid match?!’ Blake thought to himself, as he was ready to help Gary. Yet, before he could even reach their position Gary had already recovered and threw a punch back.

The student managed to block in time raising his forearms, but the next second he found himself looking at the sky.

‘What the...? Is this some sort of joke? Did Gary set this up somehow or how is he able to knock a guy twice his size? Has he been holding back all the time? No, could it be that he is one of us as well?’ Still, the main concern for Blake was the blood that was dripping down his classmate’s head. The athlete was surprised the other was still standing after such a hit.

He might be okay for now while the adrenaline was pumping in his body, but once it was over it would hurt like hell. They had to deal with those guys before that happened. Right now Gary was dealing with the first two that had arrived, leaving Blake with the other two.

This was a number that he could easily deal with. When one of the Eton High students came rushing forward pulling his arm back to throw a fist, Blake simply threw out a quick jab hitting the student right in the face, almost lifting his legs off the ground.

“If you charge forward like that, it's going to hurt a lot more when someone hits you!”

Now it was time to deal with his buddy, but as Blake turned his head around, he only saw the other Eton High student’s back. He had actually run off, abandoning his comrade.

‘Guess they're not really the loyal bunch.’

Turning around, he was ready to help Gary. His chin nearly dropped to the ground as he saw the other two already on the ground. Still, his classmate didn’t look good, he was huffing and panting, with a hunched back, his hands by his side looking like some type of weird beast.

However, all the other three students had been beaten rolling around the floor in pain.

‘Damn, those guys’ strength is similar to mine, even after I’ve used Charging Heart.’ Gary thought. ‘I guess that shows how weak my original body is. Maybe I should have considered it some before putting my stat point into Energy after that level up. And I’m not the best fighter. It's one thing knowing what to do, but another knowing how to do it. I was getting hit too much, and now my Energy is low having to heal all these wounds.’

“Hey Gary, we need to get you checked out at a hospital!” Blake said, rushing over.

[Emergency healing in progress]

[Energy will be consumed]

[Energy has been used up]

[Healing unable to complete]

[Eat more meat to restore Energy]

During the fight, Gary had seen this a few times already, and now the system was healing the rest of his wounds until it had stopped. As long as he got some food, he would definitely be fine after this fight, and was worried the hospital could find something out.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m tougher than I look.” Gary shouted, already running off. “Just look after yourself. You're the ace of the team, not me!”

Blake wanted to give chase, but Gary was faster than he should be, even if this was still the adrenaline. Unsure where the other teenager actually lived, Blake decided to just check up on him tomorrow.

Looking around him, Blake looked at the sorry state of the Eton High students.

‘He was able to take three giants like this down? He’s a bit different.’ Blake smiled.

——

When the healing was complete, the first thing Gary did was head to a shop to purchase more meat. There were two reasons for this. The first was the fact that whenever he could he wanted his Energy bar to be at 100 percent.

He never knew when the Underdogs or something like what had just happened would occur, and he needed to be at full strength if a fight was to break out. The second was because he needed to complete his Daily Quests.

‘I need to get stronger as quickly as possible, and levelling up seems to be the easiest way. After replenishing his energy, Gary headed to the gym once more.

Usually, after school Gary would head to the Underdogs to complete his transporter duties. His mother was used to him coming home a little late so it was no problem. During the session at the gym, Gary was able to lift weights easier than the time before, his muscles weren’t sore either.

What Gary didn’t know was that usually beginners would suffer from extreme muscle soreness the next few days after weight training, but Gary experienced no such thing. The muscle fibres in his body were breaking down and healing at an incredible rate. Far faster than anyone could even if they were to take enhancing supplements.

[Congratulations! Your body is seeing benefits of working out]

[Strength +1]

‘So my stats can actually improve without needing me to level up! Looks like using that stat point on Energy might have been the right choice after all. My Strength was only at 4, which I’m guessing is still low. I wonder how long it will take me to gain the next one.’

The best thing about the skill Charging Heart, was it doubled all of his stats for a certain amount of time period. So increasing his natural stats like so would be extremely beneficial.

[Strength 5]

[Dexterity 3]

[Endurance 8]

Looking at the stats, Gary wondered what he could do to improve his Dexterity since it was the lowest of the three. Perhaps asking professional fighters of sorts, or someone who knew what they were doing would help. As for Endurance, he could only think of one thing for that, getting hit more. Which he wasn’t looking forward to.

No matter what though, he needed to improve all of these things, through levelling up or his natural strength and he had come up with the best solution to do both at the same time.

‘I don’t know when I’ll be found by the Underdogs or have to fight in that underground fighting area again, but if I want to live and protect my family then I need to get stronger.’

——

The next day Gary woke up and was heading to school as he did every day. After going home, he hadn’t received any texts from Kai. On the one hand, he was glad not having to fight after his earlier scuffle, on the other hand the upperclassman was currently his only way to gain any cash.

‘Hmm, should I just go and approach him instead? I don’t really want to come off as needy… then again, will it make any difference? He already has me by my balls...’

When arriving at school, Tom greeted him as normal and asked him a hundred questions about how he was feeling and more. Of course Gary replied he was feeling fine and told him the events of what happened yesterday.

“They’re seriously going that far just because of a some stupid high school sports event. I really don’t understand people.” Tom said, shaking his head. “Anyway, that’s two reasons why you should leave the rugby team now. Let’s tell Mr. Root today during club practice. You can still play rugby just not be part of the team.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be going to rugby practice today.” Gary replied. “I need to go to another club instead.”

——

When school ended, Blake was out on the rugby field, looking for Gary, but he never turned up.

“Where is that damned little broccoli head?! I’ve already told him that we have a game coming up soon! Does he want to set a record for fastest player to be kicked off the team?!” Mr Root shouted.

“Coach Root, me and Gary ran into some kids from Eton High yesterday.” Blake reported. “They wanted to jump me, but he was unlucky enough to get involved. I assume he must still be recovering from that.”

Looking at Blake’s knuckles, Mr Root didn’t need any more proof. Despite his rough appearance and his tendency to yell at his students he nevertheless cared about their well-being. Unfortunately, he knew about the special relationship Eton High enjoyed, which meant that there was nothing he could do about it.

“Alright, I'll let him off with this once, but make sure to tell him this is an exception. I don’t need him getting a big head and think he’ll get any special treatment. As for the rest of you, let this be a lesson! Although they went for Blake yesterday, they might go after one of you as well. Make sure to go home in pairs!” Mr Root ordered.

——

“Hang on, so you bailed on rugby practice to come here? Be honest with me, has becoming a Werewolf made you LOSE YOUR MIND? This might be even worse than rugby!” Tom whispered angrily, trying to appeal to his best friend as he followed him to the front of the school gym. The two friends could already hear the sounds of chanting from the outside.

Inside, there were around a dozen students in white robes all in sync performing a set of moves.

Off to the side, there were several students that currently sat down, one of them being Xin. When the teacher noticed the newcomers he asked: “Oh, are you guys interested in the Karate club?”

Gary clenched his fist, and shook his head. “I’m here, to fight!”

Chapter 31 - Honourable fight!

At the beginning, Gary’s Daily Quests had rewarded him with 10 Exp each. Unfortunately, now that his system classified him as Level 2, each Quest was only paying out half that amount. With the requirement to reach the next level having already doubled, it didn’t take a maths genius to understand that it would take a long time for him to progress by only relying on this method to accrue Exp.

Nevertheless, this didn’t mean that Gary intended to stop working out anytime soon. After all, right now it was the only reliable method for him to increase his Strength without any of the stat points he appeared to be getting for a Level Up.

During his brief time with the system, Gary had actually gained the most Exp after fighting against others like the Eton High students. Although he had yet to confirm his suspicion, he strongly believed that it might also be an effective way to gain other stats like Endurance.

Unwilling to go out and look for trouble in the streets, his conjecture had eventually led Gary to just challenge the martial arts clubs in his own school. The teacher of the Karate club was an aged man, whose arms were folded after hearing Gary’s declaration.

“I like your spirit, kid, but things don’t work like they do in movies. This is a school club. I can’t just let anyone barge in here and allow them to fight my students.” The teacher explained in a calm tone.

Tom was very pleased that this teacher seemed reasonable and hadn’t just outright accepted his buddy’s crazy request. Now he would just have to pull Gary out of the gym. Unfortunately, just when he was about to grab his friend by the arm, Tom saw a strange look in Gary’s eyes.

‘W-why does he have that look again?!’ Tom felt himself shaking, everything in his body was telling him that it was a body idea to touch Gary right now. Unsure what it was, he listened to this feeling and took a step back.

Hearing the teacher's response, Gary smiled.

“I just wanted to know if Karate was worth learning these days.” Gary said. “These days Altered fights are being shown all over the internet and on TV. Everyone knows that the best fighters are those who don’t just rely on their Altered forms but incorporate martial arts in their fighting style. However, despite being a huge fan, I have never seen a single one of the top Altered fighters use Karate.”

From Gary’s experience, sport teachers, even more so combat teachers, took great pride in the martial arts they had learned for years. The black belt was proof that his teacher must have spent countless hours honing his skills and Gary couldn’t imagine that he would just let it slide that he had basically called his craft ‘useless’.

“And that made you think it might not be worth your time and effort? Very well. Steven, please help our enthusiastic friend find a gi in his size!” The teacher instructed.

Immediately, a student with a green belt stepped forward. Steven had short hair similar to Tom’s and he was a little larger than Tom and Gary, yet not as big as rugby players like Gil and Barry.

While Steven and Gary had disappeared into the changing rooms, the other students had quickly laid out mats on the floor, creating an impromptu arena for the two boys to fight in. Not long after, the two combatants came out.

Gary was now also in the white uniform just like everyone else. He and Steven both had head gear on as well as shin guards to protect their legs and finally a large cover on the front of their stomach. This entire set of protection gear only made it harder for Gary to move in, but even he understood that there was no way the teacher would let them fight without them.

‘I shouldn’t be surprised, this isn’t a street fight. Not everyone can heal as fast as me, so it’s natural he wants to keep us safe. I just hope it still counts as a fight like this.’ Gary worried as he took position on his side of the ring.

Fortunately, the system promptly answered his desire.

[New Quest received]

[Honourable Fight!]

[You are complying with your Werewolf instincts and have sought out a mighty opponent!

You have initiated a fight against a karateka (green belt)! ]

[Win the Match!]

[Quest reward: 120 Exp]

‘This counts as complying with my Werewolf instincts? When I fought the other guy before I was scared, but this time I feel… a little excited.’ Gary analysed.

This method appeared to work even better than Gary could have ever hoped for. As long as he managed to win this fight, he would gain exactly enough Exp to reach Level 3, allowing him to improve his stats even further.

“A hands-on demonstration should be the fastest way for you to get a feel for Karate. Don’t worry, Steven here should be capable enough to teach you a lesson without hurting you too badly.”

“The fight will end when one of you gives up. If either one of you steps off the mats, stop what you’re doing and restart at the centre. Most importantly, this is a friendly spar, so neither one of you is to aim at your opponent’s face or their groyne! Do you both understand?” The teacher asked.

The two of them nodded while the other students sat down around the mats, waiting for the match to begin. This was far more interesting than their usual training. As for Tom, he wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed far too late to play everything off as a joke.

“Say, isn’t your friend part of the Rugby club? What is he doing here?” A voice asked.

When Tom turned around, he recognised the girl as Xin from their class.

“Umm… Well, let’s just say not everyone was too keen about Mr Root’s decision to let Gary join the Rugby club. He’s been harassed by them, so he planned to get better at fighting.” Tom made up an explanation which wasn’t too far off the truth.

“Okay, but it looks like your friend just exchanged one bully for another. If he had asked normally, I’m sure Mr Fang would have gladly taken him in, but now he’s in for a beating. Steven used to be the strongest member in this club.” Xin pointed out, just in time for Mr Fang to wave a flag, signalling the start of the match.

“I’m more afraid that Gary might not be able to hold back.” Tom muttered to himself.

As soon as the match began, Gary immediately activated his skill.

[Skill activated Charging Heart]

[All stats have temporarily been doubled]

[-10 Energy]

All of his stats immediately doubled, his Strength rose to 10, while his Endurance was now at a 16, but his Dexterity was still slow even though doubled at 6 making his slow speed regular.

‘Even at this level, he will probably be too fast for me, but he’s a lot smaller than the guy I fought in the underground tournament. With all this gear on, I can probably afford to trade punches.’ Gary thought.

Once Gary entered into his range, Steven swung using the full strength of his body and hips to connect his roundhouse kick with the arrogant newcomer. As the bigger and more confident guy he expected Gary to fall, but as his foot connected his opponent remained on the ground.

Thanks to the armour and the increased Endurance the kick felt like just a light shove to Gary. Aware that he was unlikely to get a second opening, he, as the challenger, made use of his opponent’s momentary confusion and used a punch, imitating his favourite fighter Kirk, he started his motions bending slightly. With all his Strength, he sprung up using the strength of his legs to deliver a heavy punch putting his weight behind the attack, his fist connected with the large cover over his stomach.

Despite the protection gear, Steven felt the wind get knocked out from him. The force behind the attack was far stronger than someone Gary’s size should have had. Before the green belt could recover, Gary was already holding onto his opponent’s shoulder, imitating Innu’s actions by pulling Steven forward, kneeing him in the stomach.

As Gary stood above him, it was clear to everyone that Steven had lost the match.

[Quest reward: 120 Exp]

[Congratulations, you have now reached: Level 3]

[A stat point has been granted]

‘This guy, he isn’t getting back up. I thought he would be like those Eton High kids. I guess he’s not really used to taking a beating. Still, just because I can beat up someone my age doesn't mean I would fare well against those gangsters. And I know from watching those underground fights that there are people better than this.’

Mr Fang quickly rushed over to Steven, even forgetting to declare the fight to be over, too worried about his pupil’s wellbeing. It appeared as if he had misjudged Gary. At first he had believed him to just be a naive kid, but judging from his fighting style, although it was rough, he was someone who had fought before.

His own student had been at a complete disadvantage. Steven was used to fighting competitions, as such he had stayed overly cautious about not losing any points, trying his best to show off his skills, while the only thing on Gary’s mind had been winning the fight.

“He beat Steven, and it was only in two hits.”

“It looked like he got winded from the first punch, even with all the armour, that punch must have been strong.”

“I think Steven was playing it too safe, he should have gone for a kick to the head.” The students continued to murmur between themselves.

‘What should I do with him? If that kid leaves now he will look down on Karate, but I can’t just face him myself. An adult beating up a kid would prove nothing to him.’ The Karate teacher thought.

It was then that another one stood up from the sitting students.

“Mr Fang, I would like to fight him next.” A voice said.

“W-what are you doing?” Tom asked, wondering why Xin, who had been by his side mere seconds ago, had just volunteered to fight.

“Well, it would be pointless for your friend to fight someone weaker than Steven, wouldn’t it? Who do you think pushed Steven down to being the second strongest in this club?” Xin asked Tom with a smirk.